NOMA (GP) Ltd is devising proposals for the redevelopment of land encompassing Angel Meadow Park in the Shudehill area of central Manchester as part of the wider NOMA Regeneration scheme. The proposals allow for the redevelopment of five
separate landholdings. In order to facilitate the design and planning application process, NOMA (GP) Ltd commissioned Oxford Archaeology North to carry out an archaeological desk-based assessment of the study area. This was intended to establish, as far as possible, the nature and significance of the sub-surface archaeological resource within the area, and to establish the impact of any future
development upon this resource.
Whilst the archaeological potential of all the proposed development plots has been subject to detailed assessment, the present assessment has considered the potential for
below-ground archaeological remains in one of these areas, referred to as Plot 2, situated between Dantzic Street and Aspin Lane (centred on NGR 384354 399164).
This site almost certainly formed undeveloped agricultural land beyond the urban fringe of Manchester, although it appears to have been used by textile workers for
drying bleached and dyed cloth in late eighteenth century. The site developed subsequently as part of a residential district for Manchester's expanding working class population, with the first terraced housing being erected in the early nineteenth century. The study area had been developed entirely for workers' housing by the mid-
1820s, and gained notoriety as part of Angel Meadow, one of Manchester's most deprived Victorian slums. Whilst some of the worst dwellings were abandoned or remodelled, most of the properties survived until the 1920s, although progressive demolition occurred thereafter and the entire plot had been cleared by the late 1940s.


Today synthetic speech is often based on concatenation of natural speech such as polyphones. There is a need for methods for assessing the overall speech quality of this type of synthesis. In this investigation a method based on shadowing is presented. The subjects listen to spoken utterances produced by the system to be evaluated. At the same time the subjects repeat the utterances as fast as possible. The time difference between the incoming and the repeated speech is measured at the vowel onsets and the averaged time difference over the utterances is used as a measure of the speech quality. The shadowing technique mirrors the ability of the subjects to predict the future of the incoming utterances at every point in time. This technique can therefore be used as a means to judge the accuracy of incoming cues, such as segment duration and the fundamental frequency contour. Results of this method will be presented for different types of speech synthesis and the sensitivity of this method for prosodic cues ...


Procedure Appropriateness Category Relative Radiation Level MRI spine area of interest without and with IV contrast Usually Appropriate O MRI spine area of interest without IV contrast Usually Appropriate O CT myelography spine area of interest May Be Appropriate Varies CT spine area of interest with IV contrast May Be Appropriate Varies CT spine area of interest without IV contrast May Be Appropriate Varies Arteriography spine area of interest Usually Not Appropriate Varies Radiography spine area of interest Usually Not Appropriate Varies MRA spine area of interest with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O MRA spine area of interest without and with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O MRA spine area of interest without IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O MRI spine area of interest with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O CT spine area of interest without and with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate Varies CTA spine area of interest with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate Varies


To benefit the learning of a new task, meta-learning has been proposed to transfer a well-generalized meta-model learned from various meta-training tasks. Existing meta-learning algorithms randomly sample meta-training tasks with a uniform probability, under the assumption that tasks are of equal importance. However, it is likely that tasks are detrimental with noise or imbalanced given a limited number of meta-training tasks. To prevent the meta-model from being corrupted by such detrimental tasks or dominated by tasks in the majority, in this paper, we propose an adaptive task scheduler (ATS) for the meta-training process. In ATS, for the first time, we design a neural scheduler to decide which meta-training tasks to use next by predicting the probability being sampled for each candidate task, and train the scheduler to optimize the generalization capacity of the meta-model to unseen tasks. We identify two meta-model-related factors as the input of the neural scheduler, which characterize the difficulty of a candidate task to the meta-model. Theoretically, we show that a scheduler taking the two factors into account improves the meta-training loss and also the optimization landscape. Under the setting of meta-learning with noise and limited budgets, ATS improves the performance on both miniImageNet and a real-world drug discovery benchmark by up to 13% and 18%, respectively, compared to state-of-the-art task schedulers.


The acceleration of technological change and trade liberalization in the 1990s have
significantly intensified market competition and transformed the world economic
infrastructure from a resource- and manufacturing-based economy to one in which
knowledge and services are the key drivers of economic growth. In order for an
organization to capitalize on its knowledge and truly become a learning organization,
it must systematically manage and leverage knowledge existing internally and
externally to create and sustain its competitive advantage. Numerous empirical studies
on knowledge management have examined the relative effectiveness of various
enablers, such as organizational structure, technology, culture, managerial system and
strategy for knowledge creation and sharing in organizations. While these studies play
a critical role in helping us to appreciate the importance of organizational enablers in
knowledge management, they have neglected to examine the possible effects of task
complexity and management control system (MCS) on the nature and efficacy of
knowledge sharing. Similarly, the role of motivation in the domain of knowledge
sharing has been overlooked. This study investigates how task complexity, MCS
design and infrastructure influence the mode and effectiveness of knowledge sharing in the accounting profession and the moderating role of an individual's intrinsic
motivation on the knowledge sharing process.
One thousand (1,000) copIes of structured questionnaires were mailed to the
Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA)'s members in the Klang Valley in
December 2005. Of the 1,000 copies distributed, 120 completed questionnaires were
returned to the researcher. After the initial stages of data analysis, follow-up
interviews were carried out to obtain further insights to explain the empirical results.
This study reveals that task complexity contributes significantly to knowledge
sharing. It also highlights that it is not feasible to limit the professional accountants'
duties to repetitive or clearly-defined procedural tasks only. Most of the tasks carried
out by professional accountants are unstructured tasks which required professional
judgment for task performance. While professional accountants are keen to tap into a
knowledge-based system in their quest to seek possible solutions to the tasks
performed, they generally hesitate to transform their tacit knowledge into a more
comprehensible explicit form. The finding suggests that there may be culture-related
factors which inhibit the diffusion of tacit knowledge totally and completely.
The results also confirm that there is a relationship between MCS and knowledge
sharing. However, different styles of MCS affect knowledge sharing differently. An
interactive control system seems to support and facilitate knowledge sharing among
professional accountants. Another finding of this study indicates that infrastructure
has a positive effect on knowledge sharing. The results indicate that professional accountants are more willing to share knowledge within a supportive organizational
infrastructure.
This study also shows the significant relationship between knowledge sharing and
professional competency. The results underscore the distinctive impact that the
internalization mode of knowledge sharing has on professional competency. The
finding implies that among the four modes of knowledge sharing, internalization is
the most prolific mode of knowledge sharing among professional accountants. In
addition, the study also finds that professional competency is strongly associated with
firm performance. The results reveal that functional competency is the most important
predictor of firm performance, particularly in its non-financial performance.


The pi-stacked array of DNA base pairs has fascinated scientists since its structural delineation. Here are described fundamental studies to probe how this pi-stacked array mediates DNA charge transport (CT). Intercalators, such as dipyridophenazine (dppz) complexes of ruthenium and phenanthrenequinone diimine (phi) complexes of rhodium, serve as powerful and systematic probes of DNA CT in these studies.

In a series of rhodium-tethered DNA assemblies, with varying A/T sequences intervening between guanine doublet sites (5?-GG-3?), long-range oxidative DNA damage is examined. The guanine doublet sites are known as sites of low oxidation potential in DNA, and the rhodium complex serves as a spatially separated, potent photooxidant. Although these studies are inconsistent with a mechanism involving guanine hopping and tunneling through A/T sequences, these data illustrate that the sequence of bases is an important determinant in attenuating oxidative damage yields of CT. Based on these data, we propose hopping among domains defined by sequence-dependent structure. Additional studies are also described using rhodium-tethered DNA assemblies to examine how different ionic distributions around the DNA duplex modulate DNA CT. In the rhodium-DNA conjugates, differences in long-range oxidative damage yield were observed depending on the position of pendent charges on the oligomer.

A direct comparison of DNA CT utilizing a variety of oxidants has also been performed. CT is assayed both through determination of the yield of oxidative guanine damage and, in derivative DNA assemblies, by analysis of the yield of a faster oxidative trapping reaction, ring-opening of N2-cyclopropylguanine (CPG) within the DNA duplex. We find clear differences in oxidative damage ratios at the distal versus proximal 5?-CGGC-3? depending upon the photooxidant employed. There is also a correlation seen between absolute yield of oxidative damage and distal/proximal damage ratio; photooxidants that produce higher distal/proximal damage ratios have lower yields. These differences observed among photooxidants as well as the complex distance dependence are attributed to differences in rates of back electron transfer (BET).

A study of the overall effect of bridge energetics on DNA CT has also been performed by constructing rhodium-DNA assemblies containing varying numbers of inosine, a guanine base analog with a higher oxidation potential, between two 5?-GG-3? sites. For the rhodium conjugates, only a slight diminution in distal oxidative yield with increasing distance is observed, suggesting direct charge injection by rhodium into higher energy sites of the intervening bridge.

These results, taken together, provide insight into salient parameters that govern DNA CT, in particular how energetics, charge distribution, and sequence-dependent DNA structure and dynamics modulate charge migration through DNA.


