Over the past decade, powerful technologies devoted to survey large molecular libraries for the presence of specific clones using the discriminative power of affinity selection have been developed. Phage surface display technology is the most established of these methods and has revolutionised our ability to select agonistic and antagonistic peptides, antibodies with desired specificity and other drug targets. Thereby ligands are expressed as fusions to phage coat proteins and their respective genes are packaged within the phage. The basic concept of linking the phenotype, expressed as gene product displayed on the phage coat, to its genetic information integrated into the phage genome, creates fusion proteins covalently associated with the infectious particle itself. Binding of the phage to the target molecule offers a selective system by which rare phage carrying the desired gene product can be selected from large phage populations carrying inappropriate sequences. Phage selected in this fashion can be used for subsequent rounds of selection because they are able to self-replicate in suitable host cells, yielding target-specific phage populations after several consecutive rounds of affinity selection. Over 1500 publications describe the use of phage display technology highlighting its performance. Phage display possesses certain limitations, including its use for selection of genes from cDNA libraries that has lagged behind, despite the many accomplishments of this technology. Here we discuss recent progress in construction and screening of cDNA libraries displayed on phage surface and emerging concepts allowing fast identification of virtually all different clones present in enriched libraries.


Modulation instability of a continuous infrared wave leading to red-shifting solitons and blue-shifting dispersive waves and then subsequent soliton trapping is shown to enable the generation of blue solitary waves in optical fibers. The physical mechanism is described in the context of continuous wave supercontinuum generation leading to a spectrum which spans the visible and near infrared within practical experimental conditions.


Summary How did deinstitutionalisation affect the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and people with a psychiatric background? This paper contains a systematic literature review on the consequences of deinstitutionalisation for the target groups, their social network and society at large. PubMed and Online Contents were searched from 2004 till February 2016. Inclusion criteria were (1) article describes (a) consequence(s) of deinstitutionalisation, (2) in Western countries and (3) the target group(s) include people with psychiatric or intellectual disabilities. Sixty-one papers were found and analysed to establish positive, negative or mixed results. Findings The positive effects pertain to the quality of life of people with disabilities after deinstitutionalisation. They learned adaptive skills and receive better care. Negative effects relate to more criminal behaviour by the target groups, victimisation of the target groups and physical health issues. Life for the most severely afflicted people with disabilities deteriorated when they moved to smaller group homes in the community. Mixed effects were also found. It is not clear whether deinstitutionalisation leads to real inclusion in the community. It is equally unclear whether it is cheaper than large-scale institutional care. Only a few studies investigate the effects on family members but some show they are overburdened. Applications Social workers catering for people with disabilities should pay attention to risks for their health and safety and keep an eye on family members. Those who are asked to advise on deinstitutionalisation should consider that this may not benefit the most severely afflicted.


Researchers commonly assume that business groups, a ubiquitous organizational form in emerging markets, permit affiliated firms to share risk by smoothing income flows and by reallocating money from one affiliate to another in times of distress. This view has received support in the literature on Japanese keiretsu. To examine the generality of these findings worldwide, we amass a new data set on business groups in 15 emerging markets, and couple this with historical and modern data from Japan. Our results, using multiple estimation techniques, corroborate the existing evidence on risk sharing within the Japanese keiretsu. In addition, in some emerging markets such as Brazil, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, we find evidence suggesting that group affiliation is associated with a 20 – 30 percent reduction in the standard deviation of operating returns. We also find evidence of substantial "liquidity smoothing" in India, although data constraints prevent us from knowing the extent to which this phenomenon is widespread. However, risk reduction by business groups is far from a universal phenomenon -the magnitude of the effect is small in most of the other countries in our sample, even though it is sometimes statistically significant. Tests of two-dimensional first-order-stochastic-dominance suggest that the Japan result – that group affiliated firms have both lower levels of operating profitability and lower standard deviations of operating profitability – does not generalize to most emerging markets. Finally, we find no correlation between the extent of income smoothing provided by groups and measures of capital market development. We conclude that the provision of risk sharing, to compensate for under-developed capital markets, is probably not the most important reason for the ubiquity of business groups around the world.


Nanoporous low-k dielectrics are used for integrated circuit interconnects to reduce the propagation delays, and cross talk noise between metal wires as an alternative material for SiO2. These materials, typically organosilicate glass (OSG) films, are exposed to oxygen plasmas during photoresist stripping and related processes which substantially damage the film by abstracting carbon, incorporating O and OH, eventually leading to significantly increased k values. Systematic studies have been performed to understand the oxygen plasma-induced damage mechanisms on different low-k OSG films of various porosity and pore interconnectedness. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy are used to understand the damage kinetics of O radicals, ultraviolet photons and charged species, and possible ways to control the carbon loss from the film. FTIR results demonstrate that O radical present in the plasma is primarily responsible for carbon abstraction and this is governed by diffusion mechanism involving interconnected film nanopores. The loss of carbon from the film can be controlled by closing the pore interconnections, He plasma pretreatment is an effective way to control the damage at longer exposure by closing the connections between the pores.


We consider feature selection and weighting for nearest neighbor classifiers. A technical challenge in this scenario is how to cope with discrete update of nearest neighbors when the feature space metric is changed during the learning process. This issue, called the target neighbor change, was not properly addressed in the existing feature weighting and metric learning literature. In this paper, we propose a novel feature weighting algorithm that can exactly and efficiently keep track of the correct target neighbors via sequential quadratic programming. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first algorithm that guarantees the consistency between target neighbors and the feature space metric. We further show that the proposed algorithm can be naturally combined with regularization path tracking, allowing computationally efficient selection of the regularization parameter. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm through experiments.


Is 4 × 12 closer to 40 or 50? How many paper clips can you hold in your hand? If the restaurant bill is $119.23, how much should you leave for a tip? How long will it take to make the 50-mile drive to Washington? If a 10-year-old is 5 feet tall, how tall will the child be at age 20? You may sense the urgency in this title. Curricula, standards, focal points, and assessment guidelines all provide mathematics teachers with guidance about what's important at different levels of instruction. Some goals are more elusive than others and perhaps vaguely defi ned. My goal, hope, and wish are for all students to leave elementary school with a strong sense of number that will then expand and develop in middle school, before engaging in higher-level mathematics at the high school level. So, this column is all about the importance of number sense! How does number sense begin? This is where cognitive psychology comes in. Early on, children are able to literally see small quantities, develop basic counting skills, and add small amounts. An early sense of number is mostly intuitive, developing through a variety of experiences. Home is a great place to start. I often talk to parents about having early math conversations with children. "How many spoons?" "Which is more?" "How do you know?" "What's one more?" "Two more?" "One less?" " Two less?" "How many steps to the door?" "How long do you think the drive will take?" Talk, talk, talk! These experiences bring math into the lives of children early on. Students approach school with a growing sense of number, and parents and others can build on this. Once children begin their mathematics in school, a variety of mathematical experiences help develop a more formal sense of number. These experiences include, but are certainly not limited to, working with place value, composing and decomposing numbers, understanding how addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division work, acquiring basic facts, and developing fl uency with whole-number operations. Number sense also requires an understanding of how the commutative, associative, and distributive properties work and how they are used in learning basic-fact combinations, adding columns of numbers, and seeing how the multiplication algorithm works. This work must extend to fractions, decimals, and related percents as students move through the elementary grades into middle school. Students who have a good sense of number are able to provide a reasonable response to the examples above, including the driving example. And they know that there is no proportion-driven response for the fi nal example. Number sense, however, is also about knowing that 6 + 7 and 7 + 6 both produce a sum of 13; that 25 × 7 is less than 200; that the quotient for 1/2 ÷ 1/4 is larger than 1/2; that the stadium could not seat 400,000 people; that tripling the square footage wouldn't make for the most economical home to heat; and so on. As students estimate, talk about numbers, compute, use mental math, and judge the reasonableness of their results, they become more fl exible in working with numbers. A sense of number emerges that is built on the foundations discussed above, which yield responses such as, "I knew 3/4 was more than 3/5 because the pieces were bigger in fourths." This is what all math teachers want. Such "aha!" classroom moments remind us about the importance of understanding. No, we can't wait. Number sense is important and needed—right now. Ω An early sense of number is mostly intuitive, developing through a variety of experiences. Home is a great place to start.


