ABSTRACT Burkholderia rhizoxinica is an intracellular symbiont of the phytopathogenic fungus Rhizopus microsporus. The vertically transmitted endosymbiont not only delivers the antimitotic macrolide rhizoxin to its host but is also essential for vegetative spore formation of the fungus. To shed light on the genetic equipment of this model organism, we sequenced the whole genome of B. rhizoxinica HKI 0454, thus providing the first genomic insight into an intracellular mutualist of a fungal species. The 3.75-Mb genome consists of a chromosome and two strain-specific plasmids. The primary metabolism appears to be specialized for the uptake of fungal metabolites. Besides the rhizoxin biosynthesis gene cluster, there are 14 loci coding for nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) assembly lines, which represent novel targets for genomic mining of cryptic natural products. Furthermore, the endosymbionts are equipped with a repertoire of virulence-related factors, which can now be studied to elucidate molecular mechanisms underlying bacterial-fungal interaction.


ABSTRACT The author discusses live coding as a new path in the evolution of the musical score. Live-coding practice accentuates the score, and whilst it is the perfect vehicle for the performance of algorithmic music it also transforms the compositional process itself into a live event. As a continuation of 20th-century artistic developments of the musical score, live-coding systems often embrace graphical elements and language syntaxes foreign to standard programming languages. The author presents live coding as a highly technologized artistic practice, shedding light on how non-linearity, play and generativity will become prominent in future creative media productions.


The development of marine renewable energy is attracting increasing attention due to its great potential in meeting human energy demands with limited negative environment impact. Various wave energy converter concepts have been proposed in attempt to convert wave energy into usable energy. Both experimental and numerical methods have been widely used to investigate the hydrodynamic performance of these devices in operational conditions and their survival characteristics in extreme sea states. This study focuses on developing a numerical procedure that can predict wave loads and run-up on fixed and moving offshore and coastal structures more accurately. The wave induced motions of flap-type wave energy converter (WEC) and its efficiencies are also investigated. The ultimate objectives of the study are to develop a rigorous approach for the safe and cost efficient design of general offshore structures and leading to the better design of wave energy converters with increased efficiency, and provide best practice guideline to the wave energy converter developers and researchers and engineers in the field. Non-linear hydrodynamic modelling in viscous flow has been used in the simulations. Even for moderate waves, nonlinear effects are important due to wave-structure interaction and also the expected large motions under operational conditions. It seems likely that estimates of performance will be unreliable unless the nonlinear effects associated with such large amplitude motions are properly accounted for. Extreme conditions are also be analysed to ensure device integrity. OpenFOAM, a free, open-source CFD package, has been applied in this work due to its strong capability in coastal and offshore engineering. The built-in viscous solvers interFoam and interDyMFoam have been selected and extended to model wave interactions with fixed and moving offshore and coastal structures, respectively. The solvers have been firstly extended to generate various wave conditions, including regular waves, focused wave groups and tsunami waves etc. New module has also been developed to advance the wave absorption capability in attempt to reduce computational cost of the numerical model by using smaller computational domain. In order to simulate the motion of WECs in waves, the code has been further developed to have functions on determining the wave-induced motions of WECs and on updating the computational domain automatically according to the motion of the WEC. By comparing with published experimental data, theoretical and numerical results on various physical problems, including wave interactions with varied seabed, a fixed vertical circular cylinder, a rotating half-submerged rectangular barge and a flap-type wave energy converter etc. it is confident to say that OpenFOAM is very capable of modelling nonlinear wave interactions with coastal and offshore structures accurately.


The behavior of focussing weak shock waves is experimentally investigated with a view to observe and understand the processes occurring near the focus, especially the processes that control the maximum amplitude. Concave reflectors are used against the endwall of a large 17" diameter shock tube, to focus the plane incident shock. Reflectors producing line and point foci, and cusped and smooth caustics are examined for incident shock Mach numbers ranging between 1.005 to 1.5. The flowfield is observed with spark shadowgraphs to visualize the motion of various wavefronts. Pressure histories measured at various points in the flow with miniature piezoelectric gauges provide additional information about the various processes occurring near the focus.

Shadowgraphs show that for weak shocks, the observed foci are predominantly nonlinear, even though away from the focus, the shockfronts appear to be almost acoustic. Thus a weak shockfront, after the focus, crosses itself and forms a loop, which is an essential feature of acoustic wavefronts. Nonetheless, at the focus, distortion in the geometry of the fronts due to nonlinear effects is very prominent. Inherently nonlinear phenomena, such as formation of three-shock intersections, lead to foci of finite size, in which, as the pressure measurements show, the amplitudes are finite.

The amplitude dependence of these phenomena confirms that they are basically nonlinear. The geometrical distortion and the focus are larger for stronger shock waves, and the maximum amplification is smaller. Further, when the distortion becomes significant compared to the size of the initial shockfront, a transition occurs in the geometry of the focussed shockfront. In this case, the focussed front does not cross and remains "unlooped", which is consistent with the nonlinear behavior predicted by shock dynamics.

The transition in the geometry of the wavefronts is related to the behavior of the three-shock intersections formed near the focus. In fact, it is shown that the occurrence of crossed or uncrossed shockfronts is very parallel to the occurrence of regular or Mach reflection, respectively, in the case of a shock diffracted by a wedge. (The reflecting wedge surface corresponds to the axis of symmetry in a focussing process.) The dependence on the steepness of the approaching waves is also similar in the two cases; rapid convergence of waves suppresses nonlinear effects, whereas in a slow convergence, nonlinear effects gain prominence.

The pressure histories at various locations, when correlated with the waves occurring there, show that nonlinear diffraction processes are very important. In fact, it is shown that the formation of the three-shock intersection occurs due to nonlinear distortion and breaking of a compressive diffraction, and that, in the focus, the limiting and reduction of the peak amplitude occurs by a diffracted expansion overtaking the shock due to nonlinear effects.


With the advent of deep sub-micron technology, System-on-Chip (SOC) architectures are becoming possible for a range of applications. However, as single chip systems become a reality, ingenious solutions are needed for many arising architectural issues. One such issue is the design of an on-chip interconnect to facilitate communications among different IP blocks. The integration of multiple cores on a single die has signaled the beginning of a communication-centric design philosophy rather than a computationally centered one. Further, the introduction of nanoscale technology has emphasized the importance of a communication-conscious design where global wiring delays do not scale down as fast as gate delays in newer technologies. Therefore, on-chip interconnections are expected to be a major hurdle in the design of embedded SoC architectures and high-performance multicore architectures alike. While there is a large body of literature on traditional multiprocessor architectures, the design and analysis of an on-chip communication infrastructure is inherently more complex because of its resource constraints, floor planning, and technology scaling artifacts. Consequently, to resolve the growing concerns of on-chip communication behavior, new architectural and technological solutions are being vigorously investigated. Among the architectural trends, use of on-chip packet-based communication networks, known as Networks-on-Chip (NoC), have been gaining wide acceptance due to their scalability. These NoCs have been deployed in current commercialized products, including a recently announced 80-core TERAFLOP processor [1]. While NoC research has made significant progress, there is still the lack of a generic design methodology which encompasses issues in performance, scalability, power, and reliability in a cohesive fashion.
This research consists of five parts. First, the design and analysis of NoC micro-architectures has been explored, where a comprehensive platform for evaluating the performance and energy consumption behavior has been developed. This framework allows for investigating the scalability issues of these NoC architectures as well as provides a means by which different system configurations, wiring layouts, switching mechanisms, routing algorithms and micro-architectural designs could be evaluated. The rapidly increasing use of SoC architectures has accentuated the need for efficient on-chip communication infrastructures. Thus, as the second part of this work, we proposed one type of solution, in which a low-latency on-chip router architecture supporting adaptive path-sensitive mechanisms, was shown to be able to minimize average packet latency by intelligent path selection and reduced switching activities. Third, we have developed an analytical model. Another fundamental aspect of NoC design is the ability to precisely and efficiently provide analysis of an NoC's performance, fault-tolerance, and energy behavior. We developed a queuing-theory-based analytical model for NoC architectures which performed latency and power analysis at the granularity of individual hardware sub-modules, resulting in an increase of the models accuracy. The model developed here quantified the overall power consumption by capturing the utilization of different component and their corresponding energy consumptions. By integrating performance, power, and reliability models, the analytical model was further able to evaluate multi-objective tradeoffs. Fourth, as a comprehensive design paradigm, we proposed a novel, fine grained modular router architecture utilizing a Row-Column Decoupled (RoCo) design. We explored the SoC/NoC design space for reliable and predicatively high-performing architectures, and developed suitable fault-tolerant techniques to handle permanent hard faults. This architecture comprised of a powerful amalgam of novel techniques, all of which work in unison to produce a very efficient and fault-tolerant interconnection system. The development of concepts such as early ejection, guided flit queuing, the mirroring effect, and hardware recycling provided huge benefits to the router's operation and help create a very efficient and resilient system. In the last chapter, we explored the design of a 3D, crossbar-style, NoC for upcoming 3D VLSI technology as emerging chip multiprocessor systems. This exploration provided insight into the tradeoffs between circuit complexity and performance using real commercial and scientific benchmarks in the simulation testbed. This research helps to further understand the role of NoC design as an integral part of the future SoC/multicore architectures by investigating and developing new micro-architectural solutions. This thesis is useful for making experimental and theoretical advances in understanding the interplay between performance, energy, and reliability in deep-submicron designs, providing development of comprehensive design analysis models/tools.


