Problem Statement: MTBE is a common pollution of environmental and has become an issue of considerable concern in recent years. It is not readily amenable to remove MTBE by conventional techniques in water treatment. In the present study, the feasibility of the continuous aerobic biodegradation of MTBE, was evaluated in an Up- Flow Fixed Bed Reactor (UFBR). Approach: The UFBR at a constant Hydroulic Retention Time (HRT) of 24 h was used as a biological process that receives the intermediates due to partial oxidation of MTBE. The UFBR coupled to ozonation process as a survey system after a primary operation phase that was necessary for creatory of an initial microbial film on the carriers. Residual concentration of MTBE and its major degradation intermediates were measured by gas chromatography. Aqueous concentration of ozone in the reactor and ozone average concentration in off- gas were determined according to the indigo blue method. The COD reduction and BOD5 to COD ratio were selected as biodegradability indexes. Results: Results showed an effective degradation of MTBE in the coupled ozonation-UFBR continuous flow reactor of ten days of operation time. A partial degradation of MTBE in AOPs increases its biodegradation [The BOD5 to COD ratio increased from lowest (0.01) up to a maximum of 0.72] that corresponds to an ozone consumption of 0.62mg per each mg of COD initially present in the solution. The results showed when m. Mol[MTBE]o/m. Mol(o3) = 0.611, the COD removal efficiency was 89% and as this ratio increased up to 1.25, the of COD removal efficiency decreased to 80%. 46-68% removal of the COD was needed before the mixture was considered biodegradable. The highest removal rate of MTBE, 82.91 mg day-1 achieved through out the UFBR runs (87% removal efficiency, In this study, the removal efficiency of MTBE using integrated-process (ozonation followed biological treatment) was from 78.5-86.5%. In order to determine of biological removal rate of MTBE, another UFBR system used as a blank reactors. Results showed that the efficiency of the COD removal (by stripping with the biological degradation) was 5-8% which implies insignificant biological removal of MTBE without pre-ozonation. Solid produced in the proposed integrated process was 0.27-0.35 kg TSS kg-1 COD removed which is approximately in down range of conventional biological system (0.3-0.5 kg TSS kg-1COD). Conclusion: Present study showed that we can treatment of the polluted aqueous solutions to MTBE without microbial incubation used to integrated process.


Stream processing pipelines operated by current big data streaming frameworks present two problems. First, the pipelines are not flexible, controllable, and programmable enough to accommodate dynamic streaming application needs. Second, the application-level data routing over the pipelines do not exhibit optimal performance for increasingly common one-to-many communication. To address these problems, we propose an SDN-based real-time big data streaming framework called Typhoon, that tightly integrates SDN functionality into a real-time stream framework. By partially offloading application-layer data routing and control to the network layer via SDN interfaces and protocols, Typhoon provides on-the-fly programmability of both the application and network layers, and achieve high-performance data routing. In addition, Typhoon SDN controller exposes cross-layer information, from both the application and the network, to SDN control plane applications to extend the framework's functionality. We introduce several SDN control plane applications to illustrate these benefits.


The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a bystander effect is manifested in a large cell lung tumoural cell line (QU-DB). For induction of a bystander effect in non-irradiated cells the 'medium transfer' technique was employed, and to observe the effect the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay was applied. Results showed that irradiated and bystander cells demonstrated higher numbers of micronucleated (MN) per 1000 cells in comparison with control cells. The MN yield was dose dependent, and the MN yield in bystander cells that received medium from 4.0 Gy irradiated cells was approximately equal to that from 0.5 Gy directly irradiated cells. We conclude that the QU-DB cell line can generate and transmit bystander signals.


India and the US have seen a growth in convergence of their interest in the last one and a half decade. However, a new shift in the relations took place soon after Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minster of India in 2016. The US-India bilateral relationship, over the past decade, has not only strengthened in the fields of defence, and counter-terrorism cooperation, but India became a prominent partner of the US in the fields of cyber and homeland security. The current paper discusses the emergence of the US strategic partnership with India, which has proved to be a bipartisan success. The paper, primarily, focuses on the growing common strategic convergence between the US and India. Furthermore, the paper also presents a brief analysis of the potential growth of the US-Indian strategic partnership under the Trump administration and explores its potentials as a strategic liability or a partnership for India. In addition, it explores the growing US reliance on India in the wake of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC); and for India to act as a global partner and an ally at different strategic levels.


We propose and experimentally evaluate different approaches for measuring the structural similarity of semistructured documents based on informationtheoretic concepts. Common to all approaches is a twostep procedure: first we extract and linearize the structural information from documents and then we use similarity measures that are based on, respectively, Kolmogorov complexity and Shannon entropy to determine the distance between the documents. Compared to other approaches, we are able to achieve a linear run time complexity and demonstrate in an experimental evaluation that the results of our technique in terms of clustering quality are on a par with or even better than those of other, slower approaches.


Applications of the covariant theory of drive-forms are considered for a class of perfectly insulating media. The distinction between the notions of 'classical photons' in homogeneous bounded and unbounded stationary media and in stationary unbounded magneto-electric media is pointed out in the context of the Abraham, Minkowski and symmetrized Minkowski electromagnetic stress–energy–momentum tensors. Such notions have led to intense debate about the role of these (and other) tensors in describing electromagnetic interactions in moving media. In order to address some of these issues for material subject to the Minkowski constitutive relations, the propagation of harmonic waves through homogeneous and inhomogeneous, isotropic plane-faced slabs at rest is first considered. To motivate the subsequent analysis on accelerating media, two classes of electromagnetic modes that solve Maxwell's equations for uniformly rotating homogeneous polarizable media are enumerated. Finally it is shown that, under the influence of an incident monochromatic, circularly polarized, plane electromagnetic wave, the Abraham and symmetrized Minkowski tensors induce different time-averaged torques on a uniformly rotating materially inhomogeneous dielectric cylinder. We suggest that this observation may offer new avenues to explore experimentally the covariant electrodynamics of more general accelerating media.


UNLABELLED
Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (ERCP) is accepted referred method of treatment of the choledocholithiasis.

THE AIM OF THE STUDY
Evaluation of efficacy and safety of the endoscopic treatment of the biliary tract stones.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Results of 3309 Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (ERCP) carried out in Division of Endoscopy of the General Surgery Department in the period 2000 - 2010. The retrospective analysis of the indications, process, findings and final results of 1698 ERCP and Endoscopic Sphincterotomy (ES) was performed with intention to treat of the biliary tract stones.

RESULTS
The 883 (52%)patients with coexisted gall-bladder and biliary tract stones were the principal group. The second group included 580 (34.2%) patients with residual choledocholithiasis after cholecystectomy and biliary tract surgery. Moreover ERCP, ES and endoscopic evacuation of biliary stones have been urgently carried out in 159 (9.4%) cases with acute biliary pancreatitis. Lastly ERCP with re-sphincterotomy and removal of the stones was performed in 75 (4.4%) patients with recurrent choledocholithiasis. The procedure was effective in 1561 (92%) patients. When removal of the stones was not possible, decompression of the biliary tract by implantation of the plastic stent was done in 63 (3.7%) cases. Ineffective procedure was noted in 74 (4.3%) patients. The most commonly observed complication was acute pancreatitis. Because of: post ES bleeding, acute haemmorhagic and necrotic pancreatitis, impacted Dormia basket and peripapillary duodenal perforation 10 patients (0.5%) had to be operated. Two patients (0.1%) died.

CONCLUSIONS
1. Endoscopic treatment of choledocholithiasis is highly effective but risk factors of complications with urgency an intensive conservative management and surgical intervention have to be considered. 2. After ES, if surgical evacuation of the stones have to be carry out, post operative biliary tract drainage (by T tube) is not necessary.


The Privacy Project Governments and courts must step in to provide protections and regulations for the use of individuals' genetic testing results SCIENTIFIC discoveries and advances in biological understanding during the 20th century paved the path for the Human Genome Project. "We used to think our fate was in our stars. Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes," said James Watson, who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA with Francis Crick in 1953.(1) As for Crick's thoughts, he stated, "You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the genetically determined behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules."2 DNA was discovered in the mid 1800s. In 1868, a Swiss biologist, Friedrich Miescher, identified DNA in the nuclei of pus cells obtained from discarded surgical bandages. But it was during the 20th century that there were great advances in biological understanding of DNA. In 1943, American Oswald Avery proved that DNA carries genetic information. He even suggested that DNA might actually be the gene. Most people at that time thought the gene would be protein, not nuclei acid, but by the late 1940s, DNA generally was accepted as the genetic molecule. In 1952, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase performed the definitive experiment that showed that DNA was, in fact, the genetic material. Once more was known about DNA, the next step was to figure out the molecule's structure. The race was on. At Cambridge University, there were Watson and Crick. At the same time, at King's College in London, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin also were studying DNA. In 1953, building from the King's team's research, Watson and Crick presented a model of the structure of DNA. In 1962, Watson, Crick and Wilkins shared the Noble Prize for physiology and medicine. Franklin had died by 1962, and the Nobel Prize rules do not allow an award to be made posthumously, and interestingly nor do they allow more than three scientists to share the award. Franklin actually was the one who discovered and first stated that the sugar-- phosphate backbone of DNA lies on the outside of the molecule. She arrived at this discovery after examining the DNA molecule under an x-ray beam, a technique called x-ray crystallography. It would be interesting to know which three of the four scientists would have received the Nobel Prize had Franklin not died before the award was given. Although genetics dates back to the mid 1800s, the last decade has proved to offer the milestones in genetic history, what with technology advances and revolutionary scientific endeavors like the Human Genome Project. DNA's discovery has been called the most important biological work of the last hundred years, and the research that it has sparked will lead to monumental developments in the next hundred. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT A. What Is It? The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international research effort to determine the sequence of the three billion chemical base pairs that make up the human DNA and to identify the approximately 35,000 genes in human DNA. While the HGP was conceived as early as the mid 1980s by scientists in the U.S. Department of Energy, the initial planning process culminated in 1990. Since then, researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China and France have been reconstructing DNA sequences to produce detailed physical maps of the human genome. The international consortium is supported mostly by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Wellcome Trust, a philanthropic organization based in London and directed by Dr. Michael Dexter. Other governmental agencies and charitable institutions in the various countries also fund the project. The driving force behind the project is the identification and eradication of all genetically based diseases. …


