Background: Dermoscopy of granuloma annulare has been investigated by several studies, but none of them took into account the variability of dermoscopic findings according to clinical characteristics and/or histological subtype. Objective: To describe the dermoscopic features of classic granuloma annulare and seek possible dermoscopic clues related to specific clinical findings/histological subpatterns. Methods: A representative dermoscopic image of a target lesion (the most active lesion underwent histological examination) was retrospectively assessed for the presence of specific morphological findings, correlating them with clinical variables, i.e. disease duration and extension (localized or generalized) and clinical aspect (annular or non-annular) and localization (trunk or extremities) of the biopsied lesion, and with histological subtype. Results: A total of 25 lesions from 25 subjects were analysed; an "interstitial" histological variant was detected in 11 cases, while a "palisading granuloma" histological pattern was found in 14 instances. The most common dermoscopic findings included blurry vessels having variable appearance (dotted, linear-irregular, and branching) over a more or less evident pinkish-reddish background, followed by whitish and/or yellowish-orange areas. Additional findings were rosettes, crystalline structures, and whitish scaling. No difference (p > 0.05) in the frequency of dermoscopic features according to clinical findings was found, while we observed a strict association (p < 0.001) between the presence of yellowish-orange structureless areas on dermoscopy and "palisading granuloma" histology. Conclusion: The dermoscopic aspect of granuloma annulare is independent from clinical features but varies according to histological subtype, with the detection of yellowish-orange colour being indicative of the "palisading granuloma" variant.


The paper describes recent explorations in sketch recognition and management to support architectural design. The exploration and decision-making of early, conceptual design better suited to freehand drawing, sketching, and diagramming than to the hard-line drawing and construction kit approaches of traditional CAD. However, current sketch programs that simulate paper and pencil fail to take advantage of symbolic manipulation and interactive editing offered by computational environments. The paper presents a 'computer as cocktail napkin' program, which recognizes and interprets hand-drawn diagrams and provides a graphical search facility, simulated tracing paper, and a multi-user shared drawing surface. The cocktail napkin is the basis of Stretch-A-Sketch, a constraint based draw program that maintains spatial relations initially specified by a diagram. The cocktail napkin program is also the basis for a query-by-diagram scheme to access a case based design aid as well as to a small collection of images of famous buildings. The paper briefly reviews these extensions of the cocktail napkin program.


L-forms have been shown to occur among many species of bacteria and are suspected to be involved in persistent infections. Since their discovery in 1935, numerous studies characterizing L-form morphology, growth, and pathogenic potential have been conducted. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation and survival of L-forms remain unknown. Using unstable L-form colonies of Escherichia coli as a model, we performed genome-wide transcriptome analysis and screened a deletion mutant library to study the molecular mechanisms involved in formation and survival of L-forms. Microarray analysis of L-form versus classical colonies revealed many up-regulated genes of unknown function as well as multiple over-expressed stress pathways shared in common with persister cells and biofilms. Mutant screens identified three groups of mutants which displayed varying degrees of defects in L-form colony formation. Group 1 mutants, which showed the strongest defect in L-form colony formation, belonged to pathways involved in cell envelope stress, DNA repair, iron homeostasis, outer membrane biogenesis, and drug efflux/ABC transporters. Four (Group 1) mutants, rcsB, a positive response regulator of colanic acid capsule synthesis, ruvA, a recombinational junction binding protein, fur, a ferric uptake regulator and smpA a small membrane lipoprotein were selected for complementation. Complementation of the mutants using a high-copy overexpression vector failed, while utilization of a low-copy inducible vector successfully restored L-form formation. This work represents the first systematic genetic evaluation of genes and pathways involved in the formation and survival of unstable L-form bacteria. Our findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying L-form formation and survival and have implications for understanding the emergence of antibiotic resistance, bacterial persistence and latent infections and designing novel drugs and vaccines.


A configuration applicable to large astronomical telescopes has been developed specifically for lightweight monolithic mirrors in which the primary mirror is located on the same side of the declination axis as the secondary, placing the cassegrain focus very close to the declination axis. This configuration permits both a large instrument space and a single south polar tyne, resulting in a doubly asymmetric system. It is also shown that a passive closed-system air flotation support system can be used for both lateral and back support of the primary mirror, as contrasted to more complex active systems currently in widespread use.


Abstract: This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence and distinguish kinds and related factors of Mental Disorders among elderly people attending Geriatric Clinic, Baghdad, Iraq. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted and a systematic random sampling technique was used to select 320 elderly people. We collected data on basic demographics and associated risk factors using a questionnaire filled through self-reported questionnaire. Mental disorders (MDs) were defined according to Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) with a cutoff score of 20+. Accredited tools used by WHO were utilized to identify mental disorders kinds. Results: The prevalence of MDs in the study sample was 24.4%. The prevalence of MDs types were: Depression 16.6%, anxiety 12.8%, dementia 5.3%, substance abuse 2.5%, suicide thoughts 5.6%, and suicide attempts 2.5%. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the determinant factors of elderly MDs revealed the following significant factors: Aging, smokers, living depends on others, loneliness and social isolation, visual impairment, economic state deterioration, neglect and mishandling, and chronic diseases are the determinant factors of elderly MDs. Conclusions: Mental disorders are wide spread among elderly people and enhanced elderly mental health care services should be provided.


Abstract: What role will human rights and democracy play in India's foreign policy? On the level of principle and ideology, at least, there is a potential for India to become a beacon for democracy, but to what extent will democracy and human rights actually become high-level items on India's foreign-policy agenda? The likelihood is that India will continue to display a strong commitment the democratic ideals, but will do so without making democracy promotion an avowed element of its foreign policy. There is evidence that Indian and China are emerging as rival ideological models simply because India's success will do so much to drive home the point that democracy and freedom can bring a huge development premium.


Background: The ptotic breast is surgically rejuvenated through a mastopexy procedure. Recurrent ptosis or other negative changes to the breast shape are not uncommon following mastopexy, as the tissue laxity and skin quality that contributed to ptosis are not surgically corrected. The purpose of this study was to assess the postsurgical changes in the breasts of patients who underwent a primary mastopexy procedure with soft-tissue reinforcement using a long-term poly-4-hydroxybutyrate resorbable scaffold (i.e., GalaFLEX). Methods: From July of 2012 to January of 2014, 11 consecutive patients underwent a central mound mastopexy with soft-tissue reinforcement in the lower pole using a poly-4-hydroxybutyrate resorbable scaffold. Patients returned for postoperative follow-up visits that included three-dimensional scans of their breasts at months 1, 3, 6, and 12. Results: There were no major complications in the study. Changes in the breast shape defined by distances between predefined landmarks between months 1 and 12 ranged from 1.5 to 9.6 percent. Some postoperative breast settlement occurred between months 1 and 3. The mean change in the nipple-to–inframammary fold distance from months 1 to 12 was 8 mm. Lower pole stretch was 5 percent. Conclusions: Initial findings suggest that central mound mastopexy with soft-tissue reinforcement in the lower pole performed on difficult larger breasts yields a relatively stable result for 1 year after surgery. There was no statistically significant change between months 3 and 12 from the sternal notch to lowest point on the breast as determined by established three-dimensional imaging techniques. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.


Inspired by the core–sheath-dot structure of corncobs, halloysite nanotubes (HNT) were sequentially functionalized with a biomimetic polydopamine (PDA) nanocoating and ultrafine Fe(OH)3 nanoparticles to prepare hierarchical HNT@PDA@Fe(OH)3, with the aim of endowing epoxy resin (EP) with improved fire retardancy, thermal stability and mechanical properties. The target product was characterized via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). As a result, in a study of thermal degradation a nanocomposite of EP with HNT@PDA@Fe(OH)3 generated a notably higher yield of char and exhibited a lower maximum degradation rate than its counterparts. An investigation of fire retardancy revealed that EP/5HNT@PDA@Fe(OH)3 possessed an LOI value of 33.9% and a UL-94 vertical burning rating of V-1, which represent significant enhancements in comparison with neat EP (LOI = 24.1%, no rating). In a cone calorimeter test (CCT) at 50 kW m−2, EP/5HNT@PDA@Fe(OH)3 gave rise to a 41% reduction in peak heat release rate (pHRR) relative to that of EP/5HNT. A TG-FTIR test disclosed that HNT@PDA@Fe(OH)3 notably decreased the evolution of volatiles (CO, aliphatic compounds, aromatic compounds, and carbonyl compounds), which resulted in less flammable gases. Variable-temperature FTIR, Raman spectra and SEM observations revealed that char with a more compact and continuous structure was obtained with HNT@PDA@Fe(OH)3. In addition, the tensile strength and modulus were remarkably enhanced, accompanied by an increase in the dynamic storage modulus (E′). Finally, a probable mechanism was proposed to account for the improved fire retardancy, which involved catalytic charring behavior at the interface (determined by TG-GC-MS) and intensive protection by char.


Security forces fired on stone-throwing Sunni demonstrators in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, killing one and wounding five, according to Iraqi officials. The demonstrators were demanding the release of Sheikh Hussain al-Jubori, a local leader of antigovernment protests that have been going on in Iraq for two months. He was arrested early in the day on suspicion of links to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown terrorist group. After the shootings, members of the mainly Sunni Iraqiya bloc held a news conference to denounce the government as "reckless," and the minister of agriculture, Izzeddin al-Dolah, resigned, the second high-profile Sunni to do so this month.


