1. To study the metabolism of α1-antitrypsin in man, radioiodinated purified α1-antitrypsin of protease inhibitor type MM was injected intravenously into seven normal volunteer subjects of protease inhibitor type MM and plasma and urine radioactivity data were analysed. The purified glycoprotein inhibited trypsin and exhibited micro-heterogeneity characteristic of α1-antitrypsin on acid starch-gel electrophoresis. 2. The intravascular mass was 116 ± 16.1 mg/kg (mean ± sem); extravascular/intravascular pool ratio was 1.07 ± 0.067; the fractional catabolic rate was 33.3 ± 1.37% of the intravascular pool/day; half-life was 4.6 ± 0.21 days; synthetic rate was 33.8 ± 6.3 mg day−1 kg−1. 3. The data indicated that the serum concentration of α1-antitrypsin varies independently of its fractional catabolic rate and that it is catabolized in, or in close relationship to, the intravascular compartment. 4. Plasma curves of protein-bound radioactivity were also defined after the intravenous administration of 131I-labelled desialylated α1-antitrypsin to two additional subjects. The fractional plasma disappearance rates were approximately 150 times as great as those for the intact protein. The rapid disappearance of 131I-labelled desialylated α1-antitrypsin from plasma coincided with an equally rapid uptake of radioactivity by the liver. 5. The results are compatible with the existence of receptor sites for desialylated glycoproteins in the surface membrane of human hepatocytes and emphasize that the catabolism of α1-antitrypsin can be influenced by the structure of its carbohydrate moiety.


Deliberation is a linchpin of administrative decision-making, and is a key basis for judicial deference to the agency's interpretation of law. But deliberation has a dual valence in other areas of administrative law: it triggers the right to access to agency information in public meeting laws, but bars access in public records laws. This is the first Article to identify and explain what I call the Deliberation Paradox in administrative law. This longstanding but unexplored dichotomy has roots in common law history, separation of powers, the purposes of public access statutes, and assumptions about how the government works. But the development of deference doctrines since Chevron v. NRDC sets deliberation at cross-purposes, confusing agencies about what is publicly accessible and denying the public information about vast swaths of government decision-making. This Article contends that the Deliberation Paradox should be recognized and discarded in favor of an approach that grants deference only to deliberation that is publicly disclosed, with significant implications for judicial deference to agency interpretations of law and for inter-agency collaboration.


BACKGROUND
Available options to fill fracture voids include autogenous bone, allograft bone, and synthetic bone materials. The objective of this meta-analysis was to determine whether the use of calcium phosphate bone cement improves clinical and radiographic outcomes and reduces fracture complications as compared with conventional treatment (with or without autogenous bone graft) for the treatment of fractures of the appendicular skeleton in adult patients.

METHODS
Multiple databases, online registers of randomized controlled trials, and the proceedings of the meetings of major national orthopaedic associations were searched. Published and unpublished randomized controlled trials were included, and data on methodological quality, population, intervention, and outcomes were abstracted in duplicate. Data were pooled across studies, and relative risks for categorical outcomes and weighted mean differences for continuous outcomes, weighted according to study sample size, were calculated. Heterogeneity across studies was determined, and sensitivity analyses were conducted.

RESULTS
We identified eleven published and three unpublished randomized controlled trials. Of the fourteen studies, six involved distal radial fractures, two involved femoral neck fractures, two involved intertrochanteric femoral fractures, two involved tibial plateau fractures, one involved calcaneal fractures, and one involved multiple types of metaphyseal fractures. All of the studies evaluated the use of calcium phosphate cement for the treatment of metaphyseal fractures occurring primarily through trabecular, cancellous bone. Autogenous bone graft was used in the control group in three studies, and no graft material was used in the remaining studies. Patients managed with calcium phosphate had a significantly lower prevalence of loss of fracture reduction in comparison with patients managed with autograft (relative risk reduction, 68%; 95% confidence interval, 29% to 86%) and had less pain at the fracture site in comparison with controls managed with no graft (relative risk reduction, 56%; 95% confidence interval, 14% to 77%). We were unable to compare pain at the bone-graft donor site between the studies because of methodological reasons. Three studies independently demonstrated improved functional outcomes when the use of calcium phosphate was compared with the use of no grafting material.

CONCLUSIONS
The use of calcium phosphate bone cement for the treatment of fractures in adult patients is associated with a lower prevalence of pain at the fracture site in comparison with the rate in controls (patients managed with no graft material). Loss of fracture reduction is also decreased in comparison with that in patients managed with autogenous bone graft.


An experimental study on maneuvering-undersea-vehicle geometry was conducted to give detailed information on unsteady turbulent flow separation and to investigate different time-lag models for approximating the unsteady separation locations. Both unsteady and steady results are presented for the axisymmetric configuration of the model, which can also be thought of as a missile or aircraft-fuselage geometry. Steady and unsteady skin-friction magnitudes were measured using hot-film sensors. The minimum of the circumferential skin-friction distribution at each axial-measurement station was used to detect the separation locations. The linear pitch-up maneuver studied is comparable to the dynamic motion of full-scale vehicles of interest, in terms of the nondimensional time. Significant time lags observed between unsteady and steady crossflow separation locations indicate the increase in attached circulation over the maneuvering model, which may explain why unsteady forces measured on similar geometries lead the steady values. A first-order differential time-lag model approximates the unsteady separation locations reasonably well. This model can be considered as a method of correlating the unsteady measurements to the quasi-steady data with a time lag. Using this model, the prediction of the unsteady flow characteristics from the steady data can be possible with the development of methods for estimating the time lags that vary based on the geometry and the maneuvers performed. The results of the unsteady experiments presented in this paper show that the time required to displace the volume of leeside inviscid fluid during a maneuver with vortical separated flow may be the main factor creating the difference in the time-lag magnitudes and their spatial variation observed for different axisymmetric geometries and points of rotation.


The purpose of this study was to describe my academic journey as a gifted Black male with dyslexia. The central research question was the following: What were some of the stories along my academic pathway that seem significant? The research design positioned me inside the culture in which I am the topic of examination. The research methodology used for my analysis was autoethnography, which allows personal experiences to be explored through the intersection between narrative inquiry and ethnography. The approach allowed me to fully articulate my lived experiences, which provided a deeper understanding on how the intersectionality of race, dyslexia, and giftedness influenced my identity formation. An analysis of my journey led to the finding that the intersection of identity categories must be attended to, in order to support the learning of students with "triple-identity." The article presents a theoretical model for exploring the intersectionality of those elements.


The big indirect flight muscles in the thorax of honeybees and bumblebees show two modes of action: they contract with 'conventional' twitches in response to slowly repeated muscle potentials and go into tetanus at higher muscle potential frequencies. They can also contract much faster when quickly stretched (stretch activation). We observed contractions of DV (dorsoventral) and DL (dorsal longitudinal) muscles optically with the help of a tiny mirror glued to the scutellum. We noticed that DL muscles contracted much more than DV muscles during pre-flight warmup. During warm-up, muscle potential frequencies in DL muscles were higher than in DV muscles (DL frequency/DV frequency =1.3), whereas during flight the ratio reversed (DL/DV=0.8). The scutal fissure was completely closed during shivering warm-up, apparently because the DL muscles shortened as much as they could. As a consequence, fast antagonistic stretching was not possible. However, the scutal fissure oscillated between wide open and closed during flight, and antagonists could stretch each other quickly. Flight was started by highly synchronized 'conventional' contractions of many muscle elements in DV muscles. Antagonistic stretch-activation during flight led to faster shortening than during shivering warm-up and synchronized all activated muscle elements to produce maximal contractions. The indirect flight muscles of bumblebees were in tetanic contractions during shivering warm-up over the whole range of temperatures between 8 and 36°C. These tetanic contractions probably prevented other researchers from observing mechanical muscle activity. Our results, which for the first time allow us to detect tetanic contractions directly, make it very improbable that non-shivering thermogenesis occurs in bumblebees, as has been proposed previously.


The purpose of the study is to examine digital literacy competences and learning habits of learners enrolled in the open and distance education system of Anadolu University in Turkey. Data were gathered from 20.172 open and distance learners through a survey which included four parts: demographic information, abilities to use digital technologies, learning habits, preferences in using digital technologies for learning purposes. Principal Component Factor Analysis was applied in order to group and classify the attitudes and statements of the learners in their personal learning preferences, problem solving skills, project work skills, and abilities to use digital tools for learning purposes. Their personal learning preferences produced five factors: visual, auditory, dependent, collaborative, and reading-writing learning styles. According to the results of the study, learners believe that they have problem solving and project working skills to deal with educational difficulties. However, they seem to have only basic competences of digital literacy and the skills to use information and communication technologies at a basic level. They need training on how to use digital tools more efficiently for learning purposes. Further research is needed to explore how to increase the use of digital tools for the purpose of effective learning and also how to design learning environments to improve digital literacy of open and distance learners


The book analyses the attitudes of non-EU countries towards European integration in historical and contemporary perspectives. The authors study a range of actors in Europe and beyond to explain the impact of the creation of the European Communities on the international system and how the EU is perceived in the world. The book further shows the significance of the institutional interplay within the EU, and between EU institutions, member states and external actors led by their own internal dynamics to explain policy outcomes. It investigates to what extent the perceptions of the international community towards the European Communities and the EU have been influenced by the complexity of their decision-making and the difficulty of reconciling the views of member states on key external relations issues. The authors also study the interplay of non-EU countries and the EU within the broader context of international and regional institutions and forums for international cooperation.


