This paper describes the components of a robust and wide-coverage morphological analyser for Basque. The analyser is based on the two-level formalism and has been designed in an incremental way with three main modules: the standard analyser, the analyser of linguistic variants, and the analyser without lexicon which can recognize word-forms without having their lemmas in the lexicon. Using lexical transducers for our analyser we have improved both the performance of the different components of the system and the description itself. The analyser is a basic tool for current and future work on automatic processing of Basque and its first two applications are a commercial spelling corrector and a general purpose lemmatizer/tagger.


The chemical approach to the sequence specific recognition of double stranded DNA in this laboratory focuses on two distinct structural motifs. The first is oligonucleotide-directed triple helix formation. Pyrimidine oligonucleotides bind homopurine duplex sequences in the major groove by formation of T•AT and C+GC base triplets in a parallel orientation relative to the purine target strand. Purine rich oligonucleotides also bind homopurine sequences in the major groove, by formation of G•GC and A•AT or T•AT base triplets, in this case oriented antiparallel to the purine target strand. The lack of ability recognize CG and TA base pairs by either pyrimidine or purine oligonucleotides has resulted in efforts to design nonnatural bases which can recognize these base pairs in the context of triple helices. Such bases would greatly expand the generality of triple helix formation by expanding the range of targetable sequences.

The second structural motif consists of pyrrole-imidazole polyamides which form 2:1 side-by-side antiparallel complexes in the minor groove of DNA. A set of "pairing rules" has been elucidated in which an imidazole-pyrrole pair recognizes a GC base pair, a pyrrole-imidazole pair recognizes CG, and a pyrrole-pyrrole pair is degenerate for both AT and TA base pairs.

This thesis describes the application of quantitative DNase I footprinting to the evaluation of the energetics of triple helix formation by purine and pyrimidine oligonucleotides containing designed, nonnatural bases, as well the energetics of complex formation between covalently linked H-pin polyamides and the minor groove of DNA. Chapter Two describes the energetics of formation of sixteen triple helical complexes containing only the natural bases A, G, C, and T, which vary at single position within the purine motif. The values obtained set a basis with which to evaluate the energetics of triple helices containing nonnatural bases, and demonstrate the exquisite sensitivity of triple helices to single base mismatches. Chapter Three describes the energetics of formation of purine motif triple helical complexes which contain single substitutions of the nonnatural purines inosine, 2-aminopurine, nebularine, and isoinosine. The results emphasize that new structural space must be explored in order to design bases which will specifically recognize CG and TA base pairs within the purine motif. Chapter Four describes the design and synthesis of methyl-substituted imidazole nucleosides and evaluation of the energetics of formation of purine motif triple helical complexes containing single substitutions of these nonnatural bases. The results suggest that use of small, fivemembered ring heterocycles is likely a good design toward TA recognition, but that hydrophobic interactions between a designed nonnatural base and the 5-methyl group of thymine is not energetically favorable in the context of a purine motif triple helix. Chapter Five describes the design and synthesis of substituted pyrazole nucleosides and evaluation of the energetics of formation of purine motif triple helical complexes containing single substitutions of these nonnatural bases. The pyrazole substitution showed improved specificity towards TA, but at low affinity. This affinity could not be improved by appropriate substitution of an amino group, which instead improved affinity for GC. This points to the difficulty of forming a hydrogen bond to the 04 carbonyl of thymine relative to the more accessible 06 carbonyl of guanine. Chapter Six describes an evaluation of the energetics of formation of pyrimidine motif triple helical complexes containing a previously published nonnatural base and the discovery that as previously prepared, the base retains a benzoyl protecting group in the pyrimidine oligonucleotide. This benzoylated base shows specificity for CG and TA base pairs, similarly to the previously reported, structurally similar D3, which has been shown to bind through an intercalative mode. Independent synthesis of the unprotected base through a new route proved that this base did not bind specifically to any of the four base pairs in the context of a pyrimidine motif triple helix. Chapter Seven describes an evaluation of the energetics of formation of pyrimidine motif triple helical complexes containing a nonnatural base derived from a model heterocycle which was shown to bind isolated CG base pairs in organic solvent. The results suggest that model studies in organic solvent cannot accurately predict the behavior of nonnatural bases in water, in the context of a triple helix, since this base showed no specificity for any base pair by quantitative DNase I footprinting studies. Chapter Eight describes the design and solid phase synthesis of a series of pyrrole-imidazole polyamides which are covalently linked across central pyrrole nitrogens to increase affinity and specificity towards their DNA target sites according to the 2:1 polyamide:DNA binding model. DNase I footprint titration results show that these H-pin polyamides do bind with increased affinity and specificity relative to unlinked analogues, but that hairpin polyamides show a greater improvement, and are thus more optimal designs.


The intake of sodium, potassium, and phosphorus has important implications for chronic disease risk. Excess sodium intake is shown to be associated with elevated blood pressure, which in turn is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Potassium intake, on the other hand, is shown to be beneficial for lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of CVD and CKD. Once an individual develops CKD, they experience alterations in mineral metabolism, especially phosphorus, and must closely monitor mineral intake and biochemical laboratory values in order to avoid complications. Thus, monitoring mineral intake is important in both healthy and CKD individuals in both research as well as clinical practice settings. It is therefore also important to have a method for estimating mineral intake that is both accurate as well as easy to administer. Two commonly used methods are self-report and 24-hour urinary mineral excretion. however, both methods have pros and cons. An alternative option that has been explored for all three minerals of interest is to collect a spot urine sample, then use one of several published equations to calculate an estimate of 24-hour urinary mineral excretion. While this method is relatively easy to administer, much remains unexplored regarding the accuracy of estimated 24-hour mineral excretion. My aim for my dissertation was to explore how estimated 24-hour sodium (e24hUNa), potassium (e24hUK) and phosphorus (e24hUP) compared to true mineral intake in healthy participants as well as those with CKD. We conducted secondary analyses from two controlled feeding studies, in which true mineral intake was known. Our results show that e24hUNa and e24hUK are not reliable indicators of true sodium and potassium intake, respectively, in healthy participants nor those with CKD, and e24hUP is not a reliable indicator of phosphorus intake in CKD participants. Though these findings should be confirmed by larger studies, these findings suggest that currently available equations may need to be revised and estimated 24-hour mineral excretion from spot urine samples should be interpreted with caution.


Understanding the causes and effects of species invasions is a priority in ecology and conservation biology. One of the crucial steps in evaluating the impact of invasive species is to map changes in their actual and potential distribution and relative abundance across a wide region over an appropriate time span. While direct and indirect remote sensing approaches have long been used to assess the invasion of plant species, the distribution of invasive animals is mainly based on indirect methods that rely on environmental proxies of conditions suitable for colonization by a particular species. The aim of this article is to review recent efforts in the predictive modelling of the spread of both plant and animal invasive species using remote sensing, and to stimulate debate on the potential use of remote sensing in biological invasion monitoring and forecasting. Specifically, the challenges and drawbacks of remote sensing techniques are discussed in relation to: i) developing species distribution models, and ii) studying life cycle changes and phenological variations. Finally, the paper addresses the open challenges and pitfalls of remote sensing for biological invasion studies including sensor characteristics, upscaling and downscaling in species distribution models, and uncertainty of results.


ABSTRACT The enhanced gastric epithelial cell apoptosis observed during infection with Helicobacter pylori has been suggested to be of significance in the etiology of gastritis, peptic ulcers, and neoplasia. To investigate the cell death signaling induced by H. pylori infection, human gastric epithelial cells were incubated with H. pylori for up to 72 h. H. pyloriinfection induced the activation of caspase -8, -9, and -3 and the expression of the proapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins Bad and Bid. The peak of the activity of the caspases occurred at 24 h. At this time, the inhibition of caspase-8 or -9 almost completely suppressedH. pylori-induced apoptosis. Inhibition of caspase-8 suppressed the expression of Bad and Bid and the subsequent activation of caspase-9 and -3. These observations indicate that H. pylori induces apoptosis through a pathway involving the sequential induction of apical caspase-8 activity, the proapoptotic proteins Bad and Bid, caspase-9 activity, and effector caspase-3 activity. Activation of the pathway was independent of CagA or vacuolating toxin. A membrane fraction of H. pylori was sufficient to activate this pathway, and treatment with proteinase K eliminated the activity. Apoptotic activity of the membrane fraction was significantly increased by incubating the bacteria under serum-starved conditions for 24 h. These observations suggest that environmental conditions in the human stomach could induce H. pylori-mediated pathogenesis, leading to a variety of clinical outcomes.


