Recent publications describe profiled single trace side-channel attacks (SCAs) against the DES key-schedule of a "commercially available security controller". They report a significant reduction of the average remaining entropy of cryptographic keys after the attack, with surprisingly large, key-dependent variations of attack results, and individual cases with remaining key entropies as low as a few bits. Unfortunately, they leave important questions unanswered: Are the reported wide distributions of results plausible - can this be explained? Are the results device-specific or more generally applicable to other devices? What is the actual impact on the security of 3-key triple DES? We systematically answer those and several other questions by analyzing two commercial security controllers and a general purpose microcontroller. We observe a significant overall reduction and, importantly, also observe a large key-dependent variation in single DES key security levels, i.e. 49.4 bit mean and 0.9 % of keys < 40 bit (first investigated security controller; other results similar). We also observe a small fraction of keys with exceptionally low security levels that can be called weak keys. It is unclear, whether a device's side-channel security should be assessed based on such rare weak key outliers. We generalize results to other leakage models by attacking the hardware DES accelerator of a general purpose microcontroller exhibiting a different leakage model. A highly simplified leakage simulation also confirms the wide distribution and shows that security levels are predictable to some extent. Through extensive investigations we find that the actual weakness of keys mainly stems from the specific switching noise they cause. Based on our investigations we expect that widely distributed results and weak outliers should be expected for all profiled attacks against (insufficiently protected) key-schedules, regardless of the algorithm and specific implementation. Finally, we describe a sound approach to estimate actual 3-key triple-DES security levels from empirical single DES results and find that the impact on the security of 3-key triple-DES is limited, i.e. 96.1 bit mean and 0.24 % of key-triples < 80 bit for the same security controller.


Much has shifted since the emergence of the first volume of Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction. Many of the postmillennial innovations in digital cinema and digital culture which prompted its publication have today become commonplace to the point of invisibility. This development ironically evokes memories of the classic Hollywood continuity system, a structure designed to close off space for the discussion of politics, identity or history. Thus, the original contributions in this new volume seek to illuminate those larger historical and global contexts which the emergence of digital cinema highlights in the process of its erasure. Chapters cover everything from digital spectacles of the US Civil Rights movement to the cinephiliac politics of Wong Kar-Wai, from the transnational cinephilia of Bernardo Bertolucci and Adrian Lyne to the cultural politics of race and media transition in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind. Also included are sustained discussions of what the digital age will mean in the long term for the critical and academic study of film. Contributors include Chris Cagle, David Church, Susan Felleman, Kristi McKim, Adrian Martin, James Morrison, Ted Pigeon, Catherine Russell, Greg Singh and Steve Spence.


This paper reports on a project conducted over 4 field seasons in the town of Qeqer - tar suaq in West Greenland, identifying and examining vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews with community members (n = 132), key informant interviews with policy makers (n = 10), and analysis of secondary sources, we docu- mented changes in sea ice regimes, temperatures, and wind. Vulnerabilities to these changes are primarily associated with hunting and fishing. Constrained access and availability of key wildlife resources and increased harvesting dangers are affecting individuals and households closely linked to the subsistence economy. Adaptations that are being employed combine both reactive and anticipatory interventions autonomously undertaken at an individual and household level, including traveling to new fishing grounds, seeking alternative sources of income when harvest- ing activities are not possible, preparing for the unexpected, and an increased reliance on boat transport. The role of women in supporting male hunters/fishers, knowledge of environmental conditions, the existence of alternative sources of income, diversity and flexibility in harvesting, and willingness to alter livelihoods, are important factors that underpin adaptive capacity. Institu- tional constraints, however, are a major impediment to adaptation and have reduced the flexibility which has enabled historic adaptation to changing conditions. While alternative income sources are increasingly important in light of recent stresses, occupational hunters face restrictions on money-earning from non-harvesting activities, and various harvesting quotas fail to reflect recent alterations in species availability with changing climatic conditions. More broadly, hunting regu- lations have contributed to the erosion of the moral economy of harvesting and have weakened social networks, increasing vulnerability to projected future changes in climate.


In this article, based mostly on field study and literature review, we define the main axes of collaboration between Swiss luxury watchmaking companies and artists. Our article focuses on various forms of artistic collaboration and co-creation. Having analyzed the group of 200 Swiss luxury watchmaking brands first, we defined four levels of collaboration and illustrate all of these dimensions with the key players and their best practices in collaboration with artists and various art forms.


"hey moses full on riot in lawson st the station's on fire! been going since 4. molotov and more. full on," reads an SMS message received on the backseat of a Tasmanian bus. What follows is a journey through the landscape of a Gunavidji, whose brothers have all gone to the land of the dead; metallic scraping in the glass cases of the Hobart Museum; a Palestinian woman giving up on her people; land-snails exposing cultural inaccuracies; photographing Australia's war zone; entering the St Peter's Basilica of Rome with bulldozers - all in the name of preparing to interview prominent Israeli writer Etgar Keret.


Cloud computing is just one of many recent technologies that have highlighted shortcomings in the development of formal digital forensic processes, which up until now have been focused on a particular group of practitioners, such as law enforcement, and have been too high-level to be of significant practical use, or have been too detailed and specific to accommodate new technology as it emerges. Because the tools and procedures employed by digital forensic practitioners are generally outside the knowledge and understanding of the courts, they need to be described in such a way that they can be understood by the layperson. In addition, they should also conform to some standards of practice and be recognised by other practitioners working in the field (Armstrong, 2003; Kessler, 2010). Unfortunately, as Cohen (2011) points out, the whole field of digital forensics lacks consensus in fundamental aspects of its activities in terms of methodology and procedures. There has been a lot of activity around different aspects of cloud computing, and in Australia this has centered on the protection of personal data (Solomon, 2010). On an international scale, there have been several articles written by lawyers (Gillespie, 2012; Hutz, 2012; Kunick, 2012) discussing other legal considerations of accessing data in the cloud; however, this chapter looks at the issues surrounding digital evidence acquisition and introduces a new high-level process model that can assist digital forensic practitioners when it comes to presenting evidence in court that originated in the cloud.


We present 7.5–14.2 μm low-resolution spectroscopy, obtained with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph, of the T8.5 dwarf Wolf 940 B, which is a companion to an M4 dwarf with a projected separation of 400 AU. We combine these data with previously published near-infrared spectroscopy and mid-infrared photometry to produce the spectral energy distribution for the very low temperature T dwarf. We use atmospheric models to derive the bolometric correction and obtain a luminosity of log L/L☉ = −6.01 ± 0.05 (the observed spectra make up 47% of the total flux). Evolutionary models are used with the luminosity to constrain the values of effective temperature (Teff) and surface gravity and hence mass and age for the T dwarf. We ensure that the spectral models used to determine the bolometric correction have Teff and gravity values consistent with the luminosity-implied values. We further restrict the allowed range of Teff and gravity using age constraints implied by the M dwarf primary and refine the physical properties of the T dwarf by comparison of the observed and modeled spectroscopy and photometry. This comparison indicates that Wolf 940 B has a metallicity within ∼0.2 dex of solar, as more extreme values give poor fits to the data—lower metallicity produces a poor fit at λ>2 μm, while higher metallicity produces a poor fit at λ < 2 μm. This is consistent with the independently derived value of [m/H] =+0.24 ± 0.09 for the primary star, using the Johnson & Apps MK: V − K relationship. We find that the T dwarf atmosphere is undergoing vigorous mixing, with an eddy diffusion coefficient Kzz of 104 to 106 cm2 s−1. We derive an effective temperature of 585 K to 625 K, and surface gravity log  g = 4.83 to 5.22 (cm s−2), for an age range of 3 Gyr to 10 Gyr, as implied by the kinematic and Hα properties of the M dwarf primary. Gravity and temperature are correlated such that the lower gravity corresponds to the lower temperature and younger age for the system and the higher values to the higher temperature and older age. The mass of the T dwarf is 24 MJupiter to 45 MJupiter for the younger to older age limit.


The purpose of this study was to research the challenges that restorative justice practices come across in their institutional and implementation phases within the United States. The modern concept or philosophy of Restorative Justice has been around for about four decades since the 1970s or 80s. There have been multiple studies made to prove that restorative justice practices might reduce recidivism incarceration costs, while also creating a more fulfilling experience for all parties involved, including minimizing feelings of revenge from the victim. So why has the United States criminal justice system not made more advancements to incorporate more restorative justice practices? Many people who are stakeholders in or are affected by the criminal justice system recognize that the current practices are unfulfilling in various ways. The organization I was volunteering with wants to move its practices toward a complete restorative justice practice model, and has been coming across difficulties in the process. It was in my interest to conduct this research to pinpoint the challenges that current or future restorative justice programs might come across to prevent further conflict in their movement. Using semi-structured interviews and convenience sampling, I spoke to program managers, directors, and restorative justice advocates across the United States who share similar frustrations. The research findings conclude many reasons creating these barriers. Of them include but are not limited to, a lack of resources, time commitment, lack of education, and the paradigm shift that contradicts the adversarial power system we currently have. My hope for this research study is to help future and current organizations that are interested in implementing restorative justice practices for their own communities.


