Cripto-1 (CR-1) is a recently discovered protein of the epidermal growth factor family that does not directly activate any of the known erbB type 1 tyrosine kinase receptors. Also, CR-1 stimulates the growth of HC-11 mouse mammary epithelial cells. We found that prior treatment of HC-11 cells with exogenous CR-1 induced a competency response to the lactogenic hormones dexamethasone, insulin, and prolactin (DIP) with respect to the induction of the milk protein beta-casein. In contrast, simultaneous treatment of mouse HC-11 cells with CR-1 in the presence of DIP inhibited beta-casein expression. The inhibitory effects of CR-1 on beta-casein expression in response to DIP were not unique to this mouse mammary epithelial cell line, because beta-casein and whey acidic protein expression in primary mouse mammary explant cultures established from midpregnant mice were also differentially inhibited by several epidermal growth factor-related peptides including CR-1. The mitogenic and differentiation effects of CR-1 are mediated by the binding of CR-1 to a cell surface receptor that is known to activate the ras/raf/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/MAPK kinase pathway. The inhibitory response of CR-1 in HC-11 cells on beta-casein expression after treatment with DIP can be attenuated by B581, a peptidomimetic farnesyltransferase inhibitor that blocks p21ras farnesylation and activation, and by the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI3k) inhibitor LY 294002 but not by PD 98059, a MAPK kinase inhibitor that blocks MAPK activation. These data suggest that the ability of CR-1 to block lactogenic hormone-induced expression of beta-casein is mediated through a p21ras-dependent, PI3k-mediated pathway. This is further substantiated by the observation that CR-1 is able to stimulate the tyrosine phosphorylation of the p85 PI3k regulatory subunit and to increase the activity of PI3k in HC-11 cells.


The peptidoglycan (PG) sacculus provides bacteria with the mechanical strength to maintain cell shape and resist osmotic stress. Enlargement of the mesh‐like sacculus requires the combined activity of peptidoglycan synthases and hydrolases. In Escherichia coli, the activity of two PG synthases is driven by lipoproteins anchored in the outer membrane (OM). However, the regulation of PG hydrolases is less well understood, with only regulators for PG amidases having been described. Here, we identify the OM lipoprotein NlpI as a general adaptor protein for PG hydrolases. NlpI binds to different classes of hydrolases and can specifically form complexes with various PG endopeptidases. In addition, NlpI seems to contribute both to PG elongation and division biosynthetic complexes based on its localization and genetic interactions. Consistent with such a role, we reconstitute PG multi‐enzyme complexes containing NlpI, the PG synthesis regulator LpoA, its cognate bifunctional synthase, PBP1A, and different endopeptidases. Our results indicate that peptidoglycan regulators and adaptors are part of PG biosynthetic multi‐enzyme complexes, regulating and potentially coordinating the spatiotemporal action of PG synthases and hydrolases.


Gary Grider, HPC-DO; John Bent, EMC Corporation; Chuck Cranor, Carnegie Mellon University; Jun He, New Mexico Consortium; Aaron Torres, HPC-3; Meghan McClelland, HPC-5; Brett Kettering, HPC-5 To improve the checkpoint bandwidth of critical applications at LANL, we developed the Parallel Log Structured File System (PLFS)[1]. PLFS is a transformative I/O middleware layer placed within our storage stack. It transforms a concurrently written single shared file into non-shared component pieces. This reorganized I/O has made write size a non-issue and improved checkpoint performance by orders of magnitude, meeting the project's L2 milestone to show increased performance for checkpointing with LANL codes. LANL is working together with EMC under an umbrella Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to further enhance, design, build, test, and deploy PLFS. PLFS has been integrated with multiple types of storage systems, including cloud storage, and has shown improvements in file storage sizes and metadata rates.


This is a very British story from more than 50 years ago. It is a story of remarkable technological ambition from a different country than is seen today. It was an era in which the country adjusted to decolonisation and a dangerous nuclear arms race close to home. The maturing Cold War engineers of the British aviation industry sought to outdo the nationally-celebrated and frankly propagandised achievements of their fathers' generation. Meanwhile, black and white post-war austerity was being replaced by the colour and rhythms of the swinging sixties. For everyone, engineers or otherwise, the country was changing fast.

Britain and the Bomb tells one of the great British stories from the Cold War – the transition of the nuclear deterrent from the Royal Air Force to the Royal Navy. The author draws upon insights from the laboratories, the military, popular culture and from politicians to make sense of a complex time and to challenge some widely-held perceptions that Britain in the 1960s lost her technical ambition and ability. Rather than industrial chaos and short-termist leadership, there is instead a story of shrewd, but pragmatic, moves in the chess game that was the Cold War. The author looks at how Britain saw the role of nuclear weapons, providing insights for the decisions that now lie ahead for Britain in the twenty-first century.

The story pivots around a single day in April 1965. The recently-established Labour government very publicly cancelled the much-vaunted TSR2 nuclear strike bomber, causing dismay among aviation enthusiasts. The passing decades have done little to diminish the controversy and a pervasive sense of nostalgic melancholy about a lost Britain. What really happened to the TSR2 and more importantly what happened in the years that followed? By taking a wider view, the merit of the 1965 decision is apparent, providing better understanding of the even bolder and more ambitious decisions that were needed into the 1970s. Those bold actions were once highly secret and are still not widely-known or understood. While Britain very publicly cancelled her strike bomber ambitions she very secretly pursued a different nuclear weapons project: the 'Chevaline' upgrade of the submarine-based nuclear deterrent. That engineering success deserves to be remembered.

This is a fascinating book that takes us back to a time of British boffins, supersonic test pilots, mods, rockers and Cold War spies.


We propose an architecture for hybrid services, i.e., services that span many network technologies, especially the PSTPN and the Internet. These services will play an important role in the future, because they leverage on the existing infrastructures, rather than requiring brand new and sophisticated mechanisms to be deployed. We explore a few issues related to hybrid services and propose a platform, as well as a set of components, to facilitate their creation and deployment. The existing infrastructure is only required to generate specific events when requests for hybrid services are detected. We present the design of a service layer based on Java that handles the treatment of these special requests. Our service layer is provided with a set of generic components realized as Java Beans. Hence, we can provide hybrid services without changing the existing infrastructure. We illustrate this strength of our architecture by discussing the call forwarding service.


■ Tourism is an economic activity that influences virtually every corner of the contemporary world. This study focuses on tourism development in Belize where in a short period of time the national government has shifted from virtually ignoring tourism to making it a national priority for economic development. This paper adopts an historical perspective to describe the political economy of tourism development in Belize in the latter half of the twentieth century. It begins by establishing a political economy framework for analyzing tourism development. With this in place, tourism in Belize is discussed through four major stages. The stages primarily reflect the role of the state with respect to tourism, which were in part established based on the attitudes toward tourism, tourism numbers, as well as on the development of tourism infrastructure within the country. In this sense, the paper is seen as a contribution to public policy that sees tourism as one means for economic development, but one that will be reliant on policy and economic initiatives that are external to local communities.


Herranz et al. report the identification of a fungal arrestin homolog and its role in pH signaling. PalF, a protein containing C-terminal and N-terminal arrestin domains, interacted with PalH, the 7 transmembrane receptor (7TMR) in two-hybrid assays and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) pull-down assays. The N-terminal arrestin domain was responsible for the interaction with the PalH cytoplasmic domain. Growth at alkaline pH was blocked by truncation of the PalH cytoplasmic domain, which disrupted the interaction with PalF. Shifting of mycelia to alkaline pH resulted in decreased mobility of the PalF protein on SDS-PAGE, which was reversed by phosphatase treatment, consistent with pH-dependent phosphorylation of PalF. Ubiquinated forms of PalF were also detected following the shift to alkaline pH. Both phosphorylation and ubiquitination of PalF were abolished in cells deficient for PalH. Thus, as with metazoan arrestin, fungal arrestin appears to contribute to 7TMR signaling, and this signaling involves similar types of posttranslational modifications as those observed for metazoan arrestin. S. Herranz, J. M. Rodríguez, H.-J. Bussink, J. C. Sánchez-Ferrero, H. N. Arst, Jr., M. A. Peñalva, O. Vincent, Arrestin-related proteins mediate pH signaling in fungi. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 309, 12141-12146 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


AIMS
To review the literature on detection of risky drinking to compare early identification based on everyday clinical encounters with systematic screening. We also reviewed specific clinical signs that have been suggested to be used as indicators of risky drinking.

METHODS
A literature review was performed in PubMed and CINAHL of articles up to November 2010.

RESULTS
Systematic screening and semi-systematic methods in various forms detected more risky drinkers than non-systematic identification during clinical encounter, but there was a lack of studies comparing the various means of identifying risky drinking. It may be too early to completely rule out the possibility of using non-systematic methods as an effective strategy to identify risky drinking. The earliest signs of risky drinking suggested in the literature are psychological distress and social problems.

CONCLUSION
From a public health perspective, there is a lack of evidence that non-systematic or semi-systematic methods can substitute systematic screening in terms of numbers of risky drinkers detected. If early signs are going to be used to identify risky drinkers, or those to be screened for risky drinking, more focus should be on psychological and social signs because they appear earlier than somatic signs.


