The report summarises the most up-to-date information available in Australia today on the oral health and dental visiting of the Australian population. Data have been sourced from surveys managed by the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH) and administrative data sets managed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). In 2006, the proportion of children with caries experience in their deciduous teeth ranged from 40% in 4–5 year olds to 60% in 6–8 year olds. Caries experience in permanent teeth ranged from 1% in 5 year olds to 58% in 15 year olds. In 2004–2006, among dentate adults (those with natural teeth), a higher proportion of those aged 25–44 had untreated decay (29%) than those aged 65 and over (22%). Adult males (28%) had higher rates of untreated decay than females (23%), adults living in Remote/Very remote areas (38%) had higher rates of untreated decay than those in Major cities (24%), and a higher proportion of uninsured adults (31%) had untreated decay compared to those with insurance (19%). In 2010, approximately 21% of adults aged 65 and over were edentulous (without natural teeth), females having slightly higher rates of edentulism (25%) than males (17%). Of those aged 65 and over with natural teeth (dentate), nearly half (47%) wore dentures. In 2010, around 15% of adults reported experiencing toothache in the previous 12 months, and 25% reported feeling uncomfortable about their dental appearance. A higher proportion of adults aged 45–64 felt uncomfortable about their dental appearance (29%) than those aged 15–24 (19%). In 2010, 64% of persons aged 5 and over visited a dentist in the previous year, ranging from 78% in children aged 5–14, to 57% in adults aged 25–44. Almost half (49%) of adults aged over 18 had favourable visiting patterns. The majority (54%) of persons aged 5 and over had some level of private dental cover, with those living in Major cities (59%) having higher rates of insurance than those in Inner regional (47%) and Outer regional areas (46%). Individuals with lower household incomes were less likely to have dental insurance than those in higher income households. The vast majority (79%) of adults with some level of insurance made co-contributions towards the cost of dental visits, and 9% paid all their own expenses. Approximately 17% of insured adults who were required to pay all of their dental expenses indicated that doing so caused a large financial burden. In 2009–10 the total expenditure on dental services was $7,690 million, a 13% increase from the previous year. The largest contribution to dental expenditure in 2009–10 was made by individuals, accounting for 61% of the total dental expenditure. Overall, in 2006 there were 50.3 dentists, 5.7 dental therapists, 3.3 dental hygienists, 1.8 oral health therapists and 4.4 prosthetists per 100,000 population. The majority of practising dentists (84%) were general dentists and 11% were specialists. The capacity for the dental labour force to supply dental visits is expected to range between 33.0 and 40.1 million visits by 2020, compared to a projected demand for between 33.6 and 44.1 million visits.


Children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable students in public schools. They are the most likely to be bullied, harassed, restrained, or segregated. For these and other reasons, they also have the poorest academic outcomes. Overcoming these challenges requires full use of the laws enacted to protect these students' affirmative right to equal access and an environment free from discrimination. Yet, courts routinely deny their access to two such laws—the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (section 504).

Courts too often overlook the affirmative obligations contained in these two disability rights laws and instead assume that students with disabilities' only legal recourse is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Regrettably the IDEA is not capable of remedying all the harms students endure. In fact, the IDEA, by its terms, extends to only a subset of students with disabilities. Even so, courts force all students to exhaust the IDEA's administrative procedures before invoking remedies under the other two disability rights laws. By narrowly construing antidiscrimination principles and ignoring the affirmative obligations contained in disability rights laws, courts unduly restrict students' protections under these laws.

This Article solves that problem by explaining and clarifying the nuance that drives confusion in this area: the difference between the IDEA's guarantee of a free appropriate public education and the ADA and section 504's guarantee of equal access to public education. With that distinction clear, this Article disaggregates the types of claims that are most often erroneously obstructed by the IDEA's exhaustion clause and then creates a framework that would allow courts to analyze and correctly apply the exhaustion clause. In doing so, it hopes to remove these laws from the IDEA's shadow and renew their promise of equal access to educational opportunity.


This chapter discusses the supervision of financial conglomerates. In 1999, the Joint Forum on Financial Conglomerates released a paper which sets out the basis of the supervision of conglomerates, and the basic principles set out in this paper remain the basis for conglomerate supervision. The paper classified the existing approaches to conglomerate regulation into the 'building block prudential method', the 'risk based aggregation method', and the 'risk-based deduction method'. The EU Financial Groups Directive, although largely based on the work of the Joint Forum, has also set out three prescribed approaches to conglomerates which are similar but not identical to the Joint Forum categories. Those four methods are discussed.


The rise of technology that can support the active human body – in contrast to the previously prevalent paradigm of interacting with computers while sitting still – such as wearables, quantified self systems and mobile computing highlights an opportunity for a new era of "body-centric computing". However, most work in this area has taken quite an instrumental perspective, focusing on achieving extrinsic performance objectives. Phenomenology, however, highlights that it is also important to support the experiential perspective of living an active life, that is, technology should also help people focus on their lived experiences and personal growth to deepen their understanding and engagement with their own bodies.

We find that despite the work on embodiment, the use of technology to support the corporeal, pulsating and felt body has been notably absent. We believe the reason for this is due to limited knowledge about how to understand, analyse and correlate the vast amount of data from the various sensors worn by individuals and populations in real-time so that we can present it in a way that it supports people's felt experience. In order to drive such an agenda that supports both instrumental and experiential perspectives of the active human body, this seminar brings together leading experts, including those who are central to the development of products and ideas relating to wearables, mobile computing, quantified self, data analysis and visualization, exertion games and computer sports science. The goal is to address key questions around the use of sensor data to support both instrumental and experiential perspectives of the active human body and to jump-start collaborations between people from different backgrounds to pioneer new approaches for a body-centric computing future.


It sometimes happens (for instance in case control studies) that a classifier is trained on a data set that does not reflect the true a priori probabilities of the target classes on real-world data. This may have a negative effect on the classification accuracy obtained on the real-world data set, especially when the classifier's decisions are based on the a posteriori probabilities of class membership. Indeed, in this case, the trained classifier provides estimates of the a posteriori probabilities that are not valid for this real-world data set (they rely on the a priori probabilities of the training set). Applying the classifier as is (without correcting its outputs with respect to these new conditions) on this new data set may thus be suboptimal. In this note, we present a simple iterative procedure for adjusting the outputs of the trained classifier with respect to these new a priori probabilities without having to refit the model, even when these probabilities are not known in advance. As a by-product, estimates of the new a priori probabilities are also obtained. This iterative algorithm is a straightforward instance of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and is shown to maximize the likelihood of the new data. Thereafter, we discuss a statistical test that can be applied to decide if the a priori class probabilities have changed from the training set to the real-world data. The procedure is illustrated on different classification problems involving a multilayer neural network, and comparisons with a standard procedure for a priori probability estimation are provided. Our original method, based on the EM algorithm, is shown to be superior to the standard one for a priori probability estimation. Experimental results also indicate that the classifier with adjusted outputs always performs better than the original one in terms of classification accuracy, when the a priori probability conditions differ from the training set to the real-world data. The gain in classification accuracy can be significant.


Surface roughening has long been used to confer materials remarkable wetting properties, such as super hydrophobicity. When roughness belongs to the microscale, existing models can, to some extent, explain and predict real‐world wetting states. With the advent of nanotechnology, however, a multitude of nano‐engineered materials are being developed and unexpected wetting behaviors have been observed which cannot be described by conventional theories. While it is clear that advanced nanotextured materials are essential to a vast range of ground breaking technologies, the intricate mechanisms governing the wetting of such surfaces—at the limit of validity of continuum theories—also need to be clarified. This review aims at presenting what is known and what remains to be discovered about the wettability of nanoengineered materials. The advantages and uniqueness of nanostructured substrates is highlighted first, with a focus on practical applications benefitting from the distinctive wetting properties of nanorough substrates. Classic wetting theories and their limitations are briefly discussed, before describing with a top down vision, why the wetting of nanostructured substrates differ from that of microtextured surfaces. Recent experimental and theoretical studies which contributed to the progress in this field are considered, before outlining potential future areas of research.


ABSTRACT Transmissible colistin resistance in the form of an mcr-1-gene-bearing plasmid has been recently reported in Enterobacteriaceae in several parts of the world. We report here the completed genome sequence of an Escherichia coli strain isolated from swine in the United States that carried the mcr-1 gene on an IncI2-type plasmid.


In 2015, the international community adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to pave the way for a global transformation towards sustainable development – a development path which combines the goals of economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. To this end, 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) have been adopted by 193 member states of the United Nations.
This thesis deals with the transformation towards sustainable development in the context of the developing world and has two foci: In the first and main focus, it addresses the income distribution between capital and labor, since it has a direct impact on inequality and working poverty in these countries. To do so, it measures the labor's income share – the share of national income that is earned by labor – and further analyzes its determinants.
The second focus is placed on the transformation of the agricultural sector – which is home to the majority of the poor in developing countries – towards sustainability. At the example of cocoa farmers in Indonesia, it analyzes whether the transition from food to cash crops is a sustainable pathway out of poverty for small-scale farmers.