Like conventional farming, organic agriculture in the Netherlands is highly specialized. Both livestock and arable farmers have optimised production independent of each other which has led to a high use of external inputs from conventional agriculture (manure and other fertilisers and straw) and feedstuffs (mainly concentrate feed) from abroad. This situation conflicts with important principles of organic agriculture such as a balance between livestock and arable farming, closing nutrient cycles and regionally based production. In an attempt to find solutions for this dilemma, the Louis Bolk Institute (LBI) started with a series of projects called "Partner Farms" in which the LBI cooperated closely with leading edge farmers (Wit et al, 2003). In these projects the cooperation between specialised livestock and arable farmers was stimulated, in some cases ultimately leading to "mixed farms at a distance". Later the LBI became involved in a combined research programme together with various research institutes of the Wageningen University and Research aimed at studying "intersectoral cooperation" and nutrient cycles on a national level, using both modelling and participatory research (Enting et al. 2005). In both cases it became clear that the simultaneous use of both types of research methodology is necessary to get credible and practically viable results.


We examined the rate of development of the lesions of diabetic nephropathy in transplanted kidneys residing for 6–14 yr in type I (insulin-dependent) diabetic kidney-allograft recipients. Although each recipient had end-stage diabetic nephropathy with his/her own kidneys, there was marked variability in the rate of development of mesangial expansion observed in the transplanted kidneys. The progression of glomerular pathology, including widening of the glomerular basement membrane and expansion of the mesangium, did not correlate significantly with several potential risk factors (e.g., donor source—cadaver or living related, histocompatibility match, age of the recipient or donor, age at onset of diabetes, duration of diabetes before renal failure, immunosuppressive drug dose, blood pressure, and severity of lesions of chronic rejection). However, there was a direct albeit imprecise relationship between the index of mesangial expansion at the final biopsy and the index of glycemic control (r = .61, P < .01). These observations suggest that currently unknown factor(s) may modulate the progression of diabetic renal disease, even in a population that had uniformly demonstrated nephropathy risk. Our data support the hypothesis that in addition to glycemic control per se, there are risk factors intrinsic to the kidney itself.


There are various chemicals available for the control of Varroa mites from honey bee colonies including amitraz and tau-fluvalinate. The optimum dose of these chemicals should give the highest Varroa control efficacy with minimal negative impacts on honey bees. The high doses are expected to have destructive impacts on honey bees. However, the impacts of the sub-lethal doses of these chemicals on honey bees are not well known. Therefore, the potential effects of the sub-lethal doses of these two chemicals on the survival of honey bee workers and drones, and on some body parameters were investigated. The study showed that the exposure of honey bee workers and drones to sub-lethal doses of chemical A (amitraz 125 mg/ml) or chemical B (tau-fluvalinate 240 mg/ml) had no clear negative impacts on their survival rates. Only tau-fluvalinate and not amitraz showed adverse impacts on measured body parameters of workers and drones, suggesting impacts on bee physiology. More insights into the potential impacts of tau-fluvalinate at different doses including the optimum one on bee physiology are advisable.


INTRODUCTION (F. JOHN GREGORY) To commemorate the publication of the 25th Volume of the Journal of Micropalaeontology, the first issue of which came out in 1982, this celebratory review article was commissioned. Officers of each TMS Group (Ostracod, Foraminifera, Palynology, Nannofossil, Microvertebrate and Silicofossil) were requested to reflect over the last 25 years and assess the major advances and innovations in each of their disciplines. It is obvious from the presentations that all Groups report that research has moved on from the basic, but essential descriptive phase, i.e. taxonomy and establishing biostratigraphies, to the utilization of new technologies and application to issues of the day such as climate change and global warming. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the foundation of micropalaeontology is observation and the building block for all these new and exciting innovations and developments is still good taxonomy. Briefly, the most obvious conclusion that can be drawn from this review is that micropalaeontology as a science is in relatively good health, but we have to ensure that the reported advancements will sustain and progress our discipline. There is one issue that has not really been highlighted in these contributions – we need to make sure that there are enough people being trained in micropalaeontology to maintain development. The last 25 years has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of post-graduate MSc courses in micropalaeontology. For example, in the UK, in the 1980s and early 1990s there were five specific MSc courses to choose . . .


In his assessment of the latest draft prospectus Regulation, published on 30 November 2015, Karel Lannoo argues in this ECMI Commentary that the text goes somewhat further than the European Commission has previously entertained, but it falls short of creating a European market. In his view, the Commission is hostage to its own (or member states') unwillingness to expand the powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to become an EU-wide listing authority. In short, the Union that the EU wants to create for capital markets still seems a distant ambition.


Historic Preservation and The African-American CommunityA walk down the famed U Street corridor of Washington, D.C., in earlier times, would take one past the prosperous Industrial Bank; the Howard, Dunbar and Lincoln Theaters, which together with the spacious Colonnade Club, gave U Street the nickname "Black Broadway;" the imposing Masonic Hall; the offices of the Afro-American newspaper; the famous jazz club Bohemian Caverns; shops; florists; Ben's Chili Bowl; the private home where Malcolm X stayed during his visits; and offices of doctors and lawyers. On the side streets were found beautiful middle class homes; churches; schools; the Black designed, financed and constructed Whitelaw Hotel; the first Black YMCA in the country; and the home of Mary McLeod Bethune. A few blocks away, at the top of the hill was the eminent Howard University with the fabulous LeDroit Park nestled at its foot, where Black Washington brahmin and luminaries such as Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Mary Church Terrell, Senator Edward Brooke, and Dr. Anna J. Cooper lived.U Street and other Black neighborhoods of Washington made up what was once termed the "undisputed center of American Negro Civilization."(1) There is barely a trace today of the once magnificent neighborhoods and rich culture. The construction of public housing in the 1930's, alleged slum clearance and displacement beginning after World War II in Georgetown and Foggy Bottom, and later integration, development, poverty, disinvestment and changing demographics have all contributed to the diminution of the compelling presence of Black Washington.The same could be said for Jackson Ward in Richmond, sections of Harlem in New York, Ninth Street in Little Rock, Auburn Avenue and the West End in Atlanta, Roxbury in Boston, Greenwood in Tulsa and so on. It is apparent that every day urban historically Black communities are being destroyed through urban renewal, gentrification or neglect because these neighborhoods are not valued for what they have represented. If nothing is done about it, the history and culture of traditional African American neighborhoods, an historical source of individual and community pride and stability, will be lost to the current and future generations of African Americans.This paper proposes that historic preservation can be a useful tool for stabilizing and revitalizing African American Communities. Our neighborhoods present the physical and spatial representation of our cultural heritage and are as important as the recitation of names and dates.In every city, there are neighborhoods that have been preserved, or restored, to their former appearance. These are a great source of civic pride, and economic development, as will be discussed later. And many of these neighborhoods have been designated historic districts. Despite the overwhelming amount of attention that has been given to preserving historical white communities, the number of groups engaged in preserving and or restoring the remains of historical Black areas as African American communities is growing. Fruits of such efforts in the District of Columbia are the recent renovations of the historic Whitelaw Hotel into affordable housing and the restoration and reopening of the Lincoln Theater.There are elements, however, that make it difficult to promote historic preservation especially in Black communities. As stated earlier, people do not understand or are unaware of the history that surrounds them. There was a 50th-year commemoration of Langston Terrace, a public housing development in Washington, designed and built in 1937 by an African American, Hilyard Robinson. The curator for the event recounted the amazement of current residents. Suddenly aware of the significance of their homes, some, for years, had walked by the stone friezes and statues depicting the diaspora of African American people, never really noticing the story told by the art.(2) For a brief moment, that community felt a sense of pride that had been lost over the 50 years of its inception. …


The transdermal route of administration offers an alternative pathway for systemic drug delivery with numerous advantages over conventional routes. Regrettably, the stratum corneum forms a formidable barrier that hinders the percutaneous penetration of most drugs, offering an important protection mechanism to the organism against entrance of possible dangerous exogenous molecules. Different types of penetration enhancers have shown the potential to reversibly overcome this barrier to provide effective delivery of drugs across the skin. Although certain chemical and physical skin penetration enhancers are already employed by the pharmaceutical industry in commercially available transdermal products, some skin penetration enhancers are associated with irritating and toxic effects. This emphasizes the need for the discovery of new, safe and effective skin penetration enhancers. Penetration enhancers from natural origin have become popular as they offer several benefits over their synthetic counterparts such as sustainable mass production from a renewable resource and lower cost depending on the type of extraction used. The aim of this article is to give a comprehensive summary of the results from scientific research conducted on skin penetration enhancers of natural origin. The discussions on these natural penetration enhancers have been organized into the following chemical classes: essential oils, terpenes, fatty acids and polysaccharides.


