The present study consists of a comparison of the impact of the Christ-event on the existence of the elect in Colossians and 1 Peter. As such it is a study in the theological anthropology of two significant New Testament texts. The main argument of this thesis is that Colossians and 1 Peter contain distinctive emphases in their understanding of: the σάρξ ("flesh") of the elect (anthropology), the temporal axis of salvation (eschatology), the extent to which the elect participate in the "heavenly" sphere (cosmology), and the means to live rightly (agency). Because a NT author's beliefs prior to faith in Christ reflect a particular cognitive environment formed by the author's historical setting and cultural milieu, setting the author's views in the context of Early Jewish texts throws fresh light on his thought-world and understanding of the new existence. I argue that many of the features distinguishing Colossians from 1 Peter stem from the possibility that Colossians reflects the thought-world of 4QInstruction and 1 Peter that of the Hodayot.
 The thesis has the following structure. Chapter 1 explains the reasoning for comparing Colossians and 1 Peter by showing their manifold similarities with one another including their respective Christologies which undergird their remarkably similar paraenetical material. The question is raised why, if the epistles end up offering almost identical paraenesis, they have such distinctive theological patterns of thought. Chapter 2 is an overview of scholarship demonstrating that this question has not been adequately answered. This is due partly to an emphasis on the recipient context and to reading each respective author's theology primarily as a response to the Sitz im Leben of the recipients. The overview will also demonstrate that both authors draw from the HB and EJL to interpret the impact of the Christ-event, but do so with distinctive language, emphases, and metaphors. Chapter 3 will analyze 1 Peter's understanding of the new existence locating it within the author's worldview in which suffering is a significant aspect of being God's 'end of days' people. Chapter 4 will explore the Hodayot and demonstrate the manifold ways in which it provides antecedents to ideas identified in 1 Peter. Chapter 5 will analyze the worldview of the author of Colossians and his understanding of the new existence including his emphasis on the elect as possessing the "mystery" of God. Chapter 6 will explore 4QInstruction and demonstrate the manifold ways in which it provides antecedents to ideas identified in Colossians. Chapter 7 will conclude the thesis drawing the threads together and summarizing the distinctive emphases of Colossians and 1 Peter in their respective understandings of the new existence and the means to live rightly.


We propose a new model for the hemispherical power asymmetry of the CMB based on modulated reheating. Non-Gaussianity from modulated reheating can be small enough to satisfy the bound from Planck if the dominant modulation of the inflaton decay rate is linear in the modulating field $\sigma$. $\sigma$ must then acquire a spatially-modulated power spectrum with a red scale-dependence. This can be achieved if the primordial perturbation of $\sigma$ is generated via tachyonic growth of a complex scalar field. Modulated reheating due to $\sigma$ then produces a spatially modulated and scale-dependent sub-dominant contribution to the adiabatic density perturbation. We show that it is possible to account for the observed asymmetry while remaining consistent with bounds from quasar number counts, non-Gaussianity and the CMB temperature quadupole. The model predicts that the adiabatic perturbation spectral index and its running will be modified by the modulated reheating component.


Conducting inference is a cornerstone upon which the practice of statistics is based. As such, a large portion of most introductory statistics courses is focused on teaching the fundamentals of statistical inference. The goal of this study is to make a formal comparison of learning outcomes under the traditional and simulation-based inference curricula. A randomized experiment was conducted to administer the two curricula to students in an introductory statistics course. Students of the simulation-based curriculum were found to have improved learning outcomes on topics in statistical inference; however, a clear violation of between-student independence due to group administration of curriculum treatments casts considerable doubt on the statistical significance of these results. A simulation study is used to demonstrate the volatility of Type I error rates in educational studies where classroom level covariance structures exist by comparisons are made on the student level.


A child is born who will overthrow a king. After the leader of a great African kingdom hears that a baby has been born who will destroy him, he hides behind a mighty army and surrounds himself with magical charms. There remains only one way to kill him. Concealing this secret weakness from the world, the ruler clings to power. But when the sister of his enemy seduces him, lust overwhelms the king. And as he lies beside her in the night, desperate to know her body, he foolishly begins to share his secret.


ABSTRACT The aim of the study is to identify and examine the distance teaching practices of four teachers in three small, rural primary schools in Finland – small in the sense that the schools consists of between 20–50 pupils and between 3–12 teachers. The schools have experienced a decline in pupil numbers, thus, they are not able to employ teachers full-time. The participating teachers imagined distance education as one solution to extend the classroom and faculty. Practice architectures is used as a theoretical and analytical framework to answer the question 'What cultural, material, and social discourses constitute the development of the practice around distance education in small, rural primary schools?' The data consists of interviews with and video blogs by the teachers recorded during 2016–2017. The implications are that cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements surrounding distance education are intertwined in small schools. Architectural arrangements enabled flexible solutions when developing distance education. The same arrangements proved to be material and cultural constraints as the teachers had many responsibilities in their everyday practice and support from the faculty was sometimes lacking. The teachers felt constrained by the technology and communicating with pupils at a distance meant they had to develop new teaching strategies.


The following essay lays out an argument for program level accreditation in academic homeland security (HS) programs. Admittedly, neither the practice nor the educational components of the HS discipline are standardized. Indeed, a recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service indicates that there remain several operational definitions of HS in practice. Regardless, this paper provides rationale which argues that after roughly eight years, academic HS has developed enough to be able to identify and support a distinct set of student learning outcomes— knowledge, skills and attitudes—that can both characterize and define the discipline. Generally, program level academic accreditation requires a discipline to have identified and vetted a set of student learning outcomes. Academic programs, in turn, integrate this set of outcomes into their core curriculum and students of a given discipline acquire a common set of knowledge, skills and attitudes deemed central to their discipline regardless of where they are educated. Hence program level accreditation works proactively and continuously to address questions about degree integrity, professional competence, truth in advertising, professional boundaries, certification, licensure, quality improvement and control. Without accreditation it remains extremely difficult for a discipline to demonstrate true legitimacy since anyone would be able to teach anything they want. Indeed by extension, one might easily argue that so long as such questions are unanswered, there can be no discipline. Further, for true professional legitimacy to accrue, even when a discipline is able to identify, vet and develop a defining set of student learning outcomes, it still needs to integrate them into a recognized accreditation process and then develop incentives for academic programs to adopt accreditation into a wide spread practice in higher education. Indeed, these last two challenges characterize several related disciplines (such as occupational safety and health, emergency management, intelligence studies, criminal justice, cybersecurity, etc.). Ultimately, critical to the ongoing maturation and legitimization of the HS profession is the need to develop and pursue program level accreditation.


The 2015 series of RIO Country Reports analyse and assess the policy and the national research and innovation system developments in relation to national policy priorities and the EU policy agenda with special focus on ERA and Innovation Union. The executive summaries of these reports put forward the main challenges of the research and innovation systems.


Ecological management is focused on maintaining and enhancing the natural values of land to conserve biological diversity. Land protection alone, however, does little to preserve the character of a natural area if impacts such as the introduction of invasive alien plants, or hydrologic disturbances are not also addressed. With continuing alteration of the land by human activity, many ecosystems have become fragmented or reduced to isolated islands surrounded by agricultural fields or developed areas. Ecological management is the key to successful stewardship and can be subdivided into five general catagories: conservation planning, restoration, prescribed management, research and monitoring.This new book presents the latest research in the field.


Genetic linkage maps are excellent tools to investigate genomic evolution, genomic structure and quantitative trait loci. In our study, we created comparative linkage maps in a reciprocal cross between Nicotiana longiflora and N. plumbaginifolia. We used genetic markers derived from the Conserved Ortholog Set II (COSII) to investigate synteny between Nicotiana longiflora and N. plumbaginifolia (n = 10) and other Solanaceae species (n = 12), such as tomato, pepper and eggplant. We produced two linkage maps; one in a maternal Nicotiana longiflora background (43 markers covering 808.1 cM) and a reciprocal map in the maternal N. plumbaginifolia background (54 markers covering 1110.4 cM). Segregation distortion was evident in both backgrounds, especially for the dominant ISSR markers, and was more prevalent in the maternal N. longiflora cross. In both backgrounds, there was a significant preference for the self-fertilizing N. plumbaginifolia allele for distorted markers. Finally, using the COSII markers, we infer many chromosomal rearrangements have occurred since the divergence of Nicotiana and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) from a common ancestor.


We extend the analogy between charge-based bipolar semiconductor electronics and spin-based unipolar electronics by considering unipolar spin transistors with different equilibrium spin splittings in the emitter, base, and collector. The current of base majority spin electrons to the collector limits the performance of "homojunction" unipolar spin transistors, in which the emitter, base, and collector are all made from the same magnetic material. This current is very similar in origin to the current of base majority carriers to the emitter in homojunction bipolar junction transistors. The current in bipolar junction transistors can be reduced or nearly eliminated through the use of a wide band-gap emitter. We find that the choice of a collector material with a larger equilibrium spin splitting than the base will similarly improve the device performance of a unipolar spin transistor. We also find that a graded variation in the base spin splitting introduces an effective drift field that accelerates minorit...


The authors address the issues faced while collecting survey data as part of a large multisite, multidisciplinary long-term project using interviewers rather than self-administered questionnaires in a country in which the researchers are not native. The issues pertain to the collection of high-quality data that accurately measure the variables of interest from which generalizations can be made. Three issues were prominent: potential cross-cultural variation in the validity of measures; how to manage multiple control sites and multiple study sites; and how to control for problems presented by series/panel data (i.e., the influence of prior interviews or subsequent intervening events on later interviews). The authors addressed these issues through five strategies at different points in the study. This discussion concerns the challenges and benefits of using these techniques to address the three main issues.


