Cain symbolizes the antithesis of brotherly love and stands in direct contrast to Christ. The choice of terminology used to describe the slaughter of Abel in 1 John 3,11-18 retains the ritual overtones that pervade the original story in Genesis 4. This terminology was often used to describe murders linked to a ritual act as well as fratricide. The ritual overtones in the passage emphasize the contrast with Christ. By linking those who "hate their brothers" with Cain, the author of 1 John accused them of an act that stood in contrast to the self-sacrificial act of Christ. Hatred of others meant they were guilty of communal fratricide, which is a sacrilege.


Concerns about the availability and use of methamphetamine in Europe have been growing for some time. Historically, the use of methamphetamine has been confined largely to the Czech Republic and Slovakia; however, recent signs of the spread of methamphetamine linked to different European countries have sparked further investigation of this topic. The methodology used is based on the triangulation of data collected using a number of investigative approaches and from multiple sources. The findings summarised in this paper include insights into the chemistry of methamphetamine and the history of its use in Europe since the 1930s. Signs of increased involvement of organised crime groups in methamphetamine markets and possible scaling-up of production are noted. In some countries, there is evidence to suggest that methamphetamine use is increasing, while new injection trends have been detected among small groups of gay men in large cities (London, Paris). Worrying reports are emerging from south-east Europe that crystal methamphetamine smoking is a limited, but emerging, problem, with the possibility of spreading among vulnerable populations. Negative consequences for physical and mental health are associated with the use of methamphetamine, which may also involve high levels of sexual risk-taking. Evidence exists for effective health and social responses, based on cognitive behavioural and contingency management approaches. The study notes that the knowledge available in Europe on the use of methamphetamine and the associated problems remains incomplete, and highlights information and research gaps. The report concludes that, although methamphetamine use is not a major phenomenon in Europe, even at a relatively low prevalence, it is a drug that has the potential to cause significant harm.


BACKGROUND
Palliative chemotherapy significantly reduces mortality in patients with stage IV colon cancer, but is less prescribed with rising age. In this paper, we highlight the pattern of palliative treatment and possible effects on survival among elderly patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
From January to December 2004, 78 files on the management of stage IV colorectal cancer (CRC) patients over 70 years, collected from 10 Italian Centres, were retrospectively examined. Determinants of receipt of palliative chemotherapy and their relation to toxicity and survival were considered.

RESULTS
The proportion of elderly patients receiving first-line palliative chemotherapy was 98.7% and it was evaluated according to age, gender, educational level and comorbidities; patients receiving second-line therapy comprised 47.4%, those receiving third-line therapy 14.1% and those treated with a fourth-line therapy totalled 2.6%. Forty-one percent of patients received best supportive care (BSC) alone.

CONCLUSION
In Italy, a proportion of elderly patients with metastatic chemonaive CRC are usually treated with a tolerability and overall survival similar to those for the younger population. Among progressive patients after second-line therapy, 45.8% usually undergo third line therapy; the remaining 54.2% undergo BSC.


In this review paper the chronological development of concepts of supramolecular chemistry have been discussed in details with relevant references. The topic discussed molecular self-assembly, molecular recognition, complexation, template directed synthesis, mechanically interlocked molecular architectures, Dynamic Covalent Chemistry, Molecular Imprinting Techniques, concepts of molecular machines and biomimetics. Applications of these concepts in the field of materials technology, efficient catalysis, controlled drug delivery, data storage, processing devices, green chemistry and high-tech devices.


A research project submitted to the Institute of
 Anthropology,
Gender and African studies in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Arts in
Gender and Development Studies of the University of Nairobi


1. Mounting an immune response is likely to be costly in terms of energy and nutrients, and so it is predicted that dietary intake should change in response to infection to offset these costs. The present study focuses on the interactions between a specialist grass-feeding caterpillar species, the African armyworm Spodoptera exempta, and an opportunist bacterium, Bacillus subtilis. 2. The main aims of the study were (i) to establish the macronutrient costs to the insect host of surviving a systemic bacterial infection, (ii) to determine the relative importance of dietary protein and carbohydrate to immune system functions, and (iii) to determine whether there is an adaptive change in the host's normal feeding behaviour in response to bacterial challenge, such that the nutritional costs of resisting infection are offset. 3. We show that the survival of bacterially infected larvae increased with increasing dietary protein-to-carbohydrate (P:C) ratio, suggesting a protein cost associated with bacterial resistance. As dietary protein levels increased, there was an increase in antibacterial activity, phenoloxidase (PO) activity and protein levels in the haemolymph, providing a potential source for this protein cost. However, there was also evidence for a physiological trade-off between antibacterial activity and phenoloxidase activity, as larvae whose antibacterial activity levels were elevated in response to immune activation had reduced PO activity. 4. When given a choice between two diets varying in their P:C ratios, larvae injected with a sub-lethal dose of bacteria increased their protein intake relative to control larvae whilst maintaining similar carbohydrate intake levels. These results are consistent with the notion that S. exempta larvae alter their feeding behaviour in response to bacterial infection in a manner that is likely to enhance the levels of protein available for producing the immune system components and other factors required to resist bacterial infections ('self-medication').


The eighteenth century constituted a "turning point" in our intellectual tradition: the question of the origin of languages became a question for "natural philosophy" or speculation, which in most cases avoided recourse to religion. This change had solid philosophical bases. By refusing to accept Descartes' idea that language could be innate, the empiricists were obliged to discuss its initial appearance or, in the most extreme cases, the faculties that make it possible to obtain ideas and form them into coherent representations. Two influential models are contrasted. In the speculative model, the important thing was to establish a plausible scenario on the basis of minimal hypotheses. The origin of languages is a fundamental building block in the formation of knowledge, as we can see in Condillac's Traite sur l'origine des connaissances (1744). In the historical model, which continued well into the next century, it is the accumulation of knowledge that necessarily stimulated questions about the nature of language and of humanity. In his Monde Primitif Compare et Analyse avec le Monde Moderne (1773–1782), Antoine Court de Gebelin relied on comparisons between the grammars and vocabularies of the languages of the world, and on the vast progress in phonetics made in the eighteenth century from a physiological and acoustic perspective. Thus, these Enlightenment scholars placed the question of language origin in a new scientific/natural and secular context; they were devoted to increasing knowledge and discussing hypotheses on the basis of an ever-growing body of linguistic data. From this point of view, we are all the heirs of the Enlightenment.


The p35 protein from baculovirus is a broad-range caspase inhibitor and suppresses programmed cell death in animals. We report here the effects of transgenic expression in tobacco of the p35 protein during the hypersensitive response (HR). Expression of p35 causes partial inhibition of nonhost HR triggered by bacteria and gene-for-gene HR triggered by virus. Infection of p35-expressing tobacco plants with Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) disrupts N-mediated disease resistance, causing systemic spreading of the virus within a resistant background. Mutant variants altered in aspartate residues within the loop region of p35 are inefficient substrates for caspases in vitro, and they do not suppress caspase proteolytic activity in animal systems. Tobacco plants expressing these mutant variants of the p35 protein do not show inhibition of HR cell death or enhanced virus systemic movement. Thus, HR inhibition and TMV systemic spreading phenotype in p35-expressing plants correlate with the ability of the p35 protein to suppress caspase activity in animal systems. In addition, a C-terminal truncated variant of p35 is unable to suppress cell death in animals as well as HR cell death in transgenic tobacco. Our results provide evidence for the participation of caspase-like proteases during the HR. In addition, they suggest that timely activation of cell death is necessary for effective TMV containment within the primary infection site.


Bycatch in gillnets is a global issue and mitigation measures that balance target species catch rates, bycatch reduction and fisher support are scarce. In the North Atlantic lumpfish fisheries, bycatch includes marine mammals and seabirds, and there are no permanent technical initiatives to reduce the bycatch. In the West Greenland fishery, common eider bycatch is several thousand individuals annually. We explored if bycatch in this fishery could be reduced by modifying standard lumpfish gillnets by adding a 45 cm high small-meshed net panel to the bottom part of the net. We tested the nets in combination with standard nets and estimated catch rates in a controlled setting in 2021 and in the commercial fishery in 2022. The modified nets had a 71% reduced bycatch rate for common eider and a 25% reduced catch rate for female lumpfish. A combination of the panel and increased seaweed entanglement was the most likely explanation for the effect. In addition to the effect of the net modification, the common eider bycatch decreased significantly during the season, and we recommend studying the net effect further and exploring the option of postponing the fishing season as a simpler way of reducing bycatch.


Structuring global supply chain networks is a complex decision-making process. The typical inputs to such a process consist of a set of customer zones to serve, a set of products to be manufactured and distributed, demand projections for the different customer zones, and information about future conditions, costs (e.g. for production and transportation) and resources (e.g. capacities, available raw materials). Given the above inputs, companies have to decide where to locate new service facilities (e.g. plants, warehouses), how to allocate procurement and production activities to the variousmanufacturing facilities, and how to manage the transportation of products through the supply chain network in order to satisfy customer demands. We propose a mathematical modelling framework capturing many practical aspects of network design problems simultaneously. For problems of reasonable size we report on computational experience with standard mathematical programming software. The discussion is extended with other decisions required by many real-life applications in strategic supply chain planning. In particular, the multi-period nature of some decisions is addressed by a more comprehensivemodel, which is solved by a specially tailored heuristic approach. The numerical results suggest that the solution procedure can identify high quality solutions within reasonable computational time.