In 2007, I toured Moundsville Penitentiary, a tourist spectacle that was once - and fairly recently - a working prison. I wrote about the experience as would a journalist, except that my working paradigm was the postmodern theory of hyperreality, which Jean Baudrillard used to describe the complex tensions between reality and illusion. A term of semiotics, hyperreality refers to the disappearance of the referent and its subsequent, oft-replicated simulation. It almost always involves strategically controlled images that distort and conceal true meaning. The International Journal of Baudrillard Studies published my essay in January 2009. Shortly thereafter, many of my libertarian friends and colleagues wrote to ask for clarification or to express their disagreements. In what follows, whether I'm describing hyperreality or speculating about the horror-themed attractions at Moundsville Penitentiary, my principal concern is laying the libertarian foundation for my argument. I do not mean to defend my theories so much as explain them; nor do I insist that my cultural criticism is somehow "the" right way. I simply hope to fill a critical vacuum and to generate conversation not only about the condition of the American prison system writ large, but also about state-run tourist attractions that glorify the history of the sovereign at the expense of real knowledge about human suffering.


We represent planning as a set of loosely coupled network flow problems, where each network corresponds to one of the state variables in the planning domain. The network nodes correspond to the state variable values and the network arcs correspond to the value transitions. The planning problem is to find a path (a sequence of actions) in each network such that, when merged, they constitute a feasible plan. In this paper we present a number of integer programming formulations that model these loosely coupled networks with varying degrees of flexibility. Since merging may introduce exponentially many ordering constraints we implement a so-called branch-and-cut algorithm, in which these constraints are dynamically generated and added to the formulation when needed. Our results are very promising, they improve upon previous planning as integer programming approaches and lay the foundation for integer programming approaches for cost optimal planning.


In the 1990s, Brazil went through important trade policy changes. It carried out unilateral liberalization and also engaged in an ambitious project of regional integration (Mercosur) and in various trade negotiations. These changes, however, took place within the limits set down by the paradigms of foreign and trade policies inherited from the period of protectionist industrialization. This explains both the specific features of unilateral liberalization (and its results) and the defensive stance systematically adopted by Brazil on the different trade negotiation fronts. In the past few years, these paradigms have been challenged in the field of trade negotiations by interests whose emergence is associated with structural changes in the economy, especially the consolidation of a highly competitive agribusiness. Under this scenario, Brazil is being pressured to revise its paradigm of foreign and trade policies and to deepen its integration with the international economy. As a result, tensions have arisen between, on the one side, the old paradigms that drive government policy choices and, on the other, pressures for deeper integration. Although the results of this conflict remain an open issue, if Brazil is to go further in its international integration, a new policy agenda is required and the country's global and regional strategies need to be revised. Pedro da Motta Veiga Brazil's Trade Policy: Moving Away From Old Paradigms? 3


Abstract Background Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on respiratory specimens and serology on paired blood specimens are used to determine the etiology of respiratory illnesses for research studies. However, convalescent serology is often not collected. We used multiple imputation to assign values for missing serology results to estimate virus-specific prevalence among pediatric and adult community-acquired pneumonia hospitalizations using data from an active population-based surveillance study. Methods Presence of adenoviruses, human metapneumovirus, influenza viruses, parainfluenza virus types 1–3, and respiratory syncytial virus was defined by positive PCR on nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens or a 4-fold rise in paired serology. We performed multiple imputation by developing a multivariable regression model for each virus using data from patients with available serology results. We calculated absolute and relative differences in the proportion of each virus detected comparing the imputed to observed (nonimputed) results. Results Among 2222 children and 2259 adults, 98.8% and 99.5% had nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens and 43.2% and 37.5% had paired serum specimens, respectively. Imputed results increased viral etiology assignments by an absolute difference of 1.6%–4.4% and 0.8%–2.8% in children and adults, respectively; relative differences were 1.1–3.0 times higher. Conclusions Multiple imputation can be used when serology results are missing, to refine virus-specific prevalence estimates, and these will likely increase estimates.


This paper presents a highly accurate and efficient method for crack detection using percolation-based image processing. The detection of cracks in concrete surfaces during the maintenance and diagnosis of concrete structures is important to ensure the safety of these structures. Recently, the image-based crack detection method has attracted considerable attention due to its low cost and objectivity. However, there are several problems in the practical application of image processing for crack detection since real concrete surface images have noises such as concrete blebs, stains, and shadings of several sizes. In order to resolve these problems, our proposed method focuses on the number of pixels in a crack and the connectivity of the pixels. Our method employs a percolation model for crack detection in order to consider the features of the cracks. Through experiments using real concrete surface images, we demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of our method.


The binding ability between 4-phenylbutan-2-amine (PBA) and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was mainly investigated by UV-Visible and fluorescence spectroscopic methods. From the intensity of fluorescence spectra, it was observed that the 4-phenylbutan-2-amine has a strong ability to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA through a static quenching mechanism. The binding constant and number of binding sites were investigated using Stern-Volmer equation. Conformation changes of BSA were observed from synchronous and Circular Dichroism (CD) spectra. The results of UV-Vis, CD, synchronous fluorescence spectral revealed the changes in the secondary structure of BSA upon interaction with 4-phenylbutan 2-amine thereby confirming their binding nature.


Our purpose in this paper is to examine how one might evaluate and measure the contribution of public infrastructure capital on private sector output and productivity growth in Sweden. We do this by specifying and implementing empirically a number of alternative econometric models, using annual data for Sweden from 1960 to 1988. Using a dual cost function approach, we find that increases in public infrastructure capital, ceteris paribus, reduce private sector costs. We compute that amount of public infrastructure capital that would rationalize the cost savings incurred by the private business and manufacturing sectors, and find that the amount that can be rationalized in this manner is less than what was in fact available in 1988, but that the extent of excess public infrastructure capital has been falling in the 1980's.


Hand gestures have been found to provide both semantic information and cognitive facilitative effects in language tasks. These benefits, however, have typically been linked to micro-levels of word and sentence production, and little attention has been paid to the macro-levels of narrative production and organization. In this study, we examined the length, content, syntactic complexity, and organization of narratives of ten typically developing adults under two conditions: (i) Free Gesture, in which participants were allowed to gesture freely while retelling a story, and (ii) Restricted Gesture, where the participants were prevented from moving their hands freely. Results indicated that although narrative length and content did not vary significantly between conditions, narratives produced in the Free Gesture condition were significantly more grammatically complex and better organized than those produced in the Restricted Gesture condition. The findings are discussed with respect to the potential facilitative cognitive effects of gesture for discourse planning.


In this monograph, the author examines the existing relationship between the juridical and ethical scopes, emphasizing especially the present status of the subject in Brasil. Accordingly, he points out that Law, as an imperative norm, has found great difficulty in establishing rules for bioethical matters, because it rules simultaneously with other normative systems that are not issued by the public authorities, but by the scientific community. Nevertheless, its juridical's recognition legitimates them because it reflects the predominant values in society, allowing them to be inserted in the social system.


We report the case of a 60 years old female treated because of fluid lung under the presumption of acute oliguric renal failure in decompensated diabetic nephropathy with dialysis via a central venous line. Normal creatinine test results before admission were the reason for further diagnostics. Positive P-ANCA and Anti-MPO-Antibodies and the result of the renal biopsy proved the diagnosis of a renal limited microscopic polyangiitis. An immunosuppressive therapy with methylprednisolone and cyclophosphamide was initiated and a course of plasma exchange with substitution of ringer- albumin 5%- solution was started. Four days after biopsy a clinical deterioration occurred. The sonography image showed no clear result - an after that performed CT scan confirmed the diagnosis of an acute retroperitoneal bleeding. We recommend in these cases a partial or complete use of fresh frozen plasma as substitution fluid for plasma exchange and under suspicion of retroperitoneal bleeding a CT scan as the imaging modality of choice. doi:10.4021/wjnu16w


Immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before the Civil War were less likely to reside in locations with high immigrant concentrations as their time in the U.S. increased. This is contrary to the experience of recent immigrants who show no decrease in concentration after arrival. The reduced isolation of antebellum immigrants was not due to their own movement to places with fewer immigrants but due to the movement of the native-born into places (particularly cities) with large immigrant concentrations. The isolation of contemporary immigrants even after several years in the U.S. thus results more from the reluctance of the native-born to relocate to places with many immigrants than from immigrants' reluctance to move to places with fewer immigrants. Contemporary immigrants had greater success than antebellum immigrants avoiding unskilled jobs as they entered the U.S. job market, though they moved out of unskilled jobs less often than antebellum immigrants when comparing their occupations at two points in time after arrival. Improvements in occupational mobility between antebellum and recent immigrants were most apparent among those in other than unskilled jobs. These findings suggest the need to reevaluate some of the premises upon which the concerns about the economic performance of recent immigrants are based.


We apply keyquery-based taxonomy composition to compute a classification system for the CORE dataset, a shared crawl of about 850,000 scientific papers. Keyquery-based taxonomy composition can be understood as a two-phase hierarchical document clustering technique that utilizes search queries as cluster labels: In a first phase, the document collection is indexed by a reference search engine, and the documents are tagged with the search queries they are relevant�for their so-called keyqueries. In a second phase, a hierarchical clustering is formed from the keyqueries within an iterative process. We use the explicit topic model ESA as document retrieval model in order to index the CORE dataset in the reference search engine. Under the ESA retrieval model, documents are represented as vectors of similarities to Wikipedia articles; a methodology proven to be advantageous for text categorization tasks. Our paper presents the generated taxonomy and reports on quantitative properties such as document coverage and processing requirements.


