Leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a cytokine that is active on a wide variety of cells. Multiple LIF transcripts have been described. The transcripts LIF-D and LIF-M encode different signal peptides, which in mouse have been associated with differential localisation of the mature protein. LIF-D is associated with a freely diffusible protein, whereas the LIF-M is associated with the extracellular matrix. The polarity of LIF secretion has yet to be described and could illuminate the mechanisms of LIF localisation. Here the polarised endogenous secretion of human LIF and IL-6 in Caco-2 cells was characterised under normal culture conditions and following induction with IL-1b. Whether the apical or basolateral membrane was stimulated influenced the pattern of secretion (LIF: Unstimulated, 59% basolateral. Dual stimulation, 68% basolateral. Basolateral stimulation, 79% basolateral. Apical stimulation, 53% basolateral). IL-6 displayed a similar dependence on the site of stimulation but was predominantly secreted at the membrane that was stimulated. To determine the effect of the alternate signal peptides on the polarity of LIF secretion, LIF was epitope tagged with FLAG. Epitope-tagging with FLAG was used to separate endogenous from exogenous protein expression. However, despite the normal biological activity of LIF-FLAG and detection of the FLAG in a western blot, detection of the LIF-FLAG under non-reducing conditions was not observed, and therefore it was unsuitable for secretion studies. Untagged LIF was expressed exogenously in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells under the control of a tetracycline response promoter that allowed a variety of LIF expression levels to be tested. Exogenous murine LIF was secreted predominantly from the apical (60%) membrane of MDCK cells irrespective of the signal peptide expressed.


Urban environments and heat waves interact synergistically and aggravate the thermal environment through the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Of concern is the potential for a projected warmer future climate to further compound heat waves in urban environments. The present study investigates the interaction of a 2006 heat wave in North America with two urban environments (Phoenix and New York City (NYC)) in current climate and future climate simulations. The future climate conditions were generated using the pseudo-global warming methodology. Multiple high-resolution (3 km) simulations were performed using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the single-layer urban canopy model to improve representation of urban processes and we explore how irrigated green roofs and cool roofs can mitigate heat wave amplification by UHIs. To quantify heat wave intensity, an analytical model is applied to the WRF model output that considers the urban surface heat and water vapor exchanges with the atmosphere. A future, warmer climate is found to amplify the UHI intensity during heat waves in both Phoenix (21%) and NYC (48%), but the amplification is of great uncertainty as its magnitude is comparable to the temporal variability of temperatures. The increase in urban heat index can be almost completely offset by adopting irrigated green roofs in urban areas, and partially offset by adopting cool roofs.


One of the most fundamental questions in animal ecology concerns the activity patterns of animals and the environmental and intrinsic factors that influence such dynamics. Activity patterns of the elusive and endangered giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are not well understood. Using GPS collars equipped with dual-axis accelerometers on captive and wild giant pandas for the first time, we investigated the impact of day, season, and weather on wild panda activity in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan, China. Most pandas were not crepuscular as previously reported but had 3 apparent activity peaks, in the morning, afternoon, and around midnight. We found a peak in panda activity in June, then an apparent decrease in August and September, followed by an increase again from November to March of the following year. Activity patterns roughly corresponded to mean daily movement distances across seasons and movement behavior in a GPS-collared captive panda (studied to establish a baseline for interpreting collar-recorded activity of wild pandas). There was greater activity in times of higher solar radiation throughout every season, especially under cold conditions. This result suggests the potential for climate change to impact panda behavior in ways not previously reported. Our analysis also suggests that pandas may be constrained by tight energy budgets from their low-nutrient diet and may adjust their energy budgets by modifying their activity time and level across seasons. Our study has implications for understanding animal activity patterns across species, particularly relationships among forage, weather, and energy expenditure over time.


We present a comprehensive photometric study of the pulsating, eclipsing binary OO Dra. Simultaneous B- and V-band photometry of the star was carried out on 14 nights. A revised orbital period and a new ephemeris were derived from the data. The first photometric solution of the binary system and the physical parameters of the component stars are determined. They reveal that OO Dra could be a detached system with a less-massive secondary component nearly filling its Roche lobe. By subtracting the eclipsing light changes from the data, we obtained the intrinsic pulsating light curves of the hotter, massive primary component. A frequency analysis of the residual light yields two confident pulsation modes in both B- and V-band data with the dominant frequency detected at 41.865 c/d. A brief discussion concerning the evolutionary status and the pulsation nature of the binary system is finally given.


Future cellular networks are facing crucial architecture changes to cope with high throughput, energy and cost-efficiency demands. Emerging solutions are small-cells and femto-cells which will coexist with classical macro-cells technology. In these heterogeneous networks, we study the joint service pricing and bandwidth allocation problem at the operator level. Each user selfishly adopts the service that optimizes its satisfaction. The user-level problem is formulated as a general non-atomic game. The Wardrop equilibrium is proven to exist and an analytical expression is provided for arbitrary number of services. The equilibria multiplicity, the influence of pricing and bandwidth allocation policies are investigated numerically.


Circulating glucose concentrations regulate many brain functions, including learning and memory. Much of the evidence for this view comes from experiments assessing stress-related release of epinephrine with subsequent increases in blood glucose concentrations. One application of this work has been to investigate whether age-related memory impairments result from dysfunctions in the neuroendocrine regulation of the brain processes responsible for memory. Like humans, aged rodents exhibit some memory impairments that can be reversed by administration of epinephrine or glucose. In elderly humans, ingestion of glucose enhances some cognitive functions, with effects best documented thus far on tests of verbal contextual and noncontextual information. Glucose also effectively enhances cognition in persons with Alzheimer disease or Down syndrome. Although earlier evidence suggested that glucose does not enhance cognitive function in healthy young adults, more recent findings suggest that glucose is effective in this population, provided the tests are sufficiently difficult. In college students, glucose consumption significantly enhanced memory of material in a paragraph. Glucose also appeared to enhance attentional processes in these students. Neither face and word recognition nor working memory was influenced by treatment with glucose. The neurobiological mechanisms by which glucose acts are under current investigation. Initial evidence suggests that glucose or a metabolite may activate release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in rats when they are engaged in learning. Consequently, the issue of nutrition and cognition becomes increasingly important in light of evidence that circulating glucose concentrations have substantial effects on brain and cognitive functions.


Explores the complex political and programmatic reasons why government officials in Third World countries often wilfully adopt wasteful natural resource policies. Drawing on 16 case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, the author documents how clashes among government agencies have led to results ranging from Indonesia's deforestation to the collapse of the Mexican water system, from the destruction of cocoa farms in Ghana to the waste of Nigeria's oil wealth. Covering a broad range of natural resources - forests, land, minerals, oil and water - William Ascher finds striking parallels in both the rationales for abusing natural resources and the strategies governments employ to pursue other goals at the expense of sustainable natural resource exploitation. Yet he also finds parallels - across world regions and for the whole range of resources - for overcoming political and institutional obstacles to better natural resource policies and practices. As the depletion of natural resources threatens to undermine the economic prospects of many developing countries, this text offers structural reform recommendations that seek to get to the heart of faulty natural resource management.


With the hypothesis in mind that discrimination against women increases the likelihood that a state will experience internal conflict, this article contends that considering gender is a key part of an effective peacebuilding process. Evidence gathered by studying peacebuilding from a feminist perspective, such as in Rwanda and Côte d'Ivoire, can be used to reconceptualize the peace agenda in more inclusive and responsible ways. Following from this, the article argues that a culturally contextual gender analysis is a key tool, both for feminist theory of peacebuilding and the practice of implementing a gender perspective, in all peace work. Using the tools of African feminisms to study African conflicts, this contribution warns against "adding women" without recognizing their agency, emphasizes the need for an organized women's movement, and suggests directions for the implementation of international laws concerning women's empowerment at the local level. The article concludes by suggesting that implementation of these ideas in practice is dependent on the way in which African feminists employ mainstreaming, inclusionary, and transformational strategies within a culturally sensitive context of indigenous peacebuilding processes.


In 2007 the Swedish government decided to put resources into a project that offered active teachers to develop disciplinary competence through university studies. Along with ten other applicants, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm got the mission to educate 10 music teachers from the compulsory school towards a licentiate exam. The teachers came from all of Sweden and were registered at one out of five participating higher music education institutions. At the same time they continued as music teachers at 20% employment in their ordinary schools. The governmental aim is that the teachers after their exam shall come back in those employments as more competent. The education in common for all students was organized as courses and in virtual meeting rooms of different kinds. The motive is for the teachers to be participating in several communities of practice at the same time, aiming to develop as researching practicing teachers in a broad way. In a developing research project, the teachers growth was followed. The investigation is guided by the following questions: How can a research school be organized as a developing community of practice where individual experiences can be shared with others? How can learning trajectories between the research school, the research communities and the everyday practice be encouraged and how are they perceived by the students? The methods used are teachers' continually encouraged written reflections and documented group discussions, together with written tasks included in the different courses. In the round table discussion I want to discuss the possibilities and challenges for such an education within the frames of Lararlyftet. What becomes the task for higher education when the teachers are taking part in a PhD education at the same time as they work, and are expected to go back to their ordinary work in schools. What are the possibilities for good learning and identity development, and which are the challenges? I aim to let the participants writedown their thoughts, divide them into smaller groups to discuss different aspects of the phenomenon from an educational perspective, to gather different experiences and visions that can function as a base for a final large group discussion. The aim is to increase consciousness about how PhD courses within governmental projects as Lararlyftet can be organized in the most fruitful ways where my experience of being a co-ordinator for a national research school can function as a case.


