The neurodegenerative disease field has enjoyed extremely limited success in the development of effective therapeutics. One potential reason is the lack of disease models that yield accurate predictions and optimal therapeutic targets. Standard clinical trials have pre-determined a single treatment modality, which may be unrelated to the primary drivers of neurodegeneration. Recent proof-of-concept clinical trials using a precision medicine approach suggest a new model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) as a chronic innate encephalitis that creates a network insufficiency. Identifying and addressing the multiple potential contributors to cognitive decline for each patient may represent a more effective strategy. Here we review the rationale for a precision medicine approach in prevention and treatment of cognitive decline associated with AD. Results and implications from recent proof-of-concept clinical trials are presented. Randomized controlled trials, with much larger patient numbers, are likely to be significant to establishing precision medicine protocols as a standard of care for prevention and treatment of cognitive decline. Furthermore, combining this approach with the pharmaceutical approach offers the potential for enhanced outcomes. However, incorporating precision medicine approaches into everyday evaluation and care, as well as future clinical trials, would require fundamental changes in trial design, IRB considerations, funding considerations, laboratory evaluation, personalized treatment plans, treatment teams, and ultimately in reimbursement guidelines. Nonetheless, precision medicine approaches to AD, based on a novel model of AD pathophysiology, offer promise that has not been realized to date with monotherapeutic approaches.


1. The enzymic oxidation of glyoxylate to oxalate in the soluble (100 000 g supernatant) fraction of liver and heart tissue from a patient with primary hyperoxaluria and from a non-hyperoxaluric subject have been studied. 2. An oxidized nicotinamide—adenine dinucleotide (NAD + )-dependent and a non-NAD + -dependent oxidation of glyoxylate to oxalate were observed in the liver tissue from both sources. 3. Evidence is presented that lactate dehydrogenase has a major role in catalysing the reaction in both of the tissues studied. The non-NAD + -dependent oxidations which are catalysed by xanthine oxidase and glycollate oxidase in the liver are relatively unimportant, and they were not detected in the heart. 4. An enzyme that catalyses the oxidation of glycollate was also demonstrated in liver tissue. This had a different electrophoretic mobility from the lactate dehydrogenase isoenzymes. 5. These findings are discussed with particular reference to human primary hyperoxaluria in which excessive oxalate synthesis occurs.


Tresting new drugs is a costly and frustrating headache for pharmaceuticals companies-and the pain is about to get worse. Clinical trials are at best difficult to manage and dogged by delays, and now the genomics revolution and stricter regulatory standards are compounding the problems. For pharma companies, managing the newly increased demands of clinical trials may become the greatest obstacle to realizing the full benefit of the new health technologies. Not surprisingly, it is the clinical aspects of these trials that pharma companies concentrate on: making sure that the research methodology or protocol leads to results capable of standing up to the scrutiny of authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But another crucial element- the recruitment of patients-is often overlooked, causing expensive delays that can drain much of the sales potential from any new drug. More than half of all US clinical trials from 1993 to 1998 missed their deadlines by at least a month (Exhibit 1, on the next page). A failure to get enough patients in time accounts for 85 to 95 percent of all days lost during clinical trials (Exhibit 2, on the next spread). The fresh opportunities unleashed in the year 2000, when the human genome was finally charted, are set to increase the demand for patients in clinical trials. Drug research focuses on discovering novel targets: the biological mechanisms, usually receptors or enzymes in human cells, through which drugs work. By mapping the genome, scientists have increased the number of potential targets-to as many as 10,000, from about 500-and the R&D costs associated with developing new drugs could double. (1) As more new drug targets enter the R&D pipeline, poor recruitment could become a bottleneck, hampering a company's ability to bring new drugs to market expeditiously. Delays can cost pharma companies at least $800,000 a day in lost sales for a niche medication, such as Amaryl, an oral antidiabetic treatment, and as much as $5.4 million for a blockbuster like Prilosec, a gastrointestinal medication. If some of this revenue is merely deferred, it may be recouped once a drug goes on the market, but millions of dollars in revenue can vanish if a competitor catches up or, worse, gains the advantage with an earlier debut. Delays can also affect a company's valuation, since investors closely watch the progress of new drugs: efficient clinical trials put them on the market more quickly, so they take market share more quickly. Pharma companies may also gain a strategic edge by setting a new standard for treating a disease, and speed to market gives physicians and patients a broader, and potentially lifesaving, choice of treatments in less time. Finding people for trials is always hard: too many patients don't realize they can participate. Further, deaths and questionable practices in isolated trials have made potential participants wary. Moreover, designers of clinical trials are now seeking more narrowly defined sets of patients, in part to distinguish new drugs from rivals on the market. But the most important problem is regulatory change: over the past decade, the number of patients needed for each FDA approval has almost doubled. (2) The pharma industry could therefore create enormous value by more efficiently recruiting participants in clinical trials. Taking a single month off a trial by improving recruitment could generate an additional $40 million in sales for an average drug. But to do so, pharma companies must radically alter their R&D efforts by improving the speed and efficiency of recruitment, and this in turn will streamline the whole clinical-trials process. Thinking like marketers To get patients into trials more efficiently, pharma companies must begin to think like marketers. By setting a target for the number of patients needed in a trial, the R&D team in essence creates a sales challenge: to get enough patients to buy the "product"--in this case, participation in the trial. …


Pilgrimage to religious sites and secular travel culture have been closely linked for many centuries in Japan. Pilgrims in the Japanese Buddhist context usually visit a series of temples that form a fixed set or 'circle' of Buddhist sites thought to be miraculous. The circulatory Buddhist pilgrimage to thirty-three sites in and around the old capital of Kyoto – the Saikoku pilgrimage – is one of the most enduring complex religious institutions known. The article examines possible reasons for the undiminished success of the pilgrimage, highlighting the role of foundation legends and miracle tales in the management of memory. The narratives reveal bureaucratic site administration and are connected to the act of mapping of paths both through the physical and the spiritually endowed landscape.


In water supply facilities such as distribution reservoirs, the inner surface of reinforced concrete (RC) tanks is often coated with resin paint or the concrete cover depth is increased to protect the concrete from surface deterioration. However, there is little published research on carbonation – one of the main causes of concrete deterioration – in relation to RC tanks, leaving room for improvement with regard to methods for preventing surface deterioration. This study discusses the impact of surface coating and environmental conditions on the carbonation rate of concrete based on a survey of the present state of RC tanks of the Sapporo Waterworks Bureau. Coating was found to have an inhibitory effect on carbonation. Because the carbonation rate of concrete used for the inside and outside of RC tanks was slow, the sufficient concrete cover depth to protect rebar from carbonation while in service was found to be 75 mm for RC tanks without coating.


What shall I tell the young on such a morning?--Mind is the one salvation?--Also grammar?--From Heart's Needle. "The Campus on the Hill" by W.D. Snodgrass. Copyrightc 1959 by William Snodgrass. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf Inc.(1)What shall I tell my young and not-so-young on such a morning? Image is the one salvation? Also soundbites?No. I want them to understand that public relations is more than creating images, and more than just learning the labels that identify the parts of the discipline. What I really want to do is be the kind of teacher that Northrup Frye describes in "Literary and Linguistic Scholarship in a Postliterate World," one who tries to transform "a passive literacy into an active postliteracy, with the responsibility and freedom of choice that is part of any world we want to live in."(2) I want to be the kind that requires students to do more than "learn to read and respond to traffic signals and advertising; learn to cipher and do our income taxes." But providing beginning students with a framework to truly understand the road to success is challenging, perhaps more challenging in public relations courses than in many others.As White, Oukrop and Nelson point out,"...the uniqueness of public relations education involves not so much the individual courses it comprises but the gestalt its unusual combination of theory and practice evokes."(3) Helping students put that gestalt into perspective is a major challenge for teachers. It constitutes a challenge that requires both teacher and students to employ all of their critical abilities.I believe that this challenge can be met by helping students apply the critical skills they developed earlier in their academic careers. Encouraging this kind of curricular connectedness is supported by the Commission on Undergraduate Public Relations Education, which has stated that "...the traditional arts and sciences remain the solid basis for undergraduate education of public relations students, essential to their functioning professionally in a complex society."(4) Consequently, I believe that connecting those bases with critical thinking skills is a necessary part of every public relations curriculum. Creative and innovative approaches are needed if we are going to succeed.ContextThe practice of public relations has become extremely complex. The competent practitioner must internalize the following:* An ability to identify and understand the relative needs of all major and man minor internal and external publics.* An understanding of the importance and applications of policies, practices rules, procedures, laws, regulations and precedents--from personnel policies to union work rules-that govern the con. duct of an organization.* A working knowledge of the technical, scientific and professional foundations of an organization's products and services* An awareness of and sensitivity to the attitudes and values of individuals and groups in the geographic area an organization serves and in venues far beyond it normal areas of activity.* The skills to analyze, synthesize and communicate effectively on the many meanings that are derived from all of those associations and relationships.Indeed, Philip Lesly points out: "Public relations people have the role of being always in the middle--pivoted between their clients/employers and their publics. ...This role 'in the middle' does not apply to any other group that deals with the climate of attitudes."(5)Understanding such complex relationships in a constantly changing business environment is not easy; not for the professional practitioner and less so for the beginning student. Edward Bernays recognized this problem in 1923 in his attempt to define the nature of the profession, and to identify the demands placed on the practitioner:The public relations counsel is first of all a student. His field of study is the public mind. …


This paper considers two main questions: Is it possible to use Farm Business Survey (FBS) data to derive well-established environmental indicators and can these FBS derived indicators also provide a reasonable comparison of the environmental performance of organic and conventional farms? The results suggest that the indicators can be obtained from FBS data and that the majority of the indicators provided meaningful results, despite some data limitations within the FBS dataset. The comparison of organic with conventional FBS data in the UK suggests that organic farms have lower fertiliser and crop protection costs (as would be expected) but that differences in feed costs, stocking density and cropping diversity were dependent upon farm type. This research confirms that FBS data can be used to derive indirect environmental indicators which are able to identify significant differences between farm types and management systems. These indicators are also likely to be applicable at EU level through their use within the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), which collates farm economic data across the EU. This is of interest to researches and policy-makers who could use FADN data to track some aspects of environmental performance across many countries and track changes over time. These results may also be useful to farm consultants and managers who could potentially use a similar approach in using individual farm financial information to benchmark some aspects of farm environmental performance.


