The human pathogen Helicobacter pylori colonizes half of the global population. Residing at the stomach epithelium, it contributes to the development of diseases like gastritis, duodenal and gastric ulcers, and gastric cancer. It has evolved a range of mechanisms to aid in colonization and persistence, manipulating the host immune response to avoid clearance. A major factor in this is the secreted vacuolating cytotoxin VacA which has a variety of effects on host cells. VacA is endocytosed and forms anion-selective channels in the endosome membrane, causing the compartment to swell. The resulting VacA-containing vacuoles (VCVs) can take up most of the cellular cytoplasm. Even though vacuolation is VacA's most prominent and namesake effect, the purpose of the vacuoles is still unknown.
VacA exerts influence on the host immune response in various ways, both pro- and anti- inflammatorily. Most importantly, it disrupts calcium signaling in T-lymphocytes, inhibiting T-cell activation and proliferation and thereby suppressing the host immune response. Furthermore, VacA is transported to mitochondria, where it activates the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Within the cell, VacA has only been shown to localize to endocytic compartments/VCVs and mitochondria. Considering its diverse effects, however, the existence of other cellular sites of action seems plausible.
In this study, the VCV proteome was comprehensively analyzed for the first time in order to investigate VCV function. To this end, three different strategies for VCV purification from T-cells were devised and tested. Eventually, VCVs were successfully isolated via immunomagnetic separation, using a VacA-specific primary antibody and a secondary antibody coupled to magnetic beads. The purified vacuoles were then measured by mass spectrometry, revealing not only proteins of the endocytic system, but also proteins usually localized in other cellular compartments. This apparent recruitment of proteins involved in all kinds of cellular pathways indicates a central function of VCVs in VacA intoxication effects.
In a global evaluation, the VCV proteome exhibited an enrichment of proteins implicated in immune response, cell death, and cellular signaling; all of these are processes that VacA is known to influence. One of the individual proteins contained in the sample was STIM1, a calcium sensor normally residing in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that is important in store- operated calcium entry (SOCE). This corroborates the findings of a concurrent report, in which VacA severely influenced SOCE and colocalized with STIM1. A direct interaction of STIM1 with VacA was examined in a pull-down assay, but could be neither shown nor excluded.
Immunofluorescence experiments conducted in HeLa cells confirmed the presence of VacA in the ER and also found it to traffic to the Golgi apparatus, identifying these two cellular compartments as novel VacA target structures. The exact route of VacA transport remains unclear, but the involvement of both the ER and the Golgi suggests the possibility of retrograde trafficking, analogous to other bacterial toxins like shiga and cholera toxins.
In summary, the elucidation of the VCV proteome and the discovery of the ER and the Golgi apparatus as VacA target structures have generated intriguing starting points for future studies. The detection of many proteins implicated in VacA intoxication effects in the VCV proteome leads to the proposal of VCVs as signaling hubs that may coordinate the complex meshwork of VacA effects. Further investigation of individual proteins is expected to help greatly in illuminating this matter.


Carlos Zambrano was a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, and at the time of this essay, a pitcher for the Miami Marlins. Many baseball fans and writers know him for his pitching talents as well as his emotional outbursts. For example, Matt Leland recently noted, "The guy just has a fiery temperament. Sometimes, it's a focused intensity that he channels into his pitching performances. When that's the case, the Big Z normally dominates. Too often, though, Zambrano has let his emotions get the best of him, both on and off the mound." (1) Leland described Zambrano as having "no qualms about fighting teammates in his own dugout, showing up his manager or letting the umpires know exactly how he feels about their calls." (2) Leland is one of many baseball writers who have questioned a string of incidents involving Zambrano. In June 2007, Dave Van Dyck reported, "It has come to this with the Cubs: Unable to beat other teams, they have started beating on each other. ... In the midst of losing their fifth straight game and nth in the last 15 ... batterymates Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett tussled in the dugout and then apparently had an all-out set-to in the clubhouse.'" The fistfight between Zambrano and Barrett would be followed by many temper tantrums in the dugout. In June 2010, Zambrano was "suspended indefinitely after a dugout tirade" where he "had to be separated from teammate Derrek Lee in the visitors' dugout after surrendering four runs to the Chicago White Sox in the bottom of the first inning at U.S. Cellular Field." (4) As part of his suspension, Zambrano completed anger management counseling before being able to return to the playing field. Zambrano talked about the counseling, telling Carrie Muskat, "It's all done. I'm cured. ... The problem I have to solve is when I get upset on the field. I think my problem is after I cross those lines. When somebody makes an error or I make an error, that's my problem. ... It did work, and believe me, that was an experience that I can take through the years." (5) Fans and baseball writers have begun to question the sincerity of Zambano's reflection given two subsequent incidents. As a batter, Zambrano struck out in a game on May 31, 2011, and broke his bat over his knee in frustration. Then, on June 5, 2011, he called the Cubs "embarrassing" and questioned Cubs reliever Carlos Marmot's pitching strategy after the Cubs lost six games in a row and eight of their previous ten. Many baseball writers called for a suspension. For example, Gene Wojciechowski wrote, "You could see this latest meltdown--one in a lonnnnnnng line of nut-job moments by the Chicago Cubs starter--coming for days. And after what he said about his teammates Sunday, Cubs management ought to suspend him for days, weeks, months or, in a perfect world, the remainder of the season." (6) A few writers were sympathetic to Zambrano's claim that the Cubs were an embarrassment, but even those reporters commented on Zambrano's anger getting the best of him. For instance, Dylan Polk noted, "If [the Cubs] look long enough, they'll understand Zambrano's point of view and turn things around." Although sympathetic, Polk still commented, "Zambrano has a history of flying off the handle and letting his temper get the best of him, which prior to Sunday, fans thought had culminated in 2010 with an altercation with then-first baseman Derrek Lee, landing Zambrano in the bullpen as well as anger management. Since then, his temper has been a running joke among baseball fans, sort of a ticking time bomb that fans ... knew would inevitably explode." (7) The purpose of this essay is to explore the implications of the rhetoric of baseball fans and writers surrounding the early June 2011 episodes involving Zambrano. Zambrano's case is perhaps the most notable and most recent example of an athlete receiving attention because of his anger, as well as being required to undergo anger management therapy. While this essay does suggest that Zambrano's case has much to teach us about MLB'S anger management rhetoric, we do not mean to imply that he stands alone. …


The perceived contrast of a visual stimulus is often reduced by the presence of nearby stimuli. This effect known as surround suppression may help to distinguish stimuli from similar backgrounds. Previous work has shown that people with schizophrenia demonstrate weaker surround suppression. Studying this deficit may help to identify impaired neural processing mechanisms in schizophrenia, as the neurobiology of the visual system is relatively well understood. By examining the surround suppression effect among subjects with schizophrenia (SZ; n = 23) or bipolar affective disorder (BP; n = 19), unaffected biological relatives of SZ (n = 25) or BP patients (n = 17), and healthy controls (n = 38) we sought to determine whether diminished surround suppression was specific to SZ, and if subjects with a genetic risk for either disorder would show a similar deficit. Measuring the modulation by different surround conditions (parallel with and without a gap, drifting in the same or opposite directions, and orthogonal) allowed us to investigate how this suppression effect depends on the similarity of center and surrounding stimuli. We found weaker surround suppression among patients with SZ, regardless of surround configuration. BP subjects showed an intermediate deficit, with stronger suppression than in SZ but weaker than healthy control subjects. Relatives of patients with either disorder showed normal performance. This is the first observation that reduced surround suppression is associated with both SZ and BP, but not with a genetic risk for these disorders. Further, our results indicate a deficit in broadly-tuned (rather than sharply orientation- or direction-selective) suppression mechanisms. This deficit is consistent with impaired surround suppression at an early stage of visual processing (e.g., LGN or V1). Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


1.1 Objectives: Liver cirrhosis portends significant morbidity and mortality. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a serious extra-hepatic complication of cirrhosis. Our objective was to define the demographic and clinical diagnosis associated with all forms of PH in a sample of hospitalized adult patients.
1.2 Methods: We analyzed the 2001 to 2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). Adult (aged ≥ 21 years) patients with cirrhosis were identified using International Classification of Disease 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD9-CM) codes 571.2, 571.5 and 571.6. The prevalence of PH was the primary outcome, and was identified using ICD9-CM codes 416.0 and 416.8. We controlled for other known conditions associated with pulmonary hypertension. We also controlled for patient and hospital factors associated with the diagnosis of PH.
1.3 Results: Cirrhosis was a discharge diagnosis in 847,690 of cases. The majority of patients with cirrhosis were white (52.2%, n = 442,813), male (61.8%, n= 523,567), and insured (87.4%, n=802,975). A concurrent diagnosis of PH was recorded in 2.38% (n = 20146). Patients with PH tended to be > 60 years of age (54.3%), white (55.1%) with a predominance of non-alcoholic cirrhosis (64.6%). In a multivariable analysis, female gender (OR 1.35; 95% CI, 1.25–1.46), obesity (OR 1.71; 95%CI, 1.44-2.04), and Native American race (1.215; 95% CI, 1.014 -1.454) were associated with increased odds of PH. Hepatic encephalopathy was associated with a reduced odds of PH (OR 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.97).No specific liver disease etiology was associated with PH, though non-alcoholic cirrhosis (1.377; 95% CI, 0.996-1.903) was marginally associated with greater odds.
1.4 Conclusion: Among hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis, female gender, obesity, and Native American race were associated with increased odds, and hepatic encephalopathy was associated with a reduced odds for PH.


