Bacterial diversity and activity were simultaneously investigated by microbial ecological and molecular biological methods along an estuarine gradient from the Rhone River to the Mediterranean Sea. Following a Lagrangian strategy, we sampled plume, frontal and marine layers. The sampled estuarine gradient exhibited large changes both in physico-chemical and in microbiological characteristics. Bacterial abundances and activities showed a more drastic decrease in the low salinity range of the gradient than expected from simple dilution models, indicating that an important fraction of freshwater bacteria disappeared in the mixing area. High specific activities, in particular for leucine, in the marine end-part of the gradient suggested important bacterial protein synthesis, which may be a sign of an active survival strategy for bacterial communities subjected to oligotrophic conditions. Bacterial genetic diversity of the sampled estuarine area, as estimated by the number of DNA-derived denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands, was high (13 to 55 bands) compared to that reported in other aquatic ecosystems. This high diversity may be the consequence of the interface position of estuaries. The proportion of active populations was estimated using the ratio of DGGE bands derived from RNA and DNA. This ratio was lower in Rhone water than in marine water, indicating that only a part of the constitutive populations were active, while the activity was distributed within a larger fraction of populations in the marine assemblage. Very few DGGE bands detected in freshwater samples were also detected in the marine end-part of the gradient, suggesting that a very limited number of freshwater bacteria could survive under marine conditions. Detection of these freshwater populations from RNA might indicate that these bacteria were able to synthesize different stress proteins as the result of a survival strategy or that these bacteria were able to maintain metabolic activity under marine conditions. The structure of marine communities was strongly affected by decreasing salinity. However, it seems that the decrease of DNA-derived bands may simply have been the consequence of the mixing of marine and freshwater. No obvious relationship between genetic richness and activity changes was observed. This lack of a relationship may be the consequence of a very short residence time of water in the mixing area studied.


Positive interactions are ubiquitous in ecological communities and can be facultative or obligate mutualisms or commensalisms. Recent decades of work have developed a framework for understanding positive interactions and their role in community structure and function. The stress-gradient hypothesis was the first conceptual model developed to explain positive interactions and predicted that the frequency of positive interactions increases at physical and biological stress extremes. More recent work has expanded this perspective to habitat-forming foundation species and the hierarchical organisation of communities. Currently positive interactions are being incorporated into the most utilised models in ecology – niche theory and the Menge–Sutherland Model – expanding the accuracy and predictive value of these models. Simultaneously, the role of positive interactions is being recognised and incorporated into evolutionary theory.

Key Concepts

Positive interactions are ubiquitous under stressful conditions in communities
Mechanistically, positive interactions alleviate physical and biotic stresses
Positive interactions are slowly being incorporated into community models
Foundation species often provide multiple positive interactions to communities
Physical and biotic stresses select for the evolution of mutualisms
Evolutionary biology has more proactively incorporated positive interactions into their theoretical framework than community ecology

Keywords:

stress-gradient hypothesis;
positive interactions;
facilitation cascades;
foundation species;
niche theory;
Menge–Sutherland Model;
community organisation


— The daily increase of organic waste materials resulting from different activities in the country is one of the main factors for the pollution of environment. Today, with regard to the low level of the output of using traditional methods, the high cost of disposal waste materials and environmental pollutions, the use of modern methods such as anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas has been prevailing. The collected biogas from the process of anaerobic digestion, as a renewable energy source similar to natural gas but with a less methane and heating value is usable. Today, with the help of technologies of filtration and proper preparation, access to biogas with features fully similar to natural gas has become possible. At present biogas is one of the main sources of supplying electrical and thermal energy and also an appropriate option to be used in four stroke engine, diesel engine, sterling engine, gas turbine, gas micro turbine and fuel cell to produce electricity. The use of biogas for different reasons which returns to socio-economic and environmental advantages has been noticed in CHP for the production of energy in the world. The production of biogas from the technology of anaerobic digestion and its application in CHP power plants in Iran can not only supply part of the energy demands in the country, but it can materialize moving in line with the sustainable development. In this article, the necessity of the development of CHP plants with biogas fuels in the country will be dealt based on studies performed from the economic, environmental and social aspects. Also to prove the importance of the establishment of these kinds of power plants from the economic point of view, necessary calculations has been done as a case study for a CHP power plant with a biogas fuel.


An HPLC method with an evaporative laser scattering detector was used to quantify major phospholipids fractions in donkeys' serum. Blood samples were collected bimonthly for a whole year from 20 donkeys (10 male and 10 female) from the Sudanese breed kept at the premises of the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL), Soba. The method used made the excellent separation possible of phosphatidylglycerine (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylcholine (PC), and sphingomyelin (SM). in 27 minutes, including the regeneration of the column. The SM resulted in two peaks (saturated and unsaturated fatty acids), as described by other researchers. The method was unable to separate phosphatidylserine (PS), which appeared in one peak with phosphatidylinositol. There is a signifi cant difference in the level of PG, PE, PI and SM between females and males.The method fully discussed in this study and the obtained values of major phospholipids can be used for health control and diagnosis of diseases.


The water shortage in the Huaihe River Basin (HRB), China, has been aggravated by population growth and climate change. To identify the characteristics of streamflow change and assess the impact of climate variability and human activities on hydrological processes, approximately 50 years of natural and observed streamflow data from 20 hydrological stations were examined. The Mann–Kendall test was employed to detect trends. The results showed the following. (i) Both the natural and the observed streamflow in the HRB present downward trends, and the decreasing rate of observed streamflow is generally faster than that of the natural streamflow. (ii) For the whole period, negative trends dominate in the four seasons in the basin. The highest decreasing trends for two kinds of streamflow both occurred in spring, and the lowest ones were in autumn and winter. (iii) Based on the above analysis and quantifying assessment for streamflow decrease, human activity was the main driving factor in the Xuanwu (80.78%), Zhuangqiao (79.92%), Yongcheng (74.80%), and Mengcheng (64.73%) stations which all belong to the Huaihe River System (HRS). On the other hand, climate variability was the major driving factor in the Daguanzhuang (68.89%) and Linyi (63.38%) stations which all belong to the Yishusi River System (YSR).


This paper, which has been reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors of the American Sleep Disorders Association, provides the background for the Standards of Practice Committee's parameters for the practice of sleep medicine in North America. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of the surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, to provide the basis for the American Sleep Disorders Association's practice parameters on this subject and to share our findings of metanalysis of previously published studies regarding uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. We searched MEDLINE from January 1966 through April 1993, with an update in February 1995, to provide a review of the application of surgical modifications of the upper airway to treat adults with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Operations to treat obstructive sleep apnea syndrome include nasal septal reconstruction; uvulopalatopharyngoplasty; uvulopalatopharyngoglossoplasty; laser midline glossectomy; lingualplasty; inferior sagittal mandibular osteotomy and genioglossal advancement, with hyoid myotomy and suspension (the entire process is referred to as GAHM); maxillomandibular osteotomy and advancement, and tracheotomy. Papers included in metanalysis provided preoperative and postoperative polysomnographic data on at least nine patients treated with uvulopalatopharyngoplasty for their obstructive sleep apnea. Analysis of the uvulopalatopharyngoplasty papers revealed that this procedure is, at best, effective in treating less than 50% of patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The site of pharyngeal narrowing or collapse, although identified by different and unvalidated methods, has a marked effect on the probability of success of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. Patients who achieve a favorable response with uvulopalatopharyngoplasty tend to have less severe obstructive sleep apnea than those who do not. For patients who demonstrate retrolingual narrowing or collapse, other surgical modifications have been described, such as lingualplasty, GAHM, and maxillomandibular osteotomy and advancement. The studies to support the use of the surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome contain biases related to small sample size, limited follow-up and patient selection.


The aging of soot is one of the key uncertainties in the estimation of both the direct and indirect climate effect. While freshly emitted soot is initially hydrophobic and externally mixed, it can be transferred into an internal mixture by coagulation, condensation or photochemical processes. These aging processes affect the hygroscopic qualities and hence the growth behaviour, the optical properties and eventually the lifetime of the soot particles. However, due to computational limits the aging of soot in global climate models is often only parameterised by an estimated turnover rate resulting in a lifetime of soot of several days. Hence, the aging process of soot is one of the key uncertainties governing the burden and effect of black carbon. In this study, we discuss the time scale on which diesel soot is transferred from an external to an internal mixture based on the results of our simulations with a comprehensive mesoscale model. For daytime conditions during summer condensation of sulphuric acid is dominant and the aging process occurs on a time scale of τ =8h close to the sources and τ =2h above the source region. During winter comparable time scales are found but ammonium nitrate becomes more important. During night time condensation is not effective. Then coagulation is the most important aging process and our results show time scales between 10h and 40h.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the long-term motor stability and sensory outcome of patients with partly accommodative esotropia who were overcorrected surgically and in whom the hyperopic correction was reduced postoperatively, and to determine if those results depended on the amount of hyperopia present.

DESIGN
A 15-year prospective study that analyzed 5-year outcome. Patients whose esotropia was not initially overcorrected were used as controls.

PATIENTS
Of 382 patients who underwent surgery for partly accommodative esotropia, 22 were surgically overcorrected and were followed up for 5 years.

RESULTS
Of the eight patients in the study group with 2.5 diopters or less of hyperopia in their fixing eye, seven had good motor alignment compared with four of 14 patients who had more than 2.5 diopters of hyperopia. Ninety-one percent (148/163) of the control patients who had greater than 2.5 diopters of hyperopia maintained good motor alignment 5 years after surgery compared with 29% of the study group patients. This difference was statistically significant. Of the eight study patients with less than 2.5 diopters of hyperopia, five developed good stereopsis compared with one of 14 patients with greater hyperopia.