Recent heat flow studies indicate that the Appalachian Basin in West Virginia may represent an important location for high heat flow and future geothermal energy development. Currently, however, only limited one-dimensional (1-D) heat flow studies exist in this region, making it difficult to assess the potential for geothermal development. Here, we develop the first high resolution 2-D basin model for a portion of West Virginia. The model uses 2-D finite difference heat conduction, basin cross sections, equilibrium temperature, and oil and gas bottom-hole temperature data to quantify heat flow at the surface and at the base of the sedimentary basin. The temperature data show elevated temperature gradients in the eastern portion of the basin. A 2-D advection-diffusion model, created using available lithologic and structural data, was designed to test whether variations in crustal properties, structure, erosion, or fluid advection can account for the observed temperatures in the basin. Thermal properties were populated using measured values as well as published averages. A linear heat flow vs. heat production relationship was used to determine heat flow at the base of the model. The model constrains the heat flow at the base of the sedimentary basin to 49–55 mW/m 2 . Analysis of modeling results suggests that heat flow at the base of the sedimentary basin is nearly uniform. Variations in basin temperatures are most likely due to variations in sediment thermal properties, complex structures, and/or localized fluid advection.


In this article, we investigate the relationship between the range of optimal parameters of active contour models and the shape of the target object. We focus on the weights of the internal and external energy terms of the snakes functional. Our contributions are 3-fold. First, we propose a normalization step that brings the search space for optimal parameters into a bounded range. Secondly, we perform a systematic study of the behaviour of active contour models for all possible settings of their parameters and on a large set of synthetic geometric shapes. We introduce the concept of stability diagrams as a novel approach for assessing the stability of active contour models given a range of parameter values. Finally, we show that over a series of evolving shapes the region of the parameter domain that corresponds to suitable coefficients for segmentation, hereinafter referred to as feasible solution region, follows a predictable trend. Using shape diagrams as a metric for characterizing shapes quantitatively, we are able to correlate the shape of the objects to segment with the location and extent of the feasible solution region in the parameter domain.


Proven techniques for optimizing web, file, print, database, and application servers Practical introductions to open source performance management tools Easy-to-understand examples based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise ServerAn indispensable guide to maximizing Linux system and application performanceFrom Wall Street to Hollywood, Linux runs many of the world's most businesscritical systems. Linux performance now impacts the entire enterprise. In Performance Tuning for Linux Servers, a team of IBM's most-experienced Linux performance specialists shows you how to find bottlenecks, measure performance, and identify effective optimizations.This book doesn't just cover kernel tuning: it shows how to maximize the end-to-end performance of real-world applications and databases running on Linux. Throughout, the authors present realistic examples based on today's most popular enterprise Linux platforms, Intel-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. These examples are designed for simplicity, clarity, and easy adaptation to any contemporary Linux environment. You'll discover how to Install and configure Linux for maximum performance from the outset Evaluate and choose the right hardware architecture for your Linux environment Understand Linux kernels 2.4 through 2.6: components, performance issues, and optimization opportunities Master core Linux performance tuning principles and strategies Utilize free, open source tools for measurement, monitoring, system tracing, and benchmarking Interpret performance data to analyze your Linux server's real-world behavior Optimize Linux system schedulers, memory, I/O, file systems, and networking Tune web, file, database, and application servers running commercial workloads Predict the impact of changes in tuning parameters or configurations Tune Linux code: optimize design, timing, sockets, threads, synchronization, and more Architect for maximum performance: SMP scaling, clustering, and topology Integrate kernel and application tuning in end-to-end system optimization projectsWhether you're an administrator, developer, integrator, or consultant, Performance Tuning for Linux Serverswill help you maximize the performance and value of every Linux system and application you run.© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.


To achieve the early fault diagnosis for rolling bearings, this paper proposes a new transient fault detection approach by the use of optimized Morlet wavelet transform, kurtosis index and soft-thresholding. Firstly, a fast optimization algorithm based on the Shannon entropy is developed to obtain the optimized Morlet wavelet parameter. Compared to the existing Morlet wavelet parameter optimization algorithm, this algorithm has lower computation complexity. After performing the optimized Morlet wavelet transform on the analyzed signal, the kurtosis index is used to select the characteristic scales and obtain the corresponding wavelet coefficients. From the time-frequency distribution of the periodic impulsive signal, it can be found that the transient signal should be reconstructed by the wavelet coefficients at several characteristic scales rather than the wavelet coefficients at just one characteristic scale, so as to improve the accuracy of transient detection. Due to the noise influence on the characteristic wavelet coefficients, the adaptive soft-thresholding method is applied to denoise these coefficients. With the denoised wavelet coefficients, the transient signal can be reconstructed. The proposed method has been applied to analyze a simulated signal with a weak impulse, and diagnose a rolling bearing fault. The superiority of the method over the fast kurtogram method has been verified by the results of simulation analysis and real experiments. It can be concluded that the proposed method is extremely suitable for extracting the periodic impulsive feature from the strong background noise.


Molecular methods are a necessary tool for sexing monomorphic birds. These molecular approaches are usually reliable, but sexing protocols should be evaluated carefully because biochemical interactions may lead to errors. We optimized laboratory protocols for genetic sexing of a monomorphic shorebird, the upland sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), using two independent sets of primers, P2/P8 and 2550F/2718R, to amplify regions of the sex‐linked CHD‐Z and CHD‐W genes. We discovered polymorphisms in the region of the CHD‐Z intron amplified by the primers P2/P8 which caused four males to be misidentified as females (n = 90 mated pairs). We cloned and sequenced one CHD‐W allele (370 bp) and three CHD‐Z alleles in our population: Z° (335 bp), Z′ (331 bp) and Z″ (330 bp). Normal (Z°Z°) males showed one band in agarose gel analysis and were easily differentiated from females (Z°W), which showed two bands. However, males heterozygous for CHD‐Z alleles (Z′Z″) unexpectedly showed two bands in a pattern similar to females. While the Z′ and Z″ fragments contained only short deletions, they annealed together during the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process and formed heteroduplex molecules that were similar in size to the W fragment. Errors previously reported for molecular sex‐assignment have usually been due to allelic dropout, causing females to be misidentified as males. Here, we report evidence that events in PCRs can lead to the opposite error, with males misidentified as females. We recommend use of multiple primer sets and large samples of known‐sex birds for validation when designing protocols for molecular sex analysis.


Cesarean section (CS) is now the most common major surgical procedure performed on women worldwide. A quarter of deliveries in Spain are performed by cesarean section. With the increasing rates of the operation, there is the need to use evidence-based techniques to optimize outcomes and minimize complications. The goal of this study is to employ a well-designed randomized controlled trial to evaluate the intraoperative blood loss of two surgical techniques for cesarean section, the Pelosi-type and the modified Misgav-Ladach. The trial will take place in Hospital Universitari de Girona Dr. Josep Trueta From 2014 to 2015, 512 pregnant women undergoing delivery by their first lower segment cesarean section in this center will be selected through a consecutive nonprobability sampling. We will collect the main obstetrical characteristics, intraoperative outcomes, short-term outcomes for the baby and postoperative outcomes. We will evaluate the intraoperative blood loss by comparing the changes in hemoglobin levels, pre and postoperatively. Patients will be followed during the postoperative period and in a two-week postoperative appointment. We will analyze the continuous variables, such as the differences in hemoglobin levels, using an unpaired two-sided Student's t-test, while for the categorical variables Fischer's exact test will be used


The sources of noise in ultraviolet (UV), visible, and near-infrared (NIR) interferograms acquired with silicon and germanium diodes as well as photomultiplier tube (PMT) detectors have been investigated. Similar conditions were used with each detector so that noises could be compared with minimal bias. Interferograms were produced from tungsten and deuterium lamps as well as an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Data were collected from two instruments; a Mattson Sirius 100 UV/Vis spectrometer, and a Chelsea Instruments FT 500. The signal was the average of 4 to 100 interferograms, while the standard deviation of the data was the noise. In addition to the average and the standard deviation, which are the first two moments of the frequency distribution, the third moment (known as skew) was employed to analyze the symmetry of noise distributions.


The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a major obstacle for the majority of municipalities in developing countries because of the impacts related to the landfilling of waste. Garbage is an energy-rich material. As a result, energy recovery is considered to be a sustainable waste management method. In Morocco, 7.4 million tons are produced annually; most of the waste is landfilled without any recovery despite the impacts related to this method of disposal. The objective of this chapter is to characterize combustible fractions (RDF) from household waste in Morocco and to study the economic and environmental benefits of their use as alternative fuels in cement kilns. The results of this research show that the combustible fractions contained in household waste in Morocco constitute a potential sustainable energy source with a high lower calorific value (4454 kcal/kg). The study of the advantages of co-incineration shows that the substitution of pet coke by 15% RDF reduces the pollution linked to gaseous emissions. In addition, the cement plant can make financial savings 389 USD/h by minimizing the use of fossil fuels.


Re‐integrative shaming has been a central, but by no means uncontroversial principle of restorative practices within the youth justice system. This paper draws on video data from a creative writing project with young offenders in the context of individuated restorative justice programmes. It presents material from work with a young female offender who has been caught up in violent family relations, committed violent offences and whose fantasy life is also permeated by images of violence. Within an on‐going conversation with a local poet she finds a symbolic form to symbolise destructive sides of the self. The inter‐subjective recognition within the poetry‐writing sessions takes place in a context where the tendency to institutionalised shaming embedded in the youth justice system is temporarily suspended. The paper considers the potential of such processes to facilitate moral learning by fostering guilt, concern and the wish to make reparation.


