Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
(PDAC) is a poorly immune responsive, treatment refractory disease, representing
the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. A lack of
significant improvements in patient prognoses over the last few decades
highlights the necessity for a more basic understanding of how PDAC develops
and progresses. To this end, the research outlined here investigates the
contributions of SOX9 and PAR1 in PDAC initiation and tumor immune evasion,
respectively.

SOX9 is a developmental
transcription factor important for proper pancreas development that is restricted
to only a small subset of cells in the adult organ. However, SOX9 is aberrantly
expressed in precancerous lesions of the pancreas and throughout PDAC
development. Using genetically engineered mouse models we demonstrated that
PDAC precursor lesions cannot form in the absence of SOX9 and conversely formed
at an accelerated rate when SOX9 was ectopically expressed. Surprisingly
deletion of SOX9 in primary mouse PDAC cell lines had no impact on tumor growth
in subcutaneous allograft experiments, indicating that although SOX9 expression
is necessary for PDAC initiation, it is dispensable in many cases for tumor
maintenance and growth. Research investigating the transcriptional changes
induced by SOX9 prior to lesion formation is ongoing to identify additional
downstream factors critical for disease initiation.

Previous research has shown that
PDAC tumors frequently display low levels of immune infiltration, which is a
major limitation for the use of immune-based therapeutics and is generally an
unfavorable prognostic factor. We show that in primary mouse tumor cells
ablation of the thrombin receptor PAR1 caused a significant increase in the
infiltration of tumor targeting CD8a+ T cells which in turn were found
to eliminate PAR1 knockout tumors. When PAR1KO and PAR1 expressing
PDAC tumor cells were co-injected into wild type mice, cells lacking PAR1 were preferentially
targeted and eliminated by the immune system, indicating that PAR1 provides
cell autonomous protection during an active anti-tumor adaptive immune
response. Furthermore, we identified a previously underappreciated association
between PAR1-mediated expression of Csf2 and Ptgs2, and PDAC
tumor immune evasion. Together these findings provide novel insights into the
mechanisms and drivers of PDAC initiation and immune evasion.


Degradation of agricultural watersheds often reduces their capacity to provide ecosystem services such as sediment retention, flow regulation, and water quality improvement. Soil and water conservation practices can be used to enhance the capacity of watersheds to produce these services. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of agricultural conservation practices on water and sediment yield using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The study area was Sasumua Watershed (107 km2 [43 mi2]), where land degradation has affected watershed's capacity to regulate flow and maintain water quality. The model was calibrated and validated for streamflow at the watershed outlet. Data on annual average erosion rates for the area was used to constrain soil erodibility factor (KUSLE) and practice erodibility factor (PUSLE) parameters during sediment calibration while measured three month sediment concentration data was used for validation. Model performance was assessed using the coefficient of determination (r2), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (ENS) and percent bias (PBIAS). Results gave monthly streamflow r2 values of 0.80 and 0.85, ENS values of 0.74 and 0.81, and PBIAS values of ±5% and ±6% during the calibration and validation. The model also satisfactorily simulated daily sediment concentrations with an r2 value of 0.54. However, ENS and PBIAS values were low, which was attributed to the short duration of measurement. The validated model was used to simulate sediment yield for the period 1970 to 2010. Mean annual watershed sediment yield was 40,934 t y−1 (90,243,096 lb yr−1). The impacts of filter strips, contour farming, parallel terraces, grassed waterways, and their combinations on water and sediment yield were simulated by adjusting relevant model parameters. The effectiveness of filter strips increased nonlinearly with width being optimum at 30 m (98.4 ft). A combination of 30 m (98.4 ft) wide filter strips and grassed waterways reduced sediment yield by 80%; parallel terraces, 10 m (32.8 ft) filter strips, and grassed waterways reduced sediment yield by 75%; 10 m (32.8 ft) filter strips and grassed waterways reduced yield by 73%; contour farming and grassed waterways reduced yield by 66%; and grassed waterways reduced yield by only 54%. Parallel terraces reduced surface runoff by 20% and increased base flow by 12%, while contour farming reduced surface runoff by 12% and increased base flow by 6.5%. Implementation of conservation practices can reduce sediment yield and increase water yield marginally. The results give an insight into the implications of the present land use management practices and can be used to devise ecologically sound watershed management and development plans.


FOUR STARS from Doody's Star Ratings (TM) The techniques for treating cervical spine trauma are always evolving, necessitating updated reviews by experienced leaders in the field. This excellent collection of editors and authors meet singularly well this very worthy objective. -- Doody's Review (starred review) This book offers a condense overview of cervical spine trauma that is of excellent value not only for trainees but spine surgeons in general. -- World Neurosurgery This fifth volume in the AOSpine Masters Series presents a detailed analysis of the essential aspects of managing the most common cervical spine injuries. World-renowned cervical spine experts discuss anatomy, biomechanics, patient evaluation, and critical steps in the decision-making process for the treatment of these complex injuries. Chapters include: Anatomy of the Cervical Spine, Nonoperative Management of Cervical Spine Trauma, and Subaxial Cervical Spine Injuries. Key Features: Each chapter provides historic literature as well as a synthesized analysis of current literature and proposes an evidence-based treatment plan Editors are international authorities on the management of cervical spine injuries Expert tips and pearls included in every chapter The AOSpine Masters Series, a copublication of Thieme and AOSpine, a Clinical Division of the AO Foundation, addresses current clinical issues whereby international masters of spine share their expertise and recommendations on a particular topic. The goal of the series is to contribute to an evolving, dynamic model of an evidence-based medicine approach to spine care. All spine surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, and neurosurgeons, along with residents and fellows in these areas, will find this book to be an excellent reference that they will consult often in their treatment of patients with cervical spine injuries.


With the ever growing popularity of cloud computing and web services, Internet companies are in need of increased computing capacity to serve the demand. However, power has become a major limiting factor prohibiting the growth in industry: it is often the case that no more servers can be added to datacenters without surpassing the capacity of the existing power infrastructure. In this work, we first investigate the power utilization in Facebook datacenters. We observe that the combination of provisioning for peak power usage, highly fluctuating traffic, and multi-level power delivery infrastructure leads to significant power budget fragmentation problem and inefficiently low power utilization. To address this issue, our insight is that heterogeneity of power consumption patterns among different services provides opportunities to re-shape the power profile of each power node by re-distributing services. By grouping services with asynchronous peak times under the same power node, we can reduce the peak power of each node and thus creating more power head-rooms to allow more servers hosted, achieving higher throughput. Based on this insight, we develop a workload-aware service placement framework to systematically spread the service instances with synchronous power patterns evenly under the power supply tree, greatly reducing the peak power draw at power nodes. We then leverage dynamic power profile reshaping to maximally utilize the headroom unlocked by our placement framework. Our experiments based on real production workload and power traces show that we are able to host up to 13% more machines in production, without changing the underlying power infrastructure. Utilizing the unleashed power headroom with dynamic reshaping, we achieve up to an estimated total of 15% and 11% throughput improvement for latency-critical service and batch service respectively at the same time, with up to 44% of energy slack reduction.


In this paper, we report findings from a first nationally-representative survey of household sector innovation in China, and offer two major new findings to that literature stream. First, we find that 23.2 million Chinese citizens are household innovators when we include householders who develop innovations for any motivation, not just for their own use. When we include only householders who innovate motivated by personal need, as was done in previous household sector innovation surveys, the estimate is 16.5 million individuals. Reanalysis of data obtained from two earlier national surveys show that the same adjustment factor of approximately 1.5 holds in those samples too. If this result holds in other nations as well, it will represent a significant increase in the measured frequency of household sector innovation in general.
A second major finding from our China survey is that higher individual incomes are strongly associated with increased frequency of household sector innovation and diffusion. Income was not measured in previous national surveys of household sector innovation. When, in this study, we combine personal income effects with the positive impact of educational levels and technical training on the frequency of household sector innovation and also diffusion, a general picture emerges of a phenomenon that increases along with gains in national development. That is, as national levels of income, education and technical knowledge increase globally, a related increase in the economic importance of household sector innovation can be anticipated.
Both of these novel findings, we think, contribute substantially to researchers understanding of and ability to manage the phenomenon of household sector innovation.


Two-dimensional periodic arrays of noble metal nanospheres support a variety of optical phenomena, including bound and leaky modes of several types. The scope of this paper is the characterization of the modal dispersion diagrams of planar arrays of silver nanospheres, with the ability to follow individual modal evolutions. The metal spherical nanoparticles are described using the single dipole approximation technique by including all the retarded dynamic field terms. Polarizability of the nanospheres is provided by the Mie theory. Dispersion diagrams for both physical and nonphysical modes are shown for a square lattice of Ag nanospheres for the case of lossless and lossy metal particles, with dipole moments polarized along the x, y, and z directions. Though an array with one set of parameters has been studied, the analysis method and classification are general. The evolution of modes through different Riemann sheets and analysis of guidance and radiation are studied in detail.


