Between December 2007 and February 2009, Venezuelans participated twice in constitutional referenda where the elimination of presidential term limits was one of the most salient proposals. Assuming voter preferences did not change significantly during that period, the 'repeated' character of these elections provide us with an excellent opportunity to apply forensic tools designed to detect anomalies and outliers in election returns in elections where electronic voting technologies were used. Similar tools were first applied by Myagkov et al. ([20], [21], [22], [23]) to the study of electoral fraud in Russia and Ukraine, and were effective in the isolation of potential cases of manipulation of electoral returns. The case of Venezuela is different because there exists no widespread agreement about the integrity or otherwise fraudulent nature of national elections, and because it is a nation where electronic voting technologies are used. Unless electoral fraud takes place in exactly the same manner in each election, an analysis of the 'flow of votes' between elections can be used to detect suspicious patterns in electoral returns. Although we do not find evidence of pervasive electoral fraud compared, for instance, to the Russian case, our analysis is useful to detect polling places or regions deviating considerably from the more general pattern.


HIV/HCV co-infection is associated with diminished HCV specific T-cell responses and with higher HCV RNA levels. During successful HAART, HCV specific T-cell responses increase and HCV RNA levels decrease. However, HCV can evade the host immune response through accumulation of escape variants. Because little is known about the development of escape mutations in co-infected individuals with onset of HAART, we investigated the influence of increased immune pressure during HAART on HCV sequence evolution, in particular within T-cell epitopes. Furthermore, we examined HCV evolution at known drug-resistance sites to the new anti-HCV drugs.

HCV genotype-1 bulk sequences covering the immunogenic HLA-class-I epitopes (HLA-B*0801, HLAA* 0101 in NS3 and HLA-B*2705 in NS5B) were analyzed in HLA-carriers and in HLA-non-carriers before and during HAART (n=69). To study sequence evolution within these epitopes and the occurrence of drug resistance mutations in quasispecies present at >=1%, we performed ultra-deep sequencing using the FLX-454 Roche technology on five subjects before and on HAART.

 Bulk sequencing analyses indicated a significant accumulation of immune escape variants in HLA-carriers (16% of sites) compared to non-carriers (only 6%) before the initiation of HAART (p=0.009). These mutations were maintained during HAART (HLA-carriers: 8%; HLA-non-carriers: 6%). The emergence of additional escape mutations with the onset of HAART was rare (7% of sites) and reversions of escape mutations were not seen. However, by utilizing the deep sequencing technique, minor quasispecies could be detected in 88% of 225 analyzed amino acid sites. Within the HLA-B*2705 epitope only, mixtures were found in 24 of 105 sites at the nucleotide level that were not found in bulk sequencing. Furthermore, investigating 35 sites associated with drug resistance in the protease and polymerase genes, six drug resistance mutations could be detected with FLX as minority species but not with Sanger sequencing.

In HCV/HIV co-infected individuals, the increase in HCV specific T-cell pressure during HAART appears to have only a modest effect on HCV escape. However, more sensitive sequencing techniques do identify additional escape variants at lower levels in these individuals suggesting changes in the host's immune pressure on HCV following the commencement of HAART. It remains to be determined if these low frequency viral escape species affect overall HCV-specific immune responses or disease outcome. Furthermore, deep sequencing identifies biologically relevant low-level drug resistant mutations in HCV treatment naive subjects that are not detected by conventional population-based sequencing.


Wind direction and speeds have important hydrodynamic impacts in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), from wind-driven coastal erosion to saltwater intrusion into bodies of non-saline groundwater. Because the IRL is isolated from oceanic wave action, the largest and most powerful waves are caused by high winds blowing for an extended duration at an IRL—oriented fetch. This study investigates the climatology of potentially high impact wind events over the lagoon.


This study analyzes the effects of "financial stress" on the Uruguayan macroeconomy in the 1998Q3-2016Q2 period with the underlying idea that financial shocks propagate differently during "normal times" than during times of "stress." This behavior is captured in a multivariate framework through a Markovswitching vector auto regressive (MS-VAR) model. The evidence found so far supports the idea that financial conditions affect the macroeconomy, as they not only change the private investment long-run average growth rate but also directly modify the behavior of monetary policy.


This paper aims to inform and persuade stakeholders in Africa so they support instructors by meeting their online basic needs because online instruction cannot be carried out in isolation. The report is based on a piece of research which was carried out from 2010 to 2013 in Rwanda. It will focus on a teacher training institute in Rwanda, Central Africa, where instructors have been trained on how to create, develop, and manage online courses in Moodle.

Firstly, the study will lay down background information which, in addition to literature review, highlights a needs analysis that was carried out by the institution and which found out that there was a great need to raise the effectiveness of instruction through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Also, the institution wanted to meet the professional development needs of a growing teaching and student population by developing and using online educational materials beyond the classroom. Afterwards, the paper will evaluate the training, based on the project's expected outcomes i.e. development of training materials and introduction and use of online learning materials. It will draw on instructors' own Moodle experience, including online courses they have created on the platform and challenges they have faced during the implementation process. It will then recommend Moodle because it's an open source and is free to customise to any context. Furthermore, though there may be low hosting cost, it has a lot of potential to reach out and educate more people, develop learning and teaching beyond the classroom. Finally, it will make suggestions to stakeholders as to what needs to be done to support instructors and learners with a view to adopt Moodle, a growing online learning environment across the world.


This paper provides estimates of federal tax rates by income groups in the United States since 1960, with special emphasis on very top income groups. We include individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes. The progressivity of the U.S. federal tax system at the top of the income distribution has declined dramatically since the 1960s. This dramatic drop in progressivity is due primarily to a drop in corporate taxes and in estate and gift taxes combined with a sharp change in the composition of top incomes away from capital income and toward labour income. The sharp drop in statutory top marginal individual income tax rates has contributed only moderately to the decline in tax progressivity. International comparisons confirm that is it critical to take into account other taxes than the individual income tax to properly assess the extent of overall tax progressivity, both for time trends and for cross-country comparisons. The pattern for the United Kingdom is similar to the US pattern. France had less progressive taxes than the US or UK in 1970 but has experienced an increase in tax progressivity and has now a more progressive tax system than the US or the UK.


Bioinformatics is the science of managing, mining, and interpreting information from biological sequences and structures.Although data mining in the domain of bioinformatics is popular, the two areas have largely been developing separately. Thereis a strong and challenging need to mine for more informative and actionable knowledge in bioinformatics. To respond thisrequirements, this study tries to probe domain driven data mining methodology in the field of bioinformatics, and tries toprovide a new thought for bioinformatics in future research.


Background Catfish has a male-heterogametic (XY) sex determination system, but genes involved in gonadogenesis, spermatogenesis, testicular determination, and sex determination are poorly understood. As a first step of understanding the transcriptome of the testis, here, we conducted RNA-Seq analysis using high throughput Illumina sequencing. Methodology/Principal Findings A total of 269.6 million high quality reads were assembled into 193,462 contigs with a N50 length of 806 bp. Of these contigs, 67,923 contigs had hits to a set of 25,307 unigenes, including 167 unique genes that had not been previously identified in catfish. A meta-analysis of expressed genes in the testis and in the gynogen (double haploid female) allowed the identification of 5,450 genes that are preferentially expressed in the testis, providing a pool of putative male-biased genes. Gene ontology and annotation analysis suggested that many of these male-biased genes were involved in gonadogenesis, spermatogenesis, testicular determination, gametogenesis, gonad differentiation, and possibly sex determination. Conclusion/Significance We provide the first transcriptome-level analysis of the catfish testis. Our analysis would lay the basis for sequential follow-up studies of genes involved in sex determination and differentiation in catfish.


The European spiny lobster, Palinurus elephas, occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, and from the northwest African coast to Norway in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean, peak moulting occurs in December-January and May to June. U.K. females moult from July to September and males moult mainly in winter. Moult frequency declines with size, pronouncedly in females of > 6 years. Percentage post-moulting growth is inversely proportional to size, especially in females, which have lower asymptotic size than males. For specimens of equal carapace length (CL), females are longer (TL). Eggs are released 10 days after nocturnal deposition of spermatophores during July-September. Berried females occur from September onwards. Incubation lasts 5 months in the Mediterranean and 9 months in the Atlantic. Fecundity is proportional to CL, with one clutch carried annually. Berried females measured a minimum 67 mm CL in the Mediterranean and 70 mm CL in the Atlantic. Fifty percent female maturity occurs at 82-86 mm CL. Eggs hatch in spring in the Mediterranean and early summer in the Atlantic. Phyllosomas measure 3 mm and moult 10× before metamorphosis to natant pueruli. Pueruli measure 21 mm TL, with convex carapaces and well developed abdomens and pleopods. After three moults, pueruli become post-pueruli, also measuring 21 mm, visually similar to adults. Pueruli and post-pueruli records are rare, and juveniles are seldom observed. Post-embryonic development to the post-puerulus takes 5-6 months in the Mediterranean. Attempts at larval culture have been unsuccessful. Adults feed preferentially on echinoderms and molluscs. Offshore migration occurs after egg-laying, with a return to shallower water in spring. Social behaviour is poorly understood. Regionally important fisheries are based in Corsica, Brittany, and southwest Britain and Ireland.


