Mucuna pruriens (MP) has been pharmacologically studied for various activities like aphrodisiac, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial and anti-epileptics activities. The present study aims at investigating the effects of shade-dried seeds of M. prurienson some haematological and bio-chemical parameters. Wistar strain albino rats of both sexes with weights ranging from 220 to 300 g were fed with shade-dried pul-verized seeds of M. pruriens in a 10-days experiment. The result shows that the Nigerian M. pruriens seeds improve the haematological and serum biochemical parameters determined in a dose-dependent manner. The study shows that shade-dried, pulverized seeds of M. pruriens lowers blood cholesterol, blood urea and serum creatinine. It also reduces bleeding time; increases platelet count and these were statistically significant (p<0.05). However, the effect on packed cell volume (PCV) was not statistically significant when compared with the control (p<0.05). Hence, shade-dried seeds of MP seeds are not poisonous when compared with the raw seeds.

 Key words: Mucuna pruriens, arteriosclerosis, uremia, haemostatic ability, platelet count, creatinine, hyperchol-esterolaemia, hematological parameters.


Abstract Complete maxillary and mandibular dentures have been used as a conventional treatment of edentulous patients for longer than a century. Suitable complete maxillary dentures are usually well tolerated but many patients struggle to chew and swallow with the complete mandibular denture because it is too unstable. Previous studies have shown that a mandibular two-implant retained overdenture is superior to the conventional denture in terms of retention and stability. Thereby, the two-implant assisted mandibular overdenture should be the first treatment option for mandibular edentulous patients. In this report, a mandibular two-implant retained overdenture with Locator® attachments by using direct intraoral pick-up technique was discussed.


Silicic volcanic rocks at Hadjer el Khamis, near Lake Chad, are considered to be an extension of the Cameroon volcanic line (CVL) but their petrogenetic association is uncertain. The silicic rocks are divided into peraluminous and peralkaline groups with both rock types chemically similar to within‐plate granitoids. In situ U/Pb zircon dating yielded a mean 206Pb/238U age of 74.4 ± 1.3 Ma indicating the magmas erupted ∼10 million years before the next oldest CVL rocks (i.e., ∼66 Ma). The Sr isotopes (i.e., ISr = 0.7021–0.7037) show a relatively wide range but the Nd isotopes (i.e., 143Nd/144Ndi = 0.51268–0.51271) are uniform and indicate that the rocks were derived from a moderately depleted mantle source. Thermodynamic modeling shows that the silicic rocks likely formed by fractional crystallization of a mafic parental magma but that the peraluminous rocks were affected by low temperature alteration processes. The silicic rocks are more isotopically similar to Late Cretaceous basalts identified within the Late Cretaceous basins (i.e., 143Nd/144Ndi = 0.51245–0.51285) of Chad than the uncontaminated CVL rocks (i.e., 143Nd/144Ndi = 0.51270–0.51300). The age and isotopic compositions suggest the silicic volcanic rocks of the Lake Chad region are related to Late Cretaceous extensional volcanism in the Termit basin. It is unlikely that the silicic volcanic rocks are petrogenetically related to the CVL but it is possible that magmatism was structurally controlled by suture zones that formed during the opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean and/or the Pan‐African Orogeny.


Superconducting magnetic bearings (SMBs) have various merits because of noncontact stable levitation. However, SMBs tend to make the rotor amplitude larger near a critical speed because of their low damping. Furthermore, complicated vibrations can be caused due to the nonlinearity of the electromagnetic force. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the amplitude by considering the effect of the nonlinearity on dynamics during passing through the critical speed in applications. In this paper, we investigate resonant amplitude reduction of a rotor supported by an SMB using axial translation of the rotor. For this purpose, we first introduced an analytical model consisting of an SMB, a permanent magnet, and an electromagnet (EM) that can translate a rotor in the axial direction. We then examined the effect of exerting electromagnetic force at an appropriate rotational speed on amplitude reduction of a rotor. Numerical results show that considerable reduction of the resonant amplitude can be achieved by switching the EM at a proper rotational speed both in steady-state response and in transient response. We also carried out experiments. Steady-state responses were measured with changing the distance between the superconducting bulk and the rotor, magnetic induction of the EM, and so on. Experimental results show qualitative agreement with numerical ones, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method of amplitude reduction. We further discussed effect of nonlinearity of electromagnetic forces on amplitude reduction.


The G101W founder mutation is the most common CDKN2A mutation in Italy, Spain, and France. As the background of modifying genes, environmental exposures, and sun behavior vary across countries, studying G101W carriers from distinct countries offers a unique opportunity to evaluate possible modifying factors in melanoma development. We evaluated 76 G101W cases and 59 carrier controls from France, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Hair color and dysplastic nevi distributions differed significantly in cases and controls across the 4 study groups. Cases also varied significantly for eye color, freckling, and nevi. The distribution of MC1R variants in cases differed significantly across study groups because 12% of Italian melanoma patients had ≥2 MC1R variants vs. >50% for the other case groups. Several MC1R covariates showed significant associations with melanoma risk in all groups combined and in the American, French, and Spanish samples; no significant findings were observed in the Italian sample. In multiple‐case families, the number and type of MC1R variants varied significantly between multiple‐primary‐melanoma and single‐primary‐melanoma patients from the 4 groups; there was also a significant decrease in median age at melanoma diagnosis as the number or type of MC1R variants increased. The variation in the effects of the cutaneous phenotypic and MC1R factors across the study sample suggests that these factors differentially contribute to development of melanoma even on a common genetic background of a germline CDKN2A mutation. Differences in melanoma risk across geographic regions justify the need for individual studies in each country before counseling should be considered. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Perl is an enormously popular scripting language that runs on many different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X, and provides programmers with a robust and powerful programming language that is easy to learn, yet sufficiently complex to tackle just about any job. As such, it's a perfect programming language for those new to programming to learn. Perl Programming for the Absolute Beginner has been designed to teach you how to develop Perl scripts and to help you become an effective programmer, and teaches concepts through the creation of simple games. Whether you are an experienced programmer looking to learn another language or you are reading this book as the first step in your programming career, you will find that this book's games-based teaching approach makes the learning process a lot more enjoyable. You will also find that the knowledge you'll gain from developing Perl-based games will provide you with a strong foundation from which you can branch out and tackle more complex challenges.


A number of reinforced concrete slabs have been exposed to blast and impact loading in order to
access modes of slab behaviour under these extreme dynamic loadings.
Two sizes of specimens were used; small scale slabs modelled the large slabs at 1: 2.5 scale.
Impact loads were produced by a free falling hammer impacting coaxially onto a cylindrical bar
of steel placed at rest in the centre of the slab. The steel bar was instrumented with electrical
strain gauges which recorded the stress pulses produced by the impact.
Blast loads were produced using explosive charges made of Plastic Explosive PE4. In most cases
the charge used was hemispherical in shape and was placed centrally above the slab at close range
standoffs, i.e. up to 10 times the radius of the charge.
Additional blast tests were conducted in order to monitor the transient and spatial pressure
distribution across the slab by using the pressure gauges placed in replica steel slab.
Transient deflections of the slabs under both types of load were obtained using long stroke
displacement transducers, whilst transient strains in the steel reinforcement of the slabs were
obtained using electrical resistance strain gauges bonded to the steel bars at mid span point.
A rotating prism high speed camera was used to film the damage on some of the small scale
specimens at rates of up to 10,000 pictures per second.
The Hopkinson pressure bar tests were used to obtain the dynamic characteristics of the concretes
used at high rates of loading. Differeent concrete mixes were used for the 1:1 and 1:2.5 scale
slabs.
An analytical function of the spatial and transient blast pressure distribution based on the
detonation pressure of PE4 was established. This is in close agreement to experimentally
measured results.
The nature of the local and overall failure are discussed, and the time sequence of the slab failure
is established for the case of explosive loading.
The crack pattern that occurs soon after the explosion in area of local failure has been established
from the high speed films whilst the overall deflected shape was obtained from the displacement
vs time records.
After test scab sizes and slab perforations were used to establish a relation between the slab
thickness, amount of explosive and the slab damage in respect to scabbing and perforation.
The displacement records and the shape of after test damage provided the basis for comments on
"gravity neglected - the ultimate strength" modelling law that was employed in this research.


ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to assess the discriminative power of dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) versus single-energy CT (SECT) to distinguish between ferromagnetic and non–ferromagnetic ballistic projectiles to improve safety regarding magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies in patients with retained projectiles. Materials and MethodsTwenty-seven ballistic projectiles including 25 bullets (diameter, 3–15 mm) and 2 shotgun pellets (2 mm each) were examined in an anthropomorphic chest phantom using 128-section dual-source CT. Data acquisition was performed with tube voltages set at 80, 100, 120, and 140 kV(p). Two readers independently assessed CT numbers of the projectile's core on images reconstructed with an extended CT scale. Dual-energy indices (DEIs) were calculated from both 80-/140-kV(p) and 100-/140-kV(p) pairs; receiver operating characteristics curves were fitted to assess ferromagnetic properties by means of CT numbers and DEI. ResultsNine (33%) of the projectiles were ferromagnetic; 18 were nonferromagnetic (67%). Interreader and intrareader correlations of CT number measurements were excellent (intraclass correlation coefficients, >0.906; P < 0.001). The DEI calculated from both 80/140 and 100/140 kV(p) were significantly (P < 0.05) different between the ferromagnetic and non–ferromagnetic projectiles. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.75 and 0.8 for the tube voltage pairs of 80/140 and 100/140 kV(p) (P < 0.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.57–0.94 and 0.62–0.97, respectively) to differentiate between the ferromagnetic and non–ferromagnetic ballistic projectiles; which increased to 0.83 and 0.85 when shotgun pellets were excluded from the analysis. The AUC for SECT was 0.69 and 0.73 (80 and 100 kV[p], respectively). ConclusionsMeasurements of DECT combined with an extended CT scale allow for the discrimination of projectiles with non–ferromagnetic from those with ferromagnetic properties in an anthropomorphic chest phantom with a higher AUC compared with SECT. This study indicates that DECT may have the potential to contribute to MR safety and allow for MR imaging of patients with retained projectiles. However, further studies are necessary before this concept may be used to triage clinical patients before MR.


