Ghrelin is a peptide hormone which, when acylated, regulates appetite, energy balance and a range of other biological processes. Ghrelin predominately circulates in its unacylated form (unacylated ghrelin; UAG). UAG has a number of functions independent of acylated ghrelin, including modulation of metabolic parameters and cancer progression. UAG has also been postulated to antagonise some of the metabolic effects of acyl-ghrelin, including its effects on glucose and insulin regulation. In this study, Rag1−/− mice with high-fat diet-induced obesity and hyperinsulinaemia were subcutaneously implanted with PC3 prostate cancer xenografts to investigate the effect of UAG treatment on metabolic parameters and xenograft growth. Daily intraperitoneal injection of 100 μg/kg UAG had no effect on xenograft tumour growth in mice fed normal rodent chow or 23% high-fat diet. UAG significantly improved glucose tolerance in host Rag1−/− mice on a high-fat diet, but did not significantly improve other metabolic parameters. We hypothesise that UAG is not likely to be an effective treatment for prostate cancer, with or without associated metabolic syndrome. Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.


Munien v BMW Financial Services (SA) (Pty) Ltd 2010 1 SA 549 (KZD)
ABSA Bank Ltd v Prochaska t/a Bianca Cara Interiors 2009 2 SA 512 (D)
Section 11 of the Credit Agreements Act 75 of 1980 applied when a breach of contract arose. Section 11 required a credit grantor to notify the credit receiver of his failure to comply with any obligation under a credit agreement and to demand performance within 30 days before claiming a return of goods and cancelling the contract. Notification under section 11 was by means of a letter, which was either handed over to the credit receiver and for which an acknowledgement of receipt had to be obtained, or was posted by prepaid registered mail at an address stated in the credit agreement or at the subsequent changed address - being the business or residential address which served as the domicilium citandi et executandi ("domicilium") as per section 5(4) of the act.
The handing over of a letter resulted in the default notice coming to the attention of the credit receiver; however, the posting of a letter by registered mail did not always have this result. In the latter instance, the legal question posed was whether such a notice had to come to the attention of the credit receiver.
Marques v Unibank Ltd (2001 1 SA 145 (W)), which was the leading case in answering this question, stated that a section 11 notice did not need to come to the attention of the credit receiver (consumer) but that it merely needed to be proven, by the credit grantor, that it was sent or dispatched to the credit receiver (see § 2 below). What is not so clear is whether the position is similar to that of a default notice under section 129(1) read together with sections 130(1) of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005. Section 129(1)(a) states that a credit provider "may draw the default [under a credit agreement] to the notice of the consumer ..." and section 129(1)(b) (i) states that the credit provider "may not commence any legal proceedings to enforce the agreement before first providing notice to the consumer". Section 130(1) (a) requires that "10 business days have elapsed since the credit provider delivered a notice to the consumer as contemplated in section 129(1)" before legal proceedings are instituted.
Two recent cases, Munien v BMW Financial Services (SA) (Pty) Ltd (2010 1 SA 549 (KZD)) and ABSA Bank Ltd v Prochaska t/a Bianca Cara Interiors (2009 2 SA 512 (D)), answered the legal question under the new act, although with different outcomes. The latter case, which was heard first, stated that a section 129(1)(a) notice had to be brought to the attention of the consumer, whereas the former case decided otherwise, agreeing with the interpretation of section 11 of the old act in the Marques case and making no reference to or even considering the ABSA case. Both cases further dealt with fault : Munien dealt with the fault of the consumer in failing to comply with a legal obligation, and ABSA dealt with the fault of the credit provider in failing to comply with a legal obligation.
I believe the ABSA case should be the authoritative case, and the reasons for my submission are provided below.


Appropriating White's (2003) distinction of 'heteroglossic engagement/disengagement' modes of expression, this paper analyses a sample of grammatical patterns and their rhetorical functionality for the expression of intersubjective stance in research articles written in English by scholars from two cultural contexts (an Anglophone-based context and a Spanish context) and articles written in Spanish by Spanish scholars. Results show that the scholars from the Anglophone context prefer patterns that construct a heteroglossic disengagement mode, suggesting the construal of their readership as sharing similar values, beliefs and attitudes. The texts in Spanish display patterns that create a heteroglossic engagement mode, indicating that writers conceive their readership as having potentially dissenting views. Remarkably, the texts written in English by the Spanish scholars strategically combine a heteroglossic disengagement mode with a heteroglossic engagement mode, hence creating a hybrid dialogic space for writer/reader interaction.


Currently, citation indexes used by digital libraries are very limited. They only provide raw citation counts and link scientific articles through their citations. There are more than one type of citations, but citation indexes treat all citations equally. One way to improve citation indexes is to determine the types of citations in scientific articles (background, support, perfunctory reference, etc.) This will enable researchers to query citation indexes more efficiently by locating articles grouped by citation types. For example, it can enable a researcher to locate all background material needed to understand a specific article by locating all "background" citations. Many classification schemes currently exist. However, manual annotation of all existing digital documents is infeasible because of the sheer magnitude of the digital content, which brings about the need for automating the annotating process, but not much research has been done in the area. One of the reasons preventing researchers from researching automated citation classification is the lack on annotated corpora that they can use. This thesis explores automated citation classification. We make several contributions to the field of citation classification. We present a new citation scheme that is easier to work with than most. Also, we present a document acquisition and citation annotation tool that helps with the development of annotated citation corpora. And finally, we present some experiments with automating citation classification.


We have developed a novel technique for combined immunofluorescence/in situ hybridization on fixed budding yeast cells that maintains the three-dimensional structure of the nucleus as monitored by focal sections of cells labeled with fluorescent probes and by staining with a nuclear pore antibody. Within the resolution of these immunodetection techniques, we show that proteins encoded by the SIR3, SIR4, and RAP1 genes colocalize in a statistically significant manner with Y' telomere- associated DNA sequences. In wild-type cells the Y' in situ hybridization signals can be resolved by light microscopy into fewer than ten foci per diploid nucleus. This suggests that telomeres are clustered in vegetatively growing cells, and that proteins essential for telomeric silencing are concentrated at their sites of action, i.e., at telomeres and/or subtelomeric regions. As observed for Rap1, the Sir4p staining is diffuse in a sir3- strain, and similarly, Sir3p staining is no longer punctate in a sir4- strain, although the derivatized Y' probe continues to label discrete sites in these strains. Nonetheless, the Y' FISH is altered in a qualitative manner in sir3 and sir4 mutant strains, consistent with the previously reported phenotypes of shortened telomeric repeats and loss of telomeric silencing.


Glaciers and ice sheets export significant amounts of silicon (Si) to downstream ecosystems, impacting local and potentially global biogeochemical cycles. Recent studies have shown Si in Arctic glacial meltwaters to have an isotopically distinct signature when compared to non-glacial rivers. This is likely linked to subglacial weathering processes and mechanochemical reactions. However, there are currently no silicon isotope (δ30Si) data available from meltwater streams in Antarctica, limiting the current inferences on global glacial silicon isotopic composition and its drivers. To address this gap, we present dissolved silicon (DSi), δ30SiDSi, and major ion data from meltwater streams draining a polythermal glacier in the region of the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP; King George Island) and a cold-based glacier in East Antarctica [Commonwealth Stream, McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV)]. These data, alongside other global datasets, improve our understanding of how contrasting glacier thermal regime can impact upon Si cycling and therefore the δ30SiDSi composition. We find a similar δ30SiDSi composition between the two sites, with the streams on King George Island varying between -0.23 and +1.23‰ and the Commonwealth stream varying from -0.40 to +1.14‰. However, meltwater streams in King George Island have higher DSi concentrations, and the two glacial systems exhibit opposite DSi – δ30SiDSi trends. These contrasts likely result from differences in weathering processes, specifically the role of subglacial processes (King George Island) and, supraglacial processes followed by in-stream weathering in hyporheic zones (Commonwealth Stream). These findings are important when considering likely changes in nutrient fluxes from Antarctic glaciers under climatic warming scenarios and consequent shifts in glacial thermal regimes.


Students today often feel that they have too much to do and too little time. A common strategy to remedy this is to take advantage of opportunities to use "inter-time", the time between other activities such as waiting or traveling. The aim of this thesis is to explore how studying using mobile devices in higher education can be designed for such opportunities. I choose to call this Opportunistic Mobile Studying (OMS).Using a design-based research approach this thesis discusses and proposes both scientific and practical contributions. A number of iterations of OMS have been designed, instantiated and tested in university courses and then evaluated using mixed methods.The first research question is how can OMS be designed to support students in adopting the behavior of studying at opportune moments. The results have been framed and interpreted using the Fogg Behavior Model, where behavior is the product of motivation, simplicity, and triggers. The results suggest that a key factor for motivation is procrastination, and therefore deadlines can be used to predict and suggest what students would likely be interested in studying during OMS moments. Simplicity is increased if OMS is adapted for studying in short fragmented moments, where important aspects are that content should be short, easy to access and easy to navigate. Trigger reminders were particularly appreciated and should be triggered based on time and place. Commuting is identified as a good context to build a routine of studying using OMS.The second research question is how can OMS activities and content be designed to support efficient studying in OMS situations. Study- activities identified as especially suitable for OMS situations are those that focus on preparation and repetition. These activities can enhance other learning activities and efficient studying can be accomplished even if only a little time is available. Examples of successful methods for this tested in this thesis include advance organizers and flashcards. Longer and more comprehensive studying material can be used if quick and easy navigation within the material is provided, for example, by using synchronized narrated slides such as enhanced podcasts.