CONCLUSIONS
Surgical overcorrection in patients with partly accommodative esotropia with greater than 2.5 diopters of hyperopia may not be reversible by postoperative reduction in the hyperopic correction. It often is reversible, however, in patients with 2.5 diopters or less of hyperopia.


Moderate Trauma Exposure and Severity Provides Greater Potential for Posttraumatic Growth
Objective: This study examined the relations among trauma exposure, trauma severity, and positive change variables of resilience and posttraumatic growth (PTG).
Methods: Quadratic and cubic relationships were examined through polynomial regressions for 908 participants with a mean age of 19.99 (SD=1.97) years.
Results: Relationships were not significant for trauma exposure and resilience, and trauma severity and resilience. However, an inverted U-shaped, quadratic relationship was significant for PTG and trauma severity, suggesting positive consequences for intermediate levels of severity in comparison to higher or lower levels. After moderate levels of trauma severity are experienced, PTG begins to decrease. A cubic relationship was significant between trauma exposure and PTG. Initial trauma exposure corresponded to increases in PTG, but as the number of exposures increased beyond a moderate level, PTG began to decline. This relationship increased again as trauma exposures became even greater.
Conclusions: Collectively, these findings highlight that the greatest potential to experience PTG after trauma occurs is when the level of trauma exposure and trauma severity is at a moderate level.


In this paper, we focus on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement in single channel audio recordings. Many approaches have been reported in the literature. The most popular method, with many variants, is Short Time Spectral Attenuation (STSA). Although this method reduces the noise and improves the SNR, it mostly tends to introduce signal distortion and a perceptually annoying residual noise usually called musical noise. In this paper we investigate the use of Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) as an alternative to the STSA for the digital curation of musical heritage. NMF is an emerging new technique in the blind extraction of signals recorded in a variety of different fields. The application of NMF to the analysis of monaural recordings is relatively recent. We show that NMF is a suitable technique to extract the clean audio signal from undesired non stationary noise in a monaural recording of ethnic music. More specifically, we introduce a perceptual suppression rule to determine how the perceptual domain is competitive compared to the acoustic domain. Moreover, we carry out a listening test in order to compare NMF with the state of the art audio restoration framework using the EBU MUSHRA test method. The encouraging results obtained with this methodology in the presented case study support their wider applicability in audio separation.


Water contamination is one of the leading causes of deaths and diseases worldwide, accounting for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily, majority being children under 5 years old, therefore periodic monitoring of municipal water supplies are necessary. Comparative bacteriological analyses of twenty five samples of stored borehole water from five hostels in a tertiary institution in Oyo, Oyo State, was carried out using standard microbiological methods between March and April, 2018 to determine their bacteriological content. The hostels were: University Female Hostel (UFH), Diocese of Lagos West Hostel (DLW), Joseph Adetiloye Hostel (JAH), Diocese of Lagos Hostel (LAG) and Peter Jasper Akinola Hostel (IBD). A total of thirteen (13) different bacteria genera were isolated and identified as: Aeromonas (17%); Escherichia (4%); Staphylococcus (9%); Pseudomonas (9%); Lactobacillus (13%); Corynebacterium (27%); Micrococcus (6%); Streptococcus (3%); Serratia (4%); Klebsiella (1%); Citrobacter (3%); Shigella (3%); and Salmonella (1%). The total viable count ranged from 5.0×103 cfu/mL (IBD) to 1.23×105 cfu/mL (DLW). Total coliform bacteria counts of the stored water ranged from 0 to 28 MPN/100 mL. The bacteria load and presence of coliforms and pathogenic organisms raised grave concerns as WHO permissible limits for total viable count and coliforms are 100 cfu/mL and 0 MPN/100 mL, respectively. The organisms isolated are of public health significance as ingestion of water contaminated by them could result in gastroenteritis, especially Escherichia that indicates possible fecal contamination.

 Key words: Bacteriological investigations, pathogens, groundwater, water quality, Oyo.


This guidance document for supporting people with incontinence in humanitarian and low- and middle income contexts (LMICs), has been developed by an informal group of professionals interested in incontinence in humanitarian and development contexts. Members have recognised that people who

experience incontinence face many challenges that can significantly affect their quality of life, and that of their family members. They have also identified that there is a glaring lack of acknowledgement and

support for people who have incontinence across multiple sectors, in both development and humanitarian contexts.


Clive W.J. Granger has summarized his personal viewpoint on testing for causality in numerous articles over the past 30 years and has outlined what he considers to be a useful operational version of his original definition of Granger causality, which he notes is partially alluded to in the Ph.D. dissertation of Norbert Wiener. This operational version of Granger causality is based on a comparison of the one-step-ahead predictive ability of competing models. However, Granger concludes his discussion by noting that it is common practice to test for Granger causality using in-sample F-tests. The practice of using in-sample type Granger causality tests continues to be prevalent. In this paper we develop simple (nonlinear) out-of-sample predictive ability tests of the Granger non-causality null hypothesis. In addition, Monte Carlo experiments are used to investigate the finite sample properites of the test. An empirical illustration shows that the choice of in-sample versus out-of-sample Granger causality tests can crucially affect the conclusions about the predictive content of money for output.


Consider learning a generative model for time-series data. The sequential setting poses a unique challenge: Not only should the generator capture the conditional dynamics of (stepwise) transitions, but its open-loop rollouts should also preserve the joint distribution of (multi-step) trajectories. On one hand, autoregressive models trained by MLE allow learning and computing explicit transition distributions, but suffer from compounding error during rollouts. On the other hand, adversarial models based on GAN training alleviate such exposure bias, but transitions are implicit and hard to assess. In this work, we study a generative framework that seeks to combine the strengths of both: Motivated by a moment-matching objective to mitigate compounding error, we optimize a local (but forward-looking) transition policy, where the reinforcement signal is provided by a global (but stepwise-decomposable) energy model trained by contrastive estimation. At training, the two components are learned cooperatively, avoiding the instabilities typical of adversarial objectives. At inference, the learned policy serves as the generator for iterative sampling, and the learned energy serves as a trajectory-level measure for evaluating sample quality. By expressly training a policy to imitate sequential behavior of time-series features in a dataset, this approach embodies"generation by imitation". Theoretically, we illustrate the correctness of this formulation and the consistency of the algorithm. Empirically, we evaluate its ability to generate predictively useful samples from real-world datasets, verifying that it performs at the standard of existing benchmarks.


Petrocosmea funingensis , a new species from southeastern Yunnan, China is here described and illustrated. Based on morphological characters it is assumed to belong to section Anisochilus , because of the shallow or slight split of the corolla lobes with the upper lip being nearly half as long as the lower one. Within the section, the new species is associated with the species from series Iodioides , due to the particularly extensive fusion of the two adaxial lobes and is morphologically most similar to P. huanjiangensis and P. iodioides , especially in floral structure and traits, but can be distinguished from these species by several quantitative and qualitative characters of the leaves, peduncles, calices, stamens, staminodes and styles.


There are many studies exploring the reasons behind failures in solving generic system dynamics (SD) problems such as stockflow (SF) failure. Although they reach some limited associations, they do not find any significant cognition related factor explaining the variation in failures except the positive impact of visual saliency of the problem displays. In present study we put forward the question "Does cognitive problem solving capability improves progressively?" So, we prepare a performance sheet including two parts. First part consists of simpler SF problems and second part contains more complex ones. Then we ask these problems to motivated undergraduate industrial engineering students. Sample of participants consists of two groups. First group is SD educated and second group is not SD educated. We see that while some individuals are performing well in solving more complex SD problems, others are performing well in simpler ones, and ability to solve more complex problems is not dependent on performance in solving simpler ones. But we find associations between capabilities of solving two different complex SF problems. We also see that SD education increases the capability of solving complex SF problems but does not affect the capability of solving simpler SF problems.


Hemolysis or extensive cell damage can lead to high concentrations of free heme, causing oxidative stress and inflammation. Considering that heme induces neutrophil chemotaxis, we hypothesize that heme activates a G protein-coupled receptor. Here we show that similar to heme, several heme analogs were able to induce neutrophil migration in vitro and in vivo. Mesoporphyrins, molecules lacking the vinyl groups in their rings, were not chemotactic for neutrophils and selectively inhibited heme-induced migration. Moreover, migration of neutrophils induced by heme was abolished by pretreatment with pertussis toxin, an inhibitor of Gα inhibitory protein, and with inhibitors of phosphoinositide 3-kinase, phospholipase Cβ, mitogen-activated protein kinases, or Rho kinase. The induction of reactive oxygen species by heme was dependent of Gα inhibitory protein and phosphoinositide 3-kinase and partially dependent of phospholipase Cβ, protein kinase C, mitogen-activated protein kinases, and Rho kinase. Together, our results indicate that heme activates neutrophils through signaling pathways that are characteristic of chemoattractant molecules and suggest that mesoporphyrins might prove valuable in the treatment of the inflammatory consequences of hemorrhagic and hemolytic disorders.


Supercapacitors based on conducting polymers promise to bridge the gap between the high power densities of carbon-based double-layer capacitors and the high energy densities of batteries. While much work has focused on improving the specific capacitance of these materials, emerging applications also demand competitive performance with regards to a variety of other criteria, including long-term cycling stability, mechanical robustness, and scalability of fabrication. There is no consolidated summary in the literature, however, of the specific strategies used to target these individual metrics as well as the tradeoffs that exist between them. Herein, we review the most recent progress in engineering high performance conducting polymer-based supercapacitor electrodes, emphasizing the successful techniques for polymer synthesis, nanostructuring, and compositing with carbon or metal oxides which have been used to optimize each of the most important supercapacitor performance metrics.


