Abstract. We present a local mesoscale model of the magnetospheric cusp region with high resolution (up to 300 km). We discuss the construction and implementation of the initial configuration and give a detailed description of the numerical simulation. An overview of simulation results for the case of strongly northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is then presented and compared with data from Cluster 2 spacecraft from 14 February 2003. Results show a cusp diamagnetic cavity (CDC) with depth normal to the magnetospheric boundary on the order of 1–2 R E and a much larger extent of ~5–9 R E tangential to the boundary, bounded by a gradual inner boundary with the magnetospheric lobe and a more distinct exterior boundary with the magnetosheath. These results are qualitatively consistent with observational data.


Earliest studies into the influence of the sea on the economy and settlement structure date back to the mid-19th century. They became common in the 20th century. Researchers have come to a general understanding that a coastal position has a beneficial effect on the development of regions. Such areas have a denser population and develop more rapidly than inland regions. At the same time, the effect of environmental, socioeconomic, demographic, and political factors is often stronger than the influence of the sea. Thus, an inland position can be more beneficial than a coastal one. Both trends are observed in the Baltic Sea macro-region. However, the 'gravitational force' of the sea varies from place to place. This article focuses on the most significant differences between territories and countries. These differences reflect the uneven influence of the proximity of the Baltic Sea on the development of population and national economies. Qualitative differences between meso-regions are measured using a combination of theoretical and empirical typologies. A combined economic, statistical, and cartographic analysis helps to identify a special type of meso-regions — coastal development corridors, which make an important contribution to the economic development and consolidation of the Baltic macro-region. In transnational macro-regions, such typological differences must be taken into account in strategic and spatial planning at the intergovernmental level.


Traditional foods that First Nations peoples harvest or gather from the land remain critically important for achieving and sustaining food security for many communities. In Canada's North, land claim agreements include provisions for First Nations to participate in the governance of their traditional territories, including the co-management of important traditional (wild-harvested) food species. Because such agreements only specify the broad contours of co-management governance, their actual functioning evolves out of a complex interplay among the co-managing organizations over the course of time. This paper aims to deepen our understanding of how First Nations communities can enhance food security as participants in co-management. Our study connects research on food security with research on co-management and is the first to analyze how First Nations can improve their food security by influencing decision-making that affects traditional foods through co-management arrangements. Following a succinct review of the Indigenous food security and co-management literatures, we analyze the experiences of Kluane First Nation in enhancing community food security through the co-management of its traditional territory with Yukon Government and Parks Canada, interpreting the data in light of the theories and evidences offered by research on co-management. The analysis of data collected from semi-structured interviews and from First Nations and government resources shows that, while the co-management system is imperfect, it does offer a mechanism through which First Nations can exert influence on decisions that affect their food security. The three key themes emerging from the excerpts confirm the importance of co-management as an evolutionary and long-term process, in which trust- and relationship-building are ongoing activities that are fundamental to beneficial collaboration involving the sharing of information and power. The analysis also highlights the role of context, or situational factors, in facilitating or hindering collaboration.


The invention provides a power supply equipment power supply interface device with slide chutes. The power supply interface device comprises a jack base device (9) and a plug device (8). The plug device (8) is used for being plugged in the cavity of the jack base device (9) and the tail end of the plug device (8) is provided with a connecting notch (82) used for being connected with a connecting protrusion (92) in the cavity so that electrical connection is realized. The jack base device (9) comprises an end part wall (91), a transverse side wall (99) and a base body (98) opposite to the end part wall (91) so that the cavity is formed through enclosing. The plug device (8) is provided with a positioning protrusion (81) used for being connected with the external side of the end part wall (91). The cavity is internally provided with a guiding sleeve (7) which is fixedly connected with the internal side of the end part wall (91) and the base body (98). The guiding sleeve (7) is provided with two opposite guiding slots which transversely extend in a diameter direction.


This Public Policy Brief presents analysis of the labor market by economic research staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. It is based on materials originally presented to the Board of Directors of the Boston Fed on April 8, 2004, with selective updates incorporating data reported in early June. Contributors to this brief include David DeRemer, Jeffrey C. Fuhrer, Kristina Johnson, Jane Sneddon Little, Radoslav Raykov, Scott Schuh, Geoffrey M.B. Tootell, Robert Triest, and Anne van Grondelle. Views expressed in this brief do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve System.


While the barotropic ocean tides in the deep ocean are well modeled to ~2 cm RMS, accurate tidal prediction in the icecovered polar oceans and near coastal regions remain elusive. A notable reason is that the most accurate satellite altimeters (TOPEX/Jason-1/-2), whose orbits are optimized to minimize the tidal aliasing effect, have spatial coverage limited to largely outside of the polar ocean. Here, we update the assessment of tidal models using 7 contemporary global and regional models, and show that the altimetry sea surface height (SSH) anomaly residual after tidal correction is 9 12 cm RMS in the Subarctic Ocean. We then address the hypothesis whether plausible evidence of variable tidal signals exist in the seasonally ice-covered Subarctic Ocean, where the sea ice cover is undergoing rapid thinning. We first found a difference in variance reduction for multi-mission altimeter SSH anomaly residuals during the summer and winter seasons, with the residual during winter season 15 30% larger than that during the summer season. Experimental seasonal ocean tide solutions derived from satellite altimetry reveals that the recovered winter and summer tidal constituents generally differ by a few cm in amplitude and tens of degrees in phase. Relatively larger seasonal tidal patterns, in particular for M2, S2 and K1 tides, have been identified in the Chukchi Sea study region near eastern Siberia, coincident with the seasonal presence and movement of sea ice.


Montane grasslands play a key role in supporting wintering elk in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. To document change in grassland extent and patch sizes, I analyzed repeat aerial photography at 4 sites in the upper Red Deer River drainage between 1952 and 2003. Excluding the Ya Ha Tinda, grassland extent declined 52 + 20%, shrubland 39 + 41%, with an increase in mixedwood forest of 32%, and coniferous forest of 39 + 10%. The rate of grassland loss differed among sites: West Lakes > Tyrrell Flats ~ Scotch Camp. Grassland area at Ya Ha Tinda was the same in 1952 and 2003 due to shrub mowing. Grassland patch size increased on average, but decreased in WL as larger patches of fragmented with woody plant encroachment. From 100-m transects along grassland-shrubforest ecotones, differences in herbaceous biomass and species richness existed within cover types, but no pattern in edge effects on herbaceous biomass could be detected between ecotone type or among sites, except at the Ya Ha Tinda. PR EV IE W


Hygroscopy is the main stabilization mechanism that explains the good performance of magnesium chloride hexahydrate (6H2O•MgCl2 or simply MgCl) roads, as it absorbs and retains relative humidity (RH), reducing erosion and increasing durability. However, road users have observed that the skid resistance of MgCl roads decreases with increased RH. To study the skid resistance of MgCl roads, the study calculated the drag factor or friction coefficient of the road surface with a braking test, in which an accelerometer was installed in a vehicle and deceleration was recorded during braking. The braking test was used to calculate the effect of RH and surface condition on skid resistance in 30 road sections located in the northern region of Chile. The testing was designed with a factorial experiment that took the following into consideration: surface condition (well-graded, sealed, and loose aggregate), whether water was artificially added to the surface (normal or wet), and a wide range of RH (between 10% and 70%). The results showed that when RH was greater than 35% to 40%, the friction of MgCl roads decreased as RH increased. In environments in which the air humidity was lower than 60%, the friction coefficient was higher than 0.55, a value that provides suitable friction conditions for most geometric designs for low-volume roads. The study showed that a braking test is a simple and consistent tool for assessing braking performance on MgCl roads. In addition, the study concluded that special attention should be given to surface characteristics and geometric design where MgCl road sections are exposed to RH greater than 60%.


Validity of dental age (DA) estimation methods are tested in different populations. The aim of this study is to compare the Demirjian (D) and Haavikko (H) methods in Turkish children. Methods: After obtaining ethical approval, panoramic radiographs of 8-14 year-old children in the archives of Department of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology were selected analysed retrospectively. Chronological ages (CA) of the individuals were calculated by subtracting the birth dates from the date of the panoramic x-ray was taken. DA of each child was determined by both D and H methods. Confidence intervals of 95% of the difference between DA and CA and the absolute difference are given. Regression models are formulated separately for each gender and DA method. The significance level was set to be p<0.05. Results: The mean CA of the 293 children is 10.098±1.74 years. 51.2% (n=150) of the cases were boys and 48.8% (n=143) were girls. The mean value of the results obtained with the H method for both gender was close to CA compared to the mean results obtained with the D method. The best estimate was found with H method (-0.39 years) in boys, H method (-0.46 years) in boys and girls, H method (-0.52 years) in girls (p<0.05).H method (R 2 =0.84) was found to be more successful for boys and D method was found to be more successful (R 2 =0.77) for girls.


Abstract This paper quantifies the responsiveness of producers of teff, wheat, maize and sorghum to incentives using an error-correction model (ECM). It is found that planned supply of these crops is positively affected by own price, negatively by prices of substitute crops and variously by structural breaks related to policy changes and the occurrence of natural calamities. It has found significant long-run price elasticities for all crop types and insignificant short-run price elasticities for all crops but maize. Higher and significant long-run price elasticities as compared to lower and insignificant short-run price elasticities are attributable to various factors, namely structural constraints, the theory of supply and the conviction that farmers respond when they are certain that price changes are permanent. The paper concludes that farmers do respond to incentive changes. Thus attempts, which directly or indirectly tax agriculture with the belief that the sector is non-responsive to incentives, harm its growth and its contribution to growth in other sectors of the economy.


