AIM
Although numerous clinical trials have shown promising results with regards to the cardiac regenerative capacity of different types of stem cells, there remains virtually no evidence of the fate of stem cells in these human studies, primarily owing to safety concerns associated with the use of cell-labeling strategies.

METHODS
In this study, we utilized two cell types that are used extensively in cardiac regeneration studies, namely bone marrow-derived human mononuclear cells and C2C12 skeletal myoblasts. The US FDA-approved compounds feridex (ferumoxide) and protamine sulfate (as a transfection agent) were used in combination for cellular labeling. We assessed the effect of this cell labeling strategy on cellular viability, proliferation and differentiation both in vitro and in vivo.

RESULTS
The ferumoxide-protamine sulfate combination had no effect on cellular viability, proliferation or differentiation. We show that the labeled human mononuclear cells were easily identified within the rat myocardium 1 month following injection into the myocardium. These human cells expressed human-specific cardiac troponin I, whereas the neighboring rat myocardium did not. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this labeling strategy can be used with high accuracy for magnetic separation of the labeled cells based on the intracellular ferumoxide particles.

CONCLUSIONS
The ferumoxide-protamine sulfate combination can be used safely and effectively to enhance the detection and isolation of cardiogenic stem cell populations.


Objectives: Down syndrome (DS) is the most common multiple congenital anomaly syndrome associated with a developmental disability. Children with Down syndrome have delay in both motor and mental age. This study carried out to explore relationship between mental and motor age of children with DS. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 participants with DS (5 to 7 years old) using randomized method of sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Mental and motor age of participants was measured by Peabody Developmental Motor Scales and Goodenough Draw A Man Test. Results: test result was analyzed for total, gross and fine motor age and mental age. Results were interpreted by the statistical method of pearson correlation analysis. There was significant correlation between mental age and total motor age based on pearson correlation coefficient (r = 0.93). Conclusions: Results of the study showed that there were strong positive correlations between gross, fine and total motor age, and mental age of children with Down syndrome and suggest the hypothesis that simultaneous utilization of motor and mental practice through rehabilitation programs is more effective than mere practice.


We present a study of the environments of extended radio sources in the Australia Telescope Low Brightness Survey (ATLBS). The radio sources were selected from the Extended Source Sample (ATLBS-ESS), which is a well defined sample containing the most extended of radio sources in the ATLBS sky survey regions. The environments were analyzed using 4-m CTIO Blanco telescope observations carried out for ATLBS fields in the SDSS ${\rm r}^{\prime}$ band. We have estimated the properties of the environments using smoothed density maps derived from galaxy catalogs constructed using these optical imaging data. The angular distribution of galaxy density relative to the axes of the radio sources has been quantified by defining anisotropy parameters that are estimated using a new method presented here. Examining the anisotropy parameters for a sub-sample of extended double radio sources that includes all sources with pronounced asymmetry in lobe extents, we find good evidence for environmental anisotropy being the dominant cause for lobe asymmetry in that higher galaxy density occurs almost always on the side of the shorter lobe, and this validates the usefulness of the method proposed and adopted here. The environmental anisotropy parameters have been used to examine and compare the environments of FRI and FRII radio sources in two redshift regimes ($z 0.5$). Wide-angle tail sources and Head-tail sources lie in the most overdense environments. The Head-tail source environments (for the HT sources in our sample) display dipolar anisotropy in that higher galaxy density appears to lie in the direction of the tails. Excluding the Head-tail and Wide-angle tail sources, subsamples of FRI and FRII sources from the ATLBS survey appear to lie in similar moderately overdense environments, with no evidence for redshift evolution in the regimes studied herein.


The transitions from communist rule throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have resulted in high regime diversity among the postcommunist regimes. Which factors may explain these differences in the political development of postcommunist regimes, and why have several of these states got «stuck in transition» as hybrid regimes? Theoretical models that have been conceived to analyse transitions from communism have been able to shed light on two of the major political pathways in the postcommunist region: those leading to either democracy or autocracy. With regard to the regimes that have got stuck in the «middle» as hybrid regimes, far less significant explanations have been found, which most likely can be attributed to the apparently higher regime diversity among these regimes. Thus, the structure of this thesis is twofold: First, theories regarding transitions from communism as well as general theories of democratization are reconstructed as independent variables, and their relative impact on the dependent variable (regime types) in 1994 and in 2008 are assessed in two correlation analyses. Second, a qualitative operationalisation of regime types is combined with case studies of the hybrid postcommunist regimes, in order to compare and analyse their political development. In the quantitative analyses, where scores from Freedom House were used to measure the dependent variable, the majority of the hypotheses were confirmed, as existing theories largely accounted for the political trajectories of authoritarian and democratic regimes, whereas the hybrid regimes were poorly explained. However, when applying the qualitative case study approach, it became possible to identify several variables that may explain not only why several postcommunist countries turned into hybrid regimes, but also the varying degrees and types of democraticness that have emerged among these regimes during the last two decades.


1. An investigation has been made into the function and distribution of nerve fibres in the abdominal ganglion chain and its roots in the crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, by leading off action potentials from small prepared bundles following sensory stimulation.

2 .The sensory fields belonging to the first and second roots of each abdominal ganglion were determined, and the antero-posterior pathway of sensory fibres within the cord noted. It was found that the primary sensory fibres of the dorsal muscle receptor organs, entering through the second root, send out an anterior branch to the brain and a posterior one to the last ganglion. For most other sensory fibres much shorter intracentral branches are indicated, though some of them extend for two ganglia in the anterior direction and for one posteriorly. All sensory fibres in the connectives run on the same side as they enter.

3. The segmental divisions of the external skeleton and of the nervous system do not coincide, the neural segment slants in a posterior dorsal direction with respect to the skeletal one.

4. For the majority of the interneurones which innervate more than two abdominal segments it has been proved that they synapse with primary sensory fibres in each of the ganglia that these enter. Depending on the segment stimulated with respect to the leading-off position, both ascending and descending impulses are obtained in such interneurones and collision of the impulses has been observed. Some consequences of this type of integration are discussed.

5. For interneurones responding to bilateral or heterolateral stimulation the course of the impulses proved to be of at least two types. In some, cutting the fibre prevents the arrival of impulses except those set up on the side of the cut from which the recording is made. In others, recording from either side of the cut fibre does not exclude any of the sensory fields to which the fibre normally responded.

6. At least one interneurone is present in which all primary sensory fibres from the different segments to whose activity it responds collect in one ganglion.


This Article identifies an array of seemingly disparate federal exclusivity regimes as belonging to an increasingly prevalent and relatively new class of highly valuable government benefits, which it names "regulatory competitive shelters" (RCSs). It characterizes RCSs and distinguishes them from other, more traditional kinds of government-instituted properties. The Article then proceeds to describe a particular brand of RCSs established in federal statutory frameworks whose aim — much like patents — is to create incentives for technological innovation. Identifying several common motifs of such RCS regimes, the Article offers a taxonomy of these RCSs and describes the mechanisms by which RCSs instituted under such regimes achieve their goals. Part III of this Article surveys — for the first time under a single title — all of the RCS regimes instituted to date in federal law which are aimed at promoting technological innovation. The Article concludes with a discussion of several aspects of RCSs that require further inquiry and will be further discussed in later articles.


We conduct a randomized field experiment to study the effects of two financial education interventions offered to small-scale retailers in Western Uganda. The treatments contrast "active learning" with "traditional lecturing" within standardized lesson-plans. We find that active learning has a positive and economically meaningful impact on savings and investment outcomes, in contrast to insignificant impacts of lecturing. These results are not conditional on prior education or financial literacy. The active learning intervention seems to be superior as it works via three cognitive and non-cognitive mechanisms, i.e. increased financial knowledge, self-control, and financial confidence, while lecturing only affects financial confidence.


The Secretaria de Agricultura, Ganaderia, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentacion (SAGARPA) and the Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro (UAAAN) have signed agreements, looking a vision more attached to the reality of the conditions, factors and obstacles that affect productive process in Mexico, in order to generate recommendations that increase the efficiency of the involved programs of support with the farming production. Derived of the participation in the Rapid Assessment of Program Acquisition of Productive Assets : Component Protected Agriculture 2008, the characteristics and the context are approached in which the agriculture protected in Mexico is develops. The definition of "protected agriculture" settles down, their characteristics are described and the dynamics that has presented, as well as the climatic surroundings this activity is develops. Also is presented, in function of the risk of it, in which states this activity can be implemented. In addition, the phenomenon of the vulnerability with respect to the agriculture protected in Mexico is described. Finally, the factors that affect the impulse of the protected agriculture are described : the low level of the curve of learning of the interested ones; the fitosanitary uncertainty; the high investment of the greenhouses, the operation costs for temperature control and relative humidity, or the wrong design; the production scale. In favor of impelling the development of protected agriculture, one concludes that the greenhouses are a viable alternative to surpass the production generated in the smallholdings.