Most common navigation tasks in human environments require auxiliary arm interactions, e.g. opening doors, pressing buttons and pushing obstacles away. This type of navigation tasks, which we call Interactive Navigation, requires the use of mobile manipulators: mobile bases with manipulation capabilities. Interactive Navigation tasks are usually long-horizon and composed of heterogeneous phases of pure navigation, pure manipulation, and their combination. Using the wrong part of the embodiment is inefficient and hinders progress. We propose HRL4IN, a novel Hierarchical RL architecture for Interactive Navigation tasks. HRL4IN exploits the exploration benefits of HRL over flat RL for long-horizon tasks thanks to temporally extended commitments towards subgoals. Different from other HRL solutions, HRL4IN handles the heterogeneous nature of the Interactive Navigation task by creating subgoals in different spaces in different phases of the task. Moreover, HRL4IN selects different parts of the embodiment to use for each phase, improving energy efficiency. We evaluate HRL4IN against flat PPO and HAC, a state-of-the-art HRL algorithm, on Interactive Navigation in two environments - a 2D grid-world environment and a 3D environment with physics simulation. We show that HRL4IN significantly outperforms its baselines in terms of task performance and energy efficiency. More information is available at this https URL.


We provide a systematic procedure to relate a three-dimensional q-deformed oscillator algebra to the corresponding algebra satisfied by canonical variables describing non-commutative spaces. The large number of possible free parameters in these calculations is reduced to a manageable amount by imposing various different versions of -symmetry on the underlying spaces, which are dictated by the specific physical problem under consideration. The representations for the corresponding operators are in general non-Hermitian with regard to standard inner products and obey algebras whose uncertainty relations lead to minimal length, areas or volumes in phase space. We analyze in particular one three-dimensional solution which may be decomposed into a two-dimensional non-commutative space plus one commuting space component, and also into a one-dimensional non-commutative space plus two commuting space components. We study some explicit models on these types of non-commutative spaces.


Low level measurements - those near, at, or below limits of measurements (specification, quantification, detection) - should be reported as they appear: positive, negative, or zero, as the best estimate of the measured characteristic, usually concentration. The long-term mean of such poor estimates will often provide a surprisingly good estimate of the "true value" from the operation of the law of large numbers. This manner of reporting data near the limits of measurement can be independent of, and adaptable to, any set of agreed-upon definitions and parameters for the concept, including its uncertainty. This proposal is intended to help to standardize the method of reporting low-level analytical data, not to legitimize the data or any conclusions or actions resulting from their use or interpretation.
South African Journal of Chemistry Vol.53(3) 2000: 206-212


The introduction of active (pan-tilt-zoom or PTZ) cameras in Smart Rooms in addition to fixed static cameras
allows to improve resolution in volumetric reconstruction, adding the capability to track smaller objects with
higher precision in actual 3D world coordinates. To accomplish this goal, precise camera calibration data
should be available for any pan, tilt, and zoom settings of each PTZ camera. The PTZ calibration method proposed
in this paper introduces a novel solution to the problem of computing extrinsic and intrinsic parameters
for active cameras. We first determine the rotation center of the camera expressed under an arbitrary world
coordinate origin. Then, we obtain an equation relating any rotation of the camera with the movement of the
principal point to define extrinsic parameters for any value of pan and tilt. Once this position is determined,
we compute how intrinsic parameters change as a function of zoom. We validate our method by evaluating the
re-projection error and its stability for points inside and outside the calibration set.


The 2008/2009 World Financial Crisis underlined the importance of social responsibility for the sustainable functioning of economic markets. Heralding an age of novel heterodox economic thinking, the call for integrating social facets into mainstream economic models has reached unprecedented momentum. Financial Social Responsibility bridges the finance world with society in socially conscientious investments. Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) integrates corporate social responsibility in investment choices. In the aftermath of the 2008/2009 World Financial Crisis, SRI is an idea whose time has come. Socially conscientious asset allocation styles add to expected yield and volatility of securities social, environmental, and institutional considerations. In screenings, shareholder advocacy, community investing, social venture capital funding and political divestiture, socially conscientious investors hone their interest to align financial profit maximization strategies with social concerns. In a long history of classic finance theory having blacked out moral and ethical considerations of investment decision making, our knowledge of socio-economic motives for SRI is limited. Apart from economic profitability calculus and strategic leadership advantages, this paper sheds light on socio-psychological motives underlying SRI. Altruism, need for innovation and entrepreneurial zest alongside utility derived from social status enhancement prospects and transparency may steer investors' social conscientiousness. Self-enhancement and social expression of future-oriented SRI options may supplement profit maximization goals. Theoretically introducing potential SRI motives serves as a first step toward an empirical validation of Financial Social Responsibility to improve the interplay of financial markets and the real economy. The pursuit of crisis-robust and sustainable financial markets through strengthened Financial Social Responsibility targets at creating lasting societal value for this generation and the following.


In this paper the principal objectives is to design a suitable profile that produces minimum value of jerk and contact stress keeping the acceleration within a limit especially in high-speed machine. Many works in the experimental part are done on the synthesis of cam profile in accuracy and system flexibility on the output follower motion; but there is a lack in the analytical part. The analytical formulation has been done with classical plate theory of un-symmetric cam with three circular-arc contact profiles using the equation of circular plate solution due to the distributed load comes from the perpendicular contact harmonic motion of the follower. The cam used in the paper can be found in cutting and metal forming tools, heavy duty of marine engine, and fast manufacturing equipment. The aim of the present paper is to calculate the maximum deflection on cam boundaries varying with (r and θ) coordinates between beginning and ending of contact follower loadings. The results were classified into mathematical model and finite element using software ANSYS.


Victims' position is increasingly acknowledged in the criminal justice system across the world. Because of that, criminal justice systems in various countries slowly transform from focusing too much on the relationship between offenders and the legal system and to between the offenders and their victims. Several programs are highlighted such as victim-offender mediation, family group conferences, reparative orders and referral orders in this article. Findings from several studies support the effectiveness of the programs on both the victims and the offenders in terms of several measurements such as satisfaction and recidivism. Looking at this revolution, Malaysian academicians and professionals are beginning to recognize restorative justice as a possible revolution to its criminal justice system, but Malaysian criminal justice system first needs to strengthen or build components that support victims of crime, as this is one of the main principles of restorative justice. Currently, Malaysia still focuses on offenders and their relationship with legal system, but not much with their own victims (physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of the crime). Several possible issues before formal implementation of restorative justice are discussed. The issues (culture, training, and attitude of Malaysian people, including the victims, offenders, and those who work with them) can influence the efficiency of restorative justice programs if not identified systematically. These issues can also be the possible research areas to be ventured in the future as these researches can help in implementation.


(ABSTRACT) This study examines perceptions of the stakeholders fifth grade students) about the Virginia Beach Elementary Guidance and Counseling Program. A survey was developed by examining guidance goals and a previous study of the program (1993). Questions covered four domains: (1) home-school relationships, (2) student personal development, (3) support for academic growth, and (4) program value. Results are reported in descriptive statistics. Four one-way analyses of variance were used to compare responses of groups in domains. Included are two supplemental analyses about student access to counselors and conditions affecting counselors' work. Adults agreed promoting closer home-school relationships was a worthwhile goal. Parents felt less positive than administrators, faculty, and counselors that the program promoted home-school relationships, that parents met with counselors, and that parents received information and were being afforded appropriate parent educational opportunities. iii Adults agreed that promoting closer home-school relationships was a worthwhile goal. Means scores ranged from 3.3 to 3.7 on a 4 point scale. (4.0 represented strongly agree.) Administrators, faculty, and counselors felt more positively than parents that the program promoted home-school relationships, that parents met with counselors, and that parents received information and were being afforded appropriate parent educational opportunities. Mean scores ranged from 2.9 to 3.9. Adults felt student personal development was a worthwhile goal. Mean scores ranged from 3.3 to 3.8. All adult groups felt positive about counseling programs helping students understand themselves and others better, the program having a positive impact on children's personal development, and the program helping students cope with developmental changes. Mean scores for these adults ranged from 3.0 to 3.8. In support for academic growth, parents and faculty gave slightly lower scores, although all groups felt positive about counseling programs. Mean scores ranged from 2.8 to 3.8. Responses to open-ended questions supported these ratings. When asked about suggestions for program improvement, two responses given most often were more elementary counselors were needed and more communication with parents would be helpful. When asked for other comments, iv primary themes were the program is positive, the program is helpful, and counselors are good. Overall perception is the elementary guidance and counseling program is valuable. Findings suggest program administrators may want to consider reviewing home-school relationships, support provided by counselors for the academic program, and counselor-student ratio. Waller, my parents, and most of all, my husband Jim, for their constant encouragement, expertise, and that precious, irreplaceable gift of time. The Background …


In the recent years, all modern armies use technology for improving the educational and training process. One of the latest aspects of involving technology are serious games. During their specific activities, military personnel have to accomplish tasks that are abstract, multidimensional, non-linear, dynamic and interdependent. These tasks can be managed to be fulfilled in an optimal manner if they are first solved in a virtual space and after that in a real world. In fact, there is nothing else than a new methods that is adequate for a specific purpose. In this sense, depending of the final aim, the serious games can be used in a proper manner for developing a specific set of skills.
So it is not surprising that, even serious games are a relatively new tool used in military education, due to the undeniable advantages of using them in a cost-efficient way, the process of training can be improved including situations that are very difficult to be realized otherwise for reasons of costs and sometimes safety.
Serious games' playing is a complex activity that involves the use of interaction with real and virtual tools and images. Such an activity develops skills in identifying relevant information, generating decision criteria and selecting alternatives. Can be used different scenarios according to various types of missions. A series of studies demonstrated that persons who completed serious games adapted for a specific area of operations were more familiar with the specificities and realities from that area than those who have not accessed it.
In this paper we will try to underline the particularities of serious games used for covering major area of military training domain taking in consideration that the final aim is to improve the military personnel behavior during their specific missions.