Employment and the quality of employment – decent work – plays a significant role in the promotion of sustainable development. Productive and remunerative work is the main route out of poverty and the creation of decent employment is vitally important to make growth pro-poor. Giving labor a fair share in economic prosperity therefore is key to fighting poverty and further reducing inequality in income. To be able to assess how far an economy spreads its income achievements amongst its working population, overall productivity trends of an economy have to be related to developments in the labor market. The factor (or functional) income distribution enables to do so by measuring how aggregate income is distributed between the factors of production: Labor (including human capital) and capital (including land). The labor's share in income of a country then shows how much of national income is earned by labor.

While the relevance of the labor share for sustainable development and especially for a fair and equitable society is straightforward, its assessment is less clear. The second chapter of this dissertation therefore is dedicated to the measurement of the labor income share in developing countries and associated challenges. The poor availability and reliability of national account data as well as the fact that self-employed whose labor income is hard to capture account for a major share of the workforce and often work in the informal sector render its computation difficult. I consult social accounting matrices as additional source of information to construct a labor share data set that is backed up with micro-economic evidence. The final data set covers about 100 developing countries from 1990 to 2011. The data suggests that the finding of declining labor shares of previous studies also applies to the specific sample of low and middle income countries. Furthermore, I find the labor share in developing countries to be about one-half in size and thus less than the standard 'two-thirds' in economic literature.

The third chapter builds on the second chapter and reviews the above mentioned data set and other international panel data sets on the labor income share in low and middle income countries. It has two objectives. First, it provides an overview of different measurement approaches and data sources. Given that labor income of the self-employed is not directly observed in these countries, computing the labor share requires several assumptions. Various data sets relying on different assumptions are compared and their strengths and weaknesses discussed. Second, this chapter presents basic statistics on the labor income share and extracts results, which hold true independent of the data set used. Unlike standard propositions, there is evidence that the labor share is neither constant nor does it represent two-thirds of total output. The labor income share has been declining in the developing world since 1990, indicating that labor income has been lagging behind overall productivity increases for the last two decades, and is found to constitute half of total production output at most. There is evidence that not only has the labor share for the self employed declined, but also for wage employees, although they make up an increasing proportion of the labor force in these countries. The decline in the labor share can also be seen in the manufacturing sector since 2000 and has especially affected low-skilled workers, whereas high-skilled workers managed to increase their labor income share in national value added. Decomposing by sector further suggests that not only have sectoral changes driven these findings but also shifts away from labor-intensive agriculture towards more capital-intensive sectors. Finally, there is evidence that the increasing gap between a country's wage rates and productivity – and not changes in employment – is driving these results.

The fourth chapter turns to the analysis of the determinants of the labor share. An alarming result of the first two chapters is the substantial downturn of the labor share in the developing world since the early 1990s. The fourth chapter therefore assesses the drivers of this trend.
More specifically, it investigates how de facto financial globalization has influenced the labor share in developing countries. The main argument is the need to distinguish between different types of capital in this context, as different forms of foreign investment have different fixed costs and impacts on the host countries' production process and vary concerning their bargaining power vis-a-vis labor. Assuming an aggregate elasticity of substitution between capital and labor would thus be misleading. The econometric analysis of the impact of foreign direct vs. portfolio investment in a sample of about 40 developing and transition countries after 1992 supports this claim. Using different panel data techniques to address potential endogeneity problems, it is found that FDI has a positive effect on the labor share in developing countries, while the impact of portfolio investment is significantly smaller, and potentially negative. The results also highlight that de facto foreign investment cannot explain the decline of the labor share in developing countries over the investigated period.

The fifth chapter addresses the second focus of this thesis and contributes to the sustainable development debate by assessing whether cash crop cultivation sustainably reduces poverty amongst smallholders. The diversification into cash crops has a great potential for reducing poverty in the developing world that may not be fully harnessed because many smallholders are inefficient producers. Furthermore, income gains may be only static and poverty and vulnerability of smallholder households may not be reduced sustainably. Instead, cash crop farmers, in particular those without proper farm management skills, may experience boom and bust cycles, caused by volatile world market prices, local weather shocks and pests. To analyze the long-term poverty impacts of cash crop agriculture, this analysis draws on a unique panel data set of smallholder cocoa farmers in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, covering the years 2000, 2006 and 2013. It is shown that – over the analyzed time horizon of more than 10 years – cocoa cultivation is associated with strong and sustainable poverty reduction. Cocoa farmers fare better than non-cocoa farmers and the welfare gains can mainly be attributed to increasing cocoa yields. Yet, yield gaps remain large and are increasingly heterogeneous. This productivity heterogeneity is traced back to farm management practices. Linking these findings to poverty transitions, it is shown that better management practices facilitate the transition out of poverty and shields against income losses.


Many cold-working processes for polycrystalline metals cause alignment of the grains with a single symmetry axis. This type of microstructure is called fiber texture. The existence of a preferred orientation of the grains has a significant influence on the propagation and scattering of ultrasonic waves, which are often used for material inspection. Knowledge of the wave attenuation of such textured materials is of both theoretical and practical interest to nondestructive testing and materials characterization. In this article, the quantitative relations between fiber texture and wave attenuations of hexagonal crystals are presented. The texture is characterized by a Gaussian distribution function that contains a single parameter that governs the transition of the texture from perfectly aligned crystals to statistically isotropic. Under this assumption, the materials of interest have a varying degree of transverse isotropy representative of processing conditions. Simple expressions for the attenuations of the three modes of waves are given in a concise, generalized representation. Finally, numerical results are presented and discussed in terms of the directional, frequency, and texture dependence. The results presented are expected to improve the understanding of the microstructure evolution during thermomechanical processing. © 2007 Acoustical Society of America. (cid:3) DOI: 10.1121/1.2382749


The output provided by most Stata commands is plain text not suitable to be presented or published. After the numerical and graphical outputs are obtained, the user has to copy them into a word processor to complete the editing process. Some Stata commands help you to obtain well-formatted output, especially tabulated results in LATEX or other formats, but they are not a complete solution nor are they friendly tools. Stata automatic report (Sar) is an easy-to-use macro for Microsoft Word for Windows that allows a powerful integration between Stata and Word. With Sar, the user can retrieve numerical results and graphs from Stata and automatically insert them into a well-formatted Word document, exploiting all the functions of Word. This process is managed by Word while Stata is executed in the background. Sar requires Stata commands and some specific Sar commands to be written in ordinary Word comments. Thus the report is well documented, and this can encourage the sharing of the workflow of data analysis and the reproducibility of the research. With Sar, the user can create an automatic report, that is, a Word document that can be automatically updated if data have changed. Sar works only on Windows systems.


The Friday Masowe apostolics of Zimbabwe refer to themselves as "the Christians who don't read the Bible." They claim they do not need the Bible because they receive the Word of God "live and direct" from the Holy Spirit. In this insightful and sensitive historical ethnography, Matthew Engelke documents how this rejection of scripture speaks to longstanding concerns within Christianity over mediation and authority. The Bible, of course, has been a key medium through which Christians have recognized God's presence. But the apostolics perceive scripture as an unnecessary, even dangerous, mediator. For them, the materiality of the Bible marks a distance from the divine and prohibits the realization of a live and direct faith. Situating the Masowe case within a broad comparative framework, Engelke shows how their rejection of textual authority poses a problem of presence—which is to say, how the religious subject defines, and claims to construct, a relationship with the spiritual world through the semiotic potentials of language, actions, and objects. Written in a lively and accessible style, A Problem of Presence makes important contributions to the anthropology of Christianity, the history of religions in Africa, semiotics, and material culture studies.


Millions of Europeans experienced war, occupation, and exile in the turbulent years between the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the end of World War II in 1946. The contributors to this volume focus on the lives of ordinary people ensnared in world events beyond their control. Well-known landmark events like the bombing of Gernika, the mass exile following the Spanish Civil War, France's sudden defeat in 1940 and its subsequent occupation by Germany, the French resistance, and the Allied invasion of France and liberation come to light through the people involved in them: A Tyrolean German soldier trying to make a life and ignore (and explain away) the difficult realities of his regime, Eastern European, mainly Jewish, resisters in occupied Paris, Basque nationalist priests persecuted by Franco regime, children exiled from their homes living in French and other refugee camps, even American newspaper readers. These are the unlikely protagonists in history that is usually seen from the top down, but here is explored from the bottom up.


Sugar generation is important for many industries, such as livestock feed and bioethanol production. Rice straw is an agricultural waste that serves as a good source of sugar. In this study, a xylanase-producing fungus was isolated form compost pile and identified as Aspergillus fumigatus based on the internal transcribing spacer sequence. Xylanase produced by this fungus was characterised. The optimal conditions for fungal xylanase activity were 55C and pH 5.0. Enzyme activity declined to 45.26% following incubation at 50C for 2 days. Rice straw was more suitable for xylanase production than other substrates. The filtrate of A. fumigatus grown on rice straw as a substrate was added to rice straw, and reducing sugar production was determined. The maximum reducing sugar production was achieved with incubation at 30C for 18 h. Xylanase produced by A. fumigatus can be used for rice straw pre-treatment to improve the nutrient content of livestock feed and increase bioethanol production.


