As computer systems become more and more complex, it becomes harder to ensure that they are dependable i.e. reliable and secure. Existing dependability techniques do not take into account the characteristics of the application and hence detect errors that may not manifest in the application. This results in wasteful detections and high overheads. In contrast to these techniques, this dissertation proposes a novel paradigm called "Application-Aware Dependability", which leverages application properties to provide low-overhead, targeted detection of errors and attacks that impact the application. The dissertation focuses on derivation, validation and implementation of application-aware error and attack detectors.
The key insight in this dissertation is that certain data in the program is more important than other data from a reliability or security point of view (we call this the critical data). Protecting only the critical data provides significant performance improvements while achieving high detection coverage. The technique derives error and attack detectors to detect corruptions of critical data at runtime using a combination of static and dynamic approaches. The derived detectors are validated using both experimental approaches and formal verification. The experimental approaches validate the detectors using random fault-injection and known security attacks. The formal approach considers the effect of all possible errors and attacks according to a given fault or threat model and finds the corner cases that escape detection. The detectors have also been implemented in reconfigurable hardware in the context of the Reliability and Security Engine (RSE) [1].


Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is a growing field, which aims at facilitating, by means of technology, coordination and communication between people, working together. One problem within the area is that users often have problems learning the systems. Activity theory, a theoretical framework often used within CSCW, includes theories of learning, which however, have received relatively little attention within CSCW. Activity theory, as developed by Leont'ev, stems from Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory, and has been further developed by Gal'perin. In this thesis the theories of learning in the works of Vygotsky, Leont'ev, and Gal'perin in particular, have been applied to CSCW in order to investigate the contribution these theories can make to support learning within CSCW. Several conclusions are drawn from the theories analysed in this thesis. To begin with, learning should take place in social settings. Learners also need to be motivated to learn and need to be oriented in the learning task before performing the action to be learned. They need to be guided by a teacher, who asks guiding questions during the learning process. It is of importance that the learner performs the action to be learned him- or herself and describes, both verbally and quietly, what he or she is doing. During the performance of the action, the learner should manipulate material or materialised objects. The conclusions from the analysis are summarised in a number of guiding principles for CSCW system training that may provide a theoretical starting point for taking a closer look at learning problems pointed out within CSCW.


Transparent wood is an attractive structural material for energy-saving buildings due to its high optical transmittance, good thermal insulation, and high toughness. However, thick highly transparent wood is challenging to realize. In the current work, highly transparent wood (1.5 mm) with a transmittance of 92%, close to that of pure PMMA (95%), is demonstrated. The high transmittance was realized by interface manipulation through acetylation of wood template. Both experiments and electromagnetic modeling support that the improved transmittance is mainly due to elimination of interface debonding gap. By applying this method, a centimeter-thick transparent wood structure was obtained. The transparent wood could be used as a substrate for an optically tunable window by laminating a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film on top. The techniques demonstrated are a step towards the replacement of glass in smart windows and smart buildings.


Abstract. Over the past decades, non-metric cameras have been utilized in functions with less accuracy requirement or even in precise works with the progress of photogrammetric cameras developed technology. One of the reasons to use these kinds of cameras is due very much to their lower costs in comparison with the metric ones. Since we have always error in measurements, there is no exception in Photogrammetry, which is more in the non-metric cameras than the metric ones. Some of these errors are systematic and the only way to cope with them is to model. So far, many models have been proposed to investigate and modify the behavior of errors. Some of these models are linear and some others are non-linear. The number of parameters in each model is different based on the complexity of error in each image. Since the picture need to be connected to earth to calculate the calibration parameters of the camera, therefore this connection is generally made through points known as the ground control points, and more of these control points are needed in the complex models with more sophisticated calculations. Using a method to reduce the need for less control points and achieving a suitable accuracy is beneficial due to the high cost and time-consuming process of preparing the control points. One of the methods that could be used in solving the calibration equations is the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. Images of a few targets are captured in this research by a non-metric camera and the collinearity equations are used by adding further correction terms in order to calibrate the camera. The results of PSO method are compared with the classical mathematical methods in each step by reducing the number of control points, which indicated that the performance of using the PSO algorithm is better than the conventional proration methods in reducing the number of points and could be utilized in projects suffering from the lack of control points.


Synechococcus sp. PCC 7942 and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 are model cyanobacteria from which the metabolism and adaptive responses of other cyanobacteria are inferred. Using stranded and 5′ enriched libraries, we measured the gene expression response of cells transferred from reference conditions to stress conditions of decreased inorganic carbon, increased salinity, increased pH, and decreased illumination at 1-h and 24-h after transfer. We found that the specific responses of the two strains were by no means identical. Transcriptome profiles allowed us to improve the structural annotation of the genome i.e. identify possible missed genes (including anti-sense), alter gene coordinates and determine transcriptional units (operons). Finally, we predicted associations between proteins of unknown function and biochemical pathways by revealing proteins of known functions that are co-regulated with the unknowns. Future studies of these model organisms will benefit from the cataloging of their responses to environmentally relevant stresses, and improvements in their genome annotations found here.


At least 1.1 million Europeans are estimated to have received treatment for drug dependence during 2009, mostly through opioid substitution, detoxification and psychosocial interventions, delivered in a variety of settings. While more than half of the clients received opioid substitution treatment, a substantial number received other forms of treatment for problems related to opioids, stimulants, cannabis and other illicit drugs. The quality of interventions is underpinned by treatment guidelines. This Selected issue focuses on the topic of improving treatment quality by the development of guidelines, and provides an overview of existing national guidelines for the treatment of drug dependence in Europe.


National accounts suggest that the Common Pochard Aythya ferina was an uncommon breeding bird throughout western Europe before 1850. Extensions to the breeding range in the late 19th century were potentially aided by the rapid development of managed fish-ponds in eastern Europe, which provided suitable novel habitat at that time. Expansion into western Europe followed in subsequent decades. Wetland and waterbody eutrophication throughout Europe, which likely provided food and cover for the birds, may have accelerated the rapid expansion from the 1950s until the early 1980s. Widespread declines in the last 30 years, especially in eastern Europe, where breeding numbers are highest, are possibly linked to intensification and/or abandonment of freshwater fish farming and changes in water quality. Studies show that Pochard gain fitness benefits from nesting in Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus colonies and has hence been affected by major losses of European gull colonies in the last 30 years. The spread of alien fish species such as the Carp Cyprinus carpio, which compete with Pochard for food resources, is a problem in the Mediterranean region. Changing predation pressures (in some cases linked to invasive alien mammals) are also implicated in some areas. Relatively modest numbers breeding in the UK, France and the Netherlands have remained stable or increased over the same recent span of years, confirming that different factors currently affect Pochard breeding abundance throughout its range. We urgently need better information relating to key factors affecting Pochard breeding success and abundance, which is currently showing an unfavourable conservation status throughout much of Europe.


This report describes the estimation of differences in price levels across 38 geographic areas in the United States. It is based on prices collected for the 2003 Consumer Price Index (CPI) comprising eight expenditure components: Apparel, Education, Food and Beverages, Housing, Medical Goods and Services, Recreation, Transport and Other Goods and Services. The geographic areas represent large metropolitan areas and combinations of smaller PSUs (primary sampling units) that are urban but not metropolitan, such as Bend in Oregon. This research follows the work of Kokoski, Moulton and Zieschang (1999) on interarea price levels that referred to the year 1989. One difference from the earlier studies is the procedure used in estimating the average prices of detailed items. A second difference is that an overall price level for all goods and services is presented, in addition to the price level for each of the component headings. The third difference is in the aggregation method, a relatively simple and transparent one that has been recently used in the international price comparison literature, the weighted Country Product Dummy (CPD) method [Deaton, Friedman, Alatas (2004), Sergey (2004), Diewert (2002), Rao (2002) and Selvanathan and Rao (1994), Silver (2004)].


Introduction In the 1970s, education scholars were compelled to argue education history's virtues to the teacher education enterprise, asserting for example that teachers should play important roles in the formation of education policy and so need to be informed about education history (See Birkel, 1972; Travers, 1973). Although these scholars were responding to history's diminishing status in teacher education, as they perceived it in the 1970s, a shift had begun much earlier. Interestingly, an examination of the teacher education past demonstrates that history once occupied not only a valued position in teacher education but was, at its inception, the core of the curriculum. However, it's standing began to wane in the first quarter of the twentieth century. To bring to light this pertinent story, in this paper I outline a historical trajectory of education history's movement from a central position to a peripheral one, from the late 1800s to the present. The twentieth century also witnessed a gradual shift away from discipline-based teacher education in general. But this shift did not displace philosophy and sociology in the same way it did history. This review will help explain decisions among foundations scholars since the late 1970s to move toward more integrated foundations courses--courses that have a tendency to shortchange historical study. Why did history gradually move from a central role to a peripheral one, from a subject once believed to be axial to teacher knowledge to one viewed as nonessential? What might be the implications for such a shift? How can we better understand, and hopefully improve, current teacher education practice by being informed about the changing position of history over time? The marginalization of educational history is of great concern because a historical perspective on education can be a critical component of a teacher's knowledge base. (1) My experience as a teacher and teacher educator has allowed me to observe firsthand the ways in which pre-service and in-service teachers are limited by their lack of sufficient knowledge of the education past. While interacting with and observing many students, I have been struck by their lack of understanding of the social, economic, political, and historical features that make U.S. schooling complex and in many ways unique. The students I work with were exposed neither to major figures nor to the study of pivotal movements that shaped the public schools as they are today. For example, they do not know that schools did not exist for all young people at the beginning of this nation's history and that school history includes stories of struggle over access for girls and certain ethnic and racial groups (Ravitch, 1974; Fass, 1989). They do not know that the public schools have always been scrutinized, since before Joseph Mayer Rice's popular 1892-1893 study in which he criticized pedagogical practice in late nineteenth century American schools; thus, A Nation at Risk (1984) is part of a long tradition of attacks on U.S. public schools (Rice, 1893). They do not know that the alternative school movement that solidified in the early 1980s in New York City and elsewhere is influenced by work done at the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago in the 1890s. Historical study can contribute significantly to teachers' knowledge. First, in-depth study of history can provide an understanding of the problem-solving strategies, analytical skills, and habits of thought that historians employ. Second, historical study can foster professional identity and solidify teacher communities by providing teachers with common narratives and reference points. And third, historical study can contribute to a satisfaction of understanding that can also support a professional identity (Murrow, 2004). Thus, study of history can give teachers an improved capacity for citizenship in a society of educators, strengthening their ability to have critical perspectives on the relationships between schooling and society. …