Journal publishers play an important role in the open research data ecosystem. Through open data policies that include public data archiving mandates and data availability statements, journal publishers help promote transparency in research and wider access to a growing scholarly record. The library and information science (LIS) discipline has a unique relationship with both open data initiatives and academic publishing and may be well-positioned to adopt rigorous open data policies. This study examines the information provided on public-facing websites of LIS journals in order to describe the extent, and nature, of open data guidance provided to prospective authors. Open access journals in the discipline have disproportionately adopted detailed, strict open data policies. Commercial publishers, which account for the largest share of publishing in the discipline, have largely adopted weaker policies. Rigorous policies, adopted by a minority of journals, describe the rationale, application, and expectations for open research data, while most journals that provide guidance on the matter use hesitant and vague language. Recommendations are provided for strengthening journal open data policies.


We adapt the differential method to the study of scattering from randomly rough inhomogeneous films, and we extend the application domain of the surface-integral method to rough surfaces with many embedded scatterers. These methods are compared in the case of geometries in which both volume and surface scattering occur. A good agreement is obtained, and the advantages and drawbacks of each technique are pointed out. The angular scattering from rough inhomogeneous structures corresponding to models of snowcover in the radio-frequency domain or paints in the optical domain is shown.


The aim of this study is to verify acoustically the extent to which the traditionally acknowledged lenition of intervocalic plosives in the varieties of southern Italy also applies to voiceless fricatives. Data from a recent corpus of semi-spontaneous speech collected in Naples and Palermo are analysed according to the parameters of duration, intensity, and voicing. It is demonstrated that, in the intervocalic position, the realisations of /s/ and /f/ are significantly shorter than in the other contexts, whereas intensity does not prove to be affected by the phonotactic position; sonorization does occur, to some extent, in the Neapolitan data, being marginal among the Sicilian speakers.


Objectives: To evaluate the pattern of use of Antimicrobial drugs in IPD patients admitted for various illnesses. Materials and Methods: It is a retrospective and observational study, conducted during the period of January, 2011 to December, 2011. Prescription record of 252 patients admitted in IPD of Medicine & Surgery departments of the PDVVPFs Medical College & Hospital, Ahmednagar were studied. These data were obtained from Medical Record Departmeent (MRD) of the hospital. The study was conducted after obtaining permission from the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) of the college. Data were analyzed for- average number of antimicrobials prescribed per prescription, the relationship between patient age and sex, percentage usage of various antimicrobial groups and percentage use of individual antimicrobials. Results: It was observed that 75 % of patients were prescribed 1-2 antimicrobial agent and 25 % were prescribed 3 or more than 3 antimicrobials. Cephalosporins were the most preferred antimicrobials followed by quinolones and aminoglycosides. Fluconazole was found to be most commonly prescribed antifungal whereas Artesunate and Metronidazole were most preferred antimalarial and antiamoebic drugs. Conclusion: It can be concluded from the present study that physicians preferred to prescribe 2 or more than 2 antibacterial agents in a prescription. To treat various infections Cephalosporins and quinolones were observed to be most prescribed antibacterials. Fluconazole, Artesunate & Metronidazole were found to be commonly prescribed antifungal, antimalarial and antiamoebic agents. Uses of Macrolides, Tetracyclines & Vancomycin were very low. However, aminoglycosides were commonly prescribed to young males and Cepahalosporins to young female patients.


Egg, larval, and adult life stages of Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), were observed feeding on or attached to a previously undocumented host plant belonging to the genus Chamaesaracha in eastern Colorado on July 2017. At one site, L. decemlineata were more abundant on Chamaesaracha sp. than the accepted ancestral host plant, Solanum rostratum (Dunal). While future studies should confirm the ancestral status of the observed L. decemlineata and suitability of Chamaesaracha sp. for completion of development, our observations suggest a need for further characterization of the ancestral host range of L. decemlineata.


This research brings together, in a unique way, two areas of current interest in Psychology, occupational stress and menstrual cycle research. Whilst there is a growing trend towards intensive measures being used in Occupational Stress
research, the effects of menstrual cycle experiences of women are largely ignored. The research objectives are focused on presenting a unif'ing model of the relationships between stress from occupational sources and consequent wellbeing on paramenstrual symptomology. This research specifically addresses the issues of sampling bias, the reliability of the widely used measure the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ)(MOOS, 1968), and the division of the menstrual cycle into
phases. The data from 362 working women (50% who considered that they suffered from PMS) in the cross-sectional study, established a new two-factor structure of the MDQ. The second study employed daily diaries, completed by 20 working women, 40% of whom considered that they suffered from PMS. Ovulation detection kits were used to ascertain i1 and when, ovulation occurred to accurately divide the intermenstrual phase. Analysis of the data to explore the model revealed that the relationships between measures were different in different phases of the menstrual cycle. For example, negative stronger relationships between perceived efficiency and work performance and wellbeing in the pararnenstrual phase were noted. This may illuminate the paradox apparent in the literature that women report that they perform less well in the paramenstruum, yet actual measured performance is not adversely affected. Mother finding was the different cyclical patterns reported by self-reported PMS sufferers and non sufferers. PMS women did not report the increase in wellbeing reported by other women in the luteal phase. The relationship between wellbeing and somatisation is noticeable lower for PMS reporters in the menstrual, follicular and (especially) the ovulatory phases, which suggests that what happens at ovulation is of interest and is a neglected area in empirical research. The results are consistent with the view
that future occupational research should examine changes in reactivity to environmental stress throughout the cycle. Future research into both women's experience of the menstrual cycle, occupational stress and the relationship between the two, may be inlomied both in methodology and theory development.


Isolated superfused rat atria release [H]acetylcholine when depolarized with 57 mM potassium. The depolarization-induced overflow of [H]acetylcholine is markedly inhibited by micromolar concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine. The a,-selective adrenergic agonist methoxamine also inhibits tritium overflow, but the «2-selective adrenergic agonist clonidine and the 0-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol do not. Prazosin, an selective «i-adrenergic antagonist, blocks adrenergic inhibition of [H]acetylcholine overflow with a K, of approximately 0.4 nM. Yohimbine has approximately one-hundredth the potency of prazosin for blocking adrenergic inhibition of [H]acetylcholine overflow. [H]Norepinephrine overflow from isolated rat atria is also inhibited by norepinephrine, but this effect is antagonized by yohimbine and not by prazosin. We suggest that the release of acetylcholine from cardiac parasympathetic neurons can be regulated through an «i -adrenergic receptor, and that this mechanism may underly, at least in part, the relative lack of effects of prazosin on heart rate. (Circ Res 56: 763-766, 1985)


The epitaxial layer structures for blue InGaN light emitting diodes have been optimized for high brightness applications with the output power levels exceeding 1000 W/cm 2 by using a self-consistent finite element method. The light-current-voltage relationship has been directly estimated from the multiband Hamiltonian for wurtzite crystals. To analyze the efficiency droop at high injection levels, the major nonradiative recombination processes and carrier spillover have also been taken into account. The wall-plug efficiency at high injection levels up to several thousand A/cm 2 has been successfully evaluated for various epilayer structures facilitating optimization of the epitaxial structures for desired output power levels.


Pakistan's politics has been shaped by the dynamics of civilian-military relations and Islamism's relation to the state. This has created an ongoing negotiation for power in which the military, civilian politicians, and Islamist forces have individually and in alliance with one another vied for control of Pakistan's politics. General Pervez Musharraf's regime has been no exception to this trend. As its claim to secular military rule proved untenable, it has turned to rely on Islamist forces to manage civilian-military relations. Over the course of the past three decades two issues have been central to Pakistan's political development: first, democratization and civil-military relations; and second, Islamization and Islamism's relation to the state. The two issues have been separate and yet interdependent as they have unfolded in tandem to shape Pakistan's politics. In the 1980s Islamism supported the military's drive for power and suppression of democratic forces. Since 1988, the military, Islamist forces, and democratic parties have cooperated and competed with one another, jockeying for power and position in defining the rules of the game. The complexity of the interactions between the three actors during the decade of civilian rule (1988-99) precluded the institutionalization of democracy and facilitated the return of the military to power in 1999. The case of Pakistan is instructive in what it reveals about the changing role of Islamism in determining the balance of power between civil-military relations, and how democratization and Islamization - civil-military and Islamism-state relations - are influencing one another, deciding how Pakistani politics will unfold from this point forward. THE ISLAMIST FACTOR IN PAKISTAN'S POLITICS Islamist forces have played an important role in Pakistan since the 1970s, providing the framework through which the country has defined its national interests and provided cadence between its domestic and international politics.1 Islam has also increased Pakistan's regional power by opening new foreign policy possibilities before Islamabad, most notably in using Islamist activism to deal with developments in Afghanistan and Kashmir.2 The growing importance of Islam to Pakistan's politics has been closely associated with mainstream Islamism, as defined, advocated, and led by parties such as the Jama'at-i Islami.3 The Jama'at was particularly successful in articulating a coherent Islamic ideology that effectively organized social action around the struggle to attain a Utopian Islamic state that would embody and implement the core values of Islam, and thus solve sociopolitical problems just as it attained the goal of development.4 The Jama'at's success in instituting many Islamist assumptions in popular political culture and framing key debates in an Islamist frame of reference eventually weakened the grip of secular politics in Pakistan, contributing first to the fall of the Ayub Khan regime (1958-69), and ultimately to the collapse of Zulfiqar AIi Bhutto's experiment with socialism (1971-7V).5 The Islamist vision became ensconced in the state during the Zia ul-H aq era (1977-88).6 The Zia period witnessed the Islamization of laws, public policy, and popular culture, producing a unique case of systematic propagation of Islamism from above.7 The Zia regime embraced the Islamist vision of state and society and used it not only to shore up state power by ending its war of attrition with Islamism, but also to expand its own powers domestically as well as regionally.8 The alliance provided legitimacy to military rule - which justified its suppression of democratic forces by claiming to be building an Islamic order. The alliance between Islamism and military rule produced stability, but was ultimately fraught with too many inconsistencies and divergent interests of its key actors to survive. The end of the Zia period in 1988 also ended the formal alliance between Islamism and the state. …


