The maintenance of correct genome sequence is an essential cellular process in which
the small ubiquitin-like modifier SUMO plays an important role, probably because its
post-translational conjugation to certain proteins can regulate DNA metabolism. The
identities of these proteins remain largely unknown, as do how their sumoylation is
controlled or what effects their modification has. I was therefore interested in identifying
such factors and studying the upstream signals and downstream consequences of their
sumoylation, with a particular focus on how DNA may be involved in these processes.
To address this problem, I initially used Xenopus laevis egg extracts to isolate and
identify SUMO conjugates from replicating chromatin, as it should be enriched for
proteins involved in DNA metabolism. I found that progression through S phase, but not
genotoxic stress, altered the abundance of chromatin-associated SUMO conjugates. A
proteomic analysis of these species during unperturbed and disrupted S phase
identified several proteins with a role in DNA metabolism as putative sumoylation
substrates. Some of these modification events were confirmed by western blotting and
were also shown to be conserved in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
By further investigating the modification of one of the candidates I discovered, i.e.
ORC1, the largest subunit of the six-membered origin recognition complex (ORC), I
found that all of the ORC subunits were sumoylated. I, however, also observed that
manipulating the general levels of sumoylation in either egg extracts or budding yeast
did not affect the recognized functions of ORC in DNA replication, thus indicating that
sumoylation does not play a significant role in such a process.
I therefore focused on the sumoylation of another candidate I found in my screen, the
DNA-break sensor poly(ADP-Ribose) polymerase 1, PARP-1. In vitro, I found that
sumoylation of both the full-length protein and its DNA-binding domain alone depended
on the presence of intact DNA and was strongly inhibited by nicks in the double helix.
In vivo, two main sites of sumoylation in PARP-1 were identified. By mutating them and
creating a linear PARP-1-SUMO fusion, to mimic a constitutively sumoylated
polymerase, I investigated the functions of PARP-1 sumoylation in human cells. I found
that the sumoylation of PARP-1 did not affect the protein's catalytic activity, localization
or binding to intact chromatin or nicked DNA. Instead, sumoylation appeared to
accelerate PARP-1's ubiquitylation and subsequent degradation.
These observations exemplify how DNA and sumoylation can interplay with each other
to control the properties of chromatin-associated proteins. They also suggest that when PARP-1 is associated to single-stranded DNA breaks, and is therefore engaged in
DNA repair, it becomes refractory to sumoylation and subsequent degradation. Thus,
sumoylation may help cells to distinguish between two functionally distinct subpopulations
of PARP-1: one that is not sumoylated because it is bound to, and in the
process of repairing, DNA nicks, and one that is sumoylated because it is bound to
intact DNA, which could be involved in other processes in which the polymerase plays
a role, such as transcription regulation.


Northern wetlands and tundra are a net source of methane (CH4) with an estimated annual release of on average 7.2% of the global total CH4 emission (IPCC 2007). Polygonal tundra constitutes the typical peatlands of the Arctic covering around 3% of the Arctic landmasses. Its contribution to the overall greenhouse gas budget of Arctic peatlands is essential. Aerobic methane oxidizing bacteria (MOB) constitute the major sink for CH4 in polygonal tundra, thus considerably influencing the amount of CH4 released to the atmosphere.The small-scale shift between water-saturated, waterlogged and unsaturated sites characteristic for polygonal tundra determines heterogeneous redox-conditions and potentially shape the community structure and activity of MOB. We studied methanotrophy in the oligotrophic, mainly neutral polygonal tundra of Samoylov, a small island in the Siberian Lena Delta. Applying molecular techniques, we observed that elevated, unsaturated sites promote type I MOB. Thereby, MOB were restricted in their in-situ diversity. Only members of the genera Methylobacter and Methylsarcina were detected with the majority of sequences closely related to methanotrophs isolated from Arctic wetlands (e.g. Mb. tundripaludum). Enriching methanotrophs at different temperatures, however, revealed a potentially diverse community consisting of various genera of type I as well as type II MOB. In contrast to unsaturated sites with pronounced aerobic soil layers, the active community of MOB in open water polygonal ponds investigated through stable isotope probing consists mainly of type II MOB. This community lives symbiotically with aquatic brown-mosses and together with those establishes a very effective buffer for methane emissions. MOB associated to aquatic mosses showed much higher potential methanotrophic activities than MOB in adjacent bulk soil. Polygonal tundra must be considered a very heterogeneous environment for MOB particularly sensitive to environmental change.


The unprecedented rate at which data is being generated has led to the growth of data markets where valuable datasets are bought and sold. A salient feature of this market is that a data-buyer (agent) is endowed with multi-dimensional private information, namely her ``ideal'' record that she values the most and how her valuation for a given record changes as its distance from her ideal record changes. Consequently, the revenue-maximization problem faced by a data-seller (principal), who serves multiple buyers, is a multi-dimensional mechanism-design problem, which is well-recognized as being difficult to solve. Our main result in this paper is an approximation scheme that guarantees a revenue within as close a positive amount from the optimal revenue as desired. The scheme generates a posted-price menu consisting of a set of item-price pairs -- each entry in the menu consists of an item, i.e., a set of records from the dataset, and the price corresponding to that item. As a tradeoff, the length of the menu resulting from the scheme increases as the desired guarantee gets closer to zero. For convenience in practice, data-sellers may want the ability to limit the length of the menu used by the scheme. To facilitate this, we extend our analysis to obtain a general approximation guarantee corresponding to a menu of any given length. We also demonstrate how the seller can exploit buyers' preferences to generate intuitive and useful rules of thumb for an effective practical implementation of the scheme.


With increasing computational power and decreasing size, computers nowadays are already wearable and mobile. They become attendant of peoples' everyday life. Personal digital assistants and mobile phones equipped with adequate software gain a lot of interest in public, although the functionality they provide in terms of assistance is little more than a mobile databases for appointments, addresses, to-do lists and photos. Compared to the assistance a human can provide, such systems are hardly to call real assistants.
The motivation to construct more human-like assistance systems that develop a certain level of cognitive capabilities leads to the exploration of two central paradigms in this work. The first paradigm is termed cognitive vision systems. Such systems take human cognition as a design principle of underlying concepts and develop learning and adaptation capabilities to be more flexible in their application. They are embodied, active, and situated. Second, the ego-vision paradigm is introduced as a very tight interaction scheme between a user and a computer system that especially eases close collaboration and assistance between these two. Ego-vision systems (EVS) take a user's (visual) perspective and integrate the human in the system's processing loop by means of a shared perception and augmented reality. EVSs adopt techniques of cognitive vision to identify objects, interpret actions, and understand the user's visual perception. And they articulate their knowledge and interpretation by means of augmentations of the user's own view.
These two paradigms are studied as rather general concepts, but always with the goal in mind to realize more flexible assistance systems that closely collaborate with its users. This work provides three major contributions. First, a definition and explanation of ego-vision as a novel paradigm is given. Benefits and challenges of this paradigm are discussed as well. Second, a configuration of different approaches that permit an ego-vision system to perceive its environment and its user is presented in terms of object and action recognition, head gesture recognition, and mosaicing. These account for the specific challenges identified for ego-vision systems, whose perception capabilities are based on wearable sensors only. Finally, a visual active memory (VAM) is introduced as a flexible conceptual architecture for cognitive vision systems in general, and for assistance systems in particular. It adopts principles of human cognition to develop a representation for information stored in this memory. So-called memory processes continuously analyze, modify, and extend the content of this VAM. The functionality of the integrated system emerges from their coordinated interplay of these memory processes.
An integrated assistance system applying the approaches and concepts outlined before is implemented on the basis of the visual active memory. The system architecture is discussed and some exemplary processing paths in this system are presented and discussed. It assists users in object manipulation tasks and has reached a maturity level that allows to conduct user studies. Quantitative results of different integrated memory processes are as well presented as an assessment of the interactive system by means of these user studies.


Following Roy Newsome's highly acclaimed study Brass Roots: One Hundred Years of Brass Bands and their Music, this book takes up the story of bands and their development from the 1930s to the start of the new millennium.

Brass band contests continued to play a significant role in the twentieth century, and this new book contains a detailed consideration of both local and regional contests and larger-scale national events such as the British Open and the National Brass Band Championships. As in previous times, the repertoire of bands has been greatly influenced by these contests. Newsome explores competition works, but also the development of an increasing number of concerto-style works intended for concert performance.

One of the keys to the continuing popularity and success of the banding movement has been the creation of school and youth brass bands. Sections of the book devoted to younger generations of band players examine the changes that have taken place in such bands. There is also an investigation of the impact of radio, television and commercial recording on the brass band industry. The book also contains a wealth of information about leading bands and band personalities, and concludes with an overview of the spread of interest in British-style banding overseas.


Soil pH is an important determinant of microbial community composition and diversity, yet few studies have characterized the specific effects of pH on individual bacterial taxa within bacterial communities, both abundant and rare. We collected composite soil samples over 2 years from an experimentally maintained pH gradient ranging from 4.5 to 7.5 from the Craibstone Experimental Farm (Craibstone, Scotland). Extracted nucleic acids were characterized by bacterial and group-specific denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and next-generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Both methods demonstrated comparable and reproducible shifts within higher taxonomic bacterial groups (e.g. Acidobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Gammaproteobacteria) across the pH gradient. In addition, we used non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) for the first time on 16S rRNA gene data to identify positively interacting (i.e. co-occurring) operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clusters (i.e. 'components'), with abundances that correlated strongly with pH, and sample year to a lesser extent. All OTUs identified by NMF were visualized within principle coordinate analyses of UNIFRAC distances and subjected to taxonomic network analysis (SSUnique), which plotted OTU abundance and similarity against established taxonomies. Most pH-dependent OTUs identified here would not have been identified by previous methodologies for microbial community profiling and were unrelated to known lineages.


