The majority of investigations on municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills have been undertaken during the post-closure period, and therefore, the changes that occur in the properties of refuse layers placed during the period of infilling are often ignored. The impact of fiirther tipping of refuse loads on the moisture content, hydraulic and geotechnical properties of emplaced refuse lifts, and the daily cover was examined in this study by undertaking field and laboratory tests on the refuse fill at White's Pit landfill, Poole, Dorset. The field tests involved mainly pit tests and cone penetration tests. The porosity and field capacity of the refuse excavated fromthe pits were determined in 210 litre drums. In addition, factors that influence leachate production, which include the moisture stored in the topsoil and the runoff fromthe landfill were measured. The laboratory tests involved the determination of compression, porosity, and hydraulic conductivity of pulverised refuse samples with and without a cover soil, under increasing vertical loading. The data obtained fromthe tests were used in the simulation of moisture in refuse lifts at the site, using the Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model. The data were also used to formulate characteristic equations used for determining temporal changes in the physical properties of emplaced refuse lifts. The results of the investigation show a reduction in porosity and hydraulic conductivity, and increase in the density of an emplaced refuse layer according to the quantity of further filling of refuse loads. The density of an emplaced refuse is further increased by the ravelling of the daily cover materials, but its permeability decrease as a result. Under an applied vertical load of 6 kPa, the hydraulic conductivity and density of refuse-only samples were 1.4 x 10"^ m/s and 291 kg/m^, while that for refuse with 7.5 % cover soil were 9.4 x lO'^m/s and 353 kg/m^ respectively. The hydraulic conductivity of a refuse lift with a slightly clay/silt sand cover, however, appeared greater than its calculated value (10^ m/s) at low effective stresses. The similarity between the results of refuse tested in experimental cells in present study and Beaven and Powrie's (1995) large-scale compression cell suggests that empirical models can be derived from the data obtained from cell tests to predict the behaviour of refuse with different densities. Furthermore, relatively small cells can be used in preliminary study of the behaviour of refuse if the particle sizes are reduced in proportion to the size of the test cell. Apart from direct infiltration of water during waste placement, the volumetric moisture content and degree of saturation of a refuse lift increase during the fill period due to compression from overlying lifts. The saturation of the refuse fill is further enhanced by channelled water through the macropores in the cover soil system. The simulation technique used in this study may be used in evaluating alternative designs and plans of a MSW landfill. Large-scale testing of refuse with an intermediate cover soil is recommended.


The Domain Name System (DNS) resolves domain names to IP addresses on the Internet. Several
vulnerabilities in DNS led to the development and deployment of a secure extension, DNSSEC,
which provides authentication and data integrity by including digital signatures in DNS responses.
DNSSEC has its own flaws however, of which DDoS amplification potential, fragmentation related
issues and deployment complexity are the most severe ones. Where the RSA signature scheme
is currently widely deployed in DNSSEC, its elliptic curve (ECC) alternative, Elliptic Curve
Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), is more recently standardized and supposedly reduces the
aforementioned flaws, by reducing the size of digital signatures and cryptographic keys. EdDSA
is another, more recent, digital signature scheme based on elliptic curve cryptography, and has
even more promising properties (e.g. smaller key size). The major drawback of ECC is that the
validation of signatures is computationally more intensive than RSA. A transition from RSA
towards ECC would introduce a significant increase in computational load caused by signature
validations for DNS resolvers. While some simple benchmark tests confirm that a single ECC
validation is computational costly, there exists no scientific proof that ECC can be deployed
on a large scale without causing any performance issues. In our research we have developed a
DNSSEC model based on measurement from three deployed resolvers. The resulting regression
model was applied to evaluate several scenarios, both current and future scenarios. Based on the
scenarios, we can conclude that the switch towards ECC can be made without encountering any
computational related issues for validating resolvers.
This research was conducted in collaboration with SURFnet, the Dutch national research and
education network which provides Internet and services to the research and education community
in the Netherlands.


Online task scheduling in heterogeneous multicore system-on-a-chip is a challenging problem due to precedence constraints and nonpreemptive task execution in the synergistic processor core. This study first proposes an online heterogeneous dual-core scheduling framework for dynamic workloads with real-time constraints. The general purpose processor core and the synergistic processor core are dedicated to separate schedulers with different scheduling policies, and precedence constraints among tasks are dealt with through interaction between the two schedulers. This framework is also configurable for low priority inversion and high system utilization. We then extend this framework to heterogeneous multicore systems with well-known dispatcher schemas. This paper presents a real case study to show the practicability of the proposed methodology, and presents a series of extensive simulations to obtain comparison studies using different workloads and scheduling algorithms.


East Asian countries have adopted remarkably good policies to ensure sustained economic growth, but how did they come to adopt such policies in the first place? This book produces a more thorough explanation than has previously been advanced drawing on several disciplines including contributions from anthropologists, economists, political scientists, technologists, demographers, historians and psychologists. Several contributors have held high positions in Asian governments. Four broad themes are identified: * effective governance * achieving and learning societies * growth with equity * external influences This is the most comprehensive account of the foundations of East Asia's rise. Its distinctiveness lies in the range of comparisons across the countries of East and South-East Asia and in the wide array of contributing disciplines.


Stable quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) were fabricated by using room-temperature molten salts (1-methyl-3-hexyl-imidazolium iodide), and a series of diamine derivatives with different lengths of alkyl chain as low molecular mass organogelators (LMOGs). The number of methylene (-CH2-) units between the two amide carbonyl groups in the gelator molecule has significant influence on the charge transport property of gel electrolyte, and the kinetic processes of the electron transport and recombination. Less compact networks of the ionic liquid gel electrolytes containing odd-numbered -CH2- gelator facilitate the diffusion of I-3(-) and I-. Also, the odd-numbered -CH2- gelators-based DSCs exhibit longer electron recombination lifetime and a higher open circuit potential (V-oc) compared with the DSCs based on even-numbered -CH2- gelators; consequently, the photovoltaic performances of DSCs based on odd-numbered -CH2- gelators are much better than those even-numbered -CH2- gelators. Remarkably, the results of the accelerated aging tests showed that the ionic liquid gel electrolyte-based DSCs could retain 93%-99% of their initial photoelectric conversion efficiencies (eta) under heat at 60 degrees C, and 100% of their initial photoelectric conversion efficiencies under one sun light soaking with UV cutoff filter at 50 degrees C for 1000 h. This excellent long-term stability of quasi-solid-state DSCs is very important for application and commercialization of DSCs.


Epithelial ovarian cancer derived from the human ovarian surface epithelium (HOSE) is the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies among American women. Metabolic activation of endogenous and exogenous chemicals by cytochrome P450 (CYP) class I enzymes has been implicated in its etiology. In this study, we showed overexpression of CYP1A1 mRNA, but not CYP1B1 transcripts, in ovarian cancer cell lines when compared with primary cultures or immortalized HOSE cell lines. Importantly, we identified a novel, enzymatically active, spliced variant of CYP1A1 (CYP1A1v) formed by excision of an 84-bp cryptic intron in exon 2. CYP1A1v is overexpressed in ovarian cancer cell lines and exhibits a unique subcellular distribution restricted to the nucleus and mitochondria, contrary to the endoplasmic reticulum localization of the wild-type enzyme. In concordance, total CYP1A1 activity, as measured by the ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase assay, was detected in mitochondrial, nuclear, and microsomal fractions of ovarian cancer cells but was notably absent in all subcellular fractions of HOSE cells. Immunocytochemistry studies in 30 clinical specimens revealed overexpression of CYP1A1 in various types of ovarian cancers compared with benign epithelia and frequent localization of the enzyme to cancer cell nuclei. Forced expression of CYP1A1wt or CYP1A1v in HOSE cells resulted in nuclear localization of the enzyme and acquisition of anchorage-independent growth, which was further exacerbated following exposure to benzo(a)pyrene or 17beta-estradiol. Collectively, these data provided the first evidence that CYP1A1 overexpression and alternative splicing could contribute to ovarian cancer initiation and progression.


Here, we report the first evidence that the Ran GTPase cycle is required for nuclear pore complex (NPC) assembly. Using a genetic approach, factors required for NPC assembly were identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Four mutant complementation groups were characterized that correspond to respective mutations in genes encoding Ran (gsp1), and essential Ran regulatory factors Ran GTPase–activating protein (rna1), Ran guanine nucleotide exchange factor (prp20), and the RanGDP import factor (ntf2). All the mutants showed temperature-dependent mislocalization of green fluorescence protein (GFP)-tagged nucleoporins (nups) and the pore-membrane protein Pom152. A decrease in GFP fluorescence associated with the nuclear envelope was observed along with an increase in the diffuse, cytoplasmic signal with GFP foci. The defects did not affect the stability of existing NPCs, and nup mislocalization was dependent on de novo protein synthesis and continued cell growth. Electron microscopy analysis revealed striking membrane perturbations and the accumulation of vesicles in arrested mutants. Using both biochemical fractionation and immunoelectron microscopy methods, these vesicles were shown to contain nups. We propose a model wherein a Ran-mediated vesicular fusion step is required for NPC assembly into intact nuclear envelopes.


