The RNA genomes of picornaviruses are translated into single polyproteins which are subsequently cleaved into structural and non-structural protein products. For genetic economy, proteins and processing intermediates have evolved to perform distinct functions. The picornavirus precursor protein, P3, is cleaved to produce membrane-associated 3A, primer peptide 3B, protease 3Cpro and polymerase 3Dpol. Uniquely, foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) encodes three similar copies of 3B (3B1-3), thus providing a convenient natural system to explore the role(s) of 3B in the processing cascade. Using a replicon system, we confirmed by genetic deletion or functional inactivation that each copy of 3B appears to function independently to prime FMDV RNA replication. However, we also show that deletion of 3B3 prevents replication and that this could be reversed by introducing mutations at the C-terminus of 3B2 that restored the natural sequence at the 3B3-3C cleavage site. In vitro translation studies showed that precursors with 3B3 deleted were rapidly cleaved to produce 3CD but that no polymerase, 3Dpol, was detected. Complementation assays, using distinguishable replicons bearing different inactivating mutations, showed that replicons with mutations within 3Dpol could be recovered by 3Dpol derived from "helper" replicons (incorporating inactivation mutations in all three copies of 3B). However, complementation was not observed when the natural 3B-3C cleavage site was altered in the "helper" replicon, again suggesting that a processing abnormality at this position prevented the production of 3Dpol. When mutations affecting polyprotein processing were introduced into an infectious clone, viable viruses were recovered but these had acquired compensatory mutations in the 3B-3C cleavage site. These mutations were shown to restore the wild-type processing characteristics when analysed in an in vitro processing assay. Overall, this study demonstrates a dual functional role of the small primer peptide 3B3, further highlighting how picornaviruses increase genetic economy.


We present a learning-based method for building driving-signal aware full-body avatars. Our model is a conditional variational autoencoder that can be animated with incomplete driving signals, such as human pose and facial keypoints, and produces a high-quality representation of human geometry and view-dependent appearance. The core intuition behind our method is that better drivability and generalization can be achieved by disentangling the driving signals and remaining generative factors, which are not available during animation. To this end, we explicitly account for information deficiency in the driving signal by introducing a latent space that exclusively captures the remaining information, thus enabling the imputation of the missing factors required during full-body animation, while remaining faithful to the driving signal. We also propose a learnable localized compression for the driving signal which promotes better generalization, and helps minimize the influence of global chance-correlations often found in real datasets. For a given driving signal, the resulting variational model produces a compact space of uncertainty for missing factors that allows for an imputation strategy best suited to a particular application. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on the challenging problem of full-body animation for virtual telepresence with driving signals acquired from minimal sensors placed in the environment and mounted on a VR-headset.


Abstract There is mounting evidence that microbiome composition is intimately and dynamically connected with host energy balance and metabolism. The gut microbiome is emerging as a novel target for counteracting the chronically positive energy balance in obesity, a disease of pandemic scale which contributes to >70 % of premature deaths. This scoping review explores the potential for therapeutic modulation of gut microbiota as a means of prevention and/or treatment of obesity and obesity-associated metabolic disorders. The evidence base for interventional approaches which have been shown to affect the composition and function of the intestinal microbiome is summarised, including dietary strategies, oral probiotic treatment, faecal microbiota transplantation and bariatric surgery. Evidence in this field is still largely derived from preclinical rodent models, but interventional studies in obese populations have demonstrated metabolic improvements effected by microbiome-modulating treatments such as faecal microbiota transplantation, as well as drawing attention to the unappreciated role of microbiome modulation in well-established anti-obesity interventions, such as dietary change or bariatric surgery. The complex relationship between microbiome composition and host metabolism will take time to unravel, but microbiome modulation is likely to provide a novel strategy in the limited armamentarium of effective treatments for obesity.


Abstract The nature, distribution and origin of clay minerals in the hydrocarbon-bearing Permian Rotliegend sandstones of the North Sea and the adjacent areas of the Netherlands and Germany are reviewed. The clay minerals occur as detrital coatings of smectite and smectite-illite on the surfaces of sandgrains, and as later diagenetic cements of kaolinite, chlorite (two varieties), and illite in the pore spaces of those sandstones. Two diagenetic clay mineral assemblages are predominant in the Rotliegend of the North Sea. The kaolinite-illite assemblage is restricted to the Rotliegend of shelf areas which underwent shallow burial followed by strong Jurassic/Cretaceous (Late Cimmerian) structural inversions, whereas the illite-chlorite assemblage is associated with basinal areas that underwent deep and rapid burial throughout the Mesozoic. The factors controlling mineralogy, crystal chemistry and morphology of those diagenetic clay minerals, as well as their regional distribution and origin, are numerous, complicated, and inter- related. Evidence suggests that the following aspects were important parameters: (1) variations in the original depositional arid desert environment; (2) the chemistry and flow patterns of the porewaters; (3) temperature and timing of clay mineral formation; (4) local burial history; (5) the presence or absence of meteoric water; and (6) the structural setting of the Rotliegend sandstones. Oxygen isotope data indicate that the illite cements formed over a wide range of temperatures (24-140°C) that is consistent with the deep burial conditions prevailing in the palaeo-basins. In contrast, oxygen isotopes indicate that kaolinite cements formed over a more restricted temperature range (40-80°C) and under the influence of meteoric water penetrating the sandstones of the shelf areas as a result of their Late Cimmerian uplift and associated erosion. Hypotheses suggesting that the absence of kaolinite cement from the deeply buried Rotliegend sandstones is caused by its illitization during burial, and that the chlorite cements have formed by the alteration of earlier smectite, smectite-chlorite and corrensite cements, are not supported by evidence.


Aqueous extracts of blue-green algae were fractionated by electrofocusing. In all algae investigated, fractions with isoelectric points at or near 4.6 showed photochromic behavior analogous to that of phytochrome, although they were sensitive to light of shorter wavelength. Three main types of photochromic pigments were found. Phycochrome a (in Tolypothrix distorta, Phormidium luridium, Nostoc muscorum 1453/12 and Anacystis nidulans) had 1 form absorbing maximally at about 590 nm (formed under red light) and 1 absorbing maximally at about 630 nm (formed under green light). Phycochrome b (in T. distorta) had 1 form absorbing maximally near 510 nm and 1 form absorbing maximally at 570 nm (formed in yellow-green and blue-green light, respectively). Phycochrome c (in N. muscorum A and probably in T. tenuis) had 1 form absorbing maximally at 650 nm (formed under green light) and 1 absorbing very weakly in the green region (formed under red light). The conversion of Phormidium phycochrome a from its red-absorbing form to its green-absorbing form caused the same spectral change as if an f-chromophore of phycocyanin were transformed into an s-chromophore. The quantum yield for this conversion was estimated to be 0.1, while the quantum yield for the reversion was estimated to be 0.4 on the assumption that the absorption coefficients were those of f- and s-chromophores. Phycochrome c was less light-sensitive than phycochromes a and b. (Less)


Significant progress has been obtained since the III Brazilian Consensus Conference on H. pylori infection held in 2012, in Bento Gonçalves, Brazil, and justify a fourth meeting to establish updated guidelines on the current management of H. pylori infection. Therefore, the Núcleo Brasileiro para Estudo do Helicobacter pylori e Microbiota (NBEHPM), association linked to Brazilian Federation of Gastroenterology (FBG) held its fourth meeting again in Bento Gonçalves, RS, Brazil, on August 25–27, 2017. Twenty-six delegates, including gastroenterologists, endoscopists, and pathologists from the five regions of Brazil as well as one international guest from the United States, participated in the meeting. The participants were invited based on their knowledge and contribution to the study of H. pylori infection. The meeting sought to review different aspects of treatment for infection; establish a correlation between infection, dyspepsia, intestinal microbiota changes, and other disorders with a special emphasis on gastric cancer; and reassess the epidemiological and diagnostic aspects of H. pylori infection. Participants were allocated into four groups as follows: 1) Epidemiology and Diagnosis, 2) Dyspepsia, intestinal microbiota and other afections, 3) Gastric Cancer, and, 4) Treatment. Before the consensus meeting, participants received a topic to be discussed and prepared a document containing a recent literature review and statements that should be discussed and eventually modified during the face-to-face meeting. All statements were evaluated in two rounds of voting. Initially, each participant discussed the document and statements with his group for possible modifications and voting. Subsequently, during a second voting in a plenary session in the presence of all participants, the statements were voted upon and eventually modified. The participants could vote using five alternatives: 1) strongly agree; 2) partially agree; 3) undecided; 4) disagree; and 5) strongly disagree. The adopted consensus index was that 80% of the participants responded that they strongly or partially agreed with each statement. The recommendations reported are intended to provide the most current and relevant evidences to management of H. pylori infection in adult population in Brazil. HEADINGS – Helicobacter pylori. Helicobacter pylori infection. Helicobacter pylori treatment. Helicobacter pylori diagnosis.


