BACKGROUND: Although endoscopic injection therapy is effective in controlling initial haemorrhage from peptic ulcer, between 10% to 30% of patients suffer rebleeding. AIM: To assess the factors that may predict the failure of endoscopic injection in patients bleeding from high risk gastric ulcer. SUBJECTS: One hundred and seventy eight patients admitted for a gastric ulcer with a bleeding or a non-bleeding visible vessel were included. METHODS: Patients received endoscopic therapy by injection for adrenaline and polidocanol. Twelve clinical and endoscopic variables were entered into a multivariate logistic regression model to ascertain their significance as predictive factor of therapeutic failure. RESULTS: Eighty seven per cent (155 of 178) of patients had no further bleeding after endoscopic therapy. Endoscopic injection failed in 23 (13%) patients: 20 (12%) continued to bleed or rebleed, and three (1%) patients could not be treated because of inaccessibility of the lesion. Logistic regression analysis showed that therapeutic failure was significantly related to: (1) the presence of hypovolaemic shock (p = 0.09, OR 2.38, 95% CI: 0.86, 6.56), (2) the presence of active bleeding at endoscopy (p = 0.02, OR 2.98, 95% CI: 1.12, 7.91), (3) ulcer location high on the lesser curvature (p = 0.04, OR 2.79, 95% CI: 1.01, 7.69), and (4) ulcer size larger than 2 cm (p = 0.01, OR 3.64, 95% CI: 1.34, 9.89). CONCLUSION: These variables may enable identification of those patients bleeding from gastric ulcer who would not benefit from injection therapy.


Cyber Town is a technology based after-school program that concentrates on reading and technology literacy. The program provides at-risk minority youth a safe environment where they learn skills that will make them competitive in the digital age. Qualitative and quantitative data are collected on all after-school program participants enabling program staff with the ability to individualize technology aided instruction. Youth are instructed at appropriate instructional levels these levels are determined through reading level assessment software programs, teacher recommendations, and reading scores. The program provides a model others can utilize in operating similar computer based programs. It illustrates that when working with youth, educators may discover deeper problems than originally anticipated and adaptations must be made to meet the needs of those young people.


In the paper we explain the technique of verification via supercompliation taking as an example verification of the parameterised Load Balancing Monitor system. We demonstrate detailed executable specification of the Load Balancing Monitor protocol in a functional programming language REFAL and discuss the result of its supercompilation by the supercompiler SCP4. This case study is interesting both from the point of view of verification and program specialization. From the point of view of verification, a new type of non-determinism is involved in the protocol, which has not been covered yet in previous applications of the technique. With regard to program specialization, we argued earlier that our approach to program verification may be seen as specialization of interpreters with respect to data [25]. We showed that by supercompilation of an interpreter of a simplest purely imperative programming language. The language corresponding to the Load Balancing Monitor protocol that we consider here has some features both of imperative and functional languages.


The vadose zone is the main host of surface and subsurface water exchange and has important implications for ecosystems functioning, climate sciences, geotechnical engineering, and water availability issues. Geophysics provides a means for investigating the subsurface in a non-invasive way and at larger spatial scales than conventional hydrological sensors. Time-lapse hydrogeophysical applications are especially useful for monitoring flow and water content dynamics. Largely dominated by electrical and electromagnetic methods, such applications increasingly rely on seismic methods as a complementary approach to describe the structure and behavior of the vadose zone. To further explore the applicability of active seismics to retrieve quantitative information about dynamic processes in near-surface time-lapse settings, we designed a controlled water infiltration experiment at the Ploemeur Hydrological Observatory (France) during which successive periods of infiltration were followed by surface-based seismic and electrical resistivity acquisitions. Water content was monitored throughout the experiment by means of sensors at different depths to relate the derived seismic and electrical properties to water saturation changes. We observe comparable trends in the electrical and seismic responses during the experiment, highlighting the utility of the seismic method to monitor hydrological processes and unsaturated flow. Moreover, petrophysical relationships seem promising in providing quantitative results.


Governments in every country are concerned about the local economic development within each country's region. In this vein, the case of mining industry draws attention in its trend of establishing enclave economies rather than cluster dynamics at the local level. In the case of the mining industry one might estate that there is no room for local economic development based on a strong industrial fabric if no directed policies are set and implemented. This paper's objective is to understand how the backward and forward linkages approach is a key argument to inform regional industrial and vertical initiatives that aim to upgrade mining suppliers' technological capacities. Based on the strategic design revision of the public-private programs for mining suppliers' development and five case studies, we explore whether those implemented initiatives are being locally translated into mining regions. We find that the regional approach is nearly nonexistent in public policies implemented in the last 12 years. From our perspective, this lack of the regional approach makes it difficult to visualize direct effects from public-private policies on local firms' performance. All these issues contribute inputs for scoping the design and deployment of policy tools for local economic development.


Deep models often fail to generalize well in test domains when the data distribution differs from that in the training domain. Among numerous approaches to address this Out-of-Distribution (OOD) generalization problem, there has been a growing surge of interest in exploiting Adversarial Training (AT) to improve OOD performance. Recent works have revealed that the robust model obtained by conducting sample-wise AT also retains transferability to biased test domains. In this paper, we empirically show that sample-wise AT has limited improvement on OOD performance. Specifically, we find that AT can only maintain performance at smaller scales of perturbation while Universal AT (UAT) is more robust to larger-scale perturbations. This provides us with clues that adversarial perturbations with universal (low dimensional) structures can enhance the robustness against large data distribution shifts that are common in OOD scenarios. Inspired by this, we propose two AT variants with low-rank structures to train OOD-robust models. Extensive experiments on DomainBed benchmark show that our proposed approaches outperform Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM) and sample-wise AT. Our code is available at https://github.com/NOVAglow646/NIPS22-MAT-and-LDAT-for-OOD.


This research aims to maximize the logistics outsourcing benefits through developing new hybrid models for evaluating and selecting Logistics Service Providers (LSPs). The growing demand for logistics outsourcing and the increase in the number and type of LSPs highlight the increasing importance of the LSP evaluation and selection process. Firms use various approaches to evaluate and select their LSP partners. Most of these approaches seem to have overlooked the strategic side of the logistics outsourcing process. Additionally, the uncertainty issue of data, the complexity of the decision and the large number of criteria involved increase the attractiveness of the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches.

A comparative literature review was used in order to identify crucial factors and methods that are used in logistics literature in fragmented ways and therefore, to establish and design a conceptual framework and models for logistics outsourcing. First, a long list of evaluation criteria was developed. Three main dimensions were identified: logistics performance, logistics resources and logistics services. Then a conceptual framework was developed using the three main dimensions with their related factors. Based on the comparative literature review outcomes, a number of integrated models have been developed and used to achieve this aim with emphasis given to FDEMATEL, FTOPSIS and FQFD techniques. Whereas the FDEMATEL technique contributed to construct influence relationships between factors under each dimension, develop impact-relationship maps and identify dependent and independent success factors (ISFs), the FTOPSIS technique used the weighted success factors to evaluate, rank and select the best LSP in three case studies. Twenty-one ISFs have been identified to be used in the final approach. These ISFs consist of eight LKPIs, seven logistics services and six logistics resources and capabilities. All of the factors were used to evaluate and select the best LSP alternative and ISFs were used to conduct the evaluation process. Different sensitivity analysis tests are used to confirm models' robustness. Based on the outcomes of both cases, decision makers can use independent factors alone to evaluate and select the best LSP, which simplified the logistics outsourcing process in our study. The FQFD technique was used to link the LSUs strategic objectives with logistics requirements and the ISFs to develop a new strategic logistics outsourcing approach. Finally, two case studies representing the supply chain upstream and downstream are used to demonstrate the new hybrid approach effectiveness. The comparison of both cases' findings highlighted their differences in terms of strategic objectives, logistics requirements and ISFs.


We study multiproduct firms in the contexts of unregulated monopoly, regulated monopoly, and Cournot oligopoly. Using the concept of consumer surplus as a function of quantities (rather than prices), we present simple formulas for optimal prices and show that Cournot equilibrium exists and corresponds to a Ramsey optimum. We then discuss a tractable class of preferences that involve a generalized form of homotheticity. Profit-maximizing quantities are proportional to efficient quantities. We discuss optimal monopoly regulation when the firm has private information about its cost vector and find situations in which optimal regulation leaves relative price decisions to the firm.


One of the mechanisms by which international law can shape domestic politics is through its effects on public opinion. However, a growing number of national leaders have begun to advocate policies that ignore or even deny international law constraints. This article investigates whether international law messages can still shift public opinion even in the face of countervailing elite cues. It reports results from survey experiments conducted in three countries – the USA, Australia and India – which examined attitudes on a highly salient domestic political issue: restrictions on refugee admissions. In each experimental vignette, respondents were asked about their opinion on a proposed or ongoing restrictive refugee policy that was endorsed by the government but also likely contravened international refugee law. Respondents were randomly exposed to messages highlighting the policy's illegality and/or elite endorsement. The results show that, on average, the international law messages had a small but significant persuasive effect in reducing support for the restrictive policy, at most 10 percentage points. Surprisingly, there was no evidence that the countervailing elite endorsement was a significant moderator of this effect. However, in the case of the USA and among Republican co-partisans of the president, the elite endorsement independently increased respondents' beliefs that the restriction was legal under international law while having no effect on support for the policy. The results suggest that cues from domestic elites do not strictly trump those from international sources and that, despite cues about national leaders' policy advocacy, international law can affect the attitudes of some voters even on an issue as heavily politicized as refugee policy.


