Ocean dimethylsulfide (DMS) produced by marine biota is the largest natural source of atmospheric sulfur, playing a major role in the formation and evolution of aerosols, and consequently affecting climate. Several dynamic process‐based DMS models have been developed over the last decade, and work is progressing integrating them into climate models. Here we report on the first international comparison exercise of both 1D and 3D prognostic ocean DMS models. Four global 3D models were compared to global sea surface chlorophyll and DMS concentrations. Three local 1D models were compared to three different oceanic stations (BATS, DYFAMED, OSP) where available time series data offer seasonal coverage of chlorophyll and DMS variability. Two other 1D models were run at one site only. The major point of divergence among models, both within 3D and 1D models, relates to their ability to reproduce the summer peak in surface DMS concentrations usually observed at low to mid‐ latitudes. This significantly affects estimates of global DMS emissions predicted by the models. The inability of most models to capture this summer DMS maximum appears to be constrained by the basic structure of prognostic DMS models: dynamics of DMS and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), the precursor of DMS, are slaved to the parent ecosystem models. Only the models which include environmental effects on DMS fluxes independently of ecological dynamics can reproduce this summer mismatch between chlorophyll and DMS. A major conclusion of this exercise is that prognostic DMS models need to give more weight to the direct impact of environmental forcing (e.g., irradiance) on DMS dynamics to decouple them from ecological processes.


Analyzing and interpreting data is an important science practice that contributes toward the construction of models from data; yet, there is evidence that students may struggle with making meaning of data. The study reported here focused on characterizing students' approaches to analyzing rate and concentration data in the context of method of initial rates tasks, a type of task used to construct a rate law, which is a mathematical model that relates the reactant concentration to the rate. Here, we present a large-scale analysis (n = 768) of second-semester introductory chemistry students' responses to three open-ended questions about how to construct rate laws from initial concentration and rate data. Students' responses were coded based on the level of sophistication in their responses, and latent class analysis was then used to identify groups (i.e. classes) of students with similar response patterns across tasks. Here, we present evidence for a five-class model that included qualitatively distinct and increasingly sophisticated approaches to reasoning about the data. We compared the results from our latent class model to the correctness of students' answers (i.e. reaction orders) and to a less familiar task, in which students were unable to use the control of variables strategy. The results showed that many students struggled to engage meaningfully with the data when constructing their rate laws. The students' strategies may provide insight into how to scaffold students' abilities to analyze data.


The inhibition of stomatal opening in Commelina communis L. by abscisic acid (ABA) appeared to be dependent on the availability of calcium ions. Synergism between calcium ions and ABA in suppressing stomatal opening was observed, and a factorial experiment revealed a highly significant interaction between calcium and abscisic acid. The effect of calcium appeared to be on the latter stages of the opening process, and might have been the result of an inhibition of potassium accumulation in the guard cells. The ABA-induced stomatal closure was barely detectable when the apoplastic calcium was chelated by EGTA. The divalent cation ionophore, A 23187, reduced stomatal opening presumably because it mimicked the effect of ABA in increasing the permeability of the plasma membrane of the guard cells to calcium. Agents such as La3+, nifedipine and verapamil, which in animal tissues are known to block calcium channels, and thus the free passage of calcium, reduced the ability of stomata to respond to ABA. It is proposed that increased calcium levels in the cytosol of the guard cells could activate the calcium-binding modulator protein, calmodulin, which in turn activates one or more of the enzymes which are responsible for reducing K+ accumulation in the guard cells: compounds which are known to antagonize calmodulin reduced the effects of abscisic acid in the same quantitative way as calcium channel blockers. It is suggested that the action of ABA on guard cells requires a free passage of calcium ions into the cytosol. The calcium ions may then act as 'second messengers' interacting with calmodulin to produce the overt cellular response to ABA. A study on the differential behaviour in opening between adaxial and abaxial epidermes revealed that different endogenous levels of ABA and/or calcium could be responsible for the observed disparity, and that EGTA and La3+ could reduce the normal differences in stomatal opening between the two epidermes. From the results of a preliminary study, it is concluded that electron probe X-ray microanalysis is not a suitable method for the measurement of intracellular calcium ion concentrations. The results are discussed in relation to the concept of hormones in plants, which has recently been attacked by a number of plant physiologists on the basis that there is no convincing evidence that plants have hormones which work in a comparable way to those in animals.


As we have entered the 21st century with massive presence of popular culture, we have continually advanced our understandings of literacy and of preparing all students to become literate. In the last decade of the 20th century, one line of research has reexamined the notions of literacy and of students' outside school literacy experiences within the context of popular culture (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000; Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999; Brooks, 1998; Buckingham, 1993; Finder, 1996, 1997: Worthy, 1998). Popular culture may include, but not be limited to, popular music, books and magazines, movies, TV shows, Internet, computer/video games, audio recordings, and commercial advertising. Popular culture seems to play an increasingly permeating role in the lives and worlds of adults, adolescents, and young children (Brooks, 1998; Buckingham, 1993, 1998; Dyson, 1994, 1997, 1998: Steinberg & Kincheloe, 1997). "Pop culture is here to stay, and even though most of us bemoan the negative effect it has on our students" (Brooks, 1998, p. 21). This article describes a qualitative study in which I explored preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of student popular culture and their efforts to integrate student popular culture into literacy instruction. Theoretical Framework Research on student popular culture and its relationship to literacy practices (Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999; Brooks, 1998; Buckingham, 1993; Dyson, 1994, 1997; Finder, 1996, 1997, Mahiri, 1998; Worthy, 1998) has suggested that students demonstrate a broad spectrum of literacy skills through interactions with popular culture. For example, students need to know "story grammars" and have abilities to "infer character traits" while watching television (Buckingham, 1993) or while reading comic books and cartoons (Mahiri, 1998). Likewise, students need to be able to comprehend the lyrics in order for them to appreciate songs (Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999). The central theme of this line of research has extended and expanded the notion of literacy. That is, a literate person is capable of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and evaluating print and non-print texts (Gee, 1992, 1996; Luke & Freebody, 1997; Moje, Dillion, & O'Brien, 2000). The research on student popular culture has also investigated teachers' views of student popular culture and their efforts to value and integrate student popular culture in school curriculum. In general, teachers often shy away from student popular culture and feel that they have a moral responsibility of keeping popular culture out of the official school world (Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999; Brooke, 1998; Dyson, 1997; Finders, 1997). Teachers' view of student popular culture reflected their beliefs in "schooled literacy" (O'Brien, 1998) that focused on "book culture" (Luke, 2000). Consequently, teachers fail to acknowledge literacy skills (i.e., speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing, and evaluating) that students demonstrated while experiencing popular culture. A few studies, however, have documented teachers' efforts to build school literacy instruction on student popular culture. Dyson (1997) reported how one teacher supported student popular culture by allowing her 2nd and 3rd grade students to write about and act out their superheroes. In this community of learners, their performance of written texts reflected students' unique experiences with popular culture in rap music, movies, and comic books. In a middle school setting, Alvermann, Moon, and Hagood (1999) invited the students to critically view and interpret the visual images on the CD cover of a popular singer. The students learned to discover hidden and deep messages conveyed by the visual images. There seems to be a growing body of research on the role of student popular culture. Little research attention, however, has paid to preparing preservice and inservice teachers to integrate student popular culture into literacy instruction. …


This paper uses a diffraction model of radiation scattering on a rough surface to show that it is possible to expand the region of use of the temporal intensity fluctuations of radiation scattered by a vibrating surface (a dynamic speckle pattern). It is established that the characteristics of the temporal frequency spectrum of the intensity inhomogeneities make it possible to measure not only the frequency and amplitude of the vibrations, but also the surface roughness. Experimental results of measurements of the parameters of the vibrations and roughness are presented, using laser radiation with wavelength 0.63μm.


Introduction: shorter hospital stay and less pain in comparison to open surgery considered to be major benefits for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. We compared the effect of intraperitoneal hydrocortisone plus bupivacaine with bupivacaine alone on pain relief following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methods: Sixty two patients participated in this double-blind, randomized clinical trial. Patients randomly received intraperitoneal instillation of either 100 mg bupivacaine in 250 ml normal saline (n=32) or 100 mg hydrocortisone plus 100 mg bupivacaine in 250 ml normal saline (n=30) before insufflation of CO2 into the peritoneum. Abdominal and shoulder pain were evaluated using VAS postoperatively. The patients were also followed for postoperative analgesic requirements, nausea and vomiting, and return of bowel function. We used independent Student t-test and Chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U tests with SPSS software to compare quantitative and qualitative variables, respectively. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Sixty patients completed the study. Patients in the hydrocortisone plus bupivacaine group had significantly lower abdominal and shoulder pain scores (11.72 vs 8.92 in the bupivacaine and bupivacaine plus hydrocortisone group, respectively; P<0.01). The patients were similar regarding analgesic requirements .The patients were similar with respect to return of bowel function, nausea and vomiting. No adverse reaction was observed in either group. Conclusions: Intraperitoneal administrations of hydrocortisone plus bupivacaine can alleviate pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy better than intraperitoneal bupivacaine alone.


A method for simulating latent image formation in a photoresist illuminated by partially coherent light is described. The latent image is calculated by repeatedly solving a boundary-value problem for the Helmholtz equation on a two-dimensional domain, using the finite-element method. The dependence of the developed image on defocus is investigated for the case of high numerical aperture. The obtained results are compared with those predicted by the vertical propagation model and the first-order model.