We describe a fully automated ultrasound analysis system that tracks and identifies the common carotid artery (CCA) and the internal jugular vein (IJV). Our goal is to prevent inadvertent damage to the CCA when targeting the IJV for catheterization. The automated system starts by identifying and fitting ellipses to all the regions that look like major arteries or veins throughout each B-mode ultrasound image frame. The spokes ellipse algorithm described in this paper tracks these putative vessels and calculates their characteristics, which are then weighted and summed to identify the vessels. The optimum subset of characteristics and their weights were determined from a training set of 38 subjects, whose necks were scanned with a portable 10 MHz ultrasound system at 10 frames per second. Stepwise linear discriminant analysis (LDA) narrowed the characteristics to the five that best distinguish between the CCA and IJV. A paired version of Fisher's LDA was used to calculate the weights for each of the five parameters. Leave-one-out validation studies showed that the system could track and identify the CCA and IJV with 100% accuracy in this dataset.


Over the last two decades, communication has become an increasingly important aspect of monetary policy. These real-world developments have spawned a huge new scholarly literature on central bank communication -- mostly empirical, and almost all of it written in this decade. We survey this ever-growing literature. The evidence suggests that communication can be an important and powerful part of the central bank's toolkit since it has the ability to move financial markets, to enhance the predictability of monetary policy decisions, and potentially to help achieve central banks' macroeconomic objectives. However, the large variation in communication strategies across central banks suggests that a consensus has yet to emerge on what constitutes an optimal communication strategy.


Most honorable mention, however, belongs to Washington. DC, where without any urgent solicitation from $ 1,500 to $2,000 is annually raised to support the work of the Association. The Shaw Junior School, about two blocks from the national office in Washington, raises more money for the cause than any other school in the world. ... Just as the Shaw Junior High School takes priority among the schools so does the Helping Hand Club of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church take priority of the country. This city-wide interchurch is in a class by itself ... It stages annually drives to aid ... the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. ... In this connection should be mentioned the large number of teachers of the District of Columbia who, although prohibited by local regulations from receiving solicitors in the school, voluntarily connect themselves as members of the Association and subscribers to its magazines. --Carter G. Woodson, 1947 (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the February 1958 issue of Ebony magazine, the Johnson Publishing Company announced; "The third distinguished American named by readers to the Ebony Hall of Fame is the man who helped put the Negro back in the history books, Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950). For decades it was his custom to devote virtually every waking hour to research, writing, and editing. Nothing else mattered. He had no ties to anyone, depended on no one, came as close to any man can to being an island 'entire of itself' He never consciously sought to be liked, never cultivated those habits and personality traits which would endear him to the public. ... He had no home of his own, lived in rented lodgings as a boarder or ate out in restaurants." (2) The editors of African America's most popular magazine for the black middle class in the early years the civil rights campaigns got it wrong about the nature of the public and private life of the "Father of Negro History." The editors at Ebony were correct in observing that Woodson was extremely independent, possessed an intricate and complex personality, and wholeheartedly sacrificed his life for the promotion of African and African American history. However, in Washington, DC, in particular, he had many friends and had mobilized countless co-workers upon whom he depended; he remained committed to the grassroots, serving as a public intellectual and celebrity. Most importantly for Woodson and the early black history movement, on 30 August 1922 he purchased a three-story, Italianate style row house for $8,000 at 1538 Ninth Street, NW, Washington, DC, where he lived from 1922 until the day of his sudden death on 3 April 1950. Willie Leanna Miles, who worked with Woodson in the years immediately before his death, dubbed the Ninth Street residence the nucleus of the early black history movement. The building housed the Associated Publishers, Inc.; The Journal of Negro History (JNH) and the Negro History Bulletin (NHB), and served as the national headquarters for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). Woodson wrote and dictated to his secretaries and stenographers numerous books, letters, memos, announcements, and essays in the unusual comfort of his "office-home." Important figures of the early black history movement visited "the Association's" headquarters and during the ASNLH's nine annual meetings held in Washington, DC, between 1917 and 1949, the organization's national office was a very busy place. (3) Countless books published by the Associated Publishers, issues of the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin, and other important documents were stored in the national office's basement. In 1941 Woodson noted that the ASNLH stored in "its fireproof safe in the national office an additional 1,000 or more manuscripts which will be turned over to the Library of Congress as soon as they can be properly sorted. These manuscripts consist of valuable letters of the most noted Negroes of our time: Francis J. …


In recent studies of primates, the question has been raised whether competitive regimes (egalitarian versus despotic) are species-specific or should rather be considered as sex-specific. To study this problem we use an individual-oriented model called DomWorld in which artificial agents are equipped merely to group and compete. In former studies of this model, dominance style appeared to be strongly influenced by the intensity of aggression: by increasing only this intensity of aggression, a great number of the characteristics of an egalitarian society switched to those of a despotic one. Here, we investigate, using DomWorld, a competitive regime of artificial males and females that differ exclusively in their fighting capacity; males having a higher intensity of aggression and a higher initial capacity of winning, such as may be due to a male-biased sexual dimorphism. Unexpectedly it appears that, in the model, even if the intensity of aggression of males is greater than that of females, their hierarchy is still significantly weaker and thus their society less differentiated and more egalitarian than that of females. The explanation is that, due to the higher initial dominance of males (compare larger body size), single events of victory and defeat lead to less differentiation than among females. The greater the sexual difference in initial dominance between the sexes is the more egalitarian the males behave among themselves compared to the behaviour of the females among themselves. These effects are already visible during the initial phases of the hierarchical development. These results resemble findings among primates; in real primates their degree of sexual dimorphism may influence the competitive regime of each sex.


This article discusses the human rights debate at the core of current controversy over international adoption. Many powerful children's human rights organizations, including UNICEF, take the position that such adoption should be restricted if not eliminated, based on ideas about heritage rights and the related significance of keeping children within their country of origin. They have had a major impact on policy in recent years, resulting in the closing down of international adoption from many countries. This article takes the position that children's most important human rights include the right to grow up in a nurturing family, and that international adoption is able to offer significant numbers of children the permanent homes they need and will not find in their countries of origin. It discusses the history and current trends in such adoption, recent legal developments, the politics and policy pros and cons, and reform directions for the future.


ABSTRACTIn recent years the Jewish community has witnessed a growth in the development of Jewish afterschool programs that provide childcare as well as Jewish educational programming to elementary age children. This possible trend may represent a diversification of options for families seeking to provide Jewish education and Jewish experiences for their children. Through a close examination of three afterschool programs and neighboring congregations, this article will consider whether these new start-up educational institutions threaten or complement the existing Jewish educational structures such as the congregational supplementary school and whether or not there are opportunities for congregational schools and afterschool programs to partner in serving families and what might those partnerships look like.


Example-Based Machine Translation Br ona Collins Supervisor: P adraig Cunningham Translation can be viewed as a problem-solving process where a source language text is transformed into its target language equivalent. A machine translation system, solving the problem from rst-principles, requires more knowledge than has ever been successfully encoded in any system. An alternative approach is to reuse past translation experience encoded in a set of exemplars, or cases. A case which is similar to the input problem will be retrieved and a solution produced by adapting its target language component. This thesis advances the state of the art in example-based machine translation by proposing techniques for predicting the adaptation requirements of a retrieval episode. An Adaptation-Guided Retrieval policy increases the e ciency of the retriever, which will now search for adaptable cases, and relieves the knowledge-acquisition bottleneck of the adaptation component. A exible case-storage scheme also allows all knowledge required for adaptation to be deduced from the case-base itself. The rst part of the thesis contrasts such a CBR-motivated approach with current EBMT systems which are either data-intensive or knowledge-intensive. A new EBMT scheme is proposed in which the cases encode knowledge about their own reusability, determined by cross-linguistic mappings. The information allows cases to be generalised carefully, to the degree that is necessitated by the data. Linguistic and translational divergences | the obstacles to reusability | are investigated in the domain of software-manual translation, and on this basis, a suitable case representation scheme is proposed. The second and third parts of the thesis describe the on-line and o -line processes of an EBMT system in which the case-base is the only knowledge source. Cases are deduced from texts automatically, and at run-time, the matching and retrieval tasks exploit the adaptability information in the cases in order to maximise coverage without compromising on accuracy. The multi-tiered case representation scheme allows adaptation at the sub-sentential and word levels, when necessary. The general performance of the system is shown to degrade gracefully and to improve as the case-base size increases.


In the face of the increasingly variegated ideological landscape of contemporary America, cults have become the focus of public controversy. The growth of new religions has been matched by the development of an organized and vocal opposition, the anti-cult movement. This in turn has prompted an extensive investigation of new religious movements (NRMs) by sociologists and psychologists of religion, as well as historians and religious studies scholars. The readings collected here contribute to the debate about cults by sampling some of the best and most accessible publications from the academic study of NRMs. The contributors address the questions most commonly asked about cults, such as: What brought about the emergence of new religious movements? What is a cult or new religious movement? Who joins new religious movements and why? Are converts to new religious movements brainwashed? Why did the Jonestown and Waco tragedies happen? Are cults inclined to be violent? What does the emergence of so many new religious movements say about our society? What does it say about the future of religion? Cults in Context surveys the descriptive typologies, theories, and data accumulated by sociologists and psychologists studying new religious movements over the last twenty years. It serves to defuse many popular fears and misconceptions about cults, allowing the reader to develop a more reasonable and tolerant understanding of the people who join new religious movements and the functions of these movements in contemporary society.


