Protection of public health from the effects of air particulate matter (PM) requires measurements and methods that assess the PM chemical constituents, physical properties, and their sources. Sampling was conducted at three sites in the Baltimore area: a source-oriented (industrial) area in south Baltimore (FMC site), and two receptor area sites (Clifton Park and Ponca Street). FMC measurements were made for the initial 1-month of the project; Clifton measurements lasted for about 2 months, while measurements at Ponca Street lasted for about 9.5 months. Pollutant samples were collected at intervals ranging from 5min to 1 h using semi-continuous monitors for PM2.5 mass, sulfate, nitrate, elemental and organic carbon, particle number size distributions (10–20,000 nm), CO, NOx, O3, 11 metals, and mass spectra of individual particles, throughout the project. In addition to standard meteorological measurements, a 3D-sonic anemometer and a LIDAR system were operated during selected periods as were a rotating drum impactor with 3to 6-h resolution and a filter/PUF sampler for 3-h measurements of organic compounds. Standard speciation and FRM mass measurements were also made. This report describes the types of measurements that were made at the various sites of the Baltimore Supersite program as well as presents the summary statistics for some of the PM measurements that have been made. The measurements of aerosol mass, major components, and size distribution data for the three sites are compared. Results show comparable PM concentrations at Ponca Street and Clifton Park. Increased variability was observed at Ponca Street. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


A NUMERICAL MODEL OF THE FRICTION STIR PLUNGE Stanford W. McBride Department of Mechanical Engineering Master of Science A Lagrangian finite-element model of the plunge phase of the friction stir welding process was developed to better understand the plunge. The effects of both modeling and experimental parameters were explored, Experimental friction stir plunges were made in AA 7075-T6 at a plunge rate of 0.724 mm/s with spindle speeds ranging from 400 to 800 rpm. Comparable plunges were modeled in Forge2005. Various simulation parameters were explored to assess the effect on temperature prediction. These included the heat transfer coefficient between the tool and workpiece (from 0 to 2000 W/m-K), mesh size (node counts from 1,200 to 8,000), and material model (five different constitutive relationships). Simulated and measured workpiece temperatures were compared to evaluate model quality. As spindle speed increases, there is a statistically significant increase in measured temperature. However, over the range of spindle speeds studied, this difference is only about 10% of the measured temperature increase. Both the model and the simulation show a similar influence of spindle speed on temperature. The tool-workpiece heat transfer coefficient has a minor influence (<25% temperature change) on simulated peak temperature. Mesh size has a moderate influence (<40% temperature change) on simulated peak temperature, but a mesh size of 3000 nodes is sufficient. The material model has a high influence (>60% temperature change) on simulated peak temperature. Overall, the simulated temperature rise error was reduced from 300% to 50%. It is believed that this can be best improved in the future by developing improved material models.


Blue minerals and gems have always been subjects of fascination to man. In particular lapislazuli is and was highly esteemed and also used as a precious stone and as a pigment. The host compound is the zeolite-type sodalite and the colour centres are S2– and S3–, whose amount ratio determines the specific hue, varying from violet blue to blue to green. But Se2– can also be substituted into the sodalite cages in high percentages, giving the pigment a brilliant red colour. It is even possible to incorporate the rather voluminous radical species Te2 and Te2– into the sodalite matrix. Because the otherwise unstable colour centres are completely screened from the atmosphere and isolated from each other in the cages, they can be fully characterised by various spectroscopic techniques.


Recent evidence that pitch-movement shape can influence perceived alignment of rising (LH) pitch accents in several languages appears to challenge the well-established level-based approach to intonation embodied in the AM model, wherein it is typically assumed that the alignment and scaling of welldefined turning points (TPs) in the F0 contour are the primary phonetic correlates of contrastive accent category. Here we present the results of 2 experiments, arguing that a new approach to tonal implementation succeeds in reconciling these apparent contradictions. This approach, based on the notion of a perceptual reference point called Tonal Center of Gravity (TCoG), treats information about contour shape and TP-localization not in 'either-or' terms, but rather as two sets of cues working in a fundamentally synergistic way toward a single perceptual end: the alignment and scaling of TCoG. Experiment 1 shows that TCoG-based models can perform better at distinguishing productions of English L+H* and L*+H pitch accents than comparable TP-only-based models; Experiment 2 shows that TCoG is more robust than TP-only-based models to ambiguities in TP localization commonly encountered in F0 signals from natural speech. TCoG is shown to capture key insights of movement-based approaches to intonation, without abandoning the central advantages of level-based approaches like AM.


An organization's absorptive capacity, or its ability to acquire and use knowledge, is important for facilitating innovation that can lead to improvements in organizational performance. We examine the effects of absorptive capacity on open source software development group performance. Specifically, in addition to the commonly noted importance of OSS developers, the role of the Internet-based user community is introduced as fundamental in developing absorptive capacity for open source software development projects. We suggest that the Internet-based user community and the development group enhance the open source software project's absorptive capacity by strengthening two salient capabilities: knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer. Practical implications developed from these findings are presented.


Following an editorial introduction and a somewhat cliché-ridden preface about the power of music, fourteen writers offer eleven short stories and three personal essays inspired by popular rock and folk songs from various decades. The authors include such literary notables as Ellen Oh, James Howe, Beth Kephart, David Arnold and Ellen Hopkins, and others known more for their musical accomplishments, such as Ameriie, Donn T, and G. Love, and the pieces themselves show some diversity in terms of prose genres, including memoirs, stories behind the lyrics, and realistic, magical realist, and speculative fiction. While most of the inspirational songs are mainstream MTV and Grammy favorites, interfering with the book's stated goal of spurring teen readers to musical discovery, the entries are compelling. Mood ranges from humorous (Arnold), to very dark (Hopkins), to uplifting (Howe, Kephart, Donn T), to melancholy (Oh). Also included are a creepy attempted rape/revenge fantasy, mean girl realism, and a few unusual romances. Given teens' attachment to music, this range could inspire their own experiments to use song lyrics as a springboard for imaginative genre fiction and creative nonfiction. KC


On 26 January 2012, at the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, a number of Aboriginal activists from across Australia re-asserted the uninterrupted continuity of Aboriginal sovereignty in Australia. New tent embassies appeared in various urban centres (such as Brisbane, Perth and Moree) and on 24 May 2012 at Sandon Point a number of activists discussed the establishment of a National Unity Government. This paper will explore both the broader political context within which Aboriginal sovereignty claims are voiced – by looking at the growing number of similar assertions across Australia – and the legal documents and doctrines involved in such claims – such as, for example, the Pacific Islanders' Protection Acts (1872 and 1875) and the Doctrine of Discovery – and their implications for any hegemonic assertion of sovereignty. A distinctive feature of contemporary claims to Aboriginal sovereignty is the inscription of such claims within arguments fully articulated in the colonial legal language. While this strategy is constitutive and productive of actions that are intrinsically shaped and determined by the colonial event, the strategic choices independently adopted by Aboriginal sovereignty advocates also create intersecting spaces that constitute a creative terrain for a meaningful dialogue about post-colonial identity.


ABSTRACT Triphenyltin (TPT)-degrading bacteria were screened by a simple technique using a post-column high-performance liquid chromatography using 3,3′,4′,7-tetrahydroxyflavone as a post-column reagent for determination of TPT and its metabolite, diphenyltin (DPT). An isolated strain, strain CNR15, was identified as Pseudomonas chlororaphis on the basis of its morphological and biochemical features. The incubation of strain CNR15 in a medium containing glycerol, succinate, and 130 μM TPT resulted in the rapid degradation of TPT and the accumulation of approximately 40 μM DPT as the only metabolite after 48 h. The culture supernatants of strain CNR15, grown with or without TPT, exhibited a TPT degradation activity, whereas the resting cells were not capable of degrading TPT. TPT was stoichiometrically degraded to DPT by the solid-phase extract of the culture supernatant, and benzene was detected as another degradation product. We found that the TPT degradation was catalyzed by low-molecular-mass substances (approximately 1,000 Da) in the extract, termed the TPT-degrading factor. The other fluorescent pseudomonads,P. chlororaphis ATCC 9446, Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 13525, and Pseudomonas aeruginosaATCC 15692, also showed TPT degradation activity similar to strain CNR15 in the solid-phase extracts of their culture supernatants. These results suggest that the extracellular low-molecular-mass substance that is universally produced by the fluorescent pseudomonad could function as a potent catalyst to cometabolite TPT in the environment.


Method discounting cash flow (DCF) is analyzed in the article. Article is demonstrating complete economic insolvency DCF. The fallacy of discounting method causes serious distortion of the results. It's wide usage entails negative consequences not only for the concrete investor, but also for the economy on the whole. The new method of the phased approach to time value of money in economic analysis of investment is represented in our article. The recommended phased method of allowing for the time factor is distinguished by: • reducing investment projects' (IP) cash flow to two evaluation aspects: investments by investment stage completion and cash flow by maintenance completion; • allowing for investment stage fund freezing; • exchange of discount factors for the financial market's capital accrual rate. To test operability of allowing for the time factor in modeling IP economic flows, banks' feasibility study of credit repayment was used.