ESPRIT-type (spatial) frequency estimation techniques obtain their frequency estimates from the solution of a highly structured, overdetermined system of equations (the so-called invariance equation). Here, the structure is defined in terms of two selection matrices applied to a matrix spanning the estimated signal subspace. Structured least squares (SLS) is a new algorithm that solves the invariance equation by preserving its structure. Formally, SLS is derived as a linearized iterative solution of a nonlinear optimization problem. If SLS is initialized with the least squares solution of the invariance equation, only one "iteration", i.e. the solution of one linear system of equations, is performed to achieve a significant improvement of the estimation accuracy. Therefore, the proposed estimation scheme (that uses only one "iteration" of SLS) is not iterative in nature.


Objectives This is the second of the two papers introducing a cardiovascular disease (CVD) policy model. The first paper described the structure and statistical underpinning of the state-transition model, demonstrating how life expectancy estimates are generated for individuals defined by ASSIGN risk factors. This second paper describes how the model is prepared to undertake economic evaluation. Design To generate quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE), the Scottish Health Survey was used to estimate background morbidity (health utilities) and the impact of CVD events (utility decrements). The SF-6D algorithm generated utilities and decrements were modelled using ordinary least squares (OLS). To generate lifetime hospital costs, the Scottish Heart Health Extended Cohort (SHHEC) was linked to the Scottish morbidity and death records (SMR) to cost each continuous inpatient stay (CIS). OLS and restricted cubic splines estimated annual costs before and after each of the first four events. A Kaplan-Meier sample average (KMSA) estimator was then used to weight expected health-related quality of life and costs by the probability of survival. Results The policy model predicts the change in QALE and lifetime hospital costs as a result of an intervention(s) modifying risk factors. Cost-effectiveness analysis and a full uncertainty analysis can be undertaken, including probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Notably, the impacts according to socioeconomic deprivation status can be made. Conclusions The policy model can conduct cost-effectiveness analysis and decision analysis to inform approaches to primary prevention, including individually targeted and population interventions, and to assess impacts on health inequalities.


Educational Philosophy for a Post-secular Age reinterprets post-secular insights for educational theory by recognising that the persistence of religion in contemporary life raises new questions about the place of religion in education. Two common assumptions are critically examined: first, that the better educated a society becomes, the more secular it becomes, and second, that religion can and should be separated from public education.. For too long religion has had an uneasy relationship with education, being seen either as a foreign invader, a problem to be solved, or as a mechanism by which to reinforce particular religious, cultural or national identities. In order to move educational theory beyond the debates about indoctrination and competing rights between parents, children and nation states, the argument undercuts rationalist conceptions of religion and education that tend to frame the debates in terms of competing truth claims or worldviews. Drawing on a diverse range of theological, philosophical and educational sources, this book demonstrates the continuing significance of the Christian mystical tradition to educational theory. It proposes an exploration of democratic education that brings together two apparently irreconcilable poles: the meaning of religion in education and contemporary life, and the need for a deliberative democratic process that is fit for the post-secular age. It argues that religious literacy can be served by democratic encounters in public religious education. Educational Philosophy for a Post-secular Age will be of interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of the philosophy of education, philosophy of religion, education policy, politics, anthropology and cultural theory. It will particularly appeal to those, of both secular and religious persuasions, interested in the place of religion in education and public life.


Modeling and execution of business processes is often performed on different levels of abstraction. For example, when a business process is modeled using a high-level notation near to business such as Event-driven Process Chains (EPC), a technical refinement step is required before the process can be executed. Also, model-driven process design allows modeling a process on high-level, while executing it in a more detailed and executable low-level representation such as processes defined in the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) or as Java code. However, current approaches for graphical monitoring of business processes are limited to scenarios in which the process that is being executed and the process that is being monitored are either one and the same or on the same level of abstraction. In this paper, we present an approach to facilitate business-oriented process monitoring while considering process design on high-level. We propose process views for business process monitoring as projections of activities and execution states in order to support business process monitoring of running process instances on different levels of abstraction. In particular, we discuss state propagation patterns which can be applied to define advanced monitoring solutions for arbitrary graph-based process languages.


We design an AlGaAs-based terahertz photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) to achieve terahertz-wave difference frequency generation (DFG) from near-infrared light sources. The PCW structure provides a tight confinement of terahertz-wave field, resulting in a good mode field overlap of three waves. The unique phase matching condition between two pump waves and terahertz Bloch wave can be satisfied through choosing appropriate waveguide parameters and pump wavelengths. With the coupled-mode equations derived from modal theory for describing the light propagation, we simulate the continuous terahertz DFG process, and a high power-normalized conversion efficiency of 0.7632 × 10-4 W -1 for 3 THz generation is obtained.


In this paper, we consider advancing web-scale knowledge extraction and alignment by integrating OpenIE extractions in the form of (subject, predicate, object) triples with Knowledge Bases (KB). Traditional techniques from universal schema and from schema mapping fall in two extremes: either they perform instance-level inference relying on embedding for (subject, object) pairs, thus cannot handle pairs absent in any existing triples; or they perform predicate-level mapping and completely ignore background evidence from individual entities, thus cannot achieve satisfying quality. We propose OpenKI to handle sparsity of OpenIE extractions by performing instance-level inference: for each entity, we encode the rich information in its neighborhood in both KB and OpenIE extractions, and leverage this information in relation inference by exploring different methods of aggregation and attention. In order to handle unseen entities, our model is designed without creating entity-specific parameters. Extensive experiments show that this method not only significantly improves state-of-the-art for conventional OpenIE extractions like ReVerb, but also boosts the performance on OpenIE from semi-structured data, where new entity pairs are abundant and data are fairly sparse.


"This book provides readers what they need to know to greatly enhance website usability and the customer online shopping experience"-Jakob Nielsen, author of best-selling title, Designing Web UsabilityTo succeed on the web, companies must understand their customers' needs and goals more thoroughly than ever before-and use that information to build sites that deliver an outstanding shopping experience. Customer-Centered Design offers a systematic blueprint for doing just that. Leading marketing experts and usability professionals Kreta Chandler and Karen Hyatt bring together state-of-the-art techniques that address your goals for short- and long-term profitability and your customers' demands for convenience, simplicity, and satisfaction. This book reveals: What you must know about your customers-and how to get and use that information more efficiently Five views of the online store: as software system, catalog, communications vehicle, sales rep, and retail shopping experience Measuring your customers' experience with your site to stay on the leading edge Blending successful techniques from catalogs, retail and e-tail stores to create a new shopping environment Facilitating sales by helping your customers make buying decisions Understand how the products you sell influence your site's information architecture and design


Article history Received 28.11.2016 Accepted 12.02.2017 Available online 03.04.2017 Abstract The article is devoted to the overall view of experimental research of reinforced concrete beams with the simultaneous influence of the corrosion environment and loading. The tests have been carried out upon the reinforced concrete specimens considering the corrosion in the acid environment, namely 10 % H2SO4 that have been taken as a model of the aggressive environment. The beams are with span equalling to 1,9m with different series of tensile armature, concrete compressive strength and different length of impact of corrosion (continuous and local). The influence of simultaneous action of the aggressive environment and loading on strength of reinforced-concrete beams has been described. For a detailed study of the effect of individual components there was suggested additional experimental modelling of the only tensile armature damage without concrete damage. It will investigate the influence of this factor irrespective of the concrete.


The Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) problem is the canonical NP-complete problem and is fundamental to computer science, with a wide array of applications in planning, verification, and theorem proving. Developing and evaluating practical SAT solvers relies on extensive empirical testing on a set of real-world benchmark formulas. However, the availability of such real-world SAT formulas is limited. While these benchmark formulas can be augmented with synthetically generated ones, existing approaches for doing so are heavily hand-crafted and fail to simultaneously capture a wide range of characteristics exhibited by real-world SAT instances. In this work, we present G2SAT, the first deep generative framework that learns to generate SAT formulas from a given set of input formulas. Our key insight is that SAT formulas can be transformed into latent bipartite graph representations which we model using a specialized deep generative neural network. We show that G2SAT can generate SAT formulas that closely resemble given real-world SAT instances, as measured by both graph metrics and SAT solver behavior. Further, we show that our synthetic SAT formulas could be used to improve SAT solver performance on real-world benchmarks, which opens up new opportunities for the continued development of SAT solvers and a deeper understanding of their performance.


Research on virtual environments (VE) produced significant advances in computer hardware (graphics boards and i/o tools) and software (real-time distributed simulations). However, fundamental questions remain about how user performance is affected by such factors as graphics refresh rate, resolution, control latencies, and multimodal feedback. This article reports on two experiments performed to examine dextrous manipulation of virtual objects. The first experiment studies the effect of graphics frame rate and viewing mode (monoscopic vs. stereoscopic) on the time required to grasp a moving target. The second experiment studies the effect of direct force feedback, pseudoforce feedback, and redundant force feedback on grasping force regulation. The trials were performed using a partially-immersive environment (graphics workstation and LCD glasses), a DataGlove, and the Rutgers Master with force feedback. Results of the first experiment indicate that stereoscopic viewing is beneficial for low refresh rates (it reduced task completion time by about 50% vs. monoscopic graphics). Results of the second experiment indicate that haptic feedback increases performance and reduces error rates, as compared to the open loop case (with no force feedback). The best performance was obtained when both direct haptic and redundant auditory feedback were provided to the user. The large number of subjects participating in these experiments (over 160 male and female) indicates good statistical significance for the above results.


