Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) reflectances recorded i May 1989 from a mountainous catchment at Kvikne, Norway, are analyzed and compared with simultaneously measured in situ albedo. The satellite-registered shortwave snow albedo comparable to bare ground albedo and as low as 0.19 was found in areas where the snow was highly metamorphosed and heavily blackened by organic material. However, the contrast between snow and snow-free areas can be strongly improved by using a normalized TM Band 2-5 difference image. While TM Band 2 shows varying degrees of snow surface contamination within the study area, the normalized TM Band 2-5 difference image is not affected by impurities. Further, a normalized TM Band 2-4 difference image indicates that about one third of the variability in TM Band 4 is caused by effective snow grain size variations while the remaining is a result of surface contamination. Finally, the satellite reflectances have been corrected for atmospheric absorption and scattering present on the day of the satellite overpass.


Existing entrepreneurial learning literature is fragmented, with a divide between cognitive-, practice- and social-experiential approaches. Of these, social-experiential approaches have received the least attention. Despite a general agreement between scholars that social networks play an important part in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning, the role of social interactions in entrepreneurial learning is underdeveloped. The aim of this research is to explore this gap and provide insights into the role of social interactions in entrepreneurial learning, how entrepreneurial learning during social engagement can be aided and/or impeded, the outcomes of entrepreneurial learning during social engagement, and how learning during social engagement benefits entrepreneurs. An interpretive approach, influenced by a social constructionist epistemology, underpinned the research, which comprised semi-structured qualitative interviews with 17 entrepreneurs across 15 companies. The data was analysed using thematic networks – a process which involved six steps across three levels of interpretation. This revealed three core principles: firstly, multiple, interwoven social interactions combine with other learning mechanisms and influencers for entrepreneurs to learn; secondly, learning during social engagement results in multi-layered and intertwined outcomes; and thirdly, learning during social engagement is contextually dependent and affected by various factors. These principles are interlinked; the first principle is foundational as it reflects how entrepreneurs learn (i.e. in a variety of learning sequences), with the other principles stemming from this to give a wider picture of entrepreneurial learning during social engagement. This thesis contributes to entrepreneurial learning literature by providing insight in three ways. Firstly, by demonstrating a need for integration rather than fragmentation within entrepreneurial learning. Secondly, by extending Bingham and Davis' (2012) framework of learning sequences. Finally, in the presentation of a new model of entrepreneurial learning during social engagement, developed to show the interlinkage of the three principles identified in this study.


In this paper, we study convergence properties of the gradient Expectation-Maximization algorithm \cite{lange1995gradient} for Gaussian Mixture Models for general number of clusters and mixing coefficients. We derive the convergence rate depending on the mixing coefficients, minimum and maximum pairwise distances between the true centers and dimensionality and number of components; and obtain a near-optimal local contraction radius. While there have been some recent notable works that derive local convergence rates for EM in the two equal mixture symmetric GMM, in the more general case, the derivations need structurally different and non-trivial arguments. We use recent tools from learning theory and empirical processes to achieve our theoretical results.


This essay explores the role of story-telling in constructing Judah's border with the Philistines in the shephelah. Judah's struggle to control this frontier involved overcoming social pressures and incentives that naturally pulled Israelites and Philistines living in it toward integration and hybridization. The Samson story, the most famous biblical narrative associated with the shephelah, offers us an opportunity to reconstruct a possible role for story-telling in counteracting this pressure. Drawing on parallels with Greek myth, I argue that the Samson narrative does not merely reflect the ethnic and cultural ambiguities of the shephelah but seeks to assert control over them, doing so in ways that delegitimize Philistine claims to this region and stigmatize border-crossing. What we have in the Samson story, in other words, is an attempt to impose a fictional border between Judah and the Philistines in the shephelah, a border no less inhibitive for being imaginary.


Noninvasive 1H‐nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging was used to investigate the diffusive properties of microbial mats in two dimensions. Pulsed field gradient NMR was used to acquire images of the H2O diffusion coefficient, Ds, and multiecho imaging NMR was used to obtain images of the water density in two structurally different microbial mats sampled from Solar Lake (Egypt). We found a pronounced lateral and vertical variability of both water density and water diffusion coefficient, correlated with the laminated and heterogeneous distribution of microbial cells and exopolymers within the mats. The average water density varied from 0.5 to 0.9, whereas the average water diffusion coefficient ranged from 0.4 to 0.9 relative to the values obtained in the stagnant water above the mat samples. The apparent water diffusivities estimated from NMR imaging compared well to apparent O2 diffusivities measured with a diffusivity microsensor. Analysis of measured O2 concentration profiles with a diffusion‐reaction model showed that both the magnitude of calculated rates and the depth distribution of calculated O2 consumption/production zones changed when the observed variations of diffusivity were taken into account. With NMR imaging, diffusivity can be determined at high spatial resolution, which can resolve inherent lateral and vertical heterogeneities found in most natural benthic systems.


A generalized representation of the radiation field incident on the photosensitive surface of a photoelectric device accommodates the consideration of many laser beams superposed or the consideration of radiation due to multimodes or multiple filaments of a single laser. The magnitudes and frequencies of the fluctuations in electron emission from the photosurface associated with photon noise and shot noise and the parameters affecting these magnitudes are determined. Also, the influence of these fluctuations on the probability of detecting low-level laser radiation is investigated.


Adults can extract the underlying beat from music, and entrain their movements with that beat. Although infants and children are poor at synchronizing their movements to auditory stimuli, recent findings suggest they are perceptually sensitive to the beat. We examined five-year-old children's perceptual sensitivity to musical beat alignment (adapting the adult task of Iversen & Patel, 2008). We also examined whether sensitivity is affected by metric complexity, and whether perceptual sensitivity correlates with cognitive skills. On each trial of the complex Beat Alignment Test (cBAT) children were presented with two successive videos of puppets drumming to music with simple or complex meter. One puppet's drumming was synchronized with the beat of the music while the other had either incorrect tempo or incorrect phase, and children were asked to select the better drummer. In two experiments, five-year-olds were able to detect beat misalignments in simple meter music significantly better than beat misalignments in complex meter music for both phase errors and tempo errors, with performance for complex meter music at chance levels. Although cBAT performance correlated with short-term memory in Experiment One, the relationship held for both simple and complex meter, so cannot explain the superior performance for culturally typical meters.


This paper examines the development of object clitic placement by children acquiring Cypriot Greek. Greek-speaking Cyprus is sociolinguistically characterized by diglossia between two varieties of Greek, the local Cypriot Greek and the official Standard Modern Greek. Arguably as a result of this situation, clitics may be placed post- (enclisis) or preverbally (proclisis) in the same syntactic environment; while the former is a property of Cypriot Greek, the latter is typically considered an effect of the standard language. The following issues are investigated here: (a) how such bilectal speakers distinguish between the two Greek varieties with respect to clitic placement; (b) how the acquisition of clitics develops over time; (c) how, and which, sociolinguistic factors determine clitic placement; and (d) how schooling may affect clitic placement. To address (a)–(d), a sentence completion task was used to elicit clitic productions, administered to 431 children around Cyprus ranging from 2;8 to 8;11. The C5.0 machine-learning algorithm was employed to model the interaction of (socio-)linguistic factors on the development of clitic placement. The model shows that speakers acquire the relevant features very early, yet compartmentalization of form and function according to style emerges only as they engage in the larger speech community. In addition, the effects of sociolinguistic factors on clitic placement appear gradually.


Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET) is a vital transportation technology that facilitates the vehicles to share sensitive information (such as steep-curve warnings and black ice on the road) with each other and with the surrounding infrastructure in real-time to avoid accidents and enable comfortable driving experience.To achieve these goals, VANET requires a secure environment for authentic, reliable and trusted information dissemination among the network entities. However, VANET is prone to different attacks resulting in the dissemination of compromised/false information among network nodes. One way to manage a secure and trusted network is to introduce trust among the vehicular nodes. To this end, various Trust Models (TMs) are developed for VANET and can be broadly categorized into three classes, Entity-oriented Trust Models (ETM), Data oriented Trust Models (DTM) and Hybrid Trust Models (HTM). These TMs evaluate trust based on the received information (data), the vehicle (entity) or both through different mechanisms. In this paper, we present a comparative study of the three TMs. Furthermore, we evaluate these TMs against the different trust, security and quality-of-service related benchmarks. Simulation results revealed that all these TMs have deficiencies in terms of end-to-end delays, event detection probabilities and false positive rates. This study can be used as a guideline for researchers to design new efficient and effective TMs for VANET.


Synthesis of polymers with well-defined functional groups at α and ω ends remains a major challenge in polymer chemistry. We report a versatile method to prepare polymers with various functional groups at α ends without tedious post-modification by using carefully designed organocobalt complexes ((salen)Co-R) as the catalyst. The ω ends of (salen)Co were further functionalized to the hydroxyl group. Both of the more active monomers (MAM; acrylates and acrylamides) and less active monomers (LAM; vinyl acetate) could be controlled to produce homo and various block copolymers with a predetermined molecular weight, narrow polydispersity and high level of polymer end fidelity under visible light irradiation. More importantly, the polymers are prepared and functional groups are installed simultaneously during the propagation process, including alkynyl, tert-butyl, phenyl, cyclohexyl, fluoride, chloride, furyl, or thienyl groups at the α ends.


