Antitropical distribution is a biogeographical pattern characterized by natural occurrences of the same species or members of the same clade in the middle‐ or middle‐to‐high‐latitudinal habitats of both hemispheres, either on land or in marine environments, without appearing in the intervening tropical environments. For most of the noted examples of Permian antitropical distribution, particularly in marine invertebrates, the causes of disjunctions have been mainly linked to either dispersal or vicariance models. Little attention has been paid to other possible mechanisms. This study investigated the antitropicality of some Permian neospiriferine brachiopods through detailed taxonomic revision, comparison of palaeobiogeographical distribution, and a phylogenetic analysis. Several species, previously assigned to Kaninospirifer, are here reassigned to other genera, especially to Fasciculatia in the northern hemisphere and to Quadrospira in the southern hemisphere during the Permian. Both Kaninospirifer and Fasciculatia appear to have been restricted to north‐western Pangea and north‐eastern Asia during the Permian, but there is no robust evidence to suggest their presence in the southern hemisphere to which Imperiospira and Quadrospira were confined. In spite of the distributional separation between the two pairs of neospiriferine genera in the Permian palaeobiogeographical regime, they share considerable numbers of morphological characters, such as a large shell, subdued fasciculation, and reduction of ventral adminicula. Notwithstanding these morphological similarities, our phylogenetic reconstruction of the neospiriferines does not support a close relationship between these genera. This therefore must indicate that these similar morphological features were independently acquired, probably with these taxa living in spatially separate but ecologically compatible environmental conditions in the mid‐latitudinal area of each hemisphere during the Permian. We regard this as an example of convergent evolution.


Systemic discrimination against minority groups in the United States' justice system has been unremitting, abetted by a veil of rhetoric that demands a closer look at the stark social and historical realities that produced it. State anti-miscegenation laws were the product of entrenched beliefs born of white supremacist notions. Such legislation endured because the Constitution of the United States left the regulation of marriage under the jurisdiction of individual states. In this muddled scenario, state laws differed substantially concerning the severity of the punishment for interracial couples. In the present article, I review some cases and questions that predated the Supreme Court ruling on this matter (1967), discuss the rationale for the creation of anti-miscegenation legislation along with the effects of antimiscegenation laws on the couples, and suggest new approaches in the struggle against racism. Herein, I propose to analyze just how these state anti-miscegenation laws contributed to the social exclusion of minority groups, how their design furthered the preservation of the "purity and superiority" of whites, and how they ultimately guaranteed the whites' privileged access to financial matters.


The object of the study is to reduce the daily load peaks on an insular electric network (Corsica Island, France) using with help to renewable energy systems. The methodology is based on an energy balance between a PV array, an electrolyzer and fuel cells (50 kW) supplying a seasonal load profile built from electrical network load peaks. This load is supplied firstly by the PV array and the fuel cell produces complementary power when the PV system is deficient. An electrolyzer, using unconsumed PV energy produces hydrogen for the fuel cell. In the present work, at the beginning of the operation, the hydrogen stock is sufficient to satisfy a given number of days corresponding to the system autonomy (Loss of Load probability = 0). Solar and ambient temperature data were measured at our laboratory weather station in Ajaccio (41°55' N, 8°48' E, 70 m altitude). Hourly data are available for the years 1998 to 2004. The originality of this approach was to determine a whole methodology allowing obtaining quickly sizing curves for a PV/H2 hybrid system supplying a given load (remote sites and/or grid connection).


&NA; Frostbite injuries have traditionally been treated with expectant observation. With the exception of early blister aspiration tissues are allowed to demarcate before definitive debridement is accomplished. Triple‐phase bone scanning has been used to define the extent of fatally damaged tissues in an attempt to allow for early debridement and wound closure. We suggest extending this technology to assess injury and direct debridement in patients for whom early aggressive salvage attempts are indicated. We present two cases in which triple‐phase scanning was used to direct early debridement for aggressive limb salvage with flap reconstruction. Bone, ligament, tendon, and nerve were preserved and covered with vascularized tissue before the onset of frank necrosis. Postoperative scans reveal revascularization of these tissues. An algorithm incorporating triple‐phase scanning for the evaluation and treatment of frostbite is presented. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 102: 1069, 1998.)


Background Advising students on the transition from high school to college is a central part of school counselors' professional responsibility. The American School Counselor Association recommends a school counselor caseload of 250 students; however, prior work yields inconclusive evidence on the relationship between school counseling and school-level counseling resources and students' college trajectories. Focus of Study This study evaluates the relationship between access to school counselors and several critical indicators of student transitions between high school and college. Research Design The study utilizes the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to explore the relationships between the school counselor caseload and students' progress throughout the high school-to-college pipeline. The key indicator is the counselor caseload for students at a given high school, measured as the number of 10th graders per counselor at the high school at which each student is enrolled. The outcome variables are students' college expectations, whether students spoke with a counselor about college, taking the SAT, and college enrollment. Logistic and multinomial logistic regression analyses are applied to examine the relationships between these variables. Findings Students in schools with small counselor caseloads enjoy greater success at navigating the high school-to-college pipeline. Controlling for student- and school-level characteristics, students in schools where counselors are responsible for advising a large number of students are less likely to speak with a counselor about college, plan to attend college, take the SAT, and enroll in a four-year college. Conclusions The findings support the claim that a smaller school counselor caseload may increase students' access to key college preparation resources and raise four-year college enrollment rates.


The aim of this research is to investigate the development of an autonomous navigation system that could be used as an assistive tool for elderly and disabled people in their activities of daily living. The navigation environment is an urban environment and the platform is a Mobility Scooter (MoS). To achieve this aim, a differentially steered MoS was modifed to receive motion commands from a computer and outfitted with onboard sensors that included a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and two 2D planar laser range sensors. Perception methods were developed to detect the presence of an outdoor pedestrian walkway. These methods achieved this by processing the range data produced by the laser sensors to identify features that are typically found around walkways like curbs, low vegetation, walls and barriers. A method that utilises GPS localisation information to plan and navigate a route in an outdoor urban environment was also developed. Extensive experimental work was conducted to test the accuracy, repeatability and usefulness of the sensory devices. The developed perception methodologies were evaluated in real world environments while the navigation algorithms were predominantly tested in virtual environments. A navigation system that plans a route in an urban environment and follows it using behaviours arranged in a hierarchy is presented and shown to have the ability to safely navigate an MoS along an outdoor pedestrian path.


The Moloney murine leukemia virus-transformed suspension cell line WMP2 is derived from wild mice (Mus musculus) of the WMP/WMP strain. These mice carry nine pairs of metacentric Robertsonian translocation chromosomes. As the chromosomes of the wild-type mouse are all acrocentric, metaphase spreads of the WMP2 cells seam to be highly suited for physical gene mapping. Here we studied the WMP2 line using spectral karyotyping (SKY) combined with new established mouse specific multicolor banding (mcb) probes for the chromosomes X, 3, 4, 6 and 18. SKY revealed that the WMP2 cell line developed further four derivative chromosomes. After application of mcb five previously unrecognizable intrachromosomal rearrangements with 9 breakpoints were detected for the studied chromosomes.


Regional risk assessments for the potential effects of climate change rely on plausible small-scale climate change scenario data. To bridge the gap between the coarse scale of general circulation models and the local scale of approximately 11 000 sample sites of the Austrian National Forest Inventory (AFI), a seasonally stratified statistical downscaling procedure was applied to a con- trol run and 2 transient experiments of ECHAM4/OPYC3, which are based on the trace gas only or trace gas plus sulphate scenario IPCC IS92a. We fitted multiple linear regression (MLR) models for the micro-scale monthly precipitation and temperature for each AFI point. The meteorological data at the AFI sites were obtained by interpolation of measurements from the dense network of Austrian weather stations for the period 1961-1995. The macro-scale predictors were principal components of monthly NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data (850 and 700 hPa geopotential height, 850 hPa temperature and 700 hPa relative humidity). The results show spatial and temporal heterogeneity for both tem- perature and precipitation. In case of temperature MLR leads to increases from +1.4 to +4.0oC (trace gas only integration) and from +1.1 to +2.9oC (trace gas plus sulphate integration) for a period of about 55 yr relative to the 1961-1995 climatology. The regionalized precipitation changes are both negative and positive. Values range from -44 to +26% (trace gas only integration) and from -29 to +26% (trace gas plus sulphate integration). As expected, the explained variability for temperature was higher than for precipitation and depended on the season. From a validation experiment for model calibration we conclude that MLR shows reliable results for temperature. Even in the case of precipitation the method seems to yield plausible results. Both temperature and precipitation were better reproduced for winter than for summer.


Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated a consistent link between sudden cardiac deaths and particulate air pollution. We used implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) records of ventricular tachyarrhythmias to assess the role of air pollution as a trigger of these potentially life-threatening events. The study cohort consisted of 203 cardiac patients with ICD devices in the Boston metropolitan area who were followed for an average of 3.1 years between 1995 and 2002. Fine particle mass and gaseous air pollution plus temperature and relative humidity were measured on almost all days, and black carbon, sulfate, and particle number on a subset of days. Date, time, and intracardiac electrograms of ICD-detected arrhythmias were downloaded at the patients' regular follow-up visits (about every 3 months). Ventricular tachyarrhythmias were identified by electrophysiologist review. Risk of ventricular arrhythmias associated with air pollution was estimated with logistic regression, adjusting for season, temperature, relative humidity, day of the week, patient, and a recent prior arrhythmia. We found increased risks of ventricular arrhythmias associated with 2-day mean exposure for all air pollutants considered, although these associations were not statistically significant. We found statistically significant associations between air pollution and ventricular arrhythmias for episodes within 3 days of a previous arrhythmia. The associations of ventricular tachyarrhythmias with fine particle mass, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and black carbon suggest a link with motor vehicle pollutants. The associations with sulfate suggest a link with stationary fossil fuel combustion sources.


