In this chapter, we apply qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques with the aim of measuring the visibility of websites in searches for Spanish cava or sparkling wine made using the UK version of Google. Using the Google Ads Keyword Planner, we retrieved a group of searches in the semantic field of 'sparkling wines' and monitored the results. Extraction and also cybermetric analysis of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) using SEO techniques were used to calculate the visibility of Spanish cava brands via their own websites and e-commerce websites, whereupon we were able to establish rankings of media, social networks, wine sites and e-commerce websites as well as recommendations for content optimization.


A mainstream type of current self-supervised learning methods pursues a general-purpose representation that can be well transferred to downstream tasks, typically by optimizing on a given pretext task such as instance discrimination. In this work, we argue that existing pretext tasks inevitably introduce biases into the learned representation, which in turn leads to biased transfer performance on various downstream tasks. To cope with this issue, we propose Maximum Entropy Coding (MEC), a more principled objective that explicitly optimizes on the structure of the representation, so that the learned representation is less biased and thus generalizes better to unseen downstream tasks. Inspired by the principle of maximum entropy in information theory, we hypothesize that a generalizable representation should be the one that admits the maximum entropy among all plausible representations. To make the objective end-to-end trainable, we propose to leverage the minimal coding length in lossy data coding as a computationally tractable surrogate for the entropy, and further derive a scalable reformulation of the objective that allows fast computation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that MEC learns a more generalizable representation than previous methods based on specific pretext tasks. It achieves state-of-the-art performance consistently on various downstream tasks, including not only ImageNet linear probe, but also semi-supervised classification, object detection, instance segmentation, and object tracking. Interestingly, we show that existing batch-wise and feature-wise self-supervised objectives could be seen equivalent to low-order approximations of MEC. Code and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/xinliu20/MEC.


Relations between China and Russia have evolved dramatically since their first diplomatic contact, particularly during the twentieth century. During the past decade China and Russia have made efforts to strengthen bilateral ties and improve cooperation on a number of diplomatic fronts. The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation maintain exceptionally close and friendly relations, strong geopolitical and regional cooperation, and significant levels of trade. In "The Future of China - Russia Relations", scholars from around the world explore the current state of the relationship between the two powers and assess the prospects for future cooperation and possible tensions in the new century. The contributors examine Russian and Chinese perspectives on a wide range of issues, including security, political relationships, economic interactions, and defense ties. This collection explores the energy courtship between the two nations and analyzes their interests and policies regarding Central Asia, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan.


Courant sigma-models encode the geometric and non-geometric fluxes of compactified closed string theory as generalized Wess-Zumino terms and exhibit their relation to Courant algebroids. In recent work, we proposed a doubled membrane sigma-model that establishes the corresponding connection to double field theory and its algebroid structure. The strategy is to consider a "large" Courant sigma-model over a doubled target spacetime and identify a suitable projection that leads to a sigma-model for doubled fields. In this note, we provide further details for this construction. Starting from the BRST symmetry of the BV action that satisfies the classical master equation, we consistently project the BRST transformations of the superfields of the "large" Courant sigma-model to obtain the gauge transformations of the doubled membrane sigma-model. We show that demanding gauge invariance and the closure of gauge transformations of the worldvolume theory, leads to a condition that is in direct correspondence to the strong constraint of the target space double field theory.


Book synopsis: "This thoughtful book provides expert overviews of historical, sociological, psychological, cultural, legal and rights-informed approaches to childhood. Through these well written, readable chapters, students will be engaged with important debates in childhood studies, and led towards many ideas and problems for further investigation. This second edition includes new chapters arguing strongly for interdisciplinarity and for measured responses to the current 'crisis' in UK childhoods."
Berry Mayall, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
An Introduction to Childhood Studies offers a wide-ranging and thought-provoking approach to the study of childhood, providing an important contribution to this burgeoning area of research and teaching. It brings together key themes in the area of Childhood Studies, providing a comprehensive and accessible introduction for students and practitioners, helping to answer questions such as:

What is childhood and how can it be studied and understood?
How is the idea of childhood shaped by the society we live in?
The contributors - who are leading figures in their fields - examine childhood from historical, socio-cultural and policy perspectives. They explore aspects such as the construction of childhood, children's literature, childhood in the digital age and children's rights.
Revised and updated throughout, the new edition includes:

An expanded introductory chapter - Childhood Studies: past, present, future
A new chapter on children's rights and educational provision
A new concluding chapter - The future of childhood
Revised and updated chapters
Further reading suggestions for each chapter
An Introduction to Childhood Studies is a key text for students on courses in childhood studies, child psychology, social policy and the sociology of youth and childhood.


During the last few decades, coral reefs have become a disappearing feature of tropical marine environments, and those reefs that do remain are severely threatened. It is understood that humans have greately altered the environment under which these ecosystems previously have thrived and evoloved. Overharvesting of fish stocks, global warming and pollution are some of the most prominent threats, acting on coral reefs at several spatial and temporal scales. Presently, it is common that coral reefs have been degraded into alternative ecosystem regimes, such as macroalgae-dominated or sea urchin-barren. Although these ecosystems could potentially return to coral dominance in a long-term perspective, when considdering current conditions, it seems likely that they will persist in their degraded states. Thus, recovery of coral reefs cannot be taken for granted on a human timescale. Multiple stressors and disturbances, which are increasingly characteristic of coral reef environments today, are believed to act synergistically and produce ecological surprises. However, current knowledge of effects of compounded disturbances and stress is limited. Based on five papers, this thesis investigates the sublethal response of multiple stressors on coral physiology, as well as the effects of compounded stress and disturbance on coral reef structure and function. Adaptive responses to stress and disturbance in relation to prior experience are highlighted. The thesis further explores how inherent characteristics (traits) of corals and macroalgae may influence regime expression when faced with altered disturbance regimes, in particular overfishing, eutrophication, elevated temperature, and enhanced substrate availability. Finally, possibilities of affecting the resilience of macroalgae-dominaed reefs and shifting the community composition towards a coral-dominated regime are explored.


This paper presents a new method, BART (Bandwidth Available in Real-Time), for estimating the end-toend available bandwidth over a network path. It estimates bandwidth quasi-continuously, in real-time. The method has also been implemented as a tool. It relies on self-induced congestion, and repeatedly samples the available bandwidth of the network path with sequences of probe packet pairs, sent at randomized rates. BART requires little computation in each iteration, is lightweight with respect to memory requirements, and adds only a small amount of probe traffic. The BART method uses Kalman filtering, which enables real-time estimation (a.k.a. tracking). It maintains a current estimate, which is incrementally improved with each new measurement of the inter-packet time separations in a sequence of probe packet pairs. The measurement model has a strong non-linearity, and would not at first sight be considered suitable for Kalman filtering, but we show how this non-linearity can be handled. BART may be tuned according to the specific needs of the measurement application, such as agility vs. stability of the estimate. We have tested an implementation of BART in a physical test network with carefully controlled cross traffic, with good accuracy and agreement. Test measurements have also been performed over the Internet. We compare the performance of BART with that of pathChirp, a state-of-the-art tool for measuring end-to-end available bandwidth in real-time.


The research is carried out using several analytical tools, the most important of which was to identify and keep track of the sequences of the neighbouring tribes, since Ptolemy himself testified (I, 19, 2) that when speaking of the peoples, he was concerned to indicate their relationships with one another. This means that the peoples mentioned side by side in his text probably lived close to one another and could not be scattered over a wide geographical area. Another important tool for us is to notice and consider Ptolemy's specific patterns of presentation, which recur throughout his work. A case where the author was not quite consistent with his usual way of presentation is likely to signal a problem with the sources. Finally, we based our hypothesis on the fact that the connectives that separate Ptolemy's phrases separate the data from different sources as well.


The present study investigated differences in the vowel production of first- and second-generation Gujarati immigrants in Wembley, north London. Subjects were recorded producing the eleven British English monophthongal vowels in the phonetic context /hVd/. F1 and F2 formant frequency values were measured and compared with existing acoustic and auditory descriptions of Standard Southern British English (SSBE). The results demonstrated that second generation immigrants had not acquired the foreign-accented vowels of their parents. Instead, these subjects produced vowels that were more similar to SSBE speakers than to those of second-generation immigrants in similar ethnic communities in London.


Diagnosing and repairing problems in complex distributed systems has always been challenging. A wide variety of problems can happen in distributed systems: routers can be misconfigured, nodes can be hacked, and the control software can have bugs. This is further complicated by the complexity and scale of today's distributed systems. Provenance is an attractive way to diagnose faults in distributed systems, because it can track the causality from a symptom to a set of root causes. Prior work on network provenance has successfully applied provenance to distributed systems. However, they cannot explain problems beyond the presence of faulty events and offer limited help with finding repairs.
In this dissertation, we extend provenance to handle diagnostics problems that require deeper investigations. We propose three different extensions: negative provenance explains not just the presence but also the absence of events (such as missing packets); meta provenance can suggest repairs by tracking causality not only for data but also for code (such as bugs in control plane programs); temporal provenance tracks causality at the temporal level and aims at diagnosing timing-related faults (such as slow requests). Compared to classical network provenance, our approach tracks richer causality at runtime and applies more sophisticated reasoning and post-processing. We apply the above techniques to software-defined networking and the border gateway protocol. Evaluations with real world traffic and topology show that our systems can diagnose and repair practical problems, and that the runtime overhead as well as the query turnarounds are reasonable.