This report describes an efficient methodology of speed sign detection which constitutes of several steps to extract speed signs from frames of video recorded from a web-camera mounted in the front of a car. The most difficult implementation issues that are encountered in this task are the angle of the speed sign, the illumination of the image, the size of the speed sign and the calculation speed. In the proposed detection framework several detection decisions are presented, several of those are conducted by utilizing the k-means clustering algorithm. The detector is evaluated on a database with images recorded from a real scenario. The proposed detection system exhibits relatively good performance with a True Positive Rate (TPr) = 0.9875 and a False Positive Rate (FPr) = 1.03*10^-7 on this database.


The purpose of this thesis is to consider the following phenomena in Korean,
within the framework of the minimalist program (Chomsky 1995): (i) the movement
of non-restrictive adnominal modifiers, (ii) topicalization, and (iii) Double Nominative
Constructions (DNCs).
First of all, following in essence Cinque (1992), I propose that there is a
functional category, Agreement Phrase (AgrP) whose specifier position is occupied by
the pre-nominal modifiers. I argue for the existence of non-restrictive adnominal
modifiers (Relative Clauses (RCs) and pre-nominal adjectives) which move overtly out
of the scope of the Determiner in head-final languages like Korean. I claim that the RC
or the attributive adjective is base-generated in [Spec, AgrP] due to agreement features
(honorific and plural in the case of Korean and Japanese). A restrictive adnominal
modifier remains in [Spec, AgrP] due to a FOCUS feature. A non-restrictive modifier,
having a NON-FOCUS feature moves to [Spec, DP] whose head D⁰ has a NON-FOCUS
feature, to check its NON-FOCUS feature.
Secondly, I attempt to unify two contradictory accounts (non-movement or
movement) in topicalization in Korean within the minimalist program (Chomsky
1995).
Thirdly, it is my argument that, following much of the literature on this topic,
there are three kinds of DNCs in Korean and that the three types of double
nominative constructions are derived from a single underlying construction, i. e. the
locative construction. The first NP marked Nominative moves to [Spec, AgrsP], to
check its Case feature by the corresponding Case feature in the head of Agrs, while
the second NP in DNCs, which originates as the object of the verb, remains inside
VP and has its inherent case feature checked by the verb without moving. In
addition, I show that the derivation in the DNCs is the same as that found in English
Genitive, Existential and Locative sentences. In connection with DNCs, I claim that
in Double Accusative Constructions (DACs) the first NP and the second NP are
base-generated independently in different positions from each other, just like in
DNCs, but that the second NP in DACs is structurally case-marked in
[Spec, Agr₀P], unlike the second NP in DNCs.


Despite the abundance of multi-modal data, such as image-text pairs, there has been little effort in understanding the individual entities and their different roles in the construction of these data instances. In this work, we endeavour to discover the entities and their corresponding importance in cooking recipes automatically as a visual-linguistic association problem. More specifically, we introduce a novel cross-modal learning framework to jointly model the latent representations of images and text in the food image-recipe association and retrieval tasks. This model allows one to discover complex functional and hierarchical relationships between images and text, and among textual parts of a recipe including title, ingredients and cooking instructions. Our experiments show that by making use of efficient tree-structured Long Short-Term Memory as the text encoder in our computational cross-modal retrieval framework, we are not only able to identify the main ingredients and cooking actions in the recipe descriptions without explicit supervision, but we can also learn more meaningful feature representations of food recipes, appropriate for challenging cross-modal retrieval and recipe adaption tasks.


This study examines the emergent linguistic properties of the early production of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese. Longitudinal naturalist speech data of one Mandarin-learning child were coded and analyzed for their argument structure from age 1;3 to 3;4, the crucial age for early syntactic development. The results reveal an early emergence and dominance of transitive verbs and the theme-only argument. Transitive verbs tend to have reduced number of arguments, whereas intransitive verbs tend to sustain one argument. The acquisition of thematic roles proceeds in the order of theme, agent, location, and recipient. The child's production of verb argument structure reflects the typological features of Mandarin and reveals some language-general route in the acquisition of argument structure, which suggests the importance of explicit instruction of the discourse-pragmatic properties of verb arguments in teaching and learning Mandarin verbs to second language learners.


This thesis examines adoption of pharmaceutical technologies across the major OECD markets during 1999-2008, a period that has witnessed substantial R&D productivity shortfalls and increasing supply-side pressure on pharmaceutical pricing. The advent of the financial crisis in 2008 has resulted in even more stringent pricing and reimbursement (P&R) regulations to contain costs and ensure value for money in pricing decisions. The central theoretical question addressed, therefore, is how price regulation affects cross-national adoption dynamics of pharmaceutical technologies. I address the impact of regulation on: i) innovative technologies, i.e. patent-protected new molecules that are central to dynamic efficiency, and ii) imitative generic technologies, i.e. lower-priced bioequivalent products that are central to static efficiency. The research in this thesis was motivated by the lack of theoretical framework or empirical evidence on the dynamics of international technology adoption in general and marked delay patterns in the adoption of pharmaceutical technologies observed in practice. It is important to understand the regulatory factors driving these delays given the profound implications of such delays on consumer and producer welfare as well as healthcare provider/payer budgets. The main hypothesis in this thesis is that price controls negatively affect adoption speed for new molecules and generics in markets that employ price controls as these controls reduce incentives to entry and result in knock-on effects in foreign markets because of linkages such as reference pricing and parallel trade. The empirical strategy adopts difference-in-difference and survival analysis using IMS data from 20 markets and controls for heterogeneity in firm and molecule characteristics. Overall findings indicate that adoption of pharmaceutical technologies is slower in price-controlled markets and that firms adapt their launch strategies to changes in pharmaceutical regulations. Expected market size is a highly significant driver of generic launch hazard, which highlights the importance of demand-side policies to promote generic use.


Endogeophilus ichnusae gen. et sp. nov. (Chilopoda: Geophilidae sensu stricto ) is described based on three specimens from two localities in south-western Sardinia, examined by light and scanning electron microscopy. The new centipede resembles the rare Ibero-Pyrenean genus Galliophilus Ribaut & Brolemann, 1927 in some features, especially in the forcipular segment, and the temperate European species Geophilus electricus (Linnaeus, 1758) in other features, especially in the ultimate leg-bearing segment. However, the true affinities of E. ichnusae gen. et sp. nov. are uncertain, because the new species departs significantly from the majority of geophilids for the higher number of legs (91–107 pairs in the specimens examined), the slender trunk segments (the sternites being longer than wide), the relatively stout legs (the tarsus being only about twice as long as wide) and the very short setae (≤ 15 mm) scattered on the body surface. All these features are probably derived and suggest adaptation to a more strictly endogeic habit than other geophilids.


Abstract Aims and Objectives The purpose of our study is to [1] determine the activity of disease based on the HRCT findings (2) to define indications for the use of HRCT in evaluation of Pulmonary TB and (3) to determine whether additional information provided by HRCT alters clinical management of the disease. Materials and Methods The present study was carried out at Shree Sayajirao General Hospital (SSGH), Baroda, Gujarat, India from January 2002 to December 2002. Twenty five patients with sputum positive post-primary pulmonary TB were studied prospectively with chest radiographs and HRCT. The diagnosis of active TB was based on detection of acid-fast bacilli in sputum. None of the patients in our study population was HIV positive. All patients underwent x-ray chest and HRCT chest (Philips Tomoscan, Best, Netherlands). The pattern, extent and severity of HRCT findings were recorded and compared with the plain x-ray findings. The gathered information and investigations were subjected to statistical analysis. Results Our study population consisted of sputum positive (AFB positive) 25 patients, 22 of them were newly diagnosed/suspected post-primary tuberculosis (GROUP 1) and 3 of them had taken six months of AKT (GROUP 2). Our study included 22 males and 3 females with average age of 38 years (range, 14-65 years.) In total chest radiographic signs of active tuberculosis were seen in twelve (48%) patients. HRCT showed evidences of active tuberculosis in all 22 patients of newly diagnosed tuberculosis; and in 2 out of 3 patients with prior history of AKT. Thus, total of 24 (96%) patients had evidence of active pulmonary TB on HRCT. One patient with prior history of AKT showed evidence of pulmonary Koch′s sequel. Conclusion Although chest radiography remains the foremost imaging technique in the evaluation of pulmonary TB, HRCT can be useful in certain circumstances and can provide important information in the diagnosis and management of the disease. HRCT is helpful in the distinction of active form inactive TB. HRCT is better than plain chest radiograph in identification of extent of pulmonary TB, especially subtle areas of consolidation, cavitation, bronchogenic and miliary spread. HRCT is recommended when the radiographic findings are normal or inconclusive and tuberculosis is suspected clinically for the confirmation of diagnosis and determination of activity.