The French thinker Jacques Derrida, in his Specters of Marx, aimed to reintroduce the silenced, political voice of Marx, which implies that "one must not only understand but also change the world."1 For Derrida such a voice is crucial, as it induces acts of rebellion in liberal capitalist societies. In a similar vein, the early Frankfurt school critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno, in his "Negative Dialectics", alludes to Marx with his statement that the trouble with theory in late capitalist societies has been that "its very indifference to the task of changing the world made it a piece of obtuse practice.This paper takes a closer look at the ways Derrida and Adorno envisioned the political subject, the rebellious agent whose task it is to change the world. One of the reasons why the French and German political thinkers have been discussed apart from each other is their different takes on the problem of the political subject. French authors are often lumped together as those proposing the "end of man" or dispensing with the subject. In contrast, the Frankfurt school thinkers are considered as holding on to the notion of the autonomous subject, critiqued by the French.Such a characterization of the French/German split in Continental political thought has also contributed to the scarce literature that makes an attempt to discuss Derrida in connection with Adorno. It seems that Derrida, the "postmodern" French thinker of deconstruction, does not have much in common with Adorno, the German "thinker of modernity," especially when it comes to their takes on the political subject. However, such a pitting of Derrida against Adorno is too broad, and does not take the commonalities in their political philosophies into account.This paper aims to show the commonalities between these authors views on the political subject, without erasing crucial differences between them. Throughout their works, both Derrida and Adorno critique the violence and exclusions inherent in the notion of the self-centered, autonomous subject. However, Derrida is more suspicious than Adorno about the possibility of a rethought subject without invoking the violence of the self-centered subject, which leads to difficulties in his conceptualizations of an agent of socio-political transformation.In contrast, Adorno – in his attempt to counter the illnesses of modern, capitalist societies – returns, at certain points of his thought, to a rather strong notion of the subject, which contradicts his critique on such subjectivity. Although both thinkers do not solve the problematic of the political subject, Derrida's deconstruction and Adorno's negative dialectics provide central concepts for rethinking the political subject, as what I have termed a "political subject-in-outline." A political subject-in outline does not give up on the notion of the subject and makes sure not to return to the violence of the self-centered subject.A political subject is crucial in a time of global capitalism, as it allows the underside of capitalist societies – such as the poor, sexual and racial minorities, violated women, the homeless, the unemployed, and the stateless - to form a rebellious agent that transforms the status quo. However, for such a political subject not to return to the self-centered subject it is crucial to conceptualize it as an outline, which implies that our attempts to define the political subject, whose task it is to induce acts of rebellion, can never once and for all come to an end.The first section, "Derrida and the Deconstruction of the Subject," outlines Derrida's critique of the self-centered subject. The second section, "Adorno's Critique on the Modern Subject," explains Adorno's critique on the modern, autonomous subject and his attempts to rethink the political subject. The third section, "Adorno and Derrida: Non-Identity and the Undecidable," shows the commonalities between Adorno's and Derrida's theoretical concepts, which contribute to thought about a political subject-in-outline. The fourth section, "Adorno and Derrida Un-reconciled," discusses some of their differences and the implications of a subject-in-outline for feminist politics.


Background:
In the UK, 170,000 adults undergo major non-cardiac surgery annually. Of these approximately 100,000 will develop post-operative complications contributing to approximately 25,000 post-operative deaths. A substantial proportion (80%, 20,000) of post-operative deaths occur within high-risk populations that include adults aged ≥ 65 years. Cardiorespiratory fitness impacts positively on post-surgical outcomes and 'fitter' adults have the fewest post-operative complications. However, a majority of older adults are inactive/unfit and report multiple barriers to engaging in physical activity/exercise.

Methods:
Five Theoretical Domain Framework-based focus group discussions were conducted with a purposive sample of 28 adults aged ≥ 65 years. The participants were enrolled in an RCT to assess the effect of two exercise interventions on cardiorespiratory fitness. Focus group discussions identified barriers and enabling factors to engagement in physical activity/exercise in the context of pre-surgery. Focus group discussions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and content analysed.

Results:
Barriers to physical activity/exercise in the pre-surgical period fell broadly into three theoretical domains: environmental context and resources; social influences; and emotion. Enabling factors into five theoretical domains: knowledge; beliefs about consequences; behavioural regulation; reinforcement and memory, attention and decision processes. A tailored approach to increasing physical activity/exercise, feedback and proximity of services were dominant themes identified across discussions.

Discussion:
Engaging older adults in physical activity/exercise prior to surgery necessitates a tailored multi-factorial approach that addresses knowledge, attitudes, social influence, self-regulatory capacity and incentivisation. Future research will develop co-designed intervention prototypes to assess usability and acceptability to older adults during the pre-surgical period.


Image location prediction is to estimate the geolocation where an image is taken. Social image contains heterogeneous contents, which makes image location prediction nontrivial. Moreover, it is observed that image content patterns and location preferences correlate hierarchically. Traditional image location prediction methods mainly adopt a single-level architecture, which is not directly adaptable to the hierarchical correlation. In this paper, we propose a geographically hierarchical bi-modal deep belief network model (GH-BDBN), which is a compositional learning architecture that integrates multi-modal deep learning model with non-parametric hierarchical prior model. GH-BDBN learns a joint representation capturing the correlations among different types of image content using a bi-modal DBN, with a geographically hierarchical prior over the joint representation to model the hierarchical correlation between image content and location. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our model for image location prediction


This study examined the relationship between counselor competency and selfefficacy, and the relationship between those two variables with inmates' stage of readiness to change in drug abuse rehabilitation centers in Malaysia. Two groups of respondents were involved in this study, namely, the practicing counselors who are anti-drugs officers in government-funded rehabilitation centers in Malaysia, and the inmates undergoing treatment at the re-entry stage. The respondents comprised the whole population of 263 counselors and 703 inmates. Two sets of self-administered questionnaires, namely, the Self-Rating Addiction Counseling Competency Scale (SRACCS) and Counselor Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES), were distributed to the counselors, while the Stage of Change Scale (SoCS) was distributed to the inmates. 12 different domains of rating scales were used in the SRACCS while 3 subscales were used in the CSES, with both having reliability estimates (Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha) of above .90. The instrument used to measure the readiness to change (SoCS) had a Cronbach alpha of .75. The findings of this study indicate that the competency levels of counselors in 12 domains were at moderate level, with a general mean of 2.49, whilst self-efficacy was at a moderately high level of 4.12 on a six-point scale. Inmates' readiness to change was also identified to be at a moderate level. There was a moderately strong positive correlation between counselor competency and self-efficacy, and between those two variables and the inmates' level of readiness to change. This study showed that all the counselors had a high level of responsibility related to their work but lacked knowledge and skills. There was a significant relationship between competency and type of training, academic qualification and work experience. Knowledge, skills and attitudes in two sub-scales of competency, Understanding Addiction and Treatment Knowledge, contributed significantly to selfefficacy. The results of analyses on inmates' readiness to change at the re-entry phase of rehabilitation showed that about 70% of them were still at the Contemplation stage, with a small percentage at the Action stage, and a small number still at the Precontemplation stage. These findings point to a need to closely review the effectiveness of the drug rehabilitation efforts. This study has revealed a need for a close and critical look at the training and development of professional helpers as well as treatment modalities. The findings have meaningful and important implications for the National Agency on Drug Abuse in particular and the country in general.


This paper presents the design of a ruling engine for cutting diffraction gratings equipped with a cutter-control system that makes it possible to vary the length of the lines of the ruled grating along its width. The control system stabilizes the operation of the ruling engine when original diffraction gratings are fabricated with a ruled zone of nonrectangular shape. The characteristics of grating–polarizers fabricated on the indicated machine are presented.


