Microbial enzymes such as xylanases enable new technologies for industrial processes. Xylanases (xylanolytic enzyme) hydrolyze complex polysaccharides like xylan. Research during the past few decades has been dedicated to enhanced production, purification, and characterization of microbial xylanase. But for commercial applications detailed knowledge of regulatory mechanisms governing enzyme production and functioning should be required. Since application of xylanase in the commercial sector is widening, an understanding of its nature and properties for efficient and effective usage becomes crucial. Study of synergistic action of multiple forms and mechanism of action of xylanase makes it possible to use it for bio-bleaching of kraft pulp and for desizing and bio-scouring of fabrics. Results revealed that enzymatic treatment leads to the enhancement in various physical properties of the fabric and paper. This review will be helpful in determining the factors affecting xylanase production and its potential industrial applications in textile, paper, pulp, and other industries.


Nigeria no doubt is at the threshold of transformation in information and communication technology (ICT), a development that should be utilized to meet the demand of time, especially in the education sector. One area in which ICT has made enormous impact is in open and distance learning. Undoubtedly, the demand on the conventional higher education delivery system in the country is high and ever increasing that the system at the moment is unable to accommodate the number of candidates seeking admission. This paper, therefore, attempts some definition of open and distance learning as well as its practices with a view to advancing the prospects of open and distance as alternative system of higher education in Nigeria. Furthermore, it concludes that considering the level of infrastructural decay in the conventional higher education system, open and distance learning as an alternative system of education has become imperative for the realization of the primary objectives of higher education in Nigeria. Recommendations that will enhance the prospects of open and distance learning as viable alternative system of higher education were proffered.


Age is by far the most underdeveloped of the sociolinguistic variables in terms of research literature. To-date, research on age has been patchy and has generally focused on the early life-stages such as childhood and adolescence, ignoring, for the most part, healthy adulthood as a stage worthy of scrutiny. This book examines the discourse of adulthood and accounts for sociolinguistic variation, with regards to age and gender, through the exploration of a 90,000 word age-and gender-differentiated spoken corpus of Irish English. The book explores both the distribution and use of a number of high frequency pragmatic features of spoken discourse that appear as key items in the corpus. Part 1 of the book provides an introduction, a theoretical overview of age as a sociolinguistic variable and a description on how to compile a small spoken corpus for sociolinguistic research. Part 2 consists of five chapters which investigate and explore key features such as hedges, vague category markers, intensifiers, boosters and high-frequent items of taboo language in relation to the variables, age and gender. The book is of interest to undergraduates or postgraduates taking formal courses in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics or discourse analysis. It is also of interest to students and researchers interested in using corpus linguistics in sociolinguistic research.


In human subjects, large variations between individuals (up to 3-fold) exist in the capacity for endurance exercise performance. In a heterogeneous population, endurance performance is strongly related to whole body maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2  max). This is in part genotype dependent ( ~ 25%) but is adaptable with training. However, this relationship does not hold within a homogeneous group of well-trained runners. Other phySiOlogical characteristics must contribute to endurance performance and these may include specific advantageous skeletal muscle phenotypes. Muscle fibre type distribution is also heterogeneous, although less adaptable. In contrast, muscle oxidative enzyme capacity is highly adaptable with training. The genetic influences on these muscle characteristics have been indirectly investigated by comparing African endurance athletes, who dominate world-class events, to Caucasian endurance athletes. We have established that African runners have greater resistance to fatigue than Caucasians ( p < 0.01) and 50% greater oxidative enzyme activity in vastus lateralis samples ( p < 0.05), despite somewhat lower Type I fibre proportion. These differences were not inherently present in a group of sedentary Africans, suggesting that the genotypic influence on athletic performance may be a superior adaptation to training, rather than a baseline genetic effect. Combined physiological and genetic studies are likely to elucidate a polygenetic basis for superior endurance performance.


Over the period 2000 to 2003, roof falls have accounted for 4 to 14% of the fatalities in underground mining operations. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is conducting research to reduce the frequency, exposure, and risk of these events through an ongoing program of field and laboratory studies. One area of research involves the evaluation of polyurethane grouting technology that is commonly used to stabilize fractured mine roof strata. Concurrently, NIOSH is conducting work to evaluate the application of ground penetrating radar for advanced delineation of problematic mining areas. In this study, NIOSH partnered with Sub-Technical, Inc. who injected a polyurethane grout (also known as glue) into a roof area of NIOSH's Safety Research Coal Mine. The mine roof area was scanned using ground penetrating radar technology before and after grout injection in an attempt to determine the extent of grout infiltration. A comparison of the pre-and post-grouting radar records showed a significant change at a mine roof depth of about four to five feet. The interpreted radar records were then compared with drill core information, borescope evaluation of roof-bolt holes in the study area, and underground observations. At this site, the interpretations of the radar records correlated with data obtained from the core holes, borescope evaluations and underground observations. This study showed that ground penetrating radar technology can be a useful tool for detecting changes in mine roof due to the injection of the grout.


We consider a class of weighted nuclear norm optimization problems with important applications in signal processing, system identification, and model order reduction. The nuclear norm is commonly used as a convex heuristic for matrix rank constraints. Our objective is to minimize a quadratic cost subject to a nuclear norm constraint on a linear function of the decision variables, where the trade-off between the fit and the constraint is governed by a regularization parameter. The main contribution is an algorithm to determine the so-called approximate regularization path, which is the optimal solution up to a given error tolerance as a function of the regularization parameter. The advantage is that we only have to solve the optimization problem for a fixed number of values of the regularization parameter, with guaranteed error tolerance. The algorithm is exemplified on a weighted Hankel matrix model order reduction problem.


S proteins, pistil-specific ribonucleases that cosegregate with S alleles, have previously been shown to control rejection of self-pollen in Petunia inflata and Nicotiana alata, two solanaceous species that display gametophytic self-incompatibility. The ribonuclease activity of S proteins was thought to degrade RNA of self-pollen tubes, resulting in the arrest of their growth in the style. However, to date no direct evidence has been obtained. Here, the ribonuclease activity of S3 protein of P. inflata was abolished, and the effect on the pistil's ability to reject S3 pollen was examined. The S3 gene was mutagenized by replacing the codon for His-93, which has been implicated in ribonuclease activity, with a codon for asparagine, and the mutant S3 gene was introduced into P. inflata plants of S1S2 genotype. Two transgenic plants produced a level of mutant S3 protein comparable to that of the S3 protein produced in self-incompatible S1S3 and S2S3 plants, yet they failed to reject S3 pollen. The mutant S3 protein produced in these two transgenic plants did not exhibit any detectable ribonuclease activity. We have previously shown that transgenic plants (S1S2 plants transformed with the wild-type S3 gene) producing a normal level of wild-type S3 protein acquired the ability to reject S3 pollen completely. Thus, the results reported here provide direct evidence that the biochemical mechanism of gametophytic self-incompatibility in P. inflata involves the ribonuclease activity of S proteins.


ABSTRACT This research investigates the reception of the visual representations of a wind farm (WF) development by local stakeholders. Using non-verbal Qmethodology, residents of Lesvos' island, Greece, sort images according to how these images represented their opinion about the proposed Aegean Link WF project. We found three opinion types. The "Risk Averter" type is focused on the various risks of constructing and operating the Aegean Link wind development. The "Green Developer" type believes that the renewable energy project will benefit both their local community and the environment. The "Realist" type defers to expert knowledge to make decisions about project outcomes and is sceptical of media bias. While the former two types seem to form their visual opinions based on whether they are in favour or against (respectively) of the WF development, the Realist opinion is rather guided by carefully considering whether the visual stimuli are representative of the project's actual characteristics.


The trigger of the zoster or shingles condition is the varicella zoster virus. It manifests itself as a local recurrence through a weakened immune condition, mainly arising during childhood. Depending on the degree of immune weakness, it can spread from one to several segments (i.e., zoster generalisatus). The duration of healing, severity of disease, and post-zoster neuralgia also depend on the immune condition prevailing. Older patients often indicate an immune weakness. This is why zoster illness with the complications mentioned above occur frequently in their case. Zoster is normally treated with viralstatic agents as the preferred method. In comparison to viralstatic agents, ozone therapy also shows good results. Yet it shows the comparative advantage of an immune system regulating or stimulating effect. Furthermore, it can already be used at an early stage in case of slight diagnostic suspicion, since – in contrast to viralstatic agents practically no side effects are anticipated. Normally ozone therapy is more economical than treatment with viralstatic agents. Beginning treatment early improves the chances of avoiding the dreaded post-zoster neuralgia. Zoster patients in the pilot study were treated with ozone systematically as well as locally. In case of strong neuralgia, the related ganglia were injected with local anesthesia and ozone at the same time. Enzymes, zinc, and vitamins E, C, B1, B6, and B12 were administered as added measures.