The research purpose is: 1) to analyze the farm of production of papaya california and papaya bangkok. 2) toanalyze the optimal allocation of resources owned by farmers of papaya california and papaya bangkok to achieve optimal condition in the Palas Village Rumbai District of Pekanbaru. The research was conducted in the Palas Village Rumbai District of Pekanbaru, the reserch was conducted approximately for 4 months with the survey method, the sample was taken as many as 32 samples by using purposive sampling method. the model of analysis that will be used in this research is to obtain the optimal combination of production rate by using Linear Programming models using QM for Windows version 1.3 to papaya california and papaya bangkok farm. From the research results of optimization analysis showing that the combination of production for papaya california and papaya bangkok is by planting 4.2065 Ha for papaya california and 2.5508 Ha for papaya bangkok. In the analysis of optimal resource that includes an active constraint is the availability of capital constraints and cost constraints of seeds which means if farmers increase the number of resource availability constraints, it will increase the rate of profit. While the other constraints, constraints of availability of land, labor costs constraints, fertilizers cost constraints, and pesticides cost constraints into passive constraints or excessive which means the availability of unused resources as a whole. Keywords: Optimization, Production, Profits, Papaya


Background. Most people with mental illness live in developing countries, where a large proportion of these illnesses are undiagnosed and untreated. As effort is made to encourage mental health (MH) research as an avenue to optimise the management of mental illness, this should be accompanied by adequate knowledge, correct attitude and practice on ethical conduct of research. This study reports the knowledge and attitude among postgraduate students in Kenya on ethics in MH research. Methods. Consenting students undertaking master's degree courses ( n =40) with interest in carrying out MH research were assessed using adapted standard tools for assessing knowledge and attitude. Primary comparison is made on the level of knowledge and attitude between the different cohorts. Results. Participants undertaking postgraduate degrees in medicine, clinical psychology, pharmacy and nursing were individually scored and collectively found to have a medium ( n =32, 79.5%) or high ( n =8, 20.5%) level of knowledge. The general attitude towards most aspects of the consent process and confidentiality was observed to be appropriate. Low knowledge of international ethics guidelines was observed. Conclusion. Gaps in knowledge and attitude on ethics among the participants have been identified, and this may initiate the process of appropriate interventions necessary in maintenance of ethical practices in the management of mental illness.


As a primary laboratory in the field of ionizing radiation metrology, the LNE-CEA/LNHB is involved in measurement, evaluation and dissemination of radioactive decay data. Data measurements obtained by various laboratories are evaluated by an international group of experts (Decay Data Evaluation Project) in order to establish a set of recommended decay scheme data. Those data are subsequently distributed to users through various tools developed in our laboratory and well suited to each application domain. They are presented in an exhaustive and documented way through the publication of a multi-volume printed monograph (Monographie BIPM-5), for which a new issue has been released by the end of 2006. This monograph is recommended as a reference database by the CCRI (Comit´ e Consultatif des Rayonnements Ionisants) of the BIPM. Those data can also be accessed via a specific software N´ whose database contains more than 300 nuclides of particular interest. In the field of alpha and gamma spectrometry, a web application has been specially developed in order to present the major emissions of a given nuclide. Moreover, it allows to find nuclides corresponding to search criteria on their emission energies or intensities. Finally a booklet version of this database will soon be published. It will present in a concise way the main alpha, X, gamma and electron emissions and their half-life, for some 250 nuclides. This paper intends to describe some features of these tools and publications.


Excerpt] Since the start of the recent recession, which began in December 2007, many unemployed Americans have entered the ranks of the long-term unemployed (those who are unemployed for 27 weeks or more). Long-term unemployment peaked at 46 percent of total unemployment in May 2010, well after the recent recession ended in June 2009. In contrast, after an earlier recession, which lasted from July 1981 to November 1982, the long-term unemployed number peaked at 26 percent of total unemployment in 1983. These point-in-time estimates, however, do not indicate the proportion of people who have a long-term unemployment spell over their labor market career, how long it takes to find a job after their first long-term unemployment spell, or how the spell affects wages over time. This BEYOND THE NUMBERS article begins to answer these questions. Using the employment history of men in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), the article examines entry into and out of longterm spells of unemployment and looks at the effect of long-term unemployment on average wages. The men in the NLSY79 were born in the years 1957 to 1964. The analysis covers the mid-1980s through 2009, focusing on men's employment histories from their mid-20s, after they have become integrated into the labor market, until their middle to late 40s and early 50s.


Human lifespans are increasing with advances in medicine, but the economic value of these gains are poorly understood. Based on U.S. data, we show a compression of morbidity that improves health is more valuable than further increases in life expectancy. However, economic gains to better health diminish unless longevity also improves. Treatments that target aging are hence particularly valuable, as they produce both healthier and longer lives. We calculate a slowdown in aging that increases life expectancy by one year is worth $38 trillion, and for ten years $367 trillion. Evaluating the impact of metformin shows targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases. Complementarities between health, longevity and age lead to a virtuous circle that means improvements in aging increase the value of further gains. Aligned with trends in demographics and disease, this implies the gains from age targeting treatments will increase further in the decades ahead.


Mountains are important sources of freshwater for the adjacent lowlands. In view of increasingly scarce freshwater resources, this contribution should be clarified. While earlier studies focused on selected river systems in different climate zones, we attempt here a first spatially explicit, global typology of the so‐called "water towers" at the 0.5° × 0.5° resolution in order to identify critical regions where disproportionality of mountain runoff as compared to lowlands is maximum. Then, an Earth systems perspective is considered with incorporation of lowland climates, distinguishing four different types of water towers. We show that more than 50% of mountain areas have an essential or supportive role for downstream regions. Finally, the potential significance of water resources in mountains is illustrated by including the actual population in the adjacent lowlands and its water needs: 7% of global mountain area provides essential water resources, while another 37% delivers important supportive supply, especially in arid and semiarid regions where vulnerability for seasonal and regional water shortage is high.


We consider Social Distance Games (SDGs), that is cluster formation games in which the utility of each agent only depends on the composition of the cluster she belongs to, proportionally to her harmonic centrality, i.e., to the average inverse distance from the other agents in the cluster. Under a non-cooperative perspective, we adopt Nash stable outcomes, in which no agent can improve her utility by unilaterally changing her coalition, as the target solution concept. Although a Nash equilibrium for a SDG can always be computed in polynomial time, we obtain a negative result concerning the game convergence and we prove that computing a Nash equilibrium that maximizes the social welfare is NP-hard by a polynomial time reduction from the NP-complete Restricted Exact Cover by 3-Sets problem. We then focus on the performance of Nash equilibria and provide matching upper bound and lower bounds on the price of anarchy of Θ(n), where n is the number of nodes of the underlying graph. Moreover, we show that there exists a class of SDGs having a lower bound on the price of stability of 6/5 − ε, for any ε > 0. Finally, we characterize the price of stability 5 of SDGs for graphs with girth 4 and girth at least 5, the girth being the length of the shortest cycle in the graph.


This paper proposes a swarm-inspired data centre self-organizing and consolidation technique which aims at reducing the power demand in data centres while ensuring the workload execution within the established performance parameters. Each data centre server is managed by an intelligent agent that implements a bird's migration-inspired behaviour to decide on the appropriate server consolidation actions. The selected actions are executed to achieve an optimal utilization of server computing resources thus lowering power demand. The data centre servers self-organize in logical clusters according to the birds V-formation self-organizing migration model. The results are promising showing that by using the proposed swarm-inspired solution, the data centre Deployed Hardware Utilization Ratio Green Indicator increases compared to the widely used Fit First consolidation algorithm. The average power saving of the proposed technique is around 40% of the power demanded by the data centre computing resources and about 16% of its total power demand including the IT facility, when comparing to OpenNebula Fit First consolidation technique. This paper is an extended version of the one published in WIMS'12 proceedings showing more details about the swarm-inspired consolidation technique and the defined algorithms.


Background Conservation of whale sharks is making remarkable advances through many studies ongoing in tropical and sub-tropical oceans. However, there have been few studies in the North Pacific Ocean. Some whale shark appearances, as well as by-catch by set-net and purse seining in the southern waters of Japan are reported every year. These waters are important for the conservation ecology of whale sharks because they are the northern limit of the whale shark's distribution and have high productivity influenced by the Kuroshio and Oyashio Currents. However, the habitat and movement of whale sharks around Japan in the North Pacific Ocean are poorly understood. Approach To investigate the habitat and movement of the whale shark, two whale sharks were tagged with PAT-tags (MK-10, Wildlife) and released off the coast of Kouchi, Japan in October 2013 (WS13: 4.2 m in total length) and June 2014 (WS14: 7.2 m). For biological studies and rearing trials, WS13 had been reared for 6 years and 4 months in the Osaka Aquarium of KAIYUKAN, Osaka, and WS14 had been reared for 4 months in the Osaka Aquarium Biological Research Institute of Iburi Center (OBIC) of KAIYUKAN, Kochi, Japan before tagging. The PAT-tags recorded ambient temperature, swimming depth and light level data for 30 and 90 days, respectively, until the detached from the whale shark. After the PAT-tag detachment, the tag floats to the surface and transmits the sampled data via the Argos satellite system. Geolocations of tagged sharks were estimated using light measurement data from the tag and sea surface temperature from the satellite. The horizontal and vertical movements were examined in relation to oceanographic conditions. Results The two sharks moved in the same direction to the east along the Kuroshio Current after being released, despite being released in different seasons. However, WS13 remained in the eddy in the south of the Kuroshio Current, while WS14 crossed the Kuroshio Current to north and remained in the eddy near the Kuroshio-Oyashio transitional area. The total distance WS13 traveled was 1,407 km over 30 days (48.5 km/day), and WS14 traveled 3,022 km over 90 days (29.0 km/day). The mean daily speed while moving along the Kuroshio Current was higher than while remaining in the eddy for both sharks. The primary swimming depth was surface mixed water where the temperature was above 20 °C. The two sharks spent most of their time near the surface above 10 m depth. Diving over the mesopelagic zone (>200 m depth) was rarely observed while the two sharks were traveling along the Kuroshio Current, and wasn't observed while the sharks remained in the eddy. The maximum swimming depth for WS13 was 632 m, and for WS14 was 1560 m, and lowest temperature recorded was 7.1 °C for WS13 and 2.4 °C for WS14 when the sharks were at their maximum depth. Conclusions In southern waters of Japan, horizontal movements of whale sharks are influenced by the Kuroshio Current and the eddy. Their vertical movements are regulated by the thermocline and the threshold temperature was around 20 °C


The use of augmented reality (AR) has shown great promise in enhancing medical training and diagnostics via interactive simulations. This paper presents a novel method to perform accurate and inexpensive image registration (IR) utilizing a pre-constructed database of reference objects in conjunction with a principal component analysis (PCA) model. In addition, a wavelet compression algorithm is utilized to enhance the speed of the registration process. The proposed method is used to perform registration of a virtual 3D heart model based on tracking of an asymmetric reference object. The results indicate that the accuracy of the method is dependent upon the extent of asymmetry of the reference object which required inclusion of higher order principal components in the model. A key advantage of the presented IR technique is the absence of a restart mechanism required by the existing approaches while allowing up to six orders of magnitude compression of the modeled image space. The results demonstrate that the method is computationally inexpensive and thus suitable for real-time augmented reality implementation.


