In this thesis, we aimed to better understand how genetic
 variation affect the processes underlying health and disease, as
 trait-associated genetic variants are often located in non-coding regions.
 This hampers their interpretability, and has prompted the exploration of
 their effects on transcriptional regulation, a process that is crucial in the
 development of common and complex diseases. To do this, we have used a
 variety of omics data in a large collection of individuals from the general
 population. Using these data, we have investigated the local and distal
 effects of genetic variants on other molecular phenotypes, such as gene
 expression levels and DNA methylation levels of CpG sites, and the underlying
 mechanisms. This has resulted in a framework enabling the exploration of
 causal hypotheses about transcriptional regulation using genetics as a causal
 anchor. The approaches used in this thesis have yielded insight into
 transcriptional (dys)regulation and several underlying mechanisms. This will
 be helpful in better understanding how transcriptional regulation contributes
 to complex phenotypes related to health and disease, such as common diseases.


Students' psychosocial functioning during their transition to university was examined in terms of person-environment incongruence and the flexibility of individuals' construction processes in coping with this incongruence. Using content analysis scaling methodology it was found that the experience of person-environment incongruence was mediated by size of university environment and students' stage of life and education. Mature age students experienced more person-environment incongruence, and less interpretive and core anxiety and satisfaction in a larger university environment. Students who were recent school leavers experienced more person-environment incongruence, interpretive anxiety, and less satisfaction in a smaller environment. In the smaller environment, students who had participated in an intervention maintained higher levels of inflexibility and expressed less social hostility than nonintervention students. These effects of the intervention did not hold in the larger environment where both intervention and nonintervention students experienced a significant decrease in inflexibility over time.


The polymer barrier is the most important component in unbonded flexible pipe, providing the leak-tight boundary for transporting hydrocarbon medium. Premature failure of the barrier during service can be costly and may lead to disastrous environmental consequences. Design of the barrier for 25 years' service integrity is therefore a major requirement in the flexible pipe design process. However, the API design code does not give a specific procedure for the design of the barrier and is mainly concerned with the design of other layers in the pipe which are intended to provide integrity to the polymer barrier.The selection of barrier material depends on many factors including the service temperature/pressure range and pipe bending requirements. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is used as a barrier material in cases where high pressure and relatively high temperature applications are involved. However, a hard polymer such as PVDF can be susceptible to crazing and cracking under specific conditions and therefore the use of PVDF in flexible pipe barriers requires critical consideration of the above issues.This paper discusses the general design requirements of a single layer barrier, and different barriers in relation to static and dynamic applications. The details of a qualification test program performed to establish service integrity of single layer Solef 60512 PVDF barriers is discussed. The unique testing facilities developed to test the integrity of the barrier are presented.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


We introduce a novel sampling algorithm for Markov chain Monte Carlo-based Bayesian inference for factorial hidden Markov models. This algorithm is based on an auxiliary variable construction that restricts the model space allowing iterative exploration in polynomial time. The sampling approach overcomes limitations with common conditional Gibbs samplers that use asymmetric updates and become easily trapped in local modes. Instead, our method uses symmetric moves that allows joint updating of the latent sequences and improves mixing. We illustrate the application of the approach with simulated and a real data example.


Keywords: Service service, Customer satisfaction

The requirements of globalization and the current national reform has caused turbulence affecting the changes in external and internal environment. External influence is characterized by strong competition semaikn business, while the internal effects seen from the company's operating costs have increased. Management commitment to provide best services to be implemented within the company. Seize sympathy and full customer support to activities and products the company will have an effect on service and satisfaction itself.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is influence of letter delivery services of PT. Pos Indonesia Malang to customer satisfaction and how much influence it. Public Relations is part of 6p namely product, price, place, promotion, public relations and power as a means of opening access to the marketing teams who want to enter a particular market. The study this time using Maslow's theory that argues that satisfaction is partly based on activity patterns of interests that will need to make an object to be owned and used in accordance with the wishes of customers.
The method used in this research is quantitative research with the type of research is research that tested explanative relationship between the variables hypothesized. The approach used is a survey used to measure the existing symptoms without investigating why the symptoms are there and more use of existing data for troubleshooting. Location of research at the PT. Malang Pos Indonesia, the research carried out for 1 month, to obtain data from customers with a spread poll conducted since December 14 to 19 November 2005, and next week is used to obtain data on the PT. Pos Indonesia Malang. In determining the accidental sampling of respondents used the researchers collected data directly from any customer meets.
Data collection techniques used conducted by distributing questionnaires to customers, the observation of direct observation terhdap mail delivery services division of PT. Pos Indonesia Malang and documentation that is by collecting data and studying the archives relating to customer satisfaction.
Data analysis technique used is simple linear regression analysis. Data analysis used regression to predict or estimate the value of a variable if the value of other variables (independent variables) have been determined. Simple linear regression equation is: y = a + bx then to know correlation between the independent variable on the dependent variable used the F test and if any influence, to seek the level of influence was used that the coefficient of determination.
From the data analysis, to determine the correlation between the independent variable on the dependent variable is done by testing F test From simple linear regression analysis Fcount> Ftable ie 81,601> 3.98, so it can be concluded that there is influence of letter delivery services to customer satisfaction means that Ho is rejected or accepted H1. The contribution of independent variable to be bound variebal of 0422.
In this study we can conclude that there is a significant influence services simultaneously towards customer satisfaction by 52.8% and the remaining 47.2% customer satisfaction is influenced by other factors.


Although convolutional networks have been the dominant architecture for vision tasks for many years, recent experiments have shown that Transformer-based models, most notably the Vision Transformer (ViT), may exceed their performance in some settings. However, due to the quadratic runtime of the self-attention layers in Transformers, ViTs require the use of patch embeddings, which group together small regions of the image into single input features, in order to be applied to larger image sizes. This raises a question: Is the performance of ViTs due to the inherently-more-powerful Transformer architecture, or is it at least partly due to using patches as the input representation? In this paper, we present some evidence for the latter: specifically, we propose the ConvMixer, an extremely simple model that is similar in spirit to the ViT and the even-more-basic MLP-Mixer in that it operates directly on patches as input, separates the mixing of spatial and channel dimensions, and maintains equal size and resolution throughout the network. In contrast, however, the ConvMixer uses only standard convolutions to achieve the mixing steps. Despite its simplicity, we show that the ConvMixer outperforms the ViT, MLP-Mixer, and some of their variants for similar parameter counts and data set sizes, in addition to outperforming classical vision models such as the ResNet. Our code is available at https://github.com/locuslab/convmixer.


The performance of dormant and winter-active lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars was compared under sheep grazing in 2 experiments during the cool season. The objectives were to define the cool season management required for winter active cultivars in sheep farming systems. The 'winter-active cultivars Matador and Rere yielded 1760 and 1220 kg DM/ha compared with 890 and 760 kg from Wairau and Saranac respectively in mid-winter, while the reverse occurred in spring when dormant cultivars yielded 50% more than the winteractive. This was related to differing levels of non-structural carbohydrates in roots, which had declined to insignificant levels in Rere and Matador by early spring. June grazing increased spring yields of Wairau by 35% due to control of overwintering aphids, but reduced yield of Rere by 25% due to effects on root reserves. Early September grazing greatly reduced subsequent lucerne yields at late - .October and- early- -December grazings, and increased the content of weeds. Our findings show that if farmers graze winter-active lucerne with sheep in winter the advantage in production disappears in spring. Cool-season management which combines the use of dormant and winter-active lucernes is discussed.


Cell Signalling Networks (CSNs) are complex biochemical networks responsible for the coordination of cellular
activities in response to internal and external stimuli. We hypothesize that CSNs are subsets of collectively autocatalytic reaction networks. The signal processing or cognitive abilities of CSNs would originate from the closure properties of these systems. We investigate how Artificial CSNs, regarded as minimal cognitive systems, could emerge and evolve under this condition where closure may interact with evolution. To assist this research, we employ a multi-level concurrent Artificial Chemistry based on the Molecular Classifier Systems and the Holland broadcast language. A critical issue for the evolvability of such undirected and autonomous evolutionary systems is to identify the conditions that would ensure evolutionary stability. In this
paper we present some key features of our system which permitted stable cooperation to occur between the different molecular species through evolution. Following this, we present an experiment in which we evolved a simple closed reaction network to accomplish a pre-specified task. In this experiment we show that the signal-processing ability (signal amplification) directly resulted from the evolved systems closure properties.


How shall we guide ourselves to ensure that research on creation and reception are ecologically valid, representative of natural processes in everyday life? Rather than romanticizing science, we need to be critically aware of the hidden assumptions which lie behind the empirical narratives that appear in journals. Francis Bacon awakened us to the "false idols" and Goethe encouraged us to place the careful observation of phenomena of the natural world ahead of theories which should be derived from observation and help focus our understanding of them. Following Bacon and Goethe, I advise that researchers should work from actual instances or episodes in which the phenomena of interest are manifested. Our goal should be to ensure that the parallel world of experimentation is not divorced from everyday life. This can be achieved by developing a large sample space of materials (poems, literary texts, films, and so forth) from which at least two must be chosen to represent each kind of stimulus. Further, we need to specify the orienting task set according to which participants are to approach these materials. Finally, I advocate the use of quantitative and qualitative kinds of data in a complementary manner to elucidate the underlying processes. By engaging in an empirical dialogue with ourselves and others, we can advance our understanding and explanation of the phenomena which fascinate us.