Abstract. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) strategies in Africa are on the increase. South Africa is no different, and a number of strategies have seen the light in aid of reducing disaster risk and adapting to cli-mate change. The DRR and CCA processes include the mapping of location and extent of known and potential hazards, vulnerable communities and environments, and opportunities that may exist to manage these risks. However, the mapping of often fast-changing urban and rural spaces in a standardized manner presents challenges that relate to processes, scales of data capture, level of detail recorded, software and compatibility related to data formats and net-works, human resources skills and understanding, as well as differences in approaches to the nature in which the map-ping processes are executed and spatial data is managed. As a result, projects and implementation of strategies that re-late to the use of such data is affected, and the success of activities based on the data may therefore be uncertain. This paper investigates data custodianship and data categories that is processed and managed across South Africa. It explores the process and content management of disaster risk and climate change related information and defines the challenges that exist in terms of governance. The paper also comments on the challenges and potential solutions for the situation as it gives rise to varying degrees of accuracy, effectiveness for use, and applicability of the spatial data available to affect DRR and improve the value of CCA programmes in the region.


Since the early 1990s, the number of papers estimating econometric models and using other quantitative techniques to try to understand different aspects of the Chinese economy has mushroomed. A common feature of some of these studies is the use of neoclassical theory as the underpinning for the empirical implementations. It is often assumed that factor markets are competitive, that firms are profit maximizers, and that these firms respond to the same incentives that firms in market economies do. Many researchers find that the Chinese economy can be well explained using the tools of neoclassical theory. In this paper, we (1) review two examples of estimation of the rate of technical progress, and (2) discuss one attempt at modeling investment. We identify their shortcomings and the problems with the alleged policy implications derived. We show that econometric estimation of neoclassical models may result in apparently sensible results for misinformed reasons. We conclude that modeling the Chinese economy requires a deeper understanding of its inner workings as both a transitional and a developing economy.


The wildly thought-provoking first installment of Sawyer's WWW trilogy, serialized in Analog in 2008 and 2009, explores the origins and emergence of consciousness. Blind teen Caitlin Decter gets an experimental signal-processing implant that inexplicably opens up her vision to the wondrous infrastructure of the World Wide Web. Inside the Web is a newborn "webmind," a globe-spanning self-contained consciousness that is just becoming aware of the outside world. Secondary plot threads about a highly intelligent hybrid primate and Chinese bloggers battling a repressive government extend the motif of expanding awareness. The thematic diversity—and profundity—makes this one of Sawyer's strongest works to date. Numerous dangling plot threads are an unnecessary pointer to the forthcoming books; readers will keep coming back for the ideas. (Apr.)


Sensitive ice sheets Why did the Antarctic Ice Sheet begin to grow 34 million years ago, and what does that have to do with us? Galeotti et al. studied a marine sediment core recovered from just off the coast of Antarctica (see the Perspective by Lear and Lunt). The ice sheet did not begin to grow until atmospheric CO2 concentrations had dropped to below around 600 parts per million. Indeed, the ice sheet was unstable when CO2 was higher. As modern atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue their rise, a shift back to an unstable Antarctic Ice Sheet could increase harmful rises in sea level. Science, this issue p. 76; see also p. 34 The growth of the Antarctic Ice Sheet began only when atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide dropped low enough. [Also see Perspective by Lear and Lunt] About 34 million years ago, Earth's climate cooled and an ice sheet formed on Antarctica as atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) fell below ~750 parts per million (ppm). Sedimentary cycles from a drillcore in the western Ross Sea provide direct evidence of orbitally controlled glacial cycles between 34 million and 31 million years ago. Initially, under atmospheric CO2 levels of ≥600 ppm, a smaller Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), restricted to the terrestrial continent, was highly responsive to local insolation forcing. A more stable, continental-scale ice sheet calving at the coastline did not form until ~32.8 million years ago, coincident with the earliest time that atmospheric CO2 levels fell below ~600 ppm. Our results provide insight into the potential of the AIS for threshold behavior and have implications for its sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 concentrations above present-day levels.


GP63 or leishmanolysin is the major surface protease of Leishmania spp. involved in parasite virulence and host cell interaction. As such, GP63 is a potential target of eventual vaccines against these protozoa. In the current study we evaluate the polymorphism of gp63 in Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis isolated from two sets of American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) cases from Corte de Pedra, Brazil, including 35 cases diagnosed between 1994 and 2001 and 6 cases diagnosed between 2008 and 2011. Parasites were obtained from lesions by needle aspiration and cultivation. Genomic DNA was extracted, and 405 bp fragments, including sequences encoding the putative macrophage interacting sites, were amplified from gp63 genes of all isolates. DNA amplicons were cloned into plasmid vectors and ten clones per L. (V.) braziliensis isolate were sequenced. Alignment of cloned sequences showed extensive polymorphism among gp63 genes within, and between parasite isolates. Overall, 45 different polymorphic alleles were detected in all samples, which could be segregated into two clusters. Cluster one included 25, and cluster two included 20 such genotypes. The predicted peptides showed overall conservation below 50%. In marked contrast, the conservation at segments with putative functional domains approached 90% (Fisher's exact test p<0.0001). These findings show that gp63 is very polymorphic even among parasites from a same endemic focus, but the functional domains interacting with the mammalian host environment are conserved.


Glycoscience assembles all the scientific disciplines involved in studying various molecules and macromolecules containing carbohydrates and complex glycans. Such an ensemble involves one of the most extensive sets of molecules in quantity and occurrence since they occur in all microorganisms and higher organisms. Once the compositions and sequences of these molecules are established, the determination of their three-dimensional structural and dynamical features is a step toward understanding the molecular basis underlying their properties and functions. The range of the relevant computational methods capable of addressing such issues is anchored by the specificity of stereoelectronic effects from quantum chemistry to mesoscale modeling throughout molecular dynamics and mechanics and coarse-grained and docking calculations. The Review leads the reader through the detailed presentations of the applications of computational modeling. The illustrations cover carbohydrate-carbohydrate interactions, glycolipids, and N- and O-linked glycans, emphasizing their role in SARS-CoV-2. The presentation continues with the structure of polysaccharides in solution and solid-state and lipopolysaccharides in membranes. The full range of protein-carbohydrate interactions is presented, as exemplified by carbohydrate-active enzymes, transporters, lectins, antibodies, and glycosaminoglycan binding proteins. A final section features a list of 150 tools and databases to help address the many issues of structural glycobioinformatics.


abstract (introduction): the following study is intended to discuss several aspects of an interregional structural model in order to find a theoretical base for empirical studies in this field. for exposition purposes we start in chapter 2 the discussion of a very complex model based on multiregional input-output approach. the advantage of this procedure lies (a) in the deep insights we can get into both the structure in interregional trade network and the intraregional structure of particular countries and (b) in the fact that we are able to subsume some of the existing models e.g. cmea (9) etc. as a special case of our model resulting from various aggregation procedures and some additional assumptions. empirical applications of such a model require very detailed data , which are at present not available. nevertheless, this model remains our theoretical base for further analysis. the next chapter is devoted to the analysis of the dual model. here we show also some results which could be found by sensitivity analysis . the obvious complex level of the model is a major obstacle to use it for practical purposes. therefore in the next chapter we move towards a more realistic model. as a special problem we consider finally the influences on export and import determination in the context of our model.;