The internal auditor's role in mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions are a way of life in today's commercial banking industry. They were partly responsible for the number of banks declining from approximately 14,500 in 1984 to about 9,200 as of September 1997. In the last few years, merger activity among the nation's largest banks has intensified, with numerous multi-billion-dollar deals announced since the beginning of 1995--more than ever before. Given the unique challenges such mergers and acquisitions present, management should understand how the internal auditors who already work for them can play a vital role in facilitating these transactions by saving time and money. This article tells the story of how the internal auditors at one bank did so in a recent merger. BEYOND THE DUE-DILIGENCE PROCESS The internal auditors' role in bank mergers and acquisitions usually is associated with the due-diligence process. Auditors can provide senior management with vital information about the value of the company being acquired, its financial condition, any weaknesses in its financing or internal controls as well as its history, customer base, property conditions and management practices. Frequently, however, when two large, well-established companies decide to merge, the due-diligence process is less important than expected by internal auditors who have never been involved in a merger. Because senior management already has decided the merger makes strategic sense, due diligence is more of a fact-finding mission than a critical step in the decision-making process. Due diligence is only one aspect of the services an internal audit department can--and should--perform in a bank acquisition. Once the transaction is announced, the acquiring bank forms a team to begin the transition. Frequently, internal auditors are overlooked as players on that team. Management often sees them only as fact checkers and not as a source of important new information. This is not the case. Because internal auditors already have in-depth knowledge of the operations and employees in every important area of the acquiring company, they can be extremely valuable as key advisers to senior management throughout the process, resulting in both calculable and incalculable savings. If management does not automatically involve its internal auditors, they should take the lead and prepare a proposal of work they can perform during the transition and then review that plan with management. Auditors who have no such experience should focus their planning efforts on mitigating operational and financial risk, retaining customers and reducing expenses during the transition period. At NationsBank, the results of work the internal auditors had performed in previous mergers were reviewed and enhancements made for the new merger plans, incorporating lessons learned from past experiences. Despite the positive experience NationsBank has had involving its internal auditors in the merger process, managements at other companies may still balk, fearing the auditors will get in the way or won't have the skills needed to add value during the transaction. To become part of the merger team, internal auditors may have to play a more nontraditional role. The NationsBank auditors helped anticipate what might go wrong during the merger, participated on teams to clean up problem areas and pointed out lessons from previous mergers. As a general rule, internal auditors should try to get involved in the merger process as early as possible and begin adding value so management recognizes them as valuable team members. SAVINGS OPPORTUNITIES NationsBank has had a number of large acquisitions in its history and the internal audit department has played a significant role in the larger mergers since 1989. Originally, it was the department's managers who proposed to the bank's senior management that they could make a contribution during the merger transition process. …


This case highlights the atypical presentation of acute brachial neuritis or Parsonage Turner Syndrome, which usually presents as sudden onset of severe shoulder pain with loss of function. A 36-year-old squash player presented with a history of persistent left shoulder pain of insidious onset. On examination, he was found to have significant wasting, as well as weakness, on testing of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles. Electromyography (EMG) confirmed denervation and showed some evidence of re-innervation of both infraspinatus and supraspinatus. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed no compressive lesion, but evidence of muscle denervation.


To cite: Adelborg K, Grove EL, Sundbøll J, et al. Heart 2016;102:1883– 1889. ABSTRACT Objective Antithrombotic drugs are widely used in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases; yet, nationwide long-term usage trends remain unexplored. We examined long-term trends in the use of antithrombotic drugs in Denmark. Methods Using nationwide prescription data, we obtained information on primary care use of antiplatelet drugs, vitamin K antagonists (VKA), non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOAC), heparins and fondaparinux during 1999–2014. Results During the 16-year period, the use of antithrombotic drugs per 1000 inhabitants/day increased from 64 to 96 defined daily doses (DDD), and the prevalence proportion of users doubled from 5.1% to 9.6% of the Danish population. From 1999 to 2014, there was an increased use of both antiplatelet drugs (from 60 to 79 DDD per 1000 inhabitants/day) and VKA (from 4 to 9 DDD per 1000 inhabitants/day). NOAC was marketed in 2008 and had an abrupt rise in use to 8 DDD per 1000 inhabitants/day in 2014. The use of heparins and fondaparinux increased slightly during the study period (from 0 to 0.6 DDD per 1000 inhabitants/ day). Hospital use of antithrombotic drugs also increased during the study period, but constituted a minor part of the total use (4 DDD per 1000 inhabitants/day in 2014). Conclusions Considerable changes have occurred in the use of antithrombotic drugs during the past 16 years, including the introduction of several new and increasingly used treatment modalities such as NOAC. The trends in use of individual drugs correlate well with the publication of landmark studies.


Abstract Sensory judgments have always been a part of medical practice, as sensory studies scholars have emphasized. However, in current regulatory, management and technological contexts, there is a push toward rational decision-making procedures and test-based evidence over clinical diagnosis. Sociological scholarship highlights that in focusing on explicit medical knowledge and disembodied data we take for granted aspects of healthcare work, including the ways in which health and illness is sensed. Research in sociologies of diagnosis and social studies of science and technology has captured that while the senses continue to play a role in medical work, the status and practice of this sensory work is not straightforward as evidenced by dual use of the senses and tests and the delegation of sensory work. Based on semi-structured interviews with expert doctors in diverse specialties, this article examines the sensory work of medical decision-making, with attention to its legitimacy. It examines applications of the senses from auscultation to ongoing sensing of patients' bodies unmediated and via technological outputs. While critical to clinical judgments, there is discomfort with this sensory work in light of medico-legal pressures. I argue that the sensory work of diagnosis is vital, to the extent that gaps in sensory information imply gaps in understanding.


Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is a topic of increasing relevance across virtually all sectors of our society, with the potential for significant impact on corporations and more broadly on our economy and our society. In spite of the fact that human capital is typically the most valuable asset of every organization, Human Resources (HR) in general and D&I, in particular, are dominated by qualitative approaches. We introduce an agent-based simulation that can quantify the impact of certain aspects of D&I on corporate performance. We show that the simulation provides a parsimonious and compelling explanation of the impact of hiring and promotion biases on the resulting corporate gender balance. We show that varying just two parameters enables us to replicate real-world data about gender imbalances across multiple industry sectors. In addition, we show that the simulation can be used to predict the likely impact of different D&I interventions. Specifically, we show that once a company has become imbalanced, even removing all promotion biases is not sufficient to rectify the situation, and that it can take decades to undo the imbalances initially created by these biases. These and other results demonstrate that agent-based simulation is a powerful approach for managing D&I in corporate settings, and suggest that it has the potential to become an invaluable tool for both strategic and tactical management of human capital.


Power shifts: leading, following, sharing, solidarity, sponsorship, mentoring…

Organisations, whether working in the public, private or third sector, are increasingly being pushed to have their leaders more closely reflect the demographic profiles of the communities in which they work. The discussion started with women on boards, and in many ways that remains the dominant focus, but there are increasing calls for broader understandings of board diversity than solely gender (Sealy et al., 2009a). However, while the challenge is not new, progress remains slow, even in terms of women's representation (as a majority minority), let alone in terms of other minority groups, and the question remains – how to change the demographics of the leaders of organisations.

Drawing from the work done on women and leadership we can see how the arguments for gender equity in organisational leadership are well-rehearsed, from those arguing on the basis of human rights and sensible talent management (World Economic Forum, 2014) to those who argue that gender-balanced boards outperform those which include none, or very limited numbers of women (Wiley and Monllor-Tormos, 2018). While the strategies for change have ranged from individual development, through equality policy measures (Ely and Meyerson, 2000), to recognising the need to transform organisations, or society (Martin, 2003) and a slightly separate, but vibrant set of conversations about the need to challenge and change practices of leadership and leadership development (Chetkovich and Kunreuther, 2004, Ganz, 2010, Western, 2008).

My doctoral research looked at a practice named by the global women's organisation which was being studied as "intergenerational-shared leadership". A concept developed within the organisation to support their constitution requirement that 25% of board members should be young women (defined as 30 years of age or younger). However, like many other organisations with an intention to make their boards more reflective of their political commitments and the communities they serve, there is a gap between goals and outcomes.

In considering how the more progress could be made in not only realising the young women's quota, but ensuring those young women were then able to exercise the powers associated with being a board member, the question of followership arose. In particular, whether developing an understanding of followership as an active and critical process that deliberately engaged established women leaders to support the emergence of new, and particularly young, women leaders within the organisation through not only sharing leadership, but being willing to follow (Lewis, 2017). This idea relies on an understanding that leadership development is a collective organisational practice involving both leaders and follows, rather than solely focused on individual leaders (Day, 2000). A practice of active and critical followership would acknowledge the power of followers, particularly within democratic organisations, to help shape a collective practice of leadership within an organisation. However, the idea of labelling this as a practice of followership or in fact suggesting people consider themselves followers is neither wholly uncontested within the organisation, nor amongst other leadership scholars (Ford and Harding, 2018).

Responding to a call for papers for another conference the practice of active and critical followership was reshaped as an expression of solidarity (Oosterlynck et al., 2016, Segal, 2013), and that has led to a wondering of how else the work of established organisational leaders in helping new organisational leaders to emerge, particularly from under-represented groups could be framed. Particularly, whether there were other concepts that might be more acceptable and potentially less confrontational, without losing the sense of a shift in power that the idea of active and critical followership was meant to imply – not a loss of power, but a shift.