Indigenous women are more likely to suffer from poor health than non-Indigenous women, usually with one long term condition or several chronic diseases at once. High psychological distress, asthma, eye problems, diabetes and heart disease are common and we are ten times more likely than non-Indigenous women to have kidney disease. Our life expectancy is sixty-three years compared to non-Indigenous women's mortality rate of eighty-three years. The delivery of inclusive health services is thus an important part of improving our life chances. However, even when such services are provided Indigenous women are reluctant to use them. In this article I discuss some of the impediments to the use of such services by considering how Indigenous women configure space and place in their everyday encounters within a health provision context.


The present essay aims at offering some interpretative keys for the ecological disaster of one of the most beautiful sites in the Mediterranean: Taranto. It does so through the ecocritical tools of postcolonial and decolonial thinking and the analysis of an intense iconography of eco-artistic urbanist engagements, which have dramatically exemplified what it has meant living in the midst of the largest of Europe's steelworks. These engagements, having "one foot in literature and the other on land" (Glotfelty, Fromm 1996, XIX), attempt to decolonize the imaginary related to the deeply discordant relationship between the city of Taranto and 'its' steelworks, which is more than twice the size of the same city. We have chosen, after Jason Moore (2016), the adjective 'capitalocenic' rather than the more voguish 'anthropocenic', since the environmental changes are not the end result of an abstract human action, but rather of the tangible century-long rule of capital: the earthless (Vázquez 2017) mode of production of modernity that à la Descartes denies the earth into which it gets its claws and, as a consequence, it denies the deep knitting of "humanity-in-nature/nature-in-humanity" (Moore 2015).


A software model is the outcome of abstracting a set of relevant elements that contribute to the functional size according to measurement model. The purpose of this paper is to verify the construction of the software model when applying the RmFFP measurement procedure with computer science students. The RmFFP procedure was designed according to the COSMIC-FFP standard method for estimating the functional size of object-oriented systems from requirements specifications obtained in the context of the OO-Method approach.


SAMUELS, LAURA ELIZABETH. The Effectiveness of Web Conferencing Technology in Student-Teacher Conferencing in the Writing Classroom: A Study of First-Year Student Writers. (Under the direction of Chris M. Anson). In the past few years, composition theorists have become increasingly interested in the role of computers in the first-year writing classroom. This explorative, case study investigates the use of Web conferencing software as a medium for student-teacher writing conferences. Using qualitative methodology, this researcher conducted out-of-class Web conferences with three first-year writing students about their performance on the first major writing project of the spring 2006 semester. The researcher was also the students' English 101 instructor. Following the Web conferences, the researcher used in depth interviewing techniques to discuss the students' experiences. Data from the recorded Web conferences and transcripts of the post-conference interviews were analyzed to determine answers to the following two research questions: What benefits and challenges do students and teachers find with online Web conferencing and how do these benefits and challenges affect the cyber replication of a face-to-face conference? The results of this study indicate that it is possible to replicate a face-to-face student-teacher conference through Web conferencing technologies. Some of the benefits of Web conferencing include (but are not limited to) the constant availability for students and instructors to have conferences (outside of the traditional business hours that most university buildings are available) and the ability to have an oral discussion in place of a text-based discussion, where it is often difficult for instructors to encapsulate complete feedback. Additionally, this study investigates some of the challenges to Web conferencing, such as the lack of a physical presence of the two participants and the inability to conduct global writing revisions due to the lack of screen space available on the computer monitor. Finally, this study has important implications for conferencing in the first-year writing classroom and opens the door for future Web conferencing studies to be conducted on a larger scale with different population samples. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WEB CONFERENCING TECHNOLOGY IN STUDENTTEACHER CONFERENCING IN THE WRITING CLASSROOM: A STUDY OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENT WRITERS


Virtual reality has existed in the realm of education for over half a century. However, its widespread adoption is still yet to occur. This is a result of a myriad of limitations to both the technologies themselves, and the costs and logistics required to deploy them. In order to gain a better understanding of what these issues are, and what it is that educators hope to gain by using these technologies in the first place, we have performed both a systematic review of the use of virtual reality in education, as well as two distinct thematic analyses. The first analysis investigated the applications and reported motivations provided by educators in academic literature for developing virtual reality educational systems, while the second investigated the reported problems associated with doing so. These analyses indicate that the majority of researchers use virtual reality to increase the intrinsic motivation of students, and refer to a narrow range of factors such as constructivist pedagogy, collaboration, and gamification in the design of their experiences. Similarly, a small number of educational areas account for the vast majority of educational virtual reality implementations identified in our analyses. Next, we introduced and compared a multitude of recent virtual reality technologies, discussing their potential to overcome several of the problems identified in our analyses, including cost, user experience and interactivity. However, these technologies are not without their own issues, thus we conclude this paper by providing several novel techniques to potentially address them, as well as potential directions for future researchers wishing to apply these emerging technologies to education.


South Africa adopted inflation targeting in 2000, targeting the consumer price index (CPI) excluding mortgage interest cost (or CPIX), for "metropolitan and urban areas". Yet there is no clear technical account of the methodology of construction of CPI and CPIX by Statistics South Africa, as published by reputable government statistical agencies in other countries. This paper has two goals. First, we aim to enhance transparency by explaining the CPI methodology (as we understand it), and to encourage publication of an official technical handbook. We also raise various technical issues concerning CPI construction. Second, we produce estimates of CPIX "metropolitan areas") back to 1970, on a consistent methodology, using monthly price indices, the appropriate weights, and linking correctly when rebasing. While the CPIX ("metropolitan and urban areas") measure only became relevant to monetary policy setting and wage contracts from 2000, and is published monthly only from 1997, a far longer time series is required for the forecasting and modelling exercises of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), National Treasury and others. Our measure differs in some years from that published by Statistics South Africa (published monthly only back to 1994).


To cope with the ever growing availability of training data, there have been several proposals to scale machine learning computation beyond a single server and distribute it across a cluster. While this enables reducing the training time, the observed speed up is often limited by network bottlenecks.

To address this, we design MLNET, a host-based communication layer that aims to improve the network performance of distributed machine learning systems. This is achieved through a combination of traffic reduction techniques (to diminish network load in the core and at the edges) and traffic management (to reduce average training time). A key feature of MLNET is its compatibility with existing hardware and software infrastructure so it can be immediately deployed.

We describe the main techniques underpinning MLNET and show through simulation that the overall training time can be reduced by up to 78%. While preliminary, our results indicate the critical role played by the network and the benefits of introducing a new communication layer to increase the performance of distributed machine learning systems.


A large sample of cosmic ray events collected by the CMS detector is exploited to measure the specific energy loss of muons in the lead tungstate (PbWO4) of the electromagnetic calorimeter. The measurement spans a momentum range from 5 GeV/c to 1 TeV/c. The results are consistent with the expectations over the entire range. The calorimeter energy scale, set with 120 GeV/c electrons, is validated down to the sub-GeV region using energy deposits, of order 100 MeV, associated with low-momentum muons. The muon critical energy in PbWO4 is measured to be 160+5−6±8 GeV, in agreement with expectations. This is the first experimental determination of muon critical energy.


In order to achieve high accuracy for machine learning (ML) applications, it is essential to employ models with a large number of parameters. Certain applications, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), however, require real-time interactions with users, hence compelling the model to have as low latency as possible. Deploying large scale ML applications thus necessitates model quantization and compression, especially when running ML models on resource constrained devices. For example, by forcing some of the model weight values into zero, it is possible to apply zero-weight compression, which reduces both the model size and model reading time from the memory. In the literature, such methods are referred to as sparse pruning. The fundamental questions are when and which weights should be forced to zero, i.e. be pruned. In this work, we propose a compressed sensing based pruning (CSP) approach to effectively address those questions. By reformulating sparse pruning as a sparsity inducing and compression-error reduction dual problem, we introduce the classic compressed sensing process into the ML model training process. Using ASR task as an example, we show that CSP consistently outperforms existing approaches in the literature.


The hypoxemia which results from obstructive sleep apnea causes three effects which quickly elevate the concentration of serum uric acid, often leading to the precipitation of monosodium urate crystals: cell catabolism which culminates irreversibly in the generation of excess uric acid fed into the blood; serum acidosis and hypercapnia which reduces the solubility of uric acid in the blood; and gradual reduction of the kidneys' glomerular filtration rate so that the removal of serum uric acid is slowed. Monosodium urate deposits are most likely to form in the extremities or in patellar, biceps, and quadriceps tendons, where they are detectable by ultrasonic means. Once formed, the crystals dissolve very slowly, which allows their detectability at a convenient time, thereby increasing their usefulness as a biomarker for obstructive sleep apnea before its life-threatening consequences develop.


Israel's armed forces committed actions amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during the recent Gaza conflict, says a UN report. It documents deliberate attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities.