Highly accurate spherical near-field measurement systems require precise alignment of the probe antenna to the measurement surface. MI Technologies has designed and constructed a new spherical near field arch positioner with a 1.5 meter radius to support measurements requiring accurate knowledge of the probe phase center to within .0064 cm throughout its range of travel. To achieve this level of accuracy, several key design elements were considered. First, a highly robust mechanical design was considered and implemented. Second, a tracking laser interferometer system was included in the system for characterization of residual errors in the position of the probe. Third, a position control system was implemented that would automatically correct for the residual errors. The scanner includes a two position automated probe changer for automated measurements of multi-band antennas and a high accuracy azimuth axis. The azimuth axis includes an algorithm for correcting residual, repeatable positioning errors. This paper defines the spherical near-field system and relation of each axis to the global coordinate system, discusses their associated error sources and the effect on global positioning and presents achieved highly accurate results.


The international aviation and maritime sectors today enjoy relatively favorable tax treatment, as their fuels are not taxed and the sectors are not subject to any value-added tax or turnover tax. Nor are these fuel uses subject to any global measures to reduce their associated CO2 emissions, even though they represent at least 5 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon charge on fuels for international aviation and shipping equal to $25 per tonne of emitted CO2 could raise about $12 billion from aviation and about $26 billion from shipping by 2020. Market-based instruments ought to be used to raise such revenue, preferably charges based on the carbon contents of fuels. Such charges would also scale back emissions by at least 5-10 percent. Developing countries ought to be able to keep their own tax revenue, and additional compensation to them for the economic burdens of these carbon charges may be warranted. Such compensation would constitute at most 40 percent of the raised global revenue. Implementing these charges can be a challenge, especially for aviation, where a large number of bilateral air-service agreements would need to be rewritten.


With the growing popularity of social networks and collaboration systems, people are increasingly working with or socially connected with each other. Unified messaging system provides a single interface for users to receive and process information from multiple sources. It is highly desirable to design attention management solution that can help users easily navigate and process dozens of unread messages from a unified message system. Moreover, with the proliferation of mobile devices people are now selectively consuming the most important messages on the go between different activities in their daily life. The information overload problem is especially acute for mobile users with small screen to display. In this paper, we present \PAM, an intelligent end-to-end Personalized Attention Management solution that employs analytical techniques that can learn user interests and organize and prioritize incoming messages based on user interests. For a list of unread messages, \PAM generates a concise attention report that allows users to quickly scan the important new messages from his important social connections as well as messages about his most important tasks that the user is involved with. Our solution can also be applied in other applications such as news filtering and alerts on mobile devices. Our evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of \PAM.


Background: Transtibial (TT) or tibial inlay (TI) techniques are commonly used for posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (PCLR). However, the optimum method for PCLR after PCL injury remains debatable. Hypothesis/Purpose: The hypothesis was that TT and TI techniques would not show significant differences for all outcome measures. The purpose was to determine the biomechanical and clinical outcomes of TT and TI surgical techniques for PCLR. Study Design: Meta-analysis; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, and SCOPUS electronic databases for articles published up until August 2016 were searched to find relevant articles comparing outcomes of TT versus TI techniques for PCLR. Data searching, extraction, analysis, and quality assessment were performed according to Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Biomechanical outcomes and clinical outcomes of both techniques were compared. Results are presented as risk ratio (RR) for binary outcomes and weighted mean difference (WMD) for continuous outcomes with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Five biomechanical and 5 clinical studies were included. No significant biomechanical differences were found regarding posterior tibial translation (PTT) at a knee flexion angle of 90° or PTT after cyclic loading between the 2 groups. However, a stronger in situ force in the graft was detected in the TT group (WMD = 15.58; 95% CI, 0.22-30.95; I2 = 10%). Although no significant differences were found in clinical outcomes such as Lysholm knee function score, Tegner activity score, side-to-side difference, or posterior drawer test at final follow-up between the 2 groups, the TT technique tended to entail fewer perioperative complications than the TI technique (RR = 0.60; 95% CI, 0.35-1.00; I2 = 0%). Conclusion: TT and TI techniques for PCLR can both restore normal knee kinematics and improve knee function. However, the issue of which yields better improvement in stability and functional recovery of the knee remains unclear. More high-quality trials and randomized controlled trials are needed. Although PCLR via the TT technique resulted in higher graft forces, determining whether this is clinically significant will require further studies. When performing the TI technique, surgeons should inform patients of the risk of complications.


Corpus-assisted analyses of public discourse often focus on the lexical level. This article argues in favour of corpus-assisted analyses of discourse, but also in favour of conceptualising salient lexical items in public discourse in a more determined way. It draws partly on non-Anglophone academic traditions in order to promote a conceptualisation of discourse keywords, thereby highlighting how their meaning is determined by their use in discourse contexts. It also argues in favour of emphasising the cognitive and epistemic dimensions of discourse-determined semantic structures. These points will be exemplified by means of a corpus-assisted, as well as a frame-based analysis of the discourse keyword financial crisis in British newspaper articles from 2009. Collocations of financial crisis are assigned to a generic matrix frame for 'event' which contains slots that specify possible statements about events. By looking at which slots are more, respectively less filled with collocates of financial crisis, we will trace semantic presence as well as absence, and thereby highlight the pragmatic dimensions of lexical semantics in public discourse. The article also advocates the suitability of discourse keyword analyses for systematic contrastive analyses of public/political discourse and for lexicographical projects that could serve to extend the insights drawn from corpus-guided approaches to discourse analysis.


OBJECTIVE
To synthesize findings from the published empirical literature on parent satisfaction with care provided in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

DATA SOURCES
Electronic databases including CINAHL, Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts, the Cochrane Library, and the Campbell Library were searched for relevant research dating from January 1990 to the beginning of October 2011. The reference lists of all studies were reviewed and the personal files of the authors were also searched for relevant studies.

STUDY SELECTION
Twelve studies (nine quantitative descriptive, two qualitative descriptive, and one mixed methods) were identified that met the review inclusion criteria. Only studies written in English were selected.

DATA EXTRACTION
Whittemore and Knafl's methodology for integrative reviews guided the data extraction and subsequent analysis. Studies meeting the review inclusion criteria were analyzed sequentially. Data were extracted and organized under the following headings: author, year, and country; study purpose and design; sample size and setting; study variables and data collection; study findings; and limitations.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Studies examining parent satisfaction with the care provided in the NICU were synthesized under four main themes: (a) parents' degree of satisfaction with care, (b) factors associated with parents' satisfaction with care, (c) elements of care parents view as important, and (d) discrepancies between parent expectations and actual ratings of care.

CONCLUSIONS
The vast majority of parents were highly satisfied with the care they and their infants received in the NICU. However, other evidence points to less-than-optimal NICU care that is not meeting parents' expectations. These findings provide some direction as to what is important and satisfying to parents whose children must reside in the NICU. However, given the quality and dearth of the evidence, gaps remain in our understanding, and additional, more rigorous research is needed.


Climate Change Policies sheds light on the foundations, design and effects of climate change policies. Written by leading international experts in the field, this book deals with the various economic effects from climate change policies introduced at national and international levels. It also expertly describes actual applications of climate change policies in the main emitting countries. This insightful study includes chapters on public policies and climate change impacts, adaptation, mitigation, effects on competitiveness, new technologies, distributional concerns, and the international dimension.


Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China, 1843-1949, by Wen-hsin Yeh. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. xiv + 305 pp. US$39.95/£23.95 (hardcover). Mediasphere Shanghai:The Aesthetics of Cultural Production, by Alexander Des Forges. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007. xii + 278 pp. US$55.00 (hardcover). The two books under review complement each other. Both focus on the production of Shanghai modernity in the early 20th century, concurring that efforts to position Shanghai as an international city today should be grounded in its past. Both break away from established discourses that see Shanghai as a colonial product, firmly locating their discussions instead within the distinct time-space that is Shanghai. To this end, both examine the quotidian, delving into the lives of the petty urbanites (xiao shimin) and exploring parallel themes of space, time, hybridity and modernity. Yet the two books are also different. Yeh's book approaches the central question from an economic perspective, while Des Forges' is essentially a literary critique of Chinese fiction. In many ways, the material that Yeh discusses forms the wider context in which Des Forges constructs his thesis. In economic terms, while Yeh offers a macro view of the historical production of Shanghai modernity, Des Forges provides us with a micro inspection of the same process through cultural products consumed by the petty urbanites of the city. Yeh's book is an historical study of the rise of an economic culture in modern China. It focuses on the "aspirations and frustrations" (p. ix) of Shanghai's middle class within the frame of economism, what Yeh refers to as a "discursive arena" (p. 2) in which critical socio-political transformations were negotiated. The book demonstrates how this new economic culture was constructed through the cultivation of an ethic of hard work and the promise of material comforts, offering the nuclear family as an alternative to patrilines and emphasizing patriotism to the nation. It then traces how these middle-class values were revised in the chaos of the 1930s to accommodate a paternalistic state in anticipation of the 1949 Communist takeover. More importantly, she demonstrates how the construction and everyday practice of specific forms of economic sentiment created the ideological conditions that shaped pre- 1949 Shanghai as a unique cultural place. Arranged chronologically, there are seven chapters in the book, including an Introduction and an Epilogue. The empirical evidence presented is broad-ranging, and draws material from the city's banking sector, accounting practices, department stores and publishing industry. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the construction of a middle-class respectability by an emerging economic elite in cooperation with the state. Chapter 3 shifts to a discussion about a visual culture fueled by commercial wealth, that emphasized display, visibility and an inherent tension between the foreign and the domestic. Chapters 4 and 5 investigate how economism is etched into the everyday lives of the salaried urbanites as they are disciplined in the rules of modernity through pedagogical devices like the implementation of measured time in everyday work lives and the structuring of residences into company compounds (Chapter 4), as well as through business journals (Chapter 5). Chapter 6 studies how left-wing journals revised the culture of commercialism while Chapter 7 focuses on employee activism on the eve of the Communist takeover. The Epilogue concludes with a discussion of how history is revised to justify the state's new goals of development in the 1990s. Although Yeh's discussion is captivating in its detail and the breadth of the topic, it is disconcerting to read. …


