Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disorder of unknown etiology and it may rarely be associated with a second disorder. Celiac disease is an immune-mediated enteropathy characterized with malabsorption caused by gluten intolerance, and several reports indicate an association between celiac disease and sarcoidosis. In addition, although celiac disease is associated with several extraintestinal pathologies, venous thrombosis has been rarely reported. Herein we present a rare case report of a patient with a diagnosis of sarcoidosis, celiac disease and deep venous thrombosis because of the rare association of these disorders. The patient was admitted with abdominal pain, weight loss, chronic diarrhea and a 5-day history of swelling in her right leg. A diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis was achieved by doppler ultrasonographic examination. The diagnosis of celiac disease was made by biopsy of duodenal mucosa and supported with elevated serum level of anti-gliadin IgA and IgG, and a diagnosis of sarcoidosis was achieved by transbronchial needle aspiration from the subcarinal lymph node during flexible bronchoscopy.


This talk presents a case study on the voluntary agreement on emissions reduction in the Swiss transport sector. Based on expert interviews, this case deals with the motivation for signing as well as the reasons for the failure of the agreement. In contrast to purely positivist assessments, the positions of the firms signing the agreement will be considered in the qualitative part of the analysis, too. The findings based on the interviews suggest that there are potentially conflicting firm positions behind that single industry position communicated to political decision makers. Misspecification, insufficient measures as well as problems of collective action might have led to the insufficient result. Moreover, serious concerns on the effects of the voluntary agreement on market competition are discussed.


A non-adiabatic microfiber coupler is fabricated by flame brushing technique and then theoretically and experimentally analyzed. The effective length of the microfiber coupler is determined by simulation, and a low-noise laser is demonstrated using various lengths of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) when incorporated in a laser setup. At 18.6-mW input pump power, the maximum output power of 20 \mu W and the lowest lasing threshold of 3.8 mW are obtained with a 90-cm-long EDF.


This book reviews and develops Bayesian non-parametric and semi-parametric methods for applications in microeconometrics and quantitative marketing. Most econometric models used in microeconomics and marketing applications involve arbitrary distributional assumptions. As more data becomes available, a natural desire to provide methods that relax these assumptions arises. Peter Rossi advocates a Bayesian approach in which specific distributional assumptions are replaced with more flexible distributions based on mixtures of normals. The Bayesian approach can use either a large but fixed number of normal components in the mixture or an infinite number bounded only by the sample size. By using flexible distributional approximations instead of fixed parametric models, the Bayesian approach can reap the advantages of an efficient method that models all of the structure in the data while retaining desirable smoothing properties. Non-Bayesian non-parametric methods often require additional ad hoc rules to avoid "overfitting," in which resulting density approximates are nonsmooth. With proper priors, the Bayesian approach largely avoids overfitting, while retaining flexibility. This book provides methods for assessing informative priors that require only simple data normalizations. The book also applies the mixture of the normals approximation method to a number of important models in microeconometrics and marketing, including the non-parametric and semi-parametric regression models, instrumental variables problems, and models of heterogeneity. In addition, the author has written a free online software package in R, "bayesm," which implements all of the non-parametric models discussed in the book.


Understand, design, and implement state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical applications used in finance with Python About This BookExplore financial models used by the industry and ways of solving them with this guideDiscover the various features that Python provides for scientific computing and harness them to enhance your financial applicationsBuild state-of-the-art infrastructure for critical aspects such as modeling, trading, pricing, and analyticsWho This Book Is ForIf you are an undergraduate or graduate student, a beginner to algorithmic development and research, or a software developer in the financial industry who is interested in using Python for quantitative methods in finance, this is the book for you. It would be helpful to have a bit of familiarity with basic Python usage, but no prior experience is required.What You Will Learn Perform interactive computing with IPython Notebook Solve linear equations of financial models and perform ordinary least squares regression Explore nonlinear modeling and solutions for optimum points using root-finding algorithms and solvers Discover different types of numerical procedures used in pricing options Model fixed-income instruments with bonds and interest rates Manage big data with NoSQL and perform analytics with Hadoop Build a high-frequency algorithmic trading platform with Python Create an event-driven backtesting tool and measure your strategies In DetailBuilt initially for scientific computing, Python quickly found its place in finance. Its flexibility and robustness can be easily incorporated into applications for mathematical studies, research, and software development.With this book, you will learn about all the tools you need to successfully perform research studies and modeling, improve your trading strategies, and effectively manage risks. You will explore the various tools and techniques used in solving complex problems commonly faced in finance.You will learn how to price financial instruments such as stocks, options, interest rate derivatives, and futures using computational methods. Also, you will learn how you can perform data analytics on market indexes and use NoSQL to store tick data.


To examine whether four pre-selected front-of-pack nutrition labels improve food purchases in real-life grocery shopping settings, we put 1.9 million labels on 1266 food products in four categories in 60 supermarkets and analyzed the nutritional quality of 1,668,301 purchases using the FSA nutrient profiling score. Effect sizes were 17 times smaller on average than those found in comparable laboratory studies. The most effective nutrition label, Nutri-Score, increased the purchases of foods in the top third of their category nutrition-wise by 14%, but had no impact on the purchases of foods with medium, low, or unlabeled nutrition quality. Therefore, Nutri-Score only improved the nutritional quality of the basket of labeled foods purchased by 2.5% (−0.142 FSA points). Nutri-Score's performance improved with the variance (but not the mean) of the nutritional quality of the category. In-store surveys suggest that Nutri-Score's ability to attract attention and help shoppers rank products by nutritional quality may explain its performance.


For the period 1978 to 2001, the physically based model BROOK90 has been applied to simulate the water balance of the Scots pine forest (Pinus sylvestris L.) at the forest meteorological experimental site Hartheim with emphasis on drought. The forest is located in the southern upper Rhine plain, which shows climate conditions similar to those predicted by regional climate models for Central Europe. The transpiration index (ratio of actual transpiration and potential transpiration) has been chosen as an ecophysiologically based drought index on a daily basis. Simulations exhibit that the transpiration index depends not only on the weather conditions but also on forest characteristics like maximum leaf conductance and projected leaf area index. Taking into account different time scales for the transpiration index (daily, monthly and annual basis), a tendency of the occurrence of drought significant to the forest could not be determined for the investigation period. August turned out to be the month with the highest drought risk. Drought for the forest was most pronounced in the year 1991 (annual transpiration index: 0.53), whereas the year 2000 was the only one with an optimal water supply of the Scots pine forest (annual transpiration index: 1.0).


This report describes chemical and petrological characteristics of coal seams from the Ardley Coal Zone, Scollard Formation, Alberta and evaluates their coalbed methane (CBM) potential. The seams were sampled at mine sites west of Edmonton (Genessee, Highvale, Whitewood) and from outcrop sections in the Red Deer Valley, east of Red Deer. The seams were sampled 1) by full seam channel samples, which were subsequently analyzed by proximate analysis, determination of sulphur content, vitrinite reflectance and maceral analysis; and 2) by many lithotype samples from seam base to seam top to determine in-seam variations in petrographic composition. The results indicate that all coals are subbituminous in rank and will not have generated thermally derived gas. However, biogenic gas may have been generated by interaction with circulating groundwater. Cumulative coal thickness at the locations studied is between 5 and 10 m, with individual seams having a thickness in excess of 3 m. These factors make the Ardley Coal Zone an exploration target in areas where increased coal rank at depth may have generated significant amounts of thermogenic gas. Also favourable for CBM exploration are the relatively low ash yields (11–21 wt. %) and sulphur contents (0.15–0.48 wt. %) in seams greater than 1 m in thickness. The seams show significant differences in petrographic composition, with the highest vitrinite contents associated with the base of the coal zone (No. 6 seam at Highvale and Whitewood and No. 3 seam at Genessee). Predominant lithotypes in most seams are banded dull and dull, although some coals are characterized by predominance of banded coal and banded bright and bright lithotypes. The comprehensive petrographic dataset on the Ardley Coal Zone presented in this report has demonstrated that 1) there exist significant compositional differences between the various seams; and 2) there exist significant in-seam compositional variations, both on the macroscopic (lithotype) and microscopic (maceral) level. Based on previous studies, it is suggested that the brighter seams of the Ardley Coal Zone and the seams with the highest vitrinite contents will have the highest potential for gas generation and gas storage. EUB/AGS Special Report 55 (December 2002) • vii


This paper concerns the use of static analysis for debugging purposes of declarative object-oriented equation-based modeling languages. It proposes a framework where over- and under-constraining situations present in simulation models specified in such languages are detected by combinatorial graph transformations performed on the flattened intermediate code and filtered by the semantic transformation rules derived from the original language. This is powerful enough to statically detect a broad range of errors without having to execute the simulation model. Debuggers associated with simulation environments for such languages can provide efficient error-fixing strategies based on the graph-based representation of the intermediate code. The emphasis, in this paper, is on detecting and debugging over-constraining equations, which are present in some simulation model specifications. The paper discusses various ways in which the approach is extended to allow static global analysis of the original modeling source code.


