Among the signal developments of the last third of the twentieth century has been the emergence of a new politics of human rights. The transnational circulation of norms, networks, and representations has advanced human rights claims in ways that have reshaped global practices. Just as much as the transnational flow of capital, the new human rights politics are part of the phenomenon that has come to be termed globalization. Shifting the focus from the sovereignty of the nation to the rights of individuals, regardless of nationality, the interplay between the local and the global in these new human rights claims are fundamentally redrawing the boundaries between the rights of individuals, states, and the international community. Truth Claims brings together for the first time some of the best new work from a variety of disciplinary and geographic perspectives exploring the making of human rights claims and the cultural politics of their representations. All of the essays, whether dealing with the state and its victims, receptions of human rights claims, or the status of transnational rights claims in the era of globalization, explore the potentialities of an expansive humanistic framework. Here, the authors move beyond the terms - and the limitations - of the universalism/relativism debate that has so defined existing human rights literature.


Introduction: Veno-venous arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a hybrid-modality of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation combining veno-venous and veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. It may be applied to patients with both respiratory and cardio-circulatory failure. Aim: To describe a computational spreadsheet regarding an ex vivo experimental model of veno-venous arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to determine the return of cannula pairs in a single pump–driven circuit. Methods: We developed an ex vivo model of veno-venous arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with a single pump and two outflow cannulas, and a glucose solution was used to mimic the features of blood. We maintained a fixed aortic impedance and physiological pulmonary resistance. Both flow and pressure data were collected while testing different pairs of outflow cannulas. Six simulations of different cannula pairs were performed, and data were analysed by a custom-made spreadsheet, which was able to predict the flow partition at different flow levels. Results: In all simulations, the flow in the arterial cannula gradually increased differently depending on the cannula pair. The best cannula pair was a 19-Fr/18-cm arterial with a 17-Fr/50-cm venous cannula, where we observed an equal flow split and acceptable flow into the arterial cannula at a lower flow rate of 4 L/min. Conclusion: Our computational spreadsheet identifies the suitable cannula pairing set for correctly splitting the outlet blood flow into the arterial and venous return cannulas in a veno-venous arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation configuration without the use of external throttles. Several limitations were reported regarding fixed aortic impedance, central venous pressure and the types of cannulas tested; therefore, further studies are mandatory to confirm our findings


Ministering in the face of HIV and AIDS has posed many challenges. The work of ministers before HIV and AIDS experienced many problems which resulted in ministry burnout. HIV and AIDS have increased the demand for ministers because of the sick, the dying and the grieving people. The increase number of funerals means that a minister conducts many funerals over the weekend and sometimes during the week. This is not the only task of the minister; there are other duties such as house visitation, administration matters, counseling, Sunday services, confirmations and teachings in the church. Furthermore, ministers are often most intensively involved with people in times of crisis and distress. This research deals with the ways ministers are coping or not coping with ministry burnout which may be a result of ministering to people suffering from HIV and those dying of AIDS. This study recognises that an understanding of the minister's problems, as well as helping them to cope, by all who are involved in the church as a vocational system is necessary in the face of HIV and AIDS. The major beneficiary of care and support to ministers will be pastoral ministry itself and the church. Interest in this study therefore stems from both academic and pastoral concerns. Academically, one would like to see the discipline of pastoral care making a scientific and academic contribution that is capable of helping ministers. As for the pastoral concern, one believes that this study and similar studies are ways by which ministry can be strengthened and supported. There is need to equip the church to observe, listen to and respond to ministers in pain more knowledgeably and sympathetically. The researcher endeavours to describe these phenomena accurately through narrative type descriptions, interviews and pastoral conversations. Furthermore, Rediger created a model for avoiding burnout called AIM, which has led to a creation of a model to cope with ministry burnout in the face of HIV and AIDS, which is AIMS: A-Awareness, 1Impose, M-Management, S-Support. The model has been created in the face of the emotional involvement of ministers in HIV and AIDS.


Combining traditional Liability Driven Investment (LDI) with funded status responsive de-risking strategies involves inconsistent treatment of risks in these two elements of what has become a popular pension strategy. This inconsistency causes irreconcilable conflicts in their execution and imperils the positive pension fund outcome. This article provides a critique of the combined LDI/De-risking Glide Path strategy as currently implemented by many pension plan managers and also provides an example of an alternative solution that improves pension plan outcomes. Our prescription for the pension de-risking glide path approach differs from conventional wisdom, resulting in faster de-risking, without undesirable market betas that are unrelated to the liability. It also avoids illiquid assets that pension funds often gravitate toward in their quest for returns, takes fewer credit risks, and seeks more alpha risks.


The third-order nonlinearities of PbS nano-belts have been investigated using the Z-scan technique with nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm. The effect of the PbS semiconductor nano-belt size on the third-order optical nonlinearities and optical limiting properties was studied. We found that the nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refraction have not strict dependence on the nano-belt size under our investigated condition, but their optical limiting behavior is different. The optical limiting mechanism of materials is discussed.


Remote elder care is important but it is difficult to keep a track of a patient's medication. We developed a remote elder care support system that enables users to synchronize handwriting, and photos in real-time on ordinal smartphones and tablet devices. However, it remained difficult for caregivers to remotely check the timeliness of the patient's dose. To solve this problem, we developed a motion detector based on the attenuation of Bluetooth signals, the 2.4 GHz band, by water. The advantage of our method is that it does not require the equipment of any devices to detect care receivers is unnecessary. We experimented the attenuation of Bluetooth signals by human body and concluded that Bluetooth can be used for a motion detector.


In Seoul, the multiple regression models were used to estimate future water demand and to verify the ability of the water supply to cope with regional development. A regional development project extending over two districts was planned to stimulate the regional economy of Seoul in October 2003, and multiple regression models for each district were developed to verify the capacity of water facilities and the retention time of reservoirs. Two variables, the population and the area of the commercial district, were used to express domestic and commercial water usage. Coefficients for variables of models should be positive values; however, the coefficient for population was negative in Jung-gu. The prediction of water demand with one regression formula for each district may not be sufficient to characterize the water use pattern of a district. So, by characterizing each sub-district of the two districts, applying principal component and cluster analysis, they were divided into residential and commercial groups. Then, multiple regression models with the same variables were developed for each group. As a result, the models not only had positive coefficients for all variables, but also could provide reasonable sensitivity for the variables. For each group, the commercial area had nearly same sensitivity, but the population in the commercial area showed more sensitivity than in the residential area, because people living in the commercial area do not have to go to another district to work or sleep. Future water demands were estimated, depending on three scenarios of regional development, using the existing and newly developed models. The water demands estimated by the newly developed model are 3,416–11,372 ton/day less than those by existing model. Therefore, the model developed gave the correct water demand and prevented a wrong decision from being made.


Effective brand management requires a thorough understanding of the consumer. In particular, managers need to know which associations consumers have for their brands. In this study, we address the role of anonymity in interviews designed to elicit brand associations from consumers' memories. First, the concept of anonymity is examined in order to arrive at a useful definition. Based on a review ofpotential psychological motives for response distortion and a review of the nature ofbrand associations, we derive two types of anonymity; social and self anonymity. Social anonymity is defined as the degree to which respondents believe that someone else can identify him or her as a respondent. Self anonymity denotes the extent of outer-directed awareness during an interview, or in other words, the lack of self-focus. An experiment involving 205 undergraduate students was conducted to test the effects on elicitation outcomes of different techniques selected to induce different types of anonymity. Specifically, techniques offering selfanonymity (such as third-person questioning) were deemed more effective in alleviating motives ofresponse distortion than techniques offering no anonymity or social anonymity (such as self-administered questionnaires). Self-anonymity was expected to be more effective because this type of anonymity guards against both socially-directed and intra-psychic motivations for response distortion. In support of this contention, for a brand with latent symbolic associations, self anonymity was shown to evoke different and more valid associations than a nonanonymity condition. Moreover, self-monitoring was found to be a significant negative moderator of the ability of associations to predict brand attitudes when no anonymity was provided, whereas no such effect of self-monitoring was observed for associations elicited under conditions of self anonymity. This finding supports a motivational explanation of the effects of self anonymity observed in this study.


We developed high performance cutting Tools coated c-BN thin films. In the present report , the adhered property of c-BN thin films is depend on bombardment conditions. Important conditions in adhered property are substrate power of Ar bombardment, substrate voltage of Ti ion bombardment and substrate voltage of B layer. As result, better bombard conditions are 290~400 W substrate power in Ar bombardment, -5~-10 V substrate voltage in Ti ion bombard and -5 substrate voltage in B layer. The critical peeling load L of c-BN thin films with this condition is 90N or more. The c-BN thin film with better conditions on end-mill isn't cracked in cutting of S55C.


The fibroblast growth factor/fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGF/FGFR) signaling axis plays an important role in normal organ, vascular, and skeletal development. Deregulation of FGFR signaling through genetic modification or overexpression of the receptors (or their ligands) has been observed in numerous tumor settings, whereas the FGF/FGFR axis also plays a key role in driving tumor angiogenesis. A growing body of preclinical data shows that inhibition of FGFR signaling can result in antiproliferative and/or proapoptotic effects, both in vitro and in vivo, thus confirming the validity of the FGF/FGFR axis as a potential therapeutic target. In the past, development of therapeutic approaches to target this axis has been hampered by our inability to develop FGFR-selective agents. With the advent of a number of new modalities for selectively inhibiting FGF/FGFR signaling, we are now in a unique position to test and validate clinically the many hypotheses that have been generated preclinically. Clin Cancer Res; 18(7); 1855–62. ©2012 AACR.


