[Extract] This volume is the first ever large-scale Dictionary of the Galo language of Arunachal Pradesh, North East India. It is, however, a very preliminary work. Official recognition of the Galo language has only been completed in 2008, and the first Galo language textbooks will only be introduced into schools in Galo-dominated areas of Arunachal Pradesh in 2009. Both this Dictionary and the mentioned textbooks are based on Galo Script, which itself was only finalized and adopted by the Galo Welfare Society in 2008. All of the Compilers of this Dictionary have completed whatever work they could in their spare time only, trying to approximate in the space of only two or three years what teams of professional lexicographers often spend ten to fifteen years to complete with full dedication. Accordingly, there are certain to be large numbers of mistakes herein, and/or other points which are unclear and should have been clarified, for which the Compilers can only apologize in advance and beg for our readers' patience and understanding.

A serious difficulty which we are only beginning to address concerns dialect variation within the Galo language. While most of the Compilers of this Dictionary speak `Laree Galo, the variety of Galo spoken mainly around the Baasar area, there is in fact a large number of Galo dialects and subdialects, which are spoken widely throughout West Siang District, Upper Subansiri District, and East Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. A full survey of all Galo dialects would take many years of constant effort, and while we have begun this survey, it is nowhere close to completion at the present time of writing. Therefore, we have chosen to base this Edition of the Dictionary on the `Laree dialect of Galo, although we have also included a certain number of Puugoo Galo words where this was possible. We intend to expand the number of Galo dialects that we are able to include in the dictionary; however, we hope to do this in a systematic manner. Therefore, it will take additional time and we must beg apologies from speakers of Galo whose pronunciation and vocabulary is not well-represented in this Edition.

Research Background:
This volume is the first ever large-scale Dictionary of the Galo language of Arunachal Pradesh, North East India, based on original immersion fieldwork by Mark Post. Official recognition of the Galo language has only been completed in 2008, and the first Galo language textbooks will only be introduced into schools in Galo-dominated areas of Arunachal Pradesh in 2009. Both this Dictionary and the mentioned textbooks are based on Galo Script, which itself was only finalized and adopted by the Galo Welfare Society in 2008. This work is an additional outcome of Post's PhD which received an award from the Association for Linguistic Typology, as the best thesis. The authors of the dictionary also include members of the Galo -speaking community.

Research Contribution:
The main contribution to the field is that this is one of the most comprehensive dictionaries of ant Tibeto-Burman language of north-east India. This first ever dictionary of Galo is focussed on one major dialect of this language, with cross-dialectal comparisons, etymologies and examples. The dictionary contains a concise description of the language which makes an important contribution to our knowledge of its complicated linguistic system. This book sets new standards for dictionary-making of languages with no written tradition, and the involvement of linguists and community members in creating an important resource.

Research Significance:
The significance of this book lies in its importance in documentation and analysis of Galo, and other Tibeto-Burman languages which have not been documented. This dictionary has already been used as a model for dictionary-making of languages with no written tradition, and is widely used in the community programs for language maintenance. Its further significance lies in the ways in which cultural information and insights are reflected in the lexicon.


Variable frequency drives (VFD) are subject to various types of disturbances especially cyclical ones. These periodic disturbances are difficult to compensate by conventional controllers. Repetitive control can only compensate for constant frequency fluctuations. PWM inverter based VFDs are subject to periodic disturbances with variable frequency. In this paper, a new angle domain based iterative learning controller (ILC) is proposed to compensate for the variable frequency disturbances.


A substantial literature has investigated the role of relationship lending in shielding borrowers from idiosyncratic shocks. Much less is known about how lending relationships and bank-specific characteristics affect the functioning of the credit market in an economy-wide crisis, when banks may find it difficult to perform the role of shock absorbers. We investigate how bank-specific characteristics (size, liquidity, capitalization, funding structure) and the bank-firm relationship have influenced interest rate setting since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Unlike the existing literature, which has focused chiefly on the amount of credit granted during the crisis, we look at its cost. The data on a large sample of loans from Italian banks to non-financial firms suggest that close lending relationships kept firms more insulated from the financial crisis. Further, spreads increased by less for the customers of well-capitalized, liquid banks and those engaged mainly in traditional lending business.


OBJECTIVES
To describe a cluster of Hong Kong subjects with hypoglycaemia, after they had taken various non-prescription sildenafil products containing glibenclamide.

DESIGN
Retrospective study.

SETTING
A tertiary referral centre for clinical toxicology analysis in Hong Kong.

PATIENTS
All men referred to the laboratory for investigation of suspected drug-induced hypoglycaemia from December 2007 to September 2008.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The characteristics of these patients, including their clinical presentations, outcomes, drug history, urine toxicology analysis results, and in some instances, analysis results of unused products.

RESULTS
A total of 144 male patients were referred for suspected drug-induced hypoglycaemia. Sildenafil and glibenclamide, or their metabolites, were detected in the urine specimens of 68 (47%) patients, none of whom had been prescribed either drug by a registered medical practitioner. Among these subjects, 24 (35%) denied any use of sexual enhancement products despite repeated questioning. Eight patients had repeated exposure resulting in re-admission. The sources of these sexual enhancement products included pharmacies in Mainland China, friends, local pharmacies, peddlers, or were unknown. Three patients died, one remains in a vegetative state and one suffered cognitive impairment; the remaining 63 recovered fully. Twenty-five unused sexual enhancement products of seven different kinds were recovered for analysis. The median (range) of sildenafil and glibenclamide per unit dose was 64 (0.05-198) mg and 70 (0-158) mg, respectively.

CONCLUSION
These illegal products pose a severe and continued threat to society and therefore deserve widespread vigilance, so that such products can be eradicated at their source.


Providing potable drinking water, with sufficient free residual chlorine to prevent microbial regrowth and contaminant by-product formation, is of utmost importance for municipal authorities. This work aims towards water quality control as it transports through water distribution networks. Presence of excessive chlorine (used as disinfectant worldwide) in water causes the generation of carcinogenic disinfectant by-products such as Tri-halo methane (THMs). On the other hand, lower chlorine levels in water results in microbial contamination. Hence, this leads to a two-point constraint control problem of maintaining free residual chlorine levels under the upper and lower bounds, by suitably optimizing the disinfectant dosage at booster stations. However, transport delay and complex interrelations present amongst the nodes in large water distribution network, makes it difficult to design a global feedback control system. Therefore, in this work we have proposed to decentralize the system by clustering demand nodes of the network based on concentration sensitivity matrix analysis. Further, input-output pairs for decentralized controllers were mapped with the knowledge of interactions between manipulating and control variables using partial correlation analysis. We also considered the results of partial correlation analysis to generate communication links which will be implemented for higher level co-ordinated decentralized control to account for dynamic, non-negligible interactions as disturbances to local control units. The proposed three step clustering-mapping strategy and mathematical formulation for two point control by optimized dosage is successfully verified for the steady state case on a prototype distribution example network.


DNA methylation in invertebrates seems to play a different role as in mammals and its evolutionary conservation among invertebrates is unclear. Only two studies describe crustacean methylomes giving just a small overview. The parthenogenetic reproducing marbled crayfish display a high environmental adaptability besides its genetic uniformity and thus, possess the necessary attributes of a laboratory model organism.
The aim of this work was to characterize the methylome of the marbled crayfish at single-base resolution using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing in an attempt to give new insights into DNA methylation in crustaceans and thus, in the evolutionary conservation among invertebrates.
Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of different marbled crayfish strains revealed a single origin and suggests to consider the marbled crayfish as independent asexual species Procambarus virginalis. Furthermore, since the P. virginalis possess a large genome size, the transcriptome was assembled and comparison to other species revealed a relative good quality of the first draft transcriptome as well as the presence of a conserved DNA methylation system in P. virginalis. Analysis of the CpG depletion in protein-coding sequences and mass spectrometry confirmed historical germline and current DNA methylation in various tissues of P. virginalis.
The methylome was characterized by the key features of animal methylomes with methylation targeted to gene bodies. The gene bodies displayed the typical pattern of a mosaically methylated invertebrate genome and a bimodal distribution of their methylation levels. Targeted gene bodies were annotated as housekeeping genes and methylation showed a parabolic relationship to housekeeping gene expression suggesting that the DNA methylation of housekeeping genes might fine-tune their expression. Additionally, repeats were generally hypomethylated and the methylation of repeats depended on their position to gene bodies. Finally, inter-individual and inter-tissue comparison of gene body methylation revealed a high reproducibility of the methylation patterns, while inter-species comparison between P. fallax and P. virginalis displayed an overall hypomethylation in the P. virginalis genes which however, could not explain the by mass spectrometry detected global hypomethylation in P. virginalis. These findings uncovered that the P. virginalis methylome is characterized by tissue-invariant housekeeping gene methylation.
This thesis describes novel insights into the evolutionary conservation of gene body and repeat methylation in invertebrates, especially crustaceans, and the preferential methylation of housekeeping genes highlights a functional difference to the tissue-specific methylation in mammals.


Accurate beach profile surveys, wave information, and sediment data taken at Ocean City, Maryland provided an opportunity to evaluate four beach fill design alternatives using the beach profile change numerical model SBEACH. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine which design provided the greatest level of protection to upland structures against wave-induced storm damage. Model calibration tests show excellent agreement between measured and predicted change for the March 1989 northeaster. Calculated sand volume change above NGVD did not differ from the measured change by more than 4 cu yd and generally was around 1 cu yd per linear ft of beach. Four different beach fill design cross-sections were subjected to processes in association with a single northeaster, back-to-back northeasters, and a hurricane. The four designs were: 1) standard U.S. design, 2) storm-berm, 3) profile nourishment, and 4) protective dune. All designs withstood the impact of one northeaster or hurricane; however, the magnitude of volume change above NGVD relative to initial sand placement varied. Study results suggest that the best design for protection of backshore area against storm impacts is a protective dune.


