Akt1 and Akt2, isoforms of the serine threonine kinase Akt, are essential for T cell development. However, their role in peripheral T cell differentiation remains undefined. Using germline deletions of either Akt1 or Akt2 in mice, we found that while both are important for Th17 differentiation, the impact of Akt2 loss was greater. Mechanistically, while Akt2-/Th17 cells were predicted by microarray analysis to have suppressed cholesterol biosynthetic and Il-6 signaling pathways, neither pathway emerged as the primary mechanism through which Akt2 contributes to Th17 differentiation. We also interrogated the role of the well-known Akt target, mTORC1, and found that Akt2-/Th17 cells were equally sensitive to inhibition of the mTORC1-S6K axis as their WT counterparts. However, Akt2 deficiency was associated with elevated Gfi1 mRNA, which encodes for a known inhibitor of Th17 differentiation, and decreased mir155, which encodes for a miRNA that promotes Th17 differentiation. Furthermore, Akt2 loss has significant in vivo consequences and results in a dampened peripheral T cell response to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) immunization. This dampened response was associated with altered Th cell differentiation including a pronounced diminution of inflammatory cytokine production and preferential expansion of regulatory T cells compared to non-T regulatory cells. Using mice with Akt2 loss only in the T cell compartment, Akt2 cKO, we demonstrate that Akt2 promotes Th17 differentiation in both a T cell-intrinsic and T cell-extrinsic manner; Akt2 cKO CD4 T cells had defective IL-17A production in vitro although this defect was milder than that observed in Akt2-/cells. In vivo, Akt2 cKO splenocytes trended towards decreased cytokine production compared to their WT counterparts after immunization with MOG peptide, suggesting a significant role for Akt2 in non-T cells in shaping the peripheral CD4 T cell response in this model system. Taken together, we identify Akt2 as an important signaling molecule in regulating peripheral CD4 T cell responses. Future studies interrogating the in vivo impact of Akt2 loss in other experimental systems that rely on CD4 T helper cell mediated immunity would provide insight into the contributions of Akt2 to CD4 Th cell differentiation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Gary A. Koretzky Second Advisor Martha S. Jordan This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1203


With the advent of No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002 and its mandates for annual yearly progress for all students, many districts and schools in Texas have had difficulty elevating African American and Hispanic students' scores. The current study examined these students' achievement on the annual Texas high-stakes measure as a function of a numerical construct that aligns the race/ethnicity of students when the teacher race is White. Earlier studies have shown that racial/ethnic compatibility between students and teachers improves student achievement in the primary grades. The study, which was set in 10 north Texas school districts and 30 high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools, examined African American and Hispanic students' achievement on the Texas state assessments in reading and mathematics over a 10-year period. District performance data came from 4,664,192 African American, Hispanic, and White students and 222, 834 White teachers. Campus level data encompassed 188,839 10th graders, 93,573 eighth graders, and 40,083 fourth graders, and 20,471 White teachers. Analysis revealed that, as the ratios of African American and Hispanic students to White teachers increased, the percentages of these two student groups passing the Texas assessments decreased. These patterns differed for White students whose passing percentages increased as these students' numbers increased relative to White teachers in all settings except in elementary schools. These preliminary findings suggested that racial alignment at the high school and middle school levels might elevate African American and Hispanic achievement. Implications may lead to shifting focus on teacher quality and class size as the primary determinants of student achievement. Findings need validation with further study using larger data sets and sequential grade levels. If validated through further studies involving larger samples, contiguous grade levels, and more sophisticated statistical analysis, this study's findings may have implications for teacher education curriculum, recruitment of minority teacher candidates, workforce retention, and state policy on class size limits.


We document the evolution of hours of work using monthly data from February to June 2020. During this period, the Netherlands experienced a quick spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, enacted a lockdown for a period of six weeks and gradually opened thereafter. We show that during lock-down, substitutability between work from home and at the workplace or essential worker status are key to maintain a large fraction of pre-crisis hours of work. These pandemic-specific mechanisms become much less important as social distancing restrictions are eased in May and June. Labor supply recovers quickly in sectors affected heavily during lockdown, but goes down in other areas of the economy. The latter is unlikely caused by pandemic-induced supply changes; diminished demand is a more plausible explanation. Analyzing take-up of economic support programs, we find suggestive evidence that wage subsidies and other programs helped limit the early-stage impact of the crisis along the extensive margin.


A simple one step hydrothermal route to Li1+xMn2−yO4 spinel compounds (x = 0.01–0.06, y = 0.02–0.09) via reduction of commercially available potassium permanganate with common organic reductants (alcohols, acetone, hex-1-ene, and isobutyraldehyde) in lithium hydroxide aqueous solutions is developed. The cubic spinel phase with no other impurities can be isolated after short reaction times (∼5 h) at the relatively low temperature of 180 °C. Scanning electron microscopy imaging reveals that the crystalline products have a distribution of sizes; the majority of the sample is composed of smaller particles between 10 and 30 nm. However, there are noticeably larger 100–300 nm interspersed particles—more prevalent in reactions with acetone and isobutyraldehyde. In corresponding benchtop test reactions, UV-Vis spectroscopy shows that the disappearance of MnO4− occurs more rapidly when acetone and isobutyraldehyde are used as reducing agents. Cyclic voltammetry performed on our spinels prepared via hydrothermal synthesis shows three reversible redox processes: a wave with E1/2 of ∼2.9 V (vs. Li/Li+) and two close waves between 4.05 and 4.15 V. Galvanostatic cycling of a cell composed of Li1.02Mn1.96O4 prepared from the oxidation of acetone between 3.5 and 4.4 V demonstrates a specific capacity of 104 mA h g−1 on first discharge, with ∼87% capacity retention (90 mA h g−1) after 100 cycles. The specific capacity of all samples correlates with the rate of disappearance of MnO4− observed in our benchtop reactions, providing a facile way to control particle size and electrochemical behavior.


Insights to Neuroimmune Biology, Second Edition discusses the systemic regulatory network, coordination, organization, and interpretation of the rapidly accumulating knowledge on the topic of neuroimmune biology, with an ultimate goal of helping readers understand the function of higher organisms, including man, in their entire complexity. This publication provides assessments and interpretations of accumulated experimental evidence, enabling the scientific community to keep abreast of essential advancements of existing knowledge as we search for greater understanding of the biology of higher organisms.Provides information on the importance and applicability of the field of neuroimmunology Describes subjects that have shown significant recent developmentsIntroduces a whole new dimension to neuroimmunology by discussing Epigenetic ImmunoregulationInvestigates the mechanisms and functions of the Neuroimmune Regulatory SupersystemPromotes translational research in the field of neuroimmune biologyCovers challenges, such as dealing with problems of e.g., hypothalamic regulation of immune functions, interrelationships of stress and disease, epigenetic immunoregulation, neuroprotection, and neuroimmune regulation in pregnancy.


How to save the cost of collection and transportation is one of the biggest problems in the urban garbage logistics system. In this paper, a model has been set up to minimize the system operation cost, and a genetic algorithm was developed to work this model out. Experimental studies show that the GA generates approximate optimal solutions very quickly and good-quality solutions can be obtained on an acceptable computational cost.


Critique of phenomenology amounts to a tiny piece of the puzzle that is Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala's thought-provoking Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx.1 According to the spot allocated to it, phenomenology fits in with the other manifestations of classical metaphysics, bent on preserving the transcendental privilege of immutable truth. In what follows, I will argue that such placement may not do justice to phenomenology, which, in its most critical manifestations, is an ally of hermeneutic communism. This particular piece of the puzzle belongs on the other side of the intellectual and historical barricades, and, more importantly, holds the…


Building procurement involves many different parties and resources. It is very common that
requires project participants involved to work within budget, on time and according to quality
prescribed as well as they must work safely. Sadly, safety aspects have been insufficient and
lacking in many construction projects around the globe. However, as time progresses, safety
is now becoming the fundamental measure of project performance. Hence, this research is an
exploratory and explanatory investigation of how to enhance the implementation of
construction safety practice throughout procurement process. As we speak, improvement of
safety in construction is not only treated as technical aspects, but also as an organisational and
managerial aspect as well.
Firstly, the premise of this research is to show that client leadership and commitment as well
as project team integration within the whole procurement process will influence safety
practice in the construction industry. Secondly, the context of this research is drawn on the
underlying theories of building procurement and construction safety. Therefore, thirdly, the
primary objective of this research is to study how the procurement process acts as a potential
tool to enhance safety practice in the construction industry. A framework developed for this
research was based on procurement systems and accident causation theories as well as the
process protocol.
The current theories of accident causation suggest that improved safety in construction must
start since in the beginning of project procurement process while integrating client and project
participants toward synergy to mitigate any factors undermining safety in downstream
production level.
A case study strategy in two different countries, the UK and Malaysia, was selected as this
provided justification of how procurement and people involved practising safety. The case
study objects were undertaken by design and built and traditional procurement method.
Different level of safety maturity is the justification of the countries selected. It was also
intended to investigate lessons learned from the UK safety practice that can be used to
improve the Malaysian construction industry. Multiple sources of information, data and
evidence from 2 of the UK cases and 2 of the Malaysian cases were investigated through
semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys.
In this research, three propositions were explored. The first is that improved procurement
process, the client leadership for better safety policy in the procurement process and team
integration throughout project procurement process can enhance health and safety practice.
The findings are presented as data comparisons and analytical generalisations, from both intra
case and cross case analyses as well as questionnaires. The main results show that
procurement process with better client leadership and commitment as well as stronger project
team integration can enhance safety practice in the construction industry.
This research suggests that improving safety in construction is not only in the hand of
construction companies but also any other project participants right from beginning of project
procurement throughout project implementation. It is also suggested that Malaysia may take
more attempts to persuade clients and client's project team to deal with safety issues seriously
long before construction project commencing on site.