An introduction to Runge-Kutta methods for the solution of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is introduced. The technique of using Singly Diagonally Implicit Runge-Kutta (SDIRK) method for the integration of stiff and non-stiff ODEs has been widely accepted, this is because SDIRK method is computationally efficient and stiffly stable. Consequently embedded SDIRK method of fourth-order six stage in fifth-order seven stage which has the property that the first row of the coefficient matrix is equal to zero and the last row of the coefficient matrix is equal to the vector output value is constructed. The stability region of the method when applied to linear ODE is given. Numerical results when stiff and non-stiff first order ODEs are solved using the method are tabulated and compared with the method in current use.
Introduction to delay differential equations (DDEs) and the areas where they arise are given. A brief discussion on Runge-Kutta method when adapted to delay differential equation is introduced. SDIRK method which has been derived previously is used to solve delay differential equations; the delay term is approximated using divided difference interpolation. Numerical results are tabulated and compared with the existing methods. The stability aspects of SDIRK method when applied to DDEs using Lagrange interpolation are investigated and the region of stability is presented.
Runge-Kutta-Nystrom (RKN) method for the solution of special second-order ordinary differential equations of the form ),(yxfy=′′ is discussed. Consequently, Singly Diagonally Implicit Runge-Kutta Nystrom (SDIRKN) method of third-order three stage embedded in fourth-order four stage with small error coefficients is constructed. The stability region of the new method is presented. The method is then used to solve both stiff and non-stiff special second order ODEs and the numerical results suggest that the new method is more efficient compared to the current methods in use.
Finally, introduction to general Runge-Kutta-Nystrom (RKNG) method for the solution of second-order ordinary differential equations of the form ),,(yyxfy′=′′ is given. A new embedded Singly Diagonally Implicit Runge-Kutta-Nystrom General (SDIRKNG) method of third-order four stage embedded in fourth-order five stage is derived. Analysis on the stability aspects of the new method is given and numerical results when the method is used to solve both stiff and non-stiff second order ODEs are presented. The results indicate the superiority of the new method compared to the existing method.


It is widely accepted that professional experience or practicum is 'a critically important part of teacher education courses and is consistently valued highly by student teachers' (eg Ramsey, 2000; Teaching Australia, 2006; Parliament of Australia, 2007). In Australia and overseas there is a growing emphasis on teacher educators working in partnership with schools to construct professional experiences that maximise student teacher engagement and learning (Parliament of Australia, 2007). The literature on professional experience in pre-service teacher education provides varied and detailed accounts of the roles of the Pre-service Teacher, the Mentor Teacher and the University Mentor (see for example, Gaffey & Dobbins, 1996; Guyton & McIntyre, 1990; Zeichner, 1999). However the School based Professional Experience Co-ordinator, usually the principal or deputy principal, has received very little attention in the literature. The study on which this article is primarily based fills a gap in the existing literature on professional experience with its focus on the School based Co-ordinator role. It will be argued that Co-ordinators are essential in developing 'new' school-university partnerships which are necessary in ensuring high quality professional experiences.


We compute rates of absolute upward income mobility for the 1960-1987 birth cohorts in eight countries in North America and Europe. Rates and trends in absolute mobility varied dramatically across countries during this period: the US and Canada saw upward mobility rates near 50% for recent cohorts, while countries like Norway and Finland saw sustained rates above 70%. Decomposition analysis suggests that differences in the marginal income distributions, especially the amount of cross-cohort income inequality, were the primary driver of differing mobility rates across countries. We also demonstrate that absolute mobility rates can be accurately estimated without linked parent-child data.


Notch signaling regulates sleep in flies and worms. Notch signaling has well-characterized roles in development and specification of cell fate; however, Notch also plays nondevelopmental roles in adults, such as long-term memory formation in Drosophila. Two groups now provide evidence of a role for Notch in regulating sleep in flies and worms. Singh et al. found that Caenorhabditis elegans overexpressing OSM-11, a coligand of Notch, exhibited a sleeplike quiescent state that resembled the state of lethargus that accompanies larval molting. The effects of increased OSM-11 abundance and Notch signaling in worms required the same genes that regulate lethargus. Exposure of worms to osmotic stress repressed the secretion of OSM-11. Deletion of genes encoding Notch coligands in worms reduced the extent of quiescence and increased their responsiveness. Seugnet et al. examined the role of Notch signaling in sleep regulation in flies. Sleep deprivation triggered the expression in mushroom bodies (structures in the brain involved in memory formation and sleep regulation) of bunched, which encodes a transcription factor that inhibits Notch signaling, and mutations in bunched affected sleep homeostasis, which is the compensatory increase in sleep, or "sleep rebound," that occurs after sleep deprivation. Overexpression of the Notch ligand Delta resulted in decreased sleep rebound, as did expression of a gain-of-function mutant of Notch. These data suggest that sleep deprivation, through bunched, triggers inhibition of Notch signaling to enable sleep rebound. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that Notch was found in glia and that Delta was localized to neurons. The authors also showed that enhanced Notch signaling abrogated the negative effects of sleep deprivation on learning in flies. Together, these studies suggest that Notch signaling promotes sleep in worms and inhibits the homeostatic sleep response in flies. Wu and Raizen point out that stress reduced Notch signaling in both organisms, leading them to suggest that Notch may play a conserved role in responding to stress, although the outcomes of the responses may be species-specific. L. Seugnet, Y. Suzuki, G. Merlin, L. Gottschalk, S. P. Duntley, P. J. Shaw, Notch signaling modulates sleep homeostasis and learning after sleep deprivation in Drosophila. Curr. Biol. 21, 835–840 (2011). [PubMed] K. Singh, M. Y. Chao, G. A. Somers, H. Komatsu, M. E. Corkins, J. Larkins-Ford, T. Tucey, H. M. Dionne, M. B. Walsh, E. K. Beaumont, D. P. Hart, S. R. Lockery, A. C. Hart, C. elegans Notch signaling regulates adult chemosensory response and larval molting quiescence. Curr. Biol. 21, 825–834 (2011). [PubMed] M. N. Wu, D. M. Raizen, Notch signaling: A role in sleep and stress. Curr. Biol. 21, R397–R398 (2011). [PubMed]


Hypoxia that is caused by vascular defects or disruption is commonly associated with renal diseases. During cisplatin nephrotoxicity, hypoxic regions are identified in the outer medulla and the renal cortex. However, the regulation of cisplatin injury by hypoxia is unclear. Previous work has demonstrated the cytoprotective effects of hypoxia against apoptotic injury. This study further examines the cytoprotective mechanisms in models of cisplatin-induced tubular cell apoptosis. In cultured renal tubular cells, 20 microM cisplatin induced approximately 60% apoptosis within 16 h. The rate of apoptosis was suppressed to < 20%, when the incubation was conducted under hypoxia (2% O2). Mitochondrial events of apoptosis, namely Bax accumulation and cytochrome c release, also were ameliorated. During cisplatin treatment, cell ATP was maintained in both normoxic and hypoxic cells. Hypoxic incubation lowered extracellular pH, but prevention of the pH decrease did not restore cisplatin-induced apoptosis. The cytoprotective effects of hypoxia also were independent of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). Cobalt, as hypoxia, activated HIF-1 yet did not suppress cisplatin-induced apoptosis. Moreover, hypoxia suppressed cisplatin-induced apoptosis in HIF-1-deficient mouse embryonic stem cells and renal proximal tubular cells. Conversely, mitochondrial inhibitors, particularly inhibitors of respiration complex III (antimycin A and myxothiazol), mimicked hypoxia in apoptosis suppression. The effects of hypoxia and mitochondrial inhibitors were not additive. It is interesting that both hypoxia and complex III inhibitors ameliorated cisplatin-induced p53 activation. Therefore, the cytoprotective effects of hypoxia are independent of changes in cell ATP, pH, or HIF but may involve mitochondrial inhibition and the suppression of p53.


Environmental parameters such as temperature and rainfall influence the biology of amphibians and are likely to similarly influence the growth and prevalence of associated pathogens. Amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), causes an infectious disease, chytridiomycosis, in amphibians worldwide. Field studies on post-metamorphic anurans from tropical Australia have correlated increased prevalence with cool winter temperatures, but similar studies are lacking from Africa. We monitored the seasonality of amphibian chytrid in the Highveld of South Africa through microscopic examination of common river frog (Amietia angolensis) tadpoles over 12 months. Within the study area Bd was found to be widespread, but largely limited to riverine systems. The seasonal infection pattern was inconsistent with the findings of past studies, which showed that prevalence usually peaks during the cooler months of the year. This study indicates that infection levels increased during spring in the Grassland Biome, when temperatures favoured optimum thermal growth of the fungus and when streams reached minimum flow levels.


Developments in digital innovation and the availability of large-scale data sets create opportunities for new economic activities and new ways of delivering city services while raising concerns about privacy. This paper defines the terms Big Data, Open Data, Open Government, and Smart Cities and uses two case studies – London (U.K.) and Toronto – to examine questions about using data to drive economic growth, improve the accountability of government to citizens, and offer more digitally enabled services. The paper notes that London has been one of a handful of cities at the forefront of the Open Data movement and has been successful in developing its high-tech sector, although it has so far been less innovative in the use of "smart city" technology to improve services and lower costs. Toronto has also made efforts to harness data, although it is behind London in promoting Open Data. Moreover, although Toronto has many assets that could contribute to innovation and economic growth, including a growing high-technology sector, world-class universities and research base, and its role as a leading financial centre, it lacks a clear narrative about how these assets could be used to promote the city. The paper draws some general conclusions about the links between data innovation and economic growth, and between open data and open government, as well as ways to use big data and technological innovation to ensure greater efficiency in the provision of city services.


Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo is a famous traditional Chinese medicinal plant. It produces various phytochemicals, particularly polysaccharides, which have nutraceutical and pharmaceutical values. To increase its biomass production and polysaccharide content, our breeding program has generated a series of polyploid cultivars through colchicine treatment of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs). The present study compared two tetraploid cultivars, 201-1-T1 and 201-1-T2, with their diploid parental cultivar, 201-1, in an established in vitro culture system. Tetraploid '201-1-T1' and '201-1-T2' had shorter leaves and shorter and thicker stems and roots, and they produced higher biomass compared with the diploid cultivar. The length and width of stomata significantly increased, but stomatal density decreased in tetraploid cultivars. The PLB induction rates from the stem node explants of the tetraploid cultivars were significantly higher than those of diploid. However, the PLB proliferation of tetraploids was lower than that of the diploid. The mean number of plantlets regenerated from tetraploid PLBs was also lower than that of the diploid after 4 months of culture. Polysaccharide contents in stems, leaves, and roots of 6-month-old tetraploid plantlets were significantly higher than those of diploids. The polysaccharide content in the stem of '201-1-T1' was 12.70%, which was a 2-fold increase compared with the diploid cultivar. Our results showed that chromosome doubling could be a viable way of improving D. officinale in biomass and polysaccharide production.


This invited testimony was prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Intellectual Property Subcommittee, hearing on reforming § 101. It identifies several reasons that justify congressional action in reforming § 101 and abrogating the Alice-Mayo framework created by the Supreme Court in its patent eligibility cases between 2010 and 2014. First, it details the very high rates of invalidation of patents and rejection of patent applications under § 101 since 2014. Second, it explains why the USPTO's recent reforms in its § 101 examination guidelines are insufficient to solve the problems of excessive cancellations of patents by courts and uncertainty for innovators. Third, it identifies a guidepost for congressional action today in the 1952 Patent Act. Congress has abrogated Supreme Court doctrines many times before, and its enactment of § 103 in the 1952 Patent Act is a model for reform of § 101 today. Section 103 is succinct, technology neutral, and simple in setting forth procedural and substantive limits for nonobviousness doctrine. It does this because it responded to the same problems in nonobviousness doctrine that innovators face today under patent eligibility doctrine: the Supreme Court created a very restrictive test ("the flash of creative genius") that resulted in extensive invalidations of patents and uncertainty for innovators. In 1949, Justice Robert Jackson lamented in dissent that "the only patent that is valid is one which this Court has not been able to get its hands on." This could have been written today about patent eligibility cases. Congress should act again to rein in a judicial doctrine that is undermining the function of the patent system in driving the innovation economy.


Research on software application training has been predominantly based on the premise that the user builds an internal functional model of the system. This view of cognition as purely internal has been challenged by studies showing that experts do not remember the exact commands required to complete a task if they are not in front of the computer. Display-based competence suggests that a flow of information takes place between the display and the user, who only holds the necessary information to understand the visual cues and act accordingly.
Distributed cognition, however, does not address the perceptual and motor actions necessary to acquire the information from the world and act on it. Embodied cognition attends to this gap. The Soft Constraints Hypothesis suggests that at the 'embodiment level', users will choose between cognitive, perceptual, and motor operators based on a cost-benefit analysis, the cost of the resources measured in milliseconds.
It was hypothesized that resources in different environments with various access costs would influence use patterns, and learning strategies and performance. For the purpose of this study, participants completed a 5-lesson course in Flash animation concepts. 50 participants were then assigned to two practice environments that contained a software simulator built based on visual cues and salient task features displayed by the real software. The two practice spaces manipulated the nature of, and access to, information resources, with one featuring game-like task completion. Every action taken during the study was tracked and time-stamped, producing a log file containing around 20,000 records for subsequent analysis.
The results showed that information access cost in online environments for software training has a clear impact on the strategies employed, the learning processes engaged, and learning outcomes. Traditional statistical analysis showed significant differences in declarative knowledge of rules, efficiency, and accuracy between groups. These results were complemented with data mining techniques to analyze user sequences as departures from an optimum path. The idea of a dual-learning process taking place when users are learning interactive behaviors, for example command sequences, was supported. A declarative-to-procedural process takes place in low-cost single-task environments whereas in the specific case of educational games, information access cost and concurrent game tasks can trigger a non-attentional cue-based behavior that results in higher task efficiency and accuracy, but has a negative impact on rule verbalization. A design framework for instructional environments mapping instruction-specific resources and their access cost to specific learning processes and outcomes is presented based on findings.


One of the ultimate questions looming on the horizon concerns how consumers will respond to various forms of t-commerce. That is the focus of "Consumer T-Commerce Research." It reveals results of t-commerce already deployed in the United Kingdom, and includes a series of recommendations from the Interactive Television Research Institute on how to effectively reach consumers. The Itri, located in Australia, has done extensive research into the public's appetite for ITV by putting consumers in mock living-room settings and testing their responses to various interactive TV applications. Authored by Itri's director, Duane Varan, this volume provides ideas on how to troubleshoot t-commerce problems and how to develop appealing services.


There is a broad consensus that the soft US dollar pegs operated by a number of Asian countries prior to 1997 contributed to the regional financial crisis of 1997-98. There is, however, much less agreement on the types of exchange rate regimes operated by many Asian countries since the crisis. Can they still be characterized as soft US dollar pegs, or have they become genuinely more flexible? This paper revisits the evidence regarding the extent of exchange rate flexibility in the five Asian countries (Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) using alternative methodologies and data spanning the pre- and post-crisis time period. Given the diversity of measures of de facto regimes in the literature, the use of alternative methodologies in this paper is critical as a means of obtaining an accurate and robust indication of the type of exchange rate regime operated by a country.


A preliminary characterization was undertaken to describe genetic structure of mango ginger ( Curcuma amada ) acquired from farmers and ex situ genebank in Myanmar using neutral (rice SSR based RAPDs) and functional genomic (P450 based analog) markers. The high polymorphism (> 91%) depicted has displayed existence of genetic variability in the germplasm investigated. Large number of source-specific alleles (neutral-markers = 78, functional-markers = 63) was amplified which revealed that neutral regions of the mango ginger were more variable compared with the functional regions. The major fraction of the molecular variance (neutral-markers = 85%, functional-markers = 93%) was explained within germplasm acquisition sources and this tendency was also supported by the estimate of gene diversity. The genebank accessions have shown comparatively more genetic variability than farmers' accessions. The variability observed in mango ginger may possibly be associated with the long history of its cultivation under diverse ecological conditions. The two marker systems elucidated their high resolving power which detected variability even in fewer genotypes assayed. As the target sites of these markers are different, therefore, the variability detected is believed to cover diverse part of the genome together with neutral and functional regions. We found the concurrent use of the different types of molecular markers valuable to comprehend a dependable variability pattern in the germplasm assayed.


This paper studies two-hop cooperative demodulate-and-forward relaying using multiple relays in wireless networks. A threshold based relay selection scheme is considered, in which the reliable relays are determined by comparing source-relay SNR to a threshold, and one of the reliable relays is selected by the destination based on relay-destination SNR. The exact bit error rate of this scheme is derived, and a simple threshold function is proposed. It is shown that the network achieves full diversity order () under the proposed threshold, where is the number of relays in the network. Unlike some other full diversity achieving protocols in the literature, the requirement that the instantaneous/average SNRs of the source-relay links be known at the destination is eliminated using the appropriate SNR threshold.


OBJECTIVE
To document the epidemiology of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in Jamaica over the 50-year period, 1958-2007.

METHODS
All cases of CMM recorded in the Jamaica Cancer Registry (JCR), for the period 1958-2007, were collected. For each case, we documented method of ascertainment, age, gender and anatomical location. Age standardized incidence rates (ASRs) for the seven five-year periods from 1973-2007 were also obtained from the JCR.

RESULTS
There were 220 cases of CMM from 218 patients (131 females, 87 males; male:female ratio 1:1.5), ranging in age from 21 to 98 years (median age 62 years). The majority of cases (94%) were ascertained via biopsy. The ASRs fluctuated around 0.9 per 100 000 per year from 1973 to 2007, ranging from 0.6-1.4 per 100 000 per year in females and 0.5-1.1 per 100 000 per year in males. Cutaneous malignant melanoma was most common in the lower limb (59% of males and 69% of females). The foot was the most common lower limb site (female: 77%, male: 83%) and the commonest site overall (female: 53%, male: 49%).

CONCLUSION
In Jamaica, CMM is more common in females than in males. In both genders, the ASRs were noted to be low and fluctuated around 0.9 per 100 000 per year since 1973. The lower limb is the commonest anatomical site, with the majority of cases involving the foot. These findings are similar to those documented in other predominantly Black populations.