Aim: The aim of the present study is to correlate and compare alpha-1 antitrypsin level in smoker and non smoker chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Material and Methods: A comparative study was carried out in 200 subjects, more than 40 years of age and having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for more than 1 year with a history of smoking at least 20 cigarettes per day (Group A) and without a history of smoking (Group B). Pulmonary function tests were used to diagnose the disease as per the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) classification. Alpha-1 antitrypsin level was done by turbidimetry method on fully auto analyzer I-Lab 650 (Instrumentation Laboratory, USA) at Clinical Biochemistry Section, Laboratory Services Sir Takhtsinhji Hospital, Bhavnagar. Statistical analysis was done by using unpaired t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: Results of present study shows that alpha-1 antitrypsin level was decreased in smoker chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (150.83±18.853) when compared to non smokers (183.97±29.383). There was statistically significant difference in alpha-1 antitrypsin level between the two groups with 'p' value of <0.0001. Pearson's correlation test show negative correlation between smoker and nonsmoker chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Conclusion: The values of serum alpha-1 antitrypsin levels were more significantly decreased in smokers indicating an important role of smoking in pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Alpha-1 antitrypsin can act as a predictor for future development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in smokers and in nonsmokers.


AISC 2010 has been adopted on Indonesian steel design code since 2015. AISC 2010 uses Direct Analysis Method (DAM) for steel structural stability where it substitutes Effective Length Method (ELM). DAM is a second order elastic analysis, allows a more accurate determination of the load effects in the structure through the inclusion of the effects of geometric imperfections and stiffness reductions directly within the structural analysis. Notional load as 2 per mill of gravity load should be applied horizontally to represent geometric imperfection of 1/500L. It is allowed to adjust the notional load coefficient proportionally based on a nominal initial story out-ofplumbness ratio. Results from three different calibration frames from previous research which are considered as advanced analysis were used as references. Through numerical simulation by using SAP software, the advanced analysis considered as a second order inelastic method enabling to accommodate the real collapse mechanism of structure will be validated through three calibration frames. Evaluation studies were first conducted to compare ELM and DAM effectiveness, and later to find out the appropriate magnitude of notional load on steel moment resisting frame subjected to Indonesian Seismic Load. The calibration frames consisted of one story, 3-stories and 6-stories were reanalyzed with four different methods: ELM first order analysis, ELM second order analysis, DAM with different notional loads coefficient as 0.002 and 0.003; and Response Spectrum taking into account the two different notional loads coefficients. Indonesian seismic load in three seismic zones with three different soil conditions were considered. The results were compared to advanced analysis. It is found that DAM has the closest result to advanced analysis and notional load coefficient of 0.003 reveals as the most appropriate value considered from its base shear-drift curve, P-M interaction and drift.


Purpose The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effect of a discourse-level treatment, Attentive Reading with Constrained Summarization-Written (ARCS-W), on conversational discourse. ARCS-W aims to improve spoken and written output by addressing the cognitive-linguistic requirements of discourse production through constrained summarization of novel material. Method This is an experimentally controlled case study with a single participant, Bill. Three conversation samples were collected at pretreatment, and a single conversation was collected 1 month after treatment. The participant completed 24 ARCS-W treatment sessions, and each session included reading and then summarizing a novel current event article following specific constraints (use lexically precise words, stay on topic, use complete sentences) in speaking and writing. Conversation outcomes evaluated the success of each utterance (1-4 scale), grammaticality, and the proportion of utterances with relevant content (relevant utterances). Additionally, behavioral manifestations of word-finding difficulty were evaluated in conversation. Results Bill improved communicative success at the utterance level based on the minimal detectable change. He also demonstrated reductions in behavioral manifestations of lexical retrieval difficulty based on decreases in the percentage of false starts (e.g., t*, t*), mazes (e.g., uh, s*, um), and abandoned utterances. Bill did not increase the proportion of relevant utterances or grammatical utterances in conversation. Conclusions This case study provides preliminary evidence of the potential impact of ARCS-W treatment in conversation. Additionally, the measures implemented to evaluate conversation represent a promising adaptation of a novel methodology to capture change in conversation. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12375053.


Peer-to-Peer (P2P) infrastructure has been used for designing many large-scale distributed systems. Structured P2P, in particular, has received a greater amount of research attention. Having trust in such the P2P environments can help mitigate many problems including security, because peers can choose to interact with the ones that are deemed trustworthy. However, there exists numerous hurdles that need to be overcome before a reliable trust system can be implemented for P2P. This thesis seeks to improve the existing reputation metrics and feedback mechanisms which are important components of the trust system. The new reputation metrics are more resilient to manipulations, and they take into account negative feedback. New protocols are also proposed as parts of the feedback mechanisms, and they allow an honest peer in a structured P2P system to securely detect if another peer has misbehaved. The new protocols make used of hardware-based security which is in the form of trusted devices: TPMs and the newly proposed trusted device called TTMs. The protocols are analyzed using formal methods and simulation. CSP is used to model and verify the properties of these protocols. The performance of these protocols is then evaluated using a new, distributed simulation platform called dPeerSim.


Free and open source software ("FOSS") package review is an essential part of license compliance when businesses take into use FOSS. This article discusses the practical process of package review and the legal questions that arise and conclusions that can be made. Furthermore this article presents the process and a number of legal conclusions applied by Validos ry, an association for performing package review and sharing its results. The purpose of presenting a particular process is to share and improve the applied methodology with a long-term vision of unifying the expectations for package review and license appraisal, thus contributing to the ease of taking into use of FOSS by businesses.


Monitoring a complex process often involves keeping an eye on hundreds or thousands of sensors to determine whether or not the process is under control. We have been working with data from an oil production facility in the North Sea, where unstable situations should be identified as soon as possible. Motivated by this problem setting, we propose a generative model for dynamic classification in continuous domains. At each time point the model can be seen as combining a naive Bayes model with a mixture of factor analyzers (FA). The latent variables of the FA are used to capture the dynamics in the process as well as modeling dependences between attributes.


Burd, L., & Kerbeshian, J. (2013). Commentary: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 2 (3), 3-6. doi:10.7895/ijadr.v2i3.173 ( http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v2i3.173 ) Alcohol use is now the third leading risk factor for worldwide global disease burden, in terms of disability adjusted life years (Lim et al., 2012). In the developed world, about 40% of women of childbearing age drink alcohol, and many are drinking at or around the time of conception (Maier & West, 2001; Paintner, Williams, & Burd, 2012a). Rates of alcohol use among women are increasing across much of the world. Current prevalence estimates suggest that several hundred thousand individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are born each year (May, Gossage, & Kalberg, 2009). This is especially tragic in light of the fact that we have effective prevention methods as well as office-based interventions for prenatal alcohol exposure.


The paper is focused on the history and modern practices of creating and applying interactive exploratory objects and worlds that provoke curiosity in the individual and require exploration and experimentation to learn them and to achieve practical goals. The development, use and demonstration of a wide range of exploratory objects (play, educational, psycho-diagnostic, etc.) in various fields reflects an increasingly wide spread belief: one of the basic human abilities that is needed now and will be in demand in the future is the ability to cope with novelty, including through active exploration and experimentation. Five interrelated directions for the development and popularization of exploratory objects are identified: science; educational practice; assessment; game practices; and literature, art, official and unofficial journalism. Parameters of specially developed interactive exploratory objects and worlds in the context of preparing for encounters with novelty and complexity are discussed. The triangle of tests of intelligence, creativity and exploratory behavior in the space of regulation - freedom is presented. Two types of motivational challenges when exploring new objects are described: exploration for the sake of the very process of cognition and exploration for the sake of desired practical effects. The issue of features of exploratory objects that stimulate posing and solving epistemic problems rather than pragmatic problems, and vice versa, is raised. In conclusion, possible reasons for the mass development and supply of exploratory objects and worlds are formulated.


The effect of diet v. statins on LDL particle size as a risk factor for CVD has not been examined. We compared, in the same subjects, the impact of a dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods and a statin on LDL size electrophoretic characteristics. Thirty-four hyperlipidaemic subjects completed three 1-month treatments as outpatients in random order: a very-low saturated fat diet (control); the same diet with 20 mg lovastatin; a dietary portfolio high in plant sterols (1 g/4200 kJ), soya proteins (21·4 g/4200 kJ), soluble fibres (9·8 g/4200 kJ) and almonds (14 g/4200 kJ). LDL electrophoretic characteristics were measured by non-denaturing polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis of fasting plasma at 0, 2 and 4 weeks of each treatment. The reductions in plasma LDL-cholesterol levels with the dietary portfolio and with statins were comparable and were largely attributable to reductions in the estimated concentration of cholesterol within the smallest subclass of LDL (portfolio − 0·69 (se 0·10) mmol/l, statin − 0·99 (se 0·10) mmol/l). These were significantly greater (P < 0·01) than changes observed after the control diet ( − 0·17 (se 0·08) mmol/l). Finally, baseline C-reactive protein levels were a significant predictor of the LDL size responsiveness to the dietary portfolio but not to the other treatments. The dietary portfolio, like the statin treatment, had only minor effects on several features of the LDL size phenotype, but the pronounced reduction in cholesterol levels within the small LDL fraction may provide additional cardiovascular benefit over the traditional low-fat diet of National Cholesterol Education Program Step II.


Knowledge of the equation of state of strongly interacting matter is required for the description of the variety of nuclear matter phases in a wide range of densities, temperatures, and
proton fractions. A specifically important problem is the construction of equations of state for astrophysical applications, e.g for the investigation of various stages of core-collapse supernova
explosions and the structure of proto-neutron and neutron stars.