The giant sable (Hippotragus niger variani) is one of Africa's most spectacular large antelope. Years of civil unrest in Angola, a highly localized distribution and Interbreeding with its congener the roan antelope (H. equinus) has led to this subspecies being considered as critically endangered. Sable antelope occurring ∼600 km to the east in western Zambia superficially resemble giant sable in phenotype, prompting speculation in the popular media that the distribution of giant sable may be larger than currently documented. Our aim here was to Investigate the evolutionary placement of western Zambian sable using mitochondrial DNA control region data. Phylogenese analyses (maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses) supported the monophyly of H. n. variant (Bayesian posterior probability of >0.95, bootstrap support >80%) and nested the western Zambian sable within H. n. niger. This finding was supported by an analysis of molecular variance that discretely grouped western Zambian sable from giant sable (&PHgr;ST = 0.645, P = 0.001). Significant genetic structure was also found across the range of H. n. nigera as Indicated by our phylogenetic analyses and analysis of molecular variance (&PHgr;ST = 0.418, P = 0.001). We conclude that although the western Zambian sable antelope and those of H. n. variani resemble one another in morphology, particularly with respect to facial markings, significant genetic differences underpin these two evolutionary lineages. Our findings hold Implications for the conservation of sable and highlight the need for active management Intervention.


Two wastewater polishing systems were compared in terms of their ability to protect downstream reverse osmosis (RO) processes. A conventional full-scale wastewater treatment system with primary and secondary treatment followed by rotating biological contactors (RBC) and sand filtration were compared in a side-by-side study with a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR). Effluent from the two pretreatment trains was sent to two identical RO pilot systems. The effluent water quality of the two systems was compared as well as the RO performance. The MBR pretreatment provided effluent with a turbidity (0.11 NTU) that was more than five times lower than that of the conventional system (0.58 NTU). The fouling rate of the RO system with MBR pretreatment was 50–67% of the value found for the RO system with conventional pretreatment and the difference in turbidity values was identified as the major source of this large difference. The RO effluent quality of both systems was excellent, with similar overall removals in both systems. The study emphasizes the importance of removing particulate matter for the prevention of RO fouling within water reclamation.


The aim of this thesis is to present a comprehensive view--a survey--of plays by William Shakespeare that have been produced for the New York stage from 1935 through 1955 in order to ascertain not only the quantity of Shakespearean drama that has been presented during this twenty-one-year period, but also to appraise the quality of the productions as seen by the critics. A related aim of this study will be the analysis of the televised Shakespearean plays by presenting the works and their merits through the eyes of the critics of that medium.


The Right to Information (RTI) – a right every individual has to access public information held by governments – is now established in more than 100 countries. RTI laws set up a new logic in government: availability of public information is the principle and secrecy the exception. RTI laws create new public information arenas where several actors request, release and use public information for several purposes. In this work, I seek to explore why RTI arenas based on similar principles, work differently leading to different outputs.My explanation is based on a historical- institutionalist perspective arguing that origins of these laws and previous institutional structures matter. I argue that three factors help to shape these arenas: the level of participation in the policy-making process, the professionalisation of state bureaucracy and RTI enforcement institutions. The combination of these factors gives us three different kinds of arenas: functional, mixed and contested. I develop a conceptual framework, operating at a middle-range theory level, to analyse the role RTI laws, requesters, the state, and the existence of RTI enforcement institutions play in each configuration. I show how these arenas evolve and work, running a structured and focused comparison of three case studies: Uruguay, Chile and New Zealand. This work shows how these arenas ended up differing in outputs such as availability of public information and efficiency in processing RTI requests, as well as the existence of effective accountability mechanisms to resolve disputes about public information.


The EWFD(European Water Framework Directive) mandates reaching a good status for
water bodies. So, monitoring of our water sources in order to administer, protect and plan
water use in associated areas is mandatory. In order to accomplish the EWFD objectives the
Ag`encia Catalana de l'Aigua has a large ground water quality network monitoring points all
over the territory. This network consists of a series of wells that measures a large number of
parameters which lead to a huge amount of data to be interpreted. The size of the database
poses a tremendous challenge for interpreting, and thus, there is a need to explore the possibility
of improving data representation and initial data analysis.
The aim of this thesis is to identify a series of techniques, tools or methods to ease a systematic
interpretation of generic groundwater chemical data sets, assuming that the user might
not be an expert in managing such kind of data. So, the following tasks have been performed:
target area definition and study; techniques and tools decision; data acquisition, conversion and
filtering and, finally, technique application.
As a result of these process, an appropriate data format has shown to be be mandatory
in order to correctly export the data set to the needed codes. When applied, the most easily
understood techniques have usually been graphic methods. In some cases their interpretability
has been conditioned by data quality or code lacks so both fields are intended to be improved
in future work lines. These includes taking advantage of Aquachem's modelling techniques and
ArcGIS plotting advantages. On the other hand, the most interesting multivariate technique
has been factor analysis, which has no unique interpretations and might have to be more studied
in. So, on the whole, to validate the conclusions of this work it might be interesting to apply
this same methodology on different data sets.


Objective: Lingapathangam (LP) is a mercury based herbo-mineral drug used in Siddha Medicine for the management of chronic autoimmune arthritis. The toxicity profile of the drug has not been reported. This study was conducted to prepare LP as per traditional literature, evaluate chemical composition and to study the sub-acute toxicity of the LP in rats.
Methods: LP was prepared as per the traditional literature Anupoga Vaithiya Navaneetham Part-IV in our lab. The physico-chemical analysis was done to find out the presence of organic and inorganic compounds. Acute toxicity study was conducted in rats by administering single oral dose of three strengths. Abnormal behavior and death were observed for 14 days. Sub-acute toxicity study was done in rats by administering three different doses (2, 10 and 20 mg/kg) orally for 21 days. Body weight, food intake, water intake were monitored every day. At the end of the study, blood was collected from rats to estimate renal function parameters, liver function parameters, hematology parameters and lipid profile. Organs such as brain, lung, stomach and liver were collected for histopathology assessment.
Results: Quantitative analysis has revealed that 100gm of LP contains 70.43% mercury, 14.10% chloride, 1.80% silica and 0.98% sulphate and the absence of organic matter. Acute toxicity study suggests that LP fall under the category 2 (LD50 is > 5 – 50 mg/kg), which is considered as highly toxic category. Sub-acute toxicity revealed that LP is safe up to 10mg/kg. There is no renal impairment even at high dose (20mg/kg). LP at high dose produced toxicity in blood parameters, liver functions and lipid profile, and showed mild histological changes.
Conclusion: Linga pathangam is safe up to 10mg/kg in rats, which corresponds to human dose of 112mg/70kg in man. The currently practiced clinical dose (50mg/day) given with palm jiggery only up to 7 days is considered as the safe and non-toxic dose.


In 1345, when Petrarch recovered a lost collection of letters from Cicero to his best friend, Atticus, he discovered an intimate Cicero, a man very different from either the well-known orator of the Roman forum or the measured spokesman for the ancient schools of philosophy. It was Petrarch's encounter with this previously unknown Cicero and his letters that Kathy Eden argues fundamentally changed the way Europeans from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries were expected to read and write. The "Renaissance Rediscovery of Intimacy" explores the way ancient epistolary theory and practice were understood and imitated in the European Renaissance. Eden draws chiefly upon Aristotle, Cicero, and Seneca - but also upon Plato, Demetrius, Quintilian, and many others - to show how the classical genre of the "familiar" letter emerged centuries later in the intimate styles of Petrarch, Erasmus, and Montaigne. Along the way, she reveals how the complex concept of intimacy in the Renaissance - leveraging the legal, affective, and stylistic dimensions of its prehistory in antiquity - pervades the literary production and reception of the period and sets the course for much that is modern in the literature of subsequent centuries. Eden's important study will interest students and scholars in a number of areas, including classical, Renaissance, and early modern studies; comparative literature; and the history of reading, rhetoric, and writing.


Calcifying phytoplankton play an important role in marine ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles, affecting the transfer of both organic and inorganic carbon from the surface to the deep ocean. Coccolithophores are the most prominent members of this group, being well adapted to low‐nutrients environments (e.g., subtropical gyres). Despite urgent concerns, their response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (pCO2) and ocean acidification is still poorly understood, and short‐term experiments may not extrapolate into longer‐term climatic adaptation. Current atmospheric pCO2 (~390 ppmv) is unprecedented since at least 3 million years ago (Ma), and levels projected for the next century were last seen more than 34 Ma. Hence, a deep‐time perspective is needed to understand the long‐term effects of high pCO2 on the biosphere. Here we combine a comprehensive fossil data set on coccolithophore cell size with a novel measure of ecological prominence: Summed Common Species Occurrence Rate (SCOR). The SCOR is decoupled from species richness, and captures changes in the extent to which coccolithophores were common and widespread, based on global occurrences in deep‐sea sediments. The size and SCOR records are compared to state‐of‐the‐art data on climatic and environmental changes from 50 to 5 Ma. We advance beyond simple correlations and trends to quantify the relative strength and directionality of information transfer among these records. Coccolithophores were globally more common and widespread, larger, and more heavily calcified in the pre‐34 Ma greenhouse world, and declined along with pCO2 during the Oligocene (34–23 Ma). Our results suggest that atmospheric pCO2 has exerted an important long‐term control on coccolithophores, directly through its availability for photosynthesis or indirectly via weathering supply of resources for growth and calcification.