Employing state-of-the art quantitative models and case studies, Location Theory and Decision Analysis provides the methodologies behind the siting of such facilities as transportation terminals, warehouses, housing, landfills, state parks and industrial plants. Through its extensive methodological review, the book serves as a primer for more advanced texts on spatial analysis, including the monograph on Location, Transport and Land-Use by the same author. Given the rapid changes over the last decade, the Second Edition includes new analytic contributions as well as software survey of analytics and spatial information technology. While the First Edition served the professional community well, the Second Edition has substantially expanded its emphasis for classroom use of the volume. Extensive pedagogic materials have been added, going from the fundamental principles to open-ended exercises, including solutions to selected problems. The text is of value to engineering and business programs that offer courses in Decision and Risk Analysis, Muticriteria Decision-Making, and Facility Location and Layout. It should also be of interest to public policy programs that use geographic Information Systems and satellite imagery to support their analyses.


Adolescence is a notable period during which a considerable share of students tends to engage in problem behavior in school. Students for example skip class, fail to do their best in school, or have serious arguments with their teachers. A student's decision to engage in such behavior is not usually made in isolation, but is dependent on the specific school and class context in which they find themselves. In this dissertation we use large scale panel data on adolescents in four European countries (i.e. England, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands) and apply state of the art statistical techniques to understand the role of peer networks in class and school in determining adolescent problem behavior in school. We examine the effect of three aspects of adolescents' peer networks in class/school. First, we study the role of students' positive and negative relationships to peers. We expect that adolescents who are better integrated in their peer group in school are less likely to exhibit problem behavior in school. Second, we study the extent to which adolescents are influenced by the school norms of their peers with respect to problem behavior in school. We expect that adolescents tend to conform to the problem behavior of their classmates, and specifically their friends in class. We think that such influence processes are stronger for boys (rather than girls), adolescents with fewer friends, adolescents with high status friends, and adolescents whose friendships are not reciprocated. Finally, we examine the role of the academic performance of peers on student problem behavior in school. We expect that students engage in more problem behavior when their school performance compares more negatively to that of their classmates, because this would lead to frustration in school and a low academic self-concept. Findings suggest that students who have friendships with their peers in school - rather than outside of school - exhibit less problem behavior. Being surrounded by a higher share of co-ethnics in school can facilitate students' friendships in school. However, it seems that adolescents do not refrain from problem behavior in school more when their school friends attend the same, rather than a different, school class. Results indicate that adolescents exhibit less problem behavior in school when they attend a different school class than their foes. We find that students are not influenced by the school behavior of all their classmates, but conform to the school behavior of their friends in class. Especially students with fewer friends tend to adjust their problem behavior in school to that of their befriended classmates. We do not find that the gender of the adolescent, the social status of friends, or friendship reciprocity alter the influence of friends in class with respect to problem behavior in school. Finally, students do not exhibit more problem behavior when their school performance compares more negatively to that of their classmates.


Egalitarian liberal political philosophers have been at pains to show that there is a nonnegligible "place" for liberty within the framework of an egalitarian theory of justice. Thus, many have insisted that, when redistribution is required in order to achieve greater equality, assets should be transferred in the most abstract form possible, ideally through a system of cash transfers. In this article we argue that this strategy has the potential to generate significant violations of neutrality. The problem arises from the fact that individuals with certain rates of time preference often want to use social institutions as self-binding mechanisms and as a result may exhibit a preference for in-kind benefits or other institutional arrangements that are frequently misclassified as paternalistic. We argue that egalitarians who rely on cash transfers as a way of accommodating the demands of liberty do so at the expense of neutrality.


A rriving at your local Walgreens—a DNA kit thatwill estimate your chances of getting cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and myriad other diseases or conditions: just check the ones you want to know about. Are you going to buy it? If so, will you check the box for Alzheimer's? Do you want to know your future? The medical establishment wants to take this product off the shelf and deprive you of the choice to look into your health future, even if all the uncertainties of the risk assessments are adequately disclosed. Are they right to do so? These new DNA products—whether offered by Walgreens, 23andMe, or Navigenics—are opening a whole new world wherewe can assert responsibility for our own health. Doctors are already irritated that the Internet has given us so much information about our health conditions and treatments that they don't have enough time to answer all the questions that better-informed patients are asking. We get fifteen minutes and out. Any longer, and the doctor can't make money from the reimbursement provided by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurers for a routine health examination. OMG, were we patients to know from genetic testing that we had a higher-than-average risk for serious disease in the coming years, we might ask how we should change our lifestyles or take preventive steps to reduce that risk. Doctors would have to be better informed about the efficacy of different lifestyle and treatment regimes. Theymight lose control of the doctor-patient dialogue. They would no longer be the allknowing dispenser of information; we patientsmight actually be empowered to have an adult dialogue about our health. It is our health that is the issue, after all, isn't it? And shouldn't it be our responsibility to understandwhatmakes us healthy or sick? And isn't it better for us, and for the health of the nation, to prevent disease and disability and not just manage a disease—and perhaps the suffering—after symptoms appear? Why are doctors so reluctant to let us have genetic information about our future health? They argue that predicting future health risk based on genetic analysis is an uncertain science, that we would not be able to understand that genes are simply a risk factor, not a determinant, of future disease. They want to protect us from the fear and anxiety of living with the knowledge that we may have a greater-than-average risk of certain diseases. That seems a bit paternalistic. No one is mandating genetic testing. These genetic testing products permit a patient to choose whether or not he or she wants to know the risk from certain diseases. One can choose to get a report about one's risk for heart disease, but not Alzheimer's, or about one's risk for diabetes but not cancer. Perhaps a patient may want to know about the risks of a certain disease because a parent or sibling has that disease. Or perhaps one wants that knowledge to determine whether to have a child, or to test one's fetus in utero for specific disease risks. Perhaps one wants to know the risk for diseases that have a means of prevention but not for a particular disease that has no cure, like Alzheimer's. Francis Collins, the new Director of the National Institutes for Health, undertook genetic testing and thought long and hard whether to check the Alzheimer's box. Eventually, he did. That was his choice, and that should be the choice we all are permitted to exercise. That choice should not be denied by the FDA. New products are coming on the market all the time. And there are "early adopters" who like to try new products out. Feedback from these early adopters tells us a lot about how new products can be improved in updated versions—added functions, improved convenience, more product explanation. Early adopters of genetic testing products will let us knowhow we (and the medical profession) handle more knowledge of our own future, even if that knowledge is imperfect. Recently passed health care reform relies heavily on empowering patients to use their own health information better to reduce the risk or severity of future health conditions. Genetic testing is a powerful shock treatment tomake us think about how to do just that. With personalized diagnostics and treatments coming soon, we need to begin to get comfortable about knowing our own genes. Our health is too important to be relegated to the medical profession. Our future and the future of our families is our responsibility too.


E-retailers are major players in the field of electronic commerce and their success would seem to depend on service quality, because they are selling the same products that traditional retailers sell. This article critiques Collier and Bienstock's [5] new measure of e-retailing service quality and shows how the stages of e-retailing service quality can be more validly measured by adopting Rossiter's [12] C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development. Collier and Bienstock's measure is insufficiently valid because the measure (1) fails to specify the hierarchical objects that form the construct, and measures the overall object, e-retailing, wrongly by focusing on completed transactions; (2) does not fully acknowledge the hierarchy of attributes that form the construct and operationalizes these attributes wrongly as "reflective" when at all four levels they are "formed"; (3) inappropriately represents the rater entity by using college student participants; (4) employs unnecessarily numerous, often redundant, and sometimes ambiguous scale items, with Likert-type answer scales that make the observed scores managerially almost uninterpretable; and (5) tries to measure overall e-retailing service quality when it makes sense only to measure the separate quality ratings of sequential stages of the e-retailing service process. The article points out how these problems could be avoided by constructing a new measure that properly applies the C-OAR-SE procedure.