Should the rite necessarily exhibit itself, at the risk of provoking those who do not share the same convictions and inciting violence ? Before answering the question, one must first recall that the rite is a sexual practice in the sense psychoanalysis gives sexuality. It is to ideal sexuality what coitus is to genital sexuality, and pleasure of the anal or oral type is to pre-genital or drive sexuality. This is why the symptomatic practice which is closest to the group rite and which is most able to illuminate it profoundly is not obsessive practice or the behavior of the masses, but perverse practice. The analogies between this and the rite are indeed striking, and many ritual excesses are equivalent to forms of perversion : this is the case of exhibitionism, of which there is so much talk nowadays. The surest way to avoid such overflowing is to push the comparison between the two practices as far as possible, and restore to the rite its own signification, which is to be speech enshrined within codified practice.


Objectives
Understanding both systemic and cellular factors that govern lipid storage in different tissue depots may be essential for understanding the genesis of differences in body fat distribution.

Methods
We assessed fatty acid (FA) storage in upper body subcutaneous adipose (UBSQ), visceral (omental) adipose (VAT), and liver from systemic free fatty acids (FFA) using [9,10-3H] palmitate tracer and from very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) triglycerides (TG) using autologous [1-14C]VLDL-TG tracers combined with carefully timed biopsies in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. We measured the activity of 4 enzymes that regulate adipocyte FA storage: lipoprotein lipases (LPL) - an extracellular enzyme, and 3 intracellular enzymes - acyl-CoA synthase (ACS), glycerol-3-phospate acyltransferase (GPAT) and diacylglycerol transferase (DGAT). Finally, we examined systemic factors (fasting plasma insulin and resting energy expenditure (REE)) that might relate to lipid storage.

Results
Storage of systemic FFA was well correlated between VAT and UBSQ (r = 0.53, P < 0.006), UBSQ and liver (r = 0.69, P = 0.0003), but not between VAT and liver. Storage of VLDL-TG was positively correlated between all three depots. Fasting LPL activity was positively correlated with storage of VLDL-TG in VAT (r = 0.47, P < 0.05) but not UBSQ. Fasting palmitate was correlated with storage rates of systemic FFA in both VAT (r = 0.45, P < 0.03) and UBSQ (r = 0.48, P < 0.03). The activities of intracellular storage enzymes (ACS, DGAT, and GPAT) were unrelated to UBSQ storage of systemic FFA or VLDL-TG. None of the intracellular enzymes correlated with storage of systemic FFA in VAT; only ACS (r = 0.50, P < 0.03) was positively correlated with VLDL-TG storage; DGAT and GPAT tended to correlate (P = 0.056 and P = 0.0719, respectively). Plasma insulin was unrelated to storage of either lipid in both depots. Interestingly, REE was negatively correlated to VAT storage of VLDL-TG (r = 0.45, P < 0.03) but not systemic FFA, whereas REE was negatively correlated to UBSQ storage of systemic FFA (r = 0.50, P < 0.05) but not VLDL-TG.

Conclusions
In morbid obesity, differences in cellular and systemic factors contribute to variations in storage of VLDL-TG versus systemic FFA between VAT and UBSQ; however, within each subject there is no preferential partitioning of FA to either VAT or UBSQ.

Funding Sources
DK40484, DK45343, DK50456.


New dentate granule neurons derived from adult hippocampal stem (or progenitor) cells (AHPs) in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus (one of two regions in the adult mammalian brain where generation of new neurons from neural stem cells occurs) may play a role in hippocampal plasticity and learning. Although signals from neighboring astrocytes are known to regulate AHP proliferation and differentiation, the precise nature of these signals has been unclear. Lie et al. combined in situ hybridization with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis to show that Wnt3 was expressed in astrocytes near the SGZ of adult mice and that the Wnt receptor Frizzled 1 and components of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway (Dishevelled1 and Axin) were expressed in AHPs. Moreover, analysis of mice expressing a Wnt/β-catenin reporter indicated that this pathway was active in the SGZ and dentate granule cell layer. Coculture of AHPs with hippocampal astrocytes stimulated Wnt/β-catenin signaling in cells that developed neuronal markers, whereas differentiation into neurons of AHPs cocultured with hippocampal astrocytes was decreased in the presence of a Wnt inhibitor or when a dominant-negative inhibitor of Wnt/β-catenin signaling was expressed. Wnt3 overexpression in cultured AHPs enhanced neurogenesis by stimulating neuroblast proliferation and promoting neuronal fate commitment. Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of adult rats was reduced when Wnt signaling was inhibited by expression of a secreted Wnt1 mutant, whereas Wnt3 overexpression promoted adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Thus, Wnt signaling, which plays a critical role during brain development, also appears to regulate neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus. D.-C. Lie, S. A. Colamarino, H.-J. Song, L. Désiré, H. Mira, A. Consiglio, E. S. Lein, S. Jessberger, H. Lansford, A. R. Dearie, F. H. Gage, Wnt signalling regulates adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Nature 437, 1370-1375 (2005). [PubMed]


In this article, I describe the experience of dancing-a-walk. My specific focus is on the shift that I perceive in my body when I dance-a-walk rather than functionally walking. Following a firstperson perspective, I demonstrate how my experience of practicing dancing-a-walk interrogates the habit of walking and makes it come alive again as an expression of the body. First, I show how the practice of dancing-a-walk challenges the dichotomy between abstract and concrete movement proposed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in the Phenomenology of Perception. Indeed, dancing-a-walk is an example of a concrete and yet already abstract movement. Then, I turn to concepts such as habits and body memory. By identifying how the perception of my body changes when I dance everyday movements (i.e., walking) versus when I execute such movements functionally, I aim to develop a new perspective on and vocabulary for a phenomenological definition of concrete/abstract movements within the context of dance.


The fused sacrum and urostyle of the
pipid frog Xenopus laevisl/Ig is a familiar
object. It has, for instance, been found at
archaeological sites and used to identify the
animal in the gut contents or excreta of predators.
Yet it exhibits a striking feature which
appears to have been mentioned or illustrated
very rarely, namely, fluted articulating facets.
The fluting, in the longitudinal direction,
limits lateral turning and vertical bending
between vertebrae. Longitudinal movement
also occurs between the ilia and the sacral
vertebra, but investigations in the latter half of
the twentieth century have not included documentation
of earlier work, nor reference to
longitudinal fluting of vertebral articulations.
In this account, previously unconnected data
on the functional anatomy of this familiar
animal and its fossil relatives on both sides of
the South Atlantic are brought together, and
taxonomic implications are indicated.


Different operational air quality forecasts (ESSEM Cost Action 0602) are currently available in Europe. However, most of them are not suitable for regional application and, also, their coarse outputs do not fit well with air quality management needs. In this work, PRESAXIO regional air quality modelling system is validated and applied over Galicia (NW of Spain), including WRF and CHIMERE models. WRF validation is done by comparison with surface meteorological measurements; CHIMERE validation applies DELTA tool with AirBase data. PRESAXIO applications include an operational air quality forecast, design of a regional air quality monitoring network, and impact assessment of EMEP emissions changes in regional O 3 peaks.


Beginning a research project can be both daunting and exciting for all researchers, whether experienced or novice. This chapter highlights the crucial stage of creating a research project from a well-developed research question and appropriate methodology that best addresses the question. This beginning stage has a significant impact on the overall study, including the soundness of the results. This chapter explores strategies for conceiving of, and designing, a research project that can both be achievable and contribute to scholarship. This chapter draws on examples from two of the author's own studies of interpreting in educational and legal settings, to more closely examine the many considerations required for an effective research project.


In this paper, the inverse problem of finding the time‐dependent coefficient of heat capacity together with the solution periodic boundary and integral overdetermination conditions is considered. Under some natural regularity and consistency conditions on the input data, the existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence upon the data of the solution are shown. Some considerations on the numerical solution for this inverse problem are presented with an example. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Can the WTO play a role in international financial regulation? This paper examines that question focusing specifically on the regulation of international derivatives, reasoning that if that complex and controversial category of instruments can be successfully regulated, international financial regulation generally is theoretically possible. It goes on to describe how such regulation may be achieved through the World Trade Organization (WTO) employing the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) framework, and then demonstrates that the vesting of such regulatory authority in the WTO is in the interests of international finance, international trade and international economic relations generally.


Earlier paleomagnetic studies suggested that counterclockwise rotating Adriatic microplate could have triggered the youngest rotations in the Hrvatsko Zagorje area (in the Slavonian Mts) and in the Mura-Zala Depression. Since the named areas are located quite far from the Eastern Adriatic coast, we decided to study the Krsko and Karlovac Basins, which are situated in-between. From the collected 12 paleomagnetic localities (Badenian through Pontian sediments) ten yielded good paleomagnetic directions as a result of laboratory processing and statistical evaluation. They definitely point to the counterclockwise rotation of the area in post Early Pontian times. The angle of the rotation is about 20° (D=337°, I=50°, k=48, α 95=10°). Thus, we have found a missing tectonic link from the Hrvatsko Zagorje, Slavonian Mts and the Mura– Zala Basins to the Adriatic microplate and collected further paleomagnetic evidence for end of Miocene or even younger important tectonic movements in the South Pannonian Basin.


