Each year, the treatment decisions for more than 230,000 breast cancer patients in the U.S. hinge on whether the cancer has metastasized away from the breast. Metastasis detection is currently performed by pathologists reviewing large expanses of biological tissues. This process is labor intensive and error-prone. We present a framework to automatically detect and localize tumors as small as 100 x 100 pixels in gigapixel microscopy images sized 100,000 x 100,000 pixels. Our method leverages a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture and obtains state-of-the-art results on the Camelyon16 dataset in the challenging lesion-level tumor detection task. At 8 false positives per image, we detect 92.4% of the tumors, relative to 82.7% by the previous best automated approach. For comparison, a human pathologist attempting exhaustive search achieved 73.2% sensitivity. We achieve image-level AUC scores above 97% on both the Camelyon16 test set and an independent set of 110 slides. In addition, we discover that two slides in the Camelyon16 training set were erroneously labeled normal. Our approach could considerably reduce false negative rates in metastasis detection.


In this project the main goal was to establish a routine for making a microfluidic flow cell (MFFC) using soft lithography methods, and test the flow cell with different electrolytes, sulphuric acid and a ruthenium red-ox couple, and eventually use the established routine to make a microfluidic fuel cell and test it. A routine was established using the negative photoresist ma-N405. The photoresist was overdeveloped to make sure an undercut profile was reached, which proved to be necessary for the subsequent metal lift-off. Titanium (10 nm) and platinum (25 nm) were vapor deposited on the glass chips, and the lift-off process was completed in a couple of days. Flow channels of two different heights (about 15 and 100 µm) were made by making an impression in PDMS. A low flow channel, height of 15 µm, showed a significant electrolyte resistance in the experimental electrochemical work, and none of the experiments gave the expected results. The electrolyte resistance was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and taken to be the value corresponding to the high frequency intersection of the real axis. In addition, this resistance was estimated from cyclic voltammetry and taken to be the reciprocal of the slope of the curve, and was found to vary between 104-107 Ω. The results from EIS and CV were compared, and they overlapped quite well. An MFFC with a channel height of 100 µm and 500 µm electrodes, resulted in a significant decrease in measured electrolyte resistance and gave improved electrochemical results. The electrolyte resistance was measured from EIS and was reduced a lot to about 300 - 10000 Ω. These results were not compared with linear regression of the linear hydrogen area since the hydrogen area was no longer linear. The cell was tested with a ruthenium red-ox couple (hexaammineruthenium(II)chloride and hexaammineruthenium(III)chloride), and an external hydrogen reference electrode placed in the outlet was found to be simpler to control than an internal reference electrode. The potential limits were -0.3 and 0.3 V vs. an external hydrogen electrode in the same electrolyte. The effect of flow rate, sweep rate and oxygen content in the electrolyte was investigated.


The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate families' experiences when a child is diagnosed as having type 1 diabetes, and at one and three years after diagnosis. Since childhood health and the circumstances around it in the family have been shown to have a lasting impact on adult health and circumstances, an additional aim was to examine the long-term effect of childhood diabetes on education level attained and self-assessed health. The work described in this thesis was carried out using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. In study 1, a longitudinal qualitative study design was used with interviews for data collection, and in study 2 a cross-sectional quantitative study design was used with register data based on structured interviews for data collection. The sample of the first study (papers I–III) was made through a consecutive series of families with children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2003, who were interviewed individually in 2003 (n=12), 2004 (n=11), and then again in 2006 (n=11). Data collected in 2003 and 2004 was analysed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, whereas data from 2006 was analysed using latent content analysis. The sample from the second study (paper IV) was made through a set of pooled cross-sectional population survey data, supplemented with register data. It comprised 106 individuals diagnosed with diabetes before age 19 and 20,564 individuals not diagnosed before age 19, aged 19–38, who were interviewed for the Swedish Biennial Survey of Living Conditions (Undersokningar om Levnadsforhallanden, ULF). The data were analysed using two multiple regressions: one for educational level attained and one for self-assessed health, using a human-capital model as a theoretical framework. Findings in study 1 demonstrate that after the affected child had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the family entered an ongoing learning process where they learnt about the inevitable and the extent. The learning process was a recurrent phenomenon whenever the families were exposed to new situations and contexts. One year after diagnosis the family described that they were living an ordinary yet different life, and the family experienced acceptance, health, independence and confidence during periods of well-balanced blood glucose levels. The integration of the illness into the family's everyday life was, however, obstructed during episodes of unbalanced blood glucose levels, which affected the whole family negatively. Three years after diagnosis all family members had acquired a sound basis for managing the diabetes regimen. They had learnt more about diabetes, which was a natural element of the families' everyday life, although still affecting the family members differently in their daily life. Furthermore, in study 2, controlling for a set of independent variables, childhood diabetes was found to be associated with lower levels of attained education and self-assessed health in comparison with the general population. More educated individuals reported better health, though. Hence, further research is needed to decide which method of treatment is most beneficial for the individual family when a child is striken with type 1 diabetes. The importance of showing receptivity to each family member's needs and experiences was further suggested when the families were interviewed three years after the diagnosis, as it revealed that the illness affected the daily life of family members to a different degree. It is also important early in life to strengthen the possibility of having and reaching an agreeable level of attained education for children diagnosed with diabetes, as this may lead to increased health for the child later in life. (Less)


During his two terms as the fortieth president of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency. Brought together in one volume and edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries provides a striking insight into one of this nation's most important presidencies and sheds new light on the character of a true American leader.


Edmonton is very lucky for many reasons. Light Rail Transit (LRT) and extensive green space are just two reasons. During the winter months, however, the green belts that surround our neighborhoods and run along our utility corridors become white belts. We've seen attempts to battle the cold and recreate warm-weather commuting: increased ped-ways, large malls, heated bus terminals, and other mechanisms. Yet the more we treat winter as something to be accommodated and worked around, the more we retreat, hibernate, and use our cars, the greater our negativity about winter. And so the question remains: How can we shift our thinking around winter and reclaim our abundant public space and corridors in a way that is inherently meaningful for Edmontonians?
What if we could ski to work, or to the LRT? Systems mapping, using rich picture as a design method, helped a group of community enthusiasts understand commuting practices and available green space (white space) in the area. What we found was a vast amount of interconnected white space linked to the train line. The group used causal layered analysis to better understand the systemic causes, worldviews, and mental model underlying why these two transportation systems had never interacted before. As the group dove into an understanding of these two systems, what became clear was a common link around a broader overarching system: winter. The group framed a new mental model for how to tap into this potential. From this premise, a participatory, community based initiative, #Ski2LRT, was formed.
#Ski2LRT launched as an emergent movement that attempted to shift mindsets around three concepts: Winter, cross-country skiing in urban settings and LRT usage. A simple Facebook page was designed and a cross-country ski rack was placed at the Century Park LRT station. What happened next and the unintended ripple effects went beyond the original intention. It was unknown that neighborhood ski enthusiasts felt isolated. Unintentionally, this initiative connected a community and gave like-minded individuals a space to convene. This initiative and shift impacted the identity of the city and a new municipal group called "SkiWay" formed, connecting the ski clubs in the city, alongside urban transportation initiatives, to reinvigorate cross country skiing in the city.


Profiles through the summit of a small nearly axisymmetric extrusion of Oligocene and Miocene salt, and simple analogue models of it, simulate the profiles of piles of ductile nappes extruded from convergent orogens. The salt extrudes from a reactive diapir along a major strike-slip fault at about 82 mm a−1 and rises 315 m above the central plateau of Iran. The salt has the distinctive smooth profile of a viscous fountain in which an asymmetric apron of allochthonous salt gravity-spreads over its surroundings from a summit dome. Curtain folds developed in the source layer extrude from the diapir and are refolded by major recumbent folds with circumferential axes that simulate nappes. Minor flow folds with circumferential axes refold major folds in the top 10-50 m of surficial salt. Master joints >100 m long indicate brittle failure of dilated salt by regional stress fields. Tuned to the dimensions of Qum Kuh, analytical and analogue models of viscous extrusions constrain the dynamic salt budget and a time of extrusion of at least 42 000 years. New analogue models suggest that the number, amplitude and spacing of major recumbent folds within the extruded salt (and ductile nappe piles) record the number, amount and relative timing of fluctuations in the driving forces.


The topic of tumor markers is an immeasurable one, and there is an opulence of data collected till now. It has been deduced that tumor markers can suffice as an acceptable screening test for initiating definitive diagnostic procedures with a goal of making an "early diagnosis." Through modern techniques of sensitive immunoassays such as radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation of these markers is possible. Most tumor markers are substances produced by some types of nonneoplastic cells, although perhaps in much lower quantities than they are produced by tumor cells. The review article on tumor markers in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) as an adjunct to diagnosis is grounded totally on our analysis, consultation, experience, exploration, reviews, and original articles on the subject. Guidelines have been developed by various national skillful and international Oracle groups for the use of tumor markers for cancers, but none of these are currently formalized to maneuver in OSCC. It has been concluded that tumor markers cannot be maneuvered as fundamental modalities for the diagnosis of oral cancer. Tumor markers' main profitability in clinical medicine has been a laboratory test to support the diagnosis; further detailed studies are required to determine their practical usefulness in clinical workflow. It cannot be used as a sole diagnostic tool but can be used as an adjunct to routine histopathology using hematoxylin and eosin stain. Instead by combining various tumor markers, we can achieve a great specificity and sensitivity in the follow-up of one type of malignancy, for example, OSCC.


Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) are key component materials in fuel cell technology. Understanding the relationship between the elementary acts of proton transport and the operation of the entire cell on different time and length scales is therefore particularly rewarding. We discuss the results of recent atomistic computer simulations of proton transport in porous PEMs. Different models cover the range from individual local proton hops to diffusion processes with polymer mobility included.


The institution of money is rapidly evolving thanks to developments in computerbased cryptography. Technological advances have made possible the creation of cost-effective electronic alternatives to banknotes and coins, which are the traditional physical currencies. This document aims to describe — based on scientific literature — the use and characteristics of money, some of the problems associated with issuing a new currency or a new payment instrument, and the possible comparative advantages of a central bank in leading the way relative to private issuers.


In water distribution networks (WDNs) the classic pressure control valves (PCVs) are mechanical/hydraulic devices aimed at maintaining the target pressure just downstream or upstream the PCV pipe, namely pressure reduction or sustaining valves. From a modelling standpoint, the major drawback of such local control is that classic PCVs may require target pressure varying over time with the pattern of delivered water because the controlled node is not strategic for the optimal WDN pressure control. Current information and communication technology allows transferring streams of pressure data from any WDN node to the PCV. Thus, remotely real-time control (RRTC) permits real-time electric regulation of PCVs to maintain a fixed target pressure value in strategic critical nodes, resulting in optimal control of pressure and background leakages. This paper shows three strategies for the electric regulation of RRTC PCVs, which use as control variables the shutter opening degree (SD), the valve hydraulic resistance (RES) and the valve head loss (HL). The Apulian network is used to compare the three strategies, while the application on the real Oppegard WDN yields further discussions. Results show that HL and RES strategies outperform SD; constraining the maximum shutter displacement helps SD stability although it still needs calibration.


The growing popularity of Agile methods motivates our interest in its value foundations, publicized in information technology (IT) community discourse. IT community discourses provide key functions of interpretation, legitimization and mobilization. Conceptualized as organizing visions, these community discourses provide knowledge about how an IT innovation, such as Agile, should be applied in the organization. The strong orientation towards values in Agile methods has its foundation in the Agile Manifesto. Previous research into the impact of values on the adoption and diffusion of IT innovations expose its importance to software development methods. Using the Lasswell value framework, this paper investigates how values in the organizing vision of Agile are interpreted and legitimized by contributors to its community discourse. The findings propose that Agile's value patterns, which are represented by values wealth, enlightenment, skill and power, are a combination of its value foundations and practical business needs. The similarities of the values patterns found across Agile contributors also show that these values are part of an early-institutionalized element of its organizing vision. The similarities and nature of the values also represent a moral legitimacy strategy.


In countries that have managed to confront and cope with the challenges of food insecurity over the past two centuries, markets have done the heavy lifting. Markets serve as the arena for allocating society's scarce resources to meet the virtually unlimited needs and desires of consumers: no other mechanism can efficiently signal fluctuations in scarcity and abundance, the cost of labor, or the value of commodities. But markets fail at tasks that society regards as important; thus, governments have had to intervene to stabilize the economic environment and provide essential public goods, such as transportation and communications networks, agricultural research and development, and access to quality health and educational facilities. Ending hunger requires that each society find the right balance of market forces and government interventions to drive a process of economic growth that reaches the poor and ensures that food supplies are readily, and reliably, available and accessible to even the poorest households. But locating that balance has been a major challenge for many countries, and seems to be getting more difficult as the global economy becomes more integrated and less stable. Food Security and Scarcity explains what forms those challenges take in the long run and short term and at global, national, and household levels. C. Peter Timmer, best known for his work on the definitive text Food Policy Analysis, draws on decades of food security research and analysis to produce the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of what makes a productive, sustainable, and stable food system-and why so many countries have fallen short. Poverty and hunger are different in every country, so the manner of coping with the challenges of ending hunger and keeping it at bay will depend on equally country-specific analysis, governance, and solutions. Timmer shows that for all their problems and failures, markets and food prices are ultimately central to solving the problem of hunger, and that any coherent strategy to improve food security will depend on an in-depth understanding of how food markets operate. Published in association with the Center for Global Development.


The point of departure for this study was a recognition of the differences in suppliers' and acquirers' judgements of the value of technology when transferred between the two, and the significant impacts of technology valuation on the establishment of technology partnerships and effectiveness of technology collaborations. The perceptions, transfer strategies and objectives, perceived benefits and assessed technology contributions as well as associated costs and risks of both suppliers and acquirers were seen to be the core to these differences. This study hypothesised that the capability embodied in technology to yield future returns makes technology valuation distinct from the process of valuing manufacturing products. The study hence has gone beyond the dimensions of cost calculation and price determination that have been discussed in the existing literature, by taking a broader view of how to achieve and share future added value from transferred technology. The core of technology valuation was argued as the evaluation of the 'quality' of the capability (technology) in generating future value and the effectiveness of the transfer arrangement for best use of such a capability. A dynamic approach comprising future value generation and realisation within the context of specific forms of collaboration was therefore adopted. The research investigations focused on the UK and China machine tool industries, where there are many technology transfer activities and the value issue has already been recognised in practice. Data were gathered from three groups: machine tool manufacturing technology suppliers in the UK and acquirers in China, and machine tool users in China. Data collecting methods included questionnaire surveys and case studies within all the three groups. The study has focused on identifying and examining the major factors affecting value as well as their interactive effects on technology valuation from both the supplier's and acquirer's point of view. The survey results showed the perceptions and the assessments of the owner's value and transfer value from the supplier's and acquirer's point of view respectively. Benefits, costs and risks related to the technology transfer were the major factors affecting the value of technology. The impacts of transfer payment on the value of technology by the sharing of financial benefits, costs and risks between partners were assessed. The close relationship between technology valuation and transfer arrangements was established by which technical requirements and strategic implications were considered. The case studies reflected the research propositions and revealed that benefits, costs and risks in the financial, technical and strategic dimensions interacted in the process of technology valuation within the context of technology collaboration. Further to the assessment of factors affecting value, a technology valuation framework was developed which suggests that technology attributes for the enhancement of contributory factors and their contributions to the realisation of transfer objectives need to be measured and compared with the associated costs and risks. The study concluded that technology valuation is a dynamic process including the generation and sharing of future value and the interactions between financial, technical and strategic achievements.


Abstract : For more than 3 decades, the Army War College Department of National Security and Strategy has faced the challenge of educating future strategic leaders on the subject of national security, or grand strategy. Fitting at the top of an officer's or government official's career-long, professional development program, this challenge has been to design a course on strategy that incorporates its many facets in a short period of time, all within the 1-year, senior service college curriculum. To do this, a conceptual approach has provided the framework to think about strategy formulation. The purpose of this volume is to present the Army War College's strategy formulation model to students and practitioners. This book serves as a guide to one method for the formulation, analysis, and study of strategy--an approach which we have found to be useful in providing generations of strategists with the conceptual tools to think systematically, strategically, critically, creatively, and big. Balancing what is described in the chapters as ends, ways, and means remains at the core of the Army War College's approach to national security and military strategy and strategy formulation.


This article presents the results of a Canadian study that examined the relationship of verbal reporting processes and the quality of interpretation. Two types of verbal reports, Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs) and Stimulated Recalls (SRs), were collected and analyzed to explore how TAPS and SRs might reflect the quality of interpreting provided in educational settings. Twelve interpreters working in educational contexts were recruited to participate in a multi-stage research process. Each interpreter was asked to perform a Think Aloud while viewing a sample of classroom discourse in preparation for interpreting it. Each interpreter then provided an interpretation, followed by a post-interpreting Stimulated Recall review of the interpretation. The standardized samples chosen were based on videotaped authentic classroom instruction and represented classes at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. A Deaf child was described for each level of interpreting so that the interpreters could target their interpretation. The results showed that those interpreters who demonstrated higher order cognitive thinking skills and attended to teacher intent and student language preferences provided more effective interpreting than the interpreters who focused primarily on linguistic choices and interpreting decisions. The findings have implications for interpreters, interpreter educators and mentors, and teachers working with interpreters and Deaf students in mediated learning environments. By exploring the ways in which attention to discourse features and teacher-student needs could be heightened, interpreters could enhance the quality of interpretation provided to Deaf learners.


