Leadership is the critical factor that determines the success of any business or department. The ability to select, manage, motivate, and guide employees to achieve results is the true measure of any leader's success. In this fast-moving book, business expert Brian Tracy reveals the strategies used by top executives and business owners everywhere to achieve astounding results in difficult markets against determined competition. Brian Tracy has worked with more than 1,000 companies in 52 countries. In How the Best Leaders Lead, he gives you a series of practical, proven ideas and strategies that leaders and managers at every level can use immediately. They'll learn how to: • Determine their ideal leadership style for any situation • Moti vate their people with the Three R's – Recognition, Rewards, and Reinforcement • Set clear goals and objectives for themselves and others • Develop an exciting future vision for their business • Set priorities and focus on key tasks • Solve problems faster and make better decisions • Hire and keep the best people • Build, manage, and motivate winning teams • Communicate and get their ideas across to others • Motivate people in turbulent times • Identify opportunities and take concrete action • Plan for the future while managing the present With this timely guide, anyone can learn how to become a better and more effective leader and get more done faster than they ever dreamed possible.


Organisms dwelling in Mediterranean streams need to be adapted to dry periods. La Solana stream dried out completely during summer 1994. The recovery of the biofilm was studied in a laboratory experiment by immersing it in stream water. La Solana has a thick stromatolitic biofilm composed of the cyanobacteria Rivularia sp. and Schizothrix spp. Ectoenzymatic microbial activities (β-glucosidase, β-xylosidase and phosphatase), H 14 CO 3 incorporation and respiration (Electron Transport System-ETS-activity) were measured immediately after rewetting and then every hour for 5 h. Both ETS and photosynthetic activities were low at the beginning of the rewetting but increased significantly after two hours. Recovery of enzymatic activities in the biofilm was immediate, since values measured at 0h were similar to those obtained in the stream before drought. Enzymatic activities increased markedly after three hours to higher values than those reported before drought. All activities stabilized to initial values at the end of the experiment. We suggest that the rapid recovery of the biofilm metabolism could be supported by the stromatolitic structure of La Solana biofilm acting as a reserve of organic matter, as well as the rapid rehydration provided by the cyanobacteria sheaths. This implies that the biofilm can exploit short rainfall periods in dry summers.


Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program - or simply GSHAP, when launched, almost two decades ago, aimed at establishing a common framework to evaluate the seismic hazard over geographical large-scales, i.e. countries, regions, continents and finally the globe. Its main product, the global seismic hazard map was a milestone, unique at that time and for a decade have served as the main reference worldwide. Today, for most of the Earth's seismically active regions such Europe, Northern and Southern America, Central and South-East Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the GSHAP seismic hazard map is outdated. The rapid increase of the new data, advance on the earthquake process knowledge, technological progress, both hardware and software, contributed all in updates of the seismic hazard models. We present herein, a short retrospective overview of the achievements as well as the pitfalls of the GSHAP. Further, we describe the next generation of seismic hazard models, as elaborated within the Global Earthquake Model, regional programs: the 2013 European Seismic Hazard Model, the 2014 Earthquake Model for Middle East, and the 2015 Earthquake Model of Central Asia. Later, the main characteristics of these regional models are summarized and the new datasets fully harmonized across national borders are illustrated for the first time after the GSHAP completion.


We consider three classes of random graphs: edge random graphs, vertex random graphs, and vertex-edge random graphs. Edge random graphs are Erdos-Renyi random graphs [9, 10], vertex random graphs are generalizations of geometric random graphs [21], and vertex-edge random graphs generalize both. The names of these three types of random graphs describe where the randomness in the models lies: in the edges, in the vertices, or in both. We show that vertex-edge random graphs, ostensibly the most general of the three models, can be approximated arbitrarily closely by vertex random graphs, but that the two categories are distinct.


AbstractQuantitative interpretation (QI) is an important part of successful exploration, appraisal, and development activities. Seismic amplitude variation with offset (AVO) provides the primary signal for the vast majority of QI studies allowing the determination of elastic properties from which facies can be determined. Unfortunately, many established AVO-based seismic inversion algorithms are hindered by not fully accounting for inherent subsurface facies variations and also by requiring the addition of a preconceived low-frequency model to supplement the limited bandwidth of the input seismic. We apply a novel joint impedance and facies inversion applied to a North Sea prospect using broadband seismic data. The focus was to demonstrate the significant advantages of inverting for each facies individually and iteratively determine an optimized low-frequency model from facies-derived depth trends. The results generated several scenarios for potential facies distributions thereby providing guidance to fut...


This study was concerned with the manner in which perceived depth and perceived frontoparallel size varied with physical distance and hence with each other. An equation expressing the relation between perceived size and physical depth was developed and applied to size judgments determined with four observers under two viewing conditions. By use of that equation and an expression of the size–distance invariance hypothesis, an additional equation was developed which related perceived and physical depth. The additional equation, when applied to judgments of perceived depth from the same observers under the same viewing conditions, produced results not in agreement with those expected from the size–distance invariance hypothesis. This is interpreted as evidence against the validity of the size–distance invariance hypothesis in its usual form. The data from the apparent depth judgments also were applied to the problem of the discrepancies in results that have been found in experiments on the perceptual bisection of depth intervals.


During grouping tasks for data exploration and sense-making, the criteria are normally not well-defined. When users are bringing together data objects thought to be similar in some way, implicit brushing continually detects for groups on the freeform workspace, analyzes the groups' text content or metadata, and draws attention to related data by displaying visual hints and animation. This provides helpful tips for further grouping, group meaning refinement and structure discovery. The sense-making process is further enhanced by retrieving relevant information from a database or network during the brushing. Closely related to implicit brushing, target snapping provides a useful means to move a data object to one of its related groups on a large display. Natural dynamics and smooth animations also help to prevent distractions and allow users to concentrate on the grouping and thinking tasks. Two different prototype applications, note grouping for brainstorming and photo browsing, demonstrate the general applicability of the technique.


The statistical relation between two events influences the perception of how one event relates to the presence or absence of another. Interestingly, the simultaneous absence of both events, just like their mutual occurrence, is relevant for describing their contingency. In three experiments, we explored the relevance of coabsent events by varying the duration and frequency of trials without stimuli. We used a rapid trial streaming procedure and found that the perceived association between events is enhanced with increasing frequency of coabsent events, unlike the duration of coabsent events, which had little effect. These findings suggest ways in which the benefits of trial spacing, during which both events are absent, could be obtained without increasing total training time. Centrally, this can be done by frequent repeating of shortened coabsent events, each marked by a trial contextual cue. We discuss four potential accounts of how coabsent experience might be processed contributing to this effect: (a) contingency sensitivity, (b) testing effect, (c) reduced associative interference by the context, and (d) reduced encoding interference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Choline can be likened to omega-3 fatty acids in that it is an 'essential' nutrient that cannot be produced by the body in amounts needed for human requirements. The United States (US) Institute of Medicine (IOM)1 and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)2 recognise that choline plays an important role in the human body and have established dietary reference values. The American Medical Association3 in 2017 published new advice stating that prenatal vitamin supplements should contain "evidenced-based" amounts of choline. Similarly the American Academy of Paediatrics4 5 (from 2018) called on paediatricians to move beyond simply recommending a "good diet" and to make sure that pregnant women and young children have access to food that provides adequate amounts of "brain-building" nutrients with choline being listed as one of these. Unfortunately, in the UK choline is not yet included in food composition databases, main nutrition surveys nor official recommendations. The present article discusses the current choline situation and explains why more needs to be done to include and monitor this essential nutrient in the UK.

### About choline

Choline is an 'essential' nutrient for humans; and similar to omega-3 fatty acids, as the amount produced endogenously (in the liver) is not sufficient to meet human requirements,6 it therefore needs to be obtained from dietary and supplement sources. Physiologically, choline is critical for a number of functions across the life cycle which include wide-ranging roles in human metabolism from neurotransmitter synthesis to cell structure and methylation, with choline deficiency being linked to liver disease, offspring cognitive function and potential neurological disorders.7 8

Functionally choline in its oxidised form (the metabolite glycine betaine) contributes to S-adenosylmethionine synthesis – a chief methyl donor involved in DNA and histone methylation which play a central role in regulating gene expression and potentially modulating brain …


