The new forms of cultural articulation we are seeing in the uprisings of the Arab Middle East are inseparable from the recent history of mediated culture in the region. In the production, distribution, and consumption of satellite television, as well as in the use and consumption of the global Internet, a new role for the work of the imagination has transformed culture and placed individuals at the centers of their own narratives in profound ways. This has led to the rejection of the tired, official narratives that have long dominated official mediated production in the Arab Middle East, and it continues to encourages Arabs to imagine themselves as subjects (and not, as the official narratives would have it, objects) of history.


The purpose of this review is to delineate the general features of endocrine regulation of the baroreceptor reflex, as well as specific contributions during pregnancy. In contrast to the programmed changes in baroreflex function that occur in situations initiated by central command (e.g., exercise or stress), the complex endocrine milieu often associated with physiological and pathophysiological states can influence the central baroreflex neuronal circuitry via multiple sites and mechanisms, thereby producing varied changes in baroreflex function. During pregnancy, baroreflex gain is markedly attenuated, and at least two hormonal mechanisms contribute, each at different brain sites: increased levels of the neurosteroid 3alpha-hydroxy-dihydroprogesterone (3alpha-OH-DHP), acting in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM), and reduced actions of insulin in the forebrain. 3alpha-OH-DHP appears to potentiate baroreflex-independent GABAergic inhibition of premotor neurons in the RVLM, which decreases the range of sympathetic nerve activity that can be elicited by changes in arterial pressure. In contrast, reductions in the levels or actions of insulin in the brain blunt baroreflex efferent responses to increments or decrements in arterial pressure. Although plasma levels of angiotensin II are increased in pregnancy, this is not responsible for the reduction in baroreflex gain, although it may contribute to the increased level of sympathetic nerve activity in this condition. How these different hormonal effects are integrated within the brain, as well as possible interactions with additional potential neuromodulators that influence baroreflex function during pregnancy and other physiological and pathophysiological states, remains to be clearly delineated.


The electronic structure of layered molybdenum trioxide MoO3 is highly sensitive to changes in oxygen stoichiometry as Mo6+ has an empty 4d shell. Applications of MoO3 are responsive to small changes in vacancy concentration, with some functions relying on a narrow window of oxygen nonstoichiometry. Difficulties in analyzing the energetics of oxygen vacancies by computational methods stem from the inability to accurately model the layered structure of MoO3. One unit cell parameter is governed by long-range forces across the structural gaps, and these dispersed interactions are not well described by conventional density functional theory (DFT) methods. With the exchange functional vdW-DF2, we accurately model the structure, in good agreement with experimental data. This basis allows exploration of the effect of oxygen nonstoichiometry on the electronic structure and properties of the oxygen-deficient material. The layered structure efficiently screens the structural perturbations caused by oxygen vacancies...


This paper is an introduction to the Advances in Irrigation Special Collection in this issue of Transactions ASABE and the next issue of Applied Engineering in Agriculture of 14 papers selected from 88 papers and presentations at the ASABE 5th Decennial National Irrigation Symposium, December 2010, in Phoenix, Arizona. This symposium followed the objectives of the previous four decennial events to provide a forum to assess progress of research endeavors to advance the effectiveness of irrigation practices during the past 10 years, leading to further research priorities that respond to future challenges. The papers in this Collection address a wide range of topics grouped into broad categories: microirrigation, center pivot irrigation, crop water use for improved irrigation management, and smart irrigation controllers for landscape irrigation. While these papers are not inclusive of all irrigation work since the last decennial symposium, they do provide a snapshot of work considered important by researchers, funding agencies and other stakeholders. Many aspects of irrigation have changed since the first symposium in 1970. Although microirrigation is a small proportion of irrigated acreage, it will continue to increase in highly technical commercial food and fiber production as well as in subsistence farming. Center pivot irrigation systems have been an important tool to deliver water more efficiently in diverse settings. Advanced telemetry and control systems, developed during the past 10 years, are now common options for center pivots, but challenges remain to integrate those hardware developments into crop management practices. Possibilities are emerging for adding monitoring devices to center pivots to match crop water needs with water delivery. Energy balance models continue to be refined as tools to estimate crop water use from both ground and satellite based data. Evapotranspiration estimates are evolving from single location weather stations to whole-field or regional scopes. Finally, "smart" irrigation controllers have coupled evapotranspiration estimation or soil-water sensing with automated irrigation system water delivery. These controllers can increase the precision of irrigation to match crop or landscape water needs. Irrigation will continue to be an important practice for producing the world's food. The irrigation research and education professions will need to respond to food production challenges with even more refined irrigation systems and water management in the next 10 years. However, research investment in irrigation continues to decline when important issues exist, such as: maintaining agricultural profitability with declining water supplies, integrating sensor-based information for real-time autonomous or semi-autonomous management, competition for limited water supplies between agriculture and other sectors, increasing energy cost, environmental impacts of irrigation, and use of alternative water sources (i.e., lower quality) for irrigation.


This paper outlines a method for detecting and assessing the strength of social interactions through a changes-in-changes design. The proposed approach is based on a linear-in-means model and aims to resolve the "reflection problem", unobserved heterogeneities and endogenous group formation that plague identification of social interactions. Using longitudinal data from Add Health with rarely collected information on peer group's composition, we explore an exogenous variation in peer's drug use induced by a "mover friend" that occurs between Add Health's survey periods. This quasi-experiment shares a similar nature of a policy intervention of removing drug-user friends from a peer group. Such treatment-control group differences together with changes over time form the basis of our changes-in-changes design. Our study confirms a strong endogenous effect, which in turn motivates a "social multiplier", both of which are large enough to be relevant and are well worth attention to policy makers, researchers, health-care providers and educators for better understanding of how to protect young people and secure our future.


Abstract. Multi-wavelength depolarization Raman lidar measurements from Magurele, Romania are used in this study along with simulated mass-extinction efficiencies to calculate the mass concentration profiles of different atmospheric components, due to their different depolarization contribution to the 532 nm backscatter coefficient. Linear particle depolarization ratio (δpart) was computed using the relative amplification factor and the system-dependent molecular depolarization. The low depolarizing component was considered as urban/smoke, with a mean δpart of 3%, while for the high depolarizing component (mineral dust) a mean δpart of 35% was assumed. For this study 11 months of lidar measurements were analysed. Two study cases are presented in details: one for a typical Saharan dust aerosol intrusion, 10 June 2012 and one for 12 July 2012 when a lofted layer consisting of biomass burning smoke extended from 3 to 4.5 km height. Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds software package (OPAC) classification and conversion factors were used to calculate mass concentrations. We found that calibrated depolarization measurements are critical in distinguishing between smoke-reach aerosol during the winter and dust-reach aerosol during the summer, as well as between elevated aerosol layers having different origins. Good agreement was found between lidar retrievals and DREAM- Dust REgional Atmospheric Model forecasts in cases of Saharan dust. Our method was also compared against LIRIC (The Lidar/Radiometer Inversion Code) and very small differences were observed.


Introduction: Prone position has been used since the 1970s as a rescue therapy to treat severe hypoxemia in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Despite numerous observational and randomized controlled trials showing the effectiveness of prone position in improving oxygenation, mortality benefit was demonstrated only recently in the PROSEVA study1. Intensivists taking care of patients with ARDS should be aware about the physiological changes during prone ventilation, the latest evidence available and challenges that can be encountered in managing such patients. Physiology of prone position ventilation: When a person is supine, the weight of the ventral lungs, heart, and abdominal viscera increase dorsal pleural pressure. This compression reduces transpulmonary pressure in the dorsal lung regions. The increased mass of the edematous ARDS lung further increases the ventral-dorsal pleural pressure gradient and reduces regional ventilation of dependent dorsal regions. The ventral heart is estimated to contribute approximately an additional 3 to 5 cm of water pressure to the underlying lung tissue. In addition to the weight of the heart, intraabdominal pressure is preferentially transmitted through the diaphragm, further compressing dorsal regions. Although these factors tend to collapse dependent dorsal regions, the gravitational gradient in vascular pressures preferentially perfuses these regions, yielding a region of low ventilation and high perfusion, manifesting clinically as hypoxemia. Placing a person in the prone position reduces the pleural pressure gradient from nondependent to dependent regions, in part through gravitational effects and conformational shape matching of the lung to the chest cavity2[Figure 1]. Clinical evidence: A few large randomized clinical trials, conducted over a period of 15 years, investigated the possible benefit of prone position on ARDS outcome [Table 1]. The improvements in oxygenation apparent in most trials were not associated with improvements in mortality, suggesting that oxygenation is not itself the source of improved survival with prone positioning. Most recently, the PROSEVA study group1 enrolled 466 subjects with moderate-to-severe ARDS. Mortality at 28 and 90 days was significantly lower with prone position versus supine position (16% vs 33%, respectively, p < 0.001, and 24% vs 41%, respectively, p < 0.001). Challenges: There are only a few absolute contraindications to prone positioning, such as unstable vertebral fractures and unmonitored or significantly increased intracranial pressure. Hemodynamic instability and cardiac rhythm disturbances are some of the relative contraindications. The common complications of prone positioning are pressure ulcers, ventilator-associated pneumonia and endotracheal tube obstruction. More serious fatal events such as accidental extubation is rare (zero to 2.4% prevalence). A recent meta-analysis of the safety and efficacy of the maneuver showed that it is safe and inexpensive but requires teamwork and skill. Reports in the literature suggest that the incidence of adverse events is significantly reduced in the presence of trained and experienced staff. Thus, centers with less experience may have difficulty managing complications, but nursing care protocols and guidelines can mitigate this risk4. Conclusion: Prone position ventilation in patients with moderate-to-severe ARDS improves hypoxemia, provides mortality benefit and is relatively safe.