The temperature dependence of the dissociation constants for formic acid and 2,6-dinitrophenol (2,6-DNP) has been determined in aqueous solutions from 25 to 175 °C using spectrophotometric measurements. The optical indicator 2,6-DNP was employed to measure the pH of a buffer solution by deconvolution of absorption spectra of 2,6-DNP at various temperatures. First, using the temperature dependence of pKa for acetic acid, pKi of 2,6-DNP were determined in acetate buffer solutions as a function of temperature. The results were then used to study the ionization reaction of formic acid at elevated temperature. Measured values of pKa for formic acid were fitted to a function of temperature, which was derived by assuming that ΔCop is a non-zero constant. The result for formic acid was given by pKa=– 57.528 + 2773.9/T+ 9.1232 ln T where T is absolute temperature. Additionally, thermodynamic functions of formic acid were determined from the temperature dependence of pKa and compared with those obtained from other methods. The isocoulombic reactions for formic acid and 2,6-DNP were considered to predict the temperature dependence of pKa by the extrapolation of – log KOH values to higher temperatures.


The publication of the Liikanen Group's final report in October 2012 was surrounded by high expectations regarding the implementation of the reform plans through the proposed measures that reacted to the financial and sovereign debt crises. The recommendations mainly focused on introducing a mild version of banking separation and the creation of the preconditions for bail-in measures. In this article, we present an overview of the regulatory reforms, to which the financial sector has been subject over the past years in accordance with the concepts laid out in the Liikanen Report. It becomes clear from our assessment that more specific steps have yet to be taken before the agenda is accomplished. In particular, bail-in rules must be implemented more consistently. Beyond the question of the required minimum, the authors develop the notion of a maximum amount of liabilities subject to bail-in. The combination of both components leads to a three-layer structure of bank capital: a bail-in tranche, a deposit-insured bailout tranche, and an intermediate run-endangered mezzanine tranche. The size and treatment of the latter must be put to a political debate that weighs the costs and benefits of a further increase in financial stability beyond that achieved through loss-bearing of the bail-in tranche.


The research sought to measure  whether lower income households are able to access housing which is 'affordable' based on weekly rent of no more than 30 per cent of gross household income and 'available' referring to the extent to which affordable dwellings are in fact occupied by lower income households. The research method involved original empirical analysis using customised data from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), using an established methodology used in three previous AHURI studies. The situation for both the lowest income 20 per cent of households (Q1) and second lowest 20 per cent (Q2) deteriorated on three measures of shortage between 2006 and 2011. Very-low-income (Q1) households faced a shortage of 187 000 affordable dwellings nationally in 2011, up from 138 000 in 2006. However, when occupation of affordable dwellings by higher income households was taken into account, there was a shortage of 271 000 affordable and available rental dwellings for Q1 households (up from 211 000 in 2006). The consequences of these shortages are severe. Across Australia, four in five Q1 private renter households did not live in affordable housing in 2011, much the same as in 2006. Low-income (Q2) households, in contrast, had an apparent surplus of affordable dwellings of 521 000 nationally in 2011 (a slight decrease compared with 2006). However, when occupation by higher and some lower income households was taken into account, there was a shortage of 122 000 affordable and available dwellings nationwide in 2011 (up from 87 000 in 2006). Shortages of affordable and available rental stock for both Q1 and Q2 households are worse in metropolitan than non-metropolitan regions, with especially large shortages in Sydney and Melbourne. Shortages of affordable and available rental housing also increased markedly in larger regional centres in states that were affected by the resources boom. A more comprehensive approach to policy settings for investment in, and management of, rental housing is necessary to address a worsening situation which, if left unchecked, could lead to greater housing instability and homelessness with consequent economic and social costs for individuals/households and governments.


Surface runoff from row-crop fields frequently has high concentrations of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides, particularly in the first few events after tillage and agrochemical application. Compost filter socks placed in grassed waterways can further reduce sediment concentration as runoff is transmitted offsite but are generally ineffective in removing dissolved chemicals. Therefore, we investigated the effect of adding a proprietary sorbent, Nutriloxx, to filter socks filled with composted bark and wood chips on sediment, nutrient, and glyphosate concentrations in runoff. Surface runoff from one tilled and one no-till watershed planted to corn (Zea mays L.) was routed into two parallel, 30 m (99 ft) long, grassed waterways. Three, 46 cm (18 in) diameter filter socks filled with Nutriloxx-amended compost were placed 5 m (16.5 ft) apart across the upper half of one waterway and in the lower half of the paired waterway. Automated samplers were used to obtain samples above and below the treated waterway segments in the 2009 and 2010 crop years. The effectiveness of the grassed waterways and filter socks was highly dependent on tillage treatment and timing and size of the runoff events. In 2009, there were no sizable events during the early growing season. Consequently, erosion was minimal, and no significant effects on sediment concentration were detected. Averaged for both watersheds, however, the amended filter socks contributed to an additional 28% reduction in dissolved phosphate-phosphorus (PO4-P) concentration compared to waterway segments without filter socks (significant at p = 0.05). The filter socks, however, significantly increased sulfate (SO4) concentrations up to 20-fold in the first sampled event, but SO4 concentrations declined rapidly with subsequent events. Similarly, the filter socks increased concentrations of calcium (Ca), potassium (K), and sodium (Na), but this was not significant in all instances. In 2010, runoff-producing rainfall occurred frequently during the growing season, and the filter socks significantly decreased sediment and PO4-P concentrations from the tilled watershed. In addition, large reductions in ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) concentrations were noted (average > 7-fold), but field observations suggested that this was due to physical trapping of eroded coated-urea fertilizer prills rather than sorption. The filter socks continued to contribute to significantly increased SO4 concentrations from both watersheds. Filter socks can effectively reduce sediment losses when used in agricultural applications, and adding selective sorbents can increase their ability to retain nutrients. However, losses of sorbent components need to be considered.


This chapter examines two related, but distinct, political concepts — justice and freedom. It first considers various possible constraints on freedom before discussing the degree to which freedom is desirable. It then explores various alternative values that might conflict with freedom, mainly in the context of John Stuart Mill's political thought; these include equality, paternalism, and happiness. The chapter proceeds by analysing the concept of justice and various criteria for determining its meaning in the context of the major competing theories of justice provided by John Rawls and Robert Nozick. Finally, it evaluates alternative theories of justice which challenge the conventional liberal view that theories of justice should focus only on the nation-state and are applicable only to human beings.


Thermodynamic (Anderson 2005) and elastic properties (Musgrave 1970) of minerals provide the fundamental information needed to analyze seismic observations and to model Earth's dynamic state. The connection between pressure, temperature, chemical composition, and mineralogy that produce seismic velocity gradients, heterogeneities, and discontinuities, can be established with knowledge of thermoelastic and thermodynamic equilibrium properties of single phases and their aggregates.

There is a broad-based need in solid Earth geophysics for these thermoelastic properties to model the Earth. However, the materials and conditions of the Earth's interior present several challenges. The chemical composition of the Earth's mantle is complex with at least five major oxide components and tens of solid phases. Today, this type of challenge is more effectively addressed by a combination of experimental and computational methods. Experiments offer accurate information at lower pressures and temperatures, while computations offer more complete and detailed information at higher pressures and temperatures, where experimental uncertainties are large and conditions difficult to control in the laboratory.

The overwhelming success of density functional theory (Hohenberg and Kohn 1964; Kohn and Sham 1965) combined with the quasiharmonic approximation (QHA) (Born and Huang 1956; Wallace 1972) for computations of thermodynamic properties of major mantle minerals has been reviewed in this book (Wentzcovitch et al. 2010). Although these properties were cited and compared with experiments only at ambient conditions, in general, quasiharmonic calculations perform even better at higher pressures (see references in Wentzcovitch et al. 2010). In this paper we review the extension of these calculations to high pressure and high temperature elasticity. There are important exceptions, such as CaSiO3-perovskite, whose high temperature structure is stabilized by anharmonic fluctuations (Stixrude et al. 1996). Such cases cannot be addressed using the QHA and one must resort of molecular dynamics (MD) in some form. Great progress has …


The population of the world is aging, and the aging population should not be considered to be an insignificant contributor to increasing healthcare costs in Canada. This paper will explore the effects of aging on the healthcare system in Canada, and will address issues such as chronic illnesses associated with aging, fragmentation of healthcare services, use of an acute care model, and lack of specialized gerontological nursing education programs as contributing factors to why aging is a significant cost driver in healthcare. In addition, this paper will provide recommendations to transform Canada's healthcare system in order to deliver sustainable and cost-effective healthcare for all.


We investigate the use of haptic feedback for enhancing user performance with remote pointing devices. We present a number of concepts that use haptic feedback on such devices and the results of the first user study, in which we have compared the effects of different feedback types on users' performance and preference in remote pointing tasks. The study showed that the addition of haptic feedback significantly improves the performance, while it has also revealed a seemingly low user acceptance of haptic feedback. We discuss the implications of our findings and outline the future work.


Sixteenth-century Aztec codices preserve a record of at least 13 drought years in central Mexico during the prehispanic and early colonial period. Climate-sensitive tree-ring records recently developed for Mexico confirm 9 of the 13 Aztec drought dates, including the extended drought related to the infamous "famine of One Rabbit" in 1454. One Rabbit is the first year of the 52-yr Aztec calendar cycle, and folklore suggests that famine and catastrophe accompany its return. The Mexican treering data indicate that severe drought occurred immediately before 10 of the 13 One Rabbit years during and before the Aztec era a.d. 882–1558. This relationship between drought and the year preceding One Rabbit is statistically significant and suggests a real climatic origin for the "curse of One Rabbit."