The governance of competition on global markets is an open policy question (lack of international competition policy). In this paper, it is analyzed to what extent different types of regulatory competition, which in other regulatory contexts (as, e.g., corporate law) can be beneficial, might also be a solution in competition law (instead of seeking harmonisation and centralization). In a first step, it is demonstrated why regulatory competition of competition laws can only be beneficial under very spe-cial circumstances and should therefore be generally avoided. However, yardstick competition as one specific type of regulatory competition, which promotes innovation and mutual learning in regard to competition law rules and practices, might be so valuable that a fairly decentralised multi-level system of competition laws might be recommended. Therefore, in a second step, the basic elements of a global multi-level system of competition laws are presented, which allows for decentralised experimen-tation with new possibilities for protecting competition (laboratory federalism). Some conclusions are drawn for the International Competition Network (ICN).


Magnetic tunnel junctions 90 to 300 nm wide and of aspect ratio ¿2 are studied using high-speed pulse fields with regard to the soft-layer magnetization reversal under thermal agitation. It is found that the larger cells, 200-300 nm wide, reverse through nonuniform magnetization states with the energy barriers to thermal activation an order of magnitude smaller than those expected for single-domain magnets. The single-domain limit is reached for the smallest cells, having elliptical soft layers approximately 90 nm wide and 150-200 nm long. The magnetization decay in the small cell limit is well described by the Stoner-Wohlfarth single-domain model and the Arrhenius activation law. The results demonstrate that the penalty due to the smaller magnetic volume is compensated by a larger relative energy barrier to activation as the junction size is reduced to ~ 90 nm. This determines the important length scale for geometric scaling of such technologies as magnetic random access memory.


Patterns of growth in weight, tarsus and feather (primary) are described for nestling Egyptian Vulture Neophronpercnopterus in northern Spain. Maximum increase in weight and tarsus respectively occurred before 40 and 30 d. The primary growth rate was almost constant until fledging (75 d). Second-hatched nestlings either died before 14 d or grew in weight and tarsus at slower rates than first-hatched and single nestlings during the first development period (1-20 d). During the last period (40-60 d), however, this tendency reversed. Second-hatched nestling also suffered a relative delay in dates of primary emergence and achievement of feather fledging size. Hatching date and food habits were not related with growth patterns. A long period of rainy days seemed to affect to growth rates of second hatched nestlings during the last development period favouring maintenance of feather growth in detriment of tarsus. The growth rates of the Egyptian Vulture seem to act as a fine-tuning mechanism of productivity.


Small-animal x-ray imaging is an important tool for medical research. The penetration power of x-rays makes it possible to investigate the 3D structure of small animals and other thick biological samples by computed tomography (CT). However, small-animal x-ray imaging often requires high resolution due to the small structures involved, and short exposure times due to sample movement. This constitutes a challenge, since these two properties require compact x-ray sources with parameters that are not widely available.In this Thesis we present the first application of liquid-metal-jet sources for small-animal imaging. This source concept was invented at KTH just over ten years ago. The use of a high-speed metal jet as electron-beam target, instead of a solid anode, enables higher x-ray flux while maintaining a small x-ray spot for high-resolution imaging. In the present work, a liquid-metal jet source with a higher-energy spectrum has been developed. It has stronger 24 keV radiation compared to previous sources, which makes it more suitable for imaging of small animals and other few-cm-thick objects, which require the higher penetration of 20-35 keV x-rays.We have applied the liquid-metal-jet x-ray sources for whole-body imaging of sacrificed mice and zebrafish. With high-resolution absorption-contrast CT we have visualized fine bone details of mice. We have also used phase contrast, a new method that can considerably improve imaging of, e.g., soft tissue, for demarcation of mm-sized tumors inside a full mouse and for mouse cartilage imaging. In zebrafish imaging, we have exploited the greatly enhanced contrast of phase-imaging to resolve single muscle fibers (and possibly even myofibrils) in whole zebrafish in a laboratory setting for the first time. The muscle structures have diameters in the 5-7 μm range and extremely low contrast, which makes them difficult to observe.With phase contrast, we have demonstrated low-dose and high-resolution angiography of mouse and rat organs and tissues ex vivo. We show detection of blood vessels with diameters below 10 μm with radiation doses compatible with living small animals, which is not possible with absorption contrast and iodinated contrast agents. In addition, we have investigated the vascular network of tumors in mouse ears and visualized the chaotic arrangement of newly-formed blood vessels.Finally, we present the first results from a new high-power liquid-metal-jet x-ray source prototype, operating at 10× the power of our previous sources, with the same x-ray spot size. This source constitutes an important step towards future in-vivo small-animal laboratory imaging with high resolution.


This article examines questions about contract enforcement in the absence of formal legal institutions, using archival evidence for one particular rural society in pre-emancipation Russia. The evidence presented indicates that enforcement services provided by the local landlord made it possible for Russians from different socioeconomic and legal strata to engage in a wide variety of contractual transactions. However, this system had significant drawbacks in that the poorest serfs could not afford these services and no serf had recourse beyond his local estate.


It has long been the practice in New York that non-party deponents may be represented at depositions and that their counsel may object to questions counsel believes are improper. In 2010, however, the New York State Appellate Division, Fourth Department ruled in Thompson v. Mather that counsel for a non-party may not make objections during the deposition and, in effect, is a mere "potted plant" at the deposition. Under the Thompson holding counsel may not object even to protect a privilege or to strike a plainly improper question that would cause substantial prejudice if answered. Although only the Fourth Department has ruled in this manner, the case is binding on all lower courts throughout the state absent a contrary decision by another Appellate Division Department, by an overruling by the Court of Appeals, or by legislative correction. This article analyzes the practical considerations and ethical dilemmas implicated by this ruling. The article concludes that the ruling rests on an improper interpretation of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules, flies in the face of established practice, is impractical, and raises serious ethical dilemmas for counsel representing a non-party at a deposition. The authors urge the Court of Appeals, which is set to decide this issue in the October, 2014 term, to reject the Fourth Department ruling and to hold that the important protections provided by counsel to party deponents are available to counsel for non-parties. Alternatively, the authors recommend that legislation be enacted to achieve that end.


In teacher preparation programs across the United States, early field experiences are considered to be an effective method of providing teacher candidates with opportunities to observe and interact with children (National Council for Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE, 2010). These practicum arrangements assist candidates in developing pedagogical skills, a sense of self as teacher, and positive dispositions towards different groups of children (NCATE, 2008). With the changing demographics of the U.S. population, many state certification agencies require candidates to work with children from culturally diverse populations. Such formative opportunities are designed to broaden candidates' socio-cultural understanding and shape their ability to address the needs of diverse learners. Lucas and Grinberg (2008) note that research conducted on teacher preparation for diversity often treats ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity "as one largely undifferentiated set of factors" (p. 606). These authors propose an examination of the specific types of knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary for teaching children who are bilingual and English learners (ELs). This study examines the growth of preservice teacher candidates' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about school-age ELs in the context of an early field experience. Developing Culturally and Linguistically Competent Teachers The need to prepare mainstream, general education teachers to instruct language minority students has been thoroughly documented by a number of researchers (Fillmore & Snow, 2000; Garcia, Arias, Harris Murri, & Serna, 2010; Lucas & Grinberg, 2008). Recommendations for preservice candidates include the need to: study a second language; develop knowledge of language learning and linguistics; understand the socio-political aspects of language use; and interact with children, families, and communities with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Lucas & Grinberg, 2008). The present study addresses these recommendations with particular emphasis on the need for interactions with linguistically diverse individuals. Most studies that explore teacher beliefs towards bilingual students and ELs show that teacher candidates hold negative, simplistic, and often erroneous views of linguistic diversity (Byrnes, Kiger, & Manning, 1997; de Courcy, 2007; Katz, Scott, & Hadjioannou, 2009; Marx, 2000; Pappamihiel, 2007). Katz and her colleagues surveyed 306 preservice teachers in the United States and Cyprus and found that participants had negative beliefs about bilingualism and non-standard dialects. Interestingly, they noted no significant difference between bilingual and monolingual respondents. Other studies have demonstrated that proficiency in a second language can mediate teacher attitudes (Youngs & Youngs, 2001). Katz et al. (2009) concluded that training in diversity issues and exposure to non-dominant language varieties had a positive effect on teacher candidates' attitudes towards linguistic difference. Developing positive attitudes towards linguistic diversity is a foundational pre-requisite for developing effective and appropriate teaching practices (Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Ethnographic research has documented the damaging consequences that negative attitudes and low expectations have on the teaching of bilingual and bicultural Latino/a students (Shannon & Escamilla, 1999; Valdes, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999). Teachers who have positive attitudes about linguistic diversity are more likely to see their students as capable of academic success (Burant & Kirby, 2002; Marx, 2000) and express higher levels of teaching efficacy with ELs (Karabenick & Noda, 2004). In many teacher education programs, a common approach to providing exposure to linguistic diversity is through internships and service learning. Studies reveal the benefits of service learning and partnerships between universities and schools in helping candidates develop positive attitudes towards ELs (Bollin, 2007; Pappamihiel, 2007; Riojas-Cortez & Flores, 2009). …


Ophthalmologists typically acquire different image modalities to diagnose eye pathologies. They comprise, e.g., Fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Yet, these images are often complementary and do express the same pathologies in a different way. Some pathologies are only visible in a particular modality. Thus, it is beneficial for the ophthalmologist to have these modalities fused into a single patient-specific model. The goal of this paper is a fusion of Fundus photography with segmented MRI volumes. This adds information to MRI that was not visible before like vessels and the macula. This paper contributions include automatic detection of the optic disc, the fovea, the optic axis, and an automatic segmentation of the vitreous humor of the eye.


