Although H2O2 and other reactive oxygen species are known to act as intracellular signaling molecules, DeYulia et al. have now provided evidence suggesting an unexpected role in initiating cell signaling for extracellular H2O2 generated through receptor-ligand interactions. In 293T human kidney epithelial cells transfected with the ligand-binding α subunit of the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) receptor (αGMR) either alone or as part of the complete receptor (α/βGMR), GM-CSF stimulated an increase in extracellular H2O2. GM-CSF stimulated H2O2 production in cells expressing intracellular deletion mutants of the two GMR subunits (αΔ/βΔ) and in fixed cells expressing αGMR or α/βGMR but not in cells expressing a binding-defective αGMR mutant. Extracellular catalase inhibited GM-CSF-dependent proliferation of cytokine-dependent MO7e (human megakaryocytic leukemia) cells, GM-CSF-stimulated phosphorylation of p44 and 42-mitogen-activated protein kinases (p44/42 MAPK) in MO7e and U937 (human histiocytic lymphoma) cells, and both GM-CSF-dependent phosphorylation of βGMR and transcriptional activation of a STAT5-dependent gene reporter in 293T cells expressing α/βGMR. Similarly, 293 cells that expressed peroxiredoxin-5 at the cell membrane, as well as α/βGMR, showed a decrease in GM-CSF-dependent STAT5 signaling. H2O2 stimulated phosphorylation of Janus family tyrosine kinase 2 (Jak2) and p44/42 MAPK in U937 cells and of βGMR in an in vitro system involving immunoprecipitated βGMR-associated proteins. Epidermal growth factor (EGF)-EGF receptor (EGFR) interaction also produced extracellular H2O2, as did interactions between GM-CSF, EGF, and various other cytokines and their respective receptors in cell-free systems. Thus, the authors propose that ligand-receptor interactions elicit the production of extracellular H2O2, which diffuses into the cell locally to facilitate cell signaling. G. J. DeYulia Jr., J. M. Cárcamo, O. Bórquez-Ojeda, C. C. Shelton, D. W. Golde, Hydrogen peroxide generated extracellularly by receptor-ligand interaction facilitates cell signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102, 5044-5049 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) is the only cardiovascular disease with an increasing incidence and prevalence. Complex pathophysiology of the disease and multi-organ involvement confers with high mortality rates among patients. Despite rising prevalence and poor survival prognosis, there are no established treatments up to date to improve clinical outcomes. Exercise training is recommended to improve functional capacity and the quality of life in patients and could possibly outweigh any pharmacological intervention, since lifestyle dependent risk factors, physical inactivity and deconditioning contribute to the deterioration of HFPEF. However, the optimal dose of exercise, exerting beneficial effects on cardiac and renal function and structure is not yet established and require further evaluation in experimental studies. Methods: Female Dahl saltsensitive (DS) rats were randomized into sedentary low-salt (LS), high-salt (HS) and three exercise training groups. The rats performed moderate intensity continuous treadmill running (MCT), 5-times 40 min/week at 60 % of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max); high intensity interval training highvolume (HIT-HV), 3-times/week, 4 intervals of 4 min at 90 % VO2max, separated by 3 min at 60 % VO2max and high intensity interval training low-volume (HIT), 2 intervals of 4 min at 90 % VO2max, separated by 3 min at 60 % VO2max. Total distance run was given as a measure of running performance. Blood pressure (BP), echocardiographic evaluation of diastolic function and cardiac structure, hemodynamic measurements and blood analysis were performed. Body organs were harvested, tissue weights measured and subjected to histological analysis. Metabolic cages were used to collect urine samples and evaluate kidney function. Lastly, survival distribution was estimated using the KaplanMeier method. Results: All of the rats placed on high sodium diet (8.0 % NaCl), developed hypertensive BP levels, diastolic dysfunction and left-ventricular concentric hypertrophy, while ejection fraction remained normal. The levels of NT-proBNP were elevated and a mild kidney dysfunction developed. Exercise training did not lower BP and did not improve pathological changes in cardiac and renal function and structure. The mortality rates were not different between high sodiumgroups and the animals were prematurely dying from stroke at a high rate. Conclusion: Female DS rats placed on a high sodium diet, satisfied the clinical HFPEF diagnostic criteria and progressed into HF at week 35. Development of diastolic dysfunction was consistent with progressing decline in renal function. Although exercise did not alter the overall mortality observed in DS rats under high sodiumintake, exercise trained groups had a modest delay in mortality compare to HS animals and HIT-HV and HIT-LV showed better estimated survival at the end of the study. The study clearly confirmed that stroke is the major cause of mortality in DS model and suggested that the high incidence of stroke might be related to the chronic high sodium intake.


The Common Sense project is developing mobile environmental sensing platforms to support grassroots community action. To this end, we are building a family of hardware and software components that can be used in a range of applications, as well as developing new communication paradigms that enable communities of nonexperts to gather and produce information that is "credible enough" for experts and policy-makers. The demonstration showcases one such platform, currently deployed on streetsweeping vehicles in a major U.S. city.


Mobilization of fatty acids from triglyceride stores in adipose tissue requires lipolytic enzymes. Dysfunctional lipolysis affects energy homeostasis and may contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity and insulin resistance. Until now, hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) was the only enzyme known to hydrolyze triglycerides in mammalian adipose tissue. Here, we report that a second enzyme, adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), catalyzes the initial step in triglyceride hydrolysis. It is interesting that ATGL contains a "patatin domain" common to plant acyl-hydrolases. ATGL is highly expressed in adipose tissue of mice and humans. It exhibits high substrate specificity for triacylglycerol and is associated with lipid droplets. Inhibition of ATGL markedly decreases total adipose acyl-hydrolase activity. Thus, ATGL and HSL coordinately catabolize stored triglycerides in adipose tissue of mammals.


Identified charged-particle spectra of pi(+/-), K(+/-), p, and (p) over bar at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.1) measured by the dE/dx method in the STAR (solenoidal tracker at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) time projection chamber are reported for pp and d + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV and for Au + Au collisions at 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV. Average transverse momenta, total particle production, particle yield ratios, strangeness, and baryon production rates are investigated as a function of the collision system and centrality. The transverse momentum spectra are found to be flatter for heavy particles than for light particles in all collision systems; the effect is more prominent for more central collisions. The extracted average transverse momentum of each particle species follows a trend determined by the total charged-particle multiplicity density. The Bjorken energy density estimate is at least several GeV/fm(3) for a formation time less than 1 fm/c. A significantly larger net-baryon density and a stronger increase of the net-baryon density with centrality are found in Au + Au collisions at 62.4 GeV than at the two higher energies. Antibaryon production relative to total particle multiplicity is found to be constant over centrality, but increases with the collision energy. Strangeness production relative to total particle multiplicity is similar at the three measured RHIC energies. Relative strangeness production increases quickly with centrality in peripheral Au + Au collisions, to a value about 50% above the pp value, and remains rather constant in more central collisions. Bulk freeze-out properties are extracted from thermal equilibrium model and hydrodynamics-motivated blast-wave model fits to the data. Resonance decays are found to have little effect on the extracted kinetic freeze-out parameters because of the transverse momentum range of our measurements. The extracted chemical freeze-out temperature is constant, independent of collision system or centrality; its value is close to the predicted phase-transition temperature, suggesting that chemical freeze-out happens in the vicinity of hadronization and the chemical freeze-out temperature is universal despite the vastly different initial conditions in the collision systems. The extracted kinetic freeze-out temperature, while similar to the chemical freeze-out temperature in pp, d + Au, and peripheral Au + Au collisions, drops significantly with centrality in Au + Au collisions, whereas the extracted transverse radial flow velocity increases rapidly with centrality. There appears to be a prolonged period of particle elastic scatterings from chemical to kinetic freeze-out in central Au + Au collisions. The bulk properties extracted at chemical and kinetic freeze-out are observed to evolve smoothly over the measured energy range, collision systems, and collision centralities.


Developing valid and reliable portable devices to assess energy expenditure (EE) has been and still remains a challenge to researchers. The SenseWear Pro Armband"¥ (SWA) is a device that utilizes a combination of measurement techniques in an attempt to increase the accuracy of predicting EE. Current research has produced conflicting results when validating this device in children and no research has focused on the validity of this device in severely overweight children. PURPOSE: The primary aim of this investigation was to examine the validity of the SWA to assess EE during various modes of activity in severely overweight children. METHODS: Twenty severely overweight children (10 boys, 10 girls) between 9-12 years of age participated in validation trials for three modes of exercise that included treadmill walking, a walk video, and Dance, Dance Revolution (DDR). During each exercise protocol, EE was measured simultaneously by indirect calorimetry (IC) and the SWA. RESULTS: There were significant differences between IC (70.84+29.65) and the armband (96.18+36.33) for assessing EE for the walk video (p=0.002). There were trends towards significance between EE from IC (78.26+29.65) and the SWA (88.99+31.18) for treadmill walking (p=0.097) and between IC (62.30+15.53) and the armband (75.60+31.67) for DDR (p=0.054). For all exercise modes, EE estimated from the armband was greater than EE measured by IC. There was a significant correlation between these two devices when assessing EE during treadmill walking (r=0.591, p=0.006), the walk video (r=0.849, p<0.001), and DDR (r=0.654, p=0.008). Results also demonstrated that there was no significant effect of gender on the validity of the armband to estimate EE compared to IC. CONCLUSION: The SWA overestimated EE for all modes of activity. The accuracy of the armband does not appear to vary by gender for these activities in severely overweight children. These findings demonstrate the need to increase the accuracy of this device in estimating EE in severely overweight children during these modes of activity. Future studies should be conducted to confirm the findings of this investigation and to expand on the research related to refinement of the SWA technology and algorithms to estimate EE in severely overweight children.


