Angiotensinogen (AGT) is the only known precursor to angiotensin II. Systemic renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) is activated in human and experimental models of obesity. RAAS activation in obesity is linked to the development of cardiovascular pathophysiologies. We have identified polymorphisms in 2.5 Kb promoter of human angiotensinogen gene (hAGT) that forms two haplotype (Hap) blocks: -6A/G (-1670A/G, -1562C/T, -1561T/C) and -217A/G (-532T/C, -793A/G, -1074T/C,& -1178G/A). Hap -6A/-217A (Hap -6A) is associated with human hypertension whereas, Hap -6G/-217G (Hap -6G) reduces cardiovascular risk. Here, we examine high fat diet-mediated allele-specific transcriptional regulation of the hAGT gene in adipose tissue, in vivo, in transgenic (TG) mice engineered with either haplotype of the hAGT gene. Twelve-week-old male TG mice with Hap –6A or –6G were fed normal diet (10% kcal as fat) and high fat diet (60% kcal as fat) for 10 weeks. Using Q - RT PCR and western blot we show increased hAGT expression in adipose tissue of the Hap -6A-TG mice after high fat diet than control diet (Hap -6A-0.68±0.04 vs. Hap -6G- 0.33±0.03 A.U., p<0.05). ChIP assay shows greater chromatin binding of GR, MR, CEBPβ and STAT3 transcriptional factors (Hap -6A- 0.80±0.04 vs. Hap -6G- 0.26±0.06 A.U., p<0.05) to the hAGT transgenes in Hap -6A TG mice after high fat diet. No significant change was observed in the endogenous mouse AGT gene. In addition, after high fat diet, change ([[Unable to Display Character: ∆]]) in inflammatory and redox markers was significantly (p<0.05) greater in TG mice with Hap I including, IL1 (4.6±0.8 vs. 2.1±0.49 fold), IL6 (4.0±0.69 vs. 2.1±0.2 fold) and NOX1 (8.3±0.4 vs. 2.5±0.6 fold). This is accompanied by reduction in levels of antioxidant defenses (SOD1: 0.97±0.0 vs. 1.4±0.1 fold; HO1: 0.77±0.1 vs. 1.3±0.2 fold) & activation of MAPK14 and ERK1/2 signaling. Taken together, our results show that SNPs in the hAGT Hap -6A favor high fat diet induced binding of transcriptional factors GR, MR, CEBP-β and STAT3 that lead to elevated expression of the hAGT in expanded mass of the adipose tissue. This also activates the RAAS with pathophysiological implications including, phosphorylation of kinases such as MAPK14 and ERK2, increase in tissue pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress molecules.


We explore the use of multi-finger input to emulate full mouse functionality, such as the tracking state, three buttons, and chording. We first present the design space for such techniques, which serves as a guide for the systematic investigation of possible solutions. We then perform a series of pilot studies to come up with recommendations for the various aspects of the design space. These pilot studies allow us to arrive at a recommended technique, the SDMouse. In a formal study, the SDMouse was shown to significantly improve performance in comparison to previously developed mouse emulation techniques.


This thesis presents two applications of representation theory of locally compact
groups. The first is concerned with random walks, the second with Mackey's
Intertwining Number Theorem.
Firstly, we consider the random walk on a collection of chambers bounded
by hyperplanes in a given subspace E of Rn+1 . Initially, a particular transition
probability is used in the first part of this analysis, and the identification of
the collection of chambers with a reflection group provides necessary tools for
obtaining a criterion for the recurrence of that walk. Next, the techniques of
representation theory are used to deal with the generalization of the random walk
when transition probability is considered to be a general probability measure on
the group concerned.
Secondly, Mackey's Intertwining Number Theorem for one dimensional representations
of open and closed subgroups of a given locally compact group G
is generalized. A similar result to Mackey's is obtained in the case where the
representations are finite dimensional. The recent developments in the theory of
Aqp, spaces (in which such spaces are recognized as preduals of spaces of intertwining
operators of induced representations) are being simplified under the condition
that the subgroups are open and closed. These results, together with the fact that
the space of intertwining operators between two representations can be identified
with the dual of the G-tensor product of the corresponding representation spaces
(endowed with the greatest cross-norm) are used to carry out the analysis.


In this presentation, the importance of the integration from various aspects is discussed. Such integration includes technological integration for improved performance of the imaging systems, intra-organizational integration to realize the technological development, and inter-organizational integration to achieve innovation through collaboration in technological and business development.


The heart responds to diverse forms of stress by hypertrophic growth accompanied by fibrosis and eventual diminution of contractility, which results from down-regulation of α–myosin heavy chain (αMHC) and up-regulation of βMHC, the primary contractile proteins of the heart. We found that a cardiac-specific microRNA (miR-208) encoded by an intron of the αMHC gene is required for cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, fibrosis, and expression of βMHC in response to stress and hypothyroidism. Thus, the αMHC gene, in addition to encoding a major cardiac contractile protein, regulates cardiac growth and gene expression in response to stress and hormonal signaling through miR-208.


The trunk neural crest gives rise to peripheral sensory and sympathetic neurons. In culture, neural crest cells can be induced to differentiate into either neuronal phenotype. Few studies have examined the differentiation of physiological properties in cultures of neural crest cells. Using whole-cell recordings, our study examined the effects of growth factors on high-voltage-activated calcium current profiles exhibited by neurons differentiating in culture. We compared these profiles with those exhibited by sensory and sympathetic neurons. Neural crest cells in culture gave rise to neurons with calcium current profiles identical to either sensory or sympathetic neurons, depending on the growth conditions. On average, the calcium current profile for sensory neurons was 23% (L), 51% (N), and 12% (P), while sympathetic neurons had a similar L-type current (20%), higher N-type (76%), and lower P-type (4%). Neural crest cells cultured with human leukemia inhibitory factor plus somite cells produced neurons with a sympathetic-like calcium current profile (L: 17%, N: 75%, and P: 4%). However, murine leukemia inhibitory factor (L: 25%, N: 52%, and P: 13%) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (L: 18%, N: 49%, and P: 9%) plus somite cells produced neurons with sensory-like calcium current profiles. These growth conditions did not modify the calcium current profiles of neurons cultured from embryonic and neonatal ganglia. Similarly, murine leukemia inhibitory factor produced a greater percentage of neurons (57%) with sensitivity to capsaicin (sensory phenotype) than human leukemia inhibitory factor (3%). Physiological traits can be a useful tool for the determination of neuronal phenotype in culture where other traits may be less stable.


Despite their recognized limitations, bibliometric assessments of scientific productivity have been widely adopted. We describe here an improved method that makes novel use of the co-citation network of each article to field-normalize the number of citations it has received. The resulting Relative Citation Ratio is article-level and field-independent, and provides an alternative to the invalid practice of using Journal Impact Factors to identify influential papers. To illustrate one application of our method, we analyzed 88,835 articles published between 2003 and 2010, and found that the National Institutes of Health awardees who authored those papers occupy relatively stable positions of influence across all disciplines. We demonstrate that the values generated by this method strongly correlate with the opinions of subject matter experts in biomedical research, and suggest that the same approach should be generally applicable to articles published in all areas of science. A beta version of iCite, our web tool for calculating Relative Citation Ratios of articles listed in PubMed, is available at https://icite.od.nih.gov.


This study examined the biodiversity and distribution of shallow water marine molluscs in the near shore and shallow waters of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo and surrounding areas.
The main focus of this study is on Gastropoda and to a lesser degree also on Bivalvia. Although other classes (Cephalopoda, Aplacophora, Opisthobranchia, Scaphopoda,
Polyplacophora and Monoplacophora) were occasionally collected, they are excluded from this thesis based solely on time and logistical constrains. One of the main goals of this research is not only to determine the distribution and diversity of mollusks, but also to establish the first reference-collection for molluscs in the State of Sabah to be located at UMS in the "BORNEENSIS" Biodiversity collection. Sampling of specimens was conducted at various points along the Sabah coastline, using various collecting methods. At 174 locations, a total of 2,772 sample transects, 45 market investigations, 32 sand samples
and 54 hours of trawling produced 890 species out of 284 genera and 75 families of gastropods along with 261 species out of 131 genera and 42 families of bivalves.
Altogether 10,345 specimens and shell fragments were collected and where possible identified. The gastropod families with more than ten species per family comprised the
Buccinidae, Bursidae, Cassidae, Cerithiidae, Columbellidae, Conidae, Cypraeidae, Ellobiidae, Fasciolariidae, Hipponicidae, Mitridae and Costellariidae, Muricidae, Nassariidae, Naticidae, Neritidae, Olividae, Ovulidae, Ranellidae, Strombidae, Terebridae, Trochidae, Turbinidae and the Turridae. The bivalve families with more than ten species
per family comprised the Arcidae, Cardiidae, Mytilidae, Ostreidae, Pectinidae, Spondylidae, Tellinidae and the Veneridae. Several rare and one "lost" species (Cyclina
orientalis, Sowerby, 1852) were discovered but no endemic molluscs were found. Each of the habitats examined had a unique mollusc fauna compared with other habitats. As an
example of further, more detailed analysis of the local mollusc fauna and as a benchmark for future studies, one mollusc family (the Turbinidae, Vetigastropoda) was selected for more detailed morpho-spatial examination. The analysis of morphological differences was performed for six preselected species to show their morphological and ecological differentiation such as the variation in biometrics, habitat ranges and preference, as well as the analysis of the radulae, micro habitats and observed behaviors. Results from this study indicate that Sabah has an extremely diverse marine mollusc fauna, several orders
of magnitude greater than previous published accounts, and it is suggested measures should be taken to protect this valuable natural resource. The results from the Turbinidae
study revealed that the six species show substantial biometric and morphological differentiation. No previously unrecognized cryptic species were found, but strong
ecological differentiation could not be detected. This thesis should inspire students and malacologists alike to further expand on this list of local mollusc fauna, with a view to developing a comprehensive, family-wide coverage of the Gastropoda of Sabah; and to easily identify molluscs in combination with the above mentioned reference collection.