This article engages critically with the insider–outsider divide in research with migrants and advocates a more nuanced and dynamic approach to positionality. In migration research, the insider–outsider divide typically assumes a specific form: an insider researcher is a member of the migrant group under study, whereas an outsider researcher is a member of the majority population in the country of settlement. This divide is a discursive reality that researchers must relate to, regardless of its analytical merits. Our analysis builds on the authors' experiences in twelve different fieldwork situations, where research was often conducted from hybrid positions that did not fit the archetypal insider–outsider divide. First, we discuss the relational construction of insider–outsider divides in migration research, focusing on the interplay between researcher characteristics and particular social contexts. Second, we address the specific characteristics or markers through which researchers are interpreted and positioned. These markers differ in terms of their visibility to informants, and in the extent to which researchers can modify them or communicate them selectively. Third, we examine how these characteristics are actively managed in fieldwork settings. Fourth, we identify five types of 'third positions' in migration research, positions that deviate from the archetypal insider–outsider divide: explicit third party, honorary insider, insider by proxy, hybrid insider-outsider, and apparent insider. The article explores some of the advantages and challenges inherent in different positions and argues that strategic and reflexive management of positionality should be included in ethical considerations about the research process.


In psychological assessment, a raw score transformation is the first step in the clinical decision-making process. During this process, clinicians will transform a raw score typically using linear standardised scores and a normative sample with characteristics similar to their client. While the literature stresses the importance of using adequate normative data, little research has evaluated the effect skewness has on sample size. Currently the consensus is that a sample size of 50 is deemed adequate for normative data. However, an alarming number of studies that present normative data have much smaller sample sizes particularly when the data is stratified by age, gender, and/or education. Additionally, the use of linear transformations onto a normal distribution introduces further problems the more positively or negatively skewed the normative raw score distribution is. Skewed distributions are commonly encountered in neuropsychology and accordingly their deviation from a normal distribution should be considered during the clinical decision-making process. The primary goal of the current thesis was therefore to evaluate the psychometric issues related to the standardisation process. In particular to investigate the current understanding of sample sizes in neuropsychological samples, assess how this is influenced by different skewed distributions, and evaluate the potential errors involved in the decision-making process. Three studies were conducted. The first study explored the minimum sample size needed to produce stable measures of central tendency and variance for a range of distributions. Results indicated that the optimal sample size required was dependent on the level of skewness of the distribution and was not the often cited N = 50. For normally distributed data, a sample size of 70 is required in each cell in order to produce stable means and standard deviations. Negatively or positively skewed distributions required sample sizes that ranged from 30 to 80 in each cell. This study highlighted the inadequacy of currently available normative data and called for further normative research to be conducted. The second study evaluated the errors introduced when using three different linear transformations on different skewed distributions with adequate sample sizes. Seven tests with differing skewness coefficients were evaluated using the z score transformation, a t-test method developed by Crawford and Howell (1998), and a median z score transformation developed for this research. Results indicated that the traditional z score transformation produced the least errors of the three methods. However, for highly positively skewed distributions, the use of this transformation introduces considerable error in the clinical decision-making process. A regression equation was derived as a tool for clinicians to help correct adequate data for the effect of skewness. The final study evaluated whether using different linear transformations created substantial errors when using normative data that ranged in skewness and that had sample sizes less than those recommended from Study One. This study is particularly important given the common practice in neuropsychology for at least some measures to be derived from the clinical research literature utilising inadequate sample sizes. Results indicated that the error in judgement when using the preferred z score transformation is nearly doubled in positively skewed distributions. It was recommended that normative data with sample sizes less than 30 should not be used in clinical practice and guidelines were proposed for incorporating issues of sample size and skewness into their testing practices. It is hoped that clinicians will adopt the findings and subsequent recommendations of these studies in order to improve the current standards of clinical decision-making in neuropsychology.


Abstract A diverse fauna of phacopid trilobites is described from the Late Devonian (middle Frasnian to early Famennian) of the northern Canning Basin, Western Australia. One new genus and four species in two genera are described from zones 11, 13a and 13b of the middle and late Frasnian: Trimerocephaloides sinevisus gen. nov. and sp. nov., T. ? linguiformis sp. nov., Acuticryphops acuticeps (Kayser, 1889) and A. klapperi sp. nov. Late Frasnian phacopines are either blind, as shown for the first time in Trimerocephaloides sinevisus, or show trends to decreasing eye size up to the Frasnian–Famennian 'Kellwasser' mass extinction event. This evolutionary trend in Acuticryphops is demonstrated to have been global at this time. One new genus and six species of early Famennian phacopids are described, from the Upper triangularis, crepida and rhomboidea zones: Houseops gen. nov. with the new taxa H. canningensis sp. nov., H. beckeri sp. nov. and H. sp. A, Babinops planiventer Feist & Becker, 1997, B. minor sp. nov., Trimerocephalus tardispinosus Feist & Becker, 1997 and T. mimbi sp. nov. In contrast to European sections where exclusively blind phacopids are known in earliest Famennian sites, initial recovery following the mass extinction event in Canning peri-reefal environments is characterized by oculated forms. These trilobites must have evolved from conservative ancestors with normal eyes that had succeeded in surviving the Kellwasser biocrises in reef-related shallow water niches. Thus the origin of post-event phacopids from shallow water environments is demonstrated for the first time. Descendant lineages show increasing eye size, increased cephalic vaulting and effacement during the early Famennian.


In 1993, Coppersmith introduced the "factorization factory" approach as a means to speed up the Number Field Sieve algorithm (NFS) when factoring batches of integers of similar size: at the expense of a large precomputation whose cost is amortized when considering sufficiently many integers to factor, the complexity of each individual factorization can then be lowered. We suggest here to extend this idea to the computation of discrete logarithms in finite fields of small characteristic using the Function Field Sieve (FFS), thus referring to this approach as the "FFS factory". In this paper, the benefits of the proposed technique are established thanks to both a theoretical complexity analysis along with a practical experiment in which we solved the discrete logarithm problem in fifty different binary fields of sizes ranging from 601 to 699 bits.


Sensor network applications should be reliable. However, TinyOS, the dominant sensor net OS, lacks basic building blocks for reliable software systems: memory protection, isolation, and safe termination. These features are typically found in general-purpose operating systems but are believed to be too expensive for tiny embedded systems with a few kilobytes of RAM. We dispel this notion and show that CCured, a safe dialect of C, can be leveraged to provide memory safety for largely unmodified TinyOS applications. We build upon safety to implement two very different environments for TinyOS applications. The first, Safe TinyOS, provides a minimal kernel for safely executing trusted applications. Safe execution traps and identifies bugs that would otherwise have silently corrupted RAM. The second environment, UTOS, implements a user-kernel boundary that supports isolation and safe termination of untrusted code. Existing TinyOS components can often be ported to UTOS with little effort. To create our environments, we substantially augmented the CCured toolchain to emit code that is safe under interrupt-driven concurrency, to reduce storage requirements by compressing error messages, to refactor direct hardware access into calls to trusted helper functions, and to make safe programs more efficient using whole-program optimization. A surprising result of our work is that a safe, optimized TinyOS program can be faster than the original unsafe, unoptimized application. Memory Safety and Untrusted Extensions for TinyOS John Regehr Nathan Cooprider Will Archer Eric Eide University of Utah, School of Computing


E. coli is the most common cause of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in humans and is a leading cause of enteric infections and systemic infections. The systemic infections include bacteremia, nosocomial pneumonia, cholecystitis, cholangitis, peritonitis, cellulitis, osteomyelitis, and infectious arthritis. E. coli is also the leading cause of neonatal meningitis.


A detailed morphological study is provided of the Brazilian Terebridae Hastula cinerea (Born, 1778), H. hastata (Gmelin, 1791), Terebra brasiliensis Smith, 1873, T. crassireticula n. nom. (replacing the junior homonym T. reticulata Simone & Verissimo, 1995), T. gemmulata Kiener, 1839, T. leftafsisn. sp., T. teturina (Lightfoot, 1786), and T. spirosulcata Simone & P. M. Costa n. sp. Terebra sterigma n. sp. is represented by shells only. Anatomically, the terebrids appear to be characterized by the reduction of the cephalic tentacles, the anterior extremity of the ctenidial vein being prominent and without gill filaments, and the rhynchodeal introvert and the anus being situated very posteriorly in the pallial cavity. The species of Hastula examined are characterized by an enlarged foot and by the complexity of the osphradium filaments. The species of Terebra examined are characterized by the eye situated at the tip of the tentacles, and also by a tendency for enlargement of the introvert, and reduction of the proboscis and the venom apparatus with their entire loss in some species (T. gemmulata and T. brasiliensis). The accessory proboscis structure is present in three of the Terebra species studied, and it is hypothesized that it may be a character of the family, as it is present in some Hastula. species, and it may have been secondarily lost in several species of the family. Based on anatomical similarities, it is hypothesized that the conoidean proboscis is derived from a pleurembolic proboscis, homologous to the buccal mass part of this proboscis type, and the rhynchodeal wall is homologous to the remaining regions of the pleurembolic proboscis. ZOOSYSTEMA • 1999 • 21 (2) 199


This beautifully illustrated book provides a complete overview of the art of the Southern Netherlands from 1585 to 1700. The author examines the development of Flemish and specifically Antwerp painting, the work of Rubens and other leading masters, and the Antwerp tradition of specialization among painters as well as the sculpture and architecture of this period. "A major moment of artistic culture has been magisterially sketched by one of its leading authorities."--Larry Silver, The Art Book "Consistently rewarding ...a book that is going to transform how Flemish art is understood."--Jeremy Wood, Apollo Magazine "As well as examining the output and influence of leading figures such as Rubens and Van Dyke, Vlieghe provides the historical, social and cultural context for the development of history painting and other specializations...This book will attract both the informed and general reader."--Alison Smith, Art Newspaper "Essential for current study of Belgian art."--Choice


Transgenic tobacco plants with severely reduced catalase activity were crossed with NahG plants that do not accumulate salicylic acid. Some of the progeny from the cross spontaneously developed necrosis when grown under strong light, similar to that observed on the parental severely catalase-deficient plants. However, in contrast to the parental catalase-deficient plants, these progeny plants did not constitutively express PR-1 genes or develop enhanced resistance. Thus, salicylic acid appears to be required for the induction of these defense responses in catalase-deficient tobacco plants.