Ad-hoc networks are a key in the evolution of wireless networks. Ad-hoc networks are typically composed of equal nodes, which communicate over wireless links without any central control. Ad-hoc wireless networks inherit the traditional problems of wireless and mobile communications, such as bandwidth optimisation, power control and transmission quality enhancement. In addition, the multi-hop nature and the lack of fixed infrastructure brings new research problems such as configuration advertising, discovery and maintenance, as well as ad-hoc addressing and self-routing. Many different approaches and protocols have been proposed and there are even multiple standardization efforts within the Internet Engineering Task Force, as well as academic and industrial projects. This chapter focuses on the state of the art in mobile ad-hoc networks. It highlights some of the emerging technologies, protocols, and approaches (at different layers) for realizing network services for users on the move in areas with possibly no pre-existing communications infrastructure.


This paper examines key developments in the field of European border surveillance in the Mediterranean. By asking, 'Whose Mare?', we focus on rule of law challenges stemming from these developments in a post-Lisbon EU. The developments examined are the Italian Navy-led Mare Nostrum operation, the debates over European 'exit strategies' for this operation and the ensuing launch of the Frontex Triton joint operation (JO). The recently adopted Regulation on Frontex sea border surveillance operations is also presented as a key development to understand the rule of law challenges. Moreover, the adoption of the European Union Maritime Security Strategy (MSS) and the development of several maritime surveillance systems in the EU highlight that a wide range of actors seeks authority over this field.


U.S. higher education institutions' (HEIs) ability to attract Chinese students will likely shape the future of U.S. international relations with China, as well as both countries' economies and innovation enterprises. A substantial literature on international talent flows documents how the supply of foreign students to U.S. schools has changed over time, and the causal implications thereof. However, scholars have primarily focused on understanding the flow of students to U.S. graduate education programs—PhD programs in particular—ignoring the largest group of international students in the United States: undergraduates. In this study, the author leverages data from the Institute of International Education (1997-2018), the Chinese Ministry of Education (1996-2018), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (2005-2018) to determine the proportion of Chinese undergraduate students enrolled at U.S. HEIs. The author finds that while the proportion of Chinese undergraduate students enrolled at U.S. HEIs (all fields) rose from 2008 to 2017, the proportion of engineering students only rose until 2014, after which it stagnated. In contrast, the proportion of Chinese undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. social science programs increased over the entire period (2008-2017). The causal factors behind the 2008 increase in overall Chinese student enrollment in the U.S. are difficult to determine due to the simultaneous increased affordability of U.S. higher education (due to rising Chinese household incomes and appreciation of the Yuan) and loosening U.S. immigration policies (specifically a U.S. June 2005 extension of Chinese students' visa validity from six months to one year). Further research is needed to understand why the proportion of Chinese undergraduates enrolled in U.S. engineering programs stagnated while the same proportion for social sciences has continued to rise. Explanations might include field-specific discrepancies with respect to job market access and salaries in China or that students in social sciences are disproportionately attracted to the open academic environment at U.S. HEIs.


"Back to the Rough Ground" is a philosophical investigation of practical knowledge, with major import for professional practice and the ethical life in modern society. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of knowledge that informs good practice in a range of disciplines such as education, psychotherapy, medicine, management, and law. Through reflection on key modern thinkers who have revived cardinal insights of Aristotle, and a sustained engagement with the Philosopher himself, it presents a radical challenge to the scientistic assumptions that have dominated how these professional domains have been conceived, practiced, and institutionalized.


Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) are popular with smokers looking for a healthier alternative to tobacco cigarettes. E-cigs utilize a battery, activated on inhalation, to heat propylene glycol-suspended nicotine which is inhaled as vapor, and which does not include harmful poisons found in conventional cigarettes. Although the health claims of e-cigs continue to be debated, the effects of nicotine delivered as vapor on the cardiovascular system have not been studied. Because nicotine is a sympathomemetic agent, we tested the hypothesis that e-cigs would increase arterial pressure and protect against challenges associated with upright posture. Ten non-smoking subjects (5 male) participated in two experimental trials, separated by one week (randomized). Seated blood pressures were taken after a 10 min quiet rest period, and then subjects either inhaled (once every 30 s for 10 min) on an e-cig with a placebo cartridge (0 mg nicotine) or an active cartridge (18 mg nicotine). After an additional 10 min quiet seated rest, we measured blood pressure again, and then subjects provided a urine sample for analysis of cotinine (a nicotine biomarker). We recorded ECG and finger photoplethysmographic arterial pressure. Subjects breathed to a metronome set at 15 breaths/min for 5 min supine, 5 min head-up (70o), and 5 min supine (recovery). Cotinine readings failed to register the presence of nicotine in urine, but a majority of subjects experienced dizziness and nausea after the active, but not the placebo cartridge. Seated arterial pressures were similar after the placebo cartridge (p ≥ .05), but increased from 112 ± 3/62 ± 2 mmHg to 115 ± 3/67 ± 3 after the nicotine cartridge (p ≤. 05). Systolic and diastolic pressures were higher (all p ≤ .05) after the nicotine trial compared to placebo for supine (115 ± 3/69 ± 2 vs. 106 ± 4/62 ± 2 mmHg), tilt (105 ± 4/66 ± 3 vs. 93 ± 4/60 ± 3 mmHg), and recovery (117 ± 5/72 ± 2 vs. 106 ± 4/64 ± 3 mmHg). No subject experienced presyncope during tilt for either trial. We show, for the first time, that inhalation of vaporized nicotine increases arterial pressure in the seated, supine and head-up tilt positions suggesting sympathomemetic properties. Although mild, acute increases in arterial pressure may seem harmless, it is possible that daily, continuous use of e-cigs could result in consistently elevated arterial pressure, resulting in higher afterload and chronic cardiac strain.


Background: Lasers have several potential benefits such as antibacterial effect and stimulation of wound healing. In addition, hemostasis and delaying epithelial migration may facilitate the outcome of flap surgery. There is a minimal research and evidence currently available for the optimum method of use of a diode laser in flap surgery and its benefit and safety. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the adjunctive effect of diode laser irradiation in open flap debridement (OFD), while treating chronic periodontitis. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 patients with generalized chronic moderate to severe periodontitis with pocket probing depth (PD) ≥5 mm post - Phase I therapy were selected for a split-mouth study. Flap surgery with adjunctive diode laser irradiation was performed in the test quadrant while routine OFD was done in the control quadrant. Clinical parameters including PD, clinical attachment level, gingival recession, plaque index, gingival index and tooth mobility were recorded at baseline, 3 months and 6 months following treatment. In addition, patients′ rating of procedural pain as well as the development of complications postoperatively was assessed. Results: All clinical parameters significantly improved after therapy without any statistically significant difference between the two groups for any of the parameters. The exception was a significantly greater reduction in gingival inflammation in the laser treated group. The laser treatment was acceptable to the patient and did not cause any complications. Conclusion: The diode laser can be safely and effectively used as an adjunct to the treatment of chronic periodontitis with the advantage of decreased gingival inflammation.


Digital holographic microscopy allows optical path difference measurement. Optical path difference depends on the both refractive index and morphology of sample. We developed a dual-wavelength in-line digital holographic microscope that can measure simultaneously the refractive index and morphology of a sample, providing highly precise three-dimensional information. Here we propose theoretical and experimental methods for dual-wavelength in-line digital holographic microscopy. The measured data were reasonable, although there was data error. By improving the experimental method, we could measure the refractive index more precisely and obtain more accurate three-dimensional information on samples.


