Context: Endodontic materials have been assessed with regards to their potential for dental staining. Aims: To evaluate the coronal discoloration effect of Apexit Plus and Resino Seal in mandibular premolars using spectrophotometer. Settings and Design: The study design was original research. Materials and Methods: Forty human single-rooted mandibular first premolar teeth were selected for the study. They were divided into four groups of ten specimens each. Group 1 - Apexit Plus sealer, Group 2 - Resino Seal sealer, Group 3 - positive control (Blood), and Group 4 - negative control (distilled water). Teeth were resected 3 mm below at cementoenamel junction. In all samples, access cavities were prepared, instrumented, and irrigated. Sealers were mixed and placed into the pulp chamber through cervical access and control groups were filled with blood and distilled water. Coronal orifices were sealed using self-cure glass ionomer cement. Samples were analyzed using spectrophotometer to determine the discoloration in each group at 10, 17, and 24 days interval. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis used Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: All sealers used in the present study caused a progressive coronal discoloration over a time period of 17–24 days. There was statistically significant difference between resino seal sealer and apexit plus sealer , with resino seal showing greater coronal discoloration. Conclusion: Resino seal sealer has greater potential to cause discoloration of crown as compared to apexit plus sealer over a period of time.


The conductivity of a two-dimensional HgTe quantum well with a width $\sim$6.3~nm, close to the transition from ordinary to topological insulating phases, is studied. The Fermi level is supposed to get to the overall energy gap. The consideration is based on the percolation theory. We have found that the width fluctuations convert the system to a random mixture of domains with positive and negative energy gaps with internal edge states formed near zero gap lines. In the case with no potential fluctuations, the conductance of a finite sample is provided by a random edge states network. The zero-temperature conductivity of an infinite sample is determined by the free motion of electrons along the zero-gap lines and tunneling between them.
The conductance of a single $p$-$n$ junction, which is crossed by the edge state, is found. The result is applied to the situation when potential fluctuations transform the system to a mixture of $p$- and $n$-domains. It is stated that the tunneling across $p$-$n$ junctions forbids the low-temperature conductivity of a random system, but the latter is restored due to the random edge states crossing the junctions.


Abstract. In the Yellow River basin, soil erosion is a significant natural hazard problem, seriously hindering the sustainable development of society. An in-depth assessment of soil erosion and a quantitative identification of the influencing factors are important and fundamental for soil and water conservation. The RUSLE model and geographical detector method were applied to evaluate and identify the dominant factors and spatiotemporal variability in the Yellow River basin. We found that topographical factors such as slope and surface roughness were the dominant factors influencing the spatial distribution of soil erosion in the Yellow River basin, while rainfall and vegetation were as follows. In the period of low rainfall and vegetation coverage, the interaction of rainfall and slope can enhance their impact on the distribution of soil erosion, while the combination of vegetation and slope was the dominant interacting factor in other periods. The dominant driving factors of soil erosion variability were affected by changes in rainfall, but the contribution decreased. The spatial and temporal heterogeneity of soil erosion on a monthly scale was higher, and July had the highest amount of soil erosion with a multi-year average of 12.385 ton/(km²·a). The results provide a better understanding of the relationships between soil erosion and its latent factors in the Yellow River basin. Given the temporal and spatial heterogeneity effects of geographical conditions, especially at the basin scale, policy-makers should form a collaborative environmental governance framework to minimize the risk of soil erosion.


BACKGROUND
The aims of this study were to document our experience with acute forearm compartment syndrome and to determine the risk factors for the need for split-thickness skin-grafting and the development of complications after fasciotomy.

METHODS
We identified from our trauma database all patients who underwent fasciotomy for an acute forearm compartment syndrome over a twenty-two-year period. Diagnosis was made with use of clinical signs in all patients, with compartment pressure monitoring used as a diagnostic adjunct in some patients. Outcome measures were the use of split-thickness skin grafts and the identification of complications following forearm fasciotomy.

RESULTS
There were ninety patients in the study cohort, with a mean age of thirty-three years (range, thirteen to eighty-one years) and a significant male predominance (eighty-two patients; p < 0.001). A fracture of the radius or ulna, or both, was seen in sixty-two patients (69%), with soft-tissue injuries as the causative factor in twenty-eight (31%). The median time to fasciotomy was twelve hours (range, two to seventy-two hours). Risk factors for requiring split-thickness skin-grafting were younger age and a crush injury (p < 0.05 for both). Risk factors for the development of complications were a delay in fasciotomy of more than six hours (p = 0.018) and preoperative motor symptoms, which approached significance (p = 0.068).

CONCLUSIONS
Forearm compartment syndrome requiring fasciotomy predominantly affects males and can occur following either a fracture or soft-tissue injury. Age is an important predictor of undergoing split-thickness skin-grafting for wound closure. Complications occur in a third of patients and are associated with an increasing time from injury to fasciotomy.


Salmonella typhimurium strains lacking the CorA Mg2+ transport system retain Mg2+ transport and the ability to grow in medium containing a low concentration of Mg2+. Mutagenesis of a corA strain followed by ampicillin selection allowed isolation of a strain that required Mg2+-supplemented media for growth. This strain contained mutations in at least two loci in addition to corA, designated mgtA and mgtB (for magnesium transport). Strains with mutations at all three loci (corA, mgtA, and mgtB) exhibited no detectable Mg2+ uptake and required 10 mM Mg2+ in the medium for growth at the wild-type rate. A wild-type allele at any one of the three loci was sufficient to restore both Mg2+ transport and growth on 50 microM Mg2+. P22 transduction was used to map the mgt loci. The mgtA mutation was located to approximately 98 map units (cotransducible with pyrB), and mgtB mapped at about 80.5 map units (near gltC). A chromosomal library from S. typhimurium was screened for clones that complemented the Mg2+ requirement of a corA mgtA mgtB mutant. The three classes of plasmids obtained could each independently restore Mg2+ transport to this strain and corresponded to the corA, mgtA, and mgtB loci. Whereas the corA locus of S. typhimurium is analogous to the corA locus previously described for Escherichia coli, neither of the mgt loci described in this report appears analogous to the single mgt locus described in E. coli. Our data in this and the accompanying papers (M. D. Snavely, J. B. Florer, C. G. Miller, and M. E. Maguire, J. Bacteriol. 171:4752-4760, 4761-4766, 1989) indicate that the corA, mgtA, and mgtB loci of S. typhimurium represent three distinct systems that transport Mg2+.


Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are changing the way consumers make purchasing decisions . . . and tapping into these online communities has become a necessary part of any integrated sales strategy. Citing enlightening research and real-world examples, this smart, practical guide presents readers with a detailed methodology for growing sales and expanding their customer base using social media. Readers will learn how to:

 Use content and conversations to build online relationships that transition to sales

 Execute realistic sales strategies for each of the major social media platforms

 Spot social media trends that may influence future buying behaviors

 Sell online in B2B and B2C environments

 Turn social shares (likes, favorites, +1s) into social sales

 Set tangible goals

 Use online tools and analytics to track social influencers and identify relevant conversations as they are happening

 Complete with a chapter dedicated to capturing mobile sales—a segment poised to explode as the adoption of smartphones and tablets grows—The Art of Social Selling is essential reading for every sales professional.


This paper explores the process of going outdoors and using "nature" as a way to support teaching about power and privilege within society. It explores how being inside the classroom hinders the process of understanding and disrupting power dynamics between learners and instructors. The classroom decontextualizes the learning process by denying the existence of oppressions in society as well as the power dynamics between the teacher and student. The classroom itself is devoid of life supporting forces and is itself oppressive. Taking the learning situation outdoors to a small urban park, the power dynamics change to allow teacher and students to become collaborative learners and together explore systems of oppression. Being outdoors we are bombarded with new stimuli, the presence of other people – nannies, panhandlers, school children – as well as the sun and the wind which provide opportunities for challenging the notion that students need to accept the oppression of the classroom.


Self-organization of liquid crystalline and crystalline-conjugated materials has been used to create, directly from solution, thin films with structures optimized for use in photodiodes. The discotic liquid crystal hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene was used in combination with a perylene dye to produce thin films with vertically segregated perylene and hexabenzocoronene, with large interfacial surface area. When incorporated into diode structures, these films show photovoltaic response with external quantum efficiencies of more than 34 percent near 490 nanometers. These efficiencies result from efficient photoinduced charge transfer between the hexabenzocoronene and perylene, as well as from effective transport of charges through vertically segregated perylene and hexabenzocoronene pi systems. This development demonstrates that complex structures can be engineered from novel materials by means of simple solution-processing steps and may enable inexpensive, high-performance, thin-film photovoltaic technology.