This research aimed to study: 1) the integration of the instruction of a calculus class of Information Technology Department, the Faculty of Management Sciences and Information Technology (FMIT), Nakhon Phanom University (NPU); 2) the improvement of instructional process efficiency; and 3) students' satisfaction of Pair Instruction technique (PIT). The sample of this study composed of 33 randomized students from the 3rd and 4th year student at NPU. A five-rating scale questionnaire with 97% confidence level was used to collect data. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, dependent t-test were used to analyze the obtained data. It was found that all items asking students' satisfaction of PIT in calculus class got the highest mean in every facet. The students were happy with the PIT. They thought that the PIT was more useful than a conventional instruction, could increase their solutions, provided them with better perception, helped them with team working, and helped them helped them obtain better grades. According to the face-to-face interview, from 30 students of the sample, it can be concluded that 84.85 percent of the students needed information technology practical and the PIT in their classes. They thought that the technique improved their perceptions and provided them with a collaborative work environment.


This paper presents the results of a study investigating the energy performance of evacuated glazings or glazings which maintain a vacuum between two panes of glass. Their performance is determined by comparing results to prototype highly insulated superwindows as well as a more conventional insulating glass unit with a low-E coating and argon gas fill. The authors used the DOE-2.1E energy analysis simulation program to analyze the annual and hourly heating energy use due to the windows of a prototypical single-story house located in Madison, Wisconsin. Cooling energy performance was also investigated. The results show that for highly insulating windows, the solar heat gain coefficient is as important as the window`s U-factor in determining heating performance for window orientations facing west-south-east. For other orientations in which there is not much direct solar radiation, the window`s U-factor primarily governs performance. The vacuum glazings had lower heating requirements than the superwindows for most window orientations. The conventional low-E window outperformed the superwindows for southwest-south-southeast orientations. These performance differences are directly related to the solar heat gain coefficients of the various windows analyzed. The cooling performance of the windows was inversely related to the heating performance. The lower solar heat gain coefficients ofmore » the superwindows resulted in the best cooling performance. However, the authors were able to mitigate the cooling differences of the windows by using an interior shading device that reduced the amount of solar gain at appropriate times.« less


This study aims to determine the effect of cooperative learning through problem posing approach to the students' problem solving skills in terms of prior knowledge. The method used is a quasi-experimental method with 2x2 factorial study design. The study population was 163 students of class XI SMKN 9 Mataram scattered in 5 classes. These samples included 55 students, divided into two classes by cluster of random sampling technique. The research instrument is a test mastery of concepts and problem solving skills test given at the beginning and end of the study. The data was analyzed by Manova two ways. (1) students learn to use cooperative learning model with problem posing approach was significantly different in the aspect of problem solving ability than students who study with learning cooperative model only, (2) students who have high prior knowledge different significantly in aspects of problem solving ability compared students who have low prior knowledge, (3) there was not an interaction effect between learning model with prior knowledge of the problem solving ability students


This paper will provide an overview of the research work of the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC) in the field of crash compatibility between passenger cars. Since July 1997 the EC Commission is partly funding the research work of EEVC. The running period of this project will be two years. The progress of five working packages of this research project is presented: Literature review, Accident analysis, Structural survey of cars, Crash testing, and Mathematical modelling. According to the planned time schedule the progress of research work is different for the five working packages.


Solid-state ballasts with 20-30 kHz fundamental frequencies were used to operate fluorescent lamps in office, screen room, and open-field sites. The test equipment and layout are described and the radiated and conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) data are given for six commercially available ballasts from different manufacturers. EMI data from each location are presented that indicate the suitability of using an office site for future EMI measurements. Broadband EMI data are compared with data from a spectrum analyzer, which justifies the use of an RMS voltmeter in these measurements. A reduction in radiated EMI of 36 dB is achieved by replacing a strip fixture with an EMI-hardened fixture that has a wire grid embedded in its lens. Results of increasing lamp/antenna distance are given; we verify that, for distances greater than 1 meter, the radiated EMI amplitude drops off as a function of 1/d3.


Context. The Lyman-α line in the ultraviolet (UV) and the [CII] line in the far-infrared (FIR) are widely used tools to identify galaxies in the early Universe and to obtain insights into interstellar medium (ISM) properties in high-redshift galaxies. By combining data obtained with ALMA in band 7 at ∼320 GHz as part of the ALMA Large Program to INvestigate [CII] at Early Times (ALPINE) with spectroscopic data from DEIMOS at the Keck Observatory, VIMOS and FORS2 at the Very Large Telescope, we assembled a unique sample of 53 main-sequence star-forming galaxies at 4.4 <  z <  6 in which we detect both the Lyman-α line in the UV and the [CII] line in the FIR.
Aims. The goal of this paper is to constrain the properties of the Lyα emission in these galaxies in relation to other properties of the ISM.
Methods. We used [CII], observed with ALMA, as a tracer of the systemic velocity of the galaxies, and we exploited the available optical spectroscopy to obtain the Lyα-[CII] and ISM-[CII] velocity offsets.
Results. We find that 90% of the selected objects have Lyα-[CII] velocity offsets in the range 0 <  ΔvLyα − [CII] <  400 km s−1, in line with the few measurements available so far in the early Universe, and significantly smaller than those observed at lower redshifts. At the same time, we observe ISM-[CII] offsets in the range −500 <  ΔvISM−[CII] <  0 km s−1, in line with values at all redshifts, which we interpret as evidence for outflows in these galaxies. We find significant anticorrelations between ΔvLyα−[CII] and the Lyα rest-frame equivalent width EW0(Lyα) (or equivalently, the Lyα escape fraction fesc(Lyα)): galaxies that show smaller ΔvLyα−[CII] have larger EW0(Lyα) and fesc(Lyα).
Conclusions. We interpret these results in the framework of available models for the radiative transfer of Lyα photons. According to the models, the escape of Lyα photons would be favored in galaxies with high outflow velocities, producing large EW0(Lyα) and small ΔvLyα-[CII], in agreement with our observations. The uniform shell model would also predict that the Lyα escape in galaxies with slow outflows (0 <  vout <  300 km s−1) is mainly determined by the neutral hydrogen column density (NHI) along the line of sight, while the alternative model by Steidel et al. (2010, ApJ, 717, 289) would more highly favor a combination of NHI at the systemic velocity and covering fraction as driver of the Lyα escape. We suggest that the increase in Lyα escape that is observed in the literature between z ∼ 2 and z ∼ 6 is not due to a higher incidence of fast outflows at high redshift, but rather to a decrease in average NHI along the line of sight, or alternatively, a decrease in HI covering fraction.


Human infections caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Napoli are relatively uncommon in Europe. Napoli was ranked 22nd in the Enter-net Salmonella database for 2006 with 295 cases (0.28%) of the 105,635 from 29 European countries. For the 18 countries that provided data for all the years 2000-2006, the number of cases rose from 122 out of 116,915 (0.10%) in 2000 to 293 out of 80,318 (0.36%) in 2006-an increase of 140.2%. Over 87% of cases came from three countries, France, Italy, and Switzerland. The epidemiology of the human cases showed an increased frequency in those aged under 5 or over 64, and both sexes were equally represented. Napoli isolates were also reported from nonhuman sources, mainly environmental samples and poultry. Strains compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis exhibited high levels of diversity between human, animal, and environmental sources. No single factor has been recognized as causing this rise, hence no public health interventions can be made or advice given to ensure that it does not persist. A 140% rise in 7 years indicates that the public health problem will continue, and further multidisciplinary investigations are needed to solve this enigma.


In this paper, we present the construction of several aggregates of tetrahedra. Each construction is obtained by performing rotations on an initial set of tetrahedra that either (1) contains gaps between adjacent tetrahedra, or (2) exhibits an aperiodic nature. Following this rotation, gaps of the former case are "closed" (in the sense that faces of adjacent tetrahedra are brought into contact to form a "face junction"), while translational and rotational symmetries are obtained in the latter case. In all cases, an angular displacement of β = arccos 3 ϕ − 1 / 4 (or a closely related angle), where ϕ = 1 + 5 / 2 is the golden ratio, is observed between faces of a junction. Additionally, the overall number of plane classes, defined as the number of distinct facial orientations in the collection of tetrahedra, is reduced following the transformation. Finally, we present several "curiosities" involving the structures discussed here with the goal of inspiring the reader's interest in constructions of this nature and their attending, interesting properties.


Statistical measures of the vibration response of flat plates in both the frequency and spatial domains are presented. Analytical, numerical, and experimental results are presented for rectangular and irregularly shaped plates. The results are consistent with the assumption that the modal response of a rectangular plate is sinusoidal, while the modal response of an irregularly shaped plate is Gaussian. The statistical measures of a plate vibration response can be used to evaluate the system modal overlap factor, the ratio of the modal damping bandwidth to the modal frequency spacing.


The question of how to build science and technology (S&T) capacity in Africa has been on and off the agenda for decades, as has the issue of how to use partnerships to accelerate capacity building. Recent policy proposals have focused on expanding S&T capacity but have emphasized less the need for a rigorous rethink about how science, technology and innovation can be better organized for development. This paper aims to assess, using evidence from recent cases, the importance of new theories and practices based on the role of innovation and knowledge systems. The paper argues that lessons can be learned from transformations in research policy and from practices that better integrate new ideas from innovation, knowledge and development. It focuses on the changes required for science, technology and innovation to be accepted as key for the alleviation of poverty.