From time immemorial, the role of leaders in ensuring excellent organizational performance can not be over emphasized. The need for adequate motivation, suitable working environment, compensation and efficient communication between employers and employees are important to promoting excellent organization performance. Though studies on motivation and leadership role amongst employees are well studied in urban centers in developed countries, less could be said of rural centers in developing countries like Nigeria. Therefore, it was important to evaluate leadership and organizational performance in small- scale industries in Aba, Abia state, Nigeria. The evaluation was done through use of questionnaires with questions tailored towards determining: the relationship between leadership and organizational performance, pattern of leadership and the extent it has affected organizational performance, the factors responsible for worker's low performance and how leadership style has affected labor management relations and productivity in three selected small scale industries in the study area. After analyzing the result with Chi-square, it was concluded that to attain the objectives of small-scale industries in Aba, Abia state Nigeria, it was necessary that leadership recognizes the needs of the workers, employ appropriate motivational tool such as promotion of staff based on merit and skills, provide suitable working environment and provide an appropriate leadership style that will encourage free flow of information among employer, superior officers and other employees.


Energy is an integral part of society. The major US energy sources of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas); biofuels (ethanol); and wind are concentrated in grassland ecosystems of the Great Plains. As energy demand continues to increase, mounting pressures will be placed on North American grassland systems. In this review, we present the ecological effects of energy development and production on grassland systems. We then identify opportunities to mitigate these effects during the planning, construction, and production phases by using informed methodology and improved technology. Primary effects during energy development include smalland large-scale soil disturbance and vegetation removal as small patches of grasslands are used to host oil or gas wells, wind turbine pads, associated roadways, and pipelines or through the conversion of large grassland areas to biofuel croplands. Direct habitat loss or habitat fragmentation can affect wildlife directly through increased mortality or indirectly through reduction in habitat quantity and quality. During energy production, air and water quality can be affected through regular emissions or unplanned spills. Energy development can also affect the economy and health of local communities. During planning, energy development and production effects can be reduced by carefully considering effects on grasslands during siting and even by selecting different ener gy source types. During construction, effects on soil and plant systems can be minimized by eliminating weed populations before disturbance, salvaging and stockpiling topsoil for future revegetation, and harvesting native local seed for postsite restoration. During energy production operations, noise and road traffic reduction plans and atmospheric monitoring will enable more informed mitigation measures. Continued research on energy development effects and mitigation measures is necessary to establish best management practices beneficial to grassland health while providing needed energy for the United States. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Society for Range Management. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )


Solar energy is a free and abundant renewable energy source which is expected to contribute towards reducing the environmental impact of worldwide electricity production. However, the harvesting of solar energy is associated to investment costs. Industry therefore drives the development of low-cost photovoltaic installa- tions which have mostly low efficiency and thus require large area deployment. As a consequence the albedo of the Earth's surface is reduced which has a negative impact on global warming. The latter externality illustrates the necessity of high efficiency solar energy conversion. This study focuses on a High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system approach which promises high efficiency solar energy conversion into electricity (25%) and heat (55%) at low manufacturing costs. Sys- tem modeling and a thermo-economic analysis is performed to study the energetic and cost performance of the system. It is demonstrated that the system has quick dynamic response to sunlight and short heat-up intervals. The heat is extracted at a high temperature level (85◦C) and can be utilized subsequently for covering residential cooling and heating demand (trigen- eration). For the case of Phoenix, AZ, U.S., it is determined that the levelized cost of electricity is close to the current retail electricity prices. This is a very encourag- ing result, taking into account the early stage of development of the system and the associated uncertainty in cost estimates. Large-scale deployment and commercial- ization of the technology is expected to additionally promote the system's economic competitiveness due to economies of scale and their associated cost reductions, as been the case throughout the history of the solar and semiconductor industries.


Chapter 2 outlined what idioms are and how they relate to collocations. This chapter deals with idiomaticity as a central feature of "normal" language, and does so within a Sinclairian framework. By way of background, the contrasting open choice and idiom principles (Sinclair 1991), mentioned in passing in the previous two chapters, are explained in more detail. Following from this is a much more thorough discussion of collocation, colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosody, which together make up the 'extended unit of meaning' (Sinclair 1996b). These four features – none being entirely unproblematic in terms of their descriptions – are supplemented with a fifth, borrowed from Hoey's (2005) work on lexical priming: semantic association. The addition of this fifth element, inserted between semantic preference and semantic prosody, is necessary in order to make a clear distinction between the pragmatic function of the unit of meaning (one aspect of semantic prosody) and the connotative, transferred, evaluative and other secondary meanings which can be inferred from the collocates (also commonly referred to as semantic prosody). Later chapters will demonstrate how important it is to differentiate between these related but fundamentally different aspects of meaning.


Secondary teachers across the country are being asked to use formative assessment data to inform their classroom instruction. At the same time, critics of No Child Left Behind are calling the bill "No Child Left Untestedö emphasizing the negative side of assessment, in that every hour spent assessing students is an hour lost from instruction. Or does it have to be? What if we better integrated assessment into the classroom, and we allowed students to learn during the test? Maybe we could even provide tutoring on the steps of solving problems. Our hypothesis is that we can achieve more accurate assessment by not only using data on whether students get test items right or wrong, but by also using data on the effort required for students to learn how to solve a test item. We provide evidence for this hypothesis using data collected with our E-ASSISTment system by more than 600 students over the course of the 2004-2005 school year. We also show that we can track student knowledge over time using modern longitudinal data analysis techniques. In a separate paper [9], we report on the ASSISTment system's architecture and scalability, while this paper is focused on how we can reliably assess student learning.


Over the past 20 years, elite colleges in the US have seen dramatic increases in applications. We provide context for part of this trend using detailed data on Harvard University that was unsealed as part of the SFFA v. Harvard lawsuit. We show that Harvard encourages applications from many students who effectively have no chance of being admitted, and that this is particularly true for African Americans. African American applications soared beginning with the Class of 2009, with the increase driven by those with lower SAT scores. Yet there was little change in the share of admits who were African American. We show that this change in applicant behavior resulted in substantial convergence in the overall admissions rates across races yet no change in the large cross-race differences in admissions rates for high-SAT applicants.


This paper presents an account of the main economic developments in the Iranian economy over the period of the First Five-Year Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan (1989/90-1993/94) of the Islamic Republic, provides an overall evaluation and examines the objectives and economic rationales behind the Second Five-Year Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan (covering the period 1995/96-1999/2000) which has been recently approved by the Majlis (The Consultative Assembly of the Islamic Republic). The emphasis of the paper will be on the government's stabilization and liberalization programs, rather than the structural details of the plans. The paper argues that after many years of revolutionary upheaval and war, the First Five-Year Plan provided Mr. Rafsanjani's government with an important opportunity for regeneration of Iran's war-damaged and ailing economy. It also provided the government with a reasonably cohesive framework for the formulation and implementation of badly needed reforms of the trade and foreign exchange systems. The Plan's growth objectives were, however, rather ambitious and attempts at achieving them have led to substantial balance of payments deficits and, given Iran's unfavorable international position, have created serious external financing difficulties for the government. These developments have been further exacerbated by hasty and badly-timed moves towards unification of the exchange rate. In consequence, the pace of economic growth has slowed down considerably, inflation has reached new heights and is still rising and the economy is facing the daunting task of servicing and repaying large foreign debts. Faced with these difficulties, over the past year important steps have been taken by the government to stabilize the economy and alleviate the country's external financing difficulties. Foreign debts are being extended and in some cases even repaid. Foreign exchange expenditures are being reduced, foreign exchange receipts are increasing, and public expenditures are being moderated. It is, however, important to note that these policies, while essential for the stabilization of the economy, are likely to be at the expense of the real economy, and could lead to substantial loss of production and increased unemployment without necessarily resulting in a reduction of the inflation. It is therefore important that such stabilization policies are also accompanied by strict control of private and public sector credits. The control of the foreign exchange transactions, without an effective control of government expenditures and private sector credits are also likely to lead to a further widening of the gaps that exist among the various exchange rates that are currently in effect in Iran. Unless further steps are taken by the government to stabilize the money and foreign exchange markets, there is a real possibility that the structural reforms and liberalization policies of the past six years may come to a halt or even be reversed. But it seems highly unlikely that a return to the centralized and inward-looking economic policies of the 1980's will provide the answer to Iran's mounting economic problems.


Corals have built reefs on the benthos for millennia, becoming an essential element in marine ecosystems. Climate change and human impact, however, are favoring the invasion of non-calcifying benthic algae and reducing coral coverage. Corals rely on energy derived from photosynthesis and heterotrophic feeding, which depends on their surface area, to defend their outer perimeter. But the relation between geometric properties of corals and the outcome of competitive coral-algal interactions is not well known. To address this, 50 coral colonies interacting with algae were sampled in the Caribbean island of Curaçao. 3D and 2D digital models of corals were reconstructed to measure their surface area, perimeter, and polyp sizes. A box counting algorithm was applied to calculate their fractal dimension. The perimeter and surface dimensions were statistically non-fractal, but differences in the mean surface fractal dimension captured relevant features in the structure of corals. The mean fractal dimension and surface area were negatively correlated with the percentage of losing perimeter and positively correlated with the percentage of winning perimeter. The combination of coral perimeter, mean surface fractal dimension, and coral species explained 19% of the variability of losing regions, while the surface area, perimeter, and perimeter-to-surface area ratio explained 27% of the variability of winning regions. Corals with surface fractal dimensions smaller than two and small perimeters displayed the highest percentage of losing perimeter, while corals with large surface areas and low perimeter-to-surface ratios displayed the largest percentage of winning perimeter. This study confirms the importance of fractal surface dimension, surface area, and perimeter of corals in coral-algal interactions. In combination with non-geometrical measurements such as microbial composition, this approach could facilitate environmental conservation and restoration efforts on coral reefs.