Social accountability and open government approaches to improve the provision of public goods and services increasingly prioritize collaboration, constructive engagement, and co-production between state, civil society and, at times, market actors. This explosion does not come in a one-size fits all model of collaborative engagement. Yet, we know little about the conditions under which different forms of collaboration evolve and bring about change. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature and practice of collaborative engagement by presenting a typology of state-society bridges through social accountability and open government interventions. It identifies four types of collaborative engagement - inclusive, targeted, restrictive and detached - as a result of a theoretical-empirical exercise that focuses on the interaction between context, strategy and organization as three interrelated variables that jointly have greater potential to account for results than each one of them separately. To operationalize the variables, the paper identifies four key dimensions in the literatures and practices of social accountability, open governance, and co-production of public services and control. These are: (i) capacities of the partnership; (ii) harness the context; (iii) complexity of strategy; (iv) adaptability for learning The paper then illustrates the types and the potential of this heuristic device for understanding when, how and why different forms of collaboration could shape change on the ground, by looking into a series of local social accountability and open governance interventions in select Brazilian cities. Our initial focus is research conducted in 2015 and 2016 about initiatives across Brazil that bring together citizens and CSOs (including professional and business associations) - use the expertise of local citizens/professionals to help (working with) public agents to reduce corruption and the waste of public resources, the lack of qualification and the discontinuity in public policies, projects and services. We then extend the analysis to other Brazilian interventions, including state-led ones. The Brazilian experience suggests that, in the implementation of collaborative open government and social accountability strategies, the actions (as opposed to static plans or structures) serve as bridges between components of the state and elements of the societies to which they belong. Different types of bridges can help make inroads in understanding the potential and limits of state-society engagement to tackle public policy and governance problems. It is important to consider that the diverse local political contexts in which action happens shapes and, over time, can be shaped by their organizational structures and strategies that make up different forms of engagement. Yet, progress is neither automatic nor guaranteed, strategies can revert in less promising directions. In fact, state-society collaboration fits with context, strategy and organization and delivers after cycles of experimentation and learning rather than as one-shot instances of engagement.


In order to study the effect of water stress and potassium levels, growth indices and yield of sunflower a split plot experiment based on randomized complete block design(RCBD) was conducted with four replications during 2011 growing season in Bojnourd International Airport's field. Water stress was applied by irrigation regimes as main factor at three levels, 60, 90, 120 mm evaporation, from Class A evaporation Pan, and four K + levels (0, 70, 140, 210 kg/ha K + as potassium sulphate) as sub plots. The important growth indices i.e. Leaf area index (LAI), total dry matter (DM), Crop growth rate (CGR), plus seed yield was determined. The highest seed yield was obtained from the interaction between K210× I60mm about 4.79 t/ha, and the lowest one in K0× I120mm with 1.70 t/ha. The more potassium nutrition, the more compensation of moisture stress adverse effects and reduction of yield loss. There was a positive relationship between growth indices and seed yield, so increasing of K + nutrition resulted to higher DM, LAI and CGR, then seed yield. The highest quantities for these three indices were 4.5, 800 gr/m 2 , and 15.5gr/ m 2 .days, respectively.


Abstract. A simple model of the thermohaline circulation (THC) is formulated, with the objective to represent explicitly the geostrophic force balance of the basinwide THC. The model comprises advective-diffusive density balances in two meridional-vertical planes located at the eastern and the western walls of a hemispheric sector basin. Boundary mixing constrains vertical motion to lateral boundary layers along these walls. Interior, along-boundary, and zonally integrated meridional flows are in thermal-wind balance. Rossby waves and the absence of interior mixing render isopycnals zonally flat except near the western boundary, constraining meridional flow to the western boundary layer. The model is forced by a prescribed meridional surface density profile. This two-plane model reproduces both steady-state density and steady-state THC structures of a primitive-equation model. The solution shows narrow deep sinking at the eastern high latitudes, distributed upwelling at both boundaries, and a western boundary current with poleward surface and equatorward deep flow. The overturning strength has a 2/3-power-law dependence on vertical diffusivity and a 1/3-power-law dependence on the imposed meridional surface density difference. Convective mixing plays an essential role in the two-plane model, ensuring that deep sinking is located at high latitudes. This role of convective mixing is consistent with that in three-dimensional models and marks a sharp contrast with previous two-dimensional models. Overall, the two-plane model reproduces crucial features of the THC as simulated in simple-geometry three-dimensional models. At the same time, the model self-consistently makes quantitative a conceptual picture of the three-dimensional THC that hitherto has been expressed either purely qualitatively or not self-consistently.


Nanotechnology as a scientific and technological thrust enunciates the best of many opportunities afforded to the Engineering, Scientific and Industrial Communities. The scientific opportunities seem to be considerable, industrial interest is superb and the social benefits are significant fromnewmaterials and new products applicable to information technology, medicine, energy and the environment. Nanotechnology with advancement of production of new nanomaterials opens an entirely new era for scientific innovations which will have great impact on human life. In the prehistoric age ofmanÂ's life on earth, thematerials that were available to himweremainly stone, wood, bone and skin which he learnt to fashion for his use. It is interesting to note that these materials evolved and devised by nature and then by man have provided the insights and models for the design of modern materials.


The pulp and paper (PP) industry in industrially mature countries is facing a long-term crisis. Large and modern manufacturing facilities in tropical regions emerge as new competitors. The constant increase of energy costs has also contributed to the financial difficulties encountered in the industry. To stay viable and sustainable, PP mills need to elaborate new strategies to increase their revenues. In this context, converting a PP mill into an integrated forest biorefinery could be the solution to restore the health of the industry and overcome the crisis. Diversifying the industry's product mix by producing bio-energy and bio-materials could be a way to penetrate new markets while maintaining its core production of pulp and paper. Producing bio-materials implies energy consumption and waste heat. The energy management cannot therefore be dissociate from the biorefinery integration in a PP mill: both energy and mass integration must be considered. The objective of this work is to illustrate the trade-off between conversion of materials and of energy and shows the importance of considering simultaneously the heat recovery through heat exchangers and the combined heat and power production. Process integration techniques have been applied to study a bisulfite mill which produces pulp and three additional by-products: bioethanol, lignosulfonate and yeast. Particular attention was devoted to the integration of the chemical recycling loops which have a significant impact on the process energy balances and therefore influence the choice of biorefinery integration strategies. A key element of the process integration pathway was to consider the heat cascade as a model of the heat exchanger network by decoupling the installed heat exchangers network when analysing the potential effects of the recycling and production strategies at the plant level. Using this model, the optimal integration of a combined heat and power production unit was determined taking into account the simultaneous maximisation of process internal heat recovery. To facilitate the computational formulation of the problem, the overall process was subdivided into several production sub-systems with flow diagrams and flow rates dependant on the main product being manufactured in each sub-system. Mass balance constraints were introduced to model the flow distribution between sub-systems and the hot and cold streams were computed by means of a conventional flowsheeting software. The corresponding hot and cold streams were subsequently integrated at the mill scale level. The pulp production line and energy conversion equipment such as the sulphur boiler, lignin boiler and the biomass boilers were simultaneously optimized.


This paper analyses changes in income portfolios of rural households and its determinants for the case of Ghana in the 1990s. Our analysis shows that, contrary to common beliefs, rural Ghana has seen major economic transformation, as households increasingly diversify their livelihoods by both increased migration and more local non-farm employment. These diversification decisions seem to be driven to a large extent by desperation rather than new opportunities, in particular with regard to migration. Low-income households increase their income share in particular from local non-farm activities through more participation while returns to diversifying activities stagnate or even decrease. Therefore households with a low non-labour asset-base are increasingly diversified and poor. In contrast, asset-rich households are more successful at either diversifying or specialising in those activities the household is relatively good at. They also tend to benefit more from agricultural growth.


Objective To examine the effects of unplanned pregnancy on cognitive, behavioural and health outcomes of children at 5 years. Design Population-based cohort (Sweep 1 and 3 of the UK Millennium Cohort Study). Participant 13 529 singletons, born 2000–2001. Exposure measure Mothers reported whether their pregnancy was planned, and their feelings when first pregnant. The population was divided into "unplanned" pregnancies (unplanned and unhappy), "mistimed" pregnancies (unplanned but happy) and "planned". Outcome measures At 5 years mothers answered questions about their child's health and behaviour (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire). Children completed cognitive tests (British Abilities Scales II), including a component to measure verbal abilities. Results 17% of pregnancies were unplanned, 31% mistimed, and 52% planned. On average, children from unplanned pregnancies had cognitive scores indicating a delay of 5 months; were more likely to have behavioural problems (OR 2.9 (95% CI 2.3 to 3.3)); and more likely to be in poor health than the planned group (OR 2.3 (95% CI 1.8 to 3.0)). After adjustment the effects were reduced, though remained significant for behavioural and health outcomes: OR 1.3 (95% CI 1.1 to 1.6) and OR 1.6 (95% CI 1.2 to 2.1), respectively. The effects were smaller in the mistimed group, and after adjustment for confounding by socioeconomic and demographic factors, these effects disappeared. Conclusions While the adverse outcomes associated with mistimed pregnancies can be explained by confounding of socioeconomic circumstances, there remains a significant effect on the health and behaviour of children born after unplanned pregnancies. Potential confounding by other contextual or family factors will be examined.


Statistical scale-by-scale analysis, for the first time, has been applied to the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) retrieved from the Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) network. The MFRSR data were collected in September 2000 from the dense local network operated by the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program, located in Oklahoma and Kansas. These data have 20-s temporal resolution. The instrument sites form an irregular grid with the mean distance between neighboring sites about 80 km. It is found that temporal variability of AOT can be separated into two well-established scale-invariant regimes: 1) microscale (0.5‐15 km), where fluctuations are governed by 3D turbulence, and 2) intermediate scale (15‐100 km), characterized by a transition toward large-scale 2D turbulence. The spatial scaling of AOT was determined by the comparison of retrievals between different instrument sites (distance range 30‐400 km). The authors investigate how simultaneous determination of AOT scaling in space and time can provide means to examine the validity of Taylor's frozen turbulence hypothesis. The temporal evolution of AOT scaling exponents during the month appeared to be well correlated with changes in aerosol vertical distribution, while their spatial variability reflects the concavity/convexity of the site topography. Explanations based on dynamical processes in atmospheric convective boundary layer are suggested.


