In his keynote address to the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia Professor Ian Frazer, Australian of the Year 2006, described succinctly the nexus between researchers and practitioners. He deplored a situation where, in his world of medical research, clinicians and teachers were becoming decoupled from medical researchers by externally imposed funding models. He acknowledged the fact that, without a team consisting of practitioners, researchers and administrators, the now-patented cervical cancer therapy would have remained a fantastic dream, never a reality.

What has this to do with the readers of Informaa Quarterly? Many of you are practitioners and users of research outcomes but, more importantly, you are the hotbed of new ideas and directions for professional research. Why is it important that you understand how the Australian research funding model works? There are two main reasons. The first is that you are all taxpayers and funding research is how some of your tax dollars are spent. The second is that knowledge of how the system works enables the profession to support the research it wishes to see promoted.


The ability of humans to accumulate knowledge and information across generations is a defining feature of our species. This ability depends on factors that range from the psychological biases that predispose us to learn from skillful, accomplished, and prestigious people, to the development of technologies for recording and communicating information: from clay tablets to the Internet. In this paper we present empirical evidence documenting how communication technologies have shaped human collective memory. We show that changes in communication technologies, including the introduction of printing and the maturity of shorter forms of printed media, such as newspapers, journals, and pamphlets, were accompanied by sharp changes (or breaks) in the per-capita number of memorable biographies from a time period that are present in current online and offline sources. Moreover, we find that changes in technology, such as the introduction of printing, film, radio, and television, coincide with sharp shifts in the occupations of the individuals present in these biographical records. These two empirical facts provide evidence in support of theories arguing that human collective memory is shaped by the technologies we use to record and communicate information.


Multivariate time series are sequences, whose order is provided by a time index; thus, most classifiers used on such data treat time as a special quantity, and encode it structurally in a model. A typical example of such models is the hidden Markov model, where time is explicitely used to drive state transitions. The time information is discre-tised into a finite set of states, the cardinality of which is largely chosen by empirical criteria. Taking as an example task signature verification, we propose an alternative approach using static probabilistic models of phase spaces, where the time information is preserved by embedding of the multivariate time series into a higher-dimensional subspace, and modelled probabilistically by using the theoretical framework of static Bayesian networks. We show empirically that performance is equivalent to state-of-the-art signature verification systems.


The Littoral Domizio – Flegreo located along the north coastal zone of the Campania region (Italy) extends for about 855 Km2. We have analyzed soils for their content of heavy metals in order to study the relative impact of natural and anthropogenic sources. We collected 179 soil surface samples (5-15 cm depth) and produced maps showing the distribution of heavy metals in the soils. The soils point to the influence of two volcanic areas (Campi Flegrei, and M. Roccamonfina): the highest contents of Fe, U, Th, V, Ba, Ti, Al, Tl and Ga are mainly found in these two areas. In some cases, the contents exceed the maximum allowable values as stated by Italian law Dlgs 152/2006.The high values of such heavy metals are potentially dangerous for human health. Pb and As, for example, have very high concentrations: 15% of the 179 sites exceed the maximum allowed for residential areas (Pb=100 mg/Kg). The area between Castelvolturno and Mondragone has Pb contents between 100-328 mg/Kg; similar contents are found in samples from Sessa Aurunca and Qualiano. Anthropogenic sources related to automobile traffic and human activities (industrial lead) are likely the main causes for the Pb concentrations higher than 100 mg/Kg. The maximum content of As in soils for non-residential areas is 50 mg/Kg, and this limit is exceeded in the Francolise agricultural area (65 mg/Kg), suggesting that anthropogenic sources may have influenced the soils in areas used for vineyards. Also, near Francolise, Villa Literno, Giugliano, Quarto, and Bacoli, the values of As are higher than the residential limit (20 mg/Kg). Lead isotope compositions of soils known to contain anomalously high values of heavy metals were measured in order to determine the sources of the lead and, by inference, sources of arsenic. We have also collected groundwater samples from the same area. Acid-leach compositions of the soils represent lead that is adsorbed to mineral surfaces (anthropogenic component?), whereas residue compositions may reflect bedrock. Labile lead (acid-leach fractions) from the soils shows a range in compositions of about 207Pb/206Pb=0.8275 to 0.8486, 208Pb/206Pb=2.0488 to 2.0873; values vary and decrease with depth. The range in lead isotope ratios in the soil profiles is generally consistent with multiple sources that include anthropogenic lead. Surface samples from Giugliano (urban area) have Pb isotopic values closer to the composition of fuel and industrial lead used in Italy. Surface samples from Mondragone and Cancello Arnone (sub-rural area) have the lowest Pb isotopic ratios and suggest that the geogenic or natural component characterizes the lead isotopic trend in these areas and argue against a major contribution of Pb from human activities.


We tackle the problem of Federated Learning in the non i.i.d. case, in which local models drift apart, inhibiting learning. Building on an analogy with Lifelong Learning, we adapt a solution for catastrophic forgetting to Federated Learning. We add a penalty term to the loss function, compelling all local models to converge to a shared optimum. We show that this can be done efficiently for communication (adding no further privacy risks), scaling with the number of nodes in the distributed setting. Our experiments show that this method is superior to competing ones for image recognition on the MNIST dataset.


The baby-boom and subsequent baby-bust have shaped much of the history of the second half of the 20th century; yet it is still largely unclear what caused them. This paper presents a new unified explanation of the fertility Boom-Bust that links the latter to the Great Depression and the subsequent economic recovery. We show that the 1929 Crash attracted young married women 20 to 34 years old in 1930 (whom we name D-cohort) in the labor market possibly via an added worker effect. Using several years of Census micro data, we further document that the same cohort kept entering into the market in the 1940s and 1950s as economic conditions improved, decreasing wages and reducing work incentives for younger women. Its retirement in the late 1950s and in the 1960s instead freed positions and created employment opportunities. Finally, we show that the entry of the D-cohort is associated with increased births in the 1950s, while its retirement turned the fertility Boom into a Bust in the 1960s. The work behavior of this cohort explains a large share of the changes in both yearly births and completed fertility of all cohorts involved.


Yale Law Professor Daniel J. Freed, a cofounder of Federal Sentencing Reporter and a Vera trustee for nearly forty years, is a legendary figure in the worlds of sentencing, bail, and criminal justice generally. With his gentle but incisive approach, Dan Freed was—and still is—a moral and intellectual North Star for generations of lawyers, judges, professors, and criminal justice policymakers. No collection of articles or stories about Vera and sentencing would be complete without a discussion of Dan. A fellow Yale professor, a judge, and a former Yale Law School student offer their personal reflections about Dan Freed the reformer, the scholar, the colleague, the teacher, and the cherished friend.


We study in this paper a Markov Decision Problem (MDP) with continuous state space and discrete decision variables. We propose an extension of the Q-learning algorithm introduced to solve this problem by Watkins in 1989 for completely discrete MDPs. Our algorithm relies on stochastic approximation and functional estimation, and uses kernels to locally update the Q-functions. We give a convergence proof for this algorithm under usual assumptions. Finally, we illustrate our algorithm by solving the classical moutain car task with continuous state space.


Solvency II is the new European Union (EU) legislation that will review the capital adequacy regime for the insurance industry. Considerable progress has been made in the banking sector with the implementation of the Basel Accords (Basel). The implementation of Solvency II, therefore, brings with it an opportunity for the insurance industry to assess the successes, weaknesses and shortcomings experienced by the banking sector's implementation of Basel so as to learn from them and ensure that Solvency II's implementation duplicates the successes and avoids the failures of Basel's. This article critically explores weaknesses and failures of Basel which were exacerbated and/or exploited by the financial crisis of 2007-2010 and provides advice on how these might be mitigated or avoided in the implementation of Solvency II.


Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (AMV) is investigated with a number of Coupled General Circulation Models (CGCMs) in this work. There are two parts to these analyses. One is a multi-model comparison with observations, focusing one of the leading proposed mechanisms; the other is the analysis of the mechanism for AMV in one model in detail.
A multi-model analysis of AMV is performed to assess similarities to observation and the robustness of the mechanism proposed by Delworth et al. 1993 (D93) that the salinity-induced density anomalies in the sinking region are transported by the Subpolar Gyre (SPG) drive Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The analysis includes preindustrial control simulations from 14 CGCMs. AMV indices in most of models show enhanced power on multi-decadal time scale, but with different periodicity. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variations related to AMV occur mainly in the mid-latitude region. Fluctuations in the AMOC tend to precede the mid-latitude SST variations, consistent with them being mainly driven by AMOC changes. The wintertime oceanic deep convection sites and their relation to AMOC variability differ among models. The Kiel Climate Model (KCM) provides the strongest evidence that wintertime oceanic convection drives AMOC fluctuations. Furthermore, KCM is the only model with a similar mechanism to D93. There is only one model in which salinity in the "AMOC driving" sinking region is not related with variations in the SPG. In all other models, except KCM, variations in convection in the sinking region tend to strengthen the SPG and then drive AMOC.
The relationship between AMOC and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is not clear in these models, except in one model where NAO variations tend to lead AMOC changes by about 10
iv
years. None of these models has a significant relationship between convection and Sea Level Pressure (SLP). However, analysis of the role of atmospheric variability in AMV requires further investigation and is beyond the scope of this thesis.
The mechanism of AMV is investigated in detail in a millennial control simulation with KCM. An oscillatory mode with approximately 60 years period and characteristics similar to observations is identified with the aid of three-dimensional temperature and salinity joint Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis. The mode explains 30% of variability on centennial and shorter timescales in the upper 2000 m of the North Atlantic. It is associated with changes in the AMOC of ±1-2 Sv and Atlantic SST of ±0.2°C.
AMV in KCM results from an out-of-phase interaction between horizontal and vertical ocean circulation, coupled through Irminger Sea convection. Wintertime convection in this region is mainly controlled by salinity anomalies transported by the SPG. Increased (decreased) dense water formation in this region leads to a stronger (weaker) AMOC after 15 years, and this in turn leads to a weaker (stronger) SPG after another 15 years. The key role of salinity variations in the subpolar North Atlantic for AMV is confirmed in a 1000 year long simulation with salinity restored to model climatology: No low frequency variations in convection are simulated, and the 60 year mode of variability is absent.