In April 2010, Kyrgyzstan experienced another "revolution," the latest of the postcommunist "color revolutions." The authoritarian regime fell and transitional leaders began a new democratic transition. The 2010 events illustrate the importance of agency and strategic learning in causing authoritarian collapse and initiating democratization. Prodemocratic activists and party leaders, who had learned from both the successes and failures of the 2005 "Tulip Revolution," mobilized popular discontent to topple President Bakiev's regime. They ushered in a democratic constitution and widespread liberalization and held Kyrgyzstan's freest-ever elections. However, political violence, especially politically motivated ethnic conflict, corruption, and calls for superpresidentialism threaten democratic deepening.


In The Knight-Monks of Vichy France John Hellman describes the founding, operation, transformation, and demise of the school, details the institution's ideological and political struggles with other segments of French society, and deals with the remarkable rise of Uriage ideas and alumni in postwar France. By focusing on the social, philosophical, and psychological concepts propounded by the staff of the school, Hellman has produced the first study that shows the Ecole Nationale des Cadres d'Uriage to have been an original educational and group experience which inspired French youth from very different backgrounds to abandon the liberal democratic tradition for a new political and social vision. Drawing on a variety of sources, including interviews, newly available archival material, Vichy publications, correspondence, and diary entries, Hellman contributes to the current, lively debate concerning the phenomenon of collaboration and the response of the French population to fascism and to the occupation during the Second World War. This book will be of particular interest to readers concerned with the intellectual and political life of modern France, modern religious thought and experience, fascism and the Vichy regime, changes in France in the prewar and postwar periods, and the "third way" political option in contemporary Europe.


2-Methoxyestradiol (2ME2) is a natural metabolite of 17-β-estradiol exerting both antiproliferative and antiangiogenic characteristics. Due to limited bioavailability, analogues of 2ME2 were designed, synthesized and evaluated for improved in vitro antiproliferative activity as well as bioavailability. 2-Methoxyestradiol-bis-sulphamate (2-MeOE2bisMATE) is an analogue of 2ME2 which was produced by sulphamoylation of the two hydroxyl groups on carbons 3 and 17. The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the influence of 2MeOE2bisMATE on morphology, apoptosis and autophagy induction in an oesophageal carcinoma (SNO) cell line by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and flow cytometry (cyto-ID and LC3 autophagy detection assays). In 2-MeOE2bisMATE-treated cells, features of both apoptosis and autophagy such as the presence of apoptotic bodies and autophagy vesicles were observed using the transmission electron microscopy. A significant increase in the quantity of autophagy vesicles and LC3 levels were observed in 2MEOE2bisMATE-treated cells. This in vitro study demonstrates that 2-MeOE2bisMATE induces both apoptosis and autophagy which was revealed by the increase in apoptosisand autophagy-associated morphology, as well as by an increase in the measure of autophagy vesicles and LC3 levels in SNO cells. From data observed from this study, 2-MeOE2bisMATE is shown to be a potential anticancer agent; further in vitro research is, however, warranted.


BACKGROUND
The factors associated with delayed gastric emptying (DGE) after a pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) are not definitively known.

METHODS
From November 2011 through to May 2012, data were prospectively collected on 711 patients undergoing a pancreaticoduodenectomy or total pancreatectomy as part of the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pancreatectomy Demonstration Project. Bivariate and multivariate models were employed to determine the factors that predicted DGE.

RESULTS
In the 711 patients, the overall rate of DGE was 20.1%. In a bivariate analysis, intra-operative factors such as pylorus-preservation (47.1% versus 43.7%, P = 0.40), intra-operative drain placement (85.5%, versus 85.1%, P = 0.91) and an antecolic compared with a retrocolic gastrojejunostomy (60.1% versus 65.1%, P = 0.26) were not different between the DGE and no DGE groups. Pancreatic fistula formation (31.2% versus 10.1%), post-operative sepsis (21.7% versus 7.0%), organ space surgical site infection (SSI) (23.9% versus 7.9%), need for percutaneous drainage (23.0% versus 10.6%) and reoperation (10.6% versus 3.1%) were higher in patients with DGE (P < 0.0001). In a multivariable model, only pancreatic fistula, post-operative sepsis and reoperation were independently associated with DGE.

DISCUSSION
In this multicentre study, only post-operative complications were associated with DGE. Neither pylorus preservation nor route of enteric reconstruction (antecolic versus retrocolic) was associated with delayed gastric emptying.


The pigeonhole principle states that if $n$ items are contained in $m$ boxes, then at least one box has no more than $n / m$ items. It is utilized to solve many data management problems, especially for thresholded similarity searches. Despite many pigeonhole principle-based solutions proposed in the last few decades, the condition stated by the principle is weak. It only constrains the number of items in a single box. By organizing the boxes in a ring, we propose a new principle, called the pigeonring principle, which constrains the number of items in multiple boxes and yields stronger conditions. To utilize the new principle, we focus on problems defined in the form of identifying data objects whose similarities or distances to the query is constrained by a threshold. Many solutions to these problems utilize the pigeonhole principle to find candidates that satisfy a filtering condition. By the new principle, stronger filtering conditions can be established. We show that the pigeonhole principle is a special case of the new principle. This suggests that all the pigeonhole principle-based solutions are possible to be accelerated by the new principle. A universal filtering framework is introduced to encompass the solutions to these problems based on the new principle. Besides, we discuss how to quickly find candidates specified by the new principle. The implementation requires only minor modifications on top of existing pigeonhole principle-based algorithms. Experimental results on real datasets demonstrate the applicability of the new principle as well as the superior performance of the algorithms based on the new principle.


The ability to monitor the presence of analytes is of great importance both in industrial applications and physiological systems. Since the crucial recognition events of chemistry, biology, and materials science occur in a much smaller world, it is very difficult to gather this kind of information. Therefore much effort has been devoted to the detection of chosen molecules selectively and signalling this presence. This thesis highlighted the uniqueness and utility of both fluorescent sensor and electrochemical sensor to investigate biologically important species. The determination of copper(II) ion is very crucial to both environment and human health. To utilise the fluorescent sensors for recognition has plenty of advantages, such as high sensitivity, "on-off" switch ability and submillisecond temporal resolution. Naphthalimide based probes has always been the key point of the chemosensors due to its excellent photophysical properties. Therefore, the aim of the project is to investigate boronic acid receptor linked to the naphthalimide fluorophore for copper(II) detection. And the utility of boronic acid as binding site is one of the rare examples of fluorescent chemosensors for Cu2+ detection. Neutral molecules such as glutathione (GSH) play a crucial role in maintaining appropriate redox homeostasis in biological systems. We creatively use the chromophore of dicyanomethylene-4H-pyran(DCM) for the design of probe, due to its emission located at the red or near infra-red (NIR) region, which is particularly suitable for application in biological samples. GSH, the most abundant cellular thiol, is of great importance in cellular defence against toxins and free radicals. Therefore we developed a colorimetric and NIR fluorescence turn-on thiol probe containing DCM as the fluorophore and DNBS as the fluorescence quencher and recognition moiety. The interaction of ferrocene-boronic acid with fructose is investigated in aqueous 0.1 M phosphate buffer at pH 7, 8, and 9. Two voltammetric methods, (i) based on a dual-plate generator-collector micro-trench electrode (steady state) and (ii) based on square-wave voltammetry (transient), are applied and compared in terms of mechanistic resolution. A combination of experimental data is employed to obtain new insights into the binding rates and the cumulative binding constants for both the reduced ferrocene-boronic acid (pH dependent and weakly binding) and for the oxidised ferrocene-boronic acid (pH independent and strongly binding). Finally, a redox-activated fluorescence switch based on a ferrocene - fluorophore - boronic ester conjugate was investigated. The development of multifunctional systems that can integrate individual basic logic gates into combinational circuits has drawn much attention to smart materials. A novel electrochemically and fluorescence active boronic ester sensor molecule has been developed containing ferrocence and naphthalimide as the redox and fluorophore units. The solid state electrochemical characterisation of the compound was investigated in aqueous media and it indicates a direct interaction with fluoride anions. The fluorescence can also be modulated through photoinduced electron transfer (PET) by a redox process. An OFF-ON fluorescence response occurs when the ferrocene is oxidised by Fe3+. While in the presence of F-, the fluorescence enhancement was offset. Therefore, the combinations of iron (Fe3+ ) ions, sodium L-ascorbate, and fluoride (F-) ions can be used to produce a molecular system displaying INHIBIT logic gate, due to indirect fluorescence quenching.


What is the relationship between the conversion (1) of the elements into the (real) Body of Christ and (2) of the participants into the (mystical) Body of Christ? When we bring this and related questions to the early church, the Middle Ages, and the Reformation, we find that the conversion of the eucharistic elements has indeed been understood by unimpeachably sincere Christians in a broad variety of ways. In contrast, there has been a remarkably constant convergence regarding the all-importance of the conversion of the participants. Were this taken as the starting point, we might discover that we have much more ecumenical unity regarding the Eucharist than is usually thought to be the case.