The use of wirelessly internetworked miniaturized biomedical devices is promising a significant leap forward in medical treatment of many pervasive diseases. Recognizing the limitations of traditional radio-frequency wireless communications in interconnecting devices within the human body, in this paper, we propose for the first time to develop network protocols for implantable devices based on ultrasonic transmissions. We start off by assessing the theoretical feasibility of using ultrasonic waves in human tissues and by deriving an accurate channel model for ultrasonic intrabody communications. Then, we propose a new ultrasonic transmission and multiple access technique, which we refer to as Ultrasonic WideBand (UsWB). UsWB is based on the idea of transmitting information bits spread over very short pulses following a time-hopping pattern. The short impulse duration results in limited reflection and scattering effects, and the low duty cycle reduces the impact of thermal and mechanical effects, which may be detrimental for human health. We then develop a multiple access technique with distributed control to enable efficient simultaneous access by mutually interfering devices based on minimal and localized information exchange and on measurements at the receiver only. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of UsWB through a multiscale simulator that models the proposed communication system at the acoustic wave level, at the physical (bit) level, and at the network (packet) level. We also validate the simulation results by comparing them to experimental results obtained with a software-defined testbed.


Structured single-stranded nucleic acids, or aptamers, bind target molecules ranging from small chemical compounds to cells and tissues with high affinity and specificity. Thanks to their unique characteristics (low size, good affinity for the target, no immunogenicity, chemical structures that can be easily modified to improve their in vivo applications), aptamers are perfectly suitable to different areas of biotechnology. Currently, several aptamers are in the clinical pipeline for applications and their functional repertoire has expanded with aptamers as reagents for the targeted delivery. Here we demonstrate that aptamers are efficient tools to bind/inhibit important cell surface epitopes and can be used in clinical diagnosis and therapy. We have developed and validated an in vitro evolution-based approach, named differential whole cell SELEX, to generate a panel of high affinity RNA-based aptamers as ligands for a specific cancer cell phenotype (in two different tumor model systems, glioma and NSCLC). We demonstrate that such an approach can be effective for the generation of functional oligonucleotide ligands that are potentially suitable for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.


DNA strands containing a triazole linkage flanked on its 3′-side by an aminoethylphenoxazine nucleobase analogue (G-clamp) have been prepared by solid-phase synthesis followed by CuAAC-mediated click oligonucleotide ligation. The stability of the doubly modified DNA duplexes and DNA–RNA hybrids is greatly increased, whereas a single base pair mismatch located at or adjacent to the modifications is strongly destabilising, making triazole G-clamp a potent mismatch/point mutation sensor. A DNA strand containing this unnatural combination was successfully amplified by PCR to produce unmodified copies of the original template, with deoxyguanosine inserted opposite to the G-clamp-triazole nucleotide analogue. This study shows for the first time that a polymerase enzyme can read through a combined backbone/nucleobase modification surprisingly well. These favourable properties suggest new applications for oligonucleotides containing the G-clamp triazole modification in biotechnology, nanotechnology, diagnostics and therapeutics.


This Article takes a novel approach to the "too-big-to-fail" problem. It begins by asking a foundational question: given the extraordinary volume of transactions between complex financial institutions, what mechanisms do these institutions use to deal with the transactional risks created by their mutual complexity? I explore two general approaches available to them. A party can acquire information to pierce through the complexity - an information-intensive strategy. But since information costs increase with complexity, at some point the costs will be so great that a party will enter into the transaction only if it can transact "blindly". A blind strategy is one in which one party treats the other as a "black box" and protects itself by using other types of contractual mechanisms. I develop a theory of "blind-debt" contracting and show that a debtholder can transact blindly by taking sufficient collateral and making maturities infinitesimally small. In the period leading to the recent crisis, financial institutions increasingly turned to overnight repos - which are essentially, collateralized overnight debt - to finance their operations. As the maturity of repos became increasingly short they began to resemble a second type of blind debt - demand deposits. As institutions became increasingly dependent of blind debt they open themselves to the same type or "runs" to which demand deposit accounts are susceptible. I then develop various legal implications, particularly with regard to the Dodd-Frank Act.


Many fear China's accession to WTO will impoverish its rural people, via greater import competition in its agricultural markets. We explore that possibility in two ways. First, we draw on standard Ricardo-Viner general equilibrium theory and adapt it to China's institutional circumstances to show that rural incomes need not fall and the rural–urban income gap may even be reduced. Those outcomes are possible, even if prices of some (land-intensive) farm products fall, because other (labour-intensive) farm products will become more exportable and the easing of restrictions on exports of textiles and clothing will boost town and village enterprises outside urban centres. Second, we plan to draw on new estimates of the likely changes in agricultural prices as a result of WTO accession to examine the above possibility empirically using the global, economy-wide numerical simulation model known as GTAP.


In order to be able to successfully defend an IT system it is useful to have an accurate appreciation of the cyber threat that goes beyond stereotypes. To effectively counter potentially decisive and skilled attackers it is necessary to understand, or at least model, their behavior. Although the real motives for untraceable anonymous attackers will remain a mystery, a thorough understanding of their observable actions can still help to create well-founded attacker profiles that can be used to design effective countermeasures and in other ways enhance cyber defense efforts. In recent work empirically founded attacker profiles, so-called attacker personas, have been used to assess the overall threat situation for an organization. In this paper we elaborate on 1) the use of attacker personas as a technique for attacker profiling, 2) the design of tailor-made cyber defense exercises for the purpose of obtaining the necessary empirical data for the construction of such attacker personas, and 3) how attacker personas can be used for enhancing the situational awareness within the cyber domain. The paper concludes by discussing the possibilities and limitations of using cyber defense exercises for data gathering, and what can and cannot be studied in such exercises.


This article explores the opposition expressed by fans of the Beitar Jerusalem football club to the presence of Arab players on their team. I suggest that instead of suspecting that fans' behavior originates in false consciousness, we suspend suspicion and reconstruct the meanings they bring to their actions. Narrative analysis of fan interviews reveals the communitarian logic underlying their points of view. By appropriating sacred spheres in Judaism that demarcate the boundaries of the Jewish community, and identifying them with Beitar as opposed to signifying Arab players as defiling Beitar, fans delineate boundaries between Jews and Arabs. Through the sanctification of Beitar, the fans define Jewish collective boundaries and thereby preserve their worldview and identity while maintaining a hierarchy that grants Jews advantages in Israel.


We study a multimode semiconductor laser subject to moderate selective optical feedback. The steady state of the laser is destabilized by a Hopf bifurcation and exhibits a period-doubling route to chaos. We also show the existence of a heteroclinic connection between a saddle node and an unstable focus that can be associated with experimentally observed multimode low-frequency fluctuations. This heteroclinic connection coexists with a chaotic attractor resulting from the period-doubling process.


The literature on the relationship between the size of government and economic growth is full of seemingly contradictory findings. This conflict is largely explained by variations in definitions and the countries studied. An alternative approach—of limiting the focus to studies of the relationship in rich countries, measuring government size as total taxes or total expenditure relative to GDP and relying on panel data estimations with variation over time—reveals a more consistent picture. The most recent studies find a significant negative correlation: An increase in government size by 10 percentage points is associated with a 0.5 to 1 percent lower annual growth rate. We discuss efforts to make sense of this correlation, and note several pitfalls involved in giving it a causal interpretation. Against this background, we discuss two explanations of why several countries with high taxes seem able to enjoy above average growth: (i) that countries with higher social trust levels are able to develop larger government sectors without harming the economy, and (ii) that countries with large governments compensate for high taxes and spending by implementing market-friendly policies in other areas. Both explanations are supported by current research.


Apoptosis is a naturally occurring process during animal development required for the programmed killing and removal of injured cells. Cellular insult induces a switch in translation that allows for the rapid synthesis of proteins that quickly destroy the unhealthy cell and remove it from undamaged tissue. In mammalian cells, this selective modulation of translation has been attributed to modifications of the protein synthesis machinery by apoptotic caspases. Specifically the initiation complex scaffold protein eIF4G becomes cleaved to disrupt cap-dependent translation and induce the IRES-dependent synthesis of apoptogenic mRNAs like Apaf-1. While the biochemistry of these cleavage events has been well characterized, how disruptions in translation mechanism affect apoptotic signaling still remains largely unknown. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was used to study how the balance between cap-dependent and -independent translation mechanisms mediate the translation of pro-apoptotic Apaf-1/CED-4 to alter the fate of healthy germ cells. Two major eIF4G (IFG-1) isoforms, derived from a single gene, were found to be broadly expressed throughout all stages of development. IFG-1 p170 and p130 appeared to both associate with ribosomes yet differed in their N-termini. Analysis of mRNA cap complexes showed that only IFG-1 p170 associates with C. elegans eIF4Es (IFEs) and participates in cap-dependent translation. IFG-1 p130, like its human paralog p97, was not retained in bound complexes and likely participates in cap-independent translation. We further showed that disruption of the balance between the C. elegans eIF4G cap-dependent (IFG-1 p170) and cap-independent (IFG-1 p130) isoforms increased apoptosis in developing oocytes. This induction of germ cell apoptosis coincided with the upregulated synthesis of the Apaf-1 homolog, CED-4. In addition, IFG-1 p170, like mammalian eIF4GI, is a substrate for human caspase-3 and its worm homolog, CED-3. Site-directed mutagenesis of the cleavage site indicated that CED-3 processes IFG-1 at a non-canonical caspase motif, TTTD 456 . This caspase recognition site is located 65 amino acids downstream of the IFG-1 p130 start site indicating that this truncated form may be required to support cap-independent initiation in the germline. Furthermore, genetic analysis involving ced-3 /caspase-3 and ced-4 /Apaf-1 mutants confirmed that apoptosis induced by loss of IFG-1 p170 is caspase and apoptosome dependent. These findings provide the first demonstration that modal changes in protein synthesis are required to initiate the cell death signal, rather than merely downstream consequences of the apoptotic event.


