We compare Particle-in-cell simulation results of relativistic electron–ion shear flows with different bulk Lorentz factors, and discuss their implications for spine-sheath models of blazar versus gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets. Specifically, we find that most properties of the shear boundary layer scale with the bulk Lorentz factor: the lower the Lorentz factor, the thinner the boundary layer, and the weaker the self-generated fields. Similarly, the energized electron spectrum peaks at an energy near the ion drift energy, which increases with bulk Lorentz factor, and the beaming of the accelerated electrons along the shear interface gets narrower with increasing Lorentz factor. This predicts a strong correlation between emitted photon energy, angular beaming, and temporal variability with the bulk Lorentz factor. Observationally, we expect systematic differences between the high-energy emissions of blazars and GRB jets.


2004 AJN BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER! An American Journal of Nursing 2004 Book of the Year! Arrhythmia Recognition: The Art of Interpretation uses hundreds of four-color graphics to communicate the complex topics related to arrhythmia recognition. The text focuses on the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the formation and maintenance of complex arrhythmias and on their clinical recognition. Each rhythm strip provides a descriptive table outlining the various abnormalities in a logical, easy-to-follow sequence. In addition, there are analytical narratives outlining what providers should consider when approaching the strip. The tables and analytical narratives are intended to formulate functional interpretative skills to consider when approaching a complex arrhythmia in a clinical situation.


. Partial N é el states are generalizations of the ordinary N é el ( classical anti-ferromagnet ) state that can have arbitrary integer spin. We study overlaps of these states with Bethe states. We first identify this overlap with a partial version of reflecting-boundary domain-wall partition function, and then derive various determinant representations for o-shell and on-shell Bethe states.


Southern forests, which rely on intensive management practices, are some of the most productive forests in the U.S.
Intensive forest management utilizes forest operations, such as site preparation, fertilization, thinning, and harvesting, to
increase site productivity and reduce rotation time. These operations are essential to meet the ever-increasing demands for
timber products. Forest managers utilize forest operations as tools in an attempt to manage the nation's forestlands for
multiple uses while maintaining or improving resource quality. Forest operations can influence nonpoint-source (NPS)
pollution by disturbing natural processes that maintain water quality. In recent years, NPS pollution has been identified as
the nation's largest source of water quality problems. Forest management activities have been identified as activities that
influence NPS pollution in the South. Results of watershed-scale studies that investigated the effect of forest operations on
water quality in the 13 southern states are highly variable. However, taken collectively, the results indicate that forest
operations have little impact on the quality of water draining from forests in the South. Based on this review, best management
practices (BMPs) show the potential to protect water quality following forest operations; however, accurate assessments of
the overall effectiveness of BMPs are not possible because the benefits of BMPs on different scales are relatively unknown.


Recently there have been movements in a number of states and regions, as well as nationally, to establish public benefits mechanisms that use fi.mding from universal ratepayer charges to attempt to transform energy-efficiency markets. However, most of these campaigns appear to still be in the planning stages. This paper reports on several key issues that have been faced in implementing one of the largest and furthest advanced energy efficiency public benefits mechanisms, the Public Goods Charge (PGC) mechanism in California being overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Board for Energy Efficiency (CBEE). The paper is written primarily from the perspective of the consultants commissioned by the CBEE to advise it in carrying out its mission of implementing the PGC mechanism in California, and does not purport to represent the views of either the CBEE or the CPUC. The main focus is on issues pertaining to institutional structure, including the number and organization of administrators selected to develop and oversee energy efficiency programs and budgets and the allocation of responsibilities for various functions between program administrators and other entities. The authors also discuss implications of California's experience for other energy efficiency public benefits planning efforts.


2-Phenylbenzothiazoles have structural similarities to the antioestrogenic 2-phenylindole, zindoxifene and to the oestrogenic isoflavone, genistein which also inhibits tyrosine kinases. Hydroxylated 2-phenylbenzothiazole derivatives were therefore produced and tested for oestrogenic and tyrosine kinase inhibitory activity. Synthesis of methoxy substituted 2-phenylbenzothiazoles was via the Jacobson method, demethylation being effected by boron tribromide at -70oC. Three amino substituted 2-phenylbenzothiazoles were also synthesised and tested for activity. Data is presented for oestrogen receptor binding activity, aromatase inhibitory activity, epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (EGFRTK) inhibitory activity and cytotoxicity to ANN-1, 3T3, MCF-7 and WIDR cells. Oestrogen receptor binding affinity (RBA) was shown by five of the nine compounds tested. 2-(4-hydroxy)-6-hydroxybenzo-thiazole was the most active of the benzothiazoles tested (RBA 0.7). This is low but comparable to that of genistein. EGFRTK inhibitory activity was shown by four of the six benzothiazole derivatives tested; activity was comparable to that of genistein. Cytotoxicity assays have shown no selective toxicity of 2-phenylbenzothiazoles to any of the cell lines tested. Toxicity to MCF-7 cells was similar to that for other cell lines despite some compounds showing oestrogen receptor binding capacity. Amino-substituted 2-phenylbenzothiazoles showed selective toxicity towards transformed ANN-1 cells compared to normal 3T3 cells but the mechanism of this selectivity has not been established. Molecular modelling techniques, including CHEM-X, QUANTA and MOPAC were used to compare known ATP-competitive tyrosine kinase inhibitors with a model of ATP built from the crystal structure of the ATP-phosphoglycerate kinase complex. Structural features thought to be important to kinase inhibition were found and used to suggest further 2-phenylbenzothiazole analogues which may have improved activity.


The general objective of this study was to determine how variations in cottonseed supply factors, demand factors, and the five quality attributes reported under the current grading system (oil, ammonia, moisture, free fatty acids, and foreign matter) affect the price of whole cottonseed. It was found that cottonseed oil prices, cottonseed meal prices, moisture levels, free fatty acid levels, and foreign matter levels had statistically significant impacts on Texas cottonseed prices over the 1987-1996 marketing years. Results indicated that as cottonseed oil prices changed by 1 percent, cottonseed prices changed by about 0.33 percent. Cottonseed prices changed by about 0.40 percent as cottonseed meal prices changed by 1 percent. As moisture, free fatty acid, and foreign matter levels increased by one unit, cottonseed prices decreased by approximately 23 cents per ton, 4.56 dollars per ton, and 91 cents per ton, respectively. Results suggest that the current formula pricing system understates discounts for cottonseed moisture, free fatty acid, and foreign matter content.


Constructed wetlands system removes the nutrients and organic matter from wastewater through the combination of physical, biological and chemical mechanism. Pakistan is a developing country; constructed wetlands are very useful and effective treatment system for the domestic wastewater. Hence these wetlands set-up involve simple technology and low operational costs and contain diverse variety of other plants such as Pistiastratiotes L., Eichhorniacrassipes(Mart.) Solms, Menthaspicata L., Nasturtiumofficinale R. Br., Phylanodiflora(L.) Greene, with diverse properties in removing pollutants from wastewater usually require normal garden care i.e., encouragement of new flowers and pruning for appearance it help in enhance removal of nutrient and organic matter. Constructed Wetlands are the best system for the treatment of domestic wastewater due to seasonal variation, availability of space, diverse variety of plant in nearby areas of Punjab, and the last most important is the suitability of physiochemical proprieties of soil.


Reports linking long‐term use of bisphosphonates (BPs) with atypical fractures of the femur led the leadership of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) to appoint a task force to address key questions related to this problem. A multidisciplinary expert group reviewed pertinent published reports concerning atypical femur fractures, as well as preclinical studies that could provide insight into their pathogenesis. A case definition was developed so that subsequent studies report on the same condition. The task force defined major and minor features of complete and incomplete atypical femoral fractures and recommends that all major features, including their location in the subtrochanteric region and femoral shaft, transverse or short oblique orientation, minimal or no associated trauma, a medial spike when the fracture is complete, and absence of comminution, be present to designate a femoral fracture as atypical. Minor features include their association with cortical thickening, a periosteal reaction of the lateral cortex, prodromal pain, bilaterality, delayed healing, comorbid conditions, and concomitant drug exposures, including BPs, other antiresorptive agents, glucocorticoids, and proton pump inhibitors. Preclinical data evaluating the effects of BPs on collagen cross‐linking and maturation, accumulation of microdamage and advanced glycation end products, mineralization, remodeling, vascularity, and angiogenesis lend biologic plausibility to a potential association with long‐term BP use. Based on published and unpublished data and the widespread use of BPs, the incidence of atypical femoral fractures associated with BP therapy for osteoporosis appears to be very low, particularly compared with the number of vertebral, hip, and other fractures that are prevented by BPs. Moreover, a causal association between BPs and atypical fractures has not been established. However, recent observations suggest that the risk rises with increasing duration of exposure, and there is concern that lack of awareness and underreporting may mask the true incidence of the problem. Given the relative rarity of atypical femoral fractures, the task force recommends that specific diagnostic and procedural codes be created and that an international registry be established to facilitate studies of the clinical and genetic risk factors and optimal surgical and medical management of these fractures. Physicians and patients should be made aware of the possibility of atypical femoral fractures and of the potential for bilaterality through a change in labeling of BPs. Research directions should include development of animal models, increased surveillance, and additional epidemiologic and clinical data to establish the true incidence of and risk factors for this condition and to inform orthopedic and medical management. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


Hydroxyapatite (Ca(10)(PO(4))(6)(OH)(2), HAP), both as a synthetic material and as a constituent of bone char, can serve as an effective and relatively inexpensive filter material for fluoride (F(-)) removal from drinking water in low-income countries. Fluoride uptake on HAP can occur through different mechanisms, which are, in principle, influenced by solution composition. Suspensions of HAP (2 g L(-1)) were equilibrated under controlled pH conditions (pH 6.5, 7.3, 9.5) at 25 °C for 28 d after the addition of different F(-) concentrations (0.5-7.0 mM). The reacted HAP solids were examined with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and Nano Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (NanoSIMS). Fluoride uptake on HAP was dependent on pH, with the highest capacity at pH 6.5; the lowest uptake was found at pH 9.5. Under all experimental conditions, the thermodynamically stable mineral phase was fluorapatite, (Ca(10)(PO(4))(6)F(2), FAP). Fluoride uptake capacity was quantified on the basis of FTIR and XPS analysis, which was consistent with F(-) uptake from solution. The results of XPS and NanoSIMS analyses indicate that a fluoridated surface layer with a thickness of several nanometers is formed on nanosized HAP.