The relationship between the behavior of paper during converting operations and the mechanical properties of paper are a fundamental issue for both paper producers and converters. In the attempt to establish these relationships and thus be able to judge the performance of paper, several testing methods have been developed. The major obstacle to achieve this goal is the fact that the stress conditions acting on paper are not always clearly defined neither in converting operations nor during testing. The first step to achieve a better understanding of the problem is to determine the fundamental mechanical properties of paper.Secondly, the stress condition occurring during converting must be investigated. In this respect, the modeling of paperboard represents a fundamental tool, allowing for the definition of the stress acting on paper during virtually every stage of the converting process or testing. These two steps lead to a better choice of the testing methods that are more relevant for each specific converting operation. The studies presented in this thesis investigate the different aspect of out of plane resistance in paper materials, with particular attention to the problem of delamination during offset printing.


The importance of university–industry links (UIL's) to the learning environment and to enhancing employability attributes through "real-world" activities is well established (Alfonso et al 2012; Cole & Tibby, 2013). High-level UILs can however be difficult to achieve without the benefit of being a 'top' ranked university, perhaps resulting in a rather sporadic flow of opportunities into many HE classrooms, and where they could add greatest value. For example, marketing undergraduates at London South Bank University are often the first in the family to go to University and so employability attributes whilst fundamental to their development and future success are potentially harder to come by. To overcome this barrier, we have achieved excellent results by actively managing our alumni network through dedicated social media at a course rather than at a University level for over ten years. The informal nature of the network (it is not designed to raise university funds), depends to a large extent on the established relationships between former student and lecturer, and has encouraged a productive "give-back" culture leading to an expanding range of varied and substantial opportunities for current students as the alumni base has matured. The strategy has won awards because it greatly enhances teaching and learning, and positively influences student employability. Explanation is given regarding the methods used to manage the network, together with the concerns and issues that arise. We will describe some of the materials developed through UIL's, which include lectures and workshops, but also mentoring schemes, internships & placements, career opportunities, course development advice and validation panel memberships as well as whole-semester experiential learning through "live" case studies, and commercial and academic research opportunities. The purpose of the session is to stimulate discussion and share ideas with other Business School teaching colleagues to consider applications in their own subject areas and institutions. The workshop will present summary findings from recent work designed to compare the perceived and actual usefulness of the approach for alumni and for students on various measures including course engagement, and the employability construct proposed by Dacre Pool & Sewell (2007).


Shoulder instability (SI) is a common pathology defined as symptomatic laxity of the glenohumeral joint. It can limit the shoulder function especially in athlete's who perform overhead gestures, or in workers doing prolonged overhead activities such as painters, storekeepers or in throwing activities.
The instability of the shoulder can lead to changes in arthrokinematics of the glenohumeral joint during overhead shoulder movements. The SI diagnosis is based in history and physical examination that included specific provocative tests. There is currently lack of diagnostic procedures aimed to quantify the shoulder instability arthrokinematics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of finite helical axis (FHA) parameters in the analysis of shoulder rotation.
Nineteen healthy subjects (7 males, 12 females, age: 23.2±2.7 years) participated in the experiment. Shoulder kinematics was measured by means of an optoelectric motion capture system (Optitrack) including six infrared cameras. The subjects were sitting on a chair with arm abducted 90 degrees laterally. The arm was fixed in a light wooden frame with velcro straps in order to keep the elbow angle at 90 degrees flexion. The subjects were asked to perform two series of ten shoulder internal and external full range rotations. The two series of movements were separated by two minutes of rest without removing the wooden frame. The protocol was repeated for both arms in randomized order. 3D data were sampled at 120 Hz. Side dominance was asked to the subjects resulting in two left dominant subjects. The data were divided in dominant and non-dominant side in order to evaluate differences in shoulder stability analysis between the two sides.
The shoulder rotations were analysed with the FHA technique, using angles of 10 degrees to compute each FHA. The dispersion of the FHA for each of the four conditions was computed using the minimum convex hull (CH) and mean angle (MA). The convex hull area was also computed in the intersection of the vertical plane at the level of the Acromion.
The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) minimum detectable change and standard error of the means were computed for CH, MA and range of movement (RoM) in both arms. The table summarizes the results of the reliability analysis.
The reliability of the helical axis parameters was excellent for both sides. Further investigations are needed to establish the clinical relevance of this technique in patients with SI.


Abstract Different types of gamification can be advantageous to enhancing students' learning. In contrast to the extant gamification literature focusing on designing reward systems and/or facilitating teachers' gamification of learning contents, this study focuses on the gamifying of learning content by students. To verify the efficacy of gamification as a learning activity, the effects of students posing and gamifying questions in relation to second language grammar learning are explored. A gamification platform called TipOn was designed to allow students to pose and gamify questions according to different game modes to facilitate their classmates' practicing English grammar. To examine the emotional regulation effects of posing and gamifying questions on learning performance, this study explored the effectiveness of gamifying content by examining how participants' two types of epistemic curiosity (i.e., interest-type epistemic curiosity (IEC) and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity (DEC)) related to posing questions affected their attitude towards gamification (ATG) and their learning progress. In this experiment, participants had to pose English grammar questions related to verb tense, and gamify the questions using TipOn. They then played games using other students' content. Data were collected from 96 ninth-grade students, and the correlations between constructs were evaluated using the path-analytical technique. The research results indicated that, first, English learning anxiety is negatively related to the two aforementioned types of epistemic curiosity. Second, IEC had no significant impact on ATG; however, DEC was positively associated with ATG. Third, ATG could positively predict students' learning progress. The results imply that teachers could use this gamifying system in a flipped classroom to motivate students to tap into their epistemic curiosity to increase their content learning and enhance the effects of learning.


Master Windows Server 2008 and navigate every detail of Microsofts new MCITP: Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator exam with the information in MCITP: Windows Server 2008 Administration Study Guide (Exam 70-646, with CD). Learn the infrastructure, Web, and IT application servers and also how to use scripts and batch files to accomplish tasks on a regular basis. As a Server Administrator, you will understand how to manage the server operating system, file, and directory services, distribute software, patches, and updates, profile and monitor assigned servers, and troubleshoot.


Insect galls of the Parque Estadual Paulo Cesar Vinha (Guarapari, ES, Brazil). Thirty-eigth morphotypes of insect galls were found on 21 plant species (19 genera and 17 families) in the Parque Estadual Paulo Cesar Vinha (Guaparari, ES). The majority of the galls occurred on the leaves (84%). Stem (13%) and bud galls (3%) were also found. One-chambered galls were the most frequent (52%), as well as glabrous ones (89%). Most part of them (84%) was induced by Cecidomyiidae (Diptera). Hemipteran galls were also found (16%). Parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera) were obtained from 12 gall morphotypes, being represented by Eurytomidae, Eulophidae, Platygasteridae, Pteromalidae, and Torymidae. Inquilines were found in three morphotypes, being represented by Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Thysanoptera. Predaceous ants (Formicidae, Hymenoptera) were obtained from a single morphotype. Acarii and Psocoptera were found as sucessores in three morphotypes. Nyctaginaceae, Myrtaceae, Sapotaceae, Lauraceae, and Smilaceae were the richest plant families in number of galls. Five new records of host plants are present: Emmotum nitens (Icacinaceae), Andira nitida (Fabaceae), Chaetocarpus myrsinites (Euphorbiaceae), Salzmania nitida DC. (Rubiaceae), and Epidendrum denticulatum (Orchidaceae). Three new records of insect galls on three plant species - Clusia hilariana (Clusiaceae), Guapira pernambuscensis (Nyctaginaceae), and Ouratea cuspidata (Ochnaceae) are present. All records are new for the Espirito Santo State.


A study was conducted to know about various insect pests associated with rice stored in public warehouses i.e., at FCI, Nalgonda and SWC, Vadlakonda, Telangana state and CWC, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh State during the period 2014 to 2016. The data indicated the prevalence of red flour beetle, T. castaneum throughout the year in higher numbers in stored parboiled rice as well as raw rice. In addition, the populations of psocids in parboiled rice and rusty grain beetle in raw rice were also found creating problem. At CWC, Machilipatnam, there were three spurts observed in the population of Tribolium with the mean number of insects per trap 161.0 during 1st fortnight of July; 186.0 during 1st fortnight of September; and 98.0 during 1st fortnight of December, 2015. While there were three peaks in the population of flat grain beetle with the mean number of insects per trap 98.75 during 1st fortnight of April, followed by 61.25 during 1st fortnight of December, 2015 and 63.25 during 1st fortnight of February, 2016. The study suggests the predominance of these insects throughout the year in rice stored at warehouses in spite of all the prophylactic and control measures taken up on schedule basis.


