"Happy is he who knows the causes of things," wrote the eminent historian Henry Steele Commager. "If this is true then historians are forever pursuing happiness, but never quite attaining it. Of all problems of history, causation is the most urgent, the most fascinating, and the most baffling." (1) Researchers today can better explain the causes of the popular revolts in Poland and Hungary in 1956, thanks to the opening of communist bloc archives in the early 1990s. In earlier times, scholars habitually analyzed the crises of 1956 from the Soviet viewpoint, focusing almost exclusively on one satellite country and its subordinate relationship with the Soviet Union, much like an astronomer studies the sun as the focal point and the planets as celestial bodies merely orbiting it. This has been a useful approach, for example, in grasping the significance for the Soviet Union of the events in Poland and Hungary. Among other things, the revolts forced a Soviet reevaluation of the reliability and role of the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact countries in its alliance system. The Stalinist policy of heavy political indoctrination and enforced Sovietization could no longer be relied upon to keep national armies as reliable instruments of the Soviet Union. However, much can be gained by shifting one's focus away from the Soviet Union and onto the "satellite" states themselves. While Soviet influence on the satellites always loomed large, especially in the 1950s, these satellites were also heavily influenced by their "fraternal socialist" neighbors and Yugoslavia. Archival documents reveal, for example, the extraordinary influence the Yugoslav press and diplomatic corps had in disseminating the news of the events of 1956 to all the satellite states, with a perspective radically different from that of the USSR. Moreover, events in Poland such as the Swiatlo revelations, the Poznan revolt, and Polish "October" sparked reactions in Hungary, and those reactions of the Hungarians then influenced the Polish leadership and population. (2) Ironically, without the Polish initial defiance of the Kremlin leaders on October 19-20, the student demonstration of October 23 in Budapest may not have taken place. Likewise, had the Soviet leaders not decided to intervene in Hungary, they may very well have intervened instead in Poland. The purpose of this study, then, is to investigate the Polish reactions to the Hungarian events, and vice versa, the Hungarian reactions to the Polish events, drawing on documents from archives in Budapest and Warsaw. (3) Judging from the minutes of key party meetings, Hungarian leaders rarely mentioned Poland at the height of the Hungarian crisis. They apparently had no time to follow Polish events. On the other hand, the Polish response to the Hungarian events was to a certain extent more complex than the Hungarian response to the Polish events. While the Polish journalists, diplomats, and masses empathized with Hungarians, Wladyslaw Gomulka himself performed a shrewd balancing act. Background on the Poland and Hungarian Events Before examining the reactions themselves, it would be useful to review the chronology of events in Poland and Hungary, incorporating some of the new archival findings. In February 1956, the Polish and Hungarian communist parties took their cues from Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" denouncing Stalin's crimes and "cult of personality." Purge victims were rehabilitated. Communist writers who had supported the Stalinist regime now heard the grisly details of the prisoners' experiences and became demoralized. The question of responsibility surfaced and led to sharp intra-party debates. Just two weeks after Khrushchev delivered his Secret Speech on February 25, the Polish communist Edward Ochab replaced Boleslaw Bierut, who had died suddenly during the Twentieth Party Congress in Moscow on March 12, 1956. In Poland, as in the other "satellite" countries a rift existed between the so-called Stalinist "Muscovites" (communist leaders who stayed in the USSR during World War Two) and the "home communists" (those who had languished in Stalinist prisons at home). …


What is the effect of the membrane environment on ion channel function? Are ion channel subunits solely responsible for channel properties, or can lipids alter the gating of potassium channels? Oliver et al. (see the Perspective by Hilgemann) demonstrate that membrane lipids can convert A-type potassium channels into delayed rectifiers, and vice versa. Phosphoinositides such as PIP2 immobilize the inactivation domain and thus remove N-type inactivation from A-type potassium channels. Conversely, the fatty acids arachidonic acid and anandamide equip delayed-rectifier channels with rapid voltage-dependent inactivation. D. Oliver, C.-C. Lien, M. Soom, T. Baukrowitz, P. Jonas, B. Fakler, Functional conversion between A-type and delayed rectifier K+ channels by membrane lipids. Science 304, 265-270 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text] D. W. Hilgemann, Oily barbarians breach ion channel gates. Science 304, 223-224 (2004). [Summary] [Full Text]


ABSTRACT Johne's disease, caused by Mycobacterium paratuberculosis infection, is a worldwide problem for the dairy industry and has a possible involvement in Crohn's disease in humans. To identify virulence determinants of this economically important pathogen, a library of 5,060 transposon mutants was constructed using Tn5367 insertion mutagenesis, followed by large-scale sequencing to identify disrupted genes. In this report, 1,150 mutants were analyzed and 970 unique insertion sites were identified. Sequence analysis of the disrupted genes indicated that the insertion of Tn5367 was more prevalent in genomic regions with G+C content (50.5 to 60.5%) lower than the average G+C content (69.3%) of the rest of the genome. Phenotypic screening of the library identified disruptions of genes involved in iron, tryptophan, or mycolic acid metabolic pathways that displayed unique growth characteristics. Bioinformatic analysis of disrupted genes identified a list of potential virulence determinants for further testing with animals. Mouse infection studies showed a significant decrease in tissue colonization by mutants with a disruption in the gcpE, pstA, kdpC, papA2, impA, umaA1, or fabG2_2 gene. Attenuation phenotypes were tissue specific (e.g., for the umaA1 mutant) as well as time specific (e.g., for the impA mutant), suggesting that those genes may be involved in different virulence mechanisms. The identified potential virulence determinants represent novel functional classes that could be necessary for mycobacterial survival during infection and could provide suitable targets for vaccine and drug development against Johne's and Crohn's diseases.


This study examines the role of trust in Genoese merchant enterprises in the sixteenth century. While great merchants and international financiers could rely on the state and its bank, smaller traders were left to their own devices. With no durable centralized state institutions to regulate and bolster long-distance trade, Genoese merchants relied on informal networks consisting of a combination of close associates and transient partners. Relationships between traders were enforced by means of a variety of weak mechanisms, none of which were able to prevent cheating by partners; but together they were able to provide just enough assurance when a merchants agent "trusted well." In contrast to traders in more well studied Venice and Florence, Genoese traders used shared property rights to foster trust and to build complex activities even in an environment where neither punishment nor the threat of punishment could provide an efficient barrier to opportunistic behavior.


Dr. James Dalen from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ moderated the topic "Guidance Clinicians Can Give Patients for Identifying and Reducing Stress" with Drs. Jon Kabat-Zinn from UMass Medical School & UMass Memorial Health Care, Worcester, MA, Michael Krasner from University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, and Erica Sibinga from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. The discussion focused primarily on: 1) The use of meditation for the reduction of stress and improving symptom management for chronic diseases; 2) the use of mindfulness based-stress reduction (MBSR); 3) the adaptation of MBSR for children; 4) using MBSR as part of HIV treatment; 5) MBSR as an alternative to psychotropic drugs; 6) encouraging mindful parenting; 7) teaching MBSR to medical professionals; 8) MSBR for veterans; 9) the impact of meditation on the brain, the immune system and on individual cells; and 10) the connection between the brain, mind and the rest of the body. (Med Roundtable Gen Med Ed. 2012;1(1):7–16.) ©2012 FoxP2 Media, LLC


The purpose of the present study was to evaluate changes in real-time ultrasound imaging traits and weight of dissectible fat depots (inguinal, interscapular, and perirenal) in rabbits with different body weights and to monitor the changes in blood glucose and constituents of lipid profiles. In this study, 18 clinically healthy male New Zealand white rabbits were used. The rabbits were fed with standard diet and were divided into 3 groups according to their body weight: group 1 at 1.06 ± 0.03 kg, group 2 at 2.1 ± 0.05 kg, and group 3 at 3.06 ± 0.03 kg. Examined by ultrasonography, the inguinal and interscapular fat depots appeared as bands with weak to moderate echogenicity, whereas perirenal fat was moderate to hyperechoic. The thickness of subcutaneous fat depots measured by ultrasound increased along with body weight and differences between the groups were found to be statistically significant (P < 0.001). The differences in perirenal fat thickness between rabbits from group 1 and group 2 were not found to be statistically significant. Perirenal fat thickness in the rabbits from group 3 was higher (P < 0.001) than that of the other groups. Perirenal fat weight in group 3 correlated positively (r = 0.82; P < 0.05) to body weight. Blood biochemical analysis showed that blood glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were in the reference range for all groups regardless of the fact that TG and HDL-C in groups 2 and 3 were significantly higher than those in rabbits from group 1. The in vivo ultrasound screening of adipose tissue, together with blood lipid profile, is an indicator of good health and proper energy balance in rabbits bred for meat or as companion animals.


