Reinforced concrete structures, designed according to proper capacity design guidelines, can deform inelastically without loss of strength. Therefore, such structures need not be designed for full elastic seismic demand, but could be designed for a reduced demand. In codified design procedures this reduced demand is obtained by dividing the full elastic seismic demand by a code-defined behaviour factor. There is, however, no consensus in the international community regarding the appropriate value to be assigned to the behaviour factor. The purpose of this study is to assess the value of the behaviour factor currently prescribed by SANS 10160-4 (2011) for the design of reinforced concrete structural walls. This is done by comparing displacement demand to displacement capacity for a series of structural walls. The first step in seismic force-based design is the estimation of the fundamental period of the structure. The influence of this first crucial step is investigated in this study by considering two period calculation methods. It was found that, regardless of the period calculation method, the current behaviour factor value prescribed in SANS 10160-4 (2011) is adequate to ensure that inter-storey drift of structural walls would not exceed code-defined drift limits.


This year marks a number of important anniversaries for the Three Rs and those organisations involved in their advancement. These include the 50th anniversary of the publication of Russell and Burch's book, The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, the 40th anniversary of FRAME, and the 5th anniversary for the UK's National Centre for the 3Rs. These anniversaries provide an important opportunity to reflect on past achievements and future challenges.


Although civil society in Bangladesh is recognized for its vibrant performance in social development, it is often criticized for its inability to ensure good governance and democracy. The aim of this paper is to point out the reasons for this failure of civil society. Through performing case studies upon five civil society organizations representing different sector and level of the civil society, the paper concludes that civil society organizations in Bangladesh are often politicized and co-opted by different political parties. In a typical scenario, civil society can provide a counterbalance or even monitor the state both at the national and local level. However, in Bangladesh, often the civil society organizations have compromised their autonomy and politicized themselves to certain political parties or political block. In such a vulnerable position, civil society can hardly play its expected role to ensure good governance and strengthen democracy.


The Helios voting scheme is well studied including formal proofs for verifiability and ballot privacy. However, depending on its version, the scheme provides either participation privacy (hiding who participated in the election) or verifiability against malicious bulletin board (preventing election manipulation by ballot stuffing), but not both at the same time. It also does not provide receipt-freeness, thus enabling vote buying by letting the voters construct receipts proving how they voted. Recently, an extension to Helios, further referred to as KTV-Helios, has been proposed that claims to provide these additional security properties. However, the authors of KTV-Helios did not prove their claims. Our contribution is to provide formal definitions for participation privacy and receipt-freeness that we applied to KTV-Helios. In order to evaluate the fulfillment of participation privacy and receipt-freeness, we furthermore applied the existing definition of ballot privacy, which was also used for evaluating the security of Helios, in order to show that ballot privacy also holds for KTV-Helios.


Dynamic update is a mechanism that allows software updates and patches to be applied to a running system without loss of service or down-time. Operating systems would benefit from dynamic update, but place unique demands on any implementation of such features. These demands stem from the event-driven nature of operating systems, from their restricted run-time execution environment, and from their role in simultaneously servicing multiple clients.

We have implemented a dynamic update mechanism in the K42 research operating system, and tested it using previous modifications of the system by kernel developers. Our system supports updates changing both kernel code and data structures. In this paper we identify requirements needed to provide a dynamically updatable operating system, describe our implementation, and present our experiences in designing and using the dynamic update mechanism. We also discuss its applicability to other operating systems.


In his reflections on being the only Jewish-born Jesuit, Giovanni Battista Eliano (1530-89) deliberated over the nature of religious conversion. Early in his career, Eliano did not hide the difficulties and personal dilemmas that he and other converts faced. However, in the wake of increased institutional skepticism concerning conversion and the dedication of Jewish-lineage Jesuits, Eliano recast conversion from a lifelong process of belonging to an instantaneous act of becoming via baptism. This shift in how Eliano textually constructed conversion demonstrates that confessionalization was driven by more than religious consolidation via political and social institutions, but centered on a dialogic exchange between individuals and society that stimulated confession building. This dialogue, what I call self-confessionalization, allows for a more complex understanding of how confessional self-representation was in conversation with socioreligious dynamics, and is central to seeing confessionalization and cross-confessional encounters as evolutionary processes rather than static forms.


This data set contains data for estimating the "Ident_EU" probabilistic model used to classify EU citizens and regions according to their different patterns of identification with EU during PERCEIVE project. The model specification and its results are described in Deliverable D2.4 from the PERCEIVE project (http://doi.org/10.6092/unibo/amsacta/6113) and in Brasili, Calia and Monasterolo (2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/rsp3.12227).
The file PERCEIVE_WP2_Ident_EU_DATA.csv includes as input variables a set of indicators and individual characteristics derived from the responses to the questions in the PERCEIVE Survey (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3346047), as well as regional characteristics derived from the PERCEIVE regional panel dataset (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3346052). It contains also the output variables produced by model estimation: the membership's probabilities and the clusters' classification for individuals and regions.
The file PERCEIVE_WP2_Ident_EU_LG_syntax.txt contains the commands (syntax model) that can be used for the specification of the "Ident_EU" model with the software used for the analysis, Latent GOLD®.


In what follows, I want to discuss three audience responses to 'Kierkegaard: The Movie', a paper I delivered at the Cultural Studies Association of Australia's annual conference in December 2001, and to show where those responses led me. The reason I am doing so is that I am more and more convinced that our theories of ideology suffer a fundamental flaw. They fail to incorporate the richest source of data that we, as humanities academics, have at our disposal: the fact that we are all teachers. What richer source could we have for studying the transmission of ideas and beliefs than our own social practices? I am referring not only to the classroom, but also to our conferences, and even to our collegial visits to the pub. Wherever it is that university people garner new ideas and directions, that is where we will be most likely to learn about the mechanisms of cultural and indeed political transmission.


BACKGROUND DNA ("did not attend") at outpatient clinics is an important problem costing the NHS an estimated £266 million annually. The national DNA rate for 1996–1997 for all clinics was 12%. The DNA rate at Hammersmith Hospital for the same year in the care of the elderly specialty was 21%. The aim of this study was to establish why this was so, and to test the efficacy of a reminder call in increasing attendance rates at care of the elderly clinics. METHODS 23 DNAs from seven clinics were contacted to ascertain the reasons for non-attendance (group I). For seven further clinics, 84 patients were contacted in advance to reconfirm their appointment (group II). RESULTS From group II 12 patients were identified who were unaware of their appointment (14%), six of whom agreed to attend; thus six potential DNAs were prevented. Eleven vacant appointments were identified in advance. Theunexpected DNA rate was reduced to 5% from a potential 21% as a result of this exercise. The DNA rate for all patients with dementia (both groups) was 44%, whereas the DNA rate for all patients without this diagnosis (both groups) was 16% (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS A preclinic phone call reminder to elderly patients is feasible, increases attendance rates, and identifies vacant appointments. Patients with dementia are more likely to miss clinic appointments; therefore they and their carers need specific reminders about appointment dates. Key points Clinic non-attendance is an important problem in the elderly. Surveys show that up to 50% of non-attenders say they forgot about their appointment, and reminder letters/calls are effective for other specialties. Reminder calls to the elderly are well received, and very effective in increasing attendance rates. Vacant appointments can be identified in advance, allowing urgent referrals at short notice. Patients with dementia are significantly more likely to be non-attenders, and they and their carers need to be specially targeted for reminders.


We describe a method to frequency narrow multielement high-power diode bars. Using a commercial 60-W, 49-element, 1-cm-long diode array bar at 795 nm running at 45 W, we narrow the linewidth from 1000 to 64 GHz with only a loss of 33% in output power. The resulting laser light is well suited for spin-exchange optical pumping of noble gas nuclei.


On the occasion of Georgia O'Keeffe's 80th birthday in 1966, "Life" magazine dispatched photographer John Loengard to her home in New Mexico to document a day in the life of the pioneering American artist. Loengard's elegant black and white images capture the grand, solitary woman in the desert, and candid shots record her daily routine at Ghost Ranch. Juxtaposed here with selected O'Keeffe paintings, these photographs reveal how the austere poetry of the landscape corresponded to the artist's own painterly world. This unique marriage of paintings and photographs, presented in a stunningcollectible volume, also includes a touching introduction by Loengard describing his first encounter with O'Keeffe and contemplative writings by the artist herself on her work and inspirations.


This paper examines the factors responsible for generating the services led growth witnessed in the Indian economy during 1980–2005. A sectoral growth accounting exercise shows that total factor productivity (TFP) growth was the fastest for services; moreover this TFP increase was significant in accounting for service sector value added growth. A growth model with agriculture, industry and services as three principal sectors is calibrated to Indian data using sectoral TFP growth rates. The baseline model performs well in accounting for the evolution of value added shares and their growth rates, but is unable to capture sectoral employment share trends. The performance of the model with respect to value added shares improves when the post 1991 increase in service sector TFP growth following the inception of market-based liberalization reforms is accounted for. A modified version of the model with public capital can better track trends in sectoral employment shares.


Residual stresses play an important role in the behavior of structures subjected to static and dynamic loads. The main aim of this study is to estimate experimentally the residual stresses in 70/30 brass material tested in bending and torsion using the plasticity theory. The influence of shot peening process on the tensile residual stresses is discussed. It is shown that the shot peening strongly influences the residual stresses, i.e. shot peening will reduce the tensile residual stresses by 13.6% of the yield strength in bending tests. While will reduce the tensile residual stresses by 22% of shear yield stress in torsion tests.