Compiled by the magazine's travel experts, and by the extraordinary network of international correspondents, the guides are truly the insider's guide to each featured city. Both people who live there, as well as the well-travelled editorial team of Wallpaper*, have put their heads together to come up with a fascinating, efficient guide that keeps the hip, urban traveler with his/her finger on the pulse. The Wallpaper* City Guides are especially useful for the weekend tourist, and the business traveller. If you only have 24 hours to discover a city, each guide offers an exact hour-to-hour plan of what to see, eat, and purchase. For those travelling for a weekend, the guides even go as far as to tell you what you could see for a day-trip outside the city. The City Guides are being published as Wallpaper* magazine celebrates tis 10th anniversary. For a decade, Wallpaper* has been the first to uncover and present enticingly the best in new design and urban travel spots from across the globe.


The main objective of this chapter is for readers to develop an understanding of both ethical and technical considerations of using social networking sites in psychology research. In addition, this text will describe the rationale behind the development of an artificial Facebook page, as well as the steps and skills that are necessary. This case study will describe some of the difficulties that the authors encountered during this process. It is expected that readers will gain a deeper understanding and develop a better appreciation of the wider issues involved in social networking research.


The NDA's Upstream Optioneering project has examined the potential implications of using an alternative type of waste package and its influence on the waste management lifecycle across the NDA estate.Robust Shielded Containers (RSCs) are radioactive waste packages that provide integral radiological shielding, reducing the need for remote handling. The robustness of the container could remove the need to immobilise waste by cement encapsulation. RSCs are routinely used to package ILW for interim storage in Germany and have fairly recently been considered for use in the UK because RSCs have the potential to simplify the waste management lifecycle and enable risk and hazard reduction. In particular, the current baseline (included in Magnox Limited lifetime plans) follows the strategy set out in the Magnox Operating Decommissioning Programme (MODP), in which Type II MOSAIK and Type VI Ductile Cast Iron Containers (DCICs) are used to package (in non-encapsulated form) most Magnox ILW arising prior to 2050.By considering representative types of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) and exploring potential packaging options for these wastes, this paper identifies the factors that could differentiate between cases in which RSCs would, or would not, be an appropriate option. The potential role of RSCs across the waste management lifecycle is examined, from retrieval of waste through to emplacement at a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF), including consideration of other potential uses of RSCs, such as temporary storage of raw wastes for which appropriate treatment and conditioning measures have yet to be developed.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Seventy‐two patients with soft tissue sarcoma arising in the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, parotid region, cheek, scalp, and neck, were entered on the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS)‐I, and could be analyzed for survival. Sixty‐three (88%) attained complete remission (CR), of whom 13 subsequently relapsed (78% actuarial 5‐year retained CR rate). The patients with primary tumor arising in sites other than the neck had a retained CR rate exceeding 90%. In contrast, 11 relapses occurred in the 26 patients with neck primaries (54% retained CR rate). Females, and infants younger than age 24 months were more likely to relapse. Prognostic factors with little or no influence on relapse included tumor size, histology, regional lymph node status, clinical group, and treatment arm. Five of the 6 patients with failure at the primary site had either no radiotherapy (2 patients) or an insufficient dose (<3000 rad). No patient required major organ sacrifice such as laryngectomy or pharyngectomy. Isolated failure in regional nodes did not occur. Children with nonorbital, nonparameningeal head and neck soft tissue sarcoma treated in accordance with the IRS protocol have an excellent rate of local control and survival. Primary tumors arising in the neck are more likely to relapse locally or distantly.


Abstract. A comprehensive hydrometeorological and glaciological data set is presented, originating from a multitude of glaciological, meteorological, hydrological and laser scanning recordings at research sites in the Rofental (1891–3772 m a.s.l., Otztal Alps, Austria). The data sets span a period of 150 years and hence represent a unique time series of rich high-altitude mountain observations. Their collection was originally initiated to support scientific investigation of the glaciers Hintereisferner, Kesselwandferner and Vernagtferner. Annual mass balance, glacier front variation, flow velocities and photographic records of the status of these glaciers were recorded. Later, additional measurements of meteorological and hydrological variables were undertaken, and over time a number of autonomous weather stations and runoff gauges were brought into operation; the available data now comprise records of temperature, relative humidity, short- and longwave radiation, wind speed and direction, air pressure, precipitation, and river water levels. Since 2001, a series of distributed (airborne and terrestrial) laser scans is available, along with associated digital surface models. In 2016 a permanent terrestrial laser scanner was installed on Im hintern Eis (3244 m a.s.l.) to continuously observe almost the entire area of Hintereisferner. The data and research undertaken at the sites of investigation in the Rofental area enable combined research of cryospheric, atmospheric and hydrological processes in complex terrain, and support the development of several state-of-the-art glacier mass balance and hydroclimatological models. The institutions taking part in the Rofental research framework promote their site in several international research initiatives. In INARCH (International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology, http://words.usask.ca/inarch ), all original research data sets are now provided to the scientific community according to the Creative Commons Attribution License by means of the PANGAEA repository ( https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.876120 ).


Modulation of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels via G-protein-coupled receptors is a prime mechanism regulating neurotransmitter release and synaptic plasticity. Despite extensive studies, the molecular mechanism underlying Gq/11-mediated modulation remains unclear. We found cloned and native N-type Ca2+ channels to be regulated by phosphatidylinositol [correction] 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). In inside-out oocyte patches, PIP2 greatly attenuated or reversed the observed rundown of expressed channels. In sympathetic neurons, muscarinic M1 ACh receptor suppression of the Ca2+ current (ICa) was temporally correlated with PIP2 hydrolysis, blunted by PIP2 in whole-cell pipettes, attenuated by expression of PIP2-sequestering proteins, and became irreversible when PIP2 synthesis was blocked. We also probed mechanisms of receptor specificity. Although bradykinin also induced PIP2 hydrolysis, it did not inhibit ICa. However, bradykinin receptors became nearly as effective as M1 receptors when PIP2 synthesis, IP3 receptors, or the activity of neuronal Ca2+ sensor-1 were blocked, suggesting that bradykinin receptor-induced intracellular Ca2+ increases stimulate PIP2 synthesis, compensating for PIP2 hydrolysis. We suggest that differential use of PIP2 signals underlies specificity of Gq/11-coupled receptor actions on the channels


It is well documented that household wealth has risen significantly in recent decades and that both sides of the household balance sheet – assets and liabilities – have expanded. We document a less well-known phenomenon: household liquid assets (such as cash, deposits and equities) have also risen strongly relative to income over the same period. This is true for Australia and for most advanced economies. We explore the determinants of liquidity across households and over time, using a range of household surveys for Australia. We find that household liquidity is strongly associated with life cycle factors, such as age and housing tenure. The increase in liquidity over recent decades has been broad based across households, though strongest amongst those with mortgage debt. Consistent with this, the share of liquidity-constrained households has declined significantly. The growth in liquidity is closely connected to developments in the housing market. First, higher housing prices have lifted the deposit requirement for potential home buyers, encouraging such households to save more in liquid assets. Second, higher mortgage debt has increased the repayment risks associated with future income declines, leading indebted home owners to save more for precautionary reasons, partly through paying down debt ahead of schedule. The process of building wealth and liquidity through debt amortisation has been supported by the trend decline in interest rates and unique financial innovations such as mortgage offset and redraw accounts that have made housing wealth more liquid. Overall, the rise in household liquidity appears to have increased the financial resilience of the household sector.


The aim of this project was to develop and explore the use of a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) integrating a web-based platform for the study of mathematics as part of an active learning environment. The platform was designed to provide active support to engineering students especially those in their first year of study. Early use of the platform can identify possible areas of weakness and provide the self-learning environment required for students to become more proficient in areas where they are lacking key skills or are finding the concepts difficult to understand. The platform consists of a set of tests and applications for the study of engineering mathematics. The tests can adapt and change depending on the answers provided by the student, including video feedback for incorrect answers before the student progresses to the next question. Based on the idea that teaching a concept is the best way to learn that concept, the students become actively involved in the platform as they create the videos that provide feedback to the other users of the platform. This active learning, constructivist approach provides an environment of achievement and ownership that allows students of all levels to enjoy the learning experience.


This Article suggests that, while the "check the box" regulations will eliminate the need to comply with the complex corporate resemblance test in order to achieve partnership tax status for LLCs, a number of regulatory considerations will continue to be important in choosing the optimal management structure for this form of business. This Article focuses on securities laws, rules relating to available accounting options, and self-employment tax regulations as three examples of rules that will influence the way the management structure of LLCs should be set up in order to minimize potential regulatory costs. In addition, it is possible that the passive loss rules might be amended so as to exert and significant influence on the optimal management structure for LLCs. While not exhaustive, this list of considerations illustrates the complexity of regulations relevant to the management structure of LLCs, in addition to the business needs and preferences of participants, and demonstrates that we are still a long way form offering business planners and participants true freedom of choice with regard to management structures for LLCs.