Scattergood, V.J. Occasions for Writing: Essays on Metheval and Renaissance Literature, Politics and Society. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010. Pp. 272.Occasions for Writing is a collection of twelve articles on various aspects of metheval and Renaissance (mosdy English) literature. All of the essays are written by John Scattergood, Emeritus Professor of Metheval and Renaissance Literature at Trinity College, Dublin.The work begins by claiming as its unifying factor that all the texts concerned are examples of "occasional" writing. But beyond Scattergood's providing a very brief overview in the Preface of what "occasional writing" means to him - which is that the selected texts respond to specific external factors, whether political, social, or religious in nature, in a manner which promulgates each author's point of view on a subject - there is no attempt to present a larger argument arising from the disparate articles. Instead, the collection represents Scattergood's own wide-ranging interests over a span of nearly ten years. Seven of the chapters have been formerly published in other venues, while chapters one, four, five, seven, and nine are new.The book falls into two main sections: "Movements" and "Incidents." The three articles in Part One look at broad issues which have developed over time and to which several authors have chosen to respond. The first essay, "Redeeming English: Language and National Identity in the Later Middle Ages," reviews the status of the English language from the time of the Conquest through its resurgence in the fourteenth and fifteendi centuries, in terms of land, race, and the creation of an English national identity. The story is not entirely what one might expect. While the Conquest certainly fractured English society along lines of race, class, and language (p. 24), Scattergood points out that the perception that English held a lowly status was true enough for English as a written language but not true at all about English as an oral medium. "Norman" officials had to be able to function orally in English in order to govern the English-speaking population. There is thus a split between the status of English as an oral medium (average) and the status of English as a written medium (low). Bringing the discussion forward to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Scattergood also briefly considers the situation in Ireland and the efforts of the Engfish-speaking colonizers there to maintain a culture and identity distinct from that of the native Gaelic population.The two other articles in this section of the book, both previously published, look respectively at (1) issues of love and social class in Andreas Capellanus's De Amore as well as in multiple other texts that fit loosely within the courtly tradition, ranging from Le Roman de la Rose, to Medwall's Fulgens and Lucrece, to romances like The Squire of Low Degree, Dunbar's In Secreit Place, to the Paston Letters, and even to Donne's aubade Break of Day; and (2) at changing views of time due to technological advancements in timekeeping in the late Middle Ages, again as evident through a survey of an impressive array of multiple textual sources.Part Two, "Incidents," focuses more narrowly upon specific personalities or events that inspired literary reactions. Reprinted are articles on Geoffrey Chaucer's Complaint to his Purse, the anonymous Libelle ofEnglyshe Polycye, John Skelton's Magnyfycence, Thomas Wyatt's Epistolary Satires, and John Leland's Itinerary. Of the four new articles in this part of the collection, the first, "Elegy for a Dangerous Man: Piers ofBermingham? looks at the rarelystudied 132-line elegy for the Anglo-Irish local leader Sir Piers de Bermingham (died 1308?), which survives in a unique copy in British Library MS Harley 913. This man's claim to fame comes down to his unrelenting oppression of the Irish, especially the 1305 massacre of the O'Conors. …


Known as the "deadly scourge of childhood," diphtheria was a highly feared disease in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. In New York City alone, thousands of cases were reported each year, with large numbers of deaths. Physicians and public health experts viewed diphtheria as one of the most difficult to treat and control of all childhood diseases. In Childhood's Deadly Scourge, Evelynn M. Hammonds describes how New York City became the first city in the United States to apply laboratory-based advances in bacteriology and immunology to the treatment and prevention of this deadly disease-the first such use of scientific medicine in a public health crisis in this country. Critical to the successful control of diphtheria, she argues, were unprecedented efforts to remove the stigma associated with the disease and provide access to treatment and preventive vaccines for the entire population at risk. By 1930, the successful immunization of thousands of preschool- and school-aged children made evident for the first time the promise and force of the laboratory in infectious disease control. Today, as the threat of AIDS and other new diseases reopens the conflict between the protection of public health and the protection of civil liberties, Childhood's Deadly Scourge reminds us that technical solutions for disease control have complex social implications.


This project draws on Michel Foucault's work on "governmentality," as well as
his scattered texts on liberalism, to explore a central liberal concern: the
"freedom-regulation" problematic. Foucault took liberalism to be an art of
government that promises prosperity and well being for the whole through
liberty of the individual. From this perspective there is a problem in
determining just what is free, what has to be free and what needs to be
regulated, The two central poles of the liberal freedom-regulation problem are
located in the principle of economic liberty - achieving the objective of
unregulated economic activity; and the rule of law - which is necessary to
ensure order, predictability and certainty. It is this relation that yields the
paradox this thesis sets out to investigate. For on the one hand it is central to
liberalism that individuals be as free as possible to pursue their own interests in
the economic sphere. Indeed the prosperity and well being of society depends
upon it. On the other hand, it is less clear what degree of freedom should be
extended to the private realm of morality and personal conduct.
The thesis will show that the development of liberal political economic systems
presented a challenge to the inventive capacities of moral philosophers and
political economists who sought to devise ever new technologies of government
which could control and restrict behaviour whilst continuing to embrace the
spirit of "natural" individual liberty. Given that liberalism was concerned with
discovering the best way to govern, in line with its central principles of
individual economic liberty and the rule of law, the most effective form of
regulation was seen as self-regulation, or self-discipline. However, as I will
demonstrate an analysis of liberal thought, from the late seventeenth century
until the present day, reveals that despite their rhetoric major thinkers within
the Anglo-Scottish tradition considered the principle of self-regulation to be an
impossible ideal that could not be widely deployed in the general community.
Basically, they see it as an untrustworthy governmental technique as only an
elite few are possessed with the strength of character to render them capable of
such ethical practice. In general there is recognition that for the majority of the
population behaviour and conduct needs to be overtly controlled through
governmental techniques of regulation and order. Hence the importance of
investigating the paradox of regulated freedom that continues to be deeply
embedded in the fabric of liberalism.


People in the modern age are accustomed with the internet. Media social begin evolve directly proportional with the development of the internet. User is easy to comment in every moment from social media. This research aims to compare the comment between Indonesia and international in Youtube community for the panama paper cases. The research used qualitative approach with Netnography method. There are two source for this research which is from indonesia video Youtube with title "inilah nama – nama pejabat RI dalam panama papers" and international video Youtube with title "The Panama Papers: Victims of Offshore". From those source, the research select comment from user and compare between both of them. The result of the research is indonesia user connecting panama papes cases with Jakarta governor election while international user connecting panama papers with the Syria war and corruption nation which is UK and USA. I. Background People in the modern era


In the United States, we have come to depend on plentiful and inexpensive energy to support our economy and lifestyles. In recent years, many questions have been raised regarding the sustainability of our current pattern of high consumption of nonrenewable energy and its environmental consequences. Further, because the United States imports about 55 percent of the nation's consumption of crude oil, there are additional concerns about the security of supply. Hence, efforts are being made to find alternatives to our current pathway, including greater energy efficiency and use of energy sources that could lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as nuclear and renewable sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The United States has a long history with biofuels and the nation is on a course charted to achieve a substantial increase in biofuels. Renewable Fuel Standard evaluates the economic and environmental consequences of increasing biofuels production as a result of Renewable Fuels Standard, as amended by EISA (RFS2). The report describes biofuels produced in 2010 and those projected to be produced and consumed by 2022, reviews model projections and other estimates of the relative impact on the prices of land, and discusses the potential environmental harm and benefits of biofuels production and the barriers to achieving the RFS2 consumption mandate. Policy makers, investors, leaders in the transportation sector, and others with concerns for the environment, economy, and energy security can rely on the recommendations provided in this report.


The Provoked Wife, a Restoration comedy by Sir John Vanbrugh was first staged in 1697. It opposes marriage to adultery; virtue to vice and desire; and happiness to misery. Lady Brute is at the center of the action. She is an English aristocratic Restoration lady in an unhappy marriage, struggling with her desire to abandon virtue. Her character is complex and paradoxical. Through her relationships on three different levels, she reveals that complexity as the essay moves from unhappiness in marriage, through desire and indecision as a nascent adultress to the intimate friendship with her niece. The essay is divided into three main chapters where each chapter is devoted to one relationship. The first chapter studies Lady Brute's marriage with Sir John; the second chapter is devoted to her liaison with her hopeful lover, Constant; and in the third chapter her friendship with her niece, Bellinda, comes under scrutiny. This study reveals three different facets of Lady Brute, a complex English Restoration lady. Each chapter starts with a study of the characteristics of Lady Brute in the relationship which is being studied in that chapter, followed with an analysis of the nature of the relationship in question. Then the use of wit in the characters' dialogues is studied specifically, where the main interest is in the use of the repartee for "verbal fencing". At last, a close reading is done of selected sections of the play in order to expose any contradictions or hidden meanings in the text. Lady Brute's words are dissected, but some expressions of the other characters are also the subject of the study, where appropriate. Use is made of poststructuralist ideas, notably Derrida's deconstructive methods in order to look for binary oppositions in the text; to analyse how Lady Brute and the other characters express their ideas; and to bring to the surface any possible paradoxes and concealed meanings. Lady Brute claims to be a virtuous lady. This essay shows that she is also a complex character and has a darker side.


cancer represents one of the greatest medical causes of mortality. The majority of Hepatocellular carcinoma arises from the accumulation of genetic abnormalities, and possibly induced by exterior etiological factors especially HCV and HBV infections. There is a need for new tools to analysis the large sum of data to present relevant genetic changes that may be critical for both understanding how cancers develop and determining how they could ultimately be treated. Gene expression profiling may lead to new biomarkers that may help develop diagnostic accuracy for detecting Hepatocellular carcinoma. In this work, statistical technique (discrete stationary wavelet transform) for detection of copy number alternations to analysis high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism array of 30 cell lines on specific chromosomes, which are frequently detected in Hepatocellular carcinoma have been proposed. The results demonstrate the feasibility of whole-genome fine mapping of copy number alternations via high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping, Results revealed that a novel altered chromosomal region is discovered; region amplification (4q22.1) have been detected in 22 out of 30-Hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (73%). This region strike, AFF1 and DSPP, tumor suppressor genes. This finding has not previously reported to be involved in liver carcinogenesis; it can be used to discover a new HCC biomarker, which helps in a better understanding of hepatocellular carcinoma.


We derive analytic expressions for the transistor laser in the common-emitter and common-base configuration and compare the performance of the transistor in these two modes of operation. We show that the common-base operation results in a wide-band, small-signal modulation response. This effect is due to reduced carrier lifetime in the base. The bandwidth equalization and the suppression of the relaxation oscillation frequency are shown. A bandwidth of 48 GHz is predicted for a vertical cavity laser biased at 10Ith.