This thesis explores how Palestinian youth in Lebanon construct their identities in the context of statelessness. Specifically, the study examines how Palestinian youth in south Lebanese refugee camps and gatherings understand and perform their identities vis-a-vis nationality, gender and religion; how the discursive resources of identity are appropriated and articulated in everyday life within the camps and how Palestinian identities in Lebanon have shifted across exilic generations, all in the absence of formal state structures. Acknowledging that Palestinian young men and women are meaningful actors in their own right, I have engaged in interpretivist inquiry and sought to capture and reconstruct the subjective meanings placed on social life by Palestinian youth in Lebanon through a case study. Given this methodological perspective, I have used semi-structured interviews, focus groups and Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approaches as research methods within this study. In light of the vulnerability of Palestinians as a refugee population situated within the larger context of Western imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East, I have drawn on post-structuralist, post-colonialist and feminist theoretical frameworks to interrogate the data. The findings of this study show that Palestinian youth in Lebanon construct their identities through nationalist discourses of shared history, kinship, culture and religion. This is accomplished over time through the production and reproduction of symbolic systems in and through the institutional sites of the school, the family, political organizations, the media and religious institutions. Through these processes, Palestine is constructed as different from 'Other' nations and 'Palestinian-ness' as distinct from 'Other' national identity positions. However, the processes of national signification described above produce identities that are in a constant state of flux and transformation across time and space. Moreover, internal contestations are produced, particularly in relation to religion, gender and generation, which trouble and problematize the notion of a singular and homogenous Palestinian identity. The case study research presented in this thesis explores how Palestinian young people come to understand themselves and learn to navigate their lives both in relation to and in distinction from external 'Others' and dominant 'imaginings' of 'Palestinian-ness'


Borexino, a liquid scintillator detector at LNGS, is designed for the detection of neutrinos and antineutrinos from the Sun, supernovae, nuclear reactors, and the Earth. The feeble nature of these signals requires a strong suppression of backgrounds below a few MeV. Very low intrinsic radiogenic contamination of all detector components needs to be accompanied by the efficient identification of muons and of muon-induced backgrounds. Muons produce unstable nuclei by spallation processes along their trajectory through the detector whose decays can mimic the expected signals; for isotopes with half-lives longer than a few seconds, the dead time induced by a muon-related veto becomes unacceptably long, unless its application can be restricted to a sub-volume along the muon track. Consequently, not only the identification of muons with very high efficiency but also a precise reconstruction of their tracks is of primary importance for the physics program of the experiment. The Borexino inner detector is surrounded by an outer water-Cherenkov detector that plays a fundamental role in accomplishing this task. The detector design principles and their implementation are described. The strategies adopted to identify muons are reviewed and their efficiency is evaluated. The overall muon veto efficiency is found to be 99.992 % or better. Ad-hoc track reconstruction algorithms developed are presented. Their performance is tested against muon events of known direction such as those from the CNGS neutrino beam, test tracks available from a dedicated External Muon Tracker and cosmic muons whose angular distribution reflects the local overburden profile. The achieved angular resolution is ~ 3?-5? and the lateral resolution is ~ 35-50 cm, depending on the impact parameter of the crossing muon. The methods implemented to efficiently tag cosmogenic neutrons are also presented.


Establishing connectivity of products with real-time information about themselves can at one level provide accurate data, and at another, allow products to assess and influence their own destiny. In this way, the specification for an intelligent product is being built - one whose information content is permanently bound to its material content. This paper explores the impact of such development on supply chains, contrasting between simple and complex product supply chains. The Auto-ID project is on track to enable such connectivity between products and information using a single, open-standard, data repository for storage and retrieval of product information. The potential impact on the design and management of supply chains is immense. This paper provides an introduction to of some of these changes, demonstrating that by enabling intelligent products, Auto ID systems will be instrumental in driving future supply chains. The paper also identifies specific application areas for this technology in the product supply chain.


With millions of kilometres of onshore and offshore oil and gas pipelines in service around the world, pipelines are the life's blood of the world. Notorious for disrupting natural gas production or transmission, the formation of natural gas hydrates can cost a company hundreds of millions and lead to catastrophic equipment breakdowns and safety and health hazards. Written by an international group of experts, "Natural Gas Hydrates in Flow Assurance" provides an expert overview of the practice and theory in natural gas hydrates, with applications primarily in flow assurance. Compact and easy to use, the book provides readers with a wealth of materials which include the key lessons learned in the industry over the last 20 years. Packed with field case studies, the book is designed to provide hands-on training and practice in calculating hydrate phase equilibria and plug dissociation. In addition, readers receive executable programs to calculate hydrate thermodynamics. This title features: case studies of hydrates in flow assurance; the key concepts underlying the practical applications; and, an overview of the state of the art flow assurance industrial developments.


Design of avalanche control structures in middle and runout zones of an avalanche requires a careful study of the flow-structure and its interaction with the defence mechanisms. To investigate the interaction of the flowing snow mass with the obstacles (friction blocks) of different geometries, a series of experiments were conducted in a 61m long snow chute. The flows generated are approximated as avalanche-like flows as they show typical features such as a steady velocity along the track, longitudinal spreading and almost fluidized flowing characteristics despite the smooth chute surface. The intelligent design of the upper chute part, which widens immediately after the release of snow mass allows lateral spreading and this step ensures this highly desirable flow behavior generally observed in the natural avalanches. In this study, we report a series of experiments on model control structures in the form of mounds, a blunt body of similar projection area which are of a comparable height to the flow depth and a catch dam. The retarding effects were investigated by a direct measurement of the velocity of flow at various sections using CCD Cameras, its run -out length and location of center of mass of the final debris deposited. The experimental results can be helpful in predicting the behavior of flow around the obstacles. The experiments show that the avalanche currents generated in the snow chute detach from the top of the obstacles in the form of a jet and a granular jump is created, which results in a sufficient dissipation of the energy and a possibility of a shock wave traveling in the upstream direction. The effect of several arrangements in the layout of the mounds on their retarding effects was examined. It was observed that mounds with height more than two times the flow depth, can lead to a significant reduction in the runout length. However, at low flow depths the effectiveness of the blunt body is more because the avalanching snow splits into different segments and the flow profile is very close to the bed slope. On the contrary, when the flow depth is of the same order of magnitude as the obstacle height, the mound becomes more effective as the flow detaches from the top of the blunt body and travels a much larger distance at high velocity, while as in case of mounds jet is formed both in horizontal and vertical directions, and travels a comparatively less distance. The study of the jet traverse in the vertical direction becomes very useful in determining the effective distance between rows of retarding barriers. KEY-WORDS: avalanche-like flows, dynamic similarity, Froude number, large scale snow experiments, energy dissipation ratio


The researchers investigated the need for collaborative interaction in problem solving learning context by secondary school students for effective Science and Mathematics Education. A quasi-experimental design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 862 S.S.1 Science and Mathematics students in 10 senior secondary schools in Oju local government area of Benue State. Out of this, 252 students were selected through simple random sampling. The instrument for data collection was Science and Mathematics Achievements Test (SMAT) consisting of 25 structured items based on the topics taught at that level. The validation of the instrument was established by three experts.  The reliability was determined using cronbach Alpha method which gave a value of 0.72. Two Research Questions and two Null Hypotheses guided the study. Mean and Standard deviation were used to answer the Research Questions. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the Null Hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings among other things were that the students taught science and mathematics with Collaborative Learning Approach achieved better than those taught using the conventional or lecture method. Some recommendations were made based on the findings. One of such is that Collaborative Learning Approach should be incorporated into Science and Mathematics curriculum for pre-service teachers of Science and Mathematics in order to popularize its use among teachers. Keywords: Collaborative Learning Approach, Mathematics Education, Secondary Schools


Incomplete networks of protein-protein interactions help explain disease relationships, even in the absence of shared genes. Shared genes represent a powerful but limited representation of the mechanistic relationship between two diseases. However, the analysis of protein-protein interactions has been hampered by the incompleteness of interactome maps. Menche et al. formulated the mathematical conditions needed to allow a disease module (a localized region of connections between disease-related proteins) to be observed. Only diseases with data coverage that exceeds a specific threshold have identifiable disease modules. The network-based distance between two disease modules revealed that disease pairs that are predicted to have overlapping modules had statistically significant molecular similarity. These similarities encompassed their protein components, gene expression, symptoms, and morbidity. Molecular-level links between diseases lacking shared disease genes could also be identified. J. Menche, A. Sharma, M. Kitsak, S. D. Ghiassian, M. Vidal, J. Loscalzo, A.-L. Barabási, Uncovering disease-disease relationships through the incomplete interactome. Science 347, 1257601 (2015). [Abstract] [Full Text]


We study the relation between inflation rate and relative price variability using data of prices on 23 disaggregated food items since 1960 to 2003 in Chile. The behavior of inflation rate is quite variable in that country during that time span and more interestingly, there are periods of time in which prices were determined (fixed) by the economic authorities. We find consistent evidence that a larger inflation rate causes a larger relative price variability and this effect is much larger in periods in which prices were fixed. We interpret that result as firms over-reacting to inflation when setting their relative prices if they assume that it is unlikely to reset their prices in the near future. That result holds even if we follow different econometric approaches and it holds for all the food products considered.


