Background Transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is a feared complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) owing to its high rate of mortality. The use of calcineurin inhibitors or sirolimus for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis has been suggested as a potential risk factor. Purpose To analyse the incidence of TMA in patients undergoing HSCT who received ciclosporin as prophylaxis against GVHD; to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Material and methods Retrospective observational study that reviewed the medical records of patients who had suffered from TMA after allogeneic HSCT in the haematology service of a tertiary hospital from 2010 to 2014. To obtain the results, the diagnostic criteria associating TMA with the bone marrow transplant of the International Working Group were measured. Results Of the 50 patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT, 10 suffered ciclosporin-associated TMA. In 4 TMA emerged with the addition of ciclosporin to sirolimus and in 6 when sirolimus was added to ciclosporin. The reason for the addition of these immunosuppressants was acute GVHD in 3 patients and in 7 due to chronic GVHD. The response to TMA was to suspend ciclosporin and maintain sirolimus and corticosteroids in 4 patients whereas in 6 both ciclosporin and sirolimus were suspended. In 4 patients phenytoin was added, in 2 haemodialysis was performed, in 3 plasmapheresis was done and in 1 rituximab was administered. In all the cases the duration of active levels of basal ciclosporin after it had been suspended was about two or four months. Conclusion The appearance of TMA in patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT is a concern. All cases present moderate to severe haemolytic anaemia, negative direct Coombs, thrombocytopenia, elevated LDH and creatinine, schistocytes >4% and kidney disorders. The cause of the sustained increase in the time of ciclosporin levels is still unknown, it is thought that an ABCB1 genetic polymorphism can produce this phenomenon. References and/or acknowledgements Pharmacogenetics No conflict of interest.


Neurons, building blocks of the mammalian nervous system, mainly communicate with each other through synapses in which signal transmission is mediated by neurotransmitters released from the presynaptic neuron and sensed by the postsynaptic neuron. These endogenous chemicals released from the nerve terminal diffuse through the very narrow extracellular space between the neurons and bind to specific membrane proteins called receptors, thereby mediating signal propagation. Receptors are divided into two large families comprising those causing the activation of second messengers and those including an ionic pore which opens upon neurotransmitter binding and which controls flow of ions across the cell membrane. Also called ligand-gated ion channels (LGIC), they mediate fast neurotransmission essential for the complex signal processing in the central nervous system. Reliable transmission of signals between neurons is highly dependent on accurate functioning of LGICs. Genetically transmissible nervous system disorders can be caused by mutations in genes coding for LGICs, resulting in dramatically altered neurotransmission.

Key Concepts

In this work we review the determinant role of ligand gated ion channels in brain function and the alterations related to genetic variants.

Keywords:

synaptic transmission;
neurotransmitter;
receptors;
brain;
neurological disorders


On September 23rd, Westchester County settled a lawsuit with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York under which it agreed to develop and carry out an implementation plan to construct 750 affordable housing units in Westchester communities with low percentages of African American and Hispanic households. Under this agreement, the County will provide over $50 million to create housing in these communities; if needed, the County agreed to withhold benefits from the communities or to bring litigation against them if the 750 units are not constructed. The County will be supervised by a federal monitor.


In a recent edition of Human Relations, Elmes and Costello (1992) reported the results of their observations of a communication skills training (CST) workshop. Their paper examined this approach to training from a dramaturgical perspective and argued that CST could be considered as an inherently manipulative means of strengthening management control within organizations. Given that there has been an explosive growth of interest in CST as a means of furthering personal development, in a variety of professional contexts, the present paper addresses the concerns raised by Elmes and Costello, by examining some of the central issues associated with this approach to training. Research evidence is reviewed which suggests that CST is an effective training medium which can be a positive force for strengthening relationships within the work environment. CST as a means of furthering behavioral change is examine in the light of the Elmes and Costello critique. Finally, the implications of these issues for the management of relationships at work are considered.


The electrochemical parameters for 7--dimethyl--amino--1,2-- benzophenoxazinium Meldola's Blue, (MDB) on binding to DNA at both a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) and carbon paste electrode (CPE) are described. MDB, which interacts with immobilized calf thymus DNA, was detected using double stranded DNA modified HMDE or CPE (dsDNA modified HMDE or CPE), bare HMDE or CPE and single stranded DNA modified HMDE or CPE (ssDNA modified HMDE or CPE) in combination with adsorptive transfer stripping voltammetry (AdTSV) techniques and decreased peak currents were observed. The discrimination of dsDNA and ssDNA and detection of hybridization between synthetic oligonucleotides were determined from changes in the voltammetric peak of MDB. With the help of the planar phenoxazine ring, MDB was found to be intercalating between the base pairs of dsDNA. Several factors affecting the DNA immobilization, hybridization and indicator accumulation were investigated. The partition coefficient was also obtained from the signal of MDB with a dsDNA modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Specific DNA sequences from PCR amplicons were detected based on changes in the MDB reduction signal at the CPE. These results demonstrated that MDB could be used as an electroactive hybridization label for DNA biosensors.


This section contains information on Aboriginal Elders in Prince Edward Island. Users will find categories such as Elder Councils and Gathering Places, Notable Elders, Health and Social Services, Justice and Rights and Traditional Knowledge.


Organisms have acquired sophisticated regulatory networks that control gene expression in response to cellular perturbations. Understanding of the mechanisms underlying the coordinated changes in gene expression in response to external and internal stimuli is a fundamental issue in biology. Recent advances in high‐throughput technologies have enabled the measurement of diverse biological information, including gene expression levels, kinetics of gene expression, and interactions among gene expression regulatory molecules. By coupling these technologies with quantitative modeling, we can now uncover the biological roles and mechanisms of gene regulation at the system level. This review consists of two parts. First, we focus on the methods using uridine analogs that measure synthesis and decay rates of RNAs, which demonstrate how cells dynamically change the regulation of gene expression in response to both internal and external cues. Second, we discuss the underlying mechanisms of these changes in kinetics, including the functions of transcription factors and RNA‐binding proteins. Overall, this review will help to clarify a system‐level view of gene expression programs in cells.


The criteria for measuring the success of public–private partnership (PPP) projects have become very topical because of the global interest in PPP project success. This article empirically investigates the differences and similarities of PPP project success criteria in developing and developed economies, represented by Ghana and Hong Kong, respectively. Results reveal profitability, meeting output specifications, and adherence to budget as the top three success criteria in Ghana, whereas adherence to budget, adherence to time, and effective risk management are considered more important in Hong Kong. The findings inform practitioners of the success measures considered in PPP in developing and developed countries.


US comic books published about the Korean War during that conflict represented the war as an opportunity for US boys to become men through bloody, hand-to-hand combat. Korean War comic book representations of Asian men and women fell into a few basic types. The messages in US war comics were constrained by the need to avoid discouraging military recruitment.


A metabolic regulator also modulates immune cells in fatty tissue. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a greater fraction of total CD4+ T cells in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) than in spleen or lymphoid tissues, and these VAT-resident Tregs have a distinct gene expression profile. VAT-resident Tregs cells control the inflammatory state and insulin sensitivity of adipose tissue. Cipolletta et al. compared the gene expression profiles of mouse Tregs from VAT and lymph node and found a larger abundance of transcripts of the genes encoding the nuclear receptor PPAR-γ in VAT-resident Tregs. Retroviral transduction of Foxp3 in combination with Pparg into naïve CD4+ T cells resulted in increased expression of genes characteristic of VAT Tregs. Addition of the synthetic PPAR-γ agonist pioglitazone to naïve CD4+ T cells transduced with Foxp3 alone or in combination with Pparg resulted in increased expression of a set of lipid metabolism genes. PPAR-γ isoforms coimmunoprecipitated with Foxp3 in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells. The authors explored the importance of PPAR-γ in vivo by constructing transgenic mice in which Pparg was selectively knocked out in Tregs (Treg-PParg-mut). Mutant mice had fewer VAT Tregs than did wild-type mice. Comparing gene expression profiles of VAT Tregs from mutant and wild-type mice showed a decreased expression of genes characteristic of VAT Tregs in the mutant cells. In obese mice, addition of pioglitazone increased the number of Tregs in epididymal but not subcutaneous, perirenal, or liver adipose tissue and shifted their gene expression profiles toward that typical of VAT Tregs. Because pioglitazone is a known insulin-sensitizing agent, the authors examined insulin resistance and glucose tolerance in obese Treg-PParg-mut and wild-type mice treated with pioglitazone. Treatment with pioglitazone was more effective at decreasing insulin resistance and increasing glucose tolerance in obese wild-type mice than in obese Treg-PParg-mut mice. PPAR-γ thus functions within Tregs in adipose tissue to enhance insulin sensitivity. D. Cipolletta, M. Feuerer, A. Li, N. Kamei, J. Lee, S. E. Shoelson, C. Benoist, D. Mathis, PPAR-γ is a major driver of the accumulation and phenotype of adipose tissue Treg cells. Nature 486, 549–553 (2012). [PubMed]


Japan: A Short Cultural History was first published in 1931 by the Cresset Press in London and D. Appleton in New York. Writing in the Journal of American Oriental Society in 1959, Edwin O. Reischauer, Harvard professor and leading scholar in Japanese history and culture (and future United States Ambassador to Japan) said this of George Sansom's comprehensive account of Japanese history: "When Sir George Sansom's Japan: A Short Cultural History appeared in 1931, it raised the study of Japanese history in the West to new levels. Its penetrating analysis of institutions, sensitive interpretations of cultural developments, and stylistic charm contrasted with the plodding pedestrian surveys and over-written anecdotal accounts that had hitherto served in the Occident as introductions to Japanese history." The present Stanford edition, the first to appear in paperback in the United States, is a photographic reproduction of the British edition except in two particulars: eight of the original twenty plates have been dropped, and the maps have been redrawn by Margaret Kays. In redrawing the maps it was decided to retain the author's terminology, orthography, and dating even where these have been discarded or suspended by more recent scholarship.


