Vaccine-preventable diseases are a major source of morbidity and mortality in patients with altered immune competence. Patients with IBD are considered to be significantly immunocompromised hosts, mainly because of the immunomodulatory medications they take. Routine and specific immunizations are important to consider in this population. Whenever possible, immunization should be considered prior to administering any immunomodulator in order to optimize the immunological response. Prior to foreign travel, IBD patients are best advised by travel medicine specialists familiar with this complex and vulnerable population.


As a pilot study into questionnaire investigation of beach user opinions and perceptions, a survey was conducted of users of four beaches (Southerndown, Nash, Ogmore and Llantwit), at the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, Wales. Beach perceptions were assessed in terms of socio-demographics, psychological parameters (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and related to the existing beach environment. Few changes to general facility provision could be recommended, but a number of management recommendations were made. Beach user gender, socio-economic status, planned length of stay and anxiety/neuroticism level were shown by discriminant function analysis to influence beach selection. A beach rating scheme was developed, based on a novel beach user questionnaire/checklist system. This questionnaire was used to interview users (n = 859) at 23 randomly selected Welsh beaches with regard to preferences/priorities for a wide range of beach aspects. Questionnaire data analysis generated scores which could be applied to checklists appropriate to other beaches of various commercialisation levels. Seventy Welsh beaches were assessed, producing scores from 39% (Porthcawl Trecco Bay) to 69% (Broadhaven, S. Pembs. and Pembray). Landscape was assessed by panel judgements of a video panorama sequence, with scores for this aspect ranging from 19% (Prestatyn) to 80% (Broadhaven, S. Pembs.). The rating scheme took into account a larger number of beach aspects (47) than any beach award/recommendation in common use in the UK. It successfully took account of differing beach user preferences/priorities for various beach aspects and also the differing beach user demands at commercialised as opposed to undeveloped beaches. Many differences in beach user preferences/priorities were observed according to differences in stated preferred beach type, many of which could be important for management. In addition, pilot scale studies were undertaken at the Costa Dorada, Spain and on the Turkish Aegean Coast. For the latter, beach rating was also carried out. Future studies aiming to use stated perceptions, preferences and priorities of beach users to guide management should take account of possible influences such as beach user familiarity, expectation, cultural background and past experience. Much further work is required to develop beach user questionnaires to investigate aspects of beach user perception. Future rating exercises based on beach user preferences/priorities should take account of the need for beaches to meet minimum standards for the most important (as identified by beach users), beach aspects, in order to achieve a high rating or grade. The limitations of beach user surveys in terms of sampling difficulties need to be addressed. For valid management decision support, other stakeholders such as residents, tourist trade workers and those choosing not to visit beaches in particular areas need to be reached using other investigative methodologies.


In the vein of Bad Blood and Why be Happy when you can be Normal?: an enthralling, at times shocking, and deeply personal family memoir of growing up in, and breaking away from, a fundamentalist Christian cult. At university when I made new friends and confidantes, I couldn't explain how I'd become a teenage mother, or shoplifted books for years, or why I was afraid of the dark and had a compulsion to rescue people, without explaining about the Brethren or the God they made for us, and the Rapture they told us was coming. But then I couldn't really begin to talk about the Brethren without explaining about my father' As Rebecca Stott's father lay dying he begged her to help him write the memoir he had been struggling with for years. He wanted to tell the story of their family, who, for generations had all been members of a fundamentalist Christian sect. Yet, each time he reached a certain point, he became tangled in a thicket of painful memories and could not go on. The sect were a closed community who believed the world is ruled by Satan: non-sect books were banned, women were made to wear headscarves and those who disobeyed the rules were punished. Rebecca was born into the sect, yet, as an intelligent, inquiring child she was always asking dangerous questions. She would discover that her father, an influential preacher, had been asking them too, and that the fault-line between faith and doubt had almost engulfed him. In In the Days of Rain Rebecca gathers the broken threads of her father's story, and her own, and follows him into the thicket to tell of her family's experiences within the sect, and the decades-long aftermath of their breaking away.


This study compared own-rooted vines and different scion/rootstock combinations in arid eastern Washington, where vineyards are primarily deficit-irrigated and own-rooted. The performance of Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah on five rootstocks (5C, 140Ru, 1103P, 3309C, and 101CU) or on their own roots was evaluated with 10 field replicates over three vintages (2007–2009) in the Yakima Valley AVA. At harvest, two field replicates each were combined to make five winemaking replicates; 45 kg of grapes were made into wine. The grape variables measured were total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), pH, potassium (skin, seeds and pulp), tannins (skin and seeds), and anthocyanins. Wine variables measured were ethanol, TA, pH, potassium, tannins, total iron reactive phenolics, anthocyanins, and polymeric pigments. Rootstock caused few significant differences in fruit and wine composition and instead the dominant factors were scion and, to a lesser extent, vintage. All fruit and wine variables measured with the exception of TSS varied significantly with scion. Only TSS and berry size were consistently affected by vintage. Rootstock had no effect on grape anthocyanins and tannins. However, significant but small and variable effects were observed for wine anthocyanins and tannins. Wines from own-rooted vines tended to have somewhat higher pH, potassium, and total tannin than did wines from grafted vines. The relationships between fruit and wine for anthocyanins and tannins were not straightforward and warrant further research.


A potential β-amyloid receptor in neurons regulates ocular dominance in mouse brain development. β-Amyloid (Aβ) is critical to the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its role in normal physiology remains unclear. Kim et al. (see the Perspective by Benilova and De Strooper) found that murine-paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B (PirB) and its human ortholog, leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor B2 (LilrB2), both bound to oligomerized Aβ. Early in mouse development, ocular dominance plasticity was affected by interactions between oligomeric Aβ and PirB. In hippocampal brain slices from a mouse model of AD, reductions in long-term potentiation induced by Aβ required PirB. Furthermore, the memory defects characteristic of a mouse model of AD were dependent on the function of PirB. Many binding partners for Aβ have been identified, and so the extent to which these findings can be exploited therapeutically remains unclear. T. Kim, G. S. Vidal, M. Djurisic, C. M. William, M. E. Birnbaum, K. C. Garcia, B. T. Hyman, C. J. Shatz, Human LilrB2 is a β-amyloid receptor and its murine homolog PirB regulates synaptic plasticity in an Alzheimer's model. Science 341, 1399–1404 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text] I. Benilova, B. De Strooper, Promiscuous Alzheimer's amyloid: Yet another partner. Science 341, 1354–1355 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) , the Supreme Court of Canada legalized physicianassisted dying. Responding to this decision, Parliament passed Bill C-14, which provides that adults who suffer intolerably from a terminal medical condition may seek assistance to end their lives. Notably, the legislation does not grant access to mature minors. This article considers whether access should be granted, examining the Canadian assisted dying framework, situations of minors who might seek assisted dying, the law concerning mature minor consent to medical treatment, and other jurisdictions that grant access to mature minors. It argues that the ethical principles of autonomy and beneficence that underlie the Carter decision should be used to determine whether mature minors should have access to physician-assisted dying.


There are many reports and reviews about foreign objects in various body parts, but the thoracic wall foreign objects are rarely seen, and there is no treatment consensus. In this study, we aimed to investigate the treatment of three patients who were admitted to the emergency department due to a thoracic gunshot wound. In their follow-up, they survived with a bullet in their thoracic wall, and there were no further thoracic complications associated. Details of the hospital records of the three patients referred to the Nyala Sudan-Turkey Training and Research Hospital, with foreign bodies-bullets or shrapnel-in the thoracic wall were reviewed, retrospectively. The treatment of thoracic wall foreign bodies is still controversial and as a result, small, noninfectious, noncomplicated thoracic wall foreign bodies can be followed, after consulting with the patients.


In this article, I describe how poor Egyptian kidney-disease patients understand and experience their illness in terms of Egypt's larger social, economic, and political ills. The suffering that patients in end-stage renal failure endure, as they articulate it, extends beyond the pathological kidney and implicates corrupt institutions, polluted water, the mismanagement of toxic waste, and unsafe food. End-stage kidney failure patients in Egypt depend on state-provided medical services, which they deeply mistrust. In this context, they understand the breakdown of their kidneys, their dialysis machines, and their bodies as a direct outcome of the breakdown of the welfare state. I argue that patients' perceptions of their disease and their mistrust of medical treatment and state service provision should make us reconsider how all etiologies are political. Further, the "political etiologies" in this case inform ethical decisions about kidney transplantation and maintaining life on dialysis. [bioethics, the body, kidney disease, organ transplantation, state welfare, neoliberalism, Egypt]


The use of cable-stayed bridges in medium- and long-span applications in the United States has increased significantly in the past ten years. Of paramount importance with this type of bridge is the protection of the stay cables from corrosive elements. An extensive survey, reported herein, showed a general concern over the adequacy of the corrosion protection of the most widely used current system. In this study, the popular two-barrier system (prestressing strand inside polyethylene sheath injected with portland cement grout) was examined experimentally. The effectiveness of the grout in providing secondary corrosion protection in the event of a cut or break in the external sheathing was a major focus of the experimental work. Such breaks have been documented on a U.S. bridge. Small-scale experimental studies were conducted to develop a low-bleed grout for use in the large-scale stay tests. In addition, small-scale accelerated corrosion tests were conducted on grouts containing corrosion inhibiting admixtures. The major portion of the experimental program involved accelerated durability testing of eight large-scale stay cable specimens. Each stay specimen was 9.5-m long and was composed of 12 12.7-mm diameter 7-wire prestressing strands. The inclined stay specimens were stressed to bridge dead load levels and then injected with the low-bleed portland cement grout. Additional axial and lateral loads were then applied to most specimens to simulate field loading conditions. Selected small areas of the sheathing were removed to simulate breaks in the exterior barrier. The exposed grout in these locations was then subjected to alternate wet and dry cycles with salt solution. Variables included use of temporary corrosion protection, galvanized strand, epoxy-coated strand, and greased and sheathed strand. One important finding was that when the sheathing was breached for the accelerated corrosion tests, the grout would shrink and crack at that location. As a result of the cracking, corrosion of the underlying unprotected strand occurred soon after the application of the salt solution. Another important finding was that significant air pockets formed in the grout in all specimens except one. Undamaged epoxy-coated, greased and sheathed, and galvanized strand provided significant improvement over grouted bare strand in corrosion protection along the free length. However, corrosion occurred on all of the strands in varying degrees at the anchor head. Based on the extensive survey of the state-of-the-art and on the experimental findings, a rational basis for selecting a stay cable protective system is proposed in the form of suggested additions to the Post-Tensioning Institute's "Recommendations for Stay Cable Design, Testing and Installation."


