Accurately targeting multi-adjacent points (MAPs) during image-guided percutaneous procedures is challenging due to needle deflection and misalignment. The associated errors can result in inadequate treatment of cancer in the case of prostate brachytherapy, or inaccurate diagnosis during biopsy, while repeated insertions increase procedure time, radiation dose, and complications. To address these challenges, we present an image-guided robotic system capable of MAP targeting of irregularly shaped volumes after a single insertion of a percutaneous instrument. The design of the compact CT-compatible drive mechanism is based on a nested screw and screw-spline combination that actuates a straight outer cannula and a curved inner stylet that can be repeatedly straightened when retracted inside the cannula. The stylet translation and cannula rotation/translation enable a 3-D workspace to be reached with the stylet's tip. A closed-form inverse kinematics and image-to-robot registration are implemented in an image-guided system including a point-and-click user interface. The complete system is successfully evaluated with a phantom under a Siemens Definition Flash CT scanner. We demonstrate that the system is capable of MAP targeting for a 2-D shape of the letter "H" and a 3-D helical pattern with an average targeting error of 2.41 mm. These results highlight the benefit and efficacy of the proposed robotic system in seed placement during image-guided brachytherapy.


The question of how to educate our youth has been a tradition in philosophy since the time of the ancients and now has become highly debated issue in contemporary society. While answers to this problem take on many different forms, there is a way to interpret much of the canon as arguing for an education that strives to pass down the ability to learn on one's own. 'How educators are supposed to support such an aim,' is the primary question of this work. To thoroughly answer this question, many aspects of education must be considered: classroom behavior, curriculum, theories of learning, teaching, and evaluation. These problems are addressed in the spirit of a constructivist view on education and are supported foundationally by philosophical arguments - primarily Wilfrid Sellars's views regarding the process of becoming a language user. Accepting Sellars's model of language acquisition and a modern view on the nature of knowledge, an immersive approach to 'learning how to learn' is taken. Designing a curriculum that emulates a structure of knowledge, slow and thorough inculcation of creative and critical thinking skills, and taking seriously the notion of teaching as a practice are all central themes to the proposed system. Elaborating on how to bring these pieces together into one view on education is the fundamental thread of the work, though, secondarily, there is discussion of harmful practices that are current in education. To actualize a system that truly aims at learning, it will be argued that grades and standardized tests are methods of evaluating that must be disabused. The argument for this is that their affectation on the attitudes of students and teachers has an undermining effect on the educational ideology that is central to this thesis. Bringing all of these parts together, the hope is to not only build an educational ideal with a system that inculcates students with the ability to properly learn, but also provide for an institution that supports human flourishing.


This article explores whether human rights may be includ-ed in competition analysis. To do so it first explores the reasons for which modern competition law prefers certain individual rights over others. The article then investigates the connection between competition law and human rights with reference to the rights to health and food to argue that whilst there is merit in the argument that competition law may serve as a tool for realising these rights there are also obstacles in this regard, including the issue of justiciability of these rights, the difficulty of including non-economic factors in competition analysis, the question of institutional capacity and competence and, most importantly, the core philosophy of competition itself. The article concludes by arguing that even if the mechanisms for doing so are not fully clear, it is necessary for competition law of the future to look beyond consumer welfare to check the abuse of market power in whichever form it occurs.


We study collective excitations of a trapped Fermi gas at finite temperature using the Bogoliubov-deGennes mean-field theory in conjunction with the generalized random phase approximation. The collective excitations are analyzed through the density response of a monopole excitation. We show the appearance of several modes at the normal fluid - superfluid phase transition temperature: Higgs mode-like pairing amplitude modulations, analogues of the second sound in the trapped gas, and an edge mode that is also the strongest mode in the response.


Significant advance of the state-of-the-art performance of a TM-mode amplifying optical waveguide isolator, operating at 1300nm wavelength, has been achieved. The magnetooptical Kerr effect induces non-reciprocal modal absorption in a semiconductor optical amplifier with a magnetized ferromagnetic metal contact. Current injection in the active structure compensates the loss in the forward propagation direction. Monolithic integration of this isolator with active photonic devices is straightforward. The improvement comes from the combination of a novel AlGaInAs/InP active material, the metal alloy Co50Fe50 and modification of the device fabrication. Design, fabrication and characterization are presented.


In their 'common disease – rare alleles' hypothesis McClellan et al (2007) come close to formulating an untestable theory. Although they refer to currently fashionable 'candidate genes' – e.g. dysbindin, neuregulin and DISC1 – it appears that they do not regard these as established. I agree that there is no consistency in the findings across even the largest genome scans conducted to date (sample sizes exceeding 300 and totally over 1000 sib-pairs; Crow, 2007) but disagree profoundly about the alternative. We know that in schizophrenia: (a) incidences are more uniform across populations as one moves to the core syndrome, e.g. nuclear symptoms (Jablensky et al, 1992); (b) structural brain changes (e.g. ventricular enlargement) are consistent across populations (Chua et al, 2003) and uniform across patients relative to controls (Vita et al, 2000); (c) age at onset has a specific distribution throughout the reproductive phase of life; (d) there are gender differences (earlier onset and worse outcome in males); (e) the core syndrome comprises symptoms that are language related (i.e. specific to Homo sapiens). None of these findings would be expected if schizophrenia were a result of random mutations in a large number of genes such as McClellan et al postulate, nor would one expect variation in the form of illness within families as is generally observed. While McClellan et al's hypothesis promises a search for elusive rare alleles that will never reach a conclusion, Craddock et al (2007) perseverate in their claim that 'Several genes have been implicated repeatedly as conferring risk for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder'. Comparison of the largest and most systematic linkage studies, including those of Craddock et al themselves, shows that these claims cannot be sustained (Crow, 2007). Alternative hypotheses to the 'rare alleles of major effect' and the 'polygenes of small effect' deserve consideration. One such hypothesis (Crow, 2007) is that the variation arises in relation to characteristics that are specifically human, i.e. recent in evolution, and that it is 'epigenetic' in form, i.e. involves a modification of the sequence (methylation of DNA) or the associated chromosomal structure (methylation, phosphorylation or acetylation of histones) rather than a change in the DNA sequence itself. We do know that the risk for firstdegree relatives is approximately 10%, whereas that for second-degree relatives is very little increased compared with the population as a whole. Although this is often held to be consistent with polygenic influence, it is also compatible with an 'imprint' that is applied and reapplied in meiosis (i.e. with a short time course between generations). The solution proposed is that the variation arises in relation to the change (speciation event) that defined the species, and that this is associated with the cerebral torque – the bias from right frontal to left occipital across the anteroposterior axis that is characteristic of the human brain. In contrast to McClellan et al's rare alleles and Craddock et al's polygenes of small effect, this hypothesis is specific and refutable – a gene has been identified that duplicated at 6 million years from the X to the Y chromosome to give rise to the ProtocadherinX/Y gene pair. This pair has been subject to accelerated evolution since the duplication event (Williams et al, 2006) and is in an unusual situation with respect to epigenetic modulation. This variation can be assessed and the hypothesis thereby tested.


This paper presents an approach to the development of specialized Internet portals providing content-based access to systematized knowledge and information resources, relating to a certain branch of science. The information basis of such portals is formed by ontologies, containing the description of scientific and research activity as a whole as well as description of some branch of science, and descriptions of the Internet resources which are relevant to ontologies of the portal. The operation of such a portal is based on a multi-agent system which uses the ontologies and supports both a search for the necessary information in the information space of the portal and automatic update of the portal's content with new knowledge and information resources.


Once a living language in Trinidad, Portuguese is no longer considered by its speakers and their descendants to be vital to their existence. The Portuguese speech community became vulnerable to language imposition from the wider society, and Portuguese itself has been fully displaced by English. The process of language death spanned two to three generations, resulting from the intertwining of psychological and social causes – particularly member core values, and the pressure of assimilation.

The Portuguese language survived in only a few Trinidadian families which are the products of twentieth century immigration, or in which each generation had at least one immigrant. An analysis of the community's history and demographics serves to show unstable levels of immigration, as well as social mixing that took place through intermarriage. Linguistic change and loss ultimately resulted from such intermixtures, and the community was left exposed to the linguistic norms and values of the outer society, which it adopted to the neglect of its own.

Lexico-semantic and phonological analyses of the language spoken by creoles show evidence of language atrophy in progress, compared to the language brought by the Madeirans. The few lexico-semantic domains that remain are now disappearing. The informants exhibit varying levels of knowledge of the language. The analysis shows systematic linguistic changes, including regular patterns of reduction, as well as isolated changes at the individual level.

Within the contact situation, English was perceived as the language of power, prestige, and possibilities for advancement, which militated against language maintenance in the Portuguese community. The low social status of the original migrants was passed on to the language which was also locally devalued. Language attitudes, in combination with socio-historical factors, are the causes of the shift to English and of the death of Portuguese in Trinidad and Tobago.


