p130Cas, Crk‐associated substrate (Cas), is an adaptor/scaffold protein that plays a central role in actin cytoskeletal reorganization. We previously reported that p130Cas is not tyrosine‐phosphorylated in osteoclasts derived from Src‐deficient mice, which are congenitally osteopetrotic, suggesting that p130Cas serves as a downstream molecule of c‐Src and is involved in osteoclastic bone resorption. However, the physiological role of p130Cas in osteoclasts has not yet been confirmed because the p130Cas‐deficient mice displayed embryonic lethality. Osteoclast‐specific p130Cas conditional knockout (p130CasΔOCL–) mice exhibit a high bone mass phenotype caused by defect in multinucleation and cytoskeleton organization causing bone resorption deficiency. Bone marrow cells from p130CasΔOCL– mice were able to differentiate into osteoclasts and wild‐type cells in vitro. However, osteoclasts from p130CasΔOCL– mice failed to form actin rings and resorb pits on dentine slices. Although the initial events of osteoclast attachment, such as β3‐integrin or Src phosphorylation, were intact, the Rac1 activity that organizes the actin cytoskeleton was reduced, and its distribution was disrupted in p130CasΔOCL– osteoclasts. Dedicator of cytokinesis 5 (Dock5), a Rho family guanine nucleotide exchanger, failed to associate with Src or Pyk2 in osteoclasts in the absence of p130Cas. These results strongly indicate that p130Cas plays pivotal roles in osteoclastic bone resorption. © 2013 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


In this paper we assess the snow cover and its dynamics for the western river basins of the Indus River system (IRS) and their sub-basins located in Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan for the period 2001–2012. First, we validate the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily snow products from Terra (MOD10A1) and Aqua (MYD10A1) against the Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (TM/ETM+) data set, and then improve them for clouds by applying a validated non-spectral cloud removal technique. The improved snow product has been analysed on a seasonal and annual basis against different topographic parameters (aspect, elevation and slope). Our results show a decreasing tendency for the annual average snow cover for the westerlies-influenced basins (upper Indus basin (UIB), Astore, Hunza, Shigar and Shyok) and an increasing tendency for the monsoon-influenced basins (Jhelum, Kabul, Swat and Gilgit). Seasonal average snow cover decreases during winter and autumn, and increases during spring and summer, which is consistent with the observed cooling and warming trends during the respective seasons. Sub-basins at relatively higher latitudes/altitudes show higher variability than basins at lower latitudes/middle altitudes. Northeastern and northwestern aspects feature greater snow cover. The mean end-of-summer regional snow line altitude (SLA) zones range from 3000 to 5000 m a.s.l. for all basins. Our analysis provides an indication of a descending end-of-summer regional SLA zone for most of the studied basins, which is significant for the Shyok and Kabul basins, thus indicating a change in their water resources. Such results are consistent with the observed hydro-climatic data, recently collected local perceptions and glacier mass balances for the investigated period within the UIB. Moreover, our analysis shows a significant correlation between winter season snow cover and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index of the previous autumn. Similarly, the inter-annual variability of spring season snow cover and spring season precipitation explains well the inter-annual variability of the summer season discharge from most of the basins. These findings indicate some potential for the seasonal stream flow forecast in the region, suggesting snow cover as a possible predictor.


Summary Social impact assessment (SIA) developed alongside EIA in the early 1970s as a mechanism to consider the social impacts of planned interventions. The early understanding tended to limit the practical application of SIA to the project level, usually within the context of regulatory frameworks, and primarily considered only the direct negative impacts. However, like other types of impact assessment, SIA has evolved over time and has diverged considerably from EIA. Nowadays, SIA has widened its scope to become a "philosophy about development and democracy". Ideally SIA considers the pathologies, goals, and processes of development. In this broad understanding, it now focuses on the management of all social issues, intending to bring about a more sustainable and equitable biophysical and human environment. The SIA field defines "social" very broadly, as "anything that affects people and their communities". Thus,for example, all environmental impacts are also social impacts because people depend on the environment for their livelihoods as well as their physical and spiritual well-being. Social impact concepts include people's way of life, their culture, community, political systems, environment, health and wellbeing, personal and property rights, and their fears and aspirations. Formerly seen as a regulatory tool required by regulatory agencies but resented by proponents, SIA, for a variety of reasons, is now increasingly being embraced by corporations and used as an internal process for managing social issues. Such a shift towards corporate acceptance, of course, does not guarantee that SIA will always be done properly, or that it is able to adequately influence company operations. Several other shifts have been observed:  greater consideration of benefits;  moving towards developing and implementing Social Impact Management Plans;  communities themselves actively commissioning, or doing, their own SIA studies;  SIA playing an important part in ensuring "free, prior and informed consent" and gaining a "social license to operate". Health issues have a central place in SIA. Many of the social impacts of projects could also be described as health impacts, and all health impacts would be regarded as social impacts in SIA. In SIA, health impacts are considered amongst a wide range of impacts on people and communities. SIA practitioners are supposed to look from an integrated perspective. Arguably, this means that the determinants of health should be addressed when SIA is carried out properly. Nevertheless, SIA guidelines do not typically require a detailed analysis of the origins of, or pathways to, specific health conditions. There is, however, a strong awareness of indirect effects and cumulative effects. In actual practice, the SIA approach used highly depends on the type of policy, plan or project being considered, as well as on the legal and cultural context, on client requirements, and on the commitment of the individual practitioner or consultancy. The SIA case studies considered in this chapter usually discussed the broader determinants of health but did not necessarily recognize them as such. The pathways from social impacts to health, and the linkages between health and social impacts, were not explicitly part of the analysis. Overall, the input of health expertise into SIAs seemed to be lacking. However, given the close connections between the HIA and SIA approaches, more cooperation and crossfertilization between these two types of impact assessment can be expected in the future.


The newspapermen studied believe they may mitigate such continual pressures as deadlines, possible libel suits, and anticipated reprimands of superiors by being able to claim that their work is "objective". This article examines three factors which help a newsman to define an "objective fact": form, content, and interorganizational relationships. It shows that in discussing content and interorganizational relationships, the newsman can only invoke his news judgment; however, he can claim objectivity by citing procedures he has followed which exemplify the formal attributes of a news story or a newspaper. For instance, the newsman can suggest that he quoted other people instead of offering his own opinions. The article suggest that "objectivity" may be seen as a strategic ritual protecting newspapermen from the risks of their trade. It asks whether other professions might not also use the term "objectivity" in the same way.


Covering: 2005 to the end of 2009 In addition to their clinical importance in the treatment of type II diabetes, α-glucosidase inhibitors have attracted considerable attention from the synthetic community because of their profound effect on an array of cellular processes, including N-linked glycoprotein processing and maturation, oligosaccharide metabolism, and cell–cell and cell–virus recognition. Over the past decade, a number of structurally novel naturally occurring α-glucosidase inhibitors which do not conform to the classical iminosugar mold have been identified, including zwitterionic thiosugars and marine organosulfates. While these natural products are important leads in the development of new classes of glucosidase inhibitors, they have also attracted considerable attention as synthetic targets in of themselves. This article reviews the recent literature concerning the synthesis of these emerging natural product families, as well as the preparation of those polyhydroxylated alkaloids more traditionally associated with anti-α-glucosidase activity. 176 references are cited.


In the present study, a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method has been developed and validated to monitor traces of microcystins (MCs) in lake and marine waters. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) formulated with itaconic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the crosslinking monomer has been used to selectively enrich MCs from the aqueous solutions. The extraction capacity and selectivity of MIP was higher when comparison with conventionally used resin XAD and powdered activated carbon (PAC). The MIP showed an outstanding selectivity for microcystin-LR (MC-LR) in a mixture of MCs from aqueous solutions in the pH range 6-9. The LC-MS analysis of MCs after MIP extraction showed an excellent linearity in the working range (R2=0.998) with high repeatability (RSD%, <6.3) and recoveries above 90%. Interference of dissolved ions and solution pH on MCs trace quantification in the lake and marine water samples were quantified. The limits of quantification (LOQ) and lower limit of detection (LOD) for the MC-LR were 10 and 1 ng L-1, respectively, which satisfies the strictest World Health Organization standard for MC-LR in drinking water (1 ng mL-1). The proposed analytical approach is simple, efficient and comparable with the detection limit of the traditional and expensive ELISA method of MCs analysis.


A discussion with refs. In spite of the fact that there is rather little knowledge of the dynamics of nucleation of specific compds., there exists a tool to detect the growing of (larger) crystal nuclei, which can help to get some control on crystn. By Mie-scattering, applied with a com. available particle counter the authors can decide on the appropriate temp. for nucleation and subsequent crystn. Crystal growing can be obsd. by video monitoring. The same app. may be used for testing nucleation inhibitors, which are important for the formation of gas hydrates in pipelines. The in situ crystn. technique, as applied to many compds. which are liq. or gases at ambient, also serves to gain some control on nucleation. For compds. which solidify in a glassy state, nucleation can be initiated by ultrasonic shock waves. Also, mixts. with compds. that work as templates for nuclei can help for such cases. The circumvent of plastic phases can be performed by producing crystal nuclei in the low-temp., ordered phase with subsequent crystal growths.