The composition of a forest of relicts of cultivation in four uninhabited valleys in Kohala, Hawaii, is documented. A general hypothesis is made that arboreal distribution patterns are a function of both historical land use and ecological interaction since abandonment. The physical and historical geography of the valleys was investigated. Climate varies little, but distinct geomorphic zones offer differing biological environments. Prehistoric land use consisted of taro patches with intercropped banks. Talus slope gardens supported the Polynesian tree crops 'ohi'a 'ai (Eugenia malaccensis), kukui (Aleurites moluceana), 'ulu. (Artocarpus incisus), ti (Cordvline terminalis), and noni (Morinda citrifolia), important in today's flora. Gathering took place on slopes. Western contact with Hawaii, initiated in 1778, brought new crops. Papaya (Carica papaya), mango (Mancrifera indica) , guava (Psidium g~uajava) , and coffee (Coffea arabica) were important adoptions in Kohala. As land use changed, the region also suffered depopulation, losing half its numbers between 1830 and 1870. Chinese rice-growing forestalled complete abandonment, which finally occurred after 1920. Current vegetation was assessed by creating 15 sampling units containing 554 quadrats. Inside quadrats, x the size-class and species of each tree was recorded, yielding measures of frequency, density, cover, importance, and richness. Four environmental conditions were also assessed. The resulting variables were mapped and inter-correlated. Guava, kukui. noni. *ohi* a 'a i . ti, hala (Pandanus odoratissimus), and coffee proved the most numerous species. Rarer species were often localized, illuminating historical land use. The data were examined and reformatted into matrices suitable for cross-classification analysis. Consistent relationships included the association of guava with low-slope and ' ohi'a 'ai with high—slope. Richness showed association with high—slope and cliff proximity. The mark of Hawaiian cultivators is apparent. Polynesian species accounted for 48.2% of the importance value. Size-class histograms revealed a stable structure for most species. Certain Western exotics had spotty distributions or size—class structures that indicate impending extinction. Native species are rare except for hala . There are indications that they were probably scarce during prehistory as well. This study exemplifies historical biogeography. It synthesises methods of geography, ecology, and archaeology for the purpose of better interpreting cultural vegetation. CHAPTER


We consider a problem of managing a system of spatially distributed markets under capacity and balance constraints and show that solutions of a variational inequality enjoy auction principle properties implicitly. This enables us to develop efficient tools both for derivation of existence and uniqueness results and for creation of solution methods.


Using Drosophila as a model system, Lee and Montell uncovered a surprising divergence between the pathway leading to light-induced blindness and that underlying retinal degeneration. In many vertebrates, sustained exposure to even low-intensity light leads to blindness, which has long been attributed to the retinal degeneration that takes place under these conditions. Lee and Montell showed that Drosophila exposed to continuous light also displayed a progressive reduction in the visual response (measured with an electroretinogram), as well as retinal degeneration. The photoresponse was substantially reduced after 9 days of exposure to continuous light and drastically reduced--or abolished--after 17 days of exposure. Western analysis of head extracts indicated that the concentration of Rh1, the major rhodopsin, declined in parallel with attenuation of the photoresponse, whereas that of various other signaling proteins did not. Genetic analysis revealed that mutations in arrestin (which encodes a protein implicated in rhodopsin inactivation) and sunglasses (which encodes a lysosomal protein enriched in photoreceptors) suppressed both light-induced blindness and the decrease in Rh1 concentration, whereas a mutation in rhodopsin phosphatase enhanced both of these effects. However, mutations in arrestin, sunglasses, or rh1 (which also suppressed light-induced blindness) failed to suppress retinal degeneration, whereas genetic manipulations that suppress retinal degeneration failed to mitigate light-induced blindness. Continuous light increased the concentration of rhodopsin-arrestin complexes, whereas mutations that suppressed light-induced blindness decreased their concentration. Thus, the authors conclude that light-induced blindness and light-induced retinal degeneration occur through distinct molecular mechanisms and that the former involves rhodopsin degradation through an arrestin-dependent pathway. S.-J. Lee, C. Montell, Suppression of constant-light-induced blindness but not retinal degeneration by inhibition of the rhodopsin degradation pathway. Current Biol. 14, 2076-2085 (2004). [Online Journal]


Energy harvesting from thermal energy has been widely exploited to achieve energy savings and clean technologies. In this research, a new cost-effective and environment-friendly solution is proposed for the growing individual energy needs thanks to the energy application of cavitating flows. With the aid of cavitating jet flows from microchannel configurations of different sizes, it is shown that significant temperature rise (as high as 5.7 °C) can be obtained on the surface of the thin plate. The obtained heat energy could be integrated to a thermoelectric power generator, which can be used as a power resource for consumer devices, such as cell phones and laptops. To explore the difference in the temperature rise with different microtube diameters, namely, 152, 256, 504, and 762 μm, and also with different upstream pressures of 10, 20, 40, and 60 bar, the cavitation flow patterns are captured and analyzed using an advanced high-speed visualization system. The analysis of the captured data showed that different flow patterns exist for different diameters of the microtubes, including a pattern shift from micro- to macroscale, which accompanied the pattern of temporal results very well.


The evolving external threat environment is impacting the internal political dynamics of NATO nations and is accentuating a series of already existing trends – differences in threat perceptions, burdensharing difficulties, challenges to respond to sub-threshold threats and the rise of populism – which altogether affect the cohesiveness and potentially the effectiveness of NATO as a political and military alliance. NATO's operational future over the next decades will be shaped by the ingenuity of the transatlantic leadership in developing new arrangements of institutional cooperation between the Alliance and the burgeoning forms of the "coalition of the willing". The Alliance should nonetheless remain the main transatlantic political forum, given Brexit as well as the rising need for a common political response to the many challenges ranging from migration to failed states. NATO has been relatively successful in adapting to the changing security environment. Its military capabilities remain unparalleled and unrivalled. The more interesting question is however the political one. Namely how the politics of sustaining this Alliance are being shaped by the underlying dynamics that are transforming the global political, economic and military context. The paper is divided in three chapters.


Background: The geriatric age group is the fastest-growing segment of the population in most of the countries. Malnutrition has emerged as an important problem among elderly. Nutritional status of the elderly population is seldom focused upon. This study was conducted to evaluate malnutrition among elderly population and its association with sociodemographic correlates and to compare the nutritional status of elderly living in the urban and rural areas of a district in Karnataka. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 102 urban and 102 rural residents of Dharwad district for a period of 4 months using pre-designed and structured questionnaire which include details of sociodemographic data and nutritional status which was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of malnutrition was found to be 18.6 %. Among 204 subjects, 42.6% were well nourished and 38.7% were at risk of malnutrition. Elderly living in rural are more malnourished than urban areas. And 12.7% of elderly living in urban area were obese, whereas only 7.8% of rural elderly were obese. A significant association was found between nutritional status with age, literacy and the socioeconomic status of the elderly. Conclusions: High prevalence of under-nutrition (at risk of malnutrition and malnutrition) was found in our study. With higher percentages in elderly living in rural area, among illiterates and with low socioeconomic status. This study emphasizes increased need to give attention to the nutritional needs of elderly and also to screen and support elderly with malnutrition.


A comparative study of electronic lenses (caused by population change of ground and excited states having different polarizabilities) and thermal lenses induced in Yb:YAG and Nd:YAG rods and disks under lasing and nonlasing conditions is carried out. The transient electronic lens can predominate over the thermal one in the pulsed-pump regime, whereas the stationary thermal lens may be predominant at CW broad pumping. The electronic lens effect is stronger in Yb:YAG than in Nd:YAG crystal.


Hyponatremia is a serious complication of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) use. We investigated potential mechanisms in two double-blind, placebocontrolled studies. In study 1, healthy drug-experienced volunteers received MDMA or placebo alone and in combination with the alpha-1 adrenergic inverse agonist prazosin, used as a positive control to release antidiuretic hormone (ADH). In study 2, volunteers received MDMA or placebo followed by standardized water intake. MDMA lowered serum sodium, but did not increase ADH or copeptin, although the control prazosin did increase ADH. Water loading reduced serum sodium more after MDMA than after placebo. There was a trend for women to have lower baseline serum sodium than men, but there were no significant interactions with drug condition. Combining studies, MDMA potentiated the ability of water to lower serum sodium. Thus, while MDMA lowers serum sodium and potentiates effects of water intake on serum sodium, ADH may not be the mechanism of these changes.


Herein, we report for the first time a highly sensitive fluorescent probe for the detection of an organoarsenic blister agent simulant, arsenic trichloride (AsCl3). This probe showed high selectivity to AsCl3, in the presence of other metal ions, even at low concentrations. Moreover, quantitative determination of AsCl3 in soil was achieved with a detection limit of 61.2 μmol kg−1 that is sufficiently lower than the reported LD50 of lewisite.


The nervous system is a complex organ system that coordinates all of the actions of an animal. The transmission of signals between different body parts by this organ system allows the body to function as a whole and interact with the external environment. It is clear then that the nervous system is integral to the function and survival of those organisms in which it has developed; and yet much is lacking in our understanding of the system's key constituents: neuronal cells or, neurons. In satisfaction of the Honors Thesis, this research investigates how certain conditions of the extracellular environment affect neuron growth. Growth substrates were developed to present two such conditions – substrate stiffness and adhesive ligand coating density – to cultured neurons at quantities reflecting in vivo values that are hypothesized to result in optimal growth. Once working culture methods were established for the growth of neurons on these substrates, imaging and data collection techniques were developed to characterize the growth of these cells and produce a qualitative and quantitative understanding of how neuron growth is influenced by the environmental conditions of interest. While specialized growth substrates were successfully developed and methods of data collection were validated with some preliminary data confirming the basic hypothesis, further refinement of culturing techniques will be required to grow sufficient densities of neurons to provide a more complete picture of the interplay of influence between the substrate properties of stiffness and adhesivity.