This Article examines the challenges global climate change presents for the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and its primary administrative agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Climate change will reshuffle ecological systems in ways that will defy prediction using existing knowledge and models, posing threats to species through primary and secondary ecological effects and the effects of human adaptation to climate change. Even assuming global-wide regulation of greenhouse gas emissions eventually yields a more stable climate variation regime, it will differ from the recent historical regime and many species will not survive the transition regardless of human interventions using the ESA. Yet many other species can survive with the assistance offered through a focused application of the ESA. The Article proposes a policy approach aimed toward that objective. Part I introduces the climate change challenge facing the FWS and explains why, after the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, the agency must develop a response. Part II examines the likely ecological consequences of climate change, for which we have no analog, and develops a typology of threats species will experience. Part III explores the pressures climate change will place on FWS policy decisions as increasingly more species face increasingly more serious imperilment as a result of climate change. Part IV methodically probes the relevant provisions of the ESA to identify the range of policy discretion the FWS has in making those decisions. Part V then lays out a plan for the FWS to use the ESA to build bridges for climate-threatened species across the climate change transition and into the no-analog future. Most significantly, I propose that the ESA not be used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, but rather that it be focused on establishing protective measures for species that have a chance of surviving the climate change transition and establishing a viable population in the future climate regime. In particular, the ESA can help ensure that human adaptation to climate change does not prevent other species from adapting as well.


This thesis is an enquiry into expert-intensive work to support the aggregation and mass-dissemination of scientific articles. The enquiry draws on computer-supported actions and interactions between the people who worked as daily operators, and submitters who worked the system from remote as end-users. These recorded actions and interactions render visible matters of practical responsibility and competence with reference to reportable-accountable use of objects and devices. As a scholarly contribution, this thesis draws on the work started by Garfinkel and his followers, ie., the study programme of ethnomethodology. It poses a simple question—how do the people involved in these computer-supported actions and interactions do just what they do? In the attempt to answer that question, the enquiry shows that a competent and accountable use of system supports is manifested in reference to particular phenomena that need constant management—eg. warnings,anomalies, unknown entities, failing processes, disorderly work objects, and spurious actions—in short, phenomena of disorder. Records of how these phenomena are detected and attended to, and how particular problems are solved, reveals a complex relationship between computational functions and subtle human judgements. Without making generalised theoretical claims about this relationship, I conclude that remarkably little is known about the actual lived work that takes place in the operation and use of computer systems that are worked specifically to detect and cope with `anomalies' and thus require detective and reactionary labour. I offer this enquiry into the goings-on at this particular site as a singular opportunity to respecify problems of disorder.


Three anthraquinone-type multidentate ligands, HL1-3 (HL = 2-R-1H-anthra[1,2-d]imidazole-6,11-dione; HL1: R = (2-pyridyl), HL2; R = (4,6-dimethyl-2-pyridyl), HL3; R = (6-methoxy-2-pyridyl)), were prepared, and their complexation behaviour was investigated. Three bis-chelate cobalt complexes with the formula [CoII(L1-3)2]·n(solv.) (1, 2, and 3 for HL1, HL2, and HL3, respectively), in which the ligands adopted tridentate binding modes, were synthesized and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray analyses. Electrochemical studies of 1-3 in CH2Cl2 reveal three reversible redox waves, assigned to ligand and cobalt-centred processes. Additional complexes were obtained in which HL1 adopted a bidentate binding mode, stabilising the mono-chelate [CoII(HL1)(NO3)2(DMF)2] (4) species and tris-chelate [CoIII(L1)3] (5) complex in which the cobalt ion was in its 3+ state. The electrochemical properties of complex 5 were investigated in DMF, and the Co(ii)/Co(iii) redox couple was found to be negatively shifted compared to that of complex 1, while the ligand-based processes became irreversible. Tridentate chelation is found to stabilise the anthraquinone ligands and unlocks their redox multi-stability.


Former Chancellor Allen's opinion In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation is destined to be one of the most prominent Delaware opinions of all time. This article, which is based on the author's 2006 Francis G. Pileggi Lecture, celebrates the opinion and updates its message, focusing on the fiduciary good-faith obligation and its connection to the role of directors as monitors and to corporate governance more generally. Caremark is the starting point for understanding the good-faith obligation and its contours. It is an opinion where the court's rhetoric shifts from care to good faith, pushing fiduciaries to understand that some conduct, not amounting to a traditional, financially-conflicted loyalty breach, is sufficiently egregious that it crosses the line from the context of care into good faith. The result was an update on fiduciary conduct and duties that pushed directors to reconsider their affirmative monitoring and oversight obligations. The article also explores the increasing role of federal law in regulating directors' fiduciary duties and the ways in which it has begun to occupy what was the domain of the states. The result of Caremark and its progeny, along with the changes in federal law, is a good-faith obligation that is increasingly significant to fiduciaries, to those who observe them, and to understanding corporate governance. This article develops a theory of the good-faith obligation and explores its implications in the context of recent corporate-governance scandals. It also sets forth a theory for today's key good-faith question: what is a so-called "red flag?"


A model for light interaction with forest canopies is presented, based on Monte Carlo simulation of photon transport. A hybrid representation is used to model the discontinuous nature of the forest canopy. Large scale structure is represented by geometric primitives defining shapes and positions of the tree crowns and trunks. Foliage is represented within crowns by volume-averaged parameters describing the structural and optical properties of the scattering elements. Simulation of three- dimensional photon trajectories allows accurate evaluation of multiple scattering within crowns, and between distinct crowns, trunks and the ground surface. The sky radiance field is treated as anisotropic and decoupled from bidirectional reflectance cal- culation. Validation has been performed on an example of dense spruce forest. Results show close agreement between model pre- dictions and field measurements of bidirectional reflectance, high- resolution spectra and hemispherical albedo.


An airfreight container with automated instruments for measurement of atmospheric gases and trace compounds was operated on a monthly basis onboard a Boeing 767-300 ER of LTU International Airways during long-distance flights from 1997 to 2002 (CARIBIC, Civil Aircraft for Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container, http://www.caribic-atmospheric.com). Subsequently a more advanced system has been developed, using a larger capacity container with additional equipment and an improved inlet system. CARIBIC phase #2 was implemented on a new long-range aircraft type Airbus A340-600 of the Lufthansa German Airlines (Star Alliance) in December 2004, creating a powerful flying observatory. The instrument package comprises detectors for the measurement of O3, total and gaseous H2O, NO and NOy, CO, CO2, O2, Hg, and number concentrations of sub-micrometer particles (>4 nm, >12 nm, and >18 nm diameter). Furthermore, an optical particle counter (OPC) and a proton transfer mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) are incorporated. Aerosol samples are collected for analysis of elemental composition and particle morphology after flight. Air samples are taken in glass containers for laboratory analyses of hydrocarbons, halocarbons and greenhouse gases (including isotopic composition of CO2) in several laboratories. Absorption tubes collect oxygenated volatile organic compounds. Three differential optical absorption spectrometers (DOAS) with their telescopes mounted in the inlet system measure atmospheric trace gases such as BrO, HONO, and NO2. A video camera mounted in the inlet provides information about clouds along the flight track. The flying observatory, its equipment and examples of measurement results are reported.


Abstract Background: More than 50% of women worldwide give birth at home, but little is known about home birth and subsequent neonatal hospitalisation. Objectives: The objective of the study was to investigate home birth and neonatal hospitalisation of term neonates in Peru. Methods: The relationship between birth setting [home – with or without skilled birth attendant (SBA), health centre, hospital] and neonatal hospitalisation (n = 1656) and incubator care (n = 1651) was investigated using data from the 2002 Young Lives Study. Infants were sampled from 20 sentinel sites across Peru. At each sentinel site 100 households with children aged 6–18 months were randomly sampled (therefore the sample only captured children surviving to 6 months of age). Multivariate regression modelling was used with models adjusted for a range of demographic and clinical factors. Results: After adjustment, the odds of hospitalisation were lower in neonates born at home (with SBA OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.0–0.8, p = 0.021; without SBA OR = 0.4, 95% CI 0.2–0.7, p = 0.002) than in those born in hospital. Socio-demographic factors such as ethnicity, rural living, education, socio-economic status and access to transport did not influence neonatal hospitalisation, time in hospital, incubator care or time under incubator care. Conclusion: Neonates born at home were less likely to be hospitalised after birth owing to neonatal morbidity than neonates born in hospital. It is unclear whether this finding reflects poorer accessibility to hospital care for neonates born at home, or if neonates born at home required hospitalisation less frequently than neonates born in hospital owing to lower neonatal morbidity or other factors such as lower rates of medical intervention for home births. Further research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms of these findings.


In response to the contentious process surrounding the selection of a design for the World Trade Center site, the use of spectacular buildings to brand cities and institutions, and the dizzying transformations of the skylines of Shanghai and Dubai, public awareness of architecture and design has perhaps never been higher. At the same time, architecture itself is undergoing an identity crisis as it confronts fundamental issues: the effect of digital technology on design, the pervasive impact of global capitalism, and whether to embrace or resist popular media and taste.The New Architectural Pragmatism collects the most provocative, penetrating, and influential attempts by leading theorists and practitioners in the field to define what architectural practice should be at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Written in the aftermath of modernism's utopian impulse and postmodernism's detached playfulness, the essays gathered here express and critique a new spirit of cultural and political engagement with contemporary society.Interrogating the architect's social responsibility, the contributors deliberate about how much we should ask of architecture and suggest that in the coming century, architecture must be at once flexible and robust, responsive and self-directed.Contributors: Stan Allen; George Baird; Lucy Bullivant; James Corner; Hal Foster; Kenneth Frampton; K. Michael Hays; Dave Hickey; Robert Levit; Evonne Levy; Reinhold Martin; Jorge Silvetti; Robert Somol; Philippe Starck; Roemer van Toorn; Sarah Whiting; Alejandro Zaera-Polo. William S. Saunders is editor of Harvard Design Magazine and assistant dean for external relations at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He is the editor of four previous Harvard Design Magazine Readers, published by Minnesota.