This thesis attempts within a more limited area, and by a more exhaustive analysis than is usual, a phytosociological investigation of some relic woodlands in the North of England. In and around the woodlands some 226 Aufnahmen were made and nine Associations recognised. A further six partial Associations or noda are considered. Epiphytic communities are studied in detail in some 257 Aufnahmen and a number of epilithic communities also are examined. From these, ten epiphytic Associations or parts of Associations are described and a number of epilithic Associations indicated. The Associations of the ground flora are related to the system advanced by Lohmeyer et al (1962) and emended by Westhoff and Den Held (1969), and some phytogeographic relationships of the kindred Alliances are considered. The epiphytic Associations are fitted as far as possible into the framework advocated by Barkman (1958) and some relationships are noted between the epilithic Associations and those of Klement (1955)'The thesis is divided into six parts:-Part I reviews the previous work done in the area; introduces the problems of application of phytosociological methods within a restricted area; and outlines the geology, topography, climate, and other factors, as they bear on the ecology of that area. Part II summarises the history of woodland vegetation in the North of England; examines the general structure and composition of the woods in question; and considers them from a general ecological stand point as they compare or contrast with those woodlands previously mentioned in traditional British ecological literature.


A high-throughput (HT) comprehensive analysis approach was developed for assaying proteins directly from human plasma. Proteins were selectively retrieved, by utilizing antibodies immobilized within affinity pipet tips, and eluted onto enzymatically active mass spectrometer targets for subsequent digestion and structural characterization. Several parameters, including uniform parallel protein elution from 96 affinity pipet tips, proper buffering for ontarget digestion, termination of the digestion, and MALDI matrix (re)introduction, were evaluated and optimized. The approach was validated via parallel, high-throughput analysis of transthyretin (TTR) and transferrin (TRFE) from 96 identical plasma samples. The 96 parallel analyses for each protein were completed in less than 90 min, measured from protein extraction to insertion in the mass spectrometer. Virtually identical mass spectra were obtained from the 96 TTR analyses, characterized by the presence of 14 tryptic fragments that allowed TTR sequence mapping with 100% coverage. Database search returned TTR as the best match for all 96 data sets. In regard to the TRFE analyses, database searching using data from the 96 spectra returned TRFE as the best match for all but 1 of the spectra. TRFE was mapped with 4769% sequence coverage, with gaps in the sequence coverage corresponding to the carbohydrate-containing peptide fragments and large and small trypsin fragments that fell outside the window of mass analysis. Overall, the combined high-throughput affinity capture-protein digestion approach showed high reproducibility and speed and yielded an exceptional level of protein characterization, suggesting its use in future population proteomics endeavors.


Physicists are often expected to have a solid grounding in experimental design and statistical analysis, sometimes filling in when biostatisticians or other experts are not available for consultation. Unfortunately, graduate education on these topics is seldom emphasized and few opportunities for continuing education exist. Clinical physicists incorporate new technology and methods into their practice based on published literature. A poor understanding of experimental design and analysis could result in inappropriate use of new techniques. Clinical physicists also improve current practice through quality initiatives that require sound experimental design and analysis. Academic physicists with a poor understanding of design and analysis may produce ambiguous (or misleading) results. This can result in unnecessary rewrites, publication rejection, and experimental redesign (wasting time, money, and effort). This session will provide a practical review of common study designs and statistical tests. Instruction will primarily focus on practical implementation and answer questions such as: when a test/design is typically applied, what information is attained, and when the test/design is typically misapplied (i.e., common pitfalls).

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand common experimental designs, what questions they can answer, and how to interpret their results 2. Review basic statistical tests commonly implemented in medical physics 3. Determine where specific statistical tests are appropriate and identify common pitfalls 4. Identify multiple hypothesis testing and how it impacts reported results.


INTRODUCTIONThis article proposes a methodological and theoretical interrogation on how to analyze family memories. It is the product of a Franco-German collective research project on family memories that has been conducted at the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) of Paris over the past five years by a dozen of young German and French researchers and co-ordinated by the two authors. Our research is based on an empirical study of eight family monographs, method inspired by the ethnographical approach of anthropologists studying kinship relations.1 Our comparative perspective produces theoretical and methodological reflexivity beyond the accumulation of results and literature. The confrontation of different research traditions reveals new problems but also unattended solutions, which constitute one of the originalities of this article.This article will propose an innovative sociological approach of family memories, insisting on the interaction between ways of telling family stories and other social stakes within the family, but also within other social institutions. We will also insist upon the links between the construction of family "histories" and the elaboration of what has been called "grand narratives" or "great narrative history" in the political, media and scientific fields. In this perspective, history is not "always already there" but constructed by multiple actors and institutions on different levels: national and international, but also local.2 It is this very production and the role of the family within it which interests us here. Reintroducing social variables into the analysis of family memories, and analysing their interaction with other forms of transmission of the past enables us to show ways in which the counting of family pasts is linked to and embedded into larger social spaces (geographic, professional, political, scholarly, cultural). Our perspective thus goes beyond a vision of family memory as a process of transmission of a coherent single (hi)story, just as it analyses its social construction and implications beyond the "private sphere" only.We will start by analysing problems of existing Franco-German literature on sociology of memory and the family. We will show how these problems have led us to put into question the links between family pasts and "great narratives of history" as well as to invent new ways to apprehend the family configurations which articulate family memories. In a second part we explain how we analyse family souvenirs as a process which is embedded into social power relations beyond the intimate and private sphere by putting into question the notions of "family" and "history."A SOCIOLOGY OF FAMILY MEMORY AT THE CROSSROAD OF MULTIPLE RESEARCH TRADITIONS FROM FRANCE TO GERMANY AND THE USAFamily memory has been analysed in Germany and the United States from a historical perspective. It is thus strongly influenced by research on politics of memory after the Second World War, which has cut the second half of the 20th century into national, but also transnational "memory-episodes."3 Historiography on memories of the second world war in the GFR can serve as an example: a period of relative silence, a denial of responsibility for the conflict or the development of heroic memories existed in Germany in the late 1940's and 1950's-accompanying on a political and juridical level the amnesty of war criminals and actors of the genocide (Frei, 1999). Then a period of debate opens - in the GFR from the late 1960's, about twenty years after the conflicts - yielding numerous journalistic, documentary, and artistic treatments of the war-past, followed by multiple scientific analyses of these memorial productions. Finally a period of political unity opens with a discourse of "assumed culpability." At first contested in the GFR, these "politics of forgiving" (incarnated by Willy Brand kneeling in front of the memorial for the Ghetto of Warsaw) has been widely accepted from the 1980'sand 1990's in reunited Germany. …


This article addresses Jason Mittell's controversial essay "On Disliking Mad Men" (2010) in the cultural context of post-network television. The author uses 72 critical reviews of five HBO series to place Mittell's argument alongside other rhetorical strategies that resist the prestige associated with high-status prime-time cable dramas. In relation to these rhetorical strategies, the troubled publication history of and negative scholarly reactions to Mittell's essay are understood as indicative of elite post-network television audiences policing the symbolic boundaries surrounding culturally legitimated texts.


Pain is neuroanatomically, psychologically and neurophysiologically complicated and its first function is protecting all alive creature body. This issue is so questionable and interesting that people who don't feel pain how face this sensation and what problems threaten them. So many researchers by using 73 references, articles from electronical and library references have done a clinical study about CIPA which is a rare disorder of neuropathic disorders. These patients have no sensation toward pain and paiful stimulations and no sweating. This disorder has been occurred by genetic mutation and has been under study from 1996 to 2012. Which un health – care tream can reduce their complications by early diagnosis and thereaputic and preventive interventions.


This chapter provides an overview of pedagogic and theoretical issues that have motivated recent research into second language task complexity. The first two sections describe how procedures for task analysis, and decisions about task complexity, can be accommodated in task-based language teaching program design. The third section describes a componential framework for analysing task demands. This framework distinguishes between cognitive factors contributing to Task Complexity, interactive factors involved in performing tasks under various Task Conditions, and the learner factors affecting perceptions of Task Difficulty. The fourth section describes five ancillary predictions the Cognition Hypothesis makes about how increasing task complexity leads to measurable increases in task-based learning and performance. The final sections describe how studies of these predictions have typically been measured, to date, and a rationale for investigating the effects on task-based learning of individual differences in learners' cognitive abilities and affective dispositions. The chapter concludes by briefly summarising the organization of the chapters in this book and the empirical findings they report.