For many years, a very small number of equation of state tables was available that have been used in simulations of dynamical astrophysical processes covering the full parameter space
needed. These equations of state often do not supply sufficient information on the thermodynamic and compositional details and do not take into account all relevant phase transitions when multiple
phases co-exist. In recent years, the appearance of new experimental data on atomic nuclei,heavy-ion-collisions and from astrophysical observations as well as the progress in the theoretical description
of the nuclear matter properties and significant improvements of supercomputers have triggered new developments for constructing equations of state. Nevertheless, existing microscopic
approaches still do not allow to construct a description in the whole range of densities and temperatures. Thus, approximations and simplifications are needed to develop practical
schemes. Thereby, different phenomenological approaches to the equation of state continue to
be developed.

In this work we study the effect of two specific types of correlations on thermodynamic properties of nuclear
matter within the framework of a generalized relativistic mean-field model with
light clusters as additional degrees of freedom beyond nucleons. In particular, these correlations include two-body scattering
contributions and pairing effects. They appear due to the short-range
nucleon-nucleon interaction at low densities and modify the composition and thermodynamic
properties of matter. These effects should be included in the equation of state since in this
density regime they may strongly influence the structure of the proto-neutron star, the effectiveness of the neutrino re-heating of the shock wave in supernova simulations and the cooling history of neutron stars.

This thesis is divided into two major parts. In the
first major part we introduce a generalized relativistic mean-field model that includes clusters and two-nucleon scattering correlations in an effective way as explicit degrees of freedom in the thermodynamic potential. These bound and scattering states are represented by quasiparticles with density and temperature dependent properties.
All relevant quantities are derived in a thermodynamically consistent way. The model reproduces relativistic mean field results around nuclear saturation density, where clusters
are dissolved. The low-density behavior of nuclear matter at finite
temperatures with nucleons and light nuclei is considered within a
fugacity expansion of the grand canonical potential by comparing the
virial equation of state with the
generalized relativistic mean field approach. From the comparison of the expansions consistency relations are derived, which
connect quasiparticle parameters with the meson-nucleon couplings of the relativistic mean-field model in the vacuum and the phase shifts or effective-range parameters of nucleon-nucleon scattering.

The second major part of this thesis is devoted to
the investigation of the effect of pairing correlations on the
thermodynamic properties of pure neutron matter for densities up to saturation. Here we extend the relativistic
mean field model by including pairing correlations in the
1S0 nn channel. Calculations are performed with a Yamaguchi separable potential. Pairing gaps are computed
for various temperatures. The results for thermodynamic quantities are compared with relativistic Fermi gas calculations. An overall variation in the pressure of 10 % is observed for a given model due to pairing.


The global financial crisis in 2009 has a tremendous impact that disturbing the company's going-concern principle, if not addressed immediately will result in the direction of financial difficulties and even bankruptcy. These problems plagued many companies in Indonesia, is no exception for the pharmaceutical companies. Altman and Foster has found that the ratio can be used to predict the rate of bankruptcy is the Z-Score Altman Z-Score and Foster. The research objective was to describe the level of bankruptcy with Altman Model and Foster, as well as to compare whether there are differences in the rate of bankruptcy Altman Model and Foster at a pharmaceutical company listed at BEI. The study was descriptive research. While the source of research data is secondary data, namely the financial statements of a pharmaceutical company that went public on the IDX enterprise nine years 2006-2009. Methods of data collection method documentation. Method of analysis using the Z-Score Altman Z-Score and Foster, and hypothesis testing using paired sample t test. The conclusion was that the bankruptcy prediction model with Altman showed 11.11%, or one otherwise healthy companies during the years 2006 to 2009, PT Merck Tbk. Meanwhile, in the year 2006 there were two companies predicted in bankrupt condition. In the year 2007-2008 will be reduced to one company only. While at the end of the year 2009 does not exist. For the model of Foster showed 22.23%, or two companies in the health category in the year 2006, namely: PT Merck Tbk. and PT Kalbe Farma Tbk. In the next two years increased to three companies with the entry of Bristol Myers PT Tbk. Foster model analysis results also showed In 2006 and 2009 there were seven companies and in the years 2007-2008 there were six companies that predict bankruptcy. Hypothesis test showed no statistically significant differences in bankruptcy rates and Foster Altman model years 2006-2009. As a suggestion, management needs to take corrective action corporate performance, investors should be careful in buying shares of pharmaceutical companies that went bankrupt category. Keywords: Bankruptcy prediction, Pharmaceutical companies, Z-Score Altman Z-Score Foster


This paper presents large-eddy and direct numerical simulations of buoyancy-driven convection in sealed and open rapidly rotating cavities for Rayleigh numbers in the range 107–109, and axial throughflow Reynolds numbers 2000 and 5600. Viscous heating due to the Ekman layer scrubbing effect, which has previously been found responsible for the difference in sealed cavity shroud Nusselt number predictions between a compressible N–S solver and an incompressible counterpart using the Boussinesq approximation, is discussed and scaled up to engine conditions. For the open cavity with an axial throughflow, laminar Ekman layer behavior of the mean flow statistics is confirmed up to the highest condition in this paper. The Buoyancy number Bo is found useful to indicate the influence of an axial throughflow. For the conditions studied the mean velocities are subject to Ra, while the velocity fluctuations are affected by Bo. A correlation, Nu′=0.169(Ra′)0.318, obtained with both the sealed and open cavity shroud heat transfer solutions, agrees with that for free gravitational convection between horizontal plates within 16% for the range of Ra′ considered.


Increases in youth crime have placed considerable strain on both the criminal justice and the juvenile justice system. In response to mounting caseloads and diminishing resources, some experts suggest that a restorative justice model, using victim-offender mediation (VOM) principles, is necessary for combating crime and its impact on victims, juveniles, and the community. In this article we evaluate the merits of VOM programs and the philosophy of restorative justice as applied to adolescent offenders. Relying on the interpretive tools of the postmodern sciences, we carefully examine the language of restoration as structuring victim-offender mediation sessions. Integrated, selected contributions from psychoanalytic semiotics and chaos theory underpin this investigation. We demonstrate how VOM discourse advertently or inadvertently marginalizes juveniles. Therefore, as a policy matter, we argue that the goals of restorative justice are not presently realized. We conclude by provisionally describing how a m...


A transient technique for measuring the thermal diffusivity of different solid materials between room temperature and 1000 degrees C is presented. A temperature signal is transferred from a filament to the front surface of the sample and detected with a thermocouple near the front surface. This temperature signal starts a temperature equilibration process in the sample, which is observed at the rear surface of the sample with a difference thermocouple. The transferred heat is an irregular function of the time and is used to calculate the hypothetical equilibration at the rear surface. Hypothetical curves are calculated for given thermal diffusivities with a finite-difference scheme. The thermal diffusivity of the finite-difference scheme is systematically varied to obtain an optimum fit between hypothetical and measured equilibration behavior. The method is applied to various materials, such as quartz and C/C-materials of different orientation, a rock sample, a suevite glass and an yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramic. The different thermal transport mechanisms of the samples (phononic, electronic, advective, radiative) are discussed. Low temperature gradients and small temperature differences in the sample during the experiment allow the measurement of thermal diffusivities near phase transitions and during mineral reactions. The described method is capable of measuring the thermal diffusivities of solid samples between 0.1 and 100 mm 2 /s with an internal precision better than 3% at temperatures up to 1000 degrees C.


The collapse of General Motors captured headlines in early 2009, but as Alex Taylor III writes in this in-depth dissection of the automaker's undoing, GM's was a meltdown forty years in the making. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience and insight as an automotive industry reporter, as well as personal relationships with many of the leading players, Taylor reveals the many missteps of GM and its competitors: a refusal to follow market cues and consumer trends; a lack of follow-through on major initiatives; and a history of hesitance, inaction, and failure to learn from mistakes. In the process, he provides lasting lessons for every executive who confronts the challenges of a changing marketplace and global competition. Yet Taylor resists condemning GM's leadership from the privileged view of hindsight. Instead, his account enables the reader to see GM's decline through the eyes of an insider, with the understanding that corporate decision-making at a company as large as General Motors isn't as simple as it may seem. Taylor's book serves as a marvelous case study of one of the United States' premier companies, of which every American quite literally now holds a share.


Chamalu tells the story of a young woman's initiation into Andean wisdom traditions under the guidance of Chamalu, a Quechua shaman. The sacred way of the heart, he tells her, is a spiritual journey that must be undergone by anyone who aspires to be a Wanderer--a person who transcends illusion and embraces primal reality, unmediated by religious doctrine or intellectual constructs. The woman asks him to show her how to release herself from the emotional pain that paralyzes her, and gradually, over a series of meetings, Chamau reveals to her the secret of reconnecting with the spirits of the ancestors and of Pachamama, Mother Earth. Presented as a series of conversations, Chamalu encompasses teachings that can be lived and experienced by anyone who truly desires to learn. Simply told in language that appeals directly to the heart, Chamalu allows the reader to experience Andean shamanic teachings based on the ancient Inca heritage of wisdom, inner power, simplicity, and joy.


Antibodies producing an unusual immunofluorescent pattern were identified in the sera of patients with diverse autoimmune features. This pattern was characterized by the presence of up to six round discrete nuclear bodies in interphase cell nuclei. Immunoblotting analysis showed that these sera recognized an 80-kD nuclear protein, and affinity-purified anti-p80 antibody from the protein band reproduced the fluorescent staining of nuclear bodies. Colloidal gold immunoelectron microscopy showed that the affinity-purified anti-p80 antibody recognized the coiled body, an ultramicroscopic nuclear structure probably first described by the Spanish cytologist Ramon y Cajal. Five cDNA clones were isolated from a MOLT-4 cell lambda gt-11 expression library using human antibody and oligonucleotide probes. The longest cDNA insert was 2.1 kb and had an open reading frame of 405 amino acids. A clone encoding a 14-kD COOH-terminal region of the protein was used for expression of a beta-galactosidase fusion protein. An epitope was present in this COOH-terminal 14-kD region, which was recognized by 18 of 20 sera with anti-p80 reactivity, and affinity- purified antibody from the recombinant protein also reacted in immunofluorescence to show specific staining of the coiled body. This is the first demonstration and molecular cloning of a protein that appears to have particular identification with the coiled body, and it was designated p80-coilin. Autoantibody to p80-coilin may be useful for the elucidation of the structure and function of the coiled body, and the availability of a cDNA sequence could be helpful in further studies to clarify the clinical significance of this autoantibody response.