Usability has never been a priority in file system design. Instead, developers focus mainly on technical aspects, such as speed, reliability, and security. But in recent decades, technological innovations have created a modern information crisis. This is characterized by an ever-growing abundance of easily accessible information. Additionally, the user is able to create and store continuously increasing amounts of digital data. This data is usually managed on the user's personal computer. Conventional file systems, however, which constitute the most important systems for document management tasks, impose a strict monohierarchy onto the user's document collection. The user is constrained by the file system's inability to represent multiple categorizations of documents without utilizing band-aid solutions such as shortcuts. As a possible approach to these issues, a file system prototype is portrayed that permits a nonhierarchical directory structure and polyhierarchical file categorizations while maintaining backward compatibility with existing applications. Furthermore, suggestions are made for carrying out a usability evaluation which could be used to measure the achieved improvement compared to conventional file systems.


The water fern Azolla pinnata R. Br. was fumigated for 1 week with either 25, 50 or 100 nl 1−1 SO2. The symbiosis of Azolla with Anabaena azollae (spp.) was severely damaged by atmospheric SO2 even at concentrations as low as 25 nl 1−1, with significant reductions in growth, reduction of C2H2, NH3 assimilation, protein synthesis, and heterocyst development. These disturbances appear to be mainly responsible for the extreme sensitivity of this fern to atmospheric SO2. Changes in violaxanthin/antheraxanthin and epoxy-lutein/lutein ratios also indicate that free radical products are induced by atmospheric SO2. These results suggest that the Azolla-Anabaena symbiotic system is a very responsive and reliable lower plant model to study the detailed effects of total sulphur deposition upon the balances between various important plant metabolic processes.


Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center report that they have found a potential molecular cause for the aggressive growth and spread of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a highly malignant form of cancer with a very high death rate. The discovery could potentially lead to new treatments as well, say the researchers. Their key finding is the triple interaction between three players: CD44, a surface receptor molecule that plays an important role in a variety of cellular functions; hyaluronan (HA), a complex carbohydrate found in the connective tissues between cells; and LARG, a signal activator found in tumor cells. That interaction apparently initiates two molecular pathways that simultaneously cause tumor cell growth and tumor cell migration, says lead author Lilly Bourguignon, PhD, a research career scientist at SFVAMC and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The study results have been reported on-line in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Working with human cancer cells in culture, Bourguignon and her team found that HA mediates the interaction between CD44 and LARG in a way that stimulates a molecular pathway called RhoA. Through a series of complex steps, the RhoA pathway causes the tumor cell's cytoskeleton - the structure that maintains the cell's shape - to reorganize in a way that causes tumor cells to migrate to other sites in the body, resulting in cancer metastasis. At the same time, the HA-mediated CD44/LARG complex also binds with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), located on the tumor cell's surface, which sets off a second molecular pathway called Ras. In turn, the Ras pathway promotes tumor cell growth. The result, according to Bourguignon, is an aggressive, fast-growing, and invasive cancer. "The combination of RhoA and Ras pathway activation is deadly," she says. Bourguignon cautions that "this is not the only mechanism" by which aggressive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma grows and spreads, "but it is an important mechanism." Because LARG is a central player in these molecular interactions, says Bourguignon, it may be the key to a potential treatment that could prevent both pathways from being initiated in the first place. She and her fellow researchers found that when a particular segment of LARG, called the PDZ domain, is introduced to the tumor cell, it binds up all available CD44 and EGFR, leaving them unavailable to initiate the deadly twin molecular pathways. "We have used the molecular binding action of LARG-PDZ against itself," says Bourguignon. "In the future, LARG could be utilized as a drug target leading to a new therapeutic strategy." Currently, there are no really effective chemotherapeutic treatments for human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, according to Bourguignon. "There are drugs that block EGFR action, but they are not entirely effective," she notes. Bourguignon says that since the presence of EGFR marks particularly aggressive cancers, "the CD44/EGFR complex can be used as a marker for potentially aggressive head-neck tumors. This could be correlated with tumor degree and tumor progression in each patient to get a much more accurate picture of the cancer. Most importantly, this complex may be used a clinical predictor for evaluating the potential of head and neck cancers to metastasize," or spread beyond the initial tumor site. Co-authors of the study are Eli Gilad, PhD, Amy Brightman, BS, Falko Diedrich, MD, and Patrick Singleton, PhD, all of SFVAMC. The research was funded by grants from the United States Public Health Service that were administered by the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and a grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs. UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in the life sciences, and providing complex patient care. The mission of NCIRE is to improve the health and well-being of veterans and the general public by supporting a world-class biomedical research program conducted by the UCSF faculty at SFVAMC. Source: Steve Tokar, UCSF News Services


In this third progress report I consider the politics of settler colonialism in relation to nonnative people of color. Settler colonialism has become an increasingly important concept over the past decade, and while geographers typically think about it from a white/native perspective, I explore how ethnic studies, specifically, Chicana/o studies, has responded to it. For different reasons both disciplines have hesitated to fully interrogate the significance of the concept. In the case of geography, the whiteness of the discipline has caused it to overlook vibrant debates within ethnic studies. Chicana/o studies has not directly engaged with settler colonialism because, I argue, it has the potential to disrupt core elements of Chicana/o political subjectivity. Specifically, it unsettles Chicanas/os' conception of themselves as colonized people by highlighting their role as colonizers. Acknowledging such a role is difficult not only because it challenges key dimensions of Chicana/o identity, as seen in Aztlán, Chicanas/os' mythical homeland, but also because of the precarious nature of Chicana/o indigeneity. Examining Chicana/o studies' muted response to settler colonialism illustrates the impoverished nature of geography's study of race.


This paper is a substantially modified version of a poster presented at the DNA Sampling Conference in Montreal, Quebec, June 4-7, 2006: Lorraine Sheremeta & Suzanne DeBow, "Public Meets Private: Challenges for Informed Consent and Umbilical Cord Blood Banking in Canada" DNA Sampling Conference, Montreal PQ, June 4-7, 2006 (poster presentation). Background As reported previously, the potential utility of umbilical cord blood [UCB] as a source of stem cells for use in the treatment of disease has led to the emergence of several public and private cord blood banks across Canada. (2) In a preliminary discussion paper, the process of informed consent for the donation, collection, processing, storage and future use of UCB was identified as a key area of concern. (3) In the context of private, for-profit UCB banking, the issues are particularly vexing. (4) Informed consent was the focus at a first multi-stakeholder workshop on umbilical cord blood hosted by the Centre de recherche en droit public at the University of Montreal in August 2005 and discussed in greater detail at a second multi-stakeholder workshop hosted by the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta in Edmonton in June 2006. The purpose of this short paper is to identify the key similarities and differences between private and public UCB banks and to further elaborate on the informed consent and contractual challenges that arise in light of these similarities and differences. In Canada and in other countries, there is a discernable trend towards the collection and storage of UCB for use as a medical treatment of a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases including leukemia, serious blood disorders, and immune and genetic disorders. (5) Parents may opt to store UCB in a private bank for potential future use by family members or they may opt to store UCB in a public bank where the UCB is made available to anyone who may need it for medical treatment. At present, more than a dozen cord blood banks exist in Canada (see Table 1), most in the Toronto area. The rapid emergence of private banks in Canada parallels their emergence in the United States and elsewhere. (6) Table 1: Inventory of Cord Blood Banks in Canada (7) Private UCB Banks in Canada Public UCB Banks in Canada Baby Chord Alberta Cord Blood Bank WEBSITE: www.babychord.com WEBSITE: www.acbb.ca LOCATION: Mississauga, ON LOCATION: Edmonton, AB AFFILIATION: Canadian Cord Blood Registry Canadian Cord Blood Registry Hema Quebec WEBSITE: www.ccbr.ca WEBSITE: LOCATION: Edmonton, AB www.hema-quebec.qc.ca AFFILIATION: Alberta Cord Blood Bank LOCATION: Montreal, PQ Cells for Life WEBSITE: www.cellsforlife.com LOCATION: Markham, ON. AFFILIATION: Victoria Angel Registry of Hope is the philanthropic arm of Cells for Life Cord Blood Bank of Canada WEBSITE: www.cordbloodbankofcanada.com LOCATION: Markham, ON CReATe Cord Blood WEBSITE: www.createcordbank.com LOCATION: Toronto, ON Healthchord Cryogenics WEBSITE: www.healthcord.com LOCATION: Vancouver, BC Hema Stem Therapeutics WEBSITE: www.hemastem.com LOCATION: Hamilton, ON Insception Biosciences WEBSITE: www.insception.com LOCATION: Mississauga, ON Lifebank WEBSITE: www.lifebank.com LOCATION: Burnaby, BC. Progenics WEBSITE: www.progenicscryobank.com LOCATION: Toronto, ON Stem Sciences Inc. WEBSITE: www.stemsciences.com LOCATION: Toronto, ON Several general concerns have been raised about UCB banks including: * the lack of adequate regulatory oversight of UCB banks (both public and private) in Canada; (8) * the overly optimistic nature of information provided to parents about the benefits of UCB banking, transplantation, and cellular therapy for the treatment of a vast array of diseases in the absence of sufficient scientific evidence to support the practice; (9) and * the rapid proliferation of private banks and the increasing potential that private cord blood banks could go bankrupt. …


Background: Illness perception can affect health-related behaviors and disease outcomes. Objectives: To determine the effect of an educational intervention of improving illness perception on some modifiable risk factors of coronary artery disease. Methods: In this clinical trial, 100 patients undergoing coronary angiography that met the inclusion criteria were divided randomly into two intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, three educational sessions were conducted individually, while usual care was conducted for the control group. Measurements on fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, blood pressure, body mass index, and smoking status were gathered at baseline, immediately and six months after the intervention in both groups. Data were analyzed using the SPSS. Results : The mean of systolic blood pressure (p<0.005), fasting triglycerides (p<0.005), and fasting blood glucose (p<0.005) were significantly different before and after the intervention between the two groups. Conclusion: Improvement illness perception through educational intervention can affect risk factors of coronary artery disease.