So far Bulinus truncatus samples have been found in two localities in Turkey. Habur stream, Ceylanp›nar, fianl›urfa, and water flow at Bolatlar village, Akçakale, fianl›urfa. In this study, the conchological features of samples obtained from those two localities were investigated and the results were compared. In both localities, the shells of the the collected samples are sinistral and have depressed spire regions. From the samples collected in the Akçakale region (Bolatlar village), average shell height, shell width, aperture height and aperture width of the 21 shells and width of shell/height of shell, width of aperture/height of aperture, height of aperture/height of shell and width of aperture/width of shell of these shells were measured. These results were compared with data from Ceylanp›nar, where samples were obtained during a previous study. We found there was no important difference between the two localities (cd < 1.50).


—Due to limited computational power and energy resources, aggregation of data from multiple sensor nodes done at the aggregating node is usually accomplished by simple methods such as averaging. However such aggregation is known to be highly vulnerable to node compromising attacks. Since WSN are usually unattended and without tamper resistant hardware, they are highly susceptible to such attacks. Thus, ascertaining trustworthiness of data and reputation of sensor nodes is crucial for WSN. As the performance of very low power processors dramatically improves, future aggregator nodes will be capable of performing more sophisticated data aggregation algorithms, thus making WSN less vulnerable. Iterative filtering algorithms hold great promise for such a purpose. Such algorithms simultaneously aggregate data from multiple sources and provide trust assessment of these sources, usually in a form of corresponding weight factors assigned to data provided by each source. In this paper we demonstrate that several existing iterative filtering algorithms, while significantly more robust against collusion attacks than the simple averaging methods, are nevertheless susceptive to a novel sophisticated collusion attack we introduce. To address this security issue, we propose an improvement for iterative filtering techniques by providing an initial approximation for such algorithms which makes them not only collusion robust, but also more accurate and faster converging.


Foundations are unique among organizations in the enormous latitude they have in determining their work and the manner in which it is done. This flexibility manifests itself particularly in the variety of roles that foundation board members can take. Most of the literature in the field focuses on best practices in board structure and processes. These are necessary in the spirit of responsiveness and legal accountability, but are not sufficient for effectiveness. Achieving role clarity, influence in decision-making and responsibility for impact are three keys to more effective foundation governance. These three attributes can be better understood and achieved by examining the roles of foundation board members as individuals and as a collective. Recognizing these important, often overlooked, phenomena will help boards not only have good work that will keep them enthused and committed, but also to produce the good work that the public expects.


* The Internet and the Mass Media. Lucy Kiing, Robert G. Picard, and Ruth Towse, eds. New York, NY: Sage Publications, 2008. 200 pp. $32.97 pbk. Most of the literature and virtually all textbooks in the field of media management continue to focus on traditional industries and traditional issues; the Internet has typically been treated peripherally. A handful of recent books has made the Internet and the associated digital technologies a central focus. Virtually all of these, however, tend to take either a purely management or purely economic approach - a good example of the former is Managing of Media Companies by Annet Aris and Jacques Bughin; and of the latter, Internet and Digital Economics, edited by Eric Brousseau and Nicolas Curien. This work, The Internet and Mass Media by Lucy Kiing, Robert Picard, and Ruth Towse, is a rare exception that effectively integrates these two perspectives to produce a solid, multidisciplinary approach to "the impact of the Internet on mass media." Kiing is a professor at the Institute for Media and Entertainment in New York and at the Media Management and Transformation Centre at Sweden's Jonkoping International Business School; Picard is a media economist at Emerson College in Boston; and Towse is an economics professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The core of this book consists of six chapters by well-known scholars, each focusing on a specific impact of the Internet - technology platforms, content, users, regulation, the organization of enterprises, and their business models. These chapters all do three things: (1) they present a rich description of the changes and developments as of the time of their writing; (2) they offer a clear discussion of the "Why?" question, well-grounded in the two theoretical perspectives; and (3) they provide a window, both conceptually and empirically, for examining their respective impacts going forward. Part of what makes these six narratives both compelling and useful is their focus on the underlying fundamentals. Books written by committee often turn out to be disjointed. This is not the case here for two reasons. One is that the various authors all spent five years meeting regularly as part of a larger initiative sponsored by the European Union, permitting the various scholars to understand how their work fits with that of the others. The second reason for the book's coherence, and one of its real strengths, is the strong editing provided by Kiing, Picard, and Towse. Two very useful introductory chapters are an important element of this effort. The first not only provides the usual description of what the book is about, and an introduction to the core chapters; it also connects each of the chapters to underlying theoretical perspectives. …


Background: Internet represents a revolution in the world of technology and communication all over the world including Tunisia. However, this technology has also introduced problematic use, especially among students. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of Internet addiction among college students and its predictors in the region of Sousse, Tunisia. Study design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: The current study was conducted in the colleges of Sousse, Tunisia in 2012-2013. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data from 556 students in 5 randomly selected colleges from the region. Collected data concerned socio-demographic characteristics, substances use and internet addiction using the Young Internet Addiction Test. Results: The response rate was 96%. The mean age of participants was 21.8 ±2.2 yr. Females represented 51.8% of them. Poor control of internet use was found among 280 (54.0%; 95% CI: 49.7%, 58.3%) participants. Low education levels among parents, the young age, lifetime tobacco use and lifetime illicit drugs use were significantly associated with poor control of internet use among students (P<0.001). While, the most influential factor on internet use among them was under-graduation with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.4 (95% CI: 1.7, 3.6). Conclusions: Poor control of internet use is highly prevalent among the college students of Sousse especially those under graduate. A national intervention program is required to reduce this problem among youth. A national study among both in-school and out-of-school adolescents and young people would identify at-risk groups and determine the most efficient time to intervene and prevent internet addiction.


Regulatory nukes are regulatory tools that can prove extremely destructive to regulatory targets and have an element of political taboo surrounding their use. This Article discusses how and why Congress proliferates regulatory nukes. It explores the way regulatory nukes shape the contours of environmental law and define important aspects of various environmental enactments, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, RCRA, CERCLA, and the Endangered Species Act, among others. The typical narratives we find surrounding environmental regulatory nukes, that either focus on regulatory Armageddon or dust settling on nukes in their silos, only tell part of the story. These narratives neglect the ways in which regulators use environmental regulatory nukes to prod, cudgel, and extract regulatory concessions from their potential targets. Seeing regulatory nukes in this light helps us better understand that regulators use these weapons not only by firming them but also by brandishing them and even merely possessing them.


We present a piezoelectric nonlinear energy sink (NES) framework for attenuation of nonlinear vibrations in a cantilever beam. The NES acts as a nonlinear piezoelectric shunt that implements linear components along with op-amp and multiplier nonlinear circuit elements to enable NES dynamics in the electrical domain. The piezoelectric NES was recently shown to provide wideband vibration attenuation in a cantilever undergoing linear mechanical vibrations. Following these recent efforts, we implement the piezoelectric NES to broadband attenuations of nonlinear vibrations of a thin cantilever beam. The model makes use of the linear modal parameters for the bimorph cantilever (PZT-5H patches connected in parallel) for the fundamental natural frequency obtained using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Circuit parameters for the linear bimorph cantilever target frequency are obtained using harmonic balance analysis. The performance of the piezoelectric NES for broadband attenuation of nonlinear vibrations is evaluated and simulations are performed by modifying the structure (with a tip mass to move its resonance frequency) without tuning the NES circuit components. Simulations are presented for a range of acceleration levels and frequency ranges to demonstrate the broadband attenuation of the nonlinear vibrations using a single circuit configuration.


In this paper we describe the key processes used in the construction of the Bureau's Longitudinal Database (LEDB). This database serves several functions: as a business register; to conduct longitudinal studies of businesses and employment decline and growth; and as a rich and comprehensive source of information on employment and wages. In addition to a review of the overall program, data sources and outputs, we describe the following topics: the Annual Refiling Survey; the processes required to implement an industrial classification change; recent improvements in the record linkage methodology utilized to identify and maintain the continuity of establishments over time; and, the implementation of Permanent Random Numbers for sampling.


Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is regarded as an excellent source of ascorbic acid, a good source of carotene, riboflavin and a fair source of iron, calcium, thiamin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B-6 and vitamin K. Each and every part of papaya plant from root to shoot is used for medicament purposes. Ripe papaya fruit is used in jam, jelly, marmalade, puree, wine, nectar, juice, frozen slices, mixed beverages, ice-cream, powder, baby food, cooked in pie, pickled, sweet meat, concentrated and candied items. Young leaves are cooked and eaten like spinach, animal feed, tenderize meat, stomach trouble, purgative effects and abortion may result from consumption of the dried papaya leaves. The flowers are sometimes candied and used for making sprays. Papaya seeds are rich source of amino acids; scented oil was extracted, used in treatment of sickle cell disease and poisoning related disorders. Papain is used in food processing to tenderize meat, clarify beer and juice, produce chewing gum, coagulate milk, prepare cereals, and produce pet food, also to treat wool and silk before dying, de-hair hides before tanning, adjunct in rubber manufacturing and proteolytic enzymes (papain and chymopapain). In folk medicine, latex is used on boils, warts, freckles, abortion, expel roundworms, salt making, relieve asthma stomach troubles, purgative for horses, treatment for genito-urinary ailments, tumer destroying, making herbal  tea, digestive and aid in chronic indigestion, weight loss, obesity, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, blood purifier and weakening of heart etc. It has also several antibiotic, allergic, anti-nutritional and toxic properties.

 Key words: Pawpaw, drug bioavailability, traditional medicaments, industrial uses, papain, nutritive value.


ABSTRACT With the systemic turn in deliberative democratic theory, there is renewed and broadened emphasis on the inclusion of all affected by a political decision in the making of those decisions. The key enabler of inclusion at a system level is transmission: theoretically, a deliberative system is more democratic if it can foster the transmission of claims and ideas across different sites, especially between informal sites of public deliberation and the more formal institutions of political decision-making. Yet little is known about the mechanisms of transmission in deliberative systems. How, and to what effect, is transmission facilitated in practice? This paper draws on case studies of three promising mechanisms of deliberative transmission: institutional, innovative and discursive. We discuss the key factors that enable or hinder different forms of transmission, and reflect on the ways in which they might be strengthened in deliberative systems. Our analysis suggests that the systemic turn in deliberative democracy should go hand-in-hand with a nuanced understanding of how transmission occurs across different sites. As such, our discussion has important implications for deliberative scholars and practitioners as they go about conceptualizing, studying and steering deliberative democracy at the large scale.


One of the many problems of consciousness concerns the appearance of an inner world or an inner reality. Having an inner world is a prerequisite for consciousness in a machine. In this paper we will argue that the core of an inner world is already present in a very simple robot. We have previously argued that a crucial mechanism for generating an inner world in humans is the ability of our brains to simulate behaviour and perception. A simple robot has been designed in which perception can be simulated. We argue here that this robot, or one that has been extended in various ways, but without adding any new fundamental principle, has an inner world and subjective experience in the same sense as


Abstract. Satellite observations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have often been used to derive nitrogen oxides (NOx =  NO + NO2) emissions. A widely used inversion method was developed by Martin et al. (2003). Refinements of this method were subsequently developed. In the context of this inversion method, we show that the local derivative (of a first-order Taylor expansion) is more appropriate than the "bulk ratio" (ratio of emission to column) used in the original formulation for polluted regions. Using the bulk ratio can lead to biases in regions of high NOx emissions such as eastern China due to chemical non-linearity. Inverse modelling using the local derivative method is applied to both GOME-2 and OMI satellite measurements to estimate anthropogenic NOx emissions over eastern China. Compared with the traditional method using bulk ratio, the local derivative method produces more consistent NOx emission estimates between the inversion results using GOME-2 and OMI measurements. The results also show significant changes in the spatial distribution of NOx emissions, especially over high emission regions of eastern China. We further discuss a potential pitfall of using the difference of two satellite measurements to derive NOx emissions. Our analysis suggests that chemical non-linearity needs to be accounted for and that a careful bias analysis is required in order to use the satellite differential method in inverse modelling of NOx emissions.


Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) catalyzes the conversion of nucleoside diphosphates to deoxynucleoside diphosphates (dNDPs). The Escherichia coli class Ia RNR uses a mechanism of radical propagation by which a cysteine in the active site of the RNR large (α2) subunit is transiently oxidized by a stable tyrosyl radical (Y•) in the RNR small (β2) subunit over a 35-Å pathway of redox-active amino acids: Y122• ↔ [W48?] ↔ Y356 in β2 to Y731 ↔ Y730 ↔ C439 in α2. When 3-aminotyrosine (NH2Y) is incorporated in place of Y730, a long-lived NH2Y730• is generated in α2 in the presence of wild-type (wt)-β2, substrate, and effector. This radical intermediate is chemically and kinetically competent to generate dNDPs. Herein, evidence is presented that NH2Y730• induces formation of a kinetically stable α2β2 complex. Under conditions that generate NH2Y730•, binding between Y730NH2Y-α2 and wt-β2 is 25-fold tighter (Kd = 7 nM) than for wt-α2|wt-β2 and is cooperative. Stopped-flow fluorescence experiments establish that the dissociation rate constant for the Y730NH2Y-α2|wt-β2 interaction is ∼104-fold slower than for the wt subunits (∼60 s−1). EM and small-angle X-ray scattering studies indicate that the stabilized species is a compact globular α2β2, consistent with the structure predicted by Uhlin and Eklund's docking model [Uhlin U, Eklund H (1994) Nature 370(6490):533–539]. These results present a structural and biochemical characterization of the active RNR complex "trapped" during turnover, and suggest that stabilization of the α2β2 state may be a regulatory mechanism for protecting the catalytic radical and ensuring the fidelity of its reactivity.


A key challenge for present-day electric energy storage systems, such as supercapacitors and batteries, is to meet the world's growing demand for high performances, low cost, and environmental-friendliness. Here, we introduce a hybrid energy storage system combining zinc iodide (ZnI2) as redox electrolyte with a nanoporous activated carbon fiber (ACF) cathode and a zinc disk anode. We found that the nanopores (<1 nm) of ACF lead to a strong adsorption behavior of iodide and triiodide. Hence, this system exhibits low self-discharge rates without applying an ion exchange membrane. The high power performance (20.0 kW kg−1) originates from the enhanced redox kinetics of the iodide system as evidenced by electrochemical analysis. Considering the high specific energy (226 W h kg−1), the ACF/Zn ZnI2 battery represents an alternative for lead acid, Ni–Zn, and Ni–Cd batteries, while providing a supercapacitor-like power performance in the range of seconds to minutes charging times.


The main goal of this dissertation was to demonstrate Joe Henderson as a seminal figure in jazz history; a position that, despite his importance among jazz musicians, typically is lost when compared with many of his contemporaries. Three compositions and subsequent improvisations were selected for analysis. These pieces are among Henderson's most well-known compositions, and were selected because they represent the compositions most likely to be studied when one is first exposed to Joe Henderson. New transcriptions of the improvisations from each piece were created. A biographical sketch was also created. The second goal of this research was to elucidate the harmonic style of Joe Henderson's improvisations. The analysis supported the contention that Henderson was an improviser strongly influenced by bebop jazz while also equally displaying harmonic techniques considered as avant-garde for the period. Each improvised solo demonstrated characteristics of bebop as well as freer forms of jazz performance, equally displaying tonally strong bebop motives with techniques that were in contrast to the prescribed harmonic function of the compositions. The results of each solo portrays Joe Henderson as a jazz soloist firmly imbedded between two contrasting styles of jazz performance, making him both a significant contributor to the movement of the jazz field as well as an artist worthy of significant study and clarification.


Abstract. Air pollution is one of the world's leading risk factors for death, with 6.5 million deaths per year worldwide attributed to air-pollution-related diseases. Understanding the behaviour of certain pollutants through air quality assessment can produce improvements in air quality management that will translate to health and economic benefits. However, problems with missing data and uncertainty hinder that assessment. We are motivated by the need to enhance the air pollution data available. We focus on the problem of missing air pollutant concentration data either because a limited set of pollutants is measured at a monitoring site or because an instrument is not operating, so a particular pollutant is not measured for a period of time. In our previous work, we have proposed models which can impute a whole missing time series to enhance air quality monitoring. Some of these models are based on a multivariate time series (MVTS) clustering method. Here, we apply our method to real data and show how different graphical and statistical model evaluation functions enable us to select the imputation model that produces the most plausible imputations. We then compare the Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI) values obtained after imputation with observed values incorporating missing data. Our results show that using an ensemble model that aggregates the spatial similarity obtained by the geographical correlation between monitoring stations and the fused temporal similarity between pollutant concentrations produces very good imputation results. Furthermore, the analysis enhances understanding of the different pollutant behaviours and of the characteristics of different stations according to their environmental type.