Thus the central idea to be developed and explored through this paper is to identify other concepts that have been developed to facilitate established organisational leaders supporting the emergence and progression of newer leaders, such as mentoring or sponsorship and to consider how they might differ from the idea of offering followership or shared leadership, and particularly consider how the underlying approaches to power (Lukes, 1974, Veneklasen and Miller, 2002) differ across those concepts.

Mentoring has long been called upon as a practice whereby established organisational leaders can either lend their experience to help under-represented groups rise through the organisation (Chao et al., 1992, Sealy et al., 2009b). Within my research organisation mentoring is often discussed as a practice within "intergenerational-shared leadership", however there is also a recognition that mentoring can often serve to reinforce age and power hierarchies. So, if mentoring isn't suitable, then perhaps sponsorship (Ibarra et al., 2010), as a practice distinct and perhaps more recognising of power and more outward facing than mentoring. Or returning to the work of activists, in addition to the idea of solidarity, there is also a concept of allyship (Droogendyk et al., 2016), which importantly for this discussion explicitly recognises the role of privilege.

As this abstract is drafted the outcome of the intended exploration is not known. However, it is hoped that by considering the role of power within practices such as mentoring, sponsorship, solidarity and allyship that some useful ideas can be offered in reflection on both theory and practice.

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PURPOSE
To compare cisplatin plus fluorouracil (FU) versus carboplatin plus paclitaxel in chemotherapy-naïve advanced anal cancer to establish the optimal regimen.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients who had not received systemic therapy for advanced anal cancer were randomly assigned 1:1 to intravenous cisplatin 60 mg/m2 (day 1) plus FU 1,000 mg/m2 (days 1-4) every 21 days or carboplatin (area under the curve, 5; day 1) plus paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 (days 1, 8, and 15) every 28 days for 24 weeks, until disease progression, intolerable toxicity, or withdrawal of consent. Primary end point was objective response rate (ORR). Primary and secondary end points were assessed in a hierarchic model to compare the regimens and pick the winner.

RESULTS
We conducted an international multicenter randomized phase II study in 60 centers between December 2013 and November 2017. Median follow-up was 28.6 months. A total of 91 patients were randomly assigned: 46 to cisplatin plus FU and 45 to carboplatin plus paclitaxel. ORR was 57% (95% CI, 39.4% to 73.7%) for cisplatin plus FU versus 59% (95% CI, 42.1% to 74.4%) for carboplatin plus paclitaxel. More serious adverse events were noted in the cisplatin plus FU arm (62%) compared with the carboplatin plus paclitaxel arm (36%; P = .016). Median progression-free survival was 5.7 months (95% CI, 3.3 to 9.0 months) for cisplatin plus FU compared with 8.1 months (95% CI, 6.6 to 8.8 months) for carboplatin plus paclitaxel. Median overall survival was 12.3 months for cisplatin plus FU (95% CI, 9.2 to 17.7 months) compared with 20 months (95% CI, 12.7 months to not reached) for carboplatin plus paclitaxel (hazard ratio, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.15 to 3.47; P = .014).

CONCLUSION
This is the first international randomized trial to our knowledge conducted in chemotherapy-naïve advanced anal cancer. Although there was no difference in ORR, the association with clinically relevant reduced toxicity and a trend toward longer survival suggest that carboplatin plus paclitaxel should be considered as a new standard of care.


Myanmar is one of the mangrove‐richest countries in the world, providing valuable ecosystem services to people. However, due to deforestation driven primarily by agricultural expansion, Myanmar's mangrove forest cover has declined dramatically over the past few decades, while what remains is still under pressure. To support management planning, accurate quantification of mangrove forest cover changes on a national scale is needed. In this study, we quantified Myanmar's mangrove forest cover changes between 2000 and 2014 using remotely sensed data, examined the environmental impacts of such changes, and estimated the changes in the economic values of mangrove ecosystem services in the country. Results indicate that Myanmar had a net mangrove loss of 191,122 ha over the study period. Since 2000, Myanmar has been losing mangrove forest cover at an alarming rate of 14,619 ha/year (2.2%/year). The loss was predominant in Rakhine and Ayeyarwady. The observed mangrove forest cover loss has resulted in decreased evapotranspiration, carbon stock, and tree cover percentage. Due to deforestation, Myanmar also suffered a net loss of 2,397 million US$/year in its mangrove ecosystem service value (i.e. 28.7% decrease from 2000), in which maintenance of fisheries nursery populations and habitat and coastal protection were among those services that were greatly affected. We suggest that intensive reforestation and mangrove protection programs be implemented immediately. Agroforestry and community forestry programs are encouraged in areas that are under immense pressure from paddy field expansion, fuelwood extraction, charcoal production, and fish and shrimp farming activities. Potential alternative sustainable solutions should include intensive government‐led private forest plantations or community‐owned forest plantations to be developed with care by local farmers, nongovernmental organizations, and business owners.


Biomimetic design finds its muse in the natural world, more pertinently from the processes, anatomy, and function of site-specific flora and fauna. Maintaining a critical role in the development of a sustainable and environmentally responsible society, it relates to the dynamic between climate and living organisms, seeking to work with rather than against the external environment, promising to yield new means by which built environment research and design professionals may respond to and interact with their environment. At Manchester School of Architecture, innovation within biomimetic design studio culture has led to the incorporation of design strategies, which examine the properties of living systems in order to extrapolate desirable attributes from them and subsequently synthesise new responses. Employing research by design methodologies, students learn from the evolution of natural systems, incorporating these findings in their design work, emphasising ways of thinking and designing that brings architecture into a process of environmental and biological focus. As such, the methodology employed raises the prospect of closer integration of form and function, promising to yield new means by which students may respond to and interact with their own environment. This paper advocates the proposition and utilisation of the biomimetic model with regard to architectural education and building design. The development of which may prove more than a hypothetical metaphor, but a new biomimetic design paradigm, a model for holistic, sustainable urban design, an ecologically synergistic, generative architecture of an energy positive and progressive tomorrow. Keywords: biomimetics, process-based ecotonic architecture, biomimetic sustainability, architectural education.


The plantar fascia (PF) tissue plays an important role in the movement and the stability of the foot during walking and running. Thus it is possible for the overuse and the associated medical problems to cause injuries and some severe common diseases. Ultrasound (US) imaging offers significant potential in diagnosis of PF injuries and monitoring treatments. Despite the advantages of US, the generated PF images are difficult to interpret during medical assessment. This is partly due to the size and position of the PF in relation to the adjacent tissues. This limits the use of US in clinical practice and therefore impacts on patient services for what is a common problem and a major cause of foot pain and discomfort. It is therefore a requirement to devise an automated system that allows better and easier interpretation of PF US images during diagnosis. This study is concerned with developing a computer-based system using a combination of medical image processing techniques whereby different PF US images can be visually improved, segmented, analysed and classified as normal or abnormal, so as to provide more information to the doctors and the clinical treatment department for early diagnosis and the detection of the PF associated medical problems. More specifically, this study is required to investigate the possibility of a proposed model for localizing and estimating the PF thickness a cross three different sections (rearfoot, midfoot and forefoot) using a supervised ANN segmentation technique. The segmentation method uses RBF artificial neural network module in order to classify small overlapping patches into PF and non-PF tissue. Feature selection technique was performed as a post-processing step for feature extraction to reduce the number of the extracted features. Then the trained RBF-ANN is used to segment the desired PF region. The PF thickness was calculated using two different methods: distance transformation and a proposed area-length calculation algorithm. Additionally, different machine learning approaches were investigated and applied to the segmented PF region in order to distinguish between symptomatic and asymptomatic PF subjects using the best normalized and selected feature set. This aims to facilitate the characterization and the classification of the PF area for the identification of patients with inferior heel pain at risk of plantar fasciitis. Finally, a novelty detection framework for detecting the symptomatic PF samples (with plantar fasciitis disorder) using only asymptomatic samples is proposed. This model implies the following: feature analysis, building a normality model by training the one-class SVDD classifier using only asymptomatic PF training datasets, and computing novelty scores using the trained SVDD classifier, training and testing asymptomatic datasets, and testing symptomatic datasets of the PF dataset. The performance evaluation results showed that the proposed approaches used in this study obtained favourable results compared to other methods reported in the literature.


Rock falls in coal mines cause many injuries each year. Most of these injuries are not caused by major roof collapses, but from falls of smaller rocks from the immediate top or roof skin. Even though safety professionals and mine operators strive to reduce these types of injuries, there has not been a substantial decrease in the rock fall injury rate over the past decade. Various surface controls are used in mines to control the roof skin. One control that has proven to be very effective is roof screening. Roof screen effectively controls roof skin and provides a high roof surface coverage. Although many mines are reluctant to use screen for primary skin control because of the additional costs of time and materials, others are having great success at controlling both the costs and surface rock. In this study, injury data are presented that show a dramatic reduction in roof skin injuries when screening is used. Much of this success is due to the protection from falling rock that the operators receive from roof screen. Five case studies in which roof screen was used are presented along with the associated costs of materials, impact on bolting advance rates, and potential ergonomic risks. The effects of roof screening on skin control and safety are also included. Finally, this paper provides information about best practices and features of roof bolting machines that affect production and safety.