Plantation species globally are susceptible to a range of defoliating pests, but pest damage is rarely considered when estimating biomass C sequestered by these forests. We examined the impacts of defoliation on Eucalyptus globulus plantation C stocks under current and future climates using Mycospharella Leaf Disease (MLD) as a case study, hypothesising that biomass C sequestered in plantations would decrease with a warming and drying climate, and that impacts of defoliation would be strongly site dependent. Six E. globulus plantation sites with varying productivity were selected for the study. Current (1961–2005) and future (2030 and 2070) severity and frequency of MLD were estimated for each site using the bioclimatic niche model CLIMEX, and used as inputs to the process-based forest productivity model CABALA. CABALA was used to develop annual estimates of total living and dead biomass for current, 2030 and 2070 climate scenarios. Averaged annual biomass outputs were used to initialise the carbon accounting model FullCAM for calculation of C sequestered in living and dead biomass over a growing cycle. E. globulus plantations were predicted to sequester between 4.8 and 13.4 Mg C·ha−1·year−1 over 10 years under current climatic conditions. While our estimates suggest that overall this is likely to increase slightly under future climates (up to a maximum of 17.2 Mg C·ha−1·year−1 in 2030, and a shift in minimum and maximum values to 7.6 and 17.6 respectively in 2070), we predict considerable between-site variation. Our results suggest that biomass C sequestration will not necessarily be enhanced by future climatic conditions in all locations. We predict that biomass C sequestration may be reduced considerably by defoliation meaning that any gains in C sequestration associated with changing climate may be substantially offset by defoliation. While defoliation has a generally small impact under current climatic conditions in these plantations, the impact is likely to increase in the future, with reductions of up to 40% predicted for some sites under future climates. We conclude that the combined impacts of climate change on pest frequency and severity, and on host responses to defoliation, may reduce biomass C sequestration in E. globulus plantations in the future.


Site-specific incorporation of fluorescent probes into proteins enhances the ability of researchers to study protein folding and structural dynamics. Currently, the most common fluorescent probe for proteins is green fluorescent protein (GFP). However, the use of GFP, a 28 kDa protein, requires its covalent attachment to a protein of interest. Additionally, this attachment is restricted to either the Nor C-terminus of the protein, drastically limiting the scope of experiments possible. Alternative technologies for the addition of novel fluorescence properties to proteins exist, however they are also limited by the probe size or its method of attachment. Since many proteins of interest are less than or equal to the size of these fluorescent auxiliaries, it is likely that the covalent fusion of the fluorescent apparatus will significantly perturb the native fold or function of the molecule of interest. As such, the development of minimalistic probes for protein functional studies is of great interest to the biochemical community. Acridon-2-ylalanine (Acd) is a minimalistic fluorescent unnatural amino acid (flUAA) that possess a long lifetime, resistance to photobleaching, a near unity quantum yield, and visible wavelength emissions. While there existed literature precedent for the synthesis of Acd, these methods required harsh conditions and reagents that precluded a high-yielding, scalable synthesis of the flUAA. To this end, we have devised an efficient, scalable 5-step synthesis utilizing Tyr that yields Acd in 87 % overall yield. Recently, we have shown that Acd can be incorporated into proteins in vivo and can be a valuable probe of protein-peptide interactions and protein conformational change due to its blue-wavelength excitation, unique solvatochromic properties, and ability to participate in energy transfer with endogenous amino acids (Trp and Tyr), exogenous fluorophores (methoxycoumarin), and the lanthanide ion Eu3+. Furthermore, as the need for minimalistic probes is not limited to fluorescence applications, we have collaborated with the Deutsch laboratory to develop methods for the synthesis of unnatural amino acids capable of probing the interaction between the ribosomal exit tunnel and nascent peptides. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemistry First Advisor Ernest J. Petersson


The number of women who experience breast cancer is increasing. Meanwhile there have been improvements in technologies used for detection and intervention. As a result, more women are living as breast cancer survivors who are now dealing with issues of quality of life related to the aftereffects of treatments. For about one third of women who have treatments involving the removal of and/or irradiation of the axillary lymph nodes, secondary lymphedema of the arm is likely to develop. We take a qualitative approach to investigating how lymphedema affects these women and their families in terms of task completion and family functioning. The Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response (FAAR) Model is used to interpret findings. These indicate that families who are more flexible in modifying daily tasks and who have preexisting resources for coping with stressors have more positive outcomes than do those families who are rigid and cope with stressors poorly.


Speed of internationalization is a multidimensional concept with performance consequences, but little is known about the interrelatedness between different time-related concepts. The authors address this deficiency by developing three hypotheses, which are confronted with a data set collected on site at 203 small and medium-sized enterprises. The analysis reveals that (1) the longer the time to internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion; (2) the earlier the point in time when internationalization starts, the lower the speed of international expansion; and (3) there is an antagonistic interaction effect revealing that the negative effect on the speed of international expansion caused by a longer time to internationalization is moderated by the point in time when internationalization starts. The study contributes to theory by examining the interrelatedness between temporal concepts in the internationalization literature and by showing how the underlying mechanisms influencing internationalization speed change over time. For managers, insights into the importance of time and temporality for successful international expansion are provided.


Background: Understanding the magnitude of non-adherence in pre-marketing clinical trials and clinical practice is essential. However, accurately measuring non-adherence to medication is problematic, and the variety of adherence measures and/or calculation methods has led to highly variable results. Purpose: To compare commonly used methods for measuring adherence to eye drop therapy in order to assess which methods achieve the most complete datasets over an 8-month monitoring period, to quantify the magnitude of variance in adherence estimations and to review the different methods used to calculate or interpret adherence data. Methods: Adherence was measured electronically for 8 months by participants administering eye drops using a Travalert® dosing aid. The mean number of Travalert dosing aid recorded doses administered over the monitoring period was used to calculate a percentage adherence score. In addition, the value of graphically presenting Travalert dosing aid data to classify patterns of adherence behaviour was explored. The validated Morisky Measure of Adherence Scale and questions requesting participants to report the Frequency of Missed Doses were two measures of self-reported adherence calculated for each participant. Finally, medication possession ratio was calculated from expected repeat prescription orders compared with actual repeat prescription orders. Results: For the 208 recruited participants, self-reported adherence was the most reliable method of collecting complete datasets over the 8-month period; 16% of self-reported adherence data were missing compared with 45% of Travalert dosing aid data missing at 8 months. The mean adherence measured over the monitoring period by the Travalert dosing aid was 77%. When adherence measures were dichotomised into adherent and non-adherent groups, the Travalert dosing aid found 54% of participants were adherent, compared to 60% Morisky Measure of Adherence Scale and 57% Frequency of Missed Dose self-report measures. However, there was poor agreement between the Travalert dosing aid measured adherence and self-report measures. Medication possession ratio was not a reliable measure of persistence with medication. Graphical Travalert dosing aid data presentation provided additional information about participant behaviour by indicating that most non-adherence was due to participants taking drug holidays rather than missing occasional doses. Conclusion: The analysis provided evidence about the inconsistencies between different monitoring strategies and adherence measures. Furthermore, the analysis highlighted the difficulties in collecting complete data for studies investigating chronic, slowly progressive conditions that require long-term follow-up. Future adherence studies could use multiple methods for quantifying and classifying adherence in parallel, both to maximise precision of adherence estimates and to facilitate comparison between studies. However, the authors are cautious of the effect of using multiple adherence measures on participant behaviour and their potential reactivity effects is an area for future research.


Maintaining power system stability in renewable-rich power systems can be a challenging task. Generally, the renewable-rich power systems suffer from low and no inertia due to the integration of power electronics devices in renewable-based power plants. Power system oscillatory stability can also be affected due to the low and no inertia. To overcome this problem, additional devices that can emulate inertia without adding synchronous machines can be used. These devices are referred to as virtual synchronous machines (VISMA). In this paper, the enhancement of oscillatory stability of a realistic representative power system using VISMA is proposed. A battery energy storage system (BESS) is used as the VISMA by adding an additional controller to emulate the inertia. The VISMA is designed by using Fruit Fly Optimization. Moreover, to handle the uncertainty of renewable-based power plants, the VISMA parameters are designed to be adaptive using the extreme learning machine method. Java Indonesian Power Grid has been used as the test system to investigate the efficacy of the proposed method against the conventional POD method and VISMA tuning using other methods. The simulation results show that the proposed method can enhance the oscillatory stability of the power system under various operating conditions.


Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) directed against Plasmodium falciparum-derived antigens were shown to play an important role for the protection against malaria. Although several CTL epitopes have been identified from P. falciparum sporozoite-derived antigens, none has been described for the merozoite form. Since the merozoite surface protein (MSP)-1 is a known target of the immune response, we focused on this protein to identify HLA-A*0201-associated epitopes. Using our mass spectrometry-based method [the 'predict-calibrate-detect' (PCD) approach], we were able to identify an MSP-1-derived epitope in the peptide mixture naturally associated with HLA-A*0201 molecules purified from an MSP-1-expressing cell line. CTLs against this epitope were generated from HLA-A*0201 monochain transgenic mice (HHD). They specifically killed MSP-1-expressing HLA-A2-positive target cells. Thus, we describe here the first MHC class I epitope from the merozoite form of P. falciparum. This epitope can be used as a tool for the immunomonitoring of natural or vaccine-induced CTL immune responses against malaria and could eventually be proposed as a component of an anti-malaria peptide-based vaccine.