There are still uncertainties regarding the formation mechanisms for storm‐enhanced density (SED) in the high and subauroral latitude ionosphere. In this work, we deploy the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model (TIEGCM) and GPS total electron content (TEC) observations to identify the principle mechanisms for SED and the tongue of ionization (TOI) through term‐by‐term analysis of the ion continuity equation and also identify the advantages and deficiencies of the TIEGCM in capturing high‐latitude and subauroral latitude ionospheric fine structures for the two geomagnetic storm events occurring on 17 March 2013 and 2015. Our results show that in the topside ionosphere, upward E × B ion drifts are most important in SED formation and are offset by antisunward neutral winds and downward ambipolar diffusion effects. In the bottomside F region ionosphere, neutral winds play a major role in generating SEDs. SED signature in TEC is mainly caused by upward E × B ion drifts that lift the ionosphere to higher altitudes where chemical recombination is slower. Horizontal E × B ion drifts play an essential role in transporting plasma from the dayside convection throat region to the polar cap to form TOIs. Inconsistencies between model results and GPS TEC data were found: (1) GPS relative TEC difference between storm time and quiet time has "holes" in the dayside ion convection entrance region, which do not appear in the model results. (2) The model tends to overestimate electron density enhancements in the polar region. Possible causes for these inconsistencies are discussed in this article.


The paper presents a simplified version of the Notch Stress Intensity Factor (NSIF) approach useful for fatigue strength assessments of welded joints. The evaluation of the NSIF from a numerical analysis of the local stress field usually needs very refined meshes and then large computational effort. A relationship is proposed here to estimate the Notch Stress Intensity Factor from finite element analyses carried out by using a mesh pattern with a constant element size. The main advantage of the presented relationship is that only the elastic peak stress numerically evaluated at the V-notch tip is necessary to estimate the NSIF instead of the whole stress-distance set of data (that is why the method has been called Peak Stress Method, i.e. PSM). An application of the PSM to fatigue strength assessment of fillet welded joints made of structural steels and aluminium alloys under tensile or bending loads is presented. In those joints, only mode I stress distribution is singular at the weld toe due to the presence of a V-notch angle equal to 135 degrees.


We study an idea for efficient integrated protection of an IP over WDM network using the spare capacity of span-protecting p-cycles to provide protection against both optical link failures and router node failures in the IP/MPLS layer. Previously, networks using span-protecting p-cycles were designed from the point of view of a single-layer physical transport network. Also separately, it has been known how to plan capacity allocations to IP-layer logical links to support controlled levels of bandwidth oversubscription on transiting traffic flows through a failed router or ATM node. To address both failure types, however, it is unattractive to simply combine the two investments in added protection capacity. Accordingly, we have studied ways to plan a 100% span-restorable set of physical-layer p-cycles so that very high levels of transiting traffic flow can also be restored upon MPLS router node failure, with controlled worst-case oversubscription of LSP capacity allocations. In test cases it was found that the spare capacity provided by span-protecting p-cycles can provide a high level of node protection depending on the strategy used for exploring the p-cycle capacity. We think this leads to novel and efficient strategies for multi-service and multi-layer survivable traffic engineering and bandwidth management


Even when a healthy individual is studied, his/her erythrocytes in capillaries continually change their shape in a synchronized erratic fashion. In this work, the problem of characterizing the cell behavior is studied from the perspective of bounded correlated random walk, based on the assumption that diffractometric data involves both deterministic and stochastic components. The photometric readings are obtained by ektacytometry over several millions of shear elongated cells, using a home-made device called Erythrodeformeter. We have only a scalar signal and no governing equations; therefore the complete behavior has to be reconstructed in an artificial phase space. To analyze dynamics we used the technique of time delay coordinates suggested by Takens, May algorithm, and Fourier transform. The results suggest that on random-walk approach the samples from healthy controls exhibit significant differences from those from diabetic patients and these could allow us to claim that we have linked mathematical nonlinear tools with clinical aspects of diabetic erythrocytes' rheological properties.


Many everyday activities, such as driving and sports, require us to engage in time-pressured sensorimotor decision making in response to visual cues. The computational principle of continuous evidence accumulation is the dominant account underlying models of speeded decision making, but the nature and locus of the decision variable that triggers action is debated. Traditionally, cognitive stages such as perception, stimulus-response translation, and the generation of motor plans, have been considered to occur in series. However, this idea is challenged by neurophysiological work in animals, suggesting that cognitive operations are distributed across sensorimotor cortex. Here, we investigate whether a decision variable can be observed in the primary motor cortex (M1) of humans. Participants categorised faces as male or female, with task difficulty manipulated using natural or morphed stimuli. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, applied at random across the reaction-time interval, produced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in two hand muscles that were the major contributors when generating the correct and incorrect pinch/grip movements. MEP magnitudes reveal covert action preparation, even when no action is produced. Smoothing MEPs using a Gaussian kernel allowed us to recover a continuous time-varying MEP average, comparable to an EEG component, which permitted precise localisation of the time at which the motor plan for the responding muscle began to dominate over the non-responding action. This moment was calculated in both stimulus-locked and response-locked analyses, and was found to occur at the same time with stimulus locking, but earlier with response locking, when ambiguous stimuli made the decision more challenging. This pattern is consistent with M1 providing a continuous readout of evidence accumulation. We predicted the evidence accumulation profile from a drift diffusion model, using only behavioural data, and found a good qualitative match to the observed neurometric MEP profiles. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Ten years into the Arab uprisings, how is the EU perceived in the Mediterranean region in terms of its democracy and human rights agenda? Based on a systematic inquiry into images of EU presence and practices through 144 recursive multi-stakeholder consultations with mainly civil society and grassroots actors in Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt and Europe, we found that the EU presence is described as invisible, incoherent, preferable to other powers, ambivalent, unresponsive, ineffective, divisive, and even neocolonial. Its practices appear as depoliticizing, securitizing, and technocratic. While it is not seen as a model in the region, no new model is emerging. However, ideas for alternatives exist, namely embracing the local struggle for democracy, taking account of human security needs on all shores of the Mediterranean, and investing into a new two-way relationship where all voices matter equally.
European Union, Arab countries, external perceptions, non-Eurocentric, alternatives


The metabolome is a highly dynamic entity and the final readout of the genotype x environment x phenotype (GxExP) relationship of an organism. Monitoring metabolite dynamics over time thus theoretically encrypts the whole range of possible chemical and biochemical transformations of small molecules involved in metabolism. The bottleneck is, however, the sheer number of unidentified structures in these samples. This represents the next challenge for metabolomics technology and is comparable with genome sequencing 30 years ago. At the same time it is impossible to handle the amount of data involved in a metabolomics analysis manually. Algorithms are therefore imperative to allow for automated m/z feature extraction and subsequent structure or pathway assignment. Here we provide an automated pathway inference strategy comprising measurements of metabolome time series using LC- MS with high resolution and high mass accuracy. An algorithm was developed, called mzGroupAnalyzer, to automatically explore the metabolome for the detection of metabolite transformations caused by biochemical or chemical modifications. Pathways are extracted directly from the data and putative novel structures can be identified. The detected m/z features can be mapped on a van Krevelen diagram according to their H/C and O/C ratios for pattern recognition and to visualize oxidative processes and biochemical transformations. This method was applied to Arabidopsis thaliana treated simultaneously with cold and high light. Due to a protective antioxidant response the plants turn from green to purple color via the accumulation of flavonoid structures. The detection of potential biochemical pathways resulted in 15 putatively new compounds involved in the flavonoid-pathway. These compounds were further validated by product ion spectra from the same data. The mzGroupAnalyzer is implemented in the graphical user interface (GUI) of the metabolomics toolbox COVAIN (Sun & Weckwerth, 2012, Metabolomics 8: 81–93). The strategy can be extended to any biological system.


Abstract The authors present an object algebra for manipulating complex objects in fuzzy object-oriented database systems. Unlike in most of the existing query languages, the design of this object algebra is based on the type and set aspects of the class. A framework is presented for executing set-theoretic operations, namely union, intersection, and difference, on the class construct. The set operations on the membership of the corresponding class containing fuzzy objects are developed by using the truth-value of the object and object identity. The type description of the resulting class derived by a set operation is specified. The authors also discuss the inheritance property characteristic for the derived class with fuzzy objects.


How far can the media protect or undermine democratic institutions in unconsolidated democracies, and how persuasive can they be in ensuring public support for dictator's policies? We study this question in the context of Germany between 1929 and 1939. Using geographical and temporal variation in radio availability, we show that radio had a significant negative effect on the Nazi electoral support between 1929 and 1932, when political news were slanted against Nazi party. This effect was reversed in just 5 weeks following Hitler's appointment as chancellor and the transfer of control of the radio to the Nazis. Pro-Nazi radio propaganda caused higher vote for the Nazis in March 1933 election. After full consolidation of power, radio propaganda helped the Nazis to enroll new party members and encouraged denunciations of Jews and other open expressions of anti-Semitism. The effect of Nazi propaganda was not uniform. Depending on listeners' priors about the message, propaganda could be very effective or could backfire. Nazi radio was most effective in places where anti-Semitism was historically high and had a negative effect on the support for anti-Semitic policies in places with historically low anti-Semitism.


