Thousands of mothers are at risk of transmitting mitochondrial diseases to their offspring each year, with the most severe form of these diseases being fatal [1]. With no cure, transmission prevention is the only current hope for decreasing the disease incidence. Current methods of prevention rely on low mutant maternal mitochondrial DNA levels, while those with levels close to or above threshold (>60%) are still at a very high risk of transmission [2]. Two novel approaches may offer hope for preventing and treating mitochondrial disease: mitochondrial replacement therapy, and CRISPR/Cas9. Mitochondrial replacement therapy has emerged as a promising tool that has the potential to prevent transmission in patients with higher mutant mitochondrial loads. This method is the subject of many ethical concerns due its use of a donor embryo to transplant the patient's nuclear DNA; however, it has ultimately been approved for use in the United Kingdom and was recently declared ethically permissible by the FDA. The leading-edge CRISPR/Cas9 technology exploits the principles of bacterial immune function to target and remove specific sequences of mutated DNA. This may have potential in treating individuals with disease caused by mutant mitochondrial DNA. As the technology progresses, it is important that the ethical considerations herein emerge and become more established. The purpose of this review is to discuss current research surrounding the procedure and efficacy of the techniques, compare the ethical concerns of each approach, and look into the future of mitochondrial gene replacement therapy.


This paper develops a rent-protection theory of corporate ownership structure - and in particular, of the choice between concentrated and dispersed ownership of corporate shares and votes. The paper analyzes the decision of a company's initial owner whether to maintain a lock on control when the company goes public. This decision is shown to be very much influenced by the size that private benefits of control are expected to have. Most importantly, when private benefits of control are large - and when control is thus valuable enough - leaving control up for grabs would attract attempts by rivals to grab control and thereby capture these private benefits; in such circumstances, to preclude a control grab, the initial owner might elect to maintain a lock on control. Furthermore, when private benefits of control are large, maintaining a lock on control would enable the company's initial shareholders to capture a larger fraction of the surplus from value-producing transfers of control. Both results suggest that, in countries in which private benefits of control are large, publicly traded companies will tend to have a controlling shareholder. It is also shown that separation of cash flow rights and voting rights will tend to be used in conjunction with a controlling shareholder structure but not with a dispersed ownership structure. Finally, the paper analyzes why companies might make control partially contestable, as many US companies currently do by adopting antitakeover arrangements. The results of the paper are consistent with the available evidence, can explain the observed patterns of corporate ownership, and yield testable predictions for future empirical work. The analysis also implies that a corporate law system that effectively limits private benefits of control can produce more efficient choices of ownership structure.


The Pequop Mountains form a tilted cross section through the Mesozoic to early Tertiary crust and display a complex network of Mesozoic metamorphic and contractional features and overprinting Cenozoic extensional structures. Precambrian and Paleozoic miogeoclinal strata and Tertiary volcanic and clastic rocks are exposed within the range. Structurally, these rocks form an east-tilted footwall block bounded on the west by a west-dipping normal fault. During the Mesozoic the Pequop Mountains occupied a position in the hinterland of the Sevier fold and thrust belt and miogeoclinal strata within the range strikingly display the effects of hinterland shortening and metamorphism. Locally, the Pequop Mountains are situated in, and form the eastern margin of, a terrain of miogeoclinal strata that underwent regional Barrovian metamorphism, which peaked during the Late Cretaceous (Camilleri and Chamberlain, 1997). This terrain includes the Wood Hills and East Humboldt Range–Ruby Mountains to the west (fig. 1). The Pequop Mountains form the lowest grade (non-metamorphosed to lower amphibolite facies), structurally shallowest part of the terrain; ranges to the west expose progressively higher grade and structurally deeper rocks (Camilleri and Chamberlain, 1997; fig. 1). In addition to displaying the effects of Mesozoic metamorphism, the Pequop Mountains also provide a rare, superb cross section through two hinterland thrust faults. This paper focuses on the description and relative ages of structures, whereas more regional tectonic and structural interpretations of the Pequop Mountains have been presented elsewhere (e.g., Camilleri and Chamberlain, 1997; Camilleri and McGrew, 1997; Camilleri, 1998; Camilleri, 2009). The structure within miogeoclinal strata in the Pequop Mountains is geometrically complex. The most salient structures are a low-angle fault called the Pequop fault and two thrust faults called the Independence and unnamed thrusts (fig. 2). The Pequop fault is the most important structure because it divides Paleozoic strata within the range into two plates that have different structural and metamorphic characteristics. An unmetamorphosed Paleozoic section is present in the hanging wall of the Pequop fault (shown shaded in fig. 2), and a predominantly metamorphosed, ductiley deformed section forms the footwall. Despite the foregoing differences, Paleozoic strata in both the hanging wall and footwall are cut by thrust faults: the Independence thrust in the footwall and the unnamed thrust in the hanging wall (fig. 2). For simplicity, the structure of the Pequop Mountains is described in four parts. The first part describes structure in the footwall of the Pequop fault; the second, structure of the Pequop fault and its hanging wall; the third, high-angle faults; and fourth, range-bounding normal faults.


One of the great challenges in microscale science and engineering is the independent manipulation of cells and man-made objects on the micron scale. For such work, motile microorganisms are integrated with engineered systems to construct microbiorobots (MBRs). MBRs are negative photosensitive epoxy (SU-8) microfabricated structures with typical feature sizes ranging from 1 to 100 µm coated with a monolayer of swarmer cells of the bacterium Serratia marcescens. The adherent cells naturally coordinate to propel the microstructures in fluidic environments. In this study, ultraviolet light is used to control rotational motion and direct current electric fields are used to control the two-dimensional movement of MBRs. They are steered in a fully automated fashion using computer-controlled visual servoing, used to transport and manipulate micron-sized objects, and employed as cell-based biosensors. This work is a step toward in vitro mechanical or chemical manipulation of cells as well as controlled assembly of microcomponents.


Concurrent programs may suffer from concurrency anomalies that may lead to
 erroneous and unpredictable program behaviors. To ensure program correctness,
 these anomalies must be diagnosed and corrected. This paper addresses the
 detection of both low- and high-level anomalies in the Transactional Memory
 setting. We propose a static analysis procedure and a framework to address
 Transactional Memory anomalies. We start by dealing with the classic case of
 low-level dataraces, identifying concurrent accesses to shared memory cells
 that are not protected within the scope of a memory transaction. Then, we
 address the case of high-level dataraces, bringing the programmer's attention
 to pairs of memory transactions that were misspecified and should have been
 combined into a single transaction. Our framework was applied to a set of
 programs, collected form different sources, containing well known low- and
 high-level anomalies. The framework demonstrated to be accurate, confirming
 the effectiveness of using static analysis techniques to precisely identify
 concurrency anomalies in Transactional Memory programs.


Power station generators require short duration HV ac testing of their insulation as part of their acceptance before being put into service. Depending on the value of the capacitance of the insulation, the rating of the test power supply can be large. One method of reducing this supply requirement is to compensate the capacitance with inductance. The paper describes a parallel resonant compensation test method which initially uses LV inductances to compensate 0.422μF of stator capacitance at 23kV. This equates to 70kvar. In a development of testing equipment, this is replaced by a HV inductance that supplied 115kvar of reactive power compensation at 23kV. As a further development, the inductor was turned into a resonant transformer by the addition of a LV primary. The magnetising reactance was matched to the generator stator insulation capacitance. A laboratory test showed that the required HV of 23kV could be obtained from energising the primary at 285V at 60A or at a rating of about 1/7th the load. A further resonant transformer was then designed for a 334kvar capacitor load to test generator stators at 31.5kV. This transformer was supplied from a nominal 400V supply and gave a gain in kVA of 16. The transformer has a finished weight of approximately 300kg. As a final test, both units were used in parallel to supply and compensate 1.06μF of stator capacitance at 32kV.


Abstract This research focuses on the life of Cardinal Alfonso Visconti reconstructing the years of his religious formation until his arrival in Rome: from the activity carried out at the Congregation of the Oratory founded by San Filippo Neri, to the diplomatic career conducted in the service of the Holy See. After serving in Portugal and Prague, at the court of Rudolf II, between 1595 and 1598 he was sent on a diplomatic mission, as nuncio, to the Prince of Transylvania Zsigmond Báthory. His mission took place in a dramatic historical phase for Danubian-Balkan Europe, threatened by the power of the Turkish "infidel". The article aims to reconstruct the main phases of Visconti's difficult mission, which had been sent to this peripheral part of the continent, but very important on a geopolitical level, with the aim of creating the anti-Turkish crusade so much desired by Pope Clement VIII


Burrell and Morgan's (1979) classic text Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis is as relevant now as it was when first published a quarter of a century ago. Central to Burrell and Morgan's thesis is the idea that "all theories of organisation are based upon a philosophy of science and a theory of society" (2003, p. 1). Either explicitly or implicitly, researchers base their work on a series of philosophical assumptions regarding ontology, epistemology, and human nature, which have methodological consequences. Within each of these assumptions, the extreme positions are reflected in "sociological positivism" (realist ontology, positivist epistemology, deterministic view of human nature, nomothetic methodologies) and, in opposition, "German idealism" (subjective ontology, antipositivist epistemology, voluntarist view of human nature, ideographic methodologies). Similarly, researchers hold differing views about the nature of society, underpinned by further assumptions, and reflected in Burrell and Morgan's distinction between regulation and radical change. Researchers adhering to the "regulation" perspective attempt to explain society in terms that emphasize its underlying cohesiveness. Their concerns are with the status quo, social order, consensus, social integration, solidarity, individual or system needs satisfaction, and actuality. In contrast, the "radical change" perspective is concerned with explaining structural conflict, modes of domination, contradiction, emancipation, deprivation, and potentiality.