Staff and patients of hospital psychiatry services are commonly confronted by the aggressive behaviour of patients. Such behaviour can result in numerous, and varied, adverse outcomes that ultimately reduce the quality of care that can be offered. Psychiatric services and mental health legislation place great emphasis on providing services within the least-restrictive environment; this means that prompt identification and treatment of patients at risk of aggression and violence is critical. Thus, elucidation of the personal features of patients that influence aggression is an important focus for empirical research. Moreover, it is essential that in explicating such features, the contextual nature of aggression occurring in hospital psychiatry services be considered. In this thesis, a number of personal features relevant to aggression in hospital psychiatry services are discussed. The main focus is on understanding interpersonal hostile-dominance (HD) and its relationship with aggression in hospital psychiatry services through the integration of two complementary theoretical models: the General Aggression Model (GAM) and Interpersonal Theory. The GAM is a comprehensive aggression theory, while Interpersonal Theory highlights the importance of relational functioning in understanding personality and interpersonal behaviour. Underpinning this dissertation are four distinct, yet related research aims: (1) To assess the influence of interpersonal and personality factors, GAM-specified cognitions and related affective states, and clinical factors on psychiatric inpatient aggression; (2) To delineate interpersonal HD in psychiatric inpatients; (3) To examine the stability of HD and its relationship with psychiatric symptoms and aggression over time; and (4) To explore whether HD mediates the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect and aggressive behaviour in psychiatric inpatients. For the empirical component of this research, 200 adult psychiatry inpatients were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2: Trait Anger scale (STAXI-2:TA), the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates: Attitudes Towards Violence scale (MCAA:ATV), the Schedule of Imagined Violence (SIV), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Psychopathy Check List: Screening Version (PCL:SV), the Impact Message Inventory-Circumplex (IMI-C), and the Overt Aggression Scale (OAS). Assessments took place within five days of their admission to the low-dependence environment. Forty-one participants were available at six months post-hospital discharge for follow-up assessment using the PANSS, IMI-C, and the Life History of Aggression Questionnaire: Aggression subscale (LHA:A). In relation to the first aim, results showed that HD, psychopathy, the tendency to rehearse aggressive scripts, positive attitudes towards violence, trait anger, and disorganised and excited symptoms predicted psychiatric inpatient aggression. However, only HD remained as a significant unique predictor in the hierarchical regression analysis, confirming the importance of HD in the prediction of psychiatric inpatient aggressive behaviour. In relation to the second aim, interpersonal, affective, and behavioural features of psychopathy, the tendency to rehearse aggressive scripts, and positive, negative, disorganised, and excited psychiatric symptoms remained as significant unique predictors of HD in a hierarchical regression model. This suggests that HD reflects a characteristic tendency towards interpersonal, affective, and behavioural problems marked by hostility and dominance, combined with a tendency toward frequent aggressive script rehearsal, and more severe psychopathology. In relation to the third aim, results showed that HD was stable over time, despite an overall reduction in psychiatric symptoms, and that HD was associated with greater symptom severity over time. Furthermore, it was found that elevated HD and greater severity of excited psychiatric symptoms in the community, along with more severe positive psychiatric symptoms in the hospital and in the community, were associated with aggressive behaviour occurring post-discharge. These findings implicate HD as a risk factor for more severe psychopathology, and highlight HD as a risk factor for post-discharge aggression. In relation to the final aim, childhood abuse and neglect experiences were commonly reported, with between 41% and 50.5% of participants reporting having experienced at least moderate severity of the different forms of childhood maltreatment. More severe emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and physical neglect in childhood were associated with higher HD in adulthood. Higher levels of HD and all forms of childhood abuse and neglect were associated with aggression; HD mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect, and aggression. These results indicate that childhood maltreatment contributes to interpersonal HD, which then influences aggressive behaviour. Together, these findings highlight the importance of HD and Interpersonal Theory to the problem of aggression in hospital psychiatric services. These results are also important to the GAM and suggest interpersonal style and Interpersonal Theory should have an important role in models that seek to account for interpersonal aggression and violence. Additionally, this body of research enhances conceptualisations of HD and reinforces the importance of understanding the developmental impact of childhood abuse and neglect experiences from an interpersonal perspective. By assessing interpersonal style on admission, patients with elevated levels of HD can be identified. HD can then be considered in subsequent treatment plans and aggression prevention strategies. Post-discharge assessments of HD would also be useful. Reductions in HD, and therefore aggression, might be achieved through a broad intervention that covers interpersonal and affective characteristics, emotional and behavioural regulation, cognitions and psychiatric symptoms, in an interpersonally informed framework.


Abstract:There is a generally recognized link between governance, economic performance, and popular welfare in Africa. Authoritarian governments have generally failed to promote economic development or improvements in livelihoods. The trend toward democratization that swept the African continent in the early 1990s kindled hopes that political reform could lead to economic regeneration. However, a crucial paradox of growth without prosperity surrounds Africa's new democracies. While political liberalization bolsters economic policy reform and enhances some of the requisites for economic performance, these improvements do not seem to foster significant reductions in poverty or inequality. This paradox presents a basic challenge for Africa's new democracies. The paradox arises from the nature of patronage systems and institutions in countries undergoing political reform.


This is a preliminary and exploratory study of cranial variation in European populations of grayling. We investigated the correspondence between size/shape variation of the dorsal (dc), ventral (vc) and occipital (oc) cranium and phylogenetic relationships (inferred from mitochondrial control region – mtDNA cr and microsatellite dna data) of six grayling populations: three from Balkan phylogenetic clade and two from Caspian phylogenetic clade of the European grayling Thymallus thymallus and one population of the Adriatic grayling Thymallus aeliani, which until recently was considered the Adriatic phylogenetic clade of T. thymallus. Significant size and shape differences were found between populations in all three cranial views. However, significant size-related shape variation (allometry) was found for dc and vc, but not for oc. The size variation of each cranial view does not contain phylogenetic signal, but size variation of oc is consistent with genetic variation inferred from microsatellite dna. Regarding shape variation, a significant phylogenetic signal was detected only for oc, and only the shape variation of oc is consistent with the genetic variation inferred from the mtDNA cr. Moreover, the Adriatic grayling T. aeliani (Soča population) was clearly separated from the three T. thymallus populations of the Balkan phylogenetic clade and the two T. thymallus populations of the Caspian phylogenetic clade only at the level of oc. Thus, our results suggest that different cranial regions differ in allometry, reflect phylo(genetic) relationships differently, and exhibit differences in ecophenotypic plasticity, with oc seeming best suited to represent the phylogenetic relationships of the grayling populations studied.


This study aims to determine the role of fiscal policy islam. The method used in this study is the case study method. Points Regional Government research Bekasi, Mechanical Sampling by interviewing respondents, obser-vation by observation by following some musrenbang socialization and discussion group forums in section / unit related work, the deepening of the documents related to local government financial policy. The results of this study indicate Kota Bekasi local government finance in systems and procedures, financial pattern has been going well, but the year 2012 -2014 budget funds can only cover approximately 30-50% of development proposals are inventoried in the deliberations development plan (musren-bang), so there many development proposals that can not be funded by the budget or in other words are still around 70-50% which can not be imple-mented. Keywords: Fiscal Policy, Islam, Local Government


Entry into host cells is an essential feature in the pathogenicity of Salmonella spp. The inv locus of Salmonella typhimurium encodes several proteins which are components of a type III protein secretion system required for these organisms to gain access to host cells. We report here the identification of several proteins whose secretion into the culture supernatant of S. typhimurium is dependent on the function of the inv-encoded translocation apparatus. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the genes encoding two of these secreted proteins, SipB and SipC, indicated that they are homologous to the Shigella sp. invasins IpaB and IpaC, respectively. An additional gene was identified, sicA, which encodes a protein homologous to IpgC, a Shigella protein that serves as a molecular chaperone for the invasins IpaB and IpaC. Nonpolar mutations in sicA, sipB, and sipC rendered S. typhimurium unable to enter cultured epithelial cells, indicating that these genes are required for bacterial internalization.


Abstract The primary function of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) is to modernize and harmonize the business laws of member states. The wider objective of OHADA is to attract foreign investment into the OHADA zone and to achieve economic integration in Africa as whole, as other African countries join OHADA. However, article 42 of the treaty establishing OHADA stipulates that French is the working language of the organization. This paper argues that this provision does not facilitate the goal of economic integration in Africa and that in one member state, Cameroon, article 42 presents serious constitutional and human rights difficulties. The paper suggests that article 42 should be amended in order to make it easier for key OHADA objectives to be attained and in order to remove the serious problems created in Cameroon.


Formaldehyde is a common agent in our surrounding environment and can adversely affect the male reproductive system. In this study, the effectiveness of Matricaria chamomilla (MC) extract as an antioxidant was investigated in rats treated with formaldehyde. Thirty‐two male Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups: F (10 mg/kg formaldehyde), M200 (200 mg/kg MC extract), M500 (500 mg/kg MC extract), FM200 (10 mg/kg formaldehyde and 200 mg/kg MC extract), FM500 (10 mg/kg formaldehyde and 500 mg/kg MC extract) and control group (0.9% normal saline). Formaldehyde and MC extract were administered daily for 30 consecutive days via intraperitoneal injection. Hormonal status, sperm parameters, testis tissue histology, germinal cells apoptosis and stereological analyses of testis tissue were investigated. Testosterone and LH levels were significantly increased in FM200, FM500, F200 and F500 groups compared to F group (p ≤ 0.05). Sperm count, motility and viability were significantly enhanced in FM200, FM500, F200 and F500 groups compared to F group (p ≤ 0.05). A decrease in the number of apoptotic germ cells in FM200, FM500, M200 and M500 groups (p ≤ 0.05) was evident. In particular, the MC extract in dose 500 mg/kg is seen to reduce the adverse effects of formaldehyde on the reproductive system of male rats.


This study is designed to examine how intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and self-regulated learning efficacy influence academic achievement of international and domestic community college students. Results show that for both international and domestic students, motivation did not directly affect academic achievement. Self-regulated learning efficacy affected academic achievement directly only for international students. Several path models were constructed to assess the direct and indirect relationships among variables. It was found that for international students, both forms of motivation indirectly affected academic achievement through the mediating influence of efficacy for self-regulated learning. However, this path model did not sustain for domestic students. Implications of the findings for community college administration were discussed. ********** Much of the literature on academic achievement among community college students has focused primarily on domestic students. This is only proper because domestic students comprised 94% of all community college students in the United States while students who were not U.S. citizens consisted of 6% of the student body (American Association of Community Colleges, 2011). As community colleges are seeking international partnerships and experiencing a record growth of international students, it becomes more important than before to examine the learning experiences of international students at community colleges, in comparison to domestic students. As a result, our intention is to compare international and domestic community college students' academic achievement from the perspective of self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation, as these are the three areas least reported on in the community college literature. One area of scarcity in community college literature is an examination of student achievements and behaviors from a social cognitive perspective. Over the past few decades, scholars who took a social cognitive approach to student accomplishments have generated a substantial amount of literature in settings other than community colleges, such as at four-year colleges, in professional programs, or in primary and secondary education. However, research on the link between self-efficacy and academic achievement among community college students is limited. A social cognitive perspective on human behaviors examines a person's inner strength or confidence in carrying out a particular task. This approach was best explained by Bandura's concept of self-efficacy. According to Bandura (2008, 1986), humans are self-organizing, self-reflecting, and self-regulating beings and that one's behaviors are determined by that individual's environment and inner drives. Among the limited literature on the social cognitive aspects of community college students, Silver, Smith, and Greene (2001) found that community college students who reported higher grades had substantially higher levels of study skills self-efficacy. Another theoretical aspect that has escaped community college literature is motivation or self-determination theory, which also has generated significant findings in four-year college education, professional education, primary and secondary education, as well as in the field of health and wellness. Research based on self-determination theory was designed to examine the different behavioral outcomes generated by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. According to Deci and Ryan (1985), intrinsic motivation is related to personal and internal factors, such as interests and gratification, and extrinsic motivation is related to external factors, such as rewards, punishments, and social pressure. In a study on underprepared community college students, Grimes and David (1999) found that underprepared students exhibited a greater external locus of control than college-prepared students. Santos (2004) further found that among Hispanic community college students, intrinsic motivator was ranked higher than extrinsic motivator. …