This highly acclaimed collection provides a unique look into the public and private lives and legal status of Greek and Roman women of all social classes-from wet nurses, prostitutes, and gladiatrixes to poets, musicians, intellectuals, priestesses, and housewives. The third edition adds new texts to sections throughout the book, vividly describing women's sentiments and circumstances through readings on love, bereavement, and friendship, as well as property rights, breast cancer, female circumcision, and women's roles in ancient religions, including Christianity and pagan cults.


Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It has a high prevalence in the world with a fairly high mortality rate. The most common affected organ is the lungs, but in recent years an increase of extrapulmonary TB incidence, one of which tuberculosis of the larynx. The larynx is the 3rd most common area affected by TB from the area of the ear-nose-throat after cervical lymph nodes and ears. Laryngeal tuberculosis potentially cause fatality due to severe odynophagia and dyspnea due to laryngeal edema and granulation. The prevalence of laryngeal tuberculosis is extremely rare in children. Worldwide, the population of children affected by tuberculosis is quite high, mostly in developing countries. Extrapulmonary involvement in children is common, but larynx is a rare site of infection.
Case report: Reported a case of laryngeal TB in 7 months child. Patient had a history of positive TB contacts. She had dysphonia and a history of shortness of breath. Inspiratory stridor, substernal and intercostal retractions, and thick discharge was found on examination. Endoscopic examination revealed type 1 laryngomalacia (redundancy of arytenoid tissue), diffuse laryngeal edema, granulation around laryngeal inlet and arytenoid, and irregularities in vocal cords mucosa with normal vocal cord movement. Sputum smear examination and GeneXpert TB test obtained with positive result and there was no rifampicin resistance. Patient treated with paediatric antituberculosis therapy. Evaluation after 2 weeks of therapy has shown significant clinical improvements, reduced laryngeal edema and decreased granulation tissue.
Conclusion: A rare case of laryngeal TB in children has been reported. The diagnose was made with endoscopic examination and GeneXpert TB test. The child has been treated with children OAT regimen and showed improvement in clinical condition.


ABSTRACT This short exchange paper reports on the major findings of a forthcoming research monograph, which is going to be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, entitled "Theorizing ESL community college students' perception of written feedback." This research project, which was conducted in an international community college in Hong Kong, attempts to theorize factors which potentially affect English-as-a-second-language (ESL) community college students' perception and response to teacher written feedback (WF). Through the adoption of grounded theory as the methodology and the use of a data analysis software, NVivo, qualitative data were collected from 93 student open-ended questionnaires and two rounds of student interviews (approximately 100,000 words of transcribed data). The data anaylzed yielded a total of four conceptual categories: technical factors, social factors, emotional factors, and personal factors. Implications related to assessment feedback research in higher education will be discussed.


Functional algorithmic skeletons promise a high-level programming interface for distributed-memory clusters that free developers from concerns of task decomposition, scheduling, and communication. Unfortunately, prior distributed functional skeleton frameworks do not deliver performance comparable to that achievable in a low-level distributed programming model such as C with MPI and OpenMP, even when used in concert with high-performance array libraries. There are several causes: they do not take advantage of shared memory on each cluster node; they impose a fixed partitioning strategy on input data; and they have limited ability to fuse loops involving skeletons that produce a variable number of outputs per input.
 We address these shortcomings in the Triolet programming language through a modular library design that separates concerns of parallelism, loop nesting, and data partitioning. We show how Triolet substantially improves the parallel performance of algorithms involving array traversals and nested, variable-size loops over what is achievable in Eden, a distributed variant of Haskell. We further demonstrate how Triolet can substantially simplify parallel programming relative to C with MPI and OpenMP while achieving 23--100% of its performance on a 128-core cluster.


This dissertation studies the importance of shocks in understanding economic outcomes, both at the aggregate and at the individual levels. The research in this document is separated into chapters that deal with somewhat dissimilar questions which are linked by the necessity to acknowledge and understand how unforeseeable shocks determine how agents make economic decisions. These shocks or innovations are a potential explanation for why, often similar economic actors face very different paths. In Chapter 2, the interest lays in the determinants of different life-cycle fertility outcomes across educational groups. The chapter presents a model where individuals deal with idiosyncratic shocks in the form of innovations to their market wages and to the efficacy with which they can control fertility outcomes. The model is estimated using data for the US and tested to see how it fares replicating facts of aggregate fertility under different counterfactual scenarios. Chapter 3 (co-authored with Jose-Victor Rios-Rull), studies the cyclical behavior of the aggregate labor's share in total income, taking as a starting point models of business cycles driven by economy-wide technological shocks. The chapter looks at the co-movement of labor share and technological innovations in post war US history and assesses how well existing models can explain the facts. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Economics First Advisor Jose-Victor Rios-Rull Second Advisor Dirk Krueger Third Advisor Jeremy Greenwood Subject Categories Labor Economics | Macroeconomics This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3 COPYRIGHT Se Kyu Choi 2009


An alternative approach to developing reusable components from scratch is to recover them from existing systems. We apply program slicing, a program decomposition method, to the problem of extracting reusable functions from ill structured programs. As with conventional slicing first described by M. Weiser (1984), a slice is obtained by iteratively solving data flow equations based on a program flow graph. We extend the definition of program slice to a transform slice, one that includes statements which contribute directly or indirectly to transform a set of input variables into a set of output variables. Unlike conventional program slicing, these statements do not include either the statements necessary to get input data or the statements which test the binding conditions of the function. Transform slicing presupposes the knowledge that a function is performed in the code and its partial specification, only in terms of input and output data. Using domain knowledge we discuss how to formulate expectations of the functions implemented in the code. In addition to the input/output parameters of the function, the slicing criterion depends on an initial statement, which is difficult to obtain for large programs. Using the notions of decomposition slice and concept validation we show how to produce a set of candidate functions, which are independent of line numbers but must be evaluated with respect to the expected behavior. Although human interaction is required, the limited size of candidate functions makes this task easier than looking for the last function instruction in the original source code.


Smoother labor incomes alleviate credit constraints by reducing workers' desire to borrow, and prospects of upward income mobility have smaller beneficial effects for currently poor workers when borrowing constraints are binding. These simple theoretical insights are consistent with the empirically more pronounced tendency of poor would-borrowers to favor government redistribution in countries where consumer credit is relatively scarce. They may also explain observed institutional patterns across countries and markets: policies that reduce the dispersion and volatility of labor income appear to be more prevalent in countries where inefficient legal systems restrict borrowing opportunities. Our theoretical perspective and empirical results offer more general insights as to ways in which historically determined features and politico-economic interactions may jointly shape institutional aspects of different markets, and as to appropriate design of reform processes.


BACKGROUND
Findings from numerous assertion studies suggest that nurses are generally non-assertive. This study examines the role of caring as an important determinant of adaptive assertive behaviour.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the investigation was to explore the relationship between assertion and caring skills. Two study objectives sought to determine whether both positive and negative assertive behaviours were related to caring skills.

DESIGN
Correlational and cross-sectional study.

METHOD
The Caring Assessment Instrument (Care Q - Questionnaire Version) and the assertion inventory were used to collect self-report data from a convenience sample of 94 subjects. Behavioural data were obtained by directly sampling 50 nurses' responses within role-play situations.

RESULTS
One significant result between the various assertion measurements and caring skill scores was noted, highlighting a relationship between negative assertion and the caring 'accessible' subscale.

CONCLUSION
Overall the findings of the study suggest that positive and negative assertive behaviours are not related to caring skills.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The current findings suggest that the presence of caring attributes cannot be offered as a possible reason for non-assertion in nurses.


This paper describes an interactive system on the Internet, which implements an electronic library of Descriptive Geometry problems. All problems can be accessed as proposed exercises or solved problems (demonstrations). The library may register several alternative solutions for the same problem, allowing the user to choose the one he understands better. The system is implemented as a client-server architecture. The server side runs along with a web server and manages a database of problems and registered users. The client side is represented by a Java applet which provides graphical interaction with the users. Drawing tools are available for on-line problem solving. Demonstration of a solution is done through step-by-step animations and explanation texts. The system features some simple tutoring capabilities.


