Multimodality evoked potential (MEP) data from over 300 comatose head-injured patients suggest that central nervous system dysfunction of the brain stem and/or hemispheres can be localized with this noninvasive neuroelectric technique. Based on this work, decerebrate motor posturing and prolonged coma are not associated with brain-stem dysfunction but rather with dysfunction of the hemispheres, while absent pupillary and oculocephalic responses are correlated with brain-stem dysfunction alone. However, the accuracy with which MEP data localized human brain-stem or hemispheric dysfunction could not be confirmed by pathological correlation because of low mortality and the small number of autopsies obtained in the patients who died. Therefore, this study was undertaken in an animal model of brain-stem lesion. Complete brain-stem transections were made at the cervicomedullary junction, the medulla just caudal to the eighth nerve, and at the intercollicular region. All cortical visual evoked potential (VEP) peaks were reduced in amplitude and delayed by each of the brain stem transections, but none of the peaks was abolished. In spite of brain-stem transection, VEP's can be used to gain information about hemispheric function. Somatosensory (SEP) and auditory cortically generated evoked potentials (AEP) were abolished by these brain-stem transections, but early-latency brain-stem SEP and AEP data could accurately localize specific areas of brain-stem dysfunction caused by the lesions. Observations made on human MEP data seen to be confirmed by these animal experiments. Correlations between human and cat MEP data are discussed.


Urinary drug:metabolite ratios and urinary recoveries of metabolites, have been used to assess specific enzyme activity non-invasively in vivo. These indices are potentially confounded by the effect of renal function. A recent study of the effects of renal impairment has found discrepancies between different indices used to mark CYP2D6 activity based on sparteine and dextromethorphan urinary recoveries. We have re-examined these experimental data from a theoretical viewpoint. The results suggest that the dependence of fractional urinary recovery of metabolites on renal function varies with the importance of different elimination routes. Therefore, no consistent behaviour of this index is expected when markers with different pharmacokinetics are used. However, when collecting the urine until full recovery of drug and metabolite, drug:metabolite ratios show the same degree of dependence on renal function regardless of the marker. The application of the analysis to the experimental data indicates that CYP2D6 activity is compromised in parallel with deterioration of renal function.


Abstract Loturco, I, Ashcroft, P, Evans, N, Tombs, C, Pereira, LA, and Jeffreys, I. Relationship between distinct physical capacities in young Welsh rugby players. J Strength Cond Res 36(2): 441–447, 2022—We examined the correlations between aerobic fitness (assessed by the 30-15 intermittent fitness test [IFT]), maximum isometric strength, vertical jump, and speed performance of 37 under-16 (U16) Welsh regional rugby players. The physical assessments used in this research are part of a regional development program under the auspices of the players' development pathway created by the Welsh Rugby Union. The tests were performed in the following order: vertical jumps, isometric midthigh pull, 40-m sprint velocity, and 30-15 IFT. A Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient was used to estimate the magnitude of the relationships between the different physical variables. Overall, we found significant associations between jump height, sprint velocity, maximum isometric strength, and 30-15 IFT performance (r ranging from 0.44 to 0.70). Moreover, strong positive interrelationships were observed between strength, speed, and jump qualities (r ranging from 0.51 to 0.80). Although these findings remain to be established in prospective studies, it seems that U16 athletes are capable of simultaneously improving their aerobic fitness and neuromuscular performance. This can be confirmed by the close correlations between the 30-15 IFT and every neuromechanical parameter reported here. Therefore, practitioners are recommended to use multifaceted training schemes with their young rugby players, including different components of endurance, speed, strength, and power training.


Cells generate mechanical stresses via the action of myosin motors on the actin cytoskeleton. While the molecular origin of force generation is well understood, we currently lack an understanding of the regulation of force transmission at cellular length scales. Here we experimentally decouple the effects of substrate stiffness, focal adhesion density and cell morphology to show that the total amount of work a cell does against the substrate to which it is adhered is regulated by the cell spread area alone. Surprisingly, the number of focal adhesions and the substrate stiffness have little effect on regulating the work done on the substrate by the cell. For a given spread area, the local curvature along the cell edge regulates the distribution and magnitude of traction stresses to maintain a constant strain energy. A physical model of the adherent cell as a contractile gel under a uniform boundary tension and mechanically coupled to an elastic substrate quantitatively captures the spatial distribution and magnitude of traction stresses. With a single choice of parameters, this model accurately predicts the cell's mechanical output as a function of cell geometry.


This Essay briefly reexamines the great debates on the role of insider trading in the corporate system from the perspectives of efficiency of capital markets, harm to individual investors, and executive compensation. The focus is on the mystery of why trading by all kinds of insiders as well as knowledgeable outsiders was studiously ignored by the business and investment communities before the advent of insider trading regulation. It is hardly conceivable that officers, directors, and controlling shareholders would have remained totally silent in the face of widespread insider trading if they had seen the practice as being harmful to the company, to themselves, or to investors. By analogy with the famous article by Friedrich Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society, this Essay considers the problem of obtaining necessary information for managers of large corporate enterprises. The suggested analytical framework views the share price, sensitively impacted by informed trading, as a mechanism for timely transmission of valuable information to top managers and large shareholders. Informed trading in the stock market is also compared to "prediction" or "virtual" markets currently used by corporations and policymakers.


Many social and economic systems can be represented as attributed networks encoding the relations between entities who are themselves described by different node attributes. Finding anomalies in these systems is crucial for detecting abuses such as credit card frauds, web spams or network intrusions. Intuitively, anomalous nodes are defined as nodes whose attributes differ starkly from the attributes of a certain set of nodes of reference, called the context of the anomaly. While some methods have proposed to spot anomalies locally, globally or within a community context, the problem remain challenging due to the multi-scale composition of real networks and the heterogeneity of node metadata. Here, we propose a principled way to uncover outlier nodes simultaneously with the context with respect to which they are anomalous, at all relevant scales of the network. We characterize anomalous nodes in terms of the concentration retained for each node after smoothing specific signals localized on the vertices of the graph. Besides, we introduce a graph signal processing formulation of the Markov stability framework used in community detection, in order to find the context of anomalies. The performance of our method is assessed on synthetic and real-world attributed networks and shows superior results concerning state of the art algorithms. Finally, we show the scalability of our approach in large networks employing Chebychev polynomial approximations.


An abundant empirical literature on corruption relying on survey research has emerged since the mid-1990s. The predominant line of inquiry concerns perceptions of corruption with respect to institutions and processes. Another, separate line of inquiry that has enjoyed less attention concerns reports about individuals' participation in corruption. These two dimensions of corruption, however, are typically confl ated, leading to error and confusion. This article explores the relationship between the two and seeks to differentiate the two. Using data at the country and individual levels, analysis shows how the two may be only weakly related to one another – though causality remains unclear – and respond to distinct sets of determinants and generate distinct outcomes. The analysis underlines the need to specify the fi ndings in the literature: that the causes and consequences of corruption relate more to 'perceived' corruption rather than actual corruption.


Challenges encountered in pathogen identification and detection include the genetic heterogeneity of strains within species of some foodborne pathogens, isolation of injured cells, mixed strains or mixed species contamination of foods, and differentiation between viable and dead cells. The first objective of this research was to evaluate an isolation medium that was based on time-delayed release (5 to 6 h) of selective agents in tablet format to a modified Listeria recovery enrichment broth (mLRB) medium for enhanced and rapid recovery of injured Listeria. The second objective involved the use of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and chemometric analysis for the differentiation of: Listeria monocytogenes epidemic clones (ECs); viable versus heat-killed populations; different mixed strains and mixed species of Listeria; and different injury treatments and repair in Listeria populations. Nitriteor acid-injured Listeria at approximately 10 CFU/ml were recovered in mLRB medium, and cell populations enumerated at various times (12 to 48 h) of incubation at 37C. Analysis of variance revealed that acid-injured Listeria populations in mLRBS6 (mLRB plus the selective agents at 6 h) were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those in mLRBS0 (mLRB plus the selective agents at 0 h) at 24 h; however, the differences in populations on these two media were not significant for nitrite-injured Listeria. Cell populations of four strains of Listeria recovered in mLRBTD (mLRB plus the time-delayed release tablets of the selective agents) were significantly higher than when those strains were enriched in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) broths at 24 h. Comparison between artificially contaminated milk and meat samples with a four-strain cocktail of Listeria resulted in cell populations that were significantly higher (P < 0.05) on mLRBTD for contaminated meat than on mLRBTD for contaminated milk at 24 h. FT-IR spectroscopy in the mid-infrared region (4000 to 600 cm) and chemometrics was successfully applied to discriminate L. monocytogenes strains belonging to the same EC (ECII or ECIV) (100% accurate spectral classification), intact and heat-killed populations of each EC strain (100% accurate spectral classification), and spectral wavenumbers 1650 to 1390 cm were used to differentiate heat-killed from intact populations. FT-IR spectroscopy and chemometrics in the wavelength region 1800 to 900 cm could successfully discriminate different mixed strains of L. monocytogenes (98.15% accurate spectral classification) and different mixed species of L. monocytogenes and L. innocua (92.06% accurate spectral classification) from individual strains; Wavelength range 1800 to 900 cm was successfully used to discriminate between intact, acid-injured, and heat-injured Listeria, with repaired cells from acid and heat treatments clustering closer to intact cells (93.33% of spectra accurately classified). Delayed-addition of selective agents to broth medium improves recovery of injured Listeria by allowing repair time, could minimize contamination through manual addition of selective agents, and saves analyst time; FT-IR spectroscopy is a highly discriminatory and reproducible technique that can be used for the differentiation of strains and various physiological states of Listeria.


