Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) allow for fast and cost-effective collection of geo-spatial information. Such systems integrate a set of imaging sensors and a position and orientation system (POS), which entails GPS and INS units. System calibration is a crucial process to ensure the attainment of the expected accuracy of such systems. It involves the calibration of the individual sensors as well as the calibration of the mounting parameters relating the system components. The mounting parameters of multi-camera MMS include two sets of relative orientation parameters (ROP): the lever arm offsets and the boresight angles relating the cameras and the IMU body frame and the ROP among the cameras (in the absence of GPS/INS data). In this paper, a novel single-step calibration method, which has the ability of estimating these two sets of ROP, is devised. Besides the ability to estimate the ROP among the cameras, the proposed method can use such parameters as prior information in the ISO procedure. The implemented procedure consists of an integrated sensor orientation (ISO) where the GPS/INS-derived position and orientation and the system mounting parameters are directly incorporated in the collinearity equations. The concept of modified collinearity equations has been used by few authors for single-camera systems. In this paper, a new modification to the collinearity equations for GPS/INS-assisted multicamera systems is introduced. Experimental results using a real dataset demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.


The advent of the Labour government in 1997 provoked major change in the political landscape of the UK. Priorities changed and different themes moved to the top of the agenda such as local democracy, community, transparency, sustainability and co-ordinated or 'joined-up' thinking. Many of the new priorities, such as community empowerment, involved a reappraisal of the purpose and procedures of planning, while others changed the legislative and institutional frame within which planning operated.This indispensable volume traces and analyzes the implications for planning created by this political shift. Presenting an overview of the general debates on contemporary UK planning, the book proceeds to identify four major areas as key themes for planning in the third millennium. These are: the new institutional context; ensuring social inclusion and participation; promoting sustainability; and the debate over building at higher densities on Brownfield sites. Illustrated with in-depth case studies, the book provides a timely and important examination of the current state of planning in the UK and suggests best-case scenarios for the future.


This paper reviews the concept of adaptation of human communities to global changes, especially climate change, in the context of adaptive capacity and vulnerability. It focuses on scholarship that contributes to practical implementation of adaptations at the community scale. In numerous social science fields, adaptations are considered as responses to risks associated with the interaction of environmental hazards and human vulnerability or adaptive capacity. In the climate change field, adaptation analyses have been undertaken for several distinct purposes. Impact assessments assume adaptations to estimate damages to longer term climate scenarios with and without adjustments. Evaluations of specified adaptation options aim to identify preferred measures. Vulnerability indices seek to provide relative vulnerability scores for countries, regions or communities. The main purpose of participatory vulnerability assessments is to identify adaptation strategies that are feasible and practical in communities. The distinctive features of adaptation analyses with this purpose are outlined, and common elements of this approach are described. Practical adaptation initiatives tend to focus on risks that are already problematic, climate is considered together with other environmental and social stresses, and adaptations are mostly integrated or mainstreamed into other resource management, disaster preparedness and sustainable development programs.


This thesis explores the thermomechanical behavior of aluminum. Experimental work has been conducted for a wide range of temperatures and strain rates for three AA6060 alloys in both quasi-static and split-Hopkinson tension bar test rigs. An induction heater system, pyrometer and high-speed camera was used to obtain elevated temperatures and information about the geometry in the necked section of the specimen. Some tests show slightly different material behavior between the alloys studied with respect to yield stress and strain hardening. However, no coherent difference can be established as the deviations are not seen from all tests, and are probably not significant. Three material models have been fitted with an available database containing material data for a similar alloy for a wide range of strain rates and temperatures. No adequate fit is obtained for the investigated models using the procedure described, but some significant differences between the models are seen. Numerical simulations of the split-Hopkinson tension bar experiments have been performed, but no good prediction for the material behavior until fracture was found. The reason for this is believed to be the material model parameters implemented. Numerical simulations with damage coupling have also been performed and show that fracture is predicted earlier.


– As the computers are included in our daily lives more and more, the importance of comfortable and easy usage of interfaces in computer media has been increasing day by day. There are different approaches which are used to evaluate the usability of these interfaces. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the data obtained by applying the user centered and model based approaches on usability in terms of the solution of usability problems that the web interface has. Within this context, with the help of 12 academicians who work at Gaziosmanpasa University Faculty of Medicine, the user centered approach was conducted on "Faculty of Medicine Assessment and Evaluation" system. The data obtained from CogTool was used for Model Based approach. As a result of this study, it was concluded that both approaches increased the usability, but when they were used separately, they were incompetent to diagnose some of the usability problems. In the light of these results, it can be said that the use of both models together can contribute increasing usability much more


Problem statement: Flutter derivatives are the essential parameters in the estimations of the flutter critical wind velocity and the responses of long-span cable supported bridges. These derivatives can be experimentally estimated from wind tunnel test results. Generally, wind tunnel test methods can be divided into free decay test and buffeting test. Compared with the free decay method, the buffeting test is simpler but its outputs appear random-like. This makes the flutter derivatives extraction from its outputs more difficult and then a more advanced system identification is required. Most of previous studies have used deterministic system identification techniques, in which buffeting forces and responses are considered as noises. These previous techniques were applicable only to the free decay method. They also confronted some difficulties in extracting flutter derivatives at high wind speeds and under turbulence flow cases where the buffeting responses dominate. Approach: In this study, the covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification technique (SSI-COV) was presented to extract the flutter derivatives of bridge decks from the buffeting test results. An advantage of this method is that it considers the buffeting forces and responses as inputs rather than as noises. Numerical simulations and wind tunnel tests of a streamlined thin plate model conducted under smooth flow by the free decay and the buffeting tests were used to validate the applicability of the SSI-COV method. Then, wind tunnel tests of a two-edge girder blunt type of Industrial-Ring-Road Bridge deck (IRR) were conducted under smooth and turbulence flow. Results: The identified flutter derivatives of the thin plate model by the SSI-COV technique agree well with those obtained theoretically. The results from the thin plate and the IRR Bridge deck validated the reliability and applicability of the SSI-COV technique to various experimental methods and conditions of wind flow. Conclusion/Recommendations: The SSI-COV was successfully employed to identify flutter derivatives of bridge decks with reliable results. It is a proven technique that can be readily applied to identify flutter derivatives of other bridge decks either by the free decay or the buffeting tests.


The research work for thesis focuses on one of imprint-based techniques, namely, Nanoimprint Lithography, which relies on the pressing of a stamp into a printable polymer heated above the glass transition temperature. Of particular interest are the potentials of this technique to fabricate devices for optical applications. The general topic of this work is the development of a competitive fabrication process, starting from stamp fabrication up to the demonstration of a finished optical device. Beside process development, considerable attention is paid to the understanding of the physical concepts of printing, potentials and limitations of it, which are due to the material properties on nm scale, and to the development of new polymers. Considering the key issues and challenges in becoming a competitive fabrication technology, the salient aspects of nanoimprint lithography addressed here are: printable materials, stamps, resolution, adhesion, reproducibility and throughput, among others.
       Two kinds of stamps, metal-on-silicon and polymer-based, containing features of dimension controlled on the scale down to 20 nm are fabricated. It is shown that material properties, like the molecule size of used resist and the metal grain size, mainly limit the control of feature size.
       The results of printing of number of polymers, like PMMA, PTFE, PS, mr L 6000, are shown and discussed with respect to the feasibility of the control of feature size. It is shown that size of polymer molecule, i.e., viscoelestic properties, and the mechanical recovery are a major limiting factor on the nm scale, which affect both the adhesion to the stamp and the final feature shape.
       The investigations of the luminescence properties of multiple quantum well substrates, in particular GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As and Ga0.47In0.53As/InP, are carried out after being subjected to the nanoimprinting process. No degradation of optical properties is found for printing temperatures below 190°C and pressures up to 200 bar.
       The process capabilities of nanoimprint lithography are exemplified here with the fabrication of passive polymer optical elements, such as PMMA diffraction grating and polystyrene-on-silicon oxide rib waveguide.


This paper proposes the development of On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) system for automobiles. The proposed OBD system has a microcontroller based processing system and consists of (1) sensors installed at different parts of vehicle to observe various parameters, (2) processing unit that will take input from the sensors and signal conditioners, calculate the real-time values of vehicle parameters and give output and (3) user interface. System will be able to diagnose faults in parameters, abnormal abrupt changes, notify user of any abnormal condition, and in some cases indicate the cause of fault. This system is designed basically to be implemented on vehicles that do not have factory installed OBD systems, and can be easily fitted without major modifications to the vehicle. It is user friendly system with LCD and keypad interface though which user can view parameter values, warning notifications and define custom limits for different parameters according to vehicle (other than default values).