Background. Previous studies of personality characteristics in women with eating disorders primarily have focused on women who are acutely ill. This study compares personality characteristics among women who are ill with eating disorders, recovered from eating disorders, and those without eating or other Axis I disorder pathology. Method. Female participants were assessed for personality characteristics using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI): 122 with anorexia nervosa (AN; 77 ill, 45 recovered), 279 with bulimia nervosa (BN; 194 ill, 85 recovered), 267 with lifetime histories of both anorexia and bulimia nervosa (AN+BN; 194 ill, 73 recovered), 63 with eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS; 31 ill, 32 recovered), and 507 without eating or Axis I disorder pathology. Results. Women ill with all types of eating disorders exhibited several TCI score differences from control women, particularly in the areas of novelty-seeking, harm avoidance, self-directedness, and cooperativeness. Interestingly, women recovered from eating disorders reported higher levels of harm avoidance and lower self-directedness and cooperativeness scores than did normal control women. Conclusions. Women with eating disorders in both the ill and recovered state show higher levels of harm avoidance and lower self-directedness and cooperativeness scores than normal control women. Although findings suggest that disturbances may be trait-related and contribute to the disorders' pathogenesis, additional research with more representative community controls, rather than our pre-screened, normal controls, is needed to confirm these impressions.


Land use impacts of biofuel expansion have attracted a tremendous amount of attention because of the implications for the climate, the environment, and the food supply. To examine these impacts, we set up an economic framework that links input use and land allocation decisions with ethanol and agricultural commodity markets. Crops can be substitutes or complements in supply depending on the relative magnitude of three effects of crop prices: total cropland effect, land share effect, and input use effect. We show that with unregulated free markets, total cropland area increases with corn prices whether crops are substitutes or complements in supply. Similarly, higher corn yields from exogenous technical changes lead to cropland expansion. The impacts of yield increases for other crops are ambiguous. With a quantity mandate for ethanol, higher mandates mean larger cropland area if corn and other crops are substitutes in demand. For a given mandate, yield improvement causes total cropland to expand if crop demand is elastic enough, or to contract under a very general condition if crop demand is sufficiently inelastic.


As high-throughput biology begins to generate large volumes of systems biology data, the need grows for robust, efficient database systems to support investigations of metabolic and signaling pathways, chemical reaction networks, gene regulatory networks, and protein interaction networks. Network data is frequently represented as graphs, and researchers need to navigate, query and manipulate this data in ways that are not well supported by standard relational database management systems (RDBMSs). Current approaches to managing graphs in an RDBMS rely on either external procedural logic to execute the graph algorithms or clumsy and inefficient algorithms implemented in Structured Query Language (SQL). In this paper we describe the Systems Biology Graph Extender, a research prototype that extends the IBM RDBMS--DB2® Universal Database software--with graph objects and operations to support declarative SQL queries over biological networks and other graph structures. Supported operations include neighborhood queries, shortest path queries, spanning trees, graph transposition, and graph matching. In a federated database environment, graph operations may be applied to data stored in any format, whether remote or local, relational or nonrelational. A single federated query may include both graph-based predicates and predicates over related data sources, such as microarray expression levels, clinical prognosis and outcome, or the function of orthologous proteins (i.e., proteins that are evolutionarily related to those in another species) in mouse disease models.


This Article is an attempt to fill in some of the gaps in the public's knowledge of the case Lawrence v. Texas. Much of the rich post-arrest history of the case has been ignored. But for the courage, insight, and initiative of three men in particular, the arrest might have been another forgotten episode in what the author calls the under history of the Texas sodomy law, the history not told in appellate opinions or in most other accounts. Section II reviews the "somewhat known" past, tracing the evolution of the Texas sodomy law from a statute so facially indeterminate that it dared not speak its name to an enactment of exquisite specificity focusing only on homosexuals. The author concludes that it is likely the Texas law had sporadically been enforced against private, adult, consensual activity. However, the stories of the people involved in this enforcement have been hushed up, victims of the shame the law itself both reflected and reinforced. The Lawrence and Garner arrests nearly came to the same fate.Section III begins to unearth the untold story of Lawrence, the story that cannot be found in the pages of the U.S. Reports or in newspaper and magazine accounts. This includes a description and analysis of what likely happened that partly cloudy September night in Houston more than six years ago. I want to emphasize that the conclusions I offer in this section are based on a necessarily incomplete examination of the principals involved. Most important of all, before any definitive conclusion could be reached, it is still necessary to hear the story of these events from Lawrence and Garner themselves. So far that has not been possible.Section IV reveals how the matter started the journey from an arrest to a Justice of the Peace to more exalted places. It tells the story of a real hero, Lane Lewis, and the two men brave enough to assist him - all three of whom have been lost in the understandable focus on the defendants and their attorneys.Section V places the story told in Sections III and IV in the larger framework of gay history and the treatment of gay people by the law.


Abstract As widely accepted, justified by the historical developments of physics, the background for standard formulation of postulates of physical theories leading to equations of motion, or even the form of equations of motion themselves, come from empirical experience. Equations of motion are then a starting point for obtaining specific conservation laws, as, for example, the well-known conservation laws of momenta and mechanical energy in mechanics. On the other hand, there are numerous examples of physical laws or equations of motion which can be obtained from a certain variational principle as Euler-Lagrange equations and their solutions, meaning that the \true trajectories" of the physical systems represent stationary points of the corresponding functionals. It turns out that equations of motion in most of the fundamental theories of physics (as e.g. classical mechanics, mechanics of continuous media or fluids, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, string theory, etc.), are Euler-Lagrange equations of an appropriately formulated variational principle. There are several well established geometrical theories providing a general description of variational problems of different kinds. One of the most universal and comprehensive is the calculus of variations on fibred manifolds and their jet prolongations. Among others, it includes a complete general solution of the so-called strong inverse variational problem allowing one not only to decide whether a concrete equation of motion can be obtained from a variational principle, but also to construct a corresponding variational functional. Moreover, conservation laws can be derived from symmetries of the Lagrangian defining this functional, or directly from symmetries of the equations. In this paper we apply the variational theory on jet bundles to tackle some fundamental problems of physics, namely the questions on existence of a Lagrangian and the problem of conservation laws. The aim is to demonstrate that the methods are universal, and easily applicable to distinct physical disciplines: from classical mechanics, through special relativity, waves, classical electrodynamics, to quantum mechanics.


Portfolio resampling is a very general and powerful technique to show the dispersion of optimized portfolio weights that arises from estimation error in inputs. Investors should however be aware of potential pitfalls when applying resampling techniques in order to arrive at better portfolios as resampling might deliberately create biases into the portfolio construction process. If short sales are allowed the concept of resampled efficiency will only add noise to optimal portfolios. In case of long only constraints resampling tends to include dominated assets into optimal allocations. Volatility becomes here an attractive feature as it increases the dispersion in resampled inputs and leads to upwards biased allocations. Assets either enter the optimal solution or they don't but they are never shorted.


In this universe 90% of the matter is dark matter which is not visible and 10% of the matter is baryonic matter which is visible. Baryonic matter includes all the galaxies that we see today. But the evolution of large scale structure includes the underlying dark matter. Dark matter is only affected by gravitational field whereas the baryonic matter is affected by gravitational field as well as radiation pressure, magnetic field etc. This difference leads to the study of bias factor called as cosmological bias. The field of research is open for the study of cosmological properties which is possible by the study of cosmological bias. It is the ratio of baryonic matter density to the dark matter density. The study of cosmological bias really an interesting topic to unfold many more mystery about the evolution of large scale structures. Cosmological bias provides a wide scope to learn the properties of underlying dark matter. So cosmological bias is a significant topic for study and research. Magneto hydrodynamic equations containing magnetic field as the source term in matter dominated era treated as the basic equations to find the required equation for matter density. This equation contains the information about dark matter density (δ_DM) and the baryonic matter density (δ_b) . This equation is solved analytically at different red shift values (z). The value of b is found to be 6.327 at z=0. As the value of z decreases from z=1000 to z=0 the value of bias increases from 0 to 6.327 which indicates that presence of magnetic field is amplified that means the magnetic field can be one of the bias tracer element.


This thesis, entitled: 'Role of AMP-protein kinase (AMPK) in regulation of perivascular
adipose tissue (PVAT) function', has been submitted by author Tarek Ali Mohamed
Almabrouk for a degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the College of Medical,
Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow, October 2016.