Poor academic performance and high failure rates in South African tertiary institutions have lead to a need for intervention of some sort. Academic performance is said to be strongly influenced by one's academic writing ability. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how much influence academic writing ability has on academic performance. It also aimed to establish which measure - the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II (WIAT-II) - is a more accurate measure of academic writing. Lastly, the research aimed to determine whether any differences between English First Language (EFL) and English Additional Language (EAL) students' exist. A convenience sample of 125 first-year Psychology students from the University of the Witwatersrand wrote argumentative essays that were analysed quantitatively using the IELTS and WIAT-II scoring system. Correlations and t-tests, as well as regression and reliability analyses were used to investigate the aims and establish the results. From the results it was evident that the IELTS and WIAT-II are both adequate measures of academic writing. However, the results showed that academic writing ability is not a major predictor of and contributor towards academic performance. Significant differences in performance were noted between groups of EFL and EAL students on all measures. The results also showed that failure rates were not as high in this sample as in previous statistics. Further investigation is required in order to determine other factors that contribute to one's academic performance. Other aspects of academic literacy such as reading and speaking, as well as previous preparedness or intelligence, may need to be considered as determining factors of academic success.


Emotional intelligence is one of the most important personal trait linking to leadership in a way of assisting and developing the desired skills needed for those leaders applying effective leadership. There is a lack in the research literature related to leadership style in the Military Production Factories (MPFs) sector in Egypt. There is great attention and initiative to the reform in governmental sector in Egypt. This study considered as a baseline study for identifying the dominant leadership style in MPF. Military production industry sector includes 20 factories and companies lead by the Ministry of Military production (MOMP). The factories produced Military and non-military production. The sector includes 33546 employees. The selected organisation (MPF) works under the authority and supervision of the Ministry of military production (MOMP) in Egypt, however the majority of worker, including top, and middle line management are civilian. This study investigates the style of leadership mainly transformation and transactional leadership. The scale of the questionnaire was developed based on two sources and references to measure this relationship between the independent variable emotional intelligence and dependent variable leadership style. This study uses statistical tools SPSS including regression, correlation, Cronbach's alpha. The result on the level of Leadership, First, -study shows that female employee of the MOMP have a tendency towards a high level of transformational leadership style behavior more than male managers in the MOMP. Confirmed by Mandell and Pherwani, 2003). Second, Males' leadership style more oriented to the style of transactional style of leadership (confirmed by Strickland, 2008). On the level, emotional intelligence females scored higher than male in emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the dimensions of emotional intelligence (emotion attention, emotional clarity and Emotional repair (women scoring higher in emotional repair the most). Corresponding author: Safaa Shaaban Email addresses for corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com First submission received: 19th December 2017 Revised submission received: 7th March 2018 Accepted: 5th April 2018


As systems-in-package (SIP) concept begins to look attractive for RF Power amplifier manufacturers due to its miniaturization and cost advantages, it poses several manufacturing challenges brought by its added complexity in assembly processes and new concepts of integration. Consequently, process variations in the production line such as bonding critical wires are not only the hidden hurdles that can transform an RF SIP device into a yield disaster due to enormous yield fluctuations but also from the foundry process variations of the die wafer that contains most of its active circuits. To account for these variations, designing for high manufacturing yield is as important as designing for good electrical performance. The over-all electrical performance of a SIP device should be robust enough to absorb drifts within the extreme tolerances of its raw components and should be less sensitive to process variations. This paper presents an up-front method on how to identify critical processes and other factors such as die related variations that proved to be major causes of performance drift resulting to drastic fluctuations in the manufacturing yield. Statistical analysis provided insights and justifications on laboratory results leading to optimum yield and design centering.


This book offers the first comprehensive study of economic conditions and economic life in Roman cities during the late Republic and early Empire. By employing a sophisticated methodology based upon comparative evidence and contemporary economic theory, the author develops interlocking arguments about the relationship between four key attributes of urban economic life in Roman antiquity: the nature and magnitude of consumer demand; the structure of urban labour markets; the strategies devised by urban artisans in their efforts to navigate their social and economic environments; and the factors that served to limit both the overall performance of the Roman economy, and its potential for intensive growth. While the author's methodology and conclusions will be of particular interest to specialists in economic history, other readers will profit from his discussion of topics such as slavery and manumission, the economic significance of professional associations, and the impact of gender on economic behaviour.


Anthropometric measurement data can be used to design a variety of devices and processes with which humans will interact; however, collecting these data is a very time-consuming process. In order to facilitate the rapid and accurate collection of anthropometric data, a novel system is under development which makes use of multiple Microsoft Kinect sensors to estimate body sizes. The Kinect is an appealing sensor for this application because it can be purchased for around 250 dollars, can be quickly set up in many different environments, and can easily be interfaced with a Windows computer. This paper will present the experimental setup and procedure used as well as some preliminary results.


Mendelian randomization (MR) is a method of exploiting genetic variation to unbiasedly estimate a causal effect in presence of unmeasured confounding. MR is being widely used in epidemiology and other related areas of population science. In this paper, we study statistical inference in the increasingly popular two-sample summary-data MR. We show a linear model for the observed associations approximately holds in a wide variety of settings when all the genetic variants satisfy the exclusion restriction assumption, or in genetic terms, when there is no pleiotropy. In this scenario, we derive a maximum profile likelihood estimator with provable consistency and asymptotic normality. However, through analyzing real datasets, we find strong evidence of both systematic and idiosyncratic pleiotropy in MR, echoing some recent discoveries in statistical genetics. We model the systematic pleiotropy by a random effects model, where no genetic variant satisfies the exclusion restriction condition exactly. In this case propose a consistent and asymptotically normal estimator by adjusting the profile score. We then tackle the idiosyncratic pleiotropy by robustifying the adjusted profile score. We demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed methods using several simulated and real datasets.


In recent years, the use of Medicare-covered home health care and hospice services has grown dramatically. Hospice care, like much home health and nonacute hospital care, is designed to meet the needs of dying patients, who are known to generate disproportionately large costs of care. How has use of these services by dying Medicare beneficiaries changed over time? How has it varied by disease? Does recent experience suggest that these services have helped save the Medicare program money by displacing hospital care and other costly services? To address these questions, we examined linked Medicare claims files from 1988 to 1995, determining the location of death, days of use of services, and expenditures for the care of beneficiaries in the final months of life. We found that use of hospice and home health services by decedents grew rapidly over the eight-year study period, and especially rapidly among patients who died with a predictably terminal illness such as lung cancer. Among the elderly who have such illnesses, these alternatives to acute hospital care have reduced the use of hospital care near the very end of life. Most of the growth in these services in the year or two before death, however, appears to involve additional Medicare-covered services. As a result, utilization of Medicare-covered home health and hospice care by dying beneficiaries has increased over time, with an associated reduction in the proportion of deaths occurring in acute-care hospitals. But as the use of non-hospital services has grown, the growth in Medicare expenditures for hospital services at the end of life has not slowed appreciably, nor has there been a marked change in the intensity of end-of-life treatment for Medicare beneficiaries dying of more acute illnesses or requiring substantial supportive care.


Patent "hold-up" and patent "hold-out" present important, alternative theories for what ails the patent system. Patent "hold-up" occurs when a patent owner sues a company when it's most vulnerable – after it has implemented a technology – and is able wrest a settlement because it's too late for the company to change course. Patent "hold-out" is a term I use to describe the practice of companies routinely ignoring patents and resisting patent owner demands, because the odds of getting caught are small. Hold-up has arguably predicted the current patent crises – the smartphone wars, standards patents, or trolls all involve the ex-post assertion of technology patents. Hold-up theory has been embraced by thought leaders and fueled the current drive by Congress and President Obama to reform the patent system. In this essay, I make the counterintuitive case that hold-up theory is wrong – or at least incomplete – and further, that what it is missing is full consideration of the other side – the side of hold-out. When large companies systematically "hold out" on patentees, they have no choice but to work with efficient patent enforcers or "trolls." When small inventors can't get their due in the marketplace due to unfair disadvantages, jurors just may give it to them in court. I argue that considering "hold-out" and "hold-up" together provide a more complete picture than focus on either story alone, and that doing so reveals surprising pathways to a better patent system – focused on the design, rather than the doctrine of patent law. Instead of trying to eliminate all technology patents, or to enforce all of them, we should try to price them appropriately and reduce the distortions they produce. Instead of trying to make patent law perfect, we should make it cheaper, more streamlined, and more equitable. To do so, lawmakers should prioritize: 1) getting patentees and targets on the same page as early as possible, through early dispositive and damages disclosures, 2) tightening the interfaces between the various patent agencies, and 3) making it cheaper to resolve low-value disputes, as capped for example by the defendant's revenue exposure. Each of these steps would go a long way to curbing both hold-up and hold-out.