[1] Various surface albedo modification geoengineering schemes such as those involving desert, urban, or agricultural areas have been proposed as potential strategies for helping counteract the warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. However, such schemes tend to be inherently limited in their potential and would create a much more heterogeneous radiative forcing than propositions for space-based "reflectors" and enhanced stratospheric aerosol concentrations. Here we present results of a series of atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (GCM) simulations to compare three surface albedo geoengineering proposals: urban, cropland, and desert albedo enhancement. We find that the cooling effect of surface albedo modification is strongly seasonal and mostly confined to the areas of application. For urban and cropland geoengineering, the global effects are minor but, because of being colocated with areas of human activity, they may provide some regional benefits. Global desert geoengineering, which is associated with significant global-scale changes in circulation and the hydrological cycle, causes a smaller reduction in global precipitation per degree of cooling than sunshade geoengineering, 1.1% K−1 and 2.0% K−1 respectively, but a far greater reduction in the precipitation over land, 3.9% K−1 compared with 1.0% K−1. Desert geoengineering also causes large regional-scale changes in precipitation with a large reduction in the intensity of the Indian and African monsoons in particular. None of the schemes studied reverse the climate changes associated with a doubling of CO2, with desert geoengineering profoundly altering the climate and with urban and cropland geoengineering providing only some regional amelioration at most.


Thin-film transistors (TFTs) using oxide semiconductor channels have intensively been investigated as oxide semiconductors such as In–Ga–Zn–O (IGZO) show field effect electron mobilities in excess of 10 cm2 V−1 s−1, higher than that of hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Additionally, such oxide semiconductors can be deposited by a wide range of large-area compatible vacuum-based techniques. Despite however the tremendous potential, further advancements have been hampered by a lack of hole-transporting oxides with similar or comparable transport characteristics to their n-type counterparts, limiting the applications of oxide-semiconductor-based TFTs to relatively simple devices and circuits such as backplanes for active-matrix information displays where n-channel TFTs only are needed. Although there are a reports on p-type doping of traditional n-type oxides, the subject still remains controversial as doping of metal oxides is typically one-sided due to self-compensation so alternative metal oxides that show intrinsic p-type characteristics are required. To date, only a few compounds such as SnOx and Cu2O have been realised and incorporated into p-type TFTs. Both compounds however show relatively low hole field-effect mobilities in the range between 0.001 and 4 cm2 V-1 s-1 and the TFTs show significantly high off currents. Collectively, these results reaffirm that field-effect mobility of >1 cm2 V-1 s-1 is generally achievable with Cu2O transistors. In the case of Cu2O this is further supported by the fact that Hall Effect measurements showed mobilities exceeding 100 cm2 V-1 s-1 reaching values as high as 250 cm2 V-1 s-1. This presentation reports on the deposition of both p-type Cu2O-based as well as n-type ZnO-based thin films by spray coating in air at substrates temperatures in the range between 100 oC and 450 oC from acidic and alkaline solutions of Cu2O and ZnO nanoparticles. The films' properties were investigated by means of UV–Vis spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, AFM and field-effect measurements and the effects of the solution's pH and the substrate's temperature are discussed in respect to the thin films' structure and electronic transport properties. Furthermore, TFT's employing spray coated cubic Y2O3 gate dielectrics and Cu2O and ZnO-based semiconducting channels show excellent operating characteristics, in particular low operation voltage, high charge carrier mobility on the order of 4 cm2 V-1 s-1, low off currents (1 nA) and high current modulation ratio >10^4. The deposition methodology as well as the results that are presented here, demonstrate an alternative route for the manufacturing of large-area oxide electronics and represents a significant step towards the development of low-cost, large-area complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits at moderate temperatures.


This chapter examined the effects of densification and randomness of infrastructure in future cellular networks by employing analytical tools from stochastic geometry. Various operational scenarios were investigated, including uplink and downlink transmissions, multi-tier networks, and variable traffic load, as well as parameters and metrics of interest such as SIR, user rate, degrees of freedom, and multiple access schemes. It was shown that randomness of AP positions introduces an unavoidable but moderate performance degradation compared to a regular placement pattern. Surprisingly enough, densification of randomly placed infrastructure does not (statistically) degrade performance in terms of SIR or user rate, even under the worst case scenario where all nodes are transmitting. Taking into account inactive transmitters (due to having no associated receivers), densification results in performance improvements. Performance gains were explicitly quantified with simple closed-form expressions in most cases.


Ziziphoraclinopodioides is a plant from Lamiaceae family. In this research the antimicrobial effect of Ziziphoraclinopodioides essential oil (at 0.05%) and extract (at 0.4%) were studied on Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus and Saccharomyces cerevisiaein mayonnaise during storage timeat 4oC. Results showed that the antimicrobial effect of Z.clinopodioidesessential oil was higherthan the extract. This effect increased with increasingthe concentration rate. The Ziziphoraclinopodioides essential oil was able to inhibit both gram-positive and gramnegative bacteria and also the yeast. At the concentrations of Z.clinopodioides essential oil and extract we tested in the current study, we observed no unfavorable effect on the sensory parameters in mayonnaise.


Understanding and modelling of main annulus gas ingestion through turbine rim seals is considered and advanced in this paper. Unsteady 3-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations and results from a more elementary model are presented and compared with experimental data previously published by Hills et al (1997). The most complete CFD model presented includes both stator and rotor in the main annulus and the inter-disc cavity. The k-e model of turbulence with standard wall function approximations is assumed in the model which was constructed in a commercial CFD code employing a pressure correction solution algorithm. It is shown that considerable care is needed to ensure convergence of the CFD model to a periodic solution. Compared to previous models, results from the CFD model show encouraging agreement with pressure and gas concentration measurements. The annulus gas ingestion is shown to result from a combination of the stationary and rotating circumferential pressure asymmetries in the annulus. Inertial effects associated with the circumferential velocity component of the flow have an important effect on the degree of ingestion.The elementary model used is an extension of earlier models based on orifice theory applied locally around the rim seal circumference. The new model includes a term accounting for inertial effects. Some good qualitative and fair quantitative agreement with data is shown.Copyright © 2001 by ASME


&NA; Article abstract Background The cause of dementia in subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) is controversial. Objectives To determine whether cognitive impairment in SIVD 1) correlates with measures of ischemic brain injury or brain atrophy, and/or 2) is due to concomitant AD. Methods Volumetric MRI of the brain was performed in 1) elderly subjects with lacunes (L) and a spectrum of cognitive impairment—normal cognition (NC+L, n = 32), mild cognitive impairment (CI+L, n = 26), and dementia (D+L, n = 29); 2) a comparison group with probable AD (n = 28); and 3) a control group with normal cognition and no lacunes (NC). The authors examined the relationship between the severity of cognitive impairment and 1) volume, number, and location of lacunes; 2) volume of white matter signal hyperintensities (WMSH); and 3) measures of brain atrophy (i.e., hippocampal, cortical gray matter, and CSF volumes). Results Among the three lacune groups, severity of cognitive impairment correlated with atrophy of the hippocampus and cortical gray matter, but not with any lacune measure. Although hippocampal atrophy was the best predictor of severity of cognitive impairment, there was evidence for a second, partially independent, atrophic process associated with ventricular dilation, cortical gray matter atrophy, and increase in WMSH. Eight autopsied SIVD cases showed variable severity of ischemic and neurofibrillary degeneration in the hippocampus, but no significant AD pathology in neocortex. The probable AD group gave evidence of only one atrophic process, reflected in the severity of hippocampal atrophy. Comparison of regional neocortical gray matter volumes showed sparing of the primary motor and visual cortices in the probable AD group, but relatively uniform atrophy in the D+L group. Conclusions Dementia in SIVD, as in AD, correlates best with hippocampal and cortical atrophy, rather than any measure of lacunes. In SIVD, unlike AD, there is evidence for partial independence between these two atrophic processes. Hippocampal atrophy may result from a mixture of ischemic and degenerative pathologies. The cause of diffuse cortical atrophy is not known, but may be partially indexed by the severity of WMSH.


Previous research related to walking on an inclined plane for humanoid robots, including the 3-D linear inverted pendulum model (3D-LIPM) approach, were unable to modify walking period, step length, and walking direction independently without any additional step for adjusting the center of mass (CoM) motion. Moreover, the inclination along the pitch direction was only considered for walking. To solve these problems, a novel command state (CS)-based modifiable walking pattern generator for humanoid robots is proposed for modifiable walking on an inclined plane in both pitch and roll directions. The dynamic equation of the 3D-LIPM on the inclined plane in both pitch and roll directions is derived to obtain the CoM motion. Using the CoM motion, a method for modifiable walking pattern generation on the inclined plane is developed to follow a given CS composed of walking periods, step lengths, and walking directions for both legs. The effectiveness of the proposed walking pattern generator is demonstrated through both simulation and experiment for the small-sized humanoid robot, HanSaRam-IX (HSR-IX).


This paper examines how a new institution, a code of conduct, arises and develops over time. It shows how the process of debate airs competing logics, questions and fails to question assumptions taken for granted, and yet achieves a large degree of legitimacy without having resolved certain core issues. The UK code of corporate governance has been emulated around the world as a model of good practice. By examining in detail one aspect of the debate – the issue over unitary or two-tier boards – the paper shows how the contest of logics leads not just to new, blended or hybrid logics, but also to suspended logics. The process of consultation brings together actors from differing organizational fields and institutional orders, offering an opportunity to create a new field in a different order, with specific lessons for the practice of corporate governance and general lessons for institution-building.


In recent years, we have seen a growing call in the legal academy to revisit qualified immunity—the doctrine that shields a government actor from civil suit for monetary damages unless the government official violates "clearly established law." On the doctrinal front, for instance, Will Baude argues that qualified immunity's foundations are suspect as a matter of positive law. On the empirical front, Joanna Schwartz has done groundbreaking work at the district-court level that calls into question qualified immunity's effect at shielding government officials from discovery and trial. This Essay responds to both sets of criticisms and provides a partial defense of the qualified immunity. Based on the authors' prior empirical work on qualified immunity in the circuit courts, the Essay concludes with some recommendations on how the Supreme Court could improve the doctrine of qualified immunity to better ensure the doctrine advances its intended objectives.