In sheet metal forming processes there is still a lack of knowledge in the field of environmental sustainability mainly due to the need of a proper modeling of issues and factors to be taken into account. Such topic is, nowadays, a urgent and remarkable issue in manufacturing and the main concerns are related to more efficient use of materials and energy. What is more, the estimation of environmental burdens of forming technologies is very complex to be accomplished since it is essentially process-dependent. This means that when comparing, for instance, a traditional forming process with an innovative one, there are some peculiar aspects to be considered; actually, processes can be rather different each other in terms of tooling, operative parameters and so on. In this paper, a first modeling effort is presented in order to compare, from a sustainability point of view, a classical stamping process with an incremental forming one. In particular, a frustum of pyramid part is considered and a quantitative analysis of the process energy consumption was developed. The paper aims to provide some sustainability guidelines to promote discussion on limitations, advantages, savings, drawbacks offered by different technologies within sheet metal forming field.


Advanced concepts for wireless technologies present a vision of technology that is embedded in our surroundings and practically invisible. From established radio techniques like GSM, 802.11 or Bluetooth to more emerging technologies, such as Ultra Wide Band and smart dust motes, a common denominator for future progress is the underlying integrated circuit technology. Wireless Technologies responds to the explosive growth of standard cellular radios and radically different wireless applications by presenting new architectural and circuit solutions engineers can use to solve modern design problems. This reference addresses state-of-the art CMOS design in the context of emerging wireless applications, including 3G/4G cellular telephony, wireless sensor networks, and wireless medical application. Written by top international experts specializing in both the IC industry and academia, this carefully edited work uncovers new design opportunities in body area networks, medical implants, satellite communications, automobile radar detection, and wearable electronics. The book is divided into three sections: wireless system perspectives, chip architecture and implementation issues, and devices and technologies used to fabricate wireless integrated circuits. Contributors address key issues in the development of future silicon-based systems, such as scale of integration, ultra-low power dissipation, and the integration of heterogeneous circuit design style and processes onto one substrate. Wireless sensor network systems are now being applied in critical applications in commerce, healthcare, and security. This reference, which contains 25 practical and scientifically rigorous articles, provides the knowledge communications engineers need to design innovative methodologies at the circuit and system level.


This thesis examines the management of urban renewal policy and practice during a five-year period (2010-2015) in the Manchester CityRegion. It is set within a context of recession and a Conservative-led Coalition government. The study draws upon and adapts Susan Fainstein's concept and criteria of the 'Just City' (2010) and the specific focus of this work is to see if the city-region has the potential to be a just city. Qualitative data collection has mainly involved a series of semi-structured interviews, based on three core research questions, with key decision makers in various layers of the city-region from within the public, private and community/voluntary sectors. Findings suggest that Salford and Manchester each have the potential to contribute to a just city. This is despite the challenges of recession, austerity urbanism and a continual focus upon economically-driven processes as a catalyst for change. Within these processes, the findings demonstrate that there are differing attitudes between, and within, the two places in terms of a shared understanding of leadership, cross-sector relationships and ways of working together. Significantly, having taken the idea of the just city concept and reworked this in a particular way via the case studies, what has emerged is the 'co-operative city'. Set within a broader politico-economic context of the move to devolution and the backdrop of austerity, the claim to originality is done through interrogating and adapting Fainstein's notion of the 'just city', to position co-operative working as central to an understanding of how social justice might be better promoted and realised in the Manchester CityRegion. More specifically this work claims that co-operative working is central to an understanding of the mechanisms and processes of how the 'just city' might be brought about and is considered as a fourth criteria to those identified by Fainstein.


A mechanism-guided design of a multi-step flow system enabled an efficient general process for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from alkenes and CO2. The flow system proved to be an ideal platform for multicomponent reactions because it was straightforward to introduce reagents at specific stages without their interacting with each other or with reaction intermediates prone to destruction by them. This system exhibited superior reactivity, increased yield, and broader substrate scope relative to conventional batch conditions and suppressed the formation of undesired byproducts, such as, epoxides and 1,2-dibromoalkanes.


Computer and online-communication technologies have given rise to new tasks in the real world. The present collection* is based on two premises: (a) that rapid digital technological change fuels constant transformations in learning and language use, continually creating new language education needs, and (b) that these developments in turn demand suitable curricular and instructional responses, whereby tasks and technology are genuinely and productively integrated. In this introduction, we present our vision for how the canonical principles of task-based language teaching (TBLT) can be fitted integrally into the new language education and digital technology realities, and we outline a new framework that we call "technology-mediated TBLT" and which the book seeks to open up for new research. We also introduce each chapter and highlight connections among them as they provide relevant empirical evidence and help envision future needed research into technology-mediated TBLT.


Computational neuroscientists have recently turned to modeling olfactory structures because these are likely to have the same functional properties as currently popular network designs for perception and memory. This book provides a useful survey of current work on olfactory system circuitry, including connections of this system to brain structures involved in cognition and memory, and describes the computational models of olfactory processing that have been developed to date.Contributions cover empirical investigations of the neurobiology of the olfactory systems (anatomy, physiology, synaptic plasticity, behavioral physiology) as well as the application of computer models to understanding these systems. Fundamental issues in olfactory processing by the nervous systems such as experimental strategies in the study of olfaction, stages of odor processing, and critical questions in sensory coding are considered across empirical/applied boundaries and throughout the contributions.Joel L. Davis is Program Manager of the Biological Intelligence Section at the Office of Naval Research. Howard Eichenbaum is Professor of Biological Sciences at Wellesley College.Contributors: 1. Fundamental Anatomy, Physiology, and Plasticity of the Olfactory System. Gordon M. Shepherd. John S. Kauer, S. R. Neff, Kathryn A. Hamilton, and Angel R. Cinelli. Kevin L. Ketchum, Lewis B. Haberly. Joseph L. Price, S. Thomas Carmichael, Ken M. Carnes, MarieChristine Clugnet, Masaru Kuroda, and James P. Ray. Michael Leon, Donald A. Wilson, and Kathleen M. Guthrie. Gary Lynch and Richard Granger. Howard Eichenbaum, Tim Otto, Cynthia Wible, and jean Piper. II. Developments in Computational Models of the Olfactory System. DeLiang Wang, Joachim Buhmann, and Christoph von der Marlsburg. Walter Freeman. Richard Granger, Ursula Staubi, Jose Ambrose-Ingersoll, and Gary Lynch. James M. Bower. Dan Hammerstrom and Eric Means.


Supercritical water gasification
is a promising waste-to-energy technology with the ability to convert aqueous
and/or heterogeneous organic feedstocks to high-value gaseous products.
Reaction behavior of complex molecules in supercritical water can be inferred
through knowledge of the reaction pathways of model compounds in supercritical
water. In this study methanol, ethanol, and isopropyl alcohol are gasified in a
continuous supercritical water reactor at temperatures between 500 and 560 °C,
and for residence times between 3 and 8 s. In situ Raman spectroscopy is
used to rapidly identify and quantify reaction products. The results suggest
the dominance of chain-branching, free radical reaction mechanisms that are
responsible for decomposing primary alcohols in the supercritical water
environment. The presence of a catalytic surface is proposed to be highly
significant for initiating radical reactions. Global reaction pathways are
proposed, and mechanisms for free radical reaction initiation, propagation, and
termination are discussed in light of these and previously published
experimental results.


Context. In this work we present data from observations with the MAGIC telescopes of SN 2014J detected on January 21 2014, the closest Type Ia supernova since Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes started to operate. Aims. We aim to probe the possibility of very-high-energy (VHE; E >= 100 GeV) gamma rays produced in the early stages of Type Ia supernova explosions. Methods. We performed follow-up observations after this supernova (SN) explosion for five days, between January 27 and February 2 2014. We searched for gamma-ray signals in the energy range between 100 GeV and several TeV from the location of SN 2014J using data from a total of similar to 5.5 h of observations. Prospects for observing gamma rays of hadronic origin from SN 2014J in the near future are also being addressed. Results. No significant excess was detected from the direction of SN 2014J. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the integral flux, assuming a power-law spectrum, dF/dE proportional to E-Gamma, with a spectral index of Gamma = 2.6, for energies higher than 300 GeV and 700 GeV, are established at 1.3 x 10(-12) and 4.1 x 10-(13) photons cm(-2) s(-1), respectively. Conclusions. For the first time, upper limits on the VHE emission of a Type Ia supernova are established. The energy fraction isotropically emitted into TeV gamma rays during the first similar to 10 days after the supernova explosion for energies greater than 300 GeV is limited to 10(-6) of the total available energy budget (similar to 10(51) erg). Within the assumed theoretical scenario, the MAGIC upper limits on the VHE emission suggest that SN 2014J will not be detectable in the future by any current or planned generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes.


We examined the hypothesis that threat alters the cognitive strategies used by high authoritarians in seeking out new political information from the environment. In a laboratory experiment, threat was manipulated through a "mortality salience" manipulation used in research on terror management theory (Pyszczynski, Solomon & Greenberg, 2003). Subjects (N = 92) were then invited to read one of three editorial articles on the topic of capital punishment. We found that in the absence of threat, both low and high authoritarians were responsive to salient norms of evenhandedness in information selection, preferring exposure to a two-sided article that presents the merits of both sides of an issue to an article that selectively touts the benefits of the pro or con side of the issue. However, in the presence of threat, high but not low authoritarians became significantly more interested in exposure to an article containing uniformly pro-attitudinal arguments, and significantly less interested in a balanced, two-sided article. Finally, a path analysis indicated that selective exposure to attitude-congruent information led to more internally consistent policy attitudes and inhibited attitude change. Discussion focuses on the role of threat in conditioning the cognitive and attitudinal effects of authoritarianism.