2-(3-Methyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-on-4-yl)-azomethine)-benzoic acid has been optimized using B3LYP/6-31G(d) and HF/6-31G(d) basis sets. Thus, the most stable geometrical comformer of compound was obtained. Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR) and Carbon-13 Nuclear magnetic Resonance (13C-NMR) spectral values according to GIAO method was calculated using Gaussian G09W program package in gas phase and in DMSO solvent. Theoretical and experimental values were plotted according to δ exp=a+b.d calc. Theoretical spectral values of molecule were calculated and compared with experimental values. The veda4f program was used in defining Infrared (IR) data. The standard error values were found via the Sigma plot with regression coefficient of a and b constants. The vibrational frequency values of this molecule have been calculated by using 6-31G (d) basis set with DFT and HF methods. Then, these values are multiplied with appropriate adjustment factors. In addition, the, thermodynamics properties (heat capacity CV0, entropy S0 and enthalpy H0), electronic properties (electronegativity (χ), electron affinity (A), global hardness (η), softness (σ), ELUMO-EHOMO energy gap (ΔEg) and ionization potential (I), HOMO-LUMO energy), geometric properties (bond angles, bond lengths), dipole moments, mulliken atomic charges, total energy of the molecule were calculated with Gaussian 09W program on the computer.


Although currently under attack from several directions, academic freedom is as important as it has ever been in enabling academics to teach, to carry out research, and to offer disinterested criticism and advice. Michiel Horn's new book accentuates the changing nature of academic freedom in English Canada and provides essential background to today's discussions. Based on extensive archival research in more than twenty universities across Canada and in six public archives, the book locates the idea of academic freedom in its institutional and social contexts and traces its conflict-ridden evolution from 1860 to the present. Providing detailed coverage and analysis, Academic Freedom in Canada exposes previously unpublished information on why selected academics were dismissed or forced to resign, and on how pressure was used, often successfully, to silence others. As well as focusing on individuals such as Frank Underhill (University of Toronto), George Hunter (University of Alberta), and Harry Crowe (United College, Winnipeg), the book covers issues including the resistance in universities to Darwinist thought; the influences of modern Biblical criticism, capitalism, and war on academic freedom; the experience of women and ethnic minorities; and the question of whether or not academics should be allowed to run for public office. One chapter addresses the contentious issue of tenure. Michiel Horn also identifies and analyses the challenges that have faced academic freedom in more recent years, most notably those of the economy and of 'political correctness'. He shows how the seeds of today's changing demands on universities can be found in the vicissitudes of the past, and contends that Canadian academics owe it to their fellow citizens to use their freedom for the common good.


This paper reviews oil palm biofuel development and analyzes social and environmental impacts of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Three plantation study sites were selected in West Papua (Manokwari), West Kalimantan (Kubu Raya) and Papua (Boven Digoel) and used as case studies to illustrate likely impacts of biofuel plantations. These plantations are being developed or expanded in the aftermath of the 2006 National Energy Policy and managed by companies with supply connections to biodiesel industry. Household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews were employed to gauge respondent perceptions about social, economic and environmental impacts. Concurrently, spatial analysis was used to assess the changes in forest cover. The development of oil palm in all three sites has caused deforestation and is likely to lead to further loss of forest as expansion continue to take place. Some communities did enjoy economic and social benefits from oil palm plantations such as more stable and reliable income, road access, better healthcare services. In Kubu Raya, some communities benefited both from employment opportunities and from sales of smallholder oil palm harvests. In Kubu Raya and Boven Digoel sites, some indigenous communities and migrants developed good inter-ethnic relations, although this was not the case in Manokwari. Other communities experienced increasing restrictions on traditional land use rights and outright land losses. Conflicts over land between indigenous communities and oil palm companies were observed in all three sites. Communities in all three sites experienced additional adverse environmental effects such as water pollution and flooding. The findings call for plantation policy makers to revisit the principles governing largescale land allocation for plantations. They need to pay particular attention to whether and to what extent the free, prior, and informed consent principle is being applied during the land acquisition process. The smallholder and nucleus oil palm schemes need improvements in efficiency and profitability. Finally, stringent sanctions are needed against companies failing to implement legally binding environmental monitoring and management plans.


English as a Mixed V2 Grammar: Synchronic Word Order Inconsistencies from the Perspective of First Language Acquisition This paper discusses some word order inconsistencies found in present-day English and argues that these may be explained by natural processes in first language acquisition. English is usually assumed to have lost its verb-second (V2) properties in the Middle English period, but the paper argues that English should be considered a mixed V2 grammar, as subject-auxiliary inversion is still a syntactic requirement in all questions and a type of inversion also marginally appears in certain declaratives (with informationally light verbs). Discussing word order variation across Germanic V2 languages as well as some acquisition data, the paper develops an approach to language acquisition and change which is based on micro-cues expressed in the input. This means that there are many types of V2 grammars, which distinguish between different clause types, patterns of information structure, and natural classes of categories. In this model, historical gradualism is seen as successive changes affecting one micro-cue at a time, and the mixed V2 property of English is considered to represent no exceptional case, simply a somewhat more restricted V2 grammar than that of the other Germanic languages.


Problem statement: Gohilwari breed of goat is a multipurpose goat mainly for milk and meat purposes and best suited in its harsh climatic condition. This breed is inadequately characterized till now at DNA level. So the present study was undertaken for population genetic analysis at molecular level to exploit the breed for planning sustainable improvement, conservation and utilization, which subsequently can improve the livelihood of its stake holders. Approach: The experiment was conducted on 50 genomic DNA samples of unrelated goat using 25 microsatellite markers selected from the list suggested by International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG) and FAO's (DAD-IS). Results: All of the 25 microsatellites were well amplified. The observed number of alleles detected per locus ranged from 4-24 with an overall mean of 10.12±5.46. Overall mean observed heterozygosity of 0.505 was lower than the overall mean expected heterozygosity of 0.684. Most of the loci showed the heterozygote deficit as also depicted by Fis value. There was substantial genetic variation and polymorphism across studied loci in the Gohilwari breed of goat. And this population was not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at most of the studied loci. This population was also receiving new genetic materials through introduction of immigrants. Conclusion: The strong inference that the Gohilwari breed of goat has not undergone bottleneck is also important for goat breeders and conservationists, as it suggests that any unique alleles present in this breed may not have been lost. Therefore, it can be recommended that within-breed diversity is actively maintained to enable these extensively unmanaged stocks to adapt to future demands and conditions and there is ample scope for further improvement in its productivity through appropriate breeding strategies. Though, microsatellites are neutral to selection with Ewens-Watterson test for neutrality some microsatellites were found not neutral or linked to some selective trait that must be further investigated for association to selective traits.


Abstract Monitoring the accuracy of meters by qualified workers and managers is a preventive measure of every organization. The paper focuses on monitoring the accuracy of measuring devices and proposes preventive and corrective actions. The discussed measurement device was tested for accuracy using accuracy indexes Cg and Cgk. The identified deviations in measurements showed that the meter was not fully efficient. Consequently, actions were taken to ensuring that the measurement device is accurate.


We use a time and motion study to understand how probation officers spend their time. What officers spend their time doing and whom they spend their time with demonstrates a deeper symbolic meaning of how the convicted should be treated, what is believed effective to change behavior, and informs the community about definitions of public safety. Explicitly studying officer time is a neglected area of research. We model a count variable of minutes per task as a function of offender, offense, and task characteristics using zero-truncated negative binomial regressions. Results show that officers spend significantly more time with higher-risk offenders, mixed results regarding domestic violence and sex offenders, and significantly less time with older and black probationers. Our intentions are to delve deeper into how officers spend their time to contribute to the development of an evidence-based model of corrections.