Against the backdrop of persistently high levels of poverty and inequality, critical environmental boundaries and increasing global economic interdependence, this book addresses the role and impact of industrial policies in developing countries. Accepting the reality of both market failure and policy failure, it identifies the conditions under which industrial policy can deliver socially desirable results. General conclusions on the political economy of development are complemented by country case studies covering Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Tunisia and Vietnam.


Bacterial infections trigger the expression of type I and II interferon genes but little is known about their effect on type III interferon (IFN-λ) genes, whose products play important roles in epithelial innate immunity against viruses. Here, we studied the expression of IFN-λ genes in cultured human epithelial cells infected with different pathogenic bacteria and in the mouse placenta infected with Listeria monocytogenes. We first showed that in intestinal LoVo cells, induction of IFN-λ genes by L. monocytogenes required bacterial entry and increased further during the bacterial intracellular phase of infection. Other Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Enterococcus faecalis, also induced IFN-λ genes when internalized by LoVo cells. In contrast, Gram-negative bacteria Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Shigella flexneri and Chlamydia trachomatis did not substantially induce IFN-λ. We also found that IFN-λ genes were up-regulated in A549 lung epithelial cells infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and in HepG2 hepatocytes and BeWo trophoblastic cells infected with L. monocytogenes. In a humanized mouse line permissive to fetoplacental listeriosis, IFN-λ2/λ3 mRNA levels were enhanced in placentas infected with L. monocytogenes. In addition, the feto-placental tissue was responsive to IFN-λ2. Together, these results suggest that IFN-λ may be an important modulator of the immune response to Gram-positive intracellular bacteria in epithelial tissues.


Academic software development practices often differ from those of commercial development settings, yet only limited research has been conducted on assessing software development practises in academia. Here we present a case study of software development practices in four open-source scientific codes over a period of nine years, characterizing the evolution of their respective development teams, their scientific productivity, and the adoption (or discontinuation) of specific software engineering practises as the team size changes. We show that the transient nature of the development team results in the adoption of different development strategies. We relate measures of publication output to accumulated numbers of developers and find that for the projects considered the time-scale for returns on expended development effort is approximately three years. We discuss the implications of our findings for evaluating the performance of research software development, and in general any computationally oriented scientific project.


The reliability and validity of traditional taxonomies are limited by arbitrary boundaries between psychopathology and normality, often unclear boundaries between disorders, frequent disorder co-occurrence, heterogeneity within disorders, and diagnostic instability. These taxonomies went beyond evidence available on the structure of psychopathology and were shaped by a variety of other considerations, which may explain the aforementioned shortcomings. The Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology (HiTOP) model has emerged as a research effort to address these problems. It constructs psychopathological syndromes and their components/subtypes based on the observed covariation of symptoms, grouping related symptoms together and thus reducing heterogeneity. It also combines co-occurring syndromes into spectra, thereby mapping out comorbidity. Moreover, it characterizes these phenomena dimensionally, which addresses boundary problems and diagnostic instability. Here, we review the development of the HiTOP and the relevant evidence. The new classification already covers most forms of psychopathology. Dimensional measures have been developed to assess many of the identified components, syndromes, and spectra. Several domains of this model are ready for clinical and research applications. The HiTOP promises to improve research and clinical practice by addressing the aforementioned shortcomings of traditional nosologies. It also provides an effective way to summarize and convey information on risk factors, etiology, pathophysiology, phenomenology, illness course, and treatment response. This can greatly improve the utility of the diagnosis of mental disorders. The new classification remains a work in progress. However, it is developing rapidly and is poised to advance mental health research and care significantly as the relevant science matures.


Charles F. Abel and Frank H. Marsh propose an alternative to the present criminal justice system that they consider workable, efficient, and fair. They remind the reader that the criminal justice system is a political institution created by public demands and values and suggest that we must understand the basic identity of law, politics, and society if we hope to create a workable system. An effective criminal justice system, they argue, must be remedial and faciliatory and attempt to heal both victims and criminals. To accomplish this, the scope of what is legally relevant in criminal law must be broadened, and courts and penal institutions must be made flexible enough to generate social and economic forces that will help correct the effects of crime and the roots of recidivism. By drawing attention to the victim, the authors suggest new approaches and a revised set of values. They conclude that a restitutionary approach is more viable and ethical than our existing system.


From literary canons all the way to the motion picture industry, the artistic and popular cultural experience of marginalized or nonmainstream groups has been one of being represented by the other. In this article, we explore how online fanfiction, as an audience-driven, interactive form of writing, may offer a way for members of nonmainstream groups to push back against and offer alternatives to stereotypical and normative discourses. We focus on how autistic people, family members, teachers, and advocates cast autistic characters in their fanfiction stories, how these stories represent autism and how, given the affordances of an online publishing platform, audience members respond to such representations. Findings suggest that these online narratives diversify available representations of autistic characters; moreover, the interactive nature of the online publishing forum allows readers to respond to and potentially disrupt stereotypical thinking and common fictional tropes surrounding autism.


2016 is the year that the political consensus in favor liberalized international trade collapsed. Across the world, voters' belief that international trade agreements lead to economic inequality threatens to derail ratification of the next generation of trade agreements and undo the substantial gains made under existing arrangements. In the United States, both presidential candidates in this fall's election have denounced the most recent effort to liberalize trade rules, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The United Kingdom voted to pull out of the European Union, one of the world's largest and most important free trade zones. Europe's top trade negotiator has declared European trade policy "close to death" after Germany and France held up ratification of a free trade agreement with Canada.In the face of this onslaught, trade's defenders have run out of ideas. They point out that trade makes nations wealthier; that trade plays a minor role in creating economic inequality when compared with technological innovation; and that domestic policies unconnected to trade rules can more efficiently address economic inequality, and can do so without the need for international obligations that might be construed as limiting national sovereignty in matters of social policy. These views are right as a matter of economics. But politicians make trade rules, not economists. Right or wrong, voters' belief that liberalizing trade leads to economic inequality creates a political constraint on trade liberalization.This Essay proposes a way to save the political consensus in favor of free trade. In order to preserve and extend the international trade regime and the extraordinary gains it has produced since the end of World War II, the next generation of preferential trade agreements should include international obligations binding on developed countries to address domestic economic inequality. In other words, trade agreements must include obligations to redistribute the gains from trade within countries. This approach differs dramatically from that taken in existing trade agreements. Since the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade agreements have tried to protect those who stand to lose from free trade – principally labor interests – by including labor provisions in trade agreements. These provisions are outward-looking, however. They seek to raise labor and environmental standards in developing countries (e.g., Mexico) in order to limit the loss of jobs in developed countries (e.g., the United States). Critics of trade agreements have inadvertently bought into this orientation. They argue for removing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) from trade agreements. But removing ISDS does nothing to help those suffering economically in developed countries, and it hurts developed countries' businesses' when they operate overseas. The removal of ISDS thus would be both a major concession to trade's critics and yet not one that advances their core objective of ensuring that trade agreements advance economic equality. To be sure, governments do have domestic programs to help those negatively impacted by liberalized trade rules. Trade adjustment assistance (TAA) programs offer financial assistance to those who lose their jobs due to international trade. But recent studies in the United States suggest that TAA is ineffective. Moreover, unlike trade agreements, which are in force indefinitely, TAA expires every few years unless Congress reauthorizes it – a fight each time. To put it bluntly, these approaches have failed. They have failed to staunch the loss of jobs and they have failed to persuade voters in developed countries that international trade is not a primary cause of economic inequality. An "Economic Development" chapter in future preferential trade agreements would commit developed countries to addressing their own economic inequality problems at home. An Economic Development chapter would create international obligations for member states to establish fiscal programs, such as educational and infrastructure spending, designed to boost economic opportunity for those left behind by growing inequality. These spending obligations would be indexed, so that they would rise and fall with the economic losses attributable to trade agreements. If such losses do not occur or taper off, nations' spending commitments would naturally sunset. These obligations would be enforced through reporting and monitoring requirements, similar to human rights treaties, and dispute settlement provisions that could lead to a loss of market access, the norm in trade agreements. Tying measures designed to address economic inequality directly into trade agreements would create political coalitions in favor of continuing efforts to liberalize trade. Those who do not benefit from trade agreements could still support them as a way to obtain greater domestic benefits. And those who benefit most from the liberalized trade rules could support redistribution as the price of further globalization. Trade agreements would create a commitment device allowing those who gain from trade to commit in advance to provide those who do not with a share of the spoils.