This paper describes three case studies of dynamic simulation in preparation for the low carbon retrofit practice, namely, a pre-1919 terrace house, and a 1970s and a 2000s semi-detached house. The houses are located in Wales, UK. Each case study examines its current performance, assesses the effectiveness of different retrofit strategies, and evaluates the best group of options available. Retrofit cost and time schedules have also been taken into account when making the decision. As a part of the SOLCER (Smart Operation for a Low Carbon Energy Region) project, local and emerging low carbon technologies are encouraged to be used as a demonstration of advanced Welsh construction technologies, and therefore have been considered in this research. It was found that a fabric approach could greatly optimize the energy performance of a poorly insulated house. The application of PV has been shown to reduce the total power demand from the grid by around 90%, and also contributing to domestic hot water heating. A systems based approach has been adopted, combining reduced energy demand, renewable energy supply and battery storage to reduce net carbon emissions by up to 90%, saving total cost by over 200% through operating energy cost reduction and cost earnings for renewable energy generation and export. Above all, great effort has been made to tailor the best retrofit approaches to meet requirements of different properties before starting work on site.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the domestic retrofit case studies in Wales, which are intended to be replicable and affordable for large-scale application in the future. It hopes to provide some reference to energy-led domestic retrofit programmes in China in relation to the approach to assess the retrofit strategies, identification of the best approach available, and the introduction of new technologies and local Welsh products.


Bilingual dictionaries from the 17th and 18th centuries – particularly those in the tradition of Antoine Oudin's Recherches – supply us with valuable information on language description, on its use, and on linguistic conceptions at crucial moments in the histories of the two national languages compared here: Italian and French. The contribution of these dictionaries is just as vital in the area of French and Italian cultural history with regard to the social and historical conditions that justified their creation and the cultural relations that can be established – on both the diachronic and the diatopic axes – between two linguistic communities. Bilingual dictionaries take on, moreover, a multifaceted significance: for the comparative lexicographic methodology in place during this period; for the linguistic and extralinguistic content of the lemmas and accepted locutions that aimed to teach linguistic and cultural competence; for the value of documenting illustrated linguistic phenomena and lexical units strongly linked to identity; and for the focus on semantic and cultural divergences in the transition from one language to the other.


We introduce MADE3 (Modal Aerosol Dynamics model for Europe, adapted for global applications, 3rd generation; version: MADE3v2.0b), an aerosol dynamics submodel for application within the MESSy framework (Modular Earth Submodel System). MADE3 builds on the predecessor aerosol submodels MADE and MADE-in. Its main new features are the explicit representation of coarse mode particle interactions both with other particles and with condensable gases, and the inclusion of hydrochloric acid (HCl) / chloride (Cl) partitioning between the gas and condensed phases. The aerosol size distribution is represented in the new submodel as a superposition of nine lognormal modes: one for fully soluble particles, one for insoluble particles, and one for mixed particles in each of three size ranges (Aitken, accumulation, and coarse mode size ranges). In order to assess the performance of MADE3 we compare it to its predecessor MADE and to the much more detailed particle-resolved aerosol model PartMC-MOSAIC in a box model simulation of an idealised marine boundary layer test case. MADE3 and MADE results are very similar, except in the coarse mode, where the aerosol is dominated by sea spray particles. Cl is reduced in MADE3 with respect to MADE due to the HCl / Cl partitioning that leads to Cl removal from the sea spray aerosol in our test case. Additionally, the aerosol nitrate concentration is higher in MADE3 due to the condensation of nitric acid on coarse mode particles. MADE3 and PartMC-MOSAIC show substantial differences in the fine particle size distributions (sizes ≲ 2 μm) that could be relevant when simulating climate effects on a global scale. Nevertheless, the agreement between MADE3 and PartMC-MOSAIC is very good when it comes to coarse particle size distributions (sizes ≳ 2 μm), and also in terms of aerosol composition. Considering these results and the well-established ability of MADE in reproducing observed aerosol loadings and composition, MADE3 seems suitable for application within a global model.


In recent years the automobile and aviation industries, as well as other energy intensive branches, have moved towards downsizing as a new trend. Downsizing essentially means to reduce the dimensions of the device while power and efficiency is kept at least the same. The immediate consequence of downsizing for combustion devices is a higher area-to-volume ratio in which case the near-wall combustion attains greater influence on the overall behavior of the device. Although flame and wall do not interact everywhere in the combustor, their interaction has always significant influence on the combustion process especially in terms of unwanted byproducts such as unburnt hydrocarbons and NOx. On these accounts, the near-wall combustion and the flame-wall interaction becomes an increasingly attractive area of scientific investigation. There is especial interest in quenching the flame at the wall in researching flame-wall interaction(FWI).
Based on orientation of the flame relative to the wall, one can think of two types of configurations for flame-wall interaction in laminar or turbulent flows, namely

- the flame front being parallel to the wall, that is also the flame propagating normal to the wall, which is called head-on quenching, and

- the flame front being normal to the wall, i.e. the flow runs parallel to the wall, which is called side-wall quenching.

Numerous experimental studies have been conducted in this area, but they have serious limitations. Flame-wall interaction has very short time scales and small characteristic lengths which require high precision measurements, overly sophisticated setups, and costly material. And yet the results are not up to par, because of technical limitations at this time. The flame quenching distance at atmospheric pressure is of the order of < 100 micrometer. There are not many reliable methods to capture flame-wall interaction at such small scales. This leaves CFD as the only feasible option which has only become possible by the arrival of the recent computing technologies.
Although there is vast theoretical, experimental, and numerical body of research on the head-on configuration of the flame-wall interaction, there are few works concerning the side-wall configuration, either in laminar or in turbulent flame regimes. The main reason for that is the cost of computation. While the HOQ simulations can be performed using one-dimensional finite difference code, the side-wall quenching has to be simulated using two-dimensional domain, for the laminar combustion regime and three-dimensional domain, for turbulent flame-wall interactions.
Improved computation capacity of research centers has made it possible to delve into this topic and better understanding the SWQ configuration. Gruber et al. have recently performed a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation to investigate the interaction between the wall and a turbulent hydrogen-air flame using multi-component reaction mechanism. Prior to his work there have been experimental and theoretical studies mostly, and numerically simulations were performed based on simple chemistry only.
Lack of sufficient theoretical and numerical works in this area makes it more difficult to acquire enough information to characterize the flame-wall interaction in side-wall quenching. The aforementioned points are enough motivating to perform the sophisticated direct numerical simulations of combustion in the near-wall region using detailed chemistry.
The goal of this work is first to investigate the flame-wall interaction in the head-on quenching configuration concerning different phases of simulation where the flame behaves differently from the transient phase exactly after simulation until after quenching. Secondly, the amount of produced carbon monoxide in different distances from the wall will be examined and compared to experiments. The last step is to gain better insight into the side-wall quenching of stoichiometric methane-air mixtures in configurations where the wall is parallel to the flow. The near wall combustion or the so called flame-wall interaction will be explored using two completely different possible quenching configurations and next, their similarity and differences will be studied. In order to make this possible, two quasi three-dimensional simulations for Side-Wall quenching were performed. To realize this, the readily available code (FASTEST-3D) was modified to calculate the mixture averaged flow properties of a gas mixture. The code was then extended to include mass fraction and energy transport equations for a multi-component gas mixture. In the simulations for both SWQ- and HOQ-configurations, the Smooke multi-component mechanism and the mix averaged transport coefficients calculation recommended by Hirschfelder are used.


The Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Services, the Mossad, is pobably the best known of the world's intelligence services, one of the most sespected and, certainly, one of the most intriguing. However, despite its fame, the available literature, other than Hebrew, is limited and scattered amongst a variety of subject areas because the tentacles of the Mossad are similarly varied. The aim "of "this volume is to document the range of English language material available on «f Mossad from its pre-official origins in Europe during the Second World War to e present period of the Middle East peace process. The organization had its origins in the aftermath of the Holocaust, being the agency responsible for organizing the illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine before becoming officially constituted in 1951. Since its formation the Mossad has been intimately involved in each of the significant events in Israel's history, including actions against its Arab neighbors, the hunting of wanted Nazis, spectacular actions such as the raid on Entebbe to free the hostages, counter-terrorist activities, and high technology espionage against friend and foe alike. This bibliography will be of interest to researchers covering intelligence activities and to students, scholars, and librarians interested in the history of Israel and its relations with its Arab neighbors. The early material on the Mossad will also be of special concern to students of the Holocaust and its aftermath.


We investigate the optical properties of a three-dimensional metamaterial nanotip that has a pyramidal shape. The nanotip itself is made of a large number of densely packed metallic nanospheres. In analogy to the emergence of a continuous energy band in a crystal, the strong coupling among neighboring nanospheres forces them to act collectively and allows the observation of a broad plasmonic band. The largely increased degrees of freedom within the metamaterial nanotip allow to sustain a great variety of different localized eigenmodes. In this contribution, we systematically reveal their peculiar polarization state and show that they allow for light localization in various well-defined spatial domains.


Many environmental problems cross national boundaries and can be addressed only through international cooperation. In this book Robert Darst examines transnational efforts to promote environmental protection in the USSR and in five of its successor states--Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--from the late 1960s to the present. The core of the book is a comparative study of three key issues: nuclear power safety, transboundary air pollution, and Baltic Sea pollution.Although expectations were high that the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union would lead to increased East-West environmental cooperation, the opposite has been true. Russia and the other successor states have generally agreed to address such problems only when paid to do so. Darst finds that post-Cold War environmental cooperation has been most successful when there is an overlap between the environmental and economic interests of the successor states and those of their Western neighbors, and when the foundation for cooperation was laid during the Cold War period.The book is based on extensive original field research, including interviews with diplomats, government officials, scientists, and environmental activists in the successor states and Western Europe. Its findings underscore the importance of the domestic and international political context in which international environmental policy making occurs. It also deepens our understanding of the opportunities and dangers of positive inducements as a tool of international environmental policy.