The present doctoral thesis introduces a method for semi-automatic volumetric analysis of the hippocampus and other distinct brain regions in laboratory mice. The method of volumetric manganese enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (vMEMRI) makes use of the paramagnetic property of the manganese ion, Mn2+, which results in a positive contrast enhancement of specific brain areas on the MR image and enables a more detailed image of brain morphology. The chemical similarity of Mn2+ to Calcium leads to an accumulation of Mn2+ in excited cells and consequentially an enhanced signal in certain brain regions in an activity dependent manner. However, one major drawback for vMEMRI is the toxicity of Mn2+. Therefore, the aims of the thesis have been:

(1) Establishment of a MEMRI protocol in mice
(2) Optimization of a Mn2+ application procedure to reduce toxic side effects
(3) Development of an automatized method to determine hippocampal volume
(4) Validation of vMEMRI analysis
(5) Application of volumetric analysis in mouse models of psychopathology

This thesis splits into 3 studies. Study 1 deals with Mn2+ toxicity and introduces an application method that considerably reduces the toxic side effects of Mn2+. Study 2 validates vMEMRI as a method to reliably determine hippocampal volume and explores its utilization it in animals with genetically and chemically modified hippocampi. Study 3 displays the application vMEMRI in a mouse model of a psychiatric disorder.
 Study 1 shows that a single application of Mn2+ in dosages used in current MEMRI studies leads to considerable toxic side effects measurable with physiological, behavioral and endocrine markers. In contrast, a fractionated application of a low dose of Mn2+ is proposed as an alternative to a single injection of a high dose. Repeated application of low dosages of 30 mg/kg Mn2+ showed less toxic side effects compared to the application schemes with higher dosages of 60 mg/kg. Additionally, the best vMEMRI signal contrast was seen for an injection protocol of 30 mg/kg 8 times with an inter-injection interval of 24 h (8x30/24 protocol). The impact of the 8x30/24 application protocol on longitudinal studies was tested by determining whether learning processes are disturbed. Mice were injected with the 8x30/24 protocol 2 weeks prior to receiving a single footshock. Manganese injected mice showed less contextual freezing to the shock context and a shock context reminder one month after shock application. Furthermore, mice showed increased hyperarousal and no avoidance of shock context related odors. This impairment in fear conditioning indicates a disturbed associative learning of Mn2+ injected mice. Therefore, it was investigated whether Mn2+ application shows a specific disturbance of hippocampus dependent learning. Mice were subjected to habitual and spatial learning protocols 12 h after each injection in a water cross-maze. There was no impairment in learning protocols which allowed for hippocampus-independent habitual learning. However, Mn2+ injected mice were specifically impaired in the hippocampus-dependent spatial learning protocol. Furthermore, it was shown that only mice with higher Mn2+ accumulation showed this impairment. Altogether, the results of this chapter argue for a fractionated application scheme such as 30 mg/kg every 24 h for 8 days to provide sufficient MEMRI signal contrast while minimizing toxic side effects. However, the treatment procedure has to be further improved to allow for an analysis of hippocampus-dependent learning processes as well. Because of the potential side effects, the vMEMRI method was applied as a final experiment in study 2 and 3.
 Study 2 introduces the method of vMEMRI, which allows, for the first time, an in vivo semi-automatic detection of hippocampal volume. Hippocampal volume of mice with genetically altered adult neurogenesis and those with chemically lesioned hippocampi could be analyzed with vMEMRI. Even the highly variable differences in hippocampal volume of these animals could be detected with vMEMRI. vMEMRI data correlated with manually obtained volumes and are in agreement with previously reported histological findings, indicating the high reliability of this method.
 Study 3 investigates the ability of vMEMRI to detect even small differences in brain morphology by examining volumetric changes of the hippocampus and other brain structures in a mouse model of PTSD supplemented with enriched housing conditions. It was shown, that exposure to a brief inescapable foot shock led to a volume reduction in both the left hippocampus and right central amygdala two months later. Enriched housing decreased the intensity of trauma-associated contextual fear independently of whether it was provided before or after the shock. vMEMRI analysis revealed that enriched housing led to an increase in whole brain volume, including the lateral ventricles and the hippocampus. Furthermore, the enhancement of hippocampal volume through enriched housing was accompanied by the amelioration of trauma-associated PTSD-like symptoms. Hippocampal volume gain and loss was mirrored by ex vivo ultramicroscopic measurements of the hippocampus. Together, these data demonstrate that vMEMRI is able to detect small changes in hippocampal and central amygdalar volumes induced by a traumatic experience in mice.
 In conclusion, vMEMRI proves to be very reliable and able to detect small volumetric differences in various brain regions in living mice. vMEMRI opens up a great number possibilities for future research determining neuroanatomical structure, volumes and activity in vivo as well as the ability to repeatedly determine such characteristics within each subject, given an improvement of the Mn2+ treatment protocols to minimize potential toxic side effects.


We present a comprehensive study of the photo-induced phase transition of azobenzene-containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) in block copolymers (BCPs) upon the isomerization of azobenzene in the mixed solvent of water and dioxane. The BCP is composed of a poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA) block and a PNIPAM block decorated with ∼2 mol% of azobenzene groups (P(NIPAM-co-MAzo)). In the mixed solvent of water and dioxane, the cloud point temperature (CPT) for the phase transition of the PNIPAM block displays a large shift >10 °C induced by the photoisomerization of azobenzene under UV or visible light. The CPT shift of PNIPAM is highly dependent on the solvent composition and the large shift only occurs at high dioxane concentration (>30%). The mechanism of the photo-induced large CPT shift by the isomerization of azobenzene was investigated by means of 1H NMR spin relaxation studies. With the addition of dioxane, the exchange of hydrogen bonding from PNIPAM–water to PNIPAM–dioxane was detected in the neighborhood of the CPT, thereby demonstrating the better solvation of the BCP chains and the azobenzene moieties by dioxane. We further demonstrate that the spin relaxation of azobenzene in the trans–cis isomerization only displayed a notable change at higher dioxane concentrations where the large shift of the CPT was observed. An improved understanding of the mechanism of photoinduced phase transition offers new insights into the rational design, synthesis and application of photoresponsive polymer materials.


The PT-symmetric potential V{sub 0}[cos(2{pi}x/a)+i{lambda}sin(2{pi}x/a)] has a completely real spectrum for {lambda}{ 1. At the symmetry-breaking threshold {lambda}=1 some of the eigenvectors become degenerate, giving rise to a Jordan-block structure for each degenerate eigenvector. In general this is expected to result in a secular growth in the amplitude of the wave. However, it has been shown in a recent paper by Longhi, by numerical simulation and by the use of perturbation theory, that for a broad initial wave packet this growth is suppressed, and instead a saturation leading to a constant maximum amplitude is observed. We revisit this problem by explicitly constructing the Bloch wave functions and the associated Jordan functions and using the method of stationary states to find the dependence on the longitudinal distance z for a variety of different initial wave packets. This allows us to show in detail how the saturation of the linear growth arises from the close connection between the contributions of the Jordan functions and those of the neighboring Bloch waves.


The purpose of this research study was to explore how a teacher can nurture a growth mindset in students using feedback and assessment, inviting them to take initiative and responsibility in their learning process. The research questions sought to answer how a teacher's beliefs about the malleability of intelligence and ability impacts students' beliefs and mindset as well as to explore the practices used by teachers in giving feedback to students that nurture a growth mindset. Five teachers, along with their classes of middle school students, were surveyed to assess mindset towards learning. To dig deeper into the questions of mindset, interviews with eleven students from one class and focus group discussions with the three other classes were also conducted. While no statistically significant correlation could be drawn between teacher and student mindset in the quantitative data, qualitative results highlighted the importance of the choices that teachers make in fostering a growth mindset in their students.


Abstract Ageing and learning are value-laden concepts that are culturally relevant. Culture plays an important role in influencing what people think, resulting in different views and understandings by people from diverse cultural backgrounds. In the literature, there have been research and discussions relating culture with ageing and culture with learning to shed light on the value systems and predominant cultural values that have influenced the understanding of ageing and learning by people in different cultures. The aim of this paper is fourfold. First, it examines the concepts of ageing and learning and considers the role that culture plays in the understanding of these two constructs. Second, it draws on the predominant East–West cultural debate to shed light on the cultural values and views that have influenced the understanding and conceptualisation of ageing and learning. Third, limitations are identified for the East–West dichotomous view of ageing and learning using the Confucian perspective of learning to illustrate the inadequacies of the Eastern and Western ideas of learning, or lifelong learning, in particular. Finally, this paper draws on findings from a cross-cultural study to compare and contrast senior adults in Hong Kong and Australia, with regard to ageing and learning.