Pathways to becoming a college student are as numbered and varied as college students themselves. For some people, the pathway to college is marked by barriers, such as negative messages received by the student regarding their abilities to attend college and/or the likelihood that they will get to attend college. On one hand, research suggests that children and adolescents internalize these negative messages, which then have the potential to block achievement in higher education. On the other hand, the general body of resilience research suggests that youth can overcome challenges and defy negative influences, as did the participants of the current study. However, little is known about this process of achievement in the face of negative predictions. Consequently, the current study used qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore the experience of defying negative messages received about becoming a college student. In unstructured interviews, fourteen undergraduate students described their experience of receiving negative messages about their abilities to attend college or the likelihood that they would get to attend college, as well as their subsequent experience of becoming college students in the face of these messages. Based on the literature regarding resilience, negative prediction defiance, and the effects of expectations on academic competence, an ecological model of overcoming negative messages was proposed in which micro, meso, and macrosystemic influences were hypothesized to play a role in encouraging or discouraging college attendance. Although participants came from diverse demographic backgrounds and experienced varied types of negative messages, all of their narratives shared major components, which comprise the theory proposed in the current study. These components are sources of negative messages, perceived underlying influences on sources, reasons to defy the message, facilitators of defiance, and barriers to defiance. This theory was compared to existing theories regarding resilience, negative prediction defiance, and the effects of expectations on academic competence. Additionally, research and policy implications are discussed that highlight the importance of providing youth who may be at-risk to receive negative messages with support in their families, schools, and communities. INDEX WORDS: Resilience, College attendance, Educational achievement, Negative prediction defiance, Educational expectations AN ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF ACADEMIC NEGATIVE PREDICTION DEFIANCE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS


This interview with Professor Craig Calhoun expands on issues of nationalism and cosmopolitanism in relation to the question of statelessness. Since the 1990s, Calhoun has worked on nationalism, ethnicity and cosmopolitanism. For Calhoun, nations still matter despite post-national and cosmopolitan elaboration and repudiation of so-called parochial and provincialised identities like nation or national identity and citizenship. In this interview, Calhoun dis-cusses the material, political and cultural situations of the Kurds in the Middle East and the role of Kurdish nationalism in the context of statelessness. Calhoun finds class-based understanding of inequalities between the Kurds and their dominant others in the Middle East as problematic and incomplete since the cultural, political and material inequalities are intimately interlinked in rendering the Kurds to a subordinated position in the states they inhabit. The interview also engages with diasporic identities and examines how countries of residence can impinge on the identity formation of diasporas and how they obstruct or facilitate migrants translating their citizenship status into the right to have rights (Arendt). An important issue that Calhoun discusses is that there are both asymmetrical power relations between dominated (Kurdish) and dominating nationalisms (Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian) and within the same nationalisms.


Objectives: To find and validate generalizable sepsis subtypes using data-driven clustering. Design: We used advanced informatics techniques to pool data from 14 bacterial sepsis transcriptomic datasets from eight different countries (n = 700). Setting: Retrospective analysis. Subjects: Persons admitted to the hospital with bacterial sepsis. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: A unified clustering analysis across 14 discovery datasets revealed three subtypes, which, based on functional analysis, we termed "Inflammopathic, Adaptive, and Coagulopathic." We then validated these subtypes in nine independent datasets from five different countries (n = 600). In both discovery and validation data, the Adaptive subtype is associated with a lower clinical severity and lower mortality rate, and the Coagulopathic subtype is associated with higher mortality and clinical coagulopathy. Further, these clusters are statistically associated with clusters derived by others in independent single sepsis cohorts. Conclusions: The three sepsis subtypes may represent a unifying framework for understanding the molecular heterogeneity of the sepsis syndrome. Further study could potentially enable a precision medicine approach of matching novel immunomodulatory therapies with septic patients most likely to benefit.


Recently, Gonzales and Rappaz [Met. Mat. Trans. A37:2797, 2006] showed the influence of an increasing zinc content on the growth directions of aluminum dendrites. ⟨100⟩ and ⟨110⟩ dendrites were observed below 25wt.% and above 55wt.% zinc, respectively, whereas textured seaweeds and ⟨320⟩ dendrites were observed at intermediate compositions. Considering the complexity of these structures, it is necessary to first characterize them in further details and second, to model them using the phase field method. The so-called Dendrite Orientation Transition (DOT) was thus reinvestigated in quenched Bridgman solidification samples. The combination of X-ray tomographic microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis on a whole range of compositions, from 5 to 90wt.% Zn, allowed insights with unprecedented details about texture, growth directions and mechanisms of the aforementioned structures. We show that seaweeds rather than dendrites are found at all intermediate compositions. Their growth was confirmed to be constrained within a (100) symmetry plane. However, new findings indicate that the observed macroscopic texture does not necessarily correspond to the actual growth directions of the microstructure. Further, it seems to operate by an alternating growth direction mechanism and could be linked to the competition between the ⟨100⟩ and ⟨110⟩ characters of regular dendrites observed at the limits of the DOT. These characters, as well as 3D seaweeds, are observed in phase-field simulations of equiaxed growth and directional solidification, respectively. This study emphasizes the importance of accurate experimental data to validate numerical models and details the progress that such combinations provide for the understanding of growth mechanisms.


To reduce conflicts with fish resources, other colonial waterbirds, and damage to habitats, double-crested cormorants ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) are currently controlled (lethally and non-lethally) throughout much of their range. Concerns are growing over the Pacific Coast's largest double-crested cormorant colony at East Sand Island (ESI), Oregon near the mouth of the Columbia River, where cormorants forage on juvenile salmonids, many of which are listed under the United States Endangered Species Act. Management of this colony is currently under consideration and may call for a redistribution of a portion of this colony numbering more than 12,000 breeding pairs in 2009. We investigated regional and site-specific connectivity of ESI cormorants using satellite-telemetry to track post-breeding dispersal. Cormorants dispersed widely west of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada Mountains from British Columbia, Canada to northern Mexico. Tracking data demonstrated direct connectivity between the double-crested cormorant colony at ESI and nesting sites throughout the dispersal area. Results of this study indicate that some cormorants from ESI could disperse to prospect for nesting sites throughout much of the western portion of the range of the Western Population; however, regional variation in connectivity with the ESI population, distance from ESI, and site-specific nesting history will likely result in variable prospecting rates among regions and sub-regions. Management efforts aimed at redistributing ESI cormorants across western North America (e.g., social attraction or dissuasion techniques) might be best allocated to areas or sites known to be used by tagged cormorants, particularly those sites with an established nesting history. (cid:1) 2012 The Wildlife Society.


An empirical investigation of trade-offs between number of children and their scholastic performance confirms that family size directly affects children's achievement. Though parents show no favoritism to first-born children, being early in the birth order implies a distinct advantage, entirely because of the higher probability of being in a small family. Recent large changes in family size explain a portion of aggregate test score declines, but increased divorce rates and market work by mothers have no apparent impact. Finally, teachers are shown to differ enormously, even though performance differences are poorly captured by commonly measured teacher characteristics. The evidence supports a teacher skill interpretation of differences in classroom achievement.


A signaling system important in the regulation of plant cell size during development is identified. Because plant cells cannot move around within the plant, developmental changes are orchestrated by changes in cell size and shape. Using quantitative phosphoproteomics, genetics, and chemical analyses, Haruta et al. identified a signaling chain that links a secreted peptide, RALF (rapid alkalinization factor), with its receptor kinase, FERONIA, at the cell surface. FERONIA is involved in reproductive and vegetative development—processes that require the changes in cell size initiated by RALF signaling. M. Haruta, G. Sabat, K. Stecker, B. B. Minkoff, M. R. Sussman, A peptide hormone and its receptor protein kinase regulate plant cell expansion. Science 343, 408–411 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Compared with the traditional image intensifier with phosphor screen readout, the photon-counting imaging detector with charge induction readout is more beneficial in several aspects (e.g., good imaging properties and time resolution) to astronomy, reconnaissance, bioluminescence, and materials research. However, the annealing temperature during the tube-making process can affect the properties of the Ge film, and consequently impair the performance of the detector. Therefore, the influence of annealing temperature on Ge film and on the detector is studied in order to determine the crucial parameters. The Ge films are prepared on ceramic and quartz glass by the use of an electron gun. They are analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), high-resistance meter, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the optimum substrate and annealing temperature are ceramic plate and 250 ?, respectively.


Abstract. The proximity of atmospheric aerosol particles to equilibrium with their surrounding condensable vapours can substantially impact their transformations, fate and impacts and is the subject of vibrant research activity. In this study we first compare equilibration timescales estimated by three different models for diffusion through aerosol particles to assess any sensitivity to choice of model framework. Equilibration times for diffusion coefficients with varying dependencies on composition are compared for the first time. We show that even under large changes in the saturation ratio of a semi-volatile component (es) of 1–90 % predicted equilibration timescales are in agreement, including when diffusion coefficients vary with composition. For condensing water and a diffusion coefficient dependent on composition, a plasticising effect is observed, leading to a decreased estimated equilibration time with increasing final es. Above 60 % final es maximum equilibration times of around 1 s are estimated for comparatively large particles (10 µm) containing a relatively low diffusivity component (1  ×  10−25 m2 s−1 in pure form). This, as well as other results here, questions whether particle-phase diffusion through water-soluble particles can limit hygroscopic growth in the ambient atmosphere. In the second part of this study, we explore sensitivities associated with the use of particle radius measurements to infer diffusion coefficient dependencies on composition using a diffusion model. Given quantified similarities between models used in this study, our results confirm considerations that must be taken into account when designing such experiments. Although quantitative agreement of equilibration timescales between models is found, further work is necessary to determine their suitability for assessing atmospheric impacts, such as their inclusion in polydisperse aerosol simulations.


