The representation of the effect of tropical deep convective (DC) systems on upper-tropospheric moist processes and outgoing longwave radiation is evaluated in the EC-Earth3, ECHAM6, and CAM5 (Community Atmosphere Model) climate models using satellite-retrieved data. A composite technique is applied to thousands of deep convective systems that are identified using local rain rate maxima in order to focus on the temporal evolution of the deep convective processes in the model and satellite-retrieved data. The models tend to over-predict the occurrence of rain rates that are less than approximate to 3 mm h(-1) compared to Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). While the diurnal distribution of oceanic rain rate maxima in the models is similar to the satellite-retrieved data, the land-based maxima are out of phase. Despite having a larger climatological mean uppertropospheric relative humidity, models closely capture the satellite-derived moistening of the upper troposphere following the peak rain rate in the deep convective systems. Simulated cloud fractions near the tropopause are larger than in the satellite data, but the ice water contents are smaller compared with the satellite-retrieved ice data. The models capture the evolution of ocean-based deep convective systems fairly well, but the land-based systems show significant discrepancies. Over land, the diurnal cycle of rain is too intense, with deep convective systems occurring at the same position on subsequent days, while the satellite-retrieved data vary more in timing and geographical location. Finally, simulated outgoing longwave radiation anomalies associated with deep convection are in reasonable agreement with the satellite data, as well as with each other. Given the fact that there are strong disagreements with, for example, cloud ice water content, and cloud fraction, between the models, this study supports the hypothesis that such agreement with satellite-retrieved data is achieved in the three models due to different representations of deep convection processes and compensating errors.


The essential oils of Actinolema macrolema Boiss. (Apiaceae) were obtained by hydrodistillation in the first 3 (sample A) and the following 3 h (sample B) from crushed fruits and dried leaves (sample C), which were subsequently analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Overall, 64 components were characterized, representing 93% of the leaf oil. Thirty components were characterized from the fruit oil representing 95% of the first fraction and 90% of the second fraction consecutively. Guaia-5,7(11)-diene, selina-3,7(11)-diene, and juniper camphor were isolated from the oils by column chromatography and their structures were elucidated by GC-MS, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR. The occurrence of guaia-5,7(11)-diene in nature is reported for the first time. Guaia-5,7(11)-diene (37% and 30%), germacrene-B (25% and 21%), and selina-3,7(11)-diene (both 12%) were found as major components in the oil of sample A and the following sample B, respectively. In sample C, 1-octadecanol (24%) and hexadecanoic acid (19%) were identified as the major components. Additionally, antimicrobial activities of the fruit oils were determined using broth microdilution. Sample A exhibited relatively good inhibition of Staphylococcus epidermidis (MIC 62.5 m g/mL). The 2 fruit essential oils showed inhibitory (MIC 125 m g/mL) effects equal to those of the standard antifungal agent used against C. albicans.


We analyzed data from 75 master's and doctoral programs in Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology to examine the emphasis on specific assessment techniques in graduate personnel courses in the United States and Canada. The findings indicated that most instructors do not focus on in-depth teaching of specific psychological tests within such courses. Indeed, the techniques that received the most emphasis were assessment centers and honesty tests, followed by an assortment of personality, aptitude, and vocational measures. The discussion centers on the implications for graduate training for I/O students. Over the past 50 years, a number of surveys on professional training in psychodiagnostic testing have appeared in the literature (Piotrowski & Zalewski, 1993). However, researchers have not investigated the degree of training emphasis on specific testing measures and techniques in the area of personnel selection. A comprehensive review of the literature identified only one study that reported on the implications for assessment training in the I/O area (Piotrowski & Keller, 1992). Information on this topic would be beneficial given recent attempts by professionals in I/O psychology to identify critical issues for work roles and training needs of graduate students in the area. These issues include a discussion of the relevance of licensure, the identification of competencies needed by I/O graduates, and the establishment of standards for graduate I/O training (e.g., Dale, 1988; Lowe, 1990, 1993; ODEER, 1991; Shippmann, Hawthorne, & Schmitt, 1992). Finally, training in assessment skills has been recognized as a critical component of graduate courses in personnel selection and industrial psychology (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1994). Interestingly, recent graduates of an I/O program rated assessment training as a highly valued instructional component (Erffmeyer & Mendel, 1990). But, data are still lacking as to the level and extent of training with assessment techniques in graduate-level I/O programs. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine the relative emphasis given to specific tests/instruments covered in personnel selection courses in the United States and Canada. Method We surveyed I/O programs (MA & PhD) from schools contained in the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (1995) listing of graduate training programs. The two-page form asked respondents to rate their degree of coverage of 36 specific published tests, as well as three broad assessment techniques (i.e., assessment center exercises, honesty tests, leadership scales). The meaning of "extent of coverage" was left to the interpretation of the instructor to possibly include instruction such as test administration procedures, psychometrics, scoring, interpretation, and/or hands-on experience. The ratings (using a checklist) were indicated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (extensive). The selection of the tests/techniques were based on coverage in major personnel selection and psychological assessment texts, and coverage in personality assessment books (e.g., Lanyon & Goldstein, 1997; Miller, 1976). Multiple surveys were mailed to each program in the event that personnel selection courses are taught by two or more instructors within the department. The number of surveys mailed was based on the size of the I/O faculty in each program, with larger programs receiving more copies than smaller ones. Consequently, an average of three surveys were mailed to a total of 100 graduate I/O programs during the summer of 1997. A small follow-up mailing to non-responding schools was conducted in early fall of the same year. Only those teachers who taught graduate-level courses in personnel selection or industrial psychology were asked to participate. A total of 85 completed surveys (88% of which were usable) were returned, with 50 of these from separate programs. …


A ground-based optical study of polar arc characteristics is presented. An All-sky Camera (ASC) and Meridian Scanning Photometer (MSP) were operated at Eureka (89° N, Corrected Geomagnetic Latitude), Northwest Territories, over winter periods from 1990 to 1994 with 656 polar arcs detected by the ASC. Polar arcs were observed on average 8% of the time (above 300 R, 557.7 nm) by the ASC, with a diurnal variation peaking around local midnight. The amplitude of the diurnal variation was about 37% of the mean occurrence rate. This may be due to the fact that the viewing area of the ASC in the ionosphere was magnetically connected to a magnetotail region which was closer to the plasma sheet around the local midnight hours. Polar arcs were detected by the MSP with a threshold of 50 R 30% of the time from 557.7 nm emissions and 49% of the time from 630.0 nm emissions. These suggest that the precipitated electrons exciting the polar arcs were often very soft. It was also found that the mean frequencies of polar arcs over the winter periods correlated with solar activity (10.7 cm flux or sunspot number). Most polar arcs (78%) occurred with northward IMF Bz. However, there were significant numbers (16%) observed with the IMF Bz stably southward. Polar arcs also tended to occur with the IMF Bx near zero and the IMF By slightly positive. One half of the polar arcs (above 300 R, 557.7 nmm) had lifetimes less than 20 minutes. There were 25 solar wind dynamic pressure enhancements detected by the IMP-8 satellite during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 winter periods. All the enhancements were followed by polar arcs. A short time delay (18 min on average) between the enhancements and the polar arcs with southward IMF Bz suggests direct access of solar wind particles into the polar ionosphere and an open magnetospheric configuration in the polar cap region. A positive correlation between the intensity of 630.0 nm emission of the polar arcs and the magnitude of the enhancements supports the direct access of the solar wind particles. The long time delay (70 min on average) for polar arc appearance following the enhancements with northward IMF Bz suggests the particle source for the polar arcs in this case was located in the magnetotail. This finding shows the solar wind dynamic pressure enhancements do generate or induce energetic electron precipitation in the polar cap with either northward or southward IMF Bz. Mapping of polar arcs by using the Tsyganenko magnetic field model (T89) suggests electron source regions for polar arcs are mostly located in the magnetotail lobe region. The mapping supports a bifurcated magnetotail model or an expanded plasma sheet (plasma sheet boundary) model. Suggestions for future work include the relation between the energy of precipitated electrons and the polarity of the IMF, generation of field-aligned electric fields, the relation between the lifetimes of polar arcs and stability of the northward IMF Bz or solar wind dynamic pressure, and development of fine structure in polar arcs in…


Background Emergency coronary angiography in comatose survivors of out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), in the absence of STEMI criteria on a post-resuscitation ECG, is controversial. High mortality and the implications on resource use, without robust criteria for the selection of appropriate candidates, has prevented clear guidance from the national societies. Our institution has adopted early involvement of a specialist team, consisting of an interventional cardiologist, emergency care physician and intensive-care anaesthetist, to initiate early assessment of patients. All survivors of OHCA, without an obvious non-cardiac aetiology, are transferred to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory for emergent angiography and intervention, if indicated, irrespective of presenting ECG, before admission to intensive care. We report the outcomes of this pathway with particular emphasis on the predictive value of the post-resuscitation ECG. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinic data, ECG characteristics and angiographic images of all survivors of OHCA admitted to our institution between 1 October 2012 and 31 July 2015. Results We obtained data for 192 patients (80% male, average age 62 years). 24% patients were transferred from neighbouring hospitals. The median time interval from admission to the emergency department and transfer to the catheter laboratory was 76 min for local patients compared to 176 min for transferred patients. The prevalence of significant coronary artery disease (>70% stenosis in at least one coronary artery) was 77% in our patient cohort. 69 (36%) patients had an acute coronary occlusion whereas 55 (29%) cases were chronic total occlusions. Immediate PCI was undertaken in 109 (57%) cases and of these 46 (42%) did not have ST elevation on the post-resuscitation ECG. Our overall rate of survival to discharge was 58%, with higher rates of survival observed in those undergoing PCI (63% v 52% in conservatively managed patients (non-significant p = 0.1)). Conclusion Clinical criteria and electrocardiographic data are poor predictors of significant coronary artery disease and acute coronary occlusion. In our experience early involvement of a specialist team to facilitate prompt assessment and immediate coronary angiography is associated with a favourable outcome in this unselected population of comatose survivors of out of hospital cardiac arrest.