Problem: Sepsis is a nocuous host response to infection that leads to organ dysfunction and hypotensive shock. Now deemed a public health burden, sepsis is predicted to increase as the population in the United States ages. Recent research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that 80 percent of sepsis begins outside of the hospital setting and that seven out of every ten patients diagnosed with sepsis recently used healthcare services. Because early identification helps to decrease mortality, it is imperative that family practice providers increase their awareness and recognition of sepsis so that treatment may be expedited. The problem is that primary care providers often lack knowledge and competence in recognizing the signs and symptoms of sepsis as well as the clinical judgment necessary to detect sepsis in its early stages. Clinical comprehension of sepsis has improved using simulation, a teaching modality with a long history in medical education. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to compare the knowledge and competence of primary care practitioners in the early recognition of sepsis using either high-fidelity simulation (HFS) or computer-based learning (CBL) with Kolb's Learning Theory as the framework. Simulation has been shown to increase critical thinking and self-confidence through re-creation and reflection in a safe environment. Method: Family nurse practitioners (FNP) and advanced FNP students (FNPS) in the greater Kansas City area were recruited and randomly placed into CBL or HFS groups for this quasiexperimental design that included a clinical scenario, a 10-question pretest/posttest and a competence scale. Conclusion: Although this pilot lacked statistical significance, the results may be of use to inform future studies or other advanced simulation experiences. EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF SEPSIS IN PRIMARY CARE 2


Though noncitizens can be, and frequently are, judged by juries, they are categorically excluded from serving on them. In this Note, I explore the implications of this exclusion from demographic, functional, and doctrinal perspectives. The demographic portrait of noncitizens and minorities in the United States shows that the citizenship requirement for jury service results in the exclusion of significant numbers of residents in certain regions, and that this exclusion is highly skewed by race and ethnicity. The exclusion and resulting decrease in jury diversity has potentially negative effects on the jury's decisionmaking and its institutional legitimacy, and it excludes many residents who may be integrated into the community for many other purposes. Doctrinally, the exclusion of noncitizens from the jury might be challenged as unconstitutional on several grounds. Although some of the constitutional arguments are unlikely to be persuasive to the courts, I argue that there is room under the current doctrine for claims based on rights of the party before the jury — either under equal protection or the fair cross-section requirement of the Sixth Amendment — to succeed if properly framed.


Title of Document: THE EFFECT OF BODY POSITION ON DISTORTION PRODUCT OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS TESTING IN NEONATES Krista J. Heinlen Doctor of Audiology 2008 Directed By: Tracy Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Department of Hearing and Speech Science The current study investigated the effects of body position on the measurement of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in newborns. DPOAE measurements are commonly used to screen for hearing loss in newborn hearing screening programs conducted in hospitals nationwide. To measure DPOAEs, a small probe is placed in the external ear canal and a series of tone pairs is presented to the ear. The ear's acoustic response to these tones is measured to determine if the infant is at risk for a hearing loss. Research in adults has indicated effects of body position on DPOAE levels and noise floor levels (Driscoll et al., 2004). However, no information is available on the effects of body position on DPOAE testing in infants, despite the fact that newborn screening is one of the primary clinical applications of DPOAEs. Participants were 47 full-term newborns recruited from the well-baby nursery. DPOAEs were measured from the right ear while the infants were in each of three body positions: lying on the left side, supine, and head raised 45 degrees from supine. DPOAE levels, noise floor levels, DPOAE/noise levels, test time, and pass/fail rate were compared across body positions to determine whether there is an optimal body position for newborn hearing screenings that would minimize test time and/or increase specificity. No statistically significant differences were found in the various DPOAE measures or screening results across body positions or between genders. Significant effects of frequency on DPOAE levels and noise floor levels were similar to those expected based on the literature (e.g., Gorga et al., 1993). The results suggest that newborn hearing screenings on infants in the well-baby nursery can be conducted in different body positions without significantly influencing the screening outcome or measurements obtained. THE EFFECT OF BODY POSITION ON DISTORTION PRODUCT OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS TESTING IN NEONATES


Background: The number of reports of serious adverse effects and intoxication after the use of the new drug 4-fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) increases. At the Emergency Department of the OLVG-Oost Hospital in Amsterdam, an on-site drug test, the Triage TOX Drug Screen, is available to assist in a rapid diagnosis. In less urgent cases, an EMIT II Plus immunoassay is used to determine semiquantitatively the presence of drugs of abuse (DOA). The antibodies in these immunoassays are designed to detect classic DOA and its urinary metabolites. Amphetamine-like drugs that may cause serious toxicity or impairment may not cross-react with the available immunoassay kits, and therefore may stay undetected. The question arises as to whether 4-FA and paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) are detectable in the toxicological screening procedures commonly used for testing in urine. Methods: Synthetic urine was spiked with the drug under investigation to create spiking standards of 50, 100, 250, 500, 2500, and 5000 ng/mL. Urine drug screens were performed on the automated analyzer Biosite Triage MeterPro using the Triage TOX Drug Screen test and on a Siemens Drug Testing System Viva-E using the EMIT II Plus Ecstasy Assay and the EMIT II Plus Amphetamines Assay. Results: In this concentration range, the EMIT II Plus did not screen positive for PMMA, but there was some cross-reactivity for PMMA on the EMIT II Plus Ecstasy assay. The Triage TOX Drug Screen did test positive for PMMA at a concentration of 2500 ng/mL. The EMIT II Plus Amphetamines did test positive for 4-FA at a concentration of 5000 ng/mL, whereas the Ecstasy [3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)] assay only showed low cross-reactivity for 4-FA. The Triage TOX Drug Screen did not test positive for 4-FA. Conclusions: The available immunoassays lack sensitivity to detect 4-FA and PMMA in lower urine concentrations. Awareness of the fact that novel DOA may lead to false-negative urinary drug tests is of great importance.


Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) cleave glycosidic bonds in glycoconjugates, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides such as cellulose and various hemicelluloses. Mannan is a major group of hemicelluloses. In higher plants, they usually serve as storage carbohydrates in seeds and tubers or as structural polysaccharides cross-linking with cellulose/lignin in cell walls. In industrial fields, this renewable biomass component can be used in various areas such as production of biofuels and health-benefit manno-oligosaccharides; and mannan degrading enzymes, especially mannanases, are important molecular tools for controlling mannan polysaccharides properties in biomass conversion. In this thesis, the evolution, substrate specificity and subfamily classification of the most important GH family, i.e., glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5), are presented providing a powerful tool for exploring GH5 enzymes in search for enzymes with interesting properties for sustainable biomass conversion. Additionally, three GH5_7 mannanases from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtMan5-1, AtMan5-2 and AtMan5-6) were investigated in the present study. Bioinformatics tools, heterologous expression, and enzymology were applied in order to reveal the catalytic properties of the target enzymes, increase understanding of plant mannanase evolution, and evaluate their potential use in biomass conversion. This approach revealed: (1) AtMan5-1 exhibits mannan hydrolase/transglycosylase activity (MHT), (2) AtMan5-2 preferably degrades mannans with a glucomannan backbone, and (3) AtMan5-6 is a relatively thermotolerant enzyme showing high catalytic efficiency for conversion of glucomannan and galactomannan making this plant mannanase an interesting candidate for biotechnological applications of digesting various mannans. Moreover, these studies suggest an evolutionary diversification of plant mannanase enzymatic function.


The task of getting Shirley Bulah back and forth from Hockessin School No. 107, the local black elementary school, about seven miles west of Wilmington, Delaware, was arduous for her parents. Unlike the services provided local white children who attended School No. 29 and who were provided a bus by the state, there were no transportation services for black children in the community. On the eve of Shirley's third grade year in the fall of 1950, her father Fred Bulah protested what he believed was the arbitrary nature of the state's policy and complained to his wife Sarah that he did not see why there was not a bus for black children. She agreed and in her husband's name began a letter-writing campaign requesting transportation. (1) Unbowed by repeated denials from school officials, Bulah offered her own counter-proposal to the local supervisor of school transportation: since the bus passed her home twice on its daily rounds, it could pick Shirley up at the house and drop her off at the post office which was only two blocks from No. 107. "To take my child to school would not reroute the bus at all," she asserted. "Put her off at the post office and pick her up at the post office and bring her right back to my door. The bus is not full. So that isn't an excuse." (2) Still, school officials would not relent citing the state constitution which mandated segregation in education. (3) Undaunted by the negative responses, Bulah then approached Louis Redding, local attorney for the NAACP, and discussed the matter. "He said he wouldn't help me get a Jim Crow bus to take my girl to any Jim Crow School," reporter Carl Rowan recorded Bulah saying, "but if I was interested in sending her to an integrated school, why, then maybe he'd help." (4) She agreed to his terms and the letter writing continued. But this time with Redding's support, Bulah broadened her appeal, seeking admission to the all-white school and a bus for Shirley. In letters to the Board of Trustees for Hockessin School No. 29 and the State Board of Education, Bulah asserted: We believe that our citizenship entitles us to have for our child everything that the State Board of Education considers an "integral part of a school program." Moreover, all the facilities at School No. 29 are better than those at School No. 107 at Hockessin. Therefore ..., we are requesting that our seven year old daughter Shirley Bulah be admitted as a pupil at Hockessin School No. 29. (5) Her request denied once again, she filed suit on behalf of Shirley against the Delaware Board of Education with the support of her counsel. At the same time that Sarah Bulah was mounting her charge against segregation in Hockessin, four other groups of black parents from neighboring communities in Wilmington, Claymont, Newark, and New Castle were beginning their own challenges to the state's system of segregated secondary education with Redding's assistance. (6) There was only one free, four-year high school for black students in the state at the time, and students seeking a high school degree often had to make very long commutes or board in Wilmington. In each case, citing the burdens of travel imposed upon their children, the parents wrote school officials in their local communities seeking their children's admission to the schools for white children. (7) And in each case, school officials denied their requests, again citing the state constitution that mandated separate schools for black and white students. (8) They, too, filed suit against the Delaware Board of Education with Redding's assistance. This essay examines the activism of local people and the NAACP-sponsored litigation campaign to desegregate primary and secondary education in Delaware that became one of the companion cases to Brown v. Board of Education. My focus is on a competition of interests, as revealed through the complexities of the litigation process, that occurred between local people, civil rights attorneys, and jurists as local demands for equal services were translated into the language of law. …