Previous research has documented the legal and economic aspects of software patents. To study the evolution in the granting of software patents we reproduced and extended part of the empirical study on software patents conducted by Bessen and Hunt. The original study established a criteria to identify software patents, and provided a look at the evolution of patents granted until 2002. We present a simple approach to retrieve patents from the full text database provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which is freely accessible. We also present the evolution of software patents since the original study, and which we also present separated by major technological firms. Our research shows a continuous increase in the number of software patents granted higher, both in number of patents granted (in absolute numbers) and in proportion of overall patents (in relative terms). The relevance of studying the evolution of software patents relies in the challenges to find prior-art, either for practitioners looking for patenting as well as for examiners evaluating granting a new patent.


We developed one‐dimensional, fully implicit numerical scheme to investigate the dynamic effect in the capillary pressure–saturation relationship used in the modeling of two‐phase flow in porous media. Its validity was investigated by means of semianalytical solutions developed by McWhorter and Sunada (1990) and the authors. The numerical scheme was used to simulate a drainage experiment where the sand and fluid properties were known. Then the numerical scheme was used to simulate a laboratory experiment in a homogeneous column, including three major models of the dynamic effect coefficient τ. This numerical scheme can handle porous medium heterogeneity and was used to simulate a fictitious experimental setup with two different sands. As a result, the penetration time of the air phase through a layered porous medium for models including dynamic effects varied between 50 and 150% compared with static models of the capillary pressure–saturation relationship. Additionally, the accumulation time of air at a material interface (i.e., the delay of the air at the interface due to the capillary barrier effect) was investigated as a function of the ratio between the air‐entry pressure values of the adjacent sands, emphasizing the differences between the dynamic and static capillary pressure models.


We consider a real-time streaming system where messages are created sequentially at the source, and are encoded for transmission over a packet erasure channel. Each message must subsequently be decoded at the receiver within a given delay from its creation time. We consider code design and maximum message rates when all messages must be decodable by their respective deadlines under a specified set of erasure patterns (erasure model). Specifically, we provide a code construction that achieves the optimal rate for an asymptotic number of messages, under erasure models containing a limited number of erasures per coding window, per sliding window, and containing erasure bursts of a limited length.


The objective of the present study was to examine the haematological and biochemical parameters of the silver catfish, Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus , from the Makoko area of a polluted tropical lagoon such as Lagos Lagoon, to serve as a baseline data for the assessment of the health status of the fish and as reference point for future studies. The mean values of the haematological parameters analyzed were: blood haemoglobin, Hb (97.29±4.35g/L); pack cell volume, PCV (29.28±1.23%); red blood cell/total erythrocyte count, RBC (2.97±0.12T/L); white blood cell count, WBC (10.69±0.37g/L); mean cell volume, MCV (95.19±2.28fl); mean corpuscular haemoglobin, MCH (30.53±0.67pg), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, MCHC (33.32±0.38g/dl), and the differential leucocytes. While the mean values of the biochemical parameters were: aspartate transaminase, AST (66.06±6.12 IU/L); alanine transaminase, ALT (12.98±1.10 IU/L), and alkaline phosphatase, ALP (88.01±8.60 IU/L). The findings from this study gave an indication of stress on the health status of the fishes in this lagoon and there is need for proper management strategies to be adopted in monitoring the conditions of the faunal communities in the lagoon. The lagoon indeed showed signs of environmental stress, which eventually pose devastating effect on the health status of the fishes. These have an indirect effect on the coastal communities. There is therefore the need for periodic monitoring and enforcement of environmental laws by respective organisations to ensure health safety of the people especially in the coastal communities.


In this paper, a new neural network (NN) for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery which synthesises the theory of adaptive resonance theory (ART) and the learning strategy of Kohonen neural network (KNN), is proposed. For NNs, as the new case occurs, the corresponding data should be added to their dataset for learning. However, the 'off-line' NNs are unable to adapt autonomously and must be retrained by applying the complete dataset including the new data. The ART networks can solve the plasticity–stability dilemma. In other words, they are able to carry out 'on-line' training without forgetting previously trained patterns (stable training); it can recode previously trained categories adaptive to changes in the environment and is self-organising. ART–KNN also holds these characteristics, and more suitable than original ART for fault diagnosis of machinery. In order to test the proposed network, the vibration signal is selected as raw inputs due to its simplicity, accuracy and efficiency. The results of the experiments confirm the performance of the proposed network through comparing with other NNs, such as the self-organising feature maps (SOFMs), learning vector quantisation (LVQ) and radial basis function (RBF) NNs under the same conditions.The diagnosis success rate for the ART–Kohonen network was 100%, while the rates of SOFM, LVQ and RBF networks were 93%, 93% and 89%, respectively.


The Falkenmark indicator was used to assess vulnerability of the White Volta (106,000 km 2 ) and Pra (20,023 km 2 ) river basins in Ghana to water stress under climate change for the periods 2006–2035 (representing the 2020s) and 2036–2065 (2050s). The indicator is a commonly used measure of water stress and defines thresholds of 1,700, 1,000 and 500 m 3 /capita/annum as water stress, water scarcity and absolute scarcity, respectively. Downscaled data from ensemble averages of two global climate models, ECHAM4 and CSIRO, were used to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool for estimation of basin surface water resources under climate change. The simulated water resources in the two basins showed significant reduction of 22% for 2020. Further reductions were estimated for 2050 (50% and 46% for the White Volta and Pra, respectively). Without climate change, the White Volta basin will attain water stress and water scarcity by 2020 and 2050, respectively; the Pra is already water stressed and expected to worsen to water scarcity by 2020 and absolute scarcity by 2050. Climate change will aggravate the conditions in both basins. Implementation of integrated water resources management and population control measures are recommended for sustainable use and management of water resources in both basins.


This article provides, for the first time, an overview of all images (drawings and prints) sent by the Dutch microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) to the Royal Society during their fifty-year long correspondence. Analyses of the images and close reading of the letters have led to an identification of three periods in which Leeuwenhoek worked together with artists. The first period (1673–1689) is characterized by the work of several draughtsmen as well as Leeuwenhoek's own improving attempts to depict his observations. In the second period (1692–1712) Leeuwenhoek worked together with one unknown draughtsman, while the work in the third period (1713–1723) can now be attributed to the young draughtsman Willem vander Wilt. This article also shows how Leeuwenhoek did not only rely on draughtsmen for the depiction of his own observations, but rather, how he worked together with them in his workshop to observe, confirm, and witness microscopic experiments, replicating the collaborative working methods of the Royal Society in Delft.


In this study, I analyze the relationship between individualism and preferences for income redistribution and equality, using variation in immigrants' countries of origin to capture the impact of cultural beliefs on individual preferences. Using global survey data for a large number of individuals and countries around the world, I find strong support for the hypothesis that coming from a more individualistic culture is negatively and significantly associated with an individual's preferences for redistribution. The results are confirmed using a variety of robustness checks, including matching estimators and the grammatical rule of a pronoun drop as an instrumental variable. Cultural assimilation analysis, however, indicates that the impact of the cultural origin weakens off with time spent in the new country, and that the culture of origin has no statistically significant effect on an individual's current preferences for redistribution if migration took place before the age of 10. JEL: D63, O10, Z13


[This abstract describes the entire work, Ratting: The Use and Abuse of Informants in the American Justice System, by Robert M. Bloom. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002. Chapter 1 A Historical Overview of Informants is available here for downloading.] In our society today in order to investigate a great many bad acts, informants have become a necessary evil. With many crimes involving willing participants, it is often necessary for the government to utilize individuals with nefarious motives to investigate these crimes. This book will explore the use and for that matter the abuse of informants in a variety of settings and with diverse motivations. Each of the informants has one salient feature. They provide information to the government, which in some way helps the government to investigate people who they wish to prosecute. Actual informants are introduced in a narrative form. In Chapter 1, the history of the use of informants, the focus is on probably the most infamous informant Judas Iscariot. In Chapter 2, political informants, Linda Tripp, whose informing resulted in the impeachment proceedings of the President of the United States, is the focus. In Chapter 3, the non-existant informant, the book explores an imaginary informant who is fabricated by a police officer to justify their affidavit for a search warrant. In Chapter 4, jailhouse informants, the spotlight is on the activity of Leslie White and Anthony Saviola who were used to gather evidence within the prison or jailhouse context. In Chapter 5, high-level informant, the conduct of Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, who were used to infiltrate and destroy organized crime operation, is explored. In Chapter 6, the end of the story, the book concludes with suggestions as to how to use informants without incurring high societal costs. In looking at these informants we will explore their motivation. We will see that informants are motivated by a variety of reasons, including: financial gain, political power, attention, elimination of their competition, and the avoidance of criminal punishment. We will also explore how the law intersects with the activities of these informants.


Tractable subsets of first-order logic are a central topic in AI research. Several of these formalisms have been used as the basis for firstorder probabilistic languages. However, these are intractable, losing the original motivation. Here we propose the first non-trivially tractable first-order probabilistic language. It is a subset of Markov logic, and uses probabilistic class and part hierarchies to control complexity. We call it TML (Tractable Markov Logic). We show that TML knowledge bases allow for efficient inference even when the corresponding graphical models have very high treewidth. We also show how probabilistic inheritance, default reasoning, and other inference patterns can be carried out in TML. TML opens up the prospect of efficient large-scale first-order probabilistic inference.