Because of their excellent error-correcting performance, Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes have recently attracted a lot of attentions. In this work, we are interested in the practical LDPC code decoder hardware implementations. The direct fully parallel decoder implementation usually incurs too high hardware complexity for many real applications, thus partly parallel decoder design approaches that can achieve appropriate trade-offs between hardware complexity and decoding throughput are highly desirable. Applying a joint code and decoder design methodology, we develop a high-speed ( )-regular LDPC code partly parallel decoder architecture, based on which we implement a -bit, rate( )-regular LDPC code decoder on Xilinx FPGA device. This partly parallel decoder supports a maximum symbol throughput of Mbps and achieves BER at 2dB over AWGN channel while performing maximum decoding iterations.


The present work was written to highlight the impact of social change on modern sports and their athletes. The book deals with the Sociological Aspects of Modern Sports and features articles on social change and sports development (e.g. the problem of doping and the responsibility of science, talent identification and promotion), on the Olympics (e.g. the Olympic idea and reality, the athletes' village) and on athletics (e.g. on the development of world athletics, what makes athletics valuable).


ABSTRACT Despite extensive literature examining human rights decoupling between treaty commitments and practices, little research has addressed how to fill these empty promises. This paper proposes a mechanism neglected in prior studies that might play an important role in narrowing human rights decoupling and improving world society model compliance: foreign aid. Using longitudinal analysis on a sample of 120 aid-receiving countries between 1981 and 2011, we find: total aid has a significant effect on reducing human rights decoupling; aid to good governance shows a similar pattern but the impact is much weaker; by contrast, aid to human rights has limited influence.


Sloths are arboreal mammals strictly dependent upon forested habitats. The southern part of the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil harbors important forest remnants and the highest genetic diversity known for the maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus), an endangered species endemic to the Atlantic forest. Large extents of cacao agroforests (cabrucas) connected to forest patches mitigate the effects of fragmentation in this region. We radio-tracked three maned sloths during 40 months in a cabruca at the vicinity of Una Biological Reserve, southern Bahia, and estimated their home range using two commonly employed estimators (minimum convex polygon (MCP) and kernel). Overall cabrucas comprised a significant portion of the home range of the three study animals (MCP: 7–100%) and at least a third of the areas of more intensive use (kernel: 27–99%). The tagged sloths used cabrucas more than expected according to the availability of this habitat in their home range and in the surrounding landscape. In addition to the tagged individuals, maned sloths were observed five times in the study area, twice in cabrucas. Eleven tree species present in cabrucas were used as food sources by maned sloths. Results indicate that biologically rich cacao agroforests immersed in a landscape still largely composed of native forests, as is the case here, can provide habitat for the maned sloth. This finding spells good news for the conservation of this species, as southern Bahia is one of the most important strongholds for the maned sloth. However, further actions are necessary to protect the species from local extinction, including active management of protected areas, forest fragments, cabrucas and pastures in an integrated, landscape-level manner. sellsc © 2010 Deutsche Ge


LIKE AN AGING ROCK STAR who has dropped out of the public eye, Osama bin-Laden occasionally decides to remind people that he's still around. He makes video appearances that first appear on Arabic television channels but which the world quickly sees on television or on multiple Web sites. Bin-Laden's message is "Hey, they haven't caught me yet," which cheers up his fans, but bis threats and pronouncements are mostly terrorist boilerplate. For all the parsing of his sentences and scrutinizing of the color of his beard, hardly anything in his videos helps us better understand and combat terrorism. Meanwhile, significant Al-Qaeda media efforts go largely unnoticed by news organizations and the public. This myopia is characteristic of an approach to antiterrorism that focuses on Bin-Laden as terror-celebrity while ignoring the deep-rooted dynamism of a global enemy. Most jihadist media products make no mention of Bin-Laden, but they deserve attention because they are vital to Al-Qaeda's mission and to its efforts to extend its influence. Al-Qaeda has become a significant player in global politics largely because it has developed a sophisticated media strategy. Lacking a tangible homeland-other than, perhaps, scattered outposts in the wilds of Waziristan-Al-Qaeda has established itself as a virtual state that communicates with its "citizens" and cultivates an even larger audience through masterful use of the media, with heavy reliance on the Internet. For every conventional video performance by Bin-Laden that appears on Al-Jazeera and other major television outlets, there are hundreds of online videos that proselytize, recruit, and train the Al-Qaeda constituency. Growth of Media Machine The Al-Qaeda media machine has grown steadily. Al-Qaeda and its jihadist brethren use more than 4,000 Web sites to encourage the faithful and threaten their enemies. The Al-Qaeda production company, As-Sahab, released 16 videos during 2005, 58 in 2006, and produced more than 90 in 2007. Like a Hollywood studio, As-Sahab has a carefully honed understanding of what will attract an audience and how to shape the Al-Qaeda message. You won't get As-Sahab's videos from Netflix, but any Web user can easily find them, and the selection is wide. In 2006, the Global Islamic Media Front, an Al-Qaeda distribution arm, offered "Jihad Academy," which includes footage of attacks on U.S. troops, insurgents assembling improvised explosive devices (IEDs), prospective suicide bombers reading their last testaments, and general exhortations to join the war against the United States, Israel, and other foes. Another distributor with ties to Al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunnah's Media Podium, produced "Top 20," a selection of filmed IED attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq "in order to encourage the jihad and the competition between the mujahideen to battle and defeat their enemy." For this greatest hits video, criteria for selection included "the degree of security conditions while filming the operation's site" and "precision in hitting the target."1 With the stirring music and graphic images of an action movie, the videos fortify the resolve of the Al-Qaeda faithful and, even more important, capture the attention of 15-year-olds in cyber cafes-the next generation of Al-Qaeda warriors. Al-Qaeda takes recruitment seriously, recognizing that potential martyrs require convincing that their sacrifice will be noble and worthwhile. Once inspired by the videos, the prospective jihadist might move on to a Web posting such as "How To Join Al-Qaeda," which tells him: "You feel that you want to carry a weapon, fight, and kill the occupiers. . . . Set a goal; for example, assassinating the American ambassador-is it so difficult?"2 Spreading the Message As-Sahab is part of the media department Bin-Laden established when Al-Qaeda formed in 1988. The first message to emerge was that Al-Qaeda was a brave underdog facing the monstrous Soviet Union. …


Abstract: This article examines the syntax of extra be constructions, common in nonprescriptive English and often considered a curiosity, such as: The problem is, is that she hates apples. It has been claimed that there are many different types of extra be constructions, with the two main types being double be and single be, but this article argues that these distinctions are largely superficial. The article reviews previous accounts, presents the complex data, and categorizes most cases of extra be into one unified syntactic construction, the shared shell-noun construction. It is argued that such constructions are syntactically fairly ordinary biclausal specificational copular sentences, consisting of a setup clause and a resolution clause, which share an argument. A second construction is also proposed for one subset of examples, the linking focus be construction, where be lexicalizes a left-peripheral focus head.


The systems discussed were obtained from dissolving aluminium and calcium soaps of fatty and naphthenic acids in hydrocarbons with the aid of peptizers like water, xylenols, alcohols, 'Cello- solve' or cresols. They behave similarly to solutions of rubber in benzene. Rheologically they exhibit certain peculiarities associated with secondary flow phenomena. It was observed that when such systems were subjected to stress, their free energies increased. The first series of experiments dealt with the behaviour of jets in the form of expanding conical sheets. Newtonian liquids broke up when the kinetic energy of the jet exceeded a certain function of the surface energy which tended to stabilize the sheets. With these elasto-viscous systems, the kinetic energy required to break up the expanding conical sheets was much greater than this function and thus it was concluded that the stressed sheets had a higher free energy than the un stressed relaxed body of the same liquid. The second series of experiments dealt with the quantitative evaluation of the free energy on subjecting the systems to stress at different temperatures. A rod was rotated inside a stationary sleeve, the space between being full of the liquid under consideration. From the drop in the level of the liquid, it was deduced that the internal energy and the entropy were both raised by shearing the system. The increase in internal energy was greater than the rise in entropy, and hence the free energy, as a whole, increased on shearing. These effects became less noticeable as the temperature was raised. Next a series of experiments was conducted on the behaviour of these systems when subjected to different states of shear between discs, cones or cylinders in which one member was rotated and the other held stationary. In all experiments secondary spontaneous flow from regions of high shear to regions of low shear confirmed the hypothesis that the increase in free energy on straining (or stressing) the system resulted in local instability. Surfaces of uniform shear acted as if they were semi-permeable membranes with a concentration gradient across them due to the structural units moving from regions of high to those of low shear values. Thus a species of osmotic pressure was generated which could be measured. These peculiar phenomena only occurred when there was a marked difference in the rate of shear between different points in the system; under uniform rates of shear they did not arise. Finally, experiments with pipes showed that these systems possessed two peculiarities: (1) the inlet end effects were far greater than those encountered with Newtonian systems under similar conditions; and (2) there appeared to be a retarding layer effect in the pipe. It is concluded that for these systems studies of the balance between input energy and the portions which are lost and stored would be better approaches to the study of the structure of the systems than a study of the viscosity of the liquids as such.


