British doctors may feel all alone in the trenches as they continue to be hit by a relentless series of scandals in the press. Professional demoralisation, however, seems to be a much more widespread phenomenon, currently affecting many European healthcare settings, hinting at deeper and perhaps more common roots of professional unease. What clearly varies, however, are professional strategies to deal with the media.

Take the Netherlands. Here, too, healthcare provision has come under fire. But rather than pillorying doctors, most journalists aim their critical arrows elsewhere: at government, insurers, and hospital administrators. In the process, professionals have become the media's best friends, as victims of a failing system.

This peculiar state of affairs became visible again recently, when one of the senior commentators of De Telegraaf , the most widely read Dutch populist national morning paper, filled a column with his personal selection of headlines on health care from the previous few months ( De Telegraaf , 29 July). These included: "Many demented elderly without care" ( Haarlems Dagblad ); "Shortage of doctors to check up on children" ( Tubantia ); "Too little radiotherapy available for cancer patients" ( NRC Handelsblad ); "GPs sick of workload" ( Drentse Courant ); "A third of GPs will stop this year" ( Het Parool ); "Pregnant women without midwives" ( Noordhollands Dagblad ); "Day-budget finished, patients sent home" ( De Limburger ); and "Waiting …


Investors have seen countless charts of US stock market performance which start in 1926 and end near the present. But US trading long predates 1926, and the foreshortened perspective that results from a focus on post-1926 data can be misleading. To compound the problem, visual and arithmetic frailties, as catalogued in behavioral finance, make it difficult for investors to draw appropriate inferences from long-term records of performance. As a partial corrective, this paper displays a novel set of charts, with some rooted in the 19th rather than the 20th century, and others ending well before the present. The goal is to challenge shibboleths about the expected outcomes of buy-and-hold stock market investing, and to raise questions about the expected performance of stocks versus bonds over long periods.


Discourse cues (e.g., because, since, therefore, and so) express structural and semantic relationships between parts of an explanation, and are used extensively by human tutors. Previous research by Moser and Moore (in preparation) revealed patterns of cue occurrence, placement, and selection in the speech of expert tutors during tutorial dialogues. An experiment measuring both reading times and recognition memory for cued and uncued sentences in a narrative text was conducted to test the hypothesis that patterns of cue usage observed in the speech of expert human tutors could predict comprehension. Small but reliable effects on comprehension were observed. The results are discussed in relation to strategies for generating comprehensible text in an Intelligent Tutoring System, differences between narrative and expository texts, and the role of distributional analyses of naturally occurring dialogue in understanding discourse comprehension.


ABSTRACT Background: Dedifferentiated policy treats adults with intellectual disabilities as part of the larger group of people with disabilities. The implications of the dedifferentiated National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for adults with intellectual disabilities are explored. Methods: Analysis of peer reviewed and grey literature between 2014 and 2020 about design of the NDIS and outcomes. Results: Many participants experienced problems with NDIS implementation. Outcomes for adults with intellectual disabilities compared poorly to other groups. They were disadvantaged by standardised planning processes relying on self-expressed needs and omission of supported decision making. As the NDIS matures, it is becoming more differentiated but issues relevant to adults with intellectual disability remain largely invisible. Conclusions: Further shifts towards standardised planning and functional assessment may be disadvantageous for adults with intellectual disabilities for whom support needs are dependent on social and contextual factors, and exercise of choice on support for decision making.


Development rates of the egg, larval and pupal stages of codling moth, Cydia pomonella (Linnaeus), on apples were determined at constant temperatures of 15, 17, 20, 25 and 30 ± 1 °C and at fluctuating temperatures. There was a linear relationship between rate of development and temperature over the range of temperatures used. The lower threshold temperatures for embryonic, larval and pupal development were 11.1, 7.9 and 9.9 °C, respectively. The degree-days required to complete embryonic, larval and pupal development were 80.1, 345.5 and 280.0, respectively. The responses of the different stages of C. pomonella to constant temperatures were similar to those under fluctuating temperatures. It is suggested that a base temperature of 10 °C be used in South Africa for calculating degree-days in predicting phenological events such as first egg hatch.


Recent models of human capital formation represent a synthesis of the human capital approach and a life cycle view of human development that is grounded in neuroscience (Heckman 2007). This model of human development, the stability of the home and parental mental health can have notable impacts on skill development in children that may affect the stock of human capital in adults (Knudsen, Heckman et al. 2006; Heckman 2007). We study effects of maternal depression and substance abuse on children born to mothers in the initial cohort of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a national household survey of high school students aged 14-22 in 1979. We follow 1587 children aged 1-5 in 1987, observing them throughout childhood and into high school. We employ a variety of methods to identify the effect of maternal depression and substance abuse on child behavioral, cognitive, and educational related outcomes. We find no evidence that maternal symptoms of depression affect contemporaneous cognitive scores in children. However, maternal depression symptoms have a moderately large effect on child behavioral problems. These findings suggest that the social benefits of effective behavioral health interventions may be understated. Based on evidence linking early life outcomes to later well-being, efforts to prevent and/or treat mental and addictive disorders in mothers and other women of childbearing age have the potential to improve outcomes of their children not only early in life, but throughout the life cycle.


What determines the similarity of musical rhythms? According to the "family" theory, which this paper presents, one factor is the temporal sequence of the onsets of notes: rhythms with the same pattern of interonset intervals tend to sound similar. Another factor is meter. It determines whether or not rhythms are members of the same family, where families depend only on three types of possibility for each metrical unit. If the beat is the relevant metrical unit, these three possibilities are: 1) a note starts on a beat and therefore reinforces the meter, 2) a syncopation anticipates the beat and lasts through its onset and therefore disturbs the meter, and 3) all other events such as rests or ties that start on the beat provided no syncopation anticipates them. Two experiments showed that similarity between rhythms depends on both their temporal patterns of onsets and their families, which combined give a better account than edit distance – a metric of the distance apart of two strings of symbols. Two further experiments examined the errors that participants made in reproducing rhythms by tapping them. Errors more often yielded rhythms in the same family as the originals than rhythms in a different family.


This paper pinpoints how divine folly and human intercession mentioned in Job 42,8 are key concepts to unravel the meaning of the Book of Job. The Epilogue does not restore Job in his former position. Job is not healed but receives a new role as intercessor on behalf of his friends and by extension on behalf of everyone less perfect than he is. Understanding misfortune as the consequence of inescapable bouts of divine folly is the Joban way to account for humanity's inability to comprehend the divinity.


We study the estimation of the latent variable Gaussian graphical model (LVGGM), where the precision matrix is the superposition of a sparse matrix and a low-rank matrix. In order to speed up the estimation of the sparse plus low-rank components, we propose a sparsity constrained maximum likelihood estimator based on matrix factorization and an efficient alternating gradient descent algorithm with hard thresholding to solve it. Our algorithm is orders of magnitude faster than the convex relaxation based methods for LVGGM. In addition, we prove that our algorithm is guaranteed to linearly converge to the unknown sparse and low-rank components up to the optimal statistical precision. Experiments on both synthetic and genomic data demonstrate the superiority of our algorithm over the state-of-the-art algorithms and corroborate our theory.


Abstract The use of donated eggs is an important component of assisted reproduction and plays a prominent role in certain lines of scientific inquiry, particularly in the area of stem cell research. Yet despite these benefits, egg donation remains extremely controversial. One result of this ethical controversy has been the development of a heterogeneous policy environment where the rules for egg donation for both reproduction and research vary substantially from one country to the next or even within countries. In this presentation, I review the major policy options for egg donation that have been adopted around the world and discuss the justifications for these policies. Then, drawing on international data on assisted reproduction and published stem cell research using donated eggs, I offer a preliminary assessment of how these policy choices affect the availability of donated eggs for both reproduction and research purposes.


This paper draws on the experience of Bulgaria in identifying the types and modus operandi of VAT frauds with a focus on the abuse of tax credit. It analyses the elements of tax design permissive of such abuses and discusses the possible solutions in the light of the international and domestic experience and the capacity of the tax dministration. It offers a critical analysis of the Bulgarian anti-fraud device the VAT account, as well as the various alternative policy and administrative measures proposed or applied as barriers to abuse of VAT credit, including those pertaining to the domain of commercial registration, or those related to indicative "market" prices of commercial transactions. The study concludes that the possible solutions should be sought along the lines of optimizing risk management and the principle of joint liability rather than through tighter controls at entry and on the conduct of business.


The World Development Report 2008 (WDR-2008) on agriculture and development has been received with much expectation and controversy. This paper welcomes some aspects of the WDR-2008 that help us reinvigorate some debates on agricultural development, so far marginalised in international development policy agendas. The paper, however, focuses on some critical problems in the report and the World Bank's stance on agriculture. First, there are tensions between advocacy and research and between the World Bank's rhetoric and operational realities. Secondly, the report suffers from the usual adherence to superficial win-win scenarios that mask conflict of interest and power relations. Thirdly, the WDR-2008 is caught in a tension between neo-populist pro-small farmer views and 'modernist' pro-agribusiness stances. Fourthly, the analysis of agricultural development in isolation from broader development processes and especially without a systematic analysis of industrialisation and agriculture–industry relations seriously limits the analytical and empirical value of the report.


