: Electron beams of linear induction accelerators experience deflective forces caused by RF fields building up as a result of accelerating cavities of finite size. These forces can significantly effect the beam when a long linac composed of identical cells is assembled. Recent techniques in computational modeling, simulation, and experiments for 20 MeV DARHT-II (Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test) accelerator cells were found to reduce the wakefield impedance of the cells from 800 ohms/meter to 350 ohms/meter and experimental results confirm the results of the modeling efforts. Increased performance of the cell was obtained through a parametric study of the accelerator structure, materials, material tuning, and geometry. As a result of this effort, it was found that thickness-tuned ferrite produced a 50 percent deduction in the wake-field impedance in the low frequency band and was easily tunable based on the material thickness. It was also found that shaped metal sections alloy for high-Q resonances to be de-tuned, thus decreasing the amplitude of the resonance and increasing the cells performance. For the geometries used for this cell, a roughly 45 degree angle had the best performance in affecting the wakefield modes. Abstract Electron beams of linear induction accelerators experience deflective forces caused by RF fields building up as a result of accelerating cavities of finite size. These forces can significantly effect the beam when a long linac composed of identical cells is assembled. Recent techniques in computational modeling, simulation, and experiments for 20 MeV DARHT-II (Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test) accelerator cells were found to reduce the wakefield impedance of the cells from 800 ohms/meter to 350 ohms/meter and experimental results confirm the results of the modeling efforts. Increased performance of the cell was obtained through a parametric study of the accelerator structure, materials, material tuning, and geometry. As a result of this effort, it was found that thick-ness-tuned ferrite produced a 50% deduction in the wakefield impedance in the low frequency band and was easily tunable based on the material thickness. It was also found that shaped metal sections allow for high-Q resonances to be de-tuned, thus decreasing the amplitude of the resonance and increasing the cell's performance. For the geometries used for this cell, a roughly 45 degree angle had the best performance in affecting the wakefield modes.


PURPOSE Exclusion of patients needing urgent treatment or requiring novel biomarkers before enrollment has impacted the ability to enroll real-world patients in frontline trials of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The impact of baseline organ function–based eligibility criteria on this effect and clinical trial exclusion is less well-understood. METHODS Consecutive patients with newly diagnosed lymphoma were enrolled from 2002 to 2015 into the Molecular Epidemiology Resource (MER) of the University of Iowa and Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Specialized Program of Research Excellence. The current analysis includes 1,265 patients with DLBCL receiving standard immunochemotherapy. Organ function parameters were identified from criteria for hemoglobin, absolute neutrophil count, platelet count, creatinine clearance, and bilirubin, as reported in frontline DLBCL trials. Abstracted laboratory values from MER were used to determine the percent (%) of patients excluded. Outcomes and cause-of-death analyses comparing ineligible and eligible groups in MER were conducted. An interactive online tool was developed to estimate exclusions based on organ function for future trial design. RESULTS Between 9% and 24% of MER patients with DLBCL receiving standard immunochemotherapy were excluded on the basis of baseline organ function alone. Ineligible patients based on organ function had significantly inferior event-free survival (hazard ratios, 1.67-2.16), overall survival (hazard ratios, 1.87-2.56), and event-free survival at 24 months (odds ratio, 1.71-2.16). Ineligible patients were more likely to die from lymphoma progression than increased therapy-related complications. CONCLUSION Current national and international trials exclude up to 24% of patients from participation on the basis of organ function alone. A significant difference in the outcomes, notably lymphoma-related death, suggests issues with generalization and potential exclusion of high-risk patients. These data will help future clinical trial development and meet US Food and Drug Administration and ASCO recommendations to increase trial accrual.


This study was designed to provide information that might help resource managers understand the distribution of elk in Arizona as a consequence of seasonal variation and in response to extreme climatic events (i.e. El Nino and La Nina). The first task involved modeling elk populations over time. A technique for modeling the elk population has been developed that is based on harvest data, gender ratios, and estimates of male mortality. This provided estimates of elk populations for individual game management units (areas for which harvest is reported and within which elk are managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department). The second task involved the use of satellite data to characterize vegetation responses to seasonal and interannual climate variation among vegetation associations within game management units. This involved the use of NOAA-AVHRR time series data to describe temporal vegetation behavior, Landsat data to describe spatial vegetation distribution in conjunction with U.S. Forest Service vegetation maps. Elk population estimates were correlated with satellite-derived vegetation measures by vegetation association through time. The patterns of elk distribution that this revealed were complex. Not surprisingly, animals appear to respond to differences in vegetation availability-both seasonally and interannually-as portrayed by satellite data.


Knights textbook surveys the philosophies and philosophic issues relevant to Christian education. Teachers, students of education, and other readers will find this book a helpful guide for analyzing educational purposes and practices in the light of their basic beliefs. Besides investigating the relationship between philosophy and education and discussing how philosophies have affected contemporary practices in the classroom, Knight offers a Christian approach to philosophy and relates such an approach to educational practices. Philosophy and Education is divided into three sections. Part I deals with basic concepts in philosophy and the relationship between philosophy and education. Part II is a survey of how traditional and modern philosophies have faced the basic philosophic questions and what that has meant for educational practice. Part III discusses the necessity of developing a personal philosophy of education, one possible approach to a Christian philosophy, and some of the ramifications of such a philosophy for educational practice in Christian schools.


Concrete is commonly seen as a durable and long-lasting construction
material. However, the long-term performance of a concrete structure can be
greatly compromised by early-age cracking. This work is an experimental
contribution to study early age deformations of cement paste. Its aim is,
firstly, to develop an experimental dispositive for assessing chemical and
autogenous shrinkage, and secondly, to measure these volumetric deformations in
cement paste. The setup was done following the gravimetric method of
measurement, which exploits the Archimedes' principle. It is made up of an
electronic balance, a data accusation unit, a temperature control unit and a
buoyancy bath. Investigations were done on Portland cement (CPA-CEM II) at the
following W/C ratios: 0.25, 0.3, 0.35, 0.4 and 0.5. It was noticed that the
water-cement ratio does not influence the magnitude of the chemical shrinkage
in a significant manner but had a kinetic effect; a lower W/C induces a faster
rate of chemical shrinkage. Autogenous shrinkage was discovered to be highly
inversely proportional to the W/C and was also noticed to be in a function of
chemical shrinkage within the first 2 to 4 hours when the paste was still
liquid.


Several countries extend collective bargaining agreements to entire sectors, therefore binding non-subscriber workers and employers. These extensions may address coordination issues but may also distort competition by imposing sector-specifc minimum wages and other work conditions that are not appropriate for many firms. In this paper, we analyse the impact of such extensions along several margins drawing on firm-level monthly data for Portugal, a country where extensions have been widespread until recently. Drawing on the scattered timing of the extensions, we find that both formal employment and wage bills in the relevant sector fall, on average, by 2% - and by 25% more across small firms - over the four months after an extension is issued. These results are driven by both reduced hirings and increased firm closures. On the other hand, informal work, not subject to labour law or extensions, tends to increase. Our findings are robust to several checks, including a falsification exercise based on extensions that were announced but not implemented. JEL codes: J52, K31, J23


In the past decade, there have been exciting developments in the field of lithium ion batteries as energy storage devices, resulting in the application of lithium ion batteries in areas ranging from small portable electric devices to large power systems such as hybrid electric vehicles. However, the maximum energy density of current lithium ion batteries having topatactic chemistry is not sufficient to meet the demands of new markets in such areas as electric vehicles. Therefore, new electrochemical systems with higher energy densities are being sought, and metal‐air batteries with conversion chemistry are considered a promising candidate. More recently, promising electrochemical performance has driven much research interest in Li‐air and Zn‐air batteries. This review provides an overview of the fundamentals and recent progress in the area of Li‐air and Zn‐air batteries, with the aim of providing a better understanding of the new electrochemical systems.


This paper discusses the luminescence properties of films of cadmium and zinc
 chalcogenides obtained by the diffusion of tin from the vapor phase in a closed volume.
 It is established that the doping of ZnSe, CdS, and CdSe substrates increases the
 efficiency of the edge emission, while that of ZnTe causes it to disappear and causes a
 new band to appear in the energy region 1.8–2.1 eV. The absence of luminescence of CdTe
 :  Sn films in the 0.6–1.6-eV range is explained by band corrugation.


With the recession of the early 1990s, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) attracted increased attention from policy-makers and in public debate as it was realized that SMEs play an important role in employment, innovation and regional dynamics. At the same time researchers claimed that SMEs are at a disadvantage in raising investment funds. This thesis adopts the perspective of the SMEs, analysing the mechanisms whereby control aversion can be reduced in SMEs, and examining the related financial search activity in SMEs as well as the contributions that financiers make to SMEs.The empirical basis of the thesis comprises two surveys with 281 and 459 respondents and a qualitative study consisting of 10 interviews. The results of the analysis indicate that control aversion is reduced by mechanisms related to learning and coercion, and that Swedish SMEs generally tend to follow the pecking order theory of finance. The contributions that financiers make to the SMEs differ, depending mainly on whether they are equity or loan financiers. Lack of legitimacy and information asymmetries are two generic problems that impede the development of SMEs, and a well-established financier could mitigate these problems. Besides these contributions a financier could target his efforts to specific areas such as production and product development, connecting the firm to customers and the market, connecting the firm to a financial network, boosting profitability and creating more rapid growth.


