The gait of patients with an incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) has been studied previously. The most widely examined parameters to characterize iSCI gait are walking speed and time-distance measures (e.g., step length, step frequency, gait-cycle phases). In a clinical setting, the functional recovery of iSCI patients is routinely captured by specific outcome measures such as the 10-meter walk test (10mWT), the 6-minute walk test (6minWT) or the walking index for spinal cord injury (WISCI), which has been specifically established for this particular group of patients to score their walking ability. These measures are useful to monitor gross motor function and recovery during rehabilitation, but lack the ability to elucidate underlying mechanisms of gait alterations and recovery or subtle changes in locomotor pattern. In order to be able to appreciate the injury-induced deficits in locomotor control and to capture changes in motor function that may not be visible to the naked eye a sensitive and comprehensive tool is of need. The easiest way of assessing walking capacity is to collect data of walking speed and distance. Yet, one of the most obvious gait alterations in subjects with iSCI is an impaired gait quality. In the past, gait quality has been scored by trained investigators that rate defined features of walking. However, more complex movements that require precise spatial and temporal coordination of several joints and body segments are not easy to detect by mere observation. In the first study of this thesis, we evaluated the lower-limb coordination by means of combined hip-knee angular profiles (cyclograms). Patients showed distinct types and extents of cyclogram alterations and were thereupon categorized into four groups of impairment. The cyclogram seemed to reflect the underlying deficits as it correlated well with walking performance (speed) but could not be modulated with increasing speeds in contrast to a converging normalization in all control subjects. The intralimb coordination apparently is a sensitive indicator of motor-control impairment after spinal cord injury. We next evaluated a variety of gait-related parameters in order to find alterations of locomotor control after iSCI. With the aim of establishing a comprehensive framework to examine the organization of walking behavior in humans and how this organization gets distorted by insults to the spinal cord we chose a data-driven holistic approach for analyzing a multivariate set of data. This approach prevents a certain investigator-induced bias that arises when more or less arbitrarily pre-selecting a specific outcome measure. Multivariate in this case means variables of different modalities, i.e., objective electrophysiological measures that represent the integrity and electrical conductivity of specific spinal fiber tracts, kinematic measures that describe the extent of movements and body-segment coordination (i.e., gait quality) as well as measures that quantify locomotor performance such as walking speed and distance. Hence, clusters of parameters were identified that were or were not altered in iSCI patients and that were distinctly modulated with respect to speed. These findings suggest that there are distinguishable domains of neural control of walking that may be differently affected in specific neurological disorders. Consequently, the question arises as to which of these parameters change over time and what this might reveal about the mechanisms of recovery. These questions were addressed in the third study where the gait of iSCI patients was analyzed at several time points during rehabilitation in order to reveal those parameters that most strongly contribute to recovery, and also to reveal the responsiveness of the multimodal factors to an improvement in walking speed. Interestingly, the responsiveness of a single measure did not necessarily contribute to recovery, which is rather affected by the contribution of mutually interacting parameters. It remains to be elucidated where exactly the plastic changes leading to functional recovery take place and by what mechanisms they are mediated. The great challenge of spinal cord research is the cure for paralysis, or, in other words, a way to induce functional neural repair in the growth-inhibiting environment of the central nervous system (CNS). Even though it is known that spontaneous regeneration of severed neural tissue does virtually not occur in the CNS, recovery on a functional basis does happen. In the fourth study we demonstrated that the spinal cord is capable of extensive plastic changes induced by pathological processes in the absence of motor deficits and only minor sensory impairments. To accelerate the success of future clinical trials, the bridging from bench to bedside needs to be encouraged. Outcome measures should be standardized across species in order to appreciate differences and similarities. It could be shown that after a cervical hemisection of the spinal cord, equivalent to a the Brown-Sequard Syndrome in patients, humans and primates show superior recovery of function mediated by the corticospinal tract compared to rats. These findings support the importance of studies performed in primates to minimize the gap between preclinical and clinical outcome.


This article outlines the parallels between major theories of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and relevant temperament domains, summarizing recent research from our laboratories on (a) child temperament and (b) adult personality traits related to ADHD symptoms. These data are convergent in suggesting a role of effortful control and regulation in the core symptoms of ADHD. Negative approach and anger is also associated with ADHD, but this may be due to the overlap of ADHD and antisocial behavior. Positive approach may be involved in an alternate pathway to ADHD. The involvement of effortful control is congruent with experimental findings of executive functioning deficits in children with ADHD. We hypothesize that, whereas regulation problems may occur in most children with ADHD, a subgroup also may be characterized by positive approach problems and another subgroup by negative approach problems. We conclude with a theorized multiple process developmental model outlining alternate pathways to ADHD that warrant empirical investigation to better resolve etiological heterogeneity in ADHD.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious healthcare problem worldwide because of its increasing morbidity and high mortality rates. The present study aimed to investigate the chemopreventive effects of prepared sulfated oligosaccharide compounds(Maltose SO4, Raffinose SO4, Stachyose SO4, Chondroitin-6-sulfate and Maltohexaose SO4)by studying their ability to inhibit, reverse or restrict the development of cancer through inhibiting the metastasis and angiogenesis of tumor in diethylnitrosamine (DENA) induced hepatocarcinogenesis in rats. To elucidate the mechanism by which the prepared sulfated oligosaccharidesexert their antitumor activities in the animals-bearing tumor the following parameters were determined including:aspartate and alanine aminotransferases (AST & ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubinas liver function test;hepatic tyrosine kinase (TRK) and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP 2E1) as marker for tumor progression;vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and sialic acid (TSA) as markers of angiogenesis;heparanase and elastase as marker of metastasis. Liver histopathological analysis was also evaluated. Carcinogenic rats recorded drastic elevation in all parameters under investigation whichconfirmed by histopathological distortion in the tissue organization with hyperchromatism, hyperplasia, proliferating hepatocytes.Prepared sulfated oligosaccharides supplementation at 1/10 of theirmedian lethal dose, LD50, significantly improved the biochemical and histopathological changes induced by DENA in the order of Maltose SO4>Maltohexaose SO4>Stachyose SO4>Raffinose SO4> Chondroitin-6- sulfate. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the tested compounds especially Maltose SO4 and Maltohexaose SO4 may be potent anticancer agents for inclusion in modern clinical trials after more investigations on higher animals.


This paper examines different perceptions on climate change management and disclosures from the viewpoint of stakeholders in Indian Corporations. The paper shows how climate change strategies and disclosures at different organizational levels can be linked to the societal and competitive contexts that companies face, embedded in a stakeholder view. Companies are divided according to certain attributes - location, geographical spread, industry, degree of vertical integration and diversification, companies prioritizing particular stakeholder groups, and their climate change strategies and disclosures including internal measures, supply-chain measures and/or market-based measures that move beyond the supply chain are analyzed. This paper attempts to illustrate how institutional, resource-based, supply chain and stakeholder views are all important to characterize and understand corporate strategic responses to a sustainability issue.


This book was born based on my 16 years experience since my tertiary education in Japan and working experience in Japanese multinational company. From my valuable experience, I possess deep interest in doing research of Japanese success through TQM approach, which has been proved effective and successful. Through my observation and research; the key success of Japanese companies relies on three elements; continuous cost improvement, quality and delivery to meet customer satisfaction. This can be achieved through Total Quality Management (TQM), which is crucial in ensuring that a company can survive in the continuously growing competition in the global market. Japanese companies are very successful today because of adoption and implementation of TQM principles. This book is about comparing TQM practices between the Japanese and non-Japanese companies. Analysis were made to find significant difference in TQM practices and importance between Japanese and non-Japanese companies. The results showed that there are significant differences in TQM practices. Management leadership, measurement and feedback, product design and education and training showed significant difference in favor of Japanese companies. Furthermore, Japanese companies have high perception on the importance of product development. The top five quality activities implemented are: quality control circle, supplier improvement, Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA), Value Engineering (VE) and quality costing. The book also proposed Quality Improvement Guidelines (QIG) framework for TQM implementation. Management leadership, TQM awareness, standardization, customer satisfaction strategies and kaizen activities are five major parts in the framework. The framework is also supported by Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to ensure the success of TQM implementation. The framework is step by step and can assist companies in meeting customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and business growth.


BRNCIC, M., B. TRIPALO, S. RIMAC BRNCIC, S. KARLOVIC, A. ZUPAN and Z. HERCEG, 2009. Evaluation of textural properties for whey enriched direct extruded and puffed corn based products. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 15: 204-214 Processing of various foodstuffs with extrusion cooking represents a very effective process applicable in biotechnology and food industry while products of extrusion cooking are of major importance today as well. The issue of this work was to incorporate different amount of whey protein concentrate (WPC) in corn flour as raw material during extrusion cooking for achievement extrudates with higher protein content in order to enrich and improve nutritional quality of product and determination of textural-mechanical properties of such a manufactured product. Research was conducted in co-rotating twin screw extruder with setup designed to manufacture direct expanded extrudates based on pure corn flour and enriched with whey protein concentrate. Experimental data were analyzed with multiparameter correlation analysis using software package statistica 6. Achieved textural properties of direct expanded extrudates with addition and without addition of whey protein concentrate as: extrudate diameter (de), expansion ratio (Er), bulk density (BD), extrudate weight equivalent (EWE), hardness and breaking strenght index (BSI) in bending mode, and penetration mode as well were compared with versatile process parameters (feed moisture content and whey protein concentrate intake). Also water apsorption index (WAI), and water solubility index (WSI) were also corelated with empirical models.