The properties of bitumen as an asphalt binder are dependent on temperature. At high temperatures, the bitumen softens enabling permanent deformation of the pavement. At low temperatures, the bitumen becomes stiff and inflexible and can crack as a result of strain and thermal contraction. Adding rubber from ground car tires increases the stiffness at high temperatures while maintaining or improving the flexibility of the binder at low temperatures. This thesis studies the interaction between bitumen and rubber by producing rubber modified binders using different mixing times. Two rubber types, special and normal rubber, and a reference binder are compared to find differences in the reactive properties of the rubber and the impacts on key indicators of binder performance. Laboratory testing was done using the Dynamic Shear Rheometer and Bending Beam Rheometer on binder in its original state and after short or long-term aging. The results show that the rubber modified binders have improved resistance to permanent deformation at high temperatures compared to the reference binder. The resistance to fatigue and thermal cracking at low temperatures is significantly better for the special rubber than the normal rubber, which is significantly better than the reference binder. Mixing time is only significant for the rubber modified binder in its original state, whereas the properties of the reference binder are permanently altered as a result of the mixing. It was not possible to find a clear difference in the reactive properties of the two rubber types. The performance difference is attributed to differences in the properties of the rubber particles.


Some complex problems, such as image tagging and natural language processing, are very challenging for computers, where even state-of-the-art technology is yet able to provide satisfactory accuracy. Therefore, rather than relying solely on developing new and better algorithms to handle such tasks, we look to the crowdsourcing solution -- employing human participation -- to make good the shortfall in current technology. Crowdsourcing is a good supplement to many computer tasks. A complex job may be divided into computer-oriented tasks and human-oriented tasks, which are then assigned to machines and humans respectively.

To leverage the power of crowdsourcing, we design and implement a Crowdsourcing Data Analytics System, CDAS. CDAS is a framework designed to support the deployment of various crowdsourcing applications. The core part of CDAS is a quality-sensitive answering model, which guides the crowdsourcing engine to process and monitor the human tasks. In this paper, we introduce the principles of our quality-sensitive model. To satisfy user required accuracy, the model guides the crowdsourcing query engine for the design and processing of the corresponding crowdsourcing jobs. It provides an estimated accuracy for each generated result based on the human workers' historical performances. When verifying the quality of the result, the model employs an online strategy to reduce waiting time. To show the effectiveness of the model, we implement and deploy two analytics jobs on CDAS, a twitter sentiment analytics job and an image tagging job. We use real Twitter and Flickr data as our queries respectively. We compare our approaches with state-of-the-art classification and image annotation techniques. The results show that the human-assisted methods can indeed achieve a much higher accuracy. By embedding the quality-sensitive model into crowdsourcing query engine, we effectively reduce the processing cost while maintaining the required query answer quality.


Purpose Building Information Models (BIMs) have the potential to support various engineering applications (e.g., building energy analysis, renovation and retrofit planning, and facility management) in the facility operation phase. It is important to keep the information stored in as-is BIMs, accurate and up-to-date. Laser-scanning technology is able to capture the as-is geometric condition of a facility in a timely manner. Hence, the laser scan data can be used as the reference to construct an as-is BIM. However, due to the occlusions caused by furniture, machinery, and building components, a single laser scan might only capture a partial view of a facility, which limits the value of laser scan data in the construction of as-is BIMs. Method In order to overcome this limitation, we propose to perform multiple laser scans of a facility during the construction, renovation or retrofit processes, and fuse the laser scan data captured at different times to create as-is BIMs. The purpose of this paper is to develop a formal approach to evaluate and compare the progressive laser scan data, and identify the value of using progressive laser scan data to create an accurate (i.e., the as-is BIM represents the actual as-is geometric condition of the facility) and complete (i.e., the as-is BIM contains all the components required to be modeled for the facility) as-is BIM. Results & Discussion We conducted a case study to present the process of creating an as-is BIM from progressive laser scan data, and identified the tasks that could be automated. We selected a research lab that was recently renovated as the testbed. In the case study, we performed multiple laser scans during the renovation process of the research lab to capture the geometric information of the lab at different phases of the renovation process. Figure 1 shows examples of the progressive laser scan data of the research lab. We formally assessed the progressive laser scan data in terms of their geometric accuracy and the represented components. The results showed that the progressive laser scan data can be used to eliminate static occlusions introduced during the construction, renovation or retrofit processes, and can be used to generate a complete view of the facility that covers all visible (e.g., walls, ceilings, floors) and invisible (e.g., airducts, water pipes that are hidden behind the finished surfaces) components with accurate geometries.


An open-top-chamber (OTC) CO2 enrichment study was conducted in the Colorado shortgrass steppe to determine the effect of elevated CO2 (~720 mmol mol?1) on plant production, photosynthesis, and water use of this mixed C3/C4 plant community, soil nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) cycling and the impact of changes induced by \CO2 on trace gas exchange. Weekly measurements of CO2, CH4, NOx and N2O fluxes within control (unchambered), ambient CO2 and elevated CO2 OTCs and soil water and temperature were measured at each flux measurement time from early April 1997, year round, through October 2001. Even though both aboveground plant biomass increased under elevated CO2 and soil moisture content was typically higher than under ambient CO2 conditions, none of the trace gas fluxes were significantly altered by CO2 enrichment over the 55 month period of observation. During early summer of 2002, following the removal of the open-top-chambers from the CO2 enrichment sites in October, we conducted a short term study to determine if soil microbial processes were altered in soils that had been exposed to double ambient CO2 concentrations during the growing season for the past five years. Microplots were established within each experimental site and 10 mm of water or 10 mm of water containing the equivalent of 10 g m?2 of ammonium nitrate-N was applied to the soil surface. Fluxes of CO2, CH4, NOx and N2O fluxes within control (unchambered), ambient CO2 and elevated CO2 OTCs soils at one to three day intervals for the next month. With water addition alone, CO2 and NO emission did not differ between ambient and elevated CO2 soils, while CH4 uptake rates were higher and N2O fluxes lower in elevated CO2 soils. Adding water and mineral N resulted in increased CO2 emissions, increased CH4 uptake and decreased NO emissions in elevated CO2 soils. The N addition study confirmed previous observations that soil respiration is enhanced under elevated CO2 and N immobilization is increased, thereby decreasing NO emission.


Computer-aided detection (CAD) system is a realistic option for physicians to screen fundus images. Automated segmentation of retinal vessel is in fundus important step to identify the retinal disease region. However, identification of the retinal disease region accurately is still challenging due to the varied distribution of blood vessel on noisy and low contrast fundus images. Healthcare system has been changing significantly with the emergence of machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent year. Retinal vessel detection is one such area of application of deep learning, for improving the accuracy of detection and segmentation and the quality of patient care. Recently, the convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been applied to the detection of the retinal vessel from fundus images and have demonstrated promising results. The range of accuracy of the CNN model was 0.91-0.95 and the area under the receiver operating curve was 0.09-0.98. Therefore, CNN may play a crucial role in determining the therapeutic methods and detecting the retinal vessel accurately in an individual manner. In this survey, we described the use of CNN in fundus imaging, especially focused on CNN technique, clinical application for retinal vessel detection and future prospective.


Ancient Weaponry Hafting, which allowed projectile points to be attached to a staff, was an important technological advance that greatly increased the functionality of weapons of early humans. This technology was used by both Neandertals and early Homo sapiens and is readily seen after about 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, but whether it was used by a common ancestor or was separately acquired by each species is unclear. Supporting use by a common ancestor, Wilkins et al. (p. 942) report that stone points in a site in central South Africa were hafted to form spears around 500,000 years ago. The evidence includes damaged edges consistent with this use and marks at the base that are suggestive of hafting. Damage on 500,000-year-old stone points implies their use on spears, perhaps by the ancestor of Neandertals and Homo sapiens. Hafting stone points to spears was an important advance in weaponry for early humans. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that ~500,000-year-old stone points from the archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), South Africa, functioned as spear tips. KP1 points exhibit fracture types diagnostic of impact. Modification near the base of some points is consistent with hafting. Experimental and metric data indicate that the points could function well as spear tips. Shape analysis demonstrates that the smaller retouched points are as symmetrical as larger retouched points, which fits expectations for spear tips. The distribution of edge damage is similar to that in an experimental sample of spear tips and is inconsistent with expectations for cutting or scraping tools. Thus, early humans were manufacturing hafted multicomponent tools ~200,000 years earlier than previously thought.


The research project described in this thesis concentrates on the study, and application of specific channel coding techniques, in particular, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, iterative decoding on Tanner graphs, and their
application on joint iterative receivers based on the turbo principle, previously proposed.

The construction of random LDPC codes that fulfil certain desirable characteristics, such as large girth, specific p and -y values, and acceptable BER and FER performance for short code lengths, traditionally requires a high degree of processing power (i. e. CPU cycles) to run stochastic routines that firstly search within all the possible combinations for those ones that match the desired characteristics of the LDPC matrix, and secondly determines the bit-error rate (BER) and frame-error rate (FER) performance.