The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi satellite detected emission above 20 MeV only in a small fraction of the long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) at 8 keV-40 MeV. Those bursts that were detected by the LAT were among the brightest GBM bursts. The emission detected by LAT seerms to be delayed respect to the one detected by the GBM. In this review I will show the main implications of these LAT observations on the GRB models and discuss the importance of a synergy between Fermi and other telescopes.


MCMC sampling has been extensively studied and used in probabilistic inference. Many algorithms rely on local updates to explore the space, often resulting in slow convergence or failure to mix when there is no path from one set of states to another via local changes. We propose an ecient method for sampling from combinatorial spaces that addresses these issues via "bridging states" that facilitate the communication between dierent parts of the space. Such states can be created dynamically, providing more flexibility than methods relying on specific space structures to design jump proposals. Theoretical analysis of the approach yields bounds on mixing times. Empirical analysis demonstrates the practical utility on two problems: constrained map labeling and inferring partial order of object layers in a video.


A two-part forum at Open School East, chaired by Helena Reckitt, featuring presentations from a number of artists, including OSE associates, on projects that create alternative structures for the making and distribution of art or are embedded within non-art industries.

Presentations and discussions explored topics including: the diminishing distinction between profit and not-for-profit galleries; appropriating spaces of consumerism and capital; the issue of whether reinstrumentalising can work as a tactic for resistance; and if these art practices are born from economic necessity or represent an emerging art practice?

As well as considering the politics and aesthetics of such projects, discussions called into question notions of parody, critique and attack. Discussions arising from presentations and discussion period included whether we might be able to differentiate artistic labour from capitalist labour, and where the issues of 'survival' versus other forms of value accumulation and appropriation should sit in relation to the 'work' itself.

Participants worked towards mapping the conditions of possibility for artists living and working within advanced capitalism, and how we might situate ourselves and our work in relation to the current political and economic climate.

Capitalist Artist Scum # 1 featured presentations from DKUK, Alexander James Pollard, Leslie Kulesh, Laura Yuile and Kristin Luke for The Air Inn Venice as well as a reading by Mathis Collins.

Capitalist Artist Scum # 2 centred around the possibility for seemingly opposing or contradictory views and ideas to co-exist within individual and collective artistic practices, as well as the structures that support and encompass these practices. Contributors discussed how such contradictions materialise, how contradiction may be embodied as a formal quality, and what the implications or effect of these might be. Considerations included ideas of: seduction vs. repulsion; acceptance vs. critique; working within vs. working against; profit vs. not-for-profit; comfort vs. discomfort; pointing at the problem vs. trying to solve the problem; and use-value vs. abstraction. Contributors to Capitalist Artist Scum # 2 were Suhail Malik, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Angus Cameron, Pil & Galia Kollectiv.

Capitalist Artist Scum #2 was part of a week of exhibitions, performances, workshops and discussions devised by OSE associates to mark the end of Year 2 in the programme.


The human multidrug resistance gene 1 (MDR1) encodes a plasma membrane P-glycoprotein (P-gp) that functions as an efflux pump for various structurally unrelated anticancer agents. We have identified two nonsynonymous germ-line mutations of the MDR1 gene, C3583T MDR1 and T3587G MDR1, in peripheral blood cell samples from Japanese cancer patients. Two patients carried the C3583T MDR1 allele that encodes H1195Y P-gp, whereas a further two carried T3587G MDR1 that encodes I1196S P-gp. Murine NIH3T3 cells were transfected with pCAL-MDR-IRES-ZEO constructs carrying either wild-type (WT), C3583T, or T3587G MDR1 cDNA and selected with zeocin. The resulting zeocin-resistant mixed populations of transfected cells were designated as 3T3/WT, 3T3/H1195Y, and 3T3/I1196S, respectively. The cell surface expression of I1196S P-gp in 3T3/I1196S cells could not be detected by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, although low expression of I1196S P-gp was found by Western blotting. H1195Y P-gp expression levels in 3T3/H1195Y cells were slightly lower than the corresponding WT P-gp levels in 3T3/WT cells. By immunoblotting analysis, both WT P-gp and H1195Y P-gp were detectable as a 145-kDa protein, whereas I1196S P-gp was visualized as a 140-kDa protein. 3T3/I1196S cells did not show any drug resistance unlike 3T3/H1195Y cells. Moreover, a vanadate-trap assay showed that the I1196S P-gp species lacks ATP-binding activity. Taken together, we conclude from these data that T3587G MDR1 expresses a nonfunctional P-gp and this is therefore the first description of such a germ-line mutation. We contend that the T3587G MDR1 mutation may affect the pharmacokinetics of MDR1-related anticancer agents in patients carrying this allele. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(4):877–84]


Studies of government that build upon the work of French thinker Michel Foucault have become very influential for criminological and sociological research and theorizing. However, because Foucault's archaeological texts - those prior to 1975 - have, in large part, been neglected, many currents within his work that can be used to reformulate, strengthen and extend the analytic of government for the production of criminological knowledge have been left unexplored. This paper attends to the conception of indirect rule elaborated on in Foucault's archaeological texts and to how the ontological position elaborated there is sympathetic to realist metatheory. The paper advances a post-empiricist and realist informed analytic of government that holds government to be a stratified process concerning more than the empirically apprehendable outcomes of management techniques, forms of social action and expertise, indirect mechanisms of rule, socio-political objectives, and the proximity of authorities from regulatory objects. In retrieving the neglected archaeological Foucault and illustrating the realist currents within his work, the paper provides some 'theoretical preconditions' and 'metatheoretical coherence' for future investigations of the institutions, practices, processes and objects of social ordering and rule that criminologists and sociologists routinely engage with.


Background: This study has used biomarker of exposure-effect continuum to examine the biological characteristics of organophosphate (OP) toxicity and its genotoxic effect among rice farmers. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 160 pesticide exposed rice farmers and 160 adults from the fishing village as the unexposed group. They share the common socio-economical background for inter-individual comparison in human toxicology assessment. In this study depression of blood cholinesterase is used as a biomarker of exposure to OP toxicity. Two genotoxic assays (micronuclei and comet assay) were conducted as a biomarker of genotoxic effect among the adult population. In this context, m icronuclei assay is used to indicate the chromosome breakage and comet assay to estimate the possible DNA damage. Results: The study showed a significant difference of blood cholinesterase level (p=0.001) between the exposed- unexposed groups. Besides, the results showed that farmers had at least 2-2.5 folds of significant increase (p=0.001) in MN frequency (in 1000 cells) and comet tail length (µm) compared to the unexposed group . In addition, regression analysis among farmers showed that blood cholinesterase level decreased with the genotoxic effects. A small variation (R2=0.148) of MN frequency could be explained by the depression of blood cholinesterase level; however, a significant reduction (p=0. 001), with strong changes (R2=0.712) in comet tail length was attributed to the depression of blood cholinesterase levels. Risk factors like age, body mass index, smoking status and year s of working showed the different strength of the relationship with these genotoxic effects. Conclusions: This study suggests that chronic exposure to OP shows an inhibition to blood cholinesterase level, which is associated with the potential DNA breakage as indicated by comet assay. Aqe, smoking and years of working are the contributing factors influencing the biomarker of effects.


The propagation properties of three-dimensional dark spatial solitons having odd ring formation is analyzed numerically in the frame of the (1 + 2)-dimensional nonlinear Schrodinger equation and compared with a pair of odd dark solitons. We discuss the experimental excitation condition of an odd ring dark soliton, which is superimposed on a finite-width background beam, with phase masks.


The power loss due to propagation through a turbulent medium is considered for an optical-heterodyne detection system whose axis tracks perfectly the instantaneous direction for maximum signal power. Pertinent to both fixed- and tracking-axis cases, the general expression for power reduction is found to be given correctly by neglecting the angular diffraction spread of the local-oscillator field and using the signal field evaluated on the optical axis. A plane and broad incident wave is assumed. The result for the tracking aperture is indicated to be given correctly by ray optics if L≪a2/λ, where L is the path length in the turbulent medium, a the aperture radius, and λ the signal wavelength, whereas for a fixed aperture the lateral homogeneity of the field is indicated to suffice without this condition. Refractive-index fluctuations are assumed to be described statistically by the usual Kolmogorov spectrum. For moderate aperture (a≲ae), the power reduction factor Γ is found to be given by Γ≃1-s(a/ae)5/3with s = 0.125 for a tracking axis and s = 0.955 for a fixed axis, where a. is ae certain effective radius for the fixed case. If the improvement due to tracking is extrapolated to arbitrary a/ae by conjecture of a fixed factor of increase in the effective radius, the factor of increase in maximum signal-to-noise ratio achievable by tracking is 11.5. To approach the maximum, the frequency response of the tracking system should extend beyond roughly 50 cps.