OBJECTIVE
The task of this working group was to update the existing knowledge base regarding the prevalence of peri-implant tissue destruction, the role of occlusal overload, and the outcome of non-surgical and surgical treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The literature was systematically searched and critically reviewed. Four manuscripts were presented in key areas deemed to be essential for the current understanding of the magnitude of the clinical entity peri-implantitis. The role of overload as an etiological component was reviewed. Also available data on the results from non-surgical and surgical interventions for the control of tissue destruction were presented.

RESULTS
The consensus statements following plenary session approval, clinical implications, and directions for future research based on the group discussions are presented in this article. The results and conclusions of the systematic review process are presented by the respective authors in the subsequent papers.


Housing provision in Chinese cities has experienced many changes since 1979 when the country embarked on major economic reform. During the late 1980s and the 1990s many publicly owned houses were sold to their existing tenants or other public sector employees. Large numbers of new houses were built by commercial property developers for the emerging urban housing market. As a result, new patterns of residents have emerged. Housing areas of different standards for different social groups became a dominant feature of large Chinese cities at the end of the 1990s. Will the urban poor benefit from these changes and what is their housing situation like under the reformed system? This paper addresses these questions by examining the nature of the emerging urban poor and their accessibility to housing. It involves an assessment of the implications of recent housing reform policies for the disadvantaged groups. The paper identifies two major groups of urban poor in Chinese cities: the poor among the official urban residents and the poor rural to urban migrants. It concludes that while housing problems of the official urban poor have been recognised, there is no formal policy in relation to housing provision for the unofficial poor.


: Africa's improved growth performance over the last 15 years provides an opportunity for the continent to transit from recovery to structural transformation. This paper reviews the evolution of development theory and practice, the role of agriculture therein, and the pace of structural transformation in Africa over the last 50 years. The evolution has involved shifting roles of industry vs. agriculture and that of government, and the public sector vs. markets and the private sector. Government intervention in favour of industrialization in the 1960s-1970s resulted in the neglect of agriculture, poor growth performance, and a productivity-reducing structural transformation, characterized by an increasing concentration of low productivity labour in the informal service sector. The paper suggests a move away from the dual-economy to a three-dimensional model that pays greater attention to the large informal segment of the service sector. A successful transformation will require accelerated agricultural productivity growth, a modernized informal service sector, and effective industrialization strategies, with balanced roles for government, markets, and the private sector, all supported by country-led, evidence-based strategies exemplified under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).


Abstract. Intensive agricultural production can be an important driver for the loss of long-term soil quality. For this reason, the European Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) network adopted four pairs of agricultural CZO sites that differ in their management: conventional or organic. The CZO sites include two pairs of grassland farms in Iceland and two pairs of arable farms in Austria. Conventional fields differed from the organic fields in the use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Soils of these eight farms were analysed in terms of their physical, chemical, and biological properties, including soil aggregate size distribution, soil organic matter contents, abundance of soil microbes and soil fauna, and taxonomic diversity of soil microarthropods. In Icelandic grasslands, organically farmed soils had larger mean weight diameters of soil aggregates than the conventional farms, while there were no differences on the Austrian farms. Organic farming did not systematically influence organic matter contents or composition, nor soil carbon and nitrogen contents. Also, soil food web structures, in terms of presence of trophic groups of soil organisms, were highly similar among all farms, indicating a low sensitivity of trophic structure to land use or climate. However, soil organism biomass, especially of bacteria and nematodes, was consistently higher on organic farms than on conventional farms. Within the microarthropods, taxonomic diversity was systematically higher in the organic farms compared to the conventional farms. This difference was found across countries and farm, crop, and soil types. The results do not show systematic differences in physical and chemical properties between organic and conventional farms, but confirm that organic farming can enhance soil biomass and that microarthropod diversity is a sensitive and consistent indicator for land management.


The study is to explore the career, identify career aspirations, factors which determine attitude of students' towards the RJP subject and career aspirations. It is also to see the difference in attitude of students towards this subject based on career aspirations and based on their parents' level of education and occupation. A quantitative survey was carried out among 291 form four students taking RJP subject. Respondents were chosen using a cluster sampling method. Chi-square and ANOVA tests were used to see the relationship and differences between the variables being studied. Level of significance was at p< 0.05. Results show students have career aspirations parallel to the subject they are learning. There is a significant relationship between parents' factor, [ χ² (6, N=285)=24.542, p=.000, Cramer's V=.207 ] with respondents career aspiration; between counseling teacher, [ χ² (6, N=288)=20.21, p= .003, Cramer's V=.187 ] with respondents career aspirations. There is no significant relationship between peers [ χ² (6, N=287)=5.67, p=.458, Cramer's V=.100 ] with career aspirations of students taking RJP. The findings show those with career aspiration related to RJP have positive attitude towards RJP subject as compared to those with career aspiration not related to RJP F(2,285)=15.77, p≤.05. There is a significant difference between student's attitude towards RJP based on mother's occupation, F(8,282)=2.54, p≤.05. However, the result also show there is no significance difference between students attitude towards RJP based on mother's level of education, F(4,286)=1.49, p≥.05, father's level of education F(4,286)=.74, p≥.05 and father's occupation, F(8,282)=0.63, p≥.05. On the whole, students place interest in the Social field as priority and Artistic field as their next area of interest. As such a continuous effort is deemed necessary to develop interest, career aspiration and attitude towards RJP among student enrolled in this subject. This is to enable them to develop interest and career aspiration relevant to RJP.


Under the Clean Air Act, state-run vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs aim at preventing both manufacturers and consumers from circumventing or tampering with emissions control technology. Recent manufacturer cheating scandals, however, were detected by means other than I/M programs, and much I/M enforcement has been targeted at relatively low-level offenses. This Article traces the evolution of the I/M program and examines whether it currently provides benefits greater than its costs to vehicle owners, using Utah's Wasatch Front (which includes Salt Lake City) to illustrate how the program operates in practice. It concludes that there is little current information to support or reject the efficacy of the I/M program, and that a fresh look is warranted to improve its effectiveness.


BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is the most common opportunistic infection in persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) worldwide. In the United States, the incidence of TB in 2009 was 4.1 per 100 000, with 10% of the patients coinfected with HIV. An estimated 10 to 15 million people in the United States have latent TB. Human immunodeficiency virus–related extrapulmonary TB is defined by the World Health Organization as an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome diagnosis. Extrapulmonary TB is found in approximately 20% of the patients with TB in the US, and the most common form is tuberculous lymphadenitis. CaseWe report the case of a 28-year-old man who emigrated from Mexico 8 years ago and presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain. The pain was described as 8/10 in intensity, constant, occasionally radiating to the back and associated with nausea, diarrhea, profuse night sweats, fatigue, and a 20-pound weight loss over a 2-week period. Result of the patient's chest radiography was normal, and a computed tomographic scan of the abdomen revealed multiple soft tissue lesions in the upper abdomen that demonstrated low central density, suggesting necrotic lymph nodes. Mild ascites and subcentimeter lesions in the spleen representative of microabscesses were also reported. An HIV testing by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was positive, confirmed by Western blot, and the absolute CD4 count was 38. The patient's history was revisited, and he disclosed having had multiple sexual partners. A Quantiferon test was negative. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided core biopsy was obtained. ConclusionsWe present a case of abdominal lymphadenitis diagnosed through biopsy by EUS, rendering a diagnosis of TB in a patient with undiagnosed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. An EUS-guided biopsy of accessible abdominal nodes presents a convenient technique through which specimens may be gathered for culture and pathologic examination. Our case points out that under circumstances where a high index of suspicion for extrapulmonary TB exists, EUS with fine needle aspiration can be a very important supplement to our diagnostic armamentarium.


Novel tough hydrogel materials are required for 3D-printing applications. Here, a series of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) based on poly(ɛ-caprolactone)-b-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL-b-PEG-b-PCL) triblock copolymers and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) were developed with PEG contents varying between 30 and 70 mol%. These showed excellent mechanical properties not only when dry, but also when hydrated: TPUs prepared from PCL-b-PEG-b-PCL with PEG of Mn 6 kg/mol (PCL7-PEG6-PCL7) took up 122 wt.% upon hydration and had an E-modulus of 52 ± 10 MPa, a tensile strength of 17 ± 2 MPa, and a strain at break of 1553 ± 155% in the hydrated state. They had a fracture energy of 17976 ± 3011 N/mm2 and a high tearing energy of 72 kJ/m2. TPUs prepared using PEG with Mn of 10 kg/mol (PCL5-PEG10-PCL5) took up 534% water and were more flexible. When wet, they had an E-modulus of 7 ± 2 MPa, a tensile strength of 4 ± 1 MPa, and a strain at break of 147 ± 41%. These hydrogels had a fracture energy of 513 ± 267 N/mm2 and a tearing energy of 16 kJ/m2. The latter TPU was first extruded into filaments and then processed into designed porous hydrogel structures by 3D-printing. These hydrogels can be used in 3D printing of tissue engineering scaffolds with high fracture toughness.


