Decoding of genetic information occurs upon interaction of an mRNA codon-tRNA anticodon complex with the small subunit of the ribosome. The ribosomal decoding region is associated with highly conserved sequences near the 3' end of 16 S rRNA. The decoding process is perturbed by the aminoglycoside antibiotics, which also interact with this region of rRNA. Mutations of certain nucleotides in rRNA reduce aminoglycoside binding affinity, as previously demonstrated using a model RNA oligonucleotide system. Here, predictions from the oligonucleotide system were tested in the ribosome by mutation of universally conserved nucleotides at 1406 to 1408 and 1494 to 1495 in the decoding region of plasmid-encoded bacterial 16 S rRNA. Phenotypic changes range from the benign effect of U1406-->A or A1408-->G substitutions, to the highly deleterious 1406G and 1495 mutations that assemble into 30 S subunits but are defective in forming functional ribosomes. Changes in the local conformation of the decoding region caused by these mutations were identified by chemical probing of isolated 30 S subunits. Ribosomes containing 16 S rRNA with mutations at positions 1408, 1407+1494, or 1495 had reduced affinity for the aminoglycoside paromomycin, whereas no discernible reduction in affinity was observed with 1406 mutant ribosomes. These data are consistent with prior NMR structural determination of aminoglycoside interaction with the decoding region, and further our understanding of how aminoglycoside resistance can be conferred.


The concept of global ecosystem services has become a powerful paradigm for understanding the link between ecosystem processes and related human activities, which is expressed by the economic and ecological quantification of the services in regards to sustainable development. The role of tropical forests in the global climate system and the uncertainty of the exact magnitude of this complex interaction has become a major concern to the scientific community. In this paper we review and synthesize the global effects of Amazon deforestation in Brazil, as well as drivers and challenges related to this process. To this end, we provide data on carbon emissions from combined annual maps of clear cutting of primary forests and spatial information on biomass distribution for different vegetation types and secondary vegetation growth, as well as the temporal dynamic related to the deforestation process and its interregional heterogeneity, the social and institutional drivers. In 2009, during the Conference of Parties, of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (Copenhagen, Denmark), Brazil announced a voluntary commitment to reduce the national GHG emissions by 2020 and, to this end, such commitment requires reducing Amazon rainforest deforestation by 80% over a decade. To achieve this target, a set of consolidated remote sensing techniques have served to monitor and calculate the extent of deforestation, which became indispensable auditing tools for conservation, forest restoration and implementing climate change mitigation schemes.


Science has recently become increasingly salient in various fields of international law. In particular, the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement stipulates that a regulating state must provide scientific justification for its food safety measures. Paradoxically, however, this ostensibly neutral reference to science tends to complicate treaty interpretation. It tends to take treaty interpretation beyond a conventional methodology under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which is primarily concerned with clarifying and articulating the treaty text. The two decades old transatlantic trade dispute over hormone-treated beef is a case in point. This article demonstrates that beneath the controversy between the United States and the European Union on the safety of hormone-treated beef lurks a critical hermeneutical divergence on the scope and meaning of relevant risk science, which a conventional model of international adjudication cannot fully fathom. The article is a philosophical retelling of what has been regarded largely as a legal-regulatory controversy. Informed by the philosophical hermeneutics, the article concludes that only a continuing dialogue or communication between disputing parties concerned can narrow down the hermeneutical discrepancy on risk science.


We investigate economic and political theories of financial reform to analyze state-level adoption of municipal bankruptcy laws (Chapter 9). Using a dynamic Cox hazard model, we find that interest group factors related to the relative strength of potential losers (labor unions) and winners (bond investors), courts' efficiency, and trust in non-opportunistic behavior by local government explain the timing of Chapter 9 adoptions between 1980 and 2012. Similar factors also explain congressional voting on municipal bankruptcy law. After Chapter 9 adoption, municipal bond spreads decrease and firms experience higher revenues, profits, and investments, particularly in states in which more bond proceeds are used by the private sector. Our findings support political and economic theories of financial reform, and highlight a novel spillover channel from the public to the private sector.


Information technologies (ITs) prevail all functions of strategic and operational management. As information is the lifeblood of tourism, ITs provide both opportunities and challenges for the industry. Despite the uncertainty experienced in the developments of ITs in tourism, the "only constant will be change". Increasingly, organisations and destinations, which need to compete will be forced to compute. Unless the current tourism industry improves its competitiveness, by utilising the emerging ITs and innovative management methods, there is a danger for exogenous players to enter the marketplace, jeopardising the position of the existing ones. Only creative and innovative suppliers will be able to survive the competition in the new millennium. This paper provides a framework for the utilisation of technology in tourism by adopting a strategic perspective. A continuous business process re-engineering is proposed in order to ensure that a wide range of prerequisites such as vision, rational organisation, commitment and training are in place, so they can enable destinations and principals to capitalise on the unprecedented opportunities emerging through ITs.


Sustainable development, future studies, informationtechnology, urban land-use and passenger transport. These arethe five concepts upon which this thesis and the eight papersit contains are based. The thesis includes both a developmentof future studies methodology, especially with regard tobackcasting, and analyses of the relationship betweensustainable development, information technology, transport andland-use in future cities Paper I (Gudmundsson&Hojer, 1996) suggests foursustainable development principles and discusses theimplications of these four principles for the transportsystem. Paper II (Hojer&Mattsson, 2000) is amethodological paper where backcasting is discussed in relationto some other future studies approaches. Moreover, the use of anumber of common empirical approaches in such studies iscriticised for being too deterministic. Paper III (Hojer, 1997) presents a study where fourtechnical scenarios of intelligent transport systems weregenerated and evaluated. The evaluation used a Delphi-inspiredbackcasting approach, where a total of some 100 internationalexperts contributed to a two-round survey. Paper IV (Hojer, 1998a) highlights three of thescenarios generated in Paper III and elaborates some resultsfrom the evaluation of them. Paper V (Steen et al., 1999) uses assumptions, based onother studies, regarding global future energy supply as well ason the development of vehicle technology and traffic volumes.Based on these, a scenario of a sustainable transport systemfor Sweden in 2040 is developed. Paper VI (Hojer, 2000b) looks at how the patterns ofcommuting and land-use can change with new organisationalforms. The change can either contribute to reduced trafficvolumes and a more sustainable transport system, or it can leadsociety even further into unsustainability. Paper VII (Hojer, 2000a) reports from a calculation ofpotential effects on commuting from a change towards anode-structured Stockholm region. The calculation is based onorigin-destination matrices generated from a traffic analysismodel. Paper VIII (Hojer, 1996) is a generalising analyticalpaper on the relationship between information technology,especially transport telematics, and sustainabledevelopment.


Significance Depression and anxiety have been linked to increased inflammation. However, we do not know if inflammatory status predates onset of disease or whether it contributes to depression symptomatology. We report preexisting individual differences in the peripheral immune system that predict and promote stress susceptibility. Replacing a stress-naive animal's peripheral immune system with that of a stressed animal increases susceptibility to social stress including repeated social defeat stress (RSDS) and witness defeat (a purely emotional form of social stress). Depleting the cytokine IL-6 from the whole body or just from leukocytes promotes resilience, as does sequestering IL-6 outside of the brain. These studies demonstrate that the emotional response to stress can be generated or blocked in the periphery, and offer a potential new form of treatment for stress disorders. Depression and anxiety disorders are associated with increased release of peripheral cytokines; however, their functional relevance remains unknown. Using a social stress model in mice, we find preexisting individual differences in the sensitivity of the peripheral immune system that predict and promote vulnerability to social stress. Cytokine profiles were obtained 20 min after the first social stress exposure. Of the cytokines regulated by stress, IL-6 was most highly up-regulated only in mice that ultimately developed a susceptible behavioral phenotype following a subsequent chronic stress, and levels remained elevated for at least 1 mo. We confirmed a similar elevation of serum IL-6 in two separate cohorts of patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. Before any physical contact in mice, we observed individual differences in IL-6 levels from ex vivo stimulated leukocytes that predict susceptibility versus resilience to a subsequent stressor. To shift the sensitivity of the peripheral immune system to a pro- or antidepressant state, bone marrow (BM) chimeras were generated by transplanting hematopoietic progenitor cells from stress-susceptible mice releasing high IL-6 or from IL-6 knockout (IL-6−/−) mice. Stress-susceptible BM chimeras exhibited increased social avoidance behavior after exposure to either subthreshold repeated social defeat stress (RSDS) or a purely emotional stressor termed witness defeat. IL-6−/− BM chimeric and IL-6−/− mice, as well as those treated with a systemic IL-6 monoclonal antibody, were resilient to social stress. These data establish that preexisting differences in stress-responsive IL-6 release from BM-derived leukocytes functionally contribute to social stress-induced behavioral abnormalities.