The construction of well structured LDPC codes by means of algebraic methods has provided LDPC codes that achieve excellent performance, with desirable structure on their LDPC matrices. However, from the universe of LDPC matrices, those ones created through well structured procedures are
a small group. Multiple procedures to modify their characteristics such as length and rate have assisted to increase the pool of LDPC codes based on well structured procedures.

This thesis study the problem of constructing random LDPC codes with particular length, girth, and column weight as design parameters, with reduced processing power, while providing, at the same time, a desirable structure to allow efficient use of the memory and of the parallel processing capacity to reduce delay through efficient encoding and decoding.

Based on previous studies that analysed the same problem, an algorithm is introduced to construct the Girth-Partition and Shift (GPS) LDPC codes, which are half-rate quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes. Several GPS constructions
are analysed over the AWGN channel and the flat-fading channel. The effect on the BER and FER performance from variations on their design parameters, is included in this study.

This work also includes the BER and FER performance of the concatenation in parallel of different LDPC codes, some of which are based on well structured procedures, such as Euclidean Geometries (EG) and Projective Geomtries (PG), and Margulis constructions based on the Cayley graph,
while the rest are based on random procedures, such as Graphical Models (GM) and GPS-LDPC codes. The aim of the analysis of this scheme, combined with the referred LDPC code constructions, include the improvement of the BER and FER performance for short code lengths and the reduction
of the encoding complexity.

The BER and FER performance achieved by the parallel concatenation of the previously mentioned LDPC codes, is further analysed in a joint demapping, parallel channel decoding and source decoding system. The impact of each component on the overall system performance is also examined.


The cultural conflicts are particularly highlighted after Samuel P. Huntington published his work titled "The Clash of Civilizations" since 1993. Huntington claimed that the fundamental source of conflict in the new world will not be primarily ideological or economic. Instead, the clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. (36) Huntington's hypothesis on fundamental conflicts of culture to the affection of global politics seems realistic especially after 911 terrorist attacks; ethnic and religious clashes are frequently found in the contemporary history. A dichotomy of U.S and China are often presented by the mass media, while the political and economic statuses of China in the global stage are rising rapidly, causing tension and competition. Apart from the economic reason, the cultural powers of the two nations are always put into comparison. So, can Huntington's hypothesis adequately explain the relationship between the two nations that the conflict is caused by civilization differences?


To gain a social license to operate and grow, companies should have effective community engagement activities, social impact assessment processes, environmental and social impact management procedures, and human rights-compatible grievance redress mechanisms in place. In this way, environmental impacts and social impacts would likely be identified and addressed before issues escalate and social risk amplifies. Companies also need to treat communities with respect and be mindful of local culture. Where these things are not done, there will be no social license to operate. Protests are mechanisms by which affected communities express their concerns and signal there is no social license. As argued in our previous work on conceptualizing social protests, protests are warning signs, as well as opportunities for companies to improve. Rather than let protest actions escalate, leading to violent confrontation and considerable cost and harm, companies should engage in meaningful dialogue with protesters. Unfortunately, company response is often inadequate or inappropriate. In this paper, we identify around 175 actions companies might take in relation to community protest, and we discuss how these actions variously have the potential to escalate or de-escalate conflict, depending on whether the company engages in appropriate and genuine interaction with protesters or if repressive measures are used. While effective engagement will likely de-escalate conflict, ignoring or repressing protests tends to provoke stronger reactions from groups seeking to have their concerns heard. When companies address community concerns early, their social license to operate is enhanced. We also outline the primary international standards companies are expected to comply with, and we identify the key environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG principles) that should be respected.


Scientific LiteracyIn surveys of scientific literacy, Americans are less likely than people in the rest of the world to believe that humans evolved from earlier species and that the universe began with a big bang. But the 2010 edition of Science and Engineering Indicators , the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) biennial compilation of the state of global science, omits any mention of those two hot-button issues in its chapter on public attitudes toward science and technology. A section describing the survey results and related issues was edited out of the massive volume by the National Science Board, NSF's oversight body and the official publisher of Indicators . Board members say the answers don't properly reflect what Americans know about science and, thus, are misleading. But the authors of the survey disagree, and those struggling to keep evolution in the classroom say the omission could hurt their efforts.


Ovine herpesvirus-2 is a member of the gammaherpesviruses of the herpeseviridae, which is the etiologic agent of malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), a significant fatal disease of cattle. MCF disease was diagnosed in native Iraqi cattle of AlQadisiyah governorate of Iraq, during the period from April 2014 and August 2016. Twenty-three blood samples were collected from clinically suspected cattle. The presence of the virus in samples was ascertained based on clinical pictures, postmortem examination and molecular assays. Pansystemic involvement included respiratory, digestive, urinary, nervous systems and ocular lesions were described. A molecular analysis based on a tegument protein gene by specific semi-nestedPCR, DNA sequence and multiple alignments of all PCR products confirmed the Ovine herpesvirus-2 (OHV-2) infection, and revealed a single and double nucleotide deletion, insertion and substitutions. Some of these mutations were non-silent, resulting in changes at the predicted amino acids level into viral tegument protein. The phylogenetic analysis showed the disease was caused by two genovariants of OHV-2 including at one cluster and were related to other sequences from others countries was analyzed. MCF is sporadically occurring in cattle in Iraq, the head and eye form is more pronounced form. It has been concluded that study is provides valuable information about the genetic variation among the OHV-2 genotypes in Iraqi cattle. Based on sequence and phylogenetic analysis of tegument protein gene, this paper elucidated genetic relationship between identified Iraqi OHV-2 with other strains detected in other geographical regions. These results provide new information on the epidemiological and genetically of OHV-2 in Iraq. Keyword: MCF, Iraq, Ovine herpesvirus-2, genovariants, Al-Qadisiyah governorate, Iraq Available online at http://www.vetmedmosul.com سبرهلا سوريفل يروطتلا ليلحتلا (OHV-2) ىمحلاب ةباصملا راقبلأا يف يف ةثيبخلا ةيلازلزلا


Spent culture supernatants from both Aeromonas hydrophila and Aeromonas salmonicida activate a range of biosensors responsive to N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs). The genes for a quorum sensing signal generator and a response regulator were cloned from each Aeromonas species and termed ahyRI and asaRI, respectively. Protein sequence homology analysis places the gene products within the growing family of LuxRI homologs. ahyR and asaR are transcribed divergently from ahyI and asaI, respectively, and in both Aeromonas species, the genes downstream have been identified by DNA sequence and PCR analysis. Downstream of both ahyI and asaI is a gene with close homology to iciA, an inhibitor of chromosome replication in Escherichia coli, a finding which implies that in Aeromonas, cell division may be linked to quorum sensing. The major signal molecule synthesized via both AhyI and AsaI was purified from spent culture supernatants and identified as N-(butanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (BHL) by thin-layer chromatography, high-pressure liquid chromatography analysis, and mass spectrometry. In addition, a second, minor AHL, N-hexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone, was identified. Transcriptional reporter studies with ahyI::luxCDABE fusions indicate that AhyR and BHL are both required for ahyI transcription. For A. salmonicida, although the addition of exogenous BHL gives only a small stimulation of the production of serine protease with comparison to the control culture, the incorporation of a longer-chain AHL, N-(3-oxodecanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone, reduced the final level (by approximately 50%) and delayed the appearance (from an A650 of 0.9 in the control to an A650 of 1.2 in the test) of protease in the culture supernatant. These data add A. hydrophila and A. salmonicida to the growing family of gram-negative bacteria now known to control gene expression through quorum sensing.


Margaret Atwood enjoys a unique prominence in Canadian letters. With over thirty books to her credit, in genres ranging from children's writing to dystopic novels, she is as creatively diverse as she is internationally acclaimed. Her success, however, has been double-edged: the very popularity that makes her such a prominent figure in the literary world also renders her vulnerable to claims of being a 'sell-out', as she relates in her Empson lectures. "The Open Eye" negotiates the space between these positions, acknowledging Atwood's remarkable achievement while considering how it impacts on national politics and identity. The range of perspectives in this volume is stimulating and enlightening. "The Open Eye" begins with a focus on Atwood as she presents herself and is presented in Canada and abroad, and then proceeds to consider, more broadly, the intersection of life and literature that Atwood's works and persona effect. It offers fresh insight into Atwood's early writing, redresses the critical void regarding her poetry and shorter prose pieces, and provides a critical base from which readers can assess Atwood's most recent novels. A common thread throughout these essays is the recognition of Atwood's importance in the literary realm in general, and in Canadian literature more particularly.


Influenced by his contemporaries Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael Santi (1483-1520) became, in his own right, one of the most important artists of the High Renaissance. Though Raphael painted many important works in his Florence period, including his famous Madonnas, it was his mature work in Rome that cemented his place in history, most notably the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican featuring his School of Athens and Triumph of Religion murals. This overview traces the life's work of this Renaissance master who achieved the height of greatness in only two decades of creation and whose influential work paved the way for the Mannerist and Baroque movements. More for less Available in over 20 languages, TASCHEN's Basic Art Series offers budget-minded readers quality books on the greatest artists of all time. The neat, slick format and nice price tag make Basic Art books fun to collect. Basic Art titles feature: detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist over 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions concise biography


Failures are increasingly threatening the efficiency of HPC systems, and current projections of Exascale platforms indicate that rollback recovery , the most convenient method for providing fault tolerance to general-purpose applications, reaches its own limits at such scales. One of the reasons explaining this unnerving situation comes from the focus that has been given to per-application completion time, rather than to platform efficiency. In this paper, we discuss the case of uncoordinated rollback recovery where the idle time spent waiting recovering processors is used to progress a different, independent application from the system batch queue. We then propose an extended model of uncoordinated checkpoint-ing that can discriminate between idle time and wasted computation. We instantiate this model in a simulator to demonstrate that, with this strategy, uncoordinated checkpointing per application completion time is unchanged, while it delivers near-perfect platform efficiency.


