The oxidation of hydrocarbons provides a cost effective method of converting cheap starting material to bulk chemicals and more importantly in the synthetic transformation to fine chemicals. Transition metals effectively catalyze these oxidation reactions. However, the use of a good ligand system is imperative in controlling the activity of the metal complexes. Aminodiphosphine or "PNP" ligands have been used extensively in ethylene oligomerisation with chromium as the active metal. In this study six PNP ligands were synthesized and the substituent on the nitrogen atom was varied by making use of alkyl substituents such a cyclohexyl, iso-propyl and pentyl, as well as phenyl and substituted phenyl (chlorophenyl and methoxy phenyl) substituents. The ligands were complexed to the transition metals Co, Rh, Ir and Ru. These new bidentate complexes were fully characterized by NMR analysis, IR spectroscopy, HRMS and melting point determination. X-ray quality crystals were grown for eight of the metal complexes (all novel, R% < 10). These complexes were then compared in the oxidation of styrene and n-octane. This includes the comparison of two structural types of "PNP" cobalt complexes having the cyclohexyl, isopropyl and pentyl substituents on the nitrogen atom. In the oxidation of n-octane, the complex with the flexible ligand backbone showed higher activity. The ketones were the dominant product with highest selectivity to 2-octanone (34%). In the oxidation of styrene under optimum conditions, the complexes bearing the rigid ligand backbone were most active with good yields to benzaldehyde (25%). In the oxidation of styrene, of the six Ir and Rh complexes investigated, the Ir complexes were slightly more active than the Rh complexes, with the complex bearing the chlorophenyl substituent on the nitrogen atom being the most active (88% conversion). Higher yields to benzaldehyde than styrene oxide were obtained. In the oxidation of n-octane, the ketones were the dominant product formed over both the Ir and Rh catalysts. For both studies the catalysts were recovered and reused over 3 cycles. Ruthenium catalysts bearing the alkyl substituents were also applied in both oxidation studies. In the oxidation of styrene, > 80% conversion was obtained with a greater yield to benzaldehyde. In the oxidation of n-octane, the alcohols were the dominant product with good selectivity to 2 and 3-octanol (> 23%).


abstract This is the first of two articles studying unconscious creativity. In creativity, conscious and unconscious capacities are mostly intermingled, because in addition to creative inspiration the artist requires a wide range of specific talents, long hours of learning, training and other conscious elements. In order to avoid discussing the question, in each instance of artistic talent, "to what extent is there an unconscious component here?" I have chosen to focus on the one component upon which there is full agreement that the artist has no conscious control over - the composition of an original melody. The article presents the words of several famous composers, each of whom assures us that he has no control over the creation of his melodies, and feels himself to be only a vehicle through which god, the muse, or any other entity that is "not himself" transmits the original melody, tune, or theme. To my mind, in every talent or artistic ability there is at least one or even several components of creation over which the artist has no conscious control. However, in this article I focus on the composition of melodies as representative of all artistic talents and this is because musical talent has played a crucial role in my childhood development and consequently, I can use my own case as a representative one. Studying the problem of creativity has brought me into a theoretical dispute with Freud, especially with his decisive statement that it is futile to search for meaning in the manifest narrative. I, in contrast, have always had the opposite impression that it is the narrative, on all its levels, that is the key to the understanding of dreams, fantasies, and most works of art. To contest Freud I present: 1. Several of my own dreams. 2. A wide spectrum of recent brain research, showing the main developments from Freud's era up to the present. I have endeavored to show that these discoveries demand that we change a hefty part of our basic perceptions, some of which have until now been so self evident for all of us that they seemed to be beyond question. For example, we now need to question the unity of the soul, the prohibition of using anthropomorphism in science, and the attempts to abolish any use of a homunculus. I have recommended that psychoanalysis adopt the original view of the brain researchers Francis Krick (Nobel prize winner) and Christof Koch who divide the unconscious into two domains: the sub-mental and the supramental. The first includes all mental processes that do not require the light of awareness (the zombie agent), while the second domain includes all superior processes that are above and beyond the capacity of full awareness, such as creativity, problem solving, and insight. Concluding the article, I introduced a new hypothetical construct that I name "The narrator". Its function is to invent the original stories over the creation of which man has no control, including dreams, fantasies, and his inspired artistic creations. The article following this one will be devoted entirely to the description and study of this hypothetical Narrator. A Personal Journey As a child I was sure I would be a composer when I grew up. More than anything else in life, I loved music. Indoors, I was permanently glued to the radio; when I went out I would sit under any window from which I could hear a piano playing. I even used to climb to the roof of my town's concert hall where I had found an open hatch through which to listen to the music, and even see parts of the stage. By the age of 10, I already knew hundreds of musical pieces by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and others by heart and drove my friends and family crazy whistling, humming or singing all day until they pleaded for silence. At home we didn't have a piano, gramophone, or anything else that played music, except a radio. But even when music did play on the radio, my family would immediately switch to anther station to listen to news broadcasts. …


The information systems field started with the expectation that information and technology will significantly shape the nature of work. The topic provides ample scope for significant scholarly inquiry. Work content, process, and organization are now different from what they were in the 1960s and 1970s, which provided a foundation for theories and understanding. Although investigations about the changing nature of work have been made for years, this special section recognizes that the time of reckoning has come again. There is a growing need for deeper understanding of information, technology, and work. The specific contributions of this special section are at the heart of new frontiers of research in information, technology, and work. We observe a continued need to study their relationships, and to separate short-term and long-term effects. We expect continued surprises and conclude that patience is required to achieve increased understanding in this important domain.


The purpose of this research was to study how the data management of a main contractor can be improved, in order to provide better client value and more costefficient production. The research focused on methods for reengineering the information management using product modelling as an enabling technology. The methods were tested in pilot tests in which the developed cost and value engineering prototype application was used. This paper demonstrates an integration of design and production planning based on the product model approach. The final outcome is that the main contractor can utilise information coming from designers as input in its own tendering and cost estimation applications. The key methodology used for describing the information management process throughout the building process life-cycle was IDEF0. The analysis of the current process (as-is), in the form of an IDEF0 model, helped in identifying the main problems of current practice. The target process (to-be) definition was based on product model utilisation and takes into account the possibilities for process reengineering supported by product data technology. One specific requirement was deemed important in view of the anticipated developments in the area of data exchange; the target system should be structured in such a way that it could easily be adapted to receive data according to the emerging Industry Foundation class (IFC) core model schemas. The overall result of the research reported in this paper is that the product model approach can be used for a substantially reengineered information management process of a main contractor, especially in design and constructdesign/build type contracts.


This article focuses on the recent film adaptation of the 2013 Tomb Raider video game. Its main goal is to show that, despite the significant changes that the plot undergoes when transitioning from video game to feature film, the adaptation remains faithful to the conservative gender politics of its ludic source text, in the sense that in both the game and the film Lara must struggle to maintain patriarchal order. While in the game the female protagonist has to fulfil her late father's unfinished archaeological (in fact colonial) project and redeem his name, in the film she has to compensate for her father's masculinity crisis. The resolution of the plot coincides with a resolution of the crisis of masculinity, which reinstates the gender power relations privileging masculinity. Furthermore, this article shows that Lara's struggle to re-establish patriarchy in the film's storyworld coerces her to adopt a colonial attitude with respect to otherness. By performing phallic masculinity, Lara Croft acts as an agent of colonialism whose intervention in foreign territories and cultures is rendered by the film providential for the emancipation of the native populations.


We have characterized the gravitropic response of inflorescence stems in Arabidopsis thaliana. When the inflorescence stems were placed horizontally, they curved upward about 90[deg] within 90 min in darkness at 23[deg]C, exhibiting strong negative gravitropism. Decapitated stem segments (without all flowers, flower buds, and apical apices) also showed gravitropic responses when they included the elongation zone. This result indicates that the minimum elements needed for the gravitropic response exist in the decapitated inflorescence stem segments. At least the 3-min gravistimulation time was sufficient to induce the initial curvature at 23[deg]C after a lag time of about 30 min. In the gravitropic response of inflorescence stems, (a) the gravity perception site exists through the elongating zone, (b) auxin is involved in this response, (c) the gravitropic curvature was inhibited at 4[deg]C but at least the gravity perception step could occur, and (d) two curvatures could be induced in sequence at 23[deg]C by two opposite directional horizontal gravistimulations at 4[deg]C.


Abstract. Phosphorus (P) concentrations in sediments are frequently used to reconstruct past environmental conditions in freshwater and marine systems, with high values thought to be indicative of a high biological productivity. Recent studies suggest that the post-depositional formation of vivianite, an iron(II)-phosphate mineral, might significantly alter trends in P with sediment depth. To assess its importance, we investigate a sediment record from the Bornholm Basin that was retrieved during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Baltic Sea Paleoenvironment Expedition 347 in 2013, consisting of lake sediments overlain by brackish–marine deposits. Combining bulk sediment geochemistry with microanalysis using scanning electron microscope energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), we demonstrate that vivianite-type minerals rich in manganese and magnesium are present in the lake deposits just below the transition to the brackish–marine sediments (at 11.5 to 12 m sediment depth). In this depth interval, phosphate that diffuses down from the organic-rich, brackish–marine sediments meets porewaters rich in dissolved iron in the lake sediments, resulting in the precipitation of iron(II) phosphate. Results from a reactive transport model suggest that the peak in iron(II) phosphate originally occurred at the lake–marine transition (9 to 10 m) and moved downwards due to changes in the depth of a sulfidization front. However, its current position relative to the lake–marine transition is stable as the vivianite-type minerals and active sulfidization fronts have been spatially separated over time. Experiments in which vivianite was subjected to sulfidic conditions demonstrate that incorporation of manganese or magnesium in vivianite does not affect its susceptibility to sulfide-induced dissolution. Our work highlights that post-depositional formation of iron(II) phosphates such as vivianite has the potential to strongly alter sedimentary P records particularly in systems that are subject to environmental perturbation, such as a change in primary productivity, which can be associated with a lake–marine transition.