BACKGROUND
Asthma is a common long-term breathing condition that affects approximately 300 million people worldwide. People with asthma may experience short-term worsening of their asthma symptoms; these episodes are often known as 'exacerbations', 'flare-ups', 'attacks' or 'acute asthma'. Oral steroids, which have a potent anti-inflammatory effect, are recommended for all but the most mild asthma exacerbations; they should be initiated promptly. The most often prescribed oral steroids are prednisolone and dexamethasone, but current guidelines on dosing vary between countries, and often among different guideline producers within the same country. Despite their proven efficacy, use of steroids needs to be balanced against their potential to cause important adverse events. Evidence is somewhat limited regarding optimal dosing of oral steroids for asthma exacerbations to maximise recovery while minimising potential side effects, which is the topic of this review.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the efficacy and safety of any dose or duration of oral steroids versus any other dose or duration of oral steroids for adults and children with an asthma exacerbation.

SEARCH METHODS
We identified trials from the Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register (CAGR), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.ClinicalTrials.gov), the World Health Organization (WHO) trials portal (www.who.int/ictrp/en/) and reference lists of all primary studies and review articles. This search was up to date as of April 2016.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included parallel randomised controlled trials (RCTs), irrespective of blinding or duration, that evaluated one dose or duration of oral steroid versus any other dose or duration, for management of asthma exacerbations. We included studies involving both adults and children with asthma of any severity, in which investigators analysed adults and children separately. We allowed any other co-intervention in the management of an asthma exacerbation, provided it was not part of the randomised treatment. We included studies reported as full text, those published as abstract only and unpublished data.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently screened the search results for included trials, extracted numerical data and assessed risk of bias; all data were cross-checked for accuracy. We resolved disagreements by discussion with the third review author or with an external advisor.We analysed dichotomous data as odds ratios (ORs) or risk differences (RDs) using study participants as the unit of analysis; we analysed continuous data as mean differences (MDs). We used a random-effects model, and we carried out a fixed-effect analysis if we detected statistical heterogeneity. We rated all outcomes using the GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) system and presented results in 'Summary of findings' tables.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 18 studies that randomised a total of 2438 participants - both adults and children - and performed comparisons of interest. Included studies assessed higher versus lower doses of prednisolone (n = 4); longer versus shorter courses of prednisolone (n = 3) or dexamethasone (n = 1); tapered versus non-tapered courses of prednisolone (n = 4); and prednisolone versus dexamethasone (n = 6). Follow-up duration ranged from seven days to six months. The smallest study randomised just 15 participants, and the largest 638 (median 93). The varied interventions and outcomes reported limited the number of meaningful meta-analyses that we could perform.For two of our primary outcomes - hospital admission and serious adverse events - events were too infrequent to permit conclusions about the superiority of one treatment over the other, or their equivalence. Researchers in the included studies reported asthma symptoms in different ways and rarely used validated scales, again limiting our conclusions. Secondary outcome meta-analysis was similarly hampered by heterogeneity among interventions and outcome measures used. Overall, we found no convincing evidence of differences in outcomes between a higher dose or longer course and a lower dose or shorter course of prednisolone or dexamethasone, or between prednisolone and dexamethasone.Included studies were generally of reasonable methodological quality. Review authors assessed most outcomes in the review as having low or very low quality, meaning we are not confident in the effect estimates. The predominant reason for downgrading was imprecision, but indirectness and risk of bias also reduced our confidence in some estimates.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Evidence is not strong enough to reveal whether shorter or lower-dose regimens are generally less effective than longer or higher-dose regimens, or indeed that the latter are associated with more adverse events. Any changes recommended for current practice should be supported by data from larger, well-designed trials. Varied study design and outcome measures limited the number of meta-analyses that we could perform. Greater emphasis on palatability and on whether some regimens might be easier to adhere to than others could better inform clinical decisions for individual patients.


Our previous theory for calculating the scattering pattern from a single aggregate of spheres deposited on a dielectric substrate is extended to deal with a dispersion of identical aggregates onto the substrate with a random distribution of their orientations. To this end the definition of the transition matrix of an aggregate is generalized to take account of the presence of the substrate; then the transformation properties under rotation of the newly defined transition matrix are used to perform analytically the required orientational averages. When the patterns calculated with this theory are compared with the calculations for a single aggregate, it can easily be seen that the features that reveal the anisotropy of the scatterers are not canceled by the averaging procedure.


Finding Homo nearly 3 million years ago The fossil record of humans is notoriously patchy and incomplete. Even so, skeletal remains and artifacts unearthed in Africa in recent decades have done much to illuminate human evolution. But what is the origin of the genus Homo? Villmoare et al. found a fossil mandible and teeth from the Afar region in Ethiopia. The find extends the record of recognizable Homo by at least half a million years, to almost 2.8 million years ago. The morphological traits of the fossil align more closely with Homo than with any other hominid genus. DiMaggio et al. confirm the ancient date of the site and suggest that these early humans lived in a setting that was more open and arid than previously thought. Science, this issue p. 1352, p. 1355 A fossil mandible and teeth from Ethiopia extend the record of the genus Homo by almost 0.5 million years. Our understanding of the origin of the genus Homo has been hampered by a limited fossil record in eastern Africa between 2.0 and 3.0 million years ago (Ma). Here we report the discovery of a partial hominin mandible with teeth from the Ledi-Geraru research area, Afar Regional State, Ethiopia, that establishes the presence of Homo at 2.80 to 2.75 Ma. This specimen combines primitive traits seen in early Australopithecus with derived morphology observed in later Homo, confirming that dentognathic departures from the australopith pattern occurred early in the Homo lineage. The Ledi-Geraru discovery has implications for hypotheses about the timing and place of origin of the genus Homo.


A series of studies aimed to examine the role of perceived behavioural control in
Ajzen's (1985) Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in a physical activity context
with children aged 12-14 years. A broader, more differentiated role of perceived
control was envisaged in the theory based on the conceptualisation of control and
perceived competence put forward by Skinner (1995). The first two studies examined
the role of control with respect to the TPB model variables and past behaviour. Study
1 investigated the relations between intention, behaviour, attitude, subjective norms
and perceived behavioural control in 181 children. It was hypothesised that attitude,
perceived control and subjective norms would be related to intention and intention to
behaviour. In addition, it was hypothesised that the covariation between control and
attitude observed in previous studies could be better explained by the specification of
a direct path between perceived control and attitude. Path analysis confirmed the
theoretical relations between the TPB variables and, uniquely, the existence of a
perceived control- attitude path forming a triadic arrangement with attitude and
intention. It was concluded that perceived control governed two routes to the
formation of intentions: a direct, spontaneousp ath and an indirect, more deliberative
path via attitudes. This relationship was subsequently confirmed in a sample of 382
children in Study 2 using latent measures of attitude and control. The study
demonstrated that direct attitude-intention and attitude-behaviour paths regulated the
intention-behaviour relationship and attenuated the control -intention relationship to
zero. Further, past behaviour predicted control but not intentions or prospective
behaviour suggesting that perceived control includes judgements regarding previous
control experiences. Since Studies I and 2 indicated the diverse influence of control
on the TPB variables, Study 3 diversified the perceived control variable according to
Skinner's (1995) conceptualisation of control. This was achieved through the
inclusion of a measure of self-efficacy alongside perceived control in a study of 1152
children. The resulting non-standard model using both latent and observed measures,
indicated that self-efficacy regulated the control-intention relationship, while control
remained an indirect predictor of intention via attitudes. It was concluded that the
spontaneous pathway was largely due to the aspects of control related to past
experiences of confidence or self-efficacy. This justified the diversification of the
perceived control variable and indicated that when young people consider the control
they have over certain behaviours, they refer to a number of different perceptions. To
further examine the role of perceived control and examine the origins of the cognitive
variables in the TPB, Study 4 examined perceived control from a human needs
perspective in 1088 children. The measures included more general, domain-specific rather than behaviour- specific measures of perceived control and locus of causality
(PLOC). The latter variables represented the human needs for competence and
autonomy, which are hypothesised to be motivational in nature (Deci & Ryan, 1985).
Results indicated that relative autonomy predicted perceived behavioural control and
attenuated the control-intention relationship to zero. This suggested that autonomy
was the driving force behind the process of intern ali sation, in which a person
assimilates a behaviour by continual competence satisfying experiences. A final study
aimed to confirm the triadic relationships between attitude, perceived control and
intention in the TPB by a cumulative analysis of these relationships using the data
from Studies 1-4. Meta-analytical techniques were used to produce cumulative
correlations corrected for measurement and sampling error between the TPB
relationships. Results indicated that the variation in the correlations may have been
due to more than just sampling error, indicating the existence of moderating variables.
A path analysis using these correlations indicated that the atti tude- intention
relationship in the triadic arrangement tended to be attenuated by the control-intention
relationship. This series of studies indicate that Perceived behavioural control is an
important and diverse predictor of intention in the TPB. In particular, control was
shown to be an antecedent of attitudes as well as a direct predictor of intentions and
that spontaneous intention formation from control perceptions may have been due to
self-efficacy beliefs and past behavioural beliefs being encompassed by perceived
control. Finally, the adoption of self-determination theory indicated that more general
motives for engaging in physical activity behaviour were antecedent variables of
control, attitudes and intention from a social cognitive approach. Such theories helped
interpret the relationships in the TPB, in particular the role of control as an important
variable in the process of internalisation.