Background: Perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) children have, on average, lower bone mineral density (BMD) than perinatally HIV-exposed uninfected (PHEU) and healthy children. Low 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] and elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations may lead to suboptimal bone accrual. Methods: PHIV and PHEU children in the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study had total body (TB) and lumbar spine (LS) BMD and bone mineral content (BMC) measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry; BMD z-scores (BMDz) were calculated for age and sex. Low 25(OH)D was defined as ⩽20 ng/mL and high PTH as >65 pg/mL. We fit linear regression models to estimate the average adjusted differences in BMD/BMC by 25(OH)D and PTH status and log binomial models to determine adjusted prevalence ratios of low 25(OH)D and high PTH in PHIV relative to PHEU children. Results: PHIV children (n = 412) were older (13.0 vs. 10.8 years) and more often black (76% vs. 64%) than PHEU (n = 207). Among PHIV, children with low 25(OH)D had lower TB-BMDz [SD, −0.38; 95% confidence interval (CI), −0.60 to −0.16] and TB-BMC (SD, −59.1 g; 95% CI, −108.3 to −9.8); high PTH accompanied by low 25(OH)D was associated with lower TB-BMDz. Among PHEU, children with low 25(OH)D had lower TB-BMDz (SD, −0.34; 95% CI, −0.64 to −0.03). Prevalence of low 25(OH)D was similar by HIV status (adjusted prevalence ratio, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.81 to 1.24). High PTH was 3.17 (95% CI, 1.25 to 8.06) times more likely in PHIV children. Conclusions: PHIV and PHEU children with low 25(OH)D may have lower BMD. Vitamin D supplementation trials during critical periods of bone accrual are needed.


Abstract Using the notion of an elementary loop, Gebser and Schaub (2005. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning (LPNMR'05), 53–65) refined the theorem on loop formulas attributable to Lin and Zhao (2004) by considering loop formulas of elementary loops only. In this paper, we reformulate the definition of an elementary loop, extend it to disjunctive programs, and study several properties of elementary loops, including how maximal elementary loops are related to minimal unfounded sets. The results provide useful insights into the stable model semantics in terms of elementary loops. For a nondisjunctive program, using a graph-theoretic characterization of an elementary loop, we show that the problem of recognizing an elementary loop is tractable. On the other hand, we also show that the corresponding problem is coNP-complete for a disjunctive program. Based on the notion of an elementary loop, we present the class of Head-Elementary-loop-Free (HEF) programs, which strictly generalizes the class of Head-Cycle-Free (HCF) programs attributable to Ben-Eliyahu and Dechter (1994. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 12, 53–87). Like an HCF program, an HEF program can be turned into an equivalent nondisjunctive program in polynomial time by shifting head atoms into the body.


Adverbs in Durban Zulu appear to have contradictory properties. On the onehand, when they appear with intransitive verbs, they phrase prosodically withthe verb, just like direct objects. On the other hand, adverbs which appear withtransitive verbs are like typical adjuncts, which are adjoined above νP, and theyare prosodically phrased separately from the rest of the sentence. We suggestthat due to the nominal character of adverbs in Zulu, they can be selected bythe verb. Selected materials (including selected adverbs) are merged at the timeof main structure building, while non-selected adverbs and other adjuncts aremerged late. The timing of the merger of adverbs reflects their prosodic phrasingproperties.


Anionic and zwitterionic micelles are often used as simple models for the lipids found in bacterial and mammalian cell membranes to investigate antimicrobial peptide-lipid interactions. In our laboratory we have employed a variety of 1D, 2D, and diffusion ordered (DOSY) NMR experiments to investigate the interactions of antimicrobial peptides containing unnatural amino acids with SDS and DPC micelles. Complete assignment of the proton spectra of these peptides is prohibited by the incorporation of a high percentage of unnatural amino acids which don't contain amide protons into the backbone. However preliminary assignment of the TOCSY spectra of compound 23 in the presence of both micelles indicated multiple conformers are present as a result of binding to these micelles. Chemical Shift Indexing agreed with previously collected CD spectra that indicated on binding to SDS micelles compound 23 adopts a mixture of α-helical structures and on binding to DPC micelles this peptide adopts a mixture of helical and β-turn/sheet like structures. DOSY NMR experiments also indicated that the total positive charge and the relative placement of that charge at the N-terminus or C-terminus are important in determining the mole fraction of the peptide that will bind to the different micelles. DOSY and (1) H-NMR experiments indicated that the length of Spacer #1 plays a major role in defining the binding conformation of these analogs with SDS micelles. Results obtained from molecular simulations studies of the binding of compounds 23 and 36 with SDS micelles were consistent with the observed NMR results.


Purpose – The objective of this research was to identify critical success factors for the adoption of Big Data in the virtual retail, through a case study of Magazine Luiza. The use of Big Data, in this case, focused on improving its system of recommendations for a better understanding of consumer behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The case study was done through interviews, observation of the shopping recommendation system and analyzes of institutional presentations of the Bob project. A semistructured interview script was used in the interviews. Findings – Based on the results, we outline some propositions related to the opportunities and obstacles for the implementation of Big Data in the virtual retail in Brazil. Some of these propositions are in line with what literature, especially BI, has been discussing. However, they still need to be discussed in the context of Big Data. Originality/value – The main contribution of the research was the identification of relevant factors to the adoption of Big Data that were not considered as critical for the adoption of previous technologies.


Partially open cavities are encountered in various engineering systems such
 as electronic cooling devices and cooling for gas turbine blades, instead of
 conventional film cooling slots. Flow is to be imparted over the partially
 open cavity where it induces a shear layer and a shear driven vortex within
 the cavity, which is subjected to cooling effect at its wall. Depending on
 the opening ratio, heat and mass transfer occur between the main flow and
 the trapped vortex through the shear layer. In the present study, RANS
 simulations of such flow have been conducted for circular and square
 cavities to investigate the effect of opening ratio on the heat and mass
 transfer characteristics. The simulations were established on a rigorous
 numerical approach and proper validation with LDV measurements of turbulent
 flow in circular cavity. Based on the hydraulic diameter of the cavity,
 opening ratios ranging from 0.2 to 1.0 were investigated for a Reynolds
 number of 3×105. Generally, the maximum Nusselt number (Nu) was achieved at
 higher opening ratios for both circular and rectangle cavities. On the other
 hand the maximum dimensionless temperature gradient (θ) inside the cavity
 was achieved at L/D=0.2 for both cavity configurations.


The distribution of yellow-head virus (YHV) in 9 different tissues and organs Including the branchial portion of the gill, nerve cord, lymphoid organ (Oka), heart, midgut, hepatopancreas, head soft tissues (HST), abdominal muscle, and eyestalk of experimentally infected moribund white shrunp Penaeus vannamei (Boone) was examined by bioassay using penaeid shrimp indicators and by quantal assay (TCIDSO) in primary shrimp Oka organ cell cultures. Infectious YHV was demonstrated in all the tissues and organs tested; inoculation of each of the tissue and organ filtrates into experimental shrimp resulted In 100% mortality within 6 to 9 d postinfection. The TCID,, assay in primary Oka organ cells revealed that Oka, gill and HST contained 10to 800-fold higher titers of YHV than the other tissues and organs tested and suggested that they are apparently the primary target tissues and organs for YHV infection.


SUMMARY We report attack rates and contact-related predictors among community contacts of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases from the 2003 Toronto-area outbreak. Community contact data was extracted from public health records for single, well-defined exposures to a SARS case. In total, 8662 community-acquired exposures resulted in 61 probable cases; a crude attack rate of 0·70% [95% confidence interval (CI) 0·54–0·90]. Persons aged 55–69 years were at higher risk of acquiring SARS (1·14%) than those either younger (0·60%) or older (0·70%). In multivariable analysis exposures for at least 30 min at a distance of ⩽1 m increased the likelihood of becoming a SARS case 20·4-fold (95% CI 11·8–35·1). Risk related to duration of illness in the source case at time of exposure was greatest for illness duration of 7–10 days (rate ratio 3·4, 95% CI 1·9–6·1). Longer and closer proximity exposures incurred the highest rate of disease. Separate measures of time and distance from source cases should be added to minimum datasets for the assessment of interventions for SARS and other emerging diseases.


What a performer attends to when executing a skill has been studied extensively in the past several decades. Recently Wulf and colleagues (Wulf 2007b) have demonstrated that the adoption of an external focus of attention is preferable for the learning of complex motor skills. This present study aimed to extend the attentional focus research by comparing the effects of different attentional foci on learning and retention in 12 -14 year old skilled soccer players. Forty eight players were selected from a soccer academy and participated in a five week study. Each participant carried out ten trials on a soccer specific accuracy task each week. Participants were randomly allocated to one of three attentional focus groups; external, internal and control. Results show that those who learned with an external focus of attention had a greater accuracy in the performance practice trials (3.5\( \pm\)1.1) than the internal focus group (2.4\( \pm\)1.0) and control group (2.5\( \pm\)0.9). An external focus of attention was also found to benefit retention where the performance of the external focus group was superior (2.9\( \pm\)1.2) compared to the internal (1.9\( \pm\)0.8) and the control group (2.8\( \pm\)0.7). These findings offer support for the previous work on attentional focus and have furthered the research by showing the advantages of an external focus of attention in a real learning environment and adolescent participants.