This paper addresses the enhancement of the contrast of gray-level digital images while preserving the mean image intensity, thus, providing better viewing consistency and effectiveness. The contrast enhancement is achieved by maximizing the information content carried in the image with a continuous intensity transform function and the mean image intensity is preserved, by using the gamma-correction approach. Since the contrast enhancement and intensity preservation are contradicting, a multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithm is developed to resolve this trade-off. Benchmark images, street senses and skyline images are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach


Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a tool for noninvasive stimulation of neuronal tissue used for research in cognitive neuroscience and to treat neurological disorders. Many TMS applications call for large electric fields to be sharply focused on regions that often lie deep inside the brain. Unfortunately, the fields generated by present-day TMS coils diffuse and decay rapidly as they penetrate into the head. As a result, they tend to stimulate relatively large regions of tissue near the brain surface. Earlier studies suggested that a focused TMS excitation can be attained using multiple nonuniformly fed coils in a multichannel array. We propose a systematic, genetic algorithm-based technique for synthesizing multichannel arrays that minimize the volume of the excited region required to achieve a prescribed penetration depth and maintain realistic values for the input driving currents. Because multichannel arrays are costly to build, we also propose a method to convert the multichannel arrays into single-channel ones while minimally materially deteriorating performance. Numerical results show that the new multi- and single-channel arrays stimulate tissue 2.4 cm into the head while exciting 3.0 and 2.6 times less volume than conventional Figure-8 coils, respectively.


We examined child characteristics as predictors of maternal friendship facilitation strategies from third to fifth grades. Results indicated variation in initial levels of friendship facilitation and linear change over time, but no variation in trajectories of change over time. In third grade, African American mothers were less likely to enable proximity to friends and more likely to talk to their children about friendships than were European American mothers. Mothers of children with greater self-efficacy used more of both types of friendship facilitation behaviors. Mothers who perceived children as higher in externalizing were less likely to talk with children in an effort to facilitate friendships. Mothers who perceived children as having more social problems reported talking to their children more.


T. H. Morgan's choice of Drosophila a century ago for studying the mechanisms of heredity has resulted in the lowly fruit fly's becoming one of the model organisms of biology. Drosophila has played a critical role in revolutions in genetics and molecular biology--the announcement in 1981 that the P transposable element could be used to create transgenic fruit flies also assured Drosophila a prominent place in genome research. Despite this utility and convenience, a couple of very important tools--homologous recombination and targeted mutagenesis--have been missing from the fruit fly molecular tool kit, tools that yeast and mouse researchers take for granted. Rong and Golic now report a method of gene targeting by homologous recombination in the fruit fly that may also find use in other organisms. A Perspective by Engels describes the method in greater detail. Rong, Y.S., and Golic, K.G. (2000) Gene targeting by homologous recombination in Drosophila. Science 288: 2013-2018. [Abstract] [Full Text] Engels, W.R. (2000) Genetics: Reversal of fortune for Drosophila geneticists? Science 288:1973-1975. [Full Text]


This study evaluated the effect of gastric bypass on the glucose, insulin, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), neurotensin, and motilin response to orally administered glucose in eight morbidly obese patients before and after operation. Preoperatively, all eight patients remained asymptomatic during an oral glucose tolerance test, which showed glucose intolerance and hyperinsulinism. Plasma VIP, neurotensin, and motilin remained below detectable levels for the entire test. At three months following gastric bypass (21% weight loss), all eight patients became acutely ill during a repeated oral glucose tolerance test and had the following symptoms: facial flushing (eight patients), palpitations (eight patients), nausea (seven patients), abdominal fullness (seven patients), pallor (four patients), diaphoresis (two patients), vomiting (two patients), and diarrhea (two patients). Significant release of neurotensin occurred in seven patients while three patients had release of VIP, further implicating these two peptides as part of the pathophysiologic spectrum of the "dumping syndrome."


1. The diuretic and natriuretic responses occurring during expansion of blood volume by homologous blood transfusion were studied in homologous kidneys transplanted to the neck of hydropenic dogs that had previously been given deoxycorticosterone acetate and antidiuretic hormone. The experimental conditions ensured constant arterial perfusion pressure, venous pressure, osmotic pressure, haematocrit and plasma oncotic pressure. 2. Moderate but significant increases in urine output, renal sodium excretion, osmotic clearance and tubular sodium rejection fraction were observed; there were no significant changes in glomerular filtration rate, renal blood flow, postglomerular haematocrit and postglomerular plasma protein concentration 20 and 40 min after the end of blood infusion. 3. As the non-hormonal factors known to modulate sodium excretion underwent no significant change, the results are compatible with the proposition that a specific factor ('natriuretic hormone') plays a role in the mechanism of natriuresis after blood volume expansion.


Molecular gels are formed by the self-assembly of low-molecular weight compounds by weak non-covalent interactions and thus, they may be easily disassembled in response to external stimuli. Chemically sensitive gels can be prepared by introducing in the molecular design functional groups that may interact either by covalent or non-covalent forces with other molecules present in the medium. Functional molecular gels have been reported that are sensitive to acids, bases, ions, redox-active compounds, neutral species, reactive compounds and enzymes. Here we present a broad revision of the different chemical inputs that can be used to tune gel properties through some appealing application-based selected examples.


The Supreme Court has struck down every attempt to exclude religious speakers from limited public forums. Nonetheless, governments keep trying to exclude them. A recent example is Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover. In that case a majority of a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that religious worship may be excluded from a limited public forum, and a majority of the judges on the Ninth Circuit denied a rehearing en banc. The article explains why this holding violated the First Amendment rights of the religious speakers. It also resolves some of the remaining issues concerning the exclusions of such speakers from limited public forums. The County created a limited public forum when it made its library meeting rooms generally available for a variety of community activities, but prohibited its use for religious services. The principal issue that divided the parties and the judges was whether the exclusion was viewpoint neutral or viewpoint discriminatory. The article makes the point that not only was the exclusion impermissibly viewpoint discriminatory, but that it was also impermissibly content discriminatory. The majority panel reasoned that the exclusion was a constitutionally permissible content discriminatory "blanket exclusion" of subject matter that defined the scope of the forum. In so doing, the majority defined the forum by both its inclusion (community activities) and its exclusions (religious services). The article, however, establishes that limited public forums are defined by their inclusions, not their exclusions. It also clarifies the important difference between permissible and impermissible content based exclusions. Addditionally, the article explains that religious worship is a community activity that inherently expresses a viewpoint. Consequently, the religious speaker sought to bring a religious perspective to otherwise permissible subjects. The County excluded the speaker from doing so because of disagreement with, and hostility towards, religious worship in the forum. It also impermissibly took it upon itself to decide what religious speech is deserving of expression. Consequently, the exclusion should have been subject to strict scrutiny. The article also makes it clear that the government may exclude religious worship from public property depending on the nature of the forum. Once the forum is defined, however, the government must respect the boundaries it has itself created. Having opened its library meeting rooms for community activities, the County could not exclude religious worship absent some narrowly tailored compelling interest. Finally, the article demonstrates that the First Amendment Establishment Clause does not provide such an interest.


Conservation invokes a range of policy issues including questions of economics, recreation, public good, stewardship, and governance obligations. When U.S. legislators consider creating new National Park units, interrelated policy issues influence decisions about whether to support or oppose a new site. In this article, we explored the influence of electoral competition, political party in control, and presidential election year on the number of new National Park units created between 1934 and 2014. Electoral competition theory hypothesizes that as the congressional majority margin decreases (gets more competitive), politicians act in more strategic and less partisan ways. In this analysis, high electoral competition occurred if the party in power had less than a 55% majority; low electoral competition was defined as a 55% or more majority. Three conditions of political control were also examined: (a) Democrats controlled the Presidency and the House, (b) Republicans controlled the Presidency and the House, and (c) shared party control (one party controlled the Presidency and the other party controlled the House). The effect that presidential election years had on the number of new park units created was also considered. Results indicated that more park units were created during periods of low electoral competition ( M = 5.00) than high electoral competition ( M = 2.04), F (1, 79) = 7.24, p = .009, η = .084 (Hypothesis 1). In addition, there was evidence of partisanship (Hypothesis 2). When Democrats controlled both the Presidency and the House, an average of 5.55 new park units were created annually. When political control was shared, an average of 3.34 park units were created per year, and when Republicans were in control only one park unit on average was created annually, F (2, 78) = 3.54, p = .034, η = .289. More park units were created in presidential election years ( M = 5.02), than nonpresidential election years ( M = 2.06), F (1, 74) = 2.32, p = .024, η = .259 (Hypothesis 3). There was no evidence of interaction effects among the variables (contrary to Hypothesis 4). This research contributes to the existing literature on the development and growth of the National Park System by analyzing the role of electoral competition, political control, and presidential election years as they effect the creation of new National Park units. Subscribe to JPRA


Abstract The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of lowland areas for vine conservation to improve the availability and access of planting material during the main planting period and subsequently improve access to Orange Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP) roots for consumption and income. The study was implemented in 8 districts in Niassa province in early December 2015, among 271 households (HH), where 77% of these households had children under 5 years and 34% of the respondents were women. These households were selected randomly among households that had received OFSP planting material between 2013 and 2015. Data about vine conservation, use of lowland areas, OFSP consumption and income from OFSP were collected and analyzed using SPSS. Results were compared with the baseline survey results from 2013. Eighty seven percent of households have access to lowland areas. The households using lowland areas for vine conservation increased from 41% in 2013 to 58% in 2015 and the use of small garden plots from 14% to 26%. The households conserving vines in upland fields dropped from 56% in 2013 to 7% in 2015. About 53% of households still planted in June (beyond the main planting season) while 24% continued to plant year around. However, cultivation on small plots dominated from March to December, mainly for vine multiplication. Delvia, Irene and Gloria varieties were mentioned respectively by 43 %, 21 % and 20 % of households as their preferred varieties. All households consumed OFSP roots. However, more than 50% of households consumed OFSP from April to October. Fifty six percent of households sold OFSP roots which generated an average income of 48 USD per household per year. The use of lowland areas for vine conservation has increased and vine management has improved. Consequently, production area has increased by 23%, root yield has increased by more than 100%, from 6.0 t/ ha as average national yield to 15.5 t/ha, average yield for the survey, and the period of consumption from own production has also increased to seven months. Awareness campaigns will continue to promote year round production of OFSP.


