Single-wall carbon nanohorns (SWCNHs), which have multitudes of horn interstices, an extensive surface area, and a spherical aggregate structure, offer many advantages over other carbon nanomaterials being used as a drug nanovector. The previous studies on the interaction between SWCNHs and cells have mostly emphasized on cellular uptake and intracellular trafficking, but seldom on epithelial cells. Polar epithelium as a typical biological barrier constitutes the prime obstacle for the transport of therapeutic agents to target site. This work tried to explore the permeability of SWCNHs through polar epithelium and their abilities to modulate transcellular transport, and evaluate the potential of SWCNHs in drug delivery. Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell monolayer was used as a polar epithelial cell model, and as-grown SWCNHs, together with oxidized and fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated bovine serum albumin-labeled forms, were constructed and comprehensively investigated in vitro and in vivo. Various methods such as transmission electron microscopy and confocal imaging were used to visualize their intracellular uptake and localization, as well as to investigate the potential transcytotic process. The related mechanism was explored by specific inhibitors. Additionally, fast multispectral optoacoustic tomography imaging was used for monitoring the distribution and transport process of SWCNHs in vivo after oral administration in nude mice, as an evidence for their interaction with the intestinal epithelium. The results showed that SWCNHs had a strong bioadhesion property, and parts of them could be uptaken and transcytosed across the MDCK monolayer. Multiple mechanisms were involved in the uptake and transcytosis of SWCNHs with varying degrees. After oral administration, oxidized SWCNHs were distributed in the gastrointestinal tract and retained in the intestine for up to 36 h probably due to their surface adhesion and endocytosis into the intestinal epithelium. Overall, this comprehensive investigation demonstrated that SWCNHs can serve as a promising nanovector that can cross the barrier of polar epithelial cells and deliver drugs effectively.


Background: Intraduodenal bile salts exert negative feedback control on postprandial gall bladder emptying. Aims: We wished to examine whether a similar control mechanism occurs in the fasting state. Methods: Intraduodenal bile salt depletion was achieved by 12 g of cholestyramine. Thereafter, in study A (seven subjects), the effects on gall bladder volume (by ultrasound) and antroduodenal motility of intraduodenal infusions of taurocholate egg yolk-phosphatidylcholine micelles were assessed. In study B (nine subjects), the effects on gall bladder volume of infusing mixed micelles composed of taurocholate (100 mM) and low (26 mM) or high (68 mM) amounts of egg yolk-phosphatidylcholine, or low amounts of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine were determined. Results: Cholestyramine induced strong and prolonged gall bladder contraction without cholecystokinin release. In study A, micellar infusions increased gall bladder volume without affecting migrating motor complex cycle length. In study B, intraduodenal infusion induced strong increases in gall bladder volume in the case of taurocholate micelles containing low amounts of egg yolk-phosphatidylcholine, moderate increases in micelles containing low amounts of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine but no change in micelles containing high amounts of egg yolk-phosphatidylcholine, in all cases without altered plasma cholecystokinin levels. Phosphatidylcholine hydrolysis was significantly higher after infusion of egg yolk-phosphatidylcholine compared with infusion of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine containing micelles. Intermixed micellar-vesicular bile salt concentrations (responsible for detergent effects) were higher in egg yolk-phosphatidylcholine than in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine containing model biles and if lyso-phosphatidylcholine was included. Conclusions: Intraduodenal bile salts exert negative feedback on fasting gall bladder volume. The modulating effects of various phospholipids may relate to their effects on intermixed micellar-vesicular bile salt concentrations.


Human-wildlife interactions play an important role in shaping perceptions and conservation paradigms and the livelihoods in villages neighbouring protected areas. These interactions also determine the future survival of the wildlife in the face of increasing pressure due to high human population increase characterising most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Most rural people in sub-Saharan Africa are agropastoral, combining small scale farming with animal husbandry, or they are purely agropastoralists or farming who relies on natural resources for sustenance.The negative impacts from wildlife to humans may include crop damage, attacking and killing livestock and humans, competing for game species or acting as diseases reservoirs. Humans may affect wildlife through a wide range of lethal methods such as shooting, poisoning, trapping or snaring, habitat modification, encroachment or diseases exchange between wildlife and livestock.Illegal hunting using traditional weapons is wide spread in communities surrounding areas rich of wildlife where in some countries in Africa (i.e. Liberia) up to 75% meat protein is derived from wildlife. The main factors attributing to high consumption of bushmeat is local availability, easy catch-ability (wire snares, pitfall traps), affordability and the consequent household savings.This thesis evaluates the conflicts between human and wildlife in the human-wildlife interface using the western Serengeti as a case study. The first part of the thesis focuses on the conflict related to utilization of natural resources and livestock depredation whereas the second part focuses on the dietary contribution of bushmeat to local people, bushmeat experience and utilization. Local people living close to protected areas are rational when it comes to the illegal utilization of natural resources because they consider the benefits and costimplications. The bushmeat hunters, especially, know in advance which areas in the protected areas are profitable at the same time consider the cost of being arrested and the distance they need to walk to the profitable areas. While illegal hunting can take place far in the park, livestock keepers avoid grazing inside the park because they know the consequences (penalties and fines) of utilizing the pasture inside the protected areas illegally.The local people living close to protected areas consume more meat meals during the period when the wildebeest are in the village proximities than when the herds are far in the southern plains. This further proves the rationality of illegal bushmeat hunters when planning for hunting trips (the benefits versus cost). In contrast, the fish meals in the villages located close to protected areas but far from Lake Victoria decrease with influx of migratory herbivores, which suggest that fish and meat complement each other when the distance from the sources fluctuates. This was proved true when test-persons from villages close, intermediate and distant from the nearest national park boundary were given pieces of meat in a combination of wild ungulates and beef to rank the meat and species recognition according to the perceived taste. While the test-persons from distant villages preferred beef to all, the test-person from villages close to national park boundary prefer topi and those in the intermediate villages prefer impala. This suggests long term experience with beef to distant test-persons as no other source of meat is locally available in the area other than livestock meat and fish.Wild carnivores are considered to be responsible for livestock losses in the villages surrounding the protected areas. The results from the current study in the villages surrounding the western Serengeti show that among the wild carnivores reported to kill livestock, 97.7% of all reported claims was spotted hyena, being responsible for 98.2%.Spotted hyenas are nocturnal animals capable of commuting up to 80 km from their territory areas and are the most numerous large carnivore species in the Serengeti ecosystem, mainly targeting goats and sheep. To evaluate the level of conflicts between carnivores and human on livestock depredation, enumeration of livestock loss causes was conducted for subsequent comparison. In all villages, diseases were responsible for major loss of livestock.Based on the findings the current study recommends better education on wildlife conservation, livestock husbandry practices and extension. A change in wildlife policy in favour of compensation would reduce the retaliatory killing of carnivores in the villages. Livestock keepers should improve the night holding enclosures to reduce livestock depredation by nocturnal predators. The findings recommend further study on the alternative sources of meat protein to local communities living close to protected areas. Last but not least, I recommend a special conservation attention to resident herbivore population close to village proximities.


Tin selenide (SnSe) thin films have been prepared using various methods such as electrodeposition, chemical precipitation, thermal evaporation and chemical bath deposition. The variation in the deposition process produced thin films exhibiting various characteristics. The films have been characterised using x-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive analysis of x-ray (EDX) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The photoactivity of the films were evaluated using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) in the presence of K4Fe(CN)6/K3Fe(CN)6 redox system. The band gap energy and transition type was determined from optical absorbance data obtained using UV-VIS spectrophotometry technique.

The electrodeposition process was carried out by varying deposition potentials, solution temperature, solution concentrations and deposition time. The films prepared were found to be polycrystalline in nature. XRD studies confirmed the formation of orthorhombic SnSe phase with the preferred orientation along the (111) plane. Annealing at 150˚C in the presence of nitrogen atmosphere was found to improve the crystallinity of the film. This treatment also results in an increase in the photoresponse of the films deposited. The electrodeposited SnSe film shows photoresponse in the cathodic region conforming the p-type nature. It was an indirect transition with a bandgap energy of about 1.08 eV.

The SnSe film was also prepared using the combination of chemical precipitation and brush coating method. The crystalline powder was coated onto indium doped tin oxide glass substrates using polyvinyl alcohol solution as a binder. Tin selenide powder was prepared using chemical precipitation method in alkaline aqueous medium. The XRD data obtained confirmed the SnSe powder to be free of impurities. The coatings were subjected to annealing at various times and temperatures in order to study these effects towards the structure, morphology and composition of the materials. XRD data obtained from the films indicated formation of polycrystalline materials. Annealing at 150˚C for 1 h in nitrogen atmosphere was found to be the optimum conditions to produce films of this nature. The photoresponse behaviour of the film in the cathodic region confirms the p-type conduction. The optical absorbance data exhibited indirect transition with a bandgap energy of about 1.00 eV.

The SnSe powder synthesised was also used as a source material to prepare SnSe thin films using thermal evaporation method. The combination of this experimental procedure has resulted in the reduction of time to develop a particular thin film. The currently employed solid-state method, which needs 2 days to develop metal chalcogenide thin films, could be replaced with this method, which takes not more than 5 hours. The films were found to be smooth and free of pinholes. Clear transparent SnSe films with different thickness could conveniently be prepared by this method. XRD data indicated that the preferred orientation lies along the (111) plane. The films were found to be p-type semiconductors. The thicker SnSe film indicates higher photoactivity. The optical data confirmed the indirect transition with an energy gap of 1.25 eV.