Pigouvian (or "corrective") taxes have been proposed or enacted on dozens of products and activities that may be harmful in excess: carbon, gasoline, fat, sugar, guns, cigarettes, alcohol, traffic, zoning, executive pay, and financial transactions, among others. Academics of all political stripes are mystified by the public's inability to see the merits of using Pigouvian taxes more frequently to address serious social harms. This enthusiasm for Pigouvian taxes should be tempered. A Pigouvian tax is easy to design — as a uniform excise tax — if one assumes that each individual causes the same amount of harm with each incremental increase in activity on the margin. This assumption of uniform marginal social cost pairs well with the limited information and enforcement capacity of tax institutions. But when marginal social cost varies significantly, a Pigouvian tax will not lead to an optimal allocation of economic resources. Focusing on carbon emissions, where the assumption of uniform marginal social cost happens to be reasonable, obscures this common design flaw. Broadly speaking, Pigouvian taxes should be employed only when (1) the harm is (or is properly analogized to) global pollution, and where the harm does not vary based on the source, or (2) the variation in marginal social cost is easily observed and categorized, as with traffic congestion charges. This straightforward insight has broad implications for how we design any targeted tax or subsidy. It explains why a carbon tax would work reasonably well, but some other environmental taxes would not. It explains why most food taxes are doomed to fail. It explains why most sin taxes are designed to raise revenue, not change behavior. It explains why so many tax subsidies are ineffective. And, more constructively, it identifies the limited conditions when Pigouvian taxes or subsidies should be employed.


Apart from food, other important needs in the care of human bodies are cosmetics and drugs. For long the latter two are obtained from chemical formulations and phytochemicals (commonly used in Ethnomedicine), use of bioactive compounds from insects (i.e. "ento medicine" and "ento cosmetics") is a recent development in research, even though the bioactive compounds were discovered long ago. This chapter is a review on a number of substances extracted from various insect species that are useful in cosmetics, pharmaceutical industries as well as those that form part of prescription for healing in orthodox and traditional medicine. The review is based on information from scientific reports, Google, e-library, textbooks. A number of substances were found to have been incorporated into cosmetic and pharmaceutical products and as part of prescriptions for healing in orthodox medicine, many others at elementary stages of investigation, purification and development. The findings showed that insects have a lot of bioactive substances that need to be harnessed for the good man.


Background: The criteria for the quality control of Iranian fresh produce are the total microbial count, Enterococcal count and the detection of Escherichia coli. The aim of this study was to assess microbial contamination of fresh vegetable and salad samples consumed in Tehran, Iran. Methods: From May to October 2013, freshly vegetable (n=100) and salads (n=100) samples were randomly collected in three area of Tehran including Islamshahr (n=35), south of Tehran (n=30) and Shahr-e-Rey (n=35). The samples were tested microbiologically according to institute of standards and industrial research of Iran (ISIRI) for determination of total microbial, Enterococcal and E. coli count. The results were analyzed by SPSS software v. 16.0. Results: Overall, 71% of salad and 82% of vegetable samples had contamination rate more than acceptable limits in the case of at least one of the three microbial parameters. All of spinaches, wheat sprouts, mung bean sprouts, mixed leafy vegetables, Kuku vegetables, and green peppers were exceeded acceptable limits at least in case of one parameter. From 71 ineligible salad samples, 24 samples (68.6%) were for Islamshahr, 26 samples (74.3%) for south of Tehran and 21 ones (70%) for Shar-e-Rey, with no significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study showed poor microbiological quality of salad and fresh vegetables used in Tehran. Measures to reduce the contamination might be advised such as a proper handling and washing before consumption of these products as well as public education and awareness.


The VAMOS(1) Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) was an international field program designed to make observations of poorly understood but critical components of the coupled climate system of the southeast Pacific. This region is characterized by strong coastal upwelling, the coolest SSTs in the tropical belt, and is home to the largest subtropical stratocumulus deck on Earth. The field intensive phase of VOCALS-REx took place during October and November 2008 and constitutes a critical part of a broader CLIVAR program (VOCALS) designed to develop and promote scientific activities leading to improved understanding, model simulations, and predictions of the southeastern Pacific (SEP) coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system, on diurnal to interannual timescales. The other major components of VOCALS are a modeling program with a model hierarchy ranging from the local to global scales, and a suite of extended observations from regular research cruises, instrumented moorings, and satellites. The two central themes of VOCALS-REx focus upon (a) links between aerosols, clouds and precipitation and their impacts on marine stratocumulus radiative properties, and (b) physical and chemical couplings between the upper ocean and the lower atmosphere, including the role that mesoscale ocean eddies play. A set of hypotheses designed to be tested with the combined field, monitoring and modeling work in VOCALS is presented here. A further goal of VOCALS-REx is to provide datasets for the evaluation and improvement of large-scale numerical models. VOCALS-REx involved five research aircraft, two ships and two surface sites in northern Chile. We describe the instrument pay-loads and key mission strategies for these platforms and give a summary of the missions conducted.


Religious and secular convictions have powerful effects, but their foundations are often surprisingly fragile. New converts often come across as stringent believers precisely because they need to dispel their own lingering doubts, while revolutionary movements survive only through the denial of ambiguity. This book shows that a focus on uncertainty and doubt is indispensible for grasping the role of ideas in social action. Drawing on a wide range of cases, from spirit mediums in Taiwan to Maoist revolutionaries in India, from right-wing populists in Europe to converts to Pentecostalism in Central Asia, the authors analyse the ways in which doubt is overcome and, conversely, how belief-systems collapse. In doing so, Ethnographies of Doubt provides important insights into the cycles of faith, hope, conviction and disillusion that are intrinsic to the human condition.


The biosynthesis of pyrimidines in Pseudomonas putida was investigated. In this study, pyrimidine requiring mutants were isolated by conventional mutagenesis and enrichment. The strains required exogenously supplied pyrimidines for growth and were found by enzyme assays to be deficient for the product of the pyrB gene encoding the enzyme aspartate transcarbamoylase. None of the intermediates of the pathway could supply the auxotrophic requirement of the strain; only preformed pyrimidines, metabolized via salvage pathways could suffice. Pyrimidine limitation in the mutant caused a slight but significant fifty per cent increase in expression of all the de novo biosynthetic enzymes. Pyrimidine starvation's effect on nucleotide pool levels was examined in the mutant and caused a marked swelling of the purine nucleotide pools.


The Chinese authorities described the management of the renminbi after its 2005 unpegging from the US dollar as involving a basket of trading partner currencies. Outside analysts have detected few signs of such management. We find that, in the two years from mid-2006 to mid-2008, the renminbi strengthened gradually against trading partners' currencies within a narrow band. In mid-2008, the financial crisis interrupted this experiment and the bilateral renminbi/dollar exchange rate stabilised at 6.8. The 2006-08 experience suggests that a shared policy of gradual nominal effective appreciation renders East Asian currencies quite stable against one another. Such a shared policy would create favourable conditions for regional monetary cooperation.


TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. "NON-SCIENTIFIC" CONCERNS OVER GM CROPS A. Moral and Religious Objections to Genetic Engineering B. Contamination and Coexistence C. Consumer Choice and Labeling D. Patent Litigation and Corporatization of the Food Supply E. Rise of Monocultures and Effects on Biodiversity in the Food Supply III. REASONS FOR INCORPORATING NON-SCIENTIFIC CONCERNS INTO THE REGULATORY PROCESS A. Non-scientific Considerations Are Already Driving GM Policy Implicitly and Non-transparently, Creating Problems with Accountability and Expertise B. Incorporation of Non-scientific Concerns Would Create Opportunities for Greater Public Participation, Strengthening Public Trust in GMOs and GMO Regulation IV. ARGUMENTS AGAINST INCORPORATION INTO THE REGULATORY PROCESS A. Incorporation of Socioeconomic and Ethical Concerns into GMO Regulation May Be Incompatible with International Trade Laws 1. Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 2. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety B. Integrating Non-scientific Factors into GMO Regulation Could Adulterate Scientific Determinations in the Pursuit of "Political Correctness" C. The Opportunity Cost of Integration: The Potential for Depriving Farmers, Consumers, and Biotech Companies of GM Technology V. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION This Note surveys a range of non-scientific concerns associated with transgenic or genetically modified ("GM") crops and argues for their incorporation into the regulatory process. A number of scholarly articles have critiqued the regulatory process for genetically modified organisms ("GMOs"), but none has systematically examined whether the relevant agencies are taking into account all the factors that they ought to consider in regulating GM crops. (1) This Note attempts to fill that gap. Building on Gary Marchant's recognition of the need to incorporate social and ethical issues into the regulation of emerging technologies, (2) this Note applies Marchant's insights to GMO regulation. Non-scientific concerns relate broadly to public participation in GMO regulation and to the overall utility of genetic engineering. Many who share these concerns reject product-based regulation of GMOs and assign paramount importance to the processes involved in the creation of GMO products. (3) Transgenic or genetically modified crops are crops whose genetic codes have been directly altered by insertions, deletions, or other modifications of DNA in the laboratory. (4) The commercialization of GM crops has grown tremendously since their introduction in 1996. (5) By 2012, 93% of soybeans, 94% of cotton, and 88% of corn grown in the United States was transgenic. (6) Nevertheless, the modern U.S. regulatory scheme for GMOs derives from the Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology ("Framework"), a policy document issued in 1986 by the Reagan administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy ("OSTP"). (7) Regulatory policy has changed little since the adoption of the Framework. (8) Multiple scholars have noted that the principles set forth in the Framework seem to presume biotechnology's relative safety and utility. (9) First, the Framework is based on "a determination that the process of biotechnology [is] not inherently risky." (10) GMo regulation is "product-based"; the Framework regulates only the products of biotechnology rather than the process of producing them. (11) Accordingly, the FDA has adopted the substantial equivalence doctrine, which states that GM products that are "substantially equivalent" in biochemical composition to their non-GM counterparts should be regulated in the same way as their conventional counterparts. (12) under this doctrine, if a non-GM counterpart is "generally recognized as safe" ("GRAS"), then the GM product is typically considered to be GRAS. …