In his late essay "Style" (1888), reprinted a year later in Appreciations, Walter Pater set out to explore the possibilities of prose as the special art of the modern world and to justify his own literary practice. Considering how rarely he theorized about the art of writing, "Style" ought to be important. Oddly, it has disappointed several critics. One notes that, after displaying his hauteur in an "absurd attack on Dryden" (Donoghue 222), Pater launches into a "desultory" discussion that "does not clarify its themes" (224). In addition to the intellectual confusion this writer detects, another commentator blames Pater for timidity. He is "being defensive in this rather convoluted essay," attempting to guard himself against "hovering charges of corrupting aestheticism or amorality" (Ward 73-74). Critics have sought explanations for the perceived weakness of "Style" in Pater's relationship to his two current literary mentors, Flaubert and Newman. Pater reviewed the first volume of Flaubert's Correspondence for the Pall Mall Gazette (August 25, 1888), and "Style" appeared in the Fortnightly Review (December 1, 1888). A quotation from Flaubert's letter to "Madame X" (Louise Colet) appears towards the end of Pater's essay. It seems reasonable, then, to assume that Pater expanded a review of Flaubert's Correspondence into the essay "Style," "often considered a crystallizing and rationalizing of his theories and habits as a writer" (Monsman 148). Yet, it has been suggested, Pater's grasp of Flaubert was inadequate. He failed to see that, although he and the French writer were both seeking le mot juste, their aims were completely different. Pater wished to objectify an inner vision. Flaubert (it is alleged) "sought a passionless reproduction of facts" (Iser 48). David de Laura has shown the degree to which Newman's "Literature" influenced Pater's views in "Style" (334). Newman supposedly provided Pater with a warrant for his emphasis on style as an expression of "soul," an inner individual essence of the writer's personality. Newman's influence may be at work, too, in Pater's demand for ascesis, the constant self-denial involved in the writer's craft. Some critics, however, seem as irritated by Pater's putative relationship to Newman as others are by his supposed borrowings from Flaubert. For instance, Denis Donoghue remarks disdainfully of the religious concept of style he thinks Pater assumed from Newman: Pater takes "upon himself the curse of labor and sweat. It is edifying I suppose" (229). Apparently several critics do not feel that connections made between "Style" and the work of Flaubert or Newman serve to explain Pater's essay or to rescue it from charges of incoherency. There is a neglected aspect of the context of "Style," however, that may clarify Pater's aims. As in other of his writings, a submerged controversial intention is the clue to the development of Pater's argument. Polite and circumspect in his tone, oblique though at times ironic in the manner in which he sapped beliefs he opposed, Pater nevertheless was quietly inexorable. His method of dealing with Arnold's and Renan's idealized versions of Spinoza and of Marcus Aurelius, with the Goncourts' sentimental account of Watteau, or with the "impersonal" art of Prosper Merimee suggests a vigilant awareness of the weak points of attitudes or beliefs he rejected. These and other examples provide evidence that Pater did not ignore material he felt deserved criticism and that he possessed a variety of techniques to make his comments effective. Given his habitually gentle and guarded approach, we should not be misled by Pater's reference in a footnote in "Style" to George Saintsbury's Specimens of English Prose from Malory to Macaulay. The comment seems to be highly complimentary, though with a hint that Saintsbury's approach is one particular to himself, with which, perhaps, not everyone will agree. Saintsbury, Pater remarks, "has succeeded in tracing, through successive English prose-writers, the tradition of that severer beauty in them, of which this admirable scholar of our literature is known to be a lover" (Works 5:12). …


Aims: Candida adhesion to any oral substrata is the first and essential stage in forming a pathogenic fungal biofilm. In general, yeast cells have remarkable potential to adhere to host surfaces, such as teeth or mucosa, and to artificial, nonbiological surfaces, such as restorative dental materials. This study compared the susceptibility of six dental restorative materials to Candida albicans adhesion. Materials and methods: Cylindrical samples of each material were made according to the manufacturersa instructions. The antifungal effect of the samples on C. albicans was determined with the disc-diffusion method. The samples were put in plates with sterile Mueller Hinton and Sabouraud dextrose agar previously seeded with C. albicans. After the incubation period, the inhibition zone around each sample was evaluated. To evaluate the biofilm formation, the XTT technique and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used. Results: No inhibition zone was observed around the samples. According to the XTT assays, the amalgam samples revealed the lowest quantity of biofilm formation (P > 0.001). The highest median XTT values, significantly higher than the other materials (P < 0.001), were found for the composite and the compomer samples. Within the SEM examination, the amount of candidal growth was significantly lower on the resin-modified glass ionomer and glass-ionomer cement samples. The compomer and the composite samples showed more candidal adhesion. Conclusion: This finding emphasizes the use of glass ionomer restorative cements and amalgam to reduce C. albicans adhesion to dental restorative materials especially in people with weakened immune systems, neutropenia, and cancer.


Three experiments investigated whether it is possible to orient selective spatial attention to internal representations held in working memory in a similar fashion to orienting to perceptual stimuli. In the first experiment, subjects were either cued to orient to a spatial location before a stimulus array was presented (pre-cue), cued to orient to a spatial location in working memory after the array was presented (retro-cue), or given no cueing information (neutral cue). The stimulus array consisted of four differently colored crosses, one in each quadrant. At the end of a trial, a colored cross (probe) was presented centrally, and subjects responded according to whether it had occurred in the array. There were equivalent patterns of behavioral costs and benefits of cueing for both pre-cues and retro-cues. A follow-up experiment used a peripheral probe stimulus requiring a decision about whether its color matched that of the item presented at the same location in the array. Replication of the behavioral costs and benefits of pre-cues and retro-cues in this experiment ruled out changes in response criteria as the only explanation for the effects. The third experiment used event-related potentials (ERPs) to compare the neural processes involved in orienting attention to a spatial location in an external versus an internal spatial representation. In this task, subjects responded according to whether a central probe stimulus occurred at the cued location in the array. There were both similarities and differences between ERPs to spatial cues toward a perception versus an internal spatial representation. Lateralized early posterior and later frontal negativities were observed for both preand retro-cues. Retro-cues also showed additional neural processes to be involved in orienting to an internal representation, including early effects over frontal electrodes.


The earthquake and tsunami of 2004 resulted in the devastation of marine and coastal ecosystems across the Indian Ocean. However, without adequate baseline information it has been difficult to properly gauge its full impact. The reefs of the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal lie on a path that ranges from 190 to 500 km from Banda Aceh, the epicentre of the 2004 tsunami. In 2008, we recorded benthic damage as a result of the tsunami to reefs off 14 Nicobar Islands across a gradient of distance from the epicentre. A clear pattern was observed in the demographic structure of the most abundant coral genera, Acropora and Porites across the distance gradient. Significantly, for the largest coral individuals of both genera (> 50 cm diameter), there were distinct threshold effects – their abundance declining dramatically in reefs closer than 350 km from the epicentre. Corals between 20 and 50 cm diameter also increased with distance from the epicentre, but in a more linear fashion. Smaller size classes either showed no apparent trend (Acropora) or decreased linearly (Porites) with distance. These genera represent very different life-history strategies: Acropora is fast-growing and highly susceptible to a range of disturbances, while Porites typically grows slowly but is resistant to disturbance. The fact that both genera showed similar thresholds indicates that, close to the epicentre, the impact of the earthquake and tsunami was large enough to override any speciesspecific resistance. Also, algal cover was also much higher than at locations further north, linked to higher coral mortality at these locations. However, the fact that smaller size class coral individuals were relatively abundant and even increased close to the epicentre indicates possible paths of reef recovery after the catastrophe.


"Around the world, place-based projects are drawing increasing attention to the pillars of art, design, and economics as important players in the development and redevelopment of the so-called periphery. This publication poses the question: How plausible and effective are these ventures? Jahresring 65 is specific to Fogo Island, an island of approximately 2,500 inhabitants located off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A centuries-old cod-fishing settlement, the community's livelihood was almost devastated in the mid-twentieth century due to industrial overfishing. The island is now experiencing profound social, economic, and cultural transformation, due in part to a recent series of art, social, business, and asset-based community development initiatives. Now, Fogo Island stands as an example of the potential (but also the contradictions) of contemporary alliances between art, design, and social entrepreneurship." -- Publisher's website.


The puffer fish Sphoeroides annulatus is an important target species for the artisanal fishing fleets of NW Mexico. To obtain information on population structure of the local stock, we determined the total length and total weight (TL and TW) ranges, sex ratio and reproductive stages of 745 specimens of this species, landed from May 2010 to April 2011 in Teacapan, Sinaloa, NW Mexico. TL ranged from 15 to 40 cm and TW from 100 to 1600 g. There were no differences between mean TL (27.41 ± 4.14 cm) and TW (534.5 ± 226.0 g) of males and females respectively. Sex ratio was not significantly different (χ² = 0.03, P > 0.05) from 1F:1M. The length-weight relationship for both sexes was TW = 0.044TL 2.815 , R 2 = 0.895. The value of the slope b was significantly lower than 3 (P < 0.05), and indicated negative allometric growth. The distribution of maturity stages indicated one main reproductive period from June to September and one less intense, from November to December for females, and in December for males. Size at first maturity (L50%) of females was 26.52 cm and that of males was 27.41 cm.


