After 12 mo in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) supplementation (2 groups received CLA as part of a triglyceride or as the free fatty acid, and 1 group received olive oil as placebo), 134 of the 157 participants who concluded the study were included in an open study for another 12 mo. The goals of the extension study were to evaluate the safety [with clinical chemistry analyses and reported adverse events (AEs)] and assess the effects of CLA on body composition [body fat mass (BFM), lean body mass (LBM), bone mineral mass (BMM)], body weight, and BMI. All subjects were supplemented with 3.4g CLA/d in the triglyceride form. Circulating lipoprotein(a) and thrombocytes increased in all groups. There was no change in fasting blood glucose. Aspartate amino transferase, but not alanine amino transferase, increased significantly. Plasma total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were reduced, whereas HDL cholesterol and triglycerides were unchanged. The AE rate decreased compared with the first 12 mo of the study. Body weight and BFM were reduced in the subjects administered the placebo during the initial 12 mo study ( 1.6 3.2 and 1.7 2.8 kg, respectively). No fat or body weight changes occurred in the 2 groups given CLA during the initial 12 mo. LBM and BMM were not affected in any of the groups. Changes in body composition were not related to diet and/or training. In conclusion, this study shows that CLA supplementation for 24 mo in healthy, overweight adults was well tolerated. It confirms also that CLA decreases BFM in overweight humans, and may help maintain initial reductions in BFM and weight in the long term. J. Nutr. 135: 778–784, 2005.


Electronic trading is a force for change across markets, enabling a greater variety of trading arrangements, which in turn can affect the performance of markets and welfare more generally. This article first considers why the extent and speed of adoption of new trading systems has been very different between markets. It then focuses on two important issues raised by recent developments. One is the degree of fragmentation or consolidation of trading arrangements, where it is argued that electronic trading can facilitate either effect. The other is the degree of transparency of trading information, where the hugely expanded possibilities that electronic trading offers highlight the choices in this controversial topic. Policy-makers are interested in the wider impact of changes to trading arrangements on the broader economic and financial system. But policy judgments need to be made carefully because the effects can be market specific, uncertain or even counter-intuitive. Moreover, problems arising in market arrangements may prove short term or self-correcting. These considerations all bear on the judgments on whether or how to intervene to address apparent market failures.


The forest in the province of Misiones, northeastern of Argentina, is a portion of Parana Forest (or Atlantic Forest) located also in the south of Brasil and Paraguay. At the beginning of the last century the native forest had an extension of more than 100.000.000 ha. Actually, Brasil preserves only the 5% and Paraguay the 10% very spoiled and fragmented. In Argentina the decrease was the 45%, and keeps in existence 1.422.661 ha (National Forest Inventory 2003), with the higher values of biodiversity of the country. This area in Argentina has an accelerated rhythm of urbanization and deforestation. The productive system in the zone provides between 70% to 85% of wood to national market. Recent studies of diversity and dynamic of the native communities are very limited. For these reasons it's necessary to increase the spatial information of the natural resources, the expansion of human activities and the disturbances in the environment to improve the management, the arrangement of territory and the tools for the decisions makers. The main objectives of this study were: to analysis spatial and temporally the structure and dynamic of forest in the Valley of Cuna Piru (sector of Atlantic Forest, Misiones), and to compare different methods and tools in order to develop an efficient and operative methodology for a systematic monitoring of the status/condition of the area, by mean of satellite images analysis (Landsat and Aster) and GIS techniques (modeling, mapping of changes, identification of plants structures and physonomy by different classification methods). The preliminary results showed an operative and efficient methodology with remote sensing tools for the forest monitoring and a preliminary protocol of processes was developed. * Corresponding author. This is useful to know for communication with the appropriate person in cases with more than one author.


The storage of electrical energy in a rechargeable battery is subject to the limitations of reversible chemical reactions in an electrochemical cell. The limiting constraints on the design of a rechargeable battery also depend on the application of the battery. Of particular interest for a sustainable modern society are (1) powering electric vehicles that can compete with cars powered by the internal combustion engine and (2) stationary storage of electrical energy from renewable energy sources that can compete with energy stored in fossil fuels. Existing design strategies for the rechargeable battery have enabled the wireless revolution and the plug-in hybrid electric car, but they show little promise of providing safe, adequate capacity with an acceptable shelf and cycle life to compete in cost and convenience with the chemical energy stored in fossil fuels. Electric vehicles that are charged overnight (plug-in vehicles) offer a distributed energy storage, but larger battery packs are needed for stationary storage of electrical energy generated from wind or solar farms and for stand-by power. This paper outlines the limitations of existing commercial strategies and some developing strategies that may overcome these limitations.


Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are evolving into powerful general purpose computing platforms. At first, GPU performance was driven by the requirements of 3D graphics computer games. To fit this workload, a GPU is a many-core processor suitable for the data-parallel programming paradigm. Today, GPUs come with hundreds of processing elements and a theoretical single precision floating point performance in the teraflop range.
Because of the computing power of modern GPUs, programmers are increasingly inter- ested in making use of them for non-graphics applications. This desire has given rise to the research field that studies General Purpose Computations on GPUs (GPGPU). The manufacturers of GPUs are also acknowledging this trend and are tailoring their GPUs to meet both the desires of those playing games and the GPGPU community.
CUDA is NVIDIA's tool-set for GPGPU programming on their GPUs. CUDA is a big improvement for the GPGPU programmer compared to what was available before. In the early days, the GPGPU programmer was forced to express the algorithm being im- plemented as a computer graphics computation. CUDA provides a C compiler and a set of libraries for general purpose programming on the GPU, freeing the programmer from graphics APIs. In CUDA, the programmer decomposes the problem into a set of kernels. A kernel is an isolated data-parallel program executed by a number of threads on the GPU. CUDA has some problems. For example, CUDA is a very low level interface to the GPU capabilities and there is also the issue that CUDA kernels are not easily composable.
Obsidian is an embedded language for implementing kernels in the functional programming language Haskell. From higher level descriptions of algorithms based on combinators, CUDA code is generated. Using this approach, Obsidian kernels are more compositional and also relieve the programmer from inventing the typically complex index arithmetic expressions that are used to load and store data in data-parallel algorithms. The indexing arithmetic is hidden away from the programmer in the set of combinators provided as a library.
The performance obtained from the kernels generated using Obsidian is decent. It does not compare to optimized handwritten code but if the implementation effort is taken into consideration performance is good. Obsidian allows the programmer to think about the problem at hand, rather than being weighed down by the lower level details.
In this thesis, two different implementations of Obsidian are shown. The first of these implementations is based on monads and the second on arrows, two concepts familiar to functional programmers. A number of applications are presented, expressed using the arrow based version.


Abstract In this paper, we investigate a generalization of the infinite time horizon linear quadratic regulator (LQR) for systems evolving on the special orthogonal group SO(3). Using Pontryagin's Maximum Principle, we derive the necessary conditions for optimality and the associated Hamiltonian equations. For a special class of weighting matrices, we show that the optimal feedback can be computed explicitly and we prove that the non differentiable value function is the viscosity solution of an appropriate Hamiltn-Jacobi-Bellman equation on SO(3). For arbitrary positive definite weighting matrices, numerical simulations allow us to explore the relationship between the optimal trajectories and weighting matrices, and in particular to highlight nontrivial non differentiability properties of the value function.


Breeding of South Island pied oystercatchers (Haematopus ostrulegus finschi) on farmland in mid-Canterbury was studied from 1987 to 1997. Each year birds returned to breeding territories from early June; females arrived about six days earlier than males. Laying dates extended from early August to mid-November and were similar in all years. Most first clutches were laid from late August to mid-September. Up to two replacement clutches were laid. Clutch size averaged 2.29 (range 1-3 eggs) and declined through the breeding season, but was consistent from year to year. Mean first clutch sizes were larger than replacement clutches. On average, 47% of eggs hatched and 59% of these chicks survived to fledge. Both hatching and fledging rates declined through the season. On average, 52% of pairs which laid in any year failed to rear a fledgling. Hatching success was greater in cultivated sites than pasture sites, but fledging success was similar at both sites. Trampling by stock, farming activities, and unknown causes were the main causes of egg loss. Sagar, P.M.; Geddes, D.; Banks, J.; Howden, P. 2000. Breeding of South Island pied oystercatchers (Haematopus ostrulegus finschi) on farmland in mid-Canterbury, New Zealand. Notornis 47 (2): 71-81.


Ear infection is one of the most important infectious chronic diseases throughout
the world, and it is likely that the use of tools such as hands-free causes the transfer of microbial flora
and aids the activity of pathogenic microbes. This study compares the ear microbial flora of hands-free
users with those who have never used the hands-free in Urmia.
Materials & Methods: In this study, regardless of the gender, the ears of 24 people (within the range of
20 to 30 years old) who have continuously used hands-free for 3 years and also the ears of 24 people
who have never used hands-free were sampled. The samples were cultured in general and specific
environment and by using diagnostic tests, the bacteria were identified.
Results: The bacteria isolated from the ears of those who have never used hands-free included:
Lactobacillusus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, staphylococcus saprophyticus and non-hemolytic
Staphylococcus, and the bacteria isolated from the ears of hands-free users included: Staphylococcus
epidermidis, staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus aurous, D-non hemolytic streptococcus and
viridians streptococcus.
Conclusion: This investigation showed that the use of hands-free causes the transfer of the type and
abundance of microbial flora in ears. The result of Chi-square data analysis (P <0.05) also suggested the
significance of these differences.