Many college students are living on the edge of financial crisis and many of them do not possess the knowledge needed to manage their money. The purpose of the study was to determine the use of money management practices of Education college students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The sample consisted of 126 Education majors in randomly selected Education courses which were being taught, at each academic level, in the Spring 2000 semester. Subjects were administered a 13-item questionnaire including items concerning demographic data. income, debt, and budgeting practices. Frequency distributions and Pearson Chi-Square were computed. Findings showed that women were more likely to have a budget than men, married students with budgets were more likely to follow them, and those aged 36 to 40 were more likely to follow them most of the time. Many college students are living on the edge of financial crisis and many of them do not possess the knowledge needed to manage their money. While students at the university, they are constantly accumulating debt, through student loans and credit cards. They may not realize how their current debt can negatively affect their future credit rating. Without consistent money management practices, students will find it difficult to reach financial goals (Bowen & Lago, 1997). What does a good money management plan include? According to Musk & Winter (1998), it will include "regular generation of financial statements; budgeting; control of spending; recording income and expenses: and tax, insurance, investment, retirement and estate planning" (p. 1). The difficulty in creating and using a money management plan is that many students are not familiar with money management practices (Chen & Volpe, 1998). Chen & Volpe (1998) blames the colleges for not providing financial management courses for students. The Youth and Money Survey (1999), found that even though 65% of the students had an opportunity to schedule a money management course, only 21% of them took the course. The amount of financial information a student has usually impacts their ideas and choices regarding finances (Chen & Volpe, 1998). Kendrick (1999) stated that only 44% of students understand the term `budget'; in fact, only 18% of the general population possesses a basic appreciation of simple money management practices (Elliot, 1997). Another hindrance to students is simply that they are not as capable of coping with actual circumstances involving finances that they will encounter when they are older (Family Values, 1998). One reason is that most of them are in the beginning phase of their "financial life cycle" and a majority of their money is spent rather than invested (Chen & Volpe, 1998, p. 5). Although the primary rationale given by students for obtaining a credit card is to establish a good credit history (Murdy & Rush. 1995), 28% of students carry monthly credit card debt (Youth and Money Survey, 1999). Due to the easy access to credit cards in colleges, approximately 80% of full-time undergraduate students have credit cards with an "average outstanding balance (of) $2,226 and 10% of them have outstanding balances of more than $7,000" (Kendrick, 1999, p. 1). Method The sample was drawn from randomly selected Education courses, offered at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which were being taught, at each academic level, in the Spring 2000 semester. The instrument used was a 13-item questionnaire. It was constructed by the researchers, because our study only required a limited amount of data and some of the other questionnaires either included unnecessary items or contained items inappropriate to our population (education majors). Items contained in the questionnaire included demographic data, such as gender, race, marital status, classification, major, citizenship, and age. The second section dealt with employment status (full- or part-time), number of jobs, and total gross yearly income estimate. …


This dissertation presents novel biodegradable and photo-crosslinkable building blocks to achieve polymer networks with controlled surface chemistry, stiffness, and topographical features for investigating cell-material interactions and targeting hard and soft tissue engineering applications. Chapter I reviews the recent progress in polymeric gel systems and how their physical properties can be tailored to regulate cell functions and satisfy the clinical needs. Chapter II presents a facile method to synthesize photo-crosslinkable poly(epsilon-caprolactone) acrylates (PCLAs) and reveal tunable cell responses to photo-crosslinked PCLAs. Chapter III investigates the mechanism of colorization in preparing crosslinkable polymers by reacting hydroxyl-containing polymers with unsaturated anhydrides or acyl chlorides in the presence of triethylamine. Chapter IV describes a systematic investigation on regulating materials properties and cell behavior using hybrid networks composed of amorphous poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF) and three PCLAs with variance in crystallinity and melting temperature. Schwann cell precursor line (SpL201) and pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 responses to these polymer networks such as cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation demonstrated non-monotonic dependence on the network composition. Chapter V synthesizes a series of novel injectable and photo-crosslinkable PPF-co-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) copolymers via two-step polycondensation to improve both stiffness and toughness and promote biological performance of bone tissue engineering scaffolds. Chapter VI photo-crosslinks PPF with methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) monoacrylate (mPEGA) to improve the hydrophilicity and wettability of PPF and MC3T3-E1 cell functions. Chapter VII investigates the role of exposed hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles in influencing surface characteristics and MC3T3-E1 cell behavior on crosslinked PCLA/HA nanocomposites. Chapter VIII presents a method of tuning surface chemistry and nerve cell behavior by photo-crosslinking mPEGA with a hydrophobic, semicrystalline PCLA at various compositions. This approach lays the foundation for fabricating heterogeneous nerve conduits with a compositional gradient along the wall thickness. Chapter IX demonstrates the role of mechanical properties and surface features on nerve cell behavior using two photo-crosslinked poly(epsilon-caprolactone) triacrylates with distinct mechanical properties and parallel microgrooves with different dimensions. Chapter X and XII develop a novel photopolymerizable poly(L-lysine) and uses it to modify polyethylene glycol diacrylate hydrogels for creating a better, permissive nerve cell carrier that promoted cell functions for treatment of nerve injuries.


The objective of this study is to empirically analyze the effectiveness of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU, given the general economic and structural conditions under which the policies operate. The effectiveness of policies is measured in terms of the impacts of the policies on the stated policy objectives. The results show that policy target variables have developed in the desired direction. However, agricultural policies have kept more resources in the agriculture sector compared to a situation without policies, which has reduced the pace of productivity growth in terms of labour use and had a negative indirect impact on farmers' incomes. Agricultural policy reforms have led to less stabilized markets in terms of increased price volatility.


In vitro seeding constitutes an indispensable tool for propagation of the main commercial species of orchids. This study aimed to analyze the in vitro development of Catasetum fimbriatum under different concentrations of jasmonic acid in Murashige & Skoog culture medium compound of ½ macronutrients. After 180 days of cultivation, concentration of 0.25 and 0.50 μL • L-1 caused a significant increase in number of roots and leaves. The concentration of 1.00 μL • L-1 showed the best result for the length of longest root and largest leaf, the total length of seedling, and the total fresh and dry masses. Nevertheless, the use of this plant regulator on in vitro culture media still requires further investigations to determine the optimal concentration in order to obtain desirable phytotechnical characteristics in different orchid species.


e-tendering is one of the information technology tools that has been highlighted by construction industry experts to assist in changing the industry's culture and improving its processes. However the emergence of e-tendering in construction in the UK has been slow. This paper documents a questionnaire survey of quantity surveyors in northern England, identifying their views on different aspects of e-tendering, and providing an analysis of the perceived drivers and barriers to its implementation. Using a relative importance index, time and cost are confirmed as the two most significant perceived drivers in implementing e-tendering, while sustainability benefits are also recognised as important. The lack of experience and precedence in the legal realm is one of the main perceived barriers. The paper explores the impact of personal characteristics on attitudes towards e-tendering. Age and experience are particularly significant, with older and more experienced surveyors being more critical and negative than younger surveyors towards e-tendering. The analysis also identifies that the size and type of company affects attitudes with regard to electronic sharing of information and the related aspects of infrastructure and security. Smaller companies have more concerns with regard to security, while contractors' quantity surveyors have much more concern over sharing information than clients' consultants. Prior use also affects attitudes, with inexperienced users expressing more concerns over the use of e-tendering. The conclusion is that, amongst quantity surveyors, there is recognition of the benefits that e-tendering can bring about but that there are a number of barriers currently acting as a brake on the uptake of e-tendering.