Objective To investigate trends in incident and prevalent diagnoses of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its pharmacological treatment between 2000 and 2013. Design Analysis of longitudinal electronic health records in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) primary care database. Setting UK primary care. Participants In total, we examined 8 838 031 individuals aged 0–99 years. Outcome measures The incidence and prevalence of T2DM between 2000 and 2013, and the effect of age, sex and social deprivation on these measures were examined. Changes in prescribing patterns of antidiabetic therapy between 2000 and 2013 were also investigated. Results Overall, 406 344 individuals had a diagnosis of T2DM, of which 203 639 were newly diagnosed between 2000 and 2013. The incidence of T2DM rose from 3.69 per 1000 person-years at risk (PYAR) (95% CI 3.58 to 3.81) in 2000 to 3.99 per 1000 PYAR (95% CI 3.90 to 4.08) in 2013 among men; and from 3.06 per 1000 PYAR (95% CI 2.95 to 3.17) to 3.73 per 1000 PYAR (95% CI 3.65 to 3.82) among women. Prevalence of T2DM more than doubled from 2.39% (95% CI 2.37 to 2.41) in 2000 to 5.32% (95% CI 5.30 to 5.34) in 2013. Being male, older, and from a more socially deprived area was strongly associated with having T2DM, (p<0.001). Prescribing changes over time reflected emerging clinical guidance and novel treatments. In 2013, metformin prescribing peaked at 83.6% (95% CI 83.4% to 83.8%), while sulfonylureas prescribing reached a low of 41.4% (95% CI 41.1% to 41.7%). Both remained, however, the most commonly used pharmacological treatments as first-line agents and add-on therapy. Thiazolidinediones and incretin based therapies (gliptins and GLP-1 analogues) were also prescribed as alternate add-on therapy options, however were rarely used for first-line treatment in T2DM. Conclusions Prevalent cases of T2DM more than doubled between 2000 and 2013, while the number of incident cases increased more steadily. Changes in prescribing patterns observed may reflect the impact of national policies and prescribing guidelines on UK primary care.


Women older than 50 years account for 75% of new breast cancer diagnoses, and the majority of these tumors are of a luminal subtype. Although age-associated changes, including endocrine profiles and alterationswithin the breast microenvironment, increase cancer risk, an understanding of the cellular andmolecular mechanisms that underlies these observations is lacking. In this study, we generated a large collection of normal humanmammary epithelial cell strains from women ages 16 to 91 years, derived from primary tissues, to investigate the molecular changes that occur in aging breast cells. We found that in finite lifespan cultured and uncultured epithelial cells, aging is associated with a reduction of myoepithelial cells and an increase in luminal cells that express keratin 14 and integrin-a6, a phenotype that is usually expressed exclusively inmyoepithelial cells inwomen younger than 30 years. Changes to the luminal lineage resulted from age-dependent expansion of defective multipotent progenitors that gave rise to incompletely differentiated luminal or myoepithelial cells. The aging process therefore results in both a shift in the balance of luminal/myoepithelial lineages and to changes in the functional spectrum of multipotent progenitors, which together increase the potential for malignant transformation. Together, our findings provide a cellular basis to explain the observed vulnerability to breast cancer that increases with age. Cancer Res; 72(14); 3687–701. 2012 AACR.


Background & Aim: The impact of stroke on patients' lives is usually unexpected and devastating. It leads to some changes in their life and eventually deteriorates their quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life of stroke survivors and its related factors. Material & Methods: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive study. The study population included all stroke survivors living in Kerman city. Ninety-five patients were recruited by convenience sampling. Data was collected by demographic sheet, short form 36 (SF-36), and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and was analyzed by descriptive and referential statistics (Pearson and spearman coefficient correlation) using SPSS-PC (v. 16). Results : The results showed that stroke survivors had low scores indicating poor health at some of the subscales of (SF-36). Elderly stroke patients, single/ divorced patients and those with poorer socio-economic status had lowest quality of life (p<0.05). Long duration and severity of disease had reduced quality of life.(p<0.05) Conclusion: According to the findings, measurement of quality of life of stroke survivors and its related factors is very important and this knowledge could help to appropriate planning to promote the quality of life of these survivors.


Background and aims: One of the most common chronic diseases in the world is tooth decay. A variety of bacteria are involved in this disorder of which Streptococcus mutants is the most common. Essential oils are considered as new natural compounds for use in combating drug-resistant bacteria. This study was aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of some essential oils prepared from Eucalyptus caesia Benth, Cuminum cyminum L. and Satureja hortensis L. on S. mutants. Methods: In this study, essential oils were extracted by hydrodistillation method. E. caesia Benth, C. cyminum L. and S. hortensis L. were characterized by using gas chromatography‒mass spectrophotometry (GC‒MS). Antibacterial activity indices including minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and zone of inhibition for the above essential oils against Streptococcus mutans were determined using broth macro-dilution and disk diffusion methods. Data analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey test. Results: Results showed that all three extracts had antibacterial activity against S. mutants. S. hortensis L. essential oil with the lowest MIC and MBC value (13.2 and 18.4 µg/ml, respectively) and the biggest inhibition zone showed the strongest antibacterial effect against S. mutants in all exposure times and at all concentrations, compared with two other essential oils. Furthermore, C. cyminum L. essential oil had higher anti-bacterial activity against S. mutant than E. caesia Benth essential oil. Conclusions: The essential oils used in the present study with different components showed antibacterial activity (especially S. hortensis L essential oil), and therefore they can be used as a new antibacterial substance.


The authors examine the daytime precipitation characteristics of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) weather states in the extended tropics (358S‐358N) for a 10-yr period. The main precipitation dataset used is the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis operational product 3B42 dataset, but Global Precipitation Climatology Project daily data are also used for comparison. It is found that the most convectively active ISCCP weather state (WS1), despite an occurrence frequency below 10%, is the most dominant state with regard to surface precipitation, producing both the largest mean precipitation rates when present and the largest percent contribution to the total precipitation of the tropics; yet, even this weather state appears to not precipitate about half the time, although this may be to some extent an artifact of detection and spatiotemporal matching limitations of the precipitation dataset. WS1 exhibits a modest annual cycle of the domain-average precipitation rate, but notable seasonal shifts in its geographic distribution. The precipitation rates of the other weather states appear to be stronger when occurring before or after WS1. The precipitation rates of the various weather states are different between ocean and land, with WS1 producing higher daytime rates on average over ocean than land, likely because of the larger size and more persistent nature of oceanic WS1s. The results of this study, in addition to advancing the understanding of tropical hydrology, can serve as higher-order diagnostics for evaluating the realism of tropical precipitation distributions in large-scale models.


The Mawu people of eastern Ghana make common use of ideophones: marked words that depict sensory imagery. Ideophones have been described as "poetry in ordinary language," yet the shadow of Levy-Bruhl, who assigned such words to the realm of primitivity, has loomed large over linguistics and literary theory alike. The poet Ezra Pound is a case in point: while his fascination with Chinese characters spawned the ideogrammic method, the mimicry and gestures of the "primitive languages in Africa" were never more than a mere curiosity to him. This paper imagines Pound transposed into the linguaculture of the Mawu. What would have struck him about their ways of 'charging language' with imagery? I juxtapose Pound's views of the poetic image with an analysis of how different layers of iconicity in ideophones combine to depict sensory imagery. This exercise illuminates aspects of what one might call 'the ideophonic method'.


This research aims to examine URL decay of articles published in Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA). To do this, at first, we extracted all issues of JMLA from 2002 to 2008 and calculated number of all Web citations (URLs). Afterwards, we checked decay or availability of individual cited URLs. Results of these tests were then compiled and analyzed to examine reasons for failure as well as to obtain the half-life value of Web citations in JMLA. The study revealed that 76% of articles have Web citations and each article on average uses 5 URLs. From 1049 cited URLs, 31% had error messages. Most of errors were related to message "404 Not Found". Also, the average half-life for cited Internet resources is estimated to be 7 years.


Studies have been carried on the roots of Piper nigrum and the aerial parts of Piper sarmentosum. Their alkaloidal components and biological properties are reported in this thesis. The major compound of the Piper nigrum, piperine (85) was biotransformed by Aspergillus niger FTCC 5003 yielded one piperine derivative, a new natural product 5-[3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenyl]-pent-2-ene piperidine (88). These alkaloidal components were isolated using common chromatographic techniques and were identified using spectroscopic experiments such as NMR, MS, IR and UV.
The roots of Piper nigrum furnished eight alkaloids, Cepharadione A (81), Piperolactam (82), 2,4-tetradecadionoic acid isobutyl amide (83), (E)-1-[3',4'-(Methylenedioxy)cinnamoyl]piperidine (84), Piperine (85), Pellitorine (1), Sylvamide (86) and Paprazine (87). The compounds 2,4-tetradecadionoic acid isobutyl amide (83) and (E)-1-[3',4'-(Methylenedioxy)cinnamoyl]piperidine (84) were first obtained as natural products and new to this species of plants. Beside that, Paprazine (87) never had been isolated from this species of plant. Meanwhile from the biotransformation of Aspergillus niger FTCC 5003 yielded one new compound, (88). Up to now, biotransformation research has only been carried out on the terpenoid compounds and a few on alkaloids. Meanwhile, investigations on the aerial parts of Piper sarmentosum gave one alkaloidal compound, 1-nitrosoimino-2,4,5-trimethoxybenzene (89). This compound was first isolated from this plant and also a new found natural product
The petroleum ether and chloroform extracts of Piper nigrum roots were active against HL-60 cell line with the IC50 values of 9.8 and 11.2 μg/ml, respectively. However the ethyl acetate extract of Piper nigrum was inactive to HL-60 cell line. Meanwhile, the hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of Piper sarmentosum showed good cytotoxic activity with the IC50 values of 14.4 and 9.8 μg/ml respectively on MCF-7 cell line. Meanwhile the methanol extract of the aerial parts of Piper saramentosum was inactive on MCF-7 cell line. Cytotoxic test on HeLa cell line also been carried out on the various extracts of Piper sarmentosum. However, only hexane extract gave active result with the IC50 value of 11.6 μg/ml. Two pure compounds from Piper nigrum (E)-1-[3',4'-(Methylenedioxy)cinnamoyl]piperidine (84) and Pellitorine (1) were tested on HeLa and MCF-7 cell lines. Pelltorine (1) showed good activities against MCF-7 and HeLa cell line with the IC50 value of 1.8 and 13 μg/ml, respectively. The extracts of Piper sarmentosum and pure compounds of Piper nigrum were never tested on HeLa and MCF-7 cell lines. This is the first report on them.
The antimicrobial assay was carried out towards four pathogenic bacteria, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aures, Pseudomonas aeruginose, Staphylococcus typhimurium and Bacillus subtilis. The antifungal activity testing of the plant extracts were carried out against the fungi Candida albican, Apergillus ochraceaus, Sacchoromycs cerevisiae and Candida lypolytica. No activity was observed for all the extracts on these two assays.
The larvicidal tests performed against the larvae of Aedes aegypti. The acid base treated ethanol extract of Piper nigrum showed a strong activity against the larvae with the LC50 value of 1.88 μg/ml. The pure compound, pellitorine (1) also gave good activity as the LC50 value is 6.22 μg/ml. The hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of Piper sarmentosum gave strong activities with the LC50 values of 8.08 and 6.94 μg/ml, respectively. Meanwhile the methanol extract of Piper sarmantosum was not active towards the larvae of Aedes aegypti. The acid base treated ethanol extract of Piper nigrum was first performed against the larvae of Aedes aegypti in this study.