Apart from the cerebral circulation, all vasculature is surrounded by layers of adipose
tissue known as perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT). In health, PVAT can function as an
endocrine organ to produce a wide range of adipocytokines which can attenuate vascular
contraction. The exact mechanism of this anti-contractile effect is still ill-defined, although
much evidence suggests that PVAT-released adipocytokines may activate K+ channels on
VSMCs or eNOS on endothelial layer possibly via AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).
However, obesity results in oxidative stress and inflammation of the PVAT leading to
abnormal adipocytokine release and PVAT dysfunction. AMPK is a serine/threonine
kinase with many potential physiological functions, including regulation of energy
heamostasis. AMPK is expressed in the three layers of the blood vessel: smooth muscle
(VSM), the endothelium and PVAT and it is known that activation of AMPK leads to
vascular dilatation via both endothelium- and non-endothelium-dependent mechanisms.
Although it is known that AMPK can modulate VSM and endothelial function, it is
unknown whether AMPK can influence the anti-contractile activity of PVAT. Therefore,
this project aimed to investigate the mechanism of the anticontractile effect of PVAT by
determining the functions of AMPK within adipocytes, as well as to assess the importance
of vascular AMPK to the PVAT anti-contractile function.

Experiments were conducted using wild type (WT) and global AMPKα1 knockout (KO)
mice aortae. The phenotypic features of the PVAT were assessed by both histological,
immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent methods. Secretory function of the PVAT
was tested using an immunoblotting array and ELISA, whereas the anti-contractile effect
of PVAT was studied using wire myography. Immunoblotting methods were used to test
AMPK activity in the PVAT and VSMCs.
Aortic rings from WT and KO mice were denuded of endothelium and mounted on a wire
myograph in the presence and absence of PVAT. The responses to an AMPK activator
(AICAR) and the AMPK-independent vasodilator cromakalim were subsequently assessed.
Relaxation responses to AICAR or cromakalim in the Sv129 (wild type) mouse were

significantly enhanced in the presence of endogenous attached or unattached PVAT, an
effect that was absent in vessels from KO mice. Furthermore, enhanced relaxation was
observed in vessels from KO mice incubated with PVAT from Sv129 mice, whereas
PVAT from KO mice had no effect on relaxation of vessels from Sv129 mice.

Furthermore, conditioned medium (CM) transfer experiments demonstrated the presence of
an anticontractile factor released from PVAT that was absent in KO mice. Adiponectin
secretion was reduced in PVAT from KO mice and PVAT-enhanced relaxation was
attenuated in the presence of adiponectin blocking peptide. Adipokine array and ELISA
demonstrated that adiponectin release is significantly reduced in the KO conditioned media
in comparison with wild type CM. Globular adiponectin restores the relaxation response in
both wild type aortae without PVAT and in KO aortae with and without PVAT.
High fat diet (HFD) fed mice showed a reduction in the relaxation response to cromakalim
in wild type vessels with intact PVAT in comparison with animals fed a normal chow diet
(ND). HFD animals had increased inflammatory infiltrates in the PVAT which were
associated with reduced AMPK activity and adiponectin release in comparison with ND
fed WT mice. In KO mice, AMPK activity was also reduced and increased inflammatory
infiltration was observed in both ND and HFD mice.

In conclusion, the current project demonstrates that AMPKα1 has a critical role in
maintaining PVAT's anti-contractile effect; likely mediated through altered adiponectin
secretion or sensitivity, and through protection of PVAT against inflammation. Marked
reduction in AMPK activity in WT PVAT, accompanied with the reduction in the release
of adiponectin in HFD and KO animal may explain the impaired vascular function
observed in obesity.


The author has researched and developed a theory of computation for caricature and has implemented this theory as an interactive computer graphics program. The Caricature Generator program is used to create caricatures by amplifying the differences between the face to be caricatured and a comparison face. This continuous, parallel amplification of facial features on the computer screen simulates the visualization process in the imagination of the caricaturist. The result is a recognizable, animated caricature, generated by computer and mediated by an individual who may or may not have facility for drawing, but who, like most human beings, is expert at visualizing and recognizing faces.


Glucocorticoids and etoposide are used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) as they induce death in lymphoblasts through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and p53. However, glucocorticoid resistance, cell death mechanisms and the contribution of the bone marrow microenvironment to drug response/resistance all require investigation. Using microenvironment-mimicking conditioned media (CM), dexamethasone (a synthetic glucocorticoid) and etoposide to treat glucocorticoid-sensitive (C7-14) and glucocorticoid-resistant (C1-15) cells, pathways by which the microenvironment exerts its chemoprotective effect have been investigated. CM reduced caspase-3/8 activation, downregulated RIPK1 (necroptotic marker), and limited chemotherapy-induced BECN1 downregulation, suggesting protective effects of CM. Glucocorticoids upregulated BIRC3 (which ubiquitinates RIPK1), whilst CM altered GR phosphorylation. GR occupancy was observed on the RIPK1, BECN1 and BIRC3 promoters and changed depending on its phosphorylation. High-molecular weight proteins reacting with the RIPK1 antibody increased with CM, and reduced following AT406 BIRC3 inhibitor treatment suggesting they represent ubiquitinated RIPK1. These results suggest mechanisms by which CM promotes survival, as well as indicating novel glucocorticoid-regulated pathways. Complementing laboratory investigation is the construction of a Boolean model of the GR interaction network (GEB052, GR "interactome") containing 52 nodes (proteins, inputs/outputs) connected by 241 interactions. In silico mutations and analyses have generated predictions that were subsequently validated on a genome-wide scale via comparison to microarray data. GEB052 demonstrated high prediction accuracy, consistently achieving a better prediction rate than a randomised model. Quantitative algorithmic analysis via microarray superimposition has also been performed, and lastly the model has been preliminarily validated as a clinical tool via superimposition of patient microarray data and comparing model predictions to clinical data. In summary, this thesis provides novel insight into the effects of the microenvironment, and identifies new glucocorticoid-regulated pathways. The GEB052 model of GR signalling represents the novel application of this modelling approach to GR research, and generates accurate predictions.


In this paper, we construct several tools for building and manipulating pools of biases in the analysis of RC4. We report extremely fast and optimized active and passive attacks against IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol WEP and a key recovery and a distinguishing attack against WPA. This was achieved through a huge amount of theoretical and experimental analysis (capturing WiFi packets), refinement and optimization of all the former known attacks and methodologies against RC4 stream cipher in WEP and WPA modes. We support all our claims on WEP by providing an implementation of this attack as a publicly available patch on Aircrack-ng. Our new attack improves its success probability drastically. Our active attack, based on ARP injection, requires 22500 packets to gain success probability of 50% against a 104-bit WEP key, using Aircrack-ng in non-interactive mode. It runs in less than 5 seconds on an off-the-shelf PC. Using the same number of packets, Aicrack-ng yields around 3% success rate. Furthermore, we describe very fast passive only attacks by just eavesdropping TCP/IPv4 packets in a WiFi communication. Our passive attack requires 27500 packets. This is much less than the number of packets Aircrack-ng requires in active mode (around 37500), which is a huge improvement. Deploying a similar theory, we also describe several attacks on WPA. Firstly, we describe a distinguisher for WPA with complexity 2^{42} and advantage 0.5 which uses 2^{42} packets. Then, based on several partial temporary key recovery attacks, we recover the full 128-bit temporary key of WPA by using 2^{42} packets. It works with complexity 2^{96}. So far, this is the best key recovery attack against WPA. We believe that our analysis brings on further insight to the security of RC4.


2012 70 Revolutions can happen in different ways. About six years ago, a very particular type of revolution began in a cluster of rooms on the main campus of Gallaudet University. There, a handful of individuals began a quiet revolution guided by an overarching passionate mission to conduct groundbreaking science that would have widespread benefits for education and society. Launched with a coveted award from the National Science Foundation, our Science of Learning Center—called Visual Language and Visual Learning, and affectionately referred to as VL2—became one of only six Science of Learning Centers established in the National Science Foundation's history.


Digitization of cultural heritage collections, both within and outside museums has led to the establishment of a new field of theory and practice of the digital curation of cultural information. Cultural heritage ontology construction a practice in museum documentation, faces the challenge of dealing with the abundance of information while struggling to maintain the authenticity and preservation of the cultural knowledge. Similar to other knowledge domains, the existence of various ontology of cultural heritage knowledge and their differences has caused predicament in accessing or retrieving information. To overcome this predicament, the standard ontology, in this case the CIDOC CRM is used to consolidate between two or more local ontology through the consolidation with a standard (global) ontology through a process known as ontology mapping. The effort needed to map two ontologies with some content similarity but different structures while minimizing knowledge loss is challenging. Knowledge loss is a situation where the concepts of local ontology are excluded from the result of mapping to the global ontology. Automated mapping through the use various existing algorithms offers an efficient solution but suffers in knowledge loss. A compromised method is needed to balance between the construction efficiency and the knowledge loss. This research seeks to establish a framework for constructing cultural heritage ontology through semi-automated ontology mapping. Using the traditional Malays textile (TMT) as the domain knowledge for this work and scoping on the Malaysian batik, this research is carried out in three phases. In the first phase, a manual mapping process between an existing TMT Knowledge Model (local) and CIDOC CRM (global) was carried to produce a Malaysian batik heritage ontology (MBHO). This is also achieved due to active participation of batik and ontology experts in verifying the MBHO. In the second phase, several automated mapping tools were tested. The finding shows that the mapping tools able to produce a Malaysian Batik ontology close to MBHO with knowledge loss as the resulting mapping were mostly incorrect. In the third phase, the refinement of the processes undergone in phases one and two were made to deduce the actual steps carried out and the rules that govern the actions of ontology construction through ontology mapping process. Comparison between both processes showed that the semi-automated mapping can improve the efficiency of the construction while reducing knowledge loss. The work in this phase led to the construction of a process framework of ontology construction through semi-automation. This framework is then verified by an expert in framework development and two experts in ontology constructions. A revised framework was produced and is name as the Framework for Ontology Construction through Semi-Automated Mapping (MapOn). This new framework contributes towards the knowledge and practice of digital curation in general and ontology construction in specific. In addition the MBHO is a new ontology for the Malaysian cultural heritage. This research also produces empirical evidence of the phenomena of knowledge loss through automated mapping which supports the inclination towards semi-automated mapping.