This paper examines how entrepreneurship has become conceptualised as an economic phenomenon. We explain how the outcomes, the admirable results of entrepreneurship, have led to this position. An understandable concern for the economic benefits from enterprise, and the appeal of measurability, has led to a focus on explaining entrepreneurship. This has been matched by a relative neglect of examining the processes that would help us to understand entrepreneurship. Explanations of entrepreneurship best fit a systems view, where entrepreneurship is a mechanism for adjustment to change, as for example in Kirznerian alertness. But such a view cannot take full account of how entrepreneurship produces change. In homogenising entrepreneurship's idiosyncratic nature, we miss the nuanced understanding of how the entrepreneurial self fits into context to create, as well as employ, change. The instrumentality of explanation obscures the subjectivity of entrepreneurial practices.


Holography has always been a subject combined from distinct visions. Scientists, engineers, artists, artisans and entrepreneurs give divergent accounts. Holography can be dissected into a series of two-dimensional views: an intellectual subject; an imaging technology; a throng of disparate communities; and a cluster of niche markets. It became widely recognized as a subject during the 1960s, but its history has always been contentious. The discordant tales of its past have been told and retold, mutated and disseminated for different audiences, for nearly sixty years. This paper examines some of those perspectives and the disputes, careers and forecasts they influenced.


Nitric oxide (NO), despite being a minor species, influences the chemistry, composition and energy balance of the earth's atmosphere above 90 kilometers. Variations in its density have been shown to strongly correlate with solar x-ray irradiance at lower latitudes and precipitating energetic particles at higher latitudes. Though the broad variations in NO densities with altitude and latitude are well known, there are still uncertainties associated with its chemistry. It is important to accurately model NO and its associated chemistry in an atmospheric model in order to obtain an accurate representation of the thermosphere. The NCAR Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIEGCM) is a three dimensional first principles based model which includes a self consistent aeronomic scheme that solves for winds, temperatures and densities of various neutral and charged species in the earth's upper atmosphere. Using a combination of the solar irradiance spectrum and solar indices as inputs, the model computes these outputs at every time step. The ability of the TIEGCM to predict NO densities in the thermosphere is examined by comparing results from the model with data obtained from the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE). The comparisons are made for the year 1999 at 110 km and 150 km at the equator. Changes are made to the NO chemistry present in the model to reflect recent results obtained from laboratory data. Paricularly, the reaction of atomic oxygen with the first excited electronic state of nitrogen, N2(A) has been shown to play an important role in the production of NO. These changes are introduced to the model and their effect on NO densities is studied. Overall, it is seen that the updated chemistry scheme reduces the model agreement with the SNOE data at 110 km while slightly improving the agreement at a 150 km. The loss of agreement at 110 km is attributed to the fact that the neutral temperatures and atomic oxygen densities calculated by the TIEGCM are in sharp disagreement to the temperatures predicted by the NRL-MSIS at a 110 km, on which the new chemistry scheme is based. While the chemistry scheme used in this thesis is a step in the right direction for modelling NO using the TIEGCM, the parameters used were determined from the best fit obtained from the 1-D NO model. In the light of the differences between the NRL-MSIS and TIEGCM, it is necessary to return to the laboratory data and modify the parameters used here to achieve a better agreement with the data.


Near-infrared Hong-Ou-Mandel quantum interference is observed in silicon nanophotonic directional couplers with raw visibilities on-chip at 90.5%. Spectrally-bright 1557-nm two-photon states are generated in a periodically-poled KTiOPO₄ waveguide chip, serving as the entangled photon source and pumped with a self-injection locked laser, for the photon statistical measurements. Efficient four-port coupling in the communications C-band and in the high-index-contrast silicon photonics platform is demonstrated, with matching theoretical predictions of the quantum interference visibility. Constituents for the residual quantum visibility imperfection are examined, supported with theoretical analysis of the sequentially-triggered multipair biphoton, towards scalable high-bitrate quantum information processing and communications. The on-chip HOM interference is useful towards scalable high-bitrate quantum information processing and communications.


Title of dissertation: EMPIRICAL ESSAYS ON DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS IN CHINA Lingsheng Meng, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Mark Duggan Department of Economics My dissertation is composed of three essays on Development Economics in China. The first chapter, co-authored with Hongbin Li, evaluates the impact of the 8-7 Plan, the second wave of China's poverty alleviation program, on rural income growth at the county level over the period 1994-2000. Since program participation was largely determined by whether a county's pre-program income fell below a given poverty line, a regression discontinuity approach is employed to estimate causal effects of the program. Using a panel dataset, we find that the 8-7 Plan resulted in a gain of about a 26 percent increase in rural income for the counties which were treated. Our empirical results also suggest an important role for initial endowments in the path towards economic development. The second chapter examines the question: How much of the increase in the sex ratio (males to females) at birth since the early 1980s in China is due to increased prenatal sex selection? I answer this question by exploiting the differential introduction of diagnostic ultrasound throughout China during the 1980s, which significantly reduced the cost of prenatal sex selection. The improved local access to ultrasound technology is found to have resulted in a substantial increase in the sex ratio at birth. Furthermore, this effect was driven solely by a rise in the sex ratio of higher order births, especially following births of daughters. I estimate that the local access to ultrasound increased the fraction of males by 1.3 percentage points for second births and by 2.4 percentage points for third and higher order births. Using the annual birth rate at the county level as a proxy for local enforcement of the One Child Policy, the effects of ultrasound are found to be stronger for individuals under tighter fertility control. These findings suggest that the current trend in skewed sex ratios in China is significantly influenced by prenatal sex selection. Several robustness checks indicate that these results are not driven by preexisting differential trends. The third chapter, co-authored with Douglas Almond and Hongbin Li, explores the gender bias in parental investment in children's health in China. Where the fraction of male births is abnormally high, heterogeneity in son preference would suggest that parents of sons may have a stronger son preference than parents of daughters. Child sex may have become a stronger signal of parental sex preferences over time as the cost of sex selection has declined and sex ratios at birth have increased. In this chapter, we consider whether ultrasound diffusion changed the pattern of early childhood investments in girls versus boys. If parental investments (like sex ratios) respond to parental sex preferences, postnatal investments in girls should increase with the diffusion of ultrasound and increased prenatal sex selection. In contrast, the prediction for investments prior to birth is ambiguous. For pregnancies carried to term, ultrasound revealed sex as much as six months prior to delivery, enabling gender discrimination in in utero investments. In contrast, sex selective abortions would tend to increase in utero investments in girls through preference sorting. We evaluate these competing predictions using microdata on investments in children using the 1992 Chinese Children Survey. We find no effect of ultrasound access on the gender difference in postnatal investments. In contrast, we find early neonatal mortality of girls increased relative to boys with ultrasound access. As neonatal mortality tends to reflect pregnancy conditions, we infer that prenatal investments for girls carried to term may have fallen relative to boys once fetal sex was revealed. EMPIRICAL ESSAYS ON DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS IN CHINA


Abstract Mononegaviruses, such as Ebola virus, encode an L (large) protein that bears all the catalytic activities for replication/transcription and RNA capping. The C-terminal conserved region VI (CRVI) of L protein contains a K-D-K-E catalytic tetrad typical for 2'O methyltransferases (MTase). In mononegaviruses, cap-MTase activities have been involved in the 2'O methylation and N7 methylation of the RNA cap structure. These activities play a critical role in the viral life cycle as N7 methylation ensures efficient viral mRNA translation and 2'O methylation hampers the detection of viral RNA by the host innate immunity. The functional characterization of the MTase+CTD domain of Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV) revealed cap-independent methyltransferase activities targeting internal adenosine residues. Besides this, the MTase+CTD also methylates, the N7 position of the cap guanosine and the 2'O position of the n1 guanosine provided that the RNA is sufficiently long. Altogether, these results suggest that the filovirus MTases evolved towards a dual activity with distinct substrate specificities. Whereas it has been well established that cap-dependent methylations promote protein translation and help to mimic host RNA, the characterization of an original cap-independent methylation opens new research opportunities to elucidate the role of RNA internal methylations in the viral replication.


Rhinoceros are large herbivores that are adapted for gaining energy from the fermentation of fibrous plant material. In this paper we address issues of oversupplementation of energy (leading to obesity) and minerals (particularly iron in Black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis), outline a diet design that relies on forage as the staple component with a reduction in use of pelleted compound feeds and give suggestions for supplement provision. Acquisition of adequate roughage is probably the most important step in the feeding management of large herbivores and should be regarded and organized accordingly. Ration calculation must be an integral part of diet design to avoid the imbalances that are currently observed, especially in relation to mineral provision. The use of grain or grain products in pelleted compound feeds is largely discouraged.