"The Book of Kells" is a masterpiece of medieval art a brilliantly decorated version of the four Gospels with full-page depictions of Christ, the Virgin and the Evangelists as well as a wealth of smaller decorative painting. This new book, by the Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College Library, Dublin, represents on a generous scale the glories of the "Book of Kells" for todays readers, revealing the astounding detail and richness of one of the greatest treasures of medieval art. Its illustrations feature 59 full-size reproductions of complete pages of the manuscript, and, in addition, enlarged details that allow one to relish the intricacy of elements barely visible to the naked eye. We explore "The Book of Kells" through its historical background; a display of the elements of the book, actual size; the spectacular openings of the texts that precede the Gospels; a study of earlier and comparable manuscripts; detailed examination of symbols and themes, with special enlarged details; a look at the scribes and artists who worked on the manuscript; and a consideration of technical aspects, illuminated by recent scientific research.


Several decades of research suggest that weak electric fields may influence neural processing, including those induced by neuronal activity and recently proposed as substrate for a potential new cellular communication system, i.e., ephaptic transmission. Here we aim to map ephaptic activity in the human brain and explore its trajectory during aging by characterizing the macroscopic electric field generated by cortical dipoles using realistic finite element modeling. We find that modeled endogenous field magnitudes are comparable to those in measurements of weak but functionally relevant endogenous fields and to those generated by noninvasive transcranial brain stimulation, therefore possibly able to modulate neuronal activity. Then, to evaluate the role of self-generated ephaptic fields in the human cortex, we adapt an interaction approximation that considers the relative orientation of neuron and field to derive the membrane potential perturbation in pyramidal cells. Building on this, we define a simplified metric (EMOD1) that weights dipole coupling as a function of distance and relative orientation between emitter and receiver and evaluate it in a sample of 401 realistic human brain models from subjects aged 16-83. Results reveal that ephaptic modulation follows gyrification patterns in the human brain, and significantly decreases with age, with higher involvement of sensorimotor regions and medial brain structures. By providing the means for fast and direct interaction between neurons, ephaptic modulation likely contributes to the complexity of human function for cognition and behavior, and its modification across the lifespan and in response to pathology.


The cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the U.S. school population is now and long has been underrepresented in programs for academically advanced students (see, e.g., Donovan & Cross, 2002; Marland, 1972). In the past decade, however, educators have offered several proposals for increasing the diversity of programs for the gifted and talented (see Boothe & Stanley, 2004, for one compendium of views). Some educators would make greater use of parent, teacher, and self-rating scales. Some would emphasize nonacademic talents—such as musical, athletic, and leadership abilities. Others call for the use of different measures—especially nonverbal ability tests. Although each of these proposals has something to offer, none directly addresses the central problem in identifying academic talent. All hope to find ways of measuring academic promise that will simultaneously reduce average differences between ethnic groups and identify those minority students who currently display or who are most likely to develop academic excellence. Unfortunately, just because a measure shows a smaller average difference between groups does not mean that it is a better tool for identifying academically talented students. Indeed, research has consistently shown that academic achievement in minority children is best predicted by the same cognitive and affective characteristics that predict academic achievement in majority children (Keith, 1999; Lohman, 2005). Therefore, although attempts to select students using other criteria may identify more minority students, many of the students identified—minority or majority—will not be the ones who currently display or who will someday develop academic excellence. The problem, then, is to find a way to identify and assist these children without compromising the ability of programs to serve children who already display high levels of academic and cognitive development. The goals of this monograph are (a) to explain why an aptitude approach to talent identification accomplishes these goals and (b) to illustrate how schools can implement this approach.


We propose a 'data commons', formed through a licensing model that allows farmers to benefit from the datasets to which they contribute. Agricultural data is globally recognized for its importance in addressing food insecurity. This data is generated and used by a value chain of contributors, collectors, and consumers. Our licensing model addresses the crisis caused by a lack of data ownership rights for contributor farmers. Using the IAD framework we consider five case studies. These studies explore how John Deere, Plantwise, and Abalobi license data collection and how Creative Commons and the Open Data Commons license data distribution. Supported by an independent organization, our license supports SME data collectors, who need sophisticated legal tools; contributors, who need engagement, privacy, control, and benefit sharing; and consumers who need open access. Market forces encourage participation in the data commons by granting users the ability to display a social certification mark.


Appropriateness in Design by MA Wing Man Karen Master of Philosophy When the term 'design object' is used to refer to artifacts, we presuppose that they can serve mundane functions and provide aesthetic pleasure. In many cases, the visual form of a design object is a result of achieving aesthetic function and practical function. What is the relation between these two functions? In the design process, designers also strike a balance between aesthetic pursuit, utilitarian purpose and other factors, such as environmental protection. What is the balance of these aims (aesthetic aim and the non-aesthetic aims)? My research on this topic suggests that it may be useful to conceive it in terms of appropriateness. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the relation between aesthetic and non-aesthetic functions in design objects. Another, larger and more fundamental, purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the notion of appropriateness in design through the conceptions of aesthetic value and moral value. The findings of this research contribute to my argument that appropriateness as a property found in design objects is a balance of aesthetic value, functional value and moral value. This unique quality found in design object can be found in many successful universal designs, and it is also part of the reason why this style can prevail for decades. This research also brings two academic disciplines (the studies of design and aesthetics) together. It is something new and timely from which both disciplines could benefit. In addition, the discussion of Wucius Wong's art, which is part of the analysis of the different functions of design objects, is an original finding which contributes a detailed understanding of Wong's art and its relation with design concepts. The appropriateness of design is a decision after all things have been considered in the deliberation. It is not necessarily the best and it can be ever changing according to different situations. The investigation of this topic is not aimed at finding an ideal approach to achieve the appropriateness in design, but through the investigation of the relation between aesthetic function and non-aesthetic functions, and the relation of aesthetic value, functional value and moral value of design objects to contribute architects and designers in making an appropriate decision during the design process.


For over fifty years, Cuba has been a source of high-spirited political and policy debates. Its history and geostrategic position make it unique in American diplomatic and socioeconomic history. Interest in the island has not waned with the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. On the contrary, Raul Castro's assumption of Government has led many to begin asking how and under what circumstances political liberalization and economic transformation may occur in Cuba. This article examines the possible constitutional outcomes of a Cuba transition and introduces a framework for analyzing both Cuban economic reforms and US policy decisions. Both pre- and post-Communist Cuban constitutional law is examined, as are Cuba's nationalizations and recent economic reforms. After, examining the economic nationalizations in Eastern Europe, a legal paradigm is developed on what this article calls "modes of constitutionalism." By looking at how legitimacy vests, or illegitimacy develops in a nation, we can them predict how constitutional change may occur. This article examines three paradigms based on the transitions of Eastern Europe that are candidates for how an analogous transition may occur in Cuba. By looking at three levels - the state, government, and policy - we can project how democratic transitions, and new constitutional frameworks develop. From the models presented, this article examines the possibility of a US-Cuban claims settlement agreement. The current state of American law and politics as it pertains to Cuba is examined as are previous settlement agreements concluded for former Warsaw Pact nations. This article concludes with a discussion of how a claims settlement agreement may be negotiated in light of the various modes Cuban constitutionalism may take, and how US policymakers may increase the likelihoods of securing compensations for those aggrieved by the Castro regime.


The cognitive–behavioral model of psychotherapy holds cognition at the core of psychological problems and disorders. The theoretical foundations of this model imply that dysfunctional thinking is common to all psychiatric disorders, psychological problems, and medical problems with a psychological component, and that changing an individual's cognition results in causal changes in emotions and behaviors. In addition, when working with the cognitive–behavioral model, practitioners acknowledge that ongoing cognitive formulation is the basis of effective practice; that working with an individual's beliefs about themselves, the world, and others results in sustained change; and that neurobiological changes occur following cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT). The cognitive–behavioral model has been successfully applied in many domains (e.g., clinical, occupational, and sport psychology) where interventions are framed around the beliefs that characterize a presenting issue. Cognitive restructuring is one technique for implementing CBT that has been applied in sport and performance psychology. This technique is particularly relevant to performance domains because of the focus on cognitive formulation; the underpinning associations between cognition, emotion, and behavior; and the links between positively valenced emotions and superlative performance. Findings of sport psychology research extend the application of CBT beyond clinical populations and highlight the usefulness of cognitive–behavioral approaches for optimizing experiences of and performance in sport.
 Some would argue that the first scientifically testable paradigm that was built on the cognitive–behavioral model of psychotherapy, and came chronologically slightly before CBT, is rational emotive behavior theory (REBT). Because both CBT and REBT share cognitive–behavioral roots, they have many similarities in their underpinning assumptions and in the ways that they are applied. REBT, however, focuses on rational and irrational beliefs and the links between an individual's beliefs and his or her emotions and performance. REBT has a more philosophical focus with motivational theoretical roots when compared to other CBT approaches. Distinguishing features of REBT also lie in the techniques used and, hence, the way in which the underlying principles of the cognitive–behavioral model are applied. Disputing is the applied foundation of REBT and is a method of questioning an individual's beliefs that generate emotional responses. This technique aims to help an individual recognize and adjust flaws in his or her thinking to work toward a more functional philosophy. Research that has used REBT in sport and performance contexts is sparse but that which does exist highlights the approach as a promising one for optimizing athletes' beliefs and their emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses.


