The effects and potential recovery of aquatic plant Lemna gibba exposed to a sulfonyl urea herbicide metsulfuron-methyl (MSM) for 120 days under rice cropping condition was investigated. The frond number was decreased by day 15 at the concentration 11 µg/L and 100% inhibition on growth rate of Lemna was observed. Continuous decrease of frond number by day 50 at below the detectable level of residues exhibited symptoms (chlorosis) of MSM toxicity. Toxicity was assessed on the basis of toxicity index (TI) value, growth rate, yield and pigment contents (chlorophyll, carotene, total carotenoid and xanthophyll) of treated samples compared with untreated control. The observed value of 0.698 µg/g chlorophyll a, 0.263 µg/g chlorophyll b, 0.147 µg/g carotene, 1.620 µg/g total carotenoid and 1.473 µg/g xanthophyll contents in treated samples was statistically significantly different from control value of 4.366 µg/g chlorophyll a, 3.132 µg/g chlorophyll b, 0.796 µg/g carotene, 17.755 µg/g total carotenoid and 16.937 µg/g xanthophyll contents by day 50 samples. After prolonged exposure, growth rate, yield and pigment content for the treated samples recovered to control levels on day 120. The obtained data indicate the application of aquatic plant Lemna gibba as sensitive biomarker of water quality as well as the significance of selected biological parameters in the reliable assessment of toxic potential of MSM under rice cropping condition.


Abstract. Satellite measurements are often compared with higher-precision ground-based measurements as part of validation efforts. The satellite soundings are rarely perfectly coincident in space and time with the ground-based measurements, so a colocation methodology is needed to aggregate "nearby" soundings into what the instrument would have seen at the location and time of interest. We are particularly interested in validation efforts for satellite-retrieved total column carbon dioxide (XCO2), where XCO2 data from Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT) retrievals (ACOS, NIES, RemoteC, PPDF, etc.) or SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) are often colocated and compared to ground-based column XCO2 measurement from Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). Current colocation methodologies for comparing satellite measurements of total column dry-air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2) with ground-based measurements typically involve locating and averaging the satellite measurements within a latitudinal, longitudinal, and temporal window. We examine a geostatistical colocation methodology that takes a weighted average of satellite observations depending on the "distance" of each observation from a ground-based location of interest. The "distance" function that we use is a modified Euclidian distance with respect to latitude, longitude, time, and midtropospheric temperature at 700 hPa. We apply this methodology to XCO2 retrieved from GOSAT spectra by the ACOS team, cross-validate the results to TCCON XCO2 ground-based data, and present some comparisons between our methodology and standard existing colocation methods showing that, in general, geostatistical colocation produces smaller mean-squared error.


Two meteorite fragments collected from the Mukundpura impact site, Rajasthan, India have been analysed using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Mossbauer spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Raman spectroscopy. High Fe (22.65 wt%), Ni (1.53%) and S (3.69%) and concentrations of other elements obtained by X-ray analysis indicate that it is a carbonaceous chondrite. Mossbauer spectra show similarity with those obtained from Cold Bokkeveld and Murchison carbonaceous chondrites, and this analogy allows us to classify it as belonging to CM group of carbonaceous chondrites. TGA shows large weight loss, implying presence of significant amount of volatiles in this meteorite and Raman spectroscopy shows the presence of abundant organic matter consisting of disordered and aromatic (graphitic or polyaromatic) carbon. These results indicate that Mukundpura meteorite is a rare type of extraterrestrial object deserving further in-depth studies.


This two-volume book combines the memoirs and selected writings of Ian Ritchie CBE RA (b. 1947), one of the most original contemporary architects. As his essays chart his development from a young maverick into an astute professional and teacher, his reflections on this journey create a picture of a remarkable artist and innovator who has consistently encouraged experimentation and collaboration in his field, and whose practice dissolves the boundaries of architecture, engineering and industry. Alongside these personal writings, an in-depth commentary by the architectural critic Roger Connah explores Ritchies achievements, his dynamic mode of working and the unusual position that he occupies at both the centre and the vanguard of architecture today.


It has long been acknowledged that in America the car is king. However, America's car-orientated and car-dependent lifestyle goes beyond the culture of fast cars and freeways. In "Addicted to Oil", Ian Rutledge explores the political, economic and social ramifications of the motorisation of the US economy. He argues that America's dependence on the car has created a lifestyle leading to oil needs which have heavily influenced US foreign policy in the modern era. Rutledge traces the origins of America's addiction throughout the twentieth century and explains how America's relations with the Middle East were developed through its quest for energy security. America's motorisation and its consequent demand for oil at predictable market prices was and continues to be an important influence on US policy towards Iraq - especially given the uncertainties relating to what has so far been the securest source of Middle East oil - Saudi Arabia. Ian Rutledge argues that the war in Iraq was neither a war for 'freedom' or 'democracy' nor was it a plot to 'steal Iraq's oil', but rather an attempt to establish a pliant and dependable oil protectorate in the Middle East which would underwrite the soaring demand from America's hyper-motorised consumers. "Addicted to Oil" is the first book to undertake an in-depth analysis of the motorisation of US society which explicitly links it to America's foreign policy adventures, past and present. "Addicted to Oil" is essential reading for an understanding of America's international political priorities and its fraught relations with the Middle East.


The revolution in the building industry has resulted in many new building systems
being introduced. Consequently, the principal project participants are often faced
with decision involving the selection of an appropriate building system. Hence, the
research presented in the study focuses on the importance of criteria in selecting the
most appropriate building system. It also presents a proposed evaluation model that
serves as a guideline for professionals in the industry to perform an initial feasibility
study on the selection of industrialized building system.Based on the literature search, the relevant criteria were grouped into six categories:
Project Objectives Criteria, Project Characteristics Criteria, Project Constraint
Criteria, Technical Oriented Criteria, Performance Oriented Criteria, and Resources
Oriented Criteria. The importances of these criteria were identified through a mailed
questionnaire, which was employed as the research methodology.
From the importance or priorities of criteria obtained from the questionnaire survey,
the relationship of criteria among principal project participants was a.'1alyzed. It has
found that the criteria among Clients, Architects, and Engineers are strongly
correlated, except the criteria of Contractor. In addition, it has also been found that
the criteria among principal project participants are independent from methods of
construction, methods of contracting and types of project.
The proposed evaluation model is set up based on the Analytical Hierarchy
Procedure, which enables to set up complex problems involving attributes,
subattributes, sub-subattributes, and so on, in an orderly, structured manner. Beside
organizing the tangible and intangible decision criteria in a systematic manner, it
also provides a structured yet relatively simple solution to the decision-making
problems related to selection of an appropriate building system for implementation.
As a result of the research, there will be documented sources of information for the
selection of an appropriate building system. Moreover, the selection of an
appropriate building system can be performed in a systematic and effective method.


This paper proposes an inverse method to obtain accurate measurements of the transient temperature of fluid. A method for unit step and linear rise of temperature is presented. For this purpose, the thermometer housing is modelled as a full cylindrical element (with no inner hole), divided into four control volumes. Using the control volume method, the heat balance equations can be written for each of the nodes for each of the control volumes. Thus, for a known temperature in the middle of the cylindrical element, the distribution of temperature in three nodes and heat flux at the outer surface were obtained. For a known value of the heat transfer coefficient the temperature of the fluid can be calculated using the boundary condition. Additionally, results of experimental research are presented. The research was carried out during the start-up of an experimental installation, which comprises: a steam generator unit, an installation for boiler feed water treatment, a tray-type deaerator, a blow down flashvessel for heat recovery, a steam pressure reduction station, a boiler control system and a steam header made of martensitic high alloy P91 steel. Based on temperature measurements made in the steam header using the inverse method, accurate measurements of the transient temperature of the steam were obtained. The results of the calculations are compared with the real temperature of the steam, which can be determined for a known pressure and enthalpy.


Mechanical Engineering This study evaluates the dynamic interaction between rail vehicles and the track on which they travel. The measurements were analyzed in the time and frequency domain. The effects of external parameters such as the vehicle design, subgrade stiffness, and degree of curvature were analyzed and compared for both the vehicle response and the track geometry data. This study was conducted in close cooperation with the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) in Pueblo, Colorado. The track and vehicle response data was collected on the High Tonnage Loop at TTCI over a span of approximately ten years. For the purpose of this study, TTCI provided this data to the Advanced Vehicle Dynamics Laboratories (AVDL) at Virginia Tech. The analysis of the data was first completed for the vehicle response and track geometry measurements separately. In this manner, the effects of the subgrade stiffness, the degree of curvature, and the vehicle design could be evaluated for each of the measurements. The analysis of the track and rail vehicle response was successfully completed, and the results from this analysis are presented in the following chapters. The analysis showed that the subgrade stiffness had a significant effect on the vertical wheel loads, the track crosslevel, and the track gauge. For an increase in the degree of curvature, the variation of the crosslevel increased. The dynamic response of the vertical and lateral wheel loads showed a significant dependence on the alignment of the rails.