The aim of this study was to compare the effect of physicochemical surface treatments on the adhesive bond strength of porcelain denture teeth (PDT) to acrylic resin denture base material (PMMA). Totally, 100 PDT specimens, 50 with retentive palatal pins (+P) and 50 without pins (−P), were selected and assigned to 10 experimental groups (n = 10). Control groups CON-P and CON + P, did not receive any treatment. Groups SB + P and SB-P were sandblasted, groups SB/AE + P and SB/AE-P were sandblasted and acid-etched, groups TSC + P and TSC-P were tribochemically silica-coated, and groups FB + P and FB-P were covered with fibers. Cylindrical PMMA rods were polymerized onto treated palatal PDT surfaces. Force (N) was applied on palatal incisal edges of PDT specimens until debonding of PMMA. Obtained data were statistically analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis and Bonferroni corrected Mann Whitney U tests. The significance level was set at (p < .05). Mean force values of test groups ranged in descending order as follows: TSC+P (132.5 N ± 26.5), SB+P (113.5 N ± 47.5), SB/AE+P (112.2 N ± 26.1), CON+P (103.1 N ± 39.6), TSC-P (90.6 N ± 22.2), FB+P (77.7 N ± 18.3), SB/AE-P (47.6 N ± 10.5), SB-P (18.1 N ± 4.0), CON-P (4.6 N ± 5.4), and FB-P (0.0 N ± 0.0). No significant difference was found between groups with pins (+P) except group FB+P which displayed lower values than CON+P (p < .024), and TSC+P (p < 045). Groups (+P) showed significantly higher bond strength values than groups (−P) except for group TSC-P (p < .09 and p < 1). In groups without pins (P−), differences between groups were significant and ranged as follows: TSC-P>SB/AE-P (p < .0094), SB/AE-P > SB-P (p < .007), and SB-P > CON-P (p < .0013). Groups CON-P and FB-P did not show differences (p ≤ 1). Groups (+P) displayed higher bond strength values than groups (−P). SB-P, SB/AE-P, and TSC-P increased the adhesive bond between PDT and PMMA, respectively. Fiber coating negatively affected the bond.


This article considers three forms of altruism from both a psychological and a neural perspective, with an emphasis on homologies that can be observed across species and potentially illuminate altruism's evolutionary origins. Kin-based altruism benefits biological relatives and, according to the theory of inclusive fitness, is ultimately beneficial to the altruist from a genetic standpoint. Kin selection adequately explains some altruistic behavior, but it is not applicable to much human altruism. Little is known about the neural processes that support it, but they may include cortical regions involved in processing autobiographical memory and the identities of familiar others. Reciprocity-based altruism is performed in expectation of future rewards and is supported by dopaminergic cortico-striatal networks that guide behavior according to anticipated rewards. Care-based altruism is aimed at improving the well-being of distressed and vulnerable individuals and is closely linked to empathic concern. This form of altruism is thought to rely on the subcortical neural systems that support parental care, particularly structures densely populated with receptors for the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin, including the amygdala, stria terminalis, and striatum. The amygdala may be a particularly important convergence point for care-based altruism because of its dual role in responding both to cues that signal infantile vulnerability and those that signal distress. Research on altruism continues to converge across disciplines, but more research linking molecular-level neural processes to altruistic behavior in humans and other species is needed, as is research on how various forms of altruism intersect. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.


NUREMBERG/VIENNA: "Don't tell my mother that I work in an advertising agency. She thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse." This infamous quote from French creative director Jacques Sequela represents something almost unheard of in the advertising and design business: a decisive sense of self-deprecation. Of course, advertising in general is rarely a dreary subject — in fact, a humorous element here or there is often considered a welcome stylistic device in consumer communications. Yet the people behind the laughs tend to take themselves and their profession extremely seriously. Nonetheless, there are signs that the trend is changing. It wouldn't be the first time that the so-called "applied arts" follow in the footsteps of pioneering movements such as Dada, Fluxus, conceptual art and the like. "Privately, insiders have been whispering for quite some time that humor will be THE next big thing in design," the editors of +rosebud magazine explain. "We're going to find out if there is anything to that." The creative team behind the internationally award-winning magazine has decided to dedicate the upcoming issue of +rosebud exclusively to any and all senses of humor. "To regain our balance after the experience of making IDEAL, the last issue of +rosebud, we seriously needed to lighten up," the editors explain. The decision to explore the various facets of humor came naturally as a result. "Especially when the going gets tough, the only way to deal with life is by simply not taking it seriously." But the magazine's editors aren't interested in just plain old fun alone. It wouldn't be +rosebud if they weren't also searching for deeper meaning in these shallow waters. Humor shares its ambivalence, its ability to shift between the utopian and the destructive as well as its refusal of absolute values with many of those twentieth- century movements that continue to exert an influence on society today.


ABSTRACT The vertical transition from the mainly subtidal alternating shale and carbonate units (or grand cycles) of the Conasauga Group (Middle to Upper Cambrian) to the peritidal dolostone of the Knox Group (Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician) marks a major change in the early Paleozoic passive-margin sedimentation of the southern Appalachians. The grand cycles represent an interplay between intrashelf shale basin and carbonate-platform deposition. The end of grand-cycle deposition occurred in response to carbonate platform progradation over the infilled intrashelf basin and is associated with a prominent change in diagenetic patterns observed in the uppermost Conasauga Group strata--the Maynardville Formation. The Maynardville records upward shallowing from subtidal shale and limestone into peritidal dolostone. This change from a subtidal into a peritidal depositional regime influenced the early diagenesis of the Maynardville and, in conjunction with the changes in the regional facies distribution at the end of grand-cycle deposition, extended its influence upon the burial diagenesis of these deposits. The subtidal deposits of the Maynardville contain a variety of calcite cements. Dolomite is not abundant in these deposits, where it occurs mainly as a fine-crystalline ferroan phase associated with argillaceous layers and pressure-dissolution features. The local source for this dolomite during burial was provided by expulsion of pore fluids from interbedded shale deposits, diagenesis of clay minerals, and pressure dissolution of carbonates. Ferruginous coatings on hardgrounds in the subtidal deposits provided an additional local source of iron for the formation of replacement saddle dolomite. The subtidal deposits also contain saddle dolomite cement associated with Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) minerals, which indicate the involvement of externally derived fluids during late burial diagenesis of these strata. The peritidal deposits, on the other hand, are extensively dolomitized. Fine-crystalline dolomite most likely represents early diagenetic replacement of tidal-flat carbonate sediment. Coarse-crystalline replacement dolomite formed during burial by recrystallization of early dolomite and dolomitization by warm burial brines. Fenestrae, desiccation cracks, and evaporite-dissolution voids are occluded with dolomite cement, which is commonly complexly zoned. Zoned dolomite precipitated during shallow to intermediate burial and is postdated by saddle dolomite cement. Saddle dolomite in pore centers, dissolutional voids, and tectonic fractures formed during late burial from warm fluids associated with the migration of MVT brines. The effects of changes in the depositional setting on diagenesis are reflected in similar early diagenesis between the subtidal Maynardville and the underlying Conasauga Group carbonate deposits, and between the peritidal deposits of the upper Maynardville and the rest of the overlying Knox Group. The depositional environments and early diagenesis also affected the burial diagenesis. The changes in regional facies distribution, caused by carbonate platform progradation at the end of grand-cycle deposition, resulted in a decrease in the proportion of siliciclastic components. This decrease was accompanied by a decline in the amount of ferroan carbonate in the peritidal deposits. The Maynardville is conformably overlain by carbonate deposits of the Knox Group. This allowed the Maynardville-Knox succession to behave as a single hydrologic unit for the migration of burial fluids in response to the formation of the Ordovician foreland (Sevier) basin to the southeast during the conversion from a passive into a convergent continental margin. The Nolichucky Shale separates the Maynardville-Knox succession from the carbonate deposits of the underlying Conasauga Group, which were, in contrast, affected by the migration of burial fluids from the Cambrian intrashelf shale basin to the west.


The Japanese eel larvae hatch near the West Mariana Ridge seamount chain and travel through the North Equatorial Current (NEC), the Kuroshio, and the Subtropical Countercurrent (STCC) region during their shoreward migration toward East Asia. The interannual variability of circulation over the subtropical and tropical regions of the western North Pacific Ocean is affected by the Philippines–Taiwan Oscillation (PTO). This study examines the effect of the PTO on the Japanese eel larval migration routes using a three-dimensional (3D) particle tracking method, including vertical and horizontal swimming behavior. The 3D circulation and hydrography used for particle tracking are from the ocean circulation reanalysis produced by the Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment 2 (JCOPE2). Our results demonstrate that bifurcation of the NEC and the strength and spatial variation of the Kuroshio affect the distribution and migration of eel larvae. During the positive phase of PTO, more virtual eels ("v-eels") can enter the Kuroshio to reach the south coast of Japan and more v-eels reach the South China Sea through the Luzon Strait; the stronger and more offshore swing of the Kuroshio in the East China Sea leads to fewer eels entering the East China Sea and the onshore movement of the Kuroshio to the south of Japan brings the eels closer to the Japanese coast. Significant differences in eel migration routes and distributions regulated by ocean circulation in different PTO phases can also affect the otolith increment. The estimated otolith increment suggests that eel age tends to be underestimated after six months of simulation due to the cooler lower layer temperature. Underestimation is more significant in the positive PTO years due to the wide distribution in higher latitudes than in the negative PTO years.


