Sequence-processing neural networks led to remarkable progress on many NLP tasks. As a consequence, there has been increasing interest in understanding to what extent they process language as humans do. We aim here to uncover which biases such models display with respect to "natural" word-order constraints. We train models to communicate about paths in a simple gridworld, using miniature languages that reflect or violate various natural language trends, such as the tendency to avoid redundancy or to minimize long-distance dependencies. We study how the controlled characteristics of our miniature languages affect individual learning and their stability across multiple network generations. The results draw a mixed picture. On the one hand, neural networks show a strong tendency to avoid long-distance dependencies. On the other hand, there is no clear preference for the efficient, non-redundant encoding of information that is widely attested in natural language. We thus suggest inoculating a notion of "effort" into neural networks, as a possible way to make their linguistic behavior more human-like.


Modeling the fundamental performance limits of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is of paramount importance to understand their behavior under the worst-case conditions and to make the appropriate design choices. This is particular relevant for time-sensitive WSN applications, where the timing behavior of the network protocols (message transmission must respect deadlines) impacts on the correct operation of these applications. In that direction this article contributes with a methodology based on Network Calculus, which enables quick and efficient worst-case dimensioning of static or even dynamically changing cluster-tree WSNs where the data sink can either be static or mobile. We propose closed-form recurrent expressions for computing the worst-case end-to-end delays, buffering and bandwidth requirements across any source-destination path in a cluster-tree WSN. We show how to apply our methodology to the case of IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee cluster-tree WSNs. Finally, we demonstrate the validity and analyze the accuracy of our methodology through a comprehensive experimental study using commercially available technology, namely TelosB motes running TinyOS.


Tribological tests, mathematical modelling and simulations have been conducted over the last few decades to investigate the nature and effects of mechanical wear in coated and uncoated materials. Mathematical models have been developed and in unison with specifically designed empirical tests, the veracity/capability of these models has been investigated. In more recent cases advanced engineering analysis tools, such as FEA and DOE, are used to further compliment and refine experimental techniques. Studies have focused on the various wear mechanisms: abrasion, adhesion, erosion, corrosion wear, fatigue wear and also on different combinations of these. The intrinsic importance of the material in these studies has lead to a wide range of coated and uncoated materials being used in experimentation and modelling. From analysis, some models are based wholly on established/ classical wear theory while more recent work on wear models have been based on micro and nano scaled scientific approaches. In practical wear tests, some mathematical models assume certain wear profiles and symmetry for calculating wear volume or mass loss. These assumptions do not account for the very irregular patterns that are the result of most wear mechanisms. Modern instrumentation on the other hand can capture precise profiles and dimensions to produce a more accurate measurement of material loss. Some authors also use certain parameters such as hardness, fatigue or tensile strength to represent the resistance of a material to wear. Hardness does give an indication of the wear resistance of a material; however studies have demonstrated that the addition of certain alloying elements increases the wear resistance but not the hardness. Therefore hardness alone cannot describe the wear resistance properties of a material. The objective of this work was to examine a number of models that have been used for analysing wear of materials. It highlights some key details and techniques used by authors to ascertain wear rates and gives examples of modern approaches to wear measurement for coated engineering samples. Figures 1 to 5 show examples of wear on materials and components that are difficult to measure and model in terms of material loss due to their irregular shapes.


In recent years the potential of Source-Mask Optimization (SMO) as an enabling technology for 22nm-and-beyond lithography has been explored and documented in the literature.1-5 It has been shown that intensive optimization of the fundamental degrees of freedom in the optical system allows for the creation of non-intuitive solutions in both the mask and the source, which leads to improved lithographic performance. These efforts have driven the need for improved controllability in illumination5-7 and have pushed the required optimization performance of mask design.8, 9 This paper will present recent experimental evidence of the performance advantage gained by intensive optimization, and enabling technologies like pixelated illumination. Controllable pixelated illumination opens up new regimes in control of proximity effects,1, 6, 7 and we will show corresponding examples of improved through-pitch performance in 22nm Resolution Enhancement Technique (RET). Simulation results will back-up the experimental results and detail the ability of SMO to drive exposure-count reduction, as well as a reduction in process variation due to critical factors such as Line Edge Roughness (LER), Mask Error Enhancement Factor (MEEF), and the Electromagnetic Field (EMF) effect. The benefits of running intensive optimization with both source and mask variables jointly has been previously discussed.1-3 This paper will build on these results by demonstrating large-scale jointly-optimized source/mask solutions and their impact on design-rule enumerated designs.


Creditor countries and international organizations continue to disagree whether Greece should receive additional official debt relief, and if so how much. This paper first shows that these disagreements can be attributed to competing assumptions about Greece's future capacity to repay, particularly about economic growth and the fiscal primary balance. It next evaluates the plausibility of alternative primary balance assumptions using international evidence about fiscal adjustment experiences. It concludes that primary balance paths required to make Greece's debt sustainable are not plausible and that Greece will therefore require additional debt relief. Finally, the paper shows that the debt relief measures suggested by the Eurogroup in May 2016 (albeit with significant caveats on whether they will in fact be granted or not) could be sufficient to address Greece's sustainability problem, provided the Eurogroup is prepared to accept both very long maturity extensions on European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) debt (to 2080 and beyond) and interest deferrals that could lead to a large rise in EFSF exposure to Greece before it begins to decline. If the Eurogroup wishes to avoid the latter, it will become necessary to either (1) extend the scope of the debt restructuring, (2) lower the interest rates charged by the EFSF significantly below current predictions, or (3) extend European Stability Mechanism (ESM) financing beyond 2018 and delay Greece's return to capital markets for a protracted period.


Hong Kong is adrift between its British colonial past and its upcoming political reunification with the ancestral Chinese motherland. Hong Kong has endured a prolonged identity crisis in recent years, as it struggles to reconcile conflicts between its transnational worldview and the cultural identity, or Chineseness, of its majority population. A growing wave of nostalgia for the colonial era has frustrated Beijing's efforts to win the hearts and minds of Hongkongers. This essay analyzes how Hong Kong's distinctive local character is reflected in several socio-cultural arenas: the heritage industry, filmmaking, efforts to preserve historic structures and intangible heritage, public education, and tourism. With reunification on the horizon, Hongkongers want to assert an independent cultural identity but still seem to exist at the "intersection of different spaces".


It will be demonstrated how the reflection law may be derived on an atomic basis using the plane wave approximation together with Huygens' principle. The model utilized is based on the electric dipole character of matter originating from its molecular constituents. This approach is not new but has, since it was first introduced by Ewald and Oseen in 1915, been applied and analyzed many times before. Here we develop the Ewald-Oseen model of reflection adapted for high school and early undergraduate students with a basic knowledge of microscopic material structure.


Collagenase and elastase treatment was used to isolate vascular smooth muscle cells from canine carotid artery. Their structure and function were compared to those in situ. Morphological studies showed that these cells when relaxed in situ were 120-133 micron mean length, connected by numerous typical gap junctions, covered by a basal lamina and like other smooth muscles in structure. After isolation, the median length of single cells was 82 micron. There was structural evidence of some contraction and the basal lamina was absent, but many structures were preserved. Cell clumps of 2-15 cells were often found; cells in such clumps often appeared to be all relaxed or all contracted. Isolated single cells contracted to KCl elevation or to norepinephrine up to 49 or 37% of initial length, EC50 values for contraction by norepinephrine and KCl were 0.4 microM and 40 mM, respectively; norepinephrine maximum contraction was about 35% less than that for KCl. Lightly loaded spirally cut strips from carotid artery were also studied. EC50 values for norepinephrine and KCl were 4 microM and 40 mM and unaffected by removal of the endothelium. Again, maximum contractions to norepinephrine were less than those to KCl. Contraction speeds were similar for isolated cells and intact strips. However, relaxation of maximally contracted isolated cells did not occur within 10 min. We conclude that canine carotid artery smooth muscle cells can be isolated with little structural or functional damage. The large number of gap junctions between cells and the tendency for cells to be isolated in small groups connected by gap junctions suggests that these cells would be useful for study of cell-to-cell coupling between arterial muscle cells.


Breast cancer cells traffic to and from the peripheral blood within specific vascular niches, and this migration can be therapeutically targeted. Taking away cancer's hideouts Breast cancer is notorious for its ability to relapse after many years, long after a patient had completed treatment. Price et al. demonstrate that the culprits responsible for such late metastasis may be dormant cancer cells hiding in perivascular niches. The authors showed that proteins called E-selectin and CXCR4 exert different forces on these cancer cells, with CXCR4 anchoring breast cancer cells to their niches and E-selectin allowing entry of cancer cells into the bone marrow. These findings suggest that combining a CXCR4 inhibitor to force the cells out of their niches and an E-selectin inhibitor to prevent metastasis to the bone marrow could help trap the cells in the vasculature, where they could be killed with chemotherapy. Breast cancer metastatic relapse can occur years after therapy, indicating that disseminated breast cancer cells (BCCs) have a prolonged dormant phase before becoming proliferative. A major site of disease dissemination and relapse is bone, although the critical signals that allow circulating BCCs to identify bone microvasculature, enter tissue, and tether to the microenvironment are poorly understood. Using real-time in vivo microscopy of bone marrow (BM) in a breast cancer xenograft model, we show that dormant and proliferating BCCs occupy distinct areas, with dormant BCCs predominantly found in E-selectin– and stromal cell–derived factor 1 (SDF-1)–rich perisinusoidal vascular regions. We use highly specific inhibitors of E-selectin and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) (SDF-1 receptor) to demonstrate that E-selectin and SDF-1 orchestrate opposing roles in BCC trafficking. Whereas E-selectin interactions are critical for allowing BCC entry into the BM, the SDF-1/CXCR4 interaction anchors BCCs to the microenvironment, and its inhibition induces mobilization of dormant micrometastases into circulation. Homing studies with primary BCCs also demonstrate that E-selectin regulates their entry into bone through the sinusoidal niche, and immunohistochemical staining of patient BMs shows dormant micrometastatic disease adjacent to SDF-1+ vasculature. These findings shed light on how BCCs traffic within the host, and suggest that simultaneous blockade of CXCR4 and E-selectin in patients could molecularly excise dormant micrometastases from the protective BM environment, preventing their emergence as relapsed disease.