Field and laboratory testing spray nozzles and application systems use spray collectors to assess where the spray deposits once it leaves the spray system. Tracer materials, such as oil and water soluble fluorescent dyes, can be mixed into spray solutions in small amounts with minimal impact on the solution physical properties and atomization characteristics of the nozzle or spray system. Depending on the dye and recovery methods used, detection levels may range from g/ha down to the parts per trillion making them practical for use in studies where these ranges may occur, such as drift studies that measure in-swath and downwind deposition. Exposed samples can be quickly processed, typically using non-toxic solvents such as purified water or ethyl alcohol. This quick, inexpensive processing allows users the flexibility to plan studies requiring large numbers of samples. Spray formulations using these dyes at specific rates are used as the basis for establishing a set of standard concentrations which are used to relate fluorescence to dye concentration. Laboratory evaluations of tracer deposition compare the fluores- cence of processed samples with the fluorescence from a set of reference samples with known dye con- centrations allowing users to calculate the actual amount of dye in the sample and thus concentration on the sample being processed. This work will present the step by step process of converting dye concentra- tions from known and unknown samples to deposition measurements. A downloadable Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet will be made available to allow users to replicate these techniques. This technique effectively allows these tracer materials to provide a direct measure of the amount of active ingredient and/or spray mixture that deposits on sampling surfaces of interest.


Intramembrane proteolysis is now widely recognized as an important physiological pathway required for reverse signaling and membrane protein degradation. Aspartyl intramembrane cleaving proteases of the GXGD-type play an important regulatory role in health and disease. Besides γ-secretase/presenilin, signal peptide peptidase (SPP) and SPP-like (SPPL) peptidases also belong to the family of GXGD-type aspartyl proteases. Although recently the first SPPL2a/b substrates have been identified, very little is known about substrate requirements, which allow them to be efficiently processed within the membrane. We demonstrate that similar to γ-secretase substrates, intramembrane proteolysis of Bri2 (Itm2b) is greatly facilitated by an initial shedding event mediated by ADAM-10. Serial deletions revealed that the length of the ectodomain negatively correlates with efficient intramembrane proteolysis. Bri3 (Itm2c), which is highly homologous to Bri2, fails to be shed. Failure of shedding of Bri3 is accompanied by a lack of intramembrane proteolysis by SPPL2b. Surprisingly, a low molecular weight membrane-retained stub of Bri3 also fails to be processed by SPPL2b, indicating that shedding per se is not sufficient for subsequent intramembrane proteolysis. Extensive domain swapping analysis reveals that primary sequence determinants within the intracellular domain and the transmembrane domain together with short luminal juxtamembrane sequences are required for efficient intramembrane proteolysis.


ABSTRACT:This article interrogates how employees at single-mother associations in Morocco construct the mère célibataire (single mother) as an archetypal, aspirational figure. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork (2013–15), this article traces how counselors work with single mothers to imagine alternative maternal futures. I argue that by invoking a counter-narrative I call "aspirational maternalism," single-mother advocates disrupt traditional maternalist rhetoric that excludes single women. Aspirational maternalism draws on moral discourses and neoliberal values of independence and responsibility. Through its deployment, counselors create affective space for single mothers to think beyond pathologizing portrayals of single motherhood in Morocco. Counselors also disrupt the neoliberal focus on calculated, self-interested action by centering "the mother-child couple" within aspirational maternalism. The ideal-typical Mère Célibataire is capable of achieving the transformation from victim to self-sovereign mother. And yet, aspirational maternalism elides the significant structural obstacles to independence that single mothers face.


During the past decade the role of folate and vitamin B12 in human nutrition have been under constant re-examination. Basic knowledge on the metabolism and interactions between these essential nutrients has expanded and multiple complexities have been unraveled. These micronutrients have shared functions and intertwined metabolic pathways that define the size of the "methyl donor" pool utilized in multiple metabolic pathways; these include DNA methylation and synthesis of nucleic acids. In Chile, folate deficiency is virtually nonexistent, while vitamin B12 deficiency affects approximately 8.5-51% depending on the cut-off value used to define deficiency. Folate is found naturally mainly in vegetables or added as folic acid to staple foods. Vitamin B12 in its natural form is present only in foods of animal origin, which is why deficit is more common among strict vegetarians and populations with a low intake of animal foods. Poor folate status in vulnerable women of childbearing age increases the risk of neural tube birth defects, so the critical time for the contribution of folic acid is several months before conception since neural tube closure occurs during the first weeks of life. The absorption of vitamin B12 from food is lower in older adults, who are considered to have higher risk of gastric mucosa atrophy, altered production of intrinsic factor and acid secretion. Deficiency of these vitamins is associated with hematological disorders. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also induce clinical and sub-clinical neurological and of other disorders. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on recent advances in the basic and applied knowledge of these vitamins relative to human health.


Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), we compared the intradevice repeatability of thickness measurements obtained using SS-OCT to that of measurements obtained using spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT), and assessed the interdevice agreement of thickness measurements. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional prospective study involved 3 consecutive measurements of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (PP-RNFL) and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness in healthy subjects, using 2 different OCT systems. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and coefficients of variability were calculated and compared for repeatability and agreement between study groups. Intradevice ICCs for each OCT system were compared, and Bland-Altman plots were used to evaluate their agreement. Results: Fifty-eight eyes from 58 healthy subjects (25 men and 33 women) were analyzed. SS-OCT images yielded larger PP-RNFL thickness values than SD-OCT images in every sector examined. In contrast, SD-OCT images yielded larger macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness values than SS-OCT images. For SS-OCT, intradevice ICCs were ≥0.9 for all sectors. However, for SD-OCT, the 3 PP-RNFL measurement sectors had correlation coefficients <0.9. Interdevice ICCs varied more and were lower than intradevice values, because thickness measurement values differed between the OCT devices. Conclusions: Measurements differed between systems even for the same subject. SS-OCT had an intradevice repeatability similar to that of SD-OCT. These findings support the clinical application of SS-OCT.


Froth flotation separation was used to remove Scenedesmus quadricauda , an algae species which is commonly found in lakes and reservoirs, from an aqueous suspension as a function of several variables. The removal efficiencies of both live and dead algae (thermally terminated) using the froth flotation method as a function of the introduction of two types of surfactant, aeration rates, pH and temperature of operation are compared. The characteristics of the algal suspension such as the zeta potential of the algae and the surface tension measurements are also reported. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), a cationic surfactant species, gave a comparatively good algal removal efficiency while sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS), an anionic surfactant species, gave, in comparison, a relatively poor removal efficiency. By decreasing the ambient pH values of the algal suspensions, the SDS gave an increasingly better extent of separation. As the aeration rates were increased, the removal efficiencies of both the live and the dead algae were increased slightly whereas when the temperature increased from 20 to 40°C, the removal rates were, more or less, unchanged. In most cases, the removal of the dead algae was greater than that of the live algae. The surface tension of the dead algal suspensions with CTAB was slightly lower than that of the live algal suspensions with CTAB at comparable concentrations, which may facilitate the removal of the dead algae.


Environmental concerns about pesticide usage in traditional production systems are prompting vegetable producers to consider alternative systems. Research results from a multi-year study on eggplant in southern Georgia compare two alternative production technologies to the conventional rye cover crop technology. Alternative technologies utilize beneficial insect principles as substitutes for conventional pesticide controls. Using field data, eggplant production budgets are developed to generate net return estimates under each system. Cost reductions achieved by using alternative technologies are not sufficient to offset the reduced yields and returns generated from these technologies. Cash input requirements for alternative systems suggest potential for limited resource producers.


Relations between India and Nepal have been bound by long-standing geographical, historical, cultural, social and economic ties that the peoples of the two countries have shared since times immemorial. For quite some time, and particularly with the installation of Maoist-led coalition government in August 2008, the demand for revision of treaties trade and of peace and friendship was being made in the context of new developments in bilateral relationships. Underscoring the close linkage between security and economy, Indias first treaty of Trade and Commerce with Nepal was signed on the same day as the Treaty of Peace and Friendship on 31 July 1950. The first section of this paper traces historically, the evolution of Indias Trade and Transit Treaties with Nepal beginning from the time such a Treaty was initiated in 1950 till the last revision was enacted on 28 October 2009. The paper focuses particularly on the last revision to analyze to what extent it addresses the concerns of the respective governments and stakeholders. The impression obtained is that the amendments rightly stress on a variety of non-tariff barriers as also non-tariff measures that need to be streamlined to enable trade, particularly exports from Nepal to flow more smoothly to India. However some time-bound institutional mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure that the incorporated provisions do not remain in the nature of best endeavor clauses. This is particularly relevant given that with the signing of several bilateral/regional free trade agreements by India over the last decade, the preference margin being enjoyed by Nepal has been severely eroded. In this context Indias offer to consider the removal of special additional duties on Nepalese exports to India (on specific request from Nepal) appears plausible. The paper highlights the trend in bilateral trade between the two countries. It notes that barring setbacks in certain years, the bilateral trade between the two countries has been growing briskly. It notes that even though Nepal has been able to diversify its trade with India, its trade deficit with India has been increasing sharply, and its export earnings are barely sufficient to meet the cost of imports of petroleum products from India. The paper identifies products with high trade potential of both the countries so that these could be targeted in trade facilitation measures or when mutual recognition of each countrys certification is accepted by the other. Noting the close linkage between trade and investment, the paper examines the volume and status of Indian foreign direct investments in Nepal. An exercise in intra-industry trade between the two countries gives direction for sectors/industries in which Indian investment could flow.The paper expresses concern about the labour situation in Nepal and the lack of arbitration tribunals in case of dispute. Quite a number of Indian industries have been shut down and those in the pipeline could also be adversely affected. In this context the need for long- pending Bilateral Investment treaty between the two countries has been emphasized.