In 1992, New York State Department of Health regulations provided for fully legal syringe exchange programmes in the state. The policies and procedures mandated that: 'Each program must seek to recruit ... for inclusion on its advisory board ... program participants ... Programs are also urged to establish other advisory bodies, such as Users' Advisory Boards made up of program participants, to provide input and guidance on program policies and operations.' The inclusion of drug users as official advisors to the legal programmes was seen as a method for incorporating the views of the consumers of the service in operational decisions. The 1992 regulations implied a new public image for users of illicit psychoactive drugs: active drug users were seen to be capable not only of self-protective actions (such as avoiding HIV infection), but also of serving as competent collaborators in programmes to preserve the public health. This development has important implications with regard to the evolution of official drug policy, since it will be difficult in future to treat IDUs simply as the passive objects of state intervention. Whether as individuals or representatives of a wider population of illicit drug users, they have acquired a legitimacy and sense of personal worth which would have been unthinkable in previous periods.


Around 1960, the politics of the emerging media society in Sweden tended to fixate the formative functions of mass communication. The monopoly of public service broadcast media, press subsidies and new tendencies in film policy were some of the issues around which uncertainty prevailed. New methods to provide reliable data were sought by politicians, since empirical facts were required as arguments for an updated media policy. This article examines the different ways that the field of media studies was introduced in Sweden between 1960 and 1980. We argue that Swedish academic media studies departed from, and emerged within, a rather diffuse borderland between industry, politics and academia. The formation of national media research in Sweden can partly be seen as an effect of politicians and the media industry wanting to be better informed on issues such as media influence, media ownership and the habits and composition of the media audience.


Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an innovative strategy in developing community resources in Malaysia. This article reports on results of a study on CSR practices and outcomes. The practices are examined based on orientations of the CSR implemented by corporations in community development particularly on living standards, education, and health of the community. These community development components are adopted from the Human Development Report (HDR) indices. CSR orientations are defined by adopting Carroll's (1991) conceptualization of CSR, which includes economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. The outcomes are examined through relationships between the CSR orientations and community development components. A structured 7-likert scale questionnaire was used to gather data from 204 respondents. The data showed significant positive relationship between CSR orientations with the living standards and education of the sample. The results also show significant positive relationship between legal and philanthropic CSR orientations with respondents' health component. The legal responsibility becomes the utmost priority, followed by the philanthropic, economic and ethical responsibility. Implications to CSR practices and research are put forth.


Objective: To report safety and efficacy outcomes from up to 9 years of treatment with teriflunomide in an extension (NCT00803049) of the pivotal phase 3 Teriflunomide Multiple Sclerosis Oral (TEMSO) trial (NCT00134563). Methods: A total of 742 patients entered the extension. Teriflunomide-treated patients continued the original dose; those previously receiving placebo were randomized 1:1 to teriflunomide 14 mg or 7 mg. Results: By June 2013, median (maximum) teriflunomide exposure exceeded 190 (325) weeks per patient; 468 patients (63%) remained on treatment. Teriflunomide was well-tolerated with continued exposure. The most common adverse events (AEs) matched those in the core study. In extension year 1, first AEs of transient liver enzyme increases or reversible hair thinning were generally attributable to patients switching from placebo to teriflunomide. Approximately 11% of patients discontinued treatment owing to AEs. Twenty percent of patients experienced serious AEs. There were 3 deaths unrelated to teriflunomide. Soon after the extension started, annualized relapse rates and gadolinium-enhancing T1 lesion counts fell in patients switching from placebo to teriflunomide, remaining low thereafter. Disability remained stable in all treatment groups (median Expanded Disability Status Scale score ≤2.5; probability of 12-week disability progression ≤0.48). Conclusions: In the TEMSO extension, safety observations were consistent with the core trial, with no new or unexpected AEs in patients receiving teriflunomide for up to 9 years. Disease activity decreased in patients switching from placebo and remained low in patients continuing on teriflunomide. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that long-term treatment with teriflunomide is well-tolerated and efficacy of teriflunomide is maintained long-term.


The growth of laptops, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and 802.11/Wi-Fi wireless networking have made Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) a popular research topic recently. Therefore, with more attention on MANETs lately, the security issues become more important and urgent for managing and deploying in such networks. The flexible deployment nature and the lake of fixed infrastructure make MANETs suffer from varieties of security attacks. In this paper, we propose the Misleading Routing Attack (MIRA), which is different from the well known gray/black hole attacks, in which a node is relaying the coming packets and not dropping them, so its neighbors will not report this node as malicious, since they will sense that this node is relaying the packets and not dropping them. This proposed attack aims to delay the packet as much as possible so as to let the source node timeout before it receives the ACK. Also it aims to overload the network by increasing the number of unexpected routing packets generated in the network. Our simulation results show that the existence of an adversary in the network launching a MIRA will degrade packet transmissions in the network as well as increasing the number of lost packets.


We propose a scalable algorithmic framework for exact Bayesian variable selection and model averaging in linear models under the assumption that the Gram matrix is block-diagonal, and as a heuristic for exploring the model space for general designs. In block-diagonal designs our approach returns the most probable model of any given size without resorting to numerical integration. The algorithm also provides a novel and efficient solution to the frequentist best subset selection problem for block-diagonal designs. Posterior probabilities for any number of models are obtained by evaluating a single one-dimensional integral, and other quantities of interest such as variable inclusion probabilities and model-averaged regression estimates are obtained by an adaptive, deterministic one-dimensional numerical integration. The overall computational cost scales linearly with the number of blocks, which can be processed in parallel, and exponentially with the block size, rendering it most adequate in situations where predictors are organized in many moderately-sized blocks. For general designs, we approximate the Gram matrix by a block-diagonal matrix using spectral clustering and propose an iterative algorithm that capitalizes on the block-diagonal algorithms to explore efficiently the model space. All methods proposed in this paper are implemented in the R library mombf.


This paper presents an electroencephalography (EEG) based-classification of between pre- and post-mental load tasks for mental fatigue detection from 65 healthy participants. During the data collection, eye closed and eye open tasks were collected before and after conducting the mental load tasks. For the computational intelligence, the system uses the combination of principal component analysis (PCA) as the dimension reduction method of the original 26 channels of EEG data, power spectral density (PSD) as feature extractor and Bayesian neural network (BNN) as classifier. After applying the PCA, the dimension of the data is reduced from 26 EEG channels in 6 principal components (PCs) with above 90% of information retained. Based on this reduced dimension of 6 PCs of data, during eyes open, the classification pre-task (alert) vs. post-task (fatigue) using Bayesian neural network resulted in sensitivity of 76.8 %, specificity of 75.1% and accuracy of 76% Also based on data from the 6 PCs, during eye closed, the classification between pre- and post-task resulted in a sensitivity of 76.1%, specificity of 74.5% and accuracy of 75.3%. Further, the classification results of using only 6 PCs data are comparable to the result using the original 26 EEG channels. This finding will help in reducing the computational complexity of data analysis based on 26 channels of EEG for mental fatigue detection.


Editor's Note: What follows is the second part of an unofficial transcript of an off-the-record conversation among three of the labor movement's leading strategists. (The first installment appeared under the title "Strategy for Labor," 22 J. Labor Research 569 (Summer 2001), and has been updated as "Strategy for Labor Revisited," available www.ssrn.com). This second meeting was also convened by C, or "cooperationist," who had been for over ten years the president of a local union, part of a major industrial union, representing 3,000 employees who had been hired to staff a new manufacturing plant in a Southern town ("Newplant"). Newplant had been widely touted as a breakthrough in U.S. labor-management relations because it was consciously designed to promote greater participation of production and maintenance workers in business decisions and a "partnership" role role for union officials alongside traditional management officials. In bitterly contested local elections last year, C was voted out of office and now serves in a staff capacity at the AFL-CI0. A, or "adversarialist," perhaps surprisingly a longstanding friend of C, is the research director of another industrial union. A was very active in the Students for A Democratic Society in the 1960s, and after graduating from Oberlin College began his career as a labor organizer, working for a succession of unions that had been active in the McGovern-Kucinich wing of the Democratic Party. S, or "stay the course," is the highly respected chief of staff for a national union representing government workers. Section headings and parenthetical references are supplied by the editor and do not appear in the original transcript.


Many "rising powers" such as India, China, Argentina, Singapore, and Brazil are investing in stem cell technology, joining the traditional leaders in the field, such as the UK, Germany, USA, and Japan. Malaysia is also entering this sector because of the potential medical and economic benefits that the use of stem cell technologies could provide. Like other countries, Malaysia faces the challenge of how to encourage scientific progress and innovation in an ethical manner while at the same time ensuring a safe and accessible market for regenerative therapies. This paper reports on the research findings of semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders to investigate how they perceived and evaluated the current regulatory framework for human stem cell research in Malaysia, and what might be at stake if the state continues with its current regulatory approach.