A paper in this issue on 'A novel approach to improve detection of glucocorticoid doping in sport with new guidance for physicians prescribing for athletes' by Ventura et al is important for every practising physician and physical therapist who is treating high level athletes. As of 2022 (remember; prior to the Games in Beijing), new rules will be in effect, and you need to be aware of them. This review evaluates the current glucocorticoid (GC) antidoping regulations as defined by the WADA and presents a novel approach for defining permitted and prohibited use of GCs in sport based on the potential for performance enhancement and risk to health. Revised and substancespecific laboratory reporting values are presented in this paper to better distinguish between prohibited and permitted use in sport. In addition, washout periods are presented to enable clinicians to avoid the risk of athletes testing positive on a doping test. The systemic effect of GCs following injectable and other routes of administration presents a potential both to improve performance and to cause harm to health in athletes. This paper presents a novel approach to a 'contentious' subject in antidoping—GCs injections. GCs have been 'contentious' in sport for years. When the systemic use of GCs was prohibited in sport by the IOC in 1986, the importance of GCs in clinical medicine was the primary reason why the development of Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) became necessary. The paper has two components. Primarily, it is an attempt to categorise injected and other routes of GC in daily cortisolequivalent doses and propose doses and routes of administration of GC that the authors suggest are potentially performance enhancing. Subsequently, the authors detail the extensive research that has been undertaken to recommend modified laboratory reporting levels (RLs) for different GCs and suitable washout periods to enable clinicians to use GCs safely and to avoid the risk of athletes testing positive for a doping test. It is important to note that periarticular and peritendinous as well as intraarticular injections are classified as any other injection (since the serum level of GCs changes after an intraarticular injection). None of the inhaled, intranasal, dermal or other topical GCs when used at their maximum licensed approved doses are expected to exceed the 32 mg/day threshold. To improve the specificity of the RLs, WADA has sponsored excretion studies indicating that when GCs were administered by local injections (ie, intraarticular), the urinary concentrations were like those of other prohibited routes, indicating similar absorption and systemic exposure of the drug. Additionally, a single RL was not suitable for all GCs. The consequence of this is that higher vigilance is needed by the sport physicians and physical therapists using these drugs. The use of systemic GCs by athletes is one of the the most common reasons why TUEs are sought by elite athletes. Reasons for GCs use include asthma and exerciseinduced bronchoconstriction, autoimmune conditions, acute traumatic swelling and oedema, inflammatory bowel disease and other uncommon conditions such as Addison's disease, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and others. GCs are widely used in sports medicine, mainly to treat musculoskeletal injuries and asthma. GCs administered by local injection can be an important and effective option in the treatment plan of some musculoskeletal conditions commonly encountered in sports medicine. The naturally occurring GC hormones and their synthetic analogues possess a wide range of potencies and pharmacokinetic properties. The body produces a daily output of endogenous GC (cortisol), typically 18–22 mg/day and hence this amount of GC should not be regarded as performance enhancing, although abnormally low cortisol levels would likely impair performance. Administering GC drugs can result in a total GC exposure (exogenous+endogenous) that exceeds the upper threshold for normal daily physiological GC production and, hence, can potentially be performance enhancing whereas GC drug use that does not exceed this upper physiological threshold can reasonably be regarded as not performance enhancing. Acceptable use is defined as a dose of exogenous GC (cortisol equivalent dose ≤5.28 mg/day) that when added to normal physiological daily GC exposure (26.4 mg/day) results in a total exposure (endogenous+exogenous) without reaching supraphysiological levels (cortisol equivalent dose >32 mg/ day). Unacceptable use is defined as a dose of exogenous GC that is equivalent to a dose demonstrated to be performance enhancing (eg, dexamethasone 4 mg, equivalent to 32.6 mg cortisol) (see figure 1 in the paper). This is also ≈6 times the 5.28 mg/day acceptable dose defined above and results in a total GC exposure (26.4 mg endogenous + 32.6 mg exogenous) of ≈60 mg/day. Oral and injectable routes (eg, intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous, intraarticular) when used at their approved doses are likely to produce total GC exposures of >32 mg/day except at the lowest doses that are seldom used clinically. Up to now, a general urinary RL of 30 ng/mL was used to differentiate between permitted and prohibited administrations of all GCs. However, different studies have shown the need to establish compoundspecific RLs given the diversity of administration routes and doses, as well as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties between the different GCs. Washout periods for oral and injectable routes were defined considering the time of detection using the RLs established for each GC (see table 3). The washout period refers to the time taken from the last dose to the time of the incompetition period (midnight beginning the first day of the incompetition period) in order to reduce the GC concentration in the urine below the RLs. The maximum detection times obtained in each study are indicated in table 2. This is important, please read and place it on your office wall, stick it to your medical bag, and so on. The main issue; BE AWARE of the changes from 1 January 2022!


Acclaimed historian Rick Perlstein chronicles the rise of the conservative movement in the liberal 1960s. At the heart of the story is Barry Goldwater, the renegade Republican from Arizona who loathed federal government, despised liberals, and mocked "peaceful coexistence" with the USSR. Perlstein's narrative shines a light on a whole world of conservatives and their antagonists, including William F. Buckley, Nelson Rockefeller, and Bill Moyers. Vividly written, Before the Storm is an essential book about the 1960s.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To evaluate whether fatigue severity can serve as a cue to investigate the presence of depression in older adult patients with cancer.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional observational cohort study.

SETTING
Seven hospitals and general practices in Belgium and the Netherlands.

SAMPLE
205 older adult patients with cancer and 436 older adults without cancer (aged 70 years or older).

METHODS
The diagnostic accuracy of fatigue as a proxy for depression was evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Fatigue was measured with a visual analog scale, and depression was measured with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale.

FINDINGS
Fifty-six percent of the population experienced fatigue, and 13% were depressed. For fatigue as a cue for depression, sensitivity was 82%, specificity was 47%, positive predictive value was 18%, and negative predictive value was 95%.

CONCLUSIONS
The data confirm that fatigue is a valuable cue to investigate the presence of depression because 82% of depressed participants were correctly identified by fatigue. The assessment of fatigue severity is intuitive, quick, straightforward, and usually already implemented.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Identification of depression is difficult in older adult patients with cancer. Instead of experiencing affective symptoms of depression, older adult patients are more likely to disclose somatic symptoms, such as fatigue, which often overlap with cancer-related symptoms. Nurses should be aware of this problem and should be alert for the possibility of depression in older adult patients presenting with fatigue.


Bio-butanol production based on ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) fermentation is facing increasing interest as a transport fuel, since it offers significant advantages to other bio-fuels. However, to ensure an economic operation two bottlenecks has to be overcome: (1) high cost of the fermentation substrate, and (2) high energy demand for butanol purification via distillation due to low solvent concentration in fermentation broth. While first bottleneck might be overcome by the use of alternative feedstock like lignocelluloses or agro-food-wastes, the latter can be targeted by introducing hybrid purification concepts, combining in-situ removal techniques with distillation. Experimental and literature data based on lab-scale size experiments operated with synthetical fermentation broth are used to parameterize an Aspen Plus® simulation to predict the energy demand for bio-butanol purification for three in-situ removal techniques coupled with distillation and to compare to a standalone distillation sequence: gas stripping, pervaporation and adsorption/desorption. Depending on the initial solvent content of fermentation broth, with 23.2 - 31.2 MJ/kg butanol the heat demand of the standalone distillation sequence is slightly below the energy content of butanol of about 36 MJ/kg. Applying gas-stripping and pervaporation before purification via distillation reduces the heat demand by 50 % to 13.6 - 16.8 MJ/kg and 12.0 - 14.5 MJ/kg butanol, respectively. Best result is shown by combining adsorption and distillation with an energy demand of 5.0 – 5.7 MJ/kg butanol. However, the advantageous low overall energy demand results from low efforts in the distillation step, only considering separation of butanol and water, but neglecting purification of acetone and ethanol obtained in ABE fermentation.


Described in the scientific literature the results of experimental studies and performance test of the technological process of sugar beet harvesting conducted in recent years have shown that modern sugar-beet harvesters manufactured in Europe and America work with significant losses of sugar-bearing plant materials. These losses are due to generally poor topping quality of sugar beet on a root. Therefore, nowadays the search of technical solutions enabling to avoid these losses is of great to importance as it increases the yield of sugar-bearing plant materials per hectare of crops. The purpose of research is to reduce the losses of sugar-bearing plant materials in the course of separation process of sugar beet tops from heads of root crops on a root. While conducting research the methods of field experimental research on the measurement of physical parameters of the technological process were used, as well as methods of statistical processing of the measurement results with the use of computer. New experimental equipment was designed for the field experimental studies being equipped with modern electronic equipment with data transfer to a PC. As a result of the experimental investigation of the distribution heads heights above the ground of sugar beet roots confirmation has been received hypothesis that it does not deny the law of the normal distribution. The results of the multiple measurements enabled set limits of changes in their statistical characteristics, which are as follows: average statistical deviation σ = 20 ... 30 mm, the expectation m = 40 ... 60 mm. A new design of the laboratory equipment and results of the experimental studies, conducted on it, have given every reason to design and develop a new system of automatic adjustment of the height of cut tops, which can be used in designs of modern sugar-beet harvesting machines.


Regarding traction systems, new solutions can be proposed today, where energy storage with supercapacitors can offer an easier energy management, together with a strong decrease of the constraints applied to the main energy source of such systems. The energy density of supercapacitors is not so high that these components can be used as main energy sources. However, their power density allows those components to supply efficiently power peak demand of the vehicle, minimizing so power constraints on the main energy source: batteries, thermal engine, catenaries, etc… The aim of this contribution is to define typical applications fields for supercapacitors, in the general domain of traction systems. The supercapacitors will be first defined, and models will be proposed. A method for sizing supercapacitors will be described, taking into account energy and power requirements to match efficiency as high as possible. Two main applications will be then described and commented: supercapacitors as complementary power supply, associated with batteries in an electrical scooter application. It will be described how the sizing of a batteries tank can be optimized thanks to supercapacitors. The second application will present an application where supercapacitors are used as energy feeders for weak distribution networks (trolley-buses supply).