A social robot is a robot that interacts and communicates with humans or other autonomous physical agents by following social behaviors and rules attached to its role. We seem to accept the use of robots that perform dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs. But how far do we want to go with the automation of care for children and the elderly, or the killing of terrorists? Would we be setting humanity aside if we accepted such automation? Just Ordinary Robots: Automation from Love to War provides a socially involved, yet sober, view into the new age of robots. It supplies a cutting-edge look at robot technologies, including what these technologies are capable of and the ethical and regulatory questions they raise. The book surveys the various types of social robots and examines their social significance in homes, health care, traffic, the police, and the military. Considering the technical characteristics and societal expectations of robots in these areas, it explores what is possible right now in terms of robot technologies. It also looks into the social, ethical, and regulatory issues future robot technologies will create. The text provides authoritative insights into the social significance of robots for the medium and long term. Illustrating the political, administrative, and regulatory consequences related to each area, it highlights key points that need to be publicly discussed or put on the agenda by todays politicians and policy makers.


Abstract In this study, I examined the impressions of 10 preservice education degree teachers at Haramaya University, Ethiopia, toward their engagement in action research as part of their practicum courses. Because action research is a recent component in education of teachers in Ethiopia, I explored the insights gained by preservice teachers from their experiences of undertaking action research during this assignment. To this end, as a research advisor, I involved the student teachers in a series of individual and group meetings in the course of the project to get their reflections regarding the usefulness and challenging aspects of their engagement in individual action research. I also asked the student teachers to write progress reports and reflections in the course of undertaking their individual action research projects. Further, I kept reflection notes on my experiences of facilitating action research as a teacher educator without prior experiences of such kind. Accordingly, although there were some challenges, many student teachers found their experiences positive. The student teachers remarked that their involvement in action research helped them understand the complexities involved in teaching and how to respond to it vigilantly through an inquiry approach. The study has implications on the role of training teacher candidates in action research and the measures that need to be taken to promote it in preservice teacher education where the approach is not yet well established, as in the Ethiopian context.


The purpose of this study was to provide a synthesis of research studies published in the last ten years on interventions to increase social skills for children and adolescents with ASD, examine the outcomes of these studies and evaluate whether a given intervention meets the criteria for evidence-based practice. Thirty-eight studies were included in this review, of which 36 were single subject research studies and 2 group experimental studies. Results varied widely both between intervention types, and with the different studies within each intervention type. While Social Stories, Peer-Mediated, and Video-Modeling all met the criteria for evidence- based, a closer look at percentage of nonoverlapping data points (PND) shows that only Video-Modeling meets criteria for being evidence-based as well as demonstrating high effectiveness as an intervention strategy.


Abstract. Broadband optical cavity spectrometers are maturing as a technology for trace-gas detection, but only recently have they been used to retrieve the extinction coefficient of aerosols. Sensitive broadband extinction measurements allow explicit separation of gas and particle phase spectral contributions, as well as continuous spectral measurements of aerosol extinction in favourable cases. In this work, we report an intercomparison study of the aerosol extinction coefficients measured by three such instruments: a broadband cavity ring-down spectrometer (BBCRDS), a cavity-enhanced differential optical absorption spectrometer (CE-DOAS), and an incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectrometer (IBBCEAS). Experiments were carried out in the SAPHIR atmospheric simulation chamber as part of the NO3Comp campaign to compare the measurement capabilities of NO3 and N2O5 instrumentation. Aerosol extinction coefficients between 655 and 690 nm are reported for secondary organic aerosols (SOA) formed by the NO3 oxidation of β-pinene under dry and humid conditions. Despite different measurement approaches and spectral analysis procedures, the three instruments retrieved aerosol extinction coefficients that were in close agreement. The refractive index of SOA formed from the β-pinene + NO3 reaction was 1.61, and was not measurably affected by the chamber humidity or by aging of the aerosol over several hours. This refractive index is significantly larger than SOA refractive indices observed in other studies of OH and ozone-initiated terpene oxidations, and may be caused by the large proportion of organic nitrates in the particle phase. In an experiment involving ammonium sulfate particles, the aerosol extinction coefficients as measured by IBBCEAS were found to be in reasonable agreement with those calculated using the Mie theory. The results of the study demonstrate the potential of broadband cavity spectrometers for determining the optical properties of aerosols.


In this paper, we highlight knowledge as specific channel through which labour mobility affects conditional within-firm wage dispersion. We present a model in which workers acquire knowledge on the job and firms pursue a policy of learning-by-hiring. The latter generates workers flows that connect firms in a network. A firm's position in the network depends on its capacity to absorb the tacit knowledge developed by other firms in the economy. The model predicts that firms central to the network, those with the highest absorptive capacity of tacit knowledge, have the highest wage dispersion. Using 1995-2001 Veneto (a region of Italy) matched employer-employee data, we map workers flows between firms and build the network formed by all the firms. For each firm, we assess its network centrality. In our data conditional within-firm wage dispersion turns out to be increasing in network centrality, confirming the prediction of the model.


We study the social choice problem where a group of n voters report their preferences over alternatives and a voting rule is used to select an alternative. We show that when the preferences of voters are positively correlated according to the Kendall-Tau distance, the probability that any scoring rule is not ex post incentive compatible (EPIC) goes to zero exponentially fast with the number of voters, improving over the previously known rate of 1/√n for independent preferences. Motivated by rank-order models from machine learning, we introduce two examples of positively-correlated models, namely Conditional Mallows and Conditional Plackett-Luce. Conditional Mallows satisfies Kendall-Tau correlation and fits our positive result. We also prove that Conditional Plackett-Luce becomes EPIC exponentially quickly.


RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are critical regulators of transcription and translation that are often dysregulated in cancer. Although RBPs are increasingly appreciated as being important for normal hematopoiesis and for hematological malignancies as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, essential RBPs for leukemia maintenance and survival remain elusive. Here we show that YBX1 is specifically required for maintaining myeloid leukemia cell survival in an m6A-dependent manner. We found that expression of YBX1 is significantly upregulated in myeloid leukemia cells, and deletion of YBX1 dramatically induces apoptosis, promotes differentiation, coupled with reduced proliferation and impaired leukemic capacity of primary human and mouse acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells in vitro and in vivo. Loss of YBX1 does not obviously affect normal hematopoiesis. Mechanistically, YBX1 interacts with IGF2BPs and stabilizes m6A-tagged RNA. Moreover, YBX1 deficiency dysregulates the expression of apoptosis-related genes, and promotes mRNA decay of MYC and BCL2 in an m6A-dependent manner, which contributes to the defective survival due to YBX1 deletion. Thus, our findings uncover a selective and critical role of YBX1 in maintaining myeloid leukemia survival that might provide a rationale for the therapeutic targeting of YBX1 in myeloid leukemia.


This paper presents the concept and studies connectivities of wireless ad hoc networks among aircraft for enhanced situational awareness. Under this multi-hop broadcast concept, an aircraft would periodically broadcast not only its own state information, but also relay state information received from neighboring aircraft. In this paper, a basic architecture of such an airborne ad hoc network is established. The relationship between network connectivity and information reachability, which accounts for information latency and depends on transmission protocols, is discussed. Two general performance criteria are introduced that measure the connectivity performance of an airborne network subject to a specified maximum number of hops in the network. The first metric is the ratio of the total coverage area of a network cluster over that of a single aircraft. The second metric is the number of aircraft each individual aircraft can connect to within the network cluster. Three representative types of traffic scenarios are considered: a one-dimensional flight stream, two streams merging into one, and randomly distributed traffic over a horizontal region. In all cases, aircraft positions are checked against their conflict-free requirements. For the onedimensional traffic and merging traffic scenarios, the best, the worst, and the average values of the connectivity performance criteria are obtained via numerical simulations. For the two-dimensional random traffic scenario, random simulations are repeated, and both average connectivity performances and their standard deviations are calculated. Simulation results indicate that the connectivity of the proposed airborne ad hoc network is always better than that of the non-relay scheme. Overall, the proposed concept offers great flexibilities through the use of different transmission protocols and maximizes the benefits of a given digital data link.


"The Changing Face of Economics" gives the reader a sense of the modern economics profession and how it is changing. The volume does so with a set of nine interviews with cutting edge economists, followed by interviews with two Nobel Prize winners, Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow, reflecting on the changes that are occurring. What results is a clear picture of today's economics--and it is no longer standard neoclassical economics. The interviews and commentary together demonstrate that economics is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in method and is moving away from traditional neoclassical economics into a dynamic set of new methods and approaches. These new approaches include work in behavioral economics, experimental economics, evolutionary game theory and ecological approaches, complexity and nonlinear dynamics, methodological analysis, and agent-based modeling. David E. Colander is Professor of Economics, Middlebury College.J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., is Professor of Economics and Kirby L. Kramer Jr. Professor of Business Administration, James Madison University.Richard P. F. Holt is Professor of Churchill Honors and Economics, Southern Oregon University.