Background: Client safety in the health-care environment requires the reduction of microorganism transmission. Infection control practices are directed at controlling or eliminating source of infection in the health-care agency, home, or communities to reduce the occurrence and transmission of infectious diseases. Among health workers, nurses spend the greatest time in caregiving setting. Nurses' involvement in infection control measures will yield positive results in infection prevention and control in hospitals. Aim: To evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of nurses in the state on infection control and barriers to practice to generate information that would guide future interventions to scale up practices. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study of descriptive design. Multistage sampling technique was adopted. The hospitals in the state were stratified according to ownership - federal, state, mission, and private. Using balloting, three categories of hospitals were randomly selected out of the four. One hospital each was selected from the three main cities in the state based on federal, state, and mission ownership, respectively. Instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire, which was validated and with a reliability value of 0.82 computed on ten nurses in a pilot study. The population of nurses in the three hospitals was small (310). Using convenient sampling method, nurses on morning duty were selected. A sample of 202 nurses based on shift duty, out of the 310 nurses from the three selected hospitals constituted the study population even though only 197 out of the 202 nurse participants returned their questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics using Spearman's rho correlation were applied. Results: Out of the 197 respondents, 84 (42.6%) responded that their hospital has infection control unit and 66 (34.1%) stated that they have infection control committee in their hospitals. Respondents with a knowledge score above 60% were only 20 (10.2%), but 170 (86.3%) and 120 (60.9%) had attitude and practice score above 60%, receptively. Only 5 respondents (2.5%) strongly agreed that hand washing is the key to infection control. Conclusion: There is a need to explore the discrepancy between knowledge, attitude, and practice. Facility monitoring is vital to effective infection control practices and should be the focus of intervention.


John Allison is one of a small number of alternative cartoonists in the UK today earning a living from their cartooning. However, since he began his first webcomic, Bobbins, in 1998, he has given all of his comics content away for free online. This article presents John Allison's comics, most notably his series Bad Machinery, as a case study of how to make free webcomics an economically viable labour, achieved by Allison's use of webcomics as a springboard for other commercial activities such as illustration work and printed comics. Taking an interdisciplinary approach consistent with the wider field of Comics Studies, this article draws upon concepts from sociology, literary criticism and economics to provide a theoretical framework through which to understand webcomics as labour, and thus to understand through this reading the economics of free webcomics, with John Allison as the exemplary web cartoonist.


Coral reefs worldwide have seen a considerable increase in coral disease prevalence and disease-related mortality over the last few decades. Black band disease (BBD) is a common and widespread disease of reef-building corals that causes tissue loss at a rate of up to two cm/day. The polymicrobial disease is characterised by a dense, dark mat comprising numerous bacterial taxa including filamentous cyanobacteria, the most prevalent bacterium in terms of biomass. BBD-associated cyanobacteria contribute to the disease by providing a framework and structure to the other bacteria and by fuelling the disease progression with their photosynthesis products. The cyanobacterium Roseofilum reptotaenium of the genus Oscillatoria is ubiquitously present in BBD. Despite years of bacterium-centred research on BBD, key questions, such as the direct cause of the initial disease onset and disease mitigation, remain unclear. Viruses are known agents of a number of diseases in the marine environment, but little is known about their roles in coral disease, including BBD.

In this thesis, I examine whether viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages) are involved in the virulence of the main BBD-associated cyanobacteria and progression of BBD. This includes: (1) the characterisation of the bacteriophage community that targets BBD-associated cyanobacteria, (2) the establishment of methodologies to cultivate the main BBD cyanobacterium, R. reptotaenium, and to isolate lytic bacteriophages that target R. reptotaenium, (3) an assessment of the role of lytic bacteriophages as potential mitigators of the disease by lysing R. reptotaenium and (4) an examination of lysogenic bacteriophages as potential contributors to the virulence of their hosts by introducing virulence genes into BBD cyanobacteria genomes.

(1) Using amplicon next generation sequencing and bioinformatic analyses, I described the BBD bacteriophage community and showed that bacteriophages are part of the BBD microbial consortium. The bacteriophage community of tissue samples of BBD and healthy corals showed a generally higher variability than the communities prevalent in seawater samples. Nevertheless, several BBD-associated bacteriophage taxa were exclusively abundant in BBD samples and I hypothesised these infect one of the main BBD cyanobacteria; other bacteriophage taxa were more prevalent in healthy coral tissues.

(2) To further clarify the role of BBD-associated bacteriophages, I optimised existing methodologies for the isolation and cultivation of one of the main BBD cyanobacteria, R. reptotaenium. The newly established protocols serve as a basis for the isolation of lytic and lysogenic bacteriophages that target R. reptotaenium.

(3) Lysis of R. reptotaenium cultures was successfully achieved using protocols commonly applied for lytic bacteriophage isolation. Three bacteriophages that potentially target the R. reptotaenium were isolated from the culture medium, their genomes sequenced, and used in a phage therapy trial on BBD-affected corals. The isolated bacteriophages are closely related to Cellulophaga phages and therefore not known to infect cyanobacteria and not suitable for BBD phage therapy. Currently, phage therapy of BBD might be possible, but requires extensive optimisation in order to successfully mitigate the disease.

(4) To investigate whether lysogenic bacteriophages are present in the R. reptotaenium genome and whether they may increase cyanobacterial virulence, I sequenced and assembled the first draft genome of R. reptotaenium and in conjunction analysed a previously published genome of the BBD cyanobacterium Geitlerinema sp. BBD_1991. Both cyanobacteria were equipped with adaptive, heritable defence systems that help to prevent bacteriophage infections (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats – CRISPR-Cas systems). Bacteriophage taxa that previously infected the cyanobacteria were reconstructed by analysing the target sequences (spacers) of the CRISPR-Cas defence systems, and were found to include taxa of the BBD bacteriophage community (Chapter 2). In addition, potential prophages were identified in three regions of the R. reptotaenium AO1 genome and in five regions of the Geitlerinema sp. BBD_1991 genome. These genomic regions contained putative virulence genes relevant of BBD, such as an NAD-dependent epimerase/dehydratase (a gene with homologue function to the third and fourth most expressed gene in BBD), lysozyme/metalloendopeptidases and other genes for lipopolysaccharide modification.

My findings suggest that the BBD disease mat is a hot-spot for phage infections. The presence of CRISPR-Cas defence systems in the cyanobacterial host genomes provides evidence of a constant arms race between BBD-associated cyanobacteria and bacteriophages. Maintaining such a defence system likely reduces the number of successful bacteriophage infections and mortality in the cyanobacteria, supporting the progress of BBD. The disease related genes in potential prophage regions suggest a role of bacteriophages as contributors to the virulence of BBD cyanobacteria. In addition, bacteriophages that successfully lyse cyanobacteria within the mat might be redistributing organic matter to the BBD microbial consortium as part of a viral shunt and also possibly contribute to the progression of the disease. Since the application of antibiotics is not feasible to control BBD due to the complexity of coralmicrobial interactions, the use of a lytic bacteriophage in a phage therapy is a promising approach and should be developed further.

This study is one of the first to investigate the multi-faceted role that bacteriophages have in coral disease and reveals bacteriophages as potential contributors to and mitigators of BBD. Applying the concepts and approaches of this study to other coral diseases is likely to show bacteriophages as hidden drivers, e.g. in the coral disease white syndrome and potentially even coral bleaching. Future studies should focus on characterising the associated virus community of healthy and diseased coral colonies with viral metagenomic approaches to obtain information on baseline communities and investigate individual virus-host interactions with quantitative PCR, classic virology methods and targeted amplicon sequencing. Viruses in coral diseases may hold the key to important answers regarding the virulence and pathogenicity of pathogens, as well as innovative mitigation strategies to improve coral health with phage therapy approaches.


This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article.

 Saturn's magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Saturn that is controlled by the planetary magnetic field. Saturn's magnetic field is aligned to within 1 degree of the rotation axis and rotates with a period of ~10.7 h. The magnetosphere is compressed on the dayside by the impinging solar wind, and stretched into a long magnetotail on the nightside. Its surface, the magnetopause, is located where the internal and external plasma and magnetic pressures balance. As a result of the pressure distributions, the magnetopause has a bimodal distribution of standoff distance at the sub-solar point and is flattened over the poles relative to the equator.
 Radiation belts composed of trapped energetic electrons and protons are present in the inner magnetosphere. Their intensity is limited by the moons and rings that can absorb the energetic particles. The icy moons and rings, particularly the cryovolcanic moon Enceladus, are the main sources of mass in the form of water. When the water molecules are ionized they are confined to the equatorial plane by the rapidly rotating magnetic field. This mass-loading acts to distend the magnetic field lines from a dipolar configuration into a radially stretched magnetodisk, with an associated eastward-directed current. In situ measurements of plasma velocity indicate it generally lags behind the planetary rotation, introducing an azimuthal component of the magnetic field. Despite the alignment of the magnetic and rotation axes, so-called planetary period oscillations are ubiquitous in field and plasma measurements in the magnetosphere.
 Radial transport of plasma involves the centrifugal interchange instability in the inner magnetosphere and magnetic reconnection in the middle and outer magnetosphere. This allows mass from the moons and rings to be lost from the system. The outermost regions of the magnetosphere are also influenced by the surrounding solar wind through magnetic reconnection and viscous interactions. Acceleration via reconnection or other processes, or scattering of plasma into the atmosphere leads to auroral emissions detected at radio, infrared, visible, and ultraviolet wavelengths.