Since the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is not always one, and since technical progress is not always Harrod-neutral, it is desirable to have an endogenous growth model that admits all sizes of the elasticity and all known technology modes. We derive an equation to do just that, fully describing the per capita income growth rate at all times. It shows a typical economy needing hundreds if not thousands of years to reach its long term growth rate, leading to the conclusion that even the short run may be very long indeed.


For the spatial-spectral classification of hyperspectral images (HSIs), a deep learning framework is proposed in this study, which consists of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Markov random fields (MRFs). Firstly, a CNN model to learn the deep spectral feature from the HSI is built and the class posterior probability distribution is estimated. The CNN with a dropout layer can relieve the overfitting in classification. The CNN is utilised as a pixel-classifier, so it only works in the spectral domain. Then, the spatial information will be encoded by MRF-based multilevel logistic prior for regularising the classification. To derive the correlation of both spectral and spatial features for improving algorithm performance, the marginal probability distribution in HSI is learned using MRF-based loopy belief propagation. In comparison with several state-of-the-art approaches for data classification on three publicly available HSI datasets, experimental results have demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed methodology.


The paper focuses on the growing relevance of Big Data as valuable source of knowledge impacting on the creation and execution of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship. Starting from the comprehension of the innovative and knowledge-intensive attributes of the entrepreneurship, as driver for the competitiveness of the organizations in the scenario of the knowledge economy, the study aims to deepen which are the opportunities offered by Big Data within an entrepreneurial process. Big data represent an actual field of study, both for the agenda of researchers and practioners, but while a growing set of works are concentrated on the comprehension of the technological dimensions of the phenomenon, its application in the field of entrepreneurship is still in infancy. Focusing on this last endeavor, the paper aims to provide an interdisciplinary contribution at the debate on big data by demonstrating how the large amount of knowledge distributed in the web and mainly around the social network platforms can allow the conception of an entrepreneurial process more aligned with the customers' needs and focused on the actual market's trends. Based on a qualitative review of an interdisciplinary literature, the paper will provide empirical evidences on the applications of Big Data for the effective realization of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship in the field of the tourism.


Understanding neighborhood preferences remains a key focus for planners. While many studies document the effects of either neighborhood design or neighborhood preference on health and travel behavior, few have explored their combined effect in smaller regions. Using a sample of 2,597 adults in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, we found an unmet demand for walkable neighborhoods. Results suggest that walkable neighborhoods are independently associated with less vehicle travel after adjusting for sociodemographic and residential preferences. Our study highlights the importance of combining the effects of walkable neighborhoods and preferences for them when addressing health and sustainability goals in suburban communities.


Teacher preparation for the 21st century deserves a front-end approach to addressing the use of technology in the learning environment. To study the effect of instructing with technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK), teachers were asked to apply pedagogical, mathematical, and cognitive fidelity to technology used in an instructional unit they were designing. Initial results indicated that teachers were conflicted by a conceptual approach to technology use. Through clarifying and defining pedagogy, mathematics, and cognitive fidelity within the TPACK framework, teachers became more aware of the misuse of instructional technology, what attributes of technology lead to conceptual development, and integration of meaningful technology into instructional units. TPACK, with fidelity carefully defined, creates a research-based model by adding the qualifying features needed to maximize the potential of technology in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to look at the knowledge structures of TPACK and examine them in designing instruction units.


Many law reviews are only open to the top 10% of the class or to students who excel in a writing competition. While a high percentage of law schools now have at least one journal in addition to the law review, the reality is that well over half of the students enrolled in law school today do not have the opportunity to serve as a law review or journal staff member. Without that experience, those students-turned-lawyers who wish to publish legal scholarship after graduation are left in the dark about where to begin the process. I was one of those individuals, but over the last eight years, I have regularly published legal scholarship. Recently, my former students and other young attorneys have started asking me for advice. This essay — directed at emerging scholars who seek to publish their scholarship shortly after entering the legal profession — is a compilation of the advice I have shared.


Recent accounts of the rise of transgovernmentalism have described the increasingly important role of transnational networks of regulatory officials in creating and implementing cooperative solutions to regional and global problems. In North America, the use of networks is becoming an increasingly important approach to environmental governance and to regional integration more generally. The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (the SPP) marks a further, and in our view, important, development in the use of transgovernmental networks because under the SPP, the executive branches of Canada, the United States, and Mexico deliberately turn to transgovernmental networks as a governance strategy across multiple issue areas. The self-conscious use of networks as an alternative to traditional international institutions on a broad scale was contemplated by Slaughter, but the SPP marks the first practical attempt by governments to create a cross-cutting transnational governance structure that relies principally on transgovernmental networks.The purpose of this Article is to evaluate the environmental agenda of the SPP process critically and the opposition to it in light of the existing literature on transgovernmental networks. Our basic argument is that the paucity of the debate over the SPP results from the failure of the architects of the SPP and their critics to appreciate the nature of transgovernmental networks as a governance structure. To this end we identify certain structural features shared by transgovernmental networks and examine the competing claims concerning the SPP in light of these characteristics. The Article provides additional support for the descriptive claims of transgovernmentalists that states are turning to networks, but the development and structure of the SPP qualifies the central transgovernmentalist claim that the state is disaggregating. Instead, the picture that emerges is one of partial disaggregation where central governments retain the power to create networks, to enable them, and to define their agendas. The situation also puts the debate over the SPP in greater focus by allowing for an exploration into whose characterization of the SPP more closely resembles its actual governance features. The result, we suggest, is that the debate is in its essence one between networks as they are and networks as they could be. Finally, we argue that the nature of transnational networks requires a distinct form of legitimacy. In the SPP process, the framers rely exclusively on two forms of legitimacy: expert legitimacy and a highly formalized version of process legitimacy. We argue that these forms of legitimacy are insufficient on their own. Our conclusion, like that of Professor Slaughter, is that the turn to networks as a governance strategy requires a shared normative foundation. But whereas Slaughter appears content to rely on principles of procedural legitimacy, such as inclusivity, discursiveness, and subsidiarity, this Article maintains that a shared commitment to substantive principles is also required.


'Thinking skills' is a term that has been substantially over-used. It often seems to be rather a lazy shorthand for justifying the teaching of history by suddenly bolting on some 'thinking' – as if history is not all about thought in the first place. Arthur Chapman suggests using techniques from his critical thinking teaching in the history classroom to clarify students' thinking about the processes involved in forming historical interpretations. Specifically, he suggests techniques for improving students' thinking about the assumptions which underlie any argument. He provides examples which are very ancient and very modern: the grave found in the West Country which might have been that of the 'King of Stonehenge' – or the 'Amesbury Archer,' according to the press, but seems more likely to have originated in another country entirely; and the assumption that German society in the 1930s was terrorised by the secret police. Chapman is the man who recently brought us Alphonse the Camel (whose back was broken by the final straw) to help us to think about causation.
 Now he adds to the menagerie with an ass and a polar bear to investigate the power, and the danger, of assumption.


Generally, democratic practices in the Southeast Sulawesi region have not carried out as expected The broad authority to develop local democracy healthily has not been well realized The practice of democracy through the formation of political parties, general elections, the election of leaders in the regions (regional business heads namely governors, mayors, and regents along with their representatives, including village heads), and the implementation of public policies, have not yet been able to run according to the ideal concept Even government administrators and officials in this area have not been able to fully comply with the provisions and laws and regulations which are the basis for the implementation of democratic values in Indonesia, such as the application of the principles of openness, participation, accountability, responsiveness, and partiality to the people as mandated in the Law of Local government management laws Participatory development planning only runs normatively, symbolically, pseudo, and even manipulated The management of regional business budgets is still according to the desire of the authorities, while the aspirations and needs of the people are still not being realized This illustrates the absence of substantive participation from the community, the responsiveness of local government officials is still low, the pro-local people in managing resources and budgets are still lacking, and the capitalization of power in this area is still continuing


Sterol regulatory element-binding protein-2 (SREBP-2) is a key transcription factor for the cholesterol homeostasis. Recent studies have suggested the association of CYP3A enzymes, major drug-metabolizing enzymes, with cholesterol metabolism. In the present study, we have investigated a possible involvement of SREBP-2 in hepatic Cyp3a11 expression. Feeding a low-cholesterol diet (LCD) to mice activated hepatic SREBP-2 whereas it attenuated hepatic Cyp3a11 expression. These phenomena were reversed by cholesterol supplementation to LCD. In reporter assays, the overexpression of constitutively active SREBP-2 reduced Cyp3a11 reporter activity through the region from −1581 to −1570 of Cyp3a11. This region contained a putative hepatocyte nuclear factor-4α (HNF-4α) binding motif, and HNF-4α, but not SREBP-2, bound to the motif in in vitro binding assays. With the mutation or deletion of this motif, the SREBP-2-dependent suppression of Cyp3a11 expression disappeared in reporter assays. In pull-down assays and coimmunoprecipitation assays, SREBP-2 bound to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α), a major coactivator for HNF-4α, via its transactivation domain and inhibited the interaction between HNF-4α and PGC-1α in vitro. A mutant SREBP-2 lacking the transactivation domain consistently failed to reduce Cyp3a11 reporter activity. Furthermore, PGC-1α overexpression relieved the SREBP-2-mediated reduction of Cyp3a11 reporter activity. Finally, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that the extent of PGC-1α binding to the Cyp3a11 promoter was reduced by LCD-feeding in mouse livers. In conclusion, activated SREBP-2 interacts with PGC-1α in mouse livers at reduced cholesterol intake. This results in the reduced PGC-1α recruitment to HNF-4α on the Cyp3a11 promoter and the subsequent down-regulation of Cyp3a11 expression.