A 60-year-old male, with past medical history significant for traumatic total splenectomy in 1970, osteoarthritis, presented with symptoms of fever, chills, fatigue, and bilateral knee pain and swelling of several days duration. Physical examination was significant for bilateral knee effusion, redness, warmth, and decreased range of motion of knees bilaterally.
Initial laboratory results showed leukocytosis with neutrophilia. Bilateral joint aspiration of the knees yielded a positive joint fluid for Streptococcus pneumoniae. He was placed on IV vancomycin and immunoglobulins. The patient underwent arthroscopic and mini-open arthrotomy along with irrigation and debridement.


As a signaling molecule with system endocrine function, UDCA improves insulin sensitivity by activating the nuclear farnezoid X-receptor; as a ligand for the TGR5/Gpbar-1 receptor, UDCA is able to stimulate the secretion of GLP-1. UDCA ameliorate of the anti-oxidative defenses in NAFLD, normalizes NAD+/NADH ratio, beta-oxidation. UDCA improves the liver biochemical and histological picture in NASH, also reduces hepatocytes apoptosis and restores adiponectin levels; in other studies, these data are not confirmed. In the experiment, UDCA prevents the development of steatosis in the liver. UDCA may increase efficiency in combination with statins, thiazolidinediones, vitamin E. Further controlled prospective trials are needed for research of the UDCA effect in NAFLD.


Abstract. The Houston-Galveston Airshed (HGA) is one of the major metropolitan areas in the US that is classified as a nonattainment area of federal ozone standards. Formaldehyde (HCHO) is a key species in understanding ozone related air pollution; some of the highest HCHO concentrations in North America have been reported for the HGA. We report on HCHO measurements in the HGA from summer 2006. Among several sites, maximum HCHO mixing ratios were observed in the Houston Ship Channel (HSC), a region with a very high density of industrial/petrochemical operations. HCHO levels at the Moody Tower (MT) site close to downtown were dependent on the wind direction: southerly maritime winds brought in background levels (0.5–1 ppbv) while trajectories originating in the HSC resulted in high HCHO (up to 31.5 ppbv). Based on the best multiparametric linear regression model fit, the HCHO levels at the MT site can be accounted for as follows: 38.5±12.3% from primary vehicular emissions (using CO as an index of vehicular emission), 24.1±17.7% formed photochemically (using peroxyacetic nitric anhydride (PAN) as an index of photochemical activity) and 8.9±11.2% from industrial emissions (using SO2 as an index of industrial emissions). The balance 28.5±12.7% constituted the residual which cannot be easily ascribed to the above categories and/or which is transported into the HGA. The CO related HCHO fraction is dominant during the morning rush hour (06:00–09:00 h, all times are given in CDT); on a carbon basis, HCHO emissions are up to 0.7% of the CO emissions. The SO2 related HCHO fraction is significant between 09:00–12:00 h. After 12:00 h HCHO is largely formed through secondary processes. The HCHO/PAN ratios are dependent on the SO2 levels. The SO2 related HCHO fraction at the downtown site originates in the ship channel. Aside from traffic-related primary HCHO emissions, HCHO of industrial origin serves as an appreciable source for OH in the morning.


This study investigates the economic effects of external oil and food price shocks in the context of selected Asia and Pacific countries including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Thailand. The study is conducted within the framework of SVAR model using quarterly data over the period 1980 to 2010 although start date varies based on availability of data. The study reveals that resource poor countries that specialize in heavy manufacturing industries like Korea and Taiwan are highly affected by international oil price shocks. Oil price shocks negatively affect industrial output growth and exchange rate and positively affect inflation and interest rates. On the other hand, oil poor nations such as Australia and New Zealand with diverse mineral resources other than oil are not affected by oil price shocks. Only exchange rates are affected by oil price shocks in these countries. Furthermore, countries that are oil poor but specialized in international financial services are also not affected by oil price increase. Similarly, developing country Like India with limited reserve of oil is not affected by oil price shock. However, Thailand possessing a number of natural resources other than oil is not accommodative of oil price shocks. Limited impact of food prices can be recorded for India, Korea and Thailand in terms of industrial output, inflation and interest rate. The major impact of food prices is that it helps depreciating real effective exchange rate for almost all countries except Singapore. As a whole, the effects of external oil and food prices depend on the economic characteristics of the countries. The empirical results of this study suggest that oil and food prices should be considered for policy and forecasting purposes especially for Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.


This text documents Bill McKribbens year as an imposter of sorts in the demanding world of competitive skiing. In his late 30s McKribben decided to test his body. He decided upon cross-country skiing. He took a year out and trained full-time - with the help of a coach/guru - putting in hours and miles typical of an Olympic athlete. McKribben's year culminated in a series of long-distance cross-country races, where his body experienced rhythms and possibilities like never before. Changing his lifestyle and training full-time test not only your body but also your mind and spirit. Whilst training McKribbens father developed an illness that would eventually cause his death. This forced McKribben to futher explore his body and spirit and that of his father's.


The evaluation and forecasting of the performance of the Unions of Rural Cooperatives (URC) can be performed through the use of various types of financial ratios, such as ratios of efficiency, reliability and management. A computer decision support system (DSS) was designed and implemented for this purpose. The system evaluates and ranks the URC by applying principles of multicriteria analysis. Assigning various weights to the financial ratios enacts different scenarios. Actually each scenario calls for a different type of evaluation. The types of evaluation are determined by a variety of performance indicators. Actual financial data concerning the URC of north Greece for the last ten years was used as input to the DSS. The DSS applies fuzzy logic in order to forecast the future performance of each URC. The application of the system with original financial URC data and the use of a fuzzy forecasting method constitute the original contribution of the paper. The paper can be used in any country of the world without any revisions.


The development of high dynamic range (HDR) imagery has brought us to the verge of arguably the largest change in image display technologies since the transition from black-and-white to color television. Novel capture and display hardware will soon enable consumers to enjoy the HDR experience in their own homes. The question remains, however, of what to do with existing images and movies, which are intrinsically low dynamic range (LDR). Can this enormous volume of legacy content also be displayed effectively on HDR displays? We have carried out a series of rigorous psychophysical investigations to determine how LDR images are best displayed on a state-of-the-art HDR monitor, and to identify which stages of the HDR imaging pipeline are perceptually most critical. Our main findings are: (1) As expected, HDR displays outperform LDR ones. (2) Surprisingly, HDR images that are tone-mapped for display on standard monitors are often no better than the best single LDR exposure from a bracketed sequence. (3) Most importantly of all, LDR data does not necessarily require sophisticated treatment to produce a compelling HDR experience. Simply boosting the range of an LDR image linearly to fit the HDR display can equal or even surpass the appearance of a true HDR image. Thus the potentially tricky process of inverse tone mapping can be largely circumvented.


The study, titled "Use of Vulgar Language Antarsopir Public Transport Terminal Locations Landungsari Malang" motivated by the use of language by public transport drivers who tend to be vulgar in many contexts. These events may arise because of the habit antarsopir to establish intimacy through communication that is not commonly used because it tends to form rough but already know each other, common fate, and already know the character. So draw researchers to describe it. Results are expected to give researchers an idea of language variation. The aim of this study was to describe (1) vulgar language antarsopir form of public transport in Malang Landungsari terminal location, (2) the meaning of utterances that are used by drivers of public transport in Malang Landungsari terminal location, (3) the function of speech used by drivers of public transport in Malang Landungsari terminal location. Vulgar language in question in this research merunjuk on Alwasilah Chaerder opinion that the language used by a group of people from among the less educated or uneducated. Vulgar language from the vulgar term meaning open or not covered up, so in the form of the language tends to be characterized as rude language, uttered inappropriate, profane, and carelessly. This study, using qualitative descriptive methods. The data used in the form of verbal utterances in the form of words, phrases, and sentences that are used by a driver who can be identified as a form of vulgarity. The research data collection using observation, tenik record, and record engineering. While the source of research data in the form of the use of spoken language used by a fellow driver in the context of communication at the time gathered in the stalls or other places which are in locations around the terminal. Judging from its shape, the results can be described appear in the form of vulgar language in the form of words, phrases, and sentences tend to be rough, dirty, and not commonly used in ordinary speech community. For example: The form of words (a) the anatomy of the body, for example Bawok, Turok, (b) telling-off, such as choke, wacky (c) the designation of animals, for example badhak, munyuk (d) adjective nature, for example mloto, ndledek, (e) bullying eg diantemi, ditempeleng. Form phrase (a) the anatomy of the body, such as softening kontolmu, (b) swear word, for example bedhes elek, wedok Ayar (c) the designation of animals, for example jangkrek Tuwo, kirek ireng. (D) the nature of such adjective-ebret diebret, and (e) bullying for example koboan kalenan. Form of sentence (a) the anatomy of the body, for example Lambemu ojo lower, (b) telling-off, for example, sing Iseh dhodolan fresh (c) the nature of such wong edan adjective. While the views of its meaning, meaning for example whedus mock, quip for example ndledek, grumbling for example mloto, and threats such as diantemi, ditempeleng. While the views of its function, the function of familiarity for example mencoco, kinship such as choke.