Background. Although people with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) benefit from physical exercise, they still show reduced physical activity and exercise behaviour. This study aimed to investigate short- and long-term effects of an exercise-based patient education programme (ePEP) that focuses on empowering pwMS to a sustainable and self-regulated exercise training management. Methods. Fourteen pwMS were randomly assigned to immediate experimental group (EG-I: n = 8) and waitlist-control group (EG-W: n = 6) and attended biweekly in a six-week ePEP. All participants were measured for walking ability, quality of life, fatigue, and self-efficacy towards physical exercise before and after the ePEP, after 12 weeks, and one year after baseline. Short-term effects were analysed in a randomised control trial and long-term effects of all ePEP participants (EG-I + EG-W = EG-all) in a quasi-experimental design. Results. Only functional gait significantly improved in EG-I compared to EG-W (p = 0.008, r = −0.67). Moderate to large effects were found in EG-all for walking ability. Not significant, however, relevant changes were detected for quality of life and fatigue. Self-efficacy showed no changes. Conclusion. The ePEP seems to be a feasible option to empower pwMS to a self-regulated and sustainable exercise training management shown in long-term walking improvements.


This paper looks at the pandemic of abuse and violence against children worldwide, and examines the historical and cultural roots of these systemic human violations. It proposes strategies to better safeguard children globally, including education and a legal mechanism to hold government officials – national and local – accountable when they fail to protect children from abuse, enslavement, murder, and other crimes, and all too often profit from them.


Conditional gene targeting uses the insertion of expression cassettes for the selection of targeted embryonic stem cells. The presence of these cassettes in the final targeted chromosomal locus may affect the normal expression of the targeted gene and produce interesting knock down phenotypes. We show here that the selection cassette may then be selectively removed in vivo, using three appropriately positioned loxP sites in the targeted gene and the transgenic mouse EIIaCre. This strategy was applied to two different target genes and we demonstrated that it is reliable and reproducible. First, we generated double transgenic EIIaCre/loxP mice (F1) that showed variable degrees of mosaicism for partially CRE-recombined floxed alleles. Efficiency of EIIaCre at creating mosaicism was dependent on the target gene and on parental transmission of the transgene. The segregation of partially recombined alleles and EIIaCre transgene was obtained in the next generation using mosaic F1 males. Mosaic females were unsuitable for this purpose because they systematically generated complete excisions during oogenesis. Our strategy is applicable to other approaches based on three loxP sites. As this procedure allows generation of knock down (presence of neo), knockout (total exision of the loxP-flanked sequences) and floxed substrains (excision of the selection cassette) from a single, targeted germline mutation and in a single experiment, its use may become more widespread in conditional mutagenesis.


Population origins, animal movements, and the presence of non-local individuals have all been addressed through the analysis of strontium isotope ratios in dental tissues. There has been extensive research regarding the preservation of biogenic Sr in various human tissues: bone, tooth enamel and dentine, but little into non-human species. The applicability of this methodology to pigs in particular may be problematic with some studies considering there to be no differences between porcine and human enamel and others suggesting differences do exist. As a result it remains unclear whether porcine enamel is more susceptible to diagenetic processes and re-equilibration with diagenetic fluids from the local burial environment. Whilst several programmes of strontium isotope analysis have included pig enamel samples, very few have produced samples of allocthonous origin and the validity of the technique for reconstructing movement of pigs remains in question. This study tests the validity of using strontium isotope ratios in porcine enamel for tracking the movement of pigs in two ways. Firstly, the susceptibility of modern and archaeological pig and cattle teeth to diagenetic changes was assessed by submerging enamel samples in a solution of known strontium isotope composition for a period of up to 10 months and measuring the level of uptake as a proxy for diagenetic alteration. Secondly, the strontium isotope ratios of porcine enamel samples from five archaeological assemblages, identified as likely to contain imported, non-local pigs, were analysed to determine whether individuals that are allocthonous in origin could be identified.


DR. ZHENG SHOUYI

Dr. Zheng Shouyi received the Joseph A. Cushman Award for outstanding contributions to the field of foraminiferology on November 3, 2003. Dr. Bilal U. Haq presented the award during the Cushman Foundation's awards ceremony at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Seattle, Washington. His summary of Dr. Zheng's career accomplishments, adapted from his presentation, is given below.

Dr. Zheng Shouyi, recipient of the Cushman Foundation Award, is China's leading foraminiferalogist, an academician and a senior research scientist at China's premier Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences in Qingdao. Professor Zheng has spent a lifetime researching the foraminiferal faunas of the China Seas and has produced an impressive body of publications documenting these faunas.

Zheng Shouyi was born on May 20, 1931, in Manila, Philippines. She received her early school and university education in the Philippines, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Education and in Education from the University of the East. Her abiding interest in biology encouraged her to pursue graduate studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, under the advisorship of the eminent Philippine botanist, Dr. Gregorio Velasquez. During this time she came to know Professor J. J. Graham of Stanford University, who was collaborating with Ms. Priscilla Militante of the University of Philippines on the foraminiferal fauna of the Puerto Galera Area, northern Mindoro, Philippines. It was in their laboratory that she was first introduced to the beautiful and diverse morphology of the foraminifera under the microscope. She says that it was "love at first sight" which inspired her to pursue the study of foraminifera.

In 1956, Dr. Zheng heard the call from her motherland for intellectuals to take part in the reconstruction of the country and decided to return to China. She …


White grubs (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are the most widespread and damaging pests in turfgrass habitats of the Northeast U.S. and their management is highly dependent on chemical pesticides. Best IPM is constrained by widespread reliance on early season preventive applications of imidacloprid as well as by a lack of biologically-based control alternatives. Part of the solution would be curative alternatives that would permit sampling and better decision-making, and biobased alternatives that could supplant reliance on chemical insecticides. This project's focus on white grub control in turfgrass thereby represents the major pest complex in one of the most extensive and rapidly expanding components of our urban and rural landscape. As managed ecosystems, extensive and diverse turfgrass habitats require decision-making strategies to maintain them for their intended uses. Better managing this vast area will have huge positive impacts, especially considering that this habitat is intimately associated with human populations and that home owners can spray lawn chemicals with little regulation or training. Synergistic combinations of selected biological and chemical control products are one approach that might yield valuable alternatives for the management of soil insect pests. Chapter 1 summarizes laboratory studies that were conducted on third instar white grubs challenged by individual control products. The objective was to measure variation in the susceptibility of four invasive species of white grubs (Amphimallon majale, Anomala orientalis, Maladera castanea and Popillia japonica) to 18 registered and experimental insecticides used as curative controls under controlled laboratory conditions. Across white grub species, the most efficacious biological and chemical insecticide alternatives were the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema scarabaei and chlorpyrifos, respectively. Biorationals were highly variable across target species. For biorational and chemical insecticides, A. majale was the least susceptible species. For biologicals, P. japonica was the least susceptible. Considering all control products, A. orientalis was the most susceptible. Chapter 2 summarizes a series of laboratory, greenhouse and field trials that were conducted on third instar white grubs challenged by combinations of control products. The objective was to screen numerous combinations of biological and sublethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticides against third instars under controlled laboratory conditions, and then to characterize those interactions as synergistic, additive or antagonistic. The most promising combinations were advanced to greenhouse pot studies and then to microplot field trials. To reveal variation across white grub species, trials were conducted on A. majale and P. japonica. Among the combinations of biological and neonicotinoids tested here, results revealed that synergistic interactions are relatively uncommon, and involved only entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi. For A. majale, the most promising synergistic combinations were between H. bacteriophora and both neonicotinoids; across all laboratory, greenhouse and field trials. In contrast, for P. japonica the most promising synergistic combinations were between B. bassiana and M. anisopliae Met F52 with clothianidin and M. anisopliae NYSAES with imidacloprid. Like A. majale, this was discernible in each of the two laboratory trials, but did not persist through to the greenhouse and field. Finally, an antagonistic interaction between Bt-products and both neonicotinoids was common to both white grub species. The magnitude of variation in susceptibility across white grub species supports the idea that a single product will not reliably suppress populations of all scarab taxa. This differential susceptibility could have broader consequences for grub management, if a numerically dominant target species is more completely suppressed than a co-occurring species. Synergistic combinations of biological control products with reduced rates of neonicotinoid insecticides could be a promising approach for the curative control of white grubs and as an IPM tool for the suppression of other soil insect pests.


We propose a novel introspective model for variational neural machine translation (IntroVNMT) in this paper, inspired by the recent successful application of introspective variational autoencoder (IntroVAE) in high quality image synthesis. Different from the vanilla variational NMT model, IntroVNMT is capable of improving itself introspectively by evaluating the quality of the generated target sentences according to the high-level latent variables of the real and generated target sentences. As a consequence of introspective training, the proposed model is able to discriminate between the generated and real sentences of the target language via the latent variables generated by the encoder of the model. In this way, IntroVNMT is able to generate more realistic target sentences in practice. In the meantime, IntroVNMT inherits the advantages of the variational autoencoders (VAEs), and the model training process is more stable than the generative adversarial network (GAN) based models. Experimental results on different translation tasks demonstrate that the proposed model can achieve significant improvements over the vanilla variational NMT model.