Background: Providing anesthesia for pediatric patients undergoing congenital cardiac surgery is complex and requires profound knowledge and clinical experience. Prospective studies on best anesthetic management are missing, partially due to different standards. The aim of the present study was to survey the current standard practice in anesthetic management in pediatric cardiac surgical centers in Germany. Methods: All 78 cardiac surgical centers in Germany were reviewed for a congenital cardiac surgery program. Centers with an active program for congenital cardiac surgery were interviewed to participate in the present online questionnaire to assess their current anesthetic practice. Results: Twenty-seven German centers running an active program for congenital heart surgery were identified, covering more than 3,000 pediatric cardiac surgeries annually. Of these centers, 96.3% (26/27) participated in our survey. Standard induction agents were etomidate in 26.9% (7/26), propofol in 19.2% (5/26), a combination of benzodiazepines and ketamine in 19.2% (5/26), and barbiturates in 11.5% (3/26). General anesthesia was preferentially maintained using volatile agents, 61.5% (16/26), with sevoflurane being the most common volatile agent within this group, 81.2% (13/16). Intraoperative first-choice/first-line inotropic drug was epinephrine, 53.8% (14/26), followed by milrinone, 23.1% (6/26), and dobutamine 15.4% (4/26). Fast-track programs performing on-table extubation depending on the type of surgical procedure were established at 61.5% (16/26) of the centers. Conclusion: This study highlights the diversity of clinical standards in pediatric cardiac anesthesia for congenital cardiac surgery in Germany.


This study examined omissions, errors, and variability in lexical selection across simultaneous interpretations of President Obama's 2009 inaugural address, in three spoken languages (French, German, Japanese) and in American Sign Language (ASL). Microanalysis of how information conveyed by 39 source speech lexical items was transferred into the target languages assessed to what extent omissions and errors reflected differences in lexical structure (relative frequency of ready lexical correspondents and of shared cognates between the source and target languages; and, for ASL in particular, size of lexicon compared to English). The highest number of errors and omissions was found in ASL, which has the smallest documented vocabulary, fewest lexical correspondents, and no shared cognates with English. If omission/error rates in interpretation of lexical units are taken as a rough indicator of interpreting difficulty, results suggest that it is more difficult to interpret the speech into Japanese than into French or German and, by the same token, more difficult to interpret it into ASL than into the three spoken languages. These findings are consistent with the idea that language structures impact cognitive load during interpreting, and that interpreting effort increases in relation to the degree of difference between the source and target languages.


This work is a corpus-based study of the language of English up-market ("quality") newspaper editorials, covering the period 1900–1993. CENE, the Corpus of English Newspaper Editorials, was compiled for the purposes of this study and comprises editorials from the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, and The Times chosen to represent periods at ten-year intervals. The language of the editorials was investigated with regard to features that previous research had proved to be markers of such types of discourse as might be of interest to an investigation of the development of the language of newspaper editorials. To begin with, sets of features associated with the empirically defined dimensions of linguistic variation presented in Biber (1988) were compared across decades and newspapers; these dimensions included personal involvement and information density, narrative discourse, argumentative discourse, abstract discourse, and explicit reference. However, since the study showed that the features within each set often developed in diverging directions, the old sets were broken up and new ones formed on the basis of change and continuity as well as of shared linguistic/stylistic functions, specific for newspaper editorials, among the features involved. It then became apparent that, during the 20th century, the language of the editorials developed towards greater information density and lexical specificity and diversity but at the same time towards greater informality, in so far as the use of conversational features increased. The narrative quality of the editorials at the beginning of the century gradually decreased whereas their reporting and argumentative functions remained the same over the years. When the features were compared across the newspapers analyzed, a clear distinction was noticed between The Times and the Guardian. The language of the Guardian was the most informal and the most narrative while that of The Times was the least so. The information density was the highest in The Times and the lowest in the Guardian. In these respects, the Daily Telegraph took an intermediate position. The editorials of the Guardian were more argumentative than those of both the Daily Telegraph and The Times. As regards lexical specificity and diversity as well as sentence complexity, the Daily Telegraph scored the highest and The Times the lowest while the results obtained for the Guardian were in between the two.


System architectures are getting more and more complex. Thus, making strategic decisions when it comes to managing systems is difficult and needs proper support. One arising issue that managers need to take into account when changing their technology is security. No business is spared from threats in today's connected society. The repercussions of not paying this enough attention could result in loss of money and in case of cyber physical systems, also human lives. Thus, system security has become a high-level management issue. There are various methods of assessing system security. A common method that allows partial automation is attack graph based security analysis. This particular method has many variations and wide tool support. However, a complex technical analysis like the attack graph based one needs experts to run it and interpret the results. In this paper we study what kind of strategic decisions that need the support of threat analysis and how to improve an attack graph based architecture threat assessment method to fit this task. The needs are gathered from experts working with security management and the approach is inspired by an enterprise architecture language called ArchiMate. The paper contains a working example. The proposed approach aims to bridge the gap between technical analysis and business analysis making system architectures easier to manage.


What does religion mean to the individual? How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them? The individual's place within studies of religion has tended to be overlooked recently in favour of macro analyses. Religion and the Individual draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice and identity. Using original case studies and other work firmly placed in the empirical, contributors discuss what religious belief means to the individual. They examine how people embody what religion means to them through practice, considering the different meanings that people attach to religion and the social expressions of their personal understandings and the ways in which religion shapes how people see themselves in relation to others. This work is cross-cultural, with contributions from Asia, Europe and North America.


We offer a provocation – that we should stop appending 'Critical' to 'Security Studies'. Critical security as an academically and politically contested terrain is no longer productive of emancipatory alternatives. In making this claim, we seek to reflect upon the underlying dynamics which drove the boom in critical security studies in the 1990s and the early 2000s and its pale afterlife in the recent years. To support the argument empirically, the attention is paid to the role of emancipatory agency at the heart of critical security understandings. As we argue, the current state of 'critical' security theorising is no longer informed by the emancipatory impulse of the 1990s and the critical claims have been much damaged by the retreat of liberal internationalism and rise of non-emancipatory and post-emancipatory approaches. The critics that remain in the field thus articulate much lower horizons with regard to policy alternatives and conceptualise no clear agency of emancipatory possibilities. Ironically, 'critical' security theorists today are more likely to argue against transformative aspirations – rather than in favour of them.


A new theory of migration in butterflies is outlined and present concepts are examined. During the course of evolution many butterflies have become adapted in the larval stage to foodplants that occur in small and scattered localities, the distribution of which changes constantly. It is argued that whenever this happens selection might be expected to produce a butterfly which flies from one foodplant site to another. Further it is argued that while they were crossing areas devoid of foodplants selection would have favoured those individuals that flew at a constant angle to the sun. At first all angles to the sun would be represented equally in the population but each individual would pass on to its offspring a bias towards its own particular angle. It is suggested that the temperature gradient experienced by a butterfly dispersing in this way would constitute a marked selective pressure. This selective pressure would cause an increase in the number of individuals flying at certain angles and a decrease in the number flying at others. The effects of temperature on rate of development and fecundity were demonstrated for Pieris rapae and P. brassicae in the laboratory. The effects of seasonal and geographical temperature variations on these two species in the field were also demonstrated. Based on these results the relative selective advantage of each flight direction was calculated for different times of the year. As a result of these calculations it was predicted that P. rapae should fly at 159° to the sun until 27 August, when it should fly at 0°. For P. brassicae it was predicted that the first brood should fly at 159° and the second brood at 339°. Observations of flight direction of these two species from August of one year to October of the following year agreed well with these predictions. The observations of flight direction also showed that P. rapae , and probably also P. brassicae and Vanessa atalanta , were using the sun as the environmental clue by which they were orientating themselves. There was no compensation for the sun's movement during the day or season. Experiments showed that P. rapae is sensitive to photoperiod during the adult stage. It is by this means that the same individuals can change their flight direction from 159° to 0° at the most selectively advantageous time. A calculation based on the results of this investigation suggested that a return flight would be a selective disadvantage to both P. rapae and P. brassicae . Observation of these two species suggested that in neither does the southward movement function as a return flight, i.e. is equal in distance to the northward movement.


This paper describes an approach which uses the current Knowledge Management (KM) theory and technology to improve the dissemination of best practices among supply chain practitioners. Currently, a great deal of information on best practices is available to practitioners, but this potential 'information overload' can obscure possible unfavourable impacts of implementing so-called best practices in inappropriate contexts. This could well be because practitioners are simply unaware of these unfavourable impacts, but also because the information itself is largely unstructured. Consequently, practitioners face the time-consuming task of differentiating between the complexities of symptoms and problems associated with particular supply chain contexts. The research focuses on the management of supply chain knowledge with a particular emphasis on the quantification and dissemination of impacts from existing information on best practices. From this research, a multi-user collaborative working prototype is presented. In particular, a diagnosis module is designed and incorporated in the prototype to examine user-specified practices and to report back to the user concerning the possible impacts from these practices. This diagnosis module is then developed further to enable a formalised means to facilitate the generation and control of knowledge in supply chains.