The accumulation of genome-wide molecular data has emphasized the important role of hybridization in the evolution of many organisms, which may carry introgressed genomic segments resulting from past admixture events with other taxa. Despite a number of examples of hybridization occurring during biological invasions, the resulting spatial patterns of genomic introgression remain poorly understood. Preliminary simulation studies have suggested a heterogeneous spatial level of introgression for invasive taxa after range expansion. We investigated in detail the robustness of this pattern and its persistence over time for both invasive and local organisms. Using spatially explicit simulations, we explored the spatial distribution of introgression across the area of colonization of an invasive taxon hybridizing with a local taxon. The general pattern for neutral loci supported by our results is an increasing introgression of local genes into the invasive taxon with the increase in the distance from the source of the invasion and a decreasing introgression of invasive genes into the local taxon. However, we also show there is some variation in this general trend depending on the scenario investigated. Spatial heterogeneity of introgression within a given taxon is thus an expected neutral pattern in structured populations after a biological invasion with a low to moderate amount of hybridization. We further show that this pattern is consistent with published empirical observations. Using additional simulations, we argue that the spatial pattern of Neanderthal introgression in modern humans, which has been documented to be higher in Asia than in Europe, can be explained by a model of hybridization with Neanderthals in Eurasia during the range expansion of modern humans from Africa. Our results support the view that weak hybridization during range expansion may explain spatially heterogeneous introgression patterns without the need to invoke selection.


This study examines session variability modelling for face authentication using Gaussian mixture models. Session variability modelling aims to explicitly model and suppress detrimental within-class (inter-session) variation. The authors examine two techniques to do this, inter-session variability modelling (ISV) and joint factor analysis (JFA), which were initially developed for speaker authentication. We present a self-contained description of these two techniques and demonstrate that they can be successfully applied to face authentication. In particular, they show that using ISV leads to significant error rate reductions of, on average, 26% on the challenging and publicly available databases SCface, BANCA, MOBIO and multi-PIE. Finally, the authors show that a limitation of both ISV and JFA for face authentication is that the session variability model captures and suppresses a significant portion of between-class variation.


This article pursues the question of how the territorialisation of power in the establishment of the Afghan nation-state has affected the spatial perceptions of political actors and the population at large. This question is particularly topical as spatial references are at present the driving force behind an ethnicisation of politics in Afghanistan. These perceived ethnic spaces, so-called ethnoscapes, not only compete with one another, but also contradict Afghanistan itself as a national territory. Thus since the outbreak of the Afghan war 1979 various political actors have been attempting to mobilise their constituencies over ethnic issues in order to use references to the spatial origins and expansion of their ethnic category to legitimise political claims. The principal argument of this article is that the population's strong identification with the national territory of Afghanistan has to date prevented an ethnicisation of the masses in the Afghan conflict. Furthermore the article argues that the irreconcilability of the various perceived ethnic territories is an obstacle to the currently much-discussed establishment of ethno-federalism.


Embedded propulsion systems, such as for example used in advanced hybrid-wing body aircraft, can potentially offer major fuel burn and noise reduction benefits but introduce challenges in the aerodynamic and acoustic integration of the high-bypass ratio fan system. A novel approach is proposed to quantify the effects of non-uniform flow on the generation and propagation of multiple pure tone noise (MPTs). The new method is validated on a conventional inlet geometry first. The ultimate goal is to conduct a parametric study of S-duct inlets in order to quantify the effects of inlet design parameters on the acoustic signature. The key challenge is that the mechanism underlying the distortion transfer, noise source generation and propagation through the non-uniform flow field are inherently coupled such that a simultaneous computation of the aerodynamics and acoustics is required. The technical approach is based on a body force description of the fan blade row that is able to capture the distortion transfer and the MPT noise generation mechanisms while greatly reducing computational cost. A single, 3-D full-wheel unsteady CFD simulation, in which the Euler equations are solved to second-order spatial and temporal accuracy, simultaneously computes the MPT noise generation and its propagation in distorted mean flow. Several numerical tools were developed to enable the implementation of this new approach. Parametric studies were conducted to determine appropriate grid and time step sizes for the propagation of acoustic waves. The Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings integral method is used to propagate the noise to far field receivers. Non-reflecting boundary conditions are implemented through the use of acoustic buffer zones. The body force modeling approach is validated and proof-of-concept studies demonstrate the generation of disturbances at both blade-passing and shaft-order frequencies using the perturbed body force method. The full methodology is currently being validated using NASA's Source Diagnostic Test (SDT) fan and inlet geometry. Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Defoe, Alex Narkaj & Zoltan Spakovszky.


Trace-element and isotopic compositions of fossilized shark teeth sampled from Miocene marine sediments of the north Alpine Molasse Basin, the Vienna Basin, and the Pannonian Basin generally show evidence of formation in a marine environment under conditions geochemically equivalent to the open ocean. In contrast, two of eight shark teeth from the Swiss Upper Marine Molasse locality of La Moliere have extremely low ?18O values (10.3‰ and 11.3‰) and low 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.707840 and 0.707812) compared to other teeth from this locality (21.1‰–22.4‰ and 0.708421–0.708630). The rare earth element (REE) abundances and patterns from La Moliere not only differ between dentine and enameloid of the same tooth, but also between different teeth, supporting variable conditions of diagenesis at this site. However, the REE patterns of enameloid from the "exotic" teeth analyzed for O and Sr isotopic compositions are similar to those of teeth that have O and Sr isotopic compositions typical of a marine setting at this site. Collectively, this suggests that the two "exotic" teeth were formed while the sharks frequented a freshwater environment with very low 18O-content and Sr isotopic composition controlled by Mesozoic calcareous rocks. This is consistent with a paleogeography of high-elevation (2300 m) Miocene Alps adjacent to a marginal sea.


Transgenic cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars produce lint and seed and their propriety traits provide part of the crop's insect management and/or enable use of broad-spectrum herbicides for weed management. The standard procedures for conducting official cultivar trials utilize common pest management across all cultivars; whereas the pest management options and their associated potential for cost reductions are principal features of current transgenic cultivars. Field experiments were conducted to compare production systems utilizing cotton cultivars possessing different transgenic technologies managed in accordance with their respective genetic capabilities. In 2001 and 2002, selection of the Roundup Ready (RR) technology system resulted in reduced returns to the producer, while higher returns were attained from nontransgenic, Bollgard (B), and Bollgard/Roundup Ready (BR) technologies. In 2003, selection of the RR technology system or the Bollgard II/Roundup Ready (B2R) system reduced returns, while similar, higher returns were attained from nontransgenic, B, and BR technologies. In 2004, a nontransgenic system was superior to the BR, B2R, and Liberty Link (LL) systems in Tifton, but similar returns were achieved from nontransgenic, BR, and B2R technologies in Midville. Cultivar selection was important among the technology systems. Collectively these results indicate that profitability was most closely associated with yields and not the transgenic technologies.


With the widespread arrival of bandwidth-intensive ap- plications such as bulk-data transfer, multi-media web streaming and computational grids for high-performance computing, networking performance over the wide-area network has become a critical compo- nent in the infrastructure. Tragically, operating systems are still tuned for yesterday's WAN speeds and network applications. As a result, a painstaking process of manually tuning system buffers must be un- dertaken to make TCP flow-control scale to meet the needs of today's bandwidth-rich networks. Consequently, we propose an operating sys- tem technique called dynamic right-sizing that eliminates the need for this manual process. Previous work has also attacked this problem, but with less than complete solutions. Our solution is more efficient, more transparent, and applies to a wider set of applications, including those that require strict flow-control semantics because of performance disparities between the sender and receiver.


Abstract
 The aim of this study was to evaluate the taxonomic and functional diversity of corticolous lichens under the influence of different micro-climatic conditions in the Botanical Garden of Popayán. We considered 11 contrasting stations distributed in the area, selecting five individuals of Cecropia angustifolia per station. We worked with quantitative sampling locating a quadrant of 0.50 ξ 0.20 m2 on the trunk of each tree, where the percentage of cover for each species was estimated. Microenvironmental parameters, such as light, temperature and relative humidity, CAP and the pH of the bark were evaluated. A total of 63 lichen species was recorded. The results showed that light and temperature had positive correlation with species richness and cover of fruticose and foliose lichens, while relative humidity was negatively related to richness and positively with crustose cover. Lichen distribution at the Popayan Botanical Garden is mainly affected by light, temperature and relative humidity


Book synopsis: This volume includes a selection of papers that address a wide range of acquisition phenomena from different Romance languages and all share a common theoretical approach based on the Principles and Parameters theory. They favour, discuss and sometimes challenge traditional explanations of first and second language acquisition in terms of maturation of general principles universal to all languages. They all depart from the view that language acquisition can be explained in terms of learning language specific rules, constraints or structures. The different parts into which this volume is organized reflect different approaches that current research has offered, which deal with issues of development of reflexive pronouns, determiners, clitics, verbs, auxiliaries, inflection, wh-movement, ressumptive pronouns, topic and focus, mood, the syntax/discourse interface, and null arguments.