We study the impact of the integration of women in U.S. policing between the late 1970s and early 1990s on violent crime reporting and domestic violence (DV). Along these two key dimensions, we find that female officers improved police quality. Crime victimization data reveal that as female representation increases among officers in an area, violent crimes against women in that area, and especially DV, are reported to the police at significantly higher rates. There are no such effects for violent crimes against men or from increases in the female share of civilian police employees. Furthermore, increases in female officer shares are followed by significant declines in rates of intimate partner homicide and non-fatal domestic abuse. These effects are all consistent between fixed effects models with controls for economic and policy variables and models that focus exclusively on increases in female police employment driven by externally imposed affirmative action plans following litigation for employment discrimination.


Since its inception, the research university has been the central institution of knowledge in the West. Today its intellectual authority is being challenged on many fronts, above all by radical technological change. Organizing Enlightenment tells the story of how the university emerged in the early nineteenth century at a similarly fraught moment of cultural anxiety about revolutionary technologies and their disruptive effects on established institutions of knowledge. Drawing on the histories of science, the university, and print, as well as media theory and philosophy, Chad Wellmon explains how the research university and the ethic of disciplinarity it created emerged as the final and most lasting technology of the Enlightenment. Organizing Enlightenment reveals higher education's story as one not only of the production of knowledge but also of the formation of a particular type of person: the disciplinary self. In order to survive, the university would have to institutionalize a new order of knowledge, one that was self-organizing, internally coherent, and embodied in the very character of the modern, critical scholar.


All-solid photonic crystal fibers are novel fibers which allow us to control dispersion and nonlinear phenomena due to the possibility of using soft glasses and the high nonlinear coefficients of the fibers. We report on dispersion management and supercontinuum generation capabilities in all-solid photonic crystal fibers with a low index subwavelength inclusion in the core. The inclusion makes it possible to engineer the dispersion profile while maintaining a constant effective mode area. Numerical simulations are conducted to analyze dispersion control capability as a function of the geometrical parameters of the fiber cross-section. The structures of photonic crystal fibers have been developed from thermally matched pairs of soft glasses—SF6 lead glass and in-house developed silicate glass NC21—and have been subsequently analyzed. The dispersion characteristics are modeled for theoretical structures and for the developed fibers. Supercontinuum generation is expected and numerically confirmed for the developed fibers in the range 1150–1600 nm with flatness below 1 dB.


Despite the ubiquity of cryptocurrency, no international uniform regulatory system exists. State-by-state regulation of cryptocurrencies has problematic implications for cross-border investigations and predictability in application. Moreover, this regulatory framework leaves open opportunities for actors worldwide to violate international sanctions with impunity.

This Note posits that an international regulatory framework is necessary to combat the evasion of financial sanctions on practical and theoretical grounds. It further argues that the best way to structure this new framework is through the enactment of a new multilateral treaty. A formal international regulatory mechanism for cryptocurrencies would have numerous benefits, foremost among them limiting the evasion of international sanctions. An international regulatory mechanism would also promote predictability in the regulation of cryptocurrencies. This would in turn entice institutional investors to build out the field of crypto users and encourage stability in an otherwise volatile marketplace.

The proposal outlined within this Note goes beyond standard legal justifications for a multilateral mechanism. It drills down into the substantive mechanisms that an effective treaty must include, such as public key cryptography; an international public key directory; prosecution guidelines; and foreign fine credits. The levels of specificity to this end are perhaps uncommon in a typical legal proposal. However, this analysis is essential to explain why a new, multilateral treaty is required. The current structures in place cannot begin to grapple with the complex underlying issues which are so crucial to the regulation of cryptocurrency. The substantive components of the proposed treaty undergird the very reason why a new multilateral treaty is necessary.


While teenage conflict is nothing new, today's gossip, jokes, and arguments often play out through social media like Formspring, Twitter, and Facebook. Although adults often refer to these practices with the language of "bullying," teens are more likely to refer to the resultant skirmishes and their digital traces as "drama." Drama is a performative set of actions distinct from bullying, gossip, and relational aggression, incorporating elements of them but also operating quite distinctly. While drama is not particularly new, networked dynamics reconfigure how drama plays out and what it means to teens in new ways. In this paper, we examine how American teens conceptualize drama, its key components, participant motivations for engaging in it, and its relationship to networked technologies. Drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork, we examine what drama means to teenagers and its relationship to visibility and privacy. We argue that the emic use of "drama" allows teens to distance themselves from practices which adults may conceptualize as bullying. As such, they can retain agency - and save face - rather than positioning themselves in a victim narrative. Drama is a gendered process that perpetrates conventional gender norms. It also reflects discourses of celebrity, particularly the mundane interpersonal conflict found on soap operas and reality television. For teens, sites like Facebook allow for similar performances in front of engaged audiences. Understanding how "drama" operates is necessary to recognize teens' own defenses against the realities of aggression, gossip, and bullying in networked publics.


This paper proposes a method for controlling a team of quadrotor micro aerial vehicles to perform agile maneuvers while holding a fixed relative formation, as well as transitioning between a sequence of formations. The objective is to coordinate the quadrotors to fly in intricate interlaced patterns, similarly to an air show demonstration team. The paper proposes a new abstraction, called a Virtual Rigid Body, which allows the quadrotors to hold relative positions while executing agile maneuvers as a group. By planning trajectories for the Virtual Rigid Body in SE(3), trajectories for each quadrotor are obtained in order to maintain the desired formation during the maneuver. The paper also proposes a method for sequencing a series of Virtual Rigid Body formations, and automatically designing collision free transitions between successive formations, while the team simultaneously executes a trajectory in SE(3). The resulting sequence of formations and transitions gives trajectories that weave intricate designs while avoiding collisions. The method is demonstrated experimentally with three KMel K500 quadrotors flying in a motion capture environment.


While the long‐term drought effect on tropical forests has been observed in ground‐based and remote sensing measurements, the feedback of reduced forest biomass on subsequent rainfall is not well understood. We evaluate the impact of slow forest recovery after the 2005 Amazonian drought on local evapotranspiration (ET) and wet season onset (WSO) using remotely sensed precipitation, deuterium retrievals, reanalysis data, and a new ET product. A comparison to the 2009 rainy season, which exhibits similar large‐scale moisture flux convergence, shows that 2006 experienced a 25% ET reduction and 20 days of postponed WSO in the dry‐to‐wet transition. Our results imply that ET reduction due to drought‐driven legacy effect on the Amazon rainforest could be a crucial factor triggering WSO delay in the transitional season following drought events.


Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of male cancer deaths in the United States. Yet, despite a large international effort, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that underlie this devastating disease. Prostate secretory epithelial cells and androgen-dependent prostate carcinomas undergo apoptosis in response to androgen deprivation and, furthermore, most prostate carcinomas become androgen independent and refractory to further therapeutic manipulations during disease progression. Definition of the genetic events that trigger apoptosis in the prostate could provide important insights into critical pathways in normal development as well as elucidate the perturbations of those key pathways in neoplastic transformation. We report the functional definition of a novel genetic locus within human chromosome 10pter-q11 that mediates both in vivo tumor suppression and in vitro apoptosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma cells. A defined fragment of human chromosome 10 was transferred via microcell fusion into a prostate adenocarcinoma cell line. Microcell hybrids containing only the region 10pter-q11 were suppressed for tumorigenicity following injection of microcell hybrids into nude mice. Furthermore, the complemented hybrids undergo programmed cell death in vitro via a mechanism that does not require nuclear localization of p53. These data functionally define a novel genetic locus, designated PAC1, for prostate adenocarcinoma 1, involved in tumor suppression of human prostate carcinoma and furthermore strongly suggest that the cell death pathway can be functionally restored in prostatic adenocarcinoma.


The gyroid is an iconic structure that conjures up an intriguing 3D congener of the famous electronic systems of graphene and related 2D materials. Unlike the more accessible 2D graphitic systems, gyroidal metal–organic frameworks with demonstrated conductive properties remain unknown. We here report a semiconducting gyroidal net (denoted as HTT–Pb) that derives its rich electronic properties from the large organic π-electron system of a triphenylene core, highly polarizable Pb-dithiolene links, and robust Pb-oxo connections. In contrast to the generally encountered difficulty in crystallizing metal-thiolate networks, single crystals of HTT–Pb amenable to X-ray studies can be reliably obtained by regular solvothermal synthesis. The electronic conductivity of the framework solid is highly responsive to the water content in air, demonstrating potential use in chemiresistive sensing of humidity.