Although conventional structural analysis software is widely used by practicing engineers, its pedagogical value for students is limited, especially in design applications. Nevertheless, there is an established value in students exploring engineering problems through computational means. This paper presents alternative computational techniques and tools that are effective improvements upon structural analysis software in the university classroom. The first set focuses on graphic statics. The second involves interactive evolutionary optimization. The paper provides feedback about their effective implementation in classrooms and demonstrates how the new tools can continue to be used by students beyond the classroom, to expand explorative opportunities for conceptual structural design in practice.


Abstract. In this paper, we explored the dynamical mechanism of anomalous summer climate late 1970s in China applying a new method, i.e., a dynamics index-Q based on phase-space reconstruction. The interesting results show that different climate variable have the similar dynamics property in different regions, they reflect an intrinsic dynamics interior climate system, which may be associated with the teleconnection wave trains mainly triggered by the Tibetan Plateau, and reveals some of causes making North China drought indirectly. However, the Phenomena are hardly possible found via any statistic methodology.


There have been too many false-starts and failures in Africa and, as a result, many of our people suffer from a poor self image. This is no basis for development. But there is another Africa, not yet known to the mass-media and the world at large, which recognizes that Africa can survive if Africans draw on their own traditions, energy and creativity to become self-sufficient.

Looking at Africa today, the continent's major problems are lack of food, poor transport and unemployment. In major cities like Lagos, Abidjan, Nairobi and Harare, food prices are going up largely because of the cost of transporting food from rural areas. At the same time there are more mouths to feed, more hands without work and more people without income. The Songhai Environmental Rehabilitation Centre has been developed as model farm and training ground to help young Africans to meet these challenges. Our main objectives are to develop low input and therefore low cost, food production systems at the places where the food is most needed - in the cities and in those rural areas where food production is failing. Simultaneously this will provide employment for the many who need a source of food, if not income as well.

The Songhai Project is both a centre of what we might call 'barefoot' research and is a centre of production. The farms and gardens have to be self-supporting economically in order to survive and we believe that it is essential that we train young people within this atmosphere of economic viability for their own future benefit. Our production system integrates crop, livestock and fish production: waste water from the fish ponds irrigates our cassava, corn, vegetables and fruit, while small fish provide protein supplements for our animals; animal manure, crop wastes and water plants generate biogas that serves as the project's primary energy source; and the fish, fruit vegetables and other crops, together with our poultry, rabbits, sheep and goats, help feed the staff and the trainees. We have also responded to the needs of those without any land who wish to produce some of their food by incorporating techniques of growing plants in containers such as old tyres and boxes filled with soil and even on hollow blocks set in walls. In many towns and cities too there is vacant waste land, which urban authorities could make available to local residents, even on a temporary basis, to grow food.

To-date, about one hundred young people from several countries have graduated from a rigorous two-year training programme in which they have learned about complementary farming techniques, making their own tools and managing their farm business financially. Many more people have attended shorter training courses and most have returned to their homes in town and countryside to put their learning into practice and, hopefully, to pass on their learning and enthusiasm to others. They form a network of Songhai graduates with whom we keep in touch, give advice and respond to their feedback.

The overall aim of our work is to lower the cost of production, enhance sustainability and discover or develop new and more appropriate low-cost inputs. Some of the activities include composting, biosolar drying, pharmacopoaeia, earthworm production, local chicken production and insect larvae for fish production. Technologies that we have developed at Songhai, such as organic bacteria, have begun to be tested at nearby farms.

Our overall productivity, which now incorporates three separate centres, has increased by 10% in the past three years. In addition to this, Benin's Agriculture Departments have created 15 centres modelled after Songhai, and nascent projects have been launched in Nigeria, Ghana and Togo.

Part of our success at Songhai has been achieved because we have been willing to learn from our mistakes; we are not afraid of admitting our mistakes and pulling back. Songhai is not so much a 'how to do it' institution as a 'how to be' organization. We don't write a lot of books or articles, because so many of the masses we hope to reach are illiterate and anyway they often live out of reach of publications. Instead, we try to ensure that the things we do speak for themselves: everyone can 'read', whether they see a demonstration at Songhai's three main sites or on a neighbours land, they see concrete results and they can say 'Yes, this is possible. Let's do it!'

The benefit of the Songhai Centre's philosophy and practice is that it goes beyond even providing food self-sufficiency and employment: it encourages community action. This kind of production can be a lot of fun; people learn from it, they can collaborate and work with their neighbours to share ideas, exchange seeds, plants and produce and safeguard each others garden plants. Finally, it helps to feed people and make money because even if production is not sold, the money saved on not buying food is money earned.

Our philosophy at Songhai is to create solidarity and self-respect in our communities, as well as self-sufficiency. We can share so many things in life but something that cannot be shared is poverty.


The human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), identified as the first human oncogenic retrovirus 30 years ago, is not an ubiquitous virus. HTLV-1 is present throughout the world, with clusters of high endemicity located often nearby areas where the virus is nearly absent. The main HTLV-1 highly endemic regions are the Southwestern part of Japan, sub-Saharan Africa and South America, the Caribbean area, and foci in Middle East and Australo-Melanesia. The origin of this puzzling geographical or rather ethnic repartition is probably linked to a founder effect in some groups with the persistence of a high viral transmission rate. Despite different socio-economic and cultural environments, the HTLV-1 prevalence increases gradually with age, especially among women in all highly endemic areas. The three modes of HTLV-1 transmission are mother to child, sexual transmission, and transmission with contaminated blood products. Twenty years ago, de Thé and Bomford estimated the total number of HTLV-1 carriers to be 10–20 millions people. At that time, large regions had not been investigated, few population-based studies were available and the assays used for HTLV-1 serology were not enough specific. Despite the fact that there is still a lot of data lacking in large areas of the world and that most of the HTLV-1 studies concern only blood donors, pregnant women, or different selected patients or high-risk groups, we shall try based on the most recent data, to revisit the world distribution and the estimates of the number of HTLV-1 infected persons. Our best estimates range from 5–10 millions HTLV-1 infected individuals. However, these results were based on only approximately 1.5 billion of individuals originating from known HTLV-1 endemic areas with reliable available epidemiological data. Correct estimates in other highly populated regions, such as China, India, the Maghreb, and East Africa, is currently not possible, thus, the current number of HTLV-1 carriers is very probably much higher.


Many product development companies are seeking to remain competitive by reconsidering their development strategies, realising the importance of focusing effort on software innovation. Open Source Software is seen by an increasing number of people as a feasible approach to utilising valuable commodity software development and maintenance, allowing them to concentrating on differentiated software. However, such a change presents new challenges. This paper proposes a three-level approach to preparing a company for leveraging the advantages of Open Source Software. The proposal is motivated through a case study in a company which could be seen as an exemplar of the current state of the art in Open Source adoption in complex domains.


Why do some people get obsessive– compulsive disorder (OCD) and not others? Why are people unable to part with worn out or useless possessions? Is body dysmorphic disorder the archetypal obsessive– compulsive spectrum disorder? How do you manage patients who only partially respond to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors? These are just some of the questions answered by over 20 authorities from both sides of the Atlantic inObsessive–Compulsive Disorder. Theory, Research and Treatment, a succinct yet broad view of OCD. The scope of the book is wide, including chapters on the phenomenology of OCD, primary obsessional slowness and OCD in children and adolescents. The chapter introducing a cognitive– behavioural model to explain compulsive hoarding is particularly impressive. The authors use the story of Dante's Inferno to illustrate this condition. Dante's hoarders are sent to the fourth level of hell, condemned to bash each other with their hoarded stones for eternity. The authors liken this to a recent event in Massachusetts, in which a number of people died because hoarded possessions caught fire and blocked escape routes. Danger ideation reduction therapy (DIRT) is described as 'a viable alternative to standard interventions for compulsive washers'. It aims to eliminate patients' illness beliefs by reevaluating their perceptions of risk rather than engaging them in exposure and behavioural experiments. A randomised controlled trial of DIRT and exposure response prevention is currently underway. Almost a third of the book is devoted to atypical presentations and subtypes of OCD. Treatment of obsessions, ruminations and covert compulsions is introduced, but I was left wanting to know more about practical interventions for successfully treating patients whose primary problem is obsessions. Rachman's readable The Treatment of Obsessions proposes an 18-piece 'toolkit' for treating patients' obsessions, and also gives readers a theoretical basis for thinking about cognitive and behavioural treatment planning. He advocates encouraging patients to analyse their intrusive thoughts, their meaning and interpretation. Reducing misinterpretations, he argues, reduces obsessions. His six case vignettes give a vivid sense of the difficulties that therapists and patients face when tackling disabling obsessions. Although in the first vignette the patient responds well in just eight sessions, he describes other patients who only partially respond and he is pessimistic about the outcome for patients with a previous psychosis. Psychiatrists should make space on their shelves for both these cogent texts. Although written independently they are remarkably compatible, Obsessive– Compulsive Disorder providing a sound introduction to OCD and The Treatment of Obsessions being an excellent practical guide.