Traditionally, Multilingual Multi-document Automatic Summarization (MMAS) is a computational application that, from a single collection of source-texts on the same subject/topic in at least two languages, produces an informative and generic summary (extract) in one of these languages. The simplest methods automatically translate the source-texts and, from a monolingual collection, apply content selection strategies based on shallow and/or deep linguistic knowledge. Therefore, the MMAS applications need to identify the main information of the collection, avoiding the redundancy, but also treating the problems caused by the machine translation (MT) of the full source-texts. Looking for alternatives to the traditional scenario of MMAS, we investigated two methods (Method 1 and 2) that once based on deep linguistic knowledge of lexical-conceptual level avoid the full MT of the sourcetexts, generating informative and cohesive/coherent summaries. In these methods, the content selection starts with the score and the ranking of the original sentences based on the frequency of occurrence of the concepts in the collection, expressed by their common names. In Method 1, only the most well-scored and non redundant sentences from the user's language are selected to compose the extract, until it reaches the compression rate. In Method 2, the original sentences which are better ranked and non redundant are selected to the summary without privileging the user's language; in cases which sentences that are not in the user's language are selected, they are automatically translated. In order to producing automatic summaries according to Methods 1 and 2 and their subsequent evaluation, the CM2News corpus was built. The corpus has 20 collections of news texts, 1 original text in English and 1 original text in Portuguese, both on the same topic. The common names of CM2News were identified through morphosyntactic annotation and then it was semiautomatically annotated with the concepts in Princeton WordNet through the Mulsen graphic editor, which was especially developed for the task. For the production of extracts according to Method 1, only the best ranked sentences in Portuguese were selected until the compression rate was reached. For the production of extracts according to Method 2, the best ranked sentences were selected, without privileging the language of the user. If English sentences were selected, they were automatically translated into Portuguese by the Bing translator. The Methods 1 and 2 were evaluated intrinsically considering the linguistic quality and informativeness of the summaries. To evaluate linguistic quality, 15 computational linguists analyzed manually the grammaticality, non-redundancy, referential clarity, focus and structure / coherence of the summaries and to evaluate the informativeness of the sumaries, they were automatically compared to reference sumaries by ROUGE measures. In both evaluations, the results have shown the better performance of Method 1, which might be explained by the fact that sentences were selected from a single source text. Furthermore, we highlight the best performance of both methods based on lexicalconceptual knowledge compared to simpler methods of MMAS, which adopted the full MT of the source-texts. Finally, it is noted that, besides the promising results on the application of lexical-conceptual knowledge, this work has generated important resources and tools for MMAS, such as the CM2News corpus and the Mulsen editor.


Seismic and electromagnetic disturbances are coupled in saturated porous materials through electrokinetic coupling. Two types of seismoelectric signals are generated when a seismic wave propagates through a homogeneous multi-layer porous medium. The first type of the seismoelectric response is generated by a stationary charge separation, in a reference frame moving with the wavefront. This stationary charge separation is analogous to a constant electric dipole and does not radiate electromagnetic waves. The second type of the seismoelectric response is generated when the spherically spreading wavefront impinges on an interface having contrast in mechanical or electrical properties in which a time-varying charge separation is induced. This time-dependent charge separation radiates electromagnetic (EM) energy, which would be detected almost simultaneously across the surface receivers. To enhance the weak signal of the observed seismoelectric signals, processing procedure includes suppressing of the powerline large amplitude harmonic interferences as well as the seismoelectric response type separation. Powerline harmonic interference can be estimated and removed from the data using block or sinusoid subtraction techniques. Discriminating between the first and second type of the seismoelectric EM responses can be done using F-K filtering, because of the distinct near simultaneous arrival characteristic of the interface EM response. Another possible separation technique is a self-deconvolved prediction error filter. This technique is similar to the algorithms that are used for multiple attenuation in reflection seismic data.


Climate is increasingly recognized as a major factor driving long‐term changes in plankton communities in both marine and limnetic ecosystems. In a shallow and polymictic lake, marked changes in the dynamics of phytoplankton and in the timing of distinctive successional events in spring were observed during two recent decades. We studied whether and how these changes were linked to a series of uncommonly warm winter and spring seasons, focusing on the predictive power of a macroscale atmospheric circulation pattern, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In the warm period 1988‐1998, phytoplankton developed about 1 month earlier than in the cool period 1979‐1987, and high total phytoplankton biomass was recorded in early spring. These changes were significantly related to the NAO, which explained about 35% of the variance, and can be attributed to a shortening or lack of ice cover periods in winter. Zooplankton (Keratella, Bosmina, Daphnia) developed about 2 weeks earlie in the warm period, consequently leading to an early establishment of the clearwater phase. The shift in the timing of the daphnid peak and of the clearwater phase required an additional warming trend in late April and early May and was not significantly correlated with the winter situation. The memory effect of the NAO was restricted to a rather short postwinter period and was overtaken by the prevailing weather in April. Our results suggest that assessments of potential impacts of climate warming on biological processes in freshwater ecosystems demand basic knowledge about the relationships between global climate indices, local meteorological conditions, and the thermal response of various lake type .


1. The effect on plasma renin activity (PRA) of dopamine and noradrenaline infusions was studied in three patients with Shy—Drager syndrome, three patients with Parkinson9s disease and normal autonomic reflexes, and three healthy volunteers. The patients with the Shy—Drager syndrome had functional evidence of a peripheral lesion of the sympathetic nervous system and subnormal PRA on a controlled sodium intake. 2. In all subjects catecholamines were infused step-wise for 4 min until a 30% rise in systolic blood pressure occurred. 3. In each subject, PRA fell after noradrenaline but rose after dopamine. The mean fractional increase in PRA after dopamine was no less in the Shy—Drager patients than in the control groups. 4. The results suggest, first, that stimulation of dopamine receptors can release renin, and secondly, that inadequate renin stores cannot explain the low PRA found in our patients with autonomic failure.


Teaching is present in all human societies, while within other species it is very limited. Something happened during the evolution of Homo sapiens that also made us Homo docens—the teaching animal. Based on discussions of animal and hominin learning, we analyze the evolution of intentional teaching by a series of levels that require increasing capacities of mind reading and communication on the part of the teacher and the learner. The levels of teaching are (1) intentional evaluative feedback, (2) drawing attention, (3) demonstrating, (4) communicating concepts, and (5) explaining relations between concepts. We suggest that level after level has been added during the evolution of teaching. We demonstrate how different technologies depend on increasing sophistication in the levels of cognition and communication required for teaching them. As regards the archaeological evidence for the different levels, we argue that stable transmission of the Oldowan technology requires at least teaching by demonstration and that learning the late Acheulean hand-axe technology requires at least communicating concepts. We conclude that H. docens preceded H. sapiens.


The author of The Salt Road and The Tenth Gift Jane Johnson returns with a captivating historical novel The Sultan's Wife set in Morocco. Morocco, 1677. The tyrannical King Ismail resides over the palace of Meknes. Through the sweltering heat of the palace streets, Nus Nus, slave to the King and forced into his live of servitude as court scribe, is sent to the apothecary. There he discovers the bloody corpse of the herb man, and becomes entangled in a plot to frame him for the murder. Juggling the tempestuous Moroccan king, sorceress queen Zidana and the malicious Grand Vizier is his only hope to escape the blame. Meanwhile, young, fair Alys Swann is captured during her crossing to England, where she is due to be wed. Sold into Ismail's harem, she is forced to choose: renounce her faith or die. An unlikely alliance develops between Alys and Nus Nus, one that will help them to survive the horrifying ordeals of the Moroccan court. Brimming with rich historical detail and peppered with real characters, from Charles I to Samuel Pepys, The Sultan's Wife is a story of enduring love and adventure. "Jane Johnson writes the sort of books you want to tell everyone about - they hook you from the first page and sweep you along with passion, history and romance. I'm addicted' Katie Fforde 'An utterly compelling story". (Stuart MacBride, author of Cold Granite). "Imagine the darkest Arabian Tale combined with Tremain's glorious Restoration". (Essie Fox, author of The Somnambulist). "An irresistible page turner - I loved it". (Barbara Erskine). "Full of intrigue, deceit, skulduggery and murder. It has romance in it, but also heartbreak and personal tragedy. It's deeply evocative of North Africa - the sights, the smells, the culture, but there are also great depictions of London at the time, and the court of Charles II. I really enjoyed it". (Ben Kane, bestselling author of Spartacus: The Gladiator). "Far more than a rip-roaring read: it's a true work of art. Deftly recreating the court intrigue of the tyrannical Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail - with all its trappings of superstition, black magic and torture - it sucks you down through interleaving layers steeped in blood, sweat and raw adrenalin, to a mesmerising bedrock of real history...The Sultan's Wife gets inside you, conjuring its magic long after you read the last line". (Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's House). Jane Johnson was raised in Cornwall but now lives for half the year in a remote mountain village in Morocco. Her first novel set in North Africa is The Tenth Gift, and this was followed by The Salt Road. The Sultan's Wife is her third Moroccan novel. She has been involved in the book industry for many years and combines her work as a publisher with writing for both adults and children.


