A successful business needs to generate enough cash to cover expenses, current debt, and family living expenses, pay interest on owned and borrowed capital, maintain productivity, and earn a reasonable return for the operator. Income from sheep production is generally only part of a total farm and nonfarm income. Thus options, opportunity costs, and decisions regarding the sheep production enterprise are not isolated; they affect other agricultural enterprises. Sheep production consistently returns profits to producers, which makes it an enticing agricultural enterprise. There are advantages in raising sheep in Virginia, such as abundant, high-quality forage, moderate climate, pasture improvement, and good access to markets with high demand for lamb. The disadvantages to sheep production are unavailable and inexperienced labor and operators, predators, and inconsistent market demand and supply. Sheep producers have the opportunity to choose which lambing system fits their existing operations and lifestyle. The use of economic analysis enables operator to make sound business management decisions. To compare different lambing systems (spring, fall with winter clean-up, and highfertility fall) in a systematic way, a simulation model was constructed with a fixed forage resource of 50 acres of pasture including typical Virginia mountain pasture plus various amounts of fescue for stockpiling. The simulation included a production calendar; nutritional requirements for ewes, lambs, and artificially reared triplets; growth rates for lambs; lambing distributions; forage growth; and enterprise budgets including income, costs, and returns. A economic analysis was performed for each lambing system with average prices or with plus or minus one standard deviation for prices of corn, SBOM, and market lambs, and price differentials for market lambs across lambing seasons. Comparisons of each lambing systems produced various results. In spring lambing, only 78 ewes could be maintained on the fixed forage resource, while the fall with winter clean-up and high-fertility fall lambing system each had 115 ewes. This result occurred because of limited forage in July and August and higher nutrient requirements for spring lambing in those months. The overall nutrient requirements were higher in the fall with winter clean-up and high-fertility fall lambing than in spring lambing as a result of the increased ewe and lamb numbers. Concentrate consumption by lambs was also greater for fall with winter clean-up and high-fertility fall lambing than for spring lambing because of the increased numbers of lambs. Because of the low number of ewes and lambs, spring system produced the most hay. Labor costs were highest in fall with winter clean-up lambing because of the two lambing seasons. In the economic analysis system, each lambing was compared. With 10-year average prices for market lambs, corn, and SBOM, high-fertility fall lambing had the greatest income ($17,467), followed by fall with winter clean-up lambing ($14,695), and spring lambing ($10,358). This result occurred because high-fertility fall and fall with winter clean-up lambing had more lambs sold at higher market lambs prices than spring lambing. With 10-year average prices for market lambs, corn, and SBOM, high-fertility fall lambing had the highest cost ($7,935), followed by fall with winter clean-up lambing ($7,360), and spring lambing ($6,084). This was the result of increased ewe and lamb numbers in high-fertility fall and fall with winter clean-up lambing than spring lambing. High-fertility fall lambing had the greatest returns ($6,210), followed by fall with winter clean-up lambing ($4,025), and spring lambing ($2,028). On a fixed forage resource, increasing fertility in fall lambing clearly results in increased returns. In this model, forage availability controlled the number of ewes that a lambing system can have because of limited summer growth and had a major impact on profits. Conclusions of Tolman (1993) differed from those found within this thesis. On a per ewe basis, she found that spring lambing to yielded the highest returns whereas this thesis found that high-fertility fall lambing yielded the highest returns. A key difference between this study and that of Tolman (1993) was after weaning this thesis feed fall lambs stockpiled fescue and she feed fall lambs feed in dry lot.


Much attention has been paid to the introduction of Citizenship Education in 2002 as a curriculum subject for schools in England and Wales. However, schools have a much wider role in educating children for citizenship through the informal curriculum and everyday socio-spatial practices. This article draws attention to the issue of 'religious citizenship' as an important area of study for geographers, through a focus on a particular space: an English multi-faith community primary school. The model of religious citizenship that was provided and promoted by the school is considered, with reference to the way in which religious minorities were recognised and accommodated. Through this analysis, the significance of procedural liberalism is highlighted, particularly the way in which the concept of neutrality may inadvertently privilege certain groups over others. The multi-scalar nature of the issues in question are also shown through reference to particular constructions of the nation and national identity, along with the significance of everyday micro-spaces for the contestation and negotiation of religious citizenship.


CD of four works for shakuhachi, performed by Yoshikazu Iwamoto: 'On, on – it must be so'; 'Quite White'; 'Wheat'; 'Unnamed'. The main work on this disc is the 45-minute 'Unnamed' for solo shakuhachi, Denyer's longest composition to date. Its composition, performance and recording grew from a basic research question: how to extend a long-established working relationship with a particular musician – Yoshikazu Iwamoto – without simply retreading old ground. Denyer's earlier work with Iwamoto (in the late '70s and '80s) had extended the range of the instrument and developed many new playing techniques. New features of 'Unnamed' include: the use of different tuning systems in the same piece for a solo instrument, and how to make them playable, readable, and also audible; and the player having to sing, hum and speak, as well as play. Compositionally and performatively Denyer explored the use of a very low dynamic level for an extended period of time. The finished recording is based on a live performance recorded in Dartington's Great Hall. Because Iwamoto is no longer performing, and couldn't make a studio recording, the live recording required unusually careful editing, by Denyer himself and the sound engineer Robert Bosch, to reflect subsequent revisions to the piece; the ending, especially, was entirely reconstructed. The CD, which also includes reissues of three of his earlier works, is among the first batch of releases on the new British label, Another Timbre.


In developing countries, incidence of maternal mortality due to nosocomial infection during and after childbirth is considered high. Such phenomenon was also evidenced in hospitals which may be due to difficulty to access skilled care and/or quality disparity in healthcare provided. This study was performed to explore the current knowledge and practice of nursing/midwifery care for mothers post-Caesarean delivery in two district hospitals in Malang, East-Java, Indonesia. The study was designed as a quantitative cross-sectional survey and observation of patient-care practices. The population and samle studied were all nurses/midwives providing patient-care in Delivery Unit of Department of Obstetric and Gynecology. The results showed that there was gap between expected and actual knowledge and skill mastery, with concurrent incidence rate of 44% nosocomial infection post-Caesarean section. In conclusion, several aspects of knowledge; skills and attitudes including aseptic wound care were in need of improvement to control nosocomial infection post-Caesarean delivery.


: The present article aims to offer a synoptic picture of communist Romania's relations with Third World countries during the Ceaușescu regime. Within these relations, economic and geopolitical motivations coexisted along with ideological ones, thus making the topic one of the most interesting and relevant key for understanding RSR's complex and cunning international strategy. However, I intend to prove that mere pragmatism is not enough to comprehend the drive behind Ceaușescu's diplomatic efforts in post -colonial Africa; ideological factors need also to be taken into account.


The authors describe the University of Central Florida's top-down / bottom-up action analytics approach to using data to inform decision-making at the University of Central Florida. The top-down approach utilizes information about programs, modalities, and college implementation of Web initiatives. The bottom-up approach continuously monitors outcomes attributable to distributed learning, including student ratings and student success. Combined, this top-down/bottom up approach becomes a powerful means for using large extant university datasets to provide significant insights that can be instrumental in strategic planning.


A Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) is an important warning sign that a patient is at risk of a full stroke in the near future. Timely diagnosis and initiation of stroke preventive treatment, most notably the start of antiplatelet therapy, drastically reduces the early risk of stroke. However, the clinical diagnosis of TIA can be notoriously difficult. This thesis focused on (i) the value of tests or tools to support the clinical diagnosis of TIA, in particular blood biomarkers and clinical prediction models, and (ii) delay in the diagnosis and treatment of TIA, notably patient delay and its determinants. A systematic review on patient delay showed that more than a third of TIA patients delay seeking medical attention for more than 24 hours. Our own cohort study demonstrated that there is also considerable physician delay. Awareness among GPs about the importance of a rapid start of antiplatelet therapy in suspected TIA should be improved. Our study "Markers in the Diagnosis of TIA (MIND-TIA)" showed that currently available blood biomarkers have no additional value in the diagnosis of TIA. We used the MIND-TIA cohort also for validation of the recently proposed "Explicit Diagnostic Criteria for TIA (EDCT)". The EDCT had good overall accuracy and especially high negative predictive value, and may be a useful tool for GPs to support the clinical diagnosis of TIA. The results of the panel diagnosis in MIND-TIA indicated that overdiagnosis of TIA, and thus overtreatment, are common.


Participatory Action Research (PAR), with its emphasis on grassroots empowerment and local control, has a long history as the research method of choice for marginalized communities. However, unsettling questions remain about the nature of power and the promise of PAR as a truly participatory and empowering methodology. In this paper, we summarize the key theorists, principles, methodology, researcher's role, strengths and limitations of traditional PAR. In the subsequent section, we review current critiques and revisions of PAR. Finally, Khan proposes an adjustment to PAR that reflects the strengths and limitations of PAR and the implications of applying PAR within the bounds of a capitalist social-economic structure.


Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) is the primary oncogene of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is associated with various malignancies including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) – a tumour of epithelial origin. The NPC tissues are so heavily infiltrated with leukocytes that the tumour is sometimes also called lympho-epithelioma. In order to understand the mechanisms involved in LMP1 induced carcinogenesis (and inflammation-associated carcinogenesis in general), our lab has generated transgenic mice expressing an NPC variant of LMP1 (LMP1CAO) in the epidermis. LMP1 induced signalling pathways are activated in the pathological tissue, including NFκB, JNK, MAPK and p38 MAPK. In addition multiple proteins involved in proliferation and inflammation are upregulated including EGFR and its ligands, VEGF, and MMP9 amongst others. The skin of these mice, particularly the ears, develops a progressive inflammatory pathology from birth, initiating with hypervascularization (Stage1 (St1)) and hyperplasia (St2), increasing inflammation, leading to necrosis (St3), ulceration (St4), keratocanthoma (St5) and occasional carcinoma formation. The transgenic model permits an analysis of chronic inflammation as it leads to carcinoma, and the important factors involved in this.

This thesis describes the experiments and the pre-clinical trials conducted to dissect the inflamed milieu internal of the pre-neoplastic transgenic tissue, with a focus on the immune cells, immune response, autoantigens, danger signals, oxidative stress and perturbed metabolic pathways.

The transgenic tissue showed increased infiltration of mast cells, helper T-cells (CD4+), cytotoxic T-cells (CD8+/GranzymeB+) and Treg cells (CD4+/CD25+/FoxP3+). Inhibition of leukocyte recruitment using in vivo L-selectin inhibition not only resulted in slowed progression of the pathology but also could reverse the phenotype, suggesting a prognostic as well as therapeutic potential of L-selectin inhibition. Several inflammatory markers and cytokines, including STAT3, s100A9, CD30, CD30L, L-selectin, IL-3 and IP-10, were upregulated in the transgenic tissue compared to the controls. The role of a pro-inflammatory environment in the progression of the LMP1CAO induced pathology was investigated further by genetic removal of a chemokine decoy receptor D6 that resulted in accelerated progression of the pre-neoplastic as well as neoplastic pathology.

Antibody deposition is a feature of this pathology. In order to identify the antigenic targets, various proteomic techniques were used. Immunoprecipitation experiments showed that the chitinase like proteins (CLPs) specifically Chi3L1, Chi3L3 and Chi3L4, are autoantigens in the LMP1CAO induced inflammation. Western blot and IHC analyses of the LMP1CAO tissue revealed that CLPs are expressed at an early stage of inflammation while active chitinases are expressed at the later stages. Moreover, an attempt was made to investigate the sera and biopsies from NPC patients for the expression and secretion of human CLPs, CHI3L1 and CHI3L2. In another approach, the T-cell/B-cell interaction (and thus Ig class switching) was disrupted through genetic elimination of CD40. The LMP1CAO/CD40KO mice showed delayed progression of the inflammatory phenotype during later stages, suggesting that Ig deposition is factorial in this process.

Metabolic fingerprinting of the LMP1CAO tissue revealed deregulation of several metabolic pathways and suggested that "metabolic demand precedes the increased supply during pre-neoplasia". Several metabolic changes indicative of increased cell proliferation were identified in the transgenic tissue, including upregulation of phospholipid metabolism intermediates, such as choline, phosphocholine, glycerophosphocholines and lysophosphatidic acid. A tumour specific glycolytic programme was operational in the transgenic tissue along with increased levels of glutamine, suggesting tumour-like energy consumption. The transgenic tissue was under oxidative stress indicated by increased levels of H2O2. Finally, in vivo administration of an anti-oxidant, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), arrested the inflammatory phenotype at very early stages, suggesting that oxidative stress is one of the inciting dangers/damages in the LMP1CAO induced inflammation.

To summarize, the investigations presented herein have identified several candidates of diagnostic and therapeutic potential that are worth exploring further; not only in relation to the LMP1CAO induced carcinogenesis but also for various cancers in general.


A porous barium titanate (BaTiO3) thin film was chemically synthesized using a surfactant-assisted sol-gel method in which micelles of amphipathic diblock copolymers served as structure-directing agents. In the Raman spectrum of the porous BaTiO3 thin film, a peak corresponding to the ferroelectric tetragonal phase was observed at around 710 cm(-1), and it remained stable at much higher temperature than the Curie temperature of bulk single-crystal BaTiO3 (similar to 130 degrees C). Measurements revealed that the ferroelectricity of the BaTiO3 thin film has high thermal stability. By analyzing high-resolution transmission electron microscope images of the BaTiO3 thin film by the fast Fourier transform mapping method, the spatial distribution of stress in the BaTiO3 framework was clearly visualized. Careful analysis also indicated that the porosity in the BaTiO3 thin film introduced anisotropic compressive stress, which deformed the crystals. The resulting elongated unit cell caused further displacement of the Ti4+ cation from the center of the lattice. This displacement increased the electric dipole moment of the BaTiO3 thin film, effectively enhancing its ferro(piezo) electricity. (C) 2017 Author(s).


The antitrust landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade. Within the last two years alone, the United States Department of Justice has held hearings on the appropriate scope of Section 2, issued a comprehensive Report, and then repudiated it; and the European Commission has risen as an aggressive leader in single firm conduct enforcement by bringing abuse of dominance actions and assessing heavy fines against firms including Qualcomm, Intel, and Microsoft. In the United States, two of the most significant characteristics of the "new" antitrust approach have been a more intense focus on innovative companies in high-tech industries and a weakening of longstanding concerns that erroneous antitrust interventions will hinder economic growth. But this focus is dangerous, and these concerns should not be dismissed so lightly. In this article we offer a comprehensive cautionary tale in the context of a detailed factual, legal and economic analysis of the next Microsoft: the theoretical, but perhaps imminent, enforcement action against Google. Close scrutiny of the complex economics of Google's technology, market and business practices reveals a range of real but subtle, pro-competitive explanations for features that have been held out instead as anticompetitive. Application of the relevant case law then reveals a set of concerns where economic complexity and ambiguity, coupled with an insufficiently-deferential approach to innovative technology and pricing practices in the most relevant precedent (the D.C. Circuit's decision in Microsoft), portend a potentially erroneous - and costly - result. Our analysis, by contrast, embraces the cautious and evidence-based approach to uncertainty, complexity and dynamic innovation contained within the well-established "error cost framework." As we demonstrate, while there is an abundance of error-cost concern in the Supreme Court precedent, there is a real risk that the current, aggressive approach to antitrust error, coupled with the uncertain economics of Google's innovative conduct, will nevertheless yield a costly intervention. The point is not that we know that Google's conduct is procompetitive, but rather that the very uncertainty surrounding it counsels caution, not aggression.


Abstract Populations of planktic foraminifera display "proportionate" coiling (approximately 50% sinistral and dextral individuals given the data at hand) or may have "biased" coiling, in which populations are dominated by either sinistral or dextral individuals. The major radiations of planktic foraminifera in the Late Cretaceous, the Paleocene to early Eocene, the middle Eocene, and the Neogene were each initiated by clades with proportionate coiling but subsequently accumulated sinistral and dextral species over time. Upper Maastrichtian foraminifera were predominantly dextral, but only the small number of species with proportionate coiling actually survived the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction. The first Paleocene species with biased coiling appeared about four million years after the extinction and gradually came to represent as much as 50–60% of the tropical species diversity by the latest Paleocene. Tropical taxa with biased coiling suffered a second extinction in the late early Eocene and renewed a trend toward an increased abundance of species with biased coiling in the middle Eocene. Our results for the Paleogene reflect a recurring theme in foraminifer evolution. In each radiation, once the founding species of a clade developed a biased-coiling mode, the descendants tended to maintain biased coiling until the extinction of the clade. The iterative evolution of biased coiling appears to represent an example in which a fundamental feature of development becomes fixed in a clade and inhibits reversion to an ancestral state. Apparently, coiling patterns are heritable in contrast with previous interpretations that coiling is environmentally controlled. On evolutionary timescales, species with proportionate coiling are less susceptible to extinction than species dominated by sinistral or dextral forms. Differential survivorship ensures that each radiation is initiated from founders with proportionate coiling following mass extinction. Hence, coiling preferences represent a case where the establishment of an evolutionary trend is caused by drift away from a "limiting boundary," much like the evolution of large body size from ubiquitous small ancestors.


In this thesis, the development and characterization of biodegradable and/or enzymetriggered
destabilizable polymersomes (Ps) for controlled and targeted drug delivery are
presented. In Chapter 1, a general introduction, the aim of the study and structure of the
thesis are given. Scientific background information on the criteria for the formation of Ps
and methods for their characterization are discussed in Chapter 2. In this chapter, also
the recent progress on and challenges for the design of biodegradable and/or stimulisensitive
Ps in the field of drug delivery are reviewed. In Chapter 3, the preparation and
characterizations of Oregon Green® 488 Labeled Paclitaxel (Flutax) loaded
biodegradable Ps based on methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(D,L-lactide) (mPEGPDLLA),
methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(e-caprolactone) (mPEG-PCL) or a
mixture of the block copolymers is described. Hydrogel-containing Ps (Hs, hydrosomes)
are reported in Chapter 4. Results of time-resolved fluorescence as well as the timeresolved
fluorescence anisotropy of fluorescein isothicyanate labeled poly(Nisopropylacrylamide)
FITC-N in Ps as a function of temperature are given in Chapter 5.
Novel peptide-containing Ps (Ps (pep)) have been developed and characterized in
Chapter 6. A peptide sequence, Phe-Gly-Leu-Phe-Gly (FGLFG) was introduced in
between mPEG and PDLLA (mPEG-pep-PDLLA) and the Ps can be destabilized by the
presence of lysosomal enzyme cathepsin B (Cath B) as a result of the enzymatic
hydrolysis of the peptide linker. The surface of Ps (pep) was further modified by coupling
with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody (abEGFR) to enhance their
interaction with cells. In Chapter 7, the results of in vivo studies of Ps prepared from
PEG-PDLLA in tumor-bearing mice are compared with those of stealth liposomes. The
effects of the surface charge of the Ps on circulation kinetics, organ distribution and
tumor accumulation were evaluated.