Several Romance languages show restrictions on combinations of third person direct and indirect object clitics (Bonet 1995) and combinations of such clitics involving local person direct objects (the Person Case Constraint (PCC), Bonet 1991, 1994). The former have received morphological analyses, while the later have recently been treated as syntactic. A unified, syntactic analysis of both of these restrictions is developed by extending existing analyses of the PCC. Person restrictions are derived in a syntactic configuration where DO bleeds person licensing on IO. A more complex syntactic representation of third person is proposed. The starting point for the investigation is Barceloni Catalan, which evades both restrictions by not realizing person morphology on third person indirect objects. The proposal is subsequently extended to Spanish, in particular restrictions on animate direct objects pronouns in some varieties of leista Spanish (Ormazabal & Romero 2007). The syntactic proposal combines with the proposal for the semantics and pragmatics of person features in Sauerland (2004, 2008) to derive interpretive aspects of the leista Spanish data.


Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a nosocomial, multidrug-resistant pathogen that causes significant economic losses in milk production and deterioration of dairy product quality. This study investigates the prevalence and the survival of S. maltophilia under different food preservation conditions. A total of 240 samples, including farm-sourced milk, dairy shop purchased milk, Kareish cheese, Domiati cheese, ice cream, yoghurt, cooking butter, and unpasteurized cream were collected from various locations in Beni-Suef Governorate, Egypt. Thirty samples of each product were analyzed by standard biochemical tests for the presence of Stenotrophomonas spp., which was isolated from 36% (87/240) of the examined samples. The highest prevalence was observed in ice cream (80%), followed by unpasteurized cream (67%), whereas the lowest incidence was in Domiati cheese (3.3%). S. maltophilia, identified by PCR, was found only in unpasteurized cream (13%), cooking butter (10%), ice cream (6.7%), and dairy shop milk (3.3%). We also studied the viability of S. maltophilia in laboratory manufactured cream, butter, and cheese under different preservation conditions. S. maltophilia was able to survive for 30, 30, 28, 30, and 8 d in the inoculated cream, butter 0% salt, butter 3% salt, cheese 0% salt, and cheese 6% salt, respectively. Thus, S. maltophilia was able to survive more than predicted in all products in this study. This suggests that strains of S. maltophilia may develop adaptive strategies that enable survival under different food preservation conditions, which contradicts previous knowledge about the sensitivity of this microbe to environmental stress conditions. Our overall aim was to draw attention to the prevalence and future potential for increased public health significance of Stenotrophomonas spp.


Today radio systems that are being implemented are digital. Every time we find more companies that choose to adapt to the current technology and the benefits are significant, solve problems and improve communications reliability. Digital radio systems are widespread and whether in business areas such as taxi drivers, firefighters, local police, etc. In this project, planning a system of private digital radio (PMR) is studied in a specific area of the Catalan Pyrenees to support emergency services and rescue of a ski resort, in particular to provide communications functions between employees center such as pisters, carriers and employees using snow-grooming machines. The objective of this TFC is a real need for a client company BAQUEIRA / BERET in the Pyrenees of the Vall d' Aran , which is dedicated to the tourism sector of the ski, also offers a variety of activities in a high mountain area of over 1,922 hectares. The customer is given the plan and design a digital radio system to improve the quality of service on site. The system must be able to work on open network mode, and the new digital system must be able to coexist with the previous analog. The proposal made and developed in this project is a radio system brand called ICOM (IDAS) in VHF band. The main reasons for choosing this system were: · The network topology . This system uses a voting configuration that provides automatic roaming, it facilitates user mobility throughout the coverage area of the center without changing the channel manually. · Low installation costs. · A low level of equipment maintenance . The project is based on the ICOM products and have had the support and cooperation of the manufacturer . We have developed a reliable and economical solution that meets customer needs and the possibility of further extension . Once the planning and design field measurements were performed to assess the feasibility and reliability of the complete system.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cow age on botanical composition of diets in mountain riparian areas. Treatments consisted of 30 first-calf heifers, and 30 mature cows randomly assigned to four pastures (2 pastures/treatment, average 21.5 ha) in a 2-year study with a cross-over design. Botanical composition of diets was determined in fecal samples obtained from 10 animals in each treatment (5 per pasture) on the fourth week of 35 to 42-days grazing periods using the microhistological technique. Crude protein (CP) content and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) were determined, and correction factors were calculated for 22 major plant species. In digested samples, grasses were overestimated, whereas, all forbs but northern bedstraw (Galium boreale L.), were underestimated, and all shrub species were overestimated except common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus L.). Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl.) was highly overestimated after digestion. There was no difference between cattle age class in the total number of plant species found in the diets (p > 0.10) averaging in 41 species. Most individual grass and grasslike species made up more than 5% of the diets, while all individual forb, shrub, and tree species were minor components, not exceeding 5%, except ponderosa pine. Western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii Rybd.) and tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa (L.) Beauv.) accounted for over 10% of the diets. Heifers consumed more (p < 0.05) grasses and fewer (p < 0.10) shrubs and trees compared to mature cows. The diet of heifers contained more western wheatgrass, Baltic rush (Juncus balticus Willd.), and pinegrass (Calamagrostis rubescens Buckl.) (p < 0.10), but less Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) (p < 0.01), than the diet of mature cows. The proportion of ponderosa pine needles was higher in the diet of mature cows (p < 0.10), than in the diet of first calf heifers. In summary, mature cows appeared to have selected a diet that contained less grasses and more shrubs and trees compared to younger cows.


Estuarine ecosystems are highly sensitive not only to projected effects of climate change such as ocean warming, acidification, and sea‐level rise but also to the incidence of nor'easter storms and hurricanes. The effects of storms and hurricanes can be extreme, with immediate impact on coastal geomorphology and water circulation, which is integral to estuarine function and consequently to provision of ecosystem services. In this article, we present the results of a natural estuarine‐scale experiment on the effects of changes in coastal geomorphology on hydrodynamics and aquaculture production. A bay in Prince Edward Island, Canada, was altered when a nor'easter storm eroded a second tidal inlet through a barrier island. Previous field and modeling studies allowed a comparison of prestorm and post‐storm circulation, food limitation by cultured mussels, and aquaculture harvest. Dramatic increases in mussel production occurred in the year following the opening of the new inlet. Model studies showed that post‐storm circulation reduced food limitation for cultured mussels, allowing greater growth. Climate change is expected to have severe effects on the delivery of marine ecosystem services to human populations by changing the underlying physical‐biological coupling inherent to their functioning.


Lydia Sigourney's (mis)identification as "The American Hemans" serves as a kind of parallel or allegory for the double-bind faced by nineteenth-century woman writers: to become famous, one must be like Hemans, but to be like Hemans is to lose sight of oneself; to signify oneself as a "proper" woman writer, one must utter the sobs of the sentimental woman, but such a voice has been valued by critics at about the level of "anonymous." Sentimentalism, what is expected of the woman writer if she is to achieve fame, has been seen as manipulation, not an art. In a feminist prose essay on women's education, Sigourney reveals her desire for fulfillment in roles other than the strictly domestic: she longs for the day when women can be "professors." A canny poet-engineer taking up the tools of the new sensationist epistemology to become a professor of sentimental rhetoric, Sigourney deploys several poetic voices or personae to communicate her decidedly feminist ethos. The subject positions adopted in her poems are various, ranging from male seminary professor to an edgy, angry, male prophet, from woman rhetor to woman preacher. In Lucy Howard's Journal, Sigourney prophesies and in some sense prepares her own reception history as a female writing subject whose textual voice can outlive the stultifying critique of feminine sentimentalism.


The concentration gradients of uranyl ion in aqueous and organic solutions were analyzed by taking a macro photograph of the desired gradient by monochromatic (436 m mu ) light transmitted by the solution normal to the gradient in an appropriate diffusion cell. Two Druhm runs were terminated due to malfunction of the sodium metering system and the third run was terminated when the UF/sub 6/ nozzle ruptured. Calculations of particle temperature versus time relations for the flame denitration-calcination method of preparing metallic oxide from nitrate solutions indicate that the times required for heat transfer are controlled by the rate of radiant heat transfer to particle surfaces instead of by conductive heat transfer within the particles. A completed experimental study indicated that electrolysis in a cell with a mercury cathode and a platinum anode is a practical process for removing nickel from HRT fuel solution. The apparent diffusion coefficient of uranium loading on Dowex 21K was shown to be directly related to the resin size. An explosion of sufficient violence to blow apart the Pyrex pipe dissolver occurred during the fifth Darex dissolution of simulated SRE fuel probably from a rapid gas phase reaction between hydrogen and oxidizing gases such as NO/sub 2/. Materials handling flowsheets were completed for (A) decladding, washing, recanning and storing spent SRE uranium fuel slugs and (B) the shearing and leaching of stainless steel clad UO/sub 2/ and UO/sub 2/- ThO/sub 2/ fuels. A literature survey is being conducted dealing with reactor coolant and coolant loop contamination and decontamination. During run R-17 for calcination of evaporated Darex waste, the same as run R-16 which deformed the bottom calcination vessel except that one of the three added pressure probes was vibrated to keep it unplugged, the bottom of the calcination vessel did not deform, and there was no pressure indicated on the pressure probes during the test. (For preceding period see CF-59-7-58.) (auth)


This chapter has shown that there is a balance to be made in device layout and grid connection for MECs that are fixed to the sea-bed and MECs that are detachable, floating and moored. In general, arrays with floating and moored devices will either contain fewer devices but be of larger geographical area. There will be an optimisation of the redundancy incorporated into arrays, but experience from off-shore wind farms suggests that the practicable degree of array redundancy will be modest. There is some interest in the development of DC networks, because of device architecture and possible savings in the transmission of energy from arrays far offshore. However, experience from off-shore wind farms suggests that long-distance DC connections will be many years away. There is insufficient installed experience or published information on off-shore MECs to draw specific conclusions about the best way to specify MEC layout and grid connection.