Language Teacher Supervision illuminates an under-explored area of the language teaching profession. Using case studies of actual teaching situations, the book explores such issues as teacher evaluation, autonomy, authority and awareness and attitude. It contains a wealth of practical detail on gathering data and providing feedback in post-observation conferences with teachers. A variety of cases, together with a comprehensive review of the literature, offers valuable insights into the dynamic, interactive process of language teacher supervision. Follow-up discussion questions, development tasks, and suggestions for further reading afford avenues for further exploration.


GPSS has been used for years to teach simulation. Different tools following the GPSS syntax exist. Usually these tools can be used to construct simulation models helping in the teaching of simulation. However no available framework is capable to simplify the development of a complete simulation tool following the GPSS syntax. This paper presents JGPSS, a framework based in Java language that can be used by students to build a complete simulation tool following the GPSS syntax. JGPSS has two versions, one capable to perform simulations and obtain statistical information, and other designed as a framework for students of computer sciences. This last framework, described in this paper, lacks in the implementation of the main simulation engine algorithms or the related structures. This framework allows the computer science student to reach a deeper understanding of how to construct a complete process interaction simulation engine, the paradigm that GPSS follows.


A cosurfactant-free O/W microemulsion composed of oil, a mixture of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfactants, and water has been developed using food-grade components as a nutrient delivery system. We started our investigation to monitor the phase behavior of this system based on a hydrophilic surfactant (Tween 80). From a phase diagram, the weight ratio of 5.4:33.8:60.8 = oil:surfactant:water was selected as a combination ratio for the O/W microemulsion system. We also investigated the combination effect of different hydrophobic surfactants to Tween 80 on microemulsion formation. Use of hydrophobic surfactants with Tween 80 produced smaller droplets than Tween 80 alone. Rheological studies showed that all microemulsions followed shear-thinning behavior. The turbidity of microemulsions did not change after accelerated stability tests, indicating that this microemulsion system was stable under the given harsh conditions. When docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) oil was applied to this microemulsion system, the particle size and the turbidity were not significantly changed. Dilution with a different aqueous medium, either water or acidic fluid, did not significantly change the microemulsion turbidity. DHA oil incorporated in microemulsion showed higher oxidation stability than free DHA oil.


Online shoppers are guided by search platforms: consumers type a search phrase into the platform's query box, and the platform chooses how products appear in response. While search platforms may choose responses that help consumers find products more efficiently, they may also have incentives to mislead consumers. For example, search platforms may organize responses to favor their own products over third-party products that better suit consumer needs.

This paper uses a search-platform experiment to determine how to measure the effects of search responses on consumer welfare. In my model, the search platform has two different search algorithms, and the algorithm used for each consumer is assigned randomly. I apply the model in a study of users of an online travel agency. The data—from a data-mining competition sponsored by Expedia—contain an experiment that fits my model's framework: Expedia treated some users with randomly ordered product listings and others with products ranked as Expedia saw best. I measure how consumer welfare changes across the two algorithms.

I find that under the random listing, the welfare of the users of the online travel agency is lowered by an average of $8.84 per user relative to Expedia's own ranking system. I also simulate the welfare harm from a counterfactual search response that removes the top five products from all search results and find the welfare lowered by an average of $20.51 per user. Thus, platforms may create value for consumers by providing useful product orderings, but they can also substantially harm consumers by hiding products.


SUMMARY: Soft-bottom benthic communities were studied along the Western coast of the Ligurian Sea with a new approach using both videocamera surveys and collected samples. The preliminary distribution of soft-bottoms and the definition of the limits and status of seagrass beds were carried out in September 1991, using an underwater vehicle provided with a videocamera and towed by a boat. Moreover, 90 benthic samples were collected at 5-40 m depth in order to characterize the macrobenthic soft-bottom communities. Six soft-bottom benthic assemblages and two sea grass biotopes (Cymodocea nodosa and Posidonia oceanica) were revealed by means of underwater images and multivariate analysis (TWINSPAN) on samples collected. The communities inhabiting the infralittoral sandy and coarse sediments corresponded to those previously described in the Mediterranean Sea, whereas a large complex transition between sandy and muddy communities was recognized on circalittoral soft-bottoms. Information obtained with this approach was used to draw a map of the investigated areas at 1:10,000 scale. The employment of the two techniques was cost effective for both time and research effort.


Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired, autoimmune haematological disease without an identifiable cause. The immune process is thought to be initiated by the generation of an autoantibody to platelet glycoproteins and sustained by an immune dysregulation of T-cells and cytokines, leading to progressive thrombocytopenia and increased risk of bleeding.1 Although most patients with ITP have mild to moderate thrombocytopenia and do not need treatment, adults with severe thrombocytopenia tend to suffer from recurrent relapses requiring medical intervention.

In 2009, a series of recommendations on terminology and outcome assessment in ITP were published by an international working group.2 The rationale was to establish an international nomenclature, to harmonise and to facilitate information exchange on clinical trial and management of ITP. Besides defining the thrombocytopenia of ITP as a platelet count <100×109/L and re-establishing the response criteria, the stage of ITP development have also been revised. Instead of the traditional, rather arbitrary, definition of acute (a self-limited form resolving within 6 months of diagnosis) and chronic (persistent disease lasting more than 6 months) phases, ITP has been recategorised into newly diagnosed (up to 3 months from diagnosis), persistent (3–12 months from diagnosis) and chronic (beyond 12 months from diagnosis), based on the likelihood of spontaneous remission and sustained response post treatment. None of these new phases, however, have been validated. In 2010, an International Consensus Report (ICR) on the management of ITP was published, followed by an updated evidence-based practice guideline on ITP from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in 2011.3 4 The ICR and ASH management guidelines on ITP have offered the latest information based on the summary of clinical evidence and consensus from specialists in …


A student death on a college or university campus has far-reaching effects on the campus community. Not only does the death impact the family of the student, but also the friends, roommates, professors, and staff who knew the student. Many institutions of higher education have developed protocols and processes for responding to a student death. The response efforts may include the immediate attention to the death itself and also a response to the emotional impact a student death has on the campus. In addition to the immediate response, some colleges and universities have established scholarships, awards, and memorials in remembrance of the former student. This interpretive case study captured the collective stories of staff members from one faith-based college that responded to various student deaths over a span of several years. The themes that emerged from those stories are about the building of the eternal, visual memorial; the involvement of the campus community; the president as the comforter of the community; remembering all students; and moving on after the death of a student.


The initial inception of Society and Counselling Practices
was conceived in 2005 upon the author's Inaugural Speech
as Professor of Guidance and Counselling at Universiti Putra
Malaysia. The ideation evolved into a comprehensive holistic
essays connecting the author's academic research findings,
innovative ideation on guidance and counselling theoretical
construction works, and reconstruction of research papers
presented at international conferences. The essays duly captured in various chapters addressed a repertoire of education,counseling and mental health issues very close to the author's academic writing interest.


Sign language is the most natural way of expression for the deaf community. The urge to support the integration of deaf people into the hearing society made the automatic sign language recognition, an area of interest for the researchers. Indian Sign Language (ISL) is a visual-spatial language which provides linguistic information using hands, arms, facial expressions, and head/body postures. In this paper we propose a novel vision-based recognition of Indian Sign Language Alphabets and Numerals using B-Spline Approximation. Gestures of ISL alphabets are complex since it involves the gestures of both the hands together. Our algorithm approximates the boundary extracted from the Region of Interest, to a B-Spline curve by taking the Maximum Curvature Points (MCPs) as the Control points. Then the B-Spline curve is subjected to iterations for smoothening resulting in the extraction of Key Maximum Curvature points (KMCPs), which are the key contributors of the gesture shape. Hence a translation & scale invariant feature vector is obtained from the spatial locations of the KMCPs in the 8 Octant Regions of the 2D Space which is given for classification.


Sample preparation is a major bottleneck in many biological processes. Paramagnetic particles (PMPs) are a ubiquitous method for isolating analytes of interest from biological samples and are used for their ability to thoroughly sample a solution and be easily collected with a magnet. There are three main methods by which PMPs are used for sample preparation: (1) removal of fluid from the analyte-bound PMPs, (2) removal of analyte-bound PMPs from the solution, and (3) removal of the substrate (with immobilized analyte-bound PMPs). In this paper, we explore the third and least studied method for PMP-based sample preparation using a platform termed Sliding Lid for Immobilized Droplet Extractions (SLIDE). SLIDE leverages principles of surface tension and patterned hydrophobicity to create a simple-to-operate platform for sample isolation (cells, DNA, RNA, protein) and preparation (cell staining) without the need for time-intensive wash steps, use of immiscible fluids, or precise pinning geometries. Compared to other standard isolation protocols using PMPs, SLIDE is able to perform rapid sample preparation with low (0.6%) carryover of contaminants from the original sample. The natural recirculation occurring within the pinned droplets of SLIDE make possible the performance of multistep cell staining protocols within the SLIDE by simply resting the lid over the various sample droplets. SLIDE demonstrates a simple easy to use platform for sample preparation on a range of complex biological samples.