The report, which was compiled by an independent fact finding mission, also concludes indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian armed groups into Southern Israel would constitute war crimes, and may amount to crimes against humanity.

The mission found that the military operation by Israel from 27 December to 18 January, 2009, "was a deliberate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability."

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said, "Israel did not feel able to cooperate with the fact finding mission because its mandate was clearly one sided."

Investigators assert that the …


The aim of this study was to compare, using a realist review approach, frailty intervention methods used across the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) with findings from literature reviews conducted as part of a larger study, known as FOCUS, supported by the European Commission. Results indicated that in the context of frail or pre-frail adults and tailored care or geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) interventions, neither hospital nor community delivery was more successful than the other. However, client centred participatory programmes worked well and those with a theoretical grounding in health psychology were particularly successful. In the healthcare organisational context, a lack of standardisation between health practitioners created a challenge to intervention success. Further, baseline differences in the quality and effectiveness of standard care between different countries, meant that the effects of GEM interventions were more pronounced in less wealthy countries. In the context of participant conditions, interventions worked well when: participants were frail or pre-frail but not disabled; when participants were from a lower SES or were less well educated; when participants had a positive affective reaction to the programme; when participants had choice or autonomy over intervention components, activities and timings; and when participants were involved in social or group activities which reduced isolation. It was recommended that initial frailty levels and full person contexts are included as components of intervention design, and strategies to enhance the social and psychological aspects of interventions are included even in physically focused interventions.


Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs) are used to decontaminate polluted environment around the tunnels. A conventional ESP has high collection efficiency but still has a problem in that its downstream walls are polluted due to particle deposition. The experiments carried out in this study have focused on how the particle deposition can be prevented by neutralising the gases. The collection efficiency as a function of particle diameter and the amount of deposited particles on the wall were studied on three types of the ESP: the universal ESP under DC operating mode (DCESP), the ESP under AC operating mode (ACESP) and the ACESP with gas-neutralising equipment (ACESP with neutralisation). Electrostatic field intensity and ion concentration were also measured to understand the state of neutralising the gases. The ACESP, an invention of the authors, prevents particle re-entrainment. The ACESP with neutralisation, which not only prevents the particle re-entrainment but also decreases the charge amount of the downstream gases, was most effective in decreasing the amount of deposited particles.


Purpose: We sought to improve upon frontline bendamustine/rituximab (BR) induction therapy followed by rituximab maintenance in untreated high-risk follicular lymphoma (FL). Patients and Methods: Patients were randomized to BR induction followed by 2-year rituximab maintenance (BR-R), BR with bortezomib and rituximab maintenance (BVR-R), or BR followed by lenalidomide (1 year) with rituximab maintenance (BR-LR). Dual primary objectives were complete remission (CR) rate and 1-year disease-free survival (DFS); 289 patients enrolled (NCT01216683). Results: For induction, 92%, 87%, and 86% of patients randomized to BR-R, BVR-R, or BR-LR received six cycles, respectively. CR rate with BR versus BVR induction was 62% versus 75%, respectively (P = 0.04). One-year DFS rates with BR-R versus BR-LR were 85% versus 67%, respectively (P = 0.0009). This was due to an imbalance in CR rates post-BR induction and discontinuation due to adverse events (AEs). The most common grade 3–4 AEs for BVR versus BR were neutropenia and sensory neuropathy (12% vs <1%); 83% of the latter occurred with intravenous bortezomib. The most common grade 3–4 AEs related to LR versus rituximab maintenance were neutropenia 66% versus 21%, respectively (P < 0.0001), and febrile neutropenia 10% versus 2%, respectively (P = 0.05). The overall treatment-related mortality was 1.4%. With 5-year median follow-up, 3-year PFS rates for BR-R, BVR-R, and BR-LR were 77%, 82%, and 76%, respectively (P = 0.36) with OS rates of 87%, 90%, and 84%, respectively (P = 0.79). For prognostication, CR rate and POD-24 were associated with survival. Conclusions: Altogether, neither bortezomib added to BR induction nor lenalidomide added to rituximab maintenance immediately post-BR induction is recommended in untreated FL.


The city of Palenque achieved its greatest splendour in the Late Classic when it became one of the foremost centres in the Maya world. During the reign of K inich Janaab Pakal (A.D. 615 683) the Temple of the Inscriptions, which later served as his sepulchre and commemorative monument, was built. In 1952, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the funerary chamber in the Temple of the Inscriptions. Based on the reports from the 1950s, photographs taken at the time of the discovery, work published over the past half century, and the analysis of objects that composed the funerary furnishings, this research proposes a holistic revision of the funerary complex. The funerary furnishings, the manufacturing technique and technical sequence employed to create such pieces were studied; the geographic location of the sources of the raw materials was proposed. Finally, the function of each object and its probable significance were discussed."


Extant research on temperament shows that it may be related to certain developmental outcomes. However, according to the goodness-of-fit hypothesis (Chess & Thomas, 1999), developmental outcomes are the result of how well the biological tendencies of an individual (i.e. temperament) fit with the contextual demands of their environment. Thus, temperament should only affect developmental outcomes as a function of their environmental context. The current study proposes that parent temperament may serve as an environmental context that interacts with adolescent temperament to affect the development of the adolescent emotion regulatory system. Structural equation modeling results revealed parent temperament, specifically parent effortful control, to moderate the relationship between adolescent temperament and the adolescent emotion regulatory system. Several gender differences were also found for both main and interaction effects. Adolescent negative affect was negatively related to emotion regulation for girls only. Parent effortful control moderated the relationship between adolescent effortful control and suppression use also for girls only. Parent effortful control moderated the relationship between adolescent surgency and emotion lability for boys only, and parent effortful control moderated the relationship between adolescent surgency and suppression for both boys and girls, but in opposite directions. The interaction term was negatively related to suppression for girls, and it was positively related to suppression for boys. Results have several implications for potential parenting interventions and may inform programs that teach emotion regulation strategies.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the effect of acetylcholine (ACh) and ischaemia/reperfusion injury on functional changes and dysrhythmias of the isolated diabetic rat heart.

METHODS AND RESULTS
On retrogradely perfused hearts isolated from 10-week-old diabetic rats (streptozotocin 30 mg/kg b.w. for three consecutive days i.p.), two types of experiments were done: /1/ The effect of acetylcholine (ACh; 3 x 10(-7) mol/l) was evaluated both during and after infusion, and /2/ the influence of the ischaemia/reperfusion injury (I/R) was studied. At the end of both experiments the hearts were electrically stimulated to evoke sustained ventricular fibrillation (VF). An increase of coronary arterial pressure, bradycardia and decreased total number of severe dysrhythmias of both types, spontaneous and evoked ones, were recorded in the diabetic hearts. ACh increased the force of contraction (LVP) and induced vasoconstriction, which persisted in the diabetic hearts even after removal of ACh from the perfusion solution.

CONCLUSIONS
The isolated diabetic rat heart was more resistant against severe dysrhythmias. After washing out the ACh, the vasoconstriction of coronary arteries still lasted, along with increased inotropic effect on the left ventricle.


An extensive instrumentation program was carried out over a 6-month period on a 50-ft (15.2-m) deep braced cut in dense sand. The temporary bracing system consisted of interlocking steel sheet piles (Larssen type III N ), wales, and struts from wide-flange steel sections. The soil consisted of fine, uniformly graded sand with varying relative densities from medium to very dense. The loads of the struts on each side of the center bay for three strut levels were obtained by measuring the strains in the struts with a mechanical dial gage over an 8-in. (20.3-cm) gage length. The reliability and precision of these measurements are discussed. The active and passive earth pressures were measured with 13 vibrating-wire, earth pressure transducers mounted flush on two adjacent piles at the center of the wall. The pressure cells were attached to the piles prior to driving and were subjected to severe conditions due to the extreme driving resistance of the piles. The calibration methods of these transducers prior to driving and on retrieval after completion of the construction are discussed in detail. The ruggedness and precision of the cells were evaluated. The relatively large deformations of the cut were measured from lines of sight in the horizontal and vertical planes. In its final construction stage the wall had moved out more than 3 in. (7.6 cm) at the top and over 7 in. (17.8 cm) at the bottom of the sheet piles. The large inward movement of the bottom of the wall was mainly due to a hydraulic failure which significantly reduced the passive resistance of the soil inside the excavation. Since the earth pressure cells measured total pressures only, it was necessary to measure the stresses due to water pressure to calculate the effective earth pressures. The water levels were obtained from borehole and open-standpipe observations. Each water pressure indicator consisted of plastic tubing with an open-end, screened fitting tapped through the sheet piles. The standpipes were installed during the excavation, and proved to be simple, inexpensive, and accurate. The instrumentation program was considered successful despite many problems which were encountered mainly during the excavation period.


In this paper, we present a cluster-dependent adaptation approach for HMM-based acoustic models. The proposed approach employs clustering techniques to group the original training utterances into clusters with predefined number. The clustered speech data are intended to adapt an initially pre-trained acoustic model to the specific cluster by reestimation based on the standard Baum-Welch procedure. The resulting model, adapted to the homogeneous data may markedly improve the baseline recognition rate, whereas the model complexity may be reduced. In the recognition step, the test samples are scored by each adapted model and the most accurate one is chosen. The proposed approach is thoroughly evaluated in Slovak triphone-based large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) system. The results prove that the cluster-sensitive retraining leads to significant improvements over the baseline reference system trained according to the conventional training procedure.