F medical academics and health workers, the task of efficiently gathering published data concerning outbreaks and epidemics can be overwhelming and time-consuming, always at the risk of excluding crucial information. As of February 2017, a single source has compiled a staggering amount of medical information into a comprehensive collation of infectious disease outbreaks and surveys. GIDEON Guide to Outbreaks was "written" by a computer program that converts database entries (https://www. gideononline.com) into e-book format. The guide describes 21,365 pandemics, epidemics, and case-clusters summarized in 5,120 tables, each devoted to a specific disease– country grouping (e.g., Salmonellosis–Albania ...Salmonellosis–Zimbabwe). Charts detail outbreak year, region (e.g., city, province), affected population, setting, number of cases, number of deaths, pathogen, syndrome, vehicle/ source, and electronically linked references. Where relevant, chapters begin with a listing of global and regional pandemics or unusually extensive or iconic events (i.e., the Typhoid Mary outbreaks, the Black Death). To facilitate searching within the book, introductory charts summarize total outbreaks, earliest recorded outbreaks, links to specific countries, and indexing terms (including foreign language disease designations). The format of GIDEON Guide to Surveys is similar to that of the Outbreaks book; it chronicles all published studies of disease prevalence (e.g., hookworms in Tanzania, gonorrhea in the United States) and seroprevalence (HIV in India, toxoplasmosis in Brazil). The current edition includes 53,917 studies. Charts in Outbreaks group events by year, and charts in Surveys list entries by demographic group (e.g., blood donors, children, STD patients). Sorting these tables by user-selected parameters (region, case numbers) is not possible in the e-book format, but the option is available in the online version of the program. Both books are updated yearly. Both incorporate data for zoonotic diseases among animals, but not to the extent allotted to human illness. The list of diseases and their references (many from PubMed) included in these charts is exhaustive and includes such illnesses and conditions as Spondweni virus infection, coenurosis, philophthalmosis, and Wesselsbron disease. On the other hand, these books do not address healthcare-associated infections or infections caused by a growing list of bacteria of >1,600 taxa associated with human disease (e.g., Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, enterococci). The most useful features of these 2 ebooks are their exhaustive and up-to-date content, intuitive organization, and encyclopedic format. It would be helpful if relatively major events were displayed in bold text. For example, Outbreaks lists 2 outbreaks of trichinosis that occurred in France in 1985, one of 21 and the other of 1,073 cases, without special visual treatment or comment. Those of us accustomed to standard books written in lines of text will find these sources difficult to "read." Berger notes that GIDEON Guide to Outbreaks and GIDEON Guide to Surveys are written for use by workers, educators, and students in the fields of infectious diseases and geographic medicine. I am certain that both will prove useful to readers of Emerging Infectious Diseases.


Throughout the debated discourse of humanism, humans were considered as the only species endowed with reason and moral values. The result was an andro/anthropocentric humanism that divided everything into hierarchies and confined everything within boundaries. European model of higher education has undoubtedly been an enforcement of humanist ideas and ideologies which established certain humans as exceptional and superior to other 'non-privileged' humans and nonhuman animals. In this era of posthumanism all the imposed and imbibed boundaries between the human and nonhuman are being questioned, challenged and eliminated to create an open network of cross-species encounters. In this context this article through the theories of Posthuman philosophy and Critical Animal Studies proposes a shift towards posthuman ethics of inclusion and understanding in the field of classical humanities in India. This can be achieved by employing postontological methods to create and understand nonhuman representations. Theories and studies by posthuman scholars like Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, Cary Wolfe, Graham Harman form the basis of this paper. This article is an acknowledgement as well as an advocation of the shift happening across disciplines from humanities to posthumanities, which however is yet to make a movement in education in India.


Abstract This paper describes the validation of a new code for prediction both aeroacoustic and aeroelastic behaviour of hingeless rotors. The structural component is based on a non-linear beam element model considering small strains and finite rotations, which uses a mixed variational intrinsic formulation. The aerodynamic component is built on a loworder panel method incorporating a vortex particle free-wake model. The aerodynamic and structural components are combined to form a closely coupled aeroelastic code that solves in the time-domain. The loading and thickness noise terms for the aeroacoustic calculations are calculated from the aerodynamic data using a formulation based on the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) equation. The code is successfully validated for acoustic signature and BVI predictions using test cases from the HELINOISE program.


We report on a fully nonequilibrium theory of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) through resonances induced by impurity atoms adsorbed on metal surfaces. The theory takes into account the effect of tunneling current and finite bias on the system, and is valid for arbitrary intra-adsorbate electron correlation strength. It is thus applicable to recent STM experiments on Kondo impurities. We discuss the finite-temperature effects and the consequences of atomic scale resolution of the STM for the spectral property of such systems. We find that the tip position affects the resonance line shapes in two ways. As a function of the distance from the surface, the line shapes vary due to the different extents of the adsorbate and metal wave functions into the vacuum. However, we do not expect large variations in line shapes unless tunneling into the tightly bound adsorbate states is considerable, or nonequilibrium effects are significant. As a function of the lateral tip position, line shapes should not change significantly on length scales of ${R}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}l~10\AA{}$ under typical experimental conditions when the electrons tunnel into the perturbed bulk conduction states hybridized with the outer shell $\mathrm{sp}$ adsorbate orbitals. Tunneling into surfaces states on (111) surfaces of noble metals should be important for an observation of resonance at larger distances (g10 \AA{}), and oscillatory variations in the line shape should develop. This long-range behavior was not resolved in recent experiments with Kondo impurities. The temperature dependence of the Kondo resonance cannot be deduced directly from the differential conductance, as the thermal broadening of the tip Fermi surface produces qualitatively similar effects of comparable and larger magnitudes. A careful deconvolution is necessary to extract the temperature dependence of the Kondo resonance. The finite-bias current-induced nonequilibrium effects in tunneling through Kondo impurities should produce a characteristic broadening of the resonance in the case of strong hybridization of the discrete state with the STM tip.


The rules governing turn-taking phenomena are not well understood in general and almost completely undocumented for Arabic. As the first step to modeling these phenomena, we have collected a small corpus of Iraqi Arabic spoken dialogs. The corpus is in three parts. Part A is 110 minutes of unstructured conversations. Parts B1 and B2 are 176 minutes of direction-giving dialogs, most including a greeting phase, a smalltalk phase, a request phase, and a directiongiving phase. Parts A and B1 were recorded with 13 native speakers of Iraqi Arabic, interacting in pairs. In Part B2 the direction-getter is an American with only very basic Arabic knowledge. This document describes the intended uses of the corpus, the dialog types, the speakers, and the details of the data collection.


A 10-year-old castrated male cross-breed dog was referred for the repair of perineal hernia with bladder retroflexion and a mass lesion in the hernial sac. Surgical treatment was performed and the mass was identified as degenerated adipose tissue that was suspected to be derived from the omentum. The hernial contents were reduced without difficulty, and the dog exhibited a normal recovery. Two days after surgery, the dog suddenly exhibited anorexia and azotemia. Exploratory laparotomy was performed, which showed the dilation of both ureters with discoloration of the bladder serosa and strangulation of the urinary bladder neck. Careful inspection confirmed that a fibrous band, which was connected to the mass-like degenerated adipose tissue, had caused the strangulation. Two days after removal of these tissues, the dog recovered, with normal findings on blood biochemical analysis. The condition described in this report is an uncommon complication of perineal hernia repair. The findings suggest that degenerative fat tissue should be resected during perineal hernia repair in dogs, in order to prevent possible bladder strangulation after surgery.


This Article, part of a symposium on the past, present and future of DNA profiling, examines the history of an earlier identification technology, fingerprinting. This Article shows that fingerprinting was accepted as legal evidence remarkably rapidly and with very limited scrutiny or scepticism. It investigates why fingerprinting received such a favorable reception in court, and why fingerprinting -- unlike nearly every other form of expert evidence -- never developed the common 'battles of the expert,' with conflicting, contradictory testimony offered by both sides. The Article also develops some significant parallels between the history of fingerprint evidence and the early use of DNA profiling evidence in court. Finally, the Article examines a very recent development with respect to fingerprinting: the rise, in the last two years, of challenges to its admissibility on the grounds that it is insufficiently reliable. (So far, none of these efforts to exclude fingerprint evidence has been successful.) The Article argues that the challenges that emerged with respect to DNA profiling turned out to provide a road map for attacking fingerprinting, and examines why judges have been so reluctant to recognize the problems and limits to fingerprinting evidence. More generally, the Article argues that whatever the formal standard governing the admissibility of expert evidence, scrutiny does not take place in a vacuum. What seems obvious, what is taken for granted and what is viewed as problematic all depend on cultural assumptions and shared beliefs that change over time in noticeable and dramatic ways. When forms of evidence comport with broader understandings of what is plausible, they may escape careful scrutiny as legal evidence. While commentators have often criticized the legal system for being too conservative in admitting novel forms of expert evidence, the problem may be the reverse: we may need to be at least as worried about quick acceptance of a new technique leading to its deep and permanent entrenchment. Similarly, while attacks on the spectacle of clashing expert witnesses are legion, this historical study of fingerprint evidence suggests that there may, in fact, be a useful and productive aspect to the battles of the expert.


We consider the response of etalons created by a combination of a conventional mirror and a metasurface composed of a periodic lattice of metal scatterers with a resonant response. This geometry has been used previously for hybridization of localized plasmons with Fabry-Perot resonances and for perfect absorption, in so-called Salisbury screens. The particular aspect we address is if one can assume an environment-independent reflectivity for the metasurface when calculating the reflectivity of the composite system, as in a standard Fabry-Perot analysis, or whether the fact that the metasurface interacts with its own mirror image renormalizes its response. Using lattice sum theory, we take into account all possible retarded dipole-dipole interactions of scatterers in the metasurface amongst each other and through the mirror. We show that while a layer-by-layer Fabry-Perot formalism captures the main qualitative features of metasurface etalons, in fact the mirror modifies both the polarizability and reflectivity of the metasurface in a fashion that is akin to Drexhage's modification of the radiative properties of a single dipole.