An essential part of Edgar Schein's legacy is his modeling of the role of scholar—practitioner. To better understand this legacy, the authors explored how being a scholar—practitioner is defined by those who ascribe to this role and the challenges and opportunities these individuals face as they go about their work. Their inquiry consisted of 25 interviews, a systematic reflection on their own professional journeys as scholar—practitioners, and a review of others' related work. The authors confirmed that scholar—practitioners identify with the primary tasks of generating new knowledge and improving practice, yet how they prioritize and go about their work varies with where they are on the scholar—practitioner continuum. The authors highlight five themes to clarify the complexities of the role, stimulate further inquiry, continue dialogue, and ultimately lead to the creation of new venues in which scholar—practitioners can thrive and enhance their contributions to the world.


Technological changes are impacting severely on the retail sector. In contrast to many other industries, recovery of the jobs market in this sector since the 2008 recession has been extremely sluggish. In the United Kingdom there have been several corporate failures and major restructures that have generated large scale redundancies, posing questions about the future of the high street. This paper examines the labour market transitions of workers displaced from jobs in the retail sector. Many return to work quite quickly, but most of these find new employment outside retail. Individual characteristics associated with a speedy return to work are examined in a competing risks framework. JEL Classification: J63, J64, L81


The administrative state faces a pervasive problem: "benefit neglect," understood as insufficient attention to the benefits of regulation. In 2017, for example, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13771, calling for a regulatory budget of $0 and directing agencies to eliminate two regulations for every regulation that they issue. The order has two laudable ambitions: to reduce the stock of existing regulations and to stem the flow of new regulations. But because it entirely ignores the benefits of regulations and focuses only on costs, it is a singularly crude instrument for achieving those goals. In both theory and practice, it threatens to impose large net costs (including significant increases in mortality and morbidity). It would be much better to abandon the idea of a regulatory budget, focused solely on costs, and instead to engage in two sustained but independent efforts:

(1) a continuing "look back" at existing regulations, with the goal of simplifying or eliminating those that are unwarranted, and

(2) cost-benefit discipline for new regulations.

A third goal, no less important than (1) and (2), should be a very high priority, which is to produce institutional mechanisms to promote issuance of regulations that would have high net benefits (including reductions in mortality and morbidity). Congress, courts, and the executive branch should take steps to combat benefit neglect.


During 2013, Mexico was inundated by massive protests organized by hundreds of thousands of the close to two million teachers that form the mostly public, national school system. Twenty-six of the thirty-two states of the Republic witnessed some form of protest. For months schools were closed by teachers in several states, the border to the United States was barricaded a couple of days, main national highways were closed for many hours on several occasions and in Mexico City tens of thousands of teachers came from all corners of the country surrounded the National Palace, the Supreme Court building, the presidential house, the Stock Market, and the City Airport. Teachers created a tent city that for months occupied the main central square of the capital. In this article explains why these protests erupted, the dynamics and the strategic moves of the teachers' movement, and the current balance.


The age of firn air in Antarctica at pore close-off depth is only known for a few specific sites where firn air has been sampled for analyses. We present a model that calculates the age of firn air at pore close-off depth for the entire Antarctic continent. The model basically uses four meteorological parameters as input (surface temperature, pressure, accumulation rate and wind speed). Using parameterisations for surface snow density, pore close-off density and tortuosity, in combination with a density-depth model and data of a regional atmospheric climate model, distribution of pore close-off depth for the entire Antarctic continent is determined. The deepest pore close-off depth was found for the East Antarctic Plateau near 72° E, 82° S, at 150±15 m (2σ). A firn air diffusion model was applied to calculate the age of CO 2 at pore close-off depth. The results predict that the oldest firn gas (CO 2 age) is located between Dome Fuji, Dome Argos and Vostok at 43° E, 78° S being 148±23 (1σ or 38 for 2σ) years old. At this location an atmospheric trace gas record should be obtained. In this study we show that methyl chloride could be recorded with a predicted length of 125 years as an example for trace gas records at this location. The longest record currently available from firn air is derived at South Pole, being 80 years. Sensitivity tests reveal that the locations with old firn air (East Antarctic Plateau) have an estimated uncertainty (2σ) for the modelled CO 2 age at pore close-off depth of 30% and of about 40% for locations with younger firn air (CO 2 age typically 40 years). Comparing the modelled age of CO 2 at pore close-off depth with directly determined ages at seven sites yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.90 and a slope close to 1, suggesting a high level of confidence for the modelled results in spite of considerable remaining uncertainties.


A large body of Catherine Ennis's work is focused on physical education curriculum development. Her approach to curriculum development is unique in that it is completely based on research evidence. The curricula she developed have been field-tested and the completed curriculum is supported with solid research evidence to demonstrate its efficacy in student learning and teacher ease of use. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview and explore opportunities to continue large-scale physical education curriculum intervention studies. The authors first provide a brief review of previous intervention studies by summarizing the findings and discussing implications. They then discuss potential future intervention studies by presenting several topics that are being explored by researchers in current interventions. Finally, they focus on methodology issues involved in designing effective curriculum intervention studies with the idea of adaptive designs as variations of the randomized clinical trial design.


The StorySpace project studies the role new interface technologies might play in high school education. With this approach in mind, StorySpace is specifically designed to support and enhance classroom narrative, an already well-established classroom activity. StorySpace strives to achieve this through adherence to three design goals. The first is to trigger student reflection and interpretation. The narrative medium created by StorySpace should represent the topic of classroom discussion and learning in all its complexity. In building their representation, the students will then be confronted with that same complexity. The medium should also itself be exciting and compelling, making classroom narrative interesting and fun.


Phase change materials (PCMs) have garnered significant attention over recent years due to their efficacy for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. High latent heats exhibited by PCMs enable enhanced storage densities which translate into compact form factors of a TES platform. PCMs particularly address the shift between energy demand and supply; i.e., they absorb heat during surplus conditions and release it during a deficit. PCMs are used in a wide range of applications—solar power plants, building energy management, HVAC, waste heat recovery systems, domestic water heating, and thermal management of electronics to list a few. Inorganic PCMs have a high latent heat value (compared to organic PCMs) but suffer from several reliability issues. A major reliability issue with inorganic PCMs is the high degree of supercooling needed to initiate nucleation (which compromises the reliability, net energy storage capacity, and power rating of the TES platform). "Cold Finger Technique (CFT)" can obviate these issues wherein a small fraction of the total mass of PCM is left in a solid phase to aid spontaneous nucleation (thus, reliability is enhanced at a marginal expense to the net storage capacity while power rating of the TES remains unaffected). In this study, machine learning (ML) techniques, more specifically artificial neural networks (ANN), are implemented to enhance the efficacy of CFT. Temperature transients from PCM melting experiments are used to explore the efficacy of this deep learning technique (i.e., multi-layer perceptron model or "MLP") in order to predict the time required to attain a predefined melt percentage. The results show that an artificial neural network is capable of providing apriori predictions regarding the time to attain a chosen melt fraction (e.g., 90% melt fraction). The mean error of the predictions was observed to be less than ∼5 min at instants that were within 30 min of the TES platform reaching 90% melt fraction. However, this approach is more sensitive to the type of training data set.


The salamander limb regenerates completely after amputation and the heart of the zebrafish returns to normal even after an extensive injury. What is it that makes all this possible? The answer is the presence of stem cells, which in these animals are quite efficient. We humans have lost this capacity, but researchers are working incessantly to control cell reprogramming and make regenerative medicine possible and close at hand. It is probable that the ancient Greeks knew about the regenerative properties of the liver. Suffice it to recall the story of Prometheus. Different organs are considered: brain, heart, lung, kidney, adrenal glands, liver, pancreas, gut. Last but not least, we consider the stem cells of mother's milk which, from the neonatal intestinal lumen, are transported to the several organs, among which the brain, in which they become neurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. This is a discovery that changes many things with respect to our knowledge today. Many actors are present on the stage in the archipelago of complexity and the uninterrupted string of perinatal programming which, from fetus to adult, orients and governs our health, for better or for worse. Proceedings of the 2 nd International Course on Perinatal Pathology (part of the 11 th International Workshop on Neonatology · October 26 th -31 st , 2015) · Cagliari (Italy) · October 31 st , 2015 · Stem cells: present and future Guest Editors: Gavino Faa, Vassilios Fanos, Antonio Giordano


The wave-of-advance model has been previously applied to Neolithic human range expansions, yielding good agreement to the speeds inferred from archaeological data. Here, we apply it for the first time to Palaeolithic human expansions by using reproduction and mobility parameters appropriate to hunter-gatherers (instead of the corresponding values for preindustrial farmers). The order of magnitude of the predicted speed is in agreement with that implied by the AMS radiocarbon dating of the lateglacial human recolonization of northern Europe (14.2–12.5 kyr BP). We argue that this makes it implausible for climate change to have limited the speed of the recolonization front. It is pointed out that a similar value for the speed can be tentatively inferred from the archaeological data on the expansion of modern humans into the Levant and Europe (42–36 kyr BP)


Experimental and animal studies, as well as genetic mutations in man, have indicated that the development of dentition is under the control of several genes. So far, mutations in MSX1 and PAX9 have been associated with dominantly inherited forms of human tooth agenesis that mainly involve posterior teeth. We identified a large kindred with several individuals affected with molar oligodontia that was transmitted as an isolated autosomal-dominant trait. Two-point linkage analysis using DNA from the family and polymorphic marker D14S288 in chromosome 14q12 produced a maximum lod score of 2.29 at Θ = 0.1. Direct sequencing of exons 2 to 4 of PAX9revealed a cytosine insertion mutation at nucleotide 793, leading to a premature termination of translation at aa 315. Our results support the conclusion that molar oligodontia is due to allelic heterogeneity in PAX9, and these data further corroborate the role of PAX9 as an important regulator of molar development.