Today, Apache Cassandra, an highly scalable and available NoSql datastore, is largely used by enterprises of each size and for application areas that range from entertainment to big data analytics. Managed Cassandra service providers are emerging to hide the complexity of the installation, fine tuning and operation of Cassandra datacenters. As for all complex services, human assisted management of a multi-tenant cassandra datacenter is unrealistic. Rather, there is a growing demand for autonomic management solutions. In this paper, we present an optimal energy-aware adaptation model for managed Cassandra datacenters that modify the system configuration orchestrating three different actions: horizontal scaling, vertical scaling and energy aware placement. The model is built from a real case based on real application data from Ericsson AB. We compare the performance of the optimal adaptation with two heuristics that avoid system perturbations due to re-configuration actions triggered by subscription of new tenants and/or changes in the SLA. One of the heuristic is local optimisation and the second is a best fit decreasing algorithm selected as reference point because representative of a wide range of research and practical solutions. The main finding is that heuristic's performance depends on the scenario and workload and no one dominates in all the cases. Besides, in high load scenarios, the suboptimal system configuration obtained with an heuristic adaptation policy introduce a penalty in electric energy consumption in the range [+25%, +50%] if compared with the energy consumed by an optimal system configuration.


Over the past decade bilinear maps have been used to build a large variety of cryptosystems. In parallel to new functionalities, we have also seen the emergence of many security assumptions. This leads to the general question of comparing two such assumptions. Boneh, Boyen and Goh introduced the Uber assumption as an attempt to offer a general framework for security assessment. Their idea is to propose a generic security assumption that can be specialized to suit the needs of any proof of protocols involving bilinear pairing. Even though the Uber assumption has been only stated in the bilinear setting, it can be easily restated to deal with ordinary Diffie-Hellman groups and assess other type of protocols. In this article, we explore some particular cases of the Uber assumption; namely the n-CDH-assumption, the n-CDHassumption and the Q-CDH-assumption. We analyse the relationships between those cases and more precisely from a security point of view. Our analysis does not rely on any special property of the considered group(s) and does not use the generic group model.


Prayer has undergirded the achievements, sacrifices, and faithfulness of the Reformed tradition since its beginning. And the ways in which Reformed Christians pray have been as varied throughout the centuries as the many denominations that are included in the Reformed tradition. Howard Rice and Lamar Williamson have gathered more than 200 prayers from the Reformed tradition, organizing the prayers chronologically by century. They provide historical information and biographies of each author to enhance readers' understanding of each prayer within its own context. This book is ideal for both reference and personal devotion and will inspire a new appreciation of the piety of the Reformed heritage.


Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between preterm delivery and maternal anaemia. This retrospective cohort study was completed with 483 women; 294 of them had a normal delivery and 189 had a preterm delivery. The haemoglobin (Hb) values of all the women participating in the study were measured in the first and second trimesters, and the average Hb values were calculated. The pregnant women participating in the study were divided into three groups, according to their Hb level: those with Hb level <10 g/dl, those with Hb level between 10 and 11 g/dl and those with Hb level >11 g/dl. In crude analysis, women with low Hb levels had an increased rate of preterm delivery (odds ratio, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.07–5.49). Our study provides data that low Hb level is effective in preterm delivery. Impact statement What is already known on this subject? Serum Hb levels have inconsistent associations with a risk of preterm delivery. What the results of this study add? Compared with term delivery Hb levels are lower in preterm delivery. It is necessary to take into account the Hb levels of both the first and second trimester of the pregnancy when describing the pregnancy anaemia. What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Given these results, physicians should take into account anaemia in pregnancy when considering the risk of a preterm delivery.


Abstract
Information system (IS) in Sebelas Maret University (UNS), especially for academic and student affairs is
not integrated and it does not fully provide information for executives. Most of executive information or
reports are provided in worksheet or paper-based reports. Ideally, the executive information should be
served by an executive information system (EIS) that provide real-time information in order to support
decision making for the executives. This study identify and design the executives information using the
Wetherbe's Approach with structured interviews based on Business System Planning (BSP). The stages in
building the executives information are identification of user groups, identification of internal and
external information which is needed by executives and management report, set information access
matrix, arrange EIS conceptual framework, and initiate the EIS interface. The project result shows that
there are 87 internal and 14 external information which needed by the executives. The executive
information spreads in 52 internal and 8 external information in academic areas, and 35 internal and 6
external information in student affairs. The project also shows that only 15% and 17% of the internal
information in academic and student affairs respectively which is supported by the existing information
system in UNS. In the other hand, all of the external information can not be provided by the existing
information systems in UNS.
Keywords: Executive Information System (EIS), internal and external information, Wetherbe's Approach.


Kuniba, Nakanishi, and Suzuki (1994) have formulated a general conjecture expressing the positive solution of an $\ell$-restricted $Q$-system in terms of quantum dimensions of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules. After presenting this conjecture, we sketch a proof for the exceptional type $E_6$ following our preprint (2013). In types $E_7$ and $E_8$, we prove positivity for a subset of the nodes of the Dynkin diagram, and we reduce the positivity for the remaining nodes to the conjectural iterated log-concavity of certain explicit sequences of real algebraic numbers.


Glabrous Brassica napus cv Westar and very hairy AtGL3+ B. napus were transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and either a full length trichome regulatory gene BnTTG1 (isoform 1 coding region called O-TTG1) or an RNAi cassette with 260 bp of a conserved region between isoform I and II (called K-TTG1), each driven by the CaMV 35S promoter. Agronomic and trichome phenotypes were observed in the resulting lines. Transformed lines developed in the glabrous Westar background showed no changes in growth or trichome density and transformation efficiency was similar to that of an empty vector control construct. Over-expression of BnTTG1 in the AtGL3+ B. napus background resulted in low transformant survival and poor seed viability, with the only surviving line O-3-7 being taller than non-transformed lines and with a completely glabrous phenotype. The two knock-down lines with the lowest BnTTG1 expression showed a dramatic increase in trichome density, with longer trichomes and expanded trichome density (up to the 12th leaf in the K-5-8 line) compared to the AtGL3+ hairy background line, which showed increased trichome density only on the first three leaves. Moreover, K-5-8 plants were healthy, with both vegetative and reproductive growth similar to that of Westar non-transgenic control plants under both greenhouse and field conditions. The relative expression of five B. napus primary trichome regulatory genes and AtGL3 was measured in three different tissues of B. napus Westar, and the AtGL3+, K-5-8 and O-3-7 transgenic lines. Over-expression of AtGL3 resulted in changes in the expression of BnGL3, BnGL2 and BnTRY. Manipulation of BnTTG1 levels also resulted in changes in expression of these three genes in addition to AtGL3. AtGL3+ plants and O-3-7 also showed increased red pigment accumulation in several above ground vegetative tissues including cotyledons, hypocotyl and leaves, whereas the K-5-8 line (knock down of TTG1) had less anthocyanin in the same tissues. The level of anthocyanin accumulation corresponded to the relative expression of the three primary anthocyanin regulatory genes BnDFR, BnANS and BnGST. In a laboratory bioassay, diamondback moth (DBM) adults (Plutella xylostella) laid more eggs on hairy leaves of K-5-8 than glabrous Westar. However, more feeding damage from young DBM larvae was observed on Westar leaves than K-5-8 in both choice and no-choice feeding assays. In a field test comparing Phyllotreta flea beetle feeding, the hairy K-5-8 leaves showed between a 30-50% reduction in feeding over four ratings on 14 to 28 day old seedlings. Curiously, the glabrous cotyledons of the two hairy lines (AtGL3+ and K-5-8) proved to be more resistant than wild type B. napus Westar cotyledons from Helix XTra® insecticide-treated or non-treated seed. These data support the introduction of AtGL3 and the knockdown of BnTTG1 to induce a dense trichome phenotype, into otherwise glabrous B. napus, resulting in an increased host plant resistance to crucifer insects, without agronomic penalties.


The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently
specified the Cipher-based Message Authentication Code (CMAC), which
is equivalent to the One-Key CBC-MAC1 (OMAC1) algorithm submitted by
Iwata and Kurosawa. OMAC1 efficiently reduces the key size of Extended
Cipher Block Chaining mode (XCBC). This memo specifies the use of CMAC
mode as an authentication mechanism of the IPsec Encapsulating
Security Payload (ESP) and the Authentication Header (AH) protocols.
This new algorithm is named AES-CMAC-96. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Persistence has proved to be a valuable tool to analyze real world data robustly. Several approaches to persistence have been attempted over time, some topological in flavor, based on the vector space-valued homology functor, other combinatorial, based on arbitrary set-valued functors. To unify the study of topological and combinatorial persistence in a common categorical framework, we give axioms for a generalized rank function on objects in a target category, so that functors to that category induce persistence functions. We port the interleaving and bottleneck distances to this novel framework and generalize classical equalities and inequalities. Unlike sets and vector spaces, in many categories the rank of an object does not identify it up to isomorphism: to preserve information about the structure of persistence modules, we define colorable ranks, persistence diagrams and prove the equality between multicolored bottleneck distance and interleaving distance in semisimple Abelian categories. To illustrate our framework in practice, we give examples of multicolored persistent homology on filtered topological spaces with a group action and labeled point cloud data.