This research report reflects on the experiences of the Digital Inclusion eCentre Management Training Programme delivered in 2012 - to 62 participants from 34 eCentres situated in the Western Cape. This roll-out was a result of a successful pilot which was delivered in 2011 - to 18 participants from 10 eCentres in the Western and Northern Cape regions. The Centre for Innovative Educational and Communication Technologies (CIECT), situated at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa designed, developed, localised and facilitated the programme. CIECT, as a stakeholder within the Western Cape Knowledge Production and Coordination Hub (WCKPCH) focuses on Digital Inclusion and Social Innovation within Western Cape and Northern Cape communities (rural, deep-rural, urban and peri-urban). The WCKPCH's main objective is; to produce knowledge and coordinate innovation, existing and complex digital inclusion eSkills initiatives as part of a response to the South African National e-Skills Plan of Action; and aligned to the National Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). CIECT registered the programme through the South African Quality Authority (National Qualifications Framework/NQF Level 6). The Centre continuously monitors the Programme through research and internal evaluation. This is done in order to report on the impact, lessons learnt and to provide recommendations for further local and national delivery. The programme targeted eCentre Managers and other key role players at the community eCentres such as administrators; and even board members. Participants underwent relevant eSkills training to capacitate and enhance existing skills and knowledge. One of the main goals of the Programme was to capacitate participants to engage in ICT train-the-trainer interventions within their communities. A case study approach was conducted to report on the 2012 Programme and experiences of the selected 62 eCentre Managers across 34 Western Cape eCentres (rural, deep-rural, urban and periurban). Since the aim of the Programme research was to identify community needs in relation to eSkills, the report will discuss findings and provide some recommendations. These findings include: a need for reliable infrastructure; limited time allocated for usage of eCentre services; more efforts needed toward empowering communities; certification of training Projects offered by community eCentres. This research report informs the impact of delivery to eCentres in the Western and Northern Cape; and for national scalability.


OBJECTIVE
Roughly one-third of individuals with depression do not respond to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reliable predictors of ECT response would be useful for patient selection, but have not been demonstrated definitively. We used meta-analysis to measure effect sizes for a series of clinical predictors of ECT response in depression.

DATA SOURCES
PubMed was searched systematically to identify studies published after 1980 that tested at least 1 clinical predictor of response to ECT.

STUDY SELECTION
Of 51 studies identified, 32 were compatible with meta-analysis.

DATA EXTRACTION
The weighted mean odds ratio (OR) or standardized mean difference (SMD) was computed for each of 10 clinical predictors, based on dichotomous outcomes (responder vs nonresponder). Statistical analyses examined robustness, bias, and heterogeneity.

RESULTS
Shorter depressive episode duration predicted higher ECT response rate (SMD = -0.37, 7 studies, 702 subjects, P = 4 × 10(-6)). History of medication failure in the current episode was also a robust predictor: response rates were 58% and 70%, respectively, for those with and without medication failure (OR = 0.56, 11 studies, 1,175 subjects, P = 1 × 10(-5)). Greater age and psychotic features were weakly associated with higher ECT response rates, but heterogeneity was notable. Bipolar diagnosis, sex, age at onset, and number of previous episodes were not significant predictors. Analyses of symptom severity and melancholic features were inconclusive due to study heterogeneity.

CONCLUSIONS
Longer depressive episodes and medication failure at baseline are robust predictors of poor response to ECT, with effect sizes that are modest but clinically relevant. Patient characteristics used traditionally such as age, psychosis, and melancholic features are less likely to be clinically useful. More robust clinical and biological predictors are needed for management of depressed patients considering ECT.


This paper illustrates how the Cape Verdean language evolved from being oral to gaining written representation, a necessary step before integrating the educational realm. We report three sociolinguistic surveys showing the gradual shift in attitudes by native speakers towards the Cape Verdean language. We also examine the evolution of orthographic conventions in Cape Verde and demonstrate that they correlate with creole identity and reflect a complex interplay of social, symbolic and political factors. We describe the challenges the language has encountered in gaining a footing in education including dialectal variation and inadequate linguistic description. Finally, we provide a list of recommendations (including teacher training and parental outreach) to be implemented to help the language gain its place in education. Keywords: Cape Verdean language; Cape Verdean Creole Institute; UNESCO position papers on Education; ALUPEC; orthographic choices


Objective: To examine differences in food and nutrition-related beliefs, behaviours and concerns across school years in a northern Australian provincial high school population.

Design: A cross-sectional study of high school students using self-administered questionnaires.

Subjects: 902 high school students in years 8, 10, 11 and 12.

Setting: Four of the six private schools in Townsville.

Main outcome measures: Description of the food-related beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of high school students.

Statistical analyses: Statistical tests used were summary statistics (mean and standard deviation, median and interquartile range); frequency distributions; chi-square test; chi-square test for trend; Kruskal-Wallis test; and logistic regression (prevalence odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals).

Results: Only 45% of these adolescents had eaten food from all five core food groups (cereals, fruit, vegetables, dairy products and meat) daily during the previous week. Older girls ate dairy products less often than younger girls. Knowledge of minimum core food requirements for adolescent health was poor. The majority of students reported a relationship between negative emotions and food. The major concerns about food were fat, sugar and pesticide content, and the major sources of information about food and nutrition were television, parents and schools, with magazines an important information source for girls.

Conclusion: The intake of fruit, vegetables, dairy products and cereal foods were below recommended dietary intake, and knowledge of requirements of these foods was also low. Dealing with negative emotions may be a more useful weight control measure for some adolescents than providing nutritional advice. A combination of the education and health sectors and the media and food industry would provide a powerful mechanism for promoting healthful eating habits among adolescents.


ABSTRACT Multiple intimate partner violence (IPV) educational programs have been developed for health care professionals (HCPs); however, program content and effectiveness vary substantially. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify and synthesize the literature evaluating IPV education programs for HCPs to identify key areas for potential evidence-based recommendations and focus future research priorities. We conducted a systematic literature search using broad eligibility criteria to identify studies published between January 2000 and July 2015 that evaluated the effectiveness of IPV education programs in health care settings. All potentially eligible references were screened independently by two reviewers. Data extraction was completed independently by two reviewers for all eligible studies. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize all data. We identified 65 eligible studies, 55% of which reported positive program effectiveness. Effective programs often reported the use of online training components, delivery by an IPV educator/expert or physician/surgeon, the inclusion of a treatment protocol and resources for patients and HCPs, and included more than five training sessions lasting no more than one hours each. Our results demonstrate that IPV educational programs are heterogeneous and that a wide variety of methodologies have been used to evaluate their effectiveness.


Within contemporary life, women struggle within discourses of stay-at-home mothering and working mother in terms of the detriment to a child's development. Although contemporary research tends to isolate work-life balance as a separate set of conflicting discourses to study, I suggest that this isolation is misleading. Work-life balance encompasses every aspect of a woman's speaking being or conscious home, social, caring and working experiences. Considering work-life as allencompassing allows for interesting interpretations when framing women's work-life experiences within the confines of a language that seeks to dissect them into discrete parts. Furthermore, conflict surrounding work and life is not new and provide a cornerstone of traditional psychoanalytic theories of human development. Within this paper, I consider contemporary discourses of work-life balance, within the context of Riviere's psychoanalytical concept of masquerade and Lacanian psychoanalysis that rereads Freud's original works as a theory of discourse.


The growing popularity of Western secular mindfulness programs in recent decades has frequently been criticized by sociologists. Mindfulness in this line of argument is viewed as the quintessential neoliberal and capitalist technology of the self. However, this – quite justified – functionalist critique does not account for how mindfulness is increasingly being used to escape growth driven-based optimization pressure. We therefore show, on the basis of our extensive empirical field research, how mindfulness is negotiated as a response to contemporary crises and social change, how this phenomenon can be understood as a symptomatic, contemporary cultural phenomenon. From our ethnographic data from 121 hours of participant observation in mindfulness courses in Germany and six interviews with mindfulness teachers, as well as analysis of relevant literature, we reconstruct four paradoxes of mindfulness. With reference to this, we show to what extent mindfulness is a program of specious promises. For in the final analysis, the broad accessibility and popularity of the program are based on the fact that its application is just as paradoxical as the social problems to which it promises to be a solution.


BACKGROUND:
Hepatic steatosis is a broad term; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common type. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide a quantitative, accessible and accurate evaluation of diffuse liver disease.
OBJECTIVE:
Study the role of MRI Dixon in quantification of hepatic fat in patients with NAFLD in correlation with (computed tomography) CT attenuation, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and body mass index (BMI)
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
This cross sectional analytic prospective study was conducted from November 2016 to December 2017 at radiology department of Al-Imamein Al Kadhimein Medical City, Baghdad/ Iraq. Fifty patients were included in this study (28 females and 22 males), the study included patients with clinical and laboratory suspicion of NAFL and CT evidence of fatty liver (in unenhanced CT the liver parenchyma were less than 40 Hounsfield unit (HU), or if CT attenuation of the liver were 10 HU less than that of spleen). All patients were examined with T1 vibe Dixon sequence with breath hold. Hepatic fat fraction (HFF) was calculated from mean ROIs of water and fat images using following formula: % of HFF=F/F+W, where W and F are the signal contribution from water and fat respectively.
RESULTS:
The cases were divided into 3 groups according to the results of MRI Dixon fat fraction % as following: group A MRI Dixon fat was less than 15% (21 patients), group B between 15 -30% (13 patients) and group C more than 30% (16 patients). There was statistically significant relationship between Dixon fat fraction with CT attenuation in group A and C while no statistically significant relationship was seen in group B. There was no statistically significant relationship between Dixon fat fraction and serum ALT and AST in group A and B while statistically significant relationship between Dixon fat fraction and serum ALT was found in group C. there was statistically significant relationship between Dixon fat fraction and body mass index in all 3 groups.
CONCLUSION:
Dixon MRI was noninvasive, reliable technique in quantification of fat fraction in NAFL, Dixon MRI was more sensitive sequence for early detection of fatty liver diseases infiltration.