Insight-HXMT was taking data normally around the trigger time (T0=2020-04-10T23:19:55.49 UTC) of this high-energy neutrino event (GCN #27534), which was monitored without any occultation by the Earth. Within T0 +/- 100 s, no significant excess events (SNR > 3 sigma) are found in a search of the Insight-HXMT/HE raw light curves. Assuming the counterpart GRB with three typical GRB Band spectral models, two typical duration timescales(1 s, 10 s) coming from the position of this neutrino event, the 5-sigma upper-limits fluence (0.2 - 5 MeV, incident energy) are reported below: Band model 1 (alpha=-1.9, beta=-3.7, Ep=70 keV): 1s: 1.3e-07 erg cm^-2 10s: 6.1e-07 erg cm^-2 Band model 2 (alpha=-1.0, beta=-2.3, Ep=230 keV): 1s: 2.1e-07 erg cm^-2 10s: 9.6e-07 erg cm^-2 Band model 3 (alpha=-0.0, beta=-1.5, Ep=1000 keV): 1s: 5.4e-07 erg cm^-2 10s: 2.1e-06 erg cm^-2 Further analysis will be reported in the following circulars. All measurements above are made with the CsI detectors operating in the regular mode with the energy range of about 80-800 keV (record energy). Only gamma-rays with energy greater than about 200 keV can penetrate the spacecraft and leave signals in the CsI detectors installed inside of the telescope. Insight-HXMT is the first Chinese space X-ray telescope, which was funded jointly by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). More information could be found at: http://www.hxmt.org.


Microbes were the first living organisms to colonize the world some 3 billion years ago. When our human ancestors entered the scene some millions of years ago, microbes had already occupied every niche on the globe. The human body was no exception to this occupation. Microbes colonized and readily exploited the outer and inner surfaces of our ancestors' bodies; every now and then they entered into deeper tissue sites where they caused harm—something we now call infectious disease. As long as humans were nomadic and did not settle in larger communities, infectious diseases were restricted to small groups of individuals and could not spread. Once humans switched to stable settlements and started to grow crops and tend animals, microbes could better spread from contaminated water, soil, and vegetable sources to animal and human, from animal to human, and from human to human. Farming and animal husbandry practices began 10,000 to 20,000 years ago and provided fertile ground for insects, which served as vectors for disease transmission. In fact, we can trace several major infectious diseases of today back to these times.


This is the second paper in a two-paper series which covers the PRCI-funded work aimed at the development of intelligent flaw interaction rules (termed PRCI-CRES SIA-1-5 rules). The first paper focused on the development of the rules using numerical analyses. This paper covers the evaluation of the rules through full-scale burst tests and accompanying small-scale material tests.
 Four full-scale burst tests were conducted on 20" and 18" OD pipe segments with SCC. The SCC colonies on the test sections were inspected using MPI, PAUT, ECA, and IWEX. The small-scale material tests were conducted to measure pipe tensile strength and Charpy impact energy. The four test sections were pressurized until burst. The burst tests were recorded using multiple video cameras to capture the global behavior and detailed crack opening process at the burst locations. With the videos and the post-test examination of the failure surfaces, the full-scale burst tests provide not only the burst pressure but also information for the validation of the fundamental principles of the new interaction rules.
 The modified Ln-sec method was used to predict the burst pressure using the equivalent crack size from different flaw interaction rules and the measured pipe material properties. The PRCI-CRES SIA-1-5 rules were found to provide the most accurate and precise burst pressure prediction when factors other than flaw interaction rules remain the same.
 The application of the PRCI-CRES SIA-1-5 rules can reduce unnecessary hydrotests and/or other remediation actions with accurate, not overly conservative, burst pressure prediction.


haracterization of arrhythmia complexity requires defining well behaved measures that respect the known signal symmetries. Multifractal analysis methods take into account the intermittency of the fluctuations observed in the cardiac electric potential. We present how singularity analysis provides a measure to robustly characterize complexity at a local level. This method is essentially nonlinear and it minimizes the effect of common artefacts on empirical signals such as finite size, noise and aliasing. The presented method aims at improving the understanding of arrhythmia mechanisms with minimal base hypotheses. In that sense, it highlights arrhythmogenic areas on electrocardiographic potential maps of the epicardium. From it, key descriptors could help in determining the prognosis of the arrhythmia, to forecast the outcome of ablation and resynchronization procedures, and to guide the surgical action in these operations.


Reusing online resources has long been acknowledged as key to developing a sustainable approach to e-learning (e.g. Littlejohn (2003)). Indeed, it is difficult to envisage a productive future for e-learning that does not include sharing of resources. Opportunities to generate content online have escalated. Sharing, in the sense of publishing, comparing, collaborating and combining new resources, is increasingly common and frequently 'open'. Described as 'a learning object plus an open license' (Wiley, 2009), open educational resources (OER) help resolve one of the most significant barriers to sharing – the rights issue. However, sharing of OER is a two-sided process. It requires use of the resources, for the sharing cycle to be completed. Otherwise we simply have intent to share, or 'planning to share' Leslie (2008) – the good intentions around reuse identified by McGill, et. al. (2008). OER is more than simply making shareable resources available in a technically reusable guise. It needs to facilitate productive sharing exchanges between participants who may not have met, supporting discovery, adaptation and reuse of resources across different contexts – whether as one-off transactions, or within on-going collaboration. In doing so it needs to engage with complex cultural change – not just in countering resistance to offering resources (Lee, 2008), but also in knowing why reusing resources would be desirable in an academic culture which places high value on originality. This session presents a model for predicting the reuse potential of OER projects within UK HE, and thus improving the chances of reuse occurring. The model is grounded in longitudinal research (2002-2009) based on resource reuse within the UK across a spectrum of sharing contexts, from courses and individual collections, to national and open repositories. It focuses on the influence and interaction of technology (including open licenses), motivation and resource utility on each side of the resource reuse transaction – the supply and the demand (or use) dimensions of resource sharing. Presented as a 'dashboard' style tool, the resource reuse prediction (RREP) model will help OER projects anticipate areas of resistance to reuse and suggests ways to address or minimize these.


Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocol is standardized for vehicular communication to ensure a distributed and efficient communication between vehicles. However, several vehicular applications require efficient multi-hop information dissemination. This paper exploits stochastic geometry to develop a tractable and accurate modeling framework to characterize the multi-hop transmissions for vehicular networks in a multilane highway setup. In particular, we study the tradeoffs between per-hop packet forward progress, per-hop transmission success probability, and spatial frequency reuse (SFR) efficiency imposed by different packet forwarding schemes, namely, most forward with fixed radius (MFR), the nearest with forward progress (NFP), and the random with forward progress (RFP). We also define a new performance metric, denoted as the aggregate packet progress (APP), which is a dimensionless quantity that captures the aforementioned tradeoffs. To this end, the developed model reveals the interplay between the spectrum sensing threshold (ρth) of the CSMA protocol and the packet forwarding scheme. Our results show that, contrary to ALOHA networks, which always favor NFP, MFR may achieve the highest APP in CSMA networks if ρth is properly chosen.


Largely concerned with Family Politics and Deception in northern North America and West-Central Africa, this book is intended mostly to provoke and enlighten. The book fossungupalogizes on whether or not northern North American courts are able to live up to the standard of ?exclusively saying exactly what the law is? in regard of the apparent war between the mounting same-sex marriage legalization drive and the traditional Western religious conception of marriage as endorsed by America?s 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. It also tackles some intriguingly troubling matters emanating from African customary marriages and inheritance, subjects presenting some odd faces of marriage and family very similar at times to those engendered by same-sex marriage in northern North America. Its underlying preaching is that positive things could often be found even in tragedies. Hence, you should learn to make the best of your troubles instead of letting these haunt you ? a goal easily attained by cultivating the habit of looking at the larger picture of things. Even one?s ?stupid? and non-professional ideas could be learning ground to more people than one ever could have imagined.


Objective: To observe and analyse the effect of intense pulsed light on facial pigmentation caused by burn.
Methods: From January 2015 to May 2017, 42 patients with facial pigmentation caused by burn enrolled in our hospital were collected. All of them received intense pulsed light therapy by the way of BEAUTYFLASH NP-LTSS produced by General Project Company and the efficacy of treatment was observed and analysed.
Results: All cases were followed up after receiving intense pulsed light treatment and the result showed that the effective ratio in the patients was 80.24% in one month, 88.10% in 3 months, and 95.24% in one year. During the treatment, 2 patients experienced erythema and pain in skin of treatment area with mild symptoms that resolve spontaneously without special handling; 1 patient of blister who was healed up by implement of debridement and wound dressing and constantly treated with intense pulse light after stability and it turned out to be no conditions like hyper pigmentation or scar formation.
Conclusion: For patients with post-burn facial hyperpigmentation, the intense pulse light treatment program is effective, safe and reliable in fading the facial pigmentation caused by burn.