Starch is a homo-glucose unit connected with glycosidic linkage. It is well known for its biodegradability, renewability, low cost, flexibility, and availability. However, to reach its potential in the pharmaceutical application, modification is necessary to solve the problem of solubility, retrogradation, and loss of viscosity. In this chapter, we discuss the different physical, chemical, enzymatic, and biotechnological modifications and their subsequent pharmaceutical application both as an excipient and directly as drug delivery vehicles. Overall, there were different characteristics conferred in a modification which were exploited in pharmaceutics, drug delivery, and antimicrobial preparation. We, however, believe that collation of the data on modification would go a long way toward standardizing the application of the modified products.


Over the course of one month I conducted a study of primary education in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. I compared rural and urban schools to determine what the differences were, how they are reflected in individual schools, and what effects these differences have on individual children. I visited and studied three schools in Can Tho City and three schools in rural communities outside of Can Tho. The differences expected were in enrollment, teacher qualifications, facilities, student motivation and ambition, and curriculum. Data was compiled from classroom observations, interviews with principals and teachers, and surveys completed by students. Results indicate that there are far more similarities than originally suspected, particularly in material taught, teacher experience and education, gender balance and student attendance, and students' plans for the future. The disparities are evident, primarily in the facilities, time spent at school, and education for the whole child. Urban schools offer more academic opportunities and care for health and happiness as well as installation of facts. Recommendations include more time for students in school, redirection of resources, and attention paid to the education of all facets of children.


"Pacific Encounters" will bring together for the first time many stunning Polynesian objects gathered during the early period of contact with European voyagers, missionaries and settlers. The book will present, in eight thematic sections, around 270 items with short captions, including sculptures in wood and stone; feather and basketry images; feather cloaks; wood bowls; decorated bark cloths; and ornaments and valuables of ivory, shell, bone and nephrite. The objects will be drawn from the major regions of Polynesia: the Society Islands (Tahiti), Austral Islands, Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand. Two introductory essays will place the objects in their cultural and historical contexts. The first will focus on the role, meaning and interpretation of Polynesian art and material culture; the second on the history of the collection of this material by explorers (Cook et al.), missionaries and traders, and the routes by which it eventually came to museums. The essays will be illustrated with pictorial material taken from voyaging and missionary sources (paintings, engravings from Cook's Voyages and missionary publications). This groundbreaking book will convey the wonder and excitement not only of the objects themselves, but of the cultures and cultural interactions which gave rise to them. Many were collected during the voyages of Cook, Vancouver and other explorers, and by early Christian missionaries - in effect by European 'chiefs' and 'priests'. Such pieces have remarkable stories to tell.


Depth cameras are a ubiquitous technology used in a wide range of applications, including robotic and machine vision, human-computer interaction, autonomous vehicles as well as augmented and virtual reality. In this paper, we explore the design and applications of phased multi-camera time-of-flight (ToF) systems. We develop a reproducible hardware system that allows for the exposure times and waveforms of up to three cameras to be synchronized. Using this system, we analyze waveform interference between multiple light sources in ToF applications and propose simple solutions to this problem. Building on the concept of orthogonal frequency design, we demonstrate state-of-the-art results for instantaneous radial velocity capture via Doppler time-of-flight imaging and we explore new directions for optically probing global illumination, for example by de-scattering dynamic scenes and by non-line-of-sight motion detection via frequency gating.


The fatigue crack growth behaviour of long and short cracks in two aluminium alloys used in the aircraft industry was characterised in this work. For the prediction of the life time of aircraft structures and especially for defining the intervals between maintenance checks of the structures it is important to have reliable data of the behaviour of cracks emanating from initial flaws under cycling loading. The fact that aircrafts are in operation up to their designed service goal and beyond, brings new problems that are usually summarised as "ageing aircraft problems. Short cracks, which can not be detected by non-destructive testing methods, start to grow from different rivet holes creating critical scenarios defined as Multiple-Site-Damage or Widespread-Fatigue Damage. These scenarios can end in a catastrophic failure of the structure and subsequently in the loss of the aircraft. Therefore it is necessary to know the crack growth rates of short cracks under cyclic loading conditions and to be able to predict these growth rates, so that a safe and economic designing of aircraft structures is possible. Especially about the short crack growth behaviour in the alloys Al2524-T351 and Al 6013-T6 little is known.
The extensive fatigue crack growth tests on long cracks showed that the alloy Al2524-T351 is more damage tolerant than Al 6013-T6. Crack growth rates at the same stress intensity factor range and the same stress ratio are slightly smaller in Al2524-T351. The threshold values for the propagation of long cracks are approximately 10% higher in Al 2524-T351 compared to Al 6013-T6, but this difference is decreasing with increasing R-values.
A new test method was developed, which allows to determine fatigue crack growth curves (da/dN – ΔK) for every stress ratio desired with only one single specimen. In a comparison with da/dN – ΔK curves determined with the multiple specimen method proposed by the standard E647-00 of the American Society for Testing and Materials, it could be shown that this method delivers equally reliable data. Even the sigmoidal shape of the fatigue crack growth curves, typical for aluminium alloys, is depicted. Additionally one gets threshold values for the crack growth at different stress ratios. This new method offers an enormous cost reduction to characterise the long fatigue crack growth behaviour of materials.
For the short corner crack growth experiments three different methods to initiate a precrack in the material were investigated. The completely new method to cut very small notches (10 – 50μm) into the specimen with a Focussed Ion Beam gave the best results. Precracks were initiated under compressive cyclic loading, which were less than 100μm long (notch + crack). It was also found that when using notches with less than 30μm length, cracks often initiated at other sites like precipitation particles or scratches in the surface of the specimen. Although the method of creating precracks under compressive cyclic loads was actually developed for through thickness notches, it could be proven that it also works very well for notches at the edge of a hole.
The fatigue crack growth tests on specimens with a short corner crack showed for both aluminium alloys the typical short crack behaviour. The cracks grow faster compared to long cracks at the same stress intensity factor range and at the same stress ratio. They also grow below the threshold of the stress intensity factor range for the propagation of long cracks. Below the threshold values determined with high, constant Kmax-tests short cracks grew but stopped after a extension of a few μm.
The threshold values determined for short cracks with the stepwise increasing load method are in the range of the effective threshold of the stress intensity factor range for long cracks mentioned in the literature. For both aluminium alloys this effective threshold is around 1MPam1/2.
Different models to predict the fatigue crack growth rates in materials were compared and their suitability to describe the short crack growth phenomenon was analysed. Although some of them give good approximations, none was found to be satisfying. Some gave non-conservative predictions; others are not very handy tools for an engineer in designing structures.
The applicability of the stress intensity factor to describe the short crack growth behaviour was also examined. Although short cracks violate the rules of linear elastic fracture mechanics, it was shown that with corrections derived from elastic plastic fracture mechanics concepts, the typical short crack growth behaviour "disappears".
On the basis of the fatigue crack growth data derived from constant Kmax-tests a model was developed with which it is possible to predict the short crack growth behaviour at different stress ratios. The comparison with the experimental short crack growth data showed very good agreement. This model is a handy tool for engineers in the designing of structures and components and needs only little experimental expenditure.


Abstract Using data from two palaeontological databases, MIOMAP and FAUNMAP (now linked as NEOMAP), we explore how late Quaternary species loss compared in large and small mammals by determining palaeospecies-area relationships (PSARs) at 19 temporal intervals ranging from c. 30 million to 500 years ago in 10 different biogeographical provinces in the USA. We found that mammalian diversity of both large and small mammals remained relatively stable from 30 million years ago up until both crashed near the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. The diversity crash had two components: the well-known megafaunal extinction that amounted to c. 21% of the pre-crash species, and collateral biodiversity loss due to biogeographical range reductions. Collateral loss resulted in large mammal diversity regionally falling an additional 6–31% above extinction loss, and small mammal diversity falling 16–51%, even though very few small mammals suffered extinction. These results imply that collateral losses due to biogeographical range adjustments may effectively double the regional diversity loss during an extinction event, substantially magnifying the ecological ramifications of the extinctions themselves. This is of interest in forecasting future ecological impacts of mammal extinctions, given that c. 8% of USA mammal species, and 22% of mammal species worldwide, are now considered 'Threatened' by the IUCN.


Objetive : This research aimed to verify the performance of thermally activated acrylic resin (TAAR) combined with a mix of glass and aramid fibers and/or composite resin of indirect use by a tree point bending test. Material and Methods: Ten samples, with 65 x 10 x 2.5 mm, were prepared for each group (n = 10): CO, control of only TAAR; CR, in which an 60 mm indirect composite resin was polymerized together with the acrylic resin during the thermo-polymerization cycle; SS, in which ceramic glass mixed with aramid fibers cut 60 mm in length were incorporated into the samples; and SC, in which the same fibers were incorporated with addiction of the indirect composite resin. A three-point flexural strength test was performed with a universal testing machine with a load of 50KgF at a speed of 5 mm/min in the center of the samples supported by a suitable device. The reinforced face was placed to the tensile side. The statistical one-way ANOVA and Tukey tests were made with a significance level of 95%. Results : The mean value for the CO was 60,27 ± 24,18 MPa, for CR it was 38,39±12,75 MPa, for SS it was 79,97±12,75 Mpa and for CS it was 32,40±9,05 MPa. Conclusion : The use of glass and aramid fibers at the base of a TAAR increased the three-point flexural strength, however when indirect composite resin was incorporated, a significant drop of this mechanical property was observed. Keywords Acrylic resin; Complete denture; Composite resin.