ABSTRACT Cultural barriers to health facility-based childbirth are a common experience worldwide despite wide variations in context. Close-to-community (CTC) maternal health providers play an important role in bridging communities and health systems and their role in maternal health are particularly key. This study explored the views of CTC maternal health providers and other community members on the cultural barriers to health facility-based childbirth in two districts in Indonesia and six districts of Sidama Zone, southern Ethiopia. Employing a qualitative approach, we conducted 110 semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and 7 focus group discussions (FGDs) in Indonesia; 44 SSIs and 14 FGDs in Ethiopia. Participants in both contexts included mothers, husbands, male community members, traditional birth attendants (TBAs), village heads, local administrators, district health officials, maternal health-care workers and CTC maternal health providers. Despite significant geographical and cultural differences, the main findings were similar in the two countries' study areas. These included: strong cultural-religious beliefs; culture of shyness and privacy around pregnancy; highly gendered decision-making related to pregnancy and childbirth; and preference for the TBA care. TBAs' close proximity at the time of childbirth and their adherence to traditional practices were important factors influencing preference for TBAs. These cultural barriers interplay with geographical, transportation and financial factors hindering pregnant women from giving birth at a health facility. Intensifying health promotion on health facility-based childbirth, increasing collaboration among CTC maternal health workers e.g. midwives, health extension workers and TBAs, and enhancing responsiveness to traditional practices may overcome cultural barriers to institutional childbirth in Indonesia and Ethiopia.


In this paper we evaluate the impact of the business cycle on participation in the Disability Insurance (DI) program in Spain in the context of the Great Recession, which has been particularly strong in this country. We follow two approaches. First, we use regional administrative data to estimate the effect of the regional unemployment rate on the number of applications, denials and allowances to the DI rolls. Second, we use longitudinal panel data to estimate the effect of the business cycle on transitions from different labor market states to the DI rolls. Our results show a pro-cyclical behavior of participation in DI during the years of the Great Recession. This is in contrast to the countercyclical response documented both for other countries as well as for Spain before 2008. We document some facts that partially explain why DI benefits have become pro instead of countercyclical during the Great Recession in Spain. Our results provide valuable evidence for policy-makers as they highlight that some of the disabled population may be left economically uncovered during the worst of times.


Ellagitannins have attracted much attention because of the biological and pharmacological activities. In the total synthesis of ellagitannins, 3,4,5-tri-O-benzylgallic acid has been a key compound to introduce the protected galloyl group. From the perspective of coordination chemistry, 3,4,5-tri-O-benzylgallic acid is an interesting carboxylate ligand which might be capable of dinuclear carboxylate complex. Such a dinuclear carboxylate complex might be interesting as a new example of copper acetate type complexes.The objective of the work is to synthesize a copper acetate type complex by using 3,4,5-tri-O-benzylgallic acid and to see a new feature of copper acetate compounds, by elucidating the crystal structure, magnetic property, and adsorption property for N2gas.Copper(II) 3,4,5-tri-O-benzylgallate has been synthesized by a reaction of 3,4,5-tri-O-benzylgallic acid and copper(II) nitrate at pH=9 condition. The isolated complex was characterized using single-crystal X-ray structure analysis, XRD analysis, UV-visible spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility.The crystal structure shows a crystallographically centrosymmetric dinuclear molecule with four carboxylato-bridges and axial dimethylformamide molecules and crystal dmf molecules [Cu···Cu 2.6345(12) Å]. In the crystal, 1D supramolecular assembly by π-π interaction between the benzyl aromatic rings of dinuclear molecules was observed. Temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibilities showed a considerable antiferromagnetic interaction between the two copper(II) ions (2J = –214 cm–1). Type-II gas-adsorption property was observed for N2.A key-compound for the total synthesis of ellagitannins, 3,4,5-tri-O-benzylgallic acid (Htbng), was shown to be a new ligand for the synthesis of dinuclear copper acetate analogue with a lantern-type core, extending the realm of copper acetate clusters.


Background: Touch (rugby/football) is a minimal contact sport for which the type and incidence of injuries remains unknown in Europe. Objectives: To establish the incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained during a four-day European Touch Championship competition. Methods: A prospective cohort design was adopted to record match-related injuries during the European Touch Championships 2016. Injuries were collected from five countries and classified using the Orchard Sports Injury Classification (OSICS-10). Data were combined from all participating countries and injury incidence was recorded as number of injuries/1000 player hours. Results: A total of 135 injuries were recorded during the tournament with injury incidence calculated as 103.5 injuries per 1000 player match hours. Injuries were mainly recorded as transient (76%) occurring most frequently in the lower limb (69%). Injuries occurred more frequently on successive days, with exception to the final day of the tournament. The number of injuries was not different between the first and second half of matches and there was no relationship between the day of the tournament and the half of the match that injury occurred. Conclusion: Match injury incidence was 103.5 injuries per 100 player match hours. The most injured site was that of the lower limb, with the most common injury type reported as muscle/tendon injury. It is postulated that fatigue plays a role in injury incidence during a multiday tournament.


In looking back on the last five to ten years of work in heuristic search a few trends emerge. First, there has been a broadening of research topics studied. Second, there has been a deepened understanding of the theoretical foundations of search. Third, and finally, there have been increased connections with work in other fields. This paper, corresponding to a AAAI 2012 invited talk on recent work in heuristic search, highlights these trends in a number of areas of heuristic search. It is our opinion that the sum of these trends reflects the growth in the field and the fact that heuristic search has come of age.


As with Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology and The Prescriber's Guide, Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia is a full-colour title with a fun approach to theories. Stahl has been at the heart of many recent advances in the understanding of pain psychology, which has been reflected in the development of a new and wide variety of psychopharmologic and non-psychopharmologic pain medications. The visual learner will find that these books make psychopharmacology concepts easy to master, while the non-visual learner will enjoy a shortened text version of complex psychopharmacology concepts. Readers will find that the well-structured vocabulary combines with tables and algorithms to help build a vivid conception of current clinical strategies. The title is essential reading for pharmaceutical and mental health professionals, neurologists and pain management specialists. The Suggested Reading section at the end of the book is an invaluable tool for more in-depth learning on particular concepts.


Rogers (1957; 1959) claim that the client's minimal perception of therapist empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence as necessary and sufficient for constructive personality change has been supported equivocally. This necessary and sufficient hypothesis implies the therapeutic relationship is unilaterally therapist created via the provision of a set of specific therapeutic attitudes and delivered to the client. Recent research from the psychotherapy literature has pointed towards the role of reciprocal positive interaction between client and therapist. However, despite the common view of the therapeutic relationship as unilateral, Rogers (1959) referred to the reciprocal nature of the therapeutic conditions, therefore, suggesting the therapeutic relationship is a bidirectional process. The current study explores the mutual and reciprocal experiencing of the therapeutic conditions, their development over the early stages of the therapeutic relationship and subsequent association with an objective measure of outcome. The study analysed data relating to the quality of the mutual affective therapeutic environment from sixty two bona fide counselling/psychotherapy dyads in a naturalistic longitudinal design.

Levels of the therapeutic conditions as provided and perceived by both clients and therapists were assessed using a shortened version of the B-L RI after the first and third session and clients also completed the CORE-OM at the first and third session. The results showed that the psychotherapy was generally effective and that client s views of the quality of the therapeutic relationship were a better predictor of outcome than therapists. Test of the effect of mutual experiencing of the therapeutic conditions were carried out using hierarchical linear multiple regression. The results showed a significant interaction between client and therapist views of the quality of the therapeutic relationship at session three with outcome at session three. This suggested that the association between the client view of the relationship and outcome was stronger when both clients and therapists rated mutually high levels of the therapeutic relationship conditions provided by the therapist. This result was also present when considering the mutual levels of the therapeutic conditions that client and therapist perceived in the other.