The research, described in this paper, focuses on the application of structural topology optimisation to the design of steel I-section beam web openings. A topology optimisation study is performed on the web of a steel I-section beam. A beam web design is then proposed based on the results of the topology optimisation study. A nonlinear finite element analysis technique is employed to determine the load carrying performance of the optimised beam in comparison with the conventional, widely used, cellular type beam. It is found that the optimised beam performs better in terms of load carrying capacities and stress intensities. Barriers to the implementation of the topology optimisation technique to the routine design of beam web are discussed. A parametric topology optimisation study is conducted in order to determine the optimum opening topology for the wide range of beam cross sections that are found in practice. Thereafter, a generalised optimum web opening configuration is suggested based on the results of the parametric study. It is suggested that a shape optimisation study should be a next step towards maximising the efficiency of beams with this optimum web opening configuration.


Introduction: This study was undertaken to analyze the risk of peri-operative mortality and morbidity after Cardiac Surgery with Cardio-pulmonary Bypass (CPB) in Patients above 85 years of age. Patients and Methods: Between 1/2001 and 05/2005 thirty-nine patients 85 years of age at the time of surgery were examined. Median age was 87 years (85–92), 13 were males and 26 were females. 11 (28%) were urgent cases, and 4 (10%) considered as emergencies. 12 (32.5%) received CABG, 14 (35%) aortic valve replacement and in 10 (25%) a combination of the both was performed. The remaining had a combination of CABG with other operations. Results: Peri-operative mortality was 7.7% (3 pts). All were in the emergency group. One of them went into the OR under cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and died in the OR. The other two were urgent cases who died later in the ICU due to cardiac failure. Temporary neurological dysfunction (TND) was found in 10.3% (4 pts) of the survivers. Mean mechanical ventilation time was 1.5 days, mean ICU stay was 3 days and mean hospital stay 9 days. Conclusion: Cardiac surgery with CPB in Octogenarians can be performed with an acceptable mortality in elective patients, but is associated with a dismal outcome under emergency conditions.


E1 is the largest open reading frame (ORF) of bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-1) and is highly conserved among all papillomaviruses, maintaining its size, amino acid composition, and location in the viral genome with respect to other early genes. Multiple viral replication functions have been mapped to the E1 ORF of BPV-1, and evidence suggested that more than one protein was encoded by this ORF. We previously identified a small protein (M) whose gene consists of two exons, one encoded by the 5' end of the E1 ORF. We show here that a 68-kilodalton (kDa) phosphoprotein made from the E1 ORF can be detected in BPV-1-transformed cells, and we present evidence that this protein is encoded by sequences colinear with the entire E1 ORF. The full-length E1 protein immunoprecipitated from virally transformed cells and identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis comigrates with a protein expressed from a recombinant DNA construct capable of producing only the complete E1 protein. In addition, two different antisera directed against polypeptides encoded from either the 3' or the 5' end of the E1 ORF both recognize the full-length E1 product. A mutation converting the first methionine codon in the ORF to an isoleucine codon abolishes BPV-1 plasmid replication and E1 protein production. Consistent with the notion that this methionine codon is the start site for E1, a mutant with a termination codon placed after the splice donor at nucleotide 1235 in E1 produces a truncated protein with the molecular mass predicted from the primary sequence as well as the previously identified M protein. When visualized by immunostaining, the E1 protein expressed in COS cells is localized to the cell nucleus. A high degree of similarity exists between the BPV-1 E1 protein and polyomavirus and simian virus 40 large-T antigens in regions of the T antigens that bind ATP. We show by ATP affinity labeling that the E1 protein produced in COS cells binds ATP and that this activity is abolished by a point mutation which converts the codon for proline 434 to serine. Furthermore, this mutation renders the viral genome defective for DNA replication, suggesting that the ATP-binding activity of E1 is necessary for its putative role in viral DNA replication.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Abstract. This paper presents the results of BC inversions at high northern latitudes (> 50° N) for the 2013–2015 period. A sensitivity analysis was performed to select the best representative species for BC and the best a priori emission dataset. The same model ensemble was used to assess the uncertainty of the a posteriori emissions of BC due to scavenging and removal and due to the use of different a priori emission inventory. A posteriori concentrations of BC simulated over Arctic regions were compared with independent observations from flight and ship campaigns showing, in all cases, smaller bias, which in turn witnesses the success of the inversion. The annual a posteriori emissions of BC at latitudes above 50° N were estimated as 560±171 kt yr−1, significantly smaller than in ECLIPSEv5 (745 kt yr−1), which was used and the a priori information in the inversions of BC. The average relative uncertainty of the inversions was estimated to be 30 %.A posteriori emissions of BC in North America are driven by anthropogenic sources, while biomass burning appeared to be less significant as it is also confirmed by satellite products. In northern Europe, a posteriori emissions were estimated to be half compared to the a priori ones, with the highest releases to be in megacities and due to biomass burning in eastern Europe. The largest emissions of BC in Siberia were calculated along the transect between Yekaterinsburg and Chelyabinsk. The optimised emissions of BC were high close to the gas flaring regions in Russia and in western Canada (Alberta), where numerous power and oil and gas production industries operate. Flaring emissions in Nenets–Komi oblast (Russia) were estimated to be much lower than in the a priori emissions, while in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia) they remained the same after the inversions of BC. Increased emissions at the borders between Russia and Mongolia are probably due to biomass burning in villages along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The maximum BC emissions in high northern latitudes (> 50° N) were calculated for summer months due to biomass burning and they are controlled by seasonal variations in Europe and Asia, while North America showed a much smaller variability.


The Mesoproterozoic domain of the Rehoboth Basement Inlier (RBI) in central Namibia is composed of sedimentary and volcanic rocks which have been intruded by coeval granites of batholithic dimension as well as numerous quartz-feldspar porphyries and mafic dykes. Review of the geochemical, petrographical and geochronological data in combination with field observations and the analysis of high-resolution geophysical magnetic and radiometric data suggests Mesoproterozoic evolution of this area in three stages. The development of a first basin is recorded by clastic fluvial and limnic sedimentary rocks of the Billstein formation with only minor if any felsic pyroclastic activity. Intrusive porphyry dykes constrain a minimum age of 1210 +/− 7 Ma. The second stage (Nuckopf, Langberg formations, Kartatsaus member), lasting from at least 1.23 Ga to 1.09 Ga is marked by major felsic igneous activity and strong vertical tectonics: ignimbrite deposits as well as rhyolitic flows occur throughout the RBI and suggest several volcanic eruption centres. The calcalkaline Gamsberg Granite Suite represents the plutonic equivalent to this volcanism; geochemically it shows affinity to arc-related igneous rocks. Contemporaneous sediments range from polymict unsorted debris flow deposits to arkoses and cross-bedded feldspathic sandstones deposited in grabens. An intra- or backarc region of an active continental margin is suggested as possible plate-tectonic setting for stage two. The initiation of the third stage (Opdam formation, Kupferberg, Idaberg members) is marked by regional outpouring of basalts deposited subaerial or in shallow water. High Ti-content and flat REE-patterns in the tholeiites suggest their emplacement in an extensional setting, whereas high Th/Ta and La/Nb ratios, low Ce/Pb values and negative anomalies for Nb-Ta require a subduction-style enrichment of the mantle source. These contrasting features are best explained by extensional collapse related to continent-collision further north: Docking of continents led to slab detachment, allowing the interaction between the asthenospheric mantle and the mantle wedge enriched during the subduction process. At regional scale, the mafic rocks are considered to be part of the Umkondo igneous province. Tectono-metamorphism of the Mesoproterozoic domain took place only during the Pan-African Damara orogeny. It is marked by intense south-eastward directed thrusting within an anastomizing network of shear zones which constitute the South Damara shear zone. Open to tight southeasterly verging folds form second order deformation structures. The metamorphism varies from medium grade in the north to very low grade in the south.


We have experimentally investigated the use of diffraction-free beams to generate low-order harmonics in gas jets. Bessel–Gauss beams have been generated from a Ti:sapphire, 100-fs laser by use of annular apertures and then by focusing of the ring-type–produced radiation. The conversion efficiencies for these beams for the third- and fifth-order harmonic generation in xenon have been measured and compared with those of pure Gaussian beams of the same energy content. We have thus found that, by matching the gas medium length to the range of the Bessel–Gauss beams, conversion efficiencies considerably higher than those of Gaussian beams can be obtained. The experimental results have also been discussed and interpreted in terms of a simple numerical model that emphasizes the effects of phase matching in the two different geometries.


Coordination in system design requires an interplay between different roles. In this work, we identify five design team roles that pertain to the partitioning and coordination of distributed design team tasks. The proposed characterization is based on self-reported responsibilities and communication behaviors from 109 student designers in 22 teams at the conclusion of a semester-long design project. The self-reports capture both how team members viewed their own work as well as communication patterns between team members. We leverage two representations of this data. Through text analysis, we identify keywords describing team member roles and responsibilities. Social network analysis can further distinguish roles based on team communication behaviors. Cluster analysis on both types of data identifies groups of individuals with similar characteristics. The resulting five clusters capture common roles in system design teams that simultaneously capture the diverse responsibilities and communication patterns.