The additional power absorbed by the plasma can be determined from the time derivative of the total plasma energy, which can be estimated from the diamagnetic flux of the plasma using a diamagnetic loop. The main difficulty in using diamagnetic measurements to estimate the kinetic energy is the compensation of the flux measurement sensitivity to poloidal magnetic fields, which is not always easy to adjust. A method based on the temporal variations of the diamagnetic flux of the plasma during modulated electron cyclotron heating (MECH) has been developed. Using MECH has the advantage that these poloidal fields are not significantly modulated and a good compensation of these fields is not necessary. However, a good compensation of the vessel poloidal image current is crucial to ensure a sufficiently large bandwidth. The application of this diagnostic to studies of the extraordinary mode (X-mode) absorption at the third electron cyclotron harmonic frequency (X3) has been performed on the TCV tokamak in plasmas pre-heated by the X-mode at the second harmonic (X2). A MECH frequency scan has allowed the determination of an optimum modulation frequency, situated at about 200-250 Hz. Based on this diagnostic, full single-pass absorption of the injected X3 power was measured with the X2 pre-heating in co-current drive. This high absorption is more than a factor of 2 higher than that predicted by the linear ray tracing code TORAY. Experimental evidence indicates that a large fraction of the X3 power is absorbed by electrons in an energetic tail created by the X2 pre-heating.


Algorithms are now currently used for the retrieval of cloud optical thickness and droplet effective radius from multispectral radiance measurements. This paper extends their application to the retrieval of cloud droplet number concentration, cloud geometrical thickness, and liquid water path in shallow convective clouds, using an algorithm that was previously tested with airborne measurements of cloud radiances and validated against in situ measurements of the same clouds. The retrieval is based on a stratified cloud model of liquid water content and droplet spectrum. Radiance measurements in visible and near-infrared channels of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which is operated from the NASA platforms Terra and Aqua, are analyzed. Because of uncertainties in the simulation of the continental surface reflectance, the algorithm is presently limited to the monitoring of the microphysical structure of boundary layer clouds over the ocean. Two MODIS scenes of extended cloud fields over the North Atlantic Ocean trade wind region are processed. A transport and dispersion model (the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model, HYSPLIT4) is also used to characterize the origin of the air masses and hence their aerosol regimes. One cloud field formed in an air mass that was advected from southern Europe and North Africa. It shows high values of the droplet concentration when compared with the second cloud system, which developed in a more pristine environment. The more pristine case also exhibits a higher geometrical thickness and, thus, liquid water path, which counterbalances the expected cloud albedo increase of the polluted case. Estimates of cloud liquid water path are then compared with retrievals from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). SSM/I-derived liquid water paths are in good agreement with the MODIS-derived values.


An eventual objective of mobile robotics research is to bestow the robot with high cerebral skill, of which navigation in an unfamiliar environment can be succeeded by using on‐line sensory information, which is essentially starved of humanoid intermediation. This research emphases on mechanical design of real mobile robot, its kinematic & dynamic model analysis and selection of AI technique based on perception, cognition, sensor fusion, path scheduling and analysis, which has to be implemented in robot for achieving integration of different preliminary robotic behaviors (e.g. obstacle avoidance, wall and edge following, escaping dead end and target seeking). Navigational paths as well as time taken during navigation by the mobile robot can be expressed as an optimization problem and thus can be analyzed and solved using AI techniques. The optimization of path as well as time taken is based on the kinematic stability and the intelligence of the robot controller. A set of linguistic fuzzy rules are developed to implement expert knowledge under various situations. Both of Mamdani and Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model are employed in control algorithm for experimental purpose. Neural network has also been used to enhance and optimize the outcome of controller, e.g. by introducing a learning ability. The cohesive framework combining both fuzzy inference system and neural network enabled mobile robot to generate reasonable trajectories towards the target. An authenticity checking has been done by performing simulation as well as experimental results which showed that the mobile robot is capable of avoiding stationary obstacles, escaping traps, and reaching the goal efficiently.


Individual and household based aggregate measures of joblessness can, and do, offer conflicting signals about labour market performance if work is unequally distributed. This paper introduces a simple set of indices that can be used to measure the extent of divergence between individual and household-based jobless measures. The indices, built around a comparison of the actual household jobless rate with that which would occur if work were randomly distributed over the working age population, conform to basic consistency axioms and can be decomposed to try to identify the likely source of any disparity between nonemployment rates calculated at the 2 levels of aggregation. Applying these measures to data for Britain, we show that there has been a growing disparity ? polarisation - between the individual and household based jobless measures that are largely unrelated to changes in household structure or the principal characteristics associated with individual joblessness.


In this article we investigate the question how meromorphic differential equations can be simplified by meromorphic equivalence. In the case of equations of block size 1, which generalizes the case of distinct eigenvalues, we identify a class of equations which are simplest possible in the sense that they carry the smallest number of parameters whithin their equivalence classes. We also discuss conditions under which individual equations can be simplified. Particular attention is paid to the requirement that the involved transformations can be explicitly computed.


The mechanism associated with the increased bioavailability of tacrine as a result of a 24‐h period of fasting was examined in rats. The AUC value for tacrine after the fasting was 52% higher compared with normal feeding when 4 mg kg−1 of tacrine was orally administered, but the value for velnacrine, a hydroxylated metabolite of tacrine, was reduced by 10%. The relative metabolic ratio of tacrine in urinary excretion (Autacrine divided by Auvelnacrine) was lower in fasted rats compared with normally fed rats. This clearly shows that metabolism of tacrine is reduced with 24‐h fasting after oral administration. Altered intestinal permeation in the fasting state was hypothesized, and the transport of tacrine across the rat intestine was studied. When a fasted intestine was mounted in an Ussing chamber, the mucosal‐to‐serosal permeability of tacrine was increased to double that for a fed rat intestine. To examine the effect of absorption rate on the hepatic metabolism of tacrine, a direct pyloric vein infusion study was carried out. Compared with an infusion of tacrine for 5 min, a slow infusion of tacrine over a period of 30 or 60 min increased the hepatic metabolism of tacrine and decreased its systemic clearance in rats. Collectively, these results suggest that rapid transport across the intestine aids tacrine in avoiding hepatic first‐pass metabolism and enhances its bioavailability in fasted rats. From these findings, we conclude that both oral administration before a meal and a reduction in the dose might be recommended in tacrine therapy considering the serious hepatotoxicity of tacrine in clinical use.


The healthcare sector in the Western world is in the midst of a significant change. Most healthcare organizations are going through the grueling process of having to make decisions and staying updated in a world where technology, medical information, demographics of patients and relationships between other healthcare systems are constantly changing (Cohen et al., 2004). Besides, governments throughout the developed world have been under pressure to reduce healthcare costs, while improving the quality of care (Howie & Erickson, 2002; McCue, 1997; Segesten, Lundgren & Lindstrom, 1998).

In such an environment, healthcare service providers are finding it increasingly difficult to understand the far-reaching social impact of their services. This project uses the concept of flourishing to help clinicians and administrators in a hospital to analyze their current service offerings, find gaps and come up with recommendations to improve the same. Keyes' (1998, 2002) defined human flourishing as the sum of qualities that would ensure a healthy sense of well-being and social integration. There is a special focus on understanding the context and stakeholders using the adapted social ecosystem model of Bronfenbrenner (1979), which will help in identifying functions and measures of flourishing across a social system. Using the Flourishing Business Canvas (Upward and Jones, 2016), this research project explores ways of impact definition and evaluation and also measures social and environmental benefits which will help decision makers in a healthcare setting.

The research looks at relevant literature in the field of business models, sustainability, and flourishing, with health care as the context. This action-led design research introduced a business modeling artifact (the Flourishing Business canvas) to a group of decision makers at the level of director and managers, in North York General Hospital in a generative workshop session. The participants are encouraged to look at their service lines as businesses and map out that out on the canvas in the form of a model. Their observation, reactions, and data from the canvases are recorded. This and data from interviews with other clinical directors are tallied and analyzed to look for common challenges faced by the hospital and areas of opportunities.

The unique contribution is the design of a process and method for representing conditions and elements of flourishing within healthcare service lines: a business process that is currently desired but unavailable to organizations (Jones, 2016, personal conversation). The research findings are used to come up with a design proposal which could be used to use the data from the proposed new process.