In this paper, a number of new explicit approximations are introduced to estimate the perturbative diffusivity (χ), convectivity (V), and damping (τ) in cylindrical geometry. For this purpose, the harmonic components of heat waves induced by localized deposition of modulated power are used. The approximations are based on the heat equation in cylindrical geometry using the symmetry (Neumann) boundary condition at the plasma center. This means that the approximations derived here should be used only to estimate transport coefficients between the plasma center and the off-axis perturbative source. If the effect of cylindrical geometry is small, it is also possible to use semi-infinite domain approximations presented in Part I and Part II of this series. A number of new approximations are derived in this part, Part III, based upon continued fractions of the modified Bessel function of the first kind and the confluent hypergeometric function of the first kind. These approximations together with the approximations based on semi-infinite domains are compared for heat waves traveling towards the center. The relative error for the different derived approximations is presented for different values of the frequency, transport coefficients, and dimensionless radius. Moreover, it is shown how combinations of different explicit formulas can be used to estimate the transport coefficients over a large parameter range for cases without convection and damping, cases with damping only, and cases with convection and damping. The relative error between the approximation and its underlying model is below 2% for the case, where only diffusivity and damping are considered. If also convectivity is considered, the diffusivity can be estimated well in a large region, but there is also a large region in which no suitable approximation is found. This paper is the third part (Part III) of a series of three papers. In Part I, the semi-infinite slab approximations have been treated. In Part II, cylindrical approximations are treated for heat waves traveling towards the plasma edge assuming a semi-infinite domain.


Preface Acknowledgments About the Author 1. The Achievement Gap: Our Ultimate Challenge School Counseling and the Gap Where We Have Been and Where We Are Headed The Power of School Counselors Achievement Gap Defined A Closer Look at the Gap What Do We Know About Closing the Gap? Questions to Consider 2. School Counseling Within the Context of Social Justice Redefining School Counseling to Serve Diverse Groups Focusing on Social Justice Key Functions of School Counseling Based on a Social Justice Approach Questions to Consider 3. Counseling and Intervention Planning Critical Factors That Affect School Counseling and the Counseling Relationship Culturally Appropriate Counseling Interventions Assessing School Counselors' Multicultural Counseling Competence The Influence of Culture on Intervention Planning Questions to Consider 4. Consultation Defining Consultation Social Justice Considerations and the Consultation Process Consultation Strategies Questioning Domains Assessing School Culture Questions to Consider 5. Connecting Schools, Families, and Communities Avoid the Blame Game Five Principles of Effective SFC Partnership Barriers to School-Family Collaborations Questions to Consider 6. Collecting and Using Data What Is Accountability? Using Data to Uncover Inequities School Counseling Program Evaluation Developing Program Assessment Tools Questions to Consider 7. Challenging Bias Guidelines for Challenging Bias Social Justice Education in Schools Questions to Consider 8. Coordinating Student Services and Support Collaborating With Community Organizations and Social Service Agencies Implementing Scheduling Practices That Encourage Rigorous Course Taking Coordinating College Preparation Interventions Coordinating Tutoring Services Participating on Individualized Education Program Committees Participating on Gifted and Talented Committees Questions to Consider 9. Doing the Right Thing: Developing a Social Justice-Focused School Counseling Program Assessing Your Beliefs Assessing Your Skills Assessing Your Students' Needs My Vision for My School Counseling Program Concluding Remarks Resources Resource A: Assessing School Equity Resource B: School Counselor Multicultural Competence Checklist Resource C: School Culture Assessment Resource D: Assessing Beliefs About School-Family-Community Partnership Involvement Resource E: SOARING Samples and Worksheets Suggested Readings by Topic References Index


This paper responds to claims made by Chris Sanchirico in his paper, A Critical Look at the Economic Argument for Taxing only Labor Income. His paper, in part, criticizes the claims we made in "The Superiority of an Ideal Consumption Tax Over an Ideal Income Tax, 58 Stan. L. Rev. 1413 (2006). We show that he makes at least three critical mistakes. First, he systematically confuses a Haig-Simons tax with tax systems that have small positive or negative taxes on capital. Arguments for taxes on capital are not the same as arguments for a Haig-Simons income tax. Second, he argues that our examples are erroneous. While we disagree with his claimed errors, Sanchirico, more importantly, confuses errors in the examples with errors in our arguments which are based on established public finance theorems. He agrees these theorems are correct, which is all that matters. Third, his most striking claim, that our arguments for a consumption tax equally support a tax solely on income from savings, is false. It only works when there is a single type of taxpayer and does not apply to the central case where taxpayers vary by ability. Once we correct these errors, Sanchirico's only remaining claim is that the underlying public finance theorems have strong assumptions. We agree and spent a substantial portion of our prior paper examining those assumptions to see whether relaxing them restores support for an income tax. It does not. Sanchirico does not provide any arguments to the contrary.


Through a reading of Vietnamese American author Monique Truong's The Book of Salt (2003) and Parisian writer-in-exile Duong Thu Huong's The Zenith (2012), this essay examines the ways in which the two diasporic Vietnamese novels revise modern Vietnam's founding father Ho Chi Minh and thereby challenge the Communist Party's official historiography. Resisting both the lingering civil war's Manichaeanism and the militant anti-Communism of the diaspora, the texts present Ho as a figure of hope through which to imagine national reunification and an alternative future for Vietnam.


In this paper we criticize the "Ashbyan interpretation" (Froese & Stewart, 2010) of autopoietic theory by showing that Ashby's framework and the autopoietic one are based on distinct, often incompatible, assumptions and that they aim at addressing different issues. We also suggest that in order to better understand autopoiesis and its implications, a different and wider set of theoretical contributions, developed previously or at the time autopoiesis was formulated, needs to be taken into consideration: among the others, the works of Rosen, Weiss and Piaget. By analyzing the concepts of organization and closure, the idea of components, and the role of materiality in the theory proposed by Maturana and Varela, we advocate the view that autopoiesis necessarily entails selfproduction and intrinsic instability and can be realized only in domains characterized by the same transformative and processual properties exhibited by the molecular domain. From this theoretical standpoint it can be demonstrated that autopoietic theory neither commits to a sharp dualism between organization and structure nor to a reflexive view of downward causation, thus avoiding the respective strong criticisms.


Teachers have responsibility to create and develop an effective learning material in order to facilitate the student to understand the reading content optimally. There are, it is important to develop an effective learning material by using SQ4R strategy as the solution The type of this research is R&D by using 4-D model. The sample were 42 students and 2 teachers in primary school. The result of the research indicated that the validity rate of the learning material is valid. Then upon the assessment on the implementation of lesson plan, the responses from teachers and learning participants and the observations on teaching materials indicated that the practicality rate fell to the category of highly practical. Moreover, the result of the activity of learning participants on reading comprehension indicated to be effective. Hence, it could be concluded that the developed reading comprehension learning material by using SQ4R strategy has already been valid, practical, and effective.


An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of dietary carnitine on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing-finishing swine. The trial was designed to investigate the response of pigs fed carnitine from weaning to market vs control pigs receiving no carnitine. In addition, the performance of these pigs was compared to that of pigs fed carnitine only during the starter or finishing phases. The trial was broken down into the following four phases: 1) phase I (0 to 14 d post weaning) 2) phase II (14 to 35 d post weaning) 3) grower (d 35 to 135 lb), and 4) finisher (135 to 230 lb). One hundred and twenty-eight pigs averaging 11.40 lb were used in the first two phases to investigate the effects of added carnitine on the performance of the early weaned pig. This also assisted in finding the proper carnitine administration period to elicit optimum growth performance and carcass characteristics in growing-finshing pigs. During phases I and II, one half of the pigs received a high nutrient density diet (HNDD) containing 1000 and 500 ppm, respectively, of carnitine; the other half received a HNDD with no added carnitine. These HNDD were formulated to contain 1.45% and 1.25% lysine, respectively. Pigs were allotted to pens on the basis of weight and sex, with each pen being randomly assigned to treatment. There was a total of 32 pens each containing four barrows or four gilts per pen. During phase I, pigs consuming the diet with carnitine were more efficient and had slightly higher daily gains. Nevertheless, during phase II, pigs receiving no carnitine had higher daily gains. Over the frrst 35 d of the trial, pigs offered no carnitine had higher daily gains and daily feed consumptions but were slightly less efficient. After the first two phases, pigs were reallotted within treatments on the basis of weight resulting in one of the following carnitine treatments: 1) feeding carnitine from weaning to market (15 to 230 lbs); (C/C) 2) carnitine during phases I and II only (C/N), 3) carnitine during growing-finishing only (N/C), and 4) no added carnitine (N/N). A total of 95 pigs (three pigs/pen) were used to provide eight replicates/treatment (four replicates/sex). Grower diets contained .85% lysine, and as pigs approached 135 lb, the lysine content was reduced to .75%. Carnitine was supplemented in the growingfinishing diets (N/C and C/C) at 25 ppm. During the growing-fmishing phase, there were no difference in performance among treatments. However, a significant increase occurred in longissimus muscle area of pigs receiving carnitine only during the growingfinishing phase as compared to pigs fed no additions of carnitine throughout the trial. This suggests that carnitine supplementation during the growing-fmishing phase increases loineye area, but has no effect on growth performance.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 19, 1992


Background: It has recently been demonstrated that women members of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) participate at the Annual Meeting at disproportionately lower rates than men members, as defined by accepted abstract(s). We hypothesize that this discrepancy is associated with lower abstract submission rates by women members. Methods: POSNA membership directories for the years 2012-2015 were used to record the name, sex, membership category, and years of membership for each member. Final programs for Annual Meetings and abstract submission records for the same time period were used to record the number of accepted and rejected abstracts for each member. General estimating equations with a binomial model and logit link were used to compare the proportion of abstract acceptances between sexes across years. Results: During the period 2012-2015, active members included 534 men (83.8%) and 103 women (16.2%), whereas candidate members included 207 men (64.7%) and 113 women (35.3%). When active and candidate members were considered collectively, men were significantly more likely to have an accepted abstract (P=0.009) and this significant difference did not change over the 4-year period (P=0.627). However, men submitted significantly more abstracts per member per year than women (means: 1.5 abstracts/man/y; 0.8 abstracts/woman/y; P<0.001). This held true for both candidate members (early career) (P=0.001) as well as active members (mid-career) (P<0.001). When the total number of abstract submissions per year per member was taken into account, the percentage of abstract acceptances was similar for men and women (men=42%, women=40%; P=0.847). Conclusions: Abstract acceptance rates were similar for women and men members of POSNA for the 2012-2015 Annual Meetings. However, men had a significantly greater number of abstract submissions per member than women, and consequently, men presented a higher proportion of abstracts relative to their membership numbers. This supports our hypothesis that the disproportionately lower rate of active participation amongst women members at POSNA Annual Meetings, defined as abstract acceptance, is due to lower rates of abstract submissions, rather than to lower rates of acceptances. Level of Evidence: It is not applicable as it is not a clinical or basic science study.