Reverse Tradition invites the reader of postmodern fiction to travel back to the nineteenth-century novel without pretending to let go of contemporary anxieties and expectations. What happens to the reader of Beckett when he or she returns to Melville? Or to the enthusiast of Toni Morrison who rereads Charlotte Bronte? While Robert Kiely does not claim that all fictions begin to look alike, he finds unexpected and illuminating pleasures in examining a variety of ways in which new texts reflect on old. In this engaging book, Kiely not only juxtaposes familiar authors in unfamiliar ways; he proposes a countertradition of intertextuality and a way to release the genie of postmodernism from the bottleneck of the late twentieth century. Placing the reader's response at the crux, he offers arresting new readings by pairing, among others, Jorge Luis Borges with Mark Twain, and Maxine Hong Kingston with George Eliot. In the process, he tests and challenges common assumptions about transparency in nineteenth-century realism and a historical opacity in early and late postmodernism.


The wave of liberalization that swept world markets in the 1980s and 90s altered the ways that governments manage their economies. Reinventing State Capitalism "analyzes the rise of new species of state capitalism in which governments interact with private investors either as majority or minority shareholders in publicly-traded corporations or as financial backers of purely private firms (the so-called "national champions"). Focusing on a detailed quantitative assessment of Brazil's economic performance from 1976 to 2009, Aldo Musacchio and Sergio Lazzarini examine how these models of state capitalism influence corporate investment and performance.According to one model, the state acts as a majority investor, granting the state-owned enterprise (SOE) financial autonomy and allowing professional management. This form, the authors argue, has reduced many agency problems commonly faced by state ownership. According to another hybrid model, the state uses sovereign wealth funds, holding companies, and development banks to acquire a small share of equity ownership in a corporation, thereby potentially alleviating capital constraints and leveraging latent capabilities.Both models have benefits and costs. Yet neither model has entirely eliminated the temptation of governments to intervene in the operation of natural resource industries and other large strategic enterprises. Nevertheless, the longstanding debate over whether private ownership is superior or inferior to state capitalism has become irrelevant, Musacchio and Lazzarini conclude. Private ownership is now mingled with state capital on a global scale.


In April 2013 a successful sting operation and an indictment by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeted two of Guinea-Bissau's most notorious cocaine kingpins: the former chief of the Guinea-Bissau navy, Rear Admiral José Américo Bubo Na Tchuto, and the head of Guinea-Bissau's armed forces, General António Indjai. This is a victory for the law enforcement response to organised crime. In the decade since the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) first warned that Guinea-Bissau had become a 'narco-state', the country has been caught in an accelerating cycle of political fragility that is driven in part by the desire to control lucrative cocaine connections. Impunity has become part of the fabric of Guinea-Bissau as trafficking is an essential survival strategy for many, which has disintegrated any basis for a society predicated on the rule of law. The DEA intervention is significant because it has ended impunity in a dramatic way, but the risk is that without the proper follow-up Guinea-Bissau will become a flashpoint for further instability and conflict, when the country should instead be preparing for democratic elections. To avoid this, a sustained and comprehensive strategy should be put in place to strengthen the criminal justice system in the country and to build citizens' confidence that the state has the capacity to deliver justice and uphold the rule of law.


The emergence of the technology of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has lead to many changes in current and traditional computational techniques in order to adapt to their harsh and scarce requirements. A WSN consists of sensor nodes with wireless communication abilities that allow them to form a network. New system architectures have emerged to overcome sensor network limitations. Each architecture follows one of the two traditional design concepts, event-driven or thread-driven design. Although event-driven systems were assumed to generally perform better for embedded systems, tests have shown that event-driven systems tend to save more energy and space, while the thread-driven systems provide more concurrency and predictability, hence creating a tradeoff depending on the requirements of the application at hand. Performance analyzers are often used to accurately measure the performance of a certain system when such a tradeoff is evident. Performance analyzers can also locate deficiencies in a certain system for future improvements. The ever increasing complexity of applications executed by WSNs and the evolving nature of the underlying Embedded Operating Systems (EOSs) has led to the need for an accurate evaluation technique to guide practitioners in the field. This paper presents a novel approach towards providing a benchmarking and performance evaluation tool for comparing and analyzing the performance of WSN EOSs.


Traditional ecocentric ethics relies on an ecology that emphasizes the stability and integrity of ecosystems. Numerous ecologists now focus on natural systems that are less clearly characterized by these properties. We use the elimination and restoration of wolves in Yellowstone to illustrate troubles for traditional ecocentric ethics caused by ecological models emphasizing instability in natural systems. We identify several other problems for a stability-integrity based ecocentrism as well. We show how an ecocentric ethic can avoid these difficulties by emphasizing the value of the wildness of natural systems and we defend wildness value from a rising tide of criticisms.


Background. In general, the principles of palliative care suggest that, at some stage, patients should be given 'bad news' about poor illness prognosis. The information is often important for care planning, especially when it involves disclosure to children. Although there are ongoing debates about whether to tell or not to tell children bad news, these debates have largely been informed by patients who live in a developed-world context. In contrast, this paper focuses on telling bad news to children and their families from a rural, developing-world context. Objective. The objective was to analyse the experiences of providers of palliative care to children when they attempted to fulfil one of their roles as palliative caregivers, i.e. to prepare patients and families for a child's poor illness prognosis. Method. This was an exploratory study that was approached qualitatively. Five nurses and eight home-based care workers who provided palliative care for children in rural areas of South Africa formed a purposive, information-rich, self-selected sample. Data were produced through discussions with participants, using photographs taken by the caregivers to stimulate and contextualise the discussions. Results. Participants experienced four dilemmas with regard to telling bad news: when families did not want to be told any bad news; when participants felt uncomfortable about telling bad news; when participants and patients shared dissimilar values about telling bad news; and when participants were unsure about when to tell bad news. Conclusion. In the rural areas where the study was conducted, children are not usually given bad news about their illness. Disclosing poor prognosis led to the dilemmas faced by caregivers. The result was that the emotionally charged work of caring for children reaching the end of their lives became more challenging for the caregivers because they were not prepared for cultural complexities. In view of the findings of this study, there is a need for ongoing research into paediatric palliative caregiving in context.


The protection of soils against compaction requires knowledge of the mechanical behavior and properties of structured, unsaturated soils at different water suctions. This study of an agricultural silt loam soil is based on undisturbed specimens from the plow layer (7–17 cm depth) and two subsoil layers (47–57 and 67–77 cm depths) conditioned to five initial suctions (s0 = 1, 3, 6, 16, 32 kPa) per layer and compressed under drained, confined uniaxial stress. This study shows how effective axial stress vs. void ratio curves can be calculated from experimentally determined total axial stress vs. void ratio curves using a simplified form of Bishop's effective stress equation in conjunction with a modified form of the van Genuchten equation. Casini's unsaturated soil mechanics model was successfully fitted to the effective axial stress vs. void ratio curves. The effective initial precompression stress was simulated reasonably well using initial void ratio, degree of saturation, or suction, respectively, which was determined in this study. The results demonstrate the influence of soil moisture and density on the compression behavior of an undisturbed silt loam soil and show a method for predicting precompression stress as a function of void ratio and soil water status measured as suction or degree of saturation.


The effect of debittering, extrusion and spray drying on antioxidant capacity and total phenolic compounds in non-defatted and defatted flours from three Andean lupine genotypes (Altagracia, Andenes, and Yunguyo) was evaluated. Total phenolic content (TPC; Folin-Ciocalteu method) and antioxidant capacity (DPPH and ABTS) were assessed by spectrophotometry. Results showed that technological processes decreased significantly (p ≤ 0.05) antioxidants and phenolic compounds. Bitter lupine (control sample) had higher (p ≤ 0.05) TPC and antioxidant capacity than processed samples. In non-defatted and defatted samples, TPC of processed samples varied between 0.64 1.10 and 0.75 1.33 mg gallic acid equivalent/g d.m. in non-defatted and defatted samples, respectively. The DPPH antioxidant capacity varied between 2.87 4.10 and 3.12 4.73 μmol Trolox/g d.m., while the ABTS antioxidant capacity ranged between 50.65 75.56 and 61.63 76.88 μmol Trolox/g d.m. in non-defatted and defatted samples, respectively. On the other hand, lipids negatively influenced the quantification of TPC; therefore, the defatted samples had higher TPC.


The article describes the history of the use of mineral waters and mud peoples living in the territory and migratory Caspian. Prikaspiyskaya cavity region is spread salt dome tectonics within Caspian hydrogeological megabasin. By the salt domes are associated with the majority of the lakes are located in their territory. Pool I S receptacle different brines and saline waters. Where s is located mainly underground waters s e balneological groups thereof without "specific" components and properties and iodo x-bromine and sulfide.


Thrombin bound to platelets contributes to stop bleeding and, in pathological conditions, may cause vascular thrombosis. We have determined the structure of platelet glycoprotein Ibα (GpIbα) bound to thrombin at 2.3 angstrom resolution and defined two sites in GpIbα that bind to exosite II and exosite I of two distinct α-thrombin molecules, respectively. GpIbα occupancy may be sequential, as the site binding to α-thrombin exosite I appears to be cryptic in the unoccupied receptor but exposed when a first thrombin molecule is bound through exosite II. These interactions may modulate α-thrombin function by mediating GpIbα clustering and cleavage of protease-activated receptors, which promote platelet activation, while limiting fibrinogen clotting through blockade of exosite I.


