Algebraic structures play a prominent role in mathematics with wide ranging applications in many disciplines such as theoretical physics, computer sciences, control engineering, information sciences, coding theory, topological spaces and the like. This provides sufficient motivation to researchers to review various concepts and results. The theory of ternary algebraic system was introduced by D. H. Lehmer [11]. He investigated certain ternary algebraic systems called triplexes which turn out to be commutative ternary groups. The notion of ternary semigroups was introduced by Banach S. He showed by an example that a ternary semigroup does not necessarily reduce to an ordinary semigroups. In another hand, in mathematics, Green's relations characterise the elements of a semigroup in terms of the principal ideals they generate. John Mackintosh Howie, a prominent semigroup theorist, described this work as so all-pervading that, on encountering a new semigroup, almost the first question one asks is "What are the Green relations like?" (Howie 2002). The relations are useful for understanding the nature of divisibility in a semigroup. In this paper we study Green's relations on ternary semigroup in view of those obtained in binary semigroups. Many interesting results (essentially analogous of Green's lemmas for semigroups [4] and [13]) can be derived for our case. We are also interested in the quality of idempotents with respect to the Green's relations. The particular case of ternary inverse semigroup has been studied and a relationship between the existence of idempotents and the inverse elements has been caracterized.


For an informed management regime to ensure sustainability of the marine
fisheries, it is essential not only to have reliable information on the status of marine
fish resources along with fishing effort expended but also the number of fishing villages,
landing centres, fisherfolk population, their occupation status, fishing crafts, fishing
gears and other related parameters. With this objective, the Central Marine Fisheries
Research Institute (CMFRI), Cochin has been conducting frame surveys at periodic
intervals. Marine fisheries census on an all India basis was last conducted by CMFRI
during May-July, 1980. Since the last census, the marine fisheries in India have
witnessed both qualitative and quantitative changes. Post 1980 was also been a
period where a number of management/policy interventions were made by the
Government of India and the maritime states for ensuring sustainability, conservation
of resources and to protect the interests of artisanal fishermen. Surely, the policies
and interventions need to be reviewed and fine tuned in view of the highly dynamic
nature of marine fisheries. For this a strong realtime and reliable database on various
aspects of marine fisheries is essential. Recognising such a need, Department of Animal
Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries (DAHD&F), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Govt. of
India, has taken up during the 10th Five Year Plan, a programme on Strengthening of
Database and Information Networking for Indian Fisheries Sector in which Marine
Fisheries Census is a major component. Recognising the expertise and experience of
CMFRI in conducting such massive census surveys, the DAHD&F, MOA has entrusted
the task of conducting the All India Marine Fisheries Census in the mainland to
CMFRI


Introduction The use of mobile phase pH to control analyte ionization states (pH-LCTM) in reversed phase HPLC separations is a highly effective way to change selectivity. The ionized species of an analyte is shown to have higher polarity (less hydrophobicity) than the neutral species, which results in a loss of expected retention for that analyte. This can be attributed to less interaction with the hydrophobic stationary phase and greater affinity with the aqueous portion of the mobile phase. Ionized species also have ionic interactions with exposed and activated silanols, which impact peak shape and reproducibility.


This chapter introduces the general vision of the Social Semantic Desktop (SSD) and details it in the context of the NEPOMUK project. It outlines the typical SSD requirements and functionalities that were identified from real world scenarios. In addition, it provides the design of the standard SSD architecture together with the ontology pyramid developed to support it. Finally, the chapter gives an overview of some of the technical challenges that arise from the actual development process of the SSD.


Digital technologies serve as an important educational resource for tertiary students. A key feature of many current digital technologies available to students is that they can function as proxies in the learning process; that is, technology can be used to carry out some academic-related tasks on behalf of the user. For tertiary educators, the widespread availability of technological proxies raises a number of important pedagogical issues. In this article, we discuss technological proxy in the context of intentional learning. Drawing from the literature on learner motivation, we identify three key variables – learners' achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy beliefs, and proxy efficacy beliefs – and advance a set of propositions about how relationships between these variables may shape students' use of technology as intentional learners. A key goal of this article is to expand current thinking around the ways in which tertiary learners' efficacy beliefs relate to working with digital technology and, ultimately, their learning and performance outcomes.


Bacteria regulate chromosome replication and segregation tightly with cell division to ensure faithful segregation of DNA to daughter generations. The underlying mechanisms have been addressed in several model species. It became apparent that bacteria have evolved quite different strategies to regulate DNA segregation and chromosomal organization. We have investigated here how the actinobacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum organizes chromosome segregation and DNA replication. Unexpectedly, we find that C. glutamicum cells are at least diploid under all conditions tested and that these organisms have overlapping C-periods during replication with both origins initiating replication simultaneously. Based on experimentally obtained data we propose growth rate dependent cell cycle models for C. glutamicum.


In a challenge to orthodox criminological understandings of what constitutes crime, and who can legitimately sanction wrongful behaviour, over the past two decades criminologists have paid increasing attention to crimes committed by states, and the movements of resistance that emerge in opposition to deviant state practice. At the heart of this new criminological sub-discipline is an interest in the social configurations which cause states to exceed accepted rules of conduct and the factors that prompt victims and civil society to define these actions as criminal, and then actualise censure through acts of sanction. In order to acquaint readers with critical features of the emerging state crime studies terrain, this chapter will begin by examining the particular conceptual frameworks criminologists employ to define state crime – particular attention will be paid to criteria-based and process-driven approaches. It will be suggested that although the former framework illuminates breaches of normative criteria, the latter approach is more attuned to the practical processes of historical struggle that stigmatise state practices as criminal. Attention will then be turned to criminology's growing interest in the forms of social resistance state crime prompts. It will be suggested that this stream of inquiry offers a conduit through which to consider the broader economic, political and ideological fault-lines upon which state crime and resistance rests, a conduit that allows scholars to concretise understandings of why state's exceed certain normative boundaries and why communities of resistance are strategically disposed to stigmatise these actions as criminal. Finally this chapter will consider the different theoretical traditions criminologists have employed to understand these fault-lines, looking in particular at the strengths and limitations of positivist versus Marxist approaches. It will be concluded that state crime studies offers a powerful vantage point through which to inquire into, and articulate, both the way different configurations of civil society produce, through struggle, normative boundaries which states must adhere to, and then enact sanction when these boundaries are exceeded, in addition to illuminating the factors that inspire states to exceed these normative boundaries and eschew subsequent stigmatising labels, looking at the potential this complex social exchange has for producing emancipatory forms of social change.


Thejuvenile colour patterns of 24 of the 27 parrotfish species presently recorded from the Great Barrier Reef are described. Two from the subfamily Sparisomatinae: Calotomus carolinus (Valenciennes) and Leptoscarus vaigiensis (Quay & Gaimard). Twenty two from the subfamily Scarinae: Bolbometopon muricatum (Valenciennes); Cetoscarus bicolor (Riippell); Hipposcarus longiceps (Valenciennes); Scarus altipinnis Steindachner; Scarus bleekeri (de Beaufort); Scarus chameleon Choat & Randall; Scarus dimidiatus Bleeker; ScarusJlavipectoralis Schultz; ScarusJorsteni (Bleeker); Scarus Jrenatus Lacepecte; Scarus ghobban ForsskiU; Scarus gibbus Riippell; Scarus globiceps Valenciennes; Scarus longipinnis Randall & Choat; Scarus niger ForsskaI; Scarus oviceps Valenciennes; Scarus psittacus ForsskaI; Scarus rivulatus Valenciennes; Scarus rubroviolaceus Bleeker; Scarus schlegeli (Bleeker); Scarus sordidus ForsskiU; Scarus spinus (Kner). Descriptions are given of the ontogeny of the colour patterns, where possible, from early post-settlement to the transition to the initial phase. Descriptions are based on field observations with additional colour notes on fresh and preserved specimens. Meristic data are also provided. Particular emphasis is placed on the size related ontogeny of colour patterns, with additional notes on short-term behavioural changes. The descriptions are intended for field identification of juvenile scirids; a rapid field identification guide and ecological notes on each species are given to facilitate field identification; specific notes for distinguishing species in the field are included. All species can be identified to the species level with the exception of two pairs of closely related species: S. rivulatus S. globiceps and S. psittacus S. schlegeli. Colour plates oflive and/or fresh specimens of 22 species are given, sequential colour pattern changes arc shown for some species. Most juvenile scarids share a common series of colour pattern changes during the early post-settlement period. These patterns are described and figured, and exceptions noted. Juvenile scarids likewise share a typical pattern of stripes and/or bars. The standard patterns are described and used as a basis for describing intraspecific differences in colour patterns. The juvenile colour patterns are discussed in relation to species complexes and adult relationships. The functions of juvenile colour patterns in relation to the ecology of juvenile scarids are also discussed. Two associations are described: schooling species bearing uniformly pale or striped patterns and solitary species with complex patterns. BELLWOOD, D.R. & I.H. CHOAT, 1989. A description of the juvenile phase colour patterns of 24 parrotfish species (family Scaridae) from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 41(1): 1-41.