The proto-oncogene c-Cbl was originally identified as a cellular homologue of the transforming protein expressed by the murine Cas NS-1 retrovirus. The full-length c-Cbl protein is a predominantly cytoplasmic protein, abundant in lymphoid cells, and potentially involved in signal transduction in several cell types. The specific signal transduction pathways in which c-Cbl participates, and its precise role in these pathways, are unclear. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that c-Cbl is the predominant tyrosine-phosphorylated protein bound to the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase on T lymphocyte and B lymphocyte activation. To further understand the properties of c-Cbl and the significance of its interactions with PI 3-kinase, we have further studied the cellular biological and biochemical responses of c-Cbl to stimulation in lymphoid cells. We show that stimulation induces the association of a highly tyrosine-phosphorylated pool of c-Cbl with lymphocyte membranes and with a detergent-insoluble particulate fraction. Immunoprecipitation of c-Cbl from subcellular fractions reveals that p85 is predominantly associated with the c-Cbl pool recovered from the membrane fraction, despite the fact that this pool represents a small amount of total cellular c-Cbl. The formation of c-Cbl·PI 3-kinase complexes on lymphocyte membranes did not depend on the catalytic activity of PI 3-kinase since it was unaltered by the treatment of cells with wortmannin prior to stimulation. Interestingly, c-Cbl tyrosine phosphorylation and the formation of c-Cbl·PI 3-kinase complexes were also observed in a mutant Jurkat cell line, JCaM1.6, lacking p56lck expression. Because p56lck is critical for mitogenic signal transduction in response to T cell receptor activation, our results suggest that the activation of c-Cbl and the formation of c-Cbl·PI 3-kinase complexes occur upstream or independently of mitogenic signal transduction pathways in T cells.


Recent research on young women's sexuality highlights the transactional nature of relationships among young people, as well as the increase in intergenerational sexual relationships. These unequal and often coercive sexual practices may increase young women's vulnerability to unsafe sexual practices. Within this context, while there have been some media reports on the relationship between girls and taxi drivers, there has been little documented research on the phenomenon of 'taxi queens'. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the understandings and constructions of taxi queens among local youth. A qualitative study involving 13 focus groups were held with youth in the Cape Town Metropole and the southern Cape region and analysed thematically. In general, there was widespread recognition among participants of transactional relationships between young women and usually older drivers. Taxi queens were strongly stigmatised, but their behaviour was also constructed as normative, especially in poor communities, and reflecting contradictory notions of vulnerability and power. However, taxi drivers were less stigmatised. Such constructions allow for the 'othering' of these young women, which may undermine their ability to seek help in negotiating safer sexual relationships. At the same time, their concerns need to be understood within the larger context of challenges facing youth, especially in poor South African communities.


In 2006 the International Journal on Advanced Technology for Learning (ATL), InterLabs Research Institute (IRI) at Bradley University (Peoria, IL, USA), and the leaders of the Annual International Conferences on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE Conference) and Web-Based Education (WBE Conference) organized and managed a world survey of experts in the area of Technology-Based Education (TBE). The goal of the survey was to identify a profile of a modern instructor for TBE -- this area includes but is not limited to information and communication technology (ICT) based education, computer-based education (CBE), stored (like CDs, DVDs, video- and audio cassettes) media-based education, WBE, Internet2-based education, interactive TV-based education, open broadcast TV-based education, mobile TBE education. The selected components of instructor's profile include but are not limited to (1) ownership of technology, (2) self-reported skills regarding various information, computer, software, communication, and collaboration technologies, (3) technologies used in TBE and hours spent per week on technology-related activities, and (4) use of main technologies for WBE such as learning management systems (LMS), repositories of learning objects (RLO), digital libraries (DL), open courseware (OCW), etc. The feedback from a total of 92 experts, who represent 61 institutions (colleges, universities, and training institutions) from 26 countries all over the world, is summarized below.


The Business of Sports is the first comprehensive collection of readings to focus on the multibillion-dollar sports industry and the dilemmas faced by today's sports business leaders. This valuable resource provides a complete overview of major sports business issues and is designed for current and future sports business leaders as well as those interested in the inner-workings of the industry. The book covers professional, Olympic, and collegiate sports, and highlights the major issues that impact each of these broad categories. The readings in The Business of Sports provide insight from a variety of stakeholders in the industry and cover the major business disciplines of management, marketing, finance, information technology, accounting, ethics and law. In addition, the book features concise introductions, a broad range of focused readings and targeted discussion questions, as well as graphs and tables that are used to convey relevant financial data and other statistics. This first-of-its-kind book makes accessible, in a single location, book excerpts, articles and other materials that students and professionals interested in "the business of sports" will find both useful and compelling.


The goal of the study presented in this paper is to develop an embedded biomedical system capable of delivering maximum performance on demand, while maintaining the optimal energy efficiency whenever possible. Several hardware and software solutions are presented allowing the system to intelligently change the power supply voltage and frequency in runtime. The resulting system allows use of more energy-efficient components, operates most of the time in its most battery-efficient mode, and provides means to quickly change the operation mode while maintaining reliable performance. While all of these techniques extend battery life, the main benefit is on-demand availability of computational performance using a system that is not excessive. Biomedical applications, perhaps more than any other application, require battery operation, favor infrequent battery replacements, and can benefit from increased performance under certain conditions (e.g., when anomaly is detected) that makes them ideal candidates for this approach. In addition, if the system is a part of a body area network, it needs to be light, inexpensive, and adaptable enough to satisfy changing requirements of the other nodes in the network.


Glucose induces insulin release from pancreatic β-cells by stimulating ATP synthesis, membrane depolarisation and Ca2+ influx. As well as activating ATP-consuming processes, cytosolic Ca2+ increases may also potentiate mitochondrial ATP synthesis. Until recently, the ability to study the role of mitochondrial Ca2+ transport in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion has been hindered by the absence of suitable approaches either to suppress Ca2+ uptake into these organelles, or to examine the impact on β-cell excitability. Here, we have combined patch-clamp electrophysiology with simultaneous real-time imaging of compartmentalised changes in Ca2+ and ATP/ADP ratio in single primary mouse β-cells, using recombinant targeted (Pericam or Perceval, respectively) as well as entrapped intracellular (Fura-Red), probes. Through shRNA-mediated silencing we show that the recently-identified mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter, MCU, is required for depolarisation-induced mitochondrial Ca2+ increases, and for a sustained increase in cytosolic ATP/ADP ratio. By contrast, silencing of the mitochondrial Na+-Ca2+ exchanger NCLX affected the kinetics of glucose-induced changes in, but not steady state values of, cytosolic ATP/ADP. Exposure to gluco-lipotoxic conditions delayed both mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake and cytosolic ATP/ADP ratio increases without affecting the expression of either gene. Mitochondrial Ca2+ accumulation, mediated by MCU and modulated by NCLX, is thus required for normal glucose sensing by pancreatic β-cells, and becomes defective in conditions mimicking the diabetic milieu.


MUSA is an Agent-based model (ABM) that tries to address two issues: the unsustainability of the commuting sector in the US and the acknowledgment of ABM as a powerful ex-ante policy evaluation tool. MUSA simulates the commuting sector in the USA. This ABM is aimed at encouraging the use of Agent-based modelling as an ex-ante modelling tool for policy evaluation. Moreover, we implemented two different types of policies that could encourage sustainable commuting to test their efficacy.
Every agent maps the commuting preferences of one of the respondents to the National Household Travel Survey 2009. The agents can choose among three modes of transport: private motorised transport, private non-motorised transport and public transport.
During the development of MUSA, we applied a Multilevel Validation, that strengthens the credibility of the simulation outcomes. Following this approach, we informed the position of the agents in a 3D space according to their preferences, that have been drawn from one of the datasets included in the 2009 NHTS. The distributions of the modes of transport use resulting from the simulations have then been corroborated with another dataset from the same survey, to make sure that the results obtained were realistic.
The framework used by the agents while choosing their preferred mode of transport is the 'Consumat Model' developed by Jager (2000). According to this framework of social behaviour, the agents can implement four types of behaviours: i)imitation, ii)rational deliberation, iii)repetition and iv)social comparison.
Two policies have been tested, both singularly and combined: market-based policies and preference-change policies. The former aim at internalising the externalities involved in the production and consumption of a given good/service through the imposition of a tax/fee, whereas the latter are meant to change consumers' behaviour by acting directly upon their preferences.


Population outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS, Acanthaster spp.) represent one of the most significant biological disturbances on tropical reefs, contributing to widespread and significant coral depletion throughout the Indo-Pacific. On the Great Barrier Reef, for example, CoTS outbreaks account for 42% of recorded coral loss from 1985-2012. Despite their importance, the demography and biology of CoTS is poorly understood, especially in terms of understanding the potential causes(s) of population outbreaks. For effective management of outbreaks, it is critical to understand the factors that both promote sudden population explosions, and that normally regulate CoTS populations at very low densities.