Introduction: The science supporting event medicine is growing rapidly. In order to improve the ability of researchers to access event data and improve the quality of publishing mass gathering cases, it would be of benefit to standardize event reports to permit the comparison of similar events across local and national boundaries. These data would support the development of practice standards across settings. Aim: The authors propose the creation of a publication guideline to support authors seeking to publish in this field. Method: Derivation study via analysis of published case reports using the Delphi process. Results: Data elements were inconsistently reported within published case reports. Categories of variables included: event demographics (descriptors of date, time, genre, activity, risks), attendance and population demographics, data related to climate and weather conditions, composition and deployment of an onsite medical team, highest level of care available onsite, patient demographics, patient presentations and measures of impact on the local health care system such as transfer to hospital rates. Of note, there was a high incidence of "missing" variables that would be of central interest to researchers. Discussion: Approaches to standardizing the collection and reporting of data are often discussed in the health care literature. The benefits of consistent, structured data collection are well understood. In the context of mass gathering event case reporting, the time is ripe for the introduction of a guideline (with accompanying guidance notes and dictionary). The proposed guideline requires the input of subject matter experts (in progress) to enhances its relevance and uptake. This work is timely as there is ongoing work on improving an international event medicine registry. If the evolution of both proceeds in lockstep, there is a good chance that access to a rigorous data set will become a reality.


Objective: To compare trends in African-American (AA) and non-Hispanic white (NHW) smoking between states categorised as having three different levels of tobacco control practice in the 1990s. Setting and participants: Analysis of 1992–3 to 2001–2 Tobacco Use Supplements to the Current Population Survey for differences in adult (20–64 years) daily smoking prevalence for AAs and NHWs across states: California (CA; high cigarette price/comprehensive programme), New York (NY) and New Jersey (NJ; high cigarette price/no comprehensive programme), and tobacco growing states (TGS; low cigarette price/no comprehensive programme). Results: From 1992–3 to 2001–2, there were large declines in AA smoking across states (2.7–3.8% decrease/year, adjusted for age, income, education, gender; p<0.05). Adjusted NHW smoking prevalence declined significantly only in CA. AA prevalence declined significantly and did not differ across state groups. In all years, in all state groups, adjusted prevalence was either not significantly different or was lower for AAs than for NHWs. More recent cohorts of AAs appeared to have taken up smoking at lower rates than older cohorts. Conclusion: There were uniformly large declines in AA smoking from 1992–3 to 2001–2 across states, independent of type of tobacco control strategy. Further research is needed into factors associated with smoking declines among AAs.


Family relationships and family functioning have been identified by family systems, social learning, and attachment theories as important influences on child and adolescent development and psychopathology, including the development of internalizing and externalizing problems. Most studies have examined global family constructs in relation to adolescent adjustment, however. The present study investigated links between several family dyads (i.e., mother-adolescent, father-adolescent, sibling-adolescent, and marital dyads), their characteristics (i.e., support, negative interactions/conflict, conflict resolution) and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. The study's specific goals were to investigate the relative importance of each family subsystem for the prediction of adolescent outcomes, including whether the subsystems and their characteristics differentially predict internalizing and externalizing problems. Using a short-term longitudinal design, adolescents ( M age 13.1 years) initially in grades 7 and 8 were tested twice one year apart. At both Time 1 ( N = 244; 145 girls) and Time 2 ( N = 201; 127 girls), in groups at school, adolescents completed measures of adjustment and family subsystem relationship characteristics. Participating mothers ( N = 80) completed parallel questionnaires, mailed to them at their homes. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that for teens from two-parent families, low social support in the adolescent-father dyad was uniquely associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, while for teens from single-mother families, low social support in the adolescent-sibling dyad was uniquely associated with more of the same types of adjustment problems. Further, for teens from two-parent families, negative dyadic interactions were associated with internalizing problems. In addition, for girls from these families, negative interactions in the mother-adolescent dyad were uniquely associated with externalizing problems, while for boys, negative interactions in the father-adolescent dyad were uniquely associated with externalizing problems. In these same families, parents' infrequent use of collaborative and frequent use of destructive conflict resolution in their own interactions together were associated with more internalizing problems for teens. These findings highlight the importance of differentiating among adolescent-mother, adolescent-father, adolescent-sibling and marital dyadic relationships in families, as a means of evaluating both the unique and joint contributions of family relationships to adolescent adjustment and psychopathology.


This paper presents the design and implementation of a 46-kS/s CMOS switch-capacitor dual-mode capacitive sensor interface circuit for inkjet-printed capacitive humidity sensors. The specifications of the interface circuit, which includes a capacitance-to-voltage (C2V) converter combined with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), are optimized at system level, emphasizing the C2V operation followed by the data converter. A closed form of the maximum output range of a single-stage C2V is provided to prevent cascade amplification. The gain-boosting technique is utilized in the operational transconductance amplifier design to improve the closed-loop linearity. The correlated double sampling technique attenuates the dc offset and low-frequency flicker noise from C2V. A 10-b successive approximation register ADC digitizes the output of C2V. The total area of the digital-to-analog (DAC) array is limited not only by the matching behavior, but also by the noise performance of C2V. The rail-to-rail ability is required to render the compatibility with various possible sensor inputs. A single-ended cascaded binary-weighted capacitive DAC is used to implement the charge redistribution binary search algorithm. The circuit is implemented in a 0.18-μm CMOS technology and occupies an area of 1.2 mm2. The tested prototype shows 0.69% nonlinearity in mode 1 and 1.38% nonlinearity in mode 2. The SNR of mode 1 is 50.1 dB and that of mode 2 is 36.5 dB, which meets the specification of 7.32 b in mode 1 and 5.32 b in mode 2. The total power consumption of the capacitive sensor interface is 70 μW.


Climate change is one of the greatest challenges confronting society today. Solar climate engineering (SCE) has the potential to reduce climate risks substantially. This controversial technology would make the earth more reflective in order to counteract global warming. Though the science of SCE is still in its infancy, SCE research and development should proceed in a coordinated, responsible, and expeditious fashion. However, the role of patents, research data, and trade secrets in SCE research remains unclear and contested. To this end, this article identifies concerns that may arise through the acquisition of intellectual property rights in SCE and proposes the formation of an SCE "research commons" to facilitate responsible SCE research and development. This research commons would permit public and private sector research institutions around the globe to share their research data. They would also pledge that any patents or trade secrets they obtain would be managed so as to reduce unnecessary barriers to research and development of safe and effective SCE technologies.


Those teaching music to American schoolchildren faced a fissure of sorts during the 1930s and 1940s. On one side of this divide stood Carl Seashore and the music educators who embraced his philosophy. They promoted a sometimes arduous form of music teaching and believed that the results of this tutelage could be quantitatively assessed. On the other side stood music pedagogues influenced by the era's burgeoning learner-centered philosophy, educators who embraced the more individualized and friendly approach advocated by James Mursell and Mabelle Glenn. This well-known binary paradigm was born just as a middlebrow impulse swept through America. The increasingly popular listening lessons billed as "music appreciation" became not just an aspect of in-school education for children but also a veritable music-appreciation industry targeting adults. It is my contention that the fissure in music education, while certainly reflective of specific pedagogical trends and debates, also related to a more basic dialogue about what it meant to appreciate music. In this article, I will connect the Seashore-Mursell/Glenn binary to contemporaneous discourse about the meaning of extracurricular music appreciation--discourse that occurred in many musical fields and also affected life across the Atlantic. More importantly, I will demonstrate that this discourse also played out within the pages of music-appreciation literature. This exploration will ultimately show that, while music teachers were certainly grappling with new ideas about learner-centered education, this process was also influenced by and reflective of larger skirmishes about the nature of highbrow achievement that accompanied the middlebrow fervor of the 1930s and 1940s. Debating Appreciation in Middlebrow America and American Schools Some comments about terminology must precede the analysis. While the phrase music appreciation was prevalent in several contexts in early twentieth-century America, two uses predominated. On the one hand, schoolteachers often used this descriptor in reference to the era's increasingly popular lessons in listening. On the other hand, the term music appreciation was also applied more generally to music education offered to the adult layperson. While these two understandings are complex, the terrain of early twentieth-century appreciation is even thornier because there was a good deal of overlap between its curricular and extracurricular varieties. Many instructional books, for example, were written by renowned music educators but were nevertheless aimed at both young students and adult laypeople. Nonetheless, terminology must be adopted to help readers make the distinction. I most often employ the phrase music education to indicate school music teaching (of appreciation, performance, or anything else). The term music teachers will also be used in reference to official music education within the school. The terms appreciation and middlebrow education, meanwhile, will generally be used in discussions of the appreciation industry and its wares. Words such as educational and pedagogical will be utilized more generally. Discussion of the term middlebrow is also needed. As others have chronicled the history of this term (1) and as its negative connotations burgeoned after the period discussed in this article, here I will unpack its meaning only briefly. The term became widely pejorative during the middle of the twentieth century through the writings of authors such as Russell Lynes and Dwight MacDonald. (2) MacDonald is especially important because he arguably brought criticism of the "midcult" and the "middlebrow" to new heights. Janice Radway has summarized MacDonald's critique of the Book-of-the-Month Club in a manner that astutely captures his overall perspective: " [In 1960] MacDonald railed against the spreading 'tepid ooze of Midcult' and identified the Book-of-the-Month Club and its judges . …