In this report, Level 3 sea ice thickness observations from SMOS provided by the University of Hamburg (SMOSIce data) are compared to the ocean-sea ice analysis ORAS5. It is concluded that SMOS provides valuable and unique information on thin sea ice during winter. This is immediately relevant to numerical weather prediction, because thin ice in winter allows appreciable heating of the surface atmosphere by the relatively warm ocean underneath, with heat fluxes of the order of several tens of Wm-2. There is a promising match between SMOS and ORAS5 early in the freezing season (October-December), while later in winter, sea ice is consistently modelled thicker than observed. This seems to be mostly due to deficiencies of the model to simulate polynyas and fracture zones. However, there are regions where biases in the observational data seem to play a role. In the current data version 2, the uncertainties provided with the data set do not seem to characterise well the complex uncertainties of the retrieval model; future data versions will bring further refinements. The large and poorly characterised uncertainties make a direct use of SMOSIce data for model evaluation and data assimilation difficult. However, in order to exploit the unique observational information that SMOS provides about thin sea ice, an operational diagnostic monitoring facility has been implemented into ORAS5, so that statistics of departures between the observed and modelled sea ice state can be routinely monitored, and can help to quantify the impact of thin sea ice on operational ECMWF forecasts. In conclusion, it seems premature to consider assimilation of SMOS sea ice thickness, but it is recommended to use SMOSIce observations for the qualitative detection of thin ice during winter, until further improvements in sea ice model, data assimilation, and retrieval algorithms allow a more direct use of the SMOS sea ice thickness data.


Those seeking to bring change to cultivars sold in the banana markets of the world have encountered major difficulties over the years. Change has been sought because of production difficulties caused by banana diseases such as Fusarium wilt or a desire to invigorate a stagnant market and obtain a competitive advantage by the introduction of diversity of product. Currently the world banana scene is dominated by cultivars from the Cavendish subgroup with their production in excess of 40% of total world production of banana and plantain combined, and in most western countries Cavendish is synonymous with banana. But Cavendish production usually necessitates very regular applications of pesticides, particularly fungicides for Mycosphaerella leaf spots control. So genetic resistance to these and other diseases would be very beneficial to minimizing costs of production, as well as reducing health risks to banana workers and the general population and minimizing impacts on the environment. In recent years, the overall market sales of some crops, such as tomatoes, have increased by providing diversity of cultivars to consumers. Can the same be done for banana? Perhaps a better understanding of how we have arrived at our current situation and the forces that have shaped our preference for Cavendish will allow us to plan more strategic crop improvement research which has enhanced chances of adoption by the banana industries of the world. A scoping study was recently undertaken in Australia to determine the current market opportunity for alternative cultivars and provide a roadmap for the industry to successfully develop this market. A multidisciplinary team reviewed the literature, surveyed the supply chain, analyzed gross margins and conducted consumer and sensory evaluations of 'new' cultivars. This has provided insight on why Cavendish dominates the market, which is the focus of this paper, and we believe will provide a solid foundation for future progress.


The present thesis shows how versatile and important the field of gas-phase spectroscopy under supersonic expansion conditions can be to understand fundamental intermolecular and intramolecular interactions. We have employed spectroscopic techniques over a very broad range spanning from microwave (2-18 GHz), through infrared (2600-4000 cm-1) and ultraviolet (350-250 nm) region, studying therotational, vibrational and electronic properties,respectively. These techniques use either chirped-pulse based (broadband rotational spectroscopy) or laser based methods (vibrational and electronic spectroscopy), and their usage depends on the types of information of particular interest and the chemical system requirements of specific techniques. The analytes are brought into the gas phase and supersonically cooled to their zero-point vibrational level to perform rotational and vibrationallyresolved IR/UV spectroscopy, including conformer-specific techniques. The variety of small organic molecular systemsstudied include phenyl-containing hydrocarbons, water containing clusters, heteroatom containing organic molecules with and without phenyl ring, fused aromatic molecules, bichromophoric molecules and pyrolysis reaction intermediates. Apart from gaining invaluable fundamental knowledge of the various interactions, we also observe interesting quantum-physical phenomena like tunneling and large amplitude motions that provide further insight into the molecular world.


A significant amount of time and effort is invested to collect and document various field activity data of a highway project in Daily Work Report (DWR). Although there are many potential benefits of DWR data, the current use of the data is very limited. The objective of this study is to develop an ideal framework for an advanced DWR system to improve the DWR data collection and utilization practices. A literature review and two surveys were conducted to investigate the current practices of collecting DWR data, utilization of the data, and challenges associated with advanced collection and utilization of DWR data. The study found that there is a huge gap between the current and potential level of benefits of DWR data. The challenges for better collection and utilization of DWR data were identified and classified. An ideal framework for an advanced DWR system was developed to overcome those challenges. The ideal framework consists of seven major components: a) data attributes and its relations, b) integration with existing systems, c) visualization of data, d) advanced data collection systems, e) automation of DWR data analysis and reporting, f) human factors, and g) other technical aspects. The framework can be used by state DOTs to improve an existing DWR system or to develop a new system. The implementation of the framework is expected to improve the level of DWR data collection and utilization practices in state DOTs.


IThis essay explores Benjamin Rush's ideas about physiology in an effort to revise current understandings of Rush's medico-political model and shed new light on conversations about circulation and sympathy in the early republic. Rush's non-hierarchical model of circulation broke with European medicine. For Rush, circulation was the key to corporeal and national health. Circulation needed to remain unfettered for individuals to realize republican promise and for the body to be properly invigorated—but free flow was problematic when it allowed information, goods, and bodies to flow unchecked. Sympathy was the secondary, essential mechanism that controlled this movement. Whereas circulation importantly opened both body and country to external stimuli, sympathy—physiological, social, political—managed responses to those stimuli, directing them along salubrious routes that were both natural and teachable. Rush himself worked tirelessly to mold these sympathies through rhetoric. This physiology and Rush's rhetorical medicine challenge the common understanding of Rush's "republican machines"; American bodies were, rather, dynamic living systems that could, through the cultivation of proper sympathies, become virtuous citizens. This essay extends current work on circulation by reconnecting it to physiology and suggesting that physiology's dynamism—rather than static "anatomy"—ought to inform discussions of the young nation. Rush knew bodies and nations were "tremendous oscillatory mass[es] of matter." America would maintain national health not by restricting circulation but by influencing citizens' reactions to free-flow systems that were only somewhat predictable and always dynamic. This physiology provides a new model for thinking about early American circulation and sympathy.


Many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. as children. Undocumented immigrant children have a legal right to attend free public primary and secondary schools. However, in most states undocumented immigrants are treated as out-of-state students in public colleges and universities, and are therefore required to pay substantially higher tuition than other state residents. Since 2001, 21 of 50 U.S. states have implemented policies that allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state resident tuition (ISRT) at public colleges and universities. In 12 of these states undocumented immigrants are also eligible for financial aid. In this study we present strong evidence that both ISRT policies and access to financial aid significantly increase the college enrollment and graduation rates of undocumented immigrants but have no impact on the college enrollment or graduation rates of U.S.-born youth. Another important change in immigration policy that affects many undocumented immigrant children is the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA allows undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children to obtain legal employment. The potential of being able to work legally in the United States could represent a significant increase in earnings as well as a substantial increase in the perceived benefits of higher education. Our findings present evidence that DACA led to an increase in youth employment and a decrease in college enrollment rates. Further, we find no evidence that the introduction of DACA reduced or increased the positive impact of ISRT and financial aid policies.


In this paper, we analyze security considerations for a remote Internet voting system based on the system architecture of remote Internet voting. We examine whether it is feasible to successfully carry out remote electronic voting over the existing Internet infrastructure that conforms to the requirements of a public election process of; integrity, anonymity, confidentiality, and intractability. Using the Delov-Yao threat analysis model, we perform a threat analysis on the system and highlight limitations of existing solutions to mitigate these threats. We present suggestions on how to improve some of the proposed solutions in literature and we end with our opinion about technical feasibility of remote e-voting over the Internet and the future work.


We present a generalized heat-brush tapering approach in which the ratio of the feed and draw velocities changes within each tapering sweep. This approach allows for controlled and precise shaping of tapers with an arbitrary waist profile and dissimilar transition regions as demonstrated experimentally. A quantitative analysis of the mismatch error after each tapering sweep is also provided.