How can we understand the gender logic underpinning the welfare states/systems of East Asia? Does the comparative literature, which has largely been concerned with western
Welfare states, whether in The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Esping-Andersen 1990), or in gender-based analysis of the male breadwinner model (Lewis 1992, 2001,
2006), have anything to offer in understanding the gender assumptions underpinning East Asian welfare states? Are the welfare systems of East Asian countries distinctive, with
Confucian assumptions hidden beneath the surface commitment to gender equality? We will use the (mainly western) comparative literature, but argue that Confucian influences
remain important, with strong assumptions of family, market and voluntary sector responsibility rather than state responsibility, strong expectations of women's obligations,
without compensating rights, a hierarchy of gender and age, and a highly distinctive, vertical family structure, in which women are subject to parents-in-law. In rapidly
changing economies, these social characteristics are changing too. But they still put powerful pressures on women to conform to expectations about care, while weakening
their rights to security and support. Nowhere do welfare states' promises bring gender equality in practice. Even in Scandinavian countries women earn less, care more, and
have less power than men. We shall compare East Asian countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan where possible) with some Western ones, to argue that some major comparative data (e.g. OECD) show the extreme situation of women in these countries. Some fine new qualitative studies give us a close insight into the experience of mothers, including lone
and married mothers, which help us to understand how far the gender assumptions of welfare states are from Scandinavia's dual earner model. There are signs of change in
society as well as in economy, and room for optimism that women's involvement in social movements and academic enquiry may be challenging Confucian gender hierarchies.


This paper uses data from the March Current Population Survey and German Socio-Economic Panel to investigate the role of market forces and the institutional constraints in explaining the educational earnings differentials in the United States and West Germany. We make use of simple supply and demand framework to differentiate the effects of market forces from wage-setting institutions. Results indicate that differential growth in the relative employment of skilled workers is responsible for the differences in returns to skill in both countries over the period of analysis. In particular, rising educational attainment is the major factor underlying the changes in the employment of skilled workers in each country and it is followed by institutional factors. However, in addition to the differential growth in relative demand for skilled labor, differences in wage-setting institutions explain most of the cross-country differences in skill premia. We also provide evidence for polarization of jobs which is a recent phenomenon in both labor markets.


Abstract This study examines the impact of spatial landscape configuration (e.g., clustered, dispersed) on land‐surface temperatures (LST) over Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. We classified detailed land‐cover types via object‐based image analysis (OBIA) using Geoeye‐1 at 3‐m resolution (Las Vegas) and QuickBird at 2.4‐m resolution (Phoenix). Spatial autocorrelation (local Moran's I) was then used to test for spatial dependence and to determine how clustered or dispersed points were arranged. Next, we used Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data acquired over Phoenix (daytime on 10 June and nighttime on 17 October 2011) and Las Vegas (daytime on 6 July and nighttime on 27 August 2005) to examine day‐ and nighttime LST with regard to the spatial arrangement of anthropogenic and vegetation features. Local Moran's I values of each land‐cover type were spatially correlated to surface temperature. The spatial configuration of grass and trees shows strong negative correlations with LST, implying that clustered vegetation lowers surface temperatures more effectively. In contrast, clustered spatial arrangements of anthropogenic land‐cover types, especially impervious surfaces and open soil, elevate LST. These findings suggest that city planners and managers should, where possible, incorporate clustered grass and trees to disperse unmanaged soil and paved surfaces, and fill open unmanaged soil with vegetation. Our findings are in line with national efforts to augment and strengthen green infrastructure, complete streets, parking management, and transit‐oriented development practices, and reduce sprawling, unwalkable housing development.


How to improve the conditions for girls to attend school, to reduce failure and drop-out rates of
adolescent girls, while ensuring their dignity and protection? This was the consideration that motivated
the Kom-Yilma project, implemented by Catholic Relief Services in Burkina Faso and financed by the
Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, to undertake a behavior-change strategy for
menstrual-hygiene management in 118 schools in Bam and Sanmatenga Provinces. Discussions and
behavior-change communication activities, providing an appropriate space for girls and the active
participation of women leaders have already demonstrated positive results for a subject generally
considered taboo in the intervention zone.


Working with heritage speakers of West Frisian living in Wisconsin, the following chapter examines the frequency of use of English lexical items in spoken Wisconsin West Frisian and the phonological (non-)integration of these lexemes. The data show a comparatively low frequency of borrowing compared to other heritage communities, with a corresponding lack of phonological integration. We categorize the consultants as 'coordinate bilinguals,' who have simultaneous on-line access to lexical items from both language-specific lexicons. Consultants' balanced bilingualism minimizes the cross-linguistic transfer of both lexical items and phonology while accessing lexical items from either lexicon. This coordinate bilingualism account is supported by the sociolinguistic evidence of a context-dependent diglossia – parallel to the Dutch-Frisian diglossia in the Netherlands – in which both English and West Frisian were restricted to specific domains. It is argued here that social context, as well as the multiple-lexicon coordinate bilingualism model, can best account for these data.


Blood levels of the pineal hormone melatonin are high at night and low during the day. Its secretion is regulated by a rhythm-generating system located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, which is in turn regulated by light. Melatonin is regulated not only by that circadian oscillator but acts as a darkness signal, providing feedback to the oscillator. Melatonin has both a soporific effect and an ability to entrain the sleep-wake rhythm. It also has a major role in regulating the body temperature rhythm. Melatonin rhythms are altered in a variety of circadian rhythm disorders. Melatonin treatment has been reported to be effective in treatment of disorders such as jet lag and delayed sleep phase syndrome.


The accurate automated identification of named places is a major concern for scholars in the digital humanities, and especially for those engaged in research that depends upon the gazetteer-led recognition of specific aspects. The field of onomastics examines the linguistic roots and historical development of names, which have for the most part only standardised into single officially recognised forms since the late nineteenth century. Even slight spelling variations can introduce errors in geotagging techniques, and these differences in place-name spellings are thus vital considerations when seeking high rates of correct geospatial identification in historical texts. This article offers an overview of typical name-based variation that can cause issues in the accurate geotagging of any historical resource. The article argues that the careful study and documentation of these variations can assist in the development of more complete onymic records, which in turn may inform geotaggers through a cycle of variational recognition. It demonstrates how patterns in regional naming variation and development, across both specific and generic name elements, can be identified through the historical records of each known location. The article uses examples taken from a digitised corpus of writing about the English Lake District, a collection of 80 texts that date from between 1622 and 1900. Four of the more complex spelling-based problems encountered during the creation of a manual gazetteer for this corpus are examined. Specifically, the article demonstrates how and why such variation must be expected, particularly in the years preceding the standardisation of place-name spellings. It suggests how procedural developments may be undertaken to account for such georeferential issues in the Named Entity Recognition strategies employed by future projects. Similarly, the benefits of such multi-genre corpora to assist in completing onomastic records is also shown through examples of new name forms discovered for prominent sites in the Lake District. This focus is accompanied by a discussion of the influence of literary works on place-name standardisation – an aspect not typically accounted for in traditional onomastic study – to illustrate the extent to which authorial interests in regional toponymic histories can influence linguistic development.


Well aligned multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) was successfully synthesized by
floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition method (CVD) involving the catalytic
decomposition of benzene upon the surface of iron particle. Two sources of hydrogen
were employed and varied; H2* that carried benzene vapor and H2** that supplied fresh
hydrogen into the electrical furnace to analyze the effects they had on quantity as well as
the morphology and structure of the produced CNTs. Total hydrogen flow rate was kept
constant to allow constant residence time. Reaction time was also varied to study the
growth rate of the products. The remaining parameters such as reaction temperature
(850°C), ferrocene sublimation temperature (120°C), and mass of ferrocene (200 mg)
were kept constant throughout the reaction. Argon (300 ml/min flow rate) was flown into
the system before reaction to provide an inert atmosphere in the furnace. It was also
flown after reaction to prevent product oxidation. The quantity of CNTs produced was
highest (0.08g) when the reaction time and supply of benzene were maximized (t = 50
min, H2*=350 ml/min, and H2**= 0 ml/min. The structure of the selected CNT samples was then further characterized via the means
of Electron Microscopy (SEM, TEM, and HRTEM) as well as X Ray Diffractometer. By
using TEM, measurement of 50 tubes per sample revealed CNTs of outer diameter (OD)
from 5 to 55 nm and inner diameter (ID) from 5 nm to 25 nm for all conditions studied.
At H2* = 150 ml/min, H2** = 250 ml/min, and t = 50 min, mean OD and ID of 18.64 nm
and 4.85 nm with standard deviation of 18.64 nm and 4.85 nm, respectively were
obtained.
XRD results revealed formation of sharp and narrow peaks at around 26° position (2θ),
which confirms the presence of highly crystallized CNTs for all samples. The values of
the intershell spacing of the wall (d002) are between 0.338 nm to 0.342 nm. The values of
full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the peaks of 0.7144, 0.2273, and 0.0200 was
obtained when H2*=350 ml/min, H2*=250 ml/min and H2*=150 ml/min, respectively at
50 min reaction time. The reduction in the FWHM value indicated the CNTs exhibit more
crystalline graphite as more H2** was supplied.