Sensorless control of PMSM's (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors) has occupied scientists for a long time. The result of this research is becoming widely accepted by the industry due to its low cost and reliability. However, the majority of today's motor drives are still equipped with some kind of position sensor. The reason is that sensorless control still have several limitations and is usually more complex than a traditional motor control. A new method to estimate the standstill position of PMSM's is presented. The method is based on the anisotropic properties of permanent magnets and is therefore referred to as MAM (Magnetic Anisotropy Method). The proposed method is independent of any ferromagnetic material and can therefore be used in many types of ironless PMSM's where standard methods fail. The MAM method is tested on a linear ironless motor, and measurement results from a "stripped" rotative motor without any supporting ferromagnetic material are also presented. Furthermore, it is shown in this thesis how Extended Kalman filters can be used to estimate the rotor position, and especially how the robustness and dynamic response of the overall control algorithm can be improved by using identification experiments and optimization algorithms. Some basic modelling of PMSM's are also presented. The modelling process is focused on techniques which are suitable for observers such as Extended Kalman filters. To show the versatility of the method, experimental results from two different motor types are presented. The first is a linear ironless motor while the second is a Hybrid Stepper Motor (HSM). Amongst other things it will be shown how the HSM can be transformed into a highly dynamic brushless DC motor without the drawbacks that is usually associated with HSM's. The linear ironless motor is used to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve good and robust position control without using a direct position sensor. Many different simulation and experimental results are presented for both the HSM and the linear ironless motor. The experiments are deliberately chosen to show both steady-state and dynamic operation of the proposed algorithm. The robustness of the overall algorithm is also analysed, considering unknown external load torque and motor parameters.


Aim: This study aims to evaluate the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and factors associated with this practice as well as drugrelated problems and self-medication by pharmacy students of University Center Catholic of Quixada, Ceara, Brazil. Methods: The prospective study with a quantitative approach was conducted. The participants were 96 female pharmacy students, who answered an e-mail questionnaire containing questions regarding the main NSAIDs used, pre-menstrual and menstrual use, drug-related problems and self-medication. Results: The results showed that students >39 years and in the 1st year of graduation had the lowest rates of use of NSAIDs, 33.3% (p = 0.0005) and 77.7% (p = 0.01) respectively. The most commonly drug used were dipyrone (64.5%) and paracetamol (54.1%), mainly for painful processes such as headache (68.7%) and colic (62.5%). Self-medication was 92.7% those students, and the main side effects were nausea (14.5%) and heartburn (10.4%). There was greater use of anti-inflammatories among university students in the menstrual period, in those with irregular menstrual cycle and with a flow Conclusion: In conclusion, NSAIDs are the most frequently used drugs among students of female pharmacy colleges for algic processes such as headache, menstrual cramps, migraine and others referred to as possible hormonal changes. High self-medication was observed, which leads to frequent gastrointestinal adverse effects. Studies are still needed to evaluate the possible impacts of the use of these drugs in the medium and long term in this population. Key words: Pharmacy, Menstrual cycle, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Self-medication, Students.


The future of Europe 2020 lies in its ability to become the protagonist of a new season in EU policy, in which countries can apply for more flexibility only if they can prove both structural reform and good governance, argues the author. By establishing a 'new deal' among member states, an improved Europe 2020 strategy can help Europe to complete its transition from austerity to prosperity.

This Policy Brief makes the case for approaching the mid-term review of Europe 2020 on three different levels:
i) the revision and update of the content of the Europe 2020 strategy, including its objectives, targets and major flagship initiatives;
ii) the reform of the governance of the strategy; and
iii) the repositioning of the strategy at the core of EU policy.

The content of the strategy should be revised to include initiatives on infrastructure, the internal market and administrative capacity at all levels of government. The author sets out a number of policy recommendations for the European Commission and the member states to help realise these objectives.


As informal, self-employed workers, street sex workers are frequently understood as a "hard-to-organize" group. As they are not legally registered or protected, they are excluded from institutional arrangements for unionization and collective bargaining and from access to both labor and social protections, due to the lack of recognition of the work they undertake. Despite this, sex workers in Argentina have been successful in generating solidarity and class consciousness as a basis for collective action. To do so, we argue that AMMAR (Asociación de Mujeres Meretrices de Argentina), the Argentinean sex workers' union, has used a strategy of "affective organizing." Drawing on a participatory project developed with and involving sex worker activists from AMMAR, the article examines 108 interviews, questionnaires, and participant observations. Overall, we argue for greater attention to be paid by scholars working in the fields of the sociology of work and employment and industrial relations, attention to emotion and affect as their foundational role in labor organizing and collective action. Overall, it is posited that the practices of AMMAR in one of the most stigmatized sectors of the labor market hold invaluable lessons for locating relationality and care at the center, rather than the margins, of labor movements as a basis for the wider transformation of social relations in capitalism.


Abstract Ever since the introduction of reflective equilibrium in ethics, it has been argued that reflective equilibrium either leads to moral relativism, or that it turns out to be a form of intuitionism in disguise. Despite these criticisms, reflective equilibrium remains the most dominant method of moral justification in ethics. In this paper, I therefore critically examine the most recent attempts to defend the method of reflective equilibrium against these objections. Defenders of reflective equilibrium typically respond to the objections by saying that either reflective equilibrium can in fact safeguard moral objectivity or alternatively, even if it cannot, that there simply are no reasonable alternatives. In this paper, I take issue with both responses. First, I argue that given the non-foundationalist aspirations of reflective equilibrium, moral objectivity cannot be maintained. Second, I argue that reflective equilibrium is not the only game in town once intuitionism has been discarded. I argue that given their own normative ambitions, combined with their rejection of intuitionism, proponents of reflective equilibrium have reason to take alternative methods of moral justification, and more specifically transcendental arguments, more seriously than they have done so far. I end by sketching the outlines of what this alternative methodology might look like.


Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a common clinical consequence of hepatic surgery, cardiogenic shock, and liver transplantation. A steatotic liver is particularly vulnerable to IRI, responding with extensive hepatocellular injury. Autophagy, a lysosomal pathway balancing cell survival and cell death, is engaged in IRI, although its role in IRI of a steatotic liver is unclear. The role of autophagy was investigated in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice exposed to IRI in vivo and in steatotic hepatocytes exposed to hypoxic IRI (HIRI) in vitro. Two inhibitors of autophagy, 3-methyladenine and bafilomycin A1, protected the steatotic hepatocytes from HIRI. Exendin 4 (Ex4), a glucagon-like peptide 1 analog, also led to suppression of autophagy, as evidenced by decreased autophagy-associated proteins [microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 (LC3) II, p62, high-mobility group protein B1, beclin-1, and autophagy-related protein 7], reduced hepatocellular damage, and improved mitochondrial structure and function in HFD-fed mice exposed to IRI. Decreased autophagy was further demonstrated by reversal of a punctate pattern of LC3 and decreased autophagic flux after IRI in HFD-fed mice. Under the same conditions, the effects of Ex4 were reversed by the competitive antagonist exendin 9-39. The present study suggests that, in IRI of hepatic steatosis, treatment of hepatocytes with Ex4 mitigates autophagy, ameliorates hepatocellular injury, and preserves mitochondrial integrity. These data suggest that therapies targeting autophagy, by Ex4 treatment in particular, may ameliorate the effects of IRI in highly prevalent steatotic liver.


The new Ischnocolinae genus Catumiri is described. The species Cenobiopelma argentinense (Mello-Leit o, 1934), considered a junior synonym of Oligoxystre Vellard, 1924, is transferred to the present genus. Three new species are also described: C. chicaoi n. sp., from south of Bahia, Una; C. petropolium n. sp., from Petr polis, Rio de Janeiro (type species); and C. uruguayense n. sp., from Lavalleja, Uruguay. Diagnosis, zoogeographical distribution and an identification key are provided for all species.