Democracy has become a cherished ideal in Africa. Many countries in- Africa claim to be democratic with a number of them incorporating, the. word 'democratic' in their names. Liberation struggles were waged in the name of democracy, yet in terms of governance democracy appears to be the. one thing.that seems to elude Africa. Various happenings like genocide, ethnic cleansing; coups d'etats and other political disturbances are ample evidence of this failure to establish democratic governance in African states. It is in this context that it is argued in this paper that if Africa is to realize,the dream of attaining democracy, which its people have opted for, educational institutions must play their part by teaching the concept of democracy.. However, the teaching of democracy in schools requires that the whole community be involved through the establishment of democratic culture .in public institution if.it is to succeed. What the school teaches can only take root if it finds support within society. In other words, there is need for a holistic approach to democracy that results in democracy permeating.every aspect of life. Thus, the paper also discusses some of the ways in which democracy can be taught. The focus of the paper is Africa, not because Africa is the only continent in the world that is struggling to realize the ideal of democracy, but simply because of the situatedness of the writer in Africa. Being rooted in Africa, one is compelled to reflect on how life in A frica' can be improved given the diversity of the citizens of many African countries.


Recently, the accuracy of image-text matching has been greatly improved by multimodal pretrained models, all of which are trained on millions or billions of paired images and texts. Different from them, this paper studies a new scenario as unpaired image-text matching, in which paired images and texts are assumed to be unavailable during model training. To deal with this, we propose a simple yet effective method namely Multimodal Aligned Conceptual Knowledge (MACK), which is inspired by the knowledge use in human brain. It can be directly used as general knowledge to correlate images and texts even without model training, or further fine-tuned based on unpaired images and texts to better generalize to certain datasets. In addition, we extend it as a re-ranking method, which can be easily combined with existing image-text matching models to substantially improve their performance.


The paper broadly concerns the set of algorithmic processes associated with wireless networks known as 'digital signal processing' (DSP). By virtue of its labyrinthine technical complexity, wireless DSP is a worst-case scenario for social science research into software and code. This specific type of real-time computation, however, is vital to the proliferation of wireless services, devices, and products, and hence to the recomposing–shape-shifting urban spaces they inhabit. The paper addresses the problem of accounting for the convoluted nature of the DSP associated with wireless communication. I argue that we can understand what is at stake in DSP only by changing focus away from abstract understandings of code, calculation, and software to specific design processes that fold new configurations of space and movement into wireless network signals. I argue that, at the moment, the ongoing dynamism of wireless networks could be just as important to understand as the altered modes of proximity, intimacy, colocation, and distance associated with wireless technologies such as mobile phones, wireless networks, game controllers, and remote controls. To this end, I frame wireless DSP in terms of intensive movement produced by a centre of envelopment. Centres of envelopment generate extensive changes, but they also change the nature of change itself.


Are good clinical practice and informed consent inseparable? This depends, to some extent at least, on what is meant by "inseparable". Does this refer to a logical relation, on the assumption that "good clinical practice" by definition includes informed consent, to an empirical generalisation about current medical practice, or a normative statement about how it ought to be? Different arguments pro and contra are relevant depending on whether the statement is interpreted as a logical statement, an empirical generalisation, or as a normative statement.We do not dispute the moral ground for the requirement of informed consent in general,1 and we agree with the statement that "the clinical duty to obtain proper informed consent is now widely believed to be an essential component of good clinical practice". Neither do we dispute that improved training in communication skills and more time for doctors to communicate with their patients would be a good thing—and probably make more patients participate in the decision process.2What we wished to do in our paper3 was to discuss whether there might not be situations in which exceptions from the general requirement of informed consent would be acceptable. We hope that such a debate could help to define stringent and precise conditions when such exceptions could be morally and legally acceptable. One general assumption we share is the idea that such an exception is reasonable, if insisting on the requirement of informed consent causes more harm than good. In its turn, this presupposes a discussion of criteria of harm and benefit and who should decide about the relative magnitude of harm and benefit. Verification after the event by the patients in question could in certain situations be worth investigating. If there is a verification by the patients concerned, in the sense that they afterwards confirm that they think that an exception from the general requirement was ethically justified, then the concept of an exception from the general main rule is supported by referring to what the patients themselves want. If autonomy is taken seriously, references to what the patients say they want cannot be dismissed lightly.Our ambition with the study published3 was not to suggest any radical changes regarding the informed consent procedure when a patient is suffering from an acute myocardial infarction and is a potential research subject, nor to draw any general conclusions from the results obtained. Instead, we wanted to elucidate the possible problems and disadvantages associated with the process of obtaining informed consent in this particular situation. Primarily we wanted to stimulate the debate on the following two issues:1. Does a patient in the midst of a life crisis have to put his/her signature on a consent form in order to be included in an intervention trial?2. Are there ethically justified alternatives to informed consent when a researcher wants to include a patient in a study, who is not capable of giving a free and informed consent in research?We stated: "All possible measures to increase the autonomy of the patients under the prevailing circumstances should be carried out". Thus, we do not suggest that all patients with acute myocardial infarction should be treated as incompetent. However, what we have tried to do in our study is to bring forth and highlight empirical evidence, which seems to show that in this particular situation some patients do not have the capacity to give a true informed consent for study participation.Professor Doyal adds another argument, to the effect that even if the patients afterwards do not remember anything, this does not reduce the moral importance of relevant information disclosure. The main question is what is meant by "relevant information disclosure", and who decides what this is. Suppose (a) that it is left to the patient to decide what is relevant information disclosure, (b) that additional information does not change the decision of the patient, and (c) they do not want this additional information, which conclusion should be drawn from this?We claim that it is time to adjust the informed consent procedure to the patients' capacity in this particular situation. Moreover, the patient should be spared the "actual demand" of signing the consent form in the early phase of an acute myocardial infarction.


BACKGROUND
Carbapenemases are a major concern for the treatment of infectious diseases caused by Gram-negative bacteria. Although plasmids are responsible for the spread of resistance genes among these pathogens, there is limited information on the nature of the mobile genetic elements carrying carbapenemases in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

METHODS
We combined data from two different next-generation sequencing platforms, Illumina HiSeq2000 and PacBio RSII, to obtain the complete nucleotide sequences of two blaVIM-1-carrying plasmids (pAMBL1 and pAMBL2) isolated from P. aeruginosa clinical isolates.

RESULTS
Plasmid pAMBL1 has 26 440 bp and carries a RepA_C family replication protein. pAMBL1 is similar to plasmids pNOR-2000 and pKLC102 from P. aeruginosa and pAX22 from Achromobacter xylosoxidans, which also carry VIM-type carbapenemases. pAMBL2 is a 24 133 bp plasmid with a replication protein that belongs to the Rep_3 family. It shows a high degree of homology with a fragment of the blaVIM-1-bearing plasmid pPC9 from Pseudomonas putida. Plasmid pAMBL2 carries three copies of the blaVIM-1 cassette in an In70 class 1 integron conferring, unlike pAMBL1, high-level resistance to carbapenems.

CONCLUSIONS
We present two new plasmids coding for VIM-1 carbapenemase from P. aeruginosa and report that the presence of three copies of blaVIM-1 in pAMBL2 produces high-level resistance to carbapenems.


The art of music is no longer limited to the sounding models of instruments and voices. Electoacoustic music opens access to all sounds, a bewildering sonic array ranging from the real to the surreal and beyond. For listeners the traditional links with physical sound-making are frequently ruptured: electroacoustic sound-shapes and qualities frequently do not indicate known sources and causes. Gone are the familiar articulations of instruments and vocal utterance: gone is the stability of note and interval: gone too is the reference of beat and metre. Composers also have problems: how to cut an aesthetic path and discover a stability in a wide-open sound world, how to develop appropriate sound-making methods, how to select technologies and software.


Consumer behaviour has changed dramatically in the past decade. Today, consumers can order online many customised products ranging from trainers to cars. In an increasingly interdependent world where barriers to trade and to international exchanges constantly diminish, cultural differences remain the single most enduring feature that has to be taken into account for localizing marketing strategies. One of the key challenges of online businesses is the management of service quality, which holds a significant importance to customer satisfaction. This paper is purposed to unveil customers' perceptions on service quality priority and different cultures' expectations in online shopping. The proposed study has been tested on data from 413 customers divided in two groups from Europe (n=215) and Middle East (n=198). The study is based on the SERVQUAL instrument that identifies five quality dimensions. The findings indicate that developing countries customers need more security and clarity in transactions but also better internet infrastructure. Based on the study results, recommendations for managers and future research are also provided.


© Ruth Mackenzie, Kate Malleson, Penny Martin, and Philippe Sands, 2010. All rights reserved. This book examines the way international court judges are chosen. Focusing principally on the judicial selection procedures of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, it provides a detailed examination of how the selection process works in practice at national and international levels: What factors determine whether a state will nominate a candidate? How is a candidate identified? What factors influence success or failure? What are the respective roles of merit, politics, and other considerations in the nomination and election process? The research was based on interviews, case studies, and survey data in a range of different states. The book concludes that although the nature and quality of nomination and election processes vary widely, a common theme indicates the powerful influence of domestic and international political considerations, and the significant role of a small group of diplomats, civil servants, lawyers, and academics, often without transparency or accountability. The processes allow overt political considerations to be introduced throughout the decision-making process in ways that may detract from the selection of the most highly qualified candidates and, ultimately, undermine independence. This is particularly evident in the election campaigning that has become a defining feature of the selection process, accompanied by widespread vote trading and reciprocal agreements between states. The effect of these practices is often to undermine the role of statutory selection criteria and to favour candidates from more politically powerful states. The book reviews new judicial selection models adopted or proposed in other international and regional courts, and considers a number of proposals for change to promote more independent, transparent, and merit-based nomination and election procedures.