ABSTRACT This paper makes the case that 'competitive third-party regulatory arrangements' draw attention to the service provision aspect of regulatory administration. Using multiple methods, the study examines service diversification and service quality differences exhibited by third-party administrators of US organic food regulations. By examining how the service emphases of third-party regulatory administrators differ by organizational form, the study documents that the inclusion of nonprofit and private third-party regulatory administrators may expand the services that are offered and performed alongside regulatory program functions. The implications of the findings for regulatory administration, and the field of public management generally, are discussed.


Numerous technologies, such as batteries and fuel cells, depend on electrochemical kinetics. In some cases, the responsible electrochemistry and charged-species transport is complex. However, to date, there are essentially no general-purpose modeling capabilities that facilitate the incorporation of thermodynamic, kinetic, and transport complexities into the simulation of electrochemical processes. A vast majority of the modeling literature uses only a few (often only one) global charge-transfer reactions, with the rates expressed using Butler–Volmer approximations. The objective of the present paper is to identify common aspects of electrochemistry, seeking a foundational basis for designing and implementing software with general applicability across a wide range of materials sets and applications. The development of new technologies should be accelerated and improved by enabling the incorporation of electrochemical complexity (e.g., multi-step, elementary charge-transfer reactions and as well as supporting ionic and electronic transport) into the analysis and interpretation of scientific results. The spirit of the approach is analogous to the role that CHEMKIN has played in homogeneous chemistry modeling, especially combustion. The CANTERA software, which already has some electrochemistry capabilities, forms the foundation for future capabilities expansion.


HADJINIKOLOVA, L., T. HUBENOVA and A. ZAIKOV, 2010. Status and development tendencies of freshwater aquaculture production in Bulgaria. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 398-405 The present article surveys the status and the tendencies in the development of the freshwater aquaculture in Bulgaria under the conditions of market economy, and specific attention is paid to the structure and the type compound of the cultivated water organisms, the present state of the production, their actual price for realization, as well as the consumption of fish. Bulgaria possesses a comparatively rich water fund of about 70 000 ha, which accompanied by the climatic conditions in the country creates good conditions for aquaculture development.The main objects for cultivation are the carp (Cyprinus carpio) and the trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), having in mind that the herbivorous fish species, like silver carp (Hipophthalmichthys molitrix), bighead carp (Aristhichthys nobilis) and grass carp (Ctenopharingodon idella). With good perspectives for increasing the production capacities are the Acipensaridae, the European wels (Silurus glanis) and the channel catfish (Ictalurus punctastus). Fish consumption per capita is 4.6 kg, which ranks Bulgaria among countries with low fish consumption.


Phragmites australis is one of the most widespread and invasive plants on earth. Allelopathic interference has been considered as a possible way associated with its invasiveness in wetlands. A series of ecologically realistic experiments was conducted to explore allelochemical phytotoxicity of Phragmites. Germination bioassays using aqueous extracts of different organs (leaf, stem, root and rhizome) of Phragmites were tested with model seeds (Lactuca sativa and Raphanus sativus) and associated plant species (Juncus pallidus and Rumex conglomeratus). These studies showed that leaf and rhizome extracts exhibited strong inhibition on germination, biometric and physiological parameters (all P ≤ 0.001). Dose–response studies confirmed LC50 (4.68% and 11.25%) of Lactuca for leaf and rhizome extracts respectively. Root growth of Juncus and Rumex was inhibited by 75% and 30%, respectively, in leaf leachate-incorporated soil. Chlorophyll content and maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm) were significantly reduced with leaf and rhizome leachates. The stability and quantity of water-soluble phenolics in anaerobic versus aerobic condition may influence phytotoxic effects to other species. Phragmites organs can be ranked in order of allelopathic potentiality as follows: leaf > rhizome > root > stem. The present study highlighted the potential impacts of allelochemicals on plant recruitment in wetlands invaded by Phragmites.


Lower Cretaceous mudstones exposed at Speeton in North Yorkshire, UK, contain lobsters and burrows preserved in diagenetic phosphate concretions. Isotopic compositions of sulphur in both diagenetic sulphide and structural sulphate in diagenetic phosphate have been measured in an attempt to constrain diagenetic porewater chemistry. The occurrence of phosphatized and pyritized lobsters and similarly preserved burrows, allows a detailed comparison of these microenvironments with the host sediments. Host sediments are extensively bioturbated and characterized by very light sulphide isotopic compositions (mean sulphide δ34S = –48·3 ± 3‰ (1σ, n = 19)) and sulphate isotopic compositions that are lighter than Lower Cretaceous seawater sulphate (mean sulphate δ34S = +8·7 ± 3·2‰ (1σ, n = 19)). These isotopic values can be explained by the action of bioturbating macrofauna; the introduction of oxygen in ventilating seawater results in the oxidation of early formed isotopically light pyrite, resulting in porewater sulphate that is enriched in 32S. Subsequent pyrite formation via bacteriogenic reduction of isotopically light porewater sulphate leads to the formation of isotopically light pyrite, whilst residual porewater sulphate apparently remains relatively enriched in the 32S isotope. Sulphur isotopic values for the burrows are very different; sulphide isotopic compositions average –34·4 ± 0·4‰ (1σ, n = 3) and sulphate isotopic compositions average –14·4 ± 6·6‰ (1σ, n = 4). These isotopic compositions are the result of rapid development of closed system conditions in burrows, resulting in the build‐up of acidity necessary for phosphate precipitation and coprecipitation of isotopically light sulphate (formed by oxidation of isotopically light sulphide surrounding the burrows). Lobster shell isotopic compositions fall between these two groups. On the basis of their isotopic compositions, some lobsters appear to have died close to the sediment–water interface, whilst others appear to have been buried (in burrows) prior to death.


Tullock's (1971) Paradox of Revolution uses an Olsonian logic to conclude that revolutions should not happen in large societies. Cantoni et al.'s (2018) Hong Kong Experiment shows that, in sharp contrast to the literature that models protest as a coordination problem, actions can be strategic substitutes. We develop a model to address these standing puzzles, and investigate its empirical implications. We show that when the movement's goal is modest, free-riding concerns dominate the citizens' interactions, making their actions strategic substitutes. By contrast, when the movement's goal is to topple the regime, coordination concerns dominate, and actions become strategic complements. Moreover, with natural other-regarding preferences, some citizens participate in costly revolt even in large societies. A new empirical implication of the model is that as a regime grows stronger in the sense that a larger fraction of citizens is needed to overthrow it, the likelihood of regime change may rise.


The Food and Agriculture Program at IIASA focuses its research activities on understanding the nature and dimension of the world's food situation and problems, on exploring possible alternative policies which could improve the present situation in the short and long term, and on investigating the consequences of such policies at various levels - global, national and regional -- and in various time horizons.

One part of the research activities focussed on investigations of alternative paths of technology transformation in agriculture with respect to resource limitations and environmental consequences in the long term. The general approach and methodology developed for this investigation is being applied in several case studies on the regional level. The reason for the studies is not only to validate the general methodology but also to develop an applicable tool for detailed investigations for a particular region which could then be applied on a number of similar regions.

Furthermore, some specific aspects are being addressed in all these case studies which has been initiated within the IIASA's Food and Agriculture Program. This will allow the behavior of various systems to be compared, according to the selected aspects, and analyzed (in different social, economic and natural resource conditions) according to the selected aspects. One of these case studies is of Stavropol, USSR, and covers the whole of this region.

This paper describes the first phase of the study, the problems in this region, the aims for solving them, and the first draft of the methodology which is based on the general framework developed at IIASA.


Current regulations for fire suppression systems in underground coal mines to protect conveyor belt installations have been in place since the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 was enacted. Over time, the coal conveyer equipment being used and ventilation conditions underground have changed significantly, particularly the width of the conveyor belts and the use of belt air at the face. The effect of these new conditions on the effectiveness of suppression systems during a fire is not known. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a study to evaluate the effect of air velocity, water sprinkler activation temperature, and a limited water application time on the effectiveness of water sprinkler fire suppression systems to extinguish large-scale conveyor belt fires. The fire tests were conducted using both new and used 1.8-m-wide, fire-resistant rubber belt that met the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) flame resistant requirement specified in Title 30, Code of Federal Regulations, part 18, section 18.65 (also known as the 2G test). Tests were conducted using standard response sprinklers with activation temperatures of 68 °C and 141 °C at air velocities of 0.5 and 5.1 m/s. Two tests were conducted at both air velocities for each sprinkler activation temperature, one using a new belt and one with a used belt. The results showed that the suppression system was able to suppress the fires in ten minutes to the point that a miner could extinguish it with a fire hose. However, in several of the tests, the fire reestablished itself a few minutes after the sprinkler water supply was cut off and quickly grew out of control. This report discusses the large scale experimental configuration, the installation specifications of the fire suppression system, and the results and conclusions regarding the effect of air velocity,


There is vast literature on both harmonization and globalization. Much of the extensive commentary, at least in the United States, is outward looking. It focuses on how other countries have changed, or should change, their laws and legal culture to more fully participate in the global economy and the information age that is upon us. Other commentators take a more cautionary view and examine the price being paid by these same countries as a result of the changes they are implementing.I want to take a different point of view and examine the lessons to be learned by the United States as a result of globalism. This essay focuses primarily on the area of antitrust or competition law, where the United States is a leader and one of the senior statesmen in the field. From this vantage point, the United States is often quick to teach, lecture, and criticize other legal systems that frequently do nothing worse than enact and enforce competition law in a manner that is different from the way we approach the same type of problems. The extreme version of this syndrome is, of course, both arrogant and offensive to sophisticated legal systems seeking to achieve varying objectives in a culture and history different from our own. I propose two changes. First, the United States must acquire the ability to analyze other legal systems from the point of view of whether legal rules and institutions serve their needs, not ours. Second, we must begin to study and analyze the developments of the more than one hundred foreign systems of competition law for the lessons we can use to reform our own system of competition law to better play the role of antitrust senior statesman in a global economy. This essay is a plea for change in the United States based on the lessons learned abroad both in antitrust law and in the broader issues of economic regulation and national sovereignty. It is not intended as an answer to these vexing issues but rather as the beginning of a different type of dialogue and a richer role for the United States in the global marketplace and world community.