A detailed study concerning the aqueous decomposition characteristics of S-nitrosothiols in both the presence and absence of cupric ions was undertaken. Spectrophotometric measurements established that the true catalytic species generating nitric oxide from S-nitrosothiols is Cu(^+), formed by the reduction of copper(II) ions by thiolate, which is present as an impurity in solution. Introduction of the specific cuprous ion chelator neocuproine inhibited reaction, with the concentration of thiol in situ having a significant influence on the absorbance/time traces obtained. Under certain conditions thiolate ions clearly promoted S-nitrosothiol decomposition, whereas at times an opposite effect was noted. These results have been correlated with the reductive ability and chelation properties towards Cu(^2+) of each thiol in question. Structure/reactivity studies were extended further to include a range of S-nitrosated aromatic and heterocyclic thiols which generated the corresponding disulfides in distilled water yet reformed the appropriate thione at pH 7.4, along with nitric oxide in both media. A mechanism has been proposed which accounts for these observations. The reaction of S-nitrosothiols with cupric ions bound to biologically significant molecules such as amino acids, peptides and proteins was followed. Despite Cu(^2+) being chelated in this manner, S-nitrosothiol decomposition was apparent, albeit at a slower rate than that seen when copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate was utilised. Thiolate ions were capable of reducing Cu(^2+) Cu(^+) which was bound to such molecules suggesting a possible mechanism for nitric oxide formation from S-nitrosothiols in vivo. The blue copper protein ceruloplasmin also promoted NO generation under physiological conditions. A brief investigation into the direct reaction of thiolate ion with its corresponding S-nitrosothiol was also carried out. It was discovered that the major reaction product in this instance is ammonia and not nitric oxide, suggesting that a different copper-ion independent process is occurring involving direct interaction between the two species.


Total gaseous mercury was collected at ten sites, which comprise part of the UK rural heavy metals monitoring network, between 2005 and 2008. Using the gold amalgam technique to capture total gaseous mercury, samples were analysed using a Tekran 2537A mercury vapour analyser. The data showed no upward or downward trend in atmospheric mercury concentrations over the period, with 4 year average concentrations between 1.3 and 1.9 ng m(-3), which are in line with other studies' observed northern hemispheric background concentrations of between 1.5 and 1.7 ng m(-3). Using data from nine of the sites, we were able to show seasonality within the data and through kriging we were able to interpolate the TGM concentrations over the UK, revealing a south-east to north-west declining concentration gradient. Using continuous speciated mercury measurements from one of the network sites, we show through wind sector analysis and air-mass back trajectories that this spatial trend is likely to be due to air masses moving over the UK from continental Europe on easterly winds. The levels of TGM recorded in the south-east of the UK also more closely match observed background TGM levels on the continent, which could indicate that the TGM concentrations from the north of the UK are a better reflection of the true North Atlantic atmospheric mercury background level.


The validity and reliability of student evaluations of college and law school teachers have received significant attention among scholars for a long time. This scholarship has included, in recent years, articles about law school teaching evaluations. Among legal writing teachers, a relatively new group of faculty, there has been a widely-held belief that when students evaluate legal writing teachers, the result is poorer or lower scores on evaluations than those received by the teachers of doctrinal or casebook courses. The purpose of our presentation at "The First 'Colonial Frontier' Legal Writing Conference" was not to delve deeply into the larger and sometimes controversial issues of student evaluations, but to demonstrate that legal writing teachers and courses are not doomed to receive poor evaluations from their students. Our position is that the conventional wisdom held by so many in our field is wrong. We believe that legal writing teachers and courses can receive exemplary evaluations from students. We also believe that thoughtful choices about curricular designs and wise decisions about pedagogical techniques can almost ensure high evaluation ratings from students. Furthermore, these curricular elements and teaching methods result in better student performance and greater teacher enjoyment.


Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) transform the brain activity of a human operator into executable commands that can be sent to a machine, usually a computer or robot, to perform intended tasks. In addition to current biomedical applications, available technology could also make feasible augmenting devices for space applications that could be promising means to improve astronauts' efficiency and capabilities. The implementation of artificial intelligence algorithms into the software architecture of present BMIs will be of crucial importance to guarantee a proper functionality of the device in the highly dynamic and unpredictable space environment.


Virtue ethicists sometimes say that a right action is what a virtuous person would do, characteristically, in the circumstances. But some have objected recently that right action cannot be defined as what a virtuous person would do in the circumstances because there are circumstances in which a right action is possible but in which no virtuous person would be found. This objection moves from the premise that a given person ought to do an action that no virtuous person would do, to the conclusion that the action is a right action. I demon-strate that virtue ethicists distinguish "ought" from "right" and reject the assumption that "ought" implies "right." I then show how their rejection of that assumption blocks this "right but not virtuous" objection. I conclude by showing how the thesis that "ought" does not imply "right" can clarify a further dispute in virtue ethics regarding whether "ought" implies "can."


Developmental Biology is a growing discipline in Chile. It started in the 1950s when Luis Izquierdo challenged the traditional descriptive perspective of embryology and comparative anatomy to explore the mechanisms underlying the origin of form. After this initial drive, Claudio Barros beginning in the late 1960s and Juan Fernández in the late 1970s, contributed with unique and complementary facets to the early growth of the discipline. In the 1980s, the community of developmental biologists created its first forms of association together with the reproduction biology community, and in 1993 the first international course of developmental biology was organised. During the 1990s and 2000s, a group of young investigators arrived in Chile after postdocs in Europe and the US to build the first research centres of developmental biology, fostering the discipline to an unprecedented level. In the 2010s, as these centres consolidated, a stream of young developmental biologists established new labs at several institutions, expanding the community size and broadening its scope. The recent organisation of developmental biology meetings fostered the sense of community and nurtured the need of formal organisation, setting the bases for the foundation of the Chilean Society for Developmental Biology in 2019. Today, the community of developmental biologists is a mix of young and experienced investigators working in a variety of geographical locations, institutions, topics and model organisms. These characteristics are a strength of an active community that is pushing the discipline to the next level, aiming to make it a relevant actor in national and international settings.


Hola and welcome: I am so grateful for this opportunity to address you as the eighty-second president of our Southern Historical Association (SHA), as the nomination came at an ebb tide in my personal and professional life. This honor has buoyed me during the transition from teaching southern studies abroad back to my patria chica and an endowed chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio. (1) I had always fantasized the most popular presidential address might include a few pleasantries before announcing, "The bar is now open." But my right hand in this and so many matters, our invaluable SHA secretary-treasurer, Stephen Berry, had already contemplated modifying tradition by welcoming glasses a flow and table seating during our presidential session. This is our first annual meeting on the beach since 1972--when the SHA met at Hollywood-by-the-Sea, Florida. That presidential address, "The Making of a Feminist," was a departure: Mary Elizabeth Massey was the first woman president of the organization since 1953, and the word feminist appeared for the first time in the annual program. (2) Mine will strike an equally different chord, emphasizing our annual meeting as part of a southern social network, with autobiographical and historical observations interwoven along the way. (3) My path to this podium has been a long and winding road: as I have often joked with friends, my academic career might provide a cautionary tale, that you could "publish and perish." What I rarely could do was hold my tongue; I began my career as a Cassandra and continue a scold. Cassandra was allegedly seduced by Apollo with the gift of prophecy, but when she refused him her body, he cast a spell: no one would believe any of her warnings. She became a kind of exile as a madwoman. Cassandra has always been to me the patron saint of those fighting sexual harassment, an issue I will return to later. My first formal teaching post was at the University of Benghazi in 1974, and you could only go up from there: Complaining about sexism? Try teaching in a fundamentalist Islamic republic. After my doctoral stint of four years at Princeton University (1975-1979), I secured a tenure-track job in upstate New York at Union College, where I spent four years before landing at Harvard University as an assistant professor in the Department of History in 1983. I was married by then and settled near Cambridge, and my chair explained to me that the history department was "like a monastic order"--just in case 1 had not yet figured out my unsuitability for permanent faculty status. A 1998 Boston Globe expose of the Harvard history department explained that the last time someone was promoted to tenure through the ranks in American history, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. (4) By 1989, two books published and another manuscript in progress, one child and two miscarriages later, I sought refuge from dwindling prospects with a temporary post at Brandeis University. After my second child was born in 1989, I was called back to another department at Harvard. Following the death of Nathan I. Huggins, a friend and champion, the Afro-American studies department (my alma mater, as I had majored in Af-Am as an undergraduate) was in limbo. My temporary appointment provided a jill-of-all-trades, while Barbara Johnson and Werner Sollors put shoulders to the wheel to salvage the struggling enterprise, bringing on board Henry Louis Gates Jr. to reinvent the program. The department, born of revolution and revived from life support, was transformed into an academic powerhouse, and its renaissance over the past twenty-five years has been historic. But in 1991, with two young sons, I moved to Connecticut for my husband's work, commuting to Harvard and then, for a semester, to Brown University. Finally, I decided to abandon teaching to write fulltime, which included joining the Screen Writers' Guild and acquiring three agents (one for trade books, one for screenplays, and one for children's books). …


RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES
Self-care policies are increasingly directing patients to seek advice from community pharmacists. This means pharmacists need to have sound diagnostic decision-making skills to enable them to recognise a variety of conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the process by which pharmacists manage patient signs and symptoms and to explore their use of decision-making for diagnostic purposes.