Introduction Although several systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses (MAs) on the association between specific mental disorders and specific somatic conditions are available, an overarching evidence synthesis across mental disorders and somatic conditions is currently lacking. We will conduct an umbrella review of SRs/MAs to test: 1) the strength of the association between individual mental disorders and individual somatic conditions in children/adolescents and adults; 2) to which extent associations are specific to individual mental and somatic conditions . Methods and analysis We will search a broad set of electronic databases and contact study authors. We will include SRs with MA or SRs reporting the effect size from individual studies on the association between a number of somatic and mental conditions (as per the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision). We will follow an algorithm to select only one SR or MA when more than one are available on the same association. We will rate the quality of included SRs/MAs using the AMSTAR-2 tool. We will assess to which extent mental disorders are selectively associated with specific somatic conditions or if there are transdiagnostic, across-spectra or diagnostic spectrum-specific associations between mental disorders and somatic conditions based on the Transparent, Reporting, Appraising, Numerating, Showing (TRANSD) recommendations. Discussion The present umbrella review will shed light on the association between mental health disorders and somatic conditions, providing useful data for the care of patients with mental health disorders, in particular for early detection and intervention. This work might also add insight to the pathophysiology of mental health conditions, and contribute to the current debate on the value of a transdiagnostic approach in psychiatry.


Frogeye leaf spot of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), caused by Cercospora sojina Hara, was first detected during the 1997-98 growing season at low incidence and severity (<1% of the leaf diseased) levels in the provinces of Tucumán, Salta, Jujuy, Catamarca, and Santiago del Estero in northwestern Argentina. During the 1998-1999 growing season, disease incidence increased and disease severity grew to 10% of the leaf surface diseased on highly susceptible cultivars in a few locations. An outbreak of frogeye leaf spot occurred throughout northwestern Argentina during the 1999-2000 growing season. Frogeye leaf spot was severe on susceptible cultivars in the provinces of Salta, Santiago del Estero and Catamarca with the greatest intensity in the northeastern part of the Province of Tucumán. Symptoms on leaves were circular lesions that ranged in size from 1 to 5 mm, were reddish-brown to gray or tan, and were bordered by a narrow, reddish-brown to purple margin. Conidiophores and conidia of C. sojina developed on the abaxial leaf surface (1,2). Severely diseased leaves were desiccated and dropped during the R6 stage of growth. Lesions also developed on stems, pods, and seeds. Field surveys indicated that this disease reduced the yields of the highly susceptible cultivars Anta 82 RR, Coker 6738, and A 6445 RG by 48, 34, and 25%, respectively. C. sojina was cultured from diseased tissue on PDA acidified with 0.2% lactic acid and maintained on V-8 juice agar amended with streptomycin sulfate (100 mg/l). Conidia were elongated, dark, 38 to 62 × 5 to 9 μm, with 2 to 6 septa, and borne on dark conidiophores with 1 to 4 septa. Pathogenicity tests were conducted on seedlings of the susceptible cultivars A 6445 RG and Coker 6738 and on the resistant cultivars A 8000 RG and Shulka. Seedlings were inoculated at the V3 growth stage by spraying the leaves with a conidial suspension (4 × 104 conidia/ml) using a hand-held atomizer. Control plants were sprayed with sterile distilled water. Plants were placed in a moist chamber at 26°C for 2 days and then transferred to a greenhouse bench where they were kept at 25 to 30°C. Symptoms identical to those observed in the field became visible after 7 to 10 days. Ratings were made 14 days after inoculation by estimating the percentage of leaf area affected using a standard area diagram. Lesions covered 60 to 65% of the leaf area of susceptible cultivars, but less than 2% on resistant cultivars. Control plants remained healthy. C. sojina was reisolated from lesions on leaves of susceptible plants. Above-average rainfall and high relative humidity in northwestern Argentina during the first three months of 2000 may have encouraged the severe outbreak of frogeye leaf spot of soybean. The outbreak was aggravated by the widespread use of notillage systems in the region and the large hectarage planted with susceptible cultivars. References: (1) S.G. Lehman J. Agric. Res. 36:811-833, 1928. (2) D. V. Philips and J. T. Yorinori. 1989. Frogeye leaf spot. Pages 19-21 in: Compendium of Soybean Diseases, 3rd ed. APS Press, St. Paul, MN.


Flowering-size Nerine bowdenii bulbs were sampled from a commercial planting at 2-week intervals from 13 Aug. 1991 to 14 June 1992. They were dissected, the dry weight of foliage and leaf bases was recorded, and carbohydrate analysis was performed on the foliage leaves, leaf bases, and roots. Starch was the dominant storage carbohydrate, and leaf bases were the principal bulb structures where it was stored. Changes in starch content closely followed dry weight changes in the bulb. When exposed to low temperatures, starch was converted to sugars. Except for these high levels in the leaf bases, sugars, expressed both as concentration and total content, were low in bulb components, indicating continued export and conversion to starch. Low sugar levels during the period that florets in the current season's inflorescence develop to stage Late G (gynoecium elongated, carpels fused) is implicated in the abortion of the inflorescence.


A major obstacle in the development of gene therapy is delivery of therapeutic genes to the desired cell/tissue. The objective of our study is to use a non-viral ternary system (lipopolyplexes) to encapsulate and deliver therapeutic DNA. Our lipopolyplexes comprise a glycerol-based cytofectin, a targeting peptide and plasmid DNA. Novel derivatives of the cationic lipids DOTMA and DOTAP have been synthesized and tested in a breast cancer cell line. A range of branched cationic peptides varying in number of residues, composition and linker to a targeting head group were also designed and prepared. The bio-physical studies demonstrated that all LPD complexes were positively charged, small (60-80 nm) and were shown to effectively condense DNA. Gel assays showed which peptides were able to protect DNA more effectively and gave high transfection efficiency. Further studies are underway investigating these systems in siRNA delivery.


Klang Valley is the most rapidly growing region in terms of physical and economic development in Malaysia. It has a population of 4.07 million people, accounting for nearly 17.5 % of the total national population. Thus, a large amount of constant food supply is required to meet the population's demand. However, the current situation is that Klang Valley is heavily dependent on external sources of food supply. In the event of emergencies such as natural or man-made disasters, Klang Valley will face a high risk of disruption in food supply. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze potential rice cultivation areas as urban food reservoir within the highly urbanized Klang Valley. By using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a land suitability analysis for rice cultivation was carried out in this study area. To construct a rice suitability model, expert evaluation on criteria such as soil series, rainfall, topography, groundwater and strategic agriculture distances were evaluated based on weightage ranking. Those weightage were obtained by using a Pairwise Comparison Method and then converted into spatial values using ArcGIS 9 weighted overlay process. Results indicated several areas within the Klang Valley having strategic potentials for rice growing. These areas are classified into three major classes - highly suitable, suitable and moderately suitable. The percentage of highly suitable area is 3504.35 ha (8.82 %), suitable areas 18793.28 ha (47.34 %) and moderately suitable areas 17403.02 ha (43.84%). The total areas suitable for rice growing is 39700.65 ha (14%) from the total size of Klang Valley.


"This book was a joy to read. It covered all sorts of techniques for debugging, including 'defensive' paradigms that will eliminate bugs in the first place. As coach of the USA Programming Team, I find the most difficult thing to teach is debugging. This is the first text I've even heard of that attacks the problem. It does a fine job. Please encourage these guys to write more."i¾–Rob KolstadPerl Debugged provides the expertise and solutions developers require for coding better, faster, and more reliably in Perl. Focusing on debugging, the most vexing aspect of programming in Perl, this example-rich reference and how-to guide minimizes development, troubleshooting, and maintenance time resulting in the creation of elegant and error-free Perl code.Designed for the novice to intermediate software developer, Perl Debugged will save the programmer time and frustration in debugging Perl programs. Based on the authors' extensive experience with the language, this book guides developers through the entire programming process, tackling the benefits, plights, and pitfalls of Perl programming. Beginning with a guided tour of the Perl documentation, the book progresses to debugging, testing, and performance issues, and also devotes a chapter to CGI programming in Perl. Throughout the book, the authors espouse defensible paradigms for improving the accuracy and performance of Perl code. In addition, Perl Debugged includes Scott and Wright's "Perls of Wisdom" which summarize key ideas from each of the chapters, and an appendix containing a comprehensive listing of Perl debugger commands.In this exceptional reference and debugging guide, the authors cover every aspect of efficient Perl programming, including: CGI programmingi¾–special tips for debugging this type of Perl program How to develop the proper mindset for developing and programming effectively in Perl Perl "gotchas"i¾–how to understand them, work around them, and avoid them "Antibugging"i¾–the authors' rules of thumb on how to code defensively The Perl debugger i¾–the authors' guide to using this Perl built-in Common syntax errors and how to track down their causes Semantical errorsi¾–why code may appear correct but the programs do not work How to improve the performance of resource-hungry programs Tips and advice for programmers moving to Perl from other language environmentsFocusing on the process of Perl programming and guidelines for identifying and correcting mistakes, Perl Debugged helps the developer to write better Perl programs immediately and become better programmers in general.0201700549B04062001


The relationship between different types of risk and their impacts on financial stability is very important for the banking industry. Due to lack of consensus regarding the relationship between these risks in the banking industry, especially the relationship among credit risk and liquidity risk, this study examines the simultaneous relationship among these two risks and their impacts on the financial stability of Iranian banks during the period of 2005-2014 by using panel data approach. For this reason, we have used the simultaneous equation modeling to test the relationship between liquidity risk and credit risk. Also, we have used the generalized method of moments (GMM) to assess the impact of these two risks on financial stability. Results show that, in general, liquidity risk and credit risk have a significant positive relationship with each other. Moreover, using GMM we found that these two types of risk negatively impact financial stability and increase the probability of bankruptcy of the Iranian banks.