Abstract: There have been many recent studies set up to examine the characteristics of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Sleeping Disorders (SDO), some separately and others to determine whether or not there is a link between them. To control behavior, medication is the most frequent method of treatment for ADHD, even though there is not yet an understanding of long-term effects of chemical intervention. The pharmaceutical industry funds most of these studies on ADHD, beginning with a hypothesis to determine a deficit in character, assigning a label, and proceeding to correct with a prescription. The diagnosis of ADHD is generally based on parent and caregiver's reports of child behavior and has been steadily increasing over the past several decades. Thus far, there have been few studies that explore the relationships and environmental contributions to the problem behaviors identified in both conditions. This paper suggests that ADHD and SDO have relational implications that originate prior to and during the birth process. This paper explores recent studies that have identified the symptoms common of ADHD and SDO and question the validity of the diagnosis and the use of medication to treat the symptoms. Keywords: ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, SDO, Sleep Disorders Introduction Attention Deficit Hyper-Activity Disorder is a relatively new term used to describe children's behavior and is frequently used as a label and a "diagnosis." Diagnosis of ADHD in children has increased over the past decades (Prosser, 2006, Robinson, Sciar, Skaer & Galin, 1999). Prosser, a researcher and educator in Australia, suggests that ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder among schoolaged children (Posser, 2006, p. 2). The reason for this trend is not clear, but some studies attempt to provide evidence that supports a crossgenerational link, whether through family patterns, social constructs, or genetic transmissions. More recent studies explore the neurological aspects of ADHD to identify areas of the brain that are affected (Owens, 2008). Concurrent studies focus on sleep disorders (SDO) and are recognizing common patterns in children suffering from sleep disorders and children diagnosed with ADHD (Stuart, 2007). The common characteristics of Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are behaviors of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity that interfere with academic and social functioning. However, to consider the behaviors characteristic of ADHD and SDO as psychiatric disorders may be misguided dogma that eludes humane treatment and ignores the intrinsic needs of the child. Identifying characteristics such as attention span and activity levels and attributing these personality traits to be out of the range of typical developmental may say more about professional interests and beliefs than the experiences of the children. Professionals and researchers are committed to share and apply their knowledge, which is often biased and focused on a single question that has limited parameters. The current development of research regarding ADHD tends to focus on establishing that a link between symptoms and the neurobiology of brain function exists and can be corrected or changed with a chemically derived substitute. Incidence of children diagnosed with ADHD is a growing phenomenon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, reviewed in May 2010, indicate parents reported children diagnosed with ADHD increased by 22% between 2003 and 2007. A Canadian population health study published in 2005, states that 338,400 or 6.4% of children aged five to seventeen are labeled as having ADHD (Waddell, Shepherd, & McLauchlin, 2007, p. 45). An Australian study finds that three to six percent of school-aged children are diagnosed with ADHD (Prosser, 2006, p. 2). An earlier study found that the number of doctor office-based visits, documenting a diagnosis of ADHD increased from 1. …


ABSTRACT PE and PPE proteins appear to be important for virulence and immunopathogenicity in mycobacteria, yet the functions of the PE/PPE domains remain an enigma. To decipher the role of these domains, we have characterized the triacylglycerol (TAG) hydrolase LipY from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is the only known PE protein expressing an enzymatic activity. The overproduction of LipY in mycobacteria resulted in a significant reduction in the pool of TAGs, consistent with the lipase activity of this enzyme. Unexpectedly, this reduction was more pronounced in mycobacteria overexpressing LipY lacking the PE domain [LipY(ΔPE)], suggesting that the PE domain participates in the modulation of LipY activity. Interestingly, Mycobacterium marinum contains a protein homologous to LipY, termed LipYmar, in which the PE domain is substituted by a PPE domain. As for LipY, overexpression of LipYmar in Mycobacterium smegmatis significantly reduced the TAG pool, and this was further pronounced when the PPE domain of LipYmar was removed. Fractionation studies and Western blot analysis demonstrated that both LipY and LipY(ΔPE) were mainly present in the cell wall, indicating that the PE domain was not required for translocation to this site. Furthermore, electron microscopy immunolabeling of LipY(ΔPE) clearly showed a cell surface localization, thereby suggesting that the lipase may interact with the host immune system. Accordingly, a strong humoral response against LipY and LipY(ΔPE) was observed in tuberculosis patients. Together, our results suggest for the first time that both PE and PPE domains can share similar functional roles and that LipY represents a novel immunodominant antigen.


Although the modern Australia-Pacific plate boundary through New Zealand is relatively straight, there have been significant changes in its geometry during the Neogene. Within the North Island sector there has been a fundamental transition from an Alpine Fault translation/transpression regime to a Hikurangi margin subduction regime. This transition has been accompanied by the southward encroachment of the edge of the Pacific plate oceanic slab into Australia lithosphere, shortened and thickened along its eastern margin as a consequence of the prior Alpine Fault transpression, the process now operating in South Island. The response of the Australia lithosphere at the surface to the emplacement of the subducted slab at depth, has differed in the East Coast forearc region versus the foreland in western North Island, where the depth to the slab is greater and there has been a characteristic southward migration of depocentres pinned to the leading edge of the slab. The recent publication of new rotation parameters for relative motion of the Australia, Antarctic and Pacific plates, have provided key new data from which to plot the successive emplacement history of the Pacific slab beneath North Island, thus enabling the comparisons to be made with basin stratigraphy and geohistory. These data also constrain the age of subduction initiation at various points along the present trend of the Hikurangi Trough, identifying a younging of subduction initiation to the southwest. An implication of this younging direction is that the modern accretionary prism south of Cape Kidnappers can be no older than late Miocene (c. 11 Ma). The focus of this paper is on new ideas about the tectonic development of North Island and its basins, which have implications for hydrocarbon exploration.


There have been several kernel crash dump capturing solutions available for Linux for some time now and one of them, kdump, has even made it into the mainline kernel. But the mere fact of having such a feature does not necessary imply that we can obtain a dump reliably under any conditions. The LKDTT (Linux Kernel Dump Test Tool) project was created to evaluate crash dumping mechanisms in terms of success rate, accuracy and completeness. A major goal of LKDTT is maximizing the coverage of the tests. For this purpose, LKDTT forces the system to crash by artificially recreating crash scenarios (panic, hang, exception, stack overflow, hang, etc.), taking into account the hardware conditions (such as ongoing DMA or interrupt state) and the load of the system. The latter being key for the significance and reproducibility of the tests. Using LKDTT the author could constate the superior reliability of the kexec-based approach to crash dumping, although several deficiencies in kdump were revealed too. Since the final goal is having the best crash dumping mechanism possible, this paper also addresses how the aforementioned problems were identified and solved. Finally, possible applications of kdump beyond crash dumping will be introduced.


The JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN (JAZ) proteins function as negative regulators of jasmonic acid signaling in plants. We cloned 12 JAZ genes from native tobacco (Nicotiana attenuata), including nine novel JAZs in tobacco, and examined their expression in plants that had leaves elicited by wounding or simulated herbivory. Most JAZ genes showed strong expression in the elicited leaves, but NaJAZg was mainly expressed in roots. Another novel herbivory-elicited gene, NaJAZh, was analyzed in detail. RNA interference suppression of this gene in inverted-repeat (ir)JAZh plants deregulated a specific branch of jasmonic acid-dependent direct and indirect defenses: irJAZh plants showed greater trypsin protease inhibitor activity, 17-hydroxygeranyllinalool diterpene glycosides accumulation, and emission of volatile organic compounds from leaves. Silencing of NaJAZh also revealed a novel cross talk in JAZ-regulated secondary metabolism, as irJAZh plants had significantly reduced nicotine levels. In addition, irJAZh spontaneously developed leaf necrosis during the transition to flowering. Because the lesions closely correlated with the elevated expression of programmed cell death genes and the accumulations of salicylic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the leaves, we propose a novel role of the NaJAZh protein as a repressor of necrosis and/or programmed cell death during plant development.


The association between stress and illness is well recognized. One recently proposed pathway between these constructs is the Allostatic Load framework, which is a biological-process model in which chronic stress is linked to physiological dysregulation. The current study tested one part of the Allostatic Load process model by looking at a spectrum of chronic stressors experienced in everyday life by healthy, typically-developing children during middle childhood, to find out whether their exposures are associated with the development of Allostatic Load at age 15. This was done by utilizing the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD) data and drawing on the Allostatic Load model. The level of chronic stress experienced during middle childhood is associated positively with Allostatic Load in adolescence. The Home/Family context is more predictive of Allostatic Load in adolescence than stress experienced in the Extrafamilial context. However, this relationship is moderated by the sex of the research participant: the relationship between Home/Family stress and Allostatic Load was only significant for males. In contrast, the relationship between Extrafamilial stress and Allostatic Load was only significant for females.


Partially premixed compression ignition combustion is one of the low temperature combustion techniques which is being actively investigated. This approach provides a significant reduction of both soot and NOx emissions. Comparing to the homogeneous charge compression ignition mode, PPCI combustion provides better control on ignition timing and noise reduction through air- fuel mixture stratification which lowers heat release rate com- pared to other advanced combustion modes. In this work, CFD simulations were conducted for a low and a high air-fuel mixture stratification cases on a light-duty optical engine operating in PPCI mode. Such conditions for PRF70 as fuel were experimentally achieved by injection timing and spray targeting at similar thermodynamic conditions. After validating the computed results of cylinder pressure, apparent heat release rate, and OH ∗ spatial distributions, differences in engine thermal load and mixture fraction distributions at first stage and second stage ignition were compared. Assuming similar second stage ignition timing which is provided by intake air heating, experimental and simulation results reveal that the time between first and second stage ignition shortens and combustion phases to the main stage ignition faster in the high stratification case. Using flame structure diagrams, this was attributed to availability of a larger range of mixture fractions with higher reactivity. Creating optimum air-fuel stratification then can be considered as a useful and additional controlling parameter for a PPCI engine combustion phasing and subsequent emission formation.