Background: Mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and their aggravation have been studied extensively in the general population. However, there are few studies on depression in older adults and the few existing results may be contradictory, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to determine the factors associated with depression in older adults in two coastal regions of Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study uses an analytical cross-sectional design in a population of older adults, who participated in a non-governmental ambulatory social support program in Callao and Ica, two coastal regions of Peru. We administered an on-site structured questionnaire to record sociodemographic data, the Geriatric Depression Scale by Yesavage to measure depression, and the Barthel Index to assess physical function. In order to determine cognitive impairment as an exclusion criterion, the MEC-30 was used. The association between variables was assessed through contingency tables, using the odds ratio (OR) with its corresponding confidence interval (95% CI) and the X2 test. Finally, a binary logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: Out of the 244 older adults surveyed, 39% had depressive symptoms, of which 28.3% (n=69) and 10.7% (n=26) were moderately and severely depressive, respectively. The findings significantly associated with the presence of depressive symptoms were being 76 years old or older [p=0.005, OR: 2.33, 95% CI: 1.29-4.20], not participating in weekly recreational activities [p=0.004, OR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.31-3.99] and the presence of comorbidities [p=0.026, OR: 1.88, 95% CI: 1.07-3.29]. Conclusion: There are few studies exploring depression in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic; this research shows the importance of mental health care in this population and, particularly, of those who are 76 or older because they suffer from comorbid conditions and have interrupted recreational activities.


Background

Dehydration associated with gastroenteritis is a serious complication. Oral rehydration is an effective and inexpensive treatment, but some physicians prefer intravenous methods.

Objectives

To compare oral with intravenous therapy for treating dehydration due to acute gastroenteritis in children.

Search strategy

We searched the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register (March 2006), CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2006, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1966 to March 2006), EMBASE (1974 to March 2006), LILACS (1982 to March 2006), and reference lists. We also contacted researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and relevant organizations.

Selection criteria

Randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials comparing intravenous rehydration therapy (IVT) with oral rehydration therapy (ORT) in children up to 18 years of age with acute gastroenteritis.

Data collection and analysis

Two authors independently extracted data and assessed quality using the Jadad score. We expressed dichotomous data as a risk difference (RD) and number needed to treat (NNT), and continuous data as a weighted mean difference (WMD). We used meta-regression for subgroup analyses.

Main results

Seventeen trials (1811 participants), of poor to moderate quality, were included. There were more treatment failures with ORT (RD 4%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1 to 7, random-effects model; 1811 participants, 18 trials; NNT = 25). Six deaths occurred in the IVT group and two in the ORT groups (4 trials). There were no significant differences in weight gain (369 participants, 6 trials), hyponatremia (248 participants, 2 trials) or hypernatremia (1062 participants, 10 trials), duration of diarrhea (960 participants, 8 trials), or total fluid intake at six hours (985 participants, 8 trials) and 24 hours (835 participants, 7 trials). Shorter hospital stays were reported for the ORT group (WMD -1.20 days, 95% CI -2.38 to -0.02 days; 526 participants, 6 trials). Phlebitis occurred more often in the IVT group (NNT 50, 95% CI 25 to 100) and paralytic ileus more often in the ORT group (NNT 33, 95% CI 20 to 100, fixed-effect model), but there was no significant difference between ORT using the low osmolarity solutions recommended by the World Health Organization and IVT (729 participants, 6 trials).

Authors' conclusions

Although no clinically important differences between ORT and IVT, the ORT group did have a higher risk of paralytic ileus, and the IVT group was exposed to risks of intravenous therapy. For every 25 children (95% CI 14 to 100) treated with ORT one would fail and require IVT.

Plain language summary

Children with dehydration due to gastroenteritis need to be rehydrated, and this review did not show any important differences between giving fluids orally or intravenously

Dehydration is when body water content is reduced causing dry skin, headaches, sunken eyes, dizziness, confusion, and sometimes death. Children with dehydration due to gastroenteritis need rehydrating either by liquids given by mouth or a tube through the nose, or intravenously. The review of 17 trials (some funded by drug companies) found that the trials were not of high quality; however the evidence suggested that there are no clinically important differences between giving fluids orally or intravenously. For every 25 children treated with fluids given orally, one child would fail and require intravenous rehydration. Further, the results for low osmolarity solutions, the currently recommended treatment by the World Health Organization, showed a lower failure rate for oral rehydration that was not significantly different from that of intravenous rehydration. Oral rehydration should be the first line of treatment in children with mild to moderate dehydration with intravenous therapy being used if the oral route fails. The evidence showed that there may be a higher risk of paralytic ileus with oral rehydration while intravenous therapy carries the risk of phlebitis (ie inflammation of the veins).


The last two decades have seen a growing interest in the development of automated agents that are able to negotiate on the user's behalf. When representing a user in a negotiation, it is essential for the agent to understand the user's preferences, without exposing them to elicitation fatigue. To this end, we propose a new model in which a negotiating agent may incrementally elicit the user's preference during the negotiation. We introduce an optimal elicitation strategy that decides, at every stage of the negotiation, how much additional user information to extract at a certain cost. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by combining our policy with well-known negotiation strategies and show that it significantly outperforms other elicitation strategies.


Mapping mashups are emerging Web 2.0 applications in which data objects such as blogs, photos and videos from different sources are combined and marked in a map using APIs that are released by online mapping solutions such as Google and Yahoo Maps. These objects are typically associated with a set of tags capturing the embedded semantic and a set of coordinates indicating their geographical locations. Traditional web resource searching strategies are not effective in such an environment due to the lack of the gazetteer context in the tags. Instead, a better alternative approach is to locate an object by tag matching. However, the number of tags associated with each object is typically small, making it difficult for an object to capture the complete semantics in the query objects. In this paper, we focus on the fundamental application of locating geographical resources and propose an efficient tag-centric query processing strategy. In particular, we aim to find a set of nearest co-located objects which together match the query tags. Given the fact that there could be large number of data objects and tags, we develop an efficient search algorithm that can scale up in terms of the number of objects and tags. Further, to ensure that the results are relevant, we also propose a geographical context sensitive geo-tf-idf ranking mechanism. Our experiments on synthetic data sets demonstrate its scalability while the experiments using the real life data set confirm its practicality.


Digital libraries (DLs) have introduced new technologies, as well as leveraging, enhancing, and integrating related technologies, since the early 1990s. These efforts have been enriched through a formal approach, e.g., the 5S (Societies, Scenarios, Spaces, Structures, Streams) framework, which is discussed in two earlier volumes in this series. This volume should help advance work not only in DLs, but also in the WWW and other information systems. Drawing upon four (Kozievitch, Murthy, Park, Yang) completed and three (Elsherbiny, Farag, Srinivasan) in-process dissertations, as well as the efforts of collaborating researchers and scores of related publications, presentations, tutorials, and reports, this book should advance the DL field with regard to at least six key technologies. By integrating surveys of the state-of-the-art, new research, connections with formalization, case studies, and exercises/projects, this book can serve as a computing or information science textbook. It can support studies in cyber-security, document management, hypertext/hypermedia, IR, knowledge management, LIS, multimedia, and machine learning. Chapter 1, with a case study on fingerprint collections, focuses on complex (composite, compound) objects, connecting DL and related work on buckets, DCC, and OAI-ORE. Chapter 2, discussing annotations, as in hypertext/hypermedia, emphasizes parts of documents, including images as well as text, managing superimposed information. The SuperIDR system, and prototype efforts with Flickr, should motivate further development and standardization related to annotation, which would benefit all DL and WWW users. Chapter 3, on ontologies, explains how they help with browsing, query expansion, focused crawling, and classification. This chapter connects DLs with the Semantic Web, and uses CTRnet as an example. Chapter 4, on (hierarchical) classification, leverages LIS theory, as well as machine learning, and is important for DLs as well as the WWW. Chapter 5, on extraction from text, covers document segmentation, as well as how to construct a database from heterogeneous collections of references (from ETDs); i.e., converting strings to canonical forms. Chapter 6 surveys the security approaches used in information systems, and explains how those approaches can apply to digital libraries which are not fully open. Given this rich content, those interested in DLs will be able to find solutions to key problems, using the right technologies and methods. We hope this book will help show how formal approaches can enhance the development of suitable technologies and how they can be better integrated with DLs and other information systems.


We have produced beams with dark rings and studied their propagation through photovoltaic photorefractive media. We observe that dark rings, instead of forming dark ring solitons, break into vortex–antivortex pairs, forming quadrupoles. The experimental results could be taken as a consequence of modulational instability during beam propagation that is revealed through our numerical analysis.


We study strategies for scalable multi-label annotation, or for efficiently acquiring multiple labels from humans for a collection of items. We propose an algorithm that exploits correlation, hierarchy, and sparsity of the label distribution. A case study of labeling 200 objects using 20,000 images demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach. The algorithm results in up to 6x reduction in human computation time compared to the naive method of querying a human annotator for the presence of every object in every image.


We demonstrate a novel method for spectral analysis of microwave signals that employs time-domain processing in fiber. We use anomalous dispersion in single-mode fiber to perform a Fresnel transform followed by a matched amount of dispersion-compensating fiber to perform an inverse Fresnel transform of an ultrashort pulse. After the Fresnel-transformed waveform is modulated by the microwave signal, the waveform at the output of the dispersion-compensating fiber represents the ultrashort pulse convolved with the microwave spectrum. An experimental system for spectral analysis of microwave signals in the range 6-21 GHz is demonstrated.


Bertolotti's Syndrome (BS) or Lumbosacral Transitional Vertebra (LSTV) is the most common congenital malformation of the lumbosacral junction. It encompasses from sacralization of L5 to lumbarization of S1. The prevalence ranges from 5% to 15% in different population base. Adolescents and middle-aged people are commonly affected. Clinical spectrum can range from asymptomatic individual to a constant low Backache (LBA) with or without radicular pain in buttocks or legs. Currently, there is no consensus about its association with low back pain and its subsequent management. We thoroughly evaluated all prominent literature regarding its diagnostic methods, classification, and subsequent management.