The temporal stability of estimates of demographic behaviour for a sample population of the tropical rainforest gymnosperm Araucaria cunninghamii was analysed using a stage-classified (Lefkovitch) matrix model. Previously published life-table analyses, which used only 2 years of held data (1975–77), were compared with life-table analysis based on a further 5 years of field data for growth and survival (1977–82). The new analysis calculated the finite rate of natural increase, λ, as 1.009 ± 0.077. This value is closer to the theoretical value of 1.0 for a stable population than is the value calculated on the basis of only 2 years of field data (1.021 ± 0.093). However, the two estimates are not significantly different from each other or from a value of 1.0.

Despite the similarity of estimates for λ, the life-table analysis based on 5 years of data showed some marked differences from the earlier analysis. Revised growth and survival rates imply a slower progression to reproductive maturity and shorter reproductive life for A. cunninghamii. The predicted stable stage distribution (SSD) showed a better fit to the initial stage distribution (ISD), and bulges in the frequency distribution for large trees can be explained by the varying rates at which individuals grow from one stage to the next.

The relative contributions of survival, growth and fecundity to the observed population growth rate (elasticity) remained similar for both analyses. Survival rate contributes most significantly to the achieved population growth rate, and this appears typical of long-lived plant species. However, the pattern of elasticities across size-classes changed for the new analysis and identified different critical life history stages from those recorded previously.

Elasticity is proposed as a measure for classifying species using the competitive (C), stress-tolerant (S) and ruderal (R) model of plant strategies.


Modification of the endocrine milieu interieur by administration or withdrawal of hormones considerably influenced the concentration in liver of lactic dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and 6-phosphogluconic dehydrogenase. Hormones effective in this regard are thyroxine, estradiol-17beta, dihydrotestosterone, and 3alpha-hydroxysteroids in the androstane series. These hormonal effects are both organ-selective and, in liver, enzyme-selective. Thyroxine and steroids are not equivalent in their influence on the 3 hepatic dehydrogenases. Thyroxine was preeminent in this regard among hormones investigated in the present experiments. Each of the pyridine nucleotide-linked dehydrogenases in liver had an individually characteristic response to the administration of various hormones which was reflected in its hepatic level. The concentration in liver of lactic dehydrogenase was profoundly raised or lowered, respectively, by the administration of thyroxine or by thyroidectomy, and injection of steroids had small influence on its level. The levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and of 6-phosphogluconic dehydrogenase were considerably influenced by injection of thyroxine, estradiol-17beta, or testosterone. Sex steroids did not increase the levels of these enzymes in hypophysectomized or thyroidectomized rats unless thyroxine was administered concurrently. Under designated conditions, it was found that the concentration of 6-phosphogluconic dehydrogenase was increased by hormonal methods which did not elevate the concentration of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. But high levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase were not achieved without a considerable elevation of 6-phosphogluconic dehydrogenase as well.


We develop a Nonparametric Empirical Bayes (NEB) framework for compound estimation in the discrete linear exponential family, which includes a wide class of discrete distributions frequently arising from modern big data applications. We propose to directly estimate the Bayes shrinkage factor in the generalized Robbins' formula via solving a scalable convex program, which is carefully developed based on a RKHS representation of the Stein's discrepancy measure. The new NEB estimation framework is flexible for incorporating various structural constraints into the data driven rule, and provides a unified approach to compound estimation with both regular and scaled squared error losses. We develop theory to show that the class of NEB estimators enjoys strong asymptotic properties. Comprehensive simulation studies as well as analyses of real data examples are carried out to demonstrate the superiority of the NEB estimator over competing methods.


Small businesses are typically committed to providing a positive customer experience and therefore may exhibit a response to dynamic electricity prices different from residential or industrial customers. We conduct a field experiment to determine the extent to which small businesses respond through re-configuration of typical routines throughout the experiment period versus through adjustments to specific dynamic pricing events. Using a customer-level survey of appliance ownership, we estimate the hourly response patterns of individual appliances to participation in the experiment versus individual dynamic pricing events. Consistent with our re-configuration hypothesis, small businesses primarily curtail electricity usage throughout the experiment period, although we also find a small imprecisely estimated response to dynamic pricing events on top of the re-configuration effect. Appliances not critical to a positive customer experience such as dish dryers, food storage units, lights, electric motors & pumps, and industrial heaters are the major sources of the energy savings from the re-configuration actions of these small businesses.


Background: Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is a sight-threatening infection, and none of the current diagnosis tests are able to detect in one reaction low levels of the vast majority of strains associated with pathology. The goal of this work was to validate a new tool for the detection of the American Type Cell Collection (ATCC) referenced Acanthamoeba monitoring simultaneously DNA extraction yields and PCR inhibitors. Performances were assessed on corneal scrapings. Methods: Primers were selected in a region bracketing a 41 591 bp of the A castellanii mitochondrion gene. DNA extraction and PCR inhibitors were monitored by adding an internal control (virus). Acanthamoeba were detected and quantified by the real-time fast-duplex TaqMan PCR (f-d-real-t PCR) and negativity confirmed by SYBR Green real-time PCR. Results: The f-d-real-t PCR detects 0.1 cyst/μl or less of the 10 referenced strains (sensitivity slightly lower for A astronyxis). Bacteria, fungi and herpesviruses do not cross-react. The specificity and sensitivity of the f-d-real-t PCR were higher than culture and other real-time PCR on 20 keratitis samples. Conclusion: The f-d-real t PCR detects in less than 2 h the Acanthamoeba strains available from the ATCC with a higher sensitivity and specificity than techniques previously reported. Larger trials are necessary to validate its usefulness for disease management and environmental studies.


Development of the vertebrate eye, like many developmental systems, depends on genes that are used iteratively in multiple distinct processes. The OTX2 transcription factor is one such gene, with a requirement for eye formation, photoreceptor formation, and retinal pigment epithelium specification, among others. Recent evidence has suggested that OTX2 is also expressed in subsets of retinal progenitor cells with restricted fate choices. However, given the multiple roles for OTX2 and limitations of conventional conditional knockout strategies, the functional significance of this expression is unknown. Here we use CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to produce mutations of OTX2, identifying similar phenotypes to those observed in human patients. In addition, we use single cell RNA sequencing to determine the functional consequences of OTX2 gene editing by CRISPR/Cas9 on the population of cells derived from OTX2-expressing retinal progenitor cells. We not only confirm that OTX2 is required for the generation of photoreceptors, but also for maintaining the proliferative potential of cells and suppressing the formation of specific retinal fates. These include subtypes of retinal ganglion and horizontal cells normally associated with these progenitor types, suggesting that in this context OTX2 functions to repress sister cell fate choices. Upregulation of key transcription factors involved in the formation of these cells was observed suggesting that OTX2 is upstream of critical nodes of gene regulatory networks of these alternative fates.


This study correlated the records management strategies of the administrative staff at Laguna State Polytechnic University with their professional performance. The descriptive quantitative research involved 59 administrative staff through the researcher-made survey questionnaire distributed through Google forms. The results of the study proved that there is a significant difference in the records management strategies when grouped according to age, gender, job tenure, and job position in the department. However, there was no significant difference among the professional performances when grouped according to age, gender, job tenure, and job position in the department. The study also confirmed that records management strategies have a positive significant relation to professional performance. The findings can help improve the university policies, procedures, and strategies in managing records. Therefore, it is recommended to provide training programs and improving implementation of evaluation and assessment to the administrative staff to expand their professional proficiencies.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
The circulating testosterone levels of healthy men decline with advancing age. This process is characterized by considerable inter-individual variability, the causes of which are of significant biological and clinical interest but remain poorly understood. Since sleep quantity and quality decrease with age, and experimentally-induced sleep loss in young adults results in hormonal changes similar to those that occur spontaneously in the course of aging, this study examined whether some of the variability in circulating testosterone levels of older men can be related to objective differences in their sleep.

DESIGN
Observational study.

SETTING
General community and university clinical research center.

PARTICIPANTS
Twelve healthy men ages 64 to 74 years.

INTERVENTIONS
Three morning blood samples were pooled for the measurement of total and free testosterone. In addition to overnight laboratory polysomnography, wrist activity monitoring for 6-9 days was used to determine the amount of nighttime sleep of the participants in everyday life settings.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
The main outcome measures were total sleep time and morning testosterone levels. Sleep time in the laboratory was correlated with the usual amount of nighttime sleep at home (Pearson's r = 0.842; P = 0.001). Bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the amount of nighttime sleep measured by polysomnography was an independent predictor of the morning total (Beta 0.792, P = 0.017) and free (Beta 0.741, P = 0.029) testosterone levels of the subjects.

CONCLUSIONS
Objectively measured differences in the amount of nighttime sleep are associated with a significant part of the variability in the morning testosterone levels of healthy older men.