This research investigates whether income smoothing via loan loss provision is lower for Credit Cooperative Banks than for non-Credit Cooperative Banks. Using data collected from the financial reporting of a sample of private banks, and Ordinary Least Square models based on net income or its variation, as used by previous literature, we find that income smoothing through loan loss provision is lower in Credit Cooperative Banks than in banks with different ownership structures. Results remain the same using several robustness tests (decomposition of loans, quality of loans, change in economic growth, cluster and fixed effect, effect of financial crisis). Mutual ownership, smaller size, and the local boundaries that characterize Credit Cooperative Banks may reduce the need for managers to manipulate earnings. Our findings give a positive evaluation of the recent Italian Law No. 18/2016 which reforms Credit Cooperative Banks, and imply that benefits of Credit Cooperative Banks ownership structure may derive from the group structure which gives a higher level of stability and solidity.


Atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilevers have proven to be very effective mass sensors. The attachment of a small mass to a vibrating cantilever produces a resonance frequency shift that can be monitored, providing the ability to measure mass changes down to a few molecules resolution. Nevertheless, the lack of a practical method to handle the catch and release process required for dynamic weighting of microobjects strongly hindered the application of the technology beyond proof of concept measurements. Here, a method is proposed in which FluidFM hollow cantilevers are exploited to overcome the standard limitations of AFM-based mass sensors, providing high throughput single object weighting with picogram accuracy. The extension of the dynamic models of AFM cantilevers to hollow cantilevers was discussed and the effectiveness of mass weighting in air was validated on test samples.


Manuscript type: Research paper.
Research aims: This study aims to examine how contextual variables which include innovation strategy, management accounting infor- mation system and internal business process performance affect the financial performance of manufacturing companies in East Java, Indonesia.
Design/ Methodology/ Approach: This study employs a quantitative approach to explain the relationship among the variables. The data of 135 managers were collected and then analysed through the partial least squares (PLS) approach.
Research findings: Results show that management accounting infor- mation system and business process performance partially mediate the innovation strategy-financial performance relationship.
Theoretical contributions/ Originality: This study expands on pre- vious works by investigating the roles of management accounting information system and internal business process performance as mediating variables between innovation strategy and firm's financial performance.
Practitioner/ Policy implications: This study provides insights into how management accounting information system and internal busi- ness process performance impact innovation strategy and financial performance. The results imply that managers need to improve the design and implementation of their accounting system and their internal business process performance. This initiative can support the firm's innovation strategy which impacts on the firm's financial performance. The implications drawn from this study justify two things: (1) firms need to be more proactive in their product and process innovations so as to remain competitive in the global  market; and (2) managers need to develop intangible assets such as a management accounting information system in the era of knowledge economy.
Research limitation: This study focusses on the manufacturing companies of the East Java Province of Indonesia therefore, general- isability of the findings may be restricted. Future studies need to incorporate larger and more diverse samples. This study did not consider the companies' business life cycle hence, the full impact of the firms' financial performance may not have been captured.

Keywords: Financial Performance, Innovation Strategy, Internal Business Process Performance, Management Accounting Information System.
JEL Classification: M41


Peng CUI Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China email@example.com Environmental geology Executive Editor Ziguo HAO Editorial office of Acta Geologica Sinica firstname.lastname@example.com Petrology Members of the Editorial Board Andrew KNOLL Harvard University, USA firstname.lastname@example.com Paleontology Simon Conway MORRIS University of Cambridge, UK email@example.com Paleontology


Mental Health and Mental Illness in LaterLife Does treatment of depression make a difference in overall health? It has been approximately a decade since the NIH Consensus Statement on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression in Late Life (Schneider, Reynolds, and LebowitZ,1992) stated that the hallmark of geriatric depression was its coexistence with medical illness. Since that time, our understanding of this problem has matured, approaches to treatment have become clearer, and the questions addressed in our research have evolved. In the past, it was important to ask whether it was possible to recognize and diagnose those instances of depression that occur in the context of medical illness, whether these had significant consequences, and whether they were treatable. We have learned that it is possible to recognize depression as it occurs across coexisting medical illnesses and care settings and that depressive disorders can be diagnosed as accurately as the other chronic medical disorders that are common in late life. We have also learned that depression is associated with poorer health outcomes. Research has suggested that patients with depression are at increased risk for a range of illnesses that include diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease (Gallo et al., 2ooo; Pratt et al., 1996; Eaton et al., 1996; Speck et al., 1995; Michelson et al., 1996). There is also evidence that depression is associated with increases in the following outcomes: disability, rates of treatment refusal, care needs, care costs, and mortality across a number of medical conditions and treatment settings (e.g., Unutzer et al., 1997; Luber et al., 2001; Mossey, Knott, and Craik, i99o; Pennix et al., 2001). But research has also shown the efficacy of treatment. Treatment for depression can be effective in the presence of medical conditions as diverse as Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Parkinson's disease, and stroke (e.g., Roth, Mountjoy, and, Amrein,1996; Lyketsos et al., 2000;Puttini et al., 1988; Borson et al., 1992; Lustman et al., 2000; Costa, Mogos, and Toma, 1985; Strik et al., 2000; Andersen et al., i98o; Lipseyet et al.,1984). Together, the cumulative findings have confirmed the importance of diagnosing and treating late-life depression and have suggested that treatment could play a pivotal role in the overall healthcare of aged individuals. The result has been advances in clinical care and significant changes in the nature of the questions facing the field. One current question raised is, What are the best strategies for treating depression in the context of specific coexisting conditions (comorbidities), both with respect to specific medications and psychotherapies? Another concem is strategies for delivering care. Should it be in the medical treatment setting or through specialty mental health services? A third question concerns the extent to which treatment of depression improves health outcomes. Although the associations observed in previous research are important, the most critical question is whether treatment actually makes a difference, not just in depressive symptoms, but in overall health. THE BEST TREATMENT APPROACHES What are the best approaches for treating late-life depression in the presence of specific medical disorders? The available research suggests that, of those treatments that have been tested in older adults, all of the interventions that are effective in younger adults remain useful in the elderly. Clearly, treatment planning requires attention to interactions between drugs and also between the drugs and characteristics of the medical disorder. Such interactions can affect the safety of treatments. However, important questions remain about whether certain medical comorbidities affect the therapeutic benefits that can be derived from specific treatments for depression. …


Located on the banks of the River Clyde, Glasgow was once the second city of the Empire, producing ships, locomotives, cars and heavy engineering for the world. Its docks would see huge numbers of exports. But Glasgow is much more than this; it is a religious centre, with one of Scotland's earliest churches, a centre for the Virginia tobacco trade, a home of designers and architects, inventors and entrepreneurs, artists and industrialists. It is that variety of talent, and the melting pot of immigrants and other Scots, sucked into the city at its peak that saw the phenomenal growth in wealth and culture that has left the city with a legacy of fine Victorian architecture, and it is its decline that has seen a legacy of remote council estates. However, Glasgow has risen again, and is truly a vibrant city, thanks to its self-promotion from Dr Michael Kelly's 'Glasgow's Miles Better' campaign to its use in gritty film and TV productions, as well as its ability to look at the past and preserve the best of the old, while producing some of the most startling modern architecture outside of London. Michael Meighan tells the story of Glasgow, from its drumlin days in the Ice Age to the growth of the Church, its industries, its people and the phenomenal expansion of the Victorian era and the legacy it has left us.


Small-variance asymptotics provide an emerging technique for obtaining scalable combinatorial algorithms from rich probabilistic models. We present a small-variance asymptotic analysis of the Hidden Markov Model and its infinite-state Bayesian nonparametric extension. Starting with the standard HMM, we first derive a "hard" inference algorithm analogous to k-means that arises when particular variances in the model tend to zero. This analysis is then extended to the Bayesian nonparametric case, yielding a simple, scalable, and flexible algorithm for discrete-state sequence data with a non-fixed number of states. We also derive the corresponding combinatorial objective functions arising from our analysis, which involve a k-means-like term along with penalties based on state transitions and the number of states. A key property of such algorithms is that— particularly in the nonparametric setting—standard probabilistic inference algorithms lack scalability and are heavily dependent on good initialization. A number of results on synthetic and real data sets demonstrate the advantages of the proposed framework.


Wireless optical communications has been used long before radio communications was first considered. However, over the last century radio communication has been the preferred means to transmit data wirelessly. The purpose of this study is to solve the problems of radio frequency bandwidth, frequency depletion, confusion possibilities, and security that are in current wireless communications systems, and to confirm the possibility of applying those solutions for the next generation network. To solve the problem of current wireless communication system, the combination of power line and visible light communication (VLC) system is created and capacity is analyzed. The exclusive power line communication modem, 8-bit ATmega16 microcontroller, high brightness 5pi light emitting diodes (LED) and PIN phototransistors were used for transmitter and receiver. The performance was analyzed using a designed program and oscilloscope. The voltage change was measured as function of distance from 15-30cm. The proposed system will enable high quality of service by high radiation power from this LED. And, this system does not cause or suffer from radio or electromagnetic interference. KeywordsPower Line Communication, Visible Light Communication, Light Emitting Diode, 8 Bit Microcontroller.