This article explores imagination as a means of ethical re-orientation in the aftermath of atrocity. The discussion of the problem of evil is based on Hannah Arendt's critique of Kant and her notion of 'rootless' rather than 'radical' evil. On this basis, the orienting potential of visual images is investigated with regard to images of violence in the media on the one hand, and, on the other, with regard to Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. Then the role of verbal and mental images of humanity or inhumanity is discussed with reference to the Holocaust survivor Jorge Semprun's testimony in his book Literature or Life. Finally, the biblical motif of the human being created in the image of an invisible God, the imago Dei, comes into view as an exemplary image of humanity that appears in a framework of interpretation where the invisible is mediated with the help of verbal, visual and/or mental images.


Do robots raise or lower economic well-being? On the one hand, they raise output and bring more goods and services into reach. On the other hand, they eliminate jobs, shift investments away from machines that complement labor, lower wages, and immiserize workers who cannot compete. The net effect of these offsetting forces is unclear. This paper seeks to clarify how economic outcomes, positive or negative, depend both on specific parameters of the economy and public policy. We find that a rise in robotic productivity is more likely to lower the welfare of young workers and future generations when the saving rate is low, automatable and non-automatable goods are more substitutable in consumption, and when traditional capital is a more important complement to labor. In some parameterizations the relationship of utility to robotic productivity follows a "noisy U" as large innovations are long-run welfare improving even though small innovations are immiserizing. Policies that redistribute income across generations can ensure that a rise in robotic productivity benefits all generations.


1953, the year of Watson and Crick, bore witness to a less acclaimed yet highly influential discovery. Jean Weigle demonstrated that upon infection of Escherichia coli, λ phage deactivated by UV radiation, and thus unable to form progeny, could be reactivated by irradiation of the bacterial host. Evelyn Witkin and Miroslav Radman later revealed the presence of the SOS regulon. The more than 40 regulon genes are repressed by LexA protein and induced by the coproteolytic cleavage of LexA, catalyzed by RecA protein bound to single-stranded DNA, the RecA* nucleoprotein filament. Several SOS-induced proteins are engaged in repairing both cellular and extracellular damaged DNA. There's no "free lunch", however, because error-free repair is accompanied by error-prone translesion DNA synthesis (TLS), involving E. coli DNA polymerase V (UmuD'2C) and RecA*. This review describes the biochemical mechanisms of pol V-mediated TLS. pol V is active only as a mutasomal complex, pol V Mut = UmuD'2C-RecA-ATP. RecA* donates a single RecA subunit to pol V. We highlight three recent insights. (1) pol V Mut has an intrinsic DNA-dependent ATPase activity that governs polymerase binding and dissociation from DNA. (2) Active and inactive states of pol V Mut are determined at least in part by the distinct interactions between RecA and UmuC. (3) pol V is activated by RecA*, not at a blocked replisome, but at the inner cell membrane.


This paper presents preliminary results from direct imaging of P to S conversion data from the Earthscope Transportable Array (TA). Input data are receiver function estimates from the Earthscope Automated Receiver Function Survey (EARS). The waveforms from EARS were first stacked to produce composite events from 60 different source regions defined by a radial grid with a center in the western United States (U.S.). The composite waveforms were imaged with a three-dimensional, prestack migration method using a plane wave decomposition and an inverse generalized Radon transform algorithm to yield estimates of radial and transverse component scattering potential from each composite event. Data deficiencies limited this processing to 50 of the composite events. The migrated results from these 50 events were stacked to produce a final three-dimensional image volume examined in this paper through three-dimensional visualization techniques. The crust-mantle boundary, the 410 km, and 660 km discontinuities are imaged. An erratic negative conversion at the depth that has been suggested as the seismic lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary is observed in these results, but I avoid interpreting this feature as it may be biased by interference with first-order, free-surface multiples from the Moho. The most significant new feature imaged by this technique is a series of east-dipping conversions directly above the 410 km discontinuity. This feature is imaged in the region immediately above the transition zone across the entire western U.S., although it becomes partly obscured in Arizona by interference with what I interpret as sediment reverberations that contaminate some stations in southern California and the Rio Grande Rift. Overlaying these results with published tomography models suggests that this feature is linked to the Juan de Fuca–Farallon slab. I follow this hypothesis to build a three-dimensional model of the top of the Farallon slab that honors the new data and results from published tomography models. The model clarifies that these dipping features are consistent with a bending plate model of the slab. Using a simple kinematic model of the geometry of the slab window linked to the widening of the San Andreas system, I argue that the same dipping features seen under Nevada are consistent with those seen to the north, suggesting that there is a continuous, relatively smooth slab-related boundary layer under most of the western U.S.


Financial literacy holds growing interest for managing assets/savings during the longer retirement period currently experienced in rapidly aging countries. We examine and compare levels and determinants of financial literacy as well as its association to asset allocation among middle and older generations of Japan and the United States. We present some interesting findings. First, financial literacy is generally associated with educational attainment, cognitive skills, coursework in economics or finance, and income level. Second, financial literacy is associated with resultant asset allocation; individuals with higher literacy are more likely to invest in stocks or securities separate from their savings. These patterns are commonly observed in Japan and the United States.


In this study, parallel attempts have been made to initiate somatic embryos
from two different explants on various hormone combinations and the results
obtained were then applied to establish plant regeneration system for protoplastderived
macrocalli. Simultaneously, optimisation of plant transformation system
using electroporation techniques (direct uptake) were carried out to facilitate future
research on the genetic improvement of muskmelon.Somatic embryos were successfully initiated from Birdie radicle region and
Hami melon cotyledon using MS medium containing 1.0 mg/L 2,4-0, 2.0 mg/L
NAA and 0.1 mg/L BAP and medium gave 2.0 mg/L NAA and 0. 1 mg/L BAP,
respectively. The somatic embryos developed into normal plantlets after
subculturing onto hormone-free M S media solidified with 0.4% (w/v) Gelrite®.Both Birdie and Hami melon protoplasts were successfully isolated using
cotyledons of seven day in vitro seedlings incubated in different enzyme
concentrations. Birdie melon explants were incubated in 0.05% (w/v) pectolyase
Y23 and 1.0% (w/v) cellulase RS while Hami melon explants were incubated in
0.025% (w/v) Pectolyase Y23 and 1 .0% (w/v) Cellulase RS for 1.5 hours . .
Subsequently, Birdie protoplast which were cultured onto semi-solid (0.09%
Gelrite®) medium containing 1/2 strength MS supplemented with 0.1 mg/L NAA
and 0.5 mg/L BAP gave the highest number of macrocolonies formation (60.96
number of colonies/field) after 30 days in culture, while Hami melon protoplast
gave highest number of macrocolonies formation (30.48 number of colonies/field)
in liquid culture containing 1/2 strength MS supplemented with 0.5 mg/L NAA and
1 .0 mg/L zeatin. Further experiments were conducted to establish the regeneration
system for the macrocalli with addition of auxin and cytokinin, sucrose, growth
regulators and amino acids. The results obtained showed that the macrocalli had
potential to regenerate into plantlets on two types of medium (0.5 mg/L and 2.0
mg/L BAP). However. further studies must be performed to obtain a more suitable
regeneration media from protoplast-derived macrocalli.In this study, genetic transformation of muskmelon protoplasts were carried
out using electroporation system. Using pBI22 1 as a standard, various parameters
for electroporation were optimised and the GUS activities were assayed. Pulse
strength of 3.0 kV/cm, single pulse, 10.0 us pulse length, 25.0 ug/ml plasmid DNA
and 15 hours incubation time were optimum for efficient DNA uptake and transient
assay. Treatment of the protoplast with external stimulus such as UV irradiation in
the presence of different plasmid constructs showed that the plasmid pYCN01 and pYCN02 containing different length of PSPAL promoter fragment gave higher GUS
activity compared to the CaMV 35S promoter. The results indicate that ultra violet
irradiation of the protoplasts was at least partly responsible for the activation of
PAL promoter.