Abstract c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling contributes to functional plasticity in the brain and cognition. Accumulating evidence implicates a role for MAP kinase kinase 7 (MAP2K7), a JNK activator encoded by the Map2k7 gene, and other JNK pathway components in schizophrenia (ScZ). Mice haploinsufficient for Map2k7 (Map2k7+/− mice) display ScZ-relevant cognitive deficits, although the mechanisms are unclear. Here we show that Map2k7+/− mice display translationally relevant alterations in brain function, including hippocampal and mesolimbic system hypermetabolism with a contrasting prefrontal cortex (PFC) hypometabolism, reminiscent of patients with ScZ. In addition Map2k7+/− mice show alterations in functional brain network connectivity paralleling those reported in early ScZ, including PFC and hippocampal hyperconnectivity and compromised mesolimbic system functional connectivity. We also show that although the cerebral metabolic response to ketamine is preserved, the response to dextroamphetamine (d-amphetamine) is significantly attenuated in Map2k7+/− mice, supporting monoamine neurotransmitter system dysfunction but not glutamate/NMDA receptor (NMDA-R) dysfunction as a consequence of Map2k7 haploinsufficiency. These effects are mirrored behaviorally with an attenuated impact of d-amphetamine on sensorimotor gating and locomotion, whereas similar deficits produced by ketamine are preserved, in Map2k7+/− mice. In addition, Map2k7+/− mice show a basal hyperactivity and sensorimotor gating deficit. Overall, these data suggest that Map2k7 modifies brain and monoamine neurotransmitter system function in a manner relevant to the positive and cognitive symptoms of ScZ.


Large-scale surveys make huge amounts of photometric data available. Because of the sheer amount of objects, spectral data cannot be obtained for all of them. Therefore it is important to devise techniques for reliably estimating physical properties of objects from photometric information alone. These estimates are needed to automatically identify interesting objects worth a follow-up investigation as well as to produce the required data for a statistical analysis of the space covered by a survey. We argue that machine learning techniques are suitable to compute these estimates accurately and efficiently. This study promotes a feature selection algorithm, which selects the most informative magnitudes and colours for a given task of estimating physical quantities from photometric data alone. Using k nearest neighbours regression, a well-known non-parametric machine learning method, we show that using the found features significantly increases the accuracy of the estimations compared to using standard features and standard methods. We illustrate the usefulness of the approach by estimating specific star formation rates (sSFRs) and redshifts (photo-z's) using only the broad-band photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). For estimating sSFRs, we demonstrate that our method produces better estimates than traditional spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. For estimating photo-z's, we show that our method produces more accurate photo-z's than the method employed by SDSS. The study highlights the general importance of performing proper model selection to improve the results of machine learning systems and how feature selection can provide insights into the predictive relevance of particular input features.


The mechanism by which the adsorbent chenodeoxycholate, cografted with a sensitizer onto TiO2 nanocrystals, alters the open-circuit photovoltage and short-circuit current of dye-sensitized solar cells was investigated. The influence of tetrabutylammonium chenodeoxycholate on dye loading was studied under a variety of conditions in which the TiO2 films were exposed to the sensitizing dye and coadsorbent. Photocurrent--voltage measurements combined with desorption studies revealed that adding chenodeoxycholate reduces the dye loading by as much as 60% while having a relatively small effect on the short-circuit photocurrent. Calculations along with measurements showed that even at low loading, enough dye is present to absorb a significant fraction of the incident light in the visible spectrum. In concurrence with the observations of others, we find evidence for weakly and strongly adsorbed forms of the dye resulting from either different binding conformations or aggregates. The most strongly adsorbed dyes are less susceptible to displacement by chenodeoxycholate than those that are weakly adsorbed. While having no observable effect on dye coverage, multiple exposures of a TiO2 film to a dye solution substantially increased the fraction of strongly adsorbed dye as judged by the resistance of the adsorbed dye to displacement by chenodeoxycholate. Measurements of the open-circuit voltage as a function of the photocharge density, determined by infrared transmittance, showed that chenodeoxycholate not only shifts the conduction band edge to negative potentials, but also significantly increases the rate of recombination. The net effect of adding chenodeoxycholate is, however, to improve the photovoltage.


The determination of loads acting on the aircraft is one of the main tasks during aircraft development. The knowledge of loads is important for aircraft design, e.g. for the sizing of the airframe structure, and also for certification. The definition of realistic loads assumptions is important, as well as the generation of loads from simulation and experiment. DLR is involved in a large number of aircraft design activities, and operates a fleet of research aircraft; thus DLR requires in-depth expertise for the definition and the determination of relevant and crucial load cases.
The aim of the project iLOADS is the development of an internal DLR loads process, comprising expertise from different DLR institutes. The goal of the process is to strengthen the assessment capabilities of DLR with respect to the influence of loads on new aircraft configurations, and to support certification capabilities for the DLR aircraft fleet. The loads process will be investigated towards the influence of different analysis approaches on aircraft structural design, and it will be subject to verification and validation on different air-craft configurations.
The paper will give an overview of the background of the iLOADS project, as well as of the work performed in the project. The definition of the loads process as well as the implementations for different applications investigated in the project will be presented in more detail.


This study explores the factors that contribute to students' perceptions of their preparedness for transition from university to work, taking a multidimensional perspective on their academic experience. To that end, a questionnaire was designed and administered to students enrolled in the final year of their master's degree programme. Students were asked to self-assess their preparedness for the transition to the world of work and also self-assess their academic experience by exploring their academic engagement and the knowledge and competencies they developed during their study. Regarding academic engagement, we find that they consider that participation in lectures and the quality in developing collective work have a positive influence on their preparedness for work, while regular attendance at lectures appears to be negatively associated with their perceptions of their preparedness. The results also show that the practical and theoretical content, together with methodological and employability competencies, have a positive impact on students' perceptions of their preparedness for transition to work. Thus, the promotion of learning experiences fostering methodological and practical competencies, together with more collective career-related experience and employability skills, may better help prepare graduates for the transition to work.


In randomly heterogeneous porous media one cannot predict flow behavior with certainty. One can, however, render optimum unbiased predictions of such behavior by means of conditional ensemble mean hydraulic heads and fluxes. We have shown in paper 1 [Tartakovsky and Neuman, this issue] that under transient flow, these optimum predictors are governed by nonlocal equations. In particular, the conditional mean flux is generally nonlocal in space‐time and therefore non‐Darcian. As such, it cannot be associated with an effective hydraulic conductivity except in special cases. Here we explore analytically situations under which localization is possible so that Darcy's law applies in real, Laplace, and/or infinite Fourier transformed spaces, approximately or exactly, with or without conditioning. We show that the corresponding conditional effective hydraulic conductivity tensor is generally nonsymmetric. An alternative to Darcy's law in each case, valid under mean no‐flow conditions along Neumann boundaries, is a quasi‐Darcian form that includes only a symmetric tensor which, however, does not constitute a bona fide effective hydraulic conductivity. Both lack of symmetry and differences between Darcian and quasi‐Darcian forms disappear to first (but not necessarily higher) order of approximation in the (conditional) variance of natural log hydraulic conductivity. We adopt such an approximation to investigate analytically the effect of temporal nonlocality on one‐and three‐dimensional mean flows in infinite, statistically homogeneous media. Our results show that temporal nonlocality may manifest itself under either monotonic or oscillatory time variations in the mean hydraulic gradient. The effect of temporal nonlocality increases with the variance of log hydraulic conductivity and is more pronounced in one dimension than in three.


BACKGROUND
Recent evidence suggests that patient outcomes are not affected by the offering of family presence during resuscitation (FPDR), and that psychological outcomes are neutral or improved in family members of adult patients. The exclusion of family members from the resuscitation area should, therefore, be reassessed.

OBJECTIVE
The present Canadian Critical Care Society position paper is designed to help clinicians and institutions decide whether to incorporate FPDR as part of their routine clinical practice, and to offer strategies to implement FPDR successfully.

METHODS
The authors conducted a literature search of the perspectives of health care providers, patients and families on the topic of FPDR, and considered the relevant ethical values of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice in light of the clinical evidence for FPDR. They reviewed randomized controlled trials and observational studies of FPDR to determine strategies that have been used to screen family members, select appropriate chaperones and educate staff.

RESULTS
FPDR is an ethically sound practice in Canada, and may be considered for the families of adult and pediatric patients in the hospital setting. Hospitals that choose to implement FPDR should develop transparent policies regarding which family members are to be offered the opportunity to be present during the resuscitation. Experienced chaperones should accompany and support family members in the resuscitation area. Intensive educational interventions and increasing experience with FPDR are associated with increased support for the practice from health care providers.