Offline reinforcement learning (RL) methods can generally be categorized into two types: RL-based and Imitation-based. RL-based methods could in principle enjoy out-of-distribution generalization but suffer from erroneous off-policy evaluation. Imitation-based methods avoid off-policy evaluation but are too conservative to surpass the dataset. In this study, we propose an alternative approach, inheriting the training stability of imitation-style methods while still allowing logical out-of-distribution generalization. We decompose the conventional reward-maximizing policy in offline RL into a guide-policy and an execute-policy. During training, the guide-poicy and execute-policy are learned using only data from the dataset, in a supervised and decoupled manner. During evaluation, the guide-policy guides the execute-policy by telling where it should go so that the reward can be maximized, serving as the \textit{Prophet}. By doing so, our algorithm allows \textit{state-compositionality} from the dataset, rather than \textit{action-compositionality} conducted in prior imitation-style methods. We dumb this new approach Policy-guided Offline RL (\texttt{POR}). \texttt{POR} demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance on D4RL, a standard benchmark for offline RL. We also highlight the benefits of \texttt{POR} in terms of improving with supplementary suboptimal data and easily adapting to new tasks by only changing the guide-poicy.


In this paper, we postulate a new decomposition theorem of a matrix A into two matrices, namely, a lower triangular matrix M, in which all entries are determinants, and an upper triangular matrix U whose entries are also in determinant form. From a well-known theorem on the pivot elements of the Doolittle-Gauss elimination process, we deduce a corollary to obtain a diagonal matrix D. With it, we scale the elementary lower triangular matrix of the Doolittle- Gauss elimination process and deduce a new elementary lower triangular matrix. Applying this linear transformation to A by means of both minimum and complete pivoting strategies, we obtain the determinant of A as if it had been calculated by means of a Laplace expansion. If we apply this new linear transformation and the above pivot strategy to an augmented matrix (A|b), we obtain a Cramer's solution of the linear


AEROSPACE LETTERS are brief communications (approximately 2000 words) that describe new and potentially important ideas or results, including critical analytical or experimental observations that justify rapid publication. They are stringently prescreened, and only a few are selected for rapid review by an Editor. They are published as soon as possible electronically and then appear in the print version of the journal.


The authors summarize the findings of their event study of the capital market reactions to an inaugural set of 17 CEO presentations of their 'long‐term plans' to institutional investors. The findings show that, although sell‐side analysts appear unresponsive to such plans, both trading volumes and stock prices exhibit significant abnormal reactions to the presentations, providing suggestive evidence that the communication of such plans conveys 'value‐relevant' information to investors with longer time horizons. Although based on an admittedly small sample, these findings shed light on the promise of long‐term plans and have been corroborated by analysis of the market response to the presentations of 10 more companies since the study was conducted. The authors also provide the outlines of a 'content framework' designed to help companies put together effective corporate plans and other long‐term disclosures. The framework is organized around nine main 'themes,' including policies governing capital allocation, corporate governance, and human capital development, as well as the statement of corporate purpose. After applying this framework to the 17 CEO presentations, the authors find that the more specific and forward‐looking the information disclosed in these long‐term plans, the more positive the capital market reaction.


Septins are conserved, GTP-binding proteins that assemble into higher order structures, including filaments and rings with varied cellular functions. Using four-dimensional quantitative fluorescence microscopy of Ashbya gossypii fungal cells, we show that septins can assemble into morphologically distinct classes of rings that vary in dimensions, intensities, and positions within a single cell. Notably, these different classes coexist and persist for extended times, similar in appearance and behavior to septins in mammalian neurons and cultured cells. We demonstrate that new septin proteins can add through time to assembled rings, indicating that septins may continue to polymerize during ring maturation. Different classes of rings do not arise from the presence or absence of specific septin subunits and ring maintenance does not require the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons. Instead, morphological and behavioral differences in the rings require the Elm1p and Gin4p kinases. This work demonstrates that distinct higher order septin structures form within one cell because of the action of specific kinases.


Ceramide and sphingosine display a unique profile during brain development, indicating their critical role in myelinogenesis. Employing advanced technology such as gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, and immunocytochemistry, along with cell culture and molecular biology, we have found an accumulation of sphingosine in brain tissues of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and in the spinal cord of rats induced with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. The elevated sphingosine leads to oligodendrocyte death and fosters demyelination. Ceramide elevation by serine palmitoyltransferse (SPT) activation was the primary source of the sphingosine elevation as myriocin, an inhibitor of SPT, prevented sphingosine elevation and protected oligodendrocytes. Supporting this view, fingolimod, a drug used for MS therapy, reduced ceramide generation, thus offering partial protection to oligodendrocytes. Sphingolipid synthesis and degradation in normal development is regulated by a series of microRNAs (miRNAs), and hence, accumulation of sphingosine in MS may be prevented by employing miRNA technology. This review will discuss the current knowledge of ceramide and sphingosine metabolism (synthesis and breakdown), and how their biosynthesis can be regulated by miRNA, which can be used as a therapeutic approach for MS.


The basidiomycete yeast Cryptococcus neoformans is a cause of significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised hosts throughout the world. The sporadic nature of the infection and the limited empirical evidence for direct human-to-human transmission have led to the belief that infections in humans are predominantly caused by the inhalation of basidiospores from environmental sources. Therefore, analysing the structure of environmental populations of C. neoformans can significantly increase our understanding of its ecology, evolution and epidemiology. Decaying wood is a rich source of organic and inorganic compounds and is known to be a suitable ecological niche for many micro-organisms, including C. neoformans. However, relatively little is known about the population structure of C. neoformans sampled from decaying wood. In this study, we analysed samples of C. neoformans var. grubii colonizing decaying wood in tree hollows of nine tree species in five geographical locations (Delhi, Bulandshahar, Hathras, Amritsar and Amrouli) in north-western India. Multilocus sequence typing was conducted using five gene fragments for each of 78 isolates. All isolates belonged to mating type alpha. Population-genetic analyses identified no evidence for significant differentiation among populations belonging to either different geographical areas or different host tree species. Interestingly, despite the lack of mating type a strains in our survey, we found unambiguous evidence for recombination in our population analyses. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis of long-distance dispersal and recombination in environmental populations of this species in India.


This article explains the rationale for the digitization of social work heritage material and the virtualization of an archived nondigital museum exhibit constructed by a Scottish Museum of Social Work. The project involved the "virtualization" of an existing social work museum exhibition on the migration of "Home Children" from Scotland to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century and the digital preservation of historical assets (both text and images) held by the contemporary social care organization involved in the migration of the children. This article discusses best practice in the preservation of historical assets, the methodology and technology used in the creation of the multimedia version of the exhibition, and the complexities of negotiating intellectual property rights in the transition from historical artifacts to new digital works.


We show how methods proposed in the statistical community dealing with missing data may be applied for land cover classification, where optical observations are missing due to clouds and snow. The proposed method is divided into two stages: 1) cloud/snow classification and 2) training and land cover classification. The purpose of the cloud/snow classification stage is to determine which pixels are missing due to clouds and snow. All pixels in each optical image are classified into the classes cloud, snow, water, and vegetation using a suitable classifier. The pixels classified as cloud or snow are labeled as missing, and this information is used in the subsequent training and classification stage, which deals with classification of the pixels into various land cover classes. For land cover classification, we apply the maximum-likelihood (assuming normal distributions), -nearest neighbor, and Parzen classifiers, all modified to handle missing features. The classifiers are evaluated on Landsat (both Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) images covering a scene at about 900 m a.s.l. in the Hardangervidda mountain plateau in Southern Norway, where 4869 in situ samples of the land cover classes water, ridge, leeside, snowbed, mire, forest, and rock are obtained. The results show that proper modeling of the missing pixels improves the classification rate by 5%-10%, and by using multiple images, we increase the chance of observing the land cover type substantially. The nonparametric classifiers handle nonignorable missing-data mechanisms and are therefore particularly suitable for remote sensing applications where the pixels covered by snow and cloud may depend on the land cover type.


In developed countries, suicidal behaviour is recognised as a significant public health problem among young people, but there are few studies from developing countries on this subject. The present thesis aims at estimating the extent of the problem and at exploring factors related to suicidal behaviour among young people in a developing country, Nicaragua, using a combined quantitative and qualitative approach. Three studies were conducted between 1999 and 2006. In the first study, all hospital admitted suicide attempt cases in the area of Leon were assessed over a three year period. Secondly, a qualitative study using individual in-depth interviews was conducted with eight girls aged between 12 and 19 admitted to hospital after attempting suicide. Thirdly, a study using the Attitudes Towards Suicides (ATTS) questionnaire was conducted in a community based sample of 278 young people aged 15-24 years to assess own suicidal behaviours, attitudes towards suicide as well as exposure to suicidal behaviour among significant others. The hospital surveillance showed that suicide attempt rates were highest among females in the age group 15-19 years with a female rate three times that of males (302.9 versus 98.9 per 100,000 inhabits per year). Drug intoxication and pesticides were the most commonly used methods for the attempts. A consistent seasonal variation with peaks in May-June and September-October was found in each of the three years, possibly related to exam periods in schools. Findings in the qualitative approach led to a tentative model for pathways to suicidal behaviour based on four main categories: Structuring conditions, triggering events, emotions and action taken. Dysfunctional families, lack of confidential and trustworthy contacts and interpersonal conflicts followed by emotions of shame and anger were some important components in the model. The community studies showed that suicidal expressions (life-weariness, death wishes, suicidal ideation, suicide plans and suicide attempts) were common among young people where more than 44.8% of males and 47.4% of females reported some kind of suicidal expression. Gender differences were small. Exposure to suicidal behaviour among others was associated with higher levels of self-reported suicidal behaviour. The attitude study showed that boys had less pro-preventive attitudes than girls, possibly indicating their higher risk for completed suicide. Exposure to suicidal behaviour and own suicidal behaviour showed an association with specific patterns of attitudes. The findings should be taken into consideration when planning for prevention of suicidal behaviour among young people in a developing country like Nicaragua.