Although typologies and characteristics of industrial ecosystems, symbioses, and eco-industrial parks and networks have been proposed in the literature, there is as yet no consensual acceptance of a benchmark and/or classification scheme. Problems arise not only with consensus surrounding concepts and theories, but in design and implementation. Does 'one size fit all' or do we need to account for differences in systems and, if so, how much so? Manufacturing cladistics based on biological classification science is a rapidly growing area of research which concerns the classification of individual manufacturing entities, and may provide solutions to these problems. Although this approach has not yet been applied to networks of organisations, the construction of a conceptual cladistic classification scheme of industrial ecosystems is attempted from secondary data. The potential benefits of this approach include a benchmark of best practice, a tool for policy development and a decision-support system for change management.


Whether or not climate change has had an impact on the occurrence of tornadoes in the United States has become a question of high public and scientific interest, but changes in how tornadoes are reported have made it difficult to answer it convincingly. We show that, excluding the weakest tornadoes, the mean annual number of tornadoes has remained relatively constant, but their variability of occurrence has increased since the 1970s. This is due to a decrease in the number of days per year with tornadoes combined with an increase in days with many tornadoes, leading to greater variability on annual and monthly time scales and changes in the timing of the start of the tornado season. Tornadoes have been occurring in a more clustered fashion since the 1970s. Tornadoes clustering in greater numbers Will global warming cause more tornadoes? If so, that has not happened yet. Brooks et al. compiled data on the occurrence of tornadoes in the United States between 1954 and 2013 to determine if and how tornado numbers have changed. Although the authors saw no clear trend in the annual number of tornadoes, they did see more clusters of tornadoes since the 1970s. In other words, there has been a decrease in the number of days per year with tornadoes but an increase in the number of days with multiple tornadoes. Why this clustering effect has occurred is not clear. Science, this issue p. 349


Physicians most often recommend or prescribe oral medication for relief of acute pain. This review of the available evidence supports the use of acetaminophen in doses up to 1,000 mg as the initial choice for mild to moderate acute pain. In some cases, modest improvements in analgesic efficacy can be achieved by adding or changing to a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). The safest NSAID is ibuprofen in doses of 400 mg. Higher doses may offer somewhat greater analgesia but with more adverse effects. Other NSAIDs have failed to demonstrate consistently greater efficacy or safety than ibuprofen. Although they may be more expensive, these alternatives may be chosen for their more convenient dosing. Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors provide equivalent efficacy to traditional NSAIDs but lack a demonstrable safety advantage for the treatment of acute pain. For more severe acute pain, the evidence supports the addition of oral narcotic medications such as hydrocodone, morphine, or oxycodone. Specific oral analgesics that have shown poor efficacy and side effects include codeine, propoxyphene, and tramadol.


Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a key angiogenic molecule, is aberrantly expressed in several diseases including asthma where it contributes to bronchial vascular remodeling and chronic inflammation. Asthmatic human airway smooth muscle cells hypersecrete VEGF, but the mechanism is unclear. In this study, we defined the mechanism in human airway smooth muscle cells from nonasthmatic and asthmatic patients. We found that asthmatic cells lacked a repression complex at the VEGF promoter, which was present in nonasthmatic cells. Recruitment of G9A, trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9me3), and a resultant decrease in RNA polymerase II at the VEGF promoter was critical to repression of VEGF secretion in nonasthmatic cells. At the asthmatic promoter, H3K9me3 was absent because of failed recruitment of G9a; RNA polymerase II binding, in association with TATA-binding protein-associated factor 1, was increased; H3K4me3 was present; and Sp1 binding was exaggerated and sustained. In contrast, DNA methylation and histone acetylation were similar in asthmatic and nonasthmatic cells. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to show that airway cells in asthma have altered epigenetic regulation of remodeling gene(s). Histone methylation at genes such as VEGF may be an important new therapeutic target.


Background The factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been extensively studied in Western countries. Some studies have assessed its factor structure in Asia (China, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia), but few have directly assessed the factor structure of PTSD in an Indian adult sample. Furthermore, in a largely patriarchal society in India with strong gender roles, it becomes imperative to assess the association between the factors of PTSD and gender. Objective The purpose of the present study was to assess the factor structure of PTSD in an Indian sample of trauma survivors based on prevailing models of PTSD defined in the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000), and to assess the relation between PTSD factors and gender. Method The sample comprised of 313 participants (55.9% female) from Jammu and Kashmir, India, who had experienced a natural disaster (N=200) or displacement due to cross-border firing (N=113). Results Three existing PTSD models—two four-factor models (Emotional Numbing and Dysphoria), and a five-factor model (Dysphoric Arousal)—were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis with addition of gender as a covariate. The three competing models had similar fit indices although the Dysphoric Arousal model fit significantly better than Emotional Numbing and Dysphoria models. Gender differences were found across the factors of Re-experiencing and Anxious arousal. Conclusions Findings indicate that the Dysphoric Arousal model of PTSD was the best model; albeit the fit indices of all models were fairly similar. Compared to males, females scored higher on factors of Re-experiencing and Anxious arousal. Gender differences found across two factors of PTSD are discussed in light of the social milieu in India.


High-resolution sampling was performed on four Permian sections in Guangxi Province, South China (Gujingling, Sanpaoling, Guoyuan and Yutouling sections). We report abundant and well-preserved Guadalupian–Lopingian radiolarian assemblages, with 25 species belonging to three genera of the order Albaillellaria. Among them, the most abundant genus is Follicucullus with 17 species: F. bipartitus, F. charveti, F. sp. cf. F. charveti, F. dilatatus, F. falx, F. sp. cf. F. falx, F. guangxiensis, F. hamatus, F. monacanthus, F. sp. cf. F. monacanthus, F. orthogonus, F. sp. cf. F. orthogonus, F. porrectus, F. scholasticus, F. sp. cf. F. scholasticus, F. ventricosus and F. sp. cf. F. ventricosus. On the basis of composite stratigraphic ranges, this study suggests four Interval Zones in ascending order, namely F. monacanthus, F. porrectus, F. scholasticus and F. charveti Interval Zones. We provide a phylogenetic model for Follicucullus based on their morphological affinities and stratigraphic distribution. The genus Follicucullus originated from Pseudoalbaillella fusiformis, with F. monacanthus as the forerunner species from which two contemporary species then radiated: F. dilatatus and F. porrectus. Follicucullus porrectus is a long-lasting species, it is abundant in our material and several Follicucullus lineages originated from it. In terms of evolution it is considered to be the ancestor of a number of Follicucullus species. Supplementary Material: Systematic palaeontology of Follicucullus is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18772


The objective of this study was to see whether, using the family history method, the risk for pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), cognitive impairments, and other psychiatric symptoms is greater in the parents and collateral relatives of probands with PDD compared to a control group. A semistructured family history interview was carried out with the parents of 52 probands with PDD and 33 parents of controls. Rates of cognitive impairments and psychiatric problems were not found more frequently in parents or relatives of PDD probands compared to relatives of controls, but four cases of PDD were reported among the extended families of the PDD probands. The relatives with PDD were related to the probands through the maternal line, possibly suggesting some form of maternal influence on inheritance or reduced penetrance in females with the PDD genotype.


[Biolaw & Literature. The case of Ulysses and his living will] In this paper, I will reflect on advance health care directives, from a bioethical point of view. Advance directives, which deal with the right of self-determination, are now regulated by the Italian law no. 219/2017. I will look in depth at the concept of capacity for rational choice in advance decisions, by looking at the figure of Ulysses, who is considered to give his companions the first living will in Western history. From Homer's "dilemmatic rationality" to the present time, this path will give the opportunity to consider advance directives as instruments of a dialogical-dialectical resolution of dilemmatic situations.


Background. A favourable environment has a positive and significant impact on students' learning, academic progress and well-being. The present study was undertaken to identify the perceptions of physiotherapy students in their clinical years of their learning environment at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods. A focus group discussion involving 12 undergraduate physiotherapy students was used to obtain information about their perception of their learning environment. Six students from two clinical levels of study were recruited through a simple random sampling technique. The focus interview guide was developed based on information obtained from the DREEM questionnaire and literature review. The interviews were analysed using the identified themes from DREEM and grounded theory for emerging subcategories. Results. Five descriptive themes and several subcategories were identified: ( i ) context of learning (course objectives, student focused/teacher centred, active learning); ( ii ) context of teachers (knowledgeable teachers, provision of formative assessment, approachable lecturers, cordial teacher-student relationship); ( iii ) context of students' perception of their academic skills (understanding the subject); ( iv ) context of atmosphere (adequacy of facilities, e.g. chairs, classrooms, library, books); and ( v ) context of social life (religious activities, social functions, school-related social activities). Conclusion. Most students perceived their learning environment as good, especially with regard to student-teacher relationships. Some of the teachers were described as knowledgeable, and as providing formative assessment. However, students perceived their learning as being teacher centred. To facilitate an excellent learning environment, particular attention needs to be paid to availability of physiotherapy textbooks in the college library, sufficient appropriate furniture in classrooms, and provision of a functioning departmental library. The findings from this study may provide insights for teachers who wish to enhance the effectiveness of their teaching and of their students' learning.