Unsafe drinking water, together with poor
hygiene
and sanitation,
are the
main
contributors to diarrhoeal disease, a
leading
cause of mortality and
morbidity especially
among young children in low-income settings.
While the
Millennium
Development Goals
seek to halve the portion of the population without access to
safe
water
by
2015, the
high
cost of piped-in supplies has led the
World Health Organization to
call
for
alternative
approaches, including household water
treatment.
This thesis
describes the
results of
certain research concerning the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and
field implementation
of household water treatment for the prevention of
diarrhoeal disease.
In a systematic review of
interventions to improve
water quality
for the
prevention of
endemic diarrhoea, 30 studies covering
38 intervention trials
were
identified
and meta- analyzed. The studies varied considerably
in
design,
setting,
type
of
intervention
and point
of intervention. The evidence suggests
that in
settings with sufficient water quantity,
interventions to improve the microbiological quality of
drinking
water
are
effective
in
preventing diarrhoea, and that household-based interventions
are about
twice
as
effective
as conventional improvements at the water
source.
The costs of such water quality
interventions
was compiled and combined
with the
effectiveness data from the systematic review
to
determine the
cost-effectiveness of
interventions to improve water quality.
In
most settings,
household
water treatment
meets
established criteria for "highly cost effective"
health interventions.
In a six-month pilot programme
in Colombia,
household-based
water
filters
were
associated with a substantial improvement in
microbial
water quality and a
60%
reduction
in
the prevalence of diarrhoea (OR = 0.40,95%
CI = 0.25,0.63, P<0.0001).
In a study to assess the drinking
water response to the Indian Ocean tsunami,
household water treatment had only
a
limited
role, suggesting the
need
to
consider
under
what circumstances such interventions can contribute to the
delivery
of safe
drinking
water
in the immediate aftermath of an emergency.
The thesis concludes with
some thoughts
on the
challenge
of
implementing
household water treatment and the need
for further
research.


Abstract Objective. This study aimed to evaluate prognostic risk factors for cardiovascular events during treatment of metastatic prostate cancer patients with high-dose parenteral polyoestradiol phosphate (PEP, Estradurin) or combined androgen deprivation (CAD) with special emphasis on pretreatment cardiovascular disease. Material and methods. Nine-hundred and fifteen patients with T0–4, Nx, M1, G1–3, hormone- naïve prostate cancer were randomized to treatment with PEP 240 mg i.m. twice a month for 2 months and thereafter monthly, or to flutamide (Eulexin) 250 mg per os three times daily in combination with either triptorelin (Decapeptyl) 3.75 mg i.m. per month or on an optional basis with bilateral orchidectomy. Pretreatment cardiovascular morbidity was recorded and cardiovascular events during treatment were assessed by an experienced cardiologist. A multivariate analysis was done using logistic regression. Results. There was a significant increase in cardiovascular events during treatment with PEP in patients with previous ischaemic heart disease (p = 0.008), ischaemic cerebral disease (p = 0.002), intermittent claudication (p = 0.031) and especially when the whole group of patients with pretreatment cardiovascular diseases was analysed together (p < 0.001). In this group 33% of the patients had a cardiovascular event during PEP treatment. In the multivariate analysis PEP stood out as the most important risk factor for cardiac complications (p = 0.029). Even in the CAD group there was a significant increase in cardiovascular events in the group with all previous cardiovascular diseases taken together (p = 0.036). Conclusions. Patients with previous cardiovascular disease are at considerable risk of cardiovascular events during treatment with high-dose PEP and even during CAD therapy. Patients without pretreatment cardiovascular morbidity have a moderate cardiovascular risk during PEP treatment and could be considered for this treatment if the advantages of this therapy, e.g. avoidance of osteopenia and hot flushes and the low price, are given priority.


This article presents an overview of the SecurePhone project, with an account of the first results obtained. SecurePhone's primary aim is to realise a mobile phone prototype - the 'SecurePhone' - in which biometrical authentication enables users to deal secure, dependable transactions over a mobile network. The SecurePhone is based on a commercial PDA-phone, supplemented with specific software modules and a customised SIM card. It integrates in a single environment a number of advanced features: access to cryptographic keys through strong multimodal biometric authentication; appending and verification of digital signatures; real-time exchange and interactive modification of (esigned) documents and voice recordings. SecurePhone's 'biometric recogniser' is based on original research. A fused combination of three different biometric methods - speaker, face and handwritten signature verification - is exploited, with no need for dedicated hardware components. The adoption of non-intrusive, psychologically neutral biometric techniques is expected to mitigate rejection problems that often inhibit the social use of biometrics, and speed up the spread of e-signature technology. Successful biometric authentication grants access to SecurePhone's built-in esignature services through a user-friendly interface. Special emphasis is accorded to the definition of a trustworthy security chain model covering all aspects of system operation. The SecurePhone is expected to boost m-commerce and open new scenarios for m-business and m-work, by changing the way people interact and by improving trust and confidence in information technologies, often considered intimidating and difficult to use. Exploitation plans will also explore other application domains (physical and logical access control, securised mobile communications).


BACKGROUND Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is the gold standard for radiographic diagnosis of blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI), but use of computed tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) has increased dramatically in BCVI screening. This study explores the utility, effectiveness, and cost of noninvasive CTA and MRA screening for BCVI. METHODS Medical records of 2,025 consecutive adults evaluated for acute blunt neck trauma and BCVI were reviewed retrospectively. The incidence of BCVI, level(s) of cervical injury, involvement of foramina transversaria and internal carotid canals, presence of bony dislocation or subluxation, and subsequent treatment received were assessed. Asymptomatic patients were analyzed based on fracture and injury patterns. The cost effectiveness of CTA compared with DSA and the effects of CTA sensitivity and screening yield were determined. RESULTS Of reviewed patients, 196 received CTA or MRA. Thirty-eight patients (19.4%) were diagnosed with BCVI. Screening yield in patients symptomatic at presentation was 48.8%. Large-vessel internal carotid, vertebral, anterior spinal, and basilar artery occlusion were associated with a positive screen, as were concurrent stroke and spinal cord injury (p < 0.01). Of patients with injuries found with noninvasive imaging, 50.0% of BCVI involved C1-3 fracture, 34.2% involved subluxation, and 65.8% involved foramina transversaria. In both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, CTA screening was more cost effective than DSA. CONCLUSION Noninvasive imaging is a safe, accurate, and cost-effective tool for BCVI screening. Symptomatic presentation was the best predictor of BCVI. Significant cost savings were realized using CTA rather than DSA, with similar effectiveness and patient outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Diagnostic study, level III; economic analysis, level IV.


The Internet is a world-wide communication network, whose optimization depends on the knowledge of the statistical characterization of the aggregated traffic flow. Internet traffic is dependent on a number of factors, including communication protocols, network topology, and human behavior. Using a recently proposed segmentation algorithm, we find a surprising analogy between the nonstationarity and the correlations in the communication dynamics in the Internet and in another communication network of great interest: the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls involuntary muscle motion, secreting glands, and the heart, hence, we surmise that the time interval between successive heartbeats—an easily measured physiological signal—provides a probe of the communication dynamics for the ANS. We find quantitative similarities between the statistical properties of i) healthy heart rate variability and non-congested Internet traffic, and ii) diseased heart rate variability and congested Internet traffic. Our findings suggest that the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the "human-made" Internet could help to understand the "natural" network that controls the heart.


Recent experimental work ( J. Org. Chem. , 2012, 77 , 5829) demonstrated pronounced di ff erences in measured thio-e ff ects for the hydrolysis of (thio)phosphodichloridates by water and hydroxide nucleo-philes. In the present work, we have performed detailed quantum chemical calculations of these reactions, with the aim of rationalizing the molecular bases for this discrimination. The calculations highlight the interplay between nucleophile charge and transition state solvation in S N 2(P) mechanisms as the basis of these di ff erences, rather than a change in mechanism.


Carlstrom and Fuerst (2007) ["Asset Prices, Nominal Rigidities, and Monetary Policy," Review of Economic Dynamics 10, 256-275] find that monetary policy response to share prices is a source of equilibrium indeterminacy in a stickyprice economy. We find that if housing price is a target of a central bank, monetary policy response to asset price is helpful for equilibrium determinacy.


Sandfish is arguably the most commercially valuable of the tropical species of sea cucumber that are processed into bI©che-de-mer. It is widely distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific, occurring in shallow inshore areas where it is easily accessible to coastal fishers. A-grade bI©che-de-mer processed from sandfish commands some of the highest prices on the international market. But these same attributes also make it vulnerable to overexploitation. Sadly, this has happened in most places where it occurs. While sandfish was an important component of bI©che-de-mer fisheries 20 to 30 years ago, its contribution to bI©che-de-mer exports is now relatively small, even trivial.Not surprisingly, there is widespread interest in restoring the production of sandfish, especially where it promises to deliver benefits to coastal fishing communities with few other options for earning livelihoods. it promises to deliver benefits to coastal fishing communities with few other options for earning livelihoods. This manual is designed to help government agencies and members of the private sector interested in implementing ways of increasing production of sandfish by outlining the basic methods for spawning and rearing juvenile sandfish. It builds on the pioneering work done in 1988 at the Tuticorin Research Centre of CMFRI (Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute) in India and is based largely on methods developed and applied by the WorldFish Center (formerly ICLARM) in Solomon Islands, Vietnam and New Caledonia.


