Public relations firms report business boom Public relations executives from virtually every region of the country report that their firms enjoyed an unprecedented surge in new business in the first three months of 1990. Not only did many firms add new clients to their rosters, they also experienced a sharp rise in business from existing ones and an upsurge in the number of serious inquiries from potential client prospects. "We've been very, very busy in the first three months of this year," says Ed Portmann, president of Portmann Communications, an Irvine, California-based public relations firm specializing in real estate. "Our business is up about 25 percent across the board." If the boom continues, Portmann will have to hire more people to handle the work load. In other parts of the country -- even regions with flat economies -- the story is much the same for both big and small firms. An informal PRJ survey of public relations firms around the country reveals that many expect their 1990 fee income to increase 25 percent to 50 percent over 1989 if the dizzying first-quarter growth continues through the year. "Quantum leap" in fees Another positive development, firm executives say, is that many new clients, including start-up companies, are using public relations services for the first time. "It's not just a shifting of PR dollars from one firm to another," notes one firm owner. David Kirk, APR, principal at Goebel Kirk, Inc., Philadelphia, says his firm has already taken on seven new accounts this year and is negotiating with a few other potential clients, despite what he calls a "very tight" market. "We've had an unusual surge in the number of quality prospects," Kirk says. "If we get the business we're currently expecting, it's not going to be an incremental jump in fees, it's going to be a quantum leap." Jack F. Agnew, APR, a partner at Agnew, Carter, McCarthy, Inc., Boston, says his firm expects billings to increase by about 45 percent this year, despite a serious economic downturn in New England that has forced both local and state governments to seek additional revenue through tax hikes. "We're probably headed for the best year we've had in the history of the firm," Agnew reports. Increasing recognition for field Public relations executives offer various theories as to why many companies and other clients are increasing their reliance on public relations. One common thread running through their comments is that public relations' new emphasis on specialties such as crisis management and strategic planning has extended its usefulness and earned it greater respect. "I think we're seeing the senior management of client companies now moving into an era in which they have watched PR mature and have recognized our ability in issues management and other specialties," says Roger Pynn, APR, principal, Curley & Pynn Public Relations, Orlando, Florida. "Public relations firms are now offering and expanding the kinds of services, like media relations and community relations, that clients really rely on," adds Cynthia Pharr, APR, president, CEO, Tracy-Locke/Pharr Public Relations, in Dallas. …


This study concerns the nature of impoliteness in face-to-face spoken interaction. For more than three decades many pragmatic and sociolinguistic studies of interaction have considered politeness to be one central explanatory concept governing and underpinning face-to-face interaction. Politeness' "evil twin" impoliteness has been largely neglected until only very recently. This book, the first of its kind on the subject, considers the role that impoliteness has to play by drawing extracts from a range of discourse types (car parking disputes, army and police training, police-public interactions and kitchen discourse). The study considers the triggering of impoliteness; explores the dynamic progression of impolite exchanges, and examines the way in which such exchanges come to some form of resolution. 'Face' and the linguistic sophistication and manipulation of discoursally expected norms to cause, or deflect impoliteness is also explored, as is the dynamic and sometimes hotly contested nature of an individual's socio-discoursal role.


We propose a novel scheme for continuous-wave pumped optical parametric oscillation (OPO) inside silicon micro-resonators. The proposed scheme not only requires a relative low lasing threshold, but also exhibits extremely broad tunability extending from the telecom band to mid infrared.


Although previous research has theorized about team interaction differences between the German and U.S. cultures, actual behavioral observations of such differences are sparse. This study explores team meetings as a context for examining intercultural differences. We analyzed a total of 5,188 meeting behaviors in German and U.S. student teams. All teams discussed the same task to consensus. Results from behavioral process analyses showed that German teams focused significantly more on problem analysis, whereas U.S. teams focused more on solution production. Moreover, U.S. teams showed significantly more positive socioemotional meeting behavior than German teams. Finally, German teams showed significantly more counteractive behavior such as complaining than U.S. teams. We discuss theoretical and pragmatic implications for understanding these observable differences and for improving interaction in intercultural teams.


While dynamic power consumption has traditionally been the primary source of power consumption, leakage power is becoming an increasingly important concern as technology feature size continues to shrink. Previous system-level approaches focus on reducing power consumption without considering leakage power consumption. To overcome this limitation, we propose a two-phase approach to combine dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) and adaptive body biasing (ABB) for distributed real-time embedded systems. DVS is a powerful technique for reducing dynamic power consumption quadratically. However, DVS often requires a reduction in the threshold voltage that increases subthreshold leakage current exponentially and, hence, subthreshold leakage power consumption. ABB, which exploits the exponential dependence of subthreshold leakage power on the threshold voltage, is effective in managing leakage power consumption. We first derive an energy consumption model to determine the optimal supply voltage and body bias voltage under a given clock frequency. Then, we analyze the tradeoff between energy consumption and clock period to allocate slack to a set of tasks with precedence relationships and real-time constraints. Based on this two-phase approach, we propose a new system-level scheduling algorithm that can optimize both dynamic power and leakage power consumption by performing DVS and ABB simultaneously for distributed real-time embedded systems. Experimental results show that the average power reduction of our technique with respect to DVS alone is 37.4% for the 70-nm technology.


This paper studies the problem of locating multiple diffusion sources in networks with partial observations. We propose a new source localization algorithm, named Optimal-Jordan-Cover (OJC). The algorithm first extracts a subgraph using a candidate selection algorithm that selects source candidates based on the number of observed infected nodes in their neighborhoods. Then, in the extracted subgraph, OJC finds a set of nodes that "cover" all observed infected nodes with the minimum radius. The set of nodes is called the Jordan cover, and is regarded as the set of diffusion sources. Considering the heterogeneous susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) diffusion in the Erdos-Renyi (ER) random graph, we prove that OJC can locate all sources with probability one asymptotically with partial observations. OJC is a polynomial-time algorithm in terms of network size. However, the computational complexity increases exponentially in m; the number of sources. We further propose a low-complexity heuristic based on the K-Means for approximating the Jordan cover, named Approximate-Jordan-Cover (AJC). Simulations on random graphs and real networks demonstrate that both AJC and OJC significantly outperform other heuristic algorithms.


Most simple blending functions are polynomials, while more advanced blending functions are, for example, rational or expo-rational fractions. The Fabius function has the required properties of a blending function, but is a nowhere analytic function and cannot be calculated exactly everywhere on the required domain. We present a new set of trigonometric and polynomial blending functions with the shape and other properties similar to the Fabius function. They consist of combinations of trigonometric polynomials and piecewise polynomials. The main advanced of these are that they are easy to implement, have low processing costs and have simple derivatives. This makes them very suitable for the calculation of splines. Due to the selfdifferential property of the Fabius function, scaled versions of these functions can even be used to approximate their own derivatives.


In hydrological practice, the design values of extreme rainfalls are generally estimated by means of frequency analysis applied to a finite sample of extreme rainfall values. The most usual approach taken in such analysis is to fit a statistical distribution to an annual maximum series (AMS) built upon one value per year. As an alternative approach, the peaks-over-threshold (POT) technique considers all the peak values above a given threshold and thusly allows for a more rational selection of events to include in the frequency analysis. The research presented in this paper reviews the relative merits of the two aforementioned approaches by analyzing the confidence intervals of extreme rainfall quantiles that result from their application. Despite the usually larger extreme value sample sizes made possible by the POT technique, the estimation of design values by such approach requires the analysis of both the magnitude and the times of arrival of extreme rainfall events. Hence the uncertainty associated with the estimated quantiles results from the combination of the two models applied to ascertain the magnitude and the frequency. Using daily rainfall data samples from Portugal and from Paraguay, four statistical models are applied (two AMS models and two POT models) and a comparison of the estimated quantiles is made. Furthermore, quantile confidence intervals were constructed using both asymptotic theory and the Monte Carlo simulation technique. Such intervals assume an important role in hydrological risk analyses, as they enable the assessment of the uncertainties associated with estimating distribution parameters and quantiles from finite samples of extreme rainfalls. The research was carried out in the scope of the European joint project CapWEM – Capacity development in Water Engineering and Environmental Management Risk Analysis VIII 293 www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517 (on-line) WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies, Vol 44, © 201 WIT Press 2 doi:10.2495/RISK120251 – in which eight partner institutions from European and Latin American countries collaborate on improving higher education in the fields of Water and Environmental Management.


Designers from around the world have proposed numerous engineering design solutions for problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of which leverage the rapid prototyping and manufacturing capabilities of additive manufacturing (AM). While some of these solutions are motivated by complex and urgent requirements (e.g., face masks), others are motivated by simpler and less urgent needs (e.g., hands-free door openers). Previous research suggests that problem definition influences the creativity of solutions generated for it. In this study, we investigate the relationship between the definition of problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the characteristics of AM solutions that were openly shared for these problems. Specifically, we analyze 26 AM solutions spanning three categories: (1) hands-free door openers (low complexity problem), (2) face shields (moderate complexity problem), and (3) face masks (high complexity problem). These designs were compared on (1) DfAM utilization, (2) manufacturability (i.e., build time, cost, and material usage), and (3) creativity. We see that the solutions designed for the high complexity problem, i.e., face masks, were least suitable for AM. Moreover, we see that solutions designed for the moderate complexity problem, i.e., face shields, had the lowest build time, build cost, and material consumption. Finally, we observe that the problem definition did not relate to the creativity of the AM solutions. In light of these findings, designers must sufficiently emphasize the AM suitability and manufacturability of their solutions when designing for urgent and complex problems in rapid response situations.