The dibenzofuran-degrading bacterial strain DPO360 represents a new species of the genus Terrabacter together with the previously described dibenzofuran-mineralizing bacterial strain DPO1361 (K.-H. Engesser, V. Strubel, K. Christoglou, P. Fischer, and H. G. Rast, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 65:205-210, 1989; V. Strubel, Ph.D. thesis, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, 1991; V. Strubel, H. G. Rast, W. Fietz, H.-J. Knackmuss, and K.-H. Engesser, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 58:233-238, 1989). Two 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl-1,2-dioxygenases (BphC1 and BphC2) and one catechol-2,3-dioxygenase (C23O) were shown to be expressed in Terrabacter sp. strain DPO360 growing with dibenzofuran as a sole source of carbon and energy. These enzymes exhibited strong sensitivity to oxygen. They were purified to apparent homogeneity as homodimers (BphC and BphC2) and as a homotetrameric catechol-2,3-dioxygenase (C23O). According to their specificity constants kcat/Km, both BphC1 and BphC2 were shown to be responsible for the cleavage of 2,2',3-trihydroxybiphenyl, the first metabolite in dibenzofuran mineralization along the angular dioxygenation pathway. With this substrate, BphC2 exhibited a considerably higher kcat/Km, value (183 microM/min) than BphC1 (29 microM/min). Catechol-2,3-dioxygenase was recognized to be not involved in the ring cleavage of 2,2',3-trihydroxybiphenyl (kcat/Km, 1 microM/min). Analysis of deduced amino acid sequence data of bphC1 revealed 36% sequence identity to nahC from Pseudomonas putida PpG7 (S. Harayama and M. Rekik, J. Biol. Chem. 264:15328-15333, 1989) and about 40% sequence identity to various bphC genes from different Pseudomonas and Rhodococcus strains. In addition, another 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl-1,2-dioxygenase gene (bphC3) was cloned from the genome of Terrabacter sp. strain DPO360. Expression of this gene, however, could not be detected in Terrabacter sp. strain DPO360 after growth with dibenzofuran.


An integrated pair of Web sites for students and teachers supports genetics and genomics education worldwide. The Human Genome Project and the subsequent explosion of genomic information are transforming our knowledge of how organisms function and how genes and the environment interact. These insights have led to advances in personalized medicine, stem cell treatments, and genetic testing. Students, teachers, and the public must be prepared to make informed decisions about participation in genomics research, genome-related health care, use of genetically modified agricultural products, and public funding for stem cell research. Education has been identified as a crosscutting element that is critical to achieving the potential of genomics research (1).


Researchers are gaining insights into what made Supertyphoon Haiyan so powerful and devastating through post-storm surveys and analyses. The tropical cyclone9s ferocity resulted from a buildup of heat in subsurface waters in the western North Pacific; the devastating surge was a quirk of geography in which a narrow bay funneled water toward the heavily populated city of Tacloban. There is no obvious link to global warming. But scientists warn that reducing the toll from future storms will depend on moving residents and buildings away from vulnerable coastlines.


(a) The provisions of this subpart apply to each new and existing flexible polyurethane foam or rebond foam process that meets the criteria listed in paragraphs (a)(1) through (3) of this section. (1) Produces flexible polyurethane or rebond foam; (2) Emits a HAP, except as provided in paragraph (c)(2) of this section; and (3) Is located at a plant site that is a major source, as defined in § 63.2 of subpart A. (b) For the purpose of this subpart, an affected source includes all processes meeting the criteria in paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(3) of this section that are located at a contiguous plant site, with the exception of those processes listed in paragraph (c) of this section. (c) A process meeting one of the following criteria listed in paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of this section shall not be subject to the provisions of this subpart: (1) A process exclusively dedicated to the fabrication of flexible polyurethane foam; or (2) A research and development process. (d) Applicability of this subpart. (1) The emission limitations set forth in this subpart and the emission limitations referred to in this subpart shall apply at all times except during periods of non-operation of the affected source (or specific portion thereof) resulting in cessation of the emissions to which this subpart applies. (2) Equipment leak requirements of § 63.1294 shall apply at all times except during periods of non-operation of the affected source (or specific portion thereof) in which the lines are drained and depressurized resulting in cessation of the emissions to which the equipment leak requirements apply. (3) The owner or operator shall not shut down items of equipment that are required or utilized for compliance with this subpart during times when emissions are being routed to such items of equipment if the shutdown would contravene requirements of this subpart applicable to such items of equipment. (4) General duty. At all times, the owner or operator shall operate and maintain any affected source, including associated air pollution control equipment and monitoring equipment, in a manner consistent with safety and good air pollution control practices for minimizing emissions. The general duty to minimize emissions does not require the owner or operator to make any further efforts to reduce emissions if levels required by the applicable standard have been achieved. Determination of whether a source is operating in compliance with operation and maintenance requirements will be based on information available to the Administrator, which may include, but is not limited to, monitoring results, review of operation and maintenance procedures, review of operation and maintenance records, and inspection of the source.


The extraordinary activity of high-dose cyclophosphamide against some high-grade lymphomas was described nearly 60 years ago. Here we address mechanisms that mediate cyclophosphamide activity in bona fide human double-hit lymphoma. We show that antibody resistance within the bone marrow (BM) is not present upon early engraftment but develops during lymphoma progression. This resistance required a high tumor:macrophage ratio, was recapitulated in spleen by partial macrophage depletion, and was overcome by multiple, high-dose alkylating agents. Cyclophosphamide induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in BM-resident lymphoma cells in vivo that resulted in ATF4-mediated paracrine secretion of VEGFA, massive macrophage infiltration, and clearance of alemtuzumab-opsonized cells. BM macrophages isolated after cyclophosphamide treatment had increased phagocytic capacity that was reversed by VEGFA blockade or SYK inhibition. Single-cell RNA sequencing of these macrophages identified a "super-phagocytic" subset that expressed CD36/FCGR4. Together, these findings define a novel mechanism through which high-dose alkylating agents promote macrophage-dependent lymphoma clearance.SIGNIFICANCE: mAbs are effective against only a small subset of cancers. Herein, we recapitulate compartment-specific antibody resistance and define an ER stress-dependent mechanism induced by high-dose alkylating agents that promotes phagocytosis of opsonized tumor cells. This approach induces synergistic effects with mAbs and merits testing across additional tumor types.See related commentary by Duval and De Palma, p. 834.


Passenger car equivalents (PCEs) are used in highway capacity analysis to convert a mixed vehicle flow into an equivalent passenger car flow. This calculation is relevant to capacity and level of service determination, lane requirements, and determining the effect of traffic on highway operations. The most recent Highway Capacity Manual 2000 reports PCEs for basic freeway segments according to percent and length of grade and proportion of heavy vehicles. Heavy vehicles are considered to be either of two categories: trucks and buses or RVs. For trucks and buses, PCEs are reported for a typical truck with a weight to power ratio between 76.1 and 90.4 kg/kW (125 and 150 lb/hp). The weight to power ratio is an indicator of vehicle performance. Recent development of vehicle dynamics models make it possible to define PCEs for trucks with a wider variety of weight to power ratios. PCEs were calculated from the relative impact of trucks on traffic density using the simulation model INTEGRATION. The scope of this research was to evaluate PCEs for basic freeway segments for trucks with a broader range of weight to power ratios. Such results should make freeway capacity analysis more accurate for mixed vehicle flow with a non-typical truck population. In addition, the effect of high proportion of trucks, pavement type and condition, truck aerodynamic treatment, number of freeway lanes, truck speed limit, and level of congestion was considered. The calculation of PCEs for multiple truck weight to power ratio populations was not found to be different from single truck weight to power ratio populations. The PCE values were tabulated in a compatible format to that used in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000.


continued from page one, block 19 discussion on issues and activities that could help the Department of Defense (DoD) to deal more effectively with the requirements of mission-critical systems. The SEI workshop built upon work performed previously at the Requirements Engineering and Rapid Prototyping Workshop held by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) Center for Software Engineering in Eatontown, New Jersey, on November 14-16, 1989. The workshop participants were divided into four working groups: Requirements Engineering Process and Products, Requirements Volatility, Requirements Elicitation, and Requirements Engineering Techniques and Tools. A summary of the findings of each working group follows.


Clay from Kono-bowe, Nigeria, was activated thermally and chemically and used to remove lead(II) and chromium(III) ions from aqueous solution. The effects of adsorption process variables were studied as well as the kinetics and equilibrium of the process. Analysis of the activated samples showed that the surface area, cation exchange capacity, and adsorption performance were positively favored by both activation processes. It was observed that the adsorption rate increased with an increase in temperature, contact time, adsorbent dosage, initial ion concentration, and solution pH values. The pH$_{PZC}$ of the adsorbents was determined to be 6.5, 7.4, and 7.2, for KBR, KBTA, and KBAA, respectively. It was observed that sample KBAA yielded maximum adsorption efficiency of 99.9% for the removal of chromium(III), and gave maximum adsorption efficiency of 98.7% for lead(II) removal. The results of the kinetics analysis of the adsorption data revealed that adsorption follows pseudo-second-order kinetics. Analysis of the equilibrium data showed that the Langmuir isotherm provided a better fit to the experimental data for KBR, while the Freundlich isotherm fitted the experimental data of KBTA and KBAA. Evaluation of the thermodynamic parameters revealed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and endothermic.