Background: Exposure to inorganic arsenic (InAs) has been documented as a risk factor for lung cancer. This study examined the association between InAs exposure, its metabolism, and lung cancer occurrence. Methods: We followed 1,300 residents from an arseniasis area in Taiwan, determined urinary InAs metabolites, and identified 39 lung cancer cases. Cox proportional hazards model was performed. Results: The results demonstrated that participants with either the primary methylation index [monomethylarsonic acid (MMA)/InAs] or the secondary methylation index [dimethylarsenic acid (DMA)/MMA] lower than their respective median values were at a higher risk of lung cancer (HRs from 3.41 to 4.66) than those with high methylation capacity. The incidence density of lung cancer increased from 79.9/100,000 (year−1) to 467.4/100,000 (year−1) for residents with low methylation capacity and from 0 to 158.5/100,000 (year−1) for residents with high methylation capacity when the arsenic exposure dose increased from 2 to 10 ppb to ≥200 ppb, respectively. The analyses revealed a dose–response relationship between lung cancer occurrence and increasing arsenic concentrations in drinking water as well as cumulative arsenic exposure (monotonic trend test; P < 0.05 and P < 0.05, respectively) among the residents with low methylation capacity. The relationship between arsenic exposure and lung cancer among high methylators was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Hypomethylation responses to InAs exposure may dose dependently increase lung cancer occurrence. Impact: The high-risk characteristics observed among those exposed should be considered in future preventive medicine and research on arsenic carcinogenesis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(5); 756–61. ©2016 AACR.


CAMEA is an indirect geometry spectrometer conceived by a Danish (Copenhagen University, Technical University of Denmark) and Swiss (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Paul Scherrer Insitut) Collaboration for the European Spallation Source (ESS), Lund, Sweden. The CAMEA instrument concept has been selected for construction at the ESS, subject to a feasibility study. This document is the final report for the concept phase of the CAMEA instrument project for the European Spallation Source. The material contained within this report represents updated versions of all of the reports submitted for the instrument proposal to the ESS, from which CAMEA was selected for construction.


Problem statement: The third order nonlinear optical properties of metal nanoparticles have been of interest in physical chemistry, medical diagnostics and optical devices. Gold colloidal nanoparticles are responsible for the brilliant reds seen in stained glass windows and silver particles are typically yellow. The purpose of the study was to determine the nonlinear refraction and absorption coefficient of the Au and Ag nanoparticles in PVP solution. Approach: The samples were prepared by γ-radiation method and the nonlinear optical properties of the composites were investigated using a single beam Z-scan technique with a beam power of 40 mW and operated at wavelength of 532 nm. The measurements were carried out for both Open and closed aperture Z-scan arrangements. Results: For both Au/PVP and Ag/PVP samples the results exhibited reverse saturable absorption. The closed aperture Z-scan of the nano-fluid samples revealed self-defocusing effect while the open aperture Z-scan of the samples show a reversible saturable absorption. Conclusion: The Z-scan measurement showed that silver and gold nano-fluid prepared by gamma radiation exhibited large thermal nonlinear refractive index n2 as -8.78×10-7 and -2.478×10-6 cm2/W, respectively. We have also investigated nonlinear absorption of these samples and we found a large value of nonlinear absorption for Ag nanoparticle and a weak absorption for Au nanoparticle. In conclusion, the experimental result shows a good nonlinear refractive index at low laser power in which encouraging for possible applications in nonlinear optical devices.


Sharing goods, services or knowledge is at the center of the so-called Sharing Economy. Businesses are usually based on online platforms that match demand and supply which is in many cases, but not always provided by individuals. Sharing Economy companies typically compete with traditional companies in many different markets. The main challenge of this type of competition currently is the application of the existing regulation. While incumbent firms adhere to this, Sharing Economy companies often feel it does not apply to their business model. This paper examines the organization of the Sharing Economy and the functioning of markets and competition in it. Europe is lagging behind the United States with respect to the diffusion of Sharing Economy businesses and the number of successful companies. Therefore this paper also offers policy advice from a European perspective to level the playing field between traditional and Sharing Economy companies and to promote the formation of the latter in Europe.


Lethal autonomous robots (LARs) may provide the best counter to the asymmetric threats of the future. From China's considerable capacity for jamming and general cyber attack to swarms of Iranian patrol boats, dangers are proliferating, and LARs can operate faster than humans and achieve lethal outcomes even where there are no communications links. LARs are apt to prove attractive to a number of players, so the United States should act at once to secure a commanding capability in fully autonomous targeting. Legal concerns do not appear to be a game-ender, so operational commanders in particular should lead in harnessing this emerging technology. With appropriate control measures, these unmanned systems will be safe, effective, and legal weapons as well as force multipliers. They have already proven their value during the Global War on Terror, and all branches of the U.S. military are poised to rely on ever-more sophisticated LARs.


We review some of the systematic patterns in the normal state properties of high temperature oxide superconductors which may help in the search for the pairing mechanism. A recent analysis of thermodynamic properties, namely the conduction electron entropy determined from high resolution specific heat data and the static magnetic susceptibility, both measured for a wide range of closely spaced compositions, yields much information about the effects of hole doping and zinc substitution on the low energy electronic excitations in these compounds. We attempt to correlate this information with the systematic changes observed in the electrical resistivity, Hall coefficient and most notably the thermoelectric power, for which a new scaling property is reported.


Breathlessness remains a challenging symptom, common to a multitude of malignant and non-malignant diseases, for which there are limited effective therapies once disease control is optimized. The American Thoracic Society (ATS) statement on dyspnoea reports that: (i) progress in dyspnoea management has not matched progress in elucidating underlying mechanisms; (ii) there is a critical need for interdisciplinary translational research to connect dyspnoea mechanisms with treatments; and (iii) there is a need to validate dyspnoea measures as patient-reported outcomes for clinical trials. Research into the many dimensions of breathlessness and its significance to patients and their carers has increased in recent years. This meeting is convened yearly to bring together researchers across various disciplines including respiratory medicine, anaesthetics, medical humanities, engineering, and palliative care, to further understanding of the symptom, discuss new techniques and advances in research, and pave the way forward for future studies and interventions. The presentations generated much vibrant discussion amongst the multidisciplinary attendees and highlighted areas where care for breathless patients could be improved. This is a positive time for breathlessness research, with several ATS research priorities being addressed and it is clear that further studies and ensuing interventions are on the horizon.


Balongan Beach is located in oil exploitation area of PT (Persero) Pertamina
UP VI Balongan, Kabupaten Indramayu. Oil leakage from refining pipe have caused
pollution of waters, soils, and shores. Bioremediation is an alternative pollution
treatment by decomposing oil and other pollutant using microorganisms. In polluted
shore, indigenous bacteria community could interact with bacteria contortiums. The
objective of the study are to explore ability of indigenous bacteria and five bacteria
contortiums, i.e., contortium A (Pseudomonas balearica, Alcanivorax sp. TE-9,
Bordetella sp. F2), contortium B (Alcanivorax sp. TE-9, Strain 68 MRa,
Pseudomonas balearica), contortium C (Bacillus sp. L 41, Strain 68 MRa,
Alcanivorax dieselolei), contortium D (Strain 68 MRa, Pseudomonas balearica,
Strain 44 BR), and contortium E (Bordetella sp. F2, Alcanivorax sp. TE-9,
Strain 44 BR) in order to degrade oil spills in Balongan Beach, Indramayu in vitro
scale. The variables measured were oil residue weight, total number of bacterial cells,
population of PAH and crude oil degrading bacteria, and medium condition.
Completely Randomized Design was used using two factors, that were bacterial
contortiums (KA, KB, KC, KD, KE) and incubation periods (T0, T7, T14, T28). The result
showed that the combinations of five contortiums and indigenous bacteria was able to
degrade the oil. Type of contortium and incubation periods affect oil degrading
activity significantly. Contortium C is more potential in degrading oil at 14 days
incubation with 56,4% of oil residue weight.


Background Epidemiological studies suggest that mushroom intake is inversely correlated with gastric, gastrointestinal and breast cancers. We have recently demonstrated anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity of triterpene extract isolated from mushroom Ganoderma lucidum (GLT). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether GLT prevents colitis-associated carcinogenesis in mice. Methods/Principal Findings Colon carcinogenesis was induced by the food-borne carcinogen (2-Amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazol[4,5-b]pyridine [PhIP]) and inflammation (dextran sodium sulfate [DSS]) in mice. Mice were treated with 0, 100, 300 and 500 mg GLT/kg of body weight 3 times per week for 4 months. Cell proliferation, expression of cyclin D1 and COX-2 and macrophage infiltration was assessed by immunohistochemistry. The effect of GLT on XRE/AhR, PXR and rPXR was evaluated by the reporter gene assays. Expression of metabolizing enzymes CYP1A2, CYP3A1 and CYP3A4 in colon tissue was determined by immunohistochemistry. GLT treatment significantly suppressed focal hyperplasia, aberrant crypt foci (ACF) formation and tumor formation in mice exposed to PhIP/DSS. The anti-proliferative effects of GLT were further confirmed by the decreased staining with Ki-67 in colon tissues. PhIP/DSS-induced colon inflammation was demonstrated by the significant shortening of the large intestine and macrophage infiltrations, whereas GLT treatment prevented the shortening of colon lengths, and reduced infiltration of macrophages in colon tissue. GLT treatment also significantly down-regulated PhIP/DSS-dependent expression of cyclin D1, COX-2, CYP1A2 and CYP3A4 in colon tissue. Conclusions Our data suggest that GLT could be considered as an alternative dietary approach for the prevention of colitis-associated cancer.