Studies have shown that potato consumption in Norway have been on the decline in recent years. Increase in income and the association of potato consumption with weight gain and chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes have been identified as some of the factors responsible for the change. The aim of this study was to describe the change in potato consumption within persons and how non-dietary variables influenced that change among participants in the Norwegian Women and Cancer study (NOWAC). A prospective analysis was performed in the NOWAC cohort using linear regression. Data on dietary, lifestyle, socioeconomic and health-related factors were collected by mailed questionnaires. The change in potato consumption among 38,820 women aged 41–70 years was investigated using two measurements taken at intervals of 4–6 years. At baseline, mean intake was 112g per day; this had decreased to 94.5g per day at the second measurement. Results showed that the percentage of women who reported that they ate less than 1 potato a day increased from 24.6% at baseline to 35.5% at the second measurement. Those who reported that they ate more than 3 potatoes a day had decreased from 20.2% of the participants at baseline to 12.1% at the second measurement. Multivariable adjusted results show that geography was an important predictor of potato consumption at second measurement. Living in the north compared to Oslo (the capital) was associated with higher intake of potato at second measurement (B: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.55–0.65). Compared to women living with a partner, living alone was associated with lower potato intake at second measurement (B: -0.13, 95% CI: -0.17 –-0.09) while living with children tended to be associated with higher potato intake at second measurement (B: 0.01, 95% CI: -0.02–0.04). Younger age, more years of education, higher income or BMI was associated with a lower potato intake at second measurement. Smoking was associated with a higher intake of potato at second measurement (B: 0.03, 95% CI: 0.00–0.06 for smokers compared to non-smokers). Having diabetes at baseline was associated with lower intake of potato at second measurement (B: -0.04, 95% CI: -0.14 –-0.06 for non-diabetics compared to diabetics). Potato consumption among women in the NOWAC study showed a decline over the period studied. Change in the consumption was found to be influenced by age, education, income, household structure, region of residence as well as health-related factors like smoking and diabetes. The use of repeated measures is necessary to continue the monitoring and also to understand the stability and direction of the possible change in diet of a population.


A guide to inclusive design for all types of designers, providing guidelines, real examples and information sources. Inclusive design not only ensures that products, services, interfaces and environments are easier to use for those with special needs or limitations, but in doing so also makes them better for everyone. In Part 1 Design for Inclusivity, written by a team that has pioneered inclusive design practice internationally, reviews recent social trends and pressures that have pushed this subject to the fore, and assesses design responses to date in the international context. The authors make the business case for inclusive design and explain the formalisation of the approach in standards and legislation. Part 2 introduces case studies which describe transport, product, IT, housing and service projects, as well as industry-university collaborative projects, and highlight lessons that have been learned. Part 3 draws together tools, techniques and guidelines, and signposts the reader to key resources as well as offering practical advice on research methods, working with users and industry partners. The book concludes with contributions from leading design consultancies on inclusive design best practice. Contents: Introduction; Why inclusive design?, Roger Coleman, Julia Cassim, John Clarkson and Hua Dong; A growing movement, Jeremy Myerson; The business case, Roger Coleman, Alan Topalian, Hua Dong and John Clarkson; Market advantage - Practitioners' viewpoints, Hua Dong, Graham Pullin, Ingelese Nielson, Maria Benktzon, Olle Bobjer and Barry Tanner; Designer education - Case studies from graduate partnerships with industry, Julia Cassim and Hua Dong; Empowering designers and users - Case studies from the DBA Inclusive Design Challenge, Julia Cassim and Hua Dong; Involving older people in design, Alan Newell and Andrew Monk; Designer-oriented user research methods, Hua Dong, Collette Nicolle, Robert Brown and Julia Cassim; Practicalities of working with users, David Yielding and Julia Cassim; Countering design exclusion - Theory and practice, John Clarkson; Product evaluation - Practical approaches, John Clarkson, Carlos Cardoso and Ian Hosking; Using simulation in product evaluation, Carlos Cardoso and John Clarkson; Where do we find out?, Cherie Lebbon and Susan Hewer; Towards inclusion - Future challenges, Roger Coleman, Julia Cassim, John Clarkson and Hua Dong; Index. About the Author: Roger Coleman is Professor of Inclusive Design and Co-Director of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the Royal College of Art. John Clarkson is director and principal investigator, and Hua Dong researcher at the Engineering Design Centre, Cambridge University. Julia Cassim is research co-ordinator on the Small Business Programme at Helen Hamlyn Centre, RCA.


ABSTRACT Token economies often reduce problematic classroom behavior in preschool settings. In the present study, direct observation and teacher ratings of child behavior and treatment acceptability were utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of a token economy in a Head Start classroom. Because many teachers express concerns about the effort required to implement and maintain token systems, this study compared the relative efficacies of group and individualized contingency management programs. Direct observation data for three children revealed that both the individual and group contingency were superior to a baseline condition in which no systematic behavior management program was utilized. In addition, the whole group contingency was generally as effective as the individual contingency. However, despite reductions in classroom rule violations for the three target children, the acceptability of the token program was variable and little change was observed in the teacher's ratings of their behavior. The results suggest the ongoing need for multiple measures of treatment outcome (e.g., teacher and student ratings of acceptability and effectiveness, direct observation) even for empirically supported school-based interventions.


Description: The landmark text on frequency synthesizers-now in paperback Frequency Synthesizers: Theory and Design, Third Edition is the newest edition of Vadim Manassewitsch's definitive treatment of the subject. Updated to include the latest achievements in the performance of crystal-controlled oscillators, the design theory of fast-switching-time synthesizers, and an example of their practical applications, the book continues to be a complete guide for everyone who works with synthesizers. Intended to formulate basic design principles and to demonstrate design procedures meeting several stringent requirements simultaneously, its emphasis is on high-speed synthesis and its new applications in radar, spread spectrum communications, automatic test equipment, and nuclear magnetic resources. Manassewitsch describes numerous approaches to ultra-stable signal sources generating spectrally pure signals of high accuracy, and shows how various building blocks such as mixers, oscillators, and frequency multipliers and dividers are used in frequency synthesis. To meet the needs of engineers in this rapidly growing field, Manassewitsch has added several novel frequency synthesis techniques, developed the principles of high-speed synthesis, and described new synthesizers using important design approaches. A summary of the most recent developments in frequency generation and control, the book is firmly based on the realities of current design practices in the United States as well as abroad. With an intermodulation products chart among its figures, a computer program that calculates the frequencies of mixer intermodulation products among its appendices, and a bibliography of more than 190 references, Frequency Synthesizers: Theory and Design continues to be an invaluable aid for engineers, managers, instructors, and students.


Abstract Current production practices in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota involve use of extensive tillage and/or herbicides to control weeds. Given the erosion potential, environmental concerns associated with herbicides, and herbicide-resistant weeds, alternative cropping systems that mitigate these problems need to be assessed economically. Furthermore, the role that government commodity programs play in the adoption of more ecologically friendly cropping systems needs to be determined. We evaluated 8 years of yield data (1994–2001) from field plots near Fargo, North Dakota, to compare the economics of two alternative cropping systems, reduced-input (RI) and no-till (NT), to a conventional tillage (CT) cropping system. The RI system relies on a more diverse rotation of soybean (SB), spring wheat (SW), sweet clover (SC) and rye, and uses fewer herbicide and fertilizer inputs than CT or NT. Both NT and CT systems rotate SB and SW. We found that CT returns averaged over $47 ha−1 more than NT during the study period. Because SC yield data were not available, the economic competitiveness of RI was calculated using break-even yields and returns for SC. Historical SC yields in Cass County, North Dakota were not statistically different from the break-even yields. However, when government program payments were considered, break-even returns for SC increased by about $15 and $18 ha−1 and break-even yields by 0.44 and 0.52 MT ha−1 for RI to compare with NT and CT, respectively. These results indicate that CT management offers greater economic return than either RI or NT and that government program payments impede adoption of more environmentally friendly cropping systems in the northern Great Plains.


Research has established that an organisation's safety culture plays an important role in its safety performance and that developing safety leadership is one of the key elements of an optimal safety culture. The assessment of safety leadership behaviours forms the basis of safety leadership development strategies. Although several instruments are available to assess leadership behaviours only one measuring instrument was found specifically designed to assess safety leadership.
The main aim of this article is to describe how exploratory factor analysis was applied to establish whether the Leadership Assessment Tool is a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of safety leadership. The second aim was to determine if a leadership assessment measure also indicates any progress achieved as a result of development actions. The study was conducted in an organisation in the South African mining industry.
The purposive sample (n = 54) consisted of management, employees, and health and safety representatives. The study followed a pre-test post-test design and data was collected by means of a 360-degree type survey. The data was analysed by means of factor analysis and Cronbach's coefficient Alpha.
Results indicated that the Leadership Assessment Tool is a valid and reliable measure to assess safety leadership.