Online crime has increased in severity and frequency over the past two decades. However, although several scientific disciplines have commonly employed criminological theories to explain this phenomenon, mainstream criminology has devoted relatively scant attention to the investigation of cyber-criminals and their victims. Drawing on this assumption that more criminological attention should be given to this important type of crime, this article presents an interdisciplinary review of the current state of research on cyber-dependent crimes (i.e., crimes that require the use of computer technology to exist, such as hacking). We begin with a brief discussion of the ecosystem of cyber-dependent crimes and the key actors who operate within it, including the online offenders and enablers, targets and victims, and guardians. Next, we review empirical scholarship that pertains to each actor while distinguishing between nontheoretical research and theoretically driven studies. We then detail methodological and theoretical avenues that should be pursued by future research and discuss why criminological research should lead policy initiatives and guide the design of technical tools that improve the scientific community's ability to generate a safer and more secure cyber-environment. We conclude by discussing potential ways in which cyber-dependent crime research could pave the way for the advancement of mainstream criminological theory and research.


Multicore processors are the main computing platform in laptops, desktop, and servers today, and are making their way into the embedded systems market also. Using benchmarks is a common approach to evaluate the performance of a system. However, benchmarks for embedded systems have so far been either targeted for a uni-processor environment, e.g., MiBench,or have been commercial, e.g., MultiBench by EEMBC. In this paper, we propose and implement an open source benchmark,ParMiBench, targeted for multiprocessor-based embedded systems. ParMiBench consists of parallel implementations of seven compute intensive algorithms from the uni-processor benchmark suite MiBench. The applications are selected from four domains:Automation and Industry Control, Network, Office, and Security.


This thesis presents an analysis of the micro-geographies of childhood disability
in Brighton and Hove. Drawing upon a dataset of childhood disability (the
Compass), which is administered and updated by a local voluntary organisation,
and selected national datasets, quantitative research methods were used. The
analyses exposed highly uneven patterns of childhood disability in Brighton and
Hove. Childhood disability is generally tied to neighbourhoods with high levels
of deprivation and disadvantage; the proportions of disabled children are several
times higher in deprived areas in the east of Brighton than in less deprived areas
of the city. It was found that disabled children living in the most deprived areas
were more likely to have sole carers, live in housing their families considered
inadequate and to experience multiple deprivation than those living elsewhere.
High levels of bullying and school exclusion were noted for disabled children in
Brighton and Hove; those living in the most deprived neighbourhood were at
particularly high risk of school exclusion. Children living in more deprived areas
were less likely attend holiday playschemes, receive short break services, or use
Direct Payments compared to those with broadly similar levels of additional
needs living elsewhere in the city.


Most existing sketch understanding systems require a closed domain to achieve recognition. This paper describes an incremental learning technique for open-domain recognition. Our system builds generalizations for categories of objects based upon previous sketches of those objects and uses those generalizations to classify new sketches. We represent sketches qualitatively because we believe qualitative information provides a level of description that abstracts away details that distract from classification, such as exact dimensions. Bayesian reasoning is used in building representations to deal with the inherent uncertainty in perception. Qualitative representations are compared using SME, a computational model of analogy and similarity that is supported by psychological evidence, including studies of perceptual similarity. We use SEQL to produce generalizations based on the common structure found by SME in different sketches of the same object. We report on the results of testing the system on a corpus of sketches of everyday objects, drawn by ten different people.


Exciting, productive connections with authors, illustrators, and storytellers are at your fingertips with this resource. Unlike other author visit guides, this book goes beyond nuts-and-bolts planning to how to create the best possible encounters between students and authors. Successful visits in real space and in cyberspace are described, giving you specific ideas of the many ways to connect with and create meaningful links between bookpeople and children. Choosing the right guest, guidelines for successful visits, making curriculum connections, using e-mail to connect with bookpeople, live chats in virtual space, taking advantage of ITB and satellite technology, and using such props as realia and curriculum guides are some of the topics covered. Lists of author/illustrator web pages and managed Internet sites for author interaction are included.


Panoramic X-Ray produces produces the most common oral digital radiographic image that it used in dentistry practice. The image can further improve accuracy compared to analog one. This study aims to establish proximal caries edge on enhancement images so they can be easily recognized. The images were obtained from the Department of Radiology, General Hospital of M. Djamil Padang Indonesia. Total file of images to be tested were 101. Firstly, the images are analyzed by dentists who practiced at Segment Padang Hospital Indonesia. They concluded that there is proximal caries in 30 molar teeth. Furthermore, the images were processed using Matlab software with the following steps, i.e. cropping, enhancement, edge detection, and edge enhancement. The accuracy rate of detection of edge enhancement images being compared with that of dentist analysis was 73.3%. In the edge enhancement images proximal caries edge can be found conclusively in 22 teeth and dubiously in eight teeth. The results of this study convinced that edge enhancement images can be recommended to assist dentists in detecting proximal caries.


Training design for general multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is investigated in this paper. Unlike prior designs that are applicable only for centralized MIMO systems with total power constraints, general power constraints are considered here. They cover total power constraints, individual power constraints, and mixed individual and per-user sum-power constraints as special cases. By writing the MIMO received signals in matrix and vector forms, respectively, and using Kronecker structured channel and noise statistics, three channel estimation schemes, i.e., right estimation, left estimation, and right-left estimation, are discussed. Their corresponding training designs are considered individually with the general power constraints. Under each channel estimation scheme, optimal training sequences to maximize the mutual information between the true channel and its estimated counterpart, and to minimize the mean square error (MSE) of the channel estimate are, respectively, proposed in semiclosed forms. The relationship between the two design criteria, i.e., the mutual information maximization and the MSE minimization, is clearly revealed. The optimal training designs under the three estimation schemes are also compared in depth. It is demonstrated that right estimation exploits less statistical information about the channel and noise, and provides worse performance than the left estimation but with lower computational complexity. On the other hand, right-left estimation performs in between the other two and provides a good compromise between complexity and performance. Finally, the optimality and effectiveness of the proposed training designs are verified by extensive simulations.


This qualitative study addresses the question of how teachers negotiate meaning of new curriculum to better understand how curriculum is transformed from a theoretical construct to a practical one. Through interviews with 5 teachers, their experiences were examined as they negotiated the process of implementing new curriculum. Three theoretical constructs provided the entry point into the study: epistemology, teacher knowledge, and teacher learning. Using inductive analysis, 4 points or attributes of negotiation emerged: reference, growth, autonomy, and reconciliation. These attributes provided a theoretical framework from which a constructivist conceptualization of teacher learning and teacher knowledge could serve to understand the process of how teachers negotiate meaning of curriculum. Studied and theorized in this way, teacher knowledge and teacher learning are seen to be inextricably linked in a relationship that is dynamically changed by forces of stability and instability. Theorizing the negotiation of meaning from a constructivist epistemology also strengthened the assertion that negotiating meaning is a unique structural process, and that knowledge construction is therefore unique to each knower and subject to experience in a particular time and place. The implications for such a theory are, first, that it questions the legitimacy of privatized teacher practice and, second, that it calls for a renewed conceptualization of collegial network and relationship to strengthen the capacity for negotiating meaning of curricular initiatives. Understanding the relationship of curricular theory and negotiating meaning also has implications for curriculum development. In particular, the study highlights the necessity of professional discretion and the generative process of negotiating meaning.


Imagine that an agreement affects two separate markets. In market A, the agreement causes small (but appreciable) consumer welfare losses. In market B, the agreement generates massive consumer welfare benefits, dwarfing the losses in market A. Should one aggregate these costs and benefits across markets ('Aggregate Across Markets') when assessing the agreement under Article 101, or should one demand that the benefits outweigh the costs in each relevant market?This was one of three themes discussed at a breakfast roundtable that the OFT organised in May 2010. The focus of the debate was a recent OFT paper: OFT, Article 101(3) - A Discussion of Narrow versus Broad Definition of Benefits (OFT Discussion Paper). 23 experts attended, some from other UK competition authorities (the Competition Commission and Ofcom), DG COMP, some UK government departments (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills), academia, businesses and law firms. The OFT compiled a synopsis of the roundtable's discussion (Synopsis). The OFT Discussion Paper asks whether we should Aggregate Across Markets. The relevant Commission notice says: "The assessment under Article 81(3) [now Article 101(3)] of benefits flowing from restrictive agreements is in principle made within the confines of each relevant market to which the agreement relates." The OFT Discussion Paper agrees that this is how the law currently stands. It claims that this issue is increasingly important, as two-sided markets become more prevalent. This paper starts with some preliminary observations on the OFT Discussion Paper, Section 2; then it shows that the EU Courts Aggregate Across Markets, so has the Commission, Section 3. Given how much it undermines legal certainty, the Commission needs strong justifications for deviating from the EU Courts' case law in its guidance. The paper then discusses the advantages of Aggregating Across Markets, Section 4; and the disadvantages, Section 5. Section 6 concludes that, in addition to following the EU Courts' case law; the arguments in favour of Aggregating Across Markets outweigh those against. I recommend that EU competition authorities that are not already Aggregating Across Markets, should start soon. As the techniques involved are no different from those used when one does not Aggregate Across Markets, decision-makers will easily be able to modify their behavior.This material was first published by Sweet & Maxwell in the European Competition Law Review, 10, 2011 and is reproduced by agreement with the Publishers.