We analyze a hand-collected dataset of 1682 executive compensation packages at 34 firms included in the main German stock market index (DAX) for the years 2009-2017 in order to investigate the impact of the 2009 say on pay-legislation. The findings provide important insights beyond the German case, not only for the impending implementation of the revised European Shareholder Rights Directive. First, we observe that the compensation packages of management board members of Germany's DAX30-firms are closely linked to key performance measures such as return-on-assets and size. Second, and most important for our topic, our findings suggest that it is essential to take a closer look at the contractual set-up for the compensation schemes and their structure. When we only consider the compensation packages of all board members, the hypothesis that remuneration is decreased if shareholder support for compensation schemes is low in say on pay-votes finds only weak support, if any at all. However, we find that the supervisory board is responsive to say on pay-votes when it comes to the design of compensation packages for newly entering candidates, i.e. within the binding restrictions of contract law, it reacts as envisioned by policy makers. It is a consequence of the way say on pay is supposed to work that our results are driven by the rather few pronouncedly discontent say on pay-votes in corporate Germany – only where disapproval is voiced supervisory boards have reason to change compensation packages. They leave matters unaffected where shareholders show rather strong support for the proposed schemes as is the case in most of the observations in our dataset. Yet, it is important because it informs our understanding of the channels through which say on pay works. Our observations carry over to the general analytical approach for say on pay-regimes. Any evaluation of a shareholder voice-strategy in regulating executive remuneration has to pay close attention to the limits contract law stipulates for the adaptation of existing remuneration agreements and thus has to take a medium to long-term view that ideally extends to a full turnover-period for board-members.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate effectiveness of 4% peroxymonosulfate disinfectant applied as a mist to surfaces in a large animal hospital as measured by recovery of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.

DESIGN
Field trial.

SAMPLE POPULATION
Polyester transparencies inoculated with bacteria.

PROCEDURE
Polyester transparencies were inoculated with S aureus or S Typhimurium and placed in various locations in the hospital. After mist application of the peroxygen disinfectant, viable bacterial numbers were quantified and compared with growth from control transparencies to assess reduction in bacterial count.

RESULTS
When applied as a mist directed at environmental surfaces contaminated with a geometric mean of 4.03 x 10(7) CFUs of S aureus (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.95 x 10(7) to 4.11 x 10(7)) or 6.17 x 10(6) CFUs of S Typhimurium (95% Cl, 5.55 x 10(6) to 6.86 x 10(6)), 4% peroxymonosulfate reduced the geometric mean number of viable S aureus by 3.04 x 10(7) CFUs (95% Cl, 8.6 x 10(5) to 1.7 x 10(6)) and S Typhimurium by 3.97 x 10(6) CFUs (95% Cl, 8.6 x 10(5) to 3.5 x 10(6)).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Environmental disinfection with directed mist application of a 4% peroxymonosulfate solution was successful in reducing counts of bacterial CFUs by > 99.9999%. Directed mist application with this peroxygen disinfectant as evaluated in this study appeared to be an effective and efficient means of environmental disinfection in a large animal veterinary hospital and would be less disruptive than more traditional approaches to intensive environmental cleaning and disinfection.


In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, these long-awaited volumes bring together succinct introductions to each biblical book, detailed explanatory annotations, and a wealth of contextual and critical materials. Archaic words are explained, textual problems are lucidly discussed, and stylistic features of the original texts are highlighted. Judicious and economical, the introductions and annotations to the Old Testament give readers without Hebrew an entry into complexities of biblical literature, reconstructing its original contexts, tracing its evolution, and pointing out productive strategies of reading. Incorporating the insights of modern biblical scholarship as well as centuries of precritical interpretation, they offer essential guidance to a labyrinthine world, while respecting the text's integrity. The historical and critical appendix comprises three distinct collections. A section on ancient Near Eastern backgrounds presents the myths, hymns, prayers, and legal codes that informed the creation of the Hebrew Bible. A historical anthology of biblical interpretation gathers-for the first time in one volume-generous selections from the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, along with classics of secular commentary. It includes reflections on the Bible by philosophers from Hobbes to Ricoeur; a compendium of modern biblical scholarship, focusing on topics such as the oral and the written, the composition of the Pentateuch, and the historical movement from covenant to canon; and a provocative sampling of comparative and literary approaches. The crucial presence of the Old Testament within English literature is represented by paraphrases and parables in verse and prose, and a recapitulatory conclusion brings the diverse perspectives of this millennial survey to bear on two of the Bible's most famous passages: the expulsion from the garden of Eden and the binding of Isaac. A final section devoted to the question of translation includes significant English versions from Wycliffe to the present. Time lines, chronologies, diagrams, and maps are included.


Abstract. Several validation studies have shown a notable overestimation of the clear sky ultraviolet (UV) irradiance at the Earth's surface derived from satellite sensors such as the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) with respect to ground-based UV data at many locations. Most of this positive bias is attributed to boundary layer aerosol absorption that is not accounted for in the TOMS/OMI operational UV algorithm. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to analyse the aerosol effect on the bias between OMI erythemal UV irradiance (UVER) and spectral UV (305 nm, 310 nm and 324 nm) surface irradiances and ground-based Brewer spectroradiometer measurements from October 2004 to December 2008 at El Arenosillo station (37.1° N, 6.7° W, 20 m a.s.l.), with meteorological conditions representative of the South-West of Spain. The effects of other factors as clouds, ozone and the solar elevation over this intercomparison were analysed in detail in a companion paper (Anton et al., 2010). In that paper the aerosol effects were studied making only a rough evaluation based on aerosol optical depth (AOD) information at 440 nm wavelength (visible range) without applying any correction. We have used the precise information given by single scattering albedo (SSA) from AERONET for the determination of absorbing aerosols which has allowed the correction of the OMI UV data. An aerosol correction expression was applied to the OMI operational UV data using two approaches to estimate the UV absorption aerosol optical depth, AAOD. The first approach was based on an assumption of constant SSA value of 0.91. This approach reduces the OMI UVER bias against the reference Brewer data from 13.4% to 8.4%. Second approach uses daily AERONET SSA values reducing the bias only to 11.6%. Therefore we have obtained a 37% and 12% of improvement respectively. For the spectral irradiance at 324 nm, the OMI bias is reduced from 10.5% to 6.98% for constant SSA and to 9.03% for variable SSA. Similar results were obtained for spectral irradiances at 305 nm, and 310 nm. Contrary to what was expected, the constant SSA approach has a greater bias reduction than variable SSA, but this is a reasonable result according to the discussion about the reliability of SSA values. Our results reflect the level of accuracy that may be reached at the present time in this type of comparison, which may be considered as satisfactory taking into account the remaining dependence on other factors. Nevertheless, improvements must be accomplished to determine reliable absorbing aerosol properties, which appear as a limiting factor for improving OMI retrievals.


Background--By leveraging cloud services, organizations can deploy their software systems over a pool of resources. However, organizations heavily depend on their business-critical systems, which have been developed over long periods. These legacy applications are usually deployed on-premise. In recent years, research in cloud migration has been carried out. However, there is no secondary study to consolidate this research. Objective--This paper aims to identify, taxonomically classify, and systematically compare existing research on cloud migration. Method--We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of 23 selected studies, published from 2010 to 2013. We classified and compared the selected studies based on a characterization framework that we also introduce in this paper. Results--The research synthesis results in a knowledge base of current solutions for legacy-to-cloud migration. This review also identifies research gaps and directions for future research. Conclusion--This review reveals that cloud migration research is still in early stages of maturity, but is advancing. It identifies the needs for a migration framework to help improving the maturity level and consequently trust into cloud migration. This review shows a lack of tool support to automate migration tasks. This study also identifies needs for architectural adaptation and self-adaptive cloud-enabled systems.


Historically, secondary students with emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) have made poor progress in mathematics putting them at risk for school failure and placement in an alternative setting. Two under studied areas essential to success in mathematics are fractions and algebra. The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a multi-component intervention on the math performance for middle school students with EBD in an alternative educational setting. This study used a one-group nonequivalent dependent variables design (Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002) with multiple measures in multiple waves to assess the effects. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that students significantly improved their math performance on both fractions and algebra using researcher developed measures. Social validity results indicated that teacher and students found the intervention to be an acceptable intervention. Implications from fidelity and social validity data are discussed in addition to intervention components for this population.


The objective of preformulation study is to develop the elegant, stable, effective and safe dosage form by establishing kinetic profile, compatibility with other formulation excipients and to establish physico-chemical parameter of new drug substance. This could provide important information for formulation design or support the need for molecular modification. So, in the present study preformulation studies were performed on Dolasetron (DS) to assess its suitability for nasal formulation. DS is a specific and selective serotonin subtypes 3 (5-HT) receptor antagonists, used to treat chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. The authenticity of DS was established by DSC and FITR spectra. An UV spectrophotometric method and HPLC method were employed for determination of DS in bulk and blood plasma respectively. Saturation solubility, micromeritical properties, melting point, pH, hygroscopicity and stability profile were studied. The UV method was linear in the range of 5-50 μg/ml. The low % CV values of intra-day and inter-day variations revealed that the proposed method is robust. The retention time of DS in HPLC method was found to be 2.8 min. The method was proven robust by obtaining very high regression coefficient value (0.999). The results of the physicochemical study of drug revealed suitability of DS for nasal route. Moreover, the drug was found stable in both solid as well as liquid state at different conditions.


The amount of videos available on the Web is growing explosively. While some videos are very interesting and receive high rating from viewers, many of them are less interesting or even boring. This paper conducts a pilot study on the understanding of human perception of video interestingness, and demonstrates a simple computational method to identify more interesting videos. To this end we first construct two datasets of Flickr and YouTube videos respectively. Human judgements of interestingness are collected and used as the ground-truth for training computational models. We evaluate several off-the-shelf visual and audio features that are potentially useful for predicting interestingness on both datasets. Results indicate that audio and visual features are equally important and the combination of both modalities shows very promising results.