CONCLUSIONS
FPDR should be considered to be an important component of patient and family-centred care.


A novel electrochemical sensor for acrylamide (AM) detection based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) membranes was constructed. p-Aminothiophenol (P-ATP) and AM were assembled on the surface of a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) modified glass carbon electrode (GCE) by the formation of Au–S bonds and hydrogen-bonding interactions, and polymer membranes were formed by electropolymerization in a polymer solution containing P-ATP, HAuCl4, tetrabutylammonium perchlorate (TBAP) and a dummy template molecule propanamide (PMA). A novel molecularly imprinted sensor (MIS) was obtained after the removal of PMA. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) measurements were used to monitor the electropolymerization process and its optimization, which was further characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The linear response range of the MIS was between 1 × 10−12 and 1 × 10−7 mol L−1, with a detection limit of 0.5 × 10−12 mol L−1. This research provides a fast, sensitive and real-time method for the detection of AM in a real sample without complex pretreatment and with average recoveries higher than 95% and a relative standard deviation (RSD) lower than 3.73%. All the obtained results indicate that the MIS is an effective electrochemical technique to determine AM in real-time and in a complicated matrix.


Involving people who do not have programming background in assembling and tailoring service-based applications promises to open up access to the creativity of millions of users. An increasing number of development environments aim to do this by offering drag-and-drop visual representations connecting different service components into an assembly. In contrast to the majority of these, we did not start with the technology but with the users - service producers and consumers, and studied the core issues which should be resolved before people who are not programmers can start to assemble services into meaningful applications, over and above the presentation-level integration offered by current mash-up environments. The result is an assisted approach to service composition for end users, which uses semantic technologies to shield users from the irrelevant complexity of service technology and from the need to manually resolve dependencies between services. The approach was evaluated by a focus group of non-technical users, who ranked it highly and provided valuable suggestions for further improvements and supporting features.


Do information technology investments improve firm profitability? If so, is this effect because such investments help improve sales, or is it because they help reduce overall operating expenses? How does the effect of IT on profitability compare with that of advertising and of research and development? These are important questions because investments in IT constitute a large part of firms' discretionary expenditures, and managers need to understand the likely impacts and mechanisms to justify and realize value from their IT and related resource allocation processes. The empirical evidence in this paper, derived using archival data from 1998 to 2003 for more than 400 global firms, suggests that IT has a positive impact on profitability. Importantly, the effect of IT investments on sales and profitability is higher than that of other discretionary investments, such as advertising and R&D. A significant portion of the impact of IT on firm profitability is accounted for by ITenabled revenue growth, but there is no evidence for the effect of IT on profitability through operating cost reduction. Taken together, these findings suggest that firms have had greater success in achieving higher profitability through IT-enabled revenue growth than through IT-enabled cost reduction. They also provide important implications for managers to make allocations among discretionary expenditures such as IT, advertising, and R&D. With regard to IT expenditures, the results imply that firms should accord higher priority to IT projects that have revenue growth potential over those that focus mainly on cost savings. 1


In a recent speech before the Institute for International Economics, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick did a fairly convincing job of knocking down a straw man in his discussion of environmental concerns over trade. "Given America respect for our sovereign authority to set environmental standards," he said, "we need to be cautious about infringing on others' sovereignty by trying to compel their standards through trade agreements." Unfortunately, Zoellick appears to have listened to everyone except environmentalists in determining what concerns we actually have. Environmentalists do not seek to use international trade to set air pollution standards for New Delhi, water pollution rules in Johannesburg, or standards for genetically modified foods in Italy. We do not expect the World Trade Organization (WTO) to solve the world's environmental problems. Instead, we hope it will not worsen those problems or tilt the playing field against efforts in other arenas to achieve planetary sustainability. Globally, we seek a rules-based system that allows, and ideally encourages, societies to internalize the environmental costs of economic activities. We want to avoid three kinds of subsidies: subsidizing local producers at the expense of local communities, subsidizing present generations at the expense of future generations, and subsidizing global commodity production at the expense of the global commons. What we have received, instead, is a rules-based trade system that discourages and, in some cases, effectively prohibits certain kinds of environmental protection strategies while setting the global economy against the internalization of environmental costs. Advocates of the current system argue that existing trade rules do not encourage a "race to the bottom" with regard to environmental standards because the WTO subsidy rules could, in theory, allow challenges to a nation that degraded its existing environmental standards to gain a trade advantage. But it is not this kind of extreme race to the bottom that most concerns environmentalists. Greenless Subsidies Since 1960, the global trend in virtually all countries has been toward stronger environmental standards. Indeed, only a global race to the top can achieve planetary sustainability. If WTO rules discourage nations from improving their environmental stewardship, then environmentalists have good reason for concern. But in a recent issue of the Harvard International Review ("National Sovereignty and the World Trading System," HIR, Winter 2001), economists Kyle Bagwell and Robert Staiger concede that "if a country were to significantly improve its existing standards in a way that raised the production costs of domestic firms, it might wish to unilaterally raise its tariffs... This degree of unilateral flexibility is not provided for under the WTO rules." By focusing on national efforts to maintain domestic markets for domestic producers, Bagwell and Staiger ignore the heart of the problem: the most critical environmental threats to planetary sustainability are overwhelmingly concentrated in commodity production. Environmental damage is largely caused by agriculture, logging, mining, energy production, and fisheries. These industries are, in most countries, export-driven. Unfortunately, current WTO rules explicitly prohibit subsidies to exports in the form of financial aid, but implicitly allow subsidies in the form of environmental degradation. For example, Canada cannot provide economic assistance to its timber industry in the form of replanting subsidies, but it can allow logging without replanting. Clearly, the odds of adopting an environmentally sound policy with such perverse incentives in place are dramatically lowered. The WTO system is biased. It favors the least environmentally protective methods for countries seeking to increase the market share of their producers. There is no logical or systematic basis for this discrimination. …


neurological disorder with a prevalence of less than 1/1,000,000 [1]. Recently, a number of genes have been identified, known to be associated with familial primary brain calcification (PFBC), causing Fahr's disease or syndrome [1]. These genes are SCL20A2, PDGFB, PDGFRB and XPR1, and a significant correlation was found between the presence of headache in PDGFB mutations, and parkinsonism with SLC20A2 [2]. We present the case of a 49-year-old woman with Greenlandic Inuit origin and an otherwise unremarkable medical history. She initially presented with symptoms of headache and diplopia. She was referred to a CT scan of the cerebrum, which showed bilateral calcifications of the thalamus and corpus striatum (Figures 1 and 2) compatible with Fahr's syndrome [1]. Shortly after, the patient developed tremor of the right hand, fatigability especially of her right side, dizziness, and minor cognitive decline. Laboratory studies showed no metabolic disorders such as hypopituitarism, parathyroid disturbances or significant changes in the calcium-phosphate metabolism, besides a minimal hypocalcaemia (free calcium: 1.12 mmol/L, reference 1.17–1.34 mmol/L), which was interpreted as secondary to D-vitamin deficiency (13 nmol/L), very common in the arctic region. No other primary cause for brain calcification was detected, and the patient has a younger sister, who is also diagnosed with Fahr's syndrome, suggestive of an inherited type. The present case shows that symptoms of Fahr's syndrome may be few. Furthermore, this exemplifies that neurological manifestations may be confined to one side of the body, despite the presence of bilateral calcifications [1]. This case illustrates the importance of neuroimaging for establishing the diagnosis. Competing Interests The authors have no competing interests to declare.


Germany and the United States entered the post-9/11 era as allies, but they will leave it as partners of convenience --or even possibly as rivals. The first comprehensive examination of the German-American relationship written since the invasion of Iraq, Parting Ways is indispensable for those seeking to chart the future course of the transatlantic alliance. In early 2003, it became apparent that many nations, including close allies of the United States, would not participate in the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq. Despite the high-profile tension between the United States and France, some of the most bitter opposition came from Germany, marking the end not only of the German-American "special relationship," but also of the broader transatlantic relationship's preeminence in Western strategic thought. Drawing on extensive research and personal interviews with decisionmakers and informed observers in both the United States and Germany, Stephen F. Szabo frames the clash between Gerhard Schroder and George W. Bush over U.S. policy in Iraq in the context of the larger changes shaping the relationship between the two countries. Szabo considers such longer-term factors as the decreasing strategic importance of the U.S.-German relationship for each nation in the post-cold war era, the emergence of a new German identity within Germany itself, and a U.S. foreign policy led by what is arguably the most ideological administration of the post-World War II era.