Abstract Cooperation for the public good is vulnerable to exploitation by free-riders because it always pays individuals to exploit the social contract for their own benefit. This problem can be resolved if free-riders are punished, but punishment is itself a public good subject to free-riding. The fear of supernatural punishment hypothesis (FSPH) proposes that belief in supernatural punishment might offer a solution to this problem by deflecting the cost of punishment onto supernatural forces and thereby incentivizing cooperation. FSPH is supported empirically by ethnographic data, but this work has so far focused on (1) institutional cooperative traits which may not reflect individual choices on how to behave in everyday social interactions and (2) threat of punishment from all-powerful moralizing high gods rather than other agents capable of supernatural punishment. Here, we consider the FSPH using variables which are linked to individual interaction and expand the number of variables measuring belief in different forms of supernatural punishment. Our findings do not fit these more general FSPH predictions. We suggest there may be something special about the link between moralizing high gods and institutional enforcement of cooperation that is not captured by these other variables.


OBJECTIVES
We examined if the accumulation of neighborhood disadvantages from adolescence to mid-adulthood were related to allostatic load, a measure of cumulative biological risk, in mid-adulthood, and explored whether this association was similar in women and men.

METHODS
Data were from the participants in the Northern Swedish Cohort (analytical n = 818) at ages 16, 21, 30, and 43 years in 1981, 1986, 1995, and 2008. Personal living conditions were self-reported at each wave. At age 43 years, 12 biological markers were measured to operationalize allostatic load. Registered data for all residents in the cohort participants' neighborhoods at each wave were used to construct a cumulative measure of neighborhood disadvantage. Associations were examined in ordinary least-squares regression models.

RESULTS
We found that cumulative neighborhood disadvantage between ages 16 and 43 years was related to higher allostatic load at age 43 years after adjusting for personal living conditions in the total sample (B = 0.11; P = .004) and in men (B = 0.16; P = .004), but not in women (B = 0.07; P = .248).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggested that neighborhood disadvantage acted cumulatively over the life course on biological wear and tear, and exemplified the gains of integrating social determinants of health frameworks.


Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is an endothelial malignancy caused by human herpes virus‐8 (HHV‐8) infection. The epidemic and iatrogenic forms of childhood KS result from a profound and acquired T cell deficiency. Recent studies have shown that classic KS of childhood can result from rare single‐gene inborn errors of immunity, with mutations in WAS, IFNGR1, STIM1, and TNFRSF4. The pathogenesis of the endemic form of childhood KS has remained elusive. We review childhood KS pathogenesis and its relationship to inherited and acquired immunodeficiency to oncogenic HHV‐8.


We present a comprehensive study to determine if the LINER/H II region transition spectrum in NGC 4569 can be generated solely by photoionization by the nuclear starburst. A review of the multiwavelength data from the literature reveals no additional sources that contribute to the ionization. We find that the young starburst dominating the UV emission is distinct from the nuclear population of A supergiants identified in the optical spectrum by Keel (1996). Spectral synthesis analysis provides constraints on the physical nature of the starburst, revealing a 5-6 Myr, approximately instantaneous starburst with subsolar metallicity. These results are used to model the spectral energy distribution of the ionizing continuum. Luminosity constraints place limits on the steepness of the extinction curve for the young starburst. The Savage & Mathis (1979) curve satisfies all luminosity constraints and the derived reddening is similar to the emission line reddening. These results imply extreme conditions in the nuclear starburst, with ∼5x10 4 O and B stars compacted in the inner 9 ′′ x 13 ′′ region of the nucleus. Using photoionization analysis and employing all observational constraints on the emission line gas, we find very specific conditions are required if the spectrum is generated solely by stellar photoionization. At least two spatially distinct components are required-a compact region with strong O III emission and an extended, low density component emitting most of the S II flux. A high density component is also needed to generate the O I flux. Additionally, a limited contribution from Wolf-Rayet stars to the ionizing SED is necessary, consistent with the results of Barth & Shields (2000). We present a physical interpretation for the multi-component emission line gas.


America's experiment with government ownership of urban transit systems has proven to be a disaster. Since Congress began giving states and cities incentives to take over private transit systems in 1964, worker productivity - the number of transit riders carried per worker - has declined by more than 50 percent; the amount of energy required to carry one bus rider one mile has increased by more than 75 percent; the inflation- adjusted cost per transit trip has nearly tripled, even as fares per trip slightly declined; and, despite hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, the number of transit trips per urban resident declined from more than 60 trips per year in 1964 to 45 in 2008.
Largely because of government ownership, the transit industry today is beset by a series of interminable crises. Recent declines in the tax revenues used to support transit have forced major cuts in transit services in the vast majority of urban areas. Transit infrastructure - especially rail infrastructure - is steadily deteriorating, and the money transit agencies spend on maintenance is not even enough to keep it in its current state of poor repair. And transit agencies have agreed to employee pension and health care plans that impose billions of dollars of unfunded liabilities on taxpayers.
Transit advocates propose to solve these problems with even more subsidies. A better solution is to privatize transit. Private transit providers will provide efficient transit services that go where people want to go. In order for privatization to take place, Congress and the states must stop giving transit agencies incentives to waste money on high-cost transit technologies.


Host cell exit is a critical step in the life-cycle of intracellular pathogens, intimately linked to barrier penetration, tissue dissemination, inflammation, and pathogen transmission. Like cell invasion and intracellular survival, host cell exit represents a well-regulated program that has evolved during host-pathogen co-evolution and that relies on the dynamic and intricate interplay between multiple host and microbial factors. Three distinct pathways of host cell exit have been identified that are employed by three different taxa of intracellular pathogens, bacteria, fungi and protozoa, namely (i) the initiation of programmed cell death, (ii) the active breaching of host cellderived membranes, and (iii) the induced membrane-dependent exit without host cell lysis. Strikingly, an increasing number of studies show that the majority of intracellular pathogens utilize more than one of these strategies, dependent on life-cycle stage, environmental factors and/or host cell type. This review summarizes the diverse exit strategies of intracellular-living bacterial, fungal and protozoan pathogens and discusses the convergently evolved commonalities as well as system-specific variations thereof. Key microbial molecules involved in host cell exit are highlighted and discussed as potential targets for future interventional approaches.


Activity of the immunoglobulin heavy and kappa light chain gene enhancers depends on a complex interplay of ubiquitous and developmentally regulated proteins. Two complementary DNAs were isolated that encode proteins, denoted ITF-1 and ITF-2, that are expressed in a variety of cell types and bind the microE5/kappa 2 motif found in both heavy and kappa light chain enhancers. The complementary DNAs are the products of distinct genes, yet both ITF-1 and ITF-2 are structurally and functionally similar. The two proteins interact with one another through their putative helix-loop-helix motifs and each possesses a distinct domain that dictates transcription activation.


The advance on data transmission in optical networks has allowed data forwarding decisions to be taken at multiple levels in the protocol stack (e.g., at network and optical levels). With such capability, big IP flows can be moved from the network level and switched completely at the optical level over lambda-connections, where they get better quality of service (QoS). Meanwhile, the regular IP routing level is offloaded and can serve smaller flows better. With the continuous growing of traffic on the Internet, the selection of big IP flows can become difficult to be done by using current management approaches (conventional management and generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) signaling). The University of Twente (UT) is researching the use of self-management as an alternative to overcome this issue. In order to properly identify IP flows eligible to be moved to the optical level, the characteristics of these flows must be known, though. In this context, this paper analyses some of the characteristics of IP flows eligible to the optical level by observing their size, duration, throughput, and recurrence. In this analysis, we observe those characteristics while using various definitions for an IP flow as well as using different time intervals. The main contribution of this paper is to show the behavior of IP flows eligible for lambda-connections. Not in the least, we also show how this knowledge can be used in our self-management of optical networks approach.


This paper documents and explains the amazing growth of the largest firms in law, accounting, and investment banking. Scholars to date have used various supply-side theories to explain the growth, and have generally examined only one industry at a time. We give the first demand-side explanation of firm growth, and show how the explanation is similar for firms in all "project" industries. We show that law plays an important role in determining industry structure. Among the areas we cover are the growth of Multi-Disciplinary Practice firms. We argue that the issues surrounding MDPs can best be understood by looking more broadly at the forces driving project industries. We also explain the driving forces behind the breakup of the Big Five accounting firms, the consolidation of the investment banking industry and the heretofore unexamined divergent growth patterns of the law firms in the plaintiffs' securities litigation field.


Legal conceptions of employment discrimination have become increasingly narrow over the past two decades as the law has adopted a "perpetrator" model of discrimination that emphasizes purposeful intent. This tendency runs counter to social scientific research that documents the pervasiveness of unintentional bias and the persistence of organizational processes that generate workplace discrimination. This narrow legal conception, coupled with a system of employment discrimination litigation that emphasizes individual claims and individual remedies, fails to support the organizational approaches that are most promising for redressing workplace discrimination. We review the literature on employment discrimination law, discrimination litigation, continuing patterns of racial and gender inequality, the organizational bases of discrimination, and the impact of equal employment law on organizations. We conclude by discussing the reasons for and implications of this divergence between law and social science.


The purpose of this thesis is to formulate a technically sound approach to designing Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filters using high-level modeling tools. High-level modeling tools provide the ability to build and simulate ideal models. Once proper validation is complete on these ideal models, the user can then migrate to lower levels of abstraction until an actual real world model is designed. High-level modeling tools are the epitome of the top-down design concept in which design first takes place with the basic functional knowledge of a system. With each level of abstraction, validation is performed. High-level modeling tools are used throughout industry and their application is continually growing especially in the DSP area where many modes of communications are expanding. High-level modeling tools and validation significantly address this complex expansion by utilizing an ideal representation of a complicated network.