Objective: An investigation on Aldose Reductase Enzyme (ALR) inhibitory activity of apigenin (API) isolated from Morus indica L. was evaluated by ex vivo and molecular docking studies. Materials and Methods: The inhibitory efficacy of API from M. indica was evaluated against ALR in lens tissue of mice by ex vivo and their binding mechanism through molecular docking was carried out by AutoDock. Results: The API (10-50 µg mL-1) concentration exhibited significant inhibition (p ≤ 0.05) of ALR enzyme in a dose dependent manner with IC50 value of 39.23 µg mL-1. The positive control aminoguanidine (AG) at 10 mM inhibited 42.96% of ALR. The molecular docking studies revealed that API showed better binding energy (-9.15 kJ mol-1) when compared to AG (-3.78 kJ mol1 ). Molecular interaction analysis showed that API interrupts the proton donation mechanism which is necessary for the catalytic activity of ALR by forming H-bond with Trp20 (proton donor). Conclusion: The ALR inhibition potential offered by API was further confirmed through molecular docking studies. The present findings support the pharmacological application of API for the treatment of diabetes cataract. Key words: Mulberry, Antiglycation, Retinopathy, Eye lens.


The source and vector of an introduced species inform its ecological and evolutionary history and may guide management that seeks to prevent future introductions. Surprisingly, few studies have successfully used genetic tools to independently inform the specific source and pathway of biological invasions. The ecological history of many introduced species, including their origins and vectors, is often based on suppositions or educated guesses. Here, we used mitochondrial and microsatellite genotyping to trace the invasion of the Asian seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Rhodophyta) along the three coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere to which it has been introduced: the western coast of North America, eastern coast of the United States and the coasts of Europe and northwest Africa. Analyzing 37 native and 53 introduced sites, we identified the Pacific coastline of northeastern Japan as the ultimate source of the Northern Hemisphere invasion. Coincidentally, most exports of the oyster Crassostrea gigas historically originated from this region and both species often grow in close proximity. Based on genetic signatures, each of the three coastlines likely received thalli directly from Japan, as well as material from another introduced coastline (i.e., a secondary invasion). Our ability to document a source region, which was enabled by a robust sampling of locations and loci that previous studies lacked, reflected strong phylogeographic structure along native coastlines. We suggest Gracilaria vermiculophylla is an important representative example of many species likely exported out of Japan by the oyster trade and its genetic signatures that may be a hallmark of oyster introduction legacies.


This chapter recalls the main tools useful to compute Value at Risk associated with a m-dimensional portfolio. Then, the limitations of the use of these tools is explained, as soon as non-stationarities are observed in time series. Indeed, specific behaviours observed by financial assets, like volatility, jumps, explosions, and pseudo-seasonalities, provoke non-stationarities which affect the distribution function of the portfolio. Thus, a new way for computing VaR is proposed which allows the potential non-invariance of the m-dimensional portfolio distribution function to be avoided.


This study examines disparities in health status, health care utilization, insurance coverage and satisfaction in US low-income parents of infants and toddlers with disabilities compared to low-income parents of children without disabilities. The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project is a longitudinal study involving 2087 families in 17 communities across the United States. Families completed interviews at enrollment and at 7, 16, and 28 months after enrollment. Descriptive analyses were conducted to characterize children's status in terms of health, health care use, and insurance coverage. Children with disabilities were more likely to experience poor health and to use more health care services. Parents of children with disabilities were more likely to report that medical care was inadequate. Hispanic children were less likely to experience excellent health. Hispanic parents were less likely to have health insurance or to report that their medical care was adequate. Low-income parents of young children with disabilities perceived their children as less healthy, more vulnerable and needing more health services. This study demonstrates the importance of providing accessible, culturally-competent services to this vulnerable population.


The phase transition is a performance measure of the sparsity-undersampling tradeoff in compressed sensing (CS). This letter reports our first observation and evaluation of an empirical phase transition of the l1 minimization approach to the complex valued CS (CVCS), which is positioned well above the known phase transition of the real valued CS in the phase plane. This result can be considered as an extension of the existing phase transition theory of the block-sparse CS (BSCS) based on the universality argument, since the CVCS problem does not meet the condition required by the phase transition theory of BSCS but its observed phase transition coincides with that of BSCS. Our result is obtained by applying the recently developed ONE-L1 algorithms to the empirical evaluation of the phase transition of CVCS.


These pages take up very briefly, the results of a series of research on "The steel industry of the Ligurian ancient regime (sec. XV-XIX): technical, settlement, language", one of the first activities developed by the Centre for Study of History Technology (CSST) of CNR of Genoa, since the early seventies. The study on the local production of iron in the pre-industrial age, has identified a number of production sites in particular settled Ligurian Apennines, the detecting method of reduction of iron ore - direct method of low fire - and technical innovations adopted in the production process, from bellows to idroeholic machine, the change in the composition of the charge: iron ore, scrap iron in different percentages and fluxes. They did not miss, in the course of research, comparisons with other steel settlements that used the same method of the low fire, particularly the ironworks Catalan and also references to other production sites that operated differently, with the indirect method or blast furnace, just in the neighboring Tuscan area. Research has achieved a sufficiently clear activity practiced by the genoese steel industry ironworks of old regime, considering all the technical-scientific difficulties accompanying historical aspects.Therefore, this paper highlights some moments, especially economic and technical, of a very broad research and aims to point out some possible interpretations that have emerged during that long period of investigation. However, the interpretation of the low fire Genoese as technical back, compared to the blast furnace "at the Brescian way" and that has been given by researchers from the CSST - while trying appreciation historic - a recent article that we point out in the course of these pages, provides useful information for the genoese technical not considering it outdated compared to contemporary blast furnace "at the Brescian way"; in fact, the Genoese being linked to the elbano mineral could not operate differently, demonstrating among other things, most suitable technique. Therefore, suggestions and criticisms in the historical re-reading of one of the oldest and main activity are welcomed, and all that requires further study, in view of the fact that the old genoese ironworks also lost the memory, in favor of more recent term "Catalan".Finally, to investigate historical technique of ancient genoese ironworks we also give here a small push to observe and investigate historically the subsequent to the current complex technical steel works (when it was possible to give more toughness to the steel using the alloys) in consideration that the steel industry and metallurgy, despite the increasing scientific knowledge of metal properties, is still today an essentially empirical activity in which the production of new alloys stimulates the search and, substantially, takes place proceeding by trial and error.


Statistical speech synthesis (SSS) systems have the ability to adapt to a target speaker with a couple of minutes of adaptation data. Developing adaptation algorithms to further reduce the number of adaptation utterances to a few seconds of data can have substantial effect on the deployment of the technology in real-life applications such as consumer electronics devices. The traditional way to achieve such rapid adaptation is the eigenvoice technique which works well in speech recognition but known to generate perceptual artifacts in statistical speech synthesis. Here, we propose three methods to alleviate the quality problems of the baseline eigenvoice adaptation algorithm while allowing speaker adaptation with minimal data. Our first method is based on using a Bayesian eigenvoice approach for constraining the adaptation algorithm to move in realistic directions in the speaker space to reduce artifacts. Our second method is based on finding pre-trained reference speakers that are close to the target speaker and utilizing only those reference speaker models in a second eigenvoice adaptation iteration. Both techniques performed significantly better than the baseline eigenvoice method in the objective tests. Similarly, they both improved the speech quality in subjective tests compared to the baseline eigenvoice method. In the third method, tandem use of the proposed eigenvoice method with a state-of-the-art linear regression based adaptation technique is found to improve adaptation of excitation features.


ABSTRACT Previously we demonstrated that the class II phosphoinositide 3-kinase C2β (PI3K-C2β) is rapidly recruited to a phosphotyrosine signaling complex containing the activated receptor for epidermal growth factor (EGF). Although this association was shown to be dependent upon specific phosphotyrosine residues present on the EGF receptor, the underlying mechanism remained unclear. In this study the interaction between PI3K-C2β and the EGF receptor is competitively attenuated by synthetic peptides derived from each of three proline-rich motifs present within the N-terminal region of the PI3K. Further, a series of N-terminal PI3K-C2β fragments, truncated prior to each proline-rich region, bound the receptor with decreased efficiency. A single proline-rich region was unable to mediate receptor association. Finally, an equivalent N-terminal fragment of PI3K-C2α that lacks similar proline-rich motifs was unable to affinity purify the activated EGF receptor from cell lysates. Since these findings revealed that the interaction between the EGF receptor and PI3K-C2β is indirect, we sought to identify an adaptor molecule that could mediate their association. In addition to the EGF receptor, PI3K-C2β(2-298) also isolated both Shc and Grb2 from A431 cell lysates. Recombinant Grb2 directly bound PI3K-C2β in vitro, and this effect was reproduced using either SH3 domain expressed as a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion. Interaction with Grb2 dramatically increased the catalytic activity of this PI3K. The relevance of this association was confirmed when PI3K-C2β was isolated by coimmunoprecipitation with anti-Grb2 antibody from numerous cell lines. Using immobilized, phosphorylated EGF receptor, recombinant PI3K-C2β was only purified in the presence of Grb2. We conclude that proline-rich motifs within the N terminus of PI3K-C2β mediate the association of this enzyme with activated EGF receptor and that this interaction involves the Grb2 adaptor.