The Supreme Court will soon confront whether Aereo's service – which affords subscribers access to over-the-air television signals through the use of dime-sized, customer-specific antennas and remote digital video recorders – infringes the Copyright Act's public performance right. In endorsing the Second Circuit's decision holding that Aereo does not infringe, some advocates have suggested that such disruptive digital age technology is well beyond what Congress contemplated when it drafted the "Transmit Clause" of the public performance right nearly 50 years ago. Our exploration of the history indicates otherwise.The drafters of the Copyright Act of 1976 had greater foresight than the Second Circuit recognized. As the 1965 Supplementary Report of the Register of Copyrights emphasizes, "it is becoming increasingly apparent that the transmission of works by nonprofit broadcasting, linked computers, and other new media of communication, may soon be among the most important means of disseminating them, and will be capable of reaching vast audiences. Even when these new media are not operated for profit, they may be expected to displace the demand for authors' works by other users from whom copyright owners derive compensation." The following year, Congress explained its intent in crafting the public performance right to cover transmissions of performances "whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times." Its 1966 report notes that liability would arise "whenever the potential recipients of the transmission represent a limited segment of the public, such as...the subscribers of a community antenna television service." It noted that the "same principles apply...where the transmission is capable of reaching different recipients at different times, as in the case of sounds or images stored in an information system and capable of being performed or displayed at the initiative of individual members of the public" – language that comes eerily close to describing Aereo's service.It is difficult to imagine the drafters not considering Aereo to fall comfortably within their conception of a public performance right, especially when considered in light of the drafters' stated intention that the statute be interpreted broadly so as protect against the "real danger" of confining the "scope of the author's rights on the basis of the present technology" in the face of even "unforeseen technical advances." When Congress's development of the retransmission compulsory license is added to the mix, the case for liability becomes airtight. After 1966, the governing law affecting cable television evolved considerably. After the Supreme Court determined that cable television services do not implicate the copyright owner's rights, Congress added Section 111 as part of its stated intention to legislatively reverse the Court's Teleprompter and Fortnightly rulings. This provision establishes a detailed compensation regime whereby cable services are charged for sending over-the-air signals to their subscribers. Retransmission of those signals absent compliance with the provisions set forth in Section 111 or authorization from the copyright owner constitutes copyright infringement. Over the ensuing decades, Congress has cemented this proposition time and again.When taken together, the text, structure, and legislative history of the 1976 Act establish that Congress intended its public performance right to reach the Aereo service.


In this paper we study the least squares (LS) estimator in a linear panel regression model with unknown number of factors appearing as interactive fixed e ffects. Assuming that the number of factors used in estimation is larger than the true number of factors in the data we establish the limiting distribution of the LS estimator for the regression coefficients, as the number of time periods and the number of crosssectional units jointly go to infi nity. The main result of the paper is that under certain assumptions the limiting distribution of the LS estimator is independent of the number of factors used in the estimation, as long as this number is not underestimated. The important practical implication of this result is that for inference on the regression coefficients one does not necessarily need to estimate the number of interactive fixed eff ects consistently. Supplementary material for this paper is available here.


The movement against restrictive digital copyright protection arose largely in response to the excesses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. In The Digital Rights Movement, Hector Postigo shows that what began as an assertion of consumer rights to digital content has become something broader: a movement concerned not just with consumers and gadgets but with cultural ownership. Increasingly stringent laws and technological measures are more than incoveniences; they lock up access to our "cultural commons." Postigo describes the legislative history of the DMCA and how policy "blind spots" produced a law at odds with existing and emerging consumer practices. Yet the DMCA established a political and legal rationale brought to bear on digital media, the Internet, and other new technologies. Drawing on social movement theory and science and technology studies, Postigo presents case studies of resistance to increased control over digital media, describing a host of tactics that range from hacking to lobbying. Postigo discusses the movement's new, user-centered conception of "fair use" that seeks to legitimize noncommercial personal and creative uses such as copying legitimately purchased content and remixing music and video tracks. He introduces the concept of technological resistance--when hackers and users design and deploy technologies that allows access to digital content despite technological protection mechanisms--as the flip side to the technological enforcement represented by digital copy protection and a crucial tactic for the movement.


The Autonomous Robotics and Control Systems Laboratory at the University of Washington has developed a testbed consisting of seven K-Team Khepera II miniature robots, a global vision system and a custom-designed infrared communication structure. The purpose of the testbed is to provide a platform for the real-world testing of distributed and centralized control algorithms for groups of autonomous robots. The testbed enables experiment design and execution to take place in an efficient and rapid manner. This paper describes the testbed components, most of which are available commercially. The new infrared communication turret is described in detail.


This study explores undergraduate students' experiences and perceptions of the content-based EFL instruction at a northwestern Chinese university. It is one of the first empirical studies of content-based EFL in China. Through a three-part open-ended questionnaire administered with 34 undergraduate students majoring in finance, the study reveals overwhelming support for this approach to EFL. Participants believed that learning English and content knowledge simultaneously was helpful and that the spread of English in China can benefit the nation and its people. The findings also indicate that some participants were critical of the approach, stating that it is "shallow content teaching" and suggesting that subject matter content be taught in Chinese. The participants praised their original English texts and expressed their preference for student-centered learning.


Abstract The sorption of ibuprofen by modified natural zeolite composites at three concentration levels (10, 20 and 30 mmol/100 g) of cationic surfactants - benzalkonium chloride and cetylpyridinium chloride, in a buffer solution (pH 7.4), was studied. Characterization of the composites before and after ibuprofen sorption was performed by drug sorption and isotherm studies, zeta potential and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopic analysis. The biopharmaceutical performance of cationic surfactant-modified zeolites as drug formulation excipients was evaluated by in vitro dissolution experiments from the composites with medium surfactant contents. The drug sorption was influenced by the surfactant type and amount used for the zeolite modification. Prolonged drug release over a period of 8 h (up to ~40%) was achieved with both groups of samples. The kinetic analysis showed that the drug release profiles were best fitted with the Higuchi and the Bhaskar models, indicating a combination of drug diffusion and ion exchange as the predominant release mechanisms.


This paper introduces a methodology to extend the capabilities of the dynamic inoperability input-output model (DIIM) to account for perturbations to sectors of the economy that are time varying and probabilistic. The DIIM accounts for the interdependent nature of the economy in determining the impact of a disruption on the ability of each economic sector to satisfy the prevailing demand. While the original formulation of the DIIM only allows for a single perturbation vector, this paper extends the DIIM to allow a perturbation matrix to be utilized as inputs to the model. The underlying motivation for this paper is understanding the impact of a pandemic on a regional economy. As such, idiosyncrasies associated with a pandemic are also accounted for in the model formulation. These include translating workforce absenteeism into a measure of sector inoperability and accounting for the impact of long-term absenteeism on a sector's ability to deliver its as-planned production output.


In a modern microprocessor, datapath/arithmetic circuits have always been an important building block in delivering high-performance, energy-efficient computing, because arithmetic operations such as addition and binary number comparison are two of the most commonly used computing instructions. Besides the manufacturing CMOS process, the two most critical design considerations for arithmetic circuits are the logic style and micro-architecture. In this thesis, a constant-delay (CD) logic style is proposed targeting full-custom high-speed applications. The constant delay characteristic of this logic style (regardless of the logic type) makes it suitable for implementing complicated logic expressions such as addition. CD logic exhibits a unique characteristic where the output is pre-evaluated before the inputs from the preceding stage are ready. This feature enables a performance advantage over static and dynamic domino logic styles in a single cycle, multi-stage circuit block. Several design considerations including timing window width adjustment and clock distribution are discussed. Using a 65-nm general-purpose CMOS technology, the proposed logic style demonstrates an average speedup of 94% and 56% over static and dynamic domino logic, respectively, in five different logic gates. Simulation results of 8-bit ripple carry adders conclude that CD logic is 39% and 23% faster than the static and dynamic-based adders, respectively. CD logic also demonstrates 39% speedup and 64% (22%) energy-delay product reduction from static logic at 100% (10%) data activity in 32-bit carry lookahead adders. To confirm CD logic's potential, a 148 ps, single-cycle 64-bit adder with CD logic implemented in the critical path is fabricated in a 65-nm, 1-V CMOS process. A new 64-bit Ling adder micro-architecture, which utilizes both inversion and absorption properties to minimize the number of CD logic and the number of logic stage in the critical path, is also proposed. At 1-V supply, this adder's measured worstcase power and leakage power are 135 mW and 0.22 mW, respectively. A single-cycle 64-bit binary comparator utilizing a radix-2 tree structure is also proposed. This comparator architecture is specifically designed for static logic to achieve both low-power and high-performance operation, especially in low input data activity environments. At 65-nm technology with 25% (10%) data activity, the proposed design demonstrates 2.3× (3.5×) and 3.7× (5.8×) power and energy-delay product efficiency, respectively. This comparator is also 2.7× faster at iso-energy (80 fJ) or 3.3× more energy-efficient at iso-delay (200 ps) iii than existing designs. An improved comparator, where CD logic is utilized in the critical path to achieve high performance without sacrificing the overall energy efficiency, is also realized in a 65-nm 1-V CMOS process. At 1-V supply, the proposed comparator's measured delay is 167 ps, and has an average power and a leakage power of 2.34 mW and 0.06 mW, respectively. At 0.3-pJ iso-energy or 250-ps iso-delay budget, the proposed comparator with CD logic is 20% faster or 17% more energy-efficient compared to a comparator implemented with just the static logic.


The problem of the application of radiobiological data for radiation epidemiology and radiation protection is considered. The causality of epidemiological consequences quite often cannot be established without radiobiological basis (Bradford-Hill epidemiological criteria). A number of epidemiological uncertainties can be removed with the radiobiology (uncertainties in a dosimetry, effects of the confounding factors and biases). Radiobiology gives the answer when epidemiology is not capable of doing it because of impossibility to reach indispensable statistical power (at risk calculation for hereditary effects for the people, for stochastic effects of irradiation at low doses, etc.). The documents of UNSCEAR, BEIR, ICRP, etc. fixed that it is necessary to take into account radiobiological data during epidemiological research. The considerable attention in this case was attracted by non-target effects, etc. At the same time, it is impossible to exaggerate the contribution of radiobiology to regulating character conclusions owing to the limitations for radiobiological experiments.