In this paper I explore a new approach to the understanding of trauma. I call into question the widely held assumption that trauma tends to engender feelings of dejection, lethargy and helplessness. Instead, I argue that it can lead to a quite different, active and over-optimistic response that involves an attempt at fusion with those who have inflicted, or might yet inflict, trauma. Drawing on concepts from psychoanalysis, I introduce the term 'fantasy of fusion' to encapsulate this idea. This concept is illustrated by an examination of the role of European leaders in the crucial decision to launch the single currency, and an exploration of its ramifications in creating the conditions for the eurozone crisis. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, calling into question the assumption that trauma leads to feelings of helplessness, this paper introduces and develops the novel idea of 'fantasy of fusion'. Second, it sheds further light on the challenges of leadership. Third, it provides a new deep structure explanation for the origins of the eurozone crisis.


Bereaved parents and individuals bereaved by the sudden, unexpected, or violent death of a loved one are at high risk for developing complicated grief. However, preventive interventions for this at-risk population remain scarce. In the present pilot study, an Internet-based intervention for individuals bereaved in the previous 14 months was tested using a pretest/posttest design. A total of 35 bereaved individuals participated in a 3-week manualized prevention program. Counselor and participants communicated exclusively via email. The intervention consisted of the following modules: (1) describing the circumstances of the death, (2) using the life-imprint method to explore the biography and life imprint of the deceased, (3) keeping a daily diary of social activities and sleep hygiene, (4) cognitive restructuring of dysfunctional thoughts, such as responsibility for the death and feelings of guilt, (5) communication within the family, (6) gender-specific coping with bereavement, and (7) bond with the deceased. Completer and intent-to-treat analyses suggest that the intervention led to a significant reduction in symptoms of complicated grief and depression at posttreatment. © PI-ME, 2008.


Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate consumers' knowledge of food labels and how this knowledge guides their decisions when making purchasing choices with regard to food. Design: This was a descriptive research design study. Setting: The setting was the suburb of Koforidua Municipality in the Eastern region of Ghana. Subjects: One hundred and forty-three customers were observed in store from four randomly sampled supermarkets. One hundred of these customers completed a self-administered questionnaire. Outcome measures: Measurements included observation and a self-administered questionnaire that elicited information on label-reading habits, attitudes towards health awareness and the influence of food labels on food choices. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: Sixty-five of the 100 consumers (54 females and 46 males) who consented to respond to the questionnaire looked at or read food labels before selecting a food to purchase. Seventy-five per cent reported reading the food labels prior to selecting food. This study found that nutrition knowledge had a low to average impact on consumers' food choices. Half of the consumers who reported reading the food labels did not do so regularly. This could have implications on how often such information is used when purchasing food. Also, only 22% of the study respondents answered correctly when asked to explain "26% RDA (recommended dietary allowance) vitamin A per serving" on a food label, even though 45% of the respondents had a tertiary education. Conclusion: These findings indicate awareness and knowledge of food labelling which may not always adequately impact on food choices, even though study respondents indicated high awareness and low to average reading of labels prior to purchasing food.


In this paper we present reflections and recommendations concerning the conversion of library metadata into Linked Data. We will briefly describe the different data models that exist for this purpose and argue their strengths and weaknesses with a special focus on the entification issue, before illustrating this problem with the description of three different ongoing projects. As will be outlined afterwards, it is essential to distinguish at the start of a project between data-driven or user-driven design approaches. As an alternative, the realization of a Linked Data project for bibliographical data might also lead to a hybrid approach were the design process shifts reciprocally between the analysis of the data and the user needs.


Background: The BCR-ABL mutation types were reported influencing the treatment of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) due to different responses to the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitor. However, the clinical score system, that is, EUTOS score is also considered as one essential factor in determining the treatment outcome. This study aims at observing the hematology response among chronic phase CML patients atSardjito Hospital Yogyakarta, Indonesia based on BCR-ABLmutation types, namely b3a2 and non-b3a2, with evaluation of EUTOS scores. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 72 subjects from January 2013 to November 2018 was analyzed according to mutation types and EUTOS scores to observe the hematological response within 6 months after initiation of Imatinib therapy. Results: Forty-eight subjects (66.7%) had b3a2 mutations, while others had non-b3a2 mutations. The median of spleen size was significantly higher in non-b3a2 mutations (p = 0.024). Only 49 subjects (68%) achieved the complete hematological response (CHR) within 6 months. The non-b3a2 mutation subjects were likely to have worse clinical and laboratory profiles than the b3a2 mutation subjects did (p > 0.05). The b3a2 mutation subjects tended toachieve earlier CHR than non-b3a2 mutation subjects (HR 1.031; p = 0.919). The latter subjects with high EUTOS scores had longer time to achieve the CHR (p = 0.781). Conclusion: Cases with non-b3a2 mutations were presented with worse clinical and laboratory profiles than those with b3a2 mutations. In addition, the non-b3a2 mutations with higher EUTOS scores tended to have longer time to achieve the CHR. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine ISSN 2515-8260 Volume 08, Issue 02, 2021 1821


Background: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is considered to be a precursor of invasive breast cancer (IBC), and is found synchronously in over 45% of patients with invasive disease. Whether the progression from DCIS to IBC results in clonal shifts and the genomic imbalances that may drive this process remain to be elucidated. Single-cell sequencing constitutes a powerful approach to address these questions as it enables the phylogenetic reconstruction of subpopulations of cancer cells at single cell resolution. To date, single-cell sequencing approaches remain limited to fresh/frozen samples, precluding the use of archival formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, the largest source of tumor material in pathology departments. Here, we describe the development of a methodology for single-cell copy number (CN) profiling of single nuclei derived from FFPE tumor samples and subsequently employed this approach to define whether DCIS displays intra-lesion genetic heterogeneity and if clonal shifts are observed in the progression from DCIS to IBC. Methods: DCIS and IBC areas were independently microdissected from archival FFPE samples. Microdissected tissue fragments were subsequently reverse-crosslinked, and their extracellular matrix was digested. Intact individual diploid nuclei from cells in G1 were FACS-sorted into individual wells of 96-well plates. DNA was extracted from each cell and subsequently repaired and amplified. Sequencing libraries were prepared using standard protocols followed by whole genome sequencing on a HiSeq 2000. Single-cell sequencing data were analyzed to define the CN profiles for each cell, to infer the clonal composition of each DCIS and IBC, and to trace the genomic events that occurred during the progression from in situ to invasive disease. Results: We performed single-cell sequencing of 192 cells derived from two synchronous FFPE DCIS and IBCs. One pair of DCIS and IBC was diploid and the other was tetraploid. Principal component analysis discriminated neoplastic from normal cells and resulted in the identification of clonal cancer cell populations. Genome-wide CN profiling of single cells from DCIS and IBC components demonstrated the extent of intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity present in these samples. In addition, founder CN events present in these lesions, including TP53 and RB1 losses and FGFR1/BRF2 and CCND1 amplifications, were already detected in the DCIS samples. Phylogenetic analysis based on CN profiles from single cells revealed that the invasive cancer likely stemmed from minor subclones from the DCIS and provided evidence of branched evolution in the progression from DCIS to IBC. Conclusions: We developed a robust procedure to perform single-cell massively parallel sequencing of individual nuclei isolated from FFPE samples. This approach revealed that the progression from DCIS to IBC results in clonal shifts, suggesting that this biological phenomenon may constitute an evolutionary bottleneck. Citation Format: Martelotto LG, Baslan T, Kendall J, Rodgers L, Cox H, King TA, Weigelt B, Hicks J, Reis-Filho JS. Single cell sequencing analysis of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded ductal carcinomas in situ and invasive breast cancers reveals clonal selection in the progression from in situ to invasive disease. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-05-01.


A photonic structure consisting of an extended 3D network of thin wires is shown to behave like a low density plasma of very heavy charged particles with a plasma frequency in the GHz range. We show that the analogy with metallic behaviour in the visible is rather complete, and the picture is confirmed by three independent investigations: analytic theory, computer simulation and experiments on a model structure. The fact that the wires are thin is crucial to the validity of the picture. This new composite dielectric, which has the property of negative below the plasma frequency, opens new possibilities for GHz devices.