Powerful Good beings( i.e. Gods) can be defined to be both able and willing to overcome evils like death and suffering.  Any such beings are by definition incompatible with the existence of such evil. If one believes such beings exists while there is still evil they are faced with the "problem of evil" making such beliefs problematic. Hence the only logical view of a transhumanist seems to be atheism - or that such powerful beings don't yet exist, while there is still evil. People that believe such powerful beings already exist must have some kind of attempted theodicy where they justify and accept such evil in some way. In contrast, a transhumanist atheists can hope that death and suffering is about to be overcome, and that we, as such beings, are about to emerge.


Aim: The aim is to study the formulation and evaluation of budesonide multi-unit pellet tablets and is designed to release in both delayed and control release fashion with the objective of less in vitro and in vivo variability. Materials and Methods: Budesonide is class-II drug and insoluble in water. The major concerns with the budesonide are its poor solubility which results into poor drug release profiles and poor bioavailability after oral administration. Control release of drug and targeting to colon is another challenging, thereby reducing side effect, frequency of dose, and improved oral bioavailability and decreasing in vitro and in vivo variability. Micronization using high-pressure homonization milling with polysorbate 80 was chosen for improving solubility. Multi-unit pellet tablets technology was chosen for this purpose, and the optimal formulation was manufactured by suspension layering and solution layering methods in fluidized bed processor (FBP). The prepared MUPS tablets were tested for in vitro/in vivo performance. Results and Discussions: The in vitro drug release of the prepared formulation compared with marketed product showed similarity f2 = 65.18 in Ph 7.5 phosphate buffer, f2 = 70.13 in Ph 7.5 phosphate buffer with MCE, f2 = 65.05 in Ph 7.2 phosphate buffer, f2 = 60.30 in Ph 7.2 phosphate buffer without MCE to the marketed product, f2 = 53.34 in Ph 6.8 phosphate buffer, and f2 = 52.51 in Ph 6.8 phosphate buffer without surfactant. In pH 4.5, pH 6.0, and pH 6.5 media optimized formulation and marketed products, significant release was not observed. The pharmacokinetic study showed no significant difference (P > 0.05) in Cmax, AUC0-24 between the test and reference formulations observed, whereas subject variability observed more in reference formulation compared to test formulation. Conclusion: The obtained results suggested that micronization, MUPS technology with control release coating, and pH-dependent coating might be an efficacious approach for control release and targeted release of budesonide to colon with less in vitro and in vivo variability.


The present study was planned to test the efficacy of Moringa oleifera on undesirable skin sebum secreted by sebaceous glands during winter season i n humans. For this purpose, an extract of Moringa leaves was prepared due to strong antioxidant acti vity. 3% Moringa leaves extract was incorporated in active cream and the base was witho ut extract. The study was conducted during the winter season (October to January). A total of eleven healthy male volunteers with aged 20 to 35 years were contributed to accomplish this sin gle blind study. The active cream and base were applied twice daily to the face (cheeks) for a period of 12 weeks. Also, the antioxidant activity of the plant extract alone and after addition in the creams was assessed using the stable free radical 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The instrumental measurements were carried out with photometric device (Sebumeter) with relative humidity (55–65%). The Moringa oleifera cream significantly reduces undesirable skin sebum during winter season in humans when applied ANOVA and paired t-sample test. Treatment with Moringa oleifera showed reduction of undesirable skin sebum secretions secreted by sebaceous glands during winter season in humans.


This Guide Book is intended to assist the prospective user of a novel range of corrosion modelling software that has been designed to assess potential corrosion under high temperature combustion process conditions. The models described have been developed through the course of the European-funded materials research project, OPTICORR, G5RD-CT-2001-00593. The corrosion models were based on existing ChemSheet and InCorr software systems. These tools addressed two separate parts of the corrosion process, molten salt corrosion on the surface and internal oxidation/corrosion. The ChemSheet modelling development consists of models for salt-induced high temperature corrosion using the thermodynamic data from within the project. The approach has been to model the salt/gas and salt/metal interfaces. Interaction between the salt and the metal seems to be dependant on the interaction between the salt and the gas. In the case of internal oxidation/corrosion, the objective was to simulate high temperature corrosion processes under near-service conditions, which requires both a thermodynamic model to predict phase stability for given conditions and a mathematical description of the process kinetics, i.e. solid-state diffusion. The simulation has been achieved by integrating the existing thermodynamic program library ChemApp into a numerical finite difference diffusion calculation. In order to illustrate the application of the modelling tools a number of examples are contained in this Guide Book, including: use of stability diagrams, modelling of internal oxidation / corrosion, modelling of hot salt corrosion and results from the gas precipitation model.


Anxiety: An Epidemic was originally inspired by the mental health crisis in my hometown, Palo Alto, California, and evolved to specifically focus on social media-related anxiety. I examined the question: How has social media evolved over the last decade and what effect does the proliferation of social media have on the young adult population? I hypothesized that social media would have a predominately negative effect, especially on young women, and set out to create a theatrical piece inspired by my research. In my meta-analysis of studies conducted, I found that more data needs to be collected on the relatively new phenomena surrounding social media usage both as positive and negative forces. The research I conducted inspired two new artistic works: a physical theatre piece entitled MASKS: An Ode to Young Women, and a children's story entitled "The King Who Lost His Smile" (both artistic works can be found in full in appendix A). I discovered that while more research needs to be conducted to definitively find if social media usage has a predominantly positive or negative effect, the artistic works I created can serve as a forum to start important conversations between young adults and their communities at large about their experiences with anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms.


Violence against women and girls is often perpetuated by practices defended by some community members on the basis of tradition, culture, religion or superstition. These include female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and early marriage. Such harmful traditional practices are underpinned by social norms, the rules of behaviour that people in a group adhere to because they believe that they are expected to do so and that others do so. In Nigeria, one in four women aged 15-49 has undergone FGM/C, and 48 percent of women aged 20-49 were married before the age of 18. Enough, a worldwide Oxfam campaign, aims to replace harmful social norms with positive ones that promote gender equality and non-violence. To better understand which social norms perpetuate traditional practices in Nigeria and how they influence behaviour, Oxfam in Nigeria conducted formative research by interviewing 20 men and 20 women and analysing the results in a campaign design workshop with partner organizations and experts working on violence against women and girls. The findings will inform the development of the Enough campaign in Nigeria. From the research and subsequent analysis in the workshop, four social norms were identified as drivers of the harmful traditional practices FGM/C and early marriage: A respectable woman marries early; A respectable woman is submissive to male authority; A suitable woman is not promiscuous; A woman is worth more as a wife than as a daughter. Women and girls who transgress these norms face four main kinds of sanction: peer pressure, condemnation, exclusion and force. Encouragingly, although the research found that respondents believe others still think it is appropriate to follow traditional practices, many of the respondents' own individual attitudes have already shifted – a first signifier of social norms change.


Studies have noted the possibility of tax treaties constraining the tax policy autonomy of developing countries, while their impact on enterprise development within host economies remains an empirical issue. This study examines the effects and heterogeneous differences in estimated effects of tax treaties on small businesses in developing countries that agree to these agreements. The study uses the ICTD tax treaties dataset and the World Bank Enterprise Survey data to set up a quasi-experiment framework for selected African Countries. The framework compares countries' outcomes for small businesses that ratify and enforce a tax treaty and those without a ratified tax treaty for the years pre-2005–2010 and post-2011–2019). We find that tax treaties signed and enforced by developing countries in Africa have a consistent, negative relationship with small business outcomes. These results are driven by the enterprise's size and internationalisation status but not by the subsidiary status of the sampled small businesses. The findings have implications for policy targeted towards industrial development alongside tax treaty negotiations.


The characteristics, experiences and long-term prospects of young people outside the labour market and education have attracted widespread international attention in recent decades, and the specific category of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been a policy concern for the UK Government since 1997. This paper examines the analytical and empirical basis of our knowledge of NEET young people, in the light of more general conceptualisations of social exclusion and the individualisation of social risk. It relates the NEET category to a conception of social exclusion in which the central policy focus is on moving young people across a boundary between participation and non-participation, and inequalities within education and employment receive less attention. This focus, allied with discourses of individualisation, obscures the structural basis of inequality in education and training. However, the paper argues that the research evidence shows that individualised approaches based on personal and cultural characteristics of NEET young people are inadequate to understand this group and frame policy. The paper proposes that stronger versions of social exclusion need to be used in constructing solutions which acknowledge the basis of NEET issues in wider social inequalities.


In a recent paper (D. Gront et al., Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 115, pp. 1569, 2001) we applied a simple combination of the Replica Exchange Monte Carlo and the Histogram methods in the computational studies of a simplified protein lattice model containing hydrophobic and polar units and sequence-dependent local stiffness. A well-defined, relatively complex Greek-key topology, ground (native) conformations was found; however, the cooperativity of the folding transition was very low. Here we describe a modified minimal model of the same Greek-key motif for which the folding transition is very cooperative and has all the features of the "all-or-none" transition typical of real globular proteins. It is demonstrated that the all-or-none transition arises from the interplay between local stiffness and properly defined tertiary interactions. The tertiary interactions are directional, mimicking the packing preferences seen in proteins. The model properties are compared with other minimal protein-like models, and we argue that the model presented here captures essential physics of protein folding (structurally well-defined protein-like native conformation and cooperative all-or-none folding transition).