Abstract Asprosin associated with insulin resistance is a newly discovered peptide hormone. The peptide promotes hepatic glucose production. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a metabolic disorder. Insulin resistance plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of the disease. The aim of this study was to discover the association between insulin resistance and asprosin in women with PCOS. We recruited 78 subjects with PCOS and 78 age-matched and body mass index (BMI)-matched controls into this cross-sectional study. Circulating asprosin levels were validated using ELISA method. We also determined metabolic and hormonal parameters of the involved subjects. We found that circulating asprosin levels were elevated in women with PCOS with respect to controls. Asprosin levels showed a positive correlation with insulin resistance, BMI, and free androgen index (FAI). Moreover, subjects with the highest tertile of asprosin levels represented increased odds of having PCOS as compared to those subjects with the lowest tertile asprosin levels. Increased asprosin levels resulted to high possibility of having PCOS risk associated with insulin resistance.


Introduction: Data from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery indicate that abdominoplasty is the fourth most common plastic surgery performed worldwide. Several surgical techniques aim to restore the abdominal contour. The indication for the technique used should aim to improve any individual deformity present in the abdomen. Abdominoplasty marking is done using a ruler, protractor, compass, nylon thread, toothpick, pen, and/or methylene blue, according to the surgeon's preference. Here we aimed to produce a surgical instrument that optimizes the abdominoplasty marking procedure. Methods: The study was approved by the ethics research committee. Graphic designs were developed to identify each part of the instrument, a precedence search was performed, and a patent application was requested. Results: We developed an abdominoplasty marking instrument consisting of a horizontal ruler that receives a vertical ruler at its midpoint, two pivotal rulers with a basal protractor, all marked in millimeters, and a central area that allows marking in this region with methylene blue or a pen. Moreover, it acts as a compass and features side pivotal rulers derived from a basal grade protractor. Conclusion: The instrument developed in this study was designed to minimize the amount of material used and optimize abdominoplasty marking time.


The resonance conditions for excitation of propagating surface plasmons at planar metal/dielectric interfaces and localized surface plasmons associated with metal nanostructures are both sensitive to changes in the interfacial refractive index. This has made these phenomena increasingly popular as transducer principles in label-free sensing of biomolecular recognition reactions. In this article, the authors review the recent progress in the field of nanoplasmonic bioanalytical sensing in general, but set particular focus on certain unique possibilities provided by short-range ordered nanoholes in thin metal films. Although the latter structures are formed in continuous metal films, while nanoparticles are discrete entities, these two systems display striking similarities with respect to sensing capabilities, including bulk sensitivities, and the localization of the electromagnetic fields. In contrast, periodic arrays of nanoholes formed in metal films, most known for their ability to provide wavelength-tuned enhanced transmission, show more similarities with conventional propagating surface plasmon resonance. However, common for both short-range ordered and periodic nanoholes formed in metal films is that the substrate is electrically conductive. Some of the possibilities that emerge from sensor templates that are both electrically conductive and plasmon active are discussed and illustrated using recent results on synchronized nanoplasmonic and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring of supported lipid bilayer formation and subsequent biomolecular recognition reactions. Besides the fact that this combination of techniques provides an independent measure of biomolecular structural changes, it is also shown to contribute with a general means to quantify the response from nanoplasmonic sensors in terms of bound molecular mass.


In 1835 music critic Henri Blanchard wrote a provocative article titled "Les actrices mariees," published in the theater journal Le monde dramatique. The article opened with a mock conversation conveying the critic's concern with morality in Parisian theaters. Was he about to launch into a tirade on performers' libertine lifestyles and their detrimental effects on public morality? Not at all. Instead, Blanchard voiced concern over bourgeois morality, which infiltrated the theaters and led women artists to adopt a virtuous lifestyle. He linked what he perceived as a wilting of the dramatic arts to an increased number of married actresses: "Do you know why dramatic art is disappearing? Why the beautiful flower of our civilization wilts on its stem in our brilliant capital of France?" "My word, no." "Because actresses are getting married." "What a paradox! Then you are not in favor of this laudable, respectable, sacred bond? ... But what about morality?" "Ha! It is very much a question of morality of these pretty women! Of women artists, exceptional in our social order! What, do you not see that these seductive fairies, these fascinating sylphs, with their enchanting [vocal] organs, naive grace, and voluptuous glances, who bring chaos to your mind and trouble in your heart, are depoetizing themselves at will? [...] I condemn this monomania for marriage, this scandalous neglect of the rights of the public, this maladie morale that takes away all of our pretty actresses and that saps, destroys all of our illusions." (1) While perhaps tongue-in-cheek, Blanchard's comments underlined an issue that preoccupied a number of critics during the nineteenth century, that is, how theater women's difference from other women could be necessary to theater culture. The prima donna has long been considered essentially distinct from other women, her ambiguous position in society uneasily tolerated. With hectic performing schedules, difficult working conditions, and various other exigencies of professional theater life, singers often had trouble conforming to dominant social norms. (2) Louis Gentil, Opera employee and author of the infamous Journal d'une habilleuse, claimed that all women wanting to make a career of singing must renounce the sweetness of private life: burdened by the necessity of making a lifetime's wages in a decade or so, female singers had no time for sickness, marriage--even friends. (3) Their existence on the fringes of acceptable feminine behavior--whether by choice or by necessity--has often led to discursive strategies in various media (novels, serial fiction, critical reviews, theatrical works) that represented professional theater women as incapable of fulfilling stereotypical feminine roles. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's vitriolic diatribes against actresses in his Lettre a d'Alembert (1758) made it clear that a woman who performed for others publicly--and, even worse, for money--could not possibly possess any of those qualities so essential to her sex. (4) As Rebecca Pope and Susan Leonardi put it, "What the diva can't be [...] is wife, good woman, true woman. Divahood kills womanhood." (5) Bad wife, bad mother, bad woman. With the rise of bourgeois morality in postrevolutionary France, women of all classes were increasingly defined by their roles as wives and mothers. Throughout the nineteenth century, women artists faced many challenges in negotiating a space for their creative efforts in gendered public and private spheres. Nancy Reich has suggested that the increased emphasis on the home as the proper sphere of the woman must have caused considerable conflict for the professional woman musician who had to leave and earn a salary. (6) Certainly, female performers were increasingly subjected to the dictates of bourgeois morality and castigated for their failure to conform. And yet there remained an appreciation of their different role in the public sphere. …


Introduction Information Technology (IT) has been an enabler of economic and cultural globalization. Indeed, it is likely that without IT, current levels of globalization would be impossible. Thus as an essential enabler of globalization, IT has some ethical responsibility for the implementation of globalization. This paper discusses the nature of IT's responsibility within ethical globalization. I will first briefly characterize globalization and then outline a social contract theory of ethics which I believe is the most appropriate ethical theory to apply to the problem. (These results build on the results of Schultz, 2009.) Finally, I will suggest the appropriate ethical principles and practices for IT to follow to aid the ethical implementation of globalization. Figure 1 indicates the general relations of different levels and kinds of ethics that will be discussed in this paper. Note that IT ethics draws from many different levels of ethics. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Globalization Globalization can be described as the coalescence of the economies and cultures of this planet. The reason for the coalescence is technological advances, both in information technology and transportation technology. It is not as though people all over the world suddenly decided to globalize for no special reason. Globalization so characterized is a recent phenomenon. Without IT, for example, it would just not have been possible to manage parts of a business as a single transnational supply chain. The IT applications which made such supply chains possible did not begin to emerge until the 1970s, and were dramatically enhanced by the arrival of the Internet for business use in 1994. Also, transportation technology improvements such as containerization in the late 1950s and early 1960s made it more feasible to do manufacturing on the other side of the world. A fuller description of the globalization would discuss political and legal aspects as well as economic and cultural aspects. Each of these aspects of globalization cannot be considered completely in isolation. Economic globalization forces changes in culture, and cultural globalization forces changes in politics and law. Farmers in Mexico who cannot compete with subsidized US agribusinesses are forced to become manufacturing laborers or illegal immigrants to the US. Cultural globalization has made child labor and battering of women less acceptable. As these examples illustrate, globalization has both positive and negative aspects. For this reason, globalization has become a contested concept. My aim here is neither to condemn globalization nor to praise it. Globalization is a form of human social cooperation with both good and bad aspects. To try to prove that globalization is in itself good or bad would be just as nonsensical as to try to prove that human social cooperation is in itself good or bad. Human social cooperation has produced a technologized lifestyle which is dramatically better for many people. Human social cooperation has also produced great evils such as wars and the potential collapse of the ecosystem. Globalization has also produced benefits and harms. So instead of trying to determine whether globalization is good or bad, I consider how globalization can be implemented in a just and ethical way. My ultimate concern in this paper is to show IT's potential contribution to such an implementation. IT is much more, I think, than a mere enabler of globalization. Within globalization, IT produces new ethical problems all by itself. For example, around 2002, Yahoo provided the Chinese government with information about two pro-democracy journalists who were subsequently jailed and apparently tortured. The journalists successfully sued Yahoo. Yahoo initially claimed that it was merely complying with Chinese law (Elias 2007). The obvious ethical issue is whether Yahoo should do this, whether the law of a country not recognizing basic human rights should be followed. …


The conserved oligomeric Golgi (COG) complex is a tethering factor composed of eight subunits that is involved in the retrograde transport of intra-Golgi components. Deficient biosynthesis of COG subunits leads to alterations of protein trafficking along the secretory pathway and thereby to severe diseases in humans. Since the COG complex affects the localization of several Golgi glycosyltransferase enzymes, COG deficiency also leads to defective protein glycosylation, thereby explaining the classification of COG deficiencies as forms of congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG). To date, mutations in COG1, COG4, COG7 and COG8 genes have been associated with diseases, which range from severe multi-organ disorders to moderate forms of neurological impairment. In the present study, we describe a new type of COG deficiency related to a splicing mutation in the COG5 gene. Sequence analysis in the patient identified a homozygous intronic substitution (c.1669-15T>C) leading to exon skipping and severely reduced expression of the COG5 protein. This defect was associated with a mild psychomotor retardation with delayed motor and language development. Analysis of different serum glycoproteins revealed a CDG phenotype with typical undersialylation of Nand O-glycans. Retrograde Golgi-to-endoplasmic reticulum trafficking was markedly delayed in the patient's fibroblast upon brefeldin-A treatment, which is a hallmark of COG deficiency. This trafficking delay could be restored to normal values by expressing a wild-type COG5 cDNA in the patient cells. This case demonstrates that COG deficiency and thereby CDG must be taken into consideration even in children presenting mild neurological impairments.