This work seeks to understand the variability of warm and cool events during summer in Turkey. Daily maximum air temperature data from 97 weather stations were analyzed to determine percentile threshold values (99th, 95th, 90th, 1st, 5th, and 10th) at each station. Trends in the percentile values were determined using the Mann–Kendall trend test. The analysis demonstrates an increase in frequency of warm, hot, and extremely hot days, whereas cool, cold, and extremely cold days show a decreasing trend. Increasing trends are statistically significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels for 13 and 46% of the stations, respectively. Significant decreasing trends have been detected at 0.05 and 0.01 levels for 19 and 15% of 97 stations, respectively. Analysis of the observations shows that the number of warm and hot event started to increase in the 1970s. Warm events are comparatively more numerous than cold events in western and southern parts of the country.


I. INTRODUCTION II. ACCESS NETWORK COMPETITION A. Spectrum Policy to Develop Access Networks B. Access Network Competition and Unbundling C. Competing Access Networks Require Interconnection III. SERVICE COMPETITION A. Openness B. VolP as a Case in Point IV. NETWORK EFFECTS, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, AND UNIVERSAL SERVICE A. More Valuable for All Users B. Most Efficient V. PRACTICAL PROCESS A. National Versus State Jurisdiction B. FCC Organization 1. Staff 2. Gathering Data 3. Culture C. Antitrust Enforcement VI. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION The key goal of communications policy is to promote the welfare of our citizens, primarily through productivity gains. These productivity gains will increase business productivity and increase the benefits to consumers through access to better products and services and through lower prices. Much of the gains will come from decreases in prices of transmission and increases in the amount of information that can be cheaply and rapidly moved from place to place. These efficiency goals can be combined with other social and political goals such as universal access and make achievement of such goals much less costly. The best means to achieve these goals of communications policy is to maximize the operations of markets. We prefer markets, as opposed to state-owned or state-managed communications businesses, because markets collect and distribute information about what sellers are willing to offer and buyers are willing to purchase in many ways better than the state. However, markets in communications industries may not produce optimal results for at least two principal reasons that may also apply to other industries. First, competition-winning firms tend to obtain market power and may have incentives and ability to deter new entry. In addition, winning firms have different incentives than new entrants that may affect the introduction of new products and services. Second, regulators seeking to distribute communications services to everyone in the nation, for very laudable social and economic reasons, have tended to interfere in ways that diminish the responsiveness of the market as well as the magnitude and speed of the introduction of new goods and services. The United States currently has a communications policy in place that does not state clearly its own goals, yet applies regulations that greatly affect outcomes. Not surprisingly, the result appears to be deficient in both economic and social benefits. A better communications policy would substitute markets for regulation as a way to determine both what is sold and what price is paid while continuing to be conscious of specific market-power concerns and obtaining any desired social benefits in the most efficient manner possible. Such a wise policy must assure that new entrants, armed with a different sense of what can be sold and who might be persuaded to buy, should be able to challenge even the largest incumbents. An attribute of this policy would be that all could enjoy the social and economic benefits of ubiquitous and all-inclusive access to the network (i.e., allowing everyone the chance to communicate with everyone else all the time) without detracting materially from the price-setting and competitive mechanisms of markets or imposing an unnecessary cost burden on the overall economy. One of the metrics for judging communications policy is whether the creation of new networks, goods, services, and markets is keeping pace with rapid technological advances. An important example of success in this respect is the proliferation of wireless communications. Apparently, the absence of retail price regulations, presence of cheap interconnection mandated by government, and existence of multiple providers have all led to high growth, high usage, high penetration, and high rate of technological change for wireless services. …


This paper studies profit-maximizing seller behavior when brand
image affects demand. We consider a seller facing a population
of consumers with heterogeneous tastes regarding product quality and brand image. First, we analyze "active branding" by the
seller through costly advertising. Our analysis shows that advertising, price and profits are all increasing in the average valuation
of brand image in the population. Second, we examine the role of
"passive branding" emanating from the population's consumption of the product. We find that seller profits increase in the
average degree of conformity in the population whereas the price
remains unaffected


In Merck KGaA v. Integra LifeSciences I Ltd., the U.S. Supreme Court adopted a broad construction of the regulatory approval exception to patent law infringement, 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1), for experiments conducted at early stages of the pharmaceutical development process. But the Court refused to determine whether that exception applies to patented 'research tools,' and failed to address the relationship of that exception to the historic experimental use exception. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has narrowly construed the experimental use exception, but also refused in its recent decision on remand in Merck to resolve these questions, leaving in place substantial disagreements over the nature and scope of the exceptions that were reflected in its earlier decision (which the Supreme Court reversed). In contrast to the substantial uncertainties in American patent law, European experimental and regulatory approval exceptions may be subject to somewhat fewer interpretive uncertainties, particularly in light of decisions such as the U.K. Monsanto and German Klinische Versuche (Clinical Trials) cases. But the nature and scope of the European exceptions nevertheless may be subject to dispute and may vary significantly among jurisdictions based on national legislative decisions to limit or extend patent protection, such as the recent Belgian law adopting an experimental use exception that expressly applies to patented research tools. Determining the proper scope and application of experimental use and regulatory approval exceptions remains a pressing concern. These exceptions assure that patent laws intended to provide incentives for technological innovation do not unduly restrict scientific research, innovative medical product development and generic product competition. The social harms that can result from narrow exceptions have been emphasized by the Merck decision, by the recent (initial) invalidation of restrictively licensed stem-cell patents, and by empirical studies that suggest that valid patents may (in light of the narrow construction that has been given to the experimental use exception in the U.S.) increasingly delay or restrict scientific research. However, the scope of these exceptions remains highly controversial, particularly for biotechnological research tool inventions for which capital investments and market returns may depend upon the ability to prevent such unlicensed research uses.In this article, we provide a comparative analysis of the history and current state of the experimental use and regulatory approval exceptions under U.S. and European laws. We explore the application of these exceptions to research tools in academic and commercial sectors, distinguishing research on an invention from research with it, discussing potential differences of treatment among the exclusive patent rights, and noting the arguments for extending or restricting the exceptions. We also discuss relevant constitutional and international treaty-law considerations for legislative and judicial policymaking. We conclude with a dialog that seeks to provide guidance for lawmakers, by identifying relevant questions that will need to be answered in order to resolve the appropriate scope of experimental use and regulatory approval exemptions.


It is now widely accepted that there are two routes to open access (OA): OA repositories and OA journals. It is often assumed these are distinct alternative parallel tracks. However, it has recently become clear that there is potential for repositories and journals to interact with each other on an ongoing basis and between them to form a coherent OA scholarly communication system. This paper puts forward three possible models of interaction between repositories and journals; services such as arXiv and PubMed Central, and the work carried out by the RIOJA project, are working exemplars and pilot implementations of these models. The key issues associated with the widespread adoption of these models include repository infrastructure development; changing ideas of the 'journal', 'article', and 'publication'; version management; quality assurance; business and funding models; developing value‐added features; content preservation; policy frameworks; and changing roles and cultures within the research community.


BACKGROUND
Lymphatic endothelial cells from primary lymphedema skin have never been cultured nor characterized. A subgroup of patients with primary lymphedema undergo surgery to bring about an improvement in their quality of life. The aim of this study was to culture and characterize LECs from the skin of these patients.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Lymphatic endothelial cells were isolated and cultured from the skin of patients with primary lymphedema and from normal skin. The isolated cells were compared in their ability to form microvascular networks in a three-dimensional culture medium, and in their response to treatment with vascular endothelial growth factors A, C, and D. Whole tissue transcriptional profiling was carried out on two pools of isolated lymphatic endothelial cells--one from primary lymphedema skin and the other from normal skin. Lymphatic endothelial cells from primary lymphedema skin form tubule-like structures when cultured in three-dimensional media. They respond in a similar fashion to stimulation with the vascular endothelial growth factors A, C, and D. Comparative analysis between lymphedema tissue and normal tissue (fold change >2) showed differential expression of 2793 genes (5% of all transcripts), 2184 upregulated, and 609 downregulated. Genes involved in cellular apoptosis (vascular endothelial growth inhibitor, zinc finger protein), extracellular matrix turnover (matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor-16), and type IV collagen deposition were upregulated. Various pro-inflammatory genes (interleukin-6, interleukin-8, interleukin-32, E-selectin) were downregulated.

CONCLUSION
Cellular adhesion, apoptosis, and increased extracellular matrix turnover play a more prominent role in primary lymphedema than previously thought. In addition, the acute inflammatory response is attenuated as evidenced by the downregulation of various pro-inflammatory genes.This sheds further light on the interplay of the various pathological processes taking place in primary lymphedema.