Measuring design creativity is crucial to evaluating the effectiveness of idea generation methods. Historically, there has been a divide between easily-computable metrics, which are often based on arbitrary scoring systems, and human judgement metrics, which accurately reflect human opinion but rely on the expensive collection of expert ratings. This research bridges this gap by introducing a probabilistic model that computes a family of repeatable creativity metrics trained on expert data. Focusing on metrics for variety, a combination of submodular functions and logistic regression generalizes existing metrics, accurately recovering several published metrics as special cases and illuminating a space of new metrics for design creativity. When tasked with predicting which of two sets of concepts has greater variety, our model matches two commonly used metrics to 96% accuracy on average. In addition, using submodular functions allows this model to efficiently select the highest variety set of concepts when used in a design synthesis system.


Abstract—Carrot juice is one of the most nutritious foods that are consumed around the world. Large particles in carrot juice causing turbid appearance make some problems in the concentration process such as off-flavor due to the large particles burnt on the walls of evaporators. Microfiltration (MF) is a pressure driven membrane separation method that can clarify fruit juices without enzymatic treatment. Fouling is the main problem in the membrane process causing reduction of permeate flux. Ultrasound as a cleaning technique was applied at 20 kHz to reduce fouling in membrane clarification of carrot juice using dead-end MF system with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. Results showed that application of ultrasound waves reduce diphasic characteristic of carrot juice and permeate flux increased. Evaluation of different membrane fouling mechanisms showed that application of ultrasound waves changed creation time of each fouling mechanism. Also, its behavior was changed with varying transmembrane pressure.


Access to potable water is frequently said to be the defining world crisis of the twenty-first century. The argument is usually framed in terms of either direct environmental constraints or various totalistic views of how "the political" determines outcomes. There is little or no scope for the agency of practical politics. Both physical and human geographers tend to be dismissive of the possibilities of democratic politics ever resolving "crises" such as those of the geography of water provision, in part because of views of scientific expertise that devalue popular participation in decisions about "technical" matters such as water quality and distribution. Such dismissal also has much to do with a more generalized denigration of politics. Politics (the art of political deliberation, negotiation, and compromise) needs defending against its critics and many of its practitioners. Showing how politics is at work around the world in managing water problems and identifying the challenges that water problems pose for politics provides a retort to those who can only envisage inevitable destruction or a totalistic political panacea as the outcomes of "the crisis of the century."


Background : Medication overuse headaches (MOH) include headaches that last more than 15 days a month and usually occur after long-term use of analgesic. Most methods of medical treatment are ineffective. In some studies, great occipital nerve block is used to treat the headaches. Methods : This double-blind experimental study was performed in adult patients with MOH who attended Sina Hospital in Tehran from June 2009 to June 2011. Greater occipital nerve (GON) block was done in the two groups of patients by administering a combination of 3 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine and 2 ml of 5% saline or 3 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine and 80 mg of methyl prednisolone. We evaluated headache severity by Visual analog scale (VAS) and recorded days without headache. If patients were taking pain medications, preventive medications were given as usual before and after the injection. Student's t-test was performed for statistical analysis and a P Results : Overall, 13 male and 19 female patients with a mean age of 39.88±8.76 years participated in the study. The mean reduction in headache severity one hour after injection was 5.56±1.03 and 4.63±1.92 in the first and second groups, respectively. Average days without headache one month after injection were 8.75 and 4.75 days in the first and second groups, respectively. There were no significant differences between the two groups. Conclusion : Both methods seem to be effective in medication overuse headaches treatment. This finding is important as non-responders to conventional methods will otherwise have a decreased quality of life.


Do animals have rights? Almost everyone believes in animal rights, at least in some minimal sense; the real question is what that phrase actually means. By exploring that question, it is possible to give a clear sense of the lay of the land - to show the range of possible positions, and to explore what issues, of theory or fact, separate reasonable people. On reflection, the spotlight should be placed squarely on the issue of suffering and well-being. This position requires rejection of some of the most radical claims by animal rights advocates, especially those that stress the "autonomy" of animals, or that object to any human control and use of animals. But this position has radical implications of its own. It strongly suggests, for example, that there should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, in scientific experiments, and in agriculture. It also suggests that there is a strong argument, in principle, for bans on many current uses of animals.


The potential of four fungal biocontrol isolates ( Trichoderma asperellum T-12, Pochonia chlamydosporia Pc-1 , Kuklospora kentinensis BEN302, Aspergillus allahabadii BEN03) from West Africa to endophytically colonize tomato plants and provide in planta protection against root-knot nematodes ( Meloidogyne spp.), was assessed in pots in the greenhouse. Colonization assessment at 11 wk after inoculation indicated that all the fungal isolates were able to internally develop and colonize tomato roots. The root dip treatments with the fungi led to significant inhibition of root-knot nematode reproduction, juvenile hatching, and root galling damage. Pre-planting treatment with T. asperellum T-12 showed the greatest nematode control, reducing root galling severity and nematode reproduction by 47% and 67%, respectively, and significantly inhibiting egg hatch by up to 85%, compared to the control. Endophytic protection by the individually inoculated fungal isolates also led to significantly improved tomato growth of shoots and roots. Such in planta host plant nematode suppression lends itself to novel, cost-effective, and environmentally suitable pest management options that can be efficiently integrated into seedling production systems. This study provides strong evidence and justification for exploring other mechanisms such as systemic effects of the fungi and, in particular, the effect of fungi on reducing egg hatching.


Regulation of RAS by ubiquitination The protein LZTR1 is mutated in human cancers and developmental diseases. Work from two groups now converges to implicate the protein in regulating signaling by the small guanosine triphosphatase RAS. Steklov et al. showed that mice haploinsufficient for LZTR1 recapitulated aspects of the human disease Noonan syndrome. Their biochemical studies showed that LZTR1 associated with RAS. LZTR1 appears to function as an adaptor that promotes ubiquitination of RAS, thus inhibiting its signaling functions. Bigenzahn et al. found LZTR1 in a screen for proteins whose absence led to resistance to the tyrosine kinase inhibitors used to treat cancers caused by the BCR-ABL oncogene product. Their biochemical studies and genetic studies in fruitflies also showed that loss of LZTR1 led to increased activity of RAS and signaling through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Science, this issue p. 1177, p. 1171 Altered ubiquitination of RAS GTPases is implicated in cancer drug resistance. In genetic screens aimed at understanding drug resistance mechanisms in chronic myeloid leukemia cells, inactivation of the cullin 3 adapter protein-encoding leucine zipper-like transcription regulator 1 (LZTR1) gene led to enhanced mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway activity and reduced sensitivity to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Knockdown of the Drosophila LZTR1 ortholog CG3711 resulted in a Ras-dependent gain-of-function phenotype. Endogenous human LZTR1 associates with the main RAS isoforms. Inactivation of LZTR1 led to decreased ubiquitination and enhanced plasma membrane localization of endogenous KRAS (V-Ki-ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog). We propose that LZTR1 acts as a conserved regulator of RAS ubiquitination and MAPK pathway activation. Because LZTR1 disease mutations failed to revert loss-of-function phenotypes, our findings provide a molecular rationale for LZTR1 involvement in a variety of inherited and acquired human disorders.


This essay examines the role conflict of the professional whose patient or client may be dangerous to others, and the ways in which professional standards of ethics and practice, incorporated by judicial ruling, contribute to that role conflict. The paper's focus is on the plight of the psychiatrist: but it also addresses the strain felt by the lawyer who either represents such a client or is asked to advise a psychiatrist who has such a patient. It suggests that health-care providers are not altogether justified in assigning sole responsibility for some of their professional difficulties to the law's incursions on clinical autonomy. Contrary to the assertions of Chancellor Wallis, the criteria by which the law evaluates the conduct of medical professionals continue almost exclusively to be defined by the self-set standards of customary and prudent practice, and that state of affairs is unlikely to change. For so long as it obtains, lawyers will be tempted to respond to complaints about unjust or unworkable standards with Physician, heal thyself. Of course, the argument that clinicians can control their exposure to legal liability through concerted professional action is not meant to imply that their moral dilemmas can be as easily resolved. For most practitioners those questions undoubtedly are far more troubling.


This research examines the successes and challenges of the European Union, especially in the face of the crisis of 2008 and 2009. Based on the current structures of the European Union and Mercosur, this paper looks to assess the viability of further integration of Mercosur using the evolution of the European Union as a model of reference. Analysis of key economic measures provides the framework for assessment, with a special focus on the asymmetries between member countries within Mercosur. Differences in debt-toGDP ratios, regional trade levels, and exchange rate fluctuations are the primary indicators used to provide policy recommendations for the future of Mercosur. Based on high levels of inequality on the key measures considered within the paper, greater integration within Mercosur is encouraged, given improvement upon and adherence to guidelines originally set forth by the European Union.