The northern Yukon Territory was only partly glaciated during the Last Glacial Maximum, whereas large parts remained ice-free. Unglaciated landscapes and exposed shelf areas extending continuously between east Siberia and the Mackenzie River in Canada formed the vast subcontinent Beringia. Beringia provided a glacial refugium for high-latitude flora and fauna and a migration corridor for species and early men. Despite its apparently outstanding position for the understanding of the regional landscape and climate development, the late Quaternary history of the easternmost margin is largely unknown and relies on few continuous records.
Lacustrine deposits from the northern Yukon have recorded sedimentation, vegetation, and summer temperature changes since ~16 cal ka BP in the easternmost part of unglaciated Beringia. We applied an interdisciplinary approach using geophysical, sedimentological, and palynological analysis together with multivariate statistics to get a comprehensive understanding of the climatic and environmental history in the close proximity to the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS).
Depositional environments changed rapidly during the late glacial–Holocene transition near the collapsing LIS and were triggered by a late-glacial drainage diversion of the Babbage River, probably leading to episodic spillovers of Laurentide meltwater into bedrock-controlled lake basins. Depositional conditions remained relatively stable during the Holocene and became decoupled from vegetation changes responding to climatic change.
Herb-dominated tundra persisted until ~14.7 cal ka BP with mean July air temperatures ≤5°C colder than today. Temperatures rapidly increased during the Bolling/Allerod interstadial towards modern conditions, favoring establishment of Betula-Salix shrub tundra. Pollen-inferred temperature reconstructions recorded a pronounced Younger Dryas (YD) cold reversal in east Beringia that had not been inferred in area distant to the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans, so far. Summer temperatures during the YD dropped by ~1.5°C and repressed shrub growth in favor of dry and cold-adapted herb communities. Pollen assemblages show little evidence of an early Holocene Thermal Maximum, probably due to a moisture-limited spread of thermophile plants.
Northern Yukon Holocene moisture availability increased in response to a retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet, postglacial sea level rise, and decreasing summer insolation that in turn led to establishment of Alnus-Betula shrub tundra from ~5 cal ka BP until present, and conversion of a continental into a coastal-maritime climate near the Beaufort Sea.
This study is the first paleoenvironmental reconstruction at the eastern margin of the vast Beringian subcontinent that mutually addresses glacial chronology, vegetation and summer temperature change in combination with sedimentation history.


We propose a novel method to model an agent who is imperfectly attentive in the sense that she may consider only some of the alternatives available. Our methodology departs from the standard 'revealed preference' one: we make plausible assumptions on the values to the imperfectly attentive agent of different choice situations. We derive in this way a simple reduced-form model that is compatible with several cognitive processes underlying choice: the agent stochastically forms a consideration set by noticing each alternative with a given probability and then maximises a deterministic utility function over the consideration set.


A series of dinuclear metal(ii)-acetato complexes: [Ni2(μ-L(Cl)O)(μ2-OAc)2](PF6)·3H2O (1), [Ni2(μ-L(Cl)O)(μ2-OAc)2](ClO4)·CH3COCH3 (2), [Cu2(μ-L(Cl)O)(μ2-OAc)(ClO4)](ClO4) (3), [Cu2(μ-L(Cl)O)(OAc)2](PF6)·H2O (4), [Zn2(μ-L(Cl)O)(μ2-OAc)2](PF6) (5) and [Mn2(L(Cl)-O)(μ2-OAc)2](ClO4)·H2O (6), where L(Cl)O(-) = 2,6-bis[bis(2-pyridylmethyl)aminomethyl]-4-chlorophenolate, were synthesized. The complexes were structurally characterized by spectroscopic techniques and single crystal X-ray crystallography. Six-coordinate geometries with doubly bridged acetato ligands were found in Ni(ii), Zn(ii) and Mn(ii) complexes 1, 2, 5 and 6, whereas with Cu(ii) complexes a five-coordinate species was obtained with 4, and mixed five- and six-coordinate geometries with a doubly bridged dimetal core were observed in 3. The magnetic properties of complexes 1-4 and 6 were studied at variable temperatures and revealed weak to very weak antiferromagnetic interactions in 1, 2, 4 and 6 (J = -0.55 to -9.4 cm(-1)) and ferromagnetic coupling in 3 (J = 15.4 cm(-1)). These results are consistent with DFT calculations performed at the B3LYP/def2-TZVP(-f) level of theory. Under physiological conditions, the interaction of the dinculear complexes 1-5 with supercoiled plasmid ds-DNA did not show any pronounced nuclease activity, but Ni(ii) complexes 1 and 2 revealed a strong ability to unwind the supercoiled conformation of ds-DNA. The mechanistic studies performed on the interaction of the Ni(ii) complexes with DNA demonstrated the important impact of the nickel(ii) ion in the unwinding process. In combination with the DNA study, the phosphatase activity of complexes 1, 3, and 5 was examined by the phosphodiester hydrolysis of bis(2,4-dinitrophenol)phosphate (BDNPP) in the pH range of 5.5-10.5 at 25 °C. The Michaelis-Menten kinetics performed at pH 7 and 10.7 showed that catalytic efficiencies kcat/KM (kcat = catalytic rate constant, KM = substrate binding constant) decrease in the order: Ni(ii), 1 > Zn(ii), 5 > Cu(ii), 3. A similar trend was also observed with the turnover numbers at pH = 7. The results are discussed in relation to the coordination geometry and nature of the metal center as well as the steric environment imposed by the compartmental phenoxido ligand.


The State of New York recently issued its first physician-certified "intersex" birth certificate, correcting a 55-year-old's original birth certificate. This is a positive step towards eliminating the traditional binary approach to a person's birth sex, but it creates potential uncertainties in the employment discrimination context. Over the past several years, the definition of what constitutes "discrimination on the basis of sex" has both expanded (with the legalization of same-sex marriage) and narrowed (restricting the use of gender specific bathrooms). Until recently it appeared that a broader definition of the term "sex" would become the judicial—and possibly legislative—norm in a variety of contexts. However, several obstacles have emerged to jeopardize true equality for the LGBTQIA community, including (1) inconsistent judicial opinions regarding the meaning of "sex," (2) the increased ability of employers to utilize religion or "any other factor" as a defense to discrimination claims, (3) regressive executive policies regarding the definition of "sex," and (4) uncertainty about the extent to which transgender individuals may remain in the military. Although each of these issues warrants thorough analysis and has sparked scholarly debate, in this Article we focus on another critical inequality: wage disparity. Specifically, we are concerned with the problem posed for DSD and transgender individuals, given the Equal Pay Act's requirement that plaintiffs demonstrate they are paid differently from the "opposite sex" for a wage disparity claim. The Equal Pay Act (EPA) is outdated and discriminatory in its application, and it unnecessarily subjects an entire segment of the workforce—LGBTQIA individuals—to continued discrimination. The EPA requires that plaintiffs prove their cases through reference to an opposite sex comparator, but then defers to the employer's subjective definition of who "the opposite sex" is. This makes LGBTQIA plaintiffs' cases essentially unwinnable. Uncertainty for the LGBTQIA community is further compounded by the expansion of the employer's right, under both the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, to invoke religion, conscience, or "any other factor" as an affirmative defense to discrimination claims. In this Article, we discuss the interplay between a plaintiff's sex-specific protections (against sex-based employment discrimination under Title VII and against wage disparity under the Equal Pay Act) and an employer's affirmative defenses (under Title VII, the EPA, and current interpretations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act). Our discussion concludes with recommendations for an expansive definition of the word "sex" and the adoption of the recently proposed Equality Act to help alleviate all forms of sex-based discrimination in the employment context.


Failures after the release of software products are expensive and time-consuming to fix. Each of these failures has different reasons pointing into different portions of code. We conduct a retrospective analysis on bugs reported after beta release of Eclipse versions. Our objective is to investigate what went wrong during the development process. We identify six in-process metrics that have explanatory effects on beta-release bugs. We conduct statistical analyses to check relationships between files and metrics. Our results show that files with beta-release bugs have different characteristics in terms of in-process metrics. Those bugs are specifically concentrated on Eclipse files with little activity: few edits by few committers. We suggest that in-process metrics should be investigated individually to identify beta-release bugs. Companies may benefit from such a retrospective analysis to understand characteristics of failures. Corrective actions can be taken earlier in the process to avoid similar failures in future releases.


The pdx-4 mutation in Streptomyces venezuelae ISP5230 confers a growth requirement for pyridoxal (pdx) and is a marker for the genetically mapped cluster of genes associated with chloramphenicol biosynthesis. A gene regulating salvage synthesis of vitamin B6 cofactors in S. venezuelae was cloned by transforming a pdx-4 mutant host with the plasmid vector pDQ101 carrying a library of wild-type genomic DNA fragments, and by selecting for complementation of the host's pdx requirement. However, the corresponding replicative plasmid could not be isolated. Southern hybridizations and transduction analysis indicated that the complementing plasmid had integrated into the chromosome; after excision by a second crossover, the plasmid failed to propagate. To avoid loss of the recombinant vector, a pdx-dependent Streptomyces lividans mutant, KAA1, with a phenotype matching that of S. venezuelae pdx-4, was isolated for use as the cloning host. Introduction of pIJ702 carrying an S. venezuelae genomic library into S. lividans KAA1, and selection of prototrophic transformants, led to the isolation of a stable recombinant vector containing a 2.5 kb S. venezuelae DNA fragment that complemented requirements for pdx in both S. venezuelae and S. lividans mutants. Sequence analysis of the cloned DNA located an intact ORF with a deduced amino acid sequence that, in its central and C-terminal regions resembled type-I aminotransferases. The N-terminal region of the cloned DNA fragment aligned closely with distinctive helix-turn-helix motifs found near the N termini of GntR family transcriptional regulators. The overall deduced amino acid sequence of the cloned DNA showed 73% end-to-end identity to a putative GntR-type regulator cloned in cosmid 6D7 from the Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) genome. This location is close to that of pdxA, the first pdx marker in S. coelicolor A3(2) identified and mapped genetically in Sir David Hopwood's laboratory. The S. venezuelae gene and S. coelicolor pdxA are postulated to be homologues regulating vitamin B6 coenzyme synthesis from pdx.