Characteristics known from Human Resource Management have recently been reintroduced through terms such as high involvement workplace practices (Geary, 2003; Gill, 2009; Pil & MacDuffie, 1996). These work forms emphasize the integration of business and employee relations strategy, and labor-management cooperation for the achievement of organizational goals (Gollan & Davis, 2001). Most of this literature leaves out the unions and concentrates to a larger extent on direct involvement processes where the workers are seen as individuals (Boxall, Haynes, & Macky, 2007; Gomez, Bryson, & Willman, 2010; Kochan, Katz, & McKersie, 1986; Marchington & Wilkinson, 2000; Wilkinson & Dundon, 2010). Some writers have even indicated that the high involvement work forms are threatening unionmanagement cooperation on workplaces, basically because different versions of involvement and participation has been incorporated as part of the organization's structure and work practice, which again makes indirect participation through the union stewards less important (Wilkinson, 1998). In an European context, collective participation remains significant in certain countries, notably Germany and Scandinavia (Nergaard, 2010; Wilkinson & Dundon, 2010). Heckscher (2001) indicates that the future form of unionism lies in union strategies much closer to productivity and labor-management cooperation than labor-management relations based on antagonism. He claims that the unions with the highest level of internal participation in recent years have not been militantly anti-capitalist, but rather have sought to link internal participation with deep involvement in management decision-making. This study attempts to explore the role of the shop stewards in organizations using high involvement workplace practices. I have used theoretical approach found in the Industrial Relation field together with organizational studies in order to investigate the role the shop stewards develop in organizations using high involvement workplace practices. This thesis is a result of an inductive-deductive process, where I have examined theory and research on both the role of the shop stewards in industrial companies and the use of high involvement workplace practices, parallel with collecting and analyzing the data material on the role of the shop stewards in such workplace practices. This is a qualitative study where I have used a number of different methods in order to illuminate the research question. Most of the data material in this study is collected through an Action Research project called PALU where four industrial companies participated. I also carried out interviews, and shadowed in two additional industrial companies. The main research question is: In the context of labor-management cooperation, how can we understand the role of the shop steward in organizations using high involvement workplace practices? In order to embark on the research question, I developed four sub-questions out of a bundle of organizational characteristics known as high involvement workplace practices, such as less hierarchical structure, highly-skilled production, high involvement leadership practices, and direct employee involvement. The subquestions are: 1. How can we understand the role of the shop stewards in organizational structures based on the assumption that the workers take responsibility for communication, knowledge sharing, and decision-making? In this study I have argued that the shop stewards take an active role in informing and developing the shop floor workers and by this make the employees ready for high involvement organizational structures. This study also shows that when the shop stewards are involved in enterprise development processes together with the management, they develop knowledge and skills on organizational development issues and include this as part of their representative role towards the members. This means that enterprise development and production issues become part of the information the shop stewards give to the members in the same way as other union matters. Because of this I argue that the shop stewards become channels of communication on productivity issues on the shop floor. Taking an organizational approach to this finding, the shop stewards safeguard a role on communications not necessarily taken into account by most researchers on high involvement workplace practices. 2. How can we understand the role of the shop stewards in high-tech industries, where the enterprises are dependent on skilled and flexible workers? In this study I have argued that the enterprises' demand for skilled and flexible workers changes its character in meeting with the union principles such as collectivity and solidarity. The shop stewards participate in developing the members' skills as a way of securing the members' rights by emphasizing both horizontal career development and the members' psychological job demands. In addition, the shop stewards themselves hold knowledge on the shop floor that is important for the highly skilled organization. The shop stewards approach to the demands for a highly skilled workforce influences the enterprise's workplace practices towards a more horizontal and collective approach to skill development. 3. How can we understand the role of the shop stewards in high involvement leadership practices based on labor-management cooperation? In this study I have argued that the shop stewards participate in complementary leadership practices where the shop stewards hold past, local knowledge about the company's challenges and opportunities. For new managers this means that some issues may be new to them when entering the enterprise development scene, while the shop stewards on the other hand are quite familiar with the issues at stake. The shop stewards' experience is therefore complementary to the managers'. 4. How can we understand the role of the shop stewards in organizations that emphasize direct involvement between management and the individual workers? In this study I argue that the shop stewards support direct involvement arrangements because they see it as motivational and promising for the union members. They influence these work forms by making sure that they develop as collective workplace practices. This way the shop union protects the individual workers against possible demands in this work system such as self-imposed demands and goals. Also, the experiences from one of the companies shows that the role of the shop stewards seems almost boundless when it comes to developing the enterprise into a stage the shop union sees as promising for the union members. When the change process is over and the new organization goes over in an operational phase, the shop stewards are unable to have such an offensive role because leading an organization on a day-to-day mission is too closely linked to management and not leadership in a broader sense.


In Urban Autonomy in Medieval Islam Fukuzo Amabe offers the first in-depth study on autonomous cities in medieval Islam stretching from Aleppo to Toledo.


A common obstacle for public land managers developing fire management plans in the eastern and southern United States is the lack of quantitative information on historic fire regimes and the effects that varying fine fuel loadings can produce. Despite the ecological importance of litter, little is known about the effects of litter accumulation and decay rates in the montane longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) region. Historic fire information helps to set target goals for wildland fire practices and fuels management. In this thesis, four centuries of past fire regimes on the Talladega National Forest in northeastern Alabama are described along with litter dynamics of recent prescribed burning practices. Seasonally distinguishable fire events from 372 tree-ring dated fire scars were used to reconstruct past fire regimes. Litter accumulation, combined litter measurements, and model estimates were used to derive decay constants that characterize montane longleaf pine. The fire regime prior to the early 19th century was characterized by a mean fire interval (MFI) of 3 years. The onset of EuroAmerican settlement in the mid-19th century changed the fire regime to 2.5 years. The number of fires decreased during the 20th century due to changes in land use, anthropogenic influences and climate-fire relationships. Litter accumulation equations were used to demonstrate temporal changes in litter loading. For example, after a fire event that consumes nearly 100 percent of the litter, about 35 percent of the litter accumulation equilibrium is reached within 1 year, 58 percent within 2 years, and the equilibrium (99 percent accumulation) after approximately 10 years. These results can be used to determine the appropriate prescribed burning intervals for a desired fire severity.


Silver ion-exchanged nanocrystalline ZSM-5 (Ag-Nano-ZSM-5) and ZSM-5 (Ag-ZSM-5) materials were synthesized. Hydroxyapatite supported on zeolite materials were prepared by incubating the Ag ion-exchanged zeolite materials in simulated body fluid at 310 K. The resultant materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction, N2-adsorption and Scanning/Transmission electron microscopy. Hydroxyapatite supported on Ag ion-exchanged zeolite modified glassy carbon electrodes were fabricated and investigated as electrochemical sensors in the detection of toxic heavy metal ions (Cd2+, Pb2+, As3+, and Hg2+). The results show that the developed sensor exhibited excellent electro-catalytic activity, sensitivity, and stability toward the detection of selected heavy metal ions. The analytical application of the developed sensor is shown in the determination of heavy metal ions found in different water bodies.


We develop and analyze new cooperative strategies for ad hoc networks that are more spectrally efficient than classical decode & forward (DF) protocols. Using analog network coding, our strategies preserve the practical half-duplex assumption but relax the orthogonality constraint. The introduction of interference due to non-orthogonality is mitigated thanks to precoding, in particular dirty paper coding. Combined with smart power allocation, our cooperation strategies allow to save time and lead to a more efficient use of the bandwidth and to improved network throughput with respect to classical repetition-DF and parallel-DF.


Reduced grazing on harmful algal bloom species has been attributed to both the feed- ing deterrence and toxicity of the algae. Both toxic and deterrent effects of dinoflagellates of the genus Alexandrium, which contain toxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning, have been re- ported on different copepod species. We examined how toxin-containing Alexandrium fundyense affected ingestion rates of 2 geographically distinct Acartia hudsonica (Copepoda: Calanoida) popu- lations over short timescales. The copepod population from Great Bay, New Jersey, has never been exposed to blooms of toxic A. fundyense, whereas the population from Casco Bay, Maine, has expe- rienced regular blooms of the highly toxic dinoflagellate for decades. Our goals were to examine the mechanisms by which toxin-containing Alexandrium reduced the ingestion rates of copepods and determine whether the mechanisms were related to the exposure history of copepod populations. Copepods were fed, for 48 h durations, sole diets of toxin-containing A. fundyense, non-toxin con- taining Alexandrium tamarense and the green flagellate Tetraselmis sp. (not known to have toxic effects) and different mixtures of each (70% Alexandrium/30% Tetraselmis sp., 40/60, 20/80). Changes in ingestion rates over time were determined by measuring ingestion at different time inter- vals (3, 6, 12, 24, 48 h) over the 48 h period using 3 h incubations. The naive copepods from New Jer- sey initially ingested toxin-containing A. fundyense, in both sole and mixed diets, at high rates fol- lowed by decreases in ingestion over time. By 24 h, their total ingestion rates were near zero. The decreases in ingestion rates, which were not due to prey selection, were also accompanied by reduced respiration rates. In contrast, none of these effects were observed when the New Jersey copepods fed on non-toxic A. tamarense. Additionally, feeding rates of historically exposed copepods from Maine were not affected by the toxin-containing A. fundyense diets. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that toxic A. fundyense physiologically incapacitated the copepods from New Jersey but not those from Maine. Such toxic effects, as opposed to deterrence effects, can have profound implications on the grazers' ability to control harmful algal blooms.


We present the statistical properties of the Cold Clump Catalogue of Planck Objects (C3PO), the first all-sky catalogue of cold objects, in terms of their spatial distribution, dust temperature, distance, mass, and morphology. We have combined Planck and IRAS data to extract 10 342 cold sources that stand out against a warmer environment. The sources are distributed over the whole sky, including in the Galactic plane, despite the confusion, and up to high latitudes (>30 degrees). We find a strong spatial correlation of these sources with ancillary data tracing Galactic molecular structures and infrared dark clouds where the latter have been catalogued. These cold clumps are not isolated but clustered in groups. Dust temperature and emissivity spectral index values are derived from their spectral energy distributions using both Planck and IRAS data. The temperatures range from 7K to 19K, with a distribution peaking around 13K. The data are inconsistent with a constant value of the associated spectral index beta over the whole temperature range: beta varies from 1.4 to 2.8, with a mean value around 2.1. Distances are obtained for approximately one third of the objects. Most of the detections lie within 2 kpc of the Sun, but more distant sources are also detected, out to 7 kpc. The mass estimates inferred from dust emission range from 0.4 M(circle dot) to 2.4 x 10(5) M(circle dot). Their physical properties show that these cold sources trace a broad range of objects, from low-mass dense cores to giant molecular clouds, hence the "cold clump" terminology. This first statistical analysis of the C3PO reveals at least two colder populations of special interest with temperatures in the range 7 to 12K: cores that mostly lie close to the Sun; and massive cold clumps located in the inner Galaxy. We also describe the statistics of the early cold core (ECC) sample that is a subset of the C3PO, containing only the 915 most reliable detections. The ECC is delivered as a part of the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC).