One central problem in coding theory is to optimize the parameters of a linear code and construct codes with best possible parameters. There are tables of best-known linear codes over nite elds of sizes up to 9. Recently, there has been a growing interest in codes over GF(11), over GF(13) and other elds of size greater than 9. The main purpose of this work is to present new databases of best-known linear codes over the elds GF(11) and GF(13) together with upper bounds on the minimum distances. To nd good linear codes to establish lower bounds on minimum distances, an iterative heuristic computer search algorithm is employed to construct quasi-twisted (QT) codes over these elds with high minimum distances. A large number of new linear codes have been found, improving previously best-known results. Tables of [pm, m] QT codes over the two elds with best-known minimum distances as well as a table of lower and upper bounds on the minimum distances for linear codes of length up to 150 and dimension up to 6 are presented.


The University of California faces the challenge of increasing the diversity of students graduating from its medical schools while also adhering to mandated restrictions on the use of race or ethnicity in the admissions process. Students from diverse backgrounds who gain admission as undergraduates to UC Berkeley and express an early interest in a medical career are an important potential source of medical students for the UC system. However previous data suggest that many of these undergraduate students lose interest in a medical career and never apply to medical school. We report on research that tracked the strength of students' interest in a medical career from freshman matriculation through the end of sophomore year. Comparing students by self-described racial or ethnic group, we found a sharp decline in interest among all groups. We then interviewed a stratified sample of these students, asking what factors contributed to the observed decline in interest in premedical studies. Negative experience in science courses, principally chemistry, was the main factor contributing to students' loss of interest. The adverse impact of chemistry courses was reported disproportionately by students from underrepresented minority groups, causing many of them to turn away from a possible medical career. If the UC system hopes to increase the diversity of its undergraduates who go on to medical school, it may need to reassess the structure and content of its undergraduate science curriculum, principally chemistry.


The conception of internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy (IM‐SLNB) has been added to the 2009 American Joint Committee on Cancer breast cancer staging manual. However, there has still been slight variation in the surgical treatment model owing to the low visualization rate of internal mammary sentinel lymph nodes (IM‐SLN) with the traditional radiotracer injection technique. According to the hypothesis of IM‐SLN, a modified injection technique (periareolar intraparenchymal, high volume, and ultrasound guidance) was established, which could significantly improve the IM‐SLN visualization rate, and make the IM‐SLNB procedure possible in routine practice. IM‐ SLNB could provide minimally invasive staging, prognosis, and decision‐making individually, especially for the patients with clinically positive axilla lymph nodes. Moreover, radiotherapy targeting on internal mammary lymph nodes (IMLN) should be tailored and balanced between the potential benefit and toxicity, and radiotherapy guided by IM‐SLNB could achieve this goal. In the era of emphasizing the effective adjuvant therapy, within the changing therapy approach—more systemic treatment, less loco‐regional treatment—oncologist should reconsider the application of regional IMLN therapy.


The purposes of the current experiments were to investigate: (a) students' expectations with regard to the use of Tablet PCs within the classroom, (b) students' attitudes toward the implementation of Tablet PCs within the classroom, and (c) the resulting classroom environment from the use of various technologies. Results indicated that although students were unsure about whether or not instructors would utilize Tablet PCs in the classroom, students reported very positive attitudes toward this implementation. In addition, students overwhelmingly reported that the classroom was interactive and engaging, the use of technology enhanced the classroom, and that they benefited from its use. Future research should not only investigate the attitudes towards the use of Tablet PCs in the classroom but also the impact that Tablet PCs have on student learning. ********** The purposes of the current experiments were to investigate: (a) students' expectations with regard to the use of Tablet PCs within the classroom, (b) students' attitudes toward the implementation of Tablet PCs within the classroom, and (c) the resulting classroom environment from the use of various technologies. To begin investigating this topic, relevant literature is reviewed with regard to technology in the classroom and Tablet PCs. The use of many technologies within the classroom has exploded in recent years, aided with an increased availability of course management software to provide these functions (Heffner & Cohen, 2005; Young, 2002; Olsen, 2001). Students' attitudes toward the use of course management systems are generally positive, despite course content in psychology (Warren & Holloman, 2005; Goolkasian, Wallendael, & Gaultney, 2003), across other disciplines (Henley, 2003; MacFadden, Maiter, & Dumbrill, 2002; Cao & Bengu, 2000), for many functions or tools available on the systems (Heffner & Cohen, 2005; Bee & Usip, 1998), and in cases where students had no prior exposure to the systems (Bonds-Raacke, 2006). However, students' expectation for the use of technology can sometimes stand in stark contrast to what many college instructors themselves experienced as students and in many cases the way instructors currently engage students (e.g., Ouzts & Palombo, 2004; Jones & Moreland, 2003). Although research has extensively examined students' reactions to course management systems and their many tools, little empirical research to date has examined students' reactions to the Tablet PC. A Tablet PC is a laptop notebook that allows the user to rotate and fold the screen onto the keyboard face-up, allowing the user to write on the laptop screen with a digital pen. Tablet PCs account for only about 1% of the market for notebook computers and although they are very popular in industries such as health care, it has been predicted that its most promising area could be in the classroom (Fitzgerald, 2004). Many elementary schools (e.g., Godsail, Crescimano, & Blair, 2005) and institutions of higher education are implementing Tablet PCs in the classroom including Virginia Tech, where an alliance between Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation, Microsoft, and Virginia Tech provided Tablet PCs for engineering students and faculty members beginning in the summer 2006 (Nystrom, 2006). Those instructors who have implemented Tablet PCs in the classroom report advantages such as integration between the prepared and ad hoc notes, permanence of ad hoc notes, and interactivity between the presentation and students' comments (Colwell, 2004). However, drawbacks have been identified including price and quality of the screen (Godsall et al., 2005). Therefore, the purpose of Experiment 1 was to investigate students' expectations with regard to the use of the Tablet PC and the purpose of Experiment 2 was conducted to investigate students' attitudes toward the implementation of Tablet PCs within the classroom and the resulting classroom environment. …


Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
Master of Technology: Business Administration
in the Faculty of Business
at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2013


In this article, I inquire into Facebook's development as a platform by situating it within the transformation of social network sites into social media platforms. I explore this shift with a historical perspective on, what I refer to as, platformization, or the rise of the platform as the dominant infrastructural and economic model of the social web and its consequences. Platformization entails the extension of social media platforms into the rest of the web and their drive to make external web data "platform ready." The specific technological architecture and ontological distinctiveness of platforms will be examined by taking their programmability into account. I position platformization as a form of platform critique that inquires into the dynamics of the decentralization of platform features and the recentralization of "platform ready" data as a way to examine the consequences of the programmability of social media platforms for the web.


Pursuing human security through Developmental Peace Missions: Ambitious construct or feasible ideal? appears at a time when the continent of Africa is wrought by conflict, internal unrest and not-so-civil war, compelling African leaders to grapple with the theory and reality of peacekeeping and conflict resolution in extremely difficult and challenging environments. Notions of Developmental Peace Missions (DPMs) emanated from both the political debate and the study of African peace missions by university-based and NGO-employed researchers. This volume examines DPMs and assesses the utility of the concept itself as a means to pursue sustainable levels of human security through a combination of peacekeeping interventions. DPMs, which envisage a model of concurrent developmental efforts and security actions to turn back destructive internal African conflicts, is a noteworthy South African contribution to this debate. The editorial staff of Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies are pleased to publish this third Supplementa, which is probably the most comprehensive work on DPMs to date and of immediate interest to the defence community. Pursuing human security developed under the supervision of Prof Theo Neethling and Maj Benjamin Mokoena and was submitted by Lt Col Laetitia Olivier as a thesis, presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Military Science (MMil) in Security and Africa Studies at the Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University. It has been editorially altered and revised for this publication. The valuable inputs made by Prof DJ Kotze of Unisa as external examiner, as well as those proffered by the lecturing staff of the School for Security and Africa Studies during the initial research colloquium are acknowledged.


The rise of the gig economy with its part-time, itinerant, independent workers, in conjunction with the employee-centric nature of occupational retirement benefits under ERISA, has led to gig employees largely lacking meaningful retirement benefits. Current proposals to provide portable benefits to gig workers as independent workers or independent contractors are unacceptable because such benefits would not be secured by the fiduciary consumer protections of ERISA. However, two developments with regard to the retirement security of the gig workers are promising. First, there is now increasing examples of gig workers being found to be common-law employees under tests like ERISA's Darden test. As common law employees, gig workers are entitled to the reporting and disclosure, vesting, funding, and fiduciary protections of ERISA. Second, the use of an open MEP model, in which pooled employer plans (PEP) have a pooled plan provider (PPP) as the named fiduciary, are gaining growing bi-partisan acceptance. This article encourages Congress to promptly adopt the open MEP model, free of current regulatory restrictions, so that gig employees can enjoy retirement security with the peace of mind that ERISA fiduciary protections provide under industry-wide gig employee open MEPs.


CONVENTIONAL ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS, used for a half century to treat a range of major psychiatric disorders, are being replaced in clinical practice by modern "atypical" antipsychotics, including aripiprazole, clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone and ziprasidone among others. As a class, the newer drugs have been promoted as being broadly clinically superior, but the evidence for this is problematic. In this brief critical overview, we consider the pharmacology, therapeutic effectiveness, tolerability, adverse effects and costs of individual modern agents versus older antipsychotic drugs. Because of typically minor differences between agents in clinical effectiveness and tolerability, and because of growing concerns about potential adverse long-term health consequences of some modern agents, it is reasonable to consider both older and newer drugs for clinical use, and it is important to inform patients of relative benefits, risks and costs of specific choices.