Background: Aim of present work is to prepare and optimized mouth dissolving tablets (MDTs) by using tasteless complex of levocetirizine. Materials and Methods: Formulation and optimization of tablets was done by using computer optimization technique. Formulated taste masked complex of drug was characterized by taste evaluation, percentage drug loading, thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction pattern. Optimization of MDTs was done by considering concentration of binder (polyvinylpyrrolidone [PVP] K30) and super-disintegrant (Kyron T-314) as independent variables whereas wetting time (WT), friability (Fr) and amount of drug release in 15 m (Q 15 ) as dependent variables. Response surface plots and contour plots were drawn, and optimum formulations were selected by feasibility and grid searches. Result and Discussion: By using 3 2 central composite design (CCD) optimized batch was obtained for which value of independent variable, PVP K30 (X1) and Kyron T-314 (X2) was 15 mg and 21 mg respectively and for dependent response, that is, Fr, WT and Q 15 to be 0.42%, 11.8 s. and 91.16% respectively. Validation of optimization study indicated very high degree of prognostic ability of response surface methodology (RSM). By analyzing the observed value to predicted value for Fr, WT and Q 15 the regression coefficient value was found to be 0.950, 0.961 and 0.957. Linearity of plot concluded that desired predicted response of all check-point batches were close to the predicted values and show the validity of data. Conclusion: Hence, optimized formulated batches were formulated by proper balancing of concentration of independent variables to attain desired dependent response using 3 2 CCD. Thus, 3 2 CCDs is an efficient tool in optimization experiments. High degree of outcome obtained using RSM concludes that 3 2 CCD is quite efficient in optimizing drug delivery systems that exhibit nonlinearity in response.


We offer a novel representation scheme for view-based motion analysis using just the change in the relational statistics among the detected image features, without the need for object models, perfect segmentation, or part-level tracking. We model the relational statistics using the probability that a random group of features in an image would exhibit a particular relation. To reduce the representational combinatorics of these relational distributions, we represent them in a Space of Probability Functions (SoPF), where the Euclidean distance is related to the Bhattacharya distance between probability functions. Different motion types sweep out different traces in this space. We demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of this representation in the context of recognizing persons from gait. In particular, on outdoor sequences: (1) we demonstrate the possibility of recognizing persons from not only walking gait, but running and jogging gaits as well; (2) we study recognition robustness with respect to view-point variation; and (3) we benchmark the recognition performance on a database of 71 subjects walking on soft grass surface, where we achieve around 90 percent recognition rates in the presence of viewpoint variation.


Abstract. In this paper, we present a database of the basic regimes of the carbon cycle
in the ocean, the "ocean carbon states", as obtained using a data
mining/pattern recognition technique in observation-based as well as model
data. The goal of this study is to establish a new data analysis methodology,
test it and assess its utility in providing more insights into the regional
and temporal variability of the marine carbon cycle. This is important as
advanced data mining techniques are becoming widely used in climate and Earth
sciences and in particular in studies of the global carbon cycle, where the
interaction of physical and biogeochemical drivers confounds our ability to
accurately describe, understand, and predict CO 2 concentrations and
their changes in the major planetary carbon reservoirs. In this
proof-of-concept study, we focus on using well-understood data that are based
on observations, as well as model results from the NASA Goddard Institute for
Space Studies (GISS) climate model. Our analysis shows that ocean carbon
states are associated with the subtropical–subpolar gyre during the colder
months of the year and the tropics during the warmer season in the North
Atlantic basin. Conversely, in the Southern Ocean, the ocean carbon states
can be associated with the subtropical and Antarctic convergence zones in the
warmer season and the coastal Antarctic divergence zone in the colder season.
With respect to model evaluation, we find that the GISS model reproduces the
cold and warm season regimes more skillfully in the North Atlantic than in
the Southern Ocean and matches the observed seasonality better than the
spatial distribution of the regimes. Finally, the ocean carbon states provide
useful information in the model error attribution. Model air–sea CO 2
flux biases in the North Atlantic stem from wind speed and salinity biases in
the subpolar region and nutrient and wind speed biases in the subtropics and
tropics. Nutrient biases are shown to be most important in the Southern Ocean
flux bias. All data and analysis scripts are available at
 https://data.giss.nasa.gov/oceans/carbonstates/ (DOI:
 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.996891 ).


CaVP (calcium vector protein) is a Ca(2+) sensor of the EF-hand protein family which is highly abundant in the muscle of Amphioxus. Its three-dimensional structure is not known, but according to the sequence analysis, the protein is composed of two domains, each containing a pair of EF-hand motifs. We determined recently the solution structure of the C-terminal domain (Trp81-Ser161) and characterized the large conformational and dynamic changes induced by Ca(2+) binding. In contrast, the N-terminal domain (Ala1-Asp86) has lost the capacity to bind the metal ion due to critical mutations and insertions in the two calcium loops. In this paper, we report the solution structure of the N-terminal domain and its backbone dynamics based on NMR spectroscopy, nuclear relaxation, and molecular modeling. The well-resolved three-dimensional structure is typical of a pair of EF-hand motifs, joined together by a short antiparallel beta-sheet. The tertiary arrangement of the two EF-hands results in a closed-type conformation, with near-antiparallel alpha-helices, similar to other EF-hand pairs in the absence of calcium ions. To characterize the internal dynamics of the protein, we measured the (15)N nuclear relaxation rates and the heteronuclear NOE effect in (15)N-labeled N-CaVP at a magnetic field of 11.74 T and 298 K. The domain is mainly monomeric in solution and undergoes an isotropic Brownian rotational diffusion with a correlation time of 7.1 ns, in good agreement with the fluorescence anisotropy decay measurements. Data analysis using a model-free procedure showed that the amide backbone groups in the alpha-helices and beta-strands undergo highly restricted movements on a picosecond to nanosecond time scale. The amide groups in Ca(2+) binding loops and in the linker fragment also display rapid fluctuations with slightly increased amplitudes.


Synthetic cannabinoids became popular since 2004 among mind-altering drugs, called as "legal highs", "designer drugs", or "herbal highs". They are sprayed on plants and used by smoking, vaporizing or inhalation. They act on the same receptors (CB1 and CB2) as Δ-9-THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and are much more potent on brain cells than THC. To overcome the legal obstacles new analogues of synthetic cannabinoids are produced continuously by changing their chemical formulas. Immunochemical methods for detecting cannabinoids are difficult to develop due to their substantial structural variety and cross-reactivity. Therefore, independent confirmation methods are usually required such as gas- or liquid-chromatography-mass spectrometry technics.
We developed a validated LC-MS/MS method for the analysis of 15 synthetic cannabinoids simultaneously in human urine and applied it to routine clinical and forensic toxicology cases. We studied the linearity, limit of detection and quantification, accuracy of repeatability and reproducibility, recovery and carry-over as validation parameters. We assessed all results in acceptable ranges. Bias and RSD values were less than ± 15% and below 15% respectively. Calibration curve was linear (r2=0.999) in the range of 1-20 ng/mL. LOD and LOQ were found between 0.7 - 1.07 and 2.19 – 3.56 ng/mL respectively.


At the core of Walmart's corporate purpose is the principle of "shared value." The company views its mission as increasing the value of its business by helping to address important social needs. And in this article, Walmart's Senior Director of ESG discusses how the company applies the lens of shared value to three of its most significant ESG priorities: (1) economic opportunity for Walmart associates; (2) the sustainability of its supply chains, with an emphasis on the safety and livelihoods of workers; and (3) climate change, including the reduction of plastic waste. What's more, the company sees itself playing a role in transforming society through its own business practices. In reflecting on her decades of work in sustainability, the author emphasizes the value of and potential for greater stakeholder engagement and alliances of corporations with NGOs (like the World Wildlife and Environmental Defense Funds) that aim to help both lower‐income people and the environment at the same time. But the author's vision is even more ambitious: "In upholding and seeking to maximize its principle of shared value, Walmart aims not only to run a highly efficient all‐channel retail business, but to help bring about large‐scale and lasting improvements to all the social ecosystems whose functioning is part of and critical to that business."


Not all learning takes place in an educational setting: more and more self-motivated learners are turning to on-line text to learn about new topics. Our goal is to provide such learners with the well-known benefits of testing by automatically generating quiz questions for online text. Prior work on question generation has focused on the grammaticality of generated questions and generating effective multiple-choice distractors for individual question targets, both key parts of this problem. Our work focuses on the complementary aspect of determining what part of a sentence we should be asking about in the first place; we call this "gap selection." We address this problem by asking human judges about the quality of questions generated from a Wikipedia-based corpus, and then training a model to effectively replicate these judgments. Our data shows that good gaps are of variable length and span all semantic roles, i.e., nouns as well as verbs, and that a majority of good questions do not focus on named entities. Our resulting system can generate fill-in-the-blank (cloze) questions from generic source materials.


On the FTU tokamak, the collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic was renewed for investigating the possible excitation of parametric decay instabilities (PDI) by electron cyclotron (EC) or CTS probe beams in presence of magnetic islands and measure their effects on the EC power absorption. The experiments were performed launching a gyroton probe beam (140 GHz, 400 kW) and observing the scattered radiation in symmetric and asymmetric directions (with respect to the equatorial plane) in different conditions of plasma density and magnetic field (with or without the EC resonance in the plasma), and with magnetic islands generated by Neon injection. The acquisition with a fast digitizer allowed observing spectral features with very high time and frequency resolution. Shots were performed at 7.2 T, with the fundamental EC resonance out of the plasma region, at 4.7 T, with the resonance on the high field side of the plasma column, and at 3.6 T, in this last case with the plasma between the first and the second EC harmonics both lying outside the plasma volume. Several types of spectral features characterized by their frequency and their fast time evolution were identified in the observed signal after a proper treatment. The paper reports the observations in the different experimental cases and the correlation of the features with the existence of MHD modes as witnessed by magnetic probes signals and with macroscopic plasma parameters.