Problem Statement: Teacher training programs are expected to provide teachers with life-long learning competence and enable them to practice this competence after graduation in all areas of their lives. In this way, teachers who undergo qualified pre-service training in accordance with the concept of life-long learning will shape the education system as their practices will renew themselves, and they will train future generations accordingly. However, at the point at which these expectations are implemented, the extent to which these teacher training programs are effective in upskilling life-long learning competence is unclear. The views of the members of the Faculty of Education on this topic therefore are important, since they are the programs' practitioners. Purpose of the Study: This study was conducted to determine faculty members' views on the effectiveness of teacher training programs (TTP) to upskill life-long learning competence. Method: The study was carried out with phenomenological pattern qualitative research methods. The study's working group consists of seven faculty members determined by sampling method. The data were collected via in-depth interviews using semi-structured interview forms developed by the researchers. In analyzing the data, the content analysis approach was adopted. Findings: The faculty members' views on the effectiveness of teacher training programs to upskill life-long learning competence were collected under four themes. The themes consist of "pre-service teachers' possession of the characteristics of life-long learners," "how TTPs reflect the Bologna Process," "whether life-long learning competence is upskilled via TTPs," "the expectations that TTPs will upskill life-long learning competence and suggestions for those programs." Conclusions and Recommendations: The faculty members' views show that the Bologna Process is in practice inadequately reflected in the academic activities of faculties of education. The study also concludes that teacher training programs are insufficient to upskill life-long learning competence, to improve pre-service teachers' self-improvement; the study also concludes that the faculties of education ignore the need to upskill life-long learning competence in the current programs. In order to equip pre-service teachers with life-long learning competence, the faculty members suggest that the programs be updated, be equipped with more basic skills, and prioritize practicing during learning process. In order to achieve all these goals, they recommend reducing the programs' quota and establishing quality standards by evaluating faculty members' competences. Keywords: Life-long learning, Teacher training, Bologna process, Turkey higher education qualifications framework, Phenomenology


I. INTRODUCTION High volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) is currently at the forefront of many New Yorkers' minds. The battle over the practice is proceeding on multiple fronts. In 1992, in accordance with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) completed a Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (FGEIS) for oil and gas wells, and determined that oil and gas wells do not have a significant adverse impact on the environment. (1) In 2009, the DEC issued a draft supplement to the FGEIS to consider environmental impacts relating to HVHF, as it was determined that HVHF and HVHF-related technologies were outside the scope of the FGEIS. (2) In 2011, in response to an executive order by then-Governor Patterson, the DEC issued a Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DSGEIS) and proposed HVHF regulations, as well as amendments to the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) for HVHF. (3) More than eighty thousand comments were received. (4) Currently, no timetable is set for the completion of the SEQRA review. (5) At the same time, numerous local governments have taken it upon themselves to ban HVHF within their borders. (6) The best known of these are the towns of Dryden and Middlefield. (7) These towns, along with many others, passed local zoning ordinances with broad prohibitions against many kinds of gas extraction activities, including HVHF. (8) However, most of these ordinances also prohibit activities secondary to actual gas extraction, including the construction of gas gathering lines and compressor facilities. (9) Both the Dryden and Middlefield ordinances were challenged in court. (10) Landowners and gas developers challenged the legality of the ordinances, arguing that they were preempted by state law to the extent that they prohibited natural gas extraction. (11) The challenges failed at the supreme court level, with two judges deciding that the ECL only preempted municipalities from regulating the manner of gas exploration. (12) However, the courts held that the municipalities retained their broader power to regulate land use within their borders. (13) Basically, according to the supreme court judges, localities are forbidden from prescribing how gas is extracted, yet are free to prohibit gas extraction in toto. (14) Numerous articles and commentaries have been written on both the logic and legal validity of these decisions. (15) Nevertheless, both decisions were affirmed by the appellate division. (16) Last August, the Court of Appeals agreed to hear the two cases. (17) No matter how the Court of Appeals rules, one thing is certain. Both the Dryden and Middlefield zoning laws are excessively broad, in that in their zeal to ban all things "fracking," both towns undertook to ban gas gathering lines and compressor stations from within their borders, along with wells and other gas-extraction activities. Under Article VII of the New York Public Service Law (PSL), both laws will be ineffective in preventing the construction of gas gathering lines and compressor stations. (18) As explained in more detail below, gas transmission is at least as vital to increased natural gas use as increased local production. Even if HVHF is never permitted in New York, the state nevertheless has expressed a clear preference for increased natural gas use, whether it be natural gas extracted from conventional wells locally or using HVHF elsewhere. (19) In order for natural gas to reach consumers, it will need to be gathered and transported, which will require the construction of new transmission lines. (20) Article VII of the PSL gives the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) explicit authority to site gas transmission lines. (21) Part of that authority allows the PSC to refuse to apply local laws, such as those passed and (at least for the moment) still operative in Dryden, Middlefield, and dozens of other localities in New York. …


The scattering of linearly polarized electromagnetic waves incident from a dielectric from a rough surface separating the dielectric from a vacuum is studied by using the extinction theorem. The angular distributions of the ensemble average of intensity of the reflected and transmitted fields are calculated numerically for several values of the angle of incidence, the surface statistical parameters, and the dielectric permittivity. To determine the effect of the corrugation on the transmitted evanescent waves, we also obtain the angular spectrum of the transmitted field as a function of the momentum parallel to the surface in the nonradiative zone. The total mean reflected and transmitted energies (reflectance and transmittance), as well as their incoherent parts in the case of slight corrugations, are derived by integrating the angular intensity distribution over the angle of observation. This permits the analysis of the influence of the corrugation and of the phenomenon of total internal reflection within two different systems of surface correlation length T namely, for T larger and smaller than the wavelength. In particular, enhanced backscattering and forward transmission are predicted for surfaces with both T and the rms deviation greater σ than the wavelength of the incident light.


An extensive, in-depth look at public health and preventive medicine topics from experts in the field A Doody's Core Title for 2011! This trusted one-stop resource is a completely up-to-date, all-in-one public health and preventive medicine guide. Sponsored by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and edited and written by well-respected authorities in the range of topics covered, Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine is also an outstanding guide to additional resources of information in preparing for the board exam in preventative medicine and public health. The new edition of Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine has been completely updated to encompass many new diseases, conditions, and policy issues that continue to dramatically shape-and expand the influence of-public health and preventive medicine. New to this Edition: Important coverage of new diseases, conditions, and policy issues, including critical lessons learned from the SARS epidemic, the most recent perspectives on monkey pox, plus an increased emphasis on West Nile Virus Restructured infectious and communicable disease section that reflects the emergence of many emerging and recrudescent conditions Greater focus on existing web-based resources for further reading New information on community-based participatory research Timely new chapter on bioterrorism and preparedness Additional insights on the amelioration of disease-producing lifestyles Research-enhancing lists and catalogs based on federal and other public access databases that are relevant to public health and prevention More streamlined coverage of chemical exposures and diseases overall Essentials of the public health service delivery infrastructure


The exponential growth of available information about routine police activities offers new opportunities to improve the fairness and effectiveness of police practices. We illustrate the point by showing how a particular kind of calculation made possible by modern, large-scale datasets — determining the likelihood that stopping and frisking a particular pedestrian will result in the discovery of contraband or other evidence of criminal activity — could be used to reduce the racially disparate impact of pedestrian searches and to increase their effectiveness. For tools of this kind to achieve their full potential in improving policing, though, the legal system will need to adapt. One important change would be to understand police tactics such as investigatory stops of pedestrians or motorists as programs, not as isolated occurrences. Beyond that, the judiciary will need to grow more comfortable with statistical proof of discriminatory policing, and the police will need to be more receptive to the assistance that algorithms can provide in reducing bias.


We compute a naturally defined measure of the size of the nef cone of a Del Pezzo surface. The resulting number appears in a conjecture of Manin on the asymptotic behavior of the number of rational points of bounded height on the surface. The nef cone volume of a Del Pezzo surface Y with (−2)-curves defined over an algebraically closed field is equal to the nef cone volume of a smooth Del Pezzo surface of the same degree divided by the order of the Weyl group of a simply-laced root system associated to the configuration of (−2)-curves on Y . When Y is defined over an arbitrary perfect field, a similar result holds, except that the associated root system is no longer necessarily simply-laced.


Pelizaeus Merzbacher disease (PMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder of the central nervous system myelination caused by mutations involving the proteolipid protein gene (PLP). Early nystagmus and developmental delay, progressive pyramidal, cerebellar and dystonic signs as well as white matter changes in brain MRI are typical for PMD. The PLP gene can be affected by two major types of mutations. A duplication of the whole PLP gene is the most common mutation and results usually in the milder classical phenotype, whereas point mutations in PLP gene often result in the rarer and more severe connatal form of PMD. The PLP protein is a higly conserved across species and is identical in human, mouse and rat. We describe a 13-year-old Czech boy with an early and severe developmental delay. His maternal uncle died at the age of one year and was also early and severely psychomotoricly retarded. The patient was the first child of healthy unrelated parents born after an uneventful pregnancy and delivery in 1988. Hyperbilirubinemia and bronchopneumonia and early stridor complicated his neonatal period. Diffuse hypotonia, nystagmus, psychomotor retardation, visual and hearing impairment have been observed in the patient since the age of 6 weeks. White matter abnormalities, cortical and periventricular atrophy were detected by MRI at the age of 6 and 11 years, respectively. Despite these signs and results an accurate clinical diagnosis was unclear until the age of 11 years. Last neurological examination in 1999 showed no nystagmus anymore, but extremely dystrophic limbs, truncal deformation, due to severe scoliosis, tetraplegia with hyperreflexia in C5C7 and areflexia L2S2 and positive pyramidal signs. The boy had no visual or speech contact. DNA tests followed the clinical suspicion for PMD. At first, duplication of PLP gene was excluded by quantitative comparative PCR. Direct sequencing of PLP gene detected a novel mutation in exon 6, a missense mutation 725C-->A (Ala242Glu) in the patient and in his mother and later also in his maternal grandmother. The same codon, but to valine (Ala242Val) is mutated in jimpy(msd) mouse, which is the frequently used animal model for PMD. Prenatal diagnosis for the next pregnancy has been offered to the family. The patient died recently at the age of 13 years due to respiratory failure. Our results support the data on the importance of this conserved amino acid alanine at codon 242.