This study reviews the biological mechanisms and recent advances in preventive dentistry therapies that prevent the formation dental caries, covering both traditional and novel techniques. The techniques covered prevent the formation of dental caries through two therapeutic approaches, either promoting the remineralization of the hard tooth surface or regulating the level and composition of the oral biofilm present in the mouth. Traditional therapies covered include fluoride and calcium treatments that promote the remineralization of the tooth surface, and antibiotic therapies that attempt to regulate oral biofilm levels, such as chlorhexidine, essential oils, systemic antibiotics, and salivation stimulating therapies. Novel applications covered are therapies that utilize antimicrobial peptides, immunizations, and probiotics that may become important to dentistry in the near future. Dental caries management is a complex and dynamic process, but by reestablishing optimal oral health through preventive techniques, dentists can preserve tooth structures and avoid costly and extensive restorative treatments.


Current dyeing techniques face growing environmental and economic challenges due to high consumption of water, salts, auxiliaries and energy, and production of substantial amounts of industrial polluting wastewaters. This project demonstrated that colorants can be impregnated into magnetic nanoparticles to form a skin-core structure, and the resulting colored magnetic nanoparticles can be used as dyes to dye conventional textile fabrics. The colored magnetic nanoparticles can be easily dispersed in water and their movement can be controlled with a magnet. The resulting suspension was used to dye textile fabrics in the absence of salts and auxiliaries. The colored magnetic nanoparticles showed high affinity toward the fabrics, which could be due to the large surface area and high surface energy of the nanoparticles. The un-bonded dyes can be readily collected from the wastewater with a magnet, significantly simplifying the wastewater treatment process, pointing to a more environmentally friendly approach in


In this paper we consider and propose some confidence intervals for estimating the mean or difference of means of skewed populations. We extend the median t interval to the two sample problem. Further, we suggest using the bootstrap to find the critical points for use in the calculation of median t intervals. A simulation study has been made to compare the performance of the intervals and a real life example has been considered to illustrate the application of the methods.


This investigation was conducted as part of the Landscape Architecture Foundation's 2019 Case Study Investigation (CSI) program. CSI matches faculty-student research teams with design practitioners to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects. Teams develop methods to quantify environmental, social, and economic benefits and produce Case Study Briefs for LAF's Landscape Performance Series.


This chapter examines how consumers are protected when they go online. It examines the extensive protections offered by the Consumer Rights Directive to distance agreements (including online agreements). The rules on jurisdiction, choice of law, and enforcement are examined alongside what rights the consumer has to receive information and to cancel contracts agreed at a distance. In addition, this chapter examines the suite of rights created by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and, in particular, the new provisions therein which digital content (including software, apps, and in-game content among others). The chapter continues with a discussion of the regulation of unsolicited commercial communications or spam, including a discussion of the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, GDPr, and the proposed ePrivacy Regulation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the proposed online sales and Digital Content Directives.


Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion is one of combustion technologies which can improve efficiency and reduce emissions simultaneously. This combustion type is characterised by the highly preheated reactant temperature and the relatively small temperature rise during combustion due to the intense dilution of the reactant mixture. These unique combustion conditions give MILD combustion very attractive features such as high combustion efficiency, reduction of pollutant emissions, attenuation of combustion instabilities and flexibility of the flow field. However, our understanding of MILD combustion is not enough to employ the MILD combustion technology further for modern combustion devices. In this thesis, Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) has been carried out for turbulent MILD combustion under four MILD and classical premixed conditions. A two-phase strategy is employed in the DNS to include the effect of imperfect mixing between fresh and exhaust gases before intense chemical reactions start. In the simulated instantaneous MILD reaction rate fields, both thin and distributed reaction zones are observed. Thin reaction zones having flamelet like characteristics propagate until colliding with other thin reaction zones to produce distributed reaction zones. Also, the effect of such interacting reaction zones on scalar gradient has to be taken into account in flamelet approaches. Morphological features of MILD reaction zones are investigated by employing Minkowski functionals and shapefinders. Although a few local reaction zones are classified as thin shape, the majority of local reaction zones have pancake or tube-like shapes. The representative scales computed by the shapefinders also show a typical volume where intense reactions appear. Given high temperature and existence of radicals in the diluted reactants, both reaction dominated and flame-propagation dominated regions are locally observed. These two phenomena are closely entangled under a high dilution condition. The favourable conditions for these phenomena are investigated by focusing on scalar fluxes and reaction rate. A conditional Probability Density Function (PDF) is proposed to investigate flamelet/non-flamelet characteristics of MILD combustion. The PDF can be obtained by both numerically and experimentally. The PDF shows that MILD combustion still has the direct relationship between reaction rate and scalar gradient, although the tendency is statistically weak due to the distributed nature of MILD reaction zones. Finally, based on the physical aspects of MILD combustion explained in this work, a representative model reactor for MILD combustion is developed. The model reactor is also used in conjunction with the presumed PDF for a mean and filtered reaction rate closure. The results show a good agreement between the modelled reaction rate and the DNS results.


Fundamental modifications of the standard Schrödinger equation by additional nonlinear terms have been considered for various purposes over the recent decades. It came as a surprise when, inverting Abner Shimonyi's observation of "peaceful coexistence" between standard quantum mechanics and relativity, N. Gisin proved in 1990 that any (deterministic) nonlinear Schrödinger equation would allow for superluminal communication. This is by now the most spectacular and best known anomaly. We discuss further anomalies, simple but foundational, less spectacular but not less dramatic.


Part 1 comments on the types of local anaesthetics (LAs); it provides a better understanding of the mechanisms of action of LAs, and their pharmacokinetics and toxicity. It reviews the newer LAs such as levobupivacaine, ropivacaine, and articaine, and examines the newer structurally different LAs. The addition of adjuvants such as adrenaline, bicarbonate, clonidine, and corticosteroids is explored. Comment is made on the delivery of topical LAs via bioadhesive plasters and gels and controlled-release local anaesthetic matrices. Encapulation matrices such as liposomes, microemulsions, microspheres and nanospheres, hydrogels and liquid polymers are discussed as well. New innovations pertaining to LA formulations have indeed led to prolonged action and to novel delivery approaches.


In this paper, the performance of a radial turbine working under pulsatile flow conditions is computed with two different modeling approaches, time resolved 1-dimensional (1-D) and 3-dimensional (3-D) CFD. The 1-D modeling approach is based on measured turbine maps which are used to compute the mass flow rate and work output from the turbine for a given expansion ratio and temperature at the inlet. The map is measured under non-pulsatile flow conditions, and in the 1-D method the turbine is treated as being a quasi-stationary flow device. In the 3-D CFD approach, a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence approach is used. The objective of LES is to explicitly compute the large scales of the turbulence while modeling the effects of the unresolved scales. Three different cases are considered, where the simplest case only consist of the turbine and the most complex case consist of an exhaust manifold and the turbine. Both time resolved data, such as pressure ratio, temperature and shaft torque and time mean data from the two different modeling approaches are compared. The results show that the computed time mean shaft power differs between the two different modeling approaches with as much as 100%. Since the considered operation point for the engine in this study is 1500 rpm with wide open throttle, the turbine operates in an area where the turbine map is extrapolated. Only by using a few operation points from CFD to extend the map, an improvement is achieved for the 1-D results, but still the deviation is large. Also, the pressure ratio and temperature drop over the turbine differs for the used modeling approaches. The causes for the deviations are assessed and discussed to get a better understanding of eventually limitations of the 1-D modeling approach.


Background : Sulfur dioxide is one of the important pollutants that at the present time cause irreparable damage to environment and human health. The aim of present study was to study and comparison the effects of SO 2 on respiratory and cardiovascular deaths in Bushehr city. Materials and Methods: This analytical study was conducted in Bushehr city during 2011. In the first stage data were collected from Bushehr department of the environment. The concentration of SO 2 was measured by using BUBK portable device. After processing data by EXCEL software, data were converted as input file to the model and health effects of SO 2 pollutant were measured by using statistical analysis and the World Health Organization model (Air Q model). Results: The results showed that concentration of SO 2 pollutant with an annual average was 44 µg/m 3 in Bushehr city. In the study area, increasing the concentration of sulfur dioxide per 10 µg/m 3 than before values increased risk of cardiovascular death (0.8%) and respiratory deaths (1%). Conclusion: The local comparison results showed that the number of respiratory and cardiac cases death which is attributable to the sulfur dioxide pollutant has been low in Bushehr city health endpoint can result due to continued and this situation could be justified by the low concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air of Bushehr city.


Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by variable clinical outcomes. Outcome prediction at the time of diagnosis is of paramount importance. Previously, we constructed a 6-gene model for outcome prediction of DLBCL patients treated with anthracycline-based chemotherapies. However, the standard therapy has evolved into rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (R-CHOP). Herein, we evaluated the predictive power of a paraffin-based 6-gene model in R-CHOP-treated DLBCL patients. RNA was successfully extracted from 132 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens. Expression of the 6 genes comprising the model was measured and the mortality predictor score was calculated for each patient. The mortality predictor score divided patients into low-risk (below median) and high-risk (above median) subgroups with significantly different overall survival (OS; P = .002) and progression-free survival (PFS; P = .038). The model also predicted OS and PFS when the mortality predictor score was considered as a continuous variable (P = .002 and .010, respectively) and was independent of the IPI for prediction of OS (P = .008). These findings demonstrate that the prognostic value of the 6-gene model remains significant in the era of R-CHOP treatment and that the model can be applied to routine FFPE tissue from initial diagnostic biopsies.