This  study  evaluates  the role,  capacity  and  performance of the local governance in disaster risk reduction (hereafter DRR) in Sindh. The study was conducted in randomly selected three districts namely Dadu, Thatta and Shahdadkot from the list of the most flood affected districts of Sindh with a view to understand and examine issues in local governance in DRR. The study used qualitative and quantitative tools. Empirical evidence shows poor performance of the government authorities in all phases of DRR. The local governments or DDMAs miserably failed in performing the role envisioned for them under the Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA hereafter) and the National Disaster Management Authority Act 2010. The findings further show that in all three districts, the government that could have responded to the floods, recovery and rehabilitation of flood affected people, reconstruction of infrastructure and people's lives and their prosperities did not exist.


This paper considers the impact of UK practices with respect to the measurement and disclosure of intangible assets, focusing on RD activities. We first update prior UK work relating RD activities to market prices. Second, given the clearly identified role of disclosure outside of the financial statements in helping market participants value RD expenditures, we consider whether market forces are generally sufficient to ensure adequate disclosures with respect to intangibles by considering the cases of two biotechnology firms involved in the issuance of misleading disclosures. Within this context, we consider how disclosure regulation and enforcement mechanisms have evolved in recent years, and how this evolution has likely been affected by our 'scandal' cases. Our conclusions are that the case of the UK does not give rise to any wide-scale concerns about the economic ill-effects caused by the current state of recognition and disclosure with respect to expenditures on intangibles. Further, market forces are unlikely to be sufficient in ensuring honest and timely disclosures with respect to intangibles, but the combination of official regulation and voluntary self-regulation appears to have stemmed the tide of any such disclosure scandals in the UK.


In the operation of networked control systems (NCSs), where multiple processes share a resource-limited and time-varying cost-sensitive network, communication delay is inevitable and primarily induced by, first, intermittent sensor sampling to restrict nonurgent transmissions, and second, resource management to avoid contentions, excessive traffic, and data loss. In a heterogeneous scenario, where control systems may tolerate only specific levels of sensor-to-controller latency, delay sensitivities need to be considered in the design of control and network policies to achieve the desired performance guarantees. We propose a cross-layer optimal co-design of control, sampling, and resource management policies for an NCS consisting of multiple stochastic linear time-invariant systems which close their sensor-to-controller links over a shared network. Aligned with advanced communication technology, we assume that the network offers a range of latency-varying transmission services for given prices. The performance of the local closed-loop systems is measured by a combination of linear-quadratic Gaussian cost and a suitable communication cost, and the overall objective is to minimize a defined social cost by all three policymakers. We derive optimal control, sampling, and resource allocation policies under different cross-layer awareness models, including constant and time-varying parameters, and show that higher awareness generally leads to performance enhancement at the expense of higher computational complexity. This trade-off is shown to be a key feature to select the proper interaction structure for the codesign.


We show that one-way quantum one-counter automaton with zero-error is more powerful than its probabilistic counterpart on promise problems. Then, we obtain a similar separation result between Las Vegas one-way probabilistic one-counter automaton and one-way deterministic one-counter automaton.
We also obtain new results on classical counter automata regarding language recognition. It was conjectured that one-way probabilistic one blind-counter automata cannot recognize Kleene closure of equality language [A. Yakaryilmaz: Superiority of one-way and realtime quantum machines. RAIRO - Theor. Inf. and Applic. 46(4): 615-641 (2012)]. We show that this conjecture is false, and also show several separation results for blind/non-blind counter automata.


Addressing the psychosocial needs of vulnerable children and youth is viewed increasingly as a priority of humanitarian programs, particularly in Africa, where the scale of the problem necessitates community-based solutions. This quasi-experimental study tested a model of adult mentorship and support to improve psychosocial outcomes among youth-headed households in a rural area of Rwanda. Two rounds of data were collected from youth who served as heads of their households. Following the baseline survey in 2004 (n = 692), an adult mentorship program was implemented among half the sample. A follow-up survey was conducted after 18 months of intervention exposure (n = 593). Through regular home visits, mentors developed a stable, caring relationship with youth in their community living without an adult caregiver. Each mentor was assigned 2–3 youth-headed households located within their own community to visit at least once a month for 2–3 hours in the home. Over an 18-month period, 156 trained adult mentors (60% male, 40% female) visited and supported 441 households. Multivariable analyses explored linkages between exposure to the intervention and four key psychosocial outcomes: perceptions of adult support, marginalization, grief and symptoms of depression. Over time, youth with a mentor reported a significant increase in perceptions of available adult support and decreases in marginalization. While grief in the comparison group grew significantly over time, grief levels in the intervention group remained stable, suggesting that the mentorship program may have mitigated grief among youth in the intervention areas. Intervention respondents also reported a slight, but significant, decrease in depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that the mentoring program enhanced available support and community connectedness among youth in this study. However, program impact on emotional wellbeing was more modest. More intensive interventions may be needed to reduce grief symptoms and for those with high levels of depressive symptoms.


The development of autonomous mobile robots is a major topic of current research. As those robots must be able to react to changing environments and avoid collisions also with moving obstacles, the fulfilment of safety requirements is an important aspect. Behaviour-based systems (BBS) have proven to meet several of the properties required for these kindsof robots, such as reactivity, extensibility and re-usability of individual components. BBS consist of a number of behavioural components that individually realise simple tasks. Their interconnection allows to achieve complex robot behaviour, which implies that correct
connections are crucial. The resulting networks can get very large making them difficult to verify. This dissertation presents a novel concept for the analysis and verification of complex autonomous robot systems controlled by behaviour-based software architectures with special focus on the integration of environmental aspects into the processes.
Several analysis techniques have been investigated and adapted to the special requirements of BBS. These include a structural analysis, which is used to find constraint violations and faults in the network layout. Fault tree analysis is applied to identify root causes of hazards and the relationship of system events. For this, a technique to map the behaviour-based control network to the structure of a fault tree has been developed. Testing and data analysis are used for the detection of failures and their root causes. Here, a new concept that identifies patterns in data recorded during test runs has been introduced.
All of these methods cannot guarantee failure-free and safe robot behaviour and can never prove the absence of failures. Therefore, model checking as formal verification technique that proves a property to be correct for the given system, has been chosen to complement the set of analysis techniques. A novel concept for the integration of environmental influences into the model checking process is proposed. Environmental situations and the sensor processing chain are represented as synchronised automata similar to the modelling of the behavioural network. Tools supporting the whole verification process including the creation of formal queries in its environment have been developed.
During the verification of large behavioural networks, the scalability of the model checking approach appears as a big problem. Several approaches that deal with this problem have been investigated and the selection of slicing and abstraction methods has been justified. A concept for the application of these methods is provided, that reduces the behavioural network to the relevant parts before the actual verification process.
All techniques have been applied to the behaviour-based control system of the autonomous outdoor robot RAVON. Its complex network with more than 400 components allows for demonstrating the soundness of the presented concepts. The set of different techniques provides a fundamental basis for a comprehensive analysis and verification of BBS acting in changing environments.


Software engineering researchers have a tendency to be optimistic about the future. Though useful, optimism bias bolsters unrealistic expectations towards desirable outcomes. We argue that explicitly framing software engineering research through pessimistic futures, or dystopias, will mitigate optimism bias and engender more diverse and thought-provoking research directions. We demonstrate through three pop culture dystopias, Battlestar Galactica, Fallout 3, and Children of Men, how reflecting on dystopian scenarios provides research opportunities as well as implications, such as making research accessible to non-experts, that are relevant to our present.


Cheat Control In quorum-sensing induction, a Pseudomonas aeruginosa population growing on a single carbon source, such as casein, will reach a density where the levels of signaling molecules they collectively secrete triggers the cells to synthesize and secrete proteases to digest the casein. However, it is metabolically costly to secrete proteases, and the system is prone to mutant "cheats." These cheats do not respond to quorum sensing and do not go to the cost of synthesizing protease, but they do profit from the breakdown products that allow all the cells—cheats and cooperators alike—to grow. Dandekar et al. (p. 264) found that quorum signaling–insensitive P. aeruginosa cheats could not synthesize nucleotide hydrolase and were thus unable to grow if casein was replaced by adenosine. This allowed cooperators to outgrow the cheats, leading to a stable equilibrium between cheats and cooperators. This principle of regulation may be applicable to other bacterial quorum-sensing systems and might be exploited in the development of drugs that disrupt bacterial cooperation. Cooperating groups of bacteria resist infiltration by noncooperating cheats by co-regulating shared and individual products. The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses a cell-cell communication system termed "quorum sensing" to control production of public goods, extracellular products that can be used by any community member. Not all individuals respond to quorum-sensing signals and synthesize public goods. Such social cheaters enjoy the benefits of the products secreted by cooperators. There are some P. aeruginosa cellular enzymes controlled by quorum sensing, and we show that quorum sensing–controlled expression of such private goods can put a metabolic constraint on social cheating and prevent a tragedy of the commons. Metabolic constraint of social cheating provides an explanation for private-goods regulation by a cooperative system and has general implications for population biology, infection control, and stabilization of quorum-sensing circuits in synthetic biology.


This article examines the reinvigoration of outer space imaginaries in the era of global environmental change, and the impacts of these imaginaries on Earth. Privatized space research mobilizes fears of ecological, political, or economic catastrophe to garner support for new utopian futures, or the search for Earth 2.0. These imaginaries reflect dominant global discourses about environmental and social issues, and enable the flow of earthly resources toward an extraterrestrial frontier. In contrast, eco-centric visions emerging from Gaia theory or feminist science fiction project post-earthly life in terms that are ecological, engaged in multispecies relations and ethics, and anticapitalist. In these imaginaries, rather than centering humans as would-be destroyers or saviors of Earth, our species becomes merely instrumental in launching life—a multispecies process—off the planet, a new development in deep evolutionary time. This article traces these two imaginaries and how they are reshaping material and political earthly life.