The concept of trust has received a lot of attention in recent years, for a number of reasons. On the one hand, trust is seen as a necessary enabling precondition for B2C and other sensitive services on the web, and the problem of creating practical "trust on-line" is regarded as of high importance. On the other hand, the aforementioned reason has also spawned efforts on analysing the concept of trust at a more "philosophical" level. This paper presents an analysis of a logical kind, to effectively address the issue of why we actually need to represent trust explicitly at all. The conclusion is that in open communities the explicit trust representations may be communicated between members, and this will contribute to the privacy and security of these members.


Chlamydia trachomatis is the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States. In women, this infection can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and cause ectopic pregnancy and tubal factor infertility. Oviduct interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC-OVI) have been identified as pacemakers, responsible for generating slow waves that underlie myosalpinx contractions that are critical for egg transport. ICC-OVI are damaged in mice by the host inflammatory response to Chlamydia, leading to loss of pacemaker activity and associated contractions. However the inflammatory mediator(s) that causes this damage has not been identified. Mice resolve C. muridarum 3–4 wk postinfection but it remains unexplored whether ICC-OVI and pacemaker activity recovers. We have investigated the time dependence of C. muridarum infection with respect to ICC-OVI loss and examined the inflammatory mediator(s) that may be responsible for this damage. Intracellular recordings from the myosalpinx were made at 1, 2, 4 and 7 wk postinfection with Chlamydia. Immunohistochemistry was performed at similar time points to examine changes in ICC-OVI networks and expression of nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) and prostaglandin synthase 2 (PTGS2). Chlamydia-induced expression of NOS2 occurred in stellate-shaped, macrophage-like cells, and damage to ICC-OVI and pacemaker activity occurred as NOS2 expression increased. Immunohistochemistry revealed that macrophages were in close proximity to ICC-OVI. Changes to ICC-OVI were not correlated with PTGS2 expression. These data suggest that ICC-OVI networks and pacemaker activity may be damaged by nitric oxide produced in NOS2-expressing macrophages in response to C. muridarum infection. As the infection resolves, NOS2 expression decreases, ICC-OVI networks recover, and pacemaker activity resumes.


The Workaholism construct — still little explored within Italian organizational contexts — was analyzed in a cooperative enterprise characterized by the workers' great participation in the company governance and profits. The possible combinations (high-low) of the two workaholism dimensions (Work Excessively and Work Compulsively) confirmed, through cluster analysis, the presence of four worker profiles: Workaholic, Non-workaholic, Hard Worker, and Compulsive Worker. The relations between the workers' different profiles, organizational variables, individual and demographic resources were also assessed. Generally, workaholics have a more critical profile, compared to the other three categories, on many of the variables examined, and in particular: workload, POS, organizational conflict (work-life, between groups, intra-role, and with superiors), psychological strain, burnout (emotional exhaustion and disaffection), and negative affectivity. As far as organizational citizenship behaviors and self-efficacy are concerned, on the contrary, results are less critical.


In recent years, there has been unprecedented national focus on the importance of increasing the stubbornly low graduation rates of community college students. Most reforms that have been tried are short-term and address one or only a few barriers to student success. The City University of New York's (CUNY's) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), launched in 2007 with funding from Mayor Bloomberg's Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO), is an uncommonly multifaceted and long-term program designed to help community college students graduate.ASAP requires students to attend college full time and provides a rich array of supports and incentives for up to three years, with a goal of graduating at least 50 percent of students within three years. Unlike many programs, ASAP aims to simultaneously address multiple barriers to student success over many semesters. The program model includes some block-scheduled classes for ASAP students for the first year of the program; an ASAP seminar for at least the first year, which covers such topics as goal-setting and academic planning; comprehensive advisement; tutoring; career services; a tuition waiver that covers any gap between a student's financial aid and tuition and fees; free MetroCards for use on public transportation; and free use of textbooks.This report presents very promising early findings from a random assignment study of ASAP at three CUNY community colleges: Borough of Manhattan, Kingsborough, and LaGuardia. For the study, ASAP targets low-income students who need one or two developmental (remedial) courses to build their reading, writing, or math skills. The study compares ASAP with regular services and classes at the colleges. Key findings include effects on: Full-time enrollment. During the study's first semester, ASAP increased full-time enrollment by 11 percentage points: 96 percent of the students assigned to ASAP enrolled full time, compared with 85 percent of the comparison group; Credits earned and completing developmental coursework. ASAP increased the average number of credits earned during the first semester by 2.1 credits and increased the proportion of students who completed their developmental coursework by the end of that semester by 15 percentage points; Semester-to-semester retention. ASAP increased the proportion of students who enrolled in college during the second semester by 10 percentage points and increased full-time enrollment that semester by 21 percentage points.ASAP's early effects are larger than the effects of most of the community college programs MDRC has studied previously. ASAP's comprehensive package of financial aid, services, and supports, together with its full-time attendance requirement, has resulted in students taking and passing more credits than they would have otherwise. Future reports will show whether these effects can be sustained — or even grow — as students continue in this comprehensive, three-year program.


This article presents selected results from the analysis of marriage migration processes from Turkey to Germany, based on fieldwork and interviews conducted with intraethnic transnational couples. The findings indicate that the relationships of these transnational couples are marked by specificities due to the spatial distance between them and the legislation regulating spousal immigration to Germany. The marriage rituals differ from local marriages as the temporal spacing of events is adapted to the steps that have to be taken in order to obtain a family unification visa. The period during which the marriage migrant attends a language course in Turkey to prepare for the obligatory exam is particularly stressful. By combining the analysis of temporal aspects of marriage processes with perceptions and evaluations of individuals who are engaged in these relationships, the article provides a fine-grained picture of the dynamics of transnational intimate relationships in the premigration period.


Through binding to and signaling via the insulin receptor (IR), insulin is involved in multiple effects on growth and metabolism. The current model for the insulin-IR binding process is one of a biphasic reaction. It is thought that the insulin peptide possesses two binding interfaces (sites 1 and 2), which allow it to bridge the two alpha-subunits of the insulin receptor during the biphasic binding reaction. The sequential order of the binding events involving sites 1 and 2, as well as the molecular interactions corresponding to the fast and slow binding events, is still unknown. In this study we examined the series of events that occur during the binding process with the help of three insulin analogues: insulin, an analogue mutated in site 2 (B17A insulin), and an analogue in which part of site 1 was deleted (Des A1-4 insulin), both with and without a fluorescent probe attached. The binding properties of these analogues were tested using two soluble Midi IR constructs representing the two naturally occurring isoforms of the IR, Midi IR-A and Midi IR-B. Our results showed that in the initial events leading to Midi IR-insulin complex formation, insulin site 2 binds to the IR in a very fast binding event. Subsequent to this initial fast phase, a slower rate-limiting phase occurs, consistent with a conformational change in the insulin-IR complex, which forms the final high-affinity complex. The terminal residues A1-A4 of the insulin A-chain are shown to be important for the slow binding phase, as insulin lacking these amino acids is unable to induce a conformational change of IR and has a severely impaired binding affinity. Moreover, differences in the second phase of the binding process involving insulin site 1 between the IR-A and IR-B isoforms suggest that the additional amino acids encoded by exon 11 in the IR-B isoform influence the binding process.


The recent influx of agricultural investment to Africa is increasingly equated with land grabbing by investors from emerging and Northern economies seeking to produce commodities to serve the needs of their own food and energy markets. This paper reflects on this discourse by unpacking agricultural investments in Mozambique – one of the largest recipients of agricultural investment in Africa. By drawing on official investment data and structured interviews conducted with 69 agricultural investors in Mozambique, this paper analyzes agricultural investment trends, characteristics and the factors that shape investors' social and environmental conduct. It illustrates that, contrary to popular depiction, regional investors, domestic food end-markets, and private finance are the primary drivers of investment. Moreover, this paper shows that investors differ significantly in the types of strategies, business models and practices they adopt. The findings highlight a lack of nuance in the global agricultural investment discourse and the need for more evidence-based policy intervention in order to adequately leverage the potential of agricultural investments to contribute to inclusive green growth.