The Kalkarindji flood basalt province of northern Australia erupted in the mid-Cambrian. Today, the province consists of scattered volcanic and intrusive suites, the largest being the Antrim Plateau Volcanics (APV) in Northern Territory. Accurate dating of the Kalkarindji flood basalt province has proved challenging, with previous studies focused on minor volcanic rocks and intrusive dykes in Northern Territory and Western Australia. These previously published data, corrected to the same decay constants, range from 512.8 to 509.6 ± 2.5 Ma [2σ], placing the Kalkarindji flood basalt province in apparent synchronicity with the Cambrian Stage 4–5 biotic crisis at 510 ± 1 Ma. This study utilizes 40Ar/39Ar dating of basalts from the APV to accurately date the major volcanic eruptions in this province. The results yield an age of 508.0–498.3 ± 5.5 Ma [2σ], indicating that the APV is younger than the intrusive rocks. These dates allude to a relative timing discrepancy, where intrusive activity in the North Australian Craton preceded the eruption of the APV as the last magmatic activity in the region. The determination of these largest eruptions to be later than 510 Ma effectively disassociates the Kalkarindji lavas from being a major cause of the 510 Ma biotic crisis, but cannot definitively discount any deleterious effects on the fragile Cambrian ecosystem. Supplementary material: 40Ar/39Ar analysis data tables, XRF geochemical data, alteration study and photomicrographs of all five samples are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4176674


Limited investigation has been undertaken into Australian physical educators' teaching beliefs and intentions and those that have been researched have tended to utilise 'qualitative' research methods. The present study addresses a gap in the literature by exploring the differences in teaching perspectives between Australian pre-service and graduate physical education teachers. The teaching perspectives inventory (TPI) was administered to pre-service physical education teachers (n=105) graduate physical education teachers (n=37). Each TPI item was linked to one of five key teaching perspectives (apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, social reform & transmission). Average teaching perspective scores were calculated for each of the five teaching perspectives and the proportions of dominant and recessive teaching perspectives were identified within both groups. Independent t-tests and multivariate chi-square statistical tests were conducted to compare mean teaching perspective scores and proportions of dominant and recessive teaching perspectives. The findings revealed that graduate physical education teachers had significantly higher average scores for the apprenticeship, developmental and social reform teaching perspectives. The nurturing teaching perspective was the most common dominant teaching perspective and the social reform teaching perspective was the most common recessive teaching perspective for both pre-service and graduate physical education teachers. The findings suggest that teacher training programs have the ability to develop and inform knowledge of teaching approaches to facilitate higher scores for a broader range of teaching perspectives in comparison to pre-service teachers commencing their teacher training.


Biomass burning is an important source of trace gases and particles, and can influence air quality on local, regional, and global scales. With the threat of wildfire events increasing due to changes in land use, increasing population, and climate change, the importance of characterizing wildfire emissions is vital. In this work we characterize trace gas emissions from 12 wildfires and 1 prescribed fire in California between 2013 and 2017, in some cases with multiple measurements performed during different burn periods of a specific fire. Airborne measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, formaldehyde, water vapor, temperature, and three‐dimensional winds were made by the Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment and have been published at NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (https://doi.org/10.5067/ASDC/AJAX/wildfire, Iraci et al., 2021). The majority of these measurements were made as close as possible to each fire and represent fresh emissions from known fire sources. This set of observations from 13 different fires offers the opportunity to explore trace gas emissions over a range of meteorology, fire conditions, and to a lesser extent, vegetation type and drought, and adds to the body of knowledge collected by other investigators and field campaigns.


Agricultural wastes are defined as the residues from the growing and processing of raw agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy products, and crops. They are the non-product outputs of production and processing of agricultural products that may contain material that can benefit man but whose economic values are less than the cost of collection, transportation, and processing for beneficial use. Their composition will depend on the system and type of agricultural activities and they can be in the form of liquids, slurries, or solids. Agricultural waste otherwise called agro-waste is comprised of animal waste (manure, animal carcasses), food processing waste (only 20% of maize is canned and 80% is waste), crop waste (corn stalks, sugarcane bagasse, drops and culls from fruits and vegetables, prunings) and hazardous and toxic agricultural waste (pesticides, insecticides and herbicides, etc). Estimates of agricultural waste arising are rare, but they are generally thought of as contributing a significant proportion of the total waste matter in the developed world. Expanding agricultural production has naturally resulted in increased quantities of livestock waste, agricultural crop residues and agro-industrial by-products. There is likely to be a significant increase in agricultural wastes globally if developing countries continue to intensify farming systems. It is estimated that about 998 million tonnes of agricultural waste is produced yearly. Organic wastes can amount up to 80 percent of the total solid wastes generated in any farm of which manure production can amount up to 5.27 kg/day/1000 kg live weight, on a wet weight basis.


Mucoproteins being essential and normal constituents of body tissues are widely distributed in the extra cellular matrix as ground substances. They are also present on cell surfaces and in connective tissues. Present study was carried out to authenticate the significance of serum mucoproteins as biomarkers and to know the effect of radiations on the levels of serum mu-coproteins, in head and neck malignant cases treated with standard dose of radiotherapy. 96 patients of head and neck malignancies, suffered from early and late stages, referred to Radiotherapy Department of Krishna Hospital, Karad (India) were selected and included in the study.63 volunteers served as healthy controls. Serum mucoproteins were estimated in malignant patients before initiation of radiotherapy and one month after completion of radiotherapy. Significant increased levels (P < 0.001) of serum mucoproteins were observed in malignant patients before radiotherapy, as compared to the levels of healthy controls. After one month of radiotherapy, the serum mucoproteins significantly (P <0.001) decreased in comparison to the pre treated serum mucoprotein val-ues. The fall in serum mucoprotein levels after radiotherapy showed much higher values in early stages than late stages of head and neck malignancies. The marked increased levels of serum mucoproteins in all the stages of head and neck ma-lignancies before radiotherapy and significant decreased serum mucoproteins after radio-therapy suggested serum mucoproteins as good biomarkers of neoplastic activity. The study concludes that the estimation of serum mucoproteins before and after radiotherapy serves as a significant biomarker in diagnosis and prognosis of head and neck malignancies.


Computational models used in biology are rapidly increasing in complexity, size, and numbers. To build such large models, researchers need to rely on software tools for model retrieval, model combination, and version control. These tools need to be able to quantify the differences and similarities between computational models. However, depending on the specific application, the notion of "similarity" may greatly vary. A general notion of model similarity, applicable to various types of models, is still missing. Here, we introduce a general notion of quantitative model similarities, survey the use of existing model comparison methods in model building and management, and discuss potential applications of model comparison. To frame model comparison as a general problem, we describe a theoretical approach to defining and computing similarities based on different model aspects. Potentially relevant aspects of a model comprise its references to biological entities, network structure, mathematical equations and parameters, and dynamic behaviour. Future similarity measures could combine these model aspects in flexible, problem-specific ways in order to mimic users' intuition about model similarity, and to support complex model searches in databases.


Background : Harmful alien species impose a growing environmental, economic and human well-being burden around the globe. A promising way to reduce the arrival of new species that may become harmful is to utilise pre-border risk assessment (RA) tools that relate the traits of introduced species to whether those species have become established and harmful. These tools can be applied to species proposed for intentional introduction so that informed decisions can be made about whether each species poses an acceptable risk and should be allowed for import. Objectives : A range of approaches to RA tool development have emerged, each relying on different assumptions about the relationships between traits and species impacts, and each requiring different levels and types of data. We set out to compare the qualities of each approach and make recommendations for their application in South Africa, a high biodiversity developing country that already has many invasive species. Method : We reviewed five approaches to pre-border RA and assessed the benefits and drawbacks of each. We focused on how pre-border RA could be applied in South Africa. Results : Recent legislation presents a framework for RA to evaluate species introductions to South Africa, but we find that this framework assumes an approach to RA that is relatively slow and costly and that does not leverage recent advances in RA tool development. Conclusion : There is potential for proven RA approaches to be applied in South Africa that would be less costly and that could more rapidly assess the suite of species currently being introduced.


Biotechnology in South Africa stands at a cross-roads. As a country with huge natural resources, equally huge social problems, and in a state of positive transition to full multi-cultural development, SA faces the complex task of effectively exploiting its science, technology and resource base for the benefit of its society. The potential of Biotechnology for social and economic development has only recently been a focal point. There are signs, at all levels from central administration to individual tertiary institutions, that the first decade of the 21 st century may be the point where Biotechnology 'comes of age' in South Africa.


Abstract Policing has long been a profession dominated by white males. Yet, the organizational literature suggests that diverse public sector organizations are essential to a well-functioning democracy. Representative bureaucracy theory is the idea that public agencies should mirror the society in which it functions in order to best meet the needs of its citizens. There are three necessary conditions in order for representative bureaucracy theory to be applicable to a problem. First, bureaucrats must have discretion in decision-making. Next, bureaucrats must exercise discretion in a policy area that has important implications for the group they represent. Finally, bureaucrats must be directly associated with the decisions they make. Given that police work requires extraordinary discretion, representation holds great importance for police organizations. There has, however, been scant literature examining the interaction between representation, organizational characteristics of police agencies, and situational characteristics of sexual assault incidents. This paper builds upon previous research regarding the effect of diversity on public safety outcomes. A national sample of police organizations reporting to both LEMAS and NIBRS will be used with specific attention paid to interaction between organizational characteristics, agency innovativeness, and representation.