THE DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSES OF THE MUFERTILITY KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT SCALE Qiyan Mu, BSN, RN Marquette University, 2017 Young women between the ages of 18 to 24 experience disproportionally high rates of negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Inadequate and inaccurate fertility knowledge can hinder a young woman's self-care abilities in managing her sexual and reproductive health. There is no validated instrument to assess young women's fertility knowledge. The primary purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the MU-fertility knowledge assessment scale (MU-FKAS) for young women. The secondary purpose is to explore the relationships among young women's individual and contextual factors, self-perceived fertility knowledge, actual fertility knowledge, and fertility health risks. A three-phase, multiple method design was used for the study. The MU-FKAS contains 26 items measuring knowledge of female fertility changes within the menstrual cycle and throughout the lifecycle, and the impact of lifestyle factors and female age on female fertility and conception. The KuderRichardson 20 (KR20) coefficient was .74 indicating acceptable internal consistency. Known group comparison between young women who used fertility awareness based method (FABM) vs. non-FABM users showed a significant difference in their fertility knowledge level supporting its construct validity. Exploratory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure. Item analysis provided evidence for refinement of individual items. The sample consisted of 342 young women between the ages of 18 to 24 (M= 21.87; SD =1.88). They were primarily White and heterosexual. Young women's actual fertility knowledge ranged from 27 to 100 (M=78.04, SD= 14.36). Their self-reported fertility risk factors spanned from 0 to 12. A significant regression equation was found (F (8,331) =6.053, p < .0001) with an R of .13. Using a FABM, self-perceived fertility knowledge, and actual fertility knowledge were statistically significant in predicting young women's fertility health risks. Young women's age, education level, or pregnancy experience were not significant in predicting their fertility health risks. The MU-FKAS demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability as a newly developed instrument. The significant relationships between young women's fertility knowledge and their fertility health risks highlighted the importance of assessing and teaching young women about their fertility as an important component of their preconception care.


The Amphisphaeriaceae ( sensu lato ) presently includes 36 genera and 23 synonyms and is a heterogeneous assemblage of ascomycetes. In this paper molecular and morphological data and teleomorph—anamorph connections are examined and confirm that the Amphisphaeriaceae ( sensu stricto ) should be confined to ten teleomorphic genera and their Pestalotia -like anamorphs. These include Amphisphaeria, Broomella, Discostroma, Ellurema, Griphosphaerioma and Neobroomella which are described and illustrated; and Blogiascospora, Lepteutypa, Paracainiella and Pestalosphaeria which are discussed.


'One day there is life...and then, suddenly, it happens there is death'. So begins Paul Auster's moving and personal meditation on fatherhood. The first section, 'Portrait of an Invisible Man', reveals Auster's memories and feelings after the death of his father. In "The Book of Memory" the perspective shifts to Auster's role as a father. The narrator, 'A', contemplates his separation from his son, his dying grandfather and the solitary nature of writing and story-telling.


With increasingly frequent cooperation between all countries all over the world, as one of the most common languages, English has a more and more important position. The continuous improvement of productivity intensifies the competition of all kinds of industries in the society, so most of the enterprises continuously improve the recruitment threshold upon employee recruitment, in which one of the conditions is that the employee must pass CET4 and CET6. Based on this, in this paper, the English level of college students is studied according to the CET4 and CET6 scores of investigated college students. Then, the English level of college students is analyzed by establishing the curve fitting model. Finally, plotting and prediction are conducted according to the existing data by establishing the fitting function with the least squares method and using MATLAB for quadratic fitting. It is concluded through analysis that the English level of college students are gradually increased with the increase of the passing rate of CET4 and CET6 of college students.


Polypropylene: The Definitive User's Guide and Databook presents in a single volume a panoramic and up-to-the-minute user's guide for today's most important thermoplastic. The book examines every aspect science, technology, engineering, properties, design, processing, applications of the continuing development and use of polypropylene. The unique treatment means that specialists can not only find what they want but for the first time can relate to and understand the needs and requirements of others in the product development chain. The entire work is underpinned by very extensive collections of property data that allow the reader to put the information to real industrial and commercial use. Despite the preeminence and unrivaled versatility of polypropylene as a thermoplastic material to manufacture, relatively few books have been devoted to its study. Polypropylene: The Definitive User's Guide and Databook not only fills the gap but breaks new ground in doing so. Polypropylene is the most popular thermoplastic in use today, and still one of the fastest growing. Polypropylene: The Definitive User's Guide and Databook is the complete workbook and reference resource for all those who work with the material. Its comprehensive scope uniquely caters to polymer scientists, plastics engineers, processing technologists, product designers, machinery and mold makers, product managers, end users, researchers and students alike.


Removing dyes used in the textile industry from the water bodies is a relevant task because of the importance of their high toxicity. The cotton industry waste is a big problem in the final disposal. Waste cotton fibrils were studied as adsorbent material to treat the coloured effluents of the textile industry. Washing with boiling water was determined as the most efficient method for cleaning. The material was physical characterized. After that, methylene blue adsorption tests were carried out to review the dry removal process at different pH. The Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second kinetic order models best described this adsorption process. The results would indicate that the process involve a chemisorptions.


This paper applies clustering analysis to the Colombian armed conflict. Indeed, when applied to a FARC terrorist act database, this statistical procedure finds a natural clustering of the different FARC units according to the different types of terrorist acts they commit and identifies the military hard core of the FARC. The facts revealed in this paper should be useful not only for future military strategies, but also to determine a better priorization and geographical allocation of the scarce military resources.


Inspired by geological ore formation processes, we apply one-step hydrothermal (HT) polymerization to the toughest existing high-performance polymer, poly(p-phenyl pyromellitimide) (PPPI). We obtain highly-ordered and fully imidized PPPI as crystalline flakes and flowers on the micrometer scale. In contrast to classical 2-step procedures that require long reaction times and toxic solvents and catalysts, HT polymerization allows for full conversion in only 1 h at 200 °C, in nothing but hot water. Investigation of the crystal growth mechanism via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) suggests that PPPI aggregates form via a dissolution–polymerization–crystallization process, which is uniquely facilitated by the reaction conditions in the HT regime. A conventionally prefabricated polyimide did not recrystallize hydrothermally, indicating that the HT polymerization and crystallization occur simultaneously. The obtained material shows excellent crystallinity and remarkable thermal stability (600 °C under N2) that stem from a combination of a strong, covalent polymer backbone and interchain hydrogen bonding.


Scaling the sanitation ladder decreases exposure to various illnesses including diarrheal disease, soil-transmitted helminths and trachoma. In rural Zambia, community-led total sanitation (CLTS) has been deployed to help Zambians scale the sanitation ladder. Analysis of monthly routine surveillance data of village-level sanitation coverage of 13,688 villages shows that villages moved up the sanitation ladder following CLTS intervention with more than one third of villages achieving 100% coverage of adequate sanitation. Villages also moved down the sanitation ladder – approximately half of those achieving 100% coverage of adequate sanitation also dropped from that coverage at some point during monitoring. Larger villages were less likely to achieve 100% coverage, and more likely to drop if they did achieve 100% coverage. Drops were more likely to occur during the wet season. Of those villages dropping from 100% coverage, more than half rebounded to 100% coverage. The adequate latrine components most likely to drop off from 100% coverage were handwashing stations and lids to cover holes, both key components in preventing disease transmission. These results have implications for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming – sustained support may be required to ensure villages move up the sanitation ladder and stay there.


This paper presents a new realization of adaptive notch filter based on a cascade of complex first-order notch filters. Unbiased frequency estimation of a real sinusoid has been achieved by thinning the notch bandwidth. It has been shown that the simple closed form of mean square error (MSE) for frequency estimation is given by using the results for first-order complex notch filter and its robustness to the frequency of input sinusoid has been shown. Computer simulation results are presented to validate the analysis.


Methods for measuring rates of DNA synthesis, and thus cell proliferation, in humans had not been available until recently. We (D. C. Macallan, C. A. Fullerton, R. A. Neese, K. Haddock, S. S. Park, and M. K. Hellerstein, 1998, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 708-713) recently developed a stable isotope-mass spectrometric technique for measuring DNA synthesis by labeling the deoxyribose (dR) moiety of purine deoxyribonucleotides through the de novo nucleotide synthesis pathway. The original analytic approach had limitations, however. Here, we describe technical improvements that increase yield, stability, sensitivity, and reproducibility of the method. The purine deoxyribonucleoside, deoxyadenosine (dA), is directly isolated from hydrolysates of DNA by using an LC18 SPE column. Two derivatives were developed for analyzing the dR moiety of dA alone (without the base), an aldonitrile-triacetate derivative, and a reduced pentose-tetraacetate (PTA) derivative. The PTA derivative in particular exhibited greater stability (no degradation after several weeks), greater GC/MS signal, and much less abundance sensitivity of isotope ratios (i.e., less dependence of mass isotopomer abundances on the amount of material injected into the mass spectrometer source), compared to previous derivatives of dA. The need for complex, multidimensional abundance corrected standard curves was thereby avoided. Using the PTA derivative, dR enrichments from DNA of fully turned over cells of rodents with 2H2O enrichments in body water of 2.2-2.8% were 9.0-9.5%, and less than 1.0 microg DNA (ca. 2 x 10(5) cells) was required for reproducible analyses. In summary, these methodologic advances allow measurement of stable isotope incorporation into DNA and calculation of cell proliferation and death rates in vivo in humans and experimental animals, with fewer cells, greater reproducibility, and less labor. Many applications of this approach can be envisioned.


Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA that can be horizontally transferred between different bacterial cells by conjugation. Horizontal gene transfer of plasmids can promote rapid evolution and adaptation of bacteria by imparting various traits involved in antibiotic resistance, virulence, and metabolism to their hosts. The host range of plasmids is an important feature for understanding how they spread in environmental microbial communities. Earlier bioinformatics studies have demonstrated that plasmids are likely to have similar oligonucleotide (k-mer) compositions to their host chromosomes and that evolutionary host ranges of plasmids could be predicted from this similarity. However, there are no complementary studies to assess the consistency between the predicted evolutionary host range and experimentally determined replication/transfer host range of a plasmid. In the present study, the replication/transfer host range of a model plasmid, pSN1216-29, exogenously isolated from cow manure as a newly discovered self-transmissible plasmid, was experimentally determined within microbial communities extracted from soil and cow manure. In silico prediction of evolutionary host range was performed with the pSN1216-29 using its oligonucleotide compositions independently. The results showed that oligonucleotide compositions of the plasmid pSN1216-29 had more similarities to those of hosts (transconjugants genera) than those of non-hosts (other genera). These findings can contribute to the understanding of how plasmids behave in microbial communities, and aid in the designing of appropriate plasmid vectors for different bacteria.


Using the exogenous variability in intergovernmental transfers and hydrocarbon royalties, based on the fiscal regime that prevailed in Argentina from 1988 to 2003, we jointly estimate the effects that changes in these public revenues had on provincial public consumption and debt. When receiving a one-peso increase in intergovernmental transfers, provinces spent 32 centavos of each peso on public consumption and 43 on debt repayment. But when hydrocarbon-producing provinces received a one-peso increase in royalties, they used 75 centavos for debt repayment. These dissimilar reactions to revenue increases are robust to different specifications of the basic regressions. Finally, we provide two alternative explanations for them: the higher volatility of hydrocarbon royalties (relative to intergovernmental transfers) and the exhaustible nature of these revenues.


This poster introduces the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out on Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia. This series features Dr. Meharvan Singh, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Neurosciencea at the UNT Health Science Center, Dr. Bert Hayslip, regents professor in the Department of Psychology, and Kyle Page, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology.


In externally fertilizing animals in which females mate with multiple males at the same time (simultaneous polyandry), the possibility that females accrue genetic benefits that improve offspring viability remains largely unexamined. Here, we investigate whether simultaneous polyandry influences offspring fitness in a wild population of the Grey Foam Nest Treefrog Chiromantis xerampelina. Simultaneous polyandry in this frog is the most extreme reported for any vertebrate, with more than 90% of females mating with 10 or more males during the deposition of a single clutch. We compared growth (using age and size at metamorphosis as proxies) and survival of offspring produced by females that naturally mated with either 1 male (monandrous females) or 10--12 males (polyandrous females). Polyandry did not influence size or age at metamorphosis, but we found that offspring from polyandrous matings had both significantly higher mean survival and reduced variance in offspring survival. These findings implicate a genetic mechanism, but targeted cross-classified breeding experiments that control for both maternal and material effects will be required to conclusively determine whether elevated offspring viability is linked to enhanced genetic diversity, intrinsic sire effects, or genetic compatibility. Irrespective of the causation, the findings provide the first evidence that naturally formed polyandrous matings have increased offspring viability in an anuran amphibian. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.


This research brief is a contribution by the Youth and Media Team at the Berkman Center to the first "Why News Matters" grantees workshop sponsored by the McCormick Foundation and organized by the Educational Development Center, Inc., which took place on March 8 and March 11, 2013, in Chicago. Informed by our own research and practice, with a focus on 'news literacy', the brief seeks to stimulate a discussion among the grantees about different approaches to defining, framing, and understanding core concepts such as 'news' and 'news literacy', and to provide a frame of reference for a debate about the question of 'why news matters'.


Polymeric molds of the layer-by-layer photonic crystal can be economically synthesized with a microtransfer molding technique. The refractive indices of these molds are low, preventing formation of a photonic bandgap. We find that such molds can be conformally coated with higher-index material. Photonic band calculations find structures in which conformally coated layer-by-layer molds have complete bandgaps for both titania and silicon coatings. Large stop bands exist in the 001 stacking direction. Feasibility of experimental conformal coating of the molds has been demonstrated with a titania-coated polyurethane mold, which shows optical features in agreement with simulations of reflection and transmission.


Energy Information Systems (EIS), which can monitor and analyze building energy consumption and related data throughout the Internet, have been increasing in use over the last decade. Though EIS developers describe the capabilities, costs, and benefits of EIS, many of these descriptions are idealized and often insufficient for potential users to evaluate cost, benefit and operational usefulness. LBNL has conducted a series of case studies of existing EIS and related technology installations. This study explored the following questions: How is the EIS used in day-to-day operation? What are the costs and benefits of an EIS? Where do the energy savings come from? This paper reviews the process of these technologies from installation through energy management practice. The study is based on interviews with operators and energy managers who use EIS. Analysis of energy data trended by EIS and utility bills was also conducted to measure the benefit. This paper explores common uses and findings to identify energy savings attributable to EIS, and discusses nonenergy benefits as well. This paper also addresses technologies related to EIS that have been demonstrated and evaluated by LBNL.


Touch-enabled user interfaces have become ubiquitous, such as on ATMs or portable devices. At the same time, authentication using touch input is problematic, since finger smudge traces may allow attackers to reconstruct passwords. We present SmudgeSafe, an authentication system that uses random geometric image transformations, such as translation, rotation, scaling, shearing, and flipping, to increase the security of cued-recall graphical passwords. We describe the design space of these transformations and report on two user studies: A lab-based security study involving 20 participants in attacking user-defined passwords, using high quality pictures of real smudge traces captured on a mobile phone display; and an in-the-field usability study with 374 participants who generated more than 130,000 logins on a mobile phone implementation of SmudgeSafe. Results show that SmudgeSafe significantly increases security compared to authentication schemes based on PINs and lock patterns, and exhibits very high learnability, efficiency, and memorability.


With an increasing amount of digital music files available comes a need for proper organization and retrieval of music information and music objects. The field of digital music libraries and audio information retrieval is growing rapidly with many different projects undertaken to provide increasing functionality. To identify what a digital music library is expected to achieve, it is important to both look at the current research in the field, as well as surveying the potential users as to which features such a system should contain. There has been much work done in the field, particularly towards specialized functions that retrieve specific patterns of music, and it is important to gather this research and form a model of what a digital music library can be. The digital music library is a specific way to store specific files, and as such it requires a special metadata set that can handle the music information, storage and delivery systems to handle the files and a search engine that not only is able to search and retrieve via metadata, but also from the content of the music files themselves. A digital music library will contain audio files that represent music. To be able to retrieve content from an audio file, one must know what an audio signal is, and what the digital representation of one entails. Music files are specific audio files that have specific attributes that must be known to be able to distinguish from other audio files. It is possible to extract attributes from the audio file, and use these content descriptions to calculate similarities (similar to other information retrieval systems). Metadata will be what describes an audio file, because content of an audio file is difficult to draw information from. Along with the metadata, relationships between different metadata objects will also be valuable tool to extract information from music. It is therefore needed a well-known model for both metadata representation and fields, as well as a well-known model for representing relationships. A prototype system, drawn from the conclusions made from the literature research as well as the surveys and observations, is built to test if a digital music library model can work as to provide the user with proper information both through metadata, relationships and audio features. This model shows that a digital music library that follows the expectations given by surveys and related research is possible even by using simple technologies such as hypertext and simple databases.


Recently, amphiphilic fluorescent polymers based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) have been attracting much attention for their application in the bioimaging field. In this study, by employing PEGMA and TPB as hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments, respectively, novel amphiphilic polymers with AIE features were successfully prepared via the combination of RAFT polymerization and the Hantzsch reaction for the first time. For the same 25% feed ratio of TPB, the molar fraction of TPB in two-step PEG-DHP1 polymers and one-pot PEG-DHP2 polymers was respectively about 20.2% and 23.5%, and their weight average molecular weights (Mn) were about 21 000 and 25 000 with a narrow PDI. From the 1H NMR analysis, the polymer structure by the one-pot method was similar to that by the two-step method. When the feed ratio was increased to 30%, the molar fraction of TPB in one-pot PEG-DHP3 polymers and the corresponding Mn respectively changed to 27.6% and 20 000. In aqueous solution, the obtained amphiphilic PEG-DHP2 polymers tended to self-assemble into fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) with 100–200 nm size, whose fluorescence spectrum presented the maximal emission peak at 460 nm with the obvious AIE phenomenon. More importantly, as a result of the high water dispersibility, good fluorescence, nano morphology and excellent biocompatibility, the as-prepared polymers are attractive for application in cell imaging.


The later Rawls attempts to offer a non-comprehensive, but nonetheless moral justification in political philosophy. Many critics of political liberalism doubt that this is successful, but Rawlsians often complain that such criticisms rely on the unwarranted assumption that one cannot offer a moral justification other than by taking a philosophically comprehensive route. In this article, I internally criticize the justification strategy employed by the later Rawls. I show that he cannot offer us good grounds for the rational hope that citizens will assign political values priority over non-political values in cases of conflict about political matters. I also suggest an alternative approach to justification in political philosophy (that is, a weak realist, Williams-inspired account) that better respects the later Rawls's concern with non-comprehensiveness and pluralism than either his own view or more comprehensive approaches. Thus, if we take reasonable pluralism seriously, then we should adopt what Shklar aptly called 'liberalism of fear'.