Elections for state and congressional representatives are often referendums on the national presidential election, and African-Americans have, at times, been the swing vote in these contests. The time is ripe to revisit the potential that African-Americans have to be politically influential and increase the responsiveness of state and national elected officials to their discrete interests. For too long, court intervention in redistricting disputes has proven to be a risky venture for African-Americans, the long-term effects of which will become even more pertinent as we approach the 2008 presidential election. This historic election, in which the Democratic nominee for president will be either an African-American man or a woman, raises an important question: what is the best way to increase the quality and the quantity of the African-American vote so that they can influence not only the election of 2008, but future elections as well? Simply put, what is the best way to maximize the representation of African-American interests nationally? The solution to this quandary involves two related concepts: first, employing court intervention under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in order to force state legislatures to create majority-minority districts. And second, whether this strategy reduces the ability of African-Americans to influence national elections. The article argues that the focus of the African-American community should not be on increasing the number of majority-minority districts; rather, the focus should be on increasing voter turnout in these districts. There is some evidence that these districts have the effect of depressing voter turnout, which can have national implications if the majority-minority districts are located in swing states. Moreover, increasing the number of majority-minority districts tends to result in more court oversight of the political process, which can lead to less substantive representation of minority interests overall. This article proceeds in two parts. Part I makes the case that African-Americans should rely less on the courts to increase their political power given that recent court decisions certainly do not ensure more favorable outcomes. Specifically, this section focuses on the strategic behavior of elected officials, the Supreme Court's decision in LULAC v. Perry, and how both tie in to the instant proposal that African-Americans should focus on political mobilization to increase their electoral strength and the subsequent accountability of elected officials. LULAC illustrates that the Court has made a false distinction between race and political affiliation, which undermines any gains that minorities hope to make in increasing their substantive representation in the political process. Part II discusses extra-judicial proposals for increasing African-American political strength, specifically by focusing on majority-minority districts in Florida and Ohio, which were swing states in the last two presidential elections. This section concludes that coalition building and political mobilization are the best ways to increase voter turnout in these districts, which will have a greater impact on increasing the responsiveness of elected officials to the interests of African-Americans nationwide than lobbying the courts for change.


Globally, fees and tuition are growing as an important source of income for most universities, with potentially significant influence on the market for students and the behavior of institutions. Thus far, however, there is no single source on the fee rates of comparative research universities, nor information on how these funds are being used by institutions. Furthermore, research on tuition pricing has also focused largely on bachelor's degree programs, and not on the rapid changes in tuition and fees for professional degrees. This paper offers a brief scan of pricing trends among a sample group of 24 public and private research universities in the US, all with a wide array of graduate and professional programs, and a small sample group of EU universities. We trace a pattern of convergence not only between US public and private institutions, but also find indications that these trends occur among EU universities. We theorize that pricing among major research universities is increasingly influenced by levels of market tolerance, and a convergence in pricing driven in part by the perception that price confers quality and a corresponding level of prestige to consumers. This study focuses on pricing, and hence does not delve into the complex moderating effects of bursaries and student costs such as room and board. The recent implosion in credit markets may seriously shake this emerging pricing model, in large part because it is increasingly dependent on students taking out sizable loans. But it is our sense that the long-term trends in pricing, including some level of convergence, will continue as institutions that are globally competitive look over their shoulder at what their perceived peer (or near peer) institutions are charging for specific degrees and programs. This in turn will influence the entire higher education market.


Full system simulation seeks to strike a balance between accuracy and performance. Many of its possibilities have been obvious to practitioners in both academia and industry for quite some time, perhaps decades, but Simics supports more of these possibilities within a single framework than other tools do. Simics is a platform for full system simulation that can run actual firmware and completely unmodified kernel and driver code. It is sufficiently abstract to achieve tolerable performance levels, and it provides both functional accuracy for running commercial workloads and sufficient timing accuracy to interface to detailed hardware models. Simics can also run a heterogeneous network of systems from different vendors within the same framework. Exceptionally fast, Simics can easily add new components and leverage older ones within a practical abstraction level. It offers a platform with a rich API and a powerful scripting environment for use in a broad range of applications.


Computed tomography (CT) was used to investigate brain tumors in the caudal fossa of three dogs. Changes detected by CT included compression or distortion of cerebrospinal fluid spaces within the caudal fossa, and changes in parenchymal density before and after intravenous injection of a nondiffusible, iodinated contrast medium. CT provided information regarding tumor size, location, character, and relationships with normal caudal fossa structures. It was concluded that CT offered advantages over technics currently in use for diagnosis and assessment of caudal fossa lesions in the dog.


This article describes students' involvement and interest in exchange programmes in Swedish higher education. Law and Engineering bachelor's programmes were chosen to exemplify an over-represented and under-represented group respectively in terms of international mobility in this context. The study combines interview and survey data. The author argues that the different institutional practices in educational programmes impact on students' experienced involvement in exchange studies.


The most important information in Electronic Health Records is in free text form. The result is that the quality of Electronic Health Records is hard to assess. Since Electronic Health Records are exchanged more and more, badly written or incomplete records can cause problems when other healthcare providers do not completely understand them. In this thesis we try to automatically assess
the quality of Electronic Health Records using Information Extraction. Another advantage of the automated analysis of Electronic Health Records is to extract management information which can be used in order to increase eciency and decrease cost, another popular subject in healthcare nowadays. Our solution for automated assessment of Electronic Health Records consists out of two parts. In the first part we theoretically determine what the quality of
Electronic Health Records is, based upon Data and Information Quality theory. Based upon this analysis we propose three quality metrics. The first two check
whether an Electronic Health Record is written as prescribed by guidelines of the association of general practitioners. The rst checks whether the SOEP
methodology is used correctly, the second whether a treatment is carried out according to the guideline for that illness. The third metric is more general
applicable and measures conciseness. In the second part we designed and implemented a prototype system to ex-
ecute the quality assessment. Due to time limitations we only implemented the SOEP methodology metric. This metric tests whether a piece of text is placed in the right place. The fields that can be used by a healthcare provider are
(S)ubjective, (O)bjective, (E)valuation and (P)lan. We implemented a prototype based upon the `General Architecture for Text Engineering'. Many generic
Information Extraction tasks were available already, we implemented two domain specific tasks ourselves. The first looks up words in a thesaurus (the UMLS) in order to give meaning to the text, since to every word in the the-
saurus one or more semantic types are assigned. The semantic types found in a sentence are then resolved to one of the four SOEP types. In a good Electronic Health Record, sentences are resolved to the SOEP eld they are actually in. To validate our prototype we annotated text from real Electronic Health Records with S,O,E and P and compared it to the output of our prototype. We found a Precision of roughly 50% and a recall of 20-25%. Although not perfect,
because we had time nor resources to involve domain experts we think this result is encouraging for further research. Furthermore we shown that our other two metrics are sensible with use cases. Although no proof they are feasible in practice, they show that a whole set of dierent metrics can be used to assess the quality of Electronic Health Records.


The steel industry is one the biggest consumers of refractories. In this industry, refractories are commonly used as linings for steel production equipment, because they can sustain high temperature and corrosive attack in their working environment. However due to the harsh conditions, their life span is limited. Corrosion mainly by slag and molten steel is the principal phenomenon responsible for degradation and wear of the refractory bricks. It is a complex phenomenon that is due to infiltration (penetration) into and subsequent dissolution of the refractories by slags and molten steel. A thorough understanding of these mechanisms is necessary in order to improve the refractories behavior for steel making applications. However, even nowadays, no laboratory test can reproduce the real working conditions in the steel industry. According to the parameter of interest several testing methods have been developed. They can be static like the sessile drop test or crucible test or dynamic like the rotary slag test. This paper describes the principal corrosion tests used in the steel industry in order to give an overview of the way to determine and finally alleviate the impact of corrosion on refractories.


Rising air temperatures are believed to be hastening heterotrophic respiration (Rh) in arctic tundra ecosystems, which could lead to substantial losses of soil carbon (C). In order to improve confidence in predicting the likelihood of such loss, the comprehensive ecosystem model ecosys was first tested with carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes measured over a tundra soil in a growth chamber under various temperatures and soil-water contents (θ). The model was then tested with CO2 and energy fluxes measured over a coastal arctic tundra near Barrow, Alaska, under a range of weather conditions during 1998–1999. A rise in growth chamber temperature from 7 to 15 °C caused large, but commensurate, rises in respiration and CO2 fixation, and so no significant effect on net CO2 exchange was modelled or measured. An increase in growth chamber θ from field capacity to saturation caused substantial reductions in respiration but not in CO2 fixation, and so an increase in net CO2 exchange was modelled and measured. Long daylengths over the coastal tundra at Barrow caused an almost continuous C sink to be modelled and measured during most of July (2–4 g C m−2 d−1), but shortening daylengths and declining air temperatures caused a C source to be modelled and measured by early September (∼1 g C m−2 d−1). At an annual time scale, the coastal tundra was modelled to be a small C sink (4 g C m−2 y−1) during 1998 when average air temperatures were 4 °C above normal, and a larger C sink (16 g C m−2 y−1) during 1999 when air temperatures were close to long-term normals. During 100 years under rising atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca), air temperature and precipitation driven by the IS92a emissions scenario, modelled Rh rose commensurately with net primary productivity (NPP) under both current and elevated rates of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, so that changes in soil C remained small. However, methane (CH4) emissions were predicted to rise substantially in coastal tundra with IS92a-driven climate change (from ∼20 to ∼40 g C m−2 y−1), causing a substantial increase in the emission of CO2 equivalents. If the rate of temperature increase hypothesized in the IS92a emissions scenario had been raised by 50%, substantial losses of soil C (∼1 kg C m−2) would have been modelled after 100 years, including additional emissions of CH4.