In this paper, a new energy-efficiency performance metric is proposed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) point-to-point systems. In contrast with related works on energy-efficiency, this metric translates the effects of using finite blocks for transmitting, using channel estimates at the transmitter and receiver, and considering the total power consumed by the transmitter instead of the radiated power only. The main objective pursued is to choose the best precoding matrix used at the transmitter in the following two scenarios : 1) the one where imperfect channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter and receiver and 2) the one where no CSI is available at the transmitter. In both scenarios, the problem of optimally tuning the total used power is shown to be nontrivial. In scenario 2), the optimal fraction of training time can be characterized by a simple equation. These results and others provided in the paper, along with the provided numerical analysis, show that the present work can therefore be used as a good basis for studying power control and resource allocation in energy-efficient multiuser networks.


Thousands of candidate human-specific regulatory sequences (HSRS) have been identified, supporting the idea that unique to human phenotypes result from human-specific alterations of genomic regulatory networks. Here, conservation patterns analysis of 18,364 regulatory DNA segments comprising candidate HSRS was carried out using the most recent releases of the reference genomes' databases of humans and nonhuman primates (NHP) and defining the sequence conservation threshold as the minimum ratio of bases that must remap of 1.00. Present analyses identified 5,535 candidate HSRS defined by either the acceleration of mutation rates on the human lineage or the functional divergence from chimpanzee that are highly conserved in NHP and appear to evolve by the exaptation of ancestral DNA pathway. This pathway seems mechanistically distinct from the evolution of regulatory DNA driven by the species-specific expansion of transposable elements. It is proposed that phenotypic divergence of Homo sapiens is driven by the evolution of human-specific genomic regulatory networks via at least two mechanistically distinct pathways of creation of divergent sequences of regulatory DNA: i) exaptation of the highly conserved ancestral regulatory DNA segments; ii) human-specific insertions of transposable elements.


The effect of oral creatine supplementation on aerobic and anaerobic performance was investigated in 16 elite male rowers during 7-day endurance training. Before and after the daily ingestion of20 g creatine monohydrate for 5 days (Cr-Group, n = 8) or placebo (P1-Group, n = 8), subjects performed two exercise tests on a rowing ergometer: (a) incremental exercise consisting of 3-min stage durations and increased by 50 W until volitional exhaustion; (b) an all-out anaerobic exercise performed against a constant load of 7 W/kg. Heart rate and blood lactate concentrations were determined during exercise and recovery. Maximal power output did not significantly differ after the treatment in either group. The mean individual lactate threshold rose significantly after Cr treatment from 314.3 ± 5.0 W to 335.6 ± 7.1 W (p < .01), as compared with 305.0 ± 6.9 W and 308.9 ± 5.9 W (ns), before and after placebo ingestion, respectively. During the anaerobic test, the athletes supplemented with creatine were able to continue rowing longer (mean increase, 12.1 ± 4.5 s; p < .01) than Pl-Group (2.4 ± 8.2 s; ns). No significant differences were found between groups in blood LA after the all-out exercise. The results indicate that in elite rowers, creatine supplementation improves endurance (expressed by the individual lactate threshold) and anaerobic performance, independent of the effect of intensive endurance training.


The R package ldhmm is developed for the study of financial time series using Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with the lambda distribution framework. In particular, S&P 500 index is studied in depth due to its importance in finance and its long history. Major features in the index, such as regime identification, volatility clustering, and anti-correlation between return and volatility, can be extracted from HMM. Univariate symmetric lambda distribution is essentially a location-scale family of power-exponential distribution. Such distribution is suitable for describing highly leptokurtic time series in the financial market. It provides a theoretically solid foundation to explore such data where the normal distribution may not be adequate. The index is analyzed from two states to six states, then ten states. The five-state HMM and above can capture large amount of auto-correlation, matching what's observed in the data. This is a major validation for the HMM. Although the stock market can be broadly classified into the normal regime and the crash regime, The progression of HMM states allows to go beyond the two-regime paradigm. The index history can be decomposed to a spectrum of volatility states. And the trend of the mean and volatility in HMM states confirms the recognized fact that the stock market tends to rise when the volatility is low, while tends to fall when the volatility is high. The pivotal volatility is calculated. Specifically, we compare the expected volatility from the ten-state HMM to both the VIX index with an adjustment factor and the realized volatility from Oxford-Man Realized Library. They match quite well. This indicates high-state HMM can serve as a tool for volatility forecasting.


In light of growing concerns among experts to achieve SDG 6.2 by 2030, and in view of the Swachh Bharat Mission – an initiative launched in 2014 to eradicate open defecation (OD) in India, this field research-based paper sets out to explore the physical and social enabling environment for children of informal settlements in Mumbai to use communal toilets. First stage of the research involved shortlisting 6 community toilets across 3 informal settlements and documenting them for spatial conditions and user experience. 2nd stage consisted of data collection from 986 random samples across all ages and genders, regarding usage patterns. The findings revealed that only 6.7% of the users were children. This led to the 3rd stage, where 80 children ages 14 and younger were interviewed, to understand their concerns, perceptions, habits and related interactions with adults. The research, spanning 18 months, exposed deficiency in the enabling environment to promote and sustain usage of toilets and diminish OD. Especially for children, the research revealed aspects of discrimination in the form of inequity bylaws; inappropriate ergonomics; adult intimidation; and parental indifference to sanitary choices. The paper suggests systemic children-specific mitigations, thereby lending a voice to their unique concerns and needs. Keywords: Children's Sanitation, Enabling Environment, Discrimination & Exclusion, SDG 6.2, informal settlements


The combination of theater and community-based service-learning can be a powerful tool to allow university students to meet their educational goals while connecting them with the world. The performance of children's theater in elementary schools with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs, for example, has important pedagogical and social effects. For both groups of students, this becomes an opportunity to be better prepared for a level of social engagement involving bilingualism that was not necessarily available to their parents and/or members of their community. The author describes and analyzes the results of the adaptation and performance of Alfonsina Storni's children's plays for two different ESOL classes. This experience may serve to enlighten the readers about a less conventional, but very effective, learning method.


The use of simulation in training and education enables to prepare personal in realistic environment. But the cost and the complexity to create and reuse simulations often limits their application. In this paper we investigate a low cost and high fidelity PC-based simulator based on Data Distribution Service (DDS) middleware. The main parts of the systems and the architecture, including the hardware and the software are introduced. Real-time networking between distributed simulators is achieved using a reliable distributed communication, which employs publish-subscribe middleware build using OMG-DDS. Result shows these methods could produce low cost, extensible, reliable and distributed simulators.


Background Research has demonstrated the importance of understanding the multiple factors that shape parents' relationships with schools, including the resources parents have at their disposal, their own educational histories, and the influence of school cultures and policies. Less is known, however, about how parents' engagement relates to their everyday experiences across school and community spaces, particularly for Black parents in nonurban, predominantly White settings. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine Black parents' school and community experiences in a predominantly White suburb and how their experiences and engagement may vary based on social class and gender (and their intersections). Participants A socioeconomically mixed sample of 56 Black parents (16 men, 40 women) with children in Grades K–7 participated in the study, as well as 2 longtime residents whose children attended district schools. Research Design The findings are based on an ethnographic study of Black family–school relationships in a predominantly White Wisconsin suburb. The data include semi-structured parent interviews; field notes taken in monthly districtwide African American Parents (AAPO) meetings; an analysis of district and AAPO documents related to district resources, demographics, academics, and family engagement; and an analysis of census and demographic trends in the suburb and the broader county. Findings Results reveal that parents supported their children's education in a variety of ways, and most parents valued the resources and opportunities the suburban district and community context provided their children. Yet parents described experiences with racial microaggressions in their interactions with school officials and community members. These microaggressions were often classed and gendered, and, for a number of parents, relived and reinforced in their children's schools. The results reveal both the everyday racism Black parents encountered in the predominantly White suburban community and school district, as well as the dynamic ways they navigated, resisted, and sought to change barriers to Black student and family success. Recommendations The research findings suggest the utility of educators recognizing the often racialized arenas many Black parents traverse in their everyday lives, legitimating parents' alternative forms of engagement, and building on what parents are already doing to support their children's education and well-being. Given the growing number of students of color in suburban districts, educational researchers have both an opportunity and responsibility to engage in studies that interrogate urban-focused frameworks and explore the intersections of race, class, gender, and place in families' experiences.


This paper presents a novel hybrid generative/discriminative model of word segmentation based on nonparametric Bayesian methods. Unlike ordinary discriminative word segmentation which relies only on labeled data, our semi-supervised model also leverages a huge amounts of unlabeled text to automatically learn new "words", and further constrains them by using a labeled data to segment non-standard texts such as those found in social networking services. Specifically, our hybrid model combines a discriminative classifier (CRF; Lafferty et al. (2001) and unsupervised word segmentation (NPYLM; Mochihashi et al. (2009)), with a transparent exchange of information between these two model structures within the semi-supervised framework (JESS-CM; Suzuki and Isozaki (2008)). We confirmed that it can appropriately segment non-standard texts like those in Twitter and Weibo and has nearly state-of-the-art accuracy on standard datasets in Japanese, Chinese, and Thai.