Cellulosic materials are becoming more and more important in our daily life. However, if cellulose in its natural form such as paper is to be applied in advanced applications, it should exhibit unique characters in mechanical performance, barrier properties, etc. This paper describes a new method to design and fabricate a pure cellulosic composite with excellent mechanical and barrier properties via simple coating and cross-linking between original paper and regenerated cellulose. The cellulosic composite overcomes the shortcomings of the low mechanical and barrier performance of original paper. This material had an ultrahigh tensile strength, a high elongation and toughness at break of 76 MPa, 12% and 7 MJ m−1, and 13 MPa, 11% and 0.75 MJ m−3 under wet conditions, which were greater than those of original paper (dry: 20 MPa, 2.8%, 0.3 MJ m−3; wet: 1.08 MPa, 2.8%, 0.028 MJ m−3). Besides, the composite papers showed good barrier properties for small molecules such as polar molecules (H2O) and non-polar molecules (O2). Interestingly, the as-synthesized material exhibited shape-retention when the material was wetted with water.


Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of an advanced form of internationa lization: foreign direct investment (FDI) in a distant location. We label this transaction "adventurous FDI", and explain how this new concept is related to, yet distinct from, other widely studied theories: born global companies, the LLL model, and the Uppsala model. We propose a theoretical typology of adventurous FDI based on two critical factors for risktaking: distance and embeddedness. Methodology: We present a theoretical proposal of a typology of AFDIs. To support our proposal, we illustrate the typology with examples from a longitudinal study of foreign direct investments undertaken in the years 2007-2009 by Polish firms. Selection of the time period for this study is justified by the fact that the number of FDI transactions and AFDIs has almost doubled in the observed time period. We apply methods of social network analysis to identify embeddedness of FDIs and use geographic distance measures to classify transactions on a distance scale. Originality: Current theories of foreign direct investment (FDI) focus broadly on either gradual learning or instant globalization. We identify a new category which we term "adventurous FDI". The distinctive features of adventurous FDI includes the exploration of many unknowns related to distant locations and the use of advanced internationalization forms. We propose that embed dedness in country networks is instrumental to adventurous FDI, as the rapid learning inherent in such network arrangements enables firms to overcome the ambiguity associated with vast geographic, psychic, and cultural distance. Further qualitative research into the ways firms limit risks and learn depending on liabilities, distance and presence of the


Over the last decade, national tests have become increasinglyimportant to define educational quality. Testing procedures are moretime consuming and take a prominent role as instruments for control andgovernance. This development necessitates critical analyses of prevalenttest constructions and of test validity. The article reports from an analysisof test items and scoring guidelines in the national test of Swedish in 9th grade, focusing specifically on the measurement of literary comprehension.The analysis is based on tests used 2005–2012. Drawing on test theoryand reading process theory, findings indicate that the construct definitionof reading comprehension in these tests is deeply problematic and thatalternative test constructions should be considered.


Future system-on-panel applications require further performance improvement of circuits based on polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors (TFTs). The biggest leverage in circuit performance can be obtained by reducing channel length from the typical current values of 3-6m to 1m, or less. Therefore, short channel effects in scaled down polysilicon TFTs will have to be controlled in order to allow proper operation of the circuits. In this work we review a number of specific aspects of the electrical characteristics of short channel devices (channel lengths down to 0.4 m) combining electrical characteristics measurements and two-dimensional numerical simulations.


"Positively, the effect of speeding up temporal sequence is to abolish time, much as the telegraph and cable abolished space. Of course the photograph docs both. It wipes out our national frontiers and cultural barriers, and involves us in The Family of Man, regardless of any particular point of view."--Marshall McLuhan (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), Marshall McLuhan observed how automation and information could become forms of resistance under late capitalism. Correspondingly, conceptual art emerged at this time, just as the ''information economy" (2) was gaining in currency and momentum and the aesthetics of administration (as articulated by historians such as Benjamin Buchloh (3)) were becoming increasingly important modes of addressing the prevalence and systemic power of bureaucratic structures in everyday life. Amid this context of postindustrial logic and ideology, many photoconceptualists were preoccupied with investigating the camera's power as a social and economic agent. Kynaston McShine's 1970 "Information" show at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York was reflective of this context, and used photography to establish the contemporary ambivalence surrounding the concepts of "information" and "documentary," while ultimately underscoring photoconceptualism's emphasis on the contingency of meaning. Relying on a shared or public discourse in order to be read, work by artists such as John Baldessari, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Douglas Huebler, and N.E. Thing Co. advanced critiques of the logic of objectivity lied to the empirical notion of "information," as well as optimistic propositions for the Utopian potential of mass media. Looking for moments of countercultural activism in the works both as exhibited at the museum and in the catalog, and invoking McLuhan's theorization of the medium of photography as pointed out toward the world (linking artist and viewer) and thus taking into account their shared environment, this article argues for the inherent social meaning of media, or to quote McLuhan, the fact that "Nobody can commit photography alone." (4) Reflecting the moment of their emergence, conceptual art practices were responses to, and manifestations of, an emerging globalism and an increasingly nomadic art world. Working during a period of intense aesthetic and political anxiety, conceptual art marked the first time photography took center stage as an artistic medium and an object of theoretical inquiry, in part clue to its uncanny ability to evade the categorical boundaries of medium specificity and borders. Photography purported an ease of transmission and access to direct information inextricably linked to the praxis of everyday life. Fascinated with the dynamics of perception and communication, conceptual artists were interested in exploring photography's ability to level all information onto a singular surface, while simultaneously extolling the sameness that could frame all difference. Envisioning these possibilities as inherently democratic, conceptualists saw photography as typified by its capacity to defy the edicts of conventional artistic media and modernist solipsism, and thus as uniquely positioned to engage with the role of the social subject through technological experimentation, hybrid methodologies, and a critical play on and with emerging fantasies of the global village. "Information" exists as an elusive time capsule--both the concept and the landmark exhibition, The confusing omissions within the exhibition's archive and the catalog are but one example of its legacy of contradiction and experimentation. Standing on the edge of intense change, within the volatile social and political context of 1970, "Information" (according to the curator) sought not simply to document, but more importantly, to understand and intervene in those changes. Tellingly, the prevalent use of photography in the "Information" exhibition and catalog is one of its most striking features. …


Through the study of the cases of two deaf patients, this article will offer some thoughts on the subjectivation of the handicap in adolescence. This process seems to be closely tied to the ability of the patient's environment to welcome his or her desire for autonomy and otherness, and to enable encounters with new love objects and with peers. This necessary pre-condition helps the patient to move from a body that may need rehabilitation to a desiring body and to integrate the handicap as part of his or her being and history.


Most commentaries see John 19:42 as the end of the description of Jesus' death and burial, and 20:1 as the beginning of his resurrection account. While this is true of the chronology in the life of Jesus, how does the narrative account of Jesus contribute to John's aim in 20:30-31? This article suggests that the narrative after the death of Jesus in 19:38-20:31 presents two patterns of discipleship: (a) those whose faith is based on seeing the resurrected Jesus, and (b) those who follow him even without having seen his resurrected body. A detailed investigation in the Johannine text of the responses of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, Peter, the beloved disciple, Mary Magdalene, and Thomas to the death of Jesus shows that the passage in question is structured chiastically. John 19:38-42 is tied to John 20 and balances 20:30-31. The intent of this chiasm is to emphasise the fact that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are disciples par excellence. Their willingness to follow Jesus after his death, even when they did not have the chance to see him resurrected, is exactly the kind of faith called for by John in 20:30-31. The beloved disciple fits this mould to a lesser extent, whereas Thomas and Mary Magdalene do not.


Affinity separation is becoming well established for the purification and recovery of metals from industrial wastewaters. Although the method has been successfully applied on a bench-scale, there is a need for reaction engineering studies to scale-up the process for use in large-scale wastewater purification and recovery of valuable metals. In this study, a pilot-scale packed-bed reactor has been developed in order to investigate influences of process parameters and their interactions on the recovery of metals from process wastewaters using diatomaceous material. The material was formed into a packed configuration to provide a high adsorbent area-to-aqueous solution volume ratio. Activated carbon and ion-exchange resin were tested for comparison. The results obtained show that the flow-rate, residence time, metal concentration loading and packed-bed geometry significantly influenced the efficiency of the reactor system metal recovery and have to be considered in the design of large-scale system. An optimum residence time of 2 h was found to give metal recovery capacities of 60%, 76% and 80% for the ion-exchange resin, diatomaceous material and activated carbon, respectively, which confirmed the bench-scale studies. The sequestered metals were efficiently eluted from the diatomaceous material using different elution solutions for different metals. The selectivity of the adsorbent for specific metals can be manipulated on the uptake and elution sides of the process. The study also revealed that diatomaceous material can be regenerated and used many times over, just like conventional adsorbents or ion-exchange resins in process wastewater purification as well as in metal recovery processes. The application of the packed-bed reactor using the locally available diatomaceous material is therefore recommended for economical and cost-effective small-scale purification and recovery of metals from industrial wastewaters loaded with metals in Nigeria.