The genetic diagnosis in inherited optic neuropathies often remains challenging, and the emergence of complex neurological phenotypes that involve optic neuropathy is puzzling. Here we unravel two novel principles of genetic mechanisms in optic neuropathies: deep intronic OPA1 mutations, which explain the disease in several so far unsolved cases; and an intralocus OPA1 modifier, which explains the emergence of syndromic 'optic atrophy plus' phenotypes in several families. First, we unravelled a deep intronic mutation 364 base pairs 3' of exon 4b in OPA1 by in-depth investigation of a family with severe optic atrophy plus syndrome in which conventional OPA1 diagnostics including gene dosage analyses were normal. The mutation creates a new splice acceptor site resulting in aberrant OPA1 transcripts with retained intronic sequence and subsequent translational frameshift as shown by complementary DNA analysis. In patient fibroblasts we demonstrate nonsense mediated messenger RNA decay, reduced levels of OPA1 protein, and impairment of mitochondrial dynamics. Subsequent site-specific screening of >360 subjects with unexplained inherited optic neuropathy revealed three additional families carrying this deep intronic mutation and a base exchange four nucleotides upstream, respectively, thus confirming the clinical significance of this mutational mechanism. Second, in all severely affected patients of the index family, the deep intronic mutation occurred in compound heterozygous state with an exonic OPA1 missense variant (p.I382M; NM_015560.2). The variant alone did not cause a phenotype, even in homozygous state indicating that this long debated OPA1 variant is not pathogenic per se, but acts as a phenotypic modifier if it encounters in trans with an OPA1 mutation. Subsequent screening of whole exomes from >600 index patients identified a second family with severe optic atrophy plus syndrome due to compound heterozygous p.I382M, thus confirming this mechanism. In summary, we provide genetic and functional evidence that deep intronic mutations in OPA1 can cause optic atrophy and explain disease in a substantial share of families with unsolved inherited optic neuropathies. Moreover, we show that an OPA1 modifier variant explains the emergence of optic atrophy plus phenotypes if combined in trans with another OPA1 mutation. Both mutational mechanisms identified in this study-deep intronic mutations and intragenic modifiers-might represent more generalizable mechanisms that could be found also in a wide range of other neurodegenerative and optic neuropathy diseases.


Extracted from text ... Number 46 - Part 3
W. Bethlehem, BCom (Witwatersrand)
Price adjustments on the JSE for announcements of share (stock) dividends
Introduction
Unlike most cash dividend and capital structure changes, share dividends do not directly affect the future cash flows of the firm.
Traditionally, share dividend declarations have been viewed by many academics and financial managers as costly transactions which
merely increase the number of claims on the assets and earnings of the firm and therefore are worthless to shareholders. However, in
markets where managers have information about current and future earnings which is unavailable to investors, share dividends may
provide ..


The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has evolutionarily developed a range of receptors to detect light, chemical, or mechanical stimuli for its survival. It employs its two cilia, identified as cis and trans with respect to its photoreceptor-containing eye, to achieve appropriate behavioral responses. The sensory signals are relayed to the dynein motors in the cilia through complex networks of signal transduction pathways that have yet to be fully characterized. The first part of this work is an experimental study of one such signal transduction pathways, the membrane electric field. In the study, an experimental method is developed to monitor the membrane electric field transients in response to an external stimulus. The method is non-invasive and allows monitoring the membrane electric field of cell population over extended periods of time by using a voltage-sensitive fluorescence probe, di-8-ANNEPS. The method is also insensitive to cell orientations and is suitable for studying the effect of any stimuli that may influence the behavior of cells by changing the membrane electric field. In this work two such types of stimuli, green light and sound, are used. In response to impulses of green light, the membrane electric field was found to change in the same way for both positively and negatively phototactic strains, and all the processing due to green light detection at the eye appeared to take place in the cilia. In response to sound stimuli, amplitude-modulated as 1-second-on-1-second-off or sine waves at 8.0 Hz, no change in the membrane electric field was observed. The second part of this work is devoted to tracking experiments of swimming Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells. The measured cell trajectories are quantified using a suitable implementation of the cell-motility model developed in the third part of this work. Through quantifying the cell trajectories using the motility model, the activity of IC138 component of cilium's inner I1/f-dynein arm is characterized. This unit has a regulatory role in motility. When it is phosphorylated (due to increased level of cAMP), the probability of it acting like a transient brake or an extra drag on the trans-cilium increases. This in turn causes a low-amplitude extra beat relative to the cis-cilium that maintains a steady beat. The extra low amplitude beat causes the cell to change direction more frequently, which makes the motion less ballistic and more diffusive. This ballistic-diffusive ratio affects the behavior associated with mating and searching for food and light in opposing manners. More frequent activation of the brake, for example, worsens search for food and light but increases chances of mating. In order to quantify this regulatory mechanism, which is a part of the braking signal transduction network, individual tracks of six Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strains were recorded and the data was fit to the above mentioned motility model at the population level. Among the obtained set of statistical parameters from fitting, the persistence time was found to be the most suitable one for characterizing the activity of IC138. In addition to this, a special realization of the cell-motility model, suitable for studying the effect of an external periodic force on motility, is also developed in the third part of this work. This realization provides a quantitative mean to discern between the pure mechanical effect of an external periodic force, such as sound, and its sensory detection on the cell behavior. Measurement of the Membrane Electric Field and the Swimming Behavior of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Experiments and Analytical Modeling


Tau protein is physiologically expressed in neurons, where it is involved in microtubule assembly and stability. Tau functions are rigorously regulated by a series of modifications, e.g. phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. When these mechanisms are dysregulated or other modifications occur, this leads to a group of diseases defined as "tauopathies", characterized by build-up of tau protein aggregates in neurons and glial cells (neurofibrillary tangles, astrocytic plaques, tufted astrocytes). Tauopathies include, among others, Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and diseases characterized by frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Among the many post-translational modifications that tau can undergo, proteolytic processing is gaining increasing attention, as many studies have shown that cleavage of tau in brain is related to disease. It has also been consistently observed that tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) consists of a series of fragments, with predominance of N-terminal and mid-region fragments compared to C-terminal ones. The aim of this thesis was to identify and quantify specific tau fragments in CSF with novel targeted immunoassays, and assess their potential as biomarkers for different tauopathies. We identified two major pools of tau consisting of species cleaved at either amino acid (aa) 123 or 224, reflecting different mechanisms of tau processing in AD. While cleavage generating tau N-123 is part of the physiological tau turnover, the generation of tau N224 was shown to have clinical relevance, being related to AD; N-224 tau showed significantly higher concentrations in AD CSF compared to control and was related to worsening cognitive performance over time. Also, in the primary tauopathies PSP and CBD, N-224 tau did not correlate to total tau (t-tau) content, showing promise as a candidate biomarker for tauopathies other than AD. Based on previous reports of tau cleavage by asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) at aa 368, we also developed a new immunoassay targeting tau fragments cleaved C-terminally of aa 368 (tau 368). Our results demonstrate that, although tau 368 is measurable in CSF and overall increased in AD, only a small portion of the total content of CSF tau ends at 368. Instead, most of tau 368 is retained in tangles, as shown by the decrease in the tau 368/t-tau ratio over the course of disease and immunohistochemical staining of tangles. Of potential clinical relevance, we also showed a strong negative association of the CSF tau 368/t-tau ratio and uptake of the tau PET tracer [F]GTP1, supporting the hypothesis that the ratio reflects underlying tau pathology and entrapment of tau 368 in tangles. When applying the newly-developed immunoassays to CSF from a FTD cohort, we observed that none of the measures showed a significant difference between the likely FTLD-TDP-43 and likely FTLDtau pathology groups. However, when normalised for t-tau, N-224 showed a significant difference between FTLD-tau and FTLD associated to TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (FTLD-TDP-43), suggesting that, although the novel measures do not have a superior diagnostic accuracy to the classic tau biomarkers, there are different patterns in fragment concentrations between the pathological groups, and different profiles for each tauopathy. Finally, since the N-224 fragment showed potential clinical relevance in the differential diagnosis of tauopathies, we aimed to identify the enzyme responsible for cleavage at aa 224. By using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) peptide, containing a tau sequence which included aa 224, and high resolution mass spectrometry, we identified the enzyme responsible for cleavage as calpain-2. We confirmed the results in a gene knock-down SH-SY5Y cell model, where we measured a significant reduction in tau N224 in the cell media after knock-down of the calpain-2 gene. These findings suggest that the calpain-2 pathway should be investigated as a possible target in the treatment of tauopathies.


A template transfer method (TTM) and a fiber fixation technique were established for fiber handling and micro tensile stage mounting of aligned and non-aligned electrospun fiber mats. The custom-made template had been precut to be mounted on a variety of collectors, including a rapidly rotating collector used to align the fibers. The method eliminated need for direct physical interaction with the fiber mats before or during the tensile testing since the fiber mats were never directly clamped or removed from the original substrate. By using the TTM it was possible to measure the tensile properties of aligned poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) fiber mats, which showed a 250 % increase in strength and 450 % increase in modulus as compared to a non-aligned system. The method was further evaluated for aligned PMMA fibers reinforced with cellulose (4 wt%) prepared as enzymatically derived nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC). These fibers showed an additional increase of 30 % in both tensile strength and modulus, resulting in a toughness increase of 25 %. The fracture interfaces of the PMMA-NFC fibers showed a low amount of NFC pull-outs, indicating favorable phase compatibility. The presented fiber handling technique is universal and may be applied where conservative estimates of mechanical properties need to be assessed for very thin fibers.