Tin selenide thin films could also be deposited onto indium tin oxide glass slides in alkaline medium. The method is based on simple bath deposition technique that requires fewer chemicals, less monitoring, simple and economical. Uniform and well-adhered films were obtained upon required deposition period. XRD data for the as-deposited film confirms polycrystalline material formation. The preferred orientation lies along the (201) plane. The material covered the surface of the substrate completely. The photoresponse in the cathodic region indicates formation of a p-type semiconductor. The bandgap energy obtained was 1.25 eV corresponding to direct transition. The optical absorption in the visible region makes it possible to be used in a photoelectrochemical cell or as semitransparent layer in high-speed detectors working in visible region.


The Israeli debate sparked by the manslaughter trial of an IDF soldier over an incident in Hebron in March 2016 reveals an identity dimension as well as an ethical one. The perpetrator – convicted of shooting a Palestinian assailant in the head when he was already lying motionless on the ground – was an "Oriental" Jew, a so-called Mizrahi, thus inserting the event into the context of the internal conflict between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, the Jews of European origin. In recent years the pendulum has swung towards the originally highly marginalised Mizrahim – who now assert political and cultural leadership and challenge Israel's "Western" identity. Some of them, like the new activist group Tor HaZahav, go as far as openly describing Israel as part of the Middle East, although without elaborating what that would mean concretely. The paradigm shift associated with these developments thus remains an intra-societal phenomenon for the time being. Foreign policy implications, for example for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or relations with Europe, are not discernible at this stage.


Die eerste formele welsynsorganisasie in Suid-Afrika, naamlik die ACVV, is amptelik in 1904 gestig. Die betrokke welsynsdienste was aanvanklik op armblankes gerig en dit het in sekere kringe die ACVV se besondere bydrae tot die daarstelling van gesofistikeerde maatskaplikewerkdienste en -strukture oorskadu. Teen hierdie agtergrond word die ACVV se historiese mylpale in die artikel ontleed, gevolg deur 'n oorsig van die organisasie se teenswoordige inklusiewe ontwikkelingsgerigte maatskaplikewerk-konteks, ten einde eietydse uitdagings aan die ACVV en soortgelyke welsynsorganisasies aan die lig te bring. Die gevolgrekking word gemaak dat die bedoelinge en krag van veral vroue in welsyn nie altyd na waarde geskat word nie; en om die ACVV slegs binne die konteks van 'n volksmoederdiskoers of kleurslagboom te beskou, is bloot eendimensioneel, sonder begrip dat dit juis die organisasiekultuur en vrywilligerbasis van die organisasie is wat dit oor geslagte heen die verskillende politieke bestelle laat oorleef het. Die kapasiteit en dienste van die organisasie demonstreer steeds 'n beduidende positiewe impak op die lewens van kwesbare mense en transformasie van maatskaplike werk in Suid-Afrika. Eietydse uitdagings behels onder meer die behoud van 'n samebindende organisasiekultuur en vrywilligerskorps; die gerigtheid op gesinsorgdienste as kernaktiwiteit; die bestuur van die organisasie as 'n waardegedrewe leeromgewing vanuit 'n sterkteperspektief; 'n situasiespesifieke balans tussen ontwikkelings- en remedierende funksies en ook maatskaplikewerk-metodiek; die integrering van ekonomiese aktiwiteite met maatskaplikewerk-aktiwiteite deur bewustelike fasilitering van sodanige aksies tydens alle dienste op alle vlakke; versekering van 'n volhoubare finansiele inkomste vir die organisasie; en die behoud van personeel en vrywilligers.
The ACVV as welfare pioneer : from welfare for poor whites to contemporary challenges for inclusive developmental social work
The ACVV was the first formal welfare organisation in South Africa, and was officially instituted in 1904. The laudable contribution made by this organisation towards the establishment of sophisticated social welfare services and structures was however eclipsed by the fact that these services were in the main focused on poor whites. It is against this backdrop that the historical markers of the ACVV are analysed in this article, followed by an overview of the context of its current inclusive developmental social work, in order to present contemporary challenges facing the ACVV and similar welfare organisations.
The most distinctive characteristic of the ACVV is in all probability the fact that it has a stable organisation culture, with women, language and religious persuasion having been the chief elements since its inception. This organisation culture has remained the definitive unifying factor for volunteers who make up the very backbone of the organisation, and this in spite of continuous criticism and pressures over the past century to make politically correct changes. For organisations like the ACVV to survive within a social development context subject to socio-economic and political transformation, an ongoing evaluation of the elements of the organisation culture and of the subsequent impact on the body of volunteers, is indispensable in order to distinguish whether these elements add value to sustainable social service delivery or merely serve the interests of current institutions.
The ACVV manages its volunteers within a value-driven learning environment, as becomes apparent from its continuous education of volunteers to keep pace with changing demands, laws and regulations of the government. This value-driven learning environment must always renew itself, as evidenced by the ACVV's adjustment to current tendencies with innovative programmes. The fact that the ACVV has always focused on the development of volunteers' strengths, contributes to their taking ownership of the organisation. Not only do social programmes serve to empower the service users, but the capacity of volunteers is also developed. The challenge is to integrate, from a strength's perspective, the service users, volunteers, auxiliary workers, community development officers and social workers, into one social development community, all with equal input, to manage in a productive manner any possible conflicts resulting from different approaches to service delivery.
The core business of the ACVV, namely family care work within the context of poverty alleviation, has always served to illustrate its focus on social services to vulnerable people. The organisation has never, despite political pressures, lost this focus and has never become involved with other social actions which could estrange its volunteer corps and compromise the quality of its service rendering.
The history of the ACVV also shows that the vision and mission of development-directed social welfare organisations should be focused and delineated in such a way that social workers' theoretical and professional grounding should steer their service delivery, such as rendering statutory services. In South Africa no other profession has been authorised to deliver statutory social services. Where this is not a priority and where workers are not available to render such services effectively, service users have no recourse to any other safety nets and social workers fail to meet basic principles of social development.
Placing principles of social development only within the orbit of economic projects such as job creation, has proved throughout the history of the ACVV to be unsustainable and insignificant, chiefly as a result of the overwhelming critical psychosocial problems coupled with a lack of essential resources, facing frontline social workers. To the contrary, the integration of economic activities and social work activities through, for example, the development of entrepreneurial skills has always been a driving force in the ACVV's operations. This is not an alien poverty alleviation philosophy of the organisation and should always form part of social development - but then through consciously facilitating such actions in all services on all levels and not only as isolated projects in some programmes. The goal should be a situation specific balance between developmental and remedial functions in the employment of social work methods (case work, group work and community work), with an eye to the delivery of effective developmental social work services.
History has proved that a partnership of the ACVV and the state is unavoidable especially in a financial sense, but that attendant demands could adversely affect the qualitative functioning of the organisation, and the political aims and agenda of the state could jeopardise the organisation culture of the ACVV. As a result of globalisation and in the interests of financial survival and functioning independently of the state, it is a matter of great urgency for the ACVV and other NGOs to diversify their income base in a creative manner. Opportunities, for example, for entrepreneurially directed service delivery to the private and industrial sectors, with an eye to the core business of the organisation, should be identified towards generating a sustainable financial income for the organisation. The ongoing capacity building of informal organisations, currently characteristic of the ACVV, should also be strengthened and should be marketed as part of social development to local as well as international sponsors and should therefore be accounted for in the income base of the organisation.
The loyalty, integrity and quality of not only the ACVV's volunteers but also of its social workers and other staff, have always been above reproach, chiefly flowing from the unifying organisation culture - currently in competition with economic and other powers due to globalisation. In future, retention of staff and volunteers will have to be managed creatively by combining all the strengths of the organisation to make the job prospects attractive and sustainable.
The capacity and services of the ACVV, developed throughout more than a century of experience and transformation of social services for poor whites to inclusive developmental social work, still demonstrate a significant, positive impact on the lives of vulnerable people in SA - an asset and an achievement which cannot be attributed to many institutions in SA.


This paper focuses on MEMPHIS (Multi-frequency Experimental Monopulse High- resolution Interferometric SAR) data processing, possible applications using its various SAR modes and the results obtained. The processing chain used to focus MEMPHIS data is presented. To demonstrate the focusing quality, the signatures of corner re∞ectors were analyzed, revealing not only a high resolution, but also a very precise geometric positioning accuracy on the order of the resolution, in spite of MEMPHIS' experimental and portable design. Finally, applications and results using the various antennas are presented, such as the generation of digital surface models with the multi-baseline interferometric antenna along with a quality evaluation, as well as channel combinations of the polarimetric data.


Abstract The simulation of the BR2 test A/400/1 was undertaken to support the safety analysis of the conversion of the BR2 research reactor to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and to extend the validation basis of the RELAP code for analysis of the conversion of research reactors from highly enriched fuel to LEU. This test was characterized by a steady-state peak heat flux of 400 W/cm2, total loss of flow without loss of system pressure, reactor scram, flow reversal, and reactor cooling by natural convection. This paper presents the RELAP analysis of test A/400/1 and the comparison of code predictions with experimental measurements of peak cladding temperatures during the transient at different axial locations in an instrumented fuel assembly. The simulations show that accurate representation of the pump coastdown characteristics and of the power distribution, especially after reactor scram, between the fuel assemblies and the moderator/reflector regions are critical for correct prediction of the peak cladding temperatures during the transient. Detailed MCNP and ORIGEN simulations were performed to compute the power distribution between the fuel assemblies and the moderator/reflector regions. With these distributions, the predicted peak cladding temperatures were in a good agreement with experimental measurements.