This paper investigates the phenomenon of statelessness and political belonging in a world of unequal nation-states and citizenship regimes. In so doing it will examine the theoretical construction and conceptions of the stateless in contemporary social and political thought and assess their implications for the conceptions of shared identity and citizenship rights in the legal-political framework of the nation-state and international legal processes and practices. In the academic field statelessness has been largely viewed in relation to the 'lack' of citizenship and the acquisition of citizenship has therefore been presented as a solution to statelessness. Although citizenship rights and membership of an internationally recognized state are central to the human rights of political subjects in the contemporary world, the conditions and experiences of statelessness do not fade away through acquisition of formal citizenship as the persistent political, legal and military struggles of the stateless groups around the world show. It is therefore important to investigate how notions of political belonging underpinning political projects and collective action of the stateless peoples are constructed and how they inform and shape the evolution of national consciousness among them. Political belonging creates collective goals to sustain or transform political order. This study combines theoretical investigation of statelessness and citizenship with empirical field research on the subjective experiences of the phenomena among the Kurds. Through deploying a narrative inquiry and in-depth interviews, this project will use the narratives of Kurdish migrants in Sweden and the UK to analyze how national consciousness emerges in the absence of a nation-state but also the role of the nation-state in shaping discourses about statelessness and political belonging outside of the 'original' homelands.


The voluntary nature of American religion necessitates the commitment and participation of members for religious organizations to survive. Like other organizations in competitive environments, congregations employ strategies to enhance performance. Membership participation in terms of time and money are primary performance criteria for the congregation. This paper probes the performance implications of congregational strategy by drawing on the National Congregations Study, a nationally representative sample of 1236 American congregations. Four dimensions of congregational strategy are explored: distinctiveness, recruitment, worship music, and small groups. Findings attest to the importance of congregational strategies for explaining time-oriented and money-oriented participation. Distinctiveness is a key predictor of worship service participation, irrespective of religious tradition. However, no single organizational variable consistently predicts financial participation across traditions.


A new technology for the specific and covalent labelling of fusion proteins with small organic molecules in vivo and in vitro has recently been developed in our laboratory. The method is based on the genetically encoded fusion of a target protein to O6-alkylguanine- DNA-alkyltransferase (hAGT). hAGT irreversibly and covalently transfers the benzyl group of O6-benzylguanine (BG) to its reactive cysteine and is subsequently degraded in vivo afterwards. hAGT possesses specific activity towards BG-based compounds which are otherwise chemically inert and have no other reaction partners in the cellular environment. This property allows for the labelling of hAGT fusion proteins with BG-fluorescein compounds inside the living cell. Mutants of hAGT that overcome several limitations of the wild-type protein such as binding to DNA, low activity, unfavourable folding properties under oxidising conditions and reaction with endogenous AGT have been generated. One mutant (named MAGT) was generated that combines most of these features with the exception of a high reactivity. In the course of this project the activity of this mutant was increased using directed molecular evolution: the phage display technology was applied to select for MAGT based highly reactive mutants. The final mutant (named SMAGT) exhibits a two-old higher activity against BG derivatives than the fastest so far described hAGT and relative to its predecessor MAGT a 16-fold higher activity. Furthermore, SMAGT combines all the described positive features of MAGT. The mutant was subsequently used for fluorescence labelling experiments on the cell surface of mammalian cells: a highly specific labelling was obtained after short incubation times with low substrate concentrations. A previously used hAGT mutant engineered only with respect to activity gave no fluorescence signal under the same conditions. SMAGT thus extends the range of possible applications of the hAGT technology. It is reported that hAGT is degraded by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway after reaction with BG substrates. Relatively few data are available concerning the post-alkylation fate of hAGT and no data at all about the in vivo stability of alkylated hAGT fusion proteins. Therefore in another part of this work the in vivo stability of hAGT fusion proteins in mammalian cells and yeast was examined: it was demonstrated that the degradation of hAGT after alkylation is strongly dependent on the C-terminal fusion partner of the protein. Furthermore it was shown that the addition of degradation signals to the hAGT (such as a N-end rule degron) can enhance the BG-induced degradation in vivo. These experiments are the first steps towards the generation of a hAGT with optimised degradation properties. Such a protein would be suitable to generate a system for the BG-induced knock-out of hAGT fusion proteins. Gene- and protein knock-out systems are powerful tools to study the physiological function of a protein in an organism. It would be highly desirable to have a system that allows the conditional knock-out of a target protein induced by an external stimulus such as a small molecule that can be used in higher organisms like mice.


In recent years foreign investors have used a rapidly expanding network of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties to directly sue states before international tribunals for violations of international law. There have now been hundreds of such lawsuits, with tribunals occasionally granting investors massive damage awards. In the process of resolving these disputes, tribunals announce and apply new rules of law. This brave new world of international investment law (IIL) has emerged as one of the most dynamic and controversial areas of international law today. In this Article I argue that the IIL system can be usefully analogized to a domestic-law administrative agency, where significant regulatory power is transferred to expert decision-makers acting on behalf of political principals. Viewing IIL as an agency highlights the IIL system's major weakness: the lack of sufficient mechanisms of political control by states. Drawing on domestic administrative practice, I suggest reforms designed to enhance control by adapting domestic-law systems of notice-and-comment and the legislative veto. Doing so promises to ensure states an adequate degree of control over IIL outputs.


Among grapevine diseases affecting European vineyards, Flavescence dorée (FD) and Grapevine Trunk Diseases (GTD) are considered the most relevant challenges for viticulture because of the damage they cause to vineyards. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) multispectral imagery could be a powerful tool for the automatic detection of symptomatic vines. However, one major difficulty is to discriminate different kinds of diseases leading to similar leaves discoloration as it is the case with FD and GTD for red vine cultivars. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the potentiality of UAV multispectral imagery to separate: symptomatic vines including FD and GTD (Esca and black dead arm) from asymptomatic vines (Case 1) and FD vines from GTD ones (Case 2). The study sites are localized in the Gaillac and Minervois wine production regions (south of France). A set of seven vineyards covering five different red cultivars was studied. Field work was carried out between August and September 2016. In total, 218 asymptomatic vines, 502 FD vines and 199 GTD vines were located with a centimetric precision GPS. UAV multispectral images were acquired with a MicaSense RedEdge® sensor and were processed to ultimately obtain surface reflectance mosaics at 0.10 m ground spatial resolution. In this study, the potentiality of 24 variables (5 spectral bands, 15 vegetation indices and 4 biophysical parameters) are tested. The vegetation indices are selected for their potentiality to detect abnormal vegetation behavior in relation to stress or diseases. Among the biophysical parameters selected, three are directly linked to the leaf pigments content (chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin). The first step consisted in evaluating the performance of the 24 variables to separate symptomatic vine vegetation (FD or/and GTD) from asymptomatic vine vegetation using the performance indicators from the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) Curve method (i.e., Area Under Curve or AUC, sensibility and specificity). The second step consisted in mapping the symptomatic vines (FD and/or GTD) at the scale of the field using the optimal threshold resulting from the ROC curve. Ultimately, the error between the level of infection predicted by the selected variables (proportion of symptomatic pixels by vine) and observed in the field (proportion of symptomatic leaves by vine) is calculated. The same methodology is applied to the three levels of analysis: by vineyard, by cultivar (Gamay, Fer Servadou) and by berry color (all red cultivars). At the vineyard and cultivar levels, the best variables selected varies. The AUC of the best vegetation indices and biophysical parameters varies from 0.84 to 0.95 for Case 1 and 0.74 to 0.90 for Case 2. At the berry color level, no variable is efficient in discriminating FD vines from GTD ones (Case 2). For Case 1, the best vegetation indices and biophysical parameter are Red Green Index (RGI)/ Green-Red Vegetation Index (GRVI) (based on the green and red spectral bands) and Car (linked to carotenoid content). These variables are more effective in mapping vines with a level of infection greater than 50%. However, at the scale of the field, we observe misclassified pixels linked to the presence of mixed pixels (shade, bare soil, inter-row vegetation and vine vegetation) and other factors of abnormal coloration (e.g., apoplectic vines).


This paper reviews the current status and implementation of battery chargers, charging power levels, and infrastructure for plug-in electric vehicles and hybrids. Charger systems are categorized into off-board and on-board types with unidirectional or bidirectional power flow. Unidirectional charging limits hardware requirements and simplifies interconnection issues. Bidirectional charging supports battery energy injection back to the grid. Typical on-board chargers restrict power because of weight, space, and cost constraints. They can be integrated with the electric drive to avoid these problems. The availability of charging infrastructure reduces on-board energy storage requirements and costs. On-board charger systems can be conductive or inductive. An off-board charger can be designed for high charging rates and is less constrained by size and weight. Level 1 (convenience), Level 2 (primary), and Level 3 (fast) power levels are discussed. Future aspects such as roadbed charging are presented. Various power level chargers and infrastructure configurations are presented, compared, and evaluated based on amount of power, charging time and location, cost, equipment, and other factors.