Narrow bandgap semiconductors exhibit very large optical nonlinearities in the infrared owing to large two-photon absorption that scales as the inverse cube of the bandgap energy and the large losses and refraction from two-photon generated free carriers. Except for extremely short pulses, the free-carrier effects dominate the nonlinear losses and nonlinear refraction. Here we develop a method for the calculation of the free-electron refraction cross section in InSb. We also calculate the Auger recombination coefficient in InSb and find it to be in good agreement with existing experimental data. In all the calculations we rely on Fermi-Dirac statistics and use a four-band k⋅p theory for band structure calculations. Experiments on the transmission of submicrosecond CO2 laser pulses through InSb produce results consistent with the calculated parameters.


The performance of current transaction processing systems largely depends on human experts for administration and tuning. These experts have to specify a multitude of internal control parameters in different subsystems for which finding appropriate settings is very difficult. Another shortcoming of manual system administration lies in its inability to quickly react to changing system and workload conditions. In order to overcome these limitations we advocate for an automatic and adaptive performance control. To simplify the administration we pursue a "goaloriented" approach that aims at automatically enforcing external performance objectives, in particular response time goals. The effective implementation of such a scheme poses a multitude of largely unsolved challenges. Our approach is based on a feedback loop for automatic detection and correction of performance problems and requires comparatively few extensions over existing TP systems. We have implemented various control strategies for bottleneck determination and resolution within a detailed simulation system. Results of some initial simulation experiments are analyzed.


We report the results of a study of superconducting proximity effects in clean Ferromagnet/Ferromagnet/Superconductor (${\rm F_1F_2S}$) heterostructures, where the pairing state in S is a conventional singlet s-wave. We numerically find the self-consistent solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations and use these solutions to calculate the relevant physical quantities. By linearizing the BdG equations, we obtain the superconducting transition temperatures $T_c$ as a function of the angle $\alpha$ between the exchange fields in $\rm F_1$ and $\rm F_2$. We find that the results for $T_c(\alpha)$ in ${\rm F_1F_2S}$ systems are clearly different from those in ${\rm F_1 S F_2}$ systems, where $T_c$ monotonically increases with $\alpha$ and is highest for antiparallel magnetizations. Here, $T_c(\alpha)$ is in general a non-monotonic function, and often has a minimum near $\alpha \approx 80^{\circ}$. For certain values of the exchange field and layer thicknesses, the system exhibits reentrant superconductivity with $\alpha$: it transitions from superconducting to normal, and then returns to a superconducting state again with increasing $\alpha$. This phenomenon is substantiated by a calculation of the condensation energy. We compute, in addition to the ordinary singlet pair amplitude, the induced odd triplet pairing amplitudes. The results indicate a connection between equal-spin triplet pairing and the singlet pairing state that characterizes $T_c$. We find also that the induced triplet amplitudes can be very long-ranged in both the S and F sides and characterize their range. We discuss the average density of states for both the magnetic and the S regions, and its relation to the pairing amplitudes and $T_c$. The local magnetization vector, which exhibits reverse proximity effects, is also investigated.


Geographical clusters have become axiomatic in theories of creativity and innovation. Clustering is advantageous to firms to promote greater levels of innovation due to physical proximity and the networked relationships that are unleashed. Because of this, cluster theory has become a perennial feature in off-the-shelf urban development policy prescriptions rolled out across cities worldwide. The chapter seeks to provide a critique of this state of affairs, aimed at sobering the degree of enthusiasm to rush to clusters as the pre-eminent policy solution. First, the authors revisit key thinkers in economic geography who theorized agglomerating tendencies as a key dynamic within a framework that encompasses centripetal and centrifugal geographic forces. Second, they illustrate the roles that underlying geography and history play in shaping the possibilities for agglomeration and dispersal of innovation activities. Two empirical examples from the authors' previous work on the geography of creative industries are briefly revisited to illustrate. The first is a creative industries mapping project that sought to empirically document economic activity in Darwin, Australia, a small, highly suburbanized and physically remote city not normally associated with big city innovation. The second example is of bootmaking in El Paso, Texas. Drawing inspiration from recent critical, and grounded, work in evolutionary economic geography the authors argue that theorization of the geography of innovation must remain attuned to deeper run, geographically-contingent and cumulative-causal processes that shape present possibilities.


This study shows that mineral surface coatings in upper soil horizons can preserve products of past abiotic and biotic soil processes and are thus able to record environmental changes on the nanoscale. Contrary to studies involving paleosols, the soil memory of coatings can only be deciphered with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) on samples prepared using focused ion beam technology. To demonstrate this method, mineral grains were collected in the shallow soils of the Greater Sudbury area, Ontario, Canada, where large fluctuations in the soil pH have occurred during emissions of vast amounts of sulfuric acid and particulate matter (a result of decades of smelter activity in the Sudbury mining district) and subsequent reclamation efforts using lime and phosphates. Observations with HRTEM indicate that limited diffusion of elements in silicified Fe-hydroxide coatings has been the key to the preservation of a rarely observed mineralogy and chemistry. The most intriguing features include petrified cocci in proximity to a structural analogue of green rust (formed prior to the peak of smelter emissions), pockets of jarosite encapsulated by amorphous silica (peak of the smelter emissions), chains of biogenic magnetite, and Fe-(hydr)oxides with high amounts of adsorbed phosphate species (during and after reclamation). These observations indicate that chemical processes in confined pore and interface spaces are commonly in disequilibrium with the surrounding soil, and that Fe-silica–bearing coatings can be excellent tracking tools for the evolution of the chemistry of soils and sediments.


Drawbacks of online education, especially at scale, include the isolation and loss of community that come with taking classes from one's home rather than in a typical coordinated classroom. In this series of studies, we explore the potential of an immersive virtual environment to recreate shared educational contexts in an online program, emphasizing those that focus on universal dynamics like discussions, Q&A, and lecture-watching. Using Mozilla Hubs-which offers virtual reality as well as a browser-based immersive environment for participants without VR headsets-we implement three common, student-driven on-campus environments: a lecture hall, a student lounge, and a poster session. We test these environments with students in an online graduate program through surveys and a controlled experiment. We find significant interest in the potential of these environments, but hurdles to their adoption as well.


We study how the proximity of elections affects policy choices in a model in which policymakers want to improve their reputation to increase their reelection chances. Policymakers' equilibrium decisions depend on both their reputation and the proximity of the next election. Typically, incentives to influence election results are stronger closer to the election (for a given reputation level), as argued in the political cycles literature, and these political cycles are less important when the policymaker's reputation is better. Our analysis sheds light on other agency relationships in which part of the compensation is decided upon infrequently.


While we may not agree with all aspects of the Korean mother's role in her child's education, we cannot deny that a strong family commitment and a demanding curriculum have been driving forces in Korean students' enviable academic achievement, Messrs. Ellinger and Beckham point out. Overcoming a long history of Japanese rule and a devastating war, the small Republic of South Korea (just 45 million people) has achieved transformations that took centuries in most nations in the West. With its push toward heavy industry - steel, construction, ship building, automobiles - and a substantial investment in high technology, South Korea has surpassed such regional rivals as Taiwan and has gone on to challenge both Japan and the U.S. At the heart of this remarkable achievement is Korea's education system, which has been the major source of trained labor in the various fields and at skill levels needed for economic development. Education in South Korea is compulsory only through the sixth grade. However, most students continue through high school. Parents of high school students must pay tuition of approximately $1,200 a year, a figure that could triple when one adds the additional costs of textbooks and private tutoring. Students in middle and high schools attend school Monday through Saturday (half a day on Saturday) for a total of 222 days. The school year runs from March to March, including a winter break from late December until the end of February. Class schedules resemble university schedules in the U.S., with courses taught on alternate days. Students take required courses, including such subjects as ethics, math, biology, chemistry, physics, literature, grammar, a second language, composition, and technology and industry. The days are long for Korean students. High school students, for example, attend school from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m., but they return to study hall at 6 p.m. and do not leave before 10 p.m. During the day, poorly heated classrooms house an average of 40 to 50 students, sitting in well-worn desks arranged in long straight rows; evening study halls are conducted in equally cold rooms that seat 200 students, hunched over tiny wooden desks, many of which are of 1920 to 1940 vintage. After study hall, a Korean student's day is still not over; many of them view an educational television channel or work on homework assignments from 10:30 p.m. until midnight. Others attend evening hak gwan - private institutes in which they receive supplementary academic lessons. Another important link in this intricate system is private tutoring. Educated people from all age groups - from retired people to university students - share their special skills as tutors, earning supplemental income in the process. In the preschool and kindergarten years, students receive tutoring in such subjects as art and music. In elementary school, they receive private instruction in English, writing Korean, and music. While these tutoring sessions during the early years are mostly fun, once a student enters middle school the lessons become a vital component of his or her education. Like everything else in Korea, education matters. South Koreans view education as they view the rest of life: a process of winning and losing. They have no concept of a game played well for its own sake. …