Understanding the extent and causes of savanna-forest dynamics in tropical regions is vital as small but widespread changes to tropical forests can have a major impact on global climate, biodiversity and human well-being. Changes to the boundaries of 50 monsoon rainforest patches in Kakadu National Park were assessed using temporal sequences of digitised aerial photography between 1964 and 2004. Wet and dry rainforest boundaries were manually classified for each year using a 20 x 20 m point lattice in a GIS. This revealed an overall expansion of rainforest patches by an average of 28.8%. A reassessment of the rate of change using bootstrapping of all available aerial photography supported the existence of an overall expansion of rainforest, but suggested that the rate of change was overestimated for dry rainforest. Floristic, structural, environmental and disturbance attributes of the changes were investigated by sampling 588 survey plots across 30 rainforest patches. The abundance of rainforest trees and grass were consistent with the trend of rainforest expansion. The view that the rainforest boundaries had been highly dynamic at a decadal scale was supported by (i) the overall floristic composition of newly established rainforest and stable rainforest being similar, and (ii) the rapid rates of change observed for a subset of nine rainforest patches with detailed aerial photographic histories. Generalized linear modelling supported an effect of late dry season fire frequency, historical buffalo impact and rainforest type in mediating the rate of change. The effect of fire in driving the changes was also supported by an effect of topographic fire protection and flammable weeds in GIS mapping of three rainforest case studies. However disturbance factors were unable to account for the overall expansion of rainforest. We conclude that the boundary expansion is likely to have been primarily driven by factors that have shown similar increases during the study period, such as annual rainfall and atmospheric CO2. Nonetheless, fire and buffalo impact have mediated the rate of change. This study provides a unique historical perspective on rainforest dynamics and will contribute to 'adaptive management' programs, particularly with respect to fire management.


With the development of new technologies in transcriptome and epigenetics, RNAs have been identified to play more and more important roles in life processes. Consequently, various methods have been proposed to assess the biological functions of RNAs and thus classify them functionally, among which comparative study of RNA structures is perhaps the most important one. To measure the structural similarity of RNAs and classify them, we propose a novel three dimensional (3D) graphical representation of RNA secondary structure, in which an RNA secondary structure is first transformed into a characteristic sequence based on chemical property of nucleic acids; a dynamic 3D graph is then constructed for the characteristic sequence; and lastly a numerical characterization of the 3D graph is used to represent the RNA secondary structure. We tested our algorithm on three datasets: (1) Dataset I consisting of nine RNA secondary structures of viruses, (2) Dataset II consisting of complex RNA secondary structures including pseudo-knots, and (3) Dataset III consisting of 18 non-coding RNA families. We also compare our method with other nine existing methods using Dataset II and III. The results demonstrate that our method is better than other methods in similarity measurement and classification of RNA secondary structures.


The WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005 made some progress in advancing the Doha Development Agenda. But much remains to be done, particularly in settling negotiating modalities in agriculture and NAMA and in putting some flesh onto the bones of the GATS. And where progress was made it was qualified, whether in dealing with the concerns of African cotton producers or in improving market access for the products of the least developed countries. Given the work still to do, it is not guaranteed that new deadlines will be met or that the DDA will be concluded on time. There is much at stake should the momentum of multilateral liberalisation stall; analysis at the OECD points to the risk of both major opportunities forgone and of systemic strains to the multilateral trading framework. Developing countries would be amongst the principal losers. Charting the way ahead will require that trade policy be seen in a broader domestic context which recognises that market opening works best when it is backed by sound macroeconomic policies, flexible labour markets, a culture of competition and strong institutions. Through this lens, trade reform can be promoted as a necessary tool of growth and development rather than as a concession paid to others.


The integration of the European Union's internal market, abundance and diversity of goods and services stimulate excellent opportunities for consumer choice growth. However, the risk of unsafe products, unfair trade practices and poor quality services can distort the freedom of consumer choice. Therefore, this article analyzes the specific areas of civil liability—the producer's liability for damage caused by inadequate quality products or services. The article explains the general conditions under which producers are liable for damage. These conditions are based by the author on the content disclosed in the laws of the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania. Basically the damage caused by a defective product or service is compensated for to the victims, however, the legal relationships involved in businesses (producers or service providers) are not only their mandatory responsibilities, but also can be the subject for dismissal from civil liability. Therefore, the authors analyze the variations of the fundamental conditions of the manufacturer's liability for the damage caused by the defective product, as well as the cases in which the producer is dismissed from the liability and the relationship between these conditions. The authors analyze the most discussion-provoking legal problems on the basis of the European Court of Justice practices. Although most of the dismissal cases derive from common business situations, according to purely logical reasoning, the authors state that it is important, innovative and corresponds to the real situation of the currently existing dismissal from liability, which is based on the lack of the scientific and technical knowledge at the moment when the product is put into circulation. The authors claim that this provision reduces the legal uncertainty of the producer concerning the potential liability of their own product, and gives a clear understanding of what security level of the product should be reached so that the producer would be dismissed from liability. The ability to follow this provision is also important for Lithuanian producers who have to position themselves in the global market that opened up for them relatively recently.


Abstract In a cooperative field study of the planetary boundary layer, three optical wind sensors were placed around a 300 m meteorological tower in a 450 m equilateral triangle 3–4 m above the terrain. It was found that the convergence measured by the three-sensor system correlates well with in situ measurements of vertical wind by anemometers located on the tower at heights up to 300 m during the occurrence of thermal plumes. By analyzing the correlation between the optically measured convergence and the vertical wind measurements made on the tower, the inversion layer, if below the top of the tower, can usually be located in the early morning when thermal plumes are active. The space-averaged horizontal wind vectors measured by the optical system have good, though not perfect, agreement with the tower measurements at the lowest layer (10 m above the ground), and with the measurements of a nearby network of surface anemometers. A comparison of the optically measured convergence with the direction of the...


It has been hypothesized that early and rapid filtration of blood from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in post-subarachnoid hemorrhage patients may reduce hospital stay and related adverse events. In this study, we formulated a subject-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to parametrically investigate the impact of a novel dual-lumen catheter-based CSF filtration system, the NeurapheresisTM system (Minnetronix Neuro, Inc., St. Paul, MN), on intrathecal CSF dynamics. The operating principle of this system is to remove CSF from one location along the spine (aspiration port), externally filter the CSF routing the retentate to a waste bag, and return permeate (uncontaminated CSF) to another location along the spine (return port). The CFD model allowed parametric simulation of how the Neurapheresis system impacts intrathecal CSF velocities and steady-steady streaming under various Neurapheresis flow settings ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 ml/min and with a constant retentate removal rate of 0.2 ml/min. simulation of the Neurapheresis system were compared to a lumbar drain simulation with a typical CSF removal rate setting of 0.2 ml/min. Results showed that the Neurapheresis system at a maximum flow of 2.0 ml/min increased average steady-streaming CSF velocity 2X in comparison to lumbar drain (0.190 ± 0.133 versus 0.093 ± 0.107 mm/s, respectively). This affect was localized to the region within the Neurapheresis flow-loop. The mean velocities introduced by the flow-loop were relatively small in comparison to normal cardiac-induced CSF velocities.


Foil bearings are a key enabling technology for advanced and oil-free rotating machinery. In certain applications, they provide a level of performance that is difficult or impossible to match with other technologies. A number of reasonably successful analytical techniques to predict bearing load capacity, power loss, and stiffness have been developed. Prediction of damping, however, has remained problematic. This work presents a fresh look at the damping problem. Using a simplified representation of a bump foil, this work considers explicitly adding the load dependence of the friction force. This approach is shown to provide a good match to previous experimental data. Parametric study results for the various model parameters are presented to examine the characteristics of this model. It is concluded that the load-dependent frictional force is important to consider for a bump foil damping model.


Despite the
expansion of well-paid paternal leave in Finland, fathers take on average far
less leave than mothers and there are significant differences in leave take-up
among fathers. All fathers fear economic penalties for taking leave, with high-wage
fathers in particular worrying about long-term career repercussions. To assess
whether these fears are valid, and whether policies that more strongly encourage
fathers' leave reduce its economic consequences, we analyze 1995 to 2011 waves
of Finnish register-based data and compare the impact of taking parental leave
on fathers' wage distribution before and after the 2003 introduction of a "father's
month." Fixed-effects
unconditional
quantile regression results reveal that taking leave predicts lower wages only among fathers
at the bottom of the wage distribution, both before and after the reform. We
conclude that even more progressive family policies thus far fail to address the
greater economic barriers to care among the least-advantaged fathers.


Abstract The objective of this study was to explain the variation in cesarean section rates among hospitals (obstetrical departments) in Sweden, and to discuss its potential economic consequences. Using data from The Swedish Medical Birth Registry 1991, we made a cross-sectional study of the cesarean section rate at the departmental level. We identified some 20 determinants, demand-related as well as supply-related. A general model including all these regressors was specified. After reducing this model, we were able to explain about one-quarter of the variation. We conclude that the large variation in cesarean section rates indicates inefficiency, due mainly to overutilization, but perhaps also underutilization. It is difficult to calculate the economic consequences or the welfare loss to society. We estimated an additional cost for unnecessary cesarean sections of 13—16 million Swedish crowns (SEK) per year.