The 650 km 3 rhyolitic Bishop Tuff (eastern California, USA), which is stratigraphically zoned with respect to temperatures of mineral equilibration, refl ects a corresponding thermal gradient in the source magma chamber. Consistent with previous work, application of the new TitaniQ (Ti-in-quartz) thermometer to quartz phenocryst rims documents an ~100 °C temperature increase with chamber depth at the time of eruption. Application of TitaniQ to quartz phenocryst cores, however, reveals lower temperatures and an earlier gradient that was less steep, with temperature increasing with depth by only ~30 °C. In many late-erupted crystals, sharp boundaries that separate low-temperature cores from high-temperature rims cut internal cathodoluminescent growth zoning, indicating partial phenocryst dissolution prior to crystallization of the high-temperature rims. Rimward jumps in Ti concentration across these boundaries are too abrupt (e.g., 40 ppm across a distance of <10 µm) to have survived magmatic temperatures for more than ~100 yr. We interpret these observations to indicate heating-induced partial dissolution of quartz, followed by growth of high-temperature rims (made possible by lowering of water activity due to addition of CO 2 ) within 100 yr of the climactic 760 ka eruption. Hot mafi c melts injected into deeper parts of the magma system were the likely source of heat and CO 2 , raising the possibility that eruption and caldera collapse owe their origin to a recharge event.


In the social sciences, networks are used to represent relationships between social actors, be they individuals or aggregates. The structural importance of these actors is assessed in terms of centrality indices which are commonly defined as graph invariants. Many such indices have been proposed, but there is no unifying theory of centrality. Previous attempts at axiomatic characterization have been focused on particular indices, and the conceptual frameworks that have been proposed alternatively do not lend themselves to mathematical treatment. We show that standard centrality indices, although seemingly distinct, can in fact be expressed in a common framework based on path algebras. Since, as a consequence, all of these indices preserve the neighbourhood-inclusion pre-order, the latter provides a conceptually clear criterion for the definition of centrality indices.


INTRODUCTION The patient presenting with weakness and wasting of one limb, usually the arm, can be a considerable diagnostic challenge for the neurologist. While the spectre of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis form of motor neuron disease (ALS/MND) is often in the clinician's mind, there is also a significant differential diagnosis to be considered. While this article discusses a number of well-known conditions that should be in the differential diagnosis, I will focus particularly on a lesser known condition, Hirayama's Disease (also known as Sobue Disease in North America), that is only rarely seen in European populations and may therefore be less familiar to neurologists outside Japan and India. Monomelic amyotrophy or 'juvenile non-progressive amyotrophy of the upper limb' is rarely encountered in the general neurology clinics but it may be under diagnosed. Previously thought to be restricted to Japan and South Asia, it is now clear that this condition does


Because visuals play a significant communicative role in the majority of texts in the sciences, a theory of the role of verbal-visual interaction in the creation and communication of meaning would seem a useful addition to the exegetical armamentarium. This paper offers such a theory, Dual Coding Theory (DCT), borrowed from cognitive psychology but adapted to exegesis. An analysis of Lavoisier's final geological memoir, an analysis grounded in this theory, is designed to illustrate DCT's utility. In my conclusion, I take note of the fact that in a wide variety of contemporary media meaning is also largely the product of verbal-visual interaction.


This report describes a study done as a masters thesis during 1998
within the Complex Operations Laboratory (COL) at SICS.

The report describes a vehicle routing and scheduling problem occurring
in the planning of rail traffic at the Swedish State Railways (SJ).
The report contains a comprehensive description of the problem and
describes several techniques that can be used to address the problem:

Constraint Programming with a particular model (due to Helmut Simonis)
of the routing problem. This model requires an efficient implementation
of a particular called global constraint: the geometric diffn constraint.
A propagation algorithm for a 2-dimensional version of this constraint
is outlined in the report.

The use of insertion heuristics to solve this class of problems have
been in general use for some time. And adaption and evaluation of
some of these heuristics are also analyzed in the report.


'Arnold Bennett was born in a street called Hope Street. A street less hopeful it would be hard to imagine'. Thus begins Margaret Drabble's biography of a man whose most famous achievement was to re-create, in such novels as "The Old Wives' Tale" and "Clayhanger", the life, atmosphere and character of the 'Five Towns' region in which he was born and grew up. "Arnold Bennett" is a very personal book. 'What interests me', writes the author, 'is Bennett's background, his childhood and origins, for they are very similar to my own. My mother's family came from the Potteries, and the Bennett novels seem to me to portray a way of life that still existed when I was a child, and indeed persists in certain areas. So like all books this has been partly an act of self-exploration'. Of Bennett as a writer Drabble says 'The best books I think are very fine indeed, on the highest level, deeply moving, original and dealing with material that I had never before encountered in fiction, but only in life: I feel they have been underrated, and my response to them is so constant, even after years of work on them and constant re-readings, that I want to communicate enthusiasm'. Of Bennett as a man she paints an affectionate portrait, not glossing over the irritability, dyspepsia and rigidity which at times made him so difficult a companion but reminding us too of his honesty, kindliness and sensitivity. 'Many a time', she writes at the end of the book, 're-reading a novel, reading a letter or a piece of his Journal, I have wanted to shake his hand, or to thank him, to say well done. I have written this instead'.


Goal-oriented dialogue systems typically rely on components specifically developed for a single task or domain. This limits such systems in two different ways: If there is an update in the task domain, the dialogue system usually needs to be updated or completely re-trained. It is also harder to extend such dialogue systems to different and multiple domains. The dialogue state tracker in conventional dialogue systems is one such component - it is usually designed to fit a well-defined application domain. For example, it is common for a state variable to be a categorical distribution over a manually-predefined set of entities (Henderson et al., 2013), resulting in an inflexible and hard-to-extend dialogue system. In this paper, we propose a new approach for dialogue state tracking that can generalize well over multiple domains without incorporating any domain-specific knowledge. Under this framework, discrete dialogue state variables are learned independently and the information of a predefined set of possible values for dialogue state variables is not required. Furthermore, it enables adding arbitrary dialogue context as features and allows for multiple values to be associated with a single state variable. These characteristics make it much easier to expand the dialogue state space. We evaluate our framework using the widely used dialogue state tracking challenge data set (DSTC2) and show that our framework yields competitive results with other state-of-the-art results despite incorporating little domain knowledge. We also show that this framework can benefit from widely available external resources such as pre-trained word embeddings.


This paper describes a software infrastructure made up of tools and libraries designed to assist developers in implementing computational dynamics applications running on heterogeneous and distributed computing environments. Together, these tools and libraries compose a so called Heterogeneous Computing Template (HCT). The underlying theme of the solution approach embraced by HCT is that of partitioning the domain of interest into a number of sub-domains that are each managed by a separate core/accelerator (CPU/GPU) pair. The five components at the core of HCT, which ultimately enable the distributed/heterogeneous computing approach to largescale dynamical system simulation, are as follows: (a) a method for the geometric domain decomposition; (b) methods for proximity computation or collision detection; (c) support for moving data within the heterogeneous hardware ecosystem to mirror the migration of simulation elements from subdomain to subdomain; (d) parallel numerical methods for solving the specific dynamics problem of interest; and (e) tools for performing visualization and post-processing in a