T he science of climate change is one thing, but communicating the results of that science to the public is very much another. Climate change is one of the issues that will come up at the World Conference on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2002. But apart from when there is suffering from unexpected heat or cold, flood or drought, it is always hard to give climate change the appropriate urgency.

The science itself is not in doubt. Of course there are continuing uncertainties about the proportion of natural to human-driven change, but the existence of human-driven change is clear. The conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the main national academies of science (including that of the United States) represent a broad international consensus with little serious dissent.

There the problems of communication begin. I remember the editor of a leading British broadsheet dismissing climate change as yesterday's story. News has to have a beginning and an end, and often has to be artificially polarized. A process that occurs over years or centuries is hard to report on very often. Moreover, the story carries uncomfortable implications. Making unwelcome changes now to avoid possible consequences in an uncertain future is a difficult proposition to sell to anyone. With a few honorable exceptions, politicians and economists do not calculate more than a few years ahead. There are also none so deaf as those who don't want to hear.

Yet the message of climate change is being increasingly, if incrementally, registered. At the beginning of the 19th century, everyone knew that slavery was wrong. But there was a tacit conspiracy to do little or nothing about it; too many interests were at stake. Leadership, public agitation, and a few visible disasters were needed to bring slavery to an end. It also needed a new morality and sense of public and private responsibility.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 and subsequent agreements fixed large obligations on governments. None was under the illusion that the modest reduction of carbon emissions by industrial countries envisaged under the Kyoto Protocol would solve the problem, and all agreed that the arrangements for doing so were imperfect and incomplete. But at least it was a start. Public opinion in Europe, Japan, and elsewhere broadly if reluctantly accepted the idea that a change of direction was necessary, at least in the way in which energy was generated and used. The industrial countries could scarcely preach change to the rest of the world if they did not give the example.

Hence the dismay when the Bush administration pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, pleading national self-interest, and later produced a climate strategy that included substantial increases in carbon emissions. How could the most powerful country in the world, with the strongest scientific base (and yet the world's largest polluter), behave with such apparent irresponsibility? Lack of public awareness in the United States may be part of the answer. The American way of life is built on the car economy, cheap energy, and faith in market forces. Vested interests are strong in Congress and the media, and the rest of the world seems far away.

Yet change is on the way. Already business is reading the signs. The notorious Global Climate Coalition, dedicated to discrediting the science that demonstrates global warming, has fallen apart. Such major companies as DuPont in the United States, BP Amoco and Shell in Europe, and Toyota in Japan aim to do better than anything in the Kyoto Protocol to curb emissions. Even the U.S. administration shows signs of unease. There is talk of greater energy efficiency and application of new technologies. The impacts of the greenhouse effect have become common parlance. And already the Chinese claim to have reduced their carbon emissions in absolute terms. They see where their real national interest lies.

What, if anything, will be the message from Johannesburg? We shall see. Communicating the fact of climate change is a complex process involving political leadership, science, public pressure, and even perhaps a useful catastrophe or two to illuminate the issues. We should not forget the moral dimension: a sense of responsibility to future human generations and a respect for the totality of ecosystems.


Retiree-attraction policies are particularly promising economic development strategies for many nonmetropolitan and exurban communities, yet scant attention has been given to the implications of such policies for local governance. Although these policies can bring dollars with a high multiplier effect to communities while imposing low demands on some public services, they are not without costs. After exploring the positive and negative aspects of retiree -attraction policies, this article poses questions such policies should raise for locally elected officials, public administrators, and other stakeholders concerning the sustainability of such policies and their community's readiness to undertake this kind of economic development.


Melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) is an orexigenic neuropeptide expressed centrally in the zona incerta and lateral hypothalamus. Evidence from rodent studies implicates hypothalamic MCH in the modulation of varied and diverse physiological functions most notably in energy homeostasis but also emerging as a candidate mediator in reproductive activities. These two aspects of normal physiology are intimately related though the pathways through which they integrate are only just being explored. Currently little is known about the actions, sources or targets of peripheral or circulating MCH. This study is the first to describe normal physiological concentrations of circulating MCH in humans. Particular emphasis has been devoted to aspects which might further understanding of the dual roles of circulating MCH in energy balance and reproductive function. A primary objective was to develop and validate a tool with which to quantifiably measure circulating MCH concentrations since previous work in this area has failed to reconcile this objective. Following the successful validation of a radioimmunoassay (RIA), three studies were undertaken with human subjects drawn from 3 distinct sample populations. The chief objectives were 1) to detect changes in circulating MCH post-prandial in association with other metabolic markers of energy homeostasis; 2) to determine associations between circulating MCH concentrations and resting metabolic rate (RMR); and 3) to detect changes in circulating MCH concentrations during the menstrual cycle. The results indicate that circulating MCH concentrations may be involved in glucose homeostasis since there were associations between the post-prandial MCH and the post-prandial insulin response. Circulating MCH may also convey information regarding the nutritional status of the individual, though this appears to be influenced by a combination of gender and adiposity status. Circulating MCH concentrations remained stable over the course of the menstrual cycle and were not strongly aligned to RMR. Whilst there were emergent patterns and trends there were also inconsistencies between the sample populations. This initial characterisation may be constructive for future exploration of the physiological relevance of circulating MCH in humans.


ObjectiveTo identify additional data elements in existing syndromic surveillance message feeds that can provide additional insight into public health concerns such as the influenza season.IntroductionSyndromic surveillance achieves timeliness by collecting prediagnostic data, such as emergency department chief complaints, from the start of healthcare interactions. The tradeoff is less precision than from diagnosis data, which takes longer to generate. As the use and sophistication of electronic health information systems increases, additional data that provide an intermediate balance of timeliness and precision are becoming available.Information about the procedures and treatments ordered for a patient can indicate what diagnoses are being considered. Procedure records can also be used to track the use of preventive measures such as vaccines that are also relevant to public health surveillance but not readily captured by typical syndromic data elements. Some procedures such as laboratory tests also provide results which can provide additional specificity about which diagnoses will be considered. If procedure and treatment orders and test results are included in existing syndromic surveillance feeds, additional specificity can be achieved with timeliness comparable to prediagnostic assessments.MethodsHL7 messages were collected for syndromic surveillance using EpiCenter software. They were retroactively scanned for PR1 procedure segments; procedure codes and descriptions were extracted when available. Influenza-related procedures were identified and classified as either a test for the virus or an administration of a vaccine. Classification was based on the procedure code when a standard code set was used and could be identified, otherwise it was based on the text description of the procedure.Messages were also scanned for the presence of 'influenza' in text fields. Influenza test results were identified first by selecting messages with 'influenza' in an OBX segment and then further refining based on the test code and description.ResultsA total of 443,074,748 messages from 2,577 healthcare facilities received between July 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018 were scanned for procedure information. Procedure codes were present in 39,142,670 messages from 287 facilities. The most common procedures included blood glucose measurements and other diabetes maintenance activities, incentive spirometry, blood count and metabolic panels, safety observation, and vital signs.Of those, 995,754 messages from 142 facilities contained influenza-related procedure codes for 106,610 visits. 14,672 visits from 62 facilities had one of 48 vaccine procedure codes, and 91, 948 visits from 127 facilities had one of 66 test codes. Time series of both types of procedures showed a seasonal trend consistent with the influenza season. Figure 1 shows the daily counts of influenza test orders and vaccine administrations. Figure 2 breaks out the test orders by test type (antibody assay, antigen assay, PCR, or unspecified).Seven facilities sent a total of 58,182 messages containing influenza test results. These included both positive and negative results. These results distinguished between influenza A and influenza B. Figure 3 shows the daily counts of both positive and negative results by virus type; this also follows the expected seasonal pattern.ConclusionsSince procedure information was not specifically requested from healthcare facilities, the overall representation of procedure data elements was low. These initial results indicate that such data would be useful both as a supplement to syndromic surveillance activities and as a new data source for other surveillance activities such as vaccine uptake tracking. Given the frequency of procedures and treatments for chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, these data may be relevant for understanding the prevalence of those conditions as well. Tests and treatments relevant to other public health concerns like opioid use disorder were also present, suggesting a wide range of potential applications.It is also possible to obtain and extract influenza test results from these syndromic surveillance messages. Both positive and negative results were present, providing information not just on the number of positive cases but also the rate of testing and rate of positive results. The pattern of testing and results also indicates that at least some facilities test for influenza throughout the season, contrary to some conventional wisdom about testing patterns.


Abstract As part of a landscape-scale programme for conserving tigers Panthera tigris the Khata corridor was established between Bardia National Park in Nepal and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in India in early 2000. We examined its functionality by comparing the status of tigers and prey in the corridor and in the adjacent National Park, using camera trapping, transect sampling and diet analysis of scats. Tiger movement was inferred from the photographs, and tiger–human conflict was assessed by means of questionnaires and interviews. The corridor harboured transient individuals as well as resident, breeding tigers. Tigers with core areas in the corridor were also recorded in the two protected areas, and vice versa. Wild prey was 3–4 times more abundant in the area of the National Park bordering the corridor than in the corridor itself, and domestic livestock constituted 12–15% of the tigers' food in the corridor. Livestock losses and human fatalities or injuries were relatively low compared to within the buffer zones of the National Parks. Despite such problems and restrictions on grazing and extraction of natural resources, local residents were generally positive towards tigers and the corridor. The successful establishment of the corridor and the positive attitudes of local people were attributable to community development programmes initiated to compensate for the imposed restrictions, financed by the government and national and international organizations. By linking Bardia National Park and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary via the Khata corridor, a protected tiger landscape of c. 3,000 km2 was established in west-central Nepal and northern India.