In the new era of digital technology, the use of microblogging networks such as Twitter became a common practice among youth learners and digital natives across language classes. In the presence of VLE across all universities, do we really need to add Twitter to language classroom? Researchers suggests that Twitter as a tool outside the classroom can be a good support for the language learning. In this study we discuss the students' perceptions regarding the use of Twitter in an Arabic for Media classroom, and how could Twitter be used as facilitator to maximise the students' motivation. The data of this paper is based on a questionnaire that has been given to a final year students of Arabic at the University of Westminster. The students took "Arabic for Media" as a major module on their Undergraduate Programmes. Students were asked to answer questions about their usage of and opinion on Twitter, and how they felt about the whole experience. From the answers of the students, it was concluded that Twitter can be used as effective tool and practising collaboration among learners of Arabic for specific purposes


Policy gradient methods are among the most effective methods for large-scale reinforcement learning, and their empirical success has prompted several works that develop the foundation of their global convergence theory. However, prior works have either required exact gradients or state-action visitation measure based mini-batch stochastic gradients with a diverging batch size, which limit their applicability in practical scenarios. In this paper, we consider classical policy gradient methods that compute an approximate gradient with a single trajectory or a fixed size mini-batch of trajectories under soft-max parametrization and log-barrier regularization, along with the widely-used REINFORCE gradient estimation procedure. By controlling the number of "bad" episodes and resorting to the classical doubling trick, we establish an anytime sub-linear high probability regret bound as well as almost sure global convergence of the average regret with an asymptotically sub-linear rate. These provide the first set of global convergence and sample efficiency results for the well-known REINFORCE algorithm and contribute to a better understanding of its performance in practice.


Empowerment, Clear and Challenging Goals, Evaluation of Function, Access to Resources, Rewarding Considering the importance and role of organizational conditions for achieving the empowerment, the current study aimed to investigate the effect of organizational conditions on empowering of managers at universities in Ardabil. This study was carried out through a descriptive and survey method. The population for the study was 220 participants and the managers of Ardabil universities participated in this research. The results indicated that components of organizational conditions had different effects on empowering of managers. Among variables, evaluation of function, access to resources, and clear and challenging goals were known as effective variables and rewarding system was recognized to have less effect on empowering of managers. Correspondence: firstname.lastname@example.com


A common discussion is that the construction industry lacks efficiency, quality is poor, budgets are unreliable and prices are excessive. Better management would result in increased efficiency with reduced quality failures while saving tremendous amount of money.
This research aims at identifying and documenting the current status of the construction quality in Iceland. This involves identifying the main problems and point out where the scope lies for improving and by what means it is possible to do so.
To begin with, a literature review was performed in order to analyze the status of quality in construction with regards to quality problems and quality aspects. After having analyzed the data, a questionnaire was designed and sent to construction professionals, both with engineering firms and contractors firms. Finally interviews were conducted with quality professionals in organizations whom staff had participated in the questionnaire.
The research strongly suggests that quality is a problem for the construction industry in Iceland. The research revealed that there is a scope for improving quality and it is possible. This conclusion is both supported with literature research and the research results. The research revealed that quality professionals saw clear improvements in organizational operations after having implemented a quality management system. Furthermore the general employee had a very positive view towards applying and using the system on his work. However the research suggests that there is a gap in the use and implementation of quality management systems and that knowledge needs to be improved. The training and teaching methods on using and implementing quality management systems is in general inadequate, especially amongst the contractors. 47% of participants with the engineering firms were satisfied with the amount of training received while only 30% of participants with the contractor firms were satisfied with the training received on implementing the system. The research revealed that the training and teaching methods amongst engineering firms is in more comprehensive manner than among the contractor firms.
Hopefully, the results will give a clearer picture of the quality status and where improvements are needed. The study supports the importance of improving management quality within the construction industry in order to attain more systematic efficiency in its operation. Public project owners play a key role in increasing implementation of quality managment among construciton parties.


Abstract Both physical sputtering and chemical erosion take place in tokamaks. Physical sputtering occurs for all elements for incident particle energies greater than an energy threshold. For carbon targets the threshold difference for the three hydrogen isotopes is relatively small. In the energy range of 100 to 3000 eV, the physical sputtering yields are similar for D and T, and the H yields are lower by about a factor of 2 to 3. Chemical erosion studies of graphite due to H+ and D+ impact also show evidence of some isotopic effect - with the deuterium yield being larger. The isotopic yield ratios (D-yield/H-yield) observed in almost all of the chemical erosion measurements, including ion beams, laboratory plasma devices, and tokamaks, lie between 1 and 2. The recently measured chemical erosion yields due to tritium ions also fall in this range. (The notable exceptions are the mass-loss studies at the Max-Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik in Garching, Germany, where for energies <100 eV, the isotopic yield ratio was seen to increase from 4 to 7 with decreasing energy.) A nominal value of 1.5 ± 0.5 is suggested as the most appropriate value for the D/H yield ratio. This is fully consistent with the square root of mass dependence proposed for the modeling of chemical erosion.


Abstract Very little is known about Pied Flycatchers crossing the Carpathian Basin. We give a comprehensive picture about its migration based on the data collected during the past 26 years (1989–2014) at a stopover site in Hungary: (1) sex and age related phenological changes over the years, (2) sex, age and size dependent migration patterns during and (3) between migration periods, (4) sex and age composition in spring and in autumn and their change over years. The timing of spring migration shifted to earlier dates in the case of males, while that of females did not change implying an increasing rate of protandry. In autumn the timing did not change, but juveniles leave the area earlier than adults. The average wing length increased during the past decades in spring in the case of both sexes. In autumn, wing length did not change significantly during the years, but it increased during the seasons in all age and gender groups. The proportion of males is about 60% in spring and among juveniles in autumn, and it is around 39% in the adult group in autumn. The male ratio diminishes during spring, but it does not change during the autumn season. The average wing of adults is shorter in spring than in autumn. Based on this fact and the different sex ratios in the two seasons we may hypothesize that Pied Flycatchers are loop migrants on this area, and even the sexes of the same population take different routes.


In this thesis, occurrence of heterotopic ossification (HO) following total hip arthroplasty (THA) was studied. Preventive effects and complications with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were analyzed. Experimental investigations on bone formation were employed to gain insight to the mechanism of NSAIDs action on bone.(I). Fifty-six patients with bilateral THAs were analyzed. We found a strong correlation between HO on the two sides. Incidence and grade of HO were higher in men than in women.(II). Sixty-nine patients with bilateral THAs who had been treated with NSAIDs after one or both THAs were analyzed for HO. Widespread HO occurred in untreated THAs, but in none of the treated THAs.(III). A consecutive series of THAs were analyzed for HO. No widespread HO occurred in patients treated with NSAIDs for 21 days. In contrast, widespread HO occurred in 23% of patients not treated.(IV). A randomized, double-blind, prospective study on 144 patients was performed to determine the efficacy and minimum treatment time with Ibuprofen for prophylaxis of HO after THA. Treatment with Ibuprofen was effective for preventing HO and a treatment time of 8 days was sufficient.(V). A ten-year follow-up examination was performed on the patients from study IV. Thirteen patients had been revised. All but one belonged to groups treated with Ibuprofen. However, the prosthetic survival time was not statistically different for patients treated with NSAIDs compared to the control group. Eighty-four more patients underwent radiographic examination10 years after THA. Nine loose prostheses were found. These were equally distributed between NSAIDs-treated and non-treated THAs. When combining complications (revisions and radiographic loosening) no significant effects could be verified.(VI). Experimental induction of heterotopic new bone with demineralized allogeneic bone matrix (DABM) and with bone autografts, was used in rats to study effects of NSAIDs on new bone formation. Indomethacin inhibited net bone formation in DABMs and in orthotopic fractured bone. In contrast, a net mineral loss occurred in autografts, but neither mineral content nor 45Ca incorporation was affected by Indomethacin treatment. The amount of bone formed per mg implanted DABM was linearly correlated to implant size.


Chapter 1. Introduction
From September 1985 through August 1988 the Disaster Research Center
(DRC) at the University of Delaware undertook a study of local mass
media response to community disasters. A total of 15 new field studies
were undertaken for this research, fourteen in the United States and
one in Canada (and for certain purposes comparable data from two
earlier studies were also used). The research had a number of specific
topical goals, namely the following. First, we conducted a survey of all local media outlets in those
communities in which DRC carried out field work for this study. The
purpose of the survey was to document the involvement of the Local
radio, television and newspaper organizations in local community
disasters. We were interested in establishing the degree and kind of
participation in the response that the local mass communication system
would show in disasters in their own areas. Second, 32 in depth case studies were undertaken of the largest and
most involved local radio, television and newspaper outlets. The
primary goal of this second research objective was to determine the
organizational structure and news processing patterns of these entities
in the emergency periods of disasters. Specifically, we examined such
intraorganizational and interorganizational elements as the-gatekeeping
process, the decision making structure, news sources used, and news
processing during the emergency period and to compare these patterns with normal, day-to-day operations.