Background and purpose: Posterior urethral valve (PUV) is one of the most s evere urinary tract anomalies presenting as antenatal hydronephro sis that could lead to severe dilatation and functional impairment of one or both kidneys. The a im of this study was to analyze our experience on patients with a diagnosis of PUV. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study neonates with a diagnosis of PUV were enrolled. The patients were assessed clinically for growth and hypertension and other clinical complaints specially voiding dysfunctions. Urinary tract ultrasonography study, functional renal scan, and voiding cystourethrography performed periodically. The patients were assessed for occurrence of hypertension, growth disturbances, lo ng term urinary tract dilatation, persistence of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), recurrent urinary t ract infection (UTI), nephrolithiasis, voiding dysfunction, scar formation chronic renal failure ( CRF) and finally death . Results: A total of 24 children with PUV were enrolled, 18 ( 75%) had VUR. The mean standard deviation score for height to age was 0.1 0. Hydronephrosis was persisted in 22 (86%) of patients. VUR was resolved in 9 (56%). UTI was found in follow-up of 15 patients, 10 of them had recurrent episodes. Nephrolithiasis was fo und in 8 (33%), persistent renal damage in 14 (70%) and CRF in 9 (37.5%) of patients, 5 of the m had end-stage renal disease. Voiding dysfunction was observed in 5 (36%) of patients, en uresis in 3 (21%) of them. Two patients were died in the course of disease. Conclusion: PUV is an important obstructive process with poten tial long-term complication with the need to assess the patients for long perio ds of time.


This dissertation offers an in-depth case study of the 11-year BP and Greenpeace conflict. A framing analysis of news content from newspapers in the United Kingdom and United States are employed to identify how the two organizations were framed. In-depth interviews with members of the conflicting parties are also included. This study also explores the relationship between crisis communication strategies, corporate reputation, corporate social responsibility, and pro-social messages. As its theoretical contribution, this study proposes a new theory embedded in the media and public relations framework entitled: media attribution theory.


In France, regulations regarding risk prevention and risk management are the result of more than 200 years of legislation, the evolution of which has often been consecutive to industrial accidents. Two years after the industrial accident of AZF (French initials for AZote Fertilisant), a new law was introduced on July 30, 2003 which described both prevention and repair of the damage caused by industrial and natural disasters. Since then, regulations have been made considerably tighter and the entire approach towards risk assessment has changed. This law has developed very interesting tools for risk assessment and risk management (some of which are unique worldwide) and has initiated the use of frequency and probability in the French system. Better information to the public, stronger regulations, new methodology for safety reports, over-hauling of land-use planning and improved accident analysis are some of the mainstays of the law. Regarding the introduction of frequencies and probabilities, as operators in France are free to choose the methodology of probability assessment, it is interesting to review the different methodologies used by operators, with their advantages and disadvantages. In the light of these elements, France's National Institute of Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) has developed a methodology and tools aiming at helping both operators and authorities in the assessment of accident probabilities. This methodology focuses on installation characteristics. However, to deal with the lack of input data, tools are developed to build up available generic data regarding loss of containment, initiating events, safety barrier failure rates and root causes distributions. Six years after the law of July 30, 2003 was passed, it is now possible to highlight the challenges and improvements brought about by the use of frequency and probability in risk assessment and policies developed as a result.


To determine the factors predictive of fatality in massive middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory infarction and outcome of decompressive hemicraniectomy, 62 patients who were retrospectively verified with first event massive MCA infarctions were enrolled in this study. Amongst them, 21 received decompressive hemicraniectomy during hospitalization. Clinical data between early and late hemicraniectomy groups were also compared. Significant deterioration occurred in 40 cases, 21 of whom received decompressive hemicraniectomy. The other 19 received conservative treatment. The mortality rate of these 40 cases between decompressive hemicraniectomy and conservative treatment was 29% (six of 21) and 42% (eight of 19), respectively. Factors that predicted fatalities in our massive MCA infarction patients with or without decompressive hemicraniectomy were total scores of baseline GCS at the time of admission, associated with coronary artery diseases, and significant deterioration during hospitalization. This study confirms the lifesaving procedure of hemicraniectomy that prevents death in patients deteriorating because of cerebral edema after infarction, although it may produce severe disability with an unacceptably poor quality of life in survival. Despite high mortality and morbidity, decompressive hemicraniectomy to prevent cerebral herniation when significant deterioration is demonstrated are essential for maximizing the potential for survival.


Sadiqi enjoyed a near mythical reputation amongst a generation of Iranian intellectuals. He was known for his impressive erudition, his unfailing intellectual honesty, his indefatigable search for scholarly rigor and finally his support for modernity's ideas about representative democracy and the rule of law. His introduction to Bastani-Parizi's translation of Aristotle's The Athenian Constitution shows how well deserved that reputation was.
The history of political philosophy can, in one sense, be divided into two tendencies. Some see political philosophy as a instrument of "soul-craft." They have no tolerance for the imperfections of the human soul, and seek to build a Utopia where the custodians of an absolute truth rule. The origins of totalitarianism, and varieties of theocratic despotism, can be found in this tradition. Others see the goal of political philosophy as "state-craft." They are cognizant of human imperfections and thus want to create not a Utopia, but the most pragmatic, workable system. Citizens are not the tools of politics, but its goal, and governments are not masters, or shepherds, of the people, but their servants. As Sadiqi's "Introduction" clearly shows, he belongs squarely in this tradition, advocating elements of the Aristotelian philosophy along with the theory of modern representative democracy. Contrary to the tradition of Islamic thinkers of the past who used Aristotle's concepts to buttress the fundamental tenets of Islam, Sadiqi's use of Aristotle is strictly secular in purpose.
The first important point about the "Introduction" is the time of its publication. The essay was published in 1964, precisely at the time when claims of theocratic rule began to appear in Iran. It was also the time of the rise of dogmatic ideologies of the left. Finally, it was the period when the Shah's autocratic rule was eroding the foundations of constitutional rule in Iran. Might not then Sadiqi's "Introduction," be seen as his political intervention in the ongoing, albeit informal, debate in Iran at the time? Is the "Introduction" not a dress-rehearsal for the valiant political positions he took on the eve of the Islamic revolution? The second point about the "Introduction" is the parsimony and precision of its language. Principles of economy of thought and language are key epistemic principles of modernity and Sadiqi's narrative style is a study in such modern discursive rules.
Sadiqi situates Aristotle's ideas about the origins of ethics, and the relationship between ethics and politics at the core of his political philosophy. Contrary to Plato's monist view, Aristotle had a more historical approach to the question of the genealogy of ethics. He also believed in the plurality of ethics. Furthermore, instead of Plato's Philosopher King, Aristotle saw the rule of law, in a state founded on the ideas and ideals of middle class, to be the most pragmatic political system. For Sadiqi, one of the defining methodological principles of the Aristotelian system is his disdain for dogma and absolutes. Following the model of "The First Teacher," Sadiqi criticizes Aristotle for his defense of slavery, and his views on women.
If there is any criticism of the "Introduction" itself, it must be in the fact that no where in it is the mention of the fact that according to some scholars, The Athenian constitution might have in fact been the work of one of Aristotle's students.


A soft drink is a non alcoholic beverage typically containing water often carbonated and a flavoring agent. Microbial contamination of soft drinks usually originates during the production process. Orange based soft drink was evaluated for microbial contamination. The aim of the present project was to evaluate the microbiological stability of soft drinks for annihilation of spoilage bacteria. It was found that at 0.06% citral concentration the growth of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was totally inhibited after thermal treatment for 15 minutes. On the other hand Enterobacter aerogenes and Klebsiella spp. were inhibited at 0.09% citral concentration after thermal treatment for 5 minutes and 10 minutes respectively. The addition of the citral in combination with the thermal treatment progressively increased the frequency of not spoiled test tubes. Finally, citral strengthened the antimicrobial action when used in combination.