The quantification and analysis of international migrations have always represented difficult approaches especially because of the lack of some reliable statistical data. Consequently, alternative sources of information (such as religious institutions and administrative boards of different Christian cults) are not to be neglected. However, from this point of view, significant differentiations can be highlighted: the Catholic Church has always been keen on good quality statistical registrations (more or less Neoprotestant cults fit this pattern, too); in its turn, Orthodoxy tries to catch up on the lost ground by means of a considerable administrative organization. Thus, from the different incidence of religion-triggered emigration to the geographical distribution of the cult edifices abroad the country, the connection between migration and religion is a very powerful one. In this sense, our analysis is meant to spot the most important features of the Romanian diaspora.


Problem Statement: "Self-concept" is a primary issue of emotional and social development. Though the most important stage in the formation of self-concept is childhood, measuring the development of the self in the preschool period is quite difficult, for the tools used to measure children's self-concept either require the child's knowing how to read and write or have been designed to measure the self-concepts of children with special developmental characteristics. Purpose of Study: This study aimed to adapt the DeMoulin Self-Concept Developmental Scale (DSCDS) for 5and 6-year-old Turkish children and to determine its validity and reliability for determining the self-perception of these children with normal development. Methods: The study was conducted with 345 participants, roughly half of whom were Turkish children aged 5–6 years. The scale was investigated for its linguistic equivalence and applicability. Data was collected by using both the original DSCDS translated into Turkish and the Marmara Social– Emotional Adjustment Scale and the Marmara Readiness for School Scale. Ultimately, the validity and reliability of the Turkish DSCDS were analyzed. Findings and Results: The maximum reliability produced according to Cronbach's alpha and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was 0.88, and the lowest reliability calculated with the Guttman method was 0.88. It was determined that the DSCDS for these children composed of 29 items and two subdimensions applied to participants according to the Turkish Developmental Norms as a high-quality measurement tool. Conclusions and Recommendations: With the validity and reliability studies of the DSCDS for children aged 5–6 years completed, a norm study can be arranged in order to expand the scale by applying it to groups of children *Dr. Uludag University, Education Faculty, Bursa, Turkey, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com 56 Nalan Kuru Turasli with different characteristics, such as those with a low socioeconomic status, those residing in orphanages, and adopted children.


The collaborative re-use of design and manufacturing data is one way that e-commerce can significantly reduce costs and lead times of new products in a demanding global market. This paper describes the development of a 3D Internet-based search engine, which will allow designers to locate parts already in production that have a similar shape to a desired 'newly designed' part. The project anticipates a time when manufacturers will post 3D computer-generated models of their product range on the Internet as a means of advertising their production capabilities (i.e., tooling). The models will either be uploaded to, or harvested from anywhere in the world by, the search engine, which will then analyse the models and store relevant feature indices in a database. To use the system a designer would upload a model of the desired part. The search engine then analyses the shape characteristics of the target model and performs a similarity match through a sieving technique as described in this paper. As a result, the designer is presented with a number of parts similar to the one uploaded. The designer may then modify the design to incorporate the closest matching part, or contact the company to quote for the original target model, as a variant of their existing product. The challenge of the research is to identify the key shape characteristics that produce meaningful representations of the 3D models for similarity comparison purposes. After reviewing the current literature on shape matching and describing the system architecture, this paper presents initial results of the matching capabilities of the search engine.


Education plays a pivotal role in contributing to the human resource development and to nations general economic development in today's globalizing context. Education is viewed as 'adding value' to investment on human capital; this has seen changing labor market requirements shift to the phenomena of 'lifelong learning'. Like many other countries in Africa, Kenya has since independence in 1963, invested heavily in education as a means to social and economic development for her citizenry. The present study was envisaged to establish Kenya's education growth since independence and assess her current challenges. Data were collected from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of National Planning and Development and Ministry of Education. The data were analyzed by use of descriptive statistics. Findings were presented by use of tables, charts and histogram. It was established that over the past five decades the number of students enrolled at various levels of education has substantially increased. At primary level enrollment grew from 891,533 in 1963 to 7.8 million in 2010. At secondary level enrollment grew from 30,000 in 1963 to 1.4 million in 2010 with corresponding increase of school to 5186 from 151 at independence. Enrollment in the universities has been increasing since the establishment of university of Nairobi in 1970. Currently there are 7 public universities, 16 university colleges and 13 private universities. However, despite the rapid quantitative growth in the education sector, many nightmares still haunt Kenya's efforts. The nightmares range from quality, equity, low transition rates to inefficiency; making attainment of the millennium development goals by the year 2015 as well as Vision 2030 seem a dreams! It is recommended that, an integrated approach that involves all the educational stakeholders in monitoring all education inputs and operations be embraced.


OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to systematically review evidence from controlled trials on the efficacy of motor development interventions in young children. METHODS: A literature search of interventions was conducted of 14 electronic databases. Three reviewers independently evaluated studies to determine whether they met the inclusion criteria. Studies were compared on 5 components: design, methodologic quality, intervention components, efficacy, and alignment with the Consolidated Standard of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) and Transparent Reporting of Evaluation with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) statements. RESULTS: Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. More than half (65%) were controlled trials and delivered at child care settings or schools (65%). Three studies had high methodologic quality. Studies were ∼12 weeks in duration and delivered by teachers, researchers, and students. Parents were involved in only 3 studies. Nearly 60% of the studies reported statistically significant improvements at follow-up. Three studies aligned with the CONSORT and TREND statements. CONCLUSIONS: This review highlights the limited quantity and quality of interventions to improve motor development in young children. The following recommendations are made: (1) both teachers and researchers should be involved in the implementation of an intervention; (2) parental involvement is critical to ensuring transfer of knowledge from the intervention setting to the home environment; and (3) interventions should be methodologically sound and follow guidelines detailed in the CONSORT or TREND statement.


In this thesis, we describe extensive experiments on the classification of emotions from speech using acoustic features. This area of research has important applications in human computer interaction. We have thoroughly reviewed the current literature and present our results on some of the contemporary emotional speech databases. The principal focus is on creating a large set of acoustic features, descriptive of different emotional states and finding methods for selecting a subset of best performing features by using feature selection methods. In this thesis we have looked at several traditional feature selection methods and propose a novel scheme which employs a preferential Borda voting strategy for ranking features. The comparative results show that our proposed scheme can strike a balance between accurate but computationally intensive wrapper methods and less accurate but computationally less intensive filter methods for feature selection. By using the selected features, several schemes for extending the binary classifiers to multiclass classification are tested. Some of these classifiers form serial combinations of binary classifiers while others use a hierarchical structure to perform this task. We describe a new hierarchical classification scheme, which we call Data-Driven Dimensional Emotion Classification (3DEC), whose decision hierarchy is based on non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) of the data. This method of creating a hierarchical structure for the classification of emotion classes gives significant improvements over other methods tested. The NMDS representation of emotional speech data can be interpreted in terms of the well-known valence-arousal model of emotion. We find that this model does not give a particularly good fit to the data: although the arousal dimension can be identified easily, valence is not well represented in the transformed data. From the recognition results on these two dimensions, we conclude that valence and arousal dimensions are not orthogonal to each other. In the last part of this thesis, we deal with the very difficult but important topic of improving the generalisation capabilities of speech emotion recognition (SER) systems over different speakers and recording environments. This topic has been generally overlooked in the current research in this area. First we try the traditional methods used in automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems for improving the generalisation of SER in intra– and inter–database emotion classification. These traditional methods do improve the average accuracy of the emotion classifier. In this thesis, we identify these differences in the training and test data, due to speakers and acoustic environments, as a covariate shift. This shift is minimised by using importance weighting algorithms from the emerging field of transfer learning to guide the learning algorithm towards that training data which gives better representation of testing data. Our results show that importance weighting algorithms can be used to minimise the differences between the training and testing data. We also test the effectiveness of importance weighting algorithms on inter–database and cross-lingual emotion recognition. From these results, we draw conclusions about the universal nature of emotions across different languages.


A suite of co-occurring eriophyid mite species are significant pests in subtropical Australia, causing severe discolouration, blistering, necrosis and leaf loss to one of the region's most important hardwood species, Corymbia citriodora subsp. variegata (F. Muell.) K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson (Myrtaceae). In this study, we examined mite population dynamics and leaf damage over a 1-year period in a commercial plantation of C. citriodora subsp. variegata. Our aims were to link the incidence and severity of mite damage, and mite numbers, to leaf physical traits (moisture content and specific leaf weight (SLW)); to identify any seasonal changes in leaf surface occupancy (upper vs. lower lamina); and host tree canopy strata (upper, mid or lower canopy). We compared population trends with site rainfall, temperature and humidity. We also examined physical and anatomical changes in leaf tissue in response to mite infestation to characterize the plants' physiological reaction to feeding, and how this might affect photosynthesis. Our main findings included positive correlations with leaf moisture content and mite numbers and with mite numbers and damage severity. Wet and dry leaf mass and SLW were greater for damaged tissue than undamaged tissue. Mites were distributed equally throughout the canopy and on both leaf surfaces. No relationships with climatic factors were found. Damage symptoms occurred equally and were exactly mirrored on both leaf surfaces. Mite infestation increased the overall epidermal thickness and the number and size of epidermal cells and was also associated with a rapid loss of chloroplasts from mesophyll cells beneath damage sites. The integrity of the stomatal complex was severely compromised in damaged tissues. These histological changes suggest that damage by these mites will negatively impact the photosynthetic efficiency of susceptible plantation species.