Background— The Mediterranean diet is protective against cardiovascular disease; a proposed mechanism is through a reduction in systemic inflammation. It is unknown to what extent the association between the Mediterranean diet and inflammation is due to genetic or other familial factors. Methods and Results— We administered the Willett food frequency questionnaire to 345 middle-aged male twins and assessed adherence to the Mediterranean diet using a published adherence score. Fasting plasma levels of interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and known cardiovascular risk factors were measured. Mixed-effect regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between diet score and inflammatory biomarkers after accounting for known cardiovascular risk factors. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with reduced levels of interleukin-6 (P<0.001) but not C-reactive protein (P=0.10) after adjustment for total energy intake, other nutritional factors, known cardiovascular risk factors, and use of supplements and medications. When the overall association of adherence to the diet with interleukin-6 levels was partitioned into between- and within-pair effects, the between-pair effect was not significant (P=0.9) and the within-pair effect was highly significant (P<0.0001). A 1-unit within-pair absolute difference in the diet score was associated with a 9% (95% CI, 4.5 to 13.6) lower interleukin-6 level. Conclusions— Shared environmental and genetic factors are unlikely to play a major role in the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and systemic inflammation. These results support the hypothesis that reduced inflammation is an important mechanism linking Mediterranean diet to reduced cardiovascular risk.


The idea that optimization plays a key role in linguistic cognition is supported by an increasingly large body of research. Building on this research, we describe a new approach to parsing distributed representations via optimization over a set of soft constraints on the wellformedness of parse trees. This work extends previous research involving the use of constraintbased or "harmonic"' grammars by suggesting how parsing can be accomplished using fully distributed representations that preserve their dimensionality with arbitrary increases in structural complexity. We demonstrate that this method can be used to correctly evaluate the wellformedness of linguistic structures generated by a simple context-free grammar, and discuss a number of extensions concerning the neural implementation of the method and its application to complex parsing tasks.


Introduction: Patient satisfaction is a quality indicator for the health services provided by a hospital, and also the principal method for the evaluation and feedback of the system used for measuring quality of service. The οbjective of this study was to estimate the level of the services offered by the General Hospital of Sparta and the investigation of patients' satisfaction before and after their treatment. Moreover, the current work was intended to investigate whether the specific demographics of respondents, such as gender, age, place of residence and their level of education affect their satisfaction about the services, provided by the nursing staff during their stay in the hospital. Material and Method: The sample of this study was 93 patients, hospitalized in the Surgical Department. The collection of the questionnaires was conducted by personal interviews. As research tools, the Scale of measurement of patient satisfaction about nursing care (MPSS) was used in addition with questionnaire with socio-demographics evidence. In order to perform the statistical analysis, the statistical software SPSS 14.0 was used. Results: The majority of patients in the sample were women (51.6%). Their educational level was relatively low, since approximately 31.5% rate of the participants had only compulsory education. 47.3% of patients described that their state of health is a small degree of serious while only 7.5% of patients responded that it is very serious. The effectiveness of public hospitals in Greece was considered as good by the 71% of the participants and as very good by the 22.6% of them.34,4% of them stated that they were very satisfied with the assistance given to them by the nursing staff regarding their everyday needs, such as personal hygiene, dressing and creating a comfortable environment. The 31,2% of patients were very satisfied about the help, provided by the nursing staff while 28% of patients were extremely satisfied. Five people (5,4%) replied that stayed in a small extent satisfied, while just one person (1,1%) replied that the help of nursing personnel for the daily needs was not satisfied at all. Conclusions: Although the study has highlighted some problems and some areas needing improvement, the overall picture is very positive for the General Hospital of Sparta to the extent that the largest percentage of patients was satisfied with the provided services. The information process seems to be improved, since it is an important moral and legal right of patients. The measurement of patient satisfaction should be continued in order to allow comparisons and evaluation of the impact of various interventions in its modulation.


We consider the problem of pricing contingent claims using distortion operators. This approach was first developed in (Wang, 2000) where the original distortion function was defined in terms of the normal distribution. Here, we introduce a new distortion based on the Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) distribution. The NIG is a generalization of the normal distribution that allows for heavier skewed tails. The resulting operator asymmetrically distorts the underlying distribution. Moreover, we show how we can recuperate non‐Gaussian Black–Scholes formulas using distortion operators and we provide illustrations of their performance. We conclude with a brief discussion on risk management applications.


The Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland enclosed water body, consists of three basins namely northern, middle and southern. This study investigates physical oceanography properties and long waves in the southern Caspian Sea. To deal with this, we used ADCP, CTD, weather data, sea level and satellite imageries. The data were collected by National Institute of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences (ADCP and CTD), Port and Maritime Organization (sea level), and Meteorological Organization (wind data). The results show that the temperature plays pivotal role in the structure of water in this basin. The place of thermocline and pycnocline are about at the same depth and the thickness of mixed layer in the summer and fall are about 25 and 15 meters, respectively. The analyses of ADCP data show that thermocline disappears from February to March and after two months, the thermocline starts to develop. In most of cases, the magnitude of meridianal velocity is stronger than zonal speed based on ADCP data. Spectral density of time variations of velocities of current and wind show that there are many peaks from a few hours to many days. We consider some periods such as 30, 40, 48 and 60 hours as Kelvin waves based on our background information about these waves. Sea level data and satellite  images (Aviso sensor) confirm the results in terms of periods and wavelengths. Due to barotropic and baroclinic modes of Kelvin waves, wavelengths, angular frequencies and group speeds are calculated separately. According to these results, baroclinic mode is more important than barotropic mode in this basin. Based on the governing equations of shallow water, the sea level gradient equation was written and time series of sea surface level changes were plotted. The results show that the long wave amplitudes are from 10 to 15 cm according to satellite and observation data. In this basin, the reduced gravity varies from 0.006 to 0.008 m/s2 in different seasons and the thickness of the denser water column is considered about 150-200 m. The Rossby radius of deformation and group velocity are 20 km and 1.2 m/s, respectively. Due to different periods of Kelvin waves, the wavelengths vary from 129 to 259 km. The satellite images confirm Kelvin waves because there are some anomalies in sea level similar to that produced by Kelvin waves with similar periods and wavelengths. Based on results, it is recommended that more detailed observational data should be collected in the deep parts of the southern and middle basins of the Caspian Sea.


Objectives: To retrospectively analyse the clinical features of secondary acquired cholesteatoma.
Methods: Seventeen patients (17 ears) who underwent surgery for secondary acquired cholesteatoma between January 2009 and December 2013 were studied. The parameters examined included the sex and age of the patients and the size of the tympanic membrane perforation.
Results: There was a significant correlation between secondary acquired cholesteatoma and sex (18% men, 82% women). Patients with secondary acquired cholesteatoma (average, 56 years) were significantly older than those with other acquired cholesteatomas (average, 42 years). There was a trend toward lower likelihood of improvement in older patients after surgery.
Conclusion: Secondary acquired cholesteatomas differ from other acquired cholesteatomas in terms of patient sex and age. Improvements in postoperative hearing are more likely in younger patients. In some cases, secondary acquired cholesteatoma was diagnosed during surgery for chronic otitis media; therefore, it is very important to consider this possibility.


Complement activation-related pseudoallergy (CARPA) is a term refers to those hypersensitivity reactions where the allergen can activate complement. This study examined the effect of nanomedicines and polyethylene glycol on complement activation. Single-walled carbon nanotubes, which have many medical applications as drug delivery systems, activated human complement independently of the C1q-dependent classical and the alternative pathways, as reflected by a significant rise in serum levels of S-protein bound form of terminal complex (SC5b-9) and C4d. This study also shows that
polyethylene glycol (PEG) with different molecular weights was capable of activating
complement. It was found that molecular weight of PEG plays an important role in activating both calcium sensitive and alternative pathways of the human complement system, with relatively higher molecular weight polymer resulting in more activation to a certain extent.


This paper presents a resource management framework for providing predictable quality of service (QoS) in Web servers. The framework allows Web server and proxy operators to ensure a probabilistic minimal QoS level, expressed as an average request rate, for a certain class of requests (called a service), irrespective of the load imposed by other requests. A measurement-based admission control framework determines whether a service can be hosted on a given server or proxy, based on the measured statistics of the resource consumptions and the desired QoS levels of all the co-located services. In addition, we present a feedback-based resource scheduling framework that ensures that QoS levels are maintained among admitted, co-located services. Experimental results obtained with a prototype implementation of our framework on trace-based workloads show its effectiveness in providing desired QoS levels with high confidence, while achieving high average utilization of the hardware.