Conventional supported amine adsorbents to date are known to suffer from the trade-off between increasing amine content and decreasing access to amine sites. In this work, we propose a solution to this known issue by introducing substrates with multiple pore networks where each pore channel can be used for amine loading and gas diffusion. It was hypothesized that these types of substrates with a multi-pore system would allow for a high amine content without a decrease in diffusion speed or amine efficiency. As a proof of concept, a 3-dimensional silica mesoporous framework composed of agglomerated spheres of microporous zeolite beta was loaded with large or small amine-containing molecules. The resulting hybrid adsorbents include mesopores loaded with large amine molecules or micropores incorporating small amine molecules, where molecular recognition using different pore dimensions allows selective incorporation of amine groups according to their molecular size. As a result of this selective amine loading, the supported amine adsorbent system proposed here demonstrates fast sorption kinetics at all amine loadings while maintaining amine efficiencies near the theoretical maximum value, which has not been achieved in supported amine adsorbents of this class as yet. Thus, this work may unlock new opportunities for the study of solid amine adsorbents with high efficiency amine utilization and fast achievement of near equilibrium capacities.


ABSTRACT It is commonly assumed, at least by continental philosophers, that epistemological hermeneutics and foundationalism are incompatible. I argue that this assumption is mistaken. If I am correct, the analytic and continental traditions may be closer than is commonly supposed. Hermeneutics, as I will argue, is a descriptive claim about human cognition, and foundationalism is a normative claim about how beliefs ought to be related to one another. Once the positions are stated in this way, their putative incompatibility vanishes. Also, to inspire further research I include an appendix which contains an unfinished prototype of a hermeneutic foundationalism.


We present and comparatively evaluate two new object transformation techniques for multi-touch surfaces. Specifying complete two-dimensional similarity transformations requires a minimum of four degrees of freedom: two for position, one for rotation, and another for scaling. Many existing techniques for object transformation are designed to function with traditional input devices such as mice, single-touch surfaces, or stylus pens. The challenge is to map controls appropriately for each of these devices. A few multi-touch techniques have been proposed in the past, but no comprehensive evaluation has been presented.

XNT is a new three-finger object transformation technique, designed for multi-touch surfaces. It provides a natural interface for two-dimensional manipulation. XNT and several existing techniques were evaluated in a user study. The results show that XNT is superior for all tasks that involve scaling and competitive for tasks that involve only rotation and positioning.


Life meaning is important for psychological and physical health and well-being. Researchers have only recently looked at the presence of life meaning and the search for life meaning as separate constructs. In the current study, 731 adult respondents from the United States completed the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, which separately assesses the presence of meaning and the search for meaning, and measures of well-being. Presence and search for life meaning showed different relationships with well-being. Consistent with past research, the presence of meaning was positively associated with life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect and negatively associated with depression and negative affect, whereas the search for meaning overall had the opposite pattern of correlates. However, the search for meaning was positively associated with well-being—greater life satisfaction, more happiness, and less depression—among those who already had substantial meaning in their life. The search for meaning is not only morally worthy but as it succeeds, eventually satisfying. Implications of these results for interventions to promote mental health and well-being are discussed.


Abstract This study investigated the difference between concurrent and simultaneous use of alcohol and non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) in relation to mental, social, and health issues. The 544 study participants of the Swiss ongoing Cohort Study on Substance Use Risk Factors (C-SURF) had a combined use of alcohol with NMUPD during the previous 12 months. Alcohol-related problems (i.e., dependence and consequences), as well as mental, social, and health concerns (i.e., depression, general mental/physical health, and social/health consequences), were assessed. The simultaneous use of alcohol and NMUPD proved to be a greater risk factor for mental, social, and health issues than concurrent use. This study adds information regarding simultaneous polydrug use, which results in distinct effects compared to concurrent use, including important social, psychosocial, and health-related consequences.


Today, over 50,000 international treaties are in force, covering nearly every aspect of international affairs and nearly every facet of state authority. And yet many observers continue to argue that international law - with its general absence of central enforcement and its typically voluntary character - is ineffective, if not meaningless. This Article assesses and responds to this challenge, focusing on the largest area of public international law - treaties. Combining insights from both political science and legal scholarship, it offers a theory of state decisions regarding treaty laws that accounts for the key ways in which such laws shape state behavior. This integrated theory of international law seeks to explain why countries would commit to treaties that potentially constrain their behavior and how the treaty, once accepted, influences or fails to influence state behavior. I argue that commitment and compliance are reciprocal influences on each other. If compliance is very costly or carries few benefits, for instance, countries will be unlikely to join a treaty in the first place. As a result, states behave in ways that standard theories miss - failing to join treaties, for example, that they could easily comply with, or joining treaties that they have little inclination to obey. The theory emphasizes two central means by which treaties shape what countries do. The first is the enforcement of international treaties by transnational actors and by rule of law institutions within nations that join the treaty. In particular, domestic enforcement mechanisms are a crucial force pushing countries to comply with international treaties - and because they are, they are also a key influence upon countries' willingness to join such treaties in the first place. The second is the collateral consequences of treaty membership - that is, the anticipated consequences for, among other things, foreign aid and investment, trade, and domestic political support. Collateral consequences arise when domestic and transnational actors premise their actions toward a state on the state's decision to accept or not accept international legal rules. As I demonstrate using both new empirical evidence and reanalysis of earlier studies, the relationship between treaties and state behavior hinges significantly on these two factors. The Article thus offers a vision of the potential and the limits of international law that integrates and moves beyond existing accounts.


Aiming at ensuring that everyone obtains the rich rewards available in today's information-centred society, this book seeks to provide a systematic method for the understanding, appreciation and evaluation of information needs, which alone can guarantee the value of information to the consumer. Based on the insights gained from research projects involving hundreds of thousands of people, it sets out to provide a framework, firmly grounded in theory but nevertheless highly practical, for information needs analysis. The book is written both for librarians, publishers, archivists, records managers, journalists and other information professionals, to help them in their efforts to design improved systems and monitor the effectiveness of their services on an ongoing basis, and for individual information consumers, to enable them better to meet their own information needs in the expanding sphere of virtual information.


Does microenterprise have an impact on the local economy? Drawing on nearly 25 years of experience and five years of data collected from 753 clients, Women's Initiative examined the impact of our program on the local economy through increased sales, income, jobs, and sales tax. We found that, even as economic recovery and job growth remained weak in the U.S., our clients – the low-income, high potential women we serve – multiplied their annual gross revenue more than thirteenfold within the first 18 months after training, and in 2012 alone, our clients provided 2,313 jobs for others through their businesses. Including the jobs that they created for themselves, this amounted to a total of 5,317 local jobs created and retained in 2012. The findings in this report indicate that our program has had a significant impact on the local economy. For every $1 invested in our program, $30 was returned to the local economy within 18 months after training. Moreover, this return on investment accumulated each year as clients' businesses continued to thrive. Five years after training, the return on investment reached $108 for every $1 invested in our program, demonstrating that an investment in microenterprise has a powerful and sustainable economic impact on the community as well as on the individual entrepreneurs.


The National Bureau of Standards has been making optical calculations for well over a year, using both their new high-speed SEAC and the commercially available IBM Card Programmed Electronic Calculator.Formulas especially suitable for machine computation are presented here. These enable a general ray to be traced through a rotationally symmetrical system of spherical or nonspherical surfaces. Formulas are also given for computing first- and third-order coefficients for any centered optical system.The formulas are derived from well-known forms, but they are transformed so that none of the quantities used in the machine ever becomes indeterminate or infinite. The formulas for first- and third-order coefficients are simpler than those frequently given and are very convenient for hand calculation.


Objective. To compare etanercept (anti-tumor necrosis factor-α) with intraarticular (IA) corticosteroid injections to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Patients with RA who had persistent monoarthritis received etanercept or IA corticosteroid injections. Efficacy was compared at Weeks 4 and 24. Results. Thirty-four patients were included (8 dropped out). Mean age was 58.8 years. No difference between groups was found at Weeks 4 or 24, but both groups showed significant improvement at Weeks 4 and 24 compared to baseline. Conclusion. Etanercept and IA steroid injections resulted in significant improvement at Week 4 that persisted to Week 24. There was no significant difference in outcome between the groups.


This paper challenges claims made by Scrum proponents when characterising the communicative nature of user stories: including being more 'authentic' because they comprise spoken language and that they are stories. We argue and decisively demonstrate that neither can be upheld. By incorrectly characterising user stories, we miss opportunities to understand what they are and how they work during development. User stories are better understood by applying a functional theory of communication that emphasises how language is used. By selecting systemic functional linguistics, we can analyse user stories, and have developed a method for factoring unwanted epics into usable user stories.


Single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have potential for broad application in population and conservation genetics, but availability of these markers is limited in many nonmodel species. In this study, genomic and expressed sequence tagged (EST) sequences from closely related salmonids (Chinook salmon and rainbow trout) were used to design primers for amplification and sequencing of sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) and coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) salmon DNA for SNP discovery. One hundred and six primer sets were designed and tested for amplification in each species. An ascertainment panel of 32 diverse individuals from each species was used as template for PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing. In total, 21 647 bases of consensus sequence were screened in sockeye salmon and 20 784 bases in coho salmon with 93 and 149 SNP sites identified, respectively. Sixty‐four SNP sites were chosen for assay development, and 54 of the assays were validated by comparison with genotype and sequence data (O. nerka = 23; O. kisutch = 31). These validated SNP assays along with 142 other available SNP assays [O. nerka = 103 (126 total); O. kisutch = 30 (61 total)] were used to genotype collections of O. nerka (N = 5) and O. kisutch (N = 4) from various sites in the Columbia River to evaluate the utility of these markers in this region. Results from factorial correspondence analysis indicate that these SNP markers are capable of distinguishing O. nerka populations, but O. kisutch collections were less distinct because of their common ancestry.


BACKGROUND
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an established tool in diagnosing and evaluating disease activity in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). While clinical-radiological correlations are limited in general, hypointense T1 lesions (also known as Black Holes (BH)) have shown some promising results. The definition of BHs is very heterogeneous and depends on subjective visual evaluation.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed to improve clinical-radiological correlations by defining BHs using T1 relaxation time (T1-RT) thresholds to achieve best possible correlation between BH lesion volume and clinical disability.