Birds and marine mammals in Antarctica, especially penguins and seals, are top consumers and critical elements of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. As a region undergoing rapid global change, new challenges will be posed to the survival of these vertebrates species. Global climate change causes many alterations, such as ocean temperature rise, altered sea ice distribution, and abnormal climate events along with effects of intensive human activities, such as fishing. These not only directly affect the spatiotemporal distributions and population dynamics of Antarctic birds and marine mammals but also indirectly influence them via modification of their food resources. At present, the impact of climate change on birds and marine mammals in the Antarctica is focusing on a number of species in a few areas. Response mechanisms of these species are still very limited and therefore require further long-term and continuous monitoring and research. Citation: Wu F X, Dong L, Zhang Y Y, et al. Impacts of global climate change on birds and marine mammals in Antarctica. Adv Polar Sci, 2017, 28(1): 1-12, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2017.1.00001


Misinformation about vaccines on social media is a growing concern among healthcare professionals, medical experts, and researchers. Although such concerns often relate to the total sum of information flows generated online by many groups of stakeholders, vaccination controversies tend to vary across time, place, and the vaccine at issue. We studied content generated by administrators on three Facebook pages in Denmark established to promote critical debate about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. We developed a qualitative coding frame allowing us to analyze administrators' posts in terms of prevalent topics and intertextual material incorporated by linking and sharing. We coded more than a third of the posts (n = 699) occurring in the period from November 2012, when the first page was founded, to May 2019. We found that the pages mainly addressed the reports of adverse events following HPV vaccination and the (perceived) inadequate response of healthcare systems. To construct their central message, the pages assembled different sources, mostly reporting from Danish news media, but also personal narratives, scientific information, political assertions, and more. We conclude that HPV vaccination assemblages such as these pages are heterogeneous and contextual. They are not uniform sites of vaccine criticism, but rather seem to respond to and exchange information and misinformation within the communication environment in which they are embedded.


Implementing the comprehensive Water Framework Directive requires a thorough planning process that consists of several consecutive steps. The least one can say is that it is a challenging task which needs appropriate ICT tools that are able to cope with the complexity of the water system and this planning process. Integrated assessment, participatory processes and the science-policy interface are one of the newer elements in this overall implementation process that have developed greatly thanks to the WFD. Economic methods, models and instruments are integrative to the WFD implementation as well, with such concepts as cost recovery of water resources being central to debate with stakeholders. Economic valuation of natural resources (willingness-to-pay, willingness-to-accept, …) should get sufficient attention and the human dimension (perception, needs, wants, values and behaviours) should be incorporated in the modelling frameworks for decision-making. In the same line there is also a human dimension to the use of models: how do non-modellers, such as managers, policy-makers, other stakeholders feel about models and their use in their day-to-day activities. And finally, this volume deals with the large issue of data: its quality, availability and, not to forget, accessibility. And can we use data both for monitoring purposes (surveillance, operational and investigative in the WFD context) and for modelling. Is there a synergy to be found?

This title belongs to Water Framework Directive Series .

ISBN: 9781843393269 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401478 (eBook)


Millions of people each day log on to participate in "virtual worlds" where they can acquire virtual property, inhabit virtual spaces, and form lasting relationships with other virtual beings. Excited over the potential of a world without physical limitations, commentators extoll the numerous benefits of virtual life and its possibilities as a forum for social experiment. A real threat to this potential Eden exists, however, in the form of advertisers rushing in to sell their wares. Three functional components are present in all advertising - information, persuasion, and personal expression. When these three components are mapped onto the contours of the virtual world, the comparison reveals that there are key differences between real life and virtual life that suggest a revised role for advertising. The creativity and spontaneity that attracts many to virtual worlds does not mix well with the standardization implied by mass advertising. Advertisers and virtual world developers will not restrict advertising on their own initiative. Instead, virtual world participants must demand that that zones of exclusion be established where all advertising is prohibited. Something will be lost if advertisers have the same freedom to set up shop in the virtual world that they did in the real world at the beginning of the twentieth century.


Graph neural networks (GNNs) have emerged as a powerful paradigm for embedding-based entity alignment due to their capability of identifying isomorphic subgraphs. However, in real knowledge graphs (KGs), the counterpart entities usually have non-isomorphic neighborhood structures, which easily causes GNNs to yield different representations for them. To tackle this problem, we propose a new KG alignment network, namely AliNet, aiming at mitigating the non-isomorphism of neighborhood structures in an end-to-end manner. As the direct neighbors of counterpart entities are usually dissimilar due to the schema heterogeneity, AliNet introduces distant neighbors to expand the overlap between their neighborhood structures. It employs an attention mechanism to highlight helpful distant neighbors and reduce noises. Then, it controls the aggregation of both direct and distant neighborhood information using a gating mechanism. We further propose a relation loss to refine entity representations. We perform thorough experiments with detailed ablation studies and analyses on five entity alignment datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness of AliNet.


Equilin and equilenin, components of the hormone replacement therapy drug Premarin, can be metabolized to the catechol 4-hydroxyequilenin (4-OHEN). The quinoids produced by 4-OHEN oxidation react with dC, dA, and dG to form unusual stable cyclic adducts, which have been found in human breast tumor tissue. Four stereoisomeric adducts have been identified for each base. These 12 Premarin-derived adducts provide a unique opportunity for analyzing effects of stereochemistry and base damage on DNA structure and consequently its function. Our computational studies have shown that these adducts, with obstructed Watson-Crick hydrogen-bond edges and near-perpendicular ring systems, have limited conformational flexibility and near-mirror-image conformations in stereoisomer pairs. The dC and dA adducts can adopt major- and minor-groove positions in the double helix, but the dG adducts are positioned only in the major groove. In all cases, opposite orientations of the equilenin rings with respect to the 5' --> 3' direction of the damaged strand are found in stereoisomer pairs derived from the same base, and no Watson-Crick pairing is possible. However, detailed structural properties in DNA duplexes are distinct for each stereoisomer of each damaged base. These differences may underlie observed differential stereoisomer and base-dependent mutagenicities and repair susceptibilities of these adducts.


Modern classification tasks usually involve many class labels and can be informed by a broad range of features. Many of these tasks are tackled by constructing a set of classifiers, which are then applied at test time and then pieced together in a fixed procedure determined in advance or at training time. We present an active classification process at the test time, where each classifier in a large ensemble is viewed as a potential observation that might inform our classification process. Observations are then selected dynamically based on previous observations, using a value-theoretic computation that balances an estimate of the expected classification gain from each observation as well as its computational cost. The expected classification gain is computed using a probabilistic model that uses the outcome from previous observations. This active classification process is applied at test time for each individual test instance, resulting in an efficient instance-specific decision path. We demonstrate the benefit of the active scheme on various real-world datasets, and show that it can achieve comparable or even higher classification accuracy at a fraction of the computational costs of traditional methods.


A new population of birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) with rhizomes (RBFT) has been developed for greater persistence. No study has compared RBFT with a standard, non-rhizomatous cultivar of birdsfoot trefoil (BFT). Objectives were to: (i) compare RBFT with BFT for differences in shoot and root mass and total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) concentration of taproots in both clipped and non-clipped situations and (ii) describe rhizome production of clipped and non-clipped RBFT. Norcen' BFT and RBFT were grown in field plots near Columbia, MO, in 1994 and 1995. The study had four treatments: non-clipped RBFT, clipped RBFT, non-clipped BFT, and clipped BFT. Each treatment was replicated four times in a randomized complete block. Plots were sampled biweekly for shoot and root mass and taproot TNC from early-July until the first killing frost in October. In addition, length, mass, TNC, and number of rhizomes per plant were recorded for RBFT. From mid-September until the final sampling, the shoot mass for RBFT was about half that of BFT; however, RBFT's shoot mass was less affected by clipping than was BFT's. Taproot TNC was 20 to 40 g kg -1 greater for RBFT than BFT throughout both growing seasons. Nearly all RBFT plants exhibited rhizomes by mid-October both years. Clipping RBFT plants did not affect rhizome growth. Rhizome TNC concentration increased steadily during autumn, with a final concentration of approximately 220 g kg 1 . The failure of clipping to decrease rhizome production, combined with higher levels of below-ground TNC, may give RBFT the ability to withstand frequent defoliation.


Many analytical and numerical approaches have been proposed in order to solve poroelastic problems describing the behavior of biological tissues. The main difficulty associated to numerical strategies concerns the solution of the coupled poroelastic equations for determining the solid response in terms of deformation and filtration. The proposal of this work is to find a strategy to numerically solve poroelastic problems employing the Finite Element Method (FEM). In particular, the strategy presented is based on the well known similarity between thermoelasticity and poroelasticity theories. This analogy allows to solve transient poroelastic problems as corresponding thermoelastic ones, interpreting the temperature as a pressure and thermal gradients as velocities. With this aim, the relationship between thermoelasticity and poroelasticity is formulated in terms of dimensionless parameters to ensure numerical stability, because the elasticity moduli, filtration coefficients and porosity have essentially different orders of magnitude. Thus, the dimensionless equations obtained are implemented in numerical FEM-based computations. Such transferring to equivalent thermoelastic problems enables to apply the FEM package ANSYS® 11, which provides opportunities to solve coupled thermoelastic problems in transient non linear settings. Two numerical examples are finally presented. The first one is concerning a very important problem of drug delivery in solid tumors. The second example is, instead, related to the investigation of the role played by trigonal-like microstructure in osteons in bone adaptive, growth and remodeling processes.