Businesses (retailers) often wish to offer personalized advertisements (coupons) to individuals (consumers), but run the risk of strong reactions from consumers who want a customized shopping experience but feel their privacy has been violated. Existing models for privacy such as differential privacy or information theory try to quantify privacy risk but do not capture the subjective experience and heterogeneous expression of privacy-sensitivity. We propose a Markov decision process (MDP) model to capture (i) different consumer privacy sensitivities via a time-varying state; (ii) different coupon types (action set) for the retailer; and (iii) the action-and-state-dependent cost for perceived privacy violations. For the simple case with two states ("Normal" and "Alerted"), two coupons (targeted and untargeted) model, and consumer behavior statistics known to the retailer, we show that a stationary threshold-based policy is the optimal coupon-offering strategy for a retailer that wishes to minimize its expected discounted cost. The threshold is a function of all model parameters; the retailer offers a targeted coupon if their belief that the consumer is in the "Alerted" state is below the threshold. We extend this two-state model to consumers with multiple privacy-sensitivity states as well as coupon-dependent state transition probabilities. Furthermore, we study the case with imperfect (noisy) cost feedback from consumers and uncertain initial belief state.


In Art for an Undivided  Earth Jessica L. Horton reveals how the spatial philosophies underlying the American Indian Movement (AIM) were refigured by a generation of artists searching for new places to stand. Upending the assumption that Jimmie Durham, James Luna, Kay WalkingStick, Robert Houle, and others were primarily concerned with identity politics, she joins them in remapping the coordinates of a widely shared yet deeply contested modernity that is defined in great part by the colonization of the Americas. She follows their installations, performances, and paintings across the ocean and back in time, as they retrace the paths of Native diplomats, scholars, performers, and objects in Europe after 1492. Along the way, Horton intervenes in a range of theories about global modernisms, Native American sovereignty, racial difference, archival logic, artistic itinerancy, and new materialisms. Writing in creative dialogue with contemporary artists, she builds a picture of a spatially, temporally, and materially interconnected world—an undivided earth.


o-Phenylphenol is used primarily as a germicide and fungicide for citrus fruits and vegetables and was selected for carcinogenesis studies because of the potential for human exposure. Four-week studies were conducted in which groups of 10 male and 10 female Swiss Webster mice were given dermal applications to the dorsal interscapular region of 0, 6, 11, 21, 36, or 56 mg of o-phenylphenol in 0.1 ml of acetone. Doses were administered 3 days per week for 4 weeks, and animals were monitored for clinical changes. Reductions in body weights of acetone vehicle control were observed, but no compound-related changes in weight or survival occurred in male or female mice administered o-phenylphenol. o-Phenylphenol caused dose-related ulcerative lesions at the site of application. The severity of these lesions was judged not to be life threatening. Carcinogenesis studies were conducted to determine whether o-phenylphenol was a complete carcinogen for skin or a promoter in a two-stage initiation/promotion skin paint model. Groups of 50 Swiss CD-1 mice of each sex were used for up to 102 weeks. Five dose groups were used: an acetone vehicle control group; a positive control group initiated with 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)- anthracene (DMBA) and promoted with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA); an initiator control group that received DMBA plus acetone; a group that received repeated applications of o-phenylphenol. The following doses were applied dermally to a clipped area on the dorsal interscapular region 3 days per week: o-phenylphenol - 55.5 mg/0.1 ml acetone; or TPA - 0.005 mg/0.1 ml acetone. DMBA was administered as a single dose at a concentration of 0.05 mg/0.1 ml acetone to the dorsal interscapular region. In the 2-year studies, mean body weights of the o-phenylphenol, DMBA/o-phenylphenol, and DMBA/TPA groups were not markedly different from those of mice that received DMBA/acetone. Similarly, there were no significant group differences in survival except for a decrease in survival in the positive control group (DMBA/TPA). Skin neoplasms classified as squamous cell papillomas, squamous cell carcinomas, basal cell tumors, basal cell carcinomas, keratoacanthomas, or sebaceous adenomas occurred in mice dosed with DMBA/acetone, DMBA/o-phenylphenol, or DMBA/TPA alone. However, the incidence of skin neoplasms in mice dosed with DMBA/acetone (15/100) was similar to that in mice dosed with DMBA/o-phenylphenol (17/100). The incidence of skin neoplasms in male and female mice dosed with DMBA/TPA (52/100) was substantially greater than those in mice dosed with either DMBA/acetone or DMBA/o-phenylphenol. Similarly, the mean time of appearance of skin papillomas occurred much earlier in the DMBA/TPA groups than in the DMBA/acetone or DMBA/o-phenylphenol groups. All groups had nonneoplastic lesions consisting of inflammation, ulceration, hyperkeratosis, and acanthosis at the site of application. These lesions were present in the acetone vehicle control group and, to a larger extent, in the o-phenylphenol, DMBA/o-phenylphenol, and DMBA/TPA groups. No skin neoplasms were observed in male or female mice receiving o-phenylphenol or in the acetone vehicle control groups. Moreover, a complete histopathologic review revealed no other neoplasms at any other site at significantly increased incidences in the groups receiving o-phenylphenol compared with the acetone vehicle controls. There were also no tumor-enhancing (or tumor-inhibiting) effects of o-phenylphenol and DMBA given in combination. o-Phenylphenol was weakly mutagenic in strains TA1535 of Salmonella typhimurium only in the absence of rat liver S9; it was not mutagenic in strains TA1537, TA98, or TA100. It was mutagenic in the mouse lymphoma L5178/TK+/- assay in the presence or absence of Aroclor 1254-induced male F344 rat liver S9. o-Phenylphenol did not induce sex-linked recessive lethal mutations in Drosophila melanogaster. o-Phenylphenol induced sister-chromatid exchanges in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells only in the absence of rat liver S9. It did not induce chromosomal aberraterrations in CHO cells in the presence or absence of Aroclor 1254-induced male Sprague-Dawley rat liver S9. An audit of the experimental data was conducted for these 2-year studies of o-phenylphenol. No data discrepancies were found that influenced the final interpretations. Under the conditions of these 2-year dermal application studies, there was no evidence of carcinogenicity in male or female Swiss CD-1 mice administered o-phenylphenol alone or as a promoter following initiation with DMBA. o-Phenylphenol, however, caused nonneoplastic lesions, which included ulceration, inflammation, and hyperkeratosis, at the site of application.


A study to measure indoor concentrations and emission rates of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, was conducted in a new, unoccupied manufactured house installed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus. The house was instrumented to continuously monitor indoor temperature and relative humidity, heating and air conditioning system operation, and outdoor weather. It also was equipped with an automated tracer gas injection and detection system to estimate air change rates every 2 h. Another automated system measured indoor concentrations of total VOCs with a flame ionization detector every 30 min. Active samples for the analysis of VOCs and aldehydes were collected indoors and outdoors on 12 occasions from August 2002 through September 2003. Individual VOCs were quantified by thermal desorption to a gas chromatograph with a mass spectrometer detector (GC/MS). Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Weather conditions changed substantially across the twelve active sampling periods. Outdoor temperatures ranged from 7 C to 36 C. House air change rates ranged from 0.26 h{sup -1} to 0.60 h{sup -1}. Indoor temperature was relatively constant at 20 C to 24 C for all but one sampling event. Indoor relative humidity (RH) ranged from 21% to 70%. The predominant and persistent indoor VOCs included aldehydes (e.g., formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, pentanal, hexanal and nonanal) and terpene hydrocarbons (e.g., a-pinene, 3-carene and d-limonene), which are characteristic of wood product emissions. Other compounds of interest included phenol, naphthalene, and other aromatic hydrocarbons. VOC concentrations were generally typical of results reported for other new houses. Measurements of total VOCs were used to evaluate short-term changes in indoor VOC concentrations. Most of the VOCs probably derived from indoor sources. However, the wall cavity was an apparent source of acetaldehyde, toluene and xylenes and the belly space was a source of 2-butanone, lower volatility aldehydes and aromatic hydrocarbons. Indoor minus outdoor VOC concentrations varied with time. Adjusted formaldehyde concentrations exhibited the most temporal variability with concentrations ranging from 25 {micro}g m{sup -3} to 128 {micro}g m{sup -3} and the lowest concentrations occurring in winter months when indoor RH was low. A model describing the emissions of formaldehyde from urea-formaldehyde wood products as a function of temperature, RH and concentration reasonably predicted the temporal variation of formaldehyde emissions in the house. Whole-house emissions of other VOCs generally declined over the first three months and then remained relatively constant over a several month period. However, their emissions were generally lowest during the winter months. Also, an apparent association between TVOC emissions and outdoor temperature was observed on a one-week time scale.