The objective of this study was to estimate the nutritional requirement of standardized ileal digestible (SID) Lys on growth performance and economics of 230to 280-lb finishing pigs housed in a commercial environment and fed diets not containing ractopamine HCl. A total of 1,101 gilts (PIC L327 × 1050, initially 233.4 lb BW) were used in a 28-d growth trial. Pens were blocked by BW and were randomly assigned to diets with 27 pigs per pen and 7 pens per treatment in a randomized complete block design. Diets were corn and soybean meal-based and fed in meal form, with dietary treatments consisting of: 0.52, 0.58, 0.64, 0.70, 0.76, or 0.82% SID lysine. Increasing SID Lys increased (linear, P < 0.05) ADG and final BW, resulting in pigs fed 0.82% SID Lys having the greatest final BW. There was no difference in ADFI among pigs fed different SID Lys levels. Feed efficiency was improved (linear, P < 0.05) with increasing SID Lys. In addition, there was an improvement (linear, P < 0.05) in caloric efficiency on both a ME and NE basis with increasing SID Lys. Feed cost per pig increased (linear, P < 0.05) as SID lysine level increased. However, there was no difference in feed cost/lb gain. Total revenue per pig increased (linear, P < 0.05) while income over feed cost (IOFC) tended to increase (linear, P < 0.07) as SID lysine level increased. Quadratic polynomial and broken-line linear models to maximize ADG resulted in similar fit and predicted the SID Lys level required to maximize ADG to be greater than 0.82 and at 0.685% SID Lys, QP vs. BLL, respectively. Using the QP model, 95% of the maximum growth was predicted to be at 0.675% SID Lys. The best F/G was achieved at greater than 0.82 and at 0.648% SID Lys for QP vs. BLL, respectively, with 95% of lowest F/G predicted at 0.638% SID Lys using the QP model. IOFC was maximized by the QP and BLL model at 0.754 and 0.640% SID Lys, respectively. In summary, the SID lysine requirement for optimal ADG, F/G, and IOFC of finishing pigs is at least 0.64% SID Lys.


Taking advantage of the sensor interface capabilities of a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, the integration of different types of sensors on printed ultrahigh frequency (UHF) RFID tags is investigated. The design, development, and testing of printed smart sensing tags compatible with the RFID standard electronic product code Gen 2 is presented. Two different strategies are employed to interface the sensors: 1) passive single-chip and 2) semipassive architectures. Both strategies provide sensor data by directly answering to the RFID reader inquiries or using a data logging mechanism to store the sensor data in the RFID chip memory. Temperature readout is measured using the embedded sensor in the RFID chip. Additionally, a light sensor and pressure sensor interfaced to a microcontroller are implemented in the passive and semipassive tags versions, respectively. For the employed RFID chip, two different UHF antennas are designed and printed using inkjet and screen printing to compare their radio frequency performances. Finally, the fabricated smart tags are fully validated through measurements in an anechoic chamber and their behaviors are compared with numerical simulation. The screen printed semipassive RFID tag with loop antenna shows a better reading range than the inkjet-printed one, whereas the passive tag can be considered as the most cost-effective system.


Based on the results of a more than two-year study, Lead-Free Electronics: iNEMI Projects Lead to Successful Manufacturing is the first practical, primary reference to cover Pb-free solder assembly as well as the analysis and reasoning behind the selection of Sn-Ag-Cu as the recommended Pb-free replacement for Sn-Pb. Reflecting the results of a two-year study, Lead-Free Electronics: iNEMI Projects Lead to Successful Manufacturing provides full coverage of the issues surrounding the implementation of Pb-free solder into electronic board assembly. This book is extremely timelya most electronic manufacturers are going to change over to Pb free soldering by 2006 to meet new European laws. All manufacturers around the globe are going to be affected by this change. The text provides specific results from the thirty company NEMI project activities. It contains integrated and fully documented book chapters with references to existing published work in the area. These serve as tremendous resources for engineers and companies faced with making the switch to Pb-free solder assembly.


The aim of this study was to quantitate the relative impact of nutritional, intellectual, brain development, cardiovascular risk, socio-economic, demographic and educational variables on the results of the 2009 Quality Education Measurement System (SIMCE) tests of language and mathematics for scholastic achievement (SA) applying a multifactorial approach, in school-age children of the 2010 5th elementary school grade (5ESG) and of the 1st grade of high school (1HSG). The purposes were: i) to test the hypothesis that intellectual ability, the level of SA of the educational establishments in the 2009 SIMCE tests, sex, parental schooling levels, and head circumference-for-age Z-score are the most relevant parameters associated with 2009 SIMCE outcomes; ii) to determine the predictive ability of the 2009 SIMCE results in determining the 2013 SIMCE outcomes for the 2010 5ESG cohort (when they graduated from elementary school, 8th grade) and for determining the 2013 University Selection Test (PSU) outcomes for the 2010 1HSG group (for university admission, when they graduated from high school, 4th grade); iii) to determine the association between the 2009 SIMCE results with the 2017 PSU outcomes for the 2010 5ESG group (for university admission, when they graduated from high school, 4th grade). A representative, proportional and stratified sample of 33 schools of the Metropolitan Region of Chile was randomly chosen. In these schools, 1,353 school-age children of both sexes, of the 2010 5ESG (n = 682; mean age = 10.8 years, SD = 0.6) and of the 2010 1HSG (n = 671; mean age = 14.8 years, SD = 0.6) participated. In both grades and tests, the findings confirm the hypotheses formulated. 2009 SIMCE outcomes were positively and significantly associated with 2013 SIMCE and with 2017 PSU and, with 2013 PSU outcomes in school-age children from 2010 5ESG and 1HSG, respectively. These findings may be useful for educational and health planning in Chile and countries in a comparable stage of development.


Immediately after the 1994 elections the post-apartheid Government intervened and embarked, by means of legislative and institutional measures, upon on strategies to integrate and enable people with disabilities to fully participate in the mainstream labour market as well as in Public Service employment (the Public Service is the largest employer in the country) which aimed to include 2% of people with disabilities by 2005. This target has still not been achieved and in July 2006 the overall average figure stood at 0,15% nationally and provincially. In October 2006 the target date was shifted to March 2009.
The challenges for all role-players and stakeholders are to expeditiously and effectively take advantage of the enabling environment provided by legislative and institutional measures. This requires focused and determined political will in the legislative and public administration domains together with civil society formations.


Nicotine attenuates the response of neonatal adrenal chromaffin cells to hypoxia by increasing the abundance of KATP channels. Catecholamine secretion from neonatal adrenomedullary chromaffin cells (AMCs) in response to episodes of asphyxia during birth leads to physiological changes that facilitate air breathing. The ability of AMCs to respond to hypoxia disappears postnatally concurrently with maturation of cholinergic innervation, and prenatal nicotine exposure is associated with decreased hypoxia-induced catecholamine secretion and increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Buttigieg et al., who previously showed that chronic nicotine exposure interferes with the response of neonatal rat AMCs to hypoxia, explored the underlying mechanism. Hypoxia leads to inhibition of large-conductance and small-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels and of delayed rectifier K+ channels in AMCs; however, pharmacological analysis indicated that prenatal nicotine exposure did not affect K+ currents mediated by these channels, and immunocytochemical analysis confirmed their presence in AMCs from the nicotine-exposed pups. Prenatal nicotine exposure was, however, associated with an increase in the AMC current mediated by KATP channels, which are activated in hypoxia, and Western analysis confirmed the increased abundance of KATP Kir6.2 subunits. Hypoxia-mediated catecholamine secretion from AMCs depends on depolarization-dependent Ca2+ influx; increased activation of KATP channels should oppose this depolarization and, indeed, pharmacological analysis combined with spectrofluorimetric measurements of a Ca2+ indicator showed that the increase in KATP channels in AMCs from nicotine-exposed pups led to a decrease in the hypoxia-evoked Ca2+ signal. Like prenatal exposure, 7 days exposure of cultured AMCs to nicotine decreased the response to hypoxia; pharmacological analysis indicated that this depended on the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR) and activation of protein kinase C (PKC) and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK). Experiments in an immortalized chromaffin cell line confirmed that the nicotine-dependent increase in Kir6.2 abundance involved α7 nAChR, PKC, and CaMK and implicated HIF-2α (hypoxia-inducible factor-2α) in the response. Intriguingly, administration of a KATP channel inhibitor decreased the hypoxia-induced mortality of pups that had been prenatally exposed to nicotine. The authors thus propose that KATP channel inhibitors might have the potential to reduce mortality in newborns at risk of SIDS because of maternal smoking during pregnancy. J. Buttigieg, S. Brown, A. C. Holloway, C. A. Nurse, Chronic nicotine blunts hypoxic sensitivity in perinatal rat adrenal chromaffin cells via upregulation of KATP channels: Role of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α. J. Neurosci. 29, 7137–7147 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This is a study of the lower orders within Welsh rural communities and pays attention to those people who worked and lived off the land of eighteenth century Wales, often amidst grinding poverty and insecurity. Part one deals with the material lot in turn of tenant farmers and small freeholders, craftsmen, the labouring poor and paupers, paying particular attention to their fragile and insecure position arising from barely adequate incomes, infertile soils, unfavourable marketing opportunities, spiteful seasons, killer epidemic diseases (not least small pox), a fast rising population from the mid 18th century and sometimes landlord oppression, more particularly so from the 1760's. Part two 'Rough and Rebellious Communities' examines the nature of the myriad intensely local, face to face rural neighbourhoods and is organised into four chapters, namely 'Culture, Religion and Alternative Beliefs', 'The People and Politics', Riots and Popular Resistance' and 'Violent and Light-fingered Neighbourhoods'. Unmistakable is the incipient violence, brutality and thieving within these communities, yet such communities possessed much cohesion cemented among other things by kindred ties, the absence of mutually hostile class divisions among the lower orders, neighbourhood co-operation in farming and deference for the aristocracy and gentry. Just how 'ungovernable' and dangerous these communities were in the face of relentless poverty and at times exploitation and oppression is the theme addressed in the epilogue 'Harmony and Discord: a Surface Tension'. Much hitherto unavailable material drawn from the gaol files of the Great Courts of Sessions of the various Welsh counties sheds light on the often secret, unchronicled lives of the 18th century toilers of the Welsh fields.