How to be a Brilliant FE Teacher is a straightforward, friendly guide to being an effective and innovative teacher in post-compulsory education. Focussing on practical advice drawn from the author's extensive and successful personal experience of both teaching and training teachers, it offers sound guidance, underpinned by the latest research, theory and policy in the field.

Structured around the questions that all new teachers and lecturers ask in their first teaching post, it is an introduction to both essential teaching skills and what to expect from working in this exciting, fast-paced sector. Key chapters cover:

 The learners – who they are, diversity and motivation;
 What will actually happen – organising teaching, technology and resources;
 How to keep your students' interest – understanding and responding to learning styles;
 How will I know if they've learned it? – assessment and feedback;
 Making sure it's working – student evaluation, reflecting on and improving practice.

Packed throughout with information about where to find the best materials and resources to support your teaching, this book also offers sensible advice on balancing home and life, working effectively with your colleagues and progressing in your career.

How to be a Brilliant FE Teacher will be a source of support and inspiration for all those embarking on their initial training and first post in the sector, as well as qualified professionals looking for reassuring, fresh ideas.


This occasional paper is based on the results of a three-year project examining the emergence of forest-based grassroots movements in Latin America. Funded by the Ford Foundation, the Support to Grassroots Community Forestry Organizations in Central America and Brazil Project sought to understand how grassroots groups develop and influence conservation and development. The project focused on four noteworthy cases in Central America and Brazil, each representing 'successful' broad-based collective action to defend local control and use of forest lands. Cases included the Association of Forest Communities of the Peten in Guatemala, the Siuna Farmerto-Farmer exchange programme in Nicaragua, the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and the Brazilian rubber tapper movement in Acre. Although the context and outcomes varied, in these cases grassroots collective action to defend local livelihoods emerged when initially weak government institutions attempted to counteract chaotic frontier conditions through the imposition of conservation and development initiatives, provoking local resistance. A combination of indigenous capacity for collective organization and significant external assistance helped produce grassroots forest movements capable of becoming proactive partners in the management and defence of protected areas. These groups still confront external incursions into their hard-won resources rights and strive to respond to changing membership needs. The cases suggest that local communities can become effective forest stewards when acquired rights are duly recognized, avenues exist for meaningful participation, costs and benefits are distributed fairly, and appropriate external support is provided.


This paper presents an analysis on energy dissipation of digital half-band filters operating in the sub-threshold (sub-VT) region with throughput and supply voltage constraints. A 12-bit filter is implemented along with various unfolded structures, used to form a decimation filter chain. The designs are synthesized in a 65 nm low-leakage CMOS technology with various threshold voltages. A sub-VT energy model is applied to characterize the designs in the sub-VT domain. The results show that the low-leakage standard-threshold technology is suitable for the required throughput range between 250 Ksamples/s and 2Msamples/s, at a supply voltage of 260mV. The total energy dissipation of the filter is 205 fJ per sample.


This paper highlights on a method that provides a new prosodic feature called 'F0 reliability field' based on a reliability function of the fundamental frequency (F0). The proposed method does not employ any correction process for F0 estimation errors that occur during automatic F0 extraction. By applying this feature as a score function for prosodic analyses like prosodic structure estimation or superpositional modeling of prosodic commands, these prosodic information could be acquired with higher accuracy. The feature has been applied to 'F0 template matching method', which detects accent phrase boundaries in Japanese continuous speech. The experimental results show that compared to the conventional F0 contour, the proposed feature overcomes the harmful influence caused by F0 errors.


The perturbation theory of matrices is applied to ray transfer matrices (RTMs) to describe an optical component with aberration. A quantitative description of the perturbation extent corresponding to aberration strength is provided using condition numbers and absolute errors for the perturbed RTM. An application to a single small aberration is presented, and the results are compared with those of the diffraction theory of aberrations.


Introduction How to provide practice-integrated decision support to patients remains a challenge. We are testing the effectiveness of a practice-integrated programme targeting patients with a physician recommendation for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Methods and analysis In partnership with healthcare teams, we developed 'e-assist: Colon Health', a patient-targeted, postvisit CRC screening decision support programme. The programme is housed within an electronic health record (EHR)-embedded patient portal. It leverages a physician screening recommendation as the cue to action and uses the portal to enrol and intervene with patients. Programme content complements patient–physician discussions by encouraging screening, addressing common questions and assisting with barrier removal. For evaluation, we are using a randomised trial in which patients are randomised to receive e-assist: Colon Health or one of two controls (usual care plus or usual care). Trial participants are average-risk, aged 50–75 years, due for CRC screening and received a physician order for stool testing or colonoscopy. Effectiveness will be evaluated by comparing screening use, as documented in the EHR, between trial enrollees in the e-assist: Colon Health and usual care plus (CRC screening information receipt) groups. Secondary outcomes include patient-perceived benefits of, barriers to and support for CRC screening and patient-reported CRC screening intent. The usual care group will be used to estimate screening use without intervention and programme impact at the population level. Differences in outcomes by study arm will be estimated with hierarchical logit models where patients are nested within physicians. Ethics and dissemination All trial aspects have been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the health system in which the trial is being conducted. We will disseminate findings in diverse scientific venues and will target clinical and quality improvement audiences via other venues. The intervention could serve as a model for filling the gap between physician recommendations and patient action. Trial registration number NCT02798224; Pre-results.


Television advertisement targeting children and promoting food products high in sugar, saturated fat or sodium is considered to enhance the development of childhood overweight and obesity. Thus, reducing children's exposure to advertisement of energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) products is considered as one option to improve children's health. In 2007, globally leading food and beverage companies launched the EU Pledge, a self-regulation initiative in which signatory corporations agreed to restrict television and internet advertising of EDNP products not in line with specific nutritional criteria to media audiences of at least 35 % children under the age of 12 at European level. While initially each participating corporation defined their own nutritional criteria, in 2012 companies agreed on a common nutrient profiling system which has to be adopted by the end of 2014. The overall objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the EU Pledge in reducing children's exposure television advertising of EDNP food and drink products. In October 2011, 2012 and 2014, television program of ten German television networks was recorded each on one weekend day and one week day. In total, 892 hours of television program were taped. Data was analyzed using content analysis. The sample contains 127.6 hours of advertising with a total of 1,069 food commercials addressing children. More than half of all food advertisements designed in a child-appealing way originates from Pledge-signatory companies (57.4 %). The share of products from Pledge-participating companies matching the common criteria of the EU Pledge increased from 37.5 % in 2011 to 75.0 % in 2014. At the same time, the share of non-participating companies declined (2011: 80.0 %; 2014: 25.0 %). However, compared to the criteria of the Ofcom score (compliance Pledge-members 2011: 12.5 %; 2014: 25.0) criteria of the EU Pledge are considerable less strict. The results indicate that despite the adoption of harmonized criteria, the overall nutritional value of food products advertised to children on television has not improved as EDNP products continue dominating food commercials to children.


This paper describes architecture and implementation of the ULTRAVIS system, a pure software solution for versatile and fast volume rendering. It provides perspective raycasting, tri-linear interpolation, on-the-fly classification using look-up tables, gradient shading (both diffuse and specular reflection), four light sources, and alpha blending. For high frame rates, early ray termination and empty space skipping are implemented. Furthermore, subsampling during motion is provided. The system accepts raw data sets of 8-bit voxels as well as pre-segmented data sets containing up to 16 different materials. For gradient shading, the gradients are precomputed and included in 32-bit voxels. Additionally, the system supports volume animation, i.e., the display of a sequence of data sets. The system was specifically designed for Pentium III CPUs, and makes extensive use of MMX and Streaming SIMD instructions. It is a multi-threaded application and thus takes advantage of multiprocessor platforms. Time-critical portions of the code have been hand-optimized in assembler. As a result, the system can achieve interactive to real-time performance. ULTRAVIS runs on the Windows NT 4.0 operating system on standard PCs.


This is a monograph presented by the author as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine given to him by the University of Natal in 1965. The book consists of 207 pages including an extensive table of contents covering the preface, eight chapters, a resume, a bibliography, and 121 figures. Each chapter has many tables.
The purpose of this study was to correlate the disease processes produced by Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mansoni and to assess the lesions produced in relation to morbidity and mortality. This study compares the manifestation of the disease in a local population compared with the findings in other major endemic areas. The Europeans and Indians, most of whom are second- and third-generation in Africa, provided a setting for a comparative study of the effect of schistosomiasis in different races; however, it was not possible to investigate the Europeans in this particular study.


This thesis explores magnetic configurations, namely magnetic domains and domain walls (DWs) in single ferromagnetic metallic nanotubes (diameters 50–400nm) by means of magnetic microscopies and numerical modelling. The work benefited from international collaboration with TU Darmstadt (synthesis), synchrotrons Elettra and Soleil as well as CNRS CEMES (magnetic imaging). Using electrochemical methods and nanoporous templates, we could fabricate Ni, NiCo, CoNiB, and NiFeB nanotubes as well as Ni wire-tube elements. For the imaging, we relied mainly on X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism coupled with PhotoEmission Electron Microscopy (XMCD-PEEM). We show the first experimental microscopy images of magnetic domains in metallic nanotubes. In long (30µm) CoNiB tubes, we observed many azimuthal (flux-closure) magnetic domains separated by very narrow DWs. This is in contrast with literature and recent experiments where only axial domains appeared for similar geometry. By annealing, changing the chemical composition or just decreasing the nanotube diameter we could obtain also the axial domains. Therefore, tubes are versatile as magnetic domains can be prepared almost a la carte. We demonstrated switching of both axial and azimuthal domains with a magnetic field. We imaged also multilayered tubes – an equivalent of multilayered flat films that form a basic brick of current spintronics. We obtained two magnetic layers (exchange-) decoupled by an oxide spacer. Such a first-of-its-kind structure and its imaging paves the way towards 3D spintronics and magnetism based on vertical arrays of tubes.