These findings suggest that the perception of mutually high levels of the therapeutic conditions is able to predict outcome and supports the view that the mutual and reciprocal affective environment is associated with positive therapeutic change. The implications for practice are that clients must be considered as the central change agent in their own therapy. In effect, the study has shown that it is the client's own feelings towards the therapist and their interaction with how the therapist feels towards the client that is an important factor in predicting outcome. It would seem that even when clients have experienced significant psychological distress, the client's organismic striving for relationship remains and the extent this is perceived and received by the therapist is related to a positive outcome for the client. As a result of this, psychotherapy practitioners could benefit their clients by considering themselves as part of a bi-directional relational dyad. Further research is required as a result of the current findings and suggests the need to explore the nature, form and experience of mutuality within the therapeutic relationship.


This work reports the spectral characteristics of coupled square ring semiconductor resonators. For a single mode operation, the square ring cavities coupled with multimode interferometers (MMIs) are proposed and fabricated using the epitaxial layers of 1.55 microm center wavelength InGaAsP-InP multiple quantum wells. Resonant characteristics can be tailored by varying the parameters of the cavity size or the waveguide width. By using the MMI coupled square ring cavity, a stable single spectral lasing mode was obtained in various combinations of square cavities.


The mating system of the animal-pollinated forest tree species Eucalyptus globulus Labill. was investigated in a clonal seed orchard to determine the importance of self-incompatibility, floral timing, floral abundance and canopy position on explaining variation in outcrossing rates. Outcrossing rates were highly and significantly correlated with the degree of self-incompatibility of individual genotypes (R2 = 0.92). Outcrossing rates were also significantly higher in the upper than in the lower parts of tree canopies (0.78 ± 0.1 and 0.54 ± 0.1, respectively). In contrast, neither flowering time nor abundance of flowers on individual trees revealed consistent effects upon outcrossing rates, suggesting that these factors are either less important or inherently more unpredictable because their effects partly depend on complex interactions with animal pollinators. Screening seed orchards in order to identify trees with high self-incompatibility and restricting seed collection to these trees will ensure that a high proportion of the seed used for plantations is derived from outcrossing, thereby minimising the deleterious effects of inbreeding depression.


In reaction to recent progress in human embryo genome editing, the Council of Europe is resolutely on its way to reaffirming a 20‐year‐old policy banning all inheritable interventions involving the human genome. This approach, which was well justified two decades ago, is now outdated, overly restrictive and will hamper promising research for germline gene therapy. A ban no longer makes sense from an ethical point of view.

Until recently, there has been a worldwide consensus among scientists and policymakers not to modify the human germline. The main rationale was that classical genetic engineering technologies in humans were inefficient and imprecise. The risks were simply too great. But the risk assessment was based on recombinant DNA technology, which is much less precise than the new genome editing technologies—with the flagship CRISPR/Cas9 system—that are much more efficient and precise. Although they are not yet sufficiently safe to be used in clinical trials, research has made rapid progress in improving efficiency and precision of the CRISPR technology [1]. With further improvements, gene‐editing technology therefore has …


ABSTRACT From a cursory look at the terms of service of the main social networking websites, it is immediately possible to detect that Facebook's show a peculiar configuration. Although they represent a mere contract between private parties, these terms adopt the traditional jargon of constitutional texts and articulate their contents in terms of rights, principles and duties. This curious pairing between norms regulating social media and the constitutional sphere is also apparent in a series of non-binding documents that are unequivocally named 'bill of rights' and seek to articulate a set of principles to protect social media users. This paper examines whether the emergence of a constitutional tone in this limited number of texts could be related to the effective, or aspirational, constitutional function that these documents exercise. The identification of a series of significant shortcomings will lead to exclude that social media's terms of service and bills of rights of social media users currently play a constitutionalising role. Nevertheless, the possibility to theoretically justify the use of these documents as mechanisms of constitutionalisation in the social media environment will be adduced as an evidence of the potential constitutional aspirations of these texts.


In today's demanding business environment, modeling the power system has become necessary in order for utilities to make the right decision when it embarks on any form of asset expansion. Modeling allows the proposed system to be checked for any potential problems, such as mal-operation and incompatibility. The Siemens 7UT6 differential protection relay is used for power transformer differential protection and is capable of protecting transformers of any vector group. This paper covers the steps of modeling the 7UT6 relay and the application of the modeled relay in testing a protection system. A demonstration tripping of vector group D11 will be shown and the fault currents discussed. Graphs showing the phase voltages and currents will be inspected.


Organizational justice researchers have long debated the distinction between procedural and interactional justice. Recently, several researchers have proposed that procedural and interactional justice can be distinguished from one another using social exchange theory. In particular, procedural justice applies more to the exchange between the individual and employing organization, whereas interactional justice generally refers to the exchange between the individual and his or her supervisor. If this theory is correct, procedural justice should be more closely associated with reactions toward upper management and organizational policies, whereas interactional justice should be more closely associated with reactions toward one's supervisor and job performance. These predictions were tested in a field study involving approximately 107 employees and their supervisors. Predictions were generally confirmed, though there were some unexpected findings.


Maximising a cumulative reward function that is Markov and stationary, i.e., defined over state-action pairs and independent of time, is sufficient to capture many kinds of goals in a Markov decision process (MDP). However, not all goals can be captured in this manner. In this paper we study convex MDPs in which goals are expressed as convex functions of the stationary distribution and show that they cannot be formulated using stationary reward functions. Convex MDPs generalize the standard reinforcement learning (RL) problem formulation to a larger framework that includes many supervised and unsupervised RL problems, such as apprenticeship learning, constrained MDPs, and so-called `pure exploration'. Our approach is to reformulate the convex MDP problem as a min-max game involving policy and cost (negative reward) `players', using Fenchel duality. We propose a meta-algorithm for solving this problem and show that it unifies many existing algorithms in the literature.


The authors studied the electrical stability of the asymmetric fingered polysilicon thin film transistors (AF-TFTs) at different bias-stress conditions by using a new test structure with an additional contact on the n+-floating region. This structure allows to measure the two subchannel TFT (sub-TFT) electrical characteristics before and after bias stressing. The AF-TFTs show a very stable saturation regime, even when bias stressing at very high Vds, where the electrical characteristics of both sub-TFTs are degraded. The authors concluded that stability of the AF-TFTs is related to the specific operation of the device rather than to immunity of this structure to hot carrier effects.


When the New Testament is interpreted, directly preceding literature is largely neglected. The dialectical terms, discourse and contra-discourse do not often surface in research on this period. This is especially the case with reference to women. Jesus Ben Sira (ca. 196 BCE) as well as other wisdom writers had quite a negative view of women. Although it has previously been argued that this negative discourse on women was challenged by Judith, this article goes further: the Additions to Esther and Susanna are added as possible challenging discourses. It is argued that these texts convincingly confront Ben Sira's negative views and add substantial value to the worth and status of women. During the CE, both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul had a mainly positive view of women. Positive ideas and allusions from texts are pointed out that might have their roots in the Apocrypha. Lastly, this article argues that the disputed Pauline letters contain a swing back towards Jesus Ben Sira's negative view of women.


MOTIVATION
Fluorescent and luminescent reporter gene systems in combination with automated microplate readers allow real-time monitoring of gene expression on the population level at high precision and sampling density. This generates large amounts of data for the analysis of which computer tools are missing to date.

RESULTS
We have developed WellReader, a MATLAB program for the analysis of fluorescent and luminescent reporter gene data. WellReader allows the user to load the output files of microplate readers, remove outliers, correct for background effects and smooth and fit the data. Moreover, it computes biologically relevant quantities from the measured signals, notably promoter activities and protein concentrations, and compares the resulting expression profiles of different genes under different conditions.

AVAILABILITY
WellReader is available under a LGPL licence at http://prabi1.inrialpes.fr/trac/wellreader.


Among Israel's socialization agents during its first years were teachers who were sent off everywhere where there were children of compulsory school age. The majority of the teachers teaching in the periphery lacked pedagogical training. They were recruited by the Ministry of Education owing to the shortage of teachers in the wake of the mass immigration. Among them were immigrant teachers, who were struggling to integrate into the society, and young teachers of the 1948 generation, including novice teachers and soldier teachers. These two groups were expected not merely to teach, but also to fulfill various specialist functions in their contact with their pupils' families, struggling with problems typical of immigrants. This article examines their biographical profile affecting their activity and indicates that teaching in the periphery empowered the young teachers, while enabling the immigrant teachers to join the middle class of veteran Israelis within a relatively short time.


A highly readable and illuminating approach to biblical scholarship from the author of Christ the Form of Beauty.At a time when new approaches to biblical analysis are proliferating, Francesca Murphy opens up the literary dimension of the Bible using a lively form of narrative criticism, developing a doctrine of revelation which is both original and radically traditional. Murphy argues that the Bible is written imaginatively, and that the best way to understand its meaning is to imagine how to perform or dramatize it. She follows the sequence of heroes and heroines who carry the plot from Genesis to Revelation and presents a fresh and remarkable picture of biblical revelation as the performance of God's image in history, captured by its writers' moral imagination.