 Abstract — 21 st century brought waves of business and industry eTransformations. The impact of change is also being seen in education. To identify the extent of this, scenario analysis methodology was utilised with the aim to assess business transformations across industry sectors ranging from craftsmanship, medicine, finance and manufacture to innovations and adoptions of new technologies and business models. Firstly, scenarios were drafted based on the current eTransformation models and its dimensions. Following this, eTransformation framework was utilised with the aim to derive the key eTransformation parameters, the essential characteristics that have enabled eTransformations across the sectors. Following this, identified key parameters were mapped to the transforming domain-education. The mapping assisted in deriving a cognitive eTransformation framework for education sector. The framework highlights the importance of context and the notion that education today needs not only to deliver content to students but it also needs to be able to meet the dynamically changing demands of specific student and industry groups. Furthermore, it pinpoints that for such processes to be supported, specific technology is required, so that instant, on demand and periodic feedback as well as flexible, dynamically expanding study content can be sought and received via multiple education


Animals with immunodeficiencies provide useful model systems for the study of corresponding immunological disorders in man. There has been substantial progress made in the availability and numbers of animal models since the 1970s when naturally occurring models were the only source. Improved molecular biology techniques, embryonic stem (ES) cell technologies and the sequencing of whole animal genomes has not only increased the number of models but also has led to improved models, particularly in mice. The increased understanding of the immune system, immune disorders and the generation of novel therapies owes much to animal models of disease. Further work is now in generating larger animal models which in addition to expressing the immunological disorders have a more directly comparable physiology.

Key Concepts:

Animal models of human immunodeficiency have been useful in studying the immune system.

The phenotypes resulting from genetic defects in animals do not always mirror those seen in humans.

Technologies exist to knock-out, knock-in and knock-down relevant genes as well as replace them with human loci in animal models to improve the comparability of the phenotype.

Murine models are the most commonly described and used animal models but technologies are being developed for larger animal models.

Animal models have been crucial in the development of novel therapies for immunodeficiencies.

Keywords:

immunodeficient;
animal models;
X-linked;
inherited disease;
innate and adaptive immune system;
knock-out and knock-in mice;
gene targeting;
spontaneous mutation


In The Pilot-Judgment Procedure of the European Court of Human Rights Dominik Haider examines if this recent approach to tackle structural human rights deficiencies in member states is reconcilable with the European Convention on Human Rights.


A backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS imager technology optimized for night vision applications ( NVCMOS TM ) has been developed employing a hole-based p-type pixel (pMOS). Benefits of the technology include lower dark current and reduced random telegraph noise (RTN) as compared to conventional electron-based n-type pixels (nMOS). The measured performance of the BSI first generation digital reference design is reported. A high definition sensor (1920 x 1200) now in development is described.


In the first part of this series, we discussed the role of the craniosacral primary respiratory rhythm in cranial hydrodynamics. In the second article, we discussed the role of the accessory drainage system (vertebral venous plexus,VVP) in humans and cranial hydrodynamics during upright posture. In the third article, we discussed the role of the craniocervicxal spine as the critical link between the cranial dural sinuses and the accessory drainage system, and how craniocervical syndromes may cause blockage or hydrodynamic failure of the cranial dural sinuses and subsequent chronic normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). In this last article, we will discuss a possible link between chronic NPH and Alzheimer's (AD), Parkinson's (PD) and other diseases.


The paper contains an analysis of the classical Preisach model from a symmetry and a frequency point of view. Increasing and decreasing inputs have no fundamental diierence, which leads to a simpliied implementation by changing indices. Symmetry implies that the fully demagnetised state can be taken into account without approximations. A frequency analysis demonstrates that all odd and only odd harmonics of the fundamental input frequency are transferred to the output. As a consequence an estimation method for the Preisach model weighting function from sinusoidal input is suggested


Laveen clay loam soil samples were collected immediately following the harvest of forage sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Two sets were prepared before growing turnips (Brassica rapa L.) as the test crop in the greenhouse. One set was without treatment and the other, to simulate winter and spring conditions, was incubated for 20 days after addition of N and dextrose. Phosphorus uptake by turnips and changes in soil P forms were positively correlated with corresponding measurements taken during the growth of the sorghum crop. With this as a basis, the effect appears to be similar to that which occurs in the field on the immobilization and mineralization of available P. Inorganic and total soil P were determined in extracts obtained by five procedures. Correlations among P uptake by forage sorghum, turnips, and soil P measurements indicated their value in predicting available P. Prediction values for two of the procedures were improved by including the extractable organic P with the inorganic P for the incubated soil. Results showed that (i) time of sampling, (ii) the crop to be grown, (iii) the method of extraction, and (iv) the means of converting organic P to a measurable inorganic form in the extract are of prime concern in deciding when to include extractable organic P in the P evaluation of a given soil


Watching fermions transition on site Optical lattices are a promising platform for simulating the many-body physics that occurs in solids. In lattices filled with cold bosonic atoms, "quantum microscopy" makes it possible to watch quantum phase transitions as they unravel. Greif et al. bring a similar capability to lattices filled with fermions, which are trickier to cool but are a closer match to electrons in a solid. Tuning the interaction between the 6Li atoms allowed for the observation of transitions from a metallic phase to a band insulator and then to an interaction-dominated Mott insulator phase. Science, this issue p. 953 Various phases are observed in a system of 6Li atoms in an optical lattice as the interaction between the atoms is tuned. The complexity of quantum many-body systems originates from the interplay of strong interactions, quantum statistics, and the large number of quantum-mechanical degrees of freedom. Probing these systems on a microscopic level with single-site resolution offers important insights. Here we report site-resolved imaging of two-component fermionic Mott insulators, metals, and band insulators, using ultracold atoms in a square lattice. For strong repulsive interactions, we observed two-dimensional Mott insulators containing over 400 atoms. For intermediate interactions, we observed a coexistence of phases. From comparison to theory, we find trap-averaged entropies per particle of 1.0 times the Boltzmann constant (kB). In the band insulator, we find local entropies as low as 0.5 kB. Access to local observables will aid the understanding of fermionic many-body systems in regimes inaccessible by modern theoretical methods.


Non-retractile foreskin of infant boy (normal for age).

The foreskin envelops the glans from the fifth month of gestation. It begins dorsally and ends by fusing ventrally to cover the newly formed urethra. Actual fusion between the two epithelial layers of glans and foreskin is apparent at birth and has been termed physiological phimosis. This non-retractility remains in most boys for at least the first two years of life until natural separation ensues.

Two conditions that are related to the process of preputial separation may give cause for concern. Firstly, the process may be uneven, with adhesions between glans and prepuce persisting even up to adolescence. Secondly, the desquamation of epithelial cells between the glans and non-retractile foreskin leads to accumulation of "pearls" of a white smegma-like substance. Both conditions are usually without actual symptoms and, as they are usually harmless, should not precipitate undue intervention.

View this table:

Natural course of foreskin separation

Circumcision is one of the earliest operations, being recorded by the ancient Egyptians and other peoples of the Near East. Neonatal circumcision on the eighth day of life is a tenet of the Jewish faith and is performed by a mohel, often a vocation which is passed from father to son. In order to emulate the prophet Mohammed, Muslims also perform circumcision, and, though the timing is less strict, it is usually done well before puberty.

"And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you."

Holy Bible. Genesis xvii, 9-11

The …


The paper focuses on the role that documentary photographs may play in indigenous knowledge research. Visual methods, or qualitative research where visual images play an integral part of the study design, have the advantage that power imbalances between the researcher and the study population are typically low in comparison to more conservative research designs, especially when the visual material is produced by the members of the study population themselves. The paper specifically discusses methodological aspects of scenarios where (1) the researcher that produces he documentary images is an outsider to the study population and there is researcher reactivity, (2) the images are produced by members of the study population after receiving training and the creative possibilities of the photographic medium interfere with the accuracy and reliability of the visual data collected, and (3) documentary images are used as a prompting device during interviews in a study population with low levels of visual literacy.


Both industry and firm characteristics influence the survival of a firm in an industry over time. Aging, size, structure are factors often discussed in the literature, but public intervention effects - through public quality labeling for example - may also have an effect that is examined here. We use data on French firms producing cheese under public quality label or not over the period 1990-2006. We perform a nonparametric estimation using Kaplan-Meier estimators as well as proportional hazard rate models to assess the impact of such factors on firms survival. Our results confirm existing finding on firm survival determinants. We also shed light on the effect of public intervention into that industry. More precisely, our focus on public quality labeling in the French cheese industry shows that quality label reduces the risk of exiting for firms and more particularly for small firms. In other words, public intervention in this industry is well designed to increase the competitiveness of small firms enabling the coexistence on the market of both small and large firms.