Introduction: Considering that the loss of facial volume is a primary factor associated with aging, an increased demand for safe, long-lasting, and biocompatible filling materials has been observed. Thus, the use of fat grafting has gained considerable popularity. However, there are open questions about the safety, efficacy, and durability of fat grafting. Moreover, most studies have not presented the volumes injected in each region, making learning challenging for beginners in the area. In this study, the results of facial rejuvenation with fat grafting in 151 consecutive cases were analyzed. Methods: Fat was collected via manual suction, centrifuged at 448 g (2000 rpm/radius 10 cm) for 4 min, and injected with microcannulas that are 1-1.1 mm in size. The injection sites and corresponding injection volumes were identified. Results: The mean follow-up time was 289.29 days (minimum: 7 days, maximum: 1254 days, and standard deviation [SD]: 275.1), and the mean injection volume was 32 mL (range: 4-68 mL, SD: 14). Moreover, no complications were observed. Conclusion: Fat grafting is a safe, predictable, and effective procedure, and it can be used for facial rejuvenation in certain cases. ■ ABSTRACT


Following Deleuze's theory, the emergence of the "time-image" following the Second World War led to (our relationship to) the world disappearing from film. Following Jean-Luc Nancy, the Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami is a privileged witness to a cinema that liberates itself from a "postmodern" obsession with the disappearance of the world. Nancy reveals three foci of cinema: the look, the movement and the real (the world). The "alethic" (Heidegger) look is "mobilized" by cinema; it forces us to remain in contemplative and mental motion. In experiences of e vidence the cinema presents us "the real" (Lacan). In Fruchtl's article, he argues that cinema is not merely the ontological celebration of presence, but the aesthetic celebration of a tension generating and suspended difference: between presence and its re-presentation. The evidence of cinema thus is the mediated result of an interactive, even playful relationship of our dimensions of experience. What opens is a space full of possible meanings, a textual web which only takes shape with time and with the help of the subject providing meaning.


The need for decreasing the workload among educators, timely feedback and accuracy and consistency on the grading results are the common reasons that motivate the development of Automated Programming Assessment Systems (APAS). Using our newly deployed APAS on Databases course we have evaluated students' knowledge using a "little and often" pattern and employed gathered data to predict students' performance on the course. The course's pass percentage and students' grades were predicted using several data mining techniques. Besides internal data gathered during course's execution, additional external variables (like grade point average) were considered for the data mining models. Our analysis shows that the accuracy of prediction is not highly affected if external variables are unknown. The pass percentage accuracy predictions is sufficiently high, especially after the half of semester (~80%), which allows for proactive approach towards the students we believe will fail the course. Other than that, we came up with few valuable insights into the structure and content of assignments that shall be applied in the next course cycle, in accordance with our intention to use course's data to improve the teaching and optimize the staff's man-hours.


High-frequency activity has been described as having a role in the initiation of epileptic seizures. The case of a patient with refractory bitemporal epilepsy is presented. Extraoperative monitoring with depth and subdural electrodes revealed an ictal pattern with a build-up of high-frequency (> 80 Hz) activity originating in the cortex, with spread to both hippocampi. This observation was only revealed with the use of high-pass filtering, and represented crucial information that significantly influenced the decision about the side, localization and extent of resection. Removal of the cortex generating high-frequency activity, led to cessation of seizures in this patient. Current knowledge about the role of high-frequency activity and the case presented here support the importance of recording with equipment capable of detecting fast activity during the presurgical invasive monitoring. An active search for a high-frequency seizure onset zone in patients with structurally-unaffected hippocampi may improve the outcome beyond that possible with conventional bandwidth, invasive EEG recordings.


Activation Induced Deaminase (AID) is a crucial protein in B cells, required for a
functional humoral immune system. The regulation and the molecular mechanism of
AID is the focus of my thesis.
As an enzyme, AID induces mutations and recombination in immunoglobulin genes,
leading to increased antibody affinity for antigen and alterations in antibody-effector
function. Catalytically, AID deaminates cytosine to uracil in single-stranded DNA, a
DNA lesion that leads to a mismatch in double-stranded DNA. AID can be controlled
via multiple pathways, including: a) targeting AID to the correct locus and b) regulating
the processing of the AID-induced lesion. Proteins proposed to be involved in targeting
AID include members of the transcription and chromatin regulation machinery, whereas
a variety of DNA repair and DNA metabolism proteins have been shown to be involved
in AID-induced lesion-processing. The physical and functional interactions of AID with
these co-factors are not well characterised. In this thesis I determined the molecular
details and biology of candidates for AID interaction.
First, I used a novel technique to uncover and characterise interacting partners of
endogenous chromatin-bound AID from B cells. The presented work shows that the
RNA polymerase II elongation associated protein PAF1 binds directly to AID, while
knocking down members of the PAF complex in B cells inhibits AID-induced
immunoglobulin diversification.
Secondly, I was able to identify a novel interaction of the DNA repair regulator PCNA
with AID, both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, PCNA function was proven to be
susceptible to interference by AID and thus influencing lesion resolution.
Taken together, this thesis highlights the importance of cofactors for defining the AID
molecular pathway, relevant to all known functions of AID within and possibly beyond
the B cell reaction.


Whistleblower protection laws have been on the books for over thirty years, encouraging United States Government employees to report fraud, waste, and abuse, while promising to protect them from retaliation. Unfortunately, the laws have become an unexpected minefield for the intrepid Federal employee who unknowingly risks his or her career by taking the promise of protection at face value. This article documents the nearly complete failure of whistleblower legislation either to curb government malfeasance through whistleblowers' disclosures or to protect workers who act on the false promise of protection from reprisal. Whereas the author provides a brief guide to filing a whistleblower appeal with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), he demonstrates that both agencies have essentially nullified the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). The article shows that the MSPB has rejected the vast majority of whistleblower appeals that have come before it, as has the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The author argues that this ignominious record is a direct result of excessive judicial deference for initial decisions made by a large cadre of hearing examiners employed by the MSPB. The author demonstrates that MSPB's self-styled "administrative judges" are a deceptive and inadequate substitute for "administrative law judges," with none of the Congressionally-mandated qualifications and independence of the latter. The article concludes with support for legislative reforms, including a new proposal to eliminate or at least curb the dominant role of biased initial decision-makers.


The evaluation of deep, abdomino-pelvic masses or focal lesions involving abdominal sites is often difficult and always remain as an enigma in surgical practice. Distinction between malignant and nonmalignant lesions and particularly inflammatorylesions is vital for patient management. Although distinction between malignant and nonmalignant lesions is often suspected from imaging techniques, the increasing use and sensitivity of radiological techniques has led to the identification of relatively small lesions, which require the use of image guidance for reliable targeting[1].In a majority of cases, the diagnosis which is obtained by FNAC, is the substitute for surgical procedures like diagnostic laparotomy[2],.


The global agro-industrial system contributes to an abundance of human and ecological health problems from social injustices and public health issues to global warming and ecological degradation. In response to these problems, universities across the country are joining the Real Food Challenge (RFC). The RFC is a national student-driven organization that defines "Real Food" as possessing at least one of the following four attributes: local, fair, ecologically-sound, and/or humane. By mobilizing the power of students on college campuses, the RFC aspires to shift up to one billion dollars in dining purchasing towards "Real Food" by the year 2020. One key element for the continued success of the RFC is a better understanding of factors affecting college student food choice. Our research explores these factors as well as the types of interventions that will most effectively impact them. Both educational and social marketing strategies were found to effectively increase the importance of Real Food factors affecting college student food choice decisions. In addition, the overwhelming majority of student participants believe that their personal food choices can have an impact on moving the larger industrial food system towards sustainability. Identifying strategies that encourage students to choose more "Real Food" can provide administrations with the necessary support to increase sustainable food purchasing while fueling the RFC on its industry-shifting path towards a more sustainable food system overall.


The external structure of the larva and pupa of A. soleatum was investigated. The larva conforms well with the general curculionoid form, but it possesses some unusual features, not commonly found amongst curculionoids. The maxillae bear flattened, paddle-shaped dorsal malar setae, while the epipharyngeal setae are of a thickened, club-shaped form. A new system for spiracular terminology is presented since current terminology remains confusing. Two spiracular forms are present: annular bicameral on the thorax, and annular unicameral spiracles on the abdomen.


The coupling of enantiomerically enriched amines with aryl bromides produces the corresponding N-aryl derivatives. The choice of ligand in the palladium-catalyzed coupling is critical to the formation of the anilines without loss of enantiomeric purity. While LnPd (L = P(o-tolyl)3) successfully catalyzes the intramolecular aryl amination of α-subsituted optically pure amines, intermolecular coupling reactions with this catalyst system gives racemized products. In contrast, intermolecular N-arylations employing LnPd (L = (±)-BINAP) gives products in good yields with no erosion of enantiopurity. A mechanism for the observed racemization is proposed. The utility of the intramolecular process is demonstrated by the synthesis of 5, an intermediate in the formal synthesis of 6, a potent ACE inhibitor.