Executive Coaching is now widely applied in organisations to bring about improvements in performance through individual focussed development. Coaches work with their clients to agree outcomes for their work together and then use their skills in a structured conversation to bring about change. The change they write of is an unfolding of the limitless human potential that resides within each of us, which is accessed by removing obstacles or interferences. The view that I present in this portfolio is significantly different to this predominant thinking and makes an important contribution to the practice of coaching, as a coach, client or line manager. I see the change that can happen in coaching, or indeed in any conversation, as occurring as movements of power. Patterns of power-relating, I argue, differentiate individual and collective identities. Coaching then, is the patterning of power-relating that has the potential for further differentiating and so transforming the identities of all those involved in the coaching process. I perceive power as ongoing patterns that paradoxically form and are formed by the processes of relating between human bodies. I argue that the complex patterning of power, that enables and constrains the actions of each person, creates identity. Identity is therefore a socially created phenomenon, simultaneously forming and being formed by the processes of relating. The differentiating patterning of power transforms identity through changes in our experience of inclusion and exclusion. From this perspective, the change that occurs in coaching assumes transformative causality instead of the dual rationalist and formative causalities that underpin the predominant approaches to executive coaching. This portfolio explores the nature of change in organisations, focussing more intensely, in each paper, on conversations as organisational change, culminating in the exploration of executive coaching as conversations initiated to create change. Through the methodology of participative inquiry, this research provides a way of


AbstractThe Code of Ethics of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is based on four ethical principles that are ranked in a hierarchy of importance. The code states that when these principles conflict, decisions should usually be based on relative rank order. A study was conducted to see whether pre - professional psychology students would endorse solutions to ethical dilemmas that were consistent with the ranking of principles recommended in the code. In response to a series of vignettes pitting the four CPA principles against one another, participants endorsed choices in a statistically significant pattern of decreasing frequency that was consistent with the ranking. There was also considerable variation in responses to vignettes that pitted the same two principles against each other, indicating that context affects decisions about what is ethical. Results are discussed with regard to training in professional ethics.Traditionally, codes of ethics for psychologists have consisted of lists of rules that describe and codify expected ethical behaviour. There is rarely any attempt to apply a consistent moral theory in developing these rules. The Canadian Psychological Association broke with that tradition when it produced its Code of Ethics for Psychologists in 1986, revised in 1991. The stated objectives of the creators of the code were, among other things, to produce a document that was internally consistent, reflected explicit moral principles, and included guidelines for decision - making (Sinclair, Poizner, Gilmour - Barret & Randall, 1987). To attempt to meet these objectives, the code makers went beyond the usual practice of basing the code solely on members' practices and/or opinions. They identified four fundamental ethical principles and used them to structure the code. To simplify decision - making, principles were ranked in order of the relative weight they should be given when they are in conflict.Although the Canadian code has received positive evaluation in various settings (e.g., Eberlein, 1988; O'Neill, 1990; Pettifor, 1988), it is not known whether persons obliged to use the code would normally give the principles their recommended weight. This paper investigates the code's ranking of principles by looking at the correspondence between the ranking and the choices made by college students working toward careers in psychology.DEVELOPMENT OF THE CANADIAN CODEUntil 1977, the CPA routinely adopted each revision of the American Psychological Association (APA) Code of Ethics almost without alteration. The APA code, throughout all its revisions from the adoption of the first code in 1953, has been based on an empirical and inductive approach in formulating guidelines: Principles are derived from psychologists' experiences in resolving ethical problems (APA, 1982).The CPA did not accept the 1977 version of the APA code and decided to develop its own (Sinclair et al., 1987). Dissatisfaction with the adoption of APA codes had grown over time, but the CPA decision, made in 1979, was provoked specifically by American revision of restrictions on advertising to conform with U.S. law. The emphasis on the commercial aspects of the profession was an approach that the Canadian organization did not accept (Sinclair, 1993).A first step taken in the development of a Canadian code of ethics was a thorough analysis of the 1977 APA code by the CPA Committee on Ethics. The committee used international and interdisciplinary ethics literature as a frame of reference. Four general goals of ethics codes adopted by professional organizations were identified:1) To help establish the group as a profession;2) To act as a support and guide to individual professionals;3) To help meet the responsibilities of being a profession;4) To provide a statement of moral principle that helps the individual professional to resolve ethical dilemmas (Sinclair et al. …


In this paper we present an analysis of assembly code for safety-critical embedded environments. Since local and global variables are the core concepts affecting the control flow of such programs, we first concentrate on classifying memory accesses as candidates for local or global variables. This is achieved by an interprocedural analysis of affine equality relations. We present how to refine this information via a combined affine equality relation and interval analysis. Thus, we achieve a sufficiently accurate classification of memory accesses in this class of binaries. As an application, we refine WCET analyses by yielding alignment properties of memory accesses.


Abstract The structural evolution of the Viking Graben has been the fundamental control on the deposition of the Brent Group and on the development of trapping geometries. Major crustal extension in the early Triassic caused tilting of basement fault blocks, which can still be clearly seen at the basin margins. By the mid-Triassic a post-rift thermal-subsidence basin was established. Local fault control on Brent Group deposition indicates the onset of a second period of crustal extension, although the main control on subsidence at this time was still thermal relaxation following Triassic rifting. Extension during deposition of the Brent was of only c. 1% magnitude. The second period of extension increased in magnitude following Brent deposition and peaked during the late Jurassic, creating the main structural traps for Brent Province oil and gas. Footwalls to major normal faults were uplifted and eroded. The amount of uplift on a given fault-block can be predicted using quantitative models (flexural and domino models). Subsidence in the adjacent half-graben generally outpaced sedimentation, leading to deep-water basins into which footwall material could collapse. On all but the largest fault-blocks it is likely that footwall uplift rates were low compared with erosion rates, and so footwall crests would have been degraded faster than they would have been uplifted above sea-level. Flushing by meteoric water during the late Jurassic is therefore expected only on the largest fault-blocks (e.g. Snorre, Gullfaks).


Uncertainty about the future significantly impacts on the planning capacities of organisations. Scenario planning provides such organisations with an opportunity to be aware of the consequences of their future plans. By developing plausible scenarios, scenario planning methodologies assist decision-makers to make systematic and effective decisions for the future. This research aims to review existing scenario planning methodologies and develop a new framework to overcome the shortcomings of previous methodologies. The new framework has two major phases: a "scenario generation phase" and an "intelligent robust optimisation phase". The scenario generation phase creates future scenarios by applying fuzzy logic and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) concepts. With these concepts, it is possible to deal with qualitative data and also learn from expert data. The intelligent robust optimisation phase identifies the best strategic option which is suitable for working with the most probable scenarios. This second phase includes fuzzy programming and robust optimisation methods to deal with uncertain and qualitative data which usually exists in generated scenarios. The case study for this thesis focuses on Western Australia"s power capacity expansion needs and demonstrates the application of this new methodology in managing the uncertainties associated with future electricity demand. Scenarios which are generated based on different future population trends and industrial growth are used as the basis of determining the best strategic option for the expansion in WA"s electricity industry. Furthermore, transition to renewable energy and technological constraints for WA"s electricity industry are considered in the proposed framework. The result of this case study is an investment plan that satisfies WA"s electricity demand growth and responds to technological and environmental constraints. The new intelligent robust scenario planning framework has the potential to deal with uncertainties in business environments and provides a strategic option that has the ability to work with plausible scenarios for the future.


Specific protein associations define the wiring of protein interaction networks and thus control the organization and functioning of the cell as a whole. Peptide recognition by PDZ and other protein interaction domains represents one of the best-studied classes of specific protein associations. However, a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between selectivity and promiscuity commonly observed in the interactions mediated by peptide recognition modules as well as its functional meaning remain elusive. To address these questions in a comprehensive manner, two large populations of artificial and natural peptide ligands of six archetypal PDZ domains from the synaptic proteins PSD95 and SAP97 were generated by target-assisted iterative screening (TAIS) of combinatorial peptide libraries and by synthesis of proteomic fragments, correspondingly. A comparative statistical analysis of affinity-ranked artificial and natural ligands yielded a comprehensive picture of known and novel PDZ ligand specificity determinants, revealing a hitherto unappreciated combination of specificity and adaptive plasticity inherent to PDZ domain recognition. We propose a reconceptualization of the PDZ domain in terms of a complex adaptive system representing a flexible compromise between the rigid order of exquisite specificity and the chaos of unselective promiscuity, which has evolved to mediate two mutually contradictory properties required of such higher order sub-cellular organizations as synapses, cell junctions, and others – organizational structure and organizational plasticity/adaptability. The generalization of this reconceptualization in regard to other protein interaction modules and specific protein associations is consistent with the image of the cell as a complex adaptive macromolecular system as opposed to clockwork.


The purpose of this thesis is to examine woman as reader and writer in early sixteenth-century France. As a focal point to the study, I concentrate on the theme of speech. The exclusion of the Renaissance woman from mixed-sex conversations allows us to perceive her writing as a form of vicarious speech. The thesis is divided into two distinct parts. Part 1 (Chapters 1-3) deals with various images and stereotypes of the female sex, which feature in texts by male writers. Chapter 1 discusses the behavioural models set out in etiquette books, while emphasizing the differing ideals for each of the sexes. A comparison of these role models shows that all aspects of the ideal for the female sex, revolving around a central concern with chastity, seek to curb feminine behaviour. Chapter 2 explores the notion of male writing as a public dialogue in which woman frequently becomes the subject of scurrilous debate. In works such as the Blasons Anatomiques and the French emblems, the male poet-cum-artisan moulds and sculpts his ideal image of woman, transforming her into a voiceless artefact. The attitude of these writers towards women tends to be aggressive, or even overtly sadistic. My third chapter is devoted to the examination of literary representations of the sixteenth-century wife. In Chapters 1-3, emphasis is placed on woman's position as the forgotten or ignored listener, her presence needed only for a silent appreciation of male rhetoric. Part 2 (Chapters 4-5) concentrates on texts composed by women, grouping works into the categories of secular, and then devotional writings. The aim of these chapters is to rediscover writers whose works have been obscured by time. Consequently, many of the texts studied have never been previously analysed in such detail, or examined from a literary perspective. By recreating a chain of women writers, we may establish the continuity of a female tradition in the Renaissance period. Certain stylistic and thematic characteristics recur in the works of all women writers. In my analysis of feminine writing, these similarities are attributed to the social constraints shared by all women attempting to assert a voice in a male-dominated discourse.