Research Background: Agricultural production in Nigeria experiences the challenge of inadequate funding particularly by farmers in rural areas. In an attempt to enhance farmers' access to credit, the federal Government of Nigeria set up Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) to boost funding in the sector. But to what extent the Scheme has affected the output of agricultural sectors in the Country for the period under review is of great concern especially to policy makers in the Country. Purpose of the article: The study analysed trends and effect of Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) on farmers' agricultural output (GDP) in Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the trend in volume of loans guaranteed by ACGSF to farmers and determine the effect of ACGSF on agricultural output for the period under review. Methods: Secondary data were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria bulletins, National Bureau for Statistics data base and other financial bulletins. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings and value added: The trend revealed that the supply of funds to agricultural sector from the scheme has always increased in a wobbly pattern. It was found that funds guarantee to crop-sub sector increased steadily from 1998 to 2009. The result shows that credit supplied to livestock sub-sector by ACGSF rose consistently in the period under review but initially declined from 1998-2007. The multiple determination coefficients (R) of 0.8523was obtained and the coefficients of ACGSF on crop sector, livestock sector and fishery sector were 0.1607, 0.2320 and 0.2110 respectively. The signs were all positive and significant at 1% and 5% levels. The study concludes that ACGSF has a positive effect on agricultural output in Nigeria. Hence, it is recommended that government, agricultural agencies and allied bodies should give more preference to the scheme to boost agricultural production. Government should increase funding to the scheme in order to diversify the earnings to eliminate her dependency on oil export.


The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, including the non-interference principle, won China the reputation as the champion of the world's newly independent nations in the mid-1950s. But nowadays the non-interference principle brings China the reputation as a patron of pariah states and is viewed as an excuse for China to resist outside criticism on its human rights situation. Why does the same principle suffer opposite treatments across this time? Is non-interference still a basic principle in rising China's foreign policy? Is it time to abandon such an unwelcome principle?I answer the above questions through examining the evolution of the non-interference/non-intervention principle in China's foreign policy and in international law. Criticism of China's non-interference principle is attributed to both the erosion of the non-intervention principle in international law and China's rising power and influence. China has determined to keep non-interference as a basic principle in its new diplomatic strategy, i.e., the 'harmonious world theory.' I suggest China be open to other countries' soft interference and use it constructively in international communications. On the other hand, China should continue its limited and conditional support for forcible intervention.


In your opinion, what are the most pressing concerns facing the OECD today? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The global crisis, the financial crisis and now the employment crisis of advanced economies, all affect the members of the OECD. We must help these countries to overcome the economic challenges they are facing. This is a very daunting task, in particular because of the strength of regulations, and weak confidence. As noted in the OECD's 50th Anniversary Vision Statement, dramatic changes in the international economic arena have created a new-set of challenges for emerging markets. In light of this different economic environment, has the OECD revised its domestic policy prescriptions for various developing nations? The OECD is an organization that has been helping countries reform their economies since World War II. We believe in open markets, but also in effective government. I don't think this paradigm will change. We will continue to promote a dynamic agenda of structural reform, in the context of the G20 discussions (covering advanced and developing countries), because this is where we see the highest growth potential - in areas such as health care, labor markets, and pension systems. In the case of developing countries, there is an additional step that must be taken, because government institutions need to improve their own performance--or, at least, redefine the institutional settings in which policies can be more effectively developed. In that respect, we continue to emphasize the objectives we have upheld for many years: improve your human capital base and the effectiveness of government actions, and reduce the pressures that economic activity places on the environment. This same report also highlights women as important beneficiaries of targeted policies to improve education, increase employment, and encourage entrerates, preneurship. What sorts of tools can the OECD provide to promote opportunities specifically for women? The OECD is primarily an economic organization, so the way to address women's issues is to think about them as one essential additional source of growth and development. That is smart economics. I believe economies that are not able to incorporate women are really missing out on a significant contribution to economic growth and development. So, what the OECD is trying to do is explore women's empowerment and women's inclusion in education and employment. The engagement of women in the economy is more complicated than it seems because the action required challenges the ways in which labor markets are organized. Women face clear trade-offs between families and jobs. A third avenue, along with employment and education, is entrepreneurship. We have evidence that women, when provided financial support and counseling services, really can achieve important outcomes. But, there are still barriers and obstacles in all these areas. Next year, we will launch a Gender Strategy for countries to address these issues, recommending specific policy tool kits that include the development of family-friendly policies, increased support for girls in the math and sciences, and greater financial inclusion. It's a very hands-on initiative, and I hope we will contribute significantly to the debate. One of the most contentious issues in the United States of the upcoming presidential election is tax code reform. How does OECD research weigh into the debate on US tax policy? What sorts of reforms would OECD analysts recommend, particularly with regard to job-creation? Advice is very different for different countries. The United States, we believe, has one of the most complex tax systems in the world because there are many different tax rates, "loopholes," and subsidies. So, my first recommendation would be to simplify the system: make it easier both to understand and to pay taxes. A second recommendation we have been considering is "federalism": set a consistent sales tax rate throughout the country. …


When assessing the likelihood of fraud in commercial banks, an auditor is faced with two related issues: determining significant red flags in the commercial banking industry, and combining red flags in a model (Decision Aid) based on weights (Values of uncertainties) assigned to them. Prior research largely ignores the first issue. Also, models developed in previous studies fail to provide objective methods to assign weights to red flags and to combine them. This study has two main objectives. The first objective is to identify red flags in the commercial banks context. The second objective is to develop a decision aid to assess the likelihood of fraud in commercial bank audits. To achieve the first objective, a questionnaire was directed to auditors in two big accounting firms in United States. Forty-four red flags were found to be valid. To achieve the second objective, a model combining belief functions and neural networks has been developed. This model is consistent with SAS No. 82, which requires the auditor to assess the likelihood of fraud as a cumulative process that should made throughout the audit.


Science of synthesis / ed. by D. Bellus ... Managing ed.: Today, commodity aromatic chemical production is a multibilliondollar industry, with worldwide production of benzene alone estimated to be 37 million tons per year (2007).

Beyond benzene, condensed-ring aromatic compounds such as naphthalene, anthracene, and pyrene provide the scaffolding for many of the molecules the average person comes into contact with in daily life. The ready availability of polynuclear aromatic feedstocks has placed them center stage for the development of commercial chemicals such as dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. From aspirin to Zoloft, aromatic chemistry is the core of biological action. Fragrances, such as musks, found in commercial care products rely on the stability of the aromatic core to withstand harsh conditions such as those found in the use of laundry detergent in combination with bleach.

Various types of aromatic species are presented in this volume but the emphasis is on the formation of aromatic nuclei and bonds directly to an aromatic nucleus.

Overall, the expanse of Volume 45 is enormous, as is the field of aromatic chemistry. The various authors who have devoted their precious time to this adventure are to be heartily thanked. Without their dedication to this project it would not have been possible for us to bring this to fruition. We hope that the information in the following pages provides a good foundation in real-life, reliable methods for the preparation and derivatization of aromatic compounds.


Microorganisms in biofilms are kept together by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). The EPS are key molecules for the structure, function and organization of biofilms. Chemical and / or physical isolation methods are being used for the quantitative separation of EPS from biofilms. The yield of EPS depends on the method of isolation. Four different methods of EPS isolation were used in this work (separation by stirring and centrifugation, use of a cation exchange resin, extraction with formaldehyde and extraction with formaldehyde and NaOH) on pure culture biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and biofilms from sewage treatment systems. The isolation by stirring and centrifugation was suitable for pure culture biofilms. If calcium was present in the growth medium stirring and centrifugation alone was not sufficient. The isolation of EPS was successful with the cation exchange method. The method of choice for the isolation of EPS from environmental biofilms was the cation exchange method. EPS from pure culture biofilms of P. aeruginosa and P. fluorescens did not only consist of polysaccharides, but also of significant amounts of proteins. In environmental biofilms humic substances and DNA were found in addition to polysaccharides and proteins. Detailed studies of the EPS from P. aeruginosa showed, that the EPS consisted of 70 % (w/w) of alginate. Alginate showed a clear heterogeneity in relation to charge (acetylated and non-acetylated fraction) and molar mass. Neutral carbohydrates were not found in the EPS after total hydrolysis followed by thin layer chromatography. Proteins amounted to 28 % (w/w) of the EPS. It is assumable that this not only related to enzymes, but also structural proteins (e. g. lectins). Rhamnose lipids (mainly di-rhamno lipid) were also found in the EPS (small amount of 1 % (w/w)); these molecules may also play an important role in the development of the biofilm structure. By increasing the time of biofilm cultivation P. aeruginosa produced (related to cell number) more EPS (mainly alginate). The composition of the EPS was depending on the nutrient medium. In synthetic media high amounts of polysaccharides and almost no proteins (in contrast to rich media) were detected in the EPS. EPS of pure culture biofilms of P. fluorescens contained carbohydrates (57 % (w/w)) and proteins (28 % (w/w)). Acetyl groups (5 % (w/w)) and glucose and galactose after hydrolysis and thin layer chromatography were detected in the EPS. Possibly the exopolysaccharide of P. fluorescens is an acetylated galactoglucan. In the analyzed sludges of waste water treatment proteins followed by carbohydrates made up the main components of the EPS. Humic substances and small amounts of DNA were detected in these EPS. The EPS of aquatic biofilms contained large amounts of humic substances. Uronic acids were not detected in any analyzed environmental biofilm. Therefore acidic polysaccharides in these biofilms cannot play any role in the stabilization of biofilms by cross linking the EPS with multivalent cations. Instead of that, humic substances, nucleic acids and acidic proteins could be responsible for cross linking.