INTRODUCTION The earliest cited definition of entrepreneur is generally Cantillion who wrote circa 1700 (Carland, Hoy, Boulton & Carland, 1984). Among the characteristics which Cantillion cited was risk bearing (Kilby, 1971). Mill (1848), who was credited with bringing the term 'entrepreneur' into general use (Schumpeter, 1934), also believed that the key difference between entrepreneurs and managers was risk bearing. Risk bearing or risk taking behavior continued to be a major aspect of entrepreneurship until modern times (Carland, et. al., 1984). Brockhaus (1980) cast doubt on the traditional perspective with an empirical study which showed no difference between the risk taking characteristics of entrepreneurs, managers and the general public. The issue is far from settled. There have been a number of empirical studies of risk taking and the results are frequently contradictory. Are differences in findings related to the instruments used? This paper will present an empirical examination of risk taking propensity and test two popular measures of risk taking to identify sources of conflict in the literature. CONFLICTING RESULTS IN RISK TAKING PROPENSITY There have been a number of empirical studies of risk taking behavior; however, these studies have not produced uniform findings. In his recent book, Stewart (1996) examined risk taking studies. The following exhibit is drawn from his review with additions of newer studies appearing in 1995. The table shows the studies, the number of respondents, the instruments employed to measure risk, and the major findings of the research in each study. As the exhibit shows, the empirical studies employed a wide range of risk taking instruments, however, the JPI and the CDQ were the most frequent instruments in use. The literature review shows more support for higher propensity in risk taking by entrepreneurs. Despite this history, the findings by Brockhaus (1980) are the most widely cited. This is primarily a result of the stature of the journal in which that work appeared. In addition, in those studies in which no differences in risk taking were identified, the CDQ was most often the instrument of choice for risk measurement. THE BROCKHAUS STUDY In a frequently cited Academy of Management Journal article, Brockhaus (1980) examined the risk taking propensity of entrepreneurs employing the Wallach and Kogan (1959, 1961) Choice Dilemma Questionnaire (CDQ). He defined an entrepreneur as one who was a major owner and manager of a business venture who was not employed elsewhere. He examined three groups of individuals: business owners who had initiated their business ventures within three months prior to the study (N=31); managers who had changed positions in their companies within three months prior to the study (N=31); and, managers who had changed employers within three months prior to the study (N=31). Finally, he compared the scores of the participants to the normative data reported by Kogan and Wallach (1964). Brockhaus (1980) reasoned that using entrepreneurs near the beginning point of their ventures would include those that would ultimately fail, therefore eliminating bias from examining only successful entrepreneurs. Pairing these entrepreneurs with managers who had also undergone recent changes in their professions ensured that more stable individuals who might be less risk taking were not compared to the entrepreneurs. Employing the Analysis of Variance procedure, Brockhaus (1980) found no statistical differences in risk taking propensity among the three groups. Using a chi-square test with a .25 confidence level, he found no difference between the respondents' scores and the normative Kogan-Wallach data. Brockhaus concluded that the distribution of risk taking propensities of entrepreneurs is the same as the general population. THE MASTERS AND MEIER STUDY Masters and Meier (1988) using the Kogan-Wallach Choice Dilemma Questionnaire replicated the Brockhaus study. …


Introduction: Evidence-based practice is a required component of student physical therapist education. Practice applying the five steps of evidence-based practice to patient care (formulate question, retrieve evidence, appraise evidence, integrate evidence, evaluate outcomes), most effectively performed during clinical education, must occur for students to become proficient. Clinical instructor use of evidence-based practice is essential to assure that student physical therapist practice occurs during clinical education. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess self-reported evidence-based practice use by physical therapy clinical instructors and examine whether an association exists between professional characteristics and evidence-based practice use. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, descriptive study using an electronic survey to collect data on clinical instructor professional characteristics and evidence-based practice use. Results: Respondents included 376 physical therapists who were clinical instructors in the United States. Participant responses for frequency evidence-based practice steps use ranged from never to frequently. Specifically, respondents reported integrating evidence into clinical instruction: never 2.1% (n = 8); rarely 6.4% (n = 24); occasionally 13.3% (n = 50); sometimes 28.7% (n = 108); and frequently 49.5% (n = 186). There was no difference in evidence-based practice use as the result of age or highest degree. Respondents who were American Physical Therapy Association members or held an American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties certification reported using some of the evidence-based practice steps more frequently than those who were not. Discussion and Conclusion: Although the majority of respondents in this study reported using evidence-based practice to some extent, there was great variability. Student physical therapists may be exposed to evidence-based practice during clinical education since the majority of respondents, considering their role as clinical instructors, reported evidence-based practice use. However, exposure cannot be guaranteed for every student because some respondents reported never using evidence-based practice. Educational program use of supplemental learning activities during clinical experiences may facilitate student practice of all five steps of evidence-based practice during clinical education.


Swap lines between advanced-economy central banks are a new important part of the global financial architecture. This paper analyses their monetary policy effects from three perspectives. First, from the perspective of the central banks, it shows that the swap line mimics discount-window credit from the source central bank to the recipient-country banks using the recipient central bank as the bearer of the credit risk. Second, from the perspective of the transmission of monetary policy, it shows that the swap-line rate puts a ceiling on deviations from covered interest parity, and finds evidence for it in the data. Third, from the perspective of the macroeconomic effects of policy, it shows that the swap line ex ante encourages inflows from recipient-country banks into assets denominated in the source-country's currency by reducing the ex post funding risk. We find support for these predictions using difference-in-difference empirical strategies that exploit the fact that only some currencies saw changes in the terms of their dollar swap line, only some bonds in banks' investments are exposed to dollar funding risk, only some dollar bonds are significantly traded by foreign banks, and only some banks have a significant U.S. presence.


Objective. To investigate cognitive functioning and associated factors in a national probability sample of older South Africans who participated in the Study of Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) in 2008. Methods. In 2008 we conducted a national population-based cross-sectional study with a sample of 3 840 adults aged ≥50 years in South Africa. We administered a questionnaire surveying socio-demographic characteristics, health variables, and anthropometric and blood pressure measurements. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess the association of socio-demographic factors and health variables with cognitive functioning. Results. Mean variables in the sample were: 5.9 recalled words, a verbal fluency of 9.9 words in a specified category (animals), a forward and backward digit span of 5.2 and 3.2, respectively, and an overall mean cognition score of 48.5. Higher overall cognitive functioning (a combination of memory and executive functioning) was positively associated with: younger age; white, Indian/Asian or coloured ethnicity; being married; a higher level of education; greater wealth; a higher level of physical activity; a greater quality of life; and a better subjective health status. Conclusions. Our findings can be used to refine future projections of cognitive function and healthcare needs in ageing middle-income societies such as those in South Africa.


Under Putin's rule, Russian policy has considerably hardened both domestically and internationally. It has gone from a mixture of oligarchy, democracy, and anarchy to a regime of autocracy with some fascist features, and from an effort to imitate and join the West to a verbal aggressiveness towards the United States and an effort to reassert Russia's domination over its former empire. An important link between the two evolutions is to be found in the post-imperial nostalgia of the Russian population, in the neo-imperial ambition of its leaders, and in their fear of the spread of "color revolutions" among their neighbors.


This article explores the historical importance of argument and self-learning within the structure of liberal arts education and how these can be applied to the design of university and community college general education classes to help students develop skills in effective communication, critical thinking and self-learning. Research in classical and medieval theories of education, the liberal arts and pedagogy are used to clarify the purpose of higher education (teaching students how to learn without the aid of a teacher) and explore historical and modern pedagogies designed to achieve that purpose. A case study from an introductory history course designed based on medieval pedagogies provides examples of implementing these pedagogies, as well as assessment from three years of teaching it in both community college and university classrooms.


Mangrove swamps and hypersaline saltflats fringe many estuaries in dry tropical climates, especially in Northern Australia. For most of the year these estuaries receive zero riverine freshwater input and thus, after the wet season, a steady increase in salinity occurs. In some locations the estuary becomes fully inverse, i.e. the salinity increases monotonically from the mouth to the head. In other locations, a salinity maximum zone separates the sea from low salinity water that persists at the head of the estuary throughout the dry season. Field data from five estuaries indicate that in short estuaries where a large area of saltflats and mangroves extends over the whole length of the estuary, the estuary becomes completely inverse with salinity rising to 55 within a couple of months. The evaporation and evapotranspiration over the saltflats and mangroves cause this rapid increase in salinity. Longer estuaries where a large area of salt flat exists only close to the mouth do not become completely hypersaline for the whole length of the estuary by the end of the dry season. A salinity-maximum is generated close to the river mouth but salinities of less than 10 persist in the upper reaches of the estuary until the end of the dry season, even though the estuary does not receive any further freshwater input. A simple analytical expression is presented that reproduces the changes in salinities in the estuaries studied. This model can be used to predict the formation of hypersaline conditions in other mangrove and saltflat fringed estuaries where freshwater flow is negligible.