Dams possess high economic and political importance. They play critical role in agriculture, development of urban and rural areas, supplying drink water, generation of hydroelectric energy, control and regulation of water current velocity. Protection, retention and permanent evaluation of dam's stability is major issue regarding high cost associated with dam construction and severity of consequences caused by dam instability. Since increased safety of dam is always accompanies with increased cost, it is necessary to ensure dam stability through designing, implanting and exploiting steps. Application of accurate instrument and behavior survey in engineering projects provides a permanent control over the execution trend and optimization of execution procedure in proportion to real status of stability. Thus it is vital to make suitable use of dam behavior survey and similar experiences to control dam's stability and safety through designing, execution and exploitation phases. FLAC is a powerful multi-purpose software in geotechnical projects that is widely used to analyze dam stability based on finite difference method. The present study analyzes an embankment dam. By modeling of dam finite difference in the software and implementing earthquake scale, the effect of this earthquake on the dam is studied and suitable methods for dam and foundation stability were achieved. Stability causes hydrodynamic effects on the dam body and affects magnitude and distribution of static stresses as well.  Keywords : static analysis, embankment dam, foundation, FLAC


Static binary rewriting has many important applications in reverse engineering, such as patching, code reuse, and instrumentation. Binary reassembling is an efficient solution for static binary rewriting. While there has been a proposed solution to the reassembly of binaries, an evaluation on a realworld binary dataset shows that it suffers from some problems that lead to breaking binaries. Those problems include incorrect symbolization of immediates, failure in identifying symbolizable constants, lack of pointer safety checks, and other issues. Failure in addressing those problems makes the existing approach unsuitable for real-world binaries, especially those compiled with optimizations enabled. In this paper, we present a new systematic approach for binary reassembling. Our new approach is implemented in a tool called Ramblr. We evaluate Ramblr on 106 real-world programs on Linux x86 and x86-64, and 143 programs collected from the Cyber Grand Challenge Qualification Event. All programs are compiled to binaries with a set of different compilation flags in order to cover as many real-world scenarios as possible. Ramblr successfully reassembles most of the binaries, which is an improvement over the state-of-the-art approach. It should be noted that our reassembling procedure yields no execution overhead and no size expansion.


CEMETERY: Image and history: "A Jewish Cemetery exists on the island of Boa Vista, containing the graves of the Ben'Oliel family. These graves can be seen in close proximity to The Marine Club, at the far end of Praia Cabral, to the north of Sal Rei, on the right, within the small Jewish Cemetery, isolated between the beach and the new property developments springing up. The graves are encompassed by low stone walls. Hebrew inscriptions are visible on the graves. This graveyard is to be preserved. The Ben'Oliel family were wealthy Jewish merchants who fled Rabat in Morocco with the Moroccan persecution of the Jews in 1872. They settled in rua Amilcar Cabral, Sal Rei, in what today is known as the Migrante Guesthouse, a real colonial house. Today, one of the suites in Migrante is still known as the Ben'Oliel suite. The Jewish community is heavily entwined in the early history of Cape Verde. The Jews had suffered for centuries under anti-semitic sentiment in Spain and Portugal. With the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, this sentiment spread to Portugal, and many Jews were expelled to Sao Tome and Principe and Cape Verde. These Jews had been very successful in Portuguese commerce, navigation, cartography etc. In Cape Verde they were allowed to engage in trade as long as they did not compete with the Portuguese monopolies. On Boa Vista the Ben 'Oliel family traded in hides, salt and slaves. However it must be emphasized that they operated as brokers within a system endorsed by the Portuguese kings who made great fortunes. Interestingly an Israel Ben'Oliel of Cape Verde ran in the Boa Vista Ultramarathon in 2004. It would appear that there are still many people of Jewish decent resident on the islands, probably not all practising Jews though. Alongside these graves is the grave of Julia Maria Petingall, a 19 year old English woman, daughter of Charles Petingall, an administrator of the Luso-British Commission on slavery. Julia was a victim of Yellow Fever, which struck Boa Vista in the 1840s. She and her family left for another island to avoid the illness. However they returned to Boa Vista as her father believed the threat was over. Sadly it was not. Julia died in November 1845 at the age of 19. Then on the boat to Sao Nicolau, her father died, followed by her fiancé. Beyond the Marine Club are the ruins of a chapel and a path leading up to it. There was once a house here, with steps leading down to the beach." [August 2009]


ABSTRACT  Southern Appalachian mountain wetlands, especially mountain bogs and swamp forest-bog complexes, are among the most imperiled ecosystems in the southern USA. The Sandy Bottom Wetland Preserve encompasses approximately 10 ha of wetlands along the floodplain of the French Broad River, including swamp forest-bog complex habitat, and is home to several threatened animal species. A total of 366 specimens of vascular plants were collected during 2013–2015 to develop a vouchered flora of the preserve. These specimens documented 221 species in 166 genera and 81 families, 11% of which are not native to the Appalachian Mountain region. We found no plant species that are tracked by the North Carolina State Plant Conservation Program. Plant community types are described and listed for each associated species.


The combination of the increase in cost of Sulphur Hexafluoride ("SF6"), the registration of SF6 as a greenhouse gas and the use of SF6 at pressures above atmospheric has caused the need for SF6 detection equipment to arise. This research report outlines and reviews past and present technologies utilised, together with presently available commercial systems. Along with the review of available technologies, a proposed system utilising opto-electronic sensors to provide real-time detection is discussed. The proposed method investigated is the utilisation of Long-period gratings to detect slight refractive index changes of the ambient environment outside gas insulated systems and attempt to resolve the change in refractive index into detection mechanism for SF6. The method is shown to be possible, however currently not practically feasible. It is recommended that a practical investigation be undertaken to determine the real practical constraints theorised within but the magnitudes not yet established.


Sleep-related attentional bias is a well-documented finding in patients with primary insomnia. To address the question of whether attentional preference for sleep-related stimuli is due to sleepiness (as measured by the Stanford Sleepiness Scale; SSS) or sleeplessness (as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSQI) we investigated 105 non-clinical participants with two attentional bias tasks, an emotional Stroop task and a newly introduced mixed-modality task. The emotional Stroop task revealed significant positive linear relationships between sleep-related attentional bias and both poor sleep quality and sleepiness. Additionally, we found a significant negative interaction effect between these two variables on the cognitive bias. This means that attentional bias scores are reduced when poor sleep quality is associated with high sleepiness and high sleep quality is associated with low sleepiness. We did not find any significant result in the mixed-modality task. The results suggest that sleep-related attentional bias can be elicited by both sleepiness and sleeplessness.


It has been demonstrated that the torsional patterns of the metatarsal heads are associated with the presence or absence of the medial longitudinal arch in hominoid feet. The relatively untwisted second metatarsal is unique in humans, but that of the African apes is much more inverted, suggesting that the torsion of the second metatarsal might represent the overall shape and flatness of the foot. Some clinical studies have recently argued that the onset of foot pathologies such as hallux valgus might be related to the torsional pattern of the metatarsals. However, to date, no studies have systematically investigated the morphological variations of the torsional patterns of human metatarsals. In this study, therefore, the aim was to clarify the age‐ and sex‐associated variations in the torsional patterns of human metatarsals using three‐dimensional computed tomography. The torsion angles of the five metatarsals were calculated by defining the dorsopalmar vector of the metatarsal base and the vector corresponding to the rotational axis of the metatarsal head. The present result demonstrated that the second metatarsals of females were significantly more inverted with increasing age. Flat foot is known to be most common in elderly women. Whether there is a cause–effect relationship between second metatarsal torsion and flattening of the medial longitudinal arch has yet to be answered, but this study suggested that torsion of the second metatarsal might possibly be used as an indicator for the early diagnosis of flat foot and associated foot pathologies. Clin. Anat. 30:1058–1063, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Is the Supreme Court, especially, but not exclusively, in the Chief Justice Rehnquist through Chief Justice Roberts eras, applying the interpretive methods of textualism and originalism consistently in cases involving, on the one hand, the delineation of rights and remedies, and on the other, the development of defenses and immunities? Conversely, does the Court selectively apply these methods asymmetrically? Framed more provocatively, is the Court developing jurisprudence marked by limited originalist and textualist rights, but also malleable living immunities? Whether there is a definitive answer to that question is uncertain, but even assuming, arguendo, that such an answer exists, the aspiration is beyond the scope of this Article. Indeed, the goals of this Article are much more modest: to ask the question and to scratch its surface.


ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to conduct an exploratory analysis of fear of falling (FoF), balance, gait, and strength impairments and future physical activity in women with multiple sclerosis. DesignThis prospective study followed a convenience sample of 99 women with multiple sclerosis for 1 yr. The participants were assessed on FoF and perceived mental health by questionnaire. Objective measures included Limits of Stability, the Sensory Organization Test, and the Functional Ambulation Profile. Strength was quantified by knee extensor power asymmetry. Activity-specific metabolic equivalent values were used to determine minutes per week of moderate and vigorous physical activity. ResultsFuture physical activity most strongly associated with baseline FoF (R2 = 0.09, P < 0.01), and baseline FoF associated with limits of stability and lower extremity strength asymmetry (R2 = 0.21, P < 0.001). Follow-up FoF is best predicted by initial levels of FoF independent of intervening falls (&bgr; = 3.26, P < 0.001). ConclusionsFuture physical activity of women with multiple sclerosis was best predicted by FoF independent of physical and mental functioning. Increased FoF was associated with greater lower extremity strength asymmetry and decreased limits of stability rather than with the experience of falls.