The Bible is both a divine and a human book. It is the inspired word of God for his people, whether in biblical times or for the church today. It is also a fully human book, written by different people in a variety of cultural settings. Knowledge of biblical language and society is essential if the meaning of the human writer is to be grasped fully. The Apollos Old Testament Commentary aims to take with equal seriousness the divine and human aspects of Scripture. It expounds the books of the Old Testament in a scholarly manner accessible to nonexperts, and shows the relevance of the Old Testament to modern readers. This commentary begins with an Introduction, which gives an overview of the issues of date, authorship, sources and so on, but which also outlines more fully than usual the theology of 1 and 2 Samuel, and provides pointers toward its interpretation and contemporary application. The annotated Translation of the Hebrew text by the author forms the basis for the subsequent commentary. The Form and Structure section examines the context of a passage, its use of rhetorical devices, and source and form-critical issues. The Comment section is a thorough, detailed exegesis of the historical and theological meaning of the passage. The Explanation--the goal of the commentary--offers a full exposition of the theological message within the framework of biblical theology, and a commitment to the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament. Written by an international team of scholars, the commentaries are intended primarily to serve the needs of those who preach from the Old Testament. They are equally suitable for use by scholars and all serious students of the Bible


The legislature is expected to address pension reform early. Language is being developed and not yet available; major changes ... are being discussed [by Ohio's political leadership--changes that will require employees pay a portion of the employers' contributions]. This will likely be a major issue for faculty and staff. There may be opportunities for universities as employers to save money, but it will come out of the wallets of employees ... The Ohio and regional chambers of commerce has issued a report that recognizes the advantages of defined benefit [pension] plans and a retire/rehire policy [that allows senior university administrators to simultaneously receive a full pension and their full salary] ... (1) I. INTRODUCTION In March 2011 the Ohio General Assembly passed Senate Bill Five ("S.B. 5"), a measure that would have banned collective bargaining by public university faculty members and severely limited bargaining rights for other public employees. (2) Ohio voters decisively rejected S.B. 5 in a referendum election eight months later, preventing it from taking effect. (3) In response to public records requests I have received thousands of pages of documents that describe the role of public university presidents in connection with S.B. 5. Based on this newly available information, this article examines the actions, and analyzes the arguments, of senior university officials. Together with similar collective bargaining legislation in Wisconsin, S.B. 5 triggered a national debate about labor policy and the role of the middle class in American life. (4) Besides those general concerns, however, the events hold special significance for our understanding of universities. S.B. 5 singled out university faculty for the most stringent treatment of any group and it did so via a provision--known as the "Yeshiva amendment"--that Ohio's public university presidents drafted and promoted in secret. (5) The original version of S.B. 5 would have eliminated collective bargaining for public employees in Ohio, including employees of the state's public universities. (6) In late February 2011 legislative leaders substituted an amended bill, one that reinstated bargaining but limited its permissible subjects and effectively allowed public employing bodies to impose their own last offers at the end of process with no further recourse by employees. (7) The Yeshiva amendment further amended the bill by reclassifying university faculty as managers who were ineligible for bargaining, provided only that the faculty participated in curricular, faculty hiring, or similar decisions. (8) Since every university faculty member does those things, the amendment effectively banned bargaining by faculty. (9) The amendment took its name from NLRB v. Yeshiva University, a United States Supreme Court decision holding that private university professors qualified as "[s]upervisors and managerial employees" under the National Labor Relations Act and were therefore excluded by the Act from collective bargaining. (10) Ohio's university presidents effectively replaced traditional conceptions of the university, the faculty, and the administration with a standard labor law model, one restricted to the categories management and employees--both of which operate under presidential direction. (11) The presidents did so, I argue, in an effort to transform higher education institutions into what Benjamin Ginsberg calls "the all-administrative university." (12) Consistent with that view, the presidents identified their institutions with themselves, equating presidential authority with institutional freedom and creativity. (13) This article has four parts. First, it chronicles the presidents' actions, which they took pains to conceal from public view. The presidents acted through the agency of the Inter-University Council ("IUC") of Ohio, a statewide association of public university administrations that represented the presidents in extended discussions with the Governor's office and legislators. …


RATIONALE
The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Assessment Test (CAT) is an eight-item questionnaire designed to assess and quantify the impact of COPD symptoms on health status. COPD exacerbations impair quality of life and are characterized by worsening respiratory symptoms from the stable state. We hypothesized that CAT scores at exacerbation relate to exacerbation severity as measured by exacerbation duration, lung function impairment, and systemic inflammation.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the usefulness of the CAT to assess exacerbation severity.

METHODS
One hundred sixty-one patients enrolled in the London COPD cohort completed the CAT at baseline (stable state), exacerbation, and during recovery between April 2010 and June 2011.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Frequent exacerbators had significantly higher baseline CAT scores than infrequent exacerbators (19.5 ± 6.6 vs. 16.8 ± 8.0, P = 0.025). In 152 exacerbations, CAT scores rose from an average baseline value of 19.4 ± 6.8 to 24.1 ± 7.3 (P < 0.001) at exacerbation. Change in CAT score from baseline to exacerbation onset was significantly but weakly related to change in C-reactive protein (rho = 0.26, P = 0.008) but not to change in fibrinogen (rho = 0.09, P = 0.351) from baseline to exacerbation. At exacerbation, rises in CAT score were significantly associated with falls in FEV(1) (rho = -0.20, P = 0.032). Median recovery time as judged by symptom diary cards was significantly related to the time taken for the CAT score to return to baseline (rho = 0.42, P = 0.012).

CONCLUSIONS
The CAT provides a reliable score of exacerbation severity. Baseline CAT scores are elevated in frequent exacerbators. CAT scores increase at exacerbation and reflect severity as determined by lung function and exacerbation duration.


Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a well-known transmission technique that is adopted in a wide range of standards these days mainly because of its high data bit rate and spectral efficiency. However, OFDM has one major problem called the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). This paper will introduce a new method that uses the discrete cosine transform to enhance the PAPR reduction over that achieved in the partial transmit sequence (PTS) approach. The maximum achieved improvement of PAPR reduction compared to the conventional PTS approach is 257% with only 4 iterations and the maximum PAPR reduction achieved in the simulation is 5.7 dB.


The determination of the correct velocity structure of the near surface is a crucial step in seismic data processing and depth imaging. Generally, first-arrival traveltime tomography based on refraction data or diving waves is used to assess a velocity model of the subsurface that best explains the data. Such first-arrival traveltime tomography algorithms are very attractive for land data processing because early events in the seismic records are very often dominated by noise, and reflected events are very difficult or even impossible to identify. On the other hand, first arrivals can generally be identified quite clearly and are very often the only data available to reconstruct the near-surface velocity structure.


Attribution is one of the most serious challenges associated with cyberattacks. It is often difficult to determine who launched an attack and why, which hinders efforts to formulate appropriate responses. Although the attribution problem has been discussed extensively in research on cybersecurity, it is generally approached as a technical challenge for security professionals and politicians. I contend that it is vital to take the attribution problem beyond this elite focus by considering how attributional challenges can interfere with the public's efforts to understand security challenges and evaluate government actions. Faced with uncertainty and the confusion of attempting to understand novel cyber threats, citizens frequently lack the information they need to reliably identify the culprits behind attacks—or sometimes even to know whether an attack has taken place. I show that attributional uncertainty immediately following cyberattacks encourages dependence on a narrow range of elite frames and the assignment of blame to familiar enemies. Over time this promotes conspiratorial thinking and poses a risk to democratic accountability. When seen in light of these broader costs, the attribution problem becomes a vital political concern with implications that reach beyond the scope of elite-focused cybersecurity research.


Spectral functions of large matrices contains important structural information about the underlying data, and is thus becoming increasingly important. Many times, large matrices representing real-world data are \emph{sparse} or \emph{doubly sparse} (i.e., sparse in both rows and columns), and are accessed as a \emph{stream} of updates, typically organized in \emph{row-order}. In this setting, where space (memory) is the limiting resource, all known algorithms require space that is polynomial in the dimension of the matrix, even for sparse matrices. We address this challenge by providing the first algorithms whose space requirement is \emph{independent of the matrix dimension}, assuming the matrix is doubly-sparse and presented in row-order. Our algorithms approximate the Schatten $p$-norms, which we use in turn to approximate other spectral functions, such as logarithm of the determinant, trace of matrix inverse, and Estrada index. We validate these theoretical performance bounds by numerical experiments on real-world matrices representing social networks. We further prove that multiple passes are unavoidable in this setting, and show extensions of our primary technique, including a trade-off between space requirements and number of passes.


BACKGROUND
Chronic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is associated with intestinal permeability and microbial translocation that contributes to systemic immune activation, which is an independent predictor of HIV disease progression. The association of microbial translocation with clinical outcome remains unknown.

METHODS
This nested case-control study included 74 subjects who died, 120 of whom developed cardiovascular disease and 81 of whom developed AIDS during the Strategies for Management of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (SMART) study with matched control subjects. Intestinal fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), soluble CD14 (sCD14), endotoxin core antibody (EndoCAb), and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were measured in baseline plasma samples.