Corneal wound healing, caused by frequent traumatic injury to the cornea and increasing numbers of refractive surgeries, has become a vital clinical problem. In the cornea, wound healing is an extremely complicated process. However, little is known about how the biomechanical changes in wound healing response of the cornea. Collagen-based hydrogels incorporating corneal cells are suitable for replicating a three-dimensional (3D) equivalent of the cornea in-vitro. In this study, the mechanical properties of corneal stroma models were quantitatively monitored by a vibrational optical coherence elastography (OCE) system during continuous culture periods. Specifically, human corneal keratocytes were seeded at 5 × 105 cells/mL in the hydrogels with a collagen concentration of 3.0 mg/mL. The elastic modulus of the unwounded constructs increased from 2.950 ± 0.2 kPa to 11.0 ± 1.4 kPa, and the maximum thickness decreased from 1.034 ± 0.1 mm to 0.464 ± 0.09 mm during a 15-day culture period. Furthermore, a traumatic wound in the construct was introduced with a size of 500 µm. The elastic modulus of the neo-tissue in the wound area increased from 1.488 ± 0.4 kPa to 6.639 ± 0.3 kPa over 13 days. This study demonstrates that the vibrational OCE system is capable of quantitative monitoring the changes in mechanical properties of a corneal stroma wound model during continuous culture periods and improves our understanding on corneal wound healing processes.


In striated muscle, the binding of calcium to troponin C (TnC) results in the removal of the C‐terminal region of the inhibitory protein troponin I (TnI) from actin. While structural studies of the muscle system have been successful in determining the overall organization of most of the components involved in force generation at the atomic level, the structure and dynamics of the C‐terminal region of TnI remains controversial. This domain of TnI is highly flexible, and it has been proposed that this intrinsically disordered region (IDR) regulates contraction via a "fly‐casting" mechanism. Different structures have been presented for this region using different methodologies: a single α‐helix, a "mobile domain" containing a small β‐sheet, an unstructured region, and a two helix segment. To investigate whether this IDR has in fact any nascent structure, we have constructed a skeletal TnC‐TnI chimera that contains the N‐domain of TnC (1–90), a short linker (GGAGG), and the C‐terminal region of TnI (97–182) and have acquired 15N NMR relaxation data for this chimera. We compare the experimental relaxation parameters with those calculated from molecular dynamic simulations using four models based upon the structural studies. Our experimental results suggest that the C‐terminal region of TnI does not contain any defined secondary structure, supporting the "fly‐casting" mechanism. We interpret the presence of a "plateau" in the 15N NMR relaxation data as being an intrinsic property of IDRs. We also identified a more rigid adjacent region of TnI that has implications for muscle performance under ischemic conditions. Proteins 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Summary The effects of temperature and CO2 treatment on the inactivation of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were studied. The thermal stability of ALP was found to be significantly (P< 0.05) different in glycine/NaOH buffer, pasteurized milk and raw milk. ALP was completely inactivated in the buffer at 60, 70 and 80 °C but approximately 12 % of activity was present at 50 °C after 55 min of treatment. The time required for complete inactivation of the enzyme in the buffer was reduced from 50 to 4 min as temperature increased from 60 to 80 °C. Complete inactivation of the enzyme in pasteurized milk was achieved at 70 and 80 °C but 28 and 15 % of ALP activity was still present at 50 and 60 °C after 120 min of treatment. Inactivation time for raw milk was reduced nearly 18-fold by increasing temperature from 50 to 70 °C. ALP in the buffer exposed to CO2 (under atmospheric pressure) treatment at different temperatures showed a decrease in enzyme activity. Inactivation was found to be higher as the temperature increased from 20 to 50 °C. At the end of a 30-min treatment, residual ALP activity was found to be 84 and 19 % at 20 and 50 °C, respectively. Faster drop in pH and enzyme activity occurred within 5 min. The change in pH and enzyme activity dependant on CO2 treatment was not observed in raw milk mainly due to strong buffering capacity of milk.


How do the United States, France, Nigeria, and Chile deal with the problem of judicial review? Which countries guarantee their citizens equality under the law? Which states may suspend civil liberties in times of crisis? This informative reference work allows easy comparison between the constitutions of the 194 countries of the world. Written by specialists in the respective country, the entries follow a common structure that makes the systems easily comparable. Following a brief preface, the introduction explores the concepts of constitutional law and fundamental rights. In the A-to-Z section, each signed country entry begins with an "At-a-Glance" box that summarizes the governmental system, the legislative system, the date of the original constitution, the date the constitution was last changed, and more. This volume also includes a narrative discussion for each entry that analyzes the constitution's basic principles, including constitutional history, governmental regulation of the economy, and the rights and duties of citizenship. Other features include suggestions for further reading, including sources for the text of the constitution in English and in the original language; appendixes that cover the constitution of the European Union and provide an overview of special and disputed territories; a glossary; and a comprehensive index. Its coverage for each country includes: amendments to the constitution; basic organizational structure; citizenship; constitutional bodies; constitutional history; economy and economic rights; the election process; form and impact of the constitution; fundamental rights; leading constitutional principles; military, defense, and state of emergency; political parties; and religious communities.


This evaluation examines the IDB's Country Program with Suriname for the 2007-2010 period. During this period, Suriname has been characterized by good economic performance largely due to prudent macroeconomic and debt management coupled with a world-wide commodity boom. Nonetheless, given data paucity, it is unclear whether the recent boom was targeted enough towards poverty reduction and what progress has been made towards the Millennium Development Goals. To become a more effective development partner in Suriname, the IDB should reconsider its modus operandi by (i) increasing funding towards the Country Office and changing the skill mix of its staff in the country; (ii) placing the gathering of primary data as a central theme while facilitating the transparent dissemination of information of both data and analysis; and (iii) defining, delivering, measuring and reporting on the strategic use of its large TC portfolio. In addition, there should be a revision of the IDB's strategic niche and the corresponding operations. The increasing possibility of an intensifying "Dutch-disease-resource curse" must be considered, and the IDB should be careful in ensuring that the mapping of the proposed strategy onto proposed operations and technical assistance has high country ownership. Finally, the IDB's donor coordination agenda should be advocated more strongly.


Techniques for characterizing the hydraulic properties and groundwater flow processes of aquifers are essential to design hydrogeologic conceptual models. In this study, rapid time series temperature profiles within open‐groundwater wells in fractured rock were measured using fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (FO‐DTS). To identify zones of active groundwater flow, two continuous electrical heating cables were installed alongside a FO‐DTS cable to heat the column of water within the well and to create a temperature difference between the ambient temperature of the groundwater in the aquifer and that within the well. Additional tests were performed to examine the effects of pumping on hydraulic fracture interconnectivity around the well and to identify zones of increased groundwater flow. High‐ and low‐resolution FO‐DTS cable configurations were examined to test the sensitivities of the technique and compared with downhole video footage and geophysical logging to confirm the zones of active groundwater flow. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of this new technique for rapid characterization of fracture zones in open boreholes. The combination of the FO‐DTS and heating cable has excellent scope as a rapid appraisal tool for borehole construction design and improving hydrogeologic conceptual models.


Abstract We have developed a cluster variation method (CVM) model based on cuboctahedral and octahedral basis clusters containing 13 and 6 atoms, respectively, and applied it to the analysis of the thermodynamic mixing properties of (Zn,Fe)S solid solutions. The model, in which the internal energy of the lattice is approximated by next to nearest neighbour (nnn) pair interactions and many-body interactions associated with nearest neighbour (nn) equilateral triangles, describes the FeS contents of sphalerites equilibrated with pyrrhotite and pyrite, and with pyrrhotite and iron metal within experimental uncertainties. The model predicts moderate deviations from ideality; the mean values of the Lewis and Randall activity coefficient of FeS and ZnS are, 1.48 and 1.03, respectively. Predictions of the model are in qualitative agreement with cell-edge data. The model also predicts that sphalerites undergo long-range ordering to lower-symmetry structures at temperatures only slightly below those investigated experimentally, a result in agreement with inferences from an existing Mössbauer investigation of synthetic sphalerites. More realistic models in which interactions are ascribed to larger species (nn triangular and centred square species) predict that such long-range ordering occurs at even higher temperatures and underscore the need for better characterization of the structures of (Zn,Fe)S minerals.


TRAILS, a peer-reviewed digital teaching resources library developed by the American Sociological Association (ASA), is an innovative educational tool that provides sociology teachers with access to thousands of teaching resources. Launched on May 25, 2010, the website offers many useful features, such as a searchable database of peer-reviewed teaching resources and the ability to customize presented content based on the interests of the subscriber. The types of resources that can be found on TRAILS include syllabi, assignments, class activities, lectures, PowerPoint slides, and assessments. Resources published in TRAILS have been through a strong, two-stage process of peer review based in empirically proven best practices in pedagogy. Access is free for ASA members and available at a discounted price for nonmembers in Department Affiliate departments. Submission instructions for TRAILS can be found at http://trails.asanet.org/ Pages/SubmissionDetails.aspx. Questions regarding TRAILS can be directed to the editor, Dr. Gregory T. Kordsmeier, at email@example.com.