METHODS
Data were collected through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with community pharmacists working in England, between August 2013 and November 2014. Pharmacists were asked to share their experiences on how they performed patient consultations, and more specifically how they would approach a hypothetical headache scenario. As part of the interview, their sources of knowledge and experience were also explored. Framework analysis was used to identify themes and subthemes.

RESULTS
Eight interviews were conducted with pharmacists who had a wide range of working practice, from 1 year through to 40 years of experience. The pharmacists' main motivations during consultations were product selection and risk minimisation. Their questioning approach and decision-making relied heavily on mnemonic methods. This led to poor quality information gathering-although pharmacists acknowledged they needed to "delve deeper" but were often unable to articulate how or why. Some pharmacists exhibited elements of clinical reasoning in their consultations, but this seemed, mostly, to be unconscious and subsequently applied inappropriately. Overall, pharmacists exhibited poor decision-making ability, and often decisions were based on personal belief and experiences rather than evidence.

CONCLUSIONS
Community pharmacists relied heavily on mnemonic methods to manage patients' signs and symptoms with diagnosis-based decision-making being seldom employed. These findings suggest practicing pharmacists should receive more diagnostic training.


The volume highlights developments in our understanding of the palaeogeographical, palaeobiological, palaeoclimatic and cryospheric evolution of Antarctica. It focuses on the sedimentary record from the Devonian to the Quaternary Period. It features tectonic evolution and stratigraphy, as well as processes taking place adjacent to, beneath and beyond the ice-sheet margin, including the continental shelf.

The contributions in this volume include several invited review papers, as well as original research papers arising from the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences in Edinburgh, in July 2011. These papers demonstrate a remarkable diversity of Earth science interests in the Antarctic. Following international trends, there is particular emphasis on the Cenozoic Era, reflecting the increasing emphasis on the documentation and understanding of the past record of ice-sheet fluctuations. Furthermore, Antarctic Earth history is providing us with important information about potential future trends, as the impact of global warming is increasingly felt on the continent and its ocean.


Metric adaptation constitutes a powerful approach to improve the performance of prototype based classication schemes. We apply extensions of Generalized LVQ based on different adaptive distance measures in the domain of clinical proteomics. The Euclidean distance in GLVQ is extended by adaptive relevance vectors and matrices of global or local influence where training follows a stochastic gradient descent on an appropriate error function. We compare the performance of the resulting learning algorithms for the classification of high dimensional mass spectrometry data from cancer research. High prediction accuracies can be obtained by adapting full matrices of relevance factors in the distance measure in order to adjust the metric to the underlying data structure. The easy interpretability of the resulting models after training of relevance vectors allows to identify discriminative features in the original spectra.


Social networks and communities are rapidly expanding and changing due to the accelerating pace of globalization. In this article, we examine new possibilities for the reform of curriculum and educational research in a way that is responsive to increasingly multicultural and global communities. Drawing on literatures in the areas of multicultural, global, and civic education, we conducted a critical qualitative case study of four elementary school teachers. The teachers, two in the United States and two in the United Kingdom, are known to be exemplary at synthesizing multicultural, global, and civic education. We, the two authors, one a female from China and the other a male from the United States, employed duoethnography methodology to utilize our different positionalities as researchers in our description, analysis and interpretation of the data. As the exemplary teachers in our study illustrate, education needs to be culturally responsive, socially just, well-integrated, and empowering. We conclude with findings that have implications for the reform of curriculum and educational research methodology. Keywords: Multicultural Education, Global Education, Civic Education, Duoethnography


The paper presents results of a study concerning an AlSi7Mg alloy and the effect of subjecting the liquid metal to four different processes: conventional refining with hexachloroethane; the same refining followed by modification with titanium, boron, and sodium; refining by purging with argon carried out in parallel with modification with titanium and boron salts and strontium; and parallel refining with argon and modification with titanium, boron, and sodium salts. The effect of these four processes on compactness of the material, parameters of microstructure, and fatigue strength of AlSi7Mg alloy after heat treatment. It has been found that the highest compactness (the lowest porosity ratio value) and the most favorable values of the examined parameters of microstructure were demonstrated by the alloy obtained with the use of the process including parallel purging with argon and modification with salts of titanium, boron, and sodium. It has been found that in the fatigue cracking process observed in all the four variants of the liquid metal treatment, the crucial role in initiation of fatigue cracks was played by porosity. Application of the process consisting in refining by purging with argon parallel to modification with Ti, B, and Na salts allowed to refine the microstructure and reduce significantly porosity of the alloy extending thus the time of initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. The ultimate effect consisted in a distinct increase of the fatigue limit value.


Abstract Deformation and uplift in the Andes are a result of the subduction of the Nazca plate below South America. The deformation shows variations in structural style and shortening along and across the strike of the orogen, as a result of the dynamics of the subduction system and the features of the upper plate. In this work, we analyse the development of thin-skinned and thick-skinned fold and thrust belts in the Southern Central Andes (30–36°S). The pre-Andean history of the area determined the formation of different basement domains with distinct lithological compositions, as a result of terrane accretions during Palaeozoic time, the development of a widespread Permo-Triassic magmatic province and long-lasting arc activity. Basin development during Palaeozoic and Mesozoic times produced thick sedimentary successions in different parts of the study area. Based on estimations of strength for the different basement and sedimentary rocks, calculated using geophysical estimates of rock physical properties, we propose that the contrast in strength between basement and cover is the main control on structural style (thin- v. thick-skinned) and across-strike localization of shortening in the study area.


Plasma prolactin has been shown to increase during stress; the immune system is responsive to prolactin and affected by stress. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate the effects of acute graded, maximal treadmill exercise on prolactin-receptor expression by lymphocytes. Eight healthy men underwent one exercise and one nonexercise session. Blood was sampled immediately before and after the exercise. On the day of the nonexercise session, two resting blood samples were obtained at the same times as the exercise session samples to act as baseline data. Plasma prolactin concentrations were significantly elevated in response to exercise and correlated positively with total prolactin-receptor expression per B lymphocyte. An increase in total prolactin-receptor expression per B lymphocyte in response to exercise also was observed. In addition, exercise significantly increased the total number of circulating B lymphocytes expressing prolactin receptor as well as the total number of circulating B lymphocytes. These data support the idea that exercise may enhance the interaction between immune target cells and prolactin, a stress hormone capable of enhancing immune function.


The Origination Clause is a modern constitutional backwater, even though it was one of the most fiercely debated topics at the 1787 Constitutional Convention and a centerpiece of British parliamentary custom and usage.This Article, for the first time, examines the role that Ways and Means resolutions played as agenda-setting vehicles for revenue legislation in the British House of Commons and colonial assemblies. These procedural instruments authorized the Crown to begin collecting taxes at the amended rates set by the unicameral resolution and set the stage for subsequent budgetary legislation enacted into law. Though only passed by the lower house and subject to further amendment, these resolutions were powerful agenda-setting devices within the legislative process that today offers a glimpse into the core meaning of the Origination Clause.Part I places these issues into context, while Part II of this Article traces the development of Origination Clause jurisprudence from the early British period through the Constitutional Convention. Part III analyzes British and colonial practice surrounding Ways and Means resolutions and considers their effect as agenda-setting devices. Part IV considers the force of this agenda-setting purpose in light of germanity and Origination Clause precedent. Finally, Part V concludes by translating these ideas into the modern Congressional context and offers solutions for restoring substantive meaning to this important constitutional provision.


Background The influence of donor-side regulation toward recipient antigens on graft outcome is poorly understood. Methods Because this influence might be due in part to the accumulation of tissue-resident memory T cells in the donor organ, we used a standard murine tolerization model (donor-specific transfusion plus CD40L blockade) to determine the kinetics of development and peripheralization of allospecific regulatory T cell in lymphoid tissues and liver, a secondary lymphoid organ used in transplantation. Results We found that donor-specific transfusion and CD40L blockade leads to a progressive and sustained T regulatory allospecific response. The cytokines IL10, TGF&bgr;, and IL35 all contributed to the regulatory phenomenon as determined by trans vivo delayed hypersensitivity assay. Unexpectedly, an early and transient self-specific regulatory response was found as well. Using double reporter mice (forkhead box p 3 [Foxp3]-yellow fluorescent protein, Epstein-Barr virus-induced gene 3 [Ebi3]-TdTomRed), we found an increase in Foxp3+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells paralleling the regulatory response. The Ebi3+ CD4 T cells (IL35-producing) were mainly classic Treg cells (Foxp3+CD25+), whereas TGF&bgr;+ CD4 T cells are mostly Foxp3-negative, suggesting 2 different CD4 Treg cell subsets. Liver-resident TGF&bgr;+ CD4 T cells appeared more rapidly than Ebi3-producing T cells, whereas at later timepoints, the Ebi3 response predominated both in lymphoid tissues and liver. Conclusions The timing of appearance of donor organ resident Treg cell subsets should be considered in experiments testing the role of bidirectional regulation in transplant tolerance.


Introduction: Evidence based practice (EBP) is the use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The aim of this study was to explore the practices, attitudes, knowledge and perceived barriers in relation to EBP among faculty members at Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS), Nepal.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study. Participants were faculty members (both clinical and non-clinical) at PAHS. The main outcomes were attitude towards the usefulness of EBP, the frequency of use of EBP in practice, and the barriers to carrying out EBP.
Results: One hundred and seventy-two faculty members participated in this survey. Ninety five percent knew it was used for clinical decision making and the majority used it for teaching. Senior faculty spent more time on searching for evidence and reading compared to junior faculty. There was no difference between clinical and non-clinical departments. The main barriers to EBP were inadequate teaching learning support by 49% (85/172) followed by inadequate time 30% (52/172).
Conclusions: The study showed that faculty at PAHS had a generally positive attitude towards EBP. EBP could be better facilitated by proper teaching and allocation of dedicated time.