DTU Orbit (08/08/2019) Comparing the Overhead of Lock-based and Lock-free Implementations of Priority Queues With the advent of multi-core processors, concurrent data structures have received a renewed interest. While concurrent data structures where previously used mainly in high-performance computing, now they are found in all types of computer systems. A major challenge when designing such data structures is to allow multiple cores to safely access the data structure. Traditionally, mutual exclusion using lock primitives has been used to avoid interference between cores. However, lock primitives cause a high synchronization overhead in situations with high contention. More recently, lock-free data structures have been proposed as a solution to decrease the synchronization overhead. Lock-free data structures are more complex than their lock-based counterparts. It is not evident if the benefits of lower synchronization overhead can offset the higher sequential execution time caused by the complexity. In this paper, we compare a lock-free implementation of a priority queue with a lock-based implementation. We perform experiments with processors of different generations and observe large performance differences for lock-free data structures depending on the processor generation. The lock-free implementation performs much better on the most recent processor generation. We investigate this performance trend, using a set of micro-benchmarks and show a significant difference in the overhead of atomic operations between processor generations. The lock-free implementation executes approximately three times as many instructions as the lock-based implementation. However, the lock-free implementation outperforms the lock-based when multiple cores are used and the data structure is contended.


Sweat was collected with the PharmChekTM sweat patch and drugs were eluted from the collection pad of the patch. A solid phase, enzyme immunoassay using microtiter plates was modified for analysis of methamphetamine in sweat. After methamphetamine administration, sweat contains primarily parent methamphetamine. The immunoassay was determined to have crossreactivity relative to 100% for the methamphetamine (MA) calibrators; to 144% for methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA); to 30% for d-amphetamine; to 21% for methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); and to 8% for I-methamphetamine. The optimum cutoff concentration for this modified assay was determined by receiver operating characteristic analysis to be 10 ng/mL amphetamine equivalents. At this cutoff concentration the assay had a diagnostic sensitivity of 84.5% and a diagnostic specificity of 93.2% versus gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The positive predictive value at a prevalence of 50% was 86%. The intra-assay precision at 10 ng/mL was 9.9% (coefficient of variation, CV) and the interassay CV was 13%. Analysis of spiked patches at plus or minus 25 and 50% around the cutoff gave a percent positive threshold of approximately 50% at a cutoff of 10 ng/mL and a 95% confidence level for a positive result by the EIA between 15 and 20 ng/mL. Of 18 potential adulterants that might be injected into or under the patch, two (tile cleaner and cough syrup) caused a false-positive response by immunoassay. All results were confirmed by GC-MS. The clinical sensitivity and specificity of the overall analysis system (sweat collection and analysis) were 85 and 100%, respectively, using known methamphetamine dosing of volunteers (10, 20, and 25 mg) as the reference standard.


The safety of mine workers depends on the proper installation of roof supports to prevent the ground from collapsing into the working areas of an underground mine. As new support systems are developed, they need to be properly evaluated to make sure that they are capable of providing adequate roof support before they are first used in a mine. In addition to making certain that the supports meet basic safety criteria, the limitations of the support need to be fully defined in order to avoid improper application of a particular support design. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) operates a world-class facility called the Safety Structures Testing Laboratory. This laboratory contains a unique load frame, the Mine Roof Simulator, which is capable of simulating the ground behavior in underground mines for conducting full-scale evaluations of roof support systems. Safety performance testing protocols using the unique Mine Roof Simulator have been developed for both standing roof support systems and longwall shield supports. The purpose of this paper is to describe these test procedures. The protocol for standing roof supports incorporates seven test series: ( 1) uniform loading baseline tests, (2) height evaluations, (3) asymmetric loading, (4) biaxial loading, (5) load rate studies, (6) active loading determination, and (7) static loading evaluations. For longwall shields, a fourseries test program that accurately simulates in-service conditions on a longwall face is proposed. This test program consists of (1) transfer of horizontal load to the caving shield-lemniscate assembly (zero-friction test), (2) point loading of shield joints due to lateral movement or rotation of the canopy, (3) evaluation of leg socket and leg cylinder integrity, and (4) face-to-waste racking of the shield. In addition, an evaluation of the shield's hydraulic components will be conducted prior to the performance testing. These protocols will provide stateof-the-art safety performance evaluations of emerging support technologies, as well as a means to assess the safety of both new and aging longwall shields. Hence, this effort will enhance the safety of mine workers by ensuring that critical support elements are properly designed and that aging supports are retired before their support capability is jeopardized. Research physicist, Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh, PA.


This study examines how EFL learners in the non-English speaking communities (Jordan and Germany) handle communication in story-retelling, and uncovers the repair strategies, which they deploy in order to overcome communication breakdowns and pass comprehensible messages to their interlocutors. The study also analyzes factors governing the EFL learners' preferences for employing repair strategies. It examines two repair strategies used by Jordanian and German EFL learners; self-initiated repair and repetition. The participants of this study were volunteer third-year students enrolled in the Linguistics Department at Chemnitz Technical University (Germany) and the University of Jordan (Jordan). Two short stories, selected from 100 free English short stories for ESL learners, were used to elicit data. The results of the analysis revealed that both German and Jordanian non-native speakers of English resort to strategies of repair in order to compensate for their lack of linguistic items or to gain time to retrieve linguistic item(s) and maintain conversation. Moreover, the results indicate that the Jordanian Arabic speaking subjects used strategies of repair more frequently, which was attributed to the fact that they produced more story events, which doubled the number of words in their oral production. Another finding was that repetition was used more frequently than self-initiated repair by both groups. The results of this study may provide some useful insights into syllabus design and English language teaching (ELT).


Novel optical attenuation fibers were fabricated by the irradiation of a focused infrared femtosecond pulsed laser onto the core of a silica glass single-mode optical fiber. Optical attenuation at a wavelength of 1.55 microm proportionally increased with increasing numbers of irradiation points and was controllable under laser irradiation conditions. The single-mode property of the waveguide and the mode-field diameter of the optical fiber were maintained after irradiation of the femtosecond laser. It is suggested that the attenuation results from optical scattering at photoinduced spots formed inside the fiber core.


Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disease characterized by the hypertrophy (thickening) of heart ventricles, and the first cause of sudden cardiac death in the young adults. The ECG is altered in the majority of patients with HCM as a consequence of structural and electrophysiological abnormalities although reliable risk markers are still not available. Fifty four 12-lead Holter recordings (32 HCM patients and 22 controls) have been analyzed in order to obtain specific ECG based biomarkers able to distinguish between both groups. Results showed higher values for HCM in QRS-duration, QT interval (QTc), T peak to T end interval corrected (Tpe) and DRest quantifying dispersion of restitution. Also, morphological features such as ST level, T and QRS amplitudes and energies and the first four Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT) coefficients were analysed. Results showed statistically significant differences between HCM patients and controls (p-value<;0.02) in the QTc interval, ST level, energies and the first and third KLT coefficients. DRest showed higher values in HCM patients (0.08 versus 0.05 in controls) in agreement with in vivo studies suggesting a correlation between increased dispersion and arrhythmic risk.


Atmospheric deposition of perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) in remote regions might arise from transport and degradation of precursors (e.g., perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride (PFOSF)-based products or fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs)) or direct transport (e.g., PFCAs in the vapor phase or on particles). To probe the dominant atmospheric source of PFCAs, historical trends in environmental FTOH, PFOSF, and direct perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) emissions were compared to the flux of PFCAs (sum of C7-C13 perfluoroalkyl chain lengths) and PFCA isomer signatures in dated sediment cores from two remote alpine lakes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Contributions from PFOSF-based substances and direct transport of PFOA were ruled to be minimal because no branched isomers were detected in either core and temporal trends for direct emission of PFOA did not match the flux measurements. PFCA flux to Lake Opabin sediment agreed well with reported FTOH emissions, including a peak in mid-2003 and subsequent decline. In Lake Oesa, agreement between PFCA flux and FTOH emissions was also good up to 2004, but a subsequent decline was only detected for some PFCA congeners through 2008, while others continued to increase. Overall, both the isomer profiles and the temporal trend data suggest that FTOH oxidation is the dominant atmospheric source of PFCAs to these high alpine lakes. The efficacy of recent industry phase-out initiatives was difficult to assess due to the divergent temporal trends in samples after 2003; thus, continued monitoring is suggested at remote sites such as these.


Abstract Economic analysts have used trends in total factor productivity (TFP) to evaluate the effectiveness with which economies are utilizing advances in technology. However, this measure is problematic on several different dimensions. First, the idea that it is possible to separate out the relative contribution to economic output of labor, capital, and technology requires ignoring their complex interdependence in actual production. Second, since TFP growth has declined in recent decades in all of the developed market societies, there is good reason to believe that the decline is an artifact of the slower rates of economic growth that are linked to austerity policies. Third, reliance on TFP assumes that measures of the gross domestic product are accurately capturing changes in economic output, even as the portion of the labor force producing tangible goods has declined substantially. Finally, there are other indicators that suggest that current rates of technological progress might be as strong or stronger than in earlier decades.