We propose an algorithm to reformulate aggregate queries using views in a data integration LAV setting. Our algorithm considers a special case of reformulations where aggregates in the query are expressed as views over aggregates in the view definitions. Although the problem of determining whether two queries are equivalent is undecidable, our algorithm returns an equivalent rewriting if one exists.


AIMS
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of time to surgical intervention from admission on mortality and morbidity for patients with hip fractures.

METHODS
MEDLINE and Embase were searched from inception to June 2020. Reference lists were manually assessed to identify additional papers. Primary comparative research studies that recruited patients aged over 60 years, with non-pathological primary proximal femoral fractures that were treated surgically, were included. Studies that did not include a group operated on within 24 hours or which reported time to surgery in calendar days were excluded. Two investigators extracted data on study characteristics, methods, and outcomes. The pre-defined primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes were complications and mortality at other time points. Relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were aggregated and were grouped by study-level characteristics.

RESULTS
This review included 46 studies (January 1991 to June 2020), comprising 521,857 hip fractures with 64,047 postoperative deaths. No randomized controlled trials were eligible for inclusion. In a pooled analysis of 15 studies, RR of mortality at 30 days comparing time to surgery < 24 hours with > 24 hours was 0.86 (95% CI 0.82 to 0.91; I 2 = 69%; 95% CI 50% to 81%; p-value for heterogeneity < 0.001). The association was stronger in observational studies that did not adjust for confounders than in those that adjusted for multiple covariates. In a pooled analysis of six studies, the RR of mortality at 30 days comparing time to surgery < 24 hours with 24 to 36 hours was 0.87 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.93; I 2 = 65%; 95% CI 16% to 85%; p-value for heterogeneity = 0.014).

CONCLUSION
This meta-analysis indicates reduced mortality for patients operated within 24 hours compared with those operated on beyond 24 hours or within 24 to 36 hours. Where resources allow and there is no specific reversible contraindication to early surgery, we recommend that hip fractures should be surgically treated within 24 hours. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(7):1176-1186.


This study investigates how people's credibility assessment processes have evolved as they engage in increasingly diverse types of online activities beyond seeking for information or reading online news. Using an online activity diary method, information on people's online activities and their associated credibility assessment processes were collected at multiple points throughout the day for three days. This paper reports on a preliminary analysis of 2,471 diary entries received from 333 respondents. Content analysis was applied to people's descriptions of their online activities, yielding 17 different types of information objects and 26 categories of online content. People's credibility judgments were examined on three levels: construct, heuristics, and interaction. The results, although preliminary, indicate that distinct credibility assessment heuristics are in fact emerging as people engage in online activities involving more user-generated and multimedia content. The unique contribution of this paper is its identification of the importance of taking a heuristic approach to credibility assessment by studying a large sample of heavy Internet users within the context of the everyday life information activities they conduct online.


The article explores the hydropolitics of Lake Chad. Scientific and popular views on the fate of Lake Chad differ widely. The supposed 'disappearance' of the Lake through water abstraction and climate change is a popular myth that endures because it serves a large set of heterogeneous interests, including those supporting inter-basin water transfers. Meanwhile scientific investigations show substantial and continuing Lake level fluctuations over time, and do not support its projected disappearance. The task is to understand how the myth of the disappearing Lake has been engendered and used, by studying the discourses and the strategies of the main stakeholders involved. The Lake has been protected so far from massive water abstraction, and inter-basin transfer projects, due to the fragmentation of its political management, new security threats, and the piecemeal nature of the interests in play. Key words: Lake Chad; environmental myths; hydropolitics; political ecology; inter-basin transfers


The ratio of public procurement undertaken through reverse electronic auctions is increasing rapidly. Czech and Slovak municipalities use this tool to save public funds through fostering direct competition between suppliers and to increase transparency. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the savings achieved through e-auctions and the factors influencing these. Five variables are tested to establish whether they influence the savings: number of participants (potential suppliers) in the e-auction, total value of the e-auction, size and country of origin of the municipality, and category of the procured product or service. Several methods are used to test independence. All of these factors except the country of origin influence the savings gained, which is in accordance with the findings of existing research.


Agile method use in information systems development (ISD) has grown dramatically in recent years. The emergence of these alternative approaches was very much industry‐led at the outset, and while agile method research is growing, the vast majority of these studies are descriptive and often lack a strong theoretical and conceptual base. Insights from innovation adoption research can provide a new perspective on analysing agile method use. This paper is based on an exploratory study of the application of the innovation assimilation stages to understand the use of agile practices, focusing in particular on the later stages of assimilation, namely acceptance, routinisation and infusion. Four case studies were conducted, and based on the case study findings, the concepts of acceptance, routinisation and infusion were adapted and applied to agile software development. These adapted concepts were used to glean interesting insights into agile practice use. For example, it was shown that the period of use of agile practices does not have a proportional effect on their assimilation depths. We also reflected on the sequential assumption underlying the assimilation stages, showing that adopting teams do not always move through the assimilation stages in a linear manner.


Abstract Poor households access their food from the market, subsistence production and transfers from public programmes or other households. In the past rural households produced most of their own food, but recent studies have shown an increase in dependence on market purchases by both urban and rural households, in some cases reaching 90% of the food supplies. Food expenditures can account for as much as 60–80% of total household income for low-income households in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Subsistence/smallholder agriculture can play an important role in reducing the vulnerability of rural and urban food-insecure households, improving livelihoods, and helping to mitigate high food price inflation. There is a need to significantly increase the productivity of subsistence/smallholder agriculture and ensure long-term food security. This can be achieved by encouraging farmers to pursue sustainable intensification of production through the use of improved inputs. This will require a dramatic increase in the use of fertiliser, organic inputs and conservation investments, combined with the development of well-functioning input and output markets to help farmers acquire and use improved inputs, market their (surplus) output and reduce transaction costs and risks. Increased productivity will reduce pressure on marginal lands, as the intensification of cultivated land will reduce pressure to crop fragile marginal lands. There is a need to determine methods of identifying cost-effective ways to improve access to inputs by, among other things, improving delivery, and assisting farmers to earn cash to purchase inputs and invest in infrastructure, thereby improving food security.


An efficient dynamic simulation code for hydrogen isotope distillation columns is developed. Because of the great dimensionality and stiffness of the basic ordinary differential equations to be integrated, the long computing time required is often the major stumbling block in computer simulation work for column dynamics. Publicly available integration algorithms are reviewed and some are tested. The Ballard-Brosilow algorithm is chosen as the most attractive one in terms of both stability and simplicity. The algorithm requires only solution of linear tridiagonal equations and scalar bubble point calculations at every time step. Replacing the improved Euler algorithm in the previous code by the Ballard-Brosilow algorithm and determining an adjustment method for the time step size, the resultant computer code presents a remarkable success: A typical numerical example simulating column dynamics from a steady state to another indicates that the calculational results can be obtained with engineering accuracy in about two orders of magnitude shorter computing time.


This paper presents fundamental limits associated with compressive classification of Gaussian mixture source models. In particular, we offer an asymptotic characterization of the behavior of the (upper bound to the) misclassification probability associated with the optimal Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) classifier that depends on quantities that are dual to the concepts of diversity gain and coding gain in multi-antenna communications. The diversity, which is shown to determine the rate at which the probability of misclassification decays in the low noise regime, is shown to depend on the geometry of the source, the geometry of the measurement system and their interplay. The measurement gain, which represents the counterpart of the coding gain, is also shown to depend on geometrical quantities. It is argued that the diversity order and the measurement gain also offer an optimization criterion to perform dictionary learning for compressive classification applications.


Simple abrasivity testing has been carried out on a sequence of arkosic and sub-arkosic sandstones, siltstones and mudstones with dominant sericite and ferruginous cements. Abrasivity classifications systems have been proposed by Thuro & Kasling (2009), which correlate the Cerchar index (CAI) with the LCPC abrasivity index (ABR), which appears to show linear correlation between the CAI and the ABR. Many of the recent studies are based on a European data of rocks bound by silica. On a global scale cements other than silica are present. The data presented in this short paper is from a sedimentary sequence dominated by sericite and ferruginous cements. The LCPC tests have been carried out according to AFNOR NF P94-430-2 and the Cerchar tests were carried out using a steel pin of hardness 200 kg/mm2 along natural and sawn surfaces for 10 mm. Despite a weak cement (sericite of Moh's hardness 2.5) and generally low quartz content for sandstone the abrasiveness for the sandstones were equal to those recorded for alpine granites and gneisses.


Petrov et al. used a femtosecond laser with a high repetition rate, which is probably the future of lasers for hard-tissue removal to achieve fast and more precise ablation in dentine and enamel.1 They concluded that the ultra-fast femtosecond laser used in their work holds the promise of a significant drilling ability without collateral thermomechanical effects. It achieved high processing efficiency, overcame disadvantages of other laser systems reported, and can be used to develop an instrument for cavity preparation based on fast and precise ablation. Their further aim is to exceed the speed of conventional drilling instruments and thus to reduce the treatment time, which in turn will bring comfort to the patient.