In order to study the efficacy of genetic algorithms (GAs), a number of fitness landscapes have been designed and used as test functions. Among these functions a family of deceptive functions have been developed as difficult test functions for comparing different implementations of GAs. In this paper an adaptive group mutation (AGM), which can be combined with traditional bit mutation in GAs, is proposed to tackle the deception problem in genetic searching. Within the AGM, those genes that have converged to certain threshold degree are adaptively grouped together and subject to mutation together with a given probability. To test the performance of the AGM, experiments were carried out to compare GAs that combine the AGM and GAs that use only traditional bit mutation with a number of suggested "standard" fixed mutation rates over a set of deceptive functions as well as non-deceptive functions. The results demonstrate that GAs with the AGM perform better than GAs with only traditional bit mutation over deceptive functions and as well as GAs with only traditional bit mutation over non-deceptive functions. The results show that the AGM is a good choice for GAs since most problems may involve some degree of deception and deceptive functions are difficult for GAs. Key-Words: Genetic algorithm, adaptive group mutation, bit mutation, deceptive functions, building blocks.


Two populations of Rivularia‐like cyanobacteria were isolated from ecologically distinct and biogeographically distant sites. One population was from an unpolluted stream in the Kola Peninsula of Russia, whereas the other was from a wet wall in the Grand Staircase‐Escalante National Monument, a desert park‐land in Utah. Though both were virtually indistinguishable from Rivularia in field and cultured material, they were both phylogenetically distant from Rivularia and the Rivulariaceae based on both 16S rRNA and rbcLX phylogenies. We here name the new cryptic genus Cyanomargarita gen. nov., with type species C. melechinii sp. nov., and additional species C. calcarea sp. nov. We also name a new family for these taxa, the Cyanomargaritaceae.


Preliminary observations have been made on the choice of host plants by adults of the citrus psylla, Trioza erytreae (Del Guercio). This oligophagous insect was given the choice between leaves of Citrus limon (rough lemon) and four indigenous host plants, namely, Vepris undulata, Clausena anisata, Fagara capensis and Calodendrum capense. Of these hosts, Ci. limon was significantly more attractive to adults of T. erytreae as a feeding and oviposition site, and this preference was consistent even when the test psyllids had been reared for at least two generations on either V. undulata or Cl. anisata. In all cases, of the indigenous host plants tested, V. undulata was the most attractive to adults of T. erytreae for feeding and oviposition and the other indigenous plants were much less attractive. The implications of these findings are discussed.


In January 2000, Reiner Eschbach, who was the IS&T vice president for publications at the time, invited me to join him for a drink in the bar at Il Fornaio in the Hyatt St. Claire in San Jose, California. I should have known better than to accept his invitation. We were both attending the IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, an annual ritual in which I always take great pleasure. Reiner asked me if I would be willing to serve as editor of the Journal of Electronic Imaging. He said "You only have to do it for a few years." Naturally, I agreed. I started my term in January 2001. Here is it almost 10 years later, and it is time to say goodbye. Why, you may ask, am I stepping down after exactly 10 years in this position? When I first accepted the editorship, there was an initial term of three years. After that time, the appointment was renewed on an annual basis by both IS&T and SPIE, the two organizations that jointly publish JEI. However, in 2008, the SPIE Board of Directors wisely decided to establish 10-year term limits for all their journal editors, and the IS&T Board concurred. Of course, this was a very good idea. It is always good to bring in someone new with a fresh perspective, heightened energy, and new ideas. It also provided me with a graceful way to step down. So what happened in the 10 years that I have been editor? At the end of 2010, we will have published 40 issues that comprise more than 800 papers and more than 8,700 pages. If one were to line up the print versions of all these issues on their bookshelf, it would take over 14 inches of horizontal space. Maybe some of you have this nicely organized collection on your bookshelf. More on that later. Unfortunately, my office is too chaotic to allow something like this. Special sections that highlight important areas of imaging science and technology have always been an important component of what JEI provides. During my term, we published 17 special sections. The first two that appeared during my watch were "Human Vision and Electronic Imaging," guest edited by Bernice Rogowitz, Thrasyvoulos Pappas, and me; and "Machine Vision for Industrial Inspection," guest edited by Ken Tobin and John Miller. Of course, I had nothing to do with the commissioning of either of these special sections. That was done by my predecessor Edward Dougherty, long before I started my term as editor. The last special section during this period was "Quality Control by Artificial Vision," guest edited by Shaun Gleason, Kurt Niel, and Edmund Lam, which appeared in the July-September 2010 issue. Now about that bookshelf. At the present time, a large majority of our subscribers receive only the online version of JEI, which first became available in 1998. So the number of bookshelves that hold a neatly organized complete set of journal issues is surely declining. In 2005, we began to post articles online for the upcoming issue, one at a time, as soon as they were formatted for publication. In 2007, we began to accept multimedia files as a supplement to the online text of a manuscript. These are all important developments; but I must confess that I still like the print version of the journal too. What comes next? I am very pleased to announce that Gaurav Sharma of the University of Rochester has agreed to serve as the next editor of the Journal of Electronic Imaging. Gaurav has been an associate editor of JEI since 2003, so he is well acquainted with our journal. He is also well known to the imaging community. He has a number of exciting ideas for the journal, but I will let him tell you about that. Before I go, I need to do more one thing. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the journals staff at SPIE, especially Karolyn Labes who has been in her role as managing editor throughout my term. Their professionalism made my job much easier than it would otherwise have been. I would also like to thank the members of the editorial board for all the hard work that they have put into the handling of manuscripts for the journal during my term. Finally, I would like to thank both the authors who have chosen JEI as the venue for publishing their work and the readers for their interest in those papers. I look forward to continuing my interaction with the journal as a reader and author.


This paper presents a positive model which shows that institutional setups on capital and labor markets might be intertwined by politicoeconomic forces. Two politicoeconomic equilibria arise from our model, one with little protection of insiders on capital and labor markets, and another one with an institutional bias toward favoring insiders on both markets. Coherent and relatively homogeneous societies, where binding commitments enjoy greater feasability, are more likely to be found in the latter, corporatist equilibrium, whereas fragmented, heterogeneous Anglo-Saxon societies fit better into the former category. These predictions of the model receive considerable support in our cross-country empirical analysis, thus being potentially important for the current debates concerning the reforms of labor markets and of corporate governance systems.


This paper proposes a methodology for examining the effect of demand uncertainty and forecast error on lot sizing methods, unit costs and customer service levels in MRP type manufacturing systems. A number of cost structures were considered which depend on the expected time between orders. A simple two-level MRP system where the product is manufactured for stock was then simulated. Stochastic demand for the final product was generated by two commonly occurring processes and with different variances. Various lot sizing rules were then used to determine the amount of product made and the amount of materials bought in. The results confirm earlier research that the behaviour of lot sizing rules is quite different when there is uncertainty in demand compared to the situation of perfect foresight of demand. The best lot sizing rules for the deterministic situation are the worst whenever there is uncertainty in demand. In addition the choice of lot sizing rule between 'good' rules such as the EOQ turns out to be relatively less important in reducing unit cost compared to improving forecasting accuracy whatever the cost structure. The effect of demand uncertainty on unit cost for a given service level increases exponentially as the uncertainty in the demand data increases. The paper also shows how the value of improved forecasting can be analysed by examining the effects of different sizes of forecast error in addition to demand uncertainty. In those manufacturing problems with high forecast error variance, improved forecast accuracy should lead to substantial percentage improvements in unit costs.


Hoffa fracture associated with ipsilateral femoral shaft fractures is a rare clinical entity. We present a previously unreported multi-trauma case with a unique fracture combination of ipsilateral Hoffa, tibial eminence, femoral shaft and Malgaigne fractures. The Malgaigne fracture was treated non-operatively while the other three fractures were operated with arthroscopic and assisted techniques. Despite the use of minimally invasive techniques, the patient experienced postoperative soft tissue problems. In follow-up, all fractures healed with a good functional outcome. The application of a minimally invasive technique in such a high-energy trauma is crucial for prevention of soft tissue complications.


The aim of our study is to examine the effect of extracellular ATP whether it is correlated with intracellular Ca concentrations ([Ca2+]i) on human liver hepatocellular cells (HepG2). The extracellular ATP is responsible for regulating both cells signaling and cell functions. ATP maintains these effects through purinergic P2 receptors. The extracellular ATP promotes the release of Ca2+ from the Ca2+ stores to the cytoplasm in the cell and increases [Ca2+] I in the cell. In our study, various concentrations of ATP (10-3M-10-7M) were applied to HepG2 cells and incubated for 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. At these concentrations, the proliferation of cells and apoptosis of the cells was examined for 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. Similarly, cells with different ATP concentrations incubated for 24 hours and 48 hours were loaded with Indo 1FF AM calcium indicator to measure [Ca2+]i. Surprising results were obtained, 10-6M-10-7M extracellular ATP was found to be more toxic than 10-3 M-10-4 M extracellular ATP, (p<0.05). Low concentrations of ATP also reduced [Ca2+]i for 24 hours and 48 hours of incubations (p<0.01). As a result, low concentration extracellular ATP is more toxic in HepG2 cells. At the same time, the extracellular ATP correlates with [Ca2+]i.