Metro and carrier-grade Ethernet networks, as well as industrial area networks and specific local area networks (LANs), have to guarantee fast resiliency upon network failure. However, the current OpenFlow architecture, originally designed for LANs, does not include effective mechanisms for fast resiliency. In this paper, the OpenFlow architecture is enhanced to support segment protection in Ethernet-based networks. Novel mechanisms have been specifically introduced to maintain working and backup flows at different priorities and to guarantee effective network resource utilization when the failed link is recovered. Emulation and experimental demonstration implementation results show that the proposed architecture avoids both the utilization of a full-state controller and the intervention of the controller upon failure, thus guaranteeing a recovery time only due to the failure detection time, i.e., a few tens of milliseconds within the considered scenario.


This paper explores the ambiguous nature of the two principles of international law selfdetermination and territorial integrity, illustrating the controversial nuances of international law on a political board whereby the Crimean crisis has been described. In other words, it aims to elucidate the situation of Crimea from the existing international law prism by examination of these two principles. Multiple paradigms will be applied for interpreting juristic status of mentioned principles. After investigating the historical position and theoretical framework of the principle of self-determination and territorial integrity, research has been aimed to process the massive data collected over the Crimean crisis between Russia and the West. The foundation of this research will be based on the collision between Russia and the West collision over the legal interpretation of these two principles over the entire history and particularly in the case of Crimea. From the very beginning, the legal interpretation of the situation of Crimea was that Russia's legal rhetoric was groundless and that her legal justification on the secession of Crimea was simply not plausible and therefore could not be linked by either law or moral theories.


If consciousness is "the hard problem" in mind science -- explaining how the amazing private world of consciousness emerges from neuronal activity -- then "the really hard problem," writes Owen Flanagan in this provocative book, is explaining how meaning is possible in the material world. How can we make sense of the magic and mystery of life naturalistically, without an appeal to the supernatural? How do we say truthful and enchanting things about being human if we accept the fact that we are finite material beings living in a material world, or, in Flanagan's description, short-lived pieces of organized cells and tissue? Flanagan's answer is both naturalistic and enchanting. We all wish to live in a meaningful way, to live a life that really matters, to flourish, to achieve eudaimonia -- to be a "happy spirit." Flanagan calls his "empirical-normative" inquiry into the nature, causes, and conditions of human flourishing eudaimonics. Eudaimonics, systematic philosophical investigation that is continuous with science, is the naturalist's response to those who say that science has robbed the world of the meaning that fantastical, wishful stories once provided. Flanagan draws on philosophy, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and psychology, as well as on transformative mindfulness and self-cultivation practices that come from such nontheistic spiritual traditions as Buddhism, Confucianism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism, in his quest. He gathers from these disciplines knowledge that will help us understand the nature, causes, and constituents of well-being and advance human flourishing. Eudaimonics can help us find out how to make a difference, how to contribute to the accumulation of good effects -- how to live a meaningful life.


This paper explores parental (particularly mothers') support in the daily lives of children with allergies in a Swedish context. An ordinary life is established by making comparisons to what other children without allergies presumably can do (and eat). Although the parents' goal is to support their child in managing allergies, neither their practical nor their interactional strategies work in a clear-cut direction to promote the child's ordinary life and identity. On the contrary, parents' accounts convey that they function just as much against an everyday life and the child's identity. When managing family relations, parents expect immediate family members (specifically grandparents) to understand and accommodate the child's needs.
 However, claims of family responsibility are made through moral tales about lack of support from "generalized others." Family responsibility is also downplayed in parents' accounts as demands of support may put parents' moral self at risk. The strategy of information control in certain situations and (non-family) relations used to keep the child safe may risk stigmatizing the child, alternatively, making the child into a social threat. One of the conclusions that could be drawn from this study is that claims of family support may be contradictory to other cultural principles that ascribe responsibilities between families and individuals, as the principles of individual freedom and autonomy.


Multicellular organisms such as higher plants require timely regulation of DNA replication and cell division to grow and develop. Recent work in Arabidopsis has shown that chromosome segregation during meiosis and mitosis depends on the activity of several genes that in yeast are involved in the establishment of chromosomal cohesion. In this process, proteins of the STRUCTURAL MAINTENANCE OF CHROMOSOMES (SMC) family tether chromosomes and establish inter- and intrachromosomal connections. In Arabidopsis, recruitment of SMC proteins and establishment of cohesion during key stages of the cell cycle depend on the activity of CHROMOSOME TRANSMISSION FIDELITY 7/ESTABLISHMENT OF COHESION 1 (CTF7/ECO1). Here we show that loss of CTF7/ECO1 activity alters the status of cytosine methylation in both intergenic regions and transposon loci. An increase in expression was also observed for transposon copia28, which suggests a link between CTF7/ECO1 activity, DNA methylation and gene silencing. More work is needed to determine the mechanistic relationships that intervene in this process.


Large amounts of biological data are continuously generated nowadays, thanks to the advancements of high-throughput experimental techniques. Mining valuable knowledge from such data still motivates the design of suitable computational methods, to complement the experimental work which is often bound by considerable time and cost requirements. Protein complexes, or groups of interacting proteins, are key players in most cellular events. The identification of complexes not only allows to better understand normal biological processes but also to uncover disease-triggering malfunctions. Ultimately, findings in this research branch can highly enhance the design of effective medical treatments. The aim of this research is to detect protein complexes in protein-protein interaction networks and to associate the detected entities to diseases. The work is divided into three main objectives: first, develop a suitable method for the identification of protein complexes in static interaction networks; second, model the dynamic aspect of protein interaction networks and detect complexes accordingly; and third, design a learning model to link proteins, and subsequently protein complexes, to diseases. In response to these objectives, we present, ProRank+, a novel complex-detection approach based on a ranking algorithm and a merging procedure. Then, we introduce DyCluster, which uses gene expression data, to model the dynamics of the interaction networks, and we adapt the detection algorithm accordingly. Finally, we integrate network topology attributes and several biological features of proteins to form a classification model for gene-disease association. The reliability of the proposed methods is supported by various experimental studies conducted to compare them with existing approaches. ProRank+ detects more protein complexes than other state-of-the-art methods. DyCluster goes a step further and achieves a better performance than similar techniques. Then, our learning model shows that combining topological and biological features can greatly enhance the gene-disease association process. Finally, we present a comprehensive case study of breast cancer in which we pinpoint disease genes using our learning model; subsequently, we detect favorable groupings of those genes in a protein interaction network using the ProRank+ algorithm. viii


Abstract. This paper describes and investigates the implementation of almost entirely image based contemporary techniques for the three dimensional geometric documentation of the Tower of the Winds in Athens, which is a unique and very special monument of the Roman era. These techniques and related algorithms were implemented using a well-known piece of commercial software with extreme caution in the selection of the various parameters. Problems related to data acquisition and processing, but also to the algorithms and to the software implementation are identified and discussed. The resulting point cloud has been georeferenced, i.e. referenced to a local Cartesian coordinate system through minimum geodetic measurements, and subsequently the surface, i.e. the mesh was created and finally the three dimensional textured model was produced. In this way, the geometric documentation drawings, i.e. the horizontal section plans, the vertical section plans and the elevations, which include orthophotos of the monument, can be produced at will from that 3D model, for the complete geometric documentation. Finally, a 3D tour of the Tower of the Winds has also been created for a more integrated view of the monument. The results are presented and are evaluated for their completeness, efficiency, accuracy and ease of production.


John Lamberton Bell has been honored by The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada at its annual conference in Ottawa from July 15-19 by being designated as a Fellow of the Hymn Society. Bell was honored as an innovative worship leader who has been a catalyst for renewal of the Church's song. "Preaching and hymnody are my two terrestrial passions, largely because they are not solely for specialists but should affect the whole people of God." So John Bell describes himself in the introduction to States of Bliss & Yearning, a collection of his sermons.1 He also has given us "Ten Golden Rules for enabling the least confident of people to teach new songs to the most cynical of congregations," the first of which is: "Believe in the voice which God has given you. It is the voice of an apprentice angel."2 John Lamberton Bell was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland on 20 November 1949. His mother was a Christian, but his father, although agnostic until late in his life, respected the work of George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community.3 While at the University of Glasgow, John became familiar with the Community House, an Iona sponsored cafe and gathering place which also held daily worship.4 Also, while a student at Glasgow University, in 1974 he was elected president of the Students' Representative Council, and in 1977 he was elected Lord Rector of the University, an honor given in previous times to Disraeli, Gladstone and George MacLeod among others but never before to a student. Soon the rules were changed to prevent a student incumbent in the future.5 Following graduation from Trinity College in 1974, he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, and worked with English-speaking churches in Amsterdam for two years. In 1980 he became a member of the Iona Community. Working first as Youth Coordinator and a resource worker in worship and spirituality, he formed the Wild Goose Worship Group. In 1989, having completed his work as Youth Coordinator, he with his collaborator Graham Maule, formed the Wild Goose Resource Group, a group of eighteen members, whose mission is to "enable and equip congregations and clergy in the shaping and creation of new forms of relevant, participative worship."6 Because of his work with the Iona Community and his life in inner-city Glasgow, his songs are rooted in community. Bell was the Convener and music editor of the committee for the fourth edition of the Church of Scotland's Church Hymnary (2005). …


The report is devoted to two interrelated issues: the impact of penetration of fully autonomous cars and car sharing on the car fleets, and in combination with an increase of the share of electric vehicles on the volume and structure of energy demand. For this, forecasting tools and motorization scenarios have been developed. Forecasts for car fleet and energy demand were obtained for Russia and the largest economies in the world (China, USA, EU, India, Japan).