The orientation of fibres suspended in a viscous fluid, flowing over a solid surface, has been studied experimentally. A shear layer was generated, by letting the suspension flow down an inclined plate. Far upstream from the measuring section the suspension was accelerated to obtain an initial orientation of the fibres aligned with the flow direction. A CCD-camera was used to visualise the fibres. The velocity profile of the fibres coincided with the theoretical expression for fully developed flow of Newtonian liquid down an inclined wall. The orientation of the fibres was analysed in planes parallel to the solid surface. At distances from the wall larger than one fibre length the fibres performed a tumbling motion in the flow-gradient plane in what appeared to be Jeffery-like orbits. Closer to the wall a difference was found between fibres of aspect ratio rp = 10 and 40. The longer fibres of rp = 40 kept their orientation, aligned with the flow, also in the near wall region. For the shorter fibres the orientation shifted gradually, to orientations closer to the vorticity axis, when the distance from the wall was decreased. In the very proximity to the wall the fibres were aligned with the vorticity, perpendicular to the direction of the flow. Another distinction, most likely related to the fibre orientation, was seen in the wall normal concentration profile. Due to sedimentation effects fibres accumulated in the near wall region. For fibres of rp = 10 a peak in concentration was found at the wall, while for r=40 the maximum concentration was found approximately half a fibre length from the wall. It is previously known that a fibre can interact with the wall in what is referred to as a "pole vaulting" motion away from the wall. It is suggested, as a likely explanation to the location of the maximum concentration, that fibres of rp = 40 perform this motion, while fibres of rp=10 do not. In another experiment the surface of the wall was modified with ridges. For fibres of rp = 10 there were no longer any fibres oriented perpendicular to the flow direction in the near wall region. The main application in mind throughout this work is papermaking. The study is considered to be of fundamental character and is not applicable in a direct sense. The difference between the flow situation in the experiments and the paper machine is discussed further.


The availability of user‐friendly software and publicly available biodiversity databases has led to a rapid increase in the use of ecological niche modelling to predict species distributions. A potential source of error in publicly available data that may affect the accuracy of ecological niche models (ENMs), and one that is difficult to correct for, is incorrect (or incomplete) taxonomy. Here we remind researchers of the need for careful evaluation of database records prior to use in modelling, especially when the presence of cryptic species is suspected or many records are based on indirect evidence. To draw attention to this potential problem, we construct ENMs for the North American Sasquatch (i.e. Bigfoot). Specifically, we use a large database of georeferenced putative sightings and footprints for Sasquatch in western North America, demonstrating how convincing environmentally predicted distributions of a taxon's potential range can be generated from questionable site‐occurrence data. We compare the distribution of Bigfoot with an ENM for the black bear, Ursus americanus, and suggest that many sightings of this cryptozoid may be cases of mistaken identity.


It is no stretch to say that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes created the modern First Amendment a hundred years ago in his opinions in Schenck and Abrams. It is equally true that the First Amendment created gay America. For advocates of gay legal and social equality, there has been no more reliable and important constitutional text. The freedoms it guarantees protected gay cultural and political institutions from state regulation designed to impose a contrary vision of the good life. Gay organizations, clubs, bars, politicians, journals, newspapers, radio programs, television shows, web sites—all of these—would have been swept away in the absence of a strong and particularly libertarian First Amendment. It shielded gay political efforts when most of the country thought homosexuals were not just immoral, but also sick, dangerous, and criminal.

This essay tells the story of the Chicago-based Society of Human Rights, the very first gay political organization in the United States, which was founded by Henry Gerber in 1924—five years after Schenck, but before the full meaning of the dissent was accepted First Amendment doctrine. The police quickly shut down the group and arrested its members. Justice Holmes himself never met Gerber. He would have found the idea of a gay rights organization incomprehensible, something more akin to the bizarre sex cult Chicago police thought they had discovered rather than the noble experiment Gerber thought he was launching. But if it's true that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, the idea of freedom and equality for LGBT people has attained the status of Holmesian truth.


This paper looks at the integration of regions and nations through the prism of the merger of populations (societies). The paper employs a particular index of social stress. Stylized examples of the merging of two populations suggest that with integration, the social stress index will increase. The examples form the basis for the development of new formulas for calculating the social stress of an integrated population as a function of the levels of social stress of the constituent populations when apart. The formulas reveal that the social stress of an integrated population is higher than the sum of the levels of social stress of the constituent populations when apart. This raises the distinct possibility that the merging of populations may be a social liability: integration may fail to give the populace a sense of improved wellbeing.


Recent studies have shown that considerable system capacity gams 10 mobile communication systems can be obtained by exploiting the use of antenna arrays at the base station. Unfortunately, these studies make little mention of practical issues concerning implementation. It is thus one of the objectives of the Centre of Excellence ceoE) in Radio Access Technologies at the University of Natal to Lnvestigate the development of a widehand CDMA adaptive array transceiver using Alcatcl software radios as the transceiver platforms. Such a transceiver system can be subdivided into three major sections: RF front-end, signal digitization and baseband processing stages. Due to the enormity of such an undertaking, the research outlined in this thesis is focused on (but not isolated to) some aspects of the RF front-end implementation for the proposed system. The work in this thesis can be catergorized into two sections. The first section focuses on the theoretical and practical (or implementation) aspects of antenna arrays and beam forming. In particular, it is evident that digital (rather than analogue) beamfomling in a multi user environment, is a more viable option from both a cost and implementation standpoint. The second section evaluates the impact of RF component noise and local oscillator generated phase noise in a DS-CDMA system. The implementation of a RP front-end for a BPSK transceiver also forms part of the work in this section. LO phase noise and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measurements are performed on this system to support relevant theory. By use of the HP894lOA phase noise measurement utility and the phase noise theory developed in this thesis, a quantitative phase noise comparison between two frequency sources used in the system were made. EVM measurement results conclusively verified the importance of an LNA in the system. It has also been shown that the DS-CDMA simulated system exhibits superior perfonnance to the implemented BPSK system. Furthennore, an EVM troubleshooting methodology is introduced to identify possible impairments within the BPSK receiver RF front-end. However, this thesis was written with the intention of bridging the gap between the


PURPOSE
To investigate age-related trends in refractive, corneal, and internal astigmatism and to assess the association between internal astigmatism and lens opacity in an elderly Chinese population.

METHODS
A population-based study was conducted among 1360 inhabitants aged 65 years and older in Taipei, Taiwan. Participants underwent measurements of refraction, corneal dioptric power, and slit lamp biomicroscopy with lens grading. A total of 2084 eyes were included in power vector analyses of Cartesian astigmatism (J(0)) and oblique astigmatism (J(45)) components of refractive, corneal, and internal astigmatism.

RESULTS
The crude prevalence of refractive astigmatism (defined as ≥0.75 diopters) was 73.0% based on the right eyes and 76.4% based on the left eyes. The vector values in both refractive J(0) and corneal J(0) tended to be more negative with increasing age (P < 0.001), indicating the trend toward against-the-rule (ATR) astigmatism. Corneal J(0) alone accounted for 54% of the variability in refractive J(0). Refractive J(45) increased with age in the right eyes (P < 0.001) and decreased slightly with age in the left eyes (P = 0.012). Cortical opacity was associated with internal J(0) (P = 0.025), but the association was weak.

CONCLUSIONS
Astigmatism affects approximately three quarters of the Chinese population aged 65 years and older in Taiwan. With increasing age, the prevalence of astigmatism increases, and refractive and corneal astigmatism shift toward ATR. Continuous corneal changes appear to be responsible for the age trend in refractive astigmatism. The severity of lens opacity plays only a minor role in the change of internal astigmatism.


Desiccation of Coffea liberica seeds for 6 days in an air-conditioned room reduced seed and attached emltryo
moisture from 52.58% and 47.49% to 14.58% and 12.56% respectively. Seed germination and viability of
the attached emltryo were maintained at moderate levels of 66% and 38% respectively. However, none of the
desiccated seeds or embryos survived freezing in liquid nitrogen. Excised emltryos desiccated in the lamina flow
cabinet lost their moisture very rapidly from 36.8% to 9.27% within 1.5 hours. More than 70% of these emltryos
survived the desiccation. Moreover, partially desiccated emltryos at 17.17% moisture or less survived subfreezing
temperatures. Between 35% to 50% survived slow freezing to -3ffC, but this was reduced to approximately 30%
when they were subsequently plunged into liquid nitrogen. Fast freezing by direct plunge into liquid nitrogen also
resulted in 10% to 35% survival. Desiccation ofexcised coffee embryos for 0.5h to 17.17% moisture was optimal
for eryopreservation, irrespective of the speed offreezing. Differential thermal analyses of seed tissues suggest that
the absence of freezable water is an important factor for successful eryopreservation of excised coffee emltryos.
However, the importance of initial vigour, moisture variation and recovery media is also discussed.