Moral psychology is both old and new. Old because moral thought has long been a central focus of theology and philosophy. Indeed, many of the theories that we explore today were proposed first by scholars such as Aristotle, Kant, and Hume. Young because the scientific study of morality—and, specifically, the study of what goes on in a person's head when making a moral judgment—has been a topic of serious inquiry only over the last couple of decades. Even now, it is just barely mainstream. This chapter is itself a combination of the old and the new. I am going to consider two broad questions that would have been entirely familiar to philosophers such as Aristotle, but are also the topic of considerable contemporary research and theorizing: (1) What is our natural human moral endowment? (2) To what extent are moral judgments the products of our emotions? I will have the most to say about the first question, and will review a body of empirical work that bears on it; much of this research is still in progress. The answer to the second question will be briefer and more tentative, and will draw in part upon this empirical work. Many leading researchers, including other contributors to this volume, have their own answers to these questions, and at every point in this chapter, I will do my best to make contact


Over the past sixty years, the concept of development has expanded from economic growth and investment, to poverty reduction, human development, sustainable development, and more recently to institutional development. There has also been a fresh look at industrial policy and the role of the nonfarm economy. These aspects of development are not only important in their own right but are very much interrelated. National development experience shows the importance of investment and infrastructure to growth; the significance of growth, infrastructure and human development to poverty reduction; the contribution of growth and human development to sustainable development; the effect of nonfarm incomes to growth, poverty reduction, and inequality; and the importance of institutions to growth. Local development experience also reveals the interrelatedness of the different development aspects: the importance of investment, infrastructure and human capital to growth and poverty reduction; the role of health to human capital; the significance of human capital to poverty and inequality; the value of human development, institutions and good governance to sustainable development; the importance of human capital to enterprise development; and in turn of enterprise development to investment and therefore growth as well as to poverty reduction; the contribution of nonfarm incomes to growth and poverty reduction; and the importance of governance to poverty reduction and human development. To promote local development in its various aspects, local governments play crucial roles: supplementing education investments; providing infrastructure services through private and community involvement; providing for public health care especially for the poor; making more social services accessible to the poor; monitoring, regulating and properly taxing natural resource depletion and environmental damage and promoting sustainable local management systems; promoting industrial clustering and enterprise development; fostering the development of the nonfarm economy; managing development through improved planning, budgeting, and financing; and in all aspects understanding local needs.


Households in the Western Hemisphere are no longer self sufficient in food production. Viewing the product from the shelves in the grocery store makes it difficult for the consumer to gain insight in the production practices and the quality attributes to the product. Formally, we can describe this as the food products purchased from a grocery store contain less search characteristic. Thus, the consumer cannot determine the quality of the product before the purchase. Instead the food products are characterized to be more of experience (quality is revealed after purchase) or credence characteristic (quality is not revealed even after purchase). Although it is not possible to determine the quality of the packaged food product on the shelves, the issues concerning food product quality are not trivial issues in society. The consumers may boycott not only food that can contain food-borne diseases, but also products that may be considered processed or produced in an unethical or hazardous method for the environment. For example, the linkage between the BSE (Bovin Spongiform Encephalopati) in beef and CJD (Creutzfeld-Jakobs Disease) in humans changed the consumption pattern rapidly in Europe, although not all countries reported occurrence of BSE. Consequently, these issues create incentives for the agribusiness firm to design programs for differentiating food products on basis of the perceived quality aspects. Producers supplying products that appeal to consumers? tastes have incitement to differentiate their products by other means than the pricing mechanism. The differentiation process is carried out through implementation of quality-, or certification programs. Certification programs and organizations like ISO, USDA, FAIRTRADE, CROP-WATCH, PDO, PGI, and Organic Europe, distinguish the product quality in terms of in production process, origin, and other tangible or intangible characteristics. When one or several stages in the food chain join to establish specific quality standards, both producers and consumers might reap economic gains through lowered uncertainty and increased efficiency. On the contrary, there is also a probability that the development of quality programs may further enhance market power, thus offset the potential social gains of the program. In essence, a certification program used by individual stages in the agribusiness chain may lead to vertical or horizontal cooperation (collusion), thus potentially moving away from perfect competition. Marette, Crespi, and Schiavina (1999) observe that agricultural markets are working imperfectly due to asymmetric information, where the consumers lack perfect information about the product quality. The suppliers, on the other hand, have incentives to produce both high and low quality products, although the consumers always prefer the higher quality products. The authors hypothesize that the societal welfare increases if consumers can distinguish between high quality and low quality products. Marette et al test this hypothesis by developing a partial equilibrium model under imperfect information in two elaborate scenarios. The model derived by Marette et al treats labeling in agricultural markets in a delicate way. With the certification scheme in place the consumer are able to distinguish between high and low quality products. However, the certification implies that the high quality producers gain market power. The low quality producers are no longer producing, and the high quality producers can exercise market power by either colluding on quantities, e.g. act as a joint monopolist, or play a quantity setting Nash-Cournot game. Essentially, they show that the societal welfare increases when high quality producers come together in a certification scheme and eliminate asymmetric information. Nevertheless, it is crucial to note that the assumptions build in the partial equilibrium framework drives the results. First, the authors choose to use a demand function, which strictly discriminates high quality from low quality products. Second, the authors? assumes that all firms have access to the same technology and have identical marginal cost of production. Third, the certification scheme does not alter the high quality firms? marginal cost. The objective of this study is to analyze certification programs and its impact on the market structure using a programmable mixed complementarity model. This study continues developing the model from Marette et al. Specifically, this study attempts to relief some of the rather restrictive assumptions on consumer and producer behavior that Marette et al have in their paper. First, the results are not stable for perturbations of the quality parameters, and the cost of certification. The results are not invariant to the cost of certification, and for high cost of certification, both producers and consumers are worse off. Second, constructing a utility function that permits demand for low quality products yield rather interesting results as both low quality and high quality producers can coexist under certification. The (aggregate) output level increases with certification. Nevertheless, the prices charged are vastly different between the certified and non-certified product: the high quality products are seven times expensive than the low quality (uncertified) product. Essentially, with certification the consumers? surplus and low quality producers profit decreases, whereas the high quality producers profit increases. The producer profit for high quality producers increases from .02 to .145 units since they produce more units of output to higher price. The low quality producers on the other hand serve the fringe market with relatively small prices, and their profit decreases to .006 units. When there are no high quality producers on the market, the low quality producers supply the whole market. As the high quality producers increase in number, the Nash-Cournot equilibrium approaches the competitive market outcome, i.e. the market price approaches the firm?s marginal cost. Hence, as the market price approaches zero, each producer supplies an infinite small unit of output, and the total welfare approaches unity. Nevertheless, with certification, there is a clear trend towards the low quality producers becoming fringe suppliers. The qualitative difference between varying the number of high and low quality firms is that the welfare is increasing in the number of high quality producer, whereas the total welfare impact is ambiguous when varying the number of low quality producer. Hence, there are two aggregate types of consumers: one inelastic and another elastic segment of consumers. The inelastic high quality type has a strictly higher willingness to pay for high quality products. The second type, on the other hand, also likes high quality, but is more sensitive to price changes than the high quality type. The study proposes by in large three major revisions to the model developed by Marette et al. First, instead of using a linear utility function that serves as a linear approximation to any utility function it is deemed appropriate to first a concrete representation of consumer behavior using a second order Taylor-series approximation to consumer demand where consumers? decision parameters include prices for both certified and uncertified products. Second, rather than assuming a zero unit of production, it is deemed appropriate to extend the framework by developing an underlying production technology with associate marginal cost. Third and lastly, the current model setup does not allow low quality producers to supply high quality goods. This is a rather abstract assumption, however, and should be extended to allow producers to interchangeably supply both high and low quality products, based on profit maximizing principles rather than subjectively chosen rules.


Rendering using physically based methods requires substantial computational resources. Most methods that are physically based use straightforward techniques that may excessively compute certain types of light transport, while ignoring more important ones. Importance sampling is an effective and commonly used technique to reduce variance in such methods. Most current approaches for physically based rendering based on Monte Carlo methods sample the BRDF and cosine term, but are unable to sample the indirect illumination as this is the term that is being computed. Knowledge of the incoming illumination can be especially useful in the case of hard to find light paths, such as caustics or scenes which rely primarily on indirect illumination. To facilitate the determination of such paths, we propose a caching scheme which stores important directions, and is analytically sampled to calculate important paths. Results show an improvement over BRDF sampling and similar illumination importance sampling.


The existence of the biosphere, development of economics and humanity are inconceivable without the water of necessary quantity and quality. Water as one component of environment takes part in all domains of human industrial activity. Annually water use exceeds by far the total mass of all other extracted mineral resources.