Do technology teachers in secondary schools and academic stakeholders share the national vision of knowledge and innovation when implementing Design and Technology curricula? Directions for an innovation climate have been endorsed by the federal government, and demanded by various industry groups, since 1996. This paper explores the extent to which education providers of secondary schooling have embraced the call for teaching and developing innovation capacities through technology curriculum. The Australian Science, Technology and Engineering Council (ASTEC) in 1996 underpinned "foresight" as an essential dimension to our thinking which attempts to capture the dynamics of change and the need to incorporate "technacy" in primary and secondary school and teaching practices for fostering innovation capacities among students. Various national reports have since added to this agenda including the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) report 'Australia's Teachers: Australia's Future: Advancing Innovation, Science, Technology and Mathematics' and the posting by DEST signalling Australia's newest national research priority to foster the uptake of innovation in human capital. There is a need to analyse and understand whether there is a capacity for NSW schools to deliver on the above agenda given historical difficulties within the State's system to embrace new pedagogy in the field of technology education and associated teacher capital.


Roberts et al. used DNA microarray analysis to observe global patterns of gene expression in yeast cells associated with alterations in signaling through the pheromone response pathway. Pheromone causes yeast cells to arrest in the G1 phase of the cell cycle and form mating projections. Pheromone receptors activate a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway that leads to alterations in gene expression. The results show the global patterns of gene regulation mediated by this pathway and related pathways that use MAP kinase signaling modules for other biological responses. They find that partial activation of the pheromone response pathway produces a gene expression pattern reminiscent of that in cells undergoing haploid invasive growth. Such regulation was previously thought to be under the control of a distinct MAP kinase pathway. Data from 383 highly regulated genes over 46 experimental conditions begin to show the predictive power of such large data sets when presented as a two-dimensional hierarchical matrix. Roberts, C.J., Nelson, B., Marton, M.J., Stoughton, R., Meyer, M.R., Bennett, H.A., He, Y.D., Dai, H., Walker, W.L., Hughes, T.R., Tyers, M., Boone, C., Friend, S.H. (2000) Signaling and circuitry of multiple MAPK pathways revealed by a matrix of global gene expression profiles. Science 287: 873-880. [Abstract] [Full Text]


In 1977 Walter Laqueur predicted accurately that 'the disputes about a detailed, comprehensive definition of terrorism will continue for a long time, they will not result in a consensus and they will make no notable contribution towards the understanding of terrorism.' Attempts to incorporate all the many manifestations of terrorism within a single definition were doomed from the start. The term terrorism has been applied across the whole spectrum of political violence, and over the centuries of history. It has been applied to times of war and of peace; to the actions of states, groups and individuals; to actions against liberal states and to actions against repressive states and dictatorships. To treat terrorism as a general concept separates the action from its context, and consequently from its intention and its justification; it therefore divorces it from its meaning. This is a bad start to any definition, given that its purpose is to illuminate the meaning. Almost a quarter of a century after Laqueur's prophetic words, Omar Malik's paper charts a route out of the definitional log-jam. It provides the important first steps both to understanding terrorism and to formulating a proper response.


Orbital debris in low Earth orbit is of growing concern to operational satellites from the government and commercial sector. With an uptick in worldwide satellite launches and the growing adoption of the CubeSat standard, the number of small objects in orbit are increasing at a faster pace than ever. As a result, a cascading collision event seems inevitable in the near future. The United States Strategic Command tracks and determines the orbit of resident space objects using a worldwide network of radar and optical sensors. However, in order to better protect space assets, there has been increased interest in not just knowing where a space object is, but what the object is. The optical and spectral characteristics of solar light re ected o of satellites or debris can provide information on the physical state or identity of the object. These same optical signatures can be used for mission support of operational satellite missions—down to satellites as small as CubeSats. Optical observation of CubeSats could provide independent monitoring of spin rate, deployable status, identi cation of individual CubeSats in a swarm, or possibly attitude information. This thesis rst introduces the reader to a review of available observation techniques followed by the basics of observational astronomy relevant to satellite tracking. The thesis then presents the OSCOM system—a system for Optical tracking and Spectral characterization of CubeSats for Operational Missions. OSCOM is a ground-based system capable of observing and characterizing small debris and CubeSats with commercially available optical telescopes and detectors. The system is just as applicable for larger satellites which have higher signal to noise ratio. The OSCOM system has been used to successfully collect time-series photometry of more than 60 unique satellites of all sizes. Selected photometry results are presented along with a discussion of the technical details required for optical observation of small satellites.


Legal Risk in the Financial Markets, by Roger McCormick, 2006, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. ix + 297. The use of information and communication technologies, globalization, and the liberalization of financial markets have all gone hand in hand with increasingly complex financial innovations. These new products, the new technologies, and the increased exposure to different, sometimes conflicting, legislation have increased the importance of legal risk. This legal risk in now recognized as a form of operational risk by the Basel II accords. In an innovative, ambitious, path-clearing work, Roger McCormick attempts to clarify what constitutes legal risk in the financial markets and how to manage it. He provides many examples of such risks that, he repeats often, have small probabilities but large impacts, large enough to wipe out a business and create systemic effects for other contracting parties. The examples he provides, as well as the compilation of different definitions and different perspectives to these risks, makes the book an ideal source for generating material for a course on English law in financial markets. In the introduction, McCormick divides this risk into two categories: the risk of being sued (type 1 risk) and the risk of losing money because of technical defects in the way the transaction is done especially if the other contracting party defaults (type 2 risk). According to McCormick writing in 2005/2006, the type 2 kind of risk can create systemic risks, owing largely due to legal uncertainty, but it is occupying the market much less in recent years, reassured by English court decisions. He felt that the market, at that time, was more concerned with type 1 risk and the rise of the opportunism culture of suing or as he aptly terms it, "having a go." Recent events show that systemic risk really existed and that indeed the financial market and its actors did not really understand the legal ramifications of all the complex financial products that had been bought, and that there were many technical defects in the way transactions were being conducted. Thus, the importance of his work is reinforced. This financial crisis highlights the importance of the work by McCormick, daring because not even the financial markets understand the legal risks involved, and few lawyers, if any, would really understand the complexity of all the financial products. The book is therefore useful to policymakers, lawyers, and financial actors, besides academics. To heighten the interest of policymakers to the book, McCormick points out that there is competition in the market place on the laws to adopt and if England wants its laws to be adopted, then it would have to create more legal certainty and reduce risk. For this, the government needs to constantly monitor the marketplace for new technologies and new products that have been introduced and ensure that actors involved with these innovations understand the legal ramifications. The first part of the book provides some historical examples of legal uncertainty in financial markets based largely on English law examples, notwithstanding four isolated mentions of cases in other countries. The examples include a case on swaps, another on charge backs in the context of invoice discounting, and a third on settling differences (set-offs/netting) in the context of bankruptcy. McCormick justifies the usefulness of English law as it is, according to a British financial newspaper, the most important law in international financial transactions. In any case, a start has to be made somewhere, and harmonization through directives and imitation may have rendered legislations similar enough for the legal niceties to be comprehensible to a wide Audience even if treated differently in different laws. The second part of the book presents the characteristics of legal risk, using the historical examples as a justification for the importance of the subject. …


1Full Member of the Brazilian Society for Plastic Surgery Director of the Institute for Specialized Surgery Ltda. ABSTRACT Introduction: Changes to the malar region are, in many cases, difficult to resolve. The ageing process causes great variation and deformity of this region. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe a simple and less aggressive surgical procedure that has demonstrated good results and quick recovery. Method: A canoe-shaped or elliptical-shaped line is drawn bordering the malar mound or the skin fold. The skin is incised down to the subcutaneous plane. The excess skin is removed and a suture is then performed immediately. Result: The patients undergoing this direct surgical method showed a favorable postoperative course, and the scars were not very visible. Conclusion: This direct procedure provides a favorable result and quick recovery. Indications depend on surgical judgment, age of the patient, and degree of skin flaccidity.


Eroded soils, as a potential nonpoint P source, have come under scrutiny, particularly in agricultural watersheds. Surface water and groundwater in the Tualatin Riber (TRB) of Northwestern Oregon have maximum concentrations of 2.1 and 2.6 mg P/L, respectively. We hypothesized that TRB soils are a for P source in the basin because of their high native soil P concentrations and soil P adsorption characteristics. We sampled eight soil series from both lowland and upland positions in the TRB, with both andic and nonandic mineralogy. All soils sampled had high total P concentrations (660-2304 mg P/kg soil). High average extractable P (Bray P1, 74 mg P/kg soil, and ammonium bicarbonate, 35.7 mg P/kg soil) concentrations were found primarily in lowland, nonandic soils. There was no significant difference between P sorption maxima; however, P affinity was significantly higher in upland soils (0.19 L/mg soil) than in lowland soils (0.04 L/mg P). Upland, andic soils, due to their erosion potential and high TP levels (average of 1889 mg P/kg soil), could be a P source for surface waters. Lowland, nonandic soils, due to their high extractable P concentrations and lower P sorption affinity, could be a source for both surface and groundwater. Thus, all soils studied, comprising approximately 50% of TRB soils, are potential nonpoint P sources in this watershed, indicating that native soil P is a potential source of nonpoint P pollution


Despite its substantial contributions to a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), there is no known systematic study on the governance of the biotechnology sector and how its performance is measured. A questionnaire survey was conducted with the firms registered in the UK Biotechnology Handbook . With a response rate of 38% and rigorous analysis, the results show that, when measuring performance, managers use both the financial and nonfinancial indicators, but emphasise the financial indicators more. The financial indicators include turnover, profit margins, cash reserve and liquidity, while the nonfinancial indicators are about meeting the customers' needs and expectations. More specifically, the managers place attention to the reporting of the environmental issues of their firms, reflecting their readiness to excel in social corporate responsibilities. The results have implications for the biotechnology sector and regulators for public policy.


Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) slow cardiomyopathy in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and improve skeletal muscle pathology and function in dystrophic mice. However, glucocorticoids, known antiinflammatory drugs, remain a standard of care for DMD, despite substantial side effects. Exact mechanisms underlying mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) signaling contribution to dystrophy are unknown. Whether MRAs affect inflammation in dystrophic muscles and how they compare with glucocorticoids is unclear. The MRA spironolactone and glucocorticoid prednisolone were each administered for 1 week to dystrophic mdx mice during peak skeletal muscle necrosis to compare effects on inflammation. Both drugs reduced cytokine levels in mdx quadriceps, but prednisolone elevated diaphragm cytokines. Spironolactone did not alter myeloid populations in mdx quadriceps or diaphragms, but prednisolone increased F4/80hi macrophages. Both spironolactone and prednisolone reduced inflammatory gene expression in myeloid cells sorted from mdx quadriceps, while prednisolone additionally perturbed cell cycle genes. Spironolactone also repressed myeloid expression of the gene encoding fibronectin, while prednisolone increased its expression. Overall, spironolactone exhibits antiinflammatory properties without altering leukocyte distribution within skeletal muscles, while prednisolone suppresses quadriceps cytokines but increases diaphragm cytokines and pathology. Antiinflammatory properties of MRAs and different limb and respiratory muscle responses to glucocorticoids should be considered when optimizing treatments for patients with DMD.


For this study, 10 brain of mongrel dogs, 5 males and 5 females, weighing between 8-12 Kg, with constitutionalist characteristics of cranium similar (mesaquicefalus), were collected. They were prepared according to conventional histological technique and stained by modified violet cresil, for becoming evident the neurons bodies. Through the morphometric analysis, comparative data were reached, mainly between the different bodies areas; brain right and left hemisphere and between the sex, for the knowledge of the arrangement and the quantity of the neuron bodies. The slides were analyzed with the aid of Axioscopio Zeiss®. The results showed that males had major quantity of the neuron bodies in brain right hemisphere (16,71). Once in females the rate were contrary, showing major quantity of neuron bodies in brain left hemisphere (17,46), when compared the different brain areas. The dogs showed major quantity of the neuron bodies in the visual area (19,77), following by the comportamental or limbic area (18,37) and between others areas did not show significant difference.


Hurst's analysis of natural background microtremors at 10 stations in Yun-Li and Chia-Yi Counties, Taiwan, yields high values of H, ranging from 0.733 to 0.934. These values are found to be site-specific and stationary. Microtremors recorded in the foothills, on a hillside and at rock sites have higher H values than those on the alluvial plain, near the coast or at soil sites although they may very well be affected by the local environment and geology. Since low-frequency microtremors tend to be more persistent in time, we suggest that the high values of the Hurst exponent H may be causally correlated with the presence of low frequencies. This seems likely because Hurst exponents H>0.5 mean a higher statistical persistence of a random signal.


Community-level factors have significant impacts on health. There is renewed enthusiasm for integrating these data with electronic health record (EHR) data for use in primary care to improve health equity in the USA. Thus, it is valuable to reflect on what has been published to date. Specifically, we comment on: (1) recommendations about combining community-level factors in EHRs for use in primary care; (2) examples of how these data have been combined and used; and (3) the impact of using combined data on healthcare, patient health and health equity. We found publications discussing the potential of combined data to inform clinical care, target interventions, track population health and spark community partnerships with the goal of reducing health disparities and improving health equity. Although there is great enthusiasm and potential for using these data to inform primary care, there is little evidence of improved healthcare, patient health or health equity.


The complexity of the problems facing society, such as health care, mobility, or environment, call for solutions cutting across different disciplines. This lies at the heart of interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinarity has been strongly promoted worldwide over the recent years. For the case of Japan, a prominent example is the WPI (World Premier International Research Center) initiative. The integration of unrelated or distant bodies of knowledge - also regarded as knowledge integration, fusion, confluence, or convergence - is an essential factor for interdisciplinary research. This study aims at quantitatively and visually capturing knowledge integration in a cutting edge WPI research institution in Japan. By combining different existing approaches into one integrated framework, fuller, more holistic, insights into the knowledge integration efforts can be gained. Three levels of analysis are proposed: macro, meso, and micro; each of them targeting knowledge integration at different granularities. For each of these levels, different bibliometric based and visualization approaches are used: global research maps, science overlays, and research landscapes, respectively. The results of these analyses will not only provide key insights into the way knowledge integration efforts can be assessed in cutting edge research institutions, but also they are expected to serve as a spearheading efforts for the conduction of further `technology intelligence' studies.


Air and soil pollution from mining activities has been considered as a critical issue to the health of living organisms. However, few efforts have been made in distinguishing the main pathway of organism genetic damage by heavy metals related to mining activities. Therefore, we investigated the genetic damage of Leymus chinensis leaf cells, the air particulate matter (PM) contents, and concentrations of the main heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg) in soil and foliar dust samples collected from seven experiment points at the core mining area and one control point 20 kilometers away from the core mining area in Inner Mongolia in 2013. Comet assay was used to test the genetic damage of the Leymus chinensis leaf cells; the Tail DNA% and Tail Moment were used to characterize the genetic damage degree of the plant cells. The comet assay results showed that the cell genetic damage ratio was up to 77.0% in experiment points but was only 35.0% in control point. The control point also had the slight Tail DNA% and Tail Moment values than other experiment groups. The cell damage degree of the control group was 0.935 and experiment groups were 1.299–1.815. The geo-accumulation index and comperehensive pollution index(CPI) were used to characterize heavy metal pollution in foliar dust samples, and single factor pollution index and CPI were used to characterize the heavy metal pollution in soil samples. The CPIfoliar dust of control group was 0.36 and experiment groups were 1.45–2.57; the CPIsoil of control group was 0.04 and experiment groups were 0.07–0.12. The results of correlation analyze showed that Air Quality Index (AQI) -CPIfoliar dust(r = 0.955**)>Damage degree-CPIfoliar dust(r = 0.923**)>Damage degree-AQI(r = 0.908**)>Damage degree-CPIsoil (r = 0.824*). The present research proved that mining activity had a high level of positive correlation with organism genetic damage caused by heavy metals through comparing with the control point; soil and atmosphere were both the important action pathway for heavy metal induced genetic damage in mining area. Furthermore, heavy metal contents in foliar dust showed a higher positive correlation with genetic damage than when compared with soil. This means the heavy metal contents that L.chinensis absorbed through respiration from the atmosphere could make more serious genetic damage than when absorbed by root systems from soil in the mining area. This study can provide theoretical support for research on plant genetic damage mechanisms and exposure pathways induced by environmental pollution.


Abstract. Recent flash flood impact studies highlight that road networks are often disrupted due to adverse weather and flash flood events. Road users are thus particularly exposed to road flooding during their daily mobility. Previous exposure studies, however, do not take into consideration population mobility. Recent advances in transportation research provide an appropriate framework for simulating individual travel-activity patterns using an activity-based approach. These activity-based mobility models enable the prediction of the sequence of activities performed by individuals and locating them with a high spatial–temporal resolution. This paper describes the development of the MobRISK microsimulation system: a model for assessing the exposure of road users to extreme hydrometeorological events. MobRISK aims at providing an accurate spatiotemporal exposure assessment by integrating travel-activity behaviors and mobility adaptation with respect to weather disruptions. The model is applied in a flash-flood-prone area in southern France to assess motorists' exposure to the September 2002 flash flood event. The results show that risk of flooding mainly occurs in principal road links with considerable traffic load. However, a lag time between the timing of the road submersion and persons crossing these roads contributes to reducing the potential vehicle-related fatal accidents. It is also found that sociodemographic variables have a significant effect on individual exposure. Thus, the proposed model demonstrates the benefits of considering spatiotemporal dynamics of population exposure to flash floods and presents an important improvement in exposure assessment methods. Such improved characterization of road user exposures can present valuable information for flood risk management services.


Background Crowdsourcing contests (also called innovation challenges, innovation contests, and inducement prize contests) can be used to solicit multisectoral feedback on health programs and design public health campaigns. They consist of organizing a steering committee, soliciting contributions, engaging the community, judging contributions, recognizing a subset of contributors, and sharing with the community. Objective This scoping review describes crowdsourcing contests by stage, examines ethical problems at each stage, and proposes potential ways of mitigating risk. Methods Our analysis was anchored in the specific example of a crowdsourcing contest that our team organized to solicit videos promoting condom use in China. The purpose of this contest was to create compelling 1-min videos to promote condom use. We used a scoping review to examine the existing ethical literature on crowdsourcing to help identify and frame ethical concerns at each stage. Results Crowdsourcing has a group of individuals solve a problem and then share the solution with the public. Crowdsourcing contests provide an opportunity for community engagement at each stage: organizing, soliciting, promoting, judging, recognizing, and sharing. Crowdsourcing poses several ethical concerns: organizing—potential for excluding community voices; soliciting—potential for overly narrow participation; promoting—potential for divulging confidential information; judging—potential for biased evaluation; recognizing—potential for insufficient recognition of the finalist; and sharing—potential for the solution to not be implemented or widely disseminated. Conclusions Crowdsourcing contests can be effective and engaging public health tools but also introduce potential ethical problems. We present methods for the responsible conduct of crowdsourcing contests.