The correlations between event-by-event fluctuations of anisotropic flow harmonic amplitudes have been measured in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The results are reported in terms of multiparticle correlation observables dubbed symmetric cumulants. These observables are robust against biases originating from nonflow effects. The centrality dependence of correlations between the higher order harmonics (the quadrangular v4 and pentagonal v5 flow) and the lower order harmonics (the elliptic v2 and triangular v3 flow) is presented. The transverse momentum dependences of correlations between v3 and v2 and between v4 and v2 are also reported. The results are compared to calculations from viscous hydrodynamics and a multiphase transport (AMPT) model calculations. The comparisons to viscous hydrodynamic models demonstrate that the different order harmonic correlations respond differently to the initial conditions and the temperature dependence of the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density (η/s). A small average value of η/s is favored independent of the specific choice of initial conditions in the models. The calculations with the AMPT initial conditions yield results closest to the measurements. Correlations among the magnitudes of v2, v3, and v4 show moderate pT dependence in midcentral collisions. This might be an indication of possible viscous corrections to the equilibrium distribution at hadronic freeze-out, which might help to understand the possible contribution of bulk viscosity in the hadronic phase of the system. Together with existing measurements of individual flow harmonics, the presented results provide further constraints on the initial conditions and the transport properties of the system produced in heavy-ion collisions.


Machine learning (ML) algorithms are commonly applied to big data, using distributed systems that partition the data across machines and allow each machine to read and update all ML model parameters --- a strategy known as data parallelism. An alternative and complimentary strategy, model parallelism, partitions the model parameters for non-shared parallel access and updates, and may periodically repartition the parameters to facilitate communication. Model parallelism is motivated by two challenges that data-parallelism does not usually address: (1) parameters may be dependent, thus naive concurrent updates can introduce errors that slow convergence or even cause algorithm failure; (2) model parameters converge at different rates, thus a small subset of parameters can bottleneck ML algorithm completion. We propose scheduled model parallelism (SchMP), a programming approach that improves ML algorithm convergence speed by efficiently scheduling parameter updates, taking into account parameter dependencies and uneven convergence. To support SchMP at scale, we develop a distributed framework STRADS which optimizes the throughput of SchMP programs, and benchmark four common ML applications written as SchMP programs: LDA topic modeling, matrix factorization, sparse least-squares (Lasso) regression and sparse logistic regression. By improving ML progress per iteration through SchMP programming whilst improving iteration throughput through STRADS we show that SchMP programs running on STRADS outperform non-model-parallel ML implementations: for example, SchMP LDA and SchMP Lasso respectively achieve 10x and 5x faster convergence than recent, well-established baselines.


Background High sodium intake is associated with the development of chronic diseases such as obesity. Although its role in obesity remains controversial, there may be a correlation between salt sensitivity and the early onset of chronic diseases in obese children. Methods In all, 2,163 Korean children (1,106 boys and 1,057 girls) aged 8–9 years were recruited from seven elementary schools in Seoul. To evaluate whether obesity risk was modulated by the salt sensitivity, 11 SNPs related to salt sensitive genes (SSG) became the target of sodium intakes in obese children. Results BP, HOMA-IR, LDLc, TG, and the girls' sodium intake significantly increased, but HDLc significantly decreased with increase in BMI. Regardless of sex, the obesity risk was 5.27-fold (CI; 1.320–27.560) higher in the Q2 to Q5 of sodium intake adjusted by energy (4044.9–5058.9 mg/day) than in the lowest Q1 level (2287.6 mg/day) in obese children. BP was sensitively dependent on insulin resistance and lipid accumulation in all subjects; however, sodium intake may be an independent risk factor of obesity without increasing BP in girls. GRK4 A486V mutant homozygote was highly distributed in the obese group, but other SNPs had no impact. The obesity risk increased 7.06, 16.8, and 46.09-fold more in boys with GRK4 A486V, ACE, and SLC12A3 mutants as sodium intake increased. Among girls, the obesity risk increased in GRK4 A486V heterozygote and CYP11β-2 mutant homozygote although sodium intake was relatively lower, implying that ACE, SLC12A, CYP11β-2, and GRK4 A486V polymorphisms showed gender-based differences with regard to interaction between sodium intake and obesity. Conclusion A high sodium intake markedly increased the obesity risk in variants of GRK4 A486V regardless of sex. The obesity risk increased with GRK4 A486V, ACE, and SLC12A3 variants in boys, whereas it increased with GRK4 A486V and CYP11B2 variants in girls as sodium intake increased. Obese children with the specific gene variants are recommended to reduce their sodium intake.


The present study provides a baseline data on histology of respiratory system of Mizo local pig (Zo Vawk). The Occurrence of nasal glands was high in the respiratory region of nasal cavity which might enhance the efficiency of humidifying the inhaled air. The visceral pleura and interlobar and interlobular septa were thick containing elastic fibres which might increase the elasticity of the lung. The respiratory bronchioles were well developed in Mizo local pig which might enhance their respiratory efficiency in higher altitude and lesser atmospheric oxygen tension in Mizoram. Frequent occurrence of alveolar macrophages might be attributed to the better resistance to respiratory diseases of the indigenous pigs of Mizoram (Zo Vawk).


Introduction: The metabolism of Zine (Zn), an essential nutrient, changes in diabetes. It has been shown that there is a relationship between Zn and both, type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Increased lipid peroxidation in diabetic patients leads to MDA production. This study aimed to investigate relationships between serum Zn concentration and insulin, insulin resistance and oxidative stress in postmenopausal diabetic women. Materials and Methods: We studied 45 diabetic women and 45 healthy ones (controls) with BMI 25-30 kg/m2 and age 45-60 y. Fasting blood sugar (FBS), serum zinc, insulin, insulin resistance and MDA were determined in both groups. Results: There were non significant correlations between Zn, insulin (r= -0.06) and insulin resistance (r = -0.027) and MDA (r = -0.09) as well in diabetic group. Conclusion: There were no significant relationships between serum zinc and insulin, insulin resistance and MDA in postmenopausal diabetic women.


The increasing presence of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds in the Midsouth, and inconsistent crop injury and moisture dependence of residual herbicides has created a need for effective post-emergence options. Cotton cultivars with tolerance to glufosinate have been widely adopted by growers throughout the Midsouth because glufosinate provides an effective option for controlling GR weeds like Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri (S.) Wats.]. The objective of this study was to determine if differences exist in tolerance of PhytoGen® and Liberty Link® cultivars to glufosinate applied at different growth stages in the presence and absence of low-light conditions. At two weeks after cotton emergence (WAE), tolerance to glufosinate differed by cultivar, although some injury was observed on Liberty Link cotton. Injury was often greatest when applied at the one-leaf stage to PhytoGen® cultivars, but by four to five weeks after treatment, all cultivars showed similar potential to recover. In general, cotton plants that were shaded three days prior to applying glufosinate were injured to a greater extent than non-shaded plants. Similarly, seed cotton yields were reduced in shaded plots by 72 and 76 g m-1 of row in 2012 and 2013, respectively. This research indicates that there is greater risk for early-season injury from glufosinate if applied to young cotton experiencing prolonged cloudy conditions prior to application; albeit, this injury does not translate into seed cotton yield loss for the three cultivars evaluated, compared to an untreated control. Hence, it is recommended that growers make timely applications of glufosinate to optimize weed control, even when conditions have been less than ideal for cotton growth prior to application.


BACKGROUND
Portable blood glucose meters (PBGMs) are useful for serial measurements of blood glucose and creation of blood glucose curves in veterinary practice. However, it is necessary to validate PBGMs designed for people for veterinary use.

OBJECTIVES
Our objective was to evaluate the accuracy of 2 PBGMs designed for people for use in dogs and cats.

METHODS
The blood glucose levels were determined in blood samples collected from 69 dogs and 26 cats admitted to the Kagoshima University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, using a MEDISAFE [PBGM-T] and an Antsense III [PBGM-H], and a FUJI DRI-CHEM 7000V as reference method. The correlations and agreements among the results were statistically analyzed.

RESULTS
Simple regression analyses revealed a high correlation between values from both PBGMs and the reference method in both dogs and cats. However, Passing-Bablok regression and Bland-Altman analyses revealed that the data from both PBGMs did not show statistical agreement with the reference values. Concordance correlated coefficients were moderate for the PBGM-T and almost perfect for the PBGM-H for canine samples, and were poor for the PBGM-T and substantial for the PBGM-H for feline samples. Hematocrit values significantly affected the results of the PBGM-T, but not the PBGM-H. Error grid analyses revealed that all measurements from both PBGMs would lead to acceptable treatment decisions.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that both PBGMs, especially the PBGM-H, would be clinically useful in small animal practice, although there was a bias between each PBGM and the reference method.


In a laboratory experiment, 13 participants reproduced from memory the position of a sphere relative to a second landmark sphere located on the viewing axis of the observer. The relative location of the second sphere varied both laterally and in depth. The stimuli were generated on a stereoscopic display. The paper focuses on the analysis of the structure of the noise in the reproduced object locations, this structure reflecting the mental representation of the stored spatial relations. The results showed that the spatial location of the landmark sphere affects the variability of the reproduced object locations. In particular, the variability in the frontoparallel plane increases with the length of the depth component of the spatial relation. This finding can be interpreted in two ways. First, spatial acuity in perception decreases, or second, participants encode sensory information by transforming it into a mental spherical coordinate system. Both interpretations are discussed.


The Muslim conquest of Palestine, which put a final end to the Byzantine hegemony on that part of the eastern Mediterranean, is considered in recent studies to have been a generally non-violent event, in which the negative impact on the continuity of local settlement was for the most part peripheral. While the first assumption may be true, the latter seems too optimistic, especially with regard to the Palestinian Mediterranean coastal plain. A re-evaluation of the archaeological and some historical evidence for the period between ca. 640 and 700, regarding a selection of urban and rural excavated coastal sites and survey maps, shows that the Muslim conquest had various short- and long-term impacts on every settlement, including economic, social and/or functional changes. Generally speaking, the archaeological evidence from the Palestinian coast (and especially the seashore belt) at the beginning of early Islamic times presents a pattern of decline, or abatement. This of course occurred gradually, and the ...