Understanding emergence along the lines of self-organization has become so ubiquitous the two terms have just about become synonymous. However, the usual connotations of self-organization result in a misleading account of emergence by downplaying the radical novelty characterizing emergent phenomena. It is this radical novelty which generates the necessary explanatory gap between the antecedent, lower level properties of emergent substrates and the consequent, higher level properties of emergent phenomena. Without this explanatory gap, emergent phenomena are not unpredictable, are not non-deducible, are not irreducible, and thus are not truly emergent. For emergent phenomena to be genuinely emergent, processes of emergence must accomplish the seemingly paradoxical feat of producing an explanatory gap while simultaneously maintaining some degree of continuity with the substrate level.


Telehealth interventions are designed to facilitate the remote exchange of information and data between patients and health care providers, improving the quality and safety of the patients and increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness of health care providers. The development of telecommunications and virtual technology allowed a number of telehealth systems to be applied in different health care areas. These technologies can provide an alternative monitoring and solutions for decreasing the hospital readmission rates for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). In this paper, a systematic literature review regarding tele-monitoring and its use in the management of patients with CHF is conducted. The result indicated that a standardized tele-monitoring design would reduce a length of hospitalization and re-hospitalization rate. The other factors that moderate the effectiveness of the tele-monitoring intervention include quality of life, mortality rate, and disease-specific knowledge (health literacy). All these factors align with the consumer-centred principle of The Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Health Care.


Background Abnormalities in the circadian clockwork often characterize patients with major depressive and bipolar disorders. Circadian clock genes are targets of interest in these patients. CRY2 is a circadian gene that participates in regulation of the evening oscillator. This is of interest in mood disorders where a lack of switch from evening to morning oscillators has been postulated. Principal Findings We observed a marked diurnal variation in human CRY2 mRNA levels from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and a significant up-regulation (P = 0.020) following one-night total sleep deprivation, a known antidepressant. In depressed bipolar patients, levels of CRY2 mRNA were decreased (P = 0.029) and a complete lack of increase was observed following sleep deprivation. To investigate a possible genetic contribution, we undertook SNP genotyping of the CRY2 gene in two independent population-based samples from Sweden (118 cases and 1011 controls) and Finland (86 cases and 1096 controls). The CRY2 gene was significantly associated with winter depression in both samples (haplotype analysis in Swedish and Finnish samples: OR = 1.8, P = 0.0059 and OR = 1.8, P = 0.00044, respectively). Conclusions We propose that a CRY2 locus is associated with vulnerability for depression, and that mechanisms of action involve dysregulation of CRY2 expression.


Observed trends in annual maximum snow depth (SD) in Norway are analyzed and examined in the context of changes in winter climate from 1961 until today. Trends are evaluated for the 50-year period (1961–2010) and for three 30-year periods (1961–1990, 1971–2000, 1981–2010). The analyzed dataset is the most extensive and geographically representative for the country so far, and the analysis gives an up-to-date picture of the recent development in snow accumulation. In regions characterized by colder winter climate long-term trends are found to be positive in general, while short-term trends shift from strongly positive in the first period to predominantly negative in the last period. Variation in SD is here mainly linked to variation in precipitation. In regions of warmer winter climate variation in SD is dominated by temperature, and long-term trends are mainly negative. Short-term trends start out weak overall in the first period but become strongly negative most places in the last period. It is likely that, although more and more regions in Norway will experience declining maximum annual SD in a projected wetter and warmer future climate, some inland and higher mountain regions may still accumulate more snow in the coming decades.


Curcumin and saikosaponin A as antioxidants improve antioxidant status. This study investigated the anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic actions of curcumin and saikosaponin A on CCl(4)-induced liver damage. Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, CCl(4), CCl(4)+ curcumin (0.005%; CU), CCl(4) + saikosaponin A (0.004%; SS), and CCl(4) + curcumin + saikosaponin A (0.005% + 0.004%; CU + SS) groups. Carbon tetrachloride (40% in olive oil) at a dose of 0.75 ml/kg was injected intraperitoneally once a week. Curcumin and saikosaponin A were supplemented alone or in combination with diet 1 week before CCl(4) injection for 8 weeks. After 8-week supplementation, histopathological results showed hepatic collagen deposition was significantly reduced in the CU and SS groups, and activated nuclear factor-kappa B expression induced by CCl(4) in the liver was significantly inhibited by curcumin and/or saikosaponin A. Hepatic proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1beta, and interleukin-6 were significantly inhibited, and anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 was significantly increased by supplementation with curcumin and/or saikosaponin A. Additionally, curcumin and/or saikosaponin A significantly reduced the increased levels of hepatic transforming growth factor-beta1 and hydroxyproline after CCl(4) treatment. Therefore, supplementation with curcumin and/or saikosaponin A suppress inflammation and fibrogenesis in rats with CCl(4)-induced liver injury. However, the combination has no additive effects on anti-inflammation and antifibrosis.


Biologic agents represent a mainstay in the treatment of refractory non-infectious, immune-mediated uveitis. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- α inhibitors have demon-strated efficacy in inducing and sustaining disease remission in numerous systemic inflammatory disorders and their associated uveitic entities. In particular, studies have shown that infliximab and adalimumab can induce steroid-free disease remission in patients with Behçet's disease and juvenile arthritis as treatments that are superior to conventional disease-modifying immunosuppressive agents. Patients receiving anti-TNF- α therapy may experience adverse events and should be closely monitored for the development of opportunistic infections, reactivation of tuberculosis and hepatitis, demyelinating disease and neuropathies, as well as malignancies. infections), demyelinating disease, congestive heart failure, induction of auto-antibodies, and injection site reactions.


This paper introduces Pick-A-Mood, a character-based pictorial scale for reporting and expressing moods. Pick-A-Mood consists of three characters that each express eight mood states, representing four main categories: excited and cheerful (for energised-pleasant), irritated and tense (for energised-unpleasant), relaxed and calm (for calm-pleasant), and bored and sad (for calm-unpleasant). Using Pick-A-Mood requires little effort on the part of respondents, making it suitable for design research applications in which people often have little time or motivation to report their moods. Contrary to what is often assumed, mood and emotion are distinct phenomena with different measurable manifestations. These differences are discussed, and a review of existing methods is provided, indicating to what extent current methods that measure emotion are suitable for measuring mood. The development and validation of Pick-A-Mood is reported, and application examples and research opportunities are discussed.


As the flight speeds of aircraft are increased above Mach 5, efficient methods of propulsion are needed. Scramjets may be a solution to this problem. Supersonic combustion is one of the main challenges involved in the operation of a Scramjet engine. In general, both an igniter and a flameholder are needed to achieve and maintain supersonic combustion. The current work examines a plasma torch-strut combination as an igniterflameholder. The plasma torch-strut combination was tested in the Virginia Tech unheated supersonic wind tunnel at Mach 2.4. Pressure and temperature sampling, filtered photography, and spectroscopic measurements were used to compare different test cases. These results provide both qualitative and quantitative results on how the combination responds to changes in the mass flow rate of fuel and the power to the plasma torch. The key conclusions of the work were the following: 1. Tests showed that an exothermic reaction takes place. 2. The amount of heat release increases with an increase in the mass flow rate of fuel. 3. The plasma torch-fuel injector interaction caused the heat release to be well above the tunnel floor and sometimes off the strut centerline 4. One change in the fuel injector pattern caused more temperature rise near the floor of the tunnel. 5. The flow penetration height of the plasma torch alone was reduced by the fuelplasma torch interaction. 6. Moving the strut upstream reduced the measured temperature rise at a fixed downstream location, but increased the penetration height of the plasma torch. 7. The computed heat release was found to be small compared to the potential heat release from all the fuel burning. 8. The amount of temperature rise caused by the fuel is not greatly affected by the power to the plasma torch.


Alaases, thermokarst depressions formed in the permafrost environment of Yakutia (north-eastern
Siberia) provide fertile hayfields for the Sakha cattle economy. At this northern latitude, cattle
breeding is in particular demand of nutritious fodder, because cows spend an average of nine
months in winter-stables. Therefore, alaases are in the focus of Sakha environmental perception.
Sakhas not only dwell at alaases, but through their economic activities, they modify and maintain
them as well. This process is based on control and domination rather than on procurement of the
environment. Villagers in Tobuluk (central Yakutia) consider the areas surrounding their village as
controlled islands of alaases (hayfields) in a sea of uncontrolled forest. In this paper, I examine
Sakha environmental perception in which landscapes and cardinal directions evoke and define each
other and characterise those who reside there. Due to the subsequent transformations of Sakha
economy and lifestyle by the Soviet and Russian state administration in the last 100 years
(collectivisation, centralisation, and decollectivisation), the way Sakhas interact with their
surroundings has transformed radically within the past four generations, causing profound
differences in the way generations relate to, interact with, and understand alaases.


In the case of Laugh It Off Promotions CC v South African Breweries International (Finance) BV t/a Sabmark International & Freedom of Expression Institute (CC) (case CCT 42/04) the Constitutional Court of South Africa was for the first lime called on to consider a claim of infringement of a registered trade mark. In its judgment (as yet unreported) the Constitutional Court upheld an appeal from a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal, in Laugh It Off Promotions CC v South International t/a Sabmark International v Laugh It Off Promotions CC 2003 (2) All SA 454 (C).