Background/Aims—While the social significance of flatus derives mainly from its odour, previous studies have focused on the non-odoriferous components of rectal gas. The aims of the present study were to determine the role of sulphur-containing gases in flatus odour and test the efficacy of a device purported to reduce this odour. Methods—Flatus was quantitatively collected via rectal tube from 16 healthy subjects who ingested pinto beans and lactulose to enhance flatus output. The concentrations of sulphur-containing gases in each passage were correlated with odour intensity assessed by two judges. Odour intensity was also determined after treatment of flatus samples with zinc acetate, which binds sulphydryl compounds (hydrogen sulphide and methanethiol), or activated charcoal. Utilising gas-tight Mylar pantaloons, the ability of a charcoal lined cushion to adsorb sulphur-containing gases instilled at the anus of eight subjects was assessed. Results—The main sulphur-containing flatus component was hydrogen sulphide (1.06 (0.2) μmol/l), followed by methanethiol (0.21 (0.04) μmol/l) and dimethyl sulphide (0.08 (0.01) μmol/l) (means (SEM)). Malodour significantly correlated with hydrogen sulphide concentration (p⩽0.001). Zinc acetate reduced sulphur gas content but did not totally eliminate odour, while activated charcoal removed virtually all odour. The cushion adsorbed more than 90% of the sulphur gases. Conclusion—Sulphur-containing gases are the major, but not the only, malodorous components of human flatus. The charcoal lined cushion effectively limits the escape of these sulphur-containing gases into the environment.


Recent experiments have shown that it is possible to self-assemble very uniform polymeric microfibers and nanofibers by exploiting elasto-capillary thinning of macroscopic liquid bridges (Harfenist et al., Nano Lett., 4(10), 2004). We develop a model of this process that describes the simultaneous viscoelasto-capillary thinning and drying of polymeric liquid filaments. A one-dimensional formulation is developed using a slender body approximation to the inertialess equations of motion. The evolution in the kinematics, stress and composition of differential material elements are computed by numerical simulation on a fixed mesh using an explicit Eulerian scheme. The polymer rheology is described by a single-mode Giesekus model with an experimentally-determined concentration-dependent shift factor that accounts for compositional dependence of the zero shear rate viscosity and the relaxation time of the fluid. The numerical simulations are compared to capillary break-up extensional rheometer (CABER) experiments using high molecular weight poly(methyl methacrylate) solutions in chlorobenzene with a range of mass fractions in the concentrated regime. Very large reductions in the radius of the thinning thread - spanning two to three orders of magnitude - are attainable by careful control of the mass transfer rate, the molecular extensibility of the dissolved polymer and the dynamics of the elasto-capillary thinning process. Simulations show that the fiber formation process can be conveniently parameterized by two dimensionless parameters which compare, respectively, the rate of capillary thinning with the rate of elastic stress relaxation and with the rate of solvent evaporation.


Abstract Dyslipidaemia, in particular raised plasma concentrations of total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides as well as reduced plasma concentrations of high density lipoprotein (HDL-C) concentration is one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease. The clinical assessment of a patient with suspected dyslipidaemia should include a medical history, clinical examination and special investigations to determine the presence and cause of dyslipidaemia, and to perform a risk assessment for cardiovascular disease using specific guidelines. Based on the risk scoring and the plasma lipid concentrations, an individualised management plan can be established for each patient. The focus of this article is on the cornerstone of management of dyslipidaemia which is lifestyle intervention. Lifestyle intervention for dyslipidaemia includes dietary intervention, increased physical activity, stress management and smoking cessation.


It's puzzling that most projects fail to complete within the predetermined timeframe given that timing considerations rank among the major goals in project management. We argue that when managers can extract private benefits from working on a project, project delay becomes optimal. We introduce a continuous-time framework for project management activities that incorporates this feature. A manager's unobserved effort cumulatively increases the project's success probability, but decreases the expected duration of the project and with it the expected flow of on-the-job benefits. A strict deadline limits incentives for effort delay, but also decreases the probability that the project will be terminated in due time. In this trade-off, the optimal deadline balances the increase in expected project value against the expected increase in project duration and costs. Since the manager does not want to "kill the golden goose" prematurely, he always prefers a stricter deadline compared to the principal. As a result, project completion is threatened by both effort provision over time and contractual agreements on time.


Youth and young adults (YYA) who are LGBTQ are overrepresented in the population of youth experiencing homelessness. Youth homelessness service providers need to be able to identify and refer YYA who are LGBTQ to appropriate and competent supportive services that will address their unique needs, ensure that transgender and gender expansive YYA are referred to using accurate names and pronouns, and collect data that can provide a better understanding of the prevalence of homelessness among YYA who are LGBTQ. Enabling YYA to identify sexual orientation, gender identity, and pronouns when seeking homelessness services is one recommended practice for working with YYA who are LGBTQ. This study aimed to better understand the experience of being asked sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI) and pronoun questions when accessing YYA housing supports and services, and to center the voices of YYA who are LGBTQ in the conversation regarding SOGI and pronoun questions. While the vast majority of respondents supported asking YYA about their pronouns, they had mixed views about whether or not sexual orientation and gender identity should be asked when YYA access homelessness services. Jama Shelton Silberman School of Social Work Hunter College


The vast Texas borderland is a place divided, a land of legends and lies, sanctification and sinfulness, history and amnesia, haunted by the ghosts of the oppressed and the forgotten, who still stir beneath the parched fields and shimmering blacktops. It is a realm filled with scorpion eaters and mescal drinkers, cowboys and Indians, Anglos and Chicanos, spirit horses and beat-up pickups, brujos and putas, aching passion and seething rage, apparitions of the Virgin and bodies in the Rio Grande. In his first collection of short fiction, award-winning poet, editor, and anthologist Ray Gonzalez powerfully evokes both the mystery and the reality of the El Paso border country where he came to manhood. Here, in a riverbed filled with junked cars and old bones, a young boy is given a dark vision of a fiery future. Under the stones of the Alamo, amid the gift shops and tour buses, the wraiths of fallen soldiers cry out to be remembered. By an ancient burial site at the bottom of a hidden canyon, two lovers come face to face with their own dreams and fears. In these stories, Ray Gonzalez is a literary alchemist, blending contemporary culture with ancient tradition to give a new voice to the peoples of the border.


The poems have been rendered into vigorous contemporary English. A selection of Michelangelo's letters, many of the to important contemporaries such as Vasari and Duke Cosimo, is accompanied by the `Life' of the great artist written by his pupil Ascanio Condivi. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


A new 2-degrees of freedom compliant parallel micromanipulator (CPM) utilizing flexure joints is proposed for two-dimensional nanomanipulation in this paper. By a proper selection of actuators, flexure hinges, and materials, this system is constructed and analyzed by a pseudorigid-body model, architectural optimization, and finite-element analysis. Both the position and velocity kinematic modelings are established, and afterwards, statics analysis is performed. In view of the physical constraints imposed by pizeo-actuators and flexure hinges, the CPM's workspace area is determined. And in order to achieve a maximum workspace subjected to the given dexterity indices, kinematic optimization of the design parameters is carried out, which results in a manipulator satisfying the operational requirements. Furthermore, the finite-element analysis has been undertaken to validate the analytical modeling, and the influence of architectural parameters on CPM performance has been evaluated as well. Note to Practitioners-This paper is motivated by the problem of designing a nanomanipulator for two-dimensional (2-D) assembly of nanoscale objects via nanomanipulation. A novel planar parallel mechanism incorporating compliant mechanisms is designed for such a purpose. Since the application of the manipulator depends significantly on the kinematic mathematical models, the designed compliant parallel micromanipulator (CPM) is analyzed by the established pseudorigid-body (PRB) model. The architectural optimization leads to a CPM satisfying the workspace and resolution requirements of this work. Moreover, finite-element analysis is performed to verify the accuracy of the developed PRB model, and simulation results illustrate the efficiency of the PRB model in designing and analyzing the CPM. Since the designed CPM is composed solely of flexural elements which are known to be competent in high precise applications, it is reasonable to expect that the CPM could find its way into 2-D manipulation of nanoscale components.


The pathway for the degradation of glyphosate (N-phosphonomethylglycine) by Pseudomonas sp. PG2982 has been determined by using metabolic radiolabeling experiments. Radiorespirometry experiments utilizing [3-14C]glyphosate revealed that approximately 50 to 59% of the C-3 carbon was oxidized to CO2. Fractionation of stationary-phase cells labeled with [3-14C]glyphosate revealed that from 45 to 47% of the assimilated label is distributed to proteins and that the amino acids methionine and serine are highly labeled. Adenine and guanine received 90% of the C-3 label found in the nucleic acid fraction, and the only pyrimidine base labeled was thymine. These results indicated that C-3 of glyphosate was at some point metabolized to a C-1 compound whose ultimate fate could be both oxidation to CO2 and distribution to amino acids and nucleic acid bases that receive a C-1 group from the C-1-donating coenzyme tetrahydrofolate. Pulse-labeling of PG2982 cells with [3-14C]glyphosate resulted in the isolation of [3-14C]sarcosine as an intermediate in glyphosate degradation. Examination of crude extracts prepared from PG2982 cells revealed the presence of a sarcosine-oxidizing enzyme that oxidizes sarcosine to glycine and formaldehyde. These results indicate that the first step in glyphosate degradation by PG2982 is cleavage of the carbon-phosphorus bond, resulting in the release of sarcosine and a phosphate group. The phosphate group is utilized as a source of phosphorus, and the sarcosine is degraded to glycine and formaldehyde. This pathway is supported by the results of [1,2-14C]glyphosate metabolism studies, which show that radioactivity in the proteins of labeled cells is found only in the glycine and serine residues.