Printing ceramics into complex shapes Some materials, such as thermoplastics and metals, are naturally suited to being 3D printed because the individual particles can be fused together by applying heat. In contrast, ceramics do not fuse together the same way. Eckel et al. developed a way to pattern specific preceramic monomers using either 3D printing or stereolithography into complex, curved, and porous shapes. Upon heating, they observed almost no shrinkage, and the formed parts showed exceptional thermal stability. Science, this issue p. 58 Preceramic monomers can be patterned, using stereolithography or 3D printing, into complex shapes and cellular architectures. The extremely high melting point of many ceramics adds challenges to additive manufacturing as compared with metals and polymers. Because ceramics cannot be cast or machined easily, three-dimensional (3D) printing enables a big leap in geometrical flexibility. We report preceramic monomers that are cured with ultraviolet light in a stereolithography 3D printer or through a patterned mask, forming 3D polymer structures that can have complex shape and cellular architecture. These polymer structures can be pyrolyzed to a ceramic with uniform shrinkage and virtually no porosity. Silicon oxycarbide microlattice and honeycomb cellular materials fabricated with this approach exhibit higher strength than ceramic foams of similar density. Additive manufacturing of such materials is of interest for propulsion components, thermal protection systems, porous burners, microelectromechanical systems, and electronic device packaging.


Background : Nutrition plays an important role to the success of fast track programs, but under nutrition are still reported. Nutritional care seems to be a low priority among nurses even though it is well-known that insufficient nutrition has severe consequences for the patients. The aim is to report to what extent a training program has made Nutritional Nurse Practitioners aware of the nutritional care for short-term hospitalized patients, and how they deal with patients' nutritional needs and ability to provide self-care in the context of a fast track program. Methods : Deductive content analysis was used to analyse data from four focus group interviews. Sixteen Nutritional Nurse Practitioners from either medical or surgery wards participated. The Nutritional Nurse Practitioners were inter- viewed twice. The interviews were recorded and verbally transcribed. Results: In the Nutritional Nurse Practitioners' opinion nutritional care is as important as any other treatment. Nutritional care should be planned with the patients to stimulate the patient to be active during admission and after discharges. Therefore, information and guidance to the patients and their relatives about nutrition is essential. It seems to be difficult for the Nutritional Nurse Practitioners to focus on nutritional care when it comes to everyday. Firstly due to time constraints and secondly higher priority is given to tasks delegated by the physician. Conclusions: Despite Nutritional Nurse Practitioners are responsible for nutritional care and possess knowledge and skills to care for patients at nutritional risk, they find it challenging to handle nutritional problems. They do not explicitly pay attention to patients on fast track programs, but give higher priority to tasks delegated by the physician. This priority and the fact that Nutritional Nurse Practitioners find it difficult to exemplify evidence-based nursing interventions for specific nutritional problems, makes the nursing profession imperceptible to patients, relatives and healthcare professionals as a resource within its own area of responsibility.


This report covers a feasibility study for a wind power project in Sri Lanka. Three potential sites for a wind farm are presented, out of which the Ambewela Cattle Farm is chosen as the most suitable. Limitations of a wind farm at the site, due to properties of the electrical grid and logistical issues, are examined and costs related to installing the wind farm are estimated. The maximum capacity of a wind farm is calculated to 45 MW. The payback period of the wind farm is calculated to 4.4 years. Environmental benefits of the wind farm are estimated in terms of avoided CO2-emissions, which are calculated to 76 000 metric tonnes per year. The study concludes that a wind power project at the chosen site should be technically and financially feasible, if a wind turbine that matches certain logistical criteria can be found.


Abstract CASE HISTORY: A 13 kg 3.5-year-old male neutered Cocker Spaniel presented with a 6-day history of deteriorating hindlimb paresis. Approximately 10 weeks previously the owner reported removing a large number of barley grass seeds from the dog's coat and ears. Eight weeks later the dog was treated for pneumonia, based on clinical findings and thoracic radiographs. In the 4 days prior to referral the dog had a decreased appetite, was lethargic and appeared unable to urinate voluntarily. CLINICAL FINDINGS: The dog was bright and alert but unable to walk. Upper motor neuron signs were indicative of T3–L3 spinal lesion. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an abnormal low signal linear structure within the left T12–T13 neural foramen extending to the left lateral aspects of the thoracic spinal cord was detected, consistent with a foreign body. A left T12–T13 lateral hemilaminectomy was performed and a grass seed removed from a tract extending caudally from the T12–13 space, dorsal to the lumbar transverse processes and the rib head. The dog made a rapid recovery after surgery with full resolution of clinical signs. DIAGNOSIS: Spinal empyema caused by a migrating barley grass awn (Hordeum spp.). CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Advanced imaging using MRI can bea valuable method for localising foreign bodies prior to exploratory surgery. Animals presenting with neurological signs should have foreign body reactions included as a differential diagnosis.


This paper investigates the determinants of academic achievements of post-reform undergraduate students of Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Academic achievements are measured with the students' grade point averages and time to graduation. The set of independent variables contains information on students' personal characteristics, prior academic achievements, family background, academic track at university, and several "peer-group" effects. The novelty of this paper is threefold: i) we use a rich data set obtained by matching the University's administrative data records with the data drawn from the AlmaLaurea questionnaires, ii) we pay particular attention to the effects of academic track regularity on students' performance, and iii) we propose a theoretical model of a trade-off between grades and time to graduation, and test empirically its validity by taking into account the problem of reciprocal causation between grades and time to graduation. The model suggests that grades and time to graduation are inversely related. While there is an unambiguous effect of students' ability and financial condition on grades, these effects are less straightforward in the case of time to graduation. The sign and the magnitude of the effects of ability and financial condition on time to graduation depends on students' academic track regularity. Moreover, the relative importance of grades and time to graduation depends, in addition to ability and financial situation, also on the external economic conditions in the labor market. Our empirical exercise confirms the predictions of the model. JEL-Code: I210, I230, D910.


What does it mean to watch two-hour long news programmes every evening? Why are some people 'addicted' to the news while others prefer to switch off? Television is an indispensable part of the fabric of modern life and this book investigates a facet of this process: its impact on the ways that we experience the political entity of the nation and our national and transnational identities.

Drawing on anthropological, social and media theory and grounded on a two-year original ethnography of television news viewing in Athens, the book offers a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective in understanding the media/identity relationship. Starting from a perspective that examines identities as lived and as performed, the book follows the circulation of discourses about the nation and belonging and contrasts the articulation of identities at a local level with the discourses about the nation in the national television channels. The book asks: whether, and in what ways does television influence identity discourses and practices? When do people contest the official discourses about the nation and when do they rely on them? Do the media play a role in relation to inclusion and exclusion from public life, particularly in the case of minorities?

The book presents a compelling account of the contradictory and ambivalent nature of national and transnational identities while developing a nuanced approach to media power. It is argued that although the media do not shape identities in a causal way, they do contribute in creating common communicative spaces which often catalyse feelings of belonging or exclusion. The book claims a place in the emerging sub-field of media anthropology and represents the new generation of audience research that places media consumption in the wider social, economic and political context.


ABSTRACT Turkey has had a long track record of coalition governments, yet when the June 7, 2015 general elections produced a hung parliament attempts at establishing a new coalition government failed. Why was this so? This paper argues that the non-compromising attitude of the AKP and the MHP, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the recalcitrance of the President, who perceived any government he had no firm control over as a threat to his political career, undermined any effort at establishing a coalition government. The terror campaign of the PKK and efforts by the AKP and the MHP to demonize the HDP as the party of terror also undermined the chances of the CHP to form a coalition that included the HDP. Hence, Turkey's chances of establishing a democratic government through compromise failed and the country went back to polarizing politics of competitive authoritarianism under the hegemony of the one-party government of the AKP.


SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 48 Downpours challenged many of the nation's farmers this month, while cool, stormy weather often kept spring revelers indoors or well bundled. Cool conditions were especially prevalent in the north-central United States, although rainfall provided drought relief on the northern High Plains. Elsewhere across the nation's mid-section, wet weather on the east-central and southeastern Plains contrasted with chronic drought on the High Plains from eastern Colorado and western Kansas southward. Meanwhile, spotty rains kept the southeastern drought at bay—at least temporarily—despite underlying long-term rainfall deficits. Elsewhere, rapidly fluctuating conditions affected the West, where unusually heavy precipitation followed a mid-month heat wave. Western water-supply prospects for the spring and summer runoff season remained mostly favorable, except in California and the Great Basin. Monthly temperatures averaged 2 to 6°F below normal across the nation's northern tier from the northern Plains into the Northeast. Readings averaged 2 to 4°F below normal in the Southwest but were 2 to 4°F above normal in the southcentral United States, including much of Texas. Elsewhere, near-normal temperatures prevailed in the Southeast, while the mid-May heat wave boosted monthly readings slightly above normal in the Pacific Northwest.