There is a difference between the philosophy of education produced in Brazil and other countries, or its claim to universality to exonerate him of seeking any particularity of experience of thinking in Brazilian education? On this issue and of the challenges thrown by a multiple ethnic and diverse cultural constitution as Brazil, the present research proposed to seek an answer to the question referred, to reconstitute the historical and philosophically the genesis and the development in the philosophy of education in Brazil. Although some studies have tried to address the history of the philosophy of education in Brazil since the years 1980, the present research aims to contribute to the construction of another look on the historical reconstruction of the manifestations of the philosophy of education such as teaching, field research and thought. To this end, we have developed a historical-philosophical analysis of the moments that emerges these manifestations emerge as an experience of thinking in education and we talk about the possibility or not of its particularity, specifically, in order to indicate their main challenges today. We conclude with an affirmative answer in relation to the existence of a particular experience of thinking in education, however, we can imagine that such particularity was lost, thanks to its institutionalization, the abandonment of the emerging problems of thinking cultural and educational reality and the very ethos of the subject who thinks, to settle the supposedly generalization parameters in academia.


Multidimensional spectroscopies provide increased spectral information but time resolution is often limited by the picosecond lifetimes of the transitions they probe. At the expense of additional complexity, transient multidimensional techniques extend the accessible timescales for studying nonequilibrium chemical and biophysical phenomena. Transient temperature-jump (T-jump) experiments are particularly versatile, since they can be applied to any temperature-dependent change of state. We have developed a method to correct transient nonlinear techniques for distortions resulting from transient linear absorption of the probing pulses, distortions which can lead to false interpretations of the data. We apply these corrections in the collection of T-jump transient two-dimensional infrared spectra for the peptides diglycine and the β-hairpin peptide trpzip2. For diglycine, the T-jump induces changes in H-bonding, a response which is inherent to all aqueous systems. The trpzip2 results probe the hairpin unfolding kinetics and reveal two time scales: <10 ns increased flexibility and 1.1 μsβ-hairpin disordering.


UNLABELLED
The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of HER2/neu ECD concentration as a marker of the efficacity of clinical response to Herceptin.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Iterative measurements of HER2/neu ECD (ELISA c-erbB2/c-neu Rapid Format Elisa kit QIA10 Calbiochem) concentrations in 45 patients treated with Herceptin between January 2001 and June 2005 at the Grenoble University Hospital.

RESULTS
Changes in HER2/neu ECD concentrations were observed in 21 patients (47%). The baseline concentration was the concentration of circulating HER2/neu ECD before treatment with Herceptin. In 15 patients, the mean baseline concentration was 52 ng mL(-1) (extreme values 13-170), which normalized no later than at the time of the 3rd administration of Herceptin. Nine patients (60%) were still alive 5 years later (p<0.05). For 6 patients, the mean baseline concentration was 800 ng mL(-1) (extreme values 140-2000) which persisted and even increased during Herceptin therapy; fewer than 25% were alive 30 months later (p<0.05). In the case of the 24 patients whose HER2/neu ECD concentration remained <5 ng mL(-1), survival time was intermediate.

CONCLUSION
The study confirmed the utility of HER2/neu ECD in predicting therapeutic response. However, as in the case of other circulating tumor markers, it is only useful when there is a variation in concentration. This marker should now be evaluated in multi-center studies covering a large number of homogeneous subjects.


Background: For effective treatment of organophosphate (OP) poisoning, development of a standardized protocol with flexible dose regimen for atropine and pralidoxime is an essential step. In this study, we aimed to assess the protocol devised in our setting; Bach Mai Hospital Poison Treatment Center, for treatment of OP poisoning that included a higher dose regimen of pralidoxime (2PAM). Methods: A protocol for treatment of OP poisoning was developed during 1995 to 1996, which included an atropinization scoring scale and a modification of 2PAM dose regimen. In this study, OP poisoned patients who were treated during 1997 to 2002 with the new protocol (study group or cases) were compared with historical control group which included OP poisoned patients treated between 1993 and 1994 prior to establishment of the new protocol. Results: One-hundred and eight cases and 54 controls were included. The cases and controls were not significantly different according to age, gender and plasma cholinesterase activity on admission from each other. There was no significant difference of mean duration of 2PAM therapy between the two groups. The controls received mean total 2PAM dose of 7.2±4.1 g, while the patients in the study group received 20.0±12.7 g which was 2.77 times higher than the dose for control group (P<0.001). Patients in the study group received significantly lower doses of atropine (100.2±119.1 vs. 231.8±225.5, P<0.001). Patients in the study group required a shorter duration of hospital stay compared to controls (6.2±4.8 vs. 8.2±5.8, P=0.035). In addition, morality rate decreased significantly (P=0.004) from 13% to 1.9% by application of the new protocol. Conclusion: The new protocol was more effective for patients with OP toxicity as it reduced the morbidities and mortality. A flexible regimen of 2PAM therapy for OP poisoning is recommended to be implemented.


We consider the problem of assigning gates to a large airline at its hub airport in both planning and operations mode. The first objective in planning mode assigns airport gates for a given passenger flow data and pedestrian distances between the gates, such that maximum connection revenue is realized. The second objective aims to schedule flights to gates in as few manpower zones as possible to minimize operating costs. The third objective ensures that the time between a departure and next arrival at the same gate is maximized to ensure reasonable schedule robustness in the event of delays.


The present drainage of East Antarctica, with ice radiating from a central dome draped over the thick crust of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, recapitulates the Early Permian scene, including the south polar paleolatitude. The Permian radial drainage was on the same scale as the present drainage around the thick crust of the Tibetan Plateau. Another high region in Carboniferous- Permian time was the upland of Europe on crust thickened during the Variscan collision to form Pangea. The ancestral Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains and a central Australian upland may have formed because of long-distance stress from the Variscan collision acting on zones of weak crust attenuated during prolonged subsidence of intracratonic basins. The mid-Carboniferous inception of widespread glaciation was possibly linked with vast uplands in northern and southern Pangea through the effects of Variscan topography and the removal of atmospheric CO 2 during accelerated erosion and weathering.


In this paper, we propose a novel approach to extract primary object segments in videos in the `object proposal' domain. The extracted primary object regions are then used to build object models for optimized video segmentation. The proposed approach has several contributions: First, a novel layered Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based framework is presented for detection and segmentation of the primary object in video. We exploit the fact that, in general, objects are spatially cohesive and characterized by locally smooth motion trajectories, to extract the primary object from the set of all available proposals based on motion, appearance and predicted-shape similarity across frames. Second, the DAG is initialized with an enhanced object proposal set where motion based proposal predictions (from adjacent frames) are used to expand the set of object proposals for a particular frame. Last, the paper presents a motion scoring function for selection of object proposals that emphasizes high optical flow gradients at proposal boundaries to discriminate between moving objects and the background. The proposed approach is evaluated using several challenging benchmark videos and it outperforms both unsupervised and supervised state-of-the-art methods.


The treelet transform is a recent data reduction technique from the field of machine learning. Sharing many similarities with principal component analysis, the treelet transform can reduce a multidimensional dataset to the projections on a small number of directions or components that account for much of the variation in the original data. However, in contrast to principal component analysis, the treelet transform produces sparse components. This can greatly simplify interpretation. I describe the tt Stata add-on for performing the treelet transform. The addon includes a Mata implementation of the treelet transform algorithm alongside other functionality to aid in the practical application of the treelet transform. I demonstrate an example of a basic exploratory data analysis using the tt add-on.


How two New Yorkers led the transformation of a derelict elevated railway into a grand and beloved open space The High Line, a new park atop an ele-vated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side, is among the most innovative urban reclamation projects in memory. The story of how it came to be is a remarkable one: two young citizens with no prior experience in planning and development collaborated with their neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture to create a park celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space. Joshua David and Robert Hammond met in 1999 at a community board meeting to consider the fate of the High Line. Built in the 1930s, it carried freight trains to the West Side when the area was defined by factories and warehouses. But when trains were replaced by truck transport, the High Line became obsolete. By century's end it was a rusty, forbidding ruin. Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and striking beauty.David and Hammond loved the ruin and saw in it an opportunity to create a new way to experience their city. Over ten years, they did so. In this candid and inspiring book lavishly illustrated they tell how they relied on skill, luck, and good timing: a crucial court ruling, an inspiring design contest, the enthusiasm of Mayor Bloomberg, the concern for urban planning issues following 9/11. Now the High Line a half-mile expanse of plants, paths, staircases, and framed vistas runs through a transformed West Side and reminds us that extraordinary things are possible when creative people work together for the common good."