Adenylyl cyclase molecules appear to shout their message to neighboring inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors. It's a bit like talking to your neighbor at a dinner party with a megaphone, but Tovey et al. report that stimulation of calcium release by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs) results from enormous amounts [1000 times greater than the amount in the cytoplasm that activates protein kinase A (PKA)] of the second messenger adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP) produced by adenylyl cyclase (AC) molecules closely apposed to the IP3R channel in cell membranes. The authors were forced to this unorthodox interpretation by results of their exploration of the mechanisms by which parathyroid hormone (PTH), which itself does not cause release of calcium, could enhance the effects of other hormones on release of calcium though IP3Rs. Only PTH analogs that activated AC potentiated calcium release. High concentrations of cAMP analogs were sufficient to reproduce the effects of PTH and were not additive with the effects of the hormone. Various methods used to inhibit the most common target of cAMP, PKA, showed that that enzyme was not required. Furthermore, inhibiting global concentrations of cAMP in the cell also did not affect the action of PTH on calcium release. The authors could only explain these seemingly contradictory experiments by proposing that AC and IP3Rs were operating in such close proximity that activation of the cyclase produced a massive all-or-none response of the channel that was resistant to modulation by agents that changed overall concentrations of cAMP in the cell. Immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed the prediction that IP3Rs and AC were associated in cells. Another prediction of the authors' model was that partial inhibition of AC in all complexes in the cell would be less effective than complete inhibition at a subset of the IP3R-AC complexes. Indeed, uniform inhibition of AC with pharmacological inhibitors did not inhibit calcium signaling, but depletion of AC6 with small interfering RNA (which inhibited cellular concentrations of cAMP to about the same extent, ~70%, as did the inhibitor) did reduce calcium release. The authors thus conclude that IP3R or a closely associated protein is a direct target of low-affinity binding by cAMP. Such signaling complexes would have on-off or switchlike properties and could allow graded responses by recruitment of more activated complexes rather than graded response at an individual complex. To add to the complexity, AC6 is inhibited by calcium. Thus, the authors note that localized concentrations of cAMP and calcium might oscillate as a result of feedback inhibition, as they can also do in whole cells. S. C. Tovey, S. G. Dedos, E. J. A. Taylor, J. E. Church, C. W. Taylor, Selective coupling of type 6 adenylyl cyclase with type 2 IP3 receptors mediates direct sensitization of IP3 receptors by cAMP. J. Cell Biol. 183, 297-311 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The dynamical integrity of nonlinear mechanical oscillators is analyzed in a systematic way extending a previous authors' work. The definition of the safe basin, which is a crucial point that entails choosing what is dynamically acceptable, is critically reviewed. Two different integrity measures are used to quantify the magnitude of the safe basin. When drawn as functions of a varying parameter, they give the so-called erosion profiles, which are the key tool for studying the variation of dynamical integrity. The main focus is on the practically most interesting cases in which the parameter is the excitation amplitude and the integrity reduces as it increases. With the aim of reducing erosion, namely of shifting the erosion profiles toward larger excitation amplitudes, a control method is then applied. It is based on eliminating the homo/heteroclinic bifurcation of the hilltop saddle, which is the triggering event for the considered erosions, by optimally choosing the shape of the periodic excitation. The erosion curves of four different mechanical oscillators, chosen with the aim of covering some main mechanical, dynamical and control features, are numerically constructed and systematically compared with each other. It is found that the control is always able to shift the erosion profiles, although to different extents. Furthermore, its effectiveness may extend above, sometimes well above, the theoretical predictions. Several supplementary specific issues of dynamics and control interest are discussed in detail.


Operational testing, which aims to generate sequences of test cases with the same statistical properties as those that would be experienced in real operational use, can be used to obtain quantitative measures of the reliability of software. In the case of safety critical software it is common to demand that all known faults are removed. This means that if there is a failure during the operational testing, the offending fault must be identified and removed. Thus an operational test for safety critical software takes the form of a specified number of test cases (or a specified period of working) that must be executed failure-free. This paper addresses the problem of specifying the numbers of test cases (or time periods) required for a test, when the previous test has terminated as a result of a failure. It has been proposed that, after the obligatory fix of the offending fault, the software should be treated as if it were completely novel, and be required to pass exactly the same test as originally specified. The reasoning here claims to be conservative, in as much as no credit is given for any previous failure-free operation prior to the failure that terminated the test. We show that, in fact, this is not a conservative approach in all cases, and propose instead some new Bayesian stopping rules. We show that the degree of conservatism in stopping rules depends upon the precise way in which the reliability requirement is expressed. We define a particular form of conservatism that seems desirable on intuitive grounds, and show that the stopping rules that exhibit this conservatism are also precisely the ones that seem preferable on other grounds.


This book explains in the purpose and concepts of Flexfields in the Oracle e-Business Suite. It is explained via step-by-step examples, with lots of screenshots. Most parts of Flexfields are not difficult, as long as you have good examples. And this book is packed with clear examples that you can easily copy for your purpose. The content is valid both for Oracle eBS R11i and R12.


Hydrogen peroxide is widely used as an industrial bleaching agent, particularly for the
bleaching of mechanical pulps. Under the alkaline conditions required for effective
bleaching a number of transition metal ions, including iron, copper and manganese,
catalytically decompose peroxide resulting in a loss in the concentration of active
bleaching reagent, with a subsequent reduction in the bleaching efficiency. In this
study the effects of transition metal ions on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide
have been studied, both in the presence and absence of pulp. The influence of various
additives, including sodium silicate and magnesium, on the rates of metal catalysed
peroxide decomposition have also been studied. The results of studies of the stability of alkaline hydrogen peroxide solutions in the
absence of pulp have demonstrated that the behaviour of transition metal ions towards
decomposition depends on the hydrolysis species of the metal present. Changes in the
rate of decomposition over the course of the reaction can be attributed to changes in the
catalytically active species present. The addition of a number of additives to peroxide
solutions containing added transition metal ions can also lead to changes in the
observed catalytic activity, either accelerating the rate of decomposition or stabilizing
the systems. In the presence of these additives a correlation was observed between the
catalytic activity of the transition metals and the formation of transition metal-additive
complexes, which could be monitored by UV-visible spectroscopy. This implies that a
direct interaction between the metal ions and additives is responsible for the observed
changes in the catalytic activity. It is proposed that the mechanism by which the
additives operate is by the formation mixed hydrolysis species with the transition metal
ions, with the resulting species having altered catalytic properties.
Studies of the effects of metal catalysed decomposition in the presence of pulp were conducted using a P. radiata TMP. The addition of the desired metal ions to prechelated
pulp enabled their catalytic activities to be determined individually. The
effects of sodium silicate and magnesium on the rates of metal catalysed decomposition
were also determined in the presence of pulp. Comparison of the behaviour of these
systems in the presence and absence of pulp reveals that the inclusion of pulp can have
a significant influence on the catalytic activities. These results demonstrate that it is not
possible to predict the peroxide decomposition behaviour during bleaching from
studies conducted in the absence of pulp.


This study explored the discourses of partnership between government and community organisations during the term of the fifth Labour-led Government (1999-2008). This government came to power with a policy of building partnerships with community organisations and others, presenting partnership as a rejection of the contractual models of the previous administration. I drew on Foucauldian notions of discourse and governmentality and Gramsci's theories of hegemony, together with poststructuralism and critical social theory for my theoretical and philosophical frameworks. Applying Fairclough's (1992) critical discourse analytic approach as a research methodology, I examined the historical, social and political contexts that frame the discourse of partnership, and analysed three sets of texts from the period under review. Two dominant partnership discourses emerged. The first was a community development discourse that can be traced to the 1970s, and which re-emerged in the 1990s as a resistance to the then dominant contractualist discourses of relationship between government and community organisations. The second was a modification of contractualism that drew from third-way discourses out of the United Kingdom, and in which government projects and programmes that involve community organisations were reframed as partnerships while retaining contractual mechanisms and ways of thinking. Drawing on governmentality theory, I suggested that the language of partnership may mask a process in which community organisations were co-opted to take on roles and responsibilities that are ultimately determined by, and in the interests of the government agenda. The research also identified characteristics of genuine partnerships between government and community organisations. Such partnerships were generally framed within a community development discourse and were more resistant to co-optation than partnerships that followed a contractualist approach. This research provides tools and strategies to enable both community organisations and government officials develop and maintain effective working relationships.


This presentation focussed on an innovative approach to developing peer mentoring programs. Drawing upon a 'student as partners' framework, the presentation explored how this has been used to underpin an approach to peer mentoring from the ground up. University peer mentoring programs are largely designed and developed by staff, who not only recruit and train student mentors but also select frequency and type of involvement for all parties. This pilot project proposes a different approach by collaborating with students in the design, development and enactment of a peer-mentoring program within one School of Education. From this pilot, we will develop guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of student-led peer mentoring programs (Students as Partners in Mentoring: SaPiM) across the University of Wollongong (UOW).