Abstract In this paper I will pose a challenge to digital heritage visualisation that takes as its starting point the weirdness of the digital world in comparison to everyday experience. Related to this is the apparent inability for digital objects to benefit from or acquire aura from their originals. I contend that, unless mitigated, these properties will cause a continuing lack of engagement with digital heritage visualisation beyond the professional and academic circles in which they are created. Contrary to expectations, I will argue digital objects can indeed manifest an auratic quality and that this is in fact fundamental to how they are received by various audiences. I contend that both aura and the intimate relationship between digital representation, aesthetics and the creative imagination need to be understood and embraced in practice. Finally, I will suggest some ways of addressing the challenge by looking at modes of co-production, physical replication and aesthetic quality.


The synthesis of alkyl 2-(carboethoxyhydroxymethyl)acrylates via the Bayllis-Hillmann reaction pathway is described. These compounds are found to be poor monomers when involved in free radical polymerizations but present an extremely high reactivity upon Michael addition with primary amines leading to a simple, mild and efficient route to the preparation of new multifunctional heterocycles and polymers with potential applications in biodegradable coatings. Real-time NMR spectroscopy permitted monitoring the extent of the reaction sequence and determining the conversion profile of reactants and Michael adduct intermediate. Poly(ester amide)s derived from diamine and hexane bis-2-(carboethoxyhydroxymethyl)acrylate were synthesized at room temperature by means of a very efficient Michael addition/cyclization polymerization. These polymers display excellent adhesion to metal, glass, and paper substrates and interesting hydrolytic susceptibility. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 3182–3192, 2008


This collection of case stories illustrates the balance, continuity, and evolution in substantive criminal law doctrine in light of the social and political contexts in which those doctrines are perennially tested. These stories focus on the pre-litigation behavior of defendants, raising important moral and cultural questions about human nature and human society and how social norms get translated into workable legal doctrines. They survey the typical variety of doctrines addressed in a standard criminal law course, elucidating the classic themes of common law jurisprudence.


We present a framework for characterizing Bayesian classification methods. This framework can be thought of as a spectrum of allowable dependence in a given probabilistic model with the Naive Bayes algorithm at the most restrictive end and the learning of full Bayesian networks at the most general extreme. While much work has been carried out along the two ends of this spectrum, there has been surprising little done along the middle. We analyze the assumptions made as one moves along this spectrum and show the tradeoffs between model accuracy and learning speed which become critical to consider in a variety of data mining domains. We then present a general induction algorithm that allows for traversal of this spectrum depending on the available computational power for carrying out induction and show its application in a number of domains with different properties.


The climate of the early Earth was probably very warm and has, in general, reduced since the Archean. However, it now seems that the world is about 0.6°C warmer than it was 100 years ago and estimates of the rate of global warming over the next century range from 0.16°C to 0.35°C per decade. Concurrently, global sea-level is predicted to rise from 2.4 to 10 cm per decade. These rates of change are much faster than those normally associated with the geological record, causing geologists and palaeontologists to reassess their data and their forecasts on rates of future change. With the current interest in global climatic change and, more specifically, with global warming, it is clear that palaeontologists have valuable information to provide on the impacts of past climatic change. This volume contains papers from an international array of such geologists and palaeontologists, showing how studies of micro- and macrofossils, plant and vertebrate fossils from a range of geological ages have contributed to our understanding of how climate affects both local and more widespread areas. The contributions are arranged in geological order, ranging from the Permo-Carboniferous to the post-glacial recovery of the last 18,000 years, with an emphasis on climate change during the last two million years, particularly in NW Europe. Climates: Past and Present will be of interest to palaeontologists, geologists and palaeoclimatologists who specialize in climatic reconstructions and any professionals enagaged in research into the geological aspects of climate change.


A seismic source on floating ice induces flexural waves in the ice layer. An exploratory data analysis of Arctic fjord ice seismic data is performed for the purpose of identifying and studying characteristics of flexural waves and other related wave modes. Both geophone and hydrophone data are examined with the purpose of studying ice properties from ice wave behavior. Power spectral density estimates provide the frequency content of the entire signal, and studies of timefrequency plots have revealed both dispersive and non-dispersive ice related waves and their corresponding frequencies. F-k spectra are applied to study the dispersion relation for both flexural and acoustic ice waves. This provides the (variation in) wavelengths for the different waves. Velocities of the flexural waves are obtained by cross-correlating receivers at known offsets and by combining the obtained wavelengths with the period found from single receiver traces. Other observed waves include a guided direct wave in ice, a seafloor reflection and its multiples, and a refracted wave. The combination of several analysis methods makes it possible to identify several characteristics and properties of floating ice related waves, contributing to the understanding of such wave behavior. Wave characteristics of flexural and acoustic ice waves are combined to find ice properties like thickness and rigidity.


This thesis is an examination of slave abolitionists in Liverpool and Manchester and their shared hinterland of South Lancashire. Cheshire and North Wales from 1787 to 1834. The changing economic and social structures of the region provide a backdrop to consider activities during the campaign against the slave trade up to its abolition in 1807, and the campaign for emancipation, which achieved success in 1834.

The thesis uses existing theories of economic decline and economic sacrifice to explain Britain's abandoning of the slave system as a starting point. However, the thesis explores the complex interplay of commercial, religious and political interests in the region in an attempt to gain a clearer picture of the forces at work, which motivated protagonists' activities.

The thesis contextualises the campaigns against the slave trade and the institution of slavery within the rapidly industrialising landscape of the region. This industrialisation ushered in a new local social and economic elite: the industrial middle class, who would assume political influence to match their economic power, with the reform of Parliament in 1833. This study shows that it was appeals to the interests of the new elite that carried most weight, helping bring about the sea change in British public opinion.

An examination of important abolitionalists' activities in the region illustrates how the anti-slavery movement framed their arguments. These arguments tied together religious and economic concerns within a broader political framework, which reflected the growing importance of laissez faire economic philosophy and the declining influence of traditional power brokers. In this light, it is interesting to consider the arguments forwarded by abolitionists who fell outside of this industrial, Dissenting, disenfranchised group to illustrate how their concerns differed. The study recognises that opposing political paradigms could be used to underpin arguments against slavery.


The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is increasing in both developing and developed worlds, entailing enormous mortality and morbidity. CNS TB has a wide and protean clinical spectrum, raising important problems in diagnosis and institution of empirical antituberculous therapy (ATT). Tuberculous radiculomyelitis (TBRM) is a life-threatening complication of neurological TB that is rarely reported. In literature, TBRM is often secondary to downward extension of tuberculous meningitis, or occasionly secondary to osteitis.1 Primary TBRM appears rare and probably arises as a localised arachnoiditis from a primary focus in the meninges.2 Efficient diagnosis by detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) DNA can provides a rapid diagnosis of CNS TB and may be life-saving. Here, we report four cases with atypical CSF features; diagnoses were established on positive test of MTB DNA.

### Case 1

A 47-year-old woman, who had suffered from a brief febrile illness without neurological and respiratory manifestation 2 weeks previously, experienced an acute bilateral lower-limb weakness and paraesthesia with urinary retention in January 2007. She had been unable to walk unaided, and catheterisation was required. MRI of the thoraco-lumbar spinal cord (figure 1A–E) showed increased T2 intramedullary signals and ring enhancements below spinal cord level Th11, with nodular enhancement of the corda enquina. CSF examination showed normal. She underwent steroid pulsed treatment that did not show any effect. By the middle of March, she complained of progressive weakness and sharp pains in both legs with burning dysaesthesia of …


Known gene mutations account for approximately 50% of the hereditary risk for breast cancer. Moderate and low penetrance variants, discovered by genomic approaches, account for an as-yet-unknown proportion of the remaining heritability. A truncating mutation c.325C>T:p.Arg109* (R109X) in the ATP-dependent helicase ERCC3 was observed recurrently among exomes sequenced in BRCA wild-type, breast cancer-affected individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Modeling of the mutation in ERCC3-deficient or CRISPR/Cas9-edited cell lines showed a consistent pattern of reduced expression of the protein and concomitant hypomorphic functionality when challenged with UVC exposure or treatment with the DNA alkylating agent IlludinS. Overexpressing the mutant protein in ERCC3-deficient cells only partially rescued their DNA repair-deficient phenotype. Comparison of frequency of this recurrent mutation in over 6,500 chromosomes of breast cancer cases and 6,800 Ashkenazi controls showed significant association with breast cancer risk (ORBC = 1.53, ORER+ = 1.73), particularly for the estrogen receptor-positive subset (P < 0.007).

SIGNIFICANCE
A functionally significant recurrent ERCC3 mutation increased the risk for breast cancer in a genetic isolate. Mutated cell lines showed lower survival after in vitro exposure to DNA-damaging agents. Thus, similar to tumors arising in the background of homologous repair defects, mutations in nucleotide excision repair genes such as ERCC3 could constitute potential therapeutic targets in a subset of hereditary breast cancers. Cancer Discov; 6(11); 1267-75. ©2016 AACR.This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1197.


On June 13, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Layshock ex rel. Layshock v. Hermitage School District and J.S. ex rel. Snyder v. Blue Mountain School District, held that school officials could not constitutionally punish the online, off-campus speech of two students when the speech would not foreseeably cause substantial disruption in school. Although the Third Circuit's results in these cases were consistent with Second Circuit precedent, the Third Circuit employed a less restrictive method for analyzing limitations on student speech. Accordingly, this Comment argues that the standards applied by the Third Circuit will lead to decisions in future online, off-campus speech cases which will generally be more favorable to public school districts than similar cases in the Second Circuit.