A new instrument was devised to identify misconceptions in biology and probe into the causes of misunderstanding in a relatively quick way. It revealed that novice biology teachers held a number of conceptual errors which were prevalent among secondary school students. They showed serious misunderstandings in cellular metabolism, the nutritional process, gaseous exchange, the circulatory system, homeostasis, reproduction and variation. The problem has been attributed to inadequate mastery of subject knowledge and imprecise use of terminology. Specific teaching strategies were suggested to prevent the propagation of these misconceptions in students. Teacher education programmes should aim at promoting the awareness of teachers as to children's learning difficulties and developing their professional skills in facilitating children's conceptual development.


This study seeks to examine how the Nigerian female writer Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo redefines otherness in Children of the Eagle by exploring the narrative elements of the sub-genre of fictional autobiography in centring female subjects. By foregrounding one of Regenia Gagnier's descriptions of a subject—one that is "a subject to itself, an 'I', however difficult or even impossible it may be for others to understand this 'I' from its own viewpoint, within its own experience"—this paper argues that female subjectivity is a strategy that locates female characters as subjects, narrators, insiders and participants who share their experiences in the novel. It shows that the centrality of the female narrative voice(s) in determining the course and thematic focus of the novel enables female characters to demonstrate their otherness as a quality and position that makes them resilient, strong, and uncompromising promoters of women's cause against debilitating patriarchal beliefs and systems. Being the speaking subjects also helps them to unpack the underlying trajectories in their development and depiction in the novel. This study concludes that Adimora-Ezeigbo's adoption of this technique in Children of the Eagle strengthens the view that placing women as narrator-subjects enables the redefinition of otherness as a favourable concept capable of showing women as critical members of their societies and also a tool for African women writers' to transform the literary scene. Keywords : Adimora-Ezeigbo, female, fictional autobiography, otherness, subjectivity.


This paper studies models where the optimal response functions under consideration are not increasing in endogenous variables, and weakly increasing in exogenous parameters. Such models include games with strategic substitutes, and include cases where additionally, some variables may be strategic complements. The main result here is that the equilibrium set in such models is a non-empty, complete lattice, if, and only if, there is a unique equilibrium. Indeed, for a given parameter value, a pair of distinct equilibria are never comparable. Therefore, with multiple equilibria, some of the established techniques for exhibiting increasing equilibria or computing equilibria that use the largest or smallest equilibrium, or that use the lattice structure of the equilibrium set do not apply to such models. Moreover, there are no ranked equilibria in such models. Additionally, the analysis here implies a new proof and a slight generalization of some existing results. It is shown that when a parameter increases, no new equilibrium is smaller than any old equilibrium. (In particular, in n-player games of strategic substitutes with real-valued action spaces, symmetric equilibria increase with the parameter.)


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Anterior communicating artery aneurysm rupture and treatment is associated with high rates of dependency, which are more severe after clipping compared with coiling. To determine whether ischemic injury might account for these differences, we characterized cerebral infarction burden, infarction patterns, and patient outcomes after surgical or endovascular treatment of ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients with ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms. Patient data and neuroimaging studies were reviewed. A propensity score for outcome measures was calculated to account for the nonrandom assignment to treatment. Primary outcome was the frequency of frontal lobe and striatum ischemic injury. Secondary outcomes were patient mortality and clinical outcome at discharge and at 3 months. RESULTS: Coiled patients were older (median, 55 versus 50 years; P = .03), presented with a worse clinical status (60% with Hunt and Hess Score >2 versus 34% in clipped patients; P = .02), had a higher modified Fisher grade (P = .01), and were more likely to present with intraventricular hemorrhage (78% versus 56%; P = .03). Ischemic frontal lobe infarction (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.1–8.4; P = .03) and recurrent artery of Heubner infarction (OR, 20.9; 95% CI, 3.5–403.7; P < .001) were more common in clipped patients. Clipped patients were more likely to be functionally dependent at discharge (OR, 3.2; P = .05) compared with coiled patients. Mortality and clinical outcome at 3 months were similar between coiled and clipped patients. CONCLUSIONS: Frontal lobe and recurrent artery of Heubner infarctions are more common after surgical clipping of ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms, and are associated with poorer clinical outcomes at discharge.


Recent analysis of empirical data from cities showed that a macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) of urban traffic provides for different network regions a unimodal, low-scatter relationship between network vehicle density and network space-mean flow. In this paper, the optimal perimeter control for two-region urban cities is formulated with the tool ofMFDs. The controllers operate on the border between the two regions, and manipulate the percentages of flows that transfer between the two regions such that the number of trips reach their destinations is maximized. The perimeter control problem is solved by model predictive control, where the prediction model and the plant(reality) are formulated by macroscopic fundamental diagrams. Examples are presented for different levels of congestion in the regions of the city and the robustness of the controller is tested for different size of error in the MFDs. The direct sequential method is utilized to optimize the non linear problem of the open-loop control. Comparison results shows that the performances of the model predictive control are significantly better than a "greedy" feedback control. The results of this paper can be extended to develop efficient hierarchical control strategies for heterogeneously congested cities.


Phagocytosis of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, is mediated partly by the interaction of the spirochete with Complement Receptor (CR) 3. CR3 requires the GPI-anchored protein, CD14, in order to efficiently internalize CR3-B. burgdorferi complexes. GPI-anchored proteins reside in cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains, and through its interaction with partner proteins, help initiate signaling cascades. Here, we investigated the role of CD14 on the internalization of B. burgdorferi mediated by CR3. We show that CR3 partly colocalizes with CD14 in lipid rafts. The use of the cholesterol-sequestering compound methyl-β-cyclodextran completely prevents the internalization of the spirochete in CHO cells that co-express CD14 and CR3, while no effect was observed in CD11b-deficient macrophages. These results show that lipid rafts are required for CR3-dependent, but not independent, phagocytosis of B. burgdorferi. Our results also suggest that CD14 interacts with the C-lectin domain of CR3, favoring the formation of multi-complexes that allow their internalization, and the use of β-glucan, a known ligand for the C-lectin domain of CR3, can compensate for the lack of CD14 in CHO cells that express CR3. These results provide evidence to understand the mechanisms that govern the interaction between CR3 and CD14 during the phagocytosis of B. burgdorferi.


The hedgehog pathway is a major regulator for cell differentiation, tissue polarity and cell proliferation in embryonic development and homeostasis in adult tissue. Studies from many laboratories reveal activation of this pathway in a variety of human cancer, including basal cell carcinomas, medulloblastomas, leukemia, gastrointestinal, lung, ovarian, breast and prostate cancers. It is thus believed that targeted inhibition of hedgehog signaling may be effective in treatment and prevention of human cancer. Even more exciting is the discovery and synthesis of specific signaling antagonists for the hedgehog pathway, which have significant clinical implications in novel cancer therapeutics. In this review, we will summarize major advances in the last two years in our understanding of hedgehog signaling activation in human gastroesophageal cancer, and their potential in clinical treatment with hedgehog pathway inhibitors.


The microstructure and mechanical hardness of Inconel 718 (INC718) hexagonal honeycomb cellular structure manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) was studied in this work. Non-heat-treated SLM-produced samples with cell wall thicknesses of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 mm were studied. The hardness was measured using MTS Nanoindenter at different temperatures and strain rates. At room temperature, continuous hardness measurements through a penetration depth of 2 µm using three different strain rates (0.02, 0.05, and 0.08 s−1) were performed. At the temperatures 100 and 200 °C, single hardness measurements at eight different maximum loads were performed. Using scanning ion microscopy (SIM), the grain size was found to change significantly as the cell wall thickness reduced from 0.6 mm to 0.4 mm compared to the change from 0.8 mm to 0.6 mm. A similar trend in mechanical hardness reduction was observed in the three samples. The microstructure, hardness, and strain rate sensitivity displayed anisotropy in properties between the planes parallel and perpendicular to the build direction. A model describing the temperature, strain rate, and indentation size effects on hardness developed by the second author was modified and used to evaluate the intrinsic material length scale used in gradient plasticity theory.


Natural radioactivity associated with the Abakaliki baked shale as construction materials was measured using gamma spectrometry to establish radiological risk to public health. From the results, the mean activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K are 38.852 ± 2.829 Bqkg–1, 69.589 ± 1.759 Bqkg–1 and 557.667 ± 3.002 Bqkg–1 respectively, higher than the world average concentrations of 35 Bqkg-1, 45 Bqkg-1 and 420 Bqkg–1 respectively. The radiation hazard indices such as air absorbed dose ranged from 67.22 to 108.7 nGyh-1 higher than the world average value of 55 nGyh-1 [United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, UNSCEAR]. The annual effective dose which ranged from 0.08 to 0.13 mSvy-1 are less than the annual effective dose limit [E] of 1.0 mSvy-1 for humans. The Radium equivalent activities [Raeq] [146.23 -234.59 Bqkg1] are below UNSCEAR recommended limit of 370 Bqkg-1. The internal [0.410-0.740] and external [0.393-0.640] radiation hazard indices are less than unity which is the world permissible value. The gamma activity indexes correspond to an activity concentration index of 2 ≤ Iγr ≤ 6 proposed by European Commission. The annual gonadal equivalent dose [AGED] average value of 537.53 mSvy-1 is higher than the world average value of 300 mSvy-1. On average, studied shales satisfy most of the health risk indices such as E and Raeq as well as the radiation hazard indices as their mean values are lower than the permissible limits. The use of these construction materials is free of any health risk related to radiation.


CONTEXT
Patients with chronic heart failure have impaired long-term survival, but their own expectations regarding prognosis have not been well studied.