Between two neighboring air bubbles in a froth (or foam), a thin liquid film (TLF) is formed. As the bubbles rise upwards, the TLFs thin initially due to the capillary pressure (pc) created by curvature changes. As the film thicknesses (H) reach approximately 200 nm, the disjoining pressure (П) created by surface forces in the films also begins to control the film drainage rate and affect the waves motions at the air/water interfaces. If П < 0, both the film drainage and the capillary wave motion accelerate. When the TLF thins to a critical film thickness (Hcr), the amplitude of the wave motion grows suddenly and the two air/water interfaces touch each other, causing the TLF to rupture and bubbles to coalesce. In the present work, a new model that can predict Hcr has been developed by considering the film drainage due to both viscous film thinning and capillary wave motion. Based on the Hcr model, bubble-coarsening in a dynamic foam has been predicted by deriving the geometric relation between the thickness of the lamella film, which controls bubble-coalescence rate, and the Plateau border area, which controls liquid drainage rate. Furthermore, a model for predicting bubble-coarsening in froth (3-phase foam) has been developed by developing a film drainage model quantifying the effect of particles on pc. The parameter pc is affected by the number of particles and the local capillary pressure (pc,local) around particles, which in turn vary with the hydrophobicity and size of the particles in the film. Assuming that films rupture at free films, the pc corrected for the particles in lamella films has been used to determine the critical rupture time (tcr), at which the film thickness reaches Hcr, using the Reynolds equation. Assuming that the number of bubbles decrease exponentially with froth height, and knowing that bubbles coalesce when film drains to a thickness Hcr, a bubble coarsening model has been developed. The model predictions are in agreement with the experimental data obtained using particle of varying hydrophobicity and size.


Protein knots and slipknots, mostly regarded as intriguing oddities, are gradually being recognized as significant structural motifs. Recent experimental results show that knotting, starting from a fully extended polypeptide, has not yet been observed. Understanding the nucleation process of folding knots is thus a natural challenge for both experimental and theoretical investigation. In this study, we employ energy landscape theory and molecular dynamics to elucidate the entire folding mechanism. The full free energy landscape of a knotted protein is mapped using an all-atom structure-based protein model. Results show that, due to the topological constraint, the protein folds through a three-state mechanism that contains (i) a precise nucleation site that creates a correctly twisted native loop (first barrier) and (ii) a rate-limiting free energy barrier that is traversed by two parallel knot-forming routes. The main route corresponds to a slipknot conformation, a collapsed configuration where the C-terminal helix adopts a hairpin-like configuration while threading, and the minor route to an entropically limited plug motion, where the extended terminus is threaded as through a needle. Knot formation is a late transition state process and results show that random (nonspecific) knots are a very rare and unstable set of configurations both at and below folding temperature. Our study shows that a native-biased landscape is sufficient to fold complex topologies and presents a folding mechanism generalizable to all known knotted protein topologies: knotting via threading a native-like loop in a preordered intermediate.


– Water resources in Kuwait are very scarce and do not meet the ever growing demand. To satisfy this colossal water demand and to compensate for the shortage of freshwater, the government has constructed desalination plants. Water desalination processes separate dissolved salts and other minerals from water from brackish, and seawater to produce water suitable for human consumption or irrigations. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a proven technology for desalinating seawater; it is pressure driven membrane processes. The analysis in this work enfolds an assessment of the performance of a small reverse osmosis plant with and without an energy recovery pelton wheel turbine. The data collected are from an experimental RO plant in the region; these data are concerned with the failures of several components and subsystems of the plant over a 4-year period of continuous operation. Using fault tree technique the long term of the system is obtained by calculating the unavailability of the different subsystems. Since the plant is designed for continuous operation; the operational time was used to assess the performance of the plant Key words; Energy recovery system, Availability, Failure probabilities, Operational time


As society rushes to digitize sensitive information and services, it is imperative to adopt adequate security protections. However, such protections fundamentally conžict with the benets we expect from commodity computers. In other words, consumers and businesses value commodity computers because they provide good performance and an abundance of features at relatively low costs. Meanwhile, attempts to build secure systems from the ground up typically abandon such goals, and hence are seldom adopted [8, 72, 104]. In this dissertation, I argue that we can resolve the tension between security and features by leveraging the trust a user has in one device to enable her to securely use another commodity device or service, without sacricing the performance and features expected of commodity systems. At a high level, we support this premise by developing techniques to allow a user to employ a small, trusted, portable device to securely learn what code is executing on her local computer. Rather than entrusting her data to the mountain of buggy code likely running on her computer, we construct an on-demand secure execution environment which can perform security-sensitive tasks and handle private data in complete isolation from all other soŸware (and most hardware) on the system. Meanwhile, non-security-sensitive soŸware retains the same abundance of features and performance it enjoys today. Having established an environment for secure code execution on an individual computer, we then show how to extend trust in this environment to network elements in a secure and e›cient manner. is allows us to reexamine the design of network protocols and defenses, since we can now execute code on endhosts and trust the results within the network. Lastly, we extend the user's trust one more step to encompass computations performed on a remote host (e.g., in the cloud). We design, analyze, and prove secure a protocol that allows a user to outsource arbitrary computations to commodity computers run by an untrusted remote party (or parties) who may subject the computers to both soŸware and hardware attacks. Our protocol guarantees that the user can both verify that the results returned are indeed the correct results of the specied computations on the inputs provided, and protect the secrecy of both the inputs and outputs of the computations. ese guarantees are provided in a non-interactive, asymptotically optimal (with respect to CPU and bandwidth) manner. us, extending a user's trust, via soŸware, hardware, and cryptographic techniques, allows us to provide strong security protections for both local and remote computations on sensitive data, while still preserving the performance and features of commodity computers.


This study explores consumer acceptance and valuation of a genetically modified (GM) staple food crop in a developing country prior to its commercialization. We focus on the hypothetical introduction of a disease-resistant GM banana variety in Uganda, where bananas are among the most important staple crops. A choice experiment is used to investigate consumer preferences for various attributes related to the banana (such as bunch size, technology, producer benefit, and price) and examine their opinions on GM foodstuff. Choice data come from 421 banana-consuming households randomly selected from three regions of Uganda. A latent class model is used to investigate the heterogeneity in consumers' preferences for selected attributes related to the banana and to profile consumers who are more or less likely to accept GM bananas. Our results reveal that there is significant heterogeneity in consumer preferences across our sample. GM bananas are valued the most by poorer households located in the rural areas of the Eastern region. These food-insecure households would experience the highest benefits (i.e., welfare gains) from the commercial release of GM bananas. In contrast, urban consumers are less accepting of GM bananas, and they would experience significant welfare losses if GM banana is released. According to our welfare estimates, both the total welfare benefits acquired by the gainers and the total welfare losses borne by the losers of this technology are significant and large. These results suggest the need for further investigation of the overall welfare effects of the introduction of GM bananas on the Ugandan society as a whole


Lactation is beneficial to mother's health as well as provides specific nourishments, growth, and development to the baby. Hence, it is a nature's precious gift for the infant; however, lactation insufficiency is one of the explanations mentioned most often by women throughout the world for the early discontinuation of breastfeeding and/or for the introduction of supplementary bottles. Globally, lactation insufficiency is a public health concern, as the use of breast milk substitutes increases the risk of morbidity and mortality among infants in developing countries, and these supplements are the most common cause of malnutrition. The incidence has been estimated to range from 23% to 63% during the first 4 months after delivery. The present article provides a literary search in English language of incidence, etiopathogensis, pathophysiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and current update on treatment of lactation insufficiency from different sources such as reference books, Medline, Pubmed, other Web sites, etc. Non-breast-fed infant are 14 times more likely to die due to diarrhea, 3 times more likely to die of respiratory infection, and twice as likely to die of other infections than an exclusively breast-fed child. Therefore, lactation insufficiency should be tackled in appropriate manner.


We find precise asymptotic estimates for the number of planar maps and graphs with a condition on the minimum degree, and properties of random graphs from these classes. In particular we show that the size of the largest tree attached to the core of a random planar graph is of order $c \log(n)$ for an explicit constant $c$. These results provide new information on the structure of random planar graphs.


A systematic narrative literature review explored views of young child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors whose abuse was unknown to authorities, about confidentiality. Due to paucity of research, the review included literature about sexual health service users. Seventeen databases and eleven journals were searched and thirty-three papers were identified. Analysis involved exploratory interpretist approach focusing on emergent themes and methodologies. Findings indicated limited participation and that young people want; (i) confidentiality (ii) control of their lives and (iii) they fear child protection agencies. Empirical research then explored views about confidentiality with young CSA survivors whose abuse was unknown to child protection agencies. Eight survivors engaged as co-researchers in participatory action research utilising a mixed methods approach; using surveys, focus groups, online chats, graffiti walls and interviews. One hundred and forty survivors participated. Age range was 1130, with 25 males, 114 females and 1 gender neutral. Researchers designed tools, gathered and analysed qualitative and quantitative data using a social construction thematic approach. Results found (i) all participants wanted higher confidentiality, with males and under 16's demanding highest confidentiality (ii) males were reluctant to disclose CSA compared to females (iii) abuse retractions were related to loss of confidentiality (iv) involvement as co-researchers was positive and empowering. With limited confidentiality the identified themes for young people were: fear of consequences, lost control, abuse retractions and protecting abusers. With high confidentiality themes were: talking openly, control, empowerment, exploring options, respect and being believed. Young researchers reported improvement in self-esteem and positive life changes. Conclusions: Young CSA survivors whose abuse was unknown to child protection services want higher confidentiality to build trust and be able to talk about abuse; and involvement of young people in participatory research is positive and empowering. Recommendations: There appears to be a need for increased confidentiality if young people whose abuse is unknown to child protection services are to disclose their abuse. Further participatory research is needed to explore whether other groups of young people unknown to services report similar and/or different needs.