Includes an audio CD of the author reading! For nearly four decades, Juan Felipe Herrera has documented his experience as a Chicano in the United States and Latin America through stunning, memorable poetry that is both personal and universal in its impact, themes, and approach. Often political, never fainthearted, his career has been marked by tremendous virtuosity and a unique sensibility for uncovering the unknown and the unexpected. Through a variety of stages and transformations, Herrera has evolved more than almost any other Chicano poet, always re-inventing himself into a more mature and seasoned voice. Now, in this unprecedented collection, we encounter the trajectory of this highly innovative and original writer, bringing the full scope of his singular vision into view. Beginning with early material from A Certain Man and moving through thirteen of his collections into new, previously unpublished work, this assemblage also includes an audio CD of the author reading twenty-four selected poems aloud. Serious scholars and readers alike will now have available to them a representative set of glimpses into his production as well as his origins and personal development. The ultimate value of bringing together such a collection, however, is that it will allow us to better understand and appreciate the complexity of what this major American poet is all about.


Manual gesture has been shown to be related to normal language development, in that early gesture users become early talkers. In addition, different groups of speech and language impaired individuals (left-hemisphere CVA patients with nonfluent dysphasia, and the affected members of the KE family, who have a severe developmental speech and language disorder) have been shown to have difficulties with complex oral movements. However, infants' gross and fine motor development does not correlate with their language development. It is usually suggested that gesture is a communicative precursor to language use, and some interpretations of the data from language impaired individuals suggest either damage to or lack of development in closely related physically but functionally unrelated areas. The relation between speech and language and motor function remains unclear. This study investigates the link between oral motor development, which is not communicative per se, and language development in normally developing 2-year-olds, an age at which this development is usually very rapid, in an attempt to determine if there might be some relation between communicative development and motor development. A battery of simple movements (using only one set of muscles), complex movements (using more than one set of muscles) and repeated movements (testing for rate and accuracy) were used. Children were required to imitate the tester, with various toys and props provided (e.g. a wolf puppet with a tongue to cue mouth opening and tongue protrusion). Parents completed the Communicative Development Inventory, including vocabulary and grammatical complexity scales. Significant relationships between some aspects of oral motor functioning and language use were found. The results are discussed in the light of theories of language development generally, including those that suggest an intrinsic independence of language development from other aspects of development, and the two-year-old acceleration of language use in particular.


This study presents the rotor blade airfoil analysis of residential-scale wind turbines. On this track, four new airfoils (GOE 447, GOE 446, NACA 6412, and NACA 64(3)-618) characterized by their high lift-to-drag ratios (161.3, 148.7, 142.7, and 136.3, respectively). These new airfoils are used to generate an entire 7 m long blades for three-bladed rotor horizontal axis wind turbine models tested numerically at low, medium, and rated wind speeds of 7.5, 10, and 12.5 m/s, respectively, with a design tip speed ratio of 7. The criterion to judge each model's performance is power output. Thus, the blades of the model that produce the highest power are selected to undergo a tip modification (winglet) and leading-edge modification (tubercles), seeking power improvement. It is found that the GOE 447 airfoil outperformed the other three airfoils at all tested wind speeds. Thus, it is opted for adding winglets and tubercles. At 12.5 m/s, winglet design produced 5% more power, while tubercles produced 5.5% more power than the GOE 447 baseline design. Furthermore, the computational domain is divided into two regions: rotating (the disc that encloses the rotor) and stationary (the rest of the flow domain). Meanwhile, the numerical model is validated against the experimental velocity measurements. Since Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes with k–ω shear stress transport turbulence model can capture the laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition, it is used in the 18 simulations of the current work. However, large eddy simulation (LES) can deal successfully with the various scale eddies resulting from the rotor blades and its interactions with the surrounding flow. Thus, the LES was used in the six simulations done at the rated wind speed. LES power output calculation is 7.9% to 11.9% higher than the RANS power output calculation.


Abstract: This study examines various sentencing practices across fifty states in order to determine whether regional differences exist across the United States. Empirical examinations of regional differences in punishment have largely been limited to capital punishment. This current study draws upon Borg's "southern subculture of punitiveness" concept to determine the extent to which regional differences exist in other types of controversial responses to crime, such as life without parole, sex offender registration rates, juvenile waivers, and the civil commitment of sex offenders. The authors expected to find that the southern region uses punitive sentencing practices significantly more than other regions. However, results from permutation testing and pairwise regional comparisons suggest that regions in the U.S. appear more similar than dissimilar in their use of various sanctions. The authors maintain that sentencing uniformity is necessary to maintain the integrity of a criminal justice system that is based on principles of proportionality, equity, and predictability. Introduction Attempts to describe American sentencing practices are confounded by the fact that within the nation, there exist distinct jurisdictions for each state, the federal government, the District of Columbia, and the military. Each follows its own set of sentencing practices and laws, thereby creating, in some cases, extreme sentencing variability throughout the country. One of the most polarizing sentencing practices, for example, is that of capital punishment. Thirty-four states, in addition to the federal government and the United States military, practiced capital punishment as of July 2011 (Death Penalty Information Center [DPIC] 2011 b). But even amongst the states that execute offenders, there is widespread variation in its application. As of January 1, 2010, California had 697 inmates on death row, whereas only one person sat on New Hampshire's death row (DPIC 2011b, 2). While twenty-two death penalty states carried out no executions in 2010, Texas put to death seventeen offenders that very same year (3). In addition to variations in sentencing practices, "sentencing guidelines differ in their goals, scope of coverage, design, and operation" [original italics] (Frase 2005, 1190). As a result of the considerable disparities in the types of punishments enacted throughout different jurisdictions, one might categorize certain states as more punitive than others. Yet, there are ways in which a state's level of punitive sentencing might be gauged aside from solely comparing their imprisonment rates and their use of capital punishment. This study examines various sentencing practices across fifty states in order to determine if geographical differences exist regarding what some might claim are punitive sentencing practices. Empirical examinations of regional differences in punishment have largely focused on the exploration of capital punishment. For example, Hurlbert (1989) found that support for the death penalty was positively correlated with the values and opinions of native southerners in comparison with non-southerners. According to Paternoster, Brame and Bacon (2008), the number of southern executions from 1930 to 1967 exceeded the total number of executions throughout the rest of the United States (30). After the reinstatement of capital punishment in the 1970s, the South still accounted for more executions than any other region from 1977 to 2005 (50). In 2010, the South accounted for 76 percent of the nation's executions, whereas the Midwest and West, respectively, were responsible for 17 and 7 percent (Death Penalty Information Center [DPIC] 201 lb). No executions took place in the northeastern states during 2010. Even in 2000, 89 percent of the nation's executions took place in southern states (DPIC 2011b). This current study draws upon Borg's (1997) "southern subculture of punitiveness" concept to determine the extent to which regional differences exist in sentencing practices. …


By relaxing the common efficiency wage assumption of exogenous shirking detection probabilities, we demonstrate how standards and efficiency wages are related. In a more general setting where the probability of detection depends upon the equilibrium effort level of non-shirkers, we show that the uniformly positive (negative) supply-side relationship between wages (unemployment insurance) and effort is no longer guaranteed. Profit maximization on the part of the firm, however, ensures that effort will depend positively (negatively) on wages (unemployment insurance) in equilibrium.


Although both real wages and productivity have been growing at relatively slow rates during the last two decades, some measures indicate that earnings have failed to keep up with productivity growth. The slowdown in real wage growth is important to workers and their families because their purchasing power is not rising if earnings are not increasing faster than prices. The failure of growth in real wages to match productiv-ity gains also has critical implications for workers. ; A substantial decline in the unionization rate since the 1960s has been cited as underlying the wage-productivity gap. This article explores the trends in productivity, pay, and the unionization rate, analyzing data over the 1974-94 period. The author concludes that the decline in the unionization rate does not explain a significant portion of the rise in the wage-productivity gap in the manufacturing sector. A resurgence of unions might help workers reap more benefits from productiv- ity gains, but it appears unlikely that an increase in the unionization rate alone would cause compensation increases to fully match productivity gains.


The Areniscas de Salamanca Formation, located in the western border of the Duero basin, has been
studied by means of the polarized light microscope and the SEM. The study has brought out some interesting
remarks: 1) important processes of redistribution of matter within the sediments displaying many
bioturbation features (collapses, tubules, cutans, etc) all of them being previous to lithification; 2) presence
of spicules of sponges (megascleras) appearing in the intermediate member of this Formation; 3) progressive
enrichment in silica upwards with an increase in the contrasts of hues of the sediment due to Fe oxyhydroxides
segregations.
Although the dominant forms of silica are lepispheres, cavities filled up by idiomorphic crystals of tridimite,
fibrous forms, microquartzs and isotropic opal are frequents. The presence of sponge spicules, both isolated
or grouped, open the possibility (??) that this Formation had been related in some way to a seashore
sedimentary environment in someone period of its geological history.