Decadal trends in the properties of seawater adjacent to Antarctica are poorly known, and the mechanisms responsible for such changes are uncertain. Antarctic ice sheet mass loss is largely driven by ice shelf basal melt, which is influenced by ocean-ice interactions and has been correlated with Antarctic Continental Shelf Bottom Water (ASBW) temperature. We document the spatial distribution of long-term large-scale trends in temperature, salinity, and core depth over the Antarctic continental shelf and slope. Warming at the seabed in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas is linked to increased heat content and to a shoaling of the mid-depth temperature maximum over the continental slope, allowing warmer, saltier water greater access to the shelf in recent years. Regions of ASBW warming are those exhibiting increased ice shelf melt. Seawater temperature around Antarctica is rising as more warmer, deeper water moves toward the surface. [Also see Perspective by Gille] Bringing up the problem of ice shelf melting Warm water intruding from below is heating up the ocean that covers the continental shelf of Antarctica. Schmidtko et al. report that Circumpolar Deep Water has been warming and moving further up onto the shelf around Antarctica for the past 40 years, causing higher rates of ice sheet melting (see the Perspective by Gille). These observations need to be taken into account when considering the potential for irreversible retreat of parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science, this issue p. 1227; see also p. 1180


Assessing the systemic risk a bank poses to the system has become a central part in regulating its capital requirements (e.g. the buffer for global or domestic systemically important banks). As with conventional risk types, systemic risks need to be quantified. Currently, global regulators propose a range of bank-specific indicators that measure size and interconnectedness to proxy systemic risk. In this study, we gauge the capacity of such indicators to explain contagion losses triggered by realizations of sizeable idiosyncratic shocks. We study contagion impact through different channels, separating these effects into first-round, nth-round, asset fire sale and mark-to-market losses. We evaluate the predictive power of models selected by best-subset selection and Lasso by applying 10-fold panel cross validation. We provide constructive proofs for the existence of clearing payment vectors and associated market equilibria for these contagion channels in a model of interlinked balance sheets. We provide algorithms that converge to the greatest market equilibrium in a finite number of steps. Our empirical results suggest that the Basel III indicator set performs well in comparison to alternative data-sets of bank-specific indicators. We also find, however, that the proposed data-sets without bank dummies do not perform well in capturing the relevance of the average network position for predicting contagion effects.


The real Hans Spemann, German embryologist (1869-1941), developed a concept of embryonic induction through his experiments on early amphibian embryos which demonstrated neural induction by the primary organizer and evocation of the lens by the optic vesicle. For his discovery of the 'organizer' he was awarded the Nobel Peace in Physiology and Medicine in 1935, while he was Professor of Zoology at Freiburg, Germany. In the twenties and early thirties Spemann's laboratory was a mecca for students and investigators entering the new field of experimental embryology.


The ultimate introduction to words, Dr. Seuss style! Perfect for introducing your child to reading! Introduced by the Cat in the Hat and featuring a selection of Dr. Seuss artwork and rhyming sentences, I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words shows young children how easy it is to learn to read - even for a dog. Each spread features five rhyming sentences, each positioned alongside a colourful flap which lifts to reveal a rhyming word and more delightful Seuss artwork. With a novelty child-safe mirror on the final page, this storybook is a joy to read with your child.


Lifting off gold films A method for growing and removing single-crystal gold films can be used to create a flexible and transparent substrate for devices. Mahenderkar et al. grew gold films on the face of a silicon wafer and then used photoelectrochemistry to undergrow a sacrificial silicon dioxide layer. This layer allowed the gold film to be peeled off with adhesive tape. A 28-nm-thick gold foil showed a minimal increase in sheet electrical resistance after 4000 bending cycles. Flexible films of single-crystal cuprous oxide and of zinc oxide nanowires were then grown on the gold foils. Science, this issue p. 1203 Photoelectrochemical oxidation releases single-crystal gold films from silicon templates. We introduce a simple and inexpensive procedure for epitaxial lift-off of wafer-size flexible and transparent foils of single-crystal gold using silicon as a template. Lateral electrochemical undergrowth of a sacrificial SiOx layer was achieved by photoelectrochemically oxidizing silicon under light irradiation. A 28-nanometer-thick gold foil with a sheet resistance of 7 ohms per square showed only a 4% increase in resistance after 4000 bending cycles. A flexible organic light-emitting diode based on tris(bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) that was spin-coated on a foil exploited the transmittance and flexibility of the gold foil. Cuprous oxide as an inorganic semiconductor that was epitaxially electrodeposited onto the gold foils exhibited a diode quality factor n of 1.6 (where n = 1.0 for an ideal diode), compared with a value of 3.1 for a polycrystalline deposit. Zinc oxide nanowires electrodeposited epitaxially on a gold foil also showed flexibility, with the nanowires intact up to 500 bending cycles.


In recent decades several scholars have argued for the coherence of Judges 13–16 based on its multiple internal thematic and structural parallels. Yet previous generations of scholars considered Judges 13–16 to be a loose cycle of stories. Exploration of the narrative's closural mechanisms suggests two primary reasons that the episodes strike readers as disconnected: powerful closural devices at the ends of some individual units, particularly evident in 15:17–20, and a relative lack of cohesive ties between units, especially with regard to consistently-portrayed supporting characters and references to Samson's hair. Samson's redactors chose to build elaborate webs of thematic and structural connections rather than make a few simple changes that would enhance readers' perception of a continuous plot. One plausible reason is that the redactors prioritized structural unity—specifically, a large-scale if atypical ring composition—over a coherent plot, with verse 15:20 enhancing, not hindering, the reader's sense of coherence.


In recent years, interest in scholarly research on buying behaviour of Generation Y has grown. However, studies are mainly realized abroad and many of them deal with this issue in general. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors influencing the decision-making process of the Generation Y customers in the selection of wine in the Slovak Republic. A total of 21 respondents participated in the survey. Eye-tracking and a questionnaire were selected for research. For processing and evaluating the eye-tracking research, the Gazepoint Analysis UX Edition software and Microsoft Excel were used. For statistical data analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman's non-parametric test were performed. Based on the results of the questionnaire and the testing, a label was the most important factor. Differences were noted at the moment of examining the information on a label. The most important factor determined by the questionnaire survey was variety, or vintage year, but by using measurement, the most important factor was label design. With regard to bottle shape, the most preferred was the Bordeaux type of bottle. Testing was carried out in laboratory conditions that only simulated the real selection of wine. This could have caused the difference between conscious decision-making and unconscious visual attention. Therefore, in the future, it is recommended to carry out similar research using a mobile eye camera to realize the test with real wine bottles. It is also assumed to involve other methods to obtain information about real attention of the tested probands. The presented research provides information for winegrowers and merchants who can improve their products and communicate effectively with customers. Findings are particularly beneficial because this research is among the first carried out in this area and it was not based only on conscious participation of respondents, but also on unconscious perception, because a deeper understanding of unconscious influences, that shape consumer's decision, helps to better understand consumer's behaviour.


Clinical research to inform the evidence base to guide nonobstetrical care during pregnancy is critically important for the well-being of women and their future offspring. Conversations about regulations for such research, including whether paternal consent should ever be required, should be informed by the perspectives of those most affected, namely, pregnant women. We conducted in-depth interviews with 140 pregnant women living with or at risk of HIV—70 in Malawi, 70 in the United States—exploring their views on requiring paternal consent for pregnant women's participation in trials offering the prospect of direct benefit solely to the fetus. The majority of women supported such a requirement; others raised concerns. A trio of themes—the father's or pregnant woman's rights, fetal protection, and gender/relationship dynamics—characterized views both supporting and against a paternal consent requirement, expanding the range of considerations that should inform approaches to paternal involvement in research with pregnant women.


This study of the history and development of modern Hindi and Urdu looks at the composite ancestry of these sister languages in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and English. The main section of the book consists of a series of sample passages in Urdu and Hindi; each passage represents a stage in the development of the language and has some aspect of language itself as its primary focus. The book is now out of print, and the Hindi Urdu Flagship is glad to make it available in PDF format. We are grateful to Professor Frances Pritchett of Columbia University for her help and support in this.


Norton is an important commercial grape cultivar commonly grown in Missouri and the surrounding region because of its wine quality and disease resistance. However, own-rooted Norton vines typically produce fruit with high pH, malic acid, and potassium, which are known to reduce quality, aging potential, and stability of wine. Additionally, own-rooted Norton vines often produce excessive vegetative growth. Thus, effects of selected rootstocks on Norton fruit composition, yield, and vegetative growth were studied in Phelps County, MO within a commercial vineyard during 2010 and 2011. Rootstocks included 3309C, 101-14, Schwarzmann, 5BB, SO4, 1103P, 110R, 140Ru, 1616C, and 44-53M. Own-rooted Norton vines were also included as a control. Rootstocks did not affect vegetative growth or fruit characteristics (organic acids, glucose, or fructose). However, Norton petiole contents of Ca and P were deficient on some rootstocks in 2010 and 2011. Vines on 101-14, 110R, and 1616C rootstocks produced greater fruit yield than own-rooted vines. Nitrogen, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, and Mn contents in juice were also affected by rootstock, but all were within acceptable ranges. While fruit yields were enhanced by the rootstocks, it may be necessary to alter fertilization and pruning practices to sustain high cropping.