Bioethics increasingly relies on empirical research in order to resolve ethical issues. Bioethics has also, of late, begun reimagining the researcher-subject relationship to include new positive duties to subjects, such as providing ancillary care and offering to return research results. These trends have converged in the form of a growing stream of empirical studies of subjects' preferences about being offered research results. The legal and ethical question at the intersection of these trends is how we should factor these preferences into research design.This short article in the leading bioethics journal takes a middle position on this question in the context of a proposed longitudinal study of genes, environment and health, in which the National Human Genome Research Institute hopes to enroll a cohort of 500,000, primarily through door-to-door recruitment. A survey found that most respondents would want to be offered the return of their individual genetic results. I reject both (1) the claim that evidence that subjects want to be offered results entails a duty by researchers to do so, but also (2) the paternalistic position that most individual results should not be returned.I reach the first conclusion by arguing that the subject-researcher relationship in this case should be viewed as a sort of arms-length donative contract: an agreement under which the donor-subject agrees to make a gift to the donee-researcher, who arguably holds the gift in trust for society (especially given that the research is government-funded) and does not promise anything directly in return. A contract's terms need not, and rarely do, reflect the ideal preferences of either party, and researchers may make offers to potential research volunteers that reflect their own preferences, resource limitations, and conscientious beliefs about the wisdom of returning certain results. The acceptance of what often must be, for pragmatic reasons, a take-it-or-leave-it offer to volunteer is not invalidated, nor the ensuing research rendered unethical, because the volunteer's gift is not "repaid" in the form of research results or, indeed, in any form (though subjects must be told results will not be disclosed). Moreover, returning individual results in an ethical manner can be costly, and it would be odd (and perhaps not in keeping with subjects' overall preferences, which most surveys are not designed to elicit or construct) if researchers had a duty to subjects that undercut their ability to devote the maximum available resources to the research itself — the very end that should motivate the subjects to volunteer in the first place. Finally, even if we assume that subjects own or are otherwise entitled to their genetic information, surely such property can be alienated, or such entitlements waived, through the donative contract. A contract's terms, however, must not sink to the level of unconscionability.Empirical data can, however, inform researchers who admirably want, and are able, to honor subjects' preferences. Subjects have interests in receiving a much wider range of results than is often acknowledged, and most of the psychosocial risks they are said to face from disclosure remain speculative. Returning results may also help researchers recruit and retain subjects.


This paper focuses on the effects of several variables on the domestic box-office demand for the 189 widelyreleased movies of 2007. I will examine if there are factors that ultimately lead to movie success at the boxoffice or if there are factors that are believed to be important, but in all actuality have very little impact on revenues. Box-office receipts, however, are not the ultimate determinant of success in the industry. Some companies may use theaters as extended advertising medias and capitalize on the relatively cheap cost of producing DVDs and digital copies of films, but success typically has to occur in the theaters in order for other forms of the film to sell. Nevertheless, examining box-office revenue is the best way to determine the success of a film at this time because the information is readily available and movie theaters are still accepted as the major source of revenue for a particular movie. This article is available in The Park Place Economist: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/parkplace/vol18/iss1/15


Finding out the post secondary educational pursuits of the 1961 and 1962 Mitchell County high school graduates as well as their opinions concerning the nine areas of study of their high schools was the purpose of this study. A total of 265 graduates were considered in the sample with 203 opinionnaires being returned and considered useable. The data indicated Mitchell County to be an average county in most respects. The seven high schools in the study were considered typical of the high schools found in North Central and Northwest Kansas. These high schools included Beloit High School, Cawker City High School, Glen Elder High School, Hunter High School, St. John's (Beloit) High School, Simpson High School and St. Boniface (Tipton) High School. The general consensus of the educational authorities quoted in the review of selected literature was that education must prepare the individual for life as well as for making a living. They contended that a general educational mold for all students was not desirable--that fulfilling the needs of the individual was paramount in curriculum planning. The study revealed that a large number of the responding graduates, 132 (65.2%), continued their education following high school graduation. This included 88 (43.4%) who started to a four year college. However, only 80 (39.4%) of the original 132 completed their initial post secondary education program. After eight years only 59 respondents (29.1%) had completed at least a B.S. or B.A. degree in college. Of this number, 10 had achieved a M.S. or M.A. or higher degree. Three respondents had achieved the doctorate degree. The data indicated that parents were the chief influence in selecting the post secondary education pursuits of these responding 1961 and 1962 Mitchell County high school graduates. A majority of these graduates, 107 (52.7%), reported they had entered the field of employment for which they were originally educated. A large percent of these graduates (41.4%) were of the opinion that their high school education helped somewhat in preparing them for their trade or profession. Of particular note was the fact that 81.3% of the responding graduates were either satisfied or very satisfied with their present trade, profession or occupation. The data also pointed out that 37.5% of the respondents had held three or more full-time employment positions since graduating from high school. The outward migration of these students was evident by the fact that 65.5% of the responding students' present homes were over fifty miles from their home community high schools. Regarding the opinion of the 1961 and 1962 responding Mitchell County high school graduates concerning the nine areas of study as taught in their high schools, English Language Arts rated the highest, and was followed in order by Business Education, Physical Education and Health, Mathematics, Science, Practical Arts and Vocational Education, Fine Arts, Social Science and Foreign Language.


This work describes ProRad, a computer program that provides in a useful and functional way the tools, generic procedures and data necessary to support the on-scene controller, the radiological assessor and other members of a generic response organisation in case of a radiological emergency. It is based on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) technical document Generic Procedures for Assessment and Response during a Radiological Emergency (IAEA-TECDOC-1162). These procedures provide action criteria that are clear, concise and predetermined and based on present knowledge and accumulated experiences, allowing immediate decision making. The application software has been developed using Borland Delphi 6.0 (Object Pascal), a powerful programming tool for the development of computer software that allow the creation of applications on the Microsoft Windows platform. The aim is to provide, by means of a portable computer, practical guidance for emergency response that will enhance the basic assessment and response capability needed to protect the public and emergency workers in case of different types of radiological emergencies. In addition to appropriate protective action recommendations, it will also provide (when necessary) general guidance on the recovery of radioactive sources and initial cleanup operations. The philosophy is to keep the process simple and fast, yet effective. The software is available in Spanish, English and Portuguese.


The natural world and humanity through an interrelated series of appropriations are in critical condition, perhaps even approaching extinction and human beings are increasingly disconnected from the natural environment due to advancement of biotechnologies that engender new forms of existence (Braidotti, 2013). In order to respond to the profound transformation of this era, this inquiry draws on Wilson's (1984) notion of biophilia, which suggests there is an inherent connection between humans and the natural environment. The intention is to deepen understanding of, relationality through the lens of educational experience or currere (Pinar, 1975) thereby cultivating possibilities for a curriculum of ecological consciousness. This paper focuses on the inter-relationship of humans and nature and argues for a reconceptualization of the ways we live and educate. Through a narration of lived experiences the potential of re-humanizing curricula through encounters of our integrated bodies in nature is evoked.


In this paper we explore the network level architecture of distributed sensor systems that perform in-network processing. We propose a system with heterogeneous nodes that organizes into a hierarchical structure dictated by the computational capabilities. The presence of high-performance nodes amongst a sea of resource-constrained nodes exposes new tradeoffs for the efficient implementation of network-wide applications. Our experiments show that even for a low relative density of resource-constrained nodes to high-performance nodes there are certain gains in performance for a heterogeneous and hierarchical network over a homogeneous one. The introduction of hierarchy enables partitioning of the application into sub-tasks that can be mapped onto the heterogeneous nodes in the network in multiple ways. We analyze the tradeoffs between the execution time of the application, accuracy of the output produced and the overall energy consumption of the network for the different mapping of the sub-tasks onto the heterogeneous nodes. We evaluate the performance and energy consumption of a typical sensor network application of target tracking via beamforming and line of bearing (LOB) calculations on the different nodes. Our experiments also include the study of the overall performance and energy consumption of the LOB calculation using two different types of resource constrained sensor nodes (MICA and MICA2 nodes) and show how these metrics are affected by changes in the node architecture and operation. Our results indicate that when using MICA motes as resource-constrained nodes, 85% of the time on average the hierarchical network outperforms a homogeneous network for approximately the same energy budget. When using MICA2 motes as resource-constrained nodes, 54% of the time the hierarchical network performs better than a homogeneous network with approximately the same energy budget.


Traditional hydrograph separation techniques split an observed storm hydrograph into two main components representing 'storm runoff' and 'baseflow'. In this paper a new separation technique is described which makes an initial split into two main components, quickflow and slowflow, which are each then subsequently split into two further subcomponents. The resulting procedure is termed the 'four component hydrograph separation technique'. Various ways of recombining these four subcomponents to build up a curve that represents the observed storm hydrograph are possible, of which two ways are examined in further detail. If it is assumed that the four component separation technique provides a promising representation of an observed storm hydrograph, these two ways allow theoretical and practical insights to be gained into four existing hydrograph separation techniques. A conclusion, common to all four, is that much more care is required in naming the flow lines separating out each of the suggested subcomponents making up the observed storm hydrograph. This paper also emphasises the key role played by the slowflow storm runoff subcomponent, which has not been given sufficient prominence in existing event-based models in the past. A procedure for estimating each of the four subcomponents is illustrated for an observed event.


Objectives
Newborn size, including length, has been associated with later growth. Preconception nutrition supplementation in Women First (WF) trial (clinicaltrials.gov NCT01883193) was associated with higher newborn length and lower rates of stunting. The objective was to examine postnatal growth outcomes through 6 mo in the WF offspring.

Methods
Subjects were 2450 infants from the WF sites in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guatemala, India, and Pakistan with the 3 WF arms maintained: Arm 1 started a lipid-based nutrition supplement ≥ 3 mo prior to conception; Arm 2 started same supplement at ∼11 wk gestation; and Arm 3 received no trial supplements. Maternal supplementation was discontinued at delivery. Anthropometric measurements were obtained at birth, 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 mo; Z-scores were calculated from WHO Child Growth Standards. Primary and secondary outcomes were analyzed using longitudinal generalized estimating equations accounting for the correlation of repeated measures over time and study cluster. Intervention effects were evaluated within each site as well as overall, adjusting for site and baseline maternal covariates that differed by arm. Statistical interaction between arm and infant sex was evaluated and included if significant.