In Hall of Mirrors, Graham Bader traces the development of Roy Lichtenstein's art into, through, and beyond his classic pop oeuvre of the 1960s. Bader charts the trajectory of Lichtenstein's practice from his student days in the late 1940s to his mirror paintings of the 1970s, offering new readings of such canonical paintings as Look Mickey and Girl with Ball as well as examinations of lesser-known works across a range of media. Bader's analysis goes beyond the standard critical view of pop as a reaction to the high-culture pieties of abstract expressionism. Instead, Bader sees Lichtenstein's work as motivated by the forces of "unoriginal originality"--Lichtenstein's discovery that he could make art by "borrowing" from other images--and "disembodied bodies"--his use of flattened and schematic forms to reinvigorate figurative painting. Bader argues that 1961's Look Mickey, Lichtenstein's inaugural pop work, established a template for the tension between embodiment and disembodiment that animates much of his 1960s practice: between an evacuation of sensory experience, on the one hand, and a repeated focus on emphatic bodily acts (squeezing, kissing, crying, etc.) on the other. A similar dialectical friction exists between Lichtenstein's process and product: consistently hand-painted canvases that increasingly feign the look of industrial production. Hall of Mirrors moves chronologically, beginning with Lichtenstein's studies at Ohio State University and late-'50s moves toward pop, through his seminal canvases of the early 1960s, to his late-'60s experiments across sculpture, painting, installation, and film. The book ends with an examination of Lichtenstein's Mirror paintings of 1969--72. These little-discussed works, Bader argues, exemplify Lichtenstein's late-'60s shift of focus to the embodied experience of his own viewers--and thus culminate and conclude his practice of the decade.


In his 1816 treatise, The Law of Baron and Wife, Tapping Reeve of Litchfield Law School fame, rejected the Blackstone/Coke maxim that a husband and wife were one person in law. This paper explains how Reeve used his book, his students, and his role as a judge to work against the principle of marital unity, for instance, causing his students to pass a statute in empowering married women to make wills. Reeve's behavior was typical of 'Fading Federalists,' who losing their power in the political realm, turned to law book writing and law teaching in order to continue to press their influence. Reeve's reasons for rejecting the one-person-in-law maxim are connected to his religion, his own marriage, and conditions that were unique to Connecticut during this period. This localism is ironic as Reeve maintained that his account was a description of English law and not anything specific to Connecticut. It is this pretense to the non-local, not avoided by his rival Zephaniah Swift, that made Reeve fit to be honored in later line-ups like Roscoe Pound's celebration of the American 'taught law' textbook tradition. However, it is important to see that Reeve invoked English law as a way to challenge and contradict it, creating in effect a version of English law for America that no English lawyer would agree with. The strategy in the book was to invoke the authority of the common law while simultaneously challenging and re-creating it. What this paper shows is that the version of American common law the treatise put forward was tied very much to local conditions despite what it formally claimed and disclaimed.


The dissertation pushes the boundaries of biblical interpretation by formulating relationships between passages of the Hebrew Bible and unrelated works of Modern art. While a growing field of criticism addresses the representation of scriptural stories in painting, sculpture and film, the artwork in this study does not look to the Bible for its subject matter. The intertextual/intermedia comparisons instead address five different genres of biblical literature and read them according to various dynamics found in Modern images. In forming these relationships I challenge traditional perceptions of characters and literary style by allowing an artistic representation or pictorial method to highlight issues of selfhood, gender and power and by revaluing narrative and poetry in nuanced aesthetic terms.

The comparative analysis derives its two-subject structure for each section from the undergraduate art history seminar, in which two slides are projected and the group encouraged to identify similarities between disparate works. My use of this heuristic method then appropriates secondary sources to forge a relationship in which art criticism ultimately speaks for the biblical text.

Chapter I juxtaposes the figure of Michal in 2 Samuel 6 against that of Queen Guenevere (1858) by William Morris in an essay that questions the portrait popular opinion has painted of the barren daughter of Saul. The Pre-Raphaelite painting and Morris's related poetry help to build a defence for Michal against those who inflict her barrenness upon her as if it were a punishment from God. Morris's sympathy for his adulterous heroine allows us to see the Deuteronomistic History's maligned queen as one whose character and action in fact seem very in tune with the prophetic agenda of the greater work.

In Chapter II, a woodcut portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche (1905) by Erich Heckel provides a counterpart to Abraham's representation in Genesis 23. The German Expressionist reduced his palette to a bold black on white to memorialise the Modern father of great men. The comparison frames Abraham as the embodiment of the Ubermensch, as one who laid waste to his father's heritage and followed his own God. His role as one who lives 'over' others casts the haste with which he gets up and buys Sarah's plot as a sign of his will to possess. Luce Irigaray's Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche (1991) is then incorporated to create a dialogue between the dark space of the portrait (symbolic of Abraham's masculine ego) and the white space caused by Sarah's death. Sarah thus speaks to 'Abraham the Overman' as the 'Marine Lover', beckoning him down from his high place and resisting the force in him that wants to bury her out of his sight.

Chapter III turns to prophecy and reconsiders Isaiah 44 first as a collage made in exile and then as a performance piece conducted in diaspora. The Merzbild by Kurt Schwitters entitled Green Over Yellow (1947) takes a critical Modern step away from representation and forward to abstraction. Schwitters assembled his cut-up forms to give them new visual value and made conspicuous their arbitrary edges and artful overlapping—a compositional and structural ethos not unlike the collage of forms in the exilic prophecy. Schwitters' relative ease as an exile and expatriate in Britain also fuels questions scholars have asked about the nature and scale of the biblical exile. Finding that the text does not fully orient itself towards Jerusalem, a second part to this comparison introduces an alternative analogue for Is. 44 by treating it as a record of performance and drawing upon the work of Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) to discuss the passage's broad approach to land and identity.

The fourth chapter hangs an individual lament alongside Jackson Pollock's Cathedral (1947), likening its parallelisms to streams of paint poured across the canvas and foregrounding the site of Psalm 13 as a field of/for abstract expression. Short though this hymn may be, its generalised language makes it accessible to a universal audience and lets emotion be splattered about in a personal protest against pain.

Finally, Chapter V envisions wisdom literature and the character of Qoheleth with an understanding for the genre's 'conceptual' outlook and the speaker's sense of irony. A readymade gambler's bond by Marcel Duchamp is projected opposite the opening chapter of Qoheleth's reflections to introduce the wise man as a dandy who entertains his admirers through pleasing words. The comparison thus establishes a context in which a book that scholars have attempted to classify as either the work of an optimist or a pessimist can be appreciated for the attitude of witty indifference its author appears to affect.

The project actively conceives of the biblical text as a 'Modern' phenomenon by emphasising areas in which it seems to invite abstract or metaphorical modes of understanding over literal interpretation. It utilizes an understanding of Modernism based not on the rejection of tradition but on the desire to rectify it. And it draws out the ways in which the Bible scandalizes the pious pictures critics have painted of it. Thinking not only of reading and visualising the Bible as an artistic process, the analysis aims to illustrate the legitimacy of viewing the text itself as a work of art.


Abstract. A sensitivity study of aerosol retrievals to the geometrical configuration of the ground-based sky radiometer observations is carried out through inversion tests. Specifically, this study is focused on principal plane and almucantar observations, since these geometries are employed in AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork). The following effects have been analyzed with simulated data for both geometries: sensitivity of the retrieval to variability of the observed scattering angle range, uncertainties in the assumptions of the aerosol vertical distribution, surface reflectance, possible instrument pointing errors, and the effects of the finite field of view. The synthetic observations of radiometer in the tests were calculated using a previous climatology data set of retrieved aerosol properties over three AERONET sites: Mongu (Zambia) for biomass burning aerosol, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC; Maryland, USA) for urban aerosol and Solar Village (Saudi Arabia) for desert dust aerosol. The results show that almucantar retrievals, in general, are more reliable than principal plane retrievals in presence of the analyzed error sources. This fact partially can be explained by practical advantages of the almucantar geometry: the symmetry between its left and right branches that helps to eliminate some observational uncertainties and the constant value of optical mass during the measurements, that make almucantar observations nearly independent of the vertical variability of aerosol. Nevertheless, almucantar retrievals present instabilities at high sun elevations due to the reduction of the scattering angle range coverage, resulting in decrease of information content. It is in such conditions that principal plane retrievals show a better stability, as shown by the simulation analysis of the three different aerosol models. The last part of the study is devoted to the identification of possible differences between the aerosol retrieval results obtained from real AERONET data using both geometries. In particular, we have compared AERONET retrievals at the same sites used in the simulation analysis: Mongu (biomass burning), GSFC (urban) and Solar Village (desert dust). Overall, this analysis shows robust consistency between the retrievals from simultaneous observations in principle plane and almucantar All identified differences are within the uncertainties estimated for the AERONET operational aerosol retrieval. The differences in the size distribution are generally under 10% for radii between 0.1 μm and 5 μm, and outside this size range, the differences can be as large as 50%. For the absorption parameters, i.e., single scattering albedo and the imaginary part of the refractive index, the differences are typically under 0.01 and 0.003, respectively. The real part of the refractive index showed a difference of 0.01 for biomass burning and urban aerosol, and a difference of around 0.03 for desert dust. Finally, it should be noted that the whole data set includes only 200 pairs, which have been taken under very stable atmospheric conditions; therefore, in a general case, differences between principal plane (PPL) and almucantar (ALM) are expected to be higher. Though the observed differences between ALM and PPL are rather small, it should be noted that this analysis has been conducted using a limited set of 200 observation pairs selected under stable atmospheric conditions.