Background: The FAST exam is a tool that trauma physicians can use to evaluate patients with blunt trauma and possible abdominal injury. Currently, FAST has become the method of choice in evaluating hemodynamically unstable patients due to the rapid determination of any life-threatening abdominal injuries. The question that remains is the value of the FAST exam in hemodynamically stable blunt abdominal trauma patients. The evidence was evaluated using GRADE, which was developed to help health care professionals determine the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations presented in studies. Method: An extensive literature search was performed using Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane Systematic Reviews, PubMed, and Web of Science. The search was limited to human subjects, the English language, and articles published since the last systematic review in 2009. Results: Three studies were included in this systematic review. For this review, the sensitivity for the FAST exam in detecting free fluid was variable across all three studies; however, the specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were consistent and greater than 88% throughout the studies. Conclusion: Given the above results, the overall GRADE of evidence was upgraded from low to moderate. Since the sensitivity of the FAST exam was variable throughout the studies, the final conclusion of this systematic review is to continue using CT scan after blunt abdominal trauma to avoid missing any potential life-threatening injuries. A large mutlicenter trial would be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of FAST in hemodynamically stable blunt trauma patients.


Establishing territorial embeddedness within host regions in international retail expansion is well-known to be important, although the processes underpinning its realisation are less explicit. This research analyses some "emerging practices" of international expansion planning by drawing on interviews across a sample of store development departments. The role of analysts within host regions in evaluating economic, institutional, cultural and social contexts and appraising the viability of market-entry methods and store formats is explored. The competitive and regulatory dynamism of regions means that behaviour which encourages greater embeddedness following market entry can be particularly helpful in strengthening the marketing and development strategies of international subsidiaries.


Pea (Pisum sativum) roots were treated with aluminum in a calcium solution, and lipid peroxidation was investigated histochemically and biochemically, as well as other events caused by aluminum exposure. Histochemical stainings were observed to distribute similarly on the entire surface of the root apex for three events (aluminum accumulation, lipid peroxidation, and callose production), but the loss of plasma membrane integrity (detected by Evans blue uptake) was localized exclusively at the periphery of the cracks on the surface of root apex. The enhancement of four events (aluminum accumulation, lipid peroxidation, callose production, and root elongation inhibition) displayed similar aluminum dose dependencies and occurred by 4 h. The loss of membrane integrity, however, was enhanced at lower aluminum concentrations and after longer aluminum exposure (8 h). The addition of butylated hydroxyanisole (a lipophilic antioxidant) during aluminum treatment completely prevented lipid peroxidation and callose production by 40%, but did not prevent or slow the other events. Thus lipid peroxidation is a relatively early symptom induced by the accumulation of aluminum and appears to cause, in part, callose production, but not the root elongation inhibition; by comparison, the loss of plasma membrane integrity is a relatively late symptom caused by cracks in the root due to the inhibition of root elongation.


This paper argues that the economic literature on unemployment and poverty in South Africa has under-explored potentially important feedback mechanisms which, because they serve to change the structure of labour markets and affect human capital trajectories, serve to endogenise labour market exclusion. Using a tailor-made database from Duncan Village, East London, this paper probes such processes, focussing around the question of job search. The evidence presented suggests that endogenous factors generating labour market exclusion are important in locking-in exclusion, and suggests that macro-micro linkages need to be further considered.


The development of Flight Control Systems (FCS) coupled with the availability of other Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) components is enabling the introduction of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the civil market. UAS have great potential to be used in a wide variety of civil applications such as environmental applications, emergency situations, surveillance tasks and more. In general, they are specially well suited for the so-called D-cube operations (Dirty, Dull or Dangerous). Current technology greatly facilitates the construction of UAS. Sophisticated flight control systems also make them accessible to end users with little aeronautical expertise. However, we believe that for its successful introduction into the civil market, progress needs to be made to deliver systems able to perform a wide variety of missions with minimal reconfiguration and with reduced operational costs. Most current flight plan specification mechanisms consist in a simple list of waypoints, an approach that has important limitations. This paper proposes a new specification mechanism with semantically richer constructs that will enable the end user to specify more complex flight plans. The proposed formalism provides means for specifying iterative behavior, conditional branching and other constructs to dynamically adapt the flight path to mission circumstances. Collaborating with the FCS, a new module on-board the UAS will be in charge of executing these plans. This research also studies how the proposed flight plan structure can be tailored to the specific needs of remote sensing. For these type of applications well structured and efficient area and perimeter scanning is mandatory. In this paper we introduce several strategies focused to optimize the scanning process for tactical or mini UAS. The paper also presents a prototype implementation of this module and the results obtained in simulations.


This article deals with Moritz Schlick's critical realism and its sources that dominated his philosophy until about 1925. It is shown that his celebrated analysis of Einstein's relativity theory is the result of an earlier philosophical discussion about space perception and its role for the theory of space. In particular, Schlick's method of coincidences did not owe anything to entirely new principles based on the work of Einstein, Poincar or Hilbert, as claimed by Michael Friedman, but was already in place before these principles were developed. The first part of the article is devoted to Alois Riehl's critical realism—a neo-Kantian variant which rejects the dominant interpretation of the thing-in-itself as a mere limiting concept and takes empirical theories of space perception into consideration. The second part deals with the central role of Psychological Parallelism for Riehl and its integration with Kant's epistemology. In the third part it is shown that Schlick's theory of knowledge is based on Riehl's intricate reworking of Kantian epistemology, physiological psychology, theory of sense perception and philosophy of mathematics. The conclusion stresses the position of the unity of consciousness in Riehl's philosophy which Schlick admittedly cannot cope with.


The Vetus Latina Bible includes a variety of vocabulary according to various translators' and revisers' milieus and intents as they worked from Greek originals. This study aims to analyze the use of cultic verbs in the Vetus Latina Book of Daniel in all its pluriformity, and in Jerome's translations of the Greek additions to this book.In order to do so, I focus on key patristic witnesses to trace verbs denoting or connoting divine worship, from the time of Tertullian of Carthage, over Cyprian of Carthage and Lucifer of Caralis, to Jerome of Stridon. The expressions treated, each corresponding to a Greek verb, are: seruio, colo, famulor, appareo, exomologesin facio, hymnum cano, sacrifico, timeo, benedico, adoro, laudo, confiteor, and primitiae. They are analyzed in relation to their Greek Vorlagen and to the Latin context consisting in similar renderings by the same Fathers. The biblical book's fragmentary VL manuscript evidence and the wider patristic and liturgical tradition are also taken into account. This approach allows for a diachronic view marked sometimes by continuity, sometimes by change, for the Latin rendering of a Greek verb.


The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the United States has some of the most productive forests in the world. As precipitation regimes may shift with changing climate in this area, droughts are predicted to increase in both frequency and degree of severity, which will have a significant impact on already drought-prone ecosystems. When modeling ecosystem responses to drought, it is important to consider the physiology of individual tree species since the variations in drought sensitivity among species is easily overlooked when plants are characterized using broad plant functional types. Here we explore the use of inherent water-use efficiency as an index of drought sensitivity in semi-arid young and mature ponderosa pine forests and a mesic mature Douglas-fir forest in the PNW. Summer maximum of an evapotranspiration-based WUE (WUEi) was 2.5 times higher in young and mature pines in semi-arid climate than Douglas-fir in mesic climate (12.2 and 11.3 versus 4.7 g C kPa per kg H2O, respectively). In contrast, annually averaged WUEi was similar among the sites (2.8 g C kPa per kg H2O for pines and 2.4 g C kPa per kg H2O for Douglas-fir). The effect of drought stress on WUEi was most pronounced in young pine, followed by mature pine and Douglas-fir (32, 11, and 6% increase in WUEi per % decline in soil water content, respectively) which reflect differences in age-related ecosystem structure (root system, stem capacitance, and soil water holding capacity). Among sites, the responses of WUEi to climate variability were largely driven by changes in evapotranspiration (ET) compared to gross primary productivity (GPP). However, in areas where evaporation is the primary component of ET, such as the open canopy ponderosa forests of the PNW, the contribution of soil processes to ET can overshadow the reaction of vegetation transpiration (T) to changes in water availability. In these cases, utilizing a transpiration-based WUE (WUEi_T) in vegetation models will yield a more accurate representation of plant activity during drought. These results highlight the importance of incorporating differences in speciesand age-related WUEi in models in diverse forest types at regional and global scales to improve predictions in ecosystem responses to climate change.


The authors propose a reinforcement-learning mechanism as a model for recurrent choice and extend it to account for skill learning. The model was inspired by recent research in neurophysiological studies of the basal ganglia and provides an integrated explanation of recurrent choice behavior and skill learning. The behavior includes effects of differential probabilities, magnitudes, variabilities, and delay of reinforcement. The model can also produce the violation of independence, preference reversals, and the goal gradient of reinforcement in maze learning. An experiment was conducted to study learning of action sequences in a multistep task. The fit of the model to the data demonstrated its ability to account for complex skill learning. The advantages of incorporating the mechanism into a larger cognitive architecture are discussed.