Recognizing entity synonyms from text has become a crucial task in many entity-leveraging applications. However, discovering entity synonyms from domain-specific text corpora (e.g., news articles, scientific papers) is rather challenging. Current systems take an entity name string as input to find out other names that are synonymous, ignoring the fact that often times a name string can refer to multiple entities (e.g., "apple" could refer to both Apple Inc. and the fruit apple). Moreover, most existing methods require training data manually created by domain experts to construct supervised-learning systems. In this paper, we study the problem of automatic synonym discovery with knowledge bases, that is, identifying synonyms for knowledge base entities in a given domain-specific corpus. The manually-curated synonyms for each entity stored in a knowledge base not only form a set of name strings to disambiguate the meaning for each other, but also can serve as "distant" supervision to help determine important features for the task. We propose a novel framework, called DPE, to integrate two kinds of mutually-complementing signals for synonym discovery, i.e., distributional features based on corpus-level statistics and textual patterns based on local contexts. In particular, DPE jointly optimizes the two kinds of signals in conjunction with distant supervision, so that they can mutually enhance each other in the training stage. At the inference stage, both signals will be utilized to discover synonyms for the given entities. Experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed framework.


Introduction: High numbers of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been associated with poor outcome in several solid tumors. In 2 previous studies, we showed that colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF1) is secreted by leiomyosarcoma (LMS) and that the increase in macrophages and CSF1 associated proteins are markers for poor prognosis in both gynecologic and nongynecologic LMS in a multicentered study. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outcome of patients with LMS from a single institution according to the number of TAMs evaluated through 3 CSF1 associated proteins. Methods: Patients with LMS treated at Stanford University with adequate archived tissue and clinical data were eligible for this retrospective study. Data from chart reviews included tumor site, size, grade, stage, treatment, and disease status at the time of last follow-up. The 3 CSF1 associated proteins (CD163, CD16, and cathepsin L) were evaluated by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and univariate Cox proportional hazards models were fit to assess the association of clinical predictors as well as CSF1 associated proteins with overall survival. Results: A total of 52 patients diagnosed from 1983 to 2007 were evaluated. Univariate Cox proportional hazards models were fit to assess the significance of grade, size, stage, and the 3 CSF1 associated proteins in predicting OS. Grade, size, and stage were not significantly associated with survival in the full patient cohort, but grade and stage were significant predictors of survival in the gynecologic (GYN) LMS samples (P = 0.038 and P = 0.0164, respectively). Increased cathepsin L was associated with a worse outcome in GYN LMS (P = 0.049). Similar findings were seen with CD16 (P < 0.0001). In addition, CSF1 response enriched (all 3 stains positive) GYN LMS had a poor overall survival when compared with CSF1 response poor tumors (P = 0.001). These results were not seen in non-GYN LMS. Conclusions: Our data form an independent confirmation of the prognostic significance of TAMs and the CSF1 associated proteins in LMS. More aggressive or targeted therapies could be considered in the subset of LMS patients that highly express these markers.


Obesity, a widely known risk factor for many chronic diseases, is rapidly increasing in developing countries. Unlike in the developed world, where obesity is largely associated with low socioeconomic status, there is an ongoing debate on whether obesity is a problem of the rich or that of the poor in developing countries. This thesis comprises four studies that seek to improve our understanding of the socioeconomic associations, inequalities in and determinants of obesity in developing countries. In the first study, a systematic review of the literature published between 2004 and 2010 looking at the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity in developing countries was undertaken. This review revealed that in poorer
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countries obesity is a problem of both men and women with higher socioeconomic status, while it is primarily a problem of women with low SES in middle income countries, implying that the burden of obesity shifts from women with higher SES towards those with lower SES as a country progresses economically. Typically, the burden of obesity switches from women with higher SES to those with lower SES at a Gross National Income per capita of approximately US$1000. This shift is less visible, or takes place more slowly, among men while child obesity is exclusively associated with affluence in developing countries. In the second study, a cross-country analysis was undertaken comparing the Middle East and North African (MENA), a developing region severely affected by obesity, with the rest of the world in order to understand how MENA is different in terms of key socioeconomic determinants of obesity. The cross-country analysis revealed that MENA has seen the biggest increase in calorie supply in the last few decades compared with the rest of the world, and calorie supply is positively associated with obesity in this region. In the third study, an individual-level analysis of more than 800,000 women from 54 low and middle income countries was undertaken to understand individual level factors making women in MENA susceptible to obesity. The individual-level analysis showed that MENA is endowed with obesity risk factors such as the largest number of passenger cars per 1000 people, the highest level of
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urbanisation, and the highest television viewing frequency compared with other low and middle income countries. In addition, the individual-level analysis revealed that about 80% of MENA women are homemakers (do not participate in the labour force) compared with 50% or less in other developing countries, and being a homemaker is positively associated with obesity in MENA. In the fourth study, the effect of migrating from a developing to developed country was analysed using an innovative treatment group from the UK Understanding Society survey and control groups from the nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys undertaken in six developing countries (Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda). After adjusting for selection bias, this study found that migrating from one of these countries to the UK raised BMI by 1 to 1.6 units for women and 2.5 to 3.2 units for (Indian) men. Likewise, obesity among migrants increased by 3.3 to 5.0 percentage points for women and 3.5 to 6.7 percentage points for Indian men. Analytical information on the emerging problem of obesity in developing countries is crucial for designing intervention programs and policies.


X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) is an element-, site- and symmetry-selective spectroscopic technique that has the potential to provide quantitative information on site occupancies in ferri- and ferro-magnetic minerals. XMCD spectra derived from the Fe L(2,3) absorption edge of a series of synthetic spinel ferrites and natural magnetite were collected using synchrotron radiation and a 0.6 Tesla 'flipper' magnet. These spectra were used to assess their potential value to mineralogical investigations. By comparison with theoretical spectra, the site occupancies of the cations have been calculated and compared to previous studies using other techniques. The spectra of the Co, Ni, Zn and Mg ferrite spinels show considerable variation, reflecting differences in site occupancies. Although the cation ratios derived from the XMCD spectra are broadly similar to previous work, there are significant differences especially in the amount of octahedral Fe(2+) present. Incomplete inversion is recognised in all the spinels analysed and the affinity of Co, Ni and Mg for the octahedral site and Zn for the tetrahedral site is confirmed; the preference of Co over Ni for tetrahedral sites is also revealed. XMCD spectra proved relatively straightforward to analyse but further refinement of the quantitative calculations is needed and detailed comparison with the information derived from other methods, especially Mossbauer spectroscopy.


Abstract People who use drugs understand drugs and drug use in ways that are often different to the way knowledge of drug use is constructed within the dominant medico-legal discourse. Their experiences are, more often than not, represented in negative ways within dominant discourse, a disconnect that can create adverse consequences for people who use drugs, through the production of stigma and shame leading to poor health and social outcomes. A key difference in how drugs are understood by people who use drugs is the capacity of the former to recognize positive aspects of drug use and create more agentic subjectivities for themselves concerning the use of drugs. Using a thematic analysis of the online forum Australian Drug Discussion, hosted by Bluelight.org, we identify positive drug stories and the contexts of their emergence, as subversions or modifications of dominant understandings. We argue that positive understandings of drug use, as well as recognition of the way their expression serves to generate agency for people who use drugs within or against the confines of dominant discourse, may provide opportunities to limit further the harms flowing from stigmatization and negativity.


The success of tourism is usually measured from flows of visitors. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that the rates of those flows may become for sun and sea tourism, both a blessing as well as a curse in terms of sustainability. For this particular reason, an explanation about the current growth conditions and future dynamics of tourist activity is necessary and crucial in relation to the sustainability of tourists flow. This article is based on the story of two nearby counties located in the Chilean coast of Maule Region: Constitucion and Licanten. This is a case of frustrated tourist development, one for the lack of and another one for the excess of tourists. The methodology of the study is based on a bibliographical and two stages market research: a qualitative exploratory study and a descriptive study, where main endogenous barriers for sustainable tourist development are identified. Here a comparative case study is reported, under similar initial conditions, but with contradicting results, and where the sustainability is compromised. Then the flow of visitors as a sole indicator can be ineffective for assessing a sustainable outcome of tourism.


Hillslope‐scale rainfall‐runoff processes leading to a fast catchment response are not explicitly included in land surface models (LSMs) for use in earth system models (ESMs) due to computational constraints. This study presents a hybrid‐3D hillslope hydrological model (h3D) that couples a 1‐D vertical soil column model with a lateral pseudo‐2D saturated zone and overland flow model for use in ESMs. By representing vertical and lateral responses separately at different spatial resolutions, h3D is computationally efficient. The h3D model was first tested for three different hillslope planforms (uniform, convergent and divergent). We then compared h3D (with single and multiple soil columns) with a complex physically based 3‐D model and a simple 1‐D soil moisture model coupled with an unconfined aquifer (as typically used in LSMs). It is found that simulations obtained by the simple 1‐D model vary considerably from the complex 3‐D model and are not able to represent hillslope‐scale variations in the lateral flow response. In contrast, the single soil column h3D model shows a much better performance and saves computational time by 2‐3 orders of magnitude compared with the complex 3‐D model. When multiple vertical soil columns are implemented, the resulting hydrological responses (soil moisture, water table depth, and base flow along the hillslope) from h3D are nearly identical to those predicted by the complex 3‐D model, but still saves computational time. As such, the computational efficiency of the h3D model provides a valuable and promising approach to incorporating hillslope‐scale hydrological processes into continental and global‐scale ESMs.