These meditations are written in the form of God speaking to the reader as to His loved and valued child in order to reveal the nature of His love more clearly in its depth, its splendour and its tenderness. Some of them open our minds to the immense energy of love in the universe. Others reveal the presence of love in human tribulations and suffering, or illumimate the most commonplace actions of daily life. In all of them, tenderness toward each created being touches the real hunger and hope of our lives for a relationship of loving communication with God, for a journey with a transcendentent destination. There are also meditations on the presence of Christ. The actions of our daily lives, which so often threaten to become a meaningless routine, here are considered one by one. Each is brought into the light of a related incident in the life of Christ. Each is considered as if carried out in His immediate presence. What for us has so often become dulled or meaningless is shown as capable of transfiguration, of being potentially the action of an heir of God, of someone who transmits the intention of God to this world.


Viruses are nanometer size organisms (range from 18 to 250 nm) that can potentially contaminate the feedstocks from animal or human origins used to manufacture biopharmaceutical products. Various measures are taken to ensure the optimal viral safety of this class of products. Selection and screening of starting materials play an important role in safeguarding from the introduction of viruses into the downstream processing but they have limits in specificity and sensitivity. Purification methods of protein biopharmaceutical products may also contribute to viral reduction, but since viruses exhibit a wide range of biochemical characteristics and resistance to physico-chemical treatments, complete elimination of infectious agents is not guaranteed. Therefore, the viral safety of animal derived biopharmaceutical products is well recognized to rely largely upon the use of deliberately introduced and validated viral inactivation and/or removal steps. A major progress in viral safety has been made recently by the development and availability of biocompatible viral filtration (also known as nanofiltration) systems using membranes of a pore size as small as 15 nm; these systems are specifically designed to allow, depending upon membrane used, typically over 4 to 6 logs of virus removal under conditions ensuring good protein permeability and recovery. Validation studies and production experience throughout the world have demonstrated that viral nanofiltration is a robust and reliable viral reduction technique that can be applied to essentially all biological products. This review analyzes the virus risks of biopharmaceut ical products (human plasma derivatives, horse and sheep plasma-derived products, recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies), the various viral inactivation methods used at present, and the increasing role that viral nanofiltration is playing in assuring the safety of biopharmaceutical products.


We live in a digital world that, in 2010, crossed the mark of one zettabyte data. This huge amount of data processed on computers extremely fast with optimized techniques allows one to find insights in new and emerging types of data and content and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond reach. This is the idea of Big Data. Google now offers the Google Correlate analysis public tool that, from a search term or a series of temporal or regional data, provides a list of queries on Google whose frequencies follow patterns that best correlate with the data, according to the Pearson determination coefficient R2. Of course, "correlation does not imply causation." We believe, however, that there is potential for these big data tools to find unexpected correlations that may serve as clues to interesting phenomena, from the pedagogical and even scientific point of view. As far as we know, this is the first proposal for the use of Big Data in Science Teaching, of constructionist character, taking as mediators the computer and the public and free tools such as Google Correlate. It also has an epistemological bias, not being merely a training in computational infrastructure or predictive analytics, but aiming at providing students a better understanding of physical concepts, such as phenomena, observation, measurement, physical laws, theory, and causality. With it, they would be able to become good Big Data specialists, the so needed "data scientists" to solve the challenges of Big Data.


Abstract. Recently, surface latent heat flux (SLHF) data have been widely used to study the anomalies before earthquakes. Most studies use the daily SLHF data. Here we use both the daily SLHF data and the high temporal resolution (four times one day) SLHF data, and compare the SLHF changes with satellite cloud images at the first time. We check the data from 1 September to 30 October 2011, and the result shows that there is really a very high SLHF anomaly (more than 2σ) in the epicenter area just 5 days before the M = 6.1 Russia earthquake that occurred on 14 October 2011. It should be considered as a preseismic precursor if judged with previously published methods, but our comparison between SLHF change and satellite images shows that the SLHF anomaly is contaminated by a thick cloud. It is difficult to verify that this SLHF anomaly is caused by an earthquake and our analysis shows that it is more related to meteorological reason. This example tells us that scientists must know the data's meaning before they use it; if not, they may draw a wrong conclusion. Based on this example, we suggest that previously published SLHF anomalies before earthquakes should be reanalyzed with our method to exclude the false anomalies.


A fully integrated 0.18 /spl mu/m 1P6M CMOS power amplifier using internal frequency doubling is presented. Two chips were measured, one stand-alone PA and one PA with a VCO on the same chip. Since the PA and VCO operate at different frequencies, this configuration is suitable for direct-upconversion or low-IF upconversion since oscillator pulling is reduced. The maximum output power is 15 dBm, and the maximum drain efficiency is 10.7% at an output operating frequency of 2.4 GHz.


Existing empirical research suggests that human resource officials, managers, and in-house counsel influence the meaning of anti-discrimination law by communicating an altered ideology of what civil rights laws mean that is colored with managerial values. This article explores how insurance companies play a critical and as yet, unrecognized role in mediating the meaning of anti-discrimination law through Employment Practice Liability Insurance (EPLI). My analysis draws from, links, and contributes to two literatures that examine organizational behavior in different ways: new institutional organizational sociology studies of how organizations respond to legal regulation and socio-legal insurance scholars' research on how institutions govern through risk. Through participant observation at EPLI conferences, interviews, and content analysis of insurance loss prevention manuals, my study bridges these two literatures and highlights how the insurance field uses a risk-based logic to construct the threat of employment law and influence the form of compliance from employers. Faced with uncertain legal risk concerning potential discrimination violations, insurance institutions elevate the risk and threat in the legal environment and offer EPLI and a series of risk-management services that build discretion into legal rules and mediate the nature of civil rights compliance. My data suggest that insurance risk management services may sometimes be compatible with civil rights goals of improving equality, due process, and fair governance in workplace settings, but at other times may simply make discrimination claims against employers more defensible.


An alkali-feldspar granite (Požega granite) of reddish colour occurs in northern Croatia in the Cretaceous suture zone (Sava Zone) between the collided plates of Europe and Adria (Africa). This granite is mainly composed of alkali feldspar (perthite) and quartz, with small amounts of albite. Accessories are hematite with ilmenite exsolution, zircon, apatite and monazite. Anatase, rutile (?), kokchetavite, and kumdykolite are found only as inclusions in zircon. The granite shows a geochemical signature typical for an A2-subtype granite, characterized by a peraluminous, highly siliceous and alkaline composition, and belongs to the group of oxidized and ferroan granites with low CaO, MgO, and MnO contents and high FeOT / FeOT + MgO ratios. Trace element contents plotted in chondrite and primitive mantle normalized element diagrams show positive anomalies of K, Pb, and Zr and negative anomalies of Ba, Nb, P, Eu, and Ti. Based on whole-rock geochemical data, the magma originated mainly from melting of lower continental crust. According to the zircon typology (D and J5 types prevail), zircon and whole-rock chemistry, and high Zr-saturation temperatures (T=860–950 °C), the melting process at high temperature and dry conditions could have been triggered by upwelling hot mantle. The ascent of the thus produced A-type granitic magma into the Europe–Adria suture was fast. The Požega granite indicates the transition from compression to extension accompanied by opening of a sedimentary basin. According to the 206Pb/238U versus 207Pb/235U concordia age determined on zircon, this event occurred 83.6±1.5 Ma ago.


Distinguished by its superior allied health focus and integration of technology, Seager and Slabaugh's CHEMISTRY FOR TODAY: GENERAL, ORGANIC, and BIOCHEMISTRY, Seventh Edition continues to meet students' needs through diverse applications, examples, boxes, and outstanding technology tools. Prompts throughout the new edition lead students to OWL (web-based learning system)--two unique online programs that extend the lessons of the text and help students study smarter. In addition to the many resources found in CengageNOW and OWL, the book and website contain questions modeled after the Nursing School and Allied Health Entrance Exams. CHEMISTRY FOR TODAY dispels students' inherent fear of chemistry and instills an appreciation for the role chemistry plays in our daily lives through a rich pedagogical structure and an accessible writing style with lucid explanations. In addition, the book provides greater support in both problem-solving and critical-thinking skills--the skills necessary for student success. By demonstrating the importance of chemistry concepts to students' future careers and by providing important career information online, the authors not only help students set goals but also help them focus on achieving them.


Most modern prognostic algorithms are founded on a simple abstraction of device degradation, for an individual device there exists a degradation signal that progresses along a unique path until it crosses a critical failure threshold. While this abstraction has been shown to be valid for well understood failure modes under controlled stress conditions, its viability in "real world" devices being exposed to "real world" stresses is questionable. Because the complexity of degradation should scale in a similar fashion as the complexity of the device, the applicability of a simple abstraction of degradation is increasingly arguable for modern devices. This paper will propose an alternative to the current abstraction of degradation, which is founded on the premise that degradation data should be allowed to speak for itself. In this way, many different forms of information can be incorporated into a prognoser's estimate of a device's remaining useful life (RUL). More specifically, this paper will outline a methodology for implementing a dynamic prognoser that can be incrementally trained to learn general (physical model output, expert opinion, etc.) and specific ("real world" data) degradation trends. This work will demonstrate the viability of the proposed method by applying a particular embodiment, namely the path classification and estimation (PACE) model, to data collected from a deep-well oil exploration drill. To begin, expert opinion will be used to develop a PACE prognoser. Next, data collected from individual drills will be used to incrementally train the prognoser to learn specific degradation trends.