A study is presented of the geometric configuration factors required for computing radiant heat transfer between opaque surfaces separated by a nonabsorbing medium and various methods of determining the configuration factors are discussed. Configuration-factor solutions available in the literature have been checked and the more complicated equations are presented as families of curves. Cases for point, line, and finite-area sources are worked out over a wide range of geometric proportions. These cases include several new configurations involving rectangles, triangles, and cylinders of finite length which are integrated and tabulated. An analysis is presented, in which configuration factors are employed of the radiant heat transfer to the rotor blades of a typical gas turbine under different conditions of temperature and pressure. (author).


The purpose of the meta-analysis of randomized trials was to analyze the significance of ethnicity on the effect of sodium reduction (SR) on blood pressure (BP) by estimating the effect of SR on BP in Asians, Blacks and Whites under conditions, which were adjusted with respect to baseline BP, baseline sodium intake and quantity of SR. Relevant studies were retrieved from a pool of 167 RCTs published in the period 1973–2010 and identified in a previous Cochrane review. 9 Asian, 9 Black, and 74 White populations standardized with respect to the range of baseline blood pressure, the range of baseline sodium, duration of SR (at least 7 days) and baseline sodium intake (at maximum 250 mmol) intake were included. In the cross-sectional analysis, there was no difference in change in SBP to SR between the ethnic groups, but there was a small difference in SR induced change in DBP between Blacks and Whites (p = 0.04). The comparison of changes in SBP and DBP to SR in ethnic groups compared in identical studies showed no statistically significant differences between the groups.


The current environment is highly supportive of increased government regulation, particularly in the financial field. One of the beneficiaries of this push for greater oversight of the markets appears to be the Securities & Exchange Commission, despite some recent high profile enforcement failures, most particularly the massive Ponzi scheme undertaken by Bernie Madoff. In this essay, I raise the question whether the SEC should retain its enforcement authority over fraud cases, or whether it would be better served if that function were shifted to the Department of Justice. The SEC's recent push to take on a more prosecutorial air gives the clear impression that an adversarial approach to enforcement of the securities laws is in order. However, the Commission must continue to solicit the views of Wall Street to fulfill its regulatory function, much like Madoff was included in the SEC's deliberations on rules related to the stock market. At some point in the future, the push for greater regulation is likely to pass from the scene as the pendulum swings back toward a less intrusive approach to oversight. Whether the Commission can resist renewed entreaties to go easier on enforcing the law to free the capital markets from strict regulation is an open question. To allow the SEC to regulate Wall Street properly, splitting off at least a portion of the enforcement function to an agency with expertise in prosecutions - the United States Department of Justice - is at least worthy of consideration as the government looks to increase regulation.


This paper shows how to use multiple importance sampling to study the performance of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensators with a single differential group delay (DGD) element. We compute the eye opening penalty margin for compensated and uncompensated systems with outage probabilities of 10/sup -5/ or less with a fraction of the computational cost required by standard Monte Carlo methods. This paper shows that the performance of an optimized compensator with a fixed DGD element is comparable to that of a compensator with a variable DGD element. It also shows that the optimal value of the DGD compensator is two to three times larger than the mean DGD of the transmission line averaged over fiber realizations. This technique can be applied to the optimization of any PMD compensator whose dominant sources of residual penalty are both the DGD and the length of the frequency derivative of the polarization-dispersion vector.


Chronic illness has a significant impact on the lives of older adults, both physically and psychologically. Exacerbations of chronic illness can lead to hospitalizations, which in themselves can be traumatizing for an older adult. An initial literature search indicated a significant relationship between hospitalizations and reports of anxiety, depression, and even symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between the use of psychosocial interventions and decreased hospitalizations for older adults with chronic illness. Using a systematic search of CINAHL, Academic Search Premier, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Medline, and SocINDEX databases, eight articles were identified and thematically analyzed. Although various chronic illness care models were addressed in the research, the following psychosocial themes were identified as core components of a successful model: patient-centered care and education, interdisciplinary consultation, care management, and mental health counseling and support. The utilization of these interventions resulted in a number of positive outcomes, including decreased symptoms of depression, improved quality of life, and decreased hospitalizations. The results indicated that incorporating psychosocial aspects into chronic illness care models are, in fact, essential to producing positive outcomes for older adults. INTERVENTIONS TO DECREASE HOSPITALIZATIONS 3


Guidelines for design of clinical trials evaluating behavioral headache treatments were developed to facilitate production of quality research evaluating behavioral therapies for management of primary headache disorders. These guidelines were produced by a Workgroup of headache researchers under auspices of the American Headache Society. The guidelines are complementary to and modeled after guidelines for pharmacological trials published by the International Headache Society, but they address methodologic considerations unique to behavioral and other nonpharmacological treatments. Explicit guidelines for evaluating behavioral headache therapies are needed as the optimal methodology for behavioral (and other nonpharmacologic) trials necessarily differs from the preferred methodology for drug trials. In addition, trials comparing and integrating drug and behavioral therapies present methodological challenges not addressed by guidelines for pharmacologic research. These guidelines address patient selection, trial design for behavioral treatments and for comparisons across multiple treatment modalities (eg, behavioral vs pharmacologic), evaluation of results, and research ethics. Although developed specifically for behavioral therapies, the guidelines may apply to the design of clinical trials evaluating many forms of nonpharmacologic therapies for headache.


The Swedish Road Administration (SRA) is responsible for maintenance of the state-run roads in Sweden. The SRA also has an overarching responsibility for the state of the environment in the road transport sector. The overall aim of this thesis is to examine the implementation of environmental requirements in SRA road maintenance contracts and to develop an improved model for the implementation of environmental requirements, making it easier for the SRA to establish an optimal contracting strategy for routine road maintenance. Using several qualitative methodologies, the thesis is mainly based on a content analysis of 18 tender documents, two case studies consisting of five cases and a questionnaire. The study shows that the SRA have stipulated environmental requirements in procurements of routine road maintenance since 1997. The formulation of the environmental requirements was initially carried out at the Regional Road Management Directorates. However, in the case of trucks and construction vehicles relevant organisations were given the opportunity to actively participate in the development of environmental requirements. The contractors in the study fulfil about three-quarters of the environmental requirements in the contracts. The main reasons for not complying with the environmental requirements are: i) absence of consultation with municipalities and competent authorities, and ii) inadequate communication of environmental requirements to subcontractors. The benefit to the environment of laying down environmental requirements for road maintenance is difficult to assess, due to unclear environmental requirements and the fact that the SRA does not systematically follow up the environmental requirements. The findings of the research indicate that the SRA have made a serious effort to integrate environmental aspects in their maintenance contracts through the use of environmental requirements. However, the SRA need to adopt a more systematic approach towards road maintenance contracts in order to make green procurement an effective tool for environmental adaptation of road maintenance. The thesis proposes an improved process for development, implementation and follow-up of environmental requirements. The proposed process can be summarised in five criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to achieve an environmentally efficient application of environmental requirements: i) the environmental requirements have to be based on legislation, environmental quality objectives, identified environmental problems and/or research, ii) environmental indicators and baselines have to be established in order to facilitate follow-up of compliance with the requirements, iii) the environmental requirements have to be stated clearly in order to limit misinterpretations and to facilitate follow-up, iv) the contractors have to develop working processes, routines and training based on the environmental requirements, v) routines for following-up compliance with the requirements and the environmental effectiveness need to be developed, and there has to be a feedback of the results. Furthermore, the purchasing function needs to be integrated with the implementation of the contracts. Although, having faced several problems during the introduction of environmental requirements, the SRA have managed to meet the main arguments that are used for justification of green procurement. However, if slightly changed, the process of green procurement has the potential of becoming an important tool in the work for enhancing the environmental performance of the SRA.


Coastal wetland plants are expected to respond to global sea level rise by migrating toward higher elevations. Housing, infrastructure, and other anthropogenic modifications are expected to limit the space available for this potential migration. Here, we explore the ecological and economic effects of projected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 report sea level changes at the plant community scale using the highest horizontal (1 m) and vertical (0.01 m) resolution data available, using a 6 x 6 km area as an example. Our findings show that salt marshes do not always lose land with increasing rates of sea level rise. We found that the lower bound of the IPCC 2007 potential rise (0.18 m by 2095) actually increased the total marsh area. This low rise scenario resulted in a net gain in ecosystem service values on public property, whereas market-based economic losses were predicted for private property. The upper rise scenario (0.59 m by 2095) resulted in both public and private economic losses for this same area. Our work highlights the trade-offs between public and privately held value under the various IPCC 2007 climate change scenarios. We conclude that as wetlands migrate inland into urbanized regions, their survival is likely to be dependent on the rate of return on property and housing investments.