RESULTS
Subjects with the highest quartile of sCD14 levels had a 6-fold higher risk of death than did those in the lowest quartile (95% confidence interval, 2.2-16.1; P<.001), with minimal change after adjustment for inflammatory markers, CD4(+) T cell count, and HIV RNA level. No other marker was significantly associated with clinical outcomes. I-FABP, LPS, and sCD14 were increased and EndoCAb was decreased in study subjects, compared with healthy volunteers. sCD14 level correlated with levels of IL-6, C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A and D-dimer.

CONCLUSIONS
sCD14, a marker of monocyte response to LPS, is an independent predictor of mortality in HIV infection. Therapeutic attenuation of innate immune activation may improve survival in patients with HIV infection.


Polyamines are essential organic cations with multiple cellular functions. Their synthesis is controlled by a feedback regulation whose main target is ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis. In mammals, ODC has been shown to be inhibited and targeted for ubiquitin-independent degradation by ODC antizyme. The synthesis of mammalian antizyme was reported to involve a polyamine-induced ribosomal frameshifting mechanism. High levels of polyamine therefore inhibit new synthesis of polyamines by inducing ODC degradation. In this work, a previously unrecognized sequence in the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encoding an orthologue of mammalian antizyme was identified. Synthesis of yeast antizyme (Oaz1) involves polyamine-regulated frameshifting. New elements, termed OFRE (OAZ1 frameshifting repressor element) and OPRE (OAZ1 polyamine responsive element) that are necessary for the polyamines to regulate frameshifting were mapped in the OAZ1 mRNA. Degradation of yeast ODC by the proteasome depends on Oaz1. Oaz1 mediates the degradation by binding to ODC thereby exposing a degradation signal at the N-terminus of ODC. Using the novel transplantable yeast ODC degradation signal (ODS) identified in this work a new possible role of the shuttle factor Rad23 in ODC degradation was identified. In addition, ODS is shown to interact with multiple 19S lid subunits in the proteasome. Using this novel model system for polyamine regulation another level of its control was discovered. Oaz1 itself is subject to ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis by the proteasome. Degradation of Oaz1, however, is efficiently inhibited by polyamines. I propose a model, in which polyamines inhibit their ODC-mediated biosynthesis by two mechanisms, the control of Oaz1 synthesis and inhibition of its degradation. In a second part of the work, peptide aptamers were isolated that inhibit the ubiquitin-dependent turnover of test substrates of the proteasome. These aptamers appear to either inhibit ubiquitylation or the proteasome and thereby lead to a stabilization of test substrates. I Propose that ODS due to its ubiquitin-independent mode of degradation can be used as a tool in aptamer screens that are aimed at identifying additional peptide inhibitors of the proteasome with potential clinical relevance.


There is scope for the development of a collaborative form of target cost management that delivers value to all parties in the food supply chain. Although the term 'target cost management' is not currently in use in the agricultural industry, it has been identified by several writers as a potential tool for the agricultural industry Humenik et al, 2005; Theussven et al, 2005; Jack and Jones, 2007). In the CIMA project that forms a basis for this discussion paper, it was found that farmers and other land-based business managers are using what could be termed an intuitive form of target cost management, in that primary producers were working backwards from potential market prices to set (usually informal) cost targets and re-engineering their operating practices in order to achieve that target. However, this has not been formally termed target cost management nor developed into a methodology. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence exists that producers in contracting arrangements with corporate customers in the food supply chain – processors, distributors and retailers are working to cost targets.


Combining wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with delay-tolerant networking (DTN) has the potential to extend their use in a multitude of previously impossible applications. However, and despite numerous proposed solutions, there is still wide debate as to how to best route messages in these networks and, more importantly, how to do it in an energy-efficient way. This paper proposes CHARON (Convergent Hybrid-replication Approach to Routing in Opportunistic Networks), an approach that focuses on maximizing efficiency in addition to delivery statistics. CHARON uses delay as a routing metric, and provides basic QoS mechanisms, with both a quasi-single-copy mode for general traffic and a multi-copy mode for urgent data. It also integrates time synchronization and radio power management mechanisms. Simulation results show that it is able to achieve good delivery statistics with lower overhead than comparable solutions.


A beautifully-packaged, advanced reference on the very latest version of Maya If you already know the basics of Maya, the latest version of this authoritative book takes you to the next level. From modeling, texturing, animation, and visual effects to high-level techniques for film, television, games, and more, this book provides professional-level Maya instruction. With pages of scenarios and examples from some of the leading professionals in the industry, this book will help you master the entire CG production pipeline. Provides professional-level instruction on Maya, the industry-leading 3D animation and effects software Covers the very latest Maya tools and features, including Dynamics, Maya Muscle, Stereo Cameras, rendering with mental ray, and more Offers complete coverage of advanced topics such as cloth, fur, and fluids Showcases the techniques of professionals through numerous examples and real-world scenarios, showing you how to set up and manage 3D animation and visual effects pipelines Includes a CD with all support files from the book, along with movies to illustrate concepts If you're looking for an in-depth, professional Maya resource to turn to again and again, Mastering Maya is the book you need. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file. For Instructors: Teaching supplements are available for this title.


A new and selective sorbent for molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) was prepared to extract chlorpyrifos (CPF) residue from solutions. The extracted analyte was analyzed by high performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) coupled with photodiode array detection. To synthesize the molecularly imprinted polymers, four different pyrogens (acetonitrile, toluene, dichloromethane and chloroform) were initially studied. CPF was used as the template molecule, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the crosslinker. Thermo-polymerization method was used to produce bulk polymers. In order to determine the medium that enhances the best molecular recognition, the adsorption study of CPF to the MIPs was investigated. Both organic solvents and water were utilized as media. The acetonitrile solvent was finally selected as pyrogen for the synthesis of the polymers and water was chosen as the medium for loading the analytes into the polymers. The selectivity of the MISPE method for CPF and other pesticides in aqueous solution was also assessed.


Recently, the ectopic expression of myoglobin (MB) was reported in human epithelial cancer cell lines and breast tumor tissues, where MB expression increased with hypoxia. The better prognosis of MB-positive breast cancer patients suggested that the globin exerts a tumor-suppressive role, possibly by impairing mitochondrial activity in hypoxic breast carcinoma cells. To better understand MB gene regulation in cancer, we systematically investigated the architecture of the human MB gene, its transcripts and promoters. In silico analysis of transcriptome data from normal human tissues and cancer cell lines, followed by RACE-PCR verification, revealed seven novel exons in the MB gene region, most of which are untranslated exons located 5'-upstream of the coding DNA sequence (CDS). Sixteen novel alternatively spliced MB transcripts were detected, most of which predominantly occur in tumor tissue or cell lines. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses of MB expression in surgical breast cancer specimen confirmed the preferential usage of a hitherto unknown, tumor-associated MB promoter, which was functionally validated by luciferase reporter gene assays. In line with clinical observations of MB up-regulation in avascular breast tumors, the novel cancer-associated MB splice variants exhibited increased expression in tumor cells subjected to experimental hypoxia. The novel gene regulatory mechanisms unveiled in this study support the idea of a non-canonical role of MB during carcinogenesis.


The American Epilepsy Society's Annual Meeting is the premiere meeting for epilepsy and other seizure disorders. The Annual Meeting is an international forum for the exchange of current findings in epilepsy research. Information is communicated and disseminated through symposia, lectures, scientific exhibitions, poster, and platform presentations. The Annual Meeting attracts attendees from all over the world and provides educational and networking opportunities for the academic and practicing neurologist, epileptologist, neurophysiologist, neuroscientist, neurosurgeon, internist, pediatrician, pharmacist, nurse, social worker, and other professionals. In 2014, the American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting was held on 5-9 December 2014 in Seattle (WA), USA. The following syllabus provides highlights from this meeting.


A 2,450 ft residential home (referred to as SH or Standard Home) built in Ann Arbor, Michigan was analyzed to determine total life cycle energy consumption of materials fabrication, construction, use and demolition over a 50 year period. Life cycle global warming potential (GWP) and life cycle cost were also determined. The home was then modeled to reduce life cycle energy consumption by employing various energy efficiency strategies and substitution of selected materials having lower embodied energy (referred to as EEH or Energy Efficient Home). The total life cycle energy was found to be 15,455 GJ for SH (equivalent to 2,525 barrels of crude oil) of which 14,482 GJ (93.7%) occurred during the use phase (space and water heating, lighting, plug loads and embodied energy of maintenance and improvement materials). The life cycle energy of EEH was reduced to only 5,653 GJ (equivalent to 927 barrels of crude oil) of which 4,714 GJ (83.4%) occurred during the use phase. The purchase price of SH was $US 240,000 (actual market value) and determined to be $22,801 more for EEH. Four energy price escalation scenarios were run to determine un-discounted life cycle cost using falling, constant, and rising future energy costs. Accordingly, the un-discounted life cycle cost of SH varied between $791,500 and $875,900 and between $796,300 and $824,100 for EEH. Using a 4% discount rate, the present value cost varied between $423,500 and $454,300 for SH and $433,100 and $443,200 for EEH. Life cycle GWP for SH was determined to be 1,013 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (91.9% during the use phase) and 374 metric tons for EEH (78.6% during the use phase). EEH use of energy efficiency strategies and materials with lower embodied energy reduced pre-use phase energy by 37 GJ (3.9%) while use-phase energy was reduced by 9,768 GJ (67.4%). Total life cycle energy was reduced by a factor of 2.73, and life cycle GWP decreased by a factor of 2.71.