The purpose of this investigation was to find out if using project based learning in the middle school classroom is an effective method for teaching key concepts in science while engaging students in the practices of science. Traditional science teaching often seems removed from the work that "real" scientists do. By participating in project based learning, students had the opportunity to do the work of a scientist and then apply their learning to a real world problem. During a unit of study on evolution where the focus question was "Do humans affect the evolution of organisms?" students were presented with a scenario asking them to determine the impact humans are having on the natural environment. To accomplish this task, students learned how to do field studies focusing on biodiversity. Using birds as a focus, they took data on campus and at a nearby public park. Using their data, students evaluated the frequency of native birds species on campus and compared this to the frequency of bird species at a local park. Using their understanding of evolutionary concepts, students hypothesized about the reasons for the results of their data. Based on their conclusions, students made recommendations about how an open space on campus should be modified in order to better support the native bird population. The results of this study showed that project based learning is effective for teaching complex science concepts and promoting the learning and use of scientific practices.


Endogenous neurosteroids have rapid actions on ion channels, particularly GABAA receptors, which are potentiated by nanomolar concentrations of 3α-hydroxypregnane neurosteroids. Previous evidence suggests that 3β-hydroxypregnane steroids may competitively antagonize potentiation induced by their 3α diastereomers. Because of the potential importance of antagonists as experimental and clinical tools, we characterized the functional effect of 3β-hydroxysteroids. Although 3β-hydroxysteroids reduced the potentiation induced by 3α-hydroxysteroids, 3β-hydroxysteroids acted noncompetitively with respect to potentiating steroids and inhibited the largest degrees of potentiation most effectively. Potentiation by high concentrations of barbiturates was also reduced by 3β-hydroxysteroids. 3β-Hydroxysteroids are also direct, noncompetitive GABAA receptor antagonists. 3β-Hydroxysteroids coapplied with GABA significantly inhibited responses to ≥15 μm GABA. The profile of block was similar to that exhibited by sulfated steroids, known blockers of GABAA receptors. This direct, noncompetitive effect of 3β-hydroxysteroids was sufficient to account for the apparent antagonism of potentiating steroids. Mutated receptors exhibiting decreased sensitivity to sulfated steroid block were insensitive to both the direct effects of 3β-hydroxysteroids on GABAAresponses and the reduction of potentiating steroid effects. At concentrations that had little effect on GABAergic synaptic currents, 3β-hydroxysteroids and low concentrations of sulfated steroids significantly reversed the potentiation of synaptic currents induced by 3α-hydroxysteroids. We conclude that 3β-hydroxypregnane steroids are not direct antagonists of potentiating steroids but rather are noncompetitive, likely state-dependent, blockers of GABAAreceptors. Nevertheless, these steroids may be useful functional blockers of potentiating steroids when used at concentrations that do not affect baseline neurotransmission.


CD43, CD44, CD16, and L-selectin have been previously shown to be enzymatically cleaved from stimulated leukocytes. However, little is known about the enzymes involved in these processes. Here, metalloprotease(s) inhibitable by 1,10-phenanthroline together with serine protease(s) inhibitable by N alpha-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone and 3,4-dichloroisocoumarin are shown to be involved in the cleavage of CD43, CD44, and CD16 but not in the cleavage of L-selectin on granulocytes. In addition, mAbs that recognize these individual receptors and induce their specific cleavage did not initiate cleavage of the others. In one case only, L-selectin, cleavage was also triggered by mAbs interacting with CD16 (the low affinity Fc gamma R). Thus, this mechanism represents a novel pathway of L-selectin cleavage induction.


Specialization of species is often studied in ecology but its quantification and meaning is disputed. More recently, ecological network analysis has been widely used as a tool to quantify specialization, but here its true meaning is also debated. However, irrespective of the tool used, the geographic scale at which specialization is measured remains central. Consequently, we use data sets of plant-pollinator networks from Brazil and the Canary Islands to explore specialization at local and regional scales. We ask how local specialization of a species is related to its regional specialization, and whether or not species tend to interact with a non-random set of partners in local communities. Local and regional specialization were strongly correlated around the 1:1 line, indicating that species conserve their specialization levels across spatial scales. Furthermore, most plants and pollinators also showed link conservatism repeatedly across local communities, and thus seem to be constrained in their fundamental niche. However, some species are more constrained than others, indicating true specialists. We argue that several geographically separated populations should be evaluated in order to provide a robust evaluation of species specialization.


Sweden has commonly been regarded as a striking example of a social democratic welfare-state regime (Esping-Andersen 1996), characterized by strong state governance and active involvement in welfare matters. In the last two decades, however, the Swedish public sector and education system have been radically and extensively transformed in a neo-liberal direction, a move that was preceded by extensive decentralization of decision-making from the state to municipalities and schools. In this article the scope, character and some of the consequences of internal and external marketization of Swedish education in the early 2000s are summarized, and the impact of competition on the internal workings of upper secondary schools is highlighted in particular. We conclude that the external marketization of education has proceeded a long way and Sweden also fully embraces new public management, i.e. 'inner marketization', of education in most respects. However, aspects of the older social democratic policy paradigm are still visible with regard to the assigned functions, values and governance of education.


This paper aims to do three things: First, to provide a review of John Staddon's book Adaptive dynamics: The theoretical analysis of behavior. Second, to compare Staddon's behaviorist view with current ideas on embodied cognition. Third, to use this comparison to explicate some outlines for a theoretical analysis of behavior that could be useful as a behavioral foundation for cognitive phenomena. Staddon earlier defended a theoretical behaviorism, which allows internal states in its models but keeps these to a minimum while remaining critical of any cognitive interpretation. In his latest book, Adaptive dynamics, he provides an overview and analysis of an extensive number of these current, behaviorist models. Theoretical behaviorism comes close to the view of embodied cognition, which also stresses the importance of behavior in contrast to high-level cognition. A detailed picture of the overlaps and differences between the two approaches will be sketched by comparing the two on four separate issues: the conceptualization of behavior, loopy structures, parsimonious explanations, and cognitive behavior. The paper will stress the need for a structural analysis of behavior to gain a better understanding of both behavior and cognition. However, for this purpose, we will need behavioral science rather than behaviorism.


This article is based on an exploration of the involvement of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) at congregational level in the struggle against poverty, unemployment and social injustice in present-day South Africa. The exploration arises from the thesis that South African citizens continue to regard poverty, unemployment and social injustice as the key challenges to be met in order to build a healthy nation. Historically, the DRC acted as a prominent partner of the government to address the basic needs of the poor and the sick, especially among the country's white population. But the structural and social changes that followed the transformation to the new democratic South Africa impacted significantly on this partnership. This in turn required that the role of the DRC in addressing social issues in the country be revisited. The essential purpose of this article is, firstly, to provide better insight into the nature and extent of the current social services rendered by congregations of the DRC in addressing the challenges of poverty, unemployment and social injustice; and secondly, from this vantage point, to present some recommendations in conclusion on how the DRC could, in terms of its own striving towards even deeper and more effective social engagement, further enhance its contribution to address the identified challenges at congregational level.


An instructional approach is presented to improve human performance in solving Bayesian inference problems. Starting from the original text of the classic Mammography Problem, the textual expression is modified and visualizations are added according to Mayer's principles of instruction. These principles concern coherence, personalization, signaling, segmenting, multimedia, spatial contiguity, and pretraining. Principles of self-explanation and interactivity are also applied. Four experiments on the Mammography Problem showed that these principles help participants answer the questions at significantly improved rates. Nonetheless, in novel interactivity conditions, performance was lowered suggesting that more interaction can add more difficulty for participants. Overall, a leap forward in accuracy was found, with more than twice the participant accuracy of previous work. This indicates that an instructional approach to improving human performance in Bayesian inference is a promising direction.


This paper describes and empirically tests a number of candidate measures of cumulative deprivation to monitor child well-being in the EU.The authors posit that the ideal measure should be sensitive to changes in the depth of cumulative deprivation and, given its broad use in the policy community, has an intuitive interpretation. Using the 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data, the authors constructed several measures of cumulative deprivation from a set of 13 deprivation indicators for Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.


This paper describes a new environment for the pre-operative planning of total hip replacement. The system is based on a multimodal/multisensorial interface, which includes advanced software visualisation and evaluation modules for the planning and state-of-the-art technologies for immersive interface (stereoscopic display, different six degrees of freedom tracking technologies, speech recognition, and haptic feedbacks). This paper is focused on the final clinical application description. More specific visualisation-related modules are described in other related papers.


More than 50% of the annual worldwide harvest of mussels is produced in Europe. The mussel cultivation in Germany is based on an extensive on-bottom culture and depends entirely on natural resources for food, spat and space. Due to stakeholder conflicts and a lack of spat availability, mussel farmers tend to move offshore where space is not limited and adequate settlement guaranteed. Newcomers – the offshore wind farmers – are covering large areas in the German Bight which in contrast give the opportunity to use these areas in a multifunctional way by accepting mussel cultivation within the wind farms. This study compiles the basic data for offshore mussel cultivation in close vicinity to a designated offshore wind farm in the open sea of the German Bight and employs different case-scenario calculations to illustrate the impact of changing parameter values on overall profitability or non-profitability of this activity. Primary focus is placed on the production of consumer mussels but seed mussel cultivation is also taken into consideration. We show that production of consumer mussels with longline technology is sufficiently profitable even under the assumption of substantial cost increases. This is especially true, if existing capacities could be used. The cultivation of seed mussels depends on the possibility of using existing equipment. A substantial increase of seed mussel prices to at least 0.6 €, given the main cost categories remaining constant, turns this alternative into substantial profitability. This study concludes with providing some recommendations on how favorable terms or actions could further improve profitability of offshore mussel cultivation. Altogether, our results are intended to shed some light on business management topics that future offshore mariculture operators such as traditional mussel farmers should follow in order to be efficient.