The focus of this thesis is to study the evolution of enzyme specificity, and the application of evolutionary theory to the design of enzymes with desirable characteristics for industry. The approach presented here, applied to the heme peroxidases, marries bioinformatic methods with evolutionary theory and biochemical validations.
Heme peroxidases catalyse the oxidation of a variety of electron donors by hydrogen peroxide. These enzymes can be classified into two major families that arose from independent evolutionary events; the plant and the animal peroxidases. The first results chapter, Chapter 2, deals with the animal (mammalian) heme peroxidases known collectively as the MHP. Four main superfamilies of MHP have been classified; myeloperoxidase (MPO), eosinophil peroxidase (EPO), lactoperoxidase (LPO) and thyroid peroxidase (TPO).These comprise a functionally diverse multigene family of enzymes associated with such diseases as asthma, Alzheimer's disease and inflammatory vascular disease. This study has determined how the enzymes in the multigene family of MHP are related. The order of gene duplication events has been traced, with an MPO-EPO-LPO most recent common ancestor (MRCA) arising from a gene duplication with extant TPO. A further duplication event gave rise to (i) the MPO-EPO MRCA, and (ii) the lineage leading to extant LPO. The final and most recent duplication of the MPO-EPO MRCA resulted in the extant MPO and EPO clades. This phylogeny was subsequently used to predict the amino acids that have most likely contributed to each of the diverse functions of MHP. Positively selected sites have been identified, through the use of Bayesian estimation, unique to all four MHP. Using MPO as a case study, in vitro analyses on the impact of mutating these positions, specifically mutants Y500F and L504T, indicates a disruption to the biosynthesis and loss of enzymatic activity in our mutants supporting our in silico predictions. This work is described in results Chapter 3. Finally, Chapter 4 details the analysis of ancestral protein reconstruction within the plant peroxidase gene family. The phylogeny of plant peroxidases had previously been resolved; this allowed for the generation of the ancestral enzyme, estimated age approx. 113 million years old. This enzyme was cloned, expressed and found to be active. Catalytic and stability properties of this unique enzyme have been ascertained. Together, these analyses provide a valuable insight into enzyme function through molecular evoultionary analyses of sequence data and serve to bridge the gap between protein sequence, structure, and function.


The goal of the present study was to compare the conversational language skills and interactions of four children who are d/hh and who received cochlear implants (CI) prior to the age of four years with four typically hearing peers matched for age, gender, techer perceived langauge abilty and race. This exploratory, descriptive study was completed employing a quantitative design. While it is not possible to make generalizations from this study due to the limited sample size, it is interesting to note that there was no statistically significant difference for hte mean child vocalization, adult word count, or conversational turn counts between the kindergarten children using bilateral CIs and their typically hearing matched peers. The only measure for which the data indicates a statistically significant difference between the kindergarten students is for the estimated mean length of utterance for the female dyad. Overall, the results of this study indicate the two kindergarten children using CIs demonstrated language and vocabulary development commensurate with their typically hearing matched peers. It is clearly evident within the preschool dyads, that there was no statistically significant difference in either dyad for CVC or MLU. the data of this study indicates there was a statistically significant difference in AWC between the two preschool dyads. It is not possible to draw cause/effect relationships based on statistically significant differences obtained from descriptive statistics; however, a difference between the AWC of the two teachers was noted.


Czochralski growth of large metallic alloy single crystals of Al13Co4 and Al13Fe4 from Al‐rich solutions has been demonstrated for the first time. A detailed description of all decisive steps of the growth procedure is given with particular emphasis to seeding from a native phase as well as spontaneous nucleation if no seed crystal from a preceding experiment is available. Czochralski growth in a high‐temperature solution system requires much lower pulling rates compared to typical growth experiments from the melt and a time‐dependent temperature program to compensate the change of the liquidus temperature that results from the permanently increasing Al content of the liquid phase. With a given amount of the initial melt, the size of the Al13Co4 crystals is limited by the rather narrow temperature range of the Al13Co4 primary crystallization window, followed by Al9Co2 phase crystallization. In the Al‐Fe system, despite the huge temperature range of equilibrium between Al13Fe4 and its Al‐rich melt, Czochralski growth of Al13Fe4 is restricted to higher temperatures due to the limited solubility that leads to mother liquid inclusions even at extremely low pulling rates. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


This paper presents a series of deployable mechanisms based on n-UU (universal joint) Wren parallel mechanism (PM) units, which undergo one degree-of-freedom (DOF) Borel-Bricard motion. First, the PM unit is developed into ortho-planar mechanisms by adopting an R-R joint. The link parameters of the mechanism are optimized to maximize the folding ratio while avoiding interference. Then, the optimized PM units are piled up to construct a novel 1-DOF multi-layer mechanism which has the largest folding ratio among similar structures in the literature. Moreover, polyhedral deployable mechanisms are obtained by connecting the PM unit using U joint or U-U joint. Apart from saving space, the polyhedral mechanisms can transform among different shapes of polyhedrons. Finally, variations of the n-UU PM are investigated with different shapes of platforms, and each mechanism has its unique movement characteristics.


The synthesis and utilisation of acyl azides in a flow apparatus combined with an automated extraction unit is described. This process safely provides multi-100 g quantities of a labile diacyl azide (3) as an intermediate that could not be generated safely by classic batch methods. Its subsequent conversion to the desired amine (4) represents an example for process intensification. The same set-up with an output capacity of >30 g/h was used for the unattended synthesis of benzoyl azide as the final product in solution (tert-butyl methyl ether (TBME), 0.5 M).


As the More-Electric Aircraft (MEA) has been identified as a major trend of future aircraft, the on-board Electrical Power System (EPS) will see significant increased numbers of Power Electronic Converters (PECs) and motor drive systems. In order to study the behaviour and performance of the EPS in MEA, extensive simulation studies need to be done during the system design process. This in return, gives the need to have computationally efficient and accurate models to reduce the design period. In this thesis, the Dynamic Phasor (DP) is used for modelling EPS in the MEA. The DP technique is a general averaging method and naturally a frequency-domain analysis tool. Compared with other averaging models, which is only efficient under balanced conditions, the DP model maintains efficiency under both balanced and unbalanced conditions. The DP technique has been widely used in modelling the constant, single frequency EPS. In this thesis, the DP technique is extended to modelling time-varying frequency EPS. The application of DP in modelling a multi-generator, multi-frequency system is for the first time, developed in this thesis. The developed theory allows a wider application of the DPs. The developed DP model covers key elements in MEA electrical power systems, including the synchronous generator, control, transmission lines, uncontrolled rectifiers, PWM converters and 18-pulse autotransformer rectifier units. The DP model library developed based on this thesis allows the flexibility to study various EPS's by integrating elements from the library. A twin-generator aircraft EPS, which is based on the More Open Electrical Technology (MOET) large aircraft EPS architecture, is used to demonstrate the application of DP models. Comparing the DP model with the ABC model (models in three-phase coordinates) and the DQ0 model (models in a synchronous dq frame), the efficiency and the accuracy of the DP model are demonstrated under both balanced and unbalanced conditions.


Abstract This paper describes the use of a customized algorithm for the colorization of historical black and white photographs documenting earlier states of paintings. This study specifically focuses on Pablo Picasso's mid-century Mediterranean masterpiece La Joie de Vivre, 1946 (Musée Picasso, Antibes, France). The custom-designed algorithm allows computer-controlled spreading of color information on a digital image of black and white historical photographs to obtain accurate color renditions. Expert observation of the present state of the painting, coupled with stratigraphic information from cross sections allows the attribution of color information to selected pixels in the digitized images. The algorithm uses the localized color information and the grayscale intensities of the black and white historical photographs to formulate a set of equations for the missing color values of the remaining pixels. The computational resolution of such equations allows an accurate colorization that preserves brushwork and shading. This new method is proposed as a valuable alternative to the use of commercial software to apply flat areas of color, which is currently the most common practice for colorization efforts in the conservation community. Availability of such colorized images enhances the art-historical understanding of the works and might lead to better-informed treatment.


With dielectric-constant gas thermometry, the molar polarizability of helium, neon, and argon has been determined with relative standard uncertainties of about 2 parts per million. A series of isotherms measured with the three noble gases and two different experimental setups led to this unprecedented level of uncertainty. These data are crucial for scientists in the field of gas metrology, working on pressure and temperature standards. Furthermore, with the new benchmark values for neon and argon, theoretical calculations, today about 3 orders of magnitude larger in uncertainty, can be checked and improved.


Australia is one of the largest coal exporting nations in the world and its economy is underpinned by the availability of cheap fossil fuels. It is well documented that it has failed to act on climate change, and that the conservative Howard government was particularly hostile to international action. It is also well documented that 2007 was an agenda-setting period when climate change was elevated to national prominence. This paper details and interrogates the ultimately successful Labor national governments' efforts to establish an Australian carbon pricing mechanism. It considers whether irresistible normative forces for climate policy change overcame the previously immovable object of economic and political self-interest, and the power of the carbon lobby. In explaining complex climate policy dynamics, temporal scales and politics, it finds great utility in John Kingdon's pragmatic "policy window"1 as an explanation for Australia's climate policy change.


Bacteria respond to the biochemical and physiochemical stimuli within their environment by formation of fractal colonies. This phenomenon has been studied and is thought to be the result of chemical signaling between single cells, as well as activation or deactivation of genes and even conjugation. This study was performed to demonstrate fractal morphogenesis in Escherichia coli, a gram negative bacterium, and Micrococcus luteus, a gram positive bacterium, as a response to herbal mixtures and diffusion-limited agar. Actively growing Micrococcus luteus and Escherichia coli were surface plated on standard 12% LB agar, 8% LB agar, 17% LB agar, standard agar
+ garlic, standard agar + golden seal, standard agar + sage, and differential media eosin methylene blue agar, selective for E. coli, and mannitol salt agar, selective for M. luteus, for 24 to 48 hours at 37?C and 25?C, respectively.

Non-fractal colony growth ranged in size from 0.1-1.0mm and fractal colony growth ranged from 3.0-7.5mm in size. All herbs tested: goldenseal, garlic, and sage, proved to encourage fractal growth in hard and soft agar with hard agar being the more promising fractal growth medium. Therefore, hard agar limits the amount of nutrient diffused throughout the agar, promoting fractal growth and development. On all media tested the death rate for bacterium with garlic administered was 50% for M. luteus and 100% for
E. coli at 24 hrs. Sage and goldenseal had far less of an effect, with bacterial death rate on all media not overcoming 50% for either E. coli or M. luteus using sage and goldenseal at 24 hrs and 48 hrs, respectively. Colonies surviving displayed fractal growth as well as non-fractal growth. The fractal colonies formed were tested for their viability which showed them remaining viable up to 30 days without refrigeration.