Background : According to ILO estimates, at least 180 million children aged 5 to 14 years are currently engaged in fulltime work in the developing countries. However, very little information exists about childhood behavioral and mental disorders in Ethiopia. Objective : The objectives of this study are to estimate the prevalence and describe the nature of behavioral and mental health problems, as well as child abuse, nutritional problems, gross physical illness and injury among child laborers aged 8 to 15 years in Ethiopia. However, only the behavioral and mental health problems of the study population are examined here. Methods : A cross-sectional survey of children aged 8 to 15 years, and who were engaged in fulltime work in different formal and informal sectors non-laborers, was conducted in four major towns of Ethiopia. The screening instrument known as Reported Questionnaire on Children (RQC) and a diagnostic instrument known as the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents ( DICA) were used to detect symptoms and signs of behavioral and mental problems in the children. br> Results : A total of 2000 child laborers and 400 non-laborers were interviewed using RQC to screen for probable cases of behavioral and mental problems. Of these, 50% of the laborers and 42% of the non-laborers were males. The mean age of the laborers was 13.8 ±1.8 years while that of the non-laborers was 12.2 ±2.1 years. More females (76.8%) were found to have been engaged in domestic labor than males. The RQC interview screened 9.4% (n=226) of the children as probable cases of mental/ behavioral disorders, (14.0% non-laborers and 8.5% laborers). The second stage DICA interview gave an overall prevalence of 5.5% (4.9% in laborers and 8.8% in non-laborers). Conclusion : The prevalence of childhood behavioral and mental disorders in this study is within the range reported in previews studies conducted on children of the same age group. However, the lower prevalence of childhood disorders in the child laborers compared to that of the non-laborers found in the current study is probably due to selection bias or healthy workers effect. Thus, further study is recommended to explain this unexpected finding. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 20 (2) 2006: 119-126


In the last few years a state-space formulation has been introduced into self-tuning control. This has not only allowed for a wider choice of possible control actions, but has also provided an insight into the theory underlying—and hidden by—that used in the polynomial description.

This paper considers many of the self-tuning algorithms, both state-space and polynomial, presently in use, and by starting from first principles develops the observers which are, effectively, used in each case.

At any specific time instant the state estimator can be regarded as taking one of two forms. In the first case the most recently available output measurement is excluded, and here an optimal and conditionally stable observer is obtained. In the second case the present output signal is included, and here it is shown that although the observer is once again conditionally stable, it is no longer optimal. This result is of significance, as many of the popular self-tuning controllers lie in the second, rather than first, category.


Serum samples from 57 patients with cystic fibrosis were tested for the presence of IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE, and circulating immune complexes containing IgG, IgA, and IgM. Titres of class specific antibodies to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and class specific antibodies to Ps aeruginosa in circulating immune complexes, were also measured. According to the Shwachman score the patients were divided into three clinical groups: group 1-moderate and severe disease, group 2-mild disease, and group 3-well. The results of the immunological investigations were correlated with the clinical state of the patients as assessed by the Shwachman score. Serum concentrations of IgG, IgA, and IgM were inversely correlated with the Shwachman score, but the differences between the groups were only significant for IgG and IgA. The same correlations were found for circulating immune complexes containing IgG and IgA. Antibodies to Ps aeruginosa could be detected in most of the patients' serum samples. IgA antibody specific to Ps aeruginosa was the most often raised, even in patients in group 3. It is therefore suggested that IgA antibody specific to Ps aeruginosa could be an early marker of colonisation by Ps aeruginosa and a sensitive measurement of infection with Ps aeruginosa in young children with cystic fibrosis. Moreover, in the circulating immune complexes, class specific antibodies to Ps aeruginosa were found in nearly half the patients. The highest titres of IgG and IgA antibodies specific to Ps aeruginosa in the circulating immune complexes were detected in the patients with the worst clinical state (group 1).


The adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette (ABC) genes encode transporters that are expressed on the cell membrane or organelle membranes and are involved in the export of substances out of the cell or the movement of compounds inside the cell. Many ABC genes are mutated in human diseases or have a role in drug resistance to cancer chemotherapy.

Keywords:

ATP-binding cassette;
drug resistance;
genetic disease;
cystic fibrosis;
transport;
evolution


Background. Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) has been widely recognised in recent years as a potentially important predictor of illness outcome, and the manifestations of schizophrenia have been known to influence its early recognition as a mental illness.  Objective. To assess the association between the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, help-seeking and DUP.  Methods. We performed a cross-sectional study of 360 patients with schizophrenia, who had had no previous contact with Western mental health services. The Sociodemographic Questionnaire, World Health Organization Pathway Encounter Form and a questionnaire to establish DUP were used. The positive and negative syndrome scale and Composite International Diagnostic Interview were used for the assessment of mental disorders and to diagnose. Results. Respondents who had predominant positive symptoms and who had a median DUP of 8 weeks or 24 weeks, tended to use psychiatric hospitals and other Western medical facilities, respectively, as their first treatment options. However, those who had predominant negative symptoms and who had a median DUP of 144 weeks or 310 weeks, tended to use faith healers and traditional healers, respectively, as first treatment options. Conclusion. The predominance of negative symptoms could militate against early presentation among people with schizophrenia, probably because negative symptoms are poorly recognised as indicating mental illness in Nigeria, as they could be interpreted as deviant behaviour or spiritual problems that would require spiritual solutions.


The rare, fully mycoheterotrophic Ghost Orchid, Epipogium aphyllum is only visible during its short flowering and fruiting season, which lasts for a few weeks between May and October. Due to the apparent unpredictability of its flowering, decades may pass between subsequent observations at the same locality. The factors affecting timing of flowering in this enigmatic species remain largely unexplored. In Hungary, it is an extremely rare species: between 1924 and 2014 only 25 dated observations from 15 locations are known. Hungary is located on the edge of the species' distribution area where higher precipitation may occur only in higher regions of mountains. Hence, the spatial and temporal pattern of precipitation might limit the emergence of generative shoots. In this paper we compared rainfall patterns in relation with the Ghost Orchids' observations to multiannual precipitation averages. The year of flowering and the month preceding flowering (but not the year before flowering and the month of flowering) were characterised by significantly more rainfall than the multi-annual average precipitation. These results suggest that the appearance of the species in Hungary is precipitation-dependent.


Nd-Bi codoped zeolites were prepared by an ion-exchange process, and the optical properties were investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation spectra, and decay time measurements. The results show that the NIR emission of Nd(3+) ions is significantly enhanced by the introduction of bismuth in codoped samples, and the lifetime reaches 246 μs. It is also observed that NIR-active Bi acts as a sensitizer of Nd(3+) ions. The energy transfer efficiency is also estimated. The peculiar optical properties make Nd-Bi codoped zeolites promising for potential application in biological probes.


Canopy architecture, yield components, fruit composition, and vigor of Syrah were measured in response to four canopy management and three regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) treatments. The control consisted of dormant hand pruning to 22, two-node spurs (HP) with no further manipulation. Other treatments consisted of mechanically box pruning vines to 10 cm hedges and mechanically thinning the canopy to a density of 5 (CLL) or 7 (CLM) count shoots per 30 cm of row or mechanically box pruning to a 10 cm hedge with no shoot thinning (CLH). Control vines were irrigated to 70% of evapotranspiration (ETo) from fruit set until harvest (RDIC). Other vines either received 70% of full vine ETo until veraison and 50% of ETo (RDIL) thereafter or received 50% of ETo between fruit set and veraison (RDIE) and 70% thereafter. Mechanical shoot thinning (CLM) removed 25% of the total shoots, exposing 70,600 shoots·ha−1 with a distance of 4.6 cm between count shoots on the cordon, which translated to four leaf layers and 12.6 m2 leaf area. The combination of the CLM and RDIE decreased berry weight at harvest by 12% without decreasing yield compared to HP, resulting in 21.5 tons·ha−1 yield. A combination of CLM and RDIE was needed to achieve vine balance with a crop load of 9.9 kg yield/kg pruning weight and a leaf area to fruit ratio of 0.75 m2·kg−1. The study identified a canopy management method that can be used in combination with regulated deficit irrigation that reduces input costs through mechanization and enhances berry composition with a vine balance that provides sustainable production.


We consider learning a sparse pairwise Markov Random Field (MRF) with continuous-valued variables from i.i.d samples. We adapt the algorithm of Vuffray et al. (2019) to this setting and provide finite-sample analysis revealing sample complexity scaling logarithmically with the number of variables, as in the discrete and Gaussian settings. Our approach is applicable to a large class of pairwise MRFs with continuous variables and also has desirable asymptotic properties, including consistency and normality under mild conditions. Further, we establish that the population version of the optimization criterion employed in Vuffray et al. (2019) can be interpreted as local maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). As part of our analysis, we introduce a robust variation of sparse linear regression a` la Lasso, which may be of interest in its own right.


Biological properties of the arene–ruthenium complexes have attracted substantial current interest. Their activity is appreciably defined and controlled by the arene moieties, organic ligands and the metal center. In this review, we discuss the interaction of arene–ruthenium complexes with significant biomolecular targets (DNA and enzymes). Principally, active complexes may interact with the biomolecular targets DNA or nucleobases either by direct coordination facilitated by aquation of the complex or by intercalation/stacking of the pendant planar part of the complex, usually from the planar ancillary ligands or arenes with extended rings, between the DNA base pairs. On the other hand, kinetically inert metal complexes can also provide a potential tool (as enzyme inhibitors) for the targeting of important biomolecules (other than DNA), such as protein kinases. At the same time, coordination with a metal facilitates the outreach of the organic molecules in the intracellular region. This review also highlights the photodriven activation of arene–ruthenium complexes, important metal–drug interactions and the potential of multinuclear scaffolds as important drug candidates (e.g., metallodendrimers) and drug carriers (e.g. metallacages) for targeted delivery and activity.