Judging from repetitious appearances of her marital arms in the painted line-endings, the Psalter-Hours John Rylands Library Latin MS 117 probably belonged to Jeanne of Flanders (c.1272–1333), daughter of Count Robert III of Flanders and in 1288 second wife to Enguerrand IV of Coucy. Yet the line-endings also contain some 1,800 diminutive painted escutcheons, many of which refer to other members of the local nobility active during the 1280s. This study, based on an exhaustive survey of the total heraldic and codicological evidence, suggests that the majority of the extant Psalter predated the Hours and that the two parts were combined after the 1288 marriage. The 'completed' manuscript bears witness to major events that unfolded in and around the Coucy barony over the course of the decade. It suggests a complex relationship between Jeanne of Flanders and a lesser member of the local nobility, a certain Marien of Moÿ, who may have served as her attendant.


This article explores some of the issues surrounding data mining in the UK's higher education institutions (HEIs). Data mining is understood as the computational analysis of data contained in a text or data set in order to extract new knowledge from it. There are two main ways in which HEIs are involved with data mining: in the process of conducting research, and as producers of data. As consumers, HEIs may have restrictions on the manner in which they can conduct research given the fact that it is likely that content will be protected by intellectual property rights. As producers, HEIs are faced with increasing pressure to make publicly-funded research available to the public through institutional repositories and other similar open access schemes, but some of these do not set out reuse policies for data. The article concludes that if more research was made available with adequate licensing strategies, then the question of whether data mining research is legal would be moot.


Located at the southernmost sector of the Western Branch of the East African Rift System, the Malawi Rift exemplifies an active, magma-poor, weakly extended continental rift. To investigate the controls on rifting, we image crustal and uppermost mantle structure beneath the region using ambient-noise and teleseismic Rayleigh-wave phase velocities between 9 and 100 s period. Our study includes six lake-bottom seismometers located in Lake Malawi (Nyasa), the first time seismometers have been deployed in any of the African rift lakes. Noise levels in the lake are lower than that of shallow oceanic environments and allow successful application of compliance corrections and instrument orientation determination. Resulting phase-velocity maps reveal slow velocities primarily confined to Lake Malawi at short periods (T 25 s), a prominent low-velocity anomaly exists beneath the Rungwe Volcanic Province at the northern terminus of the rift basin. Estimates of phase-velocity sensitivity indicates these low velocities occur within the lithospheric mantle and potentially uppermost asthenosphere, suggesting that mantle processes may control the association of volcanic centres and the localization of magmatism. Beneath the main portion of the Malawi Rift, a modest reduction in velocity is also observed at periods sensitive to the crust and upper mantle, but these velocities are much higher than those observed beneath Rungwe.


This paper illustrates an application of grammatical tagging as a methodological tool for the investigation of small specialized corpora. A contrastive analysis was performed on two tagged corpora that represent genres used for the purpose of financial disclosure: spoken earnings presentations and written earnings releases. The analysis focused on two key features that could be studied systematically and comprehensively thanks to grammatical tagging: lexical density and evaluative adjectives. The results revealed interesting differences between the two corpora that appeared to be influenced by mode, interactional setting, and role/status of speakers and writers. The study shows how grammatical tagging offers new ways to integrate quantitative and qualitative methods in order to better understand discourse used in specific communicative contexts.


This book chronicles the discoveries that led to modern DNA evidence and analyzes how courts in the United States came to accept this evidence in criminal cases. It shows how the adversary system exacerbated divisions among scientists, how lawyers and experts obfuscated some issues and clarified others, how probability and statistics were manipulated and misunderstood, and how the need to convince lay judges influenced the scientific research. It uses probability theory to clarify legal concepts of relevance and probative value as they apply to DNA and other forensic-science evidence, and it reflects on the lessons DNA evidence holds for forensic science and the legal system.


The authors document the rise of so-called hybrid models of distance education and articulate their relevance for theological education in North America. In the first section, the authors lay out a typology of the visions for technology current among theological educators. One feature of this typology is the recognition of two very different ways of thinking about distance education. Early-stage thinking is characterized by a strong dichotomy between online and face-to-face courses. Later-stage thinking has tended toward the development of hybrid programs. The following sections explore the history of the development of hybrid models and how hybrid courses and programs work. In two final sections, the authors ponder the possible strengths of hybrid programs for theological education and the issue of hybrid models and ATS accreditation standards. A close reading of the current ATS standards for distance education reveals that they have been crafted according to models that are both outmoded in terms of their pedagogical sophistication and less than fully relevant to the ways in which distance programs are actually being developed by seminaries in North America.


At the end of November 1960, the Leiden Museum received an interesting collection of animals, mostly fishes, from the Niger delta. All specimens were collected by Mr. H. J. G. Beets, at the time employed by Shell B.P. — Delta Investigations, during the period May to August 1960, and in the region between Port Harcourt and Brass. Unfortunately, owing to lack of time, the separate specimens or lots were not labelled, but the collecting localities are limited in number and restricted to only the eastern part of the delta. The fish collection, consisting of 130 specimens, proved to belong to 51 species, some of which gave occasion for a reexamination and comparison of Bleeker and Steindachner types in the Leiden Museum collection. Collecting localities and descriptive notes (fig. 1) The following information is almost wholly taken from the extensive notes provided by Mr. Beets. Loc. I : Brass, Brass River, St. Nicholas River, Okpoma Creek, and small confluent creeks. In this area, situated immediately behind the Atlantic coast, the water must be considered brackish (Okpoma Creek) to almost completely salt. Most specimens were collected here. Loc. 2: Old Sangama, environs of Sego Creek, about 45 km WSW of Port Harcourt. Fresh water throughout the year. Only few fishes collected. Loc. 3 : Ekulama, Bille Creek, San Bartholomeo River, 35-45 km SW of Port Harcourt. Brackish water. Loc. 4 : Port Harcourt and environs. Brackish water. Behind the sandy beach and a narrow zone of coastal forest, a wide marshy area reaches far inland to the foothills, its average width being approximately 35-40 km. This whole zone is covered with mangrove forest, especially


Fashion photography is said to have begun with the distinguished American photographer Edward Steichen in 1911, and in the more than hundred years since then the genre has attracted some of the most talented photographers in the history of the medium. Many of them started their careers thanks to the editors and art directors of Vogue, Glamour and other Conde Nast publications. This book, featuring the work of 85 of the great fashion photographers past and present, drawn from the Conde Nast archives in New York, Paris and Milan, illustrates the early work of such celebrated practitioners as Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Corinne Day, Ellen von Unwerth and Mario Testino that appeared in the pages of the companys magazines. The book is arranged chronologically from 1910 to 2010, and each plate section is interleaved with texts that recount the major photographers of the period and the changing styles of photography and fashion. The book also includes an interview with Franca Sozzani, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, essays by Olivier Saillard and Sylvie Lecallier from the Musee Galliera, Paris, and an introduction by author Nathalie Herschdorfer, photography historian and curator. A brief biography of each photographer is included at the back of the book.


The structure of the c-myc locus and the flanking chromosomal region was investigated by Southern blot analysis of DNA from bone marrow aspirates from 42 patients with multiple myeloma. The main abnormality detected was the rearrangement of the MLVI-4 locus, 20 kilobases 3' of c-myc, which was observed in seven cases (16%). Two of these rearrangements were detected at the time of the initial diagnosis, four during treatment, and one at relapse, and their presence correlated with unresponsiveness to therapy. The MLVI-4 locus represents the human homologue of the Moloney leukemia virus integration-4 locus (Mlvi-4), a common region for provirus integration in Moloney murine leukemia virus-induced T-cell lymphomas in rodents. Provirus integration in this locus activates c-myc, and two additional genes, Mlvi-4 and Mlvi-1. The c-myc gene was rearranged in one patient; mutations involving the first exon of c-myc, frequently detected by altered restriction enzyme recognition sites in Burkitt's lymphomas, were not observed in these myelomas.