This paper seeks to analyze the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) case-law on religious freedom in the light of political and social theory debates on the place of religion in the public sphere. The Court's jurisprudence on these matters denotes an increasing attempt at going beyond casuistry and building a consistent vision of religious freedom and its implications for state-religions relations, valid across Europe. Alongside the core notion of pluralism, three major principles have progressively emerged in this case-law: the right to autonomy of religious communities vis-a-vis the state; an obligation of neutrality for the state; and the necessity of the secularity of the legal order's foundations. These principles, it is submitted, are in line with the democratic ideal that underlies the European Convention. Yet, the Court's approach to religion-related disputes is not without tensions and problems. These are especially manifest when the Court handles disputes that go beyond the issue of the respective autonomy of religion and public authority, and concern the multifaceted question of expression of religion in the public sphere, in particular, the status of religion in public discourse, the wearing of religious garments at public school or university, and claims for accommodation of religious practice in the workplace. In some cases of this sort, the Court has adopted stances that are questionable from the viewpoint of the principles it has itself identified as central for religious freedom. In other instances, these principles themselves appear to be in need of further elaboration. But the significance of the tensions surrounding the treatment of religious disputes by the Court cannot be fully grasped without having regard to present-day discussions in social and political theory on the relations between religion and the public sphere. From this perspective, it appears that the ECtHR's case-law is to a large extent built on assumptions stemming from the classic secularisation thesis, and that this, among other factors, makes it theoretically ill-equipped to deal with situations that do not fit this paradigm.


Energy-constrained behavior of sensor nodes is one of the most important criteria for successful deployment of wireless sensor net- works. The medium access control (MAC) protocol determines the time a sensor node transceiver spends listening or transmitting, and hence the energy consumption of the overall node. Transmitted reference (TR) modulation as the underlying physical layer provides new opportunities and challenges to be explored in the MAC layer. To utilize the advantages and overcome the challenges provided by the TR modulation, a new energy-efficient MAC protocol TR-MAC that uses noise-based carrier for wireless sensor networks is proposed in this paper. TR-MAC realizes multiple access using individual frequency offsets for a pair of nodes, allows both transmitter-driven and receiver-driven communication and is suitable for asynchronous low data rate application. TR-MAC enables energy-driven communication since nodes can adapt their duty cycle based on available energy, thus the protocol becomes energy-efficient.


This study illuminates a deeper understanding of the processes of confidence building and emotion management among boundary spanners from organisations with a bureaucratic structure in a multinational civil-military operational context. Twenty-one informants (mainly military officers) were interviewed. They had a variety of experiences and occupational roles in civil-military collaboration contexts. A grounded theory analysis of interview data yielded a model according to which the most central aspects of civil-military collaboration are confidence building, maintaining existing confidence, avoiding distrust and rebuilding damaged confidence. The study shows that boundary spanners strategically utilise a variety of emotion management strategies in order to fulfil the demands laid upon them by their collaborating counterparts in the hostile environment and by their own organisation. Three interrelated dimensions of smoothness were identified: cultural, structural and smoothness in risky situations. By acting 'smoothly', an adaption to the dynamic environment can be achieved. The proposed model is compared to existing writings on emotional labour and self-presentation.


This study examines the corporate social reporting practices and the motivations behind such practices of the top 16 software firms in India. The 2003-2004 annual reports were analysed using content analysis to examine social reporting relating to human resource and social relations, combined with 14 case study interviews that examined managerial motives behind corporate social reporting (CSR) relating to the sample firms. When findings were analysed using legitimation strategies, the results indicate that firms use dual strategies in reporting their human resource and social relations to legitimise their activities to stakeholders.


ABSTRACTAtmospheric mercury is a global concern due to its ability of long-range transport. In order to understand the characteristics and sources of speciated mercury in the East China Sea region, a coastal monitoring site was established on Chongming Island in Shanghai, China. Total gaseous mercury (TGM), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) and particulate-bound mercury (PHg) were monitored during 2009–2012. The overall average TGM, RGM and PHg concentrations were 2.65 ± 1.73 ng m–3, 8.0 ± 8.8 pg m–3 and 21.5 ± 25.4 pg m–3, respectively. TGM has a sharp increase at 5:00 in the morning and reaches peak at about 8:00, which is probably caused by the downward mixing of enhanced TGM aloft originated from regional sources. Wind roses suggest that urban Shanghai area has a considerable contribution to TGM in Chongming. Repartitioning of reactive mercury from particles to the air under the influence of air temperature could be one major source of RGM. Four heavy mercury pollution episodes were selected for source analysis. Mercury pollution in the summer event is mainly from the southwest direction with high ∆TGM/∆CO ratio and has the most influence on the North China Plain (NCP) region. The winter event is mainly under the influence of industrial pollution from the NCP region. The autumn event is contributed by both industrial pollution and biomass burning in North and Northeast China exhibiting a lower slope of ∆PHg/∆TGM. Springtime Asian long-range transport (ALRT) is crucial to the mercury background of North America. However, in the spring event identified in this study the mercury outflow from low altitude through East China mostly ascended to high altitude during the transpacific airmass transport. This provides an important incentive for future studies to focus on the way of mercury outflow from East Asia.


Geographically distributed teams are increasingly common, yet present several challenges when compared to collocated teams – or as Judy and Gary Olson famously observed, "distance matters." Our studies of collocated and distributed software development teams have revealed challenges in four key activities: communication in planned meetings, ad-hoc conversations, staying aware of teammates and their work, and building trust relationships between teammates. I will present observations of how collocated teammates do each of these activities, the special problems faced by remote teammates, and how remote teammates mitigate these challenges. I will identify several opportunities where new tools could make the remote experience more like – or even better than – the collocated experience, and go into detail on one potential design.


Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is recognized as one of the most common endocrine abnormalities of human, it is characterized by hyperandrogenism, and metabolic derangement including glucose intolerance and hyperinsulinemia. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in STK11 gene have been suggested to be associated with metformin efficacy in PCOS treated patients. Purpose: To investigate the relation of STK11 gene polymorphism (rs741765 C/T) with the response to metformin therapy for a period of three months in PCOS treated women in Karbala city. Patients and Methods: This is a prospective study for two hundred thirty-five Iraqi patients, who newly diagnosed with PCOS based on Rotterdam criteria by physician's diagnosis during their visit to Women's Hospital obstetrics education in Karbala /Iraq during the period from july,2019 till the end of april,2020.Patients with thyroid dysfunction, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and Cushing's syndrome were excluded,the matched age was (18-40years). DNA extraction kit and Allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used for STK11 gene polymorphism, PCR product was visualized by agarose gel electrophoresis, enzymatic methods were used for blood sugar, and lipid profile measurement, LH, FSH, TSH, prolactin, total testosterone, estradiol, F.insulin were all tested by cobas e 411 analyzer, ELISA kit was used to measure SHBG. LH/FSH ratio, FAI, and HOMA-IR were calculated, all these parameters European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine ISSN 2515-8260 Volume 07, Issue 03, 2020 540 were measured for each patient and after 3-months therapy the patients had a medical checkup, identical to that before metformin giving. Results: The clinical, metabolic and endocrinal characteristics among STK11 rs741765 genotypes showed a significant differences and metformin efficacy increase as following TT>CT>CC genotypes. Conclusion: A polymorphism in STK11, a kinase gene expressed in liver and implicated in metformin action was an associated with metformin efficacy and percentage of responder women increase with number of T allele in rs741765 SNPs.


Author(s): Gehbauer, Christoph; Blum, David H; Wang, Taoning; Lee, Eleanor S | Abstract: Dynamic facades have significant technical potential to minimize heating, cooling, and lighting energy use and peak electric demand in the perimeter zone of commercial buildings, but the performance of these systems is reliant on being able to balance complex trade-offs between solar control, daylight admission, comfort, and view over the life of the installation. As the context for controllable energy-efficiency technologies grows more complex with the increased use of intermittent renewable energy resources on the grid, it has become increasingly important to look ahead towards more advanced approaches to integrated systems control in order to achieve optimum life-cycle performance at a lower cost. This study examines the feasibility of a model predictive control system for low-cost autonomous dynamic facades. A system architecture designed around lightweight, simple agents is proposed. The architecture accommodates whole building and grid level demands through its modular, hierarchical approach. Automatically-generated models for computing window heat gains, daylight illuminance, and discomfort glare are described. The open source Modelica and JModelica software tools were used to determine the optimum state of control given inputs of window heat gains and lighting loads for a 24-hour optimization horizon. Penalty functions for glare and view/ daylight quality were implemented as constraints. The control system was tested on a low-power controller (1.4 GHz single core with 2 GB of RAM) to evaluate feasibility. The target platform is a low-cost ($35/unit) embedded controller with 1.2 GHz dual-core cpu and 1 GB of RAM. Configuration and commissioning of the curtainwall unit was designed to be largely plug and play with minimal inputs required by the manufacturer through a web-based user interface. An example application was used to demonstrate optimal control of a three-zone electrochromic window for a south-facing zone. The overall approach was deemed to be promising. Further engineering is required to enable scalable, turnkey solutions.


