Aegosthena, now more generally known as Porto Germano, lies on one of the easternmost bays of the Corinthian gulf, and on the northern frontier of the Megarid. Its remoteness from ordinary routes—for between it and Velia, itself an ultima Thule, rise 2,000 feet of pine-clad mountains—accounts for the fact that it is to this day practically unknown, and also perhaps for the very scanty mention of it in ancient literature. There was a shrine of Melampus there, the Spartans passed it in their retreat from Leuctra, and that is all. But the same remoteness has preserved for us a Greek fortified town in better condition and greater completeness than any other, not even excepting Messene. The town was divided into two parts, the Acropolis defended on all sides by a line of walls and towers, and the lower town fortified on the north, from the Acropolis down to the sea, by a similar line, still remaining in good condition. We are, I think, both by the exigencies of its position and also by certain scanty remains bound to assume the existence of a corresponding south wall, of which mention will be made later. The style of building both in the Acropolis and the long wall is the same.


Understanding sources of streamflow and nutrient concentrations are fundamental for the assessment of pollutant loadings that can lead to water quality impairments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the discharge of three main tributaries, draining different land uses with karst features, as well as their combined influences on total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) levels in reservoir-like embayment (R-E) on a stream entering Lake Marion, South Carolina. From 2007-2009, hydrology, TN, and TP data were collected from the 1,555-ha Chapel Branch Creek (CBC) watershed. In general, monthly streamflow in all tributaries was found to be �10% of rainfall, and as little as 0.1% in the smallest tributary. The third tributary flowed into a cave system and discharged via a cave spring (CS) into the embayment while gaining a sustained groundwater flow from a second cave (GW) system. The CS flow was substantially larger than the flow measured in the other tributaries. The small amount of rainfall that became surface flow and the large flow at the cave spring indicated a significant water loss from the surface watershed to subsurface flow or a groundwater source area substantially larger than the surface watershed. Nutrient concentrations in flows from tributaries draining various land uses were not significantly different (α ¼ 0.05) for most of the locations. A simple water balance was developed to estimate the R-E outflow to Lake Marion using measured discharges from three tributaries, change in storage computed using a bathymetric survey, daily lake level changes, rainfall, and computed evaporation. Mean monthly TN and TP concentrations in the embayment were substantially lower than the observed means from the two tributary outlets and the CS into the embay- ment, indicating a loss in the embayment. The second cave system at CS, representing an unknown subsurface drainage area, was the source of nearly 50% of TP loading, over 50% of flow, and over 70% of TN loading to CBC. These results may have implications in water quality management of the CBC watershed. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000794. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.


This book is both a set of procedures for the therapist and a philosophy- one that is shared with clients and one that guides the work of the therapist. This second edition continues its excellence in offering clinicians a guide to doing what works in brief therapy- for whom, and when and how to use it. Psychotherapy that follows these guidelines validates the client's most important concerns - and it often turns out to be surprisingly brief. Author, Ellen Quick integrates strategic and solution focused therapy and includes guidelines for tailoring technique and interventions to client characteristics and preferences. With clinically rich examples throughout, this book offers applications for couples, including indications for individual or conjoint sessions. NEW TO THIS EDITION: * Chapter summaries highlighting key points * Presents ways of eliciting what clients most want to remember * Describes the "Doing What Works Group," including outcome research findings and all materials needed to run the group * Addresses the relationship among the positive psychology movement and this approach and the potential for collaboration * Emphasizes an acceptance-based stance and how acceptance commonly leads to change * Proposes that "doing what works and changing what doesn't" can provide a transtheoretical perspective for therapists of any orientation


PURPOSE
To determine whether playing a simple CD-ROM educational game (developed specifically for children with sickle cell disease), improved children's knowledge and confidence in selected symptom management and practice.

METHOD
Twenty-two eligible children completed a pretest to determine knowledge and confidence levels, played the Sickle Cell Slime-O-Rama Game, then completed an identical posttest.

FINDINGS
Significant increases in knowledge (t = 2.828, p =.010) and confidence (t = 3.759, p =.001) levels between pre- and posttests were identified.

CONCLUSIONS
It is promising that a simple, interacting CD-ROM game allowed children with sickle cell disease to quickly acquire knowledge about the disease and symptom management, and increased their confidence to apply this new knowledge. Results suggest the high utility of this tailored game to foster active self-management behaviors in this population.


Different representational systems permit differing degrees and forms of ambiguity and underspecification in the content they represent. Independently of this observation, a notable feature of natural language as a representational system is that it allows the same content to be expressed in different ways. In this paper, we examine the interaction of these two obser- vations; in particular, we explore a number of linguistic forms involving underspecified content, and look at how subjects ex- press the content of these linguistic forms both in logic and in diagrams. Our analysis demonstrates that variations in syntac- tic realization of the same semantic content lead to different interpretations of that content.


The problem of position control of non-redundant manipulators was addressed during the initial stages of development of robotics in the 70's. In the 80's, extension of robotic applications to new non-conventional areas, such as space, underwater, hazardous environments, and microrobotics, brought new challenges for robotic researchers. Position control strategies failed in performing tasks that needed interaction with a robot's environment. On the other hand, non-redundant manipulators were unable to perform tasks that required dexterity comparable to that provided by the human arm. Also, imprecise dynamic modeling put severe restrictions on performance of control algorithms which were based on exact knowledge of dynamic parameters. These issues have therefore attracted a lot of attention in following three areas: force and compliant motion control, redundancy resolution, and adaptive control strategies. These areas have been addressed separately. However, there exists no unique frame work for an adaptive compliant motion control scheme for redundant manipulators which enjoys all the desirable characteristics of the methods that have been proposed for each individual area, e.g., the existing compliant motion control schemes are either not applicable to redundant manipulators or cannot take full advantage of the redundant degrees of freedom. In this thesis, the existing schemes in each of these three areas are reviewed. Based on the results of this review, a new redundancy resolution scheme at the acceleration level is proposed. The feasibility of this scheme is studied using simulations on a 3-DOF planar arm. This scheme is then extended to the 3-D workspace of a 7-DOF redundant manipulator. The performance of the extended scheme with respect to static and moving object collision avoidance and also joint limit avoidance is studied using both simulations and hardware experiments on REDIESTRO (a REdundant, Dextrous, Isotropically Enhanced, Seven Turning-pair RObot constructed in the Center for Intelligent Machines at McGill University). Based on this redundancy resolution scheme, an Augmented Hybrid Impedance Control (AHIC) scheme is proposed. The AHIC scheme provides a unified frame work for combining compliant motion control, redundancy resolution, and adaptive control in a single methodology. The feasibility of the proposed AHIC scheme is studied by computer simulations and experiments on REDIESTRO.


The tumor suppressor p53 can regulate apoptosis and cell proliferation by activating the expression of specific genes. Activated p53 localizes into promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML-NBs), but the mechanism by which p53 is activated and recruited remains unclear. Two papers by Hofmann et al. and D'Orazi et al. shed light on how p53 is activated. Both groups found that the homeodomain-interacting protein kinase-2 (HIPK2) bound to p53 in vitro and in vivo. Genetic analyses suggested that amino acids 853 to 955 of HIPK2 and amino acids 295 to 390 of p53 contained the sites of interaction. The kinase activity of HIPK2 was not required for binding to p53, but was required for p53-dependent gene transcription. Phosphoamino acid analysis indicated that HIPK2 phosphorylated p53 on Ser46, a site known to be important for p53 activation. HIPK2 localized to PML-NBs, and this recruitment was enhanced by the overexpression of PML3, a protein known to reside in PML-NBs. Fluorescence assays showed that HIPK2, p53, PML3, and the cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) binding protein (CBP) all localized within PML-NBs. HIPK2-dependent phosphorylation of p53 was necessary for subsequent acetylation of p53 by CBP, as demonstrated by a lack of acetylation of the S46A p53 mutant, which cannot be phosphorylated by HIPK2. Although a number of stimuli can effect the phosphorylation of p53 on Ser46, only UV treatment induced HIPK2-dependent phosphorylation of p53 and led to cellular apoptosis. other kinases are likely to phosphorylate p53 Ser46 under other conditions. Thus, the data indicate that HIPK2 is an important regulator of p53 activation in apoptosis and cell proliferation. T. G. Hofmann, A. Möller, H. Sirma, H. Zentgraf, Y. Taya, W. Dröge, H. Will, M. L. Schmitz, Regulation of p53 activity by its interaction with homeodomain-interacting protein kinase-2. Nature Cell Biol. 4, 1-10 (2002). [Online Journal] G. D'Orazi, B. Cecchinelli, T. Bruno, I. Manni, Y. Higashimoto, S. Saito, M. Gostissa, S. Coen, A. Marchetti, G. Del Sal, G. Piaggio, M. Fanciulli, E. Appella, S. Soddu, Homeodomain-interacting protein kinase-2 phosphorylates p53 at Ser 46 and mediates apoptosis. Nature Cell Biol. 4, 11-19 (2002). [Online Journal]


The objective of this paper is to present examples of how to realize a flexible and reconfigurable production system. An ongoing research project in Sweden called Factory-in-a-Box will be presented which is one research initiative within this area. The purpose of the Factory-in-a-Box project is to develop solutions for mobile production capacity on demand. Three key features have been identified as enablers for these kinds of production capabilities: mobility, flexibility, and speed. The concept consists of standardized modules that can be installed in e.g. containers and easily transported by trucks, rail vehicles, and boats. The modules can easily be combined into complete production systems and reconfigured for new products and/or scaled to handle new volumes. The goal of the Factory-in-a-Box project is to build fully operative production modules that are developed in close cooperation between different academic and industrial partners. This paper will present the reults from these demonstrators giving examples of the usability of the Factory-in-a-Box concept in industry.