Abstract

 Security risks related to information and information technologies have increased in parallel with technological progress,
and knowledge has become the most important asset for individuals and institutions today. During the production,
processing, transmission and storage of the knowledge, protecting its confidentiality, integrity and availability has also
evolved as an important issue. In this study, the risks faced by the information assets of the organization / institution, the
processes affected by the risks and the internal and external parties related to them, the affected assets and locations, the
probability of risk, the effect of confidentiality, integrity and accessibility, the value of assets, the probability of creating
threats to work effects are defined and a software prototype is designed and developed in order to track and manage the
risks and the relevant controls. In order to achieve a proper information security model and construct an information security
management system (ISMS) for the organization, the most important factors have been considered. A risk methodology is
designed, implemented, documented and risk analysis is conducted on these assets and processes by using these
documents.

 Editor: H. Kemal Ilter, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey
Received: August 19, 2018, Accepted: October 18, 2018, Published: November 10, 2018

 Copyright: © 2018 IMISC Durankaya et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.


This work reports antimicrobial activity of oregano (Origanum vulgare) essential oil against several bacteria in sausage. The in vitro minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for 9 selected aerobic heterotrofic bacteria. The antimicrobial activity of distinct concentrations of the essential oil on the basis of the highest MIC found was tested in a food system comprised of fresh sausage. Batch food samples were also inoculated with Escherichia coli with a fixed concentration and the time course of the product was evaluated with respect to the action of the different concentrations of essential oil. Sensory analysis were conducted, and results showed that the addition of oregano essential oil to sausage may be a promising route as bacteriostatic effect was verified for oil concentrations lower than the MIC.


ABSTRACT Acquiring the correct meanings of words expressing quantities (seven, most) and qualities (red, spotty) present a challenge to learners. Understanding how children succeed at this requires understanding, not only of what kinds of data are available to them, but also the biases and expectations they bring to the learning task. The results of our word-learning task with 4-year-olds indicate that a "syntactic bootstrapping" hypothesis correctly predicts a bias toward quantity-based interpretations when a novel word appears in the syntactic position of a determiner but also leaves open the explanation of a bias towards quality-based interpretations when the same word is presented in the syntactic position of an adjective. We develop four computational models that differentially encode how lexical, conceptual, and perceptual factors could generate the latter bias. Simulation results suggest it results from a combination of lexical bias and perceptual encoding.


A micro apparatus for electrochemical studies on individual high quality graphene flakes is presented. A microinjection-micromanipulator system has been employed to deposit droplets of aqueous solutions containing redox-active species directly on selected micro-scale areas of mechanically exfoliated graphene layers on polymer coated silicon wafers. This approach allows the clear distinction between the electrochemical activity of pristine basal planes and the edges (defects) or steps to be measured. Voltammetric measurements were performed in a two-electrode configuration, and the standard heterogeneous electron transfer rate (k°) for reduction of hexachloroiridate (IrCl62−) was estimated. The kinetics of electron transfer were evaluated for several types of graphene: mono, bi, and few layer basal planes, and the k° was estimated for an edge/step between two few layer graphene flakes. As a comparison, the kinetic behaviour of graphite basal planes was measured for the deposited aqueous droplets. The appearance of ruptures on the graphene monolayer was observed after deposition of the aqueous solution for the case of graphene on a bare silicon/silicon oxide substrate.


Emmy R. Williams The importance of trace elements nutrients to vegetable crops has received more attention in recent years. Accordingly this experiment investigated the benefit of foliar applied copper fertilizer on romaine lettuce (Lactuca Sativa Longifolia) grown in low soil Copper (Cu) concentration in the coastal Santa Maria, California. The various rates of Cu fertilizer applied include untreated (control), 100, 200, 400 and 800 grams per acre of CuSO 4 .5H 2 O, using a one time and a split application methods. Three consecutive individual experimental fields were established starting in late spring through the fall of 2008. The soil texture was a loam in all three of the experimental fields. Positive responses in weight increase were found due to these treatments, however was not statistically significant. The maximum responds in weight increase was identified with the one-time application of 200 and 400 grams/acre of CuSO 4 but weight decline was observed at the higher rates of 800 grams/acre. The optimum weight increases were between 4.4 and 6 percent higher than the untreated plots. The treatments significantly increased the uptake of Cu by plants (pvalue <0.001). When analyzed collectively, significant difference was found in plant weights between the three experimental fields. Crops harvested one week earlier than scheduled produced 21% lower mean weight than those harvested on time. No apparent physical damage was identified in plants having leaf cu concentrations exceeding the suggested toxic level of 150 ppm but weight decline was observed thereafter. In 2009 an additional experimental field was established in a sandy loam, 8% clay and was completed in March. Rate of applications was modified to include untreated control, 200, 400 and 500 grams/acre, at one time application only. Again Positive responses in weight increase were found due to these treatments, however was not statistically significant. The optimum result in weight increase was found with the application of 200 grams/acre of CuSO 4. The overall mean weights of the plants were comparatively higher than that of the three previous experimental fields. The weight increase was 7.5% higher than the untreated plots.


The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is the prime example of unification of private law at the global level. With over 75 contracting States that make up for an increasing number of the world's largest economies, the CISG is usually seen as a big success. However, this assessment is largely based on how States perceive the advantages of the CISG. This contribution asks how other actors involved in the legal process (such as commercial parties, attorneys, in house-lawyers and courts) perceive the CISG. To this end, three persistent problems of the CISG are identified: its problematic uniform application by national and arbitral courts, its regular exclusion by parties, and its incompleteness. This calls for recognition that the establishment of a global uniform law is not the only possible way in which international trade can be promoted. It would be equally important to allow parties to make the national jurisdiction of their choice applicable to the contract. The value of the CISG then lies primarily in providing commercial parties with a common frame of reference, allowing them to compare the solutions of the CISG with various national jurisdictions and to act upon this.


An internet based tool, the COPD-web, was developed in order to support physical activity and self-management strategies for people with COPD. By a participatory research design, we involved users in the development. The purpose of the study was to describe reflections and views related to needs, desirable content, design and potential difficulties that emerged during the process. Individual interviews (n=22) and focus groups discussions (n=9) were conducted with people with COPD and their relatives, health care professionals employed at two primary care units in northern Sweden, and moreover external COPD researchers. Qualitative content analysis was used to explore the participants' views. Our results points out that people with COPD had an ambition to take responsibility for their health in spite of limited knowledge. In coherence with the health care professionals, they wanted more knowledge about COPD. However, health care professionals occasionally viewed knowledgeable patients as a threat to their authority. Videos showing e.g. physical exercise and breathing techniques, designed so that people with COPD can identify themselves, was highlighted as desirable by all groups of participants. Further, all groups saw the COPD-web as a tool with potential to increase the people with COPD's readiness to interpret and act upon symptoms. Getting support through the COPD-web was seen as a complement, but not a replacement of the standard care, since not everyone has a computer. Involvement of users in the development of the COPD-web provided insights that may facilitate the implementation of the COPD-web to both people with COPD and health care professionals.


The boreal copepod Calanus finmarchicus sequesters substantial amounts of carbon (C) in the deep layers of the North Atlantic Ocean through their contribution to the "lipid pump." This pump is driven by these zooplankton descending from the surface layers to spend prolonged periods at depth during which time they metabolise substantial lipid reserves and a fraction suffer mortality. C. finmarchicus is principally a boreal species but is expatriated by currents flowing northwards into Arctic regions such as the Fram Strait, where it is now able to complete its life cycle. We considered how this expansion to its distributional range adds to the estimated magnitude of the lipid pump. Field sampling in the Fram Strait found C. finmarchicus abundance to be spatially variable with high values, equivalent to those reported for core distributional areas further south, found mainly in the eastern region. Lipid reserve levels were sufficient for many individuals to survive the overwintering period and reproduce the following spring. In accordance with abundance patterns, lipid pump magnitude was greater in the Eastern Fram Strait (2.04 g C m−2 year−1) compared to the Western Fram Strait (0.33 g C m−2 year−1). At least for the eastern region, these rates are similar to those reported for this species elsewhere (average of 4.35 g C m−2 year−1). When extrapolated to the wider spatial area of the Fram Strait, the lipid pump generated by this species in this ocean sector amounts to 0.3 Mt C year−1. Although constituting a modest proportion of the total C. finmarchicus lipid pump of 19.3 Mt C year−1, it indicates that the continued northwards expansion of this species will act to increase the size of its lipid pump, which may counteract that lost through the northwards retreat of its Arctic congeners, Calanus glacialis and Calanus hyperboreus.


Discussion of a group of papers presented for oral discussion at the session on electric furnaces of the winter convention, New York, N.Y., Jan. 23, 1934.