Abstract The enigmatic concretionary exposures that typify the Chañares Formation (Ladinian, northwestern Argentina) long have defied precise paleoenvironmental characterization. Recent work indicates that the formation accumulated in an alluvial-to-lacustrine setting within an active rift basin that received sedimentary detritus from surrounding highlands, as well as copious amounts of volcanic ash. Ash- flow sheets were emplaced presumably as secondary mass flows on alluvial surfaces characterized by small fluvial channels and shallow lakes. Thin bentonite beds intercalated in the Chañares Formation indicate that ash also accumulated via direct airfall, although this mode of emplacement accounts for a very small fraction of the overall section. A shift to widespread lacustrine deposition is recorded by the superjacent Los Rastros Formation, which preserves at least six shallowing-upward hemicycles, five of which commenced amidst explosive volcanic activity as evidenced by intercalated bentonite beds. Volcanism played an important role in the generation and preservation of the Chañares Formation's exceptional tetrapod fossil record. This is especially true of the classic Los Chañares locality, where more than 100 individuals representing a diverse array of taxa (archosaurs, cynodonts, dicynodonts) are entombed in volcanogenic concretions with matrices of relic glass shards diagenetically replaced by calcite. Taphonomic attributes of the Los Chañares locality are consistent with the scenario of mass mortality, and several clues hint at the nature of the event. The killing agent was lethal to a variety of taxa, killed both adults and juveniles, and led to the concentration of taxa that under normal circumstances would tend to dissociate, such as carnivores and their potential prey. It also produced a counterintuitive bias against the preservation of large-bodied taxa, which may have been largely unsusceptible to the death event, or perhaps were excluded from the Los Chañares death assemblage via post-mortem sorting. The spatial arrangement of skeletal material in a small sample of concretions is consistent with the stranding of tetrapod carcasses along a strandline, and it is feasible that volcanism led to catastrophic flooding of the landscape via damming and/or diversion of local drainages. Uncompacted skeletal elements and relic outlines of glass shards indicate that carbonate concretions formed shortly after skeletal material was buried in reworked volcanic ash. The microbial decay of organic matter presumably catalyzed concretion diagenesis. There is no indication that bone hydroxyapatite diffused into the entombing glassy matrix and contributed to concretion formation. Bones entombed within early diagenetic concretions were safeguarded from subsequent destructive pedogenic and/or diagenetic processes, and were incorporated in exquisite quality into the fossil record.


If we are to approach rehabilitation of memory-impaired patients in a systematic
and efficacious way, then it is vital to know if the human memory system has the
propensity for plasticity in adulthood, the limiting factors on such plasticity, and
the timescales of any plastic change. This thesis was motivated by an attempt
to develop a body of knowledge in relation to these questions. There is wide
agreement that the hippocampus plays a key role in navigation and memory
across species. Evidence from animal studies suggests that spatial memoryrelated
hippocampal volume changes and experience-related hippocampal
neurogenesis takes place throughout the lifespan. Previous studies in humans
indicated that expert navigators, licensed London taxi drivers, have different
patterns of hippocampal grey matter volume relative to control participants. In
addition, preliminary evidence also suggested there may be functional
consequences associated with this grey matter pattern.
Using licensed London taxi drivers as a model for learning and memory, the
work undertaken centered on four key issues: (1) In a set of studies, I
characterised the neuropsychological profile of licensed London taxi drivers in
detail, which included devising a number of new table-top associational memory
tests. This enabled me to assess the functional consequences of their expertise
and hippocampal grey matter pattern in greater depth than previous studies. (2)
In order to explore the effects of taxi drivers' expertise in more naturalistic
settings, I also examined how well they could learn the layout of an unfamiliar
town compared with a group of non-taxi drivers, and how effectively taxi drivers
could integrate a new district into their existing spatial representation of London.
(3) I then conducted a study on experts whose knowledge was much less spatial
than taxi drivers in order to examine if the effects on hippocampal grey matter
and neuropsychology were general or whether they were specific to the spatial
domain. (4) Given that previous taxi driver studies were cross-sectional, the
question of whether the human hippocampus can exhibit spatial memory-related
structural plasticity in adulthood was uncertain. I therefore conducted a
longitudinal study which assessed participants both pre and post taxi driver
training using structural MRI and neuropsychological measures. This enabled
me to investigate, within subjects, whether hippocampal volume changes can be
acquired in response to intense spatial stimulation. In addition, I explored whether ceasing to be a taxi driver (i.e. retiring after many years on the job)
resulted in 'reverse' plasticity.
I found evidence for hippocampal plasticity within individuals as a result of their
intense acquisition of spatial knowledge over a number of years that was
associated with qualifying to be a licensed London taxi driver, and preliminary
evidence of reverse plasticity when taxi drivers retire. This suggests that
hippocampal structure and memory ability can be modified in response to
environmental factors and are not necessarily hard-wired. However, my results
also provide some insights into the boundaries within which human memory
operates, as I identified both positive and negative cognitive consequences of
being an expert navigator, and also established that the MRI and
neuropsychology effects of expertise on the hippocampus may be restricted to
the spatial domain.


In this thesis I attempt to gather together a wide range of cladistic analysis of fossil and extant taxa representing a diverse array of phylogenetic groups. I use this data to quantitatively compare the effect of fossil taxa relative to extant taxa in terms of support for relationships, number of most parsimonious trees (MPTs) and leaf stability. In line with previous studies I find that the effects of fossil taxa are seldom different to extant taxa – although I highlight some interesting exceptions. I also use this data to compare the phylogenetic signal within vertebrate morphological data sets, by choosing to compare cranial data to postcranial data. Comparisons between molecular data and morphological data have been previously well explored, as have signals between different molecular loci. But comparative signal within morphological data sets is much less commonly characterized and certainly not across a wide array of clades. With this analysis I show that there are many studies in which the evidence provided by cranial data appears to be be significantly incongruent with the postcranial data – more than one would expect to see just by the effect of chance and noise alone. I devise and implement a modification to a rarely used measure of homoplasy that will hopefully encourage its wider usage. Previously it had some undesirable bias associated with the distribution of missing data in a dataset, but my modification controls for this. I also take an in-depth and extensive review of the ILD test, noting it is often misused or reported poorly, even in recent studies. Finally, in attempting to collect data and metadata on a large scale, I uncovered inefficiencies in the research publication system that obstruct re-use of data and scientific progress. I highlight the importance of replication and reproducibility – even simple re-analysis of high profile papers can turn up some very different results. Data is highly valuable and thus it must be retained and made available for further re-use to maximize the overall return on research investment.


It is commonly recognized that social media presents vast new opportunities for terrorist groups seeking to radicalize audiences. However, few scholars have studied the actual mechanisms by which radicalizing messages are delivered to those audiences. Within this paper, the author explores one key aspect of the phenomenon of 'jihadi cool' – that is, the rendering of pro-Islamic terrorism into something hip and trendy among online audiences. Discussed is the use of political jamming: a subversive, satirical activity that draws on humor to reinforce ideological messages. The opportunity for countering these messages through the same technique is also considered.


Background: One of the most common aesthetic problem encountered in the field of periodontology is gingival recession, which is, perceived by the patients as increase in length of teeth. The treatment of buccal gingival recession is a common requirement due to aesthetic concern or root sensitivity. This study was planned to evaluate the efficacy of PRF membrane compared to that of CTG in Miller's class I gingival recessions. Materials and Methods: 32 sites with Miller's Class I gingival recessions, out of which 16 sites received PRF (test) and 16 sites received CTG (control). Each patient had undergone an initial periodontal treatment, including oral hygiene instructions, plaque control, and scaling and root planing, followed by re-evaluation. All clinical recordings; recession height, recession width, clinical attachment level, height of keratinized tissue, thickness of keratinized tissue, healing index and pain perception, were performed immediately before surgery (baseline) and after 6 months interval following periodontal surgery. Results: In the test group, significant improvement was seen in terms CAL, REC-HT, REC-WD, HKT and TKT from baseline to 6 months. In the control group, only significant improvement seen was in REC-HT and TKT from baseline to 6 months. Comparison of both Healing Index and VAS score was done and it showed no significant difference between test and the control group except VAS at 1 week. Conclusion: Though CTG is a gold standard procedure, PRF can be used as an alternative procedure by keeping patient's comfort and recognition in mind.


Ontology matching is the process of finding semantic correspondences between entities from different ontologies. As an effective solution to linking different heterogeneous ontologies, ontology matching has attracted considerable attentions in recent years. In this paper, we propose a novel graph-based approach to ontology matching problem. Different from previous work, we formulate ontology matching as a random walk process on the association graph constructed from the to-be-matched ontologies. In particular, two variants of the conventional random walk process, namely, Affinity-Preserving Random Walk (APRW) and Mapping-Oriented Random Walk (MORW), have been proposed to alleviate the adverse effect of the false-mapping nodes in the association graph and to incorporate the 1-to-1 matching constraints presumed in ontology matching, respectively. Experiments on the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI1) datasets show that our approach achieves a competitive performance when compared with state-of-the-art systems, even though our approach does not utilize any external resources.


Using a model derived from lubrication theory, we consider the evolution of a thin viscous film coating the interior or exterior of a cylindrical tube. The flow is driven by surface tension and gravity and the liquid is assumed to wet the cylinder perfectly. When the tube is horizontal, we use large-time simulations to describe the bifurcation structure of the capillary equilibria appearing at low Bond number. We identify a new film configuration in which an isolated dry patch appears at the top of the tube and demonstrate hysteresis in the transition between rivulets and annular collars as the tube length is varied. For a tube tilted to the vertical, we show how a long initially uniform rivulet can break up first into isolated drops and then annular collars, which subsequently merge. We also show that the speed at which a localized drop moves down the base of a tilted tube is nonmonotonic in tilt angle.