Interaction designers typically revise user interface prototypes by adding unstructured notes to storyboards and screen printouts. How might computational tools increase the efficacy of UI revision? This paper introduces d.note, a revision tool for user interfaces expressed as control flow diagrams. d.note introduces a command set for modifying and annotating both appearance and behavior of user interfaces; it also defines execution semantics so proposed changes can be tested immediately. The paper reports two studies that compare production and interpretation of revisions in d.note to freeform sketching on static images (the status quo). The revision production study showed that testing of ideas during the revision process led to more concrete revisions, but that the tool also affected the type and number of suggested changes. The revision interpretation study showed that d.note revisions required fewer clarifications, and that additional techniques for expressing revision intent could be beneficial.


Abstract Mutagenesis libraries are essential for combinatorial protein engineering. Despite improvements in gene synthesis and directed mutagenesis, current methodologies still have limitations regarding the synthesis of complete antibody single-chain variable fragment (scFv) genes and simultaneous diversification of all six CDRs. Here, we describe the generation of mutagenesis libraries for antibody affinity maturation using a cell-free solid-phase technique for annealing of single-strand mutagenic oligonucleotides. The procedure consists of PCR-based incorporation of uracil into a wild-type template, bead-based capture, elution of single-strand DNA, and in vitro uracil excision enzyme based degradation of the template DNA. Our approach enabled rapid (8 hours) mutagenesis and automated cloning of 50 position-specific alanine mutants for mapping of a scFv antibody paratope. We further exemplify our method by generating affinity maturation libraries with diversity introduced in critical, nonessential, or all CDR positions randomly. Assessment with Illumina deep sequencing showed less than 1% wild-type in two libraries and the ability to diversify all CDR positions simultaneously. Selections of the libraries with bacterial display and deep sequencing evaluation of the selection output showed that diversity introduced in non-essential positions allowed for a more effective enrichment of improved binders compared to the other two diversification strategies.


This Article provides a comprehensive review of the crowdfunding phenomenon. It argues that equity crowdfunding (ECF) and, to a lesser extent, peer-to-peer lending (P2PL) offer the possibility of a global solution to the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) funding problem. In the United States, the SME funding problem is exacerbated by the markedly diminishing rate of startup formation, a factor that injects a degree of urgency into resolving the optimal means to implement ECF. Here, as with the fin-tech revolution, the law lags behind technological developments. The second main argument is that ECF enhances access to capital for SMEs globally while simultaneously democratizing access to investments for ordinary citizens. The Article begins by providing definitions, business models, and historical background before outlining the SME funding problem and new constraints on SME lending since the global financial crisis. ECF is placed within the so-called financing escalator and is distinguished from venture capital and angel financing. The global market for crowdfunding is reviewed in order to indicate growth trends in the sector. Some common legal issues associated with crowdfunding are presented before a review of crowdfunding globally. Dominant models in some Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and the potential for crowdfunding to assist SMEs in the undeveloped world are explored. The conclusion outlines key considerations and choices for legislators considering the regulatory puzzles presented by crowdfunding.


Reading and Writing publishes high-quality scientific articles pertaining to the processes, acquisition, and loss of reading and writing skills. The journal fully represents the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of research in the field, focusing on the interaction among various disciplines, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education.  Coverage in Reading and Writing includes models of reading, writing and spelling at all age levels; orthography and its relation to reading and writing; computer literacy; crosscultural studies; and developmental and acquired disorders of reading and writing. It publishes research articles, critical reviews, theoretical papers, and case studies.  Reading and Writing is one of the most highly cited journals in Education and Educational Research and Educational Psychology.


We propose a simple approach to extend the Heath, Jarrow and Morton (1992) model to a framework where the volatility of bond prices and forward rates is stochastic and where volatility-specific risk cannot necessarily be hedged in trading bonds. The arbitrage-free modeling of Heath, Jarrow and Morton cannot readily be transposed to such an environment. HJM's major insight is that the drift of forward rates must be a function of the volatility structure of forward rates to preclude arbitrage opportunities. This implies that to price interest-rate dependent claims, one need only specify the volatility structure of forward rates. Given the initial term structure (observed in the market), any contingent claim can be priced. While the HJM-restriction still applies when the volatility of forward rates is stochastic, it is not sufficient to price interest-rate contingent claims. Indeed one needs to specify the arbitrage-free process of volatility under the risk-neutral measure. The traditional HJM restriction does not provide any guidance in that respect. We solve that problem by transposing HJM's idea to the volatility term structure. We show that given an initial term structure of futures prices on interest-rate yields, one need only specify the volatility structure of the futures price on interest-rate yields to derive the arbitrage-free dynamics of the volatility of forward rates. Thus, taking as input the initial term structure of futures prices, the term strucuture of forward rates and specifying a volatility structure for the futures price on yields, one can price all interest rate contingent claims in our model. Our model thus requires as input two term structures, but only one volatlity structure need be specified. We provide a detailed analysis of a gaussian specification of the model, for which volatility exhibits mean reversion. It is parsimonious as it requires only three parameters to be estimated. We use that specification to draw comparisons with a simple extended-Vasicek model in order to investigate the effects of stochastic volatility on interest-rate options. The results support the widespread assertion that even though stochastic volatility might not be essential for the modeling of the term structure, it might have an important impact on interest-rate derivatives.


Currently, corruption has been so generalized and sophisticated that threatens to undermine the own society structure. Corruption is a problem identified in all the countries. What changes is how we deal with it. Nevertheless, why is there so much corruption? Within the group of factors, it is possible to highlight the high bureaucracy that reduces the efficiency of the public administration; the presence of a slow Judiciary Branch which is very low is terms of efficiency, when reprimanding illicit practices that incite everything ending up in pizza (this sentence was literally translated from Portuguese, it does not exist in English, but it means that impunity prevails in Brazil.); the existence of a corporatist sense among the Administration industries in the public sector in relation to the private sector and so facilitating corruption. The penalty for corruption should be constrained to mechanisms that allow the system of criminal justice to carry out actions of arrest, prosecution, penalty and repair to the country. Combating corruption complies with the republican ideal for the reduction of costs in Brazil. Moralizing the public-private relations offers juridical security to the market. The fact that some countries, especially Brazil, are seriously combating against corruption brings hope, with an eye on a more rigid legislation and less bureaucratic as well, with the end of the corporatist sense and the equivalence of salaries between the public and private sector. We shall provide effective criminal, administrative and civil penalties of inhibiting nature for future action; we shall provide cooperation between the law applicator and the private companies; we shall prevent the conflict of interests; we shall forbid the existence of "black fund" at the companies and we shall encouraged the relief or reduction of taxes to expenses considered as bribery or other conducts related.


In August 2003 an exceptional heatwave was recorded in Europe. The authors would like to describe 6 patients for which the intensivist was called as a consultant. All patients had a skin temperature >40 degrees C, central nervous system impairment, severe hyponatremia [124.7 mEq/l+/-5.6 (range 117-130)] and severe metabolic acidosis [BE -6.28 mEq/l+/-3.55 (range -9.5-0), HCO3- 17.75 mEq/l+/-3.25 (range 13.4-21.9)]. All patients had decreased platelet count and coagulation abnormalities. Two patients were hypertensive, 4 hypotensive. The heat stress due to the hot environment is characterized by systemic inflammatory response (as in severe sepsis) and hemodynamic impairment (as in hypovolemic shock). The association between hypovolemia and altered microcirculation leads to cell energy failure with metabolic lactic acidosis. The energy failure may induce structural irreversible damage of mitochondria. It is possible to differentiate, during energy failure, the irreversible or reversible condition by volume loading and vasoactive drugs challenge tests. In fact, if the hemodynamic correction is associated with normalization of SvO2 with disappearance of metabolic acidosis, this suggests hemodynamic impairment with intact mitochondrial function. In contrast, if the hemodynamic improvement with normalization of SvO2 is associated and acidosis persists, this suggests irreversible structural mitochondrial damage. The threshold between reversibility and irreversibility is likely time dependent, as suggested by biochemical consideration and by 2 large randomized studies on hemodynamic treatment. The comparative analysis of these 2 studies suggests that the time of intervention may lead to significant differences in mortality. In these patients time is essential.


CONTEXT
Postural stability diminishes with longer activity, which may increase the risk of injury. Tape can increase stability, but this effect diminishes after exercise.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the influence of ankle taping on postural stability during soccer-specific activity.

PARTICIPANTS
10 male, injury-free, semiprofessional soccer players.

INTERVENTION
A 45-min treadmill protocol replicating the activity profile of soccer match play--with and without ankle tape. Postural stability was assessed every 7.5 min, requiring response to sudden ankle plantar flexion and inversion during single-leg stance.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Reaction time to perturbation and center-of-gravity (CoG) displacement.

RESULTS
Reaction time was significantly longer (P < .05) with longer exercise for both movements and conditions. No significant effect was evident in CoG displacement. For both outcome measures a nonsignificant benefit of taping was observed during the first 22.5 min of activity.

CONCLUSION
Prolonged exposure to soccer-specific activity negates any beneficial effect of taping in improving postural stability.