Knowledge-based systems (KBS) are in general use in a wide variety of domains. As reliance on these types systems grows, the need to assess their quality and validity reaches critical importance. As with any software, the reliability of a KBS can be directly attributed to the application of disciplined programming and testing practices throughout the development life-cycle. However, there are some essential differences between conventional (i.e., procedural) software and knowledge-based systems, both in construction and use. The identification of these differences affect the verification and validation process and the development of techniques to handle them is the basis of considerable on-going research in this field. For the past three years IBM (Federal Systems Company - Houston) and the Software Technology Branch ( STB) of NASA~Johnson Space Center have been working to improve the "'state of the practice" in verification and validation of Knowledge-based systems. To date, the primary accomplishment has been the development and teaching of a four-day workshop on verification and validation of knowledge-based systems. With the hope of improving the impact of these workshops, we are now working directly with NASA KBS projects to employ concepts taught in the workshop. This paper describes two projects currently being assisted as part of this effort. In addition to describing each project, this paper describes problems encountered and solutions proposed in each case.


The importance of quantitative literacy for creating and maintaining a democratic and just society is unequivocal, but undergraduate students often do not acquire these important skills. One barrier to teaching quantitative literacy skills is students' anxiety. The empirical evidence of the extent of the problem, however, does not seem to match anecdotal accounts of instructors who may be "diagnosing" statistics anxiety as universal among students and across different sources of anxiety. The purpose of this study is to identify the specific aspects of statistics anxiety that present barriers to student success by employing the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) to analyze two-wave panel survey data from a sample of 113 undergraduates from eight sections of a Social Statistics course. This study also examines how gender shapes statistics anxiety/attitudes and whether changes over time in anxiety/attitudes are associated with academic performance. Results indicate that a majority of students report elevated levels of exam anxiety compared to the other types of anxiety/attitudes. Women report significantly more anxiety and more negative attitudes than men, but exam anxiety improves over the course of the semester significantly more so for women. Results also indicate that statistics anxiety/attitudes are largely unrelated to academic performance. Results are discussed in the context of their implications for directing attention to specific aspects of statistics anxiety on which to focus pedagogical efforts— to address statistics anxiety/attitudes if necessary, but also to avoid over-diagnosing by not assuming that it applies to all students or all aspects of statistics classes.


Transportation management in today's consumer goods industry can be characterized by a high proportion of outsourced transportation services. Due to rising freight costs consumer goods manufacturers are seeking opportunities to increase the efficiency of their transportation network. This book presents an operational transportation planning problem typical of the consumer goods industry focusing on a network of suppliers, production facilities and warehouses. With respect to the large share of outsourcing in these networks a detailed analysis of freight costs based on contractual agreements is provided. From this analysis a number of opportunities for efficiency gains are identified and consolidated in an operative transportation planning problem that is numerically investigated. Furthermore, an overview of processes and organizational requirements in transportation management is given with special focus on the integration of existing commercial Transportation Management Systems (TMS).


We propose a two-dimensional temporal/wavelength optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) encoder/decoder, which has an array of superstructured fiber Bragg gratings (SSFBGs). SSFBGs in an encoder/decoder have different wavelengths from each other and can be coded with the same OCDMA code or not. Simulation was performed to analyze the feasibility of the scheme.


March 12th, 2020, was the day that the Norwegian Government put Norway in lock down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The implication of this was that all kindergartens, pre-schools, elementary schools, high-schools, colleges, and universities were closed from Friday the 13th of March. The universities, and all the other teaching institutions, were instructed by the government that teaching were to go on as normal as possible, only digitally. In other words, students were not to miss any teaching and there was no adjusting of curriculum. By the following Wednesday, all our teaching was digital; lectures, rehearsals in regular bachelor- and master courses, and mentoring of bachelor-, master-, and PhD-projects. This was done regardless of what pedagogic and didactic background the teachers have. This was also to be done from at home, where most of the teachers did not have an office, teaching aids other than their computer. At University of Agder all our teachers shall within two years of being hired, have completed a course called 'university pedagogics' that is 200 hours. In recent years, a small part of this course touches on the pedagogics and didactics on digital teaching, but many of the teachers at the university had no theoretical background to support their digital teaching decisions. How did this affect the choices for teaching? Was the teaching method chosen because of convenience for the teacher or was it a didactic choice by the teacher? The students in Norway are a diverse group, many of them have children that were to be home schooled. This influenced their ability to study, because they had to be teachers during the day and students at night or at the same time as they were teaching their children. This affected how we made the curriculum available to the students – what type of teaching were best fitted for the situation we were in as a society? Also, the situation regarding COVID-19 and the national lock down of the society affected the way we planned to carry out the exams in the spring semester. We had to have a plan for this relatively quick, and plan for the situation were single parents had to be kindergarten-teachers at the same time as they were students and taking an exam. This paper will look at the didactic methods for digital teaching and mentoring and compare them to how this was done in a crisis, where we had to make it work. The paper will also look at the recommended ways of conducting digital home exams in regards of testing the curriculum and not having the opportunity to control the environment in which the students are taking the exam. In other words, how do we secure that the cheating on exams is as minimal as possible?


It has been required to improve the heat efficiency of thermal power generation system for the sake of mitigation of the global warming and resource depletion problems. For improving the heat efficiency, it is effective to increase the steam temperature, and as a result, appropriate heatresistant alloys are needed. Although SUS304 stainless steel and Ni-based superalloys have been proposed as promising heat-resistant alloys until now, there still remain some concerns such as high-temperature corrosion by flaming gas and erosion by combustion ash. Thus, the present authors propose SiAlON ceramic coating on SUS304 and INCONEL X-750 because SiAlON has excellent heat, wear and corrosion resistances. In the present study, brazed bonding between SiAlON and these heat-resistant alloys was attempted with the applications of Cu and Ag as a soft filler material to reduce the residual stress generated due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between SiAlON and the heat-resistant alloys. As for the bonding with the Cu filler, the SiAlON/Cu/SUS joint was successful when the brazing time was short. However, when the brazing time was long (for example, 60 minutes), Fe-based grains were formed in the Cu filler layer, and the cracks were formed in the SiAlON near the joint interface during cooling in the brazing process. It was considered that the Cu filler was hardened by the formation of the Fe-based grains and could not reduce the residual stress. As for the bonding with the Ag filler, on the other hand, the SiAlON/Ag/SUS joint was successful even for a long brazing time. The SiAlON/Ag/INCONEL joint was also successful. The bending strengths of these SiAlON/Cu/ SUS, SiAlON/Ag/SUS and SiAlON/Ag/INCONEL joints were evaluated by a three point bending test, and the results were approximately 200, 270 and 350MPa, respectively. In all cases fracture occurred in the SiAlON, which means that the SiAlON and the alloys were strongly bonded. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2018038]


This multidisciplinary book is at the crossroads between two major scientific fields of the 21st century: evolutionary biology and infectious diseases. The genomic revolution has upset modern biology and has revolutionized our approach to ancient disciplines such as evolutionary studies. In particular, this revolution is profoundly changing our view on genetically driven human phenotypic diversity, and this is especially true in disease genetic susceptibility. Infectious diseases are indisputably the major challenge of medicine. When looking globally, they are the number one killer of humans and therefore the main selective pressure exerted on our species. Even in industrial countries, infectious diseases are now far less under control than 20 years ago. The first part of this book covers the main features and applications of modern technologies in the study of infectious diseases. The second part provides detailed information on a number of the key infectious diseases such as malaria, SARS, avian flu, HIV, tuberculosis, nosocomial infections and a few other pathogens that will be taken as examples to illustrate the power of modern technologies and the value of evolutionary approaches. It takes an integrated approach to infectious diseases. It includes contributions from leading authorities. It provides the latest developments in the field.


This book contains all of the diaries, programs, essays, and major articles written by Alexander Rodchenko between 1911 and 1956. The word "experiment" was a key word for the artist, who conceived of his multimedia oeuvre as one huge experiment. Referred to by his friends and contemporaries as "a scout of the future," Rodchenko sought new paths in graphic design and painting, sculpture and architecture, poster design and cinema, photography and book design, and furniture and theatre design. The first chapter in this volume covers the early life of Rodchenko and relates to the time of his studies in the Kazan art school. His diaries from 1911-15 relate the vivid atmosphere of the school, explain the artist's early tastes for theatrical, oriental and medieval motifs, and recall the moments when he first met Varvara Stepanova, his lifetime partner and fellow artist. The second chapter covers the most active years of the Russian avant-garde movement: 1916-21. Here Rodchenko is linked to Vladimir Tatlin and his evolution as a non-objective painter comes about. His writings from this period explore his interest in the artistic process, in the way ideas are born, and often make comparisons with other artistic trends of the time: suprematism, cubism, and impressionism. The third chapter runs through the 20s and the height of the constructivist movement, when Rodchenko became one of the leading designers of the time. This chapter is the most comprehensive, featuring writings dedicated to industrial design education, graphic design, advertising, photomontage and photography. The fourth chapter reveals the artist's mood and the general Soviet culture situation of the 30s, a time of political change, accusations of formalism, and great success in photography. The last chapter is dedicated to the war and postwar period and contains only diary texts in which the artist recounts his family's evacuation to the country, his subsequent hard living and working conditions, as well as his musings on the cultural politics of the time and life in general. Originally published in 1996 in Moscow by Rodchenko's family, "Experiments for the Future" appears here in its first English edition. This new edition contains additional material and features a different design and images, but the content remains essentially unchanged.