Results
Longitudinal growth (length and weight) curves from 0-6 mo demonstrated differences by intervention arm, with Arms 1 and 2 more favorable compared to Arm 3 (Table + LAZ in Figure). Relative risks (RR) for stunting were significantly lower for Arms 1 and 2 (vs. Arm 3) (Table). Site-specific analyses revealed some site differences warranting further exploration.

Conclusions
Without any postnatal intervention, differences in fetal growth evident at birth persisted at 6 months.

Funding Sources
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; NIH, NICHD & ODS.

Supporting Tables Images and/or Graphs


Why is it so hard to break out of cycles of violence? This paper focuses on the challenges associated with breaking out of cycles of violence and why futures thinking may provide a potential solution. Research suggests that people living in violence lack the ability to think about a peaceful future, or any future for that matter. Addressing this inability may hold a critical key to breaking out of cycles of violence. While there is mounting theory to support this idea, evidence based research is still lacking.


The abundance and spatial occupation of European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus have in- creased in the North Sea since the mid-1990s. We use a cross-disciplinary approach combining genetics, transport modelling, survey time series analyses and physical oceanographic modelling to investigate 3 hypotheses on the reasons for this change. Evidence from connectivity studies suggests that the population of North Sea anchovy is separate from that in the Bay of Biscay. The recruitment pulses observed in survey data fit a life cycle which includes spawning in early summer and larval development in late summer. This also supports the concept of population expansion originating from local remnant population(s). In terms of growth physiology, suitable thermal windows have expanded, making conditions more favourable for life cycle closure and population persistence/productivity. In addition to the increased frequency of warm sum- mers, which favour larvae and juvenile growth, the decrease in the number of severe winters is also likely to improve overwinter survival. Overall, the evidence supports the hypothesis that the increase in anchovy abundance originated from the improved productivity of existing populations. This increase was associated with an expansion in thermal habitats and is probably not due to a northward shift in the distribution of southern conspecifics.


A largely unexplored big data application in urban contexts is how cultural ties affect human mobility patterns. This article explores China's intercity human mobility patterns from social media data to contribute to our understanding of this question. Exposure to human mobility patterns is measured by big data computational strategy for identifying hundreds of millions of individuals' space–time footprint trajectories. Linguistic data are coded as a proxy for cultural ties from a unique geographically coded atlas of dialect distributions. We find that cultural ties are associated with human mobility flows between city pairs, contingent on commuting costs and geographical distances. Such effects are not distributed evenly over time and space, however. These findings present useful insights in support of the cultural mechanism that can account for the rise, decline, and dynamics of human mobility between regions.


This study aimed to validate a Religious Collective Self-Esteem Scale (RCSES) that assesses children's evaluations and judgments about their belonging to a religious group. The RCSES includes 3 subscales: Private Religious Self-Esteem (PrRSE), Public Religious Self-Esteem (PuRSE), and Importance to Religious Identity (RI). Data were gathered from students in 39 primary schools (9 Reformed Protestant, 9 Islamic, 3 Hindu and 18 public schools) across five regions in the Netherlands. Students were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire containing measures of variables of interest. Subjects were 1,437 6th graders (Mage = 11.72, SD = 0.61; 51.7% girls. 680 Students identified themselves as Muslim (47.3%), 442 (30.8%) as Christian, 278 (19.3%) as Hindu, and 37 (2.6%) children had another religion. Results indicated sufficient internal consistency of RCSES (α = .80), PrRSE (α = .77), PuRSE (α = .73), and RI (α = .60), moderate to high correlations between the subscales and moderate to large test–retest reliability across 1 year (r = .57). Three-factor model fitted the best. Overall, findings support partial measurement and structural invariance across religious groups. Convergent validity was supported by small to moderate correlations with other scales (Individual Self-Esteem Scale, r = .29; Private Ethnic Self-Esteem Scale (PESES), r = .40). Divergent validity was supported by positive small significant correlations with school well-being (r = .18) and social school motivation (r = .19). RCSES and its subscales significantly predicted, over and above PESES, school well-being and school motivation scores. Findings support the reliability and validity of the RCSES for assessing religious collective self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)


Dialogue systems such as chatbots and smart speakers are becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives. In order to achieve high user experience, it is important for dialogue agents to have attractive personality which enables friendly and human-like conversations. However, in most present cases, development of such dialogue systems involves handcrafting of dialogue scenarios, and introducing the characteristics representative of certain personality to system utterances requires large time and human resources. This paper proposes a technique to automatically transform the characteristics of a sentence using variational auto-encoder and attention mechanism.


Background: The term oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD) was recommended to refer to precancer as it conveys that not all disorders described under this term may transform into cancer. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) arises through an accumulation of genetic alterations, deoxy ribonucleic acid (DNA) changes, and epigenetic alterations. Thus, a simple yet a sensitive and specific test for early diagnosis is the need of an hour. The micronuclei (MN) assay in exfoliated epithelial cells is potentially an excellent biomarker to detect chromosome loss or malfunction of mitotic spindle. Aim of the Study: To compare the frequency of MN in exfoliated cells from oral mucosa exposed to genotoxic agents using different staining procedures and to observe the incidence of micronucleus in potentially malignant and malignant lesions. Materials and Methods: The study was undertaken to observe the cytogenetic damage in the exfoliated buccal cells of 75 cases of tobacco-related PMDs, OSCC and control subjects (25 cases from each group) and were evaluated with nonspecific May-Grünwald Giemsa stain and DNA-specific Feulgen stain. The results were statistically determined using SPSS version 17.0. Results: Correlation analyses in the present study depicted that MN frequency was significantly more in oral squamous cell carcinoma than OPMDs and normal group (P < 0.05). Giemsa-stained slides correlated significantly with karyorrhexis, karyolysis, condensed chromatin, and binucleates, whereas no such correlations were found with DNA-specific stains. Conclusion: Malignant transformation is accompanied by loss of cell capacity to evolve to death in situations of DNA damage. These findings indicate that nuclear anomalies may be misinterpreted as MN with nonspecific DNA stains and lead to false-positive results in studies with cells of epithelial origin.


Word alignment is a fundamental and crucial component in Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) systems. Despite the enormous progress made in the past two decades, this task remains an active research topic simply because the quality of word alignment is still far from optimal. Most state-of-the-art word alignment models are grounded on statistical learning theory treating word alignment as a general sequence alignment problem, where many linguistically motivated insights are not incorporated. In this thesis, we propose new word alignment models with linguistically motivated constraints in a bid to improve the quality of word alignment for Phrase-Based SMT systems (PB-SMT). We start the exploration with an investigation
into segmentation constraints for word alignment by proposing a novel algorithm, namely word packing, which is motivated by the fact that one concept expressed by one word in one language can frequently surface as a compound or
collocation in another language. Our algorithm takes advantage of the interaction between segmentation and alignment, starting with some segmentation for both the
source and target language and updating the segmentation with respect to the word alignment results using state-of-the-art word alignment models; thereafter a refined
word alignment can be obtained based on the updated segmentation. In this process, the updated segmentation acts as a hard constraint on the word alignment
models and reduces the complexity of the alignment models by generating more 1-to-1 correspondences through word packing. Experimental results show that this algorithm can lead to statistically significant improvements over the state-of-the-art word alignment models. Given that word packing imposes "hard" segmentation constraints on the word aligner, which is prone to introducing noise, we propose two
new word alignment models using syntactic dependencies as soft constraints. The first model is a syntactically enhanced discriminative word alignment model, where
we use a set of feature functions to express the syntactic dependency information encoded in both source and target languages. One the one hand, this model enjoys
great flexibility in its capacity to incorporate multiple features; on the other hand, this model is designed to facilitate model tuning for different objective functions.
Experimental results show that using syntactic constraints can improve the performance of the discriminative word alignment model, which also leads to better PB-SMT performance compared to using state-of-the-art word alignment models.
The second model is a syntactically constrained generative word alignment model, where we add in a syntactic coherence model over the target phrases in the context of HMM word-to-phrase alignment. The advantages of our model are that (i) the addition of the syntactic coherence model preserves the efficient parameter estimation procedures; and (ii) the flexibility of the model can be increased so that it can
be tuned according to different objective functions. Experimental results show that tuning this model properly leads to a significant gain in MT performance over the
state-of-the-art.