Storm surge and its Impact on the coastal regions have been of interest to many researchers and engineers for a long time. Deterministic models based on classical hydrodynamics can be used for reliable predictions only for short terms, e.g. up to 24 hours for which the characteristics of the storm can be projected accurately. Long-term predictions, on the other hand, is a statistical problem due to the random nature of the storms. Such long-term prediction is becoming increasingly important as the coastal regions are rapidly developed into residential, recreational and industrial areas. One of the first statistical studies on coastal storm surge predictions was published in 1961 by Wemelsfelder who used a Poisson probability law to fit the observed high tide data at Hook of Holland. From this fitted law, risk curves for long-term in years can be constructed for design purposes. In 1970 Yang et al applied the extreme value model to fit storm surge data for Atlantic City, New Jersey and Breakwater Harbor, Delaware. This so-called "purely" statistical method is sound in concept and simple to use. It has some serious limitations, however. First, it requires a collection of long term data (say 100 years for reliable design predictions) which is difficult to obtain in general. Secondly, the prediction for one location is not valid in general for other locations even when they are not far apart. To overcome the first limitation on the unavailability of long-term data at least partially, it is recognized that although storm tide data is limited, the general meteorological data is relatively abundant, so that more data on storm tide can be derived from meteorological data (wind field) via a hydrodynamic analysis. The analysis, of course, involves a general coastal area and consequently, the spatial variation of the storm tide can be predicted and the limitation on the location can be removed also. These observations lead to the concept of a combined statistical and hydrodynamic model which takes into account both the randomness of the long-term meteorological data and the physics of the storm surge.


A fully planar two-dimensional optomechanical crystal formed in a silicon microchip is used to create a structure devoid of phonons in the GHz frequency range. A nanoscale photonic crystal cavity is placed inside the phononic bandgap crystal in order to probe the properties of the localized acoustic modes. By studying the trends in mechanical damping, mode density, and optomechanical coupling strength of the acoustic resonances over an array of structures with varying geometric properties, clear evidence of a complete phononic bandgap is shown.


Unemployment rates in the United States have been slow to fall over the last couple of years despite a modest growth in the number of people employed. The increase in nonfarm payrolls has averaged 191,000 a month over the last year, but the number of unemployed has fallen only by about 81,000 a month. In addition, average weekly hours of all employees have risen (to 34.5 in June 2013 from 33.8 in June 2009). What explains rising hours and rising employment but slowly falling unemployment? Bell and Blanchflower suggest that one factor is the extent to which workers already employed prefer to work more hours to fill the increasing needs of their employers. As a result, as demand grows, employers may first offer more hours to existing workers before hiring new people. The authors have captured this "excess capacity" in the UK labor market using UK data. Their "underemployment index" reveals that the potential for existing workers to take advantage of the recovery by increasing hours rather than creating new jobs, at the expense of the unemployed, is significant. Similar data do not exist in the United States, however, but the authors recommend that the Bureau of Labor Statistics produce the data needed to construct an equivalent US index.


not to be published. Concurrent 1 – Platform Session Wednesday, 13 August 2008: 1430–1445 h CEREBRAL INFARCT SIZE IS GENDER-DEPENDANT FOLLOWING TRANSIENT BUT NOT PERMANENT MIDDLE CEREBRAL ARTERY OCCLUSION IN MICE: DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS ON NOX1, NOX2 AND NOX4 EXPRESSION CG Sobey, VH Brait, KA Jackman, AE Mast, TM DeSilva, AA Miller, GR Drummond Department of Pharmacology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC Females are strongly protected against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) damage but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Moreover, it is not clear whether females are similarly protected during ischemia with no reperfusion (I-NR). Here we have tested whether females are protected to a similar degree during both cerebral I-R and I-NR, and whether the outcomes are associated with changes in expression of NADPH oxidase Nox subunits in the ischemic brain. Stroke was induced by 0.5 h middle cerebral artery occlusion in 6–8 week-old female and male C57Bl6J mice. After 24 h, brain infarct volume was measured in thionin-stained coronal sections. After I-R, males had a larger infarct volume than females (55 ± 11 vs 24 ± 6 mm; P < 0.05), whereas there was no gender difference following I-NR (88 ± 11 vs 88 ± 9 mm). After I-R in males, expression of Nox2 increased by ∼30% and Nox4 decreased by ∼20%, whereas in females neither isoform was altered by I-R. After I-NR in males, changes in Nox2 and Nox4 were slightly more pronounced than after I-R (+60% and −25%, respectively). However in females, in contrast to the lack of effects on brain Nox2 and Nox4 expression after I-R, marked changes occurred after I-NR (+70% and −40%, respectively). There were no differences in Nox1 expression between any of the groups. Thus, cerebral infarct size is gender-dependent following I-R but not I-NR in mice. The lack of protection in females after I-NR is associated with changes in brain expression of Nox2 and/or Nox4 not present after I-R. Concurrent 1 – Platform Session Wednesday, 13 August 2008: 1445–1500 h OPTIMIZING MISMATCH DEFINITIONS IN ACUTE STROKE MRI – AN EPITHET POST HOC STUDY Soren Christensen, Mark W Parsons, Deidre A De Silva, Martin Ebinger, Ken Butcher, John Fink, Patricia Desmond, P Alan Barber, C Bladin, C Levi, Geoffrey A Donnan, Stephen M Davis Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne, VIC Background: The recently published EPITHET trial tested whether tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) attenuated growth in patients with a perfusion/diffusion weighted imaging mismatch, believed to identify potential treatment responders.The trial was negative for the primary growth outcome measure. Secondary outcome measures consistently showed a tendency for improved outcomes in the tPA group. Aims: Eighty-six percent of patients had mismatch, and we hypothesized that a more restrictive mismatch definition would identify an enriched population with larger treatment response. In this descriptive post-hoc analysis we investigated the effect of changing the Tmax and mismatch ratio definitions in order to identify effect sizes, definitions and outcome measures for use in future studies. Methods: Mismatch definitions were varied to identify subpopulations with mismatch frequencies from 10 to 100%. We recorded effect and significance level of the differences between treatment arms at each definition. Outcome measures were infarct growth and mRS 0–1. Results: More restrictive mismatch definitions were significantly correlated with larger growth differences between treatment arms R = 0.40 (P < 0.001) and identified a population with higher treatment response. The odds ratio for mRS 0–1 in the tPA arm showed a much weaker correlation R = 0.09 (P < 0.001) with mismatch definitions and although there was a constant trend for benefit of tPA, the group differences were not significant at any relevant threshold. Conclusion: More restrictive mismatch definitions identify subgroups of patients in EPITHET with higher and significant response to treatment. Based on EPITHET 360 patients are required to demonstrate effect on clinical outcomes.


Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) was designed to study the adaptation process of the immigrant second generation which is defined broadly as United States-born children with at least one foreign-born parent or children born abroad but brought at an early age to the United States. The original survey was conducted with large samples of second-generation immigrant children attending the 8th and 9th grades in public and private schools in the metropolitan areas of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale in Florida and San Diego, California. Conducted in 1992, the first survey had the purpose of ascertaining baseline information on immigrant families, children's demographic characteristics, language use, self-identities, and academic attainment. The total sample size was 5,262. Respondents came from 77 different nationalities, although the sample reflects the most sizable immigrant nationalities in each area. Three years later, corresponding to the time in which respondents were about to graduate from high school, the first follow-up survey was conducted. Its purpose was to examine the evolution of key adaptation outcomes including language knowledge and preference, ethnic identity, self-esteem, and academic attainment over the adolescent years. The survey also sought to establish the proportion of second-generation youths who dropped out of school before graduation. This follow-up survey retrieved 4,288 respondents or 81.5 percent of the original sample. Together with this follow-up survey, a parental survey was conducted. The purpose of this interview was to establish directly characteristics of immigrant parents and families and their outlooks for the future including aspirations and plans for the children. Since many immigrant parents did not understand English, this questionnaire was translated and administered in six different foreign languages. In total, 2,442 parents or 46 percent of the original student sample were interviewed. During 2001-2003, or a decade after the original survey, a final follow-up was conducted. The sample now averaged 24 years of age and, hence, patterns of adaptation in early adulthood could be readily assessed. The original and follow-up surveys were conducted mostly in schools attended by respondents, greatly facilitating access to them. Most respondents had already left school by the time of the second follow-up so they had to be contacted individually in their place of work or residence. Respondents were located not only in the San Diego and Miami areas, but also in more than 30 different states, with some surveys returned from military bases overseas. Mailed questionnaires were the principal source of completed data in this third survey. In total, CILS-III retrieved complete or partial information on 3,613 respondents representing 68.9 percent of the original sample and 84.3 percent of the first follow-up.Relevant adaptation outcomes measured in this survey include educational attainment, employment and occupational status, income, civil status and ethnicity of spouses/partners, political attitudes and participation, ethnic and racial identities, delinquency and incarceration, attitudes and levels of identification with American society, and plans for the future.


Conducted investigation have shown that the studied of new preparations possess full line nearby damaged tumour properties: mitotic activity, at high degree-alkylation, promote between nucleosome degradation and fragmentation DNA, inhibits topoisomerases I and II and possess ability of overcoming drug stability, and above, than etoposide and doxorubicin, possess the expressed cytotoxic action, as causes their high anticancer effect. Thus ability to emission CFUs protects an organism from consequences of their cytotoxic action. Ability to induction CFUs could be explained by their structural characteristics that causes their expressed properties radiomimetic. High of induction CFUs, side by side with suppression of growth of tumour, promotes at influence of some substances to increase of immunity and haemopoietic indicators, at average induction CFUs at number of substances immunity and haemopoietic indicators after the spent treatment, as not so considerably decrease at application of commercial anti-tumour preparations.