This paper revisits visual representation in knowledge-based visual question answering (VQA) and demonstrates that using regional information in a better way can significantly improve the performance. While visual representation is extensively studied in traditional VQA, it is under-explored in knowledge-based VQA even though these two tasks share the common spirit, i.e., rely on visual input to answer the question. Specifically, we observe that in most state-of-the-art knowledge-based VQA methods: 1) visual features are extracted either from the whole image or in a sliding window manner for retrieving knowledge, and the important relationship within/among object regions is neglected; 2) visual features are not well utilized in the final answering model, which is counter-intuitive to some extent. Based on these observations, we propose a new knowledge-based VQA method REVIVE, which tries to utilize the explicit information of object regions not only in the knowledge retrieval stage but also in the answering model. The key motivation is that object regions and inherent relationship are important for knowledge-based VQA. We perform extensive experiments on the standard OK-VQA dataset and achieve new state-of-the-art performance, i.e., 58.0% accuracy, surpassing previous state-of-the-art method by a large margin (+3.6%). We also conduct detailed analysis and show the necessity of regional information in different framework components for knowledge-based VQA. Code is publicly available at https://github.com/yzleroy/REVIVE.


The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) has a history of bringing thought leadership to topics of emerging risk. In September 2014, the SRA Emerging Nanoscale Materials Specialty Group convened an international workshop to examine the use of alternative testing strategies (ATS) for manufactured nanomaterials (NM) from a risk analysis perspective. Experts in NM environmental health and safety, human health, ecotoxicology, regulatory compliance, risk analysis, and ATS evaluated and discussed the state of the science for in vitro and other alternatives to traditional toxicology testing for NM. Based on this review, experts recommended immediate and near‐term actions that would advance ATS use in NM risk assessment. Three focal areas—human health, ecological health, and exposure considerations—shaped deliberations about information needs, priorities, and the next steps required to increase confidence in and use of ATS in NM risk assessment. The deliberations revealed that ATS are now being used for screening, and that, in the near term, ATS could be developed for use in read‐across or categorization decision making within certain regulatory frameworks. Participants recognized that leadership is required from within the scientific community to address basic challenges, including standardizing materials, protocols, techniques and reporting, and designing experiments relevant to real‐world conditions, as well as coordination and sharing of large‐scale collaborations and data. Experts agreed that it will be critical to include experimental parameters that can support the development of adverse outcome pathways. Numerous other insightful ideas for investment in ATS emerged throughout the discussions and are further highlighted in this article.


Background Guidelines recommend avoidance of excessive oxygen administration during neonatal resuscitation. Blenders are used in some but not all hospitals. It has been suggested that self-inflating bags without a reservoir deliver around 40% oxygen and could be used to provide an inexpensive and effective technique of avoiding oxygen toxicity. Objective To explore how much oxygen is delivered when using two different brands of neonatal self-inflating resuscitation bags without a reservoir. Methods In a benchtop setting, the smallest non-disposable self-inflating bags from the Laerdal and Ambu ranges were tested. Oxygen concentration delivered by these devices under a variety of conditions was measured. 108 combinations of oxygen flow rates (10; 5 to 1 litre/min), ventilation rates (30, 60, 100 inflations/min) and peak inspiratory pressure ranges (20 to 25 cm H2O, 35 to 40 cm H2O or pop-off valve range, 55 to 60 cm H2O) were tested. Results Delivered oxygen concentration varied depending on three parameters: gas flow rate, ventilatory rate and pressure. At a pressure of 20 to 25 cm H2O, mean oxygen concentration delivered by both bags exceeded 70% at any gas flow rate except for 1 litre/min (where delivered oxygen concentration was 60% to 70%). When the pop-off valve was opened at 35 to 40 cm H20, oxygen concentrations fell to 30% to 45% at gas flow rates ≤2 litres/min. The Ambu bag delivered a lower oxygen concentration than the Laerdal bag but this difference was not clinically important. Conclusion When using the Laerdal and Ambu infant resuscitation self-inflating bags without a reservoir, delivered oxygen concentration is >70% for currently recommended flow and pressure settings.


The effect of ethnic violence on electoral results provides useful insights into voter behaviour in democratic societies. Religious riots have claimed more than 14,000 lives in India since 1950. We study the effect of Hindu-Muslim riots on election results in India. We combine data on riots, which have been geo-coded, with electoral data on state legislature elections and control variables on demographics and public goods provision to construct a unique panel data set for 16 large states in India over a 21 year period from 1981-2001. We suggest a new instrument that draws upon the random variation in the day of the week that important Hindu festivals fall on in each year, as set by a lunar calendar. The probability of a riot increases if a Hindu festival falls on a Friday, the holy day for Muslims. This allows us to isolate the causal effect of riots on electoral results. We also correct for under-reporting of riots and how they affect electoral outcomes in nearby districts. We find that riots occurring in the year preceding an election increases the vote share of the Bharatiya Janata Party by 5 to 7 percentage points in the election.


Omnidirectional images are spherical signals captured by cameras with 360-degree field of view. In order to be compressed using existing encoders, these signals are mapped to planar domain. A commonly used planar representation is the equirectangular one, which corresponds to a non uniform sampling pattern on the spherical surface. This particularity is not explored in traditional image compression schemes, which treat the input signal as a classical perspective image. In this work, we build a graph-based coder adapted to the spherical surface. We build a graph directly on the sphere. Then, to have computationally feasible graph transforms, we propose a ratedistortion optimized graph partitioning algorithm to achieve an effective trade-off between the distortion of the reconstructed signals, the smoothness of the signal on each subgraph, and the cost of coding the graph partitioning description. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms JPEG coding of planar equirectangular images.


This paper presents a brief survey of the data available on solar constant and extraterrestrial solar spectral irradiance. The spectral distribution of solar radiation at ground surface, computed from extraterrestrial solar spectral irradiance for several air mass values and for four levels of atmospheric pollution, is also presented. The total irradiance at ground level is obtained by integration of the area under the spectral irradiance curves. It is significant that, as air mass increases or as turbidity increases, the amount of energy in the infrared relative to the total increases and that the energy in the UV and visible decreases.


The plant hormone auxin controls many aspects of development and acts in part by inducing expression of various genes. Arabidopsis thaliana semidominant shy2 (short hypocotyl) mutations cause leaf formation in dark-grown plants, suggesting that SHY2 has an important role in regulating development. Here we show that the SHY2 gene encodes IAA3, a previously known member of the Aux/IAA family of auxin-induced genes. Dominant shy2 mutations cause amino acid changes in domain II, conserved among all members of this family. We isolated loss-of-function shy2 alleles including a putative null mutation. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function shy2 mutations affect auxin-dependent root growth, lateral root formation, and timing of gravitropism, indicating that SHY2/IAA3 regulates multiple auxin responses in roots. The phenotypes suggest that SHY2/IAA3 may activate some auxin responses and repress others. Models invoking tissue-specificity, feedback regulation, or control of auxin transport may explain these results.


BACKGROUND
Newly emergent and virulent strains of H7N9 avian influenza virus are rapidly spreading in China and threaten to invade Vietnam. We sought to introduce aerosol sampling for avian influenza viruses in Vietnam.

METHODS
During October 2017, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 2-stage aerosol samplers were assembled on a tripod and run for 4 hours. Concomitantly, up to 20 oropharyngeal (OP) swab samples were collected from chickens and ducks distanced at 0.2-1.5 m from each sampler.

RESULTS
The 3 weeks of sampling yielded 30 aerosol samples that were 90% positive for influenza A, by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and 116 OP swab sample pools (5 samples per pool) that were 47% positive. Egg cultures yielded 1 influenza A virus (not H5 or H7) from aerosol and 25 influenza A viruses from OP swab sample pools (5 were H5 positive). The association between positive sample types (over time and position) was strong, with 91.7% of positive OP pooled swab samples confirmed by positive aerosol samples and 81% of influenza A positive aerosol samples confirmed by positive OP swab samples.

CONCLUSIONS
We posit that aerosol sampling might be used for early warning screening of poultry markets for novel influenza virus detection, such as H7N9. Markets with positive aerosol samples might be followed up with more focused individual bird or cage swabbing, and back-tracing could be performed later to locate specific farms harboring novel virus. Culling birds in such farms could reduce highly pathogenic avian influenza virus spread among poultry and humans.


The size and dispersity of nanoparticles (NPs) determine the properties that such particles display. In this study, synthesis of silver nanoparticles in a coaxial flow reactor (CFR) was investigated by confining the reaction and subsequent nucleation to an interface away from the channel wall. Silver NPs were formed at room temperature by reducing silver nitrate with sodium borohydride in the presence of sodium hydroxide, while trisodium citrate was used as the surfactant. The main parameters investigated were flow rate of reagents through the CFR and concentrations of trisodium citrate and silver nitrate. Decreasing the total flow rate resulted in the NP size and dispersity reducing from 5.4 3.4 nm to 3.1 1.6 nm. Increasing surfactant concentration reduced size and dispersity from 8.5 6.9 nm to 4.1 1.1 nm. By tuning the precursor concentration the size and dispersity could be reduced from 9.3 3 nm to 3.7 0.8 nm.