The dissertation deals with the impact of high-quality information on performance in manufacturing. In a system where two material flows with sequence dependency are matched, the use of real-time information to monitor and control the sequencing buffer improves the system's ability to schedule many different models, compared with a system with no information at all. In the latter case, the system is upset considerably when more than four different models enter the system. The use of automatic data capture systems enhances productivity in manufacturing companies. Six case studies were carried out, all of which showed that the productivity improvements obtained by these systems are mainly in the area of human resource utilisation which was found in all six case studies. Improvements in machine utilisation, transporter utilisation and inventory levels were also found. The productivity can furthermore be improved if the installed system acts as a proactive system, giving information on the operational level about deviations and changed customer demands. Out of 31 registered disturbances, 15 resulted in a productivity loss because scheduling information was not available. A system providing scheduling information makes it possible for the scheduler to change a dispatch list or final assembly schedule in such a way that a less important job can be run ahead of a delayed important job, only to release capacity when the delayed job arrives. These kinds of systems mainly enhance productivity in an environment with shared resources. The impact of providing the scheduler with real-time information of high quality is investigated. It is shown that this enables him to reschedule the work force when stochastic events such as disturbances of different kinds affect the scheduling environment. It is also shown that the performance of the scheduled system improves a/ in direct relation to the number of work stations being scheduled and b/ with the reduction in lapse between the detection of a deviation and corrective action. Measures taken to prevent the propagation of disturbances can be classified as formal measures and informal actions. Formal measures are such measures which are defined in a computer system, and informal actions are such that are executed manually. None of the measures identified in this study were efficient when a holistic evaluation was made. This evaluation describes the ability of the measure to absorb disturbance effects, its cost and the degree to which it upsets the system. Some measures were, however, better than others. Partial delivery is a suitable action when materials shortages occur, subcontracting when machines break down, and moving over personnel when absenteeism occurs. When an ADCS is used, two types of effect can be experienced; direct effects and indirect effects. The direct effects are the result of the data capture process as such being enhanced, i.e. less effort is needed to capture data and to trace and correct faulty data, and the indirect effects are the effects experienced when timely and accurate data is fed into the data base from which a number of functions retrieve the data. The direct effects are normally easy to define. They affect the number of staff involved in data capture and handling, and in some cases safety stock levels. Indirect effects are more difficult to isolate. A general model showing the manufacturing process and the different ADCSs which can be found within each activity was developed. Indirect effects experienced as a result of enhanced decision-making when an ADCS is installed were; increased sales, decreased costs and decreased inventory investments. Both direct and indirect effects enhance the effectiveness of a company. It is shown how the use of a serial information flow respectively a parallel information flow with different time delays affects the performance of a system when expediting is carried out. The results indicate that a parallel information flow, i.e. information to the succeeding activities being given in advance, performs best if the information quality is high, i.e. the time delay is close to zero. When the time delay increases there is a threshold when the serial information flow performs better than the parallel information flow with poor information quality. The performance of the parallel system decreases with poor information quality. The same result is obtained with respect to the output, i.e. the output decreases with poor information quality.


Klebsiella pneumoniae is a nitrogen fixing bacteria which is prevalent with pulmonary infection. Creatine is naturally produced in human body which is metabolic waste .When nitrogen content is more in the body this leads to more amino acid synthesis finally increase the level of creatinine. We selected 27 patients who were suffering from K. pneumoniae infection in the lungs as case group and 27 patients who were suffering from Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in the lungs as control group. There was no evidence of factors which raised serum creatinine levels in these selected patients. Serum creatinine levels were estimated on the days of receiving clinical samples ( sputum/ broncho alveolar lavage fluid endotracheal aspirate) which gave positive cultures of the above mentioned microorganisms were accepted for further analysis and patients were also selected accordingly. The mean serum creatinine level of K. pneumoniae infected group was found tobe 1.176 mg/dL while creatinine level of P. aeruginosa infected group was 1.062 mg/dL. The difference between two mean values of Serum creatinine levels in the two groups was found to be highly significant at 0.001 level. Thus it may be concluded that nitrogen fixation indirectly occurs in human body with K. pneumoniae infection. KEYWORDS: Nitrogen fixation; Creatinine; Klebsiella pneumoniae


Abstract The prevalence of diabetes has increased in adolescents. Diabetic adolescents need ongoing support from their families, and the family plays an important role in the management of the disorder. This study aimed to identify the relationship between family support and resilience in adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM). Quantitative data analysis was conducted using simple logistic regression. Meanwhile, qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The results show that the median duration of a T1DM diagnosis was 4 years, which was dominated by early adolescents in the study group (41.9%); the mean resilience score was 67.95 (range 0–100) with 53.5% of the participants had low resilience, and 55.8% of the respondents received a high level of family support. Logistic regression test results indicate that significant family support is associated with resilience.


We present the first session typing system guaranteeing response liveness properties for possibly non-terminating communicating processes. The types augment the branch and select types of the standard binary session types with a set of required responses, indicating that whenever a particular label is selected, a set of other labels, its responses, must eventually also be selected. We prove that these extended types are strictly more expressive than standard session types. We provide a type system for a process calculus similar to a subset of collaborative BPMN processes with internal (data-based) and external (event-based) branching, message passing, bounded and unbounded looping. We prove that this type system is sound, i.e., it guarantees request-response liveness for dead-lock free processes. We exemplify the use of the calculus and type system on a concrete example of an infinite state system.


Today, inaccurate diagnosis, medication errors, inappropriate or unnecessary treatment, inadequate or unsafe clinical facilities or practices, or providers who lack adequate training and expertise prevail in all countries. The situation is worst in low and middle-income countries where 10 percent of hospitalized patients can expect to acquire an infection during their stay, as compared to seven percent in high income countries. This is despite hospital acquired infections being easily avoided through better hygiene, improved infection control practices and appropriate use of antimicrobials.. At the same time, one in ten patients is harmed during medical treatment in high income countries.


Background: Medicinal plants have immense potential since ancient time based on error and trial method. Agave americana has been known since antiquity, as century plant or American aloe. The leaves contain steroidal saponins, isoflavones and coumarins. It has long been used on the wound. Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the wound healing activity of the extract of Agave americana. Materials and Methods: Agave americana leaves extract is collected and the extract is done by percolation method. The wound is induced in experimental animals by excision and incision method under ketamine. The extract of Agave americana and standard, Soframycin is applied on the wound. The wound closure was measured at regular intervals of time to see the percentage of wound closure; epithelialization time and tensile strength are monitored to see the effect of the extract and its comparison with the standard. Results: The extract of Agave americana showed improved in wound healing from Day 4 onward as compared with control in excision method. The rate of epithelialization for 10% HEAA is almost comparable to standard, Soframycin ointment. In incision method, mice treated with 10% ointment of Agave americana leaf extract showed significant (p<0.05) increase in tensile strength as compared with control. Conclusion: Wound healing activity of hydroalcoholic extract of Agave americana is seen in graded dose. The plant contains flavonoids, tetratriacontanol and homoisoflavanoids which due to its anti-oxidant and antibacterial activities help in wound healing. The plant also contains genins which help in reducing the inflammatory process. Thus Agave americana leaves need to be used in higher doses to have a better understanding of the mechanism of wound healing.


The present dissertation collects the results of three different research trials which have the common aim to understand the effects of swine welfare (both at farm level and during transport) on the main fresh and dry-cured meat characteristics.
The first trial was carried out in order to compare the effects of illumination regimes differing in light duration or light intensity on meat and ham quality of Italian heavy pigs. The results of this trial support the conclusion that, within a moderate range of light intensity and given an appropriate dark period for animal rest, an increase of light duration or intensity above the minimum mandatory levels has no negative impact on carcass composition, meat or long-cured hams quality.
The second trial was designed with the aim to investigate the effects of water restriction on growth traits, animal welfare and meat and ham quality of liquid-fed heavy pigs. Overall, the parameters analyzed as concerns growth rate, behavioural traits, blood, as well as carcass, fresh meat and cured hams quality were not affected by the absence of fresh drinking water. However, since liquid feeding did not suppress drinker use or drinker manipulation in the experimental groups, water restriction does not appear to be an applicable method to obtain a reduction of water waste.
The third trial, which was carried out in Canada, tested the effectiveness of water sprinkling market-weight pigs (115±10Kg BW) before and after transport in reducing the heat stress experienced under commercial transport conditions. Our results show that the water sprinkling protocol proposed may reduce heat stress during transport and improve pork quality, particularly in specific trailer compartments.
This body of research supports the general conclusion that swine welfare could be improved in different scenarios through simple and cost-effective means, without negatively affecting the quality of the main animal-derived products.


The Dodd-Frank Act, enacted after the global financial crisis, requires U.S. financial regulators to define and regulate systemically risky firms and activities — a truly Sisyphean task. In this Essay, we identify two paths regulators have taken: a "descriptive approach," which involves restating the Congressional mandate as regulatory text and creating a qualitative, bespoke process for the identification of systemic risks; and a "prescriptive approach," which involves adopting detailed, specific, and data-driven rules that clearly delineate firms or activities that do, or do not, pose systemic risk. Each of these approaches has benefits and drawbacks — most notably the tradeoff between ex ante certainty of application (prescriptive approach) and flexibility (descriptive approach). We then describe a third approach — implemented in the Volcker Rule — of layering a broad descriptive prohibition onto a set of detailed, prescriptive rules. This middle, "backstop" approach is a tempting way for regulators to capture the benefits of both the descriptive and prescriptive approaches. However, we argue, in practice the backstop approach accentuates the drawbacks of each of the descriptive and prescriptive approaches, rather than their benefits, resulting in ex ante uncertainty while tying the hands of regulators. We therefore suggest that regulators avoid the temptation of the backstop approach when seeking to identify systemically risky firms or activities, but we also provide suggestions for minimizing these adverse outcomes should regulators nonetheless choose this approach.


The leather is cut by hand or by hand with some help of semiautomatic machine in general leather cutting technology. In order to enhance the cutting efficiency and quality, the machine tool to realize high speed automatic leather cutting was developed. The final goal of the design is to cut a piece of hide on a working table with cutting velocity 2 meters per second, the dimension of the machine tool is big. It is very difficult to design the frame of this machine tool to meet the performance index for high speed cutting, so the static and dynamic force analysis to the body of it was implemented. First, the digital model of the body of it was built with AutoCAD software, then, the digital model in IGES format was transmitted to the Ansys software and the finite element analysis to it were carried out. Because the static force and vibration from driving system have great influence on the deformation of this machine tool and this deformation will affect the cutting precision and the whole performance of it. So the static force analysis and modal analysis were carried out. Finally, the results of finite element analysis were discussed, corresponding modification to the design was proposed. The analysis results indicate the mechanical property of the body of the developed machine can meet the requirements for high speed cutting.