Background: Rapid diagnosis of surgically removed specimens has created many controversies and a single completely reliable method has not yet been developed. Histopathology of a paraffin section remains the ultimate gold standard in tissue diagnosis. Frozen section is routinely used by the surgical pathology laboratories for intraoperative diagnosis. The use of either frozen section or cytological examination alone has an acceptable rate (93–97%) of correct diagnosis, with regard to interpretation of benign versus malignant. Aim: To evaluate the utility of scrape cytology for the rapid diagnosis of surgically removed tumors and its utilisation for learning cytopathology. Materials and Methods: 75 surgically removed specimens from various organs and systems were studied. Scrapings were taken from each specimen before formalin fixation and stained by modified rapid Papanicolaou staining. Results: Of the 75 cases studied, 73 could be correctly differentiated into benign and malignant tumors, with an accuracy rate of 97.3%. Conclusions: Intraoperative scrape cytology is useful for intraoperative diagnosis of tumor, where facilities for frozen section are not available. The skill and expertise developed by routinely practicing intraoperative cytology can be applied to the interpretation of fine needle aspirate smears. Thus, apart from its diagnostic role, intraoperative cytology can become a very useful learning tool in the field of cytopathology.


Melanin is a ubiquitous pigment with unique physicochemical properties. The resistance of melanized fungi to cosmic and terrestrial ionizing radiation suggests that melanin also plays a pivotal role in radioprotection. In this study, we compared the effects of densely-ionizing deuterons and sparsely-ionizing X-rays on two microscopic fungi capable of melanogenesis. We utilized the fast-growing pathogenic basiodiomycete forming an induced DOPA-melanin, Cryptococcus neoformans (CN); and the slow-growing environmental rock-inhabiting ascomycete synthesizing a constitutive DHN-melanin, Cryomyces antarcticus (CA); melanized and non-melanized counterparts were compared. CA was more resistant to deuterons than CN, and similar resistance was observed for X-rays. Melanin afforded protection against high-dose (1.5 kGy) deuterons for both CN and CA (p-values < 10-4 ). For X-rays (0.3 kGy), melanin protected CA (p-values < 10-4 ) and probably CN. Deuterons increased XTT activity in melanized strains of both species, while the activity in non-melanized cells remained stable or decreased. For ATP levels the reverse occurred: it decreased in melanized strains, but not in non-melanized ones, after deuteron exposure. For both XTT and ATP, which reflect the metabolic activity of the cells, larger and more statistically-significant differences as a function of melanization status occurred in CN. Our data show, for the first time, that melanin protected both fast-growing and slow-growing fungi from high doses of deuterons under physiological conditions. These observations may give clues for creating melanin-based radioprotectors.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions


The moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) protoflight model on-board the Terra spacecraft and the MODIS flight model 1 on-board the Aqua spacecraft were launched on December 18, 1999 and May 4, 2002, respectively. They view the moon through the space view (SV) port approximately once a month to monitor the long-term radiometric stability of their reflective solar bands (RSBs). The lunar irradiance observed by MODIS depends on the viewing geometry. Algorithms were developed to select lunar views such that these geometric effects are minimized. In each MODIS lunar observation, the moon can be viewed in multiple scans. The lunar irradiance of a MODIS RSB can be derived from the response of all detectors of a spectral band in one scan which fully covers the moon, from that of one detector in multiple scans or from the response of all detectors in multiple scans. Based on lunar observations, a set of coefficients is defined and derived to trend MODIS system response degradation at the angle of incidence (AOI) of its SV port. It is shown that the degradation is both wavelength and mirror side dependent. Since launch, Terra and Aqua MODIS band 8 (412 nm) mirror side one have degraded 36% and 17%, respectively, at the AOI of the SV. A comparison between the lunar coefficients and those derived from the MODIS on-board solar diffuser (SD) calibrations shows that the response change of the MODIS RSB is both AOI and time dependent. Time-dependent response versus scan angle (RVS) lookup tables derived from lunar views, SD calibration, and Earth-view observations have been used to maintain the quality of the L1B data for both the Terra and Aqua MODIS RSB. The corrections provided by the RVS in the Terra and Aqua MODIS data from the 412-nm band are as large as 14% and 6.2%, respectively.


The Society of Surgical Oncology surgical practice guidelines focus on the signs and symptoms of primary cancer, timely evaluation of the symptomatic patient, appropriate preoperative evaluation for extent of disease, and role of the surgeon in diagnosis and treatment. Separate sections on adjuvant therapy, follow-up programs, or management of recurrent cancer have been intentionally omitted. Where appropriate, perioperative adjuvant combined-modality therapy is discussed under surgical management. Each guideline is presented in minimal outline form as a delineation of therapeutic options.


Assessing dependence between two sets of spike trains or between a set of input stimuli and the corresponding generated spike trains is crucial in many neuroscientific applications, such as in analyzing functional connectivity among neural assemblies, and in neural coding. Dependence between two random variables is traditionally assessed in terms of mutual information. However, although well explored in the context of real or vector valued random variables, estimating mutual information still remains a challenging issue when the random variables exist in more exotic spaces such as the space of spike trains. In the statistical literature, on the other hand, the concept of dependence between two random variables has been presented in many other ways, e.g. using copula, or using measures of association such as Spearman's ρ, and Kendall's τ. Although these methods are usually applied on the real line, their simplicity, both in terms of understanding and estimating, make them worth investigating in the context of spike train dependence. In this paper, we generalize the concept of association to any abstract metric spaces. This new approach is an attractive alternative to mutual information, since it can be easily estimated from realizations without binning or clustering. It also provides an intuitive understanding of what dependence implies in the context of realizations. We show that this new methodology effectively captures dependence between sets of stimuli and spike trains. Moreover, the estimator has desirable small sample characteristic, and it often outperforms an existing similar metric based approach.


The population of children in schools is rapidly becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse. However, there is a mismatch between the cultures in children's homes and the cultures in their schools. The funds of knowledge approach emerged in Tucson (Arizona, USA) in order to counter the deficit perspectives common in depictions of working-class, Latin American families. In this paper we critically report on two contemporary research projects conducted around funds of knowledge and social justice pedagogy. In particular, this paper describes and discusses two projects, which have been conducted in schools with disadvantaged students in USA (Latino students in Arizona) and Australia (students with low socio-economic status, from diverse ethnic groups), examining how these projects exemplify social justice pedagogy. Both projects reviewed explore the application of a funds of knowledge approach, in which students focus on a key aspect of their identity and living circumstances and investigate it, seeking to understand the current situation and create positive options for possible improvements.


We study Kahler-Dirac fermions on Euclidean dynamical triangulations. This fermion formulation furnishes a natural extension of staggered fermions to random geometries without requring vielbeins and spin connections. We work in the quenched approximation where the geometry is allowed to fluctuate but there is no back-reaction from the matter on the geometry. By examining the eigenvalue spectrum and the masses of scalar mesons we find evidence for a four fold degeneracy in the fermion spectrum in the large volume, continuum limit. It is natural to associate this degeneracy with the well known equivalence in continuum flat space between the Kahler-Dirac fermion and four copies of a Dirac fermion. Lattice effects then lift this degeneracy in a manner similar to staggered fermions on regular lattices. The evidence that these discretization effects vanish in the continuum limit suggests both that lattice continuum Kahler-Dirac fermions are recovered at that point, and that this limit truly corresponds to smooth continuum geometries. One additional advantage of the Kahler-Dirac action is that it respects an exact $U(1)$ symmetry on any random triangulation. This $U(1)$ symmetry is related to continuum chiral symmetry. By examining fermion bilinear condensates we find strong evidence that this $U(1)$ symmetry is not spontaneously broken in the model at order the Planck scale. This is a necessary requirement if models based on dynamical triangulations are to provide a valid ultraviolet complete formulation of quantum gravity.


Background The optimal pre-participation screening strategy in competitive athletes is debated. Objective To evaluate the accuracy of cardiovascular screening in NCAA athletes using a standardized history, physical exam (PE), and electrocardiogram (ECG). Design Prospective multi-center trial. Setting Competitive US collegiate athletes from 17 schools. Participants 3 284 athletes (56% male; 73% Caucasian; 15% African-American; mean age 19.8 years) from 17 sports were screened from July 2012 to October 2013. Assessment of risk factors Screening included a standardized history and PE based on recommendations from the American Heart Association (AHA), and a resting 12-lead ECG interpreted using 2013 international consensus standards (Seattle Criteria). Main outcome measurements Abnormalities detected by history, PE, and ECG. Results 1 022 (31.1%) athletes had >1 positive history response with SOB (11.6%%), syncope/near-syncope (11.0%), and exertional chest pain (6.5%) most common. PE was abnormal in 72 (2.2%) athletes. Overall, 123 (3.7%) ECGs were classified as abnormal (67.5% male, 32.5% female). The rate of abnormal ECGs was higher in men compared to women (4.5% vs 2.6%), African-Americans compared to Caucasians (5.3% vs. 3.6%), and most common in basketball players. A total of 133 ECG abnormalities were detected, including Q waves 36.8%, T wave inversion 22.6%, left axis deviation 9.8%, ST depression 7.5%, ventricular pre-excitation 6.8%, PVCs 5.3%, left atrial enlargement 4.5%, right ventricular hypertrophy 3.0%, prolonged QRS 2.3%, and prolonged QTc 1.5%. Eleven (0.3%) potentially lethal cardiac disorders were discovered. All 11 had abnormal ECGs, and only 2 cases had abnormal history or PE. Conclusions The current AHA strategy for pre-participation screening generates a high number of false-positive responses in college athletes. ECG screening using modern standards for interpretation provides a low and acceptable rate of abnormal findings and greatly increases the identification of serious cardiac disorders in US collegiate athletes.