The conference will serve as a platform to bring together young scientist, leading scientists, researchers, organizations and all representatives of company sectors with different specialities such as Neurologists and students from Academia. This event is an open forum specifically dedicated for young investigators (i.e. students, PhD candidates and early stage postdocs) working in all fields in the broader area of Neurology. This forum will not only discuss state-of-the-art science to broaden the scientific knowledge of the participants but allow the young researchers to benefit as well from several specifically designed interactive sessions to advance their own career/ research. In particular, the forum aims to foster the spirit of teamwork among the participants, providing the opportunity to network globally and to establish own professional networks.


This paper describes a new approach to the evaluation of loss adjustment factors for distribution systems. Such factors are required for 'use of system' and wheeling calculations and reflect the amount by which purchases of energy at entry points to the system must exceed consumption at the point of use to account for the losses which occur in between. Renewed interest in cost-reflective methods of charging for losses has resulted from the deregulation of the electricity supply industry in many parts of the world. An algorithm is described which combines the use of graph theory with readily available load flow results, to assign the losses in each line or transformer within the system to the consumers supplied by it. The resulting allocation is shown to account for the voltage level, location and consumption pattern of the consumer in a way which is economically efficient. A variety of strategies for apportioning losses between multiple consumers at a given location can be implemented. The algorithm is suitable for allocating both demand and energy losses. Results on a full size distribution network are presented, and are compared with traditional published loss adjustment factors.


The main objective of BagIt was to develop a web application to help consumers get the right product at the best price. The average consumer will price check all
major retailers when purchasing an electrical appliance. This includes checking retailers sites individually and calling into different stores one by one. Customers
often struggle to get the correct advice from sales assistants due to high staff turnover in stores, commission and stores being out of stock on certain products but still wanting to make a sale. BagIt quickly retrieves product information with a quick scan of a QR Code. This takes the ease out of manually searching for products, and allows for ease of comparison of product specs.

I thought of the idea of BagIt while working part time as a rep for Dyson. I was placed in different stores and at different events most weeks and I quickly picked up on issues for consumers and retailers. In my case, I was only responsible for Dyson products in store. Dyson regulate their prices so all retailers will usually have the same price for Dyson. However consumers, including myself, usually have very little trust in sales staff. I regularly encountered customers falling in love with a product, spending on average 10 minutes asking everything they can
think of and trying it out. They will then leave to check if the neighbouring stores have the product for cheaper, as they simply didn't believe all stores will have it for the same price. When they arrive at the last store and discover the price is the same they will usually purchase it there. While the customer has reasurance that they could not have gotten their product for cheaper it is a long process that can be shortened through the BagIt application. Ensuring the customer saves time and the retailer who spends the most time looking after the customer gets the sale.

In the case of products that are not regulated I noticed that all the major electronic retailers will price match their competitors if they have a lower price. Retailers would rather drop their price by a few euro than lose out on a sale. However in most cases the prices were kept the same across all retailers. When one retailer lowers their prices, others usually follow the same day.

As well as price comparison, BagIt retrieves product specifications with a simple scan or search. Retailers locations are displayed at the bottom of the results page using Google Maps API. This gives the capability of checking both the best price and the closest retailer who stocks the product in the one place. BagIt can also be accessed on a mobile device and thus used in store. Before deciding to purchase an item, customers can very easily and conveniently check if another store nearby has the same product for a better price, All without leaving the first
store or their home.


The reception of a Job poem in some contemporary poems This article investigates the intertextual influence of an ancient poem on a few modern-day poems. Other literary creations on which ancient poems have left their mark also come to the fore. The ancient poem under discussion here is a Job poem. This study reveals the remarkable creative influence that Job has exerted on literature. In Afrikaans poetry, a range of poets have concerned themselves with Job in their work. This article explores one such unpublished Afrikaans poem and an English translation thereof in order to point out how contemporary and relevant the Job poem really is.


Abstract : A single sign-on (SSO) solution is intended to provide a single authentication point for a set of Web services. The SSO solution forwards the necessary authentication information to the Web services, which in turn authenticate the end user to legacy systems that implement the Web services functionality. This technical note presents the results of applying the T-Check approach in an initial investigation of two Web services standards, WS-Security and SAML, to create an SSO solution that works inside a single organization. This approach involves (1) formulating hypotheses about the technology and (2) examining these hypotheses against specific criteria through hands-on experimentation. The outcome of this two-stage approach is that the hypotheses are either fully or partially sustained or refuted. In this report, four hypotheses based on claims found in experience reports and on vendor Web sites are examined: (1) it is possible to implement SSO for the two Web services using SAML and WS-Security; (2) it is fairly easy to implement a basic SSO solution; (3) the SSO solution will not have a major impact on the runtime behavior of the system; and (4) the SSO solution can provide the required access control. The first three hypotheses were sustained; it was not necessary to implement the fourth one to list options for adding access control.


Objective. This descriptive study was undertaken to document the nature of medical and injury consultations of the athletes and officials of the South African Team at the 2004 Olympic Games, and to provide data for planning future events.
Setting. South African medical facility, 2004 Olympic Games, Athens, Greece.
Methods. Total number of consultations and diagnoses were ascertained from medical logs and patient files which were completed daily by the members of the medical team. A retrospective clinical audit of medical records was then undertaken and the data were then compared with similar data collected during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Acute and chronic-soft tissue (muscle strain, ligament sprain, tendon injury, contusion or laceration)
and bony injury were analysed in terms of nature of injury, grading of severity and anatomical region injured. Main outcome measures. Number of consultations due to medical
complaints or injuries among athletes and officials.
Results. A total of 180 medical consultations were logged during the time in Athens while 348 consultations were logged in Sydney. The daily consultation rate was 6 per day in Athens compared with 13 per day in Sydney. In Athens, 84% of consultations were with athletes and the remainder (16%) with officials – this was similar to Sydney. The most common medical complaints in Athens were dermatological (16%), ENT (13%), and respiratory (8%) in nature, which contrasts with the profile of consultations in Sydney (ENT 18%; neurological system 16% and respiratory 16%). Acute injury and chronic injury accounted for 26% and 14% of consultations respectively. In Athens, the most common acute and chronic injuries were soft-tissue injuries. The most common acute injury regions were the foot and ankle (25%), upper leg (17%) and knee (17%). A total 77% of acute injuries were grade I, 17% grade II and 6% grade III in severity. The most common
chronic injury regions were foot and ankle (32%), lumbar spine (32%), and shoulder (11%). These injury profiles were similar to those documented in Sydney 2000.
Conclusions. Injury and illness complaints of the South African team were fewer in Athens 2004 compared with those documented during Sydney 2000. This can be attributed to local environmental conditions and travel across time zones. These data should be useful for planning medical services for future multicoded events. The analysis of the nature of consultations suggests that it should be a prerequisite for physicians travelling
with a multi-coded events team to have broad knowledge of both medical and injury management of athletes. Specifically, a sound knowledge of the management of soft-tissue injury is an important prerequisite for the personnel of the medical team. South African Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 20 (3) 2008: pp. 72-76


Those working on the Caribbean have regularly adopted the figures and practices of translation in their work and also have devoted attention to the study of various translational processes. The presence of the Caribbean in translation studies remains, however, considerably less evident. This essay reflects on this missed cross-disciplinary rendezvous, foregrounding the importance of questions of cultural translation in a Caribbean context but at the same time considering the practical intralinguistic and interlinguistic underpinnings of any analysis of translation in the Caribbean (and of the Caribbean in translation). Drawing on a number of examples, ranging from the relief effort following the Haitian earthquake in 2010 to current CARIFORUM and CARICOM language policy, the discussion focuses on the region as a translation zone. The essay concludes that although the Caribbean may be usefully defined in terms of translation, it is also essential—in reciprocal terms—that wider discussion of translation should itself be actively "Caribbeanized."


Reed-Muller expressions and their various extensions and generalizations for binary and multiple-valued logic functions are an important class of discrete function representations that are often used in practical applications. These expressions can be uniformly viewed as discrete polynomial expressions over finite fields GF(2) and GF(q) or the field of rational numbers in the case of expressions with integer-valued coefficients. The optimization of them in the number of product terms count is performed by selecting either positive or negative literals (polarities) for variables in the functions to be represented. Since there are no ways to select in advance the polarity for variables that will result in most compact expression for a given function, all possible expressions have to be generated and the simplest of them selected. This is a task computationally very demanding, the complexity of which is O(q^n \times C), where C is the time to calculate a particular polarity. Since the reduction of the first factor may lead to missing the most compact expression, the reduction of C is the single option to speed up the procedure. In this paper, we propose an approach to the solution of this problem by exploiting the notion of extended dual polarity, which provides a simple way of ordering polarities to obtain an effective way of finding the optimal one by reducing the time to move between them. The method still implies exhaustive search, but it is an optimized search, which may be expressed in very simple rules resulting in efficient implementation. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Importance
There are limited data regarding sex-based differences in physical and mental health domains and health care access in adults with premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

Objective
To study the association of sex with physical and mental health domains as well as health care access-related factors among adults with self-reported premature ASCVD.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Retrospective cohort analysis of 748 090 adults aged 18 to 55 years in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2016 to 2019 in the US. Data were analyzed from June to July 2021.