The influence of root trainer cell volume and seedling density, and composition of growing media was examined in relation to morphological, biomass and seedling quality parameters of four-month old planting stock of three tropical broadleaved tree species viz., Acacia catechu, Azadiractha indica and Pongamia pinnata. The study revealed that a cell volume of 90 cm3 was not sufficient for proper seedling growth of A. catechu and A. indica. However, clear-cut superiority of 300 cm3 cell volume was evident only in the case of A. indica. It appeared that root trainer pots of 150 cm3 cell volume were suitable for growth of planting stock of A. catechu and P. pinnata and 300 cm3 cell volume for A. indica. Significant differences in the growth of planting stocks were observed among growing media treatments. Overall the tree species exhibited fast growth and high biomass as well as favorable seeding quality in growing media containing 80% compost with either sand (A. catechu and A. indica) or soil (P. pinnata) than the other treatments having 50%, 60% or 100% compost.


To reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015, the Millennium Project9s Task Force on Hunger recommends seven mutually reinforcing actions: political action; national policy reforms; increased agricultural productivity for food-insecure farmers; improved nutrition for the chronically hungry; productive safety nets for the acutely hungry; improved rural incomes and markets; and restored natural resources essential for food security. The Task Force concludes that "it can be done"-the Hunger MDG can be attained. In this
 Policy Forum, the task force chairmen explain why achieving that goal will require unprecedented levels of effort, but it is well within the reach of our technical and financial capabilities.


This thesis critiques authoritarian school policies and the pedagogic industry that overauthoritarianism has spawned to manage pupil behaviour. The overarching paradigm has been behavioural, centred on rewards and punishments. As a secondary school teacher I was deemed to be highly effective as an educator and disciplinarian by all
objective measures, a no-nonsense, assertive persona championing authoritarian authority. I became disillusioned with this pedagogy of coercion and reached a point of
professional 'living contradiction'. I realised for the first time that the authoritarian teacher might actually be part of the problem, not the solution to poor discipline. I
wished to develop a pedagogy in tune with my espoused values, developing positive teacher-pupil relationships which, I felt, might encourage both motivation in schoolwork
and the development of pupils' self-control and self-discipline. This thesis is an account of my intellectual and pedagogical journey to replace my authoritarian pedagogy with a way of teaching and learning based (in both directions) on respect, manners and friendly
school relationships which is co-constructivist, encouraging pupils to be deeply involved in their own learning. I evidence the effect of this on classroom behaviour. I defend my relational pedagogical approach through a review of research literature alongside a
three year action research with sixteen of my own classes, interrogating my performance to ask 'Can non-authoritarian teachers contribute towards a well-ordered class of self-disciplined pupils?' The reconnaissance stage locates this question in the context of my own educational history, the auto-biographical reflection validated through critical friends. The data collection phase used a range of instruments and reflective processes exploring how I wrestled with pedagogical issues when adopting a
non-authoritarian approach, how I learned to be authoritative rather than authoritarian, and how I learned to deal with uncooperative pupils in new ways. In order to extend my new approach more broadly in the school, I worked with six volunteer colleagues, both experienced and newly qualified and I evaluate short and long term effects. I conclude by showing that effective pedagogy comes from positive teacher-pupil relationships which provide an effective solution to most low-level pupil indiscipline by establishing a culture and climate of cooperation and co-construction of learning.


In the post-secession winter of 1861, both Houses of Congress approved a proposed thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Three northern States even ratified the proposal before the Civil War intervened. That version of the thirteenth amendment, introduced in the House by Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio, purported to prohibit any future amendment granting Congress power to interfere with slavery in the States. The Congressional Globe volumes for the winter 1861 legislative session include rich debates about whether the amending power could be used to limit future exercise of that same authority. Those forgotten debates offer significant insights for modern controversies about the exclusivity of, and limitations on, the extraordinary power granted in Article V of the U.S. Constitution. Recent years have witnessed an outpouring of academic writing on the amending power. Salient examples of this scholarship are the works of Yale Law School Professors Bruce Ackerman and Akhil Amar, who have raised distinct challenges to the claim that Article V constitutes the sole legitimate means for constitutional revision. Their imaginative and controversial work has in turn prompted vigorous debate among constitutional scholars, political scientists, and historians about the role Article V can and should play in our constitutional order. As voluminous as the recent Article V scholarship has been, at least one fundamental question has gone virtually unnoticed: what, if anything, prevents or limits the use of Article V to make procedural or substantive changes to the amending power itself? This question, which presents problems of the greatest theoretical difficulty, was posed starkly by Mr. Corwin's 1861 proposal. This article uses that Civil War-era proposal as a lens through which to study the tension between the claim that Article V articulates the exclusive procedure by which the Constitution may be amended and our nation's historical commitment to the ideal that the people are sovereign. Revisiting the long-forgotten Corwin Amendment illuminates current debates about the legal and political theory by which the U.S. Constitution can set forth the sole means for its revision. By understanding why the Corwin Amendment would have failed in its stated purpose (because a subsequent Article V amendment would have been sufficient to repeal it and grant Congress power over slavery), we discover certain fundamental constitutional principles. Those principles, important in their own right, also raise novel questions concerning the contemporary claims of Professors Ackerman and Amar that Article V cannot be the exclusive procedure for legitimate constitutional change.


Background Alignment analysis of the Vv-miRNAs identified from various grapevine cultivars indicates that over 30% orthologous Vv-miRNAs exhibit a 1–3 nucleotide discrepancy only at their ends, suggesting that this sequence discrepancy is not a random event, but might mainly derive from divergence of cultivars. With advantages of miR-RACE technology in determining precise sequences of potential miRNAs from bioinformatics prediction, the precise sequences of vv-miRNAs predicted computationally can be verified with miR-RACE in a different grapevine cultivar. This presents itself as a new approach for large scale discovery of precise miRNAs in different grapevine varieties. Methodology/Principal Findings Among 88 unique sequences of Vv-miRNAs from bioinformatics prediction, 83 (96.3%) were successfully validated with MiR-RACE in grapevine cv. 'Summer Black'. All the validated sequences were identical to their corresponding ones obtained from deep sequencing of the small RNA library of 'Summer Black'. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expressions levels of 10 Vv-miRNA/target gene pairs in grapevine tissues showed some negative correlation trends. Finally, comparison of Vv-miRNA sequences with their orthologs in Arabidopsis and study on the influence of divergent bases of the orthologous miRNAs on their targeting patterns in grapevine were also done. Conclusion The validation of precise sequences of potential Vv-miRNAs from computational prediction in a different grapevine cultivar can be a new way to identify the orthologous Vv-miRNAs. Nucleotide discrepancy of orthologous Vv-miRNAs from different grapevine cultivars normally does not change their target genes. However, sequence variations of some orthologous miRNAs in grapevine and Arabidopsis can change their targeting patterns. These precise Vv-miRNAs sequences validated in our study could benefit some further study on grapevine functional genomics.


Investment banks breathed a sigh of relief when the Federal Court dismissed ASIC's claims in ASIC v Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited (No 4) [2007] FCA 963. But Citigroup was not an unqualified affirmation of current proprietary trading practices. It highlights several important risks of which investment banks should be aware when advising clients in takeover situations.


Habitat structure influences a broad range of ecological interactions and ecosystem functions across biomes. To understand and effectively manage dynamic ecosystems, we need detailed information about habitat properties and how they vary across spatial and temporal scales. Measuring and monitoring variation in three‐dimensional (3D) habitat structure has traditionally been challenging, despite recognition of its importance to ecological processes. Modern 3D mapping technologies present opportunities to characterize spatial and temporal variation in habitat structure at a range of ecologically relevant scales. Biogenic reefs are structurally complex and dynamic habitats, in which structure has a pivotal influence on ecosystem biodiversity, function and resilience. For the first time, we characterized spatial and temporal dynamics in the 3D structure of intertidal Sabellaria alveolata biogenic reef across scales. We used drone‐derived structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning to characterize reef structural variation at mm‐to‐cm resolutions at a habitat scale (~35 000 m2) over 1 year, and at a plot scale (2500 m2) over 5 years (2014–2019, 6‐month intervals). We found that most of the variation in reef emergence above the substrate, accretion rate and erosion rate was explained by a combination of systematic trends with shore height and positive spatial autocorrelation up to the scale of colonies (1.5 m) or small patches (up to 4 m). We identified previously undocumented temporal patterns in intertidal S. alveolata reef accretion and erosion, specifically groups of rapidly accreting, short‐lived colonies and slow‐accreting, long‐lived colonies. We showed that these highly dynamic colony‐scale structural changes compensate for each other, resulting in seemingly stable reef habitat structure over larger spatial and temporal scales. These patterns could only be detected with the use of modern 3D mapping technologies, demonstrating their potential to enhance our understanding of ecosystem dynamics across scales.


The Altai orogen (northwest China) represents the southwestern margin of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. Geochemical and Nd–Sr isotope analyses were carried out on the Palaeozoic sedimentary and granitic rocks in order to trace their sources and to evaluate the pattern of continental growth of the orogen. Nd isotopic data for both the granites and sediments suggest a significant proportion of middle Proterozoic crust beneath the Altai orogen. However, addition of juvenile material (arc/back-arc oceanic crust) during Palaeozoic times is also significant. Trace elements and isotopic data of sediments suggest their sources were immature. They represent mixtures between a Palaeozoic juvenile component and an evolved continental crust. The early Palaeozoic sediments show εNd(T) = −3.4 to −5.0, TDM = 1.5–1.8 Ga, and ISr = 0.710–0.712. They represent a passive margin setting, with a predominance of evolved crustal material in the source. The Devonian sequences, however, might have been deposited in a back-arc basin setting, produced by subduction of the Junggar oceanic crust along the Irtysh fault. A significant addition of arc material into the sedimentary basin is responsible for the highly variable εNd values (−6 to 0) and ISr (0.711–0.706). The Carboniferous rocks were also deposited in a back-arc basin setting but with predominantly arc material in the source as suggested by an abrupt increase in εNd(T) (+6 to +3) and decrease in ISr (0.7045–0.7051). Voluminous syn-orogenic granitoids have εNd(T) = +2.1 to −4.3, ISr = 0.705–0.714 and TDM = 0.7–1.6 Ga. They were not derived by melting of local metasedimentary rocks as suggested by previous workers, but by melting of a more juvenile source at depth. Post-orogenic granites have higher εNd(T) (∼ +4.4) than the syn-orogenic granitoids, indicating their derivation from a deeper crustal level where juvenile crust may predominate.