In this study we present a finite-volumen scheme for solving the equations of radiation magnetohydrodynamics in two and three space dimensions. Among other applications this system is used to model the plasma in the solar convection zone and in the solar photosphere. It is a non--linear system of balance laws derived from the Euler equations of gas dynamics and the Maxwell equations; the energy transport through radiation is also included in the model. The starting point of our presentation is a standard explicit first and second order finite-volume scheme on both structured and unstructured grids. We first study the convergence of a finite-volume scheme applied to a scalar model problem for the full system of radiation magnetohydrodynamics. We then present modifications of the base scheme. These make it possible to approximate the system of magnetohydrodynamics with an arbitrary equation of state; they reduce errors due to a violation of the divergence constraint on the magnetic field, and they lead to an improved accuracy in the approximation of solution near an equilibrium state. These modifications significantly increase the robustness of the scheme and are essential for an accurate simulation of processes in the solar atmosphere ...


ABSTRACT Whilst existing civil society studies generally fail to systematically examine the way that contextual factors shape women's representation in the civil sphere, political science has predominantly focused on legislative settings. This article responds to the resultant knowledge-gap by examining the hitherto underexplored role of civil society as a political space integral to the substantive representation of women (SRW)—or, the process by which women's concerns are advanced in policy and politics. The article uses grounded theory in order propose a systematic analytical model showing how the SRW is a contingent process whereby the motives of civil society organizations are translated into action repertoires shaped by three (non-discrete) spheres: political, socioeconomic, and organizational. Its wider contribution to civil society scholarship is in highlighting how civil society is a complex, heterogeneous political space wherein SRW claims-making requires cognizance of the co-presence of contingent factors that offer immanent explanatory power.


Some of the most heated critiques of etiquette emphasize a tension between progressive political values and conformity to polite norms. Insistence on polite rules of interaction may, so the worry goes, stifle righteous dissent, suppress critique of the powerful, and mire us all in hidebound tradition. Better to forcefully call out injustice when we see it than abide by polite rules that sacrifice moral progress to surface social accord. In these critiques, etiquette can seem an enemy of salutary change and a barrier to justice. This reasoning, the early Confucians would argue, misses much about how etiquette works and what it contributes to moral life.


SUMMARY: This paper aims to assess the status of the threatened Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus along the Galician coast (NW Iberian Peninsula) by studying its movements and numbers. Balearic shearwaters are detected off Galicia during their annual cycle although they are uncommon between November and May. Overall, 44 groups of over 150 birds have been recorded in seven main areas since 1976, especially in the Vigo Ria and the Pontevedra Ria and along the coast of Bergantinos (Sisargas-Baldaio). Birds have been observed moulting primary and secondary feathers, mainly in June. North-eastward migration is evident along the Atlantic coast (capes Silleiro and Fisterra, daily maximum of 476 birds per hour) between June and August, where it seems to overlap with local movement. However, south-westward migration is far more frequent between September and October (daily maximum of 360 birds per hour) along the Cantabrian coast. The results might be biased due to the methodological problems, on account of the existence of irregular flows, an important inter-annual variability and local movements, probably brought about by the distribution of food resources.


The manual construction of business process models is a time-consuming, error-prone task and presents an obstacle to business agility. To facilitate the construction of such models, several modeling support techniques have been suggested. However, while recommendation systems are widely used, e.g., in e-commerce, these techniques are rarely implemented in process modeling tools. The creation of such systems is a complex task since a large number of requirements and parameters have to be taken into account. In order to improve the situation, the authors have developed a data model that can serve as a backbone for the development of process modeling recommender systems (PMRS). This article outlines the systematic development of this model in a stepwise approach using established requirements and validates it against a data model that has been reverse-engineered from a real-world system. In a last step, the paper illustrates an exemplary instantiation of the data model in a Smart Glasses-based modeling environment and discusses business process agility issues. The authors expect their con-tribution to provide a useful starting point for designing the data perspective of process modeling recommendation features that support business agility in process-intensive environments.


ABSTRACT Free radicals or Reactive oxygen species (ROS), a class of highly reactive molecules derived from the metabolism of oxygen is believed to be involved in many health disorders. ROS including superoxide radicals, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide molecules are often generated as by products of biological reactions or from exogenous factors. Antioxidant-based drugs and formulations for the prevention and treatment of complex diseases have attracted a great deal of research interest in natural antioxidants. It is necessary to screen medicinal plants for their antioxidant potential. Determination of phytochemical constituents like phenols, flavonoids, tannins, Chlorophyll and carotenoids and various tests like reducing power, ferric reducing antioxidant power, linoleic acid assay, DPPH, nitric oxide, superoxide and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assays for evaluation of in vitro antioxidant activity of methanolic and aqueous extracts of Psidium guajava (Guava) leaves were carried out. It was found that the methanolic extracts showed greater amount of phytochemicals and higher antioxidant activity than aqueous extracts. Present results indicate that guava is a good candidate for development of new nutraceuticals for treatment of diseases like diabetes. However, in vivo studies to determine the antioxidant potential of the plant should be conducted before they can be recommended as nutritional substitutes.


The success of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy ( HAART) requires a high rate of
adherence to a complex regimen. Even small variations in adherence compromise treatment
efficacy and can lead to viral resistance. Low levels of adherence to HAART continue to pose
a major barrier to the success of these treatments. Studies investigating adherence to HAART
have focused on practical barriers, yet studies in other illness groups suggest that patients'
perceptions of their illness and treatment have a strong influence.
This thesis is concerned with furthering our understanding of non-adherence to HAART. It
begins with a review of H IV and its treatment. A critical review of the literature was conducted
using systematic techniques. This identifies outstanding questions relating to the antecedents
of adherence to HAART.
The aim of this investigation was primarily to test the Self-Regulatory Model (SRM) and
extensions to it to incorporate treatment perceptions (perceptions of personal necessity for
HAART and concerns about adverse effects) in predicting adherence to HAART.


As a specific institution of distributive trades, e-commerce displays similarities with retail stores and mail order companies. As well as providing theoretical support for the assumption that e-commerce is a way to sell certain goods and services at prices potentially lower than those of traditional distributive channels, this paper analyses its inter-firm diffusion among a sample of firms (mostly SMEs) in Italy. The paper has three main purposes. Firstly, it challenges the view of e-commerce as a "technological revolution", by pointing out its nature as a cost minimizing marketing channel. In particular, it shows how, under certain circumstances, e-commerce is a source of transaction cost advantages analogous to those yielded by mail order business. Secondly, the paper identifies the circumstances under which e-commerce sales might achieve a significant level of penetration among those SMEs that would otherwise incur high costs in organizing a proprietary distributive channel. Thirdly, the paper employs a unique data set of Italian manufacturing, service, and hospitality firms (nearly 90% of them with fewer than 100 employees) to estimate a diffusion model based on the logistic curve. According to the estimates, by the fourth quarter of 2003 nearly 50% of the population of firms in the geographical area surveyed will have introduced e-commerce among their marketing channels.


The text known in English as The Tibetan Book of the Dead is arguably the principle source for popular understandings of Tibetan Buddhist conceptions of death. First translated into English in 1927, subsequent translations have read it according to a number of interpretive frameworks. This paper examines two recent films that take The Tibetan Book of the Dead as their inspiration: Bruce Joel Rubin's Jacob's Ladder (1990) and Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void (2009). Neither of these films overtly claim to be depicting The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but the directors of both have acknowledged that the text was an influence on their films, and both are undeniably about the moment of death and what follows. The analysis begins with the question of how, and to what degree, each of the films departs from the meaning and purpose of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, before moving on to examine the reasons, both practical and ideological, for these changes. Buddhist writer Bruce Joel Rubin wrote a film that sought to depict the death experience from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, but ultimately audience expectation and studio pressure transformed the film into a story at odds with Tibetan Buddhism. Gaspar Noé wrote and directed a film that is based on a secular worldview, yet can be seen to be largely consistent with a Tibetan Buddhist reading. Finally, I consider if, and to what extent, these films function to express or cultivate an experiential engagement with Tibetan Buddhist truths and realization, concluding that Jacob's Ladder does not, while Enter the Void largely succeeds, despite the intention of its creator.


The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a continuing multi-purpose, multidisciplinary longitudinal study based on a sample of over 17,000 babies born in England, Wales and Scotland in 1970. The study has collected detailed information from the cohort members on various aspects of their lives, including their family circumstances at birth, education, employment, housing and partnership histories. There have been nine sweeps of data collection so far: at birth and at ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 30, 34, 38 and most recently age 42 (2012). This paper studies the extent of attrition in BCS70 and how it affects sample composition over time. We examine the determinants of response then construct inverse probability weights. In the last section, we use a simulation study to illustrate the effectiveness of weights and imputations in dealing with unit non-response and item missingness respectively. Our findings show that when the predictive power of the response models is weak, the efficacy of non-response weights is undermined. Further, multiple imputations are effective in reducing the bias resulting from item missingness when the magnitude of the bias is high and the imputation models are well specified.