Exposures
Self-reported ASCVD, defined as having a history of coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, or stroke.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Self-reported physical and mental health and measures of health care access, including self-reported cost-related medication nonadherence and inability to see a physician due to cost.

Results
Between 2016 and 2019, 748 090 adults aged 18-55 years were identified, of whom 28 522 (3.3%) had self-reported premature ASCVD. Of these, 14 358 (47.0%) were women. Compared with men, women with premature ASCVD were more likely to report being clinically depressed (odds ratio [OR], 1.73; 95% CI, 1.41-2.14; P < .001), have cost-related medication nonadherence (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.11-1.82; P = .005), have not seen a physician due to cost-related issues (OR, 4.52; 95% CI, 2.24-9.13; P < .001), and were more likely to report overall poor physical health (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.09-1.78; P = .008) despite being more likely to have health care coverage (85.3% vs 80.8%; P = .04) and a primary care physician (84.2% vs 75.7%; P < .001).

Conclusions and Relevance
Results from this study indicate that women with premature ASCVD were more likely to report worse overall physical and mental health, inability to see a physician due to cost, and cost-related medical nonadherence. Interventions addressing mental health and out-of-pocket costs are needed in adults with premature ASCVD.


Phylogeny of Polycentropodidae Ulmer is inferred based on data from immature and adult stages. Larval information is unknown for 61% of the taxa included in this study. To understand the effects of including characters with large sets of missing data, three alternative datasets were analysed using parsimony and Bayesian methods. Five outgroup taxa, including the four families in Psychomyioidea and the single family in Hydropsychoidea, were used in all datasets. Monophyly of Polycentropodidae, as currently defined, was rejected and the monophyly of the three largest cosmopolitan genera, Polycentropus, Polyplectropus and Nyctiophylax, was not confirmed. Monophyly of Pseudoneureclipsinae, including the genera Antillopsyche and Pseudoneureclipsis, was supported in all analyses. The placement of Pseudoneureclipsis within Dipseudopsidae was rejected. Monophyly of Kambaitipsychinae was supported, but its placement within Polycentropodidae was not confirmed. Analyses were sensitive to either inclusion or exclusion of characters from immature stages. Based on the results of these analyses, the following taxonomic changes are established: Kambaitipsychidae, stat. nov. and Pseudoneureclipsidae, stat. nov. are elevated to family status. North American Polycentropus species originally described in either Plectrocnemia or Holocentropus are returned to their original combinations and North American species described in Polycentropus post-1944 are transferred to either Holocentropus or Plectrocnemia. The following new or reinstated combinations are proposed: Plectrocnemia albipuncta Banks, comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia aureola Banks, comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia cinerea (Hagen), comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia clinei Milne, comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia crassicornis (Walker), comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia jenula (Denning) comb. nov.; Plectrocnemia icula (Ross), comb. nov.; Plectrocnemia nascotia (Ross), comb. nov.; Plectrocnemia remota (Banks), comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia sabulosa (Leonard & Leonard), comb. nov.; Plectrocnemia smithae (Denning), comb. nov.; Plectrocnemia vigilatrix Navas, comb. rev.; Plectrocnemia weedi (Blickle & Morse), comb. nov.; Holocentropus chellus (Denning), comb. nov.; Holocentropus flavus Banks, comb. nov.; Holocentropus glacialis Ross, comb. rev.; Holocentropus grellus Milne, comb. rev.; Holocentropus interruptus Banks, comb. rev.; Holocentropus melanae Ross, comb. rev.; Holocentropus milaca (Etnier), comb. nov.; and Holocentropus picicornis (Stephens), comb. rev.


This Dictionary is designed to increase awareness of Bible origins, introduce readers to the variety of versions and manuscripts that lie behind the familiar English translation(s). It also provides, in alphabetical order, 'student notes' on texts, versions, manuscripts, persons, places and terminology, covering the origins of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the English Bible, including recent translations. Generally, this book will facilitate a more intelligent understanding of the Bible among lay people by removing some of the mystique and prejudices associated with it. Entries are factual, not evaluative, and reflect contemporary biblical scholarship. This is a handy reference tool for anyone at all interested in the Bible.


What makes a good designer? What course of action can he choose to ensure that he gets the best training? Should he be trained as a graduate from an art school or should he start a t the bench in some form of apprenticeship? If one looks at the designers who have made their mark in their chosen field it is difficult to determine whether the type of training was responsible for their success. This is not the case with John Makepeace, who is regarded as the country's leading furniture designer and maker . John Makepeace was born in 1939 in Solihull and had no formal art school background ~ Instead, from 1957 to 1959 he was a trainee cabinet-maker with Keith Cooper in Dorset. Not quite an apprenticeship, rather a two year intensive course in the realistic 'school' of a working furniture maker . Like many young aspiring craftsmen he wanted to set up his own business. In 1963, after a spell of travelling to the Scandinavian Countries , he bought Farnborough Barn near Banbury, which he and his wife Ann Sutton, the equally well known textile designer and innovator, turned into a house and a workshop. It was not long before the name of Makepeace began to appear in the leading design journals. His name was soon to become a standard both inside and around the world of furniture and furniture design. Discerning users, collectors, museums and galleries sough t his work, whi c h never seems to have fallen into a 'style'. Anyone who knows his work is quick to agree, that the wide variety of designs he has produced is indicative of his fertile imagination and his innovative approach to construction. The workshop in Banbury flourished and soon had a work force of five highly skilled craftsme n . Over the years John Makepace has trained a number of young people who have joined him as apprentices. One only needs to see their work to realise that their training has been successful . He is constantly being approached by craftsmen who wish to join his team. Not least among these devotees have been students with design training who have felt the need to learn how to make furniture at the bench, so that they in turn could set up their own furniture making workshops .


At the primary, narrative level the riddle of Mark's brief account of Jesus' death and its immediate aftermath must still be pronounced unsolved. There has been a steadily growing awareness among scholars that, for all the insights they have afforded us, form and redaction criticism have tended to deprive the Evangelists of reputations for competence as narrators and their story-lines of coherence and integrity and that this tendency does them injustice. Yet though the latest study of Mark 15. 37–39 is sensitive to this issue, it cannot be pronounced successful in making complete sense of Mark's narrative qua narrative. This paper offers a solution to the riddle and argues what I realize is the rather radical thesis that Mark intended a connection between the events of these verses that has never been fully and properly understood.


This 112-page publication was the result of a Springboard-funded 2013 collaboration between the University of Brighton and the Regency Town House, Hove, as part of their Heritage Lottery Funded project, Profiles of the Past. The publication, bookended by an introduction and conclusion by Annebella Pollen, showcased seven chronological case study essays by postgraduate students of the history of design. With the purpose of examining the use of the historic silhouette portrait as a source for dress history, the publication offered an introduction to the design, making, consumption and socio-cultural meanings attached to the art and craft of silhouettes in England 1760-1960. Whether characterised as a measure of character or mere caricature, noble portrait or humble souvenir, these intriguing, democratic images can provide a productive point of departure for exploring shifting attitudes to self-presentation, technologies of portraiture and, not least, changes in fashion.


Pseudomonas strains that produce filamentous bacteriophage are associated with chronic infection and increased antibiotic resistance in patients with cystic fibrosis. Infection-boosting phage Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is common in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Filamentous bacteriophage (Pf phage) can infect P. aeruginosa and has been shown to contribute to the virulence of infection in animal models. However, whether Pf phage plays a role in the pathogenicity of P. aeruginosa in CF is unknown. Now, Burgener et al. showed that Pf phage was abundantly expressed in sputum samples from two large cohorts of patients with CF. The presence of Pf phage was associated with increased antibiotic resistance and reduced lung function. The results suggest that Pf phage might play a role in the pathogenicity of P. aeruginosa infection in CF. Filamentous bacteriophage (Pf phage) contribute to the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in animal models, but their relevance to human disease is unclear. We sought to interrogate the prevalence and clinical relevance of Pf phage in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) using sputum samples from two well-characterized patient cohorts. Bacterial genomic analysis in a Danish longitudinal cohort of 34 patients with CF revealed that 26.5% (n = 9) were consistently Pf phage positive. In the second cohort, a prospective cross-sectional cohort of 58 patients with CF at Stanford, sputum qPCR analysis showed that 36.2% (n = 21) of patients were Pf phage positive. In both cohorts, patients positive for Pf phage were older, and in the Stanford CF cohort, patients positive for Pf phage were more likely to have chronic P. aeruginosa infection and had greater declines in pulmonary function during exacerbations than patients negative for Pf phage presence in the sputum. Last, P. aeruginosa strains carrying Pf phage exhibited increased resistance to antipseudomonal antibiotics. Mechanistically, in vitro analysis showed that Pf phage sequesters these same antibiotics, suggesting that this mechanism may thereby contribute to the selection of antibiotic resistance over time. These data provide evidence that Pf phage may contribute to clinical outcomes in P. aeruginosa infection in CF.