Learning to pronounce Chinese characters is usually considered as a very hard part to foreigners to study Chinese. At beginning, Chinese learners must bear in mind thousands of Chinese characters, including their pronunciation, meanings, Bishun (order of strokes) etc., which is very time consuming and boring. In this paper, we proposed a novel method based on translation model to predict the Chinese character pronunciation automatically. We first convert each Chinese character into Bishun, then, we train the pronunciation prediction model (translation model) according to Bishun and their correspondence Pinyin sequences. To make our model practically, we also introduced some error tolerant strategies. Experimental results show that our method can predict the pronunciation of Chinese characters effectively.


America's only famous Negro polar explorer was the co-author to the major geographical quest of the century - the search for the North Pole. ... At the age of 12 he escaped a loveless home - he never knew his mother, who died when he was two - and found his way to Baltimore and the benign Captain Childs, master of the ship Katie Hines. Befriending the frail, hungry, frightened boy, Capt. Childs bent the rules in signing Matt on as cabin boy; he recorded Henson's age as 15 rather than the illegal age of 12. In the five years that Matt sailed on the Katie Hines, Childs taught the young Negro reading, writing, mathematics, navigation, and general proficiency at the sailor's varied trade. These skills would ultimately prove indispensable in Henson's travels with Robert Peary. ... After proving his value to Peary during a year in the Nicaraguan jungle, Henson worked alongside him in a Philadelphia shipyard until Peary took another leave of absence to return to Greenland in 1891. Henson joined the party. His ocher-coloured skin, far from an asset in the racist U.S., helped him in the Arctic. To the Eskimo, Henson was not a white man but a prodigal brother who had forgotten his native tongue and the ways of survival in the harsh northern environment. In successive expeditions, his rapidly growing skills in speaking the Eskimo language, driving dogsleds, hunting, and trading for dogs and furs proved invaluable. In a short time "Miy Paluk", as the Eskimos called him, was to become hero and legend. He was the most important member of the seven expeditions spread over a period of 18 years. One expedition alone lasted four years, during which Matt's courage, sacrifice and physical strength saved Peary's life and the lives of others more than once. ... In 1898 the Navy granted Peary a four-year leave of absence to search for the Pole once more. Peary planned to approach his goal this time via the frozen arctic sea. ... Henson selected the field teams, choosing the best and strongest Eskimo hunters, skilled sledge builders and dog handlers. The Eskimos were loyal to Matt, who now spoke their language fluently. ... On the next-to-last march of the successful expedition, Henson knew at the outset how far the last day's journey would be, and his experience told him how many hours it would take to travel that distance. The sun was his clock. Sighting the position of the sun as he started that final advance on 6 April 1909, Matt knew where it would be when he had reached the Pole. Thus it was that he arrived 45 minutes before Peary, who, after taking an instrument sighting, said "This is it, the Pole at last". ... Back in the States, Matt drifted into semi-obscurity. In 1913, President Taft appointed him to a Civil Service job as a messenger boy at the New York Customs House. Over the ensuing years, as many as six bills were introduced in Congress to retire Matt with honour and a pension, but all failed. ...


Moisture storing insulation such as cellulose has gained a large segment of the residential market, both in new and retrofit construction. Moisture deposited by exfiltration and adsorbed within the envelope reduces the thermal performance of the envelope and favors fungus growth leading to deterioration of the materials and contamination of the indoor air. Roof assemblies thus insulated are particularly vulnerable to the mechanism of moisture accumulation. The objective of this study is to investigate the pattern of moisture accumulation in single cavity flat roofs fully insulated with cellulose insulation. Through an extensive experimental program using two test huts in an environmental chamber, patterns of moisture movement and accumulation for a full wetting-drying cycle have been developed for the first time. Using these results for validation, a model using the water potential concept as the driving force for moisture movement was developed to simulate the complete wetting and drying of wood components within the envelope. Within an Environmental Chamber, which allows for testing full scale specimens, a 190-day test with daily cyclic conditions was designed and performed during which moisture transfer was monitored with electronic sensors and gravimetry. The test consisted of eight flat roof assemblies fully insulated with cellulose subjected to one complete, quasi real-time wetting-drying cycle. The research presents a methodology to evaluate the performance of retrofitting energy efficiency measures using moisture storing insulation in residential buildings. An hygrothermal model using the concept of water potential gradient as the driving force for moisture movement in wood has been developed for flat roofs insulated with cellulose and integrated into an existing finite element computer model. The model includes the geometrical representation of the wood component, moisture content-water potential relationships, effective water conductivity and mass and heat transfer coefficients. The results from the computer model compare favorably with the experimental results and validate the use of the water potential approach in predicting moisture movement through building envelope assemblies. The experimental and modeling data document the moisture condition of the assemblies. This moisture condition is an indicator of durability in terms of fungus growth. Design guidelines have been derived from this study for flat roof assemblies incorporating moisture storing materials. This information can be used by the designer to evaluate the hygrothermal performance and the durability of his/her design.


*** ** *** **** ***** ****** & VICENTE, E. J. D. Ultrastructural study of the denervated diaphragm in rats. Int. J. Morphol., 31(3):925-931, 2013. SUMMARY: The structural alterations that occur in the muscle fibers of denervated rat diaphragms were studied. Fifteen adult male albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) with a mean weight of 200 g and about 60 days of age were used. Chronically denervated diaphragms were obtained and the animals were sacrificed after 4, 8 and 12 weeks of denervation. The left antimere of the diaphragm was de nervated by sectioning of the phrenic nerve and the right antimere served as control. Each antimere was divided into fragments, which we re used for analysis transmission electron microscopy. During the initial phase of denervation (4 weeks), ultrastructural muscle modificati ons appeared in scattered fibers and in foci along these fibers. Muscle fibers with foci of less dense and loosely arranged myofibrils, diso rganized Z line, displaced T tubules, and central nucleus exhibiting reentrances and fragmented aspect were observed. After 8 weeks, formation o f large aggregates of small elongated mitochondria showing altered cristae, matrix inclusions and increased electron density was noted. At 12 weeks of denervation the alterations were found to be more drastic. Nuclei with internal deposits of myofibrillar or amorphous material were observed. In these fibers, vacuoles harbored enormous myeloid structures in the subsarcolemmal or intermyofibrillar region .


Background: Study of hormonal imbalance and its implications in female infertility are an interesting area that requires to be explored in recent time. Hormonal imbalance can associated with irregular menstrual cycle, Amenorrhea, obesity and infertility in women. Other medical conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, Endometriosis, stress, sexually transmitted diseases and chromosomal anomalies may be responsible for infertility in females. Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the serum levels of Follicle Stimulating hormone (FSH), Luteinizing hormone (LH) and Prolactin hormone in infertile women that were referred from different infertility clinics and centres. Materials and Methods: This study comprises total 176 female subjects with age ranging from 20 to 40 years and divided in two groups. The total number of 88 infertile women along with 88 fertile women as controls was included for the present study. Serum FSH, LH and Prolactin levels were estimated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Results: The results showed maximum infertile women were found between the age group of 30-40 years. The Serum FSH, LH and Prolactin levels among infertile women was 8.77±4.65, 7.64±5.16 and 18.59±7.50 respectively. Whereas, levels of FSH, LH and Prolactin in fertile women showed that 6.71±4.12, 5.66±3.17 and 13.44±5.82 respectively. Conclusion: In this study, we found that the hormone levels have statistically significant with female infertility. The elevated levels of FSH, LH and Prolactin may be one of the important causes for infertility in women.


This paper originates from a presentation at the IIIrd International Congress on Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia, August 2001. Portulaca grandiflora (Lind.) is a succulent species with C4 photosynthesis and crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) cycling in leaves, and CAM-idling type photosynthesis in stems. We investigated the level and localization of carbon fixation enzymes and photosynthetic activity of leaves and stems of P. grandiflora under well-watered and drought conditions. As CAM activity increased during water stress, the leaf water-storage tissue collapsed, presumably transferring water to the bundle sheath and mesophyll cells, and so maintaining the C4 photosynthetic pathway. Tissue prints indicated an increase in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the water-storage tissue of leaves and the cortex of stems. Immunoblot analyses after 10 d of water stress showed that leaves had a slight decrease in the proteins of the C4-CAM pathway, while at the same time a new isoform of NADP-malic enzyme (NADP-ME) appeared. In contrast, the stem showed increases in proteins of the CAM pathway when water stressed. Under water stress, diurnal fluctuation in acidity in leaves was not accompanied by a net gain or loss of CO2 at night, and there was sustained, but decreased, fixation of CO2 during the day, characteristic of CAM cycling. High gross rates of O2 evolution were maintained during the day under water stress, suggesting induction of alternative electron sinks. With induced diurnal fluctuations in acidity in stems, there was no net carbon gain during the day or night. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that the stem of P. grandiflora is an inducible CAM-idling tissue. Our results also indicate that the C4 and CAM pathways operate independently of one another in P. grandiflora.


Two human genomic DNA fragments containing alleles for the gene coding for somatostatin I were isolated and sequenced. This gene contains a single intron that interrupts the coding sequence in the propeptide portion of the somatostatin moiety. The site of initiation of transcription of the gene was located by transcription experiments in HeLa cell extracts, and the putative regions for controlling the initiation of transcription were identified.