OBJECTIVES
To quantify expectations for survival in patients with heart failure, to compare patient expectations to model predictions, and to identify factors associated with discrepancies between patient-predicted and model-predicted prognosis.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Prospective face-to-face survey of patients from the single-center Duke Heart Failure Disease Management Program between July and December 2004, with follow-up through February 2008. Patient-predicted life expectancy was obtained using a visual analog scale. Model-predicted life expectancy was calculated using the Seattle Heart Failure Model. Actuarial-predicted life expectancy, based on age and sex alone, was calculated using life tables. Observed survival was determined from review of medical records and search of the Social Security Death Index.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Life expectancy ratio (LER), defined as the ratio of patient-predicted to model-predicted life expectancy.

RESULTS
The cohort consisted of 122 patients (mean age, 62 years; 47% African American, 42% New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III or IV). On average, patients overestimated their life expectancy relative to model-predicted life expectancy (median patient-predicted life expectancy, 13.0 years; model-predicted expectancy, 10.0 years). Median LER was 1.4 (interquartile range, 0.8-2.5). Younger age, increased NYHA class, lower ejection fraction, and less depression were the most significant predictors of higher LER. During a median follow-up of 3.1 years, 29% of the original cohort died. There was no association between higher LER and improved survival (adjusted hazard ratio for overestimated compared with concordant LER, 1.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.46-2.42).

CONCLUSIONS
Ambulatory patients with heart failure tended to substantially overestimate their life expectancy compared with model-based predictions for survival. Because differences in perceived survival could affect decision making regarding advanced therapies and end-of-life planning, the causes of these discordant predictions warrant further study.


The purpose of this study was to compare 5 forecasting models: Ratio-to-Trend, Holt-Winters Exponential Smoothing, Regression Dummy Variables, Theta, and Combined Forecasting. These methods were used for forecasting the number of Malaria patients in Phanom District, Surat Thani Province. The monthly time series data were collected from Surat Thani Provincial Health Office during January 2011 through December 2015 and divided into two groups. The first group of data covered the period of time from January 2011 to December 2014 and has been used for constructing the forecasting models. The secondary group of data covered the period of time from January 2015 to December 2015 and has been used for checking the accuracy of the forecasting models. The accuracy characteristics that we used were Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) and Mean Square Error (MSE). The smallest values of MAD and MSE indicate the optimal forecasting model.  Based on the study, the optimal models was Combined Forecasting and the forecasting model was  Y t = 0.907F 1t + 0.093F 2t ; t = 1, 2, ..., 12 where F 1t  and F 2t  represented the single forecasts at time t, from Regression Dummy Variables and Holt-Winters Exponential Smoothing, respectively.


Business schools globally are responding to calls for graduate work-readiness primarily through the development of employability skills, encompassing career management skills, and work integrated-learning (WIL). There has been considerable attention to clarifying precisely which skills should be developed, and how, but far less on evaluating employability skill provision and its impact on graduate work-readiness. This is increasingly important as industry worldwide continues to lament graduate inadequacies in certain employability skills and the extent to which they are job-ready.
This paper outlines a systematic approach for evaluating employability skill outcomes and the effectiveness of learning programs in developing these skills. The approach was developed in a learning program dedicated to developing employability skills in business undergraduates in an Australian university. It may assist other universities in communicating, assessing, mapping and reporting their employability skills outcomes; an integral component of all business undergraduate programs, and now a requirement of all Australian higher education providers (TEQSA, 2011). The approach provides a means of evaluating program effectiveness in skill provision, enabling a more informed review of curricula content, assessment and pedagogical techniques to achieve better alignment with industry requirements.


Many organisations have recently adopted variants of cloud computing. Many of them have done so with considerable enthusiasm, but with very little reflection. Commentators have warned of uncertain benefits, predictable disbenefits and a wide range of risks. A study of IT media reports shows that cloud outages are frequent, and that at least some of the theoretical risks are very real. This paper draws on the accumulated bodies of theory on outsourcing and information and IT security in order to propose an evaluation framework. This instrument supports an organisation's executives in evaluating proposals for cloud computing, and assists their governing Boards to fulfil their legal obligations to ensure that choices are informed by business case analysis and risk assessment.


The analysis of gender in conflict and fragile situations is an emerging area of research. Little to no attention has been paid to it up until very recently. There is scant scholarly work available that directly addresses this issue, and there is no research on the relationship between gender and low intensity conflict in Kashmir. It is in this light that the current research note has been written. It traces the broad impact that conflict has had on the lives of women living in the Kashmir region, the conflict centric part of Jammu and Kashmir. Through this research note it is established that the women in Kashmir have been exposed to the shock of unpredicted fragility, and the study is further endorsed by some instantial ethnographic case studies. These shocks have impacted them economically, psychologically and socially. Generations of women have been suffering from the negative impact of the conflict. Alhough disastrous for the most part, women have gradually developed some resilience. With time more and more Kashmiri women have been striving towards gaining economic independence by learning skills, by the acquisition of education and by being gainfully employed.


We use kinematic simulation (KS) to study the development of a material line immersed in a three-dimensional turbulent flow. We generalize this study to a material surface, cube and sphere. We find that the fractal dimension of the surface can be explained by the same mechanism as that proposed by Villermaux & Gagne (Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 73, 1994, p. 252) for the line. The fractal dimension of the line or the surface is a linear function of time up to times of the order of the smallest characteristic time of turbulence (or Kolmogorov timescale). For volume objects we describe the respective role of the Reynolds number and of the object's characteristic size. Using the method of characteristics with KS we compute the evolution with time of a concentration field $C({\bm x},t)$ and measure the fractal dimension of the intersection of this scalar field with a given plane. For these objects, we retrieve the result of Villermaux & Innocenti (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 393, 1999, p. 123) that the Reynolds number does not affect the development of the fractal dimension of the iso-scalar surface and extend this result to volume geometries. We also find that for volume objects the characteristic time of development of the fractal dimension is the large scales' characteristic time and not the Kolmogorov timescale.


Recent advances have made it possible to create deep complex-valued neural networks. Despite this progress, many challenging learning tasks have yet to leverage the power of complex representations. Building on recent advances, we propose a new deep complex-valued method for signal retrieval and extraction in the frequency domain. As a case study, we perform audio source separation in the Fourier domain. Our new method takes advantage of the convolution theorem which states that the Fourier transform of two convolved signals is the elementwise product of their Fourier transforms. Our novel method is based on a complex-valued version of Feature-Wise Linear Modulation (FiLM) and serves as the keystone of our proposed signal extraction method. We also introduce a new and explicit amplitude and phase-aware loss, which is scale and time invariant, taking into account the complex-valued components of the spectrogram. Using the Wall Street Journal Dataset, we compared our phase-aware loss to several others that operate both in the time and frequency domains and demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed signal extraction method and proposed loss.


Emerging models of healthcare payment and delivery, including accountable care organizations (ACOs), present an opportunity to improve quality outcomes and lower costs for individuals with complex health and social needs. Understanding how ACOs manage care for this population can help build the evidence base for which strategies should be spread more broadly and where more research is still needed.


A Neogene magmatic reactivation of the Manihiki Plateau, a Large Igneous Province (LIP) in the central Pacific, is studied using seismic reflection data. Igneous diapirs have been identified exclusively within a narrow WNW-ESE striking corridor in the southern High Plateau (HP), which is parallel to the Neogene Pacific Plate motion and overlaps with an extrapolation of the Society Islands Hotspot path. The igneous diapirs are characterized by a narrow width (> 5 km), penetration of the Neogene sediments, and they become progressively younger towards the East (23-10 Ma). The magmatic source appears to be of small lateral extent, which leads to the conclusion that the diapirs represent Neogene hotspot volcanism within a LIP, and thus may be an older, previously unknown extension of the Society Islands Hotspot track (> 4.5 Ma). Comparing hotspot volcanism within oceanic and continental lithosphere, we further conclude that hotspot volcanism within LIP crust has similarities to tectonically faulted continental crust.


The article subject is safety problems in agriculture. The paper concerns to the legal conditions regarding health and safety in agriculture were presented. The current state of the law in this regard and its source have been shown too as well as the statistical data on accidents ASIF in agriculture have been analyzed. Surveys allowed to observe the relation between the number of accidents and the profile of agricultural production and farm location.