A better understanding of the reasons for bequests can be pivotal for the effectiveness of fiscal policy and wealth inequality management as the different bequest motives underlying bequest behavior have different implications. This study examines community-based indirect reciprocity in bequest attitudes over three generations. The theoretical model, called community-based family tradition, suggests that the source of the inheritance impacts the amount of the bequest left to one's children or one's spouse. The study empirically analyzes survey data from the 2009 wave of the Preference Parameters Study for Japan. The results suggest that with some socio-economics characteristics controlled, those who have received an inheritance from their parents are more likely to intend to bequest as much as possible to their children, while those who have received an inheritance from their spouse's parents are more likely to intend to bequest as much as possible to both their children and their spouse. Hence, the source of inheritance does affect bequest attitudes, which suggests that there is community-based indirect reciprocity in bequest attitudes. The empirical results from gender comparison suggest that the taxation on inheritance is less functional for females than for males.


Abstract Background Information about chemotherapy is complex. Access to information prior to treatment enables patients to gain a better understanding of their condition, lessen their concerns and enables them to make informed choices about treatment. Traditionally chemotherapy education was provided by oncology clinical nurse specialists (CNS) on an individual basis to patients before they started chemotherapy. Increasing numbers of patients and reduced staff resources lead to problems maintaining service. The Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Centres are committed to quality improvement across cancer services available to those affected by cancer. Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH) and the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Centre collaborated on a group chemotherapy initiative in 2012 initiated in response to a high demand for education services. After a successful pilot the programme is now running in 8 hospitals across Ireland. In 2018 342 group education sessions were held with 1713 attendees. Methods The Cancer Nurse in the Daffodil Centre facilitates this programme using educational tools including a specially produced audiovisual support (DVD) and short oral and practical demonstrations to assist different learning styles. To conclude the CNS meets with the patients to discuss their individual plan. All attendees are asked to complete an evaluation form which is inputted into a database and the results collated. Results 1217 completed the evaluation out of 1713 attendees. A number of themes emerged including: • Welcoming • Good information • Allayed concerns • Empowerment. Acknowledgement of the expertise of the nurse and other allied healthcare professionals who present at the session – medical social workers and dietitians. Conclusions Overall satisfaction levels were very high in the programme including the information and content on the DVD and the information received and the way it was explained by the nurse. Of those who left comments they were very positive about the experience and for the opportunity to attend. By attending the session patients and their relative/friends were made to feel welcome. Their knowledge of chemotherapy and its side effects were greatly increased and their fears of commencing treatment were in many ways alleviated. Legal entity responsible for the study The author. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure The author has declared no conflicts of interest.


Deep learning methods for chest X-ray interpretation typically rely on pretrained models developed for ImageNet. This paradigm assumes that better ImageNet architectures perform better on chest X-ray tasks and that ImageNet-pretrained weights provide a performance boost over random initialization. In this work, we compare the transfer performance and parameter efficiency of 16 popular convolutional architectures on a large chest X-ray dataset (CheXpert) to investigate these assumptions. First, we find no relationship between ImageNet performance and CheXpert performance for both models without pretraining and models with pretraining. Second, we find that, for models without pretraining, the choice of model family influences performance more than size within a family for medical imaging tasks. Third, we observe that ImageNet pretraining yields a statistically significant boost in performance across architectures, with a higher boost for smaller architectures. Fourth, we examine whether ImageNet architectures are unnecessarily large for CheXpert by truncating final blocks from pretrained models, and find that we can make models 3.25x more parameter-efficient on average without a statistically significant drop in performance. Our work contributes new experimental evidence about the relation of ImageNet to chest x-ray interpretation performance.


The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which raised U.S. duties on hundreds of imported goods to record levels, is America's most infamous trade law. It is often associated with--and sometimes blamed for--the onset of the Great Depression, the collapse of world trade, and the global spread of protectionism in the 1930s. Even today, the ghosts of congressmen Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley haunt anyone arguing for higher trade barriers; almost single-handedly, they made protectionism an insult rather than a compliment. In Peddling Protectionism, Douglas Irwin provides the first comprehensive history of the causes and effects of this notorious measure, explaining why it largely deserves its reputation for combining bad politics and bad economics and harming the U.S. and world economies during the Depression. In four brief, clear chapters, Irwin presents an authoritative account of the politics behind Smoot-Hawley, its economic consequences, the foreign reaction it provoked, and its aftermath and legacy. Starting as a Republican ploy to win the farm vote in the 1928 election by increasing duties on agricultural imports, the tariff quickly grew into a logrolling, pork barrel free-for-all in which duties were increased all around, regardless of the interests of consumers and exporters. After Herbert Hoover signed the bill, U.S. imports fell sharply and other countries retaliated by increasing tariffs on American goods, leading U.S. exports to shrivel as well. While Smoot-Hawley was hardly responsible for the Great Depression, Irwin argues, it contributed to a decline in world trade and provoked discrimination against U.S. exports that lasted decades. Peddling Protectionism tells a fascinating story filled with valuable lessons for trade policy today.


In this study, a three-dimensional solid oxide fuel cell stack numerical model was developed and validated by experimental data. Five-cell SOFC stacks with different inlet and outlet manifold arrangement were investigated employing the numerical model. The stack polarization curve, current density, temperature, and flow distributions were analyzed. The results show that the effect of different manifold arrangement is almost neglected on the polarization curves and flow distribution. However, the current density and temperature distribution in individual unit of the stack can be influenced by the locations of inlets and outlets in the manifolds. Considering current density and temperature distribution uniformity as well as ease manufacturing and installation, the manifold arrangement with inlets at the top and outlets at the bottom for both fuel and air is recommended for SOFC stacks.


This study was initiated to examine the effects of caffeine on the DNA damage response (DDR) and homologous recombination (HR). An initial 2 h exposure to 5 mM caffeine slowed a fraction of the cells in G1, but thereafter, continued caffeine exposure permitted this cell fraction to progress through the cycle until they eventually stalled at G2/M and underwent apoptosis. This prolonged caffeine exposure also induced a strong DDR along with subsequent activation of wild-type p53 protein. An unexpected observation was the caffeine-induced depletion of Rad51 (and Brca2) proteins. Consequently, caffeine-treated cells were expected to be inefficient in HR. However, a dichotomy in the HR response of cells to caffeine treatment was revealed. Caffeine treatment rendered cells significantly better at performing the nascent DNA synthesis that accompanies the early strand invasion steps of HR. Conversely, the increase in nascent DNA synthesis did not translate into a higher level of gene targeting events. Levels of Rad51 appear to be irrelevant. Thus, prolonged caffeine exposure stalls the cell cycle, induces a p53-mediated apoptotic response and a down-regulation of critical HR proteins, and stimulates early steps of HR, but not the formation of complete repair products.


There are parishes where the pastor has said to the schola or choir: no Latin under any circumstances, not even for the propers that the schola aspires to sing. They can chafe and complain about this edict, or they can find a workaround, still using music of the Roman Rite while employing the vernacular. Before very recently, this was a tricky proposition but in the last year or so, everything has changed. There are now six sets of English propers online, either complete or on their way toward completion, and available for immediate download at no charge. One set is provided by Fr. Columba Kelly, O.S.B., a monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey. He was a student of chant in Rome, having studied under Dom Eugene Cardine, receiving his doctorate in 1963. He began setting chant to English following the Second Vatican Council, and especially following the 1965 missal issued in the United States that contained propers in English. He saw this as a way of preserving the Gregorian melodies and sensibility within a new time in which chant would have pride of place in the liturgy. It was a way of mediating between the demands to preserve the treasure and for people to be more involved in the musical experience of Mass. He retains the modes of the Gregorian while adjusting the melodies. In these years, his settings have mostly remained as the private possession of the monastery. But the recent announcement of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy that it would now permit royalty-free digital distribution (1) inspired a devotee to create a website containing a compilation of his chant settings. (2) They are reductions of the Gregorian and composed to capture the sense of the original, retaining the mode but offering a melodic structure that could be sung by the people in time, especially if the antiphon is repeated following psalm verses. He offers entrance, psalm, Alleluia or tract, and communion. Here, for example is his setting of Cantate Domino, introit for the Fifth Sunday in Easter in the new calendar. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It shares an overall melodic similarity (at least to my ear) with the original, but the melismas are kept to a minimum and used only on vowels and in places that lend them themselves to elaboration. Fr. Kelly's settings, which use the missal texts and not the texts from the Graduale Romanum, include entrances, psalms, Alleluias and tracts, and communions for all Sundays of the year. They are written in square notes with four-line staffs, and thereby provide something of a pedagogical bridge to eventually embracing the originals. The calendar he uses is for the ordinary form. Another set of English propers online was published in 1964, and seem to be driven by the same motivation as those of Fr. Kelly's. However, they are assembled according to the demands of the extraordinary form of the Mass (1962 missal). The book was published by the World Library of Sacred Music, and edited by Rev. Paul Arbogast. (3) Here is the same chant from above, the mode changed from VI to I. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the most distinctive projects is the American Gradual compiled with loving care by Bruce Ford. (4) He has preserved the Gregorian melodies in their original modes for all of the propers, and he has done this for good reason. These are the most wonderful melodies ever written. They are bound up with the history of the Roman Rite. They have inspired musical elaboration for many centuries. They capture the sense of the text in a beautiful way. Even in English, they are worthy of preservation. It goes without saying that a critical part of the musical information is lost in translation. The words cannot match the melodies. And English is an awkward language to set to melismatic chant, given the hard endings to words. But Ford overcomes the obvious limits with sensitivity to the text. What I especially appreciate is how these are highly useful for some circumstances where the Latin propers are not possible, and yet their structure is always working to point to the ideal. …