Recently, with the increasing interest in using handheld devices, the application of navigation systems that provide driving information to the drivers has become widespread in daily life. An efficient route guidance system should consider the influential factors of traffic flow such as traffic density and allowable velocity limits of the roads. As the number of influential factors and amount of nodes in road network increase, the computational cost increases. On navigation systems, using handheld devices with limited processing speed and memory capacity, it is not feasible to find the exact optimal solution in real-time for the road networks with excessive number of nodes using deterministic methods such as Dijkstra algorithm. This paper proposes a Genetic Algorithm approach applied to a route guidance system to find the shortest driving time. Constant length chromosomes have been used for encoding the problem. It was found that the mutation operator proposed in this algorithm provided great contribution to achieve optimum solution by maintaining the genetic diversity. The efficiency of the genetic algorithm was tested by applying it on the networks with different sizes.

 Key words: Genetic algorithm, navigation, route guidance, optimization, shortest path, shortest driving time.


Building on the seminal paper of Ordover, Saloner and Salop (1990), I study the role of reputation building on foreclosure in laboratory experiments. In one-shot interactions, upstream firms can choose to build a reputation by revealing their price history to the current upstream competitor. In particular, integrated firms can establish a reputation to foreclose the input market.an outcome that would otherwise not be tenable due to a commitment problem. I get three main results: First, withdrawal from the input market is three times more common with reputation building of the integrated firm. Second, the anticompetitive effects are much stronger when the integrated firm builds a reputation. Third, integrated firms choose to build a reputation significantly more often than non-integrated firms. Markets with reputation building of the integrated firm are ten times more often monopolized than without.


This study compared the effectiveness of three techniques for teaching English vocabulary to Persian native speakers: a traditional procedure, the classical cloze procedure, and an innovative procedure, which is dubbed here as vicinity technique, based on incidental learning, noticing and consciousness-raising. To do the comparison, 51 students, registered at a private language institute, were randomly assigned to three groups and were taught 40 vocabulary items in five sessions in the three procedures. To evaluate the vocabulary gain in the three conditions, immediate and delayed post tests were administered and the obtained data were analyzed using ANOVA. The results revealed that the vicinity technique was more effective than the traditional procedure both in immediate and delayed evaluations. It was also revealed that, although there was no significant difference between the vicinity technique and the classical cloze technique in short-term, the vicinity technique was more effective than the classical cloze one for long-term retention.


The emergence of plants is especially important for the winter crops that are grown in the challenging environmental conditions of many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The emergence and initial growth of winter rapeseed were compared in field trials in a randomized block design with three replicates for plants sown in conventional tillage systems (CT) and strip-till (ST), which had different weather conditions and on soil with a non-uniform texture over a period of two years. Sowing in the CT was carried out using Horsch Pronto 4DC (Germany) at a row distance of 0.29 m. The ST operations were performed using a Pro-Til 4T drill manufactured by Mzuri Limited (Great Britain) - row spacing of 0.36 m. In favourable rainfall and thermal conditions, the density of winter rapeseed plants two weeks after sowing was found to be higher if it was sown after the CT than in the ST system. In the year that had a serious shortage of rainfall during the sowing period, a considerably higher density of plants was achieved using the ST system. The uniformity of plant growth using the ST technology in soil with a varied texture, especially in a year with an unfavourable distribution of rainfall, was proven by less variability in the number of leaves in the rosette, in the dry mass of the leaf rosette and in the root neck thickness of the winter rapeseed than in the CT system. The ST system can create good conditions for the initial development and preparation of rapeseed plants for wintering.


This study explores the effects of private British boarding school on womenlandowners' identity and their relationship to the land. In noting how theprivate British boarding school system and the Empire were symbioticallyrelated, it discusses how the ruling class were shaped within boarding insti-tutions that cultivated hegemonic superiority and self-perpetuating patterns ofsubjugation and domination. Boarding school ethos has played a key role inmaintaining these 'norms' of power as the young strive for place and identitywithin hierarchical, closed environments. Using a indepth qualitative, groundedtheory approach, eleven women in Scotland shared their stories with theprimary researcher, all of whom were ex-boarders and experienced beingremoved from their home environment usually in pre-adolescence. Almostexclusively, these women felt that their sense of identity had been damagedwhilst being formed in the process. In adulthood, they felt possessive andterritorial in arguably compensatory ways over their land, space and privacy.This possibly sheds light on dynamics of landownership that extend beyondusual considerations of economics and status. The study both commencesand concludes by noting the implications for people-land relationships in thelight of Scotland's land reform process.


Lingual strength and swallowing pressures have been studied extensively in dysphagia rehabilitation literature; however, little research has considered how lingual pressure generation may relate to parameters of swallowing speed and endurance. Additionally, little is known about the ability of the tongue to generate pressure to a given target, known as lingual control. This project collected measures of lingual pressure and measures of swallowing speed and endurance in 10 healthy, young adults. Specifically it explored if lingual strength or control of the anterior and posterior tongue correlate with endurance or speed during saliva and water swallowing tasks. Significant relations among lingual pressures and water swallowing measures were found. Maximal isometric anterior lingual pressures (i.e., tongue strength) were positively correlated with swallowing speed and negatively correlated with endurance during water swallows; however, greater accuracy of lingual control by the anterior tongue to reach small pressure targets correlated with both greater speed and endurance during water swallowing. Results suggest that in healthy adults, both anterior tongue strength and control may contribute to swallowing performance. Therefore, both lingual strength and skill training have potential to advance swallowing rehabilitation, specifically when targeting factors of swallowing speed and endurance. LINGUAL PRESSURE GENERATION IN RELATION TO SALIVA AND WATER SWALLOWING IN HEALTHY YOUNG ADULTS A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Anna Joerger University of Northern Iowa December 2016


Deep reinforcement learning methods attain super-human performance in a wide range of environments. Such methods are grossly inefficient, often taking orders of magnitudes more data than humans to achieve reasonable performance. We propose Neural Episodic Control: a deep reinforcement learning agent that is able to rapidly assimilate new experiences and act upon them. Our agent uses a semi-tabular representation of the value function: a buffer of past experience containing slowly changing state representations and rapidly updated estimates of the value function. We show across a wide range of environments that our agent learns significantly faster than other state-of-the-art, general purpose deep reinforcement learning agents.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used in many applications in the area of tracking and monitoring. WSNs have many constraints like low computational power, small memory, and limited energy resources. Most of the energy consumption is due to data transmission. For that we apply Data aggregation approach on the sensed data by the deployed sensor nodes. This approach helps to reduce the number of transmissions and improves the life time of wireless sensor network with less energy usage of sensor nodes and also to protect Data Aggregation process from various kinds of attacks becomes extremely critical. So we give some general framework for Secure Data Aggregation.


For diseases assessed by disease symptoms it is difficult to distinguish whether interventions slow, stabilize, or reverse the disease, or only reduce symptoms. For example, when testing glucose-lowering drugs for delaying or preventing type 2 diabetes, reduced rates of diabetes diagnoses based on glycemic values do not directly answer this question, because glucose lowering reduces this surrogate without necessarily benefiting prediabetic individuals. A washout could evaluate whether effects persist after eliminating any direct glucose lowering. Several trials analyzed cumulative diabetes diagnoses, from a treatment period including a washout in not-yet-diagnosed subjects. This approach is severely biased, as demonstrated by simulations, because different misclassification errors occur unequally on drug and placebo as a result of the glucose-lowering effect during active treatment and the variability of glycemic values. An alternative is to analyze continuous end-of-washout values for all patients. This requires an imputation of glycemic values after diabetes diagnosis, which can no longer be observed without distortion by physician intervention. Valid imputation is possible, because the known diagnostic criteria lead to a missing at random situation. Trials with a washout in all subjects or delayed start designs are more efficient than current trial designs, and also minimize reliance on data imputation.


Abstract:This article describes and analyzes the harm and damage rhetoric that is an important part of the conservative Christian sexual purity movement in the United States. Despite the rhetorical focus on the danger associated with sexual interaction prior to heterosexual marriage, there is no evidence that sexual purity teachings produce meaningful public health outcomes or changes in sexual behavior. One way to make sense of the movement's endurance is to understand the attention to harm and damage as a means of subject formation. Girls are rhetorically constructed as vulnerable and in need of protection and should thus orient themselves to receive guidance and protection from the church, father, and nation-state. The harm and damage rhetoric is so pervasive that feminist interventions into sexuality education in the United States can fall prey to reliance on adolescent girls as a site of injury and vulnerability. This can be countered by understanding adolescent girls themselves as not only helpful but also essential to the development of sexual ethics and theologies that are not dependent on notions of purity.