Patterns and processes of post-war Tunisian migration are examined in this thesis from a spatial perspective The concept of 'migration regions' proved particularly interesting in this context, highlighting the orderly character of internal migration Comparison of different taxonomic procedures for transforming interaction matrices not only illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of different clustering techniques, but also facilitated explanation of contemporary migration patterns The hypothesis of the 'mobility transition' provides an interesting yardstick against which trends in internal migration and other mobility characteristics may be measured Although the development of Tunisian migration resembles in some respects the pattern prescribed by the mobility transition hypothesis, it IS shown that it would be wrong to conclude that the evolution of Tunisian migration is a predetermined unilinear process International migration grew rapidly in importance to Tunisian job seekers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, becoming more important in some regions of Tunisia than out-migration to Tunis. Calculation of migration quotients for emigration to France and Libya shows that international movement of workers has been a highly selective process, not only with regard to migrant characteristics, but also with regard to regions of origin and destination An attempt is made to explain the changing pattern of Tunisian emigration, and to identify elements of spatial order within the evolving emigration process migration both at the internal and international scale is closely associated with migrants aspirations for occupational and social mobility. An understanding of the complex relationships between these different forms of mobility is a prerequisite to meaningful migration planning. The thesis concludes by out ling the relevance to policy formulation of spatial analysis of migration and employment which the Tunisian government might adopt for migration and manpower planning,


As a concept, Lusophony is today looked upon with justified suspicion by many Portuguese-speaking people. It is impossible to separate this concept from the colonial ballast that bounds the countries that have Portuguese as the official language. However, it is important to not end the debate on this plane. In this work we revisit some of the foundational narratives of a mythical identity, such as the different hauntings of a promised Quinto Império or lusotropicalism, both in its founding in Brazil and in its reconstitution in Portugal. On the other hand, we discuss about Lusophony from its formal matrix: a language shared by different peoples in different continents. Our objective is to problematize and deepen the debate, summoning a unique experience of reflection, concretely the one that is elaborated by Jorge de Sena already in the final stretch of Estado Novo. Based on these focuses, we argue about the possibility of Lusophony to include lines of escape from certain reductionisms, namely those that derive from the convergent and divergent circulation of narratives and singular experiences. This circulation of people, ideas and memories, is potentially defining a diffuse and polycentric space of effective interculturality, which nurtures further reflection.


The search for labour flexibility has assumed great importance in most developed countries and has been the catalyst for the deregulation which has occurred, and continues to occur, in the Australian labour market. However, despite this, the question remains whether deregulation of the labour market in Australia is necessary for the attainment of flexibility since the empirical evidence is inconclusive. Industry representatives from the hospitality sector argue that a high degree of labour flexibility is a vital component in being able to meet market demands and achieve a competitive environment. Using data from a study of 435 registered clubs in the Australian state of NSW, areas of labour flexibility which these hospitality enterprises value are examined. Managers' perceptions of the impact of awards and trade unions on the ability of the enterprises to achieve labour flexibility in a variety of areas are also examined. It was found that while there was a perception by managers that awards and trade unions did have a moderate to low impact or restriction on labour flexibility, the impact was not perceived to be as great as the proponents of deregulation would suggest. It is argued that registered clubs are choosing not to enter into formal enterprise bargaining because of this perceived low/moderate level of award and trade union impact on labour flexibility.


The realisation of any product depends on the manipulation of appropriate mate r ials. Materials and manufacturing processes must be selected in relation to the required service performance, the available manufacturing resources and the acceptable cost . Designers need to understand the implications of these choices and be sensitive to the forms their products must take if they are to avoi d unnecessary compromises between aesthetic requirements and efficient production. Traditionally it may h ave been acceptable for designers to hand over 'concept designs' to production engineers to modify as necessary, but a more holistic approach to design development is now expected. The educational experiences of undergraduates on the Design and Tech n ology three year degree programme should enable them to participate fully in a modern integrated approach to product design .


The delivery of CD4 help to CD8+ T cell responses requires interactions between CD40 and CD40 ligand and is thought to occur through antigen-presenting cell (APC) activation. Here we show that generation of memory CD8+ T cells displaying an enhanced capacity for cell division and cytokine secretion required CD4 help but not CD40 expression by the APCs. Activated CD4+and CD8+ T cells expressed CD40; and in the absence of this protein, CD8+ T cells were unable to differentiate into memory cells or receive CD4 help. These results suggest that, like B cells, CD8+ T cells receive CD4 help directly through CD40 and that this interaction is fundamental for CD8+ T cell memory generation.


Privacy in secret-ballot elections has traditionally been attained by using a ballot box or voting booth to disassociate voters from ballots. Although such a system might achieve privacy, there is often little confidence in the accuracy of the announced tally. This thesis describes a practical scheme for conducting secret-ballot elections in which the outcome of an election is verifiable by all participants and even by non-participating observers. All communications are public, yet under a suitable number-theoretic assumption, the privacy of votes remains intact.
The tools developed here to conduct such elections have additional independent applications. Cryptographic capsules allow a prover to convince verifiers that either statement A or statement B is true without revealing substantial information as to which. Secret sharing homomorphisms enable computation on shared (secret) data and give a method of distributing shares of a secret such that each shareholder can verify the validity of all shares.


The purpose of this paper is to review the recent evidence on the antipoverty effectiveness and other characteristics of income maintenance for the elderly in the rich nations of the world. As they move toward Social Security reform due to worldwide population aging, strategies to reduce the future Social Security deficit in most nations examined here need to take into account the way that impending program changes affect poverty and benefit adequacy, as well as fiscal soundness. Different nations offer various approaches which would help the high elderly poverty nations to achieve lower poverty rates while also providing fiscally responsible solutions to the future public costs of an aging society.


Increased interest in ethanol production in North America has led to increased production of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), the majority of which are fed to livestock. To determine the impact of including wheat DDGS in broiler diets on nutrient excretion and P characterization and solubility, 125 one-day-old male broiler chicks were fed wheat- and soybean meal-based diets containing 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20% wheat DDGS. There were 5 replicate pens per treatment, with 5 birds per pen arranged in a randomized block design. Apparent retention of both N and P were determined by using the indicator method. Nutrients excreted per kilogram of DM intake were also calculated. Characterization of excreta P was determined by (31)P-solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and water-soluble P (WSP) was determined by extraction of excreta with deionized water. The apparent retention of both N (P < 0.001) and P (P < 0.008) decreased linearly with increasing inclusion rates of DDGS from 0 to 20%. The nutrient output per kilogram of DM intake increased linearly with increased DDGS inclusion rate for N (P < 0.04), P (P < 0.0001), and WSP (P < 0.0003). As the inclusion rate of DDGS increased, the P concentration in excreta increased (P < 0.008), whereas excreta phytate P concentrations decreased (P < 0.01), which led to an increase in WSP and the fraction of total P that was soluble. Because the inclusion of DDGS in poultry diets increased N and P output, as well as the solubility of P excreted, care should be taken when including high levels of DDGS in poultry diets, because increases in N and P excretion are a concern from an environmental standpoint.


Background Discussion about dietary factors in relation to behavioral problems in children and adolescents has been going on for a long time. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional relation between diet and self-reported behavioral problems at school in adolescents in the southern part of Norway. Design In total, 475 ninth- and tenth-grade students (236 boys and 239 girls) out of 625 eligible students from four different secondary schools in three different communities in Vest-Agder County, Norway, participated, giving a participation rate of 77%. The students filled in a questionnaire with food frequency questions of selected healthy (e.g. fruits, vegetables, and fish) and unhealthy (e.g. sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, and crisps) food items, questions of meal frequency, and four questions regarding behavioral problems at school. Results Having breakfast regularly was significantly associated with decreased odds of behavioral problems (OR: 0.29 (0.15 − 0.55), p≤0.001). A high intake of unhealthy foods, such as sugar-sweetened soft drinks (OR: 2.8 (1.06 − 7.42), p=0.03) and sweets (OR: 2.63 (1.39 − 4.98), p=0.003), was significantly associated with increased odds of behavioral problems. At the same time, a high intake of fruits was associated with decreased odds of behavioral problems in Norwegian adolescents (OR: 0.30 (0.10 − 0.87), p=0.03). All ORs are adjusted for sex and BMI. Conclusions This study shows that having an optimal diet and not skipping meals are associated with decreased odds of behavioral problems at school in Norwegian adolescents. Hence, it is important to improve the dietary intake and meal pattern of Norwegian adolescents. The cross-sectional design of this study limits any causal interpretations of the results of the study.


Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a major signaling molecule which functions downstream of integrins or in conjunction with mitogenic signaling pathways. FAK is overexpressed and/or activated in many types of human tumors, in which it promotes cell adhesion, survival, migration and invasion. In addition to FAK's ability to regulate signaling through its scaffolding activities, FAK encodes an intrinsic kinase activity. Although some FAK substrates have been identified, a more comprehensive analysis of substrates is lacking. In this study, we use a protein microarray to screen the human proteome for FAK substrates. We confirm that several of the proteins identified are bona fide in vitro FAK substrates, including several factors which are known to regulate the NFκB pathway. Finally, we identify a role for FAK's kinase activity in both canonical and non-canonical NFκB signaling. Our screen therefore represents the first high throughput screen for FAK substrates and provides the basis for future in-depth analysis of the role of FAK's kinase activity in the processes of tumorigenesis.