This book offers a unique record of the realities of parental choice and competitive pressures on schools. On the basis of research involving thousands of parents and eleven secondary schools monitored over several years, it sets out: * empirical findings on parents' preferences and experience of choice, how schools respond to competitive pressures, and local dynamics of quasi-markets * theoretical implications for understanding quasi-markets in education and the public interest * implications for educational policy, if schools are to be more responsive and inequalities lessened The book provides insights into whether pressures for choice and diversity are in the greater public interest, or if they benefit only the few, and suggests a notion of the public-market as a model for analysing public services.


We present the magnetic local time, invariant latitude, and altitude distribution of upflowing ion beams and the dependence of their occurrence on whether the ionospheric foot point of the satellite is illuminated or dark and on solar cycle, as indicated by F10.7. The effects of illumination and solar cycle are additive, consistent with the fact that the solar EUV depends on solar cycle and that the ionospheric conditions are dependent on total flux illuminating the foot point. Consistent with previous studies, the occurrence of upflowing ion beams peaks in the premidnight local time sector, and the occurrence increases dramatically with altitude over the altitude range of FAST (~700 km to ~4000 km). Solar illumination both reduces the occurrence of ion beams observed by more than a factor of 10 and increases the altitude where the acceleration occurs so that beams are rare below ~4000 km altitude. The effect of the increased solar EUV near solar maximum is almost as large. The inferred potential drops at altitudes below 4000 km, even during dark conditions, are usually less than 1 keV; during sunlit conditions and/or high F10.7, the potentials are usually less than 500 eV. These results place constraints on the altitude of the auroral parallel potential drop and on the relative importance of ionospheric conductivity and plasma density on the acceleration processes. There is no evidence that the statistical results are due to motion of large parallel potential drops to lower latitudes near solar maximum.


SeismologyWhen a devastating megaquake rocked the region north of Tokyo in March, nobody saw such a huge quake coming. In China, New Zealand, and California as well, recent earthquakes have underscored scientists' problems forecasting the future. A surprisingly big quake arrives where smaller ones were expected, as in Japan; an unseen fault breaks far from obviously dangerous faults, as in New Zealand. And, most disconcerting, after more than 2 decades of official forecasting, geoscientists still don't know how much confidence to place in their own warnings. But improvements are in the works.


An administrative agency delegated some task - protect the environment, assure the integrity of the securities markets, improve auto safety - might carry out that obligation by adopting a rule, bringing or deciding a case, or announcing its interpretation of the statute. Although agencies are unique institutions in this respect, this state of affairs generates little comment. This Article aims to rectify that by identifying, evaluating, and coming to terms with the phenomenon of agency choice of policymaking form. That phenomenon can be simply stated: The typical administrative agency is authorized to use a range of distinct policymaking forms to effectuate its statutory mandate and its choice about which tool to rely on appears, at first glance at least, to be unregulated by courts. Part I of the Article will discuss the policymaking tools that statutes and case law typically make available, the significance of the choice among them, and the varying choices that agencies make. Part II takes up the judicial reaction to agency choices of procedure. That judicial reaction, at least at first blush, can be simply described: hands-off. An agency can choose among its available policymaking tools and a court will not require it to provide an explanation for its choice. This judicial reaction is perplexing because it is out of step with the rest of the law of judicial review of agency action. This Part examines possible reasons why courts might treat agency choices of procedure differently than other exercises of discretion, but dismisses each of them as implausible. After setting forth this puzzle in the structure of the law, this Part offers an explanation for it. That explanation is rooted in the fact that courts have a surprising degree of control over the consequences of an agency's choice of form. By adjusting the consequences of choosing one form or another, courts have the opportunity to respond to whatever concerns they might have about an agency's choice. Courts thus review agency choices of procedure, albeit in a roundabout way. Parts I and II are devoted to identifying and analyzing the phenomenon of agency choice of policymaking form. That task is the main object of the Article because these features of administrative law and practice are not now considered worthy of notice. After noticing them, though, the next step is to come to terms with them. Part III of the Article starts that task.


Wrench-based quality metrics play an important role in many applications such as grasp planning or grasp success prediction. In this work, we study the following discrepancy which is frequently overlooked in practice: the quality metrics are commonly computed under the assumption of sum-magnitude bounded contact forces, but the corresponding grasps are executed by a fully actuated device where the contact forces are limited independently. By means of experiments carried out in simulation and on real hardware, we show that in this setting the values of these metrics are severely underestimated. This can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the actual capabilities of the grasps under consideration. Our findings highlight the importance of matching the physical properties of the task and the grasping device with the chosen quality metrics.


Spatial figures of impasse appear when politics is in trouble, and preserve political expectation when its prospects are poor. They take their meaning from the assumption that the political order is synonymous with social reality—as though people could do nothing when political movement is blocked. Focusing on Gramsci's Prison Notebooks and the critical reception of Hegel's master-slave dialectic among other references, this essay argues that the model of impasse and breakthrough occludes politics' narrowness as compared with other organizations of collective well-being. By seeming to preserve political potential, perceptions of impasse encourage people to accept political processes as the only social reality despite their violence, their limitation of reality, and their contempt for the agential resources of nonpolitical being.


Weed management is one of the most important economic and agronomic issues facing farmers in Australia's grain regions. Weed species occurrence and abundance was monitored between 1997 and 2000 on 46 paddocks (sites) across 18 commercial farms located in the Northern Grain Region. The sites generally fell within 4 disjunct regions, from south to north: Liverpool Plains, Moree, Goondiwindi and Kingaroy. While high species richness was found (139 species or species groups), only 8 species occurred in all 4 regions and many (56 species) only occurred at 1 site or region. No species were observed at every site but 7 species (Sonchus spp., Avena spp., Conyza spp., Echinochloa spp., Convolvulus erubescens, Phalaris spp. and Lactuca serriola) were recorded on more than 70% of sites. The average number of species observed within crops after treatment and before harvest was less than 13. Species richness tended to be higher in winter pulse crops, cotton and in fallows, but overall was similar at the different sampling seasons (summer v. winter). Separate species assemblages associated with the Goondiwindi and Kingaroy regions were identified by correspondence analysis but these appeared to form no logical functional group. The species richness and density was generally low, demonstrating that farmers are managing weed populations effectively in both summer and winter cropping phases. Despite the apparent adoption of conservation tillage, an increase in opportunity cropping and the diversity of crops grown (13) there was no obvious effect of management practices on weed species richness or relative abundance. Avena spp. and Sonchus spp. were 2 of the most dominant weeds, particularly in central and southern latitudes of the region; Amaranthus spp. and Raphanus raphanistrum were the most abundant species in the northern part of the region. The ubiquity of these and other species shows that continued vigilance is required to suppress weeds as a management issue.


This research set out to determine if the signal from an inexpensive domestic smoke alarm is effective at providing early warning to a fire. An experiment was devised to investigate the effectiveness of the inexpensive domestic smoke alarm signal at alerting occupants to a fire event. The experiment involved constructing an alerting device which could sound an alarm, identical to that of a domestic smoke alarm, at predetermined times between 6pm and 6am. Volunteers from the risk groups of students, Maori and elderly participated for two weeks in the experiment by allowing an alerting device to be installed in their home and responding to three alarm calls. Data from the experiment was used to examine response times to the alarm signal and identify who is particularly at risk to harm from fire. Analysis of the data from the experiment aimed to conclude if inexpensive smoke alarms are effective at alerting occupants to a fire event. The inexpensive domestic smoke alarm signal was found to be 85% reliable at alerting occupants to a fire event, with children aged under ten years and adults whose sleep was influenced by the effects of alcohol identified as not being reliably woken by the alarm.


Simultaneous measurements of aerosol black carbon (BC) in both fresh snow and in air on Svalbard are presented. From these, washout ratios for BC are calculated and compared to sparse previous measurements of this metric in the arctic. The current ratios are significantly higher than previously found measured values. We argue that the degree of snow riming within the accretion zone can explain most of this difference. Using an analytical model of the scavenging process, BC scavenging efficiencies are estimated to lie in the range 0.25–0.5, comparable to measured values


Entrepreneurship, long neglected by economists and management scholars, has made a dramatic comeback in the last two decades, not only among academic economists and management scholars, but also among policymakers, educators and practitioners. Likewise, the economic theory of the firm, building on Ronald Coase's (1937) seminal analysis, has become an increasingly important field in economics and management. Despite this resurgence, there is still little connection between the entrepreneurship literature and the literature on the firm, both in academia and in management practice. This book fills this gap by proposing and developing an entrepreneurial theory of the firm that focuses on the connections between entrepreneurship and management. Drawing on insights from Austrian economics, it describes entrepreneurship as judgmental decision made under uncertainty, showing how judgment is the driving force of the market economy and the key to understanding firm performance and organization.


Crowdsourcinga method for companies to utilize the power of the crowd through internet-based platformsis a relatively new phenomenon. When offered as a mobile service, crowdsourcing transcends the spatial, temporal and contextual barriers of traditional job requirements, offering an ubiquitous service and access, and providing a suite of both utilitarian and hedonic functions. IS literature indicates that users' extrinsic motivation is a stronger determinant to use utilitarian systems, while intrinsic motivation is a stronger determinant for hedonic systems. However, when the crowdsourced service, such as photography, is both hedonic and utilitarian by nature, users' perceptions of the service are unclear. Earlier research reports mixed results: while some studies suggest that tangible rewards can have a negative impact on the intrinsic motivation, other studies suggest the opposite. Hence, our study focuses on how the users perceive mobile crowdsourcing services, what motivates them to participate, and how the financial reward affects their intention to participate. In this paper, we outline an ongoing study of a company in the Finnish publishing industry. After interviews with the company executives, we will next conduct a series of interviews with the users with the aim of gaining rich, in-depth understanding of their motivations. Then, in a later stage, we will conduct a quasi-experiment to test the developed theoretical model.