While research on grandparenthood has flourished in recent years, few studies have focused specifically on grandfathers. Existing knowledge is informed by uncritical and dated theoretical approaches or based on gender and generational biased data from women and grandchildren. As a result little is known about how men experience being a grandfather and construct their grandfather identities, or how intergenerational relationships influence this, particularly in the contemporary context. To gain more comprehensive knowledge about the influence of intergenerational relations on grandfather identities, 31 in-depths interviews and two participant observations were undertaken in the Lancaster District, UK, with men who are currently grandfathering. A key finding that emerged from the empirical data is that grandfathers perform a variety of different practices in various spaces and this is influenced by the quality and character of intergenerational relationships with both children and grandchildren. Diversity between the men's personal and familial circumstances influences men's involvement with grandchildren and where they grandfather, and consequently how they perform and construct their identities. This suggests that grandfather identities are multi-faceted, heterogeneous and not easily reducible to existing essentialist conceptions of grandfather identities. This thesis further argues that a synthesis of multiple theories of identity construction adopted by human geographers, including practice, performativity and intergenerationality are required to interpret the empirical data, to generate critical understandings of contemporary grandfather identities and the influence of intergenerational relations on these identities; grandfather identities are analysed as practiced and relational identities. This reveals that in order to understand the nature of men's identities as grandfathers and the ways in which they are produced in practice, the effects of their unique intergenerational relations with both grandchildren and children, and their personal and familial contexts need to be understood.


Cross-country research on educational inequality presents contrasting views on the extent of educational inequality in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The differences in opinion also concern the relation between educational inequality and income inequality. This paper argues that part of the reported results are influenced by the type of inequality indicator applied. Moreover, there may be a separate effect of educational attainment and educational distribution on income inequality, which cannot be discerned properly by conventional indicators (in particular the Gini-coefficient faces this problem). A new indicator of educational distribution, which we coined the grade enrolment ratio, focuses at the distribution of students among consecutive grades in schooling, apart from average years of schooling (attainment). We find that the grade enrolment ratio outperforms the other indicators in explaining cross-country variation in income inequality and accurately assesses Latin American and Sub-Saharan African educational inequality.


The Java bytecode language is emerging as a software distribution standard. With major vendors committed to porting the Java run-time environment to their platforms, programs in Java bytecode are expected to run without modification on multiple platforms. These first generation runtime environments rely on an interpreter to bridge the gap between the bytecode instructions and the native hardware. This interpreter approach is sufficient for specialized applications such as Internet browsers where application performance is often limited by network delays rather than processor speed. It is, however not sufficient for executing general applications distributed in Java bytecode. This paper presents our initial prototyping experience with Caffeine, an optimizing translator from Java bytecode to native machine code. We discuss the major technical issues involved in stack to register mapping, run-time memory structure mapping and exception handlers. Encouraging initial results based on our X86 port are presented.


Neuronal Fe65 is an adapter protein that interacts with the cytoplasmic domain of the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP). Although the interaction has been reported to occur between the second phosphotyrosine interaction domain of Fe65 and the YENPTY motif in the cytoplasmic domain of APP, the regulatory mechanism and biological function of this interaction remain unknown. We report here that (i) a single amino acid mutation at the Thr-668 residue of APP695, located 14 amino acids toward the amino-terminal end from the 682YENPTY687 motif, reduced the interaction between members of the Fe65 family of proteins and APP, whereas interaction of APP with the phosphotyrosine interaction domain of other APP binders such as X11-like and mammalian disabled-1 was not influenced by this mutation; (ii) the phosphorylation of APP at Thr-668 diminished the interaction of APP with Fe65 by causing a conformational change in the cytoplasmic domain that contains the Fe65-binding motif, YENPTY; and (iii) the expression of Fe65 slightly suppressed maturation of APP and decreased production of β-amyloid (Aβ). Mutation at Thr-668 of APP abolished the effect of Fe65 on APP maturation. This mutation blocked the Fe65-dependent suppression of Aβ production and resulted in the release of increased levels of Aβ in the presence of Fe65. We previously reported that during maturation of APP in neurons, the protein is specifically phosphorylated at Thr-668 and undergoesO-glycosylation. The present results suggest that the phosphorylation of O-glycosylated mature APP at Thr-668 causes a conformational change in its cytoplasmic domain that prevents binding of Fe65 in neurons and may lead to an alteration in the production of Aβ.


The primary objective of this Australian Wool Education Trust funded teaching initiative on inquiry-based learning and research-led teaching approach was to enhance students' critical thinking and target their learning needs through active participation in hands-on experience with experimental sheep. The secondary objective was to study the effects of sire breed and sex on growth and body conformation traits in crossbred prime lambs at the University of Tasmania Farm, Cambridge. Body weight, average daily gain, body condition score, body length, withers height and chest girth in sixty first cross Merino lambs sired by White Suffolk and Poll Dorset rams were measured fortnightly over a ten-week period. Generalised linear model procedure in SAS was used for statistical analysis and included the fixed effects of sire breed, sex, fortnight and their second order interactions. Duncan's Multiple Range Test, correlations between growth and conformation traits and Bonferroni probabilities were estimated and used for comparisons.

A fortnightly increase in lamb body weight, average daily gain and body condition score was evident. Wethers were heavier and had higher average daily gains than ewes. White Suffolk sired progeny had higher average daily gains than those sired by Dorset rams, but body weight did not differ between sire breeds. However, a highly significant interaction (P<0.0001) between sire breed and sex on body weight was evident as White Suffolk sired wethers were the heaviest prime lambs. It was concluded that the real world, hands-on research experience with experimental sheep, field trips, data collection, statistical analyses, data interpretation and seminar presentation of results facilitated a deeper student understanding of the scientific concepts of sire genetics and nutrition interactions in sheep growth.


Background: Despite the increasing number of reports on the favorable outcomes of laparoscopic surgery for gallbladder cancer (GBC), there is no consensus regarding this surgical procedure. Objective: The study aimed to develop a consensus statement on the application of laparoscopic surgery for GBC based on expert opinions. Methods: A consensus meeting among experts was held on September 10, 2016, in Seoul, Korea. Results: Early concerns regarding port site/peritoneal metastasis after laparoscopic surgery have been abated by improved preoperative recognition of GBC and careful manipulation to avoid bile spillage. There is no evidence that laparoscopic surgery is associated with decreased survival compared with open surgery in patients with early-stage GBC if definitive resection during/after laparoscopic cholecystectomy is performed. Although experience with laparoscopic extended cholecystectomy for GBC has been limited to a few experts, the postoperative and survival outcomes were similar between laparoscopic and open surgeries. Laparoscopic reoperation for postoperatively diagnosed GBC is technically challenging, but its feasibility has been demonstrated by a few experts. Conclusions: Laparoscopic surgery for GBC is still in the early phase of the adoption curve, and more evidence is required to assess this procedure.


We show that high doses of salicylates reverse hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and dyslipidemia in obese rodents by sensitizing insulin signaling. Activation or overexpression of the IκB kinase β (IKKβ) attenuated insulin signaling in cultured cells, whereas IKKβ inhibition reversed insulin resistance. Thus, IKKβ, rather than the cyclooxygenases, appears to be the relevant molecular target. Heterozygous deletion (Ikkβ +/−) protected against the development of insulin resistance during high-fat feeding and in obese Lepob/ob mice. These findings implicate an inflammatory process in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus and identify the IKKβ pathway as a target for insulin sensitization.


Energy conservation has become an issue of global significance, which is a focus reflected in the Australian housing industry's renewed emphasis on energy-efficient design. The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has proposed to increase the stringency of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) to ensure the industry adopts energy efficient measures, including the enhancement of thermal performance and greater recognition of thermal mass in energy rating schemes. However, this proposal's potential to effect energy savings in tropical housing is yet to be assessed. In order to determine its relative merits under tropical conditions, a standardised house design used in the Tiwi Islands of the Northern Territory (NT) was subjected to life cycle analysis, including analysis of embodied energy, the efficiency of energy saving measures and the resulting active energy consumption. This standardised house, like others in the NT, is designed for retrofitting within 10 years, which reduces the time available for savings in operational energy to exceed energy invested in installing these measures. Housing lifespan would, therefore, significantly impact upon potential benefits resulting from changes to the BCA. In addition, the spatial distances between population settlements in the NT greatly increases embodied energy values. It was found that adopting the proposed measures would result in an increase in energy efficiency through a reduction in the need for refrigerative air conditioner use, and that the embodied energy payback period would fall within the lifespan of the house. Therefore, for this specific tropical design, the BCA's proposed measures for saving energy were found to be beneficial.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate, in function of time, the modification of pulmonary function after radical esophagectomy with the aim of identifying clinical and/or surgical predictors of functional worsening.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Data of 57 patients operated from 01/06 to 06/11 were retrospectively reviewed. Thirty-eight patients (67%) underwent transhiatal cervico-laparotomic (CL-Group) and 19 (33%) a Mc-Keown cervico-thoraco-laparotomic esophagectomy (CTL-Group). The pulmonary function has been evaluated before and one month after surgery. The outcome has been benchmarked with demographic/clinical characteristics, the type of operation and the presence of post-operative pulmonary complications (POPCs).