This commentary advances thoughtful and imaginative alternatives to endemic complacency on matters of racial inequity in the field of art education. In a style that embraces cultural irony and a spirit of serious play, the Coalition for Racial Equity in the Arts and Education (crea+e) identifies three areas ripe for anti-racist intervention--discourses, embodiment, and form and proposes audacious new movements, like dropping beats, for racial justice in art education. The crea+e collective's form of writing is intentionally polyvocal and aesthetically eclectic in a way that mirrors the very nature of collective work in intellectual and social movements. Collectives need not erase or smooth out the different modulations of expression, thought, and experience to speak as a collective voice. Thus, through its content and form, the commentary aims to propel critical race discourse within the arts and arts education.


This Thesis describes X-ray crystallographic investigations on twelve compounds. The first three are the products of the acid condensation of ortho-aminobenzaldehyde, OAB, the so-called TAAB salts, based on the tetra-anhydro tetramer of OAB. Although known since 1926, their structures have remained controversial. Of the three salts, TAABH2(X)2, investigated, that of X = picrate was found to be ordered, whilst those of X = HSO4 and BF4 were disordered. The structure of the TAABH2 cation is saddle-shaped and based on a fused heptacyclic framework. In all the three salts the anion appears to be doubly hydrogen bonded to the cation, through hydrogen donors NH and CH. The results enable a controversy in the literature regarding the structures of these compounds to be resolved.

The self-condensation products of anthranilic acid, AA, also somewhat controversial in nature, have been investigated. The formation of a trimeric, and minor yields of a tetrameric derivative, is confirmed. The crystal structures of the tetramer and of two solvates of the trimer (CHCI3 and CH3CN.H2O) were determined. These two compounds, also, have a fused heptacyclic double saddle-shape overall structure. Their structures are compared with those of the TAAB salts.

Related types of hydrogen bonding are surveyed, and the results found in this Thesis are put in a wider context.

The structure of the copper complex Cu(TAABH2 ) of reduced TAAB derivative TAABH4, a 16-membered tetra-azamacrocycle has been investigated. It, too, has an overall saddle-shape, but this is considerably flatter than those of the TAAB salts and AA derivatives.

 Two metal complexes (CuII and Felll) of a 14-membered tribenzotetra-azamacrocycle were investigated. In the case of the iron compound. X-ray crystallography showed that an unexpected, novel oxygenation reaction of the ethylene bridge had taken place to give an a,B-diketo group. The purpose-made copper diketo-analogue was examined for comparative purposes. This derivative, in contrast to that based on TAABH4 , has an almost square planar co-ordination around the copper atom. A compound, thought to have been the free parent ligand of these metal complexes, was also investigated. The data set was poor, but it could be shown that the compound was acyclic, contained an extra ortho-phenylene diamine residue, and was probably hydrogen bonded.

The crystal structures of two metal complexes based on Cull and Felll of two dibrominated Schiff bases were investigated. The dibrominated copper salen derivative is monomeric, in contrast to the unbrominated compound, which is dimeric. The Felll derivative, like the earlier-mentioned oxidised tetra-azamacrocyclic iron derivative, has a dimeric structure, with the iron atoms linked by a p(?)-oxo-bridge.

The structures of the three copper and two iron derivatives are discussed and compared.

Three themes emerge from the twelve structures described in this Thesis: (i) the structural importance of hydrogen bonding, (ii) the inadequacy of a single valence bond formulation to explain the observed X-ray crystallographic results, and the need to invoke resonance forms, mainly ortho-quinonoid, and (iii) the versatile role of nitrogen in organic and metal organic heterocyclic structures.


A postpartum programme of sterilization was initiated by private practitioners at the Paarl Hospital in 1968. The unit was later taken over by the University of Stellenbosch and a total of 4704 procedures had been completed by the end of 1983. Most of the doctors trained in the method are now in private practice. The sterilization-to-delivery ratio of 1 in 5 indicates that +/- 200 000 postpartum sterilizations would be requested in South Africa, if the Paarl figures are projected to the rest of the country. The most effective method of mobilizing our medical manpower would be a fair fee per procedure. South Africa cannot afford the present continued burden of unwanted and unplanned births.


Nervous marketing with the activation of the attention of individuals, subconsciously moves people's minds towards the advertised brand and neutralizes involuntary behaviors. This ability is essential for rational functions. In this study, the main goal is to see understandable changes in the EEG signal through exposure-free advertising, during the neurological marketing. Advertising is on a brand and tablet brand and is aimed at promoting a brand. In this regard, images of the logo of the brands are displayed in two stages in succession (between the two stages, the ad is displayed) and simultaneously, the brain signal is recorded. After the signal is prepared, features are extracted in three frequency, time-frequency and non-linear sections, and the optimal extraction algorithm and classification-based feature are characterized by the optimal characteristics and given to the classifier, in accordance with Objectives given to it determine which subject is in the classification. According to a questionnaire defined at the beginning and the end of the protocol, four classes are determined (positive effect of the advertisement, somewhat effective, neutral effect and negative impact). After reviewing the results, it became clear that advertisements had attracted more people's attention than advertised brands. After implementing the protocol and comparing the results of the questionnaire and the classifiers, the project was performed with an acceptable error of 4.78% (ann) and 8.37% (svm).


Mobility management in Wireless Sensor Networks is considered to be of an up most importance for today's critical applications. In this paper, we present a soft mobility management solution where the mobility procedures are supported by fuzzy logic techniques. Our solution was designed and implemented to support the movement of a mobile worker inside an oil refinery area. The results show that the proposed system provides high reliability and control over the handover actions.


The Anabaptist Amish, Hutterite and Mennonite peoples trace their origins to the Reformation. Although they share certain beliefs, such as adult baptism and the separation of church and state, each group is culturally unique. The Hutterite and Amish are highly fertile and their populations exhibit stable rates of growth. These demographic characteristics reflect communal living among the Hutterites and labor intensive farming practices among the Amish. The Mennonites are the most receptive Anabaptist group to outside socioeconomic influences and provide a demographic contrast to the more conservative Amish and Hutterites. Demographic data collected during a study of aging in Mennonite population samples from Goessel and Meridian, Kansas, 1980, and Henderson, Nebraska, 1981, formed the basis of a cohort analysis in order to assess fertility change over time. Completed family size has decreased significantly in all three communities since 1870. Since the early 1900's the mean age of the mother at first birth has fluctuated but the mean age of mother at the birth of the last child is decreasing significantly for the communities of Goessel and Henderson, thus effectively shortening the reproductive span. The pattern is somewhat different for Meridian, the most conservative of the three communities.


The present PhD thesis exploits the design skills I have been improving since my master thesis' research. A brief description of the chapters' content follows.

Chapter 1: the simulation of a complete front–end is a very complex problem and, in particular, is the basis upon which the prediction of the overall performance of the system is possible. By means of a commercial EM simulation tool and a rigorous nonlinear/EM circuit co–simulation based on the Reciprocity Theorem, the above–mentioned prediction can be achieved and exploited for wireless links characterization. This will represent the theoretical basics of the entire present thesis and will be supported by two RF applications.

Chapter 2: an extensive dissertation about Magneto–Dielectric (MD) materials will be presented, together with their peculiar characteristics as substrates for antenna miniaturization purposes. A designed and tested device for RF on–body applications will be described in detail. Finally, future research will be discussed.

Chapter 3: this chapter will deal with the issue regarding the exploitation of renewable energy sources for low–energy consumption devices. Hence the problem related to the so–called energy harvesting will be tackled and a first attempt to deploy THz solar energy in an innovative way will be presented and discussed. Future research will be proposed as well.

Chapter 4: graphene is a very promising material for devices to be exploited in the RF and THz frequency range for a wide range of engineering applications, including those ones marked as the main research goal of the present thesis. This chapter will present the results obtained during my research period at the National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT) in Bucharest, Romania. It will concern the design and manufacturing of antennas and diodes made in graphene–based technology for detection/rectification purposes.


Summary The Zika virus has spread rapidly in the Americas since its first identification in Brazil in early 2015. Prenatal Zika virus infection has been linked to adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, most notably microcephaly and other serious brain anomalies. To determine whether Zika virus infection during pregnancy causes these adverse outcomes, we evaluated available data using criteria that have been proposed for the assessment of potential teratogens. On the basis of this review, we conclude that a causal relationship exists between prenatal Zika virus infection and microcephaly and other serious brain anomalies. Evidence that was used to support this causal relationship included Zika virus infection at times during prenatal development that were consistent with the defects observed; a specific, rare phenotype involving microcephaly and associated brain anomalies in fetuses or infants with presumed or confirmed congenital Zika virus infection; and data that strongly support biologic plausibility, including the identification of Zika virus in the brain tissue of affected fetuses and infants. Given the recognition of this causal relationship, we need to intensify our efforts toward the prevention of adverse outcomes caused by congenital Zika virus infection. However, many questions that are critical to our prevention efforts remain, including the spectrum of defects caused by prenatal Zika virus infection, the degree of relative and absolute risks of adverse outcomes among fetuses whose mothers were infected at different times during pregnancy, and factors that might affect a woman's risk of adverse pregnancy or birth outcomes. Addressing these questions will improve our ability to reduce the burden of the effects of Zika virus infection during pregnancy.