Due to economic pressure industries, when planning, tend to focus on optimizing the expected profit or the yield. The consequence of highly optimized solutions is an increased sensitivity to uncertainty. This generates additional "operational" costs, incurred by possible modifications of the original plan to be performed when reality does not reflect what was expected in the planning phase. The modern research trend focuses on "robustness" of solutions instead of yield or profit. Although robust solutions have a lower expected profit, they are less sensitive to noisy data and hence generate less operational costs. In this talk, we focus on the robustness of airline schedules. We compare different existing methods for "robust scheduling" on simulated data in order to analyze their performance. In particular, we analyze the consequences of erroneous prediction models on the performance of robust solutions. Simulations are based on the public data of the ROADEF Challenge 2009 (http://challenge.roadef.org/2009).


The growing use of housing equity to support a range of activities and needs raises complex issues, particularly for older owners. In an environment in which older owners are pushed towards housing equity transactions to meet income and welfare costs, they are required to make choices from a complex and sometimes bewildering range of options. The transactions which facilitate the use of home equity as a resource to spend in later life - from 'trading down' and 'ordinary' secured and unsecured debt to targeted products including reverse/lifetime mortgages, home reversion plans and sale-and-rentback agreements - raise important legal and regulatory issues.

This book provides a contextual analysis of the financial transactions that older people enter into using their housing equity. It traces the protections afforded to older owners through the 'ordinary' law of property and contract, as well as the development of specific regulatory protections focused on targeted products. The book employs the notion of risk to highlight the nature and causes of the 'situational' vulnerabilities to which older people are now subject as 'consumers' of housing equity, showing that the older owner's personal situation is crucial in determining whether and why they may seek to release equity, the options and products available to them, and the impact of harms resulting from adverse transactions. The book critically evaluates the extent to which this context is incorporated in the legal frameworks through which these transactions are governed, as a measure of the 'appropriateness' of existing legal provision, as well as considering the arguments surrounding 'special protection' for older owners in housing equity transactions.


Introducing the VuePod: Development and Testing of a Low-Cost Large-Scale Stereoscopic Immersive System Using 3D LCD Televisions Shane Makana Hayden Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, BYU Master of Science 3D immersive visualization systems, or CAVEsTM, have found wide adoption for use in geosciences, planetary science, medical research, and computer science. However, much of the potential for such systems in practical civil and environmental engineering settings has been severely limited due to 1) extreme costs in both hardware and software; 2) immobility due to calibration and darkroom requirements; and 3) extensive and expensive manpower requirements for both operation and maintenance. This thesis presents the development and testing of a new mobile low-cost immersive stereo visualization system – the "VuePod" – that attempts to address these challenges through the use of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies, open source software, consumer grade passive 3-D television monitors, an active tracking system, and a modular construction approach. The VuePod capitalizes on recent functional advancements and cost decreases in both hardware and software and is demonstrated herein as a viable alternative to projector-based walk-in CAVEs and their limitations. Additionally, I have selected twelve representative 3D immersive systems and performed a side-by-side analysis of each in terms of cost, viewing capabilities, computing and user experience. The purpose of performing this analysis is to classify the variety of systems available and simplify the system procurement and configuration processes. The availability of this comparative system information should facilitate the increased utilization of immersive 3D interface technologies in science and engineering.


Guam parkinsonism-dementia (G-PD) is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder among the native inhabitants of the Mariana Islands that manifests clinically with parkinsonism as well as dementia. Neuropathologically, G-PD is characterized by abundant neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau, marked deposition of transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 kDa (TDP-43), and neuronal loss. The mechanisms that underlie neurodegeneration in G-PD are poorly understood. Here, we report that the unfolded protein response (UPR) is activated in G-PD brains. Specifically, we show that the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone binding immunoglobulin protein/glucose-regulated protein 78 kDa and phosphorylated (activated) ER stress sensor protein kinase RNA-like ER kinase accumulate in G-PD brains. Furthermore, proteinaceous aggregates in G-PD brains are found to contain several proteins related to the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and the autophagy pathway, two major mechanisms for intracellular protein degradation. In particular, a mutant ubiquitin (UBB+1), whose presence is a marker for UPS dysfunction, is shown to accumulate in G-PD brains. We demonstrate that UBB+1 is a potent modifier of TDP-43 aggregation and cytotoxicity in vitro. Overall, these data suggest that UPR activation and intracellular proteolytic pathways are intimately connected with the accumulation of aggregated proteins in G-PD.


The present paper deals with the activities and the results achieved under a cooperative research project between IFP, D2T, LMS, G2Elab and Renault focused on Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) applications to hybrid power-trains conception and assessment. The main goal of this study is the evaluation of hybrid propulsion concepts and the benefits of different degrees of hybridization in a flexible architecture, by using a chain of simulation platforms: from the co-simulation to the high-dynamic engine-in-the-loop test bed, through a virtual version of the last one. This paper focuses on the implementation issues of an energy management strategy (EMS) for a parallel hybrid architecture. The EMS is developed from the optimal control theory, using Pontryagin's Minimum Principle (PMP). The resulting Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) is implemented in real time and tested in an experimental environment (HyHiL test bench). In particular, a possible integration of the three way catalytic converter constraint in the optimization is presented.


Abstract The work of Andrea Levy has recurrently explored the historical connections between Britain and the Caribbean, and has contributed to the mapping of black British identities. Six Stories and an Essay (2014) continues this theme. In "Uriah's War", the final short story of the collection, Levy pursues her concern with the gaps in historical memory by revisiting the Great War at the significant historical time of the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict, in order to foreground the involvement of Caribbean colonial troops in the war effort. This article argues that "Uriah's War" forces readers to question the collective memory of the Great War as a white man's conflict, thus highlighting the fraught negotiations of memory and setting the historical record straight. It examines the ways in which "Uriah's War" addresses three major historical episodes of the Great War involving the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR), mostly unacknowledged or devalued in western historiography of the conflict. "Uriah's War" contributes to the rescue of Caribbean soldiers from historical oblivion and inscribes their voices in order to demonstrate their patriotic affiliation and denounce the racial discrimination suffered by soldiers of the BWIR during the Great War.


A simple deterministic model, that needs little input-data, is derived. It is based on an analysis of the recession curve, where new considerations are introduced. Input data consist of time-series of precipitation, initial values of storage in upper and lower soil-storages and in interception storage, and initial runoff. Output data are time-series of evapotranspiration, interception, upper and lower soil-storages and runoff, all given as 2-hour mean values.


Analyses and data mining of large computer files are affected by the quality of the information in the files. For large population registers and for files that are created by merging two or more files, duplicate entries must be identified. Duplicate identification can depend on record linkage software that can deal with name, address, and date-of-birth data containing many typographical errors. Quantitative and qualitative data must be edited to assure that mutually contradictory or missing items are changed automatically and quickly. This paper describes computational methods and software that are suitable for groups of files where individual files contain between 1 million and 4 billion records.


After prolonged inspection of motion in a particular direction, subsequent viewing of a stationary stimulus induces the perception of motion opposite to adaptation. This is the historical waterfall illusion, today referred to as the motion aftereffect (MAE). The purpose of this dissertation was to posit a functional theory which better explains the underlying neuropsychological mechanism responsible for the production of the motion aftereffect. A psychophysical approach was employed to test the predictions which stem from the traditional fatigue and the recalibration models. To investigate this question, this series of experiments examined the most difficult challenge to the conventional fatigue interpretation, that is, the storage of the motion aftereffect. In Experiment 1, MAE duration was recorded for variable adaptation durations and the decay of the MAE was tracked. In Experiment 2, MAE duration was measured following uninterrupted- versus interrupted-adaptation to test for storage via summation across adaptation episodes. Experiment 3 examined the effect of the intervening visual environment on the long-term storage of the MAE. Finally, Experiments 4a and 4b investigated the time course of immediate and long-term MAEs which were induced in opposite directions to each other. All experiments yielded evidence of MAE storage. The time course for recovery from adaptation illustrated a fast component, independent of the visual environment, like that postulated by traditional fatigue models. As well, a slower mechanism was evident from the data, which did depend on one's visual experience, and hence is consistent with the notion of visual recalibration.


Seventeen first year students experienced the first semester of laboratory instruction of a year-long sequence of general chemistry in a problem-based format, followed by a semester in which the laboratory portion of the course was taught in a traditional manner. At the end of the second semester all the students were administered a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the different laboratory instructional environments. Fifteen of the seventeen students participated in semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the surveys and interview transcripts showed that seven of the students interviewed believed that the problem-based environment helped them better understand course concepts relative to traditional laboratory instruction, whereas the same number found them to be equally effective. Further analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that different students perceived conceptual development to be occurring at different times during the various types of instruction. For problem-based learning, conceptual development was maximized during the activity while in the laboratory. In the expository environment, however, it was maximized outside of the laboratory, after the experiment had been completed. Both the instructional and research implications of this phenomenon are discussed. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (2), 140-152]


Dyslexia is a language-development deficit in the area of reading and spelling. Research has provided evidence that the extent to which dyslexics have problems with literacy acquisition may differ across languages. It is thought that this is caused by differences in consistency concerning grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Consistencies and inconsistencies between languages may, therefore, also have an effect on L2 learning. If this is indeed the case, words that are orthographically and phonologically similar in both L1 and L2 will cause relatively few problems, while words that are only phonologically similar will cause greater inhibition effects for dyslexics compared to non-dyslexic readers. To test this hypothesis, I conducted a naming task with Dutch subjects who learned English at secondary school. The results show that dyslexic readers make more errors and have slower response times than non-dyslexic readers. I also compared two levels of proficiency (2 vmbo ('lower secondary professional education') and 5 vwo ('pre-university education'). In general, the dyslexies from vwo performed much better than dyslexies from vmbo, which was to be expected, as the students of vwo had had more experience in using the English language. The dyslexies in vwo did not, however, perform better compared to age-level controls than did the dyslexies in vmbo. Although more research is needed to determine what exactly the role of level of proficiency is in L2 acquisition, the results in general support the hypothesis that the inconsistencies in the English grapheme-phoneme correspondences provide an extra challenge for dyslexies who are learning English as a second language.