This paper questions assumptions about reminiscence and looks at definitions of it. Functions of different types of reminiscence are examined and distinctions are drawn between these and autobiographical memories. Methodologies of eliciting reminiscences are critically considered. Finally, types and amounts of reminiscence are related to life style and age group.


Oral cancers are the most common cancers in India, especially in males. This can be attrib - uted primarily to consumption of tobacco and areca related products. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for oral cancers with subtle subsite-specific nuances. The oral cavity starts at the mucocutaneous junction of the lips (the vermilion border) extending posteriorly to the junction of the hard and soft palate superiorly, anterior fauces laterally and the junction of the anterior two-thirds and posterior third of the tongue inferiorly. The oral cavity is lined by stratified squamous epithelium of varying degrees of keratinization. Primary tumors of the oral cavity may be derived from the mucosa, salivary glands, neurovascular tissues, bone or dental tissues. Over 90% of malignant tumors of the oral cavity are squamous cell carcinomas. There are certain basic principles of oncology, those hold true, despite the disease subsite and pathology. Stage I and II disease should be dealt with single modality treat- ment, whereas Stage III and IV warrant combined modality approach. Choice of modality (surgical versus non-surgical), depends on intent of treatment, chances of cure, accessibility and resectability of disease, impact on quality of life and patient's general health profile.


The availability of the large-scale labeled 3D poses in the Human3.6M dataset plays an important role in advancing the algorithms for 3D human pose estimation from a still image. We observe that recent innovation in this area mainly focuses on new techniques that explicitly address the generalization issue when using this dataset, because this database is constructed in a highly controlled environment with limited human subjects and background variations. Despite such efforts, we can show that the results of the current methods are still error-prone especially when tested against the images taken in-the-wild. In this paper, we aim to tackle this problem from a different perspective. We propose a principled approach to generate high quality 3D pose ground truth given any in-the-wild image with a person inside. We achieve this by first devising a novel stereo inspired the neural network to directly map any 2D pose to high quality 3D counterpart. We then perform a carefully designed geometric searching scheme to further refine the joints. Based on this scheme, we build a large-scale dataset with 400,000 in-the-wild images and their corresponding 3D pose ground truth. This enables the training of a high quality neural network model, without specialized training scheme and auxiliary loss function, which performs favorably against the state-of-the-art 3D pose estimation methods. We also evaluate the generalization ability of our model both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results show that our approach convincingly outperforms the previous methods. We make our dataset and code publicly available.


Within the precious metals' space, this article outlines and investigates empirically three potential advantages that ETNs may have relative to other exchange-traded products, such as ETFs. First, ETNs may be able to offer investors access to a wider array of assets, commodities, currencies, and indices with a greater variety of leverage ratios. The authors find that ETNs do, in fact, offer investors a much greater variety of leverage ratios in the precious metals' space compared to other exchange-traded products. Second, ETNs may be able to offer investors lower annual expenses than comparable ETFs or other similar exchange-traded products. The authors are unable to statistically corroborate that notion, however, they note that some exchange-traded products charge nontrivial fees (upward of 3.74%) to investors who are not included in the annual expense fee, whereas ETNs assess no such implicit fees. Third, ETNs may enjoy greater price efficiency owing to the absence of tracking error. The authors find no empirical evidence supporting that possibility.


Objective: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not Rimonabant is a safe and effective treatment for patients with alcohol dependence. Study Design: Systematic review of three English language randomized control trials published in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Data Sources: Three double-blind, placebo controlled randomized trials comparing Rimonabant or Naltrexone to placebo were found using PubMed, OVID, Medline and Cochrane. Outcomes Measured: Outcomes measured include event rate of heavy drinking days using the timeline follow back method, which facilitates self-reporting of drinking habits by utilizing calendars and personal recall. Other outcomes measured include the number of self-reported drinks/day using daily call ins from study participants and number of days until first alcoholic drink and number of days until first heavy drinking (as measured by timeline follow back method). Results: In a study by George et.al, there was no significant difference found in the number of alcoholic drinks consumed by non-treatment seeking heavy alcohol drinkers when comparing the Rimonabant and placebo groups during the 14 day study. A study by Soyka et.al. discovered that participants treated with once daily Rimonabant showed a marked, but not statistically significant, reduction in relapse to heavy drinking when compared to placebo after 12 weeks oif treatment: 27.7% versus 35.6%, respectfully. Finally, another study included in this review investigated the efficacy of intramuscular naltrexone as a treatment for alcohol dependence by measuring the event rate of heavy drinking days. Results of this study showed that long-acting IM naltrexone resulted in 25% reduction in heavy drinking days among treatment-seeking alcohol dependent patients when compared to placebo. The compiled data also demonstrates that both Rimonabant and Naltrexone are relatively safe to use in adult alcoholics, however patients receiving Rimonabant were more likely to have treatment emergent adverse events such as nausea, insomnia, headache, etc. Conclusions: The results of two double-blind placebo controlled randomized control trials showed no statistical treatment effect of Rimonabant versus placebo in reducing the number of drinks per day, number of heavy drinking days, or time to heavy drinking relapse. Both Naltrexone and Rimonabant are considered safe for use in adults, despite a modest amount of mild adverse reactions associated with treatment.


Background and Purpose: Self-medication is a global medical issue, the rate of which has been reported to be on the rise in recent years. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence rate of self-medication and the associated factors among the university students of Ahvaz city, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Jundishapur and Shahid Chamran universities of Ahvaz, Iran in 2015. In total, 680 university students were selected from 16 different medical and non-medical schools to participate in this study. Using the easy sampling method, 45 students were selected from each school. Data collection tools included the socio-demographic questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaires consisting of 12 items to evaluate self-medication. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V.20 using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), independent T-test, and Chi-square test. Results: In this study, prevalence rate of self-medication among the selected university students was 81.6%. The most frequent medicines used by the students were adult cold (69.05%), analgesics (48.23%), and antibiotics (31.02%). Moreover, preventive factors of self-medication among the subjects included family and friends (96.32%), lack of belief in the effectiveness of self-medication (93.82%), and fear of the complications associated with self-medication (88.97%). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, university students had a positive attitude toward self-medication. Therefore, it is recommended that the knowledge and attitude of these individuals be promoted through the implementation of related training programs in order to reduce public tendency toward self-medication.


This study provides an analysis of the Present Perfect (PrPf; have + V-en) in World Englishes. To this end, I extract occurrences of the PrPf from the International Corpus of English and annotate them manually for various factors (such as semantics, Aktionsart, temporal adverbials). I analyze the distributions of these factors and define a central PrPf context, while I also explore a multidimensional aggregative approach as a means to establish measures of similarity between the different varieties. In addition, I present a measure of PrPf-friendliness and examine alternative surface forms appearing in perfect contexts. Eventually I relate the findings to existing models of World Englishes, whose applicability I critically review in the light of the findings for the feature under investigation.


As the first, substantive contribution, this paper revisits the effectiveness of two widely used public sponsored training programs, the first one focusing on intensive occupational training and the second one on short-term activation and job entry. We use an exceptionally rich administrative data set for Germany to estimate their employment and earnings effects in the early 2000s. We employ a stratified propensity score matching approach to address dynamic selection into heterogeneous programs. As a second, methodological contribution, we carefully assess to what extent various aspects of our empirical strategy such as conditioning flexibly on employment and benefit histories, the availability of rich personal information, handling of later program participations, and further methodological and specification choices affect estimation results. Our results imply pronounced negative lock-in effects in the short run in general and positive medium-run effects on employment and earnings when job-seekers enroll after having been unemployed for some time. We find that data and specification issues can have a large effect on impact estimates.


Quantitative footprinting studies involving a 139‐base pair restriction fragment from pBR322 DNA, a lexitropsin ligand and two different DNA cleavage agents, the enzyme DNase I and the footprinting reagent Fe(III) methidium‐propyl‐EDTA (Fe‐MPE), are described. The autoradiographic data showed that the ligand, an analogue of netropsin possessing two N‐methylimidazole groups, binds to four regions on the 139‐mer which are rich in GC. Analysis of the data leading to individual binding constants for each of the four loading events on the 139‐mer revealed that Fe‐MPE and DNase I report the same binding constants for the lexitropsin bound to its interaction sequences. The fact that the data from both probes can be analyzed using a common model indicates that the DNA cleavage specificity of the probe and not its binding/ cleavage mechanism is the important factor in reporting of site loading information in the footprinting experiment. The study also showed that under certain conditions it is possible to gain information on the density of ligand binding sites on carrier DNA by monitoring site loading events on the labeled fragment.


This study aims to find out empirical data about differences in focusing ability of ADHD children who get treatment with Back in Control method and Lovaas method by taking into account the intelligence of students in class, 1 and 2 of
 inclusive primary school of Tangerang. This research uses experimental method, 2x2 factorial design, and determination of sample using nonprobability sampling technique, with purposive sampling. The results of this study conclude that there is an
 influence of intervention methods on attention concentration ability of ADHD children, there is influence of intelligence level to focus attention ability of ADHD child, and there is interaction between intervention method and intelligence with focus
 ability of ADHD child attention. Based on the results of the third hypothesis testing proved to be the interaction between Back in Control intervention method, Lovaas and intelligence to focus attention ability of ADHD children it was concluded for
 that analysis continued with Tukey test, which concluded that children with high intelligence ADHD better ability attention when treated with Back in Control method compared with Lovaas method treatment. ADHD children, who have low intelligence
 better concentration ability by using treatment method of Lovaas, are compared to treatment with Back in Control method. There is a difference in focusing ability between high intelligence ADHD and low intelligence on the application of Back in
 Control method. High-intelligence ADHD children are better at focusing attention than low-intelligence ADHD children. There is a difference in focusing ability between ADHD children with high intelligence and low intelligence on the application of
 Lovaas method. Back in Control method is better applied to speak introverted extrovert students in the application for high-intelligence ADHD children.