Autonomy, we suppose, is self-regulation or self-direction. There is a distinct idea that is easily confused with self-direction, namely, self-expression, self-fulfillment, or self-realization. (I do not mean to suggest that the latter three terms are all synonymous. But in this essay, whatever differences there are among them play no role, so I will use them interchangeably.) Although it will turn out paradoxically that autonomy is neither self-regulation nor self-realization, it is reasonable to suppose that the former is a superior candidate. My teacher of Indian religion, Dr. Subodh Roy, blind from birth, chose not to undergo an operation that would have made him sighted because he believed, perhaps rightly, that the ability to see would interfere with his religious quest. He thereby chose not to realize one of his fundamental human capacities, one whose cultivation has produced some of the finest fruits of civilization. Joseph Raz describes a case in which a man places his life in jeopardy by undertaking a trip to deliver medical aid to a group of people in a distant place. Since he will be unable to secure food for several days, he, in effect, subordinates one of his own basic needs or interests to a goal that he deems more important. There is no reason to believe that, in refusing to express or realize a dimension of self, either Dr. Roy or Raz's philanthropist have failed to act autonomously.


Excellent variational approximations to Gaussian process posteriors have been developed which avoid the $\mathcal{O}\left(N^3\right)$ scaling with dataset size $N$. They reduce the computational cost to $\mathcal{O}\left(NM^2\right)$, with $M\ll N$ being the number of inducing variables, which summarise the process. While the computational cost seems to be linear in $N$, the true complexity of the algorithm depends on how $M$ must increase to ensure a certain quality of approximation. We address this by characterising the behavior of an upper bound on the KL divergence to the posterior. We show that with high probability the KL divergence can be made arbitrarily small by growing $M$ more slowly than $N$. A particular case of interest is that for regression with normally distributed inputs in D-dimensions with the popular Squared Exponential kernel, $M=\mathcal{O}(\log^D N)$ is sufficient. Our results show that as datasets grow, Gaussian process posteriors can truly be approximated cheaply, and provide a concrete rule for how to increase $M$ in continual learning scenarios.


The lack of instrumentation in anaerobic digestion processes is a key bottleneck as sensors and analysers are necessary to reduce uncertainty related to the initial conditions, kinetics and the input concentrations of the process. Without knowledge of the process conditions, the process is inevitably difficult to control. This paper looks into the potential for developing a soft sensor for volatile solids (VS), an important variable that is currently only monitored offline. A VS inferential sensor is developed using data from an industrial process and compared with the results from a simulation study where feed flow and biogas production rate are used for modelling VS.


Intermediate filaments have been used as cell-type-specific markers in differentiation and pathology; however, recent reports have demonstrated the coexpression of vimentin (a mesenchymal marker) and keratins (epithelial markers) in numerous neoplasms, including melanoma, which has been linked to metastatic disease. To test the hypothesis that coexpression of vimentin and keratins by melanoma cells contributes to a more migratory and invasive phenotype, we co-transfected a vimentin-positive human melanoma cell line, A375P (of low invasive ability), with cDNAs for keratins 8 and 18. The resultant stable transfectants expressed vimentin- and keratin-positive intermediate filaments showed a two- to threefold increase in their invasion of basement membrane matrix and migration through gelatin in vitro. These findings were further corroborated by video cinematography. During attachment and spreading on fibronectin, the transfectants containing vimentin and keratins 8 and 18 demonstrated an increase in focal adhesions that stained positive for beta 1 integrin and phosphotyrosine, along with enhanced membrane ruffling and actin stress fiber formation. From these data, we postulate that coexpression of vimentin and keratins results in increased cytoskeletal interactions at focal contacts within extracellular matrices involving integrin cell signaling events, which contributes to a more migratory behavior.


Renowned historian, and author of "A Short History of Byzantium", John Julius Norwich's classic history of Venice "A History of Venice" tells the story of this most remarkable of cities from its founding in the fifth century, through its unrivalled status for over a thousand years as one of the world's busiest and most powerful city states, until its fall at the hands of Napoleon in 1797. Rich in fascinating historical detail, populated by extraordinary characters and packed with a wealth of incident and intrigue, this is a brilliant testament to a great city - and a great and gripping read. "Norwich has loved and understood Venice as well as any other Englishman has ever done." ("Sunday Times"). "Will become the standard English work of Venetian history." ("Financial Times"). "The standard Venetian history in English." ("The Times"). "Norwich has the gift of historical perspective, as well as clarity and wit. Few can tell a good story better than he." ("Spectator" John Julius Norwich was born in 1929). He was educated at Upper Canada College, Toronto, at Eton, at the University of Strasbourg and, after a spell of National Service in the Navy, at New College, Oxford, where he took a degree in French and Russian. In 1952 he joined the Foreign Service, where he remained for twelve years, serving at the embassies in Belgrade and Beirut. In 1964 he resigned from the service to write. He is the author of histories of Norman Sicily, the Republic of Venice and the Byzantine Empire. He has written and presented some thirty historical documentaries on television, and is a regular lecturer on Venice and numerous other subjects.


The author of the article analyses the restoration and development of Soviet courts in Lithuania from the beginning of the reoccupation in 1944, till 1956, when the cult of Stalin's person was officially condemned by the Communist party. The author discusses the formation of the Soviet court system and the changes to this system after World War 2, the staff of the Soviet judiciary body from 1944 till the first judge elections in 1949 and the legitimization of Soviet courts in subsequent elections in 1951 and 1954. The article also reveals the peculiarities of judicial body formed in 1944–1956, revealing the lack of judges and the reasons for this situation, showing the process of political and legal training of judges. Before the first court elections in 1949, the Soviet court system was established in the absence of societal participation. Officially the formation of the peoples' courts was delegated to the local authorities and the formation of the Supreme Court—to the Supreme Council of the LSSR. However, de facto, the body of Soviet judiciary in 1944–1949 was formed not by the local authorities or the Supreme Council of the LSSR, but by the Ministry of Justice, which, after selecting candidates, coordinated the candidates with the Communist Party's Staff department and only after that submitted candidates to the local authorities or to the Supreme Council of the LSSR for approval. The new order of the elections of the peoples' courts, adopted in 1948, did not change basically the former elections practice. After the elections in 1949, 1951 and 1954 the massive and unanimous participation of society was stated, but in reality neither positive, nor negative voting results had an impact on the court formation. Forming the body of Soviet judges during the first years of the reoccupation was challenging, because of the low number of reliable judges which was attempted to reduce by political and legal training in legal classes and in special institutions of legal education. But the demand of legally educated and politically reliable judges was much higher than was possible to prepare in short time, therefore, in 1944–1956 randomly selected individuals of questionable reputation sometimes became judges, by whom not only the Soviet judiciary system, but the Communist regime as a whole, could be discredited. Therefore, in 1946 the Communist Party implemented the Decree which reformed legal and political education of judiciary officers. After this initiative, the training of legal officers and the results of political and legal education started slowly to improve.


1. Mated females of Rhodnius prolixus lay eggs at approximately twice the rate of unmated females.

2. Males which have had their seminal vesicles or opaque accessory glands removed produce spermatophores at mating, but no spermatozoa appear in the spermathecae of the females. The females involved in such matings do not exhibit an increase in egg-production.

3. When females lacking their spermathecae are mated to normal males, the increase in egg production which follows normal matings does not materialize.

4. Implanting spermathecae from mated females into virgin females increases the egg-production of the host. Implanting spermathecae from virgin females or seminal vesicles or transparent accessory glands from males has no effect on the egg-production of the donor.

5. It is tentatively concluded that a blood-borne factor from the spermathecae containing spermatozoa is the primary stimulus to increased egg production in a mated female.


BACKGROUND
There is no consensus as to the most appropriate treatment for the varied and often complicated presentations of hydatid disease in Britain. We looked at our own results over a 12-year period to see if a consistent and logical plan had emerged.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
70 patients presenting between 1986 and 1998 were analysed retrospectively, with regard to their presentation, diagnosis, treatment and outcome, with particular reference to the use of chemotherapy, and to the difficulties of post-treatment assessment by serology and imaging.

RESULTS
37 patients had been treated previously. 35 had hepatic cysts and 26 multiple cysts. 4 patients were treated by surgery alone, 44 by chemotherapy and surgery, and 14 by chemotherapy alone. The combined use of albendazole and praziquantel pre-operatively reduced significantly the number of cysts that contained viable protoscolices: 1/25 versus 5/8 that received albendazole alone (P = 0.00013). During the 12-year period, it became our policy to aim for 3 months drug treatment (albendazole throughout with praziquantel for 2 weeks), re-assess and proceed either to surgery or to continue with chemotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS
It is possible to construct an algorithm for the management of patients with hydatid disease by chemotherapy and surgery, but the assessment of results by indirect techniques remains difficult.