When an author translates a text by another writer, this translation is one form of a response to that text. Other responses may appear in their own writings that are more inflected with their authorial persona. Lydia Davis translated six books by Maurice Blanchot, including fiction and theoretical writings. Blanchot's concept of the recit privileges non-conventional forms of narrative and it can be considered to have influenced Davis, a view shared in critical writing about Davis. However, responses to his fiction can also be found in Davis's work. This article reads Lydia Davis's story "Story" as a response to Maurice Blanchot's recit, La Folie du jour, translated by Davis as "The Madness of the Day". Both texts develop a narrative that questions the possibility of arriving at a single story: Blanchot's narrator cannot tell the story of how he came to have glass ground into his eyes, while Davis's narrator must try to understand a contradictory story told to her by her lover. However, Davis responds to Blanchot by reversing the perspective in the story: where Blanchot's narrator must and cannot create a story that explains his situation in a judicial/medical context, Davis's narrator is struggling to understand her lover's story which does not explain the situation that they find themselves in. Davis's narrator is therefore motivated by an emotional need to find an acceptable story that is absent from Blanchot's narrator. This difference in motivation is central to the difference between Davis's and Blanchot's approach, and complicates any reading of his influence on her because she responds to his text in her own.


Mate calling by South African clawed frogs, Xenopus laevis, is under the control of androgens. Autoradiographic studies demonstrate androgen-concentrating neurons in a motor nucleus that controls mate calling and a midbrain nucleus that is stimulated by sound. Hormone concentration by laryngeal motor neurons suggests that steroids regulate the final common path for vocal behavior. Modulation of auditory sensitivity by hormones could explain seasonal variations in behavioral responsiveness to conspecific vocalizations.


The overall aim of this project is to investigate the conceptual and empirical validity of Chinese medicine in Australia. To this end, the work is composed of three main lines of enquiry. In the first and conceptual component of this work, Chinese medicine (CM) and Western medicine (WM) will be characterised, and the possibility that they satisfy similar fundamental attributes under the conception of a health care profession is explored. The nature and use of evidence in both CM and WM is examined, with the finding that comparisons between the two – particularly in the areas of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) research, 'the placebo effect', and the nature of clinical practice – reveal complex areas of increasingly emerging similarities that are worth further consideration. Areas such as the use and overlap between the domains of quantitative and qualitative methodologies in relation to this work are also discussed. In the interventions that make up the empirical part of this work, a nationwide survey (n =655) and semi-structured interviews (n = 29) attempt to characterise the current workforce nature and attitudes of Chinese medicine practitioners and key stakeholders in Australia. CM practitioners are found to be highly educated, coming from a diversity of backgrounds, and choosing to practise in a sole or multi-practitioner private practice setting. CM practitioners value and display a number of professional attributes, in particular their continuing professional development. They are found to acknowledge a variety of disparate and inter-related forms of evidence in their practice. CM practitioners and key stakeholders are also seen here to be working within and between multiple discourses and modes of thinking regarding the body and illness. They report valuing both CM classical evidence and evidence from EBM research. While they predominantly rely on and value CM theoretical and practical structures, at the same time they are engaged in complex states of conceptual and cultural negotiation between CM and the dominant form of healthcare in Australia, WM. These findings may have implications for how we view the practice of not only CM, but also other forms of healthcare and their evaluation. Finally, the discussion attempts to situate these results within the current Australian healthcare setting and build upon the above enquiries in order to highlight areas of attention that may further enable the development of CM as a mature and relevant healthcare profession in Australia.


Background: It's difficult to explain what frail patient means, because universal criteria for its identification and definition have never been drawn up. The whole scientific community is very interested to this issue of the potential effects that fragility may have on surgical and clinical outcomes. For this reason, we try to develop and validate the use of a new surgical frailty index (nsFI) to predict postoperative outcomes and mortality in General Surgery. Methods: The study was lead in the General Surgery Department of the "A.O.U. Mater Domini" of Catanzaro. The study was conducted using the database of the patients admitted in 2016. We calculated a score for each patient using data collected from medical records. Items of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging-frailty index (FI) were performed to develop a new frailty index to predict adverse postoperative clinical outcomes. Validation of our index was performed using the notorious mFI of Velanovich et coll., to confirm the proposed index. The resulting population was subdivided into 4 groups: not frail, mild, moderately and severely frail. Subgroups were created using gender, age, site of origin and type of pathology. Morbidity and mortality were evaluated after surgery. Results: A total of 481 patients were identified in accordance to inclusion criteria. According to our index 58% of this population was frail and 70% was over the age of 65. Biological frailty is correlated with the patient's origin area, so 61,7% came from rural regions. The percentage of frail men and women was the same. Malignant diseases were found in 71,01% of frail patients. 18,20% developed postoperative complications, while 1.32% died after surgery. This new surgical frailty index demonstrates good discrimination in our cohort (AUROC=0.74) better than previously modified frailty index (AUROC=0.54). Conclusions: This new surgical frailty index can be used to guide decision-making when applied on general surgery department. Furthermore, we have identified the identikit of surgical frail patients.


The Scaffolded Sound Beehive is an immersive multi-media installation which provides viewers an artistic visual and audio experience of activities in a beehive. Data were recorded in urban beehives and processed using sophisticated pattern recognition, AI technologies, and sonification and computer graphics software. The installation includes an experiment in using Deep Learning to interpret the activities in the hive based on sound and microclimate recording.


Background: Resistin, an adipocyte secreted factor, has been suggested to link obesity with type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance in rodent models but its relevance to human diabetes remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum resistin concentrations with insulin resistance and obesity indices in type 2 diabetes and non-diabetic obese subjects. Methods: As a case- control study 35 obese subjects with type 2 diabetes (age, 44.60 ± 6.39yr; BMI, 34.23±3.92 kg/m2) and 35 obese non-diabetics (age, 43.14±9.13yr; BMI, 35.54 ± 4.07 kg/m2) are recruited . Fasting lipid profile was measured by enzymatic methods. NycoCard HbA1c Kit was used to measure HbA1c.The Serum resistin, insulin and glucose levels were measured by an enzyme immunoassay using a commercially available kit and glucose oxidase methods respectively. The insulin resistance index was calculated from fasting glucose and insulin by the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) formula. Results: The mean of insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), HbA1c, diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride and fasting glucose in diabetics were significantly higher than non-diabetics subjects (P<0.05). Serum resistin concentrations were not different between diabetics and non-diabetics obese subjects but were significantly higher in women as compared to men (8.15±4.40 vs. 5.97±2.31 in non-diabetic) and (7.46±3.98 vs. 5.51±3.98 in diabetic) in both groups. Serum resistin was not significantly related to variables measured in both groups. In control group only, we observed a significant and negative correlation between diastolic blood pressure and resistin (r = -0.381; P = 0.024). Conclusion: Serum resistin concentrations were not significantly different between type 2 diabetes and non-diabetic obese subjects and resistin is unlikely to be a major link between obesity and diabetes in humans.


Digital land-cover data are among the most popular data sources used in ecological research and natural resource management. However, processes for accurate land-cover classification over large regions are still evolving. We identified inconsistencies in the National Land Cover Dataset 1992, the most current and available representation of land cover for the conterminous United States. We also report means to address these inconsis- tencies in a bird-habitat model. We used a Geographic Information System (GIS) to posi- tion a regular grid (or lattice) over the upper midwestern United States and summarized the proportion of individual land covers in each cell within the lattice. These proportions were then mapped back onto the lattice, and the resultant lattice was compared to satellite paths, state borders, and regional map classification units. We observed mapping inconsistencies at the borders between mapping regions, states, and Thematic Mapper (TM) mapping paths in the upper midwestern United States, particularly related to grassland-herbaceous, emer- gent-herbaceous wetland, and small-grain land covers. We attributed these discrepancies to differences in image dates between mapping regions, suboptimal image dates for distin- guishing certain land-cover types, lack of suitable ancillary data for improving discrimina- tion for rare land covers, and possibly differences among image interpreters. To overcome these inconsistencies for the purpose of modeling regional populations of birds, we com- bined grassland-herbaceous and pasture-hay land-cover classes and excluded the use of emergent-herbaceous and small-grain land covers. We recommend that users of digital land-cover data conduct similar assessments for other regions before using these data for habitat evaluation. Further, caution is advised in using these data in the analysis of region- al land-cover change because it is not likely that future digital land-cover maps will repeat the same problems, thus resulting in biased estimates of change.


Bad writing is bad for science. Incomprehensible journal articles, wordy proposals, and jargon-filled theses make reading a chore for students, informed lay people, and even other scientists. As a result, years of research and hard work can be passed over or misunderstood. The problem is so significant that clear writing has become a legal requirement for federal agencies, thanks to the Plain Writing Act of 2010, which requires that writing be "accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand." "Writing Science in Plain English" by Anne E. Greene, an experienced teacher of scientific writing, shows how to produce such clear, concise scientific prose. This is the first book to adapt the Strunk and White model for scientists and students. Designed as a short, easy-to-follow guide, it dispenses with what scientists write and focuses on how to write it well. Eleven chapters present straightforward principles based on what readers need in order to understand complex writing, including concrete subjects, active verbs, consistent terms, and well-organized paragraphs. Chapter-ending exercises and samples of real writing, both good and bad, allow readers to improve their writing immensely with little effort. This concise book is short enough that readers can gain important information in one sitting, but full of useful resources that will have them thumbing through it again and again. It can be used as the foundation for a semester-long course or a two-hour workshop. Designed to be useful to a wide range of readers, from college students to faculty, and beginning researchers to established scientists, it is the perfect resource for anyone who wants to strengthen their scientific writing.