The existence of lignitic deposits (Knysna Formation) on the South African south coast, near to the town of Knysna has been recognised for more than a century. However, a combination of limited study and few natural exposures has meant that the age and stratigraphic position of the Knysna Formation are unclear, despite its potential as a palaeoenvironmental archive. We present a new suite of chronological, geochemical and palynological data obtained from a recently identified lignite exposure in this area. The lignite pollen assemblage is dominated by palms (Arecaceae), which are now locally extinct, and contains additional palynomorphs of tropical affinity, along with (moist-temperate) Podocarpus- type pollen, grasses, and herbaceous pollen types (e.g. Cliffortia -type, Asteraceae). Overall, the assemblage shows some commonalities with the Miocene Elandsfontein Formation in the Western Cape. The lignites are dominated by a diverse range of higher plant biomarkers, including abundant leaf wax lipids, as well as lignin monomers and leaf cuticle-derived macromolecular organic matter. All strongly indicate a terrestrial depositional setting, perhaps akin to contemporary palm swamps. A number of sesquiterpenoids imply the presence of gymnosperms, supporting observations from the pollen data and previously reported macro-fossil finds.

The application of isothermal thermoluminescence techniques to coversands overlying the lignite produced a minimum age of ~1.7 Ma. Additional clues as to the likely age of the lignite are provided by compound-specific stable carbon isotope analyses of the leaf wax lipids. These are approximately 8‰ enriched relative to typical C3 vegetation leaf waxes, and imply a potential contribution from C4 vegetation. From this, an age post-dating the Oligocene may be inferred, and in conjunction with the site's geomorphic setting, an age post dating the middle Miocene is considered plausible. This is markedly younger than previous (Eocene) age estimates for the Knynsa Formation.


Pattern recognition and Gesture recognition are the growing fields of research. Being a significant part in non verbal communication hand gestures are playing vital role in our daily life. Hand Gesture recognition system provides us an innovative, natural, user friendly way of interaction with the computer which is more familiar to the human beings. Gesture Recognition has a wide area of application including human machine interaction, sign language, immersive game technology etc. By keeping in mind the similarities of human hand shape with four fingers and one thumb, this paper aims to present a real time system for hand gesture recognition on the basis of detection of some meaningful shape based features like orientation, centre of mass (centroid), status of fingers, thumb in terms of raised or folded fingers of hand and their respective location in image. The approach introduced in this paper is totally depending on the shape parameters of the hand gesture. It does not consider any other mean of hand gesture recognition like skin color, texture because these image based features are extremely variant to different light conditions and other influences. To implement this approach we have utilized a simple web cam which is working on 20 fps with 7 mega pixel intensity. On having the input sequence of images through web cam it uses some pre-processing steps for removal of background noise and employs K-means clustering for segmenting the hand object from rest of the background, so that only segmented significant cluster or hand object is to be processed in order to calculate shape based features. This simple shape based approach to hand gesture recognition can identify around 45 different gestures on the bases of 5 bit binary string resulted as the output of this algorithm. This proposed implemented algorithm has been tested over 450 images and it gives approximate recognition rate of 94%.


Using dialogues with our informants, as well as with each other, we explore how the men and women in our research make it through their mathematics coursework and, in turn, pursue their intended majors. Our research focuses on how students navigate what we call the gendered math path and how that path conforms to and diverges from traditional gender norms. Common themes of women's lower than men's self-perception of their ability to do mathematics, along with the divergent processes of doing gender that emerged in men's and women's discussions of their application of mathematics, reminded us of the continued struggles that women have to succeed in male-dominated academic disciplines. Although self-perception helps us understand why there are fewer women in STEM fields, it is important to understand how different forms of application of ideas might add to the diversity of what it means to do good science.


A section from a stainless steel kitchen sink showed a round red stain on its surface after a short time in storage. Several of these sinks were stacked together and separated by felt pads while in storage, and the mating sink showed a nearly identical stain in the same area, while no stains were noted on any of the other sinks in the stack. The stain was located near one of the pads; however, no discoloration was noted at the pad location. EDS analysis showed the base metal to be austenitic stainless steel, such as type 304. FTIR analysis of the stain revealed carboxylic salts and salts of organic acids, in addition to hydroxyl functionality. The discoloration was caused by localized rusting of the sink from prolonged exposure to a chloride containing substance. The appearance suggests that the substance may actually have been a drop of perspiration (sweat) from a factory worker. Based on these findings, one of the recommendations was to use thicker pads between the sinks to allow any such liquids to dry before causing corrosion damage.


Title of dissertation: A FUNDAMENTAL STUDY OF BOUNDARY LAYER DIFFUSION FLAMES Ajay Vikram Singh, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor Michael J. Gollner Department of Fire Protection Engineering Modeling the realistic burning behavior of condensed-phase fuels has remained out of reach, in part because of an inability to resolve complex interactions at the interface between gas-phase flames and condensed-phase fuels. This interaction is even more complex as scales increase, because realistic fires occur under fully turbulent conditions which have yet to be fully replicated or understood at the bench scale, where detailed measurements can be conducted. The current research explores the dynamic relationship between combustible condensed fuel surface and gas-phase flames in laminar boundary layers, representing the small scales in which materials are tested (where much of todays theoretical knowledge is also isolated) to realistic large-scale turbulent flames present in almost all unwanted fires, hybrid rocket motors and other similar combustion phenomena. A thorough numerical and experimental investigation of laminar boundary-layer diffusion flames established over the surface of a condensed fuel is presented. By extension of the Reynolds Analogy, it is hypothesized that the non-dimensional temperature gradient at the surface of a condensed fuel is related to the local mass-burning rate through some constant of proportionality. First, this proportionality is tested by using a validated numerical model for a steady flame established over a condensed fuel surface, under free and forced convective conditions. Second, the relationship is tested by conducting experiments in a free and forced convective environment using methanol and ethanol as liquid fuels and PMMA as a solid fuel, where a detailed temperature profile is mapped during steady burning using fine-wire thermocouples mounted to a precision two-axis traverse mechanism. The results from the present study suggests that there is indeed a unique correlation between the mass burning rates of liquid/solid fuels and the temperature gradients at the fuel surface. The correlating factor depends upon the Spalding mass transfer number and gas-phase thermo-physical properties and works in the prediction of both integrated as well as local variations of the mass burning rate as a function of non-dimensional temperature gradient. Convective and radiative heat feedback from the flames were also measured both in the pyrolysis and plume regions by using temperature gradients near the wall. Additional results from precise measurements of the thermal field are also presented. A FUNDAMENTAL STUDY OF BOUNDARY LAYER DIFFUSION FLAMES


The emergence of obesity as a distinct disease could have far reaching consequences for an organisation where optimum health and physical fitness are required for personnel to perform their occupational roles effectively. The aim of this thesis is to increase our understanding of the prevalence, correlates and predictors of obesity in the British Army.

Systematic review indicated a smaller body of knowledge in respect of the treatment and correlates of obesity in military populations. Successful treatment interventions incorporated exercise, healthy eating information, behavioural modification, self-monitoring, relapse prevention, structured follow-up and were supported by trained personnel. The major significant correlates of obesity were being enlisted personnel, male, ≥35 years of age, African-American / Hispanic ethnicity, and married (with spouse present). The review highlighted the deficit in knowledge concerning treatment, and correlates of obesity in military populations.

The trend of escalating obesity has prompted some armed forces to report obesity trends and prevalence, the findings of which suggest that obesity is a growing concern in the armed services. A study based on the secondary analysis of data covering 50,000 British Army soldiers indicated that according to BMI, 56.7% of the study population were overweight and of those individuals 12% were obese. When waist circumference data were added to the BMI data, the results indicate that females displayed a higher percentage of risk of obesity related ill-health (a combination of BMI and waist circumference) than males (30.4% and 24% respectively). Further analysis suggested that age, marital status, rank and military employment category were significant correlates of obesity. Additionally, obesity and increased risk of obesity related-ill-health were linked to higher failure and lower attendance on British Army physical tests. Data suggested older army personnel (>30) had a higher pass rate, but a lower attendance rate.

The final analysis of all available variables suggested physical test outcome, age, medical status and enlisted status were the most significant predictors of obesity.

A final study based on a different study population (n=1124) from the high readiness component of the UK based British Army sought to identify relationships between health behaviours that were not supportive of healthy weight and to understand the predictive influence of individual and collective behaviour in relation to obesity and the risk of obesity related ill-health in military personnel. The investigation used a health behaviour questionnaire to assess health behaviours that might influence weight status. Final analysis of this highly active population suggested, restrained eating, food preparation in the working week, injury status, age, sedentary behaviour, leisure-time physical activity engagement and type of motivation for exercise were the most significant factors.

This thesis highlights the lack of knowledge, and gives evidence to support the impact of obesity on individual health and collective occupational capability. Obesity is a complex multifaceted disease where no single causal route predominates. However, the identification of potential causal and predictive relationships will aid in the prevention and treatment of obesity in the British Army.


This paper compares the effectiveness of different property portfolio diversification strat- egies using five methods; (1) correlation matrices, (2) efficient frontiers, (3) Sharpe ratios, using three different sub methods, (4) coefficients in equations explaining total returns and (5) R-square values in equations explaining total returns. The evaluation methods are applied to both value weighted and equally weighted indices based on Swedish real estate return data. All methods show that, if any, diversifying over property types is a better strategy on the Swedish market than diversifying over re- gions. No test yields significant support for regional diversification. The support for the property type strategy is stronger when using equally weighted indices.