Aspects of mathematical modelling of wrapping round (i.e. cylindrical) bale related to the optimization of foil consumption are considered for individual bales of agricultural materials wrapped in plastic foil. The article details the mathematical description of bale wrapping, while also identifying both some solved problems and a few open ones, which can be solved to optimize the foil consumption. Mechanical properties of the sealing foil characterized by its Poisson ratio, arbitrary foil and bale size dimensions and overlapping width of subsequent wrapped foil strips were taken into account. After providing a basic understanding of how the foil is consumed in the course of wrapping process, the mathematical model for determining the number of entire foil wrappings is determined. Next the results of mathematical analysis are used for optimization purposes. The foil consumption per unit of the bale volume index is used as a measure of foil expenditure. Two problems of foil consumption optimization are stated and solved. The formulas for computing the optimal foil width and optimal bale size dimensions are derived and estimations of the solution errors are given. Computational results are presented and analyzed for exemplary bale silage.


Minimum capital regulations play a central role in banking regulation. Regulators require banks to maintain capital above a certain level in order to correct incentives to make excessively risky loans and investments. However, it has never been clear how regulators determine how high or low the minimum capital-asset ratio should be. An examination of U.S. regulators' justifications for five regulations issued over more than 30 years reveals that regulators have never performed (or at least disclosed) a serious economic analysis that would justify the levels that they chose. Instead, regulators appear to have followed a practice of what I call "norming" — incremental change designed to weed out a handful of outlier banks. This approach resulted in a significant regulatory failure because it could not have given, and did not give, banks an adequate incentive to increase capital. The failure of banking regulators to use cost-benefit analysis in order to determine capital requirements may therefore have contributed to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.


The effect of income on lottery expenditures has generally been studied using an aggregate measure of income, usually personal income. Reasons exist for thinking that lottery expenditures do not respond equally to all sources of income. This article examines lottery consumption and income from three sources, namely income from earnings, wealth, and transfer payments. Using county-level data for seven states and controlling for demographic and other characteristics, we find that each source of income has a different effect on lottery ticket expenditures. A noteworthy finding is that purchases are most strongly influenced by transfer payments. Several policy implications follow from our results.


Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is the causative agent of the Newcastle disease (ND) thatremains as a major threat to the world poultry industry. The virus belongs to the family
Paramyxoviridae and genus Avulavirus, infects more than 236 avian species, and causes up to 100% morbidity and mortality in susceptible birds. The viral envelope proteins,
haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) and fusion (F) proteins have been shown to play key roles in triggering the host immune responses. In order to study the immunological
properties of the recombinant HN and F proteins, the HN and F genes of the Malaysian viscerotropic-velogenic NDV strain AF2240 were obtained through reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and cloned into the Pichia pastoris, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli expression vectors. A number of eight recombinant plasmids were constructed, namely pPICZaA/HN and
pPICZaA/F (P. pastoris system), pYES2a/HN and pYES2a/F (S. cerevisiae system),and pRSETA/HN, pRSETB/F, pET-43.1a/HN and pET-43.1a/F (E. coli system). The recombinant plasmids were used to transform respective host cells, which were then induced for the production of the recombinant HN and F proteins. However, there was no protein expression observed in the recombinant P. pastoris and S. cerevisiae cells.
Whereas, the bacterial hosts were found expressing the recombinant HN and F proteins (from the pRSETA/HN and pRSETB/F plasmids respectively), and the NusA fusion
proteins, NusA-HN and NusA-F (from the pET-43.1a/HN and pET-43.1a/F plasmids respectively). The recombinant HN and F proteins were produced as insoluble inclusion
bodies (IB) while the NusA-HN and NusA-F proteins were expressed in soluble form in E. coli.
The recombinant proteins were purified and used to immunise specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens. ELISA results revealed that the insoluble and urea-solubilised inclusion
bodies of the recombinant HN and F proteins, and the soluble NusA-HN and NusA-F proteins stimulated the production of antibodies that detect NDV. Among these antigens, the urea-solubilised HN IB appeared to induce the highest antibody titers. However, the chicken antibodies failed to neutralise the viral activities as shown in the tests such as haemagglutination inhibition (HI), neuraminidase inhibition (NI) and haemolysis inhibition (HLI). This explains the susceptibility of the immunised flocks to NDV infection upon the viral challenge. Despite of the presence of antibodies to NDV, none of the immunised chicken was protected against the viral challenge. Immunoblotting analysis on the interactions between the antigens and antibodies revealed that the anti-F antibodies did not bind to the denatured viral F glycoprotein, neither the anti-NDV serum detect the recombinant F protein. However, the anti-HN antibodies showed positive signals when used to probe the denatured viral HN glycoprotein, and in return,the anti-NDV serum detected the recombinant HN protein. This finding indicates the potential application of the E. coli produced HN protein as antigen for the detection of NDV antibody.


At present, the littoral zone of the Southern Baikal is under anthropogenic impact. The negative changes in underwater vegetation landscapes most dramatically appeared near the Listvyanka settlement. In this study, we compare phytoplankton assemblages from the surface layer (ca. 1.5 m depth) near the Listvyanka settlement collected during 1990-1995 and 2016-2018. We have compared phytoplankton data with solar irradiance and air temperatures. Phytoplankton community was represented by 70 taxa, where Bacillariophyta and Cryptophyta dominated the biomass. In 2016-2018, there were no signifcant differences in biomass or abnormal seasonal vegetation of the studied phytoplankton taxa compared to 1990-1995


Methylglyoxyl (MG) is a cytotoxic metabolite produced during glycolysis that can react with proteins on cysteine, lysine, and arginine residues, producing advanced glycation end products (AGEs). MG concentrations are increased in diabetic patients. MG is detoxified through the glyoxylase system. Two groups implicate MG in cell death processes involving reactive oxygen species (ROS). Van Herreweghe et al. show that tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced nonapoptotic cell death in mouse fibrosarcoma L929 cells, which requires the production of ROS, involves the phosphorylation of glyoxylase I (GLO I) through a cascade that could be blocked by pharmacological inhibition of protein kinase A (PKA). TNF also promoted the formation of a stable, unidentified, but specific AGE. Addition of a GLO I inhibitor before the addition of TNG increased cell survival, but simultaneous addition increased cell morbidity. Pharmacological agents that inhibited GLO I phosphorylation inhibited the production of the AGE and also promoted cell survival. Godbout et al. demonstrated a link between protein kinase Cδ (PKCδ) and MG during cisplatin-stimulated cell death, which also depended on the production of ROS, but was an apoptotic type of cell death. (Cisplatin is an antineoplastic agent.) Cisplatin induced cell death in myeloma U266 cells and was associated with increased ROS and decreased glutathione (GSH), which is a required cofactor for MG detoxification by the glyoxylase system. Addition of MG and cisplatin together increased cell death above that seen with cisplatin alone and stimulated PKCδ activity. The MG- and cisplatin-induced cell death and production of ROS were selectively inhibited if the cells were treated with a PKCδ inhibitor; other MG and cisplatin responses, such as induction of the cell-cycle regulator p21, were unaffected. Finally, MG and cisplatin activated the kinase c-Abl and promoted its association with PKCδ. Inhibition of c-Abl promoted cell death, suggesting that cisplatin and MG also activate a c-Abl cell survival pathway. These two papers implicate the reactive carbonyl MG in two biochemically different types of cell death and suggest that protein kinases may be both upstream (PKA) and downstream (PKCδ) of MG-mediated events. F. Van Herreweghe, J. Mao, F. W. R. Chaplen, J. Grooten, K. Gevaert, J. Vandekerckhove, K. Vancompernolle, Tumor necrosis factor-induced modulation of glyoxalase I activities through phosphorylation by PKA results in cell death and is accompanied by the formation of a specific methylglyoxal-derived AGE. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 949-954 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] J. P. Godbout, J. Pesavento, M. E. Hartman, S. R. Manson, G. G. Freund, Methylglyoxal enhances cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity by activating protein kinase Cδ. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 277, 2554-2561 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Modern concurrent copying garbage collection (GC), in particular, real-time GC, uses fine-grained synchronizations with a mutator, which is the application program that mutates memory, when it moves objects in its copy phase. It resolves a data race using a concurrent copying protocol, which is implemented as interactions between the collector threads and the read and write barriers that the mutator threads execute. The behavioral effects of the concurrent copying protocol rely on the memory model of the CPUs and the programming languages in which the GC is implemented. It is difficult, however, to formally investigate the behavioral properties of concurrent copying protocols against various memory models. To address this problem, we studied the feasibility of the bounded model checking of concurrent copying protocols with memory models. We investigated a correctness-related behavioral property of copying protocols of various concurrent copying GC algorithms, including real-time GC Stopless, Clover, Chicken, Staccato, and Schism against six memory models, total store ordering (TSO), partial store ordering (PSO), relaxed memory ordering (RMO), and their variants, in addition to sequential consistency (SC) using bounded model checking. For each combination of a protocol and memory model, we conducted model checking with a model of a mutator. In this wide range of case studies, we found faults in two GC algorithms, one of which is relevant to the memory model. We fixed these faults with the great help of counterexamples. We also modified some protocols so that they work under some memory models weaker than those for which the original protocols were designed, and checked them using model checking. We believe that bounded model checking is a feasible approach to investigate behavioral properties of concurrent copying protocols under weak memory models.