Interview with Marjorie Rae Lutkins Babcock, Women's Army Corps Enlisted, Keypunch Operator, and Korean War-ere Veteran, for the Women Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Babcock's personal experiences of childhood in Michigan, basic training at Fort Lee, Virginia, duty assignments at Governor's Island, New York and Hanau, Germany, her temporary duty assignment at the Pentagon, her placement in the Veterans of Foreign War's Women's Auxiliary despite veteran status, and her brother's experience in the Merchant Marines during World War II. Additionally, the interview includes her reason for enlisting, her family's reaction to her enlistment, impressions of post-war Germany, advice for future women service members, her views on service and women in combat, and her daughter's views of the military and the military service of her mom and other family members. The interview includes an appendix with photographs and a list detailing Babcock's military career.


We study contractual arrangements that support an efficient use of time in a knowledge-intensive economy in which agents endogenously specialize in either production or consulting. The resulting market for advice is plagued by informational problems, since both the difficulty of the questions posed to consultants and the knowledge of those consultants are hard to assess. We show that spot contracting is not efficient since lemons (in this case, self-employed producers with intermediate knowledge) cannot be appropriately excluded from the market. However, an ex-ante, firm-like contractual arrangement uniquely delivers the first best. This arrangement involves hierarchies in which consultants are full residual claimants of output and compensate producers via incentive contracts. This simple characterization of the optimal ex-ante arrangement suggests a rationale for the organization of firms and the structure of compensation in knowledge-intensive sectors. Our findings correspond empirically to observed arrangements inside professional service firms and between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.


Based on recent achievements by the same-sex marriage movement and current societal attitudes, it seems clear that it is only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is recognized by the majority of jurisdictions within the United States. When this occurs, society will be left with an important decision regarding whether the widespread legalization of same-sex marriage marks the beginning or the end of the discussion in this country regarding adult relationship recognition. Hopefully, it will mark the beginning of the discussion. Individuals face incredibly limited options when it comes to legal recognition of their important relationships. The federal government and the majority of states recognize only one relationship status, marriage, leaving couples with the narrow choice of marriage or non-recognition. It is time for the United States to follow the lead of other countries in creating an effective and comprehensive system of adult relationship recognition that does not depend solely upon marriage. There is ample evidence that marriage is in trouble in the United States. Increasing numbers of individuals are eschewing marriage for non-marital cohabitation, those who marry do so later in life, and the divorce rate continues to hover around fifty percent. As marriage rates decrease, increasing numbers of individuals are left in the unfortunate position of having inadequate legal protections for their relationships. Many people likely would benefit from the introduction of a third option; namely, a state-based non-marital relationship status that offered a true alternative to marriage and was recognized by the federal government. This article offers an innovative proposal for a new system of non-marital relationship recognition in the United States.


We study the problem of learning to choose from m discrete treatment options (e.g., news item or medical drug) the one with best causal effect for a particular instance (e.g., user or patient) where the training data consists of passive observations of covariates, treatment, and the outcome of the treatment. The standard approach to this problem is regress and compare: split the training data by treatment, fit a regression model in each split, and, for a new instance, predict all m outcomes and pick the best. By reformulating the problem as a single learning task rather than m separate ones, we propose a new approach based on recursively partitioning the data into regimes where different treatments are optimal. We extend this approach to an optimal partitioning approach that finds a globally optimal partition, achieving a compact, interpretable, and impactful personalization model. We develop new tools for validating and evaluating personalization models on observational data and use these to demonstrate the power of our novel approaches in a personalized medicine and a job training application.


This work investigates the cosmological applications of higher-order theories of gravity in four dimensions. In particular, we begin dealing with the possibility to obtain massive modes in the framework of effective field theories recovered by extending General Relativity and taking into account generic functions of the curvature invariants. In particular, adopting the minimal extension of f(R) gravity, an effective field theory with massive modes is straightforwardly recovered. This approach allows to evade shortcomings like ghosts and discontinuities if a suitable choice of expansion parameters is performed. Next, we stress one of the most important problem related to Extended Theories of Gravity that is the lack of a definitive, unique theory able to address the different shortcomings of General Relativity. In fact, several models have been proposed in order to address the dark side problem in cosmology and these models should be constrained also at ultraviolet scales in order to achieve a correct fundamental interpretation. We proceed analyzing the possibility to constrain f(R) theories at UV scales comparing quantum vacuum states in given cosmological back- grounds. Specifically, we compare Bogolubov transformations associated to different vacuum states for some f(R) models. The procedure consists in fixing the f(R) free parameters by requiring that the Bogolubov coefficients can be correspondingly mini- mized to be in agreement with both high redshift observations and quantum field theory predictions. In such a way, the particle production is related to the value of the Hubble parameter and then to the given f (R) model. The approach is developed in both metric and Palatini formalism.
The second part of this thesis is devoted to the search for exact solutions for Ex- tended Theories of Gravity that is very useful in order to control the physical meaning of these theories. To this goal, useful tools are Noether and Hojman approaches. The application of Hojman conservation theorem is presented in the framework of scalar-tensor cosmologies allowing to fix the form of the coupling F (φ), of the potential V (φ)
and to find out exact solutions for related cosmological models. Afterwards, Noether point symmetries are applied to metric-Palatini hybrid gravity in order to select the f(R) functional form, to find analytical solutions for the field equations and for the related Wheeler-DeWitt equation and finally to Gauss-Bonnet cosmological models,
where F is a generic function of the curvature scalar R and the Gauss-Bonnet topological invariant G, showing that the functional form of the F(R,G) function can be determined by the presence of symmetries. Exact solutions for some specific cosmological models are found out. Finally, cosmological inflation is discussed in the framework of F(R,G) gravity. In principle, this theory can exhaust all the curvature
budget related to curvature invariants. Cosmological dynamics is analysed resulting driven by two effective scalar fields, specifically a R scalaron and a G scalaron, working respectively at early and very early epochs of cosmic evolution. In this sense, a double inflationary scenario naturally emerges.


Virtual metrology (VM) technology is an efficient and effective method of online and wafer-to-wafer process monitoring. It is realized by constructing a prediction model between real-time equipment sensor data and the quality characteristics of wafers that should be measured. The most commonly employed prediction method for VM is a neural network (NN) approach due to its flexibility and fast computation time. However, it can easily suffer from the overfitting problem and is affected by naturally occurring potential outlying observations contained in given data. Moreover, it does not provide prediction intervals for future observations that can be used to detect abnormal process problems. In this paper, an advanced prediction model for VM is developed to resolve these issues. The proposed method is a robust regression model based on relevance vector machine. The proposed method can reduce the effect of outliers by using a weight strategy. Given a prior distribution of weights, it is shown that the weight values can be determined in a probabilistic way and computed automatically during training. We employ the variational inference method to estimate the posterior distribution over model parameters. Therefore, no validation data set is needed to control the model complexity. That is, the complexity of our proposed method can be self-adjusted in the model training phase. Based on the posterior distribution, we can obtain not only point estimates but useful statistical information such as probabilistic intervals which provide us some useful information about the current status of a manufacturing process. If the actual metrology value falls outside of the intervals, it can be a signal which alerts engineers to the need for preventive maintenance or VM model adjustment. The real plasma etching process of semiconductor manufacturing is presented as a case study to compare the predictive performance of our proposed method with that of conventional VM prediction models. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve VM prediction accuracy compared to other methods.


JOHN M. DEPASQUALE Soil-Transmitted Helminths in Schoolchildren in Grand Bois Haiti: A Prevalence Study (Under the direction of KAREN GIESEKER, FACULTY MEMBER) This study used secondary data collected in 2006 to assess the prevalence and severity of three common soil-transmitted helminths in schoolchildren in rural, mountainous, eastern Haiti, and using a case-control design looked at age and gender as independent risk factors, and at anemia and growth failure as potential outcomes of infection. The primary aim was to determine if prevalence and severity were high enough to meet World Health Organization (WHO) population-based deworming criteria. Results do support mass deworming, but overall, indicate no correlation between the other independent variables or outcome measures with presence of disease. A secondary data set from the coastal town of Leogane, Haiti was used as a comparison population where a similar study was performed in 1996. Based on findings, recommendations will be made to Haitian health


In this paper I give a new information-theoretic analysis of the formalisms and interpretations of quantum mechanics (QM) in general, and of two mainstream interpretations of quantum mechanics in particular: The Copenhagen interpretation and David Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics. Adopting Juan G. Roederer's reading of the notion of pragmatic information, I argue that pragmatic information is not applicable to the Copenhagen interpretation since the interpretation is primarily concerned with epistemology rather than ontology. However it perfectly fits Bohm's ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics in the realms of biotic and artificial systems. Viewing Bohm's interpretation of QM in the context of pragmatic information imposes serious limitations to the qualitative aspect of such an interpretation, making his extension of the notion active information to every level of reality illegitimate. Such limitations lead to the idea that, contrary to Bohm's claim, mind is not a more subtle aspect of reality via the quantum potential as active information, but the quantum potential as it affects particles in the double-slit experiment represents the non-algorithmic aspect of the mind as a genuine information processing system. This will provide an information-based ground, firstly, for refreshing our views on quantum interpretations and secondly, for a novel qualitative theory of the relationship of mind and matter in which mind-like properties are exclusive attributes of living systems. To this end, I will also take an information-theoretic approach to the notion of intentionality as interpreted by John Searle.