This study was undertaken in Akure, Ondo State to determine the prevalence of fascioliasis among slaughtered cattle in Akure metropolis. The faecal samples of the slaughtered cattle were examined for the eggs and adult of the Fasciola spp using flotation method and viewed with X40 magnification of binocular microscope. Examination of the adult flukes from the infected liver was done by making length wise incisions of the ventral side of the liver in order to cut open the bile duct. Of the 905 male and female slaughtered cattle examined for fascioliasis infection in the study area, a total prevalence of 7.07% (n=64) was observed. Prevalence of the disease between genders revealed that the female cattle were more susceptible (8.53%) to the disease than the male cattle (5.73%). F. gigantica was identified to be the most predominant species in the study area with prevalence of 84.38% compare to F. hepatica (1.56%). This study indicated that prevalence of fascioliasis is low in the study area but there is still need for adequate environmental and veterinary health enlightenment programmes about this infection to completely eradicate the disease and further improve the quality of meat supply to the consumers.


The work documented herein is a portion of a multi-organizational effort lead by the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center, with the following participants: Kontek Industries, the Air Force Research Laboratory Airbase Technologies Division, UMR's Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, the Department of Architectural Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia (UMC), and UMC's National Center for Explosion Resistant Design. The ultimate goal of this multi-year project is to establish prototypical functionality and architectural standards for blast-resistant barricade systems through applied research, design, and test efforts. This paper specifically addresses the results of efforts by UMR and Kontek to design and test barrier structures that protect other structures, and mitigate pressure loads and shock hydrodynamic effects on structural barriers, columns, beams, and bents. As a part of this effort, we are examining structural load path transfer during a blast, in order to provide additional support to portions of structure under attack. Continuation of the current close coordination among the authors in the areas of analytical modeling and blast design and test, as well as the commercial constructability, allows the design of mid-scale and full-scale experiments to populate and validate empirical models for blast barriers, to include off-axis pressure prediction and the development of empirical-based algorithm for prediction of blast pressures around structures and barriers.


All-sky data from the Planck survey and the Meta-Catalogue of X-ray detected Clusters of galaxies (MCXC) are combined to investigate the relationship between the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signal and X-ray luminosity. The sample comprises ∼1600 X-ray clusters with redshifts up to ∼1 and spans a wide range in X-ray luminosity. The SZ signal is extracted for each object individually, and the statistical significance of the measurement is maximised by averaging the SZ signal in bins of X-ray luminosity, total mass, or redshift. The SZ signal is detected at very high significance over more than two decades in X-ray luminosity (1043 erg s−1 L500E(z)−7/3 2 × 1045 erg s−1). The relation between intrinsic SZ signal and X-ray luminosity is investigated and the measured SZ signal is compared to values predicted from X-ray data. Planck measurements and X-ray based predictions are found to be in excellent agreement over the whole explored luminosity range. No significant deviation from standard evolution of the scaling relations is detected. For the first time the intrinsic scatter in the scaling relation between SZ signal and X-ray luminosity is measured and found to be consistent with the one in the luminosity – mass relation from X-ray studies. There is no evidence of any deficit in SZ signal strength in Planck data relative to expectations from the X-ray properties of clusters, underlining the robustness and consistency of our overall view of intra-cluster medium properties.


INTRODUCTION The material which forms the basis of this project was obtained from a number of wells in the study area in Cyrenaica, the northeastern part of Libya. The study area, which is located between latitudes 25° and 33°N and between longitudes 20° and 25° E, covers some 365,750 square kilometres (see Fig. 1). The area extends from the Egyptian border in the east to the eastern flank of the Sirte Basin in the west and is part of the stable Saharan Shield. Since Precambrian time several phases of epeirogenic movements have produced troughs, horst blocks or platforms which have in turn influenced the subsequent sedimentological history of the area. In the southern and southeastern part of the study area, the basement is unconformably overlain by a thick, partially marine Palaeozoic sequence which is in turn unconformably overlain by sediments of Jurassic or younger age. The basement in the central and southwestern parts of the area is unconformably overlain by non-marine clastics of Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous age or by marine sediments of Late Cretaceous and Tertiary age. In the eastern and northeastern section the basement is overlain by a wedge of eastward thickening marine Palaeozoic rocks which are in turn unconformably overlain by marine sediments of Late Cretaceous and Tertiary age. In the most northerly part of the northeastern region of the study area, a thick paralic sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Early Cretaceous deposits is unconformably overlain by Late Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments. PALAEOZOIC Rocks of Cambro-Ordovician . . .


A variety of numerical methods are available for determining the stability of a given solution of a partial differential equation. However for a family of solutions, calculation of boundaries in parameter space between stable and unstable solutions remains a major challenge. This paper describes an algorithm for the calculation of such stability boundaries, for the case of periodic travelling wave solutions of spatially extended local dynamical systems. The algorithm is based on numerical continuation of the spectrum. It is implemented in a fully automated way by the software package wavetrain, and two examples of its use are presented. One example is the Klausmeier model for banded vegetation in semi-arid environments, for which the change in stability is of Eckhaus (sideband) type; the other is the two-component Oregonator model for the photosensitive Belousov–Zhabotinskii reaction, for which the change in stability is of Hopf type.


The most daring moment of the Rosetta mission will come on 11 November, when mission leaders plan to drop the Philae lander to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will sample and study fresh cometary material. Whereas landings on the moon or Mars are preceded by years of reconnaissance, Rosetta will have just 6 weeks to map the comet9s surface and find a suitable landing site for Philae. To avoid bouncing off the comet in the feeble gravity field, Philae is carrying two harpoons, three whirling screws, and a reverse thruster. The lander is prepared to land on surfaces as tough as ice or as soft as cigarette ash.


The problem of pricing derivative financial products is central to the theory of capital markets. An option is a financial contract conveying its owner the right of buying or selling a financial asset (underlying asset) at a preset strike price K, at a fixed expiration date T (maturity). Unlike European options, which can be exercised only at maturity date, an American option can be exercised at any time t prior to the maturity date. Most of the option pricing methods, starting with the well-known Black-Scholes model (1973), are based on the assumption that the market uncertainty can be modeled by a Wiener process. In this context, while it is possible to obtain convenient analytical option pricing formulae for European options, it is very difficult to obtain exact results for American options. In the present paper, we assume that the market uncertainty is modeled by a more regular stochastic process, which was called, by A. Halanay, a mild stochastic environment. In this context, we are able to obtain precise stopping rules, determining the exact exercise time and the exact price of an American option.


This review of the literature shows that there have been many attempts to modify or revise the original definition of halloysites as distinguished from kaolinites, which was based on the greater water content of the halloysites. In general, these various attempts have arrived at definitions of halloysites as distinguished from kaolinites that are based on one or more particular instrumental or chemical techniques. Further investigations with almost all of these techniques have shown the apparently clear distinctions of this kind to be misleading. All such instrumentally—or chemically—based definitions were shown to either complicate and confuse the distinction between halloysites and kaolinites or to provide only empirical and subtle distinctions. It is concluded that only the original definition, with slight adaptations, enables clear and unambiguous distinctions to be made between halloysites and kaolinites. It is noted, however, that a distinctive structure for halloysite has been postulated as a result of electron diffraction studies. Further studies of this kind could well establish such a structure as being definitive of the mineral species.The literature also reveals a long-standing disagreement over the nomenclature of different forms of halloysite and particularly over the nomenclature of and distinction between the two forms of halloysite at the extreme ends of the hydration series. An analysis of experimental studies of the relationship between these two and other hydration states of halloysite reveals that forms of halloysite with all possible interlayer water contents between 0 and 2 molecules H2O per Al2Si2O5(OH)4 unit cell may exist and that the two end members of the hydration series may not be seen as distinct phases. The fully dehydrated halloysite is the only thermodynamically stable form of the mineral. A nomenclature system which was proposed by MacEwan in 1947 is consistent with these results. This system, amended only by the exclusion of the unnecessary term 'metahalloysite' should therefore be adopted in all studies of halloysites.


Abstract Background Endothelial function (EF) and arterial stiffness (AS) are predictors of cardiovascular disease. As previous research concerning the effect of coffee intake on EF and AS was controversial, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesize research. Methods We performed a systematic search in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science to find clinical trials investigating the effect of coffee intake on EF or AS up to March 2020.Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) between intervention and control groups for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Between study heterogeneity was estimated using Cochran's Q and the I 2-inconsistency index. Internal validity of included randomized trials was determined with the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing the risk of bias. Results Twenty-three articles were included for qualitative and 11 articles for quantitative synthesis. Meta-analysis of 14 RCTs (nine articles) indicated a positive short-term (postprandial) effect of coffee intake on flow-mediated dilation (FMD) as a measure of EF (WMD: 1.93%[95% CI: 1.10–2.75]; I 2= 97.9%). Meta-analysis of three long-term RCTs(two articles) found no such effect on FMD (WMD: −0.08% [−3.82 to 3.66]; I 2= 61.4%).Most short-term information was from studies at low or unclear risk of bias, while the proportion of long-term information from studies at high risk of bias was considerable. Conclusion The results from this meta-analysis suggest a beneficial short-term effect of coffee intake on EF as measured by FMD. However, there might be unfavorable effects on AS. Our findings must be interpreted cautiously as the number of studies were low and included studies had a considerable risk of bias.