The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of work experience on the accuracy and variation of observers recording the operation time of a harvester. A simulated thinning operation using a harvester, shown as video via a television screen in laboratory conditions, was observed by 20 inexperienced students and 10 experienced work study researchers. All the observers timed the different work elements of the harvester work with special fieldwork timers. The duration of different work elements measured by the human observers were compared to the corresponding recordings by the harvester's automated data collector. Although the inexperienced students made more measurement mistakes than the experienced researchers, the differences in measurement error averages were not statistically significant between the groups. However, the variances of tree specific errors were significantly higher in the measurements done by the students. As inexperienced recorders, the students were not able to properly record short work elements, which lasted a maximum of 4 seconds. Due to systematic measurement errors, there was a large variation in the timing structures of the work elements among all observers. Observers' skills and experience seems to affect measurement accuracy and thus the derived results, especially in intensive time studies. Therefore, the recorder should receive detailed training and practical experience in timing of different work elements of forest operations. In the future, with the use of automated data collectors time studies with large, detailed and accurate data will be implemented. However, due to the varying timing conditions in the forest, manual data collection is still required because of its greater flexibility.


Summary In order to have a better understanding of the role of ligaments in canine shoulder joint stability, the presence of mechanoreceptors in the medial (MGHL) and lateral (LGHL) glenohumeral ligaments was detected by means of a modified gold chloride stain. Three morphologically distinct mechanoreceptors were identified: Ruffini receptors (type I endings), Pacinian corpuscles (type II endings) and Golgi tendon organ-like receptors (type III endings). These receptors are mainly localized at each end of the ligaments and are prevalently in their glenoid portion. In particular, in the MGHL the highest density was at the cranial arm of the insertion into the scapula. The variety of mechanoreceptors in canine shoulder ligaments might indicate an afferent function in providing the CNS with joint proprioceptive information. Therefore, besides acting as passive mechanical stabilizers, the MGHL and the LGHL may serve as sensory structures, contributing actively to joint stability. Ligamentous injuries which occur in shoulders not only affect mechanical restraint but also alter the proprioceptive input to the CNS by means of disruption of the mechanoreceptors.


In recounting the exploits of the renowned test pilot and World War II ace Chuck Yeager, Tom Wolfe (1979) observed that Yeager's calm, West Virginian drawl can still be heard in the voices of virtually all commercial pilots, decades after Yeager became the first to break the sound barrier. This inflection caught on in the late 1940s among a cadre of Yeager's disciples at an airfield in the high desert of California, who sought to emulate the "ace of aces," and it spread further, from generation to generation, aided by the participation of many of those disciples as astronauts in NASA's manned space program. During the heady days of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, the drawl and demeanor could be heard regularly in televised exchanges between astronauts and mission control. Little did any of us know that the voice was really Chuck Yeager's.

Wolfe's description of Yeager's influence on his peers reminds us that, in any field, there are a few people whose work is so transcendent that, by dint of the examples they set, colleagues seek to emulate not only their methods, but also how they carry themselves in the arena. And so it was with Dave Raup, one of the most influential paleontologists of the past half-century, who died this past summer after a brief illness. As is often true of people who become the best of the best, Dave did not actively seek the limelight. In fact, he tended to avoid it and was never particularly comfortable as the center of attention in any forum. But the way he carried himself—actively seeking out holes in his own results; not dismissing someone else's work without first fully understanding it; letting one's work, rather than one's ego, do the talking; accommodating one's own self-doubts but not being defeated …


The impact of wheel traffic on soil physical properties is usually quantified by randomly collecting soil cores at specific depths below the wheeled surface. However, modeling studies as well as few measurements indicated a non-uniform stress distribution in a catena across the wheel rut, which might induce different effects on soil physical properties. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of vehicle traffic on soil physical properties and air permeability by systematic collection of samples in a transect running from the center to the outside of the wheel rut. A field experiment was conducted on a clay loam soil at Suberg, Switzerland, in 2010. Four repeated wheeling were performed by driving a forage harvester (wheel load of 6100 kg and a tyre width of 0.8 m) forward and rearward in the same track. We sampled 100 cm3 intact cores at 10, 30 and 50 cm depth in a soil catena running from center of the wheel rut to unwheeled part of the field ( 0, 20, 40, 50,60 and 400 cm horizontal distance). We measured water retention and air permeability ( k a) at -30, -100 and -300 hPa matric potentials. At -100 hPa, we obtained consistently lower air filled under the wheel rut than at the periphery of the wheel rut (0.4 m) or outside the wheel rut. At least one of these differences ea was significant at all soil depths . At all matric potentials, the k a was lowest at the periphery of the wheel rut and highest outside the wheel rut, with intermediate values inside the wheel rut. However significant differences in k a were obtained only at 10 cm depth. The lowest air permeability at the periphery of the wheel rut is interpreted as a distortion of the soil pores due to shear strain rather than isotropic compaction. Our results indicate that sampling in the soil catena can provide better resolution on information about traffic induce changes on soil physical properties.


The papers assembled in this thesis all address, in a Bourdieuan tradition, the question of the social structure of the Swedish education system, focusing on the Stockholm region, and how this structure can be explained by the distribution of cultural and other assets among individuals and social groups. Although economic, social and political changes during the period covered by the various studies are not the main focus of the work here, the articles depict the effects of such changes on upper secondary education in particular. While upper secondary education was radically changed by the political reforms of the 1990s, characterized by decentralisation and marketization, the analyses advanced in the studies indicate that its basic social structure remains stable. In one dimension, this structure opposes an "elite" pole having a particularly high social and scholastic recruitment to a "popular" pole with a correspondingly low recruitment profile. In a likewise durable second dimension, a "cultural" pole built up by schools and study programmes that are particularly popular among culturally strong social groups, opposes an "economic" pole favoured by social groups close to the economic and private sectors of society. The various papers reveal that the last opposition corresponds to both differences in life styles and deeply rooted convictions related to family and formal education among cultural and economic fractions of the upper-middle and middle classes. At this level, a belief in education as a development of the personality, with connected values such as individuality and originality, stands against a conviction that education is a rational investment in a future competitive career; as such, it is subject to calculated, measured risks. The existence of deeply rooted values among social groups with different structures of assets or capital also explains why schools –in the institutional strategies imposed on them by the school market– tend to express convictions (topoi) and symbolic values that correspond to those of their target groups. The various studies included in this thesis employ a combination of statistical approaches, mainly correspondence analysis, and qualitative ones such as: interviews, ethnographic observation and text analysis.


A comprehensive series of derivatives of Malachite Green substituted in the phenyl ring with silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, nitrdgen or oxygen containing groups have been synthesised. Their absorption spectra have been measured in 98% acetic acid solution and compared with that of Malachite Green.
The variations in Amax and E max for both the Xand y-band absorbances have been explained in terms of electronic
and steric effects of the substituent groups. Substituent constants have been obtained for the above groups from the appropriate Hainmett plot. These values have been compared with previously published literature values.
The 1 H n.m.r. spectrum of the 2-formyl derivative of Malachite Green methyl ether is notable for the large upheld shift of the formyl proton. This has been explained in terms of the configuration of the molecule and associated shielding effects.
The alkaline hydrolyses of Malachite Green and a range of the above 3- and 1+-substituted derivatives have been studied.
The values of k2 , the rate constant for the reaction of dye cation with hydroxide ions, have been corre1atedwith Hammett a' constants.
Differences between the substituent constants derived by kinetic and spectroscopic methods and between.somel literature values have been highlighted.
The values of 1<2 and k , the rate constant for the reaction of the dye cation with water molecules, obtained for Malachite Green show good agreement with values pbtained in previbus studies. The kinetic parameters A 0 and A ' have been obtained for each dye and those for Malachite Green are in good agreement with previous results


In this study, the effect of financial development on economic growth was
researched for the most rapidly developing countries (emerging markets)
(Brazil, Russia, India, China and Turkey, BRIC-T) via panel data
analysis using the annual data for the period from 1989 to 2010. Foreign
direct investments and trade openness, which was thought to have effects
on the growth, were included in the analysis. According to empirical
evidence derived from the study made with panel data analysis it was
found that the effect of financial development on economic growth was
positive and statistically significant in line with theoretical expectations.
Evidence that even foreign direct investments and openness contributed to
the growth positively was also found.


This piece is a response to Marilyn Strathern's article, "Binary License," in the Common Knowledge symposium on "comparative relativism." Arguing that, across noncoherent practices, there is room for different natures, the essay suggests that modes of relating (the briefly invoked example given is of divergent counting practices) do not need a shared conceptual apparatus in order to be combined. What is held in the juxtaposition of acts and practices seems to be the sense in which acts are not affected by how they are described. The main example given is of surgery, and the emphasis placed on how splitting open part of patient's body is never a matter of a point of view. But to know exactly what is going on in the operating theater, we might wish to ask how this act speaks to the act of intellectual bifurcation, splitting open what up to then had been a seamless argument. To know exactly what is going on in the operating theater, we might also wish to ask how this act speaks to persons cutting themselves off from one another.