Anther development involves the formation of several adjacent cell types required for normal male fertility. Only a few genes are known to be involved in early anther development, particularly in the establishment of these different cell layers. Arabidopsis thaliana BAM1 (for BARELY ANY MERISTEM) and BAM2 encode CLAVATA1-related Leu-rich repeat receptor-like kinases that appear to have redundant or overlapping functions. We characterized anther development in the bam1 bam2 flowers and found that bam1 bam2 anthers appear to be abnormal at a very early stage and lack the endothecium, middle, and tapetum layers. Analyses using molecular markers and cytological techniques of bam1 bam2 anthers revealed that cells interior to the epidermis acquire some characteristics of pollen mother cells (PMCs), suggesting defects in cell fate specification. The pollen mother-like cells degenerate before the completion of meiosis, suggesting that these cells are defective. In addition, the BAM1 and BAM2 expression pattern supports both an early role in promoting somatic cell fates and a subsequent function in the PMCs. Therefore, analysis of BAM1 and BAM2 revealed a cell–cell communication process important for early anther development, including aspects of cell division and differentiation. This finding may have implications for the evolution of multiple signaling pathways in specifying cell types for microsporogenesis.


Despite hip-hop's status as a means of resistance to myriad systems of institutionalized racism, oppression, and poverty, its rise in mainstream popularity has caused a dramatic increase in its corporate monetization. This causes a transfer of control from the artist to the record label, at times jeopardizing hip-hop's fundamental principles of rebellion, resistance, and risk. An alternative mode of expression, however – the mixtape – puts power back into the hands of hip-hop artists, becoming a crucial vessel for unmitigated artistic expression and meaning. One of the most significant and immediately striking aspects of the mixtape is the cover art. By honing in on the visual aspects of five select mixtapes, it becomes evident that the images presented on their covers advance male hip-hop artists' freedom of expression of black masculinity. These images, though at times problematic in their own way, become a crucial source of meaning not only in the realm of hip-hop, but in the genre's relationship with broader societal perceptions of the black male.


Internal Audit Function is a key corporate governance mechanism as an insider activity through which the Board of Director and the Audit Committee get a clearer knowledge of the activities of the management for effective oversight. The Internal Audit Function must possess the ingredients of quality namely, competence, objectivity and reliability, measured by experience, certifications, continued professional development and trainings, internal audit size, extent of the focus of the Internal Audit Function on financial work, and, independence of the Internal Audit Function. All of this affects the quality of financial reporting. This paper examines the quality of Internal Audit Function in the firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange through a qualitative approach. The results show that the Internal Audit Function in Nigerian listed firms possesses the ingredients of quality as documented in the existing literature.


The hypothesis that early life (pre-adult) factors may have a role in the aetiology of future illness, specifically cardiovascular disease, has attracted substantial research interest, particularly in the last two decades.1 The ecological (group-level) studies of Forsdahl2 were among the first empirical examinations of this association. His analyses of Norwegian counties revealed a positive association between higher infant death rates in 1896–1925 (regarded as a proxy of adverse environmental conditions) and increased rates of death from adult coronary arterial disease in 1964–1967 (ie, when the infants would have been nearing the age of disease onset for that period) (figure 1).

Figure 1
Correlation between mortality from arteriosclerotic heart disease (1964–1967) in men aged 40–69 years (standardised rates/100 000 population) and infant mortality (1896–1925).2 Reprinted with permission.

Replicating these findings in England and Wales,3 Barker and his team then extended this area of enquiry to individual-level indicators.4 To do so, they sourced unusually well-kept maternity hospital archives detailing the physical characteristics of mothers and their newborns, including birth weight. Via linkage with national mortality records, and subsequently clinical examination of surviving study members, birth weight was shown to be related to a range of adult cardiovascular outcomes: coronary heart disease, stroke and their risk factors, such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes.5

While this body of work was intriguing, there was doubt, some of which remains, as to the nature of these relationships. Critics noted that the findings were based on non-randomised (observational) data and were therefore subject to the perennial problem of confounding. Thus it was highly plausible that early life factors—maternal cigarette smoking or childhood social disadvantage were once strong candidates—could have led to both low birth weight and subsequent increased adulthood morbidity, so generating a spurious association. However, the findings of most studies suggest that …


Efficiently prepare for the Windows Server 2008 certification exam with MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuration: Exam 70-642, a comprehensive study tool that will guide you through everything you need to know for the test. This study guide includes 100overage of the exam objectives, real world scenarios, hands-on exercises, and challenging review questions, both in the book and on the CD. With Microsoft's release of Windows Server 2008 and a new generation of certification exams, you have more reason than ever to certify your expertise.


This brief proposes a bias-and-input interchanging (BII) technique for resetting opamp summing nodes to remove the memory effect of residue signals in cyclic/pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with opamp-sharing architectures. The proposed BII technique does not need an additional preamplifier stage or need to sacrifice signal swing, as do other opamp summing node resetting (OSNR) techniques. Thus, the size of driving circuits and power consumption can be reduced. In the BII technique, fully differential (FD) BII folded-cascode and pseudodifferential (PD) BII telescopic opamp architectures are developed. The proposed FD-BII technique is more power efficient than existing OSNR techniques. The proposed PD-BII technique can further save more power and opamp area than the FD-BII technique, but the problem of common-mode (CM) offset amplification accompanies the PD architecture. This brief proposes simple floating interconnection schemes that eliminate the CM offset amplification for the PD architecture. Compared with existing OSNR techniques, the proof-of-concept ADCs confirm that the proposed BII technique can be used by ADCs to reset opamp summing nodes more efficiently, using less power and achieving a wider signal swing.


A novel idea based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is presented in this paper to minimize water-level fluctuations due to the sudden increase in downstream pumping discharge. The optimum input hydrograph which is capable of minimizing water surface fluctuations is obtained by using the Fourier Series and the PSO algorithm to determine the unknown coefficients in the Fourier Series. This idea can convert the problem to an optimization one, which can be solved via various optimization methods. To achieve this, a robust shockcapturing model which is able to solve governing equations of the unsteady, non-uniform flow is effectively combined with an optimization method based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm. The results show that the proposed approach is efficient in solving problems of this type. The inflow hydrograph obtained by this technique reduced water-level fluctuations in a much simpler manner compared to the complicated analytical approaches. Also, the proposed method was capable of reducing the fluctuations by 43.6% and 4.4%, respectively, compared to the case of imposing no control or that of control obtained by the variational approach


BiP is an essential endoplasmic reticulum resident molecular chaperone of the HSP70 family that binds exposed hydrophobic regions of unfolded proteins. Substrates bound by BiP are protected from dangerous non-specific interaction with other unfolded proteins via their aggregation prone exposed hydrophobic regions, which are normally buried in the native state, and act as BiP binding targets. For these substrates to mature into the native state, BiP must be released. Like all HSP70 family members, cycles of BiP binding and release are nucleotide dependent and facilitated by two genres of cochaperones, HSP40s, and nucleotide exchange factors (NEFs). HSP40s function in stimulating the hydrolysis of ATP, which causes a conformational change that induces tight binding of BiP to substrate, whereas, NEFs stimulate the escape of ADP that allows BiP to release substrate so that it can progress toward its final native state. In 2002, we identified a mammalian BiP associated protein, Sil1, with nucleotide exchange activity. In 2005, Sil1 became the first molecular cochaperone known to cause disease upon discovery of mutations that lead to Marinesco-Sjögren Syndrome (MSS), a debilitating recessive disease characterized by severe cerebellar atrophy and a wide range of systemic defects. Now, many Sil1 mutations in MSS are known to result in interrupted BiP binding or Sil1 instability. We have attained an animal model of MSS with a Sil1 mutation that results in loss of a major BiP interaction site. This model, known as the Woozy mouse due to its striking ataxic phenotype, closely phenocopies many aspects of human MSS yet has been the spotlight of very few studies. For the first time, we have performed a detailed examination on the effects of Sil1 loss on a specific BiP substrate, immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain. This is a highly relevant target to study for two main reasons. First, because Ig is the best characterized BiP substrate and is readily tractable by several wellestablished methods. Second, because production of Ig is an essential part of primary and secondary immune responses that have not been examined in MSS patients, or anywhere in terms of Sil1 function. We examined levels of total IgM, IgG2b and IgG1 as well as antigen-specific levels of these same antibodies in the serum of woozy mice by ELISA before and after immunization. We discovered significantly lower levels of total IgM in Woozy mice but, surprisingly, did not observe any defects in total production of other Ig isotypes. We were also surprised to find no differences in concentration of antigenspecific Ig in serum after immunization, including IgM levels. Neither did we observe any defects in IgM production by western blotting or ELISA of cell supernatant from cultured primary B cells subjected to LPS stimulation. Furthermore, although we hypothesized that Sil1 null cells may have higher levels of some chaperones or cofactors as part of an ER stress induced compensatory mechanism for Sil1 loss (this has been shown to be the case in Purkinje cells of the neurodegeneration prone cerebellum in Sil1 KO mice), this was not our observation in B cells or activated plasmablasts. Based on our data from Woozy mice and also from primary cultured B cells, we hypothesize that individuals affected with MSS will produce normal levels of Ig in response to antigen, which is necessary for healthy primary and secondary immune responses. We also have additional preliminary data to suggest that there may be some age related defects in the Woozy mouse model that have not been previously reported. However, these studies are ongoing and solicit further investigation.