'I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine' Jessica Vye's 'violent experience' colours her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her- a confining world of Order Marks, wartime restrictions, viyella dresses, nicely-restrained essays and dusty tea shops. For Jessica she has been told that she is 'beyond all possible doubt', a born writer. With her inability to conform, her absolute compulsion to tell the truth and her dedication to accurately noting her experiences, she knows this anyway. But what she doesn't know is that the experiences that sustain and enrich her burgeoning talent will one day lead to a new- and entirely unexpected- reality.


It is widely appreciated that establishment and maintenance of coordination are among the key evolutionary promoters and stabilizers of human language. In consequence, it is also generally recognized that game theory is an important tool for studying these phenomena. However, the best known game theoretic applications to date tend to assimilate linguistic communication with signaling. The individualistic philosophical bias in Western social ontology makes signaling seem more challenging than it really is, and thus focuses attention on theoretical problems – for example, coordination on lexical meaning – that actual evolution did not need to solve by improving humans' strategic or social intelligence relative to the endowments of other primates. At the same time, issues of genuine evolutionary significance related to language, especially those around the tensions between individual and collective agency, and around intergenerational accumulation of knowledge, are obscured. This in turn leads to underestimation of the potential contribution that game theory can make to enlightening models of the evolution of human language. JEL classification: A11, A12, B52, C73, D02, D03, D82, Z13


Contrary to arguments that poison pills degrade firm performance, we find that operating performance generally improves during the five-year period after pill adoption. Performance improvements are present in a wide range of firms, and are independent of board structure, year of adoption, and whether the firm is R&D intensive. Furthermore, the stock price reaction to announcements of pill adoptions is positively related to subsequent improvements in earnings before interest and taxes, suggesting that investors anticipate the improvements. Combined with the evidence from Comment and Schwert (1995), that the presence of a poison pill does not reduce takeover probabilities or premiums, the evidence in this paper undermines the widely held view that poison pills have systematically negative effects on firm value and performance.


This dissertation addresses a fundamental computational strategy in image processing hand written English characters using traditional parallel computers. Image acquisition and processing is becoming a thriving industry because of the frequent availability of fax machines, video digitizers, flat-bed scanners, hand scanners, color scanners, and other image input devices that are now accessible to everyone. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) research increased as the technology for a robust OCR system became realistic.
There is no commercial effective recognition system that is able to translate raw digital images of hand written text into pure ASCII. The reason is that a digital image comprises of a vast number of pixels. The traditional approach of processing the huge collection of pixel information is quite slow and cumbersome. In this dissertation we developed an approach and theory for a fast robust OCR system for images of hand written characters using morphological attribute features that are expected by the alphabet character set. By extracting specific morphological attributes from the scanned image, the dynamic OCR system is able to generalize and approximate similar images. This generalization is achieved with the usage of fuzzy logic and neural network.
Since the main requirement for a commercially effective OCR is a fast and a high recognition rate system, the approach taken in this research is to shift the recognition computation into the system's architecture and its learning phase. The recognition process constituted mainly simple integer computation, a preferred computation on digital computers. In essence, the system maintains the attribute envelope boundary upon which each English character could fall under. This boundary is based on extreme attributes extracted from images introduced to the system beforehand.
The theory was implemented both on a SIMD-MC$\sp2$ and a SISD machine. The resultant system proved to be a fast robust dynamic system, given that a suitable learning had taken place. The principle contributions of this dissertation are: (1) Improving existing thinning algorithms for image preprocessing. (2) Development of an on-line cluster partitioning procedure for region oriented segmentation. (3) Expansion of a fuzzy knowledge base theory to maintain morphological attributes on digital computers. (4) Dynamic Fuzzy learning/recognition technique.


PURPOSE
The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to examine whether older Tai Chi practitioners had better knee muscle strength, less body sway in perturbed single-leg stance, and greater balance confidence than healthy older adults.

METHODS
Tai Chi and control subjects (N = 24 each, aged 69.3 +/- 5.0 and 71.6 +/- 6.1 yr, respectively) were matched with respect to age, gender, height, weight, and physical activity level. Concentric and eccentric isokinetic tests of the subjects" dominant knee extensors and flexors were conducted at an angular velocity of 30 degrees.s(-1). Control of body sway was assessed in static double-leg stance and in single-leg stance perturbed by forward or backward platform perturbations. The Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale was used to investigate subjects" balance confidence in daily activities.

RESULTS
Tai Chi practitioners had higher peak torque-to-body weight ratios in concentric and eccentric isokinetic contractions of their knee extensors and flexors (P = 0.044). They manifested less anteroposterior body sway angles in perturbed single-leg but not static double-leg stance than did control subjects (P < 0.001). Tai Chi practitioners also reported significantly higher balance confidence score ratios (P = 0.001). Older adults" knee muscle strengths showed negative correlations with body sway angles in perturbed single-leg stance and positive correlations with ABC score ratios. Moreover, their body sway angles in perturbed single-leg stance were negatively correlated with their ABC score ratios (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Our results demonstrate that long-term Tai Chi practitioners had better knee muscle strength, less body sway in perturbed single-leg stance, and greater balance confidence. Significant correlations among these three measures uncover the importance of knee muscle strength and balance control during perturbed single-leg stance in older adults" balance confidence in their daily activities.


We introduce squeezed vacua in loop quantum gravity, a new overcomplete basis of states that contain prescribable correlations between geometric operators. We study the behavior of long-range correlations and discuss the relevance of these states for the reconstruction of a semiclassical spacetime from loop quantum gravity.


RATIONALE
Sepsis refers to the clinical syndrome of severe systemic inflammation precipitated by infection. Despite appropriate antimicrobial therapy, sepsis-related morbidity and mortality remain intractable problems in critically ill patients. Moreover, there is no specific treatment strategy for the syndrome of sepsis-induced multiple organ dysfunction.

OBJECTIVES
We hypothesized that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which have been shown to have immunomodulatory properties, would reduce sepsis-induced inflammation and improve survival in a polymicrobial model of sepsis.

METHODS
Sepsis was induced in C57Bl/6J mice by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), followed 6 hours later by an intravenous injection of MSCs or saline. Twenty-eight hours after CLP, plasma, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and tissues were collected for analyses. Longer-term studies were performed with antibiotic coadministration to assess the effect of MSCs on survival.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
MSC treatment significantly reduced mortality in septic mice receiving appropriate antimicrobial therapy. MSCs alone reduced systemic and pulmonary cytokine levels in mice with CLP-induced sepsis, preventing acute lung injury and organ dysfunction, despite the low levels of cell persistence. Microarray data highlighted an overall down-regulation of inflammation and inflammation-related genes (such as IL-10, IL-6) and a shift toward up-regulation of genes involved in promoting phagocytosis and bacterial killing. Finally, bacterial clearance was significantly greater in MSC-treated mice, in part due to enhanced phagocytotic activity of the host immune cells.

CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that MSCs have beneficial effects on experimental sepsis, possibly by paracrine mechanisms, and suggest that immunomodulatory cell therapy may be an effective adjunctive treatment to reduce sepsis-related morbidity and mortality.


Paul Krugman once said, "Productivity isn't everything, but in the long run it is almost everything". It appears to be no different in the public sector. One of the key themes that have been emphasized under the New Public Management reforms across the globe is productivity improvement. This is largely due to the fact that the public sector is typically viewed to be less productive than the private sector. So strong is this belief that it appears to have adopted a near-mythic status. We are more likely to hear complaints and discussions of low productivity than high productivity in the public sector. It is thus timely to test this claim on the public sector in Hong Kong SAR.

This paper has two objectives. The first is to estimate the productivity of the Hong Kong public sector in relation to the private sector. The second is to compare whether the growth in the productivity of the Hong Kong public sector depends more on the contributions of its workforce (e.g., their motivations) than the contributions of capital investments (e.g., infrastructure). Using government statistics, this paper finds that the total factor productivity of the Hong Kong public sector is higher than that of the private sector. It also finds that the Hong Kong public sector workforce contributes more to the productivity growth in the public sector than capital investments. The findings point to the importance of paying close attention to motivating and supporting the public sector workforce for improved public sector productivity.


Consumption as an aspect of most people's lives in affluent societies is widely acknowledged as having become increasingly important (Newholm, 2005). We consume more, and consume more often, than previous generations (Durning, 1992) meaning the actions we make and the decisions we take have greater impact than ever before on the world we inhabit. For many their involvement with consumption goes beyond the act of purchase (Oilman, 1998) to include complex ethical dimensions. The relationship between ethics and social responsibility (E&SR) and consumption choices has received growing attention over recent years, resulting in the topic of 'sustainable consumption' becoming a central focus for national and international policy (Jackson, 2005). Yet a review of the pertinent literature in the fields of E&SR, consumer behaviour and shopping motives uncovers the limitations of existing E&SR research in relation to grocery shopping activities. What E&SR factors influence consumers' grocery shopping choice decisions and behaviour? How important are they when compared to traditional store image and product attribute criteria? How do attitudes influence E&SR grocery consumption? Who are the E&SR buyer types and how may they be differentiated and segmented? This thesis sets out to address these questions and comprises the results of, and reflections on, an investigation into grocery shopping behaviour in the South West of England. It consists of three stages: a literature review; a series of exploratory focus group interviews; and a confirmatory quantitative study. Content, factor, multiple regression and cluster analysis find: shopping motivations vary according to two facts I) the shopping consideration (store to patronise, product to purchase), and 2) the shopping occasion (main shop, top-up shop); differences occur in the importance of E&SR issues and traditional elements of store image/product attribute depending on the shopping activity; attitudes, perceived behavioural control and ethical obligation are linked to E&SR behaviour with differences in the importance of E&SR concerns meaning that E&SR shoppers are not a homogenous group. Results enable a preliminary typology of E&SR grocery shopping concerns to be derived and a range of E&SR consumer types to be proposed. This insight offers a far more complex market that has hitherto been recognised. Motivating E&SR behaviour is far from straight forward due to dissonance occurring in decision-making as consumers try to balance traditional retail aspects with their E&SR beliefs, so finding themselves 'locked in' to non-E&SR behaviours in spite of their best intentions. In these circumstances strategies are required to make it easy for consumers to behave in an E&SR manner: ensuring access to information that aids and encourages pro-E&SR behaviour, highlighting non-financial E&SR behaviours, and for Government to exemplify the desired changes through their own policies and practices.