Achieving racial justice requires that we understand racism. One may espouse beliefs of racial justice and equality, but fail to truly understand the nature of racial inequality. In this immersive virtual reality experience, the viewer becomes Michael, a black man, encountering racism as a young child, adolescent, and young adult.


What determines the relationship between pollution and growth? Are the forces that explain the behavior over time of these quantities potentially useful to understand more generally the relationship between policies and growth? In this paper we make a first attempt to analyze the equilibrium behavior of two quantities - the level of pollution and the level of income - in a setting in which societies choose, via voting, how much to regulation pollution. Our major finding is that, consistent with the evidence, the relationship between pollution and growth need not be monotone, and that the precise equilibrium nature of the relationship between the two variables depends on whether individuals vote over effluent charges or directly restrict the choice of technology. Moreover, our analysis of the pollution problem suggests that, more generally, endogenous policy choices should be taken seriously as potential sources of heterogeneity when studying cross country differences in economic performance. (Copyright: Elsevier)


Teaching through field trips has been very effective as students learn more when they see the objects in reality. However, it is not always feasible to take a large class to field trips due to time, safety, and cost limitations. Creating 3D Virtual Reality (VR) models and immersing students in that virtual world could provide an engaging and meaningful experience to both building science and architecture students. The aim of this research was to see if Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) can replace actual field trips in times of need. For that reason, an app was created teaching students about steel connections called the Steel Sculpture App (SSA). The SSA served as VFT and the location of physical steel sculpture model served as the actual field trip. This paper focuses on student learning assessment and experience from of VFT versus the actual field trip. Scope of this study is limited to 3 year building science and architecture students who have attained basic knowledge of structural systems. The author used controlled group and experimental group method to analyze the learning assessment. The results indicated that the students learning from VFTs scored slightly higher than those learning from actual field trip. Although, students liked learning through the actual field trip but the VFT group was able to score better because they learnt without any distractions.


: Most of the changes in the gender system which we have witnessed in recent decades involve women moving into positions and activities previously restricted to men, with few changes in the opposite direction. The incomplete transformation of gender relations in families, in social policy and labour market assumptions and in decision-making processes and bodies, together with changes in the labour market, has exacerbated long-standing gender inequalities in the glob-alized economies. As a result, inequalities among women across different social classes and ethnic groups have also become more pronounced. Since the 1990s, gender-sensitive welfare regime analyses have provided one of the most innovative theoretical perspectives for understanding the main problems and developing proposals for institutional responses. The introduction to this symposium focuses on gender, labour market, family and on the role of welfare states in promoting gender equality or at least a higher level of gender equity. It raises a few questions on the between gender and welfare state to which the contributions contained in this symposium attempt to answer.


The term 'severe aortic stenosis (AS)' carries a hefty prognostic connotation; it should oblige diligent workup, cautious interval follow-up or intervention on the patient.1 Trained as problem solvers, we aspire to develop a 'theory of everything' for diagnosis and management of complex illness, and AS has not escaped our efforts. For example, until recently, a patient with normal left ventricular EF unable to generate a mean gradient (MG) >40 mm Hg (or peak velocity >4 m/s) across a calcified and restricted aortic valve was deemed not to harbour severe AS. We now know that this oversimplification may exclude from potentially life-saving intervention a number of 'paradoxical low-flow' patients with substantial AS who despite having a normal EF and MG <40 mm Hg, have the same or worse prognosis as patients who generate the time-honoured 'cut-off' gradient.2 Thus, flow-dependent echocardiographic parameters (peak velocity and MG), despite having excellent correlation between them1 and proven prognostic value,3 do not always reflect disease severity. Interestingly, the aortic valve area (AVA), a flow-independent parameter, remains abnormally decreased (<1 cm2) in most of these 'paradoxical low-flow' patients, serving as a clue for their diagnosis.4

Paradoxical low-flow is partly to blame for the parameter inconsistencies found in echocardiographic severe-AS grading (defined as MG <40 mm Hg and AVA <1 cm2).5 The prevalence of severe-AS grading inconsistencies has now been studied in over 11 000 patients,1 ,5 and one out of three patients exhibits inconsistent severe-AS grading. However, there are also a significant number of patients without paradoxical low-flow (normal flow) and normal EF who also have 'discordant' severe AS1 with MG <40 mm Hg and AVA <1 cm2, and the opposite as …


This paper presents a new method for designing a reversible carry look-ahead adder (RCLA) based on dynamic programming. In this method, we propose a faster technique for generating carry output, which also outperforms the existing ones in terms of number of operations. In addition, we design a compact reversible carry look-ahead circuit based on the proposed technique. In order to optimize our design, we propose a first ever known Reversible Partial Adder (RPA) circuit with the optimum numbers of the quantum cost and garbage outputs which concurrently produce carry propagation signal, carry generation signal and summation of the inputs. Using RPA as a unit element of RCLA construction, we optimize the designs of RCLA and show that the proposed design is better than the existing ones in terms of the number of gates, quantum cost, garbage outputs and delay with the help of Xilinx ISE14.4, e.g., the proposed 128-bit adder improves 77.55% on number of gates, 10% on garbage outputs, 2.16% on delay and 77.61% on quantum cost over the existing best one.


The growing evidence that nitroxyl (HNO) has a rich pharmacological potential that differs from that of nitric oxide (NO) has intensified interest in HNO donors. Recently, the diazeniumdiolate (NONOate) based on isopropylamine (IPA/NO; Na[(CH(3))(2)CHNH(N(O)NO)]) was demonstrated to function under physiological conditions as an organic analogue to the commonly used HNO donor Angeli's salt (Na(2)N(2)O(3)). The decomposition mechanism of Angeli's salt is dependent on pH, with transition from an HNO to an NO donor occurring abruptly near pH 3. Here, pH is shown to also affect product formation from IPA/NO. Chemical analysis of HNO and NO production led to refinement of an earlier, quantum mechanically based prediction of the pH-dependent decomposition mechanisms of primary amine NONOates such as IPA/NO. Under basic conditions, the amine proton of IPA/NO is able to initiate decomposition to HNO by tautomerization to the nitroso nitrogen (N(2)). At lower pH, protonation activates a competing pathway to NO production. At pH 8, the donor properties of IPA/NO and Angeli's salt are demonstrated to be comparable, suggesting that at or above this pH, IPA/NO is primarily an HNO donor. Below pH 5, NO is the major product, while IPA/NO functions as a dual donor of HNO and NO at intermediate pH. This pH-dependent variability in product formation may prove useful in examination of the chemistry of NO and HNO. Furthermore, primary amine NONOates may serve as a tunable class of nitrogen oxide donor.


We present Pidgin, a program analysis and understanding tool that allows developers to explore the information flows that exist in programs and specify and enforce security policies that restrict these information flows. Pidgin uses program-dependence graphs (PDGs) to precisely capture the information flows within a program. PDGs can be queried using a custom query language to explore and describe information flows in programs. A developer can specify strong information security policies by asserting that specific queries return no results (i.e., asserting the absence of certain information flows in the program). To check whether a program satisfies a security policy, a developer can simply evaluate the query against a program's dependence graph. The query language is expressive, supporting a large class of precise, application-specific security guarantees. Pidgin can be used to explore information security guarantees in legacy programs, or to support the specification, enforcement, and modification of information security requirements during program development. We describe the design and implementation of Pidgin and report on using Pidgin both to explore security guarantees in existing open-source applications, and to specify and enforce security guarantees during application development.


IntroductionNational health surveys, available in over 100 countries, are the most common data used for health behaviour surveillance and are increasingly being linked to individual-level health outcomes. We propose that improved health behaviour hazard estimates can be obtained from pooled international population health surveys linked to outcome data.
Objectives and ApproachThe objective of this study was to compare smoking, alcohol, diet and physical activity all-cause mortality hazards in Canada and the United States using individual-level, linked population health survey data and common model specifications. The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) (2003-2007) and the United States National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (2000, 2005) linked to individual-level mortality outcomes with follow up to December 31, 2011 were used. Variable definitions consistent across the CCHS and NHIS were developed and used to estimate country-specific mortality hazards with sex-specific Cox proportional hazard models, including health behaviours, sociodemographic indicators and proximal factors including disease history.
ResultsA total of 296,407 respondents and 1,813,884 million person-years of follow-up from the CCHS and 62,226 respondents and 497,909 person-years from the NHIS were included. Hazards of smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity in Canada and the United States are of similar magnitude and direction, with similar dose response relationships. The largest health behaviour mortality hazards were associated with female heavy smokers in both Canada (HR: 3.36, 95% CI: 2.86, 3.95) and the United States (Female HR: 2.63, 95% CI: 2.11, 3.27), compared to non-smokers.
Conclusion/ImplicationsHealth behaviour mortality hazards are comparable in Canada and the United States, supporting the use of hazards obtained from pooled analyses for population heath. These hazards can replace those obtained from independent epidemiology studies that are often incompletely adjusted, rarely population-based and often not generalizable to the population of interest.


This volume investigates the relationship between globalization, inequality and social capital, and reveals that although strongly related, these ideas are also highly contested. The authors elucidate the interactions between these concepts, looking in detail at the conflicts and competitiveness which can arise at both the national and organizational level.