The role of organic matter (OM) in soil aggregation and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) has long been recognised but their depedence on the intensity of decay is less studied. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of decomposition intensity of incorporated chickpea manure on soil aggregate stability and Ksat. Samples of a clay loam and clay soil were collected from the top 15 cm layer and amended with chickpea green or mature dry manure and incubated at 30°C and ~60% water holding capacity. Decomposition intensity was determined by measuring CO2 evolution using NaOH traps, aggregate stability by wet sieving and Ksat by the constant head method. All determinations were made 3, 7 and 30 days after incubation and the data analysed following the general linear model for a 2 × 3 × 3 factorial in randomised complete block  design. Evolution of CO2 in both soils and manure was highest on day 7 compared to day 3 and 30. In both soils >60% of the soil aggregates were macroaggregates >0.5 mm but the relative proportion of microaggregates <0.5 mm increased from ~10 to ~20% in the control and to ~15% in the amended cay loam soil in the day 30 treatments.Decomposition intensity was increased by incorporating chickpea manure which resulted in improved soil aggregate stability and Ksat especially in soil with low clay content. CO2which is a simple product of decomposition may be used as a rapid indicator of soil aggregate stability and water movement in agricultural soils.

 Key words: Green manure, organic matter, aggregate stability, chickpea, incubation, soil texture.


This is an introduction to programming using Microsoft's Visual Basic.NET 2010. It is intended for novice programmers with little or no programming experience or no experience with Visual Basic. The text emphasizes programming logic and good programming techniques with generous explanations of programming concepts written from a non-technical point of view. It stresses input, processing, and output and sequence, selection, and repetition in code development. File I/O and arrays are included. Later chapters introduce objects, event programming, and databases. By taking a slow and steady approach to programming ideas, this book builds new concepts from what the reader has already learned. VB tips and quips inject both humor and insight. The book includes numerous programming examples and exercises, case studies, tutorials, and "fixing a program" sections for an in-depth look at programming problems and tools. Quizzes and review questions throughout each chapter get students to think about the materials and how to use them. Each chapter has a summary and glossary for extra review. The accompanying Web site, www.cambridge.org/us/McKeown, has code downloads, I/O, and database files from small, simple files to large files with thousands of records, flowcharts, deskchecks and audits to aid with program design, coding, and debugging; PowerPoint files for every chapter; and hundreds of ideas for programs and projects.


The paper investigates the important role of fertilizer to enhance sustainable intensification and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa based on a multi-disciplinary literature review. The review starts with a macro-perspective taking population growth, economic development and climate change into account. This is complemented with a micro-perspective summarizing findings from comprehensive micro-data in selected African countries. Agronomic, environmental and economic profitability implications of fertilizer use are reviewed. An assessment is made whether small farmers in Africa should be considered rational or partly irrational agricultural decision-makers and whether this can affect fertilizer use. I then discuss some controversial and promising policy approaches that may have the potential to enhance sustainable intensification and nutrient use efficiency in African agriculture before I conclude.


The benthic foraminiferal turnover and extinction event (BEE) associated with the negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) across the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is analyzed in the Zumaia section (Spain), one of the most complete and expanded deep-water sequences known worldwide. New biostratigraphic, paleoecologic, and paleoenvironmental data on benthic foraminifera are correlated to information on planktic foraminiferal and calcareous nannofossil turnover in order to evaluate possible causes and consequences of the PETM. Gradual but rapid extinction of 18% of the benthic foraminiferal species starts at the onset of the CIE, after the initial ocean warming (as inferred from calcareous nannofossils) recorded in the last 46 kyr of the Paleocene. This gradual extinction event culminated ∼10.5 kyr after the onset of the CIE and led to the main BEE, affecting 37% of the species. Therefore, extinctions across the PETM affected a total of 55% of the benthic foraminiferal species at Zumaia. The gradual extinction occurred under inferred oxic conditions without evidence for carbonate dissolution, indicating that carbonate corrosivity and oxygenation of the ocean bottom waters were not the main cause of the event. An interval characterized by dissolution occurs above the main BEE, suggesting that bottom waters became corrosive after the main extinction. Carbonate is progressively better preserved through the overlying deposits, and carbon isotope values gradually return to background levels. These data are consistent with a slow deepening of the carbonate compensation depth after its initial rise owing to abrupt acidification of the oceans. Microfossil data support a rapid onset of the PETM, followed by long-term effects on calcareous plankton and benthic foraminifera.


The field of electronic aid for disabled people has been growing constantly with many new innovations being added every year. The need for electronic aid in alternative and augmentative communication (ACC) is becoming increasingly important. Devices which describe extra ways of helping people who find it hard to communicate by speech or writing are being introduced into the market every year. A next generation device for alternative and augmentative communication which shall be used in rehabilitation therapies for speech-impaired people is being developed at EPFL-IMT. This device includes smart image processing capabilities to offer new possibilities to train users and to let them express in a more intuitive and interactive manner. The user acquires an image (pictogram, picture or barcode). The device recognizes the image and plays its corresponding pre-recorded audio sequence. This device is intended to be used by language re-education professionals and specialized educators in the treatment of people affected by pathologies such as aphasia, autism, trisomy or mental handicaps.


The primary characteristic of synaesthesia is the experience of longterm, consistent, cross-category correspondences. However, synaesthetes may have cognitive differences that have no overt relation to the synaesthetic experience. Historically, these secondary characteristics have not been afforded the same empirical attention as the primary characteristic. However, their investigation is particularly important, because synaesthetic experiences may be an external marker for a broader set of underlying characteristics in the neuro-cognition of synaesthetes. The present thesis examines the secondary characteristic of creativity in synaesthetes. For three main reasons, the relation between creativity and synaesthesia has been challenging to understand, despite investigations into it spanning a century. First, there is nothing explicitly creative about a synaesthetic experience. Second, since creativity test performance is confounded with many elements of the standard method of synaesthete recruitment (self-selection), the investigation of creativity in synaesthetes faces fundamental methodological obstacles. Third, in the past the only question has been whether synaesthetes are more creative than non-synaesthetes, without exploring why and how synaesthetes could be more creative. The present thesis takes a new approach to the study of creativity in synaesthetes. First, synaesthete self-selection is replaced with large‐scale population screening. Second, the neuro-cognition of synaesthetes is investigated with a view to exploring the possible bases of their creative cognition abilities. Behavioural results reveal that synaesthetes have significantly elevated abilities in creative cognition, but are no different than non-synaesthetes in creative perception or measures of creative output. Neurocognitive results reveal that, compared to non-synaesthetes, synaesthetes have increased functional connectivity in intermodal synaesthesia (complex audio visual synaesthesia), and higher levels of voluntary cognitive control, both of which are typically related to higher cognitive creativity in the general population. A new dual model is proposed to account for the results and can be summarized as follows. First, synaesthetes have neuro-cognitive differences that contribute to their significantly and reliably elevated abilities to generate creative ideas. Second, synaesthetes have neuro-perceptual differences that can contribute towards elevated pursuit of artistry, but only when also accompanied by the environmental factors and abilities that are needed by others (non-synaesthetes) to also excel in the arts. Therefore, despite the attention that has been given to synaesthetic art, the real relation between synaesthesia and creativity lies with creative thought.


The EGFR family (ErbB2/Her2 and EGFR/ErbB1/Her1) often modulates the transcriptional program involved in promoting mammary tumorigenesis. In humans, the majority of ErbB2-positive sporadic breast cancers harbor p53 mutations, which correlate with poor prognosis. Also, the extremely high incidence of ErbB2-positive breast cancer in women with p53 germline mutations (Li–Fraumeni syndrome) suggests a key role of mutant p53 specifically in ErbB2-mediated mammary tumorigenesis. To examine the role of mutant p53 during ErbB2-mediated mammary tumorigenesis, a mutant p53 allele (R172H) was introduced into the (MMTV)-ErbB2/Neu mouse model system. Interestingly, we show in heterozygous p53 mice that mutant p53 R172H is a more potent activator of ErbB2-mediated mammary tumorigenesis than simple loss of p53. The more aggressive disease in mutant p53 animals was reflected by earlier tumor onset, increased mammary tumor multiplicity, and shorter survival. These in vivo and in vitro data provide mechanistic evidence that mutant p53 amplifies ErbB2 and EGFR signaling to promote the expansion of mammary stem cells and induce cell proliferation. Implications: This study identifies mutant p53 as an essential player in ErbB2 and EGFR-mediated mammary tumorigenesis and indicates the potential translational importance of targeting mutant p53 in this subset of patients with breast cancer. Mol Cancer Res; 13(4); 743–54. ©2015 AACR.


In this Letter a new compensation strategy for a class of three-stage operational transconductance amplifiers is proposed. The proposed approach reduces the original third-order transfer function of the loop gain to that of a pure two-pole amplifier thus allowing the designer to use well-known and consolidated design rules. The approach, suitable for high-speed switched-capacitor circuits, is validated by means of intensive Monte Carlo simulations on a 65-nm three-stage CMOS amplifier.