The COVID-19 is a highly contagious viral infection which played havoc on everyone's life in many different ways. According to the world health organization and scientists, more testing potentially helps governments and disease control organizations in containing the spread of the virus. The use of chest radiographs is one of the early screening tests to determine the onset of disease, as the infection affects the lungs severely. This study will investigate and automate the process of testing by using state-of-the-art CNN classifiers to detect the COVID19 infection. However, the viral could of many different types; therefore, we only regard for COVID19 while the other viral infection types are treated as non-COVID19 in the radiographs of various viral infections. The classification task is challenging due to the limited number of scans available for COVID19 and the minute variations in the viral infections. We aim to employ current state-of-the-art CNN architectures, compare their results, and determine whether deep learning algorithms can handle the crisis appropriately. All trained models are available at https://github.com/saeed-anwar/COVID19-Baselines


Recently, intermetallic compounds have attracted much attention due to their potential technological applications as high-temperature materials. In particular the intermetallic compounds, associated with the Al-Ni binary system stand out as promising candidates for high-temperature materials for the use in harsh environments. It is expected that a bulk Al-Ni alloy may exceed the strength of many commercial materials. The great challenge in developing these alloys is to manipulate the solidification thermal parameters in order to obtain the desired microstructural features. One of the indicated routes to obtain very refined intermetallic phases dispersed in the microstructure is the spray forming process. The dendritic and eutectic growth dependences on cooling rate are already known for directionally solidified (DS) hypoeutectic Al-Ni alloys. In the case of rapidly solidified (RS) samples, extrapolations of such experimental laws are needed, which can be very helpful to estimate realistic values of high cooling rates imposed during the spray forming process. The present study aims to compare directionally solidified and spray-formed Al-5wt. (%)Ni alloy samples with a view to providing a basis for understanding how to control solidification parameters and the as-cast microstructure. The Al-5.0wt. (%)Ni alloy was shown to have a cellular morphology for the overspray powder size range examined (up to 500 µm). The mean cell spacing decreased from 5.0 to 1.1 µm with the decrease in the powder average diameter. It was found that the experimental cooling rates imposed during the atomization step of the overspray powder solidification varied from 103 to 2.104 K/s. The DSC trace depicted a crystallization peak of an amorphous structure fraction in the smallest Al-5.0wt. (%)Ni alloy powder size range (<32 µm) estimating a 15 µm critical diameter of amorphous powder in the binary Al97.5Ni2.5 (at%) alloy.


In this paper Extreme Value Theory (EVT) and GARCH model are combined to estimate conditional quantile (VaR) and conditional expected shortfall (the expected size of a return exceeding VaR) so as to estimate risk of assets more accurately. This hybrid model provides a robust risk measure for the Tunisian Stock Market by combining two well known facts about security return time series: dynamic volatility resulting in the well-recognized phenomenon of volatility clustering, and non-normality giving rise to fat tails of the return distribution. We fit GARCH models to return data using pseudo maximum likelihood to estimate the current volatility and use a GPD-approximation proposed by EVT to model the tail of the innovation distribution of the GARCH model. This methodology was compared to the performances of other well-known modeling techniques. Results indicate that GARCH-EVT-based VaR approach


Abstract This paper reports on a recent hermeneutic phenomenological study aimed at understanding the experiences of special school teachers in Hong Kong, and specifically visual arts teachers tasked with teaching students with intellectual disabilities. Illustrating the use of a phenomenological research method, the paper outlines the methodology and procedure followed in respect of determining the source of data, conducting phenomenological interviews, and formulating themes. The themes that emerged from the interviews were examined in conjunction with the stories told by the teachers. The special school visual arts teachers who participated in this study have strong emotional and personal connections with their students. In relation to performing their teaching role, the teachers had experienced problems of various kinds, with many of these problems unique to the special school settings. In an effort to tackle these problems and improve their teaching, these teachers engaged in reflection and explored a variety of ways to enhance their students' learning. Despite the practical learning problems their students experience, the teachers maintained that studying visual arts is beneficial to their students' whole-person development. The paper concludes with a critical reflection on the nature of teaching visual arts to students with intellectual disabilities.


This article analyses founding family influence on pay-out policies for Swiss listed firms over the period 2003–2010. We hypothesise that family firms have different incentives and characteristics that affect pay-out decisions and propose three possible explanations: agency theory, reputation building and family income needs. Our results show that founding family firms display significantly higher dividend pay-outs relative to companies with other ownership structures. We also examine specific family characteristics and document that a family's stake, active involvement and generation play an important role in determining pay-out policies. Our findings appear to be consistent with the family income hypothesis and to some extent with reputational concerns.


Are you a programmer looking for a new challenge? Does the thought of building your very own iPhone app make your heart race and your pulse quicken? If so, Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK is just the book for you. Updated and revised for iPhone SDK 3, many of the discussions in the original book have been clarified to make some of the more complex topics easier to understand. In addition, all of the projects have been rebuilt from scratch using the SDK 3 templates. Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, this book offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone and iPod touch programming. The book starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and installing Apple's free iPhone SDK, and then stepping you though the creation of your first simple iPhone application. From there, you'll learn to integrate all the interface elements iPhone users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You'll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you'll see how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You'll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone's built-in database management system. In addition, you'll also learn about Core Data, an important persistence mechanism that has just been added with SDK 3. And there's much more! You'll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You'll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages. You can discover more about this book, download source code, and find support forums at the book's companion site, at www.iphonedevbook.com. The iPhone 3 update to the best-selling and most recommended book for iPhone developers Packed full of tricks, techniques, and enthusiasm for the new SDK from a developer perspective The most complete, useful, and up-to-date guide to all things having to do with Apple's iPhone SDK What you'll learn Everything you need to know to develop your own best-selling iPhone apps Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences Who is this book for? Anyone who wants to start developing for iPhone and iPod touch What's changed from the first edition of Beginning iPhone Development All code samples have been updated to follow current Apple coding conventions The autorotation code has been updated to use the new single-step fast autorotation instead of the original two-step method A new section has been added introducing Core Data, covering basic principles and showing how to build a simple Core Data application All the table view'related chapters have been updated to use table view cell styles. They've also been updated to use textLabel and detailTextLabel instead of the deprecated text property of the table view cell. All known errata have been corrected All projects have been rebuilt from scratch using the SDK 3.0 templates Many concepts have been clarified based on feedback and supplemented with information we've learned from another year of using the SDK Summary of Contents Welcome to the Jungle Appeasing the Tiki Gods Handling Basic Interaction More User Interface Fun Autorotation and Autosizing Multiview Applications Tab Bars and Pickers Introduction to Table Views Navigation Controllers and Table Views Application Settings and User Defaults Basic Data Persistence Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL Taps, Touches, and Gestures Where Am I? Finding Your Way with Core Location Whee! Accelerometer! iPhone Camera and Photo Library Application Localization Where to Next? Reviews "People ask me again and again about how to get started in iPhone development, but I never had a very good answer for them until now. Dave and Jeff's book starts at the beginning in clear English, making sure you understand the fundamentals with many large illustrations. From there, they progress into key concepts such as the MVC pattern and ImageBuilder fundamentals. Additionally, I find myself flipping back to it as a reference guidethe plethora of code samples make it a must-have." Steve Demeter, Creator of "Trism" and owner of Demiforce LLC "Beginning iPhone Development delivers a clear picture of the entire development process from registering as an iPhone developer through creation of complete applications. There is a wealth of examples illustrating each feature of the iPhone. The authors did an excellent job of demonstrating "best practice" coding methodology throughout the book. You would be hard pressed to find a better guide to creating software for the iPhone." Aaron Basil, iDev2.com "Dave Mark has always been the king of Mac programming authors, and now he's proven to be the reigning king for books on iPhone development! "Beginning iPhone Development is the definitive guide for iPhone development, and anyone aspiring to develop for the iPhone should get this invaluable reference." Brian Greenstone, President & CEO, Pangea Software, Inc. "Jeff and Dave have done an exceptional job exploring the iPhone SDK. This book is far and away the single best resource for iPhone SDK development. Developers will latch on to this book and find it useful as they create the next great iPhone application. If you're a developer with an interest in this amazing new platform, this is a must buy." Chris Stewart, Founder, iPhoneDevSDK.com "If you're planning on coding for the iPhone, start here. Dave and Jeff know their stuff and also know how to explain it. I was amazed how much stuff they cover, from Hello World through analyzing user gestures. Not only do they cover the fun stuff like playing with the camera, they cover real-world development issues like localization. I learned a huge amount from them" Mark Dalrymple, Co-founder, CocoaHeads, and Principal Author, Advanced Mac OS X Programming "Starting with an overview of the technology, how to approach the device, the authors lead us straight into the heart of iPhone development. As you progress, you'll learn more about various layout engines and view managers, as well as the more meaty topics like accelerometer and GPS APIs. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in getting started quickly and efficiently with iPhone development!" Chris Pelsor, Manager, Tarantell:Hybrid "All in all I was very surprised and pleased with the book. I've had the fortune of reading many technical books, and few do a great job of walking someone through the basics without making them feel like a dolt. It felt like every time I was stuck or unsure there was a tip, hint or paragraph which explained what was going on." Cory Foy, at Slashdot.org About the Apress Beginning Series The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entrylevel job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from novice to professional. Youll start your journey by seeing what you need to knowbut without needless theory and filler. Youll build your skill set by learning how to put together realworld projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you thereit is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!