Full text of this issue's editorial: I just returned from the University of Vermont's fourth annual Food Systems Summit, entitled  The Right to Food: Power, Policy, and Politics in the 21st Century.  The right to food is often misunderstood as meaning that a government has the obligation to feed its people. Instead, in our capitalism-based world it is the right of people to have unfettered access to food, and more specifically to feed themselves. Three remarkable keynote speakers hammered this point home. Lawyer, activist, and human rights expert Smita Narula delved deep into the conference theme by speaking to the foundation for considering food as a human right while noting that the U.S. has dragged its feet on this issue, making more advances in civil and political rights than in economic and social rights that include the right to food. Berkeley conservation biologist Claire Kremen made the case for agroecology as a commonsense response to Earth's biophysical constraints to the right to food. And  Stuffed and Starved  author Raj Patel suggested why the medicalization of food by adding vitamins ("nutritionism") is not the route to solving the issue of widespread hunger. From additional panel speakers we heard about New England's lofty goal of supplying 50% of its own food by 2060; case studies of agroecology projects and working with smallholder farmers in Central America to adjust to climate change; and a remarkable program run by Vermont Youth Conservation Corps called the Health Care Share that includes a CSA operated with paid youth trainees in which shares are actually prescribed—and are free of charge—to limited-resource patients who have health issues related to weight and nutrition (see  http://www.farmatvycc.org/ ). The patients pick up their shares at their doctor's offices. While the long-term financial model for supporting this innovative approach to addressing two community issues (youth work development and health) will be an issue, this kind of multisectoral problem-solving offers a welcome and fresh example. But one of the most powerful moments for me actually happened the evening before the conference, when organizers hosted a dinner gathering at the Intervale Center in Burlington. It was at this event that I met several very thoughtful and eager law students and young attorneys who were participating in the conference, since the Vermont Law School was cosponsoring this year's Food Systems Summit. As we ate dinner together and chatted about issues it occurred to me how the right to food will require their guidance and perhaps activism to move forward. Furthermore, it dawned on me how attorneys and legal experts are needed now and will be needed as time goes on in related food systems work: land use, farmland protection, alternative land ownership arrangements, labeling, place branding, food systems labor negotiations, international food treaties, trade negotiations, interstate commerce law, right-to-farm law and farm-neighbor relations, environmental regulation, food product liability, and minimizing litigation in all of the above through mitigation and mediation. With its Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, the Vermont Law School is now one of the leading institutions with a focus on legal aspects of food systems, and it is exciting to think we'll soon have a cadre of attorneys who will be able to put their shoulders to the wheel of the food movement. I like to think JAFSCD covers many of the topics discussed at the UVM Food Systems Summit. In this open call issue, we begin with a focus on economics. Two of our columnists focused on topics at the core of their respective wheelhouses. In his "Metrics from the Field" column,   Ken Meter  introduces  Two New Tools for Measuring Economic Impacts,  and in his inimitable fashion our Economic Pamphleteer  John Ikerd  addresses the question,  Can Small Farms Be Sustained Economically? The first paper in this issue, published through JAFSD Open Choice (publicly available), is by  Danielle Lake, Lisa Sisson,  and  Lara Jaskiewicz  and entitled  Local Food Innovation in a World of Wicked Problems: The Pitfalls and the Potential.  In it the authors examine how an urban food project's ability to play a social "bridging" role in the community is hampered by a top-down development approach—and yet exhibits potential. Next we offer a coincidental triptych of papers on community supported agriculture. In  Defining the "C" in Community Supported Agriculture,  Jennifer Haney, Michael Ferguson, Elyzabeth Engle, Kathleen Wood, Kyle Olcott, A. E. Luloff,  and  James Finley  ask operators and members of four CSAs about what community means to them and find some interesting differences in perception that can be valuable to CSA operators and supporters who are trying to manage member turnover. Ted White  takes a candid look at the image and the realities of CSAs and offers constructive criticism in  The Branding of Community Supported Agriculture: Collective Myths and Opportunities. In the third CSA-related paper, entitled  From Bread We Build Community: Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Co-creation of Local Food Businesses and Systems,  Matthew M. Mars  offers an in-depth case study of a community supported baker whose entrepreneurial leadership has served the local food community well through collaboration beyond the baking business. Next,  Sherrie K. Godette, Kathi Beratan,  and  Branda Nowell  find that formulaic approaches to food systems work are likely to struggle in  Barriers and Facilitators to Local Food Market Development: A Contingency Perspective. Building the Capacity for Community Food Work: The Geographic Distribution of USDA Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program Grantees,  by  Keiko Tanaka, Erica Indiano, Graham Soley,  and  Patrick H. Mooney,  shows that the U.S. Southeast region is not as competitive in securing its share of CFP grant funds as other regions and suggests ways to remedy the problem. Also focused on the Southeast,  Libby Christensen  and  Rita O'Sullivan  apply social network analysis to food systems work in North Carolina as a way to model trends in collaboration, in  Using Social Network Analysis to Measure Changes in Regional Food Systems Collaboration: A Methodological Framework. Our final paper of this issue is the  Potential of Local Food Use in the Ohio Health Care Industry: An Exploratory Study,  by  Brian Raison  and  Scott Scheer,  who identified the key factors that inform hospital foodservice directors' decisions to purchase more local food. Wrapping up this issue are three book reviews relevant to the global right to food movement.  Angela Gordon Glore  reviews  Sustainable [R]Evolution: Permaculture in Ecovillages, Urban Farms, and Communities Worldwide,  edited by Juliana Birnbaum and Louis Fox.  Matt Hess  reviews  The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food,  by Dan Barber. Returning to the critical role played by the law in food system innovation,  Rachel Pilloff  reviews  The Intellectual Property and Food Project: From Rewarding Innovation and Creation to Feeding the World,  edited by Charles Lawson and Jay Sanderson. Publisher and Editor in Chief


We present the first near global upper tropospheric distribution of formic acid (HCOOH) observed from space using solar occultation measurements from the Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) on board the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite. Using a new set of spectroscopic line parameters recently published for formic acid by Vander Auwera et al. (2007) and Perrin and Vander Auwera (2007), we have retrieved the concentrations of HCOOH between 5 km and the tropopause for ACE-FTS observations from February 2004 to September 2007. We observe a significant seasonal dependence for the HCOOH concentrations related to vegetation growth and biomass burning. We estimate an emission ratio of 0.0051±0.0015 for HCOOH relative to CO for tropical South American fires using a selected set of data for September 2004. Results from the balloon-borne MkIV Fourier transform spectrometer are also presented and compared with the ACE measurements.


Purpose Birth control is a persistent global health concern. Natural family planning (NFP) comprises methods to achieve or avoid pregnancy independent of mechanical or pharmacological intervention. The sympto-thermal method (STM) of NFP employs daily observation of cervical fluids and measurement of basal body temperature. This multi-country study was undertaken to describe the characteristics of STM users, understand their perceptions of NFP, and its perceived impact on relationships. Methods and results Questionnaires for women and men were developed in German and translated to English, Polish, Italian, Czech, and Slovak by native speakers. A total of 2,560 respondents completed the online questionnaire (37.4% response). Participants were married (89%) and well educated, and their self-perceived financial status was described as "good" or "very good" by 65% of the respondents. Forty-seven percent had previously used contraceptives. Ninety-five percent of women and 55% of men said using NFP has helped them to know their body better. Large majorities of men (74%) and women (64%) felt NFP helped to improve their relationship while <10% felt use of NFP had harmed their relationship. Most women (53%) and men (63%) felt using NFP improved their sex life while 32% of women and 24% of men felt it was unchanged from before they used NFP. Seventy-five percent of women and 73% of men said they are either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their frequency of sexual intercourse. Conclusion This survey demonstrates STM of NFP is a well-accepted approach to family planning across several Western cultures. It is consistently viewed as being beneficial to couples' self-knowledge, their relationship, and satisfaction with frequency of sexual intercourse.


The first instrument to measure the magnetic field while being flown in an aircraft was the Earth inductor magnetometer. This was done in the USSR in 1936. But the system's sensitivity of 100 nT, called gammas in those days, was hardly suitable for routine surveys of large areas. Hans Lundberg built, after World War II, a helicopter-borne system for mineral prospecting in the Canadian Precambrian Shield. The rotor was spun by compressed air at 1800 Hz between a set of gimbal-mounted Helmholtz coils whose axis was aligned vertically. Thus, the system measured variations of the Earth's vertical field with a sensitivity of about 25 nT.


The purpose of this study was to explore students' technology use and its relationship with their psychosocial development. Previous research explored students' computer use in conjunction with their cognitive development. This study examined the effects of computer use and other technologies, such as instant messaging, handheld gaming devices, and MP3 players, and the impact they have on students' peer relationships, academic involvement, and healthy lifestyles. Results show both positive and negative effects on all three constructs of psychosocial development, including differences based on gender and race.


Nursery grounds are valuable habitats providing sources of food and refuge during early life stages for many commercially caught marine fish. Distinguishing between different nursery grounds and identifying habitat origin using trace elemental concentrations in aragonite structures of teleost fish has proved valuable in fish ecology and fisheries. This study aimed to (1) compare chemical signatures (elemental fingerprints) within sagittal otoliths of juvenile European plaice Pleuronectes platessa sampled from known nursery habitats in the south-eastern Irish Sea and (2) assess their potential and robustness as natural tags for identifying nursery grounds for the putative south-eastern Irish Sea plaice stock. Otoliths from juvenile plaice ('1-group', 6 to 15 cm total length) were obtained from 8 nursery grounds in coastal areas off north-west England and north Wales (including Anglesey) between June and August 2008. Solution-based inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry determined the concentrations of 10 elements (Li, Na, Mg, K, Mn, Zn, Rb, Sr, Sn, Ba), with significant differences in otolith element composition observed between all nursery grounds. Cross-validation linear discriminant function analysis (CV-LDFA) classified fish to their nursery ground of capture (46.2 to 93.3%), with a total group CV-LDFA accuracy of 71.0%. CV-LDFA between regions (north-west England and north Wales) classified fish with 82% accuracy. The discrimination of juvenile plaice from all 8 nursery grounds within the south-eastern Irish Sea using otolith microchemistry offers significant opportunities in the development of future effective fisheries management strategies through understanding the supply of juveniles from specific nursery grounds and adult plaice in the south-eastern Irish Sea.