Early childhood is a child in the age of 0-6 years. In this age, the development and growth of physical and mental of children develop rapidly. Meanwhile, the aspects developed in early childhood education are: religious and moral values, physical (consisting of gross motor, fine motor and physical health), cognitive (consisting of general knowledge and science, concepts, shapes, colors, sizes and patterns, number concepts, symbols of numbers and letters), language (consisting of accepting language, expressing language and script) and emotional social. Language skills are one of the aspects which are developed at this age. Therefore, researchers intend to examine the level of mastery of the language of children through the song. This study aims to improve the vocabulary of early childhood, where this result affects the children's ability to speak a foreign language in the future. This study is a Classroom Action Research, which aims to improve the ability of children English by using songs on the student group B TK Takrimah Tungkob Aceh Besar. This classroom action research is conducted in three cycles; each cycle consists of four stages: planning, action, observation, and reflection. Moreover, in analyzing the data, the researcher used descriptive method, that is analyzed data implemented since learning and developed during the process of reflection until process of report preparation. Data collection techniques used in this study include: interview, and observation of teaching and learning activities. Data analysis techniques consisted of three activities, namely data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing. The results showed that 64% of students can mentioned correctly alphabet in English in the first cycle. Furthermore, 80% of students have known and can properly name a few nouns in English in the second cycle. Furthermore, in the third cycle, 88% of students have been able to use the noun in the form of a simple sentence. Based on the results of this study, it is very important for Kindergarten teachers to create an atmosphere of learning that makes students motivated and eager in learning such as the use of video media in learning so that automatically can improve students' abilities and achievement. Keywords : Early Childhood, English Vocabulary


Since the collapse of Soeharto's New Order regime in May 1998, Indonesia's national, provincial, and district governments have engaged in an intense struggle over how authority and the power embedded in it, should be shared. How this ongoing struggle over authority in the forestry sector will ultimately play out is of considerable significance due to the important role that Indonesia's forests play in supporting rural livelihoods, generating economic revenues, and providing environmental services. This book examines the process of forestry sector decentralization that has occurred in post-Soeharto Indonesia, and assesses the implications of more recent efforts by the national government to recentralize administrative authority over forest resources. It aims to describe the dynamics of decentralization in the forestry sector, to document major changes that occurred as district governments assumed a greater role in administering forest resources, and to assess what the ongoing struggle among Indonesia's national, provincial, and district governments is likely to mean for forest sustainability, economic development at multiple levels, and rural livelihoods. Drawing from primary research conducted by numerous scientists both at CIFOR and its many Indonesian and international partner institutions since 2000, this book sketches the sectoral context for current governmental reforms by tracing forestry development and the changing structure of forest administration from Indonesia's independence in 1945 to the fall of Soeharto's New Order regime in 1998. The authors further examine the origins and scope of Indonesia's decentralization laws in order to describe the legal-regulatory framework within which decentralization has been implemented both at the macro-level and specifically within the forestry sector. This book also analyses the decentralization of Indonesia's fiscal system and describes the effects of the country's new fiscal balancing arrangements on revenue flows from the forestry sector, and describes the dynamics of district-level timber regimes following the adoption of Indonesia's decentralization laws. Finally, this book also examines the real and anticipated effects of decentralization on land tenure and livelihood security for communities living in and around forested areas, and summarizes major findings and options for possible interventions to strengthen the forestry reform efforts currently underway in Indonesia.


This study describes use of a thermoelectric power converter to transform waste heat into electrical energy to power an RF receiver and transmitter, for use in harsh environment wireless temperature sensing and telemetry. The sensing and transmitting module employs a DS-1820 low power digital temperature sensor to perform temperature to voltage conversion, an ATX-34 RF transmitter, an ARX-34 RF receiver module, and a PIC16f84A microcontroller to synchronize data communication between them. The unit has been tested in a laboratory environment, and promising results have been obtained for an actual automotive wireless under hood temperature sensing and telemetry implementation.


We give a complete characterisation of families of probability distributions that are invariant under the action of ReLU neural network layers. The need for such families arises during the training of Bayesian networks or the analysis of trained neural networks, e.g., in the context of uncertainty quantification (UQ) or explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). We prove that no invariant parametrised family of distributions can exist unless at least one of the following three restrictions holds: First, the network layers have a width of one, which is unreasonable for practical neural networks. Second, the probability measures in the family have finite support, which basically amounts to sampling distributions. Third, the parametrisation of the family is not locally Lipschitz continuous, which excludes all computationally feasible families. Finally, we show that these restrictions are individually necessary. For each of the three cases we can construct an invariant family exploiting exactly one of the restrictions but not the other two.


We explore physics behind the horizon in eternal AdS Schwarzschild black holes. In dimension d > 3 , where the curvature grows large near the singularity, we find distinct but subtle signals of this singularity in the boundary CFT correlators. Building on previous work, we study correlation functions of operators on the two disjoint asymptotic boundaries of the spacetime by investigating the spacelike geodesics that join the boundaries. These dominate the correlators for large mass bulk fields. We show that the Penrose diagram for d > 3 is not square. As a result, the real geodesic connecting the two boundary points becomes almost null and bounces off the singularity at a finite boundary time tc≠0. If this geodesic were to dominate the correlator there would be a ``light cone" singularity at tc. However, general properties of the boundary theory rule this out. In fact, we argue that the correlator is actually dominated by a complexified geodesic, whose properties yield the large mass quasinormal mode frequencies previously found for this black hole. We find a branch cut in the correlator at small time (in the limit of large mass), arising from coincidence of three geodesics. The tc singularity, a signal of the black hole singularity, occurs on a secondary sheet of the analytically continued correlator. Its properties are computationally accessible. The tc singularity persists to all orders in the 1/m expansion, for finite α', and to all orders in gs. Certain leading nonperturbative effects can also be studied. The behavior of these boundary theory quantities near tc gives, in principle, significant information about stringy and quantum behavior in the vicinity of the black hole singularity.


Attention has not hitherto been turned intently to the popularity of particular branches of sports in the research of the history of Estonian sports. It has more intuitively been believed that the most popular branch of sports in the pre-war Republic of Estonia (1918–1940) was football. The conspicuously extensive coverage of football in the periodical press has provided grounds for this belief. Compared to other sports games and the more major individual branches, football had the most international matches at the level of national teams, which attracted thousands of spectators. Estonian clubs annually hosted squads from neighbouring countries. Professional clubs mainly from Central Europe brought thousands of spectators to the stadiums in the latter half of the 1920s and in the early 1930s. Rivalries between squads at home were also of great interest to the public and the media. The other primary ball games, basketball and volleyball, started being played in Estonia some ten years after football, and their position was weaker internationally as well: contacts between countries were infrequent. The international basketball association was established in 1932 and its analogue in volleyball was founded in 1947. Track and field, the largest branch of individual athletics, also could not compete with football in terms of matches and international contacts.
This article is the first more serious attempt to compare the popularity of branches of sports in Estonia in the 1920s and 1930s. I compared the more major branches of sports in four categories: the number of participants in the particular branch of sports, the sizes of audiences, their ability to cope economically (balance sheets and revenue reports), and their position in the print media.
The fact that there are gaps in the data in both the archives and in periodicals, and that the information for different years does not always match, made comparison of the numbers of participants difficult. The methodology used for ascertaining the number of participants was also not necessarily the same. An adequate comparison to the more important individualsports branches is complicated to arrive at because until 1933, the Eesti Kerge-, Raske- ja Veespordiliit (Estonian Association of Track and Field, Heavy Athletics and Aquatic Sports) was the umbrella organisation for major branches of sports such as track and field, wrestling, weightlifting, boxing, swimming, diving, gymnastics and cycling, whereas the last two sports branches are not even mentioned in the association's name. Conclusions can nevertheless be drawn concerning the number and proportions of persons active in different branches of sports based on indirect data. I compared the size of the membership of the separate sports associations and the number of participants in the Estonian championships of the three largest sports games (football, basketball, volleyball).
Periodicals proved to be the most reliable in ascertaining the numbers of spectators since they unfailingly noted the larger attendance numbers based on spectator ticket information or visual observation. The sketchy information on attendance at competitions in individual sports is a problem, but from the standpoint of this article's research problem, the fact that before World War II there was not a single large sports arena in Estonia is important. The gymnasiums that were in use accommodated slightly over 500 spectators in total. This means that a thousand and more spectators could gather only at stadiums, where primarily football matches and track and field competitions were held. The print media reported the numbers of spectators at those competitions. I compared the attendance numbers for football and track and field competitions, and calculated the average number of spectators.
There are gaps in the balance sheets and revenue reports of the separate sports associations for the period under consideration, yet the Eesti Spordi Keskliit (Central Association of Estonian Sports) published them in its yearbooks for 1935–1939, which makes it possible to draw correct conclusions concerning the economic viability of the separate sports associations.
While I used the method of source criticism for the preceding three categories, I studied the representation of branches of sports in print media together with Kristjan Remmelkoor using content analysis. We focused exclusively on print media because that was the primary means of mass communication at that time, and it covered the entire period under consideration, unlike radio, which began broadcasting for the first time in 1926. On the basis of circulation numbers, we selected two dailies with nationwide circulation that were published in Tallinn (Vaba Maa was published only until 1938, thus it was replaced for final comparison with another Tallinn daily paper Uus Eesti) and one daily from southern Estonia for content analysis. We studied the newspaper issues from the years 1921, 1925, 1930, 1935 and 1939. Based on the pilot project, we identified the branches of sports that were reported the most and worked out a methodology on the basis of which to search for and categorise branches of sports. After six months, I carried out a repeat analysis for one month of each year that was under consideration. The repeat analysis covered all four dailies. The results differed by 3.97%. Thereat in comparing the two branches of sports that were reported on most, the difference in football was 0.69% and 0.43% in track and field.
It became evident as a result of the study that compared to basketball and volleyball, there were almost four times more football enthusiasts. Compared to the other more popular individual sports, we can indirectly conclude that football was the branch of sports with the largest number of enthusiasts. Football had the most spectators in Estonia in the interwar period because branches of sports practiced in indoor conditions could not fit more than 500 spectators into gymnasiums, since there was no large sports arena. Football had the largest audiences when considering the track and field competitions and football matches held at stadiums. In 1935–1939, the Eesti Jalgpalli Liit (Estonian Football Association) was Estonia's most prosperous separate sports association. It became evident on the basis of content analysis that the two most widely reported branches of sports in print media were football, and track and field. Thereat the number of reports on track and field grew in the latter half of the 1930s and surpassed the figures for football. At the same time, the number of texts on Estonian football was the largest over the entire period that has been studied. The greatest number of texts on football were in journalistic genres that required absorbed reading, which stood out better in newspapers.
Due to these circumstances, football became the most popular branch of sports in Estonia in the interwar period. The Estonian national squad's international match against Latvia held on 18 June 1940 characterises football's symbolic capital. This match that took place at Kadriorg stadium at a turning point in history evolved into a nationalist demonstration against the Soviet Union's occupying regime. The crowd went from the stadium to Kadriorg Palace, where President Konstantin Päts was under the guard of the foreign regime. This match and the events that followed it are etched in the people's collective memory. They have made their way into many published memoirs and also into belles-lettres, and have been echoed in both poetry and prose.