Doctors behaving badly? Don't regulate — abolish Hans Peter Dietz 673 Disclosure needs to include the extent of a relationship Charles M Fisher 673 Drug company sponsored symposia fulfil an important educational role Ian S Collins 673 Should doctors appear in advertisments? Adrian M J Pokorny 673 Misleading title Padraic J Grattan-Smith 674 Doctors behaving badly? Martin HN Tattersall, Ian H Kerridge 674 It is public perception that counts Martin B Van Der Weyden 675


ABSTRACT The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp120 exterior envelope glycoprotein is conformationally flexible. Upon binding to the host cell receptor CD4, gp120 assumes a conformation that is recognized by the second receptor, CCR5 and/or CXCR4, and by the CD4-induced (CD4i) antibodies. Guided by the X-ray crystal structure of a gp120-CD4-CD4i antibody complex, we introduced changes into gp120 that were designed to stabilize or disrupt this conformation. One mutant, 375 S/W, in which the tryptophan indole group is predicted to occupy the Phe 43 cavity in the gp120 interior, apparently favors a gp120 conformation closer to that of the CD4-bound state. The 375 S/W mutant was recognized as well as or better than wild-type gp120 by CD4 and CD4i antibodies, and the large decrease in entropy observed when wild-type gp120 bound CD4 was reduced for the 375 S/W mutant. The recognition of the 375 S/W mutant by CD4BS antibodies, which are directed against the CD4-binding region of gp120, was markedly reduced compared with that of the wild-type gp120. Compared with the wild-type virus, viruses with the 375 S/W envelope glycoproteins were resistant to neutralization by IgG1b12, a CD4BS antibody, were slightly more sensitive to soluble CD4 neutralization and were neutralized more efficiently by the 2G12 antibody. Another mutant, 423 I/P, in which the gp120 bridging sheet was disrupted, did not bind CD4, CCR5, or CD4i antibodies, even though recognition by CD4BS antibodies was efficient. These results indicate that CD4BS antibodies recognize conformations of gp120 different from that recognized by CD4 and CD4i antibodies.


In this paper, an adaptive adjacent channel interference (ACI) technique is proposed. Results for BPSK modulation with rectangular and square-root raised-cosine pulse shaping, under AWGN conditions, are obtained showing the proposed method to be effective in improving performance under high levels of interference. Basically, the idea is to send pilot signals and then to use them in estimating the amount of ACI in the frequency domain. The estimated spectral error is used to modify tap weights of an adaptive frequency-domain filter. Our simulation results reported suggest that ACI can be effectively reduced with the proposed technique. At the system level, the requirements of analog front-end channel-select and other filters can be relaxed, resulting in a cost -effective receiver design.


summary In-season baseball training is very important to maintain players' strength/power and conditioning. However, there are numerous training approaches used to accomplish these goals. The purpose of this article is to display actual in-season baseball strength and conditioning programs used for various positions at the Division I collegiate level. Furthermore, readers may want to evaluate their own program, learn some new ways of training players, and possibly make some adjustments to their players' in-season program.


While traditional databases have focused on single query evaluation in a centralized setting, emerging applications require continuous tracking of queries on data that is widely distributed and constantly updated. We describe such scenarios, and describe the challenges involved in designing communication-efficient protocols for the tracking tasks we define. We outline some solutions to these problems, by abstracting a model of the communication system, defining the tracking tasks of interest, and building query-tracking schemes based on three guiding principles of minimizing global information, using summaries to capture whole data streams, and seeking stability of the protocols.


Renewable energy studies are becoming increasingly important as world energy demand rises and current energy sources are increasingly questioned. Solar photovoltaics (PV) are the focus of this study as a renewable industry still in its infancy. This research examines the geography of solar panel installation and manufacturing from 2007 to 2010 in California and New York. California is the larger of the two markets and has implemented more policy support; programs that appear to have increased the pace of installations, reduce the size of the subsidy, and help lower total costs. Similar trends are observable in New York. US based companies are still making solar panels, but foreign competitors, most notably from China and Mexico, are capturing an increasing share of the market.


Creativity and digital technologies are considered to be central for success and devel- opment in the current society, becoming crucial educational objectives worldwide. Nevertheless, education often fails to keep pace with creative and digital economies; this is mainly because teachers are not prepared for adopting pedagogical strategies that foster creativity or for fully exploiting the educational potential of digital technologies. Based on the seminal theories of creativity, we propose an innovative framework for applying creative teaching practices mediated by digital technologies: in the light of constructivist and constructionist approaches, we suggest a series of digital tools which are particularly suitable to the emergence of creativity, i.e. manipulative technologies, educational robot- ics and game design and coding. Furthermore, we shape the concept of digital creative pedagogies (DCP) and establish a set of characteristic components of teaching practices which contribute to the development of students' creativity. Drawing on a substantial body of research, the chapter intends to embed educational creativity in the digital culture.


Adolescents who communicate with their parents about sexual and reproductive health are more likely to make healthy decisions. This study uses data from a survey conducted in Tabora, Tanzania (N= 1,966 unmarried girls; 425 sexually-experienced).  Multivariate logistic regression models are estimated to examine associations between parent-child communication and reproductive health outcomes, controlling for respondent and parent characteristics and socio-demographic factors. Among sexually-experienced girls, communication about HIV/AIDS was associated with greater odds of use of family planning, condom at first sex, consistent condom use and HIV testing. Alternately, communication about sexual relations was associated with lower odds of family planning use, while communication on family planning was associated with earlier initiation of sex. Findings indicate the content of parental sexuality communication is an important consideration for adolescent behavior.  Interventions should not only engage parents, but also provide guidance on how to communicate clearly and comprehensively about sexuality, contraceptive use and HIV/AIDS.


For safe and efficient highway operation, sight distance has been of great interest to researchers in the field of highway geometric design. Several formulas have been developed to relate the available sight distance to the horizontal and vertical alignment of the highway and the existing obstructions. Among these formulas is the one presented by AASHTO to determine the available sight distance on a simple horizontal curve with a length greater than the sight distance. For shorter curves in which the sight distance is greater than the curve length, other methods have been developed. However, none of these methods considered the case of continuous lateral obstructions or complicated horizontal alignments. Consequently, it has been recommended that the available sight distance be checked graphically or in the field. For this study, general analytical procedures were developed to check the available sight distance on horizontal alignments with single and continuous obstructions. A horizontal alignment may consist of any combination of horizontal components, such as straight segments, circular curves, and spiral curves. Based on the analytical procedure, a computer software program was developed to establish the no-passing zones on two-lane highways, according to the specifications used by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, Canada. The developed procedures and computer software proved to be very accurate. Using them would save time and effort and would avoid possible human errors when the sight distance is checked using current graphical or field techniques. The computer software can also be used to develop design tables and charts for the available sight distance on different horizontal alignments.


CLINICAL PRESENTATION & EXAM: The prevalence of the female athlete triad in sports with emphasis on aesthetics (cheerleading, ballet, gymnastics) or lean body mass (endurance sports) is very high. These athletes, in expense for achieving their best performance, elect to reduce their weight by practicing unhealthy behaviors such as caloric restriction. Such common practices may include increasing energy expenditure via increased training load (overtraining) or lowering their energy intake (EI). Female athlete triad is manifested by disordered eating (DE) or behaviors that may lead to eating disorders (ED), low bone mineral density (BMD), and amenorrhea. Observations of lower than anticipated performance and consecutive injuries, especially stress fractures, may warrant a dietary assessment. Diagnosis of all three components is not required for proper treatment for the syndrome as simply restricting caloric intake may be the principal factor for low BMD or amenorrhea. ANATOMY & PATHOLOGY: Athletes require substantial calories due to the excess energy expenditure from high volume training. Low EI will impact the nutrients necessary for metabolic processes through impaired thyroid function. A diet that lacks calcium, iron, and other minerals and cofactors can lead to low BMD. Caloric restriction and reduced fat in the diet can initiate weight loss and the downregulation of estrogen via the hypothalamus. Subsequently, a reduction in weight can elicit a decrease in luteinizing hormone (LH) pulses which triggers lower estrogen levels, causing amenorrhea. Therefore, caloric restriction will logically lead to low estrogen levels (hypoestrogenism) that can cause reduced bone deposition by lowering osteoblast activity and increasing bone resorption. In addition, caloric restriction can further inhibit estrogen levels through increasing cortisol levels. A caloric imbalance also alters physiological responses including a decrease in insulin, leptin, and triiodothyronine (T3) and an increase in ghrelin which will impact food consumption and digestion of essential macronutrients. DIAGNOSTIC TESTING & CONSIDERATIONS: Drastic changes in weight or appearance can first be observed by athletes' social groups to suspect caloric restriction or ED. Requiring athletes to keep food diaries may assist health professionals, coaches, and trainers in determining dietary intake prior to measuring athletes' body mass index (BMI). Diagnosis of DE should be conducted via the Eating Disorder Examination interview (EDE-17) and observing the presence of a low basal metabolic rate measured by O2 consumption through indirect calorimetry. Low levels of T3 and metabolic hormones can be examined as well. TREATMENT & RETURN TO ACTIVITY: The treatment of caloric restriction should involve an increase in EI, reduction in exercise load, or some combination of the two to reestablish undernourished athletes through a balanced caloric intake. A multidisciplinary approach beyond health and nutrition may be supplemented with psychology through cognitive behavioral therapy. Adjustments in caloric restriction usually take at least one year to increase body weight, and those will positively affect amenorrhea and low BMD by increasing estrogen levels and calcium absorption, respectively. Return to activity requires increasing caloric intake for proper healing of injuries and restoration of regular menses. Changes in BMD show marked increases within 3 months of treatment while regular menstruation may return following a year or more.


Abstract This paper examines three possible approaches to pro-poor growth. The first one assumes that the poverty line remains constant in real terms over time. The second perspective examines the case where the poverty line is equal to half the median of the income distribution but assumes that such a poverty line is determined exogenously. Finally we also propose a third type of decomposition of the change in poverty, one which is obtained when the poverty line is assumed to be endogenous. In addition, whatever the assumption made concerning the poverty line, we take both a relative and an absolute approach to inequality measurement when defining pro-poor growth. With a relative approach to pro-poor growth it is assumed that inequality does not to vary when all incomes are multiplied by a constant whereas, with an absolute approach to pro-poor growth, inequality is supposed not to vary when an equal sum is added to all incomes. The empirical illustration covers the period 1990–2006 in Israel and the analysis is based on the use of the FGT poverty index. It turns out that the assumptions made concerning the way the poverty line is defined and the choice between a relative and an absolute approach to pro-poor growth greatly affect the results. As a whole however growth was pro-rich in Israel during the 1990–2006 period.