We present a method whereby a robot with no prior knowledge of its sensors, effectors or environment can learn to recognize places with high accuracy, in spite of perceptual alia.sing (different places appear the same) and image variability (the same place appears differently). Previous work showed how such a robot could learn from its experience a useful set of sensory features, motion primitives, and local control laws to move from one distinctive state to another. Such progressive learning of a hierarchical representation is called bootstrap learning. The first step in learning place recognition eliminates image variability in two steps: (a) focusing on recognition of distinctive states defined by the robot's control laws, and (b) unsupervised learning of clusters of similar sensory images. The clusters define views associated with distinctive states, often increasing perceptual aliasing. The second step eliminates perceptual aliasing by building a cognitive map and using history information gathered during exploration to disambiguate distinctive states. The third step uses the labeled images for supervised learning of direct associations from sensory images to distinctive states. We evaluate the method using a physical mobile robot in two environments, showing large amounts of perceptual aliasing and high resulting recognition rates.


Most of the human hearts presents a specialized bridge known as Septomarginal trabecula which extends from the right side of the ventricular septum to the base of anterior papillary muscle. For the present study we took 30 human hearts. We studied the thickness of the septomarginal trabecula, the height of its attachment to the ventricular wall by considering the supraventricular crest as the landmark, length of septomarginal trabecula and type of attachment to the septal wall. We found that in most of the cases, the septomarginal trabecula originated about upper or middle third of the ventricular wall. The thickness varied from less than 1mm to more than 5mm. We also found variation in the way of attachment of the septomarginal trabecula to the ventricular wall. Some of the septomarginal trabecula branched before attaching to the base of the anterior papillary muscle. We decided to study this because of its role in the haemodynamics and conduction of electric impulses in heart


Tip-dating methods are becoming popular alternatives to traditional node calibration approaches for building time-scaled phylogenetic trees, but questions remain about their application to empirical datasets. We compared the performance of the most popular methods against a dated tree of fossil Canidae derived from previously published monographs. Using a canid morphology dataset, we performed tip-dating using Beast 2.1.3 and MrBayes 3.2.5. We find that for key nodes (Canis, ~3.2 Ma, Caninae ~11.7 Ma) a non-mechanistic model using a uniform tree prior produces estimates that are unrealistically old (27.5, 38.9 Ma). Mechanistic models (incorporating lineage birth, death, and sampling rates) estimate ages that are closely in line with prior research. We provide a discussion of these two families of models (mechanistic vs. non-mechanistic) and their applicability to fossil datasets.


A complex industrial plant, such as a nuclear power plant, is monitored thanks to a number of sensors. The instrumentation may be itself a complex system liable to failures. We propose a model-based sensor diagnosis system which relies on the topological description of the plant and on a set of component models. This model implicitly conceals relations involving only sensor data. Such relations must always be verified if components behave normally; thus, the detection task consists of verifying these relations. So, this work is a first step in extending the scope of model-based diagnosis, since we question here the information stemming from the plant and normally considered as safe. As further studies, we wish to monitor this detection system itself; i.e., whenever the instrumentation is supposed to behave correctly, non-verified constraints point out to errors in the plant model.


Report of the Park Board in Dallas, Texas, including the text of the proposed city plan, called the "Kessler Plan." The plan describes suggested changes to the city including building levees; creating a belt railroad; building a union station; creating freight terminals; organizing a civic center; eliminating railroad grade crossings in downtown districts; extending roads in downtown areas; building parks, parkways, and boulevards; and adding playgrounds throughout the city. The text includes accompanying drawings and illustrations. The fiscal report of the Park Board is included at the end of the book.


How students behave and learn in the teaching laboratory is a topic of great interest in chemical education, partly in order to justify the great expense of teaching laboratories. Much effort has been put into investigating how students think, feel and physically act in these unique learning environments. One such attempt was made through the generation and utilisation of the Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI). This 30 question survey utilised Novak's theory of Meaningful Learning to investigate the affective, cognitive and psychomotor domains of the student learning experience. To date, this survey has been used to great effect to measure how students' perception of their own feelings and actions will change over the course of a semester. This study reports the use of a modified MLLI survey to probe how the expectations of students change over their undergraduate degree. To increase the generalisability of the outcomes of the study data was gathered from four universities from Australia (Monash University, the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney) and the UK (the University of Warwick). Students were found to start their university careers with very positive expectations of their teaching laboratory experiences. Their outlook became somewhat more negative each year that they were enrolled in the program. A further modified MLLI survey was presented to teaching associates and academic staff. Teaching staff were shown to have far more negative expectations of the students' feelings and actions, with academic staff more likely to believe that students do not undertake many items of positive meaningful learning. Overall, this study highlights the large gap between the expectations of teaching staff and students which, if left unaddressed, will likely continue to cause great frustration for both teaching staff and students.


Over the past decade a dozen or so commentators have called for fixed terms of office for Supreme Court Justices. This Article presents a new and contrary analysis, treating life tenure as a regulatory regime that usefully can be unpacked into a number of components: (a) Justices serve into old age; (b) they serve for long periods of time; (c) they serve terms of varying lengths; (d) chances to appoint new Justices arise unpredictably; (e) chances to appoint new Justices arise irregularly; and (f) the Justices often decide for themselves when to leave the Court and thus who will pick their replacements. Age limits would target mostly (a), would have no effect on (c) or (e), and would work only partial or uncertain changes in the other respects just listed. Fixed terms have the potential to eliminate all of them. The Article concludes that age limits are worth serious consideration, but that most of the additional benefits provided by fixed terms would be illusory or likely to be offset by new problems they would cause, whether the new regime is adopted by constitutional amendment or (worse) by statute. The length of a Justice's tenure determines how often vacancies arise and thus how quickly electoral majorities can force tectonic changes in the law by remaking the Court. From this perspective the right length of judicial terms depends on how much we trust judgments by majorities over longer and shorter time periods; life tenure reflects a high and salutary distrust of short-term judgments. To state the point concretely, most proposals for fixed terms would ensure that every two-term president would substantially remake the Court, an outcome whose desirability is far from clear. The framework set out above also leads to various other conclusions. One is that the more carefully we try to distribute control over the political dimension of the Court's work, the larger that dimension is likely to get. Another is that in a regime of life tenure the Senate should play an active role in screening nominees to offset the arbitrary and lumpy way that nominating chances are distributed to presidents. Still another is that life tenure makes age more important than the other ways in which most nominees to the Court differ from their likely alternatives, and that a nominee's age thus deserves more attention than it currently gets.


The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is working with the California Energy Commission (CEC) to determine the potential role of commercial-sector distributed energy resources (DER) with combined heat and power (CHP) in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions. Historically, relatively little attention has been paid to the potential of medium-sized commercial buildings with peak electric loads ranging from 100 kW to 5 MW. In our research, we examine how these medium-sized commercial buildings might implement DER and CHP. The buildings are able to adopt and operate various technologies, e.g., photovoltaics (PV), on-site thermal generation, heat exchangers, solar thermal collectors, absorption chillers, batteries and thermal storage systems. We apply the Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM), which is a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) that minimizes a site?s annual energy costs and/or CO2 emissions. Using 138 representative mid-sized commercial sites in California, existing tariffs of major utilities, and expected performance data of available technologies in 2020, we find the GHG reduction potential for these buildings. We compare different policy instruments, e.g., a CO2 pricing scheme or a feed-in tariff (FiT), and show their contributions to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) goals of additional 4 GW CHP capacities and 6.7 Mt/a GHG reduction in California by 2020. By applying different price levels for CO2, we find that there is competition between fuel cells and PV/solar thermal. It is found that the PV/solar thermal adoption increases rapidly, but shows a saturation at high CO2 prices, partly due to limited space for PV and solar thermal. Additionally, we find that large office buildings are good hosts for CHP in general. However, most interesting is the fact that fossil-based CHP adoption also increases with increasing CO2 prices. We will show service territory specific results since the attractiveness of DER varies widely by climate zone and service territory.


When insects are flying forward, the image of the environment sweeps backward across their viewfield and forms an "optic flow" (OF) that depends on both the groundspeed and the distance to the ground (or to the lateral obstacles). Several studies have shown that insects are able to maintain a constant OF with regard to their surroundings while cruising and landing. To explain how insects could behave in this way, we introduced the concept of an optic flow regulator, that is, a feedback control system that adjusts a flight force so as to maintain the OF at a fixed set-point [1]. The variable that needs to be measured is neither groundspeed nor range but the ratio groundspeed:range - in other words, the optic flow - which the insect can access directly via motion detecting neurons. The OF regulator concept accounts for a number of seemingly disparate insect behaviours that were reported over the last decades [2]. Most reports are qualitative, but quantitative findings made on honeybees' landing can also be explained on the basis of this simple control system, including the constant descent angle observed in the bee's final approach [3]. In a similar vein, a honeybee trained to fly in a corridor [4] may rely on a dual OF regulator that adjusts both its forward and side thrusts-resulting in a forward groundspeed and a clearance to the walls, respectively-without any needs to measure groundspeed or range [5]. The OF regulator concept was simulated and physically implemented on board two kinds of aerial robots: a miniature helicopter for ground avoidance [1] (Fig.1) and a miniature hovercraft for lateral obstacle avoidance and cruise control in straight or tapered corridors [5]. The electronic OF sensors aboard [6] were derived from the housefly EMDs previously analyzed using single neuron recording combined with single photoreceptor stimulation [7].