We have reported previously the activity of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-IR)/insulin receptor (InsR) inhibitor, BMS-554417, in breast and ovarian cancer cell lines. Further studies indicated treatment of OV202 ovarian cancer cells with BMS-554417 increased phosphorylation of HER-2. In addition, treatment with the pan-HER inhibitor, BMS-599626, resulted in increased phosphorylation of IGF-IR, suggesting a reciprocal cross-talk mechanism. In a panel of five ovarian cancer cell lines, simultaneous treatment with the IGF-IR/InsR inhibitor, BMS-536924 and BMS-599626, resulted in a synergistic antiproliferative effect. Furthermore, combination therapy decreased AKT and extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation and increased biochemical and nuclear morphologic changes consistent with apoptosis compared with either agent alone. In response to treatment with BMS-536924, increased expression and activation of various members of the HER family of receptors were seen in all five ovarian cancer cell lines, suggesting that inhibition of IGF-IR/InsR results in adaptive up-regulation of the HER pathway. Using MCF-7 breast cancer cell variants that overexpressed HER-1 or HER-2, we then tested the hypothesis that HER receptor expression is sufficient to confer resistance to IGF-IR-targeted therapy. In the presence of activating ligands epidermal growth factor or heregulin, respectively, MCF-7 cells expressing HER-1 or HER-2 were resistant to BMS-536924 as determined in a proliferation and clonogenic assay. These data suggested that simultaneous treatment with inhibitors of the IGF-I and HER family of receptors may be an effective strategy for clinical investigations of IGF-IR inhibitors in breast and ovarian cancer and that targeting HER-1 and HER-2 may overcome clinical resistance to IGF-IR inhibitors. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(9):2589–98]


Over the course of the twentieth century, the availability of cheap, mass-produced fashion has contributed to a decline in everyday domestic mending skills. Indeed, as mass-manufactured goods have become cheaper for the global population it has become normative consumer behaviour to dispose of any item that is less than per-fect, even when the damage is entirely superficial, leading Clark to claim that: 'mending has died out' (2008: 435).

However, in recent years there has been an apparent revival in domestic mending, aided and evidenced by the emergence of sewing and mending groups in the UK, mainland Europe and North America. This has coincided with a growing interest in more sustainable material goods (McDonough & Braungart 2002; Fletcher 2008), and a small body of academic work around the notion of craftsmanship (e.g. Sennett 2008; Crawford 2009). Of particular interest here is the history of mending of clothing and household goods, as well as recent incarnations of mending as both an individual and group activity. In the past year, researchers from diverse theoretical backgrounds have also highlighted the role of mending in everyday material goods providing further insights into the subject (Laitala & Boks 2012; Middleton 2012; Portwood-Stacer 2012).

An examination of mending reveals a complex picture in which gender, class, aesthetics and social motivations interweave with the imperatives of consumer culture. Whilst historically it is generally constructed as a feminine activity, and carried connotations of material deprivation, contemporary mending is often motivated by environmental concerns and a desire to reduce consumption. Ultimately, mending is demonstrated to be an under-researched subject loaded with cultural meaning, and ultimately, is shown to be anything but a trivial activity.


Globalization in business has diversified opportunities in the business world. The swelling competition and demand has strained players in the market place that has had notable bearing in most economies. Most industrialized developed economics' growth in the world has thrived through well-managed and strengthened Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Although SMEs have been the key drivers of economic growth in most emerging economies, the economic impact of globalization has affected their prosperity positively and negatively. This study focused on determining whether globalization has had an impact on SMEs in emerging economies in the context of Zambia. A better understanding on impacts of globalization should help stakeholders to direct their scarce resources to combat on what might impinge their success. The study utilized the mixed method technique combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. The sample size comprised 104 participants across fifty (50) SMEs operating in Zambia. The study found that globalization has affected these SMEs negatively.


On the 26th July, 2010 the UNSC released the proposals for bringing justice to the prolific problem of Somali piracy. In the years subsequent to the 1991 fall of the Somali government, failed attempts at federalism and "Transitional Governments" have left the waters of the Gulf of Aden, and now over a thousand nautical miles into the Indian Ocean, a lawless haven for pirates. Ineffectual governance, corruption and the willingness of commercial interests to accept the "capture-ransom-release" status quo has led to a perfect climate for these men to act with impunity. However, in light of the difficulties faced by Somalia, is a court system the answer and what problems will it create for EU member states (or indeed ant signatory to the ECHR), such as the UK, when it comes to enforcement? It is submitted that without a means by which to arrest and detain pirates they are often released to carry on as before, sometimes more efficiently due to their gained experience, which further exacerbates the problem. For that reason a court system, dedicated to piracy, is attractive. What may not have been properly considered are the problems related to transfer, detention and repatriation within Somalia, for EU member states? Recent decisions from the European Court of Human Rights suggest that member states may well have difficulty in resisting challenges, by captured pirates, when attempting to surrender them to Somali justice. That is to say little of the problems of corruption and instability within Somalia.


The objective of the article is to critically assess the approach taken by Basili (1994) and Vercelli (1994) towards the valuation of non-marketed environment assets. To this end, the article examines Keynes's approach to uncertainty and irrationality as influences over economic behaviour. Modern interpretations of these Keynesian insights, which have been influenced by neoclassical quantitative finance and psychological theories of decision-making, are then reviewed. A brief overview of how real options theory has been applied to the analysis of corporate investment sets the scene for a discussion of Basili and Vercelli's concept of the quasi-option values associated with the valuation of environmental assets. A 'destructive' critique is mounted against neoclassical approaches to valuation and the article concludes with a series of 'constructive' philosophical observations, drawing on Spinozian aspects of Whitehead's process philosophy.


Abstract. Nowadays several parts of the world suffer from land subsidence. This setting of the earth surface occurs due to different factors such as earth quakes, mining activities, and gas, oil and water withdrawal. This research presents a numerical study of the influence of land subsidence caused by a single water extraction well and rapid water infiltration into structural soil discontinuities. The numerical simulation of the infiltration was based on a two-phase flow-model for porous media, and for the deformation a Mohr–Coulomb model was used. A two-layered system with a fault zone is presented. First a single water extraction well is simulated producing a cone-shaped (conical) water level depletion, which can cause land subsidence. Land Subsidence can be further increased if a hydrological barrier as a result of a discontinuity, exists. After water extraction a water column is applied on the top boundary for one hours in order to represent a strong storm which produces rapid water infiltration through the discontinuity as well as soil deformation. Both events are analysed and compared in order to characterize deformation of both elements and to get a better understanding of the land subsidence and new fracture formations.


Culture-driven grammaticalization theory posits that cultural influence on linguistic form is mediated by the emergence of communicative practices which increase the frequency of particular lexical items, pragmatic inferences, and patterns of discourse, thereby putting in place a crucial pre-condition for their grammaticalization. The goal of this chapter is to contribute to the development of culture-driven grammaticalization theory by developing an account of the cultural basis for the grammaticalization of quotative evidentials in Nanti, an Arawak language of lowland southeastern Peru. In particular, it is argued that Nanti quotative evidentials grammaticalized from inflected verbs of speaking that achieved high discourse frequencies due to communicative practices that link respectful communicative conduct towards others with the avoidance of speculation about others' actions and internal states. As part of this communicative practice, Nantis largely restrict their discussion of others' actions and internal states to two domains: reported speech regarding others' actions and internal states, and actions that they witnessed themselves, which can also serve to index internal states.


Direct Red-81 (C28H19N5Na2O8S2) and Direct Yellow-27 (C28H19N5Na2O6S4) are non-biodegradable organic compound containing azo group and confirmed carcinogenic. Direct Red-81 and Direct Yellow-27 were degraded by photolysis method under 10 watt UV-light irradiation (λ=365 nm) and solar irradiationwith and without C-Ncodoped TiO2 catalyst. The dyes solution was analyzed\by UV-Vis spectrophotometer at λ 300-800nm. The optimum mass of C-N-codoped TiO2catalyst was 10 mg. From those methods, concluding solar irradiation method enhanced better degradation than UV-light irradiation, Direct Red-81 and Direct Yellow-27 were degraded 17.37 % and 8.72 % by solar irradiation and the degradation percentage increased to 75.63 % and 71.52 % by the addition of C-Ncodoped TiO2 catalyst for 120 minutes.


While its results normally complement the information obtained by chemical experiments, computer computations can in some cases predict unobserved chemical phenomena Electronic-Structure Computational Methods for Large Systems gives readers a simple description of modern electronic-structure techniques. It shows what techniques are pertinent for particular problems in biotechnology and nanotechnology and provides a balanced treatment of topics that teach strengths and weaknesses, appropriate and inappropriate methods. It's a book that will enhance the your calculating confidence and improve your ability to predict new effects and solve new problems.


Understanding of thermal transport in small scales gains more importance
with increasing demand in microelectronics and advancing fabrication
technologies. In addition, scarce in energy sources adds more pressure with
increasing expectations on research in energy conversion devices and renewable
energies. In parallel to these, new phenomena observable only in small scales
are discovered with the research, bringing more opportunities for engineers to
solve real-world problems by applying the discoveries and more questions to
answer. Thermal radiation as a thermal transport phenomenon is the epicenter of
this research. Recent developments such as near-field radiative heat transfer
exceeding blackbody radiation or control of radiative cooling via biasing grows
the attraction on thermal radiation because these examples challenge our
long-lasting understanding of nature. Exploring nature further in the small
scale may help us meet the expectations mentioned above.