The authors describe recent developments in the theory of early vision that led from the formulation of the motion problem as an ill-posed one to its solution by minimizing certain 'cost' functions. These cost or energy functions can be mapped onto simple analog and digital resistive networks. The optical flow is computed by injecting currents into resistive networks and recording the resulting stationary voltage distribution at each node. The authors believe that these networks, which they implemented in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, represent plausible candidates for biological vision systems.<<ETX>>


Background: Augmentation of talonavicular fusion with a retrograde percutaneous naviculocalcaneal screw has been shown to increase fixation stiffness of double (subtalar and talonavicular joint) arthrodesis. However, previous authors have speculated that neurovascular structures could be at risk in a percutaneous procedure. We investigated the safety of this procedure. We hypothesized that a high risk of neurovascular injury would be found. Methods: Dorsolateral talonaviculocalcaneal screw fixation was performed in 17 fresh-frozen cadaver limbs. A 1.5-cm incision was created over the lateral third of the navicular. Using percutaneous technique, a 4.5-mm cannulated screw was inserted using a guide wire. Blunt dissection and careful soft-tissue retraction were performed. The incision was extended, and a caliper was used to measure the distance from the guide wire to the superficial peroneal nerve (SPN), extensor hallucis longus, extensor digitorum longus, deep peroneal nerve (DPN), and deep peroneal artery (DPA). All injuries were recorded. Results: Injury to the deep neurovascular bundle occurred in five of 17 specimens. These injuries involved four insults to the DPN, two to the DPA, and one to branches of the SPN. Conclusions: Use of a retrograde naviculocalcaneal screw to augment talonavicular fusion in the setting of double arthrodesis was associated with high risk of injury to anatomic structures, including the deep neurovascular bundle. Clinical Relevance: An open procedure with careful dissection along the neurovascular bundle should be considered with use of a retrograde naviculocalcaneal screw to augment talonavicular fusion to avoid risk to nearby anatomic structures.


Efficient algorithms for mining frequent itemsets are crucial for mining association rules as well as for many other data mining tasks. Methods for mining frequent itemsets have been implemented using a prefix-tree structure, known as an FP-tree, for storing compressed information about frequent itemsets. Numerous experimental results have demonstrated that these algorithms perform extremely well. In this paper, we present a novel FP-array technique that greatly reduces the need to traverse FP-trees, thus obtaining significantly improved performance for FP-tree-based algorithms. Our technique works especially well for sparse data sets. Furthermore, we present new algorithms for mining all, maximal, and closed frequent itemsets. Our algorithms use the FP-tree data structure in combination with the FP-array technique efficiently and incorporate various optimization techniques. We also present experimental results comparing our methods with existing algorithms. The results show that our methods are the fastest for many cases. Even though the algorithms consume much memory when the data sets are sparse, they are still the fastest ones when the minimum support is low. Moreover, they are always among the fastest algorithms and consume less memory than other methods when the data sets are dense.


Leadership qualities is very important in doing something, included in education.  Without good leadership quality education can't be develop as well as posibble. A head master is a highest leader in school who organize all about school, teaching learning process, quality of school, etc. Because of head master have a important role in school, he or she must be have a professional quality of work to develop education in School. Head master must have clear visi and missi to carry out education in their School. Head master must be have a good quality of leadeship to be develop the quality education of School. But the theory is in contradiction with the facts. So many head master in School not have a good quality of leadership, can't work professionally, can't be justify with their job, etc. This is the problem of education in Indonesia, especially in School that a head master cant be work as their job as well as posibble. The goverment must do someting to clear this problem like make seminar about professionalism, leadership to the head master and teacher, and always do supervise in education role. Leadership qualities is very important in doing something, included in education.  Without good leadership quality education can't be develop as well as posibble. A head master is a highest leader in school who organize all about school, teaching learning process, quality of school, etc. Because of head master have a important role in school, he or she must be have a professional quality of work to develop education in School. Head master must have clear visi and missi to carry out education in their School. Head master must be have a good quality of leadeship to be develop the quality education of School. But the theory is in contradiction with the facts. So many head master in School not have a good quality of leadership, can't work professionally, can't be justify with their job, etc. This is the problem of education in Indonesia, especially in School that a head master cant be work as their job as well as posibble. The goverment must do someting to clear this problem like make seminar about professionalism, leadership to the head master and teacher, and always do supervise in education role.


Recent developments in dispersion-corrected density functional theory methods allow for the first time the description of large fragments of nucleic acids (hundreds of atoms) with an accuracy clearly surpassing the accuracy of common biomolecular force fields. Such calculations can significantly improve the description of the potential energy surface of nucleic acid molecules, which may be useful for studies of molecular interactions and conformational preferences of nucleic acids, as well as verification and parameterization of other methods. The first of such studies, however, demonstrated that successful applications of accurate QM calculations to larger nucleic acid building blocks are hampered by difficulties in obtaining geometries that are biochemically relevant and are not biased by non-native structural features. We present an approach that can greatly facilitate large-scale QM studies on nucleic acids, namely electronic structure geometry optimization of nucleic acid fragments utilizing a penalty function to restrain key internal coordinates with a specific focus on the torsional backbone angles. This work explores the viability of these restraint optimizations for DFT-D3, PM6-D3H and HF-3c optimizations on a set of examples (a UpA dinucleotide, a DNA G-quadruplex and a B-DNA fragment). Evaluation of different penalty function strengths reveals only a minor system-dependency and reasonable restraint values range from 0.01 to 0.05 Eh rad(-2) for the backbone torsions. Restraints are crucial to perform the QM calculations on biochemically relevant conformations in implicit solvation and gas phase geometry optimizations. The reasons for using restrained instead of constrained or unconstrained optimizations are explained and an open-source external optimizer is provided.


This paper presents methods for the parameter identification of a model of subtilin production by Bacillus subtilis. Based on a stochastic hybrid model, identification is split in two subproblems: estimation of the genetic network regulating subtilin production from gene expression data, and estimation of population dynamics based on nutrient and population level data. Techniques for identification of switching dynamics from sparse and irregularly sampled observations are developed and applied to simulated data. Numerical results are provided to show the effectiveness of our methods.


AIMS
About one-third of patients with mild dyssynchronous heart failure suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF). Drugs that convert AF to sinus rhythm may further slowdown ventricular conduction. We aimed to investigate the electrophysiological and haemodynamic effects of vernakalant and flecainide in a canine model of chronic left bundle branch block (LBBB).

METHODS AND RESULTS
Left bundle branch block was induced in 12 canines. Four months later, vernakalant or flecainide was administered using a regime, designed to achieve clinically used plasma concentrations of the drugs, n = 6 for each drug. Epicardial electrical contact mapping showed that both drugs uniformly prolonged myocardial conduction time. Vernakalant increased QRS width significantly less than flecainide (17 ± 13 vs. 34 ± 15%, respectively). Nevertheless, both drugs equally decreased LVdP/dtmax by ∼15%, LVdP/dtmin by ∼10%, and left ventricular systolic blood pressure by ∼5% (P = n.s. between drugs).

CONCLUSIONS
Vernakalant prolongs ventricular conduction less than flecainide, but both drugs had a similar, moderate negative effect on ventricular contractility and relaxation. Part of these reductions seems to be related to the increase in dyssynchrony.


This report documents a demonstration of an electronic--equipment cooling system in the engineering prototype development stage that can be applied in data centers. The technology provides cooling by bringing a water--based cooling fluid into direct contact with high--heat--generating electronic components. This direct cooling system improves overall data center energy efficiency in three ways: High--heat--generating electronic components are more efficiently cooled directly using water, capturing a large portion of the total electronic equipment heat generated. This captured heat reduces the load on the less--efficient air--based data center room cooling systems. The combination contributes to the overall savings. The power consumption of the electronic equipment internal fans is significantly reduced when equipped with this cooling system. The temperature of the cooling water supplied to the direct cooling system can be much higher than that commonly provided by facility chilled water loops, and therefore can be produced with lower cooling infrastructure energy consumption and possibly compressor-free cooling. Providing opportunities for heat reuse is an additional benefit of this technology. The cooling system can be controlled to produce high return water temperatures while providing adequate component cooling. The demonstration was conducted in a data center located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Thirty--eight servers equipped with the liquid cooling system and instrumented for energy measurements were placed in a single rack. Two unmodified servers of the same configuration, located in an adjacent rack, were used to provide a baseline. The demonstration characterized the fraction of heat removed by the direct cooling technology, quantified the energy savings for a number of cooling infrastructure scenarios, and provided information that could be used to investigate heat reuse opportunities. Thermal measurement data were used with data center energy use modeling software to estimate overall site energy use. These estimates show that an overall data center energy savings of approximately 20 percent can be expected if a center is retrofitted as specified in the models used. Increasing the portion of heat captured by this technology is an area suggested for further development.