Previous research examining gender biases in a hiring context shows that female candidates tend to be rated more negatively than equally-qualified male candidates. This effect is not consistent across all studies, which causes the role of gender bias in hiring decisions to remain ambiguous. The present study aims to add clarity to that body of research by examining differences in participant ratings of identical male and female job candidates, while manipulating the gender context of the hiring situation using a job incumbent. The study used a 2 X 2 X 2 design (candidate gender, job position, and incumbent gender) with eight groups. Data were collected from 474 participants who were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were asked to review the resume of a job candidate applying for either a managerial or non-managerial job position, and then to provide ratings of that candidate's hirability, starting salary, competence, and conscientiousness. Results of this study suggest that job position could be more influential on evaluations of job candidates than candidate or incumbent gender.


We present a simple and effective algorithm designed to address the covariate shift problem in imitation learning. It operates by training an ensemble of policies on the expert demonstration data, and using the variance of their predictions as a cost which is minimized with RL together with a supervised behavioral cloning cost. Unlike adversarial imitation methods, it uses a fixed reward function which is easy to optimize. We prove a regret bound for the algorithm in the tabular setting which is linear in the time horizon multiplied by a coefficient which we show to be low for certain problems in which behavioral cloning fails. We evaluate our algorithm empirically across multiple pixel-based Atari environments and continuous control tasks, and show that it matches or significantly outperforms behavioral cloning and generative adversarial imitation learning.


Guardian animals have been a common non-lethal method for reducing predator impacts on livestock for centuries in Europe. But elsewhere, livestock producers sometimes doubt whether such methods work or are compatible with modern livestock husbandry practices in extensive grazing systems. In this study we evaluate the hypothesis that guardian dogs primarily 'work' by establishing and defending territories from which canid predators are excluded. Eight maremmas and six free-ranging wild dogs of different sexes were fitted with GPS collars and monitored for 7 months on a large sheep property in north Queensland, Australia. Wild dog incursions into the territories of adjacent wild dogs and maremmas were recorded. Wild dog territories never overlapped and their home ranges infrequently overlapped. In contrast, 713 hourly locations from 120 wild dog incursions into maremma territories were recorded, mostly from three wild dogs. These three wild dogs spent a mean of 2.5–5.9 h inside maremma territories during incursions. At this location, maremmas worked by guarding sheep and prohibiting fine-scale interaction between wild dogs and sheep, not by establishing a territory respected by wild dogs. We conclude that shepherding behaviour and boisterous vocalisations of guardian dogs combined with the flocking behaviour of sheep circumvents attacks on sheep but does not prevent nor discourage wild dogs from foraging in close proximity. Certain husbandry practices and the behaviour of sheep at parturition may incur greater predation risk.


A CCURATE INFORMATION ON HARMS OF medical interventions is essential for evidence-based practice. Most newly introduced treatments usually have small, incremental benefits, if any, against already available interventions, and differences in the profile of harms should play a key role on treatment choice. Randomized trials offer an excellent opportunity to evaluate harms of interventions using the most robust experimental design available in clinical research. However, several empirical evaluations (Table) have shown that many trials do not report harms or report them in a fragmented or suboptimal way. In this issue, an excellent study by Pitrou et al adds more evidence on this issue.


Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) outyielded four grass species (reed canarygrass [Phalaris arundinacea L.], bromegrass [Bromus inermis Leyss.], Altai wildrye [Elymus angustus Trin.], and tall wheatgrass [Agropyron elongatum Beauv.]) when the forages were irrigated with sufficient lagooned municipal sewage waste water to meet the evapotranspiration minus precipitation deficit (about 50/cm per year). The yields were increased and the yield differential between the alfalfa and the grasses was reduced when additional N was added as fertilizer or by doubling the amount of waste water. The grasses, with the exception of tall wheatgrass, out-yielded the alfalfa when fertilizer was added at the high waste water level. Since water did not limit growth, yields were controlled by the N supply. Waste water-N and fertilizer-N were equally effective in stimulating forage production. Nitrogen yield of alfalfa was double that of the grasses with the unfertilized waste water treatment, and considerably greater than the N yield of the grasses with the other treatments. Nitrogen uptake by all the forages, except tall wheatgrass, exceeded N application by waste water and fertilizer. Phosphorus application, in the waste water or as fertilizer P, exceeded plant uptake. The P content of the forage was unaffected by the treatment; thus, uptake was determined by the yield. Alfalfa was the most suitable forage crop when the system was operated for optimum utilization of the waste water. When high levels of waste water were applied, reed canarygrass removed most of the nutrients while withstanding flooding and higher soil moisture without stands being reduced by winterkilling, as occurred with alfalfa.


Holdcroft, Tina. Spy, Spy Again . Toronto: Annick Press, 2011. Print. Picking up this book, I was struck by the familiarity of the exuberant illustration style. A modest amount of research revealed that illustrator Tina Holdcroft has been an institution in Canadian publishing for decades. Her work on children's publications like Owl and Chickadee, not to mention numerous non-fiction books for children, has made her a part of the visual language of Canadian children's literature since the 1980s. Holdcroft clearly derives inspiration from bringing complex non-fiction and historical information to vivid, dynamic life. Her expertise with visual narrative allows her to communicate historical events within the span of a couple of pithily worded pages. With impressive economy, Holdcroft conveys the intricacies of ancient and modern global political machinations in memorable and hilariously wry vignettes. Holdcroft's very personable and funny narrative tone allows the reader to take in a tremendous amount of detailed information while enjoying her adeptly designed interplay of text and illustration. It is almost too easy to overlook the rigorous research and incisive cleverness amidst all the colourful goofiness.  The joviality might read as a bit flippant given the dire nature of the subject matter - bumbled attempts at spying seldom end happily - but it seems to be part of Holdcroft's intent to emphasize the folly of human conflict and ambition.  A happy confluence of talent, expertise and personal enthusiasm Spy, Spy Again is an engaging and rewarding experience for any reader and should definitely be considered for addition to any non-fiction library for young adults. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Matilda Roche Matilda spends her days lavishing attention on the University of Alberta's metadata but children's illustrated books, literature for young adults and graphic novels also make her heart sing. Her reviews benefit from the critical influence of a four year old daughter and a one year old son – both geniuses. Matilda's super power is the ability to read comic books aloud.


As with race, it's difficult to discuss matters of gender objectively. Both subjects tend to stir emotions and polarize opinions. We've attempted in our cover story this month to present a dispassionate view of an important evolution: the increased presence of women among the ranks of senior bank officers. The statistics alone don't point to any overwhelming recent change. From a pool of about 10,000 banks, a mere handful of CEOs are women. Yet the numbers are increasing at the highest levels--though gradually. In the middle management ranks, the numbers have jumped much more dramatically, as the article notes. Where will the trend go from here? Some may wonder if the recantation of Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade) and the ascendance of conservatism will prompt tens of thousands of women now in managerial roles to trade in their pumps for aprons. The mores of this country have become so capricious that anything is possible. But the trend of women in the workplace is not solely a cultural phenomenon. It's also partly the result of economics. Our sense is that the trend will continue, so that by 2000, there will be more women who are bank CEOs than now--perhaps many more. A relevant question is, "So what?" Why is a person's gender, race, or ethnic background a significant factor? As it relates to ability and performance in a business environment, it isn't. But the fact is that any time the norm changes, that change is noteworthy. And in regard to women in banking, the norm is changing. The seven women we profiled are only a sampling of a larger number. Four of them are CEOs of community banks, two are presidents with units of very large banks, and the other is a senior vice-president with a large bank. Each of them offers a compelling story of how they rose to their current position. Each story, furthermore, is quite different. As our cover headline suggests, the women were asked if they had encountered a gender barrier--the so-called glass ceiling, that much-discussed invisible barrier to promotion beyond a certain level. None had experienced such a barrier themselves, but each of the seven knew someone who had, and each said they had encountered some gender-related challenge. Barbara Ralston, of First Interstate Bank of Arizona, for example, told us she was aware that at various stages in her career she was the "token" woman. Whereas some people might take offense, understandably, at being considered a token, Ralston treated it as an opportunity. …


A multidisciplinary, multilevel methodology that cross-examines existing historical information from past climate (1st half of 20th century), with geographic information and other historical sources available about population movements (demographic census) is proposed, allowing to map climate variability in the same period and its relationship with migration in Portuguese territory. Results are presented regarding the case study of the Avieiros, a Portuguese fishing community, whose migration shows some correlation in time with the precipitation and temperature series. Developing and validating this approach, will allow for application to other cases in different countries, namely to the Portuguese speaking countries.


Weak or inappropriate property rights can be a major impediment to efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. The system of property rights governs what landholders can do with their land and other resources and the incentives which exist to undertake tree growing activities. In the forest sector, the property rights regime is conditioned largely by the forest administration infrastructure, forestry funding arrangements and environmental policy. Often measures to make forestry more sustainable have unintended adverse impacts on the property rights of tree growers. In the Philippines (as in other countries, both developed and developing), various anomalies in property rights in forestry are often noted. These tend to discriminate against plantation forestry and, in particular, small-scale forestry. Reform of property rights in forestry is a challenging task.