A novel functionalization of a ferromagnetic electrode employed in spintronic devices is reported. Self‐assembling monolayer technique has been used to chemisorb a paramagnetic phosphonate functionalized nitronyl‐nitroxide radical (NitPO) on the ferromagnetic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) manganite surface. This interfacial layer causes clearly detectable modifications of the behavior in prototypical LSMO/NitPO/Gaq3/AlOx/Co vertical spintronic devices at temperatures below the ferromagnetic alignment (estimated by density functional theory) of the magnetic moments of NitPO and LSMO. This behavior can be justified by a significant spin filtering effect at the engineered interface, with a carrier selection (spin‐up) opposite to that of the LSMO/Gaq3 interface (spin‐down). It is proposed that the engineering of spin injecting interfaces with molecules having magnetic moment enables additional mechanisms to control and manipulate the spin polarization of currents in spintronic devices.


Latest results in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) research and practice show a tendency towards more holistic approaches aiming at deep transformation of the self and the meanings of human existence. Aligned with this, we present the Transdisciplinary Framework of Worldviews and Behaviours (TFWB) to describe the possible formation and expression of a worldview, a complex constellation of meaning and identity from which all human conduct emerges. Four key principles arising from the TFWB are: 1) The whole embodied nervous system is greater than the sum of its separated parts, especially when it comes to intelligence (information processing) and learning (meaning making); 2) The mind is a highly emotion-dependent and mostly unconscious entity; 3) A worldview is a unique arrangement of meaning each person builds, and lives through; and 4) Increasing selfawareness about how a personal worldview is formed and expressed generates increasing opportunities for that individual to explore and build a different meaning for their experience, or to explore and choose different forms to express it (behave). The TFWB informs a new perspective on learning that could be useful for the achievement of ESD's transformative goals, guiding the innovative design of educational initiatives encouraging new conceptualizations Worldviews, A Mental Construct Hiding the Potential of Human Behaviour Journal of Sustainability Education http://www.susted.org/ about the meanings of being human; thus, facilitating potential behavioural transformations toward a more sustainable existence.


Design Science Research (DSR) has been practiced for decades and is an accepted and wide spread research approach in the discipline of Information Systems (IS). DSR is The huge popularity of DSR has lead to that DSR has become the research paradigm within the IS discipline. One purpose of DSR is to guide design and evaluation of artifacts. However, popular DSR methodologies lack empirical evidence based on primary data. This lack is also recognized by several authors of DSR methodologies. Using secondary data for answering new questions implies an analytic expansion which means that methodological issues have to be considered. The purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to justify the need of empirically grounded DSR methodologies by using primary data.


A theoretical model is presented for the probability distribution of wave crest amplitudes in severe seas states with wave breaking. As the severity of a sea state increases, nonlinearities cause an increase in the amplitudes of the largest wave crests with a subsequent modification of the distribution of wave crest amplitudes from the linear Rayleigh theory. In this paper, a theory for the probabilities of these nonlinear crest amplitudes is first reviewed based on earlier work. The further limitations on these nonlinear crest amplitudes by wave breaking are then considered. As a result, a theoretical model is presented to account for both: (1) the nonlinear increase in the highest wave crests, and (2) the selective reduction of some fraction of these high crests due to wave breaking. This model is then verified using several sets of laboratory data for severe breaking seas having approximate JONSWAP wave spectra.


Summary. We assessed the effects of temperature and nutrient concentration on the growth of commonly occurring members of the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) complex in the Midwest United States. Radial growth in vitro of two isolates of each of six SBFS species (Dissoconium aciculare, Colletogloeum sp. FG2, Peltaster sp. P2, Sybren sp. CS1, Pseudocercosporella sp. RH1, and Peltaster fructicola) was measured at 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35°C for 7 weeks. Optimal growth for all six species occurred at 20 to 25°C, with slower growth at 10 and 15°C and little to no growth at �0 or �5°C. Differences in growth rate among species were evident at 10, 15, and 35°C. In a separate trial, the same isolates were incubated at 25°C in darkness on cellulose membrane (12-14 kDa) placed on Noble agar that had been amended to obtain concentrations of 0, 0.01, 0.05 or 0.5% apple juice. After 3 weeks, colonies were digitally photographed and colony opacity was assessed. The presence and concentration of apple juice strongly impacted colony morphology as evidenced by changes in colony tone, and some species were more sensitive to changes in apple juice concentration than others. These findings are the first published evidence of differences among newly described SBFS species in response to temperature and nutrient concentration.


The dramatic re-organization of the cancer cell nucleus creates telltale morphological features critical for pathological staging of tumors. In addition, the changes to the mutational and epigenetic landscape in cancer cells alter the structure and stability of the genome and directly contribute to malignancy. DNA methylation is one of the best studied epigenetic changes in cancer, as nearly every type of cancer studied shows a loss of DNA methylation spread across most of the genome. This global hypomethylation is accompanied by hypermethylation at distinct loci, and much of the work on DNA methylation in cancer has focused on how local changes contribute to gene expression. However, the emerging picture is that the changes to DNA methylation in cancer cells has little direct effect on gene expression but instead impacts the organization of the genome in the nucleus. Several recent studies that take a broad view of the cancer epigenome find that the most profound changes to the cancer methylome are spread across large segments of the genome, and that the focal changes are reflective of a whole reorganization of epigenome. Hallmarks of nuclear reorganization in cancer are found in the long regions of chromatin marked by histone methylation (LOCKs) and nuclear lamina interactions (LADs). In this review, we focus on a novel perspective that DNA methylation changes in cancer impact the global structure of heterochromatin, LADs and LOCKs, and how these global changes, in turn, contribute to gene expression changes and genomic stability.


Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) induced in thin metal film lenses has been analyzed numerically. The SPP images are deteriorated by interference of plasmon fields in layered metal-dielectric structures. To obtain a clear imaging capability, the reflection and the transmission property of evanescent waves in the layered structures has been investigated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. For verification, a full 3-dimensional analysis of large-scale layered structures demonstrated sub-wavelength images similar to those obtained in the recently reported experiments. The analysis has been extended further to a lithography of nano-scale images to predict the minimum possible size of the images resolved by the silver thin film lenses.


This paper presents a personal spatial hypertext authoring system called The Frame Stack Project, implemented as a lightweight set of classes in the generic object framework Morphic, available in the programming environment Squeak. Morphic provides a kind of off-the-shelf toolkit of objects and behaviors extremely relevant to spatial hypertext. In this project, run-time vs. authoring behavior is a state property of individual objects in a highly granular way. A key goal is the support of feral structure, in which objects can be created loose on the desktop, without assigning them any structural destination. This provides an implementation of an interactive version of the poet's notebook. The granular approach to object authoring supports "interactive writing" in the truest sense of the word.


Partnerships are often considered an alternative way to deliver programs provided by governments and organizations (potentially) more cost effectively. However, this assumption needs to be verified. Evaluators and auditors now face a challenge: how to assess the performance of this hybrid organizational form.This article suggests one powerful way of evaluating partnerships: transaction cost economics (TCE). A key hypothesis of TCE is that partners choose a governance structure that minimizes transaction costs (TCs). If a partnership's governance structure is misaligned with its transactions, higher TCs will decrease the partnership's performance. Hence, measuring the partnership's TCs is essential. After defining what constitutes a partnership, the article introduces the TC framework. It then identifies relevant factors in the literature affecting partnership performance. It concludes with key steps in applying the framework and shows how it fits into partnership performance evaluation.


This is the first sustained effort to compare South and South-East Asia in respect of the situation of women. Arguing that kinship systems provide an important context in which gender relations are located, the study overlooks at three types of kinship system, found in their carious forms in the two regions of Asia--predominantly patrilineal South Asia and predominantly bilateral South-East Asia, with a presence of matriliny in both. The treatment of kinship departs significantly from what is usually found. Gender permeates the examination of the chosen themes, which include group placement and perpetuation, entitlement to and rights over resources, marriage, conjugal relations, implications of residence, rights over space and children, family structures and kin networks, work, female sexuality, and limits set by bodily processes. The underlying assumptions is that kinship systems are neither innocuous nor immutable, and, operating through material relations, they express themselves most effective through values and ideology. For comparison are taken up selected populations of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand--representing Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity. The results are striking: South-East Asian womens unusual degree of autonomy in economic and social life and the relative egalitarianism between the sexes contrast sharply with the situation in South Asia, characterized by strong patriliny, patrilocal family structure, womens lack of rights, and concern about female sexuality. Many other contrasts in respect of gender parities and disparities, including education, nutrition, health, and work emanate from contrastingfeatures of kinship. Rich in information ad insights, the book fills a gap in gender studies at the same time as it challenges facile generalizations and provokes probing into apparently similar phenomena.


Background and purpose: Molasses is colored, toxic and non-biodegradable compound which is found in the wastewater of fermentation industries. This study investigated the kinetic and efficiency of molass dye removal and mineralization in the yeast wastewater using nanocomposite catalysts in ozonation process. Materials and methods: The catalytic ozonation process (COP) of colored effluent of biological treatment of yeast production factory was carried out using semi-continuous flow cylindrical reactor and the effects of operational parameters such as initial pH value (4-10) and reaction time (5-60 min) on removal efficiency of dye and mineralization were investigated. After determining the kinetic parameters of reaction, the effects of some other parameters such as adsorption and reuse of the catalyst were calculated and the efficiency was compared with single ozonation process (SOP) and granular carbon as catalyst. Results: The removal efficiency of dye of molass factories effluent and its kinetic, at the condition of initial dye concentration 4521 ADMI, catalyst concentration 2 g/L and 60 min reaction time were 95% and 0.045 min, respectively; while these parameters in SOP and granular activated carbon as catalyst were 71% with 0.018 min and 86% with 0.028 min, respectively. But, the mineralization and its kinetic in COP were 74% and 0.023 min, respectively, in which initial TOC was decreased from 510 mg/L to 132 mg/L. Conclusion: The nanocomposite was found to have the best efficiency in dye degradation and TOC removal and it is easy to recover and reuse over and over by magnet. The main mechanism of dye degradation in COP was chemical oxidation and less occurred by adsorption.