Deforestation and biodiversity loss in agroecosystems are generally the result of rational choices, not of a lack of awareness or knowledge. Despite both scientific evidence and traditional knowledge that supports the value of diverse production systems for ecosystem services and resilience, a trend of agroecosystem intensification is apparent across tropical regions. These transitions happen in spite of policies that prohibit such transformations. We present a participatory modelling study run to (1) understand the drivers of landscape transition and (2) explore the livelihood and environmental impacts of tenure changes in the coffee agroforestry systems of Kodagu (India). The components of the system, key actors and resources, and their interactions were defined with stakeholders, following the companion modelling (ComMod) approach. The underlying ecological processes driving the system were validated through expert knowledge and scientific literature. The conceptual model was transformed into a role-playing game and validated by eight workshops with a total of 57 participants. Two scenarios were explored, a No Policy Change as baseline, and a Restitution of Rights where rights to cut the native trees are handed over to farmers. Our results suggest that the landscape transition is likely to continue unabated unless there is a change to the current policy framework. However, the Restitution of Rights risks speeding up the process rather than reversing it, as inter alia, the differential growth rate between exotic and native tree species, kick in.


Legal education has come under severe political pressure, both external and internal, for its perceived failure to deliver tangible economic benefits to law students. But legal education is not alone. The financial crisis of 2008 and the economic recession triggered by it have forced many other industries, to reevaluate their balance of costs and benefits. Many institutions, even entire industries, must now endure stress-testing in the form of debt-to-income or debt-to-capital ratios. This document focuses on student welfare, especially the core economic question of whether law school attendance delivers a valuable return on students' investment. It also describe the tools, drawn from quantitative finance and econometrics, that it uses to evaluate downside risk and inequality within any cohort of law school graduates.


We consider a wide spectrum of regularized stochastic minimization problems, where the regularization term is composite with a linear function. Examples of this formulation include graph-guided regularized minimization, generalized Lasso and a class of l1 regularized problems. The computational challenge is that the closed-form solution of the proximal mapping associated with the regularization term is not available due to the imposed linear composition. Fortunately, the structure of the regularization term allows us to reformulate it as a new convex-concave saddle point problem which can be solved using the Primal-Dual Hybrid Gradient (PDHG) approach. However, this approach may be inefficient in realistic applications as computing the full gradient of the expected objective function could be very expensive when the number of input data samples is considerably large. To address this issue, we propose a Stochastic PDHG (SPDHG) algorithm with either uniformly or non-uniformly averaged iterates. Through uniformly averaged iterates, the SPDHG algorithm converges in expectation with O(1/√t) rate for general convex objectives and O(log(t)/t) rate for strongly convex objectives, respectively. While with non-uniformly averaged iterates, the SPDHG algorithm is expected to converge with O(1/t) rate for strongly convex objectives. Numerical experiments on different genres of datasets demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms other competing algorithms.


Political talk enables citizens to form opinions and understand the significance of the political world. Yet young people in particular may find political talk intimidating or divisive, and may require alternative spaces to discuss politics. This article presents an ethnographic examination of political talk within the context of a face-to-face Harry Potter fan discussion group, as a case of a "third space" where shared popular culture interests serve as a starting point for political discussion. The analysis suggests three mechanisms explicating the process through which popular culture contexts can engender political talk: scaling up, broadening the political, and mobilization. Connections between popular culture and political communication are found to be particularly important for the political socialization of young people.


This working paper provides a compilation of statistics on international wine consumption, production and trade from the mid-nineteenth century until the beginning of the Second World War. The statistical data is structured in three parts dealing with consumption, production and trade both at the world level and for a broad sample of countries. The data presented for Spain, France and Italy, the leading three nations in the wine market, are especially wide-ranging.


Abstract. Identifying ionospheric disturbances potentially related to an earthquake is a challenging work. Based on the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) data from the madrigal database at the Haystack Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a new decomposition and nonlinear fitting method has been developed and applied in this work to extract the TEC disturbances that are potentially related to the Mw7.2 Mexico earthquake occurred on April 4 2010. By analyzing the TEC data for a long period of time (72 days) before and after the earthquake, we found that a unique TEC depletion occurred in the region around the epicenter on March 25. No other significant ionospheric TEC anomalies were identified in the 72-day period around the earthquake, except some TEC disturbances that appeared to be related to the geomagnetic activity between April 1 and 6, 2010. We further analyzed the TEC data from other magnetically quiet days, and no TEC anomaly like that occurred on March 25 was detected. The TEC data calculated from a first principles model SD-WACCM-X were also analyzed using the same method as that for the observational data. No TEC anomaly was found on March 25 from the model outputs either. Thus the source of the TEC anomaly on March 25 is unlikely from the lower atmosphere waves. In this study, we show the occurrence of TEC anomaly on March 25, 10 days before the Mw7.2 Mexico earthquake and this TEC anomaly may not be explained by lower atmosphere or geomagnetic activity forcing.


This work present investigation of the density and volume behaviour of ternary amino acid solutions, comprising of two amino acids and water, at 21.98.15 K. The objective is to support building a quantitative relationship among densities, amino acid concentration and structural characteristics of the solute molecules, for predicting values of density and partial molar volumes in mixtures of amino acids, peptides and similar molecules found in living and other natural systems.

Densities of ternary amino acid solutions, containing amino acid-1, amino acid-2 and water were measured using a vibrating tube precision densitometer at 298.15 K. Apparent and partial molar volumes were computed from density data and interpreted in terms of the accepted model for molecular salvation. Attempt has been made to correlate density of ternary solution with the densities of individual maino acids measured under similar experimental conditions. While a simple correlation seem to exit in terms of additively of densities, a precise relationship is proposed involving structural features of solute molecules and its overall hydrophobicity. Similar correlation are attempted with volume data, as well. literature data concerning densities and volumes of individual amino acids were used, in the first instance, for computing values for ternary solutions and to check additively relationships. Systematic variations among data from different sources, however, prevented a meaningful comparison and caused significant discrepancies in calculations at the desired precisions level. An extensive new data of higher precision, for densities of individual amino acids, was therefore obtained, in the temperature range, 283.15 – 3.13.15 K. Effect of temperature on amino acid densities was determined from the calculated partial molar expansibilities and interpreted in terms of structural features of solute molecules. Data pertaining at 298.15 K were used as a basis procedure were used to obtain significance of data. Least square fit procedure as applied to build correlation among density, and concentrations of each amino acid of the ternary solutions.

It was found that density of amino acid mixtures is function of concentration of each amino acid, the solute-solute-solvent interaction parameter, Sv, and the hydrophobicity of solute molecules. Values of Sv were obtained from data of single amino acid solutions taken from the present study. Quantitative estimates of hydrophobicity in terms of Equivalent methylenes, were taken from literature and incorporated in the final algebraic equation that is believed to be the representative relationship for predicting densities and volumes of amino acid solutions of ternary and higher composition.


Constructive mathematics is mathematics without the use of the principle of the excluded middle. There exists a wide array of models of constructive logic. One particular interpretation of constructive mathematics is the realizability interpretation. It is utilized as a metamathematical tool in order to derive admissible rules of deduction for systems of constructive logic or to demonstrate the equiconsistency of extensions of constructive logic. In this thesis, we employ various realizability models in order to logically separate several statements about continuity in constructive mathematics. A trademark of some constructive formalisms is predicativity. Predicative logic does not allow the definition of a set by quantifying over a collection of sets that the set to be defined is a member of. Starting from realizability models over a typed version of partial combinatory algebras we are able to show that the ensuing models provide the features necessary in order to interpret impredicative logics and type theories if and only if the underlying typed partial combinatory algebra is equivalent to an untyped pca. It is an ongoing theme in this thesis to switch between the worlds of classical and constructive mathematics and to try and use constructive logic as a method in order to obtain results of interest also for the classically minded mathematician. A classical mathematician can see the value of a solution algorithm as opposed to an abstract proof of the existence of a solution, but he or she would not insist on a constructive correctness proof for that algorithm. We introduce a class of formulae which is supposed to capture this pragmatic point of view. The class is defined in such a way that existence statements have a strong status, yet the correctness of an operation need only be proved classically. Moreover, this theory contains only classically true formulae. We pose the axiomatization of this class of formulae as an open problem and provide partial results. Like ordinary recursion theory, computable analysis is a branch of classical mathematics. It applies the concept of computability to entities of analysis by equipping them with a generalization of Godelizations called representations. Representations can be organized into a realizability category with rich logical properties. In this way, natural representations of spaces can be found by categorically interpreting the description of the underlying set of a space. Computability and non-computability results can be and are shown on an abstract, logical level. Finally, we turn to another application of realizability models, the field of strong normalization proofs for type theoretic frameworks. We will argue why we think that the modified realizability topos is not suited for this purpose and propose an alternative.


The third edition of this classic volume integrates the idea of balancing tourism with protection of the resources upon which it depends. The text stresses the role of the community, identifies potential pitfalls, and raises issues of developmental ethics. It includes topics such as environmental impact, sustainability, and ecotourism. Special emphasis is given to the growing need for business to implement environmental protection and ecological integrity as an essential part of economic development. The book is filled with many sketches, functional diagrams, and photographs.