In this thesis work, first, we carry out analyses on radiative heat transfer of natural
hyperbolic material, calcite, and compare to that of a polar material SiC. Our
study reveals that the high-
 modes within the hyperbolic bands are
responsible for the substantial enhancement in near field radiation. Comparison
of calcite with SiC illustrates the significance of the high-
 modes in calcite vs. surface polariton modes
in SiC in their contributions to near-field radiation enhancement, for
temperature differences ranging from 1 K to 400 K. We also noticed that the
contributions of high-
 modes in calcite to near-field radiation is
comparable to that of surface polaritons in SiC. The results of these analyses
will be helpful in the search of hyperbolic materials that can enhance near
field radiative transfer.

Second, we demonstrate an experimental
technique to measure near-field radiative heat transfer between two parallel
plates at gap distances ranging from a few nanometers to far-field. A
differential measurement circuit based on resistive thermometry to measure the
defined temperatures are explained. To predict the defined temperatures, a
computational method is utilized. We also detail an alignment technique that
consists of a coarse and fine alignment in the relevant gap regions. This
technique presents a method with high precision for gap measurement, dynamic
gap control, and reliable sensitivity for extreme near-field measurements.
Finally, we report experimental results that
shows 18,000 times enhancement in radiative heat transfer between two parallel
plates.

Third, we analyze near-field radiative transfer due to hyperbolic phonon
polaritons, driven by temperature gradient inside the bulk materials. We
develop a mesoscale many-body scattering approach to account for the role of
hyperbolic phonon polaritons in radiative transfer in the bulk and across a
vacuum gap. Our study points out the equivalency between the bulk-generated
mode and the surface mode in the absence of a temperature gradient in the
material, and hence provide a unified framework for near-field radiative
transfer by hyperbolic phonon polaritons. The results also elucidate
contributions of the bulk-generated mode and the bulk temperature profile in
the enhanced near-field radiative transfer.

Forth, we study radiative heat transfer in
hyperbolic material, hyperbolic boron nitride (hBN), and show a major
contribution to energy transport arising from phonon polaritons supported in
Reststrahlen bands. This contribution increases spectral radiative transfer by
six orders of magnitude inside Reststrahlen bands compared to that outside
Reststrahlen bands. The equivalent radiative thermal conductivity increases
with temperature increase, and the radiative thermal conductivity can be of the
same order of the phonon thermal conductivity. Experimental measurements are
discussed. We showed the radiative contribution can account for as much as 27 % of the total thermal transport at 600 K.
Hence, in hBN the radiative thermal transport can be comparable to thermal
conduction by phonons. We also demonstrate contribution of polaritons to
thermal transport in MoO3. To calculate radiative heat transfer in
three principal coordinates separately, we modify and apply the derived
many-body model. Our analysis shows that radiative thermal conductivity in both
in- and out-of-plane directions increases with temperature and contribution to
energy transport by polaritons exceeds that by phonons.

Fifth, we build an experimental setup to examine
near-field properties of materials using an external thermal source. The nanospectroscopy
setup combines near-field microscopy technique, near-field scanning optical
microscopy (NSOM), and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. We
further explain challenges in building a nanospectroscopy setup using a weak
thermal source and coupling two techniques. This method enables us to investigate
spectral thermal radiation and local dielectric properties in nanoscale.


The complexity of IT in modern organizations is generally quite high and the costs of IT are correspondingly complex. An overview of available publications shows that there is relatively research done on the development of cost models for IT. The systematic gathering and classi cation of IT costs is often overlooked in organizations. The current thesis addresses many of the issues associated with the complex nature of IT costs, and proposes a cost model for IT. The necessary details of IT costs are de ned in order to facilitate the collection of complete IT cost data. Categories for IT costs are proposed. The categorization is based on how modern IT is usually built up in organizations, with each category representing a distinct part of IT. Finally a method of estimating IT costs is demonstrated. The method uses simple probability densities to represent cost estimates. A simple example is shown that demonstrates that with only a few cost estimates using probability densities, the sum of the estimates will result in a distribution that closely follows the Gaussian distribution.


Albert Taylor Bledsoe (1809-1877), a principal architect of the South's ""Lost Cause"" mythology, remains one of the Civil War generation's most controversial intellectuals. In Albert Taylor Bledsoe: Defender of the Old South and Architect of the Lost Cause, Terry A. Barnhart sheds new light on this provocative figure. Bledsoe gained a respectable reputation in the 1840s and 1850s as a metaphysician and speculative theologian. His two major works, An Examination of President Edwards' Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will (1845) and A Theodicy; Or, Vindication of the Divine Glory, As Manifested in the Constitution and Government of the Moral World (1853), grapple with perplexing problems connected with causality, Christian theology, and moral philosophy. His fervent defense of slavery and the constitutional right of secession, however, solidified Bledsoe as one of the chief proponents of the idea of the Old South. In An Essay on Liberty and Slavery (1856), he assailed egalitarianism and promoted the institution of slavery as a positive good. A decade later, he continued to devote himself to fashioning the ""Lost Cause"" narrative as the editor and proprietor of the Southern Review from 1867 until his death in 1877. He carried on a literary tradition aimed to reconcile white southerners to what he and they viewed as the indignity of their defeat by sanctifying their lost cause. Those who fought for the Confederacy, he argued, were not traitors but honorable men who sacrificed for noble reasons. This biography skillfully weaves Bledsoe's extraordinary life history into a narrative that illustrates the events that shaped his opinions and influenced his writings. Barnhart demonstrates how Bledsoe still speaks directly, and sometimes eloquently, to the core issues that divided the nation in the 1860s and continue to haunt it today.


BOUTON, DEBORAH THIGPEN. Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Community College Classroom: An Examination of the Beliefs of Exemplary Instructors. (Under the direction of Carol E. Kasworm.) The purpose of this study is to explore how exemplary community college instructors describe their beliefs about critical thinking and how they attempt to foster its development in their students. Situated in both constructivist learning theory and theories of action, the study examines how participants make meaning of critical thinking, and how their beliefs are reflected in their teaching practices. In this multiple case study, the author employs semistructured interviews, videotaped class observations, and course documents to provide insight into the perceptions and experiences of exemplary instructors. Through a cross-case analysis of data, the author delineates elements of common understanding about teaching for critical thinking. This research demonstrates that the relationship between an instructor"s ability to articulate her understanding of critical thinking and her capacity to teach for critical thinking is not as straightforward as some research would suggest. The tacit understandings that these exemplary instructors bring to the classroom provides a valuable framework for their teaching practice. There are commonalities in how participants conceptualize critical thinking, even though their understandings tend to be a product of personal learning and practice rather than adherence to a particular theoretical perspective. The common elements in how they understand critical thinking include the ability to: 1) see underlying connections in seemingly disparate subjects; 2) value multiple perspectives; 3) exercise prudent skepticism; and, 4) articulate and defend a position with credible evidence. The educational goals that these instructors establish for students show remarkable similarities, in that they reflect the understandings these instructors articulate about the nature of critical thinking. Participants want their students to expand their worldview, question assumptions, articulate defensible positions, and construct a personal understanding of the content. Instructors believe that they can best foster these skills by assuming a facilitative role. Not only do these instructors talk about the importance of critical thinking in the classroom, they put their beliefs into practice. That is, their teaching practices reflect the values they espouse. Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking in the Community College Classroom: An Examination of the Beliefs of Exemplary Instructors by Deborah Thigpen Bouton A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Higher Education Administration Raleigh, NC


Introduction Globalization can be defined in terms of the internationalization of production [Goode, 1998, p.125], or in terms of the internationalization of markets [Lloyd, 1998, p. 163]. The former recognizes the fact that even relatively minor products are frequently found to be made with components from several countries. The latter, on the other hand, recognizes that the cross border flows of the products themselves have increased tremendously over the last two decades. This is particularly true in the case of international financial services. This report examines the globalization of financial markets and the potential consequences for selected Caribbean countries. The countries studied in this report are Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The evolution and extent of financial globalization is examined in section 1. In section 2, a review of the macroeconomic policies of the countries in the study pertaining to trade, fiscal, monetary policy and exchange rates is presented. Further, section 3 discusses the current financial crisis and its potential for disrupting or enhancing the positioning and economic welfare of the countries. And finally, section 4 posits some recommendations, in the context of the preceding discussion, pertaining to desirable macroeconomic policy in the presence of globalized financial markets and the ongoing financial crises.


This thesis stresses the centrality today of synthetical sociological theories, such as those of Habermas, Giddens and Alexander, but criticises them for neglecting the problem of collective subjectivity. The failure to consider this topic stems from deep problems in the history of sociology. Emerging from the social thinking of the Enlightenment and the Counter-Enlightenment, sociology has been keen on perceiving social life in the mould of a polarisation between active individuals and passive societies or, more generally, social systems or structures. Although the dialectics between subject and object plus the notion of interaction have allowed for bridges between those two poles, a crucial idea has not been receiving enough attention. Marx - with the concept of social class - and Parsons - with the concept of collective actor - produced two important departures from the presuppositional universe of the Enlightenment. But their elaboration does not suffice and, more regrettably however, those synthetical theories have not acknowledged and worked on the problems and concepts Marx and Parsons highlighted. The concept of collective subjectivity is, therefore, introduced to resume their insights and connect them to the issues and formulations put forward in synthetical theories. A critique of the philosophy of the subject, aiming at its decentring, is moreover pursued, for Marx and Parsons still embraced some of its main tenets. The concept of collective causality holds centre stage for the definition of collective subjectivity. Alongside collective causality, interaction, dialectics, levels of (de)centring, the syllogism of the general, the particular and the individual, plus multidimensionality, furnish the categorial axis for the development of the thesis. Concerned with general theoretical questions, this study makes, however, reference to "middle range" theories, in order to develop, ground its propositions and suggest ways in which its concepts may be useful in more empirically oriented research.