Japanese Martial Art Maxim: Also no saki--Take your opponent's technique and turn it into your own. This maxim is at the heart of a Japanese creation which is a popular activity to a large population of Japanese people. While it is taught as a method of self-defense enriching the spirit of the practitioner, it also invokes a manner of considering opposing forces foreign to Western-style thinking. As Western business executives may use combat sport strategies for business marketing ends, so the Japanese use a martial art orientation in business plans and tactics. While Western and Eastern combat strategies have similarities, some subtle differences exist in assessing competitive forces. American business leaders may gain a competitive edge by further understanding principles implemented in Japanese marketing combat which parallel a martial art technique invented by the Japanese. The global business environment is heavily influenced by a burgeoning encroachment of Japanese competition with its focus on increasing market share (Czinkota and Woronoff 1991). U.S. business strategists are remiss in their duties if they do not incorporate the influence of Japanese competition as a crucial element in marketing strategies. This strategy development requires an appreciation of successful Japanese strategies used against U.S. firms. The purpose of this research is to illustrate a uniquely Japanese self-defense called aikido and show how a specific tactic of immobilization was successfully implemented in Japanese marketing strategies. Actual business examples indicate how aikido-style thinking may act as part of the foundation of Japanese planning. Western business leaders may glean new methods to integrate into present strategies to defend against future Japanese strategies in marketing combat. Fist, aikido is briefly described and its contribution to marketing strategy is considered. Next, a general discussion of aikido combat philosophy is offered with special concentration on differences between the U.S. and Japan's competitive orientation. Finally, an examination of the specific aikido defense tactic of immobilization of this tactic in competitive marketing strategy with the West. RELEVANCE TO MARKETING COMBAT Marketing strategy is convincingly compared to military science for use in developing viable business strategies for market competition. Kotler and Singh (1981) drew parallels between marketing and military science offering a view of business as a battlefield. Ries and Trout (1986) used Kotler and Singh's work as a base in generating and implementing business strategies. Cook (1983) offered an arrangement to aid executives in choosing the optimal strategy, although Parasuraman and Varadarajan (1985) were critical of the evidence considered in Cook's framework. The Japanese have long considered Sun Tzu's third century advice on warfare and Masashi's The Book of Five Rings a standard reference for strategy for competitive situations (Keegan 1989). Further, the Japanese are still saturated with the "military ethos" and continue to use military jargon to talk of business practices (March 1990). While the marketing/military science fusion offered fresh perspectives on market competition, aikido's hand-to-hand combat offers further insight into another facet of Japanese managers' orientation. The aikido combat method stems from principles inspired by bushido (the way of the warrior or samurai) which has become identified as the "Japanese spirit." This code of the samurai became the ideal to which the Japanese aspired in work and competition (Durlabhji and Marks 1993). While embracing some common elements, the Japanese personal combat technique of aikido differs in movement and philosophy compared to a Western combat sport like boxing. Knowledge of these differences may offer U.S. business people greater understanding required to successfully compete with the Japanese. …


On page 661, Holmbeck et al. identify a new mechanism of cartilage remodeling. This quick remodeling system bypasses time-consuming steps to bone formation that are required in the previously known pathway.

Figure

Cartilage remnants (purple) disrupt bones (pink) in MT1-MMP–deficient mice (right).

In the well-known pathway to bone formation, a cartilage scaffold must be mineralized before it is degraded by osteoclasts and replaced with bone. But some bones seem to be formed without cartilage mineralization. Holmbeck et al. find that this process relies on the matrix metalloprotease MT1-MMP, which degrades unmineralized cartilage.

The authors examined bone formation in MT1-MMP–deficient mice, which have skulls that are misshapen by cartilage. They find that in wild-type mice this same cartilage is not mineralized, but rather expresses MT1-MMP before its removal and replacement with bone. Without the protease, the cartilage remains, and adult bone layers do not form correctly.

Cartilage leftovers were also found in joints and at bone–tendon interfaces. As the mice have a dwarf phenotype, the authors suggest that growth of limb bones (a mineralization-dependent process) must be accompanied by the remodeling of cartilage into ligaments and tendons. This could be done quickly by the MT1-MMP pathway, which avoids the mineralization step. Its speed is also well-suited to keeping up with the rapid growth of the skull that occurs after birth.

A few cells within the cartilage remnants expressed bone markers. Thus, some bone may be formed by differentiating cartilage cells rather than immigrating osteoblasts. If so, this hints at a mammalian version of metamorphosis—an MMP-dependent replacement of transient with definitive organs. ▪


Host–guest (HG) systems formed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and ExBox4+ are suitable models to gain a deeper understanding of π–π interactions, which are fundamental in supramolecular chemistry. The physical nature of HG interactions between ExBox4+ (1) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (2-12) is investigated at the light of the energy decomposition (EDA-NOCV), noncovalent interactions (NCI), and magnetic response analyses. The EDA-NOCV results show that the dispersion forces play a crucial role in the HG interactions in PAHs⊂ExBox4+ complexes. The HG interaction energies are dependent on both the size of the PAH employed and the number of π-electrons in the guest molecules. The parallel face-to-face arrangement between HG aromatic moieties is also fundamental to maximize the dispersion interaction and consequently for the attractive energy which leads to the inclusion complex formation.


This paper presents a summary on the ongoing research and development of a solid-state piezoelectric composite rotor design for use in rotary systems. The paper focuses on the theoretical analysis of a two-bladed rotor with varying parameters such as flight speed, blade pitch angle, and rotational speed. XROTOR, a blade element method based software, is used for analysis. The two-dimensional aerodynamic characteristics are acquired from the previous research on a Macro-Fiber Composite actuated simply supported thin airfoil. A set of simulations are conducted to determine the best geometric configuration, so the piezoelectric increase in thrust is maximized. The proposed hub-rotor system has the potential to be implemented in unmanned-aerial-vehicles such as single-rotor, tandem-rotor, multi-copter, and ducted-fan rotorcraft, or other rotating systems such as wind turbines, turbine engines, and marine propellers. This paper presents a summary of previous findings on a solid-state rotor prototype, and a new investigation on the theoretical aerodynamic behavior.


African trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle. These unicellular parasites are transmitted by the blood-sucking tsetse fly1. In the mammalian host's circulation, tissues, and interstitium, at least two main life cycle stages exist: slender and stumpy bloodstream forms2,3,4,5,6. Proliferating slender forms differentiate into cell cycle-arrested stumpy forms at high levels of parasitaemia. This developmental stage transition occurs in response to the quorum sensing factor SIF (stumpy induction factor)7, and is thought to fulfil two main functions. First, it auto-regulates the parasite load in the host. Second, the stumpy stage is regarded as pre-adapted for tsetse fly infection and the only form capable of successful vector transmission8. Differentiation to the stumpy form is accompanied by fundamental morphological and metabolic changes, including expression of the stumpy marker, protein associated with differentiation 1 (PAD1)9. Here, we show that proliferating slender stage trypanosomes are equally able to infect the tsetse fly, and that a single parasite is sufficient. The slender parasites complete the complex life cycle in the fly with comparable overall success rates and kinetics as stumpy forms. We further show that in the tsetse midgut, the slender parasites activate the canonical PAD1 pathway, without undergoing either cell cycle arrest or a morphological transition to the stumpy form. Instead, with the onset of PAD1 expression, the parasites directly differentiate into the procyclic (insect) stage. Our findings not only propose a revision to the traditional view of the trypanosome life cycle, but also suggest a solution to a long-acknowledged paradox in the transmission event: parasitaemia in chronic infections is typically quite low, and so the probability of a tsetse ingesting a stumpy cell during a bloodmeal is also low10,11,12,13.


Economic voting is a key explanatory factor for the short-term variation of vote choice, party competition and electoral volatility. This article applies the well-established literature on economic voting to the analysis of European Parliament elections. In theoretical terms, it focuses on a forward-looking selection model and probes the difficulties of signal extraction in the multilevel context of European Union politics. In methodological terms, hierarchical mixed logit models are used so as to explore the magnitude and the determinants of economic voting in the 2004 and the subsequent 2009 EP elections. Although the EU has acquired significant economic policy domains from the Member States, and therewith effectively blurring political responsibility for economic policies, this analysis demonstrates that voters are nevertheless able to extract competence signals and cast an economic vote. The article also focuses on the conditionality of the economic vote and vote abstention in EP elections.


A species of marine limnodriloidine oligochaete, Thalassodrilides cf. briani
Erseus, 1992
, is recorded from gravelly sand sediments of the subtidal zone in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. The present material agrees with the original description of T. briani, which was first found at Hong Kong, with the exception that the copulatory sacs are oval; not slender. Despite the lack of genetic data for the Hong Kong population, we conclude that the Japanese specimens are conspecific with it, or at least very closely related, based on morphological considerations. This is the first record of the genus Thalassodrilides
Brinkhurst and Baker, 1979
in Japan. The phylogenetic relationships between T. cf. briani and three other species of Thalassodrilides are estimated, based on partial DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and the complete nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region, using two members of the closely related genus Doliodrilus Erseus, 1984 as outgroups. The genetic analysis shows that T. cf. briani is a species delimited by both mitochondrial and nuclear data, and clearly separated from at least its closely related congeners in the Northwest Atlantic (Caribbean and adjacent areas).


A convergecast is a popular routing scheme in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in which every sensor node periodically forwards measured data along configured routing paths to a base station (BS). Prolonging lifetimes in energy-limited WSNs is an important issue because the lifetime of a WSN influences on its quality and price. Low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) was the first attempt at solving this lifetime problem in convergecast WSNs, and it was followed by other solutions including power efficient gathering in sensor information systems (PEGASIS) and power efficient data gathering and aggregation protocol (PEDAP). Our solution-chain routing with even energy consumption (CREEC)-solves this problem by achieving longer average life-times using two strategies: i) Maximizing the fairness of energy distribution at every sensor node and ii) running a feedback mechanism that utilizes a preliminary simulation of energy consumption to save energy for depleted sensor nodes. Simulation results confirm that CREEC outperforms all previous solutions such as LEACH, PEGASIS, PEDAP, and PEDAP-power aware (PA) with respect to the first node death and the aver- age lifetime. CREEC performs very well at all WSN sizes, BS distances and battery capacities with an increased convergecast delay.