Virtually every cell in our body tracks daily time using an endogenous mechanism called the circadian clock, which has a period of about 24 hours. This timing system offers a selective advantage by enabling organisms to anticipate periodic changes in environmental conditions, such as light-dark cycles. As a consequence, most behavioral and physiological processes including sleep/wake patterns, body temperature and blood pressure are influenced and thus occur at the appropriate time of the day. Such molecular oscillators have been identified almost over the full tree of life, ranging from bacteria to human, as well as insects, fungi and plants. In the mouse liver, the circadian system has been involved in several processes such as glucose homeostasis, cholesterol biosynthesis and gating of the cell cycle. At the molecular level, the circadian clock uses interlocked feedback loops in which the heterodimeric transcription factor BMAL1/CLOCK in mammals or CLK/CYC in flies, plays a central role. In this transcriptional regulatory network, BMAL1/CLOCK activates via E-box motifs transcription of several repressors: the PER and CRY proteins, which repress their own activation by BMAL1/CLOCK, and the nuclear receptor REV-ERB??, which negatively regulates the transcription of the Bmal1 gene. BMAL1/CLOCK also drives rhythmic transcription of PAR-bZIP transcription factors such as DBP/HLF/TEF, which allow for phase-specific expression of many metabolic genes in the liver. While there is prominent control of physiological and behavioral functions by the circadian clock, the detailed links between circadian regulators and downstream targets are poorly known. Thus the main goal of this research was to apply combined experimental and computational methods to further elucidate these interactions, both in flies and in mammals. Identifying the targets of the heterodimeric CLK/CYC (or BMAL1/CLOCK in mammals) basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor poses challenges and it has been difficult to decipher its specific sequence affinity beyond a canonical E-box motif. We used a comparative genomics approach to identify and model CLK/CYC bound enhancers. The presence of two highly conserved tandem E-box motifs (E1-E2) was detected among CLK/CYC targets genes in flies. A probabilistic model was derived from these sequences and validated with functional genomics datasets. A phylogenetic analysis showed that this motif is evolutionarily conserved among mammals, fishes and insects. Subsequently, we developed computational and experimental methods aimed at defining the target genes of BMAL1/CLOCK in a complex tissue such as the mouse liver. To this end, we mapped all DNA-binding sites of BMAL1 during one circadian cycle using chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with deep sequencing (ChIP-Seq). As a control experiment, we performed a ChIP-Seq experiment for the heterodimeric partner, CLOCK. We developed a novel deconvolution-based method for optimal detection of binding sites from ChIP-Seq data and implemented a bioinformatics pipeline to establish the relationship between transcription factor binding and mRNA expression. Our computational analysis revealed widespread daily rhythms in DNA binding, with maximum levels peaking at midday. In the list of candidate targets, genes belonging to the core circadian clockwork stood out as the most strongly bound, often showing multiple binding sites. In addition, BMAL1 targets were highly enriched in genes involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, cancer pathways, and also in transcription factors, in particular nuclear receptors. Thus, our results show that BMAL1 directly controls precise processes such as glucose homeostasis and, at the same time, uses other transcriptional regulators to spread the circadian signal to a large number of indirect targets. Additionally, we characterized the DNA-binding specificity of BMAL1 using a combination of biochemical and bioinformatics methods. Genomic sequence analysis of the sites using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) identified E-boxes and tandem E-box (E1-E2) consensus elements. Interestingly, we found that strongly bound BMAL1 sites exhibit high phylogenetic conservation among placental mammals, which was even more pronounced in core circadian genes. Electromobility shift assays showed that E1-E2 sites are bound by a dimer of BMAL1/CLOCK heterodimers with a spacing-dependent cooperative interaction, a finding that was further validated in transactivation assays. A highly significant fraction of BMAL1 target genes showed cyclic mRNA expression profiles with a phase distribution delayed by about 4 hours compared to the binding. Importantly, sites with E1-E2 elements showed tighter phase distribution in mRNA accumulation. These analyses and experiments revealed the importance of tandem E1-E2 elements, which may favor strong binding and precise timing of daily gene expression. Finally, analyzing the temporal profiles of BMAL1 binding, precursor mRNA and mature mRNA levels showed how transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation contribute differentially to circadian expression phase. Taken together, our interdisciplinary approach clearly established BMAL1/CLOCK's primary function as a master regulator of the core circadian oscillator, while demonstrating also its direct contribution to a variety of output programs. Thus our results may help to better understand metabolic diseases linked to dysfunctions of the circadian clockwork. Moreover, a more precise description of the clock-controlled liver functions might be also useful in chronotherapy in order to improve effectiveness and tolerance of drugs by treating patients at the right moment of the day.


Herbal remedies and traditional medicines of ethnic origin have been the source of libraries of active ingredients that have found use in the development of modern medicines for a number of diseases including cancer. Such compounds have shown proven anticancer activity against various cancer cell lines according to the Developmental Therapeutics Programme of the NCI.

This project utilises a group of active ingredients isolated from Traditional Chinese herbal medicines as a scaffold (see figure below), in an attempt to devise molecules that interact with DNA selectively and can act as novel chemotherapeutic agents. The interactions of duplex genomic DNA and synthetic polynucleotides, as well as triplex and tetraplex DNA polymorphs with the unmodified compounds have been studied using different analytical techniques. This study is based on experiments including spectroscopic analysis such as UV, ethidium bromide displacement and thermal denaturation, as well as biological tests like cell viability, flow cytometry, comet assay and topoisomerase I & II assays. This battery of tests ascertained the presence of DNA binding activity for these compounds and provided an estimate of their association constants with the various forms of DNA. These were found to be in the order of 104 M-1 – 105 M-1 depending on the compound and the form of DNA, and provided information on the binding preference of the drug molecules.

Baicalein showed specificity for AT bases and especially pyrimidine triplex and tetraplex formations, and was characterized by activity against the MCF7 breast cancer cell line.

Quercetin showed interaction with tetraplex DNA, purine and pyrimidine triplexes, as well as AT – GC bases and also presented activity against the CCRFCEM leukemia cell line.

Daidzein has low specificity for GC bases, whereas baicalin, puerarin and rutin interact weakly with the various nucleic acid structures. As daidzein is considered a phytoestrogen, it promotes activity where estrogen receptors are located, as was shown by the promotion of growth in MCF7 cell line. In flavonoids, the planarity of the molecule allows the molecule to intercalate between the nucleobases. Furthermore, in the case of quercetin, the hydroxyl groups in R3, R5 and R6 seem to have a strong influence on the interaction with DNA.

Based on these results, we studied further modifications of the molecules and their effect on DNA-binding.We found substitutions on the A and B rings to be important as they increase the binding by an order of magnitude; the position of the B ring is also relevant, in C2 improves the binding, and in C3 decreases it. The absence of the C2-C3 double bond makes a distortion to the planarity of the molecule, which appears to decrease the activity. The acetoxy groups in positions 5 and 7 appear to reduce the binding values. These results, together with molecular modeling; will allow the synthesis of novel molecules that bind selectively to nucleic acids and have improved anticancer activity and pharmacological properties.


BACKGROUND
Irritability is a common feature of major depressive disorder (MDD), though it is not included in the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for adult MDD and is not assessed in most standard depression rating scales. Irritability with or without depression has been associated with risk for suicide, violence, and cardiovascular disease.

METHOD
The prevalence of significant levels of irritability was examined among the first 1456 outpatients with nonpsychotic MDD entering the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. Sociodemographic and clinical features were compared for participants who did and did not report irritability at least 50% of the time during the week preceding study entry.

RESULTS
Of 1456 evaluable subjects, 582 (40%) reported irritability more than half the time. These individuals were more likely than nonirritable subjects to be female, to be younger, to be unemployed, and to report a history of at least 1 suicide attempt. Functional status and quality of life were also poorer in this group. Irritability was correlated with overall depressive severity, which accounted for nearly all of the clinical differences noted, with the exception of vascular disease, for which the association persisted after controlling for age, sex, and depressive severity.

CONCLUSION
Irritability is prevalent among depressed outpatients and associated with a greater likelihood of suicide attempts, poorer functional status, and greater prevalence of vascular disease. It is correlated with overall depression severity and thus may not represent a distinct depressive subtype per se. The impact of irritability on course and treatment outcome merits further study.


DOI: 10.30919/esmm5f717 In recent years, miniaturization and integration have become the development trends of electronic devices. With the power of electronic devices continuing to increase, the amount of heat generated is sharply increasing. Thermal interface material (TIM) can effectively improve heat transfer between two solid interfaces, and it plays an important role in the performance, service life and stability of electronic devices. In this case, higher requirements are put forward for thermal management, so much attention is also attached to the innovation and optimization of TIM. In this paper, recent research development of TIM is reviewed. Rheology-based modeling and design are discussed for the widely used polymeric TIMs. It is discussed for the effects of thermal conductive fillers on the properties of composites. Many studies have shown that some polymers filled with high thermal conductivity and low loss ceramics are well suitable for electronic packaging for device encapsulation. Until now, extensive attentions have been paid to the preparation of polymeric composites with high thermal conductivity for the application in electronic packaging. Finally, the problems are also discussed and the research directions of TIM in the future are prospected.