Objective: CPLOL celebrates EU day on 6th March every year, on the anniversary of the signing of the constitutional charter in 1998. The objective is for all the SLT professional associations to focus on raising awareness of communication and swallowing disorders on the same date across the EU. These campaigns highlight key information about the impact of communication difficulties on the quality of life for individuals and their families and also help to promote awareness of the professional role of the speech and language therapist (SLT).

Methods: The annual topics focus on a specified communication disorder and campaign slogan, for all associations to implement in the own country. In 2015 the topic is acquired neurological communication disorders. "Communication is everything: Speech and Language Therapy is the key"; Les troubles du langage d'origine neurologiques. "La communication est tout. L'orthophonie en est la cle".

Results: There is an annual report of activities from each country to share examples of successful initiatives. The poster will show a wide range of creative activities and materials recently used across CPLOL member countries.

Conclusions: Continuing to celebrate EU day will support SLTs across Europe to have high quality resources and messages to promote awareness of our role and to influence the general public, multi-professional colleagues, politicians and the media.


Renters today face widespread landlord-imposed pet restrictions. At the same time, Americans increasingly view their pets as family members, and many do not see giving up their animals as an option when looking for housing. Consequently, pet-owning renters often struggle to find suitable places to live and end up compromising on quality, location, and safety. As homeownership drops and renting becomes more prevalent across the United States, landlord-imposed pet restrictions increasingly constrain choices, effectively reducing access to housing for many Americans. These policies particularly impact low-income families and those with sociallymaligned dog breeds. This Note analyzes how landlord-imposed pet restrictions burden renters with dogs, with a particular focus on renters in the Los Angeles area. Parts II and III explain how legal and cultural attitudes toward pets are evolving, and how public and private restrictions constrain pet ownership. Part IV discusses the impact of landlord-imposed pet restrictions on renters and compares the situation to non-rental contexts in which people have sacrificed their own well-being to protect their pets. Part V asserts that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause and the penumbral right to privacy can be interpreted to protect pet-owning families from government-imposed pet restrictions. It argues that while these constitutional protections do not apply in the private rental context, they do suggest that landlords unreasonably infringe on renters' privacy interests and that legislators should act to constrain landlord control.


Background: Coccydynia is pain in the coccyx
region. The most common cause of coccydynia
is trauma, either from a direct axial force such
as during a fall onto the coccyx or from cumulative
trauma as a result of poor sitting mechanics.
Risk factors include obesity, female gender and
rapid weight loss. The anatomy of the region is
not well vascularized, and consists of the coccyx
bones, and supporting ligaments and tendons.
For a majority of patients, conservative management
may be successful but for the remainder
of patients, pain relief may only be transient and
pain can become debilitating. What has yet to be
fully explored is the possible beneficial effect of
local injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for
the treatment of refractory coccydynia. PRP injections
have been successful in treating a variety
of chronic tendon, ligament and bone injuries by
inducing an inflammatory response to promote or
re-initiate healing. In addition, local injections of
PRP to the coccyx would be a less invasive option
than surgery for patients who have exhausted all
other treatment options and continue to struggle
with the debilitating effects of coccydynia.
Objectives: To demonstrate the important role
of PRP therapy in treating coccydynia refractory
to traditional conservative management.
Study Design: Retrospective case series.
Methods: Three patients with coccygeal pain
for greater than 6 months who presented to an
outpatient pain management office in New York
from 2014 until 2016, and failed conventional
treatments. When the pain was deemed refractory
for the patient, offering for PRP was done.
This was presented with the option to repeat once
again at the 6-8 week mark if needed. All patients
underwent PRP with fluoroscopic injection, and
the use of the same PRP commercially available
system; Magellan-Arteriocyte. The patients were
evaluated with a numerical rating scale, and percentage
of pain relief at 6-8 week post-injection, 6
months post-injection, 12 months post-injection,
and 24 months post-injection was recorded.
Percentage of pain relief was then calculated.
Results: Overall the patient series demonstrated
significant improvement in numeric pain scale, as
well as percentage of pain reduction. At the 6-8
week follow-up for all the post-PRP injections,
there was an average of 75% improvement in
overall pain. At 6 months, 1 patient had no change,
while 2 patients maintained the same reduction
in pain at the 12- and 24-month follow-ups.
Limitations: This retrospective case
series is only a small sample size of pat
i e n t s w i t h r e f r a c t o r y c o c c y d y n i a .
Conclusions: Here we discuss the first case
series of PRP for coccydynia. The results of the
3 patients in this case series are encouraging.


Gene mining for various biotic and abiotic stresses could be utilized only when we can transfer them to our important crops so that a large number of the population can be benefitted by this. In this light gene transfer through various methods can be done and it will be more useful where traditional breeding approach is not feasible. However, transgenic research in fruit crops is very low so that present information will be utilized by fruit breeders to a design future program for developing transgenic that ultimately open the way for those crops where gene transfer is difficult through conventional breeding.


The design and synthesis of economically viable homogeneous and heterogeneous transition metal complexes for photocatalytic hydrogen generation using visible light irradiation and as OLED's are under intense investigation. Transition metal complexes are drawing great interest as they offer highly efficient room temperature phosphorescence. In particular iridium (III) complexes are considered to be the most promising since they exhibit: (1) good photo and thermal stabilities, (2) high phosphorescence quantum efficiency, (3) very large values for excited state lifetimes, (4) facile colour tuning through ligand structure control and (5) large cross section for exciton formation. Such characterstic features are attributed to the efficient spin-orbit coupling provided by the Ir metal as well as the strong structural or electronic interactions between the Ir metal and ligands.
Chapter 1 starts up with the general introduction to various technologies used at present for H2 production followed by its storage, distribution and utilisation. Basic mechanism for natural photosynthesis is described along with different artificial photosynthetic systems giving special attention to intermolecular and intramolecular photocatalyts. Effort has been taken to include most of the recent publications in these catagories. This is followed by a complete insight into
the iridium chemistry starting with the iridium complexes using (N^N) co-ordinating ligands and multimetal complexes derived from it followed by Ir complexes with the cyclometallating ligands which then moves along the synthetic aspects and photophysics of the tris complexes and
then to the importance of iridium terpyridine complexes. A brief history on the basic excited state properties of iridium metal complexes is described after that. The chapter ends up with the application of the iridium complexes mainly concentrating on the OLED's.
Chapter 2 details the basic synthetic procedures and instruments employed in the studies presented in later chapters. Various techniques used for the characterisation of the complexes including 1D and 2D Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR), Mass Spectroscopy,
Elemental Analysis (CHN), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Absorption and Emission spectroscopy, Time Corelated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC), Laser Flash Photolysis and Gas Chromatography (GC) are briefly described in this chapter.
Chapter 3 deals with the synthesis of iridium polypyridyl complexes with various cyclometallating ligands used for intermolecular and intramolecular photocatalytic H2 generation from H2O. A series of heteroleptic iridium monomers and hetrodinuclear Ir-Pt/Pd dimers, which
are potential candidates for photocatalytic H2 generation, are described along with preliminary photophysics measurements and photocatalytic H2 production results as Turn Over Numbers (TON's) measured using gas chromatography.
Chapter 4 describes the detailed excited state photophysics of novel iridium complexes. Absorption and emission spectra of these novel complexes are taken in different solvents in order to examine any solvatochromic effects. Deaeration was done using freeze pump thaw method in order to remove any oxygen present in the samples that can cause quenching. Temperature dependent emission measurements were carried out in temperature range 77 K to 298 K in every 10 K temperature interval. Temperature dependent lifetime measurements were also carried out in temperature range 77 K to 298 K in every 10 K temperature interval using TCSPC and a cryostat.
Chapter 5 gives an account on the novel high yield synthesis, characterisation, reaction mechanism and excited state photophysics of Ir(polypyridyl)2Cl2 complexes and their deuteriated analogous. Taking [Ir(bpy)2Cl2]PF6 as the standard complex significant effort has been made to
figure out the synthetic mechanism of the reaction with the aid of NMR and HPLC done in a concomitant way. This section also explains the novel synthetic method for removing the inner sphere chlorides as triflate complexes and binding the triflate intermediates to other polypyridyl
ligands. Detailed study has been carried out on probing the excited state photophysics of these complexes. Excited state lifetimes measured using both TCSPC and laser flash photolysis which provided promising evidence on the effect of deuteriation on lifetimes and the role these complexes can play in OLED applications. Effort has taken in order to study intermolecular photocatalysis with these complexes.
Chapter 6 gives an overview of all the work that has been carried out up to date and a future research plan is also included.


Background and Aims: Practical and proportional education of legal issues in the midwifery is important as a result of covering a wide range of health care services. This study aimed to present and integrate the student-centered participatory teaching method and provide an educational package in order to improve the quality of the legal and medical law course in midwifery. Methods: This was a case-control study. Statistical population consists of 90 midwifery students. Three researcher made questionnaires: "evaluation the unit of rights and forensic in midwifery, knowledge of students about of forensic medicines issues in midwifery and student satisfaction of the workshop" was used for collecting data. Finally, to describe the data SPSS-20 software, descriptive statistical methods, t-test and Wilcox on tests were used. Results: According to the results the average score of student's knowledge in forensic issues in midwifery had increased significantly (P<0.005) after the workshop (14.05 of 18) compared to before the workshop (4.8 of 18). About the educational package the 80% of students considered the contents of the curriculum to be appropriate for training and expressed that the package could be used as a source of educational assistance available to enhance their legal activities. Conclusions: According to the results, using combination learnin method, holding a participatory student-centered workshop and presenting a supplementary educational package can improve the quality of law and forensics course in midwifery.