We have developed a novel model to study the correlated evolution of behavioural and morphophysiological traits in response to selection for increased locomotor activity. We used selective breeding to increase levels of voluntary wheel running in four replicate lines of laboratory house mice, Mus domesticus, with four random-bred lines maintained as controls. The experiment presented here tested for correlated behavioural responses in the wheel-cage complex, with wheels either free to rotate or locked (environmental factor). After 13 generations, mice from selected lines ran 2.2 times as many revolutions/day as controls on days 5 and 6 of initial exposure to wheels (10 826 versus 4890 revolutions/day, corresponding to 12.1 and 5.5 km/day, respectively). This increase was caused primarily by mice from selected lines running faster, not more minutes per day. Focal-animal observations confirmed that the increase in revolutions/day involved more actual running (or climbing in locked wheels), not an increase in coasting (or hanging). Not surprisingly, access to free versus locked wheels had several effects on behaviour, including total time spent in wheels, sniffing and biting. However, few behaviours showed statistically significant differences between the selected and control lines. Selection did not increase the total time spent in wheels (either free or locked), the frequency of nonlocomotor activities performed in the wheels, nor the amount of locomotor activity in cages attached to the wheels; as well, selection did not decrease the amount of time spent sleeping. Thus, wheel running is, at the genetic level, a largely independent axis of behaviour. Moreover, the genetic architecture of overall wheel running and its components seem conducive to increasing total distance moved without unduly increasing energy or time-related costs. The selection experiment also offers a new approach to study the proximate mechanisms of wheel-running behaviour itself. For example, frequencies of sniffing and wire biting were reduced in selected females but not males. This result suggests that motivation or function of wheel running may differ between the sexes. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


This paper exploits a unique account-level dataset of structured funds to study how arbitrageurs trade during bubble periods (i.e., when large positive swings of mispricing occur in structured funds). I find that arbitrageurs can both ride bubbles during the bubble-formation periods and make arbitrage trades during the bubble-bursting periods. In particular, arbitrageurs ride bubbles more aggressively when local unsophisticated investors start to trade in the direction of fueling bubbles and quit this strategy when mispricing becomes excessive. Identification tests based on the social contagion effect among unsophisticated investors support a causal interpretation. Moreover, arbitrageurs who can ride bubbles make more trading profits than those who only conduct arbitrage trades. These results suggest that arbitrageurs do not always trade in the direction of eliminating mispricing and that local information may play a pivotal role in shaping their trading motivations.


Melatonin, the predominant product of the pineal gland, is involved in the maintenance of diurnal. rhythms. Nocturnal blood concentrations of melatonin have been shown to be enhanced by fluvoxamine, but not by other serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Because fluvoxamine is an inhibitor of several cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, the authors studied the biotransformation of melatonin and the effects of fluvoxamine on the metabolism of melatonin in vitro using human liver microsomes and recombinant human CYP isoenzymes. Melatonin was found to be almost exclusively metabolized by CYP1A2 to 6-hydroxymelatonin and N-acetylserotonin with a minimal contribution of CYP2C19. Both reactions were potently inhibited by fluvoxamine, with a Ki of 0.02 μM for the formation of 6-hydroxymelatonin and 0.05 μM for the formation of N-acetylserotonin. Other than fluvoxamine, fluoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram, imipramine and desipramine were also tested at 2 and 20 μM. Among the other antidepressants, only paroxetine was able to affect the metabolism of melatonin at supratherapeutic concentrations of 20 μM, which did not reach by far the magnitude of the inhibitory potency of fluvoxamine. The authors concluded that fluvoxamine is a potent inhibitor of melatonin degradation. Because this inhibitory action is also found in vivo, fluvoxamine might be used as an enhancer of melatonin, which might offer new therapeutic possibilities of fluvoxamine.


Many of the worlds' forests and woodlands are currently showing symptoms of declining condition due to a range of factors, including changing climatic conditions, drought and insect herbivory. Altered abiotic and biotic conditions can influence the condition of trees that can, in turn, affect tree reproductive cycles. However, the potential impact of tree decline on reproductive cycles has rarely been examined. This study investigated the influence of canopy condition on the reproductive cycle of Eucalyptus wandoo Blakely in south-western Australia. Canopy and seed trap monitoring were used to assess bud production, flowering, fruiting and seed fall over 12 months at 24 sites across two locations (Dryandra Woodland and Wandoo Conservation Park). Time since last fire, rainfall, ambient temperatures and the condition of individual trees were recorded. We found that bud production, flowering and fruiting was correlated with tree condition: healthier trees were generally associated with higher reproductive effort. Time since last fire was also strongly related to the reproductive efforts at both locations. Declining annual rainfall and increased temperatures also impact on reproduction, made evident by the aborted flowering in Dryandra Woodland. Decline in tree condition, coupled with changes in climate, have major implications for flowering phenology of this species and have the potential to alter reproductive effort, recruitment and future population dynamics. Consideration of these issues should be incorporated into the conservation management of E. wandoo and similar Eucalypt species.


The prediction error in the Bayesian analysis program for digoxin was evaluated in Japanese patients, and factors influencing the accuracy were investigated. Serum concentrations of digoxin were monitored two times and were compared with the predicted values obtained by using the Bayesian analysis program. The prediction error at the first time was 43.1%. Although this estimation error was reasonably restored at the second time of monitoring, the prediction error remained at 26.6%. These data suggested that unknown factors not included in the program affected the serum concentration of digoxin. Retrospective research of the digoxin serum concentrations in the patients suggested the coadministration of the drugs, which were the P-glycoprotein modulators, as well as the unexpected alteration of the serum creatinine, were the important factors influencing the prediction of the drug serum concentrations. We next examined the inhibitory effect of quinidine, verapamil and spironolactone on the transcellular transport of digoxin by using human P-glycoprotein overexpressing LLC-GA5-COL150 cells. Quinidine, verapamil and spironolactone could inhibit the transcellular transport of digoxin by 50%. In addition, the reduction of the renal clearance by 50%, which could possibly be caused by this inhibition, led to the increase of 36% in the steady state through concentrations of digoxin in the physiological pharmacokinetic model. In conclusion, the prediction of long-term serum concentration-time profiles of digoxin, based on the Bayesian analysis, will be disturbed by the coadministration of the P-glycoprotein modulators and the unexpected alteration of the serum creatinine.


As knowledge continues to develop, regular updates are necessary concerning recommendations for practice. The recommendations for the management of melanoma stages I to III were drawn up in 2005. At the request of the Société Française de Dermatologie, they have now been updated using the methodology for recommendations proposed by the Haute Autorité de Santé in France. In practice, the principal recommendations are as follows: for staging, it is recommended that the 7th edition of AJCC be used. The maximum excision margins have been reduced to 2 cm. Regarding adjuvant therapy, the place of interferon has been reduced and no validated emerging medication has yet been identified. Radiotherapy may be considered for patients in Stage III at high risk of relapse. The sentinel lymph node technique remains an option. Initial examination includes routine ultrasound as of Stage II, with other examinations being optional in stages IIC and III. A shorter strict follow‐up period (3 years) is recommended for patients, but with greater emphasis on imaging.


Advances in technology have resulted in new and advanced methods to support decision-making. For example, artificial intelligence has enabled people to make better decisions through the use of Intelligent Decision Support Systems (DSS). Emerging research in DSS demonstrates that decision makers can operate in a more timely manner using real-time data, more accurately due to data mining and 'big data' methods, more strategically by considering a greater number of factors, more precisely and inclusively due to the availability of social networking data, and with a wider media reach with video and audio technology. This book presents the proceedings of the IFIP TC8/Working Group 8. 3 conference held at the UniversitU Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France, in June 2014. Throughout its history the conference has aimed to present the latest innovations and achievements in Decision Support Systems. This year the conference looks to the next generation with the theme of new technologies to enable DSS2. 0. The topics covered include theoretical, empirical and design science research; case-based approaches in decision support systems; decision models in the real-world; healthcare information technology; decision making theory; knowledge management; knowledge and resource discovery; business intelligence; group decision support systems; collaborative decision making; analytics and aebig dataAE; rich language for decision support; multimedia tools for DSS; Web 2. 0 systems in decision support; context-based technologies for decision making; intelligent systems and technologies in decision support; organizational decision support; research methods in DSS 2. 0; mobile DSS; competing on analytics; and social media analytics. The book will be of interest to all those who develop or use Decision Support Systems. The variety of methods and applications illustrated by this international group of carefully reviewed papers should provide ideas and directions for future researchers and practitioners alike.


In previous studies we have shown stimulation of renal acid excretion in the proximal tubules of rats with diabetes of short duration, with no important alterations in glomerular hemodynamics; on the other hand, in thyroparathyroidectomized rats (TPTX model), a significant decrease in renal acid excretion, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and renal plasma flow (RPF) was detected. Since important changes in the parathyroid hormone-vitamin D-Ca axis are observed in the diabetic state, the present study was undertaken to investigate the renal repercussions of thyroparathyroidectomy in rats previously made diabetic by streptozotocin (45 mg/kg). Four to 6 days after the induction of diabetes (DM), a group of rats were thyroparathyroidectomized (DM + TPTX). Renal functional parameters were evaluated by measuring the inulin and sodium para-aminohippurate clearance on the tenth day. The decrease in the GFR and RPF observed in TPTX was not reversed by diabetes since the same alterations were observed in DM + TPTX. Net acid (NA) excretion was unchanged in DM (6.19 +/- 0.54), decreased in TPTX (3.76 +/- 0.25) and returned to normal levels in DM + TPTX (5.54 +/- 0.72) when compared to the control group (6.34 +/- 0.14 mumol min-1 kg-1). The results suggest that PTH plays an important vasodilator role regarding glomerular hemodynamics, since in its absence the impairment in GFR and RPF was not reversed by the diabetic state. However, with respect to acid excretion, the presence of diabetes was able to overcome the negative stimulus represented by TPTX.