METHOD
40 patients with mainly relapsing-remitting MS underwent MRI including 3-dimensional fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (MPRAGE) before and after Gadolinium (GD) injection and double inversion-contrast magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (MP2RAGE) sequences. BHs (BHvis) were marked by two raters on native T1-weighted (T1w)-MPRAGE, contrast-enhancing lesions (CE lesions) on T1w-MPRAGE after GD and FLAIR lesions (total-FLAIR lesions) were detected separately. BHvis and total-FLAIR lesion maps were registered to MP2RAGE images, and the mean T1-RT were calculated for all lesion ROIs. Mean T1 values of the cortex (CTX) were calculated for each patient. Subsequently, Spearman rank correlations between clinical scores (Expanded Disability Status Scale and Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite) and lesion volume were determined for different T1-RT thresholds.

RESULTS
Significant differences in T1-RT were obtained between all different lesion types with highest T1 values in visually marked BHs (BHvis: 1453.3±213.4 ms, total-FLAIR lesions: 1394.33±187.38 ms, CTX: 1305.6±35.8 ms; p<0.05). Significant correlations between BHvis/total-FLAIR lesion volume and clinical disability were obtained for a wide range of T1-RT thresholds. The highest correlation for BHvis and total-FLAIR lesion masks were found at T1-RT>1500 ms (Expanded Disability Status Scale vs. lesion volume: rBHvis = 0.442 and rtotal-FLAIR = 0.497, p<0.05; Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite vs. lesion volume: rBHvis = -0.53 and rtotal-FLAIR = -0.627, p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Clinical-radiological correlations in MS patients are increased by application of T1-RT thresholds. With the short acquisition time of the MP2RAGE sequences, quantitative T1 maps could be easily established in clinical studies.


Ethical decision-making presupposes the possession of a free will. Central to a discussion on reformed ethics is the question of the bounds of freedom of the will. The reformed tradition, along with the wider Christian tradition, affirms that the will is not free in the Pelagian sense of being absolutely free, but is constrained by the effects of humanity's fall from original righteousness. This ariticle considers the nature and extent to which the will is considered free, or no longer free at all. The question posed here, within the reformed theoretic ethical framework, is whether the will is so vitiated that a person is in- capable of any effective choice of action or inaction in the face of any moral dilemma, or does fallen humanity still possess some ability to make a free choice, albeit under conditions of impaired freedom of the will?


Objective To compare the efficacy and safety of subcutaneous (SC) and intravenous (IV) abatacept. Methods In this phase IIIb double-blind, double-dummy, 6-month study, patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and inadequate responses to methotrexate were randomized to receive 125 mg SC abatacept on days 1 and 8 and weekly thereafter (plus an IV loading dose [∼10 mg/kg] on day 1) or IV abatacept (∼10 mg/kg) on days 1, 15, and 29 and every 4 weeks thereafter. The primary end point for determining the noninferiority of SC abatacept to IV abatacept was the proportion of patients in each group meeting the American College of Rheumatology 20% improvement criteria (achieving an ACR20 response) at month 6. Other efficacy end points, immunogenicity, and safety were also assessed. Results Of 1,457 patients, 693 of 736 (94.2%) treated with SC abatacept and 676 of 721 (93.8%) treated with IV abatacept completed 6 months. At month 6, 76.0% (95% confidence interval 72.9, 79.2) of SC abatacept–treated patients versus 75.8% (95% confidence interval 72.6, 79.0) of IV abatacept–treated patients achieved an ACR20 response (estimated difference between groups 0.3% [95% confidence interval –4.2, 4.8]), confirming noninferiority of SC abatacept to IV abatacept. Onset and magnitude of ACR responses and disease activity and physical function improvements were comparable between the SC and IV abatacept–treated groups. The proportions of adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs over 6 months were 67.0% and 4.2%, respectively, in the SC abatacept–treated group and 65.2% and 4.9%, respectively, in the IV abatacept–treated group, with comparable frequencies of serious infections, malignancies, and autoimmune events between groups. SC injection site reactions (mostly mild) occurred in 19 SC abatacept (IV placebo)–treated patients (2.6%) and 18 IV abatacept (SC placebo)–treated patients (2.5%). Abatacept-induced antibodies occurred in 1.1% of SC abatacept–treated patients and 2.3% of IV abatacept–treated patients. Conclusion SC abatacept provides efficacy and safety comparable with that of IV abatacept, with low immunogenicity and high retention rates, consistent with the established IV abatacept profile. Rates of injection site reactions were low. SC abatacept will provide additional treatment options, such as an alternative route of administration, for patients with RA.


Myocardial infarction (MI) may produce significant inflammatory changes and adverse ventricular remodeling leading to heart failure and premature death. Pharmacologic, stem cell transplantation, and exercise have not halted the inexorable rise in the prevalence and great economic costs of heart failure despite extensive investigations of such treatments. New therapeutic modalities are needed. Whole Body Periodic Acceleration (pGz) is a non-invasive technology that increases pulsatile shear stress to the endothelium thereby producing several beneficial cardiovascular effects as demonstrated in animal models, normal humans and patients with heart disease. pGz upregulates endothelial derived nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and its phosphorylation (p-eNOS) to improve myocardial function in models of myocardial stunning and preconditioning. Here we test whether pGz applied chronically after focal myocardial infarction in rats improves functional outcomes from MI. Focal MI was produced by left coronary artery ligation. One day after ligation animals were randomized to receive daily treatments of pGz for four weeks (MI-pGz) or serve as controls (MI-CONT), with an additional group as non-infarction controls (Sham). Echocardiograms and invasive pressure volume loop analysis were carried out. Infarct transmurality, myocardial fibrosis, and markers of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines were determined along with protein analysis of eNOS, p-eNOS and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS).At four weeks, survival was 80% in MI-pGz vs 50% in MI-CONT (p< 0.01). Ejection fraction and fractional shortening and invasive pressure volume relation indices of afterload and contractility were significantly better in MI-pGz. The latter where associated with decreased infarct transmurality and decreased fibrosis along with increased eNOS, p-eNOS. Additionally, MI-pGz had significantly lower levels of iNOS, inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α), and higher level of anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10). pGz improved survival and contractile performance, associated with improved myocardial remodeling. pGz may serve as a simple, safe, non-invasive therapeutic modality to improve myocardial function after MI.


This paper studies the preferences and willingness-to-pay of individuals for volunteer water quality monitoring programs. The study involves supporting water quality monitoring at two ponds in the state of Rhode Island. The paper uses both a hypothetical and a real-payment contingent valuation survey to directly measure individual preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for volunteer water quality monitoring at the two ponds. The overall results of the study suggest that hypothetical WTP is not statistically greater than real WTP, and that the average survey respondent is willing to support water quality monitoring on one of the two ponds. The study also finds that the specified purpose of water quality monitoring and certain socioeconomic characteristics of a respondent significantly affect the respondent's decision to support volunteer water quality monitoring.


The peak load is the maximum daily processing capacity requirement in a warehouse, and is an alternative criterion for the storage location assignment problem in warehousing management. This paper addresses the problem of minimising the peak load in a storage/retrieval system with shared storage policy based on duration-of-stay of unit loads. A mixed integer programming model is presented. Two heuristics are developed to solve the problem. Their performances on different criteria are compared by computational tests.


Dating from 1917 to the end of the Cold War, the posters in this book feature the work of groundbreaking Russian artists such as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko, as well as extraordinary anonymous work. Presented in full colour and printed on heavy paper in a large-format, the posters gathered here represent the pinnacle of Russian avant-garde design from the 20th century. They range in theme from the dangers of alcohol abuse and the creeping Nazi menace to illustrations of utopian harmony and the Soviet industrial machine. A special feature of this book allows for the removal of the posters for display or framing. A brief introduction offers a chronological overview of the period that produced such eloquent art, which has long been a major source of inspiration to artists and designers alike.


The estimation of position and orientation of a Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) camera in a global reference frame is required by many measurement applications based on such systems. PMD cameras produce a depth as well as a reflectance image of low resolution compared to standard optical cameras, so that calibration of the cameras based on the reflectance image alone is difficult. We will present a novel approach for calibrating the focal length and 3D pose of a PMD camera based on the depth and reflectance image of a planar checkerboard pattern. By integrating both sources of information higher accuracies can be achieved. Furthermore, one single image is sufficient for calibrating the focal length as well as the 3D pose from a planar reference object. This is because the depth measurements are orthogonal to the lateral intensity measurements and provide direct metric information.


Financial markets are fundamental to a successful transition to sustainable market activity. Addressing unsustainable financial practices is vital to realizing the EU's commitments on sustainability, as expressed for instance in the European Green Deal of December 2019. Yet, investments in unsustainable projects – routinely funded by large EU banks – have not been addressed sufficiently by EU financial regulators, in spite of the introduction of the EU Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFI) in 2018. The SFI lacks a systematic integration of sustainability factors in the actions proposed, limiting focus on selected environmental issues, especially climate change. It also relies too much on the existing incentive structures for private actors in financial markets. Such reliance is unlikely to deliver sufficient sustainable investments. On the other hand, the EU has made considerable progress regarding to prevent 'greenwashing' of financial products, and the development of consultative processes and expert groups speaks of a genuine commitment to deliver, which may be realized in the present EU Parliament and Commission. However, the legitimacy and effectiveness of this EU action needs to be assured, and there is a danger the SFI will not achieve its goals, due to limitations in the proposals under it.