Predatory release has long been considered a potential contributor to population outbreaks of CoTS, initiating extensive searches for potential predators that may consume large numbers of these starfish at high rates, but are also vulnerable to over-fishing. As such, most research into predation on CoTS has focused on large reef fishes and invertebrates capable of capturing and consuming adult starfish. By contrast, consideration of smaller-bodied and potentially cryptic predators that could consume gametes, larvae or newly settled juveniles has received little attention. Thus, the overarching objective of this research was to explore predation on the early life stages of CoTS by two suites of predators: planktivorous damselfishes, and benthic invertebrates. Specifically, this research compares the predatory responses of a range of damselfishes, testing for interspecific variation in their potential importance as predators of CoTS eggs and larvae, and tests the influence of benthic predators on microhabitat preferences and settlement success of CoTS.

Although CoTS are equipped with anti-predator chemicals at every stage of their life cycle, the effectiveness of these chemicals in deterring predators is increasingly being questioned. In particular, planktivorous damselfishes, which are highly efficient zooplankton predators, may be capable of consuming the early life stages of CoTS in vast quantities, potentially reducing the reproductive and settlement success of this starfish. Nine planktivorous damselfishes are shown to readily consume food pellets that contain concentrations of up to 80% CoTS eggs, however all fishes exhibit increasing rejection of food pellets that contain higher proportions of eggs. This suggests that chemicals within the eggs are unpalatable, however palatability thresholds varied greatly among the damselfishes, indicating species that are likely to be more important as predators of CoTS eggs (or larvae). Notably, Amblyglyphidodon curacao consumed food pellets comprising 100% starfish eggs 1.5 times more than any other fish species, and appeared largely insensitive to increases in the concentration of starfish eggs. However, after standardising for size, smaller species, such as Pomacentrus moluccensis and Chrysiptera rollandi, consume a disproportionate amount of pellets comprising high proportions of starfish eggs and could be particularly important in regulating larval abundance and settlement success of CoTS.

To further explore the role of damselfish predation in potentially structuring CoTS populations, the feeding behaviour and functional responses of eleven damselfishes were examined by offering individual damselfish with increasing concentrations of larvae of either CoTS or Linckia laevigata (a co-occurring species with morphologically similar larvae). Consumption rates of CoTS larvae by damselfishes were independent of predator size, however when pooling across all predator species there was a significant negative relationship between predator size and consumption rate of L. laevigata. Most predatory species (all except A. curacao and Pomacentrus amboinensis) exhibited a Type II functional response, whereby the increasing feeding rate decelerated with increasing prey density. In addition, Acanthochromis polyacanthus and A. curacao, consumed larval CoTS at a greater rate than for L. laevigata, and consumption capacity of CoTS by Dascyllus aruanus was extremely high (158 larvae h⁻¹). These data reveal that a wide range of planktivorous fishes will prey upon CoTS larvae (at least when offered as the only available prey), and suggest that planktivorous damselfishes may have the capacity to buffer against population fluctuations of CoTS.

Predation rates on specific prey species can vary depending on availability of alternative prey. In the extreme, predators may exhibit prey switching, whereby they preferentially feed on the most abundant, or most readily accessible, prey species. Defining predatory responses to changes in prey availability is critical to evaluating the ability of predators to regulate prey populations. To extend the single-prey experiments, exploring prey preference and testing for prey switching, nine damselfishes were simultaneously offered varying relative densities of CoTS and L. laevigata larvae. Again, feeding responses varied among the damselfishes. While no evidence of prey switching was detected, five damselfishes (A. polyacanthus, A. curacao, Dascyllus reticulatus, P. amboinensis and P. moluccensis) exhibited increased consumption of CoTS larvae with increasing prey density, despite the availability of alternative prey. Moreover, Abudefduf sexfasciatus and P. amboinensis exhibited preference for CoTS larvae over L. laevigata larvae. These findings suggest that planktivorous damselfishes will consume CoTS larvae even in the presence of alternative, and presumably more palatable, prey. Further, most of the damselfishes responded to increasing larval CoTS densities by increasing theirprey intake, suggesting that they could be important in regulating successful settlement and recruitment, especially at low (non-outbreak) densities.

CoTS are also expected to suffer high levels of predator-induced mortality during settlement, as they transition to living in the benthic habitat and are exposed to an entirely new suite of predators. Accordingly, these larvae might be expected to exhibit behavioural adaptations, which serve to reduce predation at this critical stage in their life history. Pairwise choice experiments revealed that late stage brachiolaria larvae are able to detect predators in the substrate and where possible, will preferentially settle in microhabitats without predators. Settlement assays (without choices) revealed that larvae do not necessarily delay settlement in the presence of predators, but high levels of predation on settling larvae by benthic predators significantly reduce the number of larvae that settle successfully. Taken together, these results show that CoTS are highly vulnerable to benthic predators during settlement, and that variation in the abundance of benthic predators may significantly influence patterns of settlement and recruitment.

This research shows that eggs, larvae and newly settled CoTS are readily consumed by a wide range of coral reef organisms, such that predation during and soon after settlement may represent a significant bottleneck in their life history. Unfortunately, many of the predators that consume these early life stages are vulnerable to reef degradation and coral loss. Thus it is possible that anthropogenic degradation of reef ecosystems is contributing to the incidence and/or severity of CoTS outbreaks by mediating the abundance of these potentially key predators. Although it seems unlikely that predatory release in and of itself could account for initial onset of CoTS outbreaks, reducing anthropogenic stressors that reduce the abundance and/or diversity of potential predatory species represents a "no regrets" management strategy, but will need to be used in conjunction with other management strategies to prevent, or reduce the occurrence, of CoTS outbreaks.


Virtually all constitutional scholars agree, and the Supreme Court has uniformly held, that our entire system of constitutional democracy is premised in important part on the dictate of judicial review, i.e., the power of the judiciary to exercise the final say as to the meaning of the provisions of the counter-majoritarian Constitution. Absent judicial review, the fundamental speed bumps to tyranny which the Framers so carefully inserted into our political structure would be rendered all but useless at best and a fraud on the electorate at worst. Yet puzzlingly, most of the very same scholars and judges assume that the remedies to be issued to enforce the judiciary's interpretations of the Constitution are fully controlled by the very political branches which the Constitution is designed to restrain. Thus, all the political branches need do to avoid constitutional control is deny to the courts any power to enforce their decisions. Such a logically inconsistent dichotomy indirectly destroys the essence of the judicial review process that is so central to American constitutional democracy. Yet the respected constitutional scholars to have examined the issue of constitutional remedies seem not to have recognized either the serious logical flaw or the potentially grave practical dangers in vesting in the very branches sought to be controlled by the Constitution the final power to determine the scope — indeed, the existences — of remedies to enforce constitutional dictates. Nor has the Supreme Court acknowledged the unique nature of constitutional remedies. Instead, the Court has incorrectly deemed implied constitutional and statutory remedies to be coterminous as a matter of judicial power, when the fundamental elements of American political theory make clear that the two are completely distinct.

In this Article, the author explains the inherent theoretical and practical link between constitutional review and constitutional remedies, demonstrating that full control of constitutional remedies belongs in the judiciary, not the political branches. He then explains how judicial inference of constitutional remedies in the face of textual silence on the issue can be justified by principled theories of textual interpretation.


In database applications, access control is aimed at supervising users' requests to access sensitive data. Users' requests are mainly formalized by Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) expressions. The supervision process can be formalized at a high level, such as based on the RBAC model, but in the end the relevant aspect is the data being accessed through each CRUD expression. In critical database applications access control can be enforced not on a CRUD by CRUD basis but enforced at the level of sequences of CRUD expressions (workflow). This situation can occur whenever established security policies are based on strict procedures that define step by step the actions (sequences of CRUD expressions) to be followed. Current RBAC models do not support this type of security policies. To overcome this security gap, we leverage previous researches to propose an extension to the RBAC model to control for each role which sequences of CRUD expressions are authorized. We demonstrate empirical evidence of the effectiveness of our proposal from a use case based on Java and JDBC. Our use case is based on typed security layers built from a software architectural model and also from metadata based on the proposed RBAC model extension. Keywords-information security, access control, RBAC, software architecture, software engineering, components.


The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and cross-cultural data have converged to exert a profound influence on social scientists and ordinary people. Through the use of these tools, social scientists of the 1700s and 1800s concluded that family patterns in northwest Europe had undergone many substantial changes before the early 1800s. These conclusions were accepted until the last several decades of the 1900s, when almost all were seriously challenged; many were declared to be myths. Further, the developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and the conclusions of generations of social scientists created a package of ideas—developmental idealism—that subsequently became a powerful influence for family change in many parts of the world during the past two centuries. This developmental idealism has been a substantial force for changing living arrangements, marriage, divorce, gender relations, intergenerational relationships, and fertility.