This paper examines how data visualization is used to supplement the arguments in Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century. Piketty shows a consistent pattern of modifying his visualizations to provide stronger support for his arguments than his data contains, particularly in his visualizations of the rate of return on capital as it compares to the rate of economic growth, one of the central arguments of the book. This modification takes the form of using disproportionate axis units and the addition of estimated or speculative context. The effect of this modification is to change the fundamental shape of the data trends, which can be clearly seen when proportional axes are used and hypothetical context removed.


Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is still a highly prevalent crime affecting millions of lives each year. DVA impacts upon whole families, yet women worldwide are recorded as the most prevalent victims in DVA incidents. Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups have been examined in relation to DVA however, there is rather limited research around Polish women and their experiences of migration and support for DVA in the United Kingdom (UK). This research investigates Polish women's experiences of migration and support for DVA and looks at the impact of migration on their experiences through the thematic analysis of five interviews. All five women had been offered support from the domestic abuse organisations, health and children's social care services. A symbolic interactionist framework was employed to explore the impact of migration on the women's lives and the experiences of support they received, because it focuses on human interactions and the understanding people attach to those interactions.
The study findings indicate that all participants received similar levels of support from a variety of organisations in the UK. However, the women's experiences were of two distinct narratives: positive and negative outcomes of received support. Three women's stories were characterised by positive messages including expression of their gratitude and appreciation of received support from services, which enabled them to become empowered and make desirable changes to their lives. The other two participants voiced their negative views regarding their lives and experiences of prejudice and discrimination. These women remained dis-empowered after social interventions, and thus remained negative about their current lives, but made no positive changes in order to alter their circumstances.
The Polish women's responses to DVA varied depending on their perceptions of support available to them and how the impact of migration on their individual lives was differing. Importantly, although experiences may be shared across accounts, the perception of these experiences is noticeably different for each participant. This suggests that the way in which women interpret their experiences of the impact of the migration process on their lives and accessibility of support for DVA is central to understanding the outcomes. The research illustrates that the key factors are personal interpretation and perception rather than any factor linked to their personal identity as a Polish woman or to the level of support offered.


BACKGROUND
Class II malocclusion is routinely observed in orthodontics. Its treatment usually revolves around the growth modification or the extractions of the teeth. Identifying treatment that leads to the greatest improvement can aid clinicians in providing the desired smile esthetics.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to compare smile esthetics between treatment groups by measuring various smile variables and the esthetic perceptions of 3 panels of raters.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A cross-sectional study was performed on 66 patients equally divided into the functional appliance (FA) and upper first premolar extraction (UPE) groups. Eight smile variables were measured on post-treatment photographs using the Adobe Photoshop® software. Ten orthodontic residents, general dentists and laypersons performed the subjective evaluations of smiles using the visual analog scale (VAS). The Mann-Whitney U-test was applied to compare smile variables between the groups. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare esthetic scores (ES) among the raters. The simple linear regression analysis, followed by the multiple linear regression analysis was applied to determine the smile variables associated with the ES values.

RESULTS
Statistically significant differences were found between the FA and UPE groups for the buccal corridor ratio (BCR) (p = 0.046), the visible dentition width ratio (VDWR) (p = 0.019) and the arch form index (AFI) (p < 0.001). The Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences in ES among the raters for the FA (p < 0.001) and UPE (p = 0.004) groups. The simple linear regression analysis showed significant associations between ES and the patient's age (p = 0.002), BCR (p = 0.020) and VDWR (p = 0.006). The multiple linear regression analysis showed that age (p = 0.008) and VDWR (p = 0.021) were significantly associated with the ES values.

CONCLUSIONS
The FA group had narrower buccal corridor spaces, a greater visible dentition width and a wider arch form in their smiles. The UPE group showed an increase in the buccal corridor width. Each panel rated the FA appliance group as superior.


Because of the nature of conduction in conjugated polymers, an improvement in the planarity of the backbone results in a smaller energy gap and increased electron mobility, and hence in a higher conductivity. From this consideration was born the idea of combining two types of material to create a new one: a side-chain liquid crystal conducting polymer possessing externally controllable backbone planarity.
Firstly, a small number of potentially conducting polymer backbones was chosen. For a polymer to be conducting a stable conjugated system is required, therefore an obvious choice was a type of backbone that includes aromatic or heteroatomatic rings. Three different backbone units were used in this project: aniline, pyrrole, and carbazole.
The aniline derivatives were chosen to be ortho-substituted so as to favour a regular 'head to tail' polymerisation in positions 1 (N) and 4. Both pyrrole and carbazole are symmetrical when substituted on the nitrogen, making the 'head' position equivalent to the 'tail' one. This property maximises the chances of a regular polymerisation pattern.
The next stage of the project was to produce suitable monomers. Previous work was considered to choose the liquid crystal moieties that would be attached.
This was achieved by optimising the synthetic route using model compounds before synthesising liquid crystal monomers. The model monomers, and some commercially available compounds, were employed in the following step of the project to optimise the polymerisation route for the various types of polymers. Both oxidative chemical polymerisation and electropolymerisation in different media were used.
The novel polymeric products were characterised and their electronic conductivities were measured. Films of the polymer that showed the greatest potential for alignment (liquid crystalline polypyrrole) were studied in more detail, and treated with a focussed laser beam to locally align the polymer backbone. This significantly increased the local conductivity. Most of the monomers and polymers were modelled using a software package (CAChe 3.2) to predict and compare some of their properties. The results of modelling the pyrrole derivative were combined with preliminary X -ray diffraction data for the aligned and unaligned polymer, allowing the proposal of a new explanation for the alignment phenomenon at a molecular level.


The landscape of lung cancer treatment is rapidly evolving with the use of genomic testing which helps identify specific mutations or resistance mutations for these heterogenous tumors. Advanced lung cancer has a very poor prognosis but identifying other treatment options based on genomic profiling of the tumor can lead to improved outcomes. Evidence of benefit for genomic testing in lung cancer has now resulted in this test becoming part of national guidelines. There are challenges with genomic testing which need to be understood as well as understanding how to apply test results. These results can help identify treatment options or may serve as predictors to respond to specific therapies. CONCLUSION: In the current era of precision medicine, it is imperative clinicians be familiar with genomic testing and be able to offer it to their cancer patients, specifically those with advanced lung cancer.


Mitochondria are cytoplasmic organelles responsible for life and death. Extensive evidence from animal models, postmortem brain studies of and clinical studies of aging and neurodegenerative diseases suggests that mitochondrial function is defective in aging and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Several lines of research suggest that mitochondrial abnormalities, including defects in oxidative phosphorylation, increased accumulation of mitochondrial DNA defects, impaired calcium influx, accumulation of mutant proteins in mitochondria, and mitochondrial membrane potential dissipation are important cellular changes in both early and late-onset neurodegenerative diseases. Further, emerging evidence suggests that structural changes in mitochondria, including increased mitochondrial fragmentation and decreased mitochondrial fusion, are critical factors associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death in aging and neurodegenerative diseases. This paper discusses research that elucidates features of mitochondria that are associated with cellular dysfunction in aging and neurodegenerative diseases and discusses mitochondrial structural and functional changes, and abnormal mitochondrial dynamics in neurodegenerative diseases. It also outlines mitochondria-targeted therapeutics in neurodegenerative diseases.


In this paper we are concerned with optimal investment decisions when dealing with land allocation problems. We aim to emphasise the importance of flexible modelling in order to capture irreversibility. In particular, we stretch a discrete model, firstly developed in Coggins and Ramezani (Coggins & Ramezzani, 1998), in order to cover a more realistic and complex scenario. Both environmental and economic uncertainty are included in the model and treated using an integrated approach, in which decision analysis techniques and option pricing theory are jointly applied to evaluate development versus conservation opportunities. Moreover, we take explicit account of how uncertainty interacts with two types of irreversibility: sunk costs associated with investment in developing decisions, including environmental and social costs due to environmental degradation, as well as sunk costs associated to environmental regulation and conservation. Finally, we use the Quasi Option Value, to derive decision rules that account for different levels of flexibility of land allocation possibilities.