Context There are no evidence syntheses available to guide clinicians on when to titrate antihypertensive medication after initiation. Objective To model the blood pressure (BP) response after initiating antihypertensive medication. Data sources electronic databases including Medline, Embase, Cochrane Register and reference lists up to December 2009. Study selection Trials that initiated antihypertensive medication as single therapy in hypertensive patients who were either drug naive or had a placebo washout from previous drugs. Data extraction Office BP measurements at a minimum of two weekly intervals for a minimum of 4 weeks. An asymptotic approach model of BP response was assumed and non-linear mixed effects modelling used to calculate model parameters. Results and conclusions Eighteen trials that recruited 4168 patients met inclusion criteria. The time to reach 50% of the maximum estimated BP lowering effect was 1 week (systolic 0.91 weeks, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.10; diastolic 0.95, 0.75 to 1.15). Models incorporating drug class as a source of variability did not improve fit of the data. Incorporating the presence of a titration schedule improved model fit for both systolic and diastolic pressure. Titration increased both the predicted maximum effect and the time taken to reach 50% of the maximum (systolic 1.2 vs 0.7 weeks; diastolic 1.4 vs 0.7 weeks). Conclusions Estimates of the maximum efficacy of antihypertensive agents can be made early after starting therapy. This knowledge will guide clinicians in deciding when a newly started antihypertensive agent is likely to be effective or not at controlling BP.


The semi-automatic or automatic synthesis of robot controller software is both desirable and challenging. Synthesis of rather simple behaviors such as collision avoidance by applying artificial evolution has been shown multiple times. However, the difficulty of this synthesis increases heavily with increasing complexity of the task that should be performed by the robot. We try to tackle this problem of complexity with Artificial Homeostatic Hormone Systems (AHHS), which provide both intrinsic, homeostatic processes and (transient) intrinsic, variant behavior. By using AHHS the need for pre-defined controller topologies or information about the field of application is minimized. We investigate how the principle design of the controller and the hormone network size affects the overall performance of the artificial evolution (i.e., evolvability). This is done by comparing two variants of AHHS that show different effects when mutated. We evolve a controller for a robot built from five autonomous, cooperating modules. The desired behavior is a form of gait resulting in fast locomotion by using the modules' main hinges.


BACKGROUND
Modern demands and challenges among healthcare professionals can be particularly stressful and resilience is increasingly necessary to maintain an effective, adaptable, and sustainable workforce. However, definitions of, and associations with, resilience have not been examined within the primary care context.

AIM
To examine definitions and measures of resilience, identify characteristics and components, and synthesise current evidence about resilience in primary healthcare professionals.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A systematic review was undertaken to identify studies relating to the primary care setting.

METHOD
Ovid(®), Embase(®), CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases were searched in December 2014. Text selections and data extraction were conducted by paired reviewers working independently. Data were extracted on health professional resilience definitions and associated factors.

RESULTS
Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria: eight were quantitative, four qualitative, and one was an intervention study. Resilience, although multifaceted, was commonly defined as involving positive adaptation to adversity. Interactions were identified between personal growth and accomplishment in resilient physicians. Resilience, high persistence, high self-directedness, and low avoidance of challenges were strongly correlated; resilience had significant associations with traits supporting high function levels associated with demanding health professional roles. Current resilience measures do not allow for these different aspects in the primary care context.

CONCLUSION
Health professional resilience is multifaceted, combining discrete personal traits alongside personal, social, and workplace features. A measure for health professional resilience should be developed and validated that may be used in future quantitative research to measure the effect of an intervention to promote it.


Amazon Best of the Month, June 2009: Colum McCann has worked some exquisite magic with Let the Great World Spin, conjuring a novel of electromagnetic force that defies gravity. Its August of 1974, a summer hot and serious and full of death and betrayal, and Watergate and the Vietnam War make the world feel precarious. A stunned hush pauses the cacophonous universe of New York City as a man on a cable walks (repeatedly) between World Trade Center towers. This extraordinary, reallife feat by French funambulist Philippe Petit becomes the touchstone for stories that briefly submerge you in ten varied and intense lives--a street priest, heroin-addicted hookers, mothers mourning sons lost in war, young artists, a Park Avenue judge. All their lives are ordinary and unforget table, overlapping at the edges, occasionally converging. And when they coalesce in the final pages, the moment hums with such grace that its memory might tighten your throat weeks later. You might find yourself paused, considering the universe of lives one city contains in any slice of time, each of us a singular world, sometimes passing close enough to touch or collide, to birth a new generation or kill it, sending out ripples, leaving residue, an imprint, marking each other, our city, the very air -compassionately or callously, unable to see all the damage we do or heal. And most of us stumbling, just trying not to trip, or step in something awful.


The discussion of an early postglacial dual-route colonization of the Scandinavian Peninsula is largely based on associating genomic data to an early dispersal of lithic technology from the East European Plain. However, a direct link between the two has been lacking. We tackle this problem by analysing human DNA from birch bark pitch mastics, "chewing gums", from Huseby Klev, a site in western Sweden with eastern lithic technology. We generate genome- wide data for three individuals, and show their affinity to the Scandinavian hunter-gatherers, or more precisely, to individuals from postglacial Sweden. Our samples date to 9880-9540 calBP, expanding the temporal range of this genetic group as well as its distribution. Human DNA from mastics provides a clear connection between material culture and genetic data. We also propose that DNA from different types of mastics can be used to study environment, ecology, and oral microbiome of prehistoric populations.


Any microbial life extant in the top meters of the martian subsurface is likely to be held dormant
for long periods of time by the current permafrost conditions. In this potential habitable zone,
a major environmental hazard is the ionising radiation field generated by the flux of exogenous
energetic particles: solar energetic protons and galactic cosmic rays. The research reported
here constitutes the first multidisciplinary approach to assessing the astrobiological impact of
this radiation on Mars.
A sophisticated computer model has been constructed de novo to characterise this complex
subsurface ionising radiation field and explore the influence of variation in crucial parameters
such as atmospheric density, surface composition, and primary radiation spectra. Microbiological
work has been conducted to isolate novel cold-tolerant bacterial strains from the Dry
Valleys environment of Antarctica, an analogue site to the martian surface, and determine
their phylogenetic diversity and survival under high-dose gamma-ray exposure frozen at -79!C,
a temperature characteristic of the martian mid-latitude permafrost.
Original results are presented pertinent to microbial survival time, persistence of organic biomarkers,
and calibration of the optically stimulated luminescence dating technique, as a function of
depth. The model predicts a population of radiation resistant cells to survive in martian permafrost
soil for 450,000 years at 2 m depth, the proposed drill length of the ExoMars rover.
The Antarctic culturing studies identified representatives of four bacterial genera. The novel
isolate Brevundimonas sp. MV.7 is found to show 99% 16S sequence similarity to cells discovered
in NASA spacecraft assembly clean rooms, with the experimental irradiation determining
this strain to suffer 10-6 population inactivation after a radiation dose of 7.5 kGy in martian
permafrost conditions. Integrating the modelling and experimental irradiation, this research
finds a contaminant population of such cells deposited just beneath the martian surface would
survive the ambient cosmic radiation field for 117,000 years.


The human is frequently made central to the way international ethics is thought and practised. Yet, the human can be used to close down ethical options rather than open them up. This article examines the case of British foreign policy in Kosovo. It argues that the human in this context was placed at the centre of ethical action, but was discursively constructed as a silent, biopolitial mass which could only be saved close to its territorially qualified home. It could not be protected by being brought to the UK. To remain human, the subject of ethical concern, the Kosovan refugee, had to remain near Kosovo. This construction of the human—home relationship meant that military humanitarian intervention became the only ethical policy available; hospitality, a welcoming of the Kosovan refugee into the British home, was ruled out. This article questions such a construction of the human, listening to the voices of Kosovan refugees to open up the relationship between the human and its home. The complexity that results shows that a more nuanced view of the human would not allow itself to be co-opted so easily to a simplistic logic of intervention. Rather, it could enable the possibility of hospitality as another way of practising international ethics.


A circularly polarised printed dipole-like antenna employing asymmetrical arms and an orthogonal slit in the ground plane is presented. It is fed by a stepped microstrip line which connects to the shorter arm. By utilising surface currents on the asymmetrical arms and the orthogonal feedline structure, circular polarisation is realised. Experimental and numerical data are in agreement and the measured results show a fractional impedance bandwidth of 41.3% (1.77-2.69 GHz) and a wide axial-ratio bandwidth of 38.4% (1.81-2.67 GHz).


OBJECTIVES
Anomalies of asymmetry and sex differences in brain structure have frequently been described in schizophrenic illnesses but have seldom been explored in bipolar disorder.

METHODS
We measured volumes of the left and right frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes and computed the magnitude of brain torque (i.e., rightward frontal and leftward occipital asymmetry) for 49 patients with bipolar disorder and 47 healthy controls and performed an exploratory analysis of sex differences in patients and controls.

RESULTS
Patients had significantly greater cerebrospinal fluid volume than controls, but no difference in total brain volume. There were no main effects of diagnosis in gray matter lobe volume or brain torque, but when analyses were performed separately for male and female subjects, significant sex-by-diagnosis interactions were found in the volume of the left frontal, left temporal, right parietal, and right occipital lobes, such that male patients with bipolar disorder tend toward larger, more symmetric brains than male controls, whereas female patients tend toward smaller, more asymmetric brains than female controls.