In recent years body-worn cameras have been championed by community groups, scholars and the courts as a potential check on police misconduct. Such has been the enthusiasm for body-worn cameras that, in a relatively short time, they have been rolled out to police departments across the country. Perhaps because of the optimism surrounding these devices there has been little consideration of the Fourth Amendment issues they pose, especially when they are coupled with facial recognition technology (FRT). There is one particular context in which police use of FRT equipped body-worn cameras is especially concerning: public protests. This Comment constitutes the first scholarly treatment of this issue. Far from a purely academic exercise, the police use of FRT equipped body-worn cameras at public protests is sure to confront the courts soon. Many police departments have, or will soon have, body-worn cameras equipped with real time FRT and a number of police departments do not prohibit their members from recording public protests. Although primarily descriptive – exploring the state of current Fourth Amendment doctrine by predicting its application to a hypothetical scenario – this Comment has a normative subtext; namely, suggesting that First Amendment values can strengthen the Fourth Amendment's protections against the tide of technologically enhanced mass surveillance.


Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2009 - Sets conditions for lawsuits arising from health care liability claims regarding health care goods or services or any medical product affecting interstate commerce. Sets a statute of limitations of three years after the date of manifestation of injury or one year after the claimant discovers the injury, with certain exceptions. Provides that nothing in this Act limits recovery of the full amount of available economic damages. Limits noneconomic damages to $250,000. Makes each party liable only for the amount of damages directly proportional to such party's percentage of responsibility. Allows the court to restrict the payment of attorney contingency fees. Limits the fees to a decreasing percentage based on the increasing value of the amount awarded. Allows the introduction of collateral source benefits and the amount paid to secure such benefits as evidence. Prohibits a provider of such benefits from recovering any amount from an award in a health care lawsuit involving injury or wrongful death. Authorizes the award of punitive damages only where: (1) it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that a person acted with malicious intent to injure the claimant or deliberately failed to avoid unnecessary injury the claimant was substantially certain to suffer; and (2) compensatory damages are awarded. Limits punitive damages to the greater of two times the amount of economic damages or $250,000. Denies punitive damages in the case of products approved, cleared, or licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or otherwise considered in compliance with FDA standards. Provides for periodic payments of future damages.


As the most serious crime, homicide is both relevant and suitable for cross-national comparisons. The global homicide rate of ca. 6 per 100,000 people is an average of hugely diverging national rates ranging from 0.25 in Singapore to ca. 100 in El Salvador. The validity of global homicide statistics suffers from various differences in definitions as well as reporting and registration processes. Both criminal justice and causes of death statistics are used by the World Health Organization to construct rates, yet these are available only for a minority of countries. An overview on homicide in history and non-state societies shows that violence levels were considerably higher compared to those in today's developed world and have dropped dramatically in Europe and North America during the early modern period. The rates first increased and then declined between ca.1960 and today in most developed nations in a synchronized manner, hinting at common influences. In recent years, homicide trends have shown a polarizing pattern, with increasing rates in Latin America and decreasing rates in most other world regions, especially East Asia and the Pacific, where rates have fallen below the European average concurrent with rising scores on the Human Development Index. Except in Eastern Europe, the frequency of homicide is strongly linked to the use of firearms, which account for 44% of homicide cases worldwide.
 Longitudinal studies have produced robust evidence for the pivotal role of deprivation and inequality in fostering lethal violence and of social welfare policies in reducing it. Although the transition to democratic political systems seems to increase homicide rates temporarily, the legitimacy of state institutions and the suppression of corruption are connected to lower homicide rates. Because of conceptual and methodological problems, questions concerning the generalizability of effects across space and time remain. Nevertheless, the research findings are sufficiently robust to draw important conclusions for violence prevention: reductions in poverty and income inequality, investments in welfare policies and gender equality, and improvements in the legitimacy of state institutions will help to bring homicide rates down.


Abstract Self-myofascial release (SMR) is a well-known and popular therapy. Its growing popularity is based on high effectiveness and availability. However, there is a lack of agreement about which parameters should be used to optimize the effects of the therapy. The purpose of this review is to critically select and assess current literature and ascertain the values of the following parameters: (1) therapy duration, (2) volume of applied pressure, (3) speed and (4) frequency of roll, (5) type of roller, (6) the number of treatment applications during one session, (7) the duration of intervals between applications that yield the best results in terms of soft tissue. The authors launched their research in May 2018. The search strategy included the electronic databases EBSCOhost and PubMed. The following inclusion criteria were assessed: - English language, high quality manuscripts (evaluation in PEDro scale) - at least one of the groups using the foam roller, tennis ball or the stick to fascial release - basic parameters of therapy described.A total 55 articles met the inclusion criteria. Patients can usually withstand a maximum tolerable pressure for 30-120 seconds, repeated 1-3 times, separated by 30 seconds of rest. The intensity of a single rolling movement should be moderate, and the movement should last about 3 seconds. Keeping the roller on particularly sensitive areas is recommended to release tension and enhance blood perfusion.Currently, there is no consensus on an optimal FR programme. However, there is a tendency to use SMR tools with a physiology-based method to enhance therapeutic efficiency.


The Compact Clause (Art. I, Sec. 10 U.S. Constitution) requires congressional approval for "any agreement or compact" among the states. In the teeth of this wording, the Supreme Court held, in U.S. Steel Corp. v. Multistate Tax Commission, (1978), that the Clause applies only to state compacts that "encroach" upon federal supremacy. Courts have followed this precedent in sustaining the 1998 multi-state agreement on tobacco litigation against Compact Clause challenges. Compacts, Cartels, and Congressional Consent argues that U.S. Steel was wrongly decided. Congressional "negatives," including the Compact Clause, invert the default rule for constitutionally suspect classes of state laws. Whereas ordinary state laws are permitted to go into (and remain in) effect unless and until Congress or the courts exercise their authority under the Supremacy Clause, congressional negatives render state laws inoperative unless and until Congress takes affirmative action. By limiting the operation of the Compact Clause to state agreements that encroach on federal supremacy -- which are unlawful in any event -- the Supreme Court has re-inverted the constitutional presumption and emptied the Compact Clause of all content. This Article explains the forgotten constitutional logic and wisdom of the Compact Clause and argues for a Compact Clause jurisprudence that will safeguard constitutional purposes (in particular, the protection of equality and comity among the states). It shows that both the 1967 Multistate Tax Compact considered in U.S. Steel and the 1998 tobacco settlement are clearly unconstitutional without congressional consent. It concludes that a re-invigorated Compact Clause is consistent with principled, constitutional federalism doctrines.


Animal studies have demonstrated that dietary 18:3n-3 reduces 20:4n-6 content in plasma and tissue lipids. At megadose levels of 18:3n-3, the reduction in phospholipid 20:4n-6 is brought about by a combination of inhibition of desaturase activities and redistribution of 20:4n-6 from phospholipids to neutral lipid pools. The shifting phenomenon is not apparent when the dietary level of 18:3n-3 is low. Dietary 18:3n-3 reduces cholesterol levels in blood and liver tissue; however, the mechanism by which this effect is mediated is not known. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of dietary 18:3n-3 on cholesterol biosynthesis, storage, and mobilization into and from the tissues and on the secretion of cholesterol into bile. The effect of the ratio of dietary 18:2n-6 to SFA as a determinant of 20:4n-6 and lipid-lowering effects should be further explored in human subjects. It is important to elucidate whether dietary 18:3n-3 interacts with other nutrients to modulate the parameters implicated in the pathogenic processes. The optimum level of dietary 18:3n-3 required to obtain health beneficial effects needs to be determined. Specific effects of dietary 18:3n-3 on low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels also deserves further investigation before any recommendation to achieve health benefits can be made.


This article reviews developments in the Mexican municipal bond market, and explains how legal and regulatory reforms in the country adapted innovative private-sector financing techniques, like future-flow securitization, to pave the way for a small, but active municipal bond market. The question of whether or not such an approach can or should be used in other developing countries is explored, with special reference to South Africa. This article concludes by suggesting that in many countries, the specific techniques used in Mexico may not be cost-effective, but the basic principles underlying the financial mechanics clearly have application. Future-flow securitizations typically are driven by the need for capital-market access by a company located in a developing country where a low sovereign credit rating caps the rating of the company?s debt. In future-flow deals, the borrowing company normally has significant dependable foreign currency export receivables, establishes a special-purpose vehicle (SPV), sells receivables to the SPV, and gives customers instructions to pay a collection account controlled by the SPV. The SPV issues securities to finance the purchase of accounts receivable.


Wikipedia, the largest multilingual free content online encyclopaedia, is the result of collaboration by countless volunteers around the world. Because of the popularity of such applications, one of the most important issues is how to alleviate information overload on the world wide web and thereby facilitate effective information search activities. Basically, Wikipedia users browse content by following hyperlinks, or they use the search function to look for information. Traditional methods cannot represent all the relationships between hypertexts; thus, users can easily change their search goals unconsciously or get lost when they explore or retrieve information. To address the above problem, we propose a link strength measure that establishes a network by analysing the internal links between articles in Wikipedia. We then apply social network analysis indicators to label the relationships between articles and identify topics to help users find required information. Based on the proposed methods, we developed an application called WikiMap. To assess its effectiveness, we conducted a task-oriented evaluation study with 28 participants who were asked to execute simulated search tasks on two interfaces: the standard Wikipedia interface and the proposed WikiMap interface. The evaluation results show that participants were more successful in executing the assigned tasks on the WikiMap interface, especially unfamiliar decision-making tasks. The exploratory research results have implications for the design of search-aided applications to help users find information in Wikipedia.