Since 1953 when the famous paper by Watson and Crick on 'Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid' was published in Nature, DNA has been the subject of intensive biological, biochemical and biophysical research. What is more, in basic physics and materials science, phenomena such as molecular recognition and the self-assembly behaviour of DNA have caused a rapid increase of research interest. Extended studies of the mechanical, electrical, electro-optical and optical properties of singlestranded and double-stranded DNA have been performed, and a broad variety of twoand three-dimensional structures have been produced by self-assembly of oligonucleotides. About ten years ago a new development was initiated with the breakthrough of the group of Naoya Ogata from Chita Institute of Science and Technology, Hokkaido, when they succeeded in producing purified DNA-surfactant freestanding films from cheap waste products of the salmon fishery industry in Japan. Together with the development of tailored doping of these structures, this development opened the way for materials engineering based on semiconducting DNA thinfilm structures. Today in the scientific community it is supposed that these materials may form the basis for future bioorganic microand nanoelectronics. However, with respect to the technological level, we are probably today at silicon's mid-1950s point of development. The topics presented in this book highlight the most important subjects and perspectives of materials science of DNA. The main contributions have been written by three pioneer groups in this field: the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright–Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, USA, the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology and Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, and the Ogata Research Laboratory, Hokkaido, Japan. Additionally, there are contributions by authors from Italy, China and Germany. After a short introduction to basic aspects of the structure and properties of DNA, the following topics are discussed: Nanostructures and nanomaterials via DNA-based selfassembly; Intercalation of organic ligands as a tool to modify the properties of DNA; DNA and carbon-based nanomaterials; Electrical and magnetic properties of DNA; DNA ionic liquids; DNA-surfactant thin-film processing and characterization; Application of DNA to photonics and biomedicals; DNA-based thin-film devices; Nucleic acid-based biosensors; Perspectives of materials science of DNA. In all of the papers the reader gets a very good overview of the recent research activities worldwide. For each subject extensive bibliographic data are given. Most interesting are the chapters on electrical and magnetic properties of DNA, DNA-surfactant thin-film processing and characterization, application of DNA to photonics and biomedicals, and DNA-based thin-film devices. First examples of device developments such as an electro-optic waveguide modulator, DNA-based field effect transistors and electron-blocking layers in organic light-emitting diodes hold much promise for future use of DNA in thinfilm devices. However, the authors always state that much more has to be done and to be learned before commercial devices can be realized. Thus the book is written in the spirit to stimulate the interdisciplinary community to intensify their research endeavour to bring maturation to this interesting, emerging field of molecular-scale materials science.


The aim of this study was to take part of and analyze teachers´ experiences of cooperation with legal guardians concerning the support to students in their process of doing homework. We aimed to identify factors of importance for cooperation between schools and homes and look into teachers´ visions to develop this. The study is based on qualitative interviews with six active primary teachers. We have utilized a socio-cultural and social-ecological perspective in our interpretation on the empirical material. The result shows that the teachers believe that there is a significant importance to have this cooperation between schools and home regarding homework. Homework is presented as a mediating tool for cooperation where the students´ surrounding world, school and home are brought together. Homework as a mediating tool is a tool colored by our culture and is used for communication. Important factors for the cooperation between schools and homes areclearness and approach, which means providing information, giving homework on time, having open communications and transparency.


Kupffer cells constitute a major source of the heme-degrading enzyme, heme oxygenase (HO). This study examined the roles of Kupffer cells in the modulation of accelerated heme catabolism in ischemia-reperfused rat livers. Livers from rats treated with or without liposome-encapsulated dichloromethylene diphosphonate, a Kupffer cell-depleting reagent, underwent a 20-min ligation of the portal vein followed by reperfusion, The time course of the biliary output of bilirubin, the terminal heme-degrading product, and the expression of HO-1 mRNA and protein were monitored. HO-1 mRNA levels were elevated 3 to 12 h after ischemia/reperfusion in both control and Kupffer cell-depleted rats. Immunohistochemical analyses of control livers revealed that Kupffer cells expressed high levels of HO-1 while its expression in hepatocytes was low. In Kupffer cell-depleted livers, however, periportal hepatocytes displayed marked HO-1 expression. Under these conditions the two groups exhibited distinct profiles of biliary bilirubin excretion. In the controls, total bilirubin excretion increased 8-fold and peaked at 10 h after ischemia/reperfusion. In contrast, the Kupffer cell-depleting treatment resulted in a significant acceleration of the initial rise in bilirubin production, which peaked at 4 h. However, the total amount of bilirubin excreted within the initial 10 h after reperfusion was reduced by 50% as compared with that of the controls. In Kupffer cell-depleted rats, the levels of GOT and GPT as well as serum endotoxin concentrations were elevated after ischemia/reperfusion. These results suggest that Kupffer cells serve as an ischemia/reperfusion sensor that upregulates heme degradation and bilirubin excretion, and that Kupffer cells protect hepatocytes from gut-derived stressers--including endotoxin--following ischemia/reperfusion.


The development of effective conservation strategies for the protection of rock art sites involves the assessment of the taphonomic risks posed by physical and chemical weathering. This study outlines the methodology used in a pilot study to monitor and model the deterioration of paint residues in a cave environment. Mineral oxide pigments were mixed with water and placed on the walls of a cave in the Mendip hills (U.K.). The physical degradation of the paint residues was simulated visually and modelled mathematically. A training stage learning the characteristics of a reference image is followed by comparisons with this image as the test paints deteriorate. The study will be extended over three years and digital image processing will be used to quantify changes in the colour and dimensions of the test paints. The results will be correlated with micro-climatic variables. This methodology can be used to model taphonomic changes to rock art and other forms of imagery in differing environments.


ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S VISIT TO CLEVELAND took place 15-16 Feb. 1861 on the president-elect's way to Washington, DC. Invited to stop in Cleveland by former mayor GEO. B. SENTER, Lincoln arrived at the Euclid St. Station at 4 P.M. on the 15th. A large crowd and a local military escort made up of the Light Dragoons, the CLEVELAND LIGHT ARTILLERY, and the CLEVELAND GRAYS accompanied the president-elect and his son, Robt. Todd Lincoln, in an open carriage down Euclid to the PUBLIC SQUARE, and then to the WEDDELL HOUSE. Lincoln addressed the crowd from the hotel balcony, urging all citizens to support the Constitution and the Federal Union, and later attended a reception held that evening. The next day, the Cleveland Grays escorted the Lincoln party to UNION DEPOT, where they departed for Buffalo. The room where Lincoln stayed at the Weddell House was preserved for many years as a memorial to commemorate his visit.


The research was concerned with the challenges facing women owned small and micro enterprise (dressmakers) in Umoja 1 market. Umoja 1 market is situated around 14 Km from the city Centre. The aim of this research was to identify the major challenges facing the women owned small and micro enterprises (dressmakers) in respect of Umoja I market. Challenges mean problems, or constraints that affect the performance of business activities of the said enterprises. Its whatever affects both the demand and supply of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) products. The researcher examined the entrepreneurs' access to finance, their management skills, their access to markets and how they gather and use market information. The researcher also examined the infrastructure, the technology and the skills used and even how they adopt them. The study analyzed the incentives and supportive policies. The researcher examined how if at all the challenges had resulted in loss of competitiveness for small and micro enterprises in Umoja 1 market, as well as whether they had resulted in low productivity and profitability with consequent increase in unemployment and poverty. The researcher concluded with formulated recommendations to address the challenges of these enterprises.


Intrusion detection system (IDS) is becoming a vital component to secure the network. A successful intrusion detection system requires high accuracy and detection rate. In this paper a hybrid approach for intrusion detection system based on data mining techniques is proposed. The principal ingredients of the approach are weighted k-means clustering and naive bayes classification. The C5.0 algorithm is used for ranking attributes, so the attributes receive a weight which is used in K-means clustering therefore accuracy of clustering is increased.


The high production rate and more efficiency of feed conversion ratio of poultry broilers make them more susceptible to diseases than ever before. Among these diseases, gastrointestinal diseases are the major threat to commercial poultry production. So for that, the supplementation of antibiotics is the vital choice for minimizing and controlling a number of bacterial diseases, as these bacterial diseases cause serious economic losses by affecting poultry production. Hence, colistin is considered one of last alternative drug in poultry medicine in response to the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and Enterobacteriaceae (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae), due to which mortality of birds can be exceptionally high. So the current article gives the latest knowledge about the impact and need of colistin for poultry health.


BACKGROUND: Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare C1-inhibitor (C1-INH) deficiency disease. Low levels of functional C1-INH can lead to recurrent attacks of severe swelling occurring in areas such as the limbs, face, gastrointestinal tract, and throat. These attacks are both painful and disabling and, if not treated promptly and effectively, can result in hospitalization or death. Agents targeting the specific physiologic pathway of HAE attacks can offer improved outcomes with limited side effects compared with nonspecific therapies. However, these treatments display varying efficacy in HAE patients, including the need to redose or seek additional care if the treatment does not resolve symptoms effectively. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the expected cost and utility per HAE attack when treated on-demand with HAE therapies indicated for the treatment of acute attacks. METHODS: A decision-tree model was developed using TreeAge Pro software. Four on-demand HAE treatments were included: ecallantide, icatibant, plasma-derived (pd)C1-INH, and recombinant human (rh)C1-INH. The model uses probabilities for redosing, self-administration versus health care provider administration, and risk of hospitalization. Costs within the model consisted of the HAE treatments and associated health care system expenses. Nonattack baseline utility and attack utility were implemented for effectiveness calculations; time to attack resolution was considered as well. Effectiveness and overall costs per attack were calculated and used to estimate cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). Variability and ranges in cost-effectiveness were determined using probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Finally, a budget impact model for a health plan with 1 million covered lives was also developed. RESULTS: The base case model outputs show costs and calculated effectiveness per attack at $12,905 and 0.806 for rhC1-INH, $14,806 and 0.765 for icatibant, $14,668 and 0.769 for pdC1-INH, and $21,068 and 0.792 for ecallantide, respectively. Cost per QALY was calculated using 26.9 attacks per person-year, leading to results of $420,941 for rhC1-INH, $488,349 for icatibant, $483,892 for pdC1-INH, and $689,773 for ecallantide. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate that redose rates (from 3% for rhC1-INH to 44% for icatibant) are a primary driver of variability in cost-effectiveness. Annual health plan costs from the budget impact model are calculated as $6.94 million for rhC1-INH, $7.97 million for icatibant, $7.90 million for pdC1-INH, and $11.33 million for ecallantide. CONCLUSIONS: Accounting for patient well-being and additional cost components of HAE attacks generates a better estimation of cost-effectiveness than drug cost alone. Results from this model indicate that rhC1-INH is the dominant treatment option with lower expected costs and higher calculated effectiveness than comparators. Further analyses reinforce the idea that low redose rates contribute to improved cost-effectiveness.