When energetic heavy ions irradiate a deuteride titanium target, a number of recoil deuterium atoms are produced in the solid. The recoil deuterium atoms cause deuteron-deuteron (d-d) fusion reactions in solids. The probability of the d-d fusion reaction has been calculated for the primary colliding deuterium atoms, as well as the collision cascade deuterium atoms. Based on calculated results, an experiment using a heavy-ion accelerator was proposed to study d-d fusion in solids. The enhancement effect on d-d fusion in solids is particularly interesting. The experimental parameters were as follows: The energy of the ion beam for the d-d fusion experiment was in the range from several to several tens of mega-electron-volts for an experiment with an iodine ion beam and a titanium target. The enhancement effect in the solid is evaluated by comparing the experimental results with the present calculated results. The existence of the enhancement at low energies can be confirmed by measuring the depth profile of the fusion probabilities. Reported experimental data have been analyzed by the calculated results. The enhancement has not been found in the data.


The twentieth annual meeting of the Academy was held jointly with the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the Brown Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, November 12 to 14, 1953.
On the afternoon of Friday, November the 13th, a general session was held in the Ball Room of the Brown Hotel at which Vice-President George R. Callender presided. The presentation of the Theobald Smith Medal of the American Academy of Tropical Medicine was made by Dr. Asa C. Chandler to Dr. R. E. Dyer. This was followed by a Symposium entitled "Global Interest in Tropical Medicine". Four splendid presentations were made by: (1) Dr. Frank P. Corrigan, United States Mission, United Nations, New York, N. Y., "Political Implications of Global Tropical Medicine", (2) Dr. Stacy May, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc., New York, N.Y., "Economic Interests in Global Tropical Medicine", (3) Brig. Gen. Thomas R. Phillips, Washington, D. C., "The Military Aspect of Global Tropical Medicine", (4) Dr. Jacques May, American Geographical Society, New York, N. Y., "Cultural Consideration in Global Tropical Medicine".


ABSTRACT Conidia are used as inocula for the in vitro susceptibility testing of Aspergillus fumigatus. Since the MIC is defined on the basis of visible mycelial growth, conidia should germinate and produce sporelings (germinated conidia) for monitoring of the growth inhibition and fungicidal activity of a drug. If a compound is capable of inhibiting germination of conidia while affecting or not affecting the growth of the organism, the MIC obtained will be the concentration of the drug required for the inhibition of conidial germination but not necessarily that required for inhibition of the growth of the organism. We investigated the susceptibility of germinated and ungerminated conidia to amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole, and SCH56592. The MICs of various antifungal agents for germinated conidia were almost identical to those obtained for ungerminated conidia. In addition, both the germinated and ungerminated conidia were killed with almost equal efficiency by all of the compounds tested when exposed to the drugs for 24 h. These results suggest that either germinated or ungerminated conidia could be used as inocula for in vitro susceptibility studies of A. fumigatus with identical results.


Should social media companies ban Holocaust denial from their platforms? What about conspiracy theorists that spew hate? Does good corporate citizenship mean platforms should remove offensive speech or tolerate it? The content moderation rules that companies develop to govern speech on their platforms will have significant implications for the future of freedom of expression. Given the prospects for compelling platforms to respect users' free speech rights are bleak within the U.S. system, what can be done to protect this important right?

In June 2018, the United Nations' top expert for freedom of expression called on companies to align their speech codes with standards embodied in international human rights law, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). After the controversy over de-platforming Alex Jones in August 2018, Twitter's CEO agreed that his company should root its values in international human rights law and Facebook referenced this body of law in discussing its content moderation policies.

This is the first article to explore what companies would need to do to align the substantive restrictions in their speech codes with Article 19 of the ICCPR, which is the key international standard for protecting freedom of expression. In order to examine this issue in a concrete way, this Article assesses whether Twitter's hate speech rules would need to be modified. This Article also evaluates potential benefits and concerns with aligning corporate speech codes with this international standard. The Article concludes it would be both feasible and desirable for companies to ground their speech codes in this standard; however, further multi-stakeholder discussions would be helpful in clarifying certain issues that arise in translating international human rights law into a corporate context.


We propose a broadcast message forwarding algorithm for V2V communication in a platooning scenario for heavy duty trucks. The algorithm utilizes link information, which is piggybacked on the original data packet, to estimate which nodes are best suited to forward the packet. The aim is to reach all nodes in the platoon with as few forward messages as possible in order to avoid channel congestion. The algorithm is evaluated by simulation using real world V2V measurement data as input. We show that the algorithm performs almost as good as two ETSI standardized forwarding algorithms with respect to keeping the data age for the entire platoon at a low level. But when it comes to keeping the message intensity low, our algorithm outperforms the better of the ETSI algorithms by 35%.


This document defines an UNSELECT command that can be used to close the current mailbox in an Internet Message Access Protocol - version 4 (IMAP4) session without expunging it. Certain types of IMAP clients need to release resources associated with the selected mailbox without selecting a different mailbox. While IMAP4 provides this functionality (via a SELECT command with a nonexistent mailbox name or reselecting the same mailbox with EXAMINE command), a more clean solution is desirable.


With this article we hope to encourage researchers and practitioners in the field of Performative Social Science (PSS) to design research in which researchers and practitioners co-produce knowledge that can advance theory and practice in a given domain. In doing so, their work will contribute to the process of knowledge productivity and learning. We believe that identifying, gathering and interpreting relevant information, and using this information to develop new capabilities is crucial for success in our knowledge society. Co-producing knowledge asks for personal engagement. The kind of research that contributes to co-production of knowledge is emergent, elastic, and nonlinear (TYLER, 2006) and provides the opportunity for researchers and practitioners to collaborate, move along with the research as it unfolds, take changes in the environment and in people as an integral element of the research, and look for ways to improve the performance of the participants and their practice. This article contributes in two ways to the field of PSS. Firstly, it presents a model that connects researchers and practitioners in a collaborative learning experience as they wander through the stages of co-production. Secondly, it presents eight different methods that support the learning process of both researchers and practitioners through the different stages. These eight different methods show how art is used for the sake of aesthetics or beauty itself, and as a way of con- ducting research that enhances learning processes.


The largest contributor to biodiversity loss is habitat destruction caused by humans. A common consequence of habitat destruction is a reduction in the geographic range of a species. Little research has been done to separate the contribution of anthropogenic and environmental variables to the extinction or persistence of species that have experienced range contraction. In this thesis, I examined the relative effects of several variables (elevation, mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, human population density, distance from roads, and proportion of land converted to built-up land, cropland, and rangeland) on the geographic ranges of declining bird and mammal species from all continents except Antarctica. Species were examined separately to determine which variables might have influenced the contraction in the ranges of individual species. The results of each variable were compiled both by individual species and by continent. My results suggest environmental variables have a greater effect on species persistence and extinction than do the anthropogenic variables I tested. Mean annual precipitation was most often identified as having a positive or negative influence on species persistence. The findings of this study provide a comprehensive assessment of the effects of environmental and anthropogenic variables on the persistence of both individual species and all species from each of the 6 continents included in the analyses. These findings could allow conservation biologists to better predict areas where a declining species will persist, thereby enabling the prioritization of areas for the establishment of wildlife reserves.


In this paper limit theorems for the conditional distributions of linear test statistics are proved. The assertions are conditioned by the sigma-field of permutation symmetric sets. Limit theorems are proved both for the conditional distributions under the hypothesis of randomness and under general contiguous alternatives with independent but not identically distributed observations. The proofs are based on results on limit theorems for exchangeable random variables by Strasser and Weber. The limit theorems under contiguous alternatives are consequences of an LAN-result for likelihood ratios of symmetrized product measures. The results of the paper have implications for statistical applications. By example it is shown that minimum variance partitions which are defined by observed data (e.g. by LVQ) lead to asymptotically optimal adaptive tests for the k-sample problem. As another application it is shown that conditional k-sample tests which are based on data-driven partitions lead to simple confidence sets which can be used for the simultaneous analysis of linear contrasts. (author's abstract)


A molecular description of the nerve terminal will be required to understand synaptic function fully. The goals of this study were to contribute toward such a description by characterizing a novel synapse- specific protein. A monoclonal antibody library was screened for antibodies to synaptic proteins. The antibodies were then used to isolate cDNA clones by expression screening. Here we report a detailed characterization of the protein reactive with monoclonal antibody F1– 20. Immunohistochemical and biochemical analyses revealed that the F1– 20 protein is synapse associated. Western blot analyses revealed that the F1–20 protein is a brain-specific polypeptide with an apparent molecular weight on SDS-PAGE of 190,000 Da. Northern blot analyses indicated that probes generated from an F1–20 cDNA clone hybridize to a single brain-specific mRNA of approximately 4.8 kilobases. In situ hybridization experiments demonstrated that F1–20 mRNA expression is neuronal specific. Northern and Western blot analyses indicated that F1– 20 mRNA levels increase abruptly at postnatal day 4 and protein levels increase abruptly at postnatal day 7. This corresponds to a period of active synaptogenesis and synaptic maturation in the mouse CNS. We characterized the neuroanatomical distribution of the F1–20 protein by immunohistochemistry, and of the F1–20 mRNA by in situ hybridization. We found that the F1–20 mRNA and protein are expressed nonuniformly in brain. Variation in the expression of the F1–20 protein is complex and reveals patterns also exhibited by probes directed against other synapse-associated molecules. The highest levels of F1–20 protein are found in the cortically organized regions of the brain. The highest levels of F1–20 mRNA are found in long-distance projection neurons. There is also variation in the expression of F1–20 mRNA between different classes of large output neuron, as well as extensive variation in the expression of F1–20 mRNA between different nuclear groups.