The Phthalocyanines (Pc's) are a group of macro-cyclic molecules, widely investigated due to the possibility to use them in a variety of applications. Electronic and geometrical structure investigations of molecular model systems of Pc's adsorbed on surfaces are important for a deeper understanding of the functionality of different Pc-based devices. Here, Pc's monolayers and films, deposited on different surfaces, were investigated by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). In addition Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations were performed. For molecular films of Metal-free (H2Pc) and Iron (FePc) Pc's, on surfaces, it is found that the intermolecular interaction is weak and the molecules arrange with their molecular plane mainly perpendicular to the surface. Several monolayer systems were characterized, namely H2Pc and FePc adsorbed on Graphite, ZnPc on InSb(001)-c(8x2), H2Pc on Al(110) and on Au(111). For all the studied monolayers it was found that the molecules are oriented with their molecular plane parallel to the surface. The electronic structure of the molecules is differently influenced by interaction with the surfaces. For H2Pc adsorbed on Graphite the nearly negligible effect of the surface on the molecular electronic structure allowed STM characterization of different molecular orbitals. A strong interaction is instead found in the case of H2Pc on Al(110) resulting in molecules strongly adsorbed, and partly dissociated. Modifications of the electronic and geometrical structure induced by alkali doping of H2Pc films and monolayers were characterized. It is found both for the H2Pc film on Al(110) and monolayer adsorbed on Au(111), that the molecular arrangement is changed upon doping by Potassium and Rubidium, respectively. Potassium doping of the H2Pc films results in a filling of previously empty molecular orbitals by a charge transfer from the alkali to the molecule, with significant modification of the molecular electronic structure.


The arrival of philosophy and the art of rhetoric in 5th and 4th B.C. century Athens has left its mark on the city's cultural life as well as on classical culture in general. The process was, however, accompanied by a sometimes heated discussion about the dangers the new education was expected or supposed to have for the community. This critical discussion cannot be dismissed as mere comical mockery, or be reduced to underlying political conflicts alone. In Athens, the new education's implications for the communal life of the polis were for the first time discussed in front of a larger public. The first in-depth reconstruction and analysis of this discourse has been the aim of my PhD thesis, made possible by a grant from the Excellence Cluster Topoi. This paper recapitulates its mayor results.


The SHiP experiment is designed to search for very weakly interacting particles beyond the Standard Model which are produced in a 400 GeV/c proton beam dump at the CERN SPS. An essential task for the experiment is to keep the Standard Model background level to less than 0.1 event after 2× 1020 protons on target. In the beam dump, around 1011 muons will be produced per second. The muon rate in the spectrometer has to be reduced by at least four orders of magnitude to avoid muon-induced combinatorial background. A novel active muon shield is used to magnetically deflect the muons out of the acceptance of the spectrometer. This paper describes the basic principle of such a shield, its optimization and its performance.


This dissertation comprises two papers that examine the effect of urban transportation systems on employment outcomes and traffic congestion. The first paper evaluates the labor market effects of subway systems on low-skilled workers. A model of labor supply predicts that this should improve search and employment outcomes. The empirical findings confirm that improved subway access increases low-skilled labor force participation. Related effects for light rail and bus service are much smaller. For low-skilled men without a car, a 10 percent expansion in subway, rail, and bus service increases labor force participation by 3.0, 0.3, and 0.3 percentage points, respectively. Improved subway service increases hourly wage, but has no significant effect on work hours and commuting time. These findings confirm that subway access increases travel speed and has potential to expand the geographic scope of workers' labor market. The second paper investigates the effects of subway expansions on passenger miles traveled (PMT) in subways and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on roads in the US. Drawing on a panel dataset that tracks city-level expansions of subway and road systems, estimates indicate that the fundamental law of subway congestion holds as the PMT increases one for one with the length of the subway systems. Subway systems have substitution and growth effects on road traffic. A 10 percent expansion of a subway system reduces contemporaneous traffic on ring interstate highways and non-highway arterial roads by 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. With a three-year lag, a 10 percent increase in subway capacity increases VMT on ring highways by 0.4 percent and increase VMT on radial highways by 1.7 percent. Together, these estimates suggest that subway expansions do not reduce congestion on radial highways but do relieve congestion on roads that are close substitutes to subways (ring highways and non-highway


Organic farming in Turkey is experiencing a strong growth in recent years, with a particular attention to export towards Europe. International and domestic trade opportunities require an efficient control system for organic products. In this paper we analyse the data from inspections of two European control bodies in Turkish farms to analyse risk patterns of non-compliance with the organic regulation. A proportion test is performed to identify the types of crops that are more likely related to non-compliant operators.


Building a new university system the size of the State University of New York or the state system of higher education in California would be a major undertaking for any state these days. The political and economic discussions alone would probably drag on for years, and the end creation would probably look like an institution out of the past, not a university for the 21st century. When 10 members of the Western Governors' Association signed on to the implementation plan for a new "on-line university," they took a step jointly that none of the states could have taken alone. Although last year the project was dubbed the Western Virtual University, at this year's meeting in Omaha in June a new name - Western Governors University - was chosen, and a work plan devised by 50 members of a regional advisory group representing 13 states was presented.(1) The result was a virtual university designed for two main purposes: * to broaden access to higher education by fostering the use of advanced technology for the delivery of educational services and * to provide mechanisms for the formal recognition or certification of learning achieved, regardless of the source. Building on these purposes, 11 design criteria were identified to ensure that the new university would be a market-oriented, independent, client-centered, degree-granting, accredited, competency-based, nonteaching, high-quality, cost-effective, regional, and quickly initiated institution. At the Omaha meeting, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming signed the agreement to move ahead with the implementation plan. (More states are expected to join in the near future.) Initially, each of the states will contribute $100,000 to continue planning, with the full start-up costs pegged at $6 million to $10 million. Many states in the West are facing population increases along with increasing demands from high-tech employers for trained employees. The existing structure and current resources of higher education will find these new demands difficult to meet. Gov. Michael Leavitt of Utah and Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado were leaders in pushing for the virtual university. At the signing meeting, Gov. Leavitt said that this is not a replacement for the existing system of higher education. Gov. Romer called the new university a supplement, a way of creating new choices and opportunities. Both governors stressed the need to use technology to fill the gap between existing systems and the job needs of adult students in a rapidly changing workplace. Still on the drawing board is a central entity that will have the responsibility for governance, policy decisions, the maintenance of assets, and making provisions for quality control. Each participating state would have local university centers that would act as franchises of the central entity. These centers would provide points of access for individuals and could be housed in public libraries, county extension offices, high schools, higher education institutions, or local businesses. …


In this article we intend to study the political dimension of Vargas Lllosa's conception on fiction. For this purpose, we will link this conception of anthropological root, with the ideological foundations of liberalism which make visible the author's  reflections a set of ideas about the role that they meet the fictions in society and relationships established with individual freedom. This study fundamentally analyzes the text "The power of fiction" published by the author in 1987, and the text "The journey to fiction", the preface to the study made by the author on the work of Juan Carlos Onetti. For this analysis, we use the general framework of the theory of fiction in anthropological perspective developed by Wolfgang Iser, the core ideas on political liberalism postulated by Stuart Mill in his book On liberty and the concepts of "open society" and "closed society" developed by Karl Popper in his book The open society and its enemies .


The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 helps to focus attention on ethnicity-related inequity in public education. However, its definition of ethnicity-related disadvantage is problematic in Hawaii for two main reasons. First, the historically disadvantaged Native Hawaiians are included in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) category. In other words, their disadvantage is practically ignored for NCLB purposes. Second, NCLB relies on a simplistic difference in the proportion of proficient students between a minority group and the White peers, ignoring confounding factors such as social-economic inequities and differences in school qualities. Those concerns call for a more careful and more meaningful measure of ethnicity-related disadvantage for Hawaii. This paper reports a cross-classified multilevel analysis of the reading performance of Native Hawaiian students on the Hawaiian State Assessment (HSA) from grade 3 to grade 10. Achievement gaps between Native Hawaiians and their White peers were estimated at grades 8 and 10 respectively, with academic readiness statistically controlled for. Policy implications of ethnicity-related disadvantage thus measured are discussed.


ESR quantum computing presents faster means to perform gates on nuclear spins than the traditional NMR methods. This means ESR is a test-bed that can potentially be useful in ways that are not possible with NMR. The first step is to demonstrate universal control in the ESR system. This work focuses on spin systems with one electron spin and two nuclear spins. We try to demonstrate control over the nuclear spins using the electron as an actuator. In order to perform the experiments, a customized ESR spectrometer was built in the lab. The main advantage of the home-built system is the ability to send arbitrary pulses to the spins. This ability is the key to perform high fidelity controls on the spin system. A customized low temperature probe was designed and built to have three features necessary for the experiments. First, it is possible to orient the sample, thus to change the spin Hamiltonian of the system, in situ. Second, the combined system is able to perform ESR experiments at liquid nitrogen and liquid helium temperatures and rotate the sample while it is cold. Last, the pulse bandwidth of the microwave resonator, which directly affects the fidelity of the gates, is held constant with respect to the sample temperature. Simulations of the experiments have been carried out and the results are promising. Preliminary experiments have been performed, the final set of experiments, demonstrating full quantum control of a three-spin system, are underway at present.