Invasive species are predicted to experience a reduction in genetic diversity during the introduction process because of founder effects, yet they are able to successfully establish in new regions and outcompete the native biota. Admixture has been proposed as a potential solution to this genetic paradox. We adopted a phylogeographic approach to investigate the invasion history of the delicate skink ( Lampropholis delicata) in the Pacific region and test the hypothesis that admixture is important for the success of biological invasions.


Fabric analysis of the upper 1300m of the Dome C ice core revealsa slight clustering tendency of c axes towards vertical, which gradually enhanceswith depth from an initially isotropic orientational distribution of c axes at thefree surface. Such a strain induced anisotropy is compatible with the expectedmacroscale stress state in a dome, viz. dominated by vertical compression. Yet,when one analyses the orientational distribution of the visible gliding layers ofindividual crystallites (slip bands), the evidences are quite contrasting. Directobservation of slip bands in samples from Dome C ice core taken from di_erentdepths (ranging from 204m to 1291m depth) indicates a higher slip activity innearly horizontal planes, in such a manner that more than 60% of the detectedslip bands have an inclination of less than 30_ with respect to the horizontal.Furthermore, the observed slip activity is not symmetric, i.e., the amount ofslip bands discerned at 20_ (say) is usually not comparable with the number ofslip bands found at 160_. Such features are not consonant with the predictedslip activity induced by compression and/or extension. In this work, we presentevidences for this unexpected orientational distribution of slip bands and discusstheir possible causes. Natural and artificial agents are investigated, togetherwith their respective consequences for ice sheet modeling and ice core processing.Additionally, we show the occurrence of bent slip bands in certain crystallites.Such a bending represents an early stage of polygonization and it highlights thestrong inhomogeneity of deformation on the crystal level. Moreover, it indicatesthat polygonization might be mathematically interpreted as a continuous processof rotation, characterized by the divergence of c-axes from a common direction.This result is of great value for the modeling of polycrystalline ice within theframes of a continuum theory.


Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), also known as domestic violence, spousal abuse, and relationship violence, among other names, is becoming a widely recognized social and public health problem. Theory and practice suggest it is vital that the issue be addressed comprehensively in both the healthcare and socio-legal contexts. The theoretical perspectives underlying inquiries into the nature and etiology of the IPV phenomenon are of fundamental importance in promoting our understanding of how to prevent, reduce, or eliminate the problem. In order to integrate various aspects of knowledge about the phenomenon, it is important to consider and evaluate the approaches to IPV currently prevalent in the field.

Objectives: The present article aims to provide a critical overview of the existing theories, methodological frameworks, typologies, and definitions of Intimate Partner Violence.

Design: The present paper reviews the international literature on the conceptual frameworks and definitions of IPV. First, it draws on the conceptual frameworks of violence; it then reviews relevant theories and definitions of IPV considered from sociocultural, individual, and integrative perspectives. The disparities, limitations, and explanatory powers of these theories, as well as their clinical and research applications, are discussed in an attempt to bring more clarity into the current state of understanding in the field.

Results and Conclusions: Our review suggests that there is no universally accepted definition of IPV, nor a conceptual framework that would encompass the complexity of the phenomenon. Some of the theoretical frameworks for studying IPV appear to provide potential advantages over others, but their empirical viability has yet to be determined. We argue that, due to the complex multifaceted nature of IPV, a narrow theoretical stance might exclude a variety of exploratory factors and limit understanding of the phenomenon.


Purpose. Although the Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) Church promotes love of God and love for fellowmen, there is a perception that its members are generally intolerant of persons who do not hold religious beliefs that are similar to theirs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which spiritual maturity and religious orientation are related to religious tolerance among Seventh-day Adventists in East Jamaica Conference. Method. The Jamaican Adventist Religious Life Profile, the questionnaire used to collect data in this study, consists of the Intrinsic/Extrinsic–Revised Religious Orientation Scale; the Spiritual Maturity Index; and the Religious Tolerance Inventory developed for this dissertation to reflect a continuum of religious tolerance from intolerance, to critical tolerance, to hypertolerance. The questionnaire was given to 500 participants drawn from Adventist churches randomly selected from across the territory of East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The categories of tolerance encompassed tolerance toward members as persons, tolerance toward members' beliefs and practices, tolerance toward non-members as persons, and tolerance toward non-members' beliefs and practices. Scores for tolerance were subjected to methods for analysis of categorical data as well as for continuous data to assess the nature of the association of tolerance scores with demographic as well as spiritual maturity and religious orientation variables. Results. Generally, Adventists in this sample scored high on the spiritual maturity scale (M=4.96, SD=0.64). They also scored high on intrinsic religiosity (M=4.36, SD=0.74) and low on extrinsic religiosity (M=2.58, SD=0.79). With Adventists, they are (a) intolerant with respect to members who wear jewelry (97.8%), and woman who wear pants to church (62.5%); (b) critically tolerant with regard to members who commit adultery (94.10%), members who practice homosexual behaviors (93.30%), pastors who have had a child out of wedlock before becoming a Christian (89.30%), members who hold views contrary to Adventists' fundamentals (85.30%), Adventist preachers who do not preach against non-Saturday-keeping churches (74.70%), and on issues such as literature of dissident Adventists (68.60%), change of church format (61.80%); and (c) hypertolerant regarding members with AIDS (95.00%), members who are not fully knowledgeable of fundamentals witnessing (95.00%), disfellowshipped members (94.10%), and on the issues of loud shouting in church (81.60%), attending funerals on Sabbath (77.20%), and the wearing of casual clothing for Sabbath afternoon worship service (75.50%). With non-Adventists, they are (a) intolerant with respect to non-Adventists who wear jewelry (92.00%), non-Adventists teaching in Adventist schools (83.30%), and the issues of non-Adventist books being sold in Adventist book stores (76.30%); (b) critically tolerant regarding Sunday worshippers (98.10%), those who eat biblically unclean foods (94.60%), Adventist young people's non-Adventist friends (93.10%), people from another religious denomination who force literature on them (86.40%), Sunday-keeping pastors (62.40%), and the issues of non-Adventist books used in Adventist schools (88.60%) and non-Adventist church services (71.20%); and (c) hypertolerant pertaining to non-Adventists involved in social projects (89.40%). Numerous significance tests (p


The circadian cycle plays an important role in homeostasis by regulating the gene expression of rate-limiting enzymes and controlling the release of hormones. This means that disruption to this cycle can lead to metabolic and psychological disorders, such as diabetes or depression. In this thesis, major components of the circadian cycles have been studied using a combination of in vitro and in vivo techniques. CLOCK, NPAS2 and BMAL1 are transcription factors which utilise PAS domains to regulate their dimerisation and the binding of DNA via their helix-loop-helix domains. Constructs of the human forms of these proteins were expressed in E. coli and purified under native conditions. This permitted the study of the heme and carbon monoxide (CO) binding properties of the isolated domains from CLOCK and NPAS2 proteins. Similar heme binding characteristics were observed for both proteins, with a KD values for heme binding in the micromolar range, biphasic dissociation curves and comparable UV-visible absorption maxima. All PAS domains tested were shown to bind CO but none reacted with oxygen to form a ferrous-oxy species. The heme chemistry in CLOCK and NPAS2 was examined further by determining the reduction potential of the heme iron. This was done using a novel method developed through the adaption of a previously described equilibrium reaction procedure, which was then altered by the addition of enzymes to remove oxygen, reduce the heme iron and reduce a redox dye. From the known reduction potential of the redox dye, it was possible to derive the reduction potential of the heme group. The results showed that heme bound to CLOCK and NPAS2 has a relatively low reduction potential, a property which likely contributes to the lack of a ferrous-oxy species. DNA-binding and functional assays were also used to show that the binding of heme observed in vitro has a physiological role. The DNA-binding behaviour of CLOCK and NPAS2 constructs were shown to be regulated by the addition of heme in vitro. Furthermore, the use of a heme synthesis inhibitor in a report assay demonstrated for the first time a direct link between intracellular heme concentrations and the transcriptional activity of the CLOCK:BMAL1 complex. It was seen that higher heme concentrations promoted the transcriptional activity of CLOCK and BMAL1. This is consistent with the observation made in vitro that heme disrupts the interaction between the inactive CLOCK:CLOCK homodimer and DNA.


A stubbornly high level of interpersonal violence in town and city centres across Britain every weekend is gradually being recognized as a key aspect of the general problem of crime. In this article we want to explore some of the important criminological outcomes of night-time leisure in a culture dominated by hedonism and the logical needs of the free-market consumer economy. Our ongoing research into the night-time economy in its broader social and economic contexts suggests that alcohol-related violence is emblematic of British society at this point in its history; a point we have conceptualized as the 'breakdown of the pseudo-pacification process'. Since the 1980s, the altering cultural norms accompanying Britain's enthusiastic adoption of the free-market consumer economy seem to have opened the door for specific types of interpersonal violence, the containment of which is proving very difficult for traditional-informal techniques of control and state-centred agencies alike.