Despite the United States' focus on the Middle East and the Islamic world for the past decade, the most important international political developments in the coming years are likely to happen in Asia. The Obama administration has promoted a "pivot to Asia," away from the Middle East and toward the Asia-Pacific. The main factor driving Washington's interest in the region is the growing economic and military power of the People's Republic of China. Accordingly, this analysis focuses heavily on the implications of China's growing power and influence. This paper has three sections. First, it sketches the two main schools of thought about China's rise and examines the way in which Washington's China policy combines elements of those two theories. The second section critiques both theories of China's rise and argues that U.S. policy combines them in a way that puts a dangerous contradiction at the heart of America's China policy. The final section recommends offloading responsibility for hedging against potential Chinese aggression to likeminded countries in the region and shows that those countries are capable of doing so.


Essays that track identity and authenticity in blues and folk music that crossed the ocean

With essays by Duck Baker, Robert H. Cataliotti, Ronald D. Cohen, John Hughes, Will Kaufman, Andrew Kellett, Erich Nunn, Christian O'Connell, Paul Oliver, David Sanjek, Roberta Freund Schwartz, Jill Terry, Brian Ward, and Neil A. Wynn

Transatlantic Roots Music presents a collection of essays on the debates about origins, authenticity, and identity in folk and blues music. These essays originated in an international conference on the transatlantic paths of American roots music, out of which emerged common themes and questions of origins and authenticity in folk music, be it black or white, American or British. While the central theme of the collection is musical influences, issues of national, local, and racial identity are also recurring subjects. Were these identities invented, imagined, constructed by the performers, or by those who recorded the music for posterity?

The book features a new essay on the blues by Paul Oliver alongside an essay on Oliver's seminal blues scholarship. There are also several essays on British blues and the links between performers and styles in the United States and Britain. And there are new essays on critical figures such as Alan Lomax and Woody Guthrie.

This volume uniquely offers perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic on the interplay of influences in roots music and the debates about these subjects. The book draws on the work of eminent, established scholars and emerging, young academics who are already making a contribution to the field. Throughout, contributors offer the most recent scholarship available on key issues.


: Gravitons are postulated because of the great success of quantum field theory (in particular, the Standard Model) at modeling the behavior of all other known forces of nature as being mediated by elementary particles: electromagnetism by the photon, the strong interaction by the gluons, and the weak interaction by the W and Z bosons. The hypothesis is that the gravitational interaction is likewise mediated by a – yet undiscovered – elementary particle, dubbed the graviton. In the classical limit, the theory would reduce to general relativity and conform to Newton's law of gravitation in the weak-field limit. However, attempts to extend the Standard Model with graviton has run into serious theoretical difficulties at high energies (processes with energies close to or above the Planck scale) because of infinities arising due to quantum effects (in technical terms, gravitation is non-renormalizable). Since classical general relativity and quantum mechanics are incompatible at such energies, from a theoretical point of view the present situation is not tenable. Some proposed models of quantum gravity attempt to address these issues, but these are speculative theories. Does a new definition of the graviton solve the problem of quantum gravity? In this paper, according to the gravitational blue-shift, we have reviewed photon-graviton interaction by using a new definition of graviton and structure of photon.


Re-reading Darwin's Origin of Species on its 150th anniversary, one is struck by its lucidity and humility and the transformative power of its conclusions. Yet the theory of evolution is still not widely understood or accepted. Arrhenius first wrote about the impact of increasing CO2 on global climate in 1896, and yet among governments the issue was still argued until recently. The projects of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution are incomplete. Scientific knowedge is not culturally appropriated. In many ways science has become a cargo cult. Many people use the cell phone for daily survival but could not explain the difference between a photon and an electron. One reason may be that common science does not make common sense. The information I study as a scientist is nearly all mediated through scientific instruments. I can tell when my instrument is hallucinating. I develop new words to describe phenomena I encounter. I can manipulate concepts not grounded in my experience as a child. But this intimacy is not the daily experience of most people. In an interesting new development in the art world, a generation of artists are now collecting data about their world using technological instruments but for cultural purposes. Shared tool-using leads to overlapping epistemologies and ontologies. These artists both make powerful art and help make science intimate, sensual, intuitive. A second reason for the disconnection of modern science and public understanding is that scientists carry out their work mostly in guarded monasteries, unwilling to consider that a larger public could be involved and thereby change the direction and content of future science. This institutional isolation is a historical accident, largely due to the societal compact of science and government following World War II. There are, however, encouraging signs of new types of "micro science" made possible by the Internet and the new public access to scientific data and instruments. To coin a phrase, micro science is to the National Science Foundation what micro-credit is to the World Bank. I am not calling for a renewal of amateur science but for embedding mediated contact with the world in everyday life. Intimate science by artists and micro science at all levels of society are important components of the "hard humanities"---the arts and humanities disciplines essential to the cultural transformation necessary within the next two generations. Controlling climate change, abandoning dependency on fossil fuels and creating the conditions for sustainable development will require as deep a transformation as our ancestors accomplished over tens of thousands of years in moving from agrarian to urban societies. The work of the Leonardo community in promoting art-science and art-technology collaboration is part of the toolkit for survival. We know what a landscape artist is, and indeed landscape artists over several hundred years have helped shape the relationship between humans and nature. But what is a "climate artist"? Two hundred years from now we will identify the climate artists working today who made possible the transformations now beginning. Climate artists will use their senses, mediated by technological tools, to reshape our relationship to the world around us. The "hard humanities" also include social sciences, now suddenly required to be prescriptive. Anthropologists find themselves in industrial innovation workshops; historians are called upon to explain the ways that societies can transform themselves. Artists working with these scholars also engage in intimate and micro science that, as in the Renaissance, will help reshape our relationships to the societies we build. Over recent months a number of us have been developing the concept of "open observatories" that disseminate methods and knowledge for micro science, intimate science, people's science and crowd sourcing. These open observatories would allow small communities to develop locally generated knowledge and to evolve rapidly to confront climate change, end oil dependency and create sustainable development. Open observatories would include artists collecting data for cultural and artistic purposes, as well as community leaders and researchers seeking ways to mediate personally meaningful access to scientific knowledge. They will help make new science indigenous and intimate.


1  Abstract— The spectrum sensing problem has gained new aspects with cognitive radio and opportunistic spectrum access concepts. It is one of the most challenging issues in cognitive radio systems. In this paper, a survey of spectrum sensing methodologies for cognitive radio is presented. Various aspects of spectrum sensing problem are studied from a cognitive radio perspective and multi-dimensional spectrum sensing concept is introduced. Challenges associated with spectrum sensing are given and enabling spectrum sensing methods are reviewed. The paper explains the cooperative sensing concept and its various forms. External sensing algorithms and other alternative sensing methods are discussed. Furthermore, statistical modeling of network traffic and utilization of these models for prediction of primary user behavior is studied. Finally, sensing features of some current wireless standards are given.


Banks, like all profit institutions seek their profitable growth and maximize their shareholders' wealth, increased profitability of the banks on the one hand, increases the company's value and on the other hand, increases executives' compensation and increases their tenure and because the same reason, bank managers have high motivation to increase profits through discretionary accruals. The capital structure also due to the relationship with credit risk and cost of capital is considered as one of important issues in the banks, so, the current research aimed to determine the e of leverage and liquidity ratios on earnings management and capital of banks listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this research, financial information of 14 banks listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 2010 to 2015 have been studied and for performing this study, multivariate linear regression analysis using panel data has been used. The results show that financial and liquidity leverage has significant positive effect on earnings management of banks, therefore increasing the degree of financial leverage and by increasing bank liquidity, the possibility of using discretionary accruals and earnings management at banks increase. The results also showed that financial leverage has a significant negative effect on the bank's capital adequacy ratio and with increasing financial leverage bank capital adequacy ratio is reduced.


Development of a speedy, selective, and sensitive detection method for picric acid (PA) in an aqueous medium using a simple, cost-effective, and portable sensory technique is in high demand not only because of PA's explosive nature but also because of its superior water solubility. This study reports a nonconjugated macromolecular luminogen for prompt sensing of PA in 100% aqueous environments. A novel water-soluble unconventional fluorescent alternating copolymer based on a poly(styrene-alt-maleimide) skeleton has been found to be selective for nanomolar detection of PA in pure water over other aromatic compounds, without any interference from other nitroaromatics and metal ions or common anions that may coexist. The polymeric sensor molecule also has the capability to detect PA in the solid state and vapor phase. The fluorimetric sensing mechanism of PA in the present fluorescent probe is attributed to combined ground-state electrostatic complex formation and ground-state electron transfer from picrate anion to the probe molecule, as evidenced by UV–vis and 1H NMR studies, time-resolved fluorescence measurement, cyclic voltammetry, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.