ABSTRACT Orchidantha virosa Škorničk. & Q.B.Nguyn, sp. nov. (Lowiaceae), a new species from Phú Th province, northern Vietnam is described and illustrated here. The new species is unique among other species in Vietnam and Laos in its robust habit and size (up to 2 m) and the non-petiolate leaves in mature individuals. The key to Orchidantha N.E.Br. species of Laos and Vietnam is accordingly updated.


Learn to build beautiful and highly customizable web interfaces by leveraging the power of Bootstrap 4 quickly About This Book Adapt and customize Bootstrap to produce enticing websites that fit your needs Explore Bootstrap's grid system, helper classes, and responsive utilities Extend Bootstrap with jQuery plugins and learn how to create your own custom plugins Who This Book Is For This book targets intermediate-level front-end web-developers. The book is not intended to be an introduction to web development. As such, the book assumes that readers have a firm grasp on the basic concepts behind web-development, as well as essential HTML, JavaScript and CSS skills. What You Will Learn Create a professional Bootstrap-based website from scratch without using third-party templates Apply the Bootstrap mobile-first grid system and add responsiveness and aesthetic touches to image elements Style various types of content and learn how to build a pages layout from scratch by applying the power of Bootstrap 4 Take advantage of Bootstrap's form helper and contextual classes Improve your websites overall user experience with headers and footers Enhance and customize the overall design of your website with icons Infuse your web pages with life and movement using Bootstrap jQuery plugins Customize the behavior and features of Bootstraps jQuery Plugins extensively Optimize your Bootstrap-based project before deployment Incorporate Bootstrap into an AngularJS or React application and use Bootstrap components as AngularJS directives or React components In Detail Bootstrap 4 is a free CSS and JavaScript framework that allows developers to rapidly build responsive web-interfaces. Right from the first chapter, dive into building a customized Bootstrap website from scratch. Get to grips with Bootstraps key features and quickly discover the various ways in which Bootstrap can help you develop web-interfaces. Then take walk through the fundamental features, such as its grid system, helper classes, and responsive utilities. When you have mastered these, you will discover how to structure page layouts, use forms, style different types of content and utilize Bootstrap's various navigation components. Among other things, you will also tour the anatomy of a Bootstrap plugin, creating your own custom components and extending Bootstrap using jQuery. Finally, you will discover how to optimize your website and integrate it with third-party frameworks. By the end of this book, you will have a thorough knowledge of the frameworks ins and outs, and be able to build highly customizable and optimized web interfaces.


We herein report the synthesis and analysis of a novel aza-BODIPY–antibody conjugate, formed by controlled and regioselective bioconjugation methodology. Employing the clinically relevant antibody, which targets HER2 positive cancers, represents an excellent example of an antibody targeting strategy for this class of near-IR emitting fluorophore. The NIR fluorescence and binding properties were validated through in vitro studies using live cell confocal imaging.


First published in 1979, "America's Longest War" has been highly regarded both by scholars and general readers. Extensive and yet manageable, this assessment of our national tragedy provides an accurate and objective analysis of the hostilities at home and abroad. This second edition provides fuller discussions of domestic opposition to the war and the relationship between the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong. Updated to include information from the Johnson Library and other recently released archives, this comprehensive history extends from the initial U.S. assistance to the French in the Indochina War through the fall of Saigon, the victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the subsequent legacy of our defeat.The revised bibliography makes current all references to recent scholarship. The new edition of "America's Longest War" becomes more timely as we commemorate a decade since the end of the war and attempt to reflect dispassionately on its effects on our national character and policy. In a review of the first edition, Robert L.Beisner (American University) wrote: "Both scholars and those Americans still trying to come to terms with 'America's Longest War' should read this excellent book. " Author note: George C. Herring is Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. His other books include "Aid to Russia, 1941-1946" (Columbia University Press) and "Secret Diplomacy of the Vietnam War" (University of Texas Press).


Organic aerosol (OA) data acquired by the Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) in 37 field campaigns were deconvolved into hydrocarbon‐like OA (HOA) and several types of oxygenated OA (OOA) components. HOA has been linked to primary combustion emissions (mainly from fossil fuel) and other primary sources such as meat cooking. OOA is ubiquitous in various atmospheric environments, on average accounting for 64%, 83% and 95% of the total OA in urban, urban downwind, and rural/remote sites, respectively. A case study analysis of a rural site shows that the OOA concentration is much greater than the advected HOA, indicating that HOA oxidation is not an important source of OOA, and that OOA increases are mainly due to SOA. Most global models lack an explicit representation of SOA which may lead to significant biases in the magnitude, spatial and temporal distributions of OA, and in aerosol hygroscopic properties.


Wind energy high penetration levels in power systems require robust and practical operation algorithms to maintain and improve the present conventional systems performance. Thus, several studies consider the impact of wind farms installation on grid frequency, especially during frequency drops. The proposed algorithm makes the wind turbine provide promising support during frequency deviations through two operation modes, namely, normal and support. Normal mode controls wind turbine output by adjusting rotational speed and pitch angle according to the incident wind speed category. Novel normal operation secures wind turbine positive contribution in frequency deviations curtailment regardless of poor accompanying wind speed conditions. The innovative concept of merging pitch de-loading and rotational speed overproduction deceleration is implemented to avoid continuous de-loading; hence wasted wind energy is reduced. Wind turbine generator is overloaded when frequency drop occurs during high wind speed. Major algorithm parameters are tuned based on wind turbine specifications and dominant wind speed conditions at wind turbine location. The amount of supportive excess energy during frequency deviation clearance is estimated at different wind speed circumstances, including serious wind speed drop events. An islanded medium capacity hypothetical benchmark system is implemented to examine the proposed algorithm through MATLAB and Simulink simulation environments.


Applying a quantum mechanical treatment to a high-frequency macroscopic electromagnetic field and radiative phenomena in a medium, we construct quantum operators for energy–momentum tensor components in dispersive media and find their eigenvalues, which are different in the Minkowski and Abraham representations. It is shown that the photon momentum in a medium resulting from the quantization of the vector potential differs from that defined from Abraham's symmetric energy–momentum-tensor but is equal to the momentum defined from the Minkowski tensor. A similar result is obtained by calculating the intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of an electro-magnetic field in the medium. Only the Minkowski tensor leads to the experimentally confirmed spin values that are multiples of ħ, providing the grounds for choosing the Minkowski representation as the proper form for the momentum density of a transverse electromagnetic field in a transparent medium, in both classical and quantum descriptions of the field. The Abraham representation is unsuitable for this purpose and leads to contradictions. The conclusion drawn does not apply to quasistatic and static fields.


We construct an index for national identity using information from the World Values Survey on peoples' attitudes concerning politics and to the state itself. We then analyze the relationship between our new measure of national identity and social heterogeneity. The results indicate that religious diversity is significantly and positively related to national identity, whereas other variables proxying social heterogeneity are not. We argue that national identity is a substitute for religion. At high levels of religious diversity people do not identify with their religious group. They search other objects of identification offering common values and norms. Hence, people identify at the national level. Furthermore, democratic institutions and mobility throughout the country affect national identity positively.


Chinese Red Yeast Rice (RYR) is a food herb made by fermenting Monascus purpureus Went yeast on white rice. RYR contains a mixture of monacolins, one of which, Monacolin K (MK), is identical to lovastatin. Epidemiological studies show that individuals taking statins have a reduced risk of colon cancer. In the present study, lovastatin decreased cellular proliferation ( P <.001) and induced apoptosis ( P <.05) in HCT-116 and HT-29 human colon cancer cells. RYR inhibited both tumor cell growth ( P <.001) and enhanced apoptosis ( P <.05) in HCT-116. The inhibition of proliferation was reversed by mevalonate in lovastatin-treated cells, since lovastatin is a 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl CoA reductase (HMGCR) inhibitor. However, RYR with mevalonate did not reverse the observed inhibition of growth. MK-free RYR did not reverse the observed lovastatin-mediated inhibition of cancer cell growth These observations suggest that other components in RYR, including other monacolins, pigments, or the combined matrix effects of multiple constituents may affect intracellular signaling pathways differently than purified crystallized lovastatin in colon cancer cells. RYR was purified into two fractions: pigment-rich (PF-RYR) and monacolin-rich (MF-RYR) fractions. The effect of MF-RYR was similar to that of lovastatin, while the effect of PF-RYR was similar to that of the whole RYR extract in proliferation, apoptosis and mRNA level of HMGCR and sterol response element binding protein-2. These results suggest that matrix effects of RYR beyond MK alone may be active in inhibiting colon cancer growth. RYR with/without MK may be a botanical approach to colon cancer chemoprevention worthy of further investigation.