The current economic setting in most Latin American countries suggests that if the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector does not perform well during the next couple of decades, overall economic performance will also be unsatisfactory, especially in the areas of employment creation and income distribution. No other major sector has the potential to generate a large amount of adequate-income jobs. Experience of other countries has proven that this sector can play a central contributing role under proper conditions and with adequate support. Various types of evidence from the countries of the region suggest that considerable potential is present in their SME sectors. However, both experience elsewhere and economic logic imply that a strong and coherent support system will be necessary if that potential is to be reasonably fully reaped. Such a system has been notoriously absent in most Latin American countries in the past. Countries that fail to rectify this lack may suffer serious social and economic consequences. The marked parallels between the economy of South Africa and those of many Latin American countries – in economic structure, recent growth performance and level of inequality – suggest that many of the conclusions applicable to Latin America are likely to be relevant to South Africa as well. The Role of SME in Latin America – Introduction 4


At least since [1], a broad class of multiple comparison procedures, so-called simultaneous test procedures (STPs), is established in the statistical literature. Elements of an STP are a testing family, consisting of a set of null hypotheses and corresponding test statistics, and a common critical constant. The latter threshold with which each of the test statistics has to be compared is calculated under the (joint) intersection hypothesis of all nulls. Under certain structural assumptions, the so-constructed STP provides strong control of the family-wise error rate. More recently, a general method to construct STPs in the case of asymptotic (joint) normality of the family of test statistics has been developed in [2], and numerical solutions to compute the critical constant in such cases were provided. Here, we propose to look at the problem from a different perspective. We will show that the threshold can equivalently be expressed by a quantile of the copula of the family of pvalues associated with the test statistics, assuming that each of these p-values is marginally uniformly distributed on the unit interval under the corresponding null hypothesis. This offers the opportunity to exploit the rich and growing literature on copula-based modeling of multivariate dependency structures for multiple testing problems and in particular for the construction of STPs in non-Gaussian situations.


Benzo[b]thiophene heterocycles are important components of many important small molecule pharmaceuticals and drug candidates as well as organic semiconducting materials. Many methods have been developed for the construction of a benzo[b]thiophene core via cyclization reaction of alkynes. Although few catalytic reactions were disclosed, most methods rely on stoichiometric activation of alkynes. Here we report an efficient method for the synthesis of 2-substituted benzo[b]thiophenes from 2-alkynyl thioanisoles catalyzed by a gold(i)-IPr hydroxide that is applicable to a wide range of substrates with diverse electronic and steric properties. Additionally, we demonstrate experimentally that the acid additive and its conjugate base are essential to catalyst turnover.


Predicting and mitigating the effect of expansion induced by cold working on damage fatigue accumulation and life assessment of aluminum alloy is a common process in the aeronautics industry, especially to extend the fatigue lifetime of their structures. This process aims at generating residual stresses and increases thereby the strength of hollow parts including aluminum alloy plate holes that are employed in manufacturing the airplane fuselage.
 An analytical model to predict the residual stresses induced during the expansion process due to the cold strain hardening is developed. The proposed model is based on an elasto-plastic behavior, with a power law material behaviour and relies on the theory of autofrettaged thick wall cylinders in plane strain state to which reverse yielding is incorporated. The application of Hencky theory of plastic deformation is used in the analytical calculations of the stresses and strains. Finite-element numerical simulation is used to validate the developed analytical model by comparison of the radial, Hoop, longitudinal and equivalent stresses for both the loading and unloading phases. The obtained results show clearly that the level of residual stresses depends mainly on the interference and strain hardening while reverse yielding reduce the stresses near the hole.


Author(s): Deason, J; Murphy, S | Abstract: A new study by Berkeley Lab found that residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (R-PACE) programs increased deployment of residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in California, raising it by about 7-12% in cities that adopt these programs. R-PACE is a financing mechanism that uses a voluntary property tax assessment, paid off over time, to facilitate energy improvements and, in some jurisdictions, water and resilience measures. While previous studies demonstrated that early, regional R-PACE programs increased solar PV deployment, this new analysis is the first to demonstrate these impacts from the large, statewide R-PACE programs dominating the California market today, which use private capital to fund the upfront costs of the improvements. Berkeley Lab estimated the impacts using econometric techniques on two samples: -Large cities only, allowing annual demographic and economic data as control variables -All California cities, without these annual data Analysis of both samples controls for several factors other than R-PACE that would be expected to drive solar PV deployment. We infer that on average, cities with R-PACE programs were associated with greater solar PV deployment in our study period (2010-2015). In the large cities sample, solar PV deployment in jurisdictions with R-PACE programs was higher by 1.1 watts per owner-occupied household per month, or 12%. Across all cities, solar PV deployment in jurisdictions with R-PACE programs was higher by 0.6 watts per owner-occupied household per month, or 7%. The large cities results are statistically significant at conventional levels; the all-cities results are not. The estimates imply that the majority of solar PV deployment financed by R-PACE programs would likely not have occurred in their absence. Results suggest that R-PACE programs have increased PV deployment in California even in relatively recent years, as R-PACE programs have grown in market share and as alternate approaches for financing solar PV have developed. The U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office supported this research.


Given the importance of clustering in the analysis of large scale data, distributed algorithms for formulations such as k -means, k -median, etc. have been extensively studied. A successful approach here has been the "reduce and merge" paradigm, in which each machine reduces its input size to (cid:101) O ( k ) , and this data reduction continues (possibly iteratively) until all the data fits on one machine, at which point the problem is solved locally. This approach has the intrinsic bottleneck that each machine must solve a problem of size ≥ k , and needs to communicate at least Ω( k ) points to the other machines. We propose a novel data partitioning idea to overcome this bottleneck, and in effect, have different machines focus on "finding different clusters". Under the assumption that we know the optimum value of the objective up to a poly ( n ) factor (arbitrary polynomial), we es-tablish worst-case approximation guarantees for our method. We see that our algorithm results in lower communication as well as a near-optimal number of 'rounds' of computation (in the popular MapReduce framework).


Random forests are powerful non-parametric regression method but are severely limited in their usage in the presence of randomly censored observations, and naively applied can exhibit poor predictive performance due to the incurred biases. Based on a local adaptive representation of random forests, we develop its regression adjustment for randomly censored regression quantile models. Regression adjustment is based on a new estimating equation that adapts to censoring and leads to quantile score whenever the data do not exhibit censoring. The proposed procedure named {\it censored quantile regression forest}, allows us to estimate quantiles of time-to-event without any parametric modeling assumption. We establish its consistency under mild model specifications. Numerical studies showcase a clear advantage of the proposed procedure.


The widespread availability of mobile devices coupled with recent advancements in networking capabilities make opportunistic networks one of the most promising technologies for next-generation mobile applications. Are you ready to make your mark? Featuring the contributions of prominent researchers from academia and industry, Mobile Opportunistic Networks: Architectures, Protocols and Applications introduces state-of-the-art research findings, technologies, tools, and innovations. From fundamentals to advanced concepts, the book provides the comprehensive technical coverage of this rapidly emerging communications technology you need to make contributions in this area. The first section focuses on modeling, networking architecture, and routing problems. The second section examines opportunistic networking technologies and applications. Presenting the latest in modeling opportunistic network connection structures and pairwise contacts, the text discusses the fundamentals of opportunistic routing. It reviews the most-popular routing protocols and introduces a routing protocol for delivering data with load balancing and reliable transmission capabilities. Details an approach to analyzing user behavior based on realistic data in opportunistic networks Presents analytical approaches for mobility and heterogeneous connections management in mobile opportunistic networks Compares credit-based incentive schemes for mobile wireless ad hoc networks and challenged networks Discusses the combined strengths of cache-based approaches and Infostation-based approaches Addressing key research challenges and open issues, this complete technical guide reports on the latest advancements in the deployment of stationary relay nodes on vehicular opportunistic networks. It also illustrates the use of the service location and planning (SLP) technique for resource utilization with quality of service (QoS) constraints in opportunistic capability utilization networks. The book introduces a novel prediction-based routing protocol, and supplies authoritative coverage of communication architectures, network algorithms and protocols, emerging applications, industrial and professional standards, and experimental studiesincluding simulation tools and implementation test beds.


Visual codes, such as QR codes, offer a low-cost alternative to RF technology when digital data needs to be embedded in objects in the physical world. However, in order to support receivers with a poor visual channel, e.g. low-resolution cameras, most visual codes are designed for low data capacity and short reading distances. We present our work-in-progress on Focus, a visual code that avoids earlier work's explicit trade-off between code capacity and channel quality. Rather than encoding the payload directly into individual pixels, Focus encodes the payload over a range of spatial frequencies. As a result, even a receiver with a very poor channel (e.g., with low-resolution camera or motion blur) can still partly decode a Focus code, because the code's low-frequency components are robust to common channel impairments. A receiver with a good channel can decode all data from the same code. In our demo, we will present a prototype of Focus for smartphones and showcase how it deals with common impairments of the visual channel.