Howard Andrew Knox (1885–1949) served as assistant surgeon at Ellis Island during the 1910s, administering a range of verbal and nonverbal tests to determine the mental capacity of potential immigrants. An early proponent of nonverbal intelligence testing (largely through the use of formboards and picture puzzles), Knox developed an evaluative approach that today informs the techniques of practitioners and researchers. Whether adapted to measure intelligence and performance in children, military recruits, neurological and psychiatric patients, or the average job applicant, Knox's pioneering methods are part of contemporary psychological practice and deserve in-depth investigation.
Completing the first biography of this unjustly overlooked figure, John T. E. Richardson, former president of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences, takes stock of Knox's understanding of intelligence and his legacy beyond Ellis Island. Consulting published and unpublished sources, Richardson establishes a chronology of Knox's life, including details of his medical training and his time as a physician for the U.S. Army. He describes the conditions that gave rise to intelligence testing, including the public's concern that the United States was opening its doors to the mentally unfit. He then recounts the development of intelligence tests by Knox and his colleagues and the widely-discussed publication of their research. Their work presents a useful and extremely human portrait of psychological testing and its limits, particularly the predicament of the people examined at Ellis Island. Richardson concludes with the development of Knox's work in later decades and its changing application in conjunction with modern psychological theory


Our understanding of the ecology and phylogenetic relationships of Pachycormiformes, a group of Mesozoic stem teleosts including the iconic Leedsichthys, has often been hindered by a lack of comprehensive morphological information. Micro‐CT scanning of an articulated, although flattened, cranium of the edentulous Martillichthys renwickae from the Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Oxford Clay of the UK reveals previously unknown internal details of the most complete suspension‐feeding pachycormiform skull known, including the palate, braincase and branchial skeleton. The latter preserves gill rakers with elongate, pointed projections similar to those of Asthenocormus, in contrast to the finer fimbriations associated with Leedsichthys. We also reinterpret some previously described features, including dermal bone patterns of the snout, skull roof and lower jaw, and the morphology of the ventral hyoid arch. These new anatomical data reinforce the phylogenetic placement of Martillichthys as part of the Jurassic clade of edentulous pachycormiforms. The elongate skull geometry of these Jurassic taxa is strikingly similar to that of Ohmdenia, the sister taxon to edentulous pachycormiforms, but contrasts sharply with the morphology of the Late Cretaceous edentulous pachycormiform Bonnerichthys, raising questions over the phylogenetic relationships among these taxa. Most significantly, Martillichthys shows specialized characters with a restricted phylogenetic distribution among suspension‐feeding pachycormiforms, including the distinctive gill rakers and a greatly extended occipital stalk. Our analysis of Martillichthys supports past interpretations of a close relationship with Asthenocormus, and provides a model for interpreting the less complete remains of other members of this enigmatic group of fishes.


For any embodied, mobile, autonomous agent it is essential to control its actuators appropriately for the faced task. This holds for natural organisms as well as for robots. If several such agents have to cooperate, the coordination of actions becomes important. We present an artificial homeostatic hormone system which is a bio-inspired control paradigm. It allows to control both, a single robot as well a set of cooperating modules in multi-modular reconfigurable robotics. Our approach is inspired by chemical signal-processing and hormone control in animals. Evolutionary computation is used to adapt controllers for two distinct morphological robot configurations (uni-and multi-modular), different environmental conditions, and tasks. This approach is compared to artificial neural networks. Our results indicate, that the proposed control paradigm is well adaptable to different robot morphologies and to different environmental situations. It is able to generate behaviors for several robotic tasks and outperforms neural networks in terms of evolvability in the tested multi-modular robotic setting tested.


We wish to form polymeric bioreactors with interconnected microfluidic channels between walls or struts that have cells embedded or attached to the surface. A Rapid Prototyping (RP) fabrication technique is employed, using blue light curing to crosslink water-soluble monomers to hydrogels. The 3D writing is carried out by a computer-controlled syringe system that extrudes a fine line of monomer. The requirements for the building formulation are that it be highly viscous or thixotropic in order to hold its shape during curing, that the curing reaction be rapid and that the reagents be biocompatible and not kill the cells during processing. Initial results are reported on blue-light cured water-soluble acrylates with fumed silica as a thixotropic agent that form millimeter scale "log piles" and "multilevel car parks" with embedded yeast.


Vaccines of today rely on adjuvant efficacy to provide a link between innate and adaptive immunity.
 CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) and polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (polyI:C) are both toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands signaling through a combination of pathogen recognition receptors (PRR) and in mammals CpG/polyI:C are known to induce T-helper 1 (Th1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses. Currently, the commercial vaccine against salmonid alpha virus (SAV) is based on inactivated whole-virus antigen combined with oil (Montanide ISA), mainly stimulating humoral responses.
Here, the purpose was to differentiate between adjuvant and antigen induced protection for both water and oil formulated SAV Ag combined with CpG/polyI:C. Moreover, i.p. injected SAV Ag was also co-injected (i.m.) with Novirhabdovirus G DNA vaccine (vhsG), a potent inducer of innate antiviral responses in fish. This to observe if vhsG could enhance the immunity induced by the SAV Ag vaccine and also combined with SAV Ag CpG/polyI:C, to test whether vhsG could maximize the protection further. Expression of early antiviral genes, protection and elicited humoral responses were used to differentiate between the various vaccine formulations, pre- and post- cohabitant SAV challenge. SAV Ag alone and SAV Ag CpG/polyI:C provided full protection against SAV masking the objective to differentiate between Ag and adjuvant induced protection. Nonetheless, CpG/polyI:C again induced high innate immune gene expression (IFNa1, Vig-1, Mx and IFNγ) post vaccination and a potent induction of heat stable (neutralizing antibodies) and heat volatile humoral responses (complement) pre- and post- challenge.
The stimulatory effect of vhsG co-injected treatments on early innate immune gene expression was modest. Co-injection of vhsG with SAV Ag CpG/polyI:C did not provide any beneficial adjuvant effects, rather indicating an inhibitory interplay between CpG/polyI:C and vhsG.
Results presented here, again demonstrate the immunostimulatory potency of CpG/polyI:C to be used as an adjuvant in viral vaccines for fish.


The demersal fish community on the mid-slope off southern Tasmania in south-eastern Australia is dominated by orange roughy Hoplostethus atlanticus (Trachichthyidae), several species of oreosomatids, macrourids, squalids, alepocephalids and a synaphobranchid eel. Cluster analysis based on diet dissimilarities of proportional prey weight identified five major trophic guilds: pyrosome-feeders, crustacean feeders, piscivores, benthopelagic omnivores and benthic-invertebrate feeders. Overall, the fish fed predominantly on pelagic or benthopelagic prey, consistent with other trophic studies in the Australasian region and the Northern Hemisphere. H. atlanticus, warty dory Allocyttus verrucosus, and the macrourid Coryphaenoides serrulatus were benthopelagic omnivores that ate mesopelagic fishes, crustaceans and squid. The first two species ate more mesopelagic fishes as their sizes increased. The squalids were predominantly piscivorous but might also scavenge. Macrourids were benthic-invertebrate feeders, pelagic crustacean feeders or benthopelagic omnivores. The alepocephalids and the smooth oreo Pseudocyttus maculatus were pyrosome-feeders. No seasonal variation in diet was found for any species. Ecological indices varied within each guild. Benthopelagic omnivores and piscivores had the largest diet breadth, evenness and diversity. Trophic levels ranged from 3.0 for pyrosome-feeders to 4.9 for piscivores and the overall average for the community was 3.7.


Abstract One of the justifications offered by European imperial powers for the violent conquest, subjection, and, often, slaughter of indigenous peoples in past centuries was those peoples' violation of a duty of hospitality. Today, many of these same powers—including European Union member states and former settler colonies such as the United States and Australia—take increasingly extreme measures to avoid granting hospitality to refugees and asylum seekers. Put plainly, whereas the powerful once demanded hospitality from the vulnerable, they now deny it to them. This essay examines this hypocritical inhospitality of former centers of empire and former settler colonies and concludes that, given that certain states accrued vast wealth and territory from the European colonial project, which they justified in part by appeals to a duty of hospitality, these states are bound now to extend hospitality to vulnerable outsiders not simply as a matter of charity, but as justice and restitution for grave historical wrongs.