The problem of delayed genomic instability occurring in human cells in vivo has recently come to prominence as an important mechanism in radiation carcinogenesis. Considering cancer patients treated with partial body irradiation as a relevant group at risk of developing a second cancer, research has been carried out to quantify chromosomal instability (ChI) occurring in their lymphocytes. Ten patients with uterine cancer were selected at the IMR clinic according to local ethics procedures with minimum variations of age (55-65 y), tumor grade (T2a-cNxM0) and treatment method (only external Co-60 therapy given in 20 fractions, 2 Gy/ fraction, no chemotherapy). Control blood was taken 1-2 days before treatment and then post-treatment; 1-2 days after the final fraction and 1 year later (no chemotherapy during the follow-up period). The lymphocytes were cultured in the presence of 5-Bromodeoxyuridine for 50 and 100 h. Metaphase preparations were stained by fluorescence-plus-Giemsa (FPG) and the harlequin-fluorescence in situ hybridization method (h-FISH, highlighting chromosomes 2, 3 and 5 and all centromeres). Metaphases were analyzed for the presence of chromatid aberrations and chromosome-type rearrangements (on h-FISH also including translocations and insertions), with simultaneous determination of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or later mitosis status of each cell. Both assays showed that the radiotherapy caused a significant increase of radiation-specific chromosome-type aberrations in patients' first mitosis lymphocytes together with ChI. The latter was concluded from the statistically excessive presence of chromatid aberrations in 6-8 % of those cells, which already contained previously induced chromosome-type rearrangements. That can be a result of an elevated DNA breakage in the G2 phase of the cell cycle, associated with either hyper-production/impaired scavenging of free radicals or hyper-expression of "hotspots" (fragile sites) in the chromatin, or both, caused by the presence of chromosome type rearrangement. The h-FISH assay showed that this form of ChI is transmissible through early cell cycles in vitro and can be seen in cells of 3rd and later mitoses, carrying stable translocations inherited from the irradiated predecessors. Probably, that mechanism was responsible for the in vivo persistence of the ChI, which was observed 1 year after radiotherapy and affected again 6-8 % of lymphocytes with stable aberrations. The possible relevance of this cytogenetic process to occurrence of second therapy-related cancers in progeny of cells irradiated within the treatment field will be discussed.


Over the last thirty years, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies has grown from a small group of disaffected conservative law students into an organisation with extraordinary influence over American law and politics. Although the organisation is unknown to the average citizen, this group of intellectuals has managed to monopolise the selection of federal judges, take over the Department of Justice, and control legal policy in the White House. Today the Society claims that 45,000 conservative lawyers and law students are involved in its activities. Four Supreme Court Justices - Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito - are current or former members. Every single federal judge appointed in the two Bush presidencies was either a Society member or approved by members. During the Bush years, young Federalist Society lawyers dominated the legal staffs of the Justice Department and other important government agencies. The Society has lawyer chapters in every major city in the United States and student chapters in every accredited law school. Its membership includes economic conservatives, social conservatives, Christian conservatives, and libertarians, who differ with each other on significant issues, but who cooperate in advancing a broad conservative agenda. How did this happen? How did this group of conservatives succeed in moving their theories into the mainstream of legal thought? What is the range of positions of those associated with the Federalist Society in areas of legal and political controversy? The authors survey these stances in separate chapters on regulation of business and private property; race and gender discrimination and affirmative action; personal sexual autonomy, including abortion and gay rights; and American exceptionalism and international law.


In this study, we examine stories told about basic training in the United States military. We question how these experiences are related to stories told post-exit. We collected website stories ( N = 100) and in-depth interviews ( N = 18) for analysis. The theoretical underpinnings of socialization, face negotiation, and identity guided this analysis. We note three themes throughout these stories that suggest that (1) military members adopt facework strategies performed by drill sergeants, (2) these facework strategies are used after exit, (3) military socialization normalizes typically nonnormative behavior.


Gustafsson, G. 2017. Alpha-Synuclein Oligomers. Cellular Mechanisms and Aspects of Antibody Treatment. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1344. 64 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0008-5. In Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), aggregated α-synuclein deposit inside cells within the brain. Smaller soluble α-synuclein aggregates, oligomers, are present both intraand extracellularly. The α-synuclein oligomers are known to be particularly harmful, although the underlying neurotoxic mechanisms are not fully understood. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the pathogenic roles of α-synuclein oligomers and the possibility to target such species with antibody treatment. Passive immunotherapy with α-synuclein antibodies can lead to reduced pathology and ameliorated symptoms in transgenic mice. However, it remains unknown whether the antibodies are taken up by cells or whether they act extracellularly. In Paper I, we assessed cellular internalization of various α-synuclein monoclonal antibodies. The oligomer selective mAb47 displayed the highest uptake, which was promoted by the extracellular presence of α-synuclein. Alpha-synuclein aggregates can be found in both neurons and glial cells, but the pathogenic role of glial deposits has only been sparsely investigated. In Paper II, co-cultures of neurons and glia were exposed to α-synuclein oligomers. The astrocytes in the cultures rapidly accumulated oligomers, which were only partially degraded by lysosomes. The sustained intracellular αsynuclein deposits were associated with mitochondrial stress reactions in the astrocytes. In Paper III, we sought to explore whether the astrocytic pathology induced by α-synuclein oligomers could be ameliorated by antibody treatment. Pre-incubation of oligomers with mAb47 promoted α-synuclein clearance, reduced astrocytic accumulation and rescued cells from mitochondrial stress. We could demonstrate that binding of the antibody to its antigen in the extracellular space was crucial for these effects to occur. The progressive pathology in PD is believed to be driven by cell-to-cell spreading of αsynuclein aggregates, potentially via exosomes and other extracellular vesicles (EVs). In Paper IV, we found that either fusing α-synuclein to a non-physiological protein tag or introducing the PD-causing A53T mutation directed α-synuclein towards EV secretion. Also, EV-associated αsynuclein was particularly prone to induce toxicity in recipient cells. In conclusion, this thesis sheds new light on the cellular dysfunction related to α-synuclein pathology and on how the underlying pathogenic processes may be targeted by antibody treatment.


Background Recent genome-wide association studies have identified transient receptor potential M8 (TRPM8) as a migraine susceptibility gene. TRPM8 is a nonselective cation channel that mediates cool perception. However, its precise role in migraine pathophysiology is elusive. Transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) is a nonselective cation channel activated by noxious heat. Both TRPM8 and TRPV1 are expressed in trigeminal ganglion (TG) neurons. Methods We investigated the functional roles of TRPM8 and TRPV1 in a meningeal inflammation-based migraine model by measuring the effects of facial TRPM8 activation on thermal allodynia and assessing receptor coexpression changes in TG neurons. We performed retrograde tracer labeling to identify TG neurons innervating the face and dura. Results We found that pharmacological TRPM8 activation reversed the meningeal inflammation-induced lowering of the facial heat pain threshold, an effect abolished by genetic ablation of TRPM8. No significant changes in the heat pain threshold were seen in sham-operated animals. Meningeal inflammation caused dynamic alterations in TRPM8/TRPV1 coexpression patterns in TG neurons, and colocalization was most pronounced when the ameliorating effect of TRPM8 activation on thermal allodynia was maximal. Our tracer assay disclosed the presence of dura-innervating TG neurons sending collaterals to the face. Approximately half of them were TRPV1-positive. We also demonstrated functional inhibition of TRPV1 by TRPM8 in a cell-based assay using c-Jun N-terminal kinase phosphorylation as a surrogate marker. Conclusions Our findings provide a plausible mechanism to explain how facial TRPM8 activation can relieve migraine by suppressing TRPV1 activity. Facial TRPM8 appears to be a promising therapeutic target for migraine.


Discussions on political autonomies have been centered on two main arguments. Some argue that political autonomy is an effective conflict resolution mechanism especially in the settings where social, political, and economic conflicts are common and the autonomy seekers want a political and administrative resolution. De-centralization and power-sharing are two main pillars of political autonomies in which local citizens get the right to rule themselves with their own local resources without changing national borders of a state. Some others however discuss political autonomy as a conflict escalating tool, particularly, if an ethnic group has a strong motivation for independence and state-building. To this end, in the light of the existing literature on autonomy, this thesis investigates the nature of the Rojava Democratic Autonomy (RDA) declared in January 2014 in the midst of a civil war in Syria. In-depth interviews were conducted with the heads and deputies of official bodies and civil society organizations in Cezire (Jazeera) Canton of RDA to investigate how they perceive both the past and ongoing socio-political and ethnoreligious conflicts in Syria, and what strategies and policies they implement to resolve them. The thesis evaluates the resolution practices based on RDA's relation with the Syrian government (national), regional and international powers (international) and with its civil society organizations (domestic). The thesis also discusses the RDA policies and strategies for solving the socio-political and ethno-religious conflicts through power-sharing and by providing group autonomies to all ethnic and religious groups based on the Social Contract drafted by members of all ethnic and religious groups in Rojava. Besides presenting these solutions, the thesis also discusses the already-existing problems as stated by the participants of this study. Keywords: Rojava Democratic Autonomy, Syrian Civil War, de-centralization, selfmanagement, power-sharing, conflict resolution and peace.