An nc-TiO2/SnO2 inverse opal composite membrane was fabricated, the photo-activity of which was significantly enhanced by utilizing both slow photons and stop-band reflection of the photonic crystal layer. The materials of the photonic crystal layer must be transparent in the area of adsorption edge of the nc-TiO2, so that SnO2, having much greater electronic band gap than TiO2, was used for the materials of the photonic crystal layer. The photonic band-gap of the SnO2 photonic crystal was designed at the semiconductor band gap of TiO2 to harvest slow photons in the interface between the SnO2 layer and the TiO2 layer. The two layer structure makes it possible to couple the stop-band reflectivity of the photonic layer to the photocatalyst. Composite membranes can improve solar energy harvesting and substantially improve photocatalysts for photolysis and photochemical degradation of environmental pollutants. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012


The Riverine Community Habitat Assessment and Restoration Concept (RCHARC) is applied to the Gavin's Point tailwater of the mainstem Missouri River as part of studies by the U.S. Army Engineer Division, Missouri River (MRD), to revise and update Missouri River reservoir operations manuals. The RCHARC contrasts depth and velocity distributions from a 'reference' stream against an array of operational or channel alternatives in a target stream. The more nearly depth and velocity distributions for a target-stream alternative resemble the reference stream, the more highly that alternative is ranked. For this application, the reference system was the historical Missouri River as defined by HEC-II analysis using preproject cross sections and preproject mean monthly flows. Reference monthly depth and velocity distributions are contrasted to monthly distributions associated with specific reservoir release alternatives routed through the existing channel. The results of the analysis allowed MRD to rank operational alternatives by their ability to provide habitat similar to the preproject conditions most likely to support native warmwater fishes.


Background: The fertility experience in Iran suggests that the family planning programs had an effective role in the fertility reduction. This study aimed to specify patterns of marriage in Iran and especially in a northern city of Iran and to investigate the association between patterns of marriage and contraceptive use before first pregnancy and current contraceptive use. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, following the implementation of an expert panel in order to investigate marriage patterns, 880 women aged 15–49 yr old, were selected by multistage cluster sampling and completed the "reproductive practices" questionnaire in Babol City, northern Iran, in 2013. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS ver.16 and descriptive and analytical parameters. Results: There are three patterns of marriage in the northern part of Iran: Traditional, Mixed and Modern marriage and between different patterns there is no statistically significant difference in the contraceptive use. Conclusion: According to the lack of significant relationship between patterns of marriage and the contraceptives use, which is one of the proximate determinants of fertility, the policy makers should pay attention to other determinants of fertility in order to manage the problems and implications of population decline in the country.


Efforts to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of public services by harnessing the self-interest of professionals in state agencies have been widely debated in the recent literature on welfare state reform. In the context of social services, one way in which British policy-makers have sought to effect such changes has been through the "new community care" of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. Key to this is the concept of care management, in which the identification of needs and the provision of services are separated, purportedly with a view to improving advocacy, choice and quality for service users. This paper uses data from a wide-ranging qualitative study of access to social care for older people to examine the success of the policy in these terms, with specific reference to its attempts to harness the rational self-interest of professionals. While care management removes one potential conflict of interests by separating commissioning and provision, the responsibility of social care professionals to comply with organizational priorities conflicts with their role of advocacy for their clients, a tension rendered all the more problematic by the perceived inadequacy of funding. Moreover, the bureaucracy of the care management process itself further negates the approach's supposedly client-centred ethos. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com


Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm is a rare cardiac anomalyanomalies that may be congenital or acquired. The congenital aneurysm which is more common and is often caused by weakness at the juncture of the aortic media and the annulus fibrosus. Aneurysms may originate in the right coronary sinus (65%–85%), the noncoronary sinus (10%–30%), and rarely the left coronary sinus (1%–5%).A 60 year-old adult who presented with congestive heart failure was found to have ruptured aneurysm of left sinus of Valsalva. The aneurysm was opening into the main pulmonary artery, which was demonstrated well by transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography and confirmed by cardiac catheterization.patient was advised aortic valve replacement but was not willing for surgery and discharged on medical therapy. Key words: Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm, Left sinus of Valsalva, Aortopulmonary communication.


Abstract This paper presents an overview of the evolution of the radiation shielding calculations for the ITER upper port electron cyclotron heating (ECH) launcher performed over the last 6 yr at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The current advances at KIT in the development of the McCad program as an interface between a computer-aided-design (CAD) system and the Monte Carlo radiation transport codes Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) Version 5 (MCNP5) and TRIPOLI-4 enable a substantial increase of neutronic calculation efficiency for the development of nuclear systems design. This work provides new results in the application of calculation techniques enhanced with the CAD-based radiation transport capabilities of McCad and with the inherent features of MCNP5 such as its variance-reduction techniques (VRTs) and mesh tallies. High-resolution mapping of the helium production distribution in the ITER location that was supposed to be rewelded was accomplished using the MCNP mesh tally. This mapping is important because the reweldability of irradiated steel is limited by the content of helium generated. In the ITER heterogeneous models with the possibility of radiation streaming effects resulting in hot spots, the need to obtain excellent results closely related to the original CAD model is an additional reason to use McCAD. The statistical errors associated with the mesh tally results were reduced by applying VRTs and by taking advantage of the MCNP5 message passing interface parallel computations on the JUROPA High Performance Computer for Fusion operated in the Juelich Supercomputer Centre at Forschungszentrum Juelich. The shielding calculations were supplemented with activation analyses of the ECH launcher irradiated materials performed by the FISPACT-2005 inventory code. The French system of radioactive waste (RW) management adopted by ITER was applied to the classification of the launcher's steel irradiated during the 20-yr Modified Design Requirements and Guidelines Level 1 (M-DRG1) ITER operational scenario. The masses of the launcher's different parts have been estimated in terms of the RW types.


Abstract The McMurray Formation comprises fluvial, estuary, delta and embayment deposits, for which the ichnology is well studied. Workers have recognized the dominantly brackish-water character of trace-fossil assemblages and those studies have contributed heavily to the interpretation of the deposit. This study considers the significance of lower McMurray Formation strata that contain a continental trace fossil assemblage. The studied outcrops comprise a coarse-grained sandstone channel that overlies and crosscuts large-scale, unidirectionally-dipping, interbedded, finegrained sandstone and minor siltstone (i.e. Inclined Heterolithic Stratification referred to henceforth as IHS). Both lithofacies are overlain by a pedogenically altered clayey siltstone. The coarse-grained channel contains oriented wood clasts, and lacks bioturbation. The cross-cut IHS is devoid of large wood clasts and is commonly bioturbated. The IHS locally displays beds of granular sandstone that are lithologically similar to the channel sandstones. The IHS-associated trace fossil assemblage is composed of a range of forms that hitherto now, have not been formally reported from the McMurray Formation. Trace fossils that contain irregular back-fill and burrow diameters, as well as varying orientations, are assigned to a range of adhesive meniscate backfilled burrows, including the ichnogenus Naktodemasis and Taenidium. Collectively, these trace fossils are associated with insect larvae and are taken as indicators of freshwater sedimentation. Other trace fossils, such as Siphonichnus and Cylindrichnus, are interpreted to be associated with low-salinity waters: as such the outcrops most likely represent sedimentation in the innermost estuary, with the coarse-grained channel representing a cross-cutting fluvial deposit. The fresh-water and low-salinity trace fossil assemblage has not previously been described in the McMurray Formation. Importantly, the presence of continental and brackish-water trace fossils together offers a perspective of this McMurray locale. Lithologically, the fluvial and estuary deposits are clearly discernible.


We investigated the sequence stratigraphic architecture of Neogene deposits in the Zagros region using 12 measured stratigraphic sections and performing strontium isotope measurements on 10 samples. We combined our data with 44 previous published Sr isotope measurements and five paleomagnetostratigraphic sections in order to place the foreland deposits in a chronostratigraphic framework. Two chronostratigraphic charts were created, and transgressive-regressive system tracts were identified in the western and eastern sectors of the Zagros. These results show that the southward migration of the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt led to broadly upward-coarsening, progradational sequences due to progressive uplift and seaward (southwestward) migration of the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt. In addition, we show distinct differences in the sequences between the eastern and western sectors. It can be inferred that, in the strike-parallel direction, the Zagros foreland basin did not respond in a simple manner to tectonics and global sea-level changes during the Neogene. The different architecture of the sequences and mismatch of Neogene sedimentary architecture with global sea-level curves imply different orogen-parallel evolutionary histories and strong impact of tectonics on the basin evolution as compared to eustasy. Finally, we present evidence for a retrogradational sequence related to a period of enhanced deformation and related crustal thickening during the middle Miocene in the eastern Zagros.


AIMS
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the causal relationships between job strain, the practice environment and the use of coping skills in order to assist in the prediction of nurses who are at risk for voluntary turnover and identify potential intervention strategies.

BACKGROUND
Analysis of the US nurse workforce indicates that it will be necessary to identify new strategies that will promote a healthy workforce and retain nurses in the workplace.

METHODS
Exploratory cross-sectional survey of 1235 staff nurses resulted in 308 usable surveys (25%). Data were analysed using multivariate statistical techniques (SEM).

RESULTS
It was determined that diminished mental health status as a component of job strain was predictive of propensity to leave as was a diminished assessment of the professional practice environment. Mental health was favourably influenced by coping behaviour.

CONCLUSIONS
Evidence-based strategies which support mental health and reinforce the positive role of coping as a mediating factor may aid in nurse retention efforts.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
This study expands the literature by offering a theoretically supported model to evaluate the response of individuals to the experience of job strain in the work environment. The model demonstrated that the health consequences of job strain are modified through the use of active coping behaviour, and that those nurses with elevated self-assessed health had a lower propensity to leave. As active coping may be taught, the model suggests a means to identify those at risk and support manager intervention.