OBJECTIVE
In-office bleaching has become very popular for patients desiring immediate results. This report discusses the efficacy of in-office bleaching using high-intensity xenon halogen tungsten light on 73 patients in a private practice over 6 months.

METHOD AND MATERIALS
Thirty-five percent hydrogen peroxide gel was applied to the tooth surfaces, and then both arches were illuminated with the LumaArch unit light for 8 minutes. The entire procedure was completed 3 times for a total application time of 24 minutes. Thereafter, patients returned every 2 weeks for another 24-minute in-office treatment until the patient was satisfied or did not want additional treatment. After completion of bleaching, patients were classified into groups according to the number of treatments they received. When requested, home bleaching was used as a follow-up treatment. The degree of color change and color relapse were evaluated at baseline and immediately, 2 weeks, and 6 months after bleaching. Also evaluated was the number of patients that requested home bleaching.

RESULTS
Of the 73 patients who received 1 to 4 in-office bleaching procedures, 58 were satisfied. Twenty-seven patients requested home bleaching. The average color change per appointment was 2.1 to 3.7 units on a 16-scale Vita Classic shade guide. Color relapse was more noticeable at the 2-week interval than at the 6-month postbleaching evaluation.

CONCLUSION
In-office bleaching may be an alternative for patients who do not like home bleaching. In-office treatment may achieve satisfactory results, but often more than 1 visit is necessary to achieve patient satisfaction.


The increasing role of Information Systems (IS) in the context of the organizational development, combined with the introduction of Information Technology (IT) in relation to emergent challenges in both economics and business, have spurred new needs in management and engineering skills. These skills, closely tied to business performance and management effectiveness, have implications for improving human_resource_management. This paper advocates the reasons for IS training in higher learning education. The aims for such Training Programs are treated here from both ontological and methodological perspectives. First, the ontological facet evoques the multi-disciplinary caracteristics of the scientific field for interest. It also summarizes the various IS ontological dimensions that should be proper to teach. Second, the methodological facet apprehends both the diversity of practical implemetions of IS together with opportunities for development. It also summarizes the ways to install this Information Engineering which is supposed to be taught These considerations about the new goals of IS are not deemed to be critical nor do they purport to reflect a comprehensive view of all existing education experiments. Rather, that could be used to design innovative IS curriculum projects.


The purpose of the research is to reveal the role of spiritual well-being in relationship between psychological hardiness and mindfulness in university students. The sample of the research consisted of a total of 561 university students with convenience sampling strategy who were between 17-49 years of age and were studying in Konya 2017 and 2018. The research is done in accord with relational scanning which is a subgenre of general survey model. In this research structural equation modeling analysis has been applied to test the relationships among psychological hardiness, mindfulness and spiritual well-being variables of university students. Structural equation modeling analysis has been carried out using AMOS 19 software. In the study, 'Demographic Information Form', 'The Psychological Hardiness Scale', 'Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire' and 'Spiritual Well-Being Scale' were used. According to the findings obtained from the research, the major independent variable which affects the psychological hardiness of university students was mindfulness. A significant positive correlation was found between mindfulness levels and psychological hardiness levels. It is also observed that there is a positive linear correlation between spiritual well-being and psychological hardiness and mindfulness.


This thesis analyzes the impact of sustainable strategies on local politics in Germany. Making use of structuration theory and different approaches in organization theory, the dissertation argues that it would be very difficult to increase the ecological effectiveness of local government using the idea of sustainable development. The essential aspects of the theoretical assumptions are confirmed by evaluating a wide range of empirical studies on Local Agenda 21, the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme and environmental impact assessment. It can be shown that the ecological effects of local sustainability are limited. Bureaucratization and the growing dominance of economic principles determine the logic of sustainability on the local level. Drawing on the theoretical considerations discussed here, the author concludes by suggesting ways in which the ecological effectiveness of local government can be strengthened.


Today, many libraries are at a crossroads: several of the services they have traditionally provided within their walls are increasingly made available online, often by non-library, commercial entities. For example, Web search engines provide easy access to millions of Websites, online databases provide convenient gateways to news and scholarship, and book-scanning projects make roaming the shelves seem antiquated. Meanwhile, the traditional authority and expertise enjoyed by librarians has been challenged by the emergence of peer-produced and collaborative knowledge projects, such as Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers, or Amazon's personalized book recommendation system. Further, the professional, education, and social spheres of our lives are increasingly merging, marked by the rise of social networking services providing new interfaces for interacting with friends, the sharing of information, and professional collaboration.

Libraries face a key question in this new environment: what is the role of the library in providing access to knowledge in today's digitally networked world? One answer has been to actively incorporate features of the online – "Web 2.0" – world into library services, thereby creating "Library 2.0."

Library 2.0 means bringing interactive, collaborative, user-centered, and web-based technologies to library services and collections. Launching such Library 2.0 features, however, often brings unique challenges to librarians, administrators, and patrons alike. These include: technological constraints, issues of accessibility and diversity, staffing and cost, IP/copyright concerns, privacy and data retention policies, and the overall impact on the nature and culture of the library itself.

By bringing together a diverse collection of information professionals tasked with delivering Library 2.0 services, this panel discussion will outline many of the challenges of implementing Library 2.0, as well as illuminate some solutions and directions for the future. The goal of the panel is to help other information professionals navigate this uncharted terrain to foster the creation of innovative Library 2.0 services for their patrons, and reveal areas that require further attention by the profession and academia alike. This will be accomplished through guided conversation and sharing of ideas, not the traditional presentation of papers.


From the Publisher:
"The Java programming language has been one of the most exciting internet-friendly technologies to emerge in the last decade. Java Programming for Spatial Sciences introduces the subject to those who wish to use computers to handle information with a geographical element. The book introduces object-oriented modelling including key concepts such as abstraction, inheritance and encapsulation. It shows how these ideas can be used to model, process and visualise geographic information leading the reader from initial ideas of class design through to the implementation of feature rich raster and vector models of space. It includes some of the more recent developments in internet technologies such as web-based applets, remote communication and XML, showing how these can be used to deliver geographic information in a modern computing environment." The text is aimed at new programmers as well as those in fields such as geography, GIS, remote sensing, archaeology and biology who wish to make use of geographic information. It provides a useful course text for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in these fields. The material is heavily example-led, and contains programming exercises and quizzes, making it suitable for self-paced leaning.


We analyze financial collapses, such as the one that occurred during the U.S. Great Depression, from the perspective of a monetary model with multiple equilibria. The multiplicity arises from the presence of a strategic complementarity due to increasing returns to scale in the intermediation process. Intermediaries provide the link between savers and firms who require working capital for production. Fluctuations in the intermediation process are driven by variations in the confidence agents place in the financial system. From a positive perspective, our model matches closely the qualitative changes in important financial and real variables (the currency/deposit ratio, ex-post real interest rates, the level of intermediated activity, deflation, employment and production) over the Great Depression period, an experience often attributed to financial collapse. Further, we show how adding liquidity to the banking system through increases in the money supply is sufficient to overcome strategic uncertainty and thus avoid financial collapse.


An efficient and practical synthesis of 2,7-bis(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)triphenylene 4 from two cheap commodity chemicals in five steps with a total yield of 48.6% was developed. This process had been successfully applied in the synthesis of electron transport material (ETM) BPyTP-2 in the gram scale with a total yield of 47.2%. This practical development of the key intermediate 4 opens a door in its further application in the synthesis of other triphenylene-based ETMs and host materials in the materials field.


The aim of this paper is identify and compare the key features of regulatory systems in industrialised countries. By way of essential background, the first section deals with the constitutional and cultural environment which underpins the systems, but it also includes a discussion of regulatory traditions and styles which, for example as between anglophone and continental European regimes are significantly different. Institutional frameworks are discussed in the second section, covering, inter alia, the relationship between regulatory agencies and government, the breadth of remit of regulatory institutions and the degree of discretion conferred on them by legislation. The latter necessarily gives rise to issues concerning the forms of and institutions of accountability. In the third section, we consider regulatory procedures and management. Noteworthy here are, on the one hand, the systems of consultation and the extent to which public hearings are encouraged and, on the other, cost-benefit or regulatory impact analysis to which, in some jurisdictions, are mandatory for regulatory policy- makers. The final section is concerned with legal instruments and here we concentrate on the growing distance between traditional "command and control" methods and those relying on financial incentives and other economic instruments. Appended to the paper are two case studies which attempt to show how these features are deployed by different jurisdictions in two areas of concrete policy- making: taxicabs and water quality.


Francesco Patrizi da Cherso's Discussiones peripateticae (1581) are one of the most comprehensive analyses of the whole of Aristotelian philosophy to be published before Werner Jaeger's Aristoteles . The main thrust of the argument in the Discussiones is that whatever Aristotle had said that was true was not new, and that whatever he had said that was new was not true. The article shows how Patrizi proves this with respect to the Organon , and deals with the implications for the history af ancient philosophy in general implied by his stance.


Pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons represent a potentially limitless supply of human neurons to model diseases, replace diseased or dysfunctional tissue and to identify novel therapeutics to treat disease. Despite the incredible potential that human stem cell-derived neurons represent, genetic, cellular and developmental obstacles represent substantial roadblocks to realizing this potential. Current schemes used to generate neurons from pluripotent stem cells rely on incomplete knowledge of human brain development, and often generate heterogeneous and immature neuronal populations. Recent technological advances in synthetic biology, genome engineering and single cell analysis have provided new tools for biologists to advance both our understanding and use of stem cell-derived neurons. These advances should help overcome the pitfalls of pluripotent stem cells to generate homogeneous, mature neuronal subtypes relevant to disease and to realise the therapeutic promise of human stem cell-derived neurons.