The treatment of lung cancer remains a significant challenge. Although chemotherapy remains the standard approach, a plateau has been reached in its efficacy. The development of novel targeted agents, particularly those targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor, has given us another approach. Developments with antiangiogenesis agents hold promise as new approaches in lung cancer therapy. Much of the work to date has focused on the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody bevacizumab. In this article we will focus on the tyrosine kinase inhibitors of the VEGF receptors. These compounds, including sunitinib (SU11248; Sutent), vatalanib (PTK787), ZD6474, AZD2171, GW786034, sorafenib (BAY 43-9006), CP-547,632, and AG013736, are still at an early stage of development. We present phase I data (and phase II/III data when available) of these compounds and discuss their potential development in the treatment of lung cancer.


The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvardsverket) has financed the interdisciplinary research program "Efficient Environmental Inspections and Enforcement" ("Effektiv miljotillsyn"). The researchers are affiliated to Stockholm University, which is the responsible research institution, the Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan), the Karolinska Institutet, and the Swedish Defense Research Agency (Totalforsvarets forskningsinstitut). The goal has been to develop new knowledge, thereby achieving more efficient environmental inspections and enforcement and obtaining new scientific perspectives on environmental inspections and enforcement.The report studies methods for inspections and the communication between the inspector and the representative of the inspected facility, how the institutional framework for the inspection process works, and demonstrates the possibilities of measuring the effects of inspections and enforcement. The researchers involved in the program are fully responsible for the content of this report.The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency will use the results as a base for its continuing efforts to improve inspection and enforcement guidance and to develop the following up and evaluation of inspections and enforcement and guidance.


Linguistics and Communication Disorders are considered two different disciplines by most students and scholars in both fields as well as by researchers working in other relevant fields such as psychology and education. However, most core disorders, disabilities and delays in communicative ability directly concern language, especially in conjunction with human development from infancy to adulthood, but also as related to the loss of communicative skills in the aging brain. Linguistics thus emerges as a major source of scientific insights and practical applications for the field of communication disorders. While it is obviously impossible to account for the diverse and sometimes contradictory views of linguistics in a single paper, we nonetheless focus on the contribution of novel linguistic and psycholinguistic approaches to the current conceptualization of communication disorders from different perspectives. We first discuss the nature of evidence and research methods in the two disciplines, with the current usage-based and typological approaches to corpus linguistics as a case in point. Consequently, we discuss the interface of linguistics and communication disorders through four contexts which are considered infelicitous to language acquisition and processing. These are, as follows: (i) hearing loss, (ii) language impairment and dyslexia, (iii) growing up in a low socio-economic environment, and (iv) situations of bilingualism.


By 1967, motor control and learning researchers had adopted an information processing (IP) approach. Central to that research was understanding how movement information was processed, coded, stored, and represented in memory. It also was centered on understanding motor control and learning in terms of Fitts' law, closed-loop and schema theories, motor programs, contextual interference, modeling, mental practice, attentional focus, and how practice and augmented feedback could be organized to optimize learning. Our constraints-based research from the 1980s into the 2000s searched for principles of "self-organization", and answers to the degrees-of-freedom problem, that is, how the human motor system with so many independent parts could be controlled without the need for an executive decision maker as proposed by the IP approach. By 2007 we were thinking about where the IP and constraints-based views were divergent and complementary, and whether neural-based models could bring together the behavior and biol...


Excerpt] In the next 50 years, demographic changes will significantly alter the U.S. population and labor force. These changes include an aging and more diverse population that will continue growing, but at a slower rate. These changes will impact the growth of the U.S. economy and its ability to create goods and services. Comments Suggested Citation Toossi, M. (2016). BLS spotlight on statistics: A look at the future of the U.S. labor force to 2060. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/1762 U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 1 SEPTEMBER 2016 A Look At The Future Of The U.S. Labor Force To 2060 Mitra Toossi In the next 50 years, demographic changes will significantly alter the U.S. population and labor force. These changes include an aging and more diverse population that will continue growing, but at a slower rate. These changes will impact the growth of the U.S. economy and its ability to create goods and services. The growth of the labor force is directly related to the growth of the population and changes in the labor force participation rate. A significant part of the changes in labor force growth results from changes in the population. The labor force participation rate has declined substantially since its peak in 2000, for both demographic and economic reasons. In this Spotlight, we look at projected long-term trends in the growth, size, and composition of the labor force. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 2 Resident population growth is declining The Census Bureau's projection of the U.S. resident population uses assumptions about future fertility and mortality rates. In addition, assumptions about immigration to the United States, which has a significant impact on population growth, are added to the assumptions about fertility and mortality. In the Census Bureau's latest projections, the growth rate (percentage change) of the resident population is projected to decrease in the long term. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 3 Projected share of natural increase of population and immigration in total population change Natural increase refers to the difference between the numbers of births and deaths in a population. The share of natural increase in projections of the resident population is declining, while the share of immigration in projections of the resident population is increasing. In 2022, the share of natural increase and immigration in projections of the resident population will be equal and at 50 percent. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 4 Projected components of resident population change to 2060 According to the Census Bureau's projections of the resident population, over the 2014 to 2060 period, 98.1 million people will be added to the U.S. resident population. This is a result of adding the 34 million difference between 196.6 million births and 162.6 million deaths to the 64.1 million projected number of additional immigrants. The number of people projected to be added as a result of net international migration is nearly twice as much as the natural increase. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 5 Civilian noninstitutional population and labor force levels The civilian noninstitutional population is projected to grow from 251 million in 2015 to 326 million in 2060, an increase of 75 million people. The labor force is projected to increase from 157 million in 2015 to 186 million in 2060, an increase of 29 million. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 6 Civilian noninstitutional population and labor force growth Changes in population growth and labor force participation rates over the next several decades will impact the growth of the labor force. Even though the size of the population will grow, its annual growth rate is projected to slow down in the coming decades. The decline in the growth rate of the U.S. population is due to a variety of factors, such as the aging of the baby boomers, declining fertility rates, and a lessening of the growth in immigration. Growth is expected to get progressively slower for both the population and the labor force over the projected time frame to 2060, much slower than in earlier decades. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 7 Labor force participation rates by sex From the early 1950s until its peak over 1997–2000, the overall labor force participation rate increased. From 2000 to 2010, the overall participation rate fell by 2.4 percentage points. In the 5 years between 2010–2015, the overall participation rate fell by another 2.0 percentage points, much sharper than the previous 10 years. BLS is projecting a continuous decline in the overall participation rates until 2060. The men's participation rate has declined since the late 1940s, accelerating after the recession of 2007–2009. Since 2010, the labor force participation rate of men has fallen another 2.1 percentage points. BLS is projecting a further decline in the participation rates of men. The participation rate for women peaked in 1999 at 60 percent and has been declining since then. From 2000 to 2010, the rate for women fell by 1.3 percentage points. From 2010 to 2015, the women's participation rate fell by another 1.9 percentage points, much higher than the decline in the previous 10 years. The BLS is also projecting a further decline in women's participation rates. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 8 Labor force participation rates by age The labor force participation rate of teenagers (16 to 19 years old) and young adults (20 to 24 years old) has been on a decline for several decades. It is projected that the decline will continue in the future. The labor force participation rate of the prime age group, 25 to 54 years old, has been declining since the end of the 1990s and is projected to decline slightly in the future. The labor force participation rate of those age 55 years and older had been on the rise since 1996, but has slightly declined since a peak in 2012. BLS projects that a decline will continue in the future. The baby boomers' exit from the prime-age labor force and their movement into older age groups will lower the overall labor force participation rate. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 9 Distribution of labor force by age The share of the 16 to 24 year olds in the labor force is expected to decrease during the 2015-60 projections period. As baby boomers age, the 55-years-and-older age group will become larger. This will continue until the bulk of baby boomers retire and leave the labor force. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 10 Labor force by ethnicity Hispanics are projected to increase their share of the labor force due to higher birth, labor force participation, and immigration rates. Persons of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity can be of any race. Growth of the Hispanic labor force is expected to be higher than the growth of the non-Hispanic labor force. Racial and ethnic minorities have increased their presence in the population and the labor force, and the result can be seen in the growing diversity of the workforce. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 11 Share of white non-Hispanics in the labor force Over the long term projection period, the share of white non-Hispanics in the labor force is expected to decrease. A decline in the number and share of White non-Hispanics is accompanied by faster growth of other racial and ethnic groups. The upcoming retirement of the baby boomers, a group that has a large share of white non-Hispanic men, will further lower that group's share of the total labor force. Low fertility rate and low migration of White non-Hispanics relative to other racial groups will contribute to the group's decreasing share in the labor force. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Spotlight on Statistics Page 12 More information Mitra Toossi is an economist in the Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. The 2014 National Population Projections of the Census Bureau have been used as the basis for the BLS long-term labor force projections to 2060. The historical demographic data on labor force participation rates are based on the Current Population Survey. The Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of households, is conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey provides statistics on the employment and labor force status of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years and older and is collected from a probability sample of approximately 60,000 households. The BLS labor force projections are based on the civilian noninstitutional population, which is defined as all persons 16 years of age and older who are not inmates of mental institutions, homes for the aged or in the Armed Forces. In the present long-term labor force projections to 2060, detailed labor force participation rates were projected from 2014 to 2024 and kept constant afterwards. During this period, any changes projected in the labor force are mainly the result of compositional changes of the population. The projected overall decline in the participation rate is expected to exert a relatively insignificant influence on the labor force, whose growth will likely be due mostly to the impact of low population growth projected by the Census Bureau. Note: Data in this Spotlight on Statistics are the latest available when published. Internet links may lead to more recent data. General Information: (202) 691-6378 Media Contact: (202) 691-5902