Abstract. Reconstructions of past climatic changes from borehole temperature profiles are important independent estimates of temperature histories over the last millennium. There remain, however, multiple uncertainties in the interpretation of these data as climatic indicators and as estimates of the changes in the heat content of the continental subsurface due to long-term climatic change. One of these uncertainties is associated with the often ignored impact of the last glacial cycle (LGC) on the subsurface energy content, and on the estimate of the background quasi steady-state signal associated with the diffusion of accretionary energy from the Earth's interior. Here, we provide the first estimate of the impact of the development of the Laurentide ice sheet on the estimates of energy and temperature reconstructions from measurements of terrestrial borehole temperatures in North America. We use basal temperature values from the data-calibrated Memorial University of Newfoundland glacial systems model (MUN-GSM) to quantify the extent of the perturbation to estimated steady-state temperature profiles, and to derive spatial maps of the expected impacts on measured profiles over North America. Furthermore, we present quantitative estimates of the potential effects of temperature changes during the last glacial cycle on the borehole reconstructions over the last millennium for North America. The range of these possible impacts is estimated using synthetic basal temperatures for a period covering 120 ka to the present day that include the basal temperature history uncertainties from an ensemble of results from the calibrated numerical model. For all the locations, we find that within the depth ranges that are typical for available boreholes (≈600 m), the induced perturbations to the steady-state temperature profile are on the order of 10 mW m−2, decreasing with greater depths. Results indicate that site-specific heat content estimates over North America can differ by as much as 50%, if the energy contribution of the last glacial cycle in those areas of North America that experienced glaciation is not taken into account when estimating recent subsurface energy changes from borehole temperature data.


Glass has become an indispensable construction material. However, in extreme events such as fire, the behaviour of glass elements is still relatively unknown. The susceptibility of glass to thermal shock and its changeable material properties when subjected to high temperatures make predicting the behaviour of glass elements during fire complex. Practical applications of fire-resistant glazing, however, already exist as infill panels and frameless glass walls/doors, and are commonly used. They are highly effective to maintain compartmentation, providing temporary protection of the unexposed side against the passage of flames and smoke and, depending on the classification, they also provide thermal insulation. This paper gives an overview of experimental research performed on glazing subjected to fire loading. Outcomes of temperature-dependent properties, monolithic glazing and multi-glazed products are summarised to create an insight in the thermal behaviour. The current shortcomings to determine the fire resistance of glazing are identified and promising numerical software developments are summarised.


Marketing Essentials 2e explains the nature of marketing and the importance of understanding the complexities of the market place in a concise manner. This comprehensive text is easy to read, reflects accurately the current thinking in the world of marketing and is informative, interesting and topical.

Marketing Essentials follows a logical structure enabling students to clearly see how effective marketing requires an analysis of the market place, the recommendation of a marketing strategy and the implementation of the desired strategy.

Marketing Essentials is ideal for use on introductory marketing modules at both undergraduate and MBA level. The strategic content of the text makes it suitable for use on strategic marketing, marketing analysis and marketing management courses.


In the article, it is proved that expansion of an assortment and increase of steel properties is one of the most important issues of the metallurgy. Its problem-solving can be carried out with the use of alloying additions, first of all — manganese. The most significant global manufacturers of manganese-ore raw materials are considered the analysis of the choosing raw materials and suppliers for the domestic ferroalloy industry is conducted. Calculation data of preparation and delivery of manganese ore for metallurgical industry of Ural is presented. The comparative analysis of use options of raw materials for production of the final product — ferromanganese is carried out. Besides technological assessment of the project, the economic justification of its realization is given. Expediency of development of the Russian mining and metallurgical complexes in cooperation with the import countries of high-quality manganese raw materials is proved.


The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits is a book of fictions, but they are also true. Over the last ten years, I have often stumbled over a scrap of history so fascinating that I had to stop whatever I was doing and write a story about it. My sources are the flotsam and jetsam of the last seven hundred years of British and Irish life: surgical case-notes; trial records; a plague ballad; theological pamphlets; a painting of two girls in a garden; an articulated skeleton. Some of the ghosts in this collection have famous names; others were written off as cripples, children, half-breeds, freaks and nobodies. The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits is named for Mary Toft, who in 1726 managed to convince half England that she had done just that. So this book is what I have to show for ten years of sporadic grave-robbing, ferreting out forgotten puzzles and peculiar incidents, asking 'What really happened?', but also, 'What if?


This book contains all the plenary addresses from the 1984 International Federation for the Teaching of English Seminar on Language, Schooling, and Society held at Michigan State University in November, 1984. These include addresses by Anthony Adams (U.K.), Garth Boomer (Aus), Frances Christie (N.Z.), John Dixon (U.K.), Mary Maguire (Can.), James Moffett (U.S.A.), Robert Pattison (U.S.A.), Ian Pringle (Can.) and Louise Rosenblatt (U.S.A.).In addition, the book contains the reports of the five Commissions that met several times daily during the Seminar: "Language, Politics, and Public Affairs; Language and Schooling; Language and the New Media; Language, Literature, and Human Values;" and "Language and Multicultural Education."It is these that give the book its great importance, as the leaders of English education in the five member countries of I.F.T.E. unite in a ringing cry for genuine implementation of a learner-centered growth model of English at all levels of the English language arts curriculum, and a united opposition to those external societal pressures which impede the work and the professionalism of English/language arts teachers.


Enterprise Architecture (EA) management seeks to align business and IT while realizing cost saving potentials, improving availability and fault tolerance, and increasing flexibility of an organization. Regarding these objectives, decision makers need to be supported with solid and relevant models about the organization's architecture to guide the future development of the EA. In practice, many EA initiatives struggle with inflexible models not meeting the information demand of stakeholders. In this paper, we propose a solution that empowers stakeholders to reveal their information demand collaboratively to facilitate EA models that evolve with changing information demands at runtime. We present core concepts of our approach and insights of an implementation thereof as foundation to achieve our long-term goal of evolving EA models. In our implementation we extend a collaboration platform with capabilities to monitor the actual information demand and to maintain the EA model referring to this demand at runtime.


Wound healing scratch assay is a frequently used method to characterize cell migration, which is an important biological process in the course of development, tissue repair, and immune response for example. The measurement of wound healing rate, however, varies among different studies. Here we summarized these measurements into three types: (I) direct rate average; (II) regression rate average; and (III) average distance regression rate. Using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells as a model, we compared the three types of analyses on quantifying the wound closing rate, and discovered that type I & III measurements are more resistant to outliers, and type II analysis is more sensitive to outliers. We hope this study can help researchers to better use this simple yet effective assay.


The choice of password composition policy to enforce on a password-protected system represents a critical security decision, and has been shown to significantly affect the vulnerability of user-chosen passwords to guessing attacks. In practice, however, this choice is not usually rigorous or justifiable, with a tendency for system administrators to choose password composition policies based on intuition alone. In this work, we propose a novel methodology that draws on password probability distributions constructed from large sets of real-world password data which have been filtered according to various password composition policies. Password probabilities are then redistributed to simulate different user password reselection behaviours in order to automatically determine the password composition policy that will induce the distribution of user-chosen passwords with the greatest uniformity, a metric which we show to be a useful proxy to measure overall resistance to password guessing attacks. Further, we show that by fitting power-law equations to the password probability distributions we generate, we can justify our choice of password composition policy without any direct access to user password data. Finally, we present Skeptic---a software toolkit that implements this methodology, including a DSL to enable system administrators with no background in password security to compare and rank password composition policies without resorting to expensive and time-consuming user studies. Drawing on 205,176,321 passwords across 3 datasets, we lend validity to our approach by demonstrating that the results we obtain align closely with findings from a previous empirical study into password composition policy effectiveness.


Researchers as well as car manufacturers expect a greater market penetration of electric vehicles (EV) in Germany and worldwide for the next years and decades. The Lithium-ion battery represents the core technology of electrically driven cars, because it defines technical and economical limitations. Consequently, the knowledge about this technology and the ability to produce it are the relevant drivers for a successful EV diffusion. Due to the expected great market penetration, the battery supply chain has to grow extremely in future or otherwise the economic potential gets lost. But the prospective impacts of this fast growing demand on the supply chain and its environment can be hardly estimated. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to build up a first simulation model, which demonstrates the development of the automotive Li-ion battery supply chain in Germany over the next decades. By means of various EV diffusion scenarios we want to show expected future trends and their impacts on the battery supply chain, on raw materials, production capacities and on employment effects.