During rock-climbing, fingers grasp holds of various shapes with high force intensities. To ideally place the fingertips on the holds, the thumb is sometimes positioned on the nail of the index finger. This allows using the thumb as an additional actuator by exerting a supplementary force in the same direction as the index, middle, ring and little fingers. This study analysed how the forces exerted by the fingers are modified by the additional action of the thumb. The results showed that the thumb increases the resultant forces exerted on the hold. It was shown that the pathology risks of the middle, ring and little fingers were not modified in this condition. The finger force sharing was totally re-organized due to the support of the thumb. This led to the conclusion that the central nervous system organised the association of the 5 fingers. The results were discussed in regard to the established theories of the virtual fingers and the neutral line of the hand.


Banana is the most important fruit crop in the world but ironically one of the crops least studied. This fruit constitutes a major staple food for millions of people in developing countries and also it is considered the highest selling fruit in the world market making this crop a very important export commodity for the producing countries. At the present time, one of the most significant constraints of banana production that causes significant economical losses are fungal diseases. Among these, Panama disease, also known as Fusarium wilt has been the most catastrophic. Panama disease is caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum formae specialis (f.sp) cubense (FOC), which infects susceptible bananas through the roots causing a lethal vascular wilt. To date, the race 4 of this pathogen represents the most serious threat to banana production worldwide since most of the commercial cultivars are highly susceptible to this pathogen. Introduction of FOC resistance into commercial cultivars by conventional breeding has been difficult because edible bananas are sterile polyploids without seeds. Genetic transformation of banana, which has already been established in various laboratories around the world has the potential to solve this problem by transferring a FOC race 4 resistance gene into susceptible banana cultivars (eg. Cavendish cultivars). However, a FOC resistant (R) gene has not been isolated. Genes that confer resistance to Fusarium oxysporum have been isolated from tomato and melon using a map-based positional cloning approach. The tomato I2 and melon Fom-2 genes belong to the non-Toll/interleukin like receptors (TIR) subclass of nucleotide-binding site and leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) R genes. These genes confer resistance only to certain races of F. oxysporum in their corresponding plant families limiting their use in other plant families. The fact that these two Fusarium resistance genes share the same basic non-TIR-NBS-LRR structure suggests a similar Fusarium resistance mechanism is shared between the families Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae. This observation opens the possibility to find similar Fusarium resistance genes in other plant families including the Musaceae. A remarkable discovery of a population of the wild banana Musa acuminata subspecies (ssp.) malaccensis segregating for FOC race 4 resistance was made by Dr. Ivan Buddenhagen (University of California, Davis) in Southeast Asia. Research carried out at Queensland Department of Primary Industries (Australia) using this plant material has demonstrated that a single dominant gene is involved in FOC race 4 resistance (Dr. Mike Smith, unpublished results). Tissue-culture plantlets of this FOC race 4 segregating population were kindly provided to the Plant Biotechnology Program (Queensland University of Technology) by Dr. Mike Smith to be used in our research. This population holds the potential to assist in the isolation of a FOC race 4 resistance gene and other potential Fusarium resistance genes. The overall aims of this research were to isolate and characterise resistance gene candidates of the NBS-type from M. acuminata ssp. malaccensis and to identify and characterise potential Fusarium resistance genes using a combination of bioinformatics and gene expression analysis.

Chapter 4 describes the isolation by degenerate PCR of five different classes of NBS sequences from banana (Musa acuminata ssp malaccensis) designated as resistance gene candidates (RGCs). Deduced amino acid sequences of the RGCs revealed the typical motifs present in the majority of known plant NBS-LRR resistance genes. Structural and phylogenetic analyses showed that the banana RGCs are related to non-TIR subclass of NBS sequences. The copy number of each class was estimated by Southern hybridisation and each RGC was found to be in low copy number. The expression of the RGCs was assessed by RT-PCR in leaf and root tissues of plants resistant or susceptible to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (FOC) race 4. Four classes showed a constitutive expression profile whereas no expression was detected for one class in either tissue. Interestingly, a transcriptional polymorphism was found for RGC2 whose expression correlated with resistance to FOC race 4 suggesting a possible role of this gene in resistance to this devastating FOC race. Moreover, RGC2 along with RGC5 showed significant sequence similarity to the Fusarium resistance gene I2 from tomato and were chosen for further characterisation. The NBS sequences isolated in this study represent a valuable source of information that could be used to assist the cloning of functional R genes in banana.

Chapter 5 describes the isolation and characterisation of the full open reading frame (ORF) of RGC2 and RGC5 cDNAs. The ORFs of these two banana RGCs were predicted to encode proteins that showed the typical structure of non-TIR-NBS-LRR resistance proteins. Homology searches using the entire ORF of RGC2 and RGC5 revealed significant sequence similarity to the Fusarium resistance gene I2 from tomato. Interestingly, the phylogenetic analysis showed that RGC2 and RGC5 were grouped within the same phylogenetic clade, along with the Fusarium resistance genes l2 and Fom-2. These findings suggest that the banana RGC2 and RGC5 are potential resistance gene candidates that could be associated with Fusarium resistance. The case of RGC2 is more remarkable because its expression was correlated to FOC race 4 resistance (Chapter 4). As a first step to test whether RGC2 has a role in FOC race 4 resistance, different expression constructs were made with the ORF of this sequence. One of the constructs contains a RGC2 putative promoter region that was successfully cloned in this work. These constructs will be used to transform susceptible banana plants that can then be challenged with FOC race 4 to assess whether resistance has been acquired by genetic complementation.

The results of this thesis provide interesting insights about the structure, expression and phylogeny of two potential Fusarium resistance genes in banana, and provide a rational starting point for their functional characterisation. The information generated in this thesis may lead to the identification of a Fusarium resistance gene in banana in further studies and may also assist the cloning of Fusarium resistance genes in other plant species.


In the Australian kidney paired donation (KPD) program matching is based on acceptable mismatches, whereas deceased donor waitlist (DDWL) patients are allocated kidneys based on HLA antigen matching rules. Herein, we compared waiting time for a KPD match to the waiting time on the DDWL and the occurrence of matching in the DDWL for patients who were registered in both programs. Data on first dialysis, matches on the DDWL, KPD program entry, matches and transplant dates were assessed in 26 KPD recipients of the Australian program. There were 22 recipients who were listed in the DDWL and received kidney transplants by KPD. Time on dialysis until KPD transplantation was 808 ± 646 days. Eleven patients had never been matched with a deceased donor (waiting time 345 ± 237 days) and 11 had been matched on average 3 ± 5 times (waiting time 1227 ± 615 days, P < 0.0001 vs. never matched), but did not progress to transplantation because of positive crossmatch or class II donor‐specific antibody. Mean time from registration in the KPD program until kidney transplantation was 153 ± 92 days (P < 0.0001 vs. DDWL). KPD allocation using the acceptable mismatch approach is effective in identifying suitable live donors for some recipients within a relatively short time‐frame.


Reflective writing is an important educational practice to train reflective thinking. Currently, researchers must manually analyze these writings, limiting practice and research because the analysis is time and resource consuming. This presentation based on Ullmann (2019) shows results from an empirical study evaluating whether machine learning can be used to automate the manual analysis of reflection in writings. The study investigated eight categories that are often used in models to assess reflective writing, and the evaluation is based on 76 student essays (5,080 sentences) that are largely from third-and second-year health, business, and engineering students. To test the automated analysis of reflection in writings, machine learning models were built based on a random sample of 80% of the sentences. These models were thentested on the remaining 20% of the sentences. Overall, the standardized evaluation shows that five out of eight categories can be detected automatically with substantial or almost perfect reliability, while the other three categories can be detected with moderate reliability (Cohen's κ ranges between .53 and .85). The accuracies of the automated analysis were on average 10% lower than the accuracies of the manual analysis. These findings enable reflection analytics that is immediate and scalable.

Ullmann, T. D. (2019). Automated Analysis of Reflection in Writing: Validating Machine Learning Approaches. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 29(2), 217–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-019-00174-2


The mechanisms responsible for ignition of explosive materials in response to low energy stimuli, known as \insults" in the literature, are still not well understood. It is in general believed that explosive ignition is of thermal origin, with mechanical energy being converted into heat energy in localised regions, forming so-called \hot spots". When an explosive sample is subject to a mechanical insult pre-existing, or new, microcracks will be in compression and shear. It is possible for such microcracks to grow in size if the local stress is great enough and, due to friction between solid surfaces, heat is released during the growth process. Subsequent to sufficient heat release, the crack surface temperature will be raised to the solid melting point and a thin sheared melt layer will be formed, separating the solid surfaces. This thin melt layer will continue to be heated through viscous dissipation and subsequent chemical reaction, and is thought to be a prime location for so-called hot spot generation. Mechanical insults, resulting from low-speed impacts which shear an explosive, have been identified as a possible ignition source. However, modelling such an ignition mechanism numerically with hydrocodes proves to offer some considerable challenges. To supplement the numerical approach, we develop an analytical model of the shearing, melting and subsequent ignition of an explosive material. We consider the melting of a thin viscous layer of explosive material due to an applied shear in an idealised planar geometry. The model accounts for self-heating due to mechanical dissi- pation, and a single-step Arrhenius reaction is used to describe the heating of the explosive due to subsequent chemical reaction. A solution is sought by considering perturbations from a melt layer of uniform width. In particular, we consider the effects of modelling the temperature dependence of the liquid viscosity and specific heat are studied. In contrast to previous work which does not account for the temperature dependence of material properties, it is shown that allowing the viscosity to vary with temperature can lead to non-uniform mechanical heating in the layer to leading order. Such localised heating may be associated with generation of localised hot spots which give rise to ignition.