In an attempt to improve the convergence rates of band-limited image restoration, we derive and apply two algorithms employing nonlinear projections onto closed convex sets. The performances of these algorithms are compared with the well-known Gerchberg–Papoulis (GP) procedures for several cases and are shown to have superior initial convergence rates although eventually they behave like the GP procedures. Both algorithms are shown to converge weakly (i.e., inner product convergence) to the unknown image.


This article posits that the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment ruling District of Columbia v. Heller is a victory for civil rights, but not in the sense that most activists from the 1960s would recognize. Rather than a product of mid-century legal liberalism, Heller marks the culmination of almost forty years of coalition-based popular constitutionalism aimed at transforming the individual right to bear arms and the common law right to "employ deadly force in self-defense" into new civil rights. The implications of this are potentially great. By declaring the right to use deadly force in self-defense an "essential" right, the Court has just positioned itself to use the same due process analysis that it did in Roe v. Wade to invalidate municipal gun bans, without having to overrule past opinions like Cruickshank or even bothering to incorporate the Second Amendment to the states.


Football chants have been researched in several disciplines – from musicology to ethnology to linguistics – for quite a while now. They have been most intensively investigated in the German speaking countries, thus focusing on German chants; Kopiez/Brink 1998 is still the reference work in this respect. Other languages and cultures, however, have been studied much less; this paper therefore proposes an investigation of the (lyrics of) football chants of Romance language cultures using a corpus of French, Spanish and Italian songs. The analysis follows a new categorizing scheme, namely "participant constellations", i.e. constellations of senders and addressees (fans towards their own team, fans towards referees, fans towards opponents' fans etc.). The results reveal that constellations can be both real and fictitious; in the latter case, the fans sing a text which takes the position of a first person and is sung from the perspective of one exemplary fan. This is the case in chants which stylize the fan's connection with his/her team as a romantic relationship. The corpus also contains other, sometimes very original fictitious speakers that are linked to the feeling of togetherness among the fan base and show creativity and humour.


ABSTRACT.
 The propensity to replace a clutch is a complex component of avian reproduction and poorly understood. We experimentally removed clutches from an Arctic-breeding shorebird, the Dunlin (Calidris alpina arcticola), during early and late stages of incubation to investigate replacement clutch rates, renesting interval, and mate and site fidelity between nesting attempts. In contrast to other Arctic studies, we documented renesting by radiotracking individuals to find replacement clutches. We also examined clutch size and mean egg volume to document changes in individual females' investment in initial and replacement clutches. Finally, we examined the influence of adult body mass, clutch volume, dates of clutch initiation and nest loss, and year on the propensity to renest. We found high (82–95%) and moderate (35–50%) rates of renesting for early and late incubation treatments. Renesting intervals averaged 4.7–6.8 days and were not different for clutches removed early or late in incubation. Most pairs remained together for renesting attempts. Larger females were more likely to replace a clutch; female body mass was the most important parameter predicting propensity to renest. Clutches lost later in the season were less likely to be replaced. We present evidence that renesting is more common in Arctic-breeding shorebirds than was previously thought, and suggest that renesting is constrained by energetic and temporal factors as well as mate availability. Obtaining rates of renesting in species breeding at different latitudes will help determine when this behavior is likely to occur; such information is necessary for demographic models that include individual and population-level fecundity estimates.


We demonstrate passively mode-locked Yb(3+)-doped glass waveguide lasers in a quasi-monolithic configuration with a maximum pulse repetition frequency up to 15.2 GHz. A semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) is used to achieve stable mode-locking around 1050 nm with pulse durations as short as 811 fs and an average power up to 27 mW. Different waveguide samples are also employed to deliver pulses with repetition rates of 4.9 GHz, 10.4 GHz and 12 GHz with an average power of 32 mW, 60 mW and 45 mW, respectively. The group velocity dispersion control in the cavity is provided by changing the gap between the SESAM and the waveguide end-face to facilitate a soliton mode-locking regime.


Recent scholarship has emphasised the extent to which historical events are reflected in medieval romance. This paper seeks to draw attention to an instance where that relationship appears to have been inverted and a romance motif was carefully recreated at a particularly important event in the historical world. From the fourteenth century onwards, a mounted knight ceremonially rode into the English coronation banquet and issued a challenge to all assembled. The visual detail of the ritual strikingly echoes that of the romance motif of the "intruder at the feast". This motif crops up in numerous romances, and is particularly associated with Arthurian narratives where it usually serves as a catalyst for adventure, providing the court and the king with an opportunity to justify their authority and reputation. This paper analyses the precise nature of the historical ritual and explores how the romance resonances of the ceremony at the coronation feast could be used to underpin political authority and courtly identity. In doing so, it seeks to underscore the centrality of Arthurian romance to English monarchical self-imagining and the symbolic power which could be ascribed to the genre's themes and conventions.


Objective: To investigate the histologic composition of opaque membranes associated with corneal intrastromal inlays implanted for the surgical treatment of presbyopia. Methods: This is an observational case series of KAMRA corneal inlays explanted due to the presence of adherent opaque membranes associated with peri-inlay corneal stromal haze and sent for histopathologic analysis. Routine histology was performed in addition to immunohistochemical staining with myofibroblast and keratocyte markers. Results: Eleven explanted inlay specimens were received, of which, after histologic processing, four demonstrated sufficient cellular material for histopathologic analysis. The opaque membranes surrounding the explanted inlays were composed of fibroconnective tissue, and myofibroblasts (positive for smooth muscle actin immunostain) were the predominant cell type. Immunostaining for the keratocyte marker CD34 was negative, confirming that the membranes were the result of a reactive scar-tissue formation process and not simply normal corneal stroma adherent to the explant. Conclusions: Corneal inlay implantation can lead to the formation of an adherent fibroconnective tissue membrane, suggesting keratocyte-to-myofibroblast transdifferentiation and reactive fibroconnective tissue scar formation that could potentially impact visual potential. Prospective patients should be counseled regarding the risk of this complication, as this may be associated with some risk of incomplete reversibility of the procedure.


The periodic collection of hydrophysical data along the northern Norwegian coast (from Malangen to Porsangerfjord) started in the beginning of the 20th century and some of the oldest stations are still in operation by the "Havmiljodata" sampling programme organized by UIT-The Arctic university of Norway. Systematical retrieval of the physical oceanographical data during shorter periods (1–2 years) in Tromso and north Norway goes back to ca. 1872 when Tromso Museum was founded. The first decades sampling was performed with hired vessels, and retrieval of hydrophysical data was connected to sampling of marine organisms. From ca. 1975 it was taken over by the University of Tromso and from 1979 it was up running again with a new revised network. Up through the years much effort has also been put into data quality control and instrumentation (CTD) mantenance and calibration. From the early 1990s, the BFE faculty (Fakultet for biovitenskap, fiskeri og okonomi) that has had the responsibility for the data sampling organized as Havmiljodata (HMD).


We introduce the MULTI-INTER-DISTANCE constraint that ensures no more than m variables are assigned to values lying in a window of p consecutive values. This constraint is useful for modeling scheduling problems where tasks of processing time p compete for m identical resources. We present a propagator that achieves bounds consistency in cubic time. Experiments show that this new constraint offers a much stronger filtering than an edge-finder and that it allows to solve larger instances of the runway scheduling problem.


Polar snow and firn represents the result of snow metamorphism at very long time scales of many tens of years and in a broad variability of climate conditions. At polar ice sheets the diverse snow types of firn layers and the long term behavior of their microstructure and density with depth and at different sites can be studied. We present microstructure properties of polar snow and firn obtained by X-Ray Micro-Computer-Tomography from various sites in Greenland and Antarctica with different annual mean temperatures and accumulation rates. We will show and discuss the evolution of three-dimensional microstructural features such as coordination number, shape factor or specific surface area with depth and time at the different sites. In order to parameterize the evolution of microstructure with time we map out universal characteristics and regional distinctions of the polar snow- and firn microstructure.


When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to rise up in protest ... When a handful of bull-market bullies and corporate profiteers amass vast fortunes while 35 million citizens languish in poverty ... When average Americans decide they're sick of the burden of credit card-fueled lifestyles, tired of sending their children to violent, decaying schools, and sick and tired of sending corrupt, ineffectual career politicians back to Washington year after year to pander to their richest soft-money contributors . . . When a majority of registered voters no longer have enough faith in our fat-cat "leaders" and their obsolete parties even to sbow up at the polls to replace them ... When these truths become self-evident ... Then the time has come to overthrow the government. Arianna Huffington has earned a reputation as one of America's best-known and most independent political commentators, but this book will surprise even the most ardent followers of Beltway politics. In its pages she breaks away from the party-line platitudes of cynical Republicans and hypocritical Democrats alike and shines a harsh light on the real crises of contemporary America. Our democratic system has broken down, she contends. The two political parties have become indistinguishable. Their policies are feeble, their motives self-serving, their campaign tactics ruthless and insulting. And, as they kneel at the altar of profit, our nation's foundations are crumbling. Decay is everywhere: The physical decay of our cities and schools is matched by the moral decay of a drug industry that is allowed by politicians to push Prozac on children, a media industry that looks only for the next scandal, and a political industry that hypnotizes its candidates with polls, paralyzes them with smear tactics, and seduces them with carefully camouflaged cash. How to Overthrow the Government, then, is Huffington's call to arms: a challenge to the average American to seize the government back from the special interests that now hold it hostage and restore control to the people themselves. From campaign finance reform to new voters' rights to grassroots Internet activism and civil disobedience campaigns, she calls for fresh and radical solutions to this national crisis--and offers a directory of local and national activist groups to contact that can help make it happen. For if we are to preserve and protect our more perfect union, We the People must stand up and fight for our country--before it's too late.