CONCLUSION
The lateralised nature of these interactions was such that the normal sex difference in volume was significantly accentuated, whilst the normal sex difference in asymmetry tended to be diminished in patients with bipolar disorder. We conclude that bipolar disorder in part reflects an interaction between brain growth and sex along the anterior-posterior axis of the human brain.


Two separate studies were conducted at one commercial feed mill and six commercial wean-to-finish pig sites in northwest Iowa to determine the effects of feed truck unloading auger RPM on pellet quality and unloading time (Exp. 1) and the effects of feed line location on pellet quality and nutrient concentration of intact pellets and their fines (Exp. 2). For Exp. 1, feed samples were taken from each compartment of an 8-compartment, 24-ton Walinga (Walinga Inc., Guelph, Ontario) feed truck. Feed was unloaded using 3 unloading speeds as determined by the truck RPM of 900, 1,150, and 1,400. Each compartment was timed during unloading, and percentage fines and PDI were determined from each sample taken. The same truck was used 6 times, allowing for 16 replications per unloading speed and 6 replications per compartment. The compartment located closest to the truck cab was denoted as compartment 1, and the compartment located closest to the rear of the truck was denoted as compartment 8. An unloading speed × trailer compartment interaction (P = 0.031) was observed. The difference in unloading time for each compartment became progressively less, the closer the compartment was to the back of the truck. The percentage of fines formed was not significantly different among unloading speeds. The percentage of fines formed during unloading tended to increase (quadratic; P = 0.081) from the first to the eighth compartment, with the maximum percentage of fines formed occurring in the fifth compartment. In Exp. 2, pelleted feed was sampled as feed was unloaded into a commercial feed bin at 6 wean-to-finish barn sites. Each barn was equipped with 2 separate feed lines that transported feed from the bin into the barn. Feed samples were taken inside the barn at the feeder closest to the bin (20 ft), halfway from the bin (115 ft), and the farthest from the bin (250 ft) for each feed line. Samples were analyzed for percentage fines and PDI. During analysis, fines and complete pellets were separated, and a nutrient profile was determined for each. No interactions were observed between feed line location and nutrient profile of the fines and pellets. There was no effect of feed line location on pellet PDI, percentage fines, percentage fines formed, or pellet and fines nutrient profile. Fines had decreased (P < 0.05) CP and P but increased (P < 0.05) ADF, crude fiber, Ca, ether extract, and starch were observed when compared to the composition of pellets. In conclusion, feed flow from the compartments closer to the cab resulted in fewer fines formed from loading to unloading. Decreasing unloading speed significantly increased the amount of time taken to unload a feed truck. No differences were observed in the amount of fines formed for any of the unloading speeds. There appear to be no differences in pellet quality among feed line locations within a commercial wean to finish barn; however, there are significant differences in nutrient profile between fines and pellets.


Approximately 70% of U.S. college students engage in frequent academic procrastination (Ellis & Knaus, 1977; Hill, Hill, Chabot, & Barrall, 1978), the purposive delay in beginning or completing academically-related tasks. Studies indicate that fear of failure and aversiveness of the task may be primary motives for academic procrastination (Milgram, Batori, & Mowrer, 1993; Schouwenburg, 1995: Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). College students reported procrastinating more often when writing a term paper than when reading an assignment, studying for an exam, or attending to academic and administrative tasks (Rothblum, Solomon, & Murakami, 1986; Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). Frequent academic procrastination has been found across racial categories and regardless of student gender (Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995). Academic procrastination also is associated with missing deadlines for submitting assignments, delaying the taking of self-paced quizzes, claiming test anxiety, obtaining low course and semester grades, and low cumulative GPA (Beswick, Rothblum, & Mann, 1988; Clark & Hill, 1994; Lay & Burns, 1991; Rothblum et al., 1986; Wolfe & Johnson, 1995). In sum, it seems that academic procrastination may be a way to escape immediate (perceived) aversive tasks or consequences, but seems to have negative consequences for the person (Ferrari, et al., 1995). The present study sought to investigate the "affective experiences of fibbing" by academic procrastinators. Specifically, college students stated their positive or negative affect when phony reasons or excuses for delaying academic related tasks. This information may contribute to an understanding of the relationship between affect and forms of procrastination (Lay, 1995; Lay & Silverman, 1996). Furthermore, it may provide useful information for educational personnel who design intervention programs for college students. Few studies have investigated the desire by students to avoid academic tasks by generating academic excuses. In an unpublished master's thesis, Beck (1985) reported that 60% of college students reported using a false excuse to avoid taking a scheduled test or turning in an assignment on time. Keene, Levine, and Ferrari (1995) replicated this study by comparing students from colleges with selective or nonselective admission standards. In that study greater than 65% of students across settings self-reported that they used phony excuses. Caron, Krauss-Whitbourne, and Halgin (1992) found that while 68% of college students reported using fraudulent excuses, over 90% of the time instructors fail to ask for evidence or "proof" for the proposed excuses. To the extent that procrastination is a purposive avoidance strategy, it follows that academic procrastinators exceed nonprocrastinators in generating excuses for not completing academic tasks. In addition, research has found that negative affect was related to chronic, everyday procrastination (Lay, 1995). From four experimental studies, Lay (1995) concluded that chronic procrastinators compared to nonprocrastinators more often experienced dejection-related emotions (depression) when faced with academically-related tasks. Dejection emotions were reported by trait procrastinators when simply asked to indicate how they felt during the past week or at the moment, and when rating how they felt about ongoing projects involving deadlines or study behaviors prior to an exam. Agitation-related emotions (e.g., anxiety) were unrelated to the academic set of tasks. Lay and Silverman (1996) reported that agitation among chronic procrastinators played a minor (at best) role in predicting dilatory behavior either at pre-examination or exam-day. Studies found that chronic, everyday procrastination and situational academic procrastination are related, but not identical concepts (see Ferrari et al., 1995). Despite the association between chronic procrastination and affect, it is unclear how procrastination in academic situations may be related to their emotional responses to phony excuses. …


Today, the amount and variety of spatial data have increased dramatically. In addition, the web has made it easier to disseminate and share this kind of data. Therefore, spatial data integration and interoperability have gained more importance. Spatial data are collected from different sources and often heterogeneous in terms of the levels of detail and the points of view. To able to meet the demands of different spatial applications, multi-source and heterogeneous spatial datasets need to be integrated as well as the consistency of these datasets need to be maintained. In this context, multi-representation spatial database (MRSDB) paradigm has been suggested by researchers. However, the heterogeneity constitutes a significant barrier in this respect and hence the implementations have so far been remained within a rather narrow scope. In this article, it is mainly discussed about the possible contributions of basic methods and technologies of spatial semantics such as ontologies, semantic web and linked data to the data integration for creating a MRSBD. Some examples are also given to illustrate the concept.


A new filter is presented which has better edge and detail preserving properties than a median, noise reduction capability similar to a Gaussian, and is applicable to many signal and noise types. It is built on a definition of signal as bitonic, i.e., containing only one local maxima or minima within the filter range. This definition is based on data ranking rather than value; hence, the bitonic filter comprises a combination of non-linear morphological and linear operators. It has no data-level-sensitive parameters and can locally adapt to the signal and noise levels in an image, precisely preserving both smooth and discontinuous signals of any level when there is no noise, but also reducing noise in other areas without creating additional artifactual noise. Both the basis and the performance of the filter are examined in detail, and it is shown to be a significant improvement on the Gaussian and median. It is also compared over various noisy images to the image-guided filter, anisotropic diffusion, non-local means, the grain filter, and self-dual forms of leveling and rank filters. In terms of signal-to-noise, the bitonic filter outperforms all these except non-local means, and sometimes anisotropic diffusion. However, it gives good visual results in all circumstances, with characteristics which make it appropriate particularly for signals or images with varying noise, or features at varying levels. The bitonic has very few parameters, does not require optimization nor prior knowledge of noise levels, does not have any problems with stability, and is reasonably fast to implement. Despite its non-linearity, it hence represents a very practical operation with general applicability.


This paper examines knowledge sharing processes in digital government projects (DGPs). Although knowledge sharing processes are a central feature of the functioning of government, they have received little attention in the literature. The importance of knowledge sharing has become even more evident with the rise of digital government initiatives, as these have a networking effect on bureaucracies. With multiple agencies and multidisciplinary knowledge coming together, it is necessary to combine and reconnect the required knowledge. Based on empirical data from four DGPs in Switzerland and the United States, a theoretical model for knowledge sharing in DGPs is proposed. The model ties together processes and content of knowledge sharing through two task dimensions, each of them subdivided into two phases: (1) Conception and implementation of the project, and (2) Exploration and exploitation of knowledge. I show that the implementation of DG requires a balanced mix of exploration and exploitation of knowledge, where exploration is more important in the conceptual phase, and exploitation becomes more fruitful in the implementation phase. I found that different configurations of knowledge networks in DGPs are related to different stages in the advancement of the project: DGPs rely on sparse networks during the conceptual phase of the project, and tend to employ teams or tightly-bound groups when the project moves towards implementation. The study concludes with implications for research and practice.