After a month-long run on American banks, Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed a Bank Holiday, beginning March 6, 1933, that shut down the banking system. When the banks reopened on March 13, depositors stood in line to return their hoarded cash. This article attributes the success of the Bank Holiday and the remarkable turnaround in the public's confidence to the Emergency Banking Act, passed by Congress on March 9, 1933. Roosevelt used the emergency currency provisions of the Act to encourage the Federal Reserve to create de facto 100 percent deposit insurance in the reopened banks. The contemporary press confirms that the public recognized the implicit guarantee and, as a result, believed that the reopened banks would be safe, as the President explained in his first Fireside Chat on March 12, 1933. Americans responded by returning more than half of their hoarded cash to the banks within two weeks and by bidding up stock prices by the largest ever one-day percentage price increase on March 15--the first trading day after the Bank Holiday ended. The study concludes that the Bank Holiday and the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 reestablished the integrity of the U.S. payments system and demonstrated the power of credible regime-shifting policies.


Emerging infectious diseases pose an important threat to wildlife. While established protocols exist for combating outbreaks of human and agricultural pathogens, appropriate management actions before, during, and after the invasion of wildlife pathogens have not been developed. We describe stage-specific goals and management actions that minimize disease impacts on wildlife, and the research required to implement them. Before pathogen arrival, reducing the probability of introduction through quarantine and trade restrictions is key because prevention is more cost effective than subsequent responses. On the invasion front, the main goals are limiting pathogen spread and preventing establishment. In locations experiencing an epidemic, management should focus on reducing transmission and disease, and promoting the development of resistance or tolerance. Finally, if pathogen and host populations reach a stable stage, then recovery of host populations in the face of new threats is paramount. Successful management of wildlife disease requires risk-taking, rapid implementation, and an adaptive approach.


In this paper, we characterize and discriminate between normal and cancer cells from three different tissue types, liver, lung, and breast, using capacitance–voltage-based extracted set of parameters. Cells from each type of cancer cell line were suspended in a liquid media either individually or as mixtures with their normal counterparts. Empirically, normal cells were observed to exhibit higher dielectric constants when compared to cancer cells from the same tissue. Moreover, adding cancer cells to normal cells was observed to increase the capacitance of normal cells, and the extent of this increase varied with the type of tissue tested with the lung cells causing the greatest change. This shows that the cancer cells of different cell origin possess their own signature electrical parameters, especially when compared with their normal counterparts, and that cancer cell seems to affect normal cells in a different manner, depending upon the tissue type. It was also noticed that the cells (both cancer and normal) exhibited a higher dielectric value as per the following order (from least to most): breast, lung, and liver. The changes in electrical parameters from normal to cancer state were explained not only by the modification of its physiological and biochemical properties but also by the morphological changes. This approach paves the way for exploring unique electrical signatures of normal and their corresponding cancer cells to enable their detection and discrimination.


Recently, data integration systems and peer database management systems that attempt to model and integrate data in a peer-to-peer (p2p) environment have attracted the attention of researchers. Such systems give opportunities to the local relational database management system to exchange data with other nodes in a p2p environment. The databases systems in p2p are completely autonomous, heterogeneous and independent, each maintaining its own data. We would like to use these databases to answer complex queries that go beyond the keyword searches. To accomplish this, we use database coordination as managing semantic interdependencies among databases at runtime. We define database coordination in four basic notions: Interest Group, Acquaintances, Correspondence Rules and Coordination Rules. The work below is concentrated on implementation issues of the coordination rules. The coordination rules specify under what conditions, when and where to propagate queries in a decentralized environment. We are representing our current solution of the coordination rules implementation for data exchange in p2p based on ECA rules technology.


Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis type 2 (PFIC2) is a rare cholestatic disorder diagnosed in infancy or childhood that can lead to severe hepatic fibrosis and liver failure. Mutations in the ABCB11 gene result in a deficiency of the bile salt export protein (BSEP) and accumulation of bile inside the hepatocytes. Hepatocellular carcinoma is another condition associated with severe forms of deletion mutations in the ABCB11 gene. Treatment options including ursodeoxycholic acid biliary diversion have mixed outcomes and some patients require liver transplantation. Here, we describe two siblings with an extremely mild form of PFIC2 inherited from heterozygous parents. The elder sibling had acute liver failure at the age of six months and both siblings had pruritus, cholestasis, coagulopathy and fat-soluble-vitamin deficiencies in infancy but have been asymptomatic past infancy. Genetic testing of the siblings revealed that each were compound heterozygotes for two missense mutations of the ABCB11 gene: p.C68Y and p.R832H. Medical treatment typical for PFIC2 has not been necessary for either patient. This is the first report of these variants following a mild course in two affected patients.


Tapes of MgB2 with high critical current have a significant technological potential, but can experience operational breakdown due to thermomagnetic instabilities. Such events are routinely registered by magnetisation measurements, but were never observed by direct imaging techniques. Here we report magneto-optical imaging visualisation of a tape with reduced thickness and enhanced critical current density. The spatial structure of the thermomagnetic avalanche events was resolved, and the reproducibility and nucleation thresholds were determined. Avalanches appearing at low fields are small intrusions at the tape edges, while larger fields create more extensive avalanches having dendritic structures similar to those observed in thin-film superconductors. In contrast to dendritic avalanches in thin films, the avalanches in the tapes show reproducibility to a larger extent.


This document analyzes Gotkovsky's Quatour de Saxophones from a post-tonal perspective, focusing on performance-related decisions. Because much of the repertoire for chamber ensembles, particularly saxophone quartet, is recently composed, traditional analytical techniques grounded in functional harmony often fail to provide clarity with regard to harmony or form on both the small and the large scale. This dissertation addresses the need for performers to approach chamber music from an analytical perspective, using Quatour as a case study. It does not seek to employ a single analytical method; rather, different techniques address different components of the music. Post-tonal triadic analysis, pitch-class and beat-class analysis, as well as other post-tonal approaches to harmony, rhythm, and form, help to inform both interpretive choices as well as improve ensemble intonation.


This paper reports on our study of the edge of the 2/5 fractional quantum Hall state, which is more complicated than the edge of the 1/3 state because of the presence of edge sectors corresponding to different partitions of composite fermions in the lowest two Lambda levels. The addition of an electron at the edge is a nonperturbative process and it is not a priori obvious in what manner the added electron distributes itself over these sectors. We show, from a microscopic calculation, that when an electron is added at the edge of the ground state in the [N(1), N(2)] sector, where N(1) and N(2) are the numbers of composite fermions in the lowest two Lambda levels, the resulting state lies in either [N(1) + 1, N(2)] or [N(1), N(2) + 1] sectors; adding an electron at the edge is thus equivalent to adding a composite fermion at the edge. The coupling to other sectors of the form [N(1) + 1 + k, N(2) - k], k integer, is negligible in the asymptotically low-energy limit. This study also allows a detailed comparison with the two-boson model of the 2/5 edge. We compute the spectral weights and find that while the individual spectral weights are complicated and nonuniversal, their sum is consistent with an effective two-boson description of the 2/5 edge.


This paper introduces a new approach to constructing meaningful lower dimensional representations of sets of data points. We argue that constraining the mapping between the high and low dimensional spaces to be a diffeomorphism is a natural way of ensuring that pairwise distances are approximately preserved. Accordingly we develop an algorithm which diffeomorphically maps the data near to a lower dimensional subspace and then projects onto that subspace. The problem of solving for the mapping is transformed into one of solving for an Eulerian flow field which we compute using ideas from kernel methods. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on various real world data sets.


Introduction: Zanthoxylum rhetsa is a tree found in northern Thailand. It has been used as a traditional herb with medicinal properties. However, the comparison of composition in volatile oil from fresh and dried fruit is still not fully investigated. In study, we evaluated the constituents in oil from fruits of Z. rhetsa and evaluated the cytotoxicity in non-small lung cancer cells. Methods: The hydro distillation was applied to afford the oil. The obtained oil was analyzed by GC-MS and evaluated the cytotoxicity and apoptosis in non-small lung cells by using MTT method and flow cytometry respectively. Results: Fresh and dried fruits provided a higher yield of volatile oil by approximately 10% and 20% respectively, compared to other studies. Twenty-eight compounds were identified and the major components of fresh and dried fruits were not distinctly different. The major component, α-limonene, was found in dried fruits from Phayao, southern Nan and Chiang Rai province. A high content of β-phellandrene was found in dried fruits from northern Nan province and the (+)-sabinene was found in high content of fresh fruits from southern Nan, Phayao and Chaing Rai province. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity tests displayed that all of oil products were active against lung cancer cells. Among the components investigated, fresh and dried fruits from southern Nan province showed to be the most potent (EC50 = 1.91 ± 0.53, 1.79 ± 0.43 μL/mL, respectively). Conclusion: Volatile oil of Z. rhetsa exhibited a strong cytotoxic properties against cytotoxic may be potentially used as natural anticancer agents.