Confident effect of five magnetic composite nanoparticles (FeP@Ag, FeP@Pd, CoP, NiP, Fe2O3@AГ) on growth of test bacteria colonies (Acinetobacter baumannii, Еscherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus) in five replicates each is considered. Reliable inhibitors of colonies of all five test bacteria were nanoparticles FeP@Ag. CoP nanoparticles are reliable inhibitors of growth of 4 test bacteria (except for test bacteria Escherichia сoli). NiP nanoparticles are reliable inhibitors of growth of 2 test bacteria: Escherichia сoli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Bacteria Escherichia сoli were most sensitive to the effect of magnetic nanoparticles; and bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were most resistant to the effect of magnetic nanoparticles. The prospects of the method are in the possibility of multiple reuse of the magnetic particles with antimicrobial properties for bacterial decontamination of the studied sources of water and removal of magnetic nanoparticles from the treated liquids by electromagnet. The method can find use in water treatment facilities for household, Industrial and medical wastes.


Defining the Midlands is a challenge because it is an area which is mostly lacking clear geographical divisions and its boundaries have consequently been drawn along different lines depending on frames of reference. Here, however, 'the Midlands' has been taken to encompass 15 counties from five different local government regions: Derbyshire, Leicestershire (including Rutland), Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Nottinghamshire (East Midlands region); Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire (West Midlands region); Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (South-East England region); Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire (East of England region; and Gloucestershire (South West Region). This area, which could perhaps be better termed 'the greater Midlands', including as it does both core and peripheral regions of the traditional Midlands zone is, of course, at one level a function of a prosaic need within this volume to divide the country up into regions for discussion, and in no way seeks to suggest that these 15 counties constitute a meaningful distinct culture-historical pays. Although covering such a large region in a single chapter creates some difficulties, it does also deliver some benefits: encompassing the diverse areas of the 'greater' Midlands highlights the 'fuzziness' of most historical/geographical/cultural boundaries and allows us to compare and contrast settlement patterns within and beyond the traditional boundaries of the core Midlands pays.


While progress has been made in understanding the robustness of machine learning classifiers to test-time adversaries (evasion attacks), fundamental questions remain unresolved. In this paper, we use optimal transport to characterize the maximum achievable accuracy in an adversarial classification scenario. In this setting, an adversary receives a random labeled example from one of two classes, perturbs the example subject to a neighborhood constraint, and presents the modified example to the classifier. We define an appropriate cost function such that the minimum transportation cost between the distributions of the two classes determines the \emph{minimum $0-1$ loss for any classifier}. When the classifier comes from a restricted hypothesis class, the optimal transportation cost provides a lower bound. We apply our framework to the case of Gaussian data with norm-bounded adversaries and explicitly show matching bounds for the classification and transport problems and the optimality of linear classifiers. We also characterize the sample complexity of learning in this setting, deriving and extending previously known results as a special case. Finally, we use our framework to study the gap between the optimal classification performance possible and that currently achieved by state-of-the-art robustly trained neural networks for datasets of interest, namely, MNIST, Fashion MNIST and CIFAR-10.


Regular menstruation signals a woman's health and fertility. Yet, menstruation is surrounded by shame, secrecy, embarrassment, fear, humiliation, silence, taboo, and stigma. Linked to the taboo around menstruation, many cultural and religious norms – often grounded in patriarchal assumptions – seek to prevent contact with menstruating women and girls in order to avoid 'contamination' or 'becoming impure'. To some extent, this perception of menstruation is a paradox, given that motherhood is glorified. However, menstruation is not perceived as 'feminine', it does not conform to the stereotypical role and behavior of women. Such stereotypes require women to be beautiful and beautified, deodorized and fresh, not bloody and smelly. Hence, women and girls are expected to hide menstruation and go to great length to conceal it.Against this background, the article will explore challenges in MHM at the practical and policy level, how menstrual hygiene is situated in the human rights framework, in particular gender equality, how MHM can be defined in human rights terms and how using the framework of human rights and substantive equality may contribute to giving MHM greater visibility and prioritizing the development for appropriate strategies and solutions.The taboo and silence around menstruation makes menstruation a non-issue. Despite making up half of the population, women's requirements are overlooked and neglected, sometimes even deliberately ignored. This low priority and lack of attention at all levels – from international policy-making to the private sphere – has devastating impacts on women's and girls' lives. It prevents women reaching their full potential and achieving gender equality. Women and girls lose days of school and work with far-reaching implications for their education, well-being and livelihoods, and they are subjected to cultural prescriptions that may amount to harmful practices.The contribution of the human rights framework lies in drawing attention to the plight of women and girls who are not able to manage their menstruation adequately by highlighting State and other actors' obligations and responsibilities with respect to MHM. The framework of human rights and substantive equality requires guaranteeing women the exercise and enjoyment of human rights on the basis of equality. Poor menstrual hygiene management, stigmatization, or cultural, social or religious practices that limit menstruating women and girls' capacity to work, to get an education or to engage in society must be eradicated. Considering menstruation as what it is – a fact of life – and integrating this view at all levels will contribute to enabling women and girls to manage their menstruation adequately, without shame and embarrassment, with dignity.


Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee joint is one of the causes of pain and physical disability. Our aim is to prevent the OA of the knee joint. Hence, to prevent and to treat, the OA knee pain needs to find an association between various biomechanical factors of the lower limb and OA knee pain. Therefore, to assess the association between the lower extremity biomechanical factors with osteoarthritis of knee pain. Materials and Methods: Our study was a cross-sectional study, in that we have taken fifty participants who already diagnosed OA. The various biomechanical factors of the lower limb were measured along with outcome scales such as the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) for the OA knee and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for the knee pain from each participant. Results: There was a significant correlation found between femoral anteversion and navicular drop with WOMAC scale with a P = 0.001 and 0.03, respectively. The significant correlation between femoral anteversion, hamstring muscle length, Q angle (dynamic), and tibial torsion with NRS pain scale with P = 0.07, 0.06, 0.07, and 0.06, respectively. Conclusion: The study concluded that body mass index, femoral anteversion, hamstring's length, navicular drop, tibial torsion, and Q angle (dynamic) are various biomechanical factors which might be responsible for the incidence of the OA knee along with functional limitation and OA knee pain.


Introduction In 2003, Canada and the United States announced their first cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. In May, a single infected cow was discovered in Alberta. In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the U.S.'s first case: a dairy cow in Washington State had tested positive for BSE. Soon after, DNA testing showed that the Washington cow had been born, and most likely infected, in Canada. (1) In comparison to the European experience with BSE, two single cases among the vast cattle population of North America appear insignificant. Certainly, these cases have few implications for public health. However, the economic impact of both cases was significant for both countries, albeit far greater in Canada. Most particularly, both countries immediately lost their export market, and have yet to fully regain them. Initially, in the wake of these cases, U.S.-Canada relations remained cordial. The U.S. did not blame Canada for the BSE case, instead setting about reforming its own internal control measures. But, as the export ban lingered, relations began to deteriorate. The U.S. ultimately rejected the assessment of international experts that the U.S. and Canada treat BSE as a joint problem. In September 2004, the Canadian Conservative Party leader accused the U.S. of protectionism, and of using this case to punish Canada for its lack of full support in the war on Iraq. (22) The crux of the dispute between the two NAFTA partners has been over the U.S. decision to continue banning the import of live cattle from Canada--a decision that has had devastating effects on Canada's industry, which had become dependent on sending cattle to the U.S. for slaughter and processing. On December 29, 2004, the U.S. announced its intention to lift this ban in March 2005. However, in the wake of two further cases of Canadian BSE discovered in January 2005, and heavy opposition from some, but not all, U.S. stakeholders, a judge in Montana granted a preliminary injunction to halt lifting the ban. Canadian cattlemen, in turn, have threatened to take the U.S. to NAFTA and WTO tribunals. This article tells this story, focusing on issues of comparative and transboundary risk management in highly integrated agricultural systems. As one analysis puts it, BSE is a "dramatic example" of the importance of transboundary risk management systems, when human, animal, or plant health is threatened through inadvertent importation of dangerous diseases (Caswell and Sparling, 2004, pp. 1-2). It is also a broader story of the politics of transboundary risk in open economies, and of the ways in which these risks can undermine or potentially derail trade and integration agreements. In this case, the U.S. government rapidly closed the border for the beef trade with Canada. Subsequently, diplomatic efforts on both sides, aimed at establishing a standard of "minimal risk" to justify re-starting trade in live cattle have (at least at this time of writing) been derailed by political and economic interests in the U.S.. This case is likely to have broader implications for future U.S.-Canada relations in the context of agricultural trade. It also fails to inspire confidence in the ability of the three NAFTA partners--the U.S., Canada and Mexico--to resolve similar crises in the future. A detailed examination of the U.S. and Canada's response to these two cases of BSE in 2003 illustrates much of what these two countries have in common in terms of risk management policies--and also, the important ways in which they differ. The next part of this article discusses the "separate but parallel" development of BSE policies in each country, before detailing how the economic impacts on the Canadian beef sector lead to a significant divergence in each country's experience. This divergence led to a lengthy, and highly politicized, disagreement between them over the U.S.'s continued embargo of beef and cattle products from Canada. …