It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words - this statement also applies to networking topics. Thus, to effectively monitor network performance we need tools which present the performance metrics in a graphical way which is also clear and informative. We propose a tool for this purpose which we call the traffic engineering eye diagram (TEED). Eye diagrams are used in digital communications to analyse the quality of a digital signal; the TEED can similarly he used in the traffic engineering field to analyse the load balancing ability of a TE algorithm. In this paper we describe how to create such TEEDs and how to use them to analyse and compare various traffic engineering approaches.


Since the emergence of transdisciplinary research, context dependencies, innovative formats and methods, societal effects, and scientific effects are key aspects that have been discussed at length. However, what is still missing is an integrative perspective on these four aspects, and
 the guidance on how to apply such an integrative perspective in order to realize the full transformative potential of transdisciplinary research. We provide an overview of each aspect and highlight relevant research questions that need to be answered to advance transdisciplinary research.


Aims: Several countries have banned the use of asbestos. The future health impacts of previous use have been modeled but there are to our knowledge no convincing studies showing a decreased occurrence of asbestos-related diseases due to a ban. The aim of our study was to estimate the effects of the ban and other measures to decrease the use of asbestos in Sweden. Methods: The effect was measured through comparing the incidence of pleural malignant mesothelioma in birth cohorts who started to work before and after the decrease in the use of asbestos, i.e. in mid-1970s. Cases were identified through the Swedish Cancer registry and the analysis was restricted to persons born in Sweden. Results: men and women born 1955–79 had a decreased risk of malignant pleural mesothelioma compared to men and women born 1940–49 (rr 0.16, 95% CI 0.11–0.25; and rr 0.47, 95% CI 0.23–0.97 respectively). The decreased use of asbestos prevented each year about 10 cases in men and two cases in women below the age of 57 years in 2012. Conclusions: The ban and decreased use of asbestos in Sweden can be measured today in birth cohorts that started their working career after the decrease.


Introduction: Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) has recently been introduced as a feasible strategy that allows complete resection with curative intention in selected patients with otherwise locally unresectable disease due to an insufficient future liver remnant. Minimally invasive surgery has shown several benefits over the open approach in different surgical areas, including liver resections, over the past 2 decades. We report a case of a pure laparoscopic ALPPS. Case Description: A 73-year-old woman with a single hepatic metastasis from breast cancer was referred to our unit. She had been treated with radical left and right mastectomy 30 and 15 years before referral. Magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomographic computed tomography demonstrated a single hypermetabolic 68-mm tumor mass located in the right liver lobe without other systemic tumor dissemination. A laparoscopic right hepatectomy was scheduled, but due to unexpected tumor extension during surgical exploration and the need for a larger than planned liver resection, a pure laparoscopic ALPPS approach was performed. After a 41% future liver remnant hypertrophy, the patient underwent a laparoscopic completion surgery without any complications. She had a favorable recovery and was discharged on postoperative day 3. The histopathological analysis indicated multiple metastatic breast cancer with negative resection margins. Discussion and Conclusions: Pure laparoscopic ALPPS is feasible and may be performed safely in experienced hands. Minimally invasive access may represent a good alternative to reduce the surgical impact of the ALPPS approach in terms of postoperative recovery in selected patients.


Background: The Gail model is a statistical tool, which assesses breast cancer probability, based on nonmodifiable risk factors. In contrast, the evaluation of mammographic breast density is an independent and dynamic risk factor influenced by interventions modifying breast cancer risk incidence.
Objective: The aim of the present study is to compare the possibilities for risk factor integration and analysis and to search for a correlation between mammographic density and the Gail model for breast cancer risk evaluation.
Materials and Methods: The subject of this prospective study is a cohort of 107 women at ages from 37 to 71 years, who have had benign breast diseases, digital mammograms, and Gail model risk evaluation.
Mammographic density is evaluated in craniocaudal projection subjectively visually and objectively using the computer imaging software. (Image J software) The Gail risk evaluation is completed using the standardized NCI questionnaire (Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool).
Results: In concordance with the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RAD) by ACR, mammographic density is evaluated using a four-grade scale. Low density D1 (less than 25%) was determined in 24 cases, D2 (25-50%) in 36 cases, D3 (51-75%) in 31 cases and high density D4 (greater than 75%) in 16 cases.
According to the Gail model, 80 (74,8%) of the examined patients did not have an increased risk (less than 1,67% for a five-year period), whereas the remaining 27 (25,2%) had a statistically significant increase in risk (greater than 1,67% for a five-year period). Women with increased risk more often present with denser breast (34% with D3, D4 versus 18,3% for D1, D2).
Conclusion: The Gail model does not adequately explain the correlation between breast density and statistically calculated risk. The development of more detailed tools, which take into consideration breast density, as well as other risk factors, may be helpful for a more accurate evaluation of the individual risk for breast cancer.


The problem of estimating the unknown parameters of linear discrete-time stochastic system models is considered for the case when the observations may contain noise alone. The interruptions in the observations are modeled as an independent stationary binary (zero or one) sequence where the probability of an interruption may not be known. The criterion for parameter estimation is chosen to be minimization of the prediction errors using linear predictors. Sufficient conditions for strong consistency of the parameter estimates are derived. It is shown by means of an example that even a few missing observations can lead to a serious degradation in the quality of the parameter estimate.


Introduction: Icariin, a major component of Epimedium species and a mild phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE-5) inhibitor, was evaluated for the prevention of myocardial oxidative stress in isoproterenol (ISO)-challenged Wistar rats. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the cardioprotective action of icariin in ISO-intoxicated rats. Materials and Methods: Rats were daily treated with icariin (1, 5, and 10 mg/kg, p.o.) and sildenafil (0.7 mg/kg, i.p.) for 15 days. Oxidative stress was induced by subcutaneous administration of ISO (85 mg/kg s.c) in two consecutive doses at an interval of 24 h on 14th and 15th day of the study. After induction, rats were anesthetized for recording the electrocardiogram (ECG) and then sacrificed to perform immunohistochemistry and biochemical assays of heart tissue. Results: ISO treatment resulted in a marked increase in lipid peroxidation, serum markers (lactate dehydrogenase [LDH], creatine kinase-MB [CK-MB], and C-reactive protein [CRP]), and infarct size and a significant decrease in the level of reduced glutathione (GSH) and endogenous antioxidant enzymes in the myocardium. Lowering of arterial blood pressure and alteration in ECG showed significant alteration in cardiac hemodynamics. Hematoxylin and eosin staining of the cardiac tissue showed considerable myocardial damage. Pretreatment with icariin (5 and 10 mg/kg, p.o.) and sildenafil (0.7 mg/kg, i.p) significantly decreased the elevated lipid peroxidation, LDH, CK-MB, and CRP. Moreover, the results also showed an increase in endogenous antioxidants and protein expression of nuclear factor-like 2 (Nrf-2) when compared to the ISO-treated group. Conclusion: The results indicated that icariin significantly ameliorates the ISO-induced oxidative stress and restores membrane integrity and cellular damage. Thus, we can conclude that the activation of Nrf-2 signaling and PDE-5 inhibition by icariin is possibly responsible for the cardioprotection. Abbreviations used: Nrf-2: Nuclear factor-like 2, PDE-5: Phosphodiesterase-5, ISO: Isoproterenol, TCM: Traditional Chinese Medicine, ECG: Electrocardiogram, LDH: Lactate dehydrogenase, CK-MB: Creatine kinase-MB, CRP: C-reactive protein, GSH: Endogenous glutathione, TBARS: Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, GPx: Glutathione peroxidase, GR: Glutathione reductase, GST: Glutathione-S-transferase, SOD: Superoxide dismutase, CAT: Catalase, H and E: Hemotoxylin and eosin, MAPK: Mitogen-activated protein kinase, CPCSEA: Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals guidelines, DMSO: Dimethyl sulfoxide, MM-GBSA: Molecular mechanics-generalized born surface area, BPM: Beats per minute.


Abstract. The navigation means the process of determining the position, velocity, and orientation of the moving object such as the land vehicle, aerial vehicle, and even autonomous vehicle. Nowadays, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is most used for positioning. Nevertheless, the navigation system based on GNSS would be interrupted in the challenging environments. Therefore, the inertial navigation system (INS) has been widely combined with GNSS to overcome this issue. For INS, the core concept is the measurements of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). In order to integrate the measurements of IMU with several sensors such as GNSS receivers, odometers, and so on, we should transform the measurements of IMU from body frame to navigation frame. The initial alignment just represents the process of finding the accurate initial rotation matrix between body frame and navigation frame in the beginning of navigation. However, initial misalignment angles would cause large error of INS. Hence, obtaining an accurate initial rotation matrix from body frame to navigation frame is an important issue to get the better navigation performance. In the research, an integrated navigation system is developed to validate the initial alignment algorithm. With the data pre-processing and accurate calibration. the proposed method of initial alignment can get precise initial ration matrix. The errors of roll pitch, and yaw angle are all smaller than 1 degree after initial alignment. Moreover, the time threshold of initial alignment is set by manual traditionally. A method of finding threshold of coarse alignment is proposed in this research.