The genus Dracophyllum Labill. (Ericaceae) has a fragmented distribution in Australasia, but reaches the greatest level of species richness and morphological diversity in New Zealand. We investigated evolutionary processes that contribute to this disparity in species richness by comparing DNA sequences from members of Dracophyllum , its close relatives Richea Labill. and Sphenotoma R. Br. ex Sweet (together constituting tribe Richeeae Crayn & Quinn), along with more distant relatives in the Ericaceae. We created complementary data sets for the chloroplast-encoded genes matK and rbcL . Parsimony, Bayesian, and maximum likelihood analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of our phylogenetic inferences. The results were largely congruent and, when analyzed in combination, provided greater resolution. In our analyses, tribe Richeeae formed a monophyletic group that diverged during the Eocene (at least 33.3 million years ago [Ma]) with a crown radiation during the Early Miocene (at least 16.5 Ma) that resulted in two disjunct lineages. This date corresponds roughly to the onset of aridification in central Australia. The southern Western Australian genus Sphenotoma formed an isolated evolutionary lineage, while Dracophyllum and Richea together formed a second lineage restricted to eastern Australia, Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. The relationships of the Tasmanian endemic, D. milliganii Hook. f., remain an enigma. It was ambiguously placed as sister to Sphenotoma or to the Dracophyllum – Richea clade. We recovered two distinct lineages, traditionally recognized as Richea sect. Cystanthe (R. Br.) Benth. and Richea sect. Dracophylloides Benth., which were nested within Dracophyllum . The Lord Howe Island endemic, D. fitzgeraldii F. Muell., emerged as sister to an eastern Australian clade of Dracophyllum . Our evidence suggests that the New Caledonian and New Zealand species of Dracophyllum dispersed from Australia; we document two independent episodes of long-distance dispersal in the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene. Low levels of sequence divergence suggest a rapid and recent species radiation in these two island archipelagos largely within the last three to six million years. This radiation accompanied Pliocene uplift of the New Zealand Southern Alps and episodes of glaciation during the Pleistocene. Because Dracophyllum is paraphyletic and Richea is polyphyletic, the taxonomic circumscription of these genera requires revision.


The official estimates of poverty in Pakistan have shown a remarkable and consistent decline in the poverty headcount during the previous decade. This paper examines trends in poverty between 2001 and 2011 using the official food energy intake and the cost of basic needs approaches, both of which are modified to allow poverty lines to vary over time and space. The latter estimates provide utility-consistent poverty lines through the imposition of revealed preference conditions in maximum entropy adjustments. Evidence from both methods suggests that poverty incidence increased rather than declined as indicated in the official estimates.


Infiltration of tumors with effector T cells is positively associated with therapeutic efficacy and patient survival. However, the mechanisms underlying effector T-cell trafficking to the tumor microenvironment remain poorly understood in patients with colon cancer. The polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is involved in cancer progression, but the regulation of tumor immunity by epigenetic mechanisms has yet to be investigated. In this study,we examined the relationship between the repressive PRC2 machinery and effector T-cell trafficking. We found that PRC2 components and demethylase JMJD3-mediated histoneH3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) repress the expression and subsequent production of Th1-type chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10, mediators of effector T-cell trafficking. Moreover, the expression levels of PRC2 components, including EZH2, SUZ12, and EED, were inversely associated with those of CD4, CD8, and Th1-type chemokines in human colon cancer tissue, and this expression pattern was significantly associated with patient survival. Collectively, our findings reveal that PRC2-mediated epigenetic silencing is not only a crucial oncogenic mechanism, but also a key circuit controlling tumor immunosuppression. Therefore, targeting epigenetic programs may have significant implications for improving the efficacy of current cancer immunotherapies relying on effective T-cell–mediated immunity at the tumor site. Cancer Res; 76(2); 275–82. 2015 AACR.


There has been rapidly growing interest in meta-learning as a method for increasing the flexibility and sample efficiency of reinforcement learning. One problem in this area of research, however, has been a scarcity of adequate benchmark tasks. In general, the structure underlying past benchmarks has either been too simple to be inherently interesting, or too ill-defined to support principled analysis. In the present work, we introduce a new benchmark for meta-RL research, emphasizing transparency and potential for in-depth analysis as well as structural richness. Alchemy is a 3D video game, implemented in Unity, which involves a latent causal structure that is resampled procedurally from episode to episode, affording structure learning, online inference, hypothesis testing and action sequencing based on abstract domain knowledge. We evaluate a pair of powerful RL agents on Alchemy and present an in-depth analysis of one of these agents. Results clearly indicate a frank and specific failure of meta-learning, providing validation for Alchemy as a challenging benchmark for meta-RL. Concurrent with this report, we are releasing Alchemy as public resource, together with a suite of analysis tools and sample agent trajectories.


With Wi-Fi emerging as a crucial access network for mobile service
providers, it has become important to provide functions commonly
available in 3G and 4G networks in Wi-Fi access networks as well. Such
functions include Access Point Name (APN) Selection, multiple Packet
Data Network (PDN) connections, and seamless mobility between Wi-Fi
and 3G/4G networks. The EAP Authentication and Key Agreement (EAP-
AKA), and EAP-AKA', protocol is required for mobile devices to
access the mobile Evolved Packet Core (EPC) via Wi-Fi networks. This
document defines a few new EAP attributes to enable the above-
mentioned functions in such networks. The attributes are exchanged
between a client (such as a Mobile Node (MN)) and its network
counterpart (such as an Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
(AAA) server) in the service provider's infrastructure.


This paper summarizes a lesson on resonant converters included in the new course, Advanced Power Conversion Techniques, within the M.Sc. program in electrical engineering at the University of Cantabria, Spain. The course has recently received the National Accreditation for official programs. The M.Sc. program, along with the Ph.D. thesis, forms a Ph.D. program in industrial engineering. The contents motivate the students to find suitable resonant converter applications of industrial interest. A new approach to teaching resonant converters is presented that focused on their properties at certain frequencies, such as for voltage sources, current sources, or sink and power source operation with very variable loads. The analysis of the converters enables the identification of these operating points and, by means of a sensitivity analysis with respect to the components of the resonant tank, explains the robustness of their behavior. Using as a starting point the fulfillment of the desired property, we propose that the students develop open-loop designs, with stable behavior, or closed-loop designs, with very small variation in the operating point. Two practical application examples are shown: electronic ballasts for high-intensity discharge lamps and power supplies for electrical discharge machining.


Owing to the effectiveness of cisplatin in cancer chemotherapy, there is a growing interest in the development of other metal complex-based drugs. Similarly, the approval of photodynamic therapy and extracorporeal photopheresis in clinical practice, and the general advantages of temporal and spatial specificity inherent in phototherapy have generated a general interest in the development of other light-dependent treatment modalities. Over a decade ago it was demonstrated that the thermally inert octahedral bisbipyridyl complex cis-dichlorobis(1,10-phenanthroline)-rhodium(Ill) chloride (BISPHEN) could be activated by light and could then mimic the thermal chemistry between cisplatin and calf thymus-DNA. Thus, the term 'photocisplatin reagents' was coined for rhodium (and related) metal complexes that are thermally inert, but which form covalent bonds with DNA upon irradiation with ultraviolet/visible light. This review discusses recent developments in the elaboration of such photocisplatin reagents.


The eminent contributors (including Altshuler, Creedy, Freebairn, Gravelle, Heady, Kalb, Sorensen and Zodrow) investigate the beneficial directions for medium-term tax reform in the light of global developments and lessons from the latest taxation research. In addressing this issue, they review recent advances in both the theoretical and empirical tax literature and reform evidence from individual countries. Topics covered include the impact of taxes on economic performance; international and corporate taxation; personal tax and welfare systems; environmental taxation; and country-specific tax reform experiences.


If / is bounded and holomorphic in the unit ball in C" then it has radial limits at almost all points of the boundary of the ball. More is true; for example,/will have limits almost everywhere with respect to arclength on any arc that forms part of the boundary of an anlaytic disc. Motivated by these considerations we consider an ^-dimensional torus in the boundary of the ball and ask if there are growth conditions less restrictive than boundedness that imply the existence of radial limits on this torus. We show that the answer is no for some of the standard function classes. For example, we show that there is holomorphic function of bounded mean oscillation in the ball that has a finite radial limit at no point of the torus.


Due to the interdisciplinary nature of complex systems as a field, students studying complex systems at university level have diverse disciplinary backgrounds. This brings challenges (e.g., wide range of computer programming skills) but also opportunities (e.g., facilitating interdisciplinary interactions and projects) for the classroom. However, little has been published regarding how these challenges and opportunities are handled in teaching and learning complex systems as an explicit subject in higher education and how this differs in comparison to other subject areas. We seek to explore these particular challenges and opportunities via an interview-based study of pioneering teachers and learners (conducted amongst the authors) regarding their experiences. We compare and contrast those experiences and analyze them with respect to the educational literature. Our discussions explored approaches to curriculum design, how theories/models/frameworks of teaching and learning informed decisions and experience, how diversity in student backgrounds was addressed, and assessment task design. We found a striking level of commonality in the issues expressed as well as the strategies handling them, for example, a significant focus on problem-based learning and the use of major student-led creative projects for both achieving and assessing learning outcomes.