The key exchange protocol using passwords achieved great attention due to its simplicity and efficiency. On the other hand, the protocol should resist all types of password guessing attacks, since the password is of low entropy. Recently Chang and Chang proposed a novel three party simple key exchange protocol. They claimed the protocol was secure, efficient and practical. Overriding their claims Yoon and Yoo presented an undetectable online password guessing attack on the above protocol. In the present paper an enhanced protocol has been proposed to eliminate undetectable online password guessing attack proposed by Yoon and Yoo. Moreover, the proposed enhanced protocol could achieve better performance efficiency by requiring only four message transmission rounds and the performance is analyzed on a comprehensive set of experiments.


ABSTRACT This paper examines the intergenerational effects of deindustrialisation on the processes and experiences of education at 'Lillydown Primary', a state primary school in a former mining community in the north of England. Complicating Avery Gordon's notion of 'haunting', and drawing on conceptualisations of affect and community 'being-ness', it highlights how contemporary experiences of education continue to be affected by historical and cultural relations and rhythms of everyday life, even though most of Britain's traditional industrial base is now gone. The paper draws on data from ethnographic research carried out at the School and explores the complex ways in which historical, class-based relations and modes of 'being' continue to haunt across time and space. Its findings suggest that by coming to know the fullness of a social haunting – the loss, injury and the 'goodness' of the past – schools may have the potential to engage working-class children in educational processes and experiences from which they might otherwise feel excluded, alienated or detached.


In accordance with research of crosslinguistic influences occurring on the lexical level, which bears witness to a greater initial comprehension of unfamiliar foreign language vocabulary on the basis of crosslinguistic similarities (Browne, 1982; Palmberg, 1985; Ringbom, 2007; Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008; Rast, 2008, 2010), we have focused on the role of cognates semantically related words, sharing phonological and/or orthographic forms in two or more languages, as defined in the psycholinguistic literature (Hammer, 1975; Browne, 1982; Carroll, 1992; Daulton, 2008). We have examined the effect of the lexical transparency of two typologically distinct idioms the Italian language and the Split idiom, characterised by the presence of Italian loanwords, on native speakers of Italian. The examinees were subjected to a vocabulary test which aimed to show their level of understanding of 60 separate words from the Split idiom. Form and content were the parameters of similarity for the selection of the word samples. The examination was undertaken by means of translation into L1 following the research conducted by Rast (2010) and Uchida (2007). The hypothesis of this research was that the participants would, while determining meaning, use interlinguistic information from their L1. It was also assumed that the key element in the initial understanding would be the orthographic similarity of words in the Italian language and words in the Split idiom. The acquired information confirmed the abovementioned hypotheses.


A large number of epidemiologic studies have focused on racial/ethnic differences, particularly between blacks and whites. Because health endpoints and racial categorizations are associated with socioeconomic status, investigators generally adjust for socioeconomic indicators. The intention is usually to control for confounding, thereby making groups comparable and excluding socioeconomic status as an alternative explanation to hypotheses of innate physiologic differences. A threat to the validity of these analyses is therefore the presence of residual confounding. We identify four potential sources of residual confounding in this analytical design: categorization of socioeconomic status variables, measurement error in socioeconomic indicators, use of aggregated socioeconomic status measures, and incommensurate socioeconomic indicators. Using simulations and examples from the literature, we demonstrate that the effect of residual confounding is to bias interpretation of data toward the conclusion of independent racial/ethnic group effects. Investigators often refer to possible "genetic" differences on the basis of models that control for socioeconomic status. We propose that such conclusions on the basis of this analytical strategy are generally unwarranted. Racial/ethnic differences in disease are a pressing public health concern, but the current approach does not often provide a basis for inference about putative biological factors in the etiology of this disparity.


We have interviewed four parents and a teacher at a Swedish preschool to investigate the practices for spreading information in preschool. Our findings suggest that frequent presence in the premises of the preschool is important to get information, and that parents rely heavily on routines to make it work. When either of these points fail, breakdowns occur. Discrepancies in parents' and teachers' IT use also complicates the information exchange.


A radical argument is presented that it is plausible to look at the condition of mental handicap as entailing dynamic cognitive processes which may be available to some degree of therapeutic intervention at a fundamental level. An overview of some broad aspects of mental handicap is presented and it is argued that much of the subject of mental handicap is based on assumptions which may not be justified. On the assumption that in normal infancy play is a powerful medium for promoting developmental change, aspects of the mentally handicapped child's inability to play is examined and discussed. This is done by adopting the Piagetian notion of decentration and showing how the concept has explanatory value for looking at change in the severely, or profoundly mentally handicapped child. A model of aspects of the process is developed and implemented as a computer simulation. This model entails he processes of "Integration and Differentiation" of hierarchical chunks. The prospects and usefulness of a developmental curriculum as a framework within which to work with the profoundly and severely mentally retarded is discussed. The notions of Integration and Differentiation are applied to systems of sensori-motor competence and presented as a candidate for a curriculum. A presentation of the Uzgiris & Hunt scales serves to provide the user with the means to understand where the child is "at" in the curriculum. The computer simulation is further developed to show how it could be extended to provide explanations for the effects of success and failure upon developmental process. The model provides an insight into the nature of stereotypy and the implications of the model are explored in a therapy undertaked with a mentally handicapped and withdrawn child. The relationship between the understanding gained here and the processes of normal mothering is introduced. The theme of the mothering process is develcped apd explored as a means of providing the mentally Nandi Gaped child with the experience of success that section 3 suggests is the means for promoting change. This is demonstrated via several case accounts. The transactional interface between the intractable organic and the potentially more plastic cognitive/social process is tentatively explored by a discussion of "eye contact". Finally an evaluative framework for the possible implications of the work are discussed.


Background: The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial found reduced prostate cancer prevalence for men treated with finasteride. The public health cost of wide-scale chemoprevention is unclear. We developed a model to help clarify the cost effectiveness of public use of prostate cancer–preventive agents. Methods: A Markov decision analysis model was designed to determine the lifetime prostate health-related costs, beginning at the age of 50 years, for men treated with finasteride compared with placebo. Model assumptions were based on data from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, a literature review of survival and progression rates for patients treated with radical prostatectomy, and costs associated with prostate cancer disease states. Results: Chemoprevention with finasteride resulted in a gain of 13.7 life years per 1,000 men at a cost of $704,000 per life year saved (LYS). However, if finasteride is assumed to not increase the incidence of high-grade tumors, it renders a gain of 21.4 life years per 1,000 men at a cost of $434,000 per LYS; finasteride must cost $15 monthly to reach $100,000 per LYS. When applied to a population at higher risk (lifetime prevalence of ≥30%) for developing prostate cancer, the cost of finasteride must be reduced from its current cost ($62/mo) to <$15 per month for the cost effectiveness to fall below $50,000 per LYS. Conclusions: Given the natural history of treated prostate cancer, implementation of chemoprevention would require an inexpensive medication with substantial cancer risk reduction to be cost effective. Targeting populations at higher risk for developing prostate cancer, however, allows for considerable flexibility in the medication cost to make prostate cancer chemoprevention a more attainable goal. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(8):1485–9)


Environmental innovation is encouraged by many factors, including government regulation
and subsidies, business opportunities for clean production, and the adoption by
firms of an environmental ethic in response to public pressure. By the late 1980s environmental
management had become an integral part of the corporate strategy of many
firms in developed countries, diffusing increasingly also in developing countries. This
brought into focus the potential economic benefits of environmental innovation from
reduced material inputs and a shift away from end-of-pipe treatment solutions to preventive
solutions.' However, despite the economic value of environmental innovation for
industry and its potential societal benefits, there are only a few internationally comparable
indicators2 on the prevalence of environmental innovation, the factors that influence
it and its economic effects. This shortage hampers the ability to design policies to encourage
economically efficient environmental innovation and to track progress towards enviromnental
goals.
The pollution abatement costs and expenditures (PACE) data are one example of the
limitations of current indicators. PACE data on capital equipment spending by firms to
reduce pollution have been collected on an annual basis in the United States, France and
Germany and on an irregular basis in the Netherlands, the UK and Canada (Olewiler,
1994). The PACE estimates however, do not include investment in research and development
(R&D) or other inventive activities, and are more likely to reflect end-of-pipe investments
than investments in clean technology. The European Community Innovation
Survey and similar surveys conducted in Australia and Canada are similarly lacking.
Although these surveys include a few questions of relevance to environmental innovation,
such as whether the firm's innovations have resulted in the reduction of per unit
material and/or energy use, these questions only scratch the surface of environmental
• Issues.


Abstract The immense size and complex geometry of the ITER experimental fusion reactor require the development of special techniques that can accurately and efficiently perform neutronics simulations with minimal human effort. This paper shows the effect of the hybrid Monte Carlo (MC)/deterministic techniques—Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) and Forward-Weighted CADIS (FW-CADIS)—in enhancing the efficiency of the neutronics modeling of ITER and demonstrates the applicability of coupling these methods with computer-aided-design-based MC. Three quantities were calculated in this analysis: the total nuclear heating in the inboard leg of the toroidal field coils (TFCs), the prompt dose outside the biological shield, and the total neutron and gamma fluxes over a mesh tally covering the entire reactor. The use of FW-CADIS in estimating the nuclear heating in the inboard TFCs resulted in a factor of ˜275 increase in the MC figure of merit (FOM) compared with analog MC and a factor of ˜9 compared with the traditional methods of variance reduction. By providing a factor of ˜21 000 increase in the MC FOM, the radiation dose calculation showed how the CADIS method can be effectively used in the simulation of problems that are practically impossible using analog MC. The total flux calculation demonstrated the ability of FW-CADIS to simultaneously enhance the MC statistical precision throughout the entire ITER geometry. Collectively, these calculations demonstrate the ability of the hybrid techniques to accurately model very challenging shielding problems in reasonable execution times.