The architecture in a supermodern city has no sense of the place where it is located. This paper discusses how schizophrenia and distraction, through walking, respond to supermodernity by referring to how three dislocated subjects, Fumiya Takemura, Aiichiro Fukuhara and Fai in Tokyo and Hong Kong, are respectively depicted in the novel, Adrift in Tokyo written by Fujita Yoshinaga in 1999, with a film adaptation by Satoshi Miki (2007), and the film To Live and Die in Mongkok directed by Wong Jing in 2009. It suggests that Hong Kong is more supermodern than Tokyo. After his release from prison, Fai in To Live and Die in Mongkok finds that Mongkok is a completely different place from the one in which he used to live. The living conditions are no better than those in the prison. He hallucinates about the past. Adrift in Tokyo can be read as a story about walking. Fukuhara, a debt collector, killed his wife; before surrendering to the police, he orders his debtor, Takemura, to walk with him in Tokyo in order to re-experience the walks he enjoyed with his wife. If Takemura agrees, the debt can be paid off. This paper discusses how the repressed heterogeneous time and place can be approached by walking in a way that the rhythm of life can be (re-)experienced; in other words, when the body moves forward physically, the past appears as specter haunting the walker. This paper discusses how Adrift in Tokyo and To Live and Die in Mongkok read cities in distractive and schizophrenic ways. In the film version of Adrift in Tokyo, Takemura's failed relationship with his father may unconsciously drive him to walk with Fukuhara. The novel may imply that the lost relationship with his mother drives him to walk. The film and the novel both address a kind of locality which should be inseparable from the birth parents. To Live and Die in Mongkok suggests that supermodernity kills mother and father. The Father-son relationship disappears at the very beginning of the film; the mother-son relationship has been segregated by prison (Fai's mother, who has been "imprisoned" in Mongkok, a supermodern "prison", is disconnected from her son who is imprisoned in Stanley, a real prison) and, in the end, by life and death. To Fai, walking is not possible, and, hence, a father-son relationship cannot be "cosplayed", as Takemura and Fukuhara do. They can "play" as father and son in the ordinary Tokyo. A supermodern Mongkok suggests that an unwalkable city is a prison, a brothel and a madhouse; Adrift in Tokyo suggests that a walkable city is a cosplay arena for wandering, for approaching a lost relationship nurtured in locality since birth.


The MLC1 gene is involved in an autosomal recessive neurological disorder, megalencephalic leucoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC), which is characterized by macrocephaly during the first year of life and swollen white matter (leucoencephaly). Variants of MLC1 have also been associated with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder. Currently, little is known about the encoded protein (MLC1). Judging from its similarity to other known proteins, it may serve as a trans-membrane transporter. However, the function of the encoded protein and its gene regulation has not been investigated successfully so far. We investigated the 5' region of the murine Mlc1 with respect to regulatory elements for gene expression. A promoter search and an in silico analysis were conducted. Luciferase reporter gene constructs with potential promoter regions were created to study promoter activity in vitro. We found two alternative first exons for the murine Mlc1 but were not able to detect any promoter activity for the investigated reporter gene constructs in different cell lines, thus pointing to the presence of essential cis-acting elements far outside of the region. In silico analysis indicated an uncommon promoter structure for Mlc1, with CCAAT-boxes representing the only noticeable elements.


GIVING VOICE TO THE discipline-specific knowledge and pedagogical practices of childcare educators, this paper attempts to explore new ways of defining educators' work with young children, given the post-structural turn in Australian and international early childhood policy. Three focus groups (n = 8 children's education and care services; n = 19 educators) were held in metropolitan Adelaide (South Australia) to explore their professional understandings of early communication and attachment development. Childcare educators described the relational and communicative elements of their work that supported or constrained their capacity to understand individual children's socio-emotional needs at enrolment, during transitions and in day-to-day routines. Whether attachment relationships were forged or being built, these educators explained how emotional reciprocity and an understanding of the child through secure attachment relationships enabled them to notice young children's communication abilities and needs, and vice versa. While the findings illuminate the expertise childcare educators bring to their work, we argue that there is a need to further explore how this expertise shapes their programs, practices and professional development needs.


Scientific PublishingThe editor of the journal Medical Hypotheses —an oddity in the world of scientific publishing because it does not practice peer review—will apparently lose his job over the publication last summer of a paper that says HIV does not cause AIDS. Publishing powerhouse Elsevier this week told Editor-in-Chief Bruce Charlton that it won't renew his contract, which expires at the end of 2010, and it asked that Charlton resign immediately or implement a series of changes in his editorial policy, including putting a system of peer review in place. Charlton, who teaches evolutionary psychology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, says he will do neither, and some on the editorial advisory board say they may resign in protest if he is fired.


The aircraft engines manufacturing industry is subjected to many dependability constraints from certification authorities and economic background. In particular, the costs induced by unscheduled maintenance and delays and cancellations impose to ensure a minimum level of availability. For this purpose, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) is used as a means to perform online periodic assessment of the engines' health status. The whole PHM methodology is based on the processing of some variables reflecting the system's health status named Health Indicators. The collecting of HI is an on-board embedded task which has to be specified before the entry into service for matters of retrofit costs. However, the current development methodology of PHM systems is considered as a marginal task in the industry and it is observed that most of the time, the set of HI is defined too late and only in a qualitative way. In this paper, the authors propose a novel development methodology for PHM systems centered on an anticipated model-based validation of HI. This validation is based on the use of uncertainties propagation to simulate the distributions of HI including the randomness of parameters. The paper defines also some performance metrics and criteria for the validation of the HI set. Eventually, the methodology is applied to the development of a PHM solution for an aircraft engine actuation loop. It reveals a lack of performance of the original set of HI and allows defining new ones in order to meet the specifications before the entry into service.


We present a model on plant—deer—climate interactions developed for improving our understanding of the temporal dynamics of deer abundance and, in particular, how intrinsic (density–dependent) and extrinsic (plants, climate) factors influence these dynamics. The model was tested statistically by analysing the dynamics of five Norwegian red deer populations between 1964 and 1993. Direct and delayed density–dependence significantly influenced the development of the populations: delayed density–dependence primarily operated through female density, whereas direct density–dependence acted through both female and male densities. Furthermore, population dynamics of Norwegian red deer were significantly affected by climate (as measured by the global weather phenomenon, the North Atlantic Oscillation: NAO). Warm, snowy winters (high NAO) were associated with decreased deer abundance, whereas the delayed (two–year) effect of warm, snowy winters had a positive effect on deer abundance. Our analyses are argued to have profound implications for the general understanding of climate change and terrestrial ecosystem functioning.


The excessive and unanticipated vibrations of stay cables in cable-stayed bridges around the world have been often observed with the occurrence of wind and wind-rain. These vibrations with low frequency and high amplitude are important for the safety and serviceability of cable-stayed bridges. There has been extensive research involving wind tunnel experimentation and field observations that is devoted to investigating the main factors contributing to the cable vibration and that propose potential mechanisms. A comprehensive understanding is, however, still not available. Moreover, there have been few studies involving in-depth investigation of the fluid flow around a stationary cable, which is fundamental to understanding the aerodynamic instability associated with the cable vibration. In order to investigate the fundamental characteristics of aerodynamic forces on a cable oblique to wind in this work, the 3-D DES (Detached Eddy Simulation) approach was applied to flow around a yawed and inclined circular cylinder in this study. DES enables simulation of unsteady three-dimensional flow at high Reynolds number while maintaining reasonable computational requirements. First, simulations of flow normal to a circular cylinder using 2-D RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation) were conducted for verification of numerical schemes/conditions and for validation of the simulated flow. In DES, the flow region near a wall is treated in the RANS mode whose solution becomes converged with grid refinement. Therefore, 2-D RANS could be used to examine the numerical effects of spatial/temporal discretizations and computational schemes on the simulated flow. The verification associated with three-dimensional effects, such as spanwise grid sizes, cylinder lengths and spanwise boundary conditions, was performed in flows normal to and oblique to a cylinder using 3-D DES and comparison to experimental data. The verified and validated 3-D DES was used to investigate characteristics of the flow and the associated aerodynamic forces on a yawed and inclined circular cylinder. The study shows that the flow around the cylinder is inherently three-dimensional. According to the proposed mechanism to explain the flow-induced forces, an important factor is a swirling flow, which has an axial velocity component as well as rotational one. The swirling flow is developed by the rolled-up shear layer flowing past the oblique cylinder, generating relatively large forces on the cylinder. Multiple forces with peaks of finite length occur at spatial intervals along the cylinder axis, alternating on both sides of the cylinder while moving at a fixed speed. The speed of these force peaks is approximately 90% of the velocity component of the oncoming upstream flow parallel to the cylinder axis. Three-dimensional characteristics of the aerodynamic forces on the cylinder are discussed in local coordinates as well as in global coordinates. While a few high frequencies are observed in the force coefficient (Cy) of the local y axis, the force coefficient (Cx) in the local x axis has a significant low-frequency component. It is much lower than that of Karman vortex-induced vibration in the same flow environment. The behaviors of Cx and Cy result from the periodic moving forces due to traveling swirling flows in equi-spaced intervals. This regular pattern of the multiple moving loads is a potential source for low-frequency and high-amplitude aerodynamic instability of a long circular cylinder oblique to the flow. Since the forces move along the cylinder, they were investigated in a Lagrangian reference frame as well as in an Eulerian frame. The moving force coefficients (Cmx and Cmy) have one dominant frequency for the fluctuations in the x and y axes, respectively when they travel along the cylinder. The dominant frequency of Cmx is twice as high as for Cmy, which implies that the moving forces are related to classical Karman vortices. The effects of the angle of the cylinder to the flow on characteristics of the flow and the associated forces were also examined in this study. As yaw angle increases, the peak frequency of Cy deviates from the prediction by the Cosine Rule. The dominant frequency of Cx has a relatively low-frequency component and increases with yaw angle, but it cannot be predicted by the Cosine Rule. The comparison results indicate that the three-dimensional characteristics of the forces cannot be precisely explained by a quasitwo-dimensional approximation, such as the Cosine Rule. While there have been many efforts to investigate the characteristics of cylinder flow and related forces, this is, to the author's knowledge, the first numerical study to focus on the three-dimensional characteristics of the fully-developed flow at high Reynolds number and associated forces on a yawed and inclined circular cylinder. This study is a significant contribution for improved understanding of the complex threedimensional characteristics of the flow and flow-induced forces. The low frequency components of the forces provide insights into the fundamental mechanism of cable vibrations with low frequency and high amplitude. This study also can be applied not only to circular cylindrical structures under oblique flow such as electrical transmission lines under oblique wind and marine structures under inclined currents but also to any elongated bluff bodies under flow in three-dimensional environments.