Abstract A limited-area, offline, Eulerian atmospheric transport model has been developed. The model is based on a terrain-following vertical coordinate and a mass-conserving, positive definite advection scheme with small phase and amplitude errors. The objective has been to develop a flexible, all-purpose offline model. The model includes modules for emission input, vertical turbulent diffusion, and deposition processes. The model can handle an arbitrary number of chemical components and provides a framework for inclusion of modules describing physical and chemical transformation processes between different components. Idealized test cases, as well as simulations of the atmospheric distribution of 222Rn, demonstrate the ability of the model to meet the requirements of mass conservation and positiveness and to produce realistic simulations of a simple atmospheric tracer.


Homelessness remains a neglected component of rural studies in Britain and Europe. Research has tended to skirt around the subject, focusing either on groups in need located within rural housing markets or on those people experiencing rural poverty living within conventional properties. In this paper we want to connect homelessness with rurality by drawing on key findings from recently completed research on rural homelessness in England. We want to make connections between homelessness and rurality in two main ways. Firstly, given the limited knowledge base on rural homelessness, we set out the overall extent and profile of homelessness in rural England based on an analysis of unpublished official statistics. We also highlight how homelessness in rural England is bound up with a great deal of spatial unevenness and suggest that it is through localized investigation that important connections between homelessness and rurality can be best understood. In the second part of the paper, we draw on findings from local research conducted in two rural districts in Gloucestershire to provide a range of evidence that points to the significance of the local spaces of rural homelessness. In particular, this work demonstrates the ways in which local structures of housing provision and socio-cultural and political processes in these districts impact on the nature and experiences of rural homelessness.


Glypican-3 (GPC3), which is a carcinoembryonic antigen, is overexpressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previously, we performed a phase I clinical trial of GPC3-derived peptide vaccination in patients with advanced HCC, and reported that GPC3 peptide vaccination is safe and has clinical efficacy. Moreover, we proposed that a peptide-specific CTL response is a predictive marker of overall survival in patients with HCC who receive peptide vaccination. In this study, we established GPC3-derived peptide-specific CTL clones from the PBMCs of an HLA-A * 02:07-positive patient with HCC who was vaccinated with an HLA-A2-restricted GPC3 peptide vaccine and showed a clinical response in the phase I clinical trial. Established CTL clones were analyzed using the IFN-γ ELISPOT assay and a cytotoxicity assay. GPC3 peptide-specific CTL clones were established successfully from the PBMCs of the patient. One CTL clone showed cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines that expressed endogenously the GPC3 peptide. The results suggest that CTLs have high avidity, and that natural antigen-specific killing activity against tumor cells can be induced in a patient with HCC who shows a clinical response to vaccination with the GPC3 144–152 peptide.


Plenty of observations using VHF/UHF radars worldwide have shown that long-term average vertical winds are downward in the middle troposphere and slightly upward in the lower stratosphere. The Chung-Li VHF radar (121.1°E, 24.9°N), however, hasn't yet given any report on this issue; in this note we present such observations. Monthly averages show that in the wintertime (from November to February) the vertical velocities were biased to negative values below the jet-stream wind maximum and had magnitudes in excess of 0.5 m s 1 − sometimes, which is larger than most other radar observations. In the warm period, however, the vertical velocities were mostly close to zero. In addition, wavelike structures in the profiles of vertical velocities were observed in the lower stratosphere and in the troposphere, respectively, in the wintertime and in two months of the warm period. Many of the vertical velocity profiles presented here are similar to previous observations made with other VHF radars.


The thesis studied the visualization of safety indicators in oil and gas installations. Safety indicators measure the changes in the level of safety, and visualization communicates risk to safety management and specialists. Both aspects are important in the oil and gas industry where safety is a big part of daily operations because of the major hazards that is associated with the production of oil and gas. The first part explored which traits are important for safety indicators and (risk) visualization respectively. This was based on a literature review on the two topics to gather critical points of the current knowledge including substantial findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions. The findings were then organized into a spreadsheet where it was easy to see what requirements were recurrent and popular, and from this a set of requirements of visualizing safety indicators was then established. This selection of seven requirements was based on the goal that the requirements could apply to both indicators and the visualization, and the relevance of them. The Integrated Operations Maintenance and Modification Planner (IO-MAP) was to be the case for this thesis in order to apply the set of requirements on a test. IO-MAP is a software tool that is developed to support the planning of maintenance and modification activities on offshore installations to help decision-makers gain a better overview which leads to enhanced safety. Results from IO-MAP?s review of the requirements suggest: ? Include a total risk picture to visualize the sum of risks connected to the planned tasks per day ? Adding more types of work that requires work permit (e.g. isolation of safety system, pressure testing, and work with dangerous and radioactive substances) ? Implementing more information about the tasks to get the full picture of the tasks and how they are done in practice It was found that not all requirements were suited to test the safety-related information from IO-MAP. This could be due to the fact that not all information from IO-MAP could be directly transferred as visualizing safety indicators rather than being explicitly an indicator or a visualization technique.


A new version of the weighted averages (WA) algorithm, called generalized WA, is introduced. Generalized WA exhibit a more compact formulation, devoid of iterative and recursive steps, and a wider range of applications. It is more robust, as it provides a unique formulation, valid for real and imaginary parameters. The implementation of the new version is easier and more economical in terms of basic operations. Preliminary numerical examples show the promise of the generalized WA that become the most interesting version in terms of simplicity, robustness and accuracy among the generic class of WA algorithms, which are currently recognized as the most competitive algorithms to evaluate Sommerfeld integral tails.


Recycled polypropylene (RPP) based hybrid composites of date palm wood flour/glass fibre were prepared by different weight ratios of the two reinforcements. The mixing process was carried out in an extruder and samples were prepared by an injection molding machine. RPP properties were improved by reinforcing it by wood flour. Morphological studies indicated that glass fiber has good adhesion with RPP supporting the improvement of the mechanical properties of hybrid composites with glass fiber addition. An increase in wood particle content in the polypropylene resulted in a decrease in the degree of crystallinity of the polymer. The tensile strength of the composites increased with an increase in the percentage of crystallinity when adding the glass fibre. The improvement in the mechanical properties with the increase in crystallinity percentage (and with the decrease of the lamellar thicknesses) can be attributed to the constrained region between the lamellae because the agglomeration is absent in this case.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Anesthesia for transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) has been studied for years due to the uniqueness of the surgical procedure. This study aimed at comparing TURP anesthetic techniques and possible surgical complications in two different time periods with a ten-year interval, to detect evolution of those techniques and decrease in morbidity-mortality rates.

METHODS
Medical records of all patients submitted to TURP in HC-FMRP-USP in two different 4-year periods were retrospectively evaluated: GI - surgical procedures (TURP) performed between 1989 and 1992; GII - surgical procedures (TURP) performed between 1999 and 2002. Malignant prostate and bladder neoplasias were excluded. A total of 300 medical records were included: 120 in GI and 180 in GII.

RESULTS
Regional anesthesia was predominant in both groups and spinal anesthesia was more frequently used. Mean procedure length was higher in GII and the incidence of intraoperative adverse events such as hypotension, arrhythmias and hypothermia was not statistically different between groups. In the first 24 postoperative hours however, more GI patients had acute myocardial infarction, probably due to lack of preoperative exams and cardiologic evaluation of patients submitted to surgery during this period. Length of stay in post-anesthetic care unit was similar between groups, but complications were more frequent in GI. Blood transfusions and perioperative mortality were not different between groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Although there was improvement in anesthetic techniques (new drugs and equipment) and in surgical apparatus after this 10-year interval, decrease in blood transfusions, surgical complications (intra or postoperative) or mortality rates could not be observed in the first 24 postoperative hours.


Abstract. Riparian wetlands have been disappearing at an accelerating rate. Their ecological integrity as well as their vital ecosystem services for humankind depend on regular patterns of inundation and drying provided by natural flow regimes. However, river hydrology has been altered worldwide. Dams cause less variable flow regimes and water abstractions decrease the amount of flow so that ecologically important flood pulses are often reduced. Given growing population pressure and projected climate change, immediate action is required. However, the implementation of counteractive measures is often a complex task. This study develops a screening tool for assessing hydrological threats to riparian wetlands on global scales. The approach is exemplified on 93 Ramsar sites, many of which are located in transboundary basins. First, the WaterGAP3 hydrological modeling framework is used to quantitatively compare current and future modified flow regimes to reference flow conditions. In our simulations current water resource management seriously impairs riparian wetland inundation at 29 % of the analyzed sites. A further 8 % experience significantly reduced flood pulses. In the future, eastern Europe, western Asia, as well as central South America could be hotspots of further flow modifications due to climate change. Second, a qualitative analysis of the 93 sites determined potential impact on overbank flows resulting from planned or proposed dam construction projects. They take place in one-third of the upstream areas and are likely to impair especially wetlands located in South America, Asia, and the Balkan Peninsula. Third, based on the existing legal/institutional framework and water resource availability upstream, further qualitative analysis evaluated the capacity to preserve overbank flows given future streamflow changes due to dam construction and climate change. Results indicate hotspots of vulnerability exist, especially in northern Africa and the Persian Gulf.