Optimal design for an axial-flux permanent magnet synchronous generator (AFPMSG) using genetic algorithm (GA) is presented, and the condition for minimum active material cost is deduced. A computer-aided design procedure based on the results of the GA is proposed. In the design procedure the practical and performance characteristics are taken into account as some restrictions for the object function used in the optimization algorithm. A 30-kW AFPMSG with two parallel connected stators and rotor-surface PMs is designed using the developed program, and then 3-D finite-element analyses are carried out to validate the design procedure.


Periocular biometrics specifically refers to the externally visible skin region of the face that surrounds the eye socket. Its utility is specially pronounced when the iris or the face cannot be properly acquired, being the ocular modality requiring the least constrained acquisition process. It appears over a wide range of distances, even under partial face occlusion (close distance) or low resolution iris (long distance), making it very suitable for unconstrained or uncooperative scenarios. It also avoids the need of iris segmentation, an issue in difficult images. In such situation, identifying a suspect where only the periocular region is visible is one of the toughest real-world challenges in biometrics. The richness of the periocular region in terms of identity is so high that the whole face can even be reconstructed only from images of the periocular region. The technological shift to mobile devices has also resulted in many identity-sensitive applications becoming prevalent on these devices.


We investigated the prevalence of sleepwalking using a well defined population previously used for epidemiologic investigations:the Finnish Twin Cohort. The study population consisted of 11,220 subjects aged 33 to 60 years, and it included 1,045 monozygotic and 1,899 dizygotic twin pairs. Questions on the frequency of sleepwalking were asked separately for occurrence in childhood and adulthood. Childhood sleepwalking was significantly more frequent in women ("often" in 2.8% of women and 2.0% of men and "sometimes" in 6.9% of women and 5.7% of men). As adults, sleepwalking had occurred in 3.9% of men and in 3.1% of women, and it was reported "weekly" in 0.4% for both genders. There was no significant difference in frequency between monozygotic and dizygotic twin individuals, either in childhood or adulthood. For sleepwalking in childhood the probandwise concordance rate was 0.55 for monozygotic and 0.35 for dizygotic pairs, and for adults, 0.32 for monozygotic, and 0.06 for dizygotic pairs. Those who reported never having walked in their sleep in childhood did so as adults rarely (0.6%), both men and women. Those who reported walking in their sleep often or sometimes in childhood did so as adults for 24.6% of men and for 18.3% of women. Of adult men sleepwalkers 88.9% had a positive history of sleepwalking in childhood, and in women, 84.5%. The proportion of total phenotypic variance attributed to genetic influences was 66% in men and 57% in women in childhood sleepwalking, and 80% in men and 36% in women in adult sleepwalking. Our results show that there are substantial genetic effects in sleepwalking in both childhood and adulthood. NEUROLOGY 1997;48: 177-181


PHYLOGENETIC HISTORY, MORPHOLOGICAL PARALLELISM, AND SPECIATION IN A COMPLEX OF APPALACHIAN SALAMANDERS (GENUS DESMOGNATHUS) Nathan D. Jackson Department of Integrative Biology Master of Science Understanding the mechanisms that generate shared morphologies across closely related taxa is important when identifying distinct evolutionary lineages using morphological characters. Desmognathus salamanders are an ideal group for testing hypotheses concerning the correlation between morphological similarity and genetic exchange within and among nominal species due to a pattern of high discordance between the two. Phylogeographic hypotheses are tested for populations of the D. quadramaculatus species complex throughout southern Appalachia by combining phylogenetic and population genetic methods with geographical information. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic inferences are then assessed in conjunction with morphological characteristics that have traditionally diagnosed taxonomic entities to understand the genetic basis of shared morphology in this complex, and to assess species boundaries. A history of fragmentation followed by range expansion is suggested as a recurrent pattern that has shaped the current population structure within this complex. The current taxonomy is found to unite populations that share similar morphologies due to parallel evolution rather than ancestry. We suggest revisions in taxonomy that will better reflect the evolutionary history of these lineages. Appreciation of the hidden genetic variation and homoplasious morphological variation often present in and among salamander species can foster the implementation of more appropriate methods for detecting and recognizing the complex history of these organisms.


The N-soliton solutions for the integrable Hirota equation describing pulse propagation in optical fibers with higher-order effects are presented by using the Darboux transformation method. As an example, the general one-soliton solution on a cw background is given in its explicit form. Then, two exact analytic solutions that describe (i) modulation instability and (ii) bright pulse propagation on a cw background are discussed in detail. The simulations performed in selected cases show that these soliton solutions can be generated numerically when the involved parameters do not exactly satisfy the required integrability conditions.


Electric utilities throughout the United States are under increasing pressure by the government, the public and environmental groups to make the transition to clean power as urgency over the need to address climate change grows. The Southeast will be particularly hardpressed to find substitutes for its numerous coal plants even as its nuclear options face strong public opposition. A perfect example of this struggle is embodied in the positions held by the North Carolina Waste Awareness Reduction Network (NC WARN), a non-profit environmental group located in the Durham area, and Duke Energy, a corporate electric utility provider with a generation mix comprised nearly entirely of coal and nuclear plants. In order to meet North Carolina's growing energy needs, NC WARN has promoted a combination of energy efficiency, demand-side management, and renewables while avoiding the need for new power plants. In contrast, Duke Energy has asserted that only new coal and nuclear plants are capable of reliably meeting this demand. This project analyzes why the two groups' approaches differ and what barriers and disincentives prevent Duke Energy from adopting NC WARN's more "sustainable" energy plan. It also offers recommendations for research, regulation, and policy solutions that could be used to bridge this gap. This project also provides a closer examination of the arguments surrounding Duke Energy's controversial on-going construction of a new coal-fired unit at Cliffside, North Carolina via analysis of Duke Energy's cumulative air emissions under various carbon scenarios. The results of this simulation demonstrate that carbon tax policy and renewable energy incentives will play a major role in determining whether a shift away from coal plants not involving nuclear will become a reality for energy generation in North Carolina as well as the United States as a whole.


Tree‐ring chronologies of maximum latewood density are most suitable to reconstruct annually resolved summer temperature variations of the late Holocene. The two longest such chronologies have been developed in northern Europe stretching back to the 2nd century BC, and the 5th century AD. We show where similarities between the two chronologies exist, and combine portions of both into a new summer temperature reconstruction for the Common Era. To minimize the transfer of potential biases, we assess the contribution of the candidate reconstructions' measurements, and exclude data (i) from exceptionally young and old trees, and (ii) produced by different laboratory technologies. Our new composite reconstruction reveals warmer conditions during Roman, Medieval and recent times, separated by prolonged cooling during the Migration period and Little Ice Age. Twentieth century warmth, as indicated in one of the existing density records, is reduced in the new reconstruction, also affecting the overall, millennial‐scale, cooling trend over the late Holocene (−0.30 °C per 1000 years). Due to the reduced biological memory, typical for tree‐ring density measurements, the new reconstruction is most suitable for evaluating the rate and speed of abrupt summer cooling following large volcanic eruptions.


This paper reports a lateral CMOS-MEMS accelerometer with a measured noise floor of 1 mG//spl radic/(Hz) and a dynamic range larger than 13 G. The accelerometer is fully compatible with conventional CMOS processes enabling the integration of most of the conditioning circuits. It is fabricated in a three metal layer 0.5 /spl mu/m CMOS process followed by a two-step dry etch release. An improved curl matching technique is utilized to solve the out-of-plane curl problem. A new differential amplifier is used for the capacitive sensing interface. The CMOS micromachining process used in this project is described. The design of accelerometer, system schematic applying force-balance feedback and experimental test results are presented.


Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an environment which is often rich of data about the enterprise. Data warehouse online analytical processing techniques provided decision makers a set of useful tools to analyze report and graphically represent data of the ERP. It can be said that OLAP tools provides different summarized perspectives of the data. On the other hand, Data Mining techniques can discover previously unknown patterns of knowledge. It can be said that data mining provides a deeper look in the data. This paper provides a comparison and case-study of benefits obtained by applying OLAP or data mining techniques and the effect of integrating the both approaches in ERP.


Just in time for Christmas, on 18 December 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down its Opinion 2/13 on the Union's planned accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). To the surprise of most, the CJEU found the draft agreement on the accession of the Union to the ECHR incompatible with the Union's primary (read: constitutional) law.
Not only did the CJEU find the accession agreement incompatible with the Union's constituent treaties. Its Opinion reads like a direct and unequivocal attack on the accession agreement, and it seems to be very difficult to satisfy the CJEU's objections by way of amending the accession agreement. Instead of the expected Christmas present of a signable accession agreement, the Court brought the negotiators a bag of coal.


In colonial Latin America, social identity did not correlate neatly with fixed categories of race and ethnicity. As Imperial Subjects demonstrates, from the early years of Spanish and Portuguese rule, understandings of race and ethnicity were fluid. In this collection, historians offer nuanced interpretations of identity as they investigate how Iberian settlers, African slaves, Native Americans, and their multi-ethnic progeny understood who they were as individuals, as members of various communities, and as imperial subjects. The contributors' explorations of the relationship between colonial ideologies of difference and the identities historical actors presented span the entire colonial period and beyond: from early contact to the legacy of colonial identities in the new republics of the nineteenth century. The volume includes essays on the major colonial centers of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, as well as the Caribbean basin and the imperial borderlands.