Ongoing intratumoral evolution is apparent in molecular variations among cancer cells from different regions of the same tumor, but genetic data alone provide little insight into environmental selection forces and cellular phenotypic adaptations that govern the underlying Darwinian dynamics. In three spontaneous murine cancers (prostate cancers in TRAMP and PTEN mice, pancreatic cancer in KPC mice), we identified two subpopulations with distinct niche construction adaptive strategies that remained stable in culture: (i) invasive cells that produce an acidic environment via upregulated aerobic glycolysis; and (ii) noninvasive cells that were angiogenic and metabolically near-normal. Darwinian interactions of these subpopulations were investigated in TRAMP prostate cancers. Computer simulations demonstrated invasive, acid-producing (C2) cells maintain a fitness advantage over noninvasive, angiogenic (C3) cells by promoting invasion and reducing efficacy of immune response. Immunohistochemical analysis of untreated tumors confirmed that C2 cells were invariably more abundant than C3 cells. However, the C2 adaptive strategy phenotype incurred a significant cost due to inefficient energy production (i.e., aerobic glycolysis) and depletion of resources for adaptations to an acidic environment. Mathematical model simulations predicted that small perturbations of the microenvironmental extracellular pH (pHe) could invert the cost/benefit ratio of the C2 strategy and select for C3 cells. In vivo, 200 mmol/L NaHCO3 added to the drinking water of 4-week-old TRAMP mice increased the intraprostatic pHe by 0.2 units and promoted proliferation of noninvasive C3 cells, which remained confined within the ducts so that primary cancer did not develop. A 0.2 pHe increase in established tumors increased the fraction of C3 cells and signficantly diminished growth of primary and metastatic tumors. In an experimental tumor construct, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were coinjected into the mammary fat pad of SCID mice. C2-like MDA-MB-231 cells dominated in untreated animals, but C3-like MCF7 cells were selected and tumor growth slowed when intratumoral pHe was increased. Overall, our data support the use of mathematical modeling of intratumoral Darwinian interactions of environmental selection forces and cancer cell adaptive strategies. These models allow the tumor to be steered into a less invasive pathway through the application of small but selective biological force. Cancer Res; 77(9); 2242-54. ©2017 AACR.


This document describes the encryption and key management used by
GigaBeam as part of the WiFiber(tm) family of radio link products. The
security solution is documented in the hope that other wireless
product development efforts will include comparable capabilities. This
memo provides information for the Internet community.


Pennsylvania municipalities have a new tool to acquire, manage, and dispose of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties to facilitate their redevelopment and reuse. Legislation effective in December 2012 states that land banks may be created in Pennsylvania by a city, county, borough, township, or an incorporated town with a population of more than 10,000 residents, or two or more municipalities with populations of less than 10,000 residents that enter into an intergovernmental cooperation agreement (ICA). School districts may be part of an ICA.


The [U.S.]Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) are working together aggressively to reduce losses from disasters. As an important component of this effort, FEMA and NEMA joined together in 1997 to develop the CAR, an assessment process and tool that States, Territories, and Insular Areas can use to evaluate their own operational readiness and capabilities in emergency management. The CAR was implemented first in 1997 and has matured into a sophisticated and accepted, automated, self-assessment tool that helps the States, Territories, and Insular Areas establish sound mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery practices, establish priorities, and analyze program performance.


The current study assessed the ongoing English Language Teacher Trainee Programme at Uludag University from the teacher trainees' point of view. The study aimed to reveal if the teaching skills courses and the general knowledge courses contribute to their goals. Participants were 30 first to fourth year students in the English Language Teaching Programme at Uludag University. Data were conducted by the help of a questionnaire that included three criteria: (1) the importance of the lessons in the learning experience, (2) the contribution of the lessons in the career, (3) the usefulness of the lessons in the personal development. Results revealed that the programme to a great extent doesn't meet the teacher trainees' needs and interests. The indicators pointed out that the students need to feel that the programme is important for their professional training, and also they should see that the programme helps them in achieving their goals and is a source of good practical information.


[1] Cloudy and clear-sky distributions of relative humidity with respect to ice (RHI) are derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder and cloud profiles from CloudSat and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation satellites. A peak frequency in RHI of 10–20% exists for clear sky, increasing to 75–95% within clouds detected by CloudSat. The range of values depends on the season, altitude, latitude, cloud type, and ice water content. Global distributions of RHI reveal persistent supersaturation in the clear and cloudy tropical upper troposphere and lower tropospheric polar regions, large but variable RHI in the cloudy midlatitude storm tracks, and small yet variable RHI in the clear-sky subtropics. Previous studies using satellite and in situ observations have shown a greater frequency of midlatitude supersaturation in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). Seasonal and interannual variations in RHI are also demonstrated with larger frequencies of supersaturation generally present in the winter hemisphere. An analytical method quantifies the impacts of mean temperature (T) and temperature variance (sT) on the distribution characteristics of RHI. The seasonal variation of RHI in the Northern Hemisphere is primarily modulated by seasonal changes in sT, whereas in the SH, both T and sT modulate variations in RHI. However, variations in T and sT do not explain the presence of slightly greater supersaturation frequency in the SH, suggesting a link between anthropogenic aerosol and ice cloud processes.


Approximate analytical formulae for complete acoustic and elastodynamic 3D Green's functions in isotropic media with a weak and constant velocity gradient are presented. The formulae were derived by analytical calculation of higher-order approximations of the ray series. The ray series of the acoustic Green's function consists of only one non-zero term, the ray series of the elastodynamic Green's function consists of three non-zero terms including the zeroth-order term. Since the ray series is finite for both the Green's functions, the formulae are complete and valid in the whole frequency range. The formulae are approximate because we assumed a weak velocity gradient and used the first-order perturbation theory. Moreover, the formulae are valid only in a limited region around a point source. A wavefield generated by an explosive point source, and the elastostatic Green's function have also been derived. ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


The secondary production of aluminum has a large potential in terms of energy savings compared to primary production. Due to the increasing use of aluminum in products, there is a larger demand for aluminum than can be covered by secondary aluminum only. Today, most aluminum that reach end of life treatment is down-cycled. In the future the amount of available scrap will grow larger, and more secondary aluminum will become available for recycling. This gives motivation for closing recycling loops and minimize down-cycling. An investigation of the need for scrap sorting and refining is necessary, and the environmental impacts of the applied technologies should be examined. A suitable tool for doing this is an Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The goal of the present study is to compare the environmental performance for an aluminum Body-in-White (BiW) made from three different material inputs, \textit{i.e.} primary aluminum, closed-loop recycled old BiWs and open-loop recycled end of life vehicle (ELV) scrap. This is done by performing an LCA. The challenges and benefits of switching from primary to secondary aluminum is enlightened. Based on the results found in the present study it is clear that scrap is the best input choice, in terms of environmental performance. However, large challenges with input data to the LCA model affects the quality of the results. It is reasonable to assume that the difference between the impact for the three scenarios will change if all inputs where added. The current project also discusses several aspects and challenges regarding the use of scrap as input to BiWs. This is necessary as the project is based on assumptions and projections on what the future might look like. First, the challenges of availability of suitable scrap. Second, the challenge of scrap economy and how this varies with time and politics. Third, the challenge of sufficient treatment of the scrap for obtaining an acceptable quality.


We examine whether financial analysts understand the valuation implications of unconditional accounting conservatism when forecasting target prices. While accounting conservatism affects reported earnings, conservatism per se does not have an effect on the present value of future cash flows. We examine whether analysts adjust for the effect of conservatism included in their earnings forecasts when using these forecasts to estimate target prices. We find that signed target price errors (actual minus forecast) have a significant positive association with the degree of conservatism in forward earnings, suggesting that target prices are biased due to accounting conservatism. Cross-sectional analysis suggests that more sophisticated analysts and superior long-term forecasters adjust for conservatism to a greater extent than other analysts. In additional analyses, we explore the mechanism through which conservatism leads to bias in target prices. We first show that analysts' earnings forecasts are negatively associated with the degree of conservatism, i.e., analysts include the effect of unconditional conservatism in their earnings forecasts. Based on alternative earnings-based valuation models that analysts may use, our evidence suggests that analysts fail to appropriately adjust their valuation multiple for the effect of conservatism included in their earnings forecasts when using these forecasts to derive target prices. As a consequence, we find that, for extreme changes in conservatism, the bias in analysts' target prices due to conservatism leads to a distortion of market prices. The evidence highlights the concern that analysts may not appreciate the valuation implications of conservative accounting which could inhibit price discovery.