Abstract This article analyzes a series of photographs taken by the Brazilian artist Carlos Vergara between 1972 and 1975 that picture the Rio de Janiero-based carnival bloco Cacique de Ramos, whose characteristic black-and-white costumes fantastically approximate indigenous Amerindian attire. Taken at the height of the military dictatorship, when the pressure to conform to a singular nationalist identity was extreme, the photographs probe the potentialities and desire for group identification within a structure of horizontal rather than hierarchical affiliation. The essay argues that the photographs offer of speculative paradigm of intersubjective identification: a mapping of difference from deep within what the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro called a "passion of the same." This paradigm is contiguous, yet distinct from the contemporary concept of "the multitude," and suggests how an opposition of self and other might be transformed into a transversal operation of different-equal-same.


A common phenomenon in the dissimilar joints is the presence of brittle compounds in the joining interface region. The brittle phases can decrease by introduction of interlayers in the joining interface, such as silicon, that inhibits the formation of Al3Ti and AlTi3 phases in joining process between titanium and aluminium alloys. In the present work, the joining of titanium and aluminium alloys have been carried out using a Yb:fiber laser, considering the prior silicon film deposited on titanium alloy interface by DC magnetron sputtering. Butt joint conditions were maintained constant: laser average power, process speed and beam positioning along the interface joining toward aluminium alloy (1200 W, 3.0 m/min and 0.3 mm, respectively). Metallographic analyses were carried out on the cross-section joint by optical and electronic microscopies. When the melted aluminium alloy wet the solid-state titanium alloy, a more restrict compound layer was formed in the joining interface. EDS line scanning in the joining interface showed a reduction of compound layer thickness, considering the silicon as interlayer, reaching the mean value of 3 μm, i.e., up to five times thinner if compared to joining without silicon during the process.


Over the last century, developed
countries have been successful in enhancing maternal health and reducing
Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). By 2018, MMR across OECD countries and World
Bank Group Regions have converged towards very low levels, averaging more than 5
deaths per 100,000 live births. The United States has become an outlier among
the developed countries in maternal deaths and compares unfavorably to a number
of poorer countries where the ratio has declined. In 2017, the US ranked worst
in MMR among the 39 industrialized nations. United States has experienced
almost a 142 percent increase in MMR from 1987-2018. According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year in the US, more than 700
women die due to the pregnancy or childbirth-related complications, with 60
percent of these deaths being preventable. Within the US, MMR varies
considerably, leaving large disparities across states as well as between all racial
groups. This research study aims to understand the interplay of spatial and
racial impacts on the variation of maternal mortality ratios within the US. The
paper estimates Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Spatial Lag Models for MMR
using cross-sectional US state data for 2012-2017, taken from CDC. The results
show that the dominant root causes of high maternal mortality differ between
black and white women.


Two-dimensional graphitic carbon is a new material with many emerging applications, and studying its chemical properties is an important goal. Here, we reported a new phenomenon--the enzymatic oxidation of a single layer of graphitic carbon by horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In the presence of low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (∼40 μM), HRP catalyzed the oxidation of graphene oxide, which resulted in the formation of holes on its basal plane. During the same period of analysis, HRP failed to oxidize chemically reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The enzymatic oxidation was characterized by Raman, ultraviolet-visible, electron paramagnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Computational docking studies indicated that HRP was preferentially bound to the basal plane rather than the edge for both graphene oxide and RGO. Owing to the more dynamic nature of HRP on graphene oxide, the heme active site of HRP was in closer proximity to graphene oxide compared to RGO, thereby facilitating the oxidation of the basal plane of graphene oxide. We also studied the electronic properties of the reduced intermediate product, holey reduced graphene oxide (hRGO), using field-effect transistor (FET) measurements. While RGO exhibited a V-shaped transfer characteristic similar to a single layer of graphene that was attributed to its zero band gap, hRGO demonstrated a p-type semiconducting behavior with a positive shift in the Dirac points. This p-type behavior rendered hRGO, which can be conceptualized as interconnected graphene nanoribbons, as a potentially attractive material for FET sensors.


The tangible, material infrastructures of the cinematic experience are at the center of my research into early cinema history in South Asia. Scholarship over the last two decades reveals that the cinema rapidly found its place, its meaning, its relevance in South Asia by being incorporated into the complex folds of nationalist politics and existing visual and narrative traditions. Much of this research emerged in the 1990s, most prominently in the Delhi-based art-historical Journal of Arts and Ideas ( JAI).In retrospect, the aim of the JAI scholarship was to avoid a hard technological determinism that might stress the cinema's radical technological newness and its transformative power in Indian popular culture. The JAI scholarship showed instead that an already richly constituted field of visual practices preceded the cinema's arrival and shaped its cultural meanings and socio-political functions. Personnel and iconography crossed over freely between the painted, printed, photographic, and moving image, between urban commercial theater and other proto-cinematic arts such as the Kalighat scroll paintings. An already inter-ocular field shaped the cinema, not the other way around. This is a salutary and necessary cultural turn in film.1However, I think a cultural history of the cinema, left standing alone, risks letting technological determinism in through the back door. New technologies are not technically neutral apparatuses. Their material and operational specificity gives rise to practices, infrastructures, and forms of expertise that are crucial to the cinema's commercial and cultural viability. The cinema may have been a transplant Sudhir Mahadevan from elsewhere, but, more often than not, the technology and its attendant infrastructures had to be refashioned.Examples of this process of reinvention can include the film prints themselves; the cameras, projectors, and other technological paraphernalia; and the theatrical space. So exhibitors in Bengal, without the capital to build permanent theaters, made the cinema itinerant by setting up tent shows. They widely used pirated and "junk prints," prints of films that had already undergone extensive circulation and were degraded in quality. And projectors and other technical equipment were borrowed, purchased secondhand, or refurbished.How do we reconstruct this history of practices? Actually, makeshiftcinemas have continued to operate on the margins of permanent exhibition outlets, much like their early twentieth century counterparts. The most obvious example would be the "bioscopewallah," the picture show man. Elsewhere, I have described the extent to which the traveling showman retrofits hand-cranked projectors, often from the silent era, with secondhand optical readers, lenses used by astrologers, and handmade speakers, all fitted in a large wooden box with peepholes on its side, carted from one location to the next.2 Prints are decrepit celluloid reels rejected by and salvaged from film studios and strung together into a collage. Some bioscopes use photographic images wound on a roll which appearance is uncannily similar to pre- and proto-cinematic devices, such as the panoramic examiner used in nineteenth century Calcutta for visual amusement. In Delhi, I found a colorful bioscope apparatus. Later, a friend sent me a picture of the same bioscope, but this time plugged into a DVD player with a megaphone speaker on top and a tangle of electric wires behind. This survival of antique methods is not restricted to the cinema. Fairground photographs use manual exposure cameras dating from the 1870s and paper negatives to fix, develop, print, and tint their pictures on the spot. The same assemblage can be updated to digital photography with portable, battery-charged digital printers, as is the case in some tourist venues in India. So here we have an assemblage that is partly tangible and material (the equipment), partly intangible and conceptual (the expertise), and partly performed and gestural (the enactment of the expertise). …


Bruce Zagaris provides a highly useful summary of the administration and tax treaty issues bearing on U.S. taxation of foreign source income in developing countries. In U.S. Tax Treatment of Foreign Source Income Earned in Developing Countries: Administration and Tax Treaty Issues,1 Zagaris focuses on, but does not limit his analysis to, the various means available to the U.S. government to obtain information for litigating criminal and civil tax cases. Zagaris also addresses the current status of provisions aimed at obtaining assistance in the collection of taxes and in the use of extradition in tax matters. He concludes by calling for improved protection for taxpayer rights and for incentives to induce developing countries to cooperate with U.S. goals in these areas. Zagaris' Article is all the more useful and interesting because it deals with subjects that are seldom brought together in one place for review. These subjects often escape the attention of tax experts, except to the extent they may be called upon to apply some specific rule or rules in particular factual and legal circumstances. Zagaris' approach offers a broad, general description of international tax administration in which individual developments are situated and can be assessed. For all of this, we should be grateful. As a designated commentator on Zagaris' Article, however, I believe I am obliged to adopt an objective, even critical, eye, with a view to identifying points that could usefully be added, amplified, or rounded out in the picture he has painted for us. It is with that obligation in mind that I now address the features of the Article that seem to be most worthy of comment. There are three points that I would make: (1) the Article does not deal with important developments affecting tax information exchange agreements and, in particular, the implications of a basic change in legal standard set forth in the Model Convention on Exchange of Information drafted by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD); (2) the Article does not offer concrete suggestions as to what the United States should do in the important areas of tax administration it describes; and (3) while situating individual developments in a broad framework, the Article does not explore the context in which one should approach the entire subject. I. CRITIQUE OF CONTENT A. Developments Affecting Tax Information Exchange Agreements One can certainly excuse Zagaris for failing to deal with the OECD Model Convention on Exchange of Documentation as such, for the OECD is an organization comprised of developed countries. In contrast, both this Symposium2 and Zagaris' Article focus on the developing world. Most of the Article deals only with developing countries of the Caribbean and Latin America, but perhaps it is largely within that geographical vicinity that relevant activity has taken place in recent years. Most of the remaining activity has concerned, in one way or another, Switzerland and Luxembourg, countries that are hardly developing nations and whose absence here is understandable. The problem is not the absence of developed countries in Article but, rather, the fact that the OECD potentially changes the rules of the game for everyone. The Model Exchange of Information Agreement (OECD Model Agreement)3 requires that a request for information depend on the ability of the requesting State, and not the requested State, to obtain the information. This is a change of great significance because, under the former standard, the requested State could refuse to supply information on the ground that its domestic laws did not allow the information to be obtained or supplied to domestic tax authorities.4 In domestic jurisdictions having strong laws in force that impede tax authorities from obtaining information, the "requested State" test gave rise to a complete defense even when there was a tax treaty or an information exchange agreement in place. …