This Article offers an assessment of the preliminary evidence that the market for corporate control functions as a disciplinary mechanism for poor corporate governance in Korea. It analyzes SK Corporation's fight against Sovereign Asset Management, contest for control over the Hyundai Group, KT&G's fight against Carl Icahn, and LG Group and Carlyle's proxy contest against Hanaro Telecom, together with relevant laws and regulations. These high-profile cases dramatically exemplified the role of takeovers in the improvement of the corporate governance of Korean companies, and brought about active policy discussions in respect of the market for corporate control and takeover defenses. This Article will also provide a quick overview over the provisions in draft new Korean Commercial Code related to the market for corporate control and takeover defenses, including squeeze-out, poison pills, and dual-class commons. This Article argues that as the increasing exposure of control to the market could eliminate the inefficient controlling shareholder system in Korea, the new Korean Commercial Code should strike a balance between the active market for corporate control and effective takeover defensive tactics for the benefit of all shareholders and the value of the company.


To understand the role of molecular architecture of surfactant molecule on micellar structure, a series of cationic surfactants was taken viz. cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB-1), cetyl hydroxyethyldimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB-2) and cetyl dihydroxyethyl methyl ammonium bromide (CTAB-3) has been investigated by small angle neuron scattering measurement. Critical micelle concentration, Kraft temperature for a series of surfactant was determined by conductance measurement, where as aggregation number, effective fractional charge per monomer, equilibrium distance between the charged heads and dimension of micelle were determined from small angle neutron scattering data. It is observed that the number density of micelle and dimension of micelle were observed to increase and hence oil solubilization of surfactant system was also observed to increase from CTAB-1 to CTAB-2 and then CTAB-3.


Since privacy issues are becoming important with growth of the video surveillance, many tools are proposed for protection of personal privacy in the video. However, little is understood regarding the effectiveness of such tools and their effect on the underlying surveillance tasks. In this paper, we propose a subjective evaluation methodology that compares several popular privacy protection techniques applied to typical indoor surveillance video. We identify and analyze the tradeoff between the privacy preservation of these tools and the intelligibility of activities in the resulted surveillance video.


This article chronicles a Cold War saga involving American Communist Party leaders; their criminal prosecutions and convictions; defenders of their civil rights; U.S. Supreme Court justices; "Circuit Justice" decisions in chambers; and various persons' travels, law work, and law work avoidance.
In June 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the criminal convictions and prison sentences of eleven leaders of the Communist Party of the U.S.A. (Dennis v. U.S.), declined to review the criminal contempt convictions and prison sentences of six of their attorneys (Sacher v. U.S.), and then began its summer recess.
These defendants, who were out on bail during their appeals, then petitioned Justice Robert H. Jackson, the Second Circuit Justice, to stay the issuance of the Court's mandate. After hearing oral argument in his chambers, Justice Jackson granted the stay to the Sacher defendants but denied it to the Dennis defendants.
The Dennis mandate then issued. The trial court in the Southern District of New York ordered the defendants to surrender for incarceration. Seven did surrender but four did not — they skipped out on their bail.
To assist in the pursuit of these prominent fugitives, the District Court summoned to testify the trustees of the civil rights fund that had provided their bail. The District Court sought to determine if the trustees had relevant information — bail fund donors, for example, might be people who were assisting the fugitives. But the Bail Fund trustees — Frederick Vanderbilt Field, Dashiell Hammett, and W. Alphaeus Hunton — claimed constitutional privileges and refused to testify. So the District Court convicted them of criminal contempt and sentenced them to prison.
The Bail Fund trustees appealed their convictions and sought bail pending appeal. After the District Court and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the Trustees' motions for bail, they were incarcerated.
The Bail Fund trustees then sought bail from the Supreme Court's Second Circuit Justice. Justice Jackson, who by then was away from the Court on his summer vacation at the Bohemian Grove in California, told Chief Justice Vinson, vacationing in the Adirondacks, that he (Jackson) would not hear the matter. Vinson then appointed Justice Stanley Reed, vacationing at his home in Kentucky, to serve as Acting Second Circuit Justice. Reed, after hearing argument at his home in Kentucky, denied the petitions — the Bail Fund trustees remained in prison.
After the Court of Appeals affirmed the Bail Fund trustees' criminal contempt convictions that fall, the trustees sought Supreme Court review. They also petitioned Circuit Justice Jackson for bail while the Court considered whether to review the convictions. The Court denied review. Concurrently, Justice Jackson denied the petitions (now moot) for bail.
In the end, each Bail Fund trustee served multiple months in federal prison for his criminal contempt conviction for refusal to testify.


This article investigates the extent to which Roman Law and received ideas about Roman slavery actually did form the basis on which slavery was practised and administered in the Cape of Good Hope between 1652 and 1834. Cape slavery was governed by plakaaten issued in Batavia as well as in Cape Town, but, particularly in capital cases, recourse was had directly to Roman Law and to the Roman-Dutch writers such as Simon van Leeuwen, Joost de Damhouder, Ulrich Huber, Andreas Gail and others. These writers frequently cite actual Roman laws, especially when considering the appropriate punishment. At this stage of our knowledge of how Roman Law was used in these cases, it is not possible to say whether its effect was ameliorative or pejorative, but there is little doubt that it was used both by owners and slaves, prosecution and defence, from the beginning until the end of this period.


Under an overlooked body of constitutional law, many more federal offenses must be prosecuted by grand jury indictment than is now the practice. Current rules provide that felonies must be prosecuted by grand jury indictment, but misdemeanor charges may be based on a prosecutor's information, or even a "ticket" issued by a law enforcement officer. However, serious consequences fall on people convicted of federal misdemeanors, including deportation, sex offender or other criminal registration, ineligibility for public benefits, and loss of civil rights. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Supreme Court held in a series of cases, never overruled, that to charge an infamous misdemeanor required a grand jury indictment. The Court held that infamous offenses were ones potentially resulting in stigmatizing punishments degrading the offender's status, indicating that the person is less than a full member of the community. These include corporal punishment, incarceration in a prison or penitentiary (as opposed to a jail), loss of civil rights or imposition of civil disabilities, and convictions implying moral turpitude. Many federal misdemeanors carry these consequences. And federal misdemeanors are much more likely to be dismissed without trial than felonies. More thoughtful evaluation of misdemeanor cases before charge would often terminate cases which wind up being dismissed after charge. As a result, thousands of Americans would avoid the stigma of a criminal record where it is unwarranted. This is what the framers of the Constitution intended.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the feasibility and time effectiveness of simultaneous perineal urethrectomy and robotic cystectomy with total intracorporeal ileal conduit. METHODS: After approval by the Institutional Review Board, we included all consecutive patients who underwent perineal urethrectomy with simultaneous robotic assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) and intracorporeal ileal conduit (ICIC) with the Da Vinci Xi robot, in our institution from January 1st 2018 to September 15th 2018. We compared per-operative data with another group of patients that underwent RARC with ICIC without urethrectomy in our institution during the same period. RESULTS: In total, there were 2 patients in the simultaneous urethrectomy group and 14 patients in the no urethrectomy group. Extended lymph node dissection was done for all patients in both groups. Firefly was used for the urinary diversion in all cases in both groups. There was no significant difference between the operative time in the simultaneous urethrectomy group (370 min) and the no urethrectomy group (360 min) (p=0.09). CONCLUSIONS: Perineal urethrectomy with simultaneous RARC and ICIC is a feasible and time efficient procedure similar to RARC and ICUD without perineal urethrectomy. Table. No title available. Source of Funding: None


BACKGROUND
Lung disease in preterm infants is often complicated with lung edema.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this review is to assess the risks and benefits of aerosolized diuretic administration in preterm infants with or developing chronic lung disease (CLD). Primary objectives are to assess effects on short term outcome (changes in need for oxygen or ventilatory support) and effects on long-term outcome. Secondary objectives are to assess changes in pulmonary mechanics and potential complications of therapy.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We used the standard search method of the Cochrane Neonatal Review Group. We used the following keywords: ¿ or ¿ and , limited to and limited to or . We searched Medline (1966-1998), Embase (1974-1998) and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR) from the Cochrane Library (1998, Issue 4). In addition, we hand searched several abstract books of national and international American and European Societies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included in this analysis trials in which preterm infants with or developing chronic lung disease and at least five days of age were all randomly allocated to receive an aerosolized loop diuretic. Eligible studies needed to assess at least one of the outcome variables defined a priori for this systematic review. Primary outcome variables included important clinical outcomes, and secondary outcome variables included pulmonary mechanics and potential complications of therapy.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We used the standard method for the Cochrane Collaboration which is described in the Cochrane Collaboration Handbook. Two investigators extracted, assessed and coded separately all data for each study, using a form that was designed specifically for this review. Any disagreement was resolved by discussion. We combined parallel and cross-over trials and, whenever possible, transformed baseline and final outcome data measured on a continuous scale into change scores using Follmann's formula.

MAIN RESULTS
We identified eight studies which met selection criteria. Most studies focused on pathophysiological parameters and did not assess effects on important clinical outcomes defined in this review or the potential complications of diuretic therapy. No study assessed the amount of diuretic effectively delivered to the patient. Furosemide was the only diuretic used in the eight studies included in this review. Among preterm infants < 3 weeks of age developing CLD, not enough information is available to assess the effect of aerosolized furosemide on outcome or lung function. Among infants > 3 weeks with CLD, a single aerosolized dose of 1 mg/kg of furosemide may transiently improve pulmonary mechanics. Not enough information is available to assess the effect of chronic administration of aerosolized furosemide on oxygenation and pulmonary mechanics.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS
In preterm infants > 3 weeks with CLD administration of a single dose of aerosolized furosemide improves pulmonary mechanics. In view of the lack of data from randomized trials concerning effects on important clinical outcomes, routine or sustained use of aerosolized loop diuretics in infants with (or developing) CLD cannot be recommended based on current evidence. More double-blinded randomized trials are needed (1) to analyze factors likely to affect the response to aerosolized furosemide, e.g. , washout period and delivery of furosemide to distal airways, and (2) to assess the effects of chronic administration of aerosolized furosemide on mortality, O2 dependency, ventilator dependency, length of hospital stay and long-term outcome.