During the previous dispensation in South Africa, black South Africans were viewed as temporary sojourners in urban areas and therefore the rendering of municipal services was perceptibly free (being incorporated into the nominal rental payable for the government-owned houses people rented). Both infra-structural and social development in the black townships was a central government function and funds provided for in budget allocations from Parliament. Today that situation no longer exists as both infrastructure and social development is the direct responsibility of local government, which ultimately has to raise the bulk of its funding from the services it provides.
Municipalities countrywide have outstanding municipal debt in excess of R30 billion arising from unpaid user payments for essential services. The struggle to balance income and expenditure means that cost efficiency is an important element of successful financial management. Municipal reliance on own revenue also means that municipalities need to grow their own new revenue base.
Mogale City is one such local municipality with an outstanding debt of R105 704 602.
The Municipality therefore embarked on a Revenue Management Enhancement Strategy of which the Community Liaison Programme is the first in a series of implementation phases. The Communication / Community Liaison process should ensure "buy-in" from the targeted communities/customers and acceptance of the processes becomes a critically important milestone to be achieved before any other programmes can proceeds.
The objective of the Communication / Community Liaison Programme is to address issues of non-payment for Municipal Services and Unaccounted Water (UAW) Usage to ensure the continuation of Municipal Services provision to the targeted communities on a financially sustainable basis. In order to reinforce the relationship between community benefit and payment for services, it is essential for the proposed communication strategy to reflect identified community priorities.
As a first step in the process a community survey was conducted to determine, in broad terms, the current attitudes and perceptions held by a representative sample of residents of Mogale towards the payment of services, so that an appropriate communications strategy can be designed to address the main issues which hinder payment.
Ultimately peer pressure must play a key role in motivating the community to pay for their services. It must not only be "the right thing to do", but in the final analysis it is the only way that development will become sustainable and therefore payment by everybody is essential. Defaulting should therefore be perceived as defaulters effectively "stealing" from the broader community. It is thus imperative to know to what extent this concept presently exists in the community. In addition councillors have reported that they constantly receive complaints from their constituents that they are presented with an amount to pay without any indication as to how that amount is made up. This is creating a negative attitude towards the concept of paying for services rendered by the Council.
This paper seeks to provide the outcome of the survey and recommending appropriate communication interventions by indicating perceptions and attitudes held by a representative sample of Mogale City residents relating to :
The principle of paying for municipal services rendered by the municipality
Whether respondents make a connection between payment for services and the on-going financial viability of the municipality and its essential role in maintenance, social- and infra-structural development,
Respondents' attitudes towards payment and non-payment for services rendered by the municipality
The attitudes of respondents who currently pay for their services vis a vis those who don't
Attitudes of respondents towards the provision of services in Mogale City
Whether people know what they are paying for or not
Problems respondents have with the current billing system


Recording of presentation given by Thomas Aldersley with the title 'PROTEA: Partnerships in congenital heart disease in Africa', presented on Thursday, 14 March 2019 as part of the Inaugural PROTEA (Partnerships for Children with Heart Disease in Africa) Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa.PROTEA (Partnerships in Congenital Heart Disease in Africa) is a collaborative project between the University's of Manchester (UoM) and Cape Town (UCT). The project seeks to address the lack of basic information about Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) in Africa and whether the rate at which CHD occurs is the same in African populations as in Western populations, as well as whether the range of CHD conditions encountered is similar. The project aims to establish a sustainable CHD research infrastructure at UCT as well as create a model that could be applied in other South African centres and collaborating African countries.The 13th-16th March 2019 marked the Inaugural PROTEA (Partnerships for Children with Heart Disease in Africa) Workshop hosted by the Children's Heart Disease Research Unit under the directorship of A/Prof Liesl Zuhlke and in conjunction with the Paediatric Cardiology Service of the Western Cape. A first in Africa, this workshop combined four events: a research methods workshop, a basic echocardiography (echo) workshop, two days of advanced echo as well as a rheumatic heart disease research think-tank. 130 delegates from 19 different countries representing all six continents attended the event, making it truly global and giving attendees the opportunity to meet and network with experts in the fields of rheumatic and congenital heart disease.


To determine the factors responsible for ulcerative colitis relapse a cohort of 92 patients (18 to 78 years, 50 men) with clinically inactive disease have been followed for over 48 weeks. At 12 weekly intervals patients were asked, by means of standardised questionnaires, about infections, compliance with maintenance medication, new drug treatment, dietary changes, episodes of non-bloody diarrhoea, life stresses, and feelings of anxiety and depression. Thirty five patients (38%) relapsed (median interval 17 weeks, range three to 46 weeks). Patients who relapsed had a higher previous relapse rate than non-relapsers (p less than 0.001) and a shorter time from previous relapse to trial entry (p less than 0.05). Other clinical characteristics were equally matched in the two groups. Between and within group comparisons revealed that upper respiratory tract symptoms, antibiotic ingestion, analgesic intake, diarrhoeal episodes and stressful life events were no more common in the four weeks before relapse than before routine attendance. Anxiety and depression ratings were also similar in the two groups. The timing of ulcerative colitis relapse showed a clear seasonal pattern with 26 patients relapsing from August to January and only nine from January to July (p less than 0.001). In addition, a retrospective case note analysis revealed significant seasonality of onset of ulcerative colitis. We conclude that seasonal factors may contribute to both onset and relapse of ulcerative colitis.


Hydroxide (OH(-)) ions at or near the interface between water and titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) have an important role in many surface photocatalytic reactions, possibly including the photo-oxidation of water. Using first principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) simulations on the time scale of 30-40 ps, we have investigated the structure and electronic properties of a solvated or adsorbed OH(-) at the interface between liquid water and a stoichiometric anatase TiO(2)(101) slab. We observed that a solvated hydroxide ion diffuses spontaneously from bulk water toward the anatase surface, a result consistent with the known point of zero charge for TiO(2) in water. The O atom of the adsorbed OH(-) forms two H-bonds with nearby water molecules, whereas three to four bonds are typically found for OH(-) solvated in bulk water. Analysis of the interface electronic structure along the FPMD trajectories shows significant differences in the densities of states of different atomic configurations, indicating that thermal fluctuations have an important effect on the electronic energy levels. In particular, while the topmost occupied levels of OH(-) (water) typically lie below (well below) the TiO(2) valence band edge (VBE), thermal fluctuations can lead to special, poorly solvated configurations where the topmost OH(-) energy levels are above the TiO(2) VBE. In these configurations, holes generated by UV light absorption can be transferred from the anatase surface to the adsorbed hydroxide ion, though such transfer is usually forbidden.


In prehistoric matrifocal societies, children were identified by their mothers, not their fathers. This did not last long and the era of patriarchy began. Thereafter, people were recognized by their fathers. This shift in genealogy has clearly been reflected in Greek mythology – the defeat of the goddess Gaia and Titans by Zeus and Olympian gods.

We have used names, particularly surnames, to identify people who are related. However, this has been done in various ways in different societies. While in many western countries we use a given (first) name and a surname (family name) to identify a person, in Arab countries, there are in fact no surnames; people use their given name followed by their father's given name. For example, while my name in a western system is "Farrokh Habibzadeh" (Farrokh is my first name and Habibzadeh is my family name), my name in Arabic documents, say in a visa, would be "Farrokh Naser" (Naser is my father's first name). Chinese use another style. They usually use their surname followed by their given name. Then, my name in a Chinese system would be "Habibzadeh Farrokh".

All these varieties in naming a person would cause serious problems, particularly when we need to correctly identify a person. As an example, the very first step in assessing the contribution of a certain person to scientific enterprise is to identify the works done by that particular researcher. Nowadays, using online search systems, it is not difficult to find the articles published by a given author. However, some records belonging to other researchers, for similarity of authors' names are retrieved and factitiously may be counted for the author under question. In some countries, some names are very prevalent and finding two or more people with similar names is not uncommon. Finding out what record really belongs to "who" sometimes is very difficult and time-consuming (1). Different spelling of names makes the situation even worse – some records may not be retrieved at all by a simple search.

Several proposals to solve this "authority control" issue have so far been proposed. In 2009, we proposed a unique identifier, the so-called "AID", to be assigned to researchers (1). ORCID (2), Scopus author identifier (3), and PubMed author ID (4) are other examples. All these are meant to assign a unique permanent identifier to every researcher round the globe to be used for identification of each author.

Considering such a broad variation in naming conventions in various cultures throughout the world, I believe that it is fair enough for the editor of an international journal to correctly identify authors of submitted manuscripts and regardless of the naming conventions used, respect the authors' cultural values, and process the manuscript as usual. Of course in this way, the editor may face some limitations. For example, for certain limitations in the journal software system, the editor may not be able to present the name of some authors in the way they prefer to be presented. Under such circumstances, the editor has a moral duty to make the situation clear enough so that the authors can be identified correctly (in their community) and benefit from their work as much as possible. It is also necessary to note that currently there are limitations for naming authors in international indexing systems such as MEDLINE and Web of Science. In the meantime, authors have adapted to some of these limitations. For example, when submitting a manuscript to a western-based journal, Arab authors, who generally do not have a surname, usually use their given name (the first part of their name) as their first name and their father's name (the second part of their name) as their family name in online submission forms.

Currently, most of the journal online submission systems are asking for an author identifier, mostly ORCID. This data field, though optional today in most journals, will soon become a must-enter field. Different platforms (say ORCID and Scopus author identifier) are united to provide a really unique identifier for each researcher. Currently, many indexing systems also support these IDs to make authors identifiable. However, all these efforts may be useless. An imaginary scenario would happen in near future when management of the very large pile of data accumulated from various sources is not possible by human. Then, artificial intelligence becomes strong enough to collect, compile, and analyse the necessary data, and synthesize a reasonable conclusion. Thenceforward, many things such as the criteria for authorship and the definition of plagiarism would be changed significantly from those we have today (5). Most researchers would then be solely data providers. Then, to be honest, the credit for authorship would (or if I dare to, should) mainly go to an intelligent machine, and I am pretty sure that machine has no problem with its identity because it is then part of a world-wide intelligent computing network.