In this Report the SMART Project presents its analysis and reform proposals on regulation governing the funding of investments both in the EU and between the EU and third countries. The regulation discussed concentrates firstly on the banking system, including central banks and private banks but also private and public institutional investors, as much of the short-term and narrow pressure for maximization of returns to investors comes from the investment supply chains of financial markets and institutional investors. The SMART Project also proposes revision of the European Central Bank mandate and operations, guidelines for bank risk assessment, and regulation of banks. Secondly, the SMART Project proposes broadening and strengthening the SFI with proposals of amendments in the recent Taxonomy, Disclosure and Benchmarks Regulations to cover all economic activities and financial instruments and all market actors, both public and private, obliging them take into consideration sustainability in their investment decisions as well as benchmarks provided by index and benchmarks providers. In the final part of the Report the increased focus on foreign investments outside the EU is discussed.


The climate effects downwind of an urban area resulting from gaseous and particulate emissions within the city are as yet inadequately quantified. The aim of this work was to estimate these effects for Malmö city in southern Swe-den (population 280 000). The chemical and physical particle properties were simulated with a model for Aerosol Dynamics , gas phase CHEMistry and radiative transfer calculations (ADCHEM) following the trajectory movement from upwind of Malmö, through the urban background environment and finally tens and hundreds of kilometers downwind of Malmö. The model results were evaluated using measurements of the particle number size distribution and chemical composition. The total particle number concentration 50 km (∼ 3 h) downwind, in the center of the Malmö plume, is about 3700 cm −3 of which the Malmö contribution is roughly 30%. Condensation of nitric acid, ammonium and to a smaller extent oxidized organic compounds formed from the emissions in Malmö increases the secondary aerosol formation with a maximum of 0.7–0.8 µg m −3 6 to 18 h downwind of Malmö. The secondary mass contribution dominates over the primary soot contribution from Malmö already 3 to 4 h downwind of the emission sources and contributes to an enhanced total surface direct or indirect aerosol shortwave radiative forcing in the center of the urban plume ranging from −0.3 to −3.3 W m −2 depending on the distance from Malmö, and the specific cloud properties.


The granitic complex forming the Ansons Bay Batholith (300) km2)
in northeastern Tasmania, is composed of a variety of granitoids which
intrude the low-grade regionally metamorphosed Ordivician to Lower
Devonian Mathinna Beds.
The granitoids are divided into five major types based on mafic
mineralogy, plagioclase composition and textural variation. Geochemical
evidence suggests that the granodiorite, microgranite and biotite-,
garnet-biotite, and alkali feldspar granites have been derived by
Rayleigh fractional crystallization of a melt from a ~hemically inhomogeneous
source region. Major and trace element modelling of the biotite-,
garnet-biotite, and alkali feldspar granites explains the linear trend
observed between these granites by 25% fractional crystallization of a
solid composed of 64% plagioclase, 20% biotite, and 16% K-feldspar.
Late Devonian dolerite dykes (up to 10 km long) associated with
late stage crystallization of the granites, may provide an upper age limit
to the Tabberabberan Orogeny within the Ansons Bay Batholith.
An agmatic migmatite, 2 km south of Eddystone Point, has a
K-fe1dspar-cordierite hornfels facies mineral assemblage. P-T conditions
of 1 kb and 600°C are inferred for the migmatite formation. Granite
contamination and Mathinna Bed xenoliths are largely restricted to the
migmatite contact.
Mafic xenoliths from both the granodiorite and garnet-biotite
granites have cognate (cumulate) origins and are unrelated to the
country rocks. The aplitic xenoliths from the garnet-biotite granites,
however, are interpreted as dismembered alkali feldspar dykes.
The mafic mineral assemblages from the garnet-biotite granites
suggest low pressure conditions (1 kb) of emplacement at temperatures
0 close to 700 C. Garnet-biotite (cordierite) geothermometry and feldspar
geothermometry confirm these temperatures.


This paper reviews the outcome in 12 children with hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia who first developed symptoms between the ages of 2 and 8 months and who were treated with diazoxide (5-20 mg/kg/day) for 2-13 years. Two cases required subtotal pancreatectomy at the ages of 5 and 10 years because of recurrent hypoglycaemia and one girl with severe retardation died at the age of 6 years while still on diazoxide therapy. Two patients aged 3.5 and 9 years are still on treatment and in 7 cases diazoxide was discontinued between the ages of 2.5 and 14 years, indicating that spontaneous remission can be expected in a high proportion of children with post-neonatal hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. Of the 9 children who started diazoxide within 3 months of the onset of symptoms, 5 are of normal intelligence and 4 are moderately retarded (IQs 63-71). In 3 children diazoxide was started 8 months to 3 years after the onset of symptoms; two are retarded (IQs 60-70) and the third was severely retarded and died aged 6 years.


In this paper, a new two-dimensional shear deformable beam element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is proposed. The nonlinear elastic forces of the beam element are obtained using a continuum mechanics approach without employing a local element coordinate system. In this study, linear polynomials are used to interpolate both the transverse and longitudinal components of the displacement. This is different from other absolute nodal-coordinate-based beam elements where cubic polynomials are used in the longitudinal direction. The accompanying defects of the phenomenon known as shear locking are avoided through the adoption of selective integration within the numerical integration method. The proposed element is verified using several numerical examples, and the results are compared to analytical solutions and the results for an existing shear deformable beam element. It is shown that by using the proposed element, accurate linear and nonlinear static deformations, as well as realistic dynamic behavior, can be achieved with a smaller computational effort than by using existing shear deformable two-dimensional beam elements.


The publication of the 2006 NICE guidelines for Parkinson's disease may seem to have taken much of the management of patients with Parkinson's disease out of the hands of the GP and put them solely in the care of hospital specialists. However, GP input remains relevant at all stages of the illness. This article aims to highlight where the GP fits into the increasing panel of health professionals caring for patients and their families.


In a world in which change is considered the only constant, changes in an organisation's strategy, structure, processes and/or technology are a prerequisite for success. A main reason why many organisational change efforts do not achieve the desired results is seen in the lack of understanding and acceptance of the change among those affected by the change. This is particularly true for planned change because the majority of the employees are not involved in the planning of the change. Although both academics and practitioners view communication as a key mechanism for increasing understanding and acceptance, the factors influencing the effectiveness of a communication programme do not appear to have received adequate research attention and insufficient guidance was available for practitioners on how to design an effective communication programme. This thesis, written from an interpretivist perspective, reports on case study research undertaken in three different change projects in one large organisation in the automotive industry in Germany. Two and a half years were spent in the field, with each case study lasting between six and nine months. The approach to the research was inductive and the data collected were basically qualitative. The research sought to explore recipients' perceptions of the communication activities used with the intention of increasing the understanding of the factors influencing the effectiveness of a communication programme. The findings can be grouped into recipients' perceptions of the effects of the communication activities used and the specific aspects of the communication activities responsible for these perceptions. The focus in the analysis was not on individual occurences but on the relationships between different effects and on the interdependencies between different communication activities. The relationships found between different effects and between different communication activities highlight the importance of a holistic approach to research on change communication and underline the complexity of designing a communication programme. Suggestions for practitioners on how to structure communication aims and on how to choose and design communication activities can be inferred from these findings.


Decades of collecting from exposures of the Upper Cretaceous Tombigbee Sand Member of the Eutaw Formation and Mooreville Chalk in Alabama, USA has produced large numbers of isolated Cretalamna (sensu stricto) teeth. Many of these teeth had formerly been assigned to the extinct Late Cretaceous shark Cretalamna appendiculata (Agassiz, 1843), a taxon that is now considered largely restricted to the Turonian of Europe. Recent studies have shed light on the diversity of Late Cretaceous Cretalamna (s.s.) taxa, and here we recognize a new species from Alabama, Cretalamna bryanti. The teeth of C. bryanti sp. nov. appear aligned with the members of the Cretalamna borealis species group, but can be distinguished from these other species by a combination of the following: anterior teeth with a more pronounced and triangular lingual root protuberance, broader triangular cusp, and a taller root relative to the height of the crown; anteriorly situated lateroposterior teeth have a distally inclined or hooked main cusp and more than one pair of lateral cusplets; and lateroposterior teeth have a strong distally hooked main cusp and a root that is largely symmetrical in basal view. At present, C. bryanti sp. nov. is stratigraphically confined to the Santonian/Campanian Dicarinella asymetrica Sigal, 1952 and Globotruncanita elevata Brotzen, 1934 Planktonic Foraminiferal Zones within the Tombigbee Sand Member of the Eutaw Formation and Mooreville Chalk, and teeth have been collected from only four counties in central and western Alabama. The recognition of C. bryanti sp. nov. in Alabama adds to our knowledge on the diversity and distribution of Late Cretaceous otodontids in the region.


We explore the evolution of a select grid of solar metallicity stellar models from their pre-main-sequence phase to near their final fates in a neutrino Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, where the neutrino luminosity replaces the traditional photon luminosity. Using a calibrated MESA solar model for the solar neutrino luminosity ( · × 1031 erg s−1) as a normalization, we identify ≃0.3 MeV electron neutrino emission from helium burning during the helium flash (peak , flux (10 pc/d)2 cm−2 s−1 for a star located at a distance of d parsec, timescale ≃3 days) and the thermal pulse (peak , flux × 107 (10 pc/d)2 cm−2 s−1, timescale ≃0.1 yr) phases of evolution in low-mass stars as potential probes for stellar neutrino astronomy. We also delineate the contribution of neutrinos from nuclear reactions and thermal processes to the total neutrino loss along the stellar tracks in a neutrino Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. We find, broadly but with exceptions, that neutrinos from nuclear reactions dominate whenever hydrogen and helium burn, and that neutrinos from thermal processes dominate otherwise.