SUMMARY Engineered facilities are deemed safe if they have little or no probability of incurring damage when subjected to regular actions or natural hazards. Any probability of the performance of any designed system (i.e. capacity) not being able to meet the performance required of it (i.e. demand) results in risk, which might be expressed either as a likelihood of damage or potential financial loss. Engineers are used to dealing with the former (i.e. damage), which gives a fair indication of repair/strengthening work needed to bring the system back to full functionality. Nevertheless, other non-technical stakeholders (such as owners, insurers, decision-makers) of the designed facilities cannot read too much from damage. Hence, risk, if interpreted in terms of damage only, will not be comprehended by all stakeholders. On the other hand, financial risk expressed in terms of probable dollar loss in easily understood by all. Therefore, there is an impetus on developing methodologies which correlate the system capacity and demand to financial risk. This paper builds on the existing probabilistic risk assessment methodology and extends it to estimate expected annual financial loss. The general methodology formulated in this paper is applicable to any engineered facilities and any natural hazard. To clarify the process, the proposed methodology is applied to assess overall financial risk of a highway bridge pier due to seismic hazard.


This book brings together a collection of papers that Robert M Stern and his co-authors have written in recent years. The collection addresses a variety of issues pertinent to the global trading system. One group of papers deals with globalization in terms of what the public needs to know about this phenomenon and the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), whether some countries may be hurt by globalization, how global market integration relates to national sovereignty, and how and whether considerations of fairness are and should be dealt with in the global trading system and WTO negotiations. A second group of papers consists of analytical and computational modeling studies of multilateral, regional, and bilateral trading arrangements and negotiations from a global and national perspective for the United States and other major trading countries. The remaining papers include an empirical analysis of barriers to international services transactions and the consequences of liberalization, and issues of international trade and labor standards.


Although the liver and ventral pancreas are thought to arise from a common multipotent progenitor pool, it is unclear whether these progenitors of the hepatopancreas system are specified by a common genetic mechanism. Efforts to determine the role of Hnf1b and Wnt signaling in this crucial process have been confounded by a combination of factors, including a narrow time frame for hepatopancreas specification, functional redundancy among Wnt ligands, and pleiotropic defects caused by either severe loss of Wnt signaling or Hnf1b function. Using a novel hypomorphic hnf1ba zebrafish mutant that exhibits pancreas hypoplasia, as observed in HNF1B monogenic diabetes, we show that hnf1ba plays essential roles in regulating β-cell number and pancreas specification, distinct from its function in regulating pancreas size and liver specification, respectively. By combining Hnf1ba partial loss of function with conditional loss of Wnt signaling, we uncover a crucial developmental window when these pathways synergize to specify the entire ventrally derived hepatopancreas progenitor population. Furthermore, our in vivo genetic studies demonstrate that hnf1ba generates a permissive domain for Wnt signaling activity in the foregut endoderm. Collectively, our findings provide a new model for HNF1B function, yield insight into pancreas and β-cell development, and suggest a new mechanism for hepatopancreatic specification.


Global aviation is growing exponentially and there is a great emphasis on trajectory optimization to reduce the overall environmental impact caused by aircraft. Many optimization techniques exist and are being studied for this purpose. The CLEAN SKY Joint Technology Initiative for aeronautics and Air transport, a European research activity run under the Seventh Framework program, is a collaborative initiative involving industry, research organizations and academia to introduce novel technologies to improve the environmental impact of aviation. As part of the overall research activities, "green" aircraft trajectories are addressed in the Systems for Green Operations (SGO) Integrated Technology Demonstrator. This paper studies the impact of large commercial aircraft trajectories optimized for different objectives applied to the on board systems. It establishes integrated systems models for both conventional and more electric secondary power systems and studies the impact of fuel, noise, time and emissions optimized trajectories on each configuration. It shows the significant change in the fuel burn due to systems operation and builds up the case as to why a detailed aircraft systems model is required within the optimization loop. Typically, the objective in trajectory optimization is to improve the mission performance of an aircraft or reduce the environmental impact. Hence parameters such as time, fuel burn, emissions and noise are key optimization objectives. In most instances, trajectory optimization is achieved by using models that represent such parameters. For example aircraft dynamics models to describe the flight performance, engine models to calculate the fuel burn, emissions and noise impact, etc. Such techniques have proved to achieve the necessary level of accuracy in trajectory optimization. This research enhances previous techniques by adding in the effect of systems power in the optimization process. A comparison is also made between conventional power systems and more electric architectures. In the conventional architecture, the environmental control system and the ice protection system are powered by engine bleed air while actuators and electrics are powered by engine shaft power off-takes. In the more electric architecture, bleed off take is eliminated and the environmental control system and ice protection system are also powered electrically through engine shaft power off takes.


Abstract. Statistical downscaling is a commonly used technique for translating large-scale climate model output to a scale appropriate for assessing impacts. To ensure downscaled meteorology can be used in climate impact studies, downscaling must correct biases in the large-scale signal. A simple and generally effective method for accommodating systematic biases in large-scale model output is quantile mapping, which has been applied to many variables and shown to reduce biases on average, even in the presence of non-stationarity. Quantile-mapping bias correction has been applied at spatial scales ranging from hundreds of kilometers to individual points, such as weather station locations. Since water resources and other models used to simulate climate impacts are sensitive to biases in input meteorology, there is a motivation to apply bias correction at a scale fine enough that the downscaled data closely resemble historically observed data, though past work has identified undesirable consequences to applying quantile mapping at too fine a scale. This study explores the role of the spatial scale at which the quantile-mapping bias correction is applied, in the context of estimating high and low daily streamflows across the western United States. We vary the spatial scale at which quantile-mapping bias correction is performed from 2° ( ∼  200 km) to 1∕8° ( ∼  12 km) within a statistical downscaling procedure, and use the downscaled daily precipitation and temperature to drive a hydrology model. We find that little additional benefit is obtained, and some skill is degraded, when using quantile mapping at scales finer than approximately 0.5° ( ∼  50 km). This can provide guidance to those applying the quantile-mapping bias correction method for hydrologic impacts analysis.


Two new members (Sar1a and Sar1b) of the SAR1 gene family have been identified in mammalian cells. Using immunoelectron microscopy, Sar1 was found to be restricted to the transitional region where the protein was enriched 20-40-fold in vesicular carriers mediating ER to Golgi traffic. Biochemical analysis revealed that Sar1 was essential for an early step in vesicle budding. A Sar1-specific antibody potently inhibited export of vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV-G) from the ER in vitro. Consistent with the role of guanine nucleotide exchange in Sar1 function, a trans-dominant mutant (Sar1a[T39N]) with a preferential affinity for GDP also strongly inhibited vesicle budding from the ER. In contrast, Sar1 was not found to be required for the transport of VSV-G between sequential Golgi compartments, suggesting that components active in formation of vesicular carriers mediating ER to Golgi traffic may differ, at least in part, from those involved in intra-Golgi transport. The requirement for novel components at different stages of the secretory pathway may reflect the recently recognized differences in protein transport between the Golgi stacks as opposed to the selective sorting and concentration of protein during export from the ER.


This study of selected plants of the Rutaceae family was carried out to investigate their phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and the in vitro inhibitory potential of extracted phenolics towards enzymes relevant for hyperglycemia and hypertension. The phenolic content, antioxidant activity and phenolic extract-mediated inhibitory activities for α-glucosidase and α-amylase were evaluated by spectrophotometry. The content of individual phenolics and the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity of the phenolic extracts were evaluated by LC/MS-MS and RP-HPLC methods, respectively. A higher percentage of free phenolic content was seen for all the selected plants of the Rutaceae family (85.43-92.82% of the total phenolic content) than of the bound form (7.18-14.57% of total phenolic content). The major predominant bound phenolic in lemon and red blood orange was hesperidin. The major predominant bound phenolic in pummelo, shamouti and clementine was ferulic acid. The highest ACE and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of the extracted phenolics from lemon was associated with free phenolic extracts obtained at 30 °C with values of 100% inhibition. Red blood orange free phenolic extract (30 °C) elicited the highest α-amylase inhibition activity (32.3%). In contrast, extracted bound phenolics after acid and base hydrolysis from all selected plants from the Citrus species were shown to induce activation of the ACE and α-amylase enzymes.