This paper is based on an extensive study performed on a large software suite for over a decade. From the experiences derived from this study we created a first draft of a method combining an extended robustness analysis (RA) method with the future oriented method of technology forecasting (TF). In this method TF provides information about the systems future evolution to the RA which then generates the software design. The RA and TF methods then form a feedback loop, which results in an improved reusable and robust software design. The purpose of the RATF method is to predict the evolutional path of the software system, thus making preparations for (example) functionality that will be needed in future generations, i.e. utilizing the power-of-prediction to implement the base of tomorrow's functions today


Design of video processing circuits requires a variety of tools and knowledge, and it is difficult to find the right combination of tools for an efficient design process, specifically when considering open tools for evaluation or educational purpose. This chapter presents an overview of video processing requirements, programmable devices used for embed‐ ded video processing and the components of a video processing chain. We propose a novel design flow for generating customizable intellectual property (IP) cores used in streaming video processing applications. This design flow is based on domain-specific modules in Python language. Examples of generated cores are presented.


In this paper, we investigate the correspondence between student affect and behavioural engagement in a web-based tutoring platform throughout the school year and learning outcomes at the end of the year on a high-stakes mathematics exam in a manner that is both longitudinal and fine-grained. Affect and behaviour detectors are used to estimate student affective states and behaviour based on post-hoc analysis of tutor log-data. For every student action in the tutor, the detectors give us an estimated probability that the student is in a state of boredom, engaged concentration, confusion, or frustration, and estimates of the probability that the student is exhibiting off-task or gaming behaviours. We used data from the ASSISTments math tutoring system and found that boredom during problem solving is negatively correlated with performance, as expected; however, boredom is positively correlated with performance when exhibited during scaffolded tutoring. A similar pattern is unexpectedly seen for confusion. Engaged concentration and, surprisingly, frustration are both associated with positive learning outcomes. In a second analysis, we build a unified model that predicts student standardized examination scores from a combination of student affect, disengaged behaviour, and performance within the learning system. This model achieves high overall correlation to standardized exam score, showing that these types of features can effectively infer longer-term learning outcomes.


In a biologically plausible but computationally simplified integrate-and-fire neuronal population, it is observed that transient synchronized spikes can occur repeatedly. However, groups with different properties exhibit different periods and different patterns of synchrony. We include learning mechanisms in these models. The effects of spike-timing-dependent plasticity have been known to play a distinct role in information processing in the central nervous system for several years. In this letter, neuronal models with dynamical synapses are constructed, and we analyze the effect of STDP on collective network behavior, such as oscillatory activity, weight distribution, and spike timing precision. We comment on how information is encoded by the neuronal signaling, when synchrony groups may appear, and what could contribute to the uncertainty in decision making.


We introduce menu costs in the search-theoretic model of imperfect competition of Burdett and Judd. When menu costs are not too large, the equilibrium is such that sellers follow a (Q,S,s) pricing rule. According to the rule, a seller lets inflation erode the real value of its nominal price until it reaches some point $s$. Then, the seller pays the menu cost and resets the real value of its nominal price to a point randomly drawn from a distribution with support $[S,Q]$, where $s<S<Q$. A (Q,S,s) equilibrium differs with respect to a standard (S,s) equilibrium: (1) in a (Q,S,s) equilibrium, sellers sometimes keep their nominal price constant to avoid paying the menu cost, other times because they are indifferent to changes in the real value of their price. An exploratory calibration reveals that menu costs account less than half of the observed duration of nominal prices. (2) in a (Q,S,s) equilibrium, higher inflation leads to higher real prices, as sellers pass onto buyers the cost of more frequent price adjustments, and to lower welfare.


Background . Physical activity (PA) has been described as medicine, owing to the clear evidence for its role in the prevention and management of various diseases. Objectives . To determine the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of South African general practitioners (GPs) towards the promotion of PA. Methods . A total of 255 private-sector GPs from various provinces in SA participated in our cross-sectional study, by completing a selfreport questionnaire surveying their knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards the promotion of PA. Results . The findings indicated that South African GPs in general do promote PA to their patients for treatment and health promotion. The majority of GPs in our study strongly believed that promoting PA is an important part of primary healthcare. The GPs frequently promoted exercise in the treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidaemia. Conclusion . South African GPs appear to be recommending PA to their patients at a primary-care level. Clear practice guidelines are needed to promote PA in a way that will have a population-level impact. To aid this, GPs are encouraged to provide written information to promote PA in a way that will have an effect.


ABSTRACT We examine the coordination of policy priorities among the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Council of Baltic Sea States, and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The member states of these groups established these institutions to coordinate their regional cooperation. However, the member states ended up having to coordinate the parallel work of these institutions. This coordination effort influenced their cooperation, creating an institutional coordination dilemma. We analyze how interests, leadership, and identity politics influence this dilemma and how negative, problem-solving, and positive forms of coordination can amend its effects regarding the temporal consistency of policy priorities and their sectoral overlap.


The principal theme of this work is the development of
a centralised educational bureaucracy in New South Wales between
1848 and 1880. It is a study, not of an enterprise, but of a
pattern. This is not to say that the men within the organisation
did not hold ideals and seek to realise them. They did. But they
also, fundamentally, saw themselves as carrying out functions and
performing roles within the organisation. Understanding changing
configurations in the relationships between the different members
of the organisation is the main task of this study.
The setting is New South Wales in the period when colonial
legislators attempted to establish, promote, and control a National
education system which would ensure that every child was offered the
opportunity to acquire basic literary, arithmetic and social skills.
From 1800 to 1848, first the centralised Anglican monopoly, and then
the Denominational system, had both been funded by the Public
Treasury. In 1844 however, more than half the children of the colony
remained destitute of any opportunity for schooling. In 1848, in
response to this situation, the National Board was set up. Its
function was to make available non-sectarian education to the children
of the colony.
This study traces the change from the largely decentralised,
loosely stratified educational organisation which operated in the
years 1848 to 1854, to the considerably more centralised and hierarchical
organisation which emerged in the 1860's and which operated
under ministerial control from 1880. The years 1854, 1866 and 1880
were points of particularly extensive change.
In 1854 members of the Board of National Education were faced with the possibility of having to close the seventy or so
National schools which they had subsidised with public money since
1848. During these years they relied extensively upon the generosity,
goodwill, and competence of voluntary local boards; by 1854 it was
clear that most of these were unable to fulfil their responsibilities.
There was further, a breakdown between the two parties directly
involved in the schools, the teachers and the local patrons. Numerous
disagreements broke out between the salaried and the voluntary men in
the field.
The National Board's temporary inspector, William Wilkins,
in 1854 informed the National Board in confidential reports of the
plight of their schools. In 1855 his observations and recommendations
on National and Denominational schools were published and tabled in
Parliament in the Report of the School Commissioners. The National
Board accepted the advice of their temporary inspector, which was to
assume the responsibilities and centralised powers to which they were
legally entitled in their 1848 Regulations.
In the years 1855 to 1866, Wilkins became the key man in the
educational organisation. He became the Board's acknowledged educational
expert. He shouldered much of the responsibility for organising the
work performed in both the central organisation and work in the field.
By 1857 he was the Board's indispensable man. By 1863 he had delegated
some of his duties but retained the decision making powers of Secretary,
Chief Inspector and Treasurer. Wilkins was, however, and remained
fundamentally, an employee of the Board. The chairman, and the other
 members of the Board, always held the final decision making powers. In
the early days of the struggling organisation however, the indispensable and trusted expert was allowed scope to define both his own role, and
that of his subordinates. During the whole of his period as Secretary,
Wilkins' administrative procedure involved two levels of relationship
with his subordinates: an official, impersonal and impartial
relationship, defined by himself, and a personal relationship. As
the superior officer in an expanding organisation he was regarded by
subordinates as a patron. He valued impersonal and impartial rewards
for services rendered, and he recommended officers for promotion.
Wilkins regarded himself as a patron of a particular kind, a public
service patron.
As Wilkins and his employers faced the problems presented
by an expanding network of schools, by a legislature which required
evidence of an efficient and economic organisation, and by meagre
financial resources, they attempted to regularise and strengthen what
they regarded as the weak links in the system. Poorly trained and
incompetent teachers were given some training and specific instructions
on what to teach and how to teach it. Their role in the organisation
was specifically defined in a series of circulars. Their relationship
with both their employers and the local administrators was regularised.
Above all, they were obliged to be politically and religiously neutral.
Local patrons were still required to fulfil supervisory and maintenance
responsibilities. The supervision of the internal management of schools
was delegated to the middle ranks of officials, the members of the
inspectorate. When local patrons failed to fulfil their responsibilities
or when their internal squabbles or attacks upon teachers threatened
the survival of a National school, inspectors were empowered to replace
them and completely supervise the schools themselves.
By 1866 the educational administration built up by the
supporters of the National education system conformed closely to the
"ideal type" of nineteenth century bureaucracy described by the
German sociologist, Max Weber. His description of such a bureaucracy
provides a useful model for the analysis of the emerging patterns of
relationships between the different officials within the educational
hierarchy in the years 1858 to 1866. By 1866 the organisation had
developed many of the hallmarks of a modern bureaucracy: legality,
rules and regulations, the precise definition of roles within a
hierarchical structure, the centralisation of decision making,
professional employees and advisers who fulfilled certain educational
requirements, and who were able to function efficiently, impersonally,
and, if need be, discreetly.
The alternative educational organisation, the Denominational
Board, did not succeed in centralising their administration to quite
the same extent as did the national Board. They met opposition from
the ecclesiastical heads of the major Church bureaucracies who mostly
wished to retain their own powers of control. Nevertheless, the
Denominational Board, under pressure from its teachers and from the
Legislature, was also taking steps towards greater centralisation of
control in its own hands. However, it was the more efficiently
centralised organisation of the National Board which the Legislature
chose in 1866 to assume control of both National and Denominational
schools.
The main decision making powers in the newly constituted
Council of Education were vested in the President rather than the
Council members or the Secretary. The first President was in fact the man who framed the legislation, Henry Parkes. He was succeeded by
other politicians, G. Wigram Allen, J. Smith, and J. Robertson.
The work of the officers employed by the Council in the years
1866 to 1880 was even more strictly regularised. Their functions and
roles were even more carefully defined than in the years of the
National Board. Even Wilkins' role was more specifically delineated
by the 1867 Regulations. His work load was increased rather than
lessened, and he was allowed considerably less latitude by his masters
in the Council than he had enjoyed under the Board. In Hook's
terminology, he became an eventful rather than an event making man.
With the bureaucratic organisation inherited from the
National Board, complete with its hierarchy of fully employed and
regularised officials, the Council of Education generally was able to
fulfil the expectations of its political masters. In their drive to
expand, to economise, and to give evidence of efficient organisation,
the Council was sometimes embarrassed by the unintended consequences
of its increasing regularisation of the administrative machinery. New
tensions arose between the Council and the Inspectors, the inspectors
and the teachers, the teachers and the Council, and the Council and
local patrons of schools under their supervision. There were instances
in these years of open Council-teacher and Council-local patron conflict.
Generally, the Council of Education received not only the
financial and administrative support of the Legislature, but also
protection from detractors. As the financial vote for education
continued to increase in size, however, the colonial Legislature
demanded more direct control over the educational machinery. The men who held the final decision making powers were thus the elected
representatives of "the people". In 1880 the educational administration
was placed under the control of a Minister responsible to
Parliament.