We examine the labour market experience of the UK and the US in the recessions of the early 1920s and the early 1930s and the subsequent recoveries. These were deep recessions, comparable to that of 2008-9, but the recoveries were very different. In the UK the recovery of the 1920s was incomplete but that of the 1930s was rather less protracted than in the US. By contrast the US experienced very strong recovery in the 1920s but weaker recovery from the much deeper recession of the 1930s. A key ingredient to understanding these patterns is the interaction between economic shocks and labour market institutions. Here we survey the large literature on interwar labour markets to identify the key elements that underpinned labour market performance. We find that developments in wage setting institutions and in unemployment insurance inhibited a return to full employment in interwar Britain while in the US, New Deal legislation impeded labour market adjustment in the 1930s. We conclude with an assessment of the policy responses to labour market crises in the past and in the present.


Strong negative reactions, physical symptoms, and behavioral disruptions due to environmental odors are common in the adult population. We investigated relationships among such environmental chemosensory responsivity (CR), personality traits, affective states, and odor perception. Study 1 showed that CR and neuroticism were positively correlated in a sample of young adults (n = 101), suggesting that persons high in neuroticism respond more negatively to environmental odors. Study 2 explored the relationships among CR, noise responsivity (NR), neuroticism, and odor perception (i.e., pleasantness and intensity) in a subset of participants (n = 40). High CR was associated with high NR. Regression analyses indicated that high CR predicted higher odor intensity ratings and low olfactory threshold (high sensitivity) predicted lower pleasantness ratings. However, neuroticism was not directly associated with odor ratings or thresholds. Overall, the results suggest that CR and odor thresholds predict perceptual ratings of odors and that high CR is associated with nonchemosensory affective traits.


Prepared by Civil Engineering Research Foundation. This book presents findings of a 1996 technology assessment mission to East Asia that examined the levels of technology is use and current research and development trends in the design and construction industries of China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Other areas of focus include the role of government- and industry-supported research and development in expediting design and construction innovation, key collaborative opportunities for U.S. industry, the development and application of cleaner design and construction technologies, construction-related import and export potential, and processes used to introduce new technologies into practice. The report makes recommendations for U.S. industry concerning technology needs and collaborative potential among the targeted East Asian design and construction industries


Based on an interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Cambridge in May 2012, Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: An International Exploration brings together internationally renowned scholars from a range of disciplines including criminology, international relations, sociology and political science to examine the meaning of legitimacy and advance its theoretical understanding within the context of criminal justice. In policy terms, the conference afforded a timely opportunity for criminal justice senior managers and researchers to discuss the practical applications and implications of legitimacy for policing and prisons. This resulting volume aims to: advance conceptual understanding of legitimacy in the contexts of policing and criminal justice; to develop a better understanding of the implications of analyses of legitimacy for the practical contexts of policing, prisons and criminal justice; and to recognise the growing number of contexts in which criminal justice personnel encounter ethnically and religiously diverse communities, such as the acute dilemmas for legitimate authority posed by perceived terrorist threats. Attention is also devoted to the growing importance of international organisations in relation to legitimacy, both in its international and domestic manifestations.


Author(s): Singh, Reshma; Mathew, Paul; Granderson, Jessica | Abstract: The U.S.-India Joint Center for Building Energy Research a Development (CBERD), created through the Partnership to Accelerate Clean Energy (PACE) agreement between the United States and India, is a research and development (RaD) center with over 30 institutional and industry partners from both nations. This five-year presidential initiative is jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Government of India. CBERD aims to build upon a foundation of collaborative knowledge, tools, and technologies, and human capabilities that will increase development of high-performance buildings. To reach this goal, the RaD focuses on energy use reduction throughout the entire life cycle of buildings—i.e., design, construction, and operations. During the operations phase of buildings, even with best-practice energy-efficient design, actual energy use can be much higher than the design intent. Every day, much of the energy consumed by buildings serves no purpose (Roth et al. 2005). Building energy information systems (EIS) are commercially available systems that building owners and facility managers use to assess their building operations, measure, visualize, analyze, and report energy cost and consumption. Energy information systems can enable significant energy savings by tracking energy use, identifying consumption patterns, and benchmarking performance against similar buildings, thereby identifying improvement opportunities. The CBERD team has identified potential energy savings of approximately 2 quads of primary energy in the United States, while industry building energy audits in India have indicated potential energy savings of up to 30 percent in commercial buildings such as offices. Additionally, the CBERD team has identified healthcare facilities (e.g., hospitals, clinics), hotels, and offices as the three of the highest-growth sectors in India that have significant energy consumption, and that would benefit the most from implementation of EIS.


The trend in communication is very clear; everything goes towards wireless communication systems. Since, the wireless channel is very hostile channel due to capacity limiting effects like co-channel interference, inter symbol interference, multi-path propagation and noise, these system require very good channel equalizers in order to combat these effects. However, since the mobile devices in mobile systems are usually very small these channel equalizations schemes need to be very low computationally complexity (i.e. low power consummation) in order to of any practical use. One method to implement powerful channel equalization schemes in a very efficiently is to implement them with help sub-band processing. In fact, you can implement very complex algorithm in the sub-band to a fraction of complexity of the fullband implementation. This is due to the fact that instead of solving one large problem we are solving many small ones instead. Therefore, this master thesis will investigate the performance of low complexity adaptive sub-band channel equalizers evaluated on a wireless channel. The thesis will also compare blind schemes (no training sequence) with non-blind schemes in order to investigate performance trade offs. The thesis will mostly focus on the Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA) and its sub-bands versions.


A simple route for synthesizing tetrahydro-6-methylpyrimidine-one and – thione derivatives by condensation reaction of chloroquinolinecarbaldehyde. β-dicarbonyl compounds, as ethylacetoacetate or oracetylacetone and urea or thiourea in ethanol and acetic acid as a catalyst was used. On the other hand, pyroloquinolinone was obtained from the reaction of carbaldehydequinoline with formamide and fomic acid via Leuckart reaction. Moreover, chloroquinolinehydrazone was synthesized when carbaldehydequinoline reacted with hydrazine hydrate. Schiff base derivatives were prepared when chloroquinolinehydrazone was treated with substituted aldehydes. In addition 2-chloro-3-cyanoquinoline was prepared from dehydration of the aldoxime with thionyl chloride. Reaction of cyanoquinoline with hydrazine hydrate afforded 3-aminopyrazoloquinoline. This compound reacted with benzoylisocyanate and aldehyde derivatives to afford the corresponding N-(1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinolone-3- ylcarbamoylbenzamide, N-((1H-indol-3-yl)methylene)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinoline-3-amine,N-(naphthalen-2- ylmethylene)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinolin-3-amine respectively. The antimicrobial evaluation and molecular docking of the synthesized compounds were screened, too


Baptism at the Savica , an epic about the loss of Slovenian independence, can also be understood as a successful attempt by France Preseren to outwit censors and use the form of a historic tale as a metaphor for expressing the content which, due to censorship, had to be omitted from his elegy Dem Andenken des Matthias Cop . Such an approach can help us resolve several apparent contradictions, shown in the interpretative history of the Baptism , such as the problem of Preseren's own characterisation of the poem in his letter to Celakovský, or the question of Crtomir's conversion at the end of the third part of this epic poem. In the 20th century, several interpretations came into being that understood Crtomir's conversion to Christianity as an inevitable choice made by Slovenians in favour of a stronger, uniquely prospective Western culture circle, which serves as justification for Crtomir's renunciation of freedom-loving Slovenianhood. According to the new understanding of The Baptism at the Savica , there are two Crtomirs, one is the hero and the other is the defeated one (the former, as he himself would like to be, is only an illusion by Preseren, and the latter, as he indeed is, is the one with whom the poet completely identifies himself), and the final message of the epic poem is understood as a condemnation of national inequality.


I am going to examine a problem which Edmund Husserl claimed threatened to stymie his entire phenomenological enterprise. The question of how a temporally extended melody can be given to consciousness served as an extremely challenging and disconcerting puzzle, the explication of which spurred on a key development in his mature philosophy. I will discuss how a few philosophers before and after him (Augustine, Brentano, Meinong, Broad) have dealt with this same conundrum. Husserl's answer will be examined in order to situate it amongst the most contemporary ways of addressing the issue of time-consciousness and of perception in general. Primary Sources By far the most important event for scholars investigating Husserl's phenomenology of time-consciousness was the publication of Husserliana X: Zur Phanomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins (1966), edited by Rudolf Boehm.1 This critical edition of the earlier "Vorlesungen zur Phanomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins"2 supplemented by additional material on the subject, which surfaced primarily at the Husserl Archives where it was then comprehensively dated, is an irreplaceable tool for the student attempting to flesh out the development of Husserl's ideas on this topic. The 1928 publication itself, edited only superficially by Martin Heidegger, is really little more than a somewhat confused jumble of Husserl's lectures and notes cut up, drafted, and given order (in a decidably unchronological manner) by his Freiburg assistant Edith Stein a decade earlier. This original publication, translated into English by J. S. Churchill as The Phenomenology of Internal Time-Consciousness,3 easily deceives its reader. Husserl only pushed for its release upon being presented with a manuscript of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit. Positions incompatible with each other appear side by side, the evolution that took place in Husserl's thought and the vocabulary he used to express it being completely ignored. John Barnett Brough's translation enables English speakers for the first time to access Husserl's writings on time-consciousness directly and within the context of his overall philosophical development. 4 The Puzzle Under Examination What was it about the cogitatio of time that so occupied Husserl's attention from the years 1893-1928? Beyond the "wonder"5 and "mystery"6 generated by his fascination with the topic as described in lectures given during 1906/7, and the arduous labors he deemed necessary for any who would be successful in unlocking its treasureS,7 Husserl writes that he came to view his entire phenomenological endeavor as threatened by the flow of time. From the transcript of one often overlooked gem embedded within Husserliana X (No. 51 taken from a 1909 lecture at the University of Gottingen entitled "The Problem of Time in the Considerations Fundamental to Phenomenology")8 we read the following: All asserting, consequently, is a matter of indifference; we really cling only to the this-there!, which at any given time is the sole thing about which we should be permitted to speak. And, of course, our whole reflection up to this point would be affected. We might have carried out the exclusion of nature, but if one also requires of us the exclusion of that transcendence that is inherent in memory and retention, then at the end we find ourselves in the moment in which we began. It is indeed easy to see that we have presupposed a certain validity belonging to memory and retention. The tug of doubt leads still further in other respects. What about the actually present phenomenon, about the consciousness that is actually carried out and about the viewing directed at it?9 And then: These doubts seem to touch even phenomenological perception. Every grasping of an enduring phenomenon also implies retention in company with the grasping of the duration. Should we therefore say that only the absolute now is something actually given and free from the problem of transcendence, and that even the least extension into the past-which surely belongs essentially to duration-is problematic? …