The second half of the last decade has been profoundly marked by a major food crisis with a global reach, qualified by Holt-Gimenez, Patel and Shattuck (2009) as a "silent tsunami," which has driven about 75 million people to  undernourishment and another 125 million people to extreme poverty (Bello 2009b). In light of such a devastating phenomenon, the recent years have witnessed a veritable outpouring of scholarly works on the effects of the food crisis on developing countries, on the critique of the neoliberal food regime, and the emergence of food countermovements confronting neoliberalism. In this review article, I address the global food problem in today's context from the perspective of "food fovereignty," arguing that it is essential to break with mainstream perspectives that prioritize  the economic aspects of the global food problem and overestimate the role of high politics and policy experts instead of exploring the ways in which genuine grassroots participation could transform the existing neoliberal food system.


succession of associations B-+ ( ±A) -+ B -+C-+ D. The characteristics of the facies associations suggest a fiuvial-dominated delta with low-gradient braided rivers entering a relatively low-energy, tide-infiuenced basin. The stratigraphy of the individual cycles suggests progradation under an overall relative rise in sea leve!. The erosional surface between the fiuvial and marine associations may, in contrast, represent a minor relative fall in sea leve! and thus a forced regression. The cycle termination is attributed to an intermittent, possible fault-controlled shift of the depocentre. The considerable regional thickness variations of the Godkeila Member (600-1450 m) along the depositional strike is thought to be mainly a result of differential subsidence.


Land utilization under oil palm plantation is constrained by the condition of low light intensities. Modification of the microclimate through the use of reflective mulch, as a reflector, will increase its ability to reflect the land surface radiation under the tree stand. This modification may suitable for intercropping system between soybean and oil palm. The study aimed to determine the effect of microclimate modification, using reflective mulch, under the stand of oil palm, and to evaluate its effect on soybean productivity. The research was conducted at PTPN-VIII Cimarga Banten using a nested random design with two factors and three replications each. The first factor is the oil palm age, which consists of: (i) control (open land), (ii) 4 years, (iii) 5 years, and (iv) 8 years age of oil palm. The second factor is the reflective mulch, as a solar radiation reflector, which consists of three levels: (i) without mulch (control), (ii) inorganic reflective mulch/silver black plastic mulch, and (iii) organic reflective mulch/dried oil palm leaves. The application of inorganic and organic reflective mulch increased the distribution of reflected land surface radiation (59%-157%), reduced the soil temperature fluctuation (0.30C-1.20C), and maintained soil water content (45.2%-45.8%). An increased of plant growth rates (56%-86%), relative growth rates (16%-21%), and seed weight production per plant (74.8%-86.2%) also reported, as well as the reduction of the etiolation ratio (9.6%-12.5%). The use of organic and inorganic reflective mulches can improve the microclimate and increase the production of soybean under intercopping system with oil palm.


A 3D Domain‐Decomposition (DD) strategy has been developed to deal with violent wave‐ship interactions involving water‐on‐deck and slamming occurrence. It couples a linear potential flow seakeeping solver with a Navier–Stokes method. The latter is applied in an inner domain where slamming, water‐on‐deck, and free surface fragmentation may occur, involving important flow nonlinearities. The field solver combines an approximated projection method with a level set technique for the free surface evolution. A hybrid strategy, combining the Eulerian level set concept to Lagrangian markers, is used to enforce more accurately the body boundary condition in case of high local curvatures. Main features of the weak and the strong coupling algorithms are described with special focus on the boundary conditions for the inner solver. Two ways of estimating the nonlinear loads by the Navier–Stokes method are investigated, on the basis of an extrapolation technique and an interpolation marching cubes algorithm, respectively. The DD is applied for the case of a freely floating patrol ship in head sea regular waves and compared against water‐on‐deck experiments in terms of flow evolution, body motions, and pressure on the hull. Improvement of the solver efficiency and accuracy is suggested. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Bangladesh Smiling Sun Franchise Program (BSSFP) is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) / Bangladesh funded health care delivery program providing a package of essential health services through a network of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It is a continuation of the NGO Service Delivery Program (NSDP) which had been in place in various forms since the late 1990s. BSSFP operated in areas that had been identified by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) to have inadequate public health service delivery systems where the government sought assistance from partners to fill the service gap (henceforth referred to as 'project' areas). USAID committed US$46 million for BSSFP over a four-year period (2007-2011). The program was later extended for another year with additional funding of around US$11 million. The program's overall objectives were to increase the use of family planning maternal child and other basic health services in areas served by BSSFP with an emphasis on serving the poor and on improving the sustainability of local NGOs in continuing to provide these services. The program was developed at a time when funding for USAID / Bangladesh was expected to decline drastically. Thus improving financial sustainability of local NGOs within a four-year period was a major emphasis of the program. To meet the desired outcomes BSSFP had four objectives: (1) to develop a franchise model; (2) to recover 70 percent of operational costs by the end of the project; (3) to increase and expand quality service volume; and (4) to ensure that 30 percent of all health services provided are service contacts targeted towards the poor who are unable or only partially able to pay. In 2010 three changes were made to the BSSFP program based on a mid-term program assessment conducted in April 2010 and USAID's periodic program reviews. First the program was extended for an additional year beyond its fourth year. Second the program's cost recovery target was revised downwards to 45 percent of its operational costs. The initial target of 70 percent cost recovery was abandoned since it would have involved further increases in user fees in addition to the two price hikes introduced in the first three years of the project. Third further efforts to establish a "franchise" were ceased. The BSSFP was implemented under a contract between USAID and Chemonics International through 26 local NGOs operating a network of 323 static clinics around 8800 satellite (outreach) clinics and over 6000 community volunteers known as Community Service Providers (CSPs)/depotholders. The BSSFP served a catchment population of roughly 20 million through 193 clinics in urban areas and 130 clinics in rural areas. The urban and rural components of the BSSFP program varied slightly in design and implementation owing to differences in urban and rural settings. The rural component of the BSSFP had a CSP/depotholder component for community mobilization but the urban one did not.


Objective: To assess the efficacy of lovastatin on visuospatial learning and attention for treating cognitive and behavioral deficits in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Methods: A multicenter, international, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted between July 2009 and May 2014 as part of the NF Clinical Trials Consortium. Children with NF1 aged 8–15 years were screened for visuospatial learning or attention deficits (n = 272); 146 children demonstrated deficits at baseline and were randomly assigned to lovastatin (n = 74; 40 mg/d) or placebo (n = 70). Treatment was administered once daily for 16 weeks. Primary outcomes were total errors on the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery Paired Associate Learning task (visuospatial learning) and the Score subtest from the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (sustained attention). Secondary outcomes measured executive function, attention, visuospatial skills, behavior, and quality of life. Primary analyses were performed on the intention-to-treat population. Results: Lovastatin had no significant effect on primary outcomes after 16 weeks of treatment: visuospatial learning (Cohen d = −0.15, 95% confidence interval −0.47 to 0.18) or sustained attention (Cohen d = 0.19, 95% confidence interval −0.14 to 0.53). Lovastatin was well tolerated, with no increase in reported adverse events compared to placebo. Conclusions: Lovastatin administered once daily for 16 weeks did not improve visuospatial learning or attention in children with NF1 and is not recommended for amelioration of cognitive deficits in this population. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00853580) and Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12607000560493). Classification of evidence: This study provides Class I evidence that for children with NF1, lovastatin does not improve visuospatial learning or attention deficits.


This thesis project was done in collaboration with a Prismattery LLC, which is based in Tallinn,
Estonia and is interested in entering the market of electric bicycles. For that reason in this report a
detailed study concerning the market of electrical bicycles, its current situation and trends were
performed and a promising target market was indicated. The market study showed that although in
different countries the specifications and preferred types of electric bicycles may vary, in general the
popularity of this type of transportation rises over the world. Furthermore, as nowadays bicycle
sharing systems are very common in many cities, the working principles of these systems and
companies who produce them were also investigated within the scope of the project. Subsequently,
based on the information examined an electric bicycle sharing systems were detected to be the best
market choice for the company to aim, and therefore further work in the technical and environmental
analysis was done taking into consideration the requirement of the selected market. Moreover,
although compared to regular bicycle sharing systems electric ones require higher capital investment,
the cost of operation can be lower due to the savings on the redistribution of bicycles. It is explained
by the fact that users of electric bicycles can go uphill without much physical effort and as a result
the natural distribution of electric bicycles in stations can be more equal than it is for regular bicycle
sharing systems. Therefore, both investment and operation costs were compared for regular and
electric bicycle sharing system for 10 years of exploitation and results proved the cost
competitiveness of the electric bicycle sharing system.
Different technological solutions concerning the components of electric bicycles were studied in the
report in order to understand their working principle, functionality, advantages and disadvantages,
etc. Thus, the choice of these components was done in a way to suit the needs of electric bicycles
which will operate in a sharing system. In addition an electric circuit which is necessary for the power
supply at the bicycle docking station was designed and an automatic charging solution was
suggested to charge the battery of the bicycle through special contacts connected to the locking
system.
Finally, in the environmental analysis it was estimated the possible reduction of greenhouse gases
and air pollutants in case of using an electric bicycle sharing system as an option for urban
transportation for short distances. It was calculated that this types of systems in a large scale of
operation can have some input in reducing these emissions, and hence improving the health of the
local population as well as the global climatic conditions.