The authors previously presented a methodology for incorporating perfect extracted MRI anatomical boundary estimates to improve the performance of penalized likelihood (PL) emission computed tomography (ECT) image reconstruction and ECT tracer uptake estimation. This technique used a spatially variant quadratic Gibbs penalty which enforced smoothness everywhere in the ECT image except across the MRI-extracted boundary of the ROI. When high quality estimates of the anatomical boundary are available and MRI and ECT images are perfectly registered, the performance of this Gibbs penalty method is very close to that attainable using perfect side information, i.e., an errorless anatomical boundary estimate. However when the variance of the MRI-extracted boundary estimate becomes significant this method performs poorly. Here we present a modified Gibbs penalty function which accounts for errors in side information based on an asymptotic min-max robustness approach. The resulting penalty is implemented with a set of averaged Gibbs weights where the averaging is performed with respect to a limiting form of the min-max induced posterior distribution of the MRI boundary parameters. Examples are presented for tracer uptake estimation using the SAGE version of the EM algorithm and various parameterizations of the anatomical boundaries.


Tourism-one of the world's largest industries-has long been appreciated for its economic benefits, but in this volume tourism receives a unique systematic scrutiny as a medium for cultural exchange. Modern developments in technology and industry, together with masterful advertising, have created temporarily leisured people with the desire and the means to travel. They often in turn effect profound cultural change in the places they visit, and the contributors to this work all attend to the impact these "guests" have on their "hosts." In contrast to the dramatic economic transformations, the social repercussions of tourism are subtle and often recognized only by the indigenous peoples themselves and by the anthropologists who have studied them before and after the introduction of tourism. The case studies in Hosts and Guests examine the five types of tourism-historical, cultural, ethnic, environmental, and recreational-and their impact on diverse societies over a broad geographical range


Poor literacy achievement among English learners has contributed significantly to their high dropout rates, poor job prospects, and high poverty rates. The National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth has suggested that English learners benefit from the same direct, systematic instruction in the five essential components of reading shown effective for native-English-speaking students: phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Implementing effective reading instructional practices for English learners may reduce the literacy achievement gap between English learners and native English speakers. In this study, we used multiple regression to examine data for 1,376 third-grade Latino English learners to determine the strength of oral English proficiency, oral reading fluency, and academic vocabulary knowledge as predictors of reading comprehension proficiency. Findings of this study indicate a mismatch between English learners' instructional needs and a widely used reading program component, assessment of words correct per minute (as a measure of oral reading fluency). Significant conclusions of this study suggest that educators seeking to promote the reading comprehension proficiency of Latino English learners consider using words correct per minute assessments and activities cautiously and strive to allocate more time for instruction and assessment of the prosodic dimension of oral reading fluency and academic vocabulary knowledge and skills.


Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder of childhood onset, characterized by the presence of multiple motor and phonic tics. Early twin and family aggregation studies have suggested that genetic factors play a critical role in the development of GTS. However, identification of causative mutations and susceptibility regions has proved difficult. This may be attributed to various factors, including the clinical heterogeneity of GTS, the presence of comorbid psychopathology, gene–environment interactions and bilineal transmission. This review assesses the different methodologies of genetic studies with explanatory comment for the clinician, and summarizes key genetic findings in light of their potential implications for treatment strategies.


The article analyses the relationship of international and national law regulating and ensuring the protection of biomedical research subjects as well as factors determining the actual effectiveness of this protection. For this purpose the article reveals reasons affecting legislation initiatives at international and European level; shows circumstances of adopting specific legal acts, their wording and compatibility. Analysing whether harmonized standards in this area ensure the actual protection of the research subjects the authors assessed the role of national legal norms and the level of legal consciousness and legal culture. Authors pursued the objectives of the article by analysing the main areas of biomedical research directly determining the protection of the research subjects' rights and the effectiveness of their protection such as operation of Research Ethics Committees, biomedical research liability and liability insurance. The analysis was carried out on the basis of national examples of the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) which were also compared to the situation in Western European countries. The article also assesses issues of the scope and effectiveness of biomedical research regulation related to the ratio of legal, ethical, and deontological norms in biomedical research.


Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) infection remains a common cause for liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) has been a treatment modality for CHB patients with decompensated cirrhosis and or hepatocellular carcinoma. Previously early outcomes of transplantation for CHB patients were associated with rapid recurrence of the virus and loss of the allograft. Development of hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) and its use in prophylaxis of CHB patients after liver transplantation resulted in significant improvement in patient and allograft survival. Continued use of HBIG mono-therapy however has been complicated by development of viral resistance. With the development of nucleos(t)ide (NA) inhibitors for treatment of CHB, liver transplant outcomes continued to improve. One of the most important risk factors for viral recurrence in post liver transplant setting is the HBV DNA level. Use of NAs prior to liver transplantation to reduce the viral load has been an important way to prevent recurrence of CHB in post liver transplant patients. Addition of NAs to HBIG was the standard of therapy for liver transplant patients for many years and reduced the development of viral resistance. Long-term use of HBIG however is expensive and inconvenient for patients. Development of more potent NAs, with low viral resistance, has allowed for reduction and in some cases elimination of use of HBIG in post liver transplant prophylaxis of patients with CHB.


Arna Wendell Bontemps (1902-1973) had a longer, more prolific career in humane letters than did most of the young writers who developed alongside him during the Harlem Renaissance. And the Old South is more prominent in his works than in those of any of his contemporaries, save Zora Neale Hurston. This umbrella theme allows us to see the developing artist whose childhood began in Louisiana, his own birthplace and the birthplace of his parent, and grandparent. Although he was transplanted to California when he was only four, Bontemps never lost his memory of those idyllic days in Louisiana just after the turn of the century. His memory of Louisiana was kept alive by his closest relatives, who traveled back and forth from California to their native state and who told intriguing stories about the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the rise of the "White Caps," and of natural events on the Red River, the Cane River, and in the "Bayou Country" as a whole. Bontemps' up bringing was decidedly Southern, despite its California location, and it was the Old South that imparted to his life and to his works a characteristic sense of personal decorum and nostalgic reminiscence. In his poetry and his fiction No nostalgic quality produces a literary ambiguity that enriches both tone and texture. Finishing college in 1923, Bontemps arrived in the Harlem of the "Strolling Twenties" in August of the following year, approximately five months after the famous "March luncheon" of 1924 which launched the careers of most of his contemporaries. He would not return to the South until 1931, when the Great Depression was at its Peak and when he was approximately twenty-nine years of age. Having taught since 1926 at the Harlem Academy, a Seventh-Day Adventist high school, he found, when it went defunct in 1931, that he needed calm and serenity, the kind of restful environment the Deep South could provide. So he moved with his wife and two oldest children (the other four had not yet been born) to Huntsville, Alabama, and began teaching at still another Adventist institution, Oakwood College, which at that time was a junior college. In Huntsville, he found the almost-primitive Southern environment appealing, a milieu that became a rich source of folk materials that would later inform and color his writing. The vestiges of slavery remained, but so did a warm hospitality that the natives provided and that he had not found in California or New York City. Bontemps was able to benefit from this environment because he had no trouble blending with the surroundings. He liked the region primarily because he had fond memories of his roots in the Deep South, and would never have returned to the North if he could have found suitable conditions for his growing family. He loved the Alabama countryside and the folk-ways he found there, despite the indignities he and his family were made to suffer at the hands of Adventists and white supremacists during his three years at Oakwood.(1) Bontemps' works reveal a deep, abiding affection for the Old South in general and for his native Louisiana in particular. Even after he left Oakwood College at the close of the 1933-34 school term, he nurtured his contacts with the black colleges of the South. Although he never landed the job in New Orleans he dreamed of, he did secure a position with Fisk University in 1943. About the time of his arrival at Huntsville, the Scottsboro trials were in session. The event attracted separate visits from two of his colleagues, Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, both of whom kindled the ire of officials at Oakwood. It was in this atmosphere that Oakwood officials demanded that Bontemps burn his books, which they considered low-life and anti-uplift. Owning nothing more incendiary than The Souls of Black Folk and the prose writings of James Weldon Johnson, Bontemps categorically refused to comply with this request. Yet despite this kind of demoralizing opposition, Bontemps' stay in Alabama inspired him to write, and saw the beginning of his stories for children and juveniles, the titles of which evoke Southern folklore: "Frizzly Chicken," "Bubber Joins the Band," "The Devil Is a Conjurer," to name a few of the more representative ones. …


This publication makes the case for 'religion and education' as a distinct, but cross-disciplinary, field of inquiry. To begin with, consideration is given to the changing dynamic between 'religion and education' historically, and the differing understandings of religious education within it. Next, 'religion and education' is examined from methodologically specific perspectives, namely the philosophical, historical and sociological. The authors outline the particular insights to be gleaned about 'religion and education' on the basis of their commitment to these methodological standpoints. Overall, this publication is concerned with demonstrating the scope of the field, and the importance of having a range of disciplinary, and interdisciplinary, perspectives informing it.


Here, for the first time in one volume, is the full story of crimes committed by the Nazi leaders and of the trials in which they were brought to judgement. Conot reconstructs in a single absorbing narrative not only the events at Nuremburg but the offenses with which the accused were charged. He brilliantly characterizes each of the twenty-one defendants, vividly presenting each case and inspecting carefully the process of indictment, prosecution, defense and sentencing.


This volume responds to the need to extend the theory of citizenship, in order to bridge the gap between the public and the private sphere. Through the application of intersectional methodology, the authors document how people's most private decisions and practices are intertwined with public institutions and state policies. The stories of intimate citizenship included in this volume make the theoretical discussion more palpable. Situated perspectives, as well as application of theoretical concepts to lived experience, extend citizenship's territory beyond the conventional public sphere and locate it at the intersection of many axes of social, political, and cultural stratification.