The constitutive transcription of a mouse a-fetoprotein (AFP) minigene was examined during the transient expression of AFP-simian virus 40-pBR322 recombinant DNAs introduced into HeLa cells by Ca3(PO4)2 precipitation. We tested three constructs, each of which contains the AFP minigene and pBR322 DNAs inserted in the late region of simian virus 40 and found that the relative efficiency of AFP gene expression was dependent on the arrangement of the three DNA elements in the vector. The transcripts begin at the authentic AFP cap site and are properly spliced and polyadenylated. To define a sequence domain in the 5' flanking region of the AFP gene required for constitutive expression, sequential 5' deletion mutants of the AFP minigene were constructed and introduced into HeLa cells. All AFP deletion mutants which retained at least the TATA motif located 30 base pairs upstream from the cap site were capable of directing accurate and efficient AFP transcription. However, when the TATA sequence was deleted, no accurately initiated AFP transcripts were detected. These results are identical to those obtained from in vitro transcription of truncated AFP 5' deletion mutant templates assayed in HeLa cell extracts. The rate of AFP transcription in vivo was unaffected by deletion of DNA upstream of the AFP TATA box but was greatly affected by the distance between the simian virus 40 control region and the 5' end of the gene. The absence of any promoter activity upstream of the TATA box in this assay system is in contrast to what has been reported for several other eucaryotic structural genes in a variety of in vivo systems. A sequence comparison between the 5' flanking region of the AFP gene and these genes suggested that the AFP gene lacks those structural elements found to be important for constitutive transcription in vivo. Either the AFP gene lacks upstream promoter function in the 5' flanking DNA contained within the minigene, or the use of a viral vector in a heterologous system precludes its identification.


Purpose: A commercial software package (Mobius3d, Mobius Medical Systems) was acquired for use as an additional QA tool of our current treatment planning system (TPS). The system reads DICOM RT files generated from the TPS and performs an independent dose calculation for comparison to the TPS. This work summarizes our methods for commissioning a system such as this. Methods: Preliminary comparisons of our TPS and measured data to the QA softwares beam model were done by comparing PDDs and profiles with field sizes ranging from 4&×;4 to 40×40. Static fields and step and shoot IMRT plans were generated on a homogeneous medium for comparisons of 6x photons. For the homogeneous IMRT cases, ion chamber measurements were compared to the dose calculated in the TPS and in the verification system. Results: Analysis of PDD data showed that the average PDD error of the verification model (relative to the TPS) was 0.5% compared to our measured data which was 0.1%. The average infield profile error over all field sizes and depths of the TPS to our reference measured data set was 0.3% whereas the verification system relative to the TPS was 1.7%. Simple beam geometries between the TPS and the verification system were 0.8% difference on average. Ion chamber measurements on a homogeneous phantom differed from the TPS on average by 0.5% whereas the verification system was 2%. The results indicate an adjustment in the beam model of the verification system is needed to better match our current beam model/measured data. Conclusion: Preliminary commissioning results of a commercial QA dose algorithm were completed. Adjustment of the verification softwares beam model is necessary before further testing is done. Further analysis is needed to fully investigate this system to be used clinically as a QA tool of our current TPS. "Evaluation equipment provided by Mobius Medical Systems, LP"


Geochemical, microstructural and petrological analyses were conducted on metapelites from the Strafford Dome, Vermont. Samples record metamorphic conditions from biotite to peak kyanite/staurolite grade and preserve microstructures related to two Acadian nappe emplacement events. The purpose of this study was to test the validity and application of the Ti-in-quartz ("TitaniQ") thermobarometer to constraining pressure-temperature-timingdeformation (P-T-t-D) paths in metamorphic tectonites. Due to the nearly ubiquitous presence of quartz in continental rocks, the ability to apply this method would have significant implications for improving our ability to resolve tectonic histories. Cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging on quartz was conducted to qualitatively assess the distribution of Ti in a single grain and/or compare neighboring crystals. X-ray mapping of garnet porphyroblasts was conducted to estimate P-T conditions during garnet growth to provide a framework for included quartz grains. P-T-X contour diagrams (used in P-T calculations for garnet growth) were constructed from data obtained by X-ray fluorescence analysis on bulk-rock chemistries. Secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis was conducted to constrain Ti concentrations in quartz due to the low [Ti] present in the Strafford samples (<10 ppm). Analysis of the samples revealed [Ti] in zoned quartz grains that can be grouped and associated with certain P-T-D conditions. A majority of quartz grains have dark cores in CL images with low [Ti] (~2.5–3.5 ppm) in both matrix quartz and inclusions. Quartz inclusions in garnets that grew syn-tectonically with D2 have bright rims ~5.5 ppm. Matrix quartz, on the other hand, has rims with much higher [Ti] (~7.5–9.5 ppm). Comparing these Ti concentrations to summary P-T paths from previous studies suggests: quartz inclusions have rims recrystallized during the end of D1 deformation, matrix grains have rims re-equilibrated at peak P-T conditions post-D2 deformation, and the dark cores observed in CL images must be from early prograde or relics of the protolith. The evaluation of the TitaniQ thermobarometer's application to constrain P-T-t-D histories has highlighted some potential problems and significant benefits. To use the thermobarometer, either T or P must be independently constrained, which is often difficult to do given the many microstructural contexts of quartz in a single sample. This study capitalized on the ability to determine the relative timing of quartz (re)crystallization relative to garnet growth. Using another trace element thermobarometer would be ideal (e.g. Zr-in-rutile) for greater precision, although the relevant accessory phases may not be present and constraining the timing of re-equilibration is challenging. The abundance of quartz in continental rocks and the various microstructural occurrences of quartz in a single metamorphic tectonite provides additional opportunities to constrain points on the P-T-D path than conventional thermobarometers. The TitaniQ thermobarometer has the potential to yield deeper insights into the tectonic history of crustal rocks than previously available. These findings further elucidate the potential of the method for use in studies of metamorphic tectonites, continental tectonics and rheology.


Efficiently allocating the scarce and expensive radio resources is a key challenge for advanced radio communication systems. To this end, cognitive radio (CR) has emerged as a promising solution which can offer considerable improvements in spectrum utilization. Furthermore, cooperative communication is a concept proposed to obtain spatial diversity gains through relays without requiring multiple antennas. To benefit from both CR and cooperative communications, a combination of CR networks (CRNs) with cooperative relaying referred to as cognitive cooperative relay networks (CCRNs) has recently been proposed. CCRNs can better utilize the radio spectrum by allowing the secondary users (SUs) to opportunistically access spectrum, share spectrum with primary users (PUs), and provide performance gains offered by cooperative relaying. In this thesis, a performance analysis of underlay CRNs and CCRNs in different fading channels is provided based on analytical expressions, numerical results, and simulations. To allocate power in the CCRNs, power allocation policies are proposed which consider the peak transmit power limit of the SUs and the outage probability constraint of the primary network. Thus, the impact of multiuser diversity, peak transmit power, fading parameters, and modulation schemes on the performance of the CRNs and CCRNs can be analyzed. The thesis is divided into an introduction and five research parts based on peer-reviewed conference papers and journal articles. The introduction provides fundamental background on spectrum sharing systems, fading channels, and performance metrics. In the first part, a basic underlay CRN is analyzed where the outage probability and the ergodic capacity of the network over general fading channels is derived. In the second part, the outage probability and the ergodic capacity of an underlay CRN are assessed capturing the effect of multiuser diversity on the network subject to Nakagami-m fading. Considering the presence of a PU transmitter (PU-Tx), a power allocation policy is derived and utilized for CRN performance analysis under Rayleigh fading. In the third part, the impact of multiple PU-Txs and multiple PU receivers (PU-Rxs) on the outage probability of an underlay CCRN is studied. The outage constraint at the PU-Rx and the peak transmit power constraint of the SUs are taken into account to derive the power allocation policies for the SUs. In the fourth part, analytical expressions for the outage probability and symbol error probability for CCRNs are derived where signal combining schemes at the SU receiver (SU-Rx) are compared. Finally, the fifth part applies a sleep/wake-up strategy and the min(N; T) policy to an underlay CRN. The SUs of the network operate as wireless sensor nodes under Nakagami-m fading. A power consumption function of the CRN is derived. Further, the impact of M/G/1 queue and fading channel parameters on the power consumption is assessed.


The methods and results of all past clinical trials in the United Kingdom, as well as future trials, should be made available to doctors and researchers to ensure the safety of drugs being prescribed by clinicians, MPs have said.

MPs on the parliamentary public accounts committee have also called for further scrutiny of Tamiflu, Roche's branded form of oseltamivir, which had been used to treat pandemic flu, before more supplies are bought and stockpiled by the government.

A report published by the committee on 3 January on access to clinical trial information and the stockpiling of oseltamivir raises many concerns over how the current system operates.1

It says that information is routinely withheld from doctors and researchers about the methods and results of clinical trials on treatments that are currently prescribed in the UK.

Although the problem has been known about for many years, says the report, action taken by the government, industry, or professional bodies to tackle it has been inadequate.