Deficient emotion regulation and exaggerated anxiety represent a major transdiagnostic psychopathological marker. On the neural level these deficits have been closely linked to impaired, yet treatment-sensitive, prefrontal regulatory control over the amygdala. Gaining direct control over these pathways could therefore provide an innovative and promising strategy to regulate exaggerated anxiety. To this end the current proof-of-concept study evaluated the feasibility, functional relevance and maintenance of a novel connectivity-informed real-time fMRI neurofeedback training. In a randomized within-subject sham-controlled design high anxious subjects (n = 26) underwent real-time fMRI-guided training to enhance connectivity between the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and the amygdala (target pathway) during threat exposure. Maintenance of regulatory control was assessed after three days and in the absence of feedback. Training-induced changes in functional connectivity of the target pathway and anxiety ratings served as primary outcomes. Training of the target, yet not the sham-control, pathway significantly increased amygdala-vlPFC connectivity and decreased subjective anxiety levels. On the individual level stronger connectivity increases were significantly associated with anxiety reduction. At follow-up, volitional control over the target pathway and decreased anxiety level were maintained in the absence of feedback. The present results demonstrate for the first time that successful self-regulation of amygdala-prefrontal top-down regulatory circuits may represent a novel strategy to control anxiety. As such, the present findings underscore both the critical contribution of amygdala-prefrontal circuits to emotion regulation and the therapeutic potential of connectivity-informed real-time neurofeedback.


The security of monitoring systems is critical for maintaining an accurate view of the state of infrastructure systems such as enterprise networks and critical infrastructure systems. A malicious user that controls a monitoring system has the ability of delaying the detection of security attacks and sabotages, and can acquire information about the infrastructure that can enable additional attacks. In this paper we present a distributed architecture that increases the resilient of monitoring systems to attacks against their availability, integrity, and confidentiality. Our approach is based on distributing the knowledge of the state of the infrastructure to a large number of non-dedicated servers, so that the compromise of any limited number of hosts does not cause a compromise of the entire monitoring system. We present an algorithm able to integrate information across the distributed servers to evaluate complex security policies. We analyze the security properties of our approach, and we experimentally evaluate the performance and the resilience of our architecture. We show that, compared to current solutions, our solution increases the resilience of a monitoring system while reducing the load on each monitoring machine.


IPsec is the standard suite of protocols for network-layer confidentiality and authentication of Internet traffic. The IPsec protocols, however, do not address the policies for how protected traffic should be handled at security end points. This article introduces an efficient policy management scheme for IPsec, based on the principles of trust management. A compliance check is added to the IPsec architecture that tests packet filters proposed when new security associations are created for conformance with the local security policy, based on credentials presented by the peer host. Security policies and credentials can be quite sophisticated (and specified in the trust-management language), while still allowing very efficient packet-filtering for the actual IPsec traffic. We present a practical portable implementation of this design, based on the KeyNote trust-management language, that works with a variety of UNIX-based IPsec implementations. Finally, we discuss some applications of the enhanced IPsec architecture.


This study will analyze the issues surrounding the "aging out" of young adults in the foster care system in the United States by focusing on data from three locations: England's Child Welfare System, Idaho's Department of Health and Welfare, and Texas's Department of Family and Protective Services. The study looks to current research to describe the resources needed to help foster youth achieve self-sufficiency and finds that youth need social support, financial support, healthcare, mental health resources, housing resources, substance abuse treatment, educational resources, legal assistance, employment stability, and assistance with child care. In order to measure the transitional resources being provided to foster youth, a Self-Sufficiency Matrix is utilized. This research is a comparative study that intends to describe the different types of transitional resources provided to youth transitioning out of the foster care system in Idaho, Texas, and England. Four main themes emerged from this research: better communication, gradual transition, building long lasting relationships, and collaboration with transitioning foster youth.


Mitral valve (MV) annular dynamics are critical to the long term efficacy of MV repair. Today's annuloplasty rings, used to restore MV function, impose significant constraints on the motion profile of the MV annulus. We present a selectively compliant ring that provides sufficient stiffness to stabilize a diseased annulus while allowing physiological annular dynamics. Ring design is informed by a finite element analysis and experimentally evaluated with in-vitro stereophotogrammetry. We compare the ring dynamics to commercially available semi-rigid rings as well as values found in literature for healthy annuli. The results demonstrate that motion of the selectively compliant ring is significantly closer to that of a healthy annulus based on standard metrics that define MV annular movement. Specifically, the metrics for the new ring compare to those in literature as follows: change in orifice area 12.5 ± 3% vs.10 ± 2%; change in anterior-posterior diam. 5.4 ± 0.3% vs. 7 ± 1%; change in inter-commissural diam. 6.6 ± 1.3% vs. 5 ± 1%.


Abstract A chemistry-based parameter has been sought for determining the gradation of compression wood (CW), i.e., the severity, in tissues of Pinus radiata wood. Fluorescence microscopy was the reference for characterisation of the tissues containing CW. The collected material contained CW of varying severity, beginning with normal wood (NW containing no CW), continuing with material with some features of CW (CW of mild severity, MCW) and ending up with a material with pronounced features of CW (CW of high severity, SCW). Matching opposite wood (OW) was also included in the study. The chemical analyses included lignin determination, sugar analysis in the acid hydrolysate, thioacidolysis, 31P-NMR spectroscopic analysis and steric exclusion chromatography of thioacidolysis products. As the severity of CW changed progressively from NW through MCW to SCW, all chemical parameters changed concurrently. In particular, levels of galactose and lignin increased, while those of glucose and mannose decreased. The amounts of p-hydroxyphenyl β-ethers released by chemical degradation and uncondensed p-hydroxyphenyl C-9 units also increased at elevated CW severity levels. The amounts of galactose and the p-hydroxyphenyl content of the lignin correlated linearly with lignin for CW samples. The chemical differences between CW and OW in the stem, branch and seedling were similar, i.e., they are independent of the morphological origin of the sample. Parameters based on the p-hydroxyphenyl unit content appear the most suitable chemical indicators of CW severity, as they are least sensitive to the sample's morphological origin and their response to CW severity is high.


Evolutionary biologists are often interested in finding correlations among biological traits (or attributes) across a number of species, as such correlations may lead to testable hypotheses about the underlying function. Because some species are more closely related than others, computing and visualizing these correlations must be done in the context of the evolutionary tree that relates the species. Although dozens of visualizations for correlated traits have been developed over the decades, the recent explosive growth in the number of traits and species has created a need for a visualization that can scale to dozens of traits mapped to thousands of species and their evolutionary tree to allow the interactive exploration of complex interactions. In this paper, we introduce Det., called detective, an evolutionary tree visualization that allows biologists to see multiple attributes of leaf nodes. We describe a new tree layout algorithm to represent different branch lengths and several visualization and intereaction techniques to address user requirements. We also report informal feedbacks we collected from evolutionary


We review 15 cases of secondary B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders that occurred among 2,475 patients who received allogeneic bone marrow transplants (BMTs) at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle) between 1969 and 1987. The histopathologic findings in 14 of the 15 patients spanned a wide spectrum of lymphoproliferative lesions. One patient had features characteristic of angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genomic sequences were identified by Southern blot analysis in each of the 13 patients evaluated. Ten of the 12 lesions evaluated originated in donor cells. In two patients, who had mixed chimerism after transplantation, the lesions originated in host cells. The combined evidence from immunoglobulin light chain staining and the analysis of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement indicated that the lesions in most patients represented polyclonal proliferations that gave rise to clonal subpopulations. The results indicate an overall actuarial incidence of 0.6% for this complication in BMT recipients. Anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (MoAb) treatment of acute graft-v-host disease (GVHD) and T cell depletion of the donor marrow were statistically significant risk factors, and GVHD appeared to play a contributing role, particularly in the setting of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) disparity. Two patients had no identifiable risk factors. Prophylaxis or treatment with acyclovir had no detectable effect in the patients; all but two died with uncontrolled lymphoproliferation.


Objective: Small bowel (SB) transplantation (Tx), long considered a rescue therapy for patients with intestinal failure, is now a well recognised alternative treatment strategy to parental nutrition (PN). In this retrospective study, we analysed graft functions in 31 children after SBTx with a follow-up of 2–18 years (median 7 years). Patients: Twelve children had isolated SBTx, 19 had combined liver–SBTx and 17 received an additional colon graft. Growth, nutritional markers, stool balance studies, endoscopy and graft histology were recorded every 2–3 years post-Tx. Results: All children were weaned from PN after Tx and 26 children remained PN-free. Enteral nutrition was required for 14/31 (45%) patients at 2 years post-Tx. All children had high dietary energy intakes. The degree of steatorrhoea was fairly constant, with fat and energy absorption rates of 84–89%. Growth parameters revealed at transplantation a mean height Z-score of –1.17. After Tx, two-thirds of children had normal growth, whereas in one-third, Z-scores remained lower than –2, concomitant to a delayed puberty. Adult height was normal in 5/6. Endoscopy and histology analyses were normal in asymptomatic patients. Chronic rejection occurred only in non-compliant patients. Five intestinal grafts were removed 2.5–8 years post-Tx for acute or chronic rejection. Conclusions: This series indicates that long-term intestinal autonomy for up to 18 years is possible in the majority of patients after SBTx. Subnormal energy absorption and moderate steatorrhoea were often compensated for by hyperphagia, allowing normal growth and attainment of adult height. Long-term compliance is an important pre-requisite for long-term graft function.