Aim: The aim was to investigate the possibility to evaluate the mortality pattern in a community intervention programme against cardiovascular disease by official death certificates. Methods: For all deceased in the intervention area (Norsjö), the accuracy of the official death certificates were compared with matched controls in the rest of Västerbotten. The official causes of death were compared with new certificates, based on the last clinical record, issued by three of the authors, and coded by one of the authors, all four accordingly blinded. Results: The degree of agreement between the official underlying causes of death in "cardiovascular disease" (CVD) and the re-evaluated certificates was not found to differ between Norsjö and the rest of Västerbotten. The agreement was 87% and 88% at chapter level, respectively, but only 55% and 55% at 4-digit level, respectively. The reclassification resulted in a 1% decrease of "cardiovascular deaths" in both Norsjö and the rest of Västerbotten. Conclusions: The disagreements in the reclassification of cause of death were equal but large in both directions. The official death certificates should be used with caution to evaluate CVD in small community intervention programmes, and restricted to the chapter level and total populations.


Making a monopole in an atomic gas Some "grand unified theories" of physics predict the existence of the so-called magnetic monopole. No such particles have been seen, but analogs of monopoles may be observable in quantum fluids. Ray et al. created such an analog in a gas of ultracold 87Rb atoms with three spin states at their disposal. The authors used a protocol involving external magnetic fields with particular spatial distributions to create and observe a monopole-like spin texture in the gas. Science, this issue p. 544 An analog of the magnetic monopole has been created and observed in an ultracold gas of rubidium-87 atoms. Topological defects play important roles throughout nature, appearing in contexts as diverse as cosmology, particle physics, superfluidity, liquid crystals, and metallurgy. Point defects can arise naturally as magnetic monopoles resulting from symmetry breaking in grand unified theories. We devised an experiment to create and detect quantum mechanical analogs of such monopoles in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. The defects, which were stable on the time scale of our experiments, were identified from spin-resolved images of the condensate density profile that exhibit a characteristic dependence on the choice of quantization axis. Our observations lay the foundation for experimental studies of the dynamics and stability of topological point defects in quantum systems.


Background: Unwanted pregnancy followed by unsafe abortion can be avoided by using different contraceptive methods, including emergency contraceptives. Information on knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives among women is particularly important because of high rates of teenage and unwanted pregnancies as well as soaring STI and HIV/AIDS rates.
Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives among young females.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 774 female students at Addis Ababa University and Unity University College from January to September 2005.
Results: About 43.5% (95% CI 40.0 - 47.0%) of the students said that they have heard about emergency contraceptives. When asked about specific types of emergency contraceptives, among those who have ever heard of emergency contraceptives, 279 (82.8%) mentioned pills and 115 (34.1%) mentioned intrauterine contraceptive devices
(IUCDs). About 53% (95% CI 49.1-56.1%) of the students had positive attitude towards emergency contraceptives and only 4.9% (95% CI 3.4-6.4%) respondents reported that they had used emergency contraceptive methods previously.
Conclusion: The study has shown that there is low level of knowledge and practice of emergency contraceptives among female university students. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 21 (2) 2007: pp. 111-116


Many salient rules to allocate private goods are not only strategy-proof, but also group strategy-proof, in appropriate domains of definition, hence diminishing the traditional conflict between incentives and efficiency. That is so for solutions to matching, division, cost sharing, house allocation, and auctions, in spite of the substantive disparity between these cases. In a general framework encompassing all of them, we prove that the equivalence between the two forms of strategy-proofness is due to an underlying common structure that transcends the many differences between the contexts and the mechanisms for which it holds. (JEL C78, D44, D63, D71, D82)


The Scandal of the State is a path-breaking examination of the relationship between the postcolonial, democratic Indian nation-state and Indian women's actual needs and lives. Well-known for her work combining feminist theory and postcolonial studies, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan shows how the state is central to understanding women's identities and how, reciprocally, women and "women's issues" affect the state's role and function. She argues that in India law and citizenship define for women not only the scope of political rights but also cultural identity and everyday life. Sunder Rajan delineates the postcolonial state in implicit contrast with the "enlightened," post-feminist neoliberal state in the West. Her analysis wrestles with complex social realities, taking into account the influence of age, ethnicity, religion, and class on individual and group identities as well as the shifting, heterogeneous nature of the state itself. The Scandal of the State develops through a series of compelling case studies, each of which centers around an incident exposing the contradictory position of the Indian state vis-a-vis its female citizens and, ultimately, the inadequacy of its commitment to women's rights. Sunder Rajan focuses on the custody battle over a Muslim child bride, the compulsory sterilization of mentally retarded women in state institutional care, female infanticide in Tamilnadu, prostitution as labor rather than crime, and the surrender of the female outlaw Phoolan Devi. She also looks at the ways the Uniform Civil Code presented many women with a stark choice between allegiance to their religion and community or the secular assertion of individual rights. Rich with theoretical acumen and activist passion, The Scandal of the State is a powerful critique of the mutual dependence of women and the state on one another in the specific context of a postcolonial modernity.


Background: Joint replacement surgery is one of the most cost-effective interventions leading to considerable improvements in function and quality of life. The rise in multimorbidity in the UK is leading to an increasing number of patients with long-term conditions (LTCs) undergoing joint replacement surgery. Financially stretched commissioners of health services are seeking to restrict access to routine elective surgery, including hip and knee replacements, despite a lack of evidence to support these decisions. It is therefore important to understand the factors that limit the safety and effectiveness of surgery and how LTCs might have an impact on access to and outcomes of joint replacement. Methods: In this thesis, national patient-level datasets and both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to investigate the access to and outcomes of hip and knee replacement surgery for patients with 11 different comorbidities. This involved three components: a literature review, methodological work, and empirical work. The literature review explored the outcomes for patients with different comorbidities. The methodological work assessed the agreement between patient-report and administrative data derived comorbidities. Finally, the empirical work explored the severity of joint problems before surgery and the safety and effectiveness outcomes for patients with comorbidities. Semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals that are involved in the referral and selection of patients for joint replacement surgery were undertaken to provide insight into the factors that influence the access to surgery for patients with comorbidities. Results: The systematic review on outcomes to hip and knee replacement surgery showed that there was limited evidence of the impact of comorbidities on patient-reported outcomes related to effectiveness of joint replacement surgery. Patients with comorbidities reported more severe joint problems before surgery compared to patients without comorbidities, suggesting that patients with comorbidities may be undergoing hip and knee replacement surgery later in the course of their joint disease. This was further supported by the findings from the qualitative study that patients with comorbidities who were considered unsuitable for surgery were 'lost to the system' and left to self-manage their comorbidities before being reconsidered for joint replacement surgery. With regards to outcomes, patients with comorbidities have a moderately increased risk of adverse outcomes after hip and knee replacement surgery but benefit almost to the same extent as patients without comorbidities. Patients with comorbidities reported only slightly smaller improvements in severity of joint problems and no difference in quality of life after surgery compared to patients without comorbidities. Patients with multiple comorbidities (two or more comorbidities) reported more severe joint problems before surgery and a slightly higher increased risk of adverse outcomes but nevertheless benefitted considerably from the surgery. Conclusions: This thesis demonstrates that patients with comorbidities may experience inequalities in access to hip and knee replacement surgery even though they benefit almost as much as patients without comorbidities. This finding indicates that the restriction of access to joint replacement surgery based on the presence of comorbidities alone is difficult to justify considering the beneficial impact of the surgery on patients' lives.


The objective of this study was to examine the use of the Geometer's Sketchpad on students' van Hiele level of geometric thinking. A total of 31 Year Three students from a primary school in Pahang, Malaysia, participated in this study which was carried out over two weeks. The experimental group (N=16) was given the intervention using Geometer's Sketchpadfor six lessons while the control group (N=15) was taught using the traditional approach of chalk and talk. Quantitative data of the study were obtained through pre and post tests. A questionnaire was also used in this study. Paired samples t-test results indicated that the improvement of van Hiele level of geometric thinking for both the students in the experimental group and control group between all the pre and posttests is significant at the level of . However, the difference of van Hiele level of geometric thinking between students in the experimental group and in the control group were not significant for the postests. The study also found that there was no correlation between students' literacy in using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and their van Hielelevel of geometric thinking after using Geometer's Sketchpad.


q 201 We provide the most up-to-date evidence available in various behavioral fields in support of the hypothesis that the emergence of bipedalism and cooperative breeding in the hominin line—together with environmental developments that made a diet of meat from large animals adaptive as well as cultural innovation in the form of fire and cooking—created a niche for hominins in which there was a high return for coordinated, cooperative scavenging and hunting of large mammals. This was accompanied by an increasing use of wooden spears and lithic points as lethal hunting weapons that transformed human sociopolitical life. The combination of social interdependence and the availability of such weapons in early hominin society undermined the standard social dominance hierarchy of multimale/multifemale primate groups. The successful sociopolitical structure that ultimately replaced the ancestral social dominance hierarchy was an egalitarian political system in which lethal weapons made possible group control of leaders, and group success depended on the ability of leaders to persuade and of followers to contribute to a consensual decision process. The heightened social value of nonauthoritarian leadership entailed enhanced biological fitness for such leadership traits as linguistic facility, ability to form and influence coalitions, and, indeed, hypercognition in general.