For obtaining reservoir petrophysical properties, for example porosity, non-destructive methods such as X-ray computed
tomography, CT, seems to be precise and accurate. Porosity is deducted from the CT image with a single scan via
different techniques, such as pore space detection by image segmentation techniques then correlation with porosity. More
than one hundred samples with carbonate lithology have been scanned and analyzed in this study which leads to empirical
correlation used for porosity calculation from CT data. The samples mainly grouped as dolostone, limestone and
carbonate with respect to their mineral contents, having porosity ranges between 4.56 to 30.5 % and permeability from
0.25 to 3350.8 md. The results showed that the effect of atomic number is higher than the density on CT image. It is
because density and atomic number in carbonate mineral (calcite and dolomite) show diverse relations. Thus, the
assumption of known lithology would be a large source of error. A good linear relationship exists between the porosity
and CT no. according to the developed correlations.


This book explores the role of digital information and communications technology in South Koreas development, starting with and building upon the crucial developments of the 1980s. Its perspective draws on the information society concept and on a conceptual model of strategic restructuring of telecommunications. It also draws on firsthand experience in formulating and implementing policies. The analysis identifies aspects of the Korean experience from which developing countries around the world might benefit. Oh and Larson describe the revolutionary developments of the 1980s including the TDX electronic switching system, a major surge forward in semiconductors, the start of privatization and color television and the thoroughgoing restructuring of Koreas telecommunications sector. They further explore government leadership, the growing private sector and international trade pressures in the diffusion of broadband, mobile communication, and convergence toward a ubiquitous network society. The role of education in these developments is explored in detail, along with both the positive and negative aspects of Koreas vibrant new digital media. The book also looks at Koreas growing international involvement, its role in efforts to build a world information society, and finally, its future place in cyberspace. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and policy makers interested in communications technologies, Asian/Korean Studies and development studies.


The light-harvesting efficiency of luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) is encumbered by reabsorption of emission and concentration quenching. Energy transfer from a high-concentration donor to a low-concentration energy trap can reduce reabsorption losses while maintaining efficient light collection. Emissive aggregates enable this approach by reducing the impact of concentration quenching, which is detrimental to the entire energy transfer process. Here we describe a LSC that utilizes emissive aggregates as energy-transfer pairs for downconversion. We characterize the photophysics of a benzothiadiazole-based emissive aggregate, PITBT-TPE, that complements a highly emissive donor, DPATPAN, and functions as a highly emissive energy-transfer acceptor even at high concentrations in excess of 180 mM in the PMMA matrix. Monte Carlo simulations of LSCs that leverage these emissive aggregates as energy-transfer pairs predicted notable optical efficiencies at large concentrator dimensions. We demonstrate for the first time a LSC that utilizes donor and acceptor AIE chromophores to reduce reabsorption.


: Regioselective catalytic transformations using supramolecular directing groups are increasingly popular as it allows for control over challenging reactions that may otherwise be impossible. In most examples the reactive group and the directing group are close to each other and/or the linker between the directing group is very rigid. Achieving control over the regioselectivity using a remote directing group with a flexible linker is significantly more challenging due to the large conformational freedom of such substrates. Herein, we report the redesign of a supramolecular Rh–bisphosphite hydrofor-mylation catalyst containing a neutral carboxylate receptor (DIM pocket) with a larger distance between the phos-phite metal binding moieties and the DIM pocket. For the first time regioselective conversion of internal and terminal alkenes containing a remote carboxylate directing group is demonstrated. For carboxylate substrates that possess an internal double bond at the D -9 position regio-selectivity is observed. As such, the catalyst was used to hydroformylate natural monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in a regioselective fashion, forming of an excess of the 10-formyl product (10-formyl/9-formyl product ratio of 2.51), which is the first report of a regioselective hydro-formylation reaction of such substrates.


We design an online end-to-end speech recognition system based on Time-Depth Separable (TDS) convolutions and Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC). We improve the core TDS architecture in order to limit the future context and hence reduce latency while maintaining accuracy. The system has almost three times the throughput of a well tuned hybrid ASR baseline while also having lower latency and a better word error rate. Also important to the efficiency of the recognizer is our highly optimized beam search decoder. To show the impact of our design choices, we analyze throughput, latency, accuracy, and discuss how these metrics can be tuned based on the user requirements.


Terrestrial wildlife migrations, once common, are now rare because of ecosystem fragmentation and uncon- trolled hunting. Botswana historically contained migratory populations of many species but habitat fragmentation, especially by fences, has decreased the number and size of many of these populations. During a study investigating herbivore movement patterns in north-west Botswana we recorded a long-distance zebra Equus burchelli antiquorum migration between the Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi grasslands, a round-trip distance of 588 km; 55% of 11 animals collared in the south-eastern peripheral delta made this journey. This was unexpected as, between 1968 and 2004, the migration could not have followed its present course because of the bisection of the route by a veterinary cordon fence. As little evidence exists to suggest that large- scale movements by medium-sized herbivores can be restored, it is of significant interest that this migration was established to the present highly directed route within 4 years of the fence being removed. The success of wildlife corridors, currently being advocated as the best way to re- establish ecosystem connectivity, relies on animals utilizing novel areas by moving between the connected areas. Our findings suggest that medium-sized herbivores may be able to re-establish migrations relatively quickly once physical barriers have been removed and that the success of future system linkages could be increased by utilizing past migratory routes.


Although electricity markets' march toward competition has not been a complete success, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") remains committed to easing wholesale electricity markets toward that goal. Indeed, FERC's Standard Market Design Notice of Proposed Rulemaking makes some headway: Locational marginal pricing, for example, will force load to internalize the congestion costs of its consumption and will signal the need for new transmission and generation. FERC, however, has embraced price caps in spot markets and, to make the markets work despite the price caps, has proposed a Resource Adequacy Requirement ("RAR ") to ensure that adequate generation exists to deliver electricity to load. If RAR achieves FERC's objective, it will stunt the growth of demand response, a necessary component of stable competition. Further, RAR will permit the perpetuation of the current price-cap regime, which distorts price signals. The claim that RAR together with price caps are only temporary measures to help put wholesale markets on surer footing seems misguided; until price caps are raised significantly above present levels, load-serving entities and load itself lack the incentive to invest in technologies necessary to make demand response a reality. If this were not enough to counsel against promulgating the PAR, the proposal is internally contradictory and, according to the relevant statutes, lies outside FERC's jurisdiction to implement or enforce. FERC should discard the RAR and current price caps and instead adopt a reformist program that will better allow scarcity spot prices to ensure generation adequacy.


Reinforcement learning (RL) makes it possible to train agents capable of achieving sophisticated goals in complex and uncertain environments. A key difficulty in reinforcement learning is specifying a reward function for the agent to optimize. Traditionally, imitation learning in RL has been used to overcome this problem. Unfortunately, hitherto imitation learning methods tend to require that demonstrations are supplied in the first-person: the agent is provided with a sequence of states and a specification of the actions that it should have taken. While powerful, this kind of imitation learning is limited by the relatively hard problem of collecting first-person demonstrations. Humans address this problem by learning from third-person demonstrations: they observe other humans perform tasks, infer the task, and accomplish the same task themselves.
In this paper, we present a method for unsupervised third-person imitation learning. Here third-person refers to training an agent to correctly achieve a simple goal in a simple environment when it is provided a demonstration of a teacher achieving the same goal but from a different viewpoint; and unsupervised refers to the fact that the agent receives only these third-person demonstrations, and is not provided a correspondence between teacher states and student states. Our methods primary insight is that recent advances from domain confusion can be utilized to yield domain agnostic features which are crucial during the training process. To validate our approach, we report successful experiments on learning from third-person demonstrations in a pointmass domain, a reacher domain, and inverted pendulum.


The acceleration of productivity growth during the latter half of the 1990s was both the defining economic event of the decade and a major topic of debate among Federal Reserve policymakers. A key aspect of the debate was the conflict between incoming aggregate data, which initially suggested little productivity gain, and anecdotal firm-level evidence which hinted at an acceleration. Some FOMC members feared an overheating economy and higher inflation; others, including the Chairman, argued that revolutionary increases in productivity were occurring and the Committee should not prematurely forgo significant future gains in real income by tightening policy. We review the difficulty of measuring productivity during periods of rapid quality change, the large magnitude of subsequent data revisions during the 1990s, and, from FOMC transcripts, the contemporary monetary policy debate within the FOMC as the decade*s data evolved.