The aim of this study was to investigate the correlations between human papillomavirus (HPV) load and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and to identify biomarkers that may predict high-risk HPV clearance or persistence after conization with negative margins. The following samples were analyzed: 77 paraffin-embedded specimens from patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), including 27 CIN 2 conization specimens and 50 CIN 3 conization specimens. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed with antibodies to VEGF, EGFR, MMP-2, and COX-2. Hybrid capture II testing was used to detect HPV DNA. VEGF expression was significantly associated with HPV load (ρ = 0.27186, P= 0.0191), while COX-2 expression was significantly and inversely associated with HPV load (ρ =−0.34309, P= 0.0028). In univariate analysis, HPV load (P= 0.0112) and VEGF expression (P= 0.0274) were significantly associated with high-risk HPV clearance or persistence after conization with negative margins. In multiple regression analysis, high viral load (relative light unit/positive control > 500) and positive VEGF expression were significantly associated with high-risk HPV persistence after conization with negative margins (odds ratio [OR]: 9.915, CI: 1.891–51.994; OR: 6.661, CI: 1.208–36.722, respectively). In conclusion, VEGF expression is related to HPV load, while COX-2 expression is inversely related to HPV load, and immunohistochemical analysis of VEGF expression and HPV viral load are a significant and an independent prognostic indicator of high-risk HPV persistence after conization with negative margins.


Introduction This study investigated possible relationships between Stereotyped Behaviors and Restricted Interests (SBRIs) measured on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and diagnostic results in 119 children ages 16 months to 15 years of age. Sub-categories of SBRI symptoms, including sensory behaviors, complex motor mannerisms, and restricted interests and unusual behaviors on the ADOS were compared to diagnostic findings. Results Results indicated that mean SBRI scores varied across diagnostic categories with higher scores associated with more severe ADOS classifications and DSM-IV diagnoses. Furthermore, certain sub-categories of SBRI symptoms varied more significantly across diagnostic results. Conclusion These results support diagnostic validity of the SBRI domain for use with the ADOS and DSM-IV, with particular significance due to recent revisions of both (ADOS-2 and DSM-5).


Deadly western North Atlantic Ocean tsunami events in the last centuries have occurred along the east coast of Canada, the United States, most Caribbean islands, and the North Atlantic Coast of South America. The catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 reminded natural hazards managers that tsunami risk is endemic to all oceans. Total Risk is defined as hazard (frequency of tsunami events) times measures of elements at risk (human exposure) times measures of vulnerability (preparedness) in a given epoch (Nott, 2006). While the tsunami hazard in the Caribbean (averaging 19 ± 22 years between deadly events) is lower than Pacific coastal areas, the total risk to life and property is at least as high as the USA West Coast, Hawaii, or Alaska, because of the higher Caribbean population density and beach tourism so attractive to more than 35 million visitors a year. Viewed in this light, the allocation of resources by governments, industry, and insurers needs to be adjusted for the better protection of life, for coastal engineering, and for infrastructure. Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol. 29, No. 2, page 70 (2010)


The latest developments in mobile cloud computing (MCC) have changed user's priorities for computing. However, the change towards MCC brings new challenges to cloud service providers and administrators. Authentication is one among the challenges categorized in the classification of security issues for MCC. Port knocking authentication method eliminates user's collaboration during the authentication process. Thus, such technique has the potential to be applied on the MCC environment which can ensure reliable communication. However, current port knocking authentication techniques lack of addressing the issue of knock-sequence length. It is challenging to deploy appropriate length sequence for port knocking authentication for the reason that shorter length knock sequence degrades security, whereas, deploying longer length sequence involves performance issues in terms of time and buffer management. This paper proposes a dynamic length port knocking authentication framework which addresses the issue of security degradation and optimizes performance in terms of time up and buffer managment. We employ MikroTik RouterOS for the evaluation of the proposed technique. Analysis of the results shows that dynamic length port knocking authentication technique improves performance in terms of time up to 23% and buffer management up to 28% by reducing the imposed load. Furthermore, by deploying dynamic length (DL) and pool of length (PoL), the proposed method reveals high security, which decreases the probability of hacking knock-sequence near to zero for a number of parallel authentication requests. Hence, dynamic length port knocking authentication technique provides an optimal solution for reliable communication in MCC.


This manual presents the first empirically studied, integrative treatment approach developed specifically for PTSD and substance abuse. For persons with this prevalent and difficult-to-treat dual diagnosis, the most urgent clinical need is to establish safety--to work toward discontinuing substance use, letting go of dangerous relationships, and gaining control over such extreme symptoms as dissociation and self-harm. The manual is divided into 25 specific units or topics, addressing a range of different cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal domains. Each topic provides highly practical tools and techniques to engage patients in treatment; teach "safe coping skills" that apply to both disorders; and restore ideals that have been lost, including respect, care, protection, and healing. Structured yet flexible, topics can be conducted in any order and in a range of different formats and settings.


The aim of this research is to find out the influence of work motivation and organizational culture on employees' performance. The objects of this research are the employees that work in a company. This research was conducted with 69 respondents using a quantitative approach on a saturated sampling method. The analysis of the data was done using multiple linear regression and processed with SPSS program version 24. The results of this research indicate that the value of signigicance on Anova was 0.000 ≤ 0.05, therefore H0 is denied and Ha is accepted, which means partially and together (simultaneously) work motivation (X1) and organizational culture (X2) have a positive and significant effect on employee's performance. The regression coefficients indicated that an increase of 1 unit in motivation work affects the dependent variable by 0.199 units. An increase of 1 unit in organizational culture affects the dependent variable by 0.208 units. The coefficient of determination is low indicating that there are other variables missing from the model. Therefore, this research concluded that motivation work factors and organizational culture have a positive effect on employees' performance in PT X.


Background: CA19-9, which is currently in clinical use as a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) biomarker, has limited performance in detecting early-stage disease. We and others have identified protein biomarker candidates that have the potential to complement CA19-9. We have carried out sequential validations starting with 17 protein biomarker candidates to determine which markers and marker combination would improve detection of early-stage disease compared with CA19-9 alone. Methods: Candidate biomarkers were subjected to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based sequential validation using independent multiple sample cohorts consisting of PDAC cases (n = 187), benign pancreatic disease (n = 93), and healthy controls (n = 169). A biomarker panel for early-stage PDAC was developed based on a logistic regression model. All statistical tests for the results presented below were one-sided. Results: Six out of the 17 biomarker candidates and CA19-9 were validated in a sample set consisting of 75 PDAC patients, 27 healthy subjects, and 19 chronic pancreatitis patients. A second independent set of 73 early-stage PDAC patients, 60 healthy subjects, and 74 benign pancreatic disease patients (combined validation set) yielded a model that consisted of TIMP1, LRG1, and CA19-9. Additional blinded testing of the model was done using an independent set of plasma samples from 39 resectable PDAC patients and 82 matched healthy subjects (test set). The model yielded areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.949 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.917 to 0.981) and 0.887 (95% CI = 0.817 to 0.957) with sensitivities of 0.849 and 0.667 at 95% specificity in discriminating early-stage PDAC vs healthy subjects in the combined validation and test sets, respectively. The performance of the biomarker panel was statistically significantly improved compared with CA19-9 alone (P < .001, combined validation set; P = .008, test set). Conclusion: The addition of TIMP1 and LRG1 immunoassays to CA19-9 statistically significantly improves the detection of early-stage PDAC.


Climate‐related security challenges are transnational in character, leading states to increasingly rely on intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)—such as the European Union and the North‐Atlantic Treaty Organization—for policy solutions. While climate security issues do not typically fit comfortably within the mandates of existing IGOs, recent decades have seen increasing efforts by IGOs to link climate change and security. This article reviews existing studies on IGOs' responses to climate security challenges. It draws together research from several bodies of literature spanning political science, international relations, and environmental social science, identifying an emerging field of research revolving around IGOs and climate security. We observe significant advancement in this young field, with scholars extending and enriching our understanding of how and why IGOs address climate security challenges. Yet we still know little about the conditions under which IGOs respond to climate security challenges and when they do so effectively. This article discusses the main gaps in current work and makes some suggestions about how these gaps may be usefully addressed in future research. A better understanding of the conditions under which IGOs respond (effectively) to climate security challenges would contribute to broader debates on climate security, institutional change, and effectiveness in international relations and environmental social science, and may facilitate crafting effective global solutions to society's most intractable climate security challenges. WIREs Clim Change 2018, 9:e496. doi: 10.1002/wcc.496


The present study examined the relationship between habitual physical activity, life events stress, the diurnal rhythms of cortisol and DHEA, and the cortisol:dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) ratio in older adults. Thirty-six participants aged ≥ 65 reported their habitual physical activity, and indicated if a particular event happened to them in the past year (stress incidence) and how stressful they perceived the event to be (stress severity). Older adults with higher stress severity demonstrated a significantly higher cortisol:DHEA ratio. Individuals with higher stress incidence scores and who did not participate in aerobic exercise had a significantly higher cortisol:DHEA ratio and flatter DHEA diurnal rhythm compared with those who regularly participated in aerobic exercise. In conclusion, life events stress may have a negative impact on the cortisol:DHEA ratio in older adults. Under conditions of high stress exposure, exercise may protect older adults from an increased cortisol:DHEA ratio and flatter DHEA diurnal rhythm.