. The paper sheds light on the concept of model in ordinary language and in scientific discourse from the perspective of C. S. Peirce's semiotics. It proposes a general Peircean framework for the definition of models of all kinds, including mental models. A survey of definitions of scientific models that have been influential in the philosophy of science and of the typologies proposed in this context is given. The author criticizes the heterogeneity of the criteria applied in these typologies and the lack of a semiotic foundation in typological distinctions between formal, symbolic, theoretical, metaphorical, and iconic models, among others. The paper argues that the application of Peirce's subdivision of signs into the trichotomies of the sign itself, its object, and its interpretant can offer a deeper understanding of the nature of models. Semiotic topics in the focus of the paper are (1) the distinction between models as signs and (mental) models as the interpretants of signs; (2) models considered as a type (or legisign) and models considered as tokens (or replicas) of a type; (3) the iconicity of models, including diagrammatic and metaphorical icons; (4) the contribution of indices and symbols to the informativity of models; and (5) the rhetorical qualities of models in scientific discourse. The paper argues in conclusion that informative models are hybrid signs in which a diagram incorporates indices and symbols in a rhetorically efficient way.


Yet another year passed without a biological attack, ensuring that the international community could spend its time focusing on strengthening global biosecurity measures, rather than responding to immediate threats. In 2011, two meetings—the Seventh Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference and the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction—made progress on finding ways to deal with biological threats posed by non-state groups. Less progress was made in countering the prospect of nation-state biological weapons programs, which is not surprising, the author asserts, since the life sciences are not amenable to the arms control tools that have been used to monitor state compliance with other nonproliferation agreements. The author looks at how the Biological Weapons Convention is evolving to adapt to the nature of the biological threat, and at how Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) inspires global efforts to implement biosecurity programs outside the former Soviet Union. The transition from CTR to global scientific engagement requires the G8 Global Partnership to change its philosophy, the author writes; as the original Soviet-based programs targeted scientists known to have worked in weapons programs, the new goal is not to redirect former weapons scientists, but to establish relationships with scientists who were never in weapons programs. The success of such collaboration depends strongly on treating collaborating scientists as partners, not threats. The central questions for biosecurity in 2012 will focus on the international community's ability to cooperate and whether it can think creatively and strategically and agree to enter partnerships with scientists from all regions of the world.


Incorporating perennial grasses such as bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Fluegge) to diversify the conventional two-crop rotation of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) prevalent in the U.S. Southeast (SE) is advocated. However, little is reported on growth and development for cotton grown in rotation with perennial grasses. Our objectives were to compare plant characteristics including height, leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll meter readings (chlorophyll index), N uptake, weed densities, and residual soil nutrients in a conventional rotation of peanut-cotton-cotton vs. a bahiagrass-bahiagrass-peanut-cotton rotation. Field studies were conducted in Quincy, FL from 2000 to 2006. Plant height, LAI and N, P, and K uptake were generally greater for cotton in the bahiagrass rotation compared to the conventional cotton/peanut rotation. Weed densities were reduced for cotton in the bahiagrass rotation. Residual nutrients at the end of the season including N, P, and K and soil organic matter (SOM) showed no differences between the rotations. In spite of the improvements in plant growth characteristics, rotating cotton with bahiagrass overall did not improve yield above the conventional rotation. Potential exists for greater cotton yield in the bahiagrass rotation once effective management practices have been identifi ed. Univ. of Florida, NFREC, 155 Research Rd., Quincy, FL 32351. Mention of a trademark, proprietary product, or vendor does not constitute a guarantee of warranty for the product, and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products or vendors that may be suitable.


The author starts with the observation that passive commodity investments have enjoyed four years of impressive returns and asset growth. Though there has been significant intellectual discourse on the subject, the author believes that one should consider the time horizon of the investment in more depth. The paper begins by re-visiting commodities beta sources with updated data through the continued bull market of 2005, identifying the key limitations of passive commodity investments. It then outlines why and how an active commodity portfolio may earn superior absolute or risk-adjusted returns relative to passive commodity investments. The paper concludes by outlining a variety of diversification characteristics investors may find important from exposure to commodities beta, and then questions whether adding incremental amounts of alpha to a selected beta source will allow the investor to achieve returns that maintain portfolio hedging characteristics but with an enhanced risk/return profile.


The Wigner distribution function is investigated as a signal processing tool to detect subsurface targets closely located beneath a randomly rough surface. Information provided by a bistatic arrangement of sources and detectors can be used to discriminate target and surface response based on their scattering behavior. It is shown that the bilinearity of the Wigner distribution function can be exploited for nonlinear amplification of the target response. This is achieved by averaging the Wigner distribution of the detected signal for different source locations. Target detection is further improved by numerically backpropagating the detected signal to the surface. A statistical evaluation based on simulated data sets is used to evaluate the performance of the detection method.


Universal containers (UC) are multi-assembly spent fuel containers that are loaded and sealed at reactor sites or the first DOE facility. They are thereafter handled as clean containers without reopening and are ultimately emplaced horizontally as self-shielded containers in the drifts of a repository. The use of universal containers has a number of advantages over the current system including reduced handlings of individual fuel assemblies and simplified waste facilities and operations at storage and disposal facilities. Life cycle costs are similar within the DOE portion of the system, but net total system savings can be realized because of savings in the utility portion of the system. These savings result from reduction in at-reactor storage and shutdown reactor costs, and such savings increase with increased delays in the startup of DOE facilities for accepting spent nuclear fuel.


To construct a parallel approach for solving optimization problems with orthogonality constraints is usually regarded as an extremely difficult mission, due to the low scalability of the orthonormalization procedure. However, such demand is particularly huge in some application areas such as materials computation. In this paper, we propose a proximal linearized augmented Lagrangian algorithm (PLAM) for solving optimization problems with orthogonality constraints. Unlike the classical augmented Lagrangian methods, in our algorithm, the prime variables are updated by minimizing a proximal linearized approximation of the augmented Lagrangian function, meanwhile the dual variables are updated by a closed-form expression which holds at any first-order stationary point. The orthonormalization procedure is only invoked once at the last step of the above mentioned algorithm if high-precision feasibility is needed. Consequently, the main parts of the proposed algorithm can be parallelized naturally. We establish global subsequence convergence, worst-case complexity and local convergence rate for PLAM under some mild assumptions. To reduce the sensitivity of the penalty parameter, we put forward a modification of PLAM, which is called parallelizable column-wise block minimization of PLAM (PCAL). Numerical experiments in serial illustrate that the novel updating rule for the Lagrangian multipliers significantly accelerates the convergence of PLAM and makes it comparable with the existent feasible solvers for optimization problems with orthogonality constraints, and the performance of PCAL does not highly rely on the choice of the penalty parameter. Numerical experiments under parallel environment demonstrate that PCAL attains good performance and high scalability in solving discretized Kohn-Sham total energy minimization problems.


The Electro-Voice ND86-RC3 is a robust, highperformance, dynamic supercardioid thread-on vocal microphone head for wireless handheld transmitters. This microphone head electrically and mechanically adapts to Electro-Voice (and many other brands) wireless handheld transmitters that use the common 3-contact rings, 1.25" diameter by 28-thread pitch coupling convention. The floating captured ID collar will spin freely until screwing the head on tightly. It will remain locked in place when fully tightened. This allows the desired orientation of the branding to the transmitter. Designed for excellent acoustic control in even the largest of venues, the precisely tuned capsule delivers present, smooth, and detailed sound, as well as superior isolation from sound on the stage. The microphone head's dynamic capsule contains a large Mylar diaphragm, which delivers a rich and detailed frequency response by combining its large surface area for tonal balance with its low-mass highvelocity material for exceptionally fast transient response. The microphone head features an innovative capsule shock-mount system consisting of a 4-point suspension around the circumference of the capsule combined with a tuned pneumatic pump at the capsule base, offering superior handling noise reduction to eliminate mechanical vibrations and noise in the mix. The Memraflex grille is made of a durable tight-mesh grille wire that withstands extraordinarily rough treatment. Your microphone head remains protected and looking good gig-after-gig, year-after-year. For additional protection, the capsule contains a hydrophobic cloth membrane, which prevents moisture and debris from reaching the diaphragm. The capsule uses a humbucking coil that attenuates AC hum and electromagnetic interference. Use the ND dynamic mics with confidence near speaker cabinets and EMF generating equipment racks.


There has been a growing trend toward collaborative environments especially those utilizing browser-based interfaces which can be seen in modeling tools such as AToMPM and WebGME. In response to the growing interest in collaborative modeling, we explored existing systems and potential solutions to identify the various features relevant to collaborative modeling systems. In this paper, we detail the feature diagram resulting from our exploration of collaborative modeling systems. We also detail the features of an existing collaborative system both to illustrate the use of the diagram and further explore the features. Through this feature diagram we identify key areas for collaborative modeling systems. We hope the feature diagram will be used to guide development, analysis, and discussion around collaborative modeling systems.