Background: Many research works are being carried out in preparing intracanal medicaments using herbal plants since it is safe as well as containing a better therapeutic value. The present study was designed to evaluate the anticandidal properties of the leaves of Garcinia imberti bourd in associated with the root canal infection. Method: Totally 94 root canal infected samples were collected and their previous history also recorded. Samples yielded Candida isolates were screened through drug resistant study. Multi drug-resistant Candida albicans was isolated and characterized by 18S rDNA sequencing. An antifungal activity of the extracts of the leaves of G.imberti bourd was performed by disc diffusion method. Using Silica-60 column active fraction of the methanol extract was partially purified and was analyzed by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrophotometry (GC-MS). Prepare intracanal medicament with methanol extract of G.imberti bourd and was tested with multidrug-resistant C.albicans (Ca-09) under in-vitro conditions using decoronated teeth. Efficacy also compared with chlorohexidine. Result: A total of 48 Candida sp. were isolated and screened for antibiotic susceptible test. Among them isolate Ca -09 showed multiple antibiotic resistant. Crude methanol fraction of G. imberti bourd leaf extract, as well as the partially purified compound of this extract, showed better anticandidal activity. 0.01g of methanol extract with 2% methyl cellulose gel showed significant reduction (63%) of C.albicans in in-vitro intracanal treatment. Conclusion: Methanol extract of Garcinia imberti bourd leaf contains glycerine, which can be used in preparing the suitable intracanal medicament for the treatment of root canal infection. Key words: Candida albicans, Chlorohexidine, Garcinia imberti bourd, Glycerine, Intracanal medicament, Root canal infection.


Previous studies suggest that management intensity zoning systems,  such as the triad approach, could allow Canada's forest industry to  maintain or increase timber harvest levels while simultaneously  reducing its environmental impact.  In most such studies, the zones  are exogenously specified.  In this study, we use a linear  programming model to endogenously allocate forest land to management  intensity zones given several alternative policy scenario  formulations.  We examine how alternative policy scenarios affect  the net present value of the optimal forest management plan, timber  output, and the spatial allocation of land to management intensity  zones. We conclude that policies which facilitate optimal zoning  could enable land use specialization to increase both profits and  ecological protection.  Such zoning, however, can only happen if  provincial governments in Canada revise their forest policies with  respect to allocation of forest tenures and establishment of exotic  plantations on public forest land.


This paper analyses how governance or institutional quality and tax morale affect the shadow economy, using an international country panel and also within country data. The literature strongly emphasizes the quantitative importance of these factors to understand the level and changes of shadow economy. However, the limited number of investigations use cross-sectional country data with a relatively small number of observations, and hardly any paper has investigated tax morale and provides evidence using within country data. Using more than 25 proxies that measure governance and institutional quality we find strong support that its increase leads to a smaller shadow economy. Moreover, an increase in tax morale reduces the size of the shadow economy. JEL Classifications: D73, D78, H2, H26, O17, O5


In this paper we provide the first analysis of whether rushed privatizations, usually carried out under fiscal duress, increase or decrease firms' efficiency, scale of operation (size) and employment. Using a large panel of firm-level data from Poland over 1995-2015, we show that rushed privatization has negative efficiency, scale and employment effects relative to non-rush privatization. The negative effect of rushed privatization on the scale of operations and employment is even stronger than its negative effect on efficiency. Our results suggest that when policy makers resort to rushed privatization, they ought to weigh these negative effects against other expected effects (e.g. on fiscal revenue).


Callus induction from leaf explants of Rosa hybrida L. 'Christian Dior' was
established. Two types of auxins (2.4-D and NAA) at three concentrations (4.5, 9.0 and 13.5 µM) and two types of cytokinins (kinetin and BA) at three concentrations
(2.3, 4.7 and 9.3 µM) were used in a 3 X 4 experimental design. The best
caulogenesis and callus maintenance medium was 112 MS + 30 giL sucrose
+ 9.0 µM NAA + 2.3 µM BA cultured in the dark. Several attempts were carried
out to induce shoot organogenesis and/or somatic embryogenesis from callus. None
of the media tested induced shoots or somatic embryos. However, there were
differences observed for callus growth on the medium tested. Combination of
cytokinins (BA and TDZ) at 5.0-10.0 µM with auxins (NAA and IBA) at 1.0-2.0 µM, generally promoted callus proliferation. Callus cultured on cytokinin onlyAmino acids proline and glutamine also enhanced callus proliferation.
Observations under the stereo microscope revealed that the callus was globular.
Medium without ammonium ion enhanced callus proliferation. TDZ was found to
be the better cytokinin for callus proliferation. Observation of cells taken from
callus cultured on the various media revealed that there was no meristematic
primordias .
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of R. hybrida L . 'Christian Dior'
callus produced three transgenic callus lines that were confirmed by dot blot and
Southern hybridisation assays. Leaf-derived callus was transformed with
Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404 carrying plasmid pBI 121 which contained the
B-glucuronidase (GUS) gene and nptII gene coding for kanamycin resistance. The
best condition for infection of callus tissues with A. tumefaciens was exposure to
1 X 1 09 cells/ml for 5 minutes. At this condition, GUS activity was found to be the
highest (6.39 ± 0.01 pmol MU/h/p.g protein). It was also found that at low
Agrobacterium concentration, increasing the exposure period increased GUS
transient activity, and at high Agrobacterium concentration, increasing exposure
period reduced GUS transient activity . Transformation efficiency improved when
callus was cultured for 2 weeks on medium without kanamycin (but with 500 p.g/ml
carbenicill in) before transferring the callus to medium with 300 p.g/ml kanamycin + 500 p.g/ml carbenicillin for selection. Carbenicillin served to eliminate
Agrobaterium. Kanamycin was also found to be unsuitable for used as a selective
marker.


The production of highly accurate components of renewable energy systems such as Wind Energy Systems (WES) or Tidal Power Generators (TPG) puts mandatory constraints in the verification procedures related to 3-D geometry for the tolerance of size, form, waviness and roughness. More information concerning geometric flank deviations, the case hardening and surface roughness properties are requested.
This paper focuses on the calibration and measurement of large gears used in gearboxes of WES and TPG. One major issue ensuring traceability of these measurements is the lack of appropriate gear measurement standards. One large ring gear measurement standard was developed recently by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). In this contribution, the ring gear and its calibration on a large coordinate measurement machine (CMM) are described. Tactile measurement results are presented and put into context with calibration values from PTB.
Furthermore, optical measurement results using a new interferometric point sensor, developed by Hexagon, are presented.


Mobile phones have been proclaimed as the new service frontier. Nowadays, in addition to traditional mobile services, new mobile commerce services are ready to be used by customers based on 3G-related technologies. However, little is known about the reasons why different groups of customers adopt mobile commerce services. By means of a sample of 542 Dutch consumers, we analyze the acceptance of these services by four different groups of customers. We finish our work providing interesting conclusions for academics as well as practitioners Key Wordsmobile commerce services acceptance, communication technologies, mobile wireless systems.


Antibiotics have major roles in improvement of human and animal health against bacterial diseases. But now a days many bacterial pathogens show resistance to antibiotics due to high amount of use of these antibiotics. It is necessary to overcome this problem by think about new strategies to kill or inhibit the bacteria. Here we introduced nisin an antimicrobial peptide 34 amino acid sized produced by lactococcus lactis which is highly active against Gram positive bacteria. Discoveries of Lipid II which is a target for nisin and in particular, the important role played by the pyrophosphate group and brought nisin to the forward in the battle with resistant human infections as a model case for the production of new antibiotics. Recent study on Bacillus thuringiensis concluded that high amount of Bt toxin is toxic to human as well as animal.Here we evaluated the effect of antimicrobial activity ofNisin on Bacillus thuringiensisby determining the MIC (Minimum inhibitory concentration), Zeta potential (electrokinetic potential), electron microscopy and bacterial cell viability by Baclightassay in the presence and absence of Ampicillin. We observed that with the increasing concentration of nisin prolonged lag phase and in combination with ampicillin skip the lag phase of Bacillus thuringiensis. The electron micrograph structure showed clumping and blebs of bacteria with increasing concentration of nisin.


Venture capital firms are collaborative and location specific actors. A significant
source of specialised factor inputs (knowledge, expertise, resources, and finance)
for investing in new high tech companies are large corporations, making them
potentially complementary partners for independent venture capital firms in
collaborations from which considerable value adding capacity might be derived.
Employing a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with 30 London
based technology oriented venture capital firm, this study (1) captures and explains
the how, why, and under what circumstances do venture capital firms collaborate
with large corporations and their corporate venturing divisions, and (2) the role
that geographic proximity plays in facilitating this collaboration. Using a cross
sector comparison, the core of the research inquires as to the structures employed,
and the motivations and conditions for which this collaborative activity is pursued.
In addition, it assesses the facilitating role that geographic proximity, and the
opportunities and capacities of the London metropolitan region might play.
The findings demonstrate that collaboration between venture capital firms and
large corporations is increasingly common, but more formal collaborative
structures are the exception. Driving this collaboration is the exchange of
complementary knowledge for purposes of better investment selection and for
improving options for investment exit. Geographic proximity plays a facilitating
role and is particularly important during the investment selection phase. While the
significance of co-location is somewhat downplayed, collaboration is indirectly
facilitated through the innovation capacities and the opportunities for network
interaction and international knowledge exchange which the London metropolitan
region offers.