Sperm competition is a major force in sexual selection, but its implications for mating–system and life–history evolution are only beginning to be understood. The well–known sneak–guard model predicts that sneaks will win in sperm competition. We now provide empirical confirmation of this prediction. Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) have both sneak (cuckolder) and guard (parental) males. Guards make nests, court females and provide solitary parental care for the embryos. Sneaks include small cuckolders, which are termed 'sneakers', that dart in and out of nests in order to ejaculate between the spawning pair and larger cuckolders, which are termed 'satellites', that mimic females in order to ejaculate between the spawning pair. Using field behavioural data, genetic data and new mathematical models for paternity analyses, we show, for the first time to the authors' knowledge, that sneaks fertilize more eggs than guards during sperm competition. In addition, we show that sneakers are superior to satellites in sperm competition and, thus, that even among sneaks there are tactic–specific differences in competitive success.


Redox-sensitive detrital grains such as pyrite and uraninite in sedimentary successions provide one of the most conspicuous geological clues to a different composition of the Archean and early Paleoproterozoic atmosphere. Today, these minerals are rapidly chemically weathered within short transport distances. Prior to the rise of oxygen, low O2 concentrations allowed their survival in siliciclastic deposits with grain erosion tied only to physical transport processes. After the rise of oxygen, redox-sensitive detrital grains effectively vanish from the sedimentary record. To get a better understanding of the timing of this transition, we examined sandstones recorded in a scientifi c drill core from the South African 2.415 Ga Koegas Subgroup, a mixed siliciclastic and iron formation–bearing unit deposited on the western deltaic margin of the Kaapvaal craton in early Paleoproterozoic time. We observed detrital pyrite and uraninite grains throughout all investigated sandstone beds in the section, indicating the rise of oxygen is younger than 2.415 Ga. To better understand how observations of detrital pyrite and uraninite in sedimentary rocks can quantitatively constrain Earth surface redox conditions, we constructed a model of grain erosion from chemical weathering and physical abrasion to place an upper limit on ancient environmental O2 concentrations. Even conservative model calculations for deltaic depositional systems with suffi cient transport distances (approximately hundreds of kilometers) show that redox-sensitive detrital grains are remarkably sensitive to environmental O2 concentrations, and they constrain the Archean and early Paleoproterozoic atmosphere to have <3.2 × 10 –5 atm of molecular O2. These levels are lower than previously hypothesized for redox-sensitive detrital grains, but they are consistent with estimates made from other redox proxy data, including the anomalous fractionation of sulfur isotopes. The binary loss of detrital pyrite and uraninite from the sedimentary record coincident with the rise of oxygen indicates that atmospheric O2 concentrations rose substantially at this time and were never again suffi ciently low (<0.01 atm) to enable survival and preservation of these grains in short transport systems.


Introduction: Intolerance to various foods, excluding bona fide coeliac disease and lactose intolerance, represents a growing cause of patient visits to allergy clinics. Histamine intolerance is a long-known, multifaceted clinical condition triggered by histamine-rich foods and alcohol and/or by drugs that liberate histamine or block diamine oxidase (DAO), the main enzyme involved in the metabolism of ingested histamine. Histamine limitation diets impose complex, non-standardized restrictions that may severely impact the quality of life of patients. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 14 patients who visited allergy outpatient facilities in northern Italy with a negative diagnosis for IgE-mediated food hypersensitivity, coeliac disease, conditions related to gastric hypersecretion, and systemic nickel hypersensitivity, and who previously underwent a histamine limitation diet with benefits for their main symptoms. Serum diamine oxidase levels and the clinical response to diamine oxidase supplementation were investigated. Results: We found that 10 out of 14 patients had serum DAO activity <10 U/mL, which was the threshold suggested as a cutoff for probable histamine intolerance. Moreover, 13 out of 14 patients subjectively reported a benefit in at least one of the disturbances related to food intolerances following diamine oxidase supplementation. The mean value (± SD) of diamine oxidase activity in the cohort of patients with histamine intolerance symptoms was 7.04 ± 6.90 U/mL compared to 39.50 ± 18.16 U/mL in 34 healthy controls (P = 0.0031). Conclusion: In patients with symptoms triggered by histamine-rich food, measuring the serum diamine oxidase activity can help identify subjects who can benefit from a histamine limitation diet and/or diamine oxidase supplementation. Properly designed, controlled studies investigating histamine intolerance that include histamine provocation are indispensable for providing insights into the area of food intolerances, which are currently primarily managed with non-scientific approaches in Italy.


Several recent studies have demonstrated the promise of deep visuomotor policies for robot manipulator control. Despite impressive progress, these systems are known to be vulnerable to physical disturbances, such as accidental or adversarial bumps that make them drop the manipulated object. They also tend to be distracted by visual disturbances such as objects moving in the robot's field of view, even if the disturbance does not physically prevent the execution of the task. In this paper, we propose an approach for augmenting a deep visuomotor policy trained through demonstrations with Task Focused visual Attention (TFA). The manipulation task is specified with a natural language text such as "move the red bowl to the left". This allows the visual attention component to concentrate on the current object that the robot needs to manipulate. We show that even in benign environments, the TFA allows the policy to consistently outperform a variant with no attention mechanism. More importantly, the new policy is significantly more robust: it regularly recovers from severe physical disturbances (such as bumps causing it to drop the object) from which the baseline policy, i.e. with no visual attention, almost never recovers. In addition, we show that the proposed policy performs correctly in the presence of a wide class of visual disturbances, exhibiting a behavior reminiscent of human selective visual attention experiments.


At any point in time, skills gaps, mismatches, and shortages arise because of an imperfect correspondence between the singular sets of skills required by different open vacancies and the unique combinations of capabilities embodied in every job seeker - skills diversity in unity. This paper first constructs an abstract framework for defining and thinking about these phenomena in a unified, formal and objective way. The main building block is a discrete skills space in which the locations of vacancies and workers are determined by the vectors of skills characterizing them. We define skills gaps and mismatches as two different distance measures between them, and derive a condition for each vacancy that determines whether or not it experiences a skills shortage. We then develop a job matching model with imperfect information, in which skills mismatches influence the job application decisions of the workers, while skills gaps and shortages shape the competition for workers on the resulting bipartite job applications network. The tools proposed in this paper could in future work be employed as the main ingredients of an agent-based model used to investigate how skills gaps, mismatches and shortages affect equilibrium outcomes in the context of skills diversity in unity and imperfect information


The majority of this thesis is concerned with the development of efficient and robust numerical methods based on adaptive algebraic multigrid to compute the stationary distribution of Markov chains. It is shown that classical algebraic multigrid techniques can be applied in an exact interpolation scheme framework to compute the stationary distribution of irreducible, homogeneous Markov chains. A quantitative analysis shows that algebraically smooth multiplicative error is locally constant along strong connections in a scaled system operator, which suggests that classical algebraic multigrid coarsening and interpolation can be applied to the class of nonsymmetric irreducible singular M-matrices with zero column sums. Acceleration schemes based on fine-level iterant recombination, and over-correction of the coarse-grid correction are developed to improve the rate of convergence and scalability of simple adaptive aggregation multigrid methods for Markov chains. Numerical tests over a wide range of challenging nonsymmetric test problems demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed multilevel method and the acceleration schemes. This thesis also investigates the application of adaptive algebraic multigrid techniques for computing the canonical decomposition of higher-order tensors. The canonical decomposition is formulated as a least squares optimization problem, for which local minimizers are computed by solving the first-order optimality equations. The proposed multilevel method consists of two phases: an adaptive setup phase that uses a multiplicative correction scheme in conjunction with bootstrap algebraic multigrid interpolation to build the necessary operators on each level, and a solve phase that uses additive correction cycles based on the full approximation scheme to efficiently obtain an accurate solution. The alternating least squares method, which is a standard one-level iterative method for computing the canonical decomposition, is used as the relaxation scheme. Numerical tests show that for certain test problems arising from the discretization of high-dimensional partial differential equations on regular lattices the proposed multilevel method significantly outperforms the standard alternating least squares method when a high level of accuracy is required.