This paper describes the reference architecture to support a multi-user virtual healthcare network that enables rehabilitation and social reintegration of people with disabilities. The network, based on a virtual collaborative environment supported by the www, includes collaboration and interpersonal communication devices and data collection mechanisms that provide knowledge management for the system and effectiveness evaluation. The Virtual Network (VN) allows the rehabilitation patients spread in geographically dispersed areas, a very frequent reality in the considered context, to access a distributed virtual platform able to offer communication and shared knowledge with doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers and other people involved in the process of rehabilitation. VN solutions allow building a virtual shared space, a context of understanding and knowledge where the "real world" knowledge affects virtual interaction and virtual interaction modifies "real world" therapies. The main aim of the VN is to achieve a higher quality of life for the people with disabilities and, in the long term, from the economic point of view, to produce important savings/profits and bring about feasible ways to improving/re-organizing health care services. The present paper illustrates our team's first steps in building such a network in Romania. The first section establishes the link between the virtual reality and the medical rehabilitation as an important branch of the healthcare system. Several applications in the field are presented here. The second section focuses on two main aspects: on the one hand, the current Romanian reality of medical rehabilitation and, on the other hand, the existing possibilities to build a VN for rehabilitation as a solution to the main problems Romania has in this field. The third section is a technical preamble to the knowledge sharing process particularized for a healthcare VN in section number four. The last part of the paper includes both pro and cons arguments for the designing of a VN as a solution to the discrepancy between the demand and the real current hospitals' supply of medical rehabilitation in Romania.


This report provides an overview of how the Kenyan dairy sector performs in three analytical domains: the robustness of the supply chains, the reliability of institutional governance and the resilience of the innovation system. Analysis is by literature review, stakeholder interviews and a validation workshop guided by a SWOT framework to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The findings inform the existing opportunities and challenges that potentially impede growth in the sector. The report is a first step towards documenting and sharing insights that support the move towards a more Robust, Reliable and Resilient (3R) dairy sector. The findings and recommendations presented will guide policy engagement and action in the transition of Dutch government bilateral engagement in Kenya from development aid–support to a trade approach in the agricultural sector, with a focus on partnering opportunities to drive competitive market-oriented dairy sector development that attracts investments.


The mesopore walls of ordered mesoporous silicas were coated with zirconia layers at room temperature using zirconia tetra-n-butoxide dissolved in dry toluene. It was found that coating the silicas three times with zirconia layers was sufficient to completely cover their pore walls with zirconia. The coated mesoporous silicas demonstrated high resistance to a 2 M sodium hydroxide solution at 0 °C. Prior to being coated three times with the zirconia layers, the silica walls were partially coated with 3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane so that diamino groups could be grafted onto the pore walls; this was done so that they could be used as base-resistant adsorbents for copper(II) ions that had been dissolved in basic solutions. The grafted diamino groups, which captured copper(II) ions, were protected from the basic solution, as the silyl in the diamino groups was covered with zirconia layers.


We use density functional theory to study the reduction of CO2 and CO to hydrocarbons through a formyl pathway on (111) and (211) facets of L12 alloys with an A3B composition. We find that several alloys may reduce the thermodynamic overpotential for CO reduction by more than 0.2 V compared to a copper step, however, these alloys are most often rather unstable in aqueous environment or have low alloy formation energies and may be susceptible to segregation destroying the active sites. Strategies to improve alloy stability against corrosion or segregation would likely be needed in order to realize the full potential of these alloys.


The continuous dimensional reduction drives the development of metrology, analysis and characterization for nano and micro electronics. An enormous worldwide R&D effort focuses on the understanding and controlling materials properties and dimensions at atomic level. Crucial for groundbreaking new developments is the availability of appropriate analytical infrastructures providing techniques with information depths well adapted to the nanoscaled objects of interest. This requires widely accessible, independent complementary metrology, analytical techniques, and characterization. For example new materials and the demand of improved detection sensitivities for contaminants provide huge challenges for the capabilities of current analysis equipment and expertise. At the same time, the availability of complementary competences is crucial for advancement of analytical methodologies through cross-comparison, round-robin, and benchmarking of results. This paper describes the formation of an independent analytical infrastructure within Europe having the expertise and competence to solve metrology problems for development of nanotechnologies. Furthermore, a strategy is shown to establish independently operating 'Golden Laboratories' for complementary and reliable metrology, analysis, and characterization adapted to the requirements of industrial partners.


Title of Document: TESTING A DYNAMIC ACCOUNT OF NEURAL PROCESSING: BEHAVIORAL AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF SEMANTIC SATIATION Xing Tian, Ph.D., 2008 Directed By: Professor Michael Dougherty, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland In everyday perception, we easily and automatically identify objects. However, there is evidence that this ability results from complicated interactions between levels of perception. An example of hierarchical perception is accessing the meaning of visually presented words through the identification of line segments, letters, lexical entries, and meaning. Studies of word reading demonstrate a dynamic course to identification, producing benefits following brief presentations (excitation) but deficits following longer presentations (habituation). This dissertation investigates hierarchical perception and the role of transient excitatory and habituation dynamics through behavioral and neural studies of word reading. More specifically, the effect of interest is 'semantic satiation', which refers to the gradual loss of meaning when repeating a word. The reported studies test the hypothesis that habituation occurs in the associations between levels. As applied to semantic satiation, this theory supposes that there is not a loss of meaning, but, rather, an inability to access meaning from a repeated word. This application was tested in three behavioral experiments using a speeded matching task, demonstrating that meaning is lost when accessing the meaning of a repeated category label, but is not lost when accessing the category through new exemplars, or when the matching task is changed to simple word matching. To model these results, it is assumed that speeded matching results from detection of novel meaning to the target word after presentation of the cue word. This model was tested by examining neural dynamics with MEG recordings. As predicted by semantic satiation through loss of association, repeated cue words produced smaller M170 responses. M400 responses to the cue also diminished, as expected by a hierarchy in which lower levels drive higher levels. If the M400 corresponds to the post-lexical detection of new meaning, this model predicted that the M400 to targets following repeated cues would increase. This unique prediction was confirmed. These results were tested using a new method of analyzing MEG data that can differentiate between response magnitude versus differences in activity patterns. By considering hierarchical perception and processing dynamics, this work presents a new understanding of transient habituation and a new interpretation of electrophysiological data. TESTING A DYNAMIC ACCOUNT OF NEURAL PROCESSING: BEHAVIORAL AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF SEMANTIC SATIATION


Two-dimensional finite element thermal simulations of large rail casks designed to transport spent nuclear fuel assemblies were performed for normal conditions. Two different effective thermal conductivity models, developed by other investigators, were implemented within the basket openings that support the fuel assemblies. The effective thermal conductivity models affect the peak cladding temperature directly by influencing the temperature difference between the hottest cladding at the cask center and the walls that surround it. It also affects it indirectly by influencing the center basket wall temperature. The fuel assembly heat generation rates that cause the peak cladding temperature to reach the allowed limit were determined for both effective thermal conductivity models. At those generation rates the basket wall temperatures in the periphery of the package were highly nonuniform. The basket wall temperatures determined in this work will be used in future studies to develop improved thermal models of fuel assemblies.


This review targeted all research previously conducted on the topic of musculoskeletal disorders among Italian nursing personnel, with a particular focus on studies that had examined individual, physical and psychosocial risk factors. Scientific literature published in both English and Italian languages was searched using electronic and manual techniques. A total of 25 appropriate studies were located and examined, most of which had focused on the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) among nurses. From the review, it was shown that LBP prevalence rates have varied widely among different investigations conducted in Italy, ranging from 33% to 86%. Previous studies also suggest that female gender, physical factors and psychosocial factors are important LBP risk factors in this country. Since most of the data currently available describes nurses working in the northern and central regions only, further investigations should now be undertaken in southern Italy, in order to obtain a more complete overview of the problem from a national perspective. Furthermore, a standardized method for measuring these conditions is strongly recommended for future Italian research, to allow better local and international comparison of the data.


As one of the older "new" religious movements in Japan, Tenrikyo has often struggled with its self-presentation to the public. This was especially so in its quest for legal recognition at certain times in its long history, but also in response to broader public suspicions. However, work by Tenrikyo members to benefit society should not be seen as public relations efforts to create a positive image for institutional growth and acceptance. A case in point is social welfare work undertaken quite early in the movement9s history. Drawing on in-progress research and interviews focusing on Tenrikyo members9 work with people suffering from Hansen9s Disease (leprosy) in Japan, this essay makes the case that good works are not carried out to create a positive public image, but rather are pursued for the betterment of society and personal spiritual development.


The first Danish language version of this book, published in 1971, was very much a protest against the functionalistic principles for planning cities and residential areas that prevailed during that period. The book carried an appeal to show concern for the people who were to move about between buildings, and it urged an understanding of the subtle, almost indefinable - but definite - qualities, which have always related to the interaction of people in public spaces, and it pointed to the life between buildings as a dimension of architecture that needs to be carefully treated. Now 40 years later, many architectural trends and ideologies have passed by over the years. These intervening years have also shown that the liveliness and liveability of cities and residential areas continues to be a important issue. The intensity in which fine public spaces are used at this point in time, as well as the greatly increased general interest in the quality of cities and their public spaces emphasises this point. The character of life between buildings changes with changes in any given social context, but the essential principles and quality criteria to be employed when working with life between buildings has proven to be remarkably constant. Though this work over the years has been updated and revised several times, this version bears little resemblance with the very early versions, however there was no reason to change the basic message: Take good care of the life between your buildings.