Forecasting of river discharge is crucial in hydrology and hydraulic engineering owing to its use in the design and management of water resource projects. The problem is customarily settled with data-driven models. In this research, a novel hybrid model which combines continuity equation and fuzzy pattern-recognition concept with artificial neural network (ANN), is presented for downstream river discharge forecasting in a river network. Time-varying water storage in a river station and fuzzy feature of river flow are considered accordingly. To verify the proposed model, traditional ANN model, fuzzy pattern-recognition neural network model, and hydrological modeling network model have been employed as the benchmark models. The root mean squared error, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient and accuracy are adopted as evaluation criteria. The proposed hybrid model is applied to compute downstream river discharge in the Yellow River, Georgia, USA. Results indicate that the proposed hybrid model delivers better performance, which can effectively improve forecasting capability at the studied station. It is, therefore, proposed as a novel model for downstream river discharge forecasting because of its highly nonlinear, fuzzy and non-stationary properties.


Demands for rotorcraft with increased flight speed, improved operational performance and reduced environmental impact have led to a drive in research and development of alternative concepts. Compound rotorcraft overcome the flight speed limitations of conventional helicopters with additional lifting and propulsive components. Further to operational benefits, these augmentations provide additional flight control parameters, resulting in control redundancy. This work aims to investigate the impact of optimal control strategies for a generic coaxial compound rotorcraft, equipped with turboshaft engines, targeting the minimization of mission fuel burn and gaseous emissions. The direct redundant controls considered are: (a) main rotor speed, (b) propeller speed, and (c) fuselage pitch attitude. A simulation tool for coaxial compound rotorcraft analysis has been developed and coupled to a zero-dimensional engine performance model and a stirred-reactor combustor model. First, experimental and flight test data were used to provide extensive validation of the developed models. A parametric analysis was then carried out to gain insight into the effect of the redundant controls. This was followed by the derivation of a generalized set of optimal redundant control allocations using a surrogate-assisted genetic algorithm. Application of the optimal redundant control allocations during realistic operational scenarios has demonstrated reductions in fuel burn and NOx of up to 6.93% and 8.74%, respectively. The developed method constitutes a rigorous approach to guide the design of control systems for future advanced rotorcraft.


Background: Anthocyanins are produced by plants in response to diverse stresses. Mutants that block the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway (ABP) at various steps can easily be compared across numerous abiotic stresses. Hypothesis: Anthocyanins or their precursors are required for stress tolerance. Thus, ABP loss-of-function mutants should have proportionately lower fitness than wildtype plants under stress, compared with benign conditions. In contrast, a decrease in maximal vigour – the general capacity for growth and fecundity – should be most pronounced under benign conditions that allow luxuriant growth by the most vigorous genotypes. Tests: Determine whether, under stressful conditions, ABP loss-of-function mutants have relatively lower fitness than wildtype plants. Also, test for reduced maximal vigour by determining whether ABP mutants have comparatively decreased fitness under optimal ('benign') growing conditions. Organism: Arabidopsis thaliana loss-of-function mutants (representing all steps in the ABP), as well as wildtype plants, in two genetic backgrounds. Methods: We grew plants under near-optimal conditions and five stress treatments (UV-B, drought, cold, low Ca :Mg, high Ni). We estimated relative fitness as an individual's lifetime fertility, relative to the mean wildtype fertility in a given treatment. Results: Stress treatments significantly reduced lifetime fertility of wildtype and mutant lines. Wildtypes outperformed anthocyanin-deficient mutants under benign conditions, but as the stress increased, the difference between wildtype and mutant fitness diminished. Fitness did not increase with a mutation's sequential position in the ABP, nor was there an effect of the ability to produce flavonols on fertility. Conclusions: Mutations in the ABP did not reduce stress tolerance. Rather, the loss of ABP function reduced maximal vigour, most evidently in near-optimal growth conditions.


In recent years, there has been a growing interest in piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) as an alternative to conventional transducers for ultrasound imaging. These transducers offer many advantages in terms of cost, size, and efficiency. This is a summary of two recent publications in the field.


This interim report is part of the National Assessment of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Housing Needs, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The project's overarching purpose is to document the housing needs and conditions of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs) and Native Hawaiians. As a component of this broader project, this specific report examines trends in the circumstances (social, economic, and housing) of the AIAN population using secondary sources, predominantly the products of the U.S. Census Bureau. The final report of this study will merge rich field research data with the findings presented here. Though this report only offers a partial picture, it contains new information about how Native Americans are faring in the Nation today. The housing needs and conditions of Native Hawaiians will be described in a separate report.


This comprehensive retrospective of Sophie Calle not only celebrates the breadth of her iconoclastic work but also leads to a deeper understanding of her unique artistic vision. The work of conceptual artist Sophie Calle embraces numerous media: photography, storytelling, film, and memoir, to name a few. Often controversial, Calle's projects explore issues of voyeurism, intimacy, and identity as she secretly investigates, reconstructs and documents the lives of strangers - whether she is inviting them to sleep in her bed, trailing them through a hotel, or following them through the city. Taking on multiple roles - detective, documentarian, behavioral scientist and diarist - Calle turns the interplay between life and art on its head. The book presents Calle's best-known works, including "The Blind", "No Sex Last Night", "The Hotel", "The Address Book" and "A Woman Vanishes", as well as lesser known and earlier projects that have largely escaped the public eye. The book also includes diary excerpts and video stills, along with three critical essays, a revealing interview with the artist and a dialogue with fellow artist Damien Hirst.


The North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) connects tropical and high‐latitude waters, playing a leading role in deep‐water formation, propagation of Atlantic water into the Arctic, and as habitat for many ecosystems. Instrumental records spanning recent decades document significant decadal variability in SPG circulation, with associated hydrographic and ecological changes. Emerging longer‐term records provide circumstantial evidence that the North Atlantic also experienced centennial trends during the 20th century. Here, we use marine sediment records to show that there has been a long‐term change in SPG circulation during the industrial era, largely during the 20th century. Moreover, we show that the shift and late 20th century SPG configuration were unprecedented in the last 10,000 years. Recent SPG dynamics resulted in an expansion of subtropical ecosystems into new habitats and likely also altered the transport of heat to high latitudes.


Consensus forecasts are inefficient, over-weighting older information already in the public domain at the expense of new private information, when individual forecasters have different information sets. Using a cross-country panel of growth forecasts and new methodological insights, this paper finds that: consensus forecasts are inefficient as predicted; this is not due to individual forecaster irrationality; forecasters appear unaware of this inefficiency; and a simple adjustment reduces forecast errors by 5 percent. Similar results are found using US nominal GDP forecasts. The paper also discusses the result's implications for users of forecaster surveys and for the literature on information aggregation.


For someone unfamiliar with contemporary discourses within the building sciences, the theme of this Atlantis issue would appear to be something of an oxymoron. The term 'urban' surely infers the spatial, organizational, political, social and cultural characteristics of city, a very different notion than the rural or natural environments inferred to by the term 'landscape'. This paradox is not necessarily restricted to outsiders: within the faculties of the building sciences 'urban' and 'landscape' are separate and distinct disciplinary traditions. Both fields of enquiry arise from – and are connected to – independent arenas of theory and praxis. The traditional pursuits of these two fields however – the understanding, ordering and design of cities and landscapes - are becoming more and more urgent as time goes on and as such, their legitimacy as independent disciplines is unquestioned. The linguistic union of the two terms therefore, has nothing to do with disciplinary deterioration which commonly herald these kinds of mutations, and everything to do with the pursuit of knowledge and tools to understand and act in the increasing elusive contemporary city – of which more later.


We read different kind of texts every day. We can for example choose to read a book or to watch a film. While we read we can receive and interpret texts. That's means, for example, that we can have different envisionments about the drama and the film based on it. Based on Langer's reception theory about "envisionments", I've wanted to examine and clarify the differences and similarities of envisionments between two texts. I have mainly examined and focused on Romeo and Juliet as drama and film. My study is comparative and qualitative. The background for my examination is found in "a broader concept of text" as described in School Curriculum – Swedish for upper secondary school, and the research of Olin – Scheller and Johansson. According to the conclusions in my study we can have varying conceptions of different texts as readers. The result of my study has shown that the interpretation and our envisionments could be different and depends on how the text is narrated. Envisionments in a drama text depend on the images we create without ourselves while reading the text. The drama can also be seen on a theatre and then can our envisionments depend on how it is presented by the theatre actors. In the film text our envisionments depends on the visualisation, sound and sound effects, colours and perspective of camera etc


We present new deep Chandra observations of the Centaurus A jet, with a combined on-source exposure time of 719 ks. These data allow detailed X-ray spectral measurements to be made along the jet out to its disappearance at 4.5 kpc from the nucleus. We distinguish several regimes of high-energy particle acceleration; while the inner part of the jet is dominated by knots and has properties consistent with local particle acceleration at shocks, the particle acceleration in the outer 3.4 kpc of the jet is likely to be dominated by an unknown distributed acceleration mechanism. In addition to several compact counterjet features, we detect probable extended emission from a counterjet out to 2.0 kpc from the nucleus and argue that this implies that the diffuse acceleration process operates in the counterjet as well. A preliminary search for X-ray variability finds no jet knots with dramatic flux density variations, unlike the situation seen in M87.