To the Editor: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod-borne alphavirus (family Togaviridae) comprising 3 genotypes: West African, East/Central/South African, and Asian (1). This zoonotic pathogen originated in Africa and since 2004 has caused outbreaks in several countries on different continents (2). In 2013, CHIKV reached the Americas and caused an explosive epidemic that has already caused 1,231,077 cases in 43 countries (3).

In Brazil, autochthonous cases of chikungunya were confirmed in September 2014 in Feira de Santana (FSA), a city of 612,000 residents (4) near the eastern edge of Bahia State in east-central Brazil. Surprisingly, the CHIKV genotype was determined to be East/Central/South African and not the Asian genotype that is circulating in the Americas; this finding was based on sequence data obtained from a cell culture viral isolate using an Ion Torrent platform (3,5).

Dengue is endemic/epidemic to FSA, and the first cases of chikungunya were mistakenly reported as dengue. Beginning in July 2014, when dengue virus transmission is low, an increased number of suspected cases of dengue from a FSA neighborhood caught the attention of local surveillance officials. CHIKV infection was suspected because results of laboratory tests for dengue (nonstructural 1 and IgM ELISA) were negative, and the patients complained mainly of high fever and intense bilateral joint pain accompanied by swelling (4). IgM ELISA and quantitative reverse transcription PCR conducted at the Instituto Evandro Chagas (Ananindeua, Brazil) confirmed the cause of illness as CHIKV. The sequences obtained in this study were deposited in the GenBank under accession nos. {"type":"entrez-nucleotide-range","attrs":{"text":"KP164567-KP164572","start_term":"KP164567","end_term":"KP164572","start_term_id":"777861422","end_term_id":"777861512"}}KP164567-KP164572.

Data from epidemiologic investigations suggested that the index case-patient could have been a Brazilian citizen living in Luanda, Angola, who visited his family in FSA. He went to an emergency health unit in FSA on May 28, reporting intense joint pain and high fever. His laboratory tests (nonstructural 1 and IgM) for dengue were negative. On June 4 (epidemiologic week [EW] 23), another person sought care for similar symptoms, and new cases emerged, all in residents in that same neighborhood (4).The epidemic peaked in EW 39, when 200 cases were reported. Cases then decreased, and in EW 48 only 10 cases were reported (Figure).

Figure

Reported cases of chikungunya fever, by epidemiologic week. Feira de Santana, Bahia State, Brazil, 2014.

In FSA, of the 1,346 chikungunya cases (219.9/100,000 residents) reported through EW 48, a total of 52.4% (1,498.1/100,000) patients lived in the same neighborhood as the index patient. However, the other 77 neighborhoods in FSA also recorded cases. Twice as many cases occurred among female patients (67.1% of cases) as among male patients. All age groups were affected; incidence was highest in persons 20–49 years of age (56.2%; 267.1 cases/100,000 inhabitants). The main clinical manifestations were high fever, arthralgia and arthritis with edema, headache, myalgia, rash, and itching. As of EW 48, no deaths were recorded (4).

CHIKV is transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, but FSA has Ae. aegypti only, and the Premise Index was 1.1% on January 2014 (6). Thus, during EW 36, the surveillance service of FSA began intense actions to combat that vector (5) by using integrated environmental management (7): elimination of breeding sites, applications of larvicide in water bodies, spraying insecticide (ultra-low volume), mobilization, and community education. However, cases continued to be diagnosed in neighborhoods in FSA, and transmission was detected in another municipality 77 km from FSA (391 cases through EW 48). Isolated cases imported from FSA were detected in other municipalities of Bahia State (8).

This epidemic had some unusual aspects. First, it was not caused by the Asian genotype circulating in affected countries of the Americas, which maintain intense tourism and trade with Brazil. Second, it occurred during the dry season, when little dengue transmission was occurring. The introduction of a person from a country reporting CHIKV activity (9) into an area infested by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and having a population immunologically naive to CHIKV created favorable conditions to establish a local transmission cycle with quick production of many cases.

Concurrently with the outbreak in FSA, chikungunya cases were detected in Oiapoque municipality (10), Amapa State (northern Brazil bordering French Guiana); these cases were caused by the Asian genotype (genotype determined by nearly complete genome sequencing using an Ion Torrent sequencer). The picture so far suggests that expansion of the epidemic to other places in Brazil can be caused both by internal movement of persons and by new cases imported from other countries.

Chikungunya fever is a health problem that threatens Brazilian society and poses a challenge for health authorities. CHIKV produces epidemics of great magnitude, is highly debilitating, and does not have any specific treatment or vaccine. This situation is creating serious social and economic consequences for low- and middle-income countries because of the excessive demand on health services and the social security programs used by much of the population. Therefore, the global spread of chikungunya fever highlights the need to mobilize national and international efforts to focus scientific research on developing tools to prevent this disease.


Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a common and devastating mental illness. The life expectancy for patients with BPD is significantly less than for members of the general population. The main causes for excess mortality in bipolar patients are cardiovascular disorders and, to a lesser degree, suicide. Smoking/nicotine dependence is a highly comorbid condition in patients with BPD and it has a well-known role in the etiopathogenesis of cardiovascular disorders and, according to results from the general population, is associated with elevated risk of suicidal behavior. In this literature review, the results of studies on the abovementioned associations and also the effects of comorbid smoking on clinical characteristics of BPD are summarized, with a special focus on suicidal behavior. To identify peer-reviewed research papers and reviews, databases (PubMed and Web of Science) and forward/backward citation searches were used with the following keywords: 'smoking', 'tobacco', 'nicotine', 'suicide' and 'BPD'. Only publications in English were considered.


Stock option grants to top executives and to employees below the top executive ranks have risen rapidly with stock prices in recent years. This paper examines the growth in stock option grants at S&P 1500 companies between 1996 and 1999, and estimates the pay-for-performance sensitivities of the value of new option grants for top executives and, separately, for employees below the top executive levels. In our framework, options are a reward for past performance, leading to a positive relationship between firms' stock prices and the value of new option grants. We find substantial sensitivities for both sets of employees, but they are larger for employees below the top executive levels. Moreover, in contrast to top executives, the sensitivities for employees below the senior management levels do not differ by whether firm stock prices have risen or fallen. The greater sensitivity of option grant values to stock prices for employees below the top ranks is consistent with greater demand for options following price increases, and less willingness to accept options when past performance has been poor. We also find that new grants at larger firms are related to industry performance, consistent with more competitive markets for top executive talent to manage large organizations as industry conditions improve.


A College needs a good governance in implementation of information technology, especially which related with information security because information is an important asset. Framework which can be used for the preparation of information security governance is COBIT 5 from ISACA. The first  step to start the preparation of the governance using COBIT is mapping between the goal of college with enterprise goals (EG), IT Related Goals and domain process COBIT 5. From 15 colleges that have been accredited in West Java (15 Januari 2015), produced 13 EG related for college accreditation A, B and 10 for college accreditation EG C. For a sample in process capability assessment of information security governance, we used Universitas Muhammadiyah Sukabumi (UMMI) as the research object, which is an accredited college C, and EG focused on optimization of business process functionality associated with the alignment of IT goals of IT and business strategy, and 10 processes, i.e EDM01, EDM01, APO01, APO02, APO03, APO05, APO07, APO08, BAI01, BAI02. From the results obtained capability assessment process UMMI value of 7 is on level 0, ie the value of the attribute 50-85%. Gap analysis results, it turns out that making such UMMI lack of work products (evidence / result) of activities of governance processes deemed to have been executed. To meet the achievement level, it is recommended to perform compliance on each best practice and work products, and can be initiated by creating a guide to information security.


The recognition of personal emotional state or sentiment conveyed through text is the main task we address in our research. The communication of emotions through text messaging and posts of personal blogs poses the 'informal style of writing' challenge for researchers expecting grammatically correct input. Our Affect Analysis Model was designed to handle the informal messages written in an abbreviated or expressive manner. While constructing our rule-based approach to affect recognition from text, we followed the compositionality principle. Our method is capable of processing sentences of different complexity, including simple, compound, complex (with complement and relative clauses), and complex-compound sentences. The evaluation of the Affect Analysis Model algorithm showed promising results regarding its capability to accurately recognize affective information in text from an existing corpus of personal blog posts.


Title of dissertation: SEARCHING FOR ENTANGLED ELECTRON SPIN STATES WITH SHOT NOISE DETECTION Yuanzhen Chen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Richard A. Webb Department of Physics We report experimental research into the possibility of using shot noise measurements to detect the entangled states of electron spins. The study is part of the effort towards the demonstration of the use of electron spins as quantum bits (qubits) for quantum computing and quantum information processing. Electrons are electrically injected into two neighboring quantum dots and interact with each other through the exchange coupling, after which they tunnel out of the dots and are incident on a beam splitter, which introduces quantum interference between electron states. Depending on the state of the electrons exiting the dots, the outgoing states of electrons scattering off the beam splitter are different, corresponding to different shot noise in the electrical currents flowing into the channels after the beam splitter. Our experimental data is consistent with most theoretical predictions and provides initial evidence of electron spin entanglement. A comprehensive study of the shot noise in mesoscopic semiconductor tunnel barriers is also reported. Besides the theoretically predicted full shot noise, suppressed and enhanced shot noise are also observed. Normal conductance measurements and numerical simulations are done to understand the shot noise deviation. Our study shows that shot noise in mesoscopic systems is extremely sensitive to the microscopic details, such as potential disorder and impurity configuration. SEARCHING FOR ENTANGLED ELECTRON SPIN STATES WITH SHOT NOISE DETECTION


About the book: In our society, the overwhelming majority of people die in later life. They typically die slowly of chronic illness, with multiple co-existing problems over long periods of time. They spend the majority of their final years at home, but many will die in hospitals or care homes. This book explores the possibilities for improving the care of older people dying in residential care and nursing homes. It argues that there are aspects of palliative care that, given the right circumstances, are transferable to dying people in settings that are not domestic or hospice based.