The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank reiterated their support for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to establish the basis for a renewed political consensus focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On November 16 and 17, 2003 in the City of Brasilia, the four multilateral agencies joined the government of Brazil in sponsoring an international conference bringing together high-level representatives of governments, parliaments and civil society organizations in the region, and the international community. This publication presents the main conclusions of that meeting, which are expressed in the Brasilia Declaration, a proposal for implementing the MDGs in the region. It also includes the statements made by each of the four heads of state who attended the event, extracts of presentations by high-level representatives of the international institutions that organized the event, and a summary report highlighting the main issues raised during the conference.


The agouti locus on mouse chromosome 2 acts via the hair follicle to control the melanic type and distribution of hair pigments. The diverse phenotypes associated with various agouti mutations have led to speculation about the organization of the agouti locus. Earlier studies indicated that two presumed agouti alleles, lethal yellow (Ay) and lethal light-bellied nonagouti (ax), are pseudoallelic. We present genetic data showing probable recombination between Ay and three agouti mutations (at, a, and ax), which suggest that Ay is a pseudoallele of the agouti locus. The close linkage of an endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia provirus, Emv-15, to Ay provides a molecular access to genes at or near the agouti locus. However, previous studies suggested that the Emv-15 locus can recombine with some agouti alleles and therefore we analyzed mice from recombinant inbred strains and backcrosses to measure the genetic distance between various agouti alleles and the Emv-15 locus. Our data indicate that the Emv-15 locus is less than 0.3 cM from the agouti locus. These experiments provide a conceptual framework for initiating chromosome walking experiments designed to retrieve sequences from the agouti locus and give new insight into the genetic organization of the agouti region.


Dialectology considers variation in language to be most commonly based on geographical distribution and its correlated phonological, grammatical
and lexical features. There are two approaches to dialectology: synchronicand diachronic ones. Synchronic dialectology studies the synchronic linguistic proximity of geographically contiguous language varieties. Diachronic, or historical, dialectology describes and explains the language
evolution and diffusion processes which lead to certain variations in form, meaning and structure by means of sociohistorical reconstructions. As these two approaches are interrelated, no clear-cut distinction can be made between them. Indeed, in variational linguistic research (viz. dialectology), any geographical diversity necessarily refers to temporal diversity (de Saussure 1973 [1916]; Lafkioui 2007). In addition to the horizontal (geographical, synchronic) and vertical (historical, diachronic) dimensions, linguistic variation also involves social diversity and individual diversity. The former – social diversity – includes parameters such as habitat (rural/urban), country of origin or country of immigration, gender, ethnicity, age, social class, educational level and educational type. The latter – individual diversity – partly overlaps with social variation, but also incorporates the ideological and psychohistorical aspects of the individual speakers (Lafkioui 2007, 2011a, Fc).
In the case of African Arabic, it is historical rather than synchronic dialectology which is in need of additional and advanced study. A notable exception is the research conducted in creolistics, which is not only beneficial to dialectological but also to linguistic geographical studies (e.g. Kaye 1985; Miller 2002, 2004; Owens 2001; Versteegh 1993). The present volume aims at filling this gap, at least to a certain extent, by presenting the
state-of-the-art in research on African varieties of Arabic. It covers all the major areas of linguistic analysis (i.e. phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax and lexicology), and presents in a clear and concise way data and issues from a wide range of less-commonly-quoted languages, with special emphasis on language contact phenomena. It comprises nine closely linked but self-contained chapters.


A common challenge in estimating the long-term impacts of treatments (e.g., job training programs) is that the outcomes of interest (e.g., lifetime earnings) are observed with a long delay. We address this problem by combining several short-term outcomes (e.g., short-run earnings) into a "surrogate index," the predicted value of the long-term outcome given the short-term outcomes. We show that the average treatment effect on the surrogate index equals the treatment effect on the long-term outcome under the assumption that the long-term outcome is independent of the treatment conditional on the surrogate index. We then characterize the bias that arises from violations of this assumption, deriving feasible bounds on the degree of bias and providing simple methods to validate the key assumption using additional outcomes. Finally, we develop efficient estimators for the surrogate index and show that even in settings where the long-term outcome is observed, using a surrogate index can increase precision. We apply our method to analyze the long-term impacts of a multi-site job training experiment in California. Using short-term employment rates as surrogates, one could have estimated the program's impacts on mean employment rates over a 9 year horizon within 1.5 years, with a 35% reduction in standard errors. Our empirical results suggest that the long-term impacts of programs on labor market outcomes can be predicted accurately by combining their short-term treatment effects into a surrogate index.


Drawn from the US National Science Foundations Symposium on Next Generation of Data Mining and Cyber-Enabled Discovery for Innovation (NGDM 07), Next Generation of Data Mining explores emerging technologies and applications in data mining as well as potential challenges faced by the field. Gathering perspectives from top experts across different disciplines, the book debates upcoming challenges and outlines computational methods. The contributors look at how ecology, astronomy, social science, medicine, finance, and more can benefit from the next generation of data mining techniques. They examine the algorithms, middleware, infrastructure, and privacy policies associated with ubiquitous, distributed, and high performance data mining. They also discuss the impact of new technologies, such as the semantic web, on data mining and provide recommendations for privacy-preserving mechanisms. The dramatic increase in the availability of massive, complex data from various sources is creating computing, storage, communication, and human-computer interaction challenges for data mining. Providing a framework to better understand these fundamental issues, this volume surveys promising approaches to data mining problems that span an array of disciplines.


In response to the Second Micro Finance Crisis in Andhra Pradesh, which took place in October 2010, the Ministry of Finance has pro- posed a new Micro Finance Institutions (Development & Regulation) Bill. This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of the draft Bill in terms of both economic policy and law. This analysis reveals many weak links, including: a lack of clarity on the objectives of the Bill; an insufficient focus on protection of the rights of the micro-borrower; lack of clarity about the definition of thrift; the loss of accountability that comes with multiple regulatory agencies; concerns about the rule of law; and constitutional issues about powers of the Centre versus the State Government.


SUMMARY The Congo Basin region of Central Africa contains the second largest contiguous tropical rainforest in the world, which is an important source of livelihood for millions of people. It is also important for climate change adaptation, as well as mitigation policies on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Men and women relate to and use the forest differently and so may experience the effects of climate change and REDD+ policies differently. Investigations through semi-structured interviews and document reviews in three countries of the region revealed that women have had limited participation in discussions on issues of climate change or REDD+. There is some evidence that gender consideration will become part of future national REDD+ strategies. Strategies to foster the effective participation of all stakeholders are essential to ensure that gender dimensions are addressed in issues of climate change, forest access, forest management and distribution of carbon benefits.


Agricultural institutions responsible for policy analysis and policy advice play an equally important role in agricultural development as other supportive institutions. The role of agricultural institutions servicing commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe between 1890 and 1980 is well documented by Rukuni (1990). The post-independence strategy of extending and restructuring supportive institutions (research, extension, credit and marketing institutions), and the resultant success in smallholder production has been highlighted by Rolirback (1987) and Blackie (1986). It is clearly demonstrated in the 1980-85 period that public sector investment for institutional support towards agricultural production and marketing services is capable of stimulating production and marketing incentives for smallholders. At the same time, the weakening and/or withdrawal of key public services and support institutions due to budgetary constraints in the 1985-90 period has been partly responsible for declining productivity (World Bank, 1992). In particular, this has in recent years, resulted in a steady erosion of the effectiveness of most of the agricultural services provided by the agricultural Ministry.


OBJECTIVE
As healthcare systems continue to expand and interconnect with each other through patient sharing, administrators, policy makers, infection control specialists, and other decision makers may have to take account of the entire healthcare 'ecosystem' in infection control.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We developed a software tool, the Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst (RHEA), that can accept user-inputted data to rapidly create a detailed agent-based simulation model (ABM) of the healthcare ecosystem (ie, all healthcare facilities, their adjoining community, and patient flow among the facilities) of any region to better understand the spread and control of infectious diseases.

RESULTS
To demonstrate RHEA's capabilities, we fed extensive data from Orange County, California, USA, into RHEA to create an ABM of a healthcare ecosystem and simulate the spread and control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Various experiments explored the effects of changing different parameters (eg, degree of transmission, length of stay, and bed capacity).