The oxidative Glaser–Hay coupling of two terminal alkynes to furnish a butadiyne is a key reaction for acetylenic scaffolding. Although the reaction is performed under rather simple conditions [CuCl/TMEDA/O2 (air)], the mechanism is still under debate. Herein we present detailed studies on the scope of this reaction by using both 13C NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopic methods. The former method was used to study the kinetics of the coupling of aryl-substituted alkynes as the aryl carbon resonances of the reactants and products have similar NOEs and relaxation times. The reaction was found to be zero-order with respect to the terminal alkyne reactant under standard preparative conditions. Moreover, as the reaction proceeded, a clear change to slower reaction kinetics was observed, but it was still apparently zero-order. The onset of this change was found to depend on the catalyst loading. This unfavorable change in reaction profile could be avoided by adding molecular sieves to the reaction mixture, thereby removing the water that is accumulated from the air and produced in the reaction in which dioxygen acts as the oxidizing agent. Not unexpectedly, the stirring rate, and hence uptake of air (O2), was found to have a significant effect on the rate of the reaction: The percentage of alkyne remaining after a certain time decreased linearly with the rate of stirring. On the basis of systematic studies, the optimized conditions for the coupling reaction using CuCl/TMEDA as the catalyst system are presented. Finally, we investigated the effect of different ligands and found that piperidine can also be conveniently employed as a ligand, albeit monodentate, in accord with related studies.


Background: Vaccinium species are hostile nutraceutical fruit in India as well as all over the world. In recent years, Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton is used as a functional food for treating various diseases without authentication. Objective: The current work was investigated to perform the morphoanatomical and physicochemical of Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton fruit. Method: Pharmacognostic studies were carried out for different parameters include organoleptic, macroscopic, microscopic, fluorescence and physicochemical analysis. Results: The fruit was shining burgundy purple in colour having smooth lustrous surface, globular to ellipsoidal in shape with 10-15 mm in length and diameter was 9 mm. The main microscopic characteristic of fruit showed ovules, compact angular parenchyma cells, developed sclerenchymatous outer sheath, central xylem and phloem strands. Fruit powder showed oil bodies, spherical parenchyma cells in large thick masses and walls of the epicarp demonstrated cellulose content. Further, physicochemical examination of fruit powder showed loss on drying, total ash, insoluble ash as 9.23, 7.8, and 9.16% w/w respectively. The water and alcohol soluble extractives values of the fruit were 24.74 and 76.88% respectively. Anthocyanins and flavonids were also confirmed by phytochemical screening. Conclusion: A variety of pharmacognostic features was found in fruitful way which may help in identification and standardization of Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton fruit in a crude form.


The new religious movement of the Neolog Jews in Hungary argued for Jews' acceptance into Hungarian society by articulating an ethnic identity compatible with that of Hungarians. Neolog Jews promoted nationalism by propagating an ethnic Oriental Jewish identity mirroring Hungarian nationalist identity. By negotiating a common identity, Neolog Jews hoped to achieve recognition as fellow Hungarians. The history of the Neologs is unique because a non-Semitic, ethno-nationalist definition of Jewish identity occurred only in Hungary. Neolog Judaism constitutes a significant religious group not only because of its isolated case of nationalist ethnic formation of Jewish identity, but also because it became the mainstream Jewish religious movement in Hungary.


Several examples of community-based natural resource management in Latin American social-ecological systems exist in which communities control the management of common-pool resources. Understanding community perceptions of the performance of these systems is essential to involve communities in sustainable management strategies. In this analysis of three areas in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina, we analyzed the local perceptions of the social and environmental challenges faced by these social-ecological systems and how these challenges and drivers affect their resilience. To do this, we combined prospective structural analysis to unravel stakeholders' perceptions of each system's functioning along with network analysis to assess resilience. We identified external variables as the most influential variables in the Colombian and Argentine cases. In the Mexican case, larger influence is exerted by internal variables, particularly those linked to the governance system. The case study analysis revealed that the community-based natural resource management approach needs external support and recognition to work effectively. In the Argentine and Colombian cases, megaprojects were perceived as controllers with medium or strong influence but low dependence. The use of ancestral knowledge (Colombia), the history of land use (Mexico), and the history of the artisanal fishery (Argentina) were all perceived as common challenges to communitybased natural resource management. In terms of social-ecological resilience, framed within the three-dimensional model of the adaptive cycle, all three social-ecological systems were considered to be highly connected and resilient but with different degrees of capacity or cumulative potential.


Released in 1984, "Once Upon a Time in America" was the final work of Sergio Leone, best known for Speghetti Westerns such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". This "testament film" marries the director's flamboyant, expressionistic style to a story full of profound melancholy and regret. Tracing the lives of a gang of Jewish hoods from their childhood in the New York streets of the 1920s, "Once Upon a Time in America" centres on the relationship between Noodles (Robert de Niro) and Max (James Woods) - an intense friendship destroyed by time, the shifting tides of political history, and mutual betrayal. This study details the film's genesis, its production history and its different versions, and considers it within the context of Leone's evolution as a grand cinema stylist. It illuminates his themes, his method and his aesthetic, and judges his impact upon subsequent generations of filmmakers the world over. Adrian Martin is film critic for "The Age" (Australia). He has won the Bryon Kennedy Award (Australian Film Institute, 1993) and the 1997 Pascall Prize for Critical Writing.


The process of assigning property rights to land in the American Great Plains resulted in farms that were too small to be economically viable. These farms were prime contributors to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The path dependence resulting from the initial assignment of property rights on the Great Plains was slow to be corrected. The transactions costs of property rights reallocation from homesteads to larger farms were high, in part due to government intervention. Local politicians sought to retain the dense, Midwest-like population base that homestead settlement had fostered, and they successfully lobbied the Federal Government for subsidies to maintain small family farms. The result was a halting process of farm size adjustment between 1920 and 1982. This case illustrates the difficult economic problems that can be raised by an inappropriate assignment of property rights. It cannot be assumed that a more efficient allocation of rights with fewer negative effects will occur quickly.


Over the years, researchers have argued that user friendly and result oriented systems were not necessarily products of participatory user involvement; however there is a degree of user involvement required in the development process of any Information System. The aim of this research is to discover the level of user involvement in in-house software development process in All Nigerian Bank (ANB). We use two research methods - survey and process observation. A survey was conducted for 107 end users and 10 developers (programmers) of 5 selected in-house developed software solutions; we complement our survey with an active observation of a typical software development process. Relative to the five in-house software solutions studied in our reseach; our study reveals that user involvement in the development process on the whole for these five solutions has been 8% participative, 18% representative, 33% consultative and 41% informative. 67% of end user respondents agreed that these specific in-house developed solutions are user friendly while 62% said solutions meet business needs. This result is a clustered representation of the 5 cases as a way of exploring the "normal in-house development process" in ANB We conclude that the level of user involvement relative to business needs and user friendliness is a reflection of a number of factors which include ANB's business strategy, organizational culture and politics; other factors include weak Nigerian labour laws, low ethical standards and high unemployment rate.


The report is the result of a detailed assessment of aquaculture regulations in Nova Scotia. It proposes a new regulatory framework for the Nova Scotia aquaculture industry based on the principles of effectiveness, openness, transparency, accountability, proportionality, integration, and precaution. The report is based on a 18 months independent review of the industry and how it is regulated, as well as various forms of engagement with the public and key stakeholders. The report draws on regulatory practice in key jurisdictions around the world, including Scotland, Chile, the US, and other provinces in Canada.