This thesis focuses on energy recovery system design and energy integration to improve the energy efficiency of process plants. The objectives of this work are to (a) develop a systematic methodology based on thermodynamic principles to integrate energy intensive processes and (b) develop a mathematical programming based approach using thermodynamics and insight for solving industrial sized HENS problems. A novel energy integration methodology, Energy Level Composite Curves (ELCC), has been developed that is a synergy of Exergy Analysis and Composite Curves. ELCC is a graphical tool which provides the engineer with insights on energy integration and this work represents the first methodological attempt to represent thermal, mechanical and chemical energy in a graphical form similar to composite curves for the thermal integration of energy intensive processes. This method provides physical insight to integrate energy sources with sinks. The methodology is useful as a screening tool, functioning as an idea generator prior to the heat and power integration step. A simple energy targeting algorithm is developed to obtain utility targets. The ELCC was applied to a methanol plant to show the efficacy of the methodology. The Sequential Framework, an iterative and sequential methodology for Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis (HENS), is presented in this thesis. The main objective of the Sequential Framework is to solve industrial size problems. The subtasks of the design process are solved sequentially using Mathematical Programming. There are two main advantages of the methodology. First, the design procedure is, to a large extent, automated while keeping significant user interaction. Second, the subtasks of the framework (MILP and NLP problems) are much easier to solve numerically than the MINLP models that have been suggested for HENS. Application of the Sequential Framework to literature examples showed that the methodology generated solutions with total annualized costs lower than those presented in the literature. The examples showed the efficiency of the Sequential Framework in that even though there a four nested loops in the framework, the "best" solution is reached within a few iterations. This is primarily due to the capability of the stream match generator to identify superior Heat Load Distributions (HLDs) leading to low total heat transfer area and low Total Annualized Cost. The three sub-problems in the Sequential Framework, minimum number of units (MILP model), stream match generator ("vertical" MILP model) and network generation and optimization (NLP model), are described with details on their formulation. In the minimum number of units sub-problem, it is shown that stream supply temperature are sufficient to define temperature intervals. The importance and role of Exchanger Minimum Approach Temperature (EMAT) in the stream match generator model is shown and motivated the addition of an EMAT loop in the Sequential Framework. One of the limiting factors in the methodology is related to the computational complexity of the two MILP sub-problems where significant improvements are required to prevent combinatorial explosion. To ease this problem for the minimum number of units MILP sub-problem, it is modified to reduce the gap using physical insights and heuristics. Another novel approach tested was to reformulate some parts of the model by use of some ideas from set partitioning problems. Results show that even though both methods succeed in tightening the LP relaxation, the model solution times remain too long to overcome the size in the Sequential Framework. A problem difficulty indicator is explored to identify computationally expensive problems prior to solution. For the stream match generator MILP sub-problem, the model is modified to reduce the gap using physical insights. The objective is changed to include binary variables and priorities were set for these variables. Though these modifications showed improvement in solution time, orders of magnitude improvement are required to solve large models. Another limiting factor in the methodology is that the network generation and optimization sub-problem is formulated as a non-convex NLP leading to local optima. Clever starting value generators based on physical insight were developed to mitigate this issue.


A phosphoramidite modi fi ed [FeFe]H 2 ase mimic is studied as a model for photodriven production of H 2 . On cathodic activation, the pyridyl – phosphoramidite complex exhibits a strongly enhanced rate of proton reduction over the previously reported pyridylphosphine model at the same overpotential. Analysis of the cyclic voltammograms shows an apparent H 2 evolution rate strongly in fl uenced by the presence of both side-bound pyridyl and phosphorous-bound dimethylamino moieties at the phosphoramidite ligands. This di ff erence is ascribed to the basic amines acting as proton relays. the light emission of ZnTPP in the presence of an increasing amount of 2 . Instead of static quenching by electron transfer, a red shift of the emission was observed which can be assigned to emission of the assembly 2 ·ZnTPP. Preliminary photocatalytic experiments using this system led, in all cases , to decomposition of the catalyst with evolution of 0.5 equivalents of H 2 with respect to the catalyst.


Topological insulators (TIs) are materials that have a bulk electronic band gap like an ordinary insulator but have protected conducting states on their surface. One of the most interesting properties of TIs is their spin helicity, whereby the spin is locked normal to the wave vector of the surface electronic state. The topological surface states should be very stable in TIs, since these spin-textured surface states are robust against spin-independent backscattering. Scattering from defects and other lattice imperfections is possible provided the spin is not completely flipped. However, the quality of TI crystals can be controlled by careful growth, whereas phonons will exist in even the most perfect crystals. Consequently, electron-phonon coupling (EPC) should be the dominant scattering mechanism for surface electronic states at finite temperatures. Hence, the study of EPC in TIs is of exceptional importance in assessing any potential applications. In this article both experimental and theoretical studies of the EPC on the surface of TIs are reviewed, with the contents mainly focused on the typical strong three dimensional TIs, such as Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3.


Serum sodium concentration is the clinical index of systemic water balance. Although disordered water balance is common and morbid, little is known about genetic effects on serum sodium concentration at the population level. Prior studies addressed only participants of European descent and either failed to demonstrate significant heritability or showed only modest effect. We investigated heritability of serum sodium concentration in large cohorts reflecting a range of races/ethnicities, including the Framingham Heart Study (FHS, non-Hispanic Caucasian), the Heredity and Phenotype Intervention Heart Study (HAPI, Amish Caucasian), the Jackson Heart Study (JHS, African American), the Strong Heart Family Study (SHFS, American Indian), and the Genetics of Kidney Disease in Zuni Indians Study (GKDZI, American Indian). Serum sodium was transformed for the osmotic effect of glucose, and participants with markedly elevated glucose or reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were excluded. Using a standard variance components method, incorporating covariates of age, glucose, and eGFR, we found heritability to be high in African American and American Indian populations and much more modest in non-Hispanic Caucasian populations. Estimates among females increased after stratification on sex and were suggestive among female participants in FHS (0.18 ± 0.12, P = 0.057) and male participants in JHS (0.24 ± 0.16, P = 0.067) and statistically significant among female participants in JHS (0.44 ± 0.09, P = 1 × 10 ⁻⁷), SHFS (0.59 ± 0.05, P = 9.4 × 10⁻⁴⁶), and GKDZI (0.46 ± 0.15, P = 1.7 × 10⁻⁴), and male participants in HAPI (0.18 ± 0.12, P = 0.03) and SHFS (0.67 ± 0.07, P = 5.4 × 10⁻²⁶). Exclusion of diuretic users increased heritability among females and was significant in all cohorts where data were available. In aggregate, these data strongly support the heritability of systemic water balance and underscore sex and ethnicity-specific effects.


Parallel processing is an organizing principle of many neural circuits. In the retina, parallel neuronal pathways process signals from rod and cone photoreceptors and support vision over a wide range of light levels. Toward this end, rods and cones form triad synapses with dendrites of distinct bipolar cell types, and the axons or dendrites, respectively, of horizontal cells (HCs). The molecular cues that promote the formation of specific neuronal pathways remain largely unknown. Here, we discover that developing and mature HCs express the leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing protein netrin-G ligand 2 (NGL-2). NGL-2 localizes selectively to the tips of HC axons, which form reciprocal connections with rods. In mice with null mutations in Ngl-2 (Ngl-2−/−), many branches of HC axons fail to stratify in the outer plexiform layer (OPL) and invade the outer nuclear layer. In addition, HC axons expand lateral territories and increase coverage of the OPL, but establish fewer synapses with rods. NGL-2 can form transsynaptic adhesion complexes with netrin-G2, which we show to be expressed by photoreceptors. In Ngl-2−/− mice, we find specific defects in the assembly of presynaptic ribbons in rods, indicating that reverse signaling of complexes involving NGL-2 regulates presynaptic maturation. The development of HC dendrites and triad synapses of cone photoreceptors proceeds normally in the absence of NGL-2 and in vivo electrophysiology reveals selective defects in rod-mediated signal transmission in Ngl-2−/− mice. Thus, our results identify NGL-2 as a central component of pathway-specific development in the outer retina.


Although the practice of military conscription was widespread during most of the past century, credible evidence on the effects of mandatory service is limited. Angrist (1990) showed that the Vietnam-era draft in the U.S. lowered the early-career wages of conscripts, a finding he attributed to the low value of military experience. More recent studies have found a mixed pattern of effects, with both negative (the Netherlands) and positive (in Sweden) earnings impacts. Even among Vietnam era draftees, Angrist and Chen (2011) find that the net effect on earnings by age 50 is close to zero. We provide new evidence on the long-term impacts of peacetime conscription in a "low education" labor market, using longitudinal data for Portuguese men born in 1967. These men were inducted at a relatively late age (21), allowing us to use pre- conscription wages as a control for potential ability differences between conscripts and non- conscripts. Our estimates of the average impact of military service for men who had entered the labor market by age 21 are slightly positive (1-2 percent) but not significantly different from zero throughout the period from 2 to 20 years after their service. These small average effects arise from a significantly positive later-life impact for men with only primary education, coupled with a zero-effect for men with higher education. The positive impacts for less-educated men suggest that mandatory service can be a valuable experience for poorly-educated men who might otherwise spend their careers in low-level jobs.


The objective of this study was to investigate elements of the personal and psychiatric history, as well as the challenges related to motherhood, of a young schizophrenic female, through person-centered therapeutic interaction. The investigation had an exploratory scope, undertaken in a teaching hospital and data were collected during nondirective interaction on the part of the nurse with a young schizophrenic woman who had been treated in the institution for 10 years. Thematic analysis of the content was undertaken, with emphasis on the nuclei of meaning, identification of the themes and definition of the categories. The patient, called L. in this study, was 30 years old, had a two-year-old child and was three months pregnant when data were collected. Her trajectory was characterized by doubts, fears and uncertainties. The episodes of hospitalization, the coexistence with other patients, and the medications promoted insight into the symptoms, and acceptance of the diagnosis. The main challenge was experiencing pregnancy and the puerperium concomitantly with the psychiatric treatment. The interpersonal relationship established evidenced that, the young woman felling understood and that her needs were attended, overcame several difficulties she had reported and felt fulfilled and integrated into her social environment.