Salted fish are fish that are processed through a process of salting and drying. The contamination of fungi in salted fish can be caused by prolonged storage. Storage of salted fish that is too long can cause the growth of various fungi. One of the fungi that often grows in salted fish is the fungus of Aspergillus sp. Some species of the Aspergillus sp fungi can produce aflatoxin, one of which is Aspergillus flavus. This study aims to determine the contamination of toxin-producing fungi in salted fish in the traditional Banjarbaru market in Indonesia. The type of research used is descriptive survey. Samples were taken by purposive sampling taken from 5 salted fish sellers each taken 3 different types of salted fish so that the number of samples was 15. The results were obtained from 15 samples examined, 6 positive samples contaminated with Aspergillus flavus fungi, 8 positive samples contaminated with Aspergillus fungi niger, 5 positive samples contaminated with Monilia sitophila fungi, 6 positive samples contaminated with Rhizopus sp fungi, 6 positive samples contaminated with Penicillium sp fungi, and 1 positive sample contaminated with Mucor sp fungi. Based on the results of the study, samples of salted fish contaminated with Aspergillus sp fungi were 73% (11 samples) and no samples were contaminated with Fusarium sp.


The abundance of documentary making and instability of 'truths' in the current 'post-truth' era suggests a need to reconsider past and present epistemological claims by non-fiction. Burdens of documentary 'truth' were shed in favour of subjective 'truths' advocated by film makers and subjects. Objective truth was relocated outside the form. Documentary 'truths' are defined as performative but we should accept the possibility of 'untrue' performance. Audience interpretation of performative 'truths' also proves to be relative to belief and emotions. This unstable plurality of 'truths' calls for renewed trust in film makers, subjects and audiences.

My proposition offers coherence to a ten-year body of work where I sought to understand trauma in subjects. I emphasise overlooked film maker/subject dynamics and posit this as a location for developing trust. 'Emotional truths' may result from feeling the subject's trauma while acknowledging filters of pain on memory. The process requires a creative exchange based on an empathetic, non-hierarchical encounter. I examine how these 'truths' are constructed through 'performative collaboration' and how they manifest in the work - following consensus between subject and film maker. Apart from my own practice, I cite similar, contrasting, past and recent examples of 'emotional truths' while being critical of films and film makers refusing empathy towards subjects.
Catharsis may occur variably for the subject, film maker and audience as trauma is re-contextualised through performed emotions in the film. Ideally, 'emotional truths' might be experienced by the audience as they feel rather than merely gain knowledge about trauma.


OBJECTIVE
Clinical Queries filters were developed to improve the retrieval of high-quality studies in searches on clinical matters. The study objective was to determine the yield of relevant citations and physician satisfaction while searching for diagnostic and treatment studies using the Clinical Queries page of PubMed compared with searching PubMed without these filters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty practicing physicians, presented with standardized treatment and diagnosis questions and one question of their choosing, entered search terms which were processed in a random, blinded fashion through PubMed alone and PubMed Clinical Queries. Participants rated search retrievals for applicability to the question at hand and satisfaction.

RESULTS
For treatment, the primary outcome of retrieval of relevant articles was not significantly different between the groups, but a higher proportion of articles from the Clinical Queries searches met methodologic criteria (p=0.049), and more articles were published in core internal medicine journals (p=0.056). For diagnosis, the filtered results returned more relevant articles (p=0.031) and fewer irrelevant articles (overall retrieval less, p=0.023); participants needed to screen fewer articles before arriving at the first relevant citation (p<0.05). Relevance was also influenced by content terms used by participants in searching. Participants varied greatly in their search performance.

DISCUSSION
Clinical Queries filtered searches returned more high-quality studies, though the retrieval of relevant articles was only statistically different between the groups for diagnosis questions.

CONCLUSION
Retrieving clinically important research studies from Medline is a challenging task for physicians. Methodological search filters can improve search retrieval.


The presented paper deals with determination of the critical modulation frequency (CMF) and critical bandwidth in the case of random amplitude and frequency changes in a sinusoidal signal. The critical modulation frequency is the smallest value of modulation frequency for which thresholds for detecting amplitude and frequency modulation, expressed in appropriate modulation indexes (i.e. m and β), reach the same values. Random amplitude and frequency changes of the simple tone were produced in the amplitude and frequency modulation process by random modulating signals. The results of the investigations enable to state that the critical modulation frequency is an increasing function of the carrier frequency. It was also shown that psychoacoustically measurable quantities such as detection thresholds, the critical modulation frequency and quantities connected with it (i.e. critical bandwidth, a range of occurrence of a monaural phase effect}, do not depend on a modulating signal character (i.e. whether this signal is periodic or random}.


This Note demonstrates the need for federal telemedicine legislation that provides uniform confidentiality protection for all telemedicine patients. Part I details the use of telemedicine and outlines the link between telemedicine and privacy issues. Part II discusses current federal and state privacy law, emphasizing the laws that protect medical information. Part III argues that federal telemedicine legislation is necessary to safeguard the confidentiality of patients' medical records and proposes a uniform law that protects the privacy of telemedicine patients in every state. This Note concludes that without federal legislation, telemedicine will wither, along with isolated patients' hopes of one day receiving quality and affordable medical care.


Objectives
Malnourished older adults are at high risk for poor surgical outcomes, yet screening prior to surgery is not required and rarely conducted. For older adults anticipating elective surgery, there is an opportunity to detect and correct malnutrition prior to surgery. However, there is limited evidence regarding the appropriate nutrition screening and assessment tools to use in this population and the extent of nutritional risk is unknown. The purposes of this study were (1) to assess the usefulness of a nutrition screening tool (Nutritional Risk Screening-2002; NRS-2002) and a nutrition assessment tool (Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment; PG-SGA) by determining their sensitivity and specificity compared to the Nutrition Focused Physical Exam (NFPE) and (2) use these tools to identify the prevalence of nutritional risk and malnutrition in older, high risk Veterans preparing for elective abdominal surgery.

Methods
Older Veterans (N = 76) referred to the VA Perioperative Optimization of Senior Health interdisciplinary clinic that targets high risk older patients preparing for elective surgery were administered the NRS-2002, PG-SGA and the NFPE by trained RDs. A contingency table was used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the NRS-2002 and PG-SGA compared to the NFPE.

Results
Study population was 64.5% white, 86% male, and 72.3 ± 5.9 years of age. Results of sensitivity testing showed 46.2% for the NRS-2002 and 100% for PG-SGA. Specificity was 100% for the NRS-2002 and 98% for the PG-SGA. The PG-SGA (35.5%) and NFPE (34%) identified very similar numbers of Veterans as being moderately or severely malnourished. Accordingly, the NRS-2002 identified only 15.8% of Veterans at nutritional risk.

Conclusions
The most important finding is the alarming prevalence of malnutrition in this population of Veterans, more than a third were found to be malnourished. Additionally, the NRS-2002, a screening tool often used in the clinical setting, failed to identify nutritional risk in these patients, misclassifying 46.2% of malnourished patients as nourished. These results justify further work to more effectively identify and treat pronounced nutritional risk in older patients anticipating elective abdominal surgery.

Funding Sources
US Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Program (CDA-2/IK2 RX002348).


In order to make the most of the digital outsourced documents, based on new technologies (e.g.: 3D LASER scanners, photogrammetry, etc.), a new approach was followed and a new ad hoc information system was implemented. The obtained product allow to the final user to reuse and manage the digital documents providing graphic tools and an integrated specific database to manage the entire documentation and conservation process, starting from the condition assessment until the conservation / restoration work. The system is organised on two main modules: Archaeology and Conservation. This paper focus on the features and the advantages of the second one. In particular it is emphasized its logical organisation, the possibility to easily mapping by using a very precise 3D metric platform, to benefit of the integrated relational database which allows to well organise, compare, keep and manage different kind of information at different level. Conservation module can manage along the time the conservation process of a site, monuments, object or excavation and conservation work in progress. An alternative approach called OVO by the author of this paper, force the surveyor to observe and describe the entity decomposing it on functional components, materials and construction techniques. Some integrated tools as the "ICOMOS-ISCS Illustrated glossary … " help the user to describe pathologies with a unified approach and terminology. Also the conservation project phase is strongly supported to envision future intervention and cost. A final section is devoted to record the conservation/restoration work already done or in progress. All information areas of the conservation module are interconnected to each other to allows to the system a complete interchange of graphic and alphanumeric data. The conservation module it self is connected to the archaeological one to create an interdisciplinary daily tool.


Background: Horned beetles, in particular in the genus Onthophagus, are important models for studies on sexual selection, biological radiations, the origin of novel traits, developmental plasticity, biocontrol, conservation, and forensic biology. Despite their growing prominence as models for studying both basic and applied questions in biology, little genomic or transcriptomic data are available for this genus. We used massively parallel pyrosequencing (Roche 454-FLX platform) to produce a comprehensive EST dataset for the horned beetle Onthophagus taurus. To maximize sequence diversity, we pooled RNA extracted from a normalized library encompassing diverse developmental stages and both sexes. Results: We used 454 pyrosequencing to sequence ESTs from all post-embryonic stages of O. taurus. Approximately 1.36 million reads assembled into 50,080 non-redundant sequences encompassing a total of 26.5 Mbp. The non-redundant sequences match over half of the genes in Tribolium castaneum, the most closely related species with a sequenced genome. Analyses of Gene Ontology annotations and biochemical pathways indicate that the O. taurus sequences reflect a wide and representative sampling of biological functions and biochemical processes. An analysis of sequence polymorphisms revealed that SNP frequency was negatively related to overall expression level and the number of tissue types in which a given gene is expressed. The most variable genes were enriched for a limited number of GO annotations whereas the least variable genes were enriched for a wide range of GO terms directly related to fitness. Conclusions: This study provides the first large-scale EST database for horned beetles, a much-needed resource for advancing the study of these organisms. Furthermore, we identified instances of gene duplications and alternative splicing, useful for future study of gene regulation, and a large number of SNP markers that could be used in population-genetic studies of O. taurus and possibly other horned beetles.