Sediment quantity and quality are key considerations in the sustainable management of fluvial systems. Increasing attention is being paid to the role of aquatic biota as geomorphic agents, capable of altering the composition, mobilization and transport of fluvial sediments at various spatiotemporal scales. In this paper invasive species are presented as a special case since: (1) populations may not be constrained by factors characteristic of their native habitats; and (2) they represent a disturbance to which the system may not be resilient. Discussion is centred on the signal crayfish which has rapidly colonized catchments in Europe and Japan, but the hypotheses and models presented provide a framework applicable to other invasive species. This paper explores the mechanisms by which signal crayfish may influence sediment dynamics from the patch scale to the catchment scale. There is potential for signal crayfish to impact significantly on river sediments and morphology as a function of their interactions with river bed and bank material, and with other aquatic organisms, combined with their large body size and aggressive nature, their presence in very high densities, and the lack of effective mitigation strategies. Potential catchment-scale management issues arising from these factors include habitat degradation, mobilization of sediment-associated nutrients and contaminants, and sediment-related flood risks. Further interdisciplinary research is required at the interface between freshwater ecology, fluvial geomorphology and hydraulics, in order to quantify the significance and extent of these impacts. The paper points to the key research agendas that may now emerge.


OBJECTIVES
To determine how regional nodal metastasis affects survival in patients with major salivary gland malignancy and to identify clinical predictors for nodal disease.

METHODS
Major salivary gland cancer cases with nodal sampling were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer database for 1988 through 1998. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was conducted to compare patients with and without histopathologic evidence of nodal disease. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the influence of clinical predictors on the presence of regional nodal disease.

RESULTS
A total of 1268 patients with major salivary gland malignancy and regional node sampling were identified. Mean age at diagnosis was 58.3 years, with a male-female ratio of 1:4. Mean tumor size was 3.0 cm. Overall mean survival time was 83 months (95% confidence interval, 80-87 months). Patients with no evidence of nodal cancer had significantly improved survival over patients with any pathologically positive nodes (mean survival time, 100 months vs 59 months, respectively; P<.001). Patient age, tumor histopathologic type, facial nerve involvement, extraglandular involvement, tumor grade, and tumor size were significant clinical predictors of nodal disease. Facial nerve involvement, tumor grade, and squamous cell carcinoma subtype exhibited the highest increased odds ratios for nodal metastasis.

CONCLUSIONS
Nodal disease significantly decreases survival in patients with major salivary gland malignancy. Tumor histopathologic type, facial nerve involvement, extraglandular tumor extension, and tumor grade are the most important predictors of nodal disease.


Media mix modeling is a statistical analysis on historical data to measure the return on investment (ROI) on advertising and other marketing activities. Current practice usually utilizes data aggregated at a national level, which often suffers from small sample size and insufficient variation in the media spend. When sub-national data is available, we propose a geo-level Bayesian hierarchical media mix model (GBHMMM), and demonstrate that the method generally provides estimates with tighter credible intervals compared to a model with national level data alone. This reduction in error is due to having more observations and useful variability in media spend, which can protect advertisers from unsound reallocation decisions. Under some weak conditions, the geo-level model can reduce ad targeting bias. When geo-level data is not available for all the media channels, the geo-level model estimates generally deteriorate as more media variables are imputed using the national level data.


Summary Use of recombinant human proteins has revolutionized medicine by providing over 200 highly purified hormones and proteins that effectively treat many inherited and acquired peptide hormone and protein deficiencies. With the exception of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, these biological medicines are synthesized by cultured cells using DNA sequences that would yield proteins with identical amino acid sequences as endogenous human proteins. Therefore, there was the broad expectation that recombinant human biological medicines would be non-immunogenic in patients capable of synthesizing even sub-optimal levels of these therapeutic proteins to which they are innately tolerant. However, the widespread clinical use of recombinant human proteins has demonstrated that nearly all of them are immunogenic. This observation suggests that factors additional to differences in amino acid sequences of endogenous and biotherapeutic proteins contribute to the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins. The main aim of this review is to summarize some of the factors that are known to contribute to the immunogenicity of recombinant therapeutic proteins.


HLA alleles have been determined for the first time in individuals from the Chuvashian population by DNA typing and sequencing. HLA-A, -B, -DR, and -DQ allele frequencies and extended haplotypes have also been determined, and the results compared to those for Central Europeans, Siberians and other Asians, Caucasians, Middle Easterners, and Mediterranean peoples. Genetic distances, neighbor-joining dendrograms, and correspondence analysis have been performed. Present-day Chuvash speak an Altaic-Turkic language and are genetically related to Caucasians (Georgians), Mediterraneans, and Middle Easterners, and not only to Central or Northern Europeans; Chuvash contain little indications of Central Asian-Altaic gene flow. Thus, present-day Chuvash who speak an Altaic-Turkic language are probably more closely related to ancient Mesopotamian-Hittites and northern European populations than to central Asia-Altaic people.


At independence, Cameroon and Nigeria adhered to the OAU principle of UTI POSSEDETIS JURIS by inheriting the colonial administrative borders whose delineation in some parts was either imperfect or not demarcated or both. The two countries tried to correct these anomalies. But such efforts were later thwarted by incessant geostrategic reckoning, dilatory, and diversionary tactics in the seventies and eighties that persisted and resurfaced in the nineties with a more determined posture. On two occasions, the border conflict almost boiled over to a full-scale war. First, in May 1981 when there was the exchange of fire between Cameroonian and Nigerian coast guards and second, in February 1994 when Nigeria marched her troops into Cameroon's Bakassi Peninsula. Elsewhere in Africa, border incidents like these have often degenerated into war. But Cameroon and Nigeria together with the international community managed these protracted incidents from escalating into war. This book examines the part played by the disputing parties, Cameroon and Nigeria; the mediation, conciliatory and adjudicatory role of third parties; and the regional and international organisations, in the process of the resolution of the border dispute from 1981-2011. The study situates the nature and dynamics of the dispute historically, and comprehensively explores in detail its causes, settlement and resolution.


Background Although the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/VEGF receptor (VEGFR) system has become a prime target for antiangiogenic treatment, its biological role in glioblastoma beyond angiogenesis has remained controversial. Methods Using neutralizing antibodies to VEGF or placental growth factor (PlGF) or the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, cediranib, or lentiviral gene silencing, we delineated autocrine signaling in glioma cell lines. The in vivo effects of VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 depletion were evaluated in orthotopic glioma xenograft models. Results VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 modulated glioma cell clonogenicity, viability, and invasiveness in vitro in an autocrine, cell–line-specific manner. VEGFR1 silencing promoted mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK) signaling, whereas VEGFR2 silencing resulted in cell-type dependent activation of the protein kinase B (PKB)/AKT and MAPK/ERK pathways. These responses may represent specific escape mechanisms from VEGFR inhibition. The survival of orthotopic glioma-bearing mice was prolonged upon VEGFR1 silencing in the LNT-229, LN-308, and U87MG models and upon VEGFR2 silencing in LN-308 and U87MG. Disruption of VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 signaling was associated with decreased tumor size, increased tumor necrosis, or loss of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) immunoreactivity. Neutralizing VEGF and PlGF by specific antibodies was superior to either antibody treatment alone in the VEGFR1-dependent LNT-229 model. Conclusions Differential dependence on autocrine signaling through VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 suggests a need for biomarker–stratified VEGF(R)-based therapeutic approaches to glioblastoma.


Imagine you are sitting at a public coffee shop and using their free wifi on your work device. As long as you are connected to corporate VPN, you are well protected. The moment you go off, you are no longer protected. Your laptop is now open to being hacked and attacked at public wifi locations like airports, hotels, coffee shops, parks etc. My proposed solution involves an automated proactive cloud based threat intelligence platform that will not just monitor and detect threats in real time attacking you while at a public location but also when you are at home. The system works on Zero trust framework where there are no trusted networks or zones. Each system with an IP address has its own Intrusion Detection and Prevention System, combined with special localized malware analysis that is specifically targeting you.Most Anti Virus and anti malware companies, do not write their own signatures. Infact they buy them from smaller companies, my proposed solution will analyze malware targeted at you specifically and create a defensive signature within minutes to neutralize and eradicate threats against you within an hour across your entire infrastructure. There will be no need to wait 2–3 days for Anti virus and anti malware companies to come up with signatures and offer you protection.


Background & objectives: Considering the prevalence of diabetes and importance of its prevention, control and treatment, using low-calorie natural sweetener is necessary. Hepatoprotective and antidiabetic properties of the aqueous extract of Stevia. rebaudiana were assessed in the present study. Methods: In this study, 35 mature male mice were divided into 5 groups. Diabetes was induced by administration of 60 mg/kg of streptozotocin intraperitoneally. The negative control group received normal saline and treatment groups received glibenclamide with 0.5 mg/kg and 200 and 400 μg/kg of aqueous extract of S. rebaudiana through gavage for 15 days, respectively. Also, one group was considered as positive control (as non-treated diabetic). On the last day, the blood glucose levels of samples were measured. After periodic acid Schiff (PAS) staining, 5μm of sections were used for stereological analysis. Results: The blood glucose level was decreased (p<0.05) significantly in aqueous extracttreated groups compared to the untreated diabetic mice. The weight and volume of kidneys, cortex, medulla, proximal and distal tubules, collecting ducts, loop of henle, interstitial tissues, vessels and length of renal tubules decreased significantly (p<0.05) after treatment with aqueous extract of S. rebaudiana (p<0.05). The number and volume of glomeruli restored toward normal levels with high doses of S. rebaudiana. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, aqueous extract of S. rebaudiana (sweet fraction) can regulate the blood glucose levels and inhibit diabetes-induced renal damages. It seems that S. rebaudiana can be used as an antidiabetic and nephroprotective supplement.