Local gold concentrations are found in laterally extensive pyrite-bearing, framework-supported, cobble and boulder conglomerates in the basal 30 m of the Mississagi Formation in the south eastern part of the Huronian outcrop belt. These were deposited as part of a valley-fill succession, in shallow gravel-bed braided rivers with local hyperconcentrated flows. The basal contact with underlying Archean psammites is typically highly irregular and shows no obvious sign of weathering suggesting that deposition took place soon after retreat of the glaciers responsible for deposition of the Ramsey Lake Formation. Highest gold concentrations are associated with moderately well-sorted medium to large pebble conglomerate that show some signs of reworking during low flow events. Depositional elements are typically lenticular and of limited lateral extent. Unlike the older pyritic quartz-pebble conglomerates at the base of the Matinenda Formation in the Elliot Lake and Blind River areas, these conglomerates contain no uraninite and are polymict with material derived from a highly restricted catchment area with marked local and regional topographic relief. Porous detrital allogenic pyrite and euhedral post-depositional pyrite have overlapping, generally positive delta(34)S values, indicating a closed system during diagenesis and metamorphism. The presence of biotite-enriched rims on many of the metavolcanic and metasedimentary clasts in the conglomerates suggests that gold was partly leached from the allogenic pyrite grains at the peak of the Penokean Orogeny at 1.85-1.5 Ga. The potential source of the Au-bearing detrital allogenic pyrite appears to be an as yet undiscovered Archean volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposit located 1 to 8 km north of the deposit.


A search for the standard model Higgs boson (H) decaying to bb¯ when produced in association with a weak vector boson (V) is reported for the following channels: W(μν)H, W(eν)H, W(τν)H, Z(μμ)H, Z(ee)H, and Z(νν)H. The search is performed in data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 5.1 inverse femtobarns at s√=7  TeV and up to 18.9  fb−1 at s√=8  TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. An excess of events is observed above the expected background with a local significance of 2.1 standard deviations for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, consistent with the expectation from the production of the standard model Higgs boson. The signal strength corresponding to this excess, relative to that of the standard model Higgs boson, is 1.0±0.5.


The red, ammonoid-bearing limestones at Rustaq and Wadi Wasit contain Jinogondolella aserrata, the index species for the type Wordian. It occurs with an abundant smooth Mesogondolella fauna and an advanced Waagenoceras ammonoid fauna. In the rustaq section, two species of Mesogondolella are present in both lower and upper red, ammonoid-bearing limestones with M. siciliensis dominating the lower beds and M. omanensis (new species) dominating the upper beds. The same two Mesogondolella species occur in the single, ammonoid-bearing limestone unit at the Wadi Wasit section, where there are additional conodont species including M. bitteri. The faunas at Wadi Wasit section and the upper red, ammonoid-bearing limestone at the Rustaq section contain Stepanovites? festivus which is indicative of the Wordian-Capitanian boundary interval. Capitanian Jinogondolella altudaensis appears in the rocks above the ammonoid-bearing limestone at the Wadi Wasit section.


Plasma proteomic experiments performed rapidly and economically using several of the latest high-resolution mass spectrometers were compared. Four quantitative hyperfractionated plasma proteomics experiments were analyzed in replicates by two AB SCIEX TripleTOF 5600 and three Thermo Scientific Orbitrap (Elite/LTQ-Orbitrap Velos/Q Exactive) instruments. Each experiment compared two iTRAQ isobaric-labeled immunodepleted plasma proteomes, provided as 30 labeled peptide fractions, and 480 LC-MS/MS runs delivered >250 GB of data in 2 months. Several analysis algorithms were compared. At 1% false discovery rate, the relative comparative findings concluded that the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive Mass Spectrometer resulted in the highest number of identified proteins and unique sequences with iTRAQ quantitation. The confidence of iTRAQ fold-change for each protein is dependent on the overall ion statistics (Mascot Protein Score) attainable by each instrument. The benchmarking also suggested how to further improve the mass spectrometry parameters and HPLC conditions. Our findings highlight the special challenges presented by the low abundance peptide ions of iTRAQ plasma proteome because the dynamic range of plasma protein abundance is uniquely high compared with cell lysates, necessitating high instrument sensitivity.


The book Blackamoores Africans in Tudor England: Their Presence Status and Origins is now the leading book on this subject. It kick-started a campaign to include Black Tudors in the curriculum and has now gained over five thousand signatures. This book in conjunction with the Blackamoores International Book Tour helped Narrative Eye win the Haringey Diversity Award for 2014. This book is now used as a teaching and reference tool worldwide in a range of Universities and teaching institutions and its finding have been referenced by historians and other academics internationally.

The article contained in this document supports the findings of this book and is about whether Englishmen believed that Africans in Tudor England were cursed black as a result of the Curse of Ham.

Blackamoores contains original research conducted over twenty-three years. Some of that period was spent doing research at Middlesex University. This book is revised and different from that initial research as this was mostly concerned with an African presence in Tudor England. Blackamoores is about the status and origins of Africans in Tudor England and for the first time draws on evidence from an African presence in Stuart England. This evidence has not been made available to the public before and it is the first time that it has been used to examine the status and origins of Africans in Tudor England.

I have found Africans in cities and towns such a Hertford, London, Plymouth, Bristol and Northampton, Norwich. I have proved in this book that Africans did not automatically occupy the lowest positions in Tudor society. This book shows that Africans in Tudor England were not all slaves, or transient immigrants who were considered as dangerous strangers and the epitome of otherness. Blackamoores also reveals that some Africans in England had important occupations in Tudor society, and were employed by powerful people because of the skills they possessed. These people inherited some of their skills from the multicultural societies that they came from. I show that some Africans in England were born in other countries. This is the first time that this kind of tracing has been done in a systematic and detailed way on this population. I also prove that Africans were not all foreign and that most were integrated members of their local parishes.

The arguments in the book Blackamoores and this article are supported by evidence from a variety of sources both manuscript and printed, most of which has never been seen before whilst other evidence is discussed within a new context.


ABSTRACT Across the world, states are establishing military cyber commands or similar units to develop offensive cyber capabilities. One of the key dilemmas faced by these states is whether (and how) to integrate their intelligence and military capabilities to develop a meaningful offensive cyber capacity. This topic, however, has received little theoretical treatment. The purpose of this paper is therefore to address the following question: What are the benefits and risks of organizational integration of offensive cyber capabilities (OIOCC)? I argue that organizational integration may lead to three benefits: enhanced interaction efficiency of intelligence and military activities, better(and more diverse) knowledge transfer and reduced mission overlap. Yet, there are also several negative effects attached to OIOCC. It may lead to 'cyber mission creep' and an intensification of the cyber security dilemma. It could also result in arsenal cost ineffectiveness in the long run. Although the benefits of OIOCC are seen to outweighs the risks, failing to grasp the negative effects may lead to unnecessary cycles of provocation, with potentially disastrous consequences.


Abstract Social order and social change is based on social action. All sociological theories of action agree on this assumption. Beyond that insight action theories disagree on basic notions of how action can be explained, on basic principles clarifying the selection of action and on basic motivations of action as starting point to construct theories of social order and social change. Contemporary sociology accepts the multidimensionality of theoretical approaches. Open are questions of how action theories can be differentiated, related or combined to offer analytical instruments for empirical research. The idea this essay brings forward is that the classical dualism between utilitarism (homo oeconomicus) and normativism (homo sociologicus) is transcended in support of action theories concentrating on the meaning of culture (cultural turn), communication (linguistic turn), and on creativity (dialogical turn). Integrated as a new typology these five action theories provide an analytical framework to research social order and social conflicts of modern societies.


One of the leading transportation project initiatives of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is to reduce transportation system congestion. The Minneapolis Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA) project is one of the five major projects funded by the U.S. DOT's Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network. Minnesota's UPA is concerned with Active Traffic Management (ATM) systems along I-35W from the southern junction with I-35 to downtown Minneapolis (which will be referred to as the UPA corridor). Three separate but related evaluations are included in this UPA related project: the effects of the variable speed limit (VSL) system on congestion and driver behavior, the impact of severe weather conditions on road safety, and the behavior of bus rapid transit (BRT) vehicles and their impacts on traffic conditions between 46th Street and Lake Street.


Theft of secrets is nothing new. Nor is it new to publicize stolen secrets with hopes of influencing (or instigating) leadership changes in government. So the theft of confidential information being stored by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is part of a long tradition, albeit perpetrated in a new venue: cyberspace.