5472 Expression of mutant proteins or viral infection may interfere with proper protein folding activity in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Several pathways that maintain cellular homeostasis are activated in response to these ER disturbances. In this report, we investigated which of these ER stress-activated pathways induce COX-2, and potentially oncogenesis. Tunicamycin and brefeldin A, two ER stress inducers, increased the expression of COX-2 in ML-1 or MCF-7 cells. Nuclear translocation of NF-κB and activation of pp38 MAP kinase was observed during ER stress. IκBα-kinase inhibitor Bay 11-7082 or IκBα kinase dominant negative mutant significantly inhibited the induction of COX-2. PP38 MAP kinase inhibitor SB-203580 or eIF2α phosphorylation inhibitor 2-aminopurine attenuated the nuclear NF-κB DNA binding activity and COX-2 induction. Expression of mutant hepatitis B virus (HBV) large surface proteins, inducers of ER stress, enhanced the expression of COX-2 in ML-1 and HuH-7 cells. Transgenic mice showed higher expression of COX-2 protein in liver and kidney tissue expressing mutant HBV large surface protein in vivo . Similarly, increased expression of COX-2 mRNA was observed in human hepatocellular carcinoma tissue expressing mutant HBV large surface proteins. In ML-1 cells expressing mutant HBV large surface protein, anchorage-independent growth was enhanced, and the enhancement was abolished by the addition of specific COX-2 inhibitors. Thus, ER stress due either to expression of viral surface proteins or drugs can stimulate the expression of COX-2 through the NF-κB and pp38 kinase pathways. Our results provide important insights into cellular carcinogenesis associated with latent endoplasmic reticulum stress. In the next, we will further want to investigate the relationship between NF-κB and p38 MAPK signaling pathway. So we will use CHIP assay to identify the NF-κB and p38 MAPK kinase and how to regulate COX-2 expression during ER stress.


This collection of essays about African Canadian Women--Black women--developed out of concern "that the history of Black people in Canada and of Black women in particular is missing from the pages of mainstream Canadian history" (from the Introduction). However, in their introduction the authors also acknowledge the works of 12 Black Canadian women who have published books on the history of Blacks in Canada.Taken together, the essays provide a rich woman-centred tapestry of Black life in Canada. Their histories unfold from their escape from slavery through the underground railroad into post-emancipation life in settlements and cities in Canada. Using both original and secondary sources the six essays examine the social, political and economic conditions which shaped the existences of Black women in Canada "from their arrival...to the immediate post-war period." Although the authors provide evidence for the existence of Blacks in Canada since the 1600s, the actual lived experiences which from the basis of the essays date from the 1700s to the late 1900s.The well-researched accounts of Canadian slavery of Blacks correct the persistent misconception that Canada was only a benign observer of American slavery. They also provide information on the Black women as political participants, freedom advocates, educators, farmers, women pioneers, community organizers, religious purveyors and more. They challenged their oppression, cared for their sick, supported their poor, rescued their community from tyranny, educated each other and laid the foundations for the later twentieth-century "upliftment" efforts. These essays challenge the credibility of all the history written about Canada which makes no reference to the presence, lives and experiences of Blacks.The book offers a comparison of the migration patterns and social experiences of the earliest Black women in Canada, and their descendants, with aspects of later-period Black female immigration to Canada. The collected works also show that although the slavery-driven exodus of Black women into Canada was fundamentally different from later period migration of Blacks, on the whole, the post settlement experiences of both groups bear similarities.Some of the historical accounts provide intimate examination of the lives of outstanding Black women: Harriet Tubman (freedom/resistance fighter), Margaret Garner (mother), Harriet Shepherd (mother), Mary Bibb (educator), Mary Ann Shadd Cary (publisher/journalist). These women engaged in some of the most courageous human feats of all time, and in some cases so little was found about their full lives that their stories appear in one paragraph. Of all the fleeting accounts, that of Marie-Joseph Angelique must be read by all women. Even through brevity Angelique's episode is philosophically expansive; she stands apart and above.Some of the essays acknowledge gaps in the historical records of the Black women but the authors turned this absence of data into a compelling methodology. The gaps in official records about Black lives so clearly identified by the authors emphasized the institutional antipathy of white Canadians to Black presence in Canada. These gaps in recorded information about Black community and family life are also seen to be indicative of the widespread educational barriers imposed on Blacks of that period; educational disenfranchisement was cogently related to the experience of slavery. And Bristow, for example (p. 69-142), raises awareness of this by her strategic questions necessitated by the unrecorded life scripts and experiences of the women: "Where," she asks, "did these women come from?... Were women single or married? Were any of them widowed? Did they have children, and if so how many? …


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of glyphosate, in sequential applications, and its interaction with endosulphan + tebuconazole on mycorrhizal colonization, nodulation, and leaf concentrations of P and N of soybean plants. The experiment was conducted in the field in a Yellow-Red Argisol in the 2007/2008 crop year. Ten treatments were installed in split plots following a randomized block design with four replications. Endosulphan + tebuconazole application was done in the main plots, while the different methods of weed control in the sub-plots (unhoed control, hoed control, single application of glyphosate, sequential application of glyphosate, single application of fomesafen + fluazifop-p-butyl). Shoot and nodule dry matter, nodule number, mycorrhizal colonization, and N and P concentrations were evaluated when the soybean plants reached the R2 stage. Glyphosate and fomesafen + fluazifop-p-butyl did not cause reductions in nodule dry matter, except in the presence of endosulphan + tebuconazole. Glyphosate in sequential applications, in the absence of endosulphan + tebuconazole, promoted decreases in nodule number. Fomesafen + fluazifop-p-butyl and glyphosate in sequential applications negatively affected N concentrations in the leaves compared to the hoed control, in the absence of endosulphan + tebuconazole. Glyphosate did not affect the mycorrhizal colonization regardless of the application of endosulphan + tebuconazole. However, fomesafen + fluazifop-p-butyl led to increases in the mycorrhizal colonization in the absence of endosulphan + tebuconazole. Glyphosate applied sequentially on soybean plants, under the conditions studied, did not affect the mycorrhizal colonization and nodulation.


Fragmentation has drastically altered the quality of habitats throughout numerous ecosystems, often leading to dramatic changes in the composition of wildlife communities. The ecology and associated movement behavior of a species may also be modified as a result of forest fragmentation, resulting in changes in genetic composition of the affected species. In this research, we evaluated the genetic structure of the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana Kerr, 1792) at the land- scape and local scales in a fragmented, agricultural ecosystem in northern Indiana using 13 microsatellite loci. We examined 290 samples from opossums inhabiting 28 discrete habitat patches, and evaluated partitioning of genetic variation of opos- sums among and within habitat patches. We observed low but significant levels of genetic structure (FST = 0.005) overall, and pairwise comparisons of FST values among habitat patches also were relatively low. Relatedness within patches was highly variable (-0.077 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.060), with a few patches exhibiting significantly higher levels of relatedness than random expectations, and we detected no evidence of sex-biased natal dispersal. These results contrast with previous field studies that documented male-biased dispersal in the Virginia opossum, indicating dispersal in this species is plastic and dependent upon local environmental conditions.


Traditional accounts of the feminist history of philosophy have viewed reason as associated with masculinity and subsequent debates have been framed by this assumption. Yet recent debates in deconstruction have shown that gender has never been a stable matter. In the history of philosophy 'female' and 'woman' are full of ambiguity. What does deconstruction have to offer feminist criticism of the history of philosophy? Yielding Gender explores this question by examining three crucial areas; the issue of gender as 'troubled'; deconstruction; and feminist criticism of the history of philosophy. The first part of the book discusses the work of Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, and contemporary French feminist philosophy including key figures such as Luce Irigiray. Particular attention is given to the possibilities offered by deconstruction for understanding the history of philosophy. The second part considers and then challenges feminist interpretations of some key figures in the history of philosophy. Penelope Deutscher sketches how Rousseau, St. Augustine and Simone de Beauvoir have described gender and argues that their readings of gender are in fact empowered by gender's own contradiction and instability rather than limited by it.


This paper presents an investigation of the robustness of an inter-frame feature measure classifier for underwater sector scan sonar image sequences. In the initial stages the images are of either divers or remotely operated vehicles (ROV's). The inter-frame feature measures are derived from sequences of sonar scans to characterize the behavior of the objects over time. The classifier has been shown to produce error rates of 0%-2% using real nonnoisy images. The investigation looks at the robustness of the classifier with increased noise conditions and changes in the filtering of the images. It also identifies a set of features that are less susceptible to increased noise conditions and changes in the image filters. These features are the mean variance, and the variance of the rate of change in time of the intra-frame feature measures area, perimeter, compactness, maximum dimension and the first and second invariant moments of the objects. It is shown how the performance of the classifier can be improved. Success rates of up to 100% were obtained for a classifier trained under normal noise conditions, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) around 9.5 dB, and a noisy test sequence of SNR 7.6 dB.