These results indicate that bacterial fractal growth and development was promoted as an adaptive response to the use of retardant nutrient dispersal agar and the presence of herbal tinctures as unusual and irregular environment situations.


This thesis focuses on the legal regulations governing the Nigerian capital market. Nigeria is described as one of biggest economies in Africa, endowed with natural and other resources that could be exploited to boost the economy of the country. There is however, a need for infrastructural development and job creation that can stimulate economic growth. The execution of these projects requires the free-flow of capital. The capital market serves various purposes to a country, principal amongst these is that it facilitates the free-flow of short and long term equity and debt capital to corporations and governments that use it to carry out capital-intensive projects that subsequently enhances the economy. In view of this, it is imperative that a capital market is efficient in its structure and operations so as to attract investors. This is tied to the realisation that capital markets thrive on investor confidence. This thesis, drawing on rules and practices in the United Kingdom, focuses on key problems affecting the Nigerian capital market, including information asymmetry, insider trading and inertia in the enforcement of regulations relating to the capital market. The issues highlighted, though not exhaustive, represent foundational and fundamental challenges with the current system in Nigeria. Using a mix of doctrinal and comparative analysis, the thesis argues that the subsisting regulation of the capital market in Nigeria lacks in many respects requisite legislative and enforcement tools to deal with the problems highlighted. As such, redressing these problems along the lines of the recommendations contained in this thesis would prove to be a crucial step in achieving sustainable financing for corporations in Nigeria as well as a viable Nigerian economy.


Background: The footprints of zinc dietary nutrient deficiency are resulting in a widespread burden of stunting, wasting and underweight in children under five years, and reproductive development in women over a population of 100 million in Pakistan. The zinc malnutrition could be addressed by consumption of biofortified high zinc wheat flour, a staple food, in complemented with food supplementation, food diversification and food fortification interventions in the country.
Methodology: This evidence-based research publication focused on micronutrients malnutrition on human health and capital. Literature was taken from last 20 years papers published in several peers reviewed scientific journals. Papers regarding malnutrition were mainly focused.  The primary data was collected from R&D institutions and secondary data from Pakistan National Nutrition Survey 2011. Various sites, viz. www.harvestplus.org, www.ifpri.org, http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/ndl, http://data.unicef.org:  www.fao.org: http://wholibdoc.who.int/publications  were also visited.
Results: In Pakistan, the recently released biofortified high zinc wheat variety "Zincol-2016" had a higher quantum of 37 mg Zn kg-1 compared to 25.0 mg Zn kg-1 in grain portion in other commercially grown wheat varieties. Upon consuming biofortified wheat flour, zinc concentration increased from 681.3 to 792.3 µg L-1 in human plasma. Furthermore, even an increase in dietary zinc by an amount of 2.0 mg Zn capita-1 day-1 may result in halving the endemic problem of zinc malnutrition, with a little change in food diversity pattern.
Conclusion: The consumption of biofortified high zinc wheat variety "Zincol-2016" containing 37 mg Zn kg-1 compared to 25.0 mg Zn kg-1 in conventional wheat varieties could result in alleviating zinc malnutrition to the extent of 50% in the malnourished population.  Thereby, it is a potential complementary staple food with other contemporary interventions to address malnutrition in Pakistan.


Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Kilwardby OP (c. 1215-1279) was a very important and influential thinker in his time, but he has not received the scholarly attention that he deserves. In this book we present the first study of all of his philosophical thinking from logic and grammar to metaphysics and ethics.


The Italian legal framework for the agricultural sector has recently introduced a new form of contract, the "network contract". The aim of this study is to verify if the use of this new contract would be appropriate to facilitate the adoption and diffusion of sustainable innovation of an Italian agri-food chain and to strengthen the agricultural role with dealing food processing companies. We focus on Piedmont, an Italian region where a soft wheat supply chain is in continuing evolution but is still very fragmented; indeed the two Producers Organization and one Consortium specialized in grain storage and trade only work around 30% of the grain produced annually. Following the framework of transaction cost we carried out a survey using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative analysis tool to gather the opinions of the primary operators in the Piedmont soft wheat supply chain. Initial results suggest that there is still an unsatisfactory horizontal coordination in the supply chain and that the network contract still seems to be little known and appreciated. However operators of the production stage of the chain consider the goals of improving the quality of the wheat and the economic and environmental sustainability very important but they think it would be difficult to achieve them simultaneously.


Grid turbulence experiments have been carried out in a stably stratified fluid at moderately large Reynolds numbers (160 based on the Taylor microscale). A scanning particle image velocimetry technique is used to provide time-resolved velocity fields in a relatively large volume. For late times, in the low-Froude-number regime, the flow consists of quasi-horizontal motion in a sea of weak internal gravity waves. In this regime the dynamics of the flow is found to be independent of the ambient stratification. Fundamental differences with two-dimensional turbulence, due to the strong vertical shearing of horizontal velocity, are observed. In this regime, a self-similar scaling law for the energy decay and the length-scale evolution are observed. This behaviour reflects a process of adjustment of the eddy aspect ratio based on a balance between the horizontal advective motion which tends to vertically decorrelate the flow and the dissipation due to the strong vertical shear. The characteristic vertical size of the eddies grows according to a diffusion law and is found to be independent of the turbulence generation. The organization of the flow into horizontal layers of eddies separated by intense shear leads to a strong anisotropy of the dissipation: this has been checked by direct measurement of the different tensorial components of the viscous dissipation.


A 52-year-old male presented with acute retinal necrosis in his left eye. Slit lamp examination revealed stellate keratic precipitates and cells in the anterior chamber and vitreous. Funduscopy of his left eye revealed multiple yellow deposits. Pathological examination of the vitreous showed both small, reactive lymphocytes and a few macrophages. IL-6 and IFN-γ were elevated in the vitreous. Microdissected macrophages from the vitreous revealed DNAs from multiple viruses. The patient responded to oral valacyclovir. We conclude that multiple viral infections can be involved in the pathogenesis of acute retinal necrosis and that adequate anti-viral therapy has a beneficial effect on disease progression. However, retinal detachment can be a consequence for a poor visual outcome.


The last few years have been marked by a renewed interest in the old concept of undertow, the seaward flow which balances the surface flux of water associated with waves, particularly with breaking waves (Svendsen, 1984; Stive and Wind, 1986; etc.). This is clearly an important current in terms of the sedimentary processes which determine the beach profile. Roelvink and Stive have provided laboratory data that suggests the profile results from a net balance between three main factors; the wave skewness, the undertow, and the beach slope. However, in the field the third dimension, the longshore direction, may play a significant role. Even if the system is assumed uniform alongshore, strong longshore currents certainly influence the mobility of the sediment and may play more complex roles, in generating shear waves for example. It seems appropriate to represent the system, both on/offshore and alongshore, in one self-consistent model. Recent work has been clearly progressing in this direction (Stive and DeVriend, 1987; Svendsen and Lorenz, 1989). It is therefore also appropriate at this stage to look at existing field data to see how well one can define trends that the modelling results should reproduce. There are some very clear limitations. In the field it is difficult to describe, in any detail, the longshore variability. Small hydraulic gradients in the alongshore direction may drive longshore currents, rip currents, or some general nearshore circulation associated with larger scale topography. Even in a relatively 2-D situation, it is known that the longshore currents are strongly dependent on the directional distribution of the wave spectrum, a factor which is hard to estimate well, unless the angle of wave approach is large. The measurements here were taken on a beach at the end of a large bay of restricted width. Large waves can only be generated along the long axis of


This paper presents a rapid solution method for flows within an Expansion Deflection nozzle operating within the atmosphere. The technique is based primarily on the Method of Characteristics, with integrated solution of the Rankine Hugoniot shock equations. Such a method is desirable in the case of Expansion Deflection nozzles, as the potential design space is very wide, and optimisation will require the performance evaluation across the full altitude range of operation, from sea level to vacuum. Rapid solution of the flow is therefore necessary in the design phase, ruling out the use of a complete CFD simulation. However, the model presented is based on an inviscid flow model, and hence it must be demonstrated that neglecting the effects of viscosity does not significantly reduce the accuracy of the results produced. This is achieved in this paper through comparison with experimental data produced by cold gas tests. It is shown that the location of the initial shock wave and expansion fan within the flow, and their interaction with the wall, are accurate. Wall pressures in this region are in reasonable agreement, although the effects of viscous boundary layers, which are not modelled, produce a local deviation from experiment under adverse pressure gradients. However, downstream of the first shock wave interaction, more significant differences in the pressure distribution are apparent. These are due to the impact on the flow of separation bubbles caused by the adverse pressure gradient induced by the pressure rise, not modelled in the simplified model. Despite this, thrust coefficients determined by integration of wall pressures differ from the experimental data by only 2.5 to 3.5%, due to cancelling of over and under prediction of wall pressures. A secondary outcome of the work demonstrates that the location of the initial shock wave in the flow is sensitive to the assumed wake pressure, and is most accurately approximated with an ambient wake pressure. This reinforces direct experimental results demonstrating that wake aspiration, generally assumed to occur in this class of nozzle, can be avoided by careful design. The effectiveness of the compensation is between 98 and 100% for the experimental model under the range of pressures considered, again demonstrating that wake aspiration is not occurring in this nozzle.