Does a typical House member need to worry about the electoral ramifications of his roll-call decisions? We investigate the relationship between incumbents' electoral performance and roll-call support for their party—controlling for district ideology, challenger quality, and campaign spending, among other factors—through a series of tests of the 1956–1996 elections. The tests produce three key findings indicating that members are indeed accountable for their legislative voting. First, in each election, an incumbent receives a lower vote share the more he supports his party. Second, this effect is comparable in size to that of other widely recognized electoral determinants. Third, a member's probability of retaining office decreases as he offers increased support for his party, and this relationship holds for not only marginal, but also safe members.


Amid raising global oil prices, crude oil production in Russia in 2018 hit an all-time high for the post-Soviet period. Under the first stage of tax maneuver in force in the oil industry, production and export of fuel oil moved down resulting in contraction of oil refining volumes but refining depth went up notably. Year 2019 saw the launch of the second stage of the tax maneuver in force in the oil industry and the tax on extra revenue was adopted.


One of the most pressing and polarizing issues in Western Canada today, and for many First Nations groups in particular, is the oil sands of Alberta. My thesis is entitled Energy Uncertainty:
The Effects of Oil on the Woodland Cree First Nation. My research is focused on understanding how long-term energy extraction affects the past, present, and futures of the members the Woodland Cree First Nation (WCFN) who are demanding an active role in the planning and consultation processes that affect their lives and their traditional lands. I have found that the energy consultation process is not working for the interests of the WCFN and the effects of oil extraction in this community are examples of how and why it is not working.

During the summer of 2013 I spent nine weeks in the WCFN community and used three methods of research: participant observation, interviews, and literature analysis. I completed 22 interviews during my field work research, and made use of nine transcribed interviews with WCFN elders collected in 1995 by Rhonda Laboucan. I used a grounded approach to the content and thematic analysis of my interview and field note data.

My thesis is guided by a political ecological approach because this framework challenged me to look at this subject from many angles and perspectives. This approach has kept my research from being narrowly focused on abstracted or stereotypical aspects of the energy extraction process which I cannot understand without attention to its social, political, environmental, and spatial aspects.

The body of my thesis includes three chapters which explore:
• The practical realities of energy consultation and its relation to Treaty Eight and Traditional Knowledge.
• The complex relationship between temporality, fatalism, and the effects of the oil industry on the people, land, and animals of the WCFN.
• A detailed ethnographic description of the events and processes that followed a contaminated water spill on the WCFN traditional land.

My key findings include: consultation is not working for the interests of the WCFN; oil is impacting the animals, environment, and WCFN community; oil-related spills are affecting (but not being dealt with in a way that respects) WCFN people or land; and there are problems with collection, interpretation, dissemination, and even access to energy extraction and consultation information.

My research helps to fill the gaps in our understanding of the complex effects of long-term energy extraction on small communities, in particular the impacts of oil and oil sands development in a small First Nations community context.


Pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are one of the most important safety concerns especially at intersections. Of total traffic fatalities, 30% and 36% are pedestrians in Qatar and in Japan, respectively (National Police Agency in Japan, 2015). Although pedestrians at signalized intersections are given priority during the green phase, turning vehicles in conflict often do not give the right of way to pedestrians but tend to compete for it. Furthermore, long crosswalks, short green times, and other reasons may cause pedestrians to rush or suddenly change their speed without paying attention to the surrounding conditions (Iryo-Asano et al. 2014). The sudden changes in pedestrian behavior while crossing cannot be predicted by the driver, which can cause severe conflicts. Therefore, the possible behavioral changes of pedestrians should be studied so that surrogate safety measures such as post-encroachment time can be quantitatively estimated to provide a reliable assessment of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts and their severities. Continuous pedestrian speed profiles were analyzed at signalized crosswalks considering the impact of crosswalk geometry and signal timing. Five signalized crosswalks at three intersections in Nagoya City were videotaped and individual pedestrian maneuvers were extracted by image processing. A stepwise speed function is proposed to identify significant sudden changes in individual pedestrian speed profiles. The locations and timings of these sudden speed change events were analyzed, and the influencing factors were statistically evaluated. Empirical analysis showed that sudden acceleration events were observed at the entrance points to the pedestrian-vehicle conflict area, which highlights the significance of these events to pedestrian-vehicle conflict analysis. More than a quarter of all acceleration events occurred just after the onset of the pedestrian flashing green signal indication. Furthermore, it is concluded that long crosswalks have higher percentage of speed change occurrence and as a result higher risk of crashes. In this regard, the application of two-stage pedestrian crossing is a potential solution to reduce crosswalk length and the possibility of having unpredicted pedestrian behavioral changes. In general, the results implied that pedestrian entering speed to crosswalk, necessary speed to finish crossing before the onset of the pedestrian red signal indication, and crosswalk length have a significant impact on pedestrian speed change choices. REFERENCES: Iryo-Asano, M., Alhajyaseen, W., and Nakamura, H. (2014) "Analysis and Modeling of Pedestrian Crossing Behavior during the Pedestrian Flashing Green Interval", IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 99, pp. 1-12. National Police Agency, Japan, 2015. Fatal Traffic Accidents in 2014, http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001129473 (in Japanese). 0 Language: en


In America, law is a cultural practice, a type of social activity that generates a complete world of meaning. As such, it makes behavioral demands on those who participate in its form of experience. That is, it requires that those who take up its way of life act in certain ways. This fact -that law has an innate normativity, or an inherent ethics - is the organizing principle of the cultural study of the lawyer, a project that considers the implications of this condition for our thinking about law and about the work of law's most representative figures, namely lawyers. This Article builds upon previous writing in the project and pursues two natural consequent lines of inquiry. First, it provides a more detailed account of three philosophical claims that the cultural study of the lawyer has made, either explicitly or implicitly, the purpose of which is to clarify certain intellectual positions of the project. Second, moving forward from the cultural study of the lawyer's earlier exploration of how, at the most basic level, the behavioral demands of law differ from those associated with the moral form of experience, this Article begins a parallel discourse, reflecting on the behavioral demands of law and those of the cultural practice of economics, again specifically focusing on fundamental principles and their differential character. As with the earlier consideration of legal and moral prescription, the aim of this analysis is to make clear the distinction between the two cultural practices' requirements on conduct - an analysis that in turn shows that, at his or her core, a lawyer is not an economic person (and therefore not a businessperson). Because the cultural study of the lawyer may be unfamiliar to some, this Article begins with an overview of the project, emphasizing in particular its intellectual setting and genealogy.


Abstract The substance isobutane is intended to be used as a foaming agent at max 4.5% to produce expanded polystyrene (EPS) to be used for packaging foods, such as fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and cheese, at room temperature or lower. Isobutane is approved in Europe as a food additive (E 943b) to be used quantum satis as a gas propellant only in vegetable oil pan spray (for professional use only) and water‐based emulsion spray according to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008. The purity requirements for the use of isobutane as a food additive are described in Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012. The substance is a gas at room temperature. It is a saturated hydrocarbon, obtained with a high level of purity, and is not expected to react under the processing conditions used to make foamed polystyrene materials and articles. Data on migration of isobutane from trays at 20°C for 10 days ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 mg/kg food. Considering the intended applications, estimated exposure is extremely low based on migration data. In the absence of genotoxicity alerts and given the very low toxicity following repeated exposure with no observed adverse effect concentration (NOAEC) of several thousands of mg/m3 by inhalation, it was considered that the use of isobutane as a foaming agent, at the expected exposure from food, does not raise a safety concern.


The Environmental Technology Centre (ETC) is a Centre of Excellence for Industry focussed Research & Development in Environmental Technology. The ETC is the Asia Pacific Partner Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme International Environmental Technology Centre. The aim of the ETC is to research, develop and demonstrate environmental technologies, conduct education and training, provide consultancy services to industry, and raise community awareness of environmental technologies. Its facilities are open to industries wishing to test and monitor products within the university infrastructure.

The ETC occupies a 1.7-hectare site on the Murdoch University campus at which over fifty environmental technologies have been combined to form an integrated operating demonstration system. The technologies used and researched at the site include climate-sensible buildings, renewable energy systems for power supply and water pumping, aquaculture systems, organic waste management, and permaculture. The integrated approach allows research to be carried out on the important interactions between different technologies, rather than just the effect of a single technology. This gives the ETC a considerable advantage over other research institutions that focus on single technologies in relative isolation.

The ETC is able to offer holistic and flexible solutions to human needs. The ETC's focus is on small to medium-scale environmental technologies, which are low cost, robust, efficient, and easy to operate and maintain. The aim of this is to maximise the opportunities for user communities to "own" the technology, resulting in greater and more sustained uptake of the technology, higher levels of community awareness and involvement, and ultimately a more successful operation. This approach is highly applicable to communities in developing countries, as well as to urban communities worldwide, particularly when applied in collaboration with industry and government.

The challenges facing adoption of such integrated approaches to technology transfer and implementation are varying in nature depending on the application but in the case of cities and urban planning it is often regulatory barriers, economic viability under existing financing frameworks, and the level of knowledge in government. Industry itself has enormous capacity to innovate and adapt to such changes.