The MAYORAL ADMINISTRATION OF ANTHONY J. CELEBREZZE (1953-62) came at a time when Cleveland's post-World War II prosperity was beginning to decline and employment and housing problems began to surface. Celebrezze received his law degree from Ohio Northern Univ. in 1936, and after working on the legal staff of the Ohio Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, opened a law office in Cleveland in 1939 and practiced for 13 years. Interested in politics, Celebrezze was elected to the Ohio senate in 1950. Although reelected to the senate in 1952, he chose to run for mayor of Cleveland in 1953 as an independent Democrat. Supported by Ohio governor FRANK LAUSCHE, CLEVELAND PRESS editor LOUIS SELTZER, and retiring mayor THOMAS BURKE, he was elected to the first of 5 terms, easily defeating ALBERT PORTER in the primaries, and Republican William J. McDermott in the general election. His popularity with Cleveland voters increased with each election, and in 1961 he carried every ward in Cleveland, capturing 73.8% of the total vote. As mayor, Celebrezze organized the Cleveland Seaport Foundation to promote Cleveland as a world trade center. He also supported an $8 million Seaway bond issue, and helped initiate a $140 million urban-renewal program. During his administration, the rapid transit was completed connecting the east and west side, and major progress was made on the freeway system, designed to improve the flow of traffic in the county. With white flight to the SUBURBS, Cleveland's population mix changed, the proportion of AFRICAN AMERICANS increasing from 16.2% to 28.6% in the 1950s. The continuing in-migration of people and freeway building contributed to the shortage of affordable housing and overcrowding in the older neighborhoods, and a net decline in the number of available jobs in the area caused poor-relief costs to soar. To conserve money, the mayor transferred BLOSSOM HILL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, the Hudson Boys Farm, and City Hospital to the county in 1957. Celebrezze resigned as mayor in 1962 to become Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Kennedy-Johnson administrations. In 1965 he was appointed federal judge for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, serving until 1980 when he retired from active service on the bench and assumed senior status. Anthony J. Celebrezze Papers, WRHS.


This paper presents the Global Preference Survey, a globally representative dataset on risk and time preferences, positive and negative reciprocity, altruism, and trust. We collected these preference data as well as a rich set of covariates for 80,000 individuals, drawn as representative samples from 76 countries around the world, representing 90 percent of both the world's population and global income. The global distribution of preferences exhibits substantial variation across countries, which is partly systematic: certain preferences appear in combination, and follow distinct economic, institutional, and geographic patterns. The heterogeneity in preferences across individuals is even more pronounced and varies systematically with age, gender, and cognitive ability. Around the world, our preference measures are predictive of a wide range of individual-level behaviors including savings and schooling decisions, labor market and health choices, prosocial behaviors, and family structure. We also shed light on the cultural origins of preference variation around the globe using data on language structure. JEL classification: D01; D03; F00


Dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) inhibitors are poised to be the next major drug class for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Structure-activity studies of substitutions at the C5 position of the 2-cyanopyrrolidide warhead led to the discovery of potent inhibitors of DPP-IV that lack activity against DPP8 and DPP9. Further modification led to an extremely potent (Ki(DPP)(-)(IV) = 1.0 nM) and selective (Ki(DPP8) > 30 microM; Ki(DPP9) > 30 microM) clinical candidate, ABT-279, that is orally available, efficacious, and remarkably safe in preclinical safety studies.


Australia's rangelands are the extensive arid and semi-arid grazing lands that cover approximately 70% of the Australian continent. They are characterised by low and generally variable rainfall, low productivity and a sparse population. They support a number of industries including mining and tourism, but pastoralism is the primary land use.

In some areas, the rangelands have a history of biological decline (Noble 1997), with erosion, loss of perennial native grasses and incursion of woody vegetation commonly reported in the scientific and lay literature. Despite our historic awareness of these trends, the establishment of systems to measure and monitor degradation, has presented numerous problems. The size and accessibility of Australia's rangeland often mitigates development of extensive monitoring programs. So, too, securing on-going commitment from Government agencies to fund rangeland monitoring activities have led to either abandonment or a scaled-down approach in some instances (Graetz et al. 1986; Holm 1993). While a multiplicity of monitoring schemes have been developed for landholders at the property scale, and some have received promising initial uptake, relatively few have been maintained for more than a few years on any property without at least some agency support (Pickup et al. 1998). But, ironically, such property level monitoring tools can contribute significantly to local decisions about stock, infrastructure and sustainability.

Research in recent decades has shown the value of satellites for monitoring change in rangelands (Wallace et al. 2004), especially in terms of tree and ground cover. While steadily improving, use of satellite data as a monitoring tool has been limited by the cost of the imagery, and the equipment and expertise needed to extract useful information from it. A project now under way in the northern rangelands of Australia is attempting to circumvent many of the problems through a monitoring system that allows property managers to use long-term satellite image sequences to quickly and inexpensively track changes in land cover on their properties


Lower extremity skeletal muscle of 22 individuals (five normal volunteers and 17 patients with muscular or neuromuscular diseases) was studied with magnetic resonance imaging. Axial images generated with spin-echo pulse sequences using short repetition times (500-900 msec TR) and short echo times (30-60 msec TE) provided excellent contrast between fat (high signal intensity) and muscle (intermediate signal intensity). Seventeen patients with clinically verified muscle disorders were evaluated in a manner similar to the normal volunteers. Conditions studied include Duchenne muscular dystrophy (three patients), limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (five), facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (three), and spinal muscular atrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hereditary sensorimotor neuropathy, cerebral palsy, poliomyelitis, and Kearn-Sayre mitochondrial muscle disease (one each). General patterns of muscle abnormality were common among the diseases and included decreased or increased muscle size and a spectrum of muscle replacement by fat. Variable patterns were observed within disease groups and for each patient. Much phosphorus-31 spectroscopy has been performed in a blind fashion with no proton map of normal/abnormal muscle distribution to guide the spectroscopist. This study emphasizes the worth of having a muscle proton map of patients with muscle dysfunction to assure that meaningful phosphorus spectroscopic information is obtained from a volume of tissue limited to an appropriate muscle.


Results of a study into revision skills of 32 elementary school pupils (grades 5-6) are presented. A further analysis is given based upon concrete revisions these students have carried out and on their verbalizations during the process. The experimental task consisted of revising a given expository text supposedly written by a fellow student, but in fact composed on the basis of several texts written by students of the same age. Subjects were asked to think aloud and were specifically asked to evaluate each part of the text to be revised. When problems were detected a diagnosis and suggestions for improvement had to be given. Finally subjects dictated their revision to the experimenter.The analysis aims at the question what specific difficulties in the revision process might explain the virtual absence of revision activity at the level of communicative content in students' normal writing behaviour. Based upon a model of the revision process by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) some explanations are explored. This so-called CDO-model (Compare, Diagnose, Operate) suggests that writers go through a recursive process in which the three components are the most important cognitive steps.Although the results of the study show that most students do possess the necessary skills to carry out each of the steps (under experimental conditions designed to facilitate the revision process), it is also shown that the students still have an inadequate concept of the task. More specifically, their awareness of the consequences of changing parts of a text for surrounding parts is limited, and the students are not inclined to check these consequences mentally before carrying out a final revision. This explains why the students were rather successful in detecting problems in a text, diagnosing them and eliminating them, but at the same time introduced new problems (both at the level of communicative content and formal aspects of usage). Some implications for teaching writing at the elementary level are discussed.


Orbital injury is common and the diagnosis can be challenging for the oral and maxillofacial surgeon called to perform an emergency
room assessment. The approach to the patient with orbital trauma is complicated by a wide range of potential ocular and brain injuries
with varying pathophysiology. The impact causing orbital injuries are often much greater than those that cause purely ocular injury,
hence adjacent non ocular structures like nose, paranasal sinuses, midface and jaw, and brain are also commonly injured. Because of
this, extensive orbital trauma is best managed by a multidisciplinary team, on which neurosurgery and ophthalmology must be
represented.


ABSTRACT Background . Orofacialanomalies are anatomical and physiological abnormalities in the structure of organs in the face which are present since birth. Previous studies found that 40-60% the cause of birth defects was unclear. Objective . To determine the risk factors for orofacial congenital anomalies in neonates. Methods . Retrospective observational study using case-control design based on medical records within January 2009-June 2013 in Kariadi Hospital was done. Subjects were selected by purposive sampling and simple randomize sampling. Risk factors studied were risky maternal age, intrauterine infection, lack of folic acid supplementation, low antenatal care and family history of orofacial anomalies. Statistical analysis were using Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and unpaired t-test. Results . Subjects were 48 neonates, which 24 of them with orofacial anomalies. We found that significant factors of orofacialanomalies occurrence are risky maternal age (p = 0.000; OR = 11.667, 95% CI = 2.696-50.490), intrauterine infection (p = 0.000; OR = 15.400, 95% CI = 2.930-80.951), lack of folic acid supplementation (p = 0.003; OR = 7.000, 95% CI = 1.822-26.887) and low antenatal care (p = 0.000; OR = 38.333, 95% CI = 4.395-334.382) and they become not significant after had multivariate analysis. Conclusion . Maternal age, intrauterine infection, lack of folic acid supplementation and low antenatal care are risk factors for orofacial anomalies in neonates Keywords: orofacialanomalies, risk factor


Abstract We evaluate a knockdown-replacement strategy mediated by mirtrons as an alternative to allele-specific silencing using spinocerebellar ataxia 7 (SCA7) as a model. Mirtrons are introns that form pre-microRNA hairpins after splicing, producing RNAi effectors not processed by Drosha. Mirtron mimics may therefore avoid saturation of the canonical processing pathway. This method combines gene silencing mediated by an artificial mirtron with delivery of a functional copy of the gene such that both elements of the therapy are always expressed concurrently, minimizing the potential for undesirable effects and preserving wild-type function. This mutation- and single nucleotide polymorphism-independent method could be crucial in dominant diseases that feature both gain- and loss-of-function pathologies or have a heterogeneous genetic background. Here we develop mirtrons against ataxin 7 with silencing efficacy comparable to shRNAs, and introduce silent mutations into an ataxin 7 transgene such that it is resistant to their effect. We successfully express the transgene and one mirtron together from a single construct. Hence, we show that this method can be used to silence the endogenous allele of ataxin 7 and replace it with an exogenous copy of the gene, highlighting the efficacy and transferability across patient genotypes of this approach.