Background: Tuberous breast deformity is a rare entity, first described by Rees and Aston in 1976. In this condition, breast development is altered, with herniation of the parenchyma through the nipple-areolar complex, enlargement of this structure, and hypoplasia of the breast tissue, especially in the lower quadrants. The breast thus acquires a tubular shape rather than the natural conical look. Methods: Four patients underwent a single surgical treatment, with combined inframammary and periareolar incisions. Technical details must be individualized for each case depending on the severity and classification type of the tuberous breasts. Results: The surgical procedure used covers all aspects of tuberous breast deformity in a single-stage operation. Revision of periareolar surgery scar was not necessary in any case. In all cases, the final aesthetic result was satisfactory for the patient and the surgeon. The procedure adopted does not interfere with future lactation. Conclusions: Tuberous breast represents a real therapeutic challenge. The technique reported herein is very attractive and provides reliable and reproducible results.


We used the Illumina reversible-short sequencing technology to obtain 17-fold average depth (s.d.~8) of ~94% of the euchromatic genome and ~1-5% of the heterochromatin sequence of the Drosophila melogaster isogenic strain w1118; iso-2; iso-3. We show that this strain has a ~9 kb deletion that uncovers the first exon of the white (w) gene, ~4 kb of downstream promoter sequences, and most of the first intron, thus demonstrating that whole-genome sequencing can be used for mutation characterization. We chose this strain because there are thousands of transposon insertion lines and hundreds of isogenic deficiency lines available with this genetic background, such as the Exelixis, Inc., and the DrosDEL collections. We compared our sequence to Release 5 of the finished reference genome sequence which was made from the isogenic strain y1; cn1 bw1 sp1 and identified ~356,614 candidate SNPs in the ~117 Mb unique sequence genome, which represents a substitution rate of ~1/305 nucleotides (~0.30%). The distribution of SNPs is not uniform, but rather there is a ~2-fold increase in SNPs on the autosome arms compared with the X chromosome and a ~7-fold increase when compared to the small 4th chromosome. This is consistent with previous analyses that demonstrated a correlation between recombination frequency and SNP frequency. An unexpected finding was a SNP hotpot in a ~20Mb central region of the 4th chromosome, which might indicate higher than expected recombination frequency in this region of this chromosome. Interestingly, genes involved in sensory perception are enriched in SNP hotspots and genes encoding developmental genes are enriched in SNP coldspots, which suggests that recombination frequencies might be proportional to the evolutionary selection coefficient. There are currently 12 Drosophila species sequenced, and this represents one of many isogenic Drosophila melanogaster genome sequences that are in progress. Because of the dramatic increase in power in using isogenic lines rather than outbred individuals, the SNP information should be valuable as a test bed for understanding genotype-by-environment interactions in human population studies.


Feedback loops are major components of biochemical systems. Many systems show multiple such (positive or negative) feedback loops. Nevertheless, very few quantitative analyses address the question how such multiple feedback loops evolved. Based on published models from the mitotic cycle in embryogenesis, we build a few case studies. Using a simple core architecture (transcription, phosphorylation and degradation), we define oscillatory models having either one positive feedback or one negative feedback, or both loops. With these models, we address the following questions about evolvability: could a system evolve from a simple model to a more complex one with a continuous transition in the parameter space? How do new feedback loops emerge without disrupting the proper function of the system? Our results show that progressive formation of a second feedback loop is possible without disturbing existing oscillatory behavior. For this process, the parameters of the system have to change during evolution to maintain predefined properties of oscillations like period and amplitude.


Abstract This article examines the role of threnody in ancient Greece and contemporary South Africa. The main focus is on its representation in literature, in this case a passage from Homer's Iliad and the novel Ways of Dying (1995) by Zakes Mda, which are read in their respective historical contexts. The aim is to compare the different functions which threnody fulfills in different societies in different times with special emphasis on societies in crisis and transition.


Uniform embedding was first introduced in 2012 for non-side-informed JPEG steganography, and then extended to the side-informed JPEG steganography in 2014. The idea behind uniform embedding is that, by uniformly spreading the embedding modifications to the quantized discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of all possible magnitudes, the average changes of the first-order and the second-order statistics can be possibly minimized, which leads to less statistical detectability. The purpose of this paper is to refine the uniform embedding by considering the relative changes of statistical model for digital images, aiming to make the embedding modifications to be proportional to the coefficient of variation. Such a new strategy can be regarded as generalized uniform embedding in substantial sense. Compared with the original uniform embedding distortion (UED), the proposed method uses all the DCT coefficients (including the DC, zero, and non-zero AC coefficients) as the cover elements. We call the corresponding distortion function uniform embedding revisited distortion (UERD), which incorporates the complexities of both the DCT block and the DCT mode of each DCT coefficient (i.e., selection channel), and can be directly derived from the DCT domain. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified with the evidence obtained from the exhaustive experiments using a popular steganalyzer with rich models on the BOSSbase database. The proposed UERD gains a significant performance improvement in terms of secure embedding capacity when compared with the original UED, and rivals the current state-of-the-art with much reduced computational complexity.


Fran Palermo is an indie band based in Budapest which started performing in 2011, initiallyas a cover band, and has produced over 30 original songs and 2 LPs, Fran Palermo and RazzleDazzle, in 2015 and 2016 respectively, to significant critical acclaim. Its current line-up includeseight musicians, with Henri Gonzalez, a musician of Cuban and Spanish descent, being itsleader. This article considers the transnational character of Fran Palermo's work in the contextof the history of pop-rock in Hungary and Eastern Europe at large, arguing that it doesnot fit the prevailing narrative of Eastern European music as imitator of a Western idiom. Thelyrics often engage with exotic landscapes, and are populated by tourist-like cliches, yet theway they are juxtaposed suggests that the band does not try to recreate realistically an experienceof travelling to the South, but rather plays with its representations. The large numberof instruments, including a trumpet, two saxophones and a conga, allows for the creation of a rich, eclectic sound. The music betrays a multitude of influences, from Anglo-American rock toSouth American and African music. The study draws on the idea of 'world music', understoodas a music produced in the periphery and offered for Western consumption. Our argument isthat Fran Palermo's music complicates this idea, as it originates from the place which is neitherWest nor a typical East, and it is produced by neither Westerners nor 'proper' Easterners, neitheroutsiders nor insiders. We also use the concept of heterotopia to explain the textual characteristicsof Fran Palermo's music


INTRODUCTION
The values of body composition provided by the two most commonly used bioelectrical impedance systems in Spain, single-frequency bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (SF-BIVA) and multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (MF-BIS) are different and not comparable.

OBJECTIVE
Analyse whether the inter-method variability is due to bioelectrical variables measured by the different monitors, or rather due to the equations used to calculate body volume and mass. Another objective was to determine whether, despite the inter-method variability, the classification of hydration status by the two methods is consistent.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Bioelectrical impedance was measured by SF-BIVA and MF-BIS immediately before a dialysis session in 54 patients on haemodialysis. In 38 patients, the study was repeated by SF-BIVA at the end of the same dialysis session.