Electromagnetic effects play a key role in tokamak edge turbulence. It has been suggested that the density limit and the L to H mode transition may both be due to an interplay between electromagnetic effects, diamagnetic flows and collisionality. (See, e.g., Ref [1].) The present paper discusses the results of scrape-off layer (SOL) non-linear 3D fluid turbulence simulations including finite beta effects in the shear-less limit. These simulations were carried out using the GBS code [2], which evolves the drift-reduced Braginskii equations for a collisional plasma with cold ions in circular (s-α) geometry with a toroidal limiter in the high-field side midplane. The GBS code has been used to study turbulence in linear devices and in a simple magnetized torus configuration [2, 3]. We have recently adapted the code for tokamak edge geometry, and introduced s-α curvature operators as well as magnetic shear, finite aspect ratio, and finite beta effects. The objective of our work is to describe the phase-space relevant to the tokamak SOL turbulence. In this paper, in particular, the role played by finite beta effects upon the characteristic lengths of the profile gradients, turbulence saturation levels, and other basic turbulence properties, is assessed in the context of fully global non-linear turbulence simulations. The non-linear steady-state turbulent plasma profiles are obtained as the result of a balance between plasma density and heat sources, turbulent fluctuations, and parallel losses at the limiter plates. The turbulence drive is a priori unknown and there is no separation between fluctuations and background profiles. Linear analysis of the fluid equations has been carried out for SOL relevant parameters. In the presence of finite beta effects, we recover three instabilities: drift waves, resistive ballooning modes, and ideal ballooning modes. The onset of ideal ballooning modes is known to correspond to the instability threshold α_MHD = q^2 β R/Lp 1. In the non-linear simulations, however, we observe the onset of catastrophic transport well below the ideal limit. The saturated states in this regime are characterized by large transport due to global ideal modes. These modes are linearly subdominant but non-linearly dominant due to the underlying turbulence saturation mechanism.


This paper uses a fundamental Q model of investment to consider the role played by financing frictions in agricultural investment decisions, controlling econometrically for censoring, heterogeneity and errors-in-variables. Our findings suggest that farmer's investment decisions are not driven by market fundamentals. We find some evidence that debt overhang restricts investment but investment is not dependent on liquidity or internal funds. The role of financing frictions in determining investment decisions changes in the post-financial crisis period when debt overhang becomes a significant impediment to farm investment. The evidence suggests that farmers increasingly rely on internal liquidity to drive investment. Finally, we find no evidence that farmers use on-farm capital to fund on-farm investment.


OBJECTIVE: To study hospital admission rates for fractures of the proximal femur over a period when incidence is reported to have increased, compensating for known lack of precision in coding, excluding nonemergency admissions and transfers, and modelling for age, period, and cohort effects. DESIGN: Validation of coding of a sample of hospital admissions followed by study of two sets of routinely collected statistical abstracts of hospital records; graphical analysis and statistical modelling were used to search for period and cohort effects. SETTING: Oxfordshire and west Berkshire in 1968-86, covered by the Oxford record linkage study (ORLS), and ENGLAND in 1968-85, covered by the hospital inpatient enquiry (HIPE). The ORLS and HIPE datasets are almost independent (ORLS contributed about 1.8% of the HIPE data). SUBJECTS: Records of patients aged 65 and over. OUTCOME MEASURES: Admission rates for fractured neck of femur and fracture of other and unspecified parts of femur (N820 and N821), and evidence of period and cohort effects. RESULTS: The validation study indicated that it was important to combine the codes 820 and 821 in this age group. Admission rates increased over the period studied in both HIPE and ORLS datasets. In HIPE the pattern was of two plateaux separated by a period of rapid rise in the late 1970s. In the ORLS data there was a more steady rise. Statistical analysis showed significant period and cohort effects but much of this was attributable to the component of the model common to both period and cohort effects (termed "drift"). CONCLUSIONS: The finding that admission rates increased in both datasets, combining relevant codings and restricting analysis to emergency admissions, strongly suggests that the rise was real. At least part of the period effect in the HIPE data, however, might be attributable to a sampling artefact. The cohort effect in incidence rates of femoral fracture has not been previously shown and would be compatible with a number of aetiological hypotheses.


To develop a detector with an effective area large enough to observe an extensive air shower,
we studied a method of detecting radio waves generated via the transition radiation process by charged particles in an air shower. Characteristics of the radio waves were investigated using beam accelerators and radio antennas . When about 430x10^9 electrons with a kinetic energy
of 4.7 MeV crossed a titanium film into the air, the radio pulse emitted was measured using a standard dipole antenna with a bandwidth of 800 - 880 MHz. The measured pulse height at a position 1.2 m away from the source and at an angle of 5 degree from the beam axis was approximately
670 mV. It was found that the electric field strength had large angular dependence and that the polarization property was roughly consistent with the theoretical value.


"This dissertation represents a distinct theoretical and pragmatic interrogation into the historically hegemonic discursive disempowerment of women in patriarchal society and institutions of higher education. The axis of which, is the exigencies unique to the female progressive educator (FPE). The FPEs pedagogy is grounded in counterhegemonic consciousness--reframing disempowering practices through education which resists and transforms the ubiquitous residue of overarching patriarchal schema reproduced through hegemonic discourse and culture. In essence she imagines the unimaginable--equity through dialogue among women and men. The framework for exploring these conditions consists of interpersonal communication, rhetorical criticism, sociolinguistic studies, critiques in gender and feminisms, cultural foundations and progressive education. The prologue provides overarching historical antecedents demonstrating the intersection of dominant discourse and the continuum of subordinated lives and locations of women. Chapter I examines institutionally legitimated hegemonic culture and discursive disempowerment of women in society through the powerful triad of church, state and education. Chapter II proposes steps toward realizing discursive empowerment by the FPE through gender holistic discursive communities in dialogue and negotiating Self and Other. Chapter III relates experiential and empirical knowledge specific to the author, a female progressive educator, whose epistemology and pedagogy is predicated on reflexive practice founded in the narrative, identity, hermeneutics of Selfhood and mutuality of Self and Other. Chapter IV moves beyond theoretical frameworks into the domain of a lived pedagogy through the establishment of a national coalition for progressive/antioppressive educators to participate in communities of dialogue and action."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


Compound 1 is a selective and potent agonist of the G protein-coupled receptor GPR139 (EC50 = 39 nM). In this study, we describe the synthesis, radiolabelling and in vitro evaluation of [3H]-1 for the characterisation of GPR139 and its spatial expression in the brain using autoradiography. Two different synthesis routes for the radiolabelling of 1 based on a reductive debromination strategy were investigated using deuterium (D2, g). The route based on reductive debromination of the bromonaphthyl precursor 5 proved superior over arylbromide 4 and was employed for the radiolabelling experiments. Reductive debromination of precursor 5 was accomplished using 3H2, Pd/C and triethylamine in DMF at ambient temperature to give target molecule [3H]-1 with a specific activity of 19.3 Ci mmol−1 and a radiochemical purity of ≥95%. By application of autoradiography and binding studies, it was not possible to discriminate [3H]-1 binding to wildtype mice brains from GPR139 knockout mice brains and total binding from non-specific binding in CHO-k1 cells stably expressing human GPR139 receptor. Based on these experiments we conclude that [3H]-1 is not a suitable radioligand for the characterisation of GPR139.


Cognitive radios (CRs) improve the spectrum efficiency in wireless communications. Nonetheless, owing to the intrinsic randomness of ad hoc cognitive radio networks (CRNs), e.g., the opportunistic links, the traditional realization of ad hoc networking that demands the end-to-end control information, is unscalable and impractical. A virtual multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) framework has been recently developed for the realization of error-resilient end-to-end transmission without the necessity of feedback information. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end path-permutation coded (PPC) transmission in which one relay path is accessed at a time and the transmission is hopped among multiple relay paths. The hopping order is specified by a permutation array that encodes the data, meaning that the data is conveyed by the order of indices of the accessed paths. With the PPC scheme, the control overhead and data processing complexity of the end-to-end transmission become relatively low. The PPC technique can also be utilized as a multiuser technique. At the destination node, a joint sphere decoder efficiently implements the maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability decoding that simultaneously identifies the order of accessed paths and erasures. Comprehensive theoretical analyses and simulations are conducted to demonstrate the superior performance of the PPC technique in ad hoc CRNs.