Learn computer programming the easy way with Processing, a simple language that lets you use code to create drawings, animation, and interactive graphics. Programming courses usually start with theory, but this book lets you jump right into creative and fun projects. It's ideal for anyone who wants to learn basic programming, and serves as a simple introduction to graphics for people with some programming skills. Written by the founders of Processing, this book takes you through the learning process one step at a time to help you grasp core programming concepts. You'll learn how to sketch with code -- creating a program with one a line of code, observing the result, and then adding to it. Join the thousands of hobbyists, students, and professionals who have discovered this free and educational community platform. Quickly learn programming basics, from variables to objects Understand the fundamentals of computer graphics Get acquainted with the Processing software development environment Create interactive graphics with easy-to-follow projects Use the Arduino open source prototyping platform to control your Processing graphics


Why does capitalism triumph in the West but fail almost everywhere else? Elegantly, and with rare clarity, Hernando de Soto revolutionizes our understanding of what capital is and why it has failed to benefit four-fifths of mankind -- and explains the solution. 'A revolutionary book ...may not be in the class of Das Kapital, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations or Keynes's General Theory. But if the criteria for joining that exclusive club is a capacity not only to change permanently the way we look at the world, but also to change the world itself, then there are good grounds for thinking that this book is surely a contender.' Donald Macintyre, The Independent 'Few people in Britain have heard of Hernando de Soto ...but The Mystery of Capital has already led the cognoscenti to put him in the pantheon of great progressive intellectuals of our age.' Mark Leonard, New Statesman 'A crucial contribution. A new proposal for change that is valid for the whole world' - Javier Perez de Cuellar (Former Secretary United Nations)


Is the Australian linguistic area, because of its unique history, one in which the established methods of historical and comparative linguistics have limited appropriateness? Do neighboring languages in this situation come to share an "equilibrium level" of 50 percent basic vocabulary regardless of their degree of genetic relatedness? Is the Pama-Nyungan grouping totally without foundation and something that must be discarded if any progress is to be made in studying the nature of the linguistic situation in Australia? Are Australian scholars more hesitant than scholars elsewhere to criticize the work of colleagues? These and other "deliberately unorthodox" views of R. M. W. Dixon set forth in Australian Languages (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002) are countered, while conceding that the book brings together an enormous amount of historically and typologically relevant material in one place.


Tax Evasion and Firm Survival in Competitive Markets illustrates how a firm with high production costs but which is easily able to evade taxes may displace from the market a company with low production costs but poor tax evasion capabilities. The difference in production costs between the inefficient survivor and the efficient loser is termed by the author the 'displacement loss from taxation', and rivals in size the Harberger triangle loss from taxation.


It is well known that within-cohort consumption inequality increases with the age of household heads in developed countries. This pattern is consistent with the permanent income hypothesis, according to which households smooth consumption through credit markets in the short run against transient shocks and in the longer run over the life cycle. This paper compares evidence regarding the age effects in within-cohort inequality calculated from repeated cross-section data in Thailand, India, and Pakistan, where credit and insurance markets are underdeveloped. We find a pattern previously unnoticed in the literature that within-cohort inequality in consumption often decreases with age, and the divergence of the pattern from those observed in developed countries is larger among uneducated households. We provide an interpretation that the decreasing age effect in consumption inequality within cohort, found widely in low-income regions and classes in Asia, is consistent with partial insurance models, either with within-cohort inequality in income decreasing with age, or with insurance efficiency increasing with age.


The development of L1 and L2 are described as co-adaptation between an expert and a novice, based on the framework of complex dynamic systems. We present three dynamic models. The first focuses on L1 and describes the caregivers' adaptation to the language level of the child, and the child's acquisition of the language as a form of adaptation to the level embodied in the language of the caregivers. The other models focus on L2 acquisition in the context of formally organized learning. The second model, scaffolding, is a coupled model of changing expert support and novice learning. The third model conceives of L2 teaching and learning as a process of joint action of two agents with common and competing concerns.


Mental health interventions are complex, with multiple components, and research investigates the precise overall benefits, the benefits from each component, or for specific patient groups. For example, Lasalvia et al (pp. 342–349) show that all elements of psychosocial interventions are helpful for all patients with a first episode of psychosis. Research methods that disentangle the effects of specific elements of complex interventions include randomised trials, mediation and moderator analyses, meta-analyses and network meta-analyses (aggregate intention-to-treat and individual participant), and meta-regressions, alongside narrative syntheses. Experiences, patient and professional, are essential to ensure that interventions are implemented and translate into actual gains, to better understand mechanisms or logical models, and to identify unexpected outcomes, including adverse events. Qualitative research is a powerful tool to capture, reveal, understand and exploit weaknesses in trials and meta-analyses in order to give a fuller, experience-based perspective that can shape evidence to deliver better care. All research methods have strengths and weaknesses, but aim to provide important and widely applicable information for patient benefit, and to inform quality improvement initiatives. Quality improvement methods have escalated in popularity as a key means by which organisations organise their resources to meet patient needs, and implement best evidence. The emphasis is on planning activity, studying it, observing impacts, and learning and entering into iterative cycles of activity. Quality improvement initiatives make use of research, but have a broader remit to implement evidence in complex health systems, to provide sustainable solutions for patients, for managers and commissioners, and to do this irrespective of the constraints and uncertainty facing health systems. In England, quality improvement is at the heart of STPs (sustainability and transformation plans) that are proffered as a partnership-based mechanism through which healthcare will continue to be delivered at less cost, and yet protect and improve the quality of care and patient safety. Whatever the political position in response to this proposition, this scenario is the reality facing most healthcare providers. Quality improvement is already closely aligned with audit, training and continuing professional development. However, despite many examples of quality improvement initiatives, quality improvement methods remain poorly understood and are contested, specifically in relation to the underpinning research into quality improvement processes. The explanation for this disconnect may lie in very different approaches to solve problems found in science (including medical sciences), which relies on empirical observational of data to test hypotheses and to solve a defined problem within a specific setting and context. Quality improvement seems more aligned to the approach taken by artists, engineers and designers using a quite different set of thinking processes and stages and levels of uncertainty. Designers are future focused, use research to ideate, develop a prototype and test it, and rapidly adapt in order to find a solution that works in a local context, and meets the needs of multiple end-users: patients, clinicians, managers, commissioners and policy makers. Participatory and empirical research networks can help in design, but the future and solution focus of design thinking methods may offer advantages. For example, conventional research and implementation efforts have not been successful at tackling 'wicked problems', such as health inequalities that are sustained and seem resistant to intervention. BJPsych offers several debates and new evidence that contributes to quality improvement. The findings need to be carefully entwined in quality improvement initiatives, and in the design of future-focused systems of healthcare, ones that perhaps we cannot yet imagine, or ones which need to be repurposed to fit current contexts. Democratic therapeutic communities have been a valuable component of healthcare for decades, but are less visible now, not least as there are challenges in evaluations and their value is contested (Haigh, pp. 313–314); community treatment orders were implemented in many countries, almost without evidence of benefit and have subsequently been found to be lacking benefit. The lack of value may lie in poor patient selection, as their use is not driven by capacity assessments (Newton-Howes & Ryan, pp. 311–312). Negative symptoms in severe mental illnesses are disabling and difficult to treat. Lutgens et al (pp. 324–332) show that psychological and psychosocial interventions may help negative symptoms of schizophrenia, although the effect sizes were modest and the quality of evidence moderate at best. A network meta-analysis, a complex method of synthesising evidence from multiple trials using different comparators, evaluated the effectiveness of adjunctive treatments in bipolar disorder: family interventions reduced relapse rates, psychoeducation along with cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) reduced medication nonadherence, and improved mania symptoms and global function (Chatterton et al, pp. 333–341). Gilbody et al (pp. 362–367) show that telephone facilitation of computerised CBT improves engagement and expedites depression improvement; although the effect was small to moderate, it was comparable with other low-intensity psychological interventions. Anxiety in pregnant women is relatively common, yet it is rarely identified or treated despite the profound impact on maternal and child mental health (Dennis et al, pp. 315–323). Pre-existing depression in patients with myocardial infarction carries a higher mortality risk (Sundbøll et al, pp. 356–361), especially among those being actively treated with antidepressants or with recent depression, but the mechanism and prevention opportunities warrant further investigation among cardiac patients with histories of depressive illness. Findings from the Australian twin registry suggest that peerteasing about weight problems leads to more disordered eating in young people, and could be prevented (Fairweather-Schmidt & Wade, pp. 350–355). This intriguing study suggests that genetic aetiology becomes a greater contributor to disordered eating when the teasing is more severe. These studies help us to understand the fundamental nature of mental illness, how it affects people, and what interventions or their components might work; the evidence is available for implementation, but decisionmaking around what is implemented is in part influenced by the strength of evidence and by consensus on the evidence narrative, as well as the values and priorities of providers and commissioning communities.