In this investigation, chemistry content was taught in-context with real world examples in order to determine the effects of student learning and attitudes toward chemistry. Participants included one class of four high school students in an advanced chemistry course. The treatment included three in-context units including the topics of Gasoline, Biofuels, and Plastics. Student learning was assessed using Pre and PostKnowledge Probes, Focused Listing, and Daily Diagnostic Learning Logs. Student attitude changes were assessed using surveys, interviews, and observations during small group discussions. Results indicated that student learning was positively impacted as all Post-test outcomes had an average increase of over 45%. Student interviews showed that attitudes were positively impacted as all students said they liked chemistry, and after the treatment, found enjoyment in knowing how the world works.


Although the national decline in coronary heart disease mortality began earlier and was steeper in women relative to men, recent data suggest that the decline in women has slowed. The purpose of this study was to document sex-specific trends in coronary disease morbidity and mortality for the period 1980-1991 in two southeastern New England communities, and to determine whether temporal trends have been similar in men and women aged 35-74 years. Analyses were based on 6,282 validated in-hospital and out-of-hospital coronary disease events ascertained by the retrospective surveillance system of the Pawtucket Heart Health Program. Total (fatal plus non-fatal) coronary disease rates remained stable during this period. The flat trend was the result of an increase in non-fatal hospitalizations and a simultaneous decrease in both in-hospital and out-of-hospital mortality. The decline in fatal coronary disease was steeper for men, for both in- and out-of-hospital mortality, although the sex difference was statistically significant only for out-of-hospital deaths. In-hospital case-fatality for validated coronary disease declined for both men and women. The steeper decline in coronary disease mortality for men suggests the need for more information regarding sex differential trends in prevention, diagnosis, classification, and treatment.


We have presented data showing that IFN-beta at 1,000 U/mouse i.v. inhibits the generation of Ts-mediated tolerance to dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) and abrogates the transfer of suppression by Ts. We have also presented data showing that IFN-beta up to 10,000 U/mouse i.v. has no adverse effect on sensitization and elicitation. IFN-beta appears to be a suitable agent for evaluation as an adjunct in the immunotherapy of Ts inducing tumors.


Twenty years of practising codecision offers a welcome opportunity to pause and consider the structures, processes and policy impacts arising from this procedure and allows for a fine-grained analysis of the operation of codecision and its effects upon the various institutional actors. More specifically, it allows us to examine whether the European Parliament's (EP) role as a co-equal legislator has affected policy outcomes and patterns of democratic legitimacy within the wider political system of the European Union (EU). The editors of this collection are to be congratulated for collecting research results which differ greatly in their empirical focus and in the theories and methodologies used. They subject the diverse contributions to a set of common, important questions, i.e., how has the introduction of codecision affected political decision-making in the EU and to what extent has codecision contributed to a strengthening of the democratic legitimacy of EU decision-making?


Abstract : Innovation has become a very popular word lately. Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced the Defense Innovation Initiative about a year ago. At about the same time, the draft Better Buying Power 3.0 set of initiatives, focusing on technical excellence and innovation, were published for comment. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work has led the effort to develop an innovative Third Offset Strategy. Most recently, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced the opening of the Defense Innovation UnitExperimental, or DIUX, in Californias Silicon Valley. President Obama has led the administrations successful opening of several Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, most of which are sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD). And more institutes are on the way.


Although existing laboratory research shows that software is often used inefficiently, relatively little is known about (a) how efficiently software is used in a real work environment and (b) the factors that influence the efficiency of individual users. The present research consists of an ethnographic investigation of software use in an office setting. The study occurred over a four-week period and consisted of observations, in-depth interviews, and an online survey of employees at a large energy company in Houston, Texas. Employees frequently used their software inefficiently and when they were efficient, were not consistent with their efficient use of software. They tended to approach using and learning software programs differently depending on whether the program was associated with their area of expertise. For those programs associated with their expertise, they were more likely to seek out learning new and more efficient methods of using the software for doing their job. However, for other software they would learn as little about it as possible, even if they spent most of their working day on the latter type of software. Furthermore, employees consistently reported that, regardless of the complexity of the program, they primarily learned to use programs by exploring the interface. Through this exploration, they would learn enough about the program (or would reach a sufficient level of knowledge) to do their job. Any knowledge of alternative features or efficient methods of using these features would subsequently be learned through peers.


For fans of pro soccer in Mexico City, the four most popular teams represent distinct identities that embody such attributes as political power, nationalism, and working-class values. One of these teams, the Pumas, is associated with youthfulness, and its equally youthful fans take pride in the fact that their heroes have not yet been corrupted by corporate or political interests. This ethnographic study examines Puma fans? understanding of the ideal that the team represents, considers the practices they employ to express and sometimes contradict this ideal, and reveals how soccer fandom in contemporary Mexico has emerged as a nexus of tensions among competing visions of state and society.Roger Magazine takes readers inside Mexico's soccer stadiums to explore young men's participation in struggles over the future of that country's urban society. His firsthand observations of the fan clubslas porras?yield a unique inside look at confrontations in the stands over group organization, particularly at the emergence of rebel segments within the clubs. His study offers a close-up look at ground-level struggles over social organization in contemporary urban Mexico, showing how young male fans both blindly reproduce and consciously manipulate images of violence and disorder derived from national myths about typical urban Mexican men.Golden and Blue Like My Heart offers a new way of understanding the dynamics of fandom while shedding new light on larger social processes and youth culture in Mexico. And with its insight into soccer culture, politico-economic transition, and masculinity, it has important and wide-reaching implications for all of Latin America.


Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs) require many processing elements (PEs) and a configuration memory unit (configuration cache) for reconfiguration of its PE array. Although this structure is meant for high performance and flexibility, it consumes significant power. Specially, power consumption by configuration cache is explicit overhead compared to other types of intellectual property (IP) cores. Reducing power is very crucial for CGRA to be more competitive and reliable processing core in embedded systems. In this paper, we propose a reusable context pipelining (RCP) architecture to reduce power-overhead caused by reconfiguration. It shows that the power reduction can be achieved by using the characteristics of loop pipelining, which is a multiple instruction stream, multiple data stream (MIMD)-style execution model. RCP efficiently reduces power consumption in configuration cache without performance degradation. Experimental results show that the proposed approach saves much power even with reduced configuration cache size. Power reduction ratio in the configuration cache and the entire architecture are up to 86.33% and 37.19%, respectively, compared to the base architecture.


The Paleogene neritic sedimentary succession in Jaisalmer Basin is correlated with the stratigraphic record in the Indus basin, Pakistan. In a number of exploratory oil wells drilled westward (basinward) in Jaisalmer the shelf stratigraphic record is more complete than in outcropping sections to the east. In the Tanot-1 well (Oil India Limited) Paleocene sandstone, marl, clay, glauconitic limestone and shale unconformably overlie upper Cretaceous strata. Zone P4 is recognized in about 36m of arenaceous and calcareous clays and marl, which transgresses the lithostratigraphic boundary between the Ranikot Formation and the succeeding Laki Formation. Planktonic foraminifers in Zone P4 and lower Zone P5 are found only in the −80 ASTM fraction of the residue. Rich planktonic foraminiferal assemblages are found in the maroon coloured shale, clay, limestone and marl beds 42m above the base of Zone P5 and this level is characterized by the common occurrence of Morozovella rajasthanensis n. sp., Globanomalina luxorensis morphotypes with their typical slightly asymmetric aperture along with Acarinina africana, A. sibaiyaensis and Morozovella allisonensis morphotypes. Morozovellids with weak ornamentation and slightly biconvex axially compressed tests are also present at this level that is marked by the abundance of acarininids. This biotic evidence of the presence of planktonic foraminiferal taxa typically related to the global Paleocene/Eocene boundary warming event (PETM) is recorded about 39m above the base of Zone P5, which is 102m thick in the Tanot-1 well. The presence of Subzone P5b is indicated by the occurrence of excursion-taxa namely Acarinina sibaiyaensis, A. africana and Morozovella allisonensis. In the inner-middle shelf M. rajasthanensis n. sp., a morphological variant of M. acuta with larger number of chambers in the last whorl, weak muricocarina and umbilical-shoulder ornamentation commonly present above the barren clay beds (1005m) appeared during the PETM and characterizes the Subzone P5b (Berggren and Ouda 2003). The Paleocene-Eocene planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy as proposed by Berggren and Ouda, (2003) is applicable to the Indus Basin.