Time is the penultimate problem in philosophy. The meaning of Time that can be given by current Astrophysics is superficial at best. After Gödel, it can be argued that any science based on the sensorium has profound metaphysical issues. Since Mathematics must be employed in present cosmogony, the longstanding issues surrounding what mathematical truths and numbers are, and where they exist, does little to deliver meaning to Time. In Philosophy, many have elaborated their philosophy of Time and some have addressed the significant impact of the future in those discussions. The problem of evil, or theodicy, is thought to be the most difficult problem in philosophy. This essay proposes to coalesce the problems of Time and Theodicy. The predominate linear view of time obfuscates our understanding of time as well as the implications of the problems of evil. The Platonic concept of anamnesis as the primacy of Time is adapted here. We are already complete but we unfurl in Time because we have forgotten how we created ourselves. Time is the record of our moments, our deeds; what we have volitionally done. Omniscience knows this; we forgot and now live that forgetfulness. A Book of Life is written, we cannot recall our page number.


Australia has a large number of health program initiatives whose comprehensive assessment will help refine and redefine priorities by highlighting areas of emphasis, under-emphasis, and non-emphasis. The objectives of our research are to: (a) systematically map all the programs onto an ontological framework, and (b) systemically analyse their relative emphases at different levels of granularity. We mapped all the health program initiatives onto an ontology with five dimensions, namely: (a) Policy-scope, (b) Policy-focus, (c) Outcomes, (d) Type of care, and (e) Population served. Each dimension is expanded into a taxonomy of its constituent elements. Each combination of elements from the five dimensions is a possible policy initiative component. There are 30,030 possible components encapsulated in the ontology. It includes, for example: (a) National financial policies on accessibility of preventive care for family, and (b) Local-urban regulatory policies on cost of palliative care for individual-aged. Four of the authors mapped all of Australia's health programs and initiatives on to the ontology. Visualizations of the data are used to highlight the relative emphases in the program initiatives. The dominant emphasis of the program initiatives is: [National] [educational, personnel-physician, information] policies on [accessibility, quality] of [preventive, wellness] care for the [community]. However, although (a) information is emphasized technology is not; and (b) accessibility and quality are emphasized cost, satisfaction, and quality are not. The ontology and the results of the mapping can help systematically reassess and redirect the relative emphases of the programs and initiatives from a systemic perspective.


Cardiovascular disease remains a major cause of global mortality and morbidity. Atherosclerosis is the main underlying cause in the majority of cardiovascular disease events. Traditional independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease include age, abnormal lipid levels, elevated blood pressure, smoking and elevated blood sugar levels (diabetes mellitus). These risk factors are incorporated into a risk score, such as the Framingham Risk Score (FRS), that is used to predict an individual's absolute risk of a cardiovascular event, typically over the next 10 years, e.g. 15% risk over 10 years. These risk scores are useful in predicting risk in populations, but their ability to predict a cardiovascular event in an individual patient is not accurate and varies considerably across different populations. Currently, there are three methods of calculating cardiovascular risk. These are risk charts, e.g. FRS, a non-laboratory-based risk calculation, and lastly, screening for subclinical cardiac disease.


Today, food writing makes up a significant proportion of the texts written, published, sold and read each year in Australia. While the food writing published in magazines and cookbooks has often been thought of as providing useful, but relatively banal, practical skills-based information to its readers, relatively recent reassessments suggest that food writing is much more interesting and important than this. In the contemporary context, when the mere mention of food engenders considerable anxiety, food writers play a number of roles beyond providing information on how to buy, store, prepare and serve various provisions. Instead, contemporary food writers engage with a range of important issues around food production and consumption including sustainable and ethical agriculture, biodiversity and genetic modification, food miles and fair trade, food safety and security, and obesity, diabetes and other health issues. In this, Australian food writers not only provide comment on any important issues in progress, they are also, I suggest, forward-thinking activists, advocating and campaigning for change. This paper focuses on prominent Australian food writer Margaret Fulton's career in the 1960s to begin to investigate her work as an activist: that is, one who advocates and campaigns to bring about change.


This paper gives an introduction to a Digital Humanities project at the De- partment of Languages and Cultures (Ghent University), the Database of Medieval Chinese Texts (DMCT), a collaborative project with several international partners. The structure of the DB is multi-modular, consisting of reference modules in the form of XML marked-up medieval non-canonical Chinese Buddhist texts, as well as analytical modules such as the Variants, Syntax, and Sentence Analysis modules. The architecture is 'open' and modules can be added, modified, and interlinked based on specific research requirements. The DB is multifunctional and not only provides information on key texts and their linguistic features, but also constitutes a research tool (featuring sophisticated online input masks and analytical tools) with which researchers can input and process data. In addition to its function in a research environment, it is also used in advanced master classes, in the framework of master thesis and PhD projects, as well as for internships. The DB has also an important 'socio-institutional' function, being situated at the intersection of Buddhologi- cal and historical linguistic studies, two of the main fields of research at the department.


Both discrimination by private employers and governmental restrictions in the form of statutes that prohibit professional licensing serve to exclude the formerly incarcerated from much of the labor market. This Essay explores and analyzes potential legislative and contractual means for removing these barriers to labor market participation by the formerly incarcerated. First, as a means of addressing discrimination by the state, Part I of this Essay explores the ways in which the adoption of racial impact statements — which mandate that legislators consider statistical analyses of the potential impact their proposed legislation may have on racial and ethnic groups prior to enacting such legislation — could help to reduce labor market discrimination against the formerly incarcerated. In so doing, this Part analyzes the influence of racial impact statements in the few states that have implemented them. Part II of this Essay examines the possibility of a contractual solution that could help to decrease discrimination against the formerly incarcerated in the private labor market, particularly by those employers who rely on the labor of imprisoned individuals. Specifically, this Part uses the fact that many private corporations rely on and profit from low-wage prison labor to argue that the state penal institutions that lease prisoners to such corporations should push for contractual agreements that stipulate that corporations relying on prison labor must revoke policies that bar employing the formerly incarcerated upon their release. In addition, this Part explicates how contractual stipulations may also provide for affirmative hiring policies for the formerly incarcerated. Finally, this Essay concludes by highlighting how failure to address continued labor market discrimination against the formerly incarcerated could render the formerly incarcerated a permanent economic underclass, thereby undermining notions of fairness and equality.


Since independence in 1965 Singapore has strengthened its own national identity through a conscious process of nation-building and promoting the active role of the citizen within society. Singapore is a state that has firmly rejected welfarism but whose political leaders have maintained that collective values, instead of those of autonomous individuals, are essential to its very survival. The book begins by examining basic concepts of citizenship, nationality and the state in the context of Singapore's arrival at independence. The theme of nation-building is explored and how the creation of a national identity, through building new institutions, has been a central feature of political and social life in Singapore. Of great importance has been education, and a system of multilingual education that is part of a broader government strategy of multiculturalism and multiracialism; both have served the purpose of building a new national identity. Other areas covered by the authors include family planning, housing policy, the creation of parapolitical structures and the importance of shared "Asian values" amongst Singapore's citizens.


ABSTRACT Aim: FIGO defines Cervical Cancer staging but in developed countries Pelvic MRI, PET/CT and surgical staging (SxS) are widely used. LACC standard of care is chemoradiotherapy (CTRT). Besides FIGO stage and Lymph nodes (LN) status, other prognostic factors (PF) are trying to be identified. Methods: Between May 2008 and November 2013, 148 consecutive LACC patients (pts) treated homogenously with CTRT from 2 Spanish academic Institutions were collected. Demographic, social, clinical characteristics and staging methods were analyzed and correlated with clinical outcomes. Results: Median age at diagnosis was 51.8 years (23-82.5) and PS 0-1(98%). Sixty-five percent had not followed screening program, 55% had a postmenopausal status, 58% never smokers. Median time from first symptom to diagnosis was 2.9 months (0- 58.3). Squamous cell 79.1%; G3 36.3%; High risk HPV 91.8%. FIGO Stage: IB2 8.8%; IIA 10.8%; IIB 48%; IIIB 17.6%; IVA 4.1% . MRI, PET/CT or both were performed in 95.3%, 51.7%, and 48.6% respectively. Clinical and MRI Stage correlation was: IB2 30.8%; IIB 76.1%; IIIB 19.2% and IVA 83.3%. Para-Aortic (PA) LN were studied by PET/CT, SxS and both in 51.7%, 50.7% and 33.1% respectively. In the combined group, negative PA LN were: 91.8% by PET/CT and 87.8% by SxS, showing a PET/CT specificity of 93%. All pts received Pelvic EBRT (median 45Gy) through 3D (81.8%) and IMRT (18.2%) concurrent with 6 weekly cisplatin (1-7). PA field and parametrial boost was added in 23% and 53.4% respectively. PDR Brachytherapy was delivered in 79.1%. Planned treatment was completed in 74.3%; median duration 8.5 weeks (3.8-18.8). Median follow-up was 22.4 months (2.3-61.2). RFS and OS at 2 years: 71.4%; 95%IC (63.4%-79%) and 80.7%; 95%IC (73.6%-88%) respectively. In univariate analysis OS main PF was FIGO Stage: IB2 92,3%, IIA 87.5%, IIB 81.7%, IIIB 65.4%, IVA 66.7%. Smoking does not impact in OS; oral anticonception and pre-menopausal status showed a trend to worse OS. Conclusions: CTRT is still an insufficient treatment in LACC. FIGO Staging might be improved adding imaging tests. PA Lymph nodes diagnostic method is still matter of controversy; our PET/CT data are according to literature. Neither social nor demographic characteristics were identified as PF. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.