During device operation, SRAM based ALTERA devices store configuration data in volatile SRAM cells, therefore that information must be reloaded each time the device powers up. The configuration data to be loaded must be retrieved from some non-volatile source such as special configuration memories or external sources, using different configuration schemes. The use of Configuration devices is very direct and simple, but these benefits are sometimes obscured by its cost, that can get over the cost of the device to be configured. The other configuration methods are a bit more complex and require the use of some I/O pins of an external microprocessor, but they can be useful to attain simple and cheap configuration methods. This paper describes the use of standard, very low cost serial EEPROM memories for configuration, using minimum microprocessor resources, in Passive Serial Configuration mode; in this case, the EEPROM memory can be used not only to store configuration data but also some other non-volatile information required by the microprocessor.


The E-Commerce Directive is going through a hard time. Numerous policy initiatives and judgements of the Court are exposing its provisions to a real stress test. The goal of this paper is not summarize or evaluate in general this trend, but to show how a single decision of the CJEU with few open issues can lead to destabilization of the system. The center-stage of this brief article is the Court's recent decision in Mc Fadden v. Sony Germany and its short-term and long-term consequences for the future of safe harbours, their scope and IP enforcement. The paper argues that by allowing the exclusion of pre-trial costs and litigation costs from the liability exemptions, the Court has drilled yet another hole in the system of safe harbours. It also highlights that the decision to permit password-locking as an enforcement practice is a short-sighted policy choice that will require number of clarifications. Last but not least, it is argued that a root-cause of the rejection of Advocate General's proposition to outlaw password-locking is the Court's treatment of the fundamental rights as the only framework of reference for IP enforcement. This causes that also constructive and well-explained arguments of good innovation policy to fall often on deaf ears.


LHAASO-WCDA has finished its first pool installation in the beginning of 2019.
Since then the detector start to take test run data. Based on these data, a lot of update
has been implemented in both detector simulation and reconstruction method. In this
work, a lot of comparison between data and MC samples have been processed, some
preliminary results, such as lateral distribution of air shower data , are shown.


Toman, J. 2010: Železem bohaté zeolity z lokality Svojanov, Česká republika. – Acta Mus. Moraviae, Sci. geol., 96, 1, 3–10. Iron-rich zeolites from the locality Svojanov, Czech Republic Svojanov locality is situated in Pardubice region (Czech Republic), about 15 km SE far from Polička town, in a closed quarry located on NW of Svojanov village nearby Svojanov-Rohozná road. High contents of Fe were found by an electron microprobe in zeolites from the locality Svojanov. In the examined sample, three zeolites – ferrierite-Mg, chabazite-Ca and clinoptilolite-Mg, were identified closely associated with chlorite and calcite. Ferrierite-Mg crystals are radialized into red to brown spherulitic agregates. Chabazite-Ca and clinoptilolite-Mg were present only in a microscopic size in the examined sample. Chabazite-Ca is the oldest whereas clinoptilolite-Mg is probably the youngest zeolite. Ferrierite-Mg is the Fe-richest (1.40–2.10 apfu; 1.87–2.77 wt. % Fe2O3), there is less Fe3+ in chabazite-Ca (0.03–0.14 apfu; 0.14–0.57 wt. % Fe2O3) and clinoptilolite-Mg (0.37–0.38 apfu; 0.51–0.52 wt. % Fe2O3), but the amount of Fe3+ is still significant within the zeolite group. There is a quite significant amount of Mg in ferrierite-Mg and clinoptilolite-Mg. The content of Mg in ferrierite-Mg (2.95–3.64 apfu; 4.76–6.00 wt. % MgO) is one of the highest in the world. The mineral association in studied sample from Svojanov is unique within the Czech Republic due to high amount of Fe3+ and Mg in zeolites.


BACKGROUND: Mitragyna speciosa, also known as kratom, is obtained from the coffee plant family 'Rubiaceae.' Kratom is available in the form of capsules, whole, processed and powdered leaves, and as liquids. Secondary to its 'natural herb' status and opioid effects, it is misconceived to be a safe alternative for the treatment of chronic pain. The use of kratom has increased by tenfold in the United States since 2010. METHODS AND RESULTS: We report a term neonate who was born to a chronic kratom user and required treatment with opiates for neonatal drug withdrawal. CONCLUSION: Physicians should be aware of these herbal supplements and its potential withdrawal effects in newborn which cannot be picked up by the standard toxicology screen.


Background Among the different faces of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) developing in HIV-patients, no clinical definition has been reported for Schistosomiasis-IRIS (Schisto-IRIS). Although Schisto-IRIS remains largely uninvestigated, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP) have previously been associated with S. mansoni infection and tuberculosis-IRIS. Here, we aimed to investigate the relevance of these markers in Schisto-IRIS. Methodology Patients were diagnosed with IRIS related to S. mansoni within a cohort of patients with Schistosomiasis-HIV co-infection, using a clinical working definition of Schisto-IRIS. We compared 9 patients who developed Schisto-IRIS to 9 Schisto+HIV+ controls who did not, and 9 Schisto-HIV+ controls. Plasma levels of MMP-1, MMP-7, MMP-10, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, sCD14, intestinal fatty-acid binding protein, C-reactive protein, and 8 anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) were analyzed prior to and during 3 months of ART. Principal findings Although no differences were observed for MMP-1 and -7, MMP-10 levels decreased significantly in Schisto+HIV+ controls during 3 months of ART (p = 0.005) while persisting in Schisto-IRIS patients at significantly higher levels compared to Schisto-HIV+ controls (p≤0.030). In contrast TIMP-1 levels only decreased significantly in Schisto-IRIS patients (p = 0.012), while TIMP-2 levels were lower compared to Schisto+HIV+ controls at 2 weeks (p = 0.007), 1 month (p = 0.005) and 3 months (p = 0.031) of ART. Five out of 8 ANAs studied decreased significantly in Schisto-IRIS patients after 1 month of ART(p≤0.039), whereas only 1 ANA decreased for Schisto+HIV+ controls (p = 0.027). Conclusions/Significance In this study, we propose a working definition for the diagnosis of Schisto-IRIS in resource limited settings. We report persistent plasma levels of MMP-10, along with a more pronounced decrease in TIMP-1 and ANA-levels, and low levels of TIMP-2 during 3 months of ART. Corresponding to the clinical symptoms, these data suggest that Schisto-IRIS is marked by unbalanced MMP/TIMP dynamics which favor inflammation.


Purpose: This empirical paper presents new insights into the extent and sources of later-career learning. Middle-managers are taken as an exemplifying group for studying workplace later-career learning as the roles requires both the implementation and initiation of change.

Design/Methodological approach: The research takes a qualitative and largely inductive methodological approach. Data were generated through visual elicitation techniques deployed in advance of interviews.

Findings: The data illustrate the diverse and complex factors that afford the learning of later-career middle-managers. Of significance is the distinction between their formal learning, and less-recognised informal learning episodes. This informal learning was attributable to social interactions with colleagues, and their teams, and day-to-day work challenges. Significantly, certain of the findings challenge established assumptions held, that later-career workers have a limited motivation to learn as they count down to retirement.

Limitations/implications: That this paper reports only a pilot analysis of six participants is acknowledged. Analysis of the full data set will be important in extending the current inquiry. Nonetheless, significant, counter-intuitive conclusions are established with important implications for HRD policy and practice.

Originality/value: This research presents new insights into what are recognised gaps in the existing empirical literatures of learning for later-career workers. The use of visual methods has offered insights that conventional methods would have missed.

Practical implications: HRD policy and professional practice needs to move rapidly to reach this final frontier of learning and development and ensure that later-career workers become a true asset for their organisations and economies.


This paper examines the underlying mechanisms of knowledge diffusion and interrelationships between formal and informal channels attending to the localisation of spillovers between university and industry. With this aim we present a historical in-depth case study centred in one of the most highly cited university patents, developing and applying a theoretical approach that combines formalisation and localisation analytical dimensions. Our findings show how knowledge diffused through channels with different degrees of formalization (patent licenses, "pure" spillovers and consultancy contracts with the inventors). The case also evidences the pervasive delocalization of several knowledge diffusion channels and the complexity of achieving local impact, even at a privileged environment like California. The crucial diffusion mechanism channel stemmed from bidirectional knowledge flows between the university and a non-regional company, which provided the university with the specific fabrication capabilities needed to create an open-lab programme, which ultimately achieved local impact.


ABSTRACT After activation by Wnt/&bgr;-Catenin ligands, a multi-protein complex assembles at the clustering membrane-bound receptors and intracellular signal transducers into the so-called Lrp6-signalosome. However, the mechanism of signalosome formation and dissolution is yet not clear. Our imaging studies of live zebrafish embryos show that the signalosome is a highly dynamic structure. It is continuously assembled by Dvl2-mediated recruitment of the transducer complex to the activated receptors and partially disassembled by endocytosis. We find that, after internalization, the ligand-receptor complex and the transducer complex take separate routes. The Wnt–Fz–Lrp6 complex follows a Rab-positive endocytic path. However, when still bound to the transducer complex, Dvl2 forms intracellular aggregates. We show that this endocytic process is not only essential for ligand-receptor internalization but also for signaling. The &mgr;2-subunit of the endocytic Clathrin adaptor Ap2 interacts with Dvl2 to maintain its stability during endocytosis. Blockage of Ap2&mgr;2 function leads to Dvl2 degradation, inhibiton of signalosome formation at the plasma membrane and, consequently, reduction of signaling. We conclude that Ap2&mgr;2-mediated endocytosis is important to maintain Wnt/&bgr;-catenin signaling in vertebrates.