Experimental studies have shown that a sharp, high-frequency IR band at ~3615 cm-1 (in H2O form) and at ~2685 cm-1 (in D2O form) is a common feature for all smectites, and its position correlates with layer charge. In order to explain the molecular origin of this band in terms of total layer charge, charge localization, as well as nature of interlayer cations influencing the position and intensity of this peak, a series of classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was performed for several smectite models. The smectite layers were described using a modified CLAYFF force field, where the intramolecular vibrations of H2O were described more accurately by the Toukan-Rahman potential. The power spectra of molecular vibrations of hydrogens were calculated for selected sub-sets of interlayer H2O to analyze quantitatively their contribution to the observed spectral features. The statistics of hydrogen bonds in the smectite interlayers were also analyzed to support the spectral calculations.The simulation results demonstrated clearly that only the H2O molecules in close proximity to the smectite surface are responsible for the sharp vibrational band observed. Other hypotheses for the possible origins of this band were considered carefully and eventually rejected. Two orientations of H2O molecules donating one or two H bonds to the basal oxygens of the smectite surface (monodentate and bidentate orientations, respectively) were observed. In both orientations, these H bonds are quite weak, pointing to a generally hydrophobic character of the smectite surface. Both orientations contributed to the high-frequency band, but the monodentate orientation provided the predominant contribution because surface H2O molecules in this orientation were much more abundant. In good agreement with experiment, only a small difference in the peak position was observed between smectites with different charge localization. The effect of the total layer charge, i.e. the red-shift for higher-charge smectites, was also confirmed. This shift arose from the decrease in the H-bonding distances of H2O in monodentate and bidentate orientation.


Ga-assisted growth of GaAs nanowires on silicon provides a path for integrating high-purity III–Vs on silicon. The nature of the oxide on the silicon surface has been shown to impact the overall possibility of nanowire growth and their orientation with the substrate. In this work, we show that not only the exact thickness, but also the nature of the native oxide determines the feasibility of nanowire growth. During the course of formation of the native oxide, the surface energy varies and results in a different contact angle of Ga droplets. We find that, only for a contact angle around 90° (i.e., oxide thickness ∼0.9 nm), nanowires grow perpendicularly to the silicon substrate. This native oxide engineering is the first step toward controlling the self-assembly process, determining mainly the nanowire density and orientation.


Product level assessment of drop and shock reliability relies heavily on experimental test methods. Prediction of drop and shock survivability is largely beyond the state-of-art. However, the use of experimental approach to test out every possible design variation, and identify the one that gives the maximum design margin is often not feasible because of product development cycle time and cost constraints. Presently, one of the primary methodologies for evaluating shock and vibration survivability of electronic packaging is the JEDEC drop test method, JESD22-B111 which tests board-level reliability of packaging. However, packages in electronic products may be subjected to a wide-array of boundary conditions beyond those targeted in the test method. In this paper, a failure-envelope approach based on wavelet transforms and damage proxies has been developed to model drop and shock survivability of electronic packaging. Data on damage progression under transient-shock and vibration in both 95.5Sn4.0Ag0.5Cu and 63Sn37Pb ball-grid arrays has been presented. Component types examined include flex-substrate and rigid substrate ball-grid arrays. Dynamic measurements like acceleration, strain and resistance are measured and analyzed using highspeed data acquisition system capable of capturing in-situ strain, continuity and acceleration data in excess of 5 million samples per second. Ultra high-speed video at 150,000 fps per second has been used to capture the deformation kinematics. The concept of relative damage index has been used to both evaluate and predict damage progression during transient shock. The failure-envelope provides a fundamental basis for development of component integration guidelines to ensure survivability in shock and vibration environments at a user-specified confidence level. The approach is scalable to application at system-level. Explicit finite-element models have been developed for prediction of shock survivability based on the failure envelope. Model predictions have been correlated with experimental data for both leaded and leadfree ball-grid arrays


[1] We have analyzed the correlation between measurements by three different satellite sensors (SCIAMACHY, MODIS, and CERES) on two independent space platforms (Envisat and Terra). Though the instantaneous measurements from the two satellites are not collocated due to orbit offset, the monthly mean broadband and narrowband reflectances and their anomalies from the three instruments are highly correlated when averaged over large latitude regions. The mean reflectance from MODIS in each of those large domains is nearly the same as that derived from SCIAMACHY spectrum convolved with the filter function of the corresponding MODIS channel, with all correlation coefficients higher than 0.93. The interannual variability of monthly mean reflectance is also correlated with the variations of mean cloud and surface properties in large climate zones. The reflectance variation is correlated with the cloud fraction in low and middle latitude regions with correlation coefficients higher than 0.76 and with the snow and sea ice changes in the polar regions with correlation coefficients higher than 0.6. These correlations indicate that the nadir sampling strategy as proposed for CLARREO is sufficient for climate benchmarking of the reflected solar spectrum and provide the physical foundation for climate fingerprinting. However, the results also show the relatively large differences in trends in reflectance due to different instrument degradations and inconsistent calibrations which will affect the attribution of radiative signals of long-term climate change.


Adopting nitrogen (N)-fixing legumes into crop rotations is an accessible, ecological practice capable of increasing agricultural sustainability. Nonetheless, in northern Great Plains (NGP) wheat systems, proper water use management and the realization of N benefits are barriers to legumes replacing summer fallow. Legumes should also be able to mitigate legacies of soil organic matter losses from summer fallow. We conducted a participatory field-scale study in north-central Montana, assessing the viability of no-till, early-terminated legume green manures (LGMs) as summer fallow replacements. Soil water and nitrogen were measured to evaluate LGM effects on subsequent wheat crops. Farmers were interviewed to elucidate perspectives and challenges of adopting LGMs. Compared to fallow, LGMs depressed subsequent wheat yields by 6% (0.24 Mg ha), and lowered grain protein at sites where wheat was fertilized with N (9 g kg); grain protein was increased at unfertilized sites (5 g kg). Absent rotational benefits from LGMs were attributed to dry conditions in the LGM year leading to low LGM biomass N and reduced N mineralization potential in soils, rather than soil water limitation to subsequent wheat. Farmers were curious about possible longterm benefits from LGMs, but expressed that the economic viability of LGMs appeared tenuous in the short-term. We also examined attributes and processes in soils from an eight-year-old rotation study containing fallow-wheat, continuous wheat, and legumeinclusive no-till rotations. We examined potentially mineralizable C and N (PMC and PMN), microbial biomass-C and wet aggregate stability (WAS). Nitrogen fertilizer was also added to a duplicate set of soils, and effects on C and N mineralization were evaluated. Legume-inclusive systems generally had higher levels of soil parameters, and had 26-50% greater PMN than wheat-only systems. Systems returning the most crop residue C to the soils had higher WAS regardless of legumes. Nitrogen additions depressed C and N mineralization. Results of these studies suggest that in NGP agroecosystems, LGMs can avoid limiting soil water available to subsequent wheat when terminated early and managed as no-till crops, but that legumes should be viewed as an investment in soil quality which may precipitate rotational N benefits more reliably after three or more appearances in rotation.


As a basis for sodium reduction in bread, the influence of crumb texture on the intensity of saltiness and the release of sodium ions during chewing was investigated. A coarse-pored bread crumb was created by extending the proofing time (90/120 min vs 20/40 min as control), whereas the omission of proofing resulted in a fine-pored crumb (0/0 min). A significantly faster sodium release from the coarse-pored bread compared to the fine-pored bread (constant sample weight) was measured in-mouth and in a mastication simulator. This explained the significantly enhanced salty taste of the 90/120 min bread. Corresponding experiments with constant sample volumes revealed a significantly enhanced saltiness despite similar amounts of extracted sodium during the first seconds of chewing. Therefore, saltiness was influenced both by the velocity of sodium release and by crumb texture. Appropriate modification of crumb texture thus leads to enhanced saltiness, suggesting a new strategy for salt reduction in bread.


Rosehips are blossoms from the wild rose (Rosa canina) and are commonly used as an herbal remedy. Previous reports have shown that extracts made from rosehip plants are able to reduce cell proliferation of cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of rosehip extracts in preventing cell proliferation of three human glioblastoma cell lines A-172, U-251 MG and U-1242 MG cell lines. Each of the glioblastoma cell lines treated with rosehip extracts (1 mg/mL-25 ng/mL) demonstrated a significant decrease in cell proliferation. The rosehip extract-mediated decrease in cell proliferation was equal to or better than the decrease of cell proliferation observed when inhibitors of the MAPK (U0126, 10 μM) or AKT (LY294002, 20 μM) signaling pathways were utilized. Additionally, pretreatment of the these cell lines with Rosehip extracts (1 mg/mL-25 ng/mL) selectively decreased AKT, MAPK, and p70S6K phosphorylation suggesting these extracts prevent glioblastoma multiforme cell proliferation by blocking both the MAPK and AKT signaling mechanisms. Results from colorimetric cell death assays, cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry, as well as western blot studies demonstrate that rosehip extracts inhibit cell proliferation but do not promote apoptosis. Moreover, rosehip extracts were able to increase the efficacy of Temozolomide, a chemotherapeutic agent used to treat patients with glioblastomas. Surprisingly, rosehip extracts demonstrated a greater inhibition of cell proliferation than in combination with Temozolomide (100 μM) or Temozolomide as a single agent. Taken together these data suggest that rosehip extracts are capable of decreasing glioblastoma cell proliferation without promoting apoptosis and demonstrate a greater cell proliferation inhibitory effect than Temozolomide. More importantly, rosehip extracts may serve as an alternative or compliment to current chemotherapeutic regimens for glioblastomas.