Excerpt] Adequate laws in the area of legal incapacitation and guardianship are of fundamental importance, especially for adults with intellectual disability. For them it means recognizing their individual rights to self determination. It also signifies a move away from treating the person who lacks capacity within an oldfashioned model of care, based solely on a medical diagnosis. When present laws on capacity and/or the way they are implemented are examined against the backdrop of the human rights based model of "inclusion within the society" we begin to see their inadequacies.


Spatial information plays a fundamental role in building high-level content models for supporting analysts' interpretations and automating geospatial intelligence. We describe a framework for modeling directional spatial relationships among objects and using this information for contextual classification and retrieval. The proposed model first identifies image areas that have a high degree of satisfaction of a spatial relation with respect to several reference objects. Then, this information is incorporated into the Bayesian decision rule as spatial priors for contextual classification. The model also supports dynamic queries by using directional relationships as spatial constraints to enable object detection based on the properties of individual objects as well as their spatial relationships to other objects. Comparative experiments using high-resolution satellite imagery illustrate the flexibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework in image mining with significant improvements in both classification and retrieval performance.


We used the Luminex Bead Array Multiplex Immunoassay to measure cytokines, chemokines and growth factors responses to the same antigens used for RD1-based Interferon γ Release Assay (IGRA) test. Seventy-nine individuals, 27 active TB, 32 latent infection subsets, 20 individuals derivative purified protein (PPD) negative (subjects that do not have any indurative cutaneous reaction after 72 hrs of intradermal injection of PPD) and with other pulmonary disease were retrospectively studied. Forty-eight analytes were evaluated by Luminex Assay in plasma obtained from whole blood stimulated cells. The diagnostic accuracies of the markers detected were evaluated by ROC curve analysis and by the combination of multiple biomarkers to improve the potential to discriminate between infection/disease and non infection. Among 48 cytokines, 13 analytes, namely IL-3, IL-12-p40, LIF, IFNα2, IL-2ra, IL-13, b-NGF, SCF, TNF-β, TRAIL, IL-2, IFN-γ, IP-10, and MIG, were significantly higher in the active TB and LTBI groups, compared to NON-TB patients, while MIF was significantly lower in active TB patients compared to NON-TB and LTBI groups. The diagnostic accuracies of the markers detected in the culture supernatants evaluated by ROC curve analysis revealed that 11 analytes (IL2, IP10, IFN-γ, IL13, MIG, SCF, b-NGF, IL12-p40, TRAIL, IL2 Ra, LIF) discriminated between NON-TB and LTBI groups, with AUC for all analytes ≥0.73, while 14 analytes (IL2, IP10, IFN-γ, MIG, SCF, b-NGF, IL12-p40, TRAIL, IL2Ra, MIF, TNF-β, IL3, IFN-α2, LIF) discriminated between NON-TB and active TB groups, with AUC ≥0.78, that is a moderate, value in terms of accuracy of a diagnostic test. Finally, the combinations of seven biomarkers resulted in the accurate prediction of 88.89% of active TB patients, 82.35% of subjects with latent infection and 90% of non-TB patients, respectively. Taken together, our data suggest that combinations of whole blood Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigen dependent cytokines production could be useful as biomarkers to determine tuberculosis disease states when compared to non TB cohort.


Trees in cities can contribute significantly to human health and environmental quality. Unfortunately, little is known about the urban forest resource in the State of Tennessee and what it contributes locally and regionally in terms of ecology, economy, and social wellbeing. In an effort to better understand this resource and its values, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis, and community forestry programs, in partnership with USDA Forest Service research and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry, initiated a pilot study to sample trees within all urban areas across the State. Urban forest structure, functions, health, and values in Tennessee were analyzed using the i-Tree Eco (formerly Urban Forest Effects) model. Results reveal urban areas in Tennessee have an estimated 284 million trees in urban areas with canopies that cover 37.7 percent of the area. Most trees are found in forested areas (56 percent) with the most common species being Chinese privet, Virginia pine, and eastern redcedar. Yellowpoplar, chestnut oak, and white oak were the top three species in terms of basal area, while hackberry, yellow-poplar, and flowering dogwood were the top three in terms of leaf area. Tennessee's urban forests currently store about 16.9 million tons of carbon valued at $350 million. In addition, these trees remove about 890,000 tons of carbon per year ($18.4 million per year) and about 27,100 tons of pollution per year ($203.9 million per year). Trees in urban Tennessee are estimated to reduce annual residential energy costs by $66 million per year. The structural, or compensatory, value is estimated at $79 billion. Overall, 9.4 percent of the sampled trees were within maintained areas. Land uses with the highest proportion of trees in maintained areas were agriculture, residential, and commercial/industrial. Overall, 1.8 percent of trees found were standing dead. Species with at least 100,000 trees in the population with the highest percent of its population in dead trees were sassafras (17.3 percent), black locust (14.7 percent), and black walnut (14.0 percent). Species with highest percent crown dieback were black walnut, sassafras, and shagbark hickory. Information in this report can be used to advance the understanding and management of urban forests to improve human health and environmental quality in Tennessee.


Background Onyx is a liquid non-adhesive viscous embolic agent ideal for slow targeted injections which is currently approved for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. Methods We performed a single-center retrospective analysis of consecutive patients who underwent off-label use of Onyx as the single embolic agent for the treatment of traumatic or infectious pseudoaneurysms involving the cerebral or cranial vasculature. Results A total of nine pseudoaneurysms treated by Onyx embolization were identified. Six of the pseudoaneurysms were post-surgical, one of the pseudoaneurysms was traumatic and two were infectious in nature. The mean pseudoaneurysm size was 5.9 mm (range 2–10 mm). Onyx-34 was used in all cases. Following treatment there was complete exclusion of all pseudoaneurysms including their inflow and outflow zones. Conclusions Our experience demonstrates the efficacy and applicability of the use of Onyx in the treatment of complex traumatic and mycotic pseudoaneurysms involving the cerebral and cranial vascular tree.


Unmanned (UAVs, UCAVs, and UGVs) systems still have major human factors and ergonomic challenges related to the effective design of their control interface systems, crucial to their efficient operation, maintenance, and safety. Unmanned system interfaces with a human centered approach promote intuitive interfaces that are easier to learn, and reduce human errors and other cognitive ergonomic issues with interface design. Automation has shifted workload from physical to cognitive, thus control interfaces for unmanned systems need to reduce mental workload on the operators and facilitate the interaction between vehicle and operator. Two-handed video game controllers provide wide usability within the overall population, prior exposure for new operators, and a variety of interface complexity levels to match the complexity level of the task and reduce cognitive load. This paper categorizes and provides taxonomy for 121 haptic interfaces from the entertainment industry that can be utilized as control interfaces for unmanned systems. Five categories of controllers were based on the complexity of the buttons, control pads, joysticks, and switches on the controller. This allows the selection of the level of complexity needed for a specific task without creating an entirely new design or utilizing an overly complex design.


Objective : To document the experiences and lessons learnt from implementing innovative programmes that aim at increasing access to qualified health workers in Gwembe and Chibombo districts by Ministry of Health and participation of health workers. Methods : Qualitative analysis of the participation and satisfaction rates in retention and recruitment incentives for health workers in Gwembe and Chibombo Districts was conducted. Further document review of the current strategies implemented by the government was conducted with regards to them addressing the problems identified by the health workers based on a criterion that was developed. The study used primary and secondary data. Results : The findings indicated that there was high desire by the health workers to leave their current rural job postings and this was mainly due to issues related to their living and working conditions rather than the participation or satisfaction in the existing retention and recruitment schemes. There was substantial turnover in the health workforces in both districts over the five-year period from 2005-2009, with annual losses ranging from 2 percent to 16 percent of the professional health workforce in each district. These losses were dues to death, retirement and redirection. Overall, there was also very little evidence and the quality of much of what existed was weak hence the difficult to ascertain if these interventions were contributing to an increase in access to qualified health workers in rural areas. Conclusion : To retain staff in the rural areas remains a challenge because of the high desire to leave exhibited by health workers. Bundled interventions therefore coupled with strong national leadership, governance and information systemsare key in ensuring skilled, motivated and supported health workers at the right place and time. In addition, a strong monitoring and evaluation system should be establised to provide evidence and lessons to ascertain which interventions are or are not working and inform further policy decisions on health workforce.


Background: Brucellosis is the major bacterial zoonoses of global importance caused by Brucella spps. FC γRIIA receptor plays a central role in phagocytosis of IgG2-opsonized bacteria. FC γRIIA exhibits allelic polymorphisms with different capacities for binding IgG2 and phagocytosis. Cells expressing Fc γRIIa-H131, bind more efficiently to complexes of IgG2 than those expressing the Fc γRIIAR131 variant. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of FC γRIIA polymorphisms with susceptibility to or severity of brucellosis. Materials and Methods: In this study, we evaluated FC γRIIA polymorphisms (R/R131, R/H131, H/H131) in 67 patients with brucellosis and 67 age, sex and geographical matched healthy volunteers. FC γRIIA genotyping was performed by using a sequence-specific primer polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR). Results: The comparison of the FC γRIIA genotypes distribution in patients with brucellosis and controls showed a higher frequency in FC γRIIA-R/R131 homozygosity in patients than controls (47.8% vs. 28.4%). Logistic regression analysis showed that there is a significant correlation between R/R131 genotype and brucellosis (OR=2.3, 95%CI=1.3-4.2, P=0.04). Although the frequency of the FC γRIIA-R/R131 was higher in patients with chronic brucellosis compared with acute brucellosis, we did not find any statistically significant differences (53.8% vs. 46.3%, P=0.65). Conclusion: The result of this study showed that the homozygous genotype of FC γRIIA-R/R131 in patients with brucellosis may be associated with susceptibility to brucellosis as a genetic risk factor.