The paper discusses the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) as implemented by a Catholic Church development organisation (Diocesan Development Services; DDS) in Nigeria, including the trade-offs involved and the meaning of 'success' with this process. SLA sets out to assess the ability of a social unit to enhance its assets and capabilities in the face of shocks and stresses over time and could be said to be a practical framework for evidence-based intervention. DDS implemented an SLA to help provide the basis for changes planned to an existing intervention, namely micro-credit. Given the challenges involved in SLA, DDS decided upon a number of trade-offs to balance the significant cost in resource against what it was looking for from the process. The first driver was a perceived need from DDS to provide quality evidence to help plan changes to its micro-credit scheme. The evidence gained from the SLA was also intended to help provide credibility when approaching major donors for support with the scheme. Secondly there was a desire to use the SLA as a means to identify and work with a group of households in an area where DDS had little prior experience on the assumption that these households could form the basis for a wider involvement with the community.


FLUXNET, the global network of eddy covariance flux towers, provides the largest synthesized data set of CO2, H2O, and energy fluxes. To achieve the ultimate goal of providing flux information "everywhere and all of the time," studies have attempted to address the representativeness issue, i.e., whether measurements taken in a set of given locations and measurement periods can be extrapolated to a space‐ and time‐explicit extent (e.g., terrestrial globe, 1982–2013 climatological baseline). This study focuses on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET and tests whether site‐specific measurement periods are sufficient to capture the natural variability of climatological and biological conditions. FLUXNET is unevenly representative across sites in terms of the measurement lengths and potentials of extrapolation in time. Similarity of driver conditions among years generally enables the extrapolation of flux information beyond measurement periods. Yet such extrapolation potentials are further constrained by site‐specific variability of driver conditions. Several driver variables such as air temperature, diurnal temperature range, potential evapotranspiration, and normalized difference vegetation index had detectable trends and/or breakpoints within the baseline period, and flux measurements generally covered similar and biased conditions in those drivers. About 38% and 60% of FLUXNET sites adequately sampled the mean conditions and interannual variability of all driver conditions, respectively. For long‐record sites (≥15 years) the percentages increased to 59% and 69%, respectively. However, the justification of temporal representativeness should not rely solely on the lengths of measurements. Whenever possible, site‐specific consideration (e.g., trend, breakpoint, and interannual variability in drivers) should be taken into account.


Certain episodes of intense fieldwork, though documented on site and working their way into print, may later haunt their erstwhile scribe as though clamoring for more thematic salience. Decades after the events recalled in this essay, a distinguished pianist invited her peripatetic friend to participate in a literary occasion to take place in a spacious living room (accommodating a grand piano) where for years she has been previewing new programs for an intimate audience. Accepting this generous invitation, the writer thought to placate that tenacious clamor by arranging elements of forays into the Malien bush so as to take them up a hermeneutical notch. The resulting text combines seasoned narrative (culled from a book entertaining the notion of a pan-African hunting goddess) with spruced up journal entries—thus reviving sensations inviting reflective embellishment. Figurative codas expand the tenor of each trip as gleaming or murky. However remote the donsonton from their collective ken, the audience in that room excelled in listening.


The energy consumption in the world is continuously growing and the sources of energy are largely dominated by fossil fuels. However, the resources of oil, gas and coal are diminishing in capacity. Moreover the CO2 emissions arising from their combustion is a great concern because it induces climate changes that threaten our habitat. There is a dire need to look for alternative sources of energies and to minimize losses of energy in our surroundings. Heat engines and turbines typically running with fossil energy have efficiencies of about 35%, i.e. 65% of the energy is lost in the form of heat. Low temperature heat (<200 ᴼC) is almost always wasted in power plants, industries, automobiles and household appliances. This is a huge resource that can be directly converted to electricity through the concept of thermoelectricity. Major challenges for heat to electricity conversion include finding the abundant materials with efficient thermoelectric (TE) conversion that can be mass produced at low cost.This thesis presents an investigation of the TE properties of electronic and ionic conducting polymers, as well as their implementation in thermoelectric devices. This is a journey from thin solid films on a substrate to wet and liquid media and towards bulk structures utilizing the same core concept of thermoelectricity. The TE device concepts introduced here are suitable for various heat sources i.e. continuous, intermittent and instantaneous. The thesis has three major parts as follows:Conducting polymers (CPs) have been studied mainly as thin films. They have been synthesized in different ways and their properties have been compared to propose the most efficient amongst them for thermoelectricity. Simple methods of exposure to certain gases or liquids have been used to tune their TE properties and demonstrated its applications in thermoelectric generator (TEGs).Ionic materials have also been studied as potential candidates for thermoelectricity. Polyelectrolytes constitute a special class of electrolytes with dissimilar sizes of ions; a polymeric ion and a small counter ion. The movement of the small sodium (Na+) cation under heat gradient was explored in wet films and in solution. Because the ions could not cross the electrolyte-electrode junction, we propose the idea of ionic thermoelectric supercapacitor (ITESC), suitable for intermittent heat source.Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) has been used along with conducting polymers to realize the three dimensional conducting bulks as a TEG leg. NFC bulks were coated with conducting polymers as a first approach and later the mixture of (NFC & CP) was freeze-dried. The later approach resulted in mechanically flexible structures that were used as dual sensors for pressure and temperature based on the TE properties of the CP which can be utilized for electronic skin applications.The thesis shows new ways of utilizing waste heat using polymeric materials and points to a sensory application area, broadening the horizons of thermoelectricity.


The authors analyze planning and control problems in "robotic manipulation" in an uncalibrated environment consisting of a PUMA 560 robotic manipulator, a rotating turntable equipped with an encoder and a CCD camera based vision sensor fixed permanently on the ceiling. It is assumed that a part with a known shape but unknown orientation is placed on the turntable which is rotating with an unknown motion dynamics. Furthermore, the calibration parameters are a priori assumed to be unknown. The objective is to track the rotating part with an a priori specified relative orientation. The task considered is of importance in various problems concerning industrial automation, such as part-feeding and tool-changing.


The advent of the philosophy of supported conversation has highlighted the crucial role that the communication partner plays in a conversation and has encouraged speech and language therapists to train people to be able to communicate more effectively with people with aphasia (Kagan 1998). Few studies have looked at training nurses to be able to communicate with people with specific communication difficulties (Chant, Jenkinson, Randle, and Russell 2002) and there are few assessments available to evaluate improvement in competence following training. Kagan (Kagan, Black, Duchan, Simmons-Mackie and Square 2001) has developed rating scales which measure change in the communication partner's skills and the level of participation of the person with aphasia. Conversation analysis has also been used to evaluate changes in communicative behaviours. Both approaches use video to capture the interaction in order to perform an analysis at a later date. Conversation analysis is very time-consuming and less relevant in a clinical situation and the use of video is not always appropriate or feasible. Setting up training for nurses is difficult owing to shift patterns and providing cover on the wards.


Small changes in the code and assets of a videogame can have drastic impacts on the player experience. The primary way to discover these impacts is with extensive human playtesting. However, the time and effort expended for playtesting is costly enough that it cannot be conducted after every incremental build of a game. We propose an information visualization technique that approximately reifies a game's space of interactivity as a static image. Considering incremental changes to the game, our visualizations can suggest what has been effectively added, preserved, or removed from the space by those changes. These visual summary reports would ideally be used in the continuous integration (CI) software development process. We demonstrate a prototype implementation of this visualization on two commercial games, considering both minor and major design changes.


Literature is human's expression. Almost all human's lives have been written in literature. People usually have many ways expressing their feeling, imagination, creation, and
compunction. Literary work expresses a series of happening of human life such as love, humanity, etc. Love, like forbidden love, contract love and humanity such as poverty,
oppression, are the problems that are never end in real society. Moreover, the students can develop their imagination through the literary work. Those literatures are poetry, novel, drama, short story, and film. It is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular
entertainment and a powerful method for educating, or indoctrinating citizens. This study is intended to study on the difference of culture between west and east found in "SHANGHAI NOON" film. More specifically, this study is focused on the cultural differences between west and east found in "Shanghai Noon" film, the cultural problems found in "Shanghai Noon" film, and the main characters solve the
problems in "Shanghai Noon" film.
This study used descriptive qualitative research design because it was intended to identify the cultural differences between west and east found in "Shanghai Noon" film. To collect the data, the writer used direct observation. The data were analyzed by identifying the typical culture based on the quotation from main characters, events, objects, and the dialogue.
The result of the study showed that there are several cultural differences between west and east found in "SHANGHAI NOON" film. The first is cultural differences between west and east such as Humans are nature with nature; they should feel comfortable with anyone, Traditional and Orthodox, No Individual, Fear of expressing love, Fear of talking with authority figures, Fear speaking and performance in general, Humans have to manipulate and control nature to survive, Humans should reward actions competitive in spirit, Science and technology provide the good life, Free and Individual, The religion not important because there is a movement of secularism.
The second is cultural problems found in "SHANGHAI NOON" film such as The first is each main character from different culture fear of revealing one's own shortcomings, different things, and style of life. The third is how the main characters solve the problem for example democrat
and no individual. In conclusion, the writer summarizes three main lesson can be taken from this film based on his own point of view. First, we can identify the typical of culture especially west and east. Second, we can find out the cultural problem which happened toward new comers.
Third, we know how to solve the problem when faced new culture.