Viruses can infect a wide range of hosts; varying from bacteria and plants to animals and humans. While many viral infections may pass unnoticed, some are of major importance due to their implications on health and welfare of plants, animals and/or humans. In particular, viruses that can infect avian hosts have been studied intensively due the occurrence of the pandemics of highly pathogenic influenza A virus infection or "bird flu''. Viral infections in domesticated birds can result in huge economic losses in the poultry industry. In wild birds, infections may be asymptomatic, but these viruses may remain in these birds and thus they may act as reservoirs. Particularly wild birds may be ideal reservoirs because of their ability fly over long distance and hence they can effectively spread viruses along the migration routes. Coronaviruses in birds are considered economically important pathogens worldwide. They are classified in the genus Gammacoronaviridae, family Coronaviridae. Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is the prototype of this group and can cause severe respiratory disease in chickens. In addition, coronaviruses have been reported to induce respiratory disease in other avian species, including pheasants, pigeons and peafowls. Interestingly, apart from infecting the respiratory system IBV is capable of replicating in other organ systems within a specific host, indicating that IBV has an extended virus tropism. On the other hand, some other gammacoronaviruses, for an example turkey, guineafowl and quail coronaviruses have been observed to possess a more restricted tropism by limiting the infection to the gastrointestinal system. Viral and host factors that enable the attachment of a virus to the target host cell are crucial in defining viral tropism. This thesis was aimed to identify these factors for avian coronaviruses in view of understanding the mechanism behind viral tropism. To this end several novel methods were established to study the first step in the avian coronavirus infection cycle. While Chapter 1 gives a introduction to the aims of this thesis chapter 2 provides an overview on the function of the gammacoronavirus spike proteins and its role in defining the tropism and susceptibility. In addition it summarizes the reported data on tissue interactions of the coronaviral spike. Chapter 3 describes the use of recombinant spike proteins as a tool to understand the tropism of gammacoronaviruses using infectious bronchitis virus, the prototype of the group, as an example. The novel avian tissues microarray and its benefits in view of defining organ and susceptibility to a particular coronavirus are demonstrated in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 reveals a novel receptor for enterotropic gammacoronaviruses and receptor specificity towards defining their restricted enterotropism. While differences in the tissue interactions of mutated influenza virus attachment proteins, HAs, have been shown in Chapter 6 the detailed protocol of evaluating tissue interactions with protein histochemistry is described in Chapter 7. Overall we provide evidence for viral and host determinants that mediate avian coronavirus tropism. In the final discussion (Chapter 8) remaining gaps in defining the tropism and pathogenicity of avian coronaviruses will be discussed.


The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries engaged in three projects that helped identify areas of its website that had inhibited discovery of services and resources. These projects also helped generate staff interest in the Usability Working Group, which led these endeavors. The first project studied student responses to the site. The second focused on a usability test with the Libraries' peer research coaches and resulted in a presentation of those findings to the Libraries staff. The final project involved a specialized test, the results of which also were presented to staff. All three of these projects led to improvements to the website and will inform a larger redesign.


For the Jewish community, the end of the Middle Ages and the emergence of the modern nation-state brought the promise of equal citizenship as well as the possible loss of Jewish corporate identity. The legal maxim "dina de-malkhuta dina" (the law of the State is law) invoked in Talmidic times to justify the acceptance of the kingOCOs law and qualified in the Middle Ages by Maimonides and Rashbam to include the requirement of consent by the governed underwent further redefinition by Jews in the Napoleonic age. Graff focuses on the struggle between 18th and 19th-century Jewish religious reformers and traditionalists in defining the limits of "dina de-malkhuta dina." He traces the motivations of the reformers who, in their zeal to gain equality for the formerly disenfranchised Jewish communities in Western Europe, were prepared to render unto the State compromising authority over Jewish religious life under the rubric of "dina de-malkhuta dina" was intended to strike a balance between synagogue and state and not to be used as a pretext for the liquidation of the communityOCOs corporate existence. Graff observes that the significance of "dina de-malkhuta dina" and its interpretation ids vital for an understanding of modern Jewish life as well as the relationship of Diaspora Jews to the Jewish community in the state of Israel.a"


Orchid bees are a small group of Hymenoptera which occurs only in South and Central America. They play a very important role in the long-distance pollination of orchids from which they collect aromatic fragrances thought to play a role in territorial display and courtship. We present initial data of a collection of euglossine bees in the Piedras Blancas National Park in the south-west of Costa Rica during the dry season, in January 2007. The species diversity and abundance of two primary forest sites and one secondary forest habitat are compared. Male orchid bees were attracted with four different fragrances and collected for one hour at each site. A total of 23 species of the genera Euglossa, Eulaema and Exaerete were recorded, representing a third of all species known from Costa Rica, and all but one genus, Eufriesea. This genus is known to be strongly seasonal, flying only in the wet season. Species diversity and abundance were significantly higher in primary forest than in secondary forest, and all species found in the secondary forest were also recorded in the primary forest. These results suggest that secondary forests are only colonised by a subset of the orchid bee assemblage from primary forests, probably due to fewer resources in secondary forest and the inability of many euglossine bees to cross open grassland.


Fossil independence and substantial reductions in CO2 emissions seem to be possible with 2nd generation biofuels. New technologies allow a full carbon-to-fuel conversion of non-edible plant parts such as straw or wood, and the cultivation of algae or salt-resistant plants uncouples bioenergy from food production. Nevertheless, impacts on biodiversity, global land and water use are widely unclear and their competitiveness with 1st generation biofuels and electric mobility is an open question. An interdisciplinary team of Empa, University of Zurich and the Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment and Energy evaluated the most sustainable production techniques and assessed their potential for our future mobility.


Sampling of the Pacific-Antarctic Rise close to the Foundation hotspot in the South Pacific reveals that silicic lavas erupt together with basalts on a 130-km-long part of this mid-oceanic ridge, representing the most extensive occurrence of andesites on the submarine spreading system. Most of these tholeiitic andesites and dacites have negative Nb and Ta anomalies, a signature that has so far been attributed only to subduction-related magmas and the continental crust. The silicic lavas formed by fractional crystallization from basalts and assimilation of melts from hydrothermally altered amphibolite in the oceanic crust. The presence of andesites with negative Nb and Ta anomalies on the Pacific-Antarctic Rise implies that such magmas are not restricted to subduction zones but can form at a plume-influenced mid-oceanic ridge. The andesites and dacites from the Pacific-Antarctic Rise may represent analogs to some Precambrian volcanic rocks and early continental crust.


BACKGROUND: Mental competence is a complex concept within the contexts of ethics, law, psychology and medicine. Competency is a prerequisite for giving informed consent for a medical intervention. It has long been wrongly thought that people with intellectual disabilities as a group are incapacitated, but competence is not a categorical trait of a certain group of persons. Capacities can fuctuate over time and can vary per decision or action domain. The more severe the intellectual disability, the less likely that someone is competent in health care decision-making. AIM: To describe specifically the meaning of the concept of competence in people with intellectual disabilities and the legal frameworks in the Netherlands and Belgium. Furthermore, to provide practices for assessing competence and to focus on supporting competence in this target group. METHOD: Overview of the most recent theory and practical methods. RESULTS: The assessment of decision-making competence can be difficult and has far-reaching consequences, and must therefore be applied carefully and well-founded. CONCLUSION: It is advisable to support people with an intellectual disability in order to be able to make decisions themselves as much as possible.


A Festschrift honoring Calvin H. Schmitt in light of the importance he has always placed on the collection of such volumes in the McCormick Theological Seminary Library and in view of his longstanding concern for adequate bibliographical control of multi-author works in religion. He gave tangible expression to this concern through his leadership of the former American Theological Library Association' Board of Indexing. This book responds also to a need felt by the Association for more extensive professional literature in the field of theological librarianship. The editors hope that the volume will begin to fill this longstanding lacuna and will encourage continuing research and publication in theological librarianship.


David Jaros's thought-provoking new Article, Perfecting Criminal Markets, sheds light on a heretofore unappreciated effect of our obsession with criminalization: that merely by creating new crimes, lawmakers may inadvertently strengthen existing criminal markets. To support his argument, Jaros adopts the tenets of neoclassical deterrence theory, which assume that criminalizing an activity will deter its occurrence. But the model Jaros employs has its limits. The weakness of a rational choice account of criminal markets is that it relies so heavily on the assumption that prospective criminals will be aware of, and swayed by, criminal laws that might in fact be quite obscure. In the first Part of this Response, I consider some of the factors, including lack of effective information and risk miscalculation, that might blunt the deterrent value of these laws, and hence their market-enhancing effects. The second Part of the Response explores the normative implications of his argument. Jaros contends that, because the market-boosting effects of criminalization muddy the moral message of the criminal law, this creates an opportunity to reconsider alternative means of harm reduction. Incorporating a public health approach to some of these issues, particularly in the area of vice crimes, might prove far more beneficial than unreflective criminalization. Overall, Jaros has found a fresh and novel way to show that criminalization can enhance crime. By following the tenets of neoclassical deterrence theory through to their logical conclusion, Jaros demonstrates that, even on its own terms, criminalization as a means of reducing social harm is highly problematic. Our current appetite for criminalization and increasingly harsh penalties has only resulted in record-breaking rates of incarceration, disproportionate impact on people of color, and an unsustainable drain on state and federal budgets. If people begin seriously thinking about the consequences of perfecting criminal markets in the way Jaros describes, then his insights could do some real good.


The amount and timing of early wet-season rainfall are important for the management of many agricultural industries in north Australia. With this in mind, a wet-season onset date is defined based on the accumulation of rainfall to a predefined threshold, starting from 1 September, for each square of a 1° gridded analysis of daily rainfall across the region. Consistent with earlier studies, the interannual variability of the onset dates is shown to be well related to the immediately preceding July-August Southern Oscillation index (SOI). Based on this relationship, a forecast method using logistic regression is developed to predict the probability that onset will occur later than the climatological mean date. This method is expanded to also predict the probabilities that onset will be later than any of a range of threshold dates around the climatological mean. When assessed using cross-validated hindcasts, the skill of the predictions exceeds that of climatological forecasts in the majority of locations in north Australia, especially in the Top End region, Cape York, and central Queensland. At times of strong anomalies in the July-August SOI, the forecasts are reliably emphatic. Furthermore, predictions using tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) as the predictor are also tested. While short-lead (July-August predictor) forecasts are more skillful using the SOI, long-lead (May-June predictor) forecasts are more skillful using Pacific SSTs, indicative of the longer-term memory present in the ocean.