Using five different Old Testament stories as paradigms for correct ethical behavior, Waldemar Janzen provides a comprehensive way of understanding the ethical message in the Old Testament. The five models of the good life he uses are the holy life (the priestly paradigm), the wise life (the sapiential or wisdom paradigm), the just life (the royal paradigm), the serving and suffering life (the prophetic paradigm), and the familial paradigm. Janzen demonstrates that all five paradigms are linked because the familial paradigm represents the comprehensive end of all Old Testament ethics.


Writer take title " Analyse Content Peep At Song of Melly Guslow Dalam Album Mind & Soul", since music and song have come to one part of primal in modern society life these days and his/its existence have given vital contribution and also become one of very effective communications media to khalayak. Berbagai of nuance and Music stream which on the market these days give alternative of new opinion style capable to give contribution for cultural growth dynamics of human being, since song dynamics ( peep at) and the music have been adapted with global dinbamika growth these days, even the [the] mentioned able to become auto suggestion for society to conduct action such as those which be intended by the composer. Song song of masterpiece of Melly Guslow Decanted in album Mind & Soul represent one of the most the masterpiece borned from a author jenius which have at rancour merajai of stage of music of
land;ground air,substansi from song which dibawakan by Melly Guslow it is true tend to have nuance love and make all the rising generation in fatherland as consumer from [his/its] masterpieces. Eksistensi and Achievement which have been reached for by Melly Guslow is not be quit of of his/its loyalitas ability read trend market and also quality from message poured in lyric of song of masterpiece of Melly Guslow in album Mind & Soul.
This research done/conducted by by doing/conducting analysis to lyric of song of Melly Guslow in album Mind&Soul in his/its bearing with meaning from message submitted/sent by Melly Guslow to all his/its devotee in This album Mind&Soul. As for target formulated in this research is to know theme which emerge in songs of Melly Guslow [in] album Mind & Soul and also to know party becoming target in songs of Melly Guslow in album Mind & Soul.
Used by research method is descriptive type with approach qualitative, that is out for research of mendeskripsikan answer to research problems in detail hit theme [of] any kind of which emerge in songs of Melly Guslow in album Mind & Soul and also to know just which party becoming
target in songs of Melly Guslow in album Mind & Soul. Thereby technique of data collecting obtained by documentation.


This paper considers the changing spatial pattern of infant mortality in England and Wales over the last century for a constant area definition. The analysis proceeds at the level of registration districts as defined in the 1890s, generated using the British Isles Historical Geographical Information System. Infant mortality at this spatial definition is followed over four points in time, the most recent being the early 1990s. Using a variety of inequality measures, the analysis demonstrates a decline in relative small-area differentials in the chances of infant deaths up to 1958, but some resurgence since then. Regression methods are then used to evaluate the effect of available social variables, such as population density and housing conditions. The analysis incorporates adjustments for the sampling variability in what are often small counts of infant deaths by adopting pooling strength techniques. Urban-rural differentiation has followed the same evolution: it was most marked in the 1890s and reappears by the 1990s, after being reduced somewhat in the earliest years of the UK National Health Service. Differentials in infant mortality according to the housing quality and economic status of different registration districts also gain in importance in the twentieth century compared with the 1890s.


This thesis describes a data provenance framework and other associated frameworks for utilizing provenance for data quality and reproducibility. We first identify the requirements for the design of a comprehensive provenance framework which can be applicable to various applications, supports a rich set of provenance metadata, and is interoperable with other provenance management systems. We then design and develop a provenance framework, called SimP, addressing such requirements. Next, we present four prominent applications and investigate how provenance data can be beneficial to such applications. The first application is the quality assessment of access control policies. Towards this, we design and implement the ProFact framework which uses provenance techniques for collecting comprehensive data about actions which were either triggered due to a network context or a user (i.e., a human or a device) action. Provenance data are used to determine whether the policies meet the quality requirements. ProFact includes two approaches for policy analysis: structure-based and classification-based. For the structure-based approach, we design tree structures to organize and assess the policy set efficiently. For the classification-based approach, we employ several classification techniques to learn the characteristics of policies and predict their quality. In addition, ProFact supports policy evolution and the assessment of its impact on the policy quality. The second application is workflow reproducibility. Towards this, we implement ProWS which is a provenance-based architecture for retrieving workflows. Specifically, ProWS transforms data provenance into workflows and then organizes data into a set of indexes to support efficient querying mechanisms. ProWS supports composite queries on three types of search criteria: keywords of workflow tasks, patterns of workflow structure, and metadata about workflows (e.g., how often a workflow was used). The third application is the access control policy reproducibility. Towards this, we propose a novel framework, Polisma, which generates attribute-based access control policies from data, namely from logs of historical access requests and their corresponding decisions. Polisma combines data mining, statistical, and machine learning techniques, and capitalizes on potential context information obtained from external sources (e.g., LDAP directories) to enhance the learning process. The fourth application is the policy reproducibility by utilizing knowledge and experience transferability. Towards this, we propose a novel framework, FLAP, which transfer attribute-based access control policies between different parties in a collaborative environment, while considering the challenges of minimal sharing of data and support policy adaptation to address conflict. All frameworks are evaluated with respect to performance and accuracy.


Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen studied plants and helped found the field of genetics, contributing methods and concepts to the study of heredity around the turn of the twentieth century in Denmark. His experiments on heredity and variation in plants influenced the methods and techniques of geneticists, and his distinction between the genotype of an organism—its hereditary disposition —and its phenotype—its observable characteristics—remains at the core of contemporary biology. Johannsen criticized biological explanations that relied on concepts such as vitalism [5] and teleology. He instead advocated a realist and materialist approach to biology, but one that did not attempt to reduce biological phenomena to the laws of physics and chemistry.


Climate change influences on mountain hydrology are uncertain but likely to be mediated by variability in subsurface hydrologic residence times and flow paths. The heterogeneity of karst aquifers adds complexity in assessing the resiliency of these water sources to perturbation, suggesting a clear need to quantify contributions from and losses to these aquifers. Here we develop a stream centric method that combines mass and flow balances to quantify net and gross gains and losses at different spatial scales. We then extend these methods to differentiate between karst conduit and matrix contributions from the aquifer. In the Logan River watershed in Northern Utah we found significant amounts of the river water repeatedly gained and then lost through a 35‐km study reach. Further, the direction and amount of water exchanged varied over space, time, and discharge. Streamflow was dominated by discharge of karst conduit groundwater after spring runoff with increasing, yet still small, fractions of matrix water later in the summer. These findings were combined with geologic information, prior subsurface dye tracing, and chemical sampling to provide additional lines of evidence that repeated groundwater exchanges are likely occurring and river flows are highly dependent on karst aquifer recharge and discharge. Given the large population dependent on karst aquifers throughout the world, there is a continued need to develop simple methods, like those presented here, for determining the resiliency of karst groundwater resources.


Summary.  Background: Severe thrombocytopenia is a major risk factor for hemorrhage, but platelet function and bleeding risk at low platelet counts are poorly understood, because of the limitations of platelet function testing at very low platelet counts. Objectives: To examine and compare platelet function in severely thrombocytopenic patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplasia (MDS) with that in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Methods: Whole blood flow cytometric measurement of platelet activation and platelet reactivity to agonists was correlated with the immature platelet fraction (IPF) and bleeding symptoms. Results: Patients with AML/MDS had smaller platelets, lower IPF and substantially lower platelet surface expression of activated glycoprotein (GP)IIb–IIIa and GPIb, both with and without addition of ex vivo ADP or thrombin receptor‐activating peptide, than patients with ITP. In both ITP and AML/MDS patients, increased platelet surface GPIb on circulating platelets and expression of activated GPIIb–IIIa and GPIb on ex vivo activated platelets correlated with a higher IPF. Whereas platelet reactivity was higher for AML/MDS patients with bleeding than for those with no bleeding, platelet reactivity was lower for ITP patients with bleeding than for those with no bleeding. Conclusions: AML/MDS patients have lower in vivo platelet activation and ex vivo platelet reactivity than patients with ITP. The proportion of newly produced platelets correlates with the expression of platelet surface markers of activation. These differences might contribute to differences in bleeding tendency between AML/MDS and ITP patients. This study is the first to define differences in platelet function between AML/MDS patients and ITP patients with equivalent degrees of thrombocytopenia.


Extracting geometric features from 3D scans or point clouds is the first step in applications such as registration, reconstruction, and tracking. State-of-the-art methods require computing low-level features as input or extracting patch-based features with limited receptive field. In this work, we present fully-convolutional geometric features, computed in a single pass by a 3D fully-convolutional network. We also present new metric learning losses that dramatically improve performance. Fully-convolutional geometric features are compact, capture broad spatial context, and scale to large scenes. We experimentally validate our approach on both indoor and outdoor datasets. Fully-convolutional geometric features achieve state-of-the-art accuracy without requiring prepossessing, are compact (32 dimensions), and are 290 times faster than the most accurate prior method.