Recent innovations in microsystems materials and fabrication permit the creation of complex microactuation mechnisms with heterogeneous properties and behaviors. Meanwhile, emerging applications such as micro-robotics extend the environments in with microsystems may operate. This introduces substantial challenges for the design given the wide range of feasible devices. This paper describes a novel synthesis method based on structural topology optimization for the automated design of micro-robotic appendages realized by utilizing heterogeneous materials and embedded actuation. A typical mechanism designed by this approach, inspired by innovations in thin-film piezoelectric integration with other microstructures and materials, might include active smart actuators, elements formed from traditional semiconductor materials, and comparatively soft polymer flexures. We will introduce the framework for design optimization, and detailed procedure for problem definition, parameterization, and optimization. The focus of the synthesis is on realizing micro-robotic appendages that can achieve control of an end-effector in different directions (one and two). Original formulations of the optimization objective functions that lead to desired micro-robotic solutions are presented. Examples of different optimized designs are presented, with novel micro-robotic appendage solutions that can realize large in-plane displacement compared to prior devices, controllable actuation in largely-decoupled axes, and/or generation of unusual rotational displacement from initially planar geometries. Performance predicted by the design optimization algorithm is compared to simulated behavior through computational modeling. The presented synthesis method can be utilized by others to design micro-robotic solutions for different applications.


Context: In Saudi Arabia, distance-learning plays a vital role in the female higher education system. This system is considered unique among all the world's countries because, for religious reasons, intermixing of the genders is not allowed within most educational settings in Saudi society. This system is currently facing a problem with an overflow of female students in higher educational institutions as these institutions suffer from a lack of female faculty members. To resolve this problem, all universities in Saudi Arabia utilise synchronous distance learning technologies such as video and audio conferences technologies for the delivery of subjects by male faculty members to female students, as this is the only authorised way for male faculty to teach female students. Although this method has been used in Saudi Arabia continuously since 1970, no study has addressed the perceptions of female students, regarding the problems they face whilst studying, through such technologies or proposed any solution for these problems.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of female students at King Saud University regarding the difficulties and barriers they encounter in the distance learning classrooms that use video conferencing technology. This study also proposes feasible solutions for the most common problems. It has developed an innovative interactive communication system, CommEasy, based on the internet and Wi-Fi technologies for handheld devices and uses this system to enhance communication and participation in distance learning.

Method: The research questions are answered by applying a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches that have been selected according to the nature of the research. A case study research design was chosen to address all the research questions related to KSU. Identifying the perceptions of female students about the problems they encounter in distance learning classrooms was gathered through a questionnaire with five main parts: classroom physical design, classroom physical features, technical support, communication and participation with male instructors and classroom management. Each part used a number of questions to measure the students' perceptions and the students were asked to respond to each question using a five-point Likert scale. Proposing feasible solutions for the problems reported by students required using a mixture of methods, such as observations, structured interviews and surveys. An incremental software development approach was used to develop the CommEasy tool that was used in this thesis and the quasi-experimental method was used to evaluate this tool in the actual learning environment.

Results: The results of the thesis presented the perceptions of students towards the components of the distance-learning classrooms and showed all the satisfactory and unsatisfactory components. It produced a list of strategies for effective designing of the distance-learning classroom that uses video conference technology, produced a new physical design for the distance-learning classrooms that used video conference technologies, provided a set of feasible solutions for the problems identified and finally, showed that the CommEasy system has a positive impact, in supporting communication in the distance-learning classroom, leading to an increased level of student participation with instructors, as well as solving most of the problems students were faced with in this regard.

Conclusions: in summary, the outcome of this thesis should provide both researchers and decision makers with an insight into the problems facing students in distance-learning, as well as providing them with feasible solutions for these problems. This thesis will serve as a basis for further research in this field to be conducted in Saudi Arabia.


Respect for human rights requires engagement of a special capacity to identify and respond to rights, but current research on the psychological causes and conditions of human rights violations has proceeded without a clear enough understanding of the distinctive ways this psychological capacity functions. This article integrates contemporary insights from social and cognitive psychology with findings from a broader range of fields, including philosophy and evolutionary theory, to develop a contemporary account of this special capacity. The account suggests that processes of so-called "dehumanization" are not as fundamental to the generation of human rights violations as current research has suggested. Humans have an innate capacity to identify and respond to rights, but it needs support to produce stable perceptions of rights beyond one's in-group. Distinctive factors engage this capacity and can help orient it to support a more stable and universally shared form of respect for human rights in the modern world.


The redevelopment and beautification of the capital for the making of a "world-class city" have entailed a heavy cost in terms of slum demolitions. A survey documenting the change of land use that has taken place on the sites of demolished slum clusters highlights the emerging processes and trends. Some of its findings question the stated principle of the Delhi slum policy, namely, the removal and relocation of squatter settlements only when the land is required to implement projects in the "larger public interest". The preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games further provides the urban authorities with an opportune context to "clean up" the city from its slums.


[1] An empirical model of the quiet daily geomagnetic field variation has been constructed based on geomagnetic data obtained from 21 stations along the 210 Magnetic Meridian of the Circum-pan Pacific Magnetometer Network (CPMN) from 1996 to 2007. Using the least squares fitting method for geomagnetically quiet days (Kp ≤ 2+), the quiet daily geomagnetic field variation at each station was described as a function of solar activity SA, day of year DOY, lunar age LA, and local time LT. After interpolation in latitude, the model can describe solar-activity dependence and seasonal dependence of solar quiet daily variations (S) and lunar quiet daily variations (L). We performed a spherical harmonic analysis (SHA) on these S and L variations to examine average characteristics of the equivalent external current systems. We found three particularly noteworthy results. First, the total current intensity of the S current system is largely controlled by solar activity while its focus position is not significantly affected by solar activity. Second, we found that seasonal variations of the S current intensity exhibit north-south asymmetry; the current intensity of the northern vortex shows a prominent annual variation while the southern vortex shows a clear semi-annual variation as well as annual variation. Thirdly, we found that the total intensity of the L current system changes depending on solar activity and season; seasonal variations of the L current intensity show an enhancement during the December solstice, independent of the level of solar activity.


The goal of this study was to use census information to measure the level of occupational segregation of workers of African descent compared to whites in various Latin American countries. I further investigated the extent to which segregation levels can be accounted for by different factors, such as the impact of black-white inequalities on years of schooling or different age structures of the racial groups that are unevenly distributed across the countries. The results show that Afro-Latinos are generally highly segregated across occupations. However, while a large proportion of this segregation would not exist in Brazil and Ecuador if Afro-Latinos had attained the same education as whites, the proportion of occupational segregation explained by educational inequalities is much lower in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. Further, occupational segregation would be even higher in most cases if the geographical distribution of black and white populations were similar across these countries.


During the years from 1616 (when the Decree prohibiting
two Copernican propositions was issued by the Congregation of the Index) to 1623 (when Galileo published The Assayer) Jesuits of the Roman College made several attempts to draw Galileo into further discussion of his work. This was not with the intention of checking his obedience to the Decree, but in order to test the strength of any continuing work. The evidence suggests that there were certain Jesuits, who were willing, even determined, to re-open debate with him. They made a genuine attempt to build a new synthesis, aligning the established world picture with some of the new astronomical observations. The initiatory moves in these attempts, always made through a third party, ranged from the oblique to the overtly demanding.