Although many studies have been written within L2 pragmatics, very few have dealt with L2 irony and sarcasm. The main purpose of this study is to investigate how EFL learners recognize written British English sarcasm. For this purpose, an L2 pragmatics study was designed and applied to two groups of L2 learners of English. Another purpose of the study is to pragmatically analyse online sarcasm, and see how it is used and by what features it is characterized. A corpus study was conducted for the latter purpose. Regarding data, this study used naturally-occurring sarcasm from real-life situations. The data was collected from a football forum (Manchester United forum; likely used by males) and two parenting forums (Mumsnet and Netmums; likely used by females). These different forums were targeted to ensure a rough gender balance. Sarcasm was identified within these forums by means of a metalanguage strategy. This strategy involved searching for the metalinguistic labels sarcasm and sarcastic, and then extracting and analyzing the antecedent discourses these labels are referring to. Those discourses were considered a potential environment for sarcasm. One hundred and forty two sarcasm-containing threads were collected via the metalanguage strategy. First, the data was pragmatically investigated to reveal the general pragmatic characteristics of sarcasm (e.g. Contradiction: saying something and meaning the opposite or Insincerity: flouting the Gricean quality maxim), as well as its pragmalinguistic characteristics (e.g. hyperbolic expressions, capitalization, exclamation marks) that are used in the data. This is the ‗Corpus Study'. Second, the analysed data served as an item pool for the judgment task of the L2 pragmatics study. From that pool, 30 items were ultimately selected as stimuli for that L2 study. Two groups of Iraqi EFL learners participated in the L2 pragmatics study. Each group contained 30 participants. The members of the first group were studying L2 English at home (Iraq) and had never been to any English-speaking country. The second group involved learners who received their BA and/or MA degree(s) in English from Iraq and were pursuing MA or PhD degrees at different UK universities. Members of the latter group had 1-4 years sojourn in the UK. A Control group was also provided by 30 British-English native speakers. The 30 stimuli, derived from the online data of the Corpus study, were placed in a two-fold judgement task. The task was designed to: (1) test the participants' recognition of sarcasm within the given texts (threads) on a 7-point Likert scale, and (2) reveal what they consider as ‗sarcastic' within those texts by highlighting the potentially sarcastic part(s) in them. Results of the corpus study revealed that general pragmatic characteristics bear the greatest load in creating/indicating online sarcasm. Among these characteristics ‗Insincerity' seems to be the most fundamental or prototypical one. As for pragmalinguistic characteristics, they appear to play only a minor role in triggering and comprehending online sarcasm. ‗Hyperbole' seems to be the most prototypical one among pragmalinguistic characteristics. Regarding the L2 pragmatics study, ANOVA results reveal that both learners' groups are significantly different from English Native Speakers. Thus, Iraqi EFL learners appear not to have reached the native level of sarcasm perception. Results also indicate no effect of studying abroad or L2 proficiency upon the sarcasm recognition of those learners. Another finding of the L2 study is that the more characteristics (general pragmatic or pragmalinguistic) available the easier the comprehension of sarcasm turns out to be for both native speakers and learners. However, learners seem to be more sensitive to pragmalinguistic characteristics than English native speakers. They are found to identify sarcasm at the sight of these features more than the native speakers do. More interestingly, the current study has also found out that sarcasm does not always express a negative attitude. Sometimes, it can be used to express a positive emotion in a friendly way. This study encourages further research on L2 sarcasm, particularly with regard to the kind and amount of L2 input the learners are exposed to. It also focuses attention on the necessity of developing the learners' L2 pragmatic competence in general and their competence of L2 sarcasm in particular in order to bridge the gap between their performance and that of the native speakers.


This paper focuses on the recommendations of Top of the class, the February 2007 report of an inquiry into teacher education conducted by the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training. To do this action policy analysis, it presents Raymond Williams' dictum of "making hope practical" through five interdependent strategies. Then it scrutinises and uses them by exploring the relationship between this report's recommendations and, the deepening and extension of the basis for sound educational research. Critical self‐reflection focuses on rigorously re‐examining what is taken as good educational research. Framing entails identifying the good sense in policies, challenging teacher education stakeholders to collectively advance life‐enhancing agendas. Engaging in research with the real world of winners and losers in education is a third strategy. Assessing the desirability and dangers in current teacher education policies and programs is integral to making decisions about the field's future. Communicating the spirit of teacher education publicly is necessary for constructing the grounds for forward movements. It is argued that these strategies may provide support for new directions in researching productive innovations and policy actions in beginning teacher education.


The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Momenta v. Amphastar highlights the continuing uncertainty regarding the scope of the statutory exemption from patent infringement provided in 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1). The statute states that "[i]t shall not be an act of infringement to make, use, offer to sell, or sell within the United States or import into the United States a patented invention . . . solely for uses reasonably related to the development and submission of information under a Federal law which regulates the manufacture, use, or sale of drugs or veterinary biological products." Since its adoption in 1984 with the passage of the Hatch-Waxman Act, however, the precise meaning of the statute has been the subject of considerable debate, triggering two U.S. Supreme Court decisions and multiple decisions of the Federal Circuit and various U.S. district courts. Judicial interpretations of key terms of § 271(e)(1), based on a textual analysis of the statute, the structure of the Hatch-Waxman Act and the legislative history of the Act, have resulted in conflicting views as to the scope and applicability of the statute. This Article provides a working interpretation of the meaning of the statute, based on currently controlling case law.


In the nursing profession across the Western world, women outnumber men by a ratio of 10 to 1. The profession is often seen as being synonymous with being female and with femininity. This study aimed to illustrate the gendered aspects of career choice for men who choose to nurse and how a masculine identity can be negotiated within the profession. Using a qualitative interpretive approach, interviews were carried out with 18 male nurses. The findings indicate contradictions and difficulties for men in identifying with the profession and as men. Little encouragement is given to men to join the profession, and for men who have chosen to nurse, there is an attempt to distance themselves from traditional motivations for choosing nursing such as caring and vocationalism. This has implications for the recruitment and retention of men into the profession and also points to a need to examine the relationship of nursing to gendered concepts.


large farms: in 2006, farms with at least $500,000 in sales accounted for over 60 percent of U.S. agricultural commodity sales. But broiler production—raising young chickens for meat—remains an exception. While U.S. broiler operations are getting larger, small farms still dominate production. Unlike other commodities, the important role played by small broiler operations suggests that no significant and systematic cost advantages accrue to farm size. Moreover, smaller operations limit the potential spread of poultry diseases as well as the concentration of poultry manure. Commercial growers almost always produce broilers under a production contract with an integrator. Most integrators are corporations that own processing plants, feed mills, and hatchery farms. An integrator provides the grower with chicks, feed, and veterinary services and transports the birds to processing plants. The grower invests in broiler houses (a significant capital investment), provides labor and purchases utilities, and feeds the chicks until they reach market weight (5-9 weeks). Seventy percent of all contract growers own four or fewer broiler houses, and those operations collectively accounted for half of the 8.9 billion broilers produced in the U.S. in 2006. Each house produces between 110,000 and 120,000 broilers annually, and, on average, growers are paid 26-27 cents per bird. As a result, the smallest operations—those with a single house—realize about $32,000 in annual contract fees for broiler production, while operations with four houses realize about $126,000. Broilers provide one source of income to households that run small grow-out farms. Most operations produce other farm commodities (primarily cattle and field crops), although broiler fees account for nearly 90 percent of total commodity revenue. Grower households also receive income from farm-related activities, including rentals of farmland and custom work for other farms, such as harvesting or planting services. In addition, grower households receive income from off-farm work and from other sources. Income diversification is important for growers: most face a choice of only one or two integrators close enough for contracting. The availability of other earning options for growers, whether from other farming activities or off-farm employment, tends to limit integrators' market power. On average, operators of small broiler grow-out operations received a household income of $63,700 in 2006, of which about 30 percent represented net income received from their farming business. This is slightly below the average for all U.S households ($66,570) but compares quite favorably to mean household incomes in rural areas in the South ($44,804), where broiler production is concentrated.


As a part of a group project a magnetron deposition system was designed, constructed and commissioned for producing thin film coatings. Deposition of molybdenum nitride films has been carried out using reactive magnetron sputtering for characterization. The films were characterized in terms of their thickness, hardness and adhesion. The films were reasonably hard but poorly adherent to the steel flats.

A wear test rig designed, constructed and commissioned by another research student to carry out impact wear tests was adapted for adhesive wear tests. Progressive wear tests have been done on titanium carbide (5% titanium) coated, titanium nitride coated and uncoated specimens of four substrate materials. The substrate materials are: i) D2 tool steel, ii) D3 tool steel, iii) Vanadis 4 and iv) Vanadis 10. Titanium carbide coatings proved to have good wear resistance but titanium nitride coatings did not. Different coatings imparted different wear resistance to the substrate. The substrate materials have a profound effect on the wear resistance of the coated surfaces.