In this thesis I critically explore the relationship between authenticity, the individual, society and the food consumed within that society for a group of residents in Dorset in the United Kingdom. . The authenticity of food impacts on our understandings of the economic, social, political and environmental contexts of food and is worthy of research. As such I focused on my participants' perceptions of the authenticity of food as something a priori; as it was perceived before other considerations, in ordered to get a primary understanding of the subject. I have positioned myself as a reflexive explorer / researcher who views the world from the position of interpretive constructionism derived from the ideas of postmodernism. I have utilized a qualitative research strategy; phenomenology and more specifically Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). My explanation of the methodology is accompanied by a description of the philosophical underpinning to the work with specific reference to Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Levinas and Derrida. Data were collected using focus groups based around a meal. When I asked my focus group participants about their perspectives on the nature of the authenticity of food, they described understandings that were vested in four key areas: Family and friends; Saucing: cooking and flavour; Sourcing: where does it come from? and; Interaction with the distinctly other (people that were not friends and family). In terms of the discussion of family and friends, much of this was to do with their experiences of growing up and their relationships with their parents and grandparents. In analysis, ideas such as time, tradition, heritage and gender came to the fore. When looking at saucing, the focus was on the process of cooking and eating, and memories of flavour and aroma. Sourcing highlighted feelings of localness and led to the development of concepts relating to connectedness to those that produce the food and connection to the food itself. There were also concerns as to the provenance of food and feelings of trust and mistrust. Finally, in looking at the distinctly other, as opposed to kith and kin, participants related experiences of trust and vulnerability, authority and independence, and inclusion and exclusion. These ideas informed a discussion on the nature of hospitality in the context of the authenticity of food. In my conclusions I describe how I found my participants' perceptions of authentic food to be constructed in a place between them as individuals and the Other and changed over time. Perceptions of authenticity were fluid and playful. I also evaluate the work using the criteria of rigour, resonance, reflexivity and relevance, where relevance is split to look at relevance to the academic community and to broader society.


Context: Maytenus macrocarpa (Chuchuhuasi) has long been employed in Peru as a traditional alternative therapy for several diseases, including cancer, arthritis and diarrhea. Recent studies show that several species of Maytenus have effects on nociceptive and inflammatory signaling, as well as toxic effects on behavioral neuronal pathways. Aims: The aim of this study is to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects and neurobehavioral side manifestations of the leaf of Maytenus macrocarpa (Ruiz and Pavón) Briquet. Methods and Materials: Experimental study, double blind. 60 male albino mice strain BALB/c were divided in ten groups and each group, was orally feed with different doses of ethanolic extracts of Maytenus macrocarpa (500, 750, 1000, 1250 and 1500 mg/kg), others group received distilled water, caffeine 32 mg/kg, diazepam 32 mg/kg, diclofenac 15 mg/kg and the last group without substance. Neurobehavioral effects were assessed by the Irwin test. The anti-inflammatory activity was measured by the Carrageenan paw oedema test. Statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA test and Fisher exact test. Results: Anti-inflammatory effects of M. macrocarpa were observed in a non-significant trend of dose dependent form. M. macrocarpa displayed an anti-inflammatory effect at 1250 mg/kg and these effects were higher in comparison with diclofenac (74.14% vs 58.62%, one way ANOVA, p<0.05). Neurobehavioral side effects secondary to M. macrocarpa therapy were also identified, these included excitation, abnormal gait, abdominal cramps, piloerection, stereotypes and scratching (Fisher exact, p<0.05, CI 95%). Conclusion: M. macrocarpa leaves presented anti-inflammatory activity and concomitants neurobehavioral side effects.


The often impassioned nature of environmental conflicts can be attributed to the fact that they are bound up with our sense of personal and social identity. Environmental identity -- how we orient ourselves to the natural world -- leads us to personalize abstract global issues and take action (or not) according to our sense of who we are. We may know about the greenhouse effect -- but can we give up our SUV for a more fuel-efficient car? Understanding this psychological connection can lead to more effective pro-environmental policymaking.Identity and the Natural Environment examines the ways in which our sense of who we are affects our relationship with nature, and vice versa. This book brings together cutting-edge work on the topic of identity and the environment, sampling the variety and energy of this emerging field but also placing it within a descriptive framework. These theory-based, empirical studies locate environmental identity on a continuum of social influence, and the book is divided into three sections reflecting minimal, moderate, or strong social influence. Throughout, the contributors focus on the interplay between social and environmental forces; as one local activist says, "We don't know if we're organizing communities to plant trees, or planting trees to organize communities."


Abstract. High concentrations of ozone in ambient air are hazardous not only to humans but to the ecosystem in general. The impact of ozone damage on vegetation and agricultural plants in combination with advancing climate change may affect food security in the future. While the future scenarios in themselves are uncertain, there are limiting factors constraining the accuracy of surface ozone modeling also at present: the distribution and amount of ozone precursors and ozone-depleting substances, the stratosphere–troposphere exchange, as well as scavenging processes. Removal of any substance through gravitational settling or by uptake by plants and soil is referred to as dry deposition. The process of dry deposition is important for predicting surface ozone concentrations and understanding the observed amount and increase of tropospheric background ozone. The conceptual dry deposition velocities are calculated following a resistance-analogous approach, wherein aerodynamic, quasi-laminar, and canopy resistance are key components, but these are hard to measure explicitly. We present an update of the dry deposition scheme implemented in Oslo CTM3. We change from a purely empirical dry deposition parameterization to a more process-based one which takes the state of the atmosphere and vegetation into account. We examine the sensitivity of the scheme to various parameters, e.g., the stomatal conductance-based description of the canopy resistance and the choice of ozone surface resistance, and evaluate the resulting modeled ozone dry deposition with respect to observations and multi-model studies. Individual dry deposition velocities are now available for each land surface type and agree generally well with observations. We also estimate the impact on the modeled ozone concentrations at the surface. We show that the global annual total ozone dry deposition decreases with respect to the previous model version (−37 %), leading to an increase in surface ozone of more than 100 % in some regions. While high sensitivity to changes in dry deposition to vegetation is found in the tropics and the Northern Hemisphere, the largest impact on global scales is associated with the choice of prescribed ozone surface resistance over the ocean and deserts.


The paper identifies three reasons why social scientists have not readily accepted a Darwinian perspective: first, in the relative importance they attribute to variability in social and cultural systems; second, in their conception of social evolution; third, in their emphasis on the emergent properties of social interaction. I locate the social sciences' position in the late nine- teenth century debate between Durkheim and Tarde, but point out that Durkheim is wrongly ac- cused of presenting the human mind as a 'blank slate'. Durkheim and Tarde took different lessons from Darwin's Origin of Species. The concept of co-evolution, as applied in behavioural ecology and complex systems theory, promises to bring the social and evolutionary sciences closer to- gether. Our species has evolved a complex capacity for sustaining social relations, and outbreaks of violence must be explained not only in terms of evolved psychological dispositions, but also put in their social context. The diffusion of innovations in a farming economy must likewise be explained as a response to changes in the economic environment for which the farmers them- selves are partly responsible through their engagement with the market economy. Cross-cultural applications of game theory indicate a fruitful way forward.


We introduce Information Dropout, a generalization of dropout that is motivated by the Information Bottleneck principle and highlights the way in which injecting noise in the activations can help in learning optimal representations of the data. Information Dropout is rooted in information theoretic principles, it includes as special cases several existing dropout methods, like Gaussian Dropout and Variational Dropout, and, unlike classical dropout, it can learn and build representations that are invariant to nuisances of the data, like occlusions and clutter. When the task is the reconstruction of the input, we show that the information dropout method yields a variational autoencoder as a special case, thus providing a link between representation learning, information theory and variational inference. Our experiments validate the theoretical intuitions behind our method, and we find that information dropout achieves a comparable or better generalization performance than binary dropout, especially on smaller models, since it can automatically adapt the noise to the structure of the network, as well as to the test sample.


Albertson conjectured that if graph G has chromatic number r, then the crossing number of G is at least that of the complete graph Kr. This conjecture in the case r = 5 is equivalent to the four color theorem. It was verified for r = 6 by Oporowski and Zhao. In this paper, we prove the conjecture for 7 ≤ r ≤ 12 using results of Dirac; Gallai; and Kostochka and Stiebitz that give lower bounds on the number of edges in critical graphs, together with lower bounds by Pach et al. on the crossing number of graphs in terms of the number of edges and vertices.


Background: After a total glossectomy, one lost the ability to speak and swallow due to the loss of tongue mobility and the increase of space between the palate and tongue remnants. To improve swallowing by creating negative pressure, tongue and palatal drop prostheses can be utilized. This prosthesis does not restore other tongue functions such as mastication, speech articulation and resonance because the prosthesis cannot reproduce natural tongue movements. Purpose: To rehabilitate the tongue deformity due to the gun shot wound. Methods and Materials : The case report revealed the total lost of tongue of a Bangladeshi patient who cannot be able to swallow and speak. The remaining teeth still fully intact but the palatal drop and tongue prosthesis was fabricated with the silicone prosthesis. Results: Both palatal drop prosthesis and tongue prosthesis allowed the patient to increase the capacity to swallow and reduce the remaining odondus space. The speech appeared to be more intelligiable but cannot fully restore. Conclusion: The quality of life of a patient after post operative follow-up appeared to be better; however, the physiologic function of the missing organ cannot fully restored. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/cdcj.v10i1.13828 City Dent. Coll. J Volume-10, Number-1, January-2013 Retracted: Due to complain


How does a small business set its online media budget? The HBS Executive Education Division can be viewed as a small-to-medium sized business unit with annual revenues of $107 million. As we watch it change its culture, practices, and organization from offline to online marketing, we have an opportunity not simply to see the metrics used in online marketing budget allocation, but also the stresses involved in the birth of a new go-to-market culture.