Location information in social media is becoming increasingly vital in applications such as election prediction, epidemic forecasting, and emergency detection. However, only a tiny proportion of users proactively share their residence locations (which can be used to approximate the locations of most user-generated content) in their profiles, and inferring the residence location of the remaining users is nontrivial. In this article, the authors propose a framework for residence location inference in social media by jointly considering social, visual, and textual information. They first propose a data-driven approach to explore the use of friendship locality, social proximity, and content proximity for geographically nearby users. Based on these observations, they then propose a location propagation algorithm to effectively infer residence location for social media users. They extensively evaluate the proposed method using a large-scale real dataset and achieve a 15 percent relative improvement over state-of-the-art approaches.


Cross-linguistic research suggests that the processing of multimorphemic words in a language is tuned by its morphological characteristics. This means the processing pattern of a language either as a first (L1) or a second language (L2) can be influenced by its morphological properties. In L2 acquisition, the question is whether learners demonstrate, like native speakers, a processing pattern that is shaped by the morphological structure of that language or whether they follow an L1-based processing route. The present study explores this via unprimed lexical decision data from L1-English and L1-Russian learners of L2 Turkish. The results revealed decomposition in Russian-speaking participants but not in Turkish speakers or English-speaking participants. This implies L2 proficiency-based differences in the extent of L1 transfer in processing inflection.


Many plant parts have been widely used in the treatment of immune diseases in Vietnam, yet just few of them are known about their mechanism of action. The goal of this study was to investigate the in vitro inhibitory effects of in vitro inhibitory effect of crude ethanol extracts and fractions of thirteen medicinal plants on proliferation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), interleukin-2 secretion and antioxidant activity. PBMCs were extracted from the whole blood of healthy volunteers. The effects of thirteen crude extracts in ethanol and twenty four fractionated extracts in chloroform, ethyl acetate and water on in vitro proliferation of PBMCs were evaluated using MTT test. Interleukin - 2 (IL - 2) concentrations secreted by PBMC were determined by ELISA method. The antioxidant capacity of ethanol extracts and fractionated extracts were assessed using the DPPH method. The results showed that out of thirteen crude ethanol extracts, six extracts inhibited PBMC proliferation and two extracts stimulated PBMC proliferation and five extracts had no effect on PBMC proliferation. The inhibitory extracts reduced the amount of IL-2, while the stimulant extracts while the stimulant extracts had no effect on IL-2 secretion compared to the control. The chloroform extract of Wedelia chinesis showed the strongest inhibitory activity with an IC50 concentration 16.1 µg/ml. The chloroform extract of Piper betle showed the strongest DPPH capture capacity with DPPH50 1.94 µg/ml and 2.1 times stronger than vitamin C. In conclusion, the chloroform extract of Wedelia chinensis may be considered for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.


[1] The predictive capacity of a physically based snow model to simulate point-scale, subcanopy snowmelt dynamics is evaluated in a mixed conifer forest, southern Sierra Nevada, California. Three model scenarios each providing varying levels of canopy structure detail were tested. Simulations of three water years initialized at locations of 24 ultrasonic snow depth sensors were evaluated against observations of snow water equivalent (SWE), snow disappearance date, and volumetric soil water content. When canopy model parameters canopy openness and effective leaf area index were obtained from satellite and literature-based sources, respectively, the model was unable to resolve the variable subcanopy snowmelt dynamics. When canopy parameters were obtained from hemispherical photos, the improvements were not statistically significant. However, when the model was modified to accept photo-derived time-varying direct beam canopy transmissivity, the error in the snow disappearance date was reduced by as much as one week and positive and negative biases in melt-season SWE and snow cover duration were significantly reduced. Errors in the timing of soil meltwater fluxes were reduced by 11 days on average. The optimum aggregated temporal model resolution of direct beam canopy transmissivity was determined to be 30 min; hourly averages performed no better than the bulk canopy scenarios and finer time steps did not increase overall model accuracy. The improvements illustrate the important contribution of direct shortwave radiation to subcanopy snowmelt and confirm the known nonlinear melt behavior of snow cover.


Elevated CO{sub 2} concentrations (C{sub e}) have been observed to decrease short-term plant water use under controlled conditions by increasing stomatal resistance. The extent to which this decrease occurs over a growing season in the field is uncertain, however, because stomatal resistance is only one of many mechanisms that control water use. In this study, we tested the ecosystem simulation model ecosys, which reproduces an hourly energy balance through soil-vegetation systems under defined atmospheric boundary conditions, using energy exchange data measured as part of the Free-Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment (FACE) experiment at C{sub e}=550 vs. 370 {mu}mol mol{sup -1}. The model reproduced reductions in measured upward latent heat fluxes that varied from -10 to +40 W m{sup -2}, depending on atmospheric conditions. In the model, the primary effect of elevated C{sub e} on latent heat fluxes was through canopy stomatal conductance. This effect was largely offset by secondary effects through canopy temperature that enabled the model to reproduce measured changes in sensible heat fluxes. The total effect simulated by ecosys of C{sub e}=550 vs. 370 {mu}mol mol{sup -1} on evapotranspiration during the entire FACE experiment was a reduction of 7%. This reduction compares with one of 11% estimated from accumulatedmore » daily measurements of latent heat flux. In the model, the different effects of C{sub e} on plant water use depend on atmosphere and soil boundary conditions, and are highly dynamic. Consequently the simulated C{sub e}-water use relationship is likely to be site-specific. The use of models such as ecosys allows site-specific boundary conditions to be considered in the study of C{sub e} effects on plant growth and water use. 51 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs.« less


GROWTH POTENTIAL AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF YELLOW PERCH IN SOUTH DAKOTA ALEX J. ROSBURG 2017 Yellow Perch Perca flavescens represent a valued sport fish throughout their range and are an important prey species for piscivorous fishes. In South Dakota, two distinct population types of Yellow Perch have been characterized that differ in growth, survival, and recruitment patterns. Fast growth populations exhibit high growth rates, high mortality, low population density, and inconsistent recruitment. In contrast, slow growth populations are characterized by reduced growth rates, low mortality, high population density, and relatively consistent recruitment. The role of genetics in contributing to these population characteristics is currently unknown. To address these questions, I used high-throughput restriction-site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing to scan the Yellow Perch genome for genetic markers associated with population type. A combination of laboratory and field common garden experiments was used to compare relative growth and survival of age-0 Yellow Perch from the two population types. Eighteen markers that significantly differed between population types were identified through RAD sequencing; however, low allele frequency differences indicated weak support for correlation to the growth differences between populations. The laboratory and common garden experiments showed no significant differences in specific growth rates between fast and slow growth Yellow Perch populations. The results of this study indicate that population attributes are influenced more by biotic and abiotic variables within individual lakes than heritable genetic differences between population types.


The 3D reconstruction algorithm of DIATOOL is applied to the Search and Rescue antennas (SARANT) mounted on the GALILEO satellite, recently measured by the planar near-field scanner of the Hybrid ESA RF and antenna Test Zone (HERTZ) at ESTEC. SARANT operates in L and UHF band, and is one of the many antennas sitting on the GALILEO satellite. The measured field showed a pattern deformation that could be due to the presence of the other antennas on the satellite Earth panel. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this antenna coupling with the DIATOOL software, and compare the results obtained previously by the Insight software, identifying similarities, advantages and limitations of the two algorithms.


Abstract In this paper we study the convergence towards consensus on information in a distributed system of agents communicating over a network. The particularity of this study is that the information on which the consensus is seeked is not represented by real numbers, rather by logical values or sets. Whereas the problems of allowing a network of agents to reach a consensus on logical functions of input events, and that of agreeing on set–valued information, have been separately addressed in previous work, in this paper we show that these problems can indeed be attacked in a unified way in the framework of Boolean distributed information systems. Based on a notion of contractivity for Boolean dynamical systems, a necessary and sufficient condition ensuring the global convergence toward a unique equilibrium point is presented. This result can be seen as a first step toward the definition of a unified framework to uniformly address all consensus problems on Boolean algebras.


A three-degree-of-freedom aeroelastic model with freeplay is modeled theoretically using a small number of aerodynamic eigenmodes (i.e. a reduced order model) based upon Peters' finite-state model for two-dimensional aerodynamic flow. The limit cycle behavior and the sensitivity to initial conditions for the onset of limit cycle oscillations are discussed. A simple and interesting physical explanation for this behavior is presented based on harmonic balance or describing function calculations that have been confirmed by numerical time simulations. The theoretical results are also in good agreement with experiment and a universal scaling law for the dependence of limit cycle oscillations and bifurcation parameters on freeplay is elucidated.


Ethical considerations are integral to our professional lives when we are faced with difficult choices regarding services and supports for children and families. Often, the right choice in service delivery for young children with disabilities ages birth to 5 years is unclear due to a myriad of factors potentially creating ethical dilemmas. This article reports the results of a focus group study with 82 early intervention (EI) professionals serving young children ages birth to 5 years designed to determine EI practitioners' ethical concerns in daily practice and how they are resolved. Professionals shared dilemmas they have experienced related to family–professional and interprofessional conflicts as well as those related to policy and programmatic issues. In addition, resolution strategies used by EI practitioners are highlighted. Guidelines for systematic ethical reflection and problem solving are recommended on the basis of professional Codes of Ethics.