One of grand challenges in the Computational Aerosciences Project of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program involves performing multidisciplinary simulations in which two or more phenomena, such as aerodynamics and structures, are strongly coupled. This challenge has, in turn, given visualization researchers the challenge of developing methods to represent the interaction between disciplines effectively. Visual representations are useful only if they augment comprehension of the increasing amounts of data being generated by these simulations. Visualization researchers must ensure that these representations are useful and do not contain information that might lead to misinterpretation. This paper presents the development of a visualization tool to aid scientists in the analysis of multidisciplinary simulations. The authors define a visualization framework that supports the production of effective visualizations by adapting the visual representations to the goal of the scientist, the type of data to be displayed, software and hardware considerations, and rules of visual perception.


When small RNA is sequenced on current sequencing machines, the resulting reads are usually longer than the RNA and therefore contain parts of the 3' adapter. That adapter must be found and removed error-tolerantly from each read before read mapping. Previous solutions are either hard to use or do not offer required features, in particular support for color space data. As an easy to use alternative, we developed the command-line tool cutadapt, which supports 454, Illumina and SOLiD (color space) data, offers two adapter trimming algorithms, and has other useful features. Cutadapt, including its MIT-licensed source code, is available for download at http://code.google.com/p/cutadapt/


Several initiatives have been undertaken by agencies to tackle the second generation sanitation challenge
of safe management of faecal sludge. A situation analysis of an on-going initiative identified
inappropriate containment at source is one of key problems, with multiple implications for people's
access to decent, safe sanitation and for the environment. Inappropriate containment is the manifestation
of the lack of knowledge, guidelines, awareness at the city level and has not been prioritised in the rush
to achieve basic sanitation coverage. As a result, urban dwellers constructed intermediate solutions to
containment and sludge management which pollute the overall environment. The current study of
Faridpur city will shows the impact of inappropriate containment on sanitation and the environment in
Faridpur, Bangladesh.


Democratic theory passed through two major developments during the last 20 years: the first one was deliberative democracy. Deliberative democracy is a critique of the aggregative view of democracy that dominated post-war democratic theory. Instead of aggregation through elections, deliberative democracy proposes different forms of improving the quality of the democratic through public reasoning and argumentation. The second innovation in the democratic debate is the recent theory of representation that assumes that a renewal of representation is needed in order to reconstruct the quality of democracy. Both innovations in democratic theory shared one central assumption, namely that there is a crisis of democracy and that this crisis is linked to lack of quality in political will formation. Deliberative democracy and the new theory of representation disagree on two major issues, one theoretical and the other practical. Theoretically, they go beyond the opposition between representation and participation as they seek to move beyond Hobbes and Rousseau. On a practical level they disagree of the role of broadening participation in the process of improving the quality of democracy. In this article, I propose a different way of going beyond Rousseau that preserves the community of equals dimension. My proposal involves the integration of participation and representation through a new design. This new model, which is being broadly implemented by governments across the developing world, seems more promising because it can accept the critique to the sovereignty side of participation without relinquishing its equality dimension. It is only through the expansion of political equality through both participation and representation that contemporary democracies will be able to overcome their legitimacy crisis.


The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which early childhood educators implement family-centered practices with families of Latino heritage in rural areas and who have young children with disabilities. This research also investigated factors that may influence implementation of practices within the family-centered approach, such as education, access to professional development opportunities and experiences in the field, as well as challenges and needs related to implementation from the viewpoint of early childhood teachers. Finally, the study examined teachers' views on the influences of their professional and cultural background on the extent and ways they use family-centered approach in their practice. To better understand these aspects, quantitative and qualitative data was collected to explore the extent to which teachers reported to employ family-centered practices, as well as the influence of the above-mentioned variables at the implementation level. The responses of 44 participants collected with a survey were analyzed to explore the first questions of this study. Individual interviews with a subsample of 10 participants were conducted to explore the latter questions. The results of this study indicate that teachers report to implement family-centered practices to an overall high extent. However, the findings of the qualitative data indicate that although teachers are reporting to use family-centered approach in some areas of their practices, they are reporting critical needs in others. In addition, results indicate there may be a significant relationship between variables such as extent of experience of working with families of Latino heritage, access to professional development opportunities, or extent of experience in the current teaching position, and the extent to which professionals use family-centered practice approach.


To generate policy alternatives and offer policy advice, the policy analysis and planning literature counsels analysts to assess the values and beliefs of policy actors, as well as the organizational and political contexts in which an analyst's proposed solution will have to be enacted and implemented, but does not further specify what these values, beliefs, and contexts might be. Analysts can anticipate the kinds of political values and the kinds of beliefs about human nature, the environment, and the economy that are likely to be associated with different forms of social organization by relying on Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky's theory of culture. Additionally, this form of cultural analysis will allow analysts to deduce which policy problems are most likely to arise, which policy solutions are most likely to be feasible, and which policy advocacy coalitions are most probable in different cultural contexts.


Background: Conventional methods used for diagnosis of lung cancer are still inadequate for objectively estimating the exact depth of tumor invasion to bronchial wall, nodal staging, infiltration of mediastinal structures and extent of early lung cancer. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) was introduced into clinical hospital practice in 2000, as a new diagnostic procedure visualizing bronchial and peribronchial tumors, mediastinal lymph nodes and adjacent vascular structures, with the aim of assessing bronchial wall and extraluminal pathology. Purpose: Since major European publications deal with EBUS application in general anesthesia, its use in routine bronchoscopy under topical anesthesia has been addressed more closely in this study. Hence the primary question we attempted to answer has been, is the addition of EBUS under topical anesthesia to bronchoscopy practicable and does it improve diagnosis in bronchial cancer beyond computer tomography (CT) and bronchoscopy alone? Patients, materials & methods: 50 consecutive patients were recruited with suspected lung cancer (suspicious shadow(s) and / or mediastinal adenopathy in chest CT) undergoing diagnostic and/or staging flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy. In all patients, EBUS was performed as an adjuvant to bronchoscopy using midazolam sedation, lidocaine mucosal anesthesia and supplemental oxygen. A 20-mega Hz radial mechanical ultrasound probe integrated with a balloon, connected to ultrasound unit is advanced through the 2.8-millimeter working channel FFB to area of interest, where the balloon is inflated to provide a medium for ultrasound transmission. Agreement of EBUS findings with FFB/ CT and cyto-histology, additional information provided by EBUS, complications, patients tolerability under topical anesthesia were assessed. Results: Out of the 50 cases with suspected lung cancer, 36 cases were pathologically verified. In 36 lung cancer cases, EBUS findings coincided with those of FFB and CT in main features of the disease process. EBUS provided additional information in 25 cases (69%), in which 20 additive lymph nodes were detected; depth of tumor invasion was determined in 18 cases and compression of pulmonary arteries in 2 cases. In addition, it was helpful in explanation of bronchoscopic findings in 19 cases (53%) and exclusion of mediastinal structures infiltration. On the other hand, FFB and CT provided additional information in 7 cases (19%). In all studied cases, EBUS assisted transbronchial needle aspiration biopsy had diagnostic yield in extraluminal lesions up to 89% and 90% in mediastinal and intrapulmonary adenopathy. EBUS addition could change the nodal descriptors in 4 cases and patient stage in 2 cases, but without any subsequent therapeutic consequences. The complications encountered in all studied cases were either mild (6) or moderate (1) desaturation, mild (9) or moderate (3) cough and 2 cases of tachycardia. The procedure is completely tolerated by most of the patients (66%). There is an average increase in examination time of 15 minutes, constituting 44% of total time of bronchoscopy. Conclusions: EBUS application under topical anesthesia is a well-tolerated procedure, associated with mild infrequent side effects, providing valuable beneficial additional information to bronchoscopy and CT; hence its addition can improve the diagnosis and assessment of bronchial cancer. Further expected technical improvements are still needed, which may allow EBUS in the near future to play a more important role in diagnostic and interventional bronchoscopy. Recommendations: Prospective multicentre studies are needed for critical assessment of EBUS in operable lung cancer patients, correlating EBUS image findings with postoperative anatomical and pathological findings in same areas examined. A more applicable definition of depth of tumor invasion, the use of 30 MHz probes, the use of double lumen bronchoscopy, the cost effectiveness of procedure and the role of EBUS in peripheral lesions are recommended to be further studied. The sound indications of this new technology need to be settled, in the diagnostic investigation path of lung cancer.