Social Anxiety Disorder can hinder a person's life and cause them great distress. Within Social Anxiety Disorder, public speaking anxiety is the most common. Many types of therapies are employed to assist people with overcoming the fear of social situations. Exposure is a key ingredient for most of these treatments. Exposure therapy for public speaking anxiety may occur naturally in speech courses. Two surveys measuring Public Speaking Anxiety and Social Anxiety Disorder were given on a website to students enrolled in an introductory college speech course and a control group of psychology students not enrolled in a speech course. The surveys were given at the beginning of a semester and then again at the end of that semester. It was expected that the experimental group, speech students (N=31), would display significantly lower scores on the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety and the Social Interaction and Anxiety Subscale, while the control group, psychology students (N=42), would score the same at pretest and posttest. The hypotheses were not confirmed. There was no significant difference between the groups at posttest on the PRPSA. There was also no significant difference for either group from pretest to posttest on the SIAS. The results and implications are discussed. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Psychology


If you walk into most private biotech company boardrooms today, it is likely that you will hear a discussion about whether to go public. Companies at every stage of development are either getting ready to file for an initial public offering or thinking about it. Although the slowdown in new issues at the end of 2013 gave observers pause that the robust biotech IPO market of 2013 might slow down in 2014, the reality has been just the opposite. By the middle of March, 28 life sciences companies had completed initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges, raising $1.8 billion in new capital, and collectively on average trading 47.4 percent above their initial offering price.


This paper addresses the problem of the stability of congestion control for networks with heterogeneous round-trip communication delays. We present a frequency-domain approach to this problem. The approach is based on the analysis of the clockwise property of system transfer functions, generalized Nyquist stability criterion, and a recent lemma of Vinnicombe. We point out that a prerequisite for establishing decentralized stability criteria for distributed congestion control is that the Nyquist plots of time-delayed transfer functions corresponding to price (rate) dynamics at links (sources) satisfy clockwise property in certain frequency intervals. Based on the detailed investigation of global geometric properties of the frequency response of price dynamics at links, we derive sufficient conditions for the local asymptotic stability of a kind of the second-order active queue management algorithm-REM algorithm. A simple design procedure is also proposed for guaranteeing the asymptotic stability of the control algorithm.


: Renewable-Energy Distributed Generation units (REDGs) that are installed in distribution network offer a lot of advantages in terms of technical, economic and environmental benefits. However, REDGs have both positive and negative effects depending on their sizes and locations. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the optimal locations and sizes of REDGs that attains fuel consumption reduction and system reliability improvement while satisfying various constraints and considering relevant uncertainties. To optimize the locations and sizes of REDGs, Adaptive Clonal Differential Evolution (ACDE) is proposed to improve the performance of Clonal Differential Evolution (CDE) by updating the control parameters in an adaptive manner. Previously, CDE with randomized scaling factor was introduced. CDE algorithm is capable of enhancing the exploration and searching ability, hence accelerates the convergence of the algorithm. However, the randomized scaling factor does not guarantee the robustness of the algorithm. Therefore, control parameter adaptation that utilizes collected data is introduced to favour providing information on good parameter values. The proposed algorithm is verified on a 33-bus test system. The comparative studies are carried out and the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is more stable and robust than CDE. a load flow analysis for each of for geographical


Monthly (71 months) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity field solutions acquired over North and Central Africa (August 2002–July 2008) were destriped, smoothed (250 km; Gaussian), and converted to equivalent water thickness. These data were analyzed in a geographic information system environment together with relevant data sets (e.g., topography, geology, remote sensing) to assess the utility of GRACE for monitoring elements of hydrologic systems on local scales. The following were observed over the Niger, Congo, and Nile Basins: (1) large persistent anomalies (standard deviation, SD > 10 cm) on SD images over periods of 2–7 yr; (2) anomalous areas originate at mountainous source areas that receive high precipitation, extend downslope toward mountain foothills, and often continue along main channels, wetlands, or lakes that drain these areas; (3) time-series analyses over anomalous areas showed that seasonal mass variation lags behind seasonal precipitation; and (4) seasonal mass variations showed progressive shift in phase and decrease in amplitude with distance from the mountainous source areas. Results indicate that (1) the observed temporal mass variations are largely controlled by elements of the hydrologic cycle (e.g., runoff, infiltration, groundwater flow) and have not been obscured by noise, as previously thought; and (2) it is possible to use GRACE to investigate the temporal local responses of a much larger suite of hydrologic systems (watersheds, lakes, rivers, and marshes) and domains (source areas and lowlands) within watersheds and subbasins worldwide.


Natural language geometry problems are translated into formal representation. This is done as an essential step involved in text to diagram conversion. A parser is designed that analyzes a problem statement in order to describe it as a language independent, unambiguous formal representation. Natural language processing tools and a lexical knowledge base are used to assist the parser that finally generates a graph as the parsing output. The parse graph is the formal representation of the input natural language problem. This graph is later translated into another intermediate representation consisting of a set of graphics-friendly statements. High school level geometry problems are used to develop and test the proposed methods. Experimental results show high accuracy of the approach in translating a natural language problem into a formal description.


In the Appalachian Orogen of NE Newfoundland, the Gander and Avalon zones are separated by the 1–2 km wide, dextral, Dover Fault Shear Zone. This structure overprints sinistral transpressive deformations that affect broad regions either side of the Gander-Avalon boundary and is post-dated by ?Alleghenian (or younger) brittle dextral faults that are not thought to record large regional displacements. In ?Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks of the Gander Lake Subzone, a steeply dipping sinistral shear zone (up to 20 km wide) was the focus of syn-tectonic sillimanite grade metamorphism, migmatization and granitic plutonism. In lower greenschist facies late Precambrian sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Avalon Zone, early sinistral displacements were focused into a high strain zone (c. 2km wide) along the boundary. Although developed at different metamorphic grades, these early sinistral transpressive shear zones can be correlated and are thought to record the main phase of sinistral-oblique accretion and regional orogenesis during the mid-Silurian (c. 415-435 Ma). The switch to dextral displacements forming the Dover Fault Shear Zone appears to have initiated during later stages of syntectonic plutonism in the Gander Lake Subzone, suggesting that it may also be Silurian in age. No evidence links the Gander and Avalon zones prior to sinistral transpression. Sinistral fabrics overprint flat-lying structures in the Gander Lake Subzone that are thought to be related to mid-Ordovician accretion of the superjacent Exploits (Dunnage) arc-ophiolite terrane to the west. The Gander and Dunnage allochthons were probably accreted to the Laurentian margin prior to the sinistral-oblique collision of Western Avalonia during the Silurian and they overlie the suture that separates Laurentia from the Central Lower Crustal Block of Avalonian affinities. The Gander-Avalon boundary in NE Newfoundland would then form the steeply-dipping surface expression of a collision-linked sinistral shear zone that allowed lateral decoupling of the Avalon and Central Lower Crustal Blocks during or following oblique collision. Along the margin of the Gander Lake Subzone, the shear zone-hosted belt of sheeted granites and melting increasingly became the focus of deformation during the later stages of sinistral transpression. This suggests significant rheological softening of the crust that would account for the ability of transpressive terrane boundaries to accommodate large displacements. Furthermore, the estab-lishment of a thermal anomaly would have a long-lived weakening effect that could explain why such terrane boundaries are prone to reactivation.


Synthetic Biology
A goal in biology is to understand the molecular and biological function of every gene in a cell. One way to approach this is to build a minimal genome that includes only the genes essential for life. In 2010, a 1079-kb genome based on the genome of Mycoplasma mycoides (JCV-syn1.0) was chemically synthesized and supported cell growth when transplanted into cytoplasm. Hutchison III et al. used a design, build, and test cycle to reduce this genome to 531 kb (473 genes). The resulting JCV-syn3.0 retains genes involved in key processes such as transcription and translation, but also contains 149 genes of unknown function.

Science , this issue p. [10.1126/science.aad6253][1]

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aad6253


Aims: The aim of the study is to measure immunological and biochemical changes in blood and saliva of pregnant women with history of abortion and having chronic periodontitis. Materials and Methods: The study group consisted of (50) pregnant women at different stages of pregnancy with ages between (17-40) years old with history of one or more consecutive unexplained abortion and having chronic periodontitis, while the control group consisted of (10) pregnant women of comparable age to the study group with no history of any abortion with healthy periodontal conditions. Oral examination and the following parameters were studied: plaque index (PI), periodontal pocket depth index (PPD), bleeding on probing index (BOP), and anticardiolipin value (IgG), antiphospholipid value (IgG), highly sensitivity CRP concentration, and peroxidase enzyme activity were evaluated. Results: The serological and biochemical changes showed that highly levels of ACLA (IgG) and APLA (IgG) in the study group compared to control group. hsCRP concentration in study and control group was same, peroxidase enzyme activity was elevated in the study group compared to the control group. There was a positive correlation between serum ACLA, peroxidase enzyme activity and periodontal parameters, and also a positive correlation between hs-CRP and PI, while reverse correlation between hs-CRP and PPD and BOP. Conclusion: Detection of high level of anticardiolipin and antiphospholipid in the serum of study group with significant difference compared with control group. High level of hs-CRP found in both study and control group without significant difference. Detection of significantly high level of peroxidase enzyme activity with the study group compared to control group.