This research explores how the mobile phone appropriation patterns of an Indian migrant group in Singapore are linked to acculturation strategies. The circular model of mobile phone appropriation was adopted to investigate aspects of usage and handling , prestige and social identity , and metacommunication . Following a pluralistic-typological approach, acculturation patterns identified relate to migrants' maintenance of cultural identity and relationships with the Singaporean host society. In-depth interviews among 33 low-skilled male migrants from an Indian Malayali migrant community reveal that the four appropriation types convenience seeker, experimenter, group communicator, and tabula rasa were linked to three acculturation types observed: culture campaigner, culture connoisseur, and culturally petrified.


There is an increasing demand for optimising complete systems and the devices within that system, including capturing the interactions between the various multi-disciplinary (MD) components involved. Furthermore confidence in robust solutions is esential. As a consequence the computational cost rapidly increases and in many cases becomes infeasible to perform such conceptual designs. A coherent design methodology is proposed, where the aim is to improve the design process by effectively exploiting the potential of computational synthesis, search and optimisation and conventional simulation, with a reduction of the computational cost. This optimization framework consists of a hybrid optimization algorithm to handles multi-fidelity simulations. Simultaneously and in order to handles uncertainty without recasting the model and at affordable computational cost, a stochastic modelling method known as non-intrusive polynomial chaos is introduced. The effectiveness of the design methodology is demonstrated with the optimisation of a submarine propulsion system.


Most businesses face the choice of either competing on the 'low road' of cost, or the 'high road' of innovation and value. Much the same goes for national economies and the UK is no exception. But how do businesses - and the people who manage them - go beyond the policy prescription and the easy exhortation to make that shift, to manage change and go well beyond business as usual? This ground-breaking book - the combined insight of some of the best minds in management, grouped together in the Advanced Institute of Management Research - does just that. It presents a clear and crisp analysis of the context and the challenge; and offers managers a range of ideas on how to develop the competences, practices and values that can make a difference. It is essential reading for policy makers, analysts, academics, and managers to be who want to make a different future.


Knowing how policy-induced salary schedule changes affect teacher recruitment and retention will significantly advance our understanding of how resources matter for K-12 student learning. This study sheds light on this issue by estimating how legislative funding changes in Washington state in 2018-19—induced by the McCleary court-ordered reform—affected teacher salaries and labor market outcomes. By embedding a simulated instrumental variables approach in a mixed methods design, we observed that local collective bargaining negotiations directed new state-level funding allocations toward certificated base salaries, particularly among more senior teachers. Variability in political power, priorities, and interests of both districts and unions led to greater heterogeneity in teacher salary schedules. Teacher mobility rate was reduced in the first year of the reform, and subsequently new hiring rate was reduced in the second year. Suggestive evidence indicates that a $1,000 salary increase would have larger effects on junior teachers' hiring and their transfers between districts to a greater extent than late-career teachers. Acknowledgement: This study is supported by grants from William T. Grant No. 190735. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funder.


Advanced materials are attracting strong interest in the fundamental as well as applied sciences and are being extensively explored for their potential usage in a range of healthcare technological and biological applications.Advanced Healthcare Nanomaterials summarises the current status of knowledge in the fields of advanced materials for functional therapeutics, point-of-care diagnostics, translational materials, up and coming bio-engineering devices. The book highlights the key features which enable engineers to design stimuli-responsive smart nanoparticles, novel biomaterials, nano/micro-devices for diagnosis, therapy (theranostics).The leading contributor researchers cover the following topics: State-of-the-art of biomaterials for human healthMicro- and nanoparticles and their application in biosensorsThe role of immunoassaysStimuli-responsive smart nanoparticlesDiagnosis and treatment of cancerAdvanced materials for biomedical application and drug deliveryNanoparticles for diagnosis and/or treatment of Alzheimers diseaseHierarchical modelling of elastic behavior of human dental tissueBiodegradable porous hydrogelsHydrogels in tissue engineering, drug delivery and wound careModified natural zeolitesSupramolecular hydrogels based on cyclodextrin poly(pseudo)rotaxanePolyhydroxyalkanoate-based biomaterialsBiomimetic molecularly imprinted polymersThe book is written for readers from diverse backgrounds across chemistry, physics, materials science and engineering, medical science, pharmacy, biotechnology, and biomedical engineering. It offers a comprehensive view of cutting-edge research on advanced materials for healthcare technology and applications.


Backgrounds Various flaps elevated from the palm have been widely used for finger and hand reconstruction. Recently, perforator-based free flaps or venous free flaps have received popularity due to several advantages. The cutaneous venous system has been chosen as the circulatory outlet when designing and harvesting the flap from the palmer area due to the small size and thin nature of the flap. However, there have been few descriptions about the anatomy of the palmar cutaneous veins. A more detailed knowledge will be valuable for elevating various flaps from the palmar area. Methods Whole-body and hand venography with a contrast medium was performed on 9 fresh cadavers. Dissection and investigation of the skin and subcutaneous tissue were performed using a soft x-ray system with a stereogram. During all the processes that involved elevating the tissue, observations were made on the macroscopic structure of the palmar vein. Results In the palm, a complex network of veins are connected with the distal branches of the cephalic vein, basilic vein, and dorsal venous arch. The pattern and geometric formation of the venous network in all cases showed distinctive features according to each region of the palm. The venous branches create a network extending to palmar margins and webs between fingers. Conclusions Venous arrangement should be considered when designing flaps from the palm to prevent venous congestion and safely extend the length of the flap.


Following the Rio Grande north from New Spain in 1540, Francisco de Coronado entered what would become New Mexico, searching for the fabled seven cities of gold. What he found instead was a poor, if hauntingly beautiful landscape where native peoples, living in cities of sophisticated pueblo design, had long ago learned to live in harmony with their often harsh, unforgiving land (Kessell, 2002; Nabokov, 2006). European colonization was slow but inevitable thereafter. Adventurers Onate and Peralta, following in Coronado's footsteps, eventually established a colonial capital at Santa Fe in 1610. Nearly one hundred years later in 1706, a period during which the Spanish immigrant and mestizo populations had nearly succeeded in subjugating the indigenous peoples of the North, the colonial outpost of Albuquerque was founded. Thus we see the making of a dynamic that to this day creates cultural and political tensions in the state: more than 11% of the population are Native Peoples living on reservations; nearly 54% are Hispanics, including a substantial group of "Spaniards" who proudly trace their ancestry back to the 16th century and the arrival of the Europeans (New Mexico State Department of Education, 2001). In more recent times, anglos from all over the United States have settled in the state, particularly in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and other middle-size towns (36% of New Mexico students are anglos). And finally and particularly in the southern part of the state, undocumented immigrants from Mexico have begun to arrive in substantial numbers. To discuss rural education in New Mexico is first to understand that these groups, each with its unique history and interests, have distinct cultures-and often languages-with differing expectations for the education of their children. Summarizing the findings of his study in southwestern Nova Scotia coastal fishing villages, Mike Corbett (2009), in his article "Rural Schooling in Mobile Modernity: Returning to the Places I've Been" lays out several arguments, including the following: First, that formal education "has been and continues to be ... a key institution of 'disembedding,' loosening ties to particular locales and promoting out-migration from rural places" (p. 1). Second, the ambivalence about this process "is experienced in different ways by differently positioned social actors in the rural community" (p. 1). On the face of it, one might suppose that Nova Scotia and New Mexico would have little in common. And indeed, in terms of history, geography-and even language to some extent-they are quite distinct. Yet both are largely rural and thus confront economic and cultural trends that are increasingly common across rural North America. Following Corbett, in this commentary I take the opportunity to reflect on the implications of these arguments for rural people, rural communities, and rural schools in the context of the U.S. Southwest, in New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico today, including its suburban communities, has an estimated population of 700,000. Of New Mexico's nearly 2 million residents, Albuquerque, together with the other urban centers, now constitute nearly 70% of the state's population (U.S. Census, 2000). Not surprisingly, these urban areas have grown to be the commercial centers of the state and thus, because they offer greater economic opportunity, a magnet for people from all over, but particularly from rural areas. Nevertheless, New Mexico remains a highly rural state containing large areas with broadly dispersed populations and scatterings of small towns. What do these demographic and economic trends mean for rural New Mexicans, especially those who are Native and Hispanic? What role has rural education played in these demographic and economic trends? And what role might it play? Native Americans and Rural Education The history of Native peoples and formal schooling has been, until rather recently, a history of brutal dispossession and assimilation. …


Motor cortex is part of a network of central brain circuits that together enable robust, flexible, and efficient movement in mammals. Recent work has revealed rich dynamics in mammalian motor cortex 1–7 thought to underlie robust and flexible movements. These dynamics are a consequence of recurrent connectivity between individual cortical neuron subtypes8, but it remains unclear how such complex dynamics relate to individual cell types and how they covary with continuous behavioral features. We investigated this in mice, combining a self-paced, kinematically-variable, cortex-dependent, bimanual motor task 9,10 with large-scale neural recordings that included cell-type information. This revealed highly distributed correlates of movement execution across all layers of forelimb motor cortex and subcortical areas. However, we observed a surprising relative lack of modulation in the putative source of motor commands brain-stem projecting (pyramidal tract, PT) neurons 11. By contrast, striatal/cortical projecting (intratelencephalic, IT) neurons showed much stronger correlations with movement kinematics. Cell-type specific inactivation of PT neurons during movement execution had little effect on behavior whereas inactivation of IT neurons produced dramatic decreases in the speed and amplitude of forelimb movements. PT inactivation elicited rapid, compensatory changes in activity distributed across multiple cortical layers and subcortical regions helping to explain minimal effects of inactivation on behavior. This work illustrates how cortical-striatal population dynamics play a critical role in the control of movement while maintaining substantial flexibility in the extent to which PT projection neurons are a requisite contributor to descending motor commands.