Sri Lanka, a predominantly Theravāda state, is recovering from 30 years of civil war between the minority Tamil (largely Hindu) rebels and the State.  Yet the recovery is slowed or even reversed by an extreme recentralization of power and an attempt to further 'Buddhicize' socio-politics. Part of this process is the campaign led by the Bodu Bala Sēnā (BBS) - a Sangha-led organization calling for severe restriction on the Muslim population and their way of life, including halāl food , wearing the hijab, and calling to prayers (especially in the early morning and late at night). The Lanka Sangha seems to be learning from their counterparts in Burma and Thailand, where there is strong anti-Muslim sentiment. There is evidence that certain political powers are indirectly (and perhaps even directly) supporting this group.  This essay attempts to understand the ideology of the BBS and argue that the modern Sangha in a majority Buddhist state such as Lanka are faced with a challenge in the shape of modern democracy and the multinational nature of their society. However, they seem to draw strength from a hegemonic past rather than acknowledge the reality of a multi-faith, multicultural world order. It will need a combination of Sangha and lay scholars and activists to find answers to allay this political anxiety and avert the carnage it promises to deliver.


Intraspecific morphological variation among a population of Haplochromis nyererei (Teleostei, Cichlidae) from Lake Victoria was investigated. Three main groups of variables were used: general shape, outline of the head, and trophic group (intestinal length, stomach contents, teeth and jaw shape, lower jaw length and width). Fishes were arranged into four groups: G1, large males with a prominent bump on the head, a thickset body and anatomical structures related to a strictly insectivorous diet; G2, large males lacking a bump on the head but more or less thickset and showing anatomical structures related to omnivorous feeding habits, though favouring insects; G3, males and a few females with a slight bump on the head, a slender body shape and showing anatomical structures related primarily to a herbivorous tendency; and G4, females and a few small males without a bump on the head, a slender body and showing anatomical structures related to an omnivore with herbivorous tendencies. Several hypotheses related to behaviour are presented partly to explain the intraspecific variation observed. Differences between individuals could arise as a result about the establishment of dominance and territory in males.


Car-sharing offers an environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and economically feasible mobility form in which a fleet of shared-use vehicles in a number of locations can be accessed and used by many people on as-needed basis at an hourly or mileage rate. To ensure its sustainability, car-sharing operators must be able to effectively manage dynamic and uncertain demands, and make the best decisions on strategic vehicle allocation and operational vehicle reallocation both in time and space to improve their profits while keeping costs under control. This paper develops a stochastic optimization method to optimize strategic allocation of vehicles for one-way carsharing systems under demand uncertainty. A multi-stage stochastic linear programming model is developed and solved for use in the context of car-sharing. A seven-stage experimental network study is conducted. Numerical results and computational insights are discussed.


This paper develops a general equilibrium model in which households face fixed costs associated with searching for a new supplier of consumption goods. These search costs provide firms with some monopoly power over their existing customers and generate the kind of customer flow dynamics first considered by Phelps and Winter. Customer flows, in turn, cause markups of price over marginal cost to vary countercyclically, both amplify and propagate the effects of technology shocks on output, and allow the effects of monetary shocks on output to persist.


Private pensions play a greater role in the UK than in other European countries, and recent reforms proposed by the Labour government envisage an even greater role for them in the future. Although low earners are still to have their retirement income provided for through the state, middle and higher earners are to provide the bulk of their retirement income through private pensions. This framework assumes that people are well-informed rational consumers who will choose to re-allocate their consumption over time, yet there has been little research effort to analyse current patterns of private pension accumulation in the UK. This thesis aims to bridge this gap by using the Family Resources Survey 1994-95 to analyse this voluntary behaviour. This is done with reference to five themes: coverage, adequacy, compulsion, rationality, and asset accumulation. The major part of the thesis uses both cross-tabulations and more sophisticated regression-based tools to analyse the constituent parts of pension accumulation. Private pension coverage is analysed for both occupational and personal pensions. The proportion making additional contributions and the amounts paid are also examined. The thesis also covers the employee contributions paid as a result of scheme membership. Pensions are not the sole means by which a stream of income can be built up and so the level of financial assets held is examined. In all cases the differences between various groups within the population are highlighted. The last part of the thesis draws together the disparate elements of pension accumulation to see what this behaviour might produce in terms of outcomes, using a simple stylised model. It also evaluates the research itself and possible future directions. Finally, the implications of the pension behaviour highlighted in this thesis for current government policy are considered.


In order to close the financing gap in green technologies, finding new mechanisms to en - hance the participation of the private sector, combined with that of the public sector, in financing sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure is a must. In this context, some unlisted instruments are going to be needed to enhance financing of green infrastructure. Besides, the development of properly structured projects, with risks and returns in line with the preferences of the different types of investors and financial agents that make up the ecosystem of financing sources, would also help to close the private financing gap in in - frastructure. The Moroccan infrastructure planning framework gives an example of many implementable mechanisms to facilitate the development of sustainable infrastructure.


In recent years real-time multi player networked gaming has grown in popularity due to exciting challenges posed by competing with human opponents. It is therefore very likely that the introduction of more powerful portable wireless hand held devices will motivate a similar demand for fast action collaborative multi player gaming capabilities on those platforms also. In this paper we argue that the commonly used communication architectures for today's multi player gaming applications will not work in the mobile wireless domain. We address this argument by introducing our own architecture based on publish subscribe and structured peer to peer that offers a novel interest managed, spatially partitioned solution. Finally we evaluate this approach and suggest that an optimal solution also requires knowledge of both the network interface in use and of the underlying network topology.


In a thermonuclear reactor fusion between hydrogen isotopes takes place, producing helium and energy. The so-called divertor is the part of the fusion reactor vessel where the plasma is neutralized in order to exhaust the helium. The surface plates of the divertor are subjected to high heat loads and high fluxes of energetic hydrogen and helium. In the next generation fusion device - the tokamak ITER - the expected conditions at the plates are particle fluxes exceeding 1e24 per second and square metre, particle energies ranging from 1 to 100 eV and an average heat load of 10 MW per square metre. Two materials have been identified as candidates for the ITER divertor plates: carbon and tungsten. Since there are currently no fusion devices that can create these harsh conditions, it is unknown how the materials will behave in terms of erosion and hydrogen retention. To gain more insight in the physical processes under these conditions molecular dynamics simulations have been conducted. Since diamond has been proposed as possible plasma facing material, we have studied erosion and hydrogen retention in diamond and amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H). As in experiments, diamond shows a lower erosion yield than a-C:H, however the hydrogen retention in diamond is much larger than in a-C:H and also hardly depending on the substrate temperature. This implies that simple heating of the surface is not sufficient to retrieve the hydrogen from diamond material, whereas a-C:H readily releases the retained hydrogen. So, in spite of the higher erosion yield carbon material other than diamond seems more suitable. Experiments suggest that the erosion yield of carbon material decreases with increasing flux. This was studied in our simulations. The results show no flux dependency, suggesting that the observed reduction is not a material property but is caused by external factors as, for example, redeposition of the erosion products. Our study of the redeposition showed that the sticking probability of small hydrocarbons is highest on material previously subjected to the highest hydrogen flux. This result suggests that redeposition is more effective under high than under low hydrogen fluxes, partly explaining the experimentally observed reduction in the carbon erosion yield. Lastly, we studied amorphous tungsten carbide. Amorphous material with three different carbon percentages (15, 50 and 95%) was subjected to deuterium bombardment and the resulting erosion and deuterium retention was analysed. The 95% carbon sample behaves like doped carbon, the carbon erosion yield is reduced and no tungsten is eroded. Segregation of the materials was observed, resulting in an accumulation of tungsten at the surface. The hydrogen retention was similar to a-C:H. The 15% carbon sample showed no significant erosion or retention. The most interesting was the 50% sample. Here deuterium bubbles formed that burst open after sufficiently long bombardment, thereby removing both carbon and tungsten from the surface. In the context of ITER our MD simulations suggest that tungsten is the better suited material since both the erosion and the hydrogen retention are significantly lower than for carbon.


The electronic and structural features of (oxo)manganese(V) corroles and their catalyzed oxygen atom transfers to thioanisole in different spin states have been investigated by the B3LYP functional calculations. Calculations show that these corrole-based oxidants and their complexes with thioanisole generally have the singlet ground state, and their triplet forms are also accessible in consideration of the spin-orbit coupling interaction. Due to strong d-π conjugation interactions between Mn and the corrole ring arising from the π electron donation of the corrole moiety, the five-coordinated Mn approximately has the stable 18-electron configuration. The predicted free energy barriers for the singlet oxygen atom transfer reactions are generally larger than 22 kcal mol(-1), while the spin flip in reaction may remarkably increase the reactivity. In particular, the bromination on β-pyrrole carbon atoms of the meso-substituted (oxo)manganese(V) corrole strikingly enhances the spin-orbit coupling interaction and results in the dramatic increase of reactivity. The multiple spin changes are predicted to be involved in the low-energy reaction pathway. The present results show good agreement with the experimental observation and provide a detailed picture for the oxygen atom transfer reaction induced by the (oxo)manganese(V) corroles.