With growing flux in MIS and AIS employment, there is increasing number of questions about the impact and direction of this technology. As far back as 1993, economic surveys consistently showed that the 1993 U.S. economic recovery was the first where white collar employment failed to bounce back (Cooper and Madigan, 1993A; Ehrear, 1993; Farrell et. al., 1993; Mandel and Farrell, 1993.) In the U.S, between March 1991 and April 1993, production jobs rose by 823,000, but white collar payrolls--managerial and administrative positions--fell by 290,000. Even after two years of expansion, non-farm jobs were still below their prerecession level (Cooper and Madigan, 1993A.) These were the first signs of 'things-to-come'.


Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) represents a major hurdle impeding the efficacy of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Bortezomib is a proteasome inhibitor that was recently approved for treatment of myeloma. We found that bortezomib potently inhibited in vitro mixed lymphocyte responses and promoted the apoptosis of alloreactive T cells. Bortezomib given at the time of allogeneic BMT in mice resulted in significant protection from acute GVHD. Reductions in GVHD-associated parameters and biological evidence of proteasome inhibition were observed with this regimen but with no adverse effects on long-term donor reconstitution. Assessment of graft-versus-tumor responses in advanced leukemia-bearing mice demonstrated that only the combination of allogeneic BMT and T cells with bortezomib promoted significant increases in survival. Increased cytotoxic T cell killing of the tumor was also observed. Thus, the combination of proteasome inhibition with selective immune attack can markedly increase the efficacy of BMT in cancer.


A practical and systematic overview of the design, fabrication and test of MEMS-based inertial sensors, this comprehensive and rigorous guide shows you how to analyze and transform application requirements into practical designs, and helps you to avoid potential pitfalls and to cut design time. With this book you'll soon be up to speed on the relevant basics, including MEMS technologies, packaging, kinematics and mechanics, and transducers. You'll also get a thorough evaluation of different approaches and architectures for design and an overview of key aspects of testing and calibration. Unique insights into the practical difficulties of making sensors for real-world applications make this up-to-date description of the state of the art in inertial MEMS an ideal resource for professional engineers in industry as well as students looking for a complete introduction to the area.


A program that brings scientists temporarily to the National Science Foundation keeps the agency on the cutting-edge of scientific discovery. But members of Congress and the foundation9s inspector general have raised several questions about how the program operates. And the scientists themselves lack the usual workplace protections, as one recent rotator discovered to her misfortune.


The author chose to write this article due to the demand for theoretical analysis of the regulation in the legal norms of principle of fair pay for work. The aim of the scientific research is to reveal the essential implementation features of the fair pay for work principle. The conclusion is drawn in the article that the fair pay for work principle covers the definition of fair pay for accomplished work, as the principle determines aims, content and validity ground of legal norms regulating fair pay for accomplished work. The fair pay for work principle at the international level is determined in International Labor Organization Conventions—content of employees rights to fair pay is revealed by Article 4 of the European Social Charter enacted within European Council frames. Elements of the principle of fair pay for work at the regional level are implemented in primary and secondary EU law. The establishment of norms, whose goal is to implement fair pay for work in international agreements allows the statement that this principle is a principle of international labor law, as well implemented on regional level—legal acts of the European Union. The principle of fair pay for work covers not only the implementation of employee's rights set in Article 4 of the European Social Charter, but also unity of labor evaluation criteria and elements, fundamental equity laws in payment for work, and the relation with other labor law principles (notification of employees, the right to timely salary payment, the principle of nondiscrimination). It is set in the Constitution as a material element of every person's behavior.


Designer nucleases allow for the precise modification of a given DNA sequence by the introduction of a sequence-specific double strand break. This targeted genetic engineering confers the ability to modify genomes of complex organisms, and has far-reaching applications in human medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. As these nucleases act in a sequence specific manner, understanding their specificity is of paramount importance to prevent potentially genotoxic side effects. In this thesis, I assessed the ability of a class of designer nucleases (ZFNs)--zinc finger nucleases--to simultaneously inactivate two genes encoding entry factors required for HIV infection in human CD4 T cells. Additionally, I sought to develop a highthroughput means of identifying sites of designer nuclease off-target activity across the genome, in an effort to better understand the factors governing designer nuclease specificity. This work demonstrates the ability of ZFNs to simultaneously modify two distinct genetic loci in primary human CD4 T cells--the main target of HIV infection. These gene-modified cells are protected from HIV infection and represent a novel means of treating--and potentially curing HIV infection. This work also demonstrates that DNA double-strand breaks introduced by a single designer nuclease at onand off-target loci can result in the formation of genomic rearrangements. Taken together, this work advances in the field of genome engineering on two fronts--a novel therapeutic application of designer nucleases and a novel means of detecting off-target genomic modification. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Robert W. Doms Second Advisor John E. Wherry


Inequalities have been the subject of keen economic interest due to ethical and policy implications for the society. In fact, there is wide agreement about the fact that living in a more egalitarian society leads to better social outcomes. However, on the other side, since most of the inequality is generated within the labour market there are discording opinions about the possibility of public intervention in the contemporary market economies. To make this picture even more multifaceted, related to economic inequality there is overwhelming evidence on the socioeconomic gradient in health. Indeed, economists have deeply investigated the two-way relationships between income and health and tried to disentangle the main mechanisms of transmissions. However, most of the findings rely on descriptive studies or analysis "at the mean". With the aim of providing causal evidence and contributing to this long-standing strand of literature, this thesis analyses distributional aspect of income, focusing on the top tail of income distribution and in particular on those individuals who get high earnings in the labour market: the socalled working super-rich. Moreover, it investigates the socioeconomic gradient in health both in the top tails and in the rest of the distribution. The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter focuses on the determinants that allow some individuals to receive extraordinary earnings in labour markets compared to their peers, i.e. CEO or the superstars of sport, music and cinema. Specifically, it empirically analyses the effects of performance, popularity and bargaining power on the earnings of the universe of football players of Italian Serie A. The reasons are multiple. First, exploiting the possibility of having a perfect match employer-employee. Second, a longitudinal dataset with detailed information about the football players of Italian Serie A. Lastly, the fact that in Italy football players and managers represent the 20% of top 500 earners. On a methodological point of view, unlike previous analyses that are essentially based on cross-sectional data, disposing of panel data allows to investigate the returns of performance, popularity and bargaining power while controlling for players and team unobserved heterogeneity. Moreover, I employ the Unconditional Quantile Regression approach developed by Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2009) to estimate the impact of a marginal change in the determinants of earnings on their entire distribution. This is relevant because players' earnings exhibit a Author: Francesco Principe large dispersion around the mean and investigating the role of the determinants is especially interesting at the top of the earnings distribution, where superstar effects should more clearly manifest. Main results show that all the aforementioned factors significantly affect the players' earnings. However, the analysis "beyond the mean" reveals that the role played by popularity increases at the top of earnings distribution being the main determinant of the "superstars". These results challenge the interpretations of extraordinary earnings based only on very talented workers who "win and take all". As mentioned above, labour market seems a fertile ground for the escalation of contemporary society's extreme inequalities. Thus, understanding how the "working super-rich" respond to health shocks can be a key element of these dynamics. The second chapter of this thesis aims at providing evidence of the relationship between health shocks and labour market outcomes, focusing on those in the top tail of earnings distribution. Therefore, the dataset presented above has been enriched with data about the nature and the incidence of the injuries suffered by the universe of Serie A football players. In particular, in this chapter, I exploit traumatic injuries as exogenous variation in professional football players' health to provide estimates of the causal impact of a health shock on two main labour market outcomes: the annual net wages and the probability of changing the terms of the contract between the employer (the club) and the employee (the player). The empirical approach employs panel fixed effects models combined with an IV strategy, which uses the average number of yellow cards received by the team as an instrument. Main results show that working super-rich are not immune to economics consequences of health shocks. In fact, injuries reduce the net wage in the following season by around 12%. This result is mainly driven by precautionary reasons due to the club's concern about depreciation in the player's human capital rather than by a direct effect of the shock on the player's productivity. Thus, the second chapter contributes to the existing literature by providing original findings that can be summarised as follows. Firstly, it provides causal evidence of the relationship between health shocks and labour market outcomes. Secondly, it focuses on the consequences of health shocks for those on top incomes, for whom there is scant evidence so far. Lastly, it allows for a deeper analysis of the main mechanisms of the health shock, disentangling the effect mediated through the player's performance and the one generated by human capital depreciation, inducing the club, to offer a lower wage for precautionary reasons. The third and last chapter carry on the emphasis on inequality and its multifaceted aspects by moving the focus from the top tail to the whole population. In fact, it investigates how people heterogeneously respond to public education policies delivering health information by using as case study the 2015 WHO warning about the carcinogenic effects of red meat consumption. Importantly, it exploits high frequency data, i.e. monthly data, about Italian households' expenditures to identify the effect of the warning in the long vs. short run, for which there is no previous evidence in the literature and to document the response of households differing due to educational levels and health awareness. In order to identify such effect, I employ a Difference-in-Difference model,, which exploits the strong seasonality patterns in meat consumption in Italy, mainly associated with culinary traditions in occasion of catholic holidays celebrations. The results show a general misinterpretation of the warning and a short-term fall in red meat consumption by around 5%. However, a long-lasting and consistent shift in red meat consumption is documented only among households with higher educational levels and health awareness. These findings highlight a brand-new driver of health-education gradient and a potential source of health inequalities. Finally, they have strong policy implications about the successful design of public healthinformation policies, suggesting that they should be designed in a way that expose the individual to a constant flow of information.