A double-slit curved wall-jet (CWJ) burner utilizing a Coanda effect by supplying fuel and air as annular-inward jets over a curved surface was employed to investigate the stabilization characteristics and structure of propane/air turbulent non-premixed flames with varying global equivalence ratio and Reynolds number. Simultaneous time-resolved measurements of particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of OH radicals were conducted. The burner showed a potential of stable and non-sooting operation for relatively large fuel loading and overall rich conditions. Mixing characteristics in cold flow were first examined using an acetone fluorescence technique, indicating substantial transport between the fuel and air by exhibiting appreciable premixing conditions. PIV measurements revealed that the flow field consisted of a wall-jet region leading to a recirculation zone through flow separation, an interaction jet region resulting from the collision of annular-inward jets, followed by a merged-jet region. The flames were stabilized in the recirculation zone and, in extreme cases, only a small flame seed remained in the recirculation zone. Together with the collision of the slit jets in the interaction jet region, the velocity gradients in the shear layers at the boundaries of the annular jets generate the turbulence. Turbulent mean and rms velocities were influenced by the presence of the flame, particularly in the recirculation zone. Flames with a high equivalence ratio were found to be more resistant to local extinction and exhibited a more corrugated and folded nature, particularly at high Reynolds numbers. For flames with a low equivalence ratio, local quenching and re-ignition processes maintained flames in the merged jet region, revealing a strong intermittency, which was substantiated by the increased principal strain rates for these flames.


While the Internet Key Exchange Protocol version 2 (IKEv2) supports
public key based authentication, the corresponding use of in-band
Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL) is problematic due to unbounded CRL
size. The size of an Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)
response is however well-bounded and small. This document defines the
"OCSP Content" extension to IKEv2. A CERTREQ payload with "OCSP
Content" identifies zero or more trusted OCSP responders and is a
request for inclusion of an OCSP response in the IKEv2 handshake. A
cooperative recipient of such a request responds with a CERT payload
containing the appropriate OCSP response. This content is recognizable
via the same "OCSP Content" identifier. When certificates are used
with IKEv2, the communicating peers need a mechanism to determine the
revocation status of the peer's certificate. OCSP is one such
mechanism. This document applies when OCSP is desired and security
policy prevents one of the IKEv2 peers from accessing the relevant
OCSP responder directly. Firewalls are often deployed in a manner that
prevents such access by IKEv2 peers outside of an enterprise network.
[STANDARDS-TRACK]


Conventional evaluations of voting systems focus on ballots for which no vote can be recorded (that is, residual votes). However, recorded votes that misrepresent voter intent are another potentially important, but less easily measured, source of error. I present evidence that a nontrivial number of voters in the recent California recall election mistakenly voted for one of the four candidates positioned next to the two major candidates on the ballot. I also find that punch-card systems significantly increased the frequency of these errors. These results indicate that future assessments of voting technologies should consider their effects on both recorded and residual votes.


This paper explores nonparametric estimation, inference, and specification testing in a nonlinear cointegrating regression model where the structural equation errors are serially dependent and where the regressor is endogenous and may be driven by long memory innovations. Generalizing earlier results of Wang and Phillips (2009a,b, Econometric Theory 25, 710–738, Econometrica 77, 1901–1948), the conventional nonparametric local level kernel estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically (mixed) normal in these cases, thereby opening up inference by conventional nonparametric methods to a wide class of potentially nonlinear cointegrated relations. New results on the consistency of parametric estimates in nonlinear cointegrating regressions are provided, extending earlier research on parametric nonlinear regression and providing primitive conditions for parametric model testing. A model specification test is studied and confirmed to provide a valid mechanism for testing parametric specifications that is robust to endogeneity. But under long memory innovations the test is not pivotal, its convergence rate is parameter dependent, and its limit theory involves the local time of fractional Brownian motion. Simulation results show good performance for the nonparametric kernel estimates in cases of strong endogeneity and long memory, whereas the specification test is shown to be sensitive to the presence of long memory innovations, as predicted by asymptotic theory.


This thesis argues that caffeine use offered a survival advantage to our ancestors and
that moderate use continues to offer modern humans benefits. Caffeine ingestion,
through the blocking of adenosine receptors, elicits broad elements of the mammalian
threat response, specifically from the 'flight or fight' and 'tend and befriend' repertoires
of behaviour: in effect, caffeine hijacks elements of the stress response. If the effects of
caffeine had been discovered recently, rather than being available to Homo sapiens
since Neolithic hunter gatherer times, it is likely that caffeine would be considered a
'smart' drug. More caffeine is being ingested today than ever previously recorded.
Caffeine use is found across all age groups, all socio-economic strata, most ethnic
groups, and is being used increasingly by the medical and pharmaceutical industries and by the armed forces. Yet despite this wide usage and a substantial body of research
literature, there is at present no clear pattern or plausible model for the way caffeine
achieves its effects. There is much contradiction in the literature and ambiguity as to
why caffeine use should improve performance on some tasks, impair it on others and
have no effect on other tasks, for some but not all of the time. The present work argues,
through an examination of the specificity of caffeine's operation, that these effects are
not arbitrary but elicited by the nature of the tasks, in particular that caffeine ingestion
affects those processes and behaviours which improve the probability of survival under
perceived threat or stress. This is argued through the perspective of evolutionary
psychology and relies theoretically on Polyvagal Theory. The argument generates
testable hypotheses and empirical support for the thesis is garnered from nine
experiments on card-sorting, verbal and numerical processing, local and global
categorization, field dependence-independence, the Stroop task, tests of visuo-spatial
ability, and from a correlational study of caffeine use and personality traits. It is
concluded that moderate caffeine use in healthy adults promotes behaviours likely to be
adaptive under perceived threat or stress. Limitations of both theory and empirical work
and are discussed, together with potential practical applications and suggestions for
further work.


Sediments recovered from seven Last Glacial Maximum grounding lines sites, around the Antarctic Peninsula, were analyzed using micromorphology. This is the fIrst evidence that grounding line sediments from around the Antarctic Peninsula have complex deformational histories and subglacial origins. It was determined that grounding zone wedge contain multiple units, or diamicton layers, with homogenized boundaries. The multiple diamicton unitsllayers are due to the accretionary formation of a grounding line wedge. All the sediments were deposited via deformation, and continual reincorporation, homogenization of lower diamicton layers by upper diamicton layers produced what macroscopically appeared to be a single massive diamicton unit. The morainal ridge that was sampled, alternatively, is composed of a single unit, or diamicton layer, that was subglacial in origin and believed to have been pushed out to form a ridge that was subsequently deformed via glacial push.


A variety of methods based on coalescent theory have been developed to infer demographic history from gene sequences sampled from natural populations. The "skyline plot" and related approaches are commonly employed as exible prior distributions for phylogenetic trees in the Bayesian analysis of pathogen gene sequences. In this work we extend the classic and generalised skyline plot methods to phylogenies that contain one or more multifurcations (i.e. hard polytomies). We use the theory of Λ-coalescents (specifically, Beta(2α,α)-coalescents) to develop the "multifurcating skyline plot", which estimates a piecewise constant function of effective population size through time, conditional on a time-scaled multifurcating phylogeny. We implement a smoothing procedure and extend the method to serially-sampled (heterochronous) data, but we do not address here the problem of estimating trees with multifurcations from gene sequence alignments. We validate our estimator on simulated data using maximum likelihood and find that parameters of the Beta(2α,α)-coalescent process can be estimated accurately. Lastly we apply the multifurcating skyline plot to a molecular clock phylogeny of 1,610 Ebola virus sequences from the 2014-2016 West African outbreak. We artificially collapse short branches in this empirical phylogeny in order to mimic different levels of multifurcation and show that variance in the reproductive success of the pathogen through time can be estimated by combining the skyline plot with epidemiological case count data.


The interaction between speech rate and rhythm is a topic that has hardly been studied in respective models of language rhythm though its potential significance has recently been addressed: since both of these prosodic parameters are to a great extent dependent on speech timing they are suspected to interact to a great degree. The present research studies the influence of speech rate on the vocalic and intervocalic measures %V and C that have been discussed widely in the recent past as measures by which language rhythm classes may be distinguished. Results show that C is extremely speech rate dependent while %V remains rather stabile across different speech rates. Different results may be obtained according to the way speech rate is controlled across languages. An alternative model for a cross language rate control will be proposed in this context.


Students' difficulties in language learning have been extensively researched as they play an important role in teaching. The study can reveal the source of difficulties that can be used as consideration in determining the best remedy for the students and can provide a guideline for the teachers to create a better instruction. To this concern, the current paper reported on an analysis of students' paragraph writing papers, by focusing on the errors made by them. This study employed content analysis research method by examining 26 paragraphs scripts collected from the exam papers of the first year university students of Unit 1 majoring in English Education of State Islamic University of Ar-Raniry, Aceh academic year 2015-2016. The students were instructed to write free topics following the structure of paragraph. The students' errors were identified, grouped and analyzed. The findings indicated that most of the students' errors in terms of organization of paragraph were on all components; topic sentences, supporting sentences and concluding sentences. In addition, students' errors were also found in language structure. It was also identified that Syntactic and stylistic errors were the most frequently mistakes committed by the students. The pedagogical recommendation of writing skill was also presented through this study.


Within the framework of the paper, the author introduces issues connected to short food supply chains. There are many different forms of short food supply chains (SFSC), but they share a common characteristic of reduced numbers of intermediaries between the farmer or food producer, and the consumer. The growing interest in SFSCs is shown in the paper – this reflects mainly the consumer demand for quality and traceability, given the alarming health crises in food markets. From a customers' point of view, SFSCs transfer more complete information about the origin of the food and, for producers, SFSCs retain a higher share of added value. The overview on the impact of short supply chains is provided in the paper. The results of the analysis show that the supply chain may have some beneficial economic effects. It is noticed that the SFSCs have potential to increase farm value added (profit allocation), promote sustainable farming systems, diversify production and contribute to local economic development.