Organic solar cells with a high degree of thermal stability require bulk-heterojunction blends that feature a high glass transition, which must occur considerably above the temperatures encountered during device fabrication and operation. Here, we demonstrate for the first time a polymer : fullerene blend with a glass transition temperature above 200 °C, which we determine by plasmonic nanospectroscopy. We achieve this strong tendency for glass formation through the use of an alloy of neat, unsubstituted C60 and C70, which we combine with the fluorothieno-benzodithiophene copolymer PTB7. A stable photovoltaic performance of PTB7 : C60 : C70 ternary blends is preserved despite annealing the active layer at up to 180 °C, which coincides with the onset of the glass transition. Rapid deterioration of the power conversion efficiency from initially above 5% only occurs upon exceeding the glass transition temperature of 224 °C of the ternary blend.


Prokaryotic life has dominated most of the evolutionary history of our planet, evolving to occupy virtually all available environmental niches. Extremophiles, especially those thriving under multiple extremes, represent a key area of research for multiple disciplines, spanning from the study of adaptations to harsh conditions, to the biogeochemical cycling of elements. Extremophile research also has implications for origin of life studies and the search for life on other planetary and celestial bodies. In this article, we will review the current state of knowledge for the biospace in which life operates on Earth and will discuss it in a planetary context, highlighting knowledge gaps and areas of opportunity.


Colorectal tumourigenesis is in the majority of cases regarded as a multistep process resulting in chromosomal instability.1 High-frequency microsatellite instability (MSI-H) can be detected in ∼15–20% of all sporadic colorectal cancers (CRCs) and represents the hallmark of the hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) syndrome. CRCs with MSI-H are caused by inactivation of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes leading to hundreds of insertion or deletion mutations in short segments of repeated nucleotide sequences, but no chromosomal instability. It has been speculated that abnormal peptides are generated as a consequence of these frameshift mutations, and one would expect a stimulation of the antitumour response by these tumour-associated antigens (TAAs).2 3 In fact, CRCs with MSI-H are associated with a markedly increased number of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) as compared with microsatellite-stable (MSS) tumours, and the favourable prognosis of patients with MSI-H cancer has been attributed to the high content of cytotoxic T cells.4

Over the past few years, CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) expressing the transcription factor forkhead box P3 (Foxp3) have been demonstrated to suppress T cell-mediated immunity to TAAs in various human tumours—for example, ovarian cancer.5 In mouse models, depletion of Treg cells using treatment with CD25-, GITR- or CTLA4-specific antibodies has resulted in improved antitumour immunity.6 In human CRC tissue samples, increased numbers of Treg cells as compared with normal mucosa have also been described, with a Treg cell infiltration rate slightly higher in patients without a systemic TAA-specific immune reaction.7 Despite successful induction of an immunological response, current protocols of immunotherapy and vaccination in CRC are not satisfactory.8 The poor response rate in patients with CRC may in part be due to the fact that immunosuppressive mechanisms conferred by Treg cells outweigh the beneficial effects of …


This essay describes the emergence of a 'reading formation' around a Finnish bestselling novel, Layla, investigating how a specific dominant reading of Layla was constructed with the help of different material supports - including TV programmes, blogs, newspapers, websites and advertising infrastructure. The essay sets out Tony Bennett's concept of reading formation and develops it in the context of twenty-first century reading environments, paying special attention to the transformations associated with digital media and the book's material supports. By making empirical use of actor-network theory, the essay suggests that contemporary reading formations should be perceived as hybrid networks of both human and non-human actors, technologies and texts. By focusing especially on the circulation of Layla's opening sentence across different material platforms, and describing its interaction with different actors, the essay depicts how certain interdependencies between different actors and material mechanisms controlled the proliferation of meanings around Layla. Thus, the essay investigates how specific culturalist meanings of Kurds as a violent and misogynist people were materially constructed at the expense of tendencies to polysemy in the text.


"Taking Back Eden" is the gripping tale of an idea - that ordinary people have the right to go to court to defend their environment - told through the stories of lawsuits brought in eight countries around the world. Starting in the United States in the 1960's, this idea is now traveling the planet, with impacts not just on imperiled environments but on systems of justice and democracy. It has brought people back into the question of governing the quality of their lives. Author Oliver Houck describes the sites under contention in their place and time, the people who rose up, their lawyers, strategies, obstacles, setbacks and victories. Written for general readers, students, and lawyers alike, "Taking Back Eden" tells the stories of a lone fisherman intent on protecting the Hudson River, a Philippine lawyer boarding illegal logging ships from the air, the Cree Indian Nation battling for its hunting grounds, and a civil rights attorney who set out to save the Taj Mahal. The cases turn on Shinto and Hindu religions, dictatorships in Greece and Chile, regime changes in Russia, and on a remarkable set of judges who saw a crisis and stepped up to meet it in similar ways. Spontaneously, without communication among each other, their protagonists created a new brand of law and hope for a more sustainable world.


Introduction A successful implementation of an information system is impossible without sufficient knowledge of available technical resources of an institute. The aim of this study was to determine technical feasibility of a nursing clinical information system (NCIS) in Mazandaran province, Iran, 2015. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in three steps. In the first step, a data gathering tool was developed through an unsystematic literature review. In the second step, a questionnaire was developed and validity of the tool was confirmed by receiving opinions of faculty members and calculating indices of Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR). The questionnaire reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α= 0.72). In the third step, the feasibility of implementation of NCIS was evaluated by forming a panel of IT experts (n= 30), and through a questionnaire. Data were collected by 5-point Likert scale, very low to very high (scoring 1–5). Scores of each item were calculated and score percentage was determined. Chi-square and Fisher Exact tests were used. Results Maximum possibility of implementing NCIS were in the hardware area, additional equipment (92.6%), in the area of software, financial software (99.4%), in the area of network equipment, the possibility of integration with other internal systems, (92.6%) and in the area of network security, the possibility of backup version for security purposes (97.4%). Type of employment was statistically significant according to IT experts' opinions (p= 0.014) Conclusion Hardware and software infrastructures for implementation of NCIS were desirable. The provision of more portable computers, advanced equipment such as barcode scanner, Radio-frequency identification (RFID), some approaches for increase accessibility of the system and essential databases from other resources and also increase of network lines' speed are necessary.


This chapter covers the acquired immune responses to two types of parasites. The first is the immune response associated with intracellular protozoa, and the principal examples will be Leishmania, Toxoplasma, and Trypanosoma cruzi. The chapter then discusses the immune responses associated with control of helminth infections, particularly focusing on gut-dwelling nematodes. The current model for macrophage activation is that IFN-γ primes cells, and additional signals, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF), trigger activation of the cell. The relative importance of IL-4 and IL-13 in resistance is also influenced by host genetic background and highlighted by studies in the Trichuris muris system. Here, IL-4KO mice on a C57BL/6 background are uniformly susceptible and develop chronic infections whereas WT mice expel their worm burden. This chapter reviews the effector mechanisms associated with resistance to a select group of parasites, particularly focusing on parasites that illustrate the diversity of effector mechanisms contributing to protective immunity. The immune responses required for eliminating intracellular protozoa are quite different from those required to control gut-dwelling nematodes and can be divided into type 1 and type 2 responses. However, while type 1 or type 2 responses may dominate following infection with intracellular protozoa or gut-dwelling nematodes, respectively, the effector mechanisms required for resistance to any one particular parasite are often tailored to the biological characteristics of that parasite, which in some cases remain to be defined.


This paper conducts a review of the literature concerning developmental states, in order to identify gaps and suggest research questions which could be fruitful for the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Consortium to explore, within the remit of their proposed research programme. This literature review attends to three key questions about developmental states and the answers proposed to them within the literature, namely; what worked? Why did it work? And would it work elsewhere? It also examines an emerging literature suggesting other models of a developmental state more suited to contemporary circumstances, which focus more explicitly on development as a social phenomenon rather than as a purely economic one. These are of particular interest given ESIDs focus on inclusive development. The conclusions of the paper examine some of the gaps in the literature and suggest an agenda for future research which includes addressing questions around: 'How does the consensus of conducting developmental roles come about – and how is it sustained?'; 'Patrimonialism, personal rule, development and stability'; 'Role of education, especially higher/further education'; 'Importance of rural/agriculture policies'.


This paper deals with the results of an experimental investigation of the split tensile strength with steel fiber blended with the high strength concrete (M60). The fiber content varied from 0.5 to 5 % by weight of cement at the interval of 0.5 %. Beams of 150mm x 150mm x 700 mm were tested for the flexural strength which was failed and broken in between middle third. The smaller broken piece was taken and tested for the split tensile test. A circulat bar of 6mm diameter was placed at a distance 150mm from the finished end and loaded till the failure and the tensile strength was found. Results and expressions by regression analysis are obtained. A significant improvement in the split tensile strengths is observed due to inclusion of steel fibers in the concrete.