Competition policy in the banking sector is complicated by the necessity of maintaining financial stability. Greater competition may be good for (static) efficiency, but bad for financial stability. From the point of view of welfare economics, the relevant question is: what are the efficient levels of competition and financial stability? We use a variety of models to address this question and find that different models provide different answers. The relationship between competition and stability is complex: sometimes competition increases stability. In addition, in a second-best world, concentration may be socially preferable to perfect competition and perfect stability may be socially undesirable.


OpenACC is a programming standard designed to simplify heterogeneous parallel programming by using directives. Since OpenACC can generate OpenCL and CUDA code, meanwhile running OpenCL on Intel Knight Corner is supported by CAPS HMPP compiler, it is attractive to using OpenACC on hardwares with different underlying microarchitectures. This paper studies how realistic it is to use a single OpenACC source code for a set of hardwares with different underlying micro-architectures. Intel Knight Corner and Nvidia Kepler products are the targets in the experiment, since they are with the latest architectures and have similar peak performance. Meanwhile CAPS OpenACC compiler is used to compile EPCC OpenACC benchmark suite, Stream and MaxFlops of SHOC benchmarks to access the peformance. To study the performance portability, roofline model and relative performance model are built by the data of experiments. This paper shows that at most 82% performance compared with peak performance on Kepler and Knight Corner is achieved by specific benchmarks, but as the rise of arithmetic intensity the average performance is approximately 10%. And there is a big performance gap between Intel Knight Corner and Nvidia Kepler on several benchmarks. This study confirms that performance portability of OpenACC is related to the arithmetic intensity and a big performance gap still exsits in specific benchmarks between different hardware platforms.


The Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) define the western flank of the West Antarctic rift system. Cape Surprise, near the Shackleton Glacier in the central TAM, is the only location along the range's >3500 km length where upper Paleozoic Beacon Supergroup strata are down‐faulted to near sea level. Previous studies have inferred a range front master normal fault accommodates extension and rock uplift across the TAM front in this region. The history of rock uplift is debated, suggested as early as Mesozoic, typically Cenozoic, or even Pliocene or younger. Structural observations, apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology, and geomorphologic mapping undertaken within the TAM front east of the Shackleton Glacier indicate extension, faulting, and denudation was mostly late Eocene–late Oligocene and likely into the early Miocene. An exhumed AFT partial annealing zone is found at the coast and traced >50 km inland. The base of that exhumed partial annealing zone indicates denudation accelerated at ∼40 Ma near the coast and at 30–35 Ma on the inland side of the TAM front. Vertically offset AFT isochrones across the TAM front reveal a step‐faulted architecture rather than a single master fault. The cumulative vertical offset of the 55 Ma isochrone is 2.3–2.7 km, compared to 2.4–2.6 km offset of Beacon strata, indicating that all significant normal faulting is Cenozoic, and not related to Mesozoic extension within the West Antarctic rift system. Denudation from <26 Ma to ∼14 Ma produced a locally preserved erosion surface within the TAM front. Erosion surface remnants indicate the TAM front has undergone minimal internal deformation and only 290–790 m of surface uplift along offshore faults since the middle Miocene.


As the staple food for 35% of the world's population, wheat is one of the most important crop species. To date, sequence-based tools to accelerate wheat improvement are lacking. As part of the international effort to sequence the 17–billion–base-pair hexaploid bread wheat genome (2n = 6x = 42 chromosomes), we constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)–based integrated physical map of the largest chromosome, 3B, that alone is 995 megabases. A chromosome-specific BAC library was used to assemble 82% of the chromosome into 1036 contigs that were anchored with 1443 molecular markers, providing a major resource for genetic and genomic studies. This physical map establishes a template for the remaining wheat chromosomes and demonstrates the feasibility of constructing physical maps in large, complex, polyploid genomes with a chromosome-based approach.


This thesis presents an experimental study on the influence of the molecular structure of potential
biofuels on combustion in a compression ignition engine. The molecular structure of a fuel is
amongst the most fundamental parameter controlling its physical and chemical characteristics, and is
thus critical to the combustion process within an engine. The approach employed in this work was to
study the combustion of several individual molecules in a series of experiments whilst varying a
single feature of the molecular structure at a time. This yielded information about how a particular
structural feature of a molecule affects the combustion process. During the course of this project, a
special fuel injection system was developed, which allowed the injection of small fuel samples into
the engine at high pressure. This allowed tests to be carried out on purposely synthesised fuel
samples that were only obtainable in small quantities. Detailed studies on the combustion of fatty
alkyl esters (commonly termed biodiesel), acetals, ethers and alcohols were conducted. The
combustion chamber pressure of the engine, the energy release of combustion, the engine efficiency,
the exhaust gas composition and the emission of particulate matter were measured and analysed. It
was observed that in the diffusion combustion of biofuels, the emission of nitrogen oxides from the
engine depend primarily on the ignition delay of the fuel, which governs the combustion
stoichiometry and peak cylinder pressures and temperatures within the combustion chamber, and
secondly on the adiabatic flame temperature of the biofuels. It was found that the number of double
bonds present in biofuel molecules correlated with the amount of particulate mass emitted from the
engine. It was further observed that oxygenated biofuels such as fatty acid alkyl esters, acetals,
ethers and alcohols produced much lower levels of particulate mass from their combustion than
petroleum-derived diesel fuel. The emission of particulates depended on the fuel oxygen content, as
well as on the boiling point of the fuel. Combustion experiments conducted in homogeneous charge
compression ignition combustion demonstrated that ethers of low molecular mass could be amongst
the most-suited liquid fuel molecules for this type of combustion method.


Forty years ago Theodosius Dobzhansky, a scientist credited with developing the reigning paradigm of neo-Darwinism, published his iconic article with the famed title, "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution." The intervening decades have seen his three predictions falsified; namely those regarding genetics and the tree of life, the role evolution theory would play in the progress of biological science, and one particular Arab sheik whom Dobzhansky identified by name. Dobzhanky's claims are evaluated in the light of four decades of hindsight, much additional scientific research, and the continued development of the creation model. His arguments regarding the diversity of life, biological universals, and abiogenesis are answered in a point-by-point presentation.


Hash functions are frequently called message digest functions. Their purpose is to extract a short binary string from a large digital message. A key feature of conventional cryptographic (and other) hashing algorithms such as message digest 5 (MD5) and secure hash algorithm 1 (SHA-1) is that they are extremely sensitive to the message; i.e., changing even one bit of the input message will change the output dramatically. However, multimedia data such as digital images undergo various manipulations such as compression and enhancement. An image hash function should instead take into account the changes in the visual domain and produce hash values based on the image's visual appearance. Such a function would facilitate comparisons and searches in large image databases. Other applications of a perceptual hash lie in content authentication and watermarking.
This dissertation proposes a unifying framework for multimedia signal hashing. The problem of media hashing is divided into two stages. The first stage extracts media-dependent intermediate features that are robust under incidental modifications while being different for perceptually distinct media with high probability. The second stage performs a media-independent clustering of these features to produce a final hash.
This dissertation focuses on feature extraction from natural images such that the extracted features are largely invariant under perceptually insignificant modifications to the image (i.e. robust). An iterative geometry preserving feature detection algorithm is developed based on an explicit modeling of the human visual system via end-stopped wavelets. For the second stage. I show that the decision version of the feature clustering problem is NP-complete. Then, for any perceptually significant feature extractor, I develop polynomial time clustering algorithms based on a greedy heuristic.
Existing algorithms for image/media hashing exclusively employ either cryptographic or signal processing methods. A pure signal processing approach achieves robustness to perceptually insignificant distortions but compromises security which is desirable in applications for multimedia, protection. Likewise pure cryptographic techniques while secure, completely ignore the requirement of being robust to incidental modifications of the media. The primary contribution of this dissertation is a joint signal processing and cryptography approach to building robust as well as secure image hashing algorithms. The ideas proposed in this dissertation can also be applied to other problems in multimedia security, e.g. watermarking and data hiding.


This report describes the results of a PRACE Preparatory Access Type C project to optimise the implementation of Møller-Plesset second order perturbation theory (MP2) in CP2K, to allow it to be used efficiently on the PRACE Research Infrastructure. The work consisted of three stages: firstly serial optimisation of several key computational kernels; secondly, OpenMP implementation of parallel 3D Fourier Transform to support mixedmode MPI/OpenMP use of CP2K; and thirdly benchmarking the performance gains achieved by new code on HERMIT for a test case representative of proposed production simulations. Consistent speedups of 8% were achieved in the integration kernel routines as a result of the serial optimisation. When using 8 OpenMP threads per MPI process, speedups of up to 10x for the 3D FFT were achieved, and for some combinations of MPI processes and OpenMP threads, overall speedups of 66% for the whole code were measured. As a result of this work, a proposal for full PRACE Project Access has been submitted. Application Code: CP2K


Research on effort and motivation commonly measures how the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system affects the cardiovascular system. The cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP), assessed via impedance cardiography, is a widely-used sympathetic outcome, but assessing PEP requires identifying subtle points on cardiac waveforms. The present research examined the value of the RZ interval (RZ), which has recently been proposed as a measure of sympathetic activity, for effort research. Also known as the initial systolic time interval (ISTI), RZ is the time (in ms) between the ECG R peak and the dZ/dt Z peak. Unlike PEP, RZ involves salient waveform points that are easily and reliably identified. Data from three experiments evaluated the suitability of RZ for effort research and compared it to a popular, automated PEP method. Participants completed a standard mental effort task in which correct responses earned a small amount of money. As expected, incentives significantly affected PEP and RZ in all three experiments. PEP and RZ were highly correlated (all rs = .89), and RZ consistently yielded a larger effect size than PEP. A quantitative synthesis of the experiments indicated that the effect size of RZ's response to incentives (Hedges's g = .387 [.248, .527]) was roughly 20% larger than PEP's effect size (g = .323 [.185, .461]). RZ thus appears promising for future research on sympathetic aspects of effort-related cardiac activity.