AIMS
To evaluate the quality of methods used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of treatments for management of pain and dysfunction associated with temporomandibular muscle and joint disorders (TMJD) and to discuss the implications for future RCTs.

METHODS
A systematic review was made of RCTs that were implemented from 1966 through March 2006, to evaluate six types of treatments for TMJD: orthopedic appliances, occlusal therapy, physical medicine modalities, pharmacologic therapy, cognitive-behavioral and psychological therapy, and temporomandibular joint surgery. A quality assessment of 210 published RCTs assessing the internal and external validity of these RCTs was conducted using the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) criteria adapted to the methods of the studies.

RESULTS
Independent assessments by raters demonstrated consistency with a mean intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.63 (95% confidence interval). The mean percent of criteria met was 58%, with only 10% of the RCTs meeting the four most important criteria.

CONCLUSIONS
Much of the evidence base for TMJD treatments may be susceptible to systematic bias and most past studies should be interpreted with caution. However, a scatter plot of RCT quality versus year of publication shows improvement in RCT quality over time, suggesting that future studies may continue to improve methods that minimize bias.


A series of substituted salicylaldehyde dibenzyl semicarbazones [RC6H3(OH)CH=N-NHCON(CH2Ph)2] and their copper(II) complexes were synthesized and characterized. The chloridocopper(II) complexes of the 4-OH and 5-OH substituted ligands (complexes 9 and 7) show modest affinity and good selectivity (over duplex DNA) for the quadruplex formed from the human telomeric (HTelo) DNA sequence. Substitution of the chlorido ligands of these two complexes with pyridine yielded derivatives (7-py and 9-py) with increased affinity for HTelo. These derivatives also show good selectivity for HTelo over calf-thymus DNA (170- and 211-fold, respectively). The X-ray crystal structures of 9 and 9-py were determined. Molecular docking studies based on these structures show that the complexes stack on the 5'-end of the HTelo quadruplex, with the hydroxyl group forming a hydrogen bond with a guanine residue. Complexes 7, 9, 7-py and 9-py display significant cytotoxicity against MOLT-4 human leukaemia cells. Interestingly, they have low to negligible cytotoxicity against the non-cancerous IMR-90 human fibroblasts.


On 2017 August 17, the gravitational-wave event GW170817 was observed by the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors, and the gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 170817A was observed independently by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, and the Anticoincidence Shield for the Spectrometer for the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory. The probability of the near-simultaneous temporal and spatial observation of GRB 170817A and GW170817 occurring by chance is $5.0\times 10^{-8}$. We therefore confirm binary neutron star mergers as a progenitor of short GRBs. The association of GW170817 and GRB 170817A provides new insight into fundamental physics and the origin of short gamma-ray bursts. We use the observed time delay of $(+1.74 \pm 0.05)\,$s between GRB 170817A and GW170817 to: (i) constrain the difference between the speed of gravity and the speed of light to be between $-3\times 10^{-15}$ and $+7\times 10^{-16}$ times the speed of light, (ii) place new bounds on the violation of Lorentz invariance, (iii) present a new test of the equivalence principle by constraining the Shapiro delay between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. We also use the time delay to constrain the size and bulk Lorentz factor of the region emitting the gamma rays. GRB 170817A is the closest short GRB with a known distance, but is between 2 and 6 orders of magnitude less energetic than other bursts with measured redshift. A new generation of gamma-ray detectors, and subthreshold searches in existing detectors, will be essential to detect similar short bursts at greater distances. Finally, we predict a joint detection rate for the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors of 0.1--1.4 per year during the 2018-2019 observing run and 0.3--1.7 per year at design sensitivity.


ABSTRACT Mesoclemmys is the most diverse extant genus of South American pleurodires or side-necked turtles, with at least 10 species inhabiting fluvial to littoral environments. Despite this high extant diversity and extensive geographic distribution, the evolutionary history and fossil record of this genus are completely unknown. Here, we describe the first fossil record of this genus, which supports a previous molecular-based hypothesis that indicates a minimum split time of 13.5 Ma between this and other genera of South American chelids. Mesoclemmys vanegasorum, sp. nov., is represented by a nearly complete shell (carapace and plastron) and some postcranial bones found in the middle Miocene (13.6 ± 0.2 Ma), La Victoria Formation, Tatacoa Desert, Colombia, increasing the turtle paleodiversity of La Venta Fauna. It differs from all extant species of Mesoclemmys by vertebral scute 1 reaching the sutural boundary between peripherals 1 and 2; shorter cervical and marginal scutes 1 to 3; pleurals 1 very advanced over the peripherals; pygal bone with a posteromedial shallow notch; vertebral 5 covering half of the pygal bone; small extragulars reaching only half of the epiplastra length; and a fine microvermiculation of the shell. Our phylogenetic results show a close relationship between M. vanegasorum, sp. nov., and the extant M. hogei. The overall morphology and size of Mesoclemmys genus have remained relatively constant for at least the last 13.6 million years. However, its geographic distribution has decreased drastically in northwestern South America, being restricted today to the lower region of the Magdalena River Basin.


Low-dimensional embeddings of nodes in large graphs have proved extremely useful in a variety of prediction tasks, from content recommendation to identifying protein functions. However, most existing approaches require that all nodes in the graph are present during training of the embeddings; these previous approaches are inherently transductive and do not naturally generalize to unseen nodes. Here we present GraphSAGE, a general, inductive framework that leverages node feature information (e.g., text attributes) to efficiently generate node embeddings for previously unseen data. Instead of training individual embeddings for each node, we learn a function that generates embeddings by sampling and aggregating features from a node's local neighborhood. Our algorithm outperforms strong baselines on three inductive node-classification benchmarks: we classify the category of unseen nodes in evolving information graphs based on citation and Reddit post data, and we show that our algorithm generalizes to completely unseen graphs using a multi-graph dataset of protein-protein interactions.


The Lean Manufacturing approach for waste elimination can be applied in all sorts of operations. In this project is applied for the improvement of a supply chain and to achieve high levels of chain efficiency. The identification of warehousing and transportation waste at the chain level is aggregate being difficult its identification within both processes. This work provides an introduction to the concept of distribution operational efficiency and proposes a scheme for eliminating waste in a distribution operation. The Operational Effectiveness Index used in TPM is adapted and used as the main performance measure. Availability, performance and quality wastes are identified using Value Stream Mapping. The scheme is exemplified by applying it on distribution networks of several Mexican companies.


Statins are widely used to prevent major cardiovascular events by lowering serum cholesterol. There is evidence that statins have pleiotropic effects—that is, cholesterol-independent effects—that may also confer protection from cardiovascular disease and potentially numerous other pathologies, including cancer. Statins also have a number of well described adverse effects, including myopathy, rhabdomyolysis, liver damage, and type 2 diabetes. This paper examines the evidence of epigenetic modifications as a contributory factor to the pleiotropic and adverse effects of statins. In vitro and animal studies have shown that statins can inhibit histone deacetylase activity and increase histone acetylation. Similarly, there is evidence that statins may inhibit both histone and DNA methyltransferases and subsequently demethylate histone residues and DNA, respectively. These changes have been shown to alter expression of various genes, including tumor suppressor genes and genes thought to have anti-atherosclerotic actions. Statins have also been shown to influence the expression of numerous microRNAs that suppress the translation of proteins involved in tumorigenesis and vascular function. Whether the adverse effects of statins may also have an epigenetic component has been less widely studied, although there is evidence that microRNA expression may be altered in statin-induced muscle and liver damage. As epigenetics and microRNAs influence gene expression, these changes could contribute to the pleiotropic and adverse effects of statins and have long-lasting effects on the health of statin users.


A healthy and productive rangeland depends on well-functioning ecosystem services such as effective cycling of water and nutrients. After rangeland has degraded, bushes may encroach in nature's attempt to restore water and nutrient cycling. When bush encroachment is addressed by debushing, with harvested bush wood sold off the land, then nutrient cycling is disrupted and soil fertility is likely to decline. Former debushing activities on different parts of farms of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in central Namibia provided the opportunity to assess the influence of debushing on overall fertility of soil. Sites were selected on the farm representing nine examples of each of uncleared, partially cleared and totally cleared land. The debushing had taken place at different times, varying between two and 13 years previously. Soil was collected from each of these 27 sites and subjected to bioassay by growing barley (Hordeum vulgare) and Moringa oleifera. Seedling emergence and height at five weeks for both species were greatest in uncleared soil and lowest in totally cleared soil, indicating the loss of soil fertility as debushing intensifies. There was no evidence of restoration of soil fertility, even 13 years after debushing. Nutritious grass is unlikely to grow well after debushing, and more bush is likely to regrow in nature's attempt at restoring fertility over the long term. If faster restoration is sought, then the full spectrum of minerals removed in harvested wood should be replaced on the land.