The MPs recommended that the Department of Health take action to ensure that full methods and results were made available to doctors and researchers from all trials on all uses of all treatments currently being prescribed—from now on and retrospectively—and …


The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is a promising public health accomplishment, but its emphasis on top-down, command-and-control approaches to tobacco control puts this promise at risk. The World Health Organization's "Guidelines for Implementation" of the FCTC prescribe restrictive regulation of artistic speech, contributions to popular culture, and even political speech, as well as constraints on promotion of tobacco products. This intrusiveness fails to take account much of what we know, from research in psychology and the neurosciences, about what prompts people to engage in risky behaviors and what empowers them to exercise restraint. The Guidelines (and the FCTC) start from the premise that people smoke either because they become "addicted" (rendering personal choice impossible) or because they fail to comprehend tobacco's dangers. But recent findings about the workings of the mind suggest a different story, a story of risky behavior (including smoking, unhealthy eating, and unsafe sex) as the product of competition between aspects of the self – between systems of perception and motivation that drive indulgence and restraint. We argue in this Essay that the WHO, in its "Guidelines", should pursue anti-smoking strategies that support individuals' self-restraint, rather than merely suppressing tobacco use in a coercive fashion. Alliances between governments and myriad actors that shape social and cultural norms and influence people's behavior, along with funding for research into the psychological determinants of tobacco use, will prove critical to this approach. Crude coercion, on the other hand, risks cultural backlash and even embrace of smoking as a way to express independence and rebellion.


Mathematical models are valuable tools with which to predict and explain the epidemiology of nosocomial infection. As such, modeling will play a crucial role in the effort to control the growing threat posed in hospitals by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In this chapter, we illustrate the utility of the model-based approach, using a simple mathematical model of colonization and infection by antibioticsensitive and resistant bacteria in a hospital setting. The model explains a number of otherwise counterintuitive observations regarding the spread of nosocomial resistance: (1) non-specific infection control measures such as hand-washing will disproportionately reduce the prevalence of resistant bacteria within the hospital; (2) resistance-control interventions should generate reductions in resistance much more rapidly in hospitals than in communities as a whole; (3) treatment with one antibiotic may be an individual risk factor for acquisition of resistance to another antibiotic, even in the absence of genetically linked resistance mechanisms.


Sherman Alexie is, by many accounts, the most widely read American Indian writer in the United States and likely in the world. A literary polymath, Alexie's nineteen published books span a variety of genres and include his most recent National Book Award-winning "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." Now, for the first time, a volume of critical essays is devoted to Alexie's work both in print and on the big screen. Editors Jeff Berglund and Jan Roush have assembled twelve leading scholars of American Indian literature to provide new perspectives on a writer with his finger on the pulse of America. Interdisciplinary in their approach to Alexie's work, these essays cover the writer's entire career, and are insightful and accessible to scholars and lay readers alike. This volume is a worthy companion to the work of one of our nations's most recognized contemporary voices. "


Membrane-based separation processes are acquiring, in the last years, an increasing importance because of their intrinsic energetic and environmental sustainability: some types of polymeric materials, showing adequate perm-selectivity features, appear rather suitable for these applications, because of their relatively low cost and easy processability. In this work have been studied two different types of polymeric membranes, in view of possible applications to the gas separation processes, i.e. Mixed Matrix Membranes (MMMs) and high free volume glassy polymers.
Since the early 90's, it has been understood that the performances of polymeric materials in the field of gas separations show an upper bound in terms of permeability and selectivity: in particular, an increase of permeability is often accompanied by a decrease of selectivity and vice-versa, while several inorganic materials, like zeolites or silica derivates, can overcome this limitation. As a consequence, it has been developed the idea of dispersing inorganic particles in polymeric matrices, in order to obtain membranes with improved perm-selectivity features.
In particular, dispersing fumed silica nanoparticles in high free volume glassy polymers improves in all the cases gases and vapours permeability, while the selectivity may either increase or decrease, depending upon material and gas mixture: that effect is due to the capacity of nanoparticles to disrupt the local chain packing, increasing the dimensions of excess free volume elements trapped in the polymer matrix. In this work different kinds of MMMs were fabricated using amorphous Teflon® AF or PTMSP and fumed silica: in all the cases, a considerable increase of solubility, diffusivity and permeability of gases and vapours (n-alkanes, CO2, methanol) was observed, while the selectivity shows a non-monotonous trend with filler fraction. Moreover, the classical models for composites are not able to capture the increase of transport properties due to the silica addition, so it has been necessary to develop and validate an appropriate thermodynamic model that allows to predict correctly the mass transport features of MMMs.
In this work, another material, called poly-trimethylsilyl-norbornene (PTMSN) was examined: it is a new generation high free volume glassy polymer that, like PTMSP, shows unusual high permeability and selectivity levels to the more condensable vapours. These two polymer differ each other because PTMSN shows a more pronounced chemical stability, due to its structure double-bond free. For this polymer, a set of Lattice Fluid parameters was estimated, making possible a comparison between experimental and theoretical solubility isotherms for hydrocarbons and alcoholic vapours: the successfully modelling task, based on application of NELF model, offers a reliable alternative to direct sorption measurement, which is extremely time-consuming due to the relevant relaxation phenomena showed by each sorption step. For this material also dilation experiments were performed, in order to quantify its dimensional stability in presence of large size, swelling vapours.


Models in which firms use rules of thumb or partial indexing in their price setting have become prominent in the recent monetary policy literature. The extent to which these firms adjust their prices to lagged inflation has been taken as fixed. We consider the implications of firms choosing the optimal degree of indexation so these simple pricing rules deliver prices as close as possible to those which would be chosen optimally. We find that the degree of indexation depends on the extent of persistence in the economy such that models with constant indexation are vulnerable to the Lucas critique. We also study the interactions between firms price setting and the macroeconomic environment finding that, for the models which appear most plausible on microeconomic grounds, the Nash equilibrium between firms and the policy maker is characterised by zero indexation and zero macroeconomic persistence.


Cultural shifts have eroded the hierarchical structure responsible for vertically transmitting guidance to youth, making the development of secure parent-child attachment relationships challenging. Youth are experiencing an orientation void, which affects development. Integrating youth into supportive communities promotes psycho-social development. Martial arts and combat sports academies provide opportunities for the development of external and internal assets. Research is needed to measure the psycho-social influence academy communities have on at-risk youth. The effectiveness of martial arts and combat sports participation in intervention and reintegration plans need investigating. There are considerations to be made before developing programs that integrate youth into academy communities.


In this paper, I discuss organizational problems in the field of high-tech research and development in a firm. In particular, two dysfunctional phenomena are very important because they pose peculiar problems in Research and Development activities. The first problem is reverse hierarchy wherein the scientific knowledge hierarchy expands in a direction that is reverse to that of the power hierarchy. In high-tech industries, forefront knowledge is concentrated in junior scientists who hold little power with regard to investment decision-making. On the other hand, top managers of the firm who are located at the top of the power hierarchy usually cannot comprehend forefront scientific knowledge. The second problem is the paradox of conservatism by innovation, which means that successful technological innovation causes the members of the firm to resist further innovation involving radical change in the fundamental structure of core technology. In other words, members of the organization are inclined to make only small improvements in technological innovation. The greater the success, the stronger and longer lasting is the conservatism. A way to resolve the first problem is to designate senior scientists for positions in top management. As they are more familiar with science than business managers, they can understand forefront scientific knowledge to a certain extent. However, they tend to cling to past innovations that they themselves have devised. Thus, a second problem arises from the solution for the first. I analyse potential solutions to these problems through Japanese case studies. Japanese companies try to resolve the first problem, that of reverse hierarchy, in two major ways. The first one is to expand the discretion of scientists. The second method involves utilizing middle managers as mediators between the top business managers and the junior scientists. The second problem, the paradox of conservatism by innovation can be resolved through organizational development that involves educating company members on the nature of technological change in the modern era of innovation.


OBJECTIVE
Arterial stiffness, assessed by the augmentation index and pulse wave velocity, is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with accelerated atherosclerosis and increased cardiovascular mortality. We examined the hypothesis that augmentation index and pulse wave velocity are increased in RA, and are related to coronary artery atherosclerosis.

METHODS
We measured augmentation index and brachial pulse wave velocity in 117 patients with RA [57 with early (< 6 yrs) and 60 with late disease (> 10 yrs)] and 65 healthy controls. Coronary artery calcification was measured by electron beam computed tomography. Augmentation index and pulse wave velocity were compared in patients with early RA, late RA, and controls, and the association with coronary atherosclerosis was examined.

RESULTS
Patients with late RA had a higher augmentation index (median 33.8%, interquartile range 27.5% 37.0%) than those with early disease (median 27.5%, IQR 21.0% 34.0%) (p = 0.008) and controls (median 27.0%, IQR 20.4% 33.0%) (p < 0.001). After adjusting for height and cardiovascular risk factors, the association between late disease and augmentation index remained significant (p = 0.02). Augmentation index was associated with coronary calcification score (rs = 0.19, p = 0.046), and the association was marginal after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors, disease status, and disease activity (p = 0.09). There was no significant difference in brachial pulse wave velocity among patients with late (9.2 +/- 1.7 m/s) and early RA (9.1 +/- 1.6 m/s) and controls (8.9 +/- 1.5 m/s) (p = 0.78).