Contents. List of Contributors. The Nuclear Pore Complex: Toward its Molecular Architecture, Structure, and Function (N. Pante and U. Aebi). Structure and Function of Mitochondrial Presequences (M. Maduke and D. Roise). Bacterial Toxin Transport: The Hemolysin System (J.A. Sheps, F. Zhang, and V. Ling). Protein Sorting to the Yeast Vacuole (B.F. Horazdovsky, J.H. Stack, and S.D. Emr). Bacterial Extracellular Secretion: Transport of a-Lytic Protease Across the Outer Membrane of Escherichia Coli (A.F. Boggs and D.A. Agard). Mechanisms of Peroxisome Biogenesis: Regulation of Peroxisomal Enzymes, and their Subsequent Sorting to Peroxisomes (G.M. Small). Peroxisomal Topogenic Signals and the Etiology of Peroxisome-Deficient Disease (U. Fujiki). ATP Binding Cassette Proteins in Yeast (C. Berkower and S. Michaelis). Membrane Protein Transport in Eukaryotic Secretion Cells (K.K. Goncz and S.S. Rothman). Index.


In this paper we present a training method and a network achitecture for the estimation of context-dependent observation probabilities in the framework of a hybrid Hidden Markov Model (HMM) / Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) speaker independent continuous speech recognition system. The context-dependent modeling approach we present here computes the HMM context-dependent observation probabilities using a Bayesian factorization in terms of scaled posterior phone probabilities which are computed with a set of MLPs, one for every relevant context. The proposed network architecture shares the input-to-hidden layer among the set of context-dependent MLPs in order to reduce the number of independent parameters. Multiple states for phone models with different context dependence for each state are used to model the different context effects at the begining and end of phonetic segments. A new training procedure that ''smooths'' networks with different degrees of context-dependence is proposed in order to obtain a robust estimate of the context-dependent probabilities. We have used this new architecture to model generalized biphone phonetic contexts. Tests with the speaker-independent DARPA Resource Management database have shown average reductions in word error rates of 20% in the word-pair grammar case, and 11% in the no-grammar case, compared to our earlier context-independent HMM/MLP hybrid.


Thomas James Crouch (1805 - 1890) was born in London,
arrived in Hobart in 1825 and was Sheriff's clerk and
in 1836 was appointed Under-Sheriff. He was a
prominent Methodist (although originally Anglican)
and also organised the Temperance Alliance. He married
Sarah Rothwell at St David's Cathedral in 1832. Sarah
became a Quaker after the Quaker missionaries James
Backhouse and G. W. Walker lodged with them. There
were several children, including Ann, who married
R.W.G. Shoobridge in 1871, Mary who married R. S. Caseley
a Wesleyan minister in South Australia, Thomas James who
became an architect and designed Melbourne G.P.O., and
George Stanton, farmer, newpaper proprietor and auctioneer,
who died in 1914.
Miscellaneous papers 1826 - 1853
Including lease, bank book, letter from G. W. Walker, gold
digging licence, correspondence of William Woollett about survey of allotment at Great Swanport, birth certificate of James
Rothwell Crouch 22 January 1843 (Quaker certificate of witness of birth), bank book of Ann Crouch, small ms music book inscribed "CC to KL".
(23 papers)
Royal Society RS.111


Background Oral chemotherapy is increasingly used in Oncology. It has important advantages, such as patient comfort, but it also brings new challenges which did not exist with the intravenous treatment. Some of these drugs have interactions with food, leading to changes in their bioavailability. As they are drugs with a narrow therapeutic margin, this can lead to alterations in their efficacy and/or toxicity. Purpose A. To assess the level of knowledge on the administration of oral cytostatics that present restrictions with meals (drugs that have to be taken with/without food) among the outpatients of a third level hospital. B. To minimise the incorrect administration and the risk of food-drug interactions, providing patients with information as to how and when drugs have to be administered. Material and methods Once the oral cytostatics with food restrictions were identified, we asked the patients in treatment about the information they had received from the doctor and the way they were taking the medicine. We provided those who were taking the drug incorrectly with the right information. In the following visit, it was confirmed if the patients who had previously been taking the cytostatic incorrectly, were now taking them correctly (intervention accepted/not accepted). Results 97 patients were interviewed (54% men, 46% women). 40% of them were used to taking the drug incorrectly. Of this percentage, 77% correspond to patients treated with capecitabine, 8% with lapatinib, another 8% with temozolomide, and finally 3% with abiraterone, erlotinib and pazopanib, respectively. We detected a great diversity depending on the drug dispensed. 95% of the 39 interventions made were accepted. Conclusion The data obtained suggest the need to reinforce the information that the patient receives. It is important to make sure that the patient understands how and when the oral cytostatic should be administered. Reference Charity D. Drug interactions in cancer therapy. Nature Rev Cancer 2006;6:546–58 No conflict of interest.


Renewable energy, is the primary load bearer of a sustainable circular economy and hydropower being one of the earliest forms of it, has a wide application base. With unprecedented situations being faced by the people every day, power consumption patterns and requirements are changing and so are the faces of the leading economies. However, like other renewable strategies it is assayed based on the greenhouse gas emissions during its operation. This unfortunately presents a true but blurry picture. Some of the long-term issues with creating a dam, are soil quality degradation in downstream regions, loss of aquatic life due to high-speed turbine blades, disbalance in the nutrient cycle of aquatic systems, water contamination with machinery oils, displacement of local communities, loss of soil fertility near the site due to drilling and tunnelling, landslides and seismic issues due to excavation of land which loosens the nearby soil cover. Therefore, our goal is to analyze and compile various case studies of hydro power projects throughout the globe which caused some environmental or social disruption in their respective regions and the various steps that were taken by the government or the locals to tackle these problems. Many areas faced seismic problems, environmental degradation, water profile alterations and social displacement. But, by opting for new turbine technologies, fish friendly channel designs and landscaping procedures featuring indigenous vegetation to restore surrounding ecology, those regions were able to amend the problems with their hydropower project.


Background: Studies in middle-age and older (masters) athletes with atherosclerotic risk factors for coronary artery disease report higher coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores compared with sedentary individuals. Few studies have assessed the prevalence of coronary artery disease in masters athletes with a low atherosclerotic risk profile. Methods: We assessed 152 masters athletes 54.4±8.5 years of age (70% male) and 92 controls of similar age, sex, and low Framingham 10-year coronary artery disease risk scores with an echocardiogram, exercise stress test, computerized tomographic coronary angiogram, and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging with late gadolinium enhancement and a 24-hour Holter. Athletes had participated in endurance exercise for an average of 31±12.6 years. The majority (77%) were runners, with a median of 13 marathon runs per athlete. Results: Most athletes (60%) and controls (63%) had a normal CAC score. Male athletes had a higher prevalence of atherosclerotic plaques of any luminal irregularity (44.3% versus 22.2%; P=0.009) compared with sedentary males, and only male athletes showed a CAC ≥300 Agatston units (11.3%) and a luminal stenosis ≥50% (7.5%). Male athletes demonstrated predominantly calcific plaques (72.7%), whereas sedentary males showed predominantly mixed morphology plaques (61.5%). The number of years of training was the only independent variable associated with increased risk of CAC >70th percentile for age or luminal stenosis ≥50% in male athletes (odds ratio, 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–1.15; P=0.016); 15 (14%) male athletes but none of the controls revealed late gadolinium enhancement on cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. Of these athletes, 7 had a pattern consistent with previous myocardial infarction, including 3(42%) with a luminal stenosis ≥50% in the corresponding artery. Conclusions: Most lifelong masters endurance athletes with a low atherosclerotic risk profile have normal CAC scores. Male athletes are more likely to have a CAC score >300 Agatston units or coronary plaques compared with sedentary males with a similar risk profile. The significance of these observations is uncertain, but the predominantly calcific morphology of the plaques in athletes indicates potentially different pathophysiological mechanisms for plaque formation in athletic versus sedentary men. Coronary plaques are more abundant in athletes, whereas their stable nature could mitigate the risk of plaque rupture and acute myocardial infarction.


In its modern incarnation, international criminal justice
might be said to be now about fourteen years old. Following the
bold experiments at Nuremberg and Tokyo after the Second World
War, it went into a prolonged slumber, awakened in the early
1990s by the new political climate that emerged as the Cold War
came to an end. In 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia ("ICTY") was established by the United
Nations Security Council. A year later, the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda ("ICTR" or "Rwanda Tribunal") was created.
In 2002, the United Nations established its third ad hoc tribunal,
the Special Court for Sierra Leone ("SCSL"). The same year, the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into
force. The International Criminal Court ("ICC") was fully operational
within a year. A fourth United Nations criminal court, the
Special Tribunal for Lebanon, was authorized by the Security
Council in 2007, but no trials took place during the year. In parallel
to the activities of these new international institutions, national
and so-called 'hybrid' courts4 also made their own contributions to
the growing corpus of international criminal case law.
During 2007, the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia
and Rwanda were in the advanced stages of their 'completion
strategy.' Major cases were underway, with an ambitious target: to
conclude trials at first instance by the end of 2008. Each tribunal
had a big question mark about future priorities. The ICTY has yet
to apprehend two of its most important suspects, Radovan
Karadžiae and Ratko Mladiae. They were the object of special confirmation
hearings when the Tribunal was at its very beginnings, in
1996, but have never been captured. The Rwanda Tribunal also
awaited an important suspect, the alleged banker of the 1994 genocide,
Felicien Kabuga, believed to be at large in Kenya. The
Prosecutor provided no clarification about the possibility of prosecution
of individuals associated with the Rwandese Patriotic Front,
a matter that has been under consideration for many years. The
Special Court for Sierra Leone completed its three multi-defendant
trials, and prepared to begin what will be its final trial, of former
Liberian president Charles Taylor. As for the International Criminal
Court, it was readying for its very first trial, of Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo ("Lubanga"), who has been charged with war
crimes related to the recruitment of child soldiers in eastern Congo.
This article will provide an overview of some of the
highlights of the case law of the tribunals during 2007. The volume
of material is enormous, and any attempt to be comprehensive
will stumble on superficiality. Necessarily, then, this review article
focuses on only some of the major issues.