Although the DSM-5 and the ICSD-3 do not discriminate among insomnia types or subtypes anymore, it appears that some specific insomnia phenotypes remain important to study. One of them is the object of the present paper: insomnia with short sleep duration. Since Vgontzas and colleagues (1) put forward a heuristic model of two insomnia phenotypes based on objective sleep duration, they have suggested that insomnia with short sleep duration is the most severe biological phenotype of insomnia, and research in this area has been blooming. The Penn State group has studied the impact of this phenotype on adolescents and its association with depression risks and inflammation (2-4). A recent review by Fernandez-Mandoza (5) also suggested that besides increased physiological hyperarousal and cardiometabolic and neuropsychiatric risks, insomnia with short sleep duration may even respond differently to treatment compared to other insomnia phenotypes.


Road transport is most commonly used out of other modes in terms of freight and passenger transportation on local and regional levels. For European citizens it is a primary mean of their access to services, social activities and employment. The scope of road infrastructure differs in some regions. The major disparity appears when the East of Europe is compared with the West. Actions to link periphery with the core of Europe are being continuously performed, what in this case represents itself in constructing Pan-European Transport Corridors, which will contribute to the connection of the whole territory of Europe. The Via Baltica, chosen as a case for this thesis, is a route to connect Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Budzisko and Warsaw. It is the common initiative of Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. In addition, it is to be an express road and part of the I Pan-European Transport Corridor, which is going to connect Baltic countries with the West and South part of Europe. We focus on presenting how the Via Baltica is introduced in official documents and compare it with the process in practice. Our final goal is to assess the planning process of the Via Baltica route in Poland according to top down planning approaches and sustainability criteria. We are trying to find out what are the advantages and disadvantages of the ongoing process. After introducing results of the analysis made for the Via Baltica by Polish experts, we present how stakeholders and local authorities try to reinforce the process, regardless of environmental issues, to achieve economic and social profits. As the result we try find out how are the dimensions of sustainable development handled in the Via Baltica case in Poland. The conclusions are based on our findings concerning several conflicts which appeared during the planning process. They are also based on one-dimension as well as multi-criteria analyses.


Philosophers have largely ignored sleep, treating it as a useless negativity, mere repose for the body or at best a source for the production of unconscious signs out of the night of the soul.In an extraordinary theoretical investigation written with lyric intensity, The Fall of Sleep puts an end to this neglect by providing a deft yet rigorous philosophy of sleep. What does it mean to fallasleep? Might there exist something like a reasonof sleep, a reason at work in its own form or modality, a modality of being in oneself, of return to oneself, without the waking selfthat distinguishes Ifrom youand from the world? What reason might exist in that absence of ego, appearance, and intention, in an abandon thanks to which one is emptied out into a non-place shared by everyone?Sleep attests to something like an equality of all that exists in the rhythm of the world. With sleep, victory is constantly renewed over the fear of night, an a confidence that we will wake with the return of day, in a return to self, to us--though to a self, an us, that is each day different, unforeseen, without any warning given in advance.To seek anew the meaning stirring in the supposed loss of meaning, of consciousness, and of control that occurs in sleep is not to reclaim some meaning already familiar in philosophy, religion, progressivism, or any other -ism. It is instead to open anew a source that is not the source of a meaning but that makes up the nature proper to meaning, its truth: opening, gushing forth, infinity.This beautiful, profound meditation on sleep is a unique work in the history of phenomenology--a lyrical phenomenology of what can have no phenomenology, since sleep shows itself to the waking observer, the subject of phenomenology, only as disappearance and concealment.


: Purpose: The aim of this article is to present the impact of Economy 4.0 on the development of Teal organizations. It has been assumed here that every organization must adapt to change by applying soft management factors (trust, knowledge, agility) in a changing reality. Methodology: During the research, the following work was carried out: desk research, individual in-depth interview, and a questionnaire. The study covered 300 respondents from various micro and small enterprises. The article is based on the first stage of empirical research conducted in 2020. Findings: The research results show that organizations must adapt to changes resulting from the evolution of organizations in Economy 4.0. Flexibility in adapting to change, agility and the willingness of employees to gain new work experience will be particularly demanded by Economy 4.0. Practical Implications: Given the rapid pace of social and economic change, it seems advisable to monitor the functioning of organizations, including business organizations, continuously and systematically in the face of Economy 4.0. Originality/Value: The presented results of the pilot studies show which soft skills will influence the development of organization, especially Teal. The way the organization develops and the direction it takes is the primary responsibility of its leaders.


The focus of comparative corporate governance scholarship is shifting from takeovers to controlling shareholders in recognition of the fact that public corporations everywhere but in the U.S. and U.K. are characterized by a shareholder with effective voting control. Debate is now turning to the merits of controlling shareholder systems, both on their own terms and in comparison to the U.S. and U.K. widely held shareholding pattern. To date, the debate has treated the controlling versus widely held distinction as central, disagreeing over whether a particular country owed its characteristic shareholder distribution to the quality of minority shareholder legal protection or to politics. This simple dichotomy is far too coarse to provide an understanding of the diversity of ownership structures and their policy implications. This article complicates the analysis of controlling shareholders and corporate governance by providing a more nuanced taxonomy of controlling shareholder systems. In particular, it distinguishes between efficient and inefficient controlling shareholders, and between pecuniary and non-pecuniary private benefits of control. The analysis establishes that the appropriate dichotomy is between countries with functionally good law, which support companies with both widely held and controlling shareholder distributions, and countries with functionally bad law, which support only controlling shareholder distributions. In this account, the United States and Sweden are the same side, rather than on opposite sides of the dividing line. The articles examines the different understanding of the role of controlling shareholders in corporate governance and the policy implications that flow from a taxonomy that focuses on support of diverse shareholder distributions.


A study of the evolution of settlement patterns in the Vera Basin and Almanzora river valley in Almeria, south-east Spain. The surveys carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s provided the material on which this study is based and helps to reconstruct the development of settlement from the early Phoenician colonisation of the area in the 8th century BC to Late Antiquity and the early 8th century AD. Appendices contain the archaeological data. Spanish text; summaries in English and French.


Isotope shift measurements are reported for more than 300 zirconium lines in the spectral range 14 160–18 660 cm−1. Most of these lines are predicted transitions between known energy levels, although several of them have not yet been reported. The zirconium vapor is produced in a homemade hollow-cathode lamp, and the atomic transitions are excited by a ring dye laser (dyes used: DCM, Rhodamine 6G, and Rhodamine 110). Light absorption in the vapor is detected by using the optogalvanic effect when either one or the other of two sub-Doppler techniques (intermodulation or saturation) is used, depending on the intensity of the line under study. Numerical values aside, our results also show that the optogalvanic effect is a useful tool for systematic high-resolution spectroscopic investigations.


A simplified Stokes-Mueller theory of the dominant artifacts encountered in the measurement of incident (ICP), scattered (SCP), and dual (DCP) circular polarization (CP) Raman optical activity (ROA) is presented for forward, right-angle and backward-scattering geometries. Sources of common artifacts in CP ROA measurements are identified, and examples of artifacts in spectra are presented. Procedures are given for the elimination or significant reduction of ROA artifacts.


Schelling (1995) stressed the importance of correctly disaggregating the impacts of climate change to understand how individual interests differ across space and time. This paper considers equity implications at a level of disaggregation which we consider insightful, but which is non-standard in the literature. We consider a "three-agent" model, comprising the G20 North, the G20 emerging markets (the GEMs), and the rest of the world (ROW), and consider their impact on emissions and temperature increases to 2100. Using the MAGICC and RICE models, we calculate that simply stabilising emissions in GEMs would avoid about twice as much warming as an 80% emissions reduction in the North. We further show that decisions regarding the carbon intensity of economic development in the developing world are first order determinants of the likelihood of dangerous climate change in the coming century, and that early GEM participation in mitigation initiatives is essential if we are to safeguard the interests of the world's most vulnerable. Finally we argue that though this three-handed strategic structure may lead to impasse, it may also stimulate a low-carbon race between nations.


In 2007, a cholera epidemic occurred on two of the three islands of the Comoros archipelago: Grande Comore and Moheli. This study is based on data from the files of the 1571 patients admitted to five cholera treatment centers (CTC). The outbreak lasted for ten months. A dramatic peak was observed in July and August corresponding to the traditional wedding season during which hundreds of guests including returning diaspora gather to celebrate "Grand Marriages". Initial stool cultures identified Vibrio cholerae O1, Ogawa serotype. The in-center fatality rate was 1.85%. Poor socio-economical conditions combined with a rapid turnover of health personnel and delayed response of the health authorities could lead to endemisation.