As would be expected, the rapid expansion of energy production and consumption has brought with it a wide range of environmental issues at the local, regional, and global levels. With respect to global environmental issues, Turkey's carbon dioxide emissions have grown along with its energy consumption. States have played a leading role in protecting the environment by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be the one of the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. This article presents a review of the energy and environmental policies in Turkey. Over the last few decades, a number of Turkish citizens who live in the eastern part of country have migrated to the western part of the country. This caused some problems in the energy utilization and environmental pollution in the western regions in Turkey. For this reason, in the coming decades, global environmental issues could significantly affect patterns of energy use in Turkey.


Public language has become impoverished by 'managerialism', often reducing it to strings of 'weasel' words, a phenomenon blamed on the information society. This process is not as ubiquitous or as inevitable as often represented, however. Drawing on Burke's notion of human beings as 'wordlings', I argue for the centrality of well-crafted words, especially on the internet, and offer examples of language crafted with care and passion, leading to distilled and vivid expression. I use the term 'word bytes' for such language, as it can cut through the multiple items of information from many other media by which it is surrounded, and demand to be noticed and remembered. I conclude we do not have to accept the impoverished form of 'managerial' English, often produced by elites and used to justify the 'financialisation' of the late capitalist world. We can begin to counter it by our own practices of using words with care and passion, and by disseminating our words. We can also stop and question 'weasel' language wherever we encounter it.


The Namibian Constitution entrenches fundamental rights and freedoms, and provides for their vertical and horizontal application in any criminal process. However, since Independence in 1990, Namibia has developed its own criminal jurisprudence. Criminal procedure and law are taking new shape. Namibian courts have pronounced on criminal issues, and legislation has been passed to keep up with the demands, aspirations, spirit, and vision of the Namibian Constitution and its people. CLEVER MAPAURE, NDJODI NDEUNYEMA, PILISANO MASAKE, FESTUS WEYULU and LOIDE SHAPARARA have written an invaluable book that deals with these developments. It explains the rights of individuals, the duties of law enforcement officers, and the procedures of the courts in criminal cases. The Law of Pre-Trial Criminal Procedure in Namibia introduces readers to the fundamental principles and values underlying Namibian criminal law, through a systematic examination of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977) as amended, which was originally passed by the legislature of South Africa, and still regulates criminal procedure in Namibia, the amendments to it since 1990, and relevant Namibian Case Law. The book captures and discusses the law relating to the pre-trial criminal process in Namibia in detail, from the roles of the prosecutor and the police, search, seizure and forfeiture, interrogation, notices and summons, arrest, court appearance, bail, criminal charges, disclosure, diminished capacity, right to assistance, to pleas and plea-bargaining.


In this paper a technique to detect multiple impulsive interference in an industrial environment is proposed and evaluated. The technique is based on discriminant analysis which iteratively peels-off the impulsive interferences. The probability of detection of the technique is tested with and without the iterative peeling-off part. The simulations show that the SIR can be improved by applying the detection technique and then blank or clip the impulsive interference components. The improvement in the SIR depends on the impulsive interference parameters and it can reach up to 17 dB.


For at least the past several decades, judges around the world have been looking beyond their own states' jurisprudence to international law and the decisions of foreign courts in order to apply domestic law. This widespread practice is part of a phenomenon that Anne-Marie Slaughter calls "judicial globalization." The American judiciary, however, has exhibited a distinct diffidence toward the use of comparative and international law to decide domestic cases, a diffidence that extends to many elected officials as well… . Various defenses of the Supreme Court's reliance on international and comparative sources have been made, not least by some of the Supreme Court justices themselves. None of the defenses, however, have met the democratic objections head-on. Instead, justifications have mainly defended the general utility of referencing additional sources rather than the specific legitimacy of referencing sources from outside the U.S. legal system. The defenses to date fall short for at least two sets of reasons. They fail to grapple with legitimate concerns about the practice. In consequence, they offer no reasons for those opposed to this practice to reconsider their resistance.


Combustion units frequently experience thermoacoustic instabilities, also known as
combustion oscillations, which are consequence of the internal coupling between acoustic
waves and unsteady heat release. Deterioration in system performance, starting by
increased emissions or higher levels of fuel consumption, may occur due to this largeamplitude
flow oscillations and their associated pressure fluctuations and, under some
circumstances, these can be intense enough to cause structural damage on the installation.
After introducing its physical background, this acoustic phenomenon is modelled in
the time domain using a one‐dimensional linearized analytical approach and then
implemented into Simulink; thus providing a pioneering tool which models combustion
instabilities in an interactive and customizable environment. A first model reproduces the
behaviour of an acoustically excited pipe without combustion, whereas a second one
simulates the performance of a generic combustor with unsteady heat release without
mean flow. The validity of the conceived models is checked through comparison with
acoustics theory and earlier research developed in the Laplace domain. This graphical
modelling aspires to become a faster, more visual alternative to the complex current
approaches to the analysis of combustion oscillations, especially suitable for shorter
projects thanks to its simplicity of use.
As an initial approach to the interruption of combustion oscillations, feedback
control is applied to the modelled combustor. A fixed‐parameter controller is designed in
the time domain using Nyquist and Bode techniques and then implanted into the Simulink
model. Finally, the robustness of the controller to slight changes in the heat release time
delay is assessed.


The Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS) instrument on board the European Space Agency's ENVISAT satellite measures attenuation of stellar light in occultation geometry. Daytime measurements also record scattered solar light from the atmosphere. The wavelength regions are the ultraviolet-visible band 248–690 nm and two infrared bands at 755–774 nm and at 926–954 nm. From UV-Visible and IR spectra the vertical profiles of O 3, NO2, NO3, H2O, O2 and aerosols can be retrieved. In addition there are two 1 kHz photometers at blue 473–527 nm and red 646–698 nm. Photometer data are used to correct spectrometer measurements for scintillations and to retrieve high resolution temperature profiles as well as gravity wave and turbulence parameters. Measurements cover altitude region 5–150 km. Atmospherically valid data are obtained in 15–100 km. In this paper we present an overview of the GOMOS retrieval algorithms for stellar occultation measurements. The low signal-to-noise ratio and the refractive effects due to the point source nature of stars have been important drivers in the development of GOMOS retrieval algorithms. We present first the Level 1b algorithms that are used to correct instrument related disturbances in the spectrometer and photometer measurements The Level 2 algorithms deal with the retrieval of vertical profiles of atmospheric gaseous constituents, aerosols and high resolution temperature. We divide the presentation into correction for refractive effects, Correspondence to: E. Kyrölä (firstname.lastname@example.com) high resolution temperature retrieval and spectral/vertical inversion. The paper also includes discussion about the GOMOS algorithm development, expected improvements, access to GOMOS data and alternative retrieval approaches.


OFDM system is one of the widely used system, and also will be used in coming future. Recently it has been used in 4G communication. There is a disadvantage of OFDM system is high PAPR which leads to nonlinear distortion in OFDM system. When We use a high power amplifier, the signal gets nonlinearly distorted. Due to This it will cause degradation of BER in OFDM system. But when we use SOM and PLSOM neural network in ofdm system BER gets improved by using som and BER performance gets further improved using the PLSOM neural network in OFDM system as it is the solution to the SOM neural network. PLSOM is more sensitive in nature with external forces. This paper represents PLSOM1 algorithm, which will solve problems associated with PLSOM algorithm. Keywords— OFDM, neural networks, HPA, PAPR, SOM, PLSOM, PLSOM1


In this frontier article we highlight recent advances in subcomponent self-sorting in self-assembled metal-ligand cage complexes, with a focus on selective discrimination between ligands that contain highly similar metal-coordinating groups. Effects such as varying ligand length, coordination angle and backbone flexibility, as well as the introduction of secondary weak forces such as hydrogen bonds can be exploited to favor either narcissistic or social self-sorting. We highlight these creative solutions, and emphasize the challenges that remain in the development of functional self-assembled heterocomplexes.


There is considerable intersubject variability in early neurological course after anterior circulation stroke, yet the pathophysiology underlying this variability is not fully understood. Here, we hypothesize that, although not predicted by current pathophysiological models, infarction of 'non-core-non-penumbral' (i.e. clinically silent) brain tissue may nevertheless occur, and negatively influence clinical course over and above the established positive impact of penumbral salvage. In order to test this hypothesis, non-core-non-penumbral tissue was identified in two independent prospectively recruited cohorts, using computed tomography perfusion, and magnetic resonance perfusion- and diffusion-weighted imaging, respectively. Follow-up structural magnetic resonance imaging was obtained about 1 month later in all patients to map the final infarct. The volumes of both the acutely silent but eventually infarcted tissue, and the eventually non-infarcted penumbra, were determined by performing voxel-wise analysis of the acute and follow-up image sets, using previously validated perfusion thresholds. Early neurological course was expressed as change in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores between the acute and 1-month assessments, relative to the acute score. The relationship between the acutely silent but eventually infarcted tissue volume and early neurological course was tested using a multivariate regression model that included the volume of non-infarcted penumbra. Thirty-four and 58 patients were recruited in the computed tomography perfusion and magnetic resonance perfusion cohorts, respectively (mean onset-to-imaging time: 136 and 156 min; 27 and 42 patients received intravenous thrombolysis, respectively). Infarction of acutely silent tissue was identified in most patients in both cohorts. Although its volume (median 0.2 and 2 ml, respectively) was much smaller than that of salvaged penumbra (59.3 and 93 ml, respectively), it was substantial in ∼10% of patients. As expected, salvaged penumbra strongly positively influenced early neurological course. Even after correcting for the latter effect in the multivariate model, infarction of acutely silent tissue independently negatively influenced early neurological course in both cohorts (P=0.018 and 0.031, respectively). This is the first systematic study to document infarction of acutely silent tissue after anterior circulation stroke, and to show that it affects a sizeable fraction of patients and has the predicted negative impact on clinical course. These findings were replicated in two independent cohorts, regardless of the perfusion imaging modality used. Preventing infarction of the tissue not initially at risk should have direct clinical benefit.