Breastfeeding is encouraged exclusively until the infant is 6 months and then continuing up until the age of two years and further, as a supplement to solid food. Few infants get this opportunity even though positive effects have been seen. In recent days brain imaging techniques has begun to study the differences in brain development between breastfed and formula fed infants. In this essay methods for assessing the cognitive and neurodevelopmental aspect of breastfeeding aspects will be reviewed. The results found in this review suggest that breastfeeding has a benefit in the development of the brain and in addition a beneficial impact on the parents. This can be seen in faster development of crucial brain areas, better cognitive functions and better maternal sensitivity which in turn relates to a child's better adjustment. However, it is not clear how these benefits develop, if it is due to breastfeeding or parental characteristics related to breastfeeding.


Municipal waste biogas plants are an important element of waste treatment and energy policy. In this study, odorant concentrations and emissions were measured together with the air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) to confirm the hypothesis that the microclimatic conditions have an important impact on the level of odorant emission at municipal waste biogas plants. A simple correlation analysis was made to evaluate the strength and the direction of the relationship between the odorant concentration and emission and air temperature and relative humidity. The mean volatile organic compound (VOC) and NH3 concentrations vary depending on the stage of the technological line of the analysed municipal waste biogas plants and are in the following ranges, respectively: 0–38.64 ppm and 0–100 ppm. The odorant concentrations and emissions correlated statistically significantly with T primarily influences VOC concentrations and emissions while RH mainly affects NH3 concentrations and emissions. The strongest correlations were noted for the fermentation preparation section and for emissions from roof ventilators depending on the analysed plant. The smallest influence of microclimatic factors was observed at the beginning of the technological line—in the waste storage section and mechanical treatment hall. This is due to the greater impact of the type and quality of waste delivered the plants. The analysis of correlation between individual odorants showed significant relationships between VOCs and NH3 for most stages of the technological line of both biogas plants. In the case of technological sewage pumping stations, a significant relationship was also observed between VOCs and H2S. The obtained results may be helpful in preparing strategies to reduce the odours from waste treatment plants.


Inequalities in learning opportunities arise from both household- and school-related factors. Although these factors are unlikely to be independent, few studies have considered the extent to which sorting between schools and households might aggravate educational inequalities. To fill this gap, this article presents a novel variance decomposition, which is then applied to data from over one million children from East Africa. Results indicate that sorting accounts for around 8 percent of the test-score variance, similar in magnitude to the contribution of differences in school quality. Empirical simulations of steady-state educational inequalities reveal that policies to mitigate sorting could substantially reduce educational inequalities over the long run.


Boué-Grabot et al. investigated the effects of coactivation of P2X2 receptors (which are excitatory) and GABAA receptors (which are inhibitory) and discovered evidence for cross inhibition that depended on subunit-specific interactions between the two receptors. γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) are co-released at brain and spinal synapses to activate colocalized GABAA and P2X receptors. Boué-Grabot et al. coexpressed GABAA receptor subunits together with P2X2 in Xenopus oocytes and recorded currents evoked by GABA and ATP. In cells expressing GABA receptors containing only α and β subunits, the channels showed reciprocal inhibition. When GABA and ATP were applied together the sum of the currents was less than predicted, and there was a smaller response to GABA administered during exposure to ATP and to ATP administered during exposure to GABA. In oocytes expressing α, β, and γ GABAA receptor subunits, however, GABA inhibited the response to ATP, whereas ATP did not inhibit the response to GABA. Reciprocal inhibition was independent of membrane potential, current direction, and the presence of calcium and was apparent with mutant GABAA receptors that were permeable to cations but not chloride. Experiments in which the authors expressed truncated or chimeric receptors or overexpressed minigenes encoding regions of the two receptors implicated the P2X2 C terminal and a GABA β3 subunit intracellular loop in the functional interaction. Moreover, only chimeric GABA receptors containing the GABA β3 intracellular loop colocalized with fluorescently labeled P2X2 when transfected into hippocampal neurons. Thus, physical interaction between the GABAA β subunit and P2X2 appears to be necessary for the functional interactions between these two receptors, and GABAA subunit composition may determine the overall balance between excitation and inhibition. É. Boué-Grabot, E. Toulmé, M. B. Émerit, M. Garret, Subunit-specific coupling between γ-aminobutyric acid type A and P2X2 receptor channels. J. Biol. Chem. 279, 52517-52525 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The ventilated façade (VF) system is a double-wall construction, comprising an external lightweight cladding panel and the building's façade, which is used to increase the indoor comfort level (e.g. temperature, humidity) in buildings. Literature reports on VF systems focus mainly on investigating their behavior in terms of energy consumption reduction; there are only scarce reports on the fire behavior of such systems. However, during a fire event, VF systems may contribute to fire spreading on the facade, representing a significant risk to the upper floors of a building, especially in the case of externally venting flames. Aiming to investigate the fire behavior of the VF concept a large scale compartment fire test was carried out. An extensive set of sensors is installed both inside and outside the test compartment, aiming to record the temporal variation of several important physical parameters (gas and wall surface temperatures, gas velocities, mass loss rate). Particular emphasis has been given on the estimation of the thermal characteristics of the fire compartment and subsequent EVF, as these are the main physical parameters affecting the heat exposure of the VF façade system. Experimental results suggest that the VF system proved to sufficiently sustain the 900 s fire exposure.


Samples for analysis of volatile organic compounds were collected from 315 wells in the Potomac-Raritan-Magothy aquifer system in southwestern New Jersey and a small adjacent area in Pennsylvania during 1980–82. Volatile organic compounds were detected in all three aquifer units of the Potomac-Raritan-Magothy aquifer system in the study area. Most of the contamination appears to be confined to the outcrop area at present. Low levels of contamination, however, were found downdip of the outcrop area in the upper and middle aquifers.

Trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, and benzene were the most frequently detected compounds. Differences in the areal distributions of light chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as trichloroethylene, and aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, were noted and are probably due to differences in the uses of the compounds and the distribution patterns of potential contamination sources.

The distribution patterns of volatile organic compounds differed greatly among the three aquifer units. The upper aquifer, which crops out mostly in less-developed areas, had the lowest percentage of wells with volatile organic compounds detected (10 percent of wells sampled). The concentrations in most wells in the upper aquifer which had detectable levels were less than 10 /μg/1. In the middle aquifer, which crops out beneath much of the urban and industrial area adjacent to the Delaware River, detectable levels of volatile organic compounds were found in 22 percent of wells sampled, and several wells contained concentrations above 100 μ/1. The lower aquifer, which is confined beneath much of the outcrop area of the aquifer system, had the highest percentage of wells (28 percent) with detectable levels. This is probably due to (1) vertical leakage of contamination from the middle aquifer, and (2) the high percentage of wells tapping the lower aquifer in the most heavily developed areas of the outcrop.


Background: The applications of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology carry a tremendous potential for pharmaceutical industry. There is a pressing need to analyze the performance of RFID tags attached to various pharmaceutical dosage forms. Method: The readability of RFID-tagged pharmaceutical products is, for the first time, systematically investigated by experiments. Factors considered include dosage forms, ion concentration in solution, angle of rotation, and distance between the RFID tag and the interrogator. Results: Compared with empty container, the filling of any representative dosage forms causes deteriorated readability for the tag attached to container. Analysis of variance reveals that the effects of dosage forms, angle of rotation, and their interaction are statistically significant. In addition, an increase in distance (equivalent to higher RF attenuation level) and higher ion concentration in solution beyond a certain level have detrimental effect on tag readability. Conclusion: The analysis shows that the RFID tag readability is strongly dependent on the factors that are experimented with. The level of the factors for optimum RFID system performance should be adjusted based on the particular application.


Background: Chronic diseases such as diabetes have an adverse effect on the quality of life (QOL) of patients. It has been shown physical activity can improve the quality of life. Aims: The aim of current study was to determine the effectiveness of Physical activity package (PAP) on the quality of life (QOL) of individuals with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Using a randomized controlled trial, 100 individuals with type 2 diabetes were studied. The patients were selected from endocrine clinic of a teaching hospital of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Subjects were randomly assigned to intervention (PAP and routine care), and control (just education and routine care) groups. The WHO Quality of Life- brief (WHOQOL - BREF) Questionnaire was completed by all patients at the beginning and after three months. The IPAQ (long form) physical activity questionnaire was completed at the beginning, 1.5 and 3 months follow-up for all subjects. The Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square and repeated measure of analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to analysis of data. The significant level was considered as 0.05. Results: Average of age was 46.22 ± 6.10 years. The scores of physical, psychological and environmental domains of WHOQOL - BREF were 27.42 ± 3.34, 21.44 ± 3.24 and 27.02 ± 4.68 in intervention group versus 22.58 ± 3.71, 17.29 ± 3.46, and 24.41 ± 3.92, in control group respectively. These differences were statistically significant (P < 0.0001). There was not any significant difference for social relations domain across two groups. Conclusions: Physical activity package had a significant effect on all aspects of QOL just social relations of individuals with type 2 diabetes. It seems social relations activities needs more time to change.


We compare competitive equilibrium outcomes with and without trading by a privately informed 'monopolistic' insider, in a model with real investment portfolio choices ex ante, and noise trading generated by aggregate uncertainty regarding other agents' intertemporal consumption preferences. The welfare implications of insider trading for the ex ante expected utilities of outsiders are analyzed. The role of interim information revelation due to insider trading, in improving the risk-sharing among outsiders with stochastic liquidity needs, is examined in detail.