We examined the mechanism of norepinephrine's ketogenic activity in normal man. The contribution of norepinephrine's lipolytic activity to the subsequent ketosis was assessed by comparing the degree of ketosis attained during hormone infusion and the degree of ketosis observed after heparin-induced free fatty acid substrate generation. In addition, we examined the effect of norepinephrine infusion on the plasma concentration of other stress hormones (glucagon, cortisol, and growth hormone) with the experimental protocol. The results obtained during norepinephrine infusion into normal man demonstrated that norepinephrine's lipolytic activity was not the principal determinant of its ketogenic activity. In fact, less than 50% of norepinephrine's ketogenic activity could be attributed to the rise in plasma free fatty acid concentration. Furthermore, the ketosis that resulted from plasma norepinephrine elevation may have been a direct hormonal effect at the liver or may have been secondary to the norepinephrine-induced elevation of glucagon and/or suppression of insulin. Our results emphasize the important role that endogenous insulin secretion plays on modulating the ketogenic effects of the stress hormones. Thus, norepinephrine, which suppresses plasma insulin secretion, is markedly ketogenic compared with the normal ketogenic response to glucagon, in spite of the fact that both of these stress hormones may activate ketogenesis via cyclic AMP formation. In conclusion, this study, in concert with a previous study in diabetic man, firmly established norepinephrine as a major ketogenic hormone in man.


Gene expression databases store information about the absolute or relative abundance of gene transcription products in various biological samples, such as cells from a particular tissue in a particular organism, or a particular cell line. These databases allow one to access, select, retrieve and combine for analysis gene expression datasets generated by one's own or other laboratories.

Keywords:

gene expression;
microarrays;
database


The purpose of this study is to identify critical elements that impact the transition of students who return from an alternative program back into their high school. In order to address the purpose of this study the following research questions have been investigated:

a. What are the critical elements that are reported as having impacted students' success or failure in making the transition from an alternative program back into high school?

b. What types of intervention strategies occur when students return to high school from alternative programs?

c. How are students returning from alternative programs achieving in terms of their grades, attendance and behavior?

In this study students and parents, along with administrators, counselors and teachers, share their understandings about the value of interactions and interventions. Their descriptions will help explain why some students achieve success and why some experience failure when they return to high school from an alternative setting.


Severe summer monsoon flooding occurred along the Yangtze River Valley (YRV) in 1998. The heaviest precipitation fell during June 8–23 and July 20–29 and coincided with midtropospheric blocking over northeast Eurasia. An index based on the difference between Okhotsk High and west Pacific Low intensity is developed in this study to quantify blocking; analysis shows that blocking and equatorward displacement of the upper-tropospheric east Asian jet preceded (accompanied) the June (July) period. This suggests that heavy rainfall during each interval was caused by different atmospheric processes. An examination of joint variations in the index and YRV precipitation during 1958–1998 revealed several periods similar to those identified in 1998. However, the exceptional magnitude of the blocking and rainfall during 1998 made the June and July events unique. During June 8–23, blocking collapsed and the jet retreated to its climatological position (approximately 35° N) prior to heavy rainfall occurrence. The background vertical ascent of the jetinduced thermally direct circulation over the YRV was then enhanced by mid-tropospheric shortwave troughs that caused increased coupling between the lowerand upper-tropospheric circulations. In contrast, July 20–29 precipitation increased in response to intensification and anomalous equatorward displacement of the jet to a position just north of the YRV. Diminished mid-tropospheric ridging over central China further strengthened vertical ascent over the YRV. During both periods, the regional circulation acted to enhance tropical moisture transport, which, in turn, aided in precipitation production along the YRV.


This paper tests whether the social information provided by the internet affects the decision to participate in politics. In a field experiment, subjects could choose to sign petitions and donate money to support causes. Participants were randomized into treatment groups that received varying information about how many other people had participated and a control group receiving no social information. Results show that social information has a varying effect according to the numbers provided, which is strongest when there are more than a million other participants, supporting claims about critical mass, and tipping points in political participation.


This article explores patterns of contact between non-resident fathers and their children, and mothers' and fathers' satisfaction with contact arrangements in a nationally representative sample of separated parents in Australia. The data suggest that in Australia more than one third of children whose parents do not live together do not see their fathers, while 17% have daytime-only contact. The levels of contact are a source of dissatisfaction for both mothers and fathers. Although the majority of resident mothers expressed satisfaction with the contact arrangements, 40% reported that they would like to see more father–child contact taking place, while only 5% thought that there was too much contact. By contrast, three quarters of non-resident fathers wanted more contact with their children. That included those who had little or no face-to-face contact with their children, indicating that disengagement did not mean disinterest. The greatest levels of satisfaction for both mothers and fathers were with shared parenting arrangements. The implications for family law and practice are considered.


This project is a visual exploration of a subjective experience of female sensuality within the context of contemporary debates about maternity, the female body, beauty and pleasure in western art. It specifically examines these ideas within the mother-daughter relationship (largely absent in western art) in a domestic setting. The conceptual foundations of the project have been developed through engagement with feminist theorists (Julia Kristeva and Luce Iragaray), feminist revision of art history (Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock) and personal experience, running parallel with a disciplined studio practice.
Employing a sequential narrative, the paintings aim to create a contemporary body of work celebrating the mother-daughter dyad situated within discourses about feminine jouissance and play. The research is informed by art practices from the Renaissance (Giovanni Bellini), from the seventeenth century (Jan Vermeer), from early Modernism (Gustave Courbet, Mary Cassatt, Edouard Vuillard, Suzanne Valadon), and contemporary artists (Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Gerhardt Richter). It seeks to discover possible new ways of representing the female body, specifically the maternal body in relation to the developing girl-child, so as to express a personal and positive idea of pleasure in the female body and its decoration using the tropes of the feminine.
The powerhouse of the project was a search to find a balance between feminism and a diverse and rich maternal heritage. In painting the female figure, the project attempts to create transgressive works which simultaneously honour feminism's core value, the empowering of women, but resist high Modernism's masculine, minimalist, hard-edged exclusion of pattern and a 'decorative' feminine aesthetic. Within the economy of my paintings the maternal body disappears, to become represented symbolically by colour and pattern, celebrating the significance of textural elements - clothing, furnishing fabrics, bedspreads, carpets, wall papers; objects and styles of decoration chosen by the women who created the homes of my childhood and adolescence.
The project seeks to create images of the sensuality of the female body from both a feminine and feminist perspective, acknowledging female pleasure in looking at the female body, distinct from a voyeuristic male desire concerned with conquest or domination. The thesis exhibition is comprised of four series, which follow the daughter's development from the post-infant stage (where the separation of mother and child has recently begun) through to the pre-pubescent stage. Initiated into the rituals of femininity, the daughter gains cache in the world and the promise of sensual pleasure, beyond puberty. The independent gaze of the mother, and her absence in the final series, is an important signal of her psychological independence. In the case of the child, states of absorption or quiet activity, indicate 'flow' without passivity. Both figures are contained within their own interior worlds. If the works create an undercurrent of discomfort in the viewer, an unease at their proximity to this particular quasi-erotic intimacy, this is to be desired.


We identify the economic interests in the United States that have a partisan alignment. We disaggregate corporate and trade association political action committees by economic sector, using the most fine-grained classifications available. We then analyze the campaign contributions to House incumbents from each sector, controlling for the majority party, economic geography, committee membership, and electoral competition. We find wide variation in how economic sectors relate to the parties. More than one third have a clear party tilt, with far more leaning toward Republicans than to Democrats. The remainder have no discernible partisan preference, either giving without reference to party or opportunistically to the majority. Republican-leaning sectors concentrate in particular enterprises, especially natural resources extraction, while most professional service sectors are nonpartisan. Business is not a monolith, to be contrasted with "labor" or "ideological interest groups," but embedded in economic sectors that are more or less politicized in partisan terms.


Ergodic Theory of Numbers is an introduction to the ergodic theory behind common number expansion, like decimal expansions, continued fractions, and many others. However, its aim does not stop there. For undergraduate students with sufficient background knowledge in real analysis and graduate students interested in the area, it is also an introduction to a "dynamical way of thinking." The questions studied here are dynamical as well as number theoretical in nature, and the answers are obtained with the help of ergodic theory. Attention is focused on concepts like measure-preserving, ergodicity, natural extension, induced transformations, and entropy. These concepts are then applied to familiar expansions to obtain old and new results in an elegant and straightforward manner. What it means to be ergodic and the basic ideas behind ergodic theory will be explained along the way. The subjects covered vary from classical to recent, which makes this book appealing to researchers as well as students.


We present two approaches to examine the accuracy of default probability forecasts for different rating grades. In particular, we analyze the respective advantages and disadvantages of the two methods. Also, the effect of independence assumptions is taken into account by modelling latent variables like the asset correlation and dependency in time. Both tests, the Extended Traffic Light Approach as well as an ad hoc normal test work on time-varying default probability forecasts. They are considered with respect to their practical use and potential application in validating default forecasts in credit institutions.