1. Intrarenal pressure, estimated by measurement of wedged renal vein pressure, was elevated in patients with essential hypertension. Despite increased afferent arteriolar resistance, glomerular pressure was elevated indicating that the higher systemic pressure in essential hypertension is transmitted beyond the arterioles and accounts for elevation of intrarenal pressure. 2. During hypertonic saline loading in hypertensives, renal arteriolar resistance falls, resulting in further increase in intrarenal pressure. Increments in intrarenal pressure paralleled increases in sodium excretion in patients with essential hypertension during the exaggerated natriuresis and in normotensive subjects after the prolonged infusion of hypertonic saline. 3. The marked increase in intrarenal pressure which appears to be responsible for exaggerated natriuresis in essential hypertension is attributable to an altered (exaggerated) response of the renal arterioles. The data suggest that elevated intrarenal pressure may play a role in the regulation of sodium balance in patients with essential hypertension.


A recognition system is required between pinniped mothers and pups. For otariids this is especially important since females frequently leave their pups for foraging and must reunite on return. Pups must deal with these fasting periods during maternal absence and consequently may attempt to obtain allomaternal care from unrelated females. This research on the New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) at Ohau Point, Kaikoura, New Zealand, quantified mother-pup recognition behaviour during reunions, individuality of pup calls used by mothers to recognise their pup, and the occurrence of allosuckling as a possible recognition error by females and as a strategy employed by pups to gain allomaternal care during their mothers' absence. A combination of behavioural observations, morphometry, VHF radio telemetry, acoustics and DNA genotyping were employed to study these topics. Postpartum interaction behaviours between mothers and pups appeared to facilitate development of an efficient mother-pup recognition system, involving mainly vocal and olfactory cues that were utilised during reunions. Greater selective pressure on pups to reunite resulted in an asymmetry of searching behaviour between females and pups during reunions. The vocalisations of pups were stereotypic, especially those features of the fundamental frequency and frequency of the lowest harmonic, which are likely to facilitate recognition of a pup by their mother. Pups attempted to steal milk from unrelated females more often during maternal absence and appeared to modify the intra-individual variation pattern of a feature of their vocal signatures over this period, which may assist attempts at allosuckling under nutritional stress. Fostering was demonstrated to occur despite costs to filial pups and possible costs to female reproductive success and may be attributed to development of erroneous recognition between females and non filial pups, or kin selection. This study provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge of recognition systems between pinniped mothers and pups, of alternative pup strategies under nutritional stress and of the rare occurrence of fostering in otariid pinnipeds.


Education methods are one of the most significant topics today, the main purpose of which is to find new solutions to improve the quality of learning. Iran's educational structures have not changed much in recent decades and one of the main reasons is the unfamiliarity of professors with new teaching methods. Iranian architecture education, similar to other sciences, is associated with its own problems and complexities. To conduct this research, via an inductive analysis of theoretical content, primary, various methods of teaching, review and theoretical and practical classification have been done, then each in two categories, including methods and practical solutions, is modeled and the content framework of their constituents is specified. In the method section, our goal is to determine the general framework for the formation of its thematic content in terms of the intended educational method. In the process option, the application and the procedure of using the mentioned method and possible tools in that educational process are specified. In the next step, the selected cases have been comparatively evaluated based on the effective criteria in Iranian architectural education, with the aim of finding possible potentials for future research. Finally, after the theoretical analysis of educational methods with effective structural criteria many potentials have been identified, among which the problem-based method is one of the valid solutions; however, an accurate evaluation of each category requires further research.


This Article explores the unique legal issues surrounding polygamous marriage and divorce in mainland Tanzania, and submits that the Law of Marriage Act of 1971 (LMA) should be amended to include a provision that governs co-wives' property interests in the case of divorce. Moreover, it proposes awareness-raising efforts to increase legal literacy and to promote the rights of co-wives. Under Section 10(1) of the Act, a marriage is defined as "the voluntary union of a man and a woman, intended to last for their joint lives," and may either be monogamous or polygamous (or potentially polygamous). Further, under Section 57, no wife in a polygamous marriage holds a superior position in matrimonial homes than any other wife. Effectively, under the LMA all co-wives have equal rights and obligations while they are married. But what about after a divorce? Although a plain reading of Section 57 could logically extend equal rights and obligations to co-wives upon divorce, Tanzanian courts have not interpreted it this way. In Maryam Mbaraka Saleh v. Abood Saleh Abood, a senior co-wife was unsuccessful in reopening divorce proceedings concerning her husband and a former co-wife. Previously, the ex-wife had won her case before the Court of Appeal, which held that she was entitled to forty percent of the marital property, based on her contribution. The fact that the husband was engaged in a polygamous marriage was never raised until the remaining co-wife sought to secure her share of the assets. The Court of Appeal declined her request for relief because she was not a party to the original divorce proceedings. Thus, although the LMA contemplates both monogamous and polygamous marriage, it only appears to contemplate the divorce of monogamous couples. Because non-divorcing co-wives cannot be a party to divorce proceedings, and only parties can claim a stake in marital assets, the LMA currently offers no means for non-divorcing co-wives to claim a stake in marital property. This Article argues that the LMA fails to protect the property rights of all co-wives upon divorce, and that reform is imperative as Tanzanian divorce rates increase. Numerous articles have been written about succession and property rights relating to marriage in Tanzania, but no scholarship specifically examines these rights within the context of a polygamous marriage, which account for approximately one fourth of all Tanzanian marriages. To the extent that divorce is on the rise in Tanzania, this issue is both timely and consequential.


This paper provides a description of the SCORE Project which is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK, and particularly the work at City University whilst acknowledging the contributions of all partners. The project, which is still underway, concerns the development of an electricity generating thermoacoustic engine which is driven by the heat of a cookstove for application in developing countries.

There is a significant level of innovation in the work in three respects: 1) research into the combination of the thermoacoustic engine, linear alternator and cool box in a single device, powered by a biomass cooking stove, never attempted before, 2) design of a rugged and inexpensive linear alternator that could be easily produced at very low cost, 3) use of local manufacturing skills and simplicity of assembly, which are major research issues compared to the high-cost and high-tech therm-oacoustic systems produced so far. These challenges form the backbone of the scientific and technological work program. Within the overall 5-year duration, the first 3 years have been mainly focussed on conducting the necessary social and scientific research, while the last 2 years will broadly focus on technology handover, including representative field trials and a wide dissemination among target communities. By the end of the 3rd year a milestone was achieved, the world's first demonstration of a working thermo-acoustic engine operating in a wood fired cookstove.


Face recognition using Hidden Markov Models J.S.S. Ballot Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering University of Stellenbosch Private Bag X1, 7602 Matieland, South Africa Thesis: MScEng (E&E + CS) April 2005 This thesis relates to the design, implementation and evaluation of statistical face recognition techniques. In particular, the use of Hidden Markov Models in various forms is investigated as a recognition tool and critically evaluated. Current face recognition techniques are very dependent on issues like background noise, lighting and position of key features (ie. the eyes, lips etc.). Using an approach which specifically uses an embedded Hidden Markov Model along with spectral domain feature extraction techniques, shows that these dependencies may be lessened while high recognition rates are maintained.


Abstract : This report details the research efforts into the SQL Ada Module Database Description Language (SAMeDL). Four compilers are presented (Oracle, Informix, XDB, and Sybase) that allow Ada application programs to access database using a standard SQL query language. Copies of the compiler can be obtained from the DoD Ada Joint Program Office 703/614-0209.... Ada Database Access, SAMeDL, Ada extension module, SQL.


In this paper, I consider Ripstein and Dan-Cohen's critiques of the 'harm principle'. Ripstein and Dan-Cohen have asserted that the harm principle should be jettisoned, because it allegedly fails to provide a rationale for criminalising certain harmless wrongs that ought to be criminalised. They argue that Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative and his concept of 'external freedom' are better equipped for ensuring that criminalisation decisions meet the requirements of fairness. Per contra, I assert that Kant's deontological theory is about identifying morally wrongful and rightful conduct: it does not tell the legislature which of those wrongs justify a criminal law response in accordance with the requirements of fairness and justice. Some wrongdoers deserve censure and the stigma that results from criminalisation, but others do not. Kant's deontological theory does not limit the scope of the criminal law merely to those wrongs that deserve a criminal law response. Fair and principled criminalisation requires more than mere wrongdoing. I assert that it is only fair to criminalise wrongs when further normative reasons can be invoked to justify the use of the criminal law as a means for deterring the unwanted conduct. While 'harm to others' is not the only normative reason that can be used to demonstrate that it is fair to criminalise a given act, it is the justification that has the greatest reach. It would not be fair to criminalise mere wrongdoing (that is, every violation of freedom: trespass to goods etc. or every violation of the categorical imperative: every false promise etc.). Nor is it possible to distinguish one violation of freedom from the next, as freedom is not measurable. Thus, murder and trespass to goods would be equally wrong and equally criminalisable in Kant's scheme. A further problem with Dan-Cohen's use of the second formulation of Kant's categorical imperative is that it aims to be an inclusive criterion for identifying conduct that is prima facie criminalisable, but this inclusive approach does not explain the wrongfulness (or in Dan-Cohen's use of the categorical imperative the criminalisableness) of harming animals. In this paper, I demonstrate that the harm principle is able to meet the challenges raised by Ripstein and Dan-Cohen. I also demonstrate that it offers superior criteria for ensuring that criminalisation decisions are fair, just and principled than is offered by Kant's deontological theory.