To meet rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements, extensive numerical simulations are an important optimization step for optical networks. Using a basis of cardinal functions with compact support, a new split-step wavelet collocation method (SSWCM) was developed as a general solver for the nonlinear Schro/spl uml/dinger equation describing pulse propagation in nonlinear optical fibers. With N as the number of discretization points, this technique has the optimum complexity O(N) for a fixed accuracy, which is superior to the complexity O(Nlog/sub 2/N) of the standard split-step Fourier method (SSFM). For the simulation of a large 40-Gb/s dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) system with 64 channels, the SSWCM requires less than 40% of computation time compared with the SSFM. This improvement allows a systematic optimization of wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) system parameters to achieve a minimum bit-error rate.


Substrate defect planarization has been shown to increase the laser resistance of 1053 nm mirror coatings to greater than 100  J/cm2, an increase of 20-fold, when tested with 10 ns laser pulses. Substrate surface particles that are overcoated with optical interference mirror coatings become nodular defects, which behave as microlenses intensifying light into the defect structure. By a discrete process of angle-dependent ion etching and unidirectional ion-beam deposition, substrate defects can be reduced in cross-sectional area by over 90%.


The historical relationship between capital and labor has evolved in the past few decades. One particularly noteworthy development is the rise of shared capitalism, a system in which workers have become partial owners of their firms and thus, in effect, both employees and stockholders. Profit sharing arrangements and gain-sharing bonuses, which tie compensation directly to a firm's performance, also reflect this new attitude toward labor. Shared Capitalism at Work analyzes the effects of this trend on workers and firms. The contributors focus on four main areas: the fraction of firms that participate in shared capitalism programs in the United States and abroad, the factors that enable these firms to overcome classic free rider and risk problems, the effect of shared capitalism on firm performance, and the impact of shared capitalism on worker well-being. This volume provides essential studies for understanding the increasingly important role of shared capitalism in the modern workplace.


The intention of this thesis is to analyse the performance of the theory and the practice of the integrated development planning by Cape Town's local government in two Townships named Nyanga and Philippi between 1999 and 2001. Since then the local government aimed to supply a planning approach that is of an integrative nature, opposed to the disintegrative one during Apartheid before 1994. South Africa's primary instrument for development is named the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). This instrument is primarily responsible for socioeconomic development but significantly affects and considers spatial planning aspects as well. Between 1999 and 2001 the five selected project cases along the Ingulube Drive in Nyanga and Philippi under the umbrella of the Dignified Places rogramme have been implemented. The study analysis aims to investigate a specific momentum in time, where spatial practice in South Africa began to experience a new, integrative approach. Furthermore, the study is embedded in the planning conventions in Cape Town's black Townships before, during and after Apartheid. ...


BACKGROUND
HIV infection leads to blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction that does not resolve despite viral suppression on antiretroviral therapy and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. In preclinical models, cannabis restores BBB integrity.

METHODS
We studied people with HIV (PWH) and HIV- individuals who had used cannabis recently. We assessed two biomarkers of BBB permeability: the cerebrospinal fluid [CSF]-to-serum albumin ratio [CSAR], and CSF levels of soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor [suPAR], a receptor for uPA, a matrix-degrading proteolytic enzyme that disrupts the BBB. A composite index of the BBB markers was created using principal components analysis. Neural injury was assessed using neurofilament light (NFL) in CSF by immunoassay.

RESULTS
Participants were 45 PWH and 30 HIV- individuals of similar age and ethnicity. Among PWH, higher CSF suPAR levels correlated with higher CSAR values (r=0.47; p<0.001). PWH had higher (more abnormal) BBB index values than HIV- individuals (mean +/- SD 0.361 +/-1.20 versus -0.501 +/- 1.11; p=0.0214). HIV serostatus interacted with cannabis use frequency such that more frequent use of cannabis was associated with lower BBB index values in PWH but not in HIV-. Worse BBB Index values was associated with higher NFL in CSF (r=0.380, p=0.0169).

CONCLUSIONS
Cannabis may have a beneficial impact on HIV-associated BBB injury. Since BBB disruption may permit increased entry of toxins such as microbial antigens and inflammatory mediators, with consequent CNS injury, these results support a potential therapeutic role of cannabis among PWH and may have important treatment implications for ART effectiveness and toxicity.


The purpose of this review was to examine sport officials' motivation and passion to become and remain a referee in today's sport climate. There are endless accounts of misconduct towards officials from participants, coaches, parents and fans. This review examined the research evidence that explained why officials continue to work in their sport and tried to determine what motivations were factors in their continued service. Additionally, this review wanted to see how passion played a role in the officials' desire to become and remain a sport official. The findings were clear as officials often became involved with officiating or continued to officiate 'for the love of the game'. Once they became involved they continued to officiate because of their feelings of commitment to the sport and because of the relationships that they had developed with other officials, athletes and other members of the sporting community. This review pointed out that sport officials are concerned about maintaining enough officials to continue sport. The authors suggested that once recruited, new officials should be evaluated and mentored so that these young officials have time to develop their feelings of commitment and relatedness.


Malignant tumors of salivary glands are rare lesions, often with poor prognosis. At present, surgery represents the only therapeutic choice, whereas chemotherapy is employed as palliative treatment in advanced disease. Over the years several molecular alterations associated with the pathogenesis and progression of the salivary glands tumors have been well-characterized. Particularly, the mutational status and/or aberrant expression of certain markers, such as EGFR, HER2, cKIT, BRAF and AR, also identified in some tumor histotypes of the salivary glands, currently represent molecular targets for new and efficacious drugs routinely employed in the treatment of other neoplasias, such as breast, lungs, GIST and melanoma. The expression analysis of these biomarkers associated with histomorphological data, could then provide the oncologist the opportunity to create a proper stratification of patients for customized therapies. This review represents an overview of the lesions of the salivary glands best characterized in terms of molecular aspects, focusing the attention on those markers and molecular alterations which can be important in the diagnosis as well as in the therapeutic stratification of these tumors.


In their book "Patent Failure", Jim Bessen and Michael Meurer show that patents outside the fields of chemistry and pharmaceuticals discourage innovation. One reason is that, outside these two fields, patents provide poor notice of what technology is owned and who owns it. Poor notice is due in part to the doctrine of equivalents (DOE). This essay argues against abolishing the DOE, and instead proposes two reforms to mitigate the DOE's interference with notice. First, courts should always stay permanent injunctions against DOE infringement for a modest period of time, e.g., for one year from the date of final judgment. Second, courts should treat equivalents under 35 USC 112(6) the same as DOE equivalents. This essay also briefly reevaluates the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel in light of "Patent Failure".


Reversed phase equilibria have been determined from 500 to 1050 °C along the nepheline–kalsilite solvus for crystalline solutions having 12.5 mole percent excess Si relative to stoichiometric Al:Si = 1:1. The resulting 961 °C critical temperature (Tc) for this high-Si series is substantially lower than those (1108 and 1265 °C) of two previously studied series containing less Si. Hydrofluoric acid solution calorimetric data collected at 50 °C for mid-compositional members of this high-Si series show positive enthalpies of mixing (Hex) that are lowest in magnitude among the three series, correlating well with the lower Tc. The thermodynamic and phase behavior of minerals in the nepheline–kalsilite system are related to structural strain associated with the entrance of K+ into the smaller of nepheline's two alkali crystallographic sites and also by equilibrium between minerals with related, yet distinct, structures. Positions of the sodic limbs of the solvi are governed in part by the preference of nepheline's large hexagonal alkali site for vacancies (instead of sodium) near room temperature, with an apparent switch to preference for K+ at T ≥ 500 °C. Positions of the potassic limbs of the solvi are governed only by the substitution of relatively small Na+ into the ditrigonal site of kalsilite, which is accompanied by ideal thermodynamic behavior of the solution calorimetric data. The collective structural and crystal chemical distinctions among the various members of these crystalline solutions produce differences in thermodynamic behavior and miscibility that are substantial for the modest observed differences in system chemistry.


Classical plan recognition approaches require restrictive assumptions and are generally off-line. However, many real-world plan recognition applications must deal with real-time constraints, noisy information, temporal relations in actions, agent preferences, and so on. Many existing approaches have tried to relax assumptions, but none can deal with the above-cited needs. This paper proposes an extension of previous works on plan recognition based on plan tree grammar. Our anytime topdown approach uses a particle filter. This approach manages to give a quick reliable solution to the plan recognition problem while dealing with noisy observations and without reducing the expressiveness of plan libraries. Empirical results on simulated problems show the efficiency of our approach.