The aim of the study is to examine the influence of the materials generated in compliance with 5E Learning Model on students' gains in physics laboratory applications. The research was carried out on 82 students who take the course of General Physics Laboratory II and who study their first year at the department of Science Education in Kâzim Karabekir Faculty of Education in Ataturk University within the spring semester in 2008-2009 academic year. In the study, a semi-experimental pattern with pre-test and post-test control group is used. While the applications in the experimental group was carried out using 5E Learning Model based on Structural Learning Theory, the applications in the control group was conducted using traditional verifying laboratory theory. As tools for collecting data, both before and after applications, success test in the subjects of Electrics, scientific process skill test, and physics laboratory attitude test are applied on the students in the experimental and control group. In order to test the hypothesis of the study, dependent and independent groups t-test is used. Evaluating the data gained from the pre-tests, it is determined that the groups coincide. As a conclusion of the statistic study, it is found out that 5E Learning Model applications support significantly students' academic success, their scientific process improvement and their attitude towards physics laboratory.


[1] This paper examines the spatiotemporal characteristics of convective rain cells over the eastern Mediterranean (northern Israel) and their relationship to synoptic patterns. Information on rain cell features was extracted from high-resolution weather radar data. The radar-gauge adjustment, validation, cell segmentation and tracking techniques are discussed at length at the beginning of the paper. Convective rain cells were clustered into three synoptic types (two winter lows—deep Cyprus lows and shallow lows—and one tropical intrusion, Active Red Sea Trough) using several NCEP/NCAR parameters, and empirical distributions were computed for their spatial and temporal features. In the study region, it was found that the Active Red Sea Trough rain cells are larger, live for less time and possess lower rain intensities than the rain cells generated by the winter lows. The Cyprus low rain cells were found to be less intense and slightly larger on average than the shallow low rain cells. It was further discovered that the preferential orientation of the rain cells is associated with the direction and velocity of the wind. The effect of distance from the coastline was also examined. An increase in the number and area of the rain cells near the coastline was observed, presumably due to the sea breeze convection. The mean rainfall intensity was found to peak near the shore and decrease with distance inland. This information is of great importance for understanding rain patterns and can be further applied in exploring the hydrological responses of the basins in this region.


Objective To assess the effectiveness of an integrated early child development intervention, combining stimulation and micronutrient supplementation and delivered on a large scale in Colombia, for children's development, growth, and hemoglobin levels. Design Cluster randomized controlled trial, using a 2×2 factorial design, with municipalities assigned to one of four groups: psychosocial stimulation, micronutrient supplementation, combined intervention, or control. Setting 96 municipalities in Colombia, located across eight of its 32 departments. Participants 1420 children aged 12-24 months and their primary carers. Intervention Psychosocial stimulation (weekly home visits with play demonstrations), micronutrient sprinkles given daily, and both combined. All delivered by female community leaders for 18 months. Main outcome measures Cognitive, receptive and expressive language, and fine and gross motor scores on the Bayley scales of infant development-III; height, weight, and hemoglobin levels measured at the baseline and end of intervention. Results Stimulation improved cognitive scores (adjusted for age, sex, testers, and baseline levels of outcomes) by 0.26 of a standard deviation (P=0.002). Stimulation also increased receptive language by 0.22 of a standard deviation (P=0.032). Micronutrient supplementation had no significant effect on any outcome and there was no interaction between the interventions. No intervention affected height, weight, or hemoglobin levels. Conclusions Using the infrastructure of a national welfare program we implemented the integrated early child development intervention on a large scale and showed its potential for improving children's cognitive development. We found no effect of supplementation on developmental or health outcomes. Moreover, supplementation did not interact with stimulation. The implementation model for delivering stimulation suggests that it may serve as a promising blueprint for future policy on early childhood development. Trial registration Current Controlled trials ISRCTN18991160.


We report on the spontaneous polarization transfer from dynamically hyperpolarized 1H to 13C during magic-angle spinning dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) at temperatures around 100 K. The transfer is mediated by 1H-13C cross-relaxation within methyl groups due to reorientation dynamics, and results in an inverted 13C NMR signal of enhanced amplitude. Further spreading of transferred polarization can then occur via 13C-13C spin-diffusion. The resulting process is equal to the nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) where typically continuous saturation of 1H by radio frequency irradiation is employed. Here, hyperpolarization by irradiation with microwaves in the presence of typical bis-nitroxide polarizing agents is utilized for steady-state displacement of 1H polarization from thermal equilibrium and perpetual spin-lattice relaxation. An effective 13C enhancement factor of up to -15 has been measured. Presence of Gd(III) furthermore amplifies the effect likely by accelerated relaxation of 1H. We provide experimental evidence for the proposed mechanism and show that DNP-induced cross-relaxation is a robust feature within proteins and single amino acids and discuss potential applications.


The upper 1200 m of pre-Pliocene sediment recovered by Cape Roberts Project (CRP) drilling off the Victoria Land coast of Antarctica between 1997-1999 has been subdivided into 54 unconformity-bound stratigraphic sequences, spanning the period c. 32 to 17 Ma. The sequences are recognised on the basis of the cyclical vertical stacking of their constituent lithofacies, which are enclosed by erosion surfaces produced during the grounding of the advancing ice margin onto the sea floor. Each sequence represents deposition in a range of offshore shelf to coastal glacimarine sedimentary environments during oscillations in the ice margin across the Western Ross Sea shelf, and coeval fluctuations in water depth. This paper applies spectral analysis techniques to depth- and time-series of sediment grain size (500 samples) for intervals of the core with adequate chronological data. Time series analysis of 0.5-1.0m-spaced grainsize data spanning sequences 9-11 (CRP-2/2A) and sequences 1-7 (CRP-3) suggests that the length of individual sequences correspond to Milankovitch frequencies, probably 41 k.y., but possibly as low as 100 k.y. Higher frequency periodic components at 23 k.y. (orbital precession) and 15-10 k.y. (sub-orbital) are recognised at the intrasequence-scale, and may represent climatic cycles akin to the ice rafting episodes described in the North Atlantic Ocean during the Quaternary. The cyclicity recorded by glacimarine sequences in CRP core provides direct evidence from the periphery of Antarctica for orbital oscillations in the size of the Oligocene- Early Miocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet.


Mars has an intriguing topographic and crustal dichotomy that divides the planet into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. The biggest question is to understand how this dichotomy was formed and what are the implications to the interior evolution of the planet. This study uses topography and gravity data obtained from the Mars Global Surveyor satellite observations in a crustal thickness program written by Mark Wieczorek. This program uses an algorithm that incorporates spherical harmonic coefficients of topography and gravity and calculates the Moho topography given a set of user-input parameters; it also generates crustal thickness maps. I modified the code to produce gravity misfit maps for interpretation of crustal and mantle structures. Experiments were performed to test various parameters in the program and observe their effects on the resulting crustal thickness. The algorithm assumes a uniform density for the crust and mantle. A crustal density of 2900 kg/m 3 and a mantle density of 3500 kg/m 3 were used to represent a basaltic crust and an olivine mantle, derived from petrologic studies of meteorites assumed to have originated from Mars. As the crustal density is held constant while varying the mantle density (and vice versa), it is the total density contrast that changes the crustal thickness; the larger the density contrast, the smaller the crustal thickness. Higher-order terms in the algorithm equation were also tested. Results show that the higher-order terms do not affect the overall crustal thickness by much thus are negligible. In modeling the crustal thickness, a minimum crustal thickness of 5 km was used to anchor the topography so that the resulting crust do not have negative or zero thickness. By using this minimum thickness, there is about 40 km thickness difference between the Northern Lowlands and the Southern Highlands. Crustal thickness and gravity misfit maps show a plume-like track from the South Pole to the Tharsis Rise region, consistent with the theory proposed by Zhong (2010) on a mantle plume track. A ring-like feature in the misfit maps resembles a regional-scale impact crater that may have created the Borealis Basin in the Northern Lowlands, also consistent with current hypotheses about the formation of the Northern Lowlands. A result of Airy isostacy (with only the linear terms in topography) is that the Moho topography will be related to the surface topography with a scale factor depending on the crust-mantle density contrast. Isostatic studies here reveal that Mars may be more or less isostatic at spherical harmonic degree-1 wavelength scale where as at spherical harmonic degree-2, an impact-like structure is revealed just east of the Tharsis Rise region, suggesting a possible impact. Due to the non-uniqueness of gravity, these models have a limited constraint on the crustal thickness and further studies involving a seismometer are needed to get a more precise look into Mars' interior.


In Sunderland, England, a city quarantined by the cholera epidemic of 1831, a defiant, fifteen-teen-year old beauty in an elegant blue dress makes her way between shadow and lamp light. A potter's assistant by day and dress lodger by night, Gustine sells herself for necessity in a rented gown, scrimping to feed and protect her only love: her fragile baby boy. She holds a glimmer of hope after meeting Dr. Henry Chiver, a prisoner of his own dark past. But in a world where suspicion of medicine runs rampant like a fever, these two lost souls will become irrevocably linked, as each crosses lines between rich and destitute, decorum and abandon, damnation and salvation. By turns tender and horrifying, The Dress Lodger is a captivating historical thriller charged with a distinctly modern voice. . . .