From birth until death, our cells migrate: nerve cells make their vital connections, embryonic cells move to the proper places to form organs, immune cells zero in to destroy pathogenic organisms, and cancer cells metastasize, spreading deadly disease through the body. Scientists studying these migrations didn't know how cells determined where to go. Until now. A Burnham Institute study has identified a fragment of a protein that senses chemicals that induce a cell to move into the right direction. Guided by this fragment, the molecular machinery needed for cell movement begins accumulating at the leading edge, or front of a cell in response to a variety of chemical messengers, and begins the directed process of migration. The study, led by associate professor and Burnham Cancer Center Acting Director Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., appears in the August issue of Nature Cell Biology. Dr. Vuori is also a member of the Editorial Board of Cancer Biology and Therapy. The finding is the first to determine the molecule responsible for internally choreographing directed cell migration. The experiments were conducted in several widely used laboratory models, but the molecule exists in nearly all animals, from roundworms to mammals, and likely has a conserved function throughout species. Knowing exactly what triggers cellular migration can help develop treatments that halt cancer metastasis and immune disorders like arthritis and asthma. "Previous studies by us and others have identified how a migrating cell 'gets its wheels' and, mechanistically, is able to move. In this study, we have now determined how these wheels become pointed in the right direction", said Vuori. "We now know this is done using a protein that holds true in most cellular systems. Seeing how this process directs cells can help us better address a host of diseases that result from too little or too much cell movement, or from cells moving in the wrong direction and to the wrong place." Dr. Vuori and her team found a molecule called DOCK180, a key signaling protein that binds to PIP3. PIP3 is a lipid that accumulates on the leading edge of a cell about to move, usually in response to a number of outside cellular attractants like chemokines, growth factors and other molecules. Meanwhile at the hind end of the cell, enzymes degrade the PIP3 lipid, creating a gradient from one end of the cell to the other. It is this PIP3 lipid gradient that sets the cell into motion toward the right direction. The PIP3-binding portion of DOCK180 senses the gradient, and DOCK180 starts accumulating at the leading edge of the cell. Along with it, DOCK180 brings a host of additional molecules to the leading edge, triggering a series of internal events that begin moving the cell forward. "We see a protrusion form first, in which the cell changes shape and extends towards the direction it is about to go, followed by movement of the rest of the cell," Vuori said. Now, the researchers are looking at developing a three-dimensional picture of PIP3 -binding domain's molecular structure. "We are currently planning these structure studies with our collaborators here at the Burnham," Vuori said. "If we know its molecular structure, we hope to be able to make small chemicals that inhibit inappropriate cell migration, including the types seen in metastatic cancer cells." Vuori's colleagues in the study included Jean-Francois Cote, now of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, and Andrea B. Motoyama and Jason Bush, both of the Burnham Institute. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and a fellowship from the Terry Fox Foundation awarded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada. The Burnham Institute, founded in 1976, is an independent not-for-profit biomedical research institution dedicated to advancing the frontiers of scientific knowledge and providing the foundation for tomorrow's medical therapies. The Institute is home to three major centers: the Cancer Center, the Del E. Webb Neuroscience and Aging Center established, and the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center. Since 1981, the Institute's Cancer Center has been a member of the National Cancer Institute's prestigious Cancer Center's program. Discoveries by Burnham scientists have contributed to the development of new drugs for Alzheimer's disease, heart disease and several forms of cancer. Today the Burnham Institute employs over 700, including more than 550 scientists. The majority of the Institute's funding derives from federal sources, but private philanthropic support is essential to continuing bold and innovative research. For additional information about the Institute and ways to support the research efforts of the Institute, visit www.burnham.org.


Optical-field enhancement and confinement for an asymmetrically illuminated nanoscopic Au tip suspended over a planar Au substrate is investigated both numerically and experimentally. The spatial field distribution of the tip-sample system was calculated using the full 3D finite-difference time-domain method. The calculation enables investigation of the effects of the substrate-tip placement, angle of incidence, and spectral response. The tip plasmon response leads to a significant (up to ~70 times) local field enhancement between the tip and substrate. The enhancement is found to be extremely sensitive to the tip-sample separation distance. Tip-enhanced Raman scattering experiments were performed and the numerical results provide a consistent description of the observed field localization and enhancement.


Background: Favorable characteristics of the minimally invasive endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), such as a reduced recovery time, have led physicians and patients alike to elect for this procedure over open repair. Longitudinal study on endovascular repair has raised concerns regarding an increased rate of late failure leading to rupture and overall higher rates of re-intervention for patients.
Objective: This project compares the outcomes of endovascular stent graft repairs of AAA and IAA at Parkview Heart Institute over a certain time span.
Methods & Design: This study is a retrospective review of patients (N=89) with AAA/IAA repair since 2014. The EPIC online medical record is the main tool in data extraction while statistical analysis was conducted via Microsoft Excel (p = 0.05).
Results: Males, ages 51-75 y.o., White population, non-Hispanics, and BMI rating of 1-30 were observed to have more AAAs. A significant decrease in length of stay over historical averages was observed with at most 1-3 days and minimal complications. Most causes for re-interventions were due to endo-leaks. More than 60% of patients with AAA and EVAR have a significant past medical history of smoking, hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Finally, most pre- and post-operative aneurysms sizes are within 41-60 mm in diameter.
Conclusion and Potential Impact: This study analyzed 89 patients that experienced AAA instead of IAA. Certain populations, such as being male, ages 51-75 y.o., White population, non-Hispanics, and BMI rating of 1-30 with past medical history characteristics are frequent in patients with EVAR. The procedure has minimal complications in comparison to open abdominal surgery, and this study will add to the literature by aiding physicians' determination of the best course of action for treating patients with AAA/IAA.


There is a growing awareness, both in industry and academia, of the crucial role of formally verifying the translation from high-level source-code into low-level ob- ject code that is typically performed by an optimizing compiler. Formally verifying an optimizing compiler, as one would verify any other large program, is not feasible due to its size, ongoing evolution and modification, and, possibly, proprietary considerations. Translation validation is a novel approach that offers an alternative to the verification of translators in general and compilers in particular: Rather than verifying the compiler itself, one constructs a validation tool which, after every run of the compiler, formally confirms that the target code produced in the run is a correct translation of the source program. The paper presents voc, a methodology for the translation validation of optimizing compilers. We distinguish between structure preserving optimizations, for which we establish a simulation relation between the source and target code based on computational induction, and structure modifying optimizations, for which we develop specialized "permutation rules". The paper also describes voc-64—a prototype trans- lation validator tool that automatically produces verification conditions for the global optimizations of the SGI Pro-64 compiler.


Traffic tunnels have become increasingly popular in modern cities as a way to ease traffic congestion and overcome natural barriers. However, traffic tunnels present significant environmental and health issues due to the elevated levels of pollutants inside the tunnels, poor visibility, and smoke caused by accidents. In this research, a critical review of the recent literature on air pollution modeling in traffic tunnels and on the ventilation systems used in tunnels is presented. In addition, an air quality modeling concept that has been applied to the Souk Sagheer Traffic Tunnel in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, is also presented. This tunnel is bidirectional and has a forced ventilation system. The level of air pollution inside the tunnel, especially the carbon monoxide (CO) concentration, has been reported to exceed the permissible limits. The tunnel is particularly congested with traffic during the pilgrimage season and has different modes of operation at different times of the year. In the present work, the current status of the tunnel is simulated using a one-dimensional model that takes into consideration the effects of the forced ventilation and the piston action of vehicles. The developed model that validated with measured data, and the Mann-Whitney test shows that the means values of measured and predicted results are equal at a 7% significance level. The measured results show that during peak traffic times, high concentrations of CO, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and fine particulate matter often exceed the regulatory limits. SO₂ has the highest ratio of measured to recommended concentration of all of the pollutants considered. In this study, several solution scenarios are simulated, such as improving the current longitudinal ventilation, utilizing a transverse ventilation system, or building a wall to separate the tunnel into two smaller tubes. The simulation results show that building a separation wall between the two directions of traffic will significantly reduce the pollution inside the tunnel. For example, the mean value of CO inside the tunnel is reduced from 43.8 mg/m³ to 12.1 mg/m³ when a wall barrier is introduced. A wall barrier will increase the wind speed and enhance the piston action, thus improving the longitudinal ventilation. Finally, a risk assessment chapter calculates the ratio of exposure and maximum allowable limits by World Health Organization. The ratios are calculated for short exposure level. -- This study is important because it shows that bidirectional tunnels are inefficient to ventilate. Moreover, it shows that for the case of the Souk Sagheer Tunnel, additional rows of jet fan does not seem to solve the air quality problem inside the tunnel. Finally, this paper highlights the necessity to investigate SOx emissions because they seem to be the most polluting inside the tunnel.


This paper reviews the history of the continuum of services in intellectual disability programmes. The emergence of public school special education in the USA in the first two decades of the twentieth century is used as a case study of this history by focusing on events and personalities connected to the St Louis Public Schools. Using Annual Reports from the era along with the abundant publications and personal papers of J.E. Wallace Wallin, the author explores how the growing class of specialists in clinical psychology and psychometrics gained a foothold in the schools as educational gatekeepers for student placements along an increasingly elaborate 'continuum of care'. The paper interprets this quest for professional legitimacy as a three-sided conversation with Wallin (and his colleagues) in the middle between the medical officers of institutions for the feeble-minded on the one hand, and the educators of urban school systems on the other. Implications for the current discussions of inclusive approaches to education are discussed.