A single crystal of garnet enclosed in a diamond from the Jericho kimberlite (Slave Craton, Canada) has been investigated using X-ray diffraction and X-ray micro-tomography. The novel experimental approach allowed us to determine the crystal structure of the garnet. The unit-cell edge a and fractional atomic coordinates of oxygen were used to determine the composition via an updated Margules model for garnets. The composition is Pyr0.41(5)Alm0.36(7)Gro0.22(1)Uva0.01(1), which is indistinguishable from the eclogitic garnets found in other Jericho diamonds. We also demonstrated that residual pressures on the inclusion of up to 1 GPa do not affect significantly the determination of the garnet composition by structure refinement.


We report here the effects of chain stiffness and surface attachment on the effective interactions between polyelectrolyte-grafted colloidal particles in monovalent salt obtained using Monte Carlo simulations. Our approach involves computation of the distance-dependent potential of mean force between two polyelectrolyte-grafted colloidal particles treated at a coarse-grained resolution. Two chain stiffnesses, flexible and stiff, and two surface attachment modes, free and constrained, at low grafting densities are examined. PMF calculations across a range of surface and polyelectrolyte charge allows us to map out the strength and extent of the attractive and repulsive regime in the two-dimensional charge space. We observe striking differences in the effects of chain stiffness between the two modes of attachment. When the chains are freely attached, the stiff-chains colloids exhibit a marginal reduction in the attraction compared to their flexible-chain counterparts. In contrast, when the chains are attached in a constrained manner, the colloids with stiff chains exhibit a significantly stronger attraction and a broader attractive regime compared to flexible-chain colloids. These differences in the effects of stiffness between the two attachment modes are explained in terms of differences in the energetic and entropic forces balancing adsorption of chains at their own surface versus chain extension to mediate bridging interactions across two particles. Our results thus underscore the importance of surface attachment of chains and its proper accounting in computational and experimental studies and suggests the mode of chain attachment as an additional control parameter for modulating intercolloid interactions for applications such as stabilization of colloidal systems and bottom-up self-assembly of nanostructures.


The authors show how an orchestration of combinational synthesis for testability approaches can result in logic-level implementations of large integrated circuit designs that are completely robustly gate-delay-fault and path-delay-fault testable. For control portions of VLSI circuits, Boolean covering and algebraic factorization procedures that guarantee path-delay-fault testability are used, starting from a sum-of-products representation of a function. Hierarchical composition rules are used in the synthesis of regular structures occurring in data path portions, such as parity generators and arithmetic units. It is shown how test vectors to detect all path delay faults can be obtained as a by-product of the synthesis process. These techniques were used on circuits with over 5000 gates, and preliminary experimental results on a data encryption chip, a small microprocessor, and a speech recognition chip are presented. >


Non-functional Requirements (NFRs) play a unique role in the development of any software-intensive system. They often have a significant impact upon the architectural design and drive critical trade-offs. However, such trade-off decisions are often based on assumptions about future workloads, environmental factors, and anticipated system behavior. From a traceability perspective, it is thus necessary to trace individual NFRs into the design and their associated design rationales, and further forward into the running system in order to monitor and assess the design-time assumptions at runtime. When runtime data indicates that a mismatch has occurred that adversely impacts system performance and/or behavior, measures need to be taken, such as applying critical bug fixes, or refactoring performance bottlenecks. In this paper, we explore five different types of NFRs across the design and runtime phases of the development process. Our approach is illustrated by examples from the Dronology System for Fault Tolerance, Security, Usability, Performance, and other critical qualities.


Background: Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are prebiotic agents with immunomodulatory effects involving improvement of the intestinal microbiota and metabolome. In this study, we investigated the cellular mechanisms through which FOS modulate intestinal antigen-specific CD4+ T cell responses in food allergy, using OVA23-3 mice. Methods: OVA23-3 mice were fed an experimental diet containing either ovalbumin (OVA) or OVA and FOS for 1 week. Body weight and mucosal mast cell protease 1 in the serum were measured as the indicator of intestinal inflammation. Single-cell suspensions were prepared from intestinal and systemic lymphoid tissues for cellular analysis. Cytokine production was measured by ELISA. Activation markers and intracellular cytokines in CD4+ T cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Activated CD4+ T cells were purified to examine cytokine production. Results: Dietary intake of FOS provided moderate protection from the intestinal inflammation induced by the OVA-containing diet. FOS significantly reduced food allergy-induced Th2 cytokine responses in intestinal tissues but not in systemic tissues. FOS decreased OVA diet-induced IFN-γ+IL-4+ double-positive CD4+ T cells and early-activated CD45RBhighCD69+CD4+ T cells in the mesenteric lymph nodes. Furthermore, we confirmed that these CD45RBhighCD69+CD4+ T cells are able to produce high levels of IFN-γ and moderate level of IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13. Conclusions: Dietary intake of FOS during the development of food allergy attenuates the induction of intestinal Th2 cytokine responses by regulating early activation of naïve CD4+ T cells, which produce both Th1 and Th2 cytokines. Our results suggest FOS might be a potential food agent for the prevention of food allergy by modulating oral sensitization to food antigens.


The extent of physical and economic postharvest losses at different stages of cassava value chains has been estimated in four countries that differ considerably in the way cassava is cultivated, processed and consumed and in the relationships and linkages among the value chain actors. Ghana incurs by far the highest losses because a high proportion of roots reach the consumers in the fresh form. Most losses occur at the last stage of the value chain. In Nigeria and Vietnam processors incur most of the losses while in Thailand most losses occur during harvesting. Poorer countries incur higher losses despite their capacity to absorb sub-standard products (therefore transforming part of the physical losses into economic losses) and less strict buyer standards. In monetary terms the impact of losses is particularly severe in Ghana and estimated at about half a billion US dollar per annum while in the other countries it is at the most about USD 50 million. This comparison shows that there are no "one-size-fits-all" solutions for addressing postharvest losses but rather these must be tailor-made to the specific characteristics of the different value chains.


Environmental stresses are among the most limiting factors to crop plant productivity. Salinity is one of the most detrimental ones. Establishment of seedlings at early growth stages of crop plants as one of the most important. Determinants of high yield are severely affected by soil salinity. Therefore, high germination rate and vigorous early growth under salty soils is preferred. Aeluropus lagopoides and A. littoralis are perennial grasses distributed in many saline areas and they are important economic plants used for sand fixation, pastures and other purposes. Seed germination is the critical stage for species survival. Seeds of halophytes usually show optimal germination in freshwater similar to glycophytes, but differ in their ability to germinate at higher salinities. The main objective of this study was to determine seed germination percentages and rates of Aeluropus lagopoides and A. littoralis when exposed to increased salinity. Mature seeds were collected from natural populations and a factorial complete randomized design of seven salinity levels 0 (control), 75, 150, 225, 300, 375 and 450 mM NaCl were used. Seeds were incubated in light at 25?C and checked daily for 14 days. Maximum germination occurred in absence of salt, and salinity significantly decreased germination percentages and rates. The highest and the lowest resistance to increased salinity were observed in Aeluropus littoralis and Aeluropus lagopoides respectively. Thus, Aeluropus littoralis is more suitable than Aeluropus lagopoides for reclamation of salinity habitats .


Fatal attacks of asthma usually occur against a background of chronic persistent symptoms, presumably due to chronic airway inflammation and changes in airway wall structure. Death from asthma is usually attributed to excessive airway narrowing due to a combination of muscle spasm and mucous plugging. To test the hypothesis that airway wall structure and/or the inflammatory cell profile are related to the duration of a fatal attack of asthma, inflammatory cell profiles and airway structure were examined in cases of fatal asthma and related to the duration of the fatal attack. In transverse sections of large and small airways from subjects dying from asthma, the numbers of eosinophils, neutrophils and lymphomononuclear cells were counted. The amount of smooth muscle shortening, the areas of airway wall, smooth muscle, mucous gland and cartilage were measured. Cell counts, airway dimensions and muscle shortening were compared in cases dying within 2 h of the fatal attack (short duration) and those dying more than 5 h after the onset of the fatal attack (long duration). In cases with fatal attacks of short duration, the numbers of neutrophils and the mucous gland area were increased and the numbers of eosinophils were reduced compared to cases with fatal attacks of long duration. Lymphocyte numbers, airway wall thickness, the areas of smooth muscle and cartilage and the amount of smooth muscle shortening were similar in the two groups. These findings suggest fatal attacks of asthma may be triggered by an inflammatory stimulus and suggest that increased production of mucous may contribute to sudden death in such cases.


Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease affecting approximately1% of the population older than 50 years. There is a worldwide increase in disease prevalence due to the increasing age of human populations. A definitive neuropathological diagnosis of Parkinson's disease requires loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and related brain stem nuclei, and the presence of Lewy bodies in remaining nerve cells. The contribution of genetic factors to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease is increasingly being recognized. A point mutation which is sufficient to cause a rare autosomal dominant form of the disorder has been recently identified in the α-synuclein gene on chromosome 4 in the much more common sporadic, or 'idiopathic' form of Parkinson's disease, and a defect of complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain was confirmed at the biochemical level. Disease specificity of this defect has been demonstrated for the parkinsonian substantia nigra. These findings and the observation that the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3, 6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), which causes a Parkinson-like syndrome in humans, acts via inhibition of complex I have triggered research interest in the mitochondrial genetics of Parkinson's disease. Oxidative phosphorylation consists of five protein-lipid enzyme complexes located in the mitochondrial inner membrane that contain flavins (FMN, FAD), quinoid compounds (coenzyme Q10, CoQ10) and transition metal compounds (iron-sulfur clusters, hemes, protein-bound copper). These enzymes are designated complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase, EC 1.6. 5.3), complex II (succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase, EC 188.8.131.52), complex III (ubiquinol:ferrocytochrome c oxidoreductase, EC 184.108.40.206), complex IV (ferrocytochrome c:oxygen oxidoreductase or cytochrome c oxidase, EC 188.8.131.52), and complex V (ATP synthase, EC 188.8.131.52). A defect in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, in terms of a reduction in the activity of NADH CoQ reductase (complex I) has been reported in the striatum of patients with Parkinson's disease. The reduction in the activity of complex I is found in the substantia nigra, but not in other areas of the brain, such as globus pallidus or cerebral cortex. Therefore, the specificity of mitochondrial impairment may play a role in the degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. This view is supported by the fact that MPTP generating 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridine (MPP+) destroys dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Although the serum levels of CoQ10 is normal in patients with Parkinson's disease, CoQ10 is able to attenuate the MPTP-induced loss of striatal dopaminergic neurons.


CONTEXT
Pulmonary thromboembolism is the third most frequent cause of morbidity and mortality among acute cardiovascular diseases. The incidence of pulmonary embolism in necropsies has remained unchanged over the last few decades. Cardiac diseases, neoplasia, trauma, recent surgery and systemic diseases are important predisposing clinical conditions. The relationship between male and female sexes is estimated at 1.24. Various studies have shown an increase in morbidity in spring and autumn. There is great difficulty in precise anatomopathological diagnosis in relation to the localization of the emboli in the pulmonary vessels, although they are preferentially located in the right lung and lower lobes.

OBJECTIVE
To study the incidence of lethal and non-lethal pulmonary thromboembolism in relation to epidemiological and anatomical variables.

DESIGN
Retrospective study performed via reports on the necropsy findings.

SETTING
University hospital providing tertiary-level attendance.

SAMPLE
16,466 consecutive necropsies performed from January 1972 to December 1995.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS
Frequency of lethal and non-lethal pulmonary thromboembolism, predisposing diseases, occurrence in relation to the seasons of the year, and location where the embolus is lodged.

RESULTS
Pulmonary thromboembolism was found in 4.7% of all the necropsies performed. There was a predominance of lethal cases (68.2%). There was no difference in relation to sex or seasons of the year for the occurrence of this disease. Cardiovascular diseases were more frequently associated with thromboembolic phenomena. With regard to the location where the embolus was lodged, various lung segments showed greater incidence of being bilaterally compromised.

CONCLUSION
Over the period of this study, it was observed that there was a reduction in the incidence of pulmonary thromboembolism, which was probably due to the increase in prophylactic measures over the last few decades. Nonetheless, lethal thromboembolism predominated in frequency, probably because of the abrupt onset of a condition of attack across a large area of the lung, lack of clinical suspicions and consequently a lack of early diagnosis, and delay in instituting fibrinolytic therapy in the cases with hemodynamic repercussions or a large number of lung segments affected.


Aim To validate the new classification criteria for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis in a real-life Peruvian cohort of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis patients. Methods We reviewed medical records from a Peruvian tertiary care center from January 1990 to December 2019. Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis was diagnosed based on the 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, the 2012 Chapel Hill Consensus Conference definitions, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) algorithm, and the clinical acumen of the treating rheumatologists. We classified all patients using the "former criteria" (the 1990 ACR criteria for granulomatosis with polyangiitis [GPA] and eosinophilic GPA [EGPA] and the 1994 Chapel Hill Consensus Conference definition for microscopic polyangiitis [MPA]), the EMEA algorithm, and the "new criteria" (the 2017 ACR/European League Against Rheumatism Provisional Criteria). The level of agreement (using Cohen κ) was calculated using the clinical diagnosis as the criterion standard. Results We identified 212 patients, 12 of whom were excluded. One hundred fifty-four (77%) had MPA, 41 (20.5%) GPA, and 5 (2.5%) EGPA. The new criteria performed well for MPA (κ = 0.713) and EGPA (κ = 0.659), whereas the EMEA algorithm performed well for GPA (κ = 0.938). In the overall population, the new criteria showed better agreement (κ = 0.653) than the EMEA algorithm (κ = 0.506) and the former criteria (κ = 0.305). Conclusions The 2017 ACR/European League Against Rheumatism Provisional Criteria showed better agreement for the clinical diagnosis of all the patients overall and had the best performance for MPA and EGPA. The EMEA algorithm had the best performance for GPA.


Steam is a key energy vector for industrial sites, used for process heating, direct injection and stripping, tracing and cogeneration of mechanical power. Steam networks transport steam from producers to consumers and across different pressure levels. The steam production equipments (boilers, cogeneration units and heat exchangers) should be dimensioned to always supply key consumers as well as to deal with extreme demand caused by exceptional events such as unit startups or extreme weather. An important issue to be dealt with is that of unexpected boiler shutdowns, which can take significant amounts of time to bring back online. In cases where demand surpasses the available production of steam, load shedding is necessary in order to keep the network operable. A penalty cost can be associated to load shedding. A well dimensioned steam network is one which is resilient to such events, being able to overcome extreme demand and unexpected boiler shutdowns at minimum cost. This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the operability of a steam network when facing unexpected boiler shutdowns. A Monte-Carlo simulation is carried out on a multi-period steam network problem, randomly shutting down boilers according to their failure properties (probability of failure and duration of failure). The aim of this method is to evaluate how resilient a steam network is to boiler shutdowns. The Monte-Carlo simulation is applied to a steam network model built using a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation, whose objective function is to minimise the operational costs of the steam network and therefore also to minimise the penalty costs associated to load shedding. A case study based on anonymised industrial data is used to demonstrate the method. Two investment propositions are evaluated and compared using the proposed method.


Accurate and consistent rainfall observations are vital for climatological studies in support of better agricultural and water management decision-making and planning. In East Africa, accurate rainfall estimation with an adequate spatial distribution is limited due to sparse rain gauge networks. Satellite rainfall products can potentially play a role in increasing the spatial coverage of rainfall estimates; however, their performance needs to be understood across space–time scales and factors relating to their errors. This study assesses the performance of seven satellite products: Tropical Applications of Meteorology using Satellite and ground-based observations (TAMSAT), African Rainfall Climatology And Time series (TARCAT), Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM-3B43), Climate Prediction Centre (CPC) Morphing technique (CMORPH), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP), and Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), using locally developed gridded (0.05°) rainfall data for 15 years (1998–2012) over East Africa. The products' assessments were done at monthly and yearly timescales and were remapped to the gridded rain gauge data spatial scale during the March to May (MAM) and October to December (OND) rainy seasons. A grid-based statistical comparison between the two datasets was used, but only pixel values located at the rainfall stations were considered for validation. Additionally, the impact of topography on the performance of the products was assessed by analyzing the pixels in areas of highest negative bias. All the products could substantially replicate rainfall patterns, but their differences are mainly based on retrieving high rainfall amounts, especially of localized orographic types. The products exhibited systematic errors, which decreased with an increase in temporal resolution from a monthly to yearly scale. Challenges in retrieving orographic rainfall, especially during the OND season, were identified as the main cause of high underestimations. Underestimation was observed when elevation was <2500 m and above this threshold; overestimation was evident in mountainous areas. CMORPH, CHIRPS, and TRMM showed consistently high performance during both seasons, and this was attributed to their ability to retrieve rainfall of different rainfall regimes.


This article questions whether enmity is always bad and trust always good. In the borderlands between Ikland in northern Uganda and Turkanaland in Kenya, sometimes violent enmity combines with friendly barter relations between the Ik, a subsistence agricultural people that also hunts, and their goat- and-cattle herding neighbors, the Turkana and Dodoth peoples. "Half-trust," as some of the Ik call it, works to prevent the escalation of conflict. While the Ugandan groups have been disarmed by their government, the Kenyan Turkana, armed with AK-47s, are allowed into Ugandan territory for pasture during drought, and some Turkana take violent advantage of this power imbalance as they leave. Paradoxically, intervention by Ugandan state institutions that, in the name of peaceful coexistence, welcome the Turkana in Uganda has led to the escalation of conflict, while tribal "half-trust" has kept it relatively limited.


Major advances in the number, capabilities, and quality of state, national, and transnational databases have opened up new opportunities for evaluators. Both large-scale data sets collected for administrative purposes and those collected by other researchers can provide data for a variety of evaluation-related activities. These include (a) identifying or highlighting issues that invite greater client attention; (b) establishing the plausibility of policy theories of action; and (c) program evaluation. The authors illustrate through examples from the fields of education, social services, and public health both the opportunities provided by higher quality, interoperable data systems and the challenges encountered when using databases to identify issues of concern, test the plausibility of a proposed theory of action, or evaluate an existing program. The authors then explore implications for roles evaluators may need to play to support these uses of databases and for funding and infrastructure to support greater evaluator involvement in program planning and improvement.