This paper is based on remarks delivered at a symposium to honor my University of New Hampshire School of Law colleague Calvin Massey, who passed away in the fall of 2015. The paper discusses an asymmetry in federal standing law. The asymmetry lies in the fact that, when a state's highest court decides the merits of a federal claim brought in circumstances where the claimant has standing under state law but not federal law, the United States Supreme Court has jurisdiction to review the decision only if the state supreme court upholds the federal claim. This asymmetry was the subject of a 2015 essay that was Calvin's last piece of published scholarship. In the essay, Calvin used a hypothetical state-aid-to-religion fact pattern to illuminate the asymmetry, to emphasize its problematic nature, and to propose a solution. This paper agrees with Calvin that the asymmetry is problematic and advances three preliminary hypotheses, to be developed in future work, about how various federal and state institutional actors could ameliorate the problem. The first hypothesis is that Congress should consider legislating to ensure that a party facing a federal claim in state court in circumstances where a federal justiciability doctrine would bar the claim in federal court can remove the claim and obtain its dismissal. The second hypothesis is that the United States Supreme Court should consider using its power to create constitutional common law to fashion a remedy-limiting doctrine drawn from federal justiciability principles and to impose this doctrine on state courts as an affirmative defense to federal claims. The third hypothesis is that, even in the absence of a federal mandate, state courts should apply traditional conflict-of laws theory to withhold relief for claims based on federal law in circumstances where federal courts would lack the power to afford the claimant a remedy.


Shear wave velocity (Vs)
is one of the most important parameters of a geological model to assess the
site effect and the ground response. In this paper the spatial variability of
shear wave velocity in Mashhad capital city are investigated. For this purpose,
243 Vs profiles of different projects throughout the city were used. Based on
the Vs profiles the iso-level maps of the Vs interfaces 300, 500, 750, 950 and
1200 m/s were obtained by kriging interpolation method. The best semivariogram
models were obtained with changing the effective parameters and assessing the
components of the models and spatial dependence. The best models for the entire
interfaces were exponential. Based on these models, the spatial dependence of
depth data was moderate to strong. The performance of interpolations was
checked by cross-validation and its indices i.e.
mean standardized prediction errors (MSPR), root mean square prediction errors
(RMSPE), average kriging standard error (AKSE), and root mean square
standardized prediction errors (RMSSPE) were assessed. A trend of depth
increasing towards the northeast was observed at all of the interfaces.


Training neural networks under a strict Lipschitz constraint is useful for provable adversarial robustness, generalization bounds, interpretable gradients, and Wasserstein distance estimation. By the composition property of Lipschitz functions, it suffices to ensure that each individual affine transformation or nonlinear activation is 1-Lipschitz. The challenge is to do this while maintaining the expressive power. We identify a necessary property for such an architecture: each of the layers must preserve the gradient norm during backpropagation. Based on this, we propose to combine a gradient norm preserving activation function, GroupSort, with norm-constrained weight matrices. We show that norm-constrained GroupSort architectures are universal Lipschitz function approximators. Empirically, we show that norm-constrained GroupSort networks achieve tighter estimates of Wasserstein distance than their ReLU counterparts and can achieve provable adversarial robustness guarantees with little cost to accuracy.


Since the early 1960s, Turkish nationals have immigrated to the European Union in large numbers. Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium have the highest Turkish populations in the European Union and have managed differing models of incorporation. A number of motivating factors have contributed to the unflagging numbers of Turks such as the implementation of guest-worker programs, the reunification of families, and microstructures within migratory chains. Though the likelihood of Turkey gaining membership to the European Union has dimmed as of late, the mere possibility of its joining warrants the analysis of Turkish immigration to the EU, as it could shed light on the social and economic changes that could occur with Turkish membership to the EU. This analytical paper will detail the impacts of the varying methods of incorporation employed by the receiving countries and examine the historical patterns and impacts of Turkish immigration in the European Union.


Lately, the Court of Justice has been harshly criticised for having unduly restricted the effects of international law within the European legal order. Cases such as Van Parys, Kadi, Mox Plant, Intertanko, and Commune de Mesquer have led scholars to argue that the Court of Justice is becoming less international law friendly. This brings interesting questions to the fore: has the case-law changed? And if there is a change, is this change due to a different attitude of the Court of Justice towards international law? What factors could have influenced the recent decisions of the Court of Justice? This working paper addresses these questions. It analyses the Court's recent decisions concerning international law, contrasts them with earlier rulings and places them in the broader context of the Court's understanding of the European legal order. The analysis leads to a more nuanced conclusion. The Court's attitude towards international law cannot easily be placed on a one dimensional scale of 'international law friendliness'. Finally, four observations are made on what might have influenced the Court's rulings in recent years.


The present volume brings together the papers and posters presented at the "Cleaning 2010 International—New Insights into the Cleaning of Paintings" conference that was held at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in Spain, in collaboration with the Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute. This was the first major international conference on this topic in two decades. The 20 papers and 19 extended abstracts presented at the conference are included in this publication, grouped into four main categories: Ethics, Aesthetics, Training, and Documentation; Traditional Media: Egg Tempera and Oil; Modern Paints; and Cleaning Systems. Within each category, the papers and extended abstracts are grouped by the specific topic they address to make it easier for the reader to find all related material in one section. A summary of panel discussions held at the end of the conference has also been included. All papers and abstracts included in this publication have been peer reviewed. The aim of the conference was to provide a knowledge exchange forum and to produce a publication that assembles the latest developments in the various studies addressing the problems that affect paintings. These range from normal soiling to removal of aged varnishes, from the effect of solvents on paints to the subsequent changes in their mechanical behavior. The cleaning of unvarnished paintings is one of the most critical issues that was discussed. Finally, different cleaning techniques, such as gels, soaps, enzymes, ionic liquids, and foams, as well as various dry methods and lasers, are discussed in various papers and extended abstracts. Although the conference was organized in Spain, the United States contributed 21% of the contents, followed by Spain and Italy, both with 16%; the United Kingdom and Germany, each with 9%; and Canada, the Netherlands, and Portugal, all with 5%. The rest are individual contributions from Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Poland, and Greece.


Si1−xGex(:B) epitaxial layers were deposited by using reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition with SiH4, GeH4, and B2H6 source gases, and the dependences of the surface roughness of undoped Si1−xGex on the GeH4 flow rate and of Si1−xGex:B on the B2H6 flow rate were investigated. The root-mean-square (RMS) roughness value of the undoped Si1−xGex at constant thickness increased gradually with increasing Ge composition, resulting from an increase in the amplitude of the wavy surface before defect formation. At higher Ge compositions, the residual strain in Si1−xGex significantly decreased through the formation of defects along with an abrupt increase in the RMS roughness. The variation of the surface roughness of Si1−xGex:B depended on the boron (B) concentration. At low B concentrations, the RMS roughness of Si1−xGex remained constant regardless of Ge composition, which is similar to that of undoped Si1−xGex. However, at high B concentrations, the RMS roughness of Si1−xGex:B increased greatly due to B islanding. In addition, at very high B concentrations (~ 9.9 at%), the RMS roughness of Si1−xGex:B decreased due to non-epitaxial growth.


It is widely recognized that childcare has important pedagogical, economic and social effects on both children and parents. This paper is the first attempt to estimate a joint structural model of female labour supply and childcare behavior applied to Italy in order to analyse the effects of relaxing the existing constraints in terms of childcare availability and costs by considering public, private and informal childcare. Results suggest that Italian households might alter their childcare and labour supply behaviors substantially if the coverage rate of formal childcare increases to reach the European targets. Overall, increasing child care coverage is estimated to be more effective in enhancing labor incentives than decreasing existing child care costs, at the same budgetary cost.


The abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) is the result of various physiological alterations produced by an abnormal increase of the intra-abdominal pressure. Some of these patients will undergo a surgical procedure for its management. Methods: This is a retrospective case series of 28 patients with ACS who required surgical treatment at the Hospital Occidente de Kennedy between 1999 and 2003. We assessed retrospectively the behavior of McNelis's equation for prediction of the development of the ACS. Results: The leading cause of ACS in our study was intraabadominal infection (n=6 21,4%). Time elapsed between diagnosis and surgical decompression was less than 4 hours in 75% (n=21) of the cases. The variables that improved significantly after the surgical decompression were CVP (T: 4,0 p: 0,0001), PIM (T: 2,7; p: 0,004), PIA (T1,8; p:0,034) and Urine Output (T:-2,4; p:0,02). The values of BUN, Creatinine and the cardiovascular instability did not show improvement. The ICU and hospital length of stay were 11 days (SD: 9) and 18 days (SD13) respectively. Global mortality was 67,9% (n=19) and mortality directly attributable to the syndrome was 30% (n=8). The behavior of the McNelis's equation was erratic. Conclusions: The demographic characteristics as well as disease processes associated with ACS are consistent with the literature. The association between physiological variables and ACS is heterogeneous between patients. Mortality rates attributable to ACS in our institution are within the range described world-wide. The behavior of the McNelis's equation seems to depend greatly upon fluid balance.