Vertebrate animals reproducing without genetic recombination typically are hybrids, which have large ranges, are locally abundant, and live in disturbed or harsh habitats. This holds for the hemiclonal hybridogenetic frog Rana esculenta: it is widespread in Europe and commonly is found in disturbed habitats such as gravel pits. We hypothesize that its widespread occurrence may either be the result of natural selection for a single hemiclone acting as a broadly adapted "general‐purpose" genotype, or of interclonal selection, which maintains multiple hemiclones that each are relatively narrowly adapted and perform differently across environments, that is, the Frozen Niche Variation model. We tested these competing hypotheses using 1000‐L outdoor artificial ponds to rear tadpoles of the parental species (Rana lessonae [LL] and Rana ridibunda [RR]) alone, and each of three hemiclones of Rana esculenta (GUT1, GUT2, GUT3) alone, and in mixed hemiclonal populations from hatching to metamorphosis. Tadpoles of three coexisting hemiclones from a single natural population (near Gütighausen, Switzerland) were reared in both two‐ and three‐way mixtures in equal total numbers at high and low density. For each species and hemiclone, the proportion of tadpoles metamorphosing decreased as the density of tadpoles increased, with the three hemiclones spanning the range of values exhibited by the two parental species. LL and GUT1 tadpoles produced the highest proportion of metamorphs, whereas tadpoles of RR produced the fewest metamorphs at both densities. GUT1 tadpoles also produced the largest metamorphs at low density, GUT2 and GUT3 tadpoles produced smaller metamorphs than did GUT1 tadpoles at the low density, but the three hemiclones did not differ from each other at high density. The parental species (LL and RR) were intermediate in metamorphic size to the hemiclones at low density, but all genotypes converged on a similar size at high density. Length of the larval period also was affected by density, but its effect was dependent on genotype. GUT1 tadpoles had the shortest larval period at the low density, but larval period was longer and not different between GUT1, GUT3, and LL at high density. RR tadpoles had the longest larval period at both densities. The most dramatic results were that three genotypes (GUT1, GUT2, and RR) maintained rank order and increased days to metamorphosis from low to high density, whereas two genotypes (GUT3 and LL) changed rank order and decreased days to metamorphosis from low to high density. Mixtures of hemiclones in two‐ and three‐way combinations facilitated the proportion of tadpoles metamorphosing for GUT1 and GUT2 at both densities, but only at the low density for GUT3 tadpoles. Results from this experiment are incompatible with the General‐Purpose Genotype model as a global explanation of hybrid abundance in these frogs. Alternatively, the Frozen Niche Variation prediction of general performance superiority of clonal mixtures relative to single clone populations is strongly supported. The data confirm that fitness advantages of hemiclones change, depending on the environment, such that in temporally and spatially heterogeneous habitats like ponds, frequency‐dependent selection among hemiclones may promote coexistence in hemiclonal assemblages. Yet, differential dispersal or colonization ability and historical factors affecting hemiclone distribution may also be important in shaping patterns of clonal coexistence.


Latin America's economic performance is mediocre at best, despite abundant natural resources and flourishing neighbors to the north. The perplexing question of how some of the wealthiest nations in the world in the nineteenth century are now the most crisis-prone has long puzzled economists and historians. The Decline of Latin American Economies examines the reality behind the struggling economies of Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. A distinguished panel of experts argues here that slow growth, rampant protectionism, and rising inflation plagued Latin America for years, where corrupt institutions and political unrest undermined the financial outlook of already besieged economies. Tracing Latin America's growth and decline through two centuries, this volume illustrates how a once-prosperous continent now lags behind. Of interest to scholars and policymakers alike, it offers new insight into the relationship between political systems and economic development.


Sweetpotato is a member of the morning glory family that is thought to have originated in Central or South America but also has a secondary center of diversity in the southwest Pacific islands. It is grown in all tropical and subtropical areas of the world and consistently ranks among the 10 most important food crops worldwide on the basis of dry weight produced, yielding about 130 million metric tons per year on about 9 million hectares. Sweetpotato is an important crop for food security. It has been relied on as a source of calories in many circumstances. Vines and/or storage roots can be used for direct human consumption or animal feed. Growing awareness of health benefits attributed to sweetpotato has stimulated renewed interest in the crop. Orange-fleshed cultivars, a source of vitamin A, were introduced to developing countries with hope that they would replace the white-flesh varieties and help alleviate vitamin A deficiencies. In East Africa, sweetpotato virus disease, which is caused by the synergistic interaction of the whitefly-transmitted crinivirus and the aphid-transmitted potyvirus, can cause losses of 80 to 90% in many high-yielding genotypes. During the past 15 years, as molecular methods have been adopted, much has been learned about the composition of the sweetpotato virus complexes, the effects of virus diseases on production systems, the biology of the virus–plant interaction, and management approaches to sweetpotato virus diseases. This article is intended to summarize what has been learned since earlier reviews, integrate knowledge gleaned from experiences in tropical and temperate production systems, and suggest courses of action to develop sustainable management programs for these diseases.


This paper proposes a supervised PID adaptive control scheme for unknown nonlinear systems to enhance system robustness in the face of external disturbances, variation in system parameters, and parameter drift in the adaptation law. The supervising controller is designed based on an on-line identified model in a fuzzily blended time-varying canonical form. The model largely simplifies the identification of the nonlinear plant, and the design of both the supervising controller and the adaptation law. Numerical studies of the tracking control of an uncertain Duffing-Holmes system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.


Using data from the 2014 Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey, this study employs cluster analysis techniques to provide the first classification of five livelihood strategies pursued by rural households. The methodology also included a comparison between the per capita household income across livelihood strategies using the Bonferroni pairwise tests. The authors found that households with non-farming or wage-earning livelihoods achieved the highest income levels, while those depending on farm-related incomes or a mix of wage-earning and farm-related incomes had the lowest income levels. Furthermore, factors associated with the choice of livelihoods were investigated using a multinomial logit model. The findings reveal that farmland is negatively associated with the choice of high return livelihood strategies. This suggests that access to farmland is not a potential barrier to the pursuit of lucrative strategies. In addition, the education level of household heads proved to have a positive effect on the pursuit of remunerative strategies. The authors also found that households living in communes with minimal infrastructure and non-farming job opportunities have a more significant chance to adopt high-return livelihoods.


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) remains one of the most important causes of nosocomial infections worldwide. Since the global spread of MRSA in the 1960s, MRSA strains have evolved with increased pathogenic potential. Notably, some strains are now capable of causing persistent infections not only in hospitalized patients but also in healthy individuals in the community. Furthermore, MRSA is increasingly associated with infections among livestock-associated workers, primarily because of transmission from animals to humans. Moreover, many MRSA strains have gained resistance to most available antibiotics. In this review, we will present current knowledge on MRSA epidemiology and discuss new endeavors being undertaken to understand better the molecular and epidemiological underpinnings of MRSA outbreaks.


This research presents an in-depth investigation of the core self-evaluations (CSE) construct in several German samples. The English language (U.S.-American) version of the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES; see Judge, Erez, Bono, &Thoresen, 2003) was adapted and translated into German. The study expands knowledge of CSE relationships with work-relevant experience constructs by providing the first reports of relationships with professional experience and job tenure. Criterion-related validities were examined for grade point average, organizational citizenship behaviors, and turnover intentions, extending English language based findings to a new language and cultural context (German) for the first time. The explicit examinations of the German CSES and other demographic (age, gender) and experience variables (organizational tenure) also provide the first investigations of these relationships, advancing the knowledge about the nomological network of the CSE construct. A constructive discussion of CSE measurement issues (frame of reference and item-specific response styles) is provided in order to improve future CSE measurement.


The acetylene reduction assay has been used extensively to detect and measure nitrogenase activity of free-living microorganisms, excised legume and non-legume nodules, and root systems, soil cores, and entire nodulated legume plants removed from their soil medium. This investigation was undertaken to determine whether or not the acetylene reduction assay can be used to measure nitrogenase activity of cultures of nodulated soybean (Glycine max.) plants in situ and to compare the nitrogenase activity of these cultures with the nitrogenase activity of detached nodules and excised root systems from comparable cultures. Entire cultures grown in Perlite or in soll were placed in polyethylene containers, covered with Plexiglas lids, exposed to acetylene, and assayed for ethylene production. Time course experiments showed that rates of acetylene reduction of plants growing in Perlite and in soil were linear for at least 90 min following an initial lag period of 15 min. Saturation of nitrogenase in intact cultures was obtained at a pC2H2 of 0.1 atm. The apparent Km for nitrogenase was 0.05 atm. For convemence, assays in the large containers were conducted at a pC2H2 of 0.025 atm. The Michaelis-Menten equation was used to calculate rates of acetylene reduction at saturating levels of acetylene. The correlation coefficient between rates of acetylene reduction and nodule fresh weight was 0.99 for plants of the same age and 0.79 for plants of different ages. Acetylene reduction rates of either intact nodulated plants in Perlite or nodulated root systems removed from Perlite were significantly greater than acetylene reduction rates of detached nodules from comparable cultures. Relatively little diurnal variation was observed in nitrogenase activity of potted plants grown under controlled environmental conditions. The method is useful for the assessment of nitrogenase activity of legume cultures in a porous medium under standardized conditions, but its application to legumes in soil proved to be complicated by the water content of the soil which influences rates of gas diffusion within the culture medium