Edwards County occupies 2,075 square miles of the southern part of the Edwards Plateau in southwest Texas. In 1950 it had a population of 2,908. Its thin limestone soil supports the characteristic flora of a semiarid region. The county is underlain by nearly flat-lying beds of limestone and a few beds of shale and marl. The Glen Rose limestone of Cretaceous age, the oldest formation tapped by water wells in the county, yields small quantities of rather highly mineralized water. Springs in the Glen Rose discharge water that is generally less mineralized than that from wells. Nearly all the wells and springs tapping the Glen Rose are in the southeastern part of the county, where the Edwards and associated limestones have been removed by erosion or are very thin. The Comanche Peak, Edwards, and Georgetown limestones, collectively called the Edwards and associated limestones, underlie most of the county and form the principal aquifer. Generally, the water in the Edwards is under water-table conditions, but locally it may be artesian. The Edwards and associated limestones yield small to moderate quantities of water that is hard but otherwise of good chemical quality. The alluvium in the major stream valleys yields small to moderate quantities of hard water similar in quality to that of the Edwards and associated limestones. The main ground-water divides in the Edwards and associated limestones follow the topographic divides. Most of the ground water flows southward and either appears as springflow in the Nueces River drainage or flows underground into Kinney or Val Verde County. The remainder flows northward and ultimately appears as springflow in the South Llano River drainage. About 150,000 acre-feet of water is recharged annually to and discharged from the Edwards and associated limestones in Edwards County. Most of this water is available for additional development inasmuch as only about 900 acre-feet per year is currently being used; however, additional development of ground water will result in a reduction in streamflow.


Carbon allocation plays a critical role in forest ecosystem carbon cycling. We reviewed existing literature and compiled annual carbon budgets for forest ecosystems to test a series of hypotheses addressing the patterns, plasticity, and limits of three components of allocation: biomass, the amount of material present; flux, the flow of carbon to a component per unit time; and partitioning, the fraction of gross primary productivity (GPP) used by a component. Can annual carbon flux and partitioning be inferred from biomass? Our survey revealed that biomass was poorly related to carbon flux and to partitioning of photosynthetically derived carbon, and should not be used to infer either. Are component fluxes correlated? Carbon fluxes to foliage, wood, and belowground production and respiration all increased linearly with increasing GPP (a rising tide lifts all boats). Autotrophic respiration was strongly linked to production for foliage, wood and roots, and aboveground net primary productivity and total belowground carbon flux (TBCF) were positively correlated across a broad productivity gradient. How does carbon partitioning respond to variability in resources and environment? Within sites, partitioning to aboveground wood production and TBCF responded to changes in stand age and resource availability, but not to competition (tree density). Increasing resource supply and stand age, with one exception, resulted in increased partitioning to aboveground wood production and decreased partitioning to TBCF. Partitioning to foliage production was much less sensitive to changes in resources and environment. Overall, changes in partitioning within a site in response to resource supply and age were small (<15% of GPP), but much greater than those inferred from global relationships. Across all sites, foliage production plus respiration, and total autotrophic respiration appear to use relatively constant fractions of GPP – partitioning to both was conservative across a broad range of GPP – but values did vary across sites. Partitioning to aboveground wood production and to TBCF were the most variable – conditions that favored high GPP increased partitioning to aboveground wood production and decreased partitioning to TBCF. Do priorities exist for the products of photosynthesis? The available data do not support the concept of priorities for the products of photosynthesis, because increasing GPP increased all fluxes. All facets of carbon allocation are important to understanding carbon cycling in forest ecosystems. Terrestrial ecosystem models require information on partitioning, yet we found few studies that measured all components of the carbon budget to allow estimation of partitioning coefficients. Future studies that measure complete annual carbon budgets contribute the most to understanding carbon allocation.


Background in music education: Hargreaves (1996) proposed a conceptual model based on two dimensions and approaches to music education. The two orthogonal dimensions were labelled as 'specialist-generalist' and 'control-autonomy'. As with many countries, England has a tradition of specialist education, within which talented pupils are given tuition to reach high levels of musical achievement. The other distinction has been labelled as 'control-autonomy' and reflects the teachers educational practices. In considering the two dimensions as orthogonal, it is possible to consider particular pedagogical and/or musical techniques within each of the four quadrants.

Background in music psychology: Studies investigating extrinsic reinforces on music learning have found that the perceptions of teacher approval, teachers behavioural techniques, modelling techniques, shaping techniques and notational symbol learning have all been shown to have significant effects on student's musical achievement and learning. Music education should clearly have a firm foundation in developmental psychology. The objectives of music education involve the breakdown of musical skills into their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor components, and in order to evaluate these objectives efficiently it is necessary to drawn upon psychological assessment procedures. Psychological theories have an obviously central role to play in the formulation of evaluation of effective methods and pedagogies.

Aims: The purpose of this paper is to identify and illustrate effective pedagogy for talented young singers attending choir schools within a whole school context and to draw appropriate lessons for practice.

Main contribution: This is an entirely case study based approach to understanding effective pedagogy. These case studies focus on the effect of the teaching. Existing case studies in the field of music education, particularly of exceptionally talented young musicians have shown little focus on learning.

Method: Two initial case studies are drawn from choir schools in England. The choir schools offer students both first-class schooling and musical training. The two schools were selected to represent differing geographical areas and school types. Drawing from models of school effectiveness research, the research design developed a multi-layer approach to investigating in depth the interaction of a range of school-wide factors (such as leadership, school climate, and school policies), with classroom and musical training factors (such as teaching methods, teacher expectations, and classroom/training organisation), with individual pupil factors (including self-concept, engagement, and musical achievement) (Brookover et al., 1979, cited in Campbell et al. (2004), p.7). Rich, detailed and contextualised case material was produced, to help theorise about the pedagogy and to enable lessons to be drawn across the cases as well as within them.

Data: As a basis for the case studies, factual information, most of which was available in the public domain was gathered, including school location, catchment area, social-origins of pupils, number on roll, funding, staffing profile, and inspection reports. A further three data strands, or 'layers' were then identified as the main focus of each study visit (1) a whole school approach: policy, ethos and learning environment, (2) meeting the needs of musically able choristers: programmes, pedagogy and practice, and (3) pupil perceptions, performance and progress.

Conclusions: A culture of valuing the whole pupil, not just musical and vocal achievement, is interesting as both schools have students who display high levels of musical accomplishment. It is worth examining whether a focus on the holistic needs of students and support for multiple aspects of success is an environment which has enabled students to continue to develop their vocal and musical skills at such exceptional levels.

Implications: Effective pedagogy for musically talented students could benefit from this work, suggesting that a holistic focus and process to music education may enable students to be successful in musical and academic areas. Further research is needed before models of talent development could be developed to include appropriate and effective pedagogy for teaching and learning. The individual pupil factors of self-concept and motivation appear central to the proposed model. Future research requires psychologists and educationalists to work together in order for the multi-layer approach to investigating effective pedagogy to be further understood. There is also a need for researchers to examine such a holistic approach to music pedagogy for other instruments.


Cloud computing offers better computing through improved utilization and reduced administration and infrastructure costs. Cloud Computing is the sum of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Utility Computing. Apache HTTP Server, a modified version of the Apache Software Foundation's HTTP Server that utilizes a pipelined execution of Apache's request cycle. We discuss Apache's original architecture, the modifications necessary for implementation of pipelined execution, and analyze its run time. Ultimately, we hoped to increase throughput of Apache but fall short because of unbalanced request phases and pipelining overhead. This paper discuss the basis for developing advanced and efficient content delivery solutions that are scalable, high performance, and cost-effective. It introduces techniques to enable coordination and cooperation between multiple content delivery services.


Diagnostic accuracy statistics, including predictive values, risk-differences, Youden's index and Area Under the Curve (AUC), assess the promise of novel biomarkers proposed as diagnostic tests. We reinterpret these statistics in light of risk-stratification (how well a biomarker separates those at higher risk from those at lower risk) to better understand their implications for public-health programs. We introduce an intuitively simple statistic, Mean Risk Stratification (MRS): the average change in risk (pre-test vs. post-test) revealed for tested individuals. High MRS implies better risk separation achieved by testing. MRS demonstrates that conventional predictive values can mislead because they do not account for disease prevalence or test-positivity rates. Little risk-stratification is possible for rare diseases, demonstrating a "high-bar" to justify population-based screening. Importantly, we demonstrate that the risk-difference, Youden's index, and AUC measure only multiplicative relative gains in risk-stratification: AUC=0.6 achieves only 20% of maximum risk-stratification (AUC=0.9 achieves 80%). However, large relative gains in risk-stratification might not imply large absolute gains if disease is rare or if the test is rarely positive. We illustrate MRS by our experience comparing the performance of cervical cancer screening tests in China vs. the USA. The test with the worst AUC=0.72 in China (visual inspection with ascetic acid) provides twice the risk-stratification of the test with best AUC=0.83 in the USA (human papillomavirus and Pap cotesting) because China has three times more cervical precancer/cancer. MRS could be routinely calculated to better understand the clinical/public-health implications of standard diagnostic accuracy statistics.


The new social studies of childhood consider children active and creative users of their immediate environments. To make our cities more child-friendly, we need to understand how children perceive and explore their neighbourhoods, what they find attractive or unattractive about them. The research was carried out in socially and architecturally contrasted areas of two European capitals - Paris and Berlin, and involved, on the whole, 200 schoolchildren aged 10-13. To study children's attitudes towards spaces and places in these areas, I used a questionnaire and the method of subjective maps: children were asked to draw their way home from school, as well as "their territory", and to mark their maps with specially designed "emoticons". Rather than studying differences in environmental attitudes between the groups of children, the paper draws on the qualitative analysis of those fears and dislikes that were found in common across the groups. Thus, the research resulted in a typology of children's dislikes and fears associated with their city areas. In particular, it was found out that places "occupied" by "mean or bizarre people", as well as by traffic, are strongly disliked or feared. Unpleasant images of the past (memories or "urban myths") or of the future (possible dangers) can also play the role of "the symbolical occupants" of a place and make children avoid it. The concept of a symbolically occupied territory is illustrated in a more detail on the example of a social housing estate on the outskirts of Paris. Examples of children's subjective maps are featured in the article.The research suggests that the next step in making urban environments more child-friendly would be a consultation process with children - their participatory involvement in the planning and design of city spaces.