If they build the first story, blow it up. If they sneak back at night and build three stories, burn it down. And if they get nine stories built, it's yours. Take it over, and maybe we'll let them in on the weekends. (1) H. Rap Brown, 1967 When Americans remember black student activism of the late 1960s, images of gun-toting, bandolier-clad student protesters at Cornell University in 1969 come to mind. (2) While the protesters at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, may be the first to come to mind, black student activism took place earlier at another Ivy League school: Columbia University in the City of New York. There, members of the Student Afro-American Society (SAS) fought on behalf of the Harlem community to keep Columbia University from building a gymnasium in Morningside Park, which represented the only land barrier between Columbia and the mostly black, working-class enclave of Harlem. (3) Columbia's gymnasium in the park became a symbolic issue for the black students and community demonstrators during the 1968 protest. The ultimate goals of the students were to improve the relationship of Columbia with its Harlem neighbors and for the black residents to gain power by controlling the neighborhoods that surrounded their homes. (4) However, the students were initially interested in exercising Black Student Power to keep the gym from being built in Morningside Park. In the late 1960s, Black Student Power represented the choice of black students at predominantly white universities to use the philosophies of Black Power to achieve specific goals. At colleges across the nation, Black Student Power was achieved by using tactics such as sit-ins, strikes, and marches. (5) This essay will examine two related issues. First, it will provide a detailed analysis of the role of black student protesters at Columbia in 1968. Second, it will show how the politics of the period (specifically Black Power) affected the protest strategies of SAS on Columbia's campus, as well as how the tactics of SAS affected the protest launched by the larger, mostly white radical group, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The efforts of SAS, in conjunction with those of SDS, led to the week-long occupation of campus buildings, the six-week closure of Columbia University, and the university's decision not to build its gymnasium in Morningside Park. As a result of the protests, Columbia had to reconsider its expansion policies as well as its approach to the black residents of Harlem. Several books have been written about black student activism in northern, predominantly white universities. Some of those include Richard McCormick's volume on the protests that took place at Rutgers University in New Jersey; Donald Downs's account of the black student protesters at Cornell in 1969; and Werner Sollors, Caldwell Titcomb, and Thomas Underwood's discussion of black student life and activity at Harvard. (6) Most recently, Wayne Glasker described black student protest at the University of Pennsylvania between 1967 and 1990. (7) All these protests shared a common theme: the appeal to and use of Black Power educational philosophies. (8) The demand for the inclusion of Black Studies programs at these universities typically became a protest goal. That demand is what makes the efforts of the black students at Columbia in 1968 stand out from other protests. Columbia's proximity to Harlem allowed SAS to focus on an issue that directly affected the surrounding black community. With regard to Columbia University, there have been several studies of the 1968 protests. None of these have focused specifically on the actions of the black student activists and how race affected the protests that caught the attention of the nation. Authors such as Roger Kahn, Jerry Avorn, and James Kunen attributed the protest to the emergence of the New Left and the rise of the antiwar movement. (9) Others, like Joanne Grant, claimed that the protests that took place in 1968 concerned the students' push to transform Columbia into "a moral force in society. …


BACKGROUND
Sophisticated equipment, lengthy protocols, and skilled operators are required to perform protein microarray-based affinity assays. Consequently, novel tools are needed to bring biomarkers and biomarker panels into clinical use in different settings. Here, we describe a novel paper-based vertical flow microarray (VFM) system with a multiplexing capacity of at least 1480 microspot binding sites, colorimetric readout, high sensitivity, and assay time of <10 min before imaging and data analysis.

METHOD
Affinity binders were deposited on nitrocellulose membranes by conventional microarray printing. Buffers and reagents were applied vertically by use of a flow controlled syringe pump. As a clinical model system, we analyzed 31 precharacterized human serum samples using the array system with 10 allergen components to detect specific IgE reactivities. We detected bound analytes using gold nanoparticle conjugates with assay time of ≤10 min. Microarray images were captured by a consumer-grade flatbed scanner.

RESULTS
A sensitivity of 1 ng/mL was demonstrated with the VFM assay with colorimetric readout. The reproducibility (CV) of the system was <14%. The observed concordance with a clinical assay, ImmunoCAP, was R(2) = 0.89 (n = 31).

CONCLUSIONS
In this proof-of-concept study, we demonstrated that the VFM assay, which combines features from protein microarrays and paper-based colorimetric systems, could offer an interesting alternative for future highly multiplexed affinity point-of-care testing.


This thesis addresses data assimilation, which typically refers to the estimation of the state of a physical system given a model and observations, and its application to short-term precipitation forecasting. A general introduction to data assimilation is given, both from a deterministic and' stochastic point of view. Data assimilation algorithms are reviewed, in the static case (when no dynamics are involved), then in the dynamic case. A double experiment on two non-linear models, the Lorenz 63 and the Lorenz 96 models, is run and the comparative performance of the methods is discussed in terms of quality of the assimilation, robustness "in the non-linear regime and computational time. Following the general review and analysis, data assimilation is discussed in the particular context of very short-term rainfall forecasting (nowcasting) using radar images. An extended Bayesian precipitation nowcasting model is introduced. The model is stochastic in nature and relies on the spatial decomposition of the rainfall field into rain "cells". Radar observations are assimilated using a Variational Bayesian method in which the true posterior distribution of the parameters is approximated by a more tractable distribution. The motion of the cells is captured by a 20 Gaussian process. The model is tested on two precipitation events, the first dominated by convective showers, the second by precipitation fronts. Several deterministic and probabilistic validation methods are applied and the model is shown to retain reasonable prediction skill at up to 3 hours lead time. Extensions to the model are discussed.


The voluminous daily output of autism research has become increasingly disconnected, existing largely within highly specific subspecialty areas, and lacking cross-disciplinary linkages of context, theory, and findings to inform a unified body of knowledge.  Robust syntheses of published research across the fields of psychiatry, cellular and molecular biology, neurology, endocrinology, immunology, behavioral and social sciences, and pedagogy may help clarify and extend current knowledge by guiding more efficient future research efforts investigating underlying causes, developmental divergences, novel treatments, and specific, sensitive biological markers in autism.  This synthesis of interdisciplinary research indicates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress axis may be at the center of an interaction among sex steroids, immune function, signaling protein transcriptions, neurogenesis, and dysregulation of brain structures sending or receiving projections from the HPA stress axis.  These interactions manifest observably as a range of sexually dimorphic behaviors and functional limitations often falling within the current diagnostic features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  The pathogenicity of endocrine dysregulation may serve as a valuable model for developing a cohesive theory of ASD by explaining how the HPA and connected brain areas respond to extreme conditions of dysregulated endocrine signaling to cause symptoms associated with autism.


Objective: to determine the incidence of renal scars in children with primary vesicoureteral reflux taking into consideration the following variables: sex, age at diagnosis, febrile urinary infection, degree of reflux and bacteria specimen. Method: retrospective study of 58 children with age ranging from 2 months to 11 years, presenting primary vesicoureteral reflux detected by voiding cystourethrogram after documented episode of urinary tract infection. The diagnosis of renal scarring was obtained by dimercaptosuccinic acid scan 5 months after the treatment of the urinary infection; in 40 children the dimercaptosuccinic acid scan was performed again from 6 months up to 6 years after the treatment. Results: 45 children (77.6%) were girls and 13 (22.4%) were boys, 51.7% were 2 years old or younger. The incidence of renal scarring was 55.2%. There was significant higher proportion of renal scars in girls, when the patients presented fever and dilated vesicoureteral reflux (III, IV, V). Fever and female sex were risk factors for the development of renal scars (fever - ODDS ratio = 6.19 and female sex - ODDS ratio = 4.12). There was a prevalence of renal scars in children over 2 years old. The interval between the beginning of the symptoms and the first medical visit was longer in the children with renal scars. New renal scars were observed in 12.5%. Conclusions: fever and female sex were risk factors for the presence of renal scars, mainly in the dilated vesicoureteral reflux. The high incidence of renal scars in this study may be related to delayed diagnosis of vesicoureteral reflux.


The development of different kinds of wellness spa services in Lithuania is in its infancy stage. Despite economic recession, a few categories of spa services showed resistance and even growth by establishing of new wellness spa centres, engaging new spa services and attracting more and more local and foreign tourists. The article focuses on the peculiarities of the two main categories of wellness spas: day and resort services, their historical development in the world, differences and similarities of wellness spa providers, depending on supplied services, specifics of service packages, value for a customer, duration of services, facilities needed, etc. The "wellness" term is rather new in Lithuanian scientific discourse, so, in this article, the explanation of this term by different scientists is presented. On the ground of the interviews with day and spa wellness service providers survey results as well as customer viewpoints are presented. The main problems that arise from satisfying the expectations of the customers are stressed. At the end of the article, the peculiarities of day and resort wellness spa services are developed and recommendations for providers in order to satisfy the customers are presented.


The orientation of bull sperm cells in static magnetic fields was investigated by microscopic observation. The bull sperm, which has a very flat head, was fixed and its motion was stopped by glutaraldehyde. It was oriented with the whole body and the flat head perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field. The diamagnetic cell components, such as the cell membrane, the DNA in the head, and the microtubule in the tail, were thought to contribute to this orientation, because bull sperm does not have paramagnetic components. For quantitative measurement of the orientation, the intensity of transmitted light through glutaraldehyde-fixed bull sperm suspension in a photometric cell was determined. The intensity changed slightly in proportion to the mean degree of orientation of the sperms. It increased sigmoidally depending on the intensity of the magnetic field and reached 100% at just below 1 T. The magnetic orientation is very strong in comparison to that of erythrocytes or platelets. By studying the response of the bull sperm to the magnetic field, it will be possible to understand its microstructure in more detail.