This paper aims to show how the integration of technologies in water, permaculture, renewable energy and sustainable construction aims to achieve and demonstrate sustainability in its 1.7 ha site.


A variety of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) includmg naphthalene, phenanthrene, acenaphthene, and dibenzothiophene were degraded with little or no lag in oxic slurries of marine sedi m e n t ~ from burrow walls constructed by benthic macrofauna. PAH degradation potentials of burrow sediments from the polychaetes Nereis virens and Clymenella torquata, the mollusc Mya arenaria and the enteropneust Saccoglossus bromophenolosus were generally greater than potentials for non-burrow sedirnents; relative rates of degradation varied among the burrow wall sediments depending on the PAH assayed. Comparisons of the effects of available electron acceptors (oxygen, nitrate, ferric iron, sulfate) indicated that significant degradation of benzene, hexadecane and PAH occurred only in the presence of molecular oxygen. However, the capacity for oxic phenanthrene degradation was stable during incubations with alternating oxic and anoxic conditions, suggesting significant anoxia tolerance. Although burrow wall sediments were biogeochemically distinct with respect to rates of sulfate reduction, potential denitrification and potential ammonia oxidation, these patterns were not related to those of PAH degradation.


We investigate the directional distribution of heavy neutral atoms in the heliosphere by using heavy neutral maps generated with the IBEX-Lo instrument over three years from 2009 to 2011. The interstellar neutral (ISN) O&Ne gas flow was found in the first-year heavy neutral map at 601 keV and its flow direction and temperature were studied. However, due to the low counting statistics, researchers have not treated the full sky maps in detail. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the statistical significance of each pixel in the heavy neutral maps to get a better understanding of the directional distribution of heavy neutral atoms in the heliosphere. Here, we examine three statistical analysis methods: the signal-to-noise filter, the confidence limit method, and the cluster analysis method. These methods allow us to exclude background from areas where the heavy neutral signal is statistically significant. These methods also allow the consistent detection of heavy neutral atom structures. The main emission feature expands toward lower longitude and higher latitude from the observational peak of the ISN O&Ne gas flow. We call this emission the extended tail. It may be an imprint of the secondary oxygen atoms generated by charge exchange between ISN hydrogen atoms and oxygen ions in the outer heliosheath.


We consider the matrix completion problem under a form of row/column weighted entrywise sampling, including the case of uniformentrywise sampling as a special case. We analyze the associated random observation operator, and prove that with high probability, it satisfies a form of restricted strong convexity with respect to weighted Frobenius norm. Using this property, we obtain as corollaries a number of error bounds on matrix completion in the weighted Frobenius norm under noisy sampling and for both exact and near low-rank matrices. Our results are based on measures of the 'spikiness' and 'low-rankness' of matrices that are less restrictive than the incoherence conditions imposed in previous work. Our technique involves an M-estimator that includes controls on both the rank and spikiness of the solution, and we establish non-asymptotic error bounds in weighted Frobenius norm for recovering matrices lying with lq-"balls" of bounded spikiness. Using information-theoretic methods, we show that no algorithm can achieve better estimates (up to a logarithmic factor) over these same sets, showing that our conditions on matrices and associated rates are essentially optimal.


Within many ecological systems, relationships between controlling factors and associated response variables are complex. In many cases, the response should vary little when the controlling factor exerts strong effects. Conversely, when the effect of the controlling factor is weak or absent, the response may vary greatly with effects of other factors. Correlation or regression analyses often may not be appropriate for testing these relationships, because variance of the response changes with values of the controlling factor. We suggest using a technique from the astronomy literature, a two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov (2DKS) test, to detect relationships in bivariate data with these patterns of variance. This technique successfully identified simulated bivariate data composed of paired independent values as having nonsignificant relationships and simulated bivariate data in which mean and variance of y was constrained at high levels of x as having significant relationships. Using these simulations and examples from aquatic and terrestrial systems, we demonstrate that the 2DKS is a robust test for detecting nonrandom patterns in bivariate distributions that commonly arise in many ecological systems.


Introduction. Intraepithelial cervical neoplasia and cervical cancer are the most common cytological diagnoses encountered in the population of pregnant patients and are a global health problem. The most important risk factor for cancer or intraepithelial cervical neoplasia (CIN) is the persistence of infection with Human Papilloma Virus, oncogenic strains. 8-12% of pregnant patients have a modified cytological examination at the beginning of pregnancy. Under these circumstances, it becomes a delicate problem to interpret a Papanicolau exam in the population of patients at the beginning of pregnancy, as long as an algorithm of practice is not standardized. Current protocols for pregnant women with cervical dysplasia are not well defined, and are often based on data on untreated patients or on retrospective analysis in pregnant patients.
Materials and method. We report the cases of six patients with abnormal cervical cytology at the routine exam at the onset of pregnancy. Electroresection with diathermal bile and prophylactic cervical cerclaj was performed in order to maintain the pregnancy with hemostatic, but also for curative purposes.
Results. In 3 out of 6 patients complete healing was achieved post-large loop excision of the transformation zone and prophylactic cervical cerclaj, with sustained fertility, at 6 weeks postpartum PAP examination resulting in negative for intraepithelial or malignant lesion. In 1/6 cases the same protocol was applied, but at 16 weeks, the pregnancy interrupted its evolution and PAP cytology was with the ASC-H result at 2 weeks postabortum, requiring completion of the resection. One-sixth of the reported patients underwent diagnostic biopsy at 15 weeks of pregnancy (in situ carcinoma) with diathermal excision at 6 weeks post-partum. The sixth patient has an evolving pregnancy with a prophylactic cerclaje and electroresection with diathermal bile, with a satisfactory HP result, the edges of the resection piece free from disease.
Conclusions. The abnormal cytological changes of the Papanicolau exam at the beginning of pregnancy for the 6 cases were H-SIL and ASC-H with histopathological results: medium to high grade CIN. Early identification of these lesions and the approach of individualized treatments can reduce the number of radical surgical procedures and keep pregnancies up to date with live babies without restriction of intrauterine growth.


Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of double contact lens-assisted corneal cross-linking (CXL) in keratoconus patients with very thin corneas. Settings and Design: This is a prospective, interventional, nonrandomized, and noncontrolled case series. Subjects and Methods: Twenty eyes of 15 patients with the corneal thinnest point (CTP) <400 μm were included in the study. Uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), Scheimpflug imaging, and endothelial cell loss were evaluated at baseline and at each study visit. After corneal epithelial debridement, ultrasonic pachymetry was used to measure CTP. Double soft contact lenses were applied while riboflavin was instilled every 2 min and ultrasonic pachymetry was repeated. The cornea was then exposed to ultraviolet A light (370 nm, 3 mW/cm2) for 30 min. Riboflavin 0.1% was administered every 2 min during irradiation. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical evaluation of values at baseline and 6- and 12-month after CXL was performed using t-test with SPSS software version 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Following epithelial removal, mean CTP was 271.4 ± 13.7 μm (range: 263–284 μm). After double contact lens placement, mean CTP increased by 196.8 ± 15.4 μm (range: 188–223 μm) for a mean thickness of 467.1 ± 19.4 μm (range: 423–508 μm). No statistically significant differences were observed in maximum keratometry value (Kmax) and posterior elevation 1 year after CXL. Endothelial cell count, CDVA, anterior elevation, and average of simulated keratometry values (Average SimK) as well as the CTP were not significantly different before and 12 months after CXL. No postoperative complications were encountered in any of our patients. Conclusion: Double contact lens-assisted CXL can be effective for stabilizing corneal topography in eyes with advanced keratoconus, including those with corneas that are too thin for traditional CXL. Further controlled studies with a larger sample size are recommended to confirm our findings.


Early versus later start of dialysis is still a matter of debate. Low‐protein diets have been used for many decades to delay dialysis initiation. Protein‐restricted diets (0.3–0.6 g protein/kg/day) supplemented with essential amino acids and ketoanalogues (sVLPD) can be offered, in association with pharmacological treatment, to motivated stage 4–5 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients not having severe comorbid conditions; they probably represent 30–40% of the concerned population. A satisfactory adherence to such dietary prescription is observed in approximately 50% of the patients. While the results of the studies on the effects of this diet on the rate of progression of renal failure remain inconclusive, they are highly significant when initiation of dialysis is the primary outcome. The correction of uremic symptoms allows for initiation of dialysis treatment at a level of residual renal function lower than that usually recommended. Most of the CKD‐associated complications of cardiovascular and metabolic origin, which hamper both lifespan and quality of life, are positively influenced by the diet. Lastly, with regular monitoring jointly assumed by physicians and dietitians, nutritional status is well preserved as confirmed by a very low mortality rate and by the absence of detrimental effect on the long‐term outcome of patients once renal replacement therapy is initiated. On account of its feasibility, efficacy and safety, sVLPD deserves a place in the management of selected patients to safely delay the time needed for dialysis.