Students who are hard of hearing (HOH) are being granted access to university increasingly, yet they remain significantly under-represented and under-supported, often resulting in poor academic outcomes with elevated levels of attrition. This situation places a growing obligation on universities to improve the support provided to these students in order to have a positive influence on their overall academic experience and eventual economic independence. This trend is relevant to South Africa, where Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are accepting and registering students with a hearing loss but are not providing adequate academic support and inclusive curricula. Furthermore, in South Africa, almost no research has been conducted concerning students who are HOH in higher education regarding their teaching and learning needs or the coping strategies which they use to survive academically. However, what is known is that, of those HOH students who do enter higher education, many do not graduate successfully (up to 75%) and, of those that do graduate, many continue to be excluded from professions. The aims of this article were to report on the teaching and learning experiences of students who are HOH at a South African university, who prefer to make use of spoken language, to share the daily barriers with which they are faced, and to provide recommendations for teaching and learning, as well as curricula transformation. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on this topic in South Africa and could be relevant in similar contexts.


Summary 1. Where populations are confined to fragmented, human-dominated landscapes, preventing declines and extirpations will often rely on metapopulation management. Spatially-explicit population viability analyses provide tools to evaluate how well the local management efforts can be combined to conserve metapopulations across large areas. Yet, metapopulation models have rarely been combined with tools to assess the cost-effectiveness of different conservation strategies. 2. European bison Bison bonasus only occur in small, fragmented populations, making their long-term survival dependent on establishing a metapopulation across eastern Europe. We parameterized a European bison metapopulation model based on time-series of bison demography and a habitat suitability map to assess the viability of bison populations in the Carpathians and the relative cost-effectiveness of (i) reintroductions, (ii) wildlife overpasses and (iii) anti-poaching measures in establishing a viable bison metapopulation. 3. Our results suggest that the Carpathians could support a viable metapopulation of European bison provided that active efforts are taken to safeguard bison and connect isolated herds. With such steps, our model forecasts that bison numbers could increase substantially over the next 100 years as local populations increase and bison recolonize parts of the Carpathians. 4. Reintroductions appear to be the most cost-effective approach for establishing a viable bison metapopulation among our scenarios, especially when coupled with wildlife overpasses to improve connectivity among herds. The most promising region for a bison metapopulation in the Carpathians was south-eastern Poland, Ukraine and northern Romania. We identified several candidate regions for reintroductions and wildlife overpasses, especially in the border region of Romania and Ukraine. Site-specific assessments of both habitat suitability, and the costs and benefits of a large bison population, should target those regions. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results highlight how careful conservation planning can identify solutions to preserve large mammals in human-dominated landscapes. Choosing the most effective option from a range of management strategies is a central challenge for wildlife managers. We have shown that incorporating cost-effectiveness analyses into metapopulation models can elucidate the relative value (gain per unit cost) of different conservation management options, allowing decision makers to choose cost-effective options to preserve large mammals. Our model projections also provide hope for establishing a viable free-ranging European bison population in the Carpathians, one of the last relatively wild areas in Europe.


Concast C95900 is a cast nickel-aluminum-bronze alloy. Aluminum bronze is the highest strength standard copper-based alloy. The nickel content in C95900 enhances its mechanical strength, wear, and corrosion resistance, making it suitable for heavy-duty applications. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, and hardness. It also includes information on heat treating, machining, and joining. Filing Code: Cu-902. Producer or source: Concast Metal Products Co..


The advent of information technology has led to the proliferation of data in disparate databases. Organisations have become data rich but knowledge poor. Users need efficient analysis tools to help them understand their data, predict future trends and relationships and generalise to new situations in order to make proactive knowledge-driven decisions in a competitive business world. Thus, there is an urgent need for techniques and tools that intelligently and automatically transform these data into useful information and knowledge for effective decision making. Data mining is considered to be the most appropriate technology for addressing this need. Datamining is the process of extracting or "mining" knowledge from large amounts of data. Regression analysis and classification are two datamining tasks used to predict future trends. In this study, we investigate the behaviour of a statistical model and three machine learning models (artificial neural network, decision tree and support vector machine) on a large electricity dataset. We evaluate their predictive abilities based on this dataset. Results show that machine learning models, for this real world dataset, outperform statistical regression while artificial neural network outperforms support vector machine and decision tree in the classification task. In terms of comprehensibility, decision tree is the best choice. Although not definitive this research indicates that certainly these machine learning methods are an alternative to regression with certain datasets.


Zebra mussels have profound environmental impact on any area they infest. They also foul all exposed marine structures and cause a number of problems to industrial raw water users. The reason for this is rooted in their biology. One of the primary biological factors of concern is the presence of a vast number of free living larvae (the veligers) . The free living larvae aid dispersal and allow penetration and infestation of industrial systems. All raw water systems are vulnerable to infestation to greater or lesser degree. Of particular concern are safety systems such as fire protection.The ability of the mussel to firmly attach to a wide range of substrates results in fouling of all available surface and difficulty in removal.Further, the hard shell of the adult allows it to isolate itself from the environment and survive short periods of unfavourable conditions.Monitoring for their arrival and their seasonal abundance provides early warning and triggers mitigation.This paper deals briefly with the biology of zebra mussels, how to monitor for them and how to decide on proactive vs reactive treatment strategy for industrial systems. To-date, many different chemical and non-chemical techniques for zebra mussel control have been investigated. However, the treatment of choice for most facilities is still based on some form of chemical control.


Summary The diversity and composition of lake bacterial communities are driven by the interplay between local contemporary environmental conditions and dispersal of cells from the surroundings, i.e. the metacommunity. Still, a conceptual understanding of the relative importance of the two types of factors is lacking. For instance, it is unknown which sources of dispersal are most important and under which circumstances. Here, we investigated the seasonal variation in the importance of dispersal from different sources (mixing, precipitation, surface runoff and sediment resuspension) for lake bacterioplankton community and population dynamics. For that purpose, two small forest lakes and their dispersal sources were sampled over a period of 10 months. The influence of dispersal on communities and populations was determined by 454 sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and SourceTracker analysis. On the community level direct effects of dispersal were questionable from all sources. Instead we found that the community of the preceding sampling occasion, representing growth of resident bacteria, was of great importance. On the population level, however, dispersal of individual taxa from the inlet could be occasionally important even under low water flow. The effect of sediment resuspension and precipitation appeared small.


Background Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and exercise have been shown to result in improved outcomes for patients with fibromyalgia or chronic widespread pain (CWP), although whether they can deliver long-term benefit is unknown. Objectives To determine the long-term health effects of telephone-delivered CBT (tCBT), exercise, and combined treatments compared with treatment as usual (TAU) among patients with CWP. Methods The MUSICIAN Trial was a 2x2 factorial randomized controlled trial. Patients with CWP were identified from a screening survey sent to patients over 25 years old registered at 8 UK general practices. Eligible individuals were patients meeting the ACR definition of CWP, reporting disability, who had consulted their family physician in the last year and with no cause for their pain identified requiring alternative treatment. They were randomly assigned to one of four study arms: tCBT, exercise, combined tCBT and exercise, or TAU. Participants receiving tCBT had 8 telephone sessions provided weekly with a therapist involving techniques to manage pain, and had follow-up calls at 3 and 6 months. Patients in the exercise group followed a 6 month exercise program to improve cardiovascular fitness individually designed for them by a fitness instructor with whom they had monthly reviews. Patients assigned to combined treatment received both interventions concurrently, while the TAU group received usual care from their family physician. Participants were followed up at 30 months post-randomisation with a postal questionnaire or by telephone (in case of non-response). The primary outcome (change in health since entering study) was considered positive if a subject scored at least 6 ("I feel much better") on a 7 point scale from 1 ("I feel very much worse ") to 7 ("I feel very much better "). Analysis was by logistic regression which adjusted for age, gender, centre and baseline predictors of outcome, to obtain measures of improvement in the active treatment groups compared to the TAU group. Results are reported as odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results A total of 442 persons entered the study and 361 persons provided responses at 30 months follow-up. Median age of participants was 57 years (interquartile range, 47-65). Of 94 respondents at 30 months follow-up in the TAU group, 12 (12.8%) reported a positive outcome, compared to 29 out of 82 in the tCBT group (35.4%), 27 out of 92 in the exercise group (29.4%) and, 29 out of 93 in the combined group (31.2%). Odds of improvement compared to TAU, after adjustment were: tCBT, OR 4.0 (95% CI, 1.8-8.7); exercise, 2.9 (1.4-6.3); combined, 3.5 (1.6-7.5). Odds of improvement were not significantly different across the three active treatment groups and specifically there was no added benefit of receiving both interventions. Conclusions A six month programme of tCBT and/or exercise for CWP is associated with long-term improvements in patient global assessment of health. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Abundant dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) from Eocene strata of the North Sea exhibit a consistent succession of events, based on the analysis of 120 wells from Quadrant 3 in the north to Quadrants 21 and 22 in the south. These events have a constant relationship with stratigraphic sequences and subsequences throughout the area. Eight Eocene dinocyst zones and 23 subzones, and the uppermost Palaeocene Apectodinium augustum Biozone are defined by last occurrence or abundance events. The North Sea dinocyst succession is similar to that in Denmark, northwest Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and southern England, permitting correlation with calcareous nannoplankton zones for sections in these areas, and hence allowing correlation of North Sea stratigraphy with northwest European and worldwide events.