Poor Corporate Governance practices by firms are thought to have largely influenced what is widely considered the worst economic recession since the depression of the 1930's, leading global financial centres of New York and London in the midst of this extraordinary bank-crippling crisis. In the wake of the financial crisis, this investigation considers how characteristics defining the board of directors may play a role in preventing future corporate collapses by influencing financial performance. This study looks at the composition and characteristics of board directors based on a sample of 232 firm-year observations for the largest companies listed on the highly volatile U.K. (FTSE) and U.S (NYSE) stock exchanges,. The particular board characteristics investigated were: gender equality, executive compensations, managerial-ownership, transparency and disclosures, independence of the board as well as firm leadership. Modelled within the governance framework set out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); this study examines the relationship between key corporate governance mechanisms concerning the board directors and their effects on firm performance. Findings are based on data gathered from the fiscal years 2012 and 2013, as the global economy enters the midst of economic recovery. Multiple regression analyses using SPSS show that the influence of board of director characteristics varies significantly between the U.S and U.K. markets. Research findings show that in the U.S, an increased in insider ownership, greater gender diversity on the board, combined CEO-Chair roles, smaller board sizes and increases in CEO compensation all positively influence the regression model of director characteristics in relation to performance. In the U.K, younger CEOs and those exhibiting lower turnover, as well as separation of management and ownership and a greater proportion of executive directors on the board are significant to increased company returns.


This is an overview report to document and illustrate methods used in a project entitled "Normal and Emergency Operations Visualization" for a utility company, conducted in 2009-2010 timeframe with funding from the utility company and the U.S. Department of Energy. The original final report (about 180 pages) for the project is not available for distribution because it alludes to findings that assessed the design of an operational system that contained proprietary information; this abridged version contains descriptions of methods and some findings to illustrate the approach used, while avoiding discussion of sensitive or proprietary information. The client has approved this abridged version of the report for unlimited distribution to give researchers and collaborators the benefit of reviewing the research concepts and methods that were applied in this study.


Abstract Androdioecy (mixtures of males and hermaphrodites) is a rare mating system in both the plant and animal kingdoms. Androdioecy has been described in three branchiopod species, and is best known from the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana Packard. Herein we describe sex ratio, genetic and histological evidence from the clam shrimp Eulimnadia agassizii Packard that suggest androdioecy is also found in this species. The E. agassizii population sampled had all-females, and when these females were isolated and allowed to produce eggs, those eggs yielded 100% female offspring in 15 out of 15 cases. Additionally, the originally isolated females proved to be completely homozygous at each of the six allozyme loci scored. The offspring from these isolated females also proved to be homozygous for the same alleles as their parent. Tissue sectioning of the gonad found that the "females" actually produced testicular tissue in the posterior portion of the gonad. Taken together, these data are entirely consistent with those of the androdioecious E. texana, and thus indicate that E. agassizii is also an androdioecious species, bringing the total number of branchiopod species with this form of reproduction to four.


Background: In Iran vaccination with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is performed on all newborns within the first days of life for prevention of tuberculosis. It is a live attenuated vaccine and produced from genetically different vaccine strains of Mycobacterium bovis. This vaccine is safe but local adverse reactions such as administration site abscess and lymphadenitis occur in some healthy children vaccinated with this vaccine as the most common side effect of BCG vaccination. Disseminated BCG infections are very rare in immunocompetent children but lymphadenitis is very common in Iran and other countries. It is indicated that the vaccine strain and it's genetically variations are correlated with these side effects. Therefore, in this study we aimed to analyze the genetic characterizations of vaccine strains used in Iran. Materials and Methods: Thirty infants showing lymphadenitis induced by BCG vaccination were chosen for this study. After aspiration from the lesions, they were subjected to acid fast staining and culture on Lowenstein Jensen medium. Subsequently, DNA was extracted from samples using Phenol–chloroform method. The genus of the isolates was characterized by primer for 16sRNA gene. Then using RD1, RD14 and DU1 primers and in the next step RD9, RD4Deleted, RD4Present and RD1Deleted primers the species and strains of the isolates were characterized. Results: Performing 16sRNA PCR, all 30 samples of acid fast bacilli were confirmed as Mycobacterium genus. Then using RD1, RD14, DU1, RD9, RD4 Deleted, RD4 Present and RD1 Deleted primers all isolates were detected as Mycobacterium bovis BCG strain Pasteur. Conclusion: In this study all of the strains isolated from the patients were detected as Mycobacterium bovis BCG strain Pasteur. Therefore, the other possible factors causing BCG complications including BCG overdose, faulty intradermal technique, and disturbance of cellular immunity should be considered as the other risk factors of causing lesions.


Author(s): Stuart, Elizabeth; Hanus, Nichole L; Carvallo, Juan Pablo; Larsen, Peter H | Abstract: This study is the latest in a series of LBNL research into U.S. ESCO industry characteristics and market trends. The research is based on interviews with ESCO industry executives conducted during the fall of 2019 and the first half of 2020. Nearly all companies that identified themselves as ESCOs were contacted as part of this project. We find that after a period of little growth (2011-2014), industry revenues reached an estimated $6 billion in 2018, or a 3.4% annual average growth rate from 2015-2018. ESCOs primarily serve the public an institutional sectors (e.g., federal, state, and local governments; university and colleges; and K-12 schools). In 2018, project investments by public and institutional organizations accounted for over 90% of industry revenue, which is consistent with previous industry studies. ESCO activity in the Middle Atlantic, East North Central, and Pacific regions in the U.S. delivered the highest share of revenue in 2018, which is also consistent with earlier research. ESCOs reported that a majority of their customers use energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) primarily for facility capital improvement needs and resilience rather than utility savings. In addition, the importance of non-energy benefits (e.g., water savings, avoided operations and maintenance costs, and avoided capital costs) accounted for in the project savings guarantee reportedly increased in all markets during 2016-2018 compared to previous time periods. The study found that the ESCO industry faces several key challenges, including: (1) increasing project development times due to more complex projects and other factors; (2) difficulty finding qualified subcontractors in some regions, including minority- women- and disadvantaged population-owned small business enterprises; and (3) difficulty accessing project documents and quickly fulfilling customer requests to justify project payments several years into the performance period of a project.


Conditioning voting rights on the payment of legal financial obligations (LFOs) may be unconstitutional if there are no exceptions for indigency. Appellate courts, though, generally have upheld felon-disenfranchisement laws that withhold voting rights until all fees, fines, and restitution are paid in full. These decisions, however, have been made with limited evidence available about the type, burden, and disparate impact of criminal debt. We address this by detailing who owes LFOs, how much they owe, and for what purpose using representative statewide samples in Alabama. The median amount of LFOs assessed to discharged felons across all of their criminal convictions is $3,956, more than half of which stems from court fees. As a result, most ex-felons remain disenfranchised after completing their sentences. People who are disproportionately indigent—blacks and those utilizing a public defender—are even less likely to be eligible to restore their voting rights.


We discuss the optical properties of non-degraded and anodically degraded boron-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) deposited by low-pressure chemical vapour deposition on soda-lime glass. The optical model used to simulate the infrared reflectance in the wavelength range between 1.2 and 25 μm is based on the Maxwell-Garnett effective-medium theory. The model is sensitive to the conditions at the grain boundaries of the investigated polycrystalline ZnO:B films. We confirm that the presence of defect-rich grain boundaries, especially after degradation, causes a highly resistive ZnO:B film. Furthermore, indications of a degraded zinc oxide layer next to the ZnO:B/glass interface with different refractive index are found. We present evidence for the creation of oxygen vacancies, based on Raman investigations, which correlate with a shift of the optical absorption edge of the ZnO:B. Investigations with scanning and transmission electron microscopy show microvoids at the grain boundaries after anodic degradation. This indicates that the grain/grain interfaces are the principle location of defects after degradation.


This study attempts, for the first time, to give a symbolical analysis of the oeuvre of Romanos the Melodist, the famous hymnographer of sixth-century Constantinople, based on the French edition of the 60 authentic kontakia established by Grosdidier de Matons. Its objective is to throw a new light on the symbolical structures of Romanos' theological thinking. This has been achieved by analyzing the images and metaphors which he uses in order to describe Salvation accomplished in Christ or to exhort his audience to live truly according to the promises made at baptism. Some networks of symbols are explained here : the set of symbols around the springtime of resurrection, the tree and the fruit, the oil and the horn, and images of spiritual edification like the stone and the house. Then, a longer section is devoted to the large field of medical symbolism, which was already one of Ephrem's favourites. He was certainly a major influence for the bilingual Greek-Syriac deacon, alongside Jacob of Serugh, a Syrian bishop from the late fifth century. Like Romanos, Jacob was more of a preacher and less interested in the doctrinary conflicts of his time, and was entirely devoted to the spiritual edification of his audience. His influence on Romanos is revealed in many places in the hymns, and further studies will certainly enhance this even more as we get to know Jacob of Serugh better and better. In the end of this study the symbolism of clothing is expounded, which is characteristic of Syriac Christianity, before an excursus on the ancient sun symbolism. The conlusion offers a glimpse on a fragment of a kontakion about Romanos the Melodist himself, a saint of the oriental Church.