International communication today is typified by the southern flow of information, from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, dominated by the developed nations in information gathering and dissemination, and Intensified by technological advances in communication in the last two decades. The Incessant cries of ""cultural imperialism,"" "" cultural domination,"" and ""cultural invasion"" echoing from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America have precipitated a rigid control of communication in many developing countries. The imbalance of communication flow, castigated, and denounced by every developing country, is considered to be the source of all evils, ranging from the failure of politico-economical policies and erosion of social norms and values to street crimes and prostitution; nevertheless, the verdict is still not yet in. This study attempts to illustrate the fundamental problems, to explore the consequences of communication imbalance, and to examine communication dysfunctions In order to provide a set of solutions specifically addressed to the elimination or the reduction of the detrimental effects of communication dysfunctions. In the meantime, evidence is provided to substantiate the contention that communication imbalance can be eventually corrected, not by control but by allowing the free flow of all types of communications. Japan is a typical example: she absorbed the best and discarded the disharmonious features of Chinese and Western civilizations. Further attempts are also made to examine the inherent, natural immunity of cultures against alien concepts and practices. The conclusion is aimed at the battle cries of i?½cultural imperialism"": much ado about nothing.


An electronic Influenza like Illness surveillance system developed to support general practices to electronically notify the cases of influenza like illness (ILI) for national sentinel surveillance in New Zealand. Content analysis was performed to capture the information necessary for ILI surveillance. An online form was implemented within the patient management system to record the details of ILI cases. A middleware framework was developed to manage the information flow between GPs and national influenza surveillance coordinators. The framework used an HL7 version 2.4 messaging standard to receive the notification data and Rhapsody integration engines to parse the message and store the information in national ILI data base. This paper presents the system design and implementation details of electronic ILI notification system. It presents data model designed to capture information for ILI case along with the HL7 messages structure implemented in the system.


Schizophrenia is rarely referred to in Lacan's scholarship, and even more rarely in the socalled later Lacan. Yet the French psychoanalyst's teaching on knotting and the theory of the sinthome of the 1970s can be utilized for the theoretical and clinical approach to this psychotic type. The gradual emphasis on the real in Lacan's teaching can act as a guide both for its conceptualization and for the treatment supported by those clinicians who see schizophrenic subjects.

My investigation of the conceptual history of schizophrenia led to the conclusion that despite psychiatric scholars having noted from early on an aspect that pertains to the real – schizophrenic discourse – this was disregarded, having been deemed one of the condition's numerous morbid outcomes. In the same way, early psychoanalysts emphasized the aspect of subjectivity that Lacan calls the imaginary in the treatment of schizophrenia, trying, thus, to address it via a mechanism typical of the other major psychotic type, paranoia. This approach does not seem consonant with Freud's reading of the two types, although he never elaborated upon their differentiation beyond the early 1910s. In fact, although the suggested Lacanian approach to schizophrenia derives from the last decade of Lacan's teaching, it has roots in Freud's view of psychosis of the mid-1910s and early 1920s.

I have attempted to create a paradigm for the impact of those findings in examining the case of the late-19th-century Greek poet, writer and scholar Georgios Vizyenos. I argue that Vizyenos was characterized by a schizophrenic's relation to the body, language, and the social bond. In his life and work, examined in detail, we see how the cause, triggering, and temporary treatment of his psychosis are linked to a concept with a direct relation to the real: 'child'. Testimonies from Vizyenos' childhood show his resistance to semblance, which had specific effects upon his body. It is, then, demonstrated how in late adolescence and mature life the subject renamed himself and acquired a sense of his body thanks to a 'modified' narcissism that did not resemble the coordinates of the paranoiac's ego. This construction is approached through the later Lacan's theories of the sinthome and the escabeau. Finally, it is shown how that invention was temporary, with Vizyenos being unable, in the end, to avoid the return of jouissance to the subject's body.

The theoretical and clinical implications of the study of Vizyenos' case are discussed in relation to the contemporary Lacanian approach to schizophrenia. It is suggested that the singular character of the subject's relation to the real could lead us to cross schizophrenia with a bar, schizophrenia, as Lacan did for the signifier 'woman' in his later teaching. Thus, the sinthomatic approach, which emphasizes the subject's relation to the real rather than the universal subscription to Oedipus, does not seem unsuitable for the treatment of subjects who are schizophrenic. This is argued at greater length by comparing it with psychoanalytic orientations that place more emphasis on the use of the imaginary or the symbolic.


The assessment of biomaterial compatibility relies heavily on the analysis of macroscopic cellular responses to material interaction. However, new technologies have become available that permit a more profound understanding of the molecular basis of cell–biomaterial interaction. Here, both conventional phenotypic and contemporary transcriptomic (DNA microarray-based) analysis techniques were combined to examine the interaction of cells with a homologous series of copolymer films that subtly vary in terms of surface hydrophobicity. More specifically, we used differing combinations of N-isopropylacrylamide, which is presently used as an adaptive cell culture substrate, and the more hydrophobic, yet structurally similar, monomer N-tert-butylacrylamide. We show here that even discrete modifications with respect to the physiochemistry of soft amorphous materials can lead to significant impacts on the phenotype of interacting cells. Furthermore, we have elucidated putative links between phenotypic responses to cell–biomaterial interaction and global gene expression profile alterations. This case study indicates that high-throughput analysis of gene expression not only can greatly refine our knowledge of cell–biomaterial interaction, but also can yield novel biomarkers for potential use in biocompatibility assessment.


Amber from a Lower Cretaceous outcrop at San Just, located in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula (Escucha Formation, Maestrat Basin), was investigated to evaluate its physico-chemical properties. Thermogravimetric (TG) and Differential Thermogravimetric (DTG) analyses, infra-red spectroscopy, elemental and C-isotope analyses were performed. Physico-chemical differences between the internal light nuclei and the peripheral darker portions of San Just amber can be attributed to processes of diagenetic alteration that preferentially took place in the external amber border colonized by microorganisms (fungi or bacteria) when the resin was still liquid or slightly polymerized. δ13Camber values of different pieces of the same sample, from the nucleus to the external part, are remarkably homogeneous, as are δ13Camber values of the darker peripheral portions and lighter inner parts of the same samples. Hence, neither invasive microorganisms, nor diagenetic alteration, changed the bulk isotopic composition of the amber. δ13C values of different amber samples range from -21.1‰ to -24‰, as expected for C3 plant-derived material. C-isotope analysis, coupled to palaeobotanical, TG and DTG data and infra-red spectra, suggests that San Just amber was exuded by only one conifer species, belonging to either the Cheirolepidiaceae or Aracauriaceae, coniferous families probably living under stable palaeoenvironmental and palaeoecological conditions.


This is a conceptual paper that sheds light on how trust works by distinguishing 'placed trust' from 'trust as response'. This distinction has implications for management practice and provides directions for future research. The paper reviews, critiques and re-interprets different understandings of trust across several strands of management literature. Trust, as a means of coping with uncertainty by reducing perceived risk, is contrasted with two other options, regulation and opportunism. Trust reduces risk by placing obligations on the trustee to be trustworthy and it is argued that trust is calculating by contrasting it with naivete. Consideration is then given to its role in creating customer satisfaction, service quality and commitment. The distinction conceptualized between the initiatory act of trusting and the response of trusting enables retail and distribution management to optimize use of trust in the service encounter.


We leverage the discontinuity in the assignment mechanism of the Small and Medium Enterprise Instrument - the first European R&D subsidy targeting small firms - to provide the broadest quasi-experimental evidence on R&D grants over both geographical and sectoral scopes. Grants trigger sizable impacts on a wide range of firm-level outcomes. Heterogeneous effects are consistent with grants reducing financial frictions. This reduction is due to funding rather than certification. We also provide direct causal evidence on pure certification - signaling not attached to funding - and show that firms that only receive 'quality stamps' do not improve their performance. Finally, our estimates suggest that the scheme produces private returns that are positive and comparable to those of the US Small Business Innovation Research program, while also generating geographical and sectoral spillovers in the form of increased rates of entrepreneurial entry.


BACKGROUND
Lipids are increasingly involved in cardiovascular risk prediction as potential proarrhythmic influencers. However, knowledge is limited about the specific mechanisms connecting lipid alterations with atrial conduction.

METHODS
To shed light on this issue, we conducted a broad assessment of 151 sphingo- and phospholipids, measured using mass spectrometry, for association with atrial conduction, measured by P wave duration (PWD) from standard electrocardiograms, in the MICROS study (Microisolates in South Tyrol) (n=839). Causal pathways involving lipidomics, body mass index (BMI), and PWD were assessed using 2-sample Mendelian randomization analyses based on published genome-wide association studies of lipidomics (n=4034) and BMI (n=734 481), and genetic association analysis of PWD in 5 population-based studies (n=24 236).