In vitro refolding studies are considered as a good model to understand the mechanism by which polypeptide chain acquires unique three dimensional structure in the cell. However, the intracellular environment is highly crowded containing about 300-400 mg/ml of macromolecules. These conditions would promote improper associations among protein molecules leading to aggregation. But protein folds beautifully in the complex cellular environment. This eventually led to the discovery of molecular chaperone that revolutionized the concept of protein folding in the cell. Molecular chaperone is defined as any protein that interacts, stabilizes or helps a non-native protein to acquire the native structure but is not a part of the final structure. Chaperones that participate in protein biogenesis primarily recognize exposed hydrophobic surface of protein and promote their folding through ATP-regulated cycles of binding and release. Failure of the chaperone network to maintain proteostasis, i.e. the conformational integrity of the cellular proteome, may results in the manifestation of pathological states including Parkinson's  disease,  Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease  and Amylolateral Sclerosis disease, in which proteins misfold and are deposited as aggregates [2] . In view of above, in this review, I have discussed current status of protein folding in the cell with special reference to chaperone pathways in  de novo  folding, chaperones acting downstream of the ribosome, proteostasis network and proteostasis network as drug target.


Objective: To assess obesity and metabolic risks for non-communicable diseases among adolescent swimmers. Methods: A cohort of 220 swimmers was selected at their respective swimming clubs via quota sampling and measured using various anthropometric parameters, which were then compared with standard cut-off points for the various age groups. Results: The mean body mass index (BMI) was 21.23 ± 3.85 kg/m2, the mean waist circumference was 69.8 ± 8.08 cm, and the mean body fat percentage was 21.20 ± 9.27%. These mean body composition variables fell within their respective recommended ranges according to the cut-off points. Height (p < 0.001), weight (p < 0.011), mid-upper arm circumference [MUAC] (p = 0.035) and visceral fat (p = 0.033) were statistically significant when compared between males and females. Chi-square analysis revealed that gender was statistically significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio [WHR] (p < 0.001) and body fat percentage [BFP] (p = 0.003), while BFP was statistically significantly associated with BMI (p < 0.001), waist circumference (p < 0.001), WHR (p = 0.026), MUAC (p < 0.001) and skeletal muscle mass (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The swimmers had an overall healthy body composition and were at low risk for developing non-communicable diseases. We recommend that Trinidad and Tobago develop anthropometric cut-off points for athletes and non-athletes.


Personal and career development interventions aim to help people find answers to personal and career development issues that stem from the societal context in which they live. Societal definitions of these career issues have a double consequence. On the one hand, these issues differ from one culture to another; and, on the other, they evolve along with the contexts in which they are expressed. Implementation of rigorous career development interventions requires, first, a scientific reconstruction of these societal issues and, second, a clear definition of these interventions' goals and ends. Our current view of the societal issues relating to personal and career development interventions may be phrased thus--"How can we help individuals direct their lives, in the (human) society where they interact?" It may be turned into the following scientific question: "What are the factors and processes of life-long self-construction?" An articulation of three major propositions (sociological, cognitive and dynamic) seems to be needed to answer this question. Such a theoretical frame does not allow for a definition of personal and career development interventions ends. In the world of today, the adoption by everyone of a personal ethic of responsibility towards all life on Earth (H. Jonas) could well be a fundamental end to


This study aims to test the role of pricing practices as an intervening variable in the relationship between service innovation management practices (innovation strategy, innovation process, cross-functional organisation, tools/technology, and system integration) and firms' performance in an emerging economy. Data were collected from 249 managers representing the Malaysian telecommunications sector using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) with SmartPLS software, version 3, was used to achieve the research objectives and to analyse the measurements and structural model. The results showed that, whereas innovation strategy, innovation process, cross-functional organisation, and system integration positively influence pricing practice, tools and technology has an insignificant effect on pricing practice. Interestingly, pricing practice mediates the relationship between innovation strategy and system integration regarding firm performance. The findings of this study suggest that, in the formulation of such a strategy, service firms should consider the pricing factor. Telecommunications service providers could use this model to implement pricing practices particularly driven by innovation practices to achieve the desired performance. The study Seyedeh Khadijeh Taghizadeh et al. 130 could also assist managers in understanding suitable pricing practices in the context of the telecommunications industry. The originality of this study lies in the effort to adjoin service innovation management practices with pricing practices that lead to improving the performance of the telecommunications industry.


The procedural and material court effects normally emerge when a decision stands up. However there is an exception to this rule either. It manifests itself upon accepting of one feature (execution) of a legal force of an enforced court decision for non–enforced court decisions. The basics of the application of the exception may be imperative ones or depend on the court's discretion. In defense of the principle individual rights and legal and vested interests the laws have established the basics, upon availability of which no enforced court decisions can be directed for execution. The following two types of direction of court decisions for immediate execution have been established in both legal literature and the existing Civil Criminal Code: obligatory and optional. In case of the obligatory immediate execution, the court must forward for immediate execution decisions or judgments established in the law, while in the case of the optional immediate execution, the court may allow to execute a court decision or a judgment immediately at one's own initiative or upon a request of a country. The decisions which defend the essential legal values and interests of a person shall be directed for immediate either obligatory or optional execution. Upon authorization for an immediate execution of such a decision, it shall be carried out without delay, and the legal values and interests therefore would be restored sooner than in case of an ordinary execution of a court decision. The institute of immediate execution of court decisions cannot be replaced by the application of either temporary protection means or means guaranteeing execution of a court decision.


A series of heteroleptic Ir(III) complexes composed of 2-(2,4-difluoro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-4-methylpyridine (dfCF3) as the main ligand and such ancillary ligands as acetylacetonate [Ir(dfCF3)2(acac)] (acac), picolinate [Ir(dfCF3)2(pic)] (pic), and tetrakis-pyrazolyl borate [Ir(dfCF3)2(bor)] (bor) were prepared, and their emission behaviors depending on the ancillary ligands were systematically investigated. It was found that the Huang–Rhys factors (SMs) of the emission decrease in the order bor (0.97) > acac (0.87) > pic (0.76), while the nonradiative rate constants (knr/105 s−1) calculated from the quantum yields and lifetimes of emission were in the order acac (4.89) > pic (1.17) > bor (0.28). It was assumed that the large difference of knr for the complexes arose from important contributions of the ancillary ligands to the crossing from an emissive state (3MLCT) to a nonemissive metal-centered state (3MC). The activation energies for the crossing from 3MLCT to 3MC were estimated from the temperature dependencies of the emission lifetime and were found to be 46 meV for acac, 61 meV for pic, and >100 meV for bor. The experimental results were in line with the theoretical calculations based on integrating quantum chemical modeling methods. By the excellent emission behavior, bor was applied as a dopant to prototype deep-blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode devices, which revealed high emission efficiency and colour purity.


We report the preparation and thermomechanical properties of hetero-nanostructured self-healing polymers (HSPs) bearing a hindered urea bond (HUB) by varying the content of a self-healable block copolymer (BCP). The micellar morphology of the BCP blend in a matrix polymer was studied using transmission electron microscopy and grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering with various organic solvent types and BCP contents. The self-healing efficiency of the HSPs was obtained from single-scratch tests through optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy. To confirm self-healing at the molecular level, the mechanical properties of the cross-cut and healed HSPs were also analyzed using a universal testing machine. Thermomechanical properties associated with HUB were measured by dynamic mechanical analysis and temperature-oscillating rheometry. The results showed that blending the BCP improved the toughness, the hardness, and the modulus up to 21.7, 25.3, and 24.8%, respectively. Moreover, at high temperatures, the temperature range of the rubbery plateau was greatly widened without a noticeable decrease in the self-healing capability.


Biolistic transformation is a disruptive process that can cause extensive damage and rearrangements, including deletions, duplications, chromosome fusions, and copy number variations. Biolistic transformation delivers nucleic acids into plant cells by bombarding the cells with microprojectiles, which are micron-scale, typically gold particles. Despite the wide use of this technique, little is known about its effect on the cell's genome. We biolistically transformed linear 48-kb phage lambda and two different circular plasmids into rice (Oryza sativa) and maize (Zea mays) and analyzed the results by whole genome sequencing and optical mapping. Although some transgenic events showed simple insertions, others showed extreme genome damage in the form of chromosome truncations, large deletions, partial trisomy, and evidence of chromothripsis and breakage-fusion bridge cycling. Several transgenic events contained megabase-scale arrays of introduced DNA mixed with genomic fragments assembled by nonhomologous or microhomology-mediated joining. Damaged regions of the genome, assayed by the presence of small fragments displaced elsewhere, were often repaired without a trace, presumably by homology-dependent repair (HDR). The results suggest a model whereby successful biolistic transformation relies on a combination of end joining to insert foreign DNA and HDR to repair collateral damage caused by the microprojectiles. The differing levels of genome damage observed among transgenic events may reflect the stage of the cell cycle and the availability of templates for HDR.