of Thesis Cellular functions are determined by integrative interactions between various constituents, i.e. genes, transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. Thus, it is important to study these interactions to understand the whole biological system. Genetic perturbations are often used to investigate the contribution of individual components. One of such components is a transcription factor. Transcription factors (TFs) are the regulatory proteins that interact with DNA to either promote or suppress gene expression. Due to the importance of TFs in gene regulation, they have been extensively studied and several databases dedicated to TFs were established. However, our understanding is still lacking since many regulatory events that link gene expression to the final phenotypic changes remain poorly characterized. In particular, systematic analyses of global metabolic alteration following a TF perturbation have been largely unexplored. This thesis regards the effects of transcription factor-related single gene deletion towards metabolic alteration, using yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system. Specifically, the correlations between TF gene and metabolites were investigated. In Chapter 1, general introduction and research background are presented. In particular, yeast transcription factors and metabolomics techniques are discussed. In Chapter 2, metabolic profiling of two representative transcription factors Rtg1 and Rtg3 yeast knockout is demonstrated as a proofof-principle of the utility of metabolomics approach in finding novel TF-metabolite correlations. These two proteins are positive regulators of the mitochondrial retrograde response (RTG), a signaling pathway activated under repressed mitochondrial function. Using a widely-targeted metabolomics approach, polyamine biosynthesis and other amino acid metabolism were found to be significantly altered in RTG-deficient strains, apart from the expected TCA and glyoxylate cycles. A characteristic decrease of 2-oxoglutarate preceding the decreases of other TCA cycle intermediates in RTG disruptants suggests that 2-oxoglutarate may play a pivotal role in controlling the flow and balance of TCA/glyoxylate cycles under RTG response. In Chapter 3, a global metabolome analysis was performed for 154 TF deletion strains. Characterization using hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and differential analysis showed that the strains can be categorized according to their metabolic phenotype, and both known and unknown correlations were demonstrated. Differential strains (strains with large differences in metabolite levels compared with wild-type) and strain clusters that share a highly similar metabolic profile were identified. About 30% of the strains were classified as differential, while 27 individual clusters consisting of differential and non-differential strains were observed. The comprehensive metabolome dataset presented here may serve as an input for deeper investigations into transcription factors. Also discussed are issues regarding data normalization and correction of batch-to-batch variation, a prevalent problem in midto large-scale metabolomics studies. Finally, in Chapter 4, general conclusion and future perspective are presented. It is expected that metabolomics will be routinely performed, whether as a primary or complementary means in many gene regulation studies.


Introduction Transferring successful policy concepts between countries has proved to be difficult. Neo-institutional concepts are helpful to understand governance processes within their contexts. Aims and objectives The study aimed at developing generalisable tools—usable for researchers as well as managers or policy-makers—for the analysis and comparison of diverse governance situations regarding integrated care. Methods Outcomes of a transnational comparative project on national and local governance processes regarding integrated (dementia) care in England and The Netherlands were analysed with the help of neo-institutionalist concepts. Specific outcomes were turned into generalised questions to build a theoretical and empirical framework for comparative research and policy on governance processes for integrated care. Results Neo-institutional concepts allow framing structural and cultural institutional contexts which give shape to governance processes for integrated care. Models and guiding questions were developed for the description and analysis of (1) national and (2) local governance processes for integrated care. Conclusions Although governance processes regarding integrated care are complex and diverse, it is possible to conceptualise such processes in a general way so as to enhance the comparability and transferability of research outcomes from various countries. Further research is needed to further develop the initial models proposed.


The Global Positioning System (GPS) has recently become the significant mapping tool for millions of customers worldwide, providing its users with accurate terrestrial positions almost instantaneously. The functionality of a GPS receiver depends on the number of satellites to which it can establish an unobstructed line of sight. Current satellite availability prediction tools perform satellite visibility predictions without considering terrain or structures that block GPS signals, a major issue in mountainous and urban areas. This paper describes a new Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool, a customization of ArcGIS named Satellite Viewsheds, which predicts satellite visibility for any place and time while considering line of sight obstructions. Satellite Viewsheds requires a raster surface model, the test date and time, and the orbital properties of the satellites. It produces grids depicting the number of visible satellites and optimal viewing time for every cell in the grid. Satellite Viewsheds allows users to avoid areas of signal loss and choose the best time to map using their GPS receivers. The field test of Satellite Viewsheds proved that the tool performs satellite visibility predictions consistently and accurately. The research outlined in this paper indicates that Satellite Viewsheds is the first tool of its kind.


The bidomain model is the standard model describing electrical activity of the heart. Here we study the stability of planar front solutions of the bidomain equation with a bistable nonlinearity (the bidomain Allen‐Cahn equation) in two spatial dimensions. In the bidomain Allen‐Cahn equation a Fourier multiplier operator whose symbol is a positive homogeneous rational function of degree two (the bidomain operator) takes the place of the Laplacian in the classical Allen‐Cahn equation. Stability of the planar front may depend on the direction of propagation given the anisotropic nature of the bidomain operator. We establish various criteria for stability and instability of the planar front in each direction of propagation. Our analysis reveals that planar fronts can be unstable in the bidomain Allen‐Cahn equation in striking contrast to the classical or anisotropic Allen‐Cahn equations. We identify two types of instabilities, one with respect to long‐wavelength perturbations, the other with respect to medium‐wavelength perturbations. Interestingly, whether the front is stable or unstable under long‐wavelength perturbations does not depend on the bistable nonlinearity and is fully determined by the convexity properties of a suitably defined Frank diagram. On the other hand, stability under intermediate‐wavelength perturbations does depend on the choice of bistable nonlinearity. Intermediate‐wavelength instabilities can occur even when the Frank diagram is convex, so long as the bidomain operator does not reduce to the Laplacian. We shall also give a remarkable example in which the planar front is unstable in all directions.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Signaling by transforming growth factor-β(TGF-β) through the TGF-β2/ TGF-β1 receptor heteroligomer leads to phosphorylation of Smad proteins 2 and 3, which then bind to Smad4 and are translocated to the nucleus and regulate transcription. Dong et al. demonstrated that endogenous Smad2, 3, and 4 colocalize and coimmunoprecipitate with microtubules. Further characterization of the Smad2 interaction showed that TGF-β caused dissociation of Smad2 from microtubules. Drugs that disrupt microtubules caused release of Smad2 from microtubules, increased phosphorylation of Smad2, and increased activation of reporter genes with TGF-β-responsive promoters in both TGF-β-treated and untreated cells. Microtubules may serve as negative regulators of TGF-β signaling by controlling the availability of Smad proteins for interaction with the TGF-β receptor. Dong, C., Li, Z., Alvarez Jr., R., Feng, X.-H., Goldschmidt-Clermont, P.J. (2000) Microtubule binding to Smads may regulate TGFβ activity. Mol. Cell 5: 27-34. [Online Journal]


By land or by sea How much of an effect does terrestrial groundwater storage have on sea-level rise? Reager et al. used gravity measurements made between 2002 and 2014 by NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites to quantify variations in groundwater storage. Combining those data with estimates of mass loss by glaciers revealed groundwater's impact on sea-level change. Net groundwater storage has been increasing, and the greatest regional changes, both positive and negative, are associated with climate-driven variability in precipitation. Thus, groundwater storage has slowed the rate of recent sea-level rise by roughly 15%. Science, this issue p. 699 Recent storage of excess groundwater has measurably slowed sea level rise. Climate-driven changes in land water storage and their contributions to sea level rise have been absent from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sea level budgets owing to observational challenges. Recent advances in satellite measurement of time-variable gravity combined with reconciled global glacier loss estimates enable a disaggregation of continental land mass changes and a quantification of this term. We found that between 2002 and 2014, climate variability resulted in an additional 3200 ± 900 gigatons of water being stored on land. This gain partially offset water losses from ice sheets, glaciers, and groundwater pumping, slowing the rate of sea level rise by 0.71 ± 0.20 millimeters per year. These findings highlight the importance of climate-driven changes in hydrology when assigning attribution to decadal changes in sea level.


Abstract
Introduce: Loss of hard dental tissues from noncarios etiology is multifactorial irreversible process, occur as a result of chemical and physical factors. These disorders
are associated with the terms of abrasion, erosion and atricion - functional disorders. The severity of the defects can significantly depending on the predominant etiologic factor.
These disorders rarely occur individually and in isolation, often in the same patient observed several forms of loss of hard dental tissues, which are mutually combined.
Aim: In this theme we set a purpose about solving combined functional disorders at an advanced stage.
Case report: For the realization of our purpose, we had a 43 years old patient with advanced stage of
combined functional disorders.
The patient had impaired aesthetics and difficulty mastication.
At the same patient was suggested high aesthetic restauration, with porcelain crowns.
Final result is achievement of normal occlusion, articulation and satisfactory esthetics by setting porcelain crowns on teeth with combined functional impairments.
Conclusion: Thanks to the developed aesthetic restoration, except getting aesthetics,
we prevent the deepening of the tooth defect and enabled smooth realization of the function of masticator apparatus.
Keywords
hard dental tissues, functional disorders, aesthetic restoration.


Ageing is widely used in the meat industry to improve tenderness mainly as a result of the breakdown of muscular proteins through the action of endopeptidases during storage time. In addition, meat contains a large pool of other proteolytic enzymes, mainly exopeptidases, which cut from the outer edges of proteins and polypeptides generating a vast array of peptides and free amino acids. Some of these peptides could potentially exert bioactivities of interest for human health. In this study, ACE-inhibitory and antioxidant activities during meat ageing in chilled-storage at 4 °C for a period of time of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks have been determined. Beef loin steak samples were analysed before and after cooking, and gastrointestinal digestion was simulated in order to study its effect on the bioactivity. Control and cooked samples showed an increase in the ACE-inhibitory activity from the third week of chilled storage whereas non-significant differences in the antioxidant activity between control and cooked samples were detected during the studied time. After gastrointestinal digestion of samples, there was a significant increment of the ACE-inhibitory and antioxidant activities in comparison with control and cooked samples at all the studied times. As a main conclusion, cooking does not significantly influence the bioactivity detected whereas the in vitro gastrointestinal digestion produces a significant increase in the ACE-inhibitory and antioxidant activities from the first week, probably due to the intense generation of small peptides as a result of the action of gastrointestinal enzymes.