Network adversaries, such as malicious transit autonomous systems (ASes), have been shown to be capable of partitioning the Bitcoin's peer-to-peer network via routing-level attacks; e.g., a network adversary exploits a BGP vulnerability and performs a prefix hijacking attack (viz. Apostolaki et al. [3]). Due to the nature of BGP operation, such a hijacking is globally observable and thus enables immediate detection of the attack and the identification of the perpetrator. In this paper, we present a stealthier attack, which we call the EREBUS attack, that partitions the Bitcoin network without any routing manipulations, which makes the attack undetectable to control-plane and even to data-plane detectors. The novel aspect of EREBUS is that it makes the adversary AS a natural man-in-the-middle network of all the peer connections of one or more targeted Bitcoin nodes by patiently influencing the targeted nodes' peering decision. We show that affecting the peering decision of a Bitcoin node, which is believed to be infeasible after a series of bug patches against the earlier Eclipse attack [29], is possible for the network adversary that can use abundant network address resources (e.g., spoofing millions of IP addresses in many other ASes) reliably for an extended period of time at a negligible cost. The EREBUS attack is readily available for large ASes, such as Tier-1 and large Tier-2 ASes, against the vast majority of 10K public Bitcoin nodes with only about 520 bit/s of attack traffic rate per targeted Bitcoin node and a modest (e.g., 5–6 weeks) attack execution period. The EREBUS attack can be mounted by nation-state adversaries who would be willing to execute sophisticated attack strategies patiently to compromise cryptocurrencies (e.g., control the consensus, take down a cryptocurrency, censor transactions). As the attack exploits the topological advantage of being a network adversary but not the specific vulnerabilities of Bitcoin core, no quick patches seem to be available. We discuss that some naive solutions (e.g., whitelisting, rate-limiting) are ineffective and third-party proxy solutions may worsen the Bitcoin's centralization problem. We provide some suggested modifications to the Bitcoin core and show that they effectively make the EREBUS attack significantly harder; yet, their non-trivial changes to the Bitcoin's network operation (e.g., peering dynamics, propagation delays) should be examined thoroughly before their wide deployment.


Civil engineers are more and more often confronted with constructions in urban environment. It is then essential to be able to accurately assess the initial state, and the evolution of the safety during construction stages. While traditional geotechnical engineering has been using a family of simplified approaches for different problems, in association with two-dimensional modeling, the approach adopted herein is integrated, coupling all aspects of the problem, and 3-dimensional, thus offering a significant potential for optimization of constructions. Over the past 20 years, the authors have been developing numerical tools for static and dynamic analysis of soil, rock, structures and flow with the aim of providing to civil engineers a tool which unifies computational geomechanics, structural mechanics and soil-structure interaction within a single theoretical framework, while remaining user-friendly and transparent for the user. Recent developments in Z_Soil.PC are presented in this paper, along with three-dimensional simulations which illustrate the potential of the tool.


A 70,000-D membrane protein (MP70), which is restricted to the eye lens fibers and is present in immunologically homologous form in many vertebrate species, has been identified. By use of anti-MP70 monoclonal antibodies for immunofluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy, this polypeptide was localized in lens membrane junctional domains. Both immunofluorescence microscopy and SDS PAGE reveal an abundance of MP70 in the lens outer cortex that coincides with a high frequency of fiber gap junctions in the same region.


Large-scale annotated corpora are a prerequisite to developing high-performance semantic role labeling systems. Unfortunately, such corpora are expensive to produce, limited in size, and may not be representative. Our work aims to reduce the annotation effort involved in creating resources for semantic role labeling via semi-supervised learning. The key idea of our approach is to find novel instances for classifier training based on their similarity to manually labeled seed instances. The underlying assumption is that sentences that are similar in their lexical material and syntactic structure are likely to share a frame semantic analysis. We formalize the detection of similar sentences and the projection of role annotations as a graph alignment problem, which we solve exactly using integer linear programming. Experimental results on semantic role labeling show that the automatic annotations produced by our method improve performance over using hand-labeled instances alone.


This essay introduces a symposium issue that theorizes and assesses transnational legal ordering of private law and business regulation in relation to the state. Such law and regulation seek to produce order in an issue area that relevant actors construe as a problem. The issues that the symposium covers include labor rights, corporate social responsibility, the regulation of financial derivatives, and the allocation of authority among courts to hear transnational disputes. The applicable norms adopt various forms and they vary in their formally binding nature. They are transnational insofar as they transcend and permeate state boundaries. The symposium evaluates developments in these areas, and the challenges and limits various initiatives face. It concludes with articles by leading theorists of private law from a transnational perspective. The symposium participants respectively evaluate privately made norms addressing labor protection (Larry Cata Backer) and corporate social responsibility (Cynthia Williams), the regulation of financial derivatives (Hannah Buxbaum), conflict-of-laws regimes (Christopher Whytock), legal pluralism and TLOs (Peer Zumbansen), and the state as a TLO (Ralf Michaels).


Sri Lanka's participation rates in higher education are low and have risen only slightly in the
last few decades; the number of places for higher education in the state university system
only caters for around 3% of the university entrant age cohort. The literature reveals that the
highly competitive global knowledge economy increasingly favours workers with high levels
of education who are also lifelong learners. This lack of access to higher education for a
sizable proportion of the labour force is identified as a severe impediment to Sri Lanka"s
competitiveness in the global knowledge economy.
The literature also suggests that Information and Communication Technologies are
increasingly relied upon in many contexts in order to deliver flexible learning, to cater
especially for the needs of lifelong learners in today"s higher educational landscape. The
government of Sri Lanka invested heavily in ICTs for distance education during the period
2003-2009 in a bid to increase access to higher education; but there has been little research
into the impact of this.
To address this lack, this study investigated the impact of ICTs on distance education in Sri
Lanka with respect to increasing access to higher education. In order to achieve this aim, the
research focused on Sri Lanka"s effort from three perspectives: policy perspective,
implementation perspective and user perspective. A multiple case study research using an
ethnographic approach was conducted to observe Orange Valley University"s and Yellow
Fields University"s (pseudonymous) implementation of distance education programmes
using questionnaires, qualitative interviewing and document analysis. In total, data for the
analysis was collected from 129 questionnaires, 33 individual interviews and 2 group
interviews.
The research revealed that ICTs have indeed increased opportunities for higher education;
but mainly for people of affluent families from the Western Province. Issues identified were
categorized under the themes: quality assurance, location, language, digital literacies and
access to resources. Recommendations were offered to tackle the identified issues in
accordance with the study findings. The study also revealed the strong presence of a
multifaceted digital divide in the country. In conclusion, this research has shown that
iii
although ICT-enabled distance education has the potential to increase access to higher
education the present implementation of the system in Sri Lanka has been less than
successful.


In this paper, we contribute to the Extreme Bandit problem, a variant of Multi-Armed Bandits in which the learner seeks to collect the largest possible reward. We first study the concentration of the maximum of i.i.d random variables under mild assumptions on the tail of the rewards distributions. This analysis motivates the introduction of Quantile of Maxima (QoMax). The properties of QoMax are sufficient to build an Explore-Then-Commit (ETC) strategy, QoMax-ETC, achieving strong asymptotic guarantees despite its simplicity. We then propose and analyze a more adaptive, anytime algorithm, QoMax-SDA, which combines QoMax with a subsampling method recently introduced by Baudry et al. (2021). Both algorithms are more efficient than existing approaches in two aspects (1) they lead to better empirical performance (2) they enjoy a significant reduction of the memory and time complexities.


This paper describes and discusses experimentation with the use of blended learning in teaching Shakespeare. Previous iterations of the subject in a traditional lecture and tutorial format had seen a decline in student attendance and a fall in student achievement at the higher grade levels. A further complicating issue was the range of expectations from the cohort, which comprised students from Creative Writing, Drama, and Education, a factor which also highlights the cross-disciplinary nature of teaching Shakespeare. A blended learning and lectorial format was employed to facilitate small group discussion of the plays in conjunction with a wider social and historical overview. Student feedback indicated that the changes to the delivery method were received positively, although some questions do remain concerning levels of student engagement and the specific disciplinary needs of student cohorts. The findings of the teaching of this subject will translate usefully to other fields and disciplines, especially as more and more subjects take up blended learning. The findings indicate that it is not enough to take up new technologies in the teaching of a unit. The learning environment must also be rethought and reconceptualised.