Is there a role for mobile devices in the modern library? What are the issues, challenges and opportunities of using mobile devices to support learning and resource discovery in the library? Is it time to stop telling people to turn off their mobile phones? From communication, collaboration, storage, notes, books, journals and more, mobile technologies are changing the way in which users can and are using libraries.


The frameworks developed in this paper are based on a review of the literature on processes of discrimination and the norms and attitudes that accompany them. Intended as a background paper to the World Development Report 2013 this paper will also feed into the Social Inclusion Flagship Report by the Social Development Department at the World Bank. It is divided into six sections. This section one is an introduction to the objectives and provides the context for this work. Section two is a brief discussion of the conceptual underpinnings and measurement of labor market discrimination from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Section three lays out a typology of processes of discrimination, while section four is a discussion of the mechanisms of discrimination and the ways in which candidates are screened. Section five addresses the question of how discriminated groups react to discrimination. The final section addresses some of the ways in which occupational and labor market mobility is possible for disadvantaged groups and what policy implications it could have.


When neurons innervate muscles, they secrete a protein, agrin, which causes neurotransmitter receptors to cluster on the muscle and form a synapse at the point of nerve contact. A muscle-specific kinase is necessary for synapse development, as is the recently described protein Dok-7. Congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMSs) are a group of inherited disorders of neuromuscular transmission that lead to muscle weakness. Beeson et al. now find that a group of patients with CMS have mutations in Dok-7. These mutations result in the formation of small, abnormal synapses at the neuromuscular junction and help account for the symptoms of the disease. D. Beeson, O. Higuchi, J. Palace, J. Cossins, H. Spearman, S. Maxwell, J. Newsom-Davis, G. Burke, P. Fawcett, M. Motomura, J. S. Müller, H. Lochmüller, C. Slater, A. Vincent, Y. Yamanashi, Dok-7 mutations underlie a neuromuscular junction synaptopathy. Science 313, 1975-1978 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Studies of the intestinal microbiome and AD have demonstrated associations with microbiome composition at the genus level among matched cohorts. We move this body of literature forward by more deeply investigating microbiome composition via metagenomics and by comparing AD patients against those without dementia and with other dementia types. We also exploit machine learning approaches that combine both metagenomic and clinical data. Finally, our functional studies using stool samples from elders demonstrate how the c microbiome of AD elders can affect intestinal health via dysregulation of the P-glycoprotein pathway. P-glycoprotein dysregulation contributes directly to inflammatory disorders of the intestine. Since AD has been long thought to be linked to chronic bacterial infections as a possible etiology, our findings therefore fill a gap in knowledge in the field of AD research by identifying a nexus between the microbiome, loss of intestinal homeostasis, and inflammation that may underlie this neurodegenerative disorder. ABSTRACT The microbiota-gut-brain axis is a bidirectional communication system that is poorly understood. Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, has long been associated with bacterial infections and inflammation-causing immunosenescence. Recent studies examining the intestinal microbiota of AD patients revealed that their microbiome differs from that of subjects without dementia. In this work, we prospectively enrolled 108 nursing home elders and followed each for up to 5 months, collecting longitudinal stool samples from which we performed metagenomic sequencing and in vitro T84 intestinal epithelial cell functional assays for P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression, a critical mediator of intestinal homeostasis. Our analysis identified clinical parameters as well as numerous microbial taxa and functional genes that act as predictors of AD dementia in comparison to elders without dementia or with other dementia types. We further demonstrate that stool samples from elders with AD can induce lower P-gp expression levels in vitro those samples from elders without dementia or with other dementia types. We also paired functional studies with machine learning approaches to identify bacterial species differentiating the microbiome of AD elders from that of elders without dementia, which in turn are accurate predictors of the loss of dysregulation of the P-gp pathway. We observed that the microbiome of AD elders shows a lower proportion and prevalence of bacteria with the potential to synthesize butyrate, as well as higher abundances of taxa that are known to cause proinflammatory states. Therefore, a potential nexus between the intestinal microbiome and AD is the modulation of intestinal homeostasis by increases in inflammatory, and decreases in anti-inflammatory, microbial metabolism. IMPORTANCE Studies of the intestinal microbiome and AD have demonstrated associations with microbiome composition at the genus level among matched cohorts. We move this body of literature forward by more deeply investigating microbiome composition via metagenomics and by comparing AD patients against those without dementia and with other dementia types. We also exploit machine learning approaches that combine both metagenomic and clinical data. Finally, our functional studies using stool samples from elders demonstrate how the c microbiome of AD elders can affect intestinal health via dysregulation of the P-glycoprotein pathway. P-glycoprotein dysregulation contributes directly to inflammatory disorders of the intestine. Since AD has been long thought to be linked to chronic bacterial infections as a possible etiology, our findings therefore fill a gap in knowledge in the field of AD research by identifying a nexus between the microbiome, loss of intestinal homeostasis, and inflammation that may underlie this neurodegenerative disorder.


We are using Wikidata and Metaphactory to build an Integrated Flora of Canada (IFC). IFC will be integrated in two senses: First, it will draw on multiple existing flora (e.g. Flora of North America, Flora of Manitoba, etc.) for content. Second, it will be a portal to related resources such as annotations, specimens, literature, and sequence data.

 Background

 We had success using Semantic Media Wiki (SMW) as the platform for an on-line representation of the Flora of North America (FNA). We used Charaparser (Cui 2012) to extract plant structures (e.g. "stem"), characters (e.g. "external texture"), and character values (e.g. "glabrous") from the semi-structured FNA treatments. We then loaded this data into SMW, which allows us to query for taxa based on their character traits, and enables a broad range of exploratory analysis, both for purposes of hypothesis generation, and also to provide support for or against specific scientific hypotheses.

 Migrating to Wikidata/Wikibase

 We decided to explore a migration from SMW to Wikibase for three main reasons: simplified workflow; triple level provenance; and sustainability.
 Simplified workflow: Our workflow for our FNA-based portal includes Natural Language Processing (NLP) of coarse-grained XML to get the fine-grained XML, transforming this XML for input into SMW, and a custom SMW skin for displaying the data. We consider the coarse-grained XML to be canonical. When it changes (because we find an error, or we improve our NLP), we have to re-run the transformation, and re-load the data, which is time-consuming. Ideally, our presentation would be based on API calls to the data itself, eliminating the need to transform and re-load after every change.
 Provenance: Wikidata's provenance model supports having multiple, conflicting assertions for the same character trait, which is something that inevitably happens when floristic data is integrated.
 Sustainability: Wikidata has strong support from the Wikimedia Foundation, while SMW is increasingly seen as a legacy system.

 Wikibase vs. Wikidata

 Wikidata, however, is not a suitable home for the Integrated Flora of Canada. It is built upon a relatively small number of community curated properties, while we have ~4500 properties for the Asteraceae family alone. The model we want to pursue is to use Wikidata for a small group of core properties (e.g. accepted name, parent taxon, etc.), and to use our own instance of Wikibase for the much larger number of specialized morphological properties (e.g. adaxial leaf colour, leaf external texture, etc.) Essentially, we will be running our own Wikidata, over which we would exercise full control. Miller (2018) decribes deploying this curation model in another domain.

 Metaphactory

 Metaphactory is a suite of middleware and front-end interfaces for authoring, managing, and querying knowledge graphs, including mechanisms for faceted search and geospatial visualizations. It is also the software (together with Blazegraph) behind the Wikidata Query Service. Metaphactory provides us with a SPARQL endpoint; a templating mechanism that allows each taxonomic treatment to be rendered via a collection of SPARQL queries; reasoning capabilities (via an underlying graph database) that permit the organization of over 42,000 morphological properties; and a variety of search and discovery tools.
 There are a number of ways in which Wikidata and Metaphactory can work together, and we are still exploring questions such as: Will provenance be managed via named graphs, or via the Wikidata snak model?; How will data flow between the two platforms? Etc. We will report on our findings to date, and invite collaboration with related Wikimedia-based projects.


This case study is based on a transcript of an authentic criminal proceeding in a Belgian Assize Court, where Dutch is the official language and the French-speaking defendant receives simultaneous whispered interpretation of the prosecutor's closing speech. Examining six excerpts from the speech, which is addressed to the judges and the lay jury, the analysis compares the Dutch original with the French interpretation. The specific focus of the study is the Aristotelian concept of ethos, i.e. the image the speaker seeks to convey of himself by foregrounding his professional expertise, integrity and goodwill towards the audience. Since the rhetorical devices he uses for this purpose are often absent from the interpretation in the extracts analysed, the strategic persuasiveness of his speech is weakened. This means that the defendant is likely to gain an incomplete, misleading perception of his own case. In the light of the examples presented here, the authors argue that the theory of classical rhetoric affords a useful framework for exploring interpreter-mediated legal monologues in a dialogical perspective.