Arc current welding is a widespread process in heavy industry for the assembly of metallic components. In order to ensure the good quality of assemblies welds, it is appropriate to master the welding process but also to have a deep understanding of interactions with the weld pool and resulting characteristics. During welding, material experiences a local phase change and exhibits a liquid/gas interface with the arc plasma. Then the weld pool is stretched under different effects such as arc pressure, surface tension or gravity. This latter has a significant impact once the welding torch rotates around the pipe or any other not flat welding position, affecting the weld shape dimensions. Here numerical simulation is used as a predictive in situ analysis tool which provides additional data to real-time measurements. It involves taking into account heat transfer and fluid flow inside the melt pool, but also electromagnetic phenomena induced by the electrical arc. For that purpose, a 3D steady-state model is implemented with energy, momentum, mass and current conservation equations. Marangoni effect, Lorentz forces and Buoyancy are also included. An additional set of equations deals with the deformation of the free surface due to driving forces and feed material. This is solved through a variational approach which minimizes the total energy of surface, coupled with an ALE moving mesh. Results are in good agreement with the state-of-the-art knowledge. By keeping constant welding parameters, the gravity impact on weld shape is discussed regarding three welding positions : flat position (PA), vertical up position (PF), vertical down position (PG). Early results are promising and shall be strengthened by a comparison between model outputs and experimental data from dedicated and instrumented mockups. Figures used in the abstract Figure 1: Temperature field and melted zone shape during vertical up position welding.


This paper employs a Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) consistent shadow-rate model to decompose UK nominal yields into expectation and term premia components. Compared to a standard affine term structure model, it performs relatively better in a ZLB setting and effectively captures the countercyclical nature of term premia. The ZLB model is then exploited to estimate inflation expectations and risk premia. This entails jointly pricing and decomposing nominal and real UK yields. We find evidence that mediumand longterm inflation expectations are contained within narrower bounds since the early 1990s, suggesting monetary policy credibility improved after the introduction of inflation targeting. JEL classification numbers: E31, E43, E52, E58, G12.


This paper reviews three distinct strategies in recent economics for using the concept of social identity in the explanation of individual behavior: Akerlof and Kranton's neoclassical approach, Sen's commitment approach, and Kirman et al.'s complexity approach. The primary focus is the multiple selves problem and the difficulties associated with failing to explain social identity and personal identity together. The argument of the paper is that too narrow a scope for reflexivity in individual decisionmaking renders the problem intractable, but that enlarging this scope makes it possible to explain personal and social identity together in connection with an individual behavior termed comparative value-objective evaluation. The paper concludes with recommendations for treating the individual objective function as a production function.


The superb crags of New Mexico beckon climbers from all over the world. Stunning alpine and desert scenery, high-quality rock, no crowds, and year-round climbing are but a few features that draw climbers to places like Cochiti Mesa, Socorro's Enchanted Tower, and the Tres Piedras Rocks. Rock Climbing New Mexico is the only climbing guide that covers all the major climbing areas in the Land of Enchantment. It included hundreds of routes ranging from 5.6 to 5.14, appealing to both traditional and sport climbers. This guide includes first-hand information for area overviews and climbing histories, route betas and topos, detailed location maps and photos, as well as recommendations for equipment, and information for approaches and descents. Rock Climbing New Mexico is an essential tool for planning your next climbing trip.


A series of (E)-N′-methoxybenzylidene-benzenesulfonohydrazide (MBBSH) compounds were synthesized using a condensation method from the derivatives of methoxybenzaldehyde and benzenesulfonylhydrazine in good (crystallized) yield in an alcoholic medium. The as-prepared MBBSH compounds were well-characterized using various spectroscopic techniques, such as 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FTIR, and UV-Vis. The structure of the MBBSH molecules was confirmed using the single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) method and used for the selective detection of the gallium (Ga3+) ion by the I–V technique. A thin-layer of MBBSH was prepared by deposition onto a smooth glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with Nafion (Nf) as a coating binder in order to modify the sensitive and selective Ga3+ sensor probe. The sensitivity, the limit of detection (LOD), and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of the modified electrode towards Ga3+ were calculated from the calibration curve as 949.37 pA μM−1 cm−2, ≈84.0 ± 0.2 pM, and 280.0 ± 0.5 mM, respectively. The prospective MBBSH/GCE sensor was applied for the determination of Ga3+ in spiked biological (human, mouse, and rabbit serum) and environmental (industrial effluent, red sea water, well-water, and tap water) samples and acceptable and reasonable results were obtained.


: Purpose: Managerial conditions of economic operation of a high technology enterprise as it integrates into the global economy that is essentially postindustrial and globalized were considered in this article. Design/Methodology/Approach: An inevitable immersion of the enterprise into the well-developed external infosphere, as well as a membrane borderline between the external and the internal infospheres were shown. The enterprise was represented dually – as both a donor and a recipient of information resources. Findings: An interpretation of the content of the infosphere was presented. Multiple causes of the discrete nature of the enterprise's infosphere implementation were shown. The concept of "informational economic transparency" of an enterprise was introduced, and multiple components determining transparency levels were described. Practical Implications: The influence of transformations of informational economic transparency of an enterprise on external impacts on it from legal relations parties. Positive and negative effect of increases and decreases in the informational economic transparency of the enterprise were highlighted in the context of its influence on the economic counterpart and conflict-studies situations. The understanding of the specialized control object was provided. The optimizability of a level of the transparency in the aspect of target orientation of the enterprise was demonstrated. Originality/Value: A structural prototype to the primary support managerial toolkit in the shape of a DSS, a recommender system, allowing to conduct required feasibility studies of managerial decisions was proposed.


This research was carried out to study the physical and chemical characteristics of pumpkin Javanese noodle gravy prepared in powder form. The finished product is categorized as an instant product as it only needs to be rehydrated with warm water (60°C) before consumption. Five gravy formulations were developed with the incorporation of two types of flour (tapioca and corn flours) as the thickening agent. Physical characteristics including colour and swelling properties of the final products were evaluated. For chemical analysis, ash, moisture, protein, crude fiber, fat and carbohydrate compositions were also determined. For physical analysis, all formulations showed similar colour appearance of the gravy powder including lightness (L), redness (a*) and yellowness (b*). Pertaining swelling properties of the dried gravy, the water absorption index (WAI) values were low (2.0–3.0g/g), while the water solubility index (WSI) were moderate (33.0–50.0%) when evaluated at both hot (85°C) and cold (25°C) water. In termn of chemical compositions, carbohydrate and fat content increased and decreased, respectively with the addition of tapioca and corn flours. The moisture content of the instant gravy increased with the increased of corn flour addition. There were differences in fiber and ash content in all formulations, but no specific trend was observed. Finally, protein content remained the same in all formulations. This current finding provided information of the gravy powder produced. Further analysis on the characteristics of the rehydrated pumpkin Javanese noodle gravy will provide a more complete picture of the finished product.


The gap between who designers and developers imagine their users are, and who those users really are can be the biggest problem with product development. Observing the User Experience will help you bridge that gap to understand what your users want and need from your product, and whether they'll be able to use what you've created. Filled with real-world experience and a wealth of practical information, this book presents a complete toolbox of techniques to help designers and developers see through the eyes of their users. It provides in-depth coverage of 13 user experience research techniques that will provide a basis for developing better products, whether they're Web, software or mobile based. In addition, it's written with an understanding of product development in the real world, taking tight budgets, short schedules, and existing processes into account. Since the publication of the first edition, the business of user research has exploded with new technologies and new techniques. This second edition takes those changes into account with extensive revisions to existing topics. It also adds entirely new material on observational research, mobile usability, diary studies, remote research, and cross-cultural and multilingual projects. Explains how to balance usability with creativity and originalityA valuable resource for designers, developers, project managers -- anyone whose work affects the end user experienceProvides a real-world perspective on research. Helps you do user research cheaply and quickly, and present it persuasivelyGives you the tools and confidence to perform user research on your own design, tuning user experience to the unique needs of your product and its users


This study evaluated the reactions of seven common C4 grasses of the tallgrass prairie of the USA Great Plains to the economically important wheat pathogens Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici (Ggt) isolated from wheat. The P. tritici-repentis isolates (race 1) were pathogenic on all grasses tested, but symptom severity was markedly low. Three of the grass species inoculated with Ggt were highly susceptible, while four species exhibited no symptoms. Because measures of connectedness can provide a proxy for population processes, connectedness was evaluated within and among the seven grass species in representative tallgrass prairie environments for all potential pathogen-sharing patterns. Andropogon gerardii was ubiquitous, so all plant species were well connected to it. Andropogon scoparius (= Schizachyrium scoparium), Sorghastrum nutans and Panicum virgatum were fairly common but specialized to particular environments. Bouteloua curtipendula was uncommon but occurred in all environments, while Buchlo€e dactyloides and Bouteloua gracilis were uncommon and only occurred in upland sites. Co-occurrence of plant species was generally not reciprocal in that, for many species pairs, species A rarely occurred without potential exposure to inoculum from species B, while species B commonly occurred without species A. The three grass species susceptible to Ggt may act as sources of inoculum for each other within tallgrass prairie, with the potential to influence fitness, and tallgrass prairie and commercial wheat ecosystems in the Great Plains also have the potential to share both pathogens.


Multilingual semantic parsing is a cost-effective method that allows a single model to understand different languages. However, researchers face a great imbalance of availability of training data, with English being resource rich, and other languages having much less data. To tackle the data limitation problem, we propose using machine translation to bootstrap multilingual training data from the more abundant English data. To compensate for the data quality of machine translated training data, we utilize transfer learning from pretrained multilingual encoders to further improve the model. To evaluate our multilingual models on human-written sentences as opposed to machine translated ones, we introduce a new multilingual semantic parsing dataset in English, Italian and Japanese based on the Facebook Task Oriented Parsing (TOP) dataset. We show that joint multilingual training with pretrained encoders substantially outperforms our baselines on the TOP dataset and outperforms the state-of-the-art model on the public NLMaps dataset. We also establish a new baseline for zero-shot learning on the TOP dataset. We find that a semantic parser trained only on English data achieves a zero-shot performance of 44.9% exact-match accuracy on Italian sentences.