Based on the concepts of cultural citizenship and media-constructed spaces of identity the article explores how issues of migration, residency and citizenship are discussed in the Austrian press. The authors are interested in two questions: Which spaces of identity does media create for migrants and locals? And which markers of citizenship are used in migration policies? The analysed articles stem from a national quality paper (Der Standard), a very influential boulevard paper (Kronen Zeitung) and one of the major regional newspapers (Salzburger Nachrichten). The analysis focuses on four case studies: Arigona Zogaj and her family were denied permanent residency after having spent many years in Austria. In the only terrorist trial in Austria to date, Mona S. was symbolically excluded from Austrian citizenship. The reporting in these cases is contrasted with those related to two persons in the attention of public nterest– the famous opera singer Anna Netrebko and the actor Christoph Waltz –, who were granted citizenship rights on the grounds of exceptional cultural achievements in the interest of the Austrian nation. The media coverage shows that cultural dimensions of citizenship are used as important indicators for determining the entitlement to permanent residency and citizenship. Belonging to a nation is linked to cultural factors such as wearing the right clothes, behaving properly or speaking the language and having attended an Austrian school. Along these lines migrants are divided into two groups of good and bad foreigners, but issues of power and social hierarchies of gender, race and class are involved here as well. While this holds true for all three papers, the Boulevard press is adhering to an extremely personalized style, while the quality paper is linking the specific cases to the debate on migration policies and laws.


The various dance notation systems invented over the years have never succeeded in becoming part of choregraphic practices. Works are almost completely absorbed by the performance and are only handed down by tradition, more gesturally than orally. In dance, the very notion of a work is therefore problematic. This acknowledgement forms the basis of Frédéric Pouillaude's excellent aesthetic analysis.


Provider and researchers from the University of Cocody in Abidjan were faced with the challenge of adapting a user-centered approach to qualitative research endeavors in Cote d'Ivoire. Our cross-cultural team with expertise from multiple disciplines developed a novel approach for the cocoa sector. In observations, interviews, and co-creation groups with cocoa farmers, we explored concepts of success, productivity, and profitability both orally and visually. The resulting quality and level of farmer participation was enhanced, therefore improving research results.


The oceans are changing more rapidly than ever before. Unprecedented climatic variability is interacting with unmistakable long-term trends, all against a backdrop of intensifying human activities. What remains unclear, however, is how to evaluate whether conditions have changed sufficiently to provoke major responses of species, habitats, and communities. We developed a framework based on multimodel inference to define ecosystem-based thresholds for human and environmental pressures in the California Current marine ecosystem. To demonstrate how to apply the framework, we explored two decades of data using gradient forest and generalized additive model analyses, screening for nonlinearities and potential threshold responses of ecosystem states (n = 9) across environmental (n = 6) and human (n = 10) pressures. These analyses identified the existence of threshold responses of five ecosystem states to four environmental and two human pressures. Both methods agreed on threshold relationships in two cases: (1) the winter copepod anomaly and habitat modification, and (2) sea lion pup production and the summer mode of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Considered collectively, however, these alternative analytical approaches imply that as many as five of the nine ecosystem states may exhibit threshold changes in response to negative PDO values in the summer (copepods, scavengers, groundfish, and marine mammals). This result is consistent with the idea that the influence of the PDO extends across multiple trophic levels, but extends current knowledge by defining the nonlinear nature of these responses. This research provides a new way to interpret changes in the intensities of human and environmental pressures as they relate to the ecological integrity of the California Current ecosystem. These insights can be used to make more informed assessments of when and under what conditions intervention, preparation, and mitigation may enhance progress toward ecosystem-based management goals.


The tropical splenomegaly syndrome (TSS) is characterized by massive splenomegaly with hypersplenism, moderate hepatomegaly, and lymphocytic infiltration of the hepatic sinusoids. TSS is restricted to native residents of and visitors to the "malaria belt," which roughly encompasses equatorial regions of South America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. A 24 years old female patient gravida II and para I with gestational age 24 weeks from south west of Eritrea (Shelallo) Gash Barka presented with dizziness, general body weakness, and abdominal discomfort for 3 weeks and left upper quadrant swelling of three years duration. Other associate symptoms were palpitation and dyspnea. She had history of repeated malaria attack. Physical examination revealed massive hepatosplenomegaly and pallor. Hematological studies revealed that severe anemia Hgb 3.8 g/dL, WBC 2.2× 103/mm3, MCV 97.6fl. Platelet 30×103/mm3, and reticulocyte count was 7%. Peripheral smear examination revealed normocytic normochromic red blood cells. Bone marrow examination revealed marked erythroid hyperplasia without sign of malignancy and left shift. The patient received 11 units of blood preoperative but, no improvement Hb remaining 3.7g/dl. Elective splenectomy was done. Intra-operatively and postoperatively she received an additional 5 units of blood. There was no postoperative complication. The patient was discharged with Hb of 6.0g/dl with slight improvement. The response to splenectomy was good. Four months postoperative and 40 days post delivery Hbg 16.3g/dl and platelet 254,000/mm and WBC 5000/ mm3. The outcome and prognosis of splenectomy in this patient was satisfactory.


Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp) is an environmental bacterial pathogen that causes potentially lethal sepsis in susceptible individuals and is considered a Category B, Tier-1 biothreat agent. As such, it is crucial to gain an improved understanding of protective immunity and potential vaccine candidates. The nature of immune correlates dictating why most exposed individuals in endemic regions undergo asymptomatic seroconversion while others succumb to life-threatening sepsis is largely uncharted. Bp seroreactive, immunogenic proteins have previously been identified by antigen microarray. We here set out to conduct an analysis of T-cell recognition of the Bp immunome using serodominant antigens represented in the original antigen microarray, examining immune correlates of disease in healthy seropositive individuals and those with acute disease or in convalescence. By screening a library of 739 overlapping peptides representing the sequences of 20 different Bp antigens, we aimed to define immune correlates of protection at the level of immunoprevalent T-cell epitopes. Responses to a large number of epitopes were common in healthy seropositive individuals: we found remarkably broad responsiveness to Bp epitopes, with 235 of 739 peptides recognized by ≥80% of all tested donors. The cumulative response to Bp epitopes in healthy, seropositive, donors from this endemic region were of the order of thousands of spot forming cells per million cells, making Bp recognition a significant component of the T-cell repertoire. Noteworthy among our findings, analysis revealed 10 highly immunoprevalent T-cell epitopes, able to induce Bp-specific IFNγ responses that were high in responding T-cell frequency within the repertoire, and also common across individuals with different human leukocyte antigen types. Acute melioidosis patients showed poor T-cell responses to the immunoprevalent epitopes, but acquired responsiveness following recovery from infection. Our findings suggest that a large repertoire of CD4 T cells, high in frequency and with broad coverage of antigens and epitopes, is important in controlling Bp infection. This offers an attractive potential strategy for subunit or epitope-based vaccines.


While Britain after the Second World War was a country in ruins, it was also a country buoyed by visions of the future. Street furniture played a key role in how such visions were realized, and many in the design community optimistically believed that better lampposts, benches and parking meters would help create a better Britain - one that was more beautiful, civilised, modern and tasteful than the country before the war. However, while many people agreed that good street furniture was important, few could agree on what constituted good design or who should be responsible. As a consequence, street furniture emerged as a particularly divisive topic in post-war Britain, drawing strong feelings across Britain's social, political and cultural spectrum.

One particularly loud voice within this debate was The Architectural Review (AR), which perceived street furniture as the acid test of good town design. Through its series Townscape, the AR developed a highly aestheticized, utopian expression of postwar urban planning, in which Britain was re-imagined through modernist idioms and picturesque references. By contrast, the magazine's 1955 Outrage campaign depicted the dystopian – or rather, subtopian – reality. Yet while 'Townscape' represented Britain as the AR wished it to be, Outrage represented the magazine's resistance against the prevailing social order, in which the true townscape was under threat from anonymous amenity committees in local government, whose lack of design awareness was allowing landscapes to be ruined by miles of cable and wiring, ugly lampposts and pylons, inappropriately designed benches, as well as a host of other overpowering alien elements. For the AR, 'the treatment of the fringe is often symptomatic of what is happening at the core', and poor quality street furniture reflected a broader malaise within British society. But the struggle raises certain questions, among them: what does the AR's engagement with the street furniture debate tell us about the utopian spirit in post-war British design culture?

This paper will address that question by examining how the AR fought to realize its utopian visions and shame those responsible for the subtopian reality. Using drawings, photographs, essays and letters, it will explore how different understandings of what the street needed - and didn't need - reflected a power struggle between the avant-garde, design philistines and the increasingly vocal 'untrained masses' in post-war Britain.

(This paper is the third part of a panel titled 'Convictions, conflicts and compromises: debates about 'good' design and the future of Britain 1939-77' put together by Dr Harriet Atkinson, Dr Jessica Kelly and Dr Eleanor Herring).


The Suez crisis is generally considered to be a decisive turning-point in Canada's relations with Great Britain. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester Pearson refused to support Britain's military action in Egypt, choosing instead to work through the United Nations for a resolution of the conflict. It seemed that Canada was repudiating a subservient role and declaring its final independence from the mother country. However, the documentary record shows that Canadian politicians and diplomats were in fact eager to work for what they believed to be Britain's good. In their view, Britain had temporarily lost sight of its own, and the western world's, best interests. During the years immediately after Suez, support for British policies was a priority of Canadian diplomats, most notably Arnold Smith, Canada's ambassador to Egypt from 1958 to 1960. Smith played an important role in the resumption of diplomatic relations between Britain and Egypt. Drawing on previously unused documents in the files of the Department of External Affairs, this paper outlines Canadian views of, and Canada's relationship to, British policy in the Middle East during and after Suez. It demonstrates that a "colony to nation" framework is inadequate for the study of the Anglo-Canadian relationship in the years following World War II. Instead, the broader context of Cold War politics must be taken into consideration. The paper also shows that despite the surface differences between Liberal and Conservative foreign policy, there were strong elements of continuity between the St. Laurent and Diefenbaker governments.