A survey of the east Tasmanian coastline from Musselroe Bay to South East Cape reveals 10 km2 of Macrocystis pyrifera (L .) C. Agardh kelp forest. Average harvestable quantities based on Alginates (Australia) Company records (1965-72) show that cropping can expect to yield 2 tonnes hectare or 1.23 kg/m2. This realizes a total of 12,300 tonnes presently available on the East coast of Tasmania. Review of past records show fluctuations in total amounts harvested, due to factors such as high oceanic water temperatures with subsequent low nutrient concentrations and storm damage. If harvesting was to proceed, the beds would have to be closely monitored, indicating the implementation of limits, controls and a concurrent research program.


Microtargeting efforts practiced by political parties determine what kind of information sent by what type of messengers should be sent to constituents to increase their likelihood of voting or donating. A similar perspective is used in regard to higher education institutions' marketing tactics. The college experience is malleable and different for each person. Universities are interested in recruiting students. Therefore, the way they recruit students should also be shape-shifters to better match the desired characteristics a prospective student wants out of a school. Microtargeting in university marketing campaigns can allow institutions to distribute recruitment materials at a higher level of lifestyle compatibility to make their school more desirable. This study uses a fictional school, Fraser University, to test positive feelings toward manipulations of three types of university postcards. Positive affinities toward postcard manipulations were measured through selfreported Skill and Need survey responses. In this research, subgroups show different levels of positive feelings toward image and verbiage postcard manipulations. This study provides an existence proof that targeting appeals can have differing impact upon different segments of the population, suggesting that microtargeting has the potential for improved efforts in college recruiting. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Political Science First Advisor Jeffrey L. Bernstein


A new collection of crinoids and rhombiferans from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Lady Burn Starfish Beds of SW Scotland is small, yet contains several significant specimens. Two species hitherto known only from single specimens, the dendrocrinid cladid Cupulocrinus drummuckensis Kolata and the pisocrinid disparid Eocicerocrinus sevastopuloi Donovan, are represented by crowns retaining the proximal column. The latter species is the earliest member of an order that is otherwise known only from the Silurian and Devonian. Unusual preservation of the monobathrid camerate Macrostylocrinus cirrifer Ramsbottom, in which the radices (roots) of the proximal column are lost, but the delicate pinnules of the arms are preserved, is problematic. A long, contorted and gracile pluricolumnal is probably derived from a disparid, possibly E. sevastopuloi.


Antitrust law confronted the challenges of regulating interoperability between platforms and applications in both the AT&T and Microsoft cases, but it has yet to mine the series of lessons that can inform how to address this challenge going forward. With the Microsoft consent decree still in place, it may too soon to render a final judgment on the remedy adopted in that case as well as to evaluate more generally whether antitrust law is up to the task of developing the institutional strategies - be it the use of technical committees or reliance on standard setting bodies - for addressing interoperability concerns that are likely to increasingly arise in the information-based economy. Nonetheless, policymakers focused on the interoperability issue need to begin evaluating the possibilities and limits of antitrust law in this context. This Article argues that the effort to promote interoperability through antitrust oversight must grapple with a twin set of challenges. First, it must appreciate how standard setting bodies operate and how to bolster their effectiveness through appropriate government support and antitrust law oversight. Second, it must evaluate the comparative institutional competence of the available institutions that might play a role in different remedial strategies. If courts and enforcers can exercise increased creativity and develop effective remedial strategies, antitrust law can play an important role in avoiding the type of regulation that has generally governed network industries of critical importance to the economy. To be sure, it may be the case that regulating interoperability requires a regulatory authority to oversee the terms of access (as was the case in AT&T), but there are significant costs associated with moving towards an increased reliance on such authorities. Consequently, it is critically important that antitrust law - along with other institutions, such as standard setting bodies - grapple with the question of how to ensure effective oversight regarding access to a platform in a technologically dynamic environment.


The purpose of this article is to describe the challenges Sub-Saharan African women, including myself, have experienced in their pursuit of graduate studies in the United States and successes strategies that have been adopted. I begin by exploring brief overview of the education of girls and women in Sub-Saharan African countries. I then explore the successes of women in achieving their learning goals by sharing my story of challenges and successes. In addition, I examine some narratives of African women as they negotiate their identity as custodians of African cultures as well as their transformation learning as a framework for change. I conclude with a discussion of how African educational policies might be changed to provide women with more opportunities in higher education and what the US universities' educators might do to support African women in their studies. A Brief Overview of Girls' and Women's Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Women's subordinate status and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa are explicitly connected to European colonialism. McCullum (2005) argues that many African education systems still reflect the colonial period and are failing to keep up with modern pedagogy and teaching resources. According to Shabaya and Kwandwo (2004), deep-seated cultural barriers have conspired to create and perpetuate gender disparity in access to education in many African countries. Many families in sub-Sahara Africa devote great investments in education for boys than for girls. Limited participation or girls and women in education at all levels in many Sub-Saharan African countries are reflections of traditional and societal norms. Sifuna, (2006) asserts that such norms often influence parents' unwillingness to send their daughters to school even when they could afford it. In a four-country study conducted in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania, Adetunde and Akensina (2008) found "education of girls in the rural areas is less valued compared to that of boys. Prevalent factors include: socio-cultural barriers, early marriages, cultural perceptions of boys' superior abilities, lack of parental support and many others are the constraints to female education" (p. 339). Research conducted by Assie-Lumumba (2006) observes indisputable evidence of gender inequality in education access and opportunity and how that inequality is filtered through rigid cultural and traditional systems that continue to negatively affect women. However, educating girls translates into educated women which in turn provide benefits for the broader society. These benefits include "increased economic productivity, improvements in health, delayed age at marriage, lower fertility, increased political participation, and generally more effective investments in the next generation" (Population Council, 2005, p. 1). Kellogg, Hervy, and Yizengaw, (2008) emphasize that higher education provides the means through which women and other historically disadvantaged groups can achieve positions of leadership and increase their economic well-being, thereby, having a long-term impact on overall productivity and equality of opportunity. In order to understand the challenges African women face in their pursuit of higher education in the United States, research on personal narratives has been conducted to illustrate their educational journey, challenges as well successes. In a sense, narratives afford participants the opportunity to reflect on their livelihood experiences and share those moments and events with the world. The Power of Narrative Narratives allow sharing of lived experiences while constructing meaning of those particular experiences. One constraint experienced by many African women graduate students is the need to manage the demands of a marriage, family, and graduate school. Beoku-Betts (2004) argues that men in African societies are privileged and do not expect to contribute to domestic labor and childcare. …


The current study drew on a large and diverse body of literature on social capital and aimed to understand its role in the process of transition from college to work. In particular, this research studied the cumulative effects of social capital formed in high school years and college years and examined its relationship with job outcomes. The study used the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to examine whether early investment in the social capital of young adolescents produced better job outcomes in their adulthood. Families and schools were two primary sources of social capital considered in the current study. Parental involvement in a young person's life, extra-curricular activities and participation in volunteer organizations were some of the forms of social capital hypothesized to influence job outcomes after college. Structural equations modeling was used to trace the effects of the presence of social capital as early as the 8 grade in shaping student's later career status. The longitudinal data measured social capital beginning in the 8 grade and every 2 years thereafter, so that the cumulative effects of the social capital resources were investigated. Overall, the hypothesized model was found to fit the data and the findings have suggested a set of positive and direct effects of social capital on job outcomes.


This watchfulness aim is that is to detects patient satisfaction on region hospital service quality dr. regency isaac Tulungagung. data analyzer that used that is customer satisfaction index (customer satisfaction indexs). Based on customer satisfaction index calculation result (customer satisfaction indexs) that is with do comparison between performance that feeled (perceived performance) and hope (expectations) by patient on hospital quality dr. regency isaac Tulungagung that given so patient satisfaction level. respondent conception towards service quality especially hit variable tangibles or direct proof, where patients that felt very satisfied as much as 58 respondents, felt satisfied as much as 20 respondents and patients that felt not satisfied that is as much as 22 patients. hit variable reliability/ reliability knowable that patient that felts very satisfied that is as much as 53 patients, as much as 23 patients felts satisfied while as much as 24 patients felt not satisfied. satisfaction level patients hits variable responsiveness/ power, where be elaborated that as much as 59 respondents felt very satisfied, as much as 21 respondents felts satisfied and 20 respondents felts not satisfied on service that given in this case hit variable responsiveness/ power. conception patients towards variable assurance/ guarantee knowable that as much as 16 patients felt very satisfied, as much as 12 patients felts satisfied while as much as 72 patients felt not satisfied. performance can prove that a large part patients felt not satisfied on doctor precision in disease, recipe maker precision that done by doctor, completion medical device that is used to diagnose disease, doctor accuracy in diagnose disease and ability doctors so that doesn't happen mal practice. conception patients hit variable attention knowable that as much as 11 patients felt very satisfied, as much as 11 patients felts satisfied and as much as 78 patients felts not satisfied on service hits variable attention. Based on conclusion from watchfulness result that done so submitted several suggestions that is supposed hospital side dr. regency isaac Tulungagung to be more pay attention on precision doctors to do disease diagnosis, to repair on system and service procedure that given to patient, the mentioned is done in effort to give guarantee towards satisfaction patients on service that given. wisdom done because during the time patients felts not satisfied on service quality that given related to service that give by employee. in order to for control on quality that given so supposed supposed hospital management side to has prepared suggestion box on service that given. Keyword : Kepuasan dan Kualitas Pelayanan Link Terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/319/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-yanugintal-15942-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