Abstract During the first 10–20 Kyr of the Eocene temperatures warmed by 4–8°C in middle and high latitudes, then cooled again over the succeeding ∼200 Kyr. Major changes in the composition of marine and terrestrial faunas, including one of the largest mammalian turnover events of the Cenozoic, occurred during this temperature excursion. To better understand the effects of rapid climatic change on continental biotas, we studied 60 fossil pollen samples collected from 900 m of section spanning approximately three million years of the late Paleocene and early Eocene; the samples come from the Fort Union Formation and Willwood Formation in the Bighorn Basin of northwestern Wyoming, paleolatitude approximately 47°N. There are 40 samples from the 500 m of rock deposited during the one million year interval centered on the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, although pollen was not preserved well in rocks representing the short warm interval at the base of the Eocene. Overall, the palynoflora shows moderate change in composition and diversity. Two pollen taxa clearly expanded their ranges to include North America in the first 400 Kyr of the Eocene, Platycarya (Juglandaceae), and Intratriporopollenites instructus (cf. Tilia), but they account for less than 5% of pollen grains in the early Eocene. There are no last appearances of common taxa associated with the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. The most noticeable palynological changes are the decrease in abundance of Caryapollenites spp. and Polyatriopollenites vermontensis (Juglandaceae), and the increase in abundance of Taxodiaceae (bald cypress family), Ulmaceae (elm family), and Betulaceae (birch family), particularly Alnipollenites spp. (alder). There are 22% more species in the Eocene samples than in the Paleocene samples; mean richness of Eocene samples is 17% higher than the mean of Paleocene samples. The mean evenness of Eocene samples is higher than that of Paleocene samples, but the difference is not significant. The modest level of floral change during the late Paleocene and early Eocene contrasts with the major taxonomic turnover and ecological rearrangement of North American mammalian faunas observed at the same time. Faunal change probably resulted from intercontinental range expansion across Arctic land bridges that became habitable as a result of high-latitude warming, so it is surprising that climatically sensitive plants did not also experience a major episode of interchange. The absence of fossil plants from the temperature excursion interval itself could prevent us from recognizing a transient shift in floral composition, but it is clear that the flora did not undergo a major and permanent restructuring like that seen in the mammals. The contrast between the moderate floral response to warming and the strong faunal response is consistent with the idea that interactions between immigrant and native taxa, rather than climate directly, were the primary cause of terrestrial biotic change across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary.


The changing political economy and present structure and performance of the commercial agricultural sector in South Africa necessitates change. An institutional approach is adopted to review the origin of past and present institutions and organizations in the commercial sector. Private based reform initiatives are focused upon as one of the possible processes through reform in the sector can be undertaken. The private based reform initiatives undertaken in the sugar sub sector are analyzed from a situation, structure and performance perspective in attempt to explain the origins and outcomes of these initiatives. Successful lessons from the case study are examined with two other private based reform initiatives, namely sharecropping and employee share ownership programs, in an attempt to assess their suitability for inducing institutional reform in other sub sectors and situations.


The culture of white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in low salinity waters (1.2 ± 0.5 g L-1) presents challenges, the deviation of the ionic composition of water is known that influences the overall condition of the cultured organisms. The effect of water of low salinity with different ion content on the growth and survival of shrimp was determined. First, water was extracted from 4 wells with a depth of 5 to 7 m, located in Sinaloa River Basin in Guasave, Mexico at: (T1) 25.43°N, 108.44°W; (T2) 25.48°N, 108.37°W; (T3) 25.60°N, 108.40°W and (T4) 25.64°N, 108.51°W and were selected on base the different ionic water composition. The experimental design was 4 independent treatments with 3 replicate. Shrimp were grown at sea water (Tm= 34 ± 1.4 g L-1) used as a control. Shrimps grown in Tm and T1 had averaged weight (over 12 ± 0.61 g) and survival rates (78%), with statistical differences to others low salinity water treatments. The condition factor obtained with low-salinity water (T1= 0.654) was like that recorded for Tm (0.670), where ionic ratios (Na/K and Mg/K) were similar to that of seawater. This observation strongly suggests that the ratios of the major ions (Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) play a relevant role for development of organisms under cultivation. Shrimp cultured in water of low salinity with an ionic ratio similar to that of sea water were organisms with the best development under cultivation, therefore indicating that the proportion of major ions were important for shrimp.


Scholars have developed a significant body of literature exploring the work of deal lawyers with the essential insight that attorneys acting as transaction-cost engineers have unique potential to add to the overall value of deals. This value-creation literature has traditionally made two foundational assumptions about the role of the state in transactional law. First, scholars have assumed that regulation is essentially irrelevant to transacting - that from the deal lawyer's perspective, the government is a factor only to the extent that the state will enforce private agreements. Second, scholars have assumed that private parties uniformly view public policy as a constraint in the realm of compliance - that from the deal lawyer's perspective, clients are indifferent, if not hostile, to regulatory goals. The first assumption is the subject of recent scholarship convincingly arguing that regulatory arbitrage should be added to the picture of deal lawyers as transaction-cost engineers. The second assumption, however, has gone unchallenged and is the focus of this Article.Although the value-creation literature envisions a monolithic orientation toward the state, in practice, partnerships that engage the private sector in advancing a variety of public goals represent both a significant sector of the economy and one of the central contemporary approaches to policy by federal, state, and local governments. Deal lawyers are thus increasingly called upon not only to reduce transaction costs and leverage regulatory constraints, but also to manage a complex alignment of interests between private means and public ends. In short, lawyers in public-private transactions perform what this Article calls regulatory translation - transmogrifying the often abstract goals of public policy into the concrete mechanisms of private ordering.This Article makes two primary contributions to the literature. First, it identifies an increasingly important transactional context largely ignored by scholars investigating the work of deal lawyers. Second, the Article gives a normative, theoretical grounding for that work, providing a framework that has the potential to enhance the advantages and mute the problems associated with public-private partnerships. Ultimately, lawyers in this context can create value in the broadest sense of the word, and there are lessons in this for deal lawyers in all transactions.


Habitat fragmentation and invasive species often contribute to the decline of native taxa. Since the penetration of non‐native species into natural habitat may be facilitated by habitat fragmentation, it is important to examine how these two factors interact. Previous research documented that, in contrast to most other arthropod taxa, spiders increased in density and morphospecies richness with decreasing fragment area and increasing fragment age (time since insularization) in urban habitat fragments in San Diego County, California, USA. We tested whether a specific mechanism, an increase in non‐native species with fragmentation, is responsible for this pattern. We found that both native and non‐native taxa contributed to the pattern. Abundance of native spiders per pitfall trap sample increased significantly with decreasing fragment size (i.e. a negative density–area relationship) and abundance of non‐natives increased significantly with increasing fragment age. The proportion of non‐native individuals also increased significantly with age. One non‐native species, Oecobius navus, comprised the majority of non‐native individuals (82.2%) and a significant proportion of total individuals (25.1%). Richness of spider families per sample (family density) increased with fragment age due to an increase in the occurrence of non‐natives in older fragments, however, native family richness did not vary with age or area. Due to increasing dominance by non‐native and some native families, family evenness declined with decreasing fragment size and increasing fragment age. Native and non‐native abundance covaried positively arguing against strong negative interactions between the two groups. O. navus had a strong positive association with another common non‐native arthropod, the Argentine ant (Linepitheme humile), suggesting a possible direct interaction. In contrast, abundance of native spiders was negatively correlated with Argentine ant abundance. We hypothesize that fragmentation in this semiarid habitat increases productivity in smaller and older fragments enhancing the density of both native and non‐native taxa.


The concept of ecosystem engineering has emerged decades ago and highlights the direct or indirect modulation of available resources by organisms through their biological activities. Ecosystem engineers create biogenic structures (aggregates, burrows) that may serve as habitats for other species than themselves. This chapter aims at overviewing the key role played by earthworms as ecosystem engineers through their bioturbation activities involving soil mixing as well as their influence on the decomposition and mineralization of litter by breaking down organic matter, and their influence on the gas and water exchange or nutrient transfer in the soil. Focus is made on the engineering processes and especially the formation of biogenic structures in relation to soil structure (burrows, casts) in the framework of soil function interactions, particularly in the drilosphere. Special attention is paid to soil aggregates' fabric and new tools that may help to discriminate their origin. Finally, management and ecosystem engineer's future challenges will be highlighted regarding soil ecosystem services in the context of ecosystem restoration.


Coral reefs are subject to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances that may have detrimental effects on resident fish populations. This study examined the association between the coral-feeding wrasse Labrichthys unilineatus and the coral it feeds on, and investigated how the fish species responds to disturbance. Fish abundance was positively correlated with percentage scleractinian coral cover at 3 different scales of sampling (4, 100 and 250 m2 sampling units). Juveniles and, to a lesser extent, mature females were closely associated with patches of Acropora nobilis and A. elseyi, the cover of these corals being much greater inside fish home ranges. The habitat of the larger, wider ranging males reflected the cover of corals within the study area which was dominated by Montipora spp. and A. hyacinthus. Ontogenetic changes in diet reflected both changes in the availability of different coral species and changes in feeding selectivity. Juveniles had a narrower range of coral types available, but were more selective than larger fish, preferentially consuming many species of low abundance. At the other extreme, adult males fed almost exclusively on the common acroporid species in proportions reflecting their availability. Strong ontogenetic patterns in selectivity also extended to the relative consumption of undamaged and damaged tissues of coral colonies, the latter including bleached, diseased and broken edges of live corals. Damaged tissue of coral colonies was an important component of the diet of adult L. unilineatus, particularly males, which consumed more damaged than undamaged tissue, despite its low availability. Results of an electivity index showed that all coral colonies (in the feeding territories) that presented damaged tissue were strongly selected and none were avoided. Experimental physical disturbance to coral patches on a scale of 1 m2 quadrats resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of bites taken by L. unilineatus, compared with control plots. The increase was short term, with feeding intensity returning to the pre-disturbance level within 24 h of the time of initial damage. Individual feeding rates were also enhanced by the disturbance event, with fish in the vicinity of disturbed plots exhibiting a 50% increase in feeding rate. The reason for selection of damaged corals is unknown but a loss of nematocysts or release of mucous or chemical attractants may be involved.