The production of recombinant proteins is of great importance for industrial applications in fields such as pharmaceutical ingredients and industrial enzymes. One of these products are camelid antibody fragments, produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae in high cell density fed batch fermentation processes, using glucose as sole carbon source. To improve this production, process optimisation was performed on both biological and technical aspects. First the whole production system was analysed for possible improvements by comparing shake flask and fed-batch cultivation. It was found that not glucose, but ethanol as sole carbon source could greatly increase the productivity, which was verified in an ethanol fed batch fermentation protocol. It showed that especially under limiting conditions in the final phase, this process is much more efficient. This process was further developed to exploit the ethanol characteristics to its fullest potential. These characteristics were first determined in batch and fed-batch experiments by investigating the influence of growth rate, oxygen concentration and ethanol accumulation level on the productivity of the process. This resulted in an improved production protocol which was also shown to work for other heterologous proteins. It appeared that proteins that are normally produced in small quantities because of their structural characteristics are significantly improved in secretion in the ethanol process. This suggested a strong influence of ethanol on protein folding processes. To better understand the impact of ethanol in fed batch fermentations, the cell state was investigated by using DNA micro array analysis of the glucose and ethanol production process. Samples were taken to verify the influence of ethanol, a decreasing growth rate and a combination of these two. It was found that in ethanol fed-batch fermentations the central carbon metabolism behaves according to earlier descriptions. But nitrogen and fatty acid metabolism seem to play a much bigger role than expected by directing intermediates to the central metabolism for replenishment. Also a very strong redox and oxidative stress effect was found and protein catabolic processes were highly up regulated as well as genes that are glucose repressed. To link the cell state to increased heterologous protein production, the secretion pathway was further analysed by using the DNA micro arrays data and performing pulse chase experiments and electron microscopy. This showed that indeed glucose derepression plays an important role in the heterologous gene transcription. However, the general transcription and translation is down regulated in ethanol cultivation as a result of the changed environment. The flux of correctly folded proteins is higher on ethanol, probably due to an increase in folding capacity and a higher turnover of incorrect folded proteins. Furthermore, the changed redox potential and oxidative stress seem to have a large impact on the folding process and the post Golgi transport is strongly induced in ethanol cultivated cells. Therefore, the use of ethanol in heterologous protein production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a strong impact on cell state and metabolism which results in a higher secretion capacity and flux of heterologous proteins.


We develop a new parametric estimation procedure for option panels observed with error which relies on asymptotic approximations assuming an ever increasing set of observed option prices in the moneyness- maturity (cross-sectional) dimension, but with a fixed time span. We develop consistent estimators of the parameter vector and the dynamic realization of the state vector that governs the option price dynamics. The estimators converge stably to a mixed-Gaussian law and we develop feasible estimators for the limiting variance. We provide semiparametric tests for the option price dynamics based on the distance between the spot volatility extracted from the options and the one obtained nonparametrically from high-frequency data on the underlying asset. We further construct new formal tests of the model fit for specific regions of the volatility surface and for the stability of the risk-neutral dynamics over a given period of time. A large-scale Monte Carlo study indicates the inference procedures work well for empirically realistic specifications and sample sizes. In an empirical application to S&P 500 index options we extend the popular double-jump stochastic volatility model to allow for time-varying jump risk premia and a flexible relation between risk premia and the level of risk. Both extensions lead to an improved characterization of observed option prices.


A considerable amount of research has been carried out towards making long-standing smart home visions technically feasible. The technologically augmented homes made possible by this work are starting to become reality, but thus far living in and interacting with such homes has introduced significant complexity while offering limited benefit. As these technologies are increasingly adopted, the knowledge we gain from their use suggests a need to revisit the opportunities and challenges they pose. Synthesizing a broad body of research on smart homes with observations of industry and experiences from our own empirical work, we provide a discussion of ongoing and emerging challenges, namely challenges for meaningful technologies, complex domestic spaces, and human-home collaboration. Within each of these three challenges we discuss our visions for future smart homes and identify promising directions for the field.


Introduction: Dyslexia is characterized by slow, inaccurate reading. Previous studies have shown that the Reading Acceleration Program (RAP) improves reading speed and accuracy in children and adults with dyslexia and in typical readers across different orthographies. However, the effect of the RAP on the neural circuitry of reading has not been established . In the current study, we examined the effect of the RAP training on regions of interest in the neural circuitry for reading using a lexical decision task during fMRI in children with reading difficulties and typical readers. Methods: Children (8 – 12 years old) with reading difficulties and typical readers were studied before and after 4 weeks of training with the RAP in both groups. Results: In addition to improvements in oral and silent contextual reading speed, training-related gains were associated with increased activation of the left hemisphere in both children with reading difficulties and typical readers. However, only children with reading difficulties showed improvements in reading comprehension, which were associated with significant increases in right frontal lobe activation. Conclu- sions: Our results demonstrate differential effects of the RAP on neural circuits supporting reading in both children with reading difficulties and typical readers and suggest that the intervention may stimulate use of typical neural circuits for reading and engage compensatory pathways to support reading in the developing brain of children with reading difficulties.


There is a controversy among professionals regarding whether radiofrequency radiation sickness syndrome is a medical entity. In this study, this controversy was evaluated with a methodology adapted from case studies. The author reviewed U.S. literature, which revealed that research results are sufficiently consistent to warrant further inquiry. A review of statistically significant health effects noted in the Lilienfeld Study provided evidence that the disregarded health conditions match the cluster attributed to the radiofrequency sickness syndrome, thus establishing a possible correlation between health effects and chronic exposure to low-intensity, modulated microwave radiation. The author discusses these health effects relative to (a) exposure parameters recorded at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and (b) the Soviet 10-microwatt safety standard for the public. Given the evidence, new research-with current knowledge and technology-is proposed.


The share of software in industrial automation systems is steadily increasing. Thus, software quality issues become a critical concern for many automation projects, which require effective software quality assurance measures. In this paper we describe an architecture for automated testing of software applications part of industrial automation systems. We focus on testing programmable logic controller (PLC) software for machineries, which can be achieved by using test automation frameworks derived from software development. The paper provides a collection of practical receipts describing how different approaches from software engineering best-practices can be applied in the context of industrial automation systems. A combination of these receipts has been used for automating software tests in an industrial automation project. In this project, more than 200 tests have been developed to assure the quality of critical PLC components. The tests are an integral part of the project's automated build and continuous integration system. Every software change triggers an automated build and test process to ensure that no defects or unintended side effects have been introduced. The feedback from the project confirmed the applicability and usefulness of the outlined testing approach in context of industry automation. The paper concludes with providing recommendations and sharing additional lessons we have learned from automated testing of PLC software.


Background Multiple studies have evaluated and reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of corticosteroids. Short course oral corticosteroids are commonly used in children in the management of conditions such as asthma exacerbations. This systematic review aimed to identify the most common and serious ADRs associated with short courses of oral corticosteroids and to determine their relative risk levels in children. Methods A literature search of several databases; Embase, Medline, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and PubMed was performed to identify all studies where corticosteroids had been administered to paediatric patients ranging from 28 days to 18 years of age for up to and including 14 days of treatment. Each database was searched from their earliest dates to December 2013. All types of studies that provided clear information on adverse events were included with no language restrictions. Quality assessments were performed on all studies by two independent reviewers. Results Thirty eight studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies represented 3202 children and contained reports of 847 adverse events. The three most frequent ADRs were vomiting, increased blood pressure and behavioural changes. The incidence rates of these three ADRs were 6.3%, 8.5% and 4.8%, of patients respectively. The risk of vomiting was greater with oral prednisolone than oral dexamethasone with a relative risk of 3.62 (95% CI 1.89, 6.95; P=0.0001, I2=30%). Prednisolone sodium phosphate was reported to cause vomiting less frequently than other prednisolone dosage forms (P=0.047). HPA axis suppression was detected in 43 of 53 patients who were tested. The relative risk of oral prednisolone to cause HPA axis suppression compared with inhaled steroids was 9.95 (95% CI 1.73, 53.03; P=0.010, I2=54%). Increased susceptibility to infection was one of the most serious ADRs, one child died after contracting a varicella zoster infection. Conclusions Vomiting, increased blood pressure and behavioural changes were the most frequent ADRs seen when short-course oral corticosteroids were given to children. In addition, increased susceptibility to infection was the most serious ADR. The majority of children who received short course oral corticosteroids will experience HPA axis suppression.


Vanhoeffenus antarcticus was described by Heinrich Heiden from a net sample taken from 385 m depth by the Gauss expedition (First German Antarctic Expedition) while frozen in pack ice near the Antarctic continent in the austral summer of 1902–3. Valves of this peculiar diatom have only ever been observed in preparations from this locality and only using light microscopy, but an electron microscopy study of this taxon has become possible now that some surviving material from the Gauss expedition has been recovered. Our scanning electron microscopy observations show the presence of a radially arranged system of marginal chambers, connected to hollow radial rays and continuing through unusually long processes to the inside of the cell. Another unique characteristic of this taxon is a marginal ring of pillars bearing hooks rising from the valve mantle–valve face boundary, previously interpreted (based on light microscopy) as a ring of T-shaped spines. However, despite the improved understanding of its valve structure, the systematic position of this taxon and its biology remain enigmatic.