Nociceptin or orphanin FQ is a novel neuropeptide that activates an opioid-like G protein-coupled receptor ORL1. This heptadecapeptide FGGFTGARKSARKLANQ resembles κ-opioid peptide dynorphin A but exhibits an opposite effect to make animals hyperreactive to nociceptive stimulations (Meunier, J.-C., Mollereau, C., Toll, L., Suaudeau, C., Moisand, C., Alvinerie, P., Butour, J.-L., Guillemot, J.-C., Ferrara, P., Monsarrat, B., Mazarguil, H., Vassart, G., Parmentier, M., and Costentin, J. (1995) Nature 377, 532-535; Reinscheid, R. K., Nothacker, H.-P., Bourson, A., Ardati, A., Henningsen, R. A., Bunzow, J. R., Grandy, D. K., Langen, H., Monsma, F. J., Jr., and Civelli, O. (1995) Science 270, 792-794). In the present study, it was found that guinea pig brain contains receptors to which nociceptin binds much more strongly than to ORL1 receptors expressed in human 293 cells. Although the Tyr1 → Phe substitution for dynorphin A eliminates almost completely an ability to bind to opioid receptors, the Phe1 → Tyr substitution in nociceptin was found to retain almost fully both receptor binding affinity and in vivo hyperalgesic activity in tail-flick assay. Nociceptin was extremely weak to bind to opioid receptors, while Tyr1-nociceptin exhibited 10-40 times increased affinity, especially for μ receptors, due to its N-terminal sequential identity to opioid peptides. Shortened analogs of dynorphin A are known to retain receptor binding ability and analgesic activity, whereas the removal of C-terminal hexa- or decapeptide from nociceptin totally abolished the affinity for the ORL1 receptor. These results indicated that the mode of interaction between nociceptin and ORL1 receptor is quite different from that between dynorphin and opioid receptor and that the C-terminal portion of nociceptin is crucial for receptor recognition.


Objective: To review the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on bone density and fractures in postmenopausal women. Data Source: We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE from 1966 to 1999, the Cochrane Controlled Register, citations of relevant articles, and proceedings of international meetings for eligible randomized controlled trials. We contacted osteoporosis investigators to identify additional studies, and primary authors for unpublished data. Study Selection: We included 57 studies that randomized postmenopausal women to HRT or a control (placebo or calcium/vitamin D) and were of at least 1 yr in duration. Seven of these studies reported fractures. Data Abstraction: For each study, three independent reviewers assessed the methodological quality and abstracted the data. Data Synthesis: HRT showed a trend toward reduced incidence of vertebral fractures [relative risk (RR) 0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.41-1.07; 5 trials] and nonvertebral fractures (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.71-1.08; 6 trials). HRT had a consistent effect on bone mineral density (BMD) at all sites. The difference between HRT and control in the percent change in bone density at 2 yr was 6.76 (5.83, 7.89; 21 trials) at the lumbar spine and 4.53 (3.68, 5.36; 14 trials) and 4.12 (3.45, 4.80; 9 trials) at the forearm and femoral neck, respectively. Conclusions: HRT has a consistent, favorable and large effect on bone density at all sites. The data show a nonsignificant trend toward a reduced incidence in vertebral and nonvertebral fractures.


The function of a newly sequenced gene can be discovered by determining its sequence homology with known proteins. BLAST is the most extensively used sequence analysis program for sequence similarity search in large databases of sequences. With the advent of next generation sequencing technologies it has now become possible to study genes and their expression at a genome-wide scale through RNA-seq and metagenome sequencing experiments. Functional annotation of all the genes is done by sequence similarity search against multiple protein databases. This annotation task is computationally very intensive and can take days to obtain complete results. The program mpiBLAST, an open-source parallelization of BLAST that achieves superlinear speedup, can be used to accelerate large-scale annotation by using supercomputers and high performance computing (HPC) clusters. Although many parallel bioinformatics applications using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) are available in the public domain, researchers are reluctant to use them due to lack of expertise in the Linux command line and relevant programming experience. With these limitations, it becomes difficult for biologists to use mpiBLAST for accelerating annotation. No web interface is available in the open-source domain for mpiBLAST. We have developed WImpiBLAST, a user-friendly open-source web interface for parallel BLAST searches. It is implemented in Struts 1.3 using a Java backbone and runs atop the open-source Apache Tomcat Server. WImpiBLAST supports script creation and job submission features and also provides a robust job management interface for system administrators. It combines script creation and modification features with job monitoring and management through the Torque resource manager on a Linux-based HPC cluster. Use case information highlights the acceleration of annotation analysis achieved by using WImpiBLAST. Here, we describe the WImpiBLAST web interface features and architecture, explain design decisions, describe workflows and provide a detailed analysis.


Gender perspective in traditional occupation among hill Dalit of Kaski is a study based upon a survey to explore the status of men and women and their perspectives in relation to the traditional occupation among Dalit of Kaski district. This study tries to analyse the changes observed in traditional skills of hill Dalits. Traditionally hill Dalit works as artisan, mason, carpenter, painter, builder, labour, tailor, tiller, musicians, ironworkers and shoe makers. The study describes the gender perspective in traditional occupation among hill Dalit of Kaski and presents some of the empirical evidences. The ield research has been conducted amonh 570 male and female respondents. Attempts are made to discuss on educational, occupational and economic status of men and women, occupational knowledge on traditional skill technology (TST), caste speciic occupation, TST and perception towards work of men and women, gender based difference on wage, necessity and type of training and education to the Dalit women. The inding of the study reveals that Nepali Dalit women are in dual oppression in terms of caste and in terms of gender. The study identiies that the hill Dalits are gradually shifting from their traditional occupations. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hjsa.v4i0.4665 Himalayan Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.IV (2010) 28-48


Background and Aim: The basic role of nurses is the restoration of health through caregiving activities. The nurses can do all of their responsibilities if they are informed of duty description. One of the most important duties of nursing service head is to prepare staff nurses and to ensure their performance to achieve assigned activities. The aim of this study was to determine obstacles to implementation of professional pediatric nursing job description in the pediatric hospitals located in Tehran, Iran. Materials and method: This research was a descriptive study in which 63 staff nurse and nurse manager, working in pediatric hospitals, were recruited by proportional stratified random sampling. The research instruments were a demographic data sheet and self-report questionnaire about obstacles to implementation of professional duties. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 33.92±8.92 years, the mean years of experience was 9.19±8.46, and the mean years of work experience in pediatric unit was 7.97± 7.42. All the subjects were female, out of which 74.6% were staff nurses and the remaining were nursing managers. The results showed that the most important obstacles were, "the improper ratio of nurses to patients" (management dimension), "shortage of continuing and in-service education courses" (educational dimension), "the lack of space for doing professional duties" (environmental dimension), and finally, "inadequate recreational facilities for nursing personnel" (motivational dimension). Conclusion: For overcoming the abovementioned obstacles, some strategies were developed and scored and finally, the most salient strategy, "establishing a national committee for review, reassessment and implementation of professional pediatric nursing job description" was considered to be executed.


This paper frames the problem of implementing 'the polluter pays' in the European Union as a social–political process in which conflicts emerge and must be resolved between competing interests, between people holding different value systems and different principles of judgement, and also between different representations of future states and different visions of the world. 'The polluter pays' is a principle for internalising external costs and assigning liability. Its application may seem to entail a need for monetary valuation of damages. This allows environmental impacts and protection questions to be formulated as optimal resource use problems through the extension of traditional cost–benefit analysis techniques. However, reasons such as uncertainty, distributional concerns, and diversity of ethical positions make monetary valuation difficult or inappropriate. Decision support techniques are then sought that do not depend exclusively on monetisation, such as multicriteria and deliberative methods. The process of 'internalisation' of environmental damages is thus expressed through broad societal adjustments. Procedures need to be found that are socially legitimate and effective in the sense that the stakeholders can accept it as dealing adequately with their concerns. This is a collective 'internalisation': we are all polluters; we all pay – shouldering the clean up burdens, the institutional adjustments, the worries and the risks – in more or less unequal shares. The burden distribution will inevitably be a matter of controversy.


We provide mass-loss rate predictions for O stars from Large
and Small Magellanic Clouds. We calculate global (unified,
hydrodynamic) model atmospheres of main sequence, giant, and
supergiant stars for chemical composition corresponding to
Magellanic Clouds. The models solve radiative transfer equation
in comoving frame, kinetic equilibrium equations (also known as
NLTE equations), and hydrodynamical equations from
(quasi-)hydrostatic atmosphere to expanding stellar wind. The
models allow us to predict wind density, velocity, and
temperature (consequently also the terminal wind velocity and
the mass-loss rate) just from basic global stellar parameters.
As a result of their lower metallicity, the line radiative
driving is weaker leading to lower wind mass-loss rates with
respect to the Galactic stars. We provide a formula that fits
the mass-loss rate predicted by our models as a function of
stellar luminosity and metallicity. On average, the mass-loss
rate scales with metallicity as dMdt sim Z^0.59. The predicted
mass-loss rates are lower than mass-loss rates derived from
Halpha diagnostics and can be reconciled with observational
results assuming clumping factor Cc = 9. On the other hand, the
predicted mass-loss rates either agree or are slightly higher
than the mass-loss rates derived from ultraviolet wind line
profiles. The calculated P v ionization fractions also agree
with values derived from observations for LMC stars with Teff <
40 000 K. Taken together, our theoretical predictions provide
reasonable models with consistent mass-loss rate determination,
which can be used for quantitative study of stars from
Magellanic Clouds.