A lot of research is carried out on the Contingent Valuation Method to assess environmental goods. However, the method is rarely applied to quantify reimbursements for agri-environmental policy. In this paper, this contradiction is explained by conceptual shortcomings of the Contingent Valuation. It is suggested to discuss the utility of agri-environmental programs among experts. For that, a three-step methodology including a possible monetary evaluation is developed. The method is applied on agri-environmental programs in Switzerland.


Semidistributed models are commonly calibrated manually, but software for automatic calibration is now available. We present a two‐stage routine for automatic calibration of the semidistributed watershed model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) that finds the best values for the model parameters, preserves spatial variability in essential parameters, and leads to a measure of the model prediction uncertainty. In the first stage, a modified global Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE‐UA) method was employed to find the "best" values for the lumped model parameters. In the second stage, the spatial variability of the original model parameters was restored and a local search method (a variant of Levenberg–Marquart method) was used to find a more distributed set of parameters using the results of the previous stage as starting values. A method called "regularization" was adopted to prevent the parameters from taking extreme values. In addition, we applied a nonlinear calibration‐constrained method to develop confidence intervals for annual and 7‐d average flow predictions. We calibrated stream flow in the Etowah River measured at Canton, GA (a watershed area of 1580 km2) for the years 1983 to 1992 and used the years 1993 to 2001 for validation. The Parameter Estimator (PEST) software was used to conduct the two‐stage automatic calibration and prediction uncertainty analysis. Calibration for daily and monthly flow produced a very good fit to the measured data. Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficients for daily and monthly flow over the calibration period were 0.60 and 0.86, respectively. They were 0.61 and 0.87, respectively, for the validation period. The nonlinear prediction uncertainty analysis worked well for long‐term (annual) flow in that our prediction confidence intervals included or were very near to the observed flow for most years. It did not work well for short‐term (7‐d average) flows in that the prediction confidence intervals did not include the observed flow, especially for low and high flow conditions.


Given that vast quantities of pineapple leaves go into waste each year in Kenya, this study was carried out to investigate the possibility of extracting the fibre and to further analyze the quality of the fibre in comparison to other cellulosic fibres that are already in use in the Kenyan textile industry. About 1.lkg of fibre was extracted using hand decorticating methods. The fibre tests that were carried out showed the fibre to be similar to flax in visual and Longitudinal microscopic appearance, while the cross-sectional appearance is like that of sisal. The burning characteristics are similar to those of other cellulosic fibres in general. The moisture regain value of 10..39 is close to that of cotton which ranges from 7-12. However the tenacity of the fibre is lower than that of other cellulosic fibres, though slightly higher than that of regular rayon which is a regenerated cellulose fibre. The fibres were also spun using hand techniques, and a variety of textile articles made using various hand weaving techniques.


We study the problem of achieving global behavior in a group of distributed robots using only local sensing and minimal communication, in the context of formations. The goal is to have N mobile robots establish and maintain some predetermined geometric shape. We report results from extensive simulation experiments, and 40+ experiments with four physical robots, showing the viability of our approach. The key idea is that each robot keeps a single friend at a desired angle /spl theta/, using some appropriate sensor. By panning the sensor by /spl theta/ degrees, the goal for all formations becomes simply to center the friend in the sensor's field of view. We also present a general analytical measure for evaluating formations and apply it to the position data from both simulation and physical robot experiments. We used two lasers to track the physical robots to obtain ground truth validation data.


The annual national technical report of the Forest Health Monitoring Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, presents forest health status and trends from a national or multi-State regional perspective using a variety of sources, introduces new techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the national Forest Health Monitoring program. Landscape pattern assessments are presented for Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Data from detection and monitoring surveys are used to identify trends relating to biotic agents posing forest sustainability concerns. Aerial survey data are used to identify geographic patterns of insect and disease activity. Data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program of the Forest Service are used to identify geographic patterns of nonnative tree species occurrence. Forest Inventory and Analysis data from 20 States also are employed to detect regional differences in tree mortality. A new risk map for Phytophthora ramorum is presented to assist in detection surveys. Quantitative temporal analyses are conducted for five categories of abiotic agents impacting forest health. Satellite data are employed to detect geographic clusters of forest fire occurrence. A new methodology for the comparison of moisture conditions among different geographical areas and time periods is described using multi-year windows. Nine recently completed evaluation monitoring projects are summarized, addressing forest health concerns at smaller scales.


The appearance of complex, thick materials like textiles is determined by their 3D structure, and they are incompletely described by surface reflection models alone. While volume scattering can produce highly realistic images of such materials, creating the required volume density models is difficult. Procedural approaches require significant programmer effort and intuition to design specialpurpose algorithms for each material. Further, the resulting models lack the visual complexity of real materials with their naturally-arising irregularities. This paper proposes a new approach to acquiring volume models, based on density data from X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans and appearance data from photographs under uncontrolled illumination. To model a material, a CT scan is made, resulting in a scalar density volume. This 3D data is processed to extract orientation information and remove noise. The resulting density and orientation fields are used in an appearance matching procedure to define scattering properties in the volume that, when rendered, produce images with texture statistics that match the photographs. As our results show, this approach can easily produce volume appearance models with extreme detail, and at larger scales the distinctive textures and highlights of a range of very different fabrics like satin and velvet emerge automatically---all based simply on having accurate mesoscale geometry.


After decades characterized by diminishing interest in the theoretical underpinning of futures studies, the past few years have seen the onset of a new concern with the foundation of futures studies. Interestingly, recent discussion has not been limited to the epistemological bases of futures studies but has also begun to address the problem of its ontological grounds. The paper discusses some of the elements of ontology that should become part and parcel of the set of categorical tools that any working futurist should have at his or her disposal, such as the theories of latents and levels of reality.


Governments are mega-consumers of many manufactured products and services. As such they should in principle be able to influence workers' rights abroad via the terms of purchase contracts. Yet to date little attention has been paid to the potential of public procurement to promote respect for labour rights globally besides the international trade law framework. Building on a limited emerging scholarship and policy developments, this article addresses this gap. Section 2 considers legal definitions of public procurement and distinguishes primary and secondary aims of procurement under key international and regional procurement regimes. This highlights that, although historically used to advance labour rights domestically, these regimes have restricted public buyers' scope to advance labour rights beyond national borders. Section 3 explores new international policy frameworks on responsible global value chains and supply chains which by contrast appear to augur the greater use of public procurement to promote labour rights globally in future. Section 4 argues, supported by analysis of the limited examples available, that public buying has the potential to positively influence enjoyment of labour rights in practice. Concluding, Section 5 reflects on what the more specific impacts of public procurement in this context may be, and how public buying should complement other mechanisms for improving labour conditions across supply chains, such as social clauses in trade agreements. Finally, we outline issues for further research and the future policy agenda.


This article contributes to the discussion of teacher training and preparation. It presents the implementation of a professional development project conducted by two university professors in the northeastern part of the U.S. Participants included two middle school teachers and three pre-service teachers at an economically unstable Catholic diocesan school. The article begins with a statement of context and a review of literature that addresses the positive effects and need for teachers' professional learning. A theoretical framework is included to offer readers a generalized perspective on professional development initiatives. An implementation model and a summary of the instruction and outcomes follow. Findings include the positive effects of (a) university-based partnerships with local underserved schools, (b) skills-based learning and interdisciplinary professional development as a means for improving teachers' content knowledge; and (c) pre-service teachers' involvement in professional development as a part of their training.


In the United States, immigration is generally seen as a law and order issue. Amidst increasing anti-immigrant sentiment, unauthorized migrants have been cast as lawbreakers. Governing Immigration Through Crime offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the use of crime and punishment to manage undocumented immigrants. Presenting key readings and cutting-edge scholarship, this volume examines a range of contemporary criminalizing practices: restrictive immigration laws, enhanced border policing, workplace audits, detention and deportation, and increased policing of immigration at the state and local level. Of equal importance, the readings highlight how migrants have managed to actively resist these punitive practices. In bringing together critical theorists of immigration to understand how the current political landscape propagates the view of the "illegal alien" as a threat to social order, this text encourages students and general readers alike to think seriously about the place of undocumented immigrants in American society.


MINISTER TO THE BODY: RICHARD GREENHAM AND THE OTHER SIDE OF PURITAN PASTORAL PRACTICE John David Morrison, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Shawn D. Wright This dissertation examines the role of the body in the theology and pastoral practice of Richard Greenham (c. 1540-1594). Contrary to those who find in puritanism a Platonizing disdain for the body, Greenham highly values the physical aspect of human nature. He spends much of his time and resources caring for corporeal needs. He gives generously to the poor, establishes a community co-operative to regulate the price of grain, and advises on the best ways to treat physical ailments. Furthermore, the body plays an integral role in his spirituality. In his renowned counseling, he ministers to both soul and body, and in his sermons and writings, he urges Christians to glorify God with their bodies in daily life and in corporate worship on the Sabbath. His understanding of the worth of the body arises from a theological basis. God creates and redeems whole people. God creates people as unions of bodies and souls, and Christ took on a complete human nature, including a body, in order to redeem his people in both body and soul. While death separates body from soul, the Son of God will resurrect the bodies of the dead, reuniting them with their souls, when he comes again. He will raise the godly to an everlasting, embodied, and glorified existence in the presence of God, but he will raise the ungodly to unceasing physical and spiritual torment. Greenham ministers holistically because he understands the Christian faith to concern not just the salvation of souls but the redemption of whole people.