Dynamic statitory interpretation recognizes that statutes evolve as various interpreters apply them to changing circumstances over time. hence, an interpretation rendered today may not be the same as the one that would have been rendered when the statute was originally enacted. The scholarsip exploring dynamic statutory interpretation has thus far focused on statutes implicating civil and personal rights. (1) Scholars have focused on such statutes because they raise interesting issues and because the evolution of such statutes is dramatically influenced by evolving constitutional principles. By focusing on statutes implicating civil and personal rights, however, we have neglected the ways in which other types of legislation evolve. For example, economic regulatory legislation evolves as much as, and in some ways more dramatically than, civil rights statutes. (2) Just as civil rights statutes evolve in response to changing social patterns and new constitutional theories, regulatory legislation evolves in response to changing economic patterns and new economic theories. This commentary applies dynamic statutory interpretation theory to Professor Richard Diamond's proposed interpretation of the counter-vailing duty statue. (3) Federal law imposes a "countervailing duty" on imported merchandise for which a foreign country provides a "subsidy" with respect to its production. The countervailing duty statute does not clearly define a "subsiy" but the agency administering the statute has issued a proposed rulemaking to clarify the term. Diamond proposes that subsidy be defined as a foreign government's payment that reduces the marginal costs of foreign firm's exports to the United States. Thiis definition is based on economic theory that has only recently been applied to develop a more rational counterevailing duty law. As such, it is not the definition Congress had envisioned when it passed the original statute in 1930, or when it substantially revised the statute in 1979, or even when the statute was amended in 1984. Yet I argue that this economics-based definition of "subsidy" is one that the agency can use as the basis for its regulations, under established doctrine and sound theory. This article will develop the doctrinal and theoretical reasons justifying dynamic interpretation of economic regulatory legislation generally and of the countervailing duty statute in particular. Three times facilitate the evolution of such statutes. One theme is delegation. Most economic regulatory statutes delegate rulemaking responsibilities to agencies, which can either be independent or part of the executive branch. Congress delegates many of the analytically difficult issues, such as the subsidy issue, to agencies, partly to avoid making the hard political choices itself, and partly so that the agency can fill in the statutory details rationally and dynamically. Because agencies have some accountability to the political process and are formally given broad lawmaking duties, the Supreme Court has long deferred to reasonable agency interpretations. This deference has been given even when the agency has changed its interpretation over time and even when those interpretations are probably inconsistent with original legislative expectations. The Court is not deferential when those expextations are clearly expressed in the statutory text. A secind theme is the dynamic consequences of statutory purposes. the Court has long approved of interpreting statutes to fulfill their central purposes. While a statutory purpose may be invariable, new theories for best fulfilling that purpose can justify dynamic statutory interpretation. By definition, economic regulatory legislation is aimed at solving, or ameliorating, an economic problem. There is always the danger of overregulating or underregulatinfg, and the duty of the primary statutory interpreter--usually an agency-is to attempt to acheive optimal regulation, within the limits set by the statutory text. …


For about sixty years, Christian mission has encountered the resistant Sonjo traditions, and much of the competition between religions has happened in the realm of narratives. Sonjo myths and stories change according to the religio-political needs, and Christians make use of stories or versions of myths that gain them leverage against the traditional religion. Christian mission attempts to utilize women's position as an argument for its benefit. Sonjo Christian women, finding themselves between two patriarchies, the traditional and the Christian, negotiate themselves additional moving space by positioning themselves usually in accordance to churches' positions but sometimes to the Sonjo traditions.


Background
Low back pain (LBP) and neck pain are major causes of pain and disability that are experienced across all ages. The primary goals of treatment are to improve patient function and facilitate a return to the patient's desired level of daily activity. Therapeutic ultrasound is a noninvasive modality widely utilized in the management of musculoskeletal disorders, but there continues to be controversy regarding its use due to insufficient evidence of effectiveness. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound in the management of patients with chronic LBP and neck pain.

Methods
Using PRISMA guidelines, a search of the PubMed and CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library) databases was performed to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated therapeutic ultrasound in patients with chronic LBP or neck pain.

Results
The search strategy identified 10 trials that met the criteria for inclusion. Three studies in LBP reported that both therapeutic and sham (placebo) ultrasound provided significant improvement in pain intensity. In each of these studies, ultrasound was found to be more effective than placebo when using only one of several validated instruments to measure pain. Three of the four studies on neck pain demonstrated significant pain relief with ultrasound in combination with other treatment modalities. However, only one of these studies demonstrated that the use of ultrasound was the cause of the statistically significant improvement in pain intensity.

Conclusions
Therapeutic ultrasound is frequently used in the treatment of LBP and neck pain and is often combined with other physiotherapeutic modalities. However, given the paucity of trials and conflicting results, we cannot recommend the use of monotherapeutic ultrasound for chronic LBP or neck pain. It does seem that ultrasound may be considered as part of a physical modality treatment plan that may be potentially helpful for short-term pain relief; however, it is undetermined which modality may be superior. In both pain syndromes, further trials are needed to define the true effect of low-intensity ultrasound therapy for axial back pain. No conclusive recommendations may be made for optimal settings or session duration.


In this study, the authors propose a cross-layer resource allocation scheme for push to talk (PTT) service over orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based networks. In our modelling, the authors consider two traffic types: streaming traffic, which requires a maximum guaranteed average delay and elastic traffic with flexible rate requirements. PTT traffic is also considered as a streaming traffic with more flexible delay requirements comparing to conventional streaming traffic. The authors consider queue state information as well as channel state information in a cross-layer framework to maximise the total transmission rate of the elastic users, while average delay constraint for streaming users, and maximum transmission power constraint are satisfied. An algorithm is then proposed based on dual decomposition method to obtain the subcarrier assignment and power allocation for each user. Using simulations, the authors then evaluate the impact of the streaming PTT traffic and other system parameters on the total rate of elastic users.


Proof of causation in toxic torts has presented persistent problems for the legal system, because the probabilities that science can know fit poorly with the demands for particularistic proof imposed by the law's deterministic model of causation. Some scholars have hoped that genomic and molecular information will at last provide scientific certainty — definitive, individualized proof of toxic causation.This Article argues that the opposite is true. Scientific research will increasingly elucidate the ways in which environmental exposures and human genes interact to produce disease, but this deeper knowledge will extend rather than resolve the problem of causal indeterminacy in toxic torts. Genomic and molecular understanding, instead of sounding the death knell for proposals to reform toxic tort causation law, will strengthen the argument for those reforms.This Article proposes a probabilistic causal contribution model to replace the model of deterministic causation in toxic torts, building on earlier scholarly proposals and the creativity of a handful of courts. The Article explores how the model would work and argues that it is superior to present doctrine when assessed against the goals of the tort system.


Current morphometric methods that comprehensively measure shape cannot compare the disparate leaf shapes found in seed plants and are sensitive to processing artifacts. We explore the use of persistent homology, a topological method applied across the scales of a function, to overcome these limitations. The described method isolates subsets of shape features and measures the spatial relationship of neighboring pixel densities in a shape. We apply the method to the analysis of 182,707 leaves, both published and unpublished, representing 141 plant families collected from 75 sites throughout the world. By measuring leaves from throughout the seed plants using persistent homology, a defined morphospace comparing all leaves is demarcated. Clear differences in shape between major phylogenetic groups are detected and estimates of leaf shape diversity within plant families are made. This approach does not only predict plant family, but also the collection site, confirming phylogenetically invariant morphological features that characterize leaves from specific locations. The application of a persistent homology method to measure leaf shape allows for a unified morphometric framework to measure plant form, including shape and branching architectures.


This paper explores the performance and energy efficiency of CUDA-enabled GPUs and multi-core SIMD CPUs using a set of kernels and full applications. Our implementations efficiently exploit both SIMD and thread-level parallelism on multi-core CPUs and the computational capabilities of CUDA-enabled GPUs. We discuss general optimization techniques for our CPU-only and CPU-GPU platforms. To fairly study performance and energy-efficiency, we also used two applications which utilize several kernels. Finally, we present an evaluation of the implementation effort required to efficiently utilize multi-core SIMD CPUs and CUDA-enabled GPUs for the benchmarks studied. Our results show that kernel-only performance and energy-efficiency could be misleading when evaluating parallel hardware; therefore, true results must be obtained using full applications. We show that, after all respective optimizations have been made, the best performing and energy-efficient platform varies for different benchmarks. Finally, our results show that PPEH (Performance gain Per Effort Hours), our newly introduced metric, can affectively be used to quantify efficiency of implementation effort across different benchmarks and platforms.