CONCLUSION
Patients with RA have increased augmentation index independent of cardiovascular risk factors. Augmentation index was associated with coronary artery calcification in patients with RA; this was attenuated after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors.


Philonotis capillaris, described by S. O. Lindberg in 1867, has been variously treated. Some authors considered it to be a small form of P. marchica, but Lindberg himself combined it as P. fontana var. capillaris on the basis of its spreading perigonial leaves, which are erect in P. marchica. P. T. Husnot was confused by Lindberg's solution and described the same taxon as P. arnellii in 1890. Many new related species were soon described, and for a while some authors accepted both P. capillaris and P. arnellii. H. N. Dixon provisionally synonymised P. arnellii with P. capillaris in 1896, while L. Loeske (1906) and M. G. Dismier (1908) did this definitively. Nonetheless, while North American floras and checklists unanimously use the correct name P. capillaris, the name P. arnellii is still used in almost all recent European floras and checklists. The latter name has until now been cited from Husnot's "Muscologia Gallica" (Jun-Jul 1890), but the valid publication by Husnot in Revue Bryologique (Apr-Mai 1890) antedates this. Here we clarify, based on that correct protologue and Husnot's letters to S. O. Lindberg and V. F. Brotherus, why Husnot described P. arnellii.


A relatively simple but informative methodology is introduced to determine the characteristic travel distance (CTD) for airborne semivolatile organic pollutants. The CTD is derived from a moving Lagrangian cell (representing the air) and a nonmoving compartment (representing soil or vegetation). The methodology is expanded to a fugacity based steady-state multimedia environmental framework including air, vegetation, and soil. Chemical transformations in air as well as partitioning to, and transformation in, vegetation and soil are considered. Concentrations are determined by interactions among the compartments and transformation rates. This method is most appropriate for continuous, large nonpoint emissions (such as emissions from an urban airshed). A case study for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) reveals that the CTD is on the same order of magnitude as the typical distance between urban centers. Vegetation is important for defining the regional transport processes for TCDD.


The Himalayan Foreland fold-thrust belt have developed small to large basins all along its marginal part, which have evolved during the thrust sheet movement. These basins are bound by thrusts in the Outer Himalayan Belt (Siwalik Terrane) and are laterally restricted by a number of thrust splays, which appear as transverse faults on the surface. The present study is related to block movement in Sukh Rao basin which occupies a NW-SE trending synclinal trough south of Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, India. Sukh Rao is a tributary stream of Yamuna River and has a parallel disposition with other tributaries like Bata and Giri rivers, located in the north. All these streams, occupying intermontaine valleys, initially flow longitudinally from NW to SE and take a sharp bend towards south before joining the trunk stream. The southern water divide of Sukh Rao basin is marked by sharp crested Upper Siwalik rocks, which are dominantly conglomeratic in nature. The southern face of this water divide is drained by NE-SW trending Nimbuwala Khala and Chikan Khol transverse streams, which have encroached the adjoining Sukh Rao basin in response to the block movement and tilting. Interpretation of satellite imagery, supported by morphometric analysis, indicates that the tectonic blocks covering the area have moved, tilted and skewed sinistrally forcing the SE flowing Giri, Bata and Sukh Rao streams to take sharp southward trend along the segments of Yamuna Tear. The NE-SW trending syngenetic transverse faults (thrust splays) have induced stream piracy through fast erosion. The Nimbuwala Khala has completely pirated the upper part of Sukh Rao basin while the Chikan Khol has only nibbled part of the basin. With the present rate of erosion (dissection index 0.37), it is likely that Chikan Khol will follow suit of its predecessor Nimbuwala Khala.


—Malicious activities on the Web are increasingly threatening users in the Internet. Home networks are one of the prime targets of the attackers to host malwares, commonly exploited as a stepping stone to further launch a variety of attacks. Due to diversification, existing security solutions often fail to detect malicious activities which remain hidden and pose threats to users security and privacy. Characterizing behavioral patterns of known malwares can help to improve the classification accuracy of known threats. More important, since different malwares can share some commonalities, study the behavior of known malwares can enable the detection of previously unknown malicious activities. We pose the research question if it is possible to characterize such behavioral patterns analyzing the traffic from known infected clients. In this paper, we present our quest to discover such characterizations. Results show that commonalities arise but their identification may require some ingenuity. Also, more malicious activities can be found out from this analysis.


The choice of an interpolation method to re-sample and solve the problem of scattered data is often difficult, as several methods show large differences in results. In this study, we re-sampled the sparsely porous data using three interpolation techniques: the inverse distance to a power, minimum curvature and kriging. The experimental variogram of field data was generated. The anisotropy of these data has been simulated by the Gaussian model and we have concluded that these data present a geometric anisotropy. The interpolated variograms from the three techniques were plotted and fitted by the least squares method. These variograms gave a better accuracy and consistency than the field data variogram. The accuracy and performance of the interpolation techniques were evaluated by calculating their Variance, their Skewness, their Kurtosis and their Root-mean-squared. Contour maps and Wireframes were also computed from interpolated grids to perform a visual analysis of the porosity spatial distribution. Porosity distribution of the studied field has a higher continuity in NE-SW direction.


Addressing global design challenges in the environment and underserved communities requires a cooperative approach towards sustainable design innovation, one that embraces multidisciplinary expertise, participatory design and rapid dissemination of critical innovations in the field. How can a rural farmer in Botswana cooperatively develop appropriate solutions for his community with external research expertise? How can a doctor in Sao Paulo access a network of medical device companies to help manufacture her design innovation? While there is a great emphasis on large breakthrough R&D innovations, there is often little support for developing and disseminating small-scale, affordable, and locally sustainable designs. The open source phenomenon has been influential in the software community, however distributed collaboration in engineering design requires awareness and sharing of physical artifacts, design tools and working environments as well as novel mechanisms to support social norms, communities of practice, and intellectual property rights for product innovations. ThinkCycle was created as a web-based collaboration platform with tools and shared online spaces for designers, domain experts and stakeholders to discuss, develop and peer-review evolving design solutions in critical domains. Over 2000 users worldwide access and contribute hundreds of concepts, resources, projects and publications on the site. ThinkCycle is emerging as a collaborative platform, open design repository and global community for innovations in sustainable design: http://www.thinkcycle.org. Studies were conducted on the nature of design interaction, learning and intellectual property emerging from studio courses run at MIT in 2001-2002. Cooperative design is best understood when viewed as a "social process", which is better sustained in online settings by peer-review from remote participants. There is a need for lightweight asynchronous interfaces with existing modes of communication like email. Social inquiry into notions of intellectual property reveal a typology of patterns with distinct forms of protection and disclosure, including patents and open source, adopted under different conditions. However, there is much ambiguity and conflict regarding how to deal with cooperative innovations as they evolve from being subpatentable learning experiments to functional and commercially viable solutions with potentially great social impact. The thesis provides a framework within which we can begin to explore these challenges. Thesis Supervisor: Alex (Sandy) Pentland Title: Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Cooperative Innovation in the Commons: Rethinking Distributed Collaboration and Intellectual Property for Sustainable Design Innovation


The prediction of organic reaction outcomes is a fundamental problem in computational chemistry. Since a reaction may involve hundreds of atoms, fully exploring the space of possible transformations is intractable. The current solution utilizes reaction templates to limit the space, but it suffers from coverage and efficiency issues. In this paper, we propose a template-free approach to efficiently explore the space of product molecules by first pinpointing the reaction center -- the set of nodes and edges where graph edits occur. Since only a small number of atoms contribute to reaction center, we can directly enumerate candidate products. The generated candidates are scored by a Weisfeiler-Lehman Difference Network that models high-order interactions between changes occurring at nodes across the molecule. Our framework outperforms the top-performing template-based approach with a 10\% margin, while running orders of magnitude faster. Finally, we demonstrate that the model accuracy rivals the performance of domain experts.


This article studies strategic default on forward sale contracts in the international coffee market. To test for strategic default, we construct contract-specific measures of unanticipated changes in market conditions by comparing spot prices at maturity with the relevant futures prices at the contracting date. Unanticipated rises in market prices increase defaults on fixed-price contracts but not on price-indexed ones. We isolate strategic default by focusing on unanticipated rises at the time of delivery after production decisions are sunk and suppliers have been paid. Estimates suggest that roughly half of the observed defaults are strategic. We model how strategic default introduces a trade-off between insurance and counterparty risk: relative to indexed contracts, fixed-price contracts insure against price swings but create incentives to default when market conditions change. A model calibration suggests that the possibility of strategic default causes 15.8% average losses in output, significant dispersion in the marginal product of capital, and sizable negative externalities on supplying farmers.