We show that the gas giant exoplanet HD 189733b is less oblate than Saturn, based on Spitzer Space Telescope photometry of seven transits. The observable manifestations of oblateness would have been slight anomalies during the ingress and egress phases, as well as variations in the transit depth due to spin precession. Our nondetection of these effects gives the first empirical constraints on the shape of an exoplanet. The results are consistent with the theoretical expectation that the planetary rotation period and orbital period are synchronized, in which case the oblateness would be an order of magnitude smaller than our upper limits. Conversely, if HD 189733b is assumed to be in a synchronous, zero-obliquity state, then the data give an upper bound on the quadrupole moment of the planet (J2 < 0.068 with 95% confidence) that is too weak to constrain the interior structure of the planet. An Appendix describes a fast algorithm for computing the transit light curve of an oblate planet, which was necessary for our analysis.


OBJECTIVE: This study was carried to study the prevalence of dental anomalies and treatment modalities/planning among the orthodontic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 370 orthodontic records including their pre-treatment orthopantomographs (OPG) and study models of orthodontic patients in permanent dentition who attended dental clinic were assessed for impaction, hypodontia, supernumerary, supraocclusion, infraocclusion, and any other anomalies excluding the third molars. The association of anomalies with gender status and racial status was analyzed using Pearson's Chi-square test. A P value of <0.05 is considered as significant. The confidence interval at 95% (CI) was set. RESULTS: Among the 370 subjects, 105 (28.4%) presented with at least one anomaly. Eighty-five (23%) demonstrated a single anomaly and 20 (5.4%) with more than one anomaly. The most prevalent anomaly was impaction (14.32%), followed by hypodontia (7.03%). The less common anomalies were microdontia (1.08%), dilacerations (0.27%), and generalised enamel hypoplasia (0.27%). Maxillary right lateral incisors and canines were the most common affected teeth and these are located on the maxillary right quadrant. It was evident that dental anomalies were statistically dependant on race (P = 0.025), but independent of gender. The most common treatment planned for these patients was fixed appliance. CONCLUSIONS: Impaction was predominant among 28.4% subjects observed with anomaly and most patients with anomaly are treated with fixed appliances (49%). CLINICAL RELEVANCE: These anomalies play a great role in occlusion and alignment in treatment planning and relapse for orthodontic treatment.


Road to Perdition is one foreign film that was sensitive in lifting a theme social .. The film is lifted from the novel picture (this product is classified sebaga comic) work
Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner is in production by DreamWorks, through the hands cold Sam Mendes who had successfully led American Beauty became the best film
version of the Academy Award. Road to Perdition highlight the relationship between a father and son mysterious figure of Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) with his eldest son, Michael Jr.. (Tyler Hoechlin) in an escape from the pursuit of the assassin. Author Road to Perdition, David Self, gives a special portion for father and son relationship in building an long lost communication. A picture of love and affection on show a father to his family and the idea of loyalty to his boss, played in perfectly by Tom Hanks through his role as Michael Sullivan who work as a professional assassin. Compassion itself is a gift of God
are given to humans since humans are born into the world. For parents who have greater levels of love and responsibility, in understanding with, feed, nurturing and protecting the family from any threat. When we talk
about the love of a mother atupun father to the family, then the meaning of love that sort of is called an "affection." As film with the characteristics contained in an audio-visual work with all intents and purposes those who produce this film, the story explores social themes of the picture message of love among humans following
conflicts that occur therein, the researchers made the formulation of the problem as follows; "How is the meaning of the sign that describes the message of love in the movie Road to Perdition? ". Based on the formulation of the problem, the purpose of this study was to to gain an understanding of the meaning of the sign that describes the message of love in the film ROAD TO Perdition.
This study uses data analysis techniques from the concept of semiotic Charles S. Pierce and Roland Barthes. Under the draft Pierce, meaning to be found in the movie grouped according to each type, which is then analyzed with
attention to the elements meaning of icons, indexes and symbols are then classified again by using denotation and connotation of meaning and myth of Roland Barthes. To avoid imposition of meaning, which is based on the classification marks Pierce and Barthes's theory adapted to load the message of love. which exists in every ROAD TO Perdition movie scene. While the data collection techniques, researchers use the observation technique that is, by playing the movie Road To Perdition and observing, recording and researching every shot or scene that is considered represent the appearance of signs both audio and visual that can be interpreted and describes the message of love. And documentation, that is, obtained from literaturliteratur, books and the Internet in order to collect data contributing about movie synopsis, casting
players, and biography actor associated with this research.
After observation, the message of love found in the film Road to Perdition such signs both verbal and non verbal contained in the characters, dialogue, gestures and
musical illustrations. In some scenes, character Michael Sullivan became an icon of a figure a father and the figure of a gangster who tries to show the connotative
The good form of affection to his environment. Meanwhile, mutual respect, anxiety, loss, protection, education, mutual respect, attention, reciprocation, faith in God and the nature of responsibility is shown figure Sullivan
index as well as a collection of several paradigms that became a unitary (syntagm) ie affection.


This study proposes a novel dynamic reliability network-equivalent approach (RNEA) for distribution generations (DGs) enhanced distribution system. This method includes a bottom-up process and a top-down process, which are developed based on equivalent principle, and the synthesis of both processes yields the reliability performance of any node in the system. In addition, a novel switch zone concept is defined and introduced into the bottom-up equivalent process as to save the computation cost. Besides, a hybrid restoration model is proposed to account for the practical restoration process in power grids, and solved using particle swarm optimisation. The most significant of the proposed approach over other equivalent methods such as section technique, RNEA, and zone-branch method is that it provides a more generalised element-by-element equivalent approach that can greatly simplify the network for reliability assessment irrespective of the network topology. The proposed methodology has been successfully tested on a real 362-node urban distribution system in China, with and without DGs considered.


In observational studies, when a total causal effect of interest is not identified, the set of all possible effects can be reported instead. This typically occurs when the underlying causal DAG is only known up to a Markov equivalence class, or a refinement thereof due to background knowledge. As such, the class of possible causal DAGs is represented by a maximally oriented partially directed acyclic graph (MPDAG), which contains both directed and undirected edges. We characterize the minimal additional edge orientations required to identify a given total effect. A recursive algorithm is then developed to enumerate subclasses of DAGs, such that the total effect in each subclass is identified as a distinct functional of the observed distribution. This resolves an issue with existing methods, which often report possible total effects with duplicates, namely those that are numerically distinct due to sampling variability but are in fact causally identical.


Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is as silent comorbidity in many different settings including; diabetes mellitus (DM), obesity, and hyperlipidemia. In this study, we aimed to determine the incidence of NAFLD in referral outpatients to the internal medicine clinic to evaluate correlations between NAFLD in the other clinical backgrounds. Materials and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study on 88 consecutive referral patients to the internal medicine clinic. Patients with a history of liver disease and alcohol consumption were excluded. Liver ultrasound was performed for diagnosing of NAFLD to be mild to moderate (Grade 1), or moderate to a severe degree of involvement (Grade 2). Clinical backgrounds of the patients, including history and laboratory exam tests such as age, exercise, and DM as well as lipid profile, and liver enzyme test results investigated in our study. Results: The incidence of NAFLD was 62% (40% Grade 2; 60% Grade 1). Patients with NAFLD had a higher body mass index, (30 ± 5 vs. 27 ± 4; P = 0.04). They were younger than patients who had not NAFLD (46 ± 15 vs. 58 ± 10 years; P = 0.0001). Total cholesterol level was higher in patients with NAFLD (198 ± 46 vs. 175 ± 46 mg/Dl; P = 0.03). Patients with NAFLD had higher serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level (50 ± 14 vs. 46 ± 15 IU/l; P = 0.0001). The aspartate aminotransferase/ALT ratio was lower in patients with NAFLD (0.8 ± 0.3 vs. 1 ± 0.2; P = 0.0001). Patients with NAFLD had sedentary lifestyle compared to those with normal liver (P = 0.001). Conclusion: More than half of the referral outpatients to the internal medicine clinic have NAFLD. It occurs in the young age population of patients and has a strong correlation with high-cholesterol level and sedentary lifestyle.


Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008.; Includes bibliographical
 references. "Love, Friendship and Images: Citizenship and Necessity in Thucydides and
 Plato" concerns the exploration by Thucydides in his History and Plato in the
 Republic and Symposium of the problem of political motion in the forms of war and civil
 disturbance as well as technological, intellectual and generational change. In particular it
 addresses the use of political imaginaries to address political motion. Thucydides' speakers
 invoke a range of images of philia (friendship) to call for political cohesion and unity in
 the face of the centrifugal forces of war and civil conflict (stasis). Plato continues this
 theme in the Republic but also subjects it to an exploration of aesthetic response and
 representation that suggests the relation of images to the human psychological and ontological
 condition. In the Symposium Plato explores a politicaly dangerous form of imagery through the
 character of Alcibiades who seeks to deploy images for the sake of political domination. It is
 the philosopher's self-conscious deployment of comparative imaginaries that constitutes the
 appropriate understanding of political imagination.


IMPORTANCE
Individuals can be classified as being at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis if they meet at least one of the ultra-high-risk (UHR) inclusion criteria (brief limited intermittent psychotic symptoms [BLIPS] and/or attenuated psychotic symptoms [APS] and/or genetic risk and deterioration syndrome [GRD]) and/or basic symptoms [BS]. The meta-analytical risk of psychosis of these different subgroups is still unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the risk of psychosis in CHR individuals who met at least one of the major inclusion criteria and in individuals not at CHR for psychosis (CHR-).

DATA SOURCES
Electronic databases (Web of Science, MEDLINE, Scopus) were searched until June 18, 2015, along with investigation of citations of previous publications and a manual search of the reference lists of retrieved articles.

STUDY SELECTION
We included original follow-up studies of CHR individuals who reported the risk of psychosis classified according to the presence of any BLIPS, APS and GRD, APS alone, GRD alone, BS, and CHR-.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS
Independent extraction by multiple observers and random-effects meta-analysis of proportions. Moderators were tested with meta-regression analyses (Bonferroni corrected). Heterogeneity was assessed with the I2 index. Sensitivity analyses tested robustness of results. Publication biases were assessed with funnel plots and the Egger test.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The proportion of each subgroup with any psychotic disorder at 6, 12, 24, 36, and 48 or more months of follow-up.

RESULTS
Thirty-three independent studies comprising up to 4227 individuals were included. The meta-analytical proportion of individuals meeting each UHR subgroup at intake was: 0.85 APS (95%CI, 0.79-0.90), 0.1 BLIPS (95%CI, 0.06-0.14), and 0.05 GRD (95%CI, 0.03-0.07). There were no significant differences in psychosis risk at any time point between the APS and GRD and the APS-alone subgroups. There was a higher risk of psychosis in the any BLIPS greater than APS greater than GRD-alone subgroups at 24, 36, and 48 or more months of follow-up. There was no evidence that the GRD subgroup has a higher risk of psychosis than the CHR- subgroup. There were too few BS or BS and UHR studies to allow robust conclusions.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
There is meta-analytical evidence that BLIPS represents separate risk subgroup compared with the APS. The GRD subgroup is infrequent and not associated with an increased risk of psychosis. Future studies are advised to stratify their findings across these different subgroups. The CHR guidelines should be updated to reflect these differences.


All the main characters in Saul Dibb's film The Duchess (2008) are based on figures who appeared in the list of subscribers to Mary Robinson's Poems by Mrs. M. Robinson (1791). These names include Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; her husband, the Duke of Devonshire; his lover and Georgiana's friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster; Georgiana's lover, the politician and future Prime Minister, Charles Grey; and such prominent Whig politicians as the statesman, Charles James Fox, and the playwright, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Robinson's subscription list included among other notables all the sons of King George III, many of the most Whiggish peers, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Robinson's lover and MP for Liverpool, Col. Banastre Tarleton, and Della Crusca himself, Robert Merry. Robinson's 1791 volume reintroduced her to a fashionable social network from which she had been absent for the previous several years following the scandal of her affair with the Prince of Wales. Robinson's theatrical career, her apprenticeship under David Garrick, her status as a sex symbol and the dissolution of that status into gossip, pornography, debt, disability, and Robinson's subsequent reinvention of herself as a professional writer make her, like Georgiana, a case study in the vicissitudes of Romantic period celebrity--which is one of the main subjects of Dibb's film about Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire. Robinson's professional network, with John Bell, publisher, at the center, intersected and overlapped with the political network of Whigs that included Fox, Sheridan, the Prince, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. (1) Although Robinson does not appear among these illustrious Whigs in The Duchess, Dibb's film, nonetheless, is the closest cinematic representation to date of the fashionable world that promoted, persecuted, and professionalized her. And this network also sustained many of the other writers who propelled the market for commercial literature during the late 1770s, '80s, and '90s. So, Dibb's film, despite misrepresentation of history, Whig politics, and even Georgiana herself, shows a more accurate picture of this significant demographic of early Romantic period readership than, say, Ken Russell's or Julien Temple's depictions of Wordsworth and Coleridge. (2) The professional (albeit not the imaginative) lives of the first generation Romantics had more to do with the world of West End elegance than with ruined cottages, old beggars, and enclosure laws. This particular network of readers and writers, then, helps to fill in the cultural and social space between the early readers of, say, Fanny Burney of 'Wordsworth and helps to visualize them in context. Curiously, the Prince of Wales does not appear in the film although Georgiana thought of him as a brother and, like others in her network, considered him the great hope for Whig supremacy. The film, instead, portrays the Prince's closest political allies, Sheridan and Fox, as the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Georgiana's Hamlet. For the sake of the domestic and social drama, The Duchess only briefly depicts Georgiana's cultural interests and influence. Dibb shows her, for instance, hosting a private performance of Sheridan's School Jiff Scandal, the scene being short-hand for Georgiana's patronage of the arts, which included the works of Mary Robinson. For all of Robinson's adult life and literary career, Georgiana's encouragement, however distant, served her own poetic identity. Robinson herself describes Georgiana as "my admired patroness, my liberal and affectionate friend" (Memoirs 238). At the start of her literary career, Robinson was still tangentially connected to the social network depicted in the film--the frequently treacherous bon ton and the power centers connected with the Prince of Wales and Charles James Fox, both her former lovers. Robinson first proclaimed her admiration for Georgiana in her 1776 poem "Written on Richmond Hill," published in Town and Country Magazine, calling her "beauty's queen. …


DINKOV, K., M. DUSHKOVA and N. TOSHKOV, 2008. Regression models for density and viscosity of ultrafiltration milk concentrates. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 542-548 Ultrafiltration of skim and standardized milk was carried out with a UF25-PAN polyacrylnitrilic membrane with 25 kDa molecular weight cut-off at volume reduction factors VRF=2, VRF=3, VRF=4 and VRF=5. The density and viscosity values of the initial milks and the ultrafiltration milk concentrates obtained from them were experimentally established. Mathematical models for the dependence of density and viscosity on the combined influence of the dry matter and temperature of ultrafiltration concentrates from skim and standardized milk were obtained. The results demonstrated an increase in the ultrafiltration concentrate density of 1.03 times for skim milk and 1.04 times for standardized milk under volume reduction factor variation from two to five, and an increase in ultrafiltration concentrate viscosity of 2.6 times for skim milk and 2.8 times for standardized milk under volume reduction factor variation from two to five.


Real assets are usually valued by assuming a liquid spot market with competitive traders who buy or sell until arbitrage opportunities are exhausted; the value of a real asset is computed as the stream of pro ts resulting from such transactions. This method ignores market fundamentals by assuming that all the relevant information is included in the spot price. This paper analyses the bias resulting from such an approach when the market is imperfectly competitive. We propose a stylised model of the natural gas market with two types of oligopolistic players: pure traders and suppliers with downstream customers. We compute the trading valuation and the supplier valuation of storage capacity. Comparing the latter value with the value obtained under the traditional, price-taking assumption reveals a systematic bias that tends to induce under-investment.


The immune system plays an important role in immunity (immune surveillance), but also in the regulation of tissue homeostasis (immune physiology). Lessons from the female reproductive tract indicate that immune system related cells, such as intraepithelial T cells and monocyte-derived cells (MDC) in stratified epithelium, interact amongst themselves and degenerate whereas epithelial cells proliferate and differentiate. In adult ovaries, MDC and T cells are present during oocyte renewal from ovarian stem cells. Activated MDC are also associated with follicular development and atresia, and corpus luteum differentiation. Corpus luteum demise resembles rejection of a graft since it is attended by a massive influx of MDC and T cells resulting in parenchymal and vascular regression. Vascular pericytes play important roles in immune physiology, and their activities (including secretion of the Thy-1 differentiation protein) can be regulated by vascular autonomic innervation. In tumors, MDC regulate proliferation of neoplastic cells and angiogenesis. Tumor infiltrating T cells die among malignant cells. Alterations of immune physiology can result in pathology, such as autoimmune, metabolic, and degenerative diseases, but also in infertility and intrauterine growth retardation, fetal morbidity and mortality. Animal experiments indicate that modification of tissue differentiation (retardation or acceleration) during immune adaptation can cause malfunction (persistent immaturity or premature aging) of such tissue during adulthood. Thus successful stem cell therapy will depend on immune physiology in targeted tissues. From this point of view, regenerative medicine is more likely to be successful in acute rather than chronic tissue disorders.