SUMMARY Legumes are essential to meet nutrition need of growing population in Afghanistan but have low productivity under the farmer practices. With an aim to introduce improved varieties of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and mung bean (Vigna radiata) along with associated cultivation practices, a number of on-farm demonstration trials were conducted in eight districts covering three provinces to assess their performance in comparison with local practices. The data or information generation from on-farm trials is routine but remains unutilized under the commonly used analysis based on frequentist approach. This study makes use of such prior information to widen the statistical inference framework using a Bayesian approach (BA) for analysing any future on-farm trials. The statistical analysis evaluated the mean performance of the improved and local production packages and risks associated with them to meet a given target. Evaluated at the two districts during 2012, the improved variety of chickpea (Madad) yielded higher than the farmer variety (2.25–2.40 vs. 1.93–1.94 Mg/ha), while that of mung bean (Mash 2008) yielded higher than the farmer variety (1.22–1.24 vs. 0.93–0.94 Mg/ha), both with high probability. The stochastic dominance analysis showed that the recommended package with improved variety Madad has 95% probability of achieving a target of 2 Mg/ha while such a target for local practice was around its one-third when cultivated in Baghlan-e-sannati district. Crossover in the risk curves helped to identify and quantify the region specific risk to meet a given target. BA is then recommended in the analysis of on-farm trials data.


Options for hydrogen fuel chain are compared with the existing petroleum-based fuel chain for transportation. The criteria used are the life cycle cost (Rs/km), Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions (g/km) and Nonrenewable Energy (NRE) consumption (MJ/km). Four hydrogen production methods, one hydrogen transport method, three hydrogen storage methods and two on-board energy conversion methods are analysed. Each fuel chain option is analysed in MATLAB to calculate the force and power requirement of vehicles for the Indian urban drive cycle. It is found that most of the hydrogen fuel chains are sustainable based on GHG emission and NRE use. However, the cost is significantly higher (for photovoltaics, electrolysers and fuel-cell based systems) than the existing petroleum-based fuel chain. Hydrogen fuel chains based on a Steam Methane Reforming (with an IC engine) are economically viable but have higher GHG emissions. When biomass is freely available, hydrogen based on biomass gasification (with compressed hydrogen storage and IC engine) performs better than the existing petrol-based fuel chain on all criteria. However, when biomass is grown commercially, this fuel chain is unviable. This analysis reveals the merits and demerits of hydrogen fuel chains over the existing petroleum-based fuel chains and can set cost and performance targets for hydrogen technology options.


In this paper we introduce a new software watermarking mechanism for the embedded environment. The newly proposed software watermarking mechanism can be added at the assembly level and hides the watermark in the power consumption of the device. By using side-channel analysis techniques, the verifier can reliably detect his watermark in the power traces of the device. This new approach is especially well suited for embedded microcontrollers that have program memory protection. In comparison to other software watermark mechanisms a verifier does not need to have access to the software code or data memory to detect the watermark. This makes the detection of the watermarks very efficient for embedded applications in which access to the program code or data memory is very restricted. Our watermark method can therefore serve as a very easy and cost efficient way to detect software theft for embedded applications.


We report a diode-pumped self-Q-switched 1064-nm Cr,Nd:YAG laser with pulse duration in the range of 16?18 ns. The maximum average output power up to 7 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 33%, is obtained in a simple and compact linear cavity by using a plane-concave output coupler with a transmittance of 15%. The laser operates at TEM00 mode with a pump power of 14.2 W.


Some free software projects have been extremely successful. This rise to prominence can be attributed to the high quality and suitability of the software. This quality and suitability is achieved through an elaborate peer-review process performed by a large community of users, who act as co-developers to identify and correct software defects and add features. Although this process is crucial to the success of free software projects, there is more to the free software development than the creation of a 'bazaar'. In this paper we draw on existing free software projects to define a lifecycle model for free software. This paper then explores each phase of the lifecycle model and agrees that, while the bazaar phase attracts the most attention, it is the initial modular design that accommodates diverse interventions. Moreover, it is the period of transition from the initial group to the larger community based development that is crucial in determining whether a free software project will succeed or fail.


Unwanted pregnancy continues to be a major problem in Bangladesh, despite a steady increase in contraceptive use over the last two decades. Abortion is illegal in Bangladesh but menstrual regulation (MR) is routinely provided through health services. The 1999–2000 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) data indicate that approximately 5% of currently married women had ever received MR services. Service statistics suggest a rising trend in MR and induced abortion, which is expected to decline as contraceptive use rate increases. It is observed that knowledge of MR had not significantly increased over time and women did not differentiate between MR and abortion. Findings from case studies suggest that in most cases husbands have supported decisions regarding both contraception and pregnancy termination. Understanding the experiences of MR users will help service providers to identify problems faced by a particular group of women who desperately need quality reproductive health services.


From 1979 to 1989 a million Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed 50,000 casualties-and the youth and humanity of many tens of thousands more. Creating controversy and outrage when it was first published in the USSR-it was called by reviewers there a "slanderous piece of fantasy" and part of a "hysterical chorus of malign attacks"-Zinky Boys presents the candid and affecting testimony of the officers and grunts, nurses and prostitutes, mothers, sons, and daughters who describe the war and its lasting effects. What emerges is a story that is shocking in its brutality and revelatory in its similarities to the American experience in Vietnam. The Soviet dead were shipped back in sealed zinc coffins (hence the term "Zinky Boys"), while the state denied the very existence of the conflict. Svetlana Alexievich brings us the truth of the Soviet-Afghan War: the beauty of the country and the savage Army bullying, the killing and the mutilation, the profusion of Western goods, the shame and shattered lives of returned veterans. Zinky Boys offers a unique, harrowing, and unforgettably powerful insight into the realities of war.


—This paper applies non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and relaying schemes in a mmWave based wireless heterogeneous system that aims to support Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The system consists of high power base stations, low-power relays, and low-power IoT devices. Due to the ad hoc deployment nature of low-power relays, they have very limited access to wireline power charging facilities. Furthermore, IoT devices normally have limited power and short battery life. The study assumes low-power relays and IoT devices are capable of energy harvest functionality. With the help of relays or IoT devices, downlink NOMA transmission consists of two phases. In the first phase, the BS sends a composite signal to a UE and a selected relay simultaneously by applying NOMA. After receiving the signal, relay or the IoT device split the signal into two parts. One part is for information decoding and the other part is for energy harvesting. In the second phase, the BS sends another message to UE 1 while the relay sends the decoded message to UE 2 by using the harvested energy in phase 1. The outage problem of the proposed scheme is analyzed and simulations results are presented to verify the theoretical results.


Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory arthritis with as yet unclear pathophysiology. This retrospective, multicenter, cross‐sectional study was conducted in 19 facilities in western Japan and aimed to identify patients' characteristics and factors that affect the results of treatment with biologic agents. Of 2116 patients with psoriasis, 285 (13.5%) had PsA. Skin manifestations preceded joint manifestations in 69.8%, the onset was simultaneous in 17.2%, whereas PsA preceded skin manifestations in 2.5%. Peripheral arthritis was most common, occurring in 73.7%, compared with axial disease in 21.8%, enthesitis in 23.5% and dactylitis in 35.4%. Patients with severe skin manifestations were significantly younger at onset (P = 0.02) and more frequently had axial disease (P < 0.01). Biologic agents were used in 206 patients (72.3%), anti‐tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α antibodies being prescribed first to 157 of them. Anti‐TNF‐α antibodies were continued by 105 participants and discontinued by 47, the remaining five patients being lost to follow up. Patients who discontinued anti‐TNF‐α antibodies were significantly older than those who continued (55 vs 51 years, P = 0.04) and significantly older at onset of joint manifestations (50 vs 44 years, P = 0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed that patients over 50 years significantly more frequently terminated anti‐TNF‐α antibodies (P < 0.01). In conclusion, patients with PsA and severe skin manifestations have earlier onset and axial disease, which seriously impacts on quality of life. Anti‐TNF‐α antibodies were generally effective enough to continue but less so in patients aged over 50 years. Further detailed research is needed.


ABSTRACT In October 2014, flyers appeared in mailboxes of Montana voters that positioned nominees for the state Supreme Court according to an ideological scale. The study, authored by researchers from Stanford and Dartmouth, was met with public outrage. The Commissioner of Political Practices in Montana asked me to vet the ethics of the study. The investigation led me to conclude that current Institutional Review Board (IRB) practices are inadequate for evaluating research involving field experiments in political science because there is no explicit attention in the process to protect a community. I believe the IRB should mandate that researchers explicitly address implications about how their research could affect the communities they study.