Forty years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States deemed constitutional new death penalty laws intended to minimize the arbitrariness which led the Court to invalidate all capital sentencing statutes four years earlier in Furman v. Georgia. Over the last four decades the Court has — time and again — attempted to regulate the "machinery of death." Looking back over the Court's work, many observers, including two current Supreme Court justices, have questioned whether the modern death penalty has lived up to expectations set by the Court in the 1970s or if, despite 40 years of labor, the American death penalty continues to be administered in an unconstitutionally arbitrary manner. This Article presents data from South Carolina's forty-year experiment with capital punishment and concludes that the administration of the death penalty in that state is still riddled with error and infected with racial and gender bias. It is — in short — still arbitrary after all these years. The authors maintain that the only true cure it to abolish South Carolina's death penalty, although they do argue that lesser steps including additional safeguards and procedure may limit, but will not eliminate, some of the arbitrariness and bias which are present in the current imposition of South Carolina's most extreme punishment.


Topographic depressions, areas of no lateral surface flow, are ubiquitous characteristics of the land surface that control many ecosystem and biogeochemical processes. High density of depressions increases the surface storage capacity, whereas lower depression density increases runoff, thus influencing soil moisture states, hydrologic connectivity, and the climate‐soil‐vegetation interactions. With the widespread availability of high‐resolution lidar‐based digital elevation model (lDEM) data, it is now possible to identify and characterize the structure of the spatial distribution of topographic depressions for incorporation in ecohydrologic and biogeochemical studies. Here we use lDEM data to document the prevalence and patterns of topographic depressions across five different landscapes in the United States and quantitatively characterize the probability distribution of attributes, such as surface area, storage volume, and the distance to the nearest neighbor. Through the use of a depression identification algorithm, we show that these probability distributions of attributes follow scaling laws indicative of a structure in which a large fraction of land surface areas can consist of high number of topographic depressions of all sizes and can account for 4 to 21 mm of depression storage. This implies that the impacts of small‐scale topographic depressions in the landscapes on the redistribution of material fluxes, evaporation, and hydrologic connectivity are quite significant.


Information about possible changes of extreme wave heights are essential for the future safe design of coastal and flood protection structures likes dykes, flood protection dunes, revetments etc. In this study, scenarios of regional climate change up to 2100 are used for the evaluation of changes of wave conditions. Analyses on calculated significant wave heights derived from extreme value statistics are showing a different signal of change for the selected locations along the German Baltic Sea Coast. The results are showing that extreme wave heights with a return level of 200 years can increase up to +14%. But also a decrease of down to -14% were found compared to actual conditions, depending on the location and climate change scenario applied. At the location of Warnemunde a slight increasing trend for the change of extreme wave heights could be found for 3 of 4 scenario runs with a maximum increase of +7%.


U-Pb dating of detrital zircons from the Lower Cretaceous Sanbagawa and the recently recognized Upper Cretaceous Shimanto high-pressure (HP) metamorphic rocks in southwestern Japan has revealed the presence of abundant Proterozoic (ca. 1500–2000 Ma) detrital grains. In contrast, coeval non- to weakly metamorphosed accretionary complex (AC) and forearc basin sediments in southwestern Japan lack these older signatures. The only possible source of the Proterozoic detrital grains is the Jurassic AC in southwestern Japan, which structurally overlies the Cretaceous HP units. The Proterozoic grains were incorporated into the protoliths of HP-ACs, without polluting coeval forearc basin to trench sediments, likely by tectonic erosion in the forearc domain. Along the Cretaceous Wadati-Benioff plane, the tectonic erosion peeled off the sole part of the pre-existing forearc crust and mixed it with the subducting trench sediments prior to the peak HP metamorphism. In the Cretaceous subduction-related margin around Japan, the tectonic erosion likely occurred twice.


Abstract Dental morphology changes dramatically across the artiodactyl-cetacean transition, and it is generally assumed that this reflects the evolutionary change from herbivory and omnivory to carnivory. To test hypotheses regarding tooth function and diet, we studied size and position of wear facets on the lower molars and the stable isotopes of enamel samples. We found that nearly all investigated Eocene cetaceans had dental wear different from typical wear in ungulates and isotope values indicating that they hunted similar prey and processed it similarly. The only exception is the protocetid Babiacetus, which probably ate larger prey with harder skeletons. The closest relative of cetaceans, the raoellid artiodactyl Indohyus, had wear facets that resemble those of Eocene cetaceans more than they do facets of basal artiodactyls. This is in spite of Indohyus's tooth crown morphology, which is unlike that of cetaceans, and its herbivorous diet, as indicated by stable isotopes. This implies that the evolution of masticatory function preceded that of crown morphology and diet at the origin of cetaceans.


BACKGROUND
Much of the evidence underlying guidelines for producing accessible information for people with aphasia focuses on client preference for particular design features. There is limited evidence regarding the effects of these features on comprehension.

AIMS
To examine the effects of specific design features on text comprehension. It was hypothesized that font style, letter case and supporting images would all have a significant impact on people with aphasias' ability to comprehend text.

METHODS & PROCEDURES
Participants (N = 9) read 35 paragraphs and selected the most appropriate word or phrase from a choice of four to finish the final sentence. Reading comprehension was assessed in three conditions: font style, letter case and text with a supporting image. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with Bonferroni post-hoc tests were used to test the effect of each design feature on reading comprehension.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS
People with aphasia comprehended significantly more written information when presented in sans-serif font than in a serif style (p = .01) and when presented in lower case than in upper case (p = .03). The inclusion of a single supporting image to illustrate a paragraph of text did not have a significant effect on comprehension.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
This research supports the premise that font style and letter case have a significant effect on text comprehension, but that illustrating a paragraph of text with a single image may not significantly improve comprehension when text is written at a low readability level. Although it is critical to produce accessible information, improving comprehension is only one rationale for modified text presentation and therefore these results must be viewed in the context of other recommendations.


This study investigated speech sound and syllable development in eighteen Zulu speaking children, between the ages of 3;0 to 6;2. In addition, the frequency of occurrence of Zulu speech sounds and syllables in this age group was investigated. To elicit a representative sample of the subjects' natural speech, a 100-word spontaneous conversational sample was elicited from each subject. The samples were collected by a linguistically matched research assistant. All samples were transcribed phonetically by a stringent transcription procedure, and the reliability of the transcription was assessed by an external moderator. The UNIBET was used to code the transcription into computer recognisable symbols. The Phonetic Calculator Program (PCP) quantitively analysed the samples in terms of speech sound inventory, syllable inventory and the frequency of occurrence of speech sounds and syllables. The data was processed to allow for the comparison of the findings at three age levels namely, 3;0-4;0; 4;1-5;1 and 5;2-6;2. It was found that there was developmental progression between the ages of 3;0-6;2, with regard to speech sounds and syllables. It was found that much speech and syllable development occurred before the age of 3;0, and that the speech sound inventory and syllable inventory was incomplete by the age of 6;2. In addition, the nasals, plosives, approximants and fricatives were found to develop earlier than the affricates, clicks and prenasalised consonant sounds. The shorter syllable strings were found to develop earlier than the longer syllable strings. The subjects produced more speech sounds at an earlier age than their English-speaking peers. The subjects also produced longer strings of syllables at a younger age than their English-speaking peers. The findings in Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 were similar to each other with regard to, the order of the speech sound frequency and syllable frequency. The more complex sounds and syllables were produced more frequently by the older subjects, demonstrating developmental progression. The findings have important clinical implications. Furthermore, the study can provide Speech-Language Therapists with a framework for further research, and contribute in constructing a relevant datab ase of Zulu speech development.


BACKGROUND
Infection with influenza virus increases the risk for developing pneumococcal disease. The A/H1N1 influenza pandemic in autumn 2009 provided a unique opportunity to evaluate this relationship.

METHODS
Using weekly age-, state-, and cause-specific hospitalizations from the US State Inpatient Databases of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project 2003-2009, we quantified the increase in pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalization rates above a seasonal baseline during the pandemic period.

RESULTS
We found a significant increase in pneumococcal hospitalizations from late August to mid-December 2009, which corresponded to the timing of highest pandemic influenza activity. Individuals aged 5-19 years, who have a low baseline level of pneumococcal disease, experienced the largest relative increase in pneumococcal hospitalizations (ratio, 1.6 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.4-1.7]), whereas the largest absolute increase was observed among individuals aged 40-64 years. In contrast, there was no excess disease in the elderly. Geographical variation in the timing of excess pneumococcal hospitalizations matched geographical patterns for the fall pandemic influenza wave.

CONCLUSIONS
The 2009 influenza pandemic had a significant impact on the rate of pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalizations, with the magnitude of this effect varying between age groups and states, mirroring observed variations in influenza activity.


Location-based service (LBS) is a geographical location-related service that provides highly personalized services for users. It is a platform for network operators to provide new and innovative ways of increasing profits from new services. With the rapidly growing trend toward LBS, there is a need for standard LBS protocols. This thesis started with introducing the Internet Engineering Task Force GEOPRIV working group, which endeavors to provide standard LBS protocols capable of transferring geographic location information for diverse location-aware applications. Through careful observation, it was found that Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is well suited to the GEOPRIV requirements. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the possibility of the integration of LBS and the SIP protocol and, to some extent fulfill the GEOPRIV requirements.