In the Tokai region, central Japan, the long-term slow slip events have been reported on the subducting Philippine Sea Plate in 2000-2005 and 2013-2016. In addition, many short-term slow slip events have been observed there since 1996. We analyzed GNSS data from 1996 to 2016 to estimate spatiotemporal distribution of interplate slip associated with these SSEs in this study. The GIPSY-OASIS II software (version 6.1) was used to estimate daily coordinates of GNSS stations operated by GSI and JUNCO (the Japanese University Consortium for GPS Research). It is well known that GNSS time series have many systematic signals and noises that do not result from SSEs. They include, for example, seasonal variations, co- and post-seismic deformation of the 2004 southeast off Kii Peninsula earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (M w 9.0), and crustal deformation of volcanic activity on the northern Izu Islands. After removing them, we applied a modified Network Inversion Filter (NIF) [Fukuda et al., 2008]. The original NIF [Segall & Matthews, 1997] assumes a constant hyperparameter for the temporal smoothing of slip rates and thus often results in oversmoothing of slip rates. The modified NIF assumes a time-variable hyperparameter, so that changes in slip rates are effectively extracted from GNSS time series. We successfully estimated the spatiotemporal evolutions of not only the Tokai L-SSEs (M w ~7.1 and M w ~6.6) in 2000-2005 and 2013-2016 but also dozens of short-term SSEs (M w <6.1). We will present a comparison of the spatiotemporal evolutions between these long-term SSEs and possible dependence of the occurrence style of short-term SSEs on the occurrence of the long-term SSEs.


Initially a natural diamond was used for cutting, but it was successively replaced by an man-made synthetic diamond. Its application is limited only on non-ferrous materials, but also considering this limitation it is a very important cutting material. The most suited material based on diamond for milling operations is PCD a synthetic polycrystalline diamond produced by HPHT (high-pressure hightemperature) process, because the high fracture toughness of the tool is required [DAVIS 1995] [Tso 2002]. Four end mills with PCD inserts sharpened by different electrical technologies were produced for the experiment as stated in this article. Two milling tools were sharpened by WEDM and the remaining two by Electrical Discharge Machining – Grinding. The aim of the experiment was to compare these technologies of sharpening. This was based on the surface roughness and topography analysis of sharpened surfaces of inserts, and in particular, on the force loading of the tools measured by the piezoelectric dynamometer 9257B over selected milling time slots.


In the summer and fall of 1998, ultranationalist Polish Catholics erected hundreds of crosses outside Auschwitz, setting off a fierce debate that pitted Catholics and Jews against one another. While this controversy had ramifications that extended well beyond Poland s borders, Genevieve Zubrzycki sees it as a particularly crucial moment in the development of post-Communist Poland s statehood and its changing relationship to Catholicism. In "The Crosses of Auschwitz, "Zubrzycki skillfully demonstrates how this episode crystallized latent social conflicts regarding the significance of Catholicism in defining Polishness and the role of anti-Semitism in the construction of a new Polish identity. Since the fall of Communism, the binding that has held Polish identity and Catholicism together has begun to erode, creating unease among ultranationalists. Within their construction of Polish identity also exists pride in the Polish people s long history of suffering. For the ultranationalists, then, the crosses at Auschwitz were not only symbols of their ethno-Catholic vision, but also an attempt to lay claim to what they perceived was a Jewish monopoly over martyrdom. This gripping account of the emotional and aesthetic aspects of the scene of the crosses at Auschwitz offers profound insights into what Polishness is today and what it may become. "


It is known that visual stimuli with luminance contrasts produce afterimages of opposite contrast following adaptation. A bright figure on a dark surround gives an afterimage of a dark figure on a bright surround. However, the exact nature of these afterimages is unclear -- does the visual system treat them the same as it does luminance contrasts from real light? We used spatial chromatic induction to explore this question. Spatial induction occurs when a colored surround induces its complement into a figure. This effect is maximized at equal brightness, and is eliminated when there are high-contrast edges between the figure and ground. Could brightness contrast from an afterimage be used to cancel the luminance contrast in a test display, thereby producing equiluminant conditions and restoring spatial chromatic induction? We used neon color spreading stimuli (grids of colored lines over achromatic backgrounds) to allow for fine control of luminance independent of hue - the luminances of the backgrounds can be manipulated separately from the grids themselves, which provide chromaticity. Participants were presented with a test stimulus which showed little chromatic spatial induction due to luminance contrast between the figure and background. This stimulus was then alternated with an adaptation stimulus which moved from uniform gray to a maximum contrast, under participants' control via a knob. Participants were instructed to find the adaptation stimulus which resulted in the strongest perception of hue within the figure region of the test stimulus. Results suggest that the afterimage integrated with the test stimulus, reducing the edge contrast and enhancing spatial chromatic induction. This would indicate that the integration of an afterimage with real light precedes the neural computations that determine the strength of color induction. This method also offers a potential way to quantify the luminance contrast in an afterimage. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The hyaluronate receptor (CD44) molecule is a multifunctional cell surface protein involved in T cell activation, monocyte cytokine release, fibroblast locomotion, and lymphocyte binding to high endothelial venules. To study the roles CD44 molecules play in inflammatory synovitis, we measured expression of CD44 in inflamed and noninflamed synovial fluid and tissue, using indirect immunofluorescence assays on tissue sections and quantitative Western blot analysis. The ability of purified CD44 protein to modulate T cell responses was tested in T cell activation assays in which CD44-containing liposomes were added in vitro. CD44 was widely expressed on many synovial cell types, and synovial tissue from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients contained 3.5 times more CD44 than tissue from osteoarthritis patients and 10.7 times more than tissue from patients with joint trauma. The level of soluble CD44 in RA synovial fluid was elevated only in fluids with low cell counts (less than or equal to 7,000/mm3), and not in RA synovial fluid with higher cell counts. Soluble purified CD44 protein in liposomes partially suppressed T cell activation in vitro. These data demonstrate that CD44 is up-regulated on many synovial cell types in patients with RA, and that the level of CD44 present in synovial tissue is related to the degree of synovial inflammation. Determination of ways to inhibit the proinflammatory functions of immune cell membrane CD44 molecules may provide new therapeutic modalities for RA.


The ERCIM Technical Reference Digital Library service (ETRDL) was promoted by the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) with the aim of managing grey literature produced by scientists working in the areas of information science and applied mathematics, making their research results immediately world wide available and also building a test-bed for their research activities. In this paper ETRDL is described and its future development presented. Section 1 traces the history of ETRDL from its conceptualization to the first experimental service given by the early ETRDL prototype. This was implemented to satisfy the requirements of the European IT scientific community, although realized as a part of NCSTRL (the US Networked Computer Science Technical Reference Library). Section 2 describes how further developments made ETRDL a system presently capable to manage DLs for very different types of literature. Section 3 discusses issues related to migration of ETRDL managed repositories to OpenDLib, an advanced digital library service system developed by ISTI-CNR. Advantages and difficulties of this migration are considered in the conclusions.


This paper presents a new control scheme using Self Tuning Filter placed in both feedback and feedforward control of a parallel hybrid active filter. This hybrid active filter is intended for harmonic compensation of a diode rectifier. The use of self tuning filters simplifies the control scheme by reducing the number of extraction filters, used in classical feedback and feedforward loop. More, in this case, no Phase Locked Loop is necessary for the feedforward loop. The studied hybrid active filter consists of an active filter and three phase tuned LC filters for 7th harmonic frequency. The non linear load is a diode rectifier feeding a (R, C) parallel load. The effectiveness of the new proposed scheme has been verified by computer simulation and the results are compared with the classical control scheme.


Differences in prey taken by black-backed jackals Canis mesomelas at three widely separated sites on the Namib Desert coast in Namibia, and at one site in South Africa, were investigated through faecal analysis. Nine prey categories were used. Birds showed the highest frequency of occurrence, and highest relative frequency of occurrence in all samples from Namibia except for the Skeleton Coast summer sample, wherein seal remains were most common. In the sample from the South African Namib, insects had the highest frequency, and relative frequency occurrence, with birds the second most represented category. Birds were also the main prey component in all samples, except for the Skeleton Coast summer sample, wherein seals predominated. Highest diversity of prey, and evenness of representation of prey categories, occurred in the South African and Skeleton Coast summer samples, wherein seals predominated. Most prey items, and in every sample the dominant prey category, were of marine origin.


Biodynamic agriculture and organic farming have been regarded as having different provenances and having arisen independently. The present account introduces the 'missing link' between the two. In 1938 Ehrenfried Pfeiffer published the milestone book on biodynamics: Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening. In 1940 Lord Northbourne published Look to the Land, the work that introduced the term 'organic farming'. In the summer of the intervening year, Pfeiffer travelled from Switzerland to Northbourne's estate in Kent, UK, and presented for British farmers a nine day course on biodynamics, the Betteshanger Summer School and Conference on Bio-Dynamic Farming, 1-9 July 1939. Pfeiffer was supported by the pre-eminent biodynamic scholar-practitioners, Otto Eckstein and Hans Heinze. Dr Scott Williamson of the Peckham Experiment was the sole British lecturer at the Betteshanger Summer School. For the UK Bio-Dynamic Association, the Betteshanger Summer School was the highlight of the year. Northbourne and Pfeiffer had collaborated on the Farleigh Experiment in 1938, and Northbourne had travelled to Switzerland in January 1939 to arrange Pfeiffer's visit. War broke out less than eight weeks after the Betteshanger Summer School. Northbourne's manifesto on organic agriculture, Look to the Land, was published in May of the following year. The book took the Steinerian and biodynamic view of 'the farm as an organism' as its central tenet and adopted it as the nominative motif for 'organic' farming. The book offered to the Anglophone world an account that was secular and distanced from any Anthroposophic or Germanic roots. Subsequently, Northbourne sought to bring Pfeiffer to the UK but Pfeiffer's next and final visit was in 1950. The Betteshanger Summer School and Conference on biodynamics has been otherwise unreported. As this account demonstrates, Betteshanger was a stepping stone from biodynamics to organics. Northbourne sponsored Pfeiffer's visit and the Betteshanger biodynamics conference in 1939, and the following year he introduced his term 'organic farming' and its philosophy in his book Look to the Land.