Phasor frequency, magnitude, and angle describing a sinusoidal signal are widely used as critical variables in algorithms and performance indices in many power system applications, such as the protection relaying and state monitoring. This paper proposes a novel approach for estimating the phasor parameters, namely frequency, magnitude, and angle in real time based on a newly constructed recursive wavelet transform. This algorithm is capable of estimating the phasor parameters in a quarter cycle of an input signal. It features fast response and achieves high accuracy over a wide range of frequency deviations. The signal sampling rate and data window size can be selected to meet desirable applications requirements, such as fast response, high accuracy, and low computational burden. Besides, an approach for eliminating a decaying dc component, which has a significant impact on estimating phasors, is proposed by using a recursive wavelet transform. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve good performance.


This study examines the impact of cross-listing and multimarket trading on the stock's information environment. Cross-listing is associated with additional mandatory disclosure requirements and, thus, is expected to reduce information asymmetry between management and investors and among different groups of investors. Empirical findings confirm that the quality of information environment, measured by stock liquidity and price volatility, is improved after listing on a foreign exchange. Additionally, I distinguish between cross-listing and admission to trade on a foreign exchange or cross-trading, which, in contrast to cross-listing, does not entail additional disclosure. Contrary to expectations, the difference in the impact of cross-listing and cross-trading on the stock liquidity and price volatility is not significant. This finding suggests that the improvement in the information environment of crosslisted/traded stocks comes primarily from the intensified competition among traders rather than from mandatory disclosure requirements.


We consider the standard Credit Default Swap (CDS) payoff and some alternative approximated versions, stemming from different conventions on the premium and protection legs. We consider standard running CDS (RCDS), upfront CDS and postponed-payments running CDS (PRCDS). Each different definition implies a different definition of forward CDS rate, which we consider with some detail. We introduce defaultable floating rate notes (FRN)'s. We point out which kind of CDS payoff produces a forward CDS rate that is equal to the fair spread in the considered defaultable FRN. An approximated equivalence between CDS's and defaultable FRN's is established, which allows to view CDS options as structurally similar to the optional component in defaultable callable notes. We briefly investigate the possibility to express forward CDS rates in terms of some basic rates and discuss a possible analogy with the LIBOR and swap default free models. Finally, we discuss the change of numeraire approach for deriving a Black-like formula for CDS options or, equivalently, defaultable callable FRN's. We also introduce an analytical formula for CDS option prices under the CDS-calibrated SSRD stochastic-intensity model, and discuss the impact of the different CIR++ dynamics parameters on the related CDS options implied volatilities. Hints on possible methods for smile modeling of CDS options are given for possible future developments of the CDS option market.


China has been considering enactment of an anti-monopoly (antitrust) law since 1993, and it has now enacted such a law. Given the potential importance of this legislation, there is much uncertainty about what the enactment means and what roles it is likely to play in influencing the development of the Chinese economy. This article applies a neo-institutionalist analysis in examining some of the factors that have influenced the shaping of the legislation and that are likely to influence the operation of competition law and its organizations. The main argument is that the central dynamic in both the creation of the statute and its structuring has been the interaction of Chinese economic policy institutions with foreign pressures (institutional mechanisms intended to "push" the Chinese decision makers in certain directions) and foreign cognitive influence (cognitive factors that accord influence to foreign organizations, experience, and laws). These interactions also provide insights into how the law is likely to be applied. The paper also explores these two concepts - foreign pressure and foreign cognitive influence - in relation to the theory of institutional change.


In recent years, concentration has been adopted as a promising strategy to high $/W ratio of photovoltaic energy conversion. In concentrated photovoltaics, the Sun's energy is focused into a smaller area allowing for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using only a small low-cost photovoltaic cell. Conventional solar concentrators, which use III-V are, however, costly to produce. Ideally, the material should perform well under high concentration and be affordable. We propose to construct solar cells based on an excellent candidate materials system, InGaN, whose band gap can be adjusted from 0.7 eV to 3.4 eV as the indium content is reduced. Recent progress has resulted in InGaN solar cells with 97% internal quantum efficiency and 57% external quantum efficiency with an active region only 60 nm thick. This work demonstrates that electron-hole pairs are very efficiently collected in InGaN materials and the absorption is very strong at the band gap. The toughness of the nitride materials translates into its excellent performances under harsh environments: high temperature and humidity and high concentration. Georgia Tech-CNRS and their partners have developed unique lift-off technologies that dramatically lower nitride cost as a result of the ability to reuse the substrates used for the growth of nitrides. These lift-off technologies are also favorable for integration of InGaN cells with building materials like glass or metal, or with other solar cells, such as those made of silicon. In this presentation InGaN solar cells progress and results will be presented.


Background: Several models have recently been developed to predict mismatch repair (MMR) gene mutations. Their comparative performance with clinical criteria or universal molecular screening in a population based colorectal cancer (CRC) cohort has not been assessed. Methods: All 1222 CRC from the EPICOLON cohort underwent tumour MMR testing with immunohistochemistry and microsatellite instability, and those with MMR deficiency (n = 91) underwent MLH1/MSH2 germline testing. Sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of the PREMM1,2 and the Barnetson models for identification of MLH1/MSH2 mutation carriers were evaluated and compared with the revised Bethesda guidelines (RBG), Amsterdam II criteria, and tumour analysis for MMR deficiency. Overall discriminative ability was quantified by the area under the ROC curve (AUC), and calibration was assessed by comparing the average predictions versus the observed prevalence. Results: Both models had similar AUC (0.93 and 0.92, respectively). Sensitivity of the RBG and a PREMM1,2 score ⩾5% was 100% (95% CI 71% to 100%); a Barnetson score >0.5% missed one mutation carrier (sensitivity 87%, 95% CI 51% to 99%). PPVs of all three strategies were 2–3%. Presence of MMR deficiency increased specificity and PPV of predictive scores (97% and 21% for PREMM1,2 score ⩾5%, and 98% and 21% for Barnetson ⩾0.5%, respectively). Conclusions: The PREMM1,2 and the Barnetson models offer a quantitative systematic approach to select CRC patients for identification of MLH1/MSH2 mutation carriers with a similar performance to the RBG.


The Williams–Beuren syndrome is a rare genomic disorder caused by a hemizygous microdeletion of approximately 30 genes at 7q11.23 occurring by nonallelic homologous recombination between low copy repeats flanking that region. The 7q11.23 region has been also found duplicated, triplicated and inverted in patients with different and, in some instances, reciprocal phenotypes.

Complementary strategies including mouse models, functional and biochemical studies have been pursued in the recent years to delineate the individual and/or combined contribution of hemizygous genes to the wide spectrum of phenotypes that characterises this syndrome. Haploinsufficiency of several of these genes has been reported to account for parts of the overall phenotypes, suggesting their sensitivity to gene dosage. Notably, MLXIPL, GTF2IRD1 and GTF2I hemizygous genes act as transcription factors, therefore is likely that their haploinsufficiency is responsible for some of clinical features by regulating gene expression of a wide number of target genes.

Key Concepts:

Williams–Beuren syndrome is a genomic disorder characterised by a unique cognitive profile and it involves approximately 30 hemizygous genes at 7q11.23.

The 7q11.23 Williams–Beuren syndrome region has been found deleted, duplicated, triplicated and inverted in patients with different phenotypes.

Patients with atypical deletions and mouse models have provided insights about the genotype–phenotype correlations.

Haploinsufficiency of the Williams–Beuren syndrome genes is correlated with the clinical signs.

BAZ1B has been linked to cardiac, craniofacial and hypercalcemia defects; hemizygosity of MLXIPL could be related to the diabetic phenotype of Williams–Beuren syndrome patients through regulation of glucose metabolism.

The GTF2IRD1 transcription factor modulates genes involved in tissue development and differentiation and is a strong candidate for the craniofacial and neurobehavioral features.

Keywords:

Williams–Beuren syndrome;
7q11.23;
haploinsufficiency;
genotype–phenotype correlation;
neurodevelopmental disorder;
segmental duplication;
low copy repeats;
nonallelic homologous recombination


Only in the U.S. Stock Exchanges, the daily average trading volume is about 7 billion shares. This vast amount of trading shows the necessity of understanding the hidden insights in the data sets. In this study, a data mining technique, clustering based outlier analysis is applied to detect suspicious insider transactions. 1,244,815 transactions of 61,780 insiders are analysed, which are acquired from Thomson Financial, covering a period of January 2010–April 2017. In order to detect outliers, similar transactions are grouped into the same clusters by using a two‐step clustering based outlier detection technique, which is an integration of k‐means and hierarchical clustering. Then, it is shown that outlying transactions earn higher abnormal returns than non‐outlying transactions by using event study methodology.


This study aimed at proposing a basic health screening system based on data mining techniques in order to help related personnel on basic health screening and to facilitate citizens on self-examining health conditions. The research comprised of two steps. The first step was to create a model by using classification techniques that are Bayesian methods (Naive Bayes, Bayesian networks, and Naive Bayesian Updateable) and decision tree methods (C4.5, ID3, Partial Rule) to find important attributes causing the disease. In this step, the accuracy of each method was compared to the other methods to select the most efficient model as an input for the next step. The second step was to develop a basic health screening system by exploiting rules from the model developed in the first step as the second step's inputs were to classify from a citizen's health profile whether a given citizen is in a normal group, risk group or sick group. Research findings revealed two important attributes directly contributing to diabetes: Blood pressure (BP) and docetaxel (DTX). Furthermore, C4.5 algorithm provided the most accuracy with accuracy of 99.7969%, precision of 99.8%, recall of 99.8% and F-measure of 99.8%.