The gas exchange in adult diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) relies on a subelytral air store, which has to be renewed in regular intervals at the water surface. The dive duration varies from a few minutes to 24 h depending on the species, activity, and temperature. However, some species remain submerged for several weeks. Stygobiont species do not ascend to the surface and gas exchange of these species remains unclear, but it is assumed that they require air filled voids for respiration or they use cutaneous respiration. In this study, we investigate the gas exchange in the running water diving beetle Deronectes aubei, which survive submerged for over 6 weeks. The diffusion distance through the cuticle is too great for cutaneous respiration. Therefore, the dissolved oxygen uptake of submerged beetles was determined and an oxygen uptake via the rich tracheated elytra was observed. Fine structure analyses (SEM and TEM) of the beetles showed tracheated setae mainly on the elytral surface, which acts as tracheal gills. Prevention of the air bubble formation at the tip of the abdomen, which normally act as physical gill in Dytiscidae, resulted in no effect in oxygen uptake in D. aubei, but this was the sole way for a submerged Hydroporus palustris to get oxygen. The setal gas exchange technique explains the restriction of D. aubei to rivers and brooks with high oxygen concentration and it may also be used by subterran living diving beetles, which lack access to atmospheric oxygen. The existence of setal tracheal gills in species in running water which are often found in the hyporheic zone and in stygobiont species supports the known evolution of stygobiont Dytiscidae from species of the hyporheic zone. For species in running water, setal tracheal gills could be seen as an adaptation to avoid drifting downstream by the current. J. Morphol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The paper investigates the feasibility of confidence estimation for neural machine translation models operating at the high end of the performance spectrum. As a side product of the data annotation process necessary for building such models we propose sentence level accuracy $SACC$ as a simple, self-explanatory evaluation metric for quality of translation.
Experiments on two different annotator pools, one comprised of non-expert (crowd-sourced) and one of expert (professional) translators show that $SACC$ can vary greatly depending on the translation proficiency of the annotators, despite the fact that both pools are about equally reliable according to Krippendorff's alpha metric; the relatively low values of inter-annotator agreement confirm the expectation that sentence-level binary labeling $good$ / $needs\ work$ for translation out of context is very hard.
For an English-Spanish translation model operating at $SACC = 0.89$ according to a non-expert annotator pool we can derive a confidence estimate that labels 0.5-0.6 of the $good$ translations in an "in-domain" test set with 0.95 Precision. Switching to an expert annotator pool decreases $SACC$ dramatically: $0.61$ for English-Spanish, measured on the exact same data as above. This forces us to lower the CE model operating point to 0.9 Precision while labeling correctly about 0.20-0.25 of the $good$ translations in the data.
We find surprising the extent to which CE depends on the level of proficiency of the annotator pool used for labeling the data. This leads to an important recommendation we wish to make when tackling CE modeling in practice: it is critical to match the end-user expectation for translation quality in the desired domain with the demands of annotators assigning binary quality labels to CE training data.


In the last decade, several Latin American governments have implemented new teacher recruitment policies based on evaluations of candidates' competency and knowledge so as to raise the quality of their teachers and schools. Since 2007, the Ecuadorian government has required teacher candidates to pass national standardized tests before they can participate in merit-based selection competitions for tenure at public schools. Has this new recruitment system served as an effective screening device? Has it ultimately helped to raise student learning? To answer these questions, I analyze data from a unique Ecuadorian survey of schools in the academic year 2011-2012. I first estimate the value-added to student achievement using OLS and hierarchical linear regressions to evaluate the effect of Ecuador's new competitive recruitment policy. I then use propensity score matching to simulate a random assignment of students to teachers and estimate causal treatment effects. The evidence suggests that teachers who were granted tenure through the new competitive recruitment policy were no more effective, overall, in raising students' learning in reading or math than their peers at schools. Nonetheless, poorer children who were assigned to these teachers had significantly better scores in reading. Furthermore, test-screened teachers, regardless of their tenure status, seem to have had positive significant effects in reading, particularly for students living in poverty. This finding suggests that Ecuador's teacher recruitment policy had a positive impact on the nation's most vulnerable students.


When separately written programs are composed so that they may cooperate, they may instead destructively interfere in unanticipated ways. These hazards limit the scale and functionality of the software systems we can successfully compose. This dissertation presents a framework for enabling those interactions between components needed for the cooperation we intend, while minimizing the hazards of destructive interference.
Great progress on the composition problem has been made within the object paradigm, chiefly in the context of sequential, single-machine programming among benign components. We show how to extend this success to support robust composition of concurrent and potentially malicious components distributed over potentially malicious machines. We present E, a distributed, persistent, secure programming language, and CapDesk, a virus-safe desktop built in E, as embodiments of the techniques we explain.


Thermal infrared (TIR) data from the MASTER airborne imaging spectrometer were acquired over Mount St. Helens in Sept and Oct, 2004, before and after the onset of recent eruptive activity. Pre‐eruption data showed no measurable increase in surface temperatures before the first phreatic eruption on Oct 1. MASTER data acquired during the initial eruptive episode on Oct 14 showed maximum temperatures of ∼330°C and TIR data acquired concurrently from a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera showed maximum temperatures ∼675°C, in narrow (∼1‐m) fractures of molten rock on a new resurgent dome. MASTER and FLIR thermal flux calculations indicated a radiative cooling rate of ∼714 J/m2/s over the new dome, corresponding to a radiant power of ∼24 MW. MASTER data indicated the new dome was dacitic in composition, and digital elevation data derived from LIDAR acquired concurrently with MASTER showed that the dome growth correlated with the areas of elevated temperatures. Low SO2 concentrations in the plume combined with sub‐optimal viewing conditions prohibited quantitative measurement of plume SO2. The results demonstrate that airborne TIR data can provide information on the temperature of both the surface and plume and the composition of new lava during eruptive episodes. Given sufficient resources, the airborne instrumentation could be deployed rapidly to a newly‐awakening volcano and provide a means for remote volcano monitoring.


This paper gives an overview on the theoretical results of recently developed algorithms for iterative controller tuning based on the correlation approach. The basic idea is to decorrelate the output error between the achieved and designed closed‐loop systems by iteratively tuning the controller parameters. Two different approaches are investigated. In the first one, a correlation equation involving a vector of instrumental variables is solved using the stochastic approximation method. It is shown that, with an appropriate choice of instrumental variables and a finite number of data at each iteration, the algorithm converges to the solution of the correlation equation. The convergence conditions are derived and the accuracy of the estimates are studied. The second approach is based on the minimization of a correlation criterion. The frequency analysis of the criterion shows that the two norm of the error between the desired and achieved closed‐loop transfer functions is minimized independent of the noise characteristics. This analysis leads to the definition of a generalized correlation criterion which allows the mixed sensitivity problem to be handled in two norm. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study investigates the information needs of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. It identifies their information needs when they were in the early stages of their business experience. The study adopted a mixed method of study which were: quantitative and qualitative approach of study. Questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 110 managers of SMEs located in Shah Alam, Selangor. Twenty-six respondents from the samples were interviewed. The findings from the survey using the questionnaire revealed that the identified kinds of business information needed by respondents included information on business opportunities, followed by preparing business plans, planning cash flow, and profit planning. The results indicated that the kinds of business information considered very important were information related to planning cash flow, followed by communications with clients, business opportunities, preparing business plans, courses on entrepreneurship, profit planning, and latest technology. The study found that respondents obtained most of their business information by sharing experience with other entrepreneurs, followed by talking to other entrepreneurs, using the Internet/email, reading newspapers and magazines, discussions with friends and relatives, getting advice from government agency officers, asking clients, and talking to experts/business consultants/The results revealed that the sources from which respondents obtained their business information were courses, followed by business exhibitions, the Internet/e-mail, government agencies, business premises, technical training, and practical training. Clients and other entrepreneurs were considered as very important sources of business information, while the librarian was perceived as only moderately important. Results from the interview revealed that the most common kinds of information required by SME managers were business information/opportunities, followed by financial sources, current marketing trends, location, survey/research, sources of raw materials/intermediate products, information on customers, government regulations/policies, competitors, method/equipment/technology, business registration, risk, labour availability, profitability, networking methods and travels. The most common kinds of information required for decision-making were business opportunities/competitors, followed by finance, methods of analysis, market, data, suppliers (of raw materials/immediate products), innovation/technology, consultancy/advices, society, risk, profitability, government policies, and entrepreneurship training. The results of the interview also revealed that the most common types of sources of information were the Internet, followed by reading materials, surveys, information directories, associations/agencies, courses on entrepreneurship, experts/business consultants, media, networks, exhibitions, advertisements, visits, analytical reports, social events, neighbourhoods, market players, politics and biography.


Web-based services often run randomized experiments to improve their products. A popular way to run these experiments is to use geographical regions as units of experimentation, since this does not require tracking of individual users or browser cookies. Since users may issue queries from multiple geographical locations, geo-regions cannot be considered independent and interference may be present in the experiment. In this paper, we study this problem, and first present GeoCUTS, a novel algorithm that forms geographical clusters to minimize interference while preserving balance in cluster size. We use a random sample of anonymized traffic from Google Search to form a graph representing user movements, then construct a geographically coherent clustering of the graph. Our main technical contribution is a statistical framework to measure the effectiveness of clusterings. Furthermore, we perform empirical evaluations showing that the performance of GeoCUTS is comparable to hand-crafted geo-regions with respect to both novel and existing metrics.


Suspension lecture, 11 November 2011. Rhodes Box Theatre, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
When considering what to do with one's Friday night, probably very few people would consider a two-hour formal lecture a top priority. But this is a Friday night in Grahamstown, where novelty in leisure and entertainment choices, outside of festival time, is a rarity. It is therefore unsurprising that, on the evening of 11 November 2011, the Rhodes Box Theatre is packed by 7 pm with a variety of students, academics, members of the local alternative scene and the general public. All have come to witness 'Suspension lecture' - a performance instigated by Annemi Conradie, a temporary lecturer in the Rhodes Fine Art Department. This event - a collaboration between the Rhodes Fine Art and Drama Departments, as well as Freak Factor productions, which is headed by John Wayne 5ive, a body modifier and suspension artist - involved a live suspension accompanied by a lecture on the subculture of suspension art and modern primitivism delivered by Conradie.