IMPORTANCE
In fiscal year (FY) 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) instituted the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program, which reduces payments to the lowest-performing hospitals. However, it is uncertain whether this program accurately measures quality and fairly penalizes hospitals.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the characteristics of hospitals penalized by the HAC Reduction Program and to evaluate the association of a summary score of hospital characteristics related to quality with penalization in the HAC program.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Data for hospitals participating in the FY2015 HAC Reduction Program were obtained from CMS' Hospital Compare and merged with the 2014 American Hospital Association Annual Survey and FY2015 Medicare Impact File. Logistic regression models were developed to examine the association between hospital characteristics and HAC program penalization. An 8-point hospital quality summary score was created using hospital characteristics related to volume, accreditations, and offering of advanced care services. The relationship between the hospital quality summary score and HAC program penalization was examined. Publicly reported process-of-care and outcome measures were examined from 4 clinical areas (surgery, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia), and their association with the hospital quality summary score was evaluated.

EXPOSURES
Penalization in the HAC Reduction Program.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Hospital characteristics associated with penalization.

RESULTS
Of the 3284 hospitals participating in the HAC program, 721 (22.0%) were penalized. Hospitals were more likely to be penalized if they were accredited by the Joint Commission (24.0% accredited, 14.4% not accredited; odds ratio [OR], 1.33; 95% CI, 1.04-1.70); they were major teaching hospitals (42.3%; OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.09-2.29) or very major teaching hospitals (62.2%; OR, 2.61; 95% CI, 1.55-4.39; vs nonteaching hospitals, 17.0%); they cared for more complex patient populations based on case mix index (quartile 4 vs quartile 1: 32.8% vs 12.1%; OR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.44-2.71); or they were safety-net hospitals vs non-safety-net hospitals (28.3% vs 19.9%; OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.11-1.68). Hospitals with higher hospital quality summary scores had significantly better performance on 9 of 10 publicly reported process and outcomes measures compared with hospitals that had lower quality scores (all P ≤ .01 for trend). However, hospitals with the highest quality score of 8 were penalized significantly more frequently than hospitals with the lowest quality score of 0 (67.3% [37/55] vs 12.6% [53/422]; P < .001 for trend).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among hospitals participating in the HAC Reduction Program, hospitals that were penalized more frequently had more quality accreditations, offered advanced services, were major teaching institutions, and had better performance on other process and outcome measures. These paradoxical findings suggest that the approach for assessing hospital penalties in the HAC Reduction Program merits reconsideration to ensure it is achieving the intended goals.


This article is an empirical investigation into the visual mobilization strategies by far-right political parties for election campaigns constructing Muslim immigrants as a "threat" to the nation. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical approach of social movement studies and research on media and communication, I focus on the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has produced several widespread inflammatory series of visual election posters featuring anti-Islam rhetoric, combined with provocative images of gender and sexuality. By approaching visual politics through a perspective on actors constructing visual forms of political mobilization, I show how far-right populist "movement parties" are supported by professional graphic designers commercializing extremist ideologies by creating ambivalent images and text messages. My findings on the AfD's visual campaign politics document the instrumentalization and appropriation of the rhetoric of women's empowerment and LGBT rights discourse, helping the AfD to rebrand its image as a liberal democratic opposition party, while at the same time, maintaining its illiberal political agenda on gender and sexuality. Visual representations of gender and sexuality in professionally created election posters served to ridicule and shame Muslim minorities and denounce their "Otherness"—while also promoting a heroic self-image of the party as a savior of white women and Western civilization from the threat of male Muslim migrants. By documenting the visual politics of the AfD, as embedded in transnational cooperation between different actors, including visual professional graphic designers and far-right party activists, my multimodal analysis shows how far-right movement parties marketize and commercialize their image as "progressive" in order to reach out to new voters.


Background: Investments in patents are more and more widespread at the capitalism, because all the system working is related to the innovation and the technological and scientific advance, in which the industries and universities have a fundamental rule. When those researches generate a product, this can be patented, being deposited initially on an intellectual property bank and thus the inventor and his group will have exclusively the product rights by a time period that varies according to the country legislation. Objective: Due do the increasing interest from the general universities in innovation, the objective was to conduct a prospective study about patents deposited by the Federal University of Ceara (UFC) at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) that is the organ responsible by the Brazil intellectual property. To do so, were selected all the deposited patents by the university till nowadays. Experimental Section: Were found deposits of 123 patents, in which 43 hadn't achieved the publication process and 3 expired. Conclusion: After the analyses of the Federal University of Ceara patents, is concluded that the majority is related to the products classes with medical, dental and hygiene finalities and that the interest of the refereed university in relation to the intellectual property protection is still small, being interesting a greater divulgation on the subject in the university. Key words: Universities, Intellectual Property l, Patents, Technology, Prospective Studdy.


The work presented here is part of the socioeconomic analysis that is carried out within the RADOST project. It has been the starting point of developing a dynamic regionalized Input-Output (IO) model that is used to assess the effects of climate change and adaptation strategies on the regional economy. In a first step the model has been set up for the tourist sector in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The possible developments of the tourism demand – influenced by climate change and other factors – were represented in three scenarios, which in turn were used as input data for the IO model.


Aim: To value the importance of research on avian migration for the development and current status of Spanish ornithology. Results and Conclusions: Avian migration has always been an outstanding field in ornithology. This assertion is particularly true in Spain, as we illustrate here by discussing the contribution of migration research to both the scientific and historical development of Spanish ornithology. After all, the Iberian Peninsula is one of the best scenarios for the study of migration in Europe (Fig. 1), as it forms natural bridges for birds migrating between Europe and Africa and between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. As well, it is one of the main wintering grounds for European birds in the Mediterranean area. Migration ecology experienced a relatively early development in Spain, compared to other fields in ornithology. Short after the foundation of the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO) in 1954, migration surveys often triggered pioneering attempts to build up long-term research programs (Table 1). Thus, massive ringing campaigns were among the very first scientific activities organised by SEO, and became formally regularised with the creation of the Bird Migration Centre (CMA) in 1957, one of the first successful attempts to institutionalize ornithological research in Spain. Later on, these activities acquired international relevance with the publication of their results in international meetings, and the participation of the CMA in the foundation of EURING. These facts, together with the creation of the Spanish Group of Raptor Migration (GEMRA) for monitoring the passage of soaring birds across the Strait of Gibraltar, were fundamental pieces in the training of a whole generation of Spanish ornithologists. Perhaps migration gained a prominent position relative to other fields in Spain owing to the personal interests of Francisco Bernis, who was responsible, directly or indirectly, of most of the achievements of a newly born Spanish ornithology (from the 1940's to the late 1970's). Leading the foundation of SEO, he published a profuse collection of seminal reports, monographs and handbooks, which pushed forward several fields of ornithology in Spain, but paid special attention to migration. Such interests could be motivated by a late advent of Spanish ornithological research in the international framework: the advantages of the Iberian Peninsula for the study of migration, and the still poor knowledge of the ecological processes occurring south of the scientifically leading countries (central and northern Europe), offered a good opportunity for Bernis' school to make a contribution of general relevance to the scientific community. Thus, the analysis of ringing recoveries in Spain of birds ringed in Europe, the ecological and evolutionary interpretation of wintering in the Mediterranean (Table 1), or the study of visible migration in Gibraltar (Fig. 2) were all major contributions of F. Bernis to the growth and international diffusion of Spanish ornithology. This contribution of migration studies to the maturation of Spanish ornithology is also reflected by nearly as many publications on migration in Ardeola, the Spanish ornithological journal, as there were derived from faunistic research (which traditionally dominated the contents of the journal; Fig. 3). Today, Spanish ornithology has reached a high average standard, being recognised as internationally influential. As a consequence, the research published in Ardeola seeks to broaden its potential readership (using more frequently the English language) and has become increasingly professionalized (Fig. 4). This healthiness of Spanish ornithology in general is also perceived in migration research (Fig. 4). Spanish researchers and amateurs (particularly ringers) are keen to enrol in international co-operative projects, being institutionally supported by the Spanish ringing scheme (Migratory Species Office, Ministry of Environment). As an immediate benefit, this should help us to put our knowledge on migration through and to the Iberian Peninsula in a broader ecological and geographic context. Besides, Spanish researchers are taking advantage of excellent chances to study the ecological and evolutionary implications of migration and wintering in the Mediterranean. Future research should contribute to fulfil the social demand for studies that may help us to foresee the consequences of processes such as climate change or habitat destruction, a research front that both Spanish authorities and scientists have a decisive obligation to push forward. (Less)


This paper considers a simple quantitative model of output, interest rate and inflation determination in the United States, and uses it to evaluate alternative rules by which the Fed may set interest rates. The model is derived from optimizing behavior under rational expectations, both on the part of the purchasers of goods and upon that of the sellers. The model matches the estimates responses to a monetary policy shock quite well and, once due account is taken of other disturbances, can account for our data nearly as well as an unrestricted VAR. The monetary policy rule that most reduces inflation variability (and is best on this account) requires very variable interest rates, which in turn is possible only in the case of a high average inflation rate. But even in the case of a constrained-optimal policy, that takes into account some of the costs of average inflation and constrains the variability of interest rates so as to keep average inflation low, inflation would be stabilized considerably more and output stabilized considerably less than under our estimates of current policy. Moreover, this constrained-optimal policy also allows average inflation to be much smaller. This version contains additional details of our derivations and calculations, including three technical appendices, not included in the version published in NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1997.