Now that further research into the various rites of Christian initiation has challenged traditional assumptions, it is time to rewrite the textbooks. The ritual structure, specific detail, prayer content, and theology within the various rites indicate significant differences, ones that cannot be forced to fit the single, normative" Western model that has been advanced. These essays for seminary or graduate-level courses recognize the richness of the Christian liturgical tradition: multi-layered, multi-formed, multi-liturgical. They are presented in an order that facilitates their use in a study of the historical development and theological interpretation of Christian initiation. They offer the solid foundation in initiatory theology and history needed to promote an informed pastoral practice in the Churches today. Following the model of editor R. Kevin Seasoltz's Living Bread, Saving Cup: Readings on the Eucharist, this ecumenical collection will forward the teaching and study of the rites of Christian initiation by gathering in one volume the significant contributions of many of the most important scholars working in the field. The contributors are Aidan Kavanagh, Georg Kretschmar, Adela Yarbro Collins, Gabriele Winkler, Paul F. Bradshaw, Jean Laporte, Joseph L. Levesque, Frank C. Quinn, Paul Turner, Laurence H. Stookey, Eugene L. Brand, Bryan D. Spinks, Paul F. X. Covino, and Mark Seale. Maxwell E. Johnson, an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is assistant professor of liturgy in the School of Theology, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. He received his doctorate in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame. "


During radiotherapy for pelvic or abdominal cancer, the intestine is a critical dose-limiting organ. Despite precautions in treatment (planning and delivery), patients develop radiation-induced bowel injury during and for several months after treatment. Radiation enteropathy therefore remains an important obstacle to the radiocurability of abdominal tumors continues to impair patients' quality of life. An inflammatory process associated to immune imbalance has been hypothesized for the development of chronic radiation enteritis. The development of delayed radiation effects involves a continuous process starting immediately at the time of irradiation. The chronic inflammatory reactions are typically characterized by a large infiltrate of immune cells (macrophages, lymphocytes). The balance of cytokines production is crucial to immune response to disease prevention and CD4+ T cells play a prominent role in the disease progression. The persistence of disease susceptibility and resistance depends on the profiles of the cytokines secreted by Th1 and Th2 cells. In the early time, we showed that abdominal single irradiation (10Gy) or fractionated colorectal ?-irradiation (4Gy/fractions, 3 fractions/week and total dose 52Gy) modified the Th1 and Th2 cytokines expression characterized by Th1 cytokines (IFN-gamma/IP10) repression. The Th2 shift occurred via regulation of the level of cytokine-mediators through transcriptional modulation and STAT signaling. During the acute phase, the immune imbalance is associated to an infiltration of macrophages and neutrophiles. This Th1/Th2 imbalance may be attributed to a different radiosensitivity (Th1 more radiosensitive than Th2) and the secretion of a feed-back inhibitor of Th1 polarization potentiating the Th2 profile. In long term (6 months after radiotherapy) the intestinal response may be also driven by the Th2- type responses. The molecular mechanism of this immune imbalance persistence remained unknown. Interestingly, irradiation created an immunosuppressive effect characterized by IL10/STAT3 pathway repression, the pathway known to regulate Th1/Th2 balance. A decrease of the CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) frequency in the mesenteric lymph nodes may be at the genesis of the IL-10 repression. These results raise the question of whether the Th2 polarization post-irradiation (acute and delayed time) in the intestine involve a highway code of the T cell trafficking induced by a homeostastatic differential chemokines and an alteration of the microvasculature. The assumed loss of tolerance induced by reduced frequency of Treg may be deleterious for Th inactivation and antibacterial responses. These findings suggest the importance to reduce irradiation effects during and after radiotherapy based on immune deviation.


Management actions, such as translocations, reintroductions and supportive breeding, can have both negative and positive effects on population recovery. Several studies have examined the incidence of introgression following such actions, but few studies have explored the effect of release numbers on gene flow between closely related recipient populations. We examined population structure of coho salmon in Puget Sound (Washington State, USA) to evaluate the relationship between the number of individuals transferred between rivers, and the number released within rivers, on inter‐ and intrariver population divergence. Eleven microsatellite loci were surveyed in 23 hatchery and wild samples collected from 11 rivers within and one hatchery outside Puget Sound. Pairwise genetic divergences between most populations were significant, but the population structure could not be explained by an isolation‐by‐distance model (Mantel test, P > 0.05). In contrast, we detected significant hatchery influence on population structure. The numbers of fish transferred among rivers between 1952 and 2004 was negatively correlated with differentiation between rivers (partial Mantel test, P = 0.005) but not within rivers (t‐test, P = 0.41). Number of fish released from hatcheries that collect broodstock locally was negatively correlated with population structure within rivers (t‐test P = 0.002), and between nearby rivers (partial Mantel P = 0.04). Our results indicate that the population structure can, to some degree, be altered by the number of individuals transferred and by local release number of individuals in ongoing artificial propagation programs. The findings presented here emphasize the need to control the number of individuals that are either inadvertently introduced, or are deliberately released under conservation scenarios.


We combine multi-task learning and semi-supervised learning by inducing a joint embedding space between disparate label spaces and learning transfer functions between label embeddings, enabling us to jointly leverage unlabelled data and auxiliary, annotated datasets. We evaluate our approach on a variety of tasks with disparate label spaces. We outperform strong single and multi-task baselines and achieve a new state of the art for aspect-based and topic-based sentiment analysis.


Self-assembled multilayers were fabricated from lignosulfonate (LS) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDAC), and the adsorption and desorption behaviors of LS on the LS/PDAC multilayers under different pH conditions were intensively investigated. Results showed that the adsorption and desorption behaviors were controlled by electrostatic attraction, hydrophobic interaction, and changes in the microstructure, which depended on solution pH. Lignosulfonates exist as colloids in solutions at low pH because of a hydrophobic interactions, and the LS colloids adsorbed on the PDAC layer because of electrostatic attraction. LS colloids started to disassociate at pH 3.5, resulting in an abrupt rise of the adsorption rate, a sharp decrease of the adsorbed amount, and a steep reduction in the surface roughness. Desorption behaviors of LS multilayers were related to the pH values of both LS dipping solution for self-assembly and the immersing solution for post-preparation treatment. Desorption of LS could be induced by a weakening of electrostatic attraction or hydrophobic interaction. A significant desorption occurred only when LS colloids dissociated in the multilayers. LS colloids were harder to dissociate in the multilayers than in the solutions because of electrostatic attraction between LS and PDAC.


Conservation projects in the Middle East have recently focused on reintroducing extinct mammals into their former grazing lands. The indigenous human populations in these areas—mainly nomadic pastoralists—have been, until very recently, excluded from any part of the information gathering, planning, implementation and management of such schemes. This intellectual and physical exclusion has resulted in hostility, distrust and occasionally sabotage. To succeed, many conservation efforts have had to rethink and redesign their activity. The key concept underlying this restructuring is 'participation'. The term, however, means many things to the various actors involved in conservation research and consultancy and care must be taken to identify its uses and meanings. Looking at recent Syrian government efforts to reintroduce the Arabian oryx into the desert as an example, I examine the major pseudo-scientific assumptions which have underpinned most projects and consultancies in the semi-arid lands of Syria. These positions, I show, have led to an untenable 'no-win' situation for the nomadic pastoralists. Finally I examine the way in which an effort to introduce the concept of participation through a series of consultancies has resulted in some encouraging collaboration between the indigenous human population, the conservation experts, the local government technocrats and higher authorities.


ABSTRACT Pearl oyster culture is unique because the product is gem not flesh and one of the species that produce pearl is Pinctada maxima (Silver or Gold lip pearl oyster). Stock for pearl oyster production can be collected from the wild or hatchery. However, hatchery production is a better solution to supply P.maxima for pearl production rather than just depend on wild stocks. Spat from the wild or hatchery will be grown-out for pearl production by longline or raft culture system method in ocean. Raft culture provide a work platform to repair, clean and store culture tools, while, longline culture has better design to deal with wave or wind exposure. There are identified different culture systems according different species (for example between P.maxima and P.fucata) and locations. Several constraints on P. maxima culture also identify such as biofouling organisms, predations and diseases that can reduce productivity and pearl quality. For example, mass mortalities of P.maxima occurred in Western Australia due to viral infection and it disrupted the pearl oyster industry. Therefore, several strategies are needed to mitigate those problems to achieve maximal productivity by using good management culture practice. Key word: pearl oyster, P. maxima, management, culture


Burkina Faso's hard earned economic gains in recent years have been eroded by the 2008-09 world financial and economic crisis. The country will particularly feel the effects of the world economic crisis due to its close links with the world economy. Most of the adverse effects are transmitted to households then passed onto children. The situation of children principally depends on the monetary and non-monetary wellbeing of their household. This, together with their greater vulnerability, means that children are at risk of suffering more, and for longer, from the impacts of the crisis. It is therefore crucial to understand and anticipate the effects that the crisis may have on children in Burkina Faso and to propose options for social protection to counter these effects. To this end, we propose a macro-micro economic approach. Macro-micro economic analysis uses a general calculable equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate the impacts of various transmission channels of the crisis to the Burkinabe economy. The results of these simulations are then used for the micro-econometric analysis, which integrates individual and household economic behaviour to evaluate the impact of the crisis on child welfare. A monetary transfer policy targeting poor children appears to be the most effective at reversing the negative effects of the crisis and returning to the trend that would have existed without the crisis. Such a policy, financed by external aid and with a budget of 1% of GDP, re-establishes the trend that monetary poverty would have followed in the absence of a crisis and even leads to a reduction in hunger. It also limits the crisis' adverse effects on school enrolment, child labour and sick children's access to modern health care services. A universal (non-targeted) variant of this transfer policy for 0-5 year-olds has similar results and is easier to enact. Policies which subsidize food and cereals, as well as monetary transfer policies for the Centre and Mouhoun regions (the areas most affected by the August-September 2009 floods) were also analyzed.