Analytic sensing has recently been proposed for source localization from boundary measurements using a generalization of the finite-rate-of-innovation framework. The method is tailored to the quasi-static electromagnetic approximation, which is commonly used in electroencephalography. In this work, we extend analytic sensing for physical systems that are governed by the wave equation; i.e., the sources emit signals that travel as waves through the volume and that are measured at the boundary over time. This source localization problem is highly ill-posed (i.e., the unicity of the source distribution is not guaranteed) and additional assumptions about the sources are needed. We assume that the sources can be described with finite number of parameters, particularly, we consider point sources that are characterized by their position and strength. This assumption makes the solution unique and turns the problem into parametric estimation. Following the framework of analytic sensing, we propose a two-step method. In the first step, we extend the reciprocity gap functional concept to wave-equation based test functions; i.e., well-chosen test functions can relate the boundary measurements to generalized measure that contain volumetric information about the sources within the domain. In the second step-again due to the choice of the test functions - we can apply the finite-rate-of-innovation principle; i.e., the generalized samples can be annihilated by a known filter, thus turning the non-linear source localization problem into an equivalent root-finding one. We demonstrate the feasibility of our technique for a 3-D spherical geometry. The performance of the reconstruction algorithm is evaluated in the presence of noise and compared with the theoretical limit given by Cramer-Rao lower bounds.


A new family of antipatharian corals, Aphanipathidae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Antipatharia), is established for Aphanipathes sarothamnoides Brook and related species. The family is characterized by tall, conical, acicular or cylindrical spines, which are usually covered to some degree with small tubercles (smooth spines occur in some species), and by polyps that are 0.5-1.3 mm in transverse diameter and have small, subequal tentacles. The family is divided into two subfamilies based on differences in the development of the polypar spines. In the Aphanipathinae the polypar spines are subequal. Genera are recognized on the basis of morphological features of the corallum. Aphanipathes Brook (type species A. sarothamnoides Brook) has a sparsely to densely branched corallum with straight, usually ascending, branchlets. Phanopathes gen. nov. (type species Antipathes expansa Opresko & Cairns) forms fan-shaped colonies with irregularly bilateral branchlets. Pteridopathes gen. nov. (type species P. pinnata spec. nov.) has mostly simple pinnules (sometimes with randomly occurring simple secondary pinnules) arranged in two rows. Tetrapathes gen. nov. (type species Aphanipathes alata Brook) has simple pinnules arranged in four rows, and Asteriopathes gen. nov. (type species A. arachniformis spec. nov.) has simple pinnules arranged in six or more rows. In the Acanthopathinae the polypar spines are anisomorphic, with the circumpolypar spines larger than the interpolypar spines and the hypostomal spines usually reduced or absent. As in the Aphanipathinae, genera are recognized on the basis of morphological features of the corallum. Acanthopathes gen. nov. (type species Antipathes humilis Pourtales) forms candelabra and flabellate colonies and has reduced hypostomal spines. Rhipidopathes Milne Edwards & Haime (type species Antipathes reticulata Esper), forms flabellate colonies and has hypostomal spines that are not always reduced in size. Distichopathes gen. nov. (type species D. disticha spec. nov.) has simple, straight pinnules arranged primarily in two rows, and Elatopathes gen. nov. (type species Antipathes abietina Pourtales) has simple pinnules arranged in four or more rows.


proportion of domestic and international tourism to the UK. However as patterns of holidaymaking change and day trips to the countryside increase in popularity, the rural East Midlands, because of its central UK location, is likely to find itself under increasing environmental pressure. The authors identify some of the shifting holiday habits of the region and the environmental problems that may result if planning for the future is not undertaken.


We introduce a new rounding technique designed for online optimization problems, which is related to contention resolution schemes, a technique initially introduced in the context of submodular function maximization. Our rounding technique, which we call online contention resolution schemes (OCRSs), is applicable to many online selection problems, including Bayesian online selection, oblivious posted pricing mechanisms, and stochastic probing models. It allows for handling a wide set of constraints, and shares many strong properties of offline contention resolution schemes. In particular, OCRSs for different constraint families can be combined to obtain an OCRS for their intersection. Moreover, we can approximately maximize submodular functions in the online settings we consider. We, thus, get a broadly applicable framework for several online selection problems, which improves on previous approaches in terms of the types of constraints that can be handled, the objective functions that can be dealt with, and the assumptions on the strength of the adversary. Furthermore, we resolve two open problems from the literature; namely, we present the first constant-factor constrained oblivious posted price mechanism for matroid constraints, and the first constant-factor algorithm for weighted stochastic probing with deadlines.


CD40 belongs to the tumour necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) family and its ligation by membrane- presented CD40 ligand (mCD40L) causes extensive apoptosis in malignant cells, while sparing their normal epithelial counterparts which, can respond to CD40 ligation by proliferation, thus representing an intriguing paradox in TNFR biology. Although the apoptotic potential of mCD40L is well-documented, the precise intracellular signalling pathways of cell death remain largely unknown. Moreover, due to the practical constraints imposed by the necessity to deliver surface-CD40L for therapeutic purposes, deciphering the molecular nature of the CD40 signalling 'black-box' may permit the design of novel therapeutic approaches. This thesis aimed to unravel for the first time the precise cell signalling pathways responsible for mCD40L-mediated apoptosis and attempted to determine the mechanisms underpinning the tumour-specificity of CD40 ligation.

The first part of this thesis focused on optimisation of cell models for the delivery of the mCD40L signal to epithelial cells (via co-culture with third party cells and based on the urothelial cell culture system). A number of assays were optimised for the detection of several apoptosis hallmarks (membrane integrity loss, caspase activation, DNA fragmentation and mitochondrial cytochrome c release). Immunoblotting techniques were improved for the sensitive detection of intracellular CD40-signalling mediators, followed by the optimisation of methodologies for retrovirus transduction-mediated delivery of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules for functional (knockdown) experiments.

Expression studies and knockdown experiments reinforced the role of TRAF3 as a key mediator of apoptosis and cemented its essential role in both JNK/AP-1 activation and subsequent induction of pro-apoptotic Bak and Bax, with Bak and particularly Bax loss alone demonstrating as essential for apoptosis. The project also revealed for the first time the proximal events in the CD40 pathway that provided a link between TRAF3 induction and JNK/AP-1 activation followed by Bak/Bax induction. A series of functional experiments involving RNAi-mediated knockdown and/or pharmacological inhibition of critical target proteins suggested that mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) ASK1 and MKK4 (but not MKK7) drive the activation of JNK/AP-1 and CD40-mediated death. Because of the well-documented sensitivity of ASK1 towards oxidative stress and its direct regulation by reactive oxygen species (ROS), a CD40-ROS paradigm was explored. It was found that oxidative stress is essential in CD40-mediated apoptosis as pharmacological inhibitors of ROS attenuated cytotoxicity. Additionally, the work provided novel evidence for a functional role for the NADPH oxidase (Nox) enzyme in apoptosis, as pharmacological inactivation of Nox attenuated ROS induction and blocked apoptosis, signifying that ROS-mediated oxidative stress is Nox-dependant. More specifically, it was found that CD40 ligation caused phosphorylation of p40phox, a Nox-2 subunit previously reported to interact with TRAF3, but not in the context of apoptosis induction. These observations implied that TRAF3-mediated CD40-Nox interactions may be crucial for CD40-induced apoptosis. Importantly, the observation that adequate ROS elevation, to permit efficient thioredoxin (Trx) down-regulation and ASK1 activation, was only observed following receptor ligation by pro-apoptotic mCD40L, but not by non-apoptotic soluble agonist, led to the hypothesis that pharmacological interference with Trx may compensate for the lack of signal strength and sensitise cells to apoptosis. Strikingly, combinatorial treatment of carcinoma cells with a specific Trx-1 inhibitor and agonistic anti-CD40 antibody showed efficient synergy and resulted in extensive apoptosis. The combinatorial treatment appeared functionally equivalent to mCD40L and employed ASK-1/JNK signalling to induce apoptosis.

Finally, to enhance our understanding of the role of malignant transformation in CD40 susceptibility, the effect of over-expression of the telomerase catalytic sub-unit (hTERT) in normal epithelial cells was assessed. It was found that, unlike normal human urothelial (NHU) cells where CD40 ligation did not cause apoptosis (but appeared to be cyto-protective), para-malignant hTERT NHU expressers were highly susceptible to CD40-killing and to an extent equivalent to that observed in carcinoma-derived cells. By comparing normal, para-malignant and tumour-derived cells, the study added to increasing evidence that during malignant transformation cells exhibit higher basal ROS levels, which functions as 'double-edged sword' that renders them more susceptible to signals that elevate ROS past a lethal pro-apoptotic threshold, such as that triggered by CD40.

Collectively, this thesis has unravelled for the first time the molecular nature of pro-apoptotic CD40 ligation revealing a key signalling axis triggered CD40 ligation that involves TRAF3, Nox-2 (p40phox), ROS, ASK1, MKK4, JNK, Bak/Bax and intrinsic apoptosis, whilst the new knowledge of the signalling pathway has now provided novel avenues for exploiting CD40 as a target for anti-cancer therapy.