The antiphospholipid syndrome is defined by the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with recurrent venous or arterial thromboembolism or pregnancy morbidity. Antithrombotic therapies are the mainstay of treatment to reduce the risk of recurrent thromboembolism. Among patients with antiphospholipid antibodies, the absolute risk of new thrombosis developing is low in healthy patients without previous thrombotic events. However, the risk of recurrent thrombosis appears to be high in patients with a history of arterial or venous thrombosis. Compared with placebo or untreated control, anticoagulation with warfarin administered to achieve an international normalized ratio of 2.0 to 3.0 probably reduces the risk of recurrence of thrombotic events. Aspirin and moderate-intensity warfarin appear equally effective for preventing recurrent stroke in patients with a single positive antiphospholipid antibody test result and previous stroke. It is unknown how best to prevent first stroke in patients found to be persistently positive for the antiphospholipid syndrome. The catastrophic variant of the antiphospholipid syndrome is a condition characterized by multiple vascular occlusive events, usually affecting small vessels and evolving over a short period of time. This condition has a very high mortality rate. First-line treatment with therapeutic anticoagulation, corticosteroids, plasma exchange, and intravenous immunoglobulin seems to be effective in reducing mortality and risk of catastrophic thrombotic events in these patients. In conclusion, moderate-intensity warfarin is effective for preventing recurrent thrombotic events in patients with venous thrombosis. Aspirin appears to be as effective as moderate-intensity warfarin for preventing recurrent stroke in patients with previous stroke and a single positive test result for antiphospholipid antibody. The optimal treatment of other clinical manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome needs to be addressed in well-designed prospective studies.


Dependent Dirichlet processes (DPs) are dependent sets of random measures, each being marginally DP distributed. They are used in Bayesian nonparametric models when the usual exchangeability assumption does not hold. We propose a simple and general framework to construct dependent DPs by marginalizing and normalizing a single gamma process over an extended space. The result is a set of DPs, each associated with a point in a space such that neighbouring DPs are more dependent. We describe Markov chain Monte Carlo inference involving Gibbs sampling and three different Metropolis-Hastings proposals to speed up convergence. We report an empirical study of convergence on a synthetic dataset and demonstrate an application of the model to topic modeling through time.


Supported by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, the Ocean Guardian School (OGS) program is a federally funded grant program coordinated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. OGS supports the educational goals of national marine sanctuaries (NMS) by funding hands-on ocean conservation and stewardship programs in both public and private schools. Schools apply for grants (up to $4,000) to implement school- or community-based conservation projects to educate students, while contributing to the health and protection of local watersheds and the world's ocean. This study is the first to estimate the value that parents have for their child's participation in an ocean conservation and stewardship program. Using a contingent choice survey, changes to student behaviour, parents' support for the OGS program and the non-market economic value to parents of the six program attributes are estimated.


Abstract A seismic amplitude anomaly has been identified at the Upper Paleocene T38 level in the northern Judd Basin and will be tested by the drillbit in 2009. Prospectivity at shallower levels has been largely ignored due to the fact that the main regional seal in the area was recognized to be the T35/T36 mudstones below the Kettla Tuff. Seismo-stratigraphic analysis of the T38 sequence directly above the tuff marker has identified the potential for a new play type, especially adjacent to fault zones where these mudstones are breached, allowing hydrocarbons to migrate from the Upper Jurassic source kitchen into any traps identified above the seal. In this area, the T38 is represented by a series of northerly prograding low-angle clinoforms representing the final marine infill of sediments into the basin from the south. Erosion of top sets in a more marginal setting is observed, along with deposition of basin floor fans at the toe of the prograding clinoforms. The overlying seals are basinal sediments as well as mudstones and siltstones of subsequent progradational sequences. Mild structural modification of potential stratigraphic traps in the Judd Basin occurred during the Oligo-Miocene inversion associated with continued opening of the North Atlantic. Drilling seismic amplitude anomalies in the West of Shetlands area has often been unsuccessful. Therefore, a fully integrated geophysical and geological evaluation was carried out on the T38 anomaly comprising rock physics, amplitude variation with offset analysis, fault seal analysis and the acquisition of a CSEM survey which, supported by a valid geologic model, have reduced the risk from high to moderate. The results indicate that the anomaly has the potential to be sand-bearing and contain oil and gas. It is proposed that an integrated evaluation can reduce the level of uncertainty associated with an anomaly much more effectively and so improve the chance of exploration success.


Significant developments in the scientific front and international policy arena have affected the use and exchange of genetic resources, and the management of intellectual property. These developments are now reshaping public agricultural research and development (R&D) in developing countries, especially in the access, generation, and dissemination of research outputs. Three of the most important international treaties and conventions that are important in this context are the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (WTO-TRIPS), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). Already, majority of the developing countries are signatories to these treaties and could be expected to exploit them for their own advantage. On the other hand, non-member countries, despite their non-participation, must find alternative scenarios to be able to effectively address issues concerning IPR, agricultural biotechnology, and plant genetic resources. As the main source of innovation in public agricultural research, national agricultural research extension systems (NARES) need to be enlightened on the various aspects of these treaties and agreements and the impact on their respective research and extension activities. It may be necessary, for example, to tailor capacity-building initiatives on the IPR, agbiotech, and PGR aspects of international treaties to specific countries or regions since policy and enforcement mechanisms among NARES vary according to the availability of human and logistical resources, research priorities, and technology transfer objectives. This paper takes a look at the critical aspects of TRIPS, CBD, ITPGRFA, and other agreements, and studies their implications on public agbiotech R&D among NARS; compares initiatives by several Asian developing countries to comply with the provisions of these treaties and agreements; highlights PhilRice's initiatives to help its national government comply with its obligations under these treaties; and assesses and recommends a plan of action on the capacity-building of NARES institutions on IPR, agbiotech, and PGR management.


TO THE EDITOR: I read with great interest the article by Blum et al. recently published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology (1). The authors aimed to assess the reliability of the selfreported weight and height of nuclear medicine patients in view of recommendations for weight-dependent tracer application for imaging and therapy. In total, 824 patients (334 men and 490 women) were asked to report their weight and height before imaging or therapy, along with their level of confidence that the weight and height they were reporting were correct. Subsequently, the weight and height of each patient were measured, and body mass index, body surface area, and lean body mass were calculated. Differences between the reported and true values were compared for statistical significance. The results indicated that an overor underestimation of weight by at least 10% was observed in 2% of the patients, and height was overestimated by 1% of the patients. Surprisingly, the authors concluded that most self-reported weights and heights of nuclear medicine patients are accurate. However, there were some methodologic issues regarding accuracy and reliability. First, it is crucial to realize that accuracy and reliability are two completely different methodologic issues. The term accuracy means the degree to which the result of a measurement, calculation, or specification conforms to the correct value or a standard. In other words, accuracy is the most important criterion for the quality of a test and refers to whether the test measures what it claims to measure. The core design for determining and measuring the accuracy of a test is a comparison between an index test and a reference standard by applying both on similar people who are suspected of having the target result of interest. The term reliability denotes refinement of a measurement, calculation, or specification, especially as represented by the number of digits given. Accuracy studies should report significant and comprehensive information together with the absolute number of true-positive, false-positive, false-negative, and true-negative results or should provide information that allows calculation of a minimum of one diagnostic performance indicator (i.e., sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, or likelihood ratio). Therefore, we recommend applying the most appropriate estimates to evaluate the accuracy of the self-reported weight and height. The Pearson r or the Spearman r can be applied to assess accuracy for quantitative variables. However, for qualitative (binary) variables, some of the well-known ways to assess accuracy include sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio (ranging from 1 to infinity; the higher the positive likelihood ratio, the more accurate the test), negative likelihood ratio (ranging from 0 to 1; the lower the negative likelihood ratio, the more accurate the test), diagnostic accuracy, and odds ratio (ratio of true results to false results) (2–8). Second, what is critically important is reliability, which is conceptually different from accuracy. Consequently, our methodologic and statistical approach to assessing reliability should be different. Depending on the type of variable, appropriate estimates to assess reliability are completely different from those used to assess accuracy. For quantitative variables, we can apply either the intraclass correlation coefficient or Bland–Altman plots. For qualitative variables, we can apply the weighted k or the Fleiss k to assess intraor interobserver reliability, respectively. Thus, because of the inappropriate use of statistical tests (Student t test and ANOVA) for accuracy and reliability analyses, as well as misinterpretation of the results, there may be a high level of uncertainty about the conclusion of Blum et al. The evidence is insufficient to conclude that the self-reported weights and heights of nuclear medicine patients are accurate.


The focus of this paper is twofold: firstly we make a case for the use of Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques in the modelling and/or prediction of global weather, CO2 emissions, climate change and similar endeavours. CI exploits processes found in Nature, albeit by way of software simulations on digital computers (i.e. in silico), and excel in particular at pattern recognition and/or classification. Moreover, they are characterized as being non-algorithmic, bottom-up, data-driven, and learn-by-example. The second focus of this paper is to propose the use of carbon- rather than silicon-based computing, specifically in the form of DNA (or molecular) computing. Notwithstanding the unsolved difficulties with the latter (especially concerning Input/Output), its inherent massive parallelism has the potential to yield significant performance advantages. Finally, to come full circle, it could well eventuate that the inherent parallelism of DNA Computing could be brought to bear in the modelling/prediction endeavours mentioned previously.