Abstract Understanding the degree of intraspecific variation within and among populations is a key aspect of predicting the capacity of a species to respond to anthropogenic disturbances. However, intraspecific variation is usually assessed at either limited temporal, but broad spatial scales or vice versa, which can make assessing changes in response to long‐term disturbances challenging. We evaluated the relationship between the longitudinal gradient of changing flow regimes and land use/land cover patterns since 1980 and morphological variation of Guadalupe Bass Micropterus treculii throughout the Colorado River Basin of central Texas. The Colorado River Basin in Texas has experienced major alterations to the hydrologic regime due to changing land‐ and water‐use patterns. Historical collections of Guadalupe Bass prior to rapid human‐induced change present the unique opportunity to study the response of populations to varying environmental conditions through space and time. Morphological differentiation of Guadalupe Bass associated with temporal changes in flow regimes and land use/land cover patterns suggests that they are exhibiting intraspecific trait variability, with contemporary individuals showing increased body depth, in response to environmental alteration through time (specifically related to an increase in herbaceous land cover, maximum flows, and the number of low pulses and high pulses). Additionally, individuals from tributaries with increased hydrologic alteration associated with urbanization or agricultural withdrawals tended to have a greater distance between the anal and caudal fin. These results reveal trait variation that may help to buffer populations under conditions of increased urbanization and sprawl, human population growth, and climate risk, all of which impose novel selective pressures, especially on endemic species like Guadalupe Bass. Our results contribute an understanding of the adaptability and capacity of an endemic population to respond to expected future changes based on demographic or climatic projection.


Motor neurons of the spinal cord and hindbrain are responsible for translating neural commands into movements. For the execution of smooth movements, it is necessary that motor neuronal impulses are in turn translated into the gradual build-up of muscle force. This task is achieved by the diversification of motor neurons into a range of 'slow' to 'fast' types that are recruited by presynaptic activity according to the amount and manner of force they generate in the muscle. During embryonic development motor neurons are generated from neural progenitor cells residing in the ventral neural tube. A lot of information has become available in recent years about how the motor neuron progenitors are specified and how motor neurons differentiate into different 'positional identities' according to the specific muscles or muscle groups they supply. However, very little is known about how the motor neurons diversify into the different slow and fast types required for the automated gradation and task-dependent application of muscle force.

Dlk1, a type1 transmembrane protein, was recently identified as a determinant of motor neuron functional diversification by promoting fast motor neuron properties. Howbeit, the signalling mechanisms that allow Dlk1 to alter gene expression and promote fast motor neuron properties still remained unresolved. The present thesis attempted to dissect the signalling mechanism in a stepwise fashion starting from the plasma membrane, where the Dlk1 protein resides, to the nucleus where it affects gene expression. As a starting point, the supervisor's laboratory had identified the Notch and NFATc4 as interacting partners of Dlk1. Knowing that Notch is a principal player in generation of cellular diversity throughout development while NFATc4 is a transcription factor that shuttles between cytosol and nucleus, I divided my study into two parts. In the first part of the thesis, I used biochemical and immunohistochemical assays to resolve the physical interaction between the Dlk1 extracellular segment with Notch, its impact on Notch activation by canonical ligands and its influence on motor-neurogenesis. In the second part of my study, I show that Dlk1 is cleaved intracellularly and that the resulting Dlk1 intracellular segment interacts with NFATc4. My study also indicates the transcriptional regulation of Dlk1 target genes by NFAT. With the help of electrophysiological recordings in genetically manipulated chick spinal cord, I further found that suppressing NFAT activity alters the physiological properties of motor neurons. The result of my studies thus give rise to a model according to which Dlk1, by physically connecting Notch and NFAT signalling pathways, directly connects neurogenesis to motor neuron functional diversification.


Electronic and biological applications of carbon nanotubes can be highly dependent on the species (chirality) of nanotube, purity, and concentration. Existing bulk methods, such as absorbance spectroscopy, can quantify sp2 carbon based on spectral bands, but nanotube length distribution, defects, and carbonaceous impurities can complicate quantification of individual particles. We present a general method to relate the optical density of a photoluminescent nanotube sample to the number of individual nanotubes. By acquiring 3-dimensional images of nanotubes embedded in a gel matrix with a reducing environment, we quantified all emissive nanotubes in a volume. Via spectral imaging, we assessed structural impurities and precisely determined molar concentrations of the (8,6) and (9,4) nanotube species. We developed an approach to obtain the molarity of any structurally enriched semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube preparation on a per-nanotube basis.


Aim: To compare the enhancement and visibility of coronary arteries using the spiral flow tube with that of the T-tube during coronary CT angiography. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study consisted of 110 patients. The first 55 patients underwent coronary CT angiography with the conventional T-tube, while the last 55 patients used the novel spiral flow tube. Coronary attenuation of proximal and distal segments were measured and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were calculated. To assess the visibility of distal segments, the number of coronary branches of 1 mm at their origin was counted. Results: The spiral flow tube significantly increased the average attenuation of proximal (413 ± 40 vs 438 ± 45 HU, p <0.005) and distal segments (403 ±46 vs 441 ± 46 HU, p <0.0001). The SNR in the spiral tube group tended to be higher than the T-tube group and the difference was significant in distal segments (14.0 ± 2.9 vs 15.4 ± 4.1, p = 0.04). The depiction of coronary branches improved with the spiral flow tube (16.0 ± 4.8 vs 17.8 ± 4.4, p = 0.04). Conclusion: The spiral flow tube increased the enhancement of coronary arteries and improved the visibility of distal segments in coronary CT angiography.


It focuses on the role of forests, particularly natural ones, in poverty alleviation in developing countries. While some attention is given to the potential of planted forests and agroforestry to alleviate poverty, space constraints allow only a passing reference to trees outside forests. Thus, while not attempting to provide an extensive analysis of the topic, the chapter defines forest-based poverty alleviation, examines the potential of forests in this regard, notes obstacles to progress, identifies conditions that may strengthen the role of forests in alleviating poverty, and proposes several strategies to improve the contributions of the forest sector. Forests can be vital safety nets, helping rural people to avoid, mitigate or rise out of poverty. This function is unknown to many policy-makers and planners because it is not well understood or explained. One reason is that the contribution of forests to poor households is largely unrecorded in national statistics, as most of it is for subsistence or for trade on local markets. In addition, most wealth from timber goes to better-off segments of society, while some aspects of the access to and processing of timber resources actually inhibit their potential to assist marginalized people. Despite these obstacles, the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation can be increased, provided that decision-makers recognize and act on this potential.


The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion concerning the concepts used in the field of extended education by scrutinising different concepts that can contribute to research and guard the specific educational attitude of extended education as viewed from a Swedish perspective. The discussion will be based on a review of concepts used in both national and international research, as well as those formulated in Swedish policy documents and traditionally used in Swedish schoolage educare activity. Defining extended education as a social practice that aims at meaning making based on experiences from everyday life will be an important theoretical starting point to which the discussed concepts will be related. The significance of taking a point of departure in children's perspectives is central in the article. Finally, some newly created concepts will be suggested as significant for the development of extended education.


This paper provides a synthesis of current global evidence on the impact of cash transfers in developing countries and of what works in different contexts or for different development objectives. Cash transfers are direct regular and predictable non-contributory cash payments that help poor and vulnerable households to raise and smooth incomes. The term encompasses a range of instruments (e.g. social pensions child grants or public works programmes) and a spectrum of design implementation and financing options. While the primary purpose of cash transfers is to reduce poverty and vulnerability the evidence shows that they have proven potential to contribute directly or indirectly to a wider range of development outcomes.


Background: Placebos (inert substances or procedures) can positively influence a person's psychological and physical well-being, which is accompanied by specific changes in brain activity. There are many different types of placebos with different effects on health-related variables. This study investigated placebo effects in the context of religious beliefs and practices. The participants received an inert substance (tap water) along with the verbal suggestion that the water would come from the sanctuary in Lourdes (a major Catholic pilgrimage site with reports of miracle cures). We investigated changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in three brain networks (default-mode, salience, cognitive control) associated with the drinking of the placebo water. Methods: A total of 37 females with the belief that water from the sanctuary in Lourdes has positive effects on their spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being participated in this placebo study with two sessions. The participants drank tap water that was labeled "Lourdes water" (placebo) before a 15-min resting-state scan in one session. In the other (control) session, they received tap water labeled as tap water. The participants rated their affective state (valence, arousal) during the session and were interviewed concerning specific thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations directly after each of the two sessions. Results: The placebo reduced rsFC in the frontoparietal cognitive control network and increased rsFC in the salience network (insular-cerebellar connectivity). During the session, the participants rated their affective state as very pleasant and calm. The ratings did not differ between the two conditions. Immediately after the session, the participants reported increased intensity of pleasant bodily sensations (e.g., feelings of warmth, tingling) and feelings (e.g., gratefulness) for the "Lourdes water" condition. Conclusions: The present findings provide the first evidence that placebos in the context of religious beliefs and practices can change the experience of emotional salience and cognitive control which is accompanied by connectivity changes in the associated brain networks.