A control unit for hydraulic single-cell pressurementers is described which employs multiple cylinders. The basic control unit can function with a single cylinder for small low-capacity pressuremeter probes and with additional cylinders added to increase the system capacity to serve larger probes. The unit described is portable, rugged, lightweight, and cost effective. Comparative pressurementer test results are given for the multicylinder control unit (PUP) and the commercial hydraulic unit (TEXAM), with both units serving a 32-mm-diameter EX probe and a 60-mm-diameter BX probe.


This report briefly describes two issues associated with EPA implementation of risk management planning requirements in the Clean Air Act Section 112(r): whether dealers and distributors of propane and other flammable fuels should be covered by the law, and whether electronic access to off-site consequence analyses (OCA), and especially worst-case analyses, should be restricted to avoid misuse by terrorists or criminals. These issues are addressed by S. 880, as reported, and H.R. 1301 in the 106th Congress. The statutory requrrements and EPA implementation to date also are described. Covered facilities must submit risk management plans by June 21, 1999. This product will be updated when events warrant. For information on the status of legislation, see CRS Issue Brief lB10004, Clean Air Act Issues in the 106th Congress.


Introduction: The treatment of Posterior Malleolus (PM) fracture in trimalleolar surgery is still controversial. Fixation of PM is determined according to joint congruency and posterior fragment size. When the ratio of posterior fragment is less than 25% of anteroposterior dimension of the articular surface, conservative treatment is suggested in the literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional and radiological outcomes of the patients with trimalleolar fracture that had either PM fixation or not when the PM ratio is less than 25%.
Materials and Methods: Archives of 73 patients that had trimalleolar surgery in our hospital between 2010 and 2014 were evaluated retrospectively. Inclusion criteria's were as follow: being over 18 y old, PM fractures measuring less than 25% of the joint surface in the lateral ankle x-ray, having preoperative ankle Computer Tomography (CT) , both medial and lateral malleolar fixation, with at least 2 y of follow-up. Exclusion criteria's were as follow: pathologic fractures, metabolic disorders, ipsilateral fracture, fracture history in the same ankle, incongruous talocrural angle, medial and superior talo tibial incongruity in the postoperative early x-rays. Haraguchi classification, PM size and ratio, use of transsyndesmotic screw, American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) anklehind foot scores were evaluated. Kolmogorov-Smirnov was used to evaluate the distribution of the variables and Mann-Whitney U-test was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Among the patients who had PM fixation and without fixation, there was no statistically significant difference in their AOFAS score.
Conclusions: There was no significant functional difference found in trimalleolar fracture when PM fraction ratio is smaller than 25% in comparison of PM fixation, however, the decreased need of transsyndesmosis fixation needs to be taken into consideration.


India continues to stand at the cross-roads of having to choose from the two roads that lead to Belief. For Belief can be founded on Faith, or it can be founded on Reason. Faith is a non-rational belief system. Science is a rational belief system. One of the ironies of life that is seriously emerging from recent research in evolutionary biology is that the acceptance of non-rational belief systems confers a greater ability to survive. At the same time, a society that has no rational thinkers will probably be wiped out. Therefore, for long term survival, every social group needs a small group of individuals who have the rational compass to guide the rest on the Road to Reason, and away from the Road of Faith that is pot-holed with mindless superstitions and rituals. Without this, we would be condemned to lead narrow-minded lives of quiet desperation.


The analysis of Y aperture element frequency selective surface (FSS) using the spectral domain method and the moment method is presented. With the vacuum depositing and photolithography, the corresponding Y aperture element FSS was produced, and it was tested in the microwave darkroom. The calculated and measured results are in good agreement.


Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), particularly social media and geographic information systems (GIS), have become a transformational force in emergency response. Social media enables ad hoc collaboration, providing timely, useful information dissemination and sharing, and helping to overcome limitations of time and place. Geographic information systems increase the level of situation awareness, serving geospatial data using interactive maps, animations, and computer generated imagery derived from sophisticated global remote sensing systems. Digital workspaces bring these technologies together and contribute to meeting ad hoc and formal emergency response challenges through their affordances of situation awareness and mass collaboration. Distributed ICTs that enable ad hoc emergency response via digital workspaces have arguably made traditional top-down system deployments less relevant in certain situations, including emergency response (Merrill, 2009; Heylighen, 2007a, b). Heylighen (2014, 2007a, b) theorizes that human cognitive stigmergy explains some selforganizing characteristics of ad hoc systems. Elliott (2007) identifies cognitive stigmergy as a factor in mass collaborations supported by digital workspaces. Stigmergy, a term from biology, refers to the phenomenon of self-organizing systems with agents that coordinate via perceived changes in the environment rather than direct communication. In the present research, ad hoc emergency response is examined through the lens of human cognitive stigmergy. The basic assertion is that ICTs and stigmergy together make possible highly effective ad hoc collaborations in circumstances where more typical collaborative methods break down. The research is organized into three essays: an in-depth analysis of the development and deployment of the Ushahidi emergency response software platform, a comparison of the emergency response ICTs used for emergency response during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and a process model developed from the case studies and relevant academic literature is described. DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR STIGMERGIC HUMAN COLLABORATION WITH TECHNOLOGY TOOLS: CASES IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE


This paper considers alternative policies for promoting skill formation that are targeted to different stages of the life cycle. We demonstrate the importance of both cognitive and noncognitive skills that are formed early in the life cycle in accounting for racial, ethnic and family background gaps in schooling and other dimensions of socioeconomic success. Most of the gaps in college attendance and delay are determined by early family factors. Children from better families and with high ability earn higher returns to schooling. We find only a limited role for tuition policy or family income supplements in eliminating schooling and college attendance gaps. At most 8% of American youth are credit constrained in the traditional usage of that term. The evidence points to a high return to early interventions and a low return to remedial or compensatory interventions later in the life cycle. Skill and ability beget future skill and ability. At current levels of funding, traditional policies like tuition subsidies, improvements in school quality, job training and tax rebates are unlikely to be effective in closing gaps.


We investigate the information contained in foreign exchange (FX) volume using a novel dataset from the over-the-counter market. We find volume helps predict next day currency returns and is economically valuable for currency investors. Predictability implies a stronger currency return reversal for currency pairs with abnormally low volume today, and is driven by the component of FX volume unrelated to volatility, illiquidity, and order flow. We rationalize these findings via a simple model of exchange rate determination, in which volume helps reveal the degree of asymmetric information in currency markets. Testing this prediction shows that asymmetric information is uniform across currency pairs but varies across instruments.


The paper consists of three parts, I-Induced Potentials, II-Direct Hits, and III-Other Effects. The work of previous investigators is briefly reviewed, and the limitations of their premises pointed out. Under Part I a generalized theory of ideal ground wires is offered, which takes into account the law of cloud discharge, the distribution of bound charge, and the formation of traveling waves. It is found that the protective ratio is independent of these factors. A more extensive theory taking the additional factors of successive reflections and tower resistance into account is then developed. Part II discusses the probability of a line's being hit, and applies a method for computing the effect of successive reflections to the calculation of potentials on the line and ground wires. Curves of these potentials at successive towers, and as functions of tower resistances and of time, are given. Part III discusses the effect of ground wires on attenuation, telephone interference, zero phase sequence reactance, corona, and the reduction in surge impedance due to the introduction of extra ground wires. There are three mathematical appendixes. In Appendix I, Maxwell's electrostatic and electromagnetic coeficients are reviewed, and the theory of traveling waves on any number of parallel wires is developed, including the behavior of these waves at rather general transition points. While this extension to the theory of traveling waves was developed incidental to the study of ground wire theory, it is believed to be of considerable interest and value on its own account.


Background: HIV Gag mutations have been reported to confer PI drug resistance. However, clinical implications are still controversial and most current genotyping algorithms consider solely the protease gene for assessing PI resistance. Objectives: Our goal was to describe for HIV infections in Switzerland the potential role of the C-terminus of Gag (NC–p6) in PI resistance. We aimed to characterize resistance-relevant mutational patterns in Gag and protease and their possible interactions. Methods: Resistance information on plasma samples from 2004–12 was collected for patients treated by two diagnostic centres of the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. Sequence information on protease and the C-terminal Gag region was paired with the corresponding patient treatment history. The prevalence of Gag and protease mutations was analysed for PI treatment-experienced patients versus PI treatment-naive patients. In addition, we modelled multiple paths of an assumed ordered accumulation of genetic changes using random tree mixture models. Results: More than half of all PI treatment-experienced patients in our sample set carried HIV variants with at least one of the known Gag mutations, and 17.9% (66/369) carried at least one Gag mutation for which a phenotypic proof of PI resistance by in vitro mutagenesis has been reported. We were able to identify several novel Gag mutations that are associated with PI exposure and therapy failure. Conclusions: Our analysis confirmed the association of Gag mutations, well known and new, with PI exposure. This could have clinical implications, since the level of potential PI drug resistance might be underestimated.