BACKGROUND
Suicidal thinking and behavior are common in individuals with bipolar disorder.

METHOD
Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts were examined in 175 patients with bipolar I disorder (diagnosis confirmed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia or the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV) participating in the Pittsburgh Study of Maintenance Therapies in Bipolar Disorder. Patients who attempted suicide before entering the study were compared with those who did not attempt suicide with respect to clinical and demographic characteristics.

RESULTS
Twenty-nine percent of the patients had attempted suicide prior to entering the study. Suicide attempts happened at a relatively young age and in the first period of the illness. Greater severity of bipolar disorder, as indicated by a greater number of previous depressive episodes (p =.0009) and higher HAM-D-25 scores (p =.04), and higher body mass index (p =.03) were significantly correlated with a history of suicide attempts. None of the patients with a history of suicide attempt attempted suicide again. However, 5 patients without a history of suicide attempt did attempt suicide. Four of these patients did not display severe suicidal ideation at the assessment that preceded the suicide attempt. No subject completed suicide during the 11 years of the study.

CONCLUSION
Greater severity of bipolar disorder and higher body mass index are significantly correlated with a history of suicide attempts. However, a treatment program in a maximally supportive clinical environment can reduce suicidal behavior in high-risk patients. In some cases, suicide risk is transient and may be preceded by a period of severe suicidal ideation that lasts only a few minutes or hours. In such cases, mental health professionals are unable to predict suicide attempts.


Background It has not escaped the notice of researchers that TV quiz-shows like 'The Weakest Link' (WL) make
ideal observational field experiments because they comprise the key ingredients of game theory: a finite group of
players must select from a fixed set of actions to play for well defined payoffs. For example, WL has been used
to assess the optimal banking strategy in economic decision making (Haan, Los & Riyanto, 2011), the trade-off
between risk and return strategies in game playing (Fevrier & Linnemer, 2006; Barmish & Boston, 2009), as a
test of gender and race discrimination in voting (Levitt, 2004; Antonovics, Arcidiacono & Walsh, 2005;
Goddard, 2012) and to demonstrate 'neighbour' effects in voting practice (Goddard, Ashley & Hunter, 2011).
Research Questions:- We tested for three kinds of voting bias by players of WL. i.) spatial, ii.) gender and iii.)
'Tit-for-Tat' (TFT).
Methodology-i.) Rules of WL:- A group of players (n=9) accumulated a pot of money by fielding a first round of
questions. Next, each player identified one of their fellows as the 'weakest' in that round. The player accruing
the majority of votes was summarily eliminated from the show. A second accumulation round of questions
preceded another elimination vote, and so on, until the group was whittled down to the final pair, who then
played out a tie-breaker to determine an outright winner. Methodology- ii.) Analysis:- The observed frequencies
of votes cast in the first and second rounds of 72 episodes of WL were recorded. Simple probability theory was
then used to calculate the corresponding expected frequencies due to chance. Significant departures from these
expected patterns, identified by χ2 tests, indicated voting bias.
Findings:- TFT voting occurred when recipients of round 1 votes responded in kind by voting for the perpetrator
in round 2. TFT votes occurred significantly more often than expected, and, significantly more often than those
made by the equivalent controls who had not received a vote in round 1. Spatial and gender biases were found:
players avoided voting for direct neighbours and females received significantly more votes than males.
Interpretation:-We suggest that TFT was played as a deliberate, explicit strategy, but, spatial/gender voting
anomalies emerged implicitly. To elaborate, we suggest that a player's voting decision was informed by two
sources of information: situational, the game-specific, public performance of the other players, and,
dispositional, their individual, internal, subjective-dependent attributions. In rounds where situational
information was unequivocal, so the weakest player was easily identified by the other players (hi-consensus),
there was no voting bias. However, significant biases emerged as uncertainty increased (consensus decreased)
about the identity of the weakest player. In the absence of clear-cut situational information, because all players
performed equally well (or badly!), players resorted to their private, bias-prone dispositional information source.
Conclusion:- The format of WL quiz-shows provided an ideal context to analyse forced-choice decision making
and the implicit biases and explicit strategies therein.


Abstract. Ionospheric delay, can be derived from dual frequency GNSS signals, and then converted into the Vertical Total Electron Contents (VTEC) along the signal path. Various models were devised to calculate VTEC. Examples of such models are the polynomial function model and spherical harmonics model. A common hypothesis of these models is that they are constructed based on the assumption that the entire electron content in the ionosphere is concentrated in a single thin shell at a selected height above Earth. The primary goal of the current research to develop an algorithm capable of producing VTEC maps on an hourly basis, using carrier phase observations from dual frequency GPS receiver. The developed algorithm uses a single GPS station (Zero-difference) to map VTEC over a regional area. The carrier phase measurements are much more precise than the code pseudorange measurements, but they contain an ambiguous term. If such ambiguities are fixed, thence the carrier phase measurements become as unambiguous pseudoranges, but accurate at the level of few millimeters. In current research Sequential Least Square Adjustment (SLSA) was considered to fix ambiguity term in carrier phase observations. The proposed algorithm was written using MATLAB and Called (ZDPID). Two GPS stations (ANKR and BSHM) were used from IGS network to evaluate the developed code, VTEC values were estimated over these two stations. Results of the proposed algorithm were compared with the Global Ionosphere Maps (GIMs), which is generally used as a reference. The results show that the mean difference between VTEC from GIM and estimated VTEC at ANKR station is ranging from −2.1 to 3.67 TECU and its RMS is 0.44. The mean difference between VTEC from GIM and estimated VTEC at BSHM station is ranging from −0.29 to 3.65 TECU and its RMS is 0.38. Another three GPS stations in Egypt were used to generate regional ionosphere maps over Nile Delta, Egypt. The mean differences between VTEC from GIM and estimated VTEC at SAID station is ranging from −1.1 to 3.69 TECU and its RMS is 0.37, from −1.29 to 3.27 TECU for HELW station with RMS equal 0.39, and from 0.2 to 4.2 TECU for BORG station with RMS equal 0.46. Therefore, the proposed algorithm can be used to estimate VTEC efficiently.


Abstract Elevated tropospheric ozone concentration (O3) significantly reduces photosynthesis and productivity in several C4 crops including maize, switchgrass and sugarcane. However, it is unknown how O3 affects plant growth, development and productivity in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.), an emerging C4 bioenergy crop. Here, we investigated the effects of elevated O3 on photosynthesis, biomass and nutrient composition of a number of sorghum genotypes over two seasons in the field using free‐air concentration enrichment (FACE), and in growth chambers. We also tested if elevated O3 altered the relationship between stomatal conductance and environmental conditions using two common stomatal conductance models. Sorghum genotypes showed significant variability in plant functional traits, including photosynthetic capacity, leaf N content and specific leaf area, but responded similarly to O3. At the FACE experiment, elevated O3 did not alter net CO2 assimilation (A), stomatal conductance (g s), stomatal sensitivity to the environment, chlorophyll fluorescence and plant biomass, but led to reductions in the maximum carboxylation capacity of phosphoenolpyruvate and increased stomatal limitation to A in both years. These findings suggest that bioenergy sorghum is tolerant to O3 and could be used to enhance biomass productivity in O3 polluted regions.


Abstract The acceptability of four different aphid species Macrosiphum albifrons (Essig), Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), Macrosiphum pseudorosae Patch, and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), as prey for four lady beetle species, one native species Coccinella trifasciata L, and three non-native Coccinella septempunctata L, Harmonia axyridis Pallas, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata L (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were tested in the laboratory. The relative field abundance of adults of the same lady beetle species on host vegetation, Lupinus polyphyllus Lindley (Fabales: Fabaceae), Solanum tuberosum L (Solanales: Solanaceae), and Rosa multiflora Thunberg (Rosales: Rosaceae), both with and without aphids present was also observed. In the laboratory, H. axyridis generally consumed the most aphids, while P. quatuordecimpunctata consumed the fewest. The exception was P. quatuordecimpunctata, which consumed a greater number of M. albifrons nymphs, and C. trifasciata, which consumed a greater number of M. albifrons nymphs and adults, compared with the other two beetle species. Lady beetles consumed fewer M. albifrons compared with the other three aphid species, likely because of deterrent compounds sequestered by this species from its host plant. In the field, P. quatuordecimpunctata was the most abundant species found on L. polyphyllus and S. tuberosum.


The Red Sindhi cattle breed was imported to Brazil in small numbers. Nowadays, the herds of this breed are distributed in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest regions of the country. In this study, DNA samples of animals originating from 15 herds in the Northeast and Southeast regions have been analyzed to obtain the ancestry proportions, and to gain a better understanding of the current population structure of this breed in Brazil. Samples were genotyped using three different single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker panels. Those markers have been used with the approach of unsupervised hierarchical clustering of individuals, and consequently, the ancestry of the population was divided into six different subpopulations. Three of those ancestry subpopulations were identified to be present in various different herds, while the other three were restricted to only one or two herds each. One of those herds has been kept isolated for more than 30 years, and it was identified to contain two almost exclusive subpopulations. To avoid important losses in the genetic diversity within the Red Sindhi breed in Brazil, we recommend the identification of superior sires from every subpopulation in the establishment of a breeding program for this breed.