This paper aims to describe how we change our mind. As any human knows from his or her own experience, this does not always come naturally to us. This dissertation therefore aims to find fault in Seneca's assertion: not only to err is human, but it is also human to persist in this mistake despite evidence to the contrary. In this paper I will argue that changing one's mind is regulated through emotions, building on Damasio's thoughts that emotions are not a luxury, but essential to rational thinking and normal behavior. His landmark book "Descarte's Error" (Damasio and Sutherland 1996) inspired the title of the current work. This research has been triggered by my experience in industry, where I have been lucky enough to have collaborated with many talented, friendly and rather stubborn people for over 20 years. Referentie de Boer, R.J. (2011), Seneca's Error: The Intervening Effect of Emotions on Mental Model Preservation , Symposium on Human Factors for Future Aviation, Schiphol Oost, The Netherlands


Abstract Destabilized multiethnic states and empires are environments that are highly susceptible to violent ethnonationalist conflict. Conflicts between states built on the ruins of such empires and their minorities are especially common. James Fearon has famously argued that these conflicts are the result of minorities' rational incentives to rebel, which in turn are the result of newly independent states' inability to guarantee that these minorities will not be discriminated against if they acquiesce to citizenship, as well as expectations that over time the balance of power will shift against minorities as states consolidate their institutions. States can, however, take steps to reassure their minorities. The puzzle is why they often fail to do so. In fact, states often adopt policies that confirm minorities' worst fears, pushing them toward rebellion. Such action may be precipitated by a state's belief that a minority is motivated by a separatist agenda rather than by the desire to have its concerns and grievances satisfactorily addressed. If secession is a minority's primary objective, then concessions intended to demobilize the minority will only make the state more vulnerable to future demands and separatist bids. The existence of third parties with incentives to support minority separatism exacerbates the problem. The violent and nonviolent minority disputes in post-Soviet Georgia illustrate these findings.


The thermodynamic structure of the lower troposphere over the Southern Ocean is analysed by employing over 16 years of high resolution upper air soundings from Macquarie Island (54.62 S, 158.85 E). The soundings are analysed to develop an understanding of the structure of the boundary layer and wind shear occurring through the lower levels over this region, and to compare this to European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model level reanalysis data for the Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC). A multiple layered structure is commonly observed in the high resolution soundings, and is also observed in YOTC, but with a lower frequency. The climatological mean and variability of a number of variables are calculated for both data sets, which reveals that YOTC performs well, but has weaknesses in modelling the observed moisture and wind fields, particularly evident in wind shear profiles. A distinction between a number of boundary layer types is made, and the frequency with which they occur is quantified for both data sets. Proxy cloud fields are constructed for the two data sets, and these suggest that clouds are commonly observed in a region between the top of the boundary layer and a secondary temperature inversion. An examination of the wind shear across the cloud boundaries finds wind shear over cloud base occurs more frequently than cloud top, suggesting that the cloud fields are not embedded in a well-mixed boundary layer. Next, an attempt to generalise these results to a broad region across the Southern Ocean is made using the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and climate (COSMIC) Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) observations. A direct comparison of temporally and spatially co-located COSMIC profiles and radiosonde profiles from Macquarie Island shows the performance of COSMIC is variable. COSMIC often struggles to reproduce the profiles over strong inversions in temperature or large changes in moisture, and the height and occurrence of the boundary layer, as well as any decoupled layers, rarely agree between the two data sets. A statistical analysis is performed on a large set of COSMIC profiles in the vicinity of Macquarie Island, and shows COSMIC reproduces the height of the boundary layer and decoupled layers well, but the frequency is underestimated. The analysis is extended to a large region of the Southern Ocean to investigate any spatial patterns in the height of the layers. There is a north-south gradient in the height of the boundary layer, as well as the frequency of occurrence of the boundary layer. Decoupling of the boundary layer is found to be a frequent and wide spread feature of the Southern Ocean. Next, the WRF model is used to simulate the boundary layer over the ocean south of Tasmania during a period of observed decoupling. A variety of model runs are performed to investigate the performance of three common PBL schemes. Other parameters investigated include increasing the vertical resolution, and the effect of varying the model initial conditions through 3D Variational data assimilation. An extensive model evaluation reveals the WRF model rarely captures main or secondary temperature inversions in the lowest few kilometers with the strength or frequency of in-situ observations. In reproducing the thermodynamics, the 3D Variational data assimilation model run performs the best. The YSU PBL scheme consistently performs best at simulating the Southern Ocean boundary layer and the associated clouds, and the benefit of improving the model initial conditions through data assimilation is significant. Finally, an analysis of trends in the wind over Macquarie Island is performed with a radiosonde database spanning nearly four decades. The results indicate that the surface wind speed is increasing, with the trend for the upper levels being less well defined. The surface wind is highly correlated with the upper level winds, and the wind at all levels are moderately correlated with the Southern Annular Mode. ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis data shows significant trends in wind speed over several levels, however slightly smaller than trends in the soundings over a similar time period. The correlations in ERA-Interim are similar to those in the soundings. A clustering analysis of the wind reveals four distinct regimes, with a trend towards a regime characterised by strong north westerly winds.


Presidential candidate Trump in 2016 promised to prevent unauthorized migration and deport unauthorized foreigners in the United States, and President Trump issued executive orders after taking office in January 2017 that could lead to a 2,000-mile wall on the Mexico-US border and the removal of many of the 11 million unauthorized foreigners, including one million who work in US agriculture. This paper emphasizes that, especially agriculture in the western United States, has long relied on newcomers to fill seasonal farm jobs. The slowdown in Mexico-US migration since 2008–09 means that there are fewer flexible newcomers to supplement the current workforce, which is aging and settled. Farm employers are responding by offering bonuses to satisfy current workers, stretching them with productivity-increasing tools, substituting machines for workers, and supplementing current workforces with legal H-2A guest workers. Immigration policy will influence the choice between mechanization, guest workers, and imports. Several factors suggest that the United States may be poised to embark on another large-scale guest worker program for agriculture. If it does, farmers should begin to pay Social Security and Unemployment Insurance (UI) taxes on the wages of H-2A workers to foster mechanization and development in the workers' communities of origin by dividing these payroll taxes equally between workers as they depart and commodity-specific boards. Worker departure bonuses could be matched by governments in migrant-sending areas to promote development, and commodity-specific boards could spend monies to reduce dependence on hand labor over time. The economic incentives provided by payroll taxes could help to usher in a new and better era of farm labor.


Late in 2005, Sony BMG released millions of Compact Discs containing digital rights management technologies that threatened the security of its customers' computers and the integrity of the information infrastructure more broadly. This Article aims to identify the market, technological, and legal factors that appear to have led a presumably rational actor toward a strategy that in retrospect appears obviously and fundamentally misguided. The Article first addresses the market-based rationales that likely influenced Sony BMG's deployment of these DRM systems and reveals that even the most charitable interpretation of Sony BMG's internal strategizing demonstrates a failure to adequately value security and privacy. After taking stock of the then-existing technological environment that both encouraged and enabled the distribution of these protection measures, the Article examines law, the third vector of influence on Sony BMG's decision to release flawed protection measures into the wild, and argues that existing doctrine in the fields of contract, intellectual property, and consumer protection law fails to adequately counter the technological and market forces that allowed a self-interested actor to inflict these harms on the public. The Article concludes with two recommendations aimed at reducing the likelihood of companies deploying protection measures with known security vulnerabilities in the consumer marketplace. First, Congress should alter the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by creating permanent exemptions from its anti-circumvention and antitrafficking provisions that enable security research and the dissemination of tools to remove harmful protection measures. Second, the Federal Trade Commission should leverage insights from the field of human computer interaction security (HCI-Sec) to develop a stronger framework for user control over the security and privacy aspects of computers.


The principal point of this article is that Congress has plenary authority to enforce the Bill of Rights against the federal government. Although this precept is a fundamental one, neither the Supreme Court nor legal scholars have articulated this point in clear, simple, and direct terms. The Supreme Court does not have a monopoly on the Bill of Rights. Congress, too, has constitutional authority to interpret our rights, and to enforce or enlarge them as against the actions of the federal government. Congress exercised its power to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens when it enacted FISA, the federal law that requires the government to obtain a warrant from a special court before engaging in electronic eavesdropping for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence. In spite of this law, the National Security Agency has conducted a program of warrantless surveillance, called the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The Attorney General has made a nuanced and unique argument in support of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. He suggests that wiretapping for foreign intelligence is more central to the role of the President than it is to the role of Congress, and that therefore FISA, the federal statute which requires the President to obtain warrants, is unconstitutional. In response to this argument, the article contends that Congress has the power to enforce the Bill of Rights against the federal government, and that FISA therefore does represent an exercise by Congress of one of its core functions - to protect the rights of American citizens. Finally, the Attorney General also argues that FISA is unconstitutional under a broad reading of executive power called the theory of the "unitary executive." This article contends that this theory was rejected by Supreme Court in the case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer. Justice Jackson, in particular, eloquently argued that the President is subject to the Rule of Law. This article also suggests that the opinion of Anthony Kennedy in Clinton v. New York is relevant. In that case Justice Kennedy made "individual liberty" the centerpiece of Separation of Powers analysis. The article concludes that both the Rule of Law and individual liberty are served by upholding the constitutionality of FISA.