Vegetation light use efficiency is a key physiological parameter at the canopy scale, and at the daily time step is a component of remote sensing algorithms for scaling gross primary production (GPP) and net primary production (NPP) over regional to global domains. For the purposes of calibrating and validating the light use efficiency (εg) algorithms, the components of εg– absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and ecosystem GPP – must be measured in a variety of environments. Micrometeorological and mass flux measurements at eddy covariance flux towers can be used to estimate APAR and GPP, and the emerging network of flux tower sites offers the opportunity to investigate spatial and temporal patterns in εg at the daily time step. In this study, we examined the relationship of daily GPP to APAR, and relationships of εg to climatic variables, at four micrometeorological flux tower sites – an agricultural field, a tallgrass prairie, a deciduous forest, and a boreal forest. The relationship of GPP to APAR was close to linear at the tallgrass prairie site but more nearly hyperbolic at the other sites. The sites differed in the mean and range of daily εg, with higher values associated with the agricultural field than the boreal forest. εg decreased with increasing APAR at all sites, a function of mid‐day saturation of GPP and higher εg under overcast conditions. εg was generally not well correlated with vapor pressure deficit or maximum daily temperature. At the agricultural site, a εg decline towards the end of the growing season was associated with a decrease in foliar nitrogen concentration. At the tallgrass prairie site, a decline in εg in August was associated with soil drought. These results support inclusion of parameters for cloudiness and the phenological status of the vegetation, as well as use of biome‐specific parameterization, in operational εg algorithms.


The composite event detection process in different consumption modes has been proven to be difficult to comprehend. It is believed that visualization of this process can make it easier to grasp. In this final year project, a prototype of a visualization tool that visually displays the composite event detection is developed. The prototype uses time graphs to display the composite events and the chronicle consumption mode is used in the detection of the composite events. Animation is used in the prototype when the composite events are visualized, as it is believed that animation can be of help when learning complex algorithms, such as consumption modes. The prototype is then compared with other similar visualization tools. This prototype addresses factors, which have been identified as playing a central role in the visualization of composite events, that other similar visualization tools do not.


The project for the revitalisation of Southern Africa's higher education sector is dependent on, among other things, the capacity of the region's universities to produce research, to communicate that research to a broad public audience and to use the research output in the process of educating future generations of graduates. Given this context, research output in the great majority of Southern African universities is barely visible. While the introduction of new digital media may offer greater accessibility and expanded opportunities for the visibility of scholarly communication, this may be insufficient to meet the needs of the many scholars and other actors who seek to build on existing bodies of knowledge, whether to advance society or in order to create knowledge for its own sake. This article reports the findings of two 2008 studies – The state of public science in the SADC region and Opening access to knowledge in Southern African universities. Working within a frame which understands knowledge produced in universities as a public good, this article examines the issues at play in terms of the productivity-visibilityaccessibility of scholarly communications in regional higher education. The conclusion discusses a possible approach to improve such productivity-visibility-accessibility, through the adoption of a strategic vision of open access to knowledge and through consideration of two breakthroughs pertinent to achieving a vision of revitalised higher education in the region. 1 A partnership constituted by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of African Universities and the South African University Vice Chancellors Association, now Higher Education South Africa.


The present study had two main objectives; first, to discover the relationships between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and personality traits among employees of AW (Air Weapon Complex), Second, to find out the age, salary, marital status, and education differences on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employees. In present study three instrument; Job Satisfaction Scale JSS (Macdonald & Maclntyre, 1997), Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) (Mowday, Steer, & Porter, 197), and Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) (Rentfrow, Gosling & Swann, 2003); were administered to a sample of (N=100) along with demographic sheet. Results of the study revealed significant positive correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employees; significant negative association of neuroticism with job satisfaction and organizational commitment; extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness showed significant positive correlation with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Findings of the study also showed significant age, education, salary, and marital status differences on job satisfaction and organizational commitment as all these demographic variables were positive correlates of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.


The most popular method of computer mediated communication in organisation is email. A large number of the uses of e-mail in an organisational setting could in fact be classified into the dimension of task related use and social use. Therefore, it is the aim of this study to determine the influence of e-mail use factors (experience, task, and social related e-mail usage and user characteristics) on communication satisfaction of e-mail users. The study investigated the difference between user characteristics and communication satisfaction; relationship between e-mail usage factors and communication satisfaction; and predictors of e-mail usage factors towards
communication satisfaction among e-mail users. The present study used survey design in order to achieve the objectives of the study. Purposive sampling was used to select a total of 305 employees of four selected private companies. The study used self-administered structured questionnaires as the research instrument. Statistical analyses used in this study were the Chi-Square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Stepwise Multiple Regression. This study discovered that the employees experienced moderate to high level of communication satisfaction while using e-mails to communicate. There were no significant differences on the communication satisfaction between gender, age, educational attainment and position respectively. Frequency of using e-mail icon influenced communication satisfaction of e-mail users, while number of years of using e-mail did not influence communication satisfaction. Task related e-mail usage (exchange information and decision making) and social
related e-mail usage (interpersonal need and relationship development) had significant positive relationship with communication satisfaction. Task related e-mail usage and social related e-mail usage was a significant predictor of communication satisfaction. However, relationship development is a major determinant influencing communication satisfaction among e-mail users. This study recommended that task and social related e-mail usage should be considered as interdependent dimensions bye-mail users as both would contribute towards communication satisfaction that have potential impact on the organisations.


Regenerative medicine (RM) has the potential to strongly impact on society. To determine non-experts' impressions of RM, we analyzed opinions obtained from workshops in which participants freely discussed RM. Three major features were apparent. First, non-experts were most concerned with the possible effects of RM after it has been fully realized in society. Second, non-experts expressed concerns not only about RM itself, but also about the governance and operation of the technology. Third, non-experts were not only concerned about direct influences of RM, but also about its potential indirect influences. These identified features are likely to be controversial issues when RM is introduced into society. It is important to promote early discussion of these issues by society as a whole.


Desensitization of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) in the setting of prolonged oxytocin exposure may lead to dysfunctional labor, which increases the risk for cesarean delivery, and uterine atony, which may result in postpartum hemorrhage. The molecular mechanism for OXTR desensitization is through the agonist-mediated recruitment of the multifunctional protein β-arrestin. In addition to its desensitizing function, β-arrestins have recently been shown to simultaneously activate downstream signaling. We tested whether oxytocin stimulation promotes β-arrestin-mediated OXTR desensitization in vivo and activates β-arrestin-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) growth signaling. Uterine muscle strips isolated from wild-type mice exhibited diminished uterine contractility following repeated exposure to oxytocin, whereas uterine muscle strips from β-arrestin-1 and β-arrestin-2 knockout mice showed no desensitization. Utilizing siRNA knockdown of β-arrestin-1 and β-arrestin-2 in HEK-293 cells expressing the OXTR, we demonstrated oxytocin-mediated MAPK signaling that was dependent on β-arrestin-1 and β-arrestin-2. Wild-type and β-arrestin-1 and β-arrestin-2 knockout mice receiving intravenous oxytocin also demonstrated oxytocin-mediated MAPK signaling that was dependent on β-arrestin-1 and β-arrestin-2. Finally, to test the significance of β-arrestin-mediated signaling from the OXTR, HEK-293 cells expressing the OXTR showed β-arrestin-dependent proliferation in a cell migration assay following oxytocin treatment. In conclusion, β-arrestin is a multifunctional scaffold protein that mediates both desensitization of the OXTR, leading to decreases in uterine contractility, and MAPK growth signaling following stimulation by oxytocin. The development of unique OXTR ligands that prevent receptor desensitization may be a novel approach in the treatment of adverse clinical events secondary to prolonged oxytocin therapy.


The present review provides information about area, production and yield of fruit crops in Venezuela. Also it shows some considerations about production systems, and highlighting limitations, advances and suggestions. The fruit crops in Venezuela are the 3rd. place in the agricultural sector. There are 167,691 Ha with a production of 2,232,088 MT. The main fruit crops are: plantain, banana, orange, and pineapple. The production areas range from arid lowlands, where grapes and pineapples are obtained, and humid highlands where there are peaches and strawberries. There has been reduction in the fruit crops area, with the exception of papaya, pineapple, and avocado. Horticultural management on fruit orchards is heterogeneous, and it is possible found since low to high technology. Low productivity and poor quality is associated to the incorrect application of horticultural practices. The post-harvest system could be improved through the development and implementation of standards of selection, packing, packaging and cold refrigeration. Venezuelan exports of fruits has declined in recent years and focuses on mango, orange and Tahiti lime. The main destinations are: Colombia, Europe, North America and the Caribbean islands. Only the orange is important process fruit in Venezuela. The outlook for the Venezuelan fruits production is to continue as an activity for the domestic market, without a better participation in the international fruit market.