Research shows children in an online environment often search by browsing, which relies heavily on recognition and content knowledge, so catalog systems for children must use effective symbols or pictorial representations, which correspond with children's own cognitive schema and level of recognition knowledge. This study was designed to look at the success of young children (ages 5 to 8) in searching 3 online public library catalogs designed for them, and it focused specifically on the pictorial representations and text descriptors used in the systems' browsing hierarchy. The research sought answer whether young children (ages 5 to 8) are really poor searchers because of cognitive development and lack of technology skills or if system design is the major reason for poor search results; i.e., Do current children's online catalog designs function in a manner that is compatible with information seeking by children? Although these results can not be generalized, this study indicates that there was a disconnect between the cognitive abilities of young users and catalog design. The study looked at search success on the 3 catalogs in relation to the catalog characteristics and individual user characteristics and makes 3 significant contributions to the field of library and information science. The first contribution is the modification of an existing model posed by Cooper and O'Connor and modified by Abbas (2002). The second significant contribution is the proposal of a new model, Creel's second best choice (SBC) model, that addresses the cognitive gap and design flaws that impact the choices participants made. The third significant contribution is that this study addresses and fills a gap in the literature.


Objective To determine if human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA can be detected on the transvaginal sonography (TVS) probe in the emergency department (ED) and whether the current barrier method plus disinfection can prevent HPV contamination of the TVS probe. Methods This was a two-part cross-sectional study. In the first part, surveillance samples were taken from the TVS probe for HPV DNA detection daily for 2 months. In the second part, patients presenting with early pregnancy complications were identified in the ED and high vaginal swabs were taken for HPV DNA testing. Several probe swabs were taken to identify if contamination was possible in cases where the procedure was done on an HPV carrier. Results A total of 120 surveillance samples were obtained, nine of which (7.5%) tested positive for HPV DNA. In the second part, 76 women were recruited, of whom 14 (18.4%) were HPV carriers. After the procedure and disinfection of the probe, three out of the 14 probe samples (21%) were HPV DNA positive. Conclusions HPV is commonly encountered in the ED and contamination of the TVS probe with HPV is possible. Although it is difficult to prove the viability and infectivity of the virus, vigilant infection control measures should be maintained.


Geostatistics has become the dominant tool for probabilistic estimation of properties of heterogeneous formations at points where data are not available. Ordinary kriging, the starting point in the development of other geostatistical techniques, has a number of serious limitations, chief among which is the intrinsic hypothesis of the (second‐order) stationarity of the underlying random field. Attempts to overcome this limitation have led to the development of ever more complex flavors of kriging. We pursue an opposite strategy that consists of finding the simplest possible technique that is adequate for the task of facies delineation. Guided by the principle of parsimony, we identify nearest‐neighbor classification (NNC) as a viable alternative to geostatistics among deterministic techniques. We demonstrate that when used for the purpose of facies delineation, NNC, which has no fitting parameters and operational assumptions, outperforms indicator kriging, which has several parameters.


The efficiency in which HIV-1 can infect, spread and evade the attack of therapeutic agents can be attributed to a high mutation rate and frequent recombination events. These factors have collectively contributed to the diversity observed in HIV-1 and resulted in a multitude of subtypes, sub-subtypes, circulating recombinant forms (CRF's) and unique recombinant forms (URF's). The aim of this study was to investigate HIV-1 diversity in Cape Town using a small cohort of treatment naive patients being investigated for HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND). Four different genomic domains: gag, pol, accessory and gp41 genes were sequenced to subtype the virus. HIV-1 tat was further investigated because the dicysteine motif has been reported to play a role in HAND. Viral RNA and proviral DNA was extracted from 64 patients and used for the amplification and sequencing of the genes. Rega and jpHMM online tools were used to identify HIV-1 subtypes and recombinants while Neighbor-joining phylogenetic trees were constructed for phylogenetic analysis. The pol gene was further investigated using SCUEAL to detect possible intra-subtype recombination and was also screened for the presence of transmitted drug resistance. In addition tat sequence datasets retrieved from the Los Alamos sequence database were investigated and compared with the newly generated sequences for the detection of point mutations and amino acid signature patterns. Sequencing identified most of the samples as subtype C; however six inter-subtype recombinants (AE, A1G, A1CU and two BC) and 9 intra-subtype C recombinants were identified. In addition 13% of pol sequences were identified with resistance mutations. Signature pattern analysis identified a high level of variability in the tat sequences: 68% were identified with C30S31; 29% with the C30C31 mutation and a single sequence with a novel mutation C30A31. Functional analysis of these mutations indicated that all mutations investigated were capable of inducing apoptosis in cell culture. The C30C31 mutation generated the highest level of apoptosis, closely followed by the C30A31 mutation. However no statistical significance could be detected between tat mutations and the observed levels of apoptosis. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


Contemporary academic research and scholarship are highly specialized. Legal scholarship on arbitration reflects this trend. There is extensive literature on domestic arbitration jurisprudence, on international commercial arbitration practice, and on investor-state arbitration procedure, and there are debates about the appropriate use of arbitration within all of these domains. But few of the participants in these debates are attentive to developments outside their own domains, and there are few examples of scholarship surveying trends across the three domains. Undertaking that analysis reveals important similarities in the challenges facing arbitration in each domain and in the responses to these challenges. Looking across all three domains—domestic arbitration within the United States, international commercial arbitration, and investor-state arbitration—we observe an expanding application of arbitration beyond purely private disputes to disputes with significant public policy dimensions. In response, there is increasing pressure in all three domains to incorporate in arbitration measures traditionally associated with public courts, including due process protections, public appointment of adjudicators, and process and outcome transparency. The result is a new form of dispute resolution, neither wholly private nor fully public, and satisfying neither those who promote the virtues of private dispute resolution nor those who insist that public courts are the proper locus for disputes with important public policy implications. We argue that re-inventing arbitration to adhere to public justice norms risks undermining its value for private actors with private disputes, while at the same time undermining courts as institutions for public contest over public policy issues. Rather than adding the trappings of public adjudication to arbitration, we should re-think the scope of arbitration in domestic and international spheres.


The use of virtual machines (VM) has become popular with substantial growth for both personal and commercial use, especially supported by the progress of hardware and software virtualization technologies. There are several reasons for this adoption like: cost, customization, scalability and flexibility. Distinct domains of application, such as scientific, financial and industrial, spanning from embedded to cloud systems, taken advantage of this kind of machines to meet processing computational demands. However, there are setbacks: hardware handling, resources use, performance and management. This growth demands an effective support by the underlying virtualization infrastructure, which directly affects the hosts' capacity in datacenters and cloud environment that support them. It is evident that the host native processing performs better than VMs, especially when using accelerator devices, where the common solution is to assign each device to a specific VM, instead of sharing it among multiples VMs. Beyond performance issues inside the host, we need to consider the VM performance when using accelerator devices. In this context, it is necessary to provide efficient mechanisms to manage and run VMs which can take advantages of high-performance devices, like FPGAs or even from software resources on the host. To assist this challenge, this paper proposes a methodology to improve communication performance of applications running on the VMs, VirtFun. To do so, we developed a framework able to offload pieces of application's code (vFunction) to host by means of secure data sharing between the application and device. The results achieved in our experiments demonstrated significant acceleration capacity for the guest application vFunction. The speedup reached 340% compared to conventional network execution, reaching maximum slowdown of 2.8% in the worst case and near to 0% in the best case considering the native execution.


This article assesses whether it is possible to emulate the risk-return profile of buyout funds with comparable public market investments, and concludes that the buyout fund sample used demonstrates a "performance delta" over mimicked public market investment. The performance of a sample of buyout funds is replicated by mimicking the risk characteristics of their transactions with public index data by precisely timing the funds' cash inflows and outflows net of fees and carry, matching the investments by industry sector, and taking into account the effect of additional leverage replicating the typical financial risk of buyout transactions. The authors measure returns of four investment strategies: the buy-and-hold return on the broad public stock market index; the return on the broad public stock market index based on matched investment timing; the return on the broad public stock market index based on matched investment timing and with additional superimposed financial leverage; and the return on industry-matched public stock market indexes based on matched investment timing and with additional superimposed financial leverage. The authors compare the returns on these four investment strategies with the actual IRR performance of the buyout funds in our sample, which invested predominantly across Europe and through both rising and falling markets. They select sample funds that were raised before 2001 to minimize the measurement error associated with residual NAVs. This research shows that the mimicked public market investments fail to generate the same level of performance as the buyout funds in our sample. The buyout funds achieve performance 11.51% higher than the mimicked public market investments—a gap the authors call "performance delta."


In the pursuit of profit maximization as a major objective of business organizations, several firms forfeit their social and economic responsibility whilst focusing on activities that are deemed to solely profit the firm, without taking into cognizance the effect of their operations on the society in which they operate. Business analysts have however, realized the determinant role of social responsibility in corporate performance, such that firms that are able to imbibe corporate social responsibility in their core business operations may be able to take advantage of the social reputation gained across their several stakeholders. Small and medium enterprises operating in highly competitive markets are also advised to leverage on this reputation gained from being socially responsible, if they seek ways to remain relevant in the same markets dominated by multinational corporations. Adapting a case study approach, this study highlights the advantages (such as employee and customer loyalty) gained by House of Tara, a small business operating in the beauty and make-up industry in Nigeria, resulting from the firm's commitment to advancing the society in which it operates through several social responsibility activities. It is observed that although competing with major makeup brands such as MAC, Maybelline, Dior, Mary Kay and others, House of Tara has been able to not only thrive, but gain a sizeable market in the Nigerian makeup industry, because several consumers purchase their products not solely because of the quality or price of their product, but because they perceive themselves as buying into the firm's CSR vision. This study therefore recommends that small and medium enterprises that may lack adequate resources (manpower, technology, capital) needed to successfully compete with multinationals, can harness the potentials in the reputation and loyalty gained from adequate investment in corporate social responsibility.