The use of credit cards in Kenya has been on the rise in the recent years. This study was carried out to analyze the use of credit card as a means of settling for goods and services. The study sought to examine factors affecting the usage of the card specifically cost and income level, education level of the customers, and culture of the customer. The study targets Kenya Commercial banks in Nairobi County. The target population was 300 cardholders of Kenya commercial banks in Nairobi County. The study was motivated by the increased use of credit cards in commercial banks in Kenya. The increased number of outlets accepting credit cards in Kenyahas positively been received by majority of Kenyans. There has also been a campaign to .shift from hard currency to plastic money for both central bank of Kenya and Kenya credit and debit card association. This strong campaign has resulted to increased competition between banks on wooing credit card users. Customers have a grace period of 50 days before settlement and they are not required to pay 100% of the bills when they fall due. The study intended to conduct an in-depth analysis of using credit card as a means of settlement for goods and services, the challenges experienced when using a credit card as a means of settlement and how these were being addressed. Most cardholders are happy with the mode used to payoff their bills with the bank when they were due for payment e.g. by use of cheques. This study is expected to equip wouldbe cardholders with basic information about the mode of payment by the use of credit cards. The study acted a s a guide in legislation as use of credit cards will reduce the cost of printing currency in circulation since most of the funds will circulate with the banks inform of paper. The study will also assist future scholars to understand the credit cards as a means of settlement for goods and services. The research findings will bridge the gap in knowledge in the area of study and inspire a series of researchers to build on the recommendations given after the research. The general objective of the study is to determine factors influencing the use of credit cardsas a mean of payment of goods and services. The specific objectives aimed at determining how cost, income level, education level and culture affect use of credit cards as a mean of payment of goods and services. The researcher adopted descriptive design. This would help the researcher establish factors determining the use of credit cards as a mean of payment of goods and services. Sampling was used to select the respondents to participate in the study. The researcher will use both primary and secondary source to collect the data. Questionnaires was usedto collect the primary data. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used as an aid to analyze data. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis was used whereby numbers about a situation will be analyzed by choosing specific aspects of that situation. The output was represented using frequency table and charts based on the research objectives.


A novel duty-cycle modulation control scheme for buck power converters is studied in this paper. Compared to the widely used pulse width modulation technique encountered in power electronics, the proposed control scheme offers under the same operating conditions a variety of merits, including a greater hardware simplicity, a lower modulation frequency and a better transient response. In addition, while offering new characteristics, it provides under load disturbances the same level of robustness than the standard pulse width modulation control technique. The characteristics of both control techniques are validated and compared on a well tested prototyping buck converter, using a mix of analytical reasoning, virtual simulations, and real tests on a laboratory workbench.


Security and privacy in telecommunications and networking, especially when electronic commerce is involved, are two of the most crucial services offered in the global networks. In general, users of the computer network services are largely unaware of the potential threats to their information, or they choose to ignore such threats. However, the increasing usage of Internet services has brought the importance of the protection of data, resources and identities to the forefront. Recently, the Internet has started to spread "over the air" to merge with mobile communication network, thus making a new broad range of services available to the new economy. Since these new services take place in a public and therefore in untrusted networks, there are many security issues involved that are of concern to different communities. This book provides a broad overview of the basic aspects of technology, services and applications that enable safety, security and privacy in untrusted networks. The book can be viewed as a sequel of the book Advanced Security Technologies in Networking, published by IOS Press in 2001 and edited by the same editors. While the first book focused mostly on basic security services and mechanisms, network layer security, public key infrastructures and related applications, and secure electronic commerce, this book gives an overview of the most recent security technologies, such as biometrics, mobile networks, intrusion detection systems, and privacy-enhancing technologies.


A typical wireless sensor network consists of many small sensors that collect instrument data around their locations and forward it to a central location for data processing. These networks can be deployed to monitor livestock and agricultural assets, products in a store, patients in a hospital, and so on. In many cases sensors have to be densely deployed, and collisions or overhead due to collision avoidance will considerably degrade the system performance below an application's required levels. With the decreasing cost of radio devices the obvious solution to this problem is the use of multiple receivers on different radio channels. However, we show that if receivers can be placed in different locations then increasing the number of receivers on a single channel will increase the rate of the capture effect and decrease collision losses, while also increasing the fairness of the transmitters' radio links. Not only can this single channel approach be more effective than using multiple channels, it is also required for some techniques, such as localization, where each receiver must be able to detect a transmission from any transmitter. We also show that the optimal choice between these two solutions is influenced by the radio attenuation rate and the number of receivers in the system.


The project SiLeBAT elaborates practical solutions to secure food supplies for the general population in the event of a biological and agri-terroristic (BAT) damage scenario. The research focus is laid on the operability of the affected food commodity chain. Solutions for prevention, early detection and damage containment will be developed. The project examines BAT damage scenarios, which jeopardise the health of the general population through the contamination of food or indirectly through the infection of livestock. This could for instance happen through the intentional contamination of agricultural products in the field of feed production. As an example for a corresponding scenario, an attack on the "meat and milk commodity chain" is studied. The "commodity chain" starts with the import of feed components and leads through the production of feeds, the rearing of the animals, the slaughtering and processing to the distribution of the finished meat and dairy products to the retail trade. In the event of a biological or agri-terroristic attack on this commodity chain it would be necessary to include all steps of the chain into the damage analyses and the development of management options. Effective and co-ordinated acting of all those involved in crisis management is only possible if there is a secured availability of comprehensive and valid technical information. Therefore the structuring and making available of technical information is an essential component of the approach developed by the research network. This includes, amongst others, the following topics: epidemiology and tenacity of agents, availability and effectiveness of detection procedures, detection limits, sample preparation methods, decontamination processes, handling rules, recommendations for handling and management procedures etc. Furthermore, computer-based procedures to analyse commodity flows and assess risks and crisis management options will be developed (e.g. cost/benefit analyses). Technical information, which is not or only incompletely available, is elaborated and / or updated within the framework of the project. Another goal is to elaborate a solution which makes all resources developed and released within the project available to those parties involved in case of need through a specially designed, secured and extendable information platform. In parallel, a practising and training concept is elaborated and implemented in an exemplary manner.


Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) levels of YKL-40 acute phase protein in chronic periodontitis (CP) with and without type 2 diabetes and also to assess the effect of periodontal therapy (scaling and root planing [SRP]) on this GCF biomarker and the clinical parameters. YKL-40 is derived from tyrosine (Y), lysine (K), and leucine (L) with a molecular weight of 40 kDa. Materials and Methods: A total of 105 individuals (30–60 years) were grouped as 35 individuals each in three groups (Group I – healthy; Group II – CP with diabetes mellitus [DM]; and Group III – CP). Clinical parameters including plaque index, gingival index, probing pocket depth, and clinical attachment level followed by GCF sample collection from test sites were done at baseline and 6 weeks after SRP (among Group II and Group III patients). GCF YKL-40 level was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The mean GCF YKL-40 level at baseline was significantly lower for Group I (309.81 ± 124.93 pg/ml) as compared to Group II (924.88 ± 415.28 pg/ml) and Group III (834.08 ± 270.42 pg/ml), respectively (P < 0.001). The level reduced significantly 6 weeks after SRP for Group II (507.6 ± 265.03 pg/ml) and Group III (499.54 ± 293.38 pg/ml) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The level of GCF YKL-40 in CP patients with or without DM is higher than healthy individuals and the level reduced 6 weeks post-SRP among Group II and Group III. Hence, YKL-40 can be considered as an important biomarker in the diagnosis of CP.


The reinforcement learning paradigm is a popular way to address problems that have only limited environmental feedback, rather than correctly labeled examples, as is common in other machine learning contexts. While significant progress has been made to improve learning in a single task, the idea of transfer learning has only recently been applied to reinforcement learning tasks. The core idea of transfer is that experience gained in learning to perform one task can help improve learning performance in a related, but different, task. In this article we present a framework that classifies transfer learning methods in terms of their capabilities and goals, and then use it to survey the existing literature, as well as to suggest future directions for transfer learning work.


The present study was conducted during 2016-17 in the Udupi district of Karnataka. Mobile phones play an important role in accessing the information about improved cultivation practices. In this study, we had analysed the relationship between independent variable and knowledge level of the farmers. We had selected total 13 independent variables for the study, three variables viz. , education, achievement motivation and risk orientation showed positive and significant relationship at one per cent level of probability. Whereas, six variables viz., annual income, extension contact, scientific orientation,extension participation, mass media participation and innovativeness showed positive and significant relation at five per cent level of probability with knowledge level. The remaining four variables namely, age, family type, occupati on and land holding and did not showed any significant relationship with knowledge level. Highlights m The knowledge level of the farmers about mobile agro-advisory services had improve by some selected independent variables viz., annual income, extension contact, scientific orientation, extension participation, mass media participation and innovativeness.


Although past research has found higher rates of violence, crime, and abuse among children with disabilities, most studies combine diverse forms of disability into one measure and assess exposure to only one particular type of victimization. Based on a representative national sample of 4,046 children aged 2–17 from the 2008 National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, the present study examines the associations between several different types of disability and past-year exposure to multiple forms of child victimization. Results suggest that attention-deficit disorder/attention-deficit with hyperactivity disorder elevates the risk for peer victimization and property crime, internalizing psychological disorders increase risk for both child maltreatment and sexual victimization, and developmental/learning disorders heighten risk only for property crime. In contrast, physical disability did not increase the risk for any type of victimization once confounding factors and co-occurring disabilities were controlled. It appears that disabilities associated with interpersonal and behavioral difficulties are most strongly associated with victimization risks.