This Article reviews the use of mental health experts to provide testimony on the future dangerousness of individuals who have already been convicted of a crime that qualifies them for the death penalty. Although this practice is common in many states that still retain the death  penalty, it most frequently occurs in Texas because of a statute that makes  it mandatory for juries to determine the future dangerousness of the  defendant they have just found guilty. Both the American Psychiatric  Association and the American Psychological Association have protested  the use of mental health professionals in this setting because there are no  scientifically valid methods to make these predictions for people who face  long periods of incarceration in maximum-security prisons. Existing  models of prediction consider the behavior of individuals in the free world.  Moreover, the Supreme Court has upheld these predictions of  dangerousness in capital sentencing hearings on the grounds that neither  of the protesting professional organizations actually license mental health  professionals. Therefore, this Article suggests that these state licensing  boards be held responsible for assuring mental health professionals do not  testify beyond the scope of medical support or evidence. In so doing, it  analyzes cases in which health care professionals, in general, have been  held responsible by state licensing boards for testimony that is beyond  what is acceptable practice in that profession.


From the Publisher:
Emphasizes IC design concepts with additional support for discrete design where necessary. Describes noise sources and models; addresses practical problems of circuit design for low noise using negative feedback, filtering, component noise, measurement techniques and instrumentation; gives numerous examples of practical amplifier designs. Five chapters cover the use of SPICE and PSpice for low noise analysis and design.


Mental task onset detection from the continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) in real time is a critical issue in self-paced brain computer interface (BCI) design. The paper shows that self-paced BCI performance can be significantly improved by combining a range of simple techniques including (1) constant-Q filters with varying bandwidth size depending on the center frequency, instead of constant bandwidth filters for frequency decomposition of the EEG signal in the 6 to 36 Hz band; (2) subjectspecific postprocessing parameter optimization consisting of dwell time and threshold, and (3) debiasing before postprocessing by readjusting the classification output based on the current and previous brain states, to reduce the number of false detections. This debiasing block is shown to be optimal when activated only in special cases which are predetermined during the training phase. Analysis of the data recorded from seven subjects executing foot movement shows a statistically significant 10% (P < 0.05) average improvement in true positive rate (TPR) and a 1% reduction in false positive rate (FPR) detections compared with previous work on the same data.


Ultrasensitive Raman measurements in single living cells are possible through exploiting the effect of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Colloidal gold particles (60 nm in size) that are deposited inside cells as "SERS-active nanostructures" result in strongly enhanced Raman signals of the native chemical constituents of the cells. Particularly strong field enhancement can be observed when gold colloidal particles form colloidal clusters. The strongly enhanced Raman signals allow Raman measurements of a single cell in the 400–1800 cm−1 range with 1-μm lateral resolution in relatively short collection times (1 second for one mapping point) using 3–5 mW near-infrared excitation. SERS mapping over a cell monolayer with 1-μm lateral resolution shows different Raman spectra at almost all places, reflecting the very inhomogeneous chemical constitution of the cells. Colloidal gold supported Raman spectroscopy in living cells provides a tool for sensitive and structurally selective detection of native chemicals inside a cell, such as DNA and phenylalanine, and for monitoring their intracellular distributions. This might open up exciting opportunities for cell biology and biomedical studies.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tear film functions and clinical symptoms of patients with migraines. Methods: This observational comparative study consisted of 33 migraine (26 women and 7 men) patients referred from neurology clinics and 33 (22 women and 11 men) control subjects referred from ophthalmology outpatient clinics. The control subjects had neither systemic nor ocular disease nor any type of headache. All 66 patients underwent a complete ophthalmic examination and diagnostic tests for dry eye, including tear break-up time, Schirmer test with topical anesthesia, lissamine green staining, and an ocular surface disease score. Patients with migraine were classified as migraine with an aura, migraine without an aura, and basilar migraine; a pain score from 1 to 4 was determined for each patient, based on the American Headache Society's Migraine Disability Assessment Test. Results: Of the 33 patients who participated in the migraine group, 17 (51%) suffered from migraine with aura, 11 (33%) suffered from migraine without aura, and 5 (15%) suffered from basilar migraine. Significant differences in dry eye scores were found between the patients with migraine and the control subjects. In the migraine group, the mean tear break-up time was 7.75 ± 2.37 seconds, whereas in the control group it was 9.15 ± 1.93 seconds. For the Schirmer test, the migraine group had a mean value of 12.09 ± 4.95 mm/5 minutes, whereas the control group had a mean value of 14.90 ± 4.26 mm/5 minutes. Testing with lissamine green staining resulted in a mean value of 1.00 ± 0.16 in the migraine group and 0.30 ± 0.46 in the control group. In the migraine group, the mean for the ocular surface disease index scoring was 36.27 ± 17.54. In the control group, it was 28.42 ± 9.0. A significant difference (P < 0.05) was found in the dry eye syndrome testing results between the 2 groups in this study. Conclusions: An increased frequency of dry eye disease was found to occur in patients with migraine, which might suggest that migraine headaches are related to dry eye disease. Some migraine attacks may be aggravated in the presence of dry eye syndrome.


Around 8200 calBP, large parts of the now submerged North Sea continental shelf ('Doggerland') were catastrophically flooded by the Storegga Slide tsunami, one of the largest tsunamis known for the Holocene, which was generated on the Norwegian coastal margin by a submarine landslide. In the present paper, we derive a precise calendric date for the Storegga Slide tsunami, use this date for reconstruction of contemporary coastlines in the North Sea in relation to rapidly rising sea-levels, and discuss the potential effects of the tsunami on the contemporaneous Mesolithic population. One main result of this study is an unexpectedly high tsunami impact assigned to the western regions of Jutland.


The present study was conducted to evaluate three breeding methods i.e. Bulk Method, Single Seed Descent and Single Plant Progenies in F 4 generation of blackgram to identify the most appropriate one for particular hybrid or character at two locations. In addition, inheritance of qualitative traits and hybrid performance for four generations was also studied. Inheritance study comprised four plant traits (pubescence, pod colour, seed coat colour and presence of spots on seed coat) in three crosses. Breeding methods in eleven crosses were investigated for plant height, number of branches planrl, pods planrl, length pod-s, seed pod-s, 100 seed weight planrl, biological yield planrl, grain yield planrl and harvest index over four generation at National Agricultural Research Center, (research station) and Fateh Jang (farmer's field).

Eleven crosses were selected in F2 from a six parent diallel and seeds were divided into three groups to evaluate Bulk Method, Single Seed Descent and Single Plant Progeny method. Two crosses (Mash 1/9020 and 9020/9012) gave better response to Bulk Method at both the locations, while 9020/Mash 1 performed better for this method at NARC location only. All the crosses except 9025/Mash 1 and 9025/9026 showed their worth in single seed descent. In single plant progenies at FJ, all the crosses showed better performance except 9020/9012.

Plant height, pods planrl, pod length, seed pods-l, 100 seed weight, biological yield planrl and grain yield planrl showed better performance in single plant progenies at FJ while single seed descent showed its worth for number of branches, pods planrl, pod length, pod seed, biological yield planrl, grain yield planrl and harvest index at NARC location. Single plant progenies showed the best performance at FJ and it differed significantly for single seed descent at NARC. Bulk method revealed almost similar results at both the location with lowest index score.

Four parents (Mash 1, Mash 3, MM 33-40, and 45726) were used to study inheritance of four qualitative characters, i.e., pubescence, seed coat colour, presence of spots on the seed coat and pod colour. All the four qualitative traits revealed monogenic nature of inheritance segregating in Mendelian ratio (3: 1). The hairiness pattern was observed dominant over non-hairiness; brown seed coat colour dominant over green seed coat colour. Presence of spots on seed coat was dominant to absence of spots and black pod colour was dominant over brown pods in blackgram. Out of three hybrids, two (Mash IIMM33-40 and 45726IMM33-40) revealed linkage between pod colour vs presence of spots on seed coat and pod colour vs seed coat colour that is suggested to be used for preliminary mapping in blackgram.

The data were analyzed for hybrid vigour over the generations and it was observed that the source of variation attributed to hybrids as well as generations representing high proportions of the total sum of squares. A clear response for grouping of Fl and F2 was observed, whereas other two generations (F3 and F4) were intermixed, although a low level of separation was observed. On the basis of performance and hybrid vigour, three hybrids (Mash 3IMash 1, 9012/ 9025 and 9020IMash 1) exhibited better potential. The hybrids with high mean performance and hybrids vigour are expected to give better chance for selection to develop superior cultivars of blackgram.