The great diversity in genital shape and function across and within the animal phyla hamper the identification of specific evolutionary trends that stretch beyond the limits of the group under study. Asymmetry might be a trait in genital morphology that could play a unifying role in the evolutionary biology of genitalia. Here, I review the current knowledge on the taxonomic distribution, phylogenetic patterns, genetics, development, and ecology of asymmetric (chiral) genitalia. Asymmetric genitalia (male as well as female) have evolved from bilaterally symmetric ones (and sometimes vice versa), innumerous times in most animal taxa with internal fertilisation, and especially in Platyhelminthes, Arthropoda, Nematoda, and Chordata. In groups with asymmetric genitalia, chiral reversal (where species carry genitalia that are the mirror image of those in other, congeneric, species) is common, but antisymmetry (both mirror images present within a species) is rare. Although indications exist that, at least in insects, asymmetry evolves as a compensatory response to the evolution of male-dominant mating positions, many mysteries remain. Main questions are: (i) is genital asymmetry developmental-genetically linked with other (visceral, external) asymmetries? (ii) is genital asymmetry usually correlated with a change in mating position? (iii) is asymmetry more likely to evolve in response to cryptic female choice or sexually-antagonistic coevolution? (iv) why is antisymmetry so rare and how does chiral reversal evolve? Based on an overview of the taxonomic patterns, I advocate a research program that makes use of the simple, binary nature of left-right asymmetry to test hypotheses for its evolution with experimental and comparative methods. I also provide tables with full or summarised data on (a) genital asymmetry across all animal phyla with internal fertilisation; (b) genera with dextral as well as sinistral species; (c) species with dextral as well as sinistral individuals; (d) genera with symmetric as well as asymmetric species; (e) species with symmetric as well as asymmetric individuals.


The Data Vortex switch architecture has been proposed as a scalable low-latency interconnection fabric for optical packet switches. This self-routed hierarchical architecture employs synchronous timing and distributed traffic-control signaling to eliminate optical buffering and to reduce the required routing logic, greatly facilitating a photonic implementation. In previous work, we have shown the efficient scalability of the architecture under uniform and random traffic conditions while maintaining high throughput and low-latency performance. This paper reports on the performance of the Data Vortex architecture under nonuniform and bursty traffic conditions. The results show that the switch architecture performs well under modest nonuniform traffic, but an excessive degree of nonuniformity will severely limit the scalability. As long as a modest degree of asymmetry between the number of input and output ports is provided, the Data Vortex switch is shown to handle very bursty traffic with little performance degradation.


ABSTRACT The upper portion of member 3 and member 4 of the uppermost Precambrian (Vendian)-Lower Cambrian Chapel Island Formation represents a large-scale shoaling-up deposit dominated by shelf siliciclastic mudstone. Medium-scale, higher-order shoaling-up cycles at the top of member 3 and in member 4 are capped by peritidal limestones that contain a wide variety of stromatolitic buildups and algal mud mounds. Sedimentation took place in an oxygen-stratified basin with accumulation of gray dysaerobic mudstone offshore and green and red mudstone in shallower, more oxygenated waters. Biofacies models for dysaerobic basins can be applied to this sequence and help in understanding the distribution of trace fossils, skeletal fossils (shells and pyritic steinkerns), and diagenetic features. These da a are important for the understanding of the stratigraphic distribution of shelly fossils within this lowest Cambrian unit. A mixed carbonate-siliciclastic facies model is presented in which carbonate sediments formed in intertidal areas along the shoreline of a siliciclastic muddy shelf. The carbonate shoreline prograded during periods of increasing rate of relative sea-level fall or decreasing rate of relative sea-level rise. Restriction of carbonate sediments to the peritidal environment may have been due to a combination of higher rates of carbonate sediment production and accumulation in the peritidal zone, seaward dilution by siliciclastic mud, and a paleogeographic position near the latitudinal climatic extreme for carbonate production.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the efficacy of fish oil supplementation in patients with active ulcerative colitis.

DESIGN
Multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trail with 4-month treatment periods (fish oil and placebo) separated by a 1-month washout.

SETTING
Four gastroenterology divisions.

PATIENTS
Twenty-four patients with active ulcerative colitis entered the study. Five dropped out, and one was noncompliant. Eighteen patients completed the study. All patients had active disease as manifested by diarrhea and rectal inflammation.

INTERVENTIONS
Treatment with prednisone and sulfasalazine was continued. Fish oil supplementation consisted of 18 Max-EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) capsules daily (eicosapentaenoic acid, 3.24 g; and docosahexaenoic acid, 2.16 g). Placebo supplementation consisted of 18 identical capsules containing isocaloric amounts of vegetable oil.

MEASUREMENTS
Patients were evaluated at study entry and after each diet period. Evaluations included a review of symptoms, flexible sigmoidoscopy, rectal biopsy, and rectal dialysis to measure prostaglandin E2 and leukotriene B4 levels.

RESULTS
Fish oil supplementation resulted in a significant decrease in rectal dialysate levels of leukotriene B4 from 71.0 to 27.7 pg/mL (average change, -43.3 pg/mL; 95% CI, -83 to -3.6). Significant improvements were seen in acute histology index (average change, -8.5 units from a baseline of 10.5 units; CI, -12.9 to -4.2) and total histology index (average change, -8.5 units from a baseline of 14.80; CI, -13.2 to -3.8) as well as significant weight gain (average weight gain, 1.74 kg, CI, 0.94 to 2.54). No significant changes occurred in any variable during the placebo period. Seven patients received concurrent treatment with prednisone. During the fish oil supplementation period, the mean prednisone dose decreased from 12.9 mg/d to 6.1 mg/d and rose from 10.4 mg/d to 12.9 mg/d during the placebo diet period (P greater than 0.20).

CONCLUSIONS
Four months of diet supplementation with fish oil in patients with inflammatory bowel disease resulted in reductions in rectal dialysate leukotriene B4 levels, improvements in histologic findings, and weight gain.


In the fall of 1977, the world health community recorded what was considered the very last case of naturally transmitted smallpox on Earth. Three years later, the world was declared officially free of this deadly infectious disease. This event marked what some view as one of the most remarkable achievements of modern science.
Global Disease Eradication is in part about the smallpox victory and the end game that followed, but it is also a look into the debate surrounding global disease eradication, a goal that many in the world health community see as the ultimate achievement of public health.
The authors present the history of three separate campaigns to eradicate a major infectious disease worldwide. The first, against malaria, though undertaken with ambition and optimism, ultimately failed: at the beginning of the 21st century, malaria threatens the health of over 2,400 million people worldwide. In contrast, the campaign against smallpox succeeded for a wide variety of reasons. Now public health workers are within a hair's breadth of eradicating polio — the third campaign — but tremendous uncertainties still surround the effort.
Whether these monumental global campaigns should be undertaken remains an open question. What is the value of global disease eradication if, as with smallpox, it ultimately leaves the world's population susceptible to accidental or intentional reintroduction of the disease? What are the costs of an eradication program, both direct and indirect, as resources are funneled into a single purpose at the cost of other priorities? What are the challenges involved in actually stopping a disease in its tracks?
Needham and Canning contribute a clear evaluation of the social, political, scientific, and economic considerations, both for the three specific campaigns described and for all future efforts toward protecting every child worldwide for deadly infectious diseases.
Electronic Only, 196 pages.


We assess market integration and price transmission of perishable agricultural produce in Sub-Saharan Africa by studying Ghanaian tomato markets which are characterized by pronounced seasonality in production and trade flows. We analyse the tomato markets of Ghana by simultaneously regarding its five most important markets, Navrongo, Techiman, Kumasi, Tamale and Accra, in a multivariate asymmetric price transmission framework. The estimation of the model is based on a unique dataset and on a modified version of the Johansen estimation procedure which is suitable for estimating such multivariate models. We estimate the price transmission parameters for four regimes which are a combination of the seasonal patterns in trade flows and asymmetries in the longrun price equilibrium between the most important production region (Techiman) and the most important consumption centre for tomatoes (Accra). We find strong evidence for integration of the five markets. In general, price transmission appears to be fast. Disequilibria mainly trigger price responses in the two production regions of Navrongo and Techiman. The regimes are found to matter for the whole system of tomato markets. Disequilibrium is shown to spillover between the price relationships. Consequently, tomato markets in Ghana appear to be integrated and function very well since price signals are rapidly passed through the country.


Abstract : A qualitative analysis of the airwake of a TARAWA class LHA in a simulated atmospheric boundary layer was conducted using the environmental wind tunnel. Helium bubble flow visualization techniques were employed and a photographic record made of the results. The study utilized a 1:205 scale wooden model of the LHA, suitably mounted to a motion simulator able to fix various combinations of pitch, roll and yaw. Helium bubble flow visualization produced excellent photographic results. Yaw angles of 0 deg and 30 deg starboard showed a generally smooth flow pattern with bow trailing vortices, while a yaw angle of 45 deg port displayed areas of significant turbulence and recirculation zones. Keywords: Flow visualization, Simulated atmospheric boundary layer, Theses.