The paper presents a decision support system (DSS) for managing and using recreational beaches. The DSS consists of (1) a sensor-assisted water quality monitoring system, (2) a multiple linear regression (MLR) model, developed with the Virtual Beach (VB) program, for predicting enterococci levels, and (3) a web-enabled Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for displaying beach water quality conditions. The MLR model was tested using a total of 945 sets of environmental and bacteriological data collected over 6 swimming seasons. It is found that the MLR model is capable of correctly predicting over 88% of beach advisories and over 80% of no advisory events. The web-enabled GIS platform has nowcasting and forecasting functions. The nowcasting function reduces the decision-making time from current 2–3 days to near real-time while the forecasting function changes the decision-making time from current 2–3 days behind to 1–3 days ahead of actual use of beaches, greatly improving the decision-making in beach management and reducing potential health risks of fecal pollution to beachgoers. While the DSS was specifically developed for the Holly Beach, USA, the methods used in this paper are generally applicable to other coastal beaches.


The food and agricultural sector will face numerous challenges in the next decades, arising from changing global production and consumption patterns, which currently go along with high resource use, causing ecological and socio-economic impacts. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and evaluate the practical applicability of the Hot Spot Analysis methodology in the context of supply chain management in companies. The HSA is a method to identify social and ecological problems along the entire life cycle of a product. Special emphasis is put on a customized implementation in the value chain beef of McDonald's Germany. The HSA of McDonald's beef value chain shows that the main ecological problems arise in the phase of raw material extraction, whereas the main social problems can be identified in the phase of slaughtering. Finally, the paper shows potentials and shortcomings of such a customized application and how the results can be implemented in the sustainability management of a company.


In this article, the results of an investigation into the atmospheric pressure conditions in the Arctic in the period from 1801 to 1920 are presented. For this period, which can be described as 'early instrumental', limited meteorological data exist from a network of regular stations. As a result, in order to get at least a rough idea of pressure conditions in the Arctic in the study period, data from different land and marine expeditions were collected. A total of 94 pressure series of monthly means have been gathered, the duration of which is usually less than 2 years. While the area and time periods covered by the data are variable, it is still possible to describe the general character of the pressure conditions. The results show that the areally averaged Arctic pressure in the early instrumental period (1861–1920) was 0.8 hPa lower than today (1961–1990). Lower values of atmospheric pressure were also observed in all study regions, excluding the Atlantic. The greatest negative differences (−2.1 hPa) have been found for the Canadian Arctic. The greatest changes between the historical and present times were noted in all winter months and in winter as a whole (−1.9 hPa), while in summer and autumn they were very small and their average differences came to − 0.1 and − 0.2 hPa, respectively. Comparison of historical and contemporary annual courses of atmospheric pressure in the whole of the Arctic and in its particular regions reveals general consonance. There is evidence to show that changes in Arctic atmospheric pressure during the whole study period were insignificant. Atmospheric pressure in the first International Polar Year (IPY) period (September 1882 to July 1883) was, on average, 1.4 hPa higher than in modern period (1961–1990). The greatest positive seasonal differences between historical and contemporary pressure values occurred in autumn (2.6 hPa), while the lowest were in winter (only 0.2 hPa). Spatial patterns of average annual and seasonal atmospheric pressure in the Arctic were very similar to present day ones. The pressure differences calculated between historical and modern mean monthly values show that almost all of them lie within one standard deviation from present long‐term mean (1961–1990). Thus, this means that the atmospheric pressure in the early instrumental period was not significantly different to that of the present day. Recent, commonly used gridded datasets of the sea level atmospheric pressure (HadSLP2 and the 20th Century Reanalysis Project) reveal quite a large positive bias in the period 1850–1920 in comparison to the real data from the instrumental observations. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society


greenhouse experiment was conducted with a completely randomized design with four treatments and four replicates to investigate the efficiency of sand, soil (calcareous and non-calcareous), and organic matter (rice husk and leaf compost) for the removal of copper, nickel, zinc, and chromium from industrial wastewater by filtration. PVC tubes (columns) 66.5 cm high and 10 cm diameter were chosen and each was filled from bottom to top with coarse gravel, sand, soil, organic matter, and fine gravel, respectively. Then, plating wastewater was added at nine pore volumes to each column. When the filter's surface was completely dried, a second round of wastewater addition was performed. At the end of the experiment, the columns were cut to collect the adsorptive materials which were then air-dried and transferred to the laboratory for measurement of heavy metal concentrations by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results showed that putting calcareous and non- calcareous soils under the applied organic matter (rice husk and leaf compost) affected their capacity for adsorbing heavy metals to varying degrees. It was also found that low the cation exchange capacity of soil compared to organic matter did not lead to its reduced adsorption capacity. Analysis of the organic matter revealed that rice husk was the best adsorbent for Cr, while leaf compost was the best for Zn and Ni. In addition, applied sand in this experiment was a good adsorbent for heavy metals in wastewater. Generally, it seems that application of the studied adsorbents was effective and that they could be recommended for the removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater.


Background: Studies have shown that rationalization has an impact on workload, work demands as well as a negative effect on workers' health. Rationalization in the health sector may have impacts on musculoskeletal and mental disorders, both which are the dominant complaints of European workers.Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify possible health effects on nurses after rationalization in a Norwegian Hospital. Based on former studies, the hypothesis is that rationalizations will lead to increased workload and strain to nurses. In this study it is postulated that work demands of physical, mental, emotional and social character is potential factors to influence nurses' musculoskeletal health.Material and Methods: Included in this study were 76 nurses and 5 leaders, all from a clinic who has gone through several rationalizations. This study combines survey data of nurses' self-reported strain and musculoskeletal pain, and interviews with both nurses and leaders.Results: The results indicate that nurses had increased work-load and experienced strain after rationalizations in hospitals. The work demands of physical and mental character have a significant influence on self-reported shoulder-neck and low back pain. Furthermore, it is implicated that level of information, participation and the psychosocial work-environment will affect these outcomesConclusion: This study confirm that rationalization in hospital leads to higher job demands, which has an impact on nurses musculoskeletal and psychosocial health. Through interviews with the nurses practical suggestions for improvement of the process is suggested.


"Much has been written about the Mexican war, but this ...is the best military history of that conflict...Leading personalities, civilian and military, Mexican and American, are given incisive and fair evaluations. The coming of war is seen as unavoidable, given American expansion and Mexican resistance to loss of territory, compounded by the fact that neither side understood the other. The events that led to war are described with reference to military strengths and weaknesses, and every military campaign and engagement is explained in clear detail and illustrated with good maps...Problems of large numbers of untrained volunteers, discipline and desertion, logistics, diseases and sanitation, relations with Mexican civilians in occupied territory, and Mexican guerrilla operations are all explained, as are the negotiations which led to war's end and the Mexican cession...This is an outstanding contribution to military history and a model of writing which will be admired and emulated." (Journal of American History). K. Jack Bauer was also the author of Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest (1985) and Other Works. Robert W. Johannsen, who introduces this Bison Books edition of The Mexican War, is a professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and the author of To the Halls of Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (1985).


We use the line digraph construction to associate an orthogonal matrix with each graph. From this orthogonal matrix, we derive two further matrices. The spectrum of each of these three matrices is considered as a graph invariant. For the first two cases, we compute the spectrum explicitly and show that it is determined by the spectrum of the adjacency matrix of the original graph. We then show by computation that the isomorphism classes of many known families of strongly regular graphs (up to 64 vertices) are characterized by the spectrum of this matrix. We conjecture that this is always the case for strongly regular graphs and we show that the conjecture is not valid for general graphs. We verify that the smallest regular graphs which are not distinguished with our method are on 14 vertices.


This paper presents a modular and extensible high-level synthesis research system, called SPARK, that takes a behavioral description in ANSI-C as input and produces synthesizable register-transfer level VHDL. SPARK uses parallelizing compiler technology, developed previously, to enhance instruction-level parallelism and re-instruments it for high-level synthesis by incorporating ideas of mutual exclusivity of operations, resource sharing and hardware cost models. In this paper, we present the design flow through the SPARK system, a set of transformations that include speculative code motions and dynamic transformations and show how these transformations and other optimizing synthesis and compiler techniques are employed by a scheduling heuristic. Experiments are performed on two moderately complex industrial applications, namely MPEG-1 and the GIMP image processing tool. The results show that the various code transformations lead to up to 70 % improvements in performance without any increase in the overall area and critical path of the final synthesized design.