This text introduces university students to the philosophical ethos of critical thinking, as well as to the essential skills required to practice it. The authors believe that Critical Thinking should engage students with issues of broader philosophical interest while they develop their skills in reasoning and argumentation. The text is informed throughout by philosophical theory concerning argument and communication-from Aristotle's recognition of the importance of evaluating argument in terms of its purpose to Habermas's developing of the concept of communicative rationality. The authors' treatment of the topic is also sensitive to the importance of language and of situation in shaping arguments, and to the necessity in argument of some interplay between reason and emotion. Unlike many other texts in this area, then, Good Reasons for Better Arguments helps to explain both why argument is important and how the social role of argument plays an important part in determining what counts as a good argument. If this text is distinctive in the extent to which it deals with the theory and the values of critical thinking, it is also noteworthy for the thorough grounding it provides in the skills of deductive and inductive reasoning; the authors present the reader with useful tools for the interpretation, evaluation and construction of arguments. A particular feature is the inclusion of a wide range of exercises, rich with examples that illuminate the practice of argument for the student. Many of the exercises are self testing, with answers provided at the back of the text; others are appropriate for in-class discussion and assignments. Challenging yet accessible, Good Reasons for Better Arguments brings a fresh perspective to an essential subject.


Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Unleashed Michael Lisin Jim Joseph Amit Goyal The authoritative, example-rich guide to Microsofts powerful reporting platform With Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services you can quickly deliver relevant business intelligence data wherever its neededacross the entire enterprise, and through the entire reporting lifecycle. SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Unleashed gives you all the authoritative information youll need to make the most of Microsofts most powerful reporting platform as a database professional, manager, or user. In-depth coverage makes this book an ideal reference, and its extensive set of practical examples help you address virtually any challenge in deployment, configuration, administration, or report building. The authors have extensively expanded this edition with deeper reference information, many more practical examples, and insider perspective into Reporting Services 2008s powerful new enhancements. Youll discover how to take full advantage of Reporting Services significant architectural changes, its flexible new Tablix control, improved visualization through charts and gauges, deep SharePoint integration through SharePoint Integrated Mode, new output presentation formats, and much more. Understand how to Learn about the new features of Service Pack 1 (SP1) and the SQL Server 2008 R2 release Quickly take advantage of Microsofts newest SQL Server Reporting Services enhancements Use Reporting Services to identify trends and solve real business problems Master report authoringfrom basic, wizard-driven techniques to the cutting edge Group, sort, and aggregate data, and define the right scope for your information Utilize advanced report formatting techniques Work effectively with multidimensional sources Manage report data sources and models Secure reports against attacks and intrusions Customize Reporting Services with embedded functions, custom assemblies, URL access, Web Services, and other extensions Thoroughly integrate SQL Server reporting into any SharePoint site Michael Lisin, lead author of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, has years of field experience working with SQL Server Reporting Services at Microsoft and delivering solutions for Microsofts enterprise customers. Jim Joseph, co-author of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Unleashed, is an independent contractor with 10 years experience developing custom software solutions in a variety of industries. He has worked with SQL Server Reporting Services since the first beta release. Amit Goyal, lead program manager for Microsofts Reporting Services team, has extensive insiders knowledge of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. ON THE WEB: Download all examples and source code presented in this book from informit.com/sams Category:Microsoft Databases Covers:Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services User Level:IntermediateAdvanced


The online implementation and results from a hybrid short-term electrical load forecaster that is being evaluated by a power utility are documented in this paper. This forecaster employs a new approach involving a parallel neural-fuzzy expert system, whereby Kohonen's self-organizing feature map with unsupervised learning, is used to classify daily load patterns. Post-processing of the neural network outputs is performed with a fuzzy expert system which successfully corrects the load deviations caused by the effects of weather and holiday activity. Being highly automated, little human interference is required during the process of load forecasting. A comparison made between this model and a regression-based model currently being used in the control centre has shown a marked improvement in load forecasting results.


The current study examined archival data from 61 individuals who completed a psycho-educational intervention program in London, UK. Participants were ex-substance abusers with a history of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use disorders who were motivated to enhance their subjective quality of life. The degree of benefit that participants' derived from participation in the intervention program was assessed. Specifically, the current study sought to answer two broad questions. First, "Are there benefits of self-forgiveness on well-being?" among individuals in Stage 2 recovery from AOD use disorders. Second, if there were benefits of self-forgiveness on well-being, "What treatment-related process variables facilitated individuals' capacity to forgive themselves?" To assess these two themes, the benefits of self-forgiveness and self-forgiveness facilitating factors, two design approaches to hypothesis testing were applied: a longitudinal design and a cross-sectional design. Specifically, the longitudinal design examined treatment-facilitated changes in self-forgiveness by assessing the relations between changes in self-forgiveness and changes in various well-being indicators using pre-treatment, post-treatment, and four-month follow-up data. The cross-sectional design, in contrast, examined the relations between dispositional levels of self-forgiveness and levels of the well-being variables. It was hypothesized that treatment-facilitated changes in self-forgiveness and individual differences in the capacity to forgive the self would be significantly related to well-being outcomes. With respect to self-forgiveness facilitating factors, it was hypothesized that the degree of individuals' engagement in interpersonal v amends and therapeutic alliance with their counselor would significantly predict treatment-facilitated changes in self-forgiveness and overall levels of self-forgiveness. Overall, the results indicated that the capacity to forgive the self was predictive of enhanced well-being outcomes among individuals engaged in Stage 2 recovery from their AOD use disorders. However, no significant relations between treatment-facilitated changes in self-forgiveness and well-being were found. The relations found between dispositional levels of self-forgiveness and enhanced well-being outcomes are theorized to be explained by a number of different mechanisms. For example, the benefits of selfforgiveness are discussed as possibly arising from being an adaptive emotion-focused coping strategy. Finally, the implications of the current findings on the addiction treatment field and well-being, addiction, and self-forgiveness scholarship are discussed.


Engaging but caustic and openly ideological, Antonin Scalia was among the most influential justices ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court. In this new book, legal scholar Richard L. Hasen assesses Scalia's complex legacy as a conservative legal thinker and disruptive public intellectual.
The left saw Scalia as an unscrupulous foe who amplified his judicial role with scathing dissents and outrageous public comments. The right viewed him as a rare principled justice committed to neutral tools of constitutional and statutory interpretation. Hasen provides a more nuanced perspective, demonstrating how Scalia was crucial to reshaping jurisprudence on issues from abortion to gun rights to separation of powers. A jumble of contradictions, Scalia promised neutral tools to legitimize the Supreme Court, but his jurisprudence and confrontational style moved the Court to the right, alienated potential allies, and helped to delegitimize the institution he was trying to save.


The current financial situation, together with the new market conditions, has led to major changes in the ICT sector over the last few years. Many of the services that were once only offered by operators are now being provided by third parties through the cloud. This situation has promoted new business models against the traditional ones. Furthermore, these economic changes have conducted to socio-cultural transformations with great impact on the user's behaviors. In this paper a cloud platform for the measurement and evaluation of the Quality of Experience (QoE) is presented. The platform is based in a model (QoXphere) that ensures the user satisfaction in terms of Quality of Service (QoS) and the provider economic benefits, as demanded in current market situation. In addition, the proposed cloud architecture intends to aid to advance in the work item opened recently in ITU-T to establish an ITU recognition procedure of testing laboratories with competence in ITU-T Recommendations.


Abstract According to the general classification of shallow eutrophic lakes, two alternative types are distinguished: phytoplankton-dominated and macrophyte-dominated lakes. The latter type is rare and currently endangered by human activity. In order to determine the effect of reduced inflow of surface water by an earth dyke on the lake trophic state, certain biological and physico-chemical parameters were evaluated. This work focuses on two lakes of similar morphometric characteristics situated in the agricultural landscape. The effect of the earth dyke on the trophic state was positively verified. The lake situated in the catchment basin, in which the inflow of surface water was reduced, was defined as meso-eutrophic, with a small amount of phytoplankton and high water transparency. The reference lake was highly eutrophic, with low water transparency and a large amount of phytoplankton. The water body surrounded by the earth dyke was macrophytes dominated (65% of the lake area), whereas the reference lake was a phytoplankton-macrophyte type (42% of the lake area). The trophic evaluation of a lake can be underestimated because of a significant amount of biogenic compounds accumulated in plant tissues. Thus, the values of Carlson's indices in macrophyte-dominated lakes may not account for the total amount of nutrients in the water body.


Professor David Schwartz's A Foundation Theory of Evidence posits an intriguing new way to look at Evidence. It asserts that offered evidence must meet a tripartite requirement before it can be relevant. The tripartite requirement is that the evidence must be "case-specific, assertive, and probably true." His shorthand for the tripartite requirement is that evidence must be "well founded." Hence, he calls his theory the "foundation theory of evidence" and claims this foundation notion is so central to evidence law that it eclipses in importance even relevance itself. The tripartite requirement inheres in the very concept of evidence and relevancy, he says, and although there are only a few evidentiary areas where the Federal Rules of Evidence and their state progeny specifically require something analogous to this requirement, he finds the requirement almost universally applied in trials across the country by judges' rulings (going by a variety of other names) and in decisions by parties about what evidence to offer as a practical matter.This response essay addresses two of Schwartz's most intriguing and central contentions: (1) that almost all evidence must be "case-specific," "assertive," and "probably true"; and (2) that scholars who say there is no such thing as conditional relevance - that it is an incoherent concept - are wrong: conditional relevance exists and is widespread. The two are linked in Professor Schwartz's view because it is the tripartite requirement in (1) that often make evidence "conditionally relevant" as asserted in (2) - that is, irrelevant unless something is shown to establish that it complies with the elements of the tripartite requirement.