Time series forecasting has become a critical task due to its high practicality in real-world applications such as traffic, energy consumption, economics and finance, and disease analysis. Recent deep-learning-based approaches have shown remarkable success in time series forecasting. Nonetheless, due to the dynamics of time series data, deep networks still suffer from unstable training and overfitting. Inconsistent patterns appearing in real-world data lead the model to be biased to a particular pattern, thus limiting the generalization. In this work, we introduce the dynamic error bounds on training loss to address the overfitting issue in time series forecasting. Consequently, we propose a regularization method called WaveBound which estimates the adequate error bounds of training loss for each time step and feature at each iteration. By allowing the model to focus less on unpredictable data, WaveBound stabilizes the training process, thus significantly improving generalization. With the extensive experiments, we show that WaveBound consistently improves upon the existing models in large margins, including the state-of-the-art model.


A large number of young people provide developmentally inappropriate care to parents or other family members with physical and mental health challenges, which may include substance abuse and stressful life events. Called 'young carers', these individuals take on many household tasks and also provide emotional support to the loved ones in their care. The demands of caregiving take both a physical and emotional toll upon young carers, who also face a variety of environmental and psychosocial challenges including low socioeconomic status, social isolation, and poor performance in school. These factors appear to be more acute when young people provide care around mental health conditions. At the same time, the literature identifies benefits from caregiving at a young age, such as enhanced relationships with care recipients and problemsolving skills. In supporting young carers, the literature from the Western English-speaking world provides insight into potential interventions and a course of action for the Canadian context, in which educators play a key role. This paper concludes with a reflection on how interventions identified in the literature may be applied to various levels of the British Columbia public education system and potential obstacles in advancing the status of young carers in Canadian society.


Individuals, consumer groups, nation states and supra-national bodies increasingly have interrogated the ethics of particular production and consumption relations such as GM foods. Flowing from and bound up with these political concerns is the growing interest in the mutual dependence of sites of (for example) production, distribution, retailing, design, advertising, marketing and final consumption. Commodity Chains draws together contributions concerned with the production, circulation and consumption of commodities. Not only do these case study examples seek to transcend older understandings of production and consumption, but they also explicitly tap into wider public debate about the meanings, origins and biographies of commodities. Taking a geographical approach to the analysis of links between producers and consumers, focusing upon the ways in which these ties increasingly are stretched across spaces and places. Critical engagements with the ways in which these spaces and places affect the economies, cultures and politics of the connections between producers and consumers are threaded through each section.


Disability sport is a relatively recent phenomenon, yet it is also one that, particularly in the context of social inclusion, is attracting increasing political and academic interest. The purpose of this important new text – the first of its kind – is to introduce the reader to key concepts in disability and disability sport and to examine the complex relationships between modern sport, disability and other aspects of wider society.

Drawing upon original data from interviews, surveys and policy documents, the book examines how disability sport has developed and is currently organised, and explores key themes, issues and concepts including:

•disability theory and policy
•the emergence and development of disability sport
•disability sport development in local authorities
•mainstreaming disability sport
•disability, physical education and school sport
•elite disability sport and the Paralympic Games
•disability sport and the media.
Including chapter summaries, seminar questions and lists of key websites and further reading throughout, Sport, Disability and Society provides both an easy to follow introduction and a critical exploration of the key issues surrounding disability sport in the twenty-first century. This book is an invaluable resource for all students, researchers and professionals working in sport studies, disability studies, physical education, sociology and social policy.


OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of empagliflozin, a selective sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, on broad biological systems through proteomics. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Aptamer-based proteomics was used to quantify 3,713 proteins in 144 paired plasma samples obtained from 72 participants across the spectrum of glucose tolerance before and after 4 weeks of empagliflozin 25 mg/day. The biology of the plasma proteins significantly changed by empagliflozin (at false discovery rate–corrected P < 0.05) was discerned through Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. RESULTS Empagliflozin significantly affected levels of 43 proteins, 6 related to cardiomyocyte function (fatty acid–binding protein 3 and 4 [FABPA], neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase, renin, thrombospondin 4, and leptin receptor), 5 to iron handling (ferritin heavy chain 1, transferrin receptor protein 1, neogenin, growth differentiation factor 2 [GDF2], and β2-microglobulin), and 1 to sphingosine/ceramide metabolism (neutral ceramidase), a known pathway of cardiovascular disease. Among the protein changes achieving the strongest statistical significance, insulin-like binding factor protein-1 (IGFBP-1), transgelin-2, FABPA, GDF15, and sulphydryl oxidase 2 precursor were increased, while ferritin, thrombospondin 3, and Rearranged during Transfection (RET) were decreased by empagliflozin administration. CONCLUSIONS SGLT2 inhibition is associated, directly or indirectly, with multiple biological effects, including changes in markers of cardiomyocyte contraction/relaxation, iron handling, and other metabolic and renal targets. The most significant differences were detected in protein species (GDF15, ferritin, IGFBP-1, and FABP) potentially related to the clinical and metabolic changes that were actually measured in the same patients. These novel results may inform further studies using targeted proteomics and a prospective design.


Spiropyran photochromic compounds can be switched using light exposure between a non-polar spiro form (SP) and a zwitterionic merocyanine form (MC) that is subject to protonation (MC-H+). It has recently been demonstrated by Walsh et al. that, under acidic conditions, electroosmotic flow (EOF) generated in vinyl based spiropyran monoliths can be modulated using light irradiation [1]. In this paper, we report a spiropyran-modified acrylate based monolith which is particularly sensitive to protonation in the MC form, producing a positively charged surface that converts to the unpolar SP form by exposure to white light. When the MC-H+ form is dominant, it produces a charged surface which enables a relatively high flow rate (up to 1.6 μl/min) to be generated under electroosmotic conditions. Upon exposure to white light, the concentration of MC-H+ decreases due to the photo-conversion to the uncharged SP form, with up to 20% reduction of the EOF. The process is reversible, and removal of the light source results in a flow increase back to the original rate. The ability to alter flow rates in micro-fluidic channels using light has very significant implications, as it could dramatically simplify the manner in which micro-flow systems are controlled.


This special issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly presents the experiences of front-line staff in Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) as they grapple with the implications of the global refugee crisis. Over the past 18 months, hundreds of thousands of people have moved from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, generating widespread media attention and considerable political wrangling. But for aid workers, this situation raises questions that get to the very heart of humanitarianism and its purpose in the contemporary world. How does an organisation like MSF, the pioneer of "sans-frontierism", engage with the shifting politics of borders and migration? What, practically, does it mean to be a "borderless" organisation in a world where migration controls are such a big political issue? What are the implications of the refugee crisis for humanitarian principles and medical care? This introduction to the special issue brings some humanitarian dilemmas into focus, arguing that, in reaction to the migration crisis, aid agencies may have no option but to take a more robustly political approach.


There has been a long-standing interest in the discovery of unnatural nucleotides that can be incorporated into DNA by polymerases. However, it is difficult to predict which nucleotide analogs will prove to have biological relevance. Therefore, we have developed a new screening method to identify novel substrates for DNA polymerases. This technique uses the polymerase itself to select a dNTP from a pool of potential substrates via incorporation onto a short oligonucleotide. The unnatural nucleotide(s) is then identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry. By using a DNA polymerase as a selection tool, only the biologically relevant members of a small nucleotide library can be quickly determined. We have demonstrated that this method can be used to discover unnatural base pairs in DNA with a detection threshold of ≤10% incorporation.


Recent development of sun‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) technology is stimulating studies to remotely approximate canopy photosynthesis (measured as gross primary production, GPP). While multiple applications have advanced the empirical relationship between GPP and SIF, mechanistic understanding of this relationship is still limited. GPP:SIF relationship, using the standard light use efficiency framework, is determined by absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and the relationship between photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE) and fluorescence yield (SIFy). While previous studies have found that APAR is the dominant factor of the GPP:SIF relationship, the LUE:SIFy relationship remains unclear. For a better understanding of the LUE:SIFy relationship, we deployed a ground‐based system (FluoSpec2), with an eddy‐covariance flux tower at a soybean field in the Midwestern U.S. during the 2016 growing season to collect SIF and GPP data simultaneously. With the measurements categorized by plant growth stages, light conditions, and time scales, we confirmed that a strong positive GPP:SIF relationship was dominated by an even stronger linear SIF:APAR relationship. By normalizing both GPP and SIF by APAR, we found that under sunny conditions our soybean field exhibited a clear positive SIFy:APAR relationship and a weak negative LUE:SIFy relationship, opposite to the positive LUE:SIFy relationship reported previously in other ecosystems. Our study provides a first continuous SIF record over multiple growth stages for agricultural systems and reveals a distinctive pattern related to the LUE:SIFy relationship compared with previous work. The observed positive relationship of SIFy:APAR at the soybean site provides new insights of the previous understanding on the SIF's physiological implications.