In several essays from the first half of the nineteenth century, Robert Schumann and other music critics used the rhetoric of the sublime when describing select, unconventionally intense virtuosic showpieces and performances, evoking this category's associations with overpowering, even fearsome experiences and heroic human qualities. These writings formed one strand of a larger discourse in which musicians and critics attempted to describe and identify instances of virtuosity that supposedly rejected superficiality and aimed at serious aesthetic values: in the nineteenth-century imagination, the sublime abnegated mere sensuous pleasure; inspired a mixture of attraction, admiration, and trepidation; and implied both masculinity and intellectual cultivation. It offered a framework for self-consciously elevating virtuosity rooted in the sheer intensity and, in some cases, perceived inaccessibility of particular works and performances. Schumann extended the mantle of sublimity to Liszt during the virtuoso's 1840 Leipzig and Dresden concerts. Critics described three of Schumann's own 1830s piano showpieces using the rhetoric of the sublime, comparing the finale of the Concert sans orchestre , Op. 14, to violent forces of nature to illustrate the way its virtuosic passagework disrupts and engulfs lyrical themes within an anomalous formal structure. They also linked the Toccata, Op. 7, and Etudes symphoniques , Op. 13, to Beethoven, hinting at the ways in which Schumann alluded to or modeled these showpieces on Beethoven symphonies. These episodes in Schumann's career broaden our understanding of the contexts in which nineteenth-century writers on music evoked the sublime, showing how they described this quality not only in symphonies and large choral works but also in solo performances and showpieces. They illuminate the politics of the sublime, revealing its significance for nineteenth-century thinking about the cultural prestige that particular musical works and performances could attain.


Inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) represent a group of disorders typified by impaired production of one or several blood cell types. The telomere biology disorders dyskeratosis congenita (DC) and its severe variant Høyeraal-Hreidarsson (HH) syndrome are rare IBMFS characterized by bone marrow failure, developmental defects, and various premature aging complications associated with critically short telomeres. Here we identified biallelic variants in the gene encoding the 5'-to-3' DNA exonuclease Apollo/SNM1B in three unrelated patients presenting with a DC/HH phenotype consisting of early onset hypocellular bone marrow failure, B and NK lymphopenia, developmental anomalies, microcephaly and/or intrauterine growth retardation. All three patients carry a homozygous or compound heterozygous (in combination with a null-allele) missense variant affecting the same residue L142 (L142F or L142S) located in the catalytic domain of Apollo. Apollo-deficient cells from patients exhibited spontaneous chromosome instability and impaired DNA repair that was complemented by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene correction. Furthermore, patients' cells showed signs of telomere fragility that were however not associated with global reduction of telomere length. Unlike patients' cells, human Apollo KO HT1080-cell lines showed strong telomere dysfunction accompanied by excessive telomere shortening, suggesting that the L142S and L142F Apollo variants are hypomorphic. Collectively, these findings define human Apollo as a genome caretaker and identify biallelic Apollo variants as a genetic cause of a hitherto unrecognized severe IBMFS combining clinical hallmarks of DC/HH with normal telomere length.


Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin and the Quest for ArabIsraeli Peace, by Kenneth W. Stein. New York and London: Routledge, 1999. xiv + 268 pages. Append. to p. 274. Notes to p. 311. Bibl to p. 320. Index to p. 324. $24.99 paper. Reviewed by Avraham Sela The book's title aptly summarizes Kenneth Stein's thesis on the Arab-Israeli peace process in the crucial years between 1973 and 1979. This is the story of a unique and historic encounter between leaders whose vision, courage, and determination in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war culminated in the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Stein emphasizes the singular role played by those leaders, in particular Henry Kissinger, Anwar Sadat, and Jimmy Carter, and explores their individual strategies as well as their mutual relationships-their "chemistry." The author admits the reader into the inner circles of decisionmaking and negotiation, the most fascinating aspect of which is the limited role of the bureaucrats and the manipulative use of secret channels of communication and sensitive information by the top leaders. Ultimately, though, readers are left with an uncertainty as to the exact role of these relationships in the peace process and their weight relative to other considerations, such as perceptions of national interests, especially in periods of crisis and disagreement. This is particularly evident in the case of Presidents Sadat and Carter, whose relations are described as "affectionate trust" and "rare harmony" (p. 196). The book draws heavily on interviews conducted for the most part in the early 1990s, together with memoirs and official documents. By combining these rich and diverse sources, Stein has produced a study unusual for its freshness and credibility. Still, the focus on oral histories and autobiographies detracts from a more in-depth investigation of important domestic and regional processes, such as the weaknesses of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's first government and the nature of inter-Arab relations throughout this period. Among the questions left unanswered, for example, was the relative importance of American mediation. Israel's Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan is quoted as saying that the Egypt-Israel treaty could not have been concluded without Carter. Yet, although the book clearly demonstrates the primacy of regional actors' interests in determining the course of the diplomatic process, it avoids the general question of local-regional versus global power relations in international conflict resolution. Indeed, even though both Begin and Sadat had their own domestic and regional constraints, they were also anxious to maximize their material gains by winning Washington's good will and, more specifically, ensuring recognition by and intimate rapport with President Carter. …


The current input of Government funds to develop victim support schemes could promote over-enthusiasm for direct reparation which may damage rather than help victims. Victims and volunteer support workers could be exploited in order to provide another sanction for the Courts, as society conveniently offloads collective responsibility onto the individual victim.


Discrete labeling problems are often solved by formulating them as an integer program, and relaxing the integrality constraint to a continuous domain. While the continuous relaxation is closely related to the original integer program, its optimal solution is often fractional. Thus, the success of a relaxation depends crucially on the availability of an accurate rounding procedure. The problem of identifying an accurate rounding procedure has mainly been tackled in the theoretical computer science community through mathematical analysis of the worst-case. However, this approach is both onerous and ignores the distribution of the data encountered in practice. We present a novel interpretation of rounding procedures as sampling from a latent variable model, which opens the door to the use of powerful machine learning formulations in their design. Inspired by the recent success of deep latent variable models we parameterize rounding procedures as a neural network, which lends itself to efficient optimization via back-propagation. By minimizing the expected value of the objective of the discrete labeling problem over training samples, we learn a rounding procedure that is more suited to the task at hand. Using both synthetic and real world data sets, we demonstrate that our approach can outperform the state-of-the-art hand-designed rounding procedures.


The beta-amyloid precursor protein (beta APP) gene of the mouse was disrupted by inserting into exon 2 a cassette containing a neomycin resistance gene and a putative transcription termination sequence. Contrary to expectation, brain and other tissues from mice homozygous for the insertion still contained beta APP-specific RNA, albeit at a level 5- to 10-fold lower than wild type and lacking the disrupted exon, which had been spliced out. The brain contained shortened beta APP-specific protein at a low level. Mutant mice were severely impaired in spatial learning and exploratory behavior and showed increased incidence of agenesis of the corpus callosum.


Background: Frequent methamphetamine use among recently HIV infected individuals is associated with transmitted drug resistance (TDR) to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI); however, the reversion time of TDR to drug susceptible HIV may exceed 3 years. We assessed whether recreational substance use is associated with detectable TDR among individuals newly diagnosed with HIV infection of unknown duration. Design: Cross-sectional analysis. Methods: Subjects were enrolled at the University California, San Diego Early Intervention Program. Demographic, clinical and substance use data were collected using structured interviews. Genotypic resistance testing was performed using GeneSeq™, Monogram Biosciences. We analyzed the association between substance use and TDR using bivariate analyses and the corresponding transmission networks using phylogenetic models. Results: Between April 2004 and July 2006, 115 individuals with genotype data were enrolled. The prevalence of alcohol, marijuana and methamphetamine use were 98%, 71% and 64% respectively. Only active methamphetamine use in the 30 days prior to HIV diagnosis was independently associated with TDR to NNRTI (OR: 6.6; p=0.002). Conclusion: Despite not knowing the duration of their HIV infection, individuals reporting active methamphetamine use in the 30 days prior to HIV diagnosis are at an increased risk of having HIV strains that are resistant to NNRTI.


A finite-band noise model for degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) including channel walk-off in return-to-zero on-off-keying (RZ-OOK) transmission is extended to include nondegenerate FWM (ND-FWM). The model is verified by comparing the results for the noise variance for each type of FWM to split-step-Fourier (SSF) simulations for a 10-Gb/s single span link, and excellent agreement is obtained. A physical interpretation of the walk-off effect on the FWM noise is formulated in terms of intracollision and intercollision interference of the corresponding generated FWM waves. The author shows that the walk-off effect modifies the FWM noise power spectral density only at high frequencies by producing distinct peaks at locations determined by the channel spacing. In principle, the walk-off effect significantly increases the noise variance for both types of FWM before any filtering at the end of fiber. Upon demultiplexing, it is found that the walk-off effect is significant and observable for the degenerate FWM case but is no longer significant for the ND-FWM case. When a sub-bit-rate electrical filter is used in the receiver, the walk-off effect becomes insignificant for all types of FWM. They systematically conclude that the walk-off effect is unimportant for FWM in typical RZ-OOK systems when tight electrical filtering is used. They also illustrate the accuracy of the model for the more general case where more than one FWM tone is coincident on a probe channel by comparing the analytic model to SSF simulations for a five-channel example


A scheme of nine ammonite zones for the Bathonian in Bulgaria is described herein. The stratigraphical distribution of the Bathonian ammonites has been revised through new collecting and re-examination of older collections and fields. It has become evident that the criteria for zonal discrimination applied in NW Europe are relevant for Bulgaria to a limited extent, and we cannot compare directly our successions with those from the NW European areas as done in earlier work. Also, many traits of typically Submediterranean dispersal have been found to take a considerable part of the ammonite associations. Therefore, a composite Submediterranean–NW European zonation seems to be applicable to the Bathonian ammonite successions in Bulgaria. The ammonite zonal scale used in previous Bulgarian accounts has been retained, but several changes have been made to attain a more balanced sequence. This scale can be subject to further confirmation and modification, as not enough biostratigraphically well-constrained specimens have yet become available to characterize the ranges and variability of the zones.