Abstract. Aerosols directly affect the radiative balance of the Earth through the absorption and scattering of solar radiation. Although the contributions of absorption (heating) and scattering (cooling) of sunlight have proved difficult to quantify, the consensus is that anthropogenic aerosols cool the climate, partially offsetting the warming by rising greenhouse gas concentrations. Recent estimates of global direct anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing (i.e., global radiative forcing due to aerosol–radiation interactions) are −0.35 ± 0.5 W m−2, and these estimates depend heavily on aerosol simulation. Here, we integrate a comprehensive suite of satellite and ground-based observations to constrain total aerosol optical depth (AOD), its fine-mode fraction, the vertical distribution of aerosols and clouds, and the collocation of clouds and overlying aerosols. We find that the direct fine-mode aerosol radiative effect is −0.46 W m−2 (−0.54 to −0.39 W m−2). Fine-mode aerosols include sea salt and dust aerosols, and we find that these natural aerosols result in a very large cooling (−0.44 to −0.26 W m−2) when constrained by observations. When the contribution of these natural aerosols is subtracted from the fine-mode radiative effect, the net becomes −0.11 (−0.28 to +0.05) W m−2. This net arises from total (natural + anthropogenic) carbonaceous, sulfate and nitrate aerosols, which suggests that global direct anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing is less negative than −0.35 W m−2.


Wireless network emulators provide various mobile node dynamic conditions and wireless links for real implementation of protocols to be evaluated based on user-defined mobility scenarios. The target of our proposed emulator is IP-based protocols for large-scale mobile wireless networks composed of a large number of high-speed vehicles. The requirements imposed by our target are high scalability and high-speed mobility emulation while maintaining high accuracy for many hours. To satisfy this, we first introduce a distributed architecture then propose an approach called "time-based wireless link emulation." In this approach, the mobility scenario is converted into a wireless link schedule, and each distributed processor emulates a wireless link based only on the schedule and its clock, which is precisely synchronized with the other processor clocks by using IEEE 1588 PTPv2. Intensive experiments on the performance of the latest version of our prototype emulator show that (i) high-speed mobility emulation up to 200 m/sec with 0.1 M accuracy, (ii) packet delay emulation with 100 μsec accuracy, and (iii) time-stamps based measurement of elapsed time spent by test nodes with 100 μsec accuracy have been achieved. Our proposed emulator functioned well in an experiment with a simple protocol implementation for car-to-car/infrastructure communication.


The objective of this research was to validate to Brazil the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) developed by Schwartz. The PVQ was translated into Portuguese using the back-translation procedure and was applied to a sample of 614 students from primary, high and college education. The data were analyzed by means of the multidimensional scaling technique using a bi-dimensional structure. The spatial configuration obtained offers a positive indication for the construct validity of the instrument. The regions found were: Conformity, Tradition, Security, Stimulation, Universality/Benevolence, Power/Achievement and Self-Determination/Hedonism. The last three regions were composed of adjacent motivational types. Descriptive and comparative results converging with international findings also constitute a set of important elements that supports the validity of the instrument.


BACKGROUND
Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member B10 (AKR1B10) is an enzyme implicated in physiological xenobiotic detoxification and also in pathological carcinogenesis. Overexpression of AKR1B10 has been reported in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but its correlation with clinical prognosis is controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate and clarify the role of AKR1B10 in OSCC carcinogenesis.

METHODS
Tumor tissue specimens were surgically obtained from 107 patients with OSCC. The expression of AKR1B10 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry to explore the relationship between the level of AKR1B10 and clinicopathological features of OSCC patients. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox proportional hazard analysis were used to determine the prognostic value of AKR1B10 in OSCC.

RESULTS
High expression of AKR1B10 was found to be associated with tumor size (P = 0.043), perineural invasion (P = 0.012), and recurrence (P = 0.001) in OSCC. Cox model analysis revealed that high expression of AKR1B10 is significantly associated with poor overall and disease-free survival in OSCC patients. With the combination of clinicopathological factors in analysis, we found that the expression level of AKR1B10 was a practical indicator that could categorize OSCC patients into different risk groups. High expression of AKR1B10 was associated with a reduced survival in patients with well and moderately differentiated OSCC and even a high incidence of tumor recurrence in the patients with late-stage (III and IV) disease.

CONCLUSION
We validated and expanded data on the expression of AKR1B10 in OSCC, suggesting that it is a valuable biomarker for prognostic prediction of recurrence and survival in OSCC.


The article is aimed at the modernization of organizational and economic support of the sectoral system of marine transport management in the Russian Federation. It considers future requirements for its capacity and contribution to the solution of economic problems on both national and global scale. Authors concluded that there are ample opportunities and reserves for the functioning of sea transport. Among them are the development of markets, the deployment of productive forces, the increase in the efficiency of social production and the economic security of the Russian Federation. Future trends are available for the condition of drastic modernization of management principles and management systems both in sectoral and regional context.


Consuming fermented foods has been reported to result in improvements in a range of health parameters. These positive effects can be exerted by a combination of the live microorganisms that the fermented foods contain, as well as the bioactive components released into the foods as by-products of the fermentation process. In many instances, and particularly in dairy fermented foods, the microorganisms involved in the fermentation process belong to the lactic acid group of bacteria (LAB). An alternative approach to making some of the health benefits that have been attributed to fermented foods available is through the production of 'fermentates'. The term 'fermentate' generally relates to a powdered preparation, derived from a fermented product and which can contain the fermenting microorganisms, components of these microorganisms, culture supernatants, fermented substrates, and a range of metabolites and bioactive components with potential health benefits. Here, we provide a brief overview of a selection of in vitro and in vivo studies and patents exclusively reporting the health benefits of LAB 'fermentates'. Typically, in such studies, the potential health benefits have been attributed to the bioactive metabolites present in the crude fermentates and/or culture supernatants rather than the direct effects of the LAB strain(s) involved.


Colloidal semiconductive quantum dots (QDs) are nanomaterials that have provoked much interest in the field of nanotechnology in recent decades. Due to the quantum confinement effect, these materials have highly tunable optical and electronic properties that depend on the nanocrystal size, shape, and composition. Because of these properties, QDs are potentially useful for applications such as LEDs, lasers, in-vivo and in-vitro imaging, and other sensing technologies. The work in this thesis has three central focuses: 1. the design, synthesis and characterization of CdSe/CdS core/shell quantum dots with rod-in-rod microstructures (QRs), 2. their use in bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) systems with firefly luciferase (Ppy) enzymes, and 3. the tuning of the surface chemistry and functionality of QRs and core/alloy magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) for other biological applications. In order to create BRET conjugates that participate in highly efficient energy transfer, I first synthesized a large variety of QRs and characterized them with ultravioletvisible spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and other techniques. I investigated the effects of QR energy-accepting properties (absorption coefficients, quantum yields, and optical polarization), as well as morphological and topological characteristics (aspect ratio, microstructure and defect concentration), on BRET efficiency. In this work I also studied how different luciferase enzyme + substrate combinations could enhance BRET efficiency. Our findings indicated that QR with lower aspect ratios coupled with red-emitting Ppy enzymes had the highest BRET efficiency. Another BRET system that I studied involved a near infrared (nIR) emitting QD coupled with Ppy. This system had high BRET efficiency and showed promise for applications such as in-vivo imaging and night vision. Finally, I explored the silica coating of both QR and magnetic core/alloy FeNi and FeCr NPs. Silica coating is a surface modification tool which can greatly improve colloidal stability, render aqueous solubility, enhance and protect optical properties through surface passivation, and may mitigate the toxicity associated with the heavy metals used in the synthesis of QR and other NPs. In addition, since the silica (SiO2) shell thickness can be modulated in the synthesis, this modification can be used to probe distance dependence in BRET and to test magnetic behavior in NPs. I also employed these FeCr/SiO2 and FeNi/SiO2 NPs for magnetically and reversibly separating small fragments of DNA from solution. Both the FeCr/SiO2 and FeNi/SiO2 NPs showed good magnetic separation and promising capacity for DNA separation. The Bio-Nano Interface: Investigating the Roles of Nanoparticle Morphology, Microstructure, Optoelectronic Properties, and Surface Chemistry for Biological Applications By Liliana M. Karam Department of Chemistry B.S. Binghamton University, State University of New York, 2012


Abstract W.V.Quine and Philip Kitcher have both developed naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of science which are partially based on a skeptical view about the possibility of rational inquiry into certain questions of value. Nonetheless, both Quine and Kitcher do not wish to give up on the normative dimension of the philosophy of science. I argue that Kitcher's recent argument against the specification of the goal of science in terms of truth raises a problem for Quine's account of the normative dimensions of the discipline. However Kitcher's alternative suggestion, that the goal of science is to be specified in terms of an ideal democratic procedure, does not escape this problem, given Kitcher's own limited skepticism about rational inquiry into certain questions of value.


A Shake and Bake machine translation algorithm for Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar is introduced based on the algorithm proposed by Whitelock for unification categorial grammar. The translation process is then analysed to determine where the potential sources of inefficiency reside, and some proposals are introduced which greatly improve the efficiency of the generation algorithm. Preliminary empirical results from tests involving a small grammar are presented, and suggestions for greater improvement to the algorithm are provided.