RESULTS
Resistance and phase angle values provided by the two monitors at a frequency of 50kHz were consistent. For resistance, variability was 1.3% and the intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.99. For phase angle, variability and the intra-class correlation coefficient were 11.5% and 0.92, respectively. The volume values for total body water, extracellular water, fat mass and body cell mass were biased, with a level of variability that would not be acceptable in clinical practice. The intra-class correlation coefficient also suggested a poor level of agreement. SF-BIVA systems define overhydration or dehydration as a vector below or above the tolerance ellipse of 75% on the longitudinal axis. MF-BIS uses two criteria for pre-dialysis hyper-hydration: overhydration (OH) greater than 2.5 litres, or greater than 15% of extracellular water. The degree of equivalence with the results of the SF-BIVA monitor was better with the second criterion (kappa: 0.81, excellent agreement) than with the first one (kappa: 0.71, acceptable agreement). The MF-BIS system defines post-dialysis normal hydration as a difference between OH and ultrafiltratation volume between –1.1 and 1.1 litres and agreement with the SF-BIVA system for this parameter was acceptable (weighted kappa index: 0.64).

CONCLUSIONS
The MF-BIS and SF-BIVA systems provide similar readings for bioelectrical parameters, and the wide variation in the quantification of volume and body mass must be attributed to the different equations used for calculation. Furthermore, the criteria used by both systems to define both pre- and post-dialysis hydration have an acceptable level of equivalence.


When using a single reference to measure the bi-directional scattering distribution function (BSDF), the incident zenith angle of the tested sample must be identical to that of the reference. In order to get the hemisphere space scattering characteristic on the sample surface, usually a motor drives the sample tilting, then the incident zenith angle is changed and needs to be the compensated by another motor. We mathematically deduce the expression of compensation angle when the incident zenith angle is changed by the rotation of motor. After the incident angle is compensated, the scattering zenith angle and azimuth angle are deduced too. The uncertainty of the system is 0.75%. Scattering measurements are performed on copper sample with visible light under different temperatures.


Measurements of true calcium absorption fraction in women were evaluated to see how closely calculations based on a single measurement of serum specific activity after administration of an oral calcium tracer might approximate the absorption value derived from the full, double-isotope absorption procedure. True absorption, body size, and miscible pool turnover could together explain better than 93% of the variance in serum calcium specific activity values 5 hours after a tracer-labeled test meal. Because measurement of pool turnover is not available routinely, it was dropped from the model, and a predictor equation was developed that allowed estimation of true absorption from the 5-hour serum specific activity value, height, and weight. These variables explained 90.8% of the variance in the 5-hour values and gave estimates of true absorption with a 95% confidence interval of +/- 0.055. This small range of uncertainty makes the procedure useful in estimating absorption efficiency for calcium therapy in routine clinical practice.


1. Recordings were made from direction-selective neurons in the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) and dorsal terminal nucleus (DTN) of the wallaby, Macropus eugenii. Responses were elicited in the cells by brief displacements of a wide-field sine wave grating pattern in their preferred and antipreferred directions. The grating pattern was moved by a quarter cycle or less during the experiments. Once the stimulus duration was less than a certain value, referred to as the integration time, the magnitude of the responses depended on the size of the displacement, regardless of the velocity of the movement. The responses elicited by movements of the image in less than the integration times are referred to as velocity impulse responses. 2. The NOT-DTN contains two kinds of direction-selective neurons. The cells of the first type were maximally sensitive to patterns moving at low velocities (slow cells). These neurons had integration times of 40-80 ms. The cells of the second type were most sensitive to stimulus movements at high velocities (fast cells) and had integration times of 20-40 ms. 3. The velocity impulse responses of the slow cells were characterized by a rapid increase in firing rate followed by a slow exponential decline over a period of 1-4 s back to their resting activities. The impulse responses of the fast cells showed a rapid increase in firing rate followed by a short-lived inhibition of the background activity. 4. When the duration of the moving stimulus was longer than the integration times of the cells, they began to resolve the time course of the stimulus velocity. Under these conditions the slow cells showed a slow rise in firing rate during stimulation and a slow, exponential decay in firing after the stimulus came to rest. The fast cells showed a rapid increase in firing rate followed by a slow decay during the period of motion and then a short-lived inhibitory phase after the motion stopped. 5. The responses to rectangular pulses of stimulus velocity could be predicted for both cell types by convolving the velocity impulse responses of the cells with the velocity profile of the stimulus. Thus the cells responded linearly to image displacement in the sense that their responses to the velocity pulses could be described as the sum of a set of velocity impulse responses each weighted by the instantaneous stimulus strength, the latter being governed by the size of the image displacement. 6. Given the demonstration of linearity with respect to image displacement as the input, the Fourier transforms of the impulse responses were calculated to reveal the temporal filtering characteristics of the neurons. The slow cells had low-pass characteristics, the main power in the responses being at frequencies below 5-10 Hz. The fast cells had band-pass temporal filtering properties, the optimum pass band being at 6-12 Hz. 7. The filtering properties of the two cell types complement each other such that the optokinetic system as a whole is able to operate accurately over a wide frequency range.


This paper introduces the policy arena by examining the increasing interlinking of international development policy with security concerns, particularly at a discursive level in the global North and especially since the declaration of the United States led 'War on Terror'. The authors propose that it is not only the US that has altered its approach to development in light of the new security agenda, but so too have some multilateral development organisations, along with bilateral donors that in the past have been associated with a less politically-determined programme of development cooperation. The incorporation of security concerns in development thinking is not new and dates back at least to the Cold War era. Although the security-development nexus can be construed positively, the linkage has taken on new forms and dynamics in the contemporary context. Increasingly, development is viewed by some actors as a means of addressing 'looming threats' emanating from the global South towards the North. The authors suggest that if security for the North becomes a central guiding principle for development in the South, this will be damaging for both the project of global poverty reduction and global security. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article discusses climate change from a critical social science perspective. Firstly, it is argued that climate change is not, in a fundamental sense, possible to understand from a natural science perspective, but demands an analysis of political power relations and our existing global political economy, capitalism. Therefore, climate change involves questions of global justice. Secondly, it is argued that the contemporary world economy, not only forcefully restructures climate, but also our societies, creating turbulent social strains, and therefore also an emerging global political reaction, one that is potentially giving hope for a solution, transnational justice and climate movements. However, thirdly, it is argued that these movements are not enough since they are still too ineffective to really challenge the basic injustices of global capitalism or its climate change effects. Social change is urgent, while solutions, strategies and mobilizations still seem too weak. Therefore, fourthly and lastly, we need a new kind of climate change panel, one that combines the theoretical-analytical skills of critical social scientists and the practical knowledge and organizational skills of movement intellectuals. A "Social Science Panel on Climate Change" is suggested in order to develop effective and realistic options and strategies.


Artist Joy Gregory introduces a new body of work that looks at the wearing of the veil in Saudi Arabia. Joy Gregory's photographic practice addresses anthropological themes arising from her ongoing research interest in visual forms of documenting cultural differences in contemporary society.

Previous work includes the video piece Gomera which engaged with the relationship between language and the environment with particular emphasis on issues around language endangerment. Another ongoing project, Sites of Africa is a photographic document of absent histories, tracing London's connections with the African continent today.

The Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group is a monthly forum for creative practitioners and thinkers across the spectrum of artists, designers, curators, writers and activists working with cloth. Setting cloth into the wider contexts of material and visual culture, the Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group provides a space for conversations about the politics of cloth from a distinctively cross-cultural viewpoint.

The conversations generated by the Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group will be primarily disseminated through the Iniva website via links to a podcast.

The monthly meetings will culminate in a symposium to be held in 2015.


Edmund Abaka. Kola Is God's Gift: Agricultural Production, Export Initiatives and the Kola Industry in Asante and the Gold Coast c. 1820-1950. Athens: Ohio University Press/Oxford: James Currey/Accra: Woeli Publishing, 2005. xv + 173 pp. Maps. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. $44.95. Cloth. $24.95. Paper. The kola nut has been a major commodity in West African markets for many centuries, beginning long before its distinct taste provided inspiration for several soft drinks. The nuts are considered a mild stimulant, an important reason the common folk chewed it at naming ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and other social occasions. For the wealthy, kola constituted a luxury and served as a sign of their hospitality and affluence. In the nineteenth century, a vast interlocking grid of commercial networks in the forest and savanna regions facilitated the exchange of large amounts of kola. States that emerged in the forest regions derived revenue from kolarelated activities, while individuals earned their income from engaging in its production and trade. Edmund Abaka's Kola Is God's Gift gives us an account of the Asante-Gold Coast aspect of the kola industry-the expansion of its production, trade, and consumption-between 1820 and 1950. In the introduction, Abaka proposes to examine the "transformation of kola nuts from an uncultivated indigenous tree to a major cash crop during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries" (1). Throughout the book he reminds us that the history of kola, like that of other psychoactive substances, is a complicated subject, all the more so because it exists at the crossroads of several disciplines: agricultural history, botany and pharmacology, anthropology, economic development, nutrition, and labor history, to say nothing of Asante-Gold Coast cultural studies and political economy. As Abaka says, "kola has multiple histories." He raises the reader's expectations when he promises in the next sentence that his study will explain "some of the changing patterns in consumerism of kola and kola products in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America..." (3). This is a bit misleading, however, since this book is not a comprehensive account of the place of kola outside of Africa. Chapter 2 deals with kola's agronomy: the varieties of kola, soils where it thrives, and its propagation, crop yields, methods of harvest, and preservation techniques. In chapter 3 the author successfully debunks what he calls the "wild tree crop theory," a persistent myth that Africans made no conscious effort in the expansion of the tree crop. Kola's dispersion, Abaka argues, was a deliberate act. He offers a critique of the theory of nature, favoring a story of culture in which the Asante state and traders expanded production in response to increasing demand from the Muslim areas of West Africa and emergent markets in Brazil, Europe, and North America. …