"Classic" cardiovascular drift is characterized by findings of decreasing stroke volume and mean arterial pressure, rising heart rate, and stable cardiac output during sustained constant-load exercise. Recent studies in adults indicate that when dehydration is prevented by fluid intake, this pattern is altered, with no change in stroke volume and progressive rise in cardiac output. This study was designed to examine this influence of hydration in prepubertal subjects and assess the relationship between cardiovascular drift and aerobic drift (changes in VO2). Eight boys (Tanner stage 1, mean age 11.7 +/- 0.4 y) cycled at an average of 62.9% +/- 3.9% VO2 peak to exhaustion (41.38 +/- 6.30 min) in a thermoneutral environment. Rectal temperature rose from 37.6 +/- 0.1 degrees C at rest to 38.1 +/- 0.2 degrees C at end exercise. Between 5 min and end exercise, average heart rate rose by 13.2% and cardiac output rose by 14.9%, systemic vascular resistance fell by 10.5%, and stroke volume remained stable. Increases in cardiac output paralleled those of VO2, with no change in arterial venous oxygen difference. These findings are consistent with the conclusion that cardiovascular drift is a reflection of aerobic drift, a relationship obscured by the superimposed physiological effects of dehydration during sustained constant load. This study also suggests that such patterns are no different in prepubertal boys and young adult men.


In this paper a method of using convolutional codes over rings for packet data transmission over additive white gaussian noise (AWGN) channel is proposed. The tailbiting method is generalized and applied to convolutional codes based on ring of integers modulo-M. The codes were named tailbiting codes over ring (TBR). This paper presents a method to desing TBR codes obtained by the concatenation of feedback convolutional encoder over ring and M-QAM modulator. The paper describes how a systematic ring convolutional encoder with feedback can obtain the same starting and ending state. The best TBR codes with different number of encoder states for 16-QAM modulated symbol sequences of varying lengths are tabulated.


Description: In geosciences, complex forward problems met in geophysics, petroleum system analysis and reservoir engineering problems often requires replacing these forward problems by proxies, and these proxies are used for optimizations problems. For instance, History Matching of observed field data requires a so large number of reservoir simulation runs (especially when using geostatistical geological models) that it is often impossible to use the full reservoir simulator. Therefore, several techniques have been proposed to mimic the reservoir simulations using proxies. Due to the use of experimental approach, most of authors propose to use second order polynomials. In this paper we demonstrate that: (1) Neural networks can also be second order polynomials. Therefore, the use of a neural network as a proxy is much more flexible and adaptable to the non linearity of the problem to be solved; (2) First order and second order derivatives of the neural network can be obtained providing gradients and hessian for optimizers. For the first point, a complete description of a neural network equivalent to a second order polynomial will be given. For inverse problems met in seismic inversion, well by well production data, optimal well locations, source rock generation, etc., most of the time, gradient methods are used for finding an optimal solution. The paper will describe how to calculate these gradients from a neural network built as a proxy. When needed, the hessian can also be obtained from the neural network approach. Application: On a real case study, the ability of neural networks to reproduce complex phenomena (water-cuts, production rates. etc.) is showed. Comparisons with second polynomials (and kriging methods) will be done demonstrating the superiority of the neural network approach as soon as non linearity behaviors are present in the responses of the simulator. The gradients and the hessian of the neural network will be compared to those of the real response function. Results and conclusions: (1) Neural Network can replace advantageously polynomial and kriging approaches as proxies for inverse problems and uncertainty analysis, (2) A neural network giving a bilinear polynomial will be explicitly given, (3) Gradients and Hessian of neural network can be calculated and use by optimizers. Keywords: Proxies, History Matching, Gradient Methods, Optimizers, Basin Modelling, Seismic Inversion, Uncertainty Analysis, Hessian


The modernisation of international and Hungarian financial and economic controlling tools and of the entities using them requires enhanced management tasks to be performed. The high quality performance of management tasks contributes to the increased development of public finances audit. This actually includes a repositioning of the financial management and functions of enterprises run by local governments. Control systems (both external and internal) play an important role in the implementation of the value-creating phases of development. However, while efficiency, effectiveness and economy are given prominence, the issues above also play an ever more important role in institutional management. This paper describes the roles and supporting function of controlling methodology in respect of the financial management of local governments. Empirical modelling is used to demonstrate the role of financial controlling and its function in the financial management of local governments, including the relationship of liquidity, profitability and solvency. The paper calls special attention to the fact how much performance and costs matter in setting up local government controlling, and it also points out the positive effects of a clear strategic focus on financial management, like common asset management (with a holding nature) or the use of strategic indicators (e.g. creating a BSC at local governments).


Introduction: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile vasculitis mainly affecting children, with two types of presentation, namely, typical and atypical. It is the most critical cause of coronary artery complications and if not treated on time and appropriately, complications may occur in up to 25% of the patients will get. Patients: This study reports five rare cases of incomplete KD Who has been admitted with diagnosis of Bacterial Meningitis, Staphylococcal Septic Arthritis, Herpetic Gingivostomatitis, Viral Hepatitis and prolonged Fever. Since there was no response to treatment, with impression of Atypical Kawasaki patient has been evaluated and treated. Conclusion: Atypical presentation of the disease led to misdiagnosis and prolonged process of diagnosis. Due to the increasing number of atypical Kawasaki cases and the probability of coronary artery disorder, it is recommended that atypical Kawasaki be considered in the differential diagnosis of the disease in the patients with fever of over five days without any clinical cause.


Phytochromes are a family of plant photoreceptors that mediate physiological and developmental responses to changes in red and far-red light conditions. In Arabidopsis, there are genes for at least five phytochrome proteins. These photoreceptors control such responses as germination, stem elongation, flowering, gene expression, and chloroplast and leaf development. However, it is not known which red light responses are controlled by which phytochrome species, or whether the different phytochromes have overlapping functions. We report here that previously described hy3 mutants have mutations in the gene coding for phytochrome B (PhyB). These are the first mutations shown to lie in a plant photoreceptor gene. A number of tissues are abnormally elongated in the hy3(phyB) mutants, including hypocotyls, stems, petioles, and root hairs. In addition, the mutants flower earlier than the wild type, and they accumulate less chlorophyll. PhyB thus controls Arabidopsis development at numerous stages and in multiple tissues.


Casting process is the most widely used process in manufacturing industries especially in automobile products. Systematic analysis and identification of sources of product defects are essential for successful manufacturing. Since the quality of casting parts are mostly influenced by process conditions, how to determine the optimum process condition becomes the key to improving part quality. The industry generally tries to eliminate the defects by trial and error method, which is an expensive and error-prone process. This paper presents review on a use of Artificial neural network (ANN) for the casting processes better than the other techniques such as design of experiment (DOE), inspection method, casting simulation, cause-effect diagram, genetic algorithm, fuzzy logic. ANN has challenges in the eve of prediction, optimization, control, monitor, identification, classification, modeling and so on particularly in the field of manufacturing. We discuss number of key issues, which must be addressed when applying neural network to practical problems, and steps followed for the development of such models are outlined. Artificial neural network also found that, the trained network has great forecast ability. Furthermore, the trained neural network is employed as an objective function to optimize the processes.


In Italy over the last decade non-typical labour contracts have been increasingly used. Among them, much attention has been paid to the so-called "collaborazione coordinata e continuativa" (co.co.co.) contracts. These contracts may provide a buffer to entrants, displaced or retiring workers, i.e. they can complement standard open-ended dependent contracts during career transition phases. However, if they become a substitute for standard contracts in every phase of the working career, then a segment of workers at-risk-ofsocial-exclusion could emerge. Hence, it becomes crucial to analyse the careers of co.co.co. workers. Our first goal is to learn if, within the "co.co.co. world", a group of at-risk workers actually exists; then, we will try to shed some light upon those workers' careers. We use a dataset unique to Italian labour research, the Work Histories Italian Panel (WHIP). It is a longitudinal random sample of individuals drawn from the social security administration (INPS) archive; through WHIP the co.co.co. archive ("Gestione Separata") can be linked to other archives (e.g. the private sector dependent workers' archive) and can be observed for the longest time span available for this type of data at the moment, i.e. from the birth of the "Gestione Separata" (1996) to 1999. It becomes apparent that two different groups of individuals contribute to the "Gestione Separata": highly skilled individuals, who enjoy a good position in the labour market (managers and professionals) and the ones we call "parasubordinati strictu sensu". "Parasubordinati" are young, receive lower annual wages and most of them are women and/or low-skilled. The brevity of the available time series (only one year for "parasubordinati strictu sensu") reduces the longitudinal analysis to the very short run. We observe a very gradual inflow into the "Gestione Separata" of the 1999 stock of "parasubordinati strictu sensu". The estimated probability to switch to a dependent labour contract seems to be higher for younger, low-paid individuals, particularly if they move geographically. Finally, and predominately for women, the co.co.co. contract seems like an alternative to a part-time job.