The aim of this exploratory research and comparative numerical pilot study was to investigate any significant differences in the microbiological content of tap and bottled water through the measurement of risk indicator parameters including Enterococci, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and colony-forming units (CFUs). This study to investigate storage conditions and compare consumer options of public water supply and bottled water using microbiological limits was carried out for public health research. This was a unique pilot study to Northern Ireland with global relevance due to the increase in the bottled water market and the need to address the lack of consumer awareness regarding storage and microbiological content. No E. coli or Enterococci were found in any of the 31 tap or bottled water samples. Three unrefrigerated bottled water samples exceeded the threshold in Colony Counts 22°C & 37°C (degrees Celsius) and failed in line with Drinking Water Directive guidelines. This indicated a link between storage conditions and microbiological quality. No link between prices or microbiological quality was indicated. This research recommends the creation of a regulator for the bottled water industry, the need for clearly labelled microbiological content and daily testing. Water suppliers such as Northern Ireland (NI) Water should promote the quality of tap water. Recommendations are also outlined for consumers. There is no statistically significant difference in the microbiological quality of tap and bottled water in Northern Ireland despite marketing claims.


As Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat reveal in this innovative book, volatile political events such as the 2008 Georgia-Russia confrontation--and their catastrophic effects on business--happen much more frequently than investors imagine. On the curve that charts both the frequency of these events and the power of their impact, the "tail" of extreme political instability is not reassuringly thin but dangerously fat. Featuring a new Foreword that accounts for the cataclysmic effects of the 2008 financial crisis, The Fat Tail is the first book to both identify the wide range of political risks that global firms face and show investors how to effectively manage them. Written by two of the world's leading figures in political risk management, it reveals that while the world remains exceedingly risky for businesses, it is by no means incomprehensible. Political risk is unpredictable, but it is easier to analyze and manage than most people think. Applying the lessons of world history, Bremmer and Keat survey a vast range of contemporary risky situations, from stable markets like the United States or Japan, where politically driven regulation can still dramatically effect business, to more precarious places like Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, and Nigeria, where private property is less secure and energy politics sparks constant volatility. The book sheds light on a wide array of political risks--risks that stem from great power rivalries, terrorist groups, government takeover of private property, weak leaders and internal strife, and even the "black swans" that defy prediction. But more importantly, the authors provide a wealth of unique methods, tools, and concepts to help corporations, money managers, and policy makers understand political risk, showing when and how political risk analysis works--and when it does not. "The Fat Tail delivers practical wisdom on the impact of political risk on firms of every description and valuable advice on how to use it. Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat offer innovative thinking and useful insight that will help business decision-makers find fresh answers to questions they may not yet know they have." --Fareed Zakaria, best-selling author of The Post-American World "Political risk has become increasingly complex, and The Fat Tail provides a truly new way to quantitatively assess it in established and emerging markets. It is essential reading for any CEO with multinational interests." --Randall Stephenson, Chairman, CEO and President, AT&T Inc. "Should be essential reading for anyone involved in international business even--perhaps especially--in places that seem politically stable." --Bill Emmott, former editor-in-chief of The Economist


Subordination is sometimes said to be characterized by a cognitive asymmetry between a matrix clause and its complement clause: the matrix clause is the profile determinant (Langacker 1991); the state of affairs expressed in the matrix clause but not the one expressed in the subordinate clause is (pragmatically) asserted (Cristofaro 2003).This paper discusses a situation in Toqabaqita, an Austronesian language, where erstwhile bi-clausal structures have been restructured as mono-clausal ones. Has the original asymmetry undergone a change? And how could one tell? There is a danger in relying exclusively on linguistic structures when dealing with cognitive asymmetry between states of affairs. There should be other kinds of evidence whether such asymmetry does or does not exist.


From theory to techniques, the first all-in-one resource for EIS There is a clear demand in advanced process industries, defense, and Internet and communication (VoIP) applications for intelligent yet adaptive/evolving systems. Evolving Intelligent Systems is the first self- contained volume that covers this newly established concept in its entirety, from a systematic methodology to case studies to industrial applications. Featuring chapters written by leading world experts, it addresses the progress, trends, and major achievements in this emerging research field, with a strong emphasis on the balance between novel theoretical results and solutions and practical real-life applications. Explains the following fundamental approaches for developing evolving intelligent systems (EIS): the Hierarchical Prioritized Structure the Participatory Learning Paradigm the Evolving Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems (eTS+) the evolving clustering algorithm that stems from the well-known Gustafson-Kessel offline clustering algorithm Emphasizes the importance and increased interest in online processing of data streams Outlines the general strategy of using the fuzzy dynamic clustering as a foundation for evolvable information granulation Presents a methodology for developing robust and interpretable evolving fuzzy rule-based systems Introduces an integrated approach to incremental (real-time) feature extraction and classification Proposes a study on the stability of evolving neuro-fuzzy recurrent networks Details methodologies for evolving clustering and classification Reveals different applications of EIS to address real problems in areas of: evolving inferential sensors in chemical and petrochemical industry learning and recognition in robotics Features downloadable software resources Evolving Intelligent Systems is the one-stop reference guide for both theoretical and practical issues for computer scientists, engineers, researchers, applied mathematicians, machine learning and data mining experts, graduate students, and professionals.


Conventional video consists of a single sequence of video frames. During a client's playback period, frames are viewed sequentially from some specified starting point. The fixed frame ordering of conventional video enables efficient scheduled broadcast delivery, as well as efficient near on-demand delivery to large numbers of concurrent clients through use of periodic broadcast protocols in which the video file is segmented and transmitted on multiple channels. This paper considers the problem of devising scalable protocols for near on-demand delivery of "nonlinear" media files whose content may have a tree or graph, rather than linear, structure. Such media allows personalization of the media playback according to individual client preferences. We formulate a mathematical model for determination of the optimal periodic broadcast protocol for nonlinear media with piecewise-linear structures. Our objective function allows differing weights to be placed on the startup delays required for differing paths through the media. Studying a number of simple nonlinear structures we provide insight into the characteristics of the optimal solution. For cases in which the cost of solving the optimization model is prohibitive, we propose and evaluate an efficient approximation algorithm.


Herpes simplex virus (HSV) entry requires four essential glycoproteins (gD, gH/gL, and gB) to enable fusion between the virion envelope and the cellular membrane. The fusion cascade is activated by gD binding to one of its receptors, nectin-1 or HVEM. Glycoprotein B (gB), a class III viral fusion protein, mediates the fusion reaction, while data indicates that gH/gL acts as a regulator of gB. gB is trimeric and has a 773 amino acid ectodomain with a highly hydrophobic membrane proximal region (MPR) (residues 731-773) and two fusion loops (FL) per protomer. The post-fusion structure of gB was solved from the gB(730t) construct, which is truncated to remove the hydrophobic MPR residues. In this dissertation I investigated the MPRs influence on gBs ability to interact with membranes. I hypothesize that the MPR regulates fusion loop exposure by interacting with the fusion loops and masks them until fusion begins. To investigate this process I constructed a series of MPR deletion, truncation, and point mutations using both full-length mammalian expression vectors and purified baculovirus expressed protein. I found that deletions in the MPR from full-length gB resulted in a disruption in cell surface expression in transfected cells. This suggests the MPR is necessary for proper folding or transport of gB. Soluble gB MPR truncations [gB(759t), gB(749t), gB(739t)] were expressed and purified using the baculovirus expression system, and compared to MPR-less gB(730t) and full MPR containing gB(773t). I found that gB containing an MPR segment were all compromised in their ability to bind liposomes in comparison to gB(730t), which lacks any MPR residues. Supporting our hypothesis we found that residues 731 to 739 were sufficient prevent liposome association and mutation of two aromatic residues, F732 and F739, to alanine in gB(739t) restored gBs ability to bind liposomes. Together, my data suggests the MPR does indeed regulate gBs ability to associate with liposomes, and that aromatic residues in the MPR are important for this function. This supports our model that the MPR masks the gB FLs to prevent premature membrane association and adds another layer of regulation to the HSV entry cascade. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Roselyn J. Eisenberg Second Advisor Gary H. Cohen


Natural and agricultural soils usually possess an aggregated structure; in the sense that they are composed of aggregates and large inter-aggregate pores. Under the natural condition, these soils are usually unsaturated and the large pores are easily drained. The present paper looks at the combined effects of soil structure and partial saturation on the mechanical behaviour of aggregated soils. Conventional and suction-controlled oedometer testing are used to evaluate the soil response at different combinations of saturation and the initial soil structure. The soil structure effects are assessed by comparing the behaviour of aggregated to that of the corresponding reconstituted soil. The effects of suction in reconstituted and aggregated soils are evaluated by testing at different levels of suction.


This LibGuide supports the research work of the University of Pittsburgh's Philanthropy Forum and courses such as "Matching Money with Mission: Philanthropy and Society" and "Grant Writing and Fund Raising."