Fused-pyrrole spacer groups have been exploited for the first time computationally to improve the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Known dye 1 (TPA-TTAR-T-A) containing tetrathienoacene as a spacer group has achieved 10% efficiency, which is comparable to that of ruthenium complex dyes. The DFT study reveals that fused-pyrrole as a spacer in dye 3 can augment the efficiency of DSSCs and can perform better than dye 1. The pyrrole ring possesses lower resonance energy (21.0 kcal mol−1) than the commonly used thiophene (29–34 kcal mol−1) spacers. The higher conjugative effect of fused-pyrrole rings influence the short-circuit current density (Jsc), including driving force of electrons (ΔGinjection) and singlet excited state lifetime (τ). Further, open-circuit photovoltage (Voc), which depends on dipole moments (μnormal) and number of electrons transferred from the dye to the TiO2 surface (Δq), are also influenced with such conjugative effects. The calculated λmax (539 nm) and ΔGinjection (−1.82 eV) of dye 3 is much higher than the dye 1 (λmax = 497 nm and ΔGinjection = −1.28 eV). The calculated results show that the singlet excited state lifetime of dye 3 (2.2 ns) is higher than the dye 1 (1.7 ns). Dye 3 should have better Jsc value than 1 as the obtained ΔGinjection, τ and λmax values are higher in the former case. The DFT calculations also suggest that the open-circuit photovoltage (Voc) of 3 would be higher than 1 and hence can augment the efficiency of the designed dye 3. The study was extended with tetrapyrrolobenzothiadiazole spacer groups (dyes 6 and 8) which are also shown to be promising candidates to improve the efficiencies of DSSCs. Importantly, the tendency of aggregation of dyes can also be prevented by introducing bulky groups in the fused-pyrrole ring which can also help to enhance the efficiency of designed dyes relative to reported dyes. The exploration of novel sensitizers with fused-pyrrole spacer groups would provide potential candidates for DSSCs.


Background: Cyclamen persicum is an economically important ornamental crop that is propagated exclusively through seeds as vegetative propagation using cuttings is not possible. Therefore a micropropagation method through somatic embryogenesis is of high interest; however the method suffers from low reliability concerning quality and quantity of the produced plantlets. A crucial step of the protocol is the removal of plant growth regulators (PGRs) that triggers embryo development. In order to get a better insight in this crucial step of the propagation process, a gene expression analysis has been set up using five different genes of glutathione S-transferases (GST) as these are known to be auxin responsive as well as stress reactive. Results: One out of the five genes of glutathione S-transferases (CpGST1) displayed a clear down-regulation 72 hrs after removal of PGRs compared to 4 hrs after, implying auxin responsiveness. However, a more detailed analysis including the time points 0, 4 and 72 hrs revealed an initial strong up-regulation after 4 hrs before it was down-regulated after 72 hrs. In comparison fold-changes of the additional four GST-genes were marginal. Comparing cultures on semisolid medium to that in suspension, transcript abundances of CpGST1 were clearly decreased in suspension culture. Conclusions: Against the initial hypothesis CpGST was not auxin responsive but stress reactive, probably especially indicating drought stress imposed on the cells upon transfer from submerged suspension culture to semisolid medium. Mechanical stress caused by shaking of suspensions cultures seemed to be less important.


The main aim of this book is to provide teaching ideas that can be adapted to different learning environments and that can be used with different language combinations. The pedagogical approach and the activities, tasks and projects are based on Communicative, Humanistic and Socioconstructivist principles: the students are actively involved in their learning process by making decisions and interacting with each other in a classroom setting that is a discussion forum and hands-on workshop.Clear aims are specified for the activities, which move from the most rudimentary level of the word, to the more complicated issues of syntax and, finally, to those of cultural difference. Moreover, they attempt to synthesize various translation theories, not only those based on linguistics, but those derived from cultural studies as well. This volume will be of interest to translation teachers, to foreign language teachers who wish to include translation in their classes, to graduates and professional translators interested in becoming teachers, and also to administrators exploring the possibility of starting a new translation programme.


Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a cytokine that
stimulates the production of leukocytes as part of an immune response. The role that
GM-CSF plays in the immune system is reliant on its tightly controlled expression,
both temporally and spatially. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the
factors that contribute to the correct temporal and spatial expression of GM-CSF in
immune cells.
It was found that while GM-CSF expression can be stimulated in murine T cells but
not B cells, key transcription factors involved in GM-CSF gene expression were
present in both cell types, leading to the hypothesis that epigenetic mechanisms
underlie this differential response. In support of this, differences in DNA
methylation, histone modifications and the presence of chromatin remodelling
proteins were detected at the GM-CSF promoter between the two cell types.
DNA methylation levels were higher at a CpG dinucleotide in the GM-CSF promoter
in T compared to B cell lines, and DNA methylation of the GM-CSF promoter
blocked expression from a reporter plasmid. Demethylation of the promoter was not
sufficient to enable GM-CSF gene expression in B cells, although it increased its
expression in T cells. The effect of removing the CpG dinucleotide, which is
contained in an Sp1 transcription factor binding site, was also examined. In a
transiently transfected reporter model, removal of the Sp1 site resulted in loss of promoter activity. However, in a stably integrated transgene model, the Sp1 mutant
promoter exhibited an increased response to stimulation. The differential response of
the promoter mutant between the transient and stably transfected models suggests
that the chromatin environment of the gene plays an important role in transcriptional
regulation.
To further examine the importance of chromatin in GM-CSF gene regulation, histone
modifications were examined at the GM-CSF promoter in T and B cell lines. Several
key differences were observed. In T cells, acetylation of histone H3 was increased at
the GM-CSF promoter relative to B cells. Increasing promoter acetylation levels by
treatment with the histone deacetylase inhibitor Trichostatin A (TSA) facilitated
expression of GM-CSF in the B cell lines in response to stimulation. Furthermore,
TSA treatment in combination with DNA demethylation had a synergistic effect on
GM-CSF expression in both T and B cells. In contrast to histone acetylation, histone
H3 lysine 27 trimethylation was lower at the GM-CSF promoter in T cells relative to
B cells. Finally, the chromatin remodelling protein Brg1, which is known to interact
with acetylated histones, was present at the GM-CSF promoter in T cells at higher
levels than in B cells.
These data suggest that enrichment of histone H3 acetylation and Brg1 and decreased
H3K27Me3 contribute to the establishment of a 'permissive' chromatin environment
at the GM-CSF promoter in T cells, which is not present at the promoter in B cells.
A 'permissive' chromatin environment can be established at the GM-CSF promoter in B cells following treatment with TSA, which increases histone acetylation. This
allows remodelling of the promoter chromatin and subsequent gene expression in
response to immune signals. However, this induced 'permissive' state is not
maintained. Following removal of the inducing stimulus in A20 B cells, the
chromatin is reset to its original 'repressive' state and the GM-CSF gene becomes
unresponsive to subsequent stimulation.


Lignins were isolated from spruce, wheat straw, and eucalyptus by using the milled wood lignin (MWL) method. Functional groups and compositional analyses were assessed via 2D NMR and 31P NMR to realize their effect on enzyme binding. Films of the lignins were fabricated and ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and water contact angle measurements were used for their characterization and to reveal the changes upon enzyme adsorption. Moreover, lignin thin films were deposited on quartz crystal microgravimetry (QCM) and surface plasmon (SPR) resonance sensors and used to gain further insights into the lignin-cellulase interactions. For this purpose, a commercial multicomponent enzyme system and a monocomponent Trichoderma reesei exoglucanase (CBH-I) were considered. Strong enzyme adsorption was observed on the various lignins but compared to the multicomponent cellulases, CBH-I displayed lower surface affinity and higher binding reversibility. This resolved prevalent questions related to the affinity of this enzyme with lignin. Remarkably, a strong correlation between enzyme binding and the syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio was found for the lignins, which presented a similar hydroxyl group content (31P NMR): higher protein affinity was determined on isolated spruce lignin (99% G units), while the lowest adsorption occurred on isolated eucalyptus lignin (70% S units). The effect of electrostatic interactions in enzyme adsorption was investigated by SPR, which clearly indicated that the screening of charges allowed more extensive protein adsorption. Overall, this work furthers our understanding of lignin-cellulase interactions relevant to biomass that has been subjected to no or little pretreatment and highlights the widely contrasting effects of the nature of lignin, which gives guidance to improve lignocellulosic saccharification and related processes.


Here at last is a thorough guide of the most collected dinnerware. In one volume this book provides an excellent survey of the best companies and their most popular lines. The important California companies, including the Wallace China Company, Catalina Pottery, B.J. Brock & Co., and Gladding, McBean & Co. along with other companies nationwide including the Crooksville Art Pottery Co., Frankoma, and the Hall China Company, are among the many potteries represented. The contributions of famous designers such as Ben Seibel, Russel Wright, Eva Zeisel, and Sascha Brastoff are explored. Extensive research has uncovered new information on many of the companies and designers. Over 300 clear photos, extracts from catalogs and advertisements, historical photos, and a well-documented text will help to identify dinnerware, to trace changing technological and design trends, and to showcase an industry in its heyday. As the journey to uncover and identify all the American produced dinnerware from the twentieth century continues, this book serves as an important milestone and an important reference.


Chk2 is a protein kinase intermediary in DNA damage checkpoint pathways. DNA damage induces phosphorylation of Chk2 at multiple sites concomitant with activation. Chk2 phosphorylated at Thr-68 is found in nuclear foci at sites of DNA damage (1). We report here that Chk2 phosphorylated at Thr-68 and Thr-26 or Ser-28 is localized to centrosomes and midbodies in the absence of DNA damage. In a search for interactions between Chk2 and proteins with similar subcellular localization patterns, we found that Chk2 coimmunoprecipitates with Polo-like kinase 1, a regulator of chromosome segregation, mitotic entry, and mitotic exit. Plk1 overexpression enhances phosphorylation of Chk2 at Thr-68. Plk1 phosphorylates recombinant Chk2 in vitro. Indirect immunofluorescence (IF) microscopy revealed the co-localization of Chk2 and Plk1 to centrosomes in early mitosis and to the midbody in late mitosis. These findings suggest lateral communication between the DNA damage and mitotic checkpoints.