RESULTS
Mean age and male/female distribution were 66.6±10.6 yrs and 39/18, respectively. A total of 14 (24% of total sample) POPCs occurred with a significantly higher occurrence in the CTL-Group (71% vs 28%, p < 0.001) and in those patients with a pre-operative concurrent pathological condition (64% in COPD patients vs 36% in patients without COPD, p = 0.021). A global worsening of the spirometric parameters (expressed as the baseline percentage change, Δ) emerged, but this decrease was significantly higher in the CTL-Group in terms of Δ-FVC (p = 0.005) and Δ-FEV1 (p = 0.005). Similarly, those patients who have experienced a POPC, showed a higher reduction of the pulmonary function regardless of the surgical approach when compared with those who did not (Δ-FVC: p = 0.053 and Δ-FEV1%: p = 0.015).

CONCLUSIONS
In the context of a global reduction of pulmonary function, patients who underwent trans-thoracic esophagectomy or experienced a POPC showed a significantly worse pattern. These patients could be the "best target" for therapeutic rehabilitative strategies in the pre-operative and/or post-operative setting. This assumption is to be proven through prospective clinical trials.


We present a design for a flow-through integrating cavity absorption meter. This instrument, in principle, is capable of measuring the spectral optical absorption coefficient of natural waters in situ independently of scattering effects. Monte Carlo simulations are used to determine the design parameters and evaluate instrument performance. We investigate both detector response and the distribution of radiant energy inside the instrument and present empirical equations describing these quantities as a function of the absorption coefficient. The effects of changing the instrument geometry are illustrated. Finally, we discuss the effects of scattering on the instrument performance and verify that they are negligible for natural waters.


Additive manufacturing, covering processes frequently referred to as rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing, provides new opportunities in the manufacture of highly complex and custom-fitting medical devices and products. Whilst many medical applications of AM have been explored and physical properties of the resulting parts have been studied, the characterisation of AM materials in computed tomography has not been explored. The aim of this study was to determine the CT number of commonly used AM materials. There are many potential applications of the information resulting from this study in the design and manufacture of wearable medical devices, implants, prostheses and medical imaging test phantoms. A selection of 19 AM material samples were CT scanned and the resultant images analysed to ascertain the materials' CT number and appearance in the images. It was found that some AM materials have CT numbers very similar to human tissues, FDM, SLA and SLS produce samples that appear uniform on CT images and that 3D printed materials show a variation in internal structure.


The original purpose of this work was to investigate a stent design to
accommodate the acute curvature of the aorta negating the need for linking
multiple stents. Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) stents are used to dilate or strengthen
hollow organs including sections of the aortic arch. Typically a SMA stent utilising
the Shape Memory Effect (SME) is endoluminally delivered through a catheter to
the stent site, whilst maintaining the stent temperature below the stent transition
temperature range. A limiting factor when multiple stents must be linked together
is the acute radius of curvature of the aorta compared with the radius of curvature
which can be achieved by the linked multiple stents.
A preliminary case study to determine the feasibility of manufacture and delivery of
a custom made SMES was undertaken using NiTi material. Computer
Tomography 3D data was used to determine basic stent dimensions of an aortic
arch from which a bespoke SMES was manufactured. Preliminary design
investigations concluded that control of SMES temperature during delivery and 3D
path taken by SMES material as it reconfigures through transition temperature
range As-Af, are critical single points of failure.
Using classical heat transfer equations a mathematical model to determine
temperature of SMES during transfemoral delivery from femoral artery to aortic
arch region was compared with in vitro data and validated.
2D and 3D movement paths of NiTi wire samples during reconfiguration was
observed and recorded. Results indicate a direct relationship between stress
applied to SMA wire in its martensitic phase and 3D path taken by said SMA wire
during reconfiguration through TTR from Austenite start to Austenite finish phase.
The basis of this study suggests predictability of 3D behaviour and therefore safety
of SMES catheter delivery using through flushing coolant and design of stent reconfiguration geometries may be considered in design. The temperature model
may be used to aid NiTi stent delivery catheter design. The relationship between
production of stress induced martensite (SIM) before production of temperature
induced martensite (TIM) and actual movement path during TIM may be used as
an aid in future SMES endoluminal delivery design.


I used both observational and experimental approaches to assess the causes of nonbreeding habitat quality and to evaluate their ecological and evolutionary consequences for a Neotropical-Nearctic migratory bird, the American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla). Relative to control birds overwintering in second-growth scrub, redstarts experimentally upgraded from scrub to mangrove forest incorporated mangrove stable-carbon isotope signatures, maintained mass over winter, departed earlier on spring migration, and had higher apparent annual survival. Significantly higher arthropod biomass on upgrade territories implicated food availability as a proximate mechanism of habitat quality. Food availability, body condition, and spring departure schedules also depended on nonbreeding season rainfall. Food availability in mangrove was higher than in scrub in three of four years, allowing birds in this habitat to maintain superior body condition and depart earlier on spring migration. Abundant rainfall in a single year led to abnormally high food availability in scrub and early departure of birds in both habitats, suggesting both the amount and timing of rainfall influenced nonbreeding performance. Habitat occupancy and annual variation in rainfall had significant consequences for natal dispersal and selection through annual survival. Stable-hydrogen isotope ratios (δD) in feathers of immature birds captured again as adults indicated that habitat use in the first nonbreeding season interacted with spring phenology on temperate breeding grounds to influence the distance traveled on the first spring migration and direction of natal dispersal. In contrast, adults showed site fidelity between breeding seasons, suggesting nonbreeding conditions did not affect breeding dispersal and that migration distance becomes fixed later in life. Patterns of δD also revealed directional selection for short migration distance to southern breeding areas, a pattern that was nearly twice as strong in scrub compared to mangrove. During dry winters, redstarts experienced stabilizing selection on departure dates and directional selection for short migration. In years of high rainfall, birds experienced correlational selection favoring late departure when in good body condition. Thus, occupancy of moist habitats and years of high rainfall relaxed selection against late departure and longer migration. Collectively, these findings emphasize the need to understand how events throughout the annual cycle interact to shape fundamental biological processes. Sciences of the United States of America. Each journal has granted me permission to reproduce copyrighted material. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my fiancé Rina Aviram. This work would not have been possible without her love and friendship. iv Acknowledgements


Abstract Guyana depends on imported fuel to meet the needs of its transport sector. In recent years, pricesof derivatives of petroleum have increased significantly, further widening the current account deficit. In 2005, fuel accounted for 29% of the value of imports of the country. The technology of using ethanol mixed with gasoline in four-stroke cycle engines is wellknown, and, does not require any changes in vehicles for levels of ethanol in the mixture up to 10%. This technology is used in many countries with vehicle fleets, similar to those of Guyana. The sugarcane industry of Guyana constitutes one of the most important economic activities of the country and is one of the main sources of foreign exchange. However, it is subject to very significant market risks, associated with changes in the Sugar Protocol and the reduction of preferential prices on the market of the European Union. A diversity of raw materials, sweet or starchy, may be considered for the production of ethanol. However, when considering costs, available technology and energy productivity, sugarcane (directly as juice or as molasses); presents the most attractive option. In time, other possibilities may be considered. In the most conservative scenario (use of final molasses, producing 8.8 liters of ethanol per ton of processed sugarcane);, it is estimated that 30.8 million liters of ethanol may be obtained annually from the sugarcane industry in Guyana. This would be nearly 3 times the anticipated demand of 11.5 million liters, if a mixture of gasoline with 10 % ethanol were to be used in Guyana's vehicles. If other raw materials with higher productivity (sugarcane juice or primary molasses); are considered, the available potential ethanol would increase proportionally. In 2005, the export price of molasses was US$ 83 per ton. Each ton of molasses can produce 260 liters of ethanol. This implies an estimated opportunity cost of US$ 0.392 per liter of ethanol. This is lower than the US$ 0.463 per liter that Guyana paid for its imported gasoline in 2005, indicating the competitiveness of the biofuel. Ethanol from molasses has consistently been price competitive in the past few years, even without consideration of positive externalities associated with it. If Guyana were to utilize a mixture of gasoline with 10 % ethanol, a distillery producing 65 thousand liters of ethanol daily would be required to satisfy national demand. This would require an investment of approximately US$ 6.5 million. It would result in a net earning of approximately US$ 800.000 and annual savings of US$ 5.4 million on the energy import bill, at 2005 prices. Present conditions of the energy and the agro-industrial sector of Guyana provide an excellent opportunity for the production and use of ethanol as a source of fuel in the country. Furthermore, in addition to price considerations, it is important to be able to produce locally part of the national energy demand, using available natural resources and proven technologies. This would also stimulate diversification in the sugarcane industry which is currently exposed to well known challenges. Moreover, the use of ethanol as a source of energy would have significant environmental advantages. All together, these conditions make a decidedly sufficient and robust case to promote the use of ethanol for energy security in Guyana. The promotion of ethanol as a source of fuel in Guyana requires the collaboration of all institutions and stakeholders arriving at an operational mechanism for the introduction of ethanol within the energy sector. For such an initiative to be successful clear timelines should be established and commitments obtained. It should also include a component for building public awareness as well as involvement of the local science and technology community.