Modelling of hydrothermal eruption phenomenon has been a growing topic of research for the past 20 years. To date, models have focussed on the underground quasi-steady flow and on the above ground eruption jet including particle deposition. Very little has been able to be said about the first few seconds of an eruption, nor has much modelling work been done on eruption causes. In this thesis we develop a shock tube model for the initiation of a hydrothermal eruption which aims to answer some of the remaining questions about causality of a hydrothermal eruption. The new shock tube model reported in this thesis is the first model able to simulate the initiation of a hydrothermal eruption. We take into account the three phases present during the eruption; in the geothermal reservoir below ground, liquid water and water vapour are present, in the above ground flow we also include air. The fact that the flow below ground is moving through a porous medium is accounted for, and new numerical methods using the finite volume framework are developed to solve the arising system of equations. Numerical simulations are described which simulate various eruptions, including ones with steam caps and rapidly developing cracks in the geothermal reservoir. Results from numerical simulations will be able to guide the design of future lab experiments of hydrothermal eruptions. The work of this thesis results in the first model able to simulate the initiation of a hydrothermal eruption.


Mapping tumor heterogeneity and hypoxia within a living intact organism is essential for understanding the processes involved in cancer progression and assessing long-term responses to therapies. Efficient investigations into tumor hypoxia mechanisms have been hindered by the lack of intravital imaging tools capable of multi-parametric probing of entire solid tumors with high spatial and temporal resolution. Here we exploit volumetric multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography (vMSOT) for accurate, label-free delineation of tumor heterogeneity and dynamic oxygenation behavior. Mice bearing orthotopic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer xenografts were imaged non-invasively during rest and oxygen stress challenge, attaining time-lapse 3D oxygenation maps across entire tumors with 100µm spatial resolution. Volumetric quantification of the hypoxic fraction rendered values of 3.9-21.2% whereas the oxygen saturation (sO2) rate declined at 1.7-2.3% per mm in all tumors when approaching their core. Three distinct functional areas (the rim, hypoxic, and normoxic cores) were clearly discernible based on spatial sO2 profiles and responses to oxygen challenge. Notably, while sO2 readings were responsive to the challenge, deoxyhemoglobin (HbR) trends exhibited little to no variations in all mice. Dynamic analysis further revealed the presence of cyclic hypoxia patterns with a 21% average discrepancy between cyclic fractions analyzed by sO2 (42.2±17.3%) and HbR fluctuations (63±14.1%) observed in the hypoxic core. These findings corroborate the strong potential of multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography for advancing pre-clinical imaging of cancer and informing clinical decisions on therapeutic interventions.


: Efficient electron acceleration on a descending plasma density ramp is observed by a CP (Circularly Polarized) laser. A CP laser pulse traverses along positive z-direction, where an electron with few MeVs is injected in its direction in plasma. The laser's ponderomotive force is increased due to enhancement in group velocity of laser on a plasma density ramp. It is investigated that electron energy gain enhances swiftly at low plasma density, which proves as an improved platform for efficient electron acceleration.


The German Aerospace Center DLR – namely the Earth Observation Center EOC and the German Space Operations Center GSOC – is responsible for the establishment of the ground segment of the future German hyperspectral satellite mission EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program). The Earth Observation Center has long lasting experiences with air- and spaceborne acquisition, processing, and analysis of hyperspectral image data. In the first part of this paper, an overview of the radiometric in-flight calibration concept including dark value measurements, deep space measurements, internal lamps measurements and sun measurements is presented. Complemented by pre-launch calibration and characterization these analyses will deliver a detailed and quantitative assessment of possible changes of spectral and radiometric characteristics of the hyperspectral instrument, e.g. due to degradation of single elements. A geometric accuracy of 100 m, which will be improved to 30 m with respect to a used reference image, if it exists, will be achieved by ground processing. Therfore, and for the required co-registration accuracy between SWIR and VNIR channels, additional to the radiometric calibration, also a geometric calibration is necessary. In the second part of this paper, the concept of the geometric calibration is presented in detail. The geometric processing of EnMAP scenes will be based on laboratory calibration results. During repeated passes over selected calibration areas images will be acquired. The update of geometric camera model parameters will be done by an adjustment using ground control points, which will be extracted by automatic image matching. In the adjustment, the improvements of the attitude angles (boresight angles), the improvements of the interior orientation (view vector) and the improvements of the position data are estimated. In this paper, the improvement of the boresight angles is presented in detail as an example. The other values and combinations follow the same rules. The geometric calibration will mainly be executed during the commissioning phase, later in the mission it is only executed if required, i.e. if the geometric accuracy of the produced images is close to or exceeds the requirements of 100 m or 30 m respectively, whereas the radiometric calibration will be executed periodically during the mission with a higher frequency during commissioning phase.


Abstract By examining students' perceptions of their personal language learning endeavors, teacher perceptions of their students' language learning, as well as the similarities and discrepancies therewithin, language teachers can gain valuable insights into their students' self-regulatory skills, thus informing the language instruction process. This study examines where (in terms of skill) and how (in terms of degree and direction) student and teacher perceptions coexist in the beginning French and Spanish classroom. Introduction Most U.S. students who have studied a second language have done so under less-than-ideal conditions. First, unlike our European counterparts, we tend to reserve language study for secondary and post-secondary level students (Brown, 1994). Second, language learning typically takes place in a classroom environment for a mere handful of hours per week. Most language educators would argue that beginning language instruction as early as possible, and within authentic contexts, should be our goal. However, until language teachers are able to reconfigure the U.S. educational system, we must continue to improve our understanding of the current language learning context: the classroom. To this end, the following pages seek to shed light on the language learning process by studying student perceptions of language performance in introductory second language (French and Spanish) courses. Like all teachers, language educators have considerable influence on the ways in which their students make sense of their learning and qualify their successes and failures. Certainly, both the implicit and explicit messages that we convey in our classrooms affect our students' developing notions of themselves as language learners, as well as their progress in the language (Williams and Burden, 1999: 200). Students judge their success by internal (personal opinion) as well as external (teacher approval, grades) factors (Williams and Burden, 1999). Whereas language teachers are unable to tap into their students' internal measures of performance, we can help students to become more accurate assessors by ameliorating the quality of the external messages we send. For the less-skilled student, simple grades may be an insufficient medium of communication. Individual conferences or frequent narrative progress reports, for example, may be possible ways of improving the accuracy of the less-skilled student's perception and, quite possibly, performance. By examining our students' perceptions of their personal language learning endeavors, teacher perceptions of their students' language learning, as well as the similarities and discrepancies therewithin, language teachers can gain valuable insights into their students' self-regulatory skills, thus informing the language instruction process. Indeed, Boekaerts (1998) believes that post-modern education must encourage students to steer and direct their own learning (p. 13), and an essential first step toward this goal is understanding how students perceive their own performance. Perception Theory Three dominant models (attribution theory, self-efficacy, and self-concept) have given shape to much of the perception research to date, and can be classified primarily in terms of where they cast their gaze: back toward the past, ahead to the future, or on the present. The Past Attribution theory posits the student as a rational analyzer of learning causes and outcomes in which retrospective judgement of the causes of one's performance has a motivational effect. The causal determiners most commonly cited in any given success or failure have been: ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty (Weiner, 1983). Causal attributions are "latent variables-mental states or events that are not observable but are presumed to exist because their effects are observable" (Whitley, Hanson, and Frieze, 1985: 609). At its core, attribution research seeks to reveal how learners explain a completed-or past-success or failure. …


The purpose of this thesis is to examine what motivates nonindustrial private forest landowners to accept bids of various levels for harvesting. Through the use of a survey we specifically consider what preferences and landowner characteristics effect these decisions. Landowners were randomly selected from counties in Southwest Virginia. The participants were presented a payment table in which they were asked to indicate the level of certainty with which they would accept bids of various levels for their timber. The information obtained for the survey was used in a LOGIT model to examine which variables were most important both in determining the certainty respondents attached to different bid levels, and the likelihood of accepting a bid of any size. Our most important results show that factors such as bequest motives, tract size, absentee status, and environmental preferences influence the bid acceptance decision for landowners in the sample.


Congratulations to the following who, having fulfilled all the requirements, have been awarded their Diplomas by the College of Occupational Therapists. The journal wishes them every success in the future and hopes their careers will be both interesting and rewarding. This list contains the names of successful candidates from occupational therapy schools in all parts of the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland. The school's location is shown in brackets after each name.


In this paper we examine a method for separating out the vocal-tract filter response from the voice source characteristic using a large articulatory database. The method realises such separation for voiced speech using an iterative approximation procedure under the assumption that the speech production process is a linear system composed of a voice source and a vocal-tract filter, and that each of the components is controlled independently by different sets of factors. Experimental results show that the spectral variation is evidently influenced by the fundamental frequency or the power of speech, and that the tendency of the variation may be related closely to speaker identity. The method enables independent control over the voice source characteristic in our articulation-to-speech synthesis.


Tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) is a plasma serine protease inhibitor that directly inhibits coagulation factor Xa and regulates blood coagulation via inhibition of factor VIIa-tissue factor enzymatic activity. We previously demonstrated that >90% of TFPI bound to a single population of low affinity binding sites on hepatoma cells (2 × 106 sites/cell, Kd = 30 nM), and, that following binding, the low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) mediated TFPI uptake and degradation. We subsequently reported heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) constitute a second receptor system involved in TFPI catabolism. In the present study, mouse embryonic fibroblasts heterozygous and homozygous-negative for disruption of the LRP gene were used to further examine the roles of LRP and HSPGs in TFPI endocytosis. We demonstrate that LRP is absolutely required for degrading 125I-TFPI. LRP heterozygous and homozygous-negative cells bind 125I-TFPI similarly, and the 39-kDa protein, an inhibitor of all known ligand interactions with LRP, does not alter 125I-TFPI binding to these cells. TFPI can be cross-linked to LRP on [35S]cysteine-labeled hepatoma and LRP-heterozygous cells but not LRP-negative cells. When HSPGs are blocked with protamine, 125I-TFPI binds in a 39-kDa protein-inhibitable manner to 41,000 high affinity sites/hepatoma cell (Kd = 2.3 nM). Blockade of HSPGs with protamine results in significantly more 125I-TFPI degradation by LRP-positive cells. TFPI can be cross-linked to LRP in the absence and presence of protamine. However, in the presence of protamine, relative to the total pool of cross-linked proteins, 5-fold more TFPI is cross-linked to LRP. Finally, we show TFPI inhibits 125I-α2-macroglobulin-methylamine binding to hepatoma cells and that carboxyl-terminal residues 115-319 of the 39-kDa protein inhibit both 125I-TFPI degradation and binding when binding conditions contain protamine. Together, our results suggest that while the majority of TFPI binds to cell surface HSPGs, LRP can function independently from HSPGs in the binding and uptake of TFPI.


Radiative decay rates (A) and line strengths (S ) are presented for a large number of electric dipole allowed (E1) and forbidden electric quadrupole (E2), octupole (E3) and magnetic dipole (M1) transitions in Fe IV. The ion is amongst the most complex iron ions and exhibits effects of strong electron correlation. It has closely spaced fine structure levels from seven configurations: 3s23p63d5, 3s23p63d44s, 3s23p63d44p, 3s23p63d44d, 3s23p63d34s4p, 3s23p63d34s4d, 3s23p53d6 before an energy gap could be noted. Atomic parameters are presented for multipole radiative transitions among the 1275 fine structure levels dominated by these seven configurations. A total of approximately 173 000 transitions of type E1, E2, E3 and M1 are presented, The set of intercombination and forbidden transitions complements the earlier extensive set of dipole allowed (∆J = 0,±1, ∆L = 0,±1, and ∆S = 0) fine structure transitions in Fe IV. The results are obtained in the relativistic Breit-Pauli approximation using an updated atomic structure code SUPERSTRUCTURE. Transition probabilities are compared with the existing results and varying degrees of agreement are found. The total number of transitions presented should provide a reasonably complete set for modeling of most optical to ultraviolet Fe IV spectra of astrophysical sources.


Many tropical angiosperms rely on frugivores for seed dispersal and evolved fleshy fruits to attract them. Although both sides of the interaction are generalists, frugivores do not feed on the full range of fruit species in their habitats and angiosperms rely on the dispersal services of only a share of the frugivore community. This observation led to the "Dispersal Syndrome Hypothesis", which postulates that over time fruits evolve to specialize on certain guilds of frugivorous seed dispersers and consequently their traits evolve in response to the dietary and sensory capacities of their main dispersal agents.
Fruit traits such as size, seed size and husk thickness have been shown to be malleable to selection pressures exerted by their main seed-dispersal vectors. Additionally, due to competition for dispersal services and the need to promote consumption of ripe fruits and thus dispersal of mature seeds, fruits are also under selection pressures to provide reliable signals for ripeness. A prime example is fruit color, which has evolved independently in many bird-dispersed species to signal ripeness and possibly nutrient content. Fruit odor, similarly, has been speculated to be a signaling system between plants and frugivores with elaborated olfactory capabilities, but this has only recently received support in figs (genus Ficus) dispersed by bats. Yet data are still restricted to the narrow bat-fig model system and it is not clear whether fruit olfactory signaling has evolved in other plant genera and in the communication with other taxa, and thus indeed a recurring component of some Dispersal Syndromes.
Primates are one of the most important seed dispersal vectors in the tropics. Until recently, their olfactory capabilities were considered low and thus irrelevant for the study of their feeding ecology. This view has been utterly revisited over the past years and primates are now known to possess high olfactory capacities. Therefore, under the framework of the Dispersal Syndrome Hypothesis, it is likely that fruits whose seeds they disperse evolved olfactory signals for ripeness, too.
This thesis explores the evolution and functions of fruit aroma in the communication between primates and plants. The first chapter is a theoretical review regarding the roles of olfaction in primate feeding ecology. It concludes, based on available behavioral works, that frugivory is the dietary category that requires most reliance on olfaction in feeding primates, and that olfactory cues are used solely for the function of fruit selection from very short distances. So, primate-dispersed fruits are expected to be under pressure to provide signals that are not necessarily carried away to long distances, but rather maximize the ability to identify ripe fruits from close proximity.
The second chapter is a comparative analysis of fruit odor in four Neotropical plant species, two dispersed by primates and two by birds. It demonstrates that ripe primate-dispersed fruits bear odors that are strong, compound-rich and significantly different from the odors of unripe fruits. Thus, their odors provide a reliable signal for ripeness that could be used for fruit selection. In contrast, bird-dispersed fruits emit relatively weak and compound-poor odors that are not different from the odors of unripe fruits. Hence, their odor profiles are not informative regarding their level of ripeness. Since each bird-dispersed species is phylogenetically closer to one primate-dispersed species than they are to one another, these patterns of odor release are independent of phylogeny. Therefore, the chapter concludes that fruit odor as a reliable signal for ripeness evolved in these two primate-dispersed species, independent of phylogeny and hence it is likely to constitute an adapted communication system with seed-dispersing primates.
The third chapter reports olfactory-discrimination experiments that confirmed that primates indeed "understand" the signal – that they can physiologically discriminate between odors of ripe and unripe primate-dispersed fruits and choose ripe fruits based on their odor in the absence of cues from other trajectories. It further reports experiments which show that no single compound or compound class in the odor of fruits is significantly more important than others to allow ripe-fruit recognition.
The final section provides a synthesis of the results and a framework for integrating the study of primate olfaction and fruit chemistry into a new "chemical ecology of primate-plant interactions".


We proposed a thinning approximation (TA) for estimation of the two-dimensional (2D) wide-angle scattering patterns from Kremer–Grest polymer melts under shear. In the TA, extra particles are inserted at the middle of bonds for fine-graining of the coarse-grained polymers. For the case without the TA, spots corresponding to the orientation of bonds at a high shear rate are difficult to observe because the bond length of successive particles is comparable to the distance between neighboring particles. With the insertion of the extra particles, a ring pattern originating from the neighboring particles can be moved to a wide-angle region. Thus, we can observe the spots at high shear rates. We also examined the relationship between 2D scattering patterns and the Weissenberg number, which is defined as the product of the shear rate and the longest relaxation time. It is confirmed that the relationship for coarse-grained polymers with the TA is consistent with that of the all-atomistic model of polyethylene.


The first use of wartime water torture by Americans occurred during the Philippine-American War of 1899 to 1902, when American soldiers and their indigenous minions used the "water cure" to extract information from Filipinos who resisted the occupation of their land, and to punish them. The practice, in which a prisoner was held down and forced to ingest large quantities of water to simulate drowning, was almost universally acknowledged at the time to be a form of torture, illegal under the applicable laws of war.
The Philippine-American War, an early foray into overseas imperialism, was extremely controversial at the time. Cutting across partisan and sectional lines, the conflict divided the nation between imperialists and anti-imperialists. The conduct of the war intensified the controversy. Beyond water torture, the war was marked by the burning of villages and towns, the establishment of re-concentration camps, and reprisals against innocent civilian hostages. The use of water torture divided the Army, the Senators who investigated the practice, and the nation.
It was against this backdrop of controversy that President Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address to veterans of the Great Rebellion on Memorial Day in 1902, in which he promised to discover and acknowledge every instance of cruelty and barbarity, fairly punish those guilty of such crimes, and take strong action to minimize such crimes in the future. The article traces the failure of the Roosevelt Administration to fulfill these three imperatives, and compares the record of that age with our performance as a nation after our recent use of water torture.


Systematic field exploration in Tennessee has located a wealth of new rock art—some deep in caves, some in the open air. The authors show that these have a different repertoire and use of colour, and a different distribution in the landscape—the open sites up high and the caves down low. The landscape has been reorganised on cosmological terms by the pre-Columbian societies. This research offers an exemplary rationale for reading rock art beyond the image and the site.


Context
Endurance running places substantial physiological strain on the body, which can develop into chronic inflammation and overuse injuries, negatively affecting subsequent training and performance. A recent study found that dietary polyphenols and methlysulfonylmethane (MSM) can reduce systemic inflammation and oxidative stress without adverse side effects.

Objective
The purpose was to identify a set of candidate protein and RNA biomarkers that are associated with improved outcomes related to inflammation and muscle injury, when athletes used 3 proprietary supplements both prior to and during early recovery from a half-marathon race.

Design
The study was an open-label pilot study.