About the book: This guide to the orchestra and orchestral life is unique in the breadth of its coverage. It combines orchestral history and orchestral repertory with a practical bias offering critical thought about the past, present and future of the orchestra as a sociological and as an artistic phenomenon. This approach reflects many of the current global discussions about the orchestra's continued role in a changing society. Other topics discussed include the art of orchestration, scorereading, conductors and conducting, international orchestras, recording, as well as consideration of what it means to be an orchestral musician, an educator, or an informed listener. Written by experts in the field, the book will be of academic and practical interest to a wide-ranging readership of music historians and professional or amateur musicians as well as an invaluable resource for all those contemplating a career in the performing arts.


The Declaration of Independence is a beautifully written document; it is a potent symbol of our nation's birth and founding principles; but it does not and should not play a unique role in constitutional interpretation. Instead, the Declaration is one source, among many, of the Constitution's original meaning. I make three arguments to support this thesis.

First and theoretically, I argue that mainline originalist theory has no analytical space within it for the Declaration to play a special role in constitutional interpretation. To illustrate this, I describe the most prominent conception of originalism—public meaning originalism. Then, I show that public meaning originalism's process to ascertain the Constitution's original meaning treats the Declaration as one source of original meaning, and that its importance as a source therefore depends on the empirical-historical question of whether the original meaning in fact did privilege it.

This leads me to my second main argument, based on history. I make three moves to show that the Declaration did not play a unique interpretive role. First, I describe how the Framers and Ratifiers did not use the Declaration as the unique interpretive key to constitutional interpretation. Second, I show that, because the Declaration was inconsistent with the Constitution's text, it cannot be the interpretive key to the Constitution. Third, I explain that it was only after the Founding, during times of moral crisis, that Americans in various social movements turned to the Declaration to support their out-of-the-mainstream constitutional interpretations. This phenomenon shows that appeals to the Declaration are motived by a desire for political and social change extrinsic to the Constitution.

Third and jurisprudentially, I show that our current constitutional practice does not recognize the Declaration as playing a unique role in constitutional interpretation. I focus on the Constitution's text, current legal practice, and Supreme Court practice.


INTRODUCTION: The study investigated dietary intake, physical activity and risk for chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDL) among employees at a South African open-cast diamond mine. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to determine the habits and barriers to a healthy lifestyle in order to determine the need for workplace interventions at De Beers Venetia Mine (DB-VM) to decrease the risk for CDL and optimise employee wellness. DESIGN: An analytical, cross-sectional, observational study. SAMPLING: A representative proportional stratified sample of 88 permanent employees at DB-VM was randomly selected to participate in the study. The sample was stratified according to work-shift configuration and occupational category. Permanent employees were limited to subjects with at least six months employment at DB-VM. Temporary employees and contractors were excluded from the sample. METHODS: Subjects were required to complete a validated self-administered sociodemographic-, meal frequencyand physical activity questionnaire. A validated quantified food frequency questionnaire was administered by the investigator. Anthropometric measurements including weight, height and waist circumference were performed by the investigator. RESULTS: The study documented a high prevalence of obesity among female (45%) and male (32%) employees. A total energy intake above the Estimated Energy Requirement (EER) was found in 38% of males and 64% of female subjects. Fourty eight percent of males and 64% of female subjects exceeded the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Rate (AMDR) for total fat intake, while the mean saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake was above the recommendation of less than 10% of total energy intake. An inadequate fibre intake was observed for 87% of males and 55% of female subjects. Folate intakes below the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) were found in 62% male and 82% of female subjects. A "low active" physical activity level (PAL) was found in 91% of females and 67% of professionals. Significantly more females (p=0.01) and professionals (p=0.00005) demonstrated a "low active" PAL compared to males and other occupational categories. Work-related barriers to a healthy lifestyle such as long working hours, work demands, a long commute and working shifts contributed to skipping of meals and prevention of physical activity participation among employees. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among employees characterised by high fat and inadequate fibre intakes, increasing the risk for CDL. Work-related barriers contributed to an unhealthy lifestyle and specific interventions at the workplace would appear necessary to decrease the high prevalence of obesity and risk for CDL. RECOMMENDATIONS: Wellness interventions should be introduced at DB-VM to improve the health and well-being of employees.


Some aspects of the ability of locusts and grasshoppers (Acrididae) to compensate for nutritional shortfalls were studied, with a special emphasis on the factors which constrain this ability. Chapter 1 investigates the effects over the short-term (12 h) of the plant-produced allelochemical tannic acid on the ability of Locusta migratoria (L.) and Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal) to compensate for dilution of dietary proteins and carbohydrates by increasing consumption. Tannic acid had no effect on compensatory feeding by L. migratoria , and stimulated feeding by S. gregaria . Chapter 2 extends this study over the longer-term (fifth instar) for L. migratoria. Over this period, tannic acid restricted intake and reduced growth of those insects fed lowprotein diets, indicating an inhibitory effect on compensatory feeding for protein. In addition, the levels of dietary proteins influenced regulation for carbohydrate intake and, to a lesser extent, vice-versa. A detailed discussion is presented of the ways that some dietary components can influence the intake of others, and how failure to take this into account can lead to poor experimental design and interpretation. Chapter 3 investigates some mechanisms involved in dietary selection by the grasshopper Schistocerca americana (Drury). It was found that S. americana conditioned on distinctly flavoured protein-inadequate diets then tested on nutritionally similar diets with the familiar or a novel flavour, tend to eat more of the novel-flavoured diets. This suggests that conditioned neophilia, possibly in conjunction with aversion learning, may be a factor facilitating dietary selection in acridids. Chapter 4 investigates the patterns of feeding and dietary selection behaviour of the polyphagous grasshopper Taeniopoda eques (Burmeister) in its natural desert habitat. Despite the overwhelming thermoregulatory requirements and unpredictable variability inherent in ecological complexity, these insects nonetheless maintained a pattern of feeding comparable to that observed under controlled laboratory conditions. The patterns of dietary selection behaviour were concordant with some of the mechanisms observed to operate in the laboratory. Chapter 5 addresses an important inadequacy in the methodology currently used to investigate some aspects of nutritional compensation. A computer-generated data set is used to illustrate how the analysis of the currently popular ratio-based nutritional indices may be flawed, and how this may be overcome using as an alternative the analysis of covariance.


The inability of active managers to consistently outperform capitalization–weighted benchmarks can be explained by a mismatch between those benchmarks and the underlying nature of active management. The authors show that this mismatch cannot be effectively addressed either through macro–level risk controls or through improved stock selection. They develop a new approach to risk management that emphasizes diversification at the individual stock level and offers significant improvements in risk–return efficiency and portfolio manager consistency; This new approach to risk management is also significantly easier to incorporate into a bottom–up investment process. Plan sponsors can further can further improve the value of active management through combinations of new, more portfolio manager–friendly active manager benchmarks and completion indexes that move the overall allocations back to their original capitalization–weighted benchmarks.


Methylammonium
lead iodide (MAPI) is a prototypical photo absorber in perovskite solar cells
(PSCs), reaching efficiencies above 20%. However, its hygroscopic nature has prompted
the quest to find water-resistant alternatives. Recent studies have suggested
that mixing MAPI with lower dimensional, bulky-A-site-cation perovskites helps mitigate this environmental
instability. On the other hand, low dimensional perovskites suffer from poor
device performance, which has been suggested to be due to limited out-of-plane
charge carrier mobility resulting from structural dimensionality and large
binding energy of the charge carriers. To understand the effects of
dimensionality on performance, we systematically mixed MA-based 3D perovskites with
larger A-site cation,
dimethylammonium, iso-propylammonium, and t-butylammonium lead iodide
perovskites. During the shift from MAPI to lower dimensional (LD) PSCs, the
efficiency is significantly reduced by 2 orders of magnitude, with
short-circuit currents decreasing from above 20 mA/cm2 to less than
1 mA/cm2. In order to explain these decrease in performance, we
studied the charge carrier mobilities of these materials using optical-pump/
terahertz-probe, time-resolved microwave photoconductivity, and
photoluminescence measurements. The results show that as we add more of the low
dimensional perovskites, the mobility decreases by a factor of 20 when it reaches
pure LD perovskites. In addition, the photoluminescence decay fitting is
slightly slower for the mixed perovskites, suggesting some improvement in the
recombination dynamics. These findings indicate that changes in structural
dimensionality by mixing A-site
cations play an important role in measured charge carrier mobility, and in the performance
of perovskite solar cells.