The Mellor-Blumberg three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, as modified by National Ocean Service (NOS) of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for application to Long Island Sound, New York, is employed to investigate astronomic tide and meteorologically induced circulation over the period May to July 1990. During this period, NOAA conducted an extensive measurement program to further observe vertical current structure (4 RADS-Remote Acoustic Doupler System- locations) and conductivity and temperature (CT) time series (5 locations) at The Battery, New York and throughout Long Island Sound. Conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) profiles were also taken in the longitudinal direction. As reported in this proceedings, climatological terms for salinity and temperature are prescribed on the open boundaries to effect simulations over long periods during which CT time series are not available. Of interest here, is to compare the results achieved using climatological boundary conditions versus these obtained from using observed CT forcings during a seasonal period when CT are available.


This report examines the role of the social economy in bringing about inclusive growth that generates more and better jobs in UK cities, particularly for people who are in - or at risk of - poverty.

The report finds that:
- The social economy has been shown to promote inclusive growth by creating jobs, strengthening skills and employability; building diversified local economies; and contributing to wider economic and institutional transformation.
- Successful social economy development often arises from an enabling context, or social economy 'ecosystem' of various elements of support provision and a high level of collaboration between actors, both within the social economy and the public and private sectors.

The social economy constitutes a range of organisations that have a core social mission, including social and community enterprises; voluntary and community sector organisations; housing associations; co-operatives and mutuals; informal self-help initiatives; social finance and support providers; and alternative business models.

The report develops several recommendations for how UK cities can engage the social economy to lead an inclusive growth agenda.

The project was undertaken by a team at Middlesex University and The Open University


Abstract Objective To provide nationally representative data on the prevalence of anaemia, vitamin A and Fe deficiencies among pre-school age children (pre-SAC) and non-pregnant women of reproductive age (WRA), and on vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies in WRA, and the influence of inflammation on their interpretation. Design A cross-sectional survey to measure anthropometry, malaria parasitaemia and micronutrient status. Specifically, blood samples were analysed for Hb, plasma ferritin, soluble transferrin receptors, C-reactive protein, α1-acid glycoprotein, retinol-binding protein, vitamin B12 and folate. Setting Côte d'Ivoire in 2007. Subjects Nine hundred and twenty-eight WRA and 879 pre-SAC. Results In WRA, prevalence of Plasmodium parasitaemia (5 %) was low, but inflammation (34 %) was higher. Anaemia was a severe public health problem and prevalence differed by residency and eco-region. Inflammation-adjusted Fe deficiency was highest in urban areas (20 %). Nationally, folate deficiency was 86 %, higher in urban areas and varied by eco-region. Prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency was low but higher in the rural areas and the north. Inflammation-adjusted vitamin A deficiency was very low (1 %). In pre-SAC, prevalence of inflammation (67 %) and Plasmodium parasites (25 %) was high; the latter was associated with poverty, rural residency and higher ferritin concentrations. Anaemia was classified as a severe public health problem (72 %), and was higher in rural areas (76 %) and the north (87 %). A quarter of pre-SAC suffered from vitamin A deficiency (inflammation-adjusted) and prevalence of undernutrition was high. Conclusions Prevalence of inflammation, Plasmodium parasitaemia and micronutrient deficiencies were high in Côte d'Ivoire, particularly in pre-SAC. Nutritional interventions should be accompanied by strategies to reduce exposure to infections.


Apoptosis is a regulated energy-dependent process of cell death characterized by specific morphological and biochemical features in which caspase activation has a central role. During apoptosis, cells undergo characteristic morphological rear‐ rangements in which the cytoskeleton participates actively. From a historical point of view, this reorganization has been assigned mainly to actinomyosin ring contraction with microtubule and intermediate filaments, both reported to be de‐ polymerized at early stages of apoptosis. However, recent results have shown that the microtubule cytoskeleton is reformed during the execution phase of apoptosis, forming an apoptotic microtubule network (AMN). AMN is closely as‐ sociated with the plasma membrane, forming a cortical ring or cellular "cocoon." Apoptotic microtubules' reorganization has been reported in many cell types and under many apoptotic inducers. Recently, it has been proposed that AMN is es‐ sential for preserving plasma membrane permeability and cell morphology dur‐ ing the execution phase of apoptosis. Apoptotic microtubules' depolymerization leads cells to secondary necrosis and the release of toxic intracellular contents that can harm surrounding cells and initiate inflammation. Therefore, microtu‐ bules' reorganization in physiological apoptosis during development and in the adult organism or in pathological apoptosis induced by anticancer treatments or chronic inflammation is essential for tissue homeostasis, preventing cell damage and inflammation.


Determining orbits of natural and artificial celestial bodies is an essential step in the exploration and understanding of the Solar System. However, recent progress in the quality and quantity of data from astronomical observations and spacecraft-tracking has generated orbit determination problems which cannot be handled by classical algorithms. This book presents new algorithms capable of handling the millions of bodies which could be observed by next-generation surveys, and which can fully exploit tracking data with state-of-the-art levels of accuracy. After a general mathematical background and summary of classical algorithms, the new algorithms are introduced using the latest mathematical tools and results, to which the authors have personally contributed. Case studies based on actual astronomical surveys and space missions are provided, with applications of these new methods. Intended for graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics, physics, astronomy, and aerospace engineering, this book is also of interest to non-professional astronomers.


In "Conquest and Redemption", Gregg J. Rickman explains how the Nazis stole the possessions of their Jewish victims and obtained the cooperation of institutions across Europe in these crimes of convenience. He also describes how those institutions are being brought to justice, sixty years later, for their retention of their ill-gotten gains. Rickman not only explains how the robbery was accomplished, tracked, stalled, and then finally reversed, but also clearly shows the ways in which robbery was inextricably connected to the murder of the Jews. The Nazis took everything from Jews - their families, their possessions, and even their names. As with the murder of Jews, the Nazis' robbery was an organized, institutionalized effort. Jews were isolated, robbed, and left homeless, regarded as parasites in the Nazis' eyes, and thus fair game. In short, the organized robbery of the Jews facilitated their slaughter. How did the German people come to believe that it was permissible to isolate, outlaw, rob, and murder Jews? A partial explanation can be found in the Nazis' creation of a virtual religion of German nationalism and homogeneity that delegitimized Jews as a people and as individuals. This belief system was expressed through a complex structure of religious rules, practices, and institutions. While Nazi ideology was the guiding principle, how that ideology was formed and how it was applied is important to understand if one is to fully grasp the Holocaust. Rickman painstakingly describes the structural composition and motivation for the plundering of Jewish assets. The Holocaust will always remain a memory of unequalled pain and suffering, but, as Rickman shows, the return of stolen goods to their survivors is a partial victory for the long aggrieved. "Conquest and Redemption" will be of interest to students and scholars in the history of the Holocaust and its aftermath.


The design features and engineering constraints of a PET system based on avalanche photodiode (APD) detectors have been described in a previous report. Here, the authors present the initial results obtained with the Sherbrooke APD-PET scanner, a very high spatial resolution device designed for dynamic imaging of small and medium-sized laboratory animals such as rats, cats, rabbits and small monkeys. Its physical performance has been evaluated in terms of resolution, sensitivity, count rate, random and scatter fractions, contrast and relative activity recovery as a function of object size. The capabilities of the scanner for biomedical research applications have been demonstrated using phantom and animal studies.


Abstract. Nowadays, mobile mapping systems are widely used to quickly collect reliable geospatial information of relatively large areas: thanks to such characteristics, the number of applications and fields exploiting their usage is continuously increasing. Among such possible applications, mobile mapping systems have been recently considered also by railway system managers to quickly produce and update a database of the geospatial features of such system, also called assets. Despite several vehicles, devices and acquisition methods can be considered for the data collection of the railway system, the predominant one is probably that based on the use of a mobile mapping system mounted on a train, which moves all along the railway tracks, enabling the 3D reproduction of the entire railway track area. Given the large amount of data collected by such mobile mapping, automatic procedures have to be used to speed up the process of extracting the spatial information of interest, i.e. assets positions and characteristics. This paper considers the problem of extracting such information for what concerns cantilever and portal masts, by exploiting a mixed approach. First, a set of candidate areas are extracted and pre-processed by considering certain of their geometric characteristics, mainly extracted by using eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of a point neighborhood. Then, a 3D modified Fisher vector-deep learning neural net is used to classify the candidates. Tests on such approach are conducted in two areas of the Italian railway system.


Abstract Palynology is the main method of correlating the subsurface glaciogenic Al Khlata Formation (Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian) of Oman due to the extreme lateral variability of facies and poor seismic resolution. The chief operating company in Oman, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), has developed a robust in-house palynozonation during almost 40 years of exploration and production based on thousands of samples and hundreds of well sections. In this paper, the formal definitions of the biozones are published and the biozones are correlated in detail with faunally-calibrated palynomorph biozones in Western Australia. This allows correlation to the standard Russian stages. Seven biozones are distinguished. The oldest two subdivisions, biozones 2159A and 2159B, of probable Late Pennsylvanian age, are characterized by low diversity assemblages of Punctatisporites and monosaccate pollen. Biozone 2159A has a lower proportion of monosaccate pollen than Biozone 2159B. Biozone 2165A, of probable Asselian age, is characterized by common cingulicamerate spores and the Microbaculispora Group. Biozone 2165B contains common Horriditriletes Group, and is likely to be Asselian–Sakmarian in age. The Biozone 2141A is characterized by common taeniate and non-taeniate bisaccate pollen and Cycadopites cymbatus, particularly toward the top. The succeeding Biozone 2141B is recognized by common Microbaculispora Group and Cycadopites cymbatus. Biozones 2141A to 2141C are believed to be Sakmarian in age. The youngest unit, Biozone 2141C, is characterized by the Microbaculispora and Horriditriletes groups, with the former being more abundant. This seven-fold subdivision is a significant improvement on previous palynozonations of the Al Khlata Formation, which only allowed three- or four-fold subdivisions. However, there still remain considerable uncertainties in dating the lowermost biozones, 2159A and 2159B. Improvements in the dating of the Al Khlata Formation are most likely to come from palynological correlations with radiometrically- or faunally-dated successions in South America, eastern Australia, and southern Africa.