Modern leadership has permeated the village social system. Change within that system will naturally necessitate a change in the socio -political construct of the leaders. The socio-political construct of a leader has been the resultant of interactive perception and perceptual configuration. In developing countries like India, leaders act as a change agent so far as development of villages and villagers are concerned. It is very important for the leaders to have a modern outlook as well as to be democratically oriented if they have to work in a democratic set up as India claims to be for a sustainable and renewable development of India. The study has been conducted mainly to estimate the socio political structure of the rural leaders as a predicted character in elucidating the leadership dynamics in a given social ecology. Accordingly, 19 different independent variables were included in designing socio-political structure. The present study was carried out with a sample of 100 rural leaders (sociometric leaders and institutional leaders) at Haringhata block I of Nadia district in the state of West Bengal. The purposive as well as simple random sampling and systematic sampling techniques were adopted for the present study. It has been found that the variables like  Occupation (X3), Education (X4), Five Year Plan (X7), Panchayat system perception (X8), Dominance (X9), Self-confidence (X10), Dogmatism (X11), Authoritarianism-equilitarianism (X12), Conservatism-liberalism  (X13), Fatalism- scienticism (X14), Individualism familism (X15), progressive-reactionary (X16), Political ideology (X17 ), Election perception (X18 ), and alienation (X19 ) have contributed immensely towards profiling the political structure of the rural leaders .Thus the whole of the study rightly has come out with a clear indication that for better and effective construction of leadership and unleashing of their function, we need to have a focused and effective training viz  a viz motivational interventions. Int. J. Soc. Sci. Manage. Vol-2, issue-4: 343-347


This study advances communication scholarship on fragments (McGee, 1990), while demonstrating how to create and use an innovative approach to scholarship in this field. The research goal was two-part. First, to better understand the everyday critic's role in co-creating discourse. This master's project prompted eight collaborators to create an artifact in response or interpretation to a focal work, the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Ethnographic and autoethnographic methods were used to observe the discourse that emerged from this prompt. Observations challenge the separation between text and context, revealing the significant impact that vernacular fragments have on the rhetorical life of a work. The second research goal was to create an arts-based approach that would be most appropriate to reach this better understanding. This work can be used as an exemplar of arts-based research approaches applied to achieve theoretical understandings in communications scholarship.


One of the central tenets of mainstream economics is Adam Smith's proposition that, given certain conditions, self-interested behavior by individuals leads them to the social good, almost as if orchestrated by an invisible hand. This deep insight has, over the past two centuries, been taken out of context, contorted, and used as the cornerstone of free-market orthodoxy. In Beyond the Invisible Hand, Kaushik Basu argues that mainstream economics and its conservative popularizers have misrepresented Smith's insight and hampered our understanding of how economies function, why some economies fail and some succeed, and what the nature and role of state intervention might be. Comparing this view of the invisible hand with the vision described by Kafka--in which individuals pursuing their atomistic interests, devoid of moral compunction, end up creating a world that is mean and miserable--Basu argues for collective action and the need to shift our focus from the efficient society to one that is also fair. Using analytic tools from mainstream economics, the book challenges some of the precepts and propositions of mainstream economics. It maintains that, by ignoring the role of culture and custom, traditional economics promotes the view that the current system is the only viable one, thereby serving the interests of those who do well by this system. Beyond the Invisible Hand challenges readers to fundamentally rethink the assumptions underlying modern economic thought and proves that a more equitable society is both possible and sustainable, and hence worth striving for. By scrutinizing Adam Smith's theory, this impassioned critique of contemporary mainstream economics debunks traditional beliefs regarding best economic practices, self-interest, and the social good.


Mute Records is one of the most influential, commercially successful, and long-lasting of the British independent record labels formed in the wake of the late-1970's punk explosion. Yet, in comparison with contemporaries such as Rough Trade or Stiff, its legacy remains under-explored.

This edited collection addresses Mute's wide-ranging impact. Drawing from disciplines such as popular music studies, musicology, and fan studies, it takes a distinctive, artist-led approach, outlining the history of the label by focusing each chapter on one of its acts. The book covers key moments in the company's evolution, from the first releases by The Normal and Fad Gadget to recent work by Arca and Dirty Electronics. It shines new light on the most successful Mute artists, including Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Erasure, Moby, and Goldfrapp, while also exploring the label's avant-garde innovators, such as Throbbing Gristle, Mark Stewart, Labaich, Ut, and Swans. Mute Records examines the business and aesthetics of independence through the lens of the label's artists.


ABSTRACT How do college noncompleters list schooling on their resumes? The negative signal of not completing might outweigh the positive signal of attending but not persisting. If so, job-seekers might hide noncompleted schooling on their resumes. To test this, we match resumes from an online jobs board to administrative educational records. We find that fully one in three job-seekers who attended college but did not earn a degree omit their only postsecondary schooling from their resumes. We further show that these are not casual omissions but are strategic decisions systematically related to schooling characteristics, such as selectivity and years of enrollment. We also find evidence of lying and show which degrees listed on resumes are most likely untrue. Lastly, we discuss implications. We show not only that this implies a commonly held assumption, that employers perfectly observe schooling, does not hold, but also that we can learn about which college experiences students believe are most valued by employers.


Starting in 1994 with the first obtained plasma crystal, the study of dusty plasmas developed explosively since then as an autonomous research field. The dynamic equilibrium of forces acting on micro-spheres in the plasma is a fundamental problem for understanding the dynamics of complex plasmas. The most relevant forces are gravitation force, neutral gas friction, electric field force, ion drag and thermophoresis. The last two are introduced into the plasma physics only in connection to dusty plasma. Even though they are usually very small compared to the particle weight, they become very important when the gravitation is reduced, as in the case of microgravity experiments, or by falling particles in our second experiment. In this thesis two experiments on the forces acting on dust particles are presented under two completely different conditions: in the plasma sheath, and in the plasma bulk. These two situations differ by the fact that the sheath is a non-equilibrium environment governed by directional ion flows, where the particles are always trapped in 2D structures, while the plasma bulk is an equilibrium environment, where the particle trapping is possible under microgravity conditions, when 3D particle systems can be studied. In the first experiment, nonlinear oscillations of individual micro-spheres have been excited in the plasma sheath by low frequency modulation of the RF power applied to the electrode. The potential well of the particles trapped within the sheath is determined exclusively by the balance of the gravitation force and the electric field force. Other forces like thermophoresis or ion drag are about one order of magnitude smaller than the gravitation under these conditions and act in the same vertical direction as the weight force. From the characteristics of the nonlinear resonances, the contributions of electric field and the particle charging to the observed nonlinearity have been derived. It was found that the nonlinearity can be fully attributed to the position dependent charge of the particles. This oscillation method is a reliable technique for determining the forces acting on particles trapped in the non-equilibrium sheath. In the second experiment, the behaviour of free falling particles through a long plasma column is studied. This is a novel experimental approach to the study of the forces acting on the charged particles. The gravitation force is balanced in the vertical direction by the neutral gas friction force. Smaller forces like thermophoresis or ion drag act in the radial direction and this allows to decouple the dominant vertical forces from the more subtle ones, which act horizontally. The study of the radial forces is carried out for various plasma conditions, by analysing the trajectories of the falling particles. From the experiments, a good agreement with theoretical models of the thermophoretic and ion drag force is obtained. This approach provides accurate qualitative and quantitative results on the acting forces and allows direct comparisons with dusty plasma experiments under microgravity conditions e.g. in questions of the mechanism of the "void" phenomenon. Concluding, this thesis offers reliable methods of analysis for investigating both trapped and untrapped particles for an improved understanding of dynamic processes in complex plasmas.


The design, performance, and basic features of ablative pulsed plasma thrusters based on the z-pinch configuration are discussed through a series of experiments and numerical simulations. The motivation stems from the promise of the z-pinch configuration for increasing the thrust-to-power ratio and mass utilization efficiency above those of ablative thrusters with a conventional rectangular geometry. The performance of a series of ablative z-pinch pulsed plasma thrusters is characterized using a swinging-gate thrust stand and mass ablation measurements. The performance measurements are complemented by additional experimental diagnostics (current monitoring and high-speed photography) and numerical modeling in order to gain an understanding of the acceleration mechanism and provide direction for future design iterations. Three iterations in the design of the thruster result in thrust-topower ratios ranging from 12‐45 µN/W, with specific impulse and thrust efficiency values spanning 240‐760 s and 2‐9%, respectively. Numerical simulations show reasonable quantitative agreement with the experimental data and predict the existence of an optimal thrust chamber aspect ratio, which maximizes the thrust-to-power ratio.


Dissolution kinetics of digenite (Cu9S5) was studied in Fe3+-H2SO4-NaCl media. The temperature range for the study was between 297 and 373 K (24 and 100°C), with a ferric concentration between 0.0100 and 0.0806 mol/dm3, a sulfuric acid concentration of 0.05 to 1.5 mol/dm3 and a NaCl concentration of 1.5 to 5 mol/dm3. Agitation speed and particle size were also studied. Results indicate that the dissolution mechanisms of digenite occurs in two stages: i) generation of covellite (CuS) with the formation of cupric ion (Cu2+) and ii) dissolution of covellite (CuS) with copper production in the system, as well as amorphous sulfur (S°). The second stage occurred very slowly compared to the first stage, the above variables studied directly affected the second stage. Temperature, Fe3+ and H2SO4 concentration positively affected dissolution of covellite formed (second stage), while the presence of NaCl did not increase dissolution of Cu9S5 or CuS. Results showed that stirring speed had an important role in the dissolution rate of CuS. Dissolution kinetics was analyzed using the model of diffusion through the porous layer. Covellite dissolution reaction order was 2.3 and 0.2 with respect to the concentration of ferric and sulfuric acid, respectively, and the rate was inversely proportional to particle size. The calculated activation energy was 36.1 kJ/mol, which is a typical value for a reaction controlled by diffusion in the porous layer at temperature between 297 and 373 K (24 and 100°C).