This research aims to evaluate the currently applied valuation approaches in practice among German and Swiss professional investors for renewable energy (RE) projects based on an explanatory, sequential, mixed-methods (MM) research approach, compared to existing financial theory. It additionally explores associated influencing factors, key equity value drivers, and 'best practice' approaches and/or improvements in order to propose a revised valuation approach specifically for such investments. The inferences (INFs) taken are obtained by integrating quantitative (QUAN) results from a survey of 111 practitioners with qualitative (QUAL) findings through in-depth interviews with 16 purposefully selected individuals from the pool of participants from the previous QUAN phase to explore those results in more detail.
The results and findings were both reassuring and surprising while still detecting a certain gap between theory and practice. As main research outcomes, it can be illustrated that both systematic and unsystematic risks are relevant for performing valuations of such investments. More specifically, for the former, political and market risks are the most important risk components, and for the latter, weather-related volume risk is most important. Risk preferences and subsequently valuation are clearly influenced by experienced materialisation of risk. Discounted cash flow (DCF)-based valuation is state of the art in this valuation, even if multiples are applied as a simplified benchmarking approach. Encountered risk leads either to adjustment in the cash flows or in the applied discount rate, the former being the main approach to treat risk in valuation. The internal rate of return (IRR) approach is the most frequently applied valuation methodology, even if the net present value (NPV) approach is theoretically more consistent and even though many practitioners do not seem to be aware of the former's potential drawbacks. Moreover, the market for such investments has agreed to apply a simplified flow to equity (FTE) valuation approach. It thus ignores the consideration of the right type of discount rate (a dynamic discount rate) for the typically applied autonomous financing structure based on project financing for simplification reasons. Market participants surprisingly still use the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) of the investing company, mostly as a basis for defining hurdle rates, even if finance theory could clearly demonstrate its irrelevance as a cost of capital (CoC) approach in DCF-based valuation. More sophisticated valuation methods are less known and not applied, even if the certainty equivalent (CE) and adjusted present value (APV) methods are promising, complementary methods to support conventional approaches for assessing the investment's value protection ability and performing impairment test respectively.
The discussion of the INF analysis results helps to increase the understanding of this complex topic and provides valuable insights into this usually hidden procedure. The applied MM approach allowed for the exploration of issues and the discussion of possible improvements in valuation practices, which would not be possible within a classic quantitative study. The developed concepts in this thesis provide practitioners, particularly equity investors, with powerful tools to define the relevant equity value drivers, to understand additional influencing factors in valuation and considerations of risk treatments in projects, and to value RE investments along the two dimensions of value creation and value protection.


Seminal plasma is a rich source of proteins and serves as an ideal sample for proteomic analysis of male infertility. In varicocele-associated infertility, the contributory role of seminal plasma proteins specific to unilateral and bilateral varicocele is not clear. Furthermore, there is a lack of specific protein biomarker to differentiate bilateral from unilateral varicocele. The main objective is to identify the differentially regulated molecular and cellular pathways in bilateral varicocele. Furthermore, we intend to identify seminal plasma biomarkers to differentiate bilateral and unilateral varicocele patients in comparison with fertile healthy men. Global proteomic analysis of seminal plasma proteins has identified the functionality of differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in varicocele patients. Bioinformatic analysis has revealed response to reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress, and tissue homeostasis as top process pathways that are affected in bilateral varicocele patients compared to fertile healthy men. In comparison with unilateral varicocele patients, inflammatory response pathways were dysregulated, especially interleukin 6 (IL-6) signaling and Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (Jak-STAT) pathways, in bilateral varicocele patients, owing to the involvement of underexpressed DEPs. Key DEPs associated with oxidative stress (peroxiredoxin 2; PRDX2), DNA fragmentation (fatty acid synthase; FASN), and inflammatory response (fibronectin 1; FN1) validated by western blot analysis revealed differential expression of these proteins in unilateral and bilateral varicocele groups. Altered expression of DEPs and its association with key processes show that the seminal plasma homeostasis is compromised in bilateral varicocele patients. Furthermore, we propose PRDX2, FASN, and FN1 as potential noninvasive seminal plasma markers for the differentiation of unilateral and bilateral varicocele patients.


Background. Patients engage in health information-seeking behaviour to maintain their wellbeing and to manage chronic diseases such as arthritis. Health literacy allows patients to understand available treatments and to critically appraise information they obtain from a wide range of sources. Aims. To explore how arthritis patients' health literacy affects engagement in arthritis-focused health information-seeking behaviour and the selection of sources of health information available through their informal social network. Methods. An exploratory, qualitative study consisting of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Twenty participants with arthritis were recruited from community organizations. The interviews were designed to elicit participants' understanding about their arthritis and arthritis medication and to determine how the participants' health literacy informed selection of where they found information about their arthritis and pain medication. Results. Participants with low health literacy were less likely to be engaged with health information-seeking behaviour. Participants with intermediate health literacy were more likely to source arthritis-focused health information from newspapers, television, and within their informal social network. Those with high health literacy sourced information from the internet and specialist health sources and were providers of information within their informal social network. Conclusion. Health professionals need to be aware that levels of engagement in health information-seeking behaviour and sources of arthritis-focused health information may be related to their patients' health literacy.


We posit that household decision-making over fertility is characterized by moral hazard since most contraception can only be perfectly observed by the woman. Using an experiment in Zambia that varied whether women were given access to contraceptives alone or with their husbands, we find that women given access with their husbands were 19 percent less likely to seek family planning services, 25 percent less likely to use concealable contraception, and 27 percent more likely to give birth. However, women given access to contraception alone report a lower subjective well-being, suggesting a psycho-social cost of making contraceptives more concealable.


Background and Aim: Prevalence of neck pain in nursing professionals (NPs) is much higher than in the general population. However, concrete evidence is not available regarding the efficacy of the therapeutic intervention for treating neck pain among them. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of Mulligan's self-sustained natural apophyseal glides (SNAGs) and conventional physiotherapy in the management of work-related neck pain (WRNP) among the NPs. Materials and Methods: A total of 38 NPs with WRNP were recruited using the simple random sampling (lottery method) to participate in this two group such as pretest–posttest and single-blinded randomized controlled study from recognized tertiary care teaching hospital. Recruited NPs were randomly allocated into two groups such as Group A and Group B. NP in Group A taught self-SNAGs with a towel and instructed to perform 10 repetitions ×1 set/two hour ×4 times/day for 5 days/week ×2 weeks. Whereas in Group B, NPs received conventional physiotherapy treatment, consist of neck isometrics, and performed for 10 s ×10 repetitions ×1 set/day ×5 days/week ×2 weeks. Both groups were asked to use the hot pack for 15 min, before their intervention. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score, neck disability index (NDI), and cervical range of motion (ROM) were documented at baseline, 2nd-week postintervention, and 4th-week follow-up period and analyzed. Results: Group A revealed statistical significance difference (P < 0.05) in VAS, NDI, and neck ROM when compared to Group B. Conclusion: Mulligan's self-SNAGs have proved to be more beneficial over the conventional physiotherapy in the management of WRNP among the NPs.


A family of molecules, apparently unique to mosquitoes, binds to invading parasites and initiates innate immune responses. Mosquitoes are vectors of numerous human and animal diseases, including malaria. Approaches that enhance or otherwise alter the natural defense mechanisms of mosquitoes could help to reduce or eliminate their competence as vectors of disease. Proteins containing leucine-rich repeats (LRIM1 and APL1C) are known to mediate immune responses in the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei. Povelones et al. used gene silencing to show that these proteins produce an immune cascade together with a complement-like protein, binding to the surface of the parasite targeting it for destruction. LRIM1 and APL1C are members of an extensive family of secreted leucine-rich repeats containing proteins that are unique to mosquitoes. M. Povelones, R. M. Waterhouse, F. C. Kafatos, G. K. Christophides, Leucine-rich repeat protein complex activates mosquito complement in defense against Plasmodium parasites. Science 324, 258–261 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Lung cancer incidence and mortality increase with all measures of socioeconomic deprivation primarily because of the fact that smoking rates also increase with the same measures. This powerful association means that we see double the number of people with lung cancer in the most deprived quintile compared with the least deprived. Socioeconomic deprivation is associated with reduced survival, more early deaths (within 30 or 90 days) and lower treatment rates.1–3 Possible explanations include a failure to present and seek help from doctors early and less effective primary healthcare in deprived communities, both factors postulated to result in delays in diagnosis and later stage at presentation. The systematic review and meta-analysis by Forrest et al 4 concludes that there is no association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and either stage at diagnosis or time intervals on the lung cancer pathway. More deprived patients were more likely to present as emergencies. The most important limitation, acknowledged by the authors, is the potential for masking of the effect of SEP on delays in the pathway by the 'sicker quicker' effect. This refers to the finding that sicker patients progress more quickly through the pathway, thus potentially cancelling an effect of SEP on late presentation. This factor was not accounted for in the included studies. They also raise concerns about whether all studies that contain information about the factors studied have been included. Despite these important limitations, the authors say that the implication of their findings for policy is that early diagnosis campaigns do not need to be targeted to the more deprived and that these should be applied irrespective of SEP. Back-tracking somewhat, they also say it may be prudent to target the more deprived groups purely because of the increased incidence of lung cancer. So, do we target the more deprived or not? …


With the end of white-dominated South Africa, many observers have argued for a positive transformation of the whole of Southern Africa based upon market integration and increased cooperation among the states of the region. Poku and the contributors to this collection re-examine this optimistic scenerio, and they point to the problems of translating good intentions into actual policies. In reality, the economic imbalance between South Africa and its neighbors poses severe problems for the region. Far from finding a stronger ally in regional reconstruction and development, the countries in the region are finding that for many in South Africa they simply do not matter that much. The analysis points to greater polarization, which may imply greater marginalization of the poorer countries in the region. Moreover, a major widening of the gap between the richer South Africa and some or all of the weaker economies may lead to increased tensions and breakdown of regional relations, even to a situation detrimental to economic development in the region. A provocative analysis by some of the leading politico-economic thinkers of the region, the volume will be of great use to scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with Southern African development.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and complete the existing lack of quantitative data at the crossroads between organizational support (OS) practices and project management success in global projects (GPs) and discuss implication of the results in perspective of the theory–practice gap.