This article examines one of the first international efforts to formulate legally binding rules for "biosafety" or safe use of biotechnology - the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety under the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Cartagena Protocol, concluded in January 2000, mandates the "informed consent" of a country prior to the release of genetically modified organisms into its environment. The paper traces the divergent perspectives on biosafety within this negotiation and explores how key areas of disagreement were resolved in finalising the protocol. It concludes by assessing the implications of the completed protocol for different groups and for global governance of safe use of biotechnology in agriculture.


Assertions can be used as test oracles. However, writing effective assertions of right abstraction levels is difficult because on the one hand, detailed assertions are preferred for thorough testing (i.e., to detect as many errors as possible), but on the other hand abstract assertions are preferred for readability, maintainability, and reusability. As assertions become a practical tool for testing and debugging programs, this is an important and practical problem to solve for the effective use of assertions. We advocate the use of model variables - specification-only variables of which abstract values are given as mappings from concrete program states - to write abstract assertions for test oracles. We performed a mutation testing experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of model variables in assertion-based test oracles. According to our experiment, assertions written in terms of model variables are as effective as assertions written without using model variables in detecting (injected) faults, and the execution time overhead of model variables are negligible. Our findings are applicable to other use of runtime checkable assertions.


This paper reviews the role of expert judgement to support reliability assessments within the systems engineering design process. Generic design processes are described to give the context and a discussion is given about the nature of the reliability assessments required in the different systems engineering phases. It is argued that, as far as meeting reliability requirements is concerned, the whole design process is more akin to a statistical control process than to a straightforward statistical problem of assessing an unknown distribution. This leads to features of the expert judgement problem in the design context which are substantially different from those seen, for example, in risk assessment. In particular, the role of experts in problem structuring and in developing failure mitigation options is much more prominent, and there is a need to take into account the reliability potential for future mitigation measures downstream in the system life cycle. An overview is given of the stakeholders typically involved in large scale systems engineering design projects, and this is used to argue the need for methods that expose potential judgemental biases in order to generate analyses that can be said to provide rational consensus about uncertainties. Finally, a number of key points are developed with the aim of moving toward a framework that provides a holistic method for tracking reliability assessment through the design process.


Estimation of circular quantities is a widespread problem that occurs in many tracking and control applications. Commonly used approaches such as the Kalman filter, the extended Kalman filter (EKF), and the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) do not take periodicity explicitly into account, which can result in low estimation accuracy. We present a filtering algorithm for angular quantities in nonlinear systems that is based on circular statistics. The new filter switches between three different representations of probability distributions on the circle, the wrapped normal, the von Mises, and a Dirac mixture density. It can be seen as a systematic generalization of the UKF to circular statistics. We evaluate the proposed filter in simulations and show its superiority to conventional approaches.


Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the leading cause of liver transplantation (LT) in Western countries. Polymorphism in the IL28B gene region has a major impact on the natural history and response to antiviral treatment in HCV. We investigated whether IL28B polymorphism was associated with graft survival in patients with or without HCV undergoing LT. 1,060 adult patients (age >18 years) underwent LT between years 2000 and 2008. Patients with previous LT, living donor LT and patients dying or requiring retransplants within 30 days of LT were excluded. DNA samples of 620 (84%) recipients and 377 (51%) donors were available for genotyping of IL28B rs12979860C>T. Donor IL28B genotypes had no significant differences in graft survival irrespective of HCV status. There was no difference in graft outcome in the non-HCV cohort (n = 293) based on recipient IL28B genotype. In the HCV group (n = 327), recipients with CC or CT genotype had better graft survival compared to TT genotype (62% vs. 48%, p = 0.02). HCV recipients with CC or CT genotype had delayed time to clinically relevant HCV recurrence compared to TT (10.4 vs. 6.7 months, p = 0.002). The beneficial effect of the CC/CT genotype on HCV recurrence and graft survival was independent of antiviral treatment. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that in contrast to donor IL28B genotype recipient IL28B was associated with graft survival and clinically relevant HCV recurrence in HCV infected recipients. No effect of IL28B genotype was manifest in non-HCV LT recipients.


A cadmium-plated 4340 Ni-Cr-Mo steel ballast elbow assembly was submitted for failure analysis to determine the element or radical present in an oxidation product found inside the elbow assembly. Energy-dispersive x-ray analysis in the SEM showed that iron was the predominant species, presumably in an oxide form. The inside surface had the appearance of typical corrosion products. Hardness measurements indicated that the 4340 steel was heat treated to a strength of approximately 862 MPa (125 ksi). It was concluded that the oxide detected on the ballast elbow was iron oxide. The possibility that the corrosion products would eventually create a blockage of the affected hole was great considering the small hole diameter (4.2 mm, or 0.165 in.). It was recommended that a quick fix to stop the corrosion would be to apply a corrosion inhibitor inside the hole. This, however, would cause the possibility of inhibitor buildup and the eventual clogging of the hole. A change in the manufacturing process to include a cadmium plating on the hole inside surface was recommended. This was to be accomplished in accordance with MIL specification QQ-P-416, Type II, Class 1. A material change to 300-series stainless steel was also recommended.


Abstract Background Both the South African Department of Health and the University of Cape Town (UCT) have committed to the primary health care (PHC) approach, which is best captured in the Declaration of Alma Ata. If medical students are to be trained in the PHC approach, it is important that they not only have a good understanding of this approach, but are also aware of the social, economic and political context that they will be working in when they have qualified, so that they can develop realistic expectations of their careers as doctors. From research that was conducted at UCT, this article covers UCT medical students' views of health care in South Africa, including their perceptions of the applicability and implementation of the PHC approach for South Africa, and their perceptions of how the South African government features in issues of health and the PHC approach. Methods Mixed-methods were used, but this article will focus on the qualitative data gathered. One hundred and seventeen medical students (years one to four) were purposively selected to be involved in focus groups and interviews. These focus groups were conducted between February 2004 and March 2005. Results Students acknowledged that the state of health care in South Africa needs to change and showed an awareness of the role that South Africa's history of apartheid has played in the state of health care in these areas and the existence of inequity. They however did not agree on the applicability of the PHC approach to the South African situation. The PHC approach is seen not to be working in South Africa because of various obstacles to its implementation and success, such as disorganisation within the health system, and a lack of infrastructure, finances and resources. There seemed to be a general understanding amongst the students that they will have been trained in the PHC approach but then will be working within a system that has possibly not undergone similar changes. Students agreed on the important role of government in PHC, some maintaining that the government should be at the forefront of its implementation, but were generally dissatisfied with the role the South African government is currently playing in health care. Conclusion It is encouraging that students are generally aware of the reality of health care in South Africa and of the fact that more change needs to take place. However, it may be that many students who have a limited understanding of the impact that apartheid had on health care provision in South Africa, and this could then impact on students' perceptions of the applicability of the current PHC approach for South Africa. Students' views that the PHC approach has not been fully implemented in South Africa are a concern, as it is these types of views that are likely to cause students to lose confidence in the PHC approach, and will most likely widen the disjuncture between theory of the approach and the reality of its implementation. Regarding the political dynamics of the PHC approach, students do need to be aware of political factors that can impact on the success of this approach. Discussion around and research into the social, economic and political context of health care and medical education has particular relevance for South Africa, and it is vital that students' views on these issues are acknowledged so that areas for change can be identified and addressed.


Cancer patients display immunomodulation related to malignancy and anti-cancer therapies, but how these factors impact COVID-19 remains unknown. To investigate immune responses in cancer patients with COVID-19, we undertook a prospective case-control study, enrolling hospitalized solid tumor patients with acute COVID-19, as well as age-, gender-, and comorbidity-matched COVID-19 patients without cancer as controls. Using biospecimens collected during hospitalization, we performed virologic measurements as well as in-depth immunophenotyping of cellular, antibody and cytokine responses. We enrolled 17 cancer patients (cases) admitted to Yale-New Haven Hospital between March 15 and June 30, 2020 with COVID-19, as well as 17 matched non-cancer patients (controls) admitted with COVID-19. No significant differences were observed between cases and controls based on patient characteristics (age, gender, race, co-morbidities, smoking history, days from symptom onset to COVID-19 diagnosis) or outcomes (COVID-19 severity, length of hospital stay, rate of intubation or mortality). The most common primary tumor sites were lung (4/17) and gastrointestinal (4/17); all cases had received cancer-directed therapy within 6 months of COVID-19 diagnosis, with 13/17 receiving treatment less than 1 month prior to hospitalization. Three of 17 cases had received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. Despite having similar SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA loads at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis when compared with controls, cancer cases had increased viral RNA abundance during hospitalization, suggesting slower clearance. Antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 were preserved in cancer cases, with cases displaying similar levels of IgM and IgG antibodies directed against SARS-CoV-2 epitopes compared to controls. Cytokine profiling revealed higher plasma levels of CCL3, IL1A and CXCL12 in cancer cases compared to controls. Using flow cytometric immunophenotyping, we found that innate immune and non-T cell adaptive immune parameters were similar between cases and controls hospitalized with COVID-19. However, among cancer cases on conventional therapies, T cell lymphopenia was more profound, and these cases demonstrated higher levels of CD8+ exhausted (CD8+CD45RA−PD1+TIM3+), CD8+GranzymeB+ and CD4+CD38+HLA-DR+ and CD8+CD38+HLA-DR+ activated T cells when compared with controls; interestingly, these differences were not observed in patients who had received immune checkpoint inhibition. Thus, we found reduced viral RNA clearance and specific alterations in T cell and cytokine responses in cancer patients hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with matched controls with COVID-19. This dysregulated T cell response in cancer patients, which may reflect immune modulation due to chronic antigen stimulation as well as cancer therapies, may lead to altered virologic and clinical outcomes in this population. Citation Format: Michael Chiorazzi, Erin Silva, Kristina Brower, Patrick Wong, Carolina Lucas, Jon Klein, Feimei Liu, Maura Nakahata, Jun Zhao, Nur-Taz Rahman, Camila Odio, Santos Bermejo, Shelli F. Farhadian, Charles Dela Cruz, Arnau Casanovas-Massana, John Fournier, Catherine Muenker, Anne L. Wyllie, Chantal B.F. Vogels, Chaney C. Kalinich, Mary E. Petrone, Isabel M. Ott, Anne E. Watkins, Adam J. Moore, Tara Alpert, Yuval Kluger, Aaron Ring, Nathan D. Grubaugh, Akiko Iwasaki, Albert I. Ko, Roy S. Herbst. Cancer patients display diminished viral RNA clearance and altered T cell responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer; 2021 Feb 3-5. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2021;27(6_Suppl):Abstract nr S03-03.