The Academic and Labor Market Returns of University Professors This paper estimates the impact of college teaching on students' academic achievement and labor market outcomes using administrative data from Bocconi University (Italy) matched with Italian tax records. The estimation exploits the random allocation of students to teachers in a fixed sequence of compulsory courses. We find that good teaching matters more for the labor market than for academic performance. Moreover, the professors who are best at improving the academic achievement of their best students are also the ones who boost their earnings the most. On the contrary, for low ability students the academic and labor market returns of teachers are largely uncorrelated. We also find that professors who are good at teaching high ability students are often not the best teachers for the least able ones. These findings can be rationalized in a model where teaching is a multi-dimensional activity with each dimension having differential returns on the students' academic outcomes and labor market success. JEL Classification: I20, M55


The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has been gaining extraordinary acceptance from many diverse enterprise software companies for their object repositories, data interchange, and development tools. Further, many different domains, organizations and content providers have been publishing and exchanging information via internet by the usage of XML and standard schemas. Efficient implementation of XML in these domains requires well designed XML schemas. In this point of view, design of XML schemas plays an extremely important role in software development process and needs to be quantified for ease of maintainability. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the quality of XML schema documents (XSD) written in W3C XML Schema language. We propose a metric, which measures the complexity due to the internal architecture of XSD components, and due to recursion. This is the single metric, which cover all major factors responsible for complexity of XSD. The metric has been empirically and theoretically validated, demonstrated with examples and supported by comparison with other well known structure metrics applied on XML schema documents.


Digital libraries have, in the main, adopted the traditional library notion of the metadata "record" as the basic unit of management and exchange. Although this simplifies the harvest and re-exposure of metadata, it limits the ability of metadata aggregators to improve the quality of metadata and to share specifics of those improvements with others. The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is exploring options for augmenting harvested metadata and re-exposing the augmented metadata to downstream users with detailed information on how it was created and by whom. The key to this augmentation process involves changing the basic metadata unit from "record" to "statement."


Using a fiber-optic stimulated-Brillouin-scattering amplifier as an active filter, we have demonstrated optical clock recovery from 5-Gbit/s return-to-zero-format optical data. Definite patterns and pseudorandom bit sequences were tested. This scheme requires no prior knowledge of the clock frequency and is well suited for operation at higher data rates.


While the consequences of nominal wage contracts have been rather thoroughly analyzed, there is no generally accepted theory of why such contracts prevail. In this paper I argue that the distinction between insiders and outsiders is important for understanding nominal wage contracts. Since most employment fluctuations take the form of fluctuations in hiring, insiders are normally not affected by them. Since prices are primarily determined by costs, demand shocks have small effects on real wages. Thus insiders have little incentive to change to more complicated contracts. With rigid nominal wages, nominal demand shocks have large effects on the employment opportunities of outsiders, but outsiders have little influence on labor contracts.


The 91st London Mathematical Society Durham Symposium took place from July 5th to 15th 2010, with more than 100 international participants attending. The Symposium focused on Numerical Analysis of Multiscale Problems and this book contains 10 invited articles from some of the meeting's key speakers, covering a range of topics of contemporary interest in this area. Articles cover the analysis of forward and inverse PDE problems in heterogeneous media, high-frequency wave propagation, atomistic-continuum modeling and high-dimensional problems arising in modeling uncertainty. Novel upscaling and preconditioning techniques, as well as applications to turbulent multi-phase flow, and to problems of current interest in materials science are all addressed. As such this book presents the current state-of-the-art in the numerical analysis of multiscale problems and will be of interest to both practitioners and mathematicians working in those fields.


We study a lattice bipolaron on a staggered triangular ladder and triangular and hexagonal lattices with both long-range electron-phonon interaction and strong Coulomb repulsion using a novel continuous-time quantum Monte-Carlo (CTQMC) algorithm extended to the Coulomb-Fr¨ohlich model with two particles. The algorithm is preceded by an exact integration over phonon degrees of freedom, and as such is extremely efficient. The bipolaron effective mass and bipolaron radius are computed. Lattice bipolarons on such lattices have a novel crablike motion, and are small but very light in a wide range of parameters, which leads to a high Bose-Einstein condensation temperature. We discuss the relevance of our results with current experiments on cuprate high-temperature superconductors and propose a route to room temperature superconductivity.


The driving forces of conducting the two studies presented in this thesis are: the strong position of curriculum resources in the mathematics classroom in general; teachers' faith in curriculum resources to convey the intentions and goals of mathematics education; and the expected benefits to mathematics education through expanding the knowledge base of research in the area of curriculum resources in general, and teacher guides in particular. This thesis builds upon two studies conducted in Sweden. The first is a study on how teachers use teacher guides. The results of this study could be seen as one piece in the building of a theoretical understanding of how teachers use their tools in planning and enacting teaching. The data for Study I were collected through semi-structured interviews with five early-years mathematics teachers. In advance, the teachers were asked to copy the pages from the teacher guide they had used the week before the interview. The analysis of the interviews shows that less experienced teachers desire a wider scope of content in their teacher guide. More experienced teachers desire support from teaching activities, in the design of teaching in classroom practice. Another interesting result was that all teachers in our study, regardless of prior experience, knowledge, beliefs, etc., want the teacher guide to offer connections between theory and practice. The second study investigates what content is represented in Swedish textbooks. The results of this study map the terrain over how the most commonly used textbooks in Sweden construct the topic of proportion and proportional reasoning. My choice of textbooks is based on a questionnaire among all compulsory school mathematics teachers in the sixth largest municipality in Sweden, revealing that two curriculum resources together covered 97% of the classrooms in Grades 7-9. The study provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses in the presented structure regarding proportional reasoning in the most commonly used textbooks in Swedish lower secondary school. Teachers could use these insights when making decisions about how to use their textbooks, and to possibly reconsider how to organize the enactment of the national curriculum in order to develop deep understanding. The analyses could provide authors of teacher guides and textbooks with valuable information to consider regarding structure and design.


—In this study, we report on the successful keeping, breeding, and rearing of Klappenbach's Redbellied Frog, Melanophryniscus klappenbachi Prigioni and Langone, 2000. Breeding and spawning took place after a relatively dry period without using a brumation period. To initiate mating behavior the toads were introduced into a rain chamber with a raised water level and constant irrigation in accordance with the toad's natural habitat and heavy rainfalls. The fast developing tadpoles started metamorphosis after 19 days at a constant water temperature of 23 °C and pH values between 6.5 and 7.9. A higher pH value led to slightly faster growth irrespective if tadpoles were reared singly or in groups.


With the introduction of satellite images, land cover map production developed rapidly. However it faced a common challenge to adopt an internationally accepted classification scheme. Most of the classification schemes were tailored to match local demands without flexibility to apply in other parts of the world. Land cover mapping in Australia is also facing the same dilemma, 'the lack of standard classification system' to classify its massive land mass and compare internally and internationally. As a solution, in 2000, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) produced a widely acceptable land cover classification system (FAO LCCS) which is based on priori (pre-decided) approach, to match with any region of the world. In this study we classified rural Queensland land cover, using the hierarchical and the priori method used by FAO LCCS. Under the priori approach, all classes are set before the classification, to maintain the standardization of categories. Then, a hierarchical dichotomous approach (divide into sub-categories) follows to achieve classes without having conflict between any two land cover types. We classified two rural Queensland regions, Hughenden grasslands and semi-arid Mt Isa. After classifying regions with level 1 to level 3 (FAO pre-set classes), classifiers based on spectral values and field investigations were implemented to build the level 4. Primarily, the classification used SPOT 10m data, other available information were utilized for the classification. Field investigation was carried out to verify uncertainties in spectral values and to collect ground information. Results of the study rendered well-classified two maps at 10m resolution for each area with over 80% overall accuracy. The most significant outcome of the study was the successful integration of FAO LCCS into local conditions of Queensland, which could serve as a guideline to map other regions in Queensland and other states of Australia.


Understanding the microstructure of the financial market requires the processing of a vast amount of data related to individual trades, and sometimes even multiple levels of quotes. This requires computing resources that are not easily available to financial academics and regulators. Fortunately, data-intensive scientific research has developed a series of tools and techniques for working with a large amount of data. In this work, we demonstrate that these techniques are effective for market data analysis by computing an early warning indicator called Volume-synchronized Probability of Informed trading (VPIN) on a massive set of futures trading records. The test data contains five and a half year's worth of trading data for about 100 most liquid futures contracts, includes about 3 billion trades, and takes 140GB as text files. By using (1) a more efficient file format for storing the trading records, (2) more effective data structures and algorithms, and (3) parallelizing the computations, we are able to explore 16,000 different parameter combinations for computing VPIN in less than 20 hours on a 32-core IBM DataPlex machine. On average, computing VPIN of one futures contract over 5.5 years takes around 1.5 seconds on one core, which demonstrates that a modest computer is sufficient to monitor a vast number of trading activities in real-time – an ability that could be valuable to regulators. By examining a large number of parameter combinations, we are also able to identify the parameter settings that improves the prediction accuracy from 80% to 93%.