Design/methodology/approach
Building on classical organizational theory and GP knowledge areas, a survey addressing GP practitioners was designed. This paper focuses on OS practices as success factors and addresses a subset of the survey (1,170 respondents across 74 countries).

Findings
OS practices included in the study were found to have high importance for managerial success. OS practices for selection and training of team members show significant correlation with project efficiency but have low adaptation in many organizations. Statistically significant correlations were found to be weaker than expected, indicating that the relation between OS practices (as success factors) and project efficiency (as success criteria) is more complex than expected.

Research limitations/implications
The work constitutes opinion-based research and is vulnerable to variations in OS practices and the definition of success in different organizations and industries. The granularity level of the theoretical framework brought about relative high-level survey questions and may impact the applicability of the results.

Practical implications
To improve the efficiency of GPs, better implementation of OS practices for selection processes and training personnel has been suggested.

Originality/value
The theoretical alignment of classical organizational variables with GP knowledge areas and associated practices provides an original approach to the "theory–practice gap" discourse.


Research has demonstrated that open literacy tasks--assignments that are authentic, collaborative, challenging, student-directed, and sustained--are beneficial for students' motivation and learning. Researchers contend that teachers must be adaptive when using open instruction. However, little research has examined the relationship between tasks and adaptations. Researchers have further suggested adaptive teaching is a characteristic of effective literacy teachers, and many teacher educators advocate adaptive instruction in teacher preparation programs. Nevertheless, little research has examined how or why teachers adapt their instruction. Therefore, this study examines the openness of the tasks teachers implemented, the adaptations they made, the rationales they offered for adapting, and the relationships among these phenomena. I used collective case studies to examine four third-grade teachers' instruction. I observed these teachers' literacy instruction to identify tasks and adaptations and conducted post-lesson interviews to ascertain teachers' rationales for adapting. The openness of the task was rated using a rubric. Adaptations and rationales were coded to categorize how and why teachers adapted. I used a rubric to rate the thoughtfulness of both adaptations and rationales. Through this research I found statistically significant differences in the openness of the tasks teachers implemented and in the thoughtfulness of their adaptations and rationales across closed, moderately open, and open tasks. Teachers adapted more when using open tasks, and adaptations as well as rationales were more thoughtful when teachers used open tasks. Implications for theory, practice, policy, and future research are discussed.


Contents: Mikhail Abramzon: A hoard of bronze Pontic and Bosporan coins of the reign of Mithradates VI from Phanagoria, 2007; Anna Alexandropoulou: The Late Classical and Hellenistic pottery of Sinope and Amisos; William Anderson and Abby Robinson: Marginal or mainstream? The character of settlement in Late Roman Paphlagonia; Sumer Atasoy: New exploration of the southern Black Sea coast: Filyos - Tios; Eka Avaliani: Ancient Anatolia: cultural mosaic, not melting pot; Lucretiu Mihailescu-Birliba: Les Pontobithyniens en Dacie romaine; Thomas Bruggemann: Paphlagonia between Goths, Sasanids and Arabs (3rd-8th centuries AD); Ertekin Doksanalti and Gungor Karauguz: The Hellenistic and Roman ceramics from field surveys at Devrek and its environs, west Black Sea region of Turkey; Sevket Donmez: A new excavation in Pontus: Amasya-Oluz Hoyuk. Preliminary results for the Hellenistic period and Iron Age layers; Dimitris P. Drakoulis: Regional transformations and the settlement network of the coastal Pontic provinces in the Early Byzantine period; Cristian E. Ghita: The Pontic army: integrating Persian and Macedonian traditions; J.G.F. Hind: Milesian and Sinopean traders in Colchis (Greeks at Phasis and the ransoming of shipwrecked sailors); Monica M. Jackson: The Amisos Treasure: a Hellenistic tomb from the age of Mithradates Eupator; Gungor Karauguz, Ozsen Corumluoglu, Ibrahim Kalayci and Ibrahim Asri: A 3D digital photogrammetric model of a Roman 'birdrock monument' in the north-west region of Anatolia; Merab Khalvashi and Emzar Kakhidze: Sinopean amphorae in Apsarus; Liudmila G. Khrushkova: Chersonesus in the Crimea: Early Byzantine capitals with fine-toothed acanthus leaves; Liudmila G. Khrushkova and Dmitri E. Vasilinenko: Basilica Lesnoe-1 near Sochi in the north-eastern Black Sea region; Sergei A. Kovalenko The Hestiatorion of the Chaika settlement in the north-western Crimea; Ergun Lafli und Eva Christof: Drei neu entdeckte Phallossteine aus der Chora von Hadrianopolis; Boris Agomedov and Sergey Didenko: Red Slip Ware in Chernyakhov culture; Iulian Moga: Strabo on the Persian Artemis and Men in Pontus and Lydia; Kyrylo Myzgin: Finds of Roman coins of Asia Minor provincial mintage in the territory of Chernyakhov Culture; Alexander V. Podossinov: Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Pontus on the Tabula Peutingeriana; Jean-Louis Podvin: Cultes isiaques en Pont et Paphlagonie; Elena A. Popova and Tatiana V. Egorova: Investigation of the Late Scythian cinder heap on the site of Chaika near Evpatoria in the north-west Crimea; Annette Teffeteller: Strategies of continuity in the construction of ethnic and cultural identity: the lineage and role of Zeus Stratios in Pontus and Paphlagonia; Bruno Tripodi: Paphlagonian horseman in Cunaxa (Xenophon Anabasis 1. 8. 5); Gocha R. Tsetskhladze: The southern Black Sea coast and its hinterland: an ethno-cultural perspective; Maya Vassileva: The rock-cut monuments of Phrygia, Paphlagonia and Thrace: a comparative overview; Jose Vela Tejada: Stasis and polemos at Pontus in the first half of the 4th century BC according to Aeneas Tacticus: the Datames' siege of Sinope; Fred C. Woudhuizen; The saga of the Argonauts: a reflex of Thraco-Phrygian maritime encroachment on the southern Pontic littoral; Luca Zavagno: Amastris (Paphlagonia): a study in Byzantine urban history between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages; Elena A. Zinko: Peculiarities of the paintings of Bosporan crypts of the 3rd-6th centuries AD; Two Appendices: Pessinus in Phrygia: Brief Preliminary Report of the 2010 Field Season.


Dynamical systems approaches to social coordination underscore how participants' local actions give rise to and maintain global interactive patterns and how, in turn, they are also shaped by them. Developmental research can deliver important insights into both processes: (1) the stabilization of ways of interacting, and (2) the gradual shaping of the agentivity of the individuals. In this article we propose that infants' agentivity develops out of participation, i.e., acting a part in an interaction system. To investigate this development this article focuses on the ways in which participation in routinized episodes may shape infant's agentivity in social events. In contrast to existing research addressing more advanced forms of participating in social routines, our goal was to assess infants' early participation as evidence of infants' agentivity. In our study, 19 Polish mother–infant dyads were filmed playing peekaboo when the infants were 4 and 6 months of age. We operationalized infants' participation in the peekaboo in terms of their use of various behaviors across modalities during specific phases of the game: We included smiles, vocalizations, and attempts to cover and uncover themselves or their mothers. We hypothesized that infants and mothers would participate actively in the routine by regulating their behavior so as to adhere to the routine format. Furthermore, we hypothesized that infants who experienced more scaffolding would be able to adopt a more active role in the routine. We operationalized scaffolding as mothers' use of specific peekaboo structures that allowed infants to anticipate when it was their turn to act. Results suggested that infants as young as 4 months of age engaged in peekaboo and took up turns in the game, and that their participation increased at 6 months of age. Crucially, our results suggest that infants' behavior was organized by the global structure of the peekaboo game, because smiles, vocalizations, and attempts to uncover occurred significantly more often during specific phases rather than being evenly distributed across the whole interaction. Furthermore, the way mothers structured the game at 4 months predicted infant participation at both 4 and 6 months of age.


The fishery and population characteristics of Scomberomorus guttatus (Bloch & Schneider) from Veraval was studied for the period 2003 – 2006. The average annual catch was 378 t, forming 14.4% of the total gill net catches at Veraval. The postmonsoon and winter seasons (September to January) were the most productive seasons in terms of catch and catch rate. The length–weight relationship showed that growth was isometric for the species. The von Bertalanffy growth equation was: L t = 61.27 [1 – e - 1.4 (t + 0.0046) ] and length attained at the end of 1 and 2 years were 46.3 cm and 57.6 cm respectively. The growth performance index was 3.721 and longevity was 2.138 years. Recruitment pattern was unimodal with peak recruitment from February - July and the length at first capture was 21.1 cm. The natural mortality, fishing mortality and total mortality were 1.79, 2.92 and 4.71, respectively and exploitation ratio was 0.62. The maximum sustainable yield was 305 t, which was lower than the average annual catch indicating over-exploitation of the species. The yield per recruit and biomass per recruit was 198.9 g and 66.9 g respectively. An increase in relative yield to 101.8% would be obtained by decreasing the present level of fishing by 20%.