By the time President Gerald Ford signed the United States Toxic Substances Control Act in the fall of 1976, tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals had entered world markets with no evidence of their safety. Ford's signing statement described a law giving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broad regulatory authority to require toxicity testing and reporting to determine whether the chemicals posed risks. "If a chemical is found to present a danger to health or the environment," Ford promised, "appropriate regulatory action can be taken before it is too late to undo the damage." That's not what happened. The 60,000-plus chemicals already in commerce were grandfathered into the law on the assumption that they were safe. And the EPA faced numerous hurdles, including pushback from the chemical industry, that undermined its ability to implement the law. Congress finally revised the law last year, with the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21 Century Act, to bolster the EPA's regulatory authority. Over the decades that US policy on chemicals stagnated, scientists documented the damage whole classes of chemicals inflicted on living organisms and the environment that sustains them. Although we still have safety data on just a fraction of the 85,000-plus chemicals now approved for use in commerce, we know from field, wildlife, and epidemiology studies that exposures to environmental chemicals are ubiquitous. Hazardous chemicals enter the environment from the factories where they're made and added to a dizzying array of consumer products—including mattresses, computers, cookware, and plastic baby cups to name a few—and from landfills overflowing with our cast-offs. They drift into homes from nearby agricultural fields and taint our drinking water and food. Today, hundreds of industrial chemicals contaminate the blood and urine of nearly every person tested, in the US and beyond. In the decades since Ford promised a robust policy to regulate potentially hazardous chemicals, evidence has emerged that chemicals in widespread use can cause cancer and other chronic diseases, damage reproductive systems, and harm developing brains at low levels of exposure once believed to be harmless. Such exposures pose unique risks to children at critical windows of development—risks that existing regulations fail to consider. To address these issues, PLOS Biology is publishing a special collection of seven articles, Challenges in Environmental Health: Closing the Gap between Evidence and Regulations, that focus on US chemical policy [1]. In commissioning the collection, we aimed to reveal barriers to developing health-protective policies not only when the scientific evidence of harm is clear but also when it is uncertain. We sought to explore the technical challenges involved in determining how the hundreds of


Orchid is one of the most important export commodities in Malaysia. To remain globally competitive the orchid industry needs to constantly improve the quality and variety of flowers exported. Genetic modification of orchids to create varieties will help to boost the orchid industry in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to develop an optimized transformation procedure using the PDS-He 1000 biolistic system for the introduction of potential genes of interest into Oncidium Sharry Baby protocorm-like-bodies (PLB). Determination of the minimal inhibitory concentration of hygromycin to select transformed PLB showed that 100% non-transformed PLB were killed at 5.0 μg/ml hygromycin. Optimization of the transformation parameters (time course of GFP transient expression in PLB, concentration of DNA, age of PLB, presence of spermidine and CaCl2 in DNA-microcarrier precipitation and duration of single PLB in fresh medium prior bombardment) were achieved by co-bombarding the PLB with the plasmids p35S, which carries a synthetic green fluorescence protein (sgfp) gene, and pSM-CHS, which carries the antisense chalcone synthase (CHS) and a hygromycin resistance (hptII) genes. Optimized parameters were chosen based on GFP expression in transformed PLB and the number of survivals on hygromycin selection. The results showed that the highest GFP expression was observed in 4 weeks old PLB on the second day post-bombardment using 1.0μg DNA per bombardment. Pre-incubation of the PLB for 3 days on fresh medium prior to bombardment also enhanced GFP expression. Using spermidine alone in DNA-microcarriers precipitation process was shown to result in high GFP expression. PLB obtained from each of the parameters optimization step were subjected to 5.0 μg/ml hygromycin selection and the percentage of surviving plantlets was recorded. The highest number of survivals was obtained when 0.5 μg DNA per bombardment were used on 2 weeks old PLB which had undergone 1 day pre-treatment on fresh medium prior to the bombardment. The DNA was prepared with the presence of CaCl2 in the DNA-microcarriers precipitation process. After 8 months of hygromycin selection, three types of plantlets, designated as Type A, Type B and Type C, were identified based on their growth morphology on the regeneration medium. Type A plantlet never attained more than one centimeter in height before tissue necrosis set in. Type B plantlet was dwarf-like when compared to normal plant. Type C showed normal growth comparable to untransformed plantlet. Randomly picked leaves were viewed under Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM), which revealed a reduction in stomata number for Type A plantlet and altered shape of the guard cells. Type B showed a combination of both normal and abnormal stomata. Type C plantlet possessed normal stomata with typical guard cell shape. Subsequently, the presence of the transgenes (sgfp, hptII and antisense CHS) in the genome of putative transformants were verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Genomic DNA were obtained from randomly selected transformants and subjected to PCR analyses. About 81.3 % of Type A, 1.4 % of Type B, and 3.2 % of Type C transformants successfully showed amplification of the expected band size of CHS antisense gene. While 81.3 % of Type A, 76.1 % of Type B, and 83.9 % of Type C successfully amplified the expected band size of hptII gene. About 56.3 % of Type A, 26.8 % of Type B, and 35.5 % of Type C amplified the expected band size of sgfp gene. An optimized transformation system has been established using biolistic method for Oncidium Sharry Baby PLB with 12.7%, 24.5% and 78.8 % transformation frequencies for antisense CHS, sgfp and hptII genes, respectively. Hygromycin at 5.0 μg/ml is a good selective agent for Oncidium Sharry Baby transformation.


In this paper, a probabilistic discrete choice approach is used to examine the influence of economic and non-economic factors on the choice of medical specialty by new physicians. A two level nested logit model is estimated that relaxes the independence from irrelevant alternatives assumption, and allows for a potentially more realistic pattern of substitution across specialty choices. The results from this specification are compared to those obtained from joint and conditional logit models. The findings, which are relatively robust across models, indicate that economic incentives play an important role in the specialty choice process, in particular, expected hours worked and medical school indebtedness. Physician tastes for specialties also appear to have an important influence.


We investigate the gender gap in Economics among bachelor's and master's graduates in Italy between 2010 and 2019. First we establish that being female exerts a negative impact on the choice to major in Economics: at the bachelor level, only 73 women graduate in Economics for every 100 men, with the mathematical content of high school curricula as the key driver of the effect and a persistence of the gap at the master level. Second, within a full menu of major choices, Economics displays the largest gap, followed by STEM and then Business Economics. Third, decomposition analyses expose a unique role for the math background in driving the Economics gender gap relative to other fields. Fourth, a triple difference analysis of a high school reform shows that an increase in the math content of traditionally low math curricula caused an increase in the Economics gender gap among treated students.


Sexual size dimorphism is a characteristic of many animal species but the ways in which size differences between males and females originate in sex changing species is little understood. The present study investigated growth mechanisms underlying sexual size dimorphism in protogynous hermaphrodites, using tropical wrasses as a focal study group. The aims were to: 1) identify a relationship between the strength of the social organization within a group and the timing of growth divergence between sex changing and non sex-changing individuals; and 2) to identify changes in behaviour and space use associated with sex change within a group. It was predicted that where individuals were under strict social control, sexual size dimorphism would come about by a growth spurt associated with sex change. It was also predicted that in more loosely controlled social groups, prior growth history would play a greater role in the development of sexual size dimorphism.

The strength of social systems for four species of wrasse (family: Labridae) was quantified by behavioural observations and compared to growth trajectories of sex-changing and non-sex-changing females. The wrasse species used in this study were: Coris batuensis, Stethojulis strigiventer, Halichoeres miniatus, and Cirrhilabrus exquisitus. Behavioural observations were made throughout a male removal experiment to observe changes in behaviour within a group during the process of sex change. Growth patterns were estimated through analysis of otolith microstructures using daily increment width as a proxy for daily somatic growth. Comparisons were made of social systems and growth patterns both across species and within a species to determine if social influences on growth were species specific or specific to the social system.

Check marks in the otoliths at the time of sex reversal were identified in three of the four species, with the mark occurring only in male fish.A check mark was experimentally validated in H. miniatus as occurring within the time period of sex change.When social groups were experimentally manipulated to induce sex change by removing the male, the dominant female changed sex, completing gonadal changes in less than 44 days. An increase in otolith accretion rate, or a growth spurt, was also found in sex-changing fish and this corresponded to an increase in somatic growth rate.

The strength of the social systems of the study populations was found to influence the growth patterns of component individuals. Both across species and within species, size differences between males and females were found to be due to growth spurts around the time of sex change in social groups with strict social control. In contrast, prior growth history was found to be more important in the
expression of sexual size dimorphism in groups with looser social organisation. In three of the species an initially larger increment size was found in the females that changed to male suggesting a larger otolith size at hatching in females that eventually change sex. Growth spurts were found to be important for the size dimorphism in three out of four species. Results suggest that the social system may play a major role in influencing the growth associated mechanism underlying the sexual size dimorphism in sex changing fishes, and that at times, pre-larval factors may be influencing which individuals end up becoming the dominant males in the system.


Grazing of domestic livestock, the most widespread extractive use of federal lands, taking place on well over one quarter of a billion acres primarily in the West, is causing profound ecological damage (likely to be exacerbated by climate change), even though the meat produced from public land forage is a tiny fraction (about 2 percent) of national meat production and provides few jobs or economic activity in the region. Over the last decade or so, a promising non-regulatory solution to the problem has emerged, involving conservation-minded purchasers acquiring federal land grazing permits from willing sellers, and then offering to relinquish the permits to the government if it will retire the federal lands from livestock grazing. The problem is that, on most federal lands, existing law creates a serious risk that the lands covered by the purchased grazing permits will be reopened by the government to grazing by another rancher. This article addresses this problem in some detail, offers a simple statutory solution, compares this solution to alternatives, and explores the politics of securing its adoption by Congress.