By taking their seats at "whites only" lunch counters across the South in the spring of 1960, African American students not only launched a dramatic new stage in the civil rights movement, they also sparked a national reconsideration of the scope of the constitutional equal protection requirement. The critical constitutional question raised by the sit-in movement was whether the Fourteenth Amendment, which after Brown v. Board of Education (1954) prohibited racial segregation in schools and other state-operated facilities, applied to privately owned accommodations open to the general public. From the perspective of the student protesters, the lunch counter operators, and most of the American public, the question of whether the nondiscriminatory logic of Brown should apply to public accommodations involved a consideration of the role of public accommodations in social life, the dignitary costs of exclusion, and the values served by the protection of private choice and associational rights within the commercial sphere. From the perspective of lawyers, judges, and lawmakers, the relevant question centered on a doctrinal issue that had been under considerable pressure in the two decades preceding the sit-ins: the "state action" requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment. At the time of the sit-ins, many assumed that resolution of the issue demanded a reconsideration of the state action doctrine. Yet, when given the opportunity, neither the Supreme Court, in a series of cases arising from the sit-in protests, nor Congress, in framing the public accommodations provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, took this path. As a matter of official constitutional interpretation, the state action doctrine survived the civil rights movement, modified somewhat but retaining the same basic form it had when the Court first defined it in the late nineteenth century. In this Article, I explain why the sit-in movement, which proved remarkably successful at changing attitudes, practices, and statutes, ultimately failed to change constitutional law. My analysis of the resilience of the state action doctrine draws on recent scholarship on extrajudicial constitutionalism, even as it challenges some of the premises that underlie this scholarship.


This document presents a framework to assist the writers of certificate policies or certification practice statements for participants within public key infrastructures, such as certification authorities, policy authorities, and communities of interest that wish to rely on certificates. In particular, the framework provides a comprehensive list of topics that potentially (at the writer's discretion) need to be covered in a certificate policy or a certification practice statement. This document supersedes RFC 2527.


This paper is focused on deformation monitoring using a Persistent Scatterer Interferometry technique and the interferometric SAR data acquired by the Sentinel-1 satellite of the European Space Agency. The first part of the paper describes the procedure used to process and analyze Sentinel-1 interferometric SAR data. Two main approaches are described. The first one is a simplified Persistent Scatterer Interferometry approach that exploits two key properties of the Sentinel-1 data: the high coherence of the 12-day interferograms and the reduced orbital tube. The second approach is a full Persistent Scatterer Interferometry approach, where a more sophisticate data treatment is employed. The second part of the paper illustrates the results obtained with the two processing approaches. Two case studies are described. The first one concerns landslide detection and monitoring. In this case, the simplified Persistent Scatterer Interferometry approach was used. The second one regards the deformation monitoring of an urban area. In this case, a full Persistent Scatterer Interferometry approach was used.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Squamous cell lung cancer (SQCLC) is the second most common subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has limited therapeutic options. Its development is likely a result of a multistep process in response to chronic tobacco exposure, involving sequential metaplasia, dysplasia and invasive carcinoma. Its complex genomic landscape has recently been revealed but no driver mutations have been validated that could lead to molecularly targeted therapy as have emerged in lung adenocarcinoma. Few preclinical murine models exist for testing and developing novel therapeutics in SQCLC. Areas covered: This review discusses the pathophysiology and molecular underpinnings of SQCLC that have limited the development of animal models. It then explores the advantages and limitations of a variety of existing mouse models and illustrates their potential application in drug discovery and chemoprevention. Expert opinion: There are several challenges in the development of mouse models for SQCLC, such as lack of validated driver genetic alterations, unclear cell of origin, and difficulty in reproducing the sophisticated tumor microenvironment of human disease. Nevertheless, several successful SQCLC murine models have emerged, especially Patient Derived Xenografts (PDXs) and Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMMs). Continued efforts are needed to generate more SQCLC animal models to better understand its carcinogenesis and metastasis and to further test novel therapeutic strategies.


Why are national governments increasingly adopting policies on corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Government CSR policies have been explained either as a means of substituting or supporting (mirroring) domestic political-economic institutions and policies, or as a means for government to promote international competitiveness of domestic businesses. Both sets of explanations see governments as driving CSR policies to meet particular national government goals. Support is found for the thesis that CSR policies are often related to international competitiveness, yet our findings suggest that government goals in this regard are not necessarily pre-defined.


Recently, histogram equalization (HEQ) of speech features has received considerable attention in the area of robust speech recognition because of its relative simplicity and good empirical performance. In this paper, we present a novel extension to the conventional HEQ approach in two significant aspects. First, polynomial regression of various orders is employed to efficiently perform feature normalization building up the notion of HEQ. Second, not only the contextual distributional statistics but also the dynamics of feature values are taken as the input to the presented regression functions for better normalization performance. By doing so, we can to some extent relax the dimension-independence and bag-of-frames assumptions made by the conventional HEQ approach. All experiments were carried out on the Aurora-2 database and task and further verified on the Aurora-4 database and task. The corresponding results demonstrate that our proposed methods can achieve considerable word error rate reductions over the baseline systems and offer additional performance gains for the AFE-processed features.


The group benefits landscape is changing dramatically. The menu of available options has expanded, employers are paying for fewer benefits, and the responsibility for selecting the right benefit package has been increasingly left to the employee. However, very little is known about how individuals select their insurance benefits packages, if their selections are optimal for their circumstances, or what employers can do to encourage them to select the optimal benefit package. In this changing landscape, it is important to determine identify: (1) What are current employer practices and their resulting take-up and coverage patterns?; (2) Which practices influence employees' selections?; and (3) What can employers do to make their employees' selections closer to their optimal choices? The current study is the third in a series conducted by the Center for Retirement Research (CRR), in partnership with Prudential Financial Inc., to examine these questions. The first study utilizes in-depth interviews to find that, despite the similarities between life and long-term disability insurance products, decision processes vary dramatically (Coe and Belbase 2012). Individuals understand the need for life insurance, but they have a hard time determining how much insurance is necessary. The need for disability insurance is even less clear – disability incidence and the insurance product are not well understood and prone to behavioral biases – and it is infrequently purchased. The second study uses an online experiment to identify behavioral-economics-based interventions that affect life and disability insurance participation and coverage levels (Coe, Belbase, and Wu 2013). The results suggest that simple, personally relevant information, provided at the time of enrollment, can nudge individuals to overcome behavioral impediments and elect more optimal life and disability insurance coverage. Unlike the first two studies, which focused on the employee's decision, the present study examines group benefits from the employer's perspective. Data on employer practices, benefit information, and aggregate employee characteristics are obtained through a firm-level survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management. Survey results are used to describe the landscape of employer practices with respect to supplementary life and disability insurance and to investigate correlations between employer practices (such as cross-advertising group benefits with health insurance) and employee take-up.


Samples from 12 wells situated mainly in the northern part of the Cyrenaica Shelf of northeast Libya have yielded palynomorph assemblages of Aptian, Albian or Cenomanian aspect. The Aptian assemblages are dominated by land-plant remains and contain relatively few dinoflagellate cysts. By contrast, the latter are generally common in those from the Albian and Cenomanian samples. Deposition in near-shore marine environments is indicated for most of the Aptian succession whereas more open marine conditions are generally suggested for the younger strata. In places, however, a substantial terrestrial input was maintained during the accumulation of the Albian sediments. Dinoflagellate cysts typically recorded from Aptian palynological preparations include Aptea anaphrissa, Cyclonephelium sp. 1, Hystrichosphaerina schindewolfii, Muderongia simplex microperforata and Occisucysta spp. Several species of Cribroperidinium, but especially C. edwardsii and C. orthoceras, usually form an important part of the Albian assemblages; Kiokansium hydra is also often present. Skolochorate cysts referable to Coronifera and Florentinia are abundant in both these and the Cenomanian preparations, with Palaeohystrichophora infusorioides and several species of Canningia, Cyclonephelium, Oligosphaeridium, Spiniferites and Subtilisphaera being among the most numerous of the associated forms. In general the assemblages compare closely with those of similar age described by Below (1981, 1982) and Williams (1978) from onshore and offshore Morocco respectively. Although miospores are common in the Aptian preparations, they show relatively little morphological diversity. Smooth walled triradiate specimens, Classopollis and Inaperturopollenites are often the dominant forms. Angiosperm pollen grains are generally scarce and bisaccates only rarely encountered. A few of the Albian . . .


ABSTRACT AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) plays a key role in the regulatory network responsible for maintaining systemic energy homeostasis during exercise or nutrient deprivation. To understand the function of the regulatory β2 subunit of AMPK in systemic energy metabolism, we characterized β2 subunit-deficient mice. Using these mutant mice, we demonstrated that the β2 subunit plays an important role in regulating glucose, glycogen, and lipid metabolism during metabolic stress. The β2 mutant animals failed to maintain euglycemia and muscle ATP levels during fasting. In addition, β2-deficient animals showed classic symptoms of metabolic syndrome, including hyperglycemia, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance when maintained on a high-fat diet (HFD), and were unable to maintain muscle ATP levels during exercise. Cell surface-associated glucose transporter levels were reduced in skeletal muscle from β2 mutant animals on an HFD. In addition, they displayed poor exercise performance and impaired muscle glycogen metabolism. These mutant mice had decreased activation of AMPK and deficits in PGC1α-mediated transcription in skeletal muscle. Our results highlight specific roles of AMPK complexes containing the β2 subunit and suggest the potential utility of AMPK isoform-specific pharmacological modulators for treatment of metabolic, cardiac, and neurological disorders.