T United States is facing a health care crisis that will only worsen if current trends in childhood and teen overweight and obesity are not reversed. National estimates from the 19992002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reveal that more than 15% of children and teens from 6 to 19 years old are overweight. Increasing across all social and ethnic populations, rates of childhood obesity are generally highest for Latino and Native American children of both sexes and for African American girls. While some children may be more genetically susceptible to becoming overweight, all children are at risk for poor quality diets and a sedentary lifestyle. These trends are particularly alarming because the same ethnic groups most vulnerable to obesity may also be genetically more susceptible to type 2 diabetes. Correlated with the obesity trend, rates of diabetes have increased dramatically in the past decade. The prevalence of diabetes nationwide has increased 33% in this period — and its incidence in California has increased by 67%. This increase is due in part to aging of the population, and also to improved screening and detection. In addition, type 2 diabetes, once considered "adult-onset," is now being diagnosed among children and teens. The economic implications of these trends are profound. A report by the former U.S. Surgeon General put the economic cost of obesity in the United States at about $117 billion in 2000 — second only to tobacco as a cause of increased national health care expenditures. The current estimated direct and indirect costs of diabetes to the nation are over $105 billion annually or more than 10% of the nation's health care bill. Diabetes is a progressive, chronic, costly disease that cannot be cured, can damage almost every major organ, and can shorten the life span by an average of 10 to 15 years. The obesity/diabetes epidemic represents an unprecedented health crisis for California and the nation. Nutritionists from UC and elsewhere have identified a number of changes over the past 30 years that have contributed to these problems. Daily caloric intake has increased in both children and adults. Inexpensive fast food is readily available. Portion sizes are two to four times the standard sizes recommended by USDA. Schools raise funds by selling high calorie snacks and placing vending machines in the corridors, competing with standard school lunch meals. Aggressive and sophisticated marketing campaigns promote such snacks to children and teens. At the same time, there are fewer opportunities in daily life for children and adults to burn calories. Schools have replaced or cut back on physical education and sports. Neighborhood parks may be considered unsafe places to play. Some neighborhoods even lack sidewalks. Children watch an average of 3 to 4 hours of television daily. Walking and cycling have been replaced by automobile travel for all but the shortest distances, and the workplace has become increasingly automated. However, there is scientific evidence that diabetes can be reversed through lifestyle changes, such as moderate exercise and weight loss (see p. 8). The best long-term solution to this problem is to create home, work and school environments that promote healthy food choices and regular physical activity. This can only be achieved by a focused, collaborative effort by all agencies and organizations concerned with the nation's health. Toward this end, scientists at UC Davis and UC Berkeley are investigating an array of fundamental questions. UC Davis nutritionists are developing information to help individuals deal with obesity more effectively, performing studies on nondiet interventions and clarifying the physiological processes that underlie diabetes. At the Agricultural Research Service's Western Human Nutrition Research Center at UC Davis, research in the next 5 years will examine the effects of dieting on mineral metabolism and develop approaches to ease negative side effects of dieting such as impaired mental functioning, compromised immunity and lower bone density. Other scientists at the Center hope to identify factors that predispose individuals to excess body weight gain and make them resistant to weight loss. UC Berkeley researchers are analyzing the degree to which eating patterns developed in early childhood contribute to childhood obesity. Another study focuses on the contribution of teenage pregnancy to body-fat changes and distribution. Researchers are examining the effect of removing highly sweetened beverages from high school vending machines and snack bar shelves. Berkeley nutritionists are also attempting to elucidate the contributions of obesity and high-insulin production to colon cancer. Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) workgroups are extending research findings to the appropriate clienteles (see pp. 7–12). A research study in eight counties is looking at the paradoxical relationship between overweight and hunger in low-income Latino families. Results may ultimately be used to evaluate the effects of state and national food assistance and poverty programs. Through such avenues of research, as well as outreach programs such as the Center for Weight and Health, UC is setting the standard for a comprehensive approach to this multifaceted problem. With 60% of Americans overweight, obesity and its constellation of associated diseases is our number one nutrition problem. The nation must broaden its approaches to prevention, recognizing that obesity is rooted not only in our automated and sedentary lifestyles, but also in our vast food marketing and distribution systems. Only then can we foster a changed environment that will enable our diverse citizenry to adopt healthier ways of life. Californians face weight and health care crisis


The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven Alfvénic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presented.


In this study, we present a new method for the dissolution of silicate rocks by flux-free fusion using a boron nitride vessel in preparation for analysis of bulk rock trace elements; this method is especially applicable to felsic intrusive rocks. The method was evaluated by analyzing five intrusive rocks (GSP-2, GSP-1, G-2, GSR-1 and QLO-1) and five extrusive rocks (AGV-2, BCR-2, BHVO-2, GSR-3 and RGM-2). The optimum conditions for the fusion of intrusive rocks were determined to be heating at 1600 °C for 1 min, which is effective to break up strong Si–O bonds. The fused glasses were dissolved using HF/HNO3 acids in closed screw-top Savillex vials on a hotplate; no high-pressure PTFE digestion bomb was required. Zr and Hf were completely recovered from the granodiorite GSP-2 reference material in 6 hours at 150 °C, which was 8 times faster than the method using a conventional high-pressure PTFE digestion bomb at 190 °C. The precision (RSD%, 1 s) of the elemental determinations in nearly 92% of the analyzed samples was better than 4%. Replicate analyses (n = 3) of the reference materials indicated that most of the results agreed with the reference values within a relative error of <10%. Additionally, the flux-free fusion retained all the materials in solution and was valid for volatile elements.


M11L, an antiapoptotic protein essential for the virulence of the myxoma poxvirus, is targeted to mitochondria and prevents the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential that accompanies cell death. In this study we show, using a cross-linking approach, that M11L physically associates with the mitochondrial peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) component of the permeability transition (PT) pore. Close association of M11L and the PBR is also indicated by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) analysis. Stable expression of M11L prevents the release of mitochondrial cytochrome c induced by staurosporine or protoporphyrin IX (PPIX), a ligand of the PBR. Transiently expressed M11L also prevents mitochondrial membrane potential loss induced by PPIX, or induced by staurosporine in combination with PK11195, another ligand of the PBR. Myxoma virus infection and the associated expression of early proteins, including M11L, protects cells from staurosporine- and Fas-mediated mitochondrial membrane potential loss and this effect is augmented by the presence of PBR. We conclude that M11L regulates the mitochondrial permeability transition pore complex, most likely by direct modulation of the PBR.


Across Africa, governments are increasingly taxing Internet access, sometimes targeting specific websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. This raises questions about the digital infrastructure and how it mediates relations between states and citizens in Africa. Comparing recent efforts in Guinea and Benin with tax Internet data, this article argues that these taxes restrict and slow down access to a global resource. I also argue that the emergence of the digital addressing infrastructure represents a shift from disciplinary to control societies. This notion counters dominant narratives of digital media as necessarily democratizing forces in Africa by showing how African governments rework digital infrastructures to regulate populations. Ultimately, processes of interpretation and translation from above as well as from below need to be understood as enmeshed in specific historical-political arrangements of power, thus challenging both essentialized notions of media infrastructures and binaries that equate hybridity with resistance and meaning-making with the subversive.


Headline issue: Countries agreed at the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) in Lima, Peru, in December 2014 to set out their "intended nationally determined contributions" (INDCs) during the first quarter of 2015, ahead of COP21 in Paris, France, in December 2015. As of 30 April 2015, 35 countries, including the 28 Member States of the European Union, have submitted INDCs. In addition, China has already provided some indication of what may be included in its INDC. This policy paper describes the preliminary calculation of what global annual emissions in 2030 could be, based on the INDCs and announcements by some of the largest emitters: the European Union, the United States and China. It finds that the current ambitions and plans of countries are not consistent with the international goal of avoiding global warming of more than 2°C. Key findings: Countries should focus on four key ways to increase the ambitions of emissions cuts both before and after the Paris summit: Hard work is needed over the next few months by all countries to find credible ways of achieving bigger emissions reductions which can be included in pledges to be submitted before the Paris summit, or achieved through additional efforts by partnerships, for example, through specific decarbonisation initiatives among willing countries. An intensification of efforts to increase investment and innovation – particularly in relation to the development of cities, energy systems and land use – could help to close the gap between countries intentions and the emissions reduction goal before and after 2030. A mechanism should be included in the agreement emerging from the Paris summit in December so that countries can review their efforts and find ways of ramping up the ambition of their emissions reductions by 2030 and beyond. Concerted efforts are needed by all countries to build the strong and transparent domestic base necessary for the implementation of their pledges. This should set them on a path to decarbonisation and enable them to ramp up their ambitions.