This book presents a selection of peer-reviewed papers which were presented on a conference organized in Ghent, Belgium, from 27 till 29 August, 2009. The conference was given the title Philosophical Aspects of Symbolic Reasoning in Early modern Science and Mathematics (PASR). For this book we selected papers which deal with the consequences for mathematics in particular, hence the omission of 'science' in the title of this book. Another selection, dealing with the understanding of nature and a broader range of topics, will appear in the journal Foundations of Science.
The conference was sponsored by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and Ghent University, which indirectly made this book possible. We also have to thank the other members of the programme committee Marco Panza, Chikara Sasaki, and Erik Weber and our keynote speakers Jens Hoyrup, Doug
Jesseph, Eberhard Knobloch, Marco Panza, Mathias Schemmel and Michel Serfati. Five of their papers are included in this volume. Most of the papers benefited from valuable and sometimes substantive comments by our referees which must remain anonymous. Special thanks to Michael Barany who
assisted in the editorial process.


This extensive and thorough explanation of crucial Japanese grammar in English is the culmination of years of teaching and research. Informed by the work of eminent linguist Susumu Kuno, "Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar" is designed for students who have studied basic Japanese grammar and wish to better organize their knowledge and expand it in greater depth and at a higher level. Its organization presents a holistic picture of Japanese grammar for the benefit of learners and is distinctive in that grammar items are reorganized in terms of specific grammatical categories, such as particles, te-form compounds, dictionary-form compounds, stem-form compounds, passive constructions, conditional sentences, and so forth. The author offers a thorough discussion of various pragmatic constraints illustrated with sample sentences, dialogues, and essays that aid in understanding the structure and use of the language from a cultural perspective. Given its comprehensive treatment, this accessible grammar will appeal to anyone involved or interested in the Japanese language. It will be especially effective as a text in courses on Japanese linguistics and pedagogical syntax and a valuable source of Japanese grammar for linguists and educators as well as researchers in Japan-related fields.


The number of hysterectomies performed is decreasing because of the availability of less-invasive alternatives and a general trend towards more conservative management. Historically, hysterectomy was performed through the vagina, which is the preferred approach. Nonetheless, a laparoscopic approach can be used to avoid open surgery when the vaginal route is not feasible. Total hysterectomy should be performed and intrafascial hysterectomy may have some advantage over extrafascial hysterectomy. The age of the patient, risk of ovarian carcinoma, and risk of reoperation should be considered prior to performing prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy. Salpingectomy should be discussed with the patient who wishes to conserve her ovaries. There is now a trend towards shorter hospital stay and same-day discharge following hysterectomy. Criteria for audit on the operations are suggested. Hong Kong J Gynaecol Obstet Midwifery 2017; 17(2):121-8


Public displays are currently being used in a restricted context in which only small numbers of users can create and publish content. For developers, there is no easy and consistent way to share or offer their applications to a wide range of potential buyers. Likewise, display providers and users cannot browse through different kinds of applications and buy or subscribe them by using some sort of an application store. As we know from smartphones, application stores such as the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, are a great way for both developers and providers to offer applications to a wide range of interested persons. If such an application store exists for public displays, the number of applications might increase significantly and public displays might become more attractive to daily users. Within this Diploma thesis, we designed and developed an application store for public displays based to support the vision of an open display network. The application store can be used by two user groups: application developers and display owners. Application developers can distribute their applications with different kinds of billing models while display owners on the other side can use the application store to manage their displays, search and purchase applications and finally schedule purchased applications on their displays. The application store is therefore also a powerful management tool for public displays and supports different types of applications. Furthermore, the application store provides a rich set of APIs that can be used by these applications. For example, an API can be used to request information about all available public displays including detailed information such as the display location and its hardware. After developing and deploying the application store, we added within the evaluation process an initial set of ten already developed applications. The evaluation led to a number of design and implementation recommendations for public display applications that describe how these applications have to be designed in order to benefit from the open display network and the application store APIs, e.g. by using the configuration component for web-based applications and the displays API for generating localised content. In addition, we created the Dropbox Slideshow Application type and added a sample application to the application store for demonstration purposes. The second focus of the evaluation was performance testing: we showed the scalability of the application store. The overall performance increases linearly to the number of stored applications. The application store provides a common platform for content providers and display owners. By providing a rich set of APIs that can be used by third-party providers, it can enlarge lots of interesting and useful applications that will eventually make public displays more interesting for passers-by. In addition, the integrated billing model has a high potential for new business models for selling and purchasing applications and display times.


Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS) is a common bacterium found commensally in the vaginal mucosa of healthy adults. GBS also causes severe infection in neonates, often leading to meningitis, which can cause lifelong health consequences including impaired hearing and seizures. Infection of newborns mainly arises from a colonized mother, either before birth through ascending infection or during labor. Ascending infection, where the bacteria travel to the fetus from the vaginal mucosa, is especially concerning as it can lead to loss of pregnancy or premature birth. The most common method of neonatal GBS disease prevention is antibiotic prophylaxis during delivery, though this method is lacking in safety and application. A promising alternative target for GBS virulence attenuation involves capsular polysaccharide (CPS), which protects GBS from immune recognition and clearance. CPS is regulated by CpsA, a multifunctional protein which is implicated in transcriptional activation, and ligation of CPS to the cell wall via the LytR domain. In this study, a CpsA mutant was created with two amino acid substitutions in the LytR domain which were predicted to decrease LytR functionality. We used microscopy to determine that this mutant induced a change in chain length, as well FL-vancomycin to show that this phenotypic change was not due to a change in cell envelope structure. We measured CPS levels with an ELISA to show that this mutant causes a reduction in CPS level. Finally, we analyzed virulence in zebrafish of bacteria expressing the mutant and found that virulence was increased in WT GBS with this mutant.


The behaviour of the residual herbicides clomazone, metribuzin, and pendimethalin was studied in four diverse Tasmanian cropping soils. The aim of this research was to identify the key soil properties and soil/herbicide reactions influencing the concentration of bioavailable herbicide in soils, and to use this information to develop management recommendations for the Tasmanian cropping industries. The soil/herbicide assessments undertaken in the project included V2 life, adsorption and desorption in intact soil as well as various soil fractions. The factors that affect herbicide break down and bioavailability, and the role of soil moisture and soil micro flora on these fate processes, was also examined. Large differences in herbicide behaviour were measured between soil types, and hypotheses proposed to explain these differences. The data generated in the project are valuable for the development of management recommendations for the Tasmanian cropping industries and to provide more locally validated parameters for pesticide impact models. Herbicide sorption and desorption for clomazone, metribuzin and pendimethalin varied according to soil type. The desorption constants (Kfd) calculated for clomazone and metribuzin exceeded the calculated adsorption constants (Kra) indicating some irreversibility of sorption. Correlations of sorption data with literature values and herbicide molecular properties also indicated that hydrophobic sorption to organic surfaces could explain a large amount, but not all, of the observed sorption and desorption. Therefore, the complex relationship between mineral and organic surfaces was concluded to be having a considerable influence on sorption in the soils examined. The current reliance on experimentally derived Kra values for the modeling of herbicide behaviour was questioned based on the calculated experimentally derived values in this study. In particular, given the large differences between Kra and Krct values generated for the polar compounds clomazone and metribuzin, the use of Krct values may provide a better guide to long term bioavailability of applied herbicides for fate modeling. Rates of herbicide dissipation under field conditions were measured over 12 months at three locations. Dissipation was best described by the Hoerl equation, which provided a better fit to the data than the 1st order equation. Calculated half-lives from the 1st order equation were generally higher than reported literature values for clomazone, metribuzin, and pendimethalin. However, calculated first 50% concentration dissipation values (DT 50) using the Hoerl equation gave significantly lower values which were more in the range of previously reported half-lives. This indicates the 1st order equation is either overestimating half-lives or that they are longer under Tasmanian conditions. The herbicide half-lives were longer in the sandy soils used in the study, and reflected a risk of carryover injury in the soils given low rainfall and a high percentage of bioavailable herbicide residue. It was also apparent that soil moisture had a strong influence on dissipation, possibly through the mediation of soil structure and desorption of herbicide. In particular, the large differences in dissipation and desorption between the clay soils (Ferrosol and Vertosol) and the sandy soils (Kurosol and Sodosol) suggested that desorption was having a controlling influence upon herbicide dissipation. Adsorption and desorption of herbicides was shown to be strongly influenced by the chemistry of organic matter associated with different soil mineral fractions. Fractionation of the soils revealed highly heterogeneous organic matter chemistry in soil mineral fractions. Particulate organic matter was identified as an important transient sorption surface for low polarity herbicide products in particular. In addition, charcoal was identified as a highly reactive surface for herbicide adsorption. Unique hydrophobic surfaces were also described in the Kurosol which have an apparent high adsorption affinity for the herbicides examined. The results from this study have been used to fine tune label recommendations for the use of clomazone (Command®) in Australia with specific recommendations warning against potential carryover injury in sandy soils with moderate organic carbon contents. The published sorption and half-life data has also been made available for use in decision support programs such as CSIRO Australia's Pesticide Impact Rating Index (PIRI) model.