Food proteins such as milk and soy are a rich source of bioactive peptides. In the last decade, research into this area has intensified and new bioactive peptide sequences have been discovered with a range of apparent biological functions; for example, antihypertensive, antioxidant, and antimicrobial effects and opiate-like qualities have been reported. These peptides could therefore lead to the development of important functional food products and ingredients for the prevention and even treatment of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Peptides can be produced by fermentation with dairy starters for instance, and by enzymatic hydrolysis with pancreatic and microbial enzymes. Further purification is typically carried out by membrane filtration and/or chromatographic methods. The production of novel bioactive peptides and their incorporation into functional food products poses several technological challenges as well as regulatory and marketing issues. Proof of efficacy is of paramount importance; this should be verified by conducting appropriate tests in vivo in animals and in humans. In addition, tests for cytotoxicity and allergenicity must be conducted. Despite all of these hurdles, scientific evidence is increasingly demonstrating the health benefits of diet-based disease prevention, and therefore new developments in this area are likely to continue both at the research and the commercialisation level.


In this study, the recently developed method, Tug of War Optimization (TWO), is employed for simultaneous analysis, design and optimization of Water Distribution Systems (WDSs). In this method, analysis procedure is carried out using Tug of War Optimization algorithm. Design and cost optimization of WDSs are performed simultaneous with analysis process using an objective function in order to satisfying the analysis criteria, design constraints and cost optimization. A number of practical examples of WDSs are selected to demonstrate the efficiency of the presented algorithm. The findings of this study clearly signify the efficiency of the TWO algorithm in reducing the water distribution networks construction cost.


Energetic particle precipitation with (>keV) energetic electrons from closed field lines and (>MeV) protons from the solar wind are responsible for enhanced high frequency radiowave absorption in the high latitude ionosphere. Measuring the propagation of radio waves through the ionosphere has been utilised for investigating particle precipitation into the upper atmosphere. Although various methods and models previously proposed for auroral and polar cap absorptions have significantly contributed to our knowledge, there are progressive efforts to improve these models as a result of improved understanding of already made assumptions, development of more efficient equipment and availability of real-time data. This study seeks to contribute to this field. The method utilised combines data from ground-based imaging riometer during solar cycle 23 (1996-2009) and solar wind parameters measured at the L1 point between the Earth and Sun to provide empirical relationship as the basis for a statistical model of auroral absorption. The variation of cosmic noise absorption (CNA) has been modelled using the Akasofu epsilon parameter which characterises the energy transfer between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. The result shows that the absorption model based on the epsilon parameter is reliable for periods with low to moderate solar activity but breaks down during periods of high solar activity such as solar flare and interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Hence, separate models for ICME and flare induced absorptions are produced. The modelled results have been compared with IRIS data. On ICME absorption, key observation shows that absorption associated with ICMEs exhibits different character depending on ICME start times. ICMEs were categorised into day time events (solar zenith of riometer station _ _ 80_) and as night time events (_ _ 100_). Differing absorption signatures were observed for day and night ICME events. This work ranked various solar wind parameters to obtain the best coupling parameter for day and night time absorption. For example, day time ICME model is based on solar wind dynamic pressure and V Bz, while night time ICME model is based on Bz and nV 3. In the case of modelling of solar flare induced absorption, the magnitude and duration of absorption is seen to be dependent on different classes of solar flares. Properties of solar flare such as the rise time, the maximum intensity and decay time were used as the building block of the flare model. Comparing ICME induced absorption with absorption induced by solar flares, it was observed that ICME induced absorption is seen to have longer duration (_ of hours) and stronger magnitude than those associated with solar flares (_ of minutes).


Obesity, defined as a body mass index >30 kg/m2, is a growing worldwide epidemic currently effecting 1 in 10 adults, with rates as high as 40% in the United States. The only proven long-term treatment of severe obesity on a population level is surgical modification of the gastrointestinal anatomy to induce weight loss, termed bariatric surgery. With adequate physician guidance and appropriate candidate criteria, bariatric surgery is an option for effective long-term treatment of obesity and its related comorbidities. Complications of bariatric surgery can be seen in patients who are not compliant to the recommended lifestyle and dietary changes required following bariatric surgery, including nausea, vomiting, dumping syndrome, acid reflux, and nutrition deficiencies. Despite caloric density, the diet of patients prior to bariatric surgery is often of poor nutrition quality and does not meet recommended dietary guidelines for micronutrient intake, making this an at-risk population for micronutrient malnutrition. Currently, improvements are needed in standardization of nutrition assessment as well as micronutrient cutoffs for deficiency and insufficiency. In the meantime, utilizing our current tools to conduct nutrition assessment at baseline and implement supplementation where necessary may improve the nutrition status of patients undergoing bariatric surgery, both before and after surgery, which may improve their surgical outcomes.


Writing centers provide invaluable writing assistance to students, and students who have used writing centers typically come to this conclusion themselves. Despite these positive responses to writing center tutorials, motivating first-time users to go to the writing center can be challenging. Because students turn to the Internet with many of their questions in life, it is likely that a writing center website is the first image of a writing center that many students encounter. Because of this, a writing center's website can be an important persuasive tool in helping students become excited about visiting the center and using its services. More importantly, it is the first step in a user's experience with a writing center.


This dissertation covers two topics of interest for network applications: lookup protocols, a basic building block for distributed systems, and ring signatures, a powerful primitive for anonymous communication. In the first part of this work, we review lookup protocols, distributed algorithms that allow users to publish a document as well as to look up a published document that matches a given name. Our first major contribution is to design Local Minima Search (LMS), a new efficient lookup protocol for a model in which a node is physically connected to a few other nodes and may only communicate directly with them. Our second major contribution is the formulation of a new model in which we allow an arbitrary number of misbehaving nodes, but we assume a restriction on their network addresses. We then design a new lookup protocol for this setting.
In the second part of this dissertation, we present our work on ring signatures, a variant of digital signatures, which enables a user to sign a message so that a set of possible signers is identified, without revealing which member of that set actually generated the signature. Our first contribution on this topic is new definitions of security which address attacks not taken into account by previous work. As our second contribution, we design the first provably secure ring signature schemes in the standard model.


The oligotrophic regions of the subtropical gyres cover a significant portion of the global ocean, and exhibit considerable but poorly understood intraseasonal, interannual, and longer-term variations in spatial extent. Here using historical observations of surface ocean nitrate, wind, and currents, we have investigated how horizontal and vertical supplies of nitrate control seasonal changes in the size and shape of oligotrophic regions of the subtropical North Atlantic. In general, the oligotrophic region of the subtropical North Atlantic is associated with the region of weak vertical supply of nitrate. Though the total vertical supply of nitrate here is generally greater than the total horizontal supply, we find that seasonal expansion and contraction of the oligotrophic region is consistent with changes in horizontal supply of nitrate. In this dynamic periphery of the subtropical gyre, the seasonal variations in chlorophyll are linked to variations in horizontal nitrate supply that facilitate changes in intracellular pigment concentrations, and to a lesser extent, phytoplankton biomass. Our results suggest that horizontal transports of nutrient are crucial in setting seasonal cycles of chlorophyll in large expanses of the subtropical North Atlantic, and may play a key and underappreciated role in regulating interannual variations in these globally important marine ecosystems.


This paper is about legislation and the forest sector in Russia. The author examines several fields of law identifying what are the most serious shortcomings in legislation hindering a sustainable recovery of the Russian forest sector. The study begins by discussing problems of legislative power and federalism. The division of power in Russia is unclear in many respects and federalism is still looking for its most suitable form. These uncertainties affect the use of law in every sector of the society. Ownership of forest land, on the other hand, appears to be more settled for the time being. The federal state owns all the forests. There are, however, still some obscurities concerning property rights, especially in the regulation of leasing forestland. Business transactions in Russian forest enterprises are a combination of old and new, mainly old, but there is a possibility that the trend will slowly turn towards a modern way of doing business and settling disputes between enterprises. The use of Arbitration Courts, for example, is increasing. When it comes to forest and nature protection legislation, there are, as well as in other legislations, inconsistencies that might be an obstacle for nature protection and sustainable forestry in Russia. Generally speaking, the poor level of implementing laws, the enforcement of court decisions, and the lack of trust in official institutions, are the biggest hurdles on the way towards positive changes in the Russian forest sector.


Quickly identifying and fixing code changes that introduce regressions is critical to keep the momentum on software development, especially in very large scale software repositories with rapid development cycles, such as at Google. Identifying and fixing such regressions is one of the most expensive, tedious, and time consuming tasks in the software development life-cycle. Therefore, there is a high demand for automated techniques that can help developers identify such changes while minimizing manual human intervention. Various techniques have recently been proposed to identify such code changes. However, these techniques have shortcomings that make them unsuitable for rapid development cycles as at Google. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm to identify code changes that introduce regressions, and discuss case studies performed at Google on 140 projects. Based on our case studies, our algorithm automatically identifies the change that introduced the regression in the top-5 among thousands of candidates 82% of the time, and provides considerable savings on manual work developers need to perform.


Interactive Storytelling is establishing itself as a major application of virtual embodied characters. To achieve further progress in the field, some authors have suggested that it was necessary to break the 10-minute barrier for story duration, while preserving story pace. In this context, understanding scalability issues is an essential aspect of the development of future Interactive Storytelling technologies. Scalability can be defined as the production of a richer narrative which follows the scaling-up of the Artificial Intelligence representations for plot structure or charactersý roles. We have formalised narrative events in terms of "film idioms" which are dynamically recognised as the story is generated. This enabled us to stage a number of experiments in which we modified several determinants of scalability, such as the number of feature characters or the complexity of their roles and recorded subsequent narrative extension, through the number of film idioms generated.