ABSTRACT The emerging paradigm of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in the European Commission policy discourse identifies science education as a key agenda for better equipping students with skills and knowledge to tackle complex societal challenges and foster active citizenship in democratic societies. The operationalisation of this broad approach in science education demands, however, the identification of assessment frameworks able to grasp the complexity of RRI process requirements and learning outcomes within science education practice. This article aims to shed light over the application of the RRI approach in science education by proposing a RRI-based analytical framework for science education assessment. We use such framework to review a sample of empirical studies of science education assessments and critically analyse it under the lenses of RRI criteria. As a result, we identify a set of 86 key RRI assessment indicators in science education related to RRI values, transversal competences and experiential and cognitive aspects of learning. We argue that looking at science education through the lenses of RRI can potentially contribute to the integration of metacognitive skills, emotional aspects and procedural dimensions within impact assessments so as to address the complexity of learning.


As microbial resistence against known antibiotics increases, the search for new
chemical structures becomes more important. Especially marine bacteria are of
particular research interest as natural product producer. To further asses the potential
marine bacteria from different sediments were isolated, cultivated and analyzed with
chemical and biomolecular methods. To bypass the limitations of existing methods for
natural product discovery the search for alternative strategies e.g. genome-based
strategies, is necessary. For example PCR-based screening with special primers is a fast
and efficient possibility to assess the potential of a species to produce natural products.
It can therefore be used to select isolates for further tests.
Over 50% of the investigated isolates (especially Actinobacteria and Firmicutes)
contained gene clusters for non-ribosomal peptidsynthetases (NRPS) or
polyketidsynthases (PKS) and/or show antimicrobial activity against some test
organisms. Of these isolates the representatives of Bacillus amyloliqufaciens were
chosen and their natural product production was compared to each other. The
investigation of equal taxa from different habitats is not common. Nine (out of ten)
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens isolates had secondary metabolite gene clusters and showed
differences in the production of natural products. A location-independent production of
different antimicrobial non-ribosomal lipopeptides (substance classes of surfactin, iturin
and fengycin) and twelve unknown substances could be shown. This demonstrates that
bacteria of the same taxon (16sRNA similarity ≥99,5 %) are a viable source for the
search of new substances.
Especially the taxa Bacillus and Streptomyces are known as good natural product
producer. Two isolates were chosen (gtP20b Bacillus sp. and C42 Streptomyces sp.) and
the metabolites and genomes were analyzed. The crude extract from isolate gtP20b
inhibited the test organisms Xanthomonas campestris and Candida glabrata and it could
detected gene clusters for NRPS with PCR. It produces non-ribosomal lipopeptides
(substance classes iturine, surfactine and fengycine) as well as six unknown substances
in culture. The genome sequencing revealed known NRPS gene clusters as well as
unknown gene clusters for PKS and NRPS/PKS hybrid. The detected lipopeptides of
isolate gtP20b were assigned to annotated NRPS gene clusters. The other putative gene
cluster of PKS and hybridsystems contain a potential for novel natural products. The
identification of these unknown gene cluster is still in progress.
The isolate C42 (Streptomyces sp.) was selected due to inhibiting to Candida glabrata
and NRPS and PKS gene clusters detected during PCR. Two sphingolipids and two new
unknown non-ribosomal peptides were identified with chemical and chromatographic
methods. With HPLS/MS and GC/MS the identity and configuration of the eight amino
acids of peptide m/z 898.9 was detected. The peptid m/z 898.9 contain s D-alanin, Dphenylalanin,
L-valin, D-valin, D-leucin, L- (allo) isoleucin and D- (allo) isoleucin.
Amino acids with the D-configuration can only be incorporated into peptides with
specially NRPS domains. This proves that the new peptide m/z 898.9 is synthesized
with non-ribosomal synthetases. Approximately 60 % of the genome from C42 have
been sequenced. The genome included a number of known and unknown NRPS and
PKS gene cluster with putative products that could not be produced in the lab.
This work shows that the combination of cultivation and genome-based methods allows
to take advantages of biosynthetic potential of marine bacteria. New isolates of known
bacteria taxa from marine sediments show strain specific distinctions in the natural
product production and are good producers for natural products


Fully understanding the relationship between multi-scale structure and thermal properties of rice starch is important for starch-based food processing. Multi-scale structures of Indica rice starch were studied from molecules to aggregation structure. Gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) and high-performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC) both show that the amylopectin from debranched rice starch exhibits bimodal distributions. Compared with amylose-rich rice starch, amylopectin-rich rice starch had the highest molar- and weight-based ratio of fraction fa′ (DP 6–12) and lower molar-based ratios of fractions fb′3 (DP ≥ 37). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) confirm that amylopectin-rich starch has the highest crystallinity and scattering intensity. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show that amylopectin-rich starch has the highest onset and peak gelatinization temperatures; however, there is no significant difference in enthalpy, which may be due to the irregular double helix. Rapid visco-analysis (RVA) shows amylose-rich starch has a higher final and setback viscosity, which may be due to amylose molecule entanglement in starch gel and higher retrogradation ability.


The overall aim of the study was to examine relapse among participants in the DWI Prevention Programme and those who get prison sentence after driving when influenced by alcohol and to examine the participants' attitudes towards drunk – driving, risk behavior and traffic safety. A direct evaluation of the sentence and penal accomplishment is also examined. The sample of the survey study (see article 1) was 44 from the DWI – sample and 44 from the prison – sample that completed a questionnaire answering about their attitudes towards drunk – driving, risk behavior and traffic safety. The results presented in article 2 are based on transcripts of criminal convicts that participated in the DWI Prevention Programme during the period of 1998 – 2002 in the Salten District ( n = 68) and a sample of convicts to an unconditional sentence for drunk - driving in the same time periode (n = 112). The 1st analysis revealed that the DWI – sample had more ideal attitudes towards drunk – driving, risk behavior and traffic safety. There were also significant differences in how they evaluated their sentence and penal accomplishment. The DWI - sample were generally more satisfied with the penal accomplishment, the way they was treated and how the relationships around them were. They were also more satisfied with the contents of the penal accomplishment. Multivariate analysis, Kaplan – Meier and Cox regression was used in the 2nd analysis calculating if there were significant differences between the samples, survival time and to investigate effects of several variables upon the time a specified event takes to happen. In this study the relapse time was shorter for men than for women and the youngest age – groups had a shorter relapse time than the oldest age – groups. The Kaplan – Meier plot revealed that the prison – group have a shorter relapse time compared to the DWI – group. Based on the results of the two articles we can conclude that the DWI Prevention Programme had a very good effect on the participants compared to those who get traditional prison – sentence. The participants in the programme had the most ideal attitudes and the longest survival time after participating. When it comes to survival time among gender and age, women and the older age – groups had the longest survival time.


Sesamum radiatum (Schum. and Thonn) is a traditional leafy vegetable of national importance in Benin. Although, it is cultivated and consumed in many regions of the country, it is still unfortunately neglected by scientific research. In order to fill in the knowledge gaps necessary for its varietal improvement, 16 accessions collected from different agro-ecological zones were characterized using 16 quantitative morphological traits. A significant variability was found among the accessions. Day to flowering, day to fruiting, total biomass, plant height, noose diameter, number of fruits per plant and number of seeds per fruit were some of the most discriminating parameters. Multivariate analysis (principal component analysis and cluster analysis) revealed four distinct agro-morphological groups of varying performance which will be highly useful in varietal improvement. Correlation analyses between descriptors revealed uniquely desired positive and negative relationships hence, indicating predictable success for eventual breeding program. To further investigate the genetic basis of the phenotypic diversity revealed among S. radiatum accessions, the use of molecular markers such as amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) is recommended. (Resume d'auteur)


Understanding the mechanisms by which plants respond to attack is of great ecological and economic importance. When phloem-feeding insects feed they can influence the expression of defence-related genes in the plant. While it is well-documented that the genotype of the feeding insect can influence plant fitness traits, thus far the effect of insect genotype on the induction of defence-related genes in the plant has had relatively little attention. To investigate the molecular specificity of plant–insect interactions, the model plant Hordeum vulgare was exposed to four different genotypes of the aphid Sitobion avenae. When the plants were previously exposed to a specific aphid genotype, the population growth of other aphid genotypes was reduced. A global gene expression study of the barley genome showed that these effects can occur indirectly through physiological changes in the plant. We found 1018 transcripts to be differentially induced by different aphid genotypes, with some specific to one aphid genotype. This work identifies core and genotype-specific plant response genes to aphids and supports the notion that the genotypic composition of the herbivore population can trigger the transcription of different defence-related genes in the host plant, thus affecting the population structure of these herbivores and potentially the wider ecological community.


Although hundreds of evolutionarily conserved microRNAs have been discovered, the functions of most remain unknown. Here, we describe the embryonic spatiotemporal expression profile, transcriptional regulation, and loss-of-function phenotype of Drosophila miR-1 (DmiR-1). DmiR-1 RNA is highly expressed throughout the mesoderm of early embryos and subsequently in somatic, visceral, and pharyngeal muscles, and the dorsal vessel. The expression of DmiR-1 is controlled by the Twist and Mef2 transcription factors. DmiR-1KO mutants, generated using ends-in gene targeting, die as small, immobilized second instar larvae with severely deformed musculature. This lethality is rescued when a DmiR-1 transgene is expressed specifically in the mesoderm and muscle. Strikingly, feeding triggers DmiR-1KO-associated paralysis and death; starved first instar DmiR-1KO larvae are essentially normal. Thus, DmiR-1 is not required for the formation or physiological function of the larval musculature, but is required for the dramatic post-mitotic growth of larval muscle.