Whether analyzing cases in which the Inquisition found that the individuals before it were "legally" Indians and thus exempt from prosecution, or considering late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century petitions for declarations of whiteness that entitled the mixed-race recipients to the legal and social benefits enjoyed by whites, the book's contributors approach the question of identity by examining interactions between imperial subjects and colonial institutions. Colonial mandates, rulings, and legislation worked in conjunction with the exercise and negotiation of power between individual officials and an array of social actors engaged in countless brief interactions. Identities emerged out of the interplay between internalized understandings of self and group association and externalized social norms and categories.

Contributors . Karen D. Caplan, R. Douglas Cope, Mariana L. R. Dantas, Maria Elena Diaz, Andrew B. Fisher, Jane Mangan, Jeremy Ravi Mumford, Matthew D. O'Hara, Cynthia Radding, Sergio Serulnikov, Irene Silverblatt, David Tavarez, Ann Twinam


We analyze the effects of persecution and labor market discrimination during the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia using a representative life history sample from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We find strong effects of persecution and dispossession on subsequent earnings, with most severe implications of job loss due to persecution on earnings in subsequent jobs and on career degradation. Accumulated long-term effects in the form of initial retirement pensions paid during the communist regime are even greater. These pension penalties disappear by 2006 largely as a result of compensation schemes implemented by democratic governments after 1989. We use unique administrative data on political rehabilitation and prosecution to instrument for the endogenous variables. Finally, we survey transitional justice theory and document reparations programs in other countries.


This study focuses on the democratization in Iran from 1909 to 2013. I show that Iranian society experienced four waves of democratization. I argue that although Iran has experienced long-run processes of democratic change, the country has not yet been able to establish a democratic system. Meanwhile, these long-run processes of democratic change have led to long-lasting institutional change, realizing some of the minimum criteria of the transition process, including periodic elections. I set out a theory by which democratization increases parallel to the degree of socio-economic development. Importantly, I argue that successful democratization hinges on political elites strategically choosing to refrain from repression. The strategic choices made by the élites determine the main process of the transition stage. I use a novel dataset collected from 33 parliamentary and 11 presidential elections. Using multiple linear regression model, I find that socio-economic development and elite agency explain 0.42 percent of the variation in electoral participation and 0.62 percent of the variation in electoral competition. When elites decide to repress oppositional forces, the democratic transition index decreases by an average of 13.93 units.


SUMMARY According to general relativity, a clock experiencing a shift in the gravitational potential �U will measure a frequency change given byf/f ≈ �U/c 2 . The best clocks are optical clocks. After about 7 hr of integration they reach stabilities off/f ∼ 10 −18 and can be used to detect changes in the gravitational potential that correspond to vertical displacements of the centimetre level. At this level of performance, ground-based atomic clock networks emerge as a tool that is complementary to existing technology for monitoring a wide range of geophysical processes by directly measuring changes in the gravitational potential. Vertical changes of the clock's position due to magmatic, post-seismic or tidal deformations can result in measurable variations in the clock tick rate. We illustrate the geopotential change arising due to an inflating magma chamber using the Mogi model and apply it to the Etna volcano. Its effect on an observer on the Earth's surface can be divided into two different terms: one purely due to uplift (free-air gradient) and one due to the redistribution of matter. Thus, with the centimetre-level precision of current clocks it is already possible to monitor volcanoes. The matter redistribution term is estimated to be 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the uplift term. Additionally, clocks can be compared over distances of thousands of kilometres over short periods of time, which improves our ability to monitor periodic effects with long wavelength like the solid Earth tide.


Objectives: Self-assessment, as one type of alternative assessment, with the increased attention to learner-centered curricula, needs analysis, and learner autonomy has gained popularity in recent years. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of self-assessment on Javanroodian Foreign Language (Kordestan) Learners' Oral Performance ability. Methods: The assessment program involved training, practice, videotaping, feedback, assessment and discussion. Twenty English as a foreign language students of foreign language institutes in Javanrood participated in the study. They were divided into experimental and control group, based on the results of English oral performance pre- tests. The research instrument consisted of a self- assessment checklist containing subcategories related to the organization of the presentation, content, linguistic factors (vocabulary use, grammatical rules and pronunciation) and interaction with the audience. It was developed as a result of interviewing participants and their teachers and then adapting results based on the results of reviewing available checklists in the literature. The data was collected by the experimental group members' self- assessments of their 6 oral performances and the teacher's assessment of their performances. Results: The obtained data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential methods. Results indicated that participating in self- assessment process had positive effect on learners' oral performance ability. Discussion: Results will have implications for policy makers, material designers and developers, teachers and learners. It will also open up the doors of introducing new trends in assessment to teachers and learners.


Huge amounts of pollen can accumulate at the air‐water interface during the floral bloom of wind‐pollinated trees. We hypothesized that such pollen rains act as subsidy pulses, promoting the development of a neustonic microbial food web and the transfer of pollen organic carbon to aquatic consumers. During a pine pollen rain event on an oxbow lake, microorganism concentrations were by far higher in the neuston, where pollen grains accumulated, than in the seston. Zooplankton species were also unevenly distributed in the two compartments. Bulk isotope and isotopes of fatty acid analyses revealed trophic partitioning among these zooplankton species, with some of the taxa foraging specifically on neuston, where they benefit from pollen‐derived carbon. Microorganisms were identified as a key element in the trophic upgrading of pollen food quality and in the transfer of pollen carbon to metazoan consumers. Pollen rains may thus contribute, as an allochthonous food pulse, to aquatic production at specific seasons, but they may also act as a structuring factor in lake habitats.


This paper proposes a critical survey of crowd analysis techniques using visual and non-visual sensors. Automatic crowd understanding has a massive impact on several applications including surveillance and security, situation awareness, crowd management, public space design, intelligent and virtual environments. In case of emergency, it enables practical safety applications by identifying crowd situational context information. This survey identifies different approaches as well as relevant work on crowd analysis by means of visual and non-visual techniques. Multidisciplinary research groups are addressing crowd phenomenon and its dynamics ranging from social, and psychological aspects to computational perspectives. The possibility to use smartphones as sensing devices and fuse this information with video sensors data, allows to better describe crowd dynamics and behaviors. Eventually, challenges and further research opportunities with reference to crowd analysis are exposed.


In this paper, we want to bring together two issues for their mutual illumination: (i) the particular use of that hoary Indian dyad, "nāma-rūpa", literally, "name-and-form by Buddhaghosa, the influential 5th c Theravāda writer, to organize the categories of the abhidhamma, the canonical classification of phenomenal factors (dhammas) and their formulaic ordering;1 and (ii) an interpretation of phenomenology as a methodology. We argue that Buddhaghosa does not use abhidhamma as a reductive ontological division of the human being into mind and body, but as the contemplative structuring of that human's phenomenology. This phenomenological methodology expressed in his application of nāma-rūpa is expressed as a set of contemplative practices; we compare this approach to some of the processes explicated within the 20th c Western Phenomenological tradition's predominantly metaphysical teleology. We suggest that Buddhaghosa's use of nāma-rūpa should be seen as the analytic by which he understands how experience is undergone, and not his account of how some reality is structured. We can learn from Buddhaghosa something about both how experience is to be analyzed, and how that analysis has a clarificatory purpose not tied to the espousal of any particular 'view' of reality.


In addition to the already present Climate and Energy package, the European Union (EU) plans to include a binding target to reduce energy consumption. We analyze the rationales the EU invokes to justify such an overlapping and develop a minimal common framework to study interactions arising from the combination of instruments reducing emissions, promoting renewable energy (RE) production and reducing energy demand through energy efficiency (EE) investments. We find that although all instruments tend to reduce emissions and a price on carbon tends to give the right incentives for RE and EE too, the combination of more than one instrument leads to significant antagonisms regarding major objectives of the policy package. The model allows to show in a single framework and to quantify the antagonistic effects of the joint promotion of RE and EE. We also show and quantify the effects of this joint promotion on ETS permit price, on wholesale market price and on energy production levels.


Outsourcing is a strategy used by local governments in an effort to provide high-quality public services at a low cost. The underlying idea is that a locality can take advantage of a vendor's considerable experience and economies of scale. The result will be comparable or better-quality services than provided by the locality itself, at a reduced cost to taxpayers, while still allowing the vendor to earn a reasonable profit. During the past three decades, local governments in both the United States and abroad have undertaken such disparate outsourcing activities as animal control, legal services, fire protection, trash collection, health care, snow plowing, building maintenance, bill collection, data processing, street cleaning, street repair, and recycling. Unfortunately, outsourcing has not always achieved the dual goals of high quality and reduced cost. In part, this is because of poor vendor management by localities. The way in which a locality must manage its vendors depends on the risk associated with the outsourced activity. The purpose of this article is to present two frameworks that can assist local governments in outsourcing. The first framework is designed to assess the nature of the risk of a potentially outsourced activity. The second, on which we place most of our emphasis, comprises techniques that can be used to manage the vendor of a high-risk outsourced activity. In this regard, it is important to note that many communities tend to avoid high-risk outsourcing. Yet, just because an activity is high-risk is not a good reason to avoid it; rather, it must be managed differently from a low-risk outsourced activity if it is to achieve cost-effective results for the citizenry.


Because of the difficulty of data collection, little is known about the climate and hydrology of high mountain basins. Following the development of an automatic weather station (AWS) in the 1960s for use in upland Britain, the Institute of Hydrology is now engaged in developing an AWS for operation in more mountainous areas. To this end, and using the summit of Cairn Gorm in Scotland as a proving-ground, investigations are being carried out into methods of preventing ice accretion, new ways of deploying temperature sensors, alternative ways of exposing radiation sensors consistent with the deicing techniques, the sensing of wind by static sensors, the choice of the most appropriate method of sensing humidity, and the measurement of rain and snowmelt. This paper describes these new techniques.