Offline reinforcement learning (RL) refers to the problem of learning policies entirely from a batch of previously collected data. This problem setting is compelling, because it offers the promise of utilizing large, diverse, previously collected datasets to acquire policies without any costly or dangerous active exploration, but it is also exceptionally difficult, due to the distributional shift between the offline training data and the learned policy. While there has been significant progress in model-free offline RL, the most successful prior methods constrain the policy to the support of the data, precluding generalization to new states. In this paper, we observe that an existing model-based RL algorithm on its own already produces significant gains in the offline setting, as compared to model-free approaches, despite not being designed for this setting. However, although many standard model-based RL methods already estimate the uncertainty of their model, they do not by themselves provide a mechanism to avoid the issues associated with distributional shift in the offline setting. We therefore propose to modify existing model-based RL methods to address these issues by casting offline model-based RL into a penalized MDP framework. We theoretically show that, by using this penalized MDP, we are maximizing a lower bound of the return in the true MDP. Based on our theoretical results, we propose a new model-based offline RL algorithm that applies the variance of a Lipschitz-regularized model as a penalty to the reward function. We find that this algorithm outperforms both standard model-based RL methods and existing state-of-the-art model-free offline RL approaches on existing offline RL benchmarks, as well as two challenging continuous control tasks that require generalizing from data collected for a different task.


The extracellular matrix (ECM) provides the structural frame for the development of tissues and organs. The ECM is bound by numerous membranous matrix-adhesion molecules and thereby triggers intracellular signals that control various cellular functions such as survival, polarity, proliferation and differentiation. Integrins represent an important family of ECM adhesion molecules which link the ECM with the intracellular actin-cytoskeleton. Integrin mediated adhesion structures also serve as important signaling platforms, although the integrin itself does not harbors any catalytic domains. Therefore integrin signaling depends on the recruitment of a number of cytoplasmic proteins that directly or indirectly bind to the short cytoplasmic integrin tails. During my PhD thesis I worked on three of these molecules, ILK, Kindlins and Palladin, and used the mouse as a model system to address their in vivo function.
First, I investigated the role of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) in skeletal muscle. Loss of ILK expression in mice leads to peri-implantation lethality due to a cell polarization defect of the early embryo and abnormal actin accumulations. Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster revealed an essential function for ILK in the attachment of actin filaments to the membrane of muscle cells and lack of ILK expression results in early lethality during embryogenesis. We generated mice with a skeletal muscle-restricted deletion of ILK that developed a mild, but progressive muscular dystrophy. This phenotype is predominantly restricted to myotendinous junctions (MTJs). Ultrastructural analyses showed muscle cell detachment from the basement membranes, and an accumulation of extracellular matrix. Endurance exercise training enhances the defect leading to disturbed subsarcolemmal myofiber architecture and an abrogation of the phosphorylation of Ser473 as well as Thr308 of protein kinase B (PKB)/Akt. The reduction in PKB/Akt activation is accompanied by an impaired insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) activation.
Second, I studied the expression and in vivo function of a further integrin- and actin- associated protein, palladin. Palladin belongs to the palladin/myotilin/myopalladin protein family. Palladin represents a phosphoprotein which plays an important role in cell adhesion and motility. Initially, I characterized the gene structure and the expression pattern of palladin. The palladin gene spans about 400 kb, with 25 exons and 3 alternative promoters resulting in at least three different isoforms (200 kDa, 140 kDa and 90-92 kDa) in mice. Using RT-PCR and in situ hybridizations of embryonic and adult tissues, I could show that the 200kDa isoform is predominantly expressed in heart and skeletal muscle. In contrast, the 140kDa isoform is expressed in various tissues and represents the major palladin isoform of the brain. The 90-92 kDa isoform is almost ubiquitously expressed with highest levels in tissues rich in smooth muscle, like bladder, uterus, small intestine and colon. The expression of the 200kDa isoform was characterized in more detail with a polyclonal antibody showing that this isoform localizes to the Z-discs of heart and skeletal muscle cells. In vitro differentiation experiments with a mouse myoblast cell line revealed an induction of the 200kDa isoform during myoblast fusion and differentiation suggesting that the biggest palladin isoform may serve as a molecular scaffold during myogenesis.
Third, I specifically inactivated the largest palladin isoform in mice. Lack of the 200 kDa palladin isoform has no impact on the development, viability and fertility of mice. However ultrastructural analyses by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed a mild cardiac myopathy due to disintegration of myofibrils.
In collaboration with the group of Olli Carpen, we generated palladin 200 kDa isoform/ myotilin double knockout mice. Myotilin is also expressed in heart and skeletal muscle. Ablation of both myotilin and palladin 200 kDa isoform in mouse revealed in addition to the mild cardiac myopathy a structural and functional impairment of skeletal muscle.
Finally, I was also involved in the characterization of the expression and subcellular localization of a novel family of integrin associated proteins: the Kindlins. The Kindlin family consists of three members, Kindlin-1, -2 and -3. Mutations in Kindlin-1 cause a human disease, called Kindler Syndrome, which represents a skin blistering disease affecting the actin cytoskeleton of basal keratinocytes. Kindlin gene expression was first analyzed at the mRNA level by RT-PCR and Northern Blot studies. In situ hybridizations showed that Kindlin-1 is preferentially expressed in epithelia. Kindlin-2 is expressed in all tissues with highest levels in striated and smooth muscle cells. While both localize to integrin-mediated adhesion sites in cultured keratinocytes Kindlin-2, but not Kindlin-1, colocalizes with E-cadherin to cell-cell contacts in differentiated keratinocytes. In contrast, Kindlin-3 expression is restricted to hematopoietic cells. Using a Kindlin-3-specific antiserum and an EGFP-tagged Kindlin-3 construct, we could show that Kindlin-3 is present in podosomes, which are specialized adhesion structures of hematopoietic cells.


In order to complete the research programme on the supply of and demand for public transport services to and within various residential locations in Delhi, the capital of India, household surveys were implemented in two contrasting socio-economic areas. The two residential areas chosen differed from those previously studied in being located 14 kilometres from the city centre, previous survey locations having been further from or closer to the central area. Data were obtained of socio-economic characteristics of households together with data on household and per capita trip rates. In addition, details of trips were collected so that modal choice, distance travelled, time spent travelling and expenditure on transport could be compared. Attitudes of household heads towards public transport services supplied by the Delhi Transport Corporation were also obtained. Public transport supply characteristics both of conventional modes and unconventional para transit systems were collected. This report describes the results of the surveys. (A) (TRRL)


Geochemical models of CO2 injection into reservoir sandstones often predict the growth of minerals that will permanently store the CO2 in solid form, and injection experiments record significant fluctuations in porewater chemistry on a short time scale. Yet the proportion of CO2 reaction may be small, even over geological time scales. A southern North Sea (UK) gas accumulation with a high natural CO2 content (c. 50%) forms a natural analogue to engineered storage, and provides a calibration point for geochemical models of CO2–rock reaction. In the analogue site, the carbonate mineral dawsonite has formed in only trace amounts (0.4 ± 0.3% solid volume) despite exposure to high levels of CO2 for 50 Myr or more. It is calculated that only 2.4 (± 0.9)% of the CO2 present within the structure is currently locked up as dawsonite, and a similar quantity in solution in the porewaters. Comparison of stable O and C isotopes with a neighboring field with low CO2 content gas suggests that up to 0.7 (± 2)% solid volume dolomite cement is associated with the CO2 charge, equivalent to 0–25% of the total CO2. The remaining 70–95% of the CO2 is present as a free phase, after tens of millions of years. Consequently, geological storage of anthropogenic CO2 in reservoirs similar to the Rotliegend Group must rely on physical containment and not mineral sequestration. The Rotliegend Group is still an excellent candidate for a CO2 storage reservoir, though using physical trapping mechanisms and not chemical ones.


Volumetric irregular grids are the next frontier to conquer in interactive 3D graphics. Visualization algorithms for rectilinear 2563 data volumes have been optimized to achieve one frame/second to 15 frames/second depending on the workstation. With equivalent computational resources, irregular grids with millions of cells may take minutes to render for a new viewpoint. The state of the art for graphics rendering, PixelFlow, provides screen and object space parallelism for polygonal rendering. Unfortunately volume rendering of irregular data is at odds with the sort last architecture. I investigate parallel algorithms for direct volume rendering on PixelFlow that generalize to other compositing architectures. Experiments are performed on the Nasa Langley fighter dataset, using the projected tetrahedra approach of Shirley and Tuchman. Tetrahedral sorting is done by the circumscribing sphere approach of Cignoni et al. Key approaches include sort-first on sort-last, world space subdivision by clipping, rearrangeable linear compositing for any view angle, and static load balancing. The new world space subdivision by clipping provides for efficient and correct rendering of unstructured data by using object space clipping planes. Research results include performance estimates on PixelFlow for irregular grid volume rendering. PixelFlow is estimated to achieve 30 frames/second on irregular grids of 300,00 tetrahedra or 10 million tetrahedra per second.


Amylose and amylopectin are the two polysaccharides that constitute starch in bread wheat and the enzyme GBSSI ( Granule-bound starch synthase I), also known as waxy protein, is responsible for amylose synthesis in storage tissues. Decrease of the amylose content in starch has been associated with the lack of waxy protein(s). In this work, different sets of PCR markers were used to characterize the genetic variability of waxy loci from 103 Argentinean bread wheat cultivars. For the Wx-A1 locus, Wx-A1a and a novel molecular allele designed Wx-A1g were detected. Wx-B1 locus showed three alleles ( Wx-B1a , Wx-B1b, Wx-B1e ), and Wx-D1 locus showed only the Wx-D1a allele. Novel single-locus allele specific markers for Wx-A1b, Wx-B1b and Wx-D1b null alleles were also described. To our best knowledge this is the first study focused to characterize the genetic variability for waxy genes in bread wheat cultivars from South America.