Information access research (and development) sometimes makes use of gender, whether to report on the demographics of participants in a user study, as inputs to personalized results or recommendations, or to make systems gender-fair, amongst other purposes. This work makes a variety of assumptions about gender, however, that are not necessarily aligned with current understandings of what gender is, how it should be encoded, and how a gender variable should be ethically used. In this work, we present a systematic review of papers on information retrieval and recommender systems that mention gender in order to document how gender is currently being used in this field. We find that most papers mentioning gender do not use an explicit gender variable, but most of those that do either focus on contextualizing results of model performance, personalizing a system based on assumptions of user gender, or auditing a model's behavior for fairness or other privacy-related issues. Moreover, most of the papers we review rely on a binary notion of gender, even if they acknowledge that gender cannot be split into two categories. We connect these findings with scholarship on gender theory and recent work on gender in human-computer interaction and natural language processing. We conclude by making recommendations for ethical and well-grounded use of gender in building and researching information access systems.


Category theory is a branch of abstract algebra with incredibly diverse applications. This text and reference book is aimed not only at mathematicians, but also researchers and students of computer science, logic, linguistics, cognitive science, philosophy, and any of the other fields in which the ideas are being applied. Containing clear definitions of the essential concepts, illuminated with numerous accessible examples, and providing full proofs of all important propositions and theorems, this book aims to make the basic ideas, theorems, and methods of category theory understandable to this broad readership. Although assuming few mathematical pre-requisites, the standard of mathematical rigour is not compromised. The material covered includes the standard core of categories; functors; natural transformations; equivalence; limits and colimits; functor categories; representables; Yoneda's lemma; adjoints; monads. An extra topic of cartesian closed categories and the lambda-calculus is also provided - a must for computer scientists, logicians and linguists!This Second Edition contains numerous revisions to the original text, including expanding the exposition, revising and elaborating the proofs, providing additional diagrams, correcting typographical errors and, finally, adding an entirely new section on monoidal categories. Nearly a hundred new exercises have also been added, many with solutions, to make the book more useful as a course text and for self-study.


Measuring the two-point correlation function of the galaxies in the Universe gives access
 to the underlying dark matter distribution, which is related to cosmological parameters
 and to the physics of the primordial Universe. The estimation of the correlation function
 for current galaxy surveys makes use of the Landy-Szalay estimator, which is supposed to
 reach minimal variance. This is only true, however, for a vanishing correlation function.
 We study the Landy-Szalay estimator when these conditions are not fulfilled and propose a
 new estimator that provides the smallest variance for a given survey geometry. Our
 estimator is a linear combination of ratios between pair counts of data and/or random
 catalogues (DD, RR, and DR). The optimal combination for a given geometry is determined by
 using lognormal mock catalogues. The resulting estimator is biased in a model-dependent
 way, but we propose a simple iterative procedure for obtaining an unbiased
 model-independent estimator. Our method can be easily applied to any dataset and requires
 few extra mock catalogues compared to the standard Landy-Szalay analysis. Using various
 sets of simulated data (lognormal, second-order LPT, and N-body), we
 obtain a 20–25% gain on the error bars on the two-point correlation function for the SDSS
 geometry and ΛCDM correlation function. When applied to SDSS data (DR7 and DR9), we
 achieve a similar gain on the correlation functions, which translates into a 10–15%
 improvement over the estimation of the densities of matter Ωm and dark energy
 ΩΛ in an open ΛCDM model. The constraints derived from DR7 data with our
 estimator are similar to those obtained with the DR9 data and the Landy-Szalay estimator,
 which covers a volume twice as large and has a density that is three times higher.


Dirichlet process (DP) mixture models provide a flexible Bayesian framework for density estimation. Unfortunately, their flexibility comes at a cost: inference in DP mixture models is computationally expensive, even when conjugate distributions are used. In the common case when one seeks only a maximum a posteriori assignment of data points to clusters, we show that search algorithms provide a practical alternative to expensive MCMC and variational techniques. When a true posterior sample is desired, the solution found by search can serve as a good initializer for MCMC. Experimental results show that using these techniques is it possible to apply DP mixture models to very large data sets.


Western museum displays of Egyptology are in need of an overhaul. The study of the ancient Egyptian past and the methods by which museums represent this past are affected by over two hundred years of Western tradition. This tradition, founded in a time of nation-building, led to the establishment of a narrow set of understandings of ancient Egypt. Focused on elite individuals, death and religious practices, early Egyptological scholarship and museum display created an environment in which the public could do little more than stare in awe. While distancing ancient Egypt from the familiar, Western ownership acted as a symbol of power within eighteenth century politics. Claiming the world's greatest ancient civilisation for its own, the West divorced living Egyptians from this heritage through powerful Orientalising discourse which denied them links with the ancient culture since the coming of Islam. Today, the strength of these first associations is still evident in Egyptology museum displays, which prioritise elite lifestyles and death above more accessible daily life narratives and continue to ignore Egyptian perspectives on the past. This thesis, therefore, presents new strategies for the exhibition of ancient Egypt in Western museums that can cut through traditions of exclusion and incorporate daily life and contemporary perspectives into understandings of Egypt. I begin by discussing the theoretical context of collaborative archaeology and the historical position of Western Egyptology display. From here I disclose my three-part methodology. Part one involves collaboration with the modern Egyptian community to address perceptions of ancient Egypt and to promote Egyptian solutions to outdated Western modes of Egyptology display. Part two extends the collaborative approach to incorporate Western museum visiting communities' understanding of Egypt, ancient and modern, and incorporate further suggestions for museological change. Part three contextualises the Egyptian and museum visitors' views through a detailed visual analysis of the state of current Western Egyptology display. The results of these three areas of analysis are brought together to propose an emotive, multi-voiced, cross-temporal, creative methodology as the means by which a disciplinary shift can be achieved. Centred on the unification of art and artefact, ancient and modern, Egypt and West, life and death, the incorporation of contemporary Egyptian art into Egyptology display is offered as a route out of museological stasis that acknowledges the benefit of diversifying the voices involved in the interpretation of the past, finds resonance with the lives of Egyptians and Western museum visitors today, and is in-keeping with the ethics of twenty-first century museology.


Phytophthora root rot of avocados and is the major limiting factor to avocado production in Australia. The disease has a significant impact on productivity. An integrated program is recommended for Phytophthora root rot management with phosphorus acid a key component of this strategy.

Monthly root analyses will be conducted on 5 avocado orchards across a range of growing environments on the Atherton Tablelands. Detailed tree phenology data will be collected orchard at the same time the root sampling occurs. In conjunction with the phenological data, decay curves will allow the development of recommendations to optimize phosphorous acid applications for the management of Phytophthora root rot in Shepard avocados.


One of the main characteristics of Smart TVs are apps. Apps extend the Smart TV behavior with various functionalities, ranging from usage of social networks or payed streaming services, to buying articles on Ebay. These actions demand usage of critical data like authentication tokens and passwords, and thus raise a question on new attack scenarios and general security of Smart TV apps. In this paper, we investigate attack models for Smart TVs and their apps, and systematically analyze security of Smart TV devices. We point out that some popular apps, including Facebook, Ebay or Watchever, send login data over unencrypted channels. Even worse, we show that an arbitrary app installed on devices of the market share leader Samsung can gain access to the credentials of a Samsung Single Sign-On account. Therefore, such an app can hijack a complete user account including all his devices like smartphones and tablets connected with it. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations that are of general importance and applicable to areas beyond Smart TVs.


The three main credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch, use a combination of economic, social and political factors to determine the capacity and current and future debt obligation of countries. This study contributes to literature in two ways. The first one is comparison of results obtained by rating countries on various macroeconomic variables using credit scores given by the three main credit rating agencies and using the MOORA method. The second one is the determination of how optimistic or pessimistic country-based results the three main credit rating agencies yield according to their estimates by macroeconomic variables. Among the three rating agencies, Moody's make the most optimistic estimates in terms of its rating of countries. Moody's is followed by Standard and Poor's, and the credit rating agencies that make the most pessimistic estimates is observed to be Fitch.


The major problems of municipalities (especially small ones) are roads and bridges, the waste management infrastructure, the clean water infrastructure, sewage treatment facilities, the natural gas delivery infrastructure, electricity, public transit, etc. As a rule, municipal budgets don't provide sufficient funds for solving these problems. Thus, the major sources of funding those specific needs are loans. According to the Budgetary Code of Ukraine (Article 16, Part 2) the following entities have the right to borrow: city councils (radas) and theVerkhovna Rada (Parliament) of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC). The Verkhovna Rada of the ARC and city councils have the right to receive internal loans (except in cases mentioned in Article 73 of the Budgetary Code of Ukraine); city councils of cities that have more than 800 thousand inhabitants (according to official records of government statistics at the time a decision about the loan is made) have the right to take outside loans. The Council of Ministers (Rada Ministriv) of the ARC, local state administrations, executive bodies of particular city councils may, subject to a decision by the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC or the proper city council, take out a loan from financial institutions to fund temporary budgetary gaps for a term not longer than three months within the time frame of the same budgetary period. The Ministry of Finances defines the manner of those loans. Budgets cannot make loans to each other (Article 73 of the Budgetary Code).


Abstract. In the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 radioactive 137Cs was discharged from a damaged nuclear power plant to the sea off Fukushima Dai-ichi, Japan. Here we explore its dilution and fate with a state-of-the-art global ocean general circulation model, which is eddy-resolving in the region of interest. We find apparent consistency between our simulated circulation, estimates of 137Cs discharged ranging from 0.94 p Bq (Japanese Government, 2011) to 3.5 ± 0.7 p Bq (Tsumune et al., 2012), and measurements by Japanese authorities and the power plant operator. In contrast, our simulations are apparently inconsistent with the high 27 ± 15 p Bq discharge estimate of Bailly du Bois et al. (2012). Expressed in terms of a diffusivity we diagnose, from our simulations, an initial dilution on the shelf of 60 to 100 m2 s−1. The cross-shelf diffusivity is at 500 ± 300 m2 s−1 significantly higher and variable in time as indicated by its uncertainty. Expressed as an effective residence time of surface water on the shelf, the latter estimate transfers to 43 ± 16 days. As regards the fate of 137Cs, our simulations suggest that activities up to 4 mBq l−1 prevail in the Kuroshio-Oyashio Interfrontal Zone one year after the accident. This allows for low but detectable 0.1 to 0.3 m Bq l−1 entering the North Pacific Intermediate Water before the 137Cs signal is flushed away. The latter estimates concern the direct release to the sea only.