The purpose of this article is to shed some light on and give some examples of how the Swedish schools have interpreted their mission of educating young people and preparing them for the role of active citizens. More specifically, we are interested in how the "good" or "aspirational" school is presented in the reports published by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate. Our departure point will be the inspection work conducted by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate between 2009 and 2012. The selection of data is based on our wish to highlight supervisory reports, quality audit reports and targeted inspection reports. Another selection principle has been that not only municipal schools, but also independent schools, had to be represented among the analysed documents. Five of the reports are quality audit reports, two are the result of targeted inspections, and finally we have analysed one supervisory report. The results indicate that the aim of improving the pupils' knowledge results is a high priority for the Inspectorate, as is the goal to ensure all children and pupils' equal rights to a good education in a safe and stimulating environment, and to develop their civic skills. The analysed reports show that the inspections have revealed inadequate fulfilment of all these goals. Whether school inspections can functionally contribute to fulfilling the goal of educational equality, improving the knowledge of Swedish pupils and helping them develop into good citizens is debatable. On the one hand, the auditing function in itself constitutes a threat to the school operations developing a sense of judgement that would allow for reflections beyond the concept of effectiveness, and on the other hand the audits may, paradoxically enough, liberate the strength to question the discursive dominance of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, shaped by systemic world logic, and thereby achieve an independent development.


Mucosal vaccination via the respiratory tract can elicit protective immunity in animal infection models, but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. We show that a single intranasal application of the replication-deficient modified vaccinia virus Ankara, which is widely used as a recombinant vaccination vector, results in prominent induction of bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT). Although initial peribronchiolar infiltrations, characterized by the presence of dendritic cells (DCs) and few lymphocytes, can be found 4 d after virus application, organized lymphoid structures with segregated B and T cell zones are first observed at day 8. After intratracheal application, in vitro–differentiated, antigen-loaded DCs rapidly migrate into preformed BALT and efficiently activate antigen-specific T cells, as revealed by two-photon microscopy. Furthermore, the lung-specific depletion of DCs in mice that express the diphtheria toxin receptor under the control of the CD11c promoter interferes with BALT maintenance. Collectively, these data identify BALT as tertiary lymphoid structures supporting the efficient priming of T cell responses directed against unrelated airborne antigens while crucially requiring DCs for its sustained presence.


Lanthanides are of great importance for the electronic industries, this new book (from the EIBC Book Series) provides a comprehensive coverage of the basic chemistry, particularly inorganic chemistry, of the lanthanoid elements, those having a 4f shell of electrons. A chapter is describing the similarity of the Group 3 elements, Sc, Y, La, the group from which the lanthanoids originate and the group 13 elements, particularly aluminum, having similar properties. Inclusion of the group 3 and 13 elements demonstrates how the lanthanoid elements relate to other, more common, elements in the Periodic Table. Beginning chapters describe the occurrence and mineralogy of the elements, with a focus on structural features observed in compounds described in later chapters. The majority of the chapters is organized by the oxidation state of the elements, Ln(0), Ln(II), Ln(III), and Ln(IV). Within this organization the chapters are further distinguished by type of compound, inorganic (oxides and hydroxides, aqueous speciation, halides, alkoxides, amides and thiolates, and chelates) and organometallic. Concluding chapters deal with diverse and critically important applications of the lanthanoids in electronic and magnetic materials, and medical imaging.


Abstract: Portfolio risk forecasts are often made by estimating an asset or factor covariance matrix. Practitioners commonly want to adjust a global covariance matrix encompassing several sub-markets by individually correcting the sub-market diagonal blocks. Since this is likely to result in the loss of positive semi-definiteness of the overall matrix, the off-diagonal blocks must then be adjusted to restore that property. Since there are many ways to do this adjustment, this leads to an optimization problem of Procrustes type. We discuss two solutions: a closed form solution using an adapted norm, and a fast iterative approach due to Koschat and Swayne.


The humanitarian crisis resulting from the Syrian conflict is estimated to be the worst so far of this century. The recent influx of refugees has now reached a point where they are equal to one quarter of Lebanon's population, causing evident strains on its fragile economy and social structure. Syrians in Lebanon have fled from their home to seek safety, however their vulnerability is now in question as women's and children's rights continue to be under threat. This paper investigates the plight of Syrian and Palestinian Syrian refugees in Lebanon with an emphasis on women and children. While there are many issues confronting refugees in Lebanon, a thorough examination of this is beyond the scope of this paper. Therefore, an examination of the two most prominent issues surrounding education and violence is conducted. More specifically, this paper exposes and discusses children's access to education in Lebanon and the short and long term effects of children forgoing education, both as economic setbacks, the lack of educated people to rebuild Syria and how education is linked to a reduction in violence against women . It will further discuss the shift in the violence that women and children are exposed to, highlighting the increase in violence that they are experiencing. The main forms of violence are manifesting in Intimate Partner Violence, early marriage, survival sex, and the threat and fear of violence from the local community.


Evidence grows that starting preschool at age 3 or 4 can produce benefits decades later. Scholars have long debated the benefits of preschool, or prekindergarten, education. Several small-scale studies have documented that preschool contributes to better educational, occupational, and social outcomes for disadvantaged children over the long term (1) and is cost-effective (2). Large-scale, long-term studies, however, are unusual. On page 360 of this issue, Reynolds et al. (3) help fill that void. They report on a 25-year-long study, involving nearly 1400 former students, that examines the effect of the Child-Parent Center Education Program, a publicly funded preschool program in Chicago, Illinois, on subsequent educational achievement, socioeconomic status, health, and crime. Their results demonstrate consistent and enduring benefits for children who began preschool at age 3 or 4 (compared with children who began kindergarten when older), and especially for males and children of high-school dropouts. In particular, by age 28, the former preschool students had higher educational levels, incomes, socioeconomic status, and rates of health insurance coverage—and lower rates of substance abuse and legal problems—than the kindergarten students.


Given the reductions in Department of Defense budgets it is imperative that every dollar spent on training warfighters be used in a cost efficient manner. One approach for cost effective training is distributed training exercises that include live, virtual, and constructive participants, but injecting the training functionality into live aircraft platforms is challenging. Many of the current architectures and approaches for presenting the information to a pilot require modifications to the Operational Flight Program (OFP) software. This is an expensive approach that can be challenging and time consuming to certify for flight safety. Ongoing research and development in embedding distributed training functionality within flight hardware has led to a new architecture that is presented in this paper. This research system demonstrates a partitioned architecture for embedded training that interfaces with the OFP through a single, standards based hook, allowing training functionality to be injected into flight displays in a manner with a credible path to certification. In addition to illustrating the architecture, this paper explains how the approach provides the capability for the end user to train with systems and sensors that are not physically present on the platform, such as the multiple radar simulators currently integrated. These onboard simulated sensors and systems consume pilot inputs as well as participant state data and interactions sent over a datalink, enabling embedded distributed training on live platforms in exercises that can contain combinations of live, virtual and constructive (LVC) participants. The results of test bench experiments are provided, and the planned flight test experiments that will be conducted during LVC exercises are described. Finally, the paper discusses research that will leverage the system, steps to further mature the proposed architecture, and the foreseeable challenges with fielding this approach to enabling embedded training.


International arbitration has for many years been the preferred dispute resolution mechanism in large cross-border transactions involving Latin American nations, assets, or parties. The region as a whole is moving in the right direction towards perhaps becoming an active force in the promotion of international arbitration globally. It is too soon, however, to advise U.S. companies involved in major cross-border transactions to consider Latin American seats of arbitration in their arbitration clauses, to liberally choose Latin American laws to govern their complex international arrangements, or to select Latin American arbitration institutions to administer their proceedings. International arbitration most likely will continue to develop and expand in Latin America in the coming years. Now the main question is how best to tailor the arbitration clause to meet the specific needs of the deal and the peculiarities of the countries and parties involved.


Technological and informational spillovers from multinational firms can be particularly beneficial to domestic firms especially in less developed economies. The technological superiority and management experience of foreign multinational firms yield various opportunities for learning. Yet, the importance of foreign firm's spillovers might vary with respect to the different intensities of the linkage between the multinational and the domestic firm, the differences in firms' absorptive capacity and their ability to face competition. We show using firm-level Hungarian data that positive spillovers from multinationals depend on the level of productivity and the exporting status of the domestic firm. Larger and more productive firms are more able to reap spillovers from multinationals than smaller and less productive firms. The export status, in contrast, is of minor importance. JEL Classification: F23, D21, D24, R12, R30.


The present work describes the synthesis, characterization, and spectroscopic studying of cobalt(II), nickel(II), copper(II), and zinc(II) complexes with new bi dentate ligand namely [3-(2-pyridyl)-5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-pyrazoline] which has been prepared by ring closure of(E)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1-(pyridin-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one with hydrazine hydrate in (2% w/v) of sodium hydroxide. The new 2-pyrazoline based ligand was identified by melting point, solubility in common organic solvents, mass spectra, NMR and FT-IR spectra. The optimization conditions like acidity, time of reaction, and the molar ratio (M:L) were estimated in order to get the pure colored solid complexes of cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc(II) by the direct reactions of their metal chlorides in aqueous methanol with the methanolic solution of the ligand. The new metal complexes were characterized by the (C.H.N) elemental analyses, FTIR, UV-Visible spectra, and the molar conductivity in DMSO, and the magnetic susceptibility measurements via Faraday's method were carried out to reveal the octahedral geometry around the metal ions.