This paper describes a specially developed online peer-review system, the Peer Portal, and the first results of its use for quality enhancement of bachelor's and master's thesis manuscripts. The peer-review system is completely student driven and therefore saves time for supervisors and creates a direct interaction between students without interference from supervisors. The purpose is to improve thesis manuscript quality, and thereby use supervisor time more efficiently, since peers review basic aspects of the manuscripts and give constructive suggestions for improvements. The process was initiated in 2012, and, in total, 260 peer reviews were completed between 1st January and 15th May, 2012. All peer reviews for this period have been analyzed with the help of content analysis. The purpose of analysis is to assess the quality of the students work. The results are categorized in four groups: 1) excellent (18.1%), 2) good (22.7%), 3) fragmented (18.5%), and 4) poor (40.7%). The overall result shows that almost 40% of the students produced excellent or good peer reviews and almost as many produced poor peer reviews. The result shows that the quality varies considerably. Explanations of these quality variations need further study. However, alternative hypotheses followed by some strategic suggestions are discussed in this study. Finally, a way forward in terms of improving peer reviews is outlined: 1) development of a peer wizard system and 2) rating of received peer reviews based on the quality categories created in this study. A Peer Portal version 2.0 is suggested, which will eliminate the fragmented and poor quality peer reviews, but still keep this review system student driven and ensure autonomous learning.


As the Taliban's forces swept across Afghanistan in July and August, their triumphalist—and fundamentally revolutionary—discourse became exponentially more pronounced. The moment it seized Kabul, however, the Taliban had to reorder its communications priorities. As Afghanistan's new de facto government, it needed to expand on what its outreach strategists had been doing to date, i.e., setting out political aspirations, emphasizing military capabilities, and attacking the legitimacy of adversaries. Now, it had to take on a more complex strategic communications task: demonstrating that its new state would be able to follow through on what as a movement it had been promising for decades. Drawing on tens of thousands of data points ingested by ExTrac's automated crawlers from the Taliban's online networks on Telegram and Twitter as well as an array of pro-Taliban static websites, this report examines how the fall of Kabul impacted the Taliban's outreach strategy.


On March 20, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in St. Joseph Abbey v. Castille held that the economic protection of a discrete interest group does not constitute a legitimate state interest under rational basis review. In so holding, the court split from the Tenth Circuit, which held the opposite almost a decade earlier. This Comment argues that courts should follow the Fifth Circuit's decision and deem economic protectionism an illegitimate state interest. Recognizing economic protectionism as a legitimate state interest, as the Tenth Circuit did, is inconsistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.


Abstract. Stable isotope
records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most
particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in
precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly
being used to provide "out-of-sample" evaluations of isotope-enabled
climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) is an
international working group of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The
working group aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of speleothem
isotope records for climate reconstruction and model evaluation. The SISAL
database contains data for individual speleothems, grouped by cave system.
Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon (δ18O, δ13C)
measurements are referenced by distance from the top or bottom of the speleothem. Additional
tables provide information on dating, including information on the dates used
to construct the original age model and sufficient information to assess the
quality of each data set and to erect a standardized chronology across
different speleothems. The metadata table provides location information,
information on the full range of measurements carried out on each speleothem
and information on the cave system that is relevant to the interpretation of
the records, as well as citations for both publications and archived data.
The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.147.


This thesis examined age-related differences in the self-regulation of Canadian music learners based on extensive secondary analyses of survey data collected in 2014. Respondents involved 3,920 music students from across Canada, with stated ages of 7 to 78 years old. First, MANOVA analyses were conducted to determine the presence of age-related differences in musical self-regulation, with dependent variables comprising 18 factors previously derived from responses to the survey's closed-ended questions. Next, to better understand how the seven age groups differed, Discriminant Function Analyses (DFA) were performed, yielding weighted linear combinations of those factors which might best predict age groups. Finally, to shed further light on age-related differences, 1,184 responses to the survey's open-ended question were thematically coded. Findings from the quantitative data confirmed hypothesised age-related differences, with improvements across age groups for planning strategies, persistence in practising, intrinsic motivation to learn music and to practise, reflecting on progress, and motivation to practise. However, physical and mental reactions to performance, the perception of aural abilities, and the use of aural skills were found to deteriorate across age groups. The DFA yielded two functions accounting for 95% of the variance between age groups, but with moderate-to-weak effect sizes. The first of these held greater explanatory power and revealed that what best predicted membership in younger age groups was a combination of extrinsic motivation to practise, enjoying performing for others, a strong perception of aural skills, and a low tendency to reflect on practice strategies. The second function suggested that while extrinsic motivation continued to be one of the predictive factors, lack of enjoyment of music learning, poor motivation to practise well, and an avoidance of technical work and exam skills may also be critical. However, the model's overall classification rate (44.8%) suggested both functions should be interpreted with caution. Findings from the qualitative data further highlighted age-related differences and showed that the most frequently mentioned theme among the open-ended comments was self-regulation. Also notable were music learning, co-regulation, survey-related comments, socio-contextual factors, and comments about the conservatory system. The dissertation closes with a discussion of implications for education and further research.


For decades, the suitability and safety of various kinds of packaging materials in food irradiation treatment have been under question. In this chapter, food packaging materials authorized to be in contact with food during irradiation are described. The impact of ionizing radiation due to cross-linking and chain scission on the mechanical and barrier properties of authorized polymers is also discussed. One of the major safety concerns related to food irradiation is the formation of radiolysis products (RPs) in the polymer and their subsequent potential migration into the irradiated food. A list of numerous RPs is provided and their safety assessments are discussed. Besides its bactericidal effect, irradiation can be used to develop biodegradable polymers and ameliorate the release of active agents from active packaging. Finally, the radiosensitization effect of irradiation combined with antimicrobial edible coatings and films on pathogenic bacteria in various types of foods is demonstrated.


Abstract. Spot elevations published on historical U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps were established as needed to enhance information imparted by the quadrangle's contours. In addition to a number of other features like road intersections, section corners, lakes and water wells, labels were routinely placed on mountain peaks, local high points, passes and saddles. While some elevations were established through field survey triangulation, many were "dropped" during photogrammetric stereocompilation. The average accuracy, which varied with method, terrain, and map vintage, was on the order of ± 10 feet. Today, inexpensive consumer devices deliver comparable accuracy using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Professional equipment can achieve even better accuracies. These methods have replaced the field- and funding-intensive traditional triangulation methods in the geographic sciences. However, since GPS measurements require visiting the feature location, a national dataset containing high-accuracy spot elevations has not yet been created. Consequently, modern US Topo maps are devoid of mountain peak or other spot elevations. Additionally, no government agency is currently mandated to create one. Still, US Topo map users continue to demand the display of spot heights, particularly mountain peak elevations. As lidar data are collected through the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), the source for higher accuracy spot heights increases. Therefore, a pilot study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of automatically generating elevation values at summits named in the Board on Geographic Name's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), using 3DEP data. As the 3DEP incorporates more lidar data, these values should become increasingly more accurate. The first step in the automation process involved "snapping" GNIS summits to the highest and most accurate nearby point (pixel) in the 3DEP one-third arc second seamless dataset (1/3 a-s). Development of this step was completed in a prior study and will be reported elsewhere. In Step 2, a process similar to Step 1 was implemented to identify the highest pixel in the 3DEP one-meter dataset (1-m) from an area defined by a one-pixel buffer around the snapped point pixel. After finding the highest pixel in the 1-m dataset, the same process for Step 2 was repeated on the lidar point cloud dataset (LPC). In the latter case, the highest lidar point within the buffered area was chosen where there were more than one, which was the case in most instances. In the case that the next higher resolution data were unavailable, the summit spot elevation was set to the value obtained from the lower resolution layer. Hence, if 1-m data were unavailable, but LPC data did exist, the program in its current state was unable use the higher resolution data. This is due to the fact that the 1-m data are employed to drive the software to a more precise location of the summit. Without that intermediate step the method fails to identify the correct LPC point. Work in progress is aimed at overcoming this disadvantage, which is particularly important until the time when the 1-m dataset is populated for the entire nation. The National Geospatial Program estimates the completion of lidar acquisition by 2023. Processing from acquisition to update of the 1-m dataset, including quality assessment and revisions, currently requires between two and three years. Resulting elevation values are compared to those published by Peakbagger.com and TOPOZONE.com. Preliminary results from 40 summits indicate that values derived from lidar are generally higher, whereas those populated from the 1/3 arc-second are generally lower. A thorough understanding of these relationships will require the evaluation of more points.


Introduction Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a devastating, progressive disease with increasingly debilitating symptoms and usually shortened overall life expectancy due to a narrowing of the pulmonary vasculature and consecutive right heart failure. Little is known about PH in Africa, but limited reports suggest that PH is more prevalent in Africa compared with developed countries due to the high prevalence of risk factors in the region. Methods and analysis A multinational multicentre registry-type cohort study was established and tailored to resource-constraint settings to describe disease presentation, disease severity and aetiologies of PH, comorbidities, diagnostic and therapeutic management, and the natural course of PH in Africa. PH will be diagnosed by specialist cardiologists using echocardiography (right ventricular systolic pressure >35 mm Hg, absence of pulmonary stenosis and acute right heart failure), usually accompanied by shortness of breath, fatigue, peripheral oedema and other cardiovascular symptoms, ECG and chest X-ray changes in keeping with PH as per guidelines (European Society of Cardiology and European Respiratory Society (ESC/ERS) guidelines). Additional investigations such as a CT scan, a ventilation/perfusion scan or right heart catheterisation will be performed at the discretion of the treating physician. Functional tests include a 6 min walk test and the Karnofsky Performance Score. The WHO classification system for PH will be applied to describe the different aetiologies of PH. Several substudies have been implemented within the registry to investigate specific types of PH and their outcome at up to 24 months. Data will be analysed by an independent institution following a data analyse plan. Ethics and dissemination All local ethics committees of the participating centres approved the protocol. The data will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals at national and international conferences and public events at local care providers.