Corrosion properties and phase analysis of zinc phosphate conversion coating (ZPCC) formed on the T6-6061 aluminum alloys, after immersion in phosphating bath containing various amounts of Co+2 (0, 5, 9, 13 g/L), was investigated by the mean of scanning electron microscope (SEM), electrochemical spectroscopy impedance (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization technics (Toefl plots). Results showed that with increase in cobalt ion concentration to 9 g/L, crystals size reduced and pores on the surface decreased to lowest amount. So that impedance module of sample which is containing 9 g/L of cobalt ion, is almost 4 and 2 times greater than the pure sample and that which is containing 5 g/L of cobalt ions, respectively. Moreover, results of potentiodynamic polarization showed that incrimination of cobalt ion dosage lead to both decrease corrosion current density and shifts potential to positive amounts.


The plant species of Hazarnoe Forest of District Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were evaluated floristically from April 2016 to November 2017. Of the total 240 reported plant species, 38 were monocots, 196 dicots which belongs to 85 families and 188 genera respectively. Poaceae was the leading family contributed 20 species.  Family Asteraceae contributed (14 spp.), Lamiaceae (13 spp.) while Papilionaceae and Solanaceae each with 10 species. Of the total plant taxa perennials were 161 species compared to annuals (73 spp.) and biennials (06 spp.). The dominant growth form was herbs that contributed (108 spp.) followed by trees (50 spp.) and shrubs (45 spp.) respectively. Phanerophytes were the dominant life-form (92 spp.) whereas leaf size spectrum of microphyll was reported as abundant in the overall floristic. Phanerophytes and microphyll leaf size was the dominant life forms which show typical climate of subtropical region governing the area. Conclusion of study was that the vegetation of the area is under heavy biotic pressure and need proper conservation.


Misconduct by lawyers in law firms is often attributed to pressures from increasing competition for legal services. Modern firms do face fierce competitive pressures. We can gain more subtle insights, however, by focusing on the specific markets in which particular firms operate and the ways in which forms of influence in law firms interact with common patterns of behavior in organizations. This paper, a chapter in the collection Law Firms, Legal Culture, and Legal Practice, draws on this type of analytical framework to provide a case study of the experience of Jenkens & Gilchrist, a national law firm that had to close its doors in 2007 because of tax shelter work that triggered civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution of three of its partners. It suggests that those of us who study the legal profession need to attend closely to how law firm culture is created, transmitted, interpreted, contested, and revised in the context of specific competitive markets. This analysis can help us develop a conceptual middle ground between the broad claim that business pressures now exert significant influence on law firm behavior, and the assumption that every unhappy law firm is unhappy in its own way.


Some of Virginia Woolf's writing is analytical of the literary world, including its history and processes. Woolf's essay "Modern Fiction" and short story "Solid Objects" analyze and criticize modern writing and can be seen as doing so within similar contexts, albeit in different modes. The main character of "Solid Objects" is arguably representative of Woolf's feelings, made clear in "Modern Fiction" of where modern writing is in the midst of going.


This chapter summarizes the methodology and development of a general equation, in order to obtain a series of equations to assess the hardness of different Al-Cu-Zn alloys, based on their chemical composition. This methodology produces an assessment of hardness with a maximal deviation of 5%, in as-cast, homogenized and quenching alloys, for both alloys created in laboratories like commercials. This method entails the generation of linear equations by a linear regression method, obtained from a zone of the phase diagram, when the composition is changed from linear to planar form. Therefore, if the chemical composition of samples varies, the percentage of each phase will also vary, causing a change in mechanical properties in a linear manner. If the heat treatments are the same for all samples, then the changes in mechanical properties are proportional for each of them, maintaining the linear relationship in mechanical properties in accordance with chemical composition. This methodology is applicable for any ternary alloy along with its equilibrium diagram.


This thesis describes synthesis, structural and magnetic properties of high nuclearity cluster complexes self assembled from polydentate alkoxo-diazine ligands. In Chapter 1. clusters and self-assembly have been briefly reviewed. In Chapter 2. synthesis, characterization. X-ray structures and the magnetic properties of three trinuclear copper(II) complexes are described. These compounds exhibit moderate to strong antiferromagnetic coupling as a result of superexchange via the N-N linkages. The magnetic properties are explained on the basis of large rotational angles of the copper magnetic planes about the diazine bridges. In Chapter 3. four predominantly square grid M₄(µ-O)₄ (M = Cu(II), Ni(II) and Co(II)) complexes and a rectangular Mn₄(N-N)₂O₂ grid complex are synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray techniques. The square [2x2] copper(II) cluster exhibits intramolecular ferromagnetic spin exchange, associated with the orthogonal alkoxide bridging arrangement and the close proximity of the copper centers. Both the Ni₄(µ-O)₄ and Co₄(µ-O)₄ clusters are antiferromagnetically coupled due to the large M-O-M angles and for the rectangular Mn₄ complex the exchange is dominated by antiferromagnetic coupling via the N-N bridge. Chapter 4 describes the ligand paoh. which has two widely separated tridentate (N₂O) terminal coordination pockets, and uncoupled square [2x2] Fe(II)₄ grid complex. Replacement of the NH₂ groups with 2-pyridyl residues gives the ligand dpkoh with the additional coordination capacity of an exo-N₄ coordination pocket, leading to an octanuclear metallacyclic cluster complex [Ni₈(dpkoh-2H)₄(H₂O)₈](ClO₄)₈.4H₂O, in which eight nickel(II) centers are bridged just by the diazine N-N single bond. Substantial antiferromagnetic coupling exists between the nickel(II) ions throughout the metallacycle. In Chapter 5. the synthesis, structural characterization and magnetism studies of [3x3] Mn(ll) and Cu(II) nanonuclear square grid complexes are described. The Mn(II)o systems exhibit intramolecular antiferromagnetic coupling, while for the Cu(II)q complexes ferromagnetic exchange is observed with an S = 7/2 ground state. The aggregation of nine octahedral Mn(II) and Cu(II) centers (fifty four coordination positions) into an alkoxo-bridged, portcullis-like [3x3] grid by six heptadentate 2poap ligands (fifty four donor positions) is a unique example of a self assembly process.


Sensorimotor circuits integrate biomechanical feedback with ongoing motor activity to produce behaviors that adapt to unpredictable environments. Reflexes are critical in modulating motor output by facilitating rapid responses. During posture, resistance reflexes generate negative feedback that opposes perturbations to stabilize a body. During walking, assistance reflexes produce positive feedback that facilitates fast transitions between swing and stance of each step cycle. Until recently, sensorimotor networks have been studied using biomechanical feedback based on external perturbations in the presence or absence of intrinsic motor activity. Experiments in which biomechanical feedback driven by intrinsic motor activity is studied in the absence of perturbation have been limited. Thus, it is unclear whether feedback plays a role in facilitating transitions between behavioral states or mediating different features of network activity independent of perturbation. These properties are important to understand because they can elucidate how a circuit coordinates with other neural networks or contributes to adaptable motor output. Computational simulations and mathematical models have been used extensively to characterize interactions of negative and positive feedback with nonlinear oscillators. For example, neuronal action potentials are generated by positive and negative feedback of ionic currents via a membrane potential. While simulations enable manipulation of system parameters that are inaccessible through biological experiments, mathematical models ascertain mechanisms that help to generate biological hypotheses and can be translated across different systems. Here, a three-tiered approach was employed to determine the role of sensory feedback in a crayfish locomotor circuit involved in posture and walking. In vitro experiments using a brain-machine interface illustrated that unperturbed motor output of the circuit was changed by closing the sensory feedback loop. Then, neuromechanical simulations of the in vitro experiments reproduced a similar range of network activity and showed that the balance of sensory feedback determined how the network behaved. Finally, a reduced mathematical model was designed to generate waveforms that emulated simulation results and demonstrated how sensory feedback can control the output of a sensorimotor circuit. Together, these results showed how the strengths of different approaches can complement each other to facilitate an understanding of the mechanisms that mediate sensorimotor integration. INDEX WORDS: central pattern generator, sensory feedback, feedback control, nonlinear oscillator, bifurcation dynamics LOCOMOTOR NETWORK DYNAMICS GOVERNED BY FEEDBACK CONTROL IN CRAYFISH POSTURE AND LOCOMOTION


This article examines the representation of emotion and desire in Ah Cheng's The King of Chess (Qi wang). The interpretation of The King of Chess has been oriented toward an allegorical reading that revolves around grand cultural concepts, such as aesthetics, Taoist tradition, cultural consciousness, and national identity. In this paradigm of reading, the literary text has largely become a footnote of the master narrative of China's cultural reconstruction of the 1980s. Following the recent interpretative turn of this story from cultural to existential and from allegorical to corporeal, the article extends to yet another domain, that of emotion, intimacy, and desire, which is rarely addressed but crucial to further understanding the text. My analysis illuminates an account of same-sex romance in this novella. In analyzing the homoerotic narrative, this article explores how Ah Cheng's writing constitutes a counter-narrative to some dominant ideas concerning the world of emotion and desire under Maoism. Transcending the overfamiliar double image of either the political passion of activists or the emotional distress of underdogs, Ah Cheng's work calls for a rethinking of the domain of emotion and desire of that era in diverse forms, especially the nonconventional ones that may have existed but have been ruled out. The discourse of same-sex romance in Ah Cheng's The King of Chess ultimately delivers a subtle criticism of the Cultural Revolution whose hyperbolically political grand narratives facilely dismissed human desire into subtraction, abstraction, and disposal.