The challenge of rail passenger crowding has not been fully addressed in the scientific literature. This thesis describes a research work aimed at (1) investigating the relationships among the different psychological components of crowding and their effects on commuters' experience of stress and feelings of exhaustion, and (2) exploring how the effects of rail passenger crowding can spill over to the individual's broader work and life. To achieve these aims, an operational model is built that is consistent with the framework of Cox et al.'s (2006) model of crowding, stress, health, and safety, and is tested in a two-phase study. While Phase One of the research qualitatively explored the perceptions of rail passenger crowding and other associated issues among key stakeholder institutions (N = 5), Phase Two quantitatively examined the effects of rail passenger crowding on commuters' individual well-being and their organisational behaviours (N = 525). The results of Phase One demonstrate that passenger crowding is perceived only as a minor problem compared to capacity, infrastructure, and service quality issues among the key stakeholders. On the other hand, the results of Phase Two reveal that crowding is indeed stressful for the commuters and has the potential to spill over to other aspects of their life and work. Using structural equation modelling techniques, the results show first the relationships among passengers' evaluation of the psychosocial aspects of the crowded situation and of its ambient environment as well as their affective reactions to it, and the relationships among these psychological components of crowding and passenger density. Second, they demonstrate that the different psychological components of crowding together with rated passenger density are combinatorially predictive of commuters' stress and feelings of exhaustion. Third, while the effects of crowding on feelings of exhaustion disappeared after controlling for demographic factors and individual differences in commuting experience, its effects on the experience of stress remained significant, further highlighting the negative consequences of rail passenger crowding. Fourth, the results reveal different patterns of spillover effects for passenger stress, particularly on commuters' reports of somatic symptoms of ill health, their propensity for lateness and absenteeism at work, and intention to quit, but not in terms of their job or life satisfaction. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the existing literature and the operational framework set out at the beginning of the research work, which could lend support for future crowding research and management.


Video game research has expanded greatly in recent decades, fueled partly by concerns that video game content affects real-word behaviors and experiences. Despite the preponderance of research on the effects of video game content on various outcomes, there are still areas left to be explored. For example, while the American Psychological Association has concluded that violent video game content serves as a risk factor for real-life aggression, the association has also recommended the pursuit of additional research on alternative variables that may influence the relationship between video game content and outcomes (APA Task Force on Violent Media, 2015). The present study was designed to explore whether personality dimensions have a moderating effect on the relationship between video game content and quality of life (QoL). Video game content was measured using content descriptors (i.e., content warnings) assigned to a participant-reported game by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). QoL was measured using the World Health Organization's Quality of Life−Brief measure, and personality was assessed using the International Personality Item Pool Representation of the Revised Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory. Based on existing research support for four personality dimensions as potential moderator variables, it was hypothesized that conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism would moderate the relationship between video game content and QoL. Moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted to test this hypothesis. Results found significant main effects between personality dimensions and QoL but failed to find significant effects of video game content, including violent content, on QoL scores. In addition, the study's hypothesis, that personality dimensions moderate the relationship between video game content and QoL, was not supported. Study limitations, implications for clinicians, and directions for future research are discussed. PERSONALITY, VIDEO GAMING, AND QUALITY OF LIFE 2


OBJECTIVE
Current clinical knowledge holds that antidepressants have a delayed onset of efficacy. However, the delayed onset hypothesis has been questioned recently by survival analytical approaches. We aimed to test whether early improvement under antidepressant treatment is a clinically useful predictor of later stable response and remission.

METHOD
We analyzed data from a randomized double-blind controlled trial with mirtazapine and paroxetine in patients with major depression (DSM-IV). Improvement was defined as a 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D-17) score reduction of > or = 20%. Stable response was defined as > or = 50% HAM-D-17 score reduction at week 4 and week 6, and stable remission as a HAM-D-17 score of < or = 7 at week 4 and week 6. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated.

RESULTS
Improvement occurred in a majority of the analyzed patients within 2 weeks (mirtazapine: 72.7% of 109 patients; paroxetine: 64.9% of 103 patients). Early improvement was a highly sensitive predictor of later stable response or stable remission for both drugs. NPV approached maximum values as early as week 2 for mirtazapine and week 3 for paroxetine. After 2 weeks of treatment with mirtazapine and 3 weeks with paroxetine, almost none of the patients who had not yet improved became a stable responder or stable remitter in the later course.

CONCLUSION
Our results strongly suggest that early improvement predicts later stable response with high sensitivity. These empirically derived data question the delayed onset hypothesis for both antidepressants tested and provide important clinical clues for an individually tailored antidepressant treatment.


Is nudging unethical? Is choice architecture a problem for a free society? This essay defends seven propositions: (1) It is pointless to object to choice architecture or nudging as such. Choice architecture cannot be avoided. Nature itself nudges; so does the weather; so do customs and traditions; so do spontaneous orders and invisible hands. The private sector inevitably nudges, as does the government. It is reasonable to worry about nudges by government and to object to particular nudges, but not to nudging in general. (2) In this context, ethical abstractions (for example, about autonomy, dignity, manipulation, and democratic self-government) can create serious confusion. To make progress, those abstractions must be brought into contact with concrete practices. Nudging and choice architecture take highly diverse forms, and the force of an ethical objection depends on the specific form. (3) If welfare is our guide, much nudging is actually required on ethical grounds, even if it comes from government. (4) If autonomy is our guide, much nudging is also required on ethical grounds, in part because some nudges actually promote autonomy, in part because some nudges enable people to devote their limited time and attention to their most important concerns. (5) Choice architecture should not, and need not, compromise either dignity or self-government, but it is important to see that imaginable forms could do both. It follows that when they come from government, choice architecture and nudges should not be immune from a burden of justification, which they might not be able to overcome. (6) Some nudges are objectionable because the choice architect has illicit ends. When the ends are legitimate, and when nudges are fully transparent and subject to public scrutiny, a convincing ethical objection is less likely to be available. (7) There is ample room for ethical objections in the case of well-motivated but manipulative interventions, certainly if people have not consented to them; such nudges can undermine autonomy and dignity. It follows that both the concept and the practice of manipulation deserve careful attention. The concept of manipulation has a core and a periphery; some interventions fit within the core, others within the periphery, and others outside of both.


The process of economic integration and associated legislative acts, competitive pressures as well as the consequences of the financial and sovereign debt crisis have considerably shaped Member States' tax systems during the last two decades. Our article combines a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the development of European tax systems based on a unique and comprehensive dataset for the EU-25 Member States between 1998 and 2017. Especially among the EU-15 Member States, we still find evidence for the often-cited trend of tax rate cut cum tax base broadening. In this context, we identify interest deduction limitation rules and limitations to loss offset as main drivers of tax base broadening. These mechanisms possibly reinforce the risk of economic substance taxation in crisis or loss situations. Furthermore, Member States increasingly rely on the enhanced taxation of dividends at shareholder level to prevent potential revenue losses from lower corporate income tax rates.


In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the demand from professionals in different areas for improving the curricula regarding information security. The use of authentic case studies in teaching information security offers the potential to effectively engage students in active learning. In this paper, the authors introduce the approach of using workflow technology to compose case studies to enhance information security education. This approach allows students from different disciplines to collaborate in a distributed computing environment in order to learn important information security principles. Two case studies simulating real-life scenarios, including one for an online banking system and one for an online grading system, are recreated within a laboratory setting using workflow technology and are then presented in information security classes. Our educational practice shows that the benefits of using workflow technology in information security education have been well received by students.


Users of online services such as messaging, code hosting and collaborative document editing expect the services to uphold the integrity of their data. Despite providers' best efforts, data corruption still occurs, but at present service integrity violations are excluded from SLAs. For providers to include such violations as part of SLAs, the competing requirements of clients and providers must be satisfied. Clients need the ability to independently identify and prove service integrity violations to claim compensation. At the same time, providers must be able to refute spurious claims. We describe LibSEAL, a SEcure Audit Library for Internet services that creates a non-repudiable audit log of service operations and checks invariants to discover violations of service integrity. LibSEAL is a drop-in replacement for TLS libraries used by services, and thus observes and logs all service requests and responses. It runs inside a trusted execution environment, such as Intel SGX, to protect the integrity of the audit log. Logs are stored using an embedded relational database, permitting service invariant violations to be discovered using simple SQL queries. We evaluate LibSEAL with three popular online services (Git, ownCloud and Dropbox) and demonstrate that it is effective in discovering integrity violations, while reducing throughput by at most 14%.


Of all natural disasters, the economic and environmental consequences of droughts are among the highest because of their longevity and widespread spatial extent. Because of their extreme behaviour, studying droughts generally requires long time series of historical climate data. Rainfall is a very important variable for calculating drought statistics, for quantifying historical droughts or for assessing the impact on other hydrological (e. g. water stage in rivers) or agricultural (e. g. irrigation requirements) variables. Unfortunately, time series of historical observations are often too short for such assessments. To circumvent this, one may rely on the synthetic rainfall time series from stochastic point process rainfall models, such as Bartlett-Lewis models. The present study investigates whether drought statistics are preserved when simulating rainfall with Bartlett-Lewis models. Therefore, a 105 yr 10 min rainfall time series obtained at Uccle, Belgium is used as a test case. First, drought events were identified on the basis of the Effective Drought Index (EDI), and each event was characterized by two variables, i.e. drought duration (D) and drought severity (S). As both parameters are interdependent, a multivariate distribution function, which makes use of a copula, was fitted. Based on the copula, four types of drought return periods are calculated for observed as well as simulated droughts and are used to evaluate the ability of the rainfall models to simulate drought events with the appropriate characteristics. Overall, all Bartlett-Lewis model types studied fail to preserve extreme drought statistics, which is attributed to the model structure and to the model stationarity caused by maintaining the same parameter set during the whole simulation period.