Introduction Telehealth approaches to health care delivery can potentially improve quality of care and clinical outcomes, reduce mortality and hospital utilisation, and complement conventional treatments. However, substantial research into the potential for integrating telehealth within health care in Australia, particularly in the provision of services relevant to older people, including palliative care, aged care and rehabilitation, is lacking. Furthermore, to date, no discrete choice experiment (DCE) studies internationally have sought the views and preferences of older people about the basic features that should make up a telehealth approach to these services. Methods Using a DCE, we investigated the relative importance of six salient features of telehealth (what aspects of care are to be pursued during telehealth sessions, distance to the nearest hospital or clinic, clinicians' attitude to telehealth, patients' experience of using technology, what types of assessments should be conducted face-to-face versus via telehealth sessions and the costs associated with receiving telehealth). Data were obtained from an online panel of older people aged 65 years and above, drawn from the Australian general population. Results The mean age for 330 study participants was 69 years. In general, individuals expressed strong preferences for telehealth services that offered all aspects of care, were relatively inexpensive and targeted specifically at individuals living in remote regions without easy access to a hospital or clinic. Participants also preferred telehealth services to be offered to individuals with some prior experience of using technology, provided by clinicians who were positive about telehealth but wanted all or some pre-telehealth health assessments to take place in a hospital or clinic. Preferences only differed by gender. Additionally, respondents did not feel that telehealth led to loss of privacy and confidentiality. Discussion Our findings indicate a preference amongst respondents for face-to-face pre-telehealth health assessments and, thereafter, a comprehensive telehealth model (in terms of services offered) targeted at those with some technological know-how as a substitute for attendance at hospitals and clinics, especially where these health facilities were far away from older people's homes. The findings may be usefully incorporated into the design of future telehealth models of service delivery for older people.


Chitwan National Park pioneered a participatory model of conservation as a buffer zone management programme in Nepal. Buffer Zone Community Forests have been handed over to the community for sustainable use of resources, and provide benefits to both wildlife and people. However, there is inadequate evaluation about the impact of buffer zone programs on conservation of wildlife.

This study aimed at evaluating the effect of different disturbance gradients and forest management practices on the bird community in three management regimes; the National Park, Buffer Zone Community Forests and Buffer Zone Forests. The study also evaluated the peoples' perceptions regarding the biodiversity conservation and forest management through group discussions and key informant surveys. Point counts of birds were made in Sal and Riverine forest within the three forest management types. Habitat and landscape variables related to forest structure, human disturbance and management were also recorded.

A total of 129 species of birds were recorded in 66 plots in seven different sites. The study showed that there were large effects of a disturbance gradient (distance to settlement, grazing) on the bird community composition. A few abundant species and the total abundance of birds were positively associated to the disturbance gradient. In contrast, forest bird species were negatively associated to the disturbance gradient. Common species were positively associated to a forest management gradient (collection of dead wood, small trees), but most of the forest species avoided the managed sites. Buffer Zone Community Forests and Buffer Zone Forests harboured almost as many species as the National Park, although different species preferred the different forest management types. People were willing to conserve the biodiversity for tourism and sustainable use of forest products and also had a positive attitude towards the national park, but requested more alternative resources and the inclusion of people in the park planning processes.


Before professional diagnosis, the determination of whether one is 'ill' or 'well' rests within the patient. These moments, when sufferers (re)cognize their own bodily and phenomenological experience as abnormal or different, are critical to the positioning of healer and patient. So too are moments when diagnosed patients, struggling with a treatment regime, compromise and adjust to embrace, if only partially, disparate ideas of health. In this article, I apply Homi Bhabha's framework of hybridity and difference to think about the perception of illness, self-diagnosis, and power in healing relationships. I consider how sufferers enact hybrid positions between their bodily perceptions and their professional diagnoses. To illustrate the utility of Bhabha's colonial critique for health care, I examine narratives by patients with diabetes-related vision loss about: (1) first realizations that something was wrong, what Bhabha might call the 'intervention of difference'; (2) expressed differences between self-knowledge and biomedical knowledge, corresponding to Bhabha's 'partial embrace' of the colonial ideal; and (3) the self-colonizing epistemological work that compliant patients do as they re-orient their pre-diagnostic self to a post-diagnostic habitus of self-monitoring, timed medications, and other treatments. I conclude with a discussion of how Bhabha's colonial hybridity supports a more productively contentious medical anthropology that envisions and pursues decolonized health care.


How can Jesus be said to be "missing"? The Church has consistently referred itself to conceptions of Jesus during its history, and the world of scholarship has seen a renaissance in the study of Jesus over the past twenty years. In fact, Jesus' place in popular culture has been surprisingly prominent as a result of recent historical study. What is "missing" is not by any means reference to Jesus: what is missing is rather an entire dimension of his identity. In order for us to understand Jesus and his profound influence on global culture, we need to see him within the context of the Judaism that was his own natural environment. No one can be assessed apart from one's environment, but a variety of factors have isolated the study of Jesus from the study of Judaism. The "missing" Jesus is Jesus within Judaism. This publication has also been published in hardback please click here for details.


A novel decomposed transceiver design scheme is developed for multiuser non-regenerative MIMO relay downlink systems. With a decomposed relay structure, the whole system can be decomposed into a point-to-point and a point-to-multipoint systems, thus the transceiver design can be individually proceeded for the first and second hop. In the first hop, the transceiver is derived to minimize the mean square error (MSE) of symbol estimations with equal MSEs of all data streams. While for the second hop, a modified block diagonalization (BD) and geometric mean decomposition (GMD) based scheme is proposed to design the transceiver. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed method can effectively improve the BER performance.


Self-healing materials science has seen significant advances in the last decade. Recent efforts have demonstrated healing in polymeric materials through chemical reaction, thermal treatment, and ultraviolet irradiation. The existing technology for healing polymeric materials through the aforementioned mechanisms produces an irreversible change in the material and makes it unsuitable for subsequent healing cycles. To overcome these disadvantages, we demonstrate a new composite self-healing material made from an ionomer (Surlyn) and carbon fiber that can sustain damage from medium-velocity impact and heal from the energy of the impact. Furthermore, the carbon fiber embedded in the polymer matrix results in resistive heating of the polymer matrix locally, melts the ionomer matrix around the damage, and heals the material at the damaged location. This paper presents methods to melt-process Surlyn with carbon fiber and demonstrates healing in the material through medium-velocity impact tests, resistive heating, and imaging through electron and optical microscopy. A new metric for quantifying self-healing in the sample, called width-heal ratio, is developed, and we report that the Surlyn-carbon fiber-based material under an optimal rate of heating and at the correct temperature has a width-heal ratio of >0.9, thereby demonstrating complete recovery from the damage.


Deep seismic reflection profiles in Scotland reveal mantle structures beneath a crust with a polyphase tectonic history that resulted in several generations of structures. Continuum mechanics suggests that coeval mantle and crustal structures must be kinematically linked. Inherited structures imply relative ages for the reflectors, ages that can be placed into the context of the geological history of the near-surface rocks of northern Scotland. Thus, some mantle reflectors are assigned Triassic ages related to the opening of the West Orkney and related marginal basins of the Atlantic Ocean. Other mantle reflectors are cut by late Caledonian structures associated with the Great Glen Fault Zone and therefore older than c. 400 Ma. Many of these structures also track the late Precambrian margin of Laurentia and may be related to either the opening (900–600 Ma) or closing (500–600 Ma) of the Iapetus Ocean. Some reflective structures may also be attributed to 1800–1700 Ma Laxfordian deformation that was part of a global-scale orogenic belt.


This study aimed to compare dexmedetomidine and propofol, in terms of haemodynamic parameters, respiratory rates and offset times, when used for sedation in patients undergoing elective orthopaedic and surgical procedures under regional anaesthesia. This was a prospective, randomised, single-blind study where 88 patients were recruited. Patients were randomised into two groups to receive either dexmedetomidine or propofol infusion. Central neuraxial blockade (spinal, epidural or combined spinal epidural) was performed. After ensuring an adequate block and stable haemodynamic parameters, dexmedetomidine was infused 15 minutes later at 0.4 μg/kg/hr, and propofol, at a target concentration of 2.5 μg/ml. Both drugs were titrated to achieve a bispectral index score of 70 before surgery commenced. Sedation level was monitored using the bispectral index score and assessed by the Observer Assessment of Alertness Scale score. Drug infusion was adjusted to maintain bispectral index scores ranging between 70-80 during surgery. Both groups showed reductions in mean arterial pressure and heart rate from baseline readings throughout the infusion time. However there was no significant reduction in the first 15 minutes from baseline (p > 0.05). Haemodynamic parameters and respiratory rate between both groups were not significantly different (p > 0.05). No patient demonstrated significant respiratory depression or SpO2 ≤ 95%. Offset times were also not significantly different between both groups (p = 0.594). There were no significant differences in haemodynamic parameters, respiratory rates and offset times between dexmedetomidine and propofol used for sedation in patients undergoing elective orthopaedic and surgical procedures under regional anaesthesia.