Hydraulic fracturing is a well-established stimulation technique especially for unconventional reservoirs. However, sometimes its performance is less than expected due to poor cleanup of the injected fracture fluid. There are publications studying the clean-up efficiency of hydraulic fractures in vertical wells, however, there is little information in this area for multiple fractured horizontal wells, MFHWs.
 This paper compares the fracture cleanup efficiency of a hydraulically fractured vertical well (VW) with that of multiple fractured horizontal wells (MFHWs) using numerical simulations and statistical approaches.
 In these simulations, twelve parameters related to fracture and matrix relative permeability and matrix capillary pressure were varied simultaneously based on the two-level full factorial experimental design statistical method. Gas production loss (GPL), as the response term, was calculated and input into Response Surface Model. In each set, the correlation between parameters and GPL was established and compared to investigate the post-fracturing cleanup efficiency.
 Results show that the direction of impact of parameters for VW and MFHW are similar except for the matrix permeability, Km. This difference is attributed to the flow geometry and how the well has been completed. This observation underlines that in MFHWs, the cleanup mechanism and the sequences of the importance of pertinent parameters could be different from those of the VWs.
 Results also indicate that matrix Book's type capillary pressure pertinent parameters are more important in the MFHW sets whilst Corey type relative permeability parameters are more important in VWs. These observations suggest that having a higher capillary pressure is more important in MFHWs because it results in more FF imbibition into the matrix and consequently less resistance to gas flow within the fracture. Several MFHW models with different number of fractures were constructed, which demonstrated that although the impact on well productivity is significant, its impact on clean-up performance was minimal.
 These results improve our understanding of VWs and MFHWs clean-up and design of such costly operations.


Neighbourhood effects research is at a crossroads since current theoretical and empirical approaches do not seem to be moving the debate forward. In this paper, we present a set of ten challenges as a basis for a new research agenda which will give new direction to the neighbourhood effects debate. The ten challenges are: 1) Future work should concentrate on explaining what is in the "black-box" of the 'neighbourhood effect' by deriving and testing clear hypotheses on causal neighbourhood effect mechanisms; 2) Studies should explicitly investigate the relationship between neighbourhood context and individual outcomes; 3) Alternative outcome variables such as subjective well-being should be considered; 4) We should move away from point-in-time measures of neighbourhood characteristics and take into account people's neighbourhood histories; 5) More attention is needed for the intergenerational transmission of neighbourhood effects; 6) We need to understand neighbourhood selection and to incorporate neighbourhood selection explicitly in models of neighbourhood effects; 7) We need a better operationalization of neighbourhood; 8) Neighbourhood effects researchers need to broaden their horizon to include other spatial contexts which might matter, in addition, or in place of the residential neighbourhood; 9) We need bespoke data to investigate neighbourhood effects; 10) The tenth and final challenge is to combine qualitative and quantitative methods into one research design.


ABSTRACT This article aims to advance the idea of transformative justice by building on and expanding the notion of 'justice' beyond that traditionally offered by transitional justice discourse and practice. The need for a paradigm shift is warranted by the continued high levels of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), directed predominantly towards women, experienced in post-conflict contexts. Using the example of Cambodia, we argue that the scale of SGBV in a post-conflict country can be an indicator of the extent of 'transformative' change taking place, and, thus, of the success of transitional justice processes and democracy consolidation, particularly regarding gender equality. Gender equality is essential for democratisation, as democracy should be both a political and a social project. Thus, democracy- and peace-building efforts require challenging entrenched power hierarchies and deep-rooted gender inequality, of which SGBV is symptomatic.


Biblical law is a complex concept that contains several distinct legal currents. In an effort to explore the interplay of these currents, this article first focuses on the overlap between the biblical law of God and the strictly legal regulations of the Old Testament. It then unpacks the principles and inner rationalities of what is termed "archaic law" and shows that this law is connected with regulations that could be termed "mercy laws" and with cultic regulations. By extrapolating the normative dynamics between these three codes of the law, the article exposes the enormous moral, religious, and legal influence of biblical law in general and of the mercy code in particular. In this way, the article reveals a backbone of our occidental culture. The interdependence of justice and mercy drives societies and cultures to search for (humane) justice in a deep and truth-bound way and, further, to routinize social care and welfare beyond the boundaries of families and tribal relations. The article finally illuminates both commonalities and differences between mercy and a deep and encompassing understanding of love.


We describe a case study in which experimental collaborationtechnologies were used for over two years in the real, ongoing work process of intellectual property management (IPM) at Xerox PARC. The technologies include LiveBoardbased meeting support tools, laptop notetaking tools, digital audio recording, and workstation tools to later access and replay the meeting activities. In cooperation with the IPM manager, both the work process and the tools were continuously evolved to improve the process. We supported and observed over 60 meetings, leading to a rich set of empirical observations of the meeting activities. We note some practical lessons for this research approach.


Cyanobacteria constitute a phylum of ubiquitous cosmopolitan bacteria with the ability to perform oxygenic photosynthesis. Their ancient origins, ecological and economic potential, biotechnological applications and impact on water systems have attracted much interest from the academia, industry, health authorities and regulators. Despite this, cyanobacteria classification and nomenclature still remains difficult. One of the aims of this project was to further our understanding of cyanobacteria systematics by (1) testing polyphasic characterization methods and (2) examining the effect of various phylogenetic reconstruction strategies. Additionally, (3) Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) assays using novel cyanobacteria 16S rDNA targeted primers were implemented to provide better taxa resolution than that offered by "universal" 16S rDNA primers.

Cyanobacteria strains from various water sources in Australia were isolated, characterised at four loci commonly used for cyanobacteria molecular classification, and tested for the presence of genes implicated in toxin and terpene (odour) production. A total of 55 novel cyanobacterial strains were isolated and maintained in culture, forming the first known collection of cyanobacteria isolates from Western Australia. Comparison of molecular– and morphology– based identifications not only showed the limitations of the current methods (only 45% of the isolates showed agreement) but also provided the opportunity to suggest guidelines and conceive a way forward towards more effective identification approaches. Examination of alternative phylogenetic markers, workflows and stringencies showed that between alignment algorithms, alignment curations and tree building methods, the latter had the greatest effect on tree topology. This result was consistent regardless of locus, alignment and curation strategy employed.

Finally, two sets of novel cyanobacteria-targeted primers were designed for use with NGS technologies. As compared to the universal 16S rRNA primers, these primers showed higher specificity and preferential amplification of cyanobacteria and proteobacteria DNA. Of the sequences obtained using these two new primer pairs, cyanobacteria sequences comprised 50.5% and 54.4%, while proteobacteria sequences comprised 44.5% and 40.3% respectively. In comparison, with the universal 16S rRNA primers, cyanobacteria and proteobacteria comprised 15.3% and 33.4% respectively of the sequences analysed.

Using morphological and molecular methods, this project provides a snapshot of the as yet unstudied freshwater cyanobacterial diversity found in Western Australia using polyphasic methods. The limitations of the current identification approaches, uncovered during the first phase of the project, were harnessed to develop a method to assess the variability of phylogenetic reconstructions. Finally, novel cyanobacteria specific NGS primers demonstrated how adopting the latest NGS technology represents a promising advance in the molecular investigation of cyanobacteria.


A85 Xenopus cells that exhibited a high level of photoreactivation(PR) and V79B2 hamster cells that exhibited little PR were fused to produce the V79B2 x A85 cell line — a hybrid line which possessed a relatively stable karyotype, withmost cells containing the entire V79B2 and A85 genomes. UV and UV plus PR fluence-survival relations were then determined and compared for the hybrid and parental lines in a first attempt to elucidate interactions of the parental PR mechanisms in the hybrid. It was anticipated that the A85 genome in the hybrid would produce PR enzyme in sufficient concentration and of such a nature as to efficiently PR UV-induced lethal damage in both A85 and V79B2 DNA, and little difference would be observed in the levels of PR exhibited by the V79B2 x A85 and A85 lines. To the contrary, the level of PR observed for the hybrid wassubstantially below that observed for the A85 line. To assist in the interpretation of this unexpected observation, three additional preliminary studies werecarried out: 1) Comparison of the optimum PR schemes for the A85 and hybrid lines, 2) examination of relations between the PR and dark UVrepair mechanisms possessed by these lines, and 3) comparison of the levels of PR of chromatid deletions induced by UV in selected V79B2 and A85 chromosomes of the hybrid. The results suggested that the relatively low level of PR manifested by the hybrid cells wasa consequence of their inability to efficiently PR pyrimidine dimers induced by UV in V79B2 DNA.


This study is conducted to identify the relationship between culture and
leadership style preference among Sabahans namely Malay-Brunei, Bajau and
Kadazan-Dusun. The dependent variable in this study is preferred leadership style
introduced by House (1971) which consists of directive, supportive, participative
and achievement-oriented. There are two independent variables in this study which
are demographics (gender, age, level of education and working experience) and
Hofstede's cultural dimension (power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism/collectivism and masculinity/ femininity). The demography was also
tested as moderator in this study. This study involves three major ethnic groups in
Sabah namely Malay-Brunei, Bajau and Kadazan-Dusun. The sample of this
research was selected based on purposive convenient sampling. Questionnaire was
administered for data collection whereas a sample of two hundred nineteen
employees from both public and private sector participated in this study. The
results showed that three major ethnic groups in Sabah appear to be not
significantly different in the Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Furthermore, there is
no significant difference between demographic variable and leadership preference
among employees. However, it is found that gender and level of education
moderate the relationship between culture and leadership style preferences. The
evidence was also found on the relationship between culture and leadership style
preference. Therefore, it provide implication that leader should understand the
culture in order for them to be accepted by the followers.