Background: The economic impact of older-age cognitive impairment has been estimated primarily by the direct and indirect costs associated with dementia care. Other potential costs associated with milder cognitive impairment in the community have received little attention. Objective: To quantify the cost of nonclinical cognitive impairment in a large population-based sample in order to more fully inform cost-effectiveness evaluations of interventions to maintain cognitive health. Methods: Volunteering by seniors has economic value but those with lower cognitive function may contribute fewer hours. Relations between hours volunteering and cognitive impairment were assessed using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey data. These findings were extrapolated to the Australian population to estimate one potential cost attributable to nonclinical cognitive impairment. Results: In those aged ≥60 years in HILDA (n = 3,127), conservatively defined cognitive impairment was present in 3.8% of the sample. Impairment was defined by performance ≥1 standard deviation below the age- and education-adjusted mean on both the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and Backwards Digit Span test. In fully adjusted binomial regression models, impairment was associated with the probability of undertaking 1 h 9 min less volunteering a week compared to being nonimpaired (β = -1.15, 95% confidence interval -1.82 to -0.47, p = 0.001). In the population, 3.8% impairment equated to probable loss of AUD 302,307,969 per annum estimated by hours of volunteering valued by replacement cost. Conclusion: Nonclinical cognitive impairment in older age impacts upon on the nonmonetary economy via probable loss of volunteering contribution. Valuing loss of contribution provides additional information for cost-effectiveness evaluations of research and action directed toward maintaining older-age cognitive functioning.


The turn toward field-based and participatory approaches in rhetoric extended and challenged McKerrow's earliest formulation of critical rhetoric. Reflecting on recent decolonial, antiracist, feminist, and queer critiques of critical rhetoric—and participatory critical rhetoric by extension—we look to the ways that a participatory orientation invites the rhetorical critic to enter into conversation with new perspectives and epistemologies. We contend that this incommensurability of critical rhetoric with many of these critical provocations produces a set of tensions that can sensitize critics to the complex topographies of power that underlie our scholarship, the assumptions we bring to it, and the ends toward which we direct it. A participatory orientation can bring field critics in conversation with those who suffer under colonial logics, thereby challenging the roots and biases found within rhetorical scholarship. Finally, in the spirit of reflexivity, we step back from this conversation to yield space for additional voices in the conversation about participatory approaches to rhetoric.


A fast detection system based on dual-pulsed laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS) was successfully developed and optimized for the estimation of micro-toxic element contents in commercial coffee brands to monitor pollution and ensure food safety. A series of 13 various coffee brands were quantitatively analyzed in this study utilizing DP-LIBS and a standard analytical technique like inductively coupled plasma/optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The micro-toxic elements, such as aluminum (Al), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and chromium (Cr), that exist in the coffee brands were exactly identified. We prepared standard matrices in a known concentration in the coffee sample to draw the standard calibration curves for each element, as well as by utilizing a tactic based on the intense line emission of the element of interest as a quantitative analysis. The analytical routines were approved under the expectations that the plasma created by the dual-pulsed lasers was in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and was optically thin. We investigated the influence of different parametric dependence studies to enhance our DP-LIBS detection sensitivity. Furthermore, the precision of our DP-LIBS data for determining the concentration of micro-toxic elements present in coffee samples was validated via the ICP-OES technique. The results achieved by the DP-LIBS technique were in full agreement with the ICP-OES results. In addition, the estimated limit of detection of our DP-LIB spectrometer for Al, Pb, Zn, and Cr were 105.13±07, 90.17±12, 83.58±15, and 68.78±09  μg L-1, respectively. The suggested protocols demonstrated the excellent benefits of the DP-LIBS for the detection of micro-toxic elements existing in coffee and for checking the purity and quality of food products.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remains a progressive disease despite best medical management. We previously identified IL-11 as a critical factor for cardiovascular fibrosis and examine here its role in pulmonary fibrosis. IL-11 is consistently upregulated in IPF genomic datasets, which we confirmed by histology. Pulmonary fibroblasts stimulated with IL-11 transform into invasive myofibroblasts whereas fibroblasts from Il11ra deleted mice did not respond to pro-fibrotic stimuli. In the mouse, injection of recombinant Il-11 or fibroblast-specific expression of Il-11 caused pulmonary fibrosis. We then generated a neutralising IL-11 binding antibody that blocks lung fibroblast activation across species. In a mouse model of IPF, anti-IL-11 therapy attenuated lung fibrosis and specifically blocked Erk activation. These data prioritise IL-11 as an accessible drug target in IPF. One Sentence Summary Non-canonical IL-11 signalling is a central hallmark of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and represents a novel target for antibody therapies.


The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of pre-service Texas Wesleyan University teachers' knowledge and use of classroom discipline techniques. The study was conducted to obtain data utilized for the evaluation of the research questions. A non-experimental, mixed research design using survey methodology was used. Part one of the Allen Classroom and Discipline Management Instrument (ACDMI) consisted of demographic information: current position, ethnicity, level of education, gender, age, teaching certification obtained, teaching certification anticipated to be obtained, type of teacher certification training, and number of clock hours received in discipline management. The demographic information was used as independent variables for comparing responses to survey items. Part two contained discipline management techniques from Skinner, Canter, Dreikurs, Gathercoal, Glasser, Faye and Funk, Curwin and Mendler, and Berne and Harris. These techniques were used to determine mean differences with the independent variables. Finally, part three was the qualitative section which consisted of four questions requesting information about helpful discipline techniques. The sample population consisted of 150 pre-service teachers from a small liberal arts university in Texas. Findings from the study indicated that EC-4 pre-service teachers' predicted use of discipline management techniques were the ones in which they were most knowledgeable. Furthermore, EC-4 pre-service teachers reported to be most knowledgeable of the following discipline management techniques: "Student Input in Developing Classroom Rules," "Social Reinforcement and Praise," and "Direct Teach and Model Appropriate Behavior." In addition, certified EC-4 pre-service teachers had more knowledge of classroom discipline techniques than non-certified EC-4 pre-service teachers. The qualitative analysis revealed a consensus among all EC-4 pre-service teachers with regard to their training in discipline management. All EC-4 pre-service teachers indicated that their overall training was inadequate in the area of classroom discipline management and that more was needed.


Analytical Model of the Market for Protection:

Security is a pre-requisite for economic development and activity. Konrad and Skaperdas (2010) analyze the interaction of individual agents in anarchy, without any collective organization. Peasants spend their effort in productive activity, and consume some of their output to sustain themselves until the next period. Bandits produce no output, but prey on peasants, forcing the peasants to surrender their output for the bandits' consumption.

Peasants may divide their effort between productive work, and securing their output against bandits. A protection function models this security effort; it converts security effort into effective protection of some proportion of a peasant's output, leaving the remainder to be surrendered to a bandit. The model then analyses an equilibrium condition, where all actors have the same average payoff.

Simulating the Market for Protection:

We modify several of the assumptions of the analytical model.

The protection function is given the specific functional form of a contest function.
Peasants randomly choose a protection proportion.
Agents are randomly matched for interaction.
Dynamic: each agent lives one period; if its payoff is below a survive threshold, it dies, otherwise it has a single descendant. If its payoff is higher, above a thrive threshold, it has two descendants.
Peasants inherit the protection proportion of the parent.
Equilibrium: average payoffs to bandits and peasants are equal, within a tolerance.

Implementation:

The simulation is written in Java, and its behavior is governed by a set of parameters. At a granular level, automated unit tests help ensure the correct behavior of individual classes and document the behavior of the simulation.


The methodology used to assess the reliability of numerical simulation codes constitutes the Veri- fication and Validation (VV) procedure. VV is composed by two separated tasks: the verifica- tion process, which is a mathematical issue targeted to assess that the physical model is correctly solved, and the validation, which determines the consistency of the code results, and therefore of the physical model, with experimental data. In the present work, a VV procedure, rigorous and unparalleled in plasma physics, is presented and applied showing, through a practical example, how it can advance our physics understanding of plasma turbulence. Bridging the gap between plasma physics and other scientific domains, in particular the computational fluid dynamics community, a rigorous methodology for the verification of a plasma simulation code is presented, based on the method of manufactured solution and Roaches grid converge index. This methodology assesses that the model equations are correctly solved, within the order of accuracy of the numerical scheme, and provides a rigorous estimate of the uncertainty affecting the numerical results. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional verified simulations of the basic plasma physics experiment TORPEX are then performed, and rigorously validated against the experimental data. The validation procedure allows progress in the understanding of the turbulent dynamics in TORPEX, by pinpointing the presence of a turbulent regime transition, due to the competition between the resistive and ideal interchange instabilities.


Raw sensor observations often have low data quality and reliability due to both internal and external factors including low quality of cheap sensors, dynamicity of network conditions, and harshness of the deployment environment. Use of low quality sensor data in any data analysis and decision making process will not only negatively impact analysis results and decisions made but also waste huge amount of valuable and limited network resources such as energy, as many incorrect values are transmitted. Low quality sensor data also prevents WSNs to fulfill their promises in terms of reliable real-time situation-awareness, as the low quality sensor data may generate large number of false alarms.