Christians and Pagans offers a comprehensive and highly readable account of the coming of Christianity to Britain, its coexistence or conflict with paganism, and its impact on the lives of both indigenous islanders and invading Anglo-Saxons. The Christianity of Roman Britain, so often treated in isolation, is here deftly integrated with the history of the British churches of the Celtic world, and with the histories of Ireland, Iona, and Pictland. Combining chronicle and literary evidence with the fruits of the latest archaeological research, Malcolm Lambert illuminates how the conversion process changed the hearts and minds of early Britain.


A model is developed to improve thickness uniformity of coatings on spherical substrates rapidly and automatically using fixed shadow masks in a planetary rotation system. The coating thickness is accurately represented by a function composed of basic thickness, self-shadow effect, and shadow mask function. A type of mask with parabolic contours is proposed, and the thickness uniformity of coatings on spherical substrates can be improved in a large range of ratios of clear aperture (CA) to radius of curvature (RoC) by optimizing shadow masks using a numerical optimization algorithm. Theoretically, the thickness uniformity improves to more than 97.5% of CA/RoC from -1.9 to 1.9. Experimentally, the thickness uniformities of coatings on a convex spherical substrate (CA/RoC = 1.53) and on a concave spherical substrate (CA/RoC=-1.65) improve to be better than 98.5% after corrected by the shadow masks.


The 1951 U.S. -Icelandic Defense Agreement paved the way for a permanent U.S. military presence at the Keflavik base in Iceland, an outpost that played a crucial role in U.S. strategy during the Cold War. The article explores two gender-related aspects of the U.S. -Icelandic Cold War relationship:the restrictions on off-base movements of U.S. soldiers, and the secret ban imposed by the Icelandic government on the stationing of black U.S. troops in Iceland. These practices were meant to protect Icelandic women and to preserve a homogeneous national body. Although U.S. officials repeatedly tried to have the restrictions lifted, the Icelandic government refused to modify them until the racial ban was publicly disclosed in late 1959. Even after the practice came to light, it took another several years before the ban was gradually eliminated. Misguided though the Icelandic restrictions may have been, they did, paradoxically, help to defuse domestic opposition to Iceland's pro-American foreign policy course and thus preserved the country's role in the Western alliance.


Much of academic research on gas turbines is conducted at component level. Promising concepts such as enhanced blade design or active flow control are often investigated on isolated domains, e.g. single compressor stages. Possible interactions with adjacent components, such as effects on secondary power and air provision or the thermodynamic cycle are rarely or just subsidiary considered. Nevertheless, the early inclusion of those effects is crucial for a reliable assessment of novel concepts' benefits. For example, the reduction of aero engine component weight or the increase of turbo-component stage efficiency is intangible regarding the quantified benefit on system level. This gap can be closed by a technique called component zooming. Here, a gas turbine performance model representing the cycle and components basic interaction is coupled with more detailed models which are capable of specific investigations on component level. This paper presents a suitable architecture of frameworks for component zooming in general. In order to maintain high applicability especially for academic purposes, focus is put on flexibility in manifold sense: Adaptability to arbitrary concepts and zoomed components, expandability of available workflows, expandability to new disciplines, exchangeability of used software (e.g. commercial or in-house) and portability to common platforms. Various examples will demonstrate the capabilities of component zooming performed with such a framework. The first case discusses zooming on the secondary air system (SAS) of gas turbines. Another case demonstrates the coupling of engine performance with models for an initial assessment of aero engine components weight reduction benefit, e. g. realized by tandem blades or flow actuation in duct components. The resulting change in overall mass of the engine leads to basic, pragmatic options for aircraft operators.


The ADA's record of disability prong is the prong least likely to be used by ADA plaintiffs in claiming protection under the Act. Between the years 2000 and 2004, ADA and Rehabilitation Act plaintiffs in federal court who alleged employment discrimination relied upon the record of disability prong less than one-third as often as the actual and perceived disability prongs in claiming disability status. Nor have ADA plaintiffs enjoyed any greater success when asserting coverage under the record of disability prong during that time period. Congress, the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the federal courts bear much of the blame for the record of disability prong's diminished stature. The requirement of some federal courts that a record of disability plaintiff must actually produce a tangible record documenting the existence of disability has limited the scope of the second prong. The Supreme Court's restrictive interpretations of the actual and perceived disability prongs have likewise limited the reach of the record of disability prong. The record of disability prong was specifically intended to address those situations in which an individual has recovered from a once-substantially limiting impairment; yet, because of the Supreme Court's conclusion that an individual's use of mitigating measures must be taken into account when assessing the existence of disability, even this use of the record of disability prong is in doubt. However, in at least some instances, the limited role played by the record of disability prong can be attributed to the failure of plaintiffs' attorneys to fully understand and utilize the prong. This Article argues that the only way that the record of disability prong can play a meaningful role in the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities is if attorneys take a fresh look at this forgotten portion of the ADA.


This collection of essays explores the complex articulations and contexts of anti-Semitism in the literature of four cultures — Britain, Germany, France and Italy — in the long nineteenth century. The essays examine the presence both of explicitly anti-Semitic writing and apparently anti-Jewish stereotypes in the work of writers who were not consciously hostile to Jews. The book scrutinizes assumptions about the relative absence of anti-Semitism in Britain, the image of Germany as resistant to Jewish assimilation, and of Italy as particularly hospitable to Jews. The essays are placed in a comparative framework in order to examine the representation of Jews both within particular national cultures and in the context of Western European modernity. The volume considers the ways in which anti-Semitism functioned within liberal culture in the nineteenth century as part of the broader history of oppression with which Western modernity has been complicit.


The tissue residue dose concept has been used, although in a limited manner, in environmental toxicology for more than 100 y. This review outlines the history of this approach and the technical background for organic chemicals and metals. Although the toxicity of both can be explained in tissue residue terms, the relationship between external exposure concentration, body and/or tissues dose surrogates, and the effective internal dose at the sites of toxic action tends to be more complex for metals. Various issues and current limitations related to research and regulatory applications are also examined. It is clear that the tissue residue approach (TRA) should be an integral component in future efforts to enhance the generation, understanding, and utility of toxicity testing data, both in the laboratory and in the field. To accomplish these goals, several key areas need to be addressed: 1) development of a risk‐based interpretive framework linking toxicology and ecology at multiple levels of biological organization and incorporating organism‐based dose metrics; 2) a broadly applicable, generally accepted classification scheme for modes/mechanisms of toxic action with explicit consideration of residue information to improve both single chemical and mixture toxicity data interpretation and regulatory risk assessment; 3) toxicity testing protocols updated to ensure collection of adequate residue information, along with toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics information, based on explicitly defined toxicological models accompanied by toxicological model validation; 4) continued development of residue‐effect databases is needed ensure their ongoing utility; and 5) regulatory guidance incorporating residue‐based testing and interpretation approaches, essential in various jurisdictions. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2011;7:7–27. © 2010 SETAC


In this thesis, the consequences of automating network management of telephone networks are examined. The role of network managers is to monitor the network for exceptional conditions and place controls into the network if necessary to deal with these network exceptions. One potential consequence of automating network management is a network which is capable of adjusting itself quickly to changing traffic conditions, also known as a network with dynamic routing. Simulations are used to show that there are benefits to be gained from implementing dynamic routing by automating the actions of the network managers.

In this thesis, the application of learning techniques such as neural networks and linear predictors to the tasks of network traffic management is also examined. Three network management tasks considered are: (i) recognition of traffic patterns in the network (ii) learning suitable thresholds for network congestion control and (iii) time series prediction of trunk group occupancy. It is found that non-linear learning techniques such as neural networks can give small gains over the more standard technique of linear predictors.


Abstract. The effects of future climate and emissions-related perturbations on ozone air quality in Southern California are considered, with an assumed increase to 2× pre-industrial levels for global background levels of carbon dioxide. Effects of emission and climate-related forcings on air quality are superimposed on a summer 2005 high-ozone time period. Perturbations considered here include (a) effect of increased temperature on atmospheric reaction rates, (b) effect of increased temperature on biogenic emissions, (c) effect of increased water vapor concentrations, (d) effect of increased pollutant levels at the inflow (western) boundary, and (e) effect of population growth and technology change on emissions within Southern California. Various combinations of the above perturbations are also considered. The climate-related perturbations (a–c) led to combined peak 1-h ozone increases of up to 11 ppb. The effect on ozone was greatly reduced when the temperature increase was applied mostly during nighttime hours rather than uniformly throughout the day. Increased pollutant levels at the inflow boundary also led to ozone increases up to 5 ppb. These climate and inflow-related changes offset some of the anticipated benefits of emission controls within the air basin.