35 JPT • NOVEMBER 2017 Thanks to the advent of high-speed drilling in the US shale sector, the effects of so-called frac hits on production and well economics is becoming more important than ever. It means the clock is running for shale producers to figure out how to mitigate the implications of this well-to-well interference issue before they drill too many wells too close together. Multiple perspectives on the topic were presented at this year's Unconventional Resources Technology Conference in Austin, Texas. Included among them was a technical paper authored by engineers at Shell that used a simple capital expenditure formula to illustrate the financial risks involved with getting the spacing question wrong. According to the paper's authors, if a shale producer has an inventory of 2,000 640-acre drilling sections, and each new well costs $5 million, then adding just a single unneeded well to each section would cost the operator $10 billion. In a separate paper also delivered at the conference, Schlumberger highlighted the other downside to suboptimal spacing: poorer than expected production. The company analyzed IHS data from 300 horizontal wells in the Avalon Shale of the Delaware Basin and found that child wells (the youngest wells on a pad site) were almost 30% less productive compared with parent wells. "[Operators] see that the child well does not produce as much as the parent wells—or they see that when the child well is drilled, there is a negative impact on the parent well," explained Foluke Ajisafe, a production and stimulation engineer at Schlumberger who led the study. The driving factors she cited were how production over time creates stress rotation and leads to pressure depletion zones, known as pressure sinks. The paper describes two types of frac hits: one is a child well fracture that grows within a pressure sink and moves toward the parent well. The other involves a "stress vortex" that "can channel a fracture" as stress orientations change and align.


Local, activity-dependent changes in excitability are thought to play a role in various aspects of neuromodulation. Translation of dendritically localized messenger RNAs is one way for a neuron to modify its excitability and signal processing machinery at or near active synapses. Raab-Graham et al. used photoconvertible fluorophores to show that potassium channels are locally translated in dendrites. This local translation is regulated by N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor activation via the mammalian target of rapamycin/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling pathway. K. F. Raab-Graham, P. C. G. Haddick, Y. N. Jan, L. Y. Jan, Activity- and mTOR-dependent suppression of Kv1.1 channel mRNA translation in dendrites. Science 314, 144-148 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


It is sometimes alleged that Justice John Paul Stevens is hostile to religion. In fact, however, Justice Stevens espouses a position with religious roots and enthusiastically embraces a distinct conception of religion. This casts doubt on the claim, made in different ways by Eduardo Penalver and Christopher Eisgruber, that the fundamental concern of his religion clause jurisprudence is equality. At least as important to him is protecting religion from corruption by the state. Stevens's position, in order to be consistent, ought to acknowledge, more forthrightly than he does, that it treats religion as a distinctive human good. Any notion of corruption implies a norm or ideal state from which the corruption is a falling off. An invocation of the corruption rationale presupposes that religion is a good thing deserving of protection. To call this view hostile to religion is confused to the point of perversity.


Financial sector of Pakistan undergoes massive reforms in the 90s. The primary aim of reforms is to privatized state-owned institutions, abolish entry barriers for new players, which consequently increase the efficiency of the whole system. This study uses an unbalanced panel of 21 commercial banks listed at Pakistan stock exchange over the period of 2000 to 2017 from Bankscope and Bloomberg. This research aims to measure the effect of ownership, competition and, governance on banks efficiency. A graphical representation shows an increasing trend in both foreign ownership and efficiency over the sample period. I found a higher efficiency of private banks in comparison to state-owned counterparts. The empirical analysis suggests that an increase in foreign ownership and institutional ownership impact positively on all measures of efficiency. The relationship between competition and efficiency supports "competition-efficiency hypothesis" and proposed regulatory measures to deregulate the market further. Additionally, banks who score high on governance measures tend to be more efficient than those with low governance scores. These findings imply that there is a need to regulate the bigger banks and ease the market entry for foreign and institutional owners to promote governance practice and hence efficiency. Key-Words: Bank, Ownership Structure, Competition, Governance, Efficiency, Data Envelopment analysis.


Nitric oxide synthases (NOS) are flavoheme enzymes with important roles in biology. The reductase domain of neuronal NOS (nNOSr) contains a widely conserved acidic residue (Asp(1393)) that is thought to facilitate hydride transfer between NADPH and FAD. Previously we found that the D1393V and D1393N mutations lowered the NO synthesis activity and the rates of heme and flavin reduction in full-length nNOS. To examine the mechanisms for these results in greater detail, we incorporated D1393V and D1393N substitutions into nNOSr along with a truncated NADPH-FAD domain construct (FNR) and characterized the mutants. D1393V nNOSr had markedly lower (<or=1000x) cytochrome c reductase, ferricyanide reductase, and NADPH oxidase activities than the wild type. D1393N nNOSr also had lower reductase activities (<or=10x) but had greater NADPH oxidase activity than that of the wild type, as did its FNR fragment. Both mutants had an altered interaction between FAD and the nicotinamide ring of NADP(+), slower flavin reduction by NADPH, altered FAD midpoint potentials, a normal CaM response, and, in one case (D1393N), faster flavin oxidation by O(2) and a lack of FMN shielding in response to NADPH binding. The results suggest that the two mutants have compromised catalysis for two different reasons. In D1393V nNOSr, hydride transfer from NADPH to FAD is so slow that it compromises all downstream electron-transfer events. In D1393N nNOSr, the increased oxidation of reduced flavins by O(2) and thermodynamic destabilization of the FAD semiquinone uncouples or limits electron transfer to an extent that it inhibits downstream catalysis. These effects are due in part to the mutations eliminating (D1393V) or altering (D1393N) the native side-chain hydrogen-bonding properties of Asp(1393) as well as removing its negative charge.


The emerging problem of water pollution (a persistent challenge worldwide) is leading researchers to find a convenient cheap, and efficient solution for water purification. The presence of toxic metal ions, organic pollutants, and bacteria in water leads to damage to the ecosystem. The industrial revolution and advances in technology have led to many new developments, but this also means that water pollution is on the rise from industrial waste. 1 For example, industrial battery waste does not get recycled and contaminates water reservoirs via landfill waste, which plays an instrumental role in water pollution. Battery waste is primarily the origin of heavy and toxic metal ions, such as Cd+2, Ni+2, Pb+2, Hg+2, Co+2, Cu+2, and Li+ , and others, which contribute to the problem of water pollution. Ideas have been proposed to build novel hierarchically ordered porous nanocomposites with distinctive properties and applications. 2 However, such nanocomposites have not been utilized due to their low surface area, poor ion-exchange properties, and low hydrothermal stability. In this study, crystalline zeolite ZSM-5 (particle sizes 100-150 nm) nanoparticles were used as building blocks to develop hierarchically ordered porous magnetic nanocomposites. These nanocomposites were characterized with a high surface area (327 m2 /g), a crystalline (~83%) wall structure, high ion-exchange efficiency, and superparamagnetism [Ms = 33 emu/g, mr/ms (squareness) = 0.02]. These nanocomposites were used for the removal of toxic metal ions in an easy, one-step magnetic separation technique for re-usability of the nanocomposites. The magnetic nanocomposites were further employed to incorporate titanium dioxide and silver nanoparticles to introduce two additional properties, i.e. photocatalytic and antimicrobial properties, for the removal of organic pollutants and the inhibition of bacterial infections in water, respectively. Similarly, polymer-based commercial resins (cationic: Amberlite and iv Amberjet; anionic: Ambersep) were used to develop organic-inorganic hybrid nanocomposites by introducing iron oxide (superparamagnetic properties) and titanium dioxide (photocatalytic properties) nanoparticles in order to develop multifunctional applications for the nanocomposites. The ion-exchange capacity of hybrid nanocomposites was tested alongside novel hierarchically ordered porous nanocomposites for the selective removal of specific toxic metal ions from water. The reduction of As (V) and As (III) ions was evaluated as around 100% and 95%, respectively, from a concentration of 1000 ppm in water. Hierarchically ordered porous alumina-silicate (HOPAS) nanocomposites exhibited higher efficiency in comparison to commercial resins. Hierarchically ordered porous alumina-titano-silicate (HOPATS) nanocomposites were also developed for the first time as novel nanocomposites with similar characteristics (macropore sizes 400-500 nm with interconnecting windows, crystalline wall, BET surface area value of around 218 m2 /g,) to HOPAS. HOPATS nanocomposites were further used for the selective oxidation of cyclooctene to epoxide (cyclooctene oxides, around 19% selectivity), using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizing agent. The ion-exchange efficiency of these nanocomposites was extensively studied for removing Cd+2, Pb+2, and Ni+2 ions from water. In addition, the other cations, such as Cu+2, Co+2, Zn+2, Hg+2, and Li+ , were also tested. The removal efficiency of these ions using the HOPAS nanocomposite was found to be around 100%, which was slightly higher than hybrid inorganic-organic nanocomposites (HIONC) and nanocrystalline pure ZSM-5. Titanium incorporated materials such as Ti-HOPAS, magnetic Ti-HOPAS, and modified hybrid resins (Ambersep and Amberjet) were tested for the degradation of methylene blue, which resulted in a reduction of the initial concentration of 3.5 μM to 0.45, 0.41, 0.34, and 0 μM, respectively. Thus, HOPAS and other modified hybrid forms of resins were successfully applied to multiple applications, hence defining these nanocomposites as 'multifunctional'.