Legalization techniques are used both as a final stage and potentially as part of an iterative process of a global cell placement algorithm that distributes cells over a chip area in order to optimize criteria such as wirelength, routability, thermal dissipation etc. Although very efficient dynamic programming algorithms exist for standard cell placement legalization they usually incur high computational complexity, thus, might not be appropriate for acting as subcomponents in an iterative global placement process. On the other hand fast, single pass approaches such as Tetris heuristic, may offer low performance in terms of final placement quality. In this paper we turn our attention to legalization in standard cell placement under the presence of obstacles, with the aim of developing a fast yet efficient solution for the problem. The proposed heuristic is based on Tetris and involves judicious chip area splitting. Experiments with ibm circuits demonstrate that the resulting scheme, called OBstacle-aware Area Splitting Tetris (OBAST), offers significant performance improvement both in terms of solution quality and running time.


ABSTRACT Pseudomonas chlororaphis strain PA23 is a plant-beneficial bacterium that is able to suppress disease caused by the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum through a process known as biological control. Here we present a 7.1-Mb assembly of the PA23 genome.


Oxidative stress is a biochemical condition associated with a sharp increase in intracellular concentrations of a range of oxidative stressors, including reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species and labile metal ions. It is associated with a wide range of human disorders, such as inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, glaucoma, and cancer. Equally importantly, oxidative stress is pronounced in older people, which makes it an important matter in an ageing Society. Not surprisingly, antioxidants have become a major focus of modern drug development. While natural antioxidants, such as phenolic aromatic compounds, vitamin C, vitamin E and curcumin have shown promising results, the development of effective synthetic antioxidants is often problematic. We have recently proposed the rational design of multifunctional antioxidants which target oxidative stressors in a more comprehensive manner. Such compounds may, for instance, combine catalytic sites with metal binding sites. Here we present the synthesis of representative molecules with combined catalytic and metal binding properties. The apparent 'antioxidant' activities have been studied in vitro and, for the most promising compound, have been confirmed in cultured skin cells exposed to UVA radiation.


Melatonin, the pineal hormone produced during the dark phase of the light-dark cycle, modulates neuronal acetylcholine receptors located presynaptically on the sympathetic nerve terminals of the rat vas deferens. The pD2 values for nicotine were significantly higher at night (4.20 +/- 0.01) than in the afternoon (3.80 +/- 0.07). Exogenous melatonin shifted the concentration-response curves for nicotine to the left, mimicking the effect of darkness. Melatonin modifies both the displacement and the saturation curves of [3H](-)nicotine binding. In membranes from animals killed at 15:00 h, the binding of [3H](-)nicotine (5-6 nM) was first potentiated and then inhibited by sequential concentrations of (-)nicotine. Higher concentrations of [3H](-)nicotine (50-60 nM) were displaced by all concentrations of nonlabeled ligand. However, when membranes from tissues exposed to melatonin (exogenous or endogenous) were tested, the lower [3H](-)nicotine concentration was displaced progressively by increasing concentrations of nonlabeled ligand. Equilibrium binding studies show a single class of high-affinity nicotinic binding sites with an apparent Kd value of 16 nM and an average maximal number of binding sites of 66 fmol mg-1 protein when animals were killed at the afternoon. Melatonin, although it did not change the properties of high-affinity binding sites, induced the appearance of a second population of lower apparent affinity (Kd = 36.7 nM; Bmax = 185.4 fmol/mg). Melatonin does not modify the functional response and the displacement of [3H](-)nicotine by dimethylphenylpiperazinium. The data suggest that nicotinic neuronal acetylcholine receptors stimulated by dimethylphenylpiperazinium do not change between the light and dark phases. Rather, the higher sensitivity to nicotine in prostatic portions incubated with exogenous melatonin, and in organs from animals killed at night, after the rise of endogenous melatonin, is probably due to the appearance of low-affinity neuronal nicotinic ACh binding sites.


Editors of several journals in the field of hydrology met during the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union—EGU in Vienna in April 2017. This event was a follow‐up of similar meetings held in 2013 and 2015. These meetings enable the group of editors to review the current status of the journals and the publication process and to share thoughts on future strategies. Journals were represented at the 2017 meeting by their editors, as shown in the list of authors. The main points on invigorating hydrological research through journal publications are communicated in this joint editorial published in the above journals.


The majority of mark-recapture studies are in ABSTRACT: Over a 3 yr period fine-scale (m) movements of red snapper Lutjanus campechanus were estimated with the Vemco VR2W Positioning System (VPS) on 3 artificial reefs, and wider scale (km) movements were estimated with surrounding receivers (n = 23). Tagged red snapper (n = 56) were tracked for extended periods (17–1096 d). Residency (23 mo) and site fidelity (82% yr −1 ) showed that red snapper maintained a close association with the artificial reef structure (34.5 ± 44.0 m). Fine-scale monthly home range (95% kernel density estimates [KDE]) and core areas (50% KDE) were positively correlated with water temperature. In the winter, all red snapper showed less movement, and during the warmer months most (63%, 29 out of 46) fish used a secondary reef site. Over diel periods, fish showed significantly greater movements during day hours on 2 reef sites and during night hours on 1 reef site. The surrounding receiver array validated 88% (15 of 17 fish) of the VPS-determined emigrations. Many (53%, n = 9) fish moved short distances (~1.5 km) to nearby reefs, and some red snappers (n = 3) that emigrated returned to their original release site. Red snapper showed some prey-like behaviors, e.g. close association with reef structure, quick movements over open habitat, and paired emigrations to nearby sites. These behaviors suggested that red snapper are subject to predation by larger apex predators, and as stocks increase, such factors will become increasingly more important for future management.


Summary

1. Fisheries models generally are based on the concept that strong density dependence exists in fish populations. Nonetheless, there are few examples of long-term density dependence in fish populations.

2. Using an information theoretical approach (AIC) with regression analyses, we examined the explanatory power of density dependence, flow and water temperature on the per capita rate of change and growth (annual mean total length) for the whole population, adults, 1+ and young-of-the-year (YOY) brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in Hunt Creek, Michigan, USA, between 1951 and 2001. This time series represents one of the longest quantitative population data sets for fishes.

3. Our analysis included four data sets: (i) Pooled (1951–2001), (ii) Fished (1951–65), (iii) Unfished (1966–2001) and (iv) Temperature (1982–2001).

4. Principle component analyses of winter flow data identified a gradient between years with high mean daily winter flows, high daily maximum and minimum flows and frequent high flow events, and years with an opposite set of flow characteristics. Flows were lower during the Fished Period than during the Unfished Period. Winter temperature analyses elucidated a gradient between warm mean, warm minimum and maximum daily stream temperatures and a high number of minimum daily temperatures >6.1 °C, and years with the opposite characteristics. Summer temperature analyses contrasted years with warm summer stream temperatures vs years with cool summer stream temperatures.

5. Both YOY and adult densities varied several-fold during the study. Regression analysis did not detect a significant linear or nonlinear stock–recruitment relationship. AIC analysis indicated that density dependence was present in 15 of 16 cases (four population segments × four data sets) for both per capita rate of increase (wi values 0.46–1.00) and growth data (wi values 0.28–0.99). The almost ubiquitous presence of density dependence in both population and growth data is concordant with results from other trout populations and other studies in Michigan.


Deletion or mutation of the SH2D1A gene located at Xq25 is responsible for the development of the X-linked lymphoproliferative disease, XLP. Primary infection of the affected individuals with EBV leads to fulminant and often fatal infectious mononucleosis, FIM. Moreover, they run a 200 fold elevated risk for lymphoma development. Due to the critical role of the immune response for the outcome of EBV infection and the detection of EBV genomes in several malignancies, XLP studies have been mainly focused on the immunological aspects. The involvement of SAP in the apoptotic machinery provides a further aspect in the complex syndrome of XLP. Functional impairment of SAP leads to defective apoptotic responses. Activation induced apoptosis plays a pivotal role in the termination of the lymphocyte proliferation in IM. This mechanism is inefficient in XLP patients. In addition, in the absence of SAP, lymphoma development may be promoted by the illegitimate survival of lymphocytes with damaged DNA that would be normally eliminated by apoptosis.


: We investigate whether the bank crisis management framework of the European banking union can effectively bar the detrimental influence of national interests in cross-border bank failures. We find that both the internal governance structure and decision making procedure of the Single Resolution Board (SRB) and the interplay between the SRB and national resolution authorities in the implementation of supranationally devised resolution schemes provide inroads that allow opposing national interests to obstruct supranational resolution. We also show that the Single Resolution Fund (SRG), even after the ratification of the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the introduction of the SRF backstop facility, is inapt to overcome these frictions. We propose a full supranationalization of resolution decision making. This would allow European authorities in charge of bank crisis management to operate autonomously and achieve socially optimal outcomes beyond national borders.