* Introduction, M K Smith * Towards a Cultural Planning Approach to Regeneration, M K Smith * The Creative Turn in Regeneration: Creative Spaces, Spectacles and Tourism in Cities, G Richards, Tourism Research and Marketing, Spain, and J Wilson, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain * Culture, City Users and the Creation of New Tourism Areas in Cities, R Maitland, University of Westminster, UK * VivaCity: Mixed-Use and Urban Tourism, R Aiesha and G Evans, London Metropolitan University, UK * Ethnoscapes as Cultural Attractions in Canadian 'World Cities', S J Shaw, London Metropolitan University, UK * (Re)Creating Culture through Tourism: Black Heritage Sites in New Jersey, D Cheyenne Harvey, Rutgers University, USA * Sustainable and Responsible Leisure and Tourism Space Development in Post-industrial Cities? The case of Odaiba Waterfront City, Tokyo, Japan, M Murayama, University of Greenwich, UK, and G Parker, University of Reading, UK * After Regeneration the Circus Leaves Town: The Relationship between Sports Events, Tourism and Urban, A Smith, University of Westminster, UK * World Class: Using the Olympics to Shape and Brand the American Metropolis, C H Heying, Portland State University, USA, M J Burbank, University of Utah, USA, and G Andranovich, California State University, Los Angeles, USA * Touring Templates: Cultural Workers and Regeneration in Small New England Cities, M M Breitbart, Hampshire College, USA, and C Stanton, Tufts University, USA * Cultural Policy and Urban Restructuring in Chicago, C Spirou, National-Louis University, USA * Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts: The Challenges of Implementing a Cultural District Initiative, A Maria Bounds, New York, USA * On the Water's Edge: Developing Cultural Regeneration Paradigms for Urban Waterfronts, A Jones * Born Again: From Dock Cities to Cities of Culture, Pat Avery, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, UK * Interpretative Planning as a Means of Urban Regeneration: Recife, Brazil, B Bath and P Goncalves, Hove, UK * Conclusion, M K Smith.


ABSTRACT Sovereign citizens, who do not believe they are subject to law, have been identified as a risk for police and government officials as well as a potential terrorist threat. As such, while it is important to view radicalisation as multi-causal, some behavioural markers may indicate sovereign citizen inclinations and help to direct policy attention to the early stages of risk and radicalisation towards violence. This article seeks to identify sovereign ideology, social drivers and tactics to help to avert the potential consolidation and advance of vulnerabilities and risk factors under certain conditions. Further, it intends to build policy frameworks towards supporting individual resilience to extremist influence and the development of related prevention programs by evaluating whether CVE activity in Australia – especially if adopted from responses such as religious terrorism – is 'fit for purpose' in countering intricate anti-government extensions of extremism.


Does intelligence result from the manipulation of structured symbolic expressions? Or is it the result of the activation of large networks of densely interconnected simple units? Connections and Symbols provides the first systematic analysis of the explosive new field of Connectionism that is challenging the basic tenets of cognitive science. These lively discussions by Jerry A. Fodor, Zenon W. Pylyshyn, Steven Pinker, Alan Prince, Joel Lechter, and Thomas G. Bever raise issues that lie at the core of our understanding of how the mind works: Does connectionism offer it truly new scientific model or does it merely cloak the old notion of associationism as a central doctrine of learning and mental functioning? Which of the new empirical generalizations are sound and which are false? And which of the many ideas such as massively parallel processing, distributed representation, constraint satisfaction, and subsymbolic or microfeatural analyses belong together, and which are logically independent? Now that connectionism has arrived with full-blown models of psychological processes as diverse as Pavlovian conditioning, visual recognition, and language acquisition, the debate is on. Common themes emerge from all the contributors to Connections and Symbols: criticism of connectionist models applied to language or the parts of cognition employing language like operations; and a focus on what it is about human cognition that supports the traditional physical symbol system hypothesis. While criticizing many aspects of connectionist models, the authors also identify aspects of cognition that could he explained by the connectionist models. Connections and Symbols is included in the Cognition Special Issue series, edited by Jacques Mehler.


Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a heterogeneous group of malignancies that may develop at any level of the biliary tree. CCA is currently classified into intrahepatic (iCCA), perihilar (pCCA) and distal (dCCA) on the basis of its anatomical location. Notably, although these three CCA subtypes have common features, they also have important inter- and intra-tumor differences that can affect their pathogenesis and outcome. A unique feature of CCA is that it manifests in the hepatic parenchyma or large intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts, furnished by two distinct stem cell niches: the canals of Hering and the peribiliary glands, respectively. The complexity of CCA pathogenesis highlights the need for a multidisciplinary, translational, and systemic approach to this malignancy. This review focuses on advances in the knowledge of CCA histomorphology, risk factors, molecular pathogenesis, and subsets of CCA.


Changes in modem agriculture have been shown to have detrimental affects on those bird species whose populations mainly inhabit the wider countryside. Recently extensive changes to the farmed landscape have occurred through implementation of European agricultural policy much of which has been concerned with decreasing agricultural production. Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), with almost the entire British population breeding on farmland, is a species that is thought to have been particularly affected by agricultural change. A study attempting to assess the impact that modern, intensive arable farming had on a breeding population of lapwing was undertaken from 1995 to 1997 in south-west Lancashire. The study site had an open character and was predominantly winter farmed (cultivation occurring September-February)although more than a third of the area was spring cultivated. Permanent pasture and rotational set-aside (RSA) accounted for about 2% and 5% of the cropped area respectively. Lapwings preferred to nest in spring farmed fields and RSA. The overall nest survival was 55.5% and did not differ significantly between years. Hatching success was highest in RSA (88%), lowest in spring farmed fields (48.4%) and intermediate in winter farmed fields (57.2%). Hatching success was significantly higher in spring farmed fields than in other habitats but did not differ significantly between winter and spring farmed fields. The hatching success of winter farmed fields was elevated by the success of nests of fields cultivated late in the winter. The main cause of nest losses was farming operations which caused 77.4% of all nests lost. Predation accounted for 14.4% of nest losses and desertion for 8.2%. There were annual differences in nest destruction in winter farmed crops caused by differences in the timing of agricultural operations. Nest destruction was highest in unsown fields but was compensated for by a high rate of replacement and high hatching success in replacement clutches. Two types of crop were spring farmed, combinable (mainly cereals) and vegetable (mainly potatoes) crops. Higher hatching 2 success in spring cereals than in vegetables was related to the differing intensities of management between the two crop categories. Lapwing preferred to nest in dense aggregations and far from ditches both of which reduced the risk of predation. Low densities of nest predators were maintained in the study area by predator control. Chicks from larger eggs survived better than chicks from smaller eggs. Chicks undertaking movements from natal to rearing fields suffered high levels of mortality. Chick mortality was caused by poor body condition, entrapment in field boundary ditches or predation or from the interaction of these factors. Brood movements were influenced by the distribution of crop types. Spring farmed fields and pasture were used for rearing broods. Predation was the main proximate cause of mortality for radio-marked chicks and accounted for 52% of all losses. Predation was a significant mortality factor until chicks were at least 20 days old, whereas poor body condition (31 % of all radio-marked chick losses) and ditch entrapment (17% of all losses) only killed very young chicks. Fledging success or hatching success is thought to be the main limit on productivity. Dietary studies revealed chicks ate mainly beetles but their diet varied depending upon rearing location. Surface living chick prey was abundant throughout the season in arable fields and late-hatched chicks suffered higher mortality than those hatched earlier mainly due to an increase in predation late in the season. Recommendations to maintain or improve the conditions for breeding lapwing within the study site are discussed. They include proposals which could operate under the agrienvironment regulations of the CAP, such as an increase in the area spring farmed with the cultivation of both cereal and vegetables and changes to the management of rotational set-aside to make such fields more suitable for brood rearing.


Fewer than half of the young people attending vocational institutions in Norway complete their education within the allotted five years. Indeed, many of these students have non-linear paths to completion. However, it is not changes in the dropout rate that make this different from earlier generations but the expansion of formal education and the rise of the knowledge society and individualisation. The term "tightrope biographies" is used here to encapsulate why individualisation cannot be thought of in terms of choice, because today's youth are often held accountable for their educational progression rather than this progression being viewed as dependent on institutional mechanisms. The present study characterises young people as "tightrope dancers" in their interactions with vocational schools. Selected data collected from ethnographic interviews during the ongoing longitudinal project Youth, Completion and Dropout in Telemark are used here to capture the voices of young people. These data focus on the non-linear educational careers of these youth when they re-enter schools and explore the stories they tell about dropping out and re-entering. These stories suggest that, to succeed, students need customised support throughout the process from school to the workplace and that many depend on this support. The study identifies three different ways of understanding these students as tightrope dancers trying to get back on track, characterising them as The Steady, The Shaky and The Shivering.