A pathbreaking economist and a lifelong advocate of freedom, Professor Adolph Lowe, last surviving member of the faculty of Alvin Johnson's "university-in-exile" - the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science of New York's New School for Social Research - died in Wolfenbuttel, Germany on June 3, 1995. He was 102 years old. Dr. Lowe was associated with the American Journal of Economics and Sociology from 1940 until his passing. Even earlier in 1935, in the course of preparing to found the Journal, I encountered his book, entitled Economics and Sociology: A Plea for Co-operation in the Social Sciences. The words that appear towards the bottom of the front cover of every issue of this Journal" constructive synthesis in the social sciences" are the words of John Dewey which were used by Lowe in his dedication of the book to both Franz Oppenheimer, the great Georgist and a founder of modern German sociology, and the latter's successor at the University of Frankfort, Karl Mannheim. Despite the Journal's early championing of an interdisciplinary approach to social science and the widespread adoption of it in higher education, the first doctorate in the research approach it favored was awarded only in 1995. This is a long time after the 1920s when a committee on urban problems advocated it at the University of Chicago. John Dewey taught philosophy at Chicago and the approach originated within the age-old history of philosophy when synthesis became one of its primary goals. The aim was to add to the corpus of human knowledge a synthesis based on facts tested and derived from science. Oppenheimer, a physician with a second doctorate in economics, and his friend, colleague, literary executor, and lawyer turned economist, Lowe, became advocates of internal colonization as a means of ending the societal alienation of people made redundant by technological progress. Oppenheimer founded colonies in Germany which flourished until Hitler suppressed them because most of the colonists were of the Jewish faith. Both scholars had been among the major influences on the construction of the economy and society of the State of Israel. Adolph Lowe was born in Stuttgart in Southwest Germany, one of the centers of bourgeois revolution in 1848, and educated in Berlin and Tubingen. From 1919 to 1924 he was Section Head in the Ministries of Labor and Economics of the Weimar Republic. Then he became Head of the International Division of the German Federal Statistical Bureau. …


Many Romance languages and varieties show different patterns of partial or complete lack of plural agreement within the determiner phrase (DP). This phenomenon has scarcely been addressed in the literature and poses problems for any kind of analysis proposed so far, regardless of the theoretical background. This paper presents and classifies several cases of lack of plural agreement or plural marking within the Romance DP and critically discusses several proposed analyses in research literature and their applicability to these Romance varieties. The main focus of the discussion is placed on the role which morphology is assumed to play. It is argued that lack of plural agreement can be explained neither in pure syntactic terms nor in pure morphological terms.


There has been a great interest in developing photoswitchable magnetic materials because of their possible applications for future high-density information storage media. In fact, however, the examples reported so far did not show ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. From the viewpoint of their practical application to magnetic recording systems, the ability to fix their magnetic moments such that they still exhibit room-temperature ferromagnetism is an absolute requirement. Here, we have designed reversible photoswitchable ferromagnetic FePt nanoparticles whose surfaces were coated with azobenzene-derivatized ligands. On the surfaces of core particles, reversible photoisomerization of azobenzene in the solid state was realized by using spacer ligands that provide sufficient free volume. These photoisomerizations brought about changes in the electrostatic field around the core-FePt nanoparticles. As a result, we have succeeded in controlling the magnetic properties of these ferromagnetic composite nanoparticles by alternating the photoillumination in the solid state at room temperature.


Composer William Bolcom (1938-) has shown a remarkable capacity for incorporating disparate materials and combining them to create original compositions, while often using traditional genres and forms. This style has earned Bolcom the reputation as a leading composer of American postmodernism. This study provides a brief sketch of Bolcom's development as a postmodern composer, his repertoire for violoncello and piano, and it examines his compositional style as applied in his Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1989). In the Sonata Bolcom applies a wide variety of musical vocabulary from serious and popular traditions. He juxtaposes contrasting ideas to create and resolve rhythmic, melodic and harmonic tensions and amalgamates concepts of three centuries of music history into one new integral work. All these disparate elements with classical, romantic, impressionist, expressionist, modernist and popular connotations are molded together to form a serious piece of musi c with a sense of humor. The three contrasting movements of the Sonata share many common rhythmic, melodic and harmonic traits. The movements form a congruent work of Classical and Romantic spirit, often reminiscent of Brahms' music, despite the mixed use of traditional, popular, and modernist musical languages.


This article analyses Mad Men 's relationship to creativity. Considering popular, industry-specific and scholarly understandings, it uses close readings of the show and its narratological techniques to demonstrate how these potentially contradictory concepts and practices of creativity overlap in the show's fourth season. The points at which these understandings collide become sources of tension between characters and are marked by narrative gaps that conceal deceptive creativity. The conflicts centre on three primary debates: a) the role of alcohol in the creative process, b) industry-specific norms of creativity, and c) the popular perception that creativity is about expression. Consequently, this article approaches questions about creativity using the show's own partially elided debates and undermines widely-held romantic beliefs about the creative 'type' and the what exactly it means to sell creativity in a corporate setting.


Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a developmental disorder caused by loss of maternally imprinted genes on 15q11-q13, including melanoma antigen gene family member L2 (MAGEL2). The clinical phenotypes of PWS suggest impaired hypothalamic neuroendocrine function; however, the exact cellular defects are unknown. Here, we report deficits in secretory granule (SG) abundance and bioactive neuropeptide production upon loss of MAGEL2 in humans and mice. Unbiased proteomic analysis of Magel2pΔ/m+ mice revealed a reduction in components of SG in the hypothalamus that was confirmed in 2 PWS patient–derived neuronal cell models. Mechanistically, we show that proper endosomal trafficking by the MAGEL2-regulated WASH complex is required to prevent aberrant lysosomal degradation of SG proteins and reduction of mature SG abundance. Importantly, loss of MAGEL2 in mice, NGN2-induced neurons, and human patients led to reduced neuropeptide production. Thus, MAGEL2 plays an important role in hypothalamic neuroendocrine function, and cellular defects in this pathway may contribute to PWS disease etiology. Moreover, these findings suggest unanticipated approaches for therapeutic intervention.


In an interview with CNN last month, Anote Tong, the president of Kiribati, insisted that rising sea levels due to global warming will mean "total annihilation" for this nation of 33 coral islands in the Central Pacific and for other atoll island nations like Tuvalu and the Maldives. In May, Kiribati bought 22 square kilometers of land in Fiji as a haven for displaced citizens, cementing Kiribati9s reputation as an early victim of climate change. No doubt, the sea is coming: Global sea levels are expected to rise up to 1 meter by 2100. But recent geologic studies suggest that the coral reefs supporting sandy atoll islands will grow and rise in tandem with the sea. The only Pacific atoll islanders who will have to move must do so for the same reason as millions of people on the continents: because they live too close to shore.


This pioneering study looks at the effects of prenatal testosterone on postnatal development and behavior. Hormonal effects on behavior have long been studied in animals; the unique contribution of this book is to suggest a connection between human fetal hormones and later behavior. It details for the first time testosterone's effect on social and language development, opening a new avenue of research for cognitive neuroscience.The authors look at samples of amniotic fluid taken during amniocentesis at 16 weeks' gestation, and relate the fetal level of testosterone (which is present in fetuses of both sexes, although in different quantities) to behavior at ages 1, 2, and 4 years. They argue that the amniotic fluid provides a window into the child's past -- a chemical record of that child's time in the womb -- that allows informed prediction about the child's future brain, mind, and behavior. This is not the retrospective speculation of psychoanalysis, they point out, but an opportunity to study development prospectively and trace developmental precursors and causes of later cognition.The study suggests that prenatal levels of testosterone affect a range of later behaviors in children, from the inclination to make eye contact with others to the size of the vocabulary. It also suggests that prenatal testosterone level may be related to the development of typically "masculine" and "feminine" behaviors. The study's ongoing research explores whether fetal testosterone has any link with the risk of developing autism. Connecting endocrinology and psychology, the authors propose that there is a biological component to behaviors often thought to be produced by the social environment.


In this paper we introduce three natural ``score statistics" for testing the hypothesis that F(t_0)takes on a fixed value in the context of nonparametric inference with current status data. These three new test statistics have natural interpretations in terms of certain (weighted) L_2 distances, and are also connected to natural ``one-sided" scores. We compare these new test statistics with the analogue of the classical Wald statistic and the likelihood ratio statistic introduced in Banerjee and Wellner (2001) for the same testing problem. Under classical ``regular" statistical problems the likelihood ratio, score, and Wald statistics all have the same chi-squared limiting distribution under the null hypothesis. In sharp contrast, in this non-regular problem all three statistics have different limiting distributions under the null hypothesis. Thus we begin by establishing the limit distribution theory of the statistics under the null hypothesis, and discuss calculation of the relevant critical points for the test statistics. Once the null distribution theory is known, the immediate question becomes that of power. We establish the limiting behavior of the three types of statistics under local alternatives. We have also compared the power of these five different statistics via a limited Monte-Carlo study. Our conclusions are: (a) the Wald statistic is less powerful than the likelihood ratio and score statistics; and (b) one of the score statistics may have more power than the likelihood ratio statistic for some alternatives.