Abstract. Accurate measurements of the horizontal and vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosol particle optical properties are key for a better
understanding of their impact on the climate. Here we present the results of a measurement campaign based on instrumented flights over north-eastern Spain. We measured vertical profiles of size-segregated atmospheric particulate matter (PM) mass concentrations and multi-wavelength scattering and absorption coefficients in the western Mediterranean basin (WMB). The campaign took place during typical summer conditions, characterized by the development of a vertical multi-layer structure, under both summer regional pollution episodes (REGs) and Saharan dust events (SDEs). REG patterns in the region form under high insolation and scarce precipitation in summer, favouring layering of highly aged fine-PM strata in the lower few kma.s.l. The REG scenario prevailed during the entire measurement campaign. Additionally, African dust outbreaks and plumes from northern African wildfires influenced the study area. The vertical profiles of climate-relevant intensive optical parameters such as single-scattering albedo (SSA); the asymmetry parameter (g); scattering, absorption and SSA Ångström exponents (SAE, AAE and SSAAE); and PM mass scattering and absorption cross sections (MSC and MAC) were derived from the measurements. Moreover, we compared the aircraft measurements with those performed at two GAW–ACTRIS (Global Atmosphere Watch–Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases) surface measurement stations located in north-eastern Spain, namely Montseny (MSY; regional background) and Montsec d'Ares (MSA; remote site). Airborne in situ measurements and ceilometer ground-based remote measurements identified aerosol air masses at altitudes up to more than
3.5 kma.s.l. The vertical profiles of the optical properties markedly changed according to the prevailing atmospheric scenarios. During
SDE the SAE was low along the profiles, reaching values < 1.0 in the dust layers. Correspondingly, SSAAE was negative, and AAE reached values up
to 2.0–2.5, as a consequence of the UV absorption increased by the presence of the coarse dust particles. During REG, the SAE increased to > 2.0, and the asymmetry parameter g was rather low (0.5–0.6) due to the prevalence of fine PM, which was characterized by an AAE close to 1.0, suggesting a fossil fuel combustion origin. During REG, some of the layers featured larger AAE (> 1.5), relatively low SSA at 525 nm (< 0.85) and high MSC (> 9 m2 g−1) and were associated with the influence of PM from wildfires. Overall, the SSA and MSC near the ground ranged around 0.85 and 3 m2 g−1, respectively, and increased at higher altitudes, reaching values above 0.95 and up to 9 m2 g−1. The PM, MSC and MAC were on average larger during REG compared to SDE due to the larger scattering and absorption efficiency of fine PM compared with dust. The SSA and MSC had quite similar vertical profiles and often both increased with height indicating the progressive shift toward PM with a larger scattering efficiency with altitude. This study contributes to our understanding of regional-aerosol vertical distribution and optical properties in the WMB, and the results will be useful for improving future climate projections and remote sensing or satellite retrieval algorithms.


This essay addresses how current U.S. copyright law responds to new forms of distribution of copyrighted works, through the emerging right to control digital access to copyrighted works, as set out in ? 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When the exploitation of works shifts from having copies to directly experiencing the content of the work, the author's ability to control access becomes crucial. Indeed, in the digital environment, without an access right, it is difficult to see how authors can maintain the exclusive Right to their Writings that the Constitution authorizes Congress to secure. Even if Congress may qualify the right's exclusivity by imposing a variety of compulsory licenses, or outright exemptions, it is one thing to introduce specific and narrow gaps in coverage, quite another to design a system that pervasively fails to afford meaningful exclusivity. The latter course would be inconsistent with the constitutional design. Thus, the exclusive Right today is not only a copy-right, but an access right, and the Essay explores the implications of that claim. It does not contend that the access right will or should supplant copy-right. On the contrary, the claim is that the access right is an integral part of copyright, and therefore should be subject to exceptions and limitations analogous to those that constrain copy-right. Just as a 21st-century copyright regime that did not regulate access would be unrealistic and incomplete, so a regime that limits all availability to works to the copyright owner's terms would undermine the progress of Science that the author's exclusive Right is intended to promote. Without an appropriate fair use limitation, the access right under ? 1201 becomes more than a necessary and integral component of copyright law. It becomes instead an Uber-copyright law, rigid as to specified exceptions, and therefore freed of further inquiry into the balance of copyright owner rights and user privileges that the fair use doctrine ? and the general structure of copyright law ? require.


This paper concerns the linear stability of a layer of viscous magnetic fluid flow down an inclined plane under the influence of gravity and a tangential magnetic field. The stability of a magnetic fluid in a three‐dimensional space is first reduced to the stability of the flow in a two‐dimensional space by using Squire's transformation. The stability of long waves and short waves is analyzed asymptotically. The stability of waves with intermediate length is obtained numerically. It is found that the magnetic field has a stabilizing effect on both the surface and shear modes and can be used to postpone the instability of such flows.


Research into FL/EFL macro-reading (the effect of the broader context of reading) has been little explored in spite of its importance in the FL/EFL reading programmes. This study was designed to build on previous work by explaining in more depth the influence of the socio-educational reading environment in an Arab university (Al-Fateh University in Tripoli, Libya) - as reported by students, upon these students' reading ability in English and Arabic (particularly the former). Certain aspects of the lecturers' reading habits and attitudes and classroom operation were also investigated. Written cloze tests in English and Arabic and self-administered questionnaires were given to 125 preliminary-year undergraduates in three faculties of Al-Fateh University on the basis of their use of English as a medium of instruction (one representing the Arts' stream and two representing the Science stream). Twenty two lecturers were interviewed and observed by an inventory technique along with twenty other preliminary-year students. Factor analysis and standard multiple regression technique were among the statistical methods used to analyse the main data. The findings demonstrate a significant relationship between reading ability in English and the reading individual and environmental variables - as defined in the study. A combination of common and different series of such predictors were found accountable for the variation (43% for the first year English specialist; 48% for the combined Medicine student sample) in the English reading tests. Also found was a significant, though not very large, relationship between reading ability in Arabic and the reading environment. Non-statistical but objective analyses, based on the present data, also revealed an overall association between English reading performance and an important number of reading environmental variables - where many `poor' users of the reading environment (particularly the academic one) obtained low scores in the English cloze tests. Accepting the limitations of a single study, it is nevertheless clear that the reading environment at the University is in need of improvement and that students' use of it also requires better guidance and training in how to use it effectively. Suggestions are made for appropriate educational changes.


A thorough understanding of the molecular details of the interactions between bacteria and host are critical to ultimately prevent disease. Recent technological advances allow simultaneous analysis of host and bacterial protein and metabolic profiles from a single small tissue sample to provide insight into pathogenesis. We used the chinchilla model of human otitis media to determine, for the first time, the most expansive delineation of global changes in protein and metabolite profiles during an experimentally induced disease. After 48 h of infection with nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae, middle ear tissue lysates were analyzed by high-resolution quantitative two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Dynamic changes in 105 chinchilla proteins and 66 metabolites define the early proteomic and metabolomic signature of otitis media. Our studies indicate that establishment of disease coincides with actin morphogenesis, suppression of inflammatory mediators, and bacterial aerobic respiration. We validated the observed increase in the actin-remodeling complex, Arp2/3, and experimentally showed a role for Arp2/3 in nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae invasion. Direct inhibition of actin branch morphology altered bacterial invasion into host epithelial cells, and is supportive of our efforts to use the information gathered to modify outcomes of disease. The twenty-eight nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae proteins identified participate in carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, redox homeostasis, and include cell wall-associated metabolic proteins. Quantitative characterization of the molecular signatures of infection will redefine our understanding of host response driven developmental changes during pathogenesis. These data represent the first comprehensive study of host protein and metabolite profiles in vivo in response to infection and show the feasibility of extensive characterization of host protein profiles during disease. Identification of novel protein targets and metabolic biomarkers will advance development of therapeutic and diagnostic options for treatment of disease.


The safety of physically disabled persons must be considered during the initial developmental stages of a rehabilitative or assistive device to prevent death or injury. Thus, in the research eld of biomedical engineering, researchers specializing in physical assistive system development must take the initiative to ensure user safety. This paper proposes methods to plan and implement safety measures for physical assistive systems, using a wheelchair-compatible system with sit-to-stand (STS) movement support as an example. To promote daily independent active exercise and motor learning with progressively less assistance from specialists, the support system does not require the attachment of any device or sensor onto the user's body. To ensure safety, we rst identi ed the possible dangers of injury or other potential hazards involved in STS movement support. Next, we developed safety measures to prevent all the identi ed dangers of injury and hazards. The steps taken to develop these safety measures were submitted for ethical review. Finally, we con rmed the effectiveness of the safety measures developed by conducting fundamental and realistic experiments. The safety measures described in this paper were developed for the STS support system, but the method used to identify the required safety measures can be implemented in the development of any physical assistive system. The proposed method will help engineers to improve the safety of rehabilitative and assistive devices.


In many developed countries, racial and ethnic minorities are paid, on average, less than the native white majority. While racial wage differentials are partly the result of immigration, they also persist for racial minorities of second and further generations. Eliminating racial wage differentials and promoting equal opportunities among citizens with different racial backgrounds is an important social policy goal. Inequalities resulting from differences in opportunities lead to a waste of talent for those who cannot reach their potential and to a waste of resources if some people cannot contribute fully to society.