Adipose Tissue Derived-Mesenchymal Stromal Cell: Setting the ground for Clinical Grade Production at Sidra's GMP Facility1Asma Al-Sulaiti, 1 Moza Al- Khulaifi, 1Sara Al-Khawaga, 1Zohreh Tatari Calderone, 1Bella S. Guerrouahen, 1Chiara Cugno. 1 Clinical Research Center, Research Division, Translational Medicine, Sidra Medicine, Qatar. Correspondence: Dr. Chiara Cugno, MD, Director Clinical Research Center, Research Division, Translational Medicine Sidra Medicine, Qatar. Keyword list: MSC, Adipose tissue, SVF, GMP, ISCT criteria. Word count: 702Background: Among adult stem cells, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) represent a highly examined population given their exceptional biological properties. The International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) define human MSCs based on the following criteria: adherence to plastic in standard culture condition, expression of the surface molecules CD105, CD90, and CD73, and lack of expression for CD34, CD45, HLA-DR ( < 2%), CD14 or CD11b, CD79a or CD19, and finally capability to differentiate in vitro into osteocytes, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. The US National Institutes of Health database has reported 493 MSC-based clinical trials as of June 2015. Most clinical trials were implemented towards evaluating the biomedical potential of MSCs in treating graft versus host disease, hematological and inflammatory diseases diseases, organ transplantation, diabetes, and diseases in the liver, kidneys, and lungs, cardiovascular, bone and cartilage, neurological, and autoimmune disorders. Although multipotent MSCs are more commonly isolated from bone marrow (BM), adipose tissue-derived MSCs (AT-MSCs) represent a valid alternative source for MSCs due to their greater abundance, simple accessibility, and better immunomodulatory properties. Aim: We ultimately aim to develop the clinical-grade production of human AT-MSCs for Cellular Therapy at Sidra Good Manufacturig Practise (GMP) Facility. Our study represent the stepping stone for developing an MSC bank of high quality, reliable and well-characterized cells timely available for potential future clinical applications, such as Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Objective 1 focuses on the isolation, expansion and characterisation of AT-MSCs. Objective 2 focuses on optimizing AT-MSCs production protocols to comply with the requirements of producing clinical-grade AT-MSCs. Methods: A) Sample collection: Adipose tissue is collected and obtained as waste material after liposuction procedures carried at Plastic Surgicenter, Doha. Aspirated fat is transferred to the Clinical Research Center at Sidra Medicine in sterile containers. B) Isolation and expansion of AT-MSCs: Both fat and blood/saline portion of lipoaspirate are used. AT-MSCs are isolated from the fatty portion, using a collagenase-based enzymatic method and from the blood / saline portion, using a non-enzymatic digestion. The isolated AT-MSCs are seeded and cultured in 75 cm2 flasks for expansion till passage 5. C) Phenotypic characterization, multilineage differentiation capacity and clonogenic assay: After reaching more than 95% confluence in the flasks at passage 1 (around 14 days in culture), phenotypic characterisation of MSCs is verified using a multi-color flow cytometry for the following specific antibodies: CD45, CD34, CD14, CD19, HLA-DR, CD105, CD73 and CD90. The adipogenesis and osteogenesis differentiation potential of AT-MSCs is also assessed at low passage. AT-MSCs are cultured under differentiating conditions in separate culture vessels. Cultures are processed for Oil Red O staining to evaluate adipogenesis differentiation (from day 7 to 14). Osteogenesis differentiation can be visualized after 21 days, using an Alizarin Red staining. To measure the clonogenic ability of AT-MSCs, Colony Forming Unit (CFU) is carried out using crystal violet staining. D) Translating AT-MSCs production to GMP facility: all protocols are optimized and standardized to comply the requirement of producing clinical-grade MSCs at Sidra Medicine GMP facility. The isolators (Biospherix XVIVO System) provides a strictly controlled environment that assures manufacturing of sterile, potent and uncontaminated products. It consists of modular sets of closed incubators and closed hoods, all integrated together as co-chambers and sub-chambers. The system is completely closed, with aseptic conditions throughout, and advanced controls as for GMP international standards. Results: AT-MSCs displayed a fibroblast-like morphology. The ISCT-recommended specific cell surface signature was verified: AT-MSCs were positive for CD105, CD90 and CD73 and negative for CD45, CD34, CD14, CD19 and HLA-DR. The biochemical assessment of adipogenic differentiation showed induced adipocytes with vacuoles containing fatty acids positive for Oil Red O staining. Alizarin Red staining showed induced osteocytes with calcium phosphate deposits. The stemness property of AT-MSCs was also confirmed. Conclusion: Recent studies have indicated MSCs as a powerful tool for several clinical applications. We are developing AT-MSCs clinical grade production at Sidra GMP Facility. We established standard operating procedures following the highest GMP international standards. Sidra GMP Facility is the first of its type in Qatar for cell therapy purposes, bringing future perspectives for the establishment of an AT-MSC bank from third-party healthy donors, after adequate screening for allogeneic donation, and a clinical trial in T1D to tackle the unmet need of preventative studies in this area.


PRINCIPLES
Switzerland is divided into 26 cantons of variable population size and cultural characteristics. Although a federal law to protect against passive smoking and a national tobacco control programme exist, details of tobacco-related policies are canton-specific. This study aimed to project gender-specific tobacco-related cancer mortality in Switzerland at different geographical levels for the periods 2009-2013 and 2014-2018.

METHODS
In this analysis, data on Swiss tobacco-related cancer mortality from 1984 until 2008 were used. Bayesian age-period-cohort models were formulated to assess past trends of gender-specific tobacco-related cancer mortality and to project them up to 2018 at cantonal and language region levels. Furthermore, estimates are provided on a national scale by age categories of 50-69 and ≥70 years.

RESULTS
Model-based estimates at cantonal level identified regions with low and high tobacco-related cancer mortality rates for the observed and projected periods. Our analysis based on language regions showed the lowest mortality in the German-speaking part. Projections at national level, between younger (age 50-69) and older (age ≥70) males, indicated an ongoing decreasing trend for males but an upward trend for females. The gap in tobacco-related cancer mortality rates between younger and older males seems to be shrinking. In females, a stronger rise was obtained for the younger age group.

CONCLUSION
Our findings indicate region-, sex- and age-related differences in tobacco-related cancer mortality in Switzerland and this could be useful for healthcare planning and for evaluating the impact of canton-specific tobacco-related policies and interventions.


Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), an aggressive malignancy affecting pleural surfaces, occurs in three main histological subtypes. The epithelioid and sarcomatoid subtypes are characterized by cuboid and fibroblastoid cells, respectively. The biphasic subtype contains a mixture of both. The sarcomatoid subtype expresses markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and confers the worst prognosis, but the signals and pathways controlling EMT in MPM are not well understood. We demonstrate that treatment with FGF2 or EGF induced a fibroblastoid morphology in several cell lines from biphasic MPM, accompanied by scattering, decreased cell adhesion and increased invasiveness. This depended on the MAP-kinase pathway but was independent of TGFβ or PI3-kinase signaling. In addition to changes in known EMT markers, microarray analysis demonstrated differential expression of MMP1, ESM1, ETV4, PDL1 and BDKR2B in response to both growth factors and in epithelioid versus sarcomatoid MPM. Inhibition of MMP1 prevented FGF2-induced scattering and invasiveness. Moreover, in MPM cells with sarcomatoid morphology, inhibition of FGF/MAP-kinase signaling induced a more epithelioid morphology and gene expression pattern. Our findings suggest a critical role of the MAP-kinase axis in the morphological and behavioral plasticity of mesothelioma.


Abstract. The aim of this review is to report changes in irrigated cotton water use from research projects and on-farm practice-change programs in Australia, in relation to both plant-based and irrigation engineering disciplines. At least 80% of the Australian cotton-growing area is irrigated using gravity surface-irrigation systems. This review found that, over 23 years, cotton crops utilise 6–7 ML/ha of irrigation water, depending on the amount of seasonal rain received. The seasonal evapotranspiration of surface-irrigated crops averaged 729 mm over this period. Over the past decade, water-use productivity by Australian cotton growers has improved by 40%. This has been achieved by both yield increases and more efficient water-management systems. The whole-farm irrigation efficiency index improved from 57% to 70%, and the crop water use index is >3 kg/mm.ha, high by international standards. Yield increases over the last decade can be attributed to plant-breeding advances, the adoption of genetically modified varieties, and improved crop management. Also, there has been increased use of irrigation scheduling tools and furrow-irrigation system optimisation evaluations. This has reduced in-field deep-drainage losses. The largest loss component of the farm water balance on cotton farms is evaporation from on-farm water storages. Some farmers are changing to alternative systems such as centre pivots and lateral-move machines, and increasing numbers of these alternatives are expected. These systems can achieve considerable labour and water savings, but have significantly higher energy costs associated with water pumping and machine operation. The optimisation of interactions between water, soils, labour, carbon emissions and energy efficiency requires more research and on-farm evaluations. Standardisation of water-use efficiency measures and improved water measurement techniques for surface irrigation are important research outcomes to enable valid irrigation benchmarks to be established and compared. Water-use performance is highly variable between cotton farmers and farming fields and across regions. Therefore, site-specific measurement is important. The range in the presented datasets indicates potential for further improvement in water-use efficiency and productivity on Australian cotton farms.