RESULTS
We identified an association with relative phosphatidylcholine 38:3 (%PC 38:3) concentration, which was replicated in the ORCADES (Orkney Complex Disease Study; n=951), with a pooled association across studies of 2.59 (95% CI, 1.3-3.9; P=1.1×10-4) ms PWD per mol% increase. While being independent of cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose levels, the %PC 38:3-PWD association was mediated by BMI. Results supported a causal effect of BMI on both PWD ( P=8.3×10-5) and %PC 38:3 ( P=0.014).

CONCLUSIONS
Increased %PC 38:3 levels are consistently associated with longer PWD, partly because of the confounding effect of BMI. The causal effect of BMI on PWD reinforces evidence of BMI's involvement into atrial electrical activity.


The study aimed to recommend a new spectrophotometric-kinetic method for determination of carbamazepine (CABZ) in its pure form and pharmaceutical forms. The proposed procedure based on the coupling of CABZ with diazotized sulfanilic acid in basic medium to yield a colored azo dye. Factors affecting the reaction yield were studied and the conditions were optimized. The colored product was followed spectrophotometrically via monitoring its absorbance at 396 nm. Under the optimized conditions, two method (the initial rate and fixed time (10 minute)) were applied for constructing the calibration graphs. The graphs were linear in concentration ranges 2.0 to 18.0 µg.mL-1 for both methods. The proposed was applied successfully in the determination of CABZ in its commercial formulations.
Keywords: Kinetic, Spectrophotometry, Carbamazepine, Pharmaceutical formulations


A research report submitted to the Faculty of
Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fullfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of public and development management )
February, 2000


This chapter investigates the role of climate and environmental factors in driving migration in countries on the Central Mediterranean Route. It uses a literature review to frame the complexity of these linkages, including how climate influences conflict and how conflict drives migration. Land degradation, land tenure insecurity and lack of rainfall are major drivers of environment-induced migration, and land fertility and productivity are key "pull" factors. These results indicate that the European narrative framing migration on the Central Mediterranean Route as primarily "economic" often overlooks key factors, such as climate and environmental drivers of migration. Understanding of the changing climate and environment should be expanded, and initiatives to create income opportunities through land and ecosystem restoration – such as the IOM Initiative on Sustainability, Stability and Security described in the chapter – should be supported. 26.


Australian Bird Names is aimed at anyone with an interest in birds, words, or the history of Australian biology and bird-watching. It discusses common and scientific names of every Australian bird, to tease out the meanings, which may be useful, useless or downright misleading!

The authors examine every species: its often many-and-varied common names, its full scientific name, with derivation, translation and a guide to pronunciation. Stories behind the name are included, as well as relevant aspects of biology, conservation and history. Original descriptions, translated by the authors, have been sourced for many species.

As well as being a book about names this is a book about the history of ever-developing understandings of birds, about the people who contributed and, most of all, about the birds themselves.

2013 Whitley Award Commendation for Zoological Resource.


We present a toolkit to facilitate the interpretation and understanding of neural network models. The toolkit provides several methods to identify salient neurons with respect to the model itself or an external task. A user can visualize selected neurons, ablate them to measure their effect on the model accuracy, and manipulate them to control the behavior of the model at the test time. Such an analysis has a potential to serve as a springboard in various research directions, such as understanding the model, better architectural choices, model distillation and controlling data biases. The toolkit is available for download.1


Abstract In an age of continual technological advancement, user-friendly software, and consumer demand for the latest upgraded gadget, the ethical and moral discoveries derived from a careful reading of any fictional literature by college students is struggling in the American college classroom. Easy access information systems, coinciding with the application of some excellent study strategies--such as topic sentence, points of evidence, etc.--have produced students who not only do not enjoy the process and the adventure of reading a story, but disconnect from the possibility of their own vicarious experience by over-utilizing the methodical breakdown of the components; therefore, reducing the "process of story or epic" to one of isolated facts to be memorized in a hurry-up world: individuated components of a scientific formula. While the upper-echelon of modern science might enjoy the heady intellectual gymnastics of creating merged intelligence, as discussed in Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, the non-reading college students as users / consumers continue to be unable to construct their own knowledge into applicable and meaningful forms of thinking. These forms include the critical thinking skills for ethical and moral thought for which individual immersion into literature allows--the test case of the imagination. The current trend toward utilitarian reading can be reversed through a concentrated and highly structured workshop approach that simultaneously demands personal responses to literature and creative expression by the student, so as to foster an appreciation of the telling of the human story. The arts and sciences, through a well-read population, should work together; otherwise, future moral and ethical decisions will be made upon the premise of expediency and the validity of performance, without the human-defining traits as embodied in the archetypal literatures of past and current cultures. Introduction In the introduction to The Two Cultures, Stefan Collini comments upon the cultural anxiety felt by those contemporaries of the Romantic Era living through the birth pangs of the Industrial Revolution. As noted by multiple commentators, a paradigm shift of such significant import as to affect both practical day-to-day living and philosophical approaches to the established disciplines of thought occurred during and as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Encapsulated in this general anxiety were the specific fears "that calculation and measurement generally might be displacing cultivation and compassion" (Snow 1998, xi), as well as that of "religious belief and practical piety" (ibid., xi). The direct correlation to present-day social and educational anxieties, with the rapid infusion of applied science technologies in commerce, education, and leisure, is the "fissure in types of knowledge" (ibid., x) which could damage "both individual cultivation and social well-being" (ibid., x). Just as an agriculturally-based economy was jolted and redirected into a manufacturing-based economy, and, since then, a consumer-based economy, so the reign of the sciences through applied technology and consumerism has superseded the humanities, most notably since Snow's lecture, with the advent of computers and software that is pervasive in most areas of life, particularly in the 21st century classroom. Although current Western social and educational systems advance the convenience and benefit of applied technology, it is this very emphasis upon speed and efficiency that may be fragmenting and confusing to students. Consequently, within specialties within disciplines, a common approach, and a common language of definitions, must be defined by worldview and content. For instance, Collini's apt example refers to the divergent approaches in academic disciplines to the act of writing. Generally, humanities views writing as a process; whereas, science refers to "writing up" a paper or report. …


Endoscopic fetoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure performed during pregnancy [2] that allows physicians to view the fetus [3] in-utero. Physicians use endoscopic fetoscopy to evaluate, diagnose, and treat fetal abnormalities. Physicians use an endoscope, or a thin, flexible surgical device with a light attached to its end, to perform endoscopic fetoscopy procedures. In 1954, Björn Westin performed the first endoscopic fetoscopy in Sweden. Since Westin's initial development of the procedure, interest in endoscopic fetoscopy has grown throughout the early part of the twenty-first century. In addition, the use of endoscopy [4] has expanded beyond fetal medicine and has been introduced to other fields of medicine such as general surgery. Endoscopic fetoscopy allows surgeons to diagnose and correct fetal abnormalities that would otherwise result in fetal death before delivery or in lifelong impairment if treatment were delayed until after delivery.


Parameter inference in ordinary differential equations is an important problem in many applied sciences and in engineering, especially in a data-scarce setting. In this work, we introduce a novel generative modeling approach based on constrained Gaussian processes and leverage it to build a computationally and data efficient algorithm for state and parameter inference. In an extensive set of experiments, our approach outperforms the current state of the art for parameter inference both in terms of accuracy and computational cost. It also shows promising results for the much more challenging problem of model selection.


Power control is important in interference-limited cellular, ad-hoc, and cognitive underlay networks, when the objective is to ensure a certain quality of service to each connection. Power control has been extensively studied in this context, including distributed algorithms that are particularly appealing in ad-hoc and cognitive settings. A long-standing issue is that the power control problem may be infeasible, thus requiring appropriate admission control. The power and admission control parts of the problem are tightly coupled, but the joint optimization problem is NP-hard. We begin with a convenient reformulation which enables a disciplined convex approximation approach. This leads to a centralized approximate solution that is numerically shown to outperform the prior art, and even yield close to optimal results in certain cases - at affordable complexity. The issue of imperfect channel state information is also considered. A distributed implementation is then developed, which alternates between distributed approximation and distributed deflation - reaching consensus on a user to drop, when needed. Both phases require only local communication and computation, yielding a relatively lightweight distributed algorithm with the same performance as its centralized counterpart.


Pseudowire signaling requires that the Pseudowire Type (PW Type) be
identical in both directions. For certain applications the
configuration of the PW Type is most easily accomplished by
configuring this information at just one PW endpoint. In any form of
LDP-based signaling, each PW endpoint must initiate the creation of a
unidirectional LSP. In order to allow the initiation of these two LSPs
to remain independent, a means is needed for allowing the PW endpoint
(lacking a priori knowledge of the PW Type) to initiate the creation
of an LSP. This document defines a Wildcard PW Type to satisfy this
need. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Attention has shown to be a pivotal development in deep learning and has been used for a multitude of multimodal learning tasks such as visual question answering and image captioning. In this work, we pinpoint the potential limitations to the design of a traditional attention model. We identify that 1) current attention mechanisms discard the latent information from intermediate reasoning, losing the positional information already captured by the attention heatmaps and 2) stacked attention, a common way to improve spatial reasoning, may have suboptimal performance because of the vanishing gradient problem. We introduce a novel attention architecture to address these problems, in which all spatial configuration information contained in the intermediate reasoning process is retained in a pathway of convolutional layers. We show that this new attention leads to substantial improvements in multiple multimodal reasoning tasks, including achieving single model performance without using external knowledge comparable to the state-of-the-art on the VQA dataset, as well as clear gains for the image captioning task.