Setting
The study was field based, with sample analysis conducted in the Applied Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

Participants
Participants were 15 young, exercise-trained men and women.

Intervention
The intervention group consumed 1000 mg/d of a proprietary 50-50 mix of optimized curcumin and pomegranate extract for 26 days. The group also consumed 500 mg/d of a proprietary MSM for the same period. Three days prior to and one day after a race, the daily dosage was doubled. The control group received no supplements.

Outcome Measures
Venous blood samples were collected at pre-race and at 4h and 24h after running a half-marathon race. The research team evaluated results for target proteins that have been associated with inflammation and muscle injury in the scientific literature. The team also performed an analysis of RNA biomarkers.

Results
At the 4h and 24h time points, a significant treatment-response was observed that included increases in proteins: (1) osteonectin/SPARC-osteonectin/secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine and (2) BDNF-brain-derived neurotrophic factor. At the same points, the study also found increased RNA: (1) PACER-P50-associated COX-2 extragenic RNA, (2) PTGES-prostaglandin E synthase, (3) MYD88-innate immune signal transduction adaptor MYD88, (4) TNFS14-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily member 14, (5) THRIL-TNF and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein L (HNRNPL)-related immunoregulatory long noncoding RNA, (6) TRAF6-TNF receptor associated factor 6, (7) CX3CL1-C-X3-C motif chemokine ligand 1, (8) MALAT1-metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1, and (9) LINC00305-long intergenic nonprotein coding RNA 305.

Conclusions
The combination of polyphenol and MSM supplementation resulted in a systemic response that may translate to an accelerated rate of muscle recovery, allowing participants return to exercise and normal activities more quickly. This pilot study is the foundation for a larger investigation in the research team's laboratory.


The PKC1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a homolog of mammalian protein kinase C that is required for yeast cell growth. Loss of PKC1 function results in cell lysis due to an inability to remodel the cell wall properly during growth. The PKC1 gene has been proposed to regulate a bifurcated pathway, on one branch of which function four putative protein kinases that catalyze a linear cascade of protein phosphorylation culminating in the activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase homolog, Mpk1p. Here we describe two genes whose overexpression suppress both an mpk1 delta mutation and a pkc1 delta mutation. One of these genes is identical to the previously identified PPZ2 gene. The PPZ2 gene is predicted to encode a type 1-related protein phosphatase and is functionally redundant with a closely related gene, designated PPZ1. Deletion of both PPZ1 and PPZ2 resulted in a temperature-dependent cell lysis defect similar to that observed for bck1 delta, mkk1,2 delta, or mpk1 delta mutants. However, ppz1,2 delta mpk1 delta triple mutants displayed a cell lysis defect at all temperatures. The additivity of the ppz1,2 delta defect with the mpk1 delta defect, combined with the results of genetic epistasis experiments, suggested either that the PPZ1- and PPZ2-encoded protein phosphatases function on a branch of the PKC1-mediated pathway different from that defined by the protein kinases or that they play an auxiliary role in the pathway. The other suppressor gene, designated BCK2 (for bypass of C kinase), is predicted to encode a 92-kDa protein that is rich in serine and threonine residues. Genetic interactions between BCK2 and other pathway components suggested that BCK2 functions on a common pathway branch with PPZ1 and PPZ2.


An explosion occurs when a large amount of energy is suddenly released. This energy may come from an over-pressurized steam boiler, from the products of a chemical reaction involving explosive materials, or from a nuclear reaction that is uncontrolled. In order for an explosion to occur, there must be a local accumulation of energy at the site of the explosion, which is suddenly released. This release of energy can be dissipated as blast waves, propulsion of debris, or by the emission of thermal and ionizing radiation. Modern explosives or energetic materials are nitrogen-containing organic compounds with the potential for self-oxidation to small gaseous molecules (N2, H2O, and CO2). Explosives are classified as primary or secondary based on their susceptibility of initiation. Primary explosives are highly susceptible to initiation and are often used to ignite secondary explosives, such as TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene), RDX (1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine), HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane), and tetryl (N-methyl-N-2,4,6-tetranitro-aniline).


Researchers often need to be able to search a corpus of texts for a defined list of terms and historians are often interested in certain places named in a text or texts. This lesson details how to programmatically search documents for a list of terms, including place names and then how to obtain coordinates and map historical place names with the World Historical Gazetteer.


We present functions that can be computed in some fixed polynomial time but are hard on average for any algorithm that runs in slightly smaller time, assuming widely-conjectured worst-case hardness for problems from the study of fine-grained complexity. Unconditional constructions of such functions are known from before (Goldmann et al., IPL '94), but these have been canonical functions that have not found further use, while our functions are closely related to well-studied problems and have considerable algebraic structure. We prove our hardness results in each case by showing fine-grained reductions from solving one of three problems – namely, Orthogonal Vectors (OV), 3SUM, and All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) – in the worst case to computing our function correctly on a uniformly random input. The conjectured hardness of OV and 3SUM then gives us functions that require n2−o(1) time to compute on average, and that of APSP gives us a function that requires n3−o(1) time. Using the same techniques we also obtain a conditional average-case time hierarchy of functions. Based on the average-case hardness and structural properties of our functions, we outline the construction of a Proof of Work scheme and discuss possible approaches to constructing finegrained One-Way Functions. We also show how our reductions make conjectures regarding the worst-case hardness of the problems we reduce from (and consequently the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis) heuristically falsifiable in a sense similar to that of (Naor, CRYPTO '03).


Regional episodes of coastal progradation and dune formation in South Westland, New Zealand, have quickly followed all known Alpine fault earthquakes since A.D. 1200. This reflects rapid transport of large postseismic sediment pulses from mountain catchments to the coast and accumulation of this material as a dune ridge. This study provides the first demonstration of this link for multiple events over a region. The dune sequences also provide evidence of another previously unrecognized regional aggradation event, which may be earthquake-related, and which occurred just 50 yr after a large Alpine fault earthquake. Coastal dunes have great potential for paleoseismic application because the spatial separation of earthquake-induced sediment pulses on a prograding coast allows identification of events closely spaced in time. Coastal dune systems have the potential to improve paleoseismic understanding over the Holocene for many plate boundary faults near coastal areas.


Carbonatites associated with alkalic rocks of the McClure Mountain and Gem Park Complexes, and the complex at Democrat Creek, can be classified into two distinct groups, replacement and primary magmatic, based on distinctive petrographic differences. These two groups also show distinctive differences in mineralogy and geochemistry. Replacement carbonatites show textures indicating nearly complete pseudomorphous replacement of originally porphyritic or hypidiomorphic-granular igneous dike rocks by carbonate minerals. They contain an element suite characteristic of carbonatites as well as a trace element signature indicative of a mafic silicate precursor. Minerals containing thorium, niobium, and rare earth elements as essential constituents are generally rare. Primary magmatic carbonatites, which do not show the distinctive replacement textures, are also enriched in elements characteristic of carbonatites but contain greater average amounts of these elements than replacement carbonatites. Thorite, bastnaesite, synchisite, ancylite, and monazite are chiefly responsible for the high thorium and rare earth element content of these rocks compared to other igneous rocks. Primary magmatic carbonatites are spacially more closely associated with the alkalic intrusions than are replacement carbonatites, which have a somewhat wider distribution. Field data and delta 18 O and delta 13 C values support an igneous origin for primary magmatic carbonatites; isotopic values also indicate that the carbonatite replacing the earlier alkalic dikes also was derived from igneous sources. Exchange of isotopes between both types of carbonatite and nonigneous reservoirs appears to be minimal.Abundances of rare earth elements and niobium in carbonatites of the Wet Mountains are somewhat lower than those at other carbonatite localities containing economic or near-economic concentrations. Thorium is more abundant in closely related vein-type deposits than in the carbonatites.


Abstract. New comparisons between the square of the generalized potential refractive index gradient M2, estimated from the very high-frequency (VHF) Middle and Upper Atmosphere (MU) Radar, located at Shigaraki, Japan, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measurements are presented. These comparisons were performed at unprecedented temporal and range resolutions (1–4 min and  ∼  20 m, respectively) in the altitude range  ∼  1.27–4.5 km from simultaneous and nearly collocated measurements made during the ShUREX (Shigaraki UAV-Radar Experiment) 2015 campaign. Seven consecutive UAV flights made during daytime on 7 June 2015 were used for this purpose. The MU Radar was operated in range imaging mode for improving the range resolution at vertical incidence (typically a few tens of meters). The proportionality of the radar echo power to M2 is reported for the first time at such high time and range resolutions for stratified conditions for which Fresnel scatter or a reflection mechanism is expected. In more complex features obtained for a range of turbulent layers generated by shear instabilities or associated with convective cloud cells, M2 estimated from UAV data does not reproduce observed radar echo power profiles. Proposed interpretations of this discrepancy are presented.


The SADC Lawyers' Association hosted a workshop late last year to highlight and discuss research into the implementationof the SADC Protocol against corruption by member states. Participants included lawyers from all over southern Africa and representatives from trade unions and non-governmental organisations. Corruption was described as a 'chronic disease' in the region by one of the participants and no country had been spared its negative impact, with corruption causing problems such as denying school children text books to presidents benefitting from multi-million dollar business deals.