Purpose : Doing regular physical activity has positive effects on health. Several environmental factors are identified as important correlates of physical activity. However, there seems to be a difference between perceived and objective measures of the environment. This study examines the influence of physical activity, neighbourhood walkability, and socio-demographic characteristics on the correspondence between self-reported and objectively measured walking time to urban destinations of adults in the city of Ghent (Belgium).
Methods : Previously collected survey data was used from 1164 respondents in the city of Ghent who reported walking times to various closest destinations in the neighbourhood of residence. These were compared with corresponding walking times that were objectively measured through geographical information systems. Physical activity was recorded over a 7-day period using accelerometers. Neighbourhood walkability was assessed on the basis of residential density, connectivity, and land-use mix.
Results : We observed a relatively poor agreement between objective and perceived walking times. Stronger agreements were noted amongst the most physically active group, while low-level walkers tended to overestimate walking time. Surprisingly, however, people residing in a low-walkable neighbourhood underestimated walking times more frequently relative to those in high-walkable neighbourhoods.
Conclusions : Researchers investigating the influence of environmental attributes on physical activity behavior should thus be cautious when using only self-reported environmental data, since these are a priori influenced by physical activity levels and various socio-demographic factors.


Chiarella provided the Second Circuit with an opportunity to resolve an important issue on which there previously had been no square holding: whether a person who is not an insider and has no inside knowledge about the company whose securities he is trading nevertheless has a duty to disclose nonpublic material information in his possession about impending stock market events. The court viewed such a person as a "market insider"'" and found a duty to disclose. To evaluate the propriety of imposing liability in this situation, this comment will first trace the development and expansion of liability for nondisclosure under rule 10b-5. Section I concludes that although most of the cases tie the duty to disclose to the defendant's insider status, they can plausibly be read in terms of an underlying regulatory principle of equal access to information. To test this hypothesis, Section I then examines cases involving outsiders who, since they owe no fiduciary duty to the shareholders of an issuer's securities, would have no duty to disclose absent another principle.

Section II of the comment then turns to the legislative history of the Exchange Act to determine if it supports an equal access principle. Section II finds, as did the case law prior to Chiarella, that legislative history fails to provide definitive support for an equal access principle. The comment concludes in Section III, however, that strong policy reasons favor adoption of such a principle.

In section IV the comment focuses on the Chiarella opinion, which adopted the principle of equal access and created a test to effectuate it. The comment concludes by endorsing Chiarella's adoption of the principle, criticizing the test adopted, proposing an alternative one for defining the scope of liability, and exploring its application in a variety of nondisclosure situations involving outsiders.


In this paper, we study Bessel processes of dimension $\delta\equiv2(1-\mu)$, with $0<\delta<2$, and some related martingales and random times. Our approach is based on martingale techniques and the general theory of stochastic processes (unlike the usual approach based on excursion theory), although for $0<\delta<1$, these processes are even not semimartingales. The last time before 1 when a Bessel process hits 0, called $g_{\mu}$, plays a key role in our study: we characterize its conditional distribution and extend Paul L\'{e}vy's arc sine law and a related result of Jeulin about the standard Brownian Motion. We also introduce some remarkable families of martingales related to the Bessel process, thus obtaining in some cases a one parameter extension of some results of Az\'{e}ma and Yor in the Brownian setting: martingales which have the same set of zeros as the Bessel process and which satisfy the stopping theorem for $g_{\mu}$, a one parameter extension of Az\'{e}ma's second martingale, etc. Throughout our study, the local time of the Bessel process also plays a central role and we shall establish some of its elementary properties.


The article describes the conception of limitation, the purpose and the main principles of application in the modern law, examines the reform of the institution of limitation after re-creation of the independence of Lithuania. The article also discuses the main changes of law norms of this institution maid in the new Civil code, the perspectives of legal regulation and application of limitation. When the independence of Lithuania was re-created the regulation of institution of limitation was inadequate to social economical circumstances and common principles of the public system juridical regulation. The Civil code regulation of the institution of limitation was essentially modified at 1994 - there was determined the uniform legal regime of application of limitation to all subjects of civil turnover and restored the effect of such principles as equality, disposition, impartiality of court in application of rules of limitation. It's determined that limitation can be applied in all cases only according the demand of the debtor (defendant). Some other innovations of legal regulation of limitation are also analysed by using the comparative method. These innovations are determined in the Civil Code confirmed by law No. VIII-1864 at 18th of July 2000 and causes the restriction of the application of limitation, granting the priority to defence of rights.


We developed a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active substrate based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown monolayer graphene-encapsulated silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and used it for the detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Monolayer graphene-encapsulated Ag NPs can be used as a stable substrate for up to 2 months under aerobic exposure. The single layer of graphene can effectively stabilize the Ag NPs against oxidation and corrosion in the presence of H2O2, Na2S and HNO3. Due to the combination of the Ag NPs with graphene, the Raman signals of probe molecules were dramatically enhanced. This platform exhibits extraordinarily high sensitivity and excellent stability for the detection of TNT, with a limit of detection as low as 6.6 × 10−10 mol L−1. This work provides a simple approach to fabricate graphene-encapsulated Ag NPs for sensitive SERS sensing of TNT after Fenton oxidation degradation.


Femoral to popliteal/distal bypass surgery is a procedure used to treat femoral artery disease. It is performed to bypass the narrowed or blocked portion of the main artery of the leg, redirecting blood through either a transplanted healthy blood vessel or through a man-made graft material. This vessel or graft is sewn above and below the diseased artery such that blood flows through the new vessel or graft. The bypass material used can be either the great saphenous vein from the same leg or a synthetic polytetrafluoroethylene or Dacron graft. Blockage is due to atherosclerosis that causes peripheral vascular disease. This procedure is recommended for patients with peripheral vascular disease for whom medical management has not improved symptoms, for those with leg pain at rest that interferes with quality of life and ability to work, for non-healing wounds, and for infections or gangrene of the leg where there is a danger of loss of limb caused by decreased blood flow. Here we demonstrate how to perform femoral-to-distal bypass in a cadaver.


As society looks to identify globally minded citizens and leaders to move us forward, sport and education have a leading role to play. The sport industry is unique in how globally focused it is, and therefore, it is critical that sport management students be well prepared for this world. Study-abroad experiences for sport management students have the ability to aid in their development as world-minded individuals. The current study sampled students from four sport management programs participating in study-abroad programs over a 3-year time frame. The pre- and posttest results on a scale of global mindedness revealed no significant differences before and after studying abroad; however, there were significant differences between the five factors of global mindedness. Reasons for these potential findings, related to the theory of reasoned action, are discussed, as well as how this study can be built on in future iterations.


"Land/Scape/Theater" proposes landscape as a necessary paradigm for understanding modern theater's increasingly spatialized aesthetic as well as its engagement with the cultural meanings of place and space.Embracing subjects as diverse as the "landscape dramaturgy" of Suzan-Lori Parks, Artaud's trip to the Sierra Madre, Gertrude Stein's landscape theory and practice, Guillermo Gomez-Pena's "border subjects," and Bayreuth and Disneyland as cultic sites, "Land/Scape/Theater" draws on a broad range of theory, dramatic texts, and performance. All aspects of modern theater, these essays suggest, including the bedrock Aristotelian constituents of plot and character, have a landscape dimension that often goes unrecognized.With its broad theoretical range and cross-disciplinary reach, "Land/Scape/Theater" will interest theater theorists and practitioners and cultural studies specialists, including historians of landscape. Theater students, scholars, teachers, directors, designers, and actors will find here a new framework and a new vocabulary for understanding both theater and the larger culture."


Abstract The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) attempted to promulgate a more stringent standard for worker exposure to benzene on the grounds that no level was safe and the proposed regulation was technically and economically feasible. Quantitative risk analyses showed the estimated reduction in leukemia to be extremely small while control costs were large. The Supreme Court vacated the standard on the grounds that OSHA had failed to demonstrate there was a significant risk at the current standard. Although surrounded by uncertainty, quantitative analyses of risk and cost provide better data for regulatory decisions.


Purpose: We attempt to describe the unique diagnostic features of dirofilariasis affecting the eye, a rare disease caused by the nematode dirofilaria repens. Case report: The cohort includes 5 adult cases of ocular dirofilariasis. Migratory oedema was present in all but one case. The occurrence of the lesions near the medial canthus in all the cases including subconjunctival mass suggests predictable pattern of migration of the worm. Absence of systemic eosinophila and lack of marked eosinophilic infiltration around the parasitic granuloma in histopathology indicates alternative immune response against the parasite. Persistence of live worm despite antihelminthic drugs can be accounted by the presence of a thick capsule which protects the filaria against adulticidal and larvicidal drugs. Surgical exicision was curative in all cases.Conclusion: Our case series points to the importance of having high index of suspicion and early detection of ocular dirofilariasis as it is amenable to simple and effective treatment.


— In this paper we consider how next generation of smart cameras will move beyond face detection and tracking to develop more useful analysis tools for determining the expressions and emotions of the subjects in images. An initial proof-of-concept using an extension of an Active Appearance Model (AAM) to measure facial parameters and a set of classifiers to determine facial states are described. Preliminary findings are encouraging and suggest that the use of the component-based AAM models and SVM classifiers will enable new applications and opportunities in smart cameras 1 .