Stream amphibian communities, occupying a sensitive environment, are often useful indicators of effects of adjoining land uses. We compared abundance and community composition of anuran amphibians along streams in tea monoculture, shade coffee plantation, and a rainforest fragment in Old Valparai area of the Anamalai hills. Overall species density and rarefaction species richness was the highest in rainforest fragment and did not vary between the coffee and tea land uses. Densities of certain taxa, and consequently community composition, varied significantly among the land uses, being greater between rainforest fragment and tea monoculture with shade coffee being intermediate. Observed changes are probably related to streamside alteration due to land use, suggesting the need to retain shade tree cover and remnant riparian rainforest vegetation as buffers along streams.


Examination of the reported nucleotide sequences containing avirulence genes of Pseudomonas syringae pathovars suggested that avrA, avrB, avrC, avrPphC, avrRpm1, and avrPpiA1 are bordered by sequences similar to those of transposable elements of gram-negative bacteria. Repeat sequences and fragments of at least two different insertion sequence elements were identified at the ends of avrA and avrB, implying multiple transposition events for these areas. A DNA region homologous to a bacteriophage sequence was found upstream of avrPto. The linkage of various virulence/avirulence genes of animal- and plantpathogenic bacteria with transposable elements and bacteriophage sequences, together with the presence of several of these genes on plasmids, supports the idea of horizontal transfer and frequent exchange of virulence/avirulence genes among bacterial pathogens. Additional keywords: evolution, hypersensitive reaction, pathogenicity island, transposon, type III protein secretion.


Water management, soil conservation, sustainable animal husbandry ...because such socio-environmental challenges have been faced throughout history, lessons from the past can often inform modern policy. In this book, case studies from a wide range of times and places reveal how archaeology can contribute to a better understanding of humans? relation to the environment. The Archaeology of Environmental Change shows that the challenges facing humanity today, in terms of causing and reacting to environmental change, can be better approached through an attempt to understand how societies in the past dealt with similar circumstances. The contributors draw on archaeological research in multiple regions North America, Mesoamerica, Europe, the Near East, and Africafrom time periods spanning the Holocene, and from environments ranging from tropical forest to desert. Through such examples as environmental degradation in Transjordan, wildlife management in East Africa, and soil conservation among the ancient Maya, they demonstrate the negative effects humans have had on their environments and how societies in the past dealt with these same problems. All call into question and ultimately refute popular notions of a simple cause-and-effect relationship between people and their environment, and reject the notion of people as either hapless victims of unstoppable forces or inevitable destroyers of natural harmony. These contributions show that by examining long-term trajectories of socio-natural relationships we can better define concepts such as sustainability, land degradation, and conservation, nd that gaining a more accurate and complete understanding of these connections is essential for evaluating current theories and models of environmental degradation and conservation. Their insights demonstrate that to understand the present environment and to manage landscapes for the future, we must consider the historical record of the total sweep of anthropogenic environmental change.


The term "second nature", which has already been used in antiquity, occupies a key position in the philosophical debates of the present. Even if it is interpreted differently in different traditional contexts, the term is always intended to solve the problem of how nature and freedom, causal necessity and human spirit relate to each other. The Congress of the International Hegel Association sought to contribute to the elucidation of the relationship of the topics associated with the concept of "Second Nature" in the light of various disciplines. The volume publishes the three plenary lectures and the contributions to the eleven colloquia as well as a young scholars' forum; the spectrum of topics ranges from historical confrontations with individual traditions and epochs to the treatment of the role of "Second Nature" in aesthetics, social philosophy, psychoanalysis, and anthropology.


The efficiency of arsenic removal from drinking water in adsorption processes using natural oxides may be influenced by the presence of other adsorbable anions. The present paper focuses on the study of arsenate adsorption by a natural manganese oxide. The objective is to determine which of the anions usually present in drinking water may be adsorbed: hydrogen carbonate, sulfate, chloride, nitrate, phosphate and arsenate. A kinetic batch experiment was conducted with a natural drinking water, leading to a first qualitative selection: nitrate and chloride have little interaction with the adsorbent, sulfate and hydrogen carbonate are adsorbed while phosphate and arsenate are strongly adsorbed. Then column experiments were run with aqueous solutions containing either chloride, sulfate, etc. The previous trends were confirmed and the equilibrium isotherms of the adsorbable anions were built by integration of the breakthrough curves. The isotherms fitted with a Langmuir model showed that the capacitieswere low (a few μmol.g -1 ). The affinity order was determined from the isotherm initial slopes: arsenate ≫ phosphate > hydrogen carbonate ≌ sulfate. Given the strong affinity of the adsorbent for arsenate and the low arsenate concentration in drinking water, the process selectivity for As traces from drinking water is ensured.


We have calculated three-dimensional maps from images of myosin subfragment-1 (S1)-decorated thin filaments and S1-decorated actin filaments preserved in frozen solution. By averaging many data sets we obtained highly reproducible maps that can be interpreted simply to provide a model for the native structure of decorated filaments. From our results we have made the following conclusions. The bulk of the actin monomer is approximately 65 X 40 X 40 A and is composed of two domains. In the filaments the monomers are strongly connected along the genetic helix with weaker connections following the long pitch helix. The long axis of the monomer lies roughly perpendicular to the filament axis. The myosin head (S1) approaches the actin filament tangentially and binds to a single actin, the major interaction being with the outermost domain of actin. In the map the longest chord of S1 is approximately 130 A. The region of S1 closest to actin is of high density, whereas the part furthest away is poorly defined and may be disordered. By comparing maps from decorated thin filaments with those from decorated actin, we demonstrate that tropomyosin is bound to the inner domain of actin just in front of the myosin binding site at a radius of approximately 40 A. A small change in the azimuthal position of tropomyosin, as has been suggested by others to occur during Ca2+- mediated regulation in vertebrate striated muscle, appears to be insufficient to eclipse totally the major site of interaction between actin and myosin.


Childhood obesity in the UK is a serious public health concern. In some ethnic minority groups obesity prevalence is significantly higher than the national average (The NHS Information Centre, 2010). Therefore, it is recommended that interventions to manage childhood obesity are tailored to the needs of ethnic minority groups (NICE, 2006). GOALS (Getting Our Active Lifestyles Started!) is a community based, childhood obesity management programme that focuses upon physical activity, nutrition and behaviour change in families (Watson et aI., 2011). However, monitoring data has suggested an unrepresentatively low proportion of ethnic minority families who are referred to GOALS choose to access the service. Therefore the aim of this research was to improve the cultural relevance of the GOALS programme, whilst also contributing to the evidence-base for local and national strategic planning surrounding obesity and ethnicity. Studies set out to explore perceptions surrounding childhood weight, diet and physical activity in different ethnic groups; identify cultural preferences, and barriers to participation in healthy lifestyle interventions; to implement and pilot a culturally accessible intervention, using the GOALS framework for development; and to assess the acceptability and effectiveness of the pilot intervention. A multi-method, pluralistic, research design was employed that recognised the complexity of the research aims. In total three empirical studies were conducted, and parents (of children aged 4 to 16 years) and school-aged children participated. A combination of process and outcome data was obtained. Quantitative methods were used for descriptive and explanatory purposes and included questionnaire (Study 1,2 and 3b) and BMI measures (Study 3b). Qualitative methods included focus groups (Study 2 and 3a), face-to-face interviews (Study 3b) and the write-and draw-technique (Study 3b). Exploratory data gave context and depth to the research. In Study 1, parents (n=808) identified their ethnic background as Asian British, Black African, Black Somali, Chinese, South Asian, White British and Yemeni. Ethnic background was significantly associated to parental perceptions of weight in childhood. Results showed Black Somali parents exhibited the lowest level of concern for overweight in childhood in comparison to other ethnic groups. In Study 2, parents (n=36) and children (n=31) from six ethnic groups (Asian Bangladeshi, Black African, Black Somali, Chinese, White British and Yemeni) identified intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental barriers to healthy weight. Findings demonstrated that influences to health behaviours were sometimes specific to particular ethnic groups. For example, dominant cultural norms valuing overweight in childhood were apparent among Yemeni, Black African, Black Somali and Asian Bangladeshi parents and Asian Bangladeshi children. Results from Study 3a with parents (n=33) from ethnically diverse backgrounds, identified barriers and preferences to attending an intervention were often related to cultural and religious values of ethnic groups. Parents considered the ethnic composition of the group important, and suggested an intervention should be relevant to the ethnic background of all families attending. Based on these findings, 'surface' and 'deep' (Reniscow et al., 1999) structural modifications were made to the GOALS programme. Nine families from Asian British, Asian Bangladeshi, Yemeni and Black Somali backgrounds attended the pilot intervention to examine its appropriateness. Process and outcome data from Study 3b illustrated families benefited from a healthy lifestyles intervention that was designed to be culturally acceptable to multiple ethnic groups. This thesis has added to the limited evidence base surrounding the cultural relevance of family-based childhood obesity management programmes for ethnic minority groups. Differences in cultural norms between ethnic populations, and variations in assimilation to Western norms and acculturation within groups, highlight the complex task in addressing childhood obesity in multiple ethnic groups. Knowledge gained from the successful engagement of ethnic minority families in a culturally sensitive healthy lifestyle intervention, has lead to the development of key recommendations for policy and practice that extend beyond childhood obesity management to health promotion more widely.