Script event prediction requires a model to predict the subsequent event given an existing event context. Previous models based on event pairs or event chains cannot make full use of dense event connections, which may limit their capability of event prediction. To remedy this, we propose constructing an event graph to better utilize the event network information for script event prediction. In particular, we first extract narrative event chains from large quantities of news corpus, and then construct a narrative event evolutionary graph (NEEG) based on the extracted chains. NEEG can be seen as a knowledge base that describes event evolutionary principles and patterns. To solve the inference problem on NEEG, we present a scaled graph neural network (SGNN) to model event interactions and learn better event representations. Instead of computing the representations on the whole graph, SGNN processes only the concerned nodes each time, which makes our model feasible to large-scale graphs. By comparing the similarity between input context event representations and candidate event representations, we can choose the most reasonable subsequent event. Experimental results on widely used New York Times corpus demonstrate that our model significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baseline methods, by using standard multiple choice narrative cloze evaluation.


ABSTRACT This paper asks how far the destructive aspects of over-consumption can be attributed to Western approaches to technology and individualisation. It reminds us that the autonomy of the monarch became a convenient prototype for the emancipation of the ordinary citizen and draws attention to the adverse ecological consequences of this development. Just as palace officials are inclined to shield Kings and Queens from certain unpalatable truths, so today's producers isolate their consumers from the ecological system that nourishes and sustains them. As a consequence, consumers enjoy strong individual rights of consumption but carry few acknowledged responsibilities, apart from payment. Taking a designer's perspective the paper shows how industrialists encouraged individualism as a catalyst for economic growth. Here, product diversification became integrated with consumer individuation (Forty, 1986) to become an increasingly co-productive process. In this system, people and things become equivalent. The rhetorical self- identity of products (Buchanan, 1989) regulate the self-identity of consumers, and vice versa. When the process takes place within a stridently competitive system of economic production it leads to the self-increasing flow of materials and energy. The system is also sustained by myths of solipsism that encourage individual citizens to consume, despite the inevitable consequences for all. (Hardin, 1977; Festinger, 1957; Sloterdijk, 1988)

the tragedy of the thermostat solipsistic v. co-created individuation. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/238731347_the_tragedy_of_the_thermostat_solipsistic_v._co-created_individuation [accessed Aug 12, 2015].


This Article considers the spillover effects of trademarks - in particular, brand spillovers, which occur when consumer interest in a trademark increases the profits of third parties who do not own the trademark. Using techniques such as loss leaders and shelf space adjacency, retailers routinely create brand spillovers for their profit, and trademark law generally has not restricted these activities. Online intermediaries, such as search engines, also create and profit from brand spillovers by selling manufacturers' trademarks for advertising purposes (keyword triggering). However, in contrast to retailer practices, keyword triggering has sparked a heated and irresolute battle over its legitimacy under trademark law. By drawing lessons from retailers' experiences with brand spillovers and through an analysis of the ways intermediaries can add value to consumers, this Article offers a new way to resolve the keyword triggering debate. The Article proposes that all intermediaries - including both retailers and online intermediaries - should be permitted to use brand spillovers as part of their effort to reduce consumer search costs, even if the intermediaries profit from the brand spillovers along the way.


In 2007 Florida International University (FIU) received NIH, NSF, and internal support to create a curriculum that was quantitative in nature, and that incorporated some of the most contemporary approaches to the classroom. The QBIC (Quantifying Biology In the Classroom; http://qbic. fiu.edu) Program is a specialized program in the Department of Biology specifically set up to implement 'vision and change' principles in the department's overall approach to students. It is now an optional track within the Department of Biological Sciences. We discuss the major objectives of this series, the affect areas that it addresses, as well as how students incorporate the series' lessons for their own professional development. It became apparent to us anecdotally that our undergraduates were making career choices without the awareness of the many other viable career options in biology. This is not an issue unique to our institution and other authors (1) have discussed steps to address career choice and exposure. At our institution, we created a number of career development initiatives, one of which was a seminar series called "Confluence: where life and science meet." For this series we invite science professionals from around the country to give a seminar, mostly to undergraduates, not only on the technical specifics of their field, but also on their personal life story, and how that story informed their career choice. After the seminar, the speaker sits down with a QBIC faculty member for a half-hour interview where he or she is able to go into more specifics about the themes from the seminar. The interview is videotaped in front of a live student-only audience in a film studio on campus. The recording is published on the series' website (http://qbic.fiu. edu/confluence). In this article we discuss using the series to address issues of identity, and how our video blog can be used in other classrooms to achieve similar objectives for science students nationally.


Bovine β-lactoglobulin (β-lg), α-lactalbumin (α-la) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), dispersed in ultrafiltration permeate, that had been prepared from whey protein concentrate solution (100 g/kg, pH 6·8), were heated at 75 °C. The consequent protein aggregation was studied by one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). When 100 g β-lg/kg permeate solution was heated at 75 °C, cooled and examined, large aggregates were observed. These aggregates were partially dissociated in SDS solution to give monomers, disulphide-bonded dimers, trimers and larger aggregates. When mixtures of β-lg and α-la or BSA were heated, homopolymers of each protein as well as heteropolymers of these proteins were observed. These polymer species were also observed in a heated mixture of the three proteins. Two-dimensional PAGE of mixtures demonstrated that these polymers species contained disulphide-bonded dimers of β-lg, α-la and BSA, and 1:1 disulphide-bonded adducts of α-la and β-lg, or BSA. These results are consistent with a mechanism in which the free thiols of heat-treated β-lg or BSA catalyse the formation of a range of monomers, dimers and higher polymers of α-la. It is likely that when whey protein concentrate is heated under the present conditions, BSA forms disulphide-bonded strands ahead of β-lg and that α-la aggregation with β-lg and with itself is catalysed by the heat-induced unfolded BSA and β-lg.


The International Tracing Service archives offer process-generated documents from resettlement programs for displaced persons (DP) after World War II. This paper addresses two key challenges to ongoing research based on those archival holdings: the generation of data; and the visual representation of that data in geographic information systems. Digital history offers the opportunity to go beyond case studies and use the wealth of process-generated documents as se- rial sources for algorithm-based analysis. However, data in that form does not exist as such, and thus needs to be generated – a process that implies interpre- tative acts such as abstraction, normalization, and trans-coding, which are shaped by the character of digital media. Can modeling a DP's life into a series of events, and digitally processing the resultant data, help to find out more about the agency of DPs negotiating their destiny with the authorities? If the mostly hidden and implicit configurations of digital knowledge production are thoughtfully considered and geostatistical analysis is combined with close readings of selected source documents, hermeneutic and quantitative ap- proaches can be reconciled via digital history. This mixed method approach has implications for research culture and the publication of such data.


Abstract TP53-mutated myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) form a distinct group of myeloid disorders with dismal outcomes. TP53-mutated MDS and AML have lower response rates to either induction chemotherapy, hypomethylating agent–based regimens, or venetoclax-based therapies compared with non–TP53-mutated counterparts and a poor median overall survival of 5 to 10 months. Recent advances have identified novel pathogenic mechanisms in TP53-mutated myeloid malignancies, which have the potential to improve treatment strategies in this distinct clinical subgroup. In this review, we discuss recent insights into the biology of TP53-mutated MDS/AML, current treatments, and emerging therapies, including immunotherapeutic and nonimmune-based approaches for this entity. Significance: Emerging data on the impact of cytogenetic aberrations, TP53 allelic burden, immunobiology, and tumor microenvironment of TP53-mutated MDS and AML are further unraveling the complexity of this disease. An improved understanding of the functional consequences of TP53 mutations and immune dysregulation in TP53-mutated AML/MDS coupled with dismal outcomes has resulted in a shift from the use of cytotoxic and hypomethylating agent–based therapies to novel immune and nonimmune strategies for the treatment of this entity. It is hoped that these novel, rationally designed combinations will improve outcomes in this area of significant unmet need.


This article discusses the links between poverty, HIV/AIDS, and barriers to education, based on the first-hand experiences of 'street children' in northern Tanzania. Within the context of national levels of poverty, 'cost-sharing' in health and education sectors, and the AIDS epidemic, poor families in Tanzania are under considerable pressure, and increasing numbers of girls and boys are consequently seeking a living independently on the streets of towns and cities. My research with street children shows that some children orphaned by AIDS are subject to rejection and exploitation by the extended family after the death of their parent(s). They are exposed to considerable risks of abuse, sexual violence and HIV within the street environment. Here, I discuss the links between poverty, HIV and barriers to education, which compound young people's vulnerability, and offer some policy recommendations in response to the young people's experiences.


We introduce an algorithm which detects and traces a specified level set of a scalar field (a contour) on a plane. A network of static sensor nodes with limited communication and processing are deployed in a planar environment along with a mobile node which can both sense and move. As the mobile node moves through the environment, it computes the local spatial gradient of the field by communicating with its immediate neighbors in the static sensor network. The algorithm causes the mobile node to perform gradient descent on the scalar field till it arrives at a location on the desired contour. From this point onwards, the algorithm drives the mobile node to trace the desired contour without departing from it. Experiments in simulation indicate that the required contour is found with reasonable accuracy (between 80-90%) for networks with node degree of greater than or equal to six. Our results also indicate that the paths generated by our algorithm are near-optimal in terms of the distance traversed by the mobile node. Our preliminary experimental results with a physical robot show that our algorithm is feasible.