Requirements engineering is a big part of software engineering and consumes a lot of time. We propose a novel approach of automatically creating software domain models from textual requirements specifications using semantic annotation. Natural language processing (NLP) has progressed much in the last years and the usage of NLP tools for automatic annotation shows promising results. We use Fillmore's thematic roles to explicitly denote the semantic relations in a sentence.
 Semantic annotations also maintain the connection between textual artifacts and their corresponding model elements. Therefore changes in the domain model can be fed back to the textual specification. Additionally, changes in the textual specification can be analyzed and their impact towards the software model can be assessed.


Aims. We aim to constrain the Hα, CaII H and CaII K line profiles of quiescent and active regions of nine dM1 stars of near solar metallicity: Gl 2, GJ 1010A, Gl 49, Gl 150.1B, Gl 205, Gl 229, Gl 526, G192-11A, and Gl 880. Methods. We propose a new method for building two-component model chromospheres for dM1 stars-based on simple constraints and a grid of model atmospheres developed by Houdebine & Stempels. This method is based on the measurements of the equivalent width of Hα and CaII H & K. Based on the peculiar relationship between these two equivalent widths in the model atmospheres, our solutions provide an exact match of these equivalent widths. Results. We obtain two component (quiescent and active region) model chromospheres for our nine target stars. We fit the Hα, CaII H, and CaII K profiles for these stars. These models show that seven of these stars lie in the intermediate activity range between Hα maximum absorption and emission. Two stars (Gl 49 and G192-11A) are quite active with Hα emission profiles in plages. As far as the CaII emission is concerned, these two stars are almost as active as dM1e stars. Two stars (GJ 1010A and Gl 526) have lower activity levels with narrower and weaker Hα profiles. The range of activity covered by these stars is a factor of 13 in the CaII lines, from low activity to activity levels almost as high as those of dM1e stars. Our method sometimes provides two solutions of the observed Hα equivalent width as a function of the quiescent region Hα equivalent width. For Gl 205, one of the solutions is shown to be impossible for the assumptions that we use. For Gl 49 and G192-11A, two solutions are possible; a low solution (low CaII EW) and a high solution (high CaII EW). The difference between these two solutions is mainly in the plage-filling factor. The two solutions give almost identical Hα and CaII profiles. We prefer the low solutions because the filling factors are in closer agreement with those of other stars. We find plage-filling factors typically in the range 20%−40%. We also find that it is the chromospheric pressure rather than the filling factor that increases with increasing activity. We define a minimum theoretical Hα equivalent width as a function of the mean CaII H & K equivalent width. We show that our observations agree well with this lower limit. We also show that the properties of the chromosphere in quiescent and active regions correlate with the mean CaII H & K equivalent width. This could be useful in future studies to derive an estimate of the chromospheric properties from the observed mean CaII H & K equivalent width.


Energy supplies are tightening. Persistent pollutants are accumulating. Food security is declining. There is no going back to the days of reckless consumption, but there is a possibility -- already being realized in communities across North America and around the world -- of localizing, of living well as we learn to live well within immutable constraints. This book maps the transition to a more localized world. Society is shifting from the centrifugal forces of globalization (cheap and abundant raw materials and energy, intensive commercialization, concentrated economic and political power) to the centripetal forces of localization: distributed authority and leadership, sustainable use of nearby natural resources, community self-reliance and cohesion (with crucial regional, national, and international dimensions). This collection, offering classic texts by such writers as Wendell Berry, M. King Hubbert, and Ernst F. Schumacher, as well as new work by authors including Karen Litfin and David Hess, shows how localization -- a process of affirmative social change -- can enable psychologically meaningful and fulfilling lives while promoting ecological and social sustainability. Topics range from energy dynamics to philosophies of limits, from the governance of place-based communities to the discovery of positive personal engagement. Together they point the way to a transition that can be peaceful, democratic, just, and environmentally resilient.


Radical changes are taking place in the landscape of modern power systems. This massive shift in the way the system is designed and operated has been termed the advent of the ``smart grid''. One of its implications is a strong market pull for faster power system analysis computing. This work is concerned in particular with transient simulation, which is one of the most demanding power system analyses. This refers to the imitation of the operation of the real-world system over time, for time scales that cover the majority of slow electromechanical transient phenomena. The general mathematical formulation of the simulation problem includes a set of non-linear differential algebraic equations (DAEs). In the algebraic part of this set, heavy linear algebra computations are included, which are related to the admittance matrix of the topology. These computations are a critical factor to the overall performance of a transient simulator. This work proposes the use of analog electronic computing as a means of exceeding the performance barriers of conventional digital computers for the linear algebra operations. Analog computing is integrated in the frame of a power system transient simulator yielding significant computational performance benefits to the latter. Two hybrid, analog and digital computers are presented. The first prototype has been implemented using reconfigurable hardware. In its core, analog computing is used for linear algebra operations, while pipelined digital resources on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) handle all remaining computations. The properties of the analog hardware are thoroughly examined, with special attention to accuracy and timing. The application of the platform to the transient analysis of power system dynamics showed a speedup of two orders of magnitude against conventional software solutions. The second prototype is proposed as a future conceptual architecture that would overcome the limitations of the already implemented hardware, while retaining its virtues. The design space of this future architecture has been thoroughly explored, with the help of a software emulator. For one possible suggested implementation, speedups of four orders of magnitude against software solvers have been observed for the linear algebra operations.


Abstract. Future radio occultation (RO) receivers are planned to utilize the newly implemented Global Positioning System (GPS) L5 band centered at 1176.45 MHz. Since there are currently no operational GPS L5 receivers used for space-based RO applications, the interference environment is unclear. Distance measuring equipment (DME) and tactical air navigation (TACAN) stations share the same frequency band as GPS L5. The signals from these stations have been identified as possible sources of interference for any GPS L5 receiver, including those used in RO applications. This study utilizes Systems Tools Kit (STK) simulations to gain insight into the power received by a RO satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) from a DME–TACAN transmission as well as the amount of interfering stations. In order to confirm the validity of utilizing STK for communication purposes, a theoretical scenario was recreated as a simulation and the results were confirmed. Once the method was validated, STK was used to output a received power level aboard a RO satellite from a DME–TACAN station as well as a tool to detail the number of interfering DME–TACAN stations witnessed by a space-based RO receiver over time. The results indicated a large number of DME–TACAN stations transmitting at similar orientations as a receiving RO satellite, thereby leading to the possibility of signal degradation in an unclear interference environment.


Sphere decoder has been introduced to the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems, with which the maximum likelihood (ML) detection becomes feasible. In order to combine the sphere decoders with the outer channel code decoder, researchers have proposed to include a candidate list in the sphere decoder to provide soft information to the channel code decoder. This algorithm is called list sphere decoder (LSD). In the LSD, different from the conventional sphere decoder (CSD), the candidate list introduces significant hardware overhead. In this paper, we propose to use a tree-type comparator array, a link table and sublists to reduce the hardware complexity of inserting new candidates into the list. Combining these techniques, we can reduce the complexity by around 90% compared with the straightforward implementations


Networks on chip (NoC) has been proposed as a scalable and reusable solution for interconnecting the evergrowing number of processor/memory cores on a single silicon die. As the hardware complexity of a NoC is significant, methods for designing a NoC with low hardware overhead, matching the application requirements are essential. In this work, we present a method for reducing the hardware complexity of the NoC by automatically configuring the architecture of the NoC switches to suit the application traffic characteristics. The crossbar matrix and the arbiters of each switch in the NoC design are customized to support the traffic flows utilizing that switch. This application-specific switch customization is integrated with an existing design flow, which automates NoC topology synthesis, mapping, RTL code and physical layout generation. Several experimental studies on NoC benchmark designs are carried out, which show that the proposed switch customization technique leads to large reduction in the NoC switch area (28% on average) and power consumption (21% on average). Moreover, the critical paths of the switches reduce significantly, thereby leading to a significant speed-up of the NoC design


We present a simple rate matching-based mechanism for voltage adaptation in a microprocessor running a multiprogrammed workload. The mechanism incorporates a set of architecture and operating system extensions through which applications can communicate their actual and desired progress to the operating system. Using this feedback, the operating system uses a modified scheduling algorithm to run all applications at a single, globallyoptimal voltage. We demonstrate that significant energy savings are possible with a simple, practical set of extensions to the architecture and operating system.


Modern wire rod rolling is characterised by high rolling speed and requirements on well-defined mechanical properties as well as close tolerances. Traditional methods for analyses of this kind of processes, such as the slip line field theory and the upper bound analysis, have proven not to be sufficient. Different methods for rolling analysis have been evaluated. Several FE approaches were compared to classical methods such as the upper bound and the slip line theory and the results was validated by practical experiments. The finite element method has proven to be a powerful tool in order understand the metal working process, it also gives the possibility to study phenomena not yet clarified.