There is a need from both academia and industry for more accurate and efficient methods for predicting the behavior of ships in a seaway. A large variety of methods with varying level of sophistication and accuracy already exists today. However, with the current trend of building very large ships and focus turning more and more towards safety, energy efficiency and fuel consumption, nonlinear phenomena are becoming more important and many of the traditional methods fail to capture the physics involved in the flow that determines the wave induced loads and ship motions. The overall objective of this project is the development and implementation of a fully nonlinear unsteady three-dimensional boundary element method (BEM) for ship motion analysis. As a first step, presented in this thesis, the performance of the method for the diffraction problem including forward speed effects is investigated before continuing with the second step: the inclusion of the equations of motion to allow for the analysis of the complete diffraction-radiation problem, i.e. ship motions. Results from two different validation cases are presented; the calm water wave resistance and wave making for the Series 60 hull and the wave induced loads on a Wigley hull making forward speed in regular long-crested waves. In the first case the results are compared with both experimental data as well as with numerical results from an existing and fully nonlinear steady-state method. In the second case the results are compared with experimental data only. The method has proved to perform well in the test cases employed. Concerning wave resistance, the current method performs equally well as the steady-state method. The performance in the prediction of wave induced forces is satisfactory and falls within the expectation. The trends are captured in a broad sense and force magnitudes are typically within 5% of experimental data although some data points show a larger discrepancy.


o-Carboryne (1,2-dehydro-o-carborane) is a very reactive intermediate that can be generated in situ from 1-Br-2-Li-1,2-C2B10H10, 1-I-2-Li-1,2-C2B10H10 or 1-Me3Si-2-[IPh(OAc)]-1,2-C2B10H10. It exists in two resonance forms, a bonding form vs. a biradical form. Each form demonstrates unique reactivity patterns. o-Carboryne can undergo various types of reactions such as [4 + 2]/[2 + 2] cycloaddition, ene reaction, hydrogen abstraction, and sp(2)/sp(3) C-H bond insertion reaction with a broad spectrum of substrates including alkenes, alkynes, (hetero)aromatics, ethers, and ferrocenes. It is a very useful synthon for generating a variety of functionalized carboranes that have potential applications in medicine, materials science and organometallic/coordination chemistry. This perspective offers an overview of recent advances in this interesting research field.


This study examines college students' awareness of genetically modified (GM) foods and whether it alters his or her eating behaviors. This study draws on data from a sample of 318 undergraduate students enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, who completed an online survey via Qualtrics. The survey looked specifically at how aware students are of genetically modified foods, and how many GM meals he or she consumes per week. The results of this survey showed a strong correlation between higher levels of awareness and more consumption of GM food. These findings suggest that people with less awareness of GM food may be uninformed of the prevalence of genetically altered food in our society.


The authors' goal is to establish a flexible programming support for evolving systems that will enable one to modify programs using less labor, while maintaining good quality during service life. EVA (evolution mechanism for flexible agent) was developed to allow a flexible programming support system to be constructed based on their programming method for evolving systems. They consider that programming methods for evolving systems need to satisfy the following essential conditions. First, they need to make it easy to specify changes in a system in terms of new requirements. Second, they need to have a procedure for transmitting the new requirements to a program. Third, they need to be able to guarantee that the resultant program will meet the new requirements. Finally, because of the repetitive nature of much evolving systems work, they need to provide for the reuse of similar modifications during programming. In order to overcome limitations in program modification techniques which have only considered programming products, programming processes have been introduced into the method. To achieve their goal, they have formulated programming products and programming processes using such formal techniques as functional programming, type theory, modules, parameterized programming and natural deduction, and have constructed a mechanism of reusing these formal programming processes. The paper explains a case study which shows how to develop an evolving system using EVA and it discusses how one can use EVA's mechanism effectively.


Barrett's esophagus is a common condition resulting from gastroesophageal reflux with the potential for dysplastic and even neoplastic transformation. The mainstays of treatment of Barrett's esophagus are control of reflux via medical therapy, namely PPIs, or anti-reflux surgery. Fundoplication provides excellent long-term reflux control and may provide the added benefit of preventing progression of dysplasia in those with Barrett's esophagus. Furthermore, effective anti-reflux surgery may promote regression of already present dysplasia. The purpose of this article is to review the potential advantages of utilizing anti-reflux surgery over medical management by summarizing the available literature detailing the ability of anti-reflux to control reflux, possibly prevent cancer progression, and induce regression of dysplasia. Furthermore, we review some of the alterations that occur on a molecular level that may be promoting these beneficial changes post-fundoplication.


28 Biofilm inhibition by exogenous molecules has been an attractive strategy for the development 29 of novel therapeutics. We investigated the biofilm inhibitor taurolithocholic acid (TLCA) and its 30 effects on the specialized metabolism, virulence and biofilm formation of the clinically relevant 31 bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14. Our study shows that TLCA alters specialized 32 metabolism, thereby affecting P. aeruginosa colony biofilm physiology. We observed an 33 upregulation of metabolites correlated to virulence such as the siderophore pyochelin. A wax 34 moth virulence assay confirmed that treatment with TLCA increases virulence of P. aeruginosa . 35 Based on our results, we believe that future endeavors to identify biofilm inhibitors must 36 consider how a putative lead is altering the specialized metabolism of a bacterial community to 37 prevent pathogens from entering a highly virulent state.


In November 2006 Dr. Peter W. Schuhmann, a natural resource economist from the University of North Carolina Wilmington met with a group of stakeholders at the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) UWI-Cave Hill to discuss potential research priorities for his upcoming (2007) research sabbatical in Barbados. Attendees included individuals from UWI Cave Hill, the Barbados Ministry of Tourism, the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, the Environment Division and the Coastal Zone Management Unit. After a brief presentation on economic valuation of natural resources, the group discussed potential areas for research that would serve as a benefit to Barbados. Many areas for valuation work were discussed, including the value of beach width, beach cleanliness, coastal fisheries, marine protected areas and coral reef quality. The valuation of beach and reef characteristics to tourists and the economic impacts resulting from changes in quality were flagged as priority issues.

With funding provided by The Ministry of Tourism and in cooperation with the Caribbean Tourism Organization, a valuation survey instrument was designed and tested in the spring of 2007. In addition to collecting information on respondent characteristics and perceptions of their travel experience in Barbados, the survey included a choice modeling questionnaire designed to elicit tourist preferences and willingness to pay for lodging attributes, including characteristics of the beach nearest to the lodging location. This report summarizes the results of the survey and the accompanying econometric analysis.


Improving access to justice has been an ongoing but frustrating goal of our society. The theme of this book is that we have new technological tools to resolve disputes and new tools to prevent disputes. Alternative dispute resolution, namely, mediation and arbitration, brought dispute resolution out of court. Digital Justice introduces the reader to Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and processes that are bringing dispute resolution to cyberspace, where those who would never look to a court for assistance can find help via a smartphone. This book focuses particular attention on five areas — e-commerce, healthcare, social media, labor, and courts — that have seen great innovation as well as large volumes of disputes. Conflict is a by-product of innovation and we undoubtedly need new laws and regulations. But that is not enough. We will never have enough courts or judges. We also need new dispute resolution processes and, equally important, new ways to avoid disputes, something that has been neglected by those seeking to improve access to justice in the past.


In this paper we address the text to scene image generation problem. Generative models that capture the variability in complicated scenes containing rich semantics is a grand goal of image generation. Complicated scene images contain rich visual elements, compositional visual concepts, and complicated relations between objects. Generative models, as an analysis-by-synthesis process, should encompass the following three core components: 1) the generation process that composes the scene; 2) what are the primitive visual elements and how are they composed; 3) the rendering of abstract concepts into their pixel-level realizations. We propose PNP-Net, a variational auto-encoder framework that addresses these three challenges: it flexibly composes images with a dynamic network structure, learns a set of distribution transformers that can compose distributions based on semantics, and decodes samples from these distributions into realistic images.


At a time when the label "conservative" is indiscriminately applied to fundamentalists, populists, libertarians, fascists and the advocates of one or another orthodoxy, this book offers a historically informed presentation of what is distinctive about conservative social and political thought. It is an anthology with an argument, locating the origins of modern conservatism within the Enlightenment and distinguishing between conservatism and orthodoxy. Bringing togther important specimens of European and American conservative social and political analysis from the mid-18th century through to our own day, the book demonstrates that while the particular institutions that conservatives have sought to conserve have varied, there are characteristic features of conservative argument that recur over time and across national borders. The book proceeds chronologically through the following sections: "Enlightenment Conservatism" (David Hume, Edmund Burke and Justus Moser), "The Critique of Revolution" (Burke, Louis de Bonald, Joesph de Maistre, James Madison and Rufus Choate), "Authority" (Matthew Arnold, James Fitzjames Stephen), "Inequality" (W.H. Mallock, Joseph A. Schumpter), "The Critique of Good Intentions" (William Graham Sumner), "War" (T.E. Hulme), "Democracy" (Carl Schmitt, Schumpeter), "The Limits of Rationalism" (Winston Churchill, Michael Oakeshott, Friedrich Hayek, Edward Banfield), "The Critique of Social and Cultural Emancipation" (Irving Kristol, Peter Berger and Richard John Neuhaus, Hermann Lubbe), and "Between Social Science and Cultural Criticism" (Arnold Gehlen, Philip Rieff). The book contains an afterword on recurrent tensions and dilemmas of conservative thought.