ZnMgTe(Cladding)/ZnTe(Core)/ZnMgTe(Cladding) thin film waveguide had been grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and presented a great potential to be a high performance Electro-optical (EO) modulator. For a low propagation loss ZnMgTe/ZnTe waveguide, thick cladding layer with high Mg composition (Mg %) is needed. However, the in-plane lattice mismatch of the fabricated device with high Mg % and thick cladding layer was large. It might cause the cladding/core interface roughness and asperities due to the misfit dislocation, and degrade the device performance. Because EO property of waveguide device is primarily influence by the structure thickness, the device efficiency improvement in this study was only considered to reduce the defects asperities that would cause propagation loss without decreasing the Mg % or the total thickness of the cladding layers. Therefore, we introduced a low Mg % layer between the cladding and the core layer to circumvent the effect of large lattice mismatch. The in-plane lattice mismatch of the devices was monitored using reciprocal space mapping, and surface morphologies were also observed using atom force microscope. The two-step index ZnMgTe/ZnTe waveguide had shown to have lower degree of relaxation compared to that of single-step index waveguide device with close Mg % and cladding layer thickness. Therefore, the crystal degradation of the two-step-index waveguide caused by lattice mismatch was successfully suppressed by introduction extra low Mg % layers. The morphologies of the two kinds of waveguide structures have similar surface asperities, which indicated the extra inserted layers did not produce additional large scale asperities at the interfaces that would increase the propagation loss.


In many project-based industries, there has recently been an increased tendency for collaboration and cocreation of value with the customers. However, many existing studies report inherent challenges and complexities related to multipartner collaboration. This article presents a conceptual framework that explains the focal collaboration-related elements and their interdependencies in multipartner projects. The elements in the framework and relations between them are derived from the existing empirical studies and theoretical literature on collaboration, knowledge integration, and project success. Based on the conceptual analysis of the extant literature, we identify eight collaboration antecedents and three collaboration outcome elements. The conceptual framework explains how two collaboration mediators, project-collaboration quality and knowledge-integration capability, relate collaboration antecedents with collaboration outcomes. In addition, based on the literature analysis, we identify 15 mechanisms that enhance the project-collaboration quality in multipartner projects. The article provides novel insights on the dynamics of collaboration in multipartner projects by offering the concepts of project-collaboration quality and knowledge-integration capability and explaining their role in collaborative projects.


In this paper we analyse the suitability of computing clouds, i.e. large-scale virtualized infrastructures for high-performance applications that are normally executed on specialised clusters or supercomputers. We classify such applications according to their requirements on different system components and present measurements of virtualization software overhead for these components. Based on the results, we discuss cloud-tolerant problems and address surprising performance effects observed in different hypervisors.


We examine the relationship between the incidence of workplace deviance (on-the-job crime) and the state of the economy. A worker's probability of future employment depends on whether she has been deviant as well as on the availability of jobs. Using a two period model we show that the net impact on deviant behavior to changes in unemployment can go either way depending upon the nature of the equilibrium. Two kinds of equilibria are possible. In one, a non-deviant's probability of being employed increases as expected market conditions improve which lowers the incentive to be a deviant. In contrast, in the other kind of equilibrium, the deviant's probability of being employed increases when market conditions improve which increases the incentive to be a deviant. In either case, there is a setup cost to deviant behavior and the attractiveness of incurring that increases with an increase in expected probability of future employment which unambiguously increases the incentive to be deviant. In the first kind of equilibrium, the two effects counteract each other, while in the second they reinforce each other. Finally, we characterize conditions under which an increase in optimism, i.e. a reduction in the probability of facing a recession unambiguously increases deviant behavior.


Municipal wastewater is the water generated from domestic, commercial, and public sources. This water can be viewed as the only potential water source that will increase as population grows. The importance of wastewater as a potential source of water is apparent in countries that suffer from shortage of water. However, it must be treated properly before reuse and/or disposal due to the need for controlling many parameters such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), solids, heavy metals, anions and microbial content. The aim of this study is to investigate municipal wastewater treatment in the Sultanate of Oman by analyzing wastewater samples collected from different treatment plants in three regions of the country (Muscat, Salalah, and Sohar). Comprehensive analyses including physical, chemical and biological characterization of raw wastewater and final effluents were conducted by collecting samples from major treatment units within the studied treatment plants. Consequently, comprehensive database was established for the raw municipal wastewater quality in the three regions and the performance of the treatment plants over 12 months. The levels of constituents in the final effluents from the treatment plants in the three regions were compared with Omani standards to evaluate their suitability for the current (e.g. landscape irrigation and groundwater recharge) and/or alternative (e.g. cooling and processing water) applications. Better aeration, oxidation, adsorption and disinfection technologies were recommended to improve the quality some of studied treatment plants final effluents.


Learning object developers need to understand that presently there are powerful organizations of "intellectual property" owners, and vendors of music, videos, books and software that are making a concerted attack on copyright, attempting to convert it from a law to promote knowledge and the useful arts into a mechanism to protect and serve their special interests. This paper represents an attempt to overturn the misconception that copyright is simply about protecting the rights of authors and re‐introduce an understanding of the original foundational role of copyright in "promoting science and the useful arts" and inform U.S. and international readers of the concerted assault on our "fair use" copy rights as educators in the digital environment. The paper argues for the need to put an end to the "quasicopyright" laws that have severely curtailed the traditional rights of educational institutions and passed on responsibilities that previously were the purview of the copyright owners. It calls for a restoration of the balance returning copyright to its original educational focus.


Regular exercise has multi-system anti-aging effects. Here we summarize how exercise impacts the major hallmarks of aging. We propose that, besides searching for novel pharmaceutical targets of the aging process, more research efforts should be devoted to gaining insights into the molecular mediators of the benefits of exercise and to implement effective exercise interventions for elderly people.


The spatiotemporal dynamics of a light pulse injected into a dense, resonant medium under near-dipole–dipole interaction conditions is considered. Two regimes for soliton formation are investigated numerically and analytically. The first one occurs if the pulses are much shorter than both relaxation times. In the second, the pulse duration falls between those of the relaxation times and may be regarded as an incoherent one. In the latter case there are conditions in which the dephasing process is suppressed by dipole–dipole interatomic interaction. Not only are one-soliton solutions found but also a powerful pulse splitting into separate solitons is revealed. The regions in which solitons are found have been estimated. The possibility of finding incoherent solitons has been analyzed, with group-velocity dispersion and diffraction of tilted pulses, which are shown to make soliton formation easier, taken into account.


Rotator cuff tendon and muscle can beneficially adapt to exercise, but it is unknown how acute responses following a single bout of exercise lead to chronic, beneficial adaptations. To develop new prevention and treatment strategies for overuse injuries, we must first characterize how tissues adapt to non-injurious loading. One feature that may distinguish beneficial and detrimental responses are pathways associated with inflammation and tissue healing, including activation of the arachidonic acid cascade and matrix turnover facilitated by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The objective of this dissertation was to characterize temporal, acute and chronic responses of the rat supraspinatus to non-injurious exercise and examine the roles of cyclooxygenases-1 and -2 (arachidonic acid cascade components) and MMPs in governing these responses by using pharmacologic inhibition. Using a rat model of non-injurious exercise, we showed that tendon adapted chronically by enhancing its mechanical properties. Following a single bout of exercise, tendon showed mild trends toward reduced mechanical properties, which may initiate the beneficial adaptations detected chronically. Exercised tendon also had decreased MMP activity. We administered ibuprofen, an inhibitor of cyclooxygenases-1 and -2, to understand how this commonly used over-the-counter drug affects muscle and tendon responses to exercise. Ibuprofen did not detrimentally affect tendon mechanical properties but did result in decreased muscle fiber cross-sectional area. Taken together, these findings imply that the arachidonic acid cascade is not a primary modulator of tendon adaptations to non-injurious exercise but is important for muscle growth. Finally, we studied the effects of doxycycline, a broad-spectrum MMP inhibitor, on supraspinatus muscle and tendon adaptations to exercise. Doxycycline enhanced tendon mechanical properties and collagen organization from sedentary animals but not in exercised animals, which supports the increased MMP activity detected in sedentary tendons. Doxycycline reduced muscle fiber cross-sectional area specific to exercised animals. We conclude that the pathways responsible for muscle and tendon adaptations to exercise may be tissue-dependent, and drugs such as ibuprofen and doxycycline also have activity-dependent effects. These studies provide a foundation for future work to develop more efficient physical training regimens and new prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation modalities for overuse injuries. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Bioengineering First Advisor Louis J. Soslowsky