The application of machine learning for the detection of malicious network traffic has been well researched over the past several decades; it is particularly appealing when the traffic is encrypted because traditional pattern-matching approaches cannot be used. Unfortunately, the promise of machine learning has been slow to materialize in the network security domain. In this paper, we highlight two primary reasons why this is the case: inaccurate ground truth and a highly non-stationary data distribution. To demonstrate and understand the effect that these pitfalls have on popular machine learning algorithms, we design and carry out experiments that show how six common algorithms perform when confronted with real network data. With our experimental results, we identify the situations in which certain classes of algorithms underperform on the task of encrypted malware traffic classification. We offer concrete recommendations for practitioners given the real-world constraints outlined. From an algorithmic perspective, we find that the random forest ensemble method outperformed competing methods. More importantly, feature engineering was decisive; we found that iterating on the initial feature set, and including features suggested by domain experts, had a much greater impact on the performance of the classification system. For example, linear regression using the more expressive feature set easily outperformed the random forest method using a standard network traffic representation on all criteria considered. Our analysis is based on millions of TLS encrypted sessions collected over 12 months from a commercial malware sandbox and two geographically distinct, large enterprise networks.


Abstract The Australian water crisis can be addressed in many ways, ranging from increasing water conservation behaviours to minimise demand, through to producing water through large-scale water augmentation projects. Due to the extended drought experienced in many locations across Australia in recent years, there has been a recent focus on developing wastewater recycling and seawater desalination plants. While this is an important measure for emergency water supply, water conservation should still play a major role in reducing demand for water. The aim of this study is to provide much-needed empirical data about Australian attitudes towards water conservation and their water conservation behaviours. This market insight provides a knowledge basis for the development of public policy measures and social marketing campaigns aimed at increasing water conservation among Australian residents. Results from a survey study of 1495 people indicates that Australians generally have very positive attitudes towards water conservation and water saving appliances, however, these positive attitudes are not consistently translated into actual behaviour. The main barriers to adoption of water conservation behaviours identified in the study are the perception of inconvenience and impracticality, as well as costs associated with purchasing water saving appliances. These findings highlight the fact that there is still substantial potential to be harvested in Australia though water conservation measures. Opportunities for public policy makers to stimulate this process are identified.


In the space of one decade, automobile no-fault legislation — the second most ambitious alternative compensation scheme ever enacted in the United States — went from being widely viewed as "inevitable" to having, it is said, met its sad "demise." Using a broad mix of primary source material, including voluminous congressional testimony and thousands of contemporaneous press and journal accounts, this Article excavates the history of the American no-fault experiment. With the benefit of this previously untapped material, the Article enriches — and in places, complicates — conventional explanations for why no-fault fizzled. It then situates the no-fault experience within a larger socio-legal framework and, in so doing, raises provocative questions about no-fault's legacy. Then it finally, and more broadly, steps back to view the no-fault experiment not in isolation but as an exemplar of what may be a larger story about tort's durability and the evolution, and ultimate convergence, of even very different legal regimes over time.


We study the retirement effects on mental health using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on the eligibility age to the state pension in the Netherlands. We find that the mental effects are heterogeneous by gender and marital status. Retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners. Single men retiring experience a drop in mental health. Female retirement has hardly any effect on their own mental health or the mental health of their partners. Part of the effects seem to be driven by loneliness after retirement.


Background: Apart from its common occurrence in the oral cavity in HIV-positive patients, plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) has also been described at extraoral sites and among immunocompetent individuals. There is sparse data quoting prognostication of PBL depending on the site of occurrence and HIV status of patients. Aims: The present study was carried out at a tertiary oncology center to address the issue whether PBLs occurring at oral and extraoral sites differ prognostically and whether HIV status of patient has any impact on prognosis. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective observational study conducted at our center on consecutive patients diagnosed with PBL, from January 2008 to December 2012. Results: We had four patients with oral PBL; three male and one female. Sites of involvement were oral tongue and buccal mucosa. Two patients died within 6 months of diagnosis due to disease progression while on treatment. One patient was lost to follow-up after achieving complete remission (CR) after chemotherapy. Only one patient completed the prescribed schedule of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is in CR with 33 months follow-up. There were four extraoral PBL patients; three female and one male. Extraoral sites were ileocaecal region, ovary, clavicle and rectum. Three patients died within 6 months due to progressive disease during treatment. Only one patient has completed chemotherapy and is in CR with18 months follow-up. Among all these eight oral and extraoral PBL patients, four were HIV positive. Two of them are in CR after treatment (18 months and 33 months follow-up). One patient died during treatment and one patient was lost to follow-up after being in CR. Unfortunately, none of the other four HIV-negative patients could survive for more than 6 months after diagnosis. Conclusion: Both oral and extraoral PBLs have aggressive clinical course and an overall unfavorable outcome. Prognosis of HIV-associated PBL seems to be better with addition of highly active antiretroviral therapy to chemotherapy. Further large sample studies are needed to confirm these results.


The treatment options for recurrent chondromyxoid fibroma of the toe range from total amputation to salvaging a functional toe. There is no globally accepted treatment protocol available for this tumour because of its rarer incidence and lack of population based data. Here we suggest performing a staged approach, which involves en block resection initially and maintenance of metatarsophalangeal space by using a kirshner wire with the bone cement. If there is no sign of malignancy in the histopathology, we recommend performing interposition arthroplasty at the metatarsophalangeal joint with the tricortical iliac crest graft. The kirshner wire should be kept which incorporates the iliac graft and the soft tissue, which is being interposed at the metatarsal head. This will cause pseudoarthrosis and also decreases the chances of having chronic pain. We believe that this staged approach which leads to toe salvage is the best suitable treatment option for the recurrent chondromyxoid fibroma. This will prevent amputation of the toe and will give cosmetic success to the patient.


There is a near-consensus that central bankers should focus their attention on the control of inflation, and should accordingly not pay attention to movements in stock markets. This view is reinforced by the continuing influence of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH), which maintains that financial markets correctly price firms at all times. The authors assert that this general view is incorrect. There are strong reasons, both in principle and in practice, to doubt the applicability of the EMH to the valuation of the stock market as a whole. Indicators of stock market value, such as q, show the market to have been severely overvalued at the end of the twentieth century. Previous episodes of overvaluation have been succeeded, both in the US and Japan, by severe recessions. Such recessions raise the risk of central banks losing control of inflation, due to liquidity traps; they also impose costs, in terms of output and inflation, which central bankers should take into account. Finally, central bankers already do in any case take these into account, but asymmetrically: only when markets fall, not when they rise.


The efficient spread of SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a pandemic that is unique in modern history. Despite early identification of ACE2 as the receptor for viral spike protein, much remains to be understood about the molecular events behind viral dissemination. We evaluated the contribution of C-type lectin receptors (CLRS) of antigen-presenting cells, widely present in air mucosa and lung tissue. DC-SIGN, L-SIGN, Langerin and MGL bind to diverse glycans of the spike using multiple interaction areas. Using pseudovirus and cells derived from monocytes or T-lymphocytes, we demonstrate that while virus capture by the CLRs examined does not allow direct cell infection, DC/L-SIGN, among these receptors, promote virus transfer to permissive ACE2+ cells. A glycomimetic compound designed against DC-SIGN, enable inhibition of this process. Thus, we described a mechanism potentiating viral capture and spreading of infection. Early involvement of APCs opens new avenues for understanding and treating the imbalanced innate immune response observed in COVID-19 pathogenesis


The pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV-S) (an L3 hypersensitive response [HR]-inducer strain) coat protein was expressed in Capsicum chinense (L3L3) plants with the heterologous potato virus X (PVX)-based expression system. The chimeric virus was localized in the inoculated leaves and induced the HR, thus indicating that the tobamoviral sequences that affect induction of the HR conferred by the L3 resistance gene reside in the coat protein gene. Furthermore, transient expression of the PMMoV-S coat protein in C. chinense leaves by biolistic co-bombardment with a plasmid expressing the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene leads to the induction of cell death and expression of host defense genes. Thus, the coat protein of PMMoV-S is the elicitor of the Capsicum spp. L3 resistance gene-mediated HR.


ABSTRACT Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, the causal agent of fusarium wilt of banana (Musa spp.), is one of the most destructive strains of the vascular wilt fungus F. oxysporum. Genetic relatedness among and within vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) of F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense was studied by sequencing two nuclear and two mitochondrial DNA regions in a collection of 70 F. oxysporum isolates that include representatives of 20 VCGs of F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense, other formae speciales, and nonpathogens. To determine the ability of F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense to sexually recombine, crosses were made between isolates of opposite mating types. Phylogenetic analysis separated the F. oxysporum isolates into two clades and eight lineages. Phylogenetic relationships between F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense and other formae speciales of F. oxysporum and the relationships among VCGs and races of F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense clearly showed that F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense's ability to cause disease on banana has emerged multiple times, independently, and that the ability to cause disease to a specific banana cultivar is also a polyphyletic trait. These analyses further suggest that both coevolution with the host and horizontal gene transfer may have played important roles in the evolutionary history of the pathogen. All examined isolates harbored one of the two mating-type idiomorphs, but never both, which suggests a heterothallic mating system should sexual reproduction occur. Although, no sexual structures were observed, some lineages of F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense harbored MAT-1 and MAT-2 isolates, suggesting a potential that these lineages have a sexual origin that might be more recent than initially anticipated.