Small heterodimer partner (SHP) is a transcriptional corepressor of a number of ligand regulated nuclear receptors (NR) and orphan receptors, and represses their target genes expression. Studying transcriptional regulation mechanism of important DMEs can help better understand and predict of the elimination of drugs, and effectively achieve personalized medicine. Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) functions as a regulator of bile acid and lipid homeostasis, and is recognized as a promising therapeutic target for metabolic diseases. SHP is the target gene of several signaling pathways, and various inducers significantly increase its expression.
In Chapter 1, we investigated the effect of FXR activation on the expression of the major drug-metabolizing enzyme, CYP3A4. The results in Chapter 1 showed that in human hepatocytes, treatment of GW4064 (1 μM) for 48 hours resulted in 75% decrease in CYP3A4 mRNA expression and 25% decrease in CYP3A4 activity, accompanied by ~3-fold increase in SHP mRNA expression. In HepG2 cells, SHP repressed transactivation of CYP3A4 promoter by pregnane X receptor (PXR), constitutive androstane receptor (CAR), and glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Interestingly, GW4064 did not repress expression of CYP2B6, another target gene of PXR and CAR; GW4064 was shown to enhance CYP2B6 promoter activity. In conclusion, GW4064 represses CYP3A4 expression in human hepatocytes, potentially through upregulation of SHP expression and subsequent repression of CYP3A4 promoter activity. Clinically significant drug-drug interaction involving FXR agonists and CYP3A4 substrates may occur.
In Chapter 2, we characterized the effect of ATRA, another potential inducer of SHP, on CYP2D6 expression in vitro and in vivo. Results showed in both human hepatocytes and transgenic mices, CYP2D6 mRNA expression level was significantly repressed by ~70% in vitro, and by ~50% in vivo. The repressed CYP2D6 expression is accompanied by induced SHP expression which was elevated by ~3-fold in vitro and ~5-fold in vivo, respectively. The correlation between SHP and CYP2D6 was further confirmed using mice with Tg-CYP2D6 with Shp knockout compared with Tg- CYP2D6 wild-type mice. Overall, the results indicated that SHP is a key regulator in ATRA- induced CYP2D6 repression.


The demand for meat in South Africa may be growing faster than what the local market can supply. Imported pork may therefore help to meet the growing demand for pork or it may take market share away from the existing local pork market. A study of this nature could not be found. The majority of estimations found dated back to before 1994, many changes have occurred since then. New laws have been implemented and the meat industry has undergone substantial changes. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect imported pork products have on the demand for pork in Queenstown. The study set out to determine whether this effect was positive or negative for local business. The motivating factors were investigated to establish what made businesses sell imported pork products and not locally-produced pork products. The results were collected with the use of a questionnaire and were analyzed using Central Tendency Statistics and Descriptive Frequency Statistics. The sample size is relatively small due to the small size of Queenstown. A purposive sample had to be used and all respondents had to be contacted to achieve the highest rate of responses. The small sample size limited the accuracy and number of statistical tests available. Analysis of the results revealed that the majority of businesses in Queenstown do not sell imported pork, and have not observed a decrease in demand for locally-produced pork products due to the importation of pork. Businesses that made use of imported pork did so to reduce costs of manufacture and also because of the decrease of availability of local pork due to the outbreak of Swine Fever at the time. It is recommended to develop or improve a marketing system tor imported pork products. An investigation into the effect of imported beef, mutton and poultry on the demand for meat may give a better indication of demand for all meat products.


Pelvic angiography plays an increasing role in the management of pelvic fractures (PFs). Little has been written regarding the size of pelvic hematoma on admission computed tomography (CT) and how it relates to angiography results after PF. This is a retrospective review of trauma patients with PF who underwent an admission abdominal/pelvic CT scan and pelvic angiography from 2001 to 2003. CT pelvic hematoma was measured and classified as minimal or significant based on hematoma dimensions. Presence of a contrast blush on CT scan was also documented. Thirty-seven patients underwent an admission CT scan and went on to pelvic angiography. Of the 22 patients with significant pelvic hematoma, 73 per cent (n = 16) had bleeding at angiography. Fifteen patients had minimal pelvic hematoma, with 67 per cent (n = 10) showing active bleeding at angiography. In addition, five of six patients (83%) with no pelvic hematoma had active bleeding at angiography. Six patients had a blush on CT scan, with five of these (83%) having a positive angiogram. But, 22 of 31 (71%) patients with no blush on CT scan had bleeding at angiography. The absence of a pelvic hematoma or contrast blush should not alter indications for pelvic angiography, as they do not reliably exclude active pelvic bleeding.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the level of dental health care coverage in people aged > or =18 years across the country, and to identify the factors associated with coverage.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Using the instruments and sampling strategies developed by the World Health Organization for the World Health Survey, a cross-sectional national survey was carried out at the household and individual (adult) levels. Dental data were collected in 20 of Mexico's 32 states. The relationship between coverage and environmental and individual characteristics was examined through logistic regression models.

RESULTS
Only 6098 of 24 159 individual respondents reported having oral problems during the preceding 12 months (accounting for 14 284 621 inhabitants of the country if weighted). Only 48% of respondents reporting problems were covered, although details of the appropriateness, timeliness and effectiveness of the intervention(s) were not assessed. The multivariate regression model showed that higher level of education, better socioeconomic status, having at least one chronic disease and having medical insurance were positively associated with better dental care coverage. Age and sex were also associated.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall dental health care coverage could be improved, assuming that ideal coverage is 100%. Some equality of access issues are apparent because there are differences in coverage across populations in terms of wealth and social status. Identifying the factors associated with sparse coverage is a step in the right direction allowing policymakers to establish strategies aimed at increasing this coverage, focusing on more vulnerable groups and on individuals in greater need of preventive and rehabilitative interventions.


The potential of enhanced photosynthetic efficiency to help achieve the sustainable yield increases required to meet future demands for food and energy has spurred intense research towards understanding, modeling, and engineering photosynthesis. These current efforts, largely focused on the C3 model Arabidopsis thaliana or crop plants (e.g. rice, sorghum, maize, and wheat), could be intensified and broadened using model systems closely related to our food, feed, and energy crops and that allow rapid design-build-test-learn cycles. In this outlooking Opinion, we advocate for a concerted effort to expand our understanding and improve our ability to redesign carbon uptake, allocation, and utilization. We propose two specific research directions that combine enhanced photosynthesis with climate-smart metabolic attributes: (i) engineering pathways for flexible (facultative) C3-C4 metabolism where plants will operate either C3 or C4 photosynthesis based on environmental conditions such as temperature, light, and atmospheric CO2 levels; and (ii) increasing rhizospheric sink strength for carbon utilization, including strategies that allow for augmented transport of carbon to the soil for improved soil properties and carbon storage without jeopardizing aboveground crop biomass. We argue that such ambitious undertakings be first approached and demonstrated by exploring the full genomic potential of two model grasses, the C3Brachypodium distachyon and the C4Setaria viridis. The development of climate-smart crops could provide novel and bold solutions to increase crop productivity while reducing atmospheric carbon and nitrogen emissions.


The surroundings in which we live comprises of numerous life forms such as birds, fishes, plants and trees. In simple terms, it is the variability and variety of living organisms together with ecological facilities in which they exist. Over the years, the biodiversity has been facing rapid depletion as a result of habitat loss, excessive exploitation of resources, climatic changes, diseases, pollution, poaching of animals etc. In order to correct this scenario, vital steps for biodiversity conservation have to be taken by public in general along with the government and social organizations. Thus, biodiversity conservation has become a major issue in present times. The term biodiversity was coined as a contraction of biological diversity in 1985. Biodiversity may be defined as the variety and variability of living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they exist. In other words, biodiversity is the occurrence of different types of ecosystems, different species of organisms with the whole range of their variants and genes adapted to different climates, environments along with their interactions and processes. Loss of biodiversity occurs when either the habitat essential for the survival of a species is destroyed, or particular species are destroyed. The former is more common as habitat destruction is a fallout of development. The latter reason is encountered when particular species are exploited for economical gain or hunted for sport or food. Extinction of species may also be due to environmental factors like ecological substitutions, biological factors and pathological causes which can be caused by nature or man. Conservation of biodiversity is protection, upliftment and scientific management of biodiversity so as to maintain it at its threshold level and derive sustainable benefits for the present and future generation.


To study the impact of teenage pregnancy on maternal and perinatal outcome. This is a randomized prospective clinical study carried out in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department, BGS Global Medical College, over a period of one year from January 2015 to December 2015. In study group (Group A) included a total of 200 primigravid teenage mothers(age <20 years) and the control group included 200 primigavid adult mothers (20- 30years of age) . The maternal status, labour progress, delivery characteristics and neonatal outcomes were reviewed and analysed. Proportion of mothers in the study group who delivered vaginally was 61.5% compared to 80.5% in the control group. Instrumental delivery rate, emergency LSCS and elective LSCS rates were higher in the study group (teenage pregnancy) compared to the control group. (9.5% Vs 5%, 17% Vs 9.5%, 12% Vs 5% respectively). Anaemia, Premature Rupture of Membranes, Oligohydraminos, Post partum Haemorrhage was found to be higher among teenage mothers when compared to adult mothers. PIH, polyhydraminos were found to be higher in control group than in the study group. In regard to adverse perinatal outcomes, higher risks of intra uterine growth restriction, preterm births, stillbirths, low APGAR scores, NICU admission were higher were higher in the study group compared to the control group. In this study, we found that women with teenage pregnancies were at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes in regard to maternal, foetal and neonatal complications as compared with adult control mothers.