All states and the District of Columbia have passed sex offender registration and community notification laws. While the specific provisions of these statutes vary, all have public safety as a primary goal. The authors discuss two recent cases heard by the United States Supreme Court that challenged the constitutionality of Alaska's and Connecticut's statutes. The laws were challenged as violations of the United States Constitution's prohibition on ex post facto laws and its Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of procedural due process. In both cases, the statutes were upheld. As it has found in challenges to sexually violent predator statutes, the Court emphasized that the registration and community notification schemes are civil and not criminal in nature. The article concludes with a discussion of possible implications for clinicians involved in evaluating or treating sex offenders.


Objective : This study evaluated changes in the esthetic perceptions of patients subjected to in-office tooth bleaching. Material and Methods : Fifty participants included in a clinical trial evaluating the in-office tooth bleaching answered two questionnaires about their dental esthetic perceptions. The participants answered the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES) questionnaire and the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ) before and after treatment. The average scores observed at baseline were compared with those recorded after tooth bleaching using the paired t-test or the Wilcoxon signed rank test (α = 0.05). Results : Improvement in tooth color (reduction of 5.1 shade guide units) had a positive impact on patients' perceptions. According to PIDAQ, tooth bleaching significantly increased the psychological impact and dental self-confidence; and reduced esthetic concerns. The OES demonstrated improvements in participants' satisfaction for all questions, except for the one on "facial appearance". However, higher effect size was observed for the question related to tooth color, as expected. Conclusion : Tooth bleaching was associated with an overall improvement in dental esthetic perception, even when only tooth color was affected. Keywords Patient-reported outcomes; Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials; Tooth Bleaching.


Do children use their own moral judgments as a template against which to judge a parent's fairness, and does that depend on the child's age? Piaget's concept of objective-to-subjective responsibility (a focus on outcome to a focus on intentions) was the template for the current study. The research question was how do children of different ages evaluate the fairness of mothers' praise/blame for acts featuring different combinations of good/bad intentions and outcome. Forty-eight children (ages 3–11 years) heard two stories in which the outcome did not match the intentions. There were two versions of each story type: In one, the mother praised the child in the story; in the other, she blamed the child. Findings were that (a) children under 7 judged mothers who praised as fair and mothers who blamed as unfair regardless of the intentionality of the act, whereas (b) children 7 and older judged fairness based on consistency of mother's reaction with the child protagonist's intentions, thus using moral intentionality as a template to evaluate fairness.


&NA; Authors of scientific papers have been evaluated in the past by how frequently the medical literature cites them. In this analysis, we specifically identify those individuals who have contributed to the field of cutaneous surgery through publications in Dermatologic Surgery. We further analyze those publications frequently cited in Dermatologic Surgery, allowing us to determine topics of utmost value and interest. Using a citation database provided by the Institute for Scientific Information, we first identify all publications and citations from 1981 to 1999 for Dermatologic Surgery and the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery and Oncology (the previous name for this journal). Of the original articles published during this time frame, 3099 authors published 2167 papers. We quantify the publications from each author, and identify 57 authors with at least 10 original articles. When expanding the database parameters to include original articles, reviews, notes, and proceedings (as defined by the Science Citation Index), we find that the eight authors with the greatest number of publications are the same individuals with the greatest number of original articles. This reflects significant contributions to the field of cutaneous surgery by these authors. This analysis further identifies source papers for authors in Dermatologic Surgery. Publications frequently cited include those papers discussing laser surgery, with Dermatologic Surgery serving as the most frequently cited journal.


A model to identify the lifetime of target tracking wireless sensor network is proposed. The model is a static clusterbased architecture and aims to provide two factors. First, it is to increase the lifetime of target tracking wireless sensor network. Secondly, it is to enable good localization result with low energy consumption for each sensor in the network. The model consists of heterogeneous sensors and each sensing member node in a cluster uses two operation modes—active mode and sleep mode. The performance results illustrate that the proposed architecture consumes less energy and increases lifetime than centralized and dynamic clustering architectures, for target tracking sensor network. Keywords—Network lifetime, Target Localization, Target Tracking, Wireless Sensor Networks.


In this review of the literature, we distinguish between experimental and observational studies, highlighting the importance that the later have gained in the era of evidence-based medicine. We further analyze the value of observational studies in light of experimental studies. We present a taxonomy for observational studies based on units of observation and measurement (cross-sectional or longitudinal). We distinguish between descriptive studies and analytical studies. Then, and given its specificity, we define and present a classification for ecological studies. We define and consider the advantages and disadvantages of cross-sectional, case control and cohort studies. We analyze the strength of the evidence given by each study design. We finished by examining what should guide the choice of a study design.


This paper defines the notion of analogical dissimilarity between four objects, with a special focus on objects structured as sequences. Firstly, it studies the case where the four objects have a null analogical dissimilarity, i.e. are in analogical proportion. Secondly, when one of these objects is unknown, it gives algorithms to compute it. Thirdly, it tackles the problem of defining analogical dissimilarity, which is a measure of how far four objects are from being in analogical proportion. In particular, when objects are sequences, it gives a definition and an algorithm based on an optimal alignment of the four sequences. It gives also learning algorithms, i.e. methods to find the triple of objects in a learning sample which has the least analogical dissimilarity with a given object. Two practical experiments are described: the first is a classification problem on benchmarks of binary and nominal data, the second shows how the generation of sequences by solving analogical equations enables a handwritten character recognition system to rapidly be adapted to a new writer.


On July 8, 2011, in Brady v. NFL, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act prevented the injunction of an NFL lockout. In so doing, the court provided to the NFL an additional shield from antitrust scrutiny. This Comment argues that by immunizing NFL lockouts from antitrust scrutiny, NFL players will lose an important bargaining tool: the antitrust challenge.


Summary
Pulse flours offer nutritional alternatives to wheat flour in the production of baked snacks due to their high protein and fibre levels and low glycaemic index. In this study, broad-bean (Vicia faba), yellow-pea and green-pea (Pisum sativum) flours were each blended with wheat flour at 40% in the formulation of chemically leavened crackers. The effects of flour type and baking time on the physiochemical properties, sensory acceptability, nutritional composition and antioxidant activity of the crackers were observed in comparison with 100% wheat crackers. Broad-bean crackers had the highest protein content and antioxidant activity (13 g per 100 g DM and 38.8 mgAAE per 100 g DM, respectively). Yellow-pea crackers had the highest fibre content (12 g per 100 g DM). Physical dimensions and colour attributes were significantly affected by pulse-flour substitution. Yellow-pea and broad-bean crackers were significantly preferred by consumers compared to the control, demonstrating the potential application of these flours to improve the eating quality and nutritional profile of crackers.


A natural product is a chemical compound or substance produced by a living organism, which can be found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products sometimes have pharmacological or biological activity that can be of therapeutic benefit in treating diseases. As such, natural products are the active components not only of most traditional medicines but also many modern medicines, such as antiviral drug. Most natural products in antivirals are considered relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections, such as  HIV, herpes viruses, the hepatitis B and C viruses, and influenza A and B viruses.

 In the present book, fourteen typical literatures about natural products in antivirals published on international authoritative journals were selected to introduce the worldwide newest progress, which contains reviews or original researches on medical science, hemadenology, virology, epidemiology, ect. We hope this book can demonstrate advances in natural products in antivirals as well as give references to the researchers, students and other related people.


Background and Purpose Because the frequency of hemorrhagic transformation of cerebral infarcts is still a matter of controversy, we performed a prospective magnetic resonance imaging study in a series of consecutive patients with cardioembolic stroke. Summary of Review Among 200 consecutive patients with transient ischemic attack or ischemic stroke, 41 were identified with a computed tomographically proven supratentorial infarct due to cardiogenic embolism. Magnetic resonance imaging (T1-weighted) was performed 3 weeks after the stroke in 35 of these 41 patients. Eight patients received anticoagulants. Magnetic resonance images showed hemorrhagic transformation in 68.6% (24) of the 35 infarcts, always without clinical deterioration. In a stepwise forward logistic regression analysis only the volume of infarction edema on the initial computed tomogram was linked significantly with the risk of hemorrhagic transformation (p=0.037). Hemorrhages were a regular finding on magnetic resonance images of infarcts exceeding a volume of 10 cm3 (94.4%, 17 of 18). Conclusions Hemorrhagic transformation is a regular finding in medium-sized and large cardioembolic infarcts. Thus, in therapeutic and preventive studies of acute stroke the severity, not the frequency, of hemorrhages into brain infarcts should be the matter of interest.


Disparate areas of machine learning have benefited from models that can take raw data with little preprocessing as input and learn rich representations of that raw data in order to perform well on a given prediction task. We evaluate this approach in healthcare by using longitudinal measurements of lab tests, one of the more raw signals of a patient's health state widely available in clinical data, to predict disease onsets. In particular, we train a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network and two novel convolutional neural networks for multi-task prediction of disease onset for 133 conditions based on 18 common lab tests measured over time in a cohort of 298K patients derived from 8 years of administrative claims data. We compare the neural networks to a logistic regression with several hand-engineered, clinically relevant features. We find that the representation-based learning approaches significantly outperform this baseline. We believe that our work suggests a new avenue for patient risk stratification based solely on lab results.