This thesis consists of four chapters. The first contains a literature review of the isolation, previous total syntheses, biological activity and structure activity relationships of lactacystin and its analogues. Chapter two discusses our work towards the total synthesis of lactacystin and its analogues starting from three different amino acids. Chapter three contains the experimental details of our work, and the final chapter contains the details of our work on the biological testing of some of our advanced intermediates towards deoxylactacystin.
Our synthetic approach towards lactacystin and its analogues starts from a simple amino acid derivative; using different amino acid derivatives as starting material, the C5 position is easily altered. The starting material is then advanced to a suitable diester for
Dieckmann cyclization to form the lactam core found in the natural product.
The next key step in our approach follows Mander's acylation protocol to form the C5 quaternary centre using methyl cyanoformate to install a methyl ester group in a selective manner. This step results in the fully functionalized core of lactacystin.
At this stage we had two possible routes. First, we investigated the reduction of the ketone at C6 followed by attempted decarboxylation at C7; this route ultimately proved unsuccessful. The second route inverted the reaction order; performing the decarboxylation at C7 first followed by attempts to reduce the ketone at C6. The reduction was unsuccessful and so a thiomethyl derivative was employed to allow the ketone to be successfully reduced followed by removal of the thiomethyl group using Raney nickel.
Chapter four has been written as a stand-alone chapter. Four advanced intermediates towards deoxylactacystin were chosen to undergo biological testing. Compounds were tested for their anti-proliferative effects against the HL-60 cell line using an MTS assay and their ability to inhibit the chymotrypsin-like activity in the 20S proteasome.


British Newsreels and the Plight P, of European Jews, 1933-194"1 This dissertation is an investigation into what the British newsreels told the public about the plight of German and European Jews, between January 1933) and the end of 1945. Nazi persecution of the Jews is a subject that has been well researched for the last 40 years. Historians have examined questions of attitudes to Jewish immigration into Britain and into Palestine, together with the British response to the news of the 'Final Solution' of the 'Jewish Question' in Europe. They have asked why countries such as Britain and her Allies did not do more. The role of the media is central to this question. Work has already been done on what the public was told by the British press as early as 1964, and, more recently on elements of the response of the BBC. Until the time of writing, no historian has considered the most popular medium of all in its response to the persecution of Jews. No-one has explained why the British newsreels did not inform the public, or has asked why there was almost total silence from this medium on the implementation of the 'Final Solution'. This dissertation will argue that more could have been done by British newsreels to highlight the plight of the European Jews between 1933 and 1945.


This paper introduces a model of the market for audit services in which auditors differ in their levels of skill, which may or may not be observable and capture differences in ability. The model captures the interplay amongst auditing standards, litigation, and auditors' levels of skill, which determines auditors' responses to auditing standards. The paper shows that the quality of audit supplied by any auditor is increasing in the auditor's level of skill regardless of whether or not auditors' levels of skill are observable. An increase in the quality of audit prescribed by auditing standards is shown to induce some auditors endowed with low levels of skill to decrease the quality of their audits so that the average quality of audit and economic welfare may actually decline as auditing standards are raised. Auditors' choices of audit quality are furthermore shown to be increasing in trial awards. Incentives for trials and out-of-court settlements are shown to depend crucially on whether or not auditors' levels of skill are observable. Only when auditors' levels of skill are unobservable do trials obtain with some probability. When auditors' levels of skill are unobservable, the introduction of either restrictions on costs awarded by the courts or an imperfection in the courts' technology is shown to lead the most skilled auditors to supply audits of a quality strictly exceeding the quality prescribed by the prevailing auditing standards. When the courts err often enough, the most skilled auditors having exercised due care furthermore make offers to settle when sued.


A novel and selective approach to obtain highly stable and capping nanospheres of crystalline cadmium sulfide (CdS) via solution growth in cadmium nitrate tetrahydrate-thiourea-ligand-pH buffer systems using a Taguchi experimental design is presented. CdS characterization is carried out by laser diffraction particle size analyzer, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. Synthesized nanospheres of crystalline CdS with an average crystal particle diameter of 37.5 nm and a capping layer thickness of 17.7–35.7 nm (73 to 115 nm as capped nanoparticles) keep size and form stable in aqueous solution. These crystalline CdS nanospheres exhibit a 2.46 eV band gap, as well as, an optical bandwidth comprises in the visible range with potential applications in solar cells.


Abstract. The isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapour at the land surface has been continuously monitored at the Kourovka astronomical observatory in western Siberia (57.037° N, 59.547° E; 300 m a.s.l.) since April 2012. These measurements provide the first record of δD, δ18O and d-excess in this region. Air was sampled at 8 m height within a forest clearing. Measurements were made with a wavelength-scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy analyzer (Picarro L2130-i). Specific improvements of the measurement system and calibration protocol have been made to ensure reliable measurements at low humidity during winter. The isotopic measurements conducted till August 2013 exhibit a clear seasonal cycle with maximum δD and δ18O values in summer and minimum values in winter. In addition, considerable synoptic timescale variability of isotopic composition was observed with typical variations of 50–100‰ for δD, 10–15‰ for δ18O and 2–8‰ for d-excess. The strong correlations between δD and local meteorological parameters (logarithm of humidity and temperature) are explored, with a lack of dependency in summer that points to the importance of continental recycling and local evapotranspiration. The overall correlation between δD and temperature is associated with a slope of 3‰ °C−1. Large d-excess diurnal variability was observed during summer with up to 30‰ decrease during the night and the minima manifested shortly after sunrise. Two dominant diurnal cycle patterns for d-excess differing by the magnitude of the d-excess decrease (21‰ and 7‰) and associated patterns for meteorological observations have been determined. The total uncertainty of the isotopic measurements was quantified as 1.4–11.2‰ for δD, 0.23–1.84‰ for δ18O and 2.3–18.5‰ for d-excess depending on the humidity.


Abstract A better understanding of feeding ecology and parental roles is important for conservation of Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis) and their habitat. In 2004–2005, we collected and analyzed 1373 hr of video from six time-lapse video-monitored nests in New Mexico, U.S.A., to address these behavioral data gaps. Ferruginous Hawks delivered 93 g of prey biomass per hr to each nest (g/hr), 42 g/nestling/hr, and 208 g/prey delivery. Males delivered most prey items (72%) and twice the overall prey biomass of females, but females delivered larger prey items in each delivery. As predicted by the food-niche hypothesis, males and females used prey differently, with females delivering a disproportionate number of desert cottontails (Sylvilagus audubonii) and males delivering Botta's pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) most often. Desert cottontails, the heaviest prey item, were most often delivered eviscerated. Females spent 33% of recorded time at the nest, whereas males spent <1%. We found a positive relationship between female nest attendance and male provisioning rate, and a negative relationship between female nest attendance and nestling age; the role of the male was to deliver prey whereas the female's initial role was to feed and care for nestlings, then to find food as nestlings began feeding themselves and became homeothermic. Evidence of intersexual differences in prey use may provide managers justification to focus limited resources on actions that create habitat heterogeneity and, consequently, a more diverse prey base.


Formation and maintenance of cell-cell junctions is paramount for proper epithelial and endothelial barrier formation. Cell-cell adhesions are regulated by chemical and mechanical cues from the environment. Mechanical regulation of both epithelial and endothelial barrier occurs predominantly through the cadherin junctions and the actin cytoskeleton. In this thesis we investigate a subset of cadherin junctions that are mechanically regulated, the Focal Adherens Junctions (FAJs). We discovered that these junctions are different in morphology and in a state of remodeling induced through actomyosin contractility. More importantly they seem to have a different molecular composition compared to stable, mature cadherin junctions. Indeed, we discovered the tension dependent recruitment of vinculin, VASP, zyxin and TES at the FAJs. To further elucidate the molecular composition of FAJs, we performed a pull down on these junctions and analyzed the protein sample using Mass Spectrometry. This resulted in a list of novel proteins possibly involved in FAJs formation. Lastly, in this thesis we establish the use of Salivary Gland Organoids (SGOs) as a tool to study branching morphogenesis. The ability to image this process, which is regulated by changes in tissue mechanics and involves massive remodeling of cell-cell junctions, live on the microscope, will allow us to investigate the importance of FAJs and the proteins involved in these mechanosensitive cell-cell junctions in branching morphogenesis.


Vapour-phase deposition techniques have many advantages including being solventless and providing fine control (down to the nanometre level) of coating thickness. This thesis is about the use of both plasmachemical deposition and oxidative vapour-phase deposition to form functional
coatings.

Chapter 1 provides brief reviews of proton exchange membrane fuel cells and vapour-phase deposition techniques as well as an overall introduction to the thesis.

Chapter 2 is a synopsis of the most commonly used experimental techniques used throughout this thesis (especial attention is focused on XPS and FTIR as they are used in every chapter).

Chapters 3–4 record the use of plasmachemical deposition to form proton-conducting coatings for potential use in fuel cells. The strategy described is the use of anhydride precursors in order to produce layers with a high density of carboxylic acids. In chapter 4 these layers themselves are used as initiators to graft sulfonic-acid containing polymer brushes for the enhancement of proton conductivity.

Chapter 5 describes the fabrication of poly(ionic liquid) layers by depositing an imidazole-containing precursor via pulsed plasmachemical deposition, which is subsequently quaternized via a vapour-phase reaction with 1-bromobutane. The resultant coatings show high values of ionic conductivity above 90 ◦C.

In chapter 6 plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition of metal(II) hexafluoroacetylacetonate precursors is used in order to produce metal-containing nanocomposite layers. The retention of an organic matrix and its chemical rearrangement under plasma conditions leads to high ionic
conductivities.

Chapters 7–8 utilize an atomized spray delivery system and plasma in conjunction with liquid precursor mixtures in order to form bioactive coatings (chapter 7) and nanocomposite layers (chapter 8) which show good adhesion and lithium-ion conductivity values.

Finally chapter 9 utilizes the atomized spray system to deliver high vapour pressures of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene in the presence of triflic anhydride which acts as an oxidant. The ensuing vapour-phase reaction yields a conducting polymer coating.