In this work we present a new model and corresponding analyses, which include a new exact relationship and a new conditional upper bound of fork-join synchronization in parallel queues. This topic is a key issue in the partitioning and allocation of real-time programs to parallel pipeline multiprocessor systems.
We consider a fork-join system that consists of K parallel processors, where each processor has its own buffer (queue) of sufficient size. Jobs that are unable to be executed, due to a busy processor, wait in the buffer until the processor is available. We consider that the input (arrival queue) is a First-Come-First-Service (FCFS) queue. Jobs arrive in a time-invariant, state-independent Poisson fashion with rate $\lambda$. Upon arrival, a job forks into K branches to the K queues. Each branch is a task set that occurs in sequence. A task is defined as the smallest processing entry that is dispatchable by an operating system. A job leaves the system when all its tasks complete their service. In other words, tasks corresponding to the same job are joined before departing the system.
In our analysis of fork-join synchronization in parallel queues, we are interested in the mean job response time that we denote by $T\sb{K}$. We obtain a new and simple relationship for $T\sb{K}$, which shows its dependence on SYNC queue (join node) properties. Also, we obtain the exact value of the average length of the longest SYNC queue in a 3-queue fork-join system. We generate a new conditional upper bound on the mean response time for the system. We evaluate our model and upper bound by simulation and comparisons with other approximations, upper and lower bounds. The relative offset in the simulation for our exact relationship is less than 1%, which is very reasonable because an offset is always there to average any number of analysis samples as the average of infinity samples. Our upper bound can be much lower (e.g. 50% or more) than the latest upper bound published for certain situations.


Centaurus B is a nearby radio galaxy positioned in the southern hemisphere close to the Galactic plane. Here we present a detailed analysis of about 43 months of accumulated Fermi-LAT data of the γ-ray counterpart of the source initially reported in the 2nd Fermi-LAT catalog, and of newly acquired Suzaku X-ray data. We confirm its detection at GeV photon energies and analyze the extension and variability of the γ-ray source in the LAT dataset, in which it appears as a steady γ-ray emitter. The X-ray core of Centaurus B is detected as a bright source of a continuum radiation. We do not detect, however, any diffuse X-ray emission from the known radio lobes, with the provided upper limit only marginally consistent with the previously claimed ASCA flux. Two scenarios that connect the X-ray and γ-ray properties are considered. In the first one, we assume that the diffuse non-thermal X-ray emission component is not significantly below the derived Suzaku upper limit. In this case, modeling the inverse-Compton emission shows that the observed γ-ray flux of the source may in principle be produced within the lobes. This association would imply that efficient in-situ acceleration of the radiating electrons is occurring and that the lobes are dominated by the pressure from the relativistic particles. In the second scenario, with the diffuse X-ray emission well below the Suzaku upper limits, the lobes in the system are instead dominated by the magnetic pressure. In this case, the observed γ-ray flux is not likely to be produced within the lobes, but instead within the nuclear parts of the jet. By means of synchrotron self-Compton modeling, we show that this possibility could be consistent with the broad-band data collected for the unresolved core of Centaurus B, including the newly derived Suzaku spectrum.


Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic medical conditions worldwide, and describes a group of metabolic disorders characterised by hyperglycaemia due to impaired glucose homeostasis. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated that in 2011, 366 million people worldwide were living with diabetes, and that 80% of these individuals live in low- and middle-income countries. It is projected that by 2030, this number would have risen to 552 million. According to the IDF, the estimated diabetes prevalence for South Africa is 6.46% for adults aged 20-79 years approximately 1.9 million of 30 million adults). Uncontrolled hyperglycaemia may result in both short- and long-term complications that can affect virtually every major organ system in the body. Diabetes self-management education is the cornerstone of care for individuals with diabetes mellitus who want to achieve successful health-related outcomes. Early initiation of treatment for diabetes is associated with improved glycaemic control over time, and decreased long-term complications, such as cardiovascular disease, retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy. This short review article will focus on type 2 diabetes mellitus and treatment with oral hypoglycaemic medications.


The concept of social death is commonly used to describe how individuals or groups are condemned to existential homelessness at the outskirts of ordinary, human society. This article, however, explores social death as post-mortem phenomenon in contemporary Sweden. It is well known that lives may be extended beyond the grave through the practices and beliefs of the living, but not all the dead gain a social existence. For various reasons the living may not wish or be able to construe continuing bonds with their deceased, and as a consequence the deceased disappear from social life. Depending on the circumstances, this could be painful to or a relief for the living. It may also go unnoticed. Based on both individual and group interviews, this article investigates why some face post-mortem social death and others do not, and what shades of post-mortem social death there might be.


We explored interaction within the context of handheld Augmented Reality (AR), where a handheld device is used as a physical magic lens to 'augment' the physical surrounding. We focused, in particular, on the role of spatial relations between the on-screen content and the physical surrounding. On the one hand, spatial relations define opportunities for mixing environments, such as the adaptation of the digital augmentation to the user's location. On the other hand, spatial relations involve specific constraints for interaction such as the impact of hand tremor on on-screen camera image stability. The question is then, how can we relax spatial constraints while maintaining the feeling of digital-physical collocation. Our contribution is three-fold. First, we propose a design space for handheld AR on-screen content with a particular focus on the spatial relations between the different identified frames of reference. This design space defines a framework for systematically studying interaction with handheld AR applications. Second, we propose and evaluate different handheld AR pointing techniques to improve pointing precision. Indeed, with handheld AR set-up, both touch-screen input and the spatial relations between the on-screen content and the physical surrounding impair the precision of pointing. Third, as part of a collaborative research project involving AIST-Tsukuba and Schneider- France and Japan, we developed a toolkit supporting the development of handheld AR applications. The toolkit has been used to develop several demonstrators.


Primary central nervous system vasculitis (PCNSV) is a rare and poorly understood syndrome. We describe the clinical findings in 8 patients who appear to have a distinct subset of PCNSV. We identified 101 consecutive patients with PCNSV who were seen between January 1, 1983, and December 31, 2003. The diagnosis was based on conventional angiography in 70 patients and on central nervous system biopsy in 31 patients. Six of the 31 patients also had angiograms showing changes of vasculitis. Thus, 76 patients of the cohort had abnormal angiograms. Eight of the 101 patients had normal angiograms ("angiography-negative") but had brain biopsies that showed vasculitis. We compared the clinical and laboratory findings and outcomes of the 8 patients with angiography-negative PCNSV with those of the 76 patients with PCNSV whose angiograms showed evidence of vasculitis ("angiography-positive"). In comparison with the 76 patients with angiography-positive PCNSV, the 8 patients with angiography-negative PCNSV more commonly had 1) a cognitive disorder (87.5% vs. 43.4%; p =.024); 2) cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities (a protein level ≥700 mg/L or a white blood cell count ≥10 × 106/L) (100% vs. 35.5%; p =.034); and 3) meningeal or parenchymal enhancing lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (75.0% vs. 23.9%; p =.007). Other differences between the 2 groups were observed but were not significantly different. All patients with angiography-negative PCNSV responded to treatment and none died. Angiography-negative PCNSV appears to be a distinct subtype of cerebral vasculitis with small vessel involvement beyond the resolution of conventional angiography and is associated with a favorable outcome. Abbreviations: CNS = central nervous system, CSF = cerebrospinal fluid, MRI = magnetic resonance imaging, PCNSV = primary central nervous system vasculitis.


Imaging the unforeseen fate of neutrophils Inflammation that results from insults such as ischemia and reperfusion or trauma in the absence of microorganisms is known as "sterile inflammation." Neutrophils are recruited in vast numbers during sterile inflammation and have been thought to play a detrimental role. Wang et al. used intravital microscopy to show that neutrophils actually perform helpful tasks such as removing and regenerating thermally damaged blood vessels in the liver (see the Perspective by Garner and de Visser). Moreover, neutrophils neither die nor are phagocytosed. Instead, they return to the circulation in a process called "reverse transmigration," making a pit stop in the lungs, before ending their lives where they began—in the bone marrow. Thus, a reconsideration of the use of anti-neutrophil therapies after injury may be warranted. Science, this issue p. 111; see also p. 42 Neutrophils perform important wound-healing functions in thermally damaged tissue before returning to the bone marrow. Neutrophils have been implicated as harmful cells in a variety of inappropriate inflammatory conditions where they injure the host, leading to the death of the neutrophils and their subsequent phagocytosis by monocytes and macrophages. Here we show that in a fully repairing sterile thermal hepatic injury, neutrophils also penetrate the injury site and perform the critical tasks of dismantling injured vessels and creating channels for new vascular regrowth. Upon completion of these tasks, they neither die at the injury site nor are phagocytosed. Instead, many of these neutrophils reenter the vasculature and have a preprogrammed journey that entails a sojourn in the lungs to up-regulate CXCR4 (C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4) before entering the bone marrow, where they undergo apoptosis.


Abstract This article focuses on South Korean attitudes toward the South Korean-U.S. alliance by comparing three political groups. Using a nationwide survey of South Koreans conducted in 2007, it performs two quantitative analyses: cluster analysis to identify distinct political groups and regression analysis to test hypotheses drawn from literature about what influences public attitudes toward the alliance. This study draws four major conclusions about attitudes toward the alliance: (1) There is strong support for the alliance among South Koreans, including anti-American progressives. (2) For conservatives and centrists, the traditional rationale for the alliance—deterrence of North Korean aggression—remains a basic foundation for the alliance. (3) Among the three groups, there is a developing consensus on a new rationale for the alliance of promoting inter-Korean reconciliation. (4) The younger generation, which constitutes a large majority of the voting public, exhibits moderation and pragmatism in its ideological orientation, contradicting the commonly held view that it heavily slants progressive. These findings can offer important guidance for the future of the alliance.