DISCUSSION
Our model emphasizes how individual healthcare facilities are components of integrated and dynamic networks connected via patient movement and how occurrences in one healthcare facility may affect many other healthcare facilities.

CONCLUSIONS
A decision maker can utilize RHEA to generate a detailed ABM of any healthcare system of interest, which in turn can serve as a virtual laboratory to test different policies and interventions.


Preface. Chapter 1: Introduction to Mergers and Acquisitions. Background and Terminology. Merger Process. Economic Classifications of Mergers and Acquisitions. Regulatory Framework of Mergers and Acquisitions. Antitrust Laws. State Corporation Laws. Hostile Takeovers. Takeover Defense. Leveraged Transactions. Restructurings. Reasoning for Mergers and Acquisitions. Trends in Mergers. Conclusion. Case Study: Lessons from the Failures of the Fourth Merger Wave. Chapter 2: Merger Strategy: Why Do Firms Merge? Growth. Examples of Growth as an Inappropriate Goal. Using M&As to Achieve Growth. M&As in a Slow-Growth Industry as a Way to Achieve Growth. Synergy. Merger Gains: Operating Synergy or Revenue Enhancements-Case of Banking Industry. Industry Clustering. Deregulation. Improved Management Hypothesis. Hubris Hypothesis of Takeovers. Winner's Curse and the Hubris Hypothesis. Cross-Industry Deals and Hubris. Diversification and CEO Compensation. Diversification that Does Seem to Work Better: Related Diversification. Merging to Achieve Greater Market Power. Do Firms Really Merge to Achieve Market Power? Merging to Achieve the Benefits of Vertical Integration. Special Cases of Mergers Motivated by Specific Needs. Conclusion. Case Study: Vivendi. Chapter 3: Merger Success Research. Criteria for Defining Merger Success Using Research Studies. Takeover Premiums and Control. Initial Comment on Merger Research Studies. Research Studies. Mergers of Equals: Acquirers versus Target Gains. Firm Size and Acquisition Gains. Long-Term Research Studies. Long- versus Short-Term Performance and Method of Payment. Bidder Long-Term Effects: Methods of Payment. Bidder's Performance Over the Fifth Merger Wave. Conclusion. Case Study: Montana Power-Moving into Unfamiliar Areas. Chapter 4: Valuation and Overpaying. Valuation: Part Science and Part Art. Valuation: Buyer versus Seller's Perspective. Synergy, Valuation, and the Discount Rate. Financial Synergies and the Discount Rate. Toe Holds and Bidding Contests. Bidding Contest Protections. Overpaying and Fraudulent Seller Financials. Valuation and Hidden Costs. Postmerger Integration Costs-Hard Costs to Measure. Conclusion. Case Study: AOL Time Warner. Chapter 5: Corporate Governance: Part of the Solution. Governance Failure. Regulatory Changes. Corporate Governance. Managerial Compensation and Firm Size. Managerial Compensation, Mergers, and Takeovers. Disciplinary Takeovers, Company Performance, and CEOs and Boards. Managerial and Director Voting Power and Takeovers. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporation Acquisition Decisions. Post-Acquisitions Performance and Executive Compensation. Lessons from the Hewlett-Packard-Compaq Merger: Shareholders Lose, CEOs Gain. CEO Power and Compensation. Do Boards Reward CEOs for Initiating Acquisitions and Mergers? Corporate Governance and Mergers of Equals. Antitakeover Measures and Corporate Governance. Conclusion. Case Study: WorldCom. Chapter 6: Reversing the Error: Sell-Offs and Other Restructurings. Divestitures. Decision: Retain or Sell Off. Spin-Offs. Involuntary Spin-Offs. Defensive Spin-Offs. Tax Benefits of Spin-Offs. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Sell-Offs. Rationale for a Positive Stock Price Reaction to Sell-Offs. Wealth Effects of Voluntary Defensive Sell-Offs. Wealth Effects of Involuntary Sell-Offs. Financial Benefits for Buyers of Sold-Off Entities. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Spin-Offs. Corporate Focus and Spin-Offs. Equity Carve-Outs. Benefits of Equity Carve-Outs. Equity Carve-Outs Are Different from Other Public Offerings. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Equity Carve-Outs. Under Which Situations Should a Company Do a Spin-Off versus an Equity Carve-Out? Shareholder Wealth Effects of Tracking Stock Issuances. Conclusion. Case Study: DaimlerChrysler. Chapter 7: Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances: Alternatives to Mergers and Acquisitions. Contractual Agreements. Comparing Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures with Mergers and Acquisitions. Joint Ventures. Motives for Joint Ventures. Regulation and Joint Ventures. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Joint Ventures. Shareholder Wealth Effects by Type of Venture. Restructuring and Joint Ventures. Potential Problems with Joint Ventures. Strategic Alliances. Governance of Strategic Alliances. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Strategic Alliances. Shareholder Wealth Effects by Type of Alliance. What Determines the Success of Strategic Alliances? Potential for Conflicts with Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances. Cross Stock Holdings as Conflict Insurance. Conclusion. Case Study: AT&T. Index.


This co-written chapter was included in an edited book featuring invited authors from different countries and different areas of museum research and practice. The chapter uses a theory of play by Johan Huizinga (1938) to frame case studies of play-based interactive experiences in museums in various countries. The aim was to use theory to ground museum practice, in order to evaluate existing practical implementations as well as to inform the design of new ones.

The book was nominated as one of the 10 best museum education books of 2011 by Museum Education Monitor, and the chapter led to a subsequent technology residency the author undertook in the Spike Island gallery, Bristol in 2012, funded by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Arts Council England. It also informed his subsequent postgraduate teaching, an example of which is a recent MA project, which deconstructs play from a computational perspective. Collaborations have continued with the co-author, which have resulted in a number of invited lectures.

In this chapter the authors explore play as a structure for supporting visitor learning, drawing from international research in museums and interaction design. Four aspects of play first proposed by Huizinga are explored – the free-choice aspect of play, play as distinct from real life, play as an ordering structure, and the role of play in bridging communities. The chapter argues that play provides museums with ready-made structures and concepts, which can help planning for visitor learning. The research was equally divided between the co-authors, who developed the conceptual and theoretical aspects of the article by drawing on their own research alongside key examples of museum design and digital media.


After almost seven centuries, Dante endures and even seems to haunt the present. Metamorphosing Dante explores what so many authors, artists and thinkers from varied backgrounds have found in Dante's oeuvre, and the ways in which they have engaged with it through rewritings, dialogues, and transpositions. By establishing trans-disciplinary routes, the volume shows that, along with a corpus of multiple linguistic and narrative structures, characters, and stories, Dante has provided a field of tensions in which to mirror and investigate one's own time. Authors explored include Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, Andre Gide, Derek Jarman, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, James Joyce, Wolfgang Koeppen, Jacques Lacan, Thomas Mann, James Merrill, Eugenio Montale, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Cesare Pavese, Giorgio Pressburger, Robert Rauschenberg, Vittorio Sereni, Virginia Woolf.


Cross-coupling reaction of organogold(I) phosphanes with organic electrophiles in aqueous media has been investigated. Reactions between isolated aryl-, alkenyl-, or alkynylgold(I) phosphanes and aryl halides or triflates, alkenyl halides, and allyl acetates proceed under palladium catalysis conditions at room temperature or 80 °C in water with THF as a co-solvent. The coupling reactions give good yields and are highly versatile and chemoselective, allowing the presence of free amino or hydroxy groups in the electrophile. This methodology was applied to the preparation of substituted phenylalanine esters in a demonstration that gold(I) organometallics are suitable reagents for metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions under protic conditions.


An isogeny between elliptic curves is an algebraic morphism which is a group homomorphism. Many applications in cryptography require evaluating large degree isogenies between elliptic curves efficiently. For ordinary curves of the same endomorphism ring, the previous fastest algorithm known has a worst case running time which is exponential in the length of the input. In this thesis we solve this problem in subexponential time under reasonable heuristics. We give two versions of our algorithm, a slower version assuming GRH and a faster version assuming stronger heuristics. Our approach is based on factoring the ideal corresponding to the kernel of the isogeny, modulo principal ideals, into a product of smaller prime ideals for which the isogenies can be computed directly. Combined with previous work of Bostan et al., our algorithm yields equations for large degree isogenies in quasi-optimal time given only the starting curve and the kernel.


This research presents a novel fabrication method combining surface and bulk micromachining techniques to deposit mechanically stiffened silicon nitride films for use in MEMS fabrication. The stiffened silicon nitride film consists of a thin (~1.5 um) top sheet with stiffening fins molded to the back of the film. In the final configuration, the fins extend between 15 um and 40 um vertically from the back of the film. The molded fins are arranged into periodic square and hexagonal cell configurations ranging in size from 10 um to 250 um. The periodic cells significantly increase the bending stiffness of LPCVD silicon nitride films resulting in a film with a high strength-to-weight ratio. Larger aperture, silicon nitride micro mirrors are fabricated with the mechanically stiffened silicon nitride film. The mirrors demonstrate that deformation due to postrelease thermal strain and inertia during dynamic actuation can be mitigated by employing the proposed stiffening technique. Furthermore, the mirrors are fabricated with a minimal amount of processing making the proposed microfabrication technique an attractive solution for various MEMS applications Finally, homogenized material properties are obtained for the periodically stiffened silicon nitride film. The homogenized material properties are then used to simplify finite element models of biaxial and single axis torsion micro mirrors fabricated from the proposed film. The resulting finite element models are shown to be in excellent agreement with the experimental models. The presented numerical analysis method significantly simplifies model complexity while simultaneously reducing the computational cost associated with simulating MEMS built from a periodically stiffened thin film.