End of Life in Care Homes describes what happens in nursing and resiential care homes when a resident is dying, how carers cope, and the practical, health and emotional challenges that carers face on top of thier day-to-day work. Based on detailed research from both the UK and US, the book shows how the situation can be improved. care home staff of all levels as well as palliative care practitioners, general practitioners, Macmillan nurses and other health care professionals who come into contact with dying residents will find this book of great value. Geriatricians, policy makers and administrators of residential care and nursing homes should also find it a useful resource.


With an innovative, business-model approach, Game Development Essentials: Online Game Development provides the essentials needed to achieve long-term success with Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). This book takes a significant and valuable departure from traditional game development books by addressing MMOG development as a complex, multi-faceted, service-oriented business, instead of focusing solely on technical, artistic, or design techniques. The resulting multi-dimensional focus allows readers to design their game and organize their development process with the entire business in mind. Coverage includes the key differences between single player games and MMOGs, as well as how the various components of the development process, such as the business model, marketing plan, gaming community and technical constraints, influence one another and determine the success of the MMOG.


IP25 is a highly branched isoprenoid alkene derived from certain Arctic sea ice diatoms that, when detected in marine sediments, has been used as a proxy for past Arctic sea ice over the last decade. In the current study, the structure of this biomarker was determined following large-scale extraction from sediment material collected from the Canadian Arctic. After purification, the structure of IP25 was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy as being the same as that of a laboratory standard. The purified IP25 was subsequently used to obtain a quantitative (GC-MS) instrumental response factor that could be used to improve the future quantification of IP25 and would help to produce a robust database. IP25, other highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) lipids and some other phytoplanktonic lipids (sterols) were analysed to provide modern and past sediment-based sea ice reconstructions for the Barents Sea. First, a surface sediment study was conducted and biomarker distributions were compared to satellite sea ice records. The occurrence of IP25 was consistent with the presence/absence of seasonal sea ice but there was also evidence of lateral transport of IP25 and other biomarkers in sediments from the southern Barents Sea. In contrast to some previous studies, abundances of IP25, and of those combined with other biomarkers, including sterols, did not show strong quantitative relationships to sea ice concentration. The surface study was used to relate biomarker distributions to recent sea ice and oceanographic conditions and apply this information to long-term sediment records in the eastern and western Barents Sea covering ca. 2 kyr and 11 kyr (Holocene) respectively. IP25 concentrations for the former were found to be very variable and were used to identify the period with maximum sea ice cover occurring from ca. 900 400 cal. yr BP where the highest abundances of IP25 and IRD were observed. Similarly, biomarker results from the eastern Barents Sea provided evidence for a dynamic advance of the marginal sea ice zone potentially situated at ca. 78° N (maximum extent) during ca 9.4 – 5.9 cal. kyr BP, to late Holocene and modern day maximum MIZ advance ca. 75° N. Replicate analysis of various biomarkers in individual push-cores collected from a box core obtained from Rijpfjorden (north Svalbard) demonstrated some variability between cores. Variability in individual biomarker concentrations was lowest for HBI lipids and greatest for sterols. These data are consistent with a selective and relatively minor source of the former. In contrast, the somewhat more generic origins of sedimentary sterols likely explain the greater variability in their distributions between cores Finally, the strong abundance relationship between IP25 and a structurally related diunsaturated HBI (C25:2) was confirmed in all sediments, similar to that found between two tri-unsaturated HBIs, consistent with co-production by certain marine phytoplankton. The progressive use of novel HBIs with two or three degrees of unsaturation (e.g. C25:2 and C25:3) could provide further valuable insights into environmental conditions.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight systemic factors of competence-based integration of retired military officers into the civilian labour market in terms of the perspective of the institutions and institutional settings of competence involved in the formation and deployment.

Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 25 retired military officers in Lithuania.

Findings
The main institutional problems and challenges of the competence-based labour market integration of retired military officers involve are concentrated in the fields of deployment of skills in the military service, and as well as in the adjustment of acquired skills to the requirements of the civilian labour market.

Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the research is the absence of perspectives and attitudes of other stakeholders such as policy makers, employers and providers of education and training.

Practical implications
Research identified expectations of retired military officers concerning improvement of training and labour market integration services.

Originality/value
The paper is focused on the institutional aspects of competence-based labour market integration of the retired military officers from their perspective.


Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a family of generative models that do not minimize a single training criterion. Unlike other generative models, the data distribution is learned via a game between a generator (the generative model) and a discriminator (a teacher providing training signal) that each minimize their own cost. GANs are designed to reach a Nash equilibrium at which each player cannot reduce their cost without changing the other players' parameters. One useful approach for the theory of GANs is to show that a divergence between the training distribution and the model distribution obtains its minimum value at equilibrium. Several recent research directions have been motivated by the idea that this divergence is the primary guide for the learning process and that every step of learning should decrease the divergence. We show that this view is overly restrictive. During GAN training, the discriminator provides learning signal in situations where the gradients of the divergences between distributions would not be useful. We provide empirical counterexamples to the view of GAN training as divergence minimization. Specifically, we demonstrate that GANs are able to learn distributions in situations where the divergence minimization point of view predicts they would fail. We also show that gradient penalties motivated from the divergence minimization perspective are equally helpful when applied in other contexts in which the divergence minimization perspective does not predict they would be helpful. This contributes to a growing body of evidence that GAN training may be more usefully viewed as approaching Nash equilibria via trajectories that do not necessarily minimize a specific divergence at each step.


With the rapid development of electronic technology, the power consumption of electronic devices has decreased significantly. Consequently, there is substantial interest in harvesting energy from ambient sources, such as vibration, in order to power small-scale wireless devices. To design optimal vibration harvesting systems it is important to determine the maximum power obtainable from a given vibration source. Initially, white noise base excitation of a general nonlinear energy harvester model is considered. The power input from white noise is known to be proportional both to the total oscillating mass of the system and the magnitude of the noise spectral density, regardless of the internal mechanics of the system. This power is split between undesirable mechanical damping and useful electrical dissipation, where the form of the stiffness profile and device parameters determine the relative proportion of energy dissipated by each mechanism. An upper bound on the electrical power is derived and used to guide towards optimal harvesting devices, revealing that low stiffness systems exhibit maximum performance. Many engineering applications will exhibit more complicated spectra than the flat spectrum of white noise. Expanding upon the white noise analysis, a method to investigate the power dissipation of nonlinear oscillators under non-white excitation is developed by extending the Wiener series. The relatively simple first term of the series, together with the excitation spectrum, is found to completely define the power dissipated. An important property of this first term, namely that the integral over its frequency domain representation is proportional to the oscillating mass, is derived and validated both numerically and experimentally, using a base excited cantilever beam with a nonlinear restoring force produced by magnets. Another form of excitation prevalent in many mechanical systems is a combination of deterministic and broadband random vibration. Lastly, the Duffing oscillator is used to illustrate the behaviour of a nonlinear system under this form of excitation, where the response is observed to spread around the attractor that would be seen if purely deterministic excitation was present. The ability of global weighted residual methods to produce the complex responses typical of nonlinear oscillators is assessed and found to be accurate for systems with weak nonlinearity.


The 2018 tropical cyclone (TC) season in the North Pacific was very active, with 39 tropical storms including eight typhoons/hurricanes. This activity was successfully predicted up to 5 months in advance by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Forecast‐Oriented Low Ocean Resolution (FLOR) global coupled model. In this work, a suite of idealized experiments with three dynamical global models (FLOR, Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model, and Meteorological Research Institute Atmospheric General Circulation Model) was used to show that the active 2018 TC season was primarily caused by warming in the subtropical Pacific and secondarily by warming in the tropical Pacific. Furthermore, the potential effect of anthropogenic forcing on the active 2018 TC season was investigated using two of the global models (FLOR and Meteorological Research Institute Atmospheric General Circulation Model). The models projected opposite signs for the changes in TC frequency in the North Pacific by an increase in anthropogenic forcing, thereby highlighting the substantial uncertainty and model dependence in the possible impact of anthropogenic forcing on Pacific TC activity.


This paper highlights various aspects of an emerging European health strategy and the potential consequences this may bring. The various directives of the European Commission, ratified by the European Parliament and each of the Parliaments of the member states, are gently and progressively forging integration of systems and processes. These systems and processes are concerned with governance and regulation and are aimed at establishing equivalence and standards of activity across the Union. The European Union is not a federated state. However, in order for it to work effectively as a trading block, the establishment of these standards into social, educational and new health care processes is seen as essential. Therefore, various directives from the European Commission are being laundered to expedite this. These directives are often opposed by the member states and the ensuring debate generates many talking points. This paper raises some of these talking points in the area of Higher Education and health care strategy. The conclusion of the paper suggests what further debate needs to occur within the European Union if integration is to succeed.