Structural development in the prime sector has led to increasing herd sizes and new barn systems, followed by less summer grazing for dairy cows in Denmark. Effects of grazing on single welfare measures in dairy cows - for example, the presence of integument alterations or mortality - have been studied under different conditions. However, the effect of grazing on welfare, conceptualised as the multidimensional physical and mental state of the animal, has not yet been studied in contemporary cubicle loose-housing systems. The aim of our study was to investigate, based on a Welfare Quality® inspired multidimensional dairy cow welfare assessment protocol, the within-herd effect of summer grazing compared with winter barn housing in Danish dairy herds with cubicle free-stall systems for the lactating cows. Our hypothesis was that cow welfare in dairy herds was better during summer grazing than during full-time winter housing. Furthermore, we expected improved welfare with an increase in daily summer grazing hours. In total, 41 herds have been visited once in the winter and once in the summer of 2010 to assess their welfare status with 17 different animal- and resource-based welfare measures. A panel of 20 experts on cattle welfare and husbandry evaluated the relative weight of the 17 welfare measures in a multidimensional assessment scheme. They estimated exact weights for a priori constituted severe compared with moderate scores of welfare impairment concerning each measure, as well as relevance of the measures in relation to each other. A welfare index (WI; possible range 0 to 5400) was calculated for each herd and season with a higher index indicating poorer welfare. The within-herd comparison of summer grazing v. winter housing considered all the 17 measures. The mean WI in summer was significantly lower (better) than in winter (mean 2926 v. 3330; paired t-test P = 0.0001) based on a better state of the integument, claw conformation and better access to water and food. Body condition and faeces consistence were worse in summer. Many daily grazing hours (range average above 3 to 9 h) turned out to be more beneficial than few daily grazing hours (range average above 9 to 21 h) for the welfare of the dairy herds. In conclusion, this study reports a positive within-herd effect of summer grazing on dairy cow welfare, where many daily grazing hours were more beneficial than few daily grazing hours.


Tertiary institutions, in striving towards achieving academic excellence, have realised the need for the professional development of human resources. Staff development thus now features in most institutions' strategic plans. In this study, which has as its context the M L Sultan Technikon, an attempt was made to develop and implement an evaluation programme for academic staff to determine relevant staff needs. Adopting a 'grass-roots' approach to staff evaluation, the evaluation programme was initiated and launched by the Staff Development unit. Phase 1 of the programme was experimental and voluntary and consisted of student-feedback, a self-evaluation form and a head's evaluation form. Staff response to the programme and their input to a revised evaluation programme occurred as a result of meetings with staff, the administration of feedback questionnaires and a survey of all heads of department. One of the goals of the evaluation programme was to contribute to a relevant staff development programme based on academic staff needs, generated as a result of engaging in the self-evaluation, resulting in needs as indicated in staff's personal development plans. Although the evaluation programme was developed with formative intentions, it has been adapted by the Management for summative purposes, the outcomes of which are also focused upon in the study.


Long-term satellite measurements of nitrogen dioxide in the troposphere are used in combination with a continental scale air quality model in order to verify and improve available estimates of multi-annual changes of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) in Europe and the Mediterranean area between 1996 and 2005. As a result, a measurement-based data set of NO x emissions on a 1° by 1° grid and averaged over summer months is elaborated. The results are compared with emission data based on the EMEP emission inventory. Our data are in agreement with the EMEP estimates suggesting a general decline in the level of NO x emissions in Western and Central European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain and Poland). Over Southern Europe and for shipping emissions, neutral to positive trends are found both for the inverted and bottom-up emissions. In contrast, considerable differences between both data sets are found in some other countries. In particular, significant negative trends instead of the positive ones in the "bottom-up" inventory are found for the Balkan countries, Russia and Turkey. The NO x emission trends derived from satellite measurements demonstrate larger spatial heterogeneity than those calculated with the EMEP data, especially in Russia and Ukraine. The obtained estimates of the decadal trends in NO x emissions for Great Britain are found to be consistent with independent data from the U.K. Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN). It is also found that using our emission estimates yields better agreement of model calculations with near-surface ozone measurements of the European EMEP network.


The spectral map of the nonlinear absorption coefficient of glass-copper nanocomposite in the pump-probe scheme constructed with the use of a simple anharmonic oscillator model reproduced well the spectral map obtained in the experiment. It is shown that spectral features in nonlinear response of glass-metal nanocomposites (GMN) can be engineered by varying the size of nanoparticles. The pronounced dependence of the magnitude of the third-order nonlinearity on the particles size explains the diversity of experimental data related to nonlinear optical response of GMNs in different experiments. Performed modeling proves that silver GMN demonstrate much sharper spectral dependence than copper ones due to strong frequency dependence of local field enhancement factor for silver nanoparticles.


Cloud computing and its flexible business model of consuming IT resources such as computing power or data storage just on demand promises a lot of benefits and advantages. These advantages also the public sector and governments can benefit from. Hence, cloud computing is already on the agenda of governmental policy and decision makers. Additionally, various countries have already adapted their IT strategies to support cloud computing for their governmental and public services. However, within the public sector the private cloud model currently constitutes the dominant deployed approach. Although this model offers high control it does not take full advantage of the economic benefits of cloud computing. Therefore, based on an evaluation of different cloud models and a comparison of different national cloud computing strategies the authors argue and show that public clouds are worth more than a peek for e-Government because of their tremendous cost savings potential.


Photonic band structures have been calculated for various structures with the periodicity of the simple-cubic lattice. Band gaps have been found, and the conditions for the appearances of such gaps are discussed. The effective long-wavelength dielectric constant is calculated and compared with the predictions of effective-medium and Maxwell–Garnett theories.


REMAX is a software package designed to assist water managers in developing optimal ground water or coordinated ground water/smface water strategies for a wide range of management problems. REMAX uses MODFLOW, MT3D, and other simulation models to develop the response matrix or response surface equations employed in the final optimization model. To address nonlinear systems (e.g., unconfined aquifers) accurately, REMAX uses a modified response-matrix method. REMAX several nonlinear functions to represent a wide variety of nonlinear response surfaces. REMAX can be used for deterministic or reliability-based optimization problems. Decision variables are ground-water extraction/injection rates and/or surface water diversion rates. State variables include water flows, stages and concentrations. Available objective fm1ctions and constraints are linear, nonlinear, integer or mixed integer. REMAX has over 80 objective types including linear, quadratic, integer, goal progrannning, minimax, and maximin functions. Combining these types for multi-objective optimization makes REMAX ideal for cost minimization and/or utility maximization. Available constraints can be used to define relations among decision variables, state variables, or any combination of these variables in time and space. REMAX has been used for designing several ground-water remediation systems for captme and cleanup of ground-water contaminant plumes.


Epidemiological studies suggest that increased intake of the omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). DHA levels are lower in serum and brains of AD patients, which could result from low dietary intake and/or PUFA oxidation. Because effects of DHA on Alzheimer pathogenesis, particularly on amyloidosis, are unknown, we used the APPsw (Tg2576) transgenic mouse model to evaluate the impact of dietary DHA on amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing and amyloid burden. Aged animals (17-19 months old) were placed in one of three groups until 22.5 months of age: control (0.09% DHA), low-DHA (0%), or high-DHA (0.6%) chow. β-Amyloid (Aβ) ELISA of the detergent-insoluble extract of cortical homogenates showed that DHA-enriched diets significantly reduced total Aβ by >70% when compared with low-DHA or control chow diets. Dietary DHA also decreased Aβ42 levels below those seen with control chow. Image analysis of brain sections with an antibody against Aβ (amino acids 1-13) revealed that overall plaque burden was significantly reduced by 40.3%, with the largest reductions (40-50%) in the hippocampus and parietal cortex. DHA modulated APP processing by decreasing both α- and β-APP C-terminal fragment products and full-length APP. BACE1 (β-secretase activity of the β-site APP-cleaving enzyme), ApoE (apolipoprotein E), and transthyretin gene expression were unchanged with the high-DHA diet. Together, these results suggest that dietary DHA could be protective against β-amyloid production, accumulation, and potential downstream toxicity.


Background: Cystic echinococcosis (CE) also known as hydatid disease, is a zoonotic helminthic disease caused by infection with the larval stage of a tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus. It is an important parasite regarding human health and is categorized into different genotypes. The present study aimed to identify different genotypes of E. granulosus metacestode isolated from Iranian camel. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 54 hydatid cysts were isolated from slaughtered Iranian camels (Camelus dromedarius) in Isfahan (33 samples) and Yazd (21 samples) province s' laughterhouses. The DNA was extracted from the isolated hydatid cysts and high resolution melting analysis (HRM) was performed. The curves were confirmed by sequencing and aligning with previously deposited sequences. Results: Based on the results of the present study, 94.4%, 3.7%, and 1.9% of the studied isolates were identified as E. granulosus (G1), E. granulosus (G2), and E. intermedius (G6) in the two studied regions, respectively. Moreover, 85.18% of the cysts were isolated from lung and 5.82% of them were also isolated from the liver of the camels. Conclusion: Based on the HRM analysis of cox1 and atp6 genes, E. granulosus (G1) accounts for the most cases of camelid cystic echinococcosis, and demonstrates camels as a source of human cystic echinococcosis.


Conventional divisible load scheduling algorithms attempt to achieve optimal partitioning of massive loads to be distributed among processors in a distributed computing system in the presence of communication delays in the network. However, these algorithms depend strongly upon the assumption of prior knowledge of network parameters and cannot handle variations or lack of information about these parameters. In this paper, we present an adaptive strategy that estimates network parameter values using a probing technique and use them to obtain optimal load partitioning. Three algorithms, based on the same strategy, are presented in the paper, incorporating the ability to cope with unknown network parameters. Several illustrative numerical examples are given. Finally, we implement the adaptive algorithms on an actual network of processor nodes using MPI implementation and demonstrate the feasibility of the adaptive approach.