One of the most important indicators of deterioration in environmental quality is the increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions negatively affect the health of individuals and lead to the emergence of a number of chronic diseases. The most significant cost of chronic diseases which reduces employee productivity is the impact on health expenditures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and health expenditures for BRICS-T countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkey) over the period 2000-2016. The panel causality test developed by Konya (2006) was used as the method. Based on the empirical results, it was found that there is a unidirectional positive causal relationship running from carbon dioxide emissions to health expenditures in China. In the other selected countries, no such relationship has been identified.


A computer program was developed to compute the profile of multiple-beam Fizeau fringes and was tested against laboratory observations. By using the program as a tool for studying the behavior of the fringes, a simplified model of the fringe formation process was developed. The shifts of the fringes from their expected locations are caused primarily by a reduction in spatial frequency that is due to the oblique projection of the fringes onto the detector. The angle at which the fringes are inclined to the input beam of the interferometer may be calculated by using a phase law developed by Brossel [ Proc. Phys. Soc.59, 224 ( 1947)] and is independent of the reflectivity of the cavity. Once the orientations of the fringe planes and the detector are known, the fringe shifts may be calculated by using simple trigonometry. Although the absolute shift of a particular fringe may be an appreciable fraction of a fringe spacing, neighboring fringes have nearly identical shifts, making the relative fringe shift inconsequential. The finesse of the fringes may be increased by either tilting the Fizeau cavity or defocusing the detector optics. Unlike the tilt angle required to minimize the fringe shift, the tilt angle that maximizes the finesse is a strong function of the cavity reflectivity.


Lithium-rich oxides with different compositions are synthesized by coprecipitation method and tested as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The paper presents research into the degradation processes: capacity and voltage fade during cycling life. The lithium mobility is known to make one of the major contributions to LIBs lifetime. Therefore, galvanostatic intermittent titration (GITT) is provided to estimate lithium-ion diffusion coefficients (DLi+). We also calculate ohmic and polarization resistance values. There is shown the influence of the structural transformation of lithium-rich oxides on their kinetic parameters. We make an assumption about the optimal composition of such cathode materials for good electrochemical properties.


ABSTRACT Using data collected from 538 Iranian tourists undertaking the religious pilgrimage of Umrah (i.e. voluntary travel to the holy city of Mecca at any time throughout the year), this study investigates the concept of play and its relationship with self-expression and hedonism in an Islamic tourism context. By testing a theoretically derived structural model, the findings suggest that self-expression strongly influences tourists' sense of play. Here, play is realised when tourists feel that they can express themselves freely and augment their self-image while travelling, irrespective of the religious context. Nonetheless, the pilgrimage environment is characterised by the religious congregation – with tourists engaging in communal experiences that reflect themselves and their faith. Therefore, the ideal experience, where tourists feel a sense of escapism from the pressures of everyday life, is a product of their ability to project, develop, and ratify their self-concept. Finally, the study suggests that pilgrimage managers and marketers should focus on the importance of play, enabling their destinations to heighten the intensity of the 'enjoyable' elements of religious travel (e.g. group camaraderie, escapism and positive emotional reactions) alongside their inherent religious benefits.


Writings by a pioneering linguist, including his famous work on the Hopi language, general reflections on language and meaning, and the "Yale Report." The pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941) grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking: how language can shape our innermost thoughts. His basic thesis is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak. The writings collected in this volume include important papers on the Maya, Hopi, and Shawnee languages, as well as more general reflections on language and meaning. Whorf's ideas about the relation of language and thought have always appealed to a wide audience, but their reception in expert circles has alternated between dismissal and applause. Recently the language sciences have headed in directions that give Whorf's thinking a renewed relevance. Hence this new edition of Whorf's classic work is especially timely. The second edition includes all the writings from the first edition as well as John Carroll's original introduction, a new foreword by Stephen Levinson of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics that puts Whorf's work in historical and contemporary context, and new indexes. In addition, this edition offers Whorf's "Yale Report," an important work from Whorf's mature oeuvre.


This paper presents the results of a study to investigate the performance of an integrated urban wastewater system (IUWS) consisting of a sewer system, biological wastewater treatment plant and receiving water under future climate change and urbanisation. In particular, the roles of both system operational control and (re)design were studied as means to ensure future compliance of the system with recipient water quality standards. This is carried out by applying a scenario-based approach to describe the possible features of future climate change and/or urbanisation. Dissolved oxygen and ammonium concentrations are considered as the objectives of the optimisation models. Critical flow rates in the IUWS are considered as decision variables of the operational control model and sewer storage tank volume is considered as the design model decision variable in this study. It is demonstrated that operational control optimisation alone, under all the scenarios developed, does not have enough potential to cope with these future conditions and only when combined with design optimisation can adequate performance be guaranteed.


The numeric values retrieved from a data warehouse may be difficult for business users to interpret, and may even be interpreted incorrectly. Therefore, in order to better understand numeric values, business users may require an interpretation in meaningful, non-numeric terms. However, if the transition between non-numeric terms is crisp, true values cannot be measured and a smooth transition between classes may no longer be possible. This book addresses this problem by presenting a fuzzy classification-based approach for a data warehouses. Moreover, it introduces a modeling approach for fuzzy data warehouses that makes it possible to integrate fuzzy linguistic variables in a meta-table structure. The essence of this structure is that fuzzy concepts can be integrated into the dimensions and facts of an existing classical data warehouse without affecting its core. This allows a simultaneous analysis, both fuzzy and crisp. A case study of a movie rental company underlines and exemplifies the proposed approach.


Reddish brown lesions were observed on the lower stem and upper root area of velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti Medik.) plants growing in an Illinois soybean field in June 2000. The lesions were similar in appearance to those caused by Rhizoctonia root rot of soybean. Stems and roots with lesions were cut into ≍5-mm pieces, surface-disinfested, and placed on 2% water agar at pH 4.5. The cultural morphology of the two isolates fit the description of Phomopsis longicolla Hobbs (1). Colonies on potato dextrose agar (PDA) were floccose, dense, and white. The undersides of the cultures were colorless. Stromata were large, black, and spreading. The pattern of stromata in one isolate was effuse, and most of the stromata were immersed or semiimmersed in the medium, whereas the stromata from the other isolate were massive and prominent. Neither isolate turned green on PDA. Alpha conidia were hyaline, ellipsoidal to fusiform, and guttulate. DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole)-stained alpha conidia were uninucleate. Beta conidia and perithecia did not occur on either PDA or oat flakes on water agar from 1 to 10 weeks at 25°C under a 12-h photoperiod. The DNA sequences of the mitochondrial small subunit rRNA genes of the two isolates were identical and shared 100% sequence identity with two P. longicolla soybean isolates that we had identified previously. Pathogenicity tests were conducted in a greenhouse by cutting the stems of 3-week-old soybean and velvetleaf plants at the second internode. Mycelial plugs (4 mm in diameter) from the margin of 1-week-old cultures of the two isolates from velvetleaf and one from soybean were individually placed mycelial side down directly on the top of cut stems of 10 to 15 plants per isolate. Controls included noninoculated plants with and without PDA plugs. Plants were kept in a mist chamber in the dark at 25°C for 4 days and were then transferred to a greenhouse with a 16-h photoperiod at 24 ± 3°C. Stem lesions were measured 7 days after inoculation. The experiment was repeated once. Mean stem lesion lengths caused by the velvetleaf and soybean isolates were 23 and 20 mm, respectively, on soybean stems, while negative controls produced no lesions. Mean stem lesion lengths caused by the velvetleaf and soybean isolates were 23.5 and 12 mm, respectively, on velvetleaf stems. P. longicolla was reisolated from the stem lesions of five randomly collected plants. This is the first report of P. longicolla being isolated from velvetleaf and causing stem lesions on inoculated soybean and velvetleaf plants. Reference: (1) T. W. Hobbs et al. Mycologia 77: 535, 1985.


PROBLEM
Recent progress in vaccine availability and affordability has raised prospects for reducing death and disability from neurological infections in children. In many Asian countries, however, the epidemiology and public health burden of neurological diseases such as Japanese encephalitis and bacterial meningitis are poorly understood.

APPROACH
A sentinel surveillance system for Japanese encephalitis was developed and embedded within the routine meningoencephalitis syndromic surveillance system in Cambodia in 2006. The sentinel surveillance system was designed so surveillance and laboratory testing for other etiologies of neurological infection could be incorporated.

LOCAL SETTING
The Communicable Disease Control department of the Ministry of Health in Cambodia worked with partners to establish the sentinel surveillance system.

RELEVANT CHANGES
The sentinel surveillance system has provided important information on the disease burden of Japanese encephalitis in Cambodia and is now providing a platform for expansion to incorporate laboratory testing for other vaccine-preventable neurological infections in children.

LESSONS LEARNED
Sentinel surveillance systems, when linked to syndromic reporting systems, can characterize the epidemiology of meningoencephalitis and identify the proportion of hospital-based neurological infection in children that is vaccine preventable. Integrated systems enable consistency in data collection, analysis and information dissemination, and they enhance the capacity of public health managers to provide more credible and integrated information to policy-makers. This will assist decision-making about the potential role of immunization in reducing the incidence of childhood neurological infections.