Recently, affinity magnetic beads have been widely used in immunomagnetic cell sorting (IMCS) technology. Today, we can easily sort and analyze DNA and antibodies (immunoglobulin) using various types of affinity magnetic beads available in the market. The diameters of these affinity magnetic beads used in immunomagnetic cell sorting are limited to above approximately 1 mum because of the low magnetic fields induced by permanent magnets. Now, nano-sized affinity magnetic beads are strongly desired to achieve high resolutions. We have been studying and attempting to develop a high-gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) system that employs a superconducting magnet to induce a considerably higher magnetic field than that induced by a permanent magnet in order to trap smaller nano-sized affinity magnetic beads by a filter made of fine stainless steel wool. In this study, we constructed a prototype of a desktop-type HGMS system using a cryocooler-cooled LTS magnet and conducted preliminary experiments on trapping the nano-sized magnetic particles. Furthermore, we investigated the magnetic field distribution and magnetic force around a magnetic wire in the filter by means of a numerical simulation.


In some markets, such as the market for drugs or for financial services, sellers have better information than buyers regarding the matching between the buyer's needs and the good's actual characteristics. Depending on the market structure, this may lead to conflicts of interest and/or the under-provision of information by the seller. This paper studies this issue in the market for financial services. The analysis presents a new model of competition between banks, as banks' price competition influences the ensuing incentives for truthful information revelation. We compare two different firm structures, specialized banking, where financial institutions provide a unique financial product, and one-stop banking, where a financial institution is able to provide several financial products which are horizontally differentiated. We show first that, although conflicts of interest may prevent information disclosure under monopoly, competition forces full information provision for sufficiently high reputation costs. Second, in the presence of market power, one-stop banks will use information strategically to increase product differentiation and therefore will always provide reliable information and charge higher prices than specialized banks, thus providing a new reason for the creation of one-stop banks. Finally, we show that, if independent financial advisers are able to provide reliable information, this increases product differentiation and therefore market power, so that it is in the interest of financial intermediaries to promote external independent financial advice.


Sexuality and Subordination uses the insights of a range of disciplines to examine the construction of gender in nineteenth-century Britain and France. With contributions from history, literature, sociology and philosophy, its interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the extent to which a common focus can illuminate problems inaccessible to any single discipline. 'Victorianism' is generally understood to mean sexual double standards, hypocrisy and prudery among the middle classes. But, as this collection shows, the representation of sexuality in the nineteenth century was more diverse and complex than is sometimes realized. Both art and literature point to the deployment of sexual metaphors and imagery, and the language of educated public opinion was shaped by the dichotomy between mind and matter, between rationality and sexuality. The contributors to this volume explore how women, in questioning their subordination, had to challenge a construction of femininity which imposed sexual ignorance.


Background and objectives

Breast cancer patients are vulnerable to depression with prevalence varying between 11 and 86% in literature with direct and indirect impact on compliance to treatment, quality of life and response to therapeutic course. Our study aims to identifying the profile of patients with cancer breast whom symptoms exceed normal reactive sadness to depressive manifestation necessitating psychiatric and psychological intervention.

Methods

100 female patients with breast cancer diagnosis were recruited from Alexandria Police Hospital after consenting they were subject to mammogram, laboratory investigations for calcium, alkaline phosphatase, renal, hepatic functions and complete blood picture and thyroid profile. Hamilton Rating Scale and structured demographic data questionnaire was to collect relevant data.

Results

The prevalence of moderate to severe depressive symptoms on HAM-D was 52%, Significant statistical association was found between patients with depressive manifestations and postmenopusal state (p<0.001), with widowed and divorced (p<0.001), family history of brease cancer (p<0.001), advanced cancer staging (p<0.001), presence of Infiltrative ductal carcinoma (p<0.001) and type of surgery whether lumbectomy or modifies radical mastectomy (p<0.05). However the presence of brain metastasis, adjuvant chemotherapy or presence of family history of psychiatric illness didn't show statistical difference.

Conclusion

Depression is a common illness among breast cancer patients with particular vulnerable group among those postmenopausal widowed and divorced with advanced stage having rather infiltrative ductal carcinoma.


In 2009, the Ford Motor Company was the only one of the Big Three automakers not to take the federal bailout package. How did Ford remain standing when its competitors were brought to their knees? It was a gutsy decision, but it didn't happen in isolation. The United Auto Workers joined with Ford to make this possible—not only in 2009, but in a series of more than fifty pivotal events during three decades that add up to a transformation that simultaneously values work and delivers results. The pivotal events—some planned and some unplanned; some at the facility level and some at the enterprise level –were not all successful. All had the potential, however, to further the transformation, and all provide insight into how large-scale system change really happens. The authors— each with years of experience with Ford, the UAW, and the industry—provide an unprecedented inside look at how core operating assumptions are shifted and at the emergence of integrated operating systems for quality, safety, and other aspects of the enterprise. It is a transformation built on a foundation of dignity and mutual respect, guided by a vision of combining good jobs with high performance.


Child friendly justice and access to justice for children are explicit concerns for the European Union, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Council of Europe and the Child Rights International Network. This study examines court systems as child-responsive by eliciting the views of judicial decision makers on child protection cases (n = 1,479) in four legal systems (England, Finland, Norway and the USA (represented by California)), based on an online survey. In this paper, we asked judicial officials who have the authority to make care order decisions how they view the child-friendliness of the courts. We presented them with six statements representing standard features of child responsive courts. Findings show that there is considerable room for improving both structure and practice of the court proceedings, for example the use of child friendly language and child-sensitive time frames. There were variations across states, and some variation across type of decision maker. Implications for the development of education and training about the opportunities for children's engagement are considered.


In this essay, I examine the extent to which mathematics education and education for quantitative literacy support students' present and future flourishing, a concept that entails realizing objective goods in a life lived from the inside. This perspective requires disentangling philosophical assumptions about the aims of mathematics education, which—in the context of flourishing—I take to be a hybrid of those that have informed curricular discussions over the past two centuries. In the process, I problematize ("make strange") many of the common reasons given for students learning mathematics, including: learning it for one's career, for one's logical reasoning skills, or for its own sake. My conclusion is that, through the end of compulsory schooling, all students should take coursework that fosters quantitative literacy, or the ability and disposition to use, interpret, and criticize numbers as they manifest in daily life. In addition, in the same environment, traditional mathematics should be included and compulsory up to grade eight, but afterward required only insofar as it is necessary for fulfilling one's goals. I pursue this line of argument with full cognizance of sociopolitical elements of mathematics education and other challenges in implementation, noting that appealing to consequences—while fine as a justification for avoiding change in the short-term—is not a tenable justification for doing so in the long-term. I challenge readers to reflect on our ability to empower students for future flourishing, and to consider the role that mathematics has in


In this book, Gil H. Renberg analyzes in detail the vast range of sources for "incubation," dream-divination at a divinity's sanctuary or shrine, beginning in Sumerian times but primarily focussing on the Greeks and Greco-Roman Egypt.


The paper focuses on Uriah Kriegel's non-relational account of representation, based on the rejection of the widely shared assumption that "representing something involves (constitutively) bearing a relation to it". Kriegel's approach is briefly compared with another version of non-relational theory presented by Mark Sainsbury. The author discusses several reasons why the relational aspect of representation should stand in the center of our theoretical interest, despite the arguments of non-relationists. They concern (1) the origin of the very capacity to represent in our interactions with elements of our external environment; (2) the externalist arguments attempting to show that some of our states and acts are irreducibly embedded in our relations with external environment and these relations play an ineliminable role in the constitution of their content; (3) the fact that representations typically have conditions of satisfaction which relate the representing states or acts to the external world in such a way that if the conditions are not fulfilled, this counts as a representation-failure; (4) the fact that the representation ascriptions are often based relationally and the claim that two subjects think about the same often admits only relational interpretation. The author concludes by pointing to the wide variety of phenomena called "representation" and argues that there is no a priori reason to presuppose that all such cases admit, or even require a unified analysis.


SQW Ltd (SQW), working alongside academics from Glasgow University and Middlesex University were appointed by the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in April 2014 to undertake research into early stage and growth finance in Northern Ireland.
The purpose of the study was to provide guidance on the development of early stage and growth finance, focused particularly on angel investment and venture capital, and drawing on the experience of other 'successful' locations internationally.
This Synthesis Report sets out the key findings and messages from the research, and the guidance – covering a set of principles, strategic recommendations, and specific actions – that should inform the development of early stage and growth finance going forward in Northern Ireland.


Cave building houses the world's largest extant living a traditional form, along with the social and economic development, the continuation and development of cave architecture has been relatively large impact. Cave is difficult to meet the housing needs of the construction of contemporary society residents, especially prominent in the town's performance. Cave buildings are being degraded and disappear, development cave building facing great difficulties, cave dwellings and folk culture has also elapsed. Articles selected for the study area in Shanxi Jinzhong cave building, research and analysis of various aspects of the problem areas in Shanxi Jinzhong cave buildings in the town existence, cave architecture proposed adaptive significance and necessity of updating and development of contemporary society, the study cave construction update and strategy development. There Jinzhong cave in the village common areas restrain kiln, as well as by Cliff kilns, brick kilns and other forms, called Grand cave. Cave has some regenerative capacity building, so the temperature is relatively stable, fit for human habitation. This paper carried out the construction of ecological cave topography study Wang Yu village, provide new ideas and guidance for the future protection of Wang Yu village cave architecture.