More than 50 genomic regions have now been shown to influence the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the mechanisms of action, and the cell types in which these associated variants act at the molecular level remain largely unknown. This is especially true for associated regions containing no known genes. Given the evidence for a role for B cells in MS, we hypothesized that MS associated genomic regions co-localized with regions which are functionally active in B cells. We used publicly available data on 1) MS associated regions and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2) chromatin profiling in B cells as well as three additional cell types thought to be unrelated to MS (hepatocytes, fibroblasts and keratinocytes). Genomic intervals and SNPs were tested for overlap using the Genomic Hyperbrowser. We found that MS associated regions are significantly enriched in strong enhancer, active promoter and strong transcribed regions (p = 0.00005) and that this overlap is significantly higher in B cells than control cells. In addition, MS associated SNPs also land in active promoter (p = 0.00005) and enhancer regions more than expected by chance (strong enhancer p = 0.0006; weak enhancer p = 0.00005). These results confirm the important role of the immune system and specifically B cells in MS and suggest that MS risk variants exert a gene regulatory role. Previous studies assessing MS risk variants in T cells may be missing important effects in B cells. Similar analyses in other immunological cell types relevant to MS and functional studies are necessary to fully elucidate how genes contribute to MS pathogenesis.


Thank you for downloading environmental values in american culture. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their favorite books like this environmental values in american culture, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some malicious bugs inside their computer. environmental values in american culture is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our books collection hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the environmental values in american culture is universally compatible with any devices to read.


If the airline industry could be described in two words, it would be "intensely competitive". The airline industry generates billions of dollars every year and still has a cumulative profit margin of less than 1%. The reason for this lies in this industry's vast complexity. Airlines have a multitude of different business issues that need to be solved at once, such as the globally uneven playing field, revenue vulnerability, an extremely variable planning horizon, high cyclicality and seasonality, fierce competition, excessive government intervention and high fixed and low marginal cost. To ensure the best chance for full economic recovery, airlines should fully leverage their most prolific asset – data. Data used in conjunction with innovative technologies that would allow the creation of an Enterprise Wide Intelligence Platform, will provide the capabilities for a comprehensive intelligent management and decision-making system throughout the enterprise. The ultimate benefits of implementing and using an enterprise wide intelligence platform, together with airline business acumen and experience would include timely responses to current and future market demands, better planning and strategically aligned decision making, and clear understanding and monitoring of all key performance drivers relevant to the airline industry. Achieving these benefits in a timely and intelligent manner will ultimately result in lower operating costs, better customer service, market leading competitiveness and increased profit margin and shareholder value. This paper demonstrates the vision and benefits of establishing an Enterprise Wide Intelligence Platform for the airline industry, based on a leading airline proof of concept case study.


Rapid prototyping is a critical step in the product development cycle of miniaturized chemical and bioanalytical devices, often categorized as lab-on-a-chip devices, biosensors, and micro-total analysis systems. While high throughput manufacturing methods are often preferred for large-volume production, rapid prototyping is necessary for demonstrating and predicting the performance of a device and performing field testing and validation before translating a product from research and development to large volume production. Choosing a specific rapid prototyping method involves considering device design requirements in terms of minimum feature sizes, mechanical stability, thermal and chemical resistance, and optical and electrical properties. A rapid prototyping method is then selected by making engineering trade-off decisions between the suitability of the method in meeting the design specifications and manufacturing metrics such as speed, cost, precision, and potential for scale up. In this review article, we review four categories of rapid prototyping methods that are applicable to developing miniaturized bioanalytical devices, single step, mask and deposit, mask and etch, and mask-free assembly, and we will focus on the trade-offs that need to be made when selecting a particular rapid prototyping method. The focus of the review article will be on the development of systems having a specific arrangement of conductive or semiconductive materials.


Employment and labour market regulation initially appeared as one of the solid red lines in the UK's renegotiation of the country's place in the EU. The basic argument is that the UK's more deregulated labour market would sit uneasily in the more organised models, based on statutory instruments or collective bargaining, found on the continent. While there is a legitimate problem here, EU employment regulations appear manageable from the point of view of business, while unions see them as important tools for socially responsible economic restructuring. Most of UK employment case law is now deeply entangled with EU law; labour market regulations have, on the whole, become part of the way of doing business in the Single Market; and a simple cost–benefit analysis appears impossible because some costs are not quantifiable and the costs of others are reduced when taken as a bundle. Labour unions agree that transposition of European law needs to be done taking into account local sensitivities, while internationally oriented companies do not see EU regulations on the whole as detrimental to business. Importantly, though, the costs and benefits of EU employment regulations are not symmetrically distributed across different companies: large companies are better able to reap the rewards and accommodate the costs of operating in the Single Market than smaller companies.


Pipelines are the primary means of land transportation of oil and gas globally, and pipeline integrity is, therefore, of high importance. Failures in pipelines may occur due to internal and external stresses that produce stress concentration zones, which may cause failure by stress corrosion cracking. Early detection of stress concentration zones could facilitate the identification of potential failure sites. Conventional non-destructive testing (NDT) methods, such as magnetic flux leakage, have been used to detect defects in pipelines; however, these methods cannot be effectively used to detect zones of stress concentration. In addition, these methods require direct contact, with access to the buried pipe. Metal magnetic memory (MMM) is an emerging technology, which has the potential to characterize the stress state of underground pipelines from above ground. The present paper describes magnetic measurements performed on steel components, such as bars and tubes, which have undergone changing stress conditions. It was observed that plastic deformation resulted in the modification of measured residual magnetization in steels. In addition, an exponential decrease in signal with the distance of the sensor from the sample was observed. Results are attributed to changes in the local magnetic domain structure in the presence of stress but in the absence of an applied field.


We describe the use of wavefront coding for the mitigation of optical aberrations in a thermal imaging system. Diffraction-limited imaging is demonstrated with a simple singlet which enables an approximate halving in length and mass of the optical system compared to an equivalent two-element lens.


The study was conducted at the 50-ha plot of Pasoh Forest Reserve, Negeri
Sembilan, Peninsular Malaysia to assess the ecological distribution of Mangifera and to
solve some taxonomic problems on doubtful species by clearly circumscribing the limits
among taxa by using morphological, anatomical and DNA sequences evidences.
Thirteen Mangifera taxa were recorded to a total population of 1,202 stems.
Mangifera quadrifida is the most abundant with 275 stems, followed by M foetida with
208 stems. The least is M swintonioides with only two trees, both more than 10 cm dbh.
Mangifera quadrifida var. longipetiolata has 16 trees all less than 10 cm dbh. The
common mango, M indica has only 80 stems. Mangifera griffithii has the most number
of trees with dbh exceeding 10 cm, thereby giving the highest estimates in terms of basal
area (0. 045 m²ha⁻¹), volume (0. 63 m³ha⁻¹), and above ground biomass (0. 51 tha⁻¹). A total
of 163 dead trees were recorded since the initial survey in 1985. High mortality (85%)
was found to be trees of less than 10 cm dbh. Mortality of seedlings was primarily caused by burrowing and nest building by wild pigs, while death of big trees was caused by
termite attack. Taxonomic review of the genus was carried out exploiting morphological
and anatomical characters. However, due to unavailability of reproductive characters
throughout the entire course of the study, investigation was carried out making use of
vegetative characters alone. Given all the morphological and anatomical evidences, the
genus can be divided into two subgenera viz. Limus and Mangifera. This subdivision is
further supported by examining the molecular phylogeny of 13 Mangifera taxa using
nucleotide sequences of the intergenic spacer region between trnL-trnF of the chloroplast
DNA. In the phylogenetic study, two major clades were formed from the monophyletic
tree. It is noted that M subsessilifolia, a species incertae was in a clade with M lagenifera
and M superba of the subgenus Limus. The second clade on the other hand was
composed of species belonging to the subgenus Mangifera except for M foetida, which
was classified under subgenus Limus. However, M macrocarpa of subgenus Limus
formed a singleton as did M gracilipes of subgenus Mangifera. The divergence of the
genus Mangifera is apparent from the heterogeneous feature of the subgenera. Further
analysis of other molecular markers from different genes or genomes and consideration of
other species of wild mangoes are necessary to infer a stronger phylogenetic analysis of
this taxon.


An anomalous resonant behavior is observed in the transmission through composite layers of randomly oriented conducting fibers at frequencies above the primary one-half wavelength dipole resonance. The echo of radiation from the encounter of waves propagating along fibers, which are oriented in the direction of the incident wave, with the discontinuity at the end, is found to be the cause of the anomaly. This end-fire echo dominates the dipole radiation pattern for electrically long conductors at oblique angles. Layers of randomly distributed 1 cm long fibers having a 0.8/cm3 number density are examined from 1 to 50 GHz through a series of numerical experiments using the finite difference time domain method. Composites made from the same fibers aligned with the incident electric field do not exhibit the anomalous resonant behavior. Transmission for these aligned fibers is well-explained using Beer's law, given the total cross section for a single dipole.


Meltdown is a gripping account of the financial collapse that destroyed the West's investment banks, brought the global economy to its knees, and undermined three decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. Covering the development of the crisis from the economic front line, Paul Mason explores the roots of the US and UK's financial hubris, documenting the real-world causes and consequences from the Ford factory, to Wall Street, to the City of London. In this fully updated new edition, he recounts how the credit crunch became a full-blown financial crisis, and explores the impact of this development on capitalist ideology and politics.


Turbulence and unpredictability in 21st-century labor markets arguably magnify the importance of maintaining employability. Drawing on recent research, I discuss three mechanisms for enhancing employability in this context: identity work, training and networking, and laboring in unpaid and marginal paid positions. Few of these activities are counted as 'work' because they are mostly unpaid and they often take place outside formal job structures. By specifying how a range of employment-related activities are essential to and even constitute work, this article contributes to debates about the scope and boundaries of employment and shows how everyday actions build and reinforce new economic structures — how individual actions make the new economy possible. It also provides greater specification of the concept of employability.