Many coastal areas around the world experience the effects of erosion on the shorelines. This phenomenon leads to great economical, environmental and social losses for the affected communities. The risk of a near future climate change, such as the predicted increase in sea water level might increase the problems to a great extent. This has forced many municipalities to start implement some integrated action plans, in order to protect their shores and properties from the wave action.
Historically, Lomma municipality in southern Sweden has faced problems with erosion at different places along the shoreline. One of the most affected areas in the municipality is Bjarred, located some distance north of Lomma village. During winter storms in 2006/2007 erosion caused a waste water pipe to be almost exposed, thus in danger of breaking and polluting Lomma bay. In addition, some walls located right above the cliff were damaged by the wave impact.
The consultant company Ramboll Sverige AB was chosen to study the erosion processes taking place, and to suggest protective measures to solve the erosion problem in Bjarred. Protective measures were constructed along some sections of the shore from 2006 and onwards.
The aim of this thesis is to evaluate how applied protective measures against coastal erosion in Bjarred have worked so far and to investigate the possibility of introducing additional measures to improve the present conditions. These measures will be investigated on the most affected shoreline stretch in the study area both regarding the present condition as well as for estimated future climate change conditions. A computer model was used to simulate the behaviour of the suggested measures.


Pyrite oxidation is the predominant source of acid mine drainage (AMD), which is one of the severe environmental impacts of mining. AMD destroys flora and fauna in the nearby ecosystem, and it causes grave health problems to the people. To further the understanding and help in the mitigation of AMD, this electrochemical study investigates the effect of different parameters on the rate of pyrite oxidation, while simulating the conditions in mine tailings ponds.
                Open Cell Potential (OCP) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) analysis were done using a three-electrode cell set-up. Polarization resistance obtained after fitting an electrical circuit to the EIS data was related to the rate of pyrite oxidation, while OCP was used to describe its oxidation mechanism. It was found out that the oxidation of pyrite by dissolved oxygen was the mechanism occurring in all the experiments, except when ferric and chalcopyrite were added. The parameter setting with the lowest relative oxidation rate were: electrolyte at pH 4, with no ferric addition, and with nitrogen purging; RDE at 400 RPM, with 10 % chalcopyrite addition, and 7 hours aging. Reaction orders calculated for the effect of ferric and hydrogen ions were equal to 1, while 0.5 was obtained for oxygen. Presence of chalcopyrite in the RDE caused the preferential oxidation of chalcopyrite instead of the pyrite due to their galvanic interaction. A thickening sulfur product layer as a result of aging resulted in a 9-fold decrease in the oxidation rate of pyrite.


We investigated possible hemispheric differences in the processing of four different lexical semantic categories: SPECIFIC (e.g. bird), GENERAL (e.g. animal), ABSTRACT (e.g. advice), and EMOTIONAL (e.g. love). These wordtypes were compared using a dichotic listening paradigm and a semantic category classification task. Response times (RTs) were measured when participants classified testwords as concrete or abstract. In line with previous findings, words were expected to be processed faster following right-ear presentation. However, lexical specificity and emotional arousal were predicted to modulate response times differently depending on the ear of presentation. For left-ear presentation, relatively faster RTs were predicted for SPECIFIC and EMOTIONAL words as opposed to GENERAL and ABSTRACT words. An interaction of ear and wordtype was found. For right-ear presentation, RTs increased as testwords' imageability decreased along the span SPECIFIC–GENERAL–EMOTIONAL–ABSTRACT. In contrast, for left ear presentation, EMOTIONAL words were processed fastest, while SPECIFIC words gave rise to long RTs on par with those for ABSTRACT words. Thus, the prediction for EMOTIONAL words presented in the left ear was borne out, whereas the prediction for SPECIFIC words was not. This might be related to previously found differences in processing of stimuli at a global or local level.


Contemporary critical theory encounters and radicalizes pedagogy because it
encompasses educational and social agendas where questions about justice, race, culture,
sex, power, and schooling are jointly discussed. Critical theory may seem like a vague
paradigm, but its main body is located in politics - politics which is presented in different
aspects. This thesis provides insight into one of the political domains called ideology. It
attempts to examine how cultural differences in moral presentation penetrates educational
institutions and school curricula, and how power groups support this penetration to keep
dominance of one culture over the others. Hence, the inquiry focuses on the investigation
of two phenomena - ideology and curriculum. -- Ideology is seen as the body of ideas reflecting social needs and aspirations of an
individual, a group, a class, or a culture; and it is a set of doctrines or beliefs that form the
basis of a political, economic, or other system. Curriculum, in tum, is viewed as a deeply
social term which takes into account social significance of schooling rather than
instructional subject-oriented system. Mapping relationship between these two terms,
the study chooses critical social methodology as its framework. The use of critical
methodology lets this analysis to take apart or deconstruct the abstractions of mentioned
terms and to reveal the inner relations between them. To achieve this understanding the
study bridges the gap between theory and praxis, history and present, providing the
reader with the documents of theoretical background as well as with the documents that
have been actively implemented in practice. Primary sources of data which is collected
and analyzed in the study comprise of the Newfoundland and Belarussian educational political platforms, more specifically provincial and country's educational legislations,
acts, and decrees. Other sources of data, which give the full picture, are Ministerial
Statements, Programs of Study, and Curricula. The method of comparative analysis
places the inquiry into two (Newfoundland and Belarus) social domains and leads to
understanding of their cultural, political, and educational similarities and differences. -- Findings from the study indicate that both in Newfoundland and Belarus school
structure and curricular, in their social essence, fulfill the expectations of the society with
its particular political demands. Hence, the inquiry leads to understanding that every
educational system in the world follows the tasks assigned by the government of this or
that country. In other words, education acts within the boundaries of the main state
ideology and nurtures the students as citizens for a particular country. -- This study is an attempt to call for educators' reconsideration of the present day
situation in education. This thesis is to urge the educators and politicians in rethinking the
place of a modem student in the new informative age where the citizen of a particular
country is seen as a citizen not only of one given country but as a citizen of the World
with the global vision of world's histories, cultures, and structures.


The scalability of intelligent transport systems (ITS) applications is difficult to test in a field operational test (FOT) due to the high number of ITS equipped vehicles required. Therefore, computer simulations for evaluating different wireless communication technologies for ITS different applications can serve as a complement. In this paper we present results from lab measurements conducted on the CVIS hardware platform equipped with the upcoming standard IEEE 802.11p. We have measured the packet error rate versus the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for different packet lengths. This lab measurement is the first step towards an outdoor measurement campaign which also considers interference. The outdoor measurements will then be fed into a computer simulator together with a realistic channel model for evaluating the scalability of VANETs in a highway scenario.


Previous studies have shown that people start traveling sales problem tours significantly more often from boundary than from interior nodes. There are a number of possible reasons for such a tendency: first, it may arise as a direct result of the processes involved in tour construction; second, boundary points may be perceptually more salient than interior points, and selected for that reason; third, starting from the boundary may make the task easier or be more likely to result in a better tour than starting from the interior. The present research investigated each of these possibilities by analyzing start point frequencies in previously unpublished data and by conducting an experiment. The analysis of start points provided some slight but contradictory support for the hypothesis that start selections result from the process of tour construction, but no evidence for the perceptual salience explanation. The experiment required participants to start tours either from a boundary or from an interior point, to test whether there was an effect on the quality of tour construction. No evidence was found that starting point affected either the length of tours or the time required to produce them. However, there was some indication that starting from a central location may be more likely to result in crossed arcs.


Due to its catchment size and its significant level of agricultural pollution, the Nemunas river basin has been identified as an agricultural hot spot in the Baltic Sea basin. On average, the total annual inorganic nitrogen runoff into the river is 26.9 × 10 6  kg, which corresponds to a load of 275 kg km −2  yr −1 . A submerged floodplain, covering 605 km 2 of the River Nemunas lowland, maintains the natural retention threshold for pollutants in the water of the main canal and the outfall at Curonian Lagoon, as well as improving farming conditions in the inundated meadows of the valley. It also increases the sedimentation and nitrogen retention capacities of the Nemunas catchment. It has been estimated that about 40% of the fine suspended sediments can be retained and deposited in the flooded meadows of the delta. Controlled inundation of the floodplains in the Nemunas delta may reduce its runoff nitrogen load by 21 kg km −2 per flood event. As a result, nitrogen concentration decreases by approximately 8–10%, causing a self-purification process in the flooded area. Nitrogen retention is dependent upon the velocities of the flood current and has mostly been observed in zones of stagnating water.


Climate change has become a major concern for the international community. Among its consequences, its impact on migration is the object of increasing attention from both policy-makers and researchers. Yet, knowledge in this field remains limited and fragmented. This article therefore provides an overview of the climate change – migration nexus: on the basis of available empirical findings, it investigates the key issues at stake, including the social and political context in which the topic emerged; States' policy responses and the views of different institutional actors; critical perspectives on the actual relationship between the environment and (forced) migration; the concepts and notions most adequate to address this relationship; gender and human rights implications; as well as international law and policy orientations. Two major interconnected arguments arise. The first regards the weight of environmental and climatic factors in migration and their relationship to other push or pull factors, whether of a social, political, or economic nature. The second is about the political framework in which such migration flows should take place and the manner in which to treat the people who move in connection with environmental factors. The two issues are deeply intertwined, as the extent to which the environment determines migration is intimately connected to the status to be associated with the people concerned.