In this work is reported the successful synthesis of 1D nanobar-like LiNi0.4Co0.2Mn0.4O2 (N-NCM), preferentially exposing the {010} electrochemically active facets. The material is obtained via a precipitation process followed by a calcination step. Upon calcination at 800 °C, the material delivers a high initial reversible capacity of 177.1 mA h g−1 at 0.1C, while at higher current densities (1C, 2C, 5C and 10C), it still delivers 152.8, 141.7, 122.7 and 104.2 mA h g−1, respectively. After 100 cycles, the material exhibits high capacity retention values, ca. 91% (0.1C) and 94% (10C). The good electrochemical performance is attributed to the synthesis design strategy leading to 1D nanobars with exposed {010} electrochemically active facets, which provide a more open structure for unimpeded Li+ migration. In addition, the diffusion pathway of lithium ions is greatly reduced because of the nano-sized bar shape. All these factors play a decisive role in achieving significantly enhanced lithium ion diffusivity, and thus superior high C-rate capability and greatly improved long-term cycling stability.


The 21st century has often been touted as the "Asian century," largely because of the remarkable resurgence of China as an economic power. There are nonetheless other developments afoot, foremost among which is the rising numbers of individuals who identify as Christians. Apart from the Philippines, Timor Leste, Asian Russia, Cyprus, Armenia, and Georgia, Christians are still a minority in the forty-eight countries that the United Nations classifies as "Asia," a vast region that stretches from the Urals and the Caspian Sea to Papua New Guinea. However, over the past two decades, a marked increase in Asian Christians, especially in Korea, India, and China, has led to predictions that by 2025 their numbers, now estimated at 350 million, will escalate to 460 million. Yet for many Asians, Christianity is still tainted by a "foreign" past because it is associated with the European arrival in the late 15th century and with the imposition of colonialism and the influence of the West in the 19th and 20th centuries. A historical approach, however, shows that such perceptions are countered by centuries of local adaptations of Christianity to specific cultural contexts. Although the processes of "accommodation" and "adaptation" have a complex history, a long-term view reveals the multiple ways through which millions of Asian men and women have incorporated "being Christian" into their own identities.


Media research has long known that those who produce content and those who receive it construe textual meaning differently. Such differences may be interpreted in political, cultural, institutional and psychological terms. However, the insights from audience reception and ethnographic studies have yet fully to inform research on responses to online content. This article addresses attempts to overcome youth civic disengagement through the design and promotion of public sector, Internet-based content and services. Specifically, it integrates interviews with website producers and teenage users to compare and contrast the encoding and decoding processes in an exemplar website (www.epal.tv). An analysis in terms of genre reveals a range of communicative challenges for website producers in terms of subject matter, formal composition and mode of address. Further, critical questions arise in relation to the action consequences of online participation, interface design as this relates to teens' Internet literacy, and the power relations instantiated between producer and user. It is concluded that audience studies can constructively be extended to the analysis of Internet use and, substantively, that the policy challenge lies less in the question of whether youth is civically engaged and more in the question of who will listen to youth if and when they do become so engaged.


Accurate and rapid diagnosis, prognostication and monitoring of malignancy are essential for development of curative chemotherapy. Microarrays are such technology which promises to monitor many biological samples at the whole genome or transcriptome scale on a single chip. This technique is becoming increasingly useful in molecular biology and in medicine. Microarrays are the most popular technique for gene expression profiling (GEP). The main purpose of GEP is to finding groups of genes with similar expression patterns and groups of samples with similarly expressed genes. In studies of acute leukemias, it is possible to correlate the expression of over 30,000 genes with a number of specific leukemic features including hematopoietic lineage, immunophenotype and cytogenetics. Microarrays are useful in diagnosis, classify, monitor response to treatment response to chemotherapy, minimal residual disease and clinical outcomes such as metastasis, recurrence, survival or second malignancies. Gene expression profiling can be helpful in addition to conventional techniques. Microarray technology could improve the current procedures for diagnosis and risk assessment in pediatric cancer. A key goal in cancer research is to identify the total complement of genetic and epigenetic alterations that contribute to tumorigenesis. We are currently witnessing the rapid evolution and convergence of multiple genome-wide platforms that are making this goal a reality. These approaches have identified abnormalities in key pathways, including lymphoid differentiation, cell cycle regulation, tumor suppression, and drug responsiveness.


Photograph of Stan Kenton with unknown female fan. He is holding onto a microphone stand and has his arm around the woman, who is wearing all black. An instrument and people are partially visible behind them.


The purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability of 7 subtests in the National Sports Council physical
fitness test battery as used in their Sports Science Division's 'Sarawak Project' and Talent Development
Division's 'Budding Talent' (Tunas Cemerlang) programmes. The test battery was administered to a sample
class of 25 students (mean age 14.2 years, s.d. 0.5]) on 2 occasions, three days apart, to estimate the intraclass
R using ANOVA procedures. The F-test for independence of trials (significance level of O.O:;) detected a
dependency for the ]500m run and the sit and reach test. I-ligh values of intraclass reliability coefficient were
obtained: 0.97 (1500 m run); 0.96 (sit and reach, and 50 m run); 0.95 (agility run); 0.94 (flexed-arm hang,
and sargent jump) and 0.86 (sit-up).


Banaba (Lagerstroemia speciosa L.) extracts have been used for many years in folk medicine to treat diabetes, with the first published research study being reported in 1940. This paper summarizes the current literature regarding Banaba and its constituents. The hypoglycemic effects of Banaba have been attributed to both corosolic acid as well as ellagitannins. Studies have been conducted in various animal models, human subjects, and in vitro systems using water soluble Banaba leaf extracts, corosolic acid, and ellagitannins. Corosolic acid has been reported to decrease blood sugar levels within 60 min in human subjects. Corosolic acid also exhibits antihyperlipidemic and antioxidant activities. The beneficial effects of Banaba and corosolic acid with respect to various aspects of glucose and lipid metabolism appear to involve multiple mechanisms, including enhanced cellular uptake of glucose, impaired hydrolysis of sucrose and starches, decreased gluconeogenesis, and the regulation of lipid metabolism. These effects may be mediated by PPAR and other signal transduction factors. Banaba extract, corosolic acid, and other constituents may be beneficial in addressing the symptoms associated with metabolic syndrome, as well as offering other health benefits.


The Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a recording of the electrical potentials generated by brain activity on the scalp. It has been used for decades as a non-invasive tool both in fundamental brain research and in clinical diagnosis. But it is now widely used also in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) to provide augmentative communication mainly for severely handicapped patients and, prospectively, in the general framework of human computer interaction. As in any communication system, the input (EEG activity) must be coded (feature extraction) before being sent, and the receiving device (the computer) must map the received data to actions classification). This article explores the main approaches used in the BCI community for completing these tasks.


We develop a theoretical model to study how changes in the durability of the goods affects prices of stolen goods, the incentives to steal and the equilibrium crime rate. When studying the production of durable goods, we find that the presence of crime affects consumer and producer surplus and thus their behaviour, market equilibrium, and, in turn, the social optimum. Lower durability of goods reduces the incentive to steal those goods, thus reducing crime. When crime is included in the standard framework of durable goods, the socially optimal durability level is lower. When considering different stealing technologies, perfect competition either over-produces durability or produces zero (minimum) durability. The monopolist under-produces durability. The model has a clear policy implication: the durability of goods, and the market structure for those goods, can be an effective instrument to reduce crime. In particular, making the durability of a good contingent upon that good being stolen is likely to increase welfare. We also study the incentives to develop and use this optimal technology.


The definitive book on leadership in the digital era: why digital technologies call for leadership that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity.Certain ideas about business leadership are held to be timeless, and certain characteristics of leaders?often including a square jaw, a deep voice, and extroversion?are said to be universal. In Leading in the Digital World, Amit Mukherjee argues that since digital technologies are changing everything else, how could they not change leadership ideologies and styles? As more people worldwide participate equally in business, those assumptions of a leader's ideal profile have become irrelevant. Offering a radical rethinking of leadership, Mukherjee shows why digital technologies call for a new kind of leader?one who emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity.Drawing on a global survey of 700 mid-tier to senior executives and interviews with C-level executives from around the world, Mukherjee explains how digital technologies are already reshaping organizations and work and what this means for leaders. For example, globally dispersed businesses can't reserve key leadership roles for people from exclusive groups; leadership must become inclusive, or fail. Leaders must learn to collaborate in a multipolar world of networked organizations, working with co-located and non-co-located colleagues. Leaders must lead for creativity rather than productivity. Focusing on practice, Mukherjee outlines goals and strategies, warns against unthinking assumptions, and explains how leaders can identify the mindsets, behaviors, and actions they need to pursue. With Leading in the Digital World, Mukherjee offers the definitive book on leadership for the digital era.


The Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) appears to be a device of great interest to efficiently build the electrical grid of tomorrow. With the recent progress made by the superconducting wires manufacturers, there are needs coming from the industry to evaluate the potential of such devices. In the present thesis work, the behavior under external field and transport current of the last generation of wire is investigated. This study is conduct both experimentally and numerically in order to link the physics occurring at the wires level to the design of SFCLs as a whole. From the nature of the material, the resistance appears non-uniformly in high temperature superconductors. For the purpose of building SFCLs it is important to obtain a fast and uniform resistive transition (quench) when a fault occurs through those conductors. This in order to reduce the local heat generation that may damage the device. This fast quenching property is related to the Normal Zone Propagation Velocity (NZPV). In this work the NZPV is measured using a localized magnetic field to initiate quenches in commercial coated conductors. Those velocities have been measured to be larger than 14 cm/s for pulsed currents above the critical value. The NZPV experiments have demonstrated that the superconductor non-uniformity (generated by the localized field) helps to reduce the initial delay before the quench initiation for transport currents in the range of the critical value. However, for larger transport currents the effect of the non-uniformity on the delay is less important since, with increasing transport current amplitudes, the normal state transition has shown to occur more as a consequence of the heat generated in the stabilizer than as the unique consequence of the advancement of the normal zone in the superconductor. From the experimental measurements, it has been shown that a reduction of the liquid-nitrogen temperature (subcoooled) increases the NZPV. This effect has been observed taking into account of the increase of the critical current associated with the temperature reduction. Nevertheless, it is not clear if it is the heat transfer or the estimation of the critical current that is responsible for this effect. In order to validate the numerical models, time-resolved voltage traces obtained from the experiments have been compared to the outputs of the models. Those are based on the thermaland electrical-diffusion equations. From the simulations, it has been demonstrated that the NZPV can be increased by three methods: by using a thick diffusive substrate, by inserting a resistive interface between the superconductor and the stabilizer as well as by increasing the heat generation in the stabilizer. In light of those results, it seems that the insertion of a resistive layers is the most promising approach to improve the NZPV in coated conductors. As a matter of fact, a resistive interface increases the normal-zone size and keeps an acceptable temperature level along the conductor during quenches. The present work allowed to simulate the flux-flow regime in coated conductors. Comparing those simulations to experimental data have shown that the power-law may be inappropriate to simulate this regime under weak external magnetic fields. In addition, it appears that the role of transient heat transfer with the surroundings needs to be studied in more details to determine the specifications of a prospected SFCL made of coated conductors.


Natural disasters such as droughts and floods can have devastating impacts on the economies of African countries. The availability, dissemination and application of timely climate and weather information are therefore vital in supporting national socio-economic development efforts. There are many problems, however, including the inadequate meteorological observation network, the lack of effective climate monitoring and weather prediction services, and generally poor communications facilities. Thus the most vulnerable groups of society, such as farmers and rural communities, are unable to receive timely climate and weather forecasts, and so are at the mercy of extreme weather conditions.

To address these problems, and to close the knowledge gap between the producers and users of climate information, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has launched the global Climate Information and Prediction Services (CLIPS). In Africa, as in many other parts of the world, the producers are the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS). Each country has an NMHS station that provides national and regional forecasting services. Unfortunately, the numbers of technical staff and their capabilities vary from country to country, depending on the level of national development.

This situation has led CLIPS members to review and make better use of existing information systems to provide basic climate forecasting services for rural communities, and thus help reduce the impacts of adverse weather conditions. One such system is the network of HAM [1] radio stations.

A HAM radio station is a complete amateur radio station with its own frequency and network of devoted participants who use it to exchange various types of information. HAM uses wireless radio technology which is carried on numerous bands, extending from 1.8 MHz (a wavelength of about 160 metres) up to several hundred gigahertz (wavelengths in the millimetre range). The power of HAM radio lies in the fact it works when all other services fail. When an area is struck by floods, for example, the utility grid - including mobile phone towers and antennas - is likely to be destroyed over hundreds of square kilometres. During such emergencies, amateur radio is often the only means of communication between the communities in the affected area and the outside world.

HAM radio therefore offers enormous potential for improving the surface weather observation network and information dissemination throughout Africa. The CLIPS project has decided to tap this potential and is exploring the possibilities of expanding its mandate to assist in the HAM radio-based collection and dissemination of climate information and prediction services. Ultimately, CLIPS aims to put in place a fully-fledged international HAM radio operator network to support the efforts of the NMHS.

The NMHS units in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are already implementing a pilot project, called ´Enhanced Surface Observations by Voluntary Observers´. The first phase, which was successfully completed in September 2002, involved carrying out a survey of potential voluntary observers and HAM radio operators. The NMHS stations then organized a regional workshop to bring together the observers and operators as well as the producers of climate information. The participants were asked to assist in designing possible methods of improving the surface weather observation network across East Africa. This led to the identification of new observation sites located close to existing HAM radio stations. After the workshop, as part of a capacity building exercise, the HAM radio operators and voluntary observers received training in weather observation methods, and the value of weather and climate information and prediction services. In the next phase of the project a limited number of inexpensive, stand-alone surface observation systems will be installed at remote sites throughout the region. If this initial effort proves successful, CLIPS will consider expanding the network to cover other parts of Africa.

[1] HAM is a contraction of the names of Albert Hyman, Bob Almy and Peggie Murray, who operated the Harvard Radio Club in 1908 and established an early standard for amateur radio.

Professor Laban Ogallo is coordinator of the Drought Monitoring Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.


A cost-effective low-carbon transition requires designing a state support mechanism that delivers an optimal diversity of renewable energy sources (RES) in the energy mix. Lowest price auctions that do not discriminate between technologies deliver optimal RES diversity, providing that there are no spill-over effects associated with the deployment of each technology. This precondition fails to apply, however, if RES technologies are able to benefit from learning-by-doing and if learning rates are uncertain. In the first part of this study we review the literature on the optimal diversity of technologies when technological progress is uncertain and on the uncertainty of learning rates. Then we use an analytical model to demonstrate that, under the uncertainty of learning potential, the socially-optimal diversity of RES is larger than the outcome of the lowest price auction. We also show that the social benefits from diversification disappear if there is no potential for learning-by-doing. Thus, countries that potentially could benefit from large learning rate effects — such as countries at the technological frontier — should increase RES diversification by introducing technology-specific auctions, while more peripheral countries should limit diversification by using technology-neutral auctions. We also show that the diversity of RES in the social optimum is greater than that predicted by energy models assuming fixed learning rates.


The purpose of this research is to establish time consumption and productivity when using Husqvarna 365 chainsaw for resinous tree felling in mountainous regions. The research was conducted in the Romanian Southern Carpathians, in two mixed spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and fir (Abies alba Mill.) tree stands (S1 and S2). Only one team of workers, made up of a feller and an assistant, was used in the felling operation. This was divided into nine specific stages for which work times were measured. Work time structure used here includes WP – workplace time (PW – productive work time; SW – supportive work time, NT – non-work time) and NW – non-workplace time. The results indicated a productivity of 10.138 m3 h–1 (4.55 tree h–1) in S1 and of 11.374 m3 h–1 (4.33 tree h–1) in S2. Work time structure was WP 88.61% (PW 19.59%; SW 33.88%; NT 35.14%) and NW 11.39% in S1 and WP 83.77% (PW 17.66%; SW 30.73%; NT 35.38%) and NW 16.23% in S2. The results obtained showed that the power function best describes the relationship between productivity expressed by tree h–1 and breast height diameter (dbh) (R2 = 0.89 in S1 and R2 = 0.94 in S2). When productivity is expressed by m3 h–1 the results obtained in the case of power, exponential and linear functions are comparable (R2 = 0.65 to 0.67 in S1 and R2 = 0.81 to 0.92 in S2). Productivity is also influenced by stump diameter and the distance between trees. Their influence on productivity was emphasized by linear regression equations.


"This study shows three things: (1) a precedent for the expenditure of public funds to teach electricity in our public high schools has already been established by the school system in the larger school systems of Texas, (2) the rural families living on electrified farms in the North Texas area want instruction of this type given to the boys and girls in their communities, and (3) both the rural people and the professional people of the North Texas area believe that instruction dealing with the use of electricity and electrical equipment had spread until by 1935 more than twenty-one million homes, about eighty percent of the total in America at that time, were electrified, only eleven American farms out of every 100 had central-station electricity. More than five million American farms lacked electric service. "--leaf 50.


Biosurfactants are naturally produced molecules that demonstrate potentially useful properties such as the ability to reduce surface tensions between different phases. Besides having similar properties to their artificial chemical counterparts, they are regarded as environmental friendly, biodegradable and less toxic, which make them desirable candidates for downstream applications. The structure-activity-related properties of the biosurfactants which are directly correlated with potency of the biosurfactants as antimicrobial agents, the ability of the biosurfactants to alter surface energies and their ability to increase bioavailability are particularly what attract researchers to exploit their potential use in the oral-related health applications. Current research into biosurfactant indicates significant future potential for use in cosmetic and therapeutic oral hygiene product formulations and related medical device treatments.


The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) stimulates insulin secretion from pan creatic ? -cells in a glucose-dependent manner. Therapeutic strategies for type 2 diabetes mellitus are focused on the use of GLP-1 analogues. Liraglutide, an acylated analogue of human GLP-1, has been introduced in Japan in 2010. We will show a 70-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes mellitus achieving a good glycemic control by switching from twice-daily pre-mixed insulin 50/50 to liraglutide. Measurements of plasma glucose and serum C-peptide levels before and after each meal ingestion and daily urinary C-peptide levels suggested that liraglutide ameliorates glucose metabolism mainly not by the glucose-dependent insulinotropic effect but by amelioration in insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, results from a glucagon-loading test indicated that liraglutide reduced plasma glucose levels not by enhancing insulin secretion but by suppressing glucagon-mediated hepatic glucose output.  doi:10.4021/jmc143w