As early as 1614 a group of Jesuits at Ingoldstadt saw problems in the way the new astronomical discoveries could be used by those interested in magic and astrology, and asked Aquaviva the General of the Society of Jesus to prohibit one of their members from writing in praise of Galileo's work. From this initial move against the Galilean findings, there stemmed a reactionary group which led to a reaffirmation of the primacy of the Aristotelian cosmology, in the Roman College in 1624.

With the Ludovisi Papacy, initiated by the election of Cardinal Ludovisi as Pope Gregory XV there emerged a lighter, more buoyant intellectual atmosphere, one in which Pope and Cardinal Nephew played a leading role. This change in Papal outlook caused Galileo to think there was the possibility that the severity of the 1616 Decree might be lessened, and as a consequence his long-promised book The Assayer was completed and appeared in manuscript early
in 1623. During the time of its printing Gregory XV died and
Maffeo Barberini became Urban VIII, and though this seemed to offer even better possibilities for Galileo, in the event there were to be greater problems ahead.


Background: Regular access to dental services is a well-known factor in the oral health and development of children. As such, the United States federal government mandates each state to include dental services for children enrolled in Medicaid through the age of 21. Despite this mandate, the utilization rate of dental services among Medicaid enrolled children has remained remarkably low. In July 2005, Virginia implemented a sweeping Medicaid policy reform titled "Smiles for Children," specifically aiming to increase Medicaid pediatric dental utilization rates. The purpose of this study aims to assess the effect of this 2005 policy reform on the utilization of dental services by children enrolled in Medicaid. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the 2005 Virginia Smiles for Children Medicaid policy reform on the utilization of dental services among Medicaid enrolled children. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of children (pre-reform n=559,820, postreform n=690,538) enrolled in Virginia Medicaid from 2002 through 2008. Descriptive statistics and repeated measures multivariate logistic regressions were used to determine the relationship between enrollment (Preand Post-policy reform) and the utilization of dental services (1+ Dental Visits vs. No Dental Visits). Results: Descriptive analysis of the cohort found that 34% of pre-reform children had a dental visit while 44% of post-reform children. The logistic regression models revealed that children in the post reform period were 1.39 as likely to have had a dental visit. Stratifying for enrollment length reveals that as the length of exposure time to the postreform policy increases, the odds of having a dental visit also increase as compared to the pre-reform period: for 31-36 months of enrollment the odds increase 1.54 times. Conclusions: Medicaid policy reform can significantly improve access to dental services for children and can therefore play an important role in promoting public health.


Identity in Flux Cinematic Destabilization in Narrative and Form ! By
 Eli Steenlage, B.S. DePaul University, 2013 Thesis Advisor: Paul Booth Committee: Michael DeAngelis ! This thesis explores the current transitional moment in culture as cinema, identity, and a mediated society interact in a state of flux. My film project, Photostoria, was produced to addresses issues of memory, history, and identity in a digital, socially networked age, through the relationships of the characters/actors and through cinema's unique aesthetic language. The film uses a convergence and remediation of media to reflect the confusion and destabilization of identity formation in cultural terms. Specifically, time travel narratives create a metaphor for the experience of displacement in a hypermediated society. Photostoria is analyzed by way of narrative theory, new media studies, genre theory, and cultural studies in order to expose the affect in on and offline identity as consumer and producer fade into one another. The transmedia and collaborative element of the project presented through the connected website and Kickstarter campaign demonstrate the way that the narrative fluctuates between virtual and non-virtual worlds.


Cutting rough diamonds provides an insight into higher education (HE) participation, which has become an
important focus for policy debate and research. This is the result of ongoing attempts to expand the HE system
in line with wider policies promoting a 'knowledge economy' and resulting from policy concerns with equity
and inclusion. Previous research focuses largely on demographics, academic performance, and persistence rates
of first generation students. Studies in the field of student experience, learning approaches and transitions have
examined the relation between learning and contextual factors. The focus of this inquiry is significant as it
focuses on first generation students' experience and the ways they cope with change (transition to HE) at a
personal and academic level. The term 'rough diamond' is the title for this thesis, as it is redolent with
metaphor that encapsulates many of the discourses that position the students within the inquiry.
To develop a clear and holistic picture of the participants' experiences of higher education, fifty semi-structured
interviews were undertaken. Grounded theory techniques were the initial method of data gathering and analysis.
Phenomenographic techniques were later employed for a deeper exploration of variation in the group and to
generate new knowledge in an under-researched area. The use of grounded theory and phenomenographic
approaches highlighted the complexities in the experiences of these first generation students. They showed the
individual nature of those experiences, set as they were in a highly politicised and dynamic field. The inquiry
traced how these students moved into and took up their place at a single case study university site, 'The Centre'
and how they engaged in their first semester of study of an undergraduate degree. The participants discussed
their experiences transitioning to university and the issues and challenges associated with their new
environment.
In the light of the evidence gathered and a review of existing scholarship, a detailed exploration and theorisation
is offered which draws on the theoretical concepts of Archer (2000, 2003, 2007), Bourdieu (1980, 1984, 1986)
and Weick (2001, 1993, 1995, 2009). These have been combined to provide a conceptual theoretical
framework that helps to illuminate the complexity of the transition process undertaken by these students. The
research findings demonstrate that the point of registration at higher education institutions does not in itself
constitute a successful student transition to university. The findings suggest that underpinning the students'
experiences of transition is a complex interplay between becoming, being and achieving as a higher education
student and their own cultural and social identity. The interplay between university life and personal
circumstance is not easily or simply reconciled or identified.
A psychosocial approach examined the premise that the interaction and transaction between individuals and
structures is essential to develop a holistic understanding of what shapes first generation students' experiences
and choices. Insights for policy makers, policy researchers, higher education managers and lecturers are offered
with regard to provision, transition and subsequent enactment of agency of the first generation students. This
led to a model of the 'process of transition' to illustrate how these students navigate crossing the cultures of
home and university. The model could help retention of first generation students in a competitive market place
for post 1992 universities who rely on these students for their intake.
The thesis offers insights that could inform universities of strategies and practices that may aid widening
participation students to successfully make the transition to university life, and ultimately to graduation. The
inquiry invites further investigation of current higher education policy priorities for first generation students.


The study focuses on themes and areas that have been identified as highly relevant for the modernization and commercialization of the agriculture sector. The study originally aimed to review: agricultural marketing, processing and exports; food safety; agricultural "cooperation," including farmers' groups; agricultural extension and agricultural insurance. This coverage was subsequently modified to: (i) avoid repetition of existing work; (ii) draw more extensively on WBG experience in other countries; (iii) address relevant long-term issues more directly; and (iv) to inform discussion of relevant issues on which little information was available. The proposed review of marketing, processing and exports, an area that has already been well studied – was thus replaced with a review of global experience in developing successful export-led agricultural industries. Similarly, the study of agricultural 'cooperation,' an area also widely studied, was replaced with an analysis of agricultural land markets. Both "cooperation" and land markets are highly pertinent to the need to increase farm size to improve competitiveness. Land markets offer a more structural, long-term response to this problem, however, a response that so far has received little attention. Finally, an analysis of public expenditure on agriculture was added to provide insight into public expenditure on long-term versus short-term sector objectives. The review outlines the elements of a long-term framework based on building a cluster-based, institutional framework for horticultural exports, and suggests the need to prioritize associated development of agricultural extension, food safety, agricultural land markets and agricultural risk management. Horticulture is viewed as a vector for modernization and commercialization, due to its demonstrated potential for exports. The proposed framework would drive growth and change throughout the sector, however, due to the sector-wide impact of support for extension, food safety, land markets and risk management.


We cast the problem of identifying basic blocks of code in a binary executable as learning a mapping from a byte sequence to a segmentation of the sequence. In general, inference in segmentation models, such as semi-CRFs, can be cubic in the length of the sequence. By taking advantage of the structure of our problem, we derive a linear-time inference algorithm which makes our approach practical, given that even small programs are tens or hundreds of thousands bytes long. Furthermore, we introduce two loss functions which are appropriate for our problem and show how to use structural SVMs to optimize the learned mapping for these losses. Finally, we present experimental results that demonstrate the advantages of our method against a strong baseline.


Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects approximately 130–170 million people worldwide, no vaccines are available. HCV is an important cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, leading to the need for liver transplantation. In this study, curcumin, a constituent used in traditional Chinese medicine, has been evaluated for its anti-HCV activity and mechanism, using a human hepatoma cell line containing the HCV genotype 1b subgenomic replicon. Below the concentration of 20% cytotoxicity, curcumin dose-dependently inhibited HCV replication by luciferase reporter gene assay, HCV RNA detection and HCV protein analysis. Under the same conditions, curcumin also dose-dependently induced heme oxygenase-1 with the highest induction at 24 h. Hemin, a heme oxygenase-1 inducer, also inhibited HCV protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. The knockdown of heme oxygenase-1 partially reversed the curcumin-inhibited HCV protein expression. In addition to the heme oxygenase-1 induction, signaling molecule activities of AKT, extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) were inhibited by curcumin. Using specific inhibitors of PI3K-AKT, MEK-ERK and NF-κB, the results suggested that only PI3K-AKT inhibition is positively involved in curcumin-inhibited HCV replication. Inhibition of ERK and NF-κB was likely to promote HCV protein expression. In summary, curcumin inhibited HCV replication by heme oxygenase-1 induction and AKT pathway inhibition. Although curcumin also inhibits ERK and NF-κB activities, it slightly increased the HCV protein expression. This result may provide information when curcumin is used as an adjuvant in anti-HCV therapy.