Cellular control of gene expression is a complex process that is subject to multiple levels of regulation, but ultimately it is the protein produced that determines the biosynthetic state of the cell. One way that a cell can regulate the protein output from each gene is by expressing alternate isoforms with distinct amino acid sequences. These isoforms may exhibit differences in localization and binding interactions that can have profound functional implications. High-throughput liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry proteomics (LC-MS/MS) relies on enzymatic digestion and has lower coverage and sensitivity than transcriptomic profiling methods such as RNA-seq. Digestion results in predictable fragmentation of a protein, which can limit the generation of peptides capable of distinguishing between isoforms. Here we exploit transcript-level expression from RNA-seq to set prior likelihoods and enable protein isoform abundances to be directly estimated from LC-MS/MS, an approach derived from the principle that most genes appear to be expressed as a single dominant isoform in a given cell type or tissue. Through this deep integration of RNA-seq and LC-MS/MS data from the same sample, we show that a principal isoform can be identified in >80% of gene products in homogeneous HEK293 cell culture and >70% of proteins detected in complex human brain tissue. We demonstrate that the incorporation of translatome data from ribosome profiling further refines this process. Defining isoforms in experiments with matched RNA-seq/translatome and proteomic data increases the functional relevance of such data sets and will further broaden our understanding of multilevel control of gene expression.


Medical educators are responsible for training current and future generations of physicians; this includes the early and accurate identification of "struggling" medical trainees, which has implications for future training, practice, and success.The authors propose a theory-based framework, Self-Regulated Learning-Microanalytic Assessment and Training (SRL-MAT), that is specifically designed to foster individual medical trainee self-regulatory beliefs and behaviors, and thus provide a distinct method to assist medical trainees who struggle. The SRL-MAT is grounded in social-cognitive theory and research and makes a variety of important assumptions about learning and the essential techniques needed to evaluate trainee functioning. Two critical assumptions are that (1) self-efficacy beliefs are a key personal process affecting trainee behavior, and (2) trainee beliefs and behaviors are dynamic and fluid in nature and thus will often vary across educational contexts, as well as for specific tasks within those contexts. To address these assumptions, the SRL-MAT uses an emergent assessment approach called self-regulated learning microanalysis, a procedure that involves asking a series of temporally sequenced questions about specific regulatory processes as trainees engage in an authentic task or activity. The framework, which is grounded in a foundation of established educational research, is adaptable to practically any task that has a clear beginning and end. The authors believe this framework could make important contributions to traditional medical training assessment frameworks that have been used to identify and remediate strugglers.


BACKGROUND
Pharmacological prophylactic anticoagulation in many countries, including South Africa, is under-prescribed. This has resulted in unacceptable rates of morbidity and mortality.

METHOD
The Southern African Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis held a meeting to update the previous guideline and review new literature including guidelines from other societies. The following specialties were represented on the committees: anaesthetics, cardiology, clinical haematology, critical care, obstetrics and gynaecology, haematopathology, internal medicine, neurology, orthopaedic surgery and pulmonology. A draft document was presented at the meeting, which was then revised by consensus agreement. To avoid local bias, the guideline was adjudicated by recognised international external experts.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
A concise, practical updated guideline for thromboprophylaxis and treatment in medical and surgical patients has been produced for South African conditions. It is hoped that this guideline will continue to improve anticoagulation practice in this country, which we believe will directly benefit patient outcomes.


'Finally, a word about the Weather.' With these words, the BBC Trust began an unusual paragraph in their 2007 report on impartiality (BBC Trust 2007:53). The advent of a new three-dimensional visualisation of the weather in May 2005 had prompted immediate criticism. The images suggested northern Scotland was on the periphery, while south-east England was in the forefront. In its own odd way this controversy touches on an important issue in visualisation and depiction, and on the relationship between those two things.

This was a paper for the AHRC IT Methods Workshop 'From Abstract Data Mapping to 3D Photorealism.' The workshop title could be taken to imply that abstract data mapping (visualisation) and photorealism (an extreme form of depiction) are as far apart as can be, perhaps even that they are opposites. By contrast, this paper explores some aspects they have in common. Boyd Davis argues that it is productive to think of depiction as a form of visualisation, and to think of it as therefore subject to many of the same design considerations.


he application of an evidence-based approach to patient care underpins modern clinical practice T for all medical disciplines. In many specialty training programs, there has been emphasis in recent years on ensuring that trainees develop the skills needed to interpret medical literature and conduct research, as a part of overall training. In turn, it is hoped that these abilities will instil in trainees the capacity and enthusiasm to continue taking an active part in clinical research over their careers. In addition, specialist doctors are ideally placed to direct efforts towards medical education research and research on translation of evidence to practice. In this article, we focus on the need to assist trainees in attaining foundation skills required for participation in research activities, ideally as a stepping stone to leadership in research. This is distinct from looking at tools and strategies (such as journal clubs and critically appraised topic instruments) used to teach critical appraisal of published evidence, although all these concepts are closely linked.


The production potential of the new triticale varieties Kolorit, Accord and Respect were investigated in a three-year field experiment (2009 - 2011) carried out in the trial field of Dobrudzha Agricultural Institute, General Toshevo (DAI). The experiment was designed by the split plot method in 4 replications, 2 the size of the trial plot being 12 m . The investigation involved four predecessors - oilseed rape, pea, sunflower and maize, and three fertilization norms according to the type of predecessor. The effect of some agronomy factors: the year conditions, the type of predecessor and the norm of fertilization, on the formation of yield, test weight, and 1000 grain weight of the new triticale varieties was analyzed. It was found that the year conditions and the level of mineral fertilization were the decisive factors for the formation of the yield of these varieties. Test weight was influenced to the highest degree by the year conditions and the genotype. The environment was determining for 1000 grain weight, while the genotype and the fertilization norm of mineral fertilization had similar effect. The new genotypes were responsive to fertilization, the tiered increase of the nitrogen fertilization norm leading to analogous higher productivity. During the years of investigation all three varieties gave high yields; varieties Accord and Respect had the highest test weight, and varieties Kolorit and Accord - the fullest grain with the largest size.


Given the militarism of the Empire and Nazi Germany, why did postwar West Germany experience massive waves of peace protest in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s? How have postwar peace movements shaped German political culture? Will the cultural norms that frown on the use of military force constrain foreign policy in the new, unified, Germany? In "Paradoxes of Peace," Alice Holmes Cooper traces the evolution of peace movements in West Germany (1945-90) and in united Germany since 1990. Cooper examines the domestic and international constellations that gave rise to the peace movements, the sources of their multi-faceted ideologies and participants, and their organizational structures and strategies. The author then investigates the peace movement's response to the challenges of the post-Cold War world.Whereas previous work on German peace movements has concentrated on one period of mobilization or on elite security-policy debates, this comprehensive study examines all phases of mobilization since 1945, taking into account the full spectrum of actors, movement organization and strategy, and the broad political, social, and economic environments spawning peace protest. Arguing that theories of resource mobilization, changes in values, and crises of modernity are insufficient to explain peace movements, Paradoxes of Peace tailors a "political process" approach to postwar German movements. It investigates the political opportunities--the changing domestic and international constellation--which most favored peace mobilization since 1945. It examines the process through which the peace movement transformed popular consciousness and created a peace constituency. It analyzes how German peace movements gradually built an indispensable organizational infrastructure autonomous from parties and other social institutions. Cooper argues that the convergence of these factors determined the movement's capacity to mobilize and have political impact and allowed these to grow over time.Alice Holmes Cooper is Assistant Professor of Government, University of Virginia.


On March 23, 2007, Jessica A. Defenderfer and Scott A. Olson had the opportunity to sit down with AARP's CEO, Bill Novelli, to discuss the upcoming policy challenges associated with the retirement of the baby boom generation, the role of the U.S. government in addressing these policy needs, and the responsibility of AARP in crafting effective public policy. Bill Novelli joined AARP in January 2000 and currently serves as CEO. Prior to joining AARP, Mr. Novelli was President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and, before that, was the Executive Vice President of CARE, the world's largest private relief and development organization. Earlier, Mr. Novelli co-founded and was President of Porter Novelli, now one of the world's largest public relations agencies and part of the Omnicom Group. He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Penn's Annenberg School for Communication. Mr. Novelli also pursued doctoral studies at New York University.


In 1967, Israel occupied the western section of Syria9s Golan Heights, expelling some 130,000 of its inhabitants and leaving a few thousand people scattered across five villages. Severed from Syria, this residual and mostly Druze community, known as the Jawlanis, has been subjected to systematic policies of ethno-religious identity reformulation and bureaucratic and economic control by the Israeli regime for half a century. This essay offers an account of the transformation of authority, class, and the politics of representation among what is now the near 25,000-strong Jawlani community, detailing the impact of Israeli occupation both politically and economically. During an initial decade and a half of direct military rule, Israel secured the community9s political docility by restoring traditional leaders to power; but following full-on annexation in 1981, new forces emerged from the popular resistance movement that developed in response. Those forces continue to compete for social influence and representation today.