The epidermis protects the body of vertebrates against many biological, chemical, physical and mechanical hazards present in the environment. The adaptation of the epidermis to a permanent life outside of the water was an essential step in the evolution of reptiles, birds, and mammals. The common ancestral origin of these terrestrial vertebrates is reflected in the shared presence of a gene cluster called the Epidermal Differentiation Complex (EDC), which controls the formation of the cornified layers of the epidermis. The aim of this study was to characterize novel factors and processes that contribute to the protective functions of the epidermis in reptiles and birds (Sauropsida).
Comparative studies of genome and transcriptome sequences led to the first description of the EDC and its protein products in turtles, crocodilians and snakes. In each of these reptilian clades 50-100 epidermal differentiation genes were characterized at the sequence level. By reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction experiments, turtle EDC genes were confirmed to be expressed in the skin or specifically in the scutes of the turtle shell. A newly generated antibody was used to demonstrate the expression of an avian EDC protein in feathers.
Furthermore, specific features of the epidermal barrier, such as the defense mechanisms against microbes and the molecular cross-linking of corneous beta proteins (beta-keratins), were investigated in vitro. Reptilian skin-specific peptides were tested for their antimicrobial activities on Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Disulfide bonds of corneous beta proteins were studied by exposure to reduction and alkylation or oxidation followed by western blot analysis.
Together, the results of these bioinformatics studies, analyses of gene expression, and mechanistic assays provided important new insights into the evolution and functions of epidermal proteins in sauropsids and the epidermal barrier to the environment in general.


Rhizobium species were isolated from the rhizosphere soil of maize plants and studied for their ability to produce Indole acetic acid. Rhizobium, a nitrogen fixing bacteria can live in the rhizosphere soil of nonleguminous plants, exist freely and entraps atmospheric nitrogen and converts the unreactive nitrogen molecule to ammonia, a form that is readily utilize by plants. Rhizosphere soil from maize plants were collected from Lalgudi Taluk, Trichy District and identified based on their morphological and biochemical characters. The efficient strains were used for the production of Indole acetic acid by using thin layer chromatography.


Objectives To assess the prevalence of allergic rhinitis in adult patients with asthma in Hong Kong, and to compare the morbidity endured by asthma patients with and without allergic rhinitis. Design Cross-sectional study. Main outcome measures Doctors and patients completed separate questionnaires evaluating symptoms, treatment, and health care utilisation. Spirometry data were obtained for a subgroup of patients at the time of survey completion. Results The patients consisted of 267 males and 333 females, with 251 having spirometry data. The mean pre-bronchodilator 1-second forced expiratory volume predicted among those who had spirometry performed was 88% (standard deviation, 28%). In all, 50% of the patients had intermittent and 50% had persistent asthma. Over three quarters (463/600; 77%) of patients had experienced allergic rhinitis symptoms in the past 12 months, of whom 96% had a previous diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. Asthmatics without allergic rhinitis symptoms had higher rates of visits to doctors, pharmacy visits, emergency department attendances, and hospitalisations for asthma than those with both conditions. Among subjects with asthma and allergic rhinitis, those taking nasal steroid (226/463; 49%) had lower rates of emergency department visits (13 vs 25%, P=0.002) and hospitalisations (7 vs 13%, P=0.045) for asthma than those who were not. Conclusion Allergic rhinitis is a common co-morbid condition of asthma in this hospital clinic cohort. Treatment of allergic rhinitis with intra-nasal steroid was associated with less health care utilisation for asthma.


Most applications of modern spectrophotometry demand that spectrophotometric measurements be recorded on media suitable for direct use by data processing equipment. This paper describes a photomechanical method for actuating the readout command for an old model GE recording spectrophotometer. This instrument has nonlinear wavelength representation in the near ultraviolet and near infrared. The method involves an opaque disk having a direct one-to-one rotation relation with the wavelength drive. The disk contains three sets of small holes on the circumference of concentric circles which represent the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared regions of the spectrum. The accurate angular separation of these holes, along with a photodiode and lamp which are aligned for each set of holes, makes available a selection of these three ranges and automatically actuates the readout command in the control chassis at 10-nm intervals for all wavelength ranges. The data are then punched into cards by an IBM 526 summary punch. The option of taking data at 5-nm intervals is provided by a suitable second disk.


An exact representation of the transfer matrix for stratified homogeneous uniaxial media is derived. It can be used to calculate optical quantities such as reflectance and transmittance by means of Berreman's 4 × 4 matrix method, permitting calculations for thick homogeneous slabs such as polarizers in one single step without the commonly used truncated series expansion. When the dielectric tensor of an inhomogeneous medium varies continuously with the normal to the plane of stratification, the medium is divided into thin slabs. The transfer matrix of the whole medium is then obtained by multiplying the transfer matrices of all slabs. Treating each slab as homogeneous gives satisfactory results, as shown in an example of a periodic structure for which an analytic solution is known.


This paper reports on a study which aimed at exploring ways by which 5-6 year-old children organise different pieces of knowledge to develop strategies for solving a specific arithmetical task and furthermore, ways by which children move beyond their successful problem solving approaches to the acquisition of increased control over the procedural and conceptual knowledge that supports their problem solving success. The paper considers the emerging theory of Representational-Redescription which supports the idea of 'success-based' cognitive change and argues that new knowledge can be constructed by a process of internal exploitation of knowledge that already exists in the cognitive system of the problem solver. In problem solving, the notion of Representational-Redescription has been studied in spatial, physics, linguistic and notational tasks but currently, it is under-researched in mathematics. The paper presents outcomes from a study which focused on ten cases. The microgenetic method was used for the study of changes in children's problem solving. This entailed the design of a sequence of sessions during which children were individually involved in solving a specific form of additive task, more than once, and after they had been successful in solving it. The microgenetic method was combined with the clinical method of interviewing. The paper presents a specific path of after-success strategy change. This path of change indicated children's movement from initial success-oriented behaviour to an organisation-oriented phase during which new strategies were introduced or known strategies were evolved procedurally and conceptually. The paper explains the general analytical direction which was followed to reveal different levels of knowledge accessibility and explicitness which supported children's main strategy during the after-success change process. These findings support the idea that learning follows not only from failure but also from success, and that the Representational-Redescription theory can offer an additional insight to the complex nature of learning processes


The purpose of this study is to give account of the dynamics between Christian identity-formation and the problem of alterity in John Chrysostom's In epistulam ad Galatas commentarius, one of the earliest extant commentaries on Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. The study shows that Chrysostom envisions Christian identity-formation as a subset of Paulinomorphism, to become like Christ one should also become like Paul. Chrysostom views Paulinomorphism as the operation of four interrelated discourses, namely the discourse of: a) transformation and mimesis; b) virtue and masculinisation; c) the zealotic, and; d) medicalisation. In order to examine how Paulinomorphism is applied to the problem of alterity, Chrysostom's homilies In epistulam ad Galatas, especially the first homily in the series, are examined. Chrysostom opposes Judaizers, "Greeks", Marcionites, Arians and Manichees in this commentary. The study therefore also represents an analysis of the Wirkungsgeschichte of Galatians.


Broadband transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy, three-pulse photon echo peak shift (3PEPS), and anisotropy decay measurements were used to study the solvation dynamics in bulk water and interfacial water at ZrO(2) surfaces, using Eosin Y as a probe. The 3PEPS results show a multiexponential behavior with two subpicosecond components that are similar in bulk and interfacial water, while a third component of several picoseconds is significantly lengthened at the interface. The bandwidth correlation function from TA spectra exhibits the same behavior, and the TA spectra are well reproduced using the doorway-window picture with the time constants from PEPS. Our results suggest that interfacial water is restricted to a thickness of less than 5 A. Also the high-frequency collective dynamics of water does not seem to be affected by the interface. On the other hand, the increase of the third component may point to a slowing down of diffusional motion at the interface, although other effects, may play a role, which are discussed.


Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an increasing difficult problem in Egypt. MicroRNAs are defined as small RNAs that are non-coding RNAs which regulate gene expression after transcription. Circulating microRNAs are promising biological noninvasive markers for cancer.Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate miRNAs in Egyptian HBV related Hepatocellular carcinoma and their relation to clinical parameters.Methods: MiR-150 and miR-101 relative expression were evaluated by real-time quantitative RT-PCR in 70 serum samples (20 from controls, 25 from chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and 25 samples from HBV related HCC patients), the diagnosis of HCC was based on typical imaging finding by dynamic computed tomography.Results: Our results revealed that the serum relative expression levels of circulating miR-150 were lower and miR-101 were higher in patients with HCC when compared with healthy controls and CHB without HCC patients (p<0.0001). By using Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses it was suggested that miR-150 in serum had significant diagnostic value for HCC in chronic HBV patients with 75 % sensitivity and 90 % specificity. Also miR-101 in serum had significant diagnostic value for HCC in chronic HBV patients with 90 % sensitivity and 90 % specificity.Conclusion: In conclusion, both miR-150 and miR-101 relative expression in serum in patients with HBV-related HCC could be used as noninvasive biomarkers for the early detection of HBVrelated HCC patients.