What supports the claim that corruption causes more suffering for women than men? By distinguishing between indirect victimisation and direct victimisation, it is reasonable to assume women suffer more, and differently, than men. A review of the scarce evidence on the direct impacts of corruption qualifies this claim to some extent. Nevertheless, a general reduction of gender inequalities can addresses the root causes of the gendered impacts of corruption. Anti-corruption programming should include an analysis of differences in gender exposure and vulnerability to corruption, while gender programmes would benefit from an anti-corruption lens.


We present a multiwavelength study of a sample of far-infrared (FIR) sources detected on the Herschel broad-band maps of the nearby galaxy M33. We perform source photometry on the FIR maps as well as mid-infrared (MIR), Halpha, far-ultraviolet and integrated H I and CO line emission maps. By fitting MIR/FIR dust emission spectra, the source dust masses, temperatures and luminosities are inferred. The sources are classified based on their Halpha morphology (sub-structured versus not-substructured) and on whether they have a significant CO detection (S/N > 3sigma). We find that the sources have dust masses in the range 102-104 Ms and that they present significant differences in their inferred dust/star formation/gas parameters depending on their Halpha morphology and CO detection classification. The results suggests differences in the evolutionary states or in the number of embedded H II regions between the sub-samples. The source background-subtracted dust emission seems to be predominantly powered by local star formation, as indicated by a strong correlation between the dust luminosity and the dust-corrected Halpha luminosity and the fact that the extrapolated young stellar luminosity is high enough to account for the observed dust emission. Finally, we do not find a strong correlation between the dust-corrected Halpha luminosity and the dust mass of the sources, consistent with previous results on the breakdown of simple scaling relations at sub-kpc scales. However, the scatter in the relation is significantly reduced by correcting the Halpha luminosity for the age of the young stellar populations in the star-forming regions.


Orininal title: Integratie in zicht?

Migration and integration top the list of social problems which worry people in the Netherlands the most. Radicalisation, the controversy surrounding the folklore figure Zwarte Piet ('Black Pete'), the refugee crisis and ethnic profiling are just a few of the topics that fuel those concerns, and which sometimes cause emotions to run high. All this begs the question of exactly what the current status is regarding the integration In Dutch society of residents with diverse ethnic backgrounds.

This study sheds light on developments in integration over the last 15 years. We concentrate mainly on first and second-generation migrants of Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese and Antillean origin – the four largest non-Western migrant groups in the Netherlands. We investigate whether the differences between the position in society of these groups and of Dutch natives with the same background characteristics are widening or narrowing. We look at developments in relation to housing, employment, education and political and social participation, but also at themes such as crime, interethnic contacts and perceived discrimination.

This publication is edited by Willem Huijnk and Iris Andriessen, both of whom are employed in the Education, Minorities and Methodology Research Sector at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research SCP, where they carry out research on the integration of migrant groups.


The amplified MYCN gene serves as an oncogenic driver in approximately 20% of high-risk pediatric neuroblastomas. Here, we show that the family member MYC is a potent transforming gene in a separate subset of high-risk neuroblastoma cases (∼10%), based on (i) its upregulation by focal enhancer amplification or genomic rearrangements leading to enhancer hijacking, and (ii) its ability to transform neuroblastoma precursor cells in a transgenic animal model. The aberrant regulatory elements associated with oncogenic MYC activation include focally amplified distal enhancers and translocation of highly active enhancers from other genes to within topologically associating domains containing the MYC gene locus. The clinical outcome for patients with high levels of MYC expression is virtually identical to that of patients with amplification of the MYCN gene, a known high-risk feature of this disease. Together, these findings establish MYC as a bona fide oncogene in a clinically significant group of high-risk childhood neuroblastomas.Significance: Amplification of the MYCN oncogene is a recognized hallmark of high-risk pediatric neuroblastoma. Here, we demonstrate that MYC is also activated as a potent oncogene in a distinct subset of neuroblastoma cases through either focal amplification of distal enhancers or enhancer hijacking mediated by chromosomal translocation. Cancer Discov; 8(3); 320-35. ©2017 AACR.This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 253.


The complexity of the pathophysiology of tennis elbow is reflected by the lack of consensus on management and remains a therapeutic challenge. This study was a prospective randomised, assessor-blinded trial. 64 patients with tennis elbow referred by their GP to either the physiotherapy, orthopaedic or MSK CAT services, subject to eligibility criteria, were randomised into one of 3 treatment arms: injection, ultrasound or exercise, to which the assessor remained blinded. The outcome measures of thermal difference, median frequency (MDF), patient-rated tennis elbow evaluation questionnaire (PRTEE), pain-free grip strength (PFG) and patient preference were assessed twice at baseline, at 10 days, 6 weeks and 6 months and analysed as an intention to treat analysis.

In the short term of 6 weeks injection was the most effective treatment demonstrating both statistically significant and minimum clinically important differences (MCID) for PFG and PRTEE in comparison to ultrasound and exercise. Patients had a strong preference for injection and a strong aversion for exercise. No statistically significant differences were found between ultrasound and exercise although a MCID was found in favour of ultrasound for thermal difference and MDF at 10 days. In to the long term of 6 months, although this was on a limited subgroup, no statistically significant differences were found between any of the groups. A MCID was found in favour of ultrasound for MDF and a MCID was found in favour of exercise over injection for all aspects of PRTEE and over ultrasound for PRTEE pain only.

This research supports the superior effectiveness of injection in the short term of 6 weeks and should be advocated for patients who present early with severe limiting pain and have important short term goals, although patients need to be warned that a 1/3rd will have a recurrence of symptoms within 6 months. In contrast, for those patients who present with moderate to low pain physiotherapy including exercise and/ or ultrasound should be advocated. Thermal difference is a sensitive outcome measure for tennis elbow. Continuous 3 MHz therapeutic ultrasound at 2W/cm2 for 5 minutes utilises thermal effects which optimise the healing process and demonstrate an accumulative effect of ultrasound in to the long term. Further research on the effectiveness of a combination of injection with physiotherapy is required.


In the nineteenth century, the Academie des Beaux Arts, and institution of central importance to the artistic life of France for over two hundred years, yielded much of its power to the present system of art distribution, which is dependent upon critics, dealers, and small exhibitions. In "Canvases and Careers," Harrison and Cynthia White examine in scrupulous and fascinating detail how and why this shift occurred. Assimilating a wide range of historical and sociological data, the authors argue convincingly that the Academy, by neglecting to address the social and economic conditions of its time, undermined its own ability to maintain authority and control. Originally published in 1965, this ground-breaking work is a classic piece of empirical research in the sociology of art. In this edition, Harrison C. White's new Foreword compares the marketing approaches of two contemporary painters, while Cynthia A. White's new Afterword reviews recent scholarship in the field."


There is a large presence of translators without formal education in the Slovene market, partly because until the 1990s there were no independent translation programs, but also because of the popular notion that anybody who speaks a foreign language well, or has a degree in it, can translate. In this paper we present a comparison of four B.A. programs at the University of Ljubljana (in three foreign language departments and one department of translation) to shed light on what knowledge and competences are expected at the end of the B.A. studies, and to find out whether these departments actually train people to be translators. The paper also reports the results of a translation quality assessment of third-year students of those departments, who were given the task of translating a text into their L1. The students approached the task in different ways and produced very different results, which indicates that language competences alone are not enough for translation, and that specific additional instruction can give them a considerable advantage at the beginning of their careers.


Determining the extent of dispersal in exploited marine fishes is essential for understanding their population dynamics and optimising management. The West Australian dhufish, Glaucosoma hebraicum, is a highly sought-after, large and long-lived reef-dwelling species, endemic to south-western Australia. Stock assessments indicate that this indicator species is overexploited. The fishery is managed using a zone-based system, which implicitly assumes a high degree of demographic independence among zones. While tagging studies indicate limited movement of adult G. hebraicum, there is no understanding of the spatial scale of dispersal of its larvae and thus the true extent of interdependence of management zones. We analysed 13 microsatellite DNA loci to characterise the extent of gene flow, and conducted particle tracking simulations to model larval transport in this species. Genetic data demonstrated that some local recruitment was likely, but that on a broad scale gene flow between the management zones was extensive, and the entire fishery represents a single genetic stock. Hydrodynamic modelling predicted that the majority of dhufish larvae recruit from within the management zone where they are spawned, and that inter-annual variation in current velocities has limited effect on the extent of larval transport. Because management zones are likely to be largely independent in terms of both larval and adult recruitment, heavy localised fishing pressure has the potential to reduce the abundance and reproductive capacity of this species in highly fished areas, but it should have limited impact on neutral genetic diversity.