There is a tendency in the systemic psychiatry of mental states to consider periods of sadness or persistent discouragement in the adolescent, or even just morose states, as signs of pathology. Following the theories of D. W. Winnicott, E. Gut, P. Fedida and Ph. Gutton, we develop the dynamic viewpoint according to which the depressive movement that is inherent to mental life plays a part in the regulation of psychical life. Set in motion by loss or abandonment, it fosters the redistribution of investments, a veritable « re-affectation ». The depressed adolescent subject needs to be accompanied, not immediately treated. Although the outcome of adolescent depressiveness is usually favorable, we will examine some possible harmful outcomes, calling depression in such cases « unproductive », « death depression » or « depression of unbinding ». Two emblematic pathological figures, mental anorexia in the young girl and addictive conducts, are seen as resistances to depressiveness, which is nonetheless a key part of a process of integration. These illustrate, following the example of the dismantling of thought in psychotic depressions – desperately expressed in artistic productions – the essential role that the body plays as a constituent and a means of psychical life.


Inhomogeneous temporal processes in natural and social phenomena have been described by bursts that are rapidly occurring events within short time periods alternating with long periods of low activity. In addition to the analysis of heavy-tailed interevent time distributions, higher-order correlations between interevent times, called correlated bursts, have been studied only recently. As the underlying mechanism behind such correlated bursts is far from being fully understood, we devise a simple model for correlated bursts using a self-exciting point process with a variable range of memory. Whether a new event occurs is stochastically determined by a memory function that is the sum of decaying memories of past events. In order to incorporate the noise and/or limited memory capacity of systems, we apply two memory loss mechanisms: a fixed number or a variable number of memories. By analysis and numerical simulations, we find that too much memory effect may lead to a Poissonian process, implying that there exists an intermediate range of memory effect to generate correlated bursts comparable to empirical findings. Our conclusions provide a deeper understanding of how long-range memory affects correlated bursts.


Decades of place-based, long-term ecological research have generated important insights into patterns and processes among ecosystems. Here, we extend a theoretical framework based on Odum's "strategy of ecosystem development"—which predicted distinct attributes of developing and mature ecosystems—in the context of more recent theoretical advancements that predict how long-term changes in the presses (long-term, gradual changes) and pulses (abrupt changes) of drivers that regulate ecosystem functions (press–pulse regimes) can influence their trajectories of development. Our modifications to ecosystem development theories (a) illustrate how press–pulse regimes can cause ecosystems to continue to develop or oscillate around a stable state (pulsed stability) or cause them to decline if the press–pulse regime changes faster than species and communities can adapt, (b) use examples from long-term ecological research of how attributes interact to affect development, and (c) suggest how revised and new theoretical frameworks can integrate long-term ecological research and observatory networks.


The age of big data opens new opportunities in various fields. While the availability of a big dataset can be helpful in some scenarios, it introduces new challenges in digital forensics investigations. The existing tools and infrastructures cannot meet the expected response time when we investigate on a big dataset. Forensics investigators will face challenges while identifying necessary pieces of evidence from a big dataset, and collecting and analyzing those evidence. In this article, we propose the first working definition of big data forensics and systematically analyze the big data forensics domain to explore the challenges and issues in this forensics paradigm. We propose a conceptual model for supporting big data forensics investigations and present several use cases, where big data forensics can provide new insights to determine facts about criminal incidents.


This chapter discusses how Chinese journalism defends and maintains its legitimacy through the construction and contestation of discourses of journalism after the 1980s. Three types of journalism discourse have emerged alongside social and ideological shifts in Chinese society since the 1980s reform. Their appearance has accompanied the declining legitimacy of Party journalism. Journalistic discursive practices, such as new genres of reporting and self-reflexive writing about journalism, have been invented and developed by journalistic practitioners and news organisations. Through discursive practices of this kind, discursive statements of journalism have been forged, redefining the practices, roles, and values of Chinese journalism. These new sets of journalism discourse distinguish journalism first from propaganda and later from amateur citizen writing. In doing so, the boundaries of Chinese journalism are constructed and maintained, which are often thought of as important for retaining journalism's legitimacy. Key words: Chinese journalism; journalism legitimacy; journalism discourse


This paper describes a silica-based 8/spl times/8 strictly nonblocking thermooptic matrix switch with a high-extinction ratio and low loss. We realized this matrix switch by using a configuration which combines a double Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) switching unit and an N/spl times/N matrix arrangement thus reducing the total waveguide length. The 8/spl times/8 matrix switch was fabricated on a 4-in wafer using planar lightwave circuit technology. We obtained an average extinction ratio of 60.3 dB and an average insertion loss of 5.1 dB. The operating wavelength bandwidth completely covers the gain band of practical erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs).


Neuroimaging plays an increasingly important role in the investigation of all aspects of human cognition, including language. Historically, experimental psychology and neuroimaging relied on very different techniques, as neuroimaging studies required comparisons between different tasks rather than manipulation of conditions within a single task, as is standard in behavioural experiments. However, methodology has advanced in the past decade such that many classic behavioural paradigms can now be employed in studies that measure brain activity. We review the technical foundations of conducting studies on single-trial brain responses, using event-related fMRI and electrophysiological recordings. We focus in particular on studies of picture naming, illustrating how the same techniques that were originally used to define temporal processing stages in reaction time studies can now be applied to brain imaging studies to reveal the neural localization of those stages.


Macbeth clutches an imaginary dagger; Hamlet holds up Yorick's skull; Lear enters with Cordelia in his arms. Do these memorable and iconic moments have anything to tell us about the definition of Shakespearean tragedy? Is it in fact helpful to talk about 'Shakespearean tragedy' as a concept, or are there only Shakespearean tragedies? What kind of figure is the tragic hero? Is there always such a figure? What makes some plays more tragic than others? Beginning with a discussion of tragedy before Shakespeare and considering Shakespeare's tragedies chronologically one by one, this 2007 book seeks to investigate such questions in a way that highlights both the distinctiveness and shared concerns of each play within the broad trajectory of Shakespeare's developing exploration of tragic form.


A boundary-evaluation algorithm for constructive solid geometry is presented for representations in which the primitives can be bounded by complex surfaces (such as splines) as well as by simpler polynomial surfaces. A fundamental part of the algorithm is the spatial decomposition of each primitive in a way that yields three planar bounded volumes, one containing the primitive (outer set), one contained within the primitive (inner set), and the third being the set difference of the first two, containing the boundary of the primitive. A positive feature of this approach is that the geometric coverage can be extended to any family of solid primitives for which an initial inner-solid-outer-solid segmentation and a subdivision procedure can be devices. Satisfying these two requirements ensures that the resulting primitive definitions are in the canonical form necessary for evaluation. Therefore the cost in terms of software development of adding primitive types does not depend on the number or type of existing primitives.<<ETX>>


Arne Naess and Paul Taylor are two of the most forceful proponents of the principle of species equality. Problematically, both, when adjudicating conflict of interest cases, resort to employing explicit or implicit species-ranking arguments. I examine how Lawrence Johnson's critical, species-ranking approach helpfully avoids the normative inconsistencies of "biospherical egalitarianism." Many assume species-ranking schemes are rooted in arrogant, ontological claims about human, primate, or mammalian superiority. Species-ranking, I believe, is best viewed as a justified articulation of moral priorities in response to individuals' or entities' relative ranges of vulnerability and need, rooted in their relative ranges of capacities and interests.


ABSTRACT In the present study we show that malignant human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive cells lost their ability to synthesize endogenous beta interferon (IFN-β) upon tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) treatment. IFN-β transcription, however, was reinducible in nonmalignant HPV-positive cells, which was confirmed in functional protection assays against encephalomyocarditis virus or vesicular stomatitis virus infections. Addition of neutralizing antibodies against IFN-β blocked the antiviral effect, excluding the possibility that other IFN types were involved. Conversely, both malignant and immortalized cells could be protected against viral cytolysis when either IFN-β, IFN-α, or IFN-γ was added exogenously. This indicates that only the cross talk between TNF-α and the IFN-β pathways, and not IFN-α/β and IFN-γ signaling in general, is perturbed in cervical carcinoma cells. Notably, full virus protection was restricted exclusively to nonmalignant cells, indicating that the antiviral effect correlates with the growth-inhibitory and virus-suppressive properties of TNF-α. The IFN-regulatory factors IRF-1 and p48 (ISGF3γ) emerged as key regulatory molecules in the differential IFN-β response, since their transcription was either absent or only inefficiently enhanced in tumorigenic cells upon treatment with TNF-α. Inducibility of both genes, however, became reestablished in cervical carcinoma cells, which were complemented to nontumorigenicity after somatic cell hybridization. Complementation was paralleled by the entire reconstitution of cytokine-mediated IFN-β expression and the ability of TNF-α to exert an antiviral state. In contrast, under conditions where tumor suppression was not accomplished upon somatic cell hybridization, neither expression of IRF-1, p48, and IFN-β nor antiviral activity could be restored.