Compared to children in other placements, there is much less known about the characteristics and needs of children in the UK who are returned to their birth parents with a care order still in place. That is in spite of evidence to suggest they face more difficulties than young people in other placements. Based on a 2009 census of looked after children in Northern Ireland, just under 10% (n = 193) were found to be living at home under a care order. Case file reviews were conducted for a quarter of these young people (n = 47) to generate descriptive statistics showing a very diverse population. That was followed by semi-structured interviews with members of eight families (ten children and eight birth parent/s), providing transcripts for thematic analysis. Nearly half of the young people whose case files were reviewed had experienced at least one home placement breakdown, but nearly two thirds had a stable last home placement. Care orders appeared to serve two functions: to give legal authority to social services for the monitoring of placements, and to facilitate family access to family support services. Replacing some care orders with supervision orders might better align legal status and actual function.


In this book, Clapperton Mavhunga views technology in Africa from an African perspective. Technology in his account is not something always brought in from outside, but is also something that ordinary people understand, make, and practice through their everyday innovations or creativities -- including things that few would even consider technological. Technology does not always originate in the laboratory in a Western-style building but also in the society in the forest, in the crop field, and in other places where knowledge is made and turned into practical outcomes. African creativities are found in African mobilities. Mavhunga shows the movement of people as not merely conveyances across space but transient workspaces. Taking indigenous hunting in Zimbabwe as one example, he explores African philosophies of mobilities as spiritually guided and of the forest as a sacred space. Viewing the hunt as guided mobility, Mavhunga considers interesting questions of what constitutes techno ogy under regimes of spirituality. He describes how African hunters extended their knowledge traditions to domesticate the gun, how European colonizers, with no remedy of their own, turned to indigenous hunters for help in combating the deadly tsetse fly, and examines how wildlife conservation regimes have criminalized African hunting rather than enlisting hunters (and their knowledge) as allies in wildlife sustainability. The hunt, Mavhunga writes, is one of many criminalized knowledges and practices to which African people turn in times of economic or political crisis. He argues that these practices need to be decriminalized and examined as technologies of everyday innovation with a view toward constructive engagement, innovating with Africans rather than for them.


Introduction: Cough exceeding 3-8 weeks was defined as chronic cough in various guides. Asthma is the most common cause of chronic-specific cough. Causes other than asthma include prolonged bacterial bronchitis and upper airway cough syndrome (UACS). Nitric oxide (NO) causes vascular smooth muscle relaxation, bronchodilation, and oxidant effects via its metabolite, peroxynitrite. An increase in NO results in inflammation, vasodilatation, and bronchial edema. Materials and Methods: The study group included 90 patients aged 6-17 years selected from individuals presenting to the Pediatric Immunology and Allergic Diseases Clinic with cough persisting for 4 weeks and 30 other patients representing to the control group. Patients with a history of premature birth and long-term ventilatory support, neuromotor retardation, or chronic lung and heart disease received systemic corticosteroid therapy in the previous 4 weeks, a chest deformity, with any chronic disease or received immunotherapy were excluded from the study. Results: The most common diagnosis among the 90 patients in this study was asthma, observed in 27 (30%). Fractional exhaled NO values were highest in the asthma group at 39.5 ± 26.6 parts per billion (ppb) and lowest in the UACS group at 11.6 ± 4.0 ppb. Values in the control group were 17.8 ± 11.1 ppb. The differences between the groups were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Fractional exhaled NO measurement can be used as a quick and reliable diagnostic method in patients presenting with chronic cough due to its high positive predictive value, its practical nature, the fact that it is a noninvasive method and that it does not require the use of medication.


Aggregate and individual data are used to test the association between employment performance and different ways of reconciling flexibility and security in European labour markets. Particular use is made of statistics on individuals' labour market transitions as revealed by national labour force surveys. The article compares the performance of three basic forms of labour market institutions: the uncoordinated liberal, or neoliberal one; flexisecurity; and the traditional welfare state model of labour security. The findings confirm the importance of coordinated collective bargaining and of values and trust.


Soil and water conservation is essential to the sustainability of Great Plains dryland agriculture. We hypothesized that cropping intensification improves the efficient use of precipitation. We evaluated long-term observations of soil water at three locations in eastern Colorado for a range of pan evaporations (1050-1900 mm), soils, and cropping systems. Soils at various locations were mostly of the Argiustoll subgroup except for one Ustochrept and one Haplargid, both at the higher evaporation location. Normal precipitation at the three locations ranges from 400 to 425 mm yr -1 . Systems induded a 2-yr winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow (WF) and more intense 3-yr winter wheat-corn (Zea mays L.)-fallow and winter wheat-sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]-fallow and 4-yr rotations. To quantify the effectiveness of the intensified systems at utilizing precipitation, we introduce the System-Precipitation-Storage Index (SPSI) and System-Precipitation-Use Index (SPUI). Mean SPSI values were 0.19 and 0.28 for 2- and 3-yr systems, respectively, meaning that the fallow periods in the 3-yr rotation were collectively 47% more efficient at storing precipitation than fallow in WF. Inclusion of a summer crop, such as corn or sorghum, increased the fraction of precipitation allocated to growing-season crop production (i.e., SPUI) from 0.43 in WF to 0.56 (i.e., an increase of 30%) in 3-yr systems. The gains in efficient use of precipitation with intensification resulted from (i) reducing the frequency of the inefficient fallow preceding wheat, and (ii) using water for transpiration that would otherwise be lost during fallow through soil evaporation, runoff, and deep percolation.


A main benefit from taking a systematic sample is the ease of implementation when field sampling. However, it is not uncommon for a researcher to sample only one primary sampling unit (PSU) but to assume that the secondary sampling units (SSUs) were selected by simple random sampling to obtain a variance estimate. To obtain an unbiased estimator of variance for conventional or adaptive systematic sampling, it is necessary to sample > 1 PSUs, and this can marginally increase cost and complicate implementation. We show that it is possible to obtain an unbiased estimate of variance if the researcher takes only a single PSU and one or more SSUs. Although this is no longer a true systematic sample, such a design retains much of the simplicity of sampling a single PSU and allows for a valid variance estimate. This paper introduces three new sampling strategies stemming from systematic adaptive cluster sampling and the Raj estimator. The new sampling designs will be referred to as partial systematic adaptive cluster sampling. The sampling strategies are investigated in a simulation study that utilizes distance traveled as a measure of cost when comparing sampling strategies. When only a single PSU can be sampled because of cost or logistics concerns, we recommend also sampling one or more SSUs to obtain an unbiased estimate of variance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Dehiscence is a means by which some wild plants release their seeds. In Brassicas the mature fruit or 'pod', strictly a silique, releases seed by a sometimes explosive mechanism triggered by mechanical pressure and referred to as 'shatter'. This mechanism is a problem in Brassica crop plants and results in loss of seed, and hence loss of revenue, during harvesting. This problem is further compounded by the distribution of volunteers which contaminate future crops and the environment. The post-fertilisation development of the carpel wall of a number of Brassica species has been examined including, a range of Arabidopsis ecotypes and mutants, and fruits from two other Brassicas, Brassica napus and Brassica juncea, which exhibit differences in the dehiscence characteristic. These have been studied by a combination of cytological, cytochemical and molecular techniques. Following fertilisation, dehiscence zones form at the carpel margins, separating the carpel walls from the replum and forming two valves. Cells within the dehiscence zone exhibit reduced cellular cohesion due to breakdown of the middle lamella. Differentiation of the carpel wall layers results in a thickened exocarp, a senescing mesocarp, and modification of the endocarp layers in which the inner layer Enϸ lignifies whilst Enα collapses. It is proposed that the patterns of differentiation result in the development of the dehiscence mechanism. The dehiscence mechanism and pod 'shatter' is a result of; 1) weakening of valve attachment due to reduced cell cohesion in the dehiscence zone, and, 2) tensions which develop within the carpel walls due to desiccation and shrinkage of the mesocarp which is attached to a thickened, non-shrinking endocarp.The fruits from all of the Arabidopsis ecotypes examined exhibited a similar pattern of carpel wall development and similar dehiscence characteristics. Light microscopical examination of the fruits of Brassica napus and Brassica juncea which do not shatter as easily as those of Arabidopsis showed a different pattern of endocarp development in the post fertilised fruit. Enα tangential walls thickened considerably in the post-fertilised Brassica napus and Brassica juncea fruit, prior to the collapse of this cell layer. In Indian mustard, the Brassica juncea variety which had a non-shattering phenotype, the lignified walls of En6 were surrounded by a highly pectinised layer. This deposition of pectins confers more elasticity to the carpel walls, hence reducing the tensions which normally result in dehiscence and cause pod shatter. The model of the shattering and non-shattering phenotypes described in this study suggest a number of strategies which may be used to reduce the problems of pod shatter. These include modification of the separation layer to increase cellular cohesion, and modifications to the patterns of differentiation in the carpel wall to reduce the tensions which normally develop during fruit ripening.