Abstract.  Previous classification of the insect order Psocoptera has relied on morphological characters. Psocoptera are generally divided into three suborders: Trogiomorpha, Troctomorpha, and Psocomorpha. Traditional classification divides the Psocomorpha into four infraorders (Homilopsocidea, Caeciliusetae, Psocetae and Epipsocetae), but a recent morphological cladistic study removed Archipsocidae from Homilopsocidea and Hemipsocidae from Psocetae. We investigated the phylogenetic relationships within the suborder Psocomorpha using DNA sequences from the nuclear 18S and mitochondrial 16S, 12S and cytochrome oxidase I genes. Phylogenetic analyses of these gene sequences supported monophyly for Psocomorpha. In addition, monophyly of the traditional subgroups Caeciliusetae and Psocetae was generally supported. Monophyly of Homilopsocidea was not supported, and Archipsocus is removed from this group. Although the molecular phylogeny is generally consistent with recent cladistic studies of morphological characters, we found no evidence that Hemipsocidae should be removed from Psocetae.


OBJECTIVE It has been proposed that skeletal muscle insulin resistance arises from the accumulation of intramyocellular lipid metabolites that impede insulin signaling, including diacylglycerol and ceramide. We determined the role of de novo ceramide synthesis in mediating muscle insulin resistance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Mice were subjected to 12 weeks of diet-induced obesity (DIO), and then treated for 4 weeks with myriocin, an inhibitor of serine palmitoyl transferase-1 (SPT1), the rate-limiting enzyme of de novo ceramide synthesis. RESULTS After 12 weeks of DIO, C57BL/6 mice demonstrated a doubling in gastrocnemius ceramide content, which was completely reversed (141.5 ± 15.8 vs. 94.6 ± 10.2 nmol/g dry wt) via treatment with myriocin, whereas hepatic ceramide content was unaffected by DIO. Interestingly, myriocin treatment did not alter the DIO-associated increase in gastrocnemius diacyglycerol content, and the only correlation observed between lipid metabolite accumulation and glucose intolerance occurred with ceramide (R = 0.61). DIO mice treated with myriocin showed a complete reversal of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance which was associated with enhanced insulin-stimulated Akt and glycogen synthase kinase 3β phosphorylation. Furthermore, myriocin treatment also decreased intramyocellular ceramide content and prevented insulin resistance development in db/db mice. Finally, myriocin-treated DIO mice displayed enhanced oxygen consumption rates (3,041 ± 124 vs. 2,407 ± 124 ml/kg/h) versus their control counterparts. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that the intramyocellular accumulation of ceramide correlates strongly with the development of insulin resistance, and suggests that inhibition of SPT1 is a potentially promising target for the treatment of insulin resistance.


The applicability of low-pressure membranes systems in distributed (point of use) water treatment is hindered by, among other things, their inability to remove potentially harmful viruses and ions via size exclusion. According to the USEPA and the Safe Drinking Water Act, drinking water treatment processes must be designed for 4-log virus removal. Batch experiments using magnetite nanoparticle (nano-Fe3O4) suspensions and water filtration experiments with polysulfone membranes coated with nano-Fe3O4 were conducted to assess the removal of a model virus (bacteriophage MS2). The membranes were coated via a simple filtration protocol. Unmodified membranes were a poor adsorbent for MS2 bacteriophage with less than 0.5-log removal, whereas membranes coated with magnetite nanoparticles exhibited a removal efficiency exceeding 99.99% (4-log). Thus, a cartridge of PSf membranes coated with nano-Fe3O4 particles could be used to remove viruses from water. Such membranes showed negligible iron leaching into the filtrate, thus obviating concern about coloured water. Further research is needed to reduce the loss of water flux caused by coating.


The contrail radiative forcing induced by human aviation activity is one of the most uncertain contributions to climate forcing. An accurate estimation of global contrail radiative forcing is imperative, and the modeling approach is an effective and prominent method to investigate the sensitivity of contrail forcing to various potential factors. We use a simple offline model framework that is particularly useful for sensitivity studies. The most‐up‐to‐date Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) is employed to simulate the atmosphere and cloud conditions during the year 2006. With updated natural cirrus and additional contrail optical property parameterizations, the RRTMG Model (RRTM‐GCM application) is used to simulate the global contrail radiative forcing. Global contrail coverage and optical depth derived from the literature for the year 2002 is used. The 2006 global annual averaged contrail net (shortwave + longwave) radiative forcing is estimated to be 11.3 mW m−2. Regional contrail radiative forcing over dense air traffic areas can be more than ten times stronger than the global average. A series of sensitivity tests are implemented and show that contrail particle effective size, contrail layer height, the model cloud overlap assumption, and contrail optical properties are among the most important factors. The difference between the contrail forcing under all and clear skies is also shown.


Why did it take only a couple of years for the CECs' ostensibly liberal trade regimes to be so much undermined by piecemeal protectionism? First, CEC trade policies were based on the wrong belief that regional disciplines were a good substitute for non-discriminatory world-wide disciplines. Second, CEC trade laws ignore the potential substitutability between instruments of protection - an issue particularly acute in the case of contingent protection (antidumping, safeguard, and antisubsidy). If a CEC government wants to adopt contingent protection laws, national laws should do more than incorporate all the GATT provisions. The paper reviews a few suggestions, including the replacement of all the existing contingent protection under the Europe Agreements with the more economically sound Treaty of Rome Articles 91 and 92-93. By signing these batches of the Treaty of Rome, the CECs will become immediate (yet partial) members of the Community - an important political step.


In this paper I discuss optional movement of focus constituents to the left periphery of the clause in Italian. Restricting my discussion to corrective exchanges – where focus occurs in a reply that denies the preceding assertion – I show that the fronted position and the 'low' position are not completely equivalent, in that certain contexts disallow the former, but allow the latter. I sketch out a characterization of two distinct interpretations for the focus structure: a truly corrective interpretation, and a merely contrastive one. Finally, I briefly consider the consequences of these findings for the general view of the syntax–semantics interface. Keywords: focus movement; contrastive focus; correction; syntax-pragmatics interface


Conventional electron microscopy operates with flat electron wave fronts. Employing attenuative or electrostatic phase plates allows transversally modulating the wave front, enhancing cross-sections of particular scattering channels. Utilization of light from coherent ultrafast sources allows modulating electrons phase both transversally and longitudinally. This results in a plethora of phenomena, as well as conceptually new techniques such as non-local electron holography of light fields and generation of ultrafast electron vortex beams, which we present in this contribution.


Color vision begins with the activation of cone cells. When one of the cone cells dysfunction, color vision deciency (CVD) ensues. Due to CVD, users become unable to differentiate as many colors as a normal person can. Lack of this ability can lead to less rich web experience, incomprehension of basic information and even frustration. Solutions such as carefully choosing colors during the design or recoloring of web pages for CVD users exist. Nevertheless, extant solutions are limited in that: 1) they overlook the varying strength in terms of the relationships between pairs of colors from the same websites, and 2) they assume that the original web designers have followed the recommended guidelines with respect to the contrast ratio of related colors. To address the above limitations, we propose an improvement to a state-of-the-art recoloring tool in terms of the time complexity. More importantly, we present our tool, FBRecolor, which leverages the foreground-background relationship between colors in a web page to further improve the recoloring performance while preserving naturalness, pair-differentiability and subjectivity. Furthermore, we introduce a new component into FBRecolor that takes into account of color contrast in selecting replacement colors according to W3C guidelines. The experiment results show that FBRecolor does better in preserving pair-differentiability and produces lower total cost solutions than SPRWeb. In addition, the results demonstrate that the proposed extension to FBRecolor improves the color contrast ratio of selected replacement colors for problematic websites.


In MS/MS experiments with automated precursor ion, selection only a fraction of sequencing attempts lead to the successful identification of a peptide. A number of reasons may contribute to this situation. They include poor fragmentation of the selected precursor ion, the presence of modified residues in the peptide, mismatches with sequence databases, and frequently, the concurrent fragmentation of multiple precursors in the same CID attempt. Current database search engines are incapable of correctly assigning the sequences of multiple precursors to such spectra. We have developed a search engine, ProbIDtree, which can identify multiple peptides from a CID spectrum generated by the concurrent fragmentation of multiple precursor ions. This is achieved by iterative database searching in which the submitted spectra are generated by subtracting the fragment ions assigned to a tentatively matched peptide from the acquired spectrum and in which each match is assigned a tentative probability score. Tentatively matched peptides are organized in a tree structure from which their adjusted probability scores are calculated and used to determine the correct identifications. The results using MALDI‐TOF‐TOF MS/MS data demonstrate that multiple peptides can be effectively identified simultaneously with high confidence using ProbIDtree.


We prove that any extended formulation that approximates the matching polytope on $n$-vertex graphs up to a factor of $(1+\varepsilon)$ for any $\frac2n \le \varepsilon \le 1$ must have at least $\binom{n}{{\alpha}/{\varepsilon}}$ defining inequalities where $0<\alpha<1$ is an absolute constant. This is tight as exhibited by the $(1+\varepsilon)$ approximating linear program obtained by dropping the odd set constraints of size larger than $({1+\varepsilon})/{\varepsilon}$ from the description of the matching polytope. Previously, a tight lower bound of $2^{\Omega(n)}$ was only known for $\varepsilon = O\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)$ [Rothvoss, STOC '14; Braun and Pokutta, IEEE Trans. Information Theory '15] whereas for $\frac2n \le \varepsilon \le 1$, the best lower bound was $2^{\Omega\left({1}/{\varepsilon}\right)}$ [Rothvoss, STOC '14]. The key new ingredient in our proof is a close connection to the non-negative rank of a lopsided version of the unique disjointness matrix.