Rural shopping is emerging as a tourism market that is under-researched and offers potential for the economic development of rural regions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and importance of the domestic rural shopping market in Canada as a 'niche' market in rural tourism, and to provide a description of the characteristics of rural shoppers. Secondary data analysis of the domestic Canadian Travel Survey (1998-2001) reveals that there are many rural visitors who also participate in shopping, and that rural shoppers display different characteristics from average Canadian domestic travellers. Market segmentation using cluster analysis identifies five activity-based groups that differ on the basis of demographics and trip characteristics.


The present problem's urgency is known to steam from a practical lacking of any important advances in treatment modalities for as common diseases as pathological conditions of the small intestine with allergic manifestations as well as those due to the gastric and small intestine resections of different length (malabsorption syndrome), colonic pathology with dysbiosis manifestations (irritable bowel syndrome, constipation syndrome). At the same, it should be mentioned that the disponible modalities of selective enterosorption and nutritional correction of impaired homeostasis are not utilized sufficiently enough.


Bloom filters use superimposed hash transforms to provide a probabilistic membership test. The only types of errors are false positives (non-members being reported as members). Non-members are typically detected quickly (requiring only two probes in the optimal case). This article surveys modern applications of this technique (e.g., in spell checking and Web caching software) and provides a detailed analysis of their performance, in theory and practice. The article concludes with practical advice about implementing this useful and intriguing technique.


ABSTRACT City tourism has been booming for years. As a result, the number of tourists per inhabitant increases in many city destinations. This can lead to conflicts over the simultaneous (over-)use of spaces, often referred to as overtourism. Therefore, many studies of over-visited city destinations focus on the social carrying capacity. Whereas many studies investigate one aspect created by overtourism, the present study concentrates on the city as a whole with all its distinct tourist phenomena. Against this background the social carrying capacity of Munich is analyzed by focusing on the perception and evaluation of different forms of tourism in Munich and their specific impact on the daily life of the inhabitants. A survey conducted in 2018 identifies how the inhabitants of Munich perceive different forms of urban tourism, how much they feel disturbed by them and how they react to them, for example by avoiding the identified tourist spaces. The paper outlines that there are different forms of overtourism, and the phenomenon tends to be more complex than the term suggests, and that it is crucial to differentiate between the various forms of urban tourism depending on the number of tourists, their characteristics, and their spatial and temporal distribution.


In a previous controlled study, dexamethasone (DEX) was shown to prevent acute mountain sickness (AMS) during exposure to simulated high altitude. To determine the effect of DEX during actual altitude exposure, 16 young men were treated with either DEX (4 mg every 6 h) or placebo for 48 h prior to and 48 h after being rapidly transported from sea level to the summit of Pikes Peak, CO (4,300 m). Symptoms of AMS were evaluated twice daily at Pikes Peak using the Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire and a clinical assessment. During treatment the mean symptom scores were higher for subjects taking placebo in 18 out of 20 comparisons. On an individual basis, 60% of the subjects receiving placebo met the criteria for being "sick" compared to 31% of subjects receiving DEX. Beginning 24 h after cessation of treatment, DEX subjects experienced a progressive increase in symptom scores which lasted through the end of the altitude sojourn (day 6). The results indicate that DEX is an effective prophylactic treatment for AMS in an actual mountain environment, but that AMS symptoms can occur if the drug is stopped abruptly.


I start by first considering the obligations of local authorities to
tackle racism. I do this by exploring the legal responsibilities of a local authority, to
promote equality of opportunity and by looking at what steps can be taken - considering
the civil and criminal legal options available.
To pursue the theme of tackling militant racism further, in Chapter three I provide an
analysis of racist speech and literature. This involves analysing certain racist materials to
see if they could possibly provide grounds for criminal prosecution under British criminal
laws.
This emphasis on racist literature and material derives from a perception that such material
can be potentially damaging in a multi-cultural society, since it can help raise racial tensions
between citizens, though it is important to recognise that there is no irrevocable proof that racist literature and materials are directly responsible for racist crime. As I discussed earlier
when referring to material from Hounslow, and with regards to "Searchlight material", there
does exist some anecdotal evidence that shows that in areas where there is a high incidence
of racist material being distributed - racial crime is often on the increase.
Chapters four and five are key chapters within my thesis. In Chapter four I outline two key
proposals for legislative change, considering the practicalities and problems associated with
making it an offence to stir up racial discrimination and/or hatred through the use of
'racially offensive' words. In Chapter five I develop this further, by refining the proposals and
giving consideration to determining if, as amended, they are compatible with the
(European) 'Convention on Human Rights'. 9-5
Having established my arguments for legislative change, I continue with Chapter six in
which I look for a philosophical basis for the changes I propose - with consideration given
to jurisprudential elements deriving from the works of John Stuart Mill, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau and John Rawls.

In Chapter seven I look at the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 and a new approach to tackling
racist crime which enables courts to pursue a harsher sentencing policy where it is
determined that there exists evidence of racial motivation or hostility.
Chapter eight provides my concluding comment upon this research.


Background Pharmacoepidemiological studies have demonstrated an excess risk of hip fractures attributable to the use of antidepressants. In a recent systematic review the pooled relative risk (RR) of hip fracture was 1.70 for antidepressant users, compared to non-users. The potential impact of the use of antidepressants on the rate of hip fracture in Hungary has not been studied before. Purpose To quantify the possible relationship between antidepressant consumption and the excess risk of hip fracture in Hungary, based on the results of published studies and national drug use data in 2012. The population-attributable risk (PAR) of hip fracture associated with the use of antidepressants was evaluated. We also estimated the yearly cost of the operations after hip fractures related to antidepressant use. Material and methods For most countries, the prevalence (Pe) of antidepressant use can only be estimated if Intercontinental Medical Statistics and freely available public databases (Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway) are used for data extraction. Pe in Hungary can be estimated using the following formula: Estimated PeHungary = [(Antidepressants DDDs/1,000 persons/dayHungary)/(Antidepressants DDDs/1,000 persons/dayPublic databases)] × PePublic databases. Pe and the pooled RR from the systematic review of published studies were combined with the following formula to calculate country-specific PAR%: PAR% = [(Pe (RR − 1))/(1 + Pe (RR − 1))] × 100. The cost of the operations after hip fractures was calculated using national data. Results The Hungarian antidepressant consumption is 26.87 DDDs/1,000 persons/day. The estimated PAR of antidepressants on hip fracture rates in Hungary is 2.12% (95% CI, 1.44–2.95). The estimated PAR for the Hungarian population above 65 years is 3.86% (95% CI, 2.62–5.32). The estimated yearly cost of the operations after hip fractures related to antidepressant use is 1.5–2.5 million Euros in Hungary. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the potential contribution of antidepressant use to the population rate of hip fractures is 2.12% in Hungary, which may cause a significant social burden. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


This paper investigates the activation of students' prior knowledge for the development of vocabulary, concepts and mathematics. It has been observed that many secondary school students are not performing well in the examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council and National Examinations Council of Nigeria. The situation became worrisome because of the dwindling performance of students in English Language and Mathematics which are compulsory subjects for securing admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Four research questions were formulated and translated to test whether a significant difference exist between students' achievement in comprehension in English Language and Mathematics before and after the treatment. The study is a quasi experimental which involves two hundred and sixty students selected through random sampling technique. The experimental sessions lasted six weeks. The experimental groups were engaged in collaborative work in smaller groups where they discussed issues related to the new topics using their prior knowledge. Experimental and control groups were given pre-test before the commencement of the study and achievement test after the experiment. The data collected was subjected to t-test statistics and the findings of the study show that the students in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group.


Distributed optimization algorithms are highly attractive for solving big data problems. In particular, many machine learning problems can be formulated as the global consensus optimization problem, which can then be solved in a distributed manner by the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm. However, this suffers from the straggler problem as its updates have to be synchronized. In this paper, we propose an asynchronous ADMM algorithm by using two conditions to control the asynchrony: partial barrier and bounded delay. The proposed algorithm has a simple structure and good convergence guarantees (its convergence rate can be reduced to that of its synchronous counterpart). Experiments on different distributed ADMM applications show that asynchrony reduces the time on network waiting, and achieves faster convergence than its synchronous counterpart in terms of the wall clock time.


After Morgan Wells's wife leaves him, a postcard from France arrives. It is addressed to a Morgan Wells—but not the Morgan Wells who receives it. Desperate to be led out of his despair, Morgan decides to read the postcard as a sign and embark upon a surreal journey to find, observe, and meet the other Morgan Wellses in the city of Toronto. On the day that a 2003 citywide power outage submerges Toronto in darkness, a teenage boy finds a missive of his own: a copy of Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World, one of the first science fiction novels ever written. The boy, obsessed with the Choose Your Own Adventure series, interprets the coincidence of finding the book during the blackout as a premonition, and begins looking for proof that the end of the world is near. "A Description of the Blazing World "interlaces two narratives in a novel about the city in the new millennium: a crowded space that incubates signs of an apocalypse that never quite materializes. But it is this very threat of imminent danger—that everything could go up in blazes—that drives a reclusive man and a lonely boy to search for their respective revelations.