An ornamental plant Euphorbia milii (Euphorbiaceae) is plays a role in folk medicine. The Chinese use it as a cure for cancer, and some Brazilians believe that it can cure warts. Phytochemical studies showed the presence of cardiac glycosides, steroids/phytosterols, anthocyanin, terpenoids, flavonoids and tannins.The Antimicrobial activity studies of hexane, ethyl acetate,chloform,petroleum ether,and water extracts of flowers of Euphorbia milii were performed on gram positive organisms(Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium,Staphylococcus aureus, Entrococci ) and gram negative organisms (Escherichia coli and Proteus vulgaris, Pusodomonas aeruginosa) by using cup plate method. The hexane extracts in the concentration of 5μg/ml, have shown considerable inhibition zone on as compared to other extracts.Bacillus subtlis and Bacillus megaterium have not show inhibition zone from solvent extract which was compared with the inhibition zone produced by standard amikacin sulphate (1μg/ml.).


Occupational exposure to HIV: response to a system failure Stacey L Emmett, Adam J O'Brien, Joseph E Ibrahim 195 Elizabeth E Cooper, Stephen L Blamey 195 Management of healthcare workers after occupational exposure to hepatitis C virus Nicola Magnavita 195 Patrick G P Charles, M Lindsay Grayson, Peter W Angus, Joseph J Sasadeusz 196 Is grand multiparity an independent predictor of pregnancy risk? A retrospective observational study Caroline M de Costa 196 Michael D Humphrey 197 Prevention of cardiovascular disease: an evidence-based clinical aid Neil H Cradick 197 Gregory R Fulcher, John V Amerena, Greg W Conner 198 Fatal fulminant hepatic failure induced by a natural therapy containing kava Michael Thomsen, Luis Vitetta, Mathias Schmidt, Avni Sali 198 Paul J Gow, Nathan J Connelly, Richard L Hill, Peter Crowley, Peter W Angus 199 Licensing thalidomide in Australia Colin L Crawford 199 Martin H N Tattersall 200


Several contemporary economists claim that 'real' economic development only occurred following the Industrial Revolution. We contend that this is only so if a narrow view is taken of what constitutes economic development, namely increasing per capita income. Given a wider perspective, we argue that economic development occurred in hunter-gatherer societies and eventually accelerated in the second stage of the Agricultural Revolution. During this stage, a small dominant class (the elite) were able to extract rent (the economic surplus) from the mass of the population (the dominated) which they could use for development purposes. As a result of this rent extraction, the bulk of the population remained at subsistence level. Nevertheless, dissipation of the rent as a result of population increase was prevented. Consequently, the Malthusian trap could be avoided and the economic surplus could be used by the elite for development or other purposes. Whether or not economic development occurred depended on how the elite allocated the economic surplus. In the second stage of the Agricultural Revolution, the economic surplus was extracted primarily in the form of staples and the exchange of commodities was mostly directly controlled by the elite. This situation changed as states became larger in size and commodities became more diverse. In the few centuries preceding the Industrial Revolution in Europe, monarchs exerted decreasing direct control over the exchange, production and use of commodities. This was particularly noticeable in England. Also devolution of increased political power to nobles and local areas added to principal-and-agent problems. Sovereigns, instead of concentrating on the extraction of the economic surplus in the form of staples, increasingly relied on its extraction and storage in the form of treasures, precious metals and gems. Monarchs (in order to maximize their net extraction) focused on increasing the number of different markets and the extent of these but at the same time, extracted rent from them in the form of levies. Consequently, this Age of Mercantilism was marked by a substantial expansion in marketing even though this was combined with royal imposts on markets. This increase in marketing activities helped to pave the way for the Industrial Revolution by altering the balance of political power and facilitating sales of the products of the Industrial Revolution. Despite this, it seems likely that the Industrial Revolution only happened as a result of the chance occurrence of a combination of events. It was not inevitable.


The seismic method is divided into reflection and refraction techniques, based on whether or not a wave undergoes a reflection at the extent of its travel. Thus, while most refracted events have not been reflected, most reflected events have been refracted, because a refraction occurs across any velocity interface in accordance with the simple and basic Snell's law. This law states that the sine of the angle of incidence is to the sine of the angle of refraction as the velocity on the first side of the interface is to the velocity on the second side of the interface.

Where the refraction angle is large, and not near to zero as it is in the case of reflection work, there are many considerations concerning the geometry of the raypath that have to be made in refraction interpretation. Basically, the papers in this volume describe various techniques for separating out special raypath solutions and making approximations that give us a structural geologic picture from the study of these approximations or specializations.

The following factors are of extreme importance in refraction surveying' 1) Distance' Surveying must be accurate in order to make correct depth determinations of the refractor by the use of the refraction method. 2) Velocity' The velocity of the various horizons, through which the refracted wave passes, must be known if an accurate structural picture is to be determined. Many of these velocities can be determined from the refraction data, and, in fact, the refraction method is a good means of establishing many of the velocities needed for these calculations. 3) Time' Accurate time information is a prerequisite, although this is no more the case in refraction than in reflection work. In most instances, refraction information is to be recorded to the nearest 1/1,000 sec for exploration purposes.

The distance parameter will be discussed first. In many surveys the distance between the shot and receiver may be extremely long (25 to 50 miles), and the requirement for accuracy is just as vital as if this distance were very short (a few hundred feet). Because of the differential velocities involved, distance errors can cause errors in depth greater than the distance errors themselves. For somecases, in the experience of the editor, the depth error may be three times the distance error. The velocity is very critical in refraction information. Of particular important is the refractor velocity, which is often used to determine the time to be subtracted from the total time path to determine that amount of time which is near verticalor can be converted to a vertical path time.


Usually chemical processes are non-linear in nature with two or more variables of interest. Distillation process is one among those processes which plays an important role in separation of two or more components through the phenomena of evaporation or condensation. Variable of interest depends on the product requirement. In this paper tray's temperature has been considered as variable of interest. Therefore parameter estimation is carried out by using sequential relay test for bottom and top trays by using heater and reflux as manipulated inputs respectively. The validation of the estimated model has been authenticated by performing closed loop test via simulation and extended the methodology for online verification. Result portrays the efficiency of identified model


In multiple myeloma, the use of multiparametric flow cytometry in many laboratories is currently restricted to clinical research studies and the differential diagnosis of unusual cases. This article report the indications of the European Myeloma Network for flow cytometry in patients with monoclonal gammopathies, and the technical recommendations for the analysis of plasma cells. The European Myeloma Network (EMN) organized two flow cytometry workshops. The first aimed to identify specific indications for flow cytometry in patients with monoclonal gammopathies, and consensus technical approaches through a questionnaire-based review of current practice in participating laboratories. The second aimed to resolve outstanding technical issues and develop a consensus approach to analysis of plasma cells. The primary clinical applications identified were: differential diagnosis of neoplastic plasma cell disorders from reactive plasmacytosis; identifying risk of progression in patients with MGUS and detecting minimal residual disease. A range of technical recommendations were identified, including: 1) CD38, CD138 and CD45 should all be included in at least one tube for plasma cell identification and enumeration. The primary gate should be based on CD38 vs. CD138 expression; 2) after treatment, clonality assessment is only likely to be informative when combined with immunophenotype to detect abnormal cells. Flow cytometry is suitable for demonstrating a stringent complete remission; 3) for detection of abnormal plasma cells, a minimal panel should include CD19 and CD56. A preferred panel would also include CD20, CD117, CD28 and CD27; 4) discrepancies between the percentage of plasma cells detected by flow cytometry and morphology are primarily related to sample quality and it is, therefore, important to determine that marrow elements are present in follow-up samples, particularly normal plasma cells in MRD negative cases.


Introduction: The microwave oven has been used quite often for tissue processing, but there are very few studies describing its use in decalcification of bone or teeth. In this study we have attempted to decalcify bone and teeth using a microwave oven and compare the process and results with conventional decalcification methods. Aims and objectives: The objectives of the study were to determine and compare routine decalcification with microwave decalcification of bone and teeth using 5% nitric acid, 5% formic acid, and 14% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) with respect to speed of decalcification, preservation of tissue structure and staining efficacy. Materials and methods: In our study the total sample size used for both routine and microwave decalcification was 30 premolar teeth and 30 pieces of condyles. The three solutions were dilute nitric acid (5%), formic acid (5%), and EDTA (14%). Each set consisting of the same type of premolars and condyles in each of the three decalcifying solutions were used in both manual method and microwave method. Results: The results in the present study confirmed the fact that the microwave method using nitric acid was indeed the fastest decalcifying method needing just about 2 days for condyle and 4 days for premolars, compared with routine decalcification. The results also showed that the overall histological picture was good with EDTA and formic acid irrespective of the methods used. In the routine method, nitric acid gave poor cellular detail when compared with microwave method. Conclusion: With our study we conclude that microwave oven decalcification is faster than routine decalcification irrespective of the decalcifying agents used. The tissue preservation and staining efficacy was good in microwave nitric acid decalcification compared to routine nitric acid decalcification. Both formic acid and EDTA show good tissue preservation and staining efficacy irrespective of the method used.