We have studied GABAergic synaptic transmission in retinal ganglion cells and hippocampal pyramidal cells to determine, at a cellular level, what is the effect of the targeted disruption of the gene encoding the synthetic enzyme GAD65 on the synaptic release of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Neither the size nor the frequency of GABA-mediated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) were reduced in retina or hippocampus in GAD65-/- mice. However, the release of GABA during sustained synaptic activation was substantially reduced. In the retina both electrical- and K(+)-induced increases in IPSC frequency were depressed without a change in IPSC amplitude. In the hippocampus the transient increase in the probability of inhibitory transmitter release associated with posttetanic potentiation was absent in the GAD65-/- mice. These results indicate that during and immediately after sustained stimulation the increase in the probability of transmitter release is not maintained in GAD65-/- mice. Such a finding suggests a decrease in the size or refilling kinetics of the releasable pool of vesicles, and various mechanisms are discussed that could account for such a defect.


abstract Long-term observations and experiments in diverse drylands reveal how ecosystems and services are responding to climate change. To develop generalities about climate change impacts at dryland sites, we compared broadscale patterns in climate and synthesized primary production responses among the eight terrestrial, nonforested sites of the United States Long-Term Ecological Research (US LTER) Network located in temperate (Southwest and Midwest) and polar (Arctic and Antarctic) regions. All sites experienced warming in recent decades, whereas drought varied regionally with multidecadal phases. Multiple years of wet or dry conditions had larger effects than single years on primary production. Droughts, floods, and wildfires altered resource availability and restructured plant communities, with greater impacts on primary production than warming alone. During severe regional droughts, air pollution from wildfire and dust events peaked. Studies at US LTER drylands over more than 40 years demonstrate reciprocal links and feedbacks among dryland ecosystems, climate-driven disturbance events, and climate change.


Abstract Between World War I and World War II, the World Day of Prayer (WDP) expressed Protestant women's Christian cosmopolitanism that combined rituals of prayer with a liberal program of social activism and humanitarianism. The WDP began as a way to unite Protestant women together across organizational denominational lines as women's missionary societies entered a period of decline in the 1920s. The WDP raised awareness of home and foreign missionary work and took up a collection to support designated home and foreign mission projects, but it quickly emerged as a site for ritual creativity. The planning committees and prayer service facilitated Protestant women's efforts to replace a traditional understanding of missionary work with a cosmopolitan Christianity that coupled American women's spirituality with a liberal program supportive of racial diversity and internationalism. The prayer services became sacred spaces to enact "unity in diversity," even though this was always more an ideal than a reality. Churchwomen used the evident dissonance between a universalist vision of a united Christian world and the realities of racial, religious, and national difference to generate discomfort in the prayer services and to deepen participants' spiritual experiences. While the interwar era is understood as a period of theological schisms and Protestant declension, a gendered analysis of Protestantism through the World Day of Prayer shows that it was also a period of religious transformation as churchwomen formulated a modern social gospel that paired spirituality and action in ways that would shape Protestant churches for the next several decades.


This paper proposes a framework for Composite Alternative Recommendation Development (CARD), which supports composite product and service definitions, top-k decision optimization, and dynamic preference learning. Composite services are characterized by a set of sub-services, which, in turn, can be composite or atomic. Each atomic and composite service is associated with metrics, such as cost, duration, and enjoyment ranking. The framework is based on the Composite Recommender Knowledge Base, which is composed of views, including Service Metric Views that specify services and their metrics; Recommendation Views that specify the ranking definition to balance optimality and diversity; parametric Transformers that specify how service metrics are defined in terms of metrics of its subservices; and learning sets from which the unknown parameters in the transformers are iteratively learned. Also introduced in the paper is the top-k selection criterion that, based on a vector of utility metrics, provides the balance between the optimality of individual metrics and the diversity of recommendations. To exemplify the framework, specific views are developed for a travel package recommender system.


Various fluorescence tracers were assessed for their applicability for simultaneously measuring fuel distributions of different volatility classes. Tracers were chosen to show significantly different boiling behaviour representing three volatility classes of non-fluorescing multi-component fuels. Fluorescence properties of the markers were investigated using a heated static high-pressure cell with respect to emission behaviour, temperature and pressure dependence and quenching influences. A combination of ketonic and aromatic tracers appeared to be ideal for simultaneous imaging purposes since fluorescence is emitted in separate spectral regions with little overlap. Simultaneous measurements of the fuel distribution of two volatility classes were performed in a port fuel injected engine showing significant differences in the fuel distributions of low and mid boiling fractions in early stages of compression. The results obtained from fluorescence imaging are compared to fuel spatial distributions gained via tomographic line-of-sight measurements using near infrared absorption which allows the application to commercial fuels without requiring additional marker components.


Unlike the defined benefit system adopted by the United States, Singapore operates a defined contribution system administered by the Central Provident Fund (CPF). When originally conceived, CPF's main goal was to help citizens save for retirement. However, over the years, it has evolved into a comprehensive system with multifaceted objectives: saving for retirement, home ownership, healthcare, financial protection, and asset enhancement. While regarded as generally successful, the CPF has been criticized recently for not achieving retirement adequacy. This chapter reviews the key features of Singapore's social security savings system and suggests some reforms to enhance retirement security for its members.


Wind turbine load alleviation has traditionally been addressed in the literature using either full-span pitch control, which has limited bandwidth, or trailing-edge flap control, which typically shows low control authority due to actuation constraints. This paper combines both methods and demonstrates the feasibility and advantages of such a combined control strategy on a scaled prototype in a series of wind tunnel tests. The pitchable blades of the test turbine are instrumented with free-floating flaps close to the tip, designed such that they aerodynamically magnify the low stroke of high-bandwidth actuators. The additional degree of freedom leads to aeroelastic coupling with the blade flexible modes. The inertia of the flaps was tuned such that instability occurs just beyond the operational envelope of the wind turbine; the system can however be stabilised using collocated closed-loop control. A feedforward controller is shown to be capable of significant reduction of the deterministic loads of the turbine. Iterative feedforward tuning, in combination with a stabilising feedback controller, is used to optimise the controller online in an automated manner, to maximise load reduction. Since the system is non-linear, the controller gains vary with wind speed; this paper also shows that iterative feedforward tuning is capable of generating the optimal gain schedule online.


The adoption of computers into every aspect of modern society has been accompanied by the rise of e-crime. The processes and techniques employed by the field of computer forensics offer huge potential for the extraction and presentation of electronic evidence in a court of law. Yet, the current research that has been conducted in this field is minimal. In this study, current and potential IS legal issues that impact on the computer forensic field are analysed. Due to the field being comprised with aspects of both law and computers this causes much conflict, mainly due to the law's inability to adapt and evolve as quickly as the computing environment.


In July 2004 Anchorage, Alaska started one of the first veterans courts in the United States. That court has now been in continuous operation for over seven years. This Comment briefly describes the steps taken to establish the Alaska Veterans Court and how the court operates. An overview of the characteristics of participants in and graduates from the court is provided, followed by statistics concerning the effect of the court on recidivism. Several potential future areas of study concerning this court are also identified. The Comment concludes by highlighting the importance of the court and by noting that the benefits provided by the court are currently limited by the absence of funding from any source.


A key problem in the deployment of sensor networks is that of determining the location of each sensor such that subsequent data gathered can be registered. We would also like the network to provide localization for mobile entities, allowing them to navigate and explore the environment. In this paper, we present a robust decentralized algorithm for mapping the nodes in a sparsely connected sensor network using range- only measurements and odometry from a mobile robot. Our approach utilizes an extended Kalman filter (EKF) in polar space allowing us to model the nonlinearities within the range-only measurements using Gaussian distributions. We also extend this unimodal centralized EKF to a multi-modal decentralized framework enabling us to accurately model the ambiguities in range-based position estimation. Each node within the network estimates its position along with its neighbor's position and uses a message-passing algorithm to propagate its belief to its neighbors. Thus, the global network localization problem is solved in pieces, by each node independently estimating its local network, greatly reducing the computation done by each node. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using simulated and real-world experiments with little to no prior information about the node locations.


BACKGROUND
Adolescents represent the fastest growing demographic group of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the United States. At present, there is little information available about their response to therapy.

METHODS
We studied 120 adolescents infected via high-risk behaviors who began receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), to determine their virologic and immunologic response to therapy.

RESULTS
Subjects were enrolled at 28 sites of the Pediatric Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Clinical Trials Group. After 16-24 weeks of HAART, 59% of subjects had reproducible undetectable virus loads, according to repeat measurements (virologic success). As enumerated by flow-cytometric analysis, increases in levels of CD4 helper cells (both naive and memory) and decreases in levels of CD8 suppressor cells were observed. Partial restoration of some immunologic parameters for patients who did not achieve virologic success was also observed, but to a more limited extent than for adolescents with virologic success. Adherence to HAART was the only predictor of achieving undetectable virus loads.

CONCLUSIONS
Adolescents have the capacity to improve their immunologic status with HAART. Lower than expected success in virologic control is related to lack of adherence, and efforts to improve treatment outcome must stress measures to assure adherence to medication.


This paper presents a tableaux calculus for the Propositional Logic of Contexts with the ist(c,¢) modality. This approach has a twofold advantage: from the user viewpoint it presents rules which intuitively reflect epistemic properties (lifting, use of assumptions etc.); from a computational perspective it allows local and incremental computation, satisfies strong confluence and can therefore be adapted efficiently to different search heuristics. The modelling of contexts as partial objects is obtained by using superficial assignments. We can define meaningful and meaningless sentences and reason about formulae containing both kind of sentences. Superficial valuations provide us with a sound and incremental approximation of classical logic and make it possible to present a simplified semantics based on layered models.