Alkali and alkaline earth aluminoborate glasses feature high resistance to cracking under sharp contact loading compared to other oxide glasses. However, due to the high content of hygroscopic B2O3, it is expected that applications of these glasses could be hindered by poor chemical durability in aqueous solutions. Indeed, the compositional and structural dependence of their dissolution kinetics remains unexplored. In this work, we correlate the dissolution rates of aluminoborate glasses in acidic, neutral, and basic solutions with the structural changes induced by varying the aluminum-to-boron ratio. In detail, we investigate a total of seventeen magnesium, lithium, and sodium aluminoborate glasses with fixed modifier content of 25 mol%. We show that the structural changes induced by alumina depend on the network modifier. We also demonstrate a correlation between the chemical durability at various pH values and the structural changes in Mg-, Li- and Na- aluminoborate glasses. The substitution of alumina by boron oxide leads to a general decrease of chemical corrosion in neutral and acidic solutions. The lowest dissolution rate value is observed in Mg-aluminoborate glasses, as a consequence of the intermediate character of magnesium which can increase the network cross-linking. For basic solutions, the chemical durability is almost constant for the different amount of alumina in the three series, likely because B2O3 is susceptible to nucleophilic attack, which is favored in high-OH- solutions.


I. INTRODUCTION The important contribution of the small business sector to the national product, employment, and regional development is widely and generally acknowledged in South Africa. Indeed, this sector of the economy has taken an increasingly important role in the industrialization strategies of developing countries in the region, especially during the last ten to fifteen years.1 In 1984, South Africa became the first country with a British derivative company law system to take a large step forward in effectively providing for the reasonable entrepreneurial legal needs and expectations of the typical small businessman. Recognition of the fact that the small business sector forms the very backbone of a market orientated economy gave added impetus to the introduction of the Close Corporations Act of 1984 (Act).2 The Close Corporations Act has proved to be one of the most remarkable innovations in South African company law.3 Its advent has been described as an event of very significant historical importance in the development of South African entrepreneurial law.4 The Act introduced a new form of incorporation for closely held enterprises with several unique and innovative features-combining some of the attributes of partnership law with the corporate attributes of legal personality and limited liability.5 It provides a simple, inexpensive, and flexible form of incorporation for the enterprise consisting of a single entrepreneur or small number of participants that is designed to meet the participants' needs without burdening them with legal requirements that would not be meaningful in their circumstances.6 The South African example has been followed inter alia7 in southern Africa by legislative developments in several jurisdictions aimed at introducing new legal forms for small businesses. Thus, the reactions in the erstwhile Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda, and Ciskei states (TBVC) to the South African initiative differed. Bophutatswana, for instance, introduced Act 36 of 1986 providing for the formation, registration, incorporation, management, control and liquidation of `closed corporations,' while the Ciskei published its Private Companies Act 36 of 1985 consisting of a mere thirty-five sections. The Rationalisation of Corporate Laws Act of 19968 applied the South Africa Close Corporations Act of 1984 throughout the Republic and repealed the earlier TBVC legislation. Further discussion of the repealed legislation falls outside the ambit of this review. This Article will first discuss the evolution of the close corporation in South Africa. Then this Article will explore the developments in Namibia and Zimbabwe. This Article will finish with a discussion on a uniform business form in southern Africa. II. SOUTH AFRICA A. The Concept The South African close corporation may startle traditional company lawyers.9 "Under the Close Corporations Act a close corporation is a fully fledged corporation"10 which confers on its members all the usual "advantages of the attributes of legal personality, in particular perpetual succession and limited liability. The close corporation has the capacity and powers of a natural person of full capacity."11 There is no room for the application of the doctrines of ultra vires or constructive notice. In a previous article, I described a close corporation as: [a] closely held entity in which all or most members are usually actively involved. In principle there is no separation between ownership and control. No board of directors nor general meeting is required; every member is entitled to participate in the management of the business and to act as agent for the corporation, every member owes a fiduciary duty and a duty of care to the corporation; the consent of all the members is required for the admission of a new member. 12 Capital maintenance requirements have been abandoned in favor of solvency and liquidity. …


Interviews with low-level drug dealers in New York City reveal that the monetary costs of distributing drugs are modest. Hence, the proportion of sales revenue retained by these sellers is a meaningful indicator of their earnings. There are four distinct types of sellers, with systematic differences across types in the proportion of sales revenue retained. Entrepreneurs who own the drugs they sell retain the largest share (about 50 percent). Independent consignment sellers retain less (about 25 percent). Consignment sellers who operate within fixed selling locations or "spots" retain still less (10 percent), and the sellers who were paid hourly to sell from spots retained the smallest proportion (3 percent). These differences might explain variation in reports of sellers' earnings and may have significant implications for the relative ability of enforcement against spots and enforcement against sellers operating outside of spots to drive up drug prices and suppress drug use.


Title of Dissertation: ASSESSMENT OF FOODBORNE PATHOGEN SURVIVAL DURING PRODUCTION AND PRE-HARVEST APPLICATION OF COMPOST AND COMPOST TEA David T. Ingram, Ph.D. 2009 Directed By: Sam W. Joseph, Professor (Emeritus), CBMG and Director, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health Jianghong Meng, Professor, NFSC, and Interim Director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition The use of compost in crop production systems as a soil amendment is recognized by both conventional and organic plant production practitioners as a means to increase yields and reduce the incidence of foliar diseases. Compost tea (CT), an aqueous extract of the biological components of compost, is also recognized as a means to broadcast the phytopathogenreducing components of compost directly to the surfaces of plants where many foliar diseases become established. CT has been shown to control the proliferation of a variety of foliar diseases in many turf, crop and horticulture production systems when applied directly to the foliar surfaces of plants. This dissertation research was designed to address several pre-harvest food safety issues concerning compost and compost teas. Three objectives were pursued to establish whether the use of compost and compost teas as pre-harvest practices may introduce foodborne pathogens into the food supply and, therefore, contribute to the incidence of foodborne illness. The first objective involved a microbiological survey of commercially available compost in the U.S. to determine the prevalence of fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella and enterococci that might be reaching consumers through contaminated fruit and vegetables. The second objective was to investigate the ability of these foodborne pathogens to propagate during the production of CT. The third objective involved a field study examining the potential of CT to disseminate E. coli into organic and conventional strawberry production systems. The effects of CT on the fruit yield, phytopathogen suppression, as well as the potential for foodborne pathogen survival on the fruit surfaces were examined. This project provided important information and recommendations for the safe production and pre-harvest application of compost and compost teas. It was contended that, with proper attention to the manufacture and storage of compost and with simple modification of current trends in CT production systems, the current threshold of pre-harvest introduction of foodborne pathogens could be significantly reduced. ASSESSMENT OF FOODBORNE PATHOGEN SURVIVAL DURING PRODUCTION AND PRE-HARVEST APPLICATION OF COMPOST AND COMPOST TEA


Broiler breeder hens are subject to the dual expectation to not only maintain a high production of eggs for an extended time period, but to produce eggs which can support the life of chicks which will be used for either meat production or as parent stock. Egg fertility and hatchability are heavily influenced by the thickness of the egg shell, the mineral calcium carbonate shell of the egg necessary for protecting the embryo growing inside. Many factors affect egg shell quality including age of the hen, diet, environmental conditions, genetic strain, stress, disease, and nutrition. Laying hens will mobilize calcium from the medullary bone to synthesize the calcium carbonate of the egg shell and use the calcium they absorb from their diet to replenish this medullary bone. Phosphorus is necessary for many cellular functions in animals and it also affects the availability of calcium making the ratio between the two minerals crucial not only egg production but also bone and whole body health. Previous studies have indicated a phosphorus retention threshold in breeder hens and broilers, the point when the amount of available phosphorus in the diet begins to be released into the excreta instead of being utilized in the body. In order to gain further understanding of why this phosphorus retention exists many elements involved in the whole body homeostasis of calcium and phosphorus in laying breeders have been investigated. The first study involved 6 dietary treatments of diets which consisted of 6 graded levels of non phytate phosphorus (NPP) ranging from 0.15% to 0.40% NPP with increments of 0.05 to determine the amount of phosphorus necessary for optimal egg production and to find out FGF23's involvement in the retention threshold of phosphorus. Results showed that between 0.20% and 0.25% NPP that phosphorus retention dropped from 33% to 26% while FGF23 levels increased from 0.15% to 0.20% NPP and remained at the same concentration regardless of further increases in NPP in the diet. In the second study the relationship between bone health and egg shell quality was studied through the use of biomarkers for Osteoblast and Osteoclast activity: Tartrate acid resistant phosphatase (TRAP), and Bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP) respectively in both breeder hens and their progeny. Breeder hens were selected upon egg shell quality through Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) and split into two groups with either good shell quality of specific gravity >1.80 or poor egg shell quality with specific gravity <1.80 and their eggs were placed and grown until 2 weeks of age. Egg shell quality was shown to correlate negatively with TRAP and positively with BAP. Progeny of the poor egg shell quality hens had lower levels of BAP and high levels of TRAP compared with the progeny of the good


We prove that $\Omega(s\log p)$ samples suffice to learn a sparse Gaussian directed acyclic graph (DAG) from data, where $s$ is the maximum Markov blanket size. This improves upon recent results that require $\Omega(s^{4}\log p)$ samples in the equal variance case. To prove this, we analyze a popular score-based estimator that has been the subject of extensive empirical inquiry in recent years and is known to achieve state-of-the-art results. Furthermore, the approach we study does not require strong assumptions such as faithfulness that existing theory for score-based learning crucially relies on. The resulting estimator is based around a difficult nonconvex optimization problem, and its analysis may be of independent interest given recent interest in nonconvex optimization in machine learning. Our analysis overcomes the drawbacks of existing theoretical analyses, which either fail to guarantee structure consistency in high-dimensions (i.e. learning the correct graph with high probability), or rely on restrictive assumptions. In contrast, we give explicit finite-sample bounds that are valid in the important $p\gg n$ regime.