Real-world data sets are crucial to develop and test signal processing and machine learning algorithms to solve energy-related problems. Their scope and data resolution is, however, often limited to the means required to fulfill the experimenters' objectives and moreover governed by personal experience, budgetary and time constraints, and the availability of equipment. As a result, numerous differences between data sets can be observed, e.g., regarding their sampling rates, the number of sensors deployed, their amplitude resolutions, storage formats, or the availability and extent of ground-truth annotations. This heterogeneity poses a significant problem for researchers intending to comparatively use data sets because of the required data conversion, re-sampling, and adaptation steps. In short, there is a lack of widely agreed best practices for designing, deploying, and operating electrical data collection systems. We address this limitation by dissecting the collection methodologies used in existing data sets. By offering recommendations for data collection, data storage, and data provision, we intend to foster the creation of data sets with increased usability and comparability, and thus a greater benefit to the community.


Signals modulating the production of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) virulence factors essential for establishing long-term persistent infection are unknown. The WhiB3 redox regulator is known to regulate the production of Mtb virulence factors, however the mechanisms of this modulation are unknown. To advance our understanding of the mechanisms involved in WhiB3 regulation, we performed Mtb in vitro, intraphagosomal and infected host expression analyses. Our Mtb expression analyses in conjunction with extracellular flux analyses demonstrated that WhiB3 maintains bioenergetic homeostasis in response to available carbon sources found in vivo to establish Mtb infection. Our infected host expression analysis indicated that WhiB3 is involved in regulation of the host cell cycle. Detailed cell-cycle analysis revealed that Mtb infection inhibited the macrophage G1/S transition, and polyketides under WhiB3 control arrested the macrophages in the G0-G1 phase. Notably, infection with the Mtb whiB3 mutant or polyketide mutants had little effect on the macrophage cell cycle and emulated the uninfected cells. This suggests that polyketides regulated by Mtb WhiB3 are responsible for the cell cycle arrest observed in macrophages infected with the wild type Mtb. Thus, our findings demonstrate that Mtb WhiB3 maintains bioenergetic homeostasis to produce polyketide and lipid cyclomodulins that target the host cell cycle. This is a new mechanism whereby Mtb modulates the immune system by altering the host cell cycle to promote long-term persistence. This new knowledge could serve as the foundation for new host-directed therapeutic discovery efforts that target the host cell cycle.


There is a 250 year old presumption in the criminology and law enforcement literature that people are deterred more by increases in the certainty rather than increases in the severity of legal sanctions. We call this presumption the Certainty Aversion Presumption (CAP). Simple criminal decision making models suggest that criminals must be risk-seeking if they behave consistently with CAP. This implication leads to disturbing interpretations, such as criminals being categorically different than law abiding people, who often display risk-averse behavior while making financial decisions. Moreover, policy discussions that incorrectly rely on criminals' risk attitudes implied by CAP are ill-informed, and may therefore have unintended negative consequences.In this article, we first demonstrate, contrary to most of the existing literature, that CAP consistent behavior does not imply risk-seeking behavior. A host of considerations that are unrelated to risk-attitudes can generate behavior that is consistent with CAP, including stigmatization; discounting; judgment proofness; the forfeitability of illegal gains; and the possibility of being punished for unsuccessful criminal attempts. Next, we discuss empirical methods that can be employed to gain a better understanding of criminals' risk-attitudes and responsiveness to various punishment schemes. These methods focus on the various non-risk-related-considerations that may be responsible for CAP consistent behavior. Finally, we discuss the importance of gaining a better understanding of criminals' attitudes for purposes of designing optimal law enforcement methods, punishment schemes for repeat offenders, plea bargaining procedures and standards of proof.


On behalf of the editorial board, it is our pleasure to introduce Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine: an Open Access Journal (HPBM), which we hope will become a leading international journal in these areas. HPBM will be interdisciplinary and global in scope, offering studies in a wide range of forms including systematic and critical reviews, meta-analyses, ethnographic and qualitative studies, quantitative studies, program evaluation, policy studies, case studies, and research protocols. Individually and in combination, these publications will contribute to the development and integration of psychosocial, behavioral, and biomedical knowledge to promote and maintain health, to prevent, treat, and manage physical and psychological illness, and to identify etiological and diagnostic correlates of health and illness. Discrete but related topics including assessment, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and rehabilitation that contribute to health will be featured. The need for this new journal stems from both recent developments in the fields of health psychology and behavioral medicine, and the recent revolutionary movement of academic publishing into online dissemination.


Quintilian was born in Spain about A.D. 35; he became a well-known and prosperous teacher of rhetoric in Rome, probably the first to receive a salary as such from public funds. His "Institutio Oratoria" ("Training of an Orator"), a comprehensive training program in twelve books, draws on his own rich experience. Here Quintilian gives guidelines for proper schooling (beginning with the young boy); analyzes the structure of speeches and recommends devices for engaging listeners and appealing to their emotions; reviews a wide range of Greek and Latin authors of use to the orator; and counsels on memory, delivery, and gestures. This practical guide, in lucid style, provides valuable insight on Roman education. The work also yields many a memorable comment on the styles of various writers.


Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but its incidence in South Africa is unknown. In the USA, the incidence is 5 - 6 cases per 1 000 person-years, and 60 000 deaths caused by pneumonia were reported in that country in 2005. Given that South Africa is a developing country with a very high HIV prevalence, the incidence and death rate of pneumonia are likely to be higher. High morbidity and mortality rates of up to 23% are associated with CAP in the USA. In South Africa, the rates are not dissimilar.


Standard analytical solutions to elliptic boundary value problems on asymmetric domains are rarely, if ever, obtainable. In this paper, we propose a solution technique wherein we embed the original domain into one with simple boundaries where the classical eigenfunction solution approach can be used. The solution in the larger domain, when restricted to the original domain, is then the solution of the original boundary value problem. We call this the Extended-Domain-Eigenfunction Method (EDEM). To illustrate the method's strength and scope, we apply it to Laplace's equation on an annular-like domain.


In 1869, the Supreme Court treated United States v. Kirby as a simple case. In 1994, it treated Albright v. Oliver as a case divorced from history. Understanding the factual complexity of Kirby provides the historical framework missing from Albright and casts new light on the issue of whether the Fourteenth Amendment forbids malicious prosecution.United States v. Kirby appeared straightforward. John W. Kirby was indicted for interferring with the United States mail by detaining a mail agent, Dr. Cyrus W. Farris, and a mail steamer. John Kirby's defense was simple. He was the sheriff of Gallatin County, Kentucky. The mail agent, Dr. Farris, had been indicted for murder twice by the grand jury of that county. Sheriff Kirby admitted that he had detained Dr. Farris solely to arrest him for those murders. He admitted that he had detained the mail steamer, but only for the length of time necessary to effectuate the arrest. Surely he should not be held criminally liable for simply doing his duty.The Supreme Court agreed. In Language that would be quoted for more than a century, the Court held that "(g)eneral terms (of a statute) should be so limited in their application as not to lead injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence. It will always, therefore, be presumed that the legislature intended exceptions to its language, which would avoid results of this character." Just as a law against jail break does not apply to a prisoner who flees to avoid a fire so a law against interfering with the passage of the mail should not apply to a sheriff who simply arrests a mail agent who has been indicted for murder. It seems a self-evidently correct result. Yet, there is something inherently implausible about the facts of the case as presented in the Supreme Court's opinion like a law professor's hypothetical: useful to make an abstract point but nothing that would ever happen in the real world. What grand jury would indict a local sheriff for arresting a murder? What United States Attorney would prosecute such a case? There must be more to the story.There is.Based on previously unpublished archival materials and contemporaneous newspaper accounts, this article tells the story that was never presented to the Supreme Court in which people and events were not always what they seemed. Dr. Farris was a mail carrier, but he was also the provost marshall who had led the Union Army's fight against guerrillas in Gallatin County. John Kirby was the sheriff of that county, but he was also the vengeful, secessionist brother-in-law of a confederate guerilla who had been killed during Farris's guerrilla suppression efforts. Farris had been charged with "murders," but those "murders" were the killings of guerrillas by Union Soldiers. Sheriff Kirby was acting pursuant to an indictment that had been obtained from a "rebel grand jury" largely selected by the Sheriff himself. The seizure of Farris was an "arrest;" effectuated by a mob of more than 150 armed Confederate sympathizers who seemed more intent on Killing Farris than on bringing him to trial. The story illuminates an important part of the background of the fourteenth amendment. Dr. Farris's indictment was an example of a pervasive problem that faced the Congress just before the enactment of that amendment: the frequent use of baseless prosecutions to punish and intimidate those who tried to enforce national policy after the war. By the time the Thirty-Ninth Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, there had been more than three thousand such prosecutions in Kentucky alone. The Thirty-Ninth Congress was well aware of the problem of baseless prosecution of Union supporters, discussed it in detail, and enacted legislation to deal with it. The pervasiveness of such prosecutions sheds new light on an issue that had perplexed the Court's of Appeals and that sharply divided the Supreme Court in Albright v. Oliver: whether malicious prosecution constitutes a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment recognizable under 42 U.S.C § 1983?