The dependence of the measured damping rate (γ/ω) on the value of the safety factor on axis (q0) and of the toroidal rotation shear has been experimentally determined for n = 1 toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) in JET limiter plasmas with a monotonic safety factor profile and low edge magnetic shear. For q0 < 1, the n = 1 TAE damping rate can reach values up to γ/ω > 8%, whereas for q0 > 1.1, γ/ω < 2% for similar experimental conditions. The existence of these two separate regimes is suggestive of a possible role of the sawteeth on the damping of low-n TAEs, for example, via a redistribution of the core plasma current, which would, in turn, affect the magnetic shear profile. The value of the toroidal rotation shear affects the n = 1 TAE damping rate only at high neutral beam injection power (PNBI): for PNBI > 6.5 MW we find that γ/ω > 2% in plasmas with a higher rotation shear, whereas for lower PNBI we do not observe any appreciable effect of the rotation shear on the damping rate. These observations indicate that different damping mechanisms for low-n TAEs may be active at low and high performance.


The main objective of the study is to assess co-management approaches as
institutional arrangement of inland openwater fisheries in Bangladesh. It was done by
examining the factors enhancing the governance and empowerment of fishers for
improved arrangements of fishers' and co-management based organisations' (CBOs.
The benefits of co-management approaches on income and transaction costs of fisher
communities are examined and the effectiveness of conflict mitigation and resolution
are compared. A survey of 311 fishing households in Bangladesh was conducted
from July 2008 to October 2008 to obtain information from fishers in the Community
Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) project sites and non CBFM sites (control
sites) using structured interview questionnaire.
The CBFM approaches aim mainly at building local fishery community
organizations for managing fisheries sustainably and to improve institutional
arrangements of fisher communities. Institutional arrangements have been done through formation of local co-management based organisations which have led to
increased democratic participation, empowerment, enhanced fisheries management
and better compliance of rules and regulations. Descriptive analysis, Factor analysis
and finally Regression analysis are used to analyse the data.
The results of the study reveal that the fishers of CBFM sites have increased
participation in collective decision-making, improved leadership, trust,
decentralisation of management, power sharing responsibility and social networks
which have led to improve governance of the fisher communities. The study shows
that the fishers and CBOs are more empowered due to training in skill development
and capacity enhancement and awareness raising programs facilitated by the
Government and NGOs. In addition, they have greater individual access rights to
their fisheries through administrative support from the government and they are more
capable of controlling the exploitation of fisheries resources in project areas. All
these factors have made the CBOs more accountable and transparent. The results also
indicate that there are improvements in compliance and legitimacy and lowering of
transaction costs. The study shows that conflicts are resolved quickly and conflict
management process is smooth in project sites compared to non CBFM control sites.
The results of the study show that there is significant difference in total transaction
costs in management between project and control sites over the years. The
transaction costs trended downward within project sites, but it is increasing in control
sites.


Book synopsis: Bryher (born Annie Winifred Ellerman) is perhaps best known today as the lifelong partner of the poet H.D. She was, however, a central figure in modernist and avant-garde cultural experimentation in the early twentieth century; a prolific producer of poetry, novels, autobiography, and criticism; and an intimate and patron of such modernist artists as Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, and Dorothy Richardson. Bryher's own path-breaking writing has remained largely neglected, long out of print, and inaccessible to those interested in her oeuvre. Now, for the first time since their original publication in the early 1920s, two of Bryher's pioneering works of fictionalized autobiography, titled Development and Two Selves, are reprinted in one volume for a new audience of readers, scholars, and critics.

Blending poetry, prose, and autobiographical details, Development and Two Selves together constitute a compelling bildungsroman that is among the first ever to follow a young woman's process of coming out. Through the fictionalized character Nancy, the novels trace Bryher's life through her childhood and young adulthood, giving the reader an account of the development of a unique lesbian, feminist, and modernist consciousness. Development and Two Selves recover significant work by one of the first experimenters of the modernist movement and are a welcome reintroduction of the enigmatic Bryher.


In urban transformation, no solution works without citizen support. With increasing numbers of building technologies and large-scale urban development on its way across cities, it has become vital to keep citizens informed, engaged, and content with the new changes. This paper looks at citizen engagement in Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany), and it determines whether the cities are ready for developing and implementing positive energy districts (PEDs). The authors studied the cities' operations and current citizen engagement methods to understand how the efforts could be combined and improved. The analysis indicated that the city of Espoo already has a well-established system that continuously promotes citizen engagement at various levels, and combining the available infrastructure with company experts on citizen participation will allow Espoo to seamlessly transition towards PEDs in the near future. The city of Leipzig has a rich experience due to several national projects and participation in an earlier European project, which enabled the city to set clearer goals for the future and modify existing citizen methods. As lighthouse cities, findings from Espoo and Leipzig are also aimed at cities across Europe and beyond to boost development of PEDs together with citizens.


The actor model prevents the traditional pitfalls of concurrent programming (deadlocks and data-races) by not allowing shared state between different processes. While shared state can be simulated through a set of message exchanges, this quickly becomes complex and renders the program inexpressive. In this paper we present a novel way of integrating shared state into the communicating event-loop model by introducing a new type of object called a repliq. When such object crosses actor boundaries it exhibits what we call pass-by-replication semantics. The object is deeply copied and the runtime keeps track of the owner of the original repliq, the actor that first created it. Actors can access and alter repliq objects locally, while the runtime makes sure they are eventually consistent with other replicas of the object. Consistency is guaranteed by eventually executing all the operations of the replicas in the same order, as determined by the original object. Synchronization happens in a background process and external updates become visible in between message processing. This makes sure that the programmer's code is always executed in a consistent snapshot of the object states. We present the semantics, guarantees and restrictions exhibited by repliq objects using an implementation in the AmbientTalk actor language. This model maintains the easy and safe local-only execution model for the programmer that is key to the actor model, while providing integrated and expressive means to share state that is eventually consistent. CCS Concepts •Computer systems organization → Embedded systems; Redundancy; Robotics; •Networks → Network reliability;


The herbivore gut microbiome is incredibly diverse, and a functional understanding of this diversity is needed to more reliably manipulate this community for specific gain, such as increased production in ruminant livestock. Microbial degraders of plant cell wall polysaccharides in the herbivore gut, particularly Fibrobacter spp., are of fundamental importance to their hosts for digestion of a diet consisting primarily of recalcitrant plant fibers. Considerable phylogenetic diversity exists among members of the genus Fibrobacter, but much of this diversity remains cryptic. Here, we used comparative genomics, applied to a diverse collection of recently isolated Fibrobacter strains, to identify a robust association between carbohydrate-active enzyme gene content and the Fibrobacter phylogeny. Our results provide the strongest evidence reported to date for functional differences among Fibrobacter phylotypes associated with either the rumen or the hindgut and emphasize the general significance of carbohydrate-active enzymes in the evolution of fiber-degrading bacteria. ABSTRACT Members of the genus Fibrobacter are cellulose-degrading bacteria and common constituents of the gastrointestinal microbiota of herbivores. Although considerable phylogenetic diversity is observed among members of this group, few functional differences explaining the distinct ecological distributions of specific phylotypes have been described. In this study, we sequenced and performed a comparative analysis of whole genomes from 38 novel Fibrobacter strains against the type strains for the two formally described Fibrobacter species F. succinogenes strain S85 and F. intestinalis strain NR9. Significant differences in the number of genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzyme families involved in plant cell wall polysaccharide degradation were observed among Fibrobacter phylotypes. F. succinogenes genomes were consistently enriched in genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes compared to those of F. intestinalis strains. Moreover, genomes of F. succinogenes phylotypes that are dominant in the rumen had significantly more genes annotated to major families involved in hemicellulose degradation (e.g., CE6, GH10, and GH43) than did the genomes of F. succinogenes phylotypes typically observed in the lower gut of large hindgut-fermenting herbivores such as horses. Genes encoding a putative urease were also identified in 12 of the Fibrobacter genomes, which were primarily isolated from hindgut-fermenting hosts. Screening for growth on urea as the sole source of nitrogen provided strong evidence that the urease was active in these strains. These results represent the strongest evidence reported to date for specific functional differences contributing to the ecology of Fibrobacter spp. in the herbivore gut. IMPORTANCE The herbivore gut microbiome is incredibly diverse, and a functional understanding of this diversity is needed to more reliably manipulate this community for specific gain, such as increased production in ruminant livestock. Microbial degraders of plant cell wall polysaccharides in the herbivore gut, particularly Fibrobacter spp., are of fundamental importance to their hosts for digestion of a diet consisting primarily of recalcitrant plant fibers. Considerable phylogenetic diversity exists among members of the genus Fibrobacter, but much of this diversity remains cryptic. Here, we used comparative genomics, applied to a diverse collection of recently isolated Fibrobacter strains, to identify a robust association between carbohydrate-active enzyme gene content and the Fibrobacter phylogeny. Our results provide the strongest evidence reported to date for functional differences among Fibrobacter phylotypes associated with either the rumen or the hindgut and emphasize the general significance of carbohydrate-active enzymes in the evolution of fiber-degrading bacteria.