Dialogue-based Question Answering (QA) is a highly complex task that brings together a QA system including various natural language processing components (i.e., components for question classification, information extraction, and retrieval) with dialogue systems for effective and natural communication. The dialogue-based access is difficult to establish when the QA system in use is complex and combines many different answer services with different quality and access characteristics. For example, some questions are processed by opendomain QA services with a broad coverage. Others should be processed by using a domain-specific instance ontology for more reliable answers. Different answer services may change their characteristics over time and the dialogue reaction models have to be updated according to that. To solve this problem, we developed introspective methods to integrate adaptable models of the answer services. We evaluated the impact of the learned models on the dialogue performance, i.e., whether the adaptable models can be used for a more convenient dialogue formulation process. We show significant effectiveness improvements in the resulting dialogues when using the machine learning (ML) models. Examples are provided in the context of the generation of system-initiative feedback to user questions and answers, as provided by heterogeneous information services.


The near-Earth space is filled with over 300,000 artificial debris objects with a diameter larger than one cm. For objects in GEO and MEO region, the observations are made mainly through optical sensors. These sensors take observations over a short time which cover only a negligible part of the object's orbit. Two or more such observations are taken as one single Too Short Arc (TSA). Each set of TSA from an optical sensor consists of several angles, the angles of right ascension, declination, along with the rate of change of the right ascension angle and the declination angle. However, such observational data obtained from one TSA because it is covering only a very small fraction of the orbit, is not sufficient for the complete initial determination of an object's orbit. For a newly detected unknown object, only TSAs are available with no information about the orbit of the object. Therefore, two or more such TSAs that belong to the same object are required for its orbit determination. To solve this correlation problem, the framework of the probabilistic Admissible Region is used, which restricts possible orbits based on a single TSA. To propagate the Admissible Region to the time of a second TSA, it is represented in closed-form Gaussian Mixture representation. This way, a propagation with an Extended Kalman filter is possible. To decide if two TSAs are correlated, that is if they belong to the same object, respectively, an overlap between the regions is found in a suitable orbital mechanic's based coordinate frame. To compute the overlap, the information measure of Kullback-Leibler divergence is used.


The accuracy of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) generally improves when fueled with high resolution images. However, this often comes at a high computational cost and high memory footprint. Inspired by the fact that not all regions in an image are task-relevant, we propose a novel framework that performs efficient image classification by processing a sequence of relatively small inputs, which are strategically selected from the original image with reinforcement learning. Such a dynamic decision process naturally facilitates adaptive inference at test time, i.e., it can be terminated once the model is sufficiently confident about its prediction and thus avoids further redundant computation. Notably, our framework is general and flexible as it is compatible with most of the state-of-the-art light-weighted CNNs (such as MobileNets, EfficientNets and RegNets), which can be conveniently deployed as the backbone feature extractor. Experiments on ImageNet show that our method consistently improves the computational efficiency of a wide variety of deep models. For example, it further reduces the average latency of the highly efficient MobileNet-V3 on an iPhone XS Max by 20% without sacrificing accuracy. Code and pre-trained models are available at this https URL.


To examine whether hyperinsulinemia associated with glucocorticoid treatment results solely from hypersecretion of insulin or also involves altered fractional hepatic extraction, oral glucose (1 g/kg body wt) was administered to dogs with or without dexamethasone treatment (2 mg/d for 2 d). Dexamethasone significantly increased basal glucose and insulin concentrations in the portal vein, hepatic vein, and femoral artery, reduced basal fractional hepatic extraction of insulin from 43 +/- 4% to 22 +/- 4%, and, after oral glucose, increased retention by the liver of net glucose released into the portal system from 27 +/- 4% to 53 +/- 13%. Intraportal insulin infusion (1 and 2 mU/kg per min) after 7 d of dexamethasone treatment (2 mg/d) caused less suppression of endogenous glucose production, and less exogenous glucose was required to maintain an euglycemic clamp than in control animals. Dexamethasone treatment is associated with: decreased basal fractional hepatic insulin extraction contributing to hyperinsulinemia; and less suppression of endogenous glucose production and increase in peripheral uptake in response to insulin, but no reduction in net hepatic glucose uptake after oral glucose.


Over 60 recipes for the administration and management of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 Overview Create, deploy, and manage Datacentres, Private and Hybrid Clouds with hybrid hypervisors by using VMM 2012 SP1, App Controller, and Operations Manager. Integrate and manage fabric (compute, storages, gateways, networking) services and resources. Deploy Clusters from bare metal servers. Learn how to use VMM 2012 SP1 features such as Windows 2012 and SQL 2012 support, Network Virtualization, Live Migration, Linux VMs, Resource Throttling, and Availability. In Detail Microsoft System Center 2012 is a comprehensive IT infrastructure, virtualization, and cloud management platform. With System Center 2012, you can more easily and efficiently manage your applications and services across multiple hypervisors as well as across public and private cloud infrastructures to deliver flexible and cost-effective IT services for your business. This cookbook covers architecture design and planning and is full of deployment tips, techniques, and solutions designed to show users how to improve VMM 2012 in a real world scenario. It will guide you to create, deploy, and manage your own Private Cloud with a mix of Hypervisors: Hyper-V, Vmware ESXi, and Citrix XenServer. It also includes the VMM 2012 SP1 features. This book is a cookbook that covers architecture design, planning and is full of deployment tips, techniques and solutions designed to show users how to improve VMM 2012 in a real world scenario. It will guide you to create, deploy and manage your own Private Cloud with a mix of Hypervisors : Hyper-V, Vmware ESXi and Citrix XenServer. What you will learn from this book How to use VMM Architecture and plan for a real word deployment Utilize Network Virtualization, Gateway integration, Storage integration, Resource Throttling, and Availability options Deploy Operations Manager and integrate with VMM Integrate SC APP Controller with VMM to manage Private and Public Clouds (Azure) Cluster deployment with VMM Bare Metal Create and deploy Virtual Machines from Templates Deploy a highly available VMM Management Server Manage Hyper-V, Vmware, and Citrix from VMM How to upgrade from SCVMM 2008R2 to SCVMM 2012 SP1 Approach This is a Packt Cookbook, full with over 75 recipes for VMM users to carry out vital tasks quickly and easily. Who this book is written for This book is written for solutions architects, technical consultants, administrators, and any other virtualization lover who needs to use Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager in a real world environment.


'He watches her eating one fig, then two more, grinding the seeds between her teeth, the sound echoing in her head, perhaps the last sound Dora heard before there was the thunder of blood in her ears...' Vienna, 1910. On a warm August night, the body of a young girl is discovered in the city's celebrated Volksgarten. She has been strangled. Using the latest forensic methods and psychological thinking, the Chief Inspector of Police begins his painstaking search for the killer. He is not alone, however. His wife Erszebet - an exotic, passionate woman steeped in the folk tales and Gypsy lore of her native Hungary - becomes obsessed with the dead girl. In secret, and enlisting the help of a young English governess, she conducts her own investigation of the murder, guided by intuition, instinct and superstition...With its beautifully-evoked setting of Vienna just prior to the Great War, a city embracing the modern and yet in thrall to superstition and prejudice, and riven by corruption, perverse sexual practices and disease, The Fig Eater is a rich and seductive period page-turner of a novel.


Haze days induced by aerosol pollution in North and East China have posed a persistent and growing problem over the past few decades. These events are particularly threatening to densely populated cities such as Beijing. While the sources of this pollution are predominantly anthropogenic, natural climate variations may also play a role in allowing for atmospheric conditions conducive to formation of severe haze episodes over populated areas. Here, an investigation is conducted into the effects of changes in global dynamics and emissions on air quality in China's polluted regions using 35 simulations developed from the Community Earth Systems Model Large Ensemble (CESM LENS) run over the period 1920–2100. It is shown that internal variability significantly modulates aerosol optical depth (AOD) over China; it takes roughly a decade for the forced response to balance the effects from internal variability even in China's most polluted regions. Random forest regressions are used to accurately model (R2 > 0.9) wintertime AOD using just climate oscillations, the month of the year, and emissions. How different phases of each oscillation affect aerosol loading is projected using these regressions. AOD responses are identified for each oscillation, with particularly strong responses from El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). As ENSO can be projected a few months in advance and improvements in linear inverse modeling (LIM) may yield a similar predictability for the PDO, results of this study offer opportunities to improve the predictability of China's severe wintertime haze events and to inform policy options that could mitigate subsequent health impacts.


Glycoprotein gp130, found on the plasma membrane of Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae, was postulated previously to play a role in phagocytosis. The gene for gp130 was cloned and when translated, yielded a 768 amino acid preproprotein of 85.3 kDa. It had nearly 40% similarity to the 138 kDa family of glycoproteins implicated in sexual cell fusion during macrocyst formation in D. discoideum. The difference between the calculated size and observed M(r) of 130 kDa on protein gels likely was due to N-glycosylation that was confirmed by lectin blots. Consistent with its surface-exposure, an antibody raised against recombinant protein stained the plasma membrane of D. discoideum amoebae. Gp130 and its transcripts were high during axenic growth of cells, but relatively low during growth on bacteria. The gene for gp130 was disrupted and cell lines lacking the glycoprotein were efficient phagocytes, indicating that gp130 was dispensable for phagocytosis. Gp130-null cells were similar in size to parent DH1 cells, had enhanced macropinocytosis and grew faster to higher densities. They also exhibited weaker cell-substrate adhesion but displayed greater cell-cell cohesion. Collectively, the data indicated that gp130 influenced macropinocytosis and played a role in adhesion during vegetative growth.