Key Concepts

The ability to generate pluripotent stem cells from adult somatic cells now gives researchers unprecedented access to human neurons for disease modelling, cell replacement therapy and high throughput screening.

Our incomplete understanding of human brain development is an obstacle to deriving human neurons in vitro that mimic their in vivo counterparts.

Current differentiation schemes allow researchers to derive motor neurons, excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the human cortex and other neuronal subtypes.

Subtle differences in the derivation or differentiation of pluripotent stem cells can have profound functional consequences for neurons derived from them.

Genome editing techniques are poised to allow researchers to generate even more useful cellular tools by engineering mutations and reporters into pluripotent stem cells.

Keywords:

pluripotent stem cell;
neuronal differentiation;
neural induction;
disease models;
genome editing;
CRISPR;
Cas9


The retrieval of ocean color radiometry from space-based sensors requires on-orbit vicarious calibration to achieve the level of accuracy desired for quantitative oceanographic applications. The approach developed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) adjusts the integrated instrument and atmospheric correction system to retrieve normalized water-leaving radiances that are in agreement with ground truth measurements. The method is independent of the satellite sensor or the source of the ground truth data, but it is specific to the atmospheric correction algorithm. The OBPG vicarious calibration approach is described in detail, and results are presented for the operational calibration of SeaWiFS using data from the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) and observations of clear-water sites in the South Pacific and southern Indian Ocean. It is shown that the vicarious calibration allows SeaWiFS to reproduce the MOBY radiances and achieve good agreement with radiometric and chlorophyll a measurements from independent in situ sources. We also find that the derived vicarious gains show no significant temporal or geometric dependencies, and that the mission-average calibration reaches stability after approximately 20-40 high-quality calibration samples. Finally, we demonstrate that the performance of the vicariously calibrated retrieval system is relatively insensitive to the assumptions inherent in our approach.


This report details an evaluation of the My Choice Weight Management Programme undertaken by a research team from the School of Pharmacy at Aston University. The My Choice Weight Management Programme is delivered through community pharmacies and general practitioners (GPs) contracted to provide services by the Heart of Birmingham teaching Primary Care Trust. It is designed to support individuals who are 'ready to change' by enabling the individual to work with a trained healthcare worker (for example, a healthcare assistant, practice nurse or pharmacy assistant) to develop a care plan designed to enable the individual to lose 5-10% of their current weight. The Programme aims to reduce adult obesity levels; improve access to overweight and obesity management services in primary care; improve diet and nutrition; promote healthy weight and increased levels of physical activity in overweight or obese patients; and support patients to make lifestyle changes to enable them to lose weight. The Programme is available for obese patients over 18 years old who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30 kg/m2 (greater than 25 kg/m2 in Asian patients) or greater than 28 kg/m2 (greater than 23.5 kg/m2 in Asian patients) in patients with co-morbidities (diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease). Each participant attends weekly consultations over a twelve session period (the final iteration of these weekly sessions is referred to as 'session twelve' in this report). They are then offered up to three follow up appointments for up to six months at two monthly intervals (the final of these follow ups, taking place at approximately nine months post recruitment, is referred to as 'session fifteen' in this report). A review of the literature highlights the dearth of published research on the effectiveness of primary care- or community-based weight management interventions. This report may help to address this knowledge deficit. A total of 451 individuals were recruited on to the My Choice Weight Management Programme. More participants were recruited at GP surgeries (n=268) than at community pharmacies (n=183). In total, 204 participants (GP n=102; pharmacy n=102) attended session twelve and 82 participants (GP n=22; pharmacy 60) attended session fifteen. The unique demographic characteristics of My Choice Weight Management Programme participants – participants were recruited from areas with high levels of socioeconomic deprivation and over four-fifths of participants were from Black and Minority Ethnic groups; populations which are traditionally underserved by healthcare interventions – make the achievements of the Programme particularly notable. The mean weight loss at session 12 was 3.8 kg (equivalent to a reduction of 4.0% of initial weight) among GP surgery participants and 2.4 kg (2.8%) among pharmacy participants. At session 15 mean weight loss was 2.3 kg (2.2%) among GP surgery participants and 3.4 kg (4.0%) among pharmacy participants. The My Choice Weight Management Programme improved the general health status of participants between recruitment and session twelve as measured by the validated SF-12 questionnaire. While cost data is presented in this report, it is unclear which provider type delivered the Programme more cost-effectively. Attendance rates on the Programme were consistently better among pharmacy participants than among GP participants. The opinions of programme participants (both those who attended regularly and those who failed to attend as expected) and programme providers were explored via semi-structured interviews and, in the case of the participants, a selfcompletion postal questionnaire. These data suggest that the Programme was almost uniformly popular with both the deliverers of the Programme and participants on the Programme with 83% of questionnaire respondents indicating that they would be happy to recommend the Programme to other people looking to lose weight. Our recommendations, based on the evidence provided in this report, include: a. Any consideration of an extension to the study also giving comparable consideration to an extension of the Programme evaluation. The feasibility of assigning participants to a pharmacy provider or a GP provider via a central allocation system should also be examined. This would address imbalances in participant recruitment levels between provider type and allow for more accurate comparison of the effectiveness in the delivery of the Programme between GP surgeries and community pharmacies by increasing the homogeneity of participants at each type of site and increasing the number of Programme participants overall. b. Widespread dissemination of the findings from this review of the My Choice Weight Management Project should be undertaken through a variety of channels. c. Consideration of the inclusion of the following key aspects of the My Choice Weight Management Project in any extension to the Programme: i. The provision of training to staff in GP surgeries and community pharmacies responsible for delivery of the Programme prior to patient recruitment. ii. Maintaining the level of healthcare staff input to the Programme. iii. The regular schedule of appointments with Programme participants. iv. The provision of an increased variety of printed material. d. A simplification of the data collection method used by the Programme commissioners at the individual Programme delivery sites.


Abstract Chitin occurs in a variety of invertebrates, especially in arthropod cuticles, but is rarely reported in the fossil record. Although it has been detected in fossils as old as Middle Cambrian and Silurian, the majority of records come from much younger, Cenozoic deposits. In this paper, we report the preservation of chitin in Early Jurassic neritimorph gastropod egg capsules deposited in bivalve shells from prodelta-deltafront and nearshore paleoenvironments of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. We used a number of analytical methods to confirm the presence of chitin preserved in these ancient fossils. This is the first record of chitin preservation in Mesozoic deposits that, interestingly, do not follow the conventional Konservat-Lagerstätten manner of preserving soft-bodied and non-biomineralized organisms. We believe that deltaic settings characterized by episodic, high input of fluvial deposits, oligohaline conditions, and oxygen-poor microenvironment within the sediment—as well as early cementation of sediment infilling the shells—were crucial for chitin preservation. The preservation of chitin in such recalcitrant structures as egg capsules and deposits that formed outside conventional Konservat-Lagerstätten conditions renders it likely similar deposits may yield promise for discoveries of similar biological macromolecules.


Introduction: Sterculia rubiginosa Zoll ex.Miq leaves have been used as traditional medicine in Indonesia. There is no report about pharmacognosy and phytochemical study with this plant.Objective: The main aim of this research is to establish pharmacognosy, phytochemical study and antioxidant activity of Sterculia rubiginosa Zoll.ex. Miq. Leaves. The plant used to cure many diseases of Indonesia. Methods: In the present study, pharmacognosy and phytochemical study of plant material were performed as per the Indonesian Herb Pharmacopoeia. Results: Microscopy powder of Sterculia rubiginosa Zoll.ex. Miq. Leaves shows star shape trichoma as a specific fragment. Physicochemical parameters including total ash (17.152 %), acid-insoluble ash (0.922 %), water-soluble extractive (1.610 % w/w), alcohol-soluble extractive (4.524 % w/w), hexane-soluble extractive (4.005 % w/w), and ethyl acetate-soluble extractive (3.160 % w/w) were evaluated. Phytochemical screening of ethanol extracts showed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, steroids-terpenoids, glycosides, and phenols. And absent of saponins and Anthraquinones. Antioxidant activity with IC50 157, 4665 ppm and flavonoid total was 59.436 mg/g quercetin equivalent. Conclusion: The pharmacognosy, physiochemical, and phytochemical evaluation provides information for the safety, identification, and class of chemical constituent's presents in this crude extract.


This paper describes an adaptive learning system using mobile phone email to support the study of Kanji learning. In our study we try to resolve a common problem which usually occurs in the mobile-based email or SMS language learning systems. To achieve this goal, we have adopted the methods of adaptive learning in our system, such as sending the contents to a learner following his or her interests, adjusting the difficulty level of the tests to suit the learner"s proficiency level and adapting the system to his or her learning style. Furthermore, our system has already been evaluated by the learners and the results show that most of them benefited from our system and would like to continue using it.


AIM
To determine the relative importance of factors that influence decision making in the management of minor illness, and how people trade between these factors.

DESIGN OF STUDY
Discrete choice experiment.

SETTING
Scottish electoral roll.