Motivated by the need to improve quality of data analysis and decision making, enhance efficiency of using WSNs resources by preventing unnecessary transmission of erroneous sensor observations, and increase effectiveness of monitoring and situation-awareness capabilities of the WSNs, in this thesis we focus on online identification of outliers whenever and wherever they occur. Outliers in WSNs are those observations that represent erroneous values (errors) or indicate particular phenomenal changes (events). Our outlier detection techniques, which are based on distributed in-network data processing, identify sensor observations that do not conform to normal behavior of sensor data without using a pre-defined threshold or triggering conditions.

Our main research objective is to design and implement effective and efficient outlier detection techniques for WSNs to identify outliers in an online and distributed manner and distinguish between errors and events with high accuracy and low false alarm, while maintaining the communication, computation and memory complexity low. Main contributions of this thesis can be summarized as:

1. Providing a technique-based taxonomy and a guideline for outlier detection techniques for WSNs.

2. Design and comparison of data labelling techniques for performance evaluation of outlier detection techniques.

3. Proposing statistical-Based outlier detection techniques for WSNs.

4. Proposing spherical support vector machine (SVM)-based outlier detection techniques for WSNs..

5. Proposing ellipsoidal support vector machine (SVM)-based outlier detection techniques for WSNs.


Predicting community susceptibility to invasion has become a priority for preserving biodiversity. We tested the hypothesis that the occurrence and abundance of the seaweed Caulerpa racemosa in the north-western (NW) Mediterranean would increase with increasing levels of human disturbance. Data from a survey encompassing areas subjected to different human influences (i.e. from urbanized to protected areas) were fitted by means of generalized linear mixed models, including descriptors of habitats and communities. The incidence of occurrence of C. racemosa was greater on urban than extra-urban or protected reefs, along the coast of Tuscany and NW Sardinia, respectively. Within the Marine Protected Area of Capraia Island (Tuscan Archipelago), the probability of
detecting C. racemosa did not vary according to the degree of protection (partial versus total). Human influence was, however, a poor predictor of the seaweed cover. At the seascape level, C. racemosa was more widely spread within degraded (i.e. Posidonia oceanica dead matte or algal turfs) than in better preserved habitats (i.e. canopy-forming macroalgae or P. oceanica seagrass meadows). At a smaller spatial scale, the presence of the seaweed was positively correlated to the diversity of macroalgae and negatively to that of sessile invertebrates. These results suggest that C. racemosa can take advantage of habitat degradation. Thus, predicting invasion scenarios requires a thorough knowledge of ecosystem structure, at a hierarchy of levels of biological organization (from the
landscape to the assemblage) and detailed information on the nature and intensity of sources of disturbance and spatial scales at which they operate.


Claims to reparations for historic injustice mark the modern global landscape. Starting in the late 1980s, with the United States' redress for 120,000 wrongly incarcerated American citizens and Japanese ancestry during World War II, reparations advocates advanced claims on behalf of African Americans, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Holocaust survivors in the United States; in support of colonized (and/or enslaved) people in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Britain and the Caribbean islands; in response to formerly repressive regimes in South Africa, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, the Philippines, Korea, Brazil, Nepal and Cambodia; in reaction to internal genocide in Sierra Leone, the Congo and Rwanda; in challenge to specific wartime atrocities related to Japan and Kosovo; and more. Those claims awakened public consciousness about the horrors of historic injustice and the need for present-day redress. They also generated controversy and legal and political backlash. Now, often integrated into reconciliation or social healing initiatives, claims to reparations are both significant and problematic.


The epidemiology of 278 strains of Salmonella typhimurium isolated from 1973 to 1981 from animals in New York State was studied by using four "fingerprinting" techniques, bacteriophage type (B.R. Callow, J. Hyg. 57:346-359, 1959), biotype (J. P. Duguid, E. S. Anderson, G. A. Alfredsson, R. Barker, and D. C. Old, J. Med. Microbiol. 8:149-166, 1975), plasmid profile, and antibiogram. Phage type with biotype was the most useful marker for distinguishing clonal groups of S. typhimurium. Four clones of S. typhimurium predominated, i.e., phage type/biotypes U275/26, 49/26, 10/3, and 2/3. U275/26 and 49/26 were commonly found until 1976, but clones 10/3 and 2/3 were predominant after 1976. Comparison of results with data from Canada suggested a dissemination of strains of S. typhimurium between Canada and New York. Cattle were a common source of phage type 49, as has been observed in other countries.


Many technical price patterns in financial time series used as trading strategies are learned by traders' astute observations on the movement of price vectors. The authors propose data mining techniques to explore relationships between price movements and price vectors automatically. One such relationship, candlestick patterns, was discovered by human observation.The authors studied three years of data from 42 Hong Kong Hang Seng Index composite stocks.By two-level clustering to deal with shape and scale of the daily price vector of a time series of a stock price, a time series is converted into a symbolic price sequence. The previous price trend and the next price trend on each trading day can be converted into two symbolic trend sequences. The authors then looked for correlations between the symbolic price sequence together with the previous trend sequence and the next price trend sequence. The result shows three patterns have statistical significance (p < 0.05) on only two out of 42 stocks and indicates that the discovered patterns for one stock may not be the same kind for others, meaning that there is no generic pattern for the two assets. The authors conclude that price patterns, if any, as reported in technical analysis literatures, should not be equally applicable to any time series of stock prices.


According to many clinical psychologists, when the mind is forced to endure a horrifying experience, it has the ability to bury the entire memory of it so deeply within the unconscious that it can only be recalled in the form of a flashback triggered by a sight, a smell, or a sound. Indeed, therapists and lawyers have created an industry based on treating and litigating the cases of people who suddenly claim to have "recovered" memories of everything from child abuse to murder. This book reveals that despite decades of research, there is absolutely no controlled scientific support for the idea that memories of trauma are routinely banished into the unconscious and then reliably recovered years later. Since it is not actually a legitimate psychological phenomenon, the idea of "recovered memory"--and the movement that has developed alongside it--is thus closer to a dangerous fad or trendy witch hunt.


Interest in CO2-responsive systems has received significant research attention in recent years. CO2, which is a benign, inexpensive, abundant, and non-toxic gas, could be used as a green trigger for CO2 responsive materials. Among the CO2-responsive materials that have been developed, polymer-based materials are of particular interest. To have CO2responsivity in polymers, CO2-responsive moieties in the structure of polymer are required; these moieties can be originated from a surfactant, monomer and initiator. These polymers exhibit reversible changes in chemical structures and/or physical properties in response to the addition or removal of CO2, and are being considered for application in a variety of fields including controlled drug delivery, reversible cells capture, catalysis, switchable latexes, and oil/water separation. CO2 responsive polymers have been used in the form of latexes, solvents, gels, surfactants, and electrospun nanofibrous membranes. This review article focuses on applied aspects of CO2-responsive materials by emphasizing on polymeric materials. In this review paper, first, we present the general aspects of CO2-responsivity, and then provide numerous examples of applying the chemistry of CO2-responsivness to the preparation of CO2-responsive polymers. We intend to highlight those applications which are more promising commercially.


Introduction: HIV/AIDS has emerged as a threat causing significant morbidity and mortality in human societies. The aims of this study was to determine knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) and factors associated with HIV/AIDS amongs students in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in UPM. A two-stage proportionate to size random sampling technique was used. A standardized pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were analysed using SPSS. Results: The respond rate was 92.3%. The majority (57.3%) of the students were female. The overall mean age of the respondents was 22.5 years (95% CI 22.27-22.70) ranging from 18 years to 52 years. The results show that 91% of the respondents did not know that HIV virus can be killed by bleach; 93.9% stated that pregnant women with HIV virus can give the virus to her unborn baby; 90.2% believed a woman can get HIV if she has unprotected sex with a man; and 93.5% considered that having sex with more than one partner can increase a person's chance of being infected with HIV virus. The majority (53%) were not willing to care for an HIV infected person in their own house. Only 19.5% of all the students claimed that they will inform their partners or family if diagnosed positive for HIV infection. The majority (93%) approved screening for HIV as a prerequisite for marriage. Only 2.2% of the respondents had multiple sexual partners and 5.4% of the respondents have had sexual intercourse before marriage. About 82.3% of the respondents believed in the used of condom as a means to prevent transmission of HIV. However, of those who were experiencing sexual intercourse with an unmarried partner, only 29.8% used condoms. Conclusion: The level of knowledge related to HIV/AIDS was not satisfactory. It is recommended that a peer educational programe on HIV/AIDS prevention be implemented.


This is the complete 2 volume set, containing both volumes one (ISBN: 9781599424910) and two (ISBN: 9781599425436) packaged together. The book provides a complete guide to the protocols that comprise the Internet Protocol Suite, more commonly referred to as TCP/IP. The work assumes no prior knowledge of TCP/IP and only a rudimentary understanding of LAN/WAN access methods. The book is split into a number of sections; the manner in which data is transported between systems, routing principles and protocols, applications and services, security, and Wide Area communications. Each section builds on the last in a tutorial manner and describes the protocols in detail so serving as a reference for students and networking professionals of all levels. Volume I - Data Delivery & Routing Section A: Introduction Section B: The Internet Protocol Section C: Reliable and Unreliable Data Delivery Section D: Quality of Service Section E: Routing Section F: Multicasting in IP Environments Section G: Appendices Volume 2 - Applications, Access & Data Security Section H: An Introduction to Applications & Security in the TCP/IP Suite Section I: IP Application Services Section J: Securing the Communications Channel Section K: Wide Area Communications Section L: Appendices