Datacenter networking is currently dominated by two major trends. One aims toward lossless, flat layer-2 fabrics based on Converged Enhanced Ethernet or InfiniBand, with benefits in efficiency and performance. The other targets flexibility based on Software Defined Networking, which enables Overlay Virtual Networking. Although clearly complementary, these trends also exhibit some conflicts: In contrast to physical fabrics, which avoid packet drops by means of flow control, practically all current virtual networks are lossy. We quantify these losses for several common combinations of hypervisors and virtual switches, and show their detrimental effect on application performance. Moreover, we propose a zero-loss Overlay Virtual Network (zOVN) designed to reduce the query and flow completion time of latency-sensitive datacenter applications. We describe its architecture and detail the design of its key component, the zVALE lossless virtual switch. As proof of concept, we implemented a zOVN prototype and benchmark it with Partition-Aggregate in two testbeds, achieving an up to 15-fold reduction of the mean completion time with three widespread TCP versions. For larger-scale validation and deeper introspection into zOVN, we developed an OMNeT++ model for accurate cross-layer simulations of a virtualized datacenter, which confirm the validity of our results.


From 2001 to 2007 the City of Paris undertook an original experiment that had never been
tried in France: it opened the process of shaping its Plan Local d'Urbanisme policy for protecting
city-owned buildings to participation from the entire population of the capital city. Nearly 8000
extremely heterogeneous proposals from residents, associations, elected officials, architects, city
planners, art historians and others were examined. This article focuses on how the list of buildings
to be protected was determined, bringing to light how the different types of knowledge and
judgment, experts' and laymen's, interacted. It shows how the very nature of the focus of this
joint undertaking – building protection policy – impacted significantly on actors' relations and
process results. This in turn indicates the relevance of reintroducing this dimension – strikingly
absent from most studies – into analysis of democratic participation arrangements.


In this article, my contention is that Norway's criminal justice policy is increasingly based on principles taken from positive criminology. This means that the correctional service places strong emphasis on establishing collaboration with the local authorities (the municipalities) in order to offer convicted persons integrated services, both during and after serving their sentences. I also point out that positive criminology's principle of viewing convicted persons as unique individuals with individual problems and resources – problems to which there are rarely clear-cut solutions – means that these problems are perceived as 'wicked problems'. A recommended approach to 'wicked problems' is to establish collaboration between the different service providers involved. The article describes the experiences gained from a pilot project that entailed offering a training programme to convicted persons with substance abuse problems. One of the goals of the project was to link the programme to an offer of integrated services after the sentence had been served. The experiences described in semi-structured interviews with 16 convicted persons, seven correctional service employees and three local authority employees was that it was difficult to put in place such an integrated service package. On this basis, I discuss the reasons why it was so difficult to achieve the desired collaboration, and I outline some proposals for how these challenges can be resolved in future.


The present study describes the persistent expansion of a subpopulation of circulating double-positive CD4+CD8+ T cells in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected person over 8 years. The percentage of double-positive cells was remarkably stable with time and was not related to HIV plasma virus load. CD4+CD8+ cells exhibited phenotypic characteristics of activated memory T lymphocytes. Analysis of V beta usage by the T cell receptors of these cells indicated restricted expression to the V beta 14 and V beta 17 families. Most CD4+CD8+ cells constitutively expressed cytotoxicity-associated molecules (C1.7 and perforin) and were selectively committed to produce interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, cytokines involved in cytotoxic function. The kinetics of changes in the relative proportion of single-positive CD4+ and double-positive CD4+CD8+ T cell subsets and a similar bias in V beta usage by these subsets suggest that CD4+CD8+ lymphocytes originate from peripheral expansion of mature CD4+ T cells.


Systematic differences in the timing of wage setting decisions among industrialized countries provide an ideal framework to study the importance of wage rigidity in the transmission of monetary policy. The Japanese Shunto presents the best-known case of bunching in wage setting decisions: From February to May, most firms set wages that remain in place until the following year; wage rigidity, thus, is relatively higher immediately after the Shunto. Similarly, in the United States, a large fraction of firms adjust wages in the last quarter of the calendar year. In contrast, wage agreements in Germany are well spread within the year, implying a relatively uniform degree of rigidity. We exploit variation in the timing of wage setting decisions within the year in Japan, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France to investigate the effects of monetary policy under different degrees of effective wage rigidity. Our findings lend support to the long-held, though scarcely tested, view that wage rigidity plays a key role in the transmission of monetary policy.


We present our experimental investigation of an optical Raman transition between the magnetic clock states of $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ in an atom chip magnetic trap. The transfer of atomic population is induced by a pair of diode lasers which couple the two clock states off-resonantly to an intermediate state manifold. This transition is subject to destructive interference of two excitation paths, which leads to a reduction of the effective two-photon Rabi frequency. Furthermore, we find that the transition frequency is highly sensitive to the intensity ratio of the diode lasers. Our results are well described in terms of light shifts in the multilevel structure of $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$. The differential light shifts vanish at an optimal intensity ratio, which we observe as a narrowing of the transition linewidth. We also observe the temporal dynamics of the population transfer and find good agreement with a model based on the system's master equation and a Gaussian laser beam profile. Finally, we identify several sources of decoherence in our system, and discuss possible improvements.


The integration of neural networks and fuzzy logic provides an unique tool to improve the performance of solving ill-defined, nonlinear problems. In this paper, we first show a theoretical result that a class of fuzzy systems is a function approximator. This result extends Wang-Mendel's work which is based on the Stone-Weierstrass theorem to a broader class of functions. Then we propose a neural-fuzzy technique for machining process selection (MPS), which usually is a crucial step in a semiconductor manufacturing environment and it constitutes a critical link between computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). Given the complexity of MPS process, a direct mathematical formulation and optimization to meet design specifications and cost constraints can be difficult or even formidable. By incorporating artificial neural networks learning and adaptation capability with fuzzy logic's structured knowledge manipulation and reasoning, we are able to reduce the neural network training time and improve its prediction accuracy. Primary experimentation confirms the theoretical analysis and shows that the proposed technique is promising and has potential to be adopted in a real manufacturing environment.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate a behavioral intake questionnaire in animal shelters for the presence of biased results and assess its use in the characterization of behavioral problems of dogs relinquished to shelters.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study. Animals-54 dogs being relinquished to a shelter and 784 dogs belonging to veterinary clients. Procedure-Owners who were relinquishing their dogs and agreed to complete the behavioral questionnaire were alternately assigned to 1 of 2 groups; participants were aware that information provided would be confidential or nonconfidential (i.e., likely used for adoption purposes). Data from confidential and nonconfidential information groups were compared, and the former were compared with data (collected via the questionnaire) regarding a population of client-owned dogs.

RESULTS
Analyses revealed significant differences in 2 areas of reported problem behavior between the confidential and nonconfidential information groups: owner-directed aggression and stranger-directed fear. Compared with client-owned-group data, significantly more relinquished shelter dogs in the confidential information group were reported to have owner-directed aggression, stranger-directed aggression, dog-directed aggression or fear, stranger-directed fear, nonsocial fear, and separation-related behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Among persons relinquishing dogs to a shelter, those who believed questionnaire responses were confidential reported owner-directed aggression and fear of strangers in their pets more frequently than relinquishers who believed responses were nonconfidential. Confidentiality had no apparent effect on the reporting of other assessed behavioral problems. Results suggest that behavioral questionnaires may sometimes provide inaccurate information in a shelter setting, but the information may still be useful when evaluating behavior of relinquished dogs.


Encryption works by scrambling digital images and documents, rendering them unintelligible without a key to return them to a comprehensible form. As modern encryption programmes have traditionally proved difficult to break without the key, there has been growing concern that by using encryption to hide their files, criminals will be able to evade investigations. Although the possibility of criminals in general hiding behind encryption is problematic, the risk is understood to be particularly acute in the context of sex offenders. Should such offenders use encryption and withhold the key, their trading and communication networks could be irrevocably hidden from view, as could millions of indecent images. A generic encryption offense was created by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 whereby the failure to surrender encryption keys upon demand would be subject to penalty, but recently – and of particular note – amendments by the Policing and Crime Act 2009 to the offense provide for escalated sentences where the circumstances of the investigation relate to child indecency. In light of these amendments, this article interrogates the necessity and validity of these revised RIPA powers as part of the child protection framework, and considers some alternatives to compelling the disclosure of keys.


Studies of 1st trimester exposure to ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers examining teratogenicity have shown conflicting results. We systematically reviewed the literature and performed a meta-analysis evaluating the risk of major malformations. For the meta-analysis, we included studies comparing 1st trimester exposure to no exposure, or to exposure to other antihypertensives. Additionally, we conducted a qualitative analysis of studies that did not meet the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. A significant risk ratio was found when the exposed group was compared with healthy controls but not when compared with other antihypertensives. The qualitative analysis did not demonstrate a specific pattern of major malformations. Our results suggest that 1st trimester exposure to ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers is not associated with an elevated risk of major malformations compared with other antihypertensives. A 1st trimester exposure to antihypertensives in general may be associated with an elevated risk of major malformations.