An estimate of $6 billion is being spent annually to deal with diabetes-related health problems. In the United States, 6% of the population (about 18 million people) has diabetes, either diagnosed or undiagnosed. During their lifetimes, about 15% of diabetic patients will develop a foot ulcer. More than 60,000 of them will end up with amputations of lower extremities due to complications arising from diabetes mellitus, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total number of nontraumatic amputations performed annually. Previous studies report that has indicated that both the vertical and shear components of ground reaction force play a role in the formation of plantar ulcers. However, the exact relationship between stresses and ulcer formation is still unclear. The reason for that is due to lack of a sensor that is currently available to be able to measure pressure and shear force on the plantar surface simultaneously. It is because of these inadequacies that have motivated the search for a new design to transduce pressure and shear stress based on a multi-layered optical bend loss sensor. We have recently developed a sensor that can be used to measure shear and pressure of an extended area using fiber optic technology. The fiber optic technique that we have developed has also been extended by utilizing an array of microfabricated waveguides made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). For the fiberoptic technique, the pressure/shear sensor consisted of an array of optical fibers lying in perpendicular rows and columns separated by elastomeric pads. A map of pressure and shear stress was constructed based on observed macro bending through the intensity attenuation from the physical deformation of two adjacent perpendicular fibers. Each sensing layer consists of multiple fibers molded into a thin PDMS substrate. In this design, the top layer is composed of a 3 by 3 fiber mesh with 9 intersection points and the bottom layer is made of a 4 by 4 fiber mesh with 16 intersection points. The space between the adjacent fibers is 0.5 cm. The pressured points between the top and the bottom layer are offset by 0.25 cm which is used to increase the shear sensitivity. In the experiment, the sensor was tested with various loading condition. A force image algorithm using neural networks was developed to identify the loading pattern, magnitude and direction of loads that were applied at more than one pressure point. Here 3 loading patterns with 5 different loading directions and 3 different loading magnitudes were tested. The results show a >90% accuracy was obtained using an algorithm with 2 layered neural networks system.


: It's not uncommon that analysis and simulation methods are used mainly to evaluate finished designs and to proof their quality. Whereas the potential of such methods is to lead or control a design process from the beginning on. Therefore, we introduce a design method that move away from a "what-if" fore-casting philosophy and increase the focus on backcasting approaches. We use the power of computation by combining sophisticated methods to generate design with analysis methods to close the gap between analysis and synthesis of designs. For the development of a future-oriented computational design support we need to be aware of the human designer's role. A productive combination of the excellence of human cognition with the power of modern computing technology is needed. We call this approach "cognitive design computing". The computational part aim to mimic the way a designer's brain works by combining state-of-the-art optimization and machine learning approaches with available simulation methods. The cognition part respects the complex nature of design problems by the provision of models for human-computation interaction. This means that a design problem is distributed between computer and designer. In the context of the conference slogan "back to command", we ask how we may imagine the command over a cognitive design computing system. We expect that designers will need to let go control of some parts of the design process to machines, but in exchange they will get a new powerful command on complex computing processes. This means that designers have to explore the potentials of their role as commanders of partially automated design processes. In this contribution we describe an approach for the development of a future cognitive design computing system with the focus on urban design issues. The aim of this system is to enable an urban planner to treat a planning problem as a backcasting problem by defining what performance a design solution should achieve and to automatically query or generate a set of best possible solutions. This kind of computational planning process offers proof that the designer meets the original explicitly defined design requirements. A key way in which digital tools can support designers is by generating design pro-posals. Evolutionary multi-criteria optimization methods allow us to explore a multi-dimensional design space and provide a basis for the designer to evaluate contradicting requirements: a task urban planners are faced with frequently. The vision for a cognitive design computing system is to enable an urban planner to treat a planning problem as a backcasting problem by defining what performance a design solution should achieve and to automatically query or synthesize a set of best possible solutions. In another part we reflect why designers will give more and more control to ma-chines. We investigate first approaches learn how designers use computational design support systems in combination with manual design strategies to deal with urban design problems by employing machine learning methods. By observing how designers work, it is possible to derive more complex artificial solution strategies that can help computers make better suggestions in the future.


Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) baseline data, we explore to what extent grandparental care influences grandparents' cognition, by considering two dimensions of cognitive ability. In order to address the endogeneity of providing childcare, we adopt an instrumental variable approach. We find no evidence to suggest that care of grandchildren has a positive effect on grandparents cognitive ability. On the contrary, for one of the considered dimensions, episodic memory, we find a substantial negative effect.


Orwell has become one of the most potent and symbolic figures in western political thought. Even the adjective 'Orwellian' is now a byword for a particular way of thinking about life, literature and language yet, despite this iconic status, the man who was born Eric Blair in 1903 remains an enigma. Drawing on a mass of previously unseen material, D J Taylor offers a strikingly human portrait of the writer too often embalmed as a secular saint. Here is a man who, for all his outward unworldliness, effectively stage-managed his own life; who combined chilling detachment with warmth and gentleness, disillusionment with hope; who battled through illness to produce two of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century. Moving and revealing, Taylor's Orwell is the biography we have all been waiting for, as vibrant, powerful and resonant as its extraordinary hero.


A new type of IF cold-rolled high strength steel (HSS) with strength levels of 390 and 440 MPa has been developed using the chemistry of extra-low carbon steel containing around 60 ppm C with an intentional addition of niobium by hybridizing the precipitation hardening with niobium carbides and the supplemental solid-solution hardening. In this steel, the formation of PFZ (Precipitation Free Zones) in the neighborhood of grain boundaries is the most typical microstructural feature responsible for the unique mechanical properties described as follows: 1) The yield strength hardly increases by the existence of PFZ even when grain refinement is taking place. 2) An outstanding high Lankford value is obtained under the fine grain structure. 3) The secondary-work embrittlement resistance is improved by not only the grain refinement but also the existence of PFZ. 4) A sufficiently good surface quality is achieved for galvannealed sheet. Principles of the unique mechanical properties of the steel have been revealed based on the substructure formation during continuous annealing. The results of a further approach to improve these as a state-of-the-art product being widely used for the exposed panels in the body-in-white are introduced in the paper.


Behavior-based user authentication with pointing devices, such as mice or touchpads, has been gaining attention. As an emerging behavioral biometric, mouse dynamics aims to address the authentication problem by verifying computer users on the basis of their mouse operating styles. This paper presents a simple and efficient user authentication approach based on a fixed mouse-operation task. For each sample of the mouse-operation task, both traditional holistic features and newly defined procedural features are extracted for accurate and fine-grained characterization of a user's unique mouse behavior. Distance-measurement and eigenspace-transformation techniques are applied to obtain feature components for efficiently representing the original mouse feature space. Then a one-class learning algorithm is employed in the distance-based feature eigenspace for the authentication task. The approach is evaluated on a dataset of 5550 mouse-operation samples from 37 subjects. Extensive experimental results are included to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach, which achieves a false-acceptance rate of 8.74%, and a false-rejection rate of 7.69% with a corresponding authentication time of 11.8 seconds. Two additional experiments are provided to compare the current approach with other approaches in the literature. Our dataset is publicly available to facilitate future research.


An important population of the endemic Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis thrives in the marine protected area of Gera Gulf (Lesvos island, north-eastern Aegean Sea, Greece), and was assessed for the first time. To estimate the abundance, spatial distribution and habitat use of fan mussels in Gera Gulf, a distance sampling underwater survey was conducted. Detectability was modelled to secure unbiased estimates of population density. Two approaches were applied to analyze survey data, a design-based and a model-based approach using generalized additive models. The first approach was based on stratified random sampling on two strata, an assumed 'preferable' zone close to the coastline and an assumed unsuitable habitat, with predominantly muddy sediments, in which low sampling effort was applied. For the needs of the model-based approach, a dedicated cruise was conducted to collect bathymetric data with a single-beam echo-sounder and map the bathymetry of the study area. A very high-resolution image from the Worldview-3 satellite was processed, based on an object-based image analysis, for mapping all main habitat types in the study area. The estimated abundance using the design-based approach was low-biased as the stratum of pre-assumed unsuitable habitat proved to include patches of suitable habitats with high population densities that were missed by sampling. The model-based approach provided an abundance estimate of 213300 individuals (95% confidence interval between 97600-466000 individuals), which renders the fan mussel population of Gera Gulf the largest recorded population in Greece. Population density peaked between 1.5-8 m depth and became practically zero at depths >15 m. A bathymetric segregation of fan mussel size classes was noted, with the density of small individuals peaking in shallow waters, while that of large individuals peaked deeper. The highest population densities were observed in Posidonia oceanica meadows, followed by mixed bottoms (with reefs, rocks and sandy patches), while densities were very low on sandy and zero on muddy sediments. The current assessment provides a baseline for future monitoring of the fan mussel population in Gera Gulf. In view of the current (2017-2018) ongoing mass mortality of the species in the western Mediterranean, continuous monitoring of the main fan mussel populations, such as the one in Gera Gulf, is of utmost importance.


The Netherlands has a longstanding, ambitious environmental policy with regard to the recovery and recycling of materials. Currently, 79% of its waste is recycled and the residual waste is mainly used for energy generation, which in turn is part of the solution toward a shift in energy production through renewables. The initiative "Netherlands as Circular Hotspot" aims at positioning the Netherlands as an international example for circular business and develop a circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050. Based on this political ambition, the Dutch ecosystem has started a transition toward a circular economy. The plastics recycling market in the Netherlands is constantly evolving in parallel with the adaptation of more circular business models due to the impact of climate change and resource scarcity.To accompany the intense development of the circular economy in the Netherlands, Veolia decided to acquire in 2015 a Dutch company named AKG Polymers that now has almost 50 years of experience in plastics recycling. This plant in the Netherlands is now Veolia's global center of excellence for recycling polypropylene. Veolia is accompanying brands, such as Philips, in their commitments to making their products and services more environmentally friendly. This innovative dynamic around recycling is also encouraged by a more collaborative approach, breaking down the traditional silos, and creating new markets and business models in the Netherlands and abroad.