In recent years high resolution data have become available due to the deployment of satellite born instruments observing the state of a large number of stratospheric constituents with unprecedentedly high horizontal and vertical resolution. These measurements are valuable for accessing the state of the atmosphere and for helping to develop guidelines for its preservation as a protection layer for terrestrial life. Nevertheless, the measurements alone offer limited direct information. They require interpretation and combination with other information sources to accurately describe the state of the atmosphere. By combining measurements with atmospheric models, the measurements' scatter in time and space can be mitigated and their interpretation improved. A chemistry-transport model (CTM) version of the Cologne Model of the Middle Atmosphere (COMMA) has been developed to model transport and chemical transformation of atmospheric trace gases. In this thesis, the method of four-dimensional variational data assimilation is used to realize the above-mentioned combination in a mathematically rigorous way. The goal is to identify the most probable chemical state of the atmosphere using all available information. As chemistry-transport modelling is an initial value problem, those initial conditions are sought which result in best compliance of the model state with available information during the time period considered. As a measure of compliance, a cost function is specified, whose gradient is needed for minimising the cost function, and which can be obtained by means of an adjoint model. To this end, the adjoint code to the CTM was developed. As a last building block of the data assimilation system, the L-BFGS algorithm for the minimization of the cost function was added. The Adjoint Model of the Middle atmosphere of Cologne CTM (AMMOC-CTM) data-assimilation system thereby developed was tested by applying it to data measured by the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometer and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) during the first campaign conducted in November 1994. In this thesis, the first 4D var chemical data assimilation system is presented that takes into consideration horizontal correlations by means of a new penalty term in the cost function. The usefulness of the AMMOC-CTM for the analysis of chemically active constituents from satellite measurements was demonstrated by the synoptic maps which it produced. The model results were tested for consistency with the underlying assumptions by means of statistical investigations that for the first time included evaluation of the background term. After parallelization, the developed model system can be used to routinely create synoptic maps assimilating for example Envisat (Environmental Satellite) data. CTMs such as the AMMOC-CTM are not only useful for scientific investigations, but can provide essential information for environmental policy making and supervision as well, for example concerning the interdiction to produce certain CFCs.


Keratocytes are fibroblast-like cells that maintain the optical clarity and the overall health of the cornea. The ability to measure precisely their density and spatial distribution in the cornea is important for the understanding of corneal healing processes and the diagnostics of some corneal disorders. A novel computerized approach to detection and counting of keratocyte cells from ultra high resolution optical coherence tomography (UHR-OCT) images of the human corneal stroma is presented. The corneal OCT data is first processed using a state-of-the-art despeckling algorithm to reduce the effect of speckle on detection accuracy. A thresholding strategy is then employed to allow for improved delineation of keratocyte cells by suppressing similarly shaped features in the data, followed by a second-order moment analysis to identify potential cell nuclei candidates. Finally, a local extrema strategy is used to refine the candidates to determine the locations and the number of keratocyte cells. Cell density distribution analysis was carried in 3D UHR-OCT images of the human corneal stroma, acquired in-vivo. The cell density results obtained using the proposed novel approach correlate well with previous work on computerized keratocyte cell counting from confocal microscopy images of human cornea.


Bluetooth is a cutting-edge technology used for implementing wireless ad-hoc networks. In order to provide an overall scheme for mobile ad-hoc networks, this paper deals with scatternet topology formation and routing algorithm to form larger ad-hoc wireless Networks. Scatternet topology starts by forming a robust network, which is less susceptible to the problems posed by node mobility. Mobile topology relies on the presence of free nodes that create multiple connections with the network and on their subsequently rejoining the network. Our routing protocol is a proactive routing protocol, which is tailor made for the Bluetooth ad-hoc network. The connection establishment connects nodes in a structure that simplifies packet routing and scheduling. The design allows nodes to arrive and leave arbitrarily, incrementally building the topology and healing partitions when they occur. We present simulation results that show that the algorithm presents low formation latency and also generates an efficient topology for forwarding packets along ad-hoc wireless networks.


Abstract: Pyritized filamentous cyanobacteria have been discovered by scanning electron microscopy of Ordovician brachiopods from nineteenth century collections in the Natural History Museum, London. The cyanobacteria form mats on strophomenid brachiopods from the Cincinnatian Group (Upper Ordovician, Katian) near or in Cincinnati, Ohio. There is no additional stratigraphic or locality information. The cyanobacteria are found only on the concave exterior surfaces of dorsal valves. Most comprise uniserial, unbranching strands of cells that range from 5 to 9 micrometers in length and width. Some strands are up to 700 micrometers long and most are sinuous. There are no heterocysts or akinetes. The pyritic molds of some cells have a reticulate structure on their surfaces, with each unit a few hundred nanometers in diameter, interpreted as due to framboid microcrystal growth within an organic matrix. A few specimens show what may be extracellular matrix. These Ordovician microbes resemble cyanobacteria belonging to the extant Order Oscillatoriales (Subsection III). The cyanobacterial mats overgrew encrusting cyclostome bryozoans, including broken zooids and terminal diaphragms, sharing the same brachiopod substrates. Since the cyanobacteria are inferred to have been photosynthetic, the encrusted shells probably rested with their dorsal valve exteriors upwards in the photic zone. The mats likely developed shortly before burial of the brachiopod shells. That Cincinnatian brachiopod shells were colonized by cyanobacteria has been previously demonstrated by microborings, but this is the first direct evidence of microbial mats on the shell surfaces. The mats likely played a role in the paleoecology of sclerobiont communities, and they may have influenced preservation of the shell surfaces by the "death mask" effect.


Until recently, to be in a "public place" meant to feel safe. That has changed, especially in cities. Urban dwellers sense the need to quickly react to gestural cues from persons in their immediate presence in order to establish their relationship to each other. Through this communication they hope to detect potential danger before it is too late for self-defense or flight. The ability to read accurately the "informing signs" by which strangers indicate their relationship to one another in public or semi-public places without speaking, has become as important as understanding the official written and spoken language of the country. In Relations in Public, Erving Goff man provides a grammar of the unspoken language used in public places. He shows that the way strangers relate in public is part of a design by which friends and acquaintances manage their relationship in the presence of bystanders. He argues that, taken together, this forms part of a new domain of inquiry into the rules for co-mingling, or public order. Most people give little thought to how elaborate and complex our everyday behavior in public actually is. For example, we adhere to the rules of pedestrian traffic on a busy thoroughfare, accept the usual ways of acting in a crowded elevator or subway car, grasp the delicate nuances of conversational behavior, and respond to the rich vocabulary of body gestures. We behave differently at weddings, at meals, in crowds, in couples, and when alone. Such everyday behavior, though generally below the level of awareness, embodies unspoken codes of social understandings necessary for the orderly conduct of society.


Generative models trained on internet data have revolutionized how text, image, and video content can be created. Perhaps the next milestone for generative models is to simulate realistic experience in response to actions taken by humans, robots, and other interactive agents. Applications of a real-world simulator range from controllable content creation in games and movies, to training embodied agents purely in simulation that can be directly deployed in the real world. We explore the possibility of learning a universal simulator (UniSim) of real-world interaction through generative modeling. We first make the important observation that natural datasets available for learning a real-world simulator are often rich along different axes (e.g., abundant objects in image data, densely sampled actions in robotics data, and diverse movements in navigation data). With careful orchestration of diverse datasets, each providing a different aspect of the overall experience, UniSim can emulate how humans and agents interact with the world by simulating the visual outcome of both high-level instructions such as"open the drawer"and low-level controls such as"move by x, y"from otherwise static scenes and objects. There are numerous use cases for such a real-world simulator. As an example, we use UniSim to train both high-level vision-language planners and low-level reinforcement learning policies, each of which exhibit zero-shot real-world transfer after training purely in a learned real-world simulator. We also show that other types of intelligence such as video captioning models can benefit from training with simulated experience in UniSim, opening up even wider applications. Video demos can be found at https://universal-simulator.github.io.


Linux has received significant attention worldwide, but differences in its adoption across countries has gained less interest. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the proportion of Linux among SSL servers in the Internet. The findings of this research question earlier findings concerning the influence of culture on adoption of technology. Findings of this research could be useful for both proprietary and open source software companies. Likewise, by understanding the influence of culture on Linux adoption, OSS communities can adjust their activities to gain optimum international operations.


Introduction Tanzanian guidelines for prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (PMTCT) recommend an antiretroviral combination regimen involving zidovudine (AZT) during pregnancy, single-dosed nevirapine at labor onset, AZT plus Lamivudine (3TC) during delivery, and AZT/3TC for 1–4 weeks postpartum. As drug toxicities are a relevant concern, we assessed hematological alterations in AZT-exposed women and their infants. Methods and Materials A cohort of HIV-positive women, either with AZT intake (n = 82, group 1) or without AZT intake (n = 62, group 2) for PMTCT during pregnancy, was established at Kyela District Hospital, Tanzania. The cohort also included the infants of group 1 with an in-utero AZT exposure ≥4 weeks, receiving AZT for 1 week postpartum (n = 41), and infants of group 2 without in-utero AZT exposure, receiving a prolonged 4-week AZT tail (n = 58). Complete blood counts were evaluated during pregnancy, birth, weeks 4–6 and 12. Results For women of group 1 with antenatal AZT intake, we found a statistically significant decrease in hemoglobin level, red blood cells, white blood cells, granulocytes, as well as an increase in red cell distribution width and platelet count. At delivery, the median red blood cell count was significantly lower and the median platelet count was significantly higher in women of group 1 compared to group 2. At birth, infants from group 1 showed a lower median hemoglobin level and granulocyte count and a higher frequency of anemia and granulocytopenia. At 4–6 weeks postpartum, the mean neutrophil granulocyte count was significantly lower and neutropenia was significantly more frequent in infants of group 2. Conclusions AZT exposure during pregnancy as well as after birth resulted in significant hematological alterations for women and their newborns, although these changes were mostly mild and transient in nature. Research involving larger cohorts is needed to further analyze the impact of AZT-containing regimens on maternal and infant health.