The subjective and physiological effects of intravenously administered caffeine and nicotine were compared in nine subjects with histories of using caffeine, tobacco, and cocaine. Subjects abstained from tobacco cigarette smoking for at least 8 h before each session. Dietary caffeine was eliminated throughout the study; however, to maintain consistency with the nicotine intake, subjects were administered caffeine (150 mg/70 kg b.i.d.) in capsules, with the last dose administered 15 to 18 h before each session. Under double-blind conditions, subjects received placebo, caffeine (100, 200, and 400 mg/70 kg), and nicotine (0.75, 1.5, and 3.0 mg/70 kg) in mixed order. Physiological and subjective data were collected before and repeatedly after drug or placebo administration. Compared with the highest dose of caffeine, the highest dose of nicotine produced greater subjective ratings on a number of scales. At doses that produced comparable ratings of drug effect (1.5 mg/70 kg of nicotine and 400 mg/70 kg of caffeine), both drugs produced similar increases in ratings of good effect, liking, high, stimulated, and bad effect. Nicotine showed a somewhat faster time to peak subjective effects than caffeine (2 versus 4 min). Subjective ratings that differentiated caffeine and nicotine were ratings of rush, blurry vision, and stimulant identification (elevated by nicotine) and ratings of unusual smell and/or taste (elevated by caffeine). Both caffeine and nicotine decreased skin temperature and increased diastolic blood pressure; however, caffeine decreased whereas nicotine increased heart rate. The study documents both striking similarities and some notable differences between caffeine and nicotine, which are among the most widely used mood-altering drugs.


Access to sufficient amounts of energy is a prerequisite for development of human well-being. Analysis presented in this paper shows that multiple sustainable development targets are linked to per capita access to electricity in particular and demonstrate a threshold behavior below which sustainable development targets have not been met historically. The present work relates to the broad literature on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recognizing the interconnectedness of energy access (SDG7) and other development goals. Although targets are provided for each of the 17 goals, not all targets are quantified, leaving room for ambiguity in fulfilling, for example, the goal of ―ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.‖ The focus of this work is an extension of our previous finding that a per capita societal electricity consumption threshold of about 400kWh is strongly related to meeting outcomes for health indicators related specifically to SDG targets. In this contribution we further examine this quantitative relationship between electricity access as correlated with education, sanitation, food security and health outcomes, posing the question in the form, ―Below what minimum societal per capita access to electricity is a country very unlikely to meet SDG targets?


Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow a user to directly control devices such as cursors and robots using brain signals. Non-invasive BCIs, e.g., those based on electroencephalographic (EEG) signals recorded from the scalp, suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio which limits the bandwidth of control. Invasive BCIs allow fine-grained control but can leave users exhausted since control is typically exerted on a moment-by-moment basis. In this paper, we address these problems by proposing a new adaptive hierarchical architecture for brain-computer interfacing. The approach allows a user to teach the BCI new skills on-the-fly; these learned skills are later invoked directly as high-level commands, relieving the user of tedious low-level control. We report results from four subjects who used a hierarchical EEG-based BCI to successfully train and control a humanoid robot in a virtual home environment. Gaussian processes were used for learning high-level commands, allowing a BCI to switch between autonomous and user-guided modes based on the current estimate of uncertainty. We also report the first instance of multi-tasking in a BCI, involving simultaneous control of two different devices by a single user. Our results suggest that hierarchical BCIs can provide a flexible and robust way of controlling complex robotic devices in real-world environments.


We reported the ~2 μm amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) performance of highly Tm3+-doped (3.76 × 1020 ions/cm3) tungsten tellurite single-mode fibers. The double-cladding fiber was pumped by a commercial 792 nm laser diode without any reflectors. Broadband ASE spectra with the bandwidth (FWHM) varying from ~45 nm to ~140 nm were achieved in a fiber length of 34 cm. The maximum output power was ~34 mW, with a slope efficiency of 4.8%. The ASE beam quality factor (M2) was 1.8. The dependence of output power, ASE mean wavelength, and bandwidth on the launched pump power and fiber length were discussed in detail.


Electrical Wiring Interconnection System (EWIS) of civil aircraft has been paid more attention in recent years, and intermittent failure detection of electrical connectors in EWIS is a challenging problem. This paper presents the sliding mode observer(s) (SMO) approach for the intermittent failure detection of an aircraft electrical system with multiple connector failures. The mathematical model of the aircraft electrical system which contains multiple connector failures is established for transforming the intermittent failure detection problem into an observer-based multiplicative faults isolation and estimation problems. A set of adaptive sliding-mode observers are designed to locate the failure connectors, the observers can adapt the unknown upper bound of the faults. Furthermore, a fault-reconstruction scheme applying the equivalent output error injection principle is proposed for fault estimation, where the characteristic parameters of connecters are reconstructed to identify the failures. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Purpose of review To provide an insight and overview of the challenges in the diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of cystic fibrosis-related liver disease (CFLD). Recent findings The variable pathophysiology of CFLD complicates its diagnosis and treatment. A 'gold standard' for CFLD diagnosis is lacking. Over the past years, new techniques to diagnose features of CFLD, such as transient elastography, have been investigated. Although most of these tests confirm cystic fibrosis-related liver involvement (CFLI), they are, however, not suitable to distinguish various phenotypical presentations or predict progression to clinically relevant cirrhosis or portal hypertension. A combined initiative from the European and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition has been started, aimed to obtain consensus on CFLD criteria and definitions. Currently, only ursodeoxycholic acid is used in CFLD treatment, although it has not been convincingly demonstrated to change the natural course of the disease. Drugs that directly target cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein dysfunction show promising results; however, more long-term follow-up and validation studies are needed. Summary CFLD is an umbrella term referring to a wide variety of liver manifestations with variable clinical needs and consequences. CFLD with portal hypertension is the most severe form of CFLD due to its significant implications on morbidity and mortality. The clinical relevance of other CFLI is uncertain. Consensus on CFLD definitions is essential to validate new diagnostic tools and therapeutic outcome measures.


This book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialisation of biological inventions.The author also considers the contradictions between the Supreme Court of Canada rulings in respect of the Harvard Oncomouse, and genetically modified canola. He explores law, policy, and practice in both Australia and New Zealand in respect to gene patents and non-coding DNA. This study charts the rebellion against the European Union Biotechnology Directive - particularly in respect of Myriad Genetics' BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents, and stem cell patent applications. The book also considers whether patent law will accommodate frontier technologies - such as bioinformatics, haplotype mapping, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and nanotechnology. Intellectual Property and Biotechnology will be of prime interest to lawyers and patent attorneys, scientists and researchers, business managers and technology transfer specialists. Introduction 1. Anything Under the Sun: Patent Law and Micro-Organisms 2. Franklin Barley: Patent Law and Plant Breeder's Rights 3. The Human Chimera Patent Initiative: Patent Law and Animals 4. The Storehouse of Knowledge: Patent Law, Scientific Discoveries, and Products of Nature 5. The Book of Life: Patent Law and the Human Genome Project 6. The Dilettante's Defence: Patent Law, Research Tools, and Experimental Use 7. The Utah Saints: Patent Law and Genetic Testing 8. The Alchemy of Junk: Patent Law and Non-Coding DNA 9. Still Life with Stem Cells: Patent Law and Human Embryos Conclusion. Blue Sky Research: Patent Law and Frontier TechnologiesReviews"Rimmer's new book is a timely and very thought-provoking analysis of patent law and biotechnology and asks a very serious question: can a 19th century patent system adequately deal with a 21st century industry".Kate McDonald, Australian Life Scientist"Rimmer's book provides a valuable resource in addressing these questions and incorporates an extensive bibliography and several annotated chapters that run the gambit from stem cells to medical diagnostics. He utilises a strongly comparative approach, often first tracing the historical development of certain basic patent doctrines, and analysing the approach various jurisdictions, generally Canada, the US, and Australia, have taken with regards to biological inventions... Throughout Rimmer presents a panorama of some of the most important issues related to patents and biotechnology. A reader will likely be intrigued to see which way the pendulum swings on these issues in the near future. In conclusion, Rimmer's book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the issues and debate related to biological inventions, regardless of which side the reader is on."Stefan Miller, Journal of Commercial Biotechnology"This book gives an excellent account of the most celebrated biotechnology cases from three continents, and for this alone is to be thoroughly recommended. Intellectual property practitioners, who do not agree with the author's conclusions, should be able and willing to say why - only then can the patent profession itself play a role in influencing public opinion on these controversial issues."David Rogers, the European Intellectual Property Review."Considering the technical nature of the topic and the unfamiliarity with its vocabulary to most readers, the author has done an extremely good job. He explains the subject in an open, accessible manner and leads the reader from the known to the unknown rather than dropping him into the middle of it. "Jeremy Phillips, IP Kat"Rimmer seeks to air the theories that abound, discuss them and see not only what he concludes himself from his extensive reading and research (the bibliography runs to an impressive 55 pages), but also to throw out some questions to the reader. He includes some fun and diverting quotes... Rimmer has put a great deal of thought and effort into this series of chapters. For those looking at how to reform, direct and develop laws in relation to biotechnology, this book is brimming with ideas, suggestions and recommendations of what to do next."Rebecca Halford-Harrison, the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents Journal