The rise in divorce rates across Europe raises important questions about forming new marital or cohabiting unions. Finding a new partner following divorce can be important because of its potential to counteract some of the negative effects of divorce. For example, divorcee's generally report lower wellbeing than married people but a new romantic partner has been shown to counteract this. Furthermore, divorce has been found to result in a decline in socioeconomic status, for women in particular, which can be offset by remarriage. The majority of divorcees do re-partner yet the likelihood and the time between divorce and new partnerships can vary greatly between individuals. Our analysis of GGP data shows that women find it harder to find a new partner than men and that this is partly due to women having custody of children from their previous relationship. By looking at five very different countries we show that there are similar patterns across Europe despite differences in custody arrangements.


Climate projections show Australia becoming significantly warmer during the 21st century, while precipitation decreases over much of the continent. Such changes are generally considered to increase wildfire risk. Nevertheless, using a process-based model of vegetation dynamics and vegetation–fire interactions, we show that while burnt area increases in southern and central Australia, it decreases in northern Australia. Overall the projected increase in fire by the end of the 21st century is small (0.7–1.3% of land area equivalent to 12–24% of current burnt area, depending on the climate scenario). The direct effects of increasing CO2 on vegetation productivity and water-use efficiency influence simulated fire regimes: CO2 effects tend to increase burnt area in arid regions, but increase vegetation density and reduce burnt area in forested regions. Increases in fire promotes a shift to more fire-adapted trees in wooded areas and their encroachment into grasslands, with an overall increase in forested area of 3.9–11.9% of land area by the end of the century. The decrease in fire in northern Australia leads to an increase in tree cover (ca 20%) and an expansion of tropical forest. Thus, although the overall change in burnt area is small it has noticeable consequences for vegetation patterns across the continent.


. We define tilting subcategories in arbitrary exact categories to archieve the following. Firstly: Unify existing definitions of tilting subcategories to arbitrary exact categories. Discuss standard results for tilting subcategories: Auslander correspondence, Bazzoni description of the perpendicular category. Secondly: We treat the question of induced derived equivalences separately - given a tilting subcategory T , we ask if a functor on the perpendicular category induces a derived equivalence to a (certain) functor category mod ∞ −T over T . If this is the case, we call the tilting subcategory ideq tilting. We prove a generalization of Miyashita's theorem (which is itself a generalization of a well-known theorem of Brenner-Butler) and characterize exact categories with enough projectives allowing ideq tilting subcategories.


Recent interest in the aquaculture of southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii has developed with increasing demand for lobsters and declining wild fisheries. The potential economic success oflobster aquaculture will depend on the development of efficient formulated feeds specifically designed to meet the nutritional requirements of this species. Experimental lobster feeds are currently based on fish meal and fish oil formulations, and although good survival and growth up to that of lobsters fed fresh blue mussels has been achieved, the potential to increase growth through nutrient level manipulation has not been achieved to date. Investigations of appropriate experimental methods, and subsequent determination of ingredient digestibility, lipid utilisation, histological assessment of energy storage, lipid class and fatty acid composition and energy substrate for metabolism were performed through a series of experiments with juvenile J edwardsii.
Apparent digestibility of protein and carbon from novel dietary ingredients was assessed to screen potential protein sources for dietary inclusion. The apparent digestibility of crude protein in mussel meal (98%), prawn meal (77%), and lupin flour (100%) were higher than the current standard fish meal (63%), and the defatting of fish meal decreased the apparent protein digestibility (53%). Squid (7%) and canola meal (38%) were poorly digested by lobster. The examination oflobster metabolism when fed varying protein levels was measured through oxygen consumption and ammonia-N excretion and their atomic ratio. Lipids were metabolized in feeds containing low protein levels, and carbohydrate and protein were metabolized in high protein feeds, and suggested that carbohydrates were not well utilised.
Isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets were formulated to include a range of potential protein meals and lipid sources, to assess the effect of lipid composition and source on the growth and composition of juvenile lobsters. Fish oil was replaced with vegetable and alternate marine oils in formulated feeds with no significant reduction in weight gain (1.2 - 2.87 g), however lobsters fed the reference feed (fresh blue mussel, Mytilus edulis) gained more weight than those fed formulated feeds (5.65 g). Lipid class analysis of the digestive gland lipids indicated high levels of triglycerides (TAG) and diglycerides (DG) in the digestive gland oflobsters fed fresh mussels (FrM), mussel meal (MM) and fish oil with lecithin (FOL). High TAG and DG were associated with digestive gland lipid storage, and were correlated to high productive protein values (r=0.755, P=0.005, n=12). Lipid histology of the digestive gland confirmed lipid deposition as droplets in R-cells, and the presence of abundant reserve cells in the digestive gland of fast growing lobsters was observed. Dietary phospholipids produced the fastest growth rates in FrM and MM, while dietary triglycerides did not promote growth. Fatty acid composition of lobster digestive gland closely resembled the dietary lipid profile however the predominantly structural lipids in the whole body tissue, more strongly reflected the profiles of control lobsters. The addition of lecithin to fish oil improved the deposition of lipid droplets in the digestive gland.
This study provides greater understanding of the interactions between dietary ingredients and their effects on protein and lipid metabolism, retention and growth and provides valuable information to develop formulated feeds for J. edwardsii.


Discovering new cement based materials characterized by higher durability and longer service life is crucial for sustainable infrastructure. Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) with high potential of micro-crack healing can enhance ductility/durability of concrete structures. However, low water-to-cement ratio in ECC matrix in addition to the lack of cementitious properties of newly formed healing-products in micro-cracks could be an obstacle to implementing continuous hydration to stimulate self-healing and stop re-opening of old healed micro-cracks during re-loading. MgO-type expansive agent (MEA), widely used to compensate effectively autogenous shrinkage in mass concrete, can be used to eliminate such obstacles and to induce self-healing. This research studied self-healing capability of MEA in ECC through an extensive experimental investigation and developed/proposed an ECC-MgO system. Test results indicated "900°C-2 hours of holding time-45 μm particle size" as the best calcination system based on higher MEA hydration in powder state. Additionally, 5% lightly burnt MgO combined with low-calcium Class-F-fly ash (as 55% cement replacement) was found to be a better choice in designing self-healing-ECC-MgO system in terms of lower expansion effect of MEA.
Further, self-healing property of ECC-MgO system under different environmental exposures (laboratory/water/natural(field)/autoclave curing) was investigated based on mechanical/durability properties of control/pre-cracked specimens compared with their ECC counterparts. The ECC-MgO system exhibited remarkable self-healing property in multiple-cracked/damaged specimens when test results were analyzed based on development/recovery of compressive/flexural strength/load resistance, ultrasonic pulse velocity, heat of hydration, expansion/drying shrinkage, rapid chloride permeability, sorptivity/water absorption and freeze/thaw resistance in addition to crack healing/cracking characteristics and microstructural characterizations through Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)/Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Finally, the self-healing ability of ECC-MgO system was evaluated through structural performance (regarding strength/stiffness/energy absorbing/crack-healing capacity recovery) of damaged and subsequently healed water/field cured link slabs used for joint-free bridge deck construction. Superior self-healing ability of ECC-MgO system was attributed to low MEA water demand coupled with its delayed hydration characteristics which lead to the formation of more cohesive/strong cementitious MgO crystals within crack walls (at later ages) supplementing CaCO3 precipitations (formed earlier) leading to more effective crack-healing and developing post-healed cracks at new locations upon reloading


Abstract In this article, the highly destructive potential of global nuclear arsenals is reviewed with respect to nuclear force structures, evolution of nuclear capabilities, modernization programmes and nuclear war planning and operations. Specific nuclear forces data is presented for the United States, the Russian Federation, Great Britain, France, China, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Hypothetical, escalatory scenarios for the use of nuclear weapons are presented, including the calculated distribution of radioactive fallout. At more than seventy years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and twenty-five years since the end of the Cold War, international progress on nuclear arms control and disarmament has now nearly stalled, with the emphasis shifting to modernizing and maintaining large inventories of nuclear weapons indefinitely. This perpetuates a grave risk to human health, civil society and the environment.


The Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX), launched in 2008 October, has improved our understanding of the solar wind–local interstellar medium interaction through its detection of neutral atoms, particularly that of hydrogen (H). IBEX is able to create full maps of the sky in six-month intervals as the Earth orbits the Sun, detecting H with energies between ∼0.01 and 6 keV. Due to the relative motion of IBEX to the solar inertial frame, measurements made in the spacecraft frame introduce a Compton–Getting (CG) effect, complicating measurements at the lowest energies. In this paper we provide results from a numerical simulation that calculates fluxes of H atoms at 1 AU in the inertial and spacecraft frames (both ram and anti-ram), at energies relevant to IBEX-Hi and -Lo. We show theory behind the numerical simulations, applying a simple frame transformation to derived flux equations that provides a straightforward way to simulate fluxes in the spacecraft frame. We then show results of H energetic neutral atom fluxes simulated at IBEX-Hi energy passbands 2–6 in all frames, comparing with IBEX-Hi data along selected directions, and also show results simulated at energies relevant to IBEX-Lo. Although simulations at IBEX-Hi energies agree reasonably well with the CG correction method used for IBEX-Hi data, we demonstrate the importance of properly modeling low energy H fluxes due to inherent complexities involved with measurements made in moving frames, as well as dynamic radiation pressure effects close to the Sun.