METHOD
Six hundred and fifty-two responders of a previous national survey were invited to complete a discrete choice experiment questionnaire. This was used to measure relative preferences for managing symptoms of minor illness often associated with analgesic use. Three attributes were identified as important to participants: type of management, availability, and cost of managing symptoms. Trade-offs between these attributes were examined.

RESULTS
A 57% response rate was achieved (51% valid response rate). People preferred to manage symptoms by self-care and were willing to pay almost pounds 23 to do so. Community pharmacy was the preferred source of advice. Responders preferred less waiting time and paying less money when managing symptoms, and were willing to trade between factors. A less preferred type of management became more attractive when waiting times and cost were reduced.

CONCLUSION
Findings suggest that self-care is the preferred method of managing symptoms of minor illness. When developing services to support self-care, policy makers should invest in services that reduce waiting times and incur least cost to users.


The cortical thick ascending limb (CTAL) absorbs Cl- via a Na+-K+-Cl- cotransport at the apical membrane and several Cl- channels at the basolateral membrane, including a 9-pS channel having several properties of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Having checked that CFTR mRNA is present in the mouse CTAL, we investigated whether this channel is a CFTR molecule by applying the patch-clamp technique to CTALs microdissected from CFTR knockout mice (cftrm1Unc). The 9-pS channel was active in cell-attached patches from tubules of mice homozygous for the disrupted cftr gene [CFTR (-/-)] at the same frequency and with the same activity (NPo) as in normal [CFTR (+/+)] or heterozygous [CFTR (+/-)] mice. The conductive properties of the channel, studied on inside-out patches, were identical in CFTR (-/-), CFTR (+/+), and CFTR (+/-) tubules, as were the sensitivities to internal pH and internal ATP, two typical features of this channel. In addition, the Cl- absorption in isolated, microperfused CTALs and the Na+-K+-Cl- cotransport activity were identical in CFTR (-/-), CFTR (+/+), and CFTR (+/-) mice. These results show that the 9-pS Cl- channel is distinct from CFTR, and that the CFTR protein has no influence on the Cl- absorption in this part of the renal tubule.


This research studied violence detection from less than 6-second ECG signals. Features were calculated based on the Bivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition (BEMD) and the Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) applied to ECG signals from violence simulation in a primary school, involving 12 pupils from two grades. The feature sets were fed to a kNN classifier and tested using 10-fold cross validation and leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) validation in subject-dependent and subject-independent training models respectively. Features from BEMD outperformed the ones from RQA in both 10-fold cross validation, i.e. 88% vs. 73% (2nd grade pupils) and 87% vs. 81% (5th grade pupils), and LOSO validation, i.e. 77% vs. 75% (2nd grade pupils) and 80% vs. 76% (5th grade pupils), but have larger variation than the ones from RQA in both validations. Average performances for subject-specific system in 10-fold cross validation were 100% vs. 93% (2nd grade pupils) and 100% vs. 97% (5th grade pupils) for features from the BEMD and the RQA respectively. The results indicate that ECG signals as short as 6 seconds can be used successfully to detect violent events using subject-specific classifiers.


Five mononuclear complexes containing a new unsymmetrical tetradentateN2O2Schiff base ligand are reported. The ligand, N,N'-bis-(2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde)-3,4-diimino benzoic acid (H2L), was synthesized from the reaction of 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid with 2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde in the presence of glacial acetic acid in methanolic solution. The mononuclear Fe(L), Co(L), Ni(L), Cu(L), and Zn(L) complexes of the Schiff base ligand were synthesized from the reaction of the ligand with the metal salt in the solvent. The complexes were investigated by thermal and elemental analyses, molar conductance, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Moreover, the ligand (H2L) and its related complexes were characterized using 1 H NMR, IR, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results of undertaken examinations revealed all the metal complexes formed by the coordination of the N and O atoms of the ligand. Furthermore, the results of molar conductivity measurements indicated the complexes as non-electrolyte species in which the metal center bound to one L 2- ligand frame producing four-coordinate-species. Finally, the samples of nickel and zinc complexes were treated at high temperature up to 800 o C where their metal oxides were generated. XRD patterns and SEM images of the resulted oxides confirmed that these complexes might be appropriate entities for preparing nanoparticles.


Abstract. This paper accompanies the second OBLIMAP open-source release. The package is developed to map climate fields between a general circulation model (GCM) and an ice sheet model (ISM) in both directions by using optimal aligned oblique projections, which minimize distortions. The curvature of the surfaces of the GCM and ISM grid differ, both grids may be irregularly spaced and the ratio of the grids is allowed to differ largely. OBLIMAP's stand-alone version is able to map data sets that differ in various aspects on the same ISM grid. Each grid may either coincide with the surface of a sphere, an ellipsoid or a flat plane, while the grid types might differ. Re-projection of, for example, ISM data sets is also facilitated. This is demonstrated by relevant applications concerning the major ice caps. As the stand-alone version also applies to the reverse mapping direction, it can be used as an offline coupler. Furthermore, OBLIMAP 2.0 is an embeddable GCM–ISM coupler, suited for high-frequency online coupled experiments. A new fast scan method is presented for structured grids as an alternative for the former time-consuming grid search strategy, realising a performance gain of several orders of magnitude and enabling the mapping of high-resolution data sets with a much larger number of grid nodes. Further, a highly flexible masked mapping option is added. The limitation of the fast scan method with respect to unstructured and adaptive grids is discussed together with a possible future parallel Message Passing Interface (MPI) implementation.


Subjects taught in school change with the times. Educated Romans learned Latin at home, but learning Greek as a second language enabled them to read the philosophy and science of their day. The medieval university taught seven subjects – the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) as foundations for the advanced study of philosophy and theology. Physical science entered the curriculum in the 17 th and 18 centuries; biology followed in the 19 th and social science in the 20 . Penmanship was an important subject for a long time, but now students learn keyboarding and computer literacy. Ideally, the curriculum prepares students for participation in the world they will join as adults.


Background: Birth weight is an important indicator of the health and viability of new-borns. Reducing premature birth rates is one of the major challenges in public health. Worldwide, a growing trend is being observed in premature births. Objective: To analyse the survival and perinatal risk factors of early neonatal death in very low birth weight (VLBW) new-borns (500–1499 g). Materials and methods: A retrospective cohort study (2000–2010) was used to analyse data from the Medical Birth Register. In total, data on 1,460 singletons were analysed. This study examined and compared the perinatal risk factors of two groups: live births and deaths within the neonatal period. Results: Odds of surviving increased from 1.6 in the infants with the extremely low birth weight (ELBW) (≤ 999 g) to 2.5 times in the VLBW infants (≤ 1499 g). The variables significantly associated with new-born mortality were congenital abnormalities (ORadj=7.8), birth weight (ORadj=3.4) and placental abruption (ORadj=2.1) and Apgar score ≤ 6 at 5 min (ORadj=2.1). Conclusion: The neonatal mortality risk was significantly higher in the cases of neonatal birth weight ≤ 1000 g, gestational age up to the 31st GW, Apgar score of 6 points at fifth min, congenital abnormalities and placental abruption.


Inequities and inequalities in health care provision still persist in many countries. The disparity between developing and developed nations and between the urban and rural population is a real issue and challenge in health care delivery. The major contributors to the crisis are the shortage and maldistribution of health care professionals worldwide. There is a shortage of doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals in most countries and the most severe is in the poorest countries. The shortage and maldistribution are affecting the provision of health care especially in the rural areas. In most cases, lack of educational opportunities and facilities in rural areas has lowered the interest of doctors to practise in these areas. Some of the strategies to attract health professionals to choose rural areas for service are by increasing the number of students with rural backgrounds for medical training and by increasing the exposure of undergraduate students to rural settings and environments. To retain health professionals in the rural areas, more flexible, integrated and coordinated vocational training programmes and specifically-tailored continuing education and professional development programmes have to be instituted immediately to meet the identified needs of rural family physicians, supported by sophisticated and relevant ICT infrastructures. Medical schools should take the responsibility to educate appropriately-skilled doctors to meet the needs of the population in their respective geographic regions. Sekolah Perubatan, Universiti Malaysia Sabah has taken a proactive step in producing doctors who are culturally sensitive to the needs of the local population, while at the same time developing skills to function effectively in any community. Community-based education, especially the PUPUK (UFPCWP) programme implemented in the medical curriculum is one of the initiatives to attract more medical graduates and other health professionals to the rural areas, especially in Sabah to practice medicine while at the same time having an opportunity to develop and empower the community.


The little-known Australian genus, Ahamitermes, contains four described species: A. nidicola Mjoberg (Queensland), A. hillii Nicholls (south-western Australia), A. inclusus Gay (restricted to a small sub-coastal area in mid- Western Australia), and A. pumilus (Hill) (New South Wales and Western Australia). Many new distribution records of A. hillii and some of A. inclusus are given. New observations on the biology of Ahamitermes show that the various species have a species-specific parasitic nesting relationship with either one of two species of the genus Coptotermes. They live in specific parts of the inner sections of Coptotermes nests, utilizing as food the carton composing these sections, and are thus dependent on the host for food and shelter. They are not found in any other situation. The nests of host and parasite are separated and the two species are mutually hostile. A. pumilus differs from its congeners in that it is also dependent on the host for the release of its alates which are tolerated inquilines in the host's nest. Termite associations in general and that of Ahamitermes and Coptotermes in particular are discussed.