This paper asks what 'understanding' looks like in the presence of an interpreter. Much investigation of understanding in Interpreting Studies explores claims which treat it as axiomatic, rather than exploring the occurrence of comprehension itself (how participants come to accept that it is occurring, what form it takes, what its consequences are). Here we re-purpose a well-established research tool — the Map Task — to illustrate a robustly empirical approach to this issue, using complex multimodal and multilingual data. The Map Task, we contend, can play a potentially groundbreaking role in Interpreting Studies, mitigating the constraint created by the uniqueness of each interpreted exchange which otherwise hinders generalisability and theoretical expansion. In particular, we argue that the way interpreters and service users, through their talk, bring themselves collectively to points of assumed shared understanding is illuminated with particular clarity through the Map Task lens. Research within this paradigm, we suggest, may help to enable further development of Interpreting Studies, affording an opportunity to deepen our communal understanding of the collaborative and interactive nature of meaning-making in interpreted exchanges, starting with the recognition that what understanding consists of is, in essence, what interlocutors treat as understanding.


Most living communities form a temporally shifting patchwork of irregularly distributed organisms. Besides many habitat-specific biotic and abiotic environmental conditions, two key drivers are known to shape community structure: abiotic disturbance and biotic interactions (most notably competition and predation). Few other ecosystems possess either the frequency or intensity of disturbances observed in running waters. Therefore, disturbance (mainly in the form of floods) is discussed to be the dominant organizing factor in streams and rivers. The aim of my thesis was to investigate the interplay between flood disturbances and biotic interactions in determining the small-scale distribution of benthic invertebrate communities in streams.
Especially during small and mid-sized floods, the high shear forces that move and rearrange parts of the stream bed result in a complex mosaic of small (≤ 1 m2) bed patches that experience scour, sediment deposition or remain undisturbed ("local disturbance history"). In my thesis, I found that local disturbance history patterns caused by natural floods (Chapter 1) or created experimentally (Chapters 2, 3 and 5) played an important role for the distribution of mobile invertebrates. Further, stable bed patches seemed to act as invertebrate refugia during and shortly after floods and, in the longer term, several common invertebrate taxa preferably colonized depositional or scour patches. Various habitat parameters such as current velocity, substratum size or food resources were also partly responsible for the heterogeneous distribution of stream invertebrates (Chapters 1, 2 and 5). The combined findings of my manipulative experiments described in Chapters 2 and 5 suggest that immediate, 'direct' effects of local disturbance on the invertebrates (mostly negative, i.e. density reductions in disturbed bed patches) are often in the longer term (several weeks after a flood) replaced by 'indirect' effects mediated via disturbance-induced changes in habitat parameters such as current velocity, substratum size and resource availability.
Previous studies indicate that biotic interactions such as competition, grazing and predation can also be important determinants of the distribution of stream biota. However, although most streams are subject to considerable discharge variations, almost all of these earlier studies were performed in streams or artificial channels with permanently stable flow, or during long periods of stable flow in periodically disturbed streams. To date it is still unclear if biotic interactions are also important in frequently disturbed streams. To begin closing this knowledge gap, I conducted three experiments that examined the interactive effects of physical disturbance and interspecific competition on benthic stream invertebrates and algae. Singular (Chapter 3) and repeated (Chapter 4) local disturbances were combined with frequent manual removals of the most common invertebrate taxa. Disturbance played an important role for the microdistribution of invertebrates in all experiments. By contrast, competition was only found to be an important driver in shaping community composition in a stable stream (Chapter 4). In both experiments conducted in frequently disturbed streams, I found no evidence that competition influenced the invertebrate community (Chapters 3 and 4). Moreover, there were hardly any interactions between disturbance and competition treatments. Collectively, the results from previous research conducted in stable streams and my own experiments support the hypothesis that the importance of competition in shaping aquatic communities should decrease with increasing frequency or intensity of disturbance.
In my last experiment (Chapter 5), I examined the separate and interactive effects of patchy bed disturbance and fish predation on benthic invertebrates and algae. While experimental disturbance had strong and lasting effects on the benthic community, effects of local fish exclusion were weaker. Moreover, effects of fish predation on invertebrate and algal densities were generally present or absent regardless of the disturbance history of the studied patches of stream bed. These results emphasize the pervasive importance of patchy bed disturbances for the microdistribution of stream organisms and also indicate a notable, but less prevalent, influence of fish exclusion at the patch scale on this microdistribution.
Collectively, my findings on the interplay between disturbance and competition or predation confirm the key role of local disturbance history for the small-scale distribution of stream invertebrates both in stable and in frequently disturbed streams (Chapters 3, 4 and 5). Furthermore, local habitat parameters such as current velocity or food resources may define suitable bed patches for stream invertebrates, but several of these parameters themselves seem to be influenced by local disturbance history, as well. Finally, the frequency and/or intensity of such disturbances may determine whether populations become so dense that competition or predation can strongly influence the structure of the benthic stream community.


Two Blue Ribbon business advisory panels have recently proposed arbitration to remedy the problems endemic to shareholder class action litigation. Critics have long assailed shareholder litigation as harmful to firms without conferring a corresponding benefit upon shareholders or the public. Contemporary criticism has focused on the circularity of the remedy in shareholder suits and the charge that even the potential for shareholder litigation harms the competitive edge of the U.S. financial markets. We contend that even accepting these criticisms at face value, arbitration is not the solution. The lure of arbitration as a panacea to cure the ills of litigation is based upon myths concerning modern arbitral realities. First, arbitrators apply substantive and undefined principles of fairness and equity rather than legal rules. Such decisions, once made, are virtually insulated from judicial review. While historically such a system constituted an efficient dispute resolution system between homogenous members of trade groups, modern consumer arbitration rarely takes place between those with any common understanding of applicable norms other than the law. Second, there is a hidden societal cost to moving to an arbitration system to redress securities law claims. Experience teaches us that mandatory arbitration causes the law to atrophy. This trend would be exacerbated in shareholder litigation, which is often based upon implied causes of action, that by their nature depend upon transparent judicial interpretation. Third, modern arbitration will not cure the ills of class action litigation. Arbitration today is no longer particularly quick or efficient in that it has incorporated many of the procedural appendages such as discovery that are common in litigation. However, the procedural protections against the most vexatious lawsuits against corporations would not operate in the world of arbitration. This danger would be intensified if class action arbitrations were allowed. This essay will critique the proposals calling for arbitration of shareholder claims and conclude that arbitration is not an attractive alternative to litigation.


We study the fundamental dynamic behavior of a special class of ordered granular systems in order to design new, structured materials with unique physical properties. The dynamic properties of granular systems are dictated by the nonlinear, Hertzian, potential in compression and zero tensile strength resulting from the discrete material structure. Engineering the underlying particle arrangement of granular systems allows for unique dynamic properties, not observed in natural, disordered granular media. While extensive studies on 1D granular crystals have suggested their usefulness for a variety of engineering applications, considerably less attention has been given to higher-dimensional systems. The extension of these studies in higher dimensions could enable the discovery of richer physical phenomena not possible in 1D, such as spatial redirection and anisotropic energy trapping. We present experiments, numerical simulation (based on a discrete particle model), and in some cases theoretical predictions for several engineered granular systems, studying the effects of particle arrangement on the highly nonlinear transient wave propagation to develop means for controlling the wave propagation pathways. The first component of this thesis studies the stress wave propagation resulting from a localized impulsive loading for three different 2D particle lattice structures: square, centered square, and hexagonal granular crystals. By varying the lattice structure, we observe a wide range of properties for the propagating stress waves: quasi-1D solitary wave propagation, fully 2D wave propagation with tunable wave front shapes, and 2D pulsed wave propagation. Additionally the effects of weak disorder, inevitably present in real granular systems, are investigated. The second half of this thesis studies the solitary wave propagation through 2D and 3D ordered networks of granular chains, reducing the effective density compared to granular crystals by selectively placing wave guiding chains to control the acoustic wave transmission. The rapid wave front amplitude decay exhibited by these granular networks makes them highly attractive for impact mitigation applications. The agreement between experiments, numerical simulations, and applicable theoretical predictions validates the wave guiding capabilities of these engineered granular crystals and networks and opens a wide range of possibilities for the realization of increasingly complex granular material design.


The paper defines the key features of Chinese guanxi and Russian blat networks, explores similarities and differences in the use of these networks both in communist and post-communist economies, and discovers their ambiguous relationship with the formal institutions. Having compared guanxixue and blat in detail, one should conclude that people tend to develop similar responses (as well idioms) in order to survive in state centralised economies characterized by shortages, state distribution system and ideological predicaments. Guanxi and blat networks in pre-reform China and Russia played a similarly ambiguous role in these economies: on the one hand, they compensated for the defects of the formal rules thus enabling the declared principles of the economy to exist; on the other hand, they subverted them. There are also common trends in the transformation of informal practices in post-reform China and Russia. Before the reforms, both guanxixue and blat were often beneficial to ordinary people in allowing them to satisfy their personal needs and in organising their own lives, whereas now their shift into corruption benefits the official-business classes and hurts the bulk of society. Trust and social networks are vital components of both economies and will continue to exist (as elsewhere) but their implications for the transformation may differ. The post-Soviet reforms have changed the Soviet-type blat practices so much that blat has almost ceased to be a relevant term for the use of personal networks both in the state and in the new sectors of the economy. Being more culturally and historically grounded, the term guanxi has sustained and found its new use in contemporary China. There is much more discussion of guanxi and guanxi capitalism in China than ever has been on blat in Russia. The partiality of reforms in China and the communist rulership does not prevent foreign investment and economic success, and corruption is estimated as not as damaging in China as it is in Russia.