This thesis is concerned with the Teaching of Arabic Writing for Occupational Purposes (TAWOP). Its main purpose is to develop an effective and practical approach to TAWOP in the context of Kuwait.

Three research instruments were employed: questionnaire, observation and interviews. A structured questionnaire was given to the participants, all of whom were employed in various occupational fields in Kuwait, in order to measure a
number of factors believed to affect the approach to the teaching of writing. Task observation was used to discover how the different writing strategies under study worked in practice. Semistructured interviews were conducted with the participants who performed the observed tasks, and also with teachers of Arabic, in order to determine the most effective strategies that could be used in TAWOP.

This research provides sufficient evidence to suggest that combining two well understood approaches to the teaching of writing, known as the product and process approaches, will best fulfil the needs of learners of Arabic for occupational purposes, who are required to perform a variety of writing tasks in the workplace addressed to
different readers, and using many different language aspects.

This thesis consists of nine chapters. Chapter One presents the main aims of the study, and explains why it is significant. Chapter Two provides a description of the
area of the study. Chapter Three discusses the concept of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), considers its historical background, its definition and its various
types, and explains the importance of taking the learner's needs into consideration. In Chapter Four we review the literature related to the teaching of writing. Chapter Five
presents the proposed model of the study. Chapter Six discusses the methodology related to the research instruments used in the fieldwork. A full description is given of the aims, population, design and implementation of the research. The results of the questionnaire are analysed in detail in Chapter Seven, and in Chapter Eight the
results of the observation sessions and the interviews are analyesd and interpreted. Finally, Chapter Nine summarises the main findings of the study, considers their implications, and makes recommendations for future research


Does your company have consumer data it isn't legally authorized to possess? Don't be too quick to answer. Many ethical, lawfully-managed businesses do have such data and it comes from a surprising source: their customers, who inadvertently share the personal data of their peers, such as family, friends, and colleagues.


"The current study examined the implications of Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory for internalizing psychopathology. Previous research indicates that low activation of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) predicts depression and high activation of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) predicts anxiety and in some studies depression. However, few studies have examined BIS/BAS levels in relation to both depressive and anxious symptomatology. A sample of 285 undergraduates was administered questionnaires that tap BIS and BAS activation and internalizing symptoms. General distress and anxious arousal scores were collapsed into one symptom category because results indicated that the measure of psychopathology did not discriminate the two. Higher BIS activation predicted all types of internalizing psychopathology, lower BAS predicted anhedonic depression, and negative life events predicted anxious arousal and general distress. BIS, BAS and life events interacted to predict both symptom groups, and these results are discussed in terms of the Joint Subsystems Hypothesis."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


This study aimed to assess the resistance to cyclic fatigue of reciprocating nickel-titanium (NiTi) files (Wave One Gold and Reciproc Blue) and assess the effect of glyde and sodium hypochlorite 5.25% as a gel and liquid on it during testing. A total of 80 new WaveOne Gold primary and Reciproc Blue R25 were tested. The 40 files of the same brand were randomly assigned into four groups (n=8) and submitted to the irrigating protocol as follows: Group 1: Testing without irrigating media, Group 2: Testing with glyde, Group 3: Testing with sodium hypochlorite 5.25% gel, Group 4: Testing with sodium hypochlorite 5.25% liquid, Group 5: testing with normal saline (control). The cyclic fatigue test was performed using the appropriate preset reciprocating mode ('RECIPROC ALL' or 'WAVEONE ALL') in a specially designed endodontic motor. Resistance to fracture was determined by recording the time. The instrument tested in stainless artificial canal with 60° angle of curvature and 5 mm radius of curvature. Resistance to cyclic fatigue of the same NiTi was affected by irrigating media. Reciproc Blue R25 was associated with a higher cyclic fatigue resistance in all groups compared to WaveOne Gold Primary. The study concluded that glyde, sodium hypochlorite 5.25% as a gel and as a liquid may reduce the resistance to cyclic fatigue of WaveOne Gold and Reciproc Blue significantly. However, the type of reciprocating instrument influenced cyclic fatigue resistance with Reciproc Blue R25 being more resistant than WaveOne Gold Primary.


Background: Oral stomatitis is a common debilitating complication of cancer radiotherapy. It results from local effects of radiation on the oral mucosa. The impact of oral stomatitis is far-reaching for patients, caregivers and the medical system. Objective: the aim of the study was to assess impact of oral care protocol to radiotherapy induced stomatitis in cancer patients. Methods: Quasi-experimental research design was conducted in the Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Department at Main Mansoura University Hospital. The data were collected from two hundred adult patients of both sex randomized selected who corresponded to inclusion criteria and divided into two groups. Results: the result indicates increased total knowledge score for patients at immediate post more than post tests 1 and post test 2. Also it was found decreased incidence and severity of stomatitis after oral care protocol. There were a positive relation between severity and incidence of stomatitis of studied patients in relation to their knowledge. Conclusion: The implementation of oral care protocol had a positive effect on the studied patients' total knowledge scores and decrease incidence and severity of stomatitis in the study group. It was recommended that, Cancer patients should be given a written instruction plan for their radiotherapy steps and selfmanagement measures to radiotherapy.


How two economies with divergent political orientations have competed -- and often collided -- with each other.When Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor in July 1853, opening Japan to the West, Americans and Japanese immediately began to misunderstand each other. This relationship between the United States and Japan -- now the world's two greatest economic powers and fierce competitors -- remains immensely important, highly fragile, and little understood on either side of the Pacific.Walter LaFeber, one of America's greatest historians, has written the first book to tell the entire story. Using both American and Japanese sources, LaFeber focuses on two central themes: the role of China which, ghostlike, has always haunted and shaped U.S.-Japanese policies, and the nature of the two capitalisms that have constantly clashed since the late nineteenth century and that led, in 1941, to Pearl Harbor and, after 1945, to today's long-term economic war.


In many countries, the cost of workers' compensation insurance is borne by firms. The contributions paid by a given firm are linked to its past health costs of occupational injuries and illnesses. This experience rating scheme should encourage firms to invest in occupational prevention, thereby reducing the social costs of adverse occupational exposures. This paper provides results on whether firms respond to an increase in their contribution to occupational musculoskeletal disorder health costs by reducing the incidence of these diseases and related absences. Our identification strategy exploits a natural experiment in the French context in 2007. We use administrative data on establishments for the years 2004 to 2010. Estimations are based on a Difference-in-differences model. The key result is that in activity sectors with a high prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal disorders, which have experimented the highest contribution increase, this increase has induced a substantial diminution of the incidence of those diseases, related absence days and wage indemnities.


Traditional physical activity tracking tools, such as self-report questionnaires, are inherently subjective and vulnerable to bias. Physical activity tracking technology, such as activity tracking wristbands, is becoming more reliable and readily available. As such, researchers are employing these objective measurement tools in both observational- and intervention-based studies. There remains a gap in the literature on how to properly select activity tracking wristbands for research, specifically for the older adult population. This paper outlines considerations for choosing the most appropriate wrist-worn wearable device for use in research with older adults. Device features, outcome measures, population, and methodological considerations are explored.


Population growth, arable land and fresh water limits, and climate change have profound implications for the ability of agriculture to meet this century's demands for food, feed, fiber, and fuel while reducing the environmental impact of their production. Success depends on the acceptance and use of contemporary molecular techniques, as well as the increasing development of farming systems that use saline water and integrate nutrient flows.


Background: In 1997, a novel DNA virus was isolated from the serum of a patient in Japan, and it was named TT virus (TTV). As the virus is replicated in liver and has the ability to induce apoptosis in hepatocytes (Hepatocellular carcinoma cells) it is hypothesized that TTV is an opportunistic virus and in certain conditions causes liver damage. In this study the frequency of infection with TTV was detected in two groups of healthy and hepatitis B infected blood donors in the West Azerbaijan Province. Material and Methods: Serum samples were collected from 100 healthy and 40 HBs Ag positive donors in west Azerbaijan Blood Transfusion Center. Patients' characteristics, sex, age and blood groups were recorded. The levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in the sera were measured and then DNA was extracted and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed using T801 and T935 consensus primers to amplify a 199 bp segment of a much conserved non-coding region of the genome (UTR). Results: TTV was detected in 69% and 75% of healthy and hepatitis B infected blood donors respectively. No significant difference was observed in the frequency of the infection with TTV in different blood groups or age groups (P>0.05). In each group of blood donors the level of ALT and AST were not significantly different in TTV infected and non-infected individuals (P>0.05). Conclusion: Regarding the high frequency of infection in healthy individuals and considering the level of hepatic enzymes in TTV infected individuals; it seems that the virus or at least its investigated genotypes have not been pathogenic for the infected individuals examined.