Peptide-based materials exhibit remarkable supramolecular self-assembling behavior, owing to their overwhelming propensity to from hierarchical structures from a-helices and s-sheets. Coupling a peptide sequence to a synthetic polymer chain allows greater control over the final physical properties of the supermolecular material. So-called 'polymer-peptide conjugates' can be used to create biocompatible hydrogels which are held together by reversible physical interactions. Potentially, the hydrogels can be loaded with aqueous-based drug molecules, which can be injected into targeted sites in the body if they can exhibit a gel-sol-gel transition under application and removal of a shear force. In this review, we introduce this topic to readers new to the field of polymer-peptide conjugates, discussing common synthetic strategies and their self-assembling behavior. The lack of examples of actual drug delivery applications from polymer-peptide conjugates is highlighted in an attempt to incite progress in this area.


This work contributes to the monitoring of Agricultural soil pollution in Katsina State, North western Nigeria by assessing the degree of heavy metal pollution in Agricultural soil samples. The study was conducted in the year 2017 within some catchment areas located within the 3 senatorial zones that constitute to make up the state (Katsina senatorial zone: Birchi, Dutsinma and Katsina; Daura senatorial zone: Daura, Ingawa and Zango; Funtua senatorial zone: Dabai, Funtua, Kafur, Malunfashi and Matazu).  Analysis for the concentration of these heavy metals; Cr, Cd, Fe, Ni, Mn, Pb and Zn was conducted by the use of AAS (by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry) method. . Several indices were used to assess the metal contamination levels in the Agricultural soil samples, namely; Geo-accumulation Index (Igeo), Enrichment Factor (EF), Contamination Factor (CF), Degree of Contamination (Cd) and Pollution Load Index (PLI). The result of this study has shown that generally among the heavy metals evaluated, the highest concentration was observed for Fe (range: 20.195-38.347 ppm), followed by Zn (range: 0.528-1.134 ppm), Pb (range: 0.256-0.627 ppm), Mn (range: 0.261-0.572 ppm) and Cr (range: 0.093-0.344 ppm). While Cd has the lowest concentration (range: 0.022-0.043 ppm). For all the site sampled the heavy metal Ni was below detection level (BDL). From the results of heavy metals I-geo values, according to Muller's classification,  soil samples from Birchi, Daura, Dutsinma, Kafur and Zango were unpolluted (class 0) while soil samples from Dabai, Funtua, Ingawa, Katsina, Malunfashi and Matazu are moderately polluted (class 1). The result for the enrichment factor has shown that with the exception of the heavy metal Fe, which shows significant enrichment for all the sites sampled all the other heavy metals show deficiency to minimal enrichment. Also based on the contamination factors for all soil samples the heavy metal Fe has a CF values range of 1.2861-2.3240, indicating that the Agricultural soil samples are moderately contaminated with Fe. In contrast, the rest of the heavy metals exhibit low contamination in general. The value of PLI ranges from 0.2408 to 0.4935, indicating unpolluted to moderate pollution, with the sampling site for Katsina displaying the highest PLI value while the sampling site of Ingawa has the lowest PLI. The Eri values for all samples are all < 40, presenting low ecological risk.  The results suggest that the Agricultural soils samples from Katsina state has low contamination by the heavy metals evaluated. Key words: Agricultural soils, Heavy metals, Katsina state, Pollution load index, Contamination factor.


The workshop treated inverse problems for partial differential equations, especially inverse scattering problems, and their applications in technology. While special attention was paid to sampling methods, decomposition methods, Newton methods and questions of unique determination were also investigated. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 14Q05, 35Rxx, 65Jxx, 65N21, 74Jxx, 78Axx. Introduction by the Organisers Since this was only a "half workshop", the organisers intended to focus on a relatively small number of topics. We selected scattering from an obstacle and with primarily the Maxwell equations as the underlying structure. We also wanted to concentrate on analytic methods where questions of uniqueness and (if appropriate) existence were at the forefront. That is not to say that reconstructive methods were downplayed and in fact almost all of the talks did show some illustrative reconstructions, but greater attention was to the analysis of the methods rather than implementation issues. Even within this structure there was a strong focus on ideas that were in the spirit of sampling or factorization methods. These techniques work under a wide variety of physical situations and are perhaps optimal when very little is known a priori about the location, shape or material properties of the scatterer and where the most accurate solutions are not required. The participants were the usual geographical blend but what stood out in looking over the audience was the youthful median age. For many in the group this was their first visit to Oberwolfach and, in some cases, their first time to meet each other. With the smaller number of participants we were able to have a relaxed schedule and yet allow most to speak (about three quarters did so). Thus talks were scheduled for 9:30am, 11am, 4pm and 5pm except for the Wednesday 710 Oberwolfach Report 13/2007 and Friday when we only had morning talks. The duration was scheduled for a maximum of 40 minutes to allow for comments and discussions (and frequently the additional post-talk questions and comments took us up to the next speaker). We also had one evening session where a relatively new topic (the question of existence and properties of so called "transmission eigenvalues") was discussed by the whole workshop. Almost all participants attended all the lectures; the exceptions were due to interest in talks from the other workshop. We thus conclude that the format was successful from the perspective of the participants. Another reason for the high attendance was the excellent overall quality of the talks; it is clear that most of the speakers had taken great care over the preparation and there was considerable evidence that talks were modified as the conference progressed in order to present a fresh set of ideas to the audience. It should be noted that at the last workshop run by the present organisers special sessions were held in the evening. One of these considered some new ideas on one of the oldest conjectures in the area whether or not a single incident plane wave is sufficient to recover an arbitrary obstacle. There has been a history of partial results, but no substantial progress had been made on the problem for twenty years. Three of the participants at the previous meeting managed to make substantial progress in the year after the workshop. (The conjecture is still unproven in the most general setting but a first result proved the conjecture for convex, polygonal obstacles, a subsequent one removed the need for convexity. These used very different techniques and further progress is expected.) We think that devoting part of the time to look at a specific focused topic has enormous merit at Oberwolfach and we only hope for a similar outcome from the present workshop. As usual, the service provided by the staff was exemplary. This plays an enormous part in the "Oberwolfach experience" and allows the participants to concentrate on the research aspects. Finally, we should note that at the previous workshop the organisers complained about the state of current atmospheric modelling/computation leading to an erroneous weather forecast that added a surprise rainstorm to the Wednesday hike. We are sorry to report that the computational geophysicists still have work to do as they were again wrong, but we much prefer a forecast of rain yet in fact receive fine weather.


Many organisms are able to survive freezing temperatures through the development of
biochemical and physiological adaptations. These biochemical adaptations may
include the synthesis of proteins such as antifreeze proteins or cryoprotectants such as
trehalose, the elimination of ice nucleators, and the expression of stress associated
proteins (such as molecular chaperones, antioxidants, late embryogenesis abundant
(LEA) proteins). Physiological adaptations include the ability to undergo
cryoprotective dehydration. The molecular mechanisms underlying freezing stress
tolerance are poorly understood. One of the main aims of this project was to employ
phylogenetic, proteomic, and transcriptomic approaches to gain insights into the
adaptations that aid the survival of the free- living cryotolerant nematode
Panagrolaimus superbus.
Panagrolaimus sp. from temperate, subpolar, polar and continental geographic
regions show a range of freezing ability from strains that show high survival upon
direct exposure to -80 oC to those that are freezing sensitive. Acclimation significantly
improves the freezing survival of temperate, subpolar, polar and continental
Panagrolaimus strains and species. They also undergo anhydrobiosis and a
correlation exists between desiccation tolerance and freezing tolerance. A
phylogenetic study did not find a relationship between freezing phenotype,
biogeography and phylogeny. The freezing and desiccation tolerance of ten new
tropical Panagrolaimus strains was investigated. These strains are desiccation tolerant
but not freezing tolerant, suggesting that freezing survival requires some specialised
adaptations. A phylogenetic study of all the Panagrolaimus strains used in this study
showed that the desiccation tolerant tropical Panagrolaimus strains are more
divergent from the other strains and species in this study.
Protein extracts from freezing tolerant Panagrolaimus sp. can inhibit the growth of
ice along specific planes of an ice crystal, resulting in hexagonal bipyrimidal ice
crystals. This ice faceting capacity was considered most likely to be due to the
presence of ice binding proteins. An ice affinity purification method was implemented
to purify ice-binding proteins from P. superbus. Several proteins found to be enriched
in the ice fraction were identified by mass spectrometry. As none of the identified
proteins was an obvious ice binding protein, it was not possible to determine whether
these proteins had ice-binding protein activity.
The divergence times for five Panagrolaimus strains and species were estimated
using the relaxed molecular clock approach. The Panagrolaimus sp. were found to
have diverged from other nematodes 70.12 million years ago. The Antarctic nematode
P. davidi diverged from its Californian sister species PS1579 approximately 17.18
million years ago and the Arctic nematode P. superbus diverged from its
Pennsylvanian sister species Panagrolaimus sp. AF36 9.97 million years ago.
The genes that are differentially expressed in response to a period of cold acclimation
were determined using the next generation sequencing method RNA-seq. A large
number of novel genes were significantly up-regulated (P-value <0.01) including
those involved in the oxidative stress response, transporting, membrane modification,
metabolism, signalling and cytoskeleton remodelling.