Abstract Background: Patients with congenital superior oblique palsy tend to adopt a head tilt to the contralateral side to maintain binocular single vision. It has long been recognised that facial asymmetries may be caused by a head tilt. The aim of this study was to describe the effect of habitual head tilt due to congenital superior oblique palsy on dental occlusion. Patients and methods: The study was designed as a descriptive cohort study. Ten patients with congenital superior oblique palsy (3 female, 7 male; mean age 51.7 (y) ± 15.8 SD, ranging from 19 to 69 (y)) underwent orthodontic examination. Orthodontic findings and values for vertical, torsional and horizontal deviation measured with the Harms tangent screen and stereopsis using a random dot test were compared. Results: Three orthodontic parameters were found to correlate significantly or at least as trend with orthoptic parameters. Midline deviation of the upper jaw to the face (rho = 0.623; p = 0.054) and anterior positioning of upper first molar in the sagittal plane (rho = 0.594; p = 0.07) correlate with the vertical deviation; overbite correlates with horizontal deviation measured in the primary position (rho = 0.768; p = 0.016). Conclusions: In this small study, three orthodontic parameters correlated with orthoptic findings in patients with congenital superior oblique palsy. Further studies are needed to establish whether congenital superior oblique palsy is more frequent in patients exhibiting abnormal values of these orthodontic parameters.


This article is concerned with a boundary-field equation approach to a class of boundary value problems exterior to a thin domain. A prototype of this kind of problems is the interaction problem with a thin elastic structure. We are interested in the asymptotic behavior of the solution when the thickness of the elastic structure approaches to zero. In particular, formal asymptotic expansions will be developed, and their rigorous justification will be considered. As will be seen, the construction of these formal expansions hinges on the solutions of a sequence of exterior Dirichlet problems, which can be treated by employing boundary element methods. On the other hand, the justification of the corresponding formal procedure requires an independence on the thickness of the thin domain for the constant in the Korn inequality. It is shown that in spite of the reduction of the dimensionality of the domain under consideration, this class of problems are, in general, not singular perturbation problems, because of appropriate interface conditions. ¶Dedicated to Wolfgang L. Wendland on the occasion of his 70th birthday.


Background Widespread diffusion of mobile phone and Web 2.0 technologies make them potentially useful tools for promoting health and tackling public health issues, such as the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity. Research in this domain is growing rapidly but, to date, no review has comprehensively and systematically documented how mobile and Web 2.0 technologies are being deployed and evaluated in relation to weight management. Objective To provide an up-to-date, comprehensive map of the literature discussing the use of mobile phone and Web 2.0 apps for influencing behaviors related to weight management (ie, diet, physical activity [PA], weight control, etc). Methods A systematic scoping review of the literature was conducted based on a published protocol (registered at PROSPERO: CRD42014010323). Using a comprehensive search strategy, we searched 16 multidisciplinary electronic databases for original research documents published in English between 2004 and 2014. We used duplicate study selection and data extraction. Using an inductively developed charting tool, selected articles were thematically categorized. Results We identified 457 articles, mostly published between 2013 and 2014 in 157 different journals and 89 conference proceedings. Articles were categorized around two overarching themes, which described the use of technologies for either (1) promoting behavior change (309/457, 67.6%) or (2) measuring behavior (103/457, 22.5%). The remaining articles were overviews of apps and social media content (33/457, 7.2%) or covered a combination of these three themes (12/457, 2.6%). Within the two main overarching themes, we categorized articles as representing three phases of research development: (1) design and development, (2) feasibility studies, and (3) evaluations. Overall, articles mostly reported on evaluations of technologies for behavior change (211/457, 46.2%). Conclusions There is an extensive body of research on mobile phone and Web 2.0 technologies for weight management. Research has reported on (1) the development, feasibility, and efficacy of persuasive mobile technologies used in interventions for behavior change (PA and diet) and (2) the design, feasibility, and accuracy of mobile phone apps for behavioral assessment. Further research has focused exclusively on analyses of the content and quality of available apps. Limited evidence exists on the use of social media for behavior change, but a segment of studies deal with content analyses of social media. Future research should analyze mobile phone and Web 2.0 technologies together by combining the evaluation of content and design aspects with usability, feasibility, and efficacy/effectiveness for behavior change, or accuracy/validity for behavior assessment, in order to understand which technological components and features are likely to result in effective interventions.


The effects of comprehension-strategy based and decoding/fluency-based reading interventions on the reading comprehension skills of upper-elementary English language learners (ELLs) were evaluated in this review. Nine studies assessing the efficacy of ten interventions were systematically reviewed. Findings showed that comprehension strategy-based interventions were associated with positive gains in reading comprehension, while decoding and fluency-based interventions were not. Support was shown for direct instruction with guided and independent practice, large group discussions, and small-group student-led discussions. Support was also shown for the use of the following comprehension strategies: summarizing the text, identifying the main idea, making personal connections to the text, monitoring vocabulary comprehension, making predictions, asking questions, and visualizing.


The accurate and precise implementation of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) is a fundamental requirement for the development of Earth System Sciences. The actual realization of the reference frame, in fact, directly impacts a number of different tasks ranging from precise satellite orbit determination to altimeter calibration, satellite antenna offset assessment for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and validation of center of mass corrections for spacecrafts carrying on board retro-reflectors for Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR). As a consequence, all the studies investigating motions of the Earth's surface, including oceans and ice-sheets, strictly depend on the availability of a reliable TRF that is fundamental for geo-referencing the relevant measurements. ITRF realizations must then be periodically updated, in order to account for newly acquired observations and for upgrades in data analysis procedures and/or combination methods. Any innovative computation strategy should ameliorate the realization of the frame physical parameters, namely the origin and the scale, upon which a number of scientific applications critically rely. This work addresses the potential of combining GNSS and SLR observations via their co-location on board GPS/GLONASS satellites. GNSS vehicles equipped with retro-reflector arrays can be tracked by SLR ground stations, which allows determining the spacecraft orbits by means of both optical and microwave signals. In principle, the inter-technique connection so achieved could be exploited for the computation of the ITRF in place of terrestrial ties. These lasts are known to be currently a limiting factor of the frame accuracy because of their inhomogeneous distribution and of their discrepancies with space geodesy estimates due to technique systematic errors. In this study, the strength of the alternative link in orbit has been thoroughly investigated in order to evaluate the performances of the selected space tie approach under the available operational conditions. The analysis focuses on the characterization of the precision, the accuracy and the pertinence of the combined frame parameters.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the dosimetric influence of setup errors on RapidArc-based SRS for simultaneous irradiation of multiple intracranial targets.

METHODS
Eight patients previously treated with RapidArc™ technique for multiple intracranial lesions were included in this study. A RapidArc plan was designed to irradiate multiple targets simultaneously with one isocenter and 4 non-coplanar arcs. 1 mm margin was added to generate PTVs from GTVs. BrainLAB Novalis system was used to position the targets with 6D corrections and monitor patient position during treatment. CBCT was acquired for verification before irradiation. Velocity AI was used for image registration and dose mapping for CBCT, planning CT, contours and dose matrix. The DVHs of targets and critical structures and dose distributions were compared with the planned results and dosimetric influence from setup errors was analyzed.

RESULTS
We found that the translational errors were less than 1 mm in the three directions and rotational errors were less than 0.6 degree for all the patients. The overall PTV coverage decreases of ∼10 percent on average while the overall GTV coverage slightly influenced. Although prescribed dosed still covered most of GTVs, there were still some targets with a GTV coverage drop greater than 5 percent even with a 1 mm margin. Most of influenced targets were small targets and relatively far from isocenter. Our study also showed that the dosimetric influence on critical structures was negligible.

CONCLUSIONS
Although RapidArc technique can generate good plans for effectively treating multiple intracranial lesions simultaneously using stereotactic radiosurgery, this technique is more susceptible to the setup errors, especially rotational errors. 0.5 degree rotational error may Result in non-ignorable drop in target coverage. Our study show that a 1 mm margin for PTV and 6D positioning are necessary for a successful treatment with this technique.


Emerging Flaviviruses pose an increasing threat to global human health. To date, human vaccines against yellow fever virus (YFV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), dengue virus (DV), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) exist. However, there is no human vaccine against other Flaviviruses such as Zika virus (ZIKV) and West Nile virus (WNV). In order to restrict their spread and to protect populations against the diseases they induce, vaccines against these emerging viruses must be designed. Obtaining new live attenuated Flavivirus vaccines using molecular biology methods is now possible. Molecular infectious clones of the parental viruses are relatively easy to generate. Key mutations present in live attenuated vaccines or mutations known to have a key role in the Flavivirus life cycle and/or interactions with their hosts can be identified by sequencing, and are then inserted in infectious clones by site-directed mutagenesis. More recently, the use of chimeric viruses and large-scale reencoding and introduction of microRNA target sequences have also been tested. Indeed, a combination of these methods will help in designing new generations of vaccines against emerging and reemerging Flaviviruses.