Graphene derivatives are promising materials for the electrochemical sensing of diverse biomolecules and development of new biosensors owing to their improved electron transfer kinetics compared to pristine graphene. Here, we report complex electrochemical behavior and electrocatalytic performance of variously fluorinated graphene derivatives prepared by reaction of graphene with a nitrogen-fluorine mixture at 2 bars pressure. The fluorine content was simply controlled by varying the reaction time and temperature. The studies revealed that electron transfer kinetics and electrocatalytic activity of CFx strongly depend on the degree of fluorination. The versatility of fluorinated graphene as a biosensor platform was demonstrated by cyclic voltammetry for different biomolecules essential in physiological processes, i.e. NADH, ascorbic acid and dopamine. Importantly, the highest electrochemical performance, even higher than pristine graphene, was obtained for fluorinated graphene with the lowest fluorine content (CF0.084) due to its high conductivity and enhanced adsorption properties combining π-π stacking interaction with graphene regions with hydrogen-bonding interaction with fluorine atoms.


Last term, in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) v. Fox Television Stations, the Supreme Court expressly refused to link ordinary administrative law to constitutional concerns, insisting that whether an agency action is "arbitrary and capricious" and whether it is unconstitutional are separate questions. In this article, I argue that Fox is wrong. The Court's protestations aside, constitutional law and ordinary administrative law are inextricably linked, with the result that a fair amount of ordinary administrative law qualifies as what Henry Monaghan famously termed constitutional common law. Its doctrines and requirements are constitutionally informed but rarely constitutionally mandated, with Congress and agencies enjoying broad power to alter specific administrative mechanisms notwithstanding their constitutional aspect.Recognizing the interrelationship between constitutional law and ordinary administrative law is important both for the ongoing debate over the legitimacy of constitutional common law and for proper appreciation of the role administrative agencies can play in our constitutional order. Underlying many attacks on constitutional common law is a view of constitutional law as having a narrow and determinate scope, but the interwoven relationship between ordinary law and constitutional law in the administrative law context suggests this view of constitutional law is a false one. In addition, seeking to enforce constitutional norms through ordinary administrative law better accords with constitutional principles than efforts to segregate out the two and is likely to prove less intrusive to the policymaking prerogatives of the political branches. As a result, the better critique is not the extent to which constitutional common law surfaces in administrative contexts, but rather the lack of transparency that accompanies it.


Background: PT003 is a novel co-suspension MDI combination of two long-acting bronchodilators, the LAMA glycopyrronium (GP 14.4µg) and the LABA formoterol fumarate (FF 9.6µg). We investigated the efficacy and safety of PT003 vs individual components PT001 (GP MDI 14.4µg) and PT005 (FF MDI 9.6µg) in patients with moderate to very severe COPD in two Phase 3 studies (PINNACLE-1 and -2).

Methods: In these two randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multicentre studies patients received PT003, PT001, PT005 or placebo, all delivered via co-suspension technology MDI (7:6:6:3) twice-daily for 24 weeks; PINNACLE-1 included open-label tiotropium 18μg once-daily. Primary endpoints were change from baseline in morning trough FEV1 and computerised TDI focal score over 24 weeks.

Results: For trough FEV1, PT003, PT001, and PT005 were superior to placebo and PT003 was superior to PT001 and PT005 (p<0.0001) (table). For TDI focal score, variable results were obtained for PT001 and PT005 vs placebo. PT003 provided benefit vs placebo (p≤0.0041) and PT001 (p≤0.0199) in both studies, and vs PT005 in PINNACLE-2 (p=0.0028) with a smaller benefit in PINNACLE-1 (p=0.1060). There were no unexpected safety findings.

Conclusion: The results from PINNACLE-1 and -2 support the overall efficacy of PT003 (GP 14.4µg/FF 9.6µg MDI) as a bronchodilator therapy for patients with COPD.

![Figure][1] [1]: pending:yes


Team faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines based on member attributes that split a team into relatively homogeneous subgroups—influence team processes across contexts, as recent meta-analytic findings show. We review the available faultline measures with regard to their properties and identify several limitations, including dealing with more than two subgroups. We thus propose a new cluster-based approach, average silhouette width (ASW), that identifies the number of subgroups and subgroup membership. We then compare the measures with 1,400 simulated teams with varying properties and investigate their factor structure and their behavior under missing values. We also investigate the predictive validity of the measures with data from real work teams. Results show that different measures respond to different team features in different ways but that most of them load on two correlated factors. Taken together, the ASW measure had the most favorable attributes and was the only measure that accurately determined subgroup membership in the presence of more than two subgroups. We discuss limitations and further research opportunities pertaining to faultline measures and provide software for calculating all investigated measures at http://www.group-faultlines.org.


Author(s): Riddell, Jeff; Sawtelle, Stacy; Jhun, Paul; Comes, James; Tabatabai, Ramin; Joseph, Daniel; Shoenberger, Jan; Chen, Esther; Fee, Christopher; Swadron, Stuart | Abstract: Audience: This module is designed for emergency medicine trainees. Though it focuses on those early in their career (medical students and junior residents), it is applicable to all emergency medicine learners. Introduction: In the United States, headache is the fifth most-common primary complaint of patients presenting to the emergency department and can be the primary symptomatic manifestation of many life-threatening illnesses. The emergency physician plays a unique role in diagnosing and managing these patients. The emergency physician's two major responsibilities are to relieve headache pain and to ensure that life-threatening causes are diagnosed and treated. Objectives: At the end of this module, the learner will be able to: 1) list the diagnoses critical to the emergency physician that may present with headache; 2) identify key historical and examination findings that help differentiate primary (benign) from secondary (serious) causes of headache; 3) discuss the indications for diagnostic imaging, lumbar puncture and laboratory testing in patients with headache; 4) recognize life-threatening diagnoses on CT imaging and CSF examination; 5) describe treatment strategies to relieve headache symptoms. Methods: This module includes a complete flipped classroom module. Learners are responsible for viewing a 20-minute video prior to the 30-minute small-group, case-based didactic discussion portion. The learners are assessed with multiple-choice question assessments, for low stakes retrieval practice or spaced practice. This could alternatively be run as a team-based learning session, with the pre- and post-tests used as an individual or group readiness assessment test, and the small group exercises converted to a group application exercise. Topics: Headache, subarachnoid hemorrhage, migraine, occult trauma, meningitis, temporal arteritis, carbon monoxide toxicity, acute glaucoma, cervical artery dissection, space occupying lesion, idiopathic intracranial hypertension.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: No recent international studies provide evidence about its prevalence, trends, or social determinants of physical fighting in adolescents. We studied cross-national epidemiologic trends over time in the occurrence of frequent physical fighting, demographic variations in reported trends, and national wealth and income inequality as correlates. METHODS: Cross-sectional surveys were administered in school settings in 2002, 2006, and 2010. Participants (N = 493874) included eligible and consenting students aged 11, 13, and 15 years in sampled schools from 30 mainly European and North American countries. Individual measures included engagement in frequent physical fighting, age, gender, participation in multiple risk behaviors, victimization by bullying, and family affluence. Contextual measures included national income inequality, absolute wealth and homicide rates. Temporal measure was survey cycle (year). RESULTS: Frequent physical fighting declined over time in 19 (63%) of 30 countries (from descriptive then multiple Poisson regression analyses). Contextual measures of absolute wealth (relative risk 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.93–0.99 per 1 SD increase in gross domestic product per capita) but not income inequality (relative risk 1.01, 95% confidence interval 0.98–1.05 per 1 SD increase) related to lower levels of engagement in fighting. Other risk factors identified were male gender, younger age (11 years), multiple risk behaviors, victimization by bullying, and national homicide rates. CONCLUSIONS: Between 2002 and 2010, adolescent physical fighting declined in most countries. Specific groups of adolescents require targeted violence reduction programs. Possible determinants responsible for the observed declines are discussed.


The source of copper for stratiform sediment-hosted copper deposits is considered to be redbed clastics situated stratigraphically below the deposits. However, for one of the principal copper provinces in the world, the Zambian Copperbelt, there is insufficient thickness of redbeds to constitute a viable source. Numerical modeling demonstrates that high-salinity sedimentary brines, generated beneath a halite seal, will develop convective hydrothermal plumes that penetrate through the redbeds, deep into the crystalline basement, despite its low permeability and regardless of the availability of cross-stratal conduits. This greatly expands the volume of the potential metal source for this style of ore deposit.


Results are described from movable and fixed bed wave tank tests to examine the characteristics and causes of three dimensional beach profiles occurring in a narrow wave tank. The movable bed tests demonstrated a strongly repeatable sequence in which both the hydrodynamics and sediment transport patterns were two-dimensional over the initial stages of testing; however, after approximately 200 to 240 minutes, a horizontal circulation appeared and strengthened and resulted in a narrow channel incised adjacent to one of the tank walls. This circulation was reminiscent of a rip current system and resulted in a net landward transport of sediment. During the later stages of profile evolution, an equilibrium was reached in which the profile was steeper and the channel adjacent to the wall persisted. The fixed bed tests were conducted to examine, under controlled conditions, the mechanisms and causes of the horizontal circulation. Tests were carried out specifically to examine generation and maintenance mechanisms for rip currents and edge waves. One set of the fixed bed tests induced a jet into the surf zone and examined its interaction with incident waves. The interaction was found to exert a torque which was counter to that of the induced jet and thus would reduce its circulation. Edge wave mechanisms were examined in the second set of fixed bed tests by generating incident waves with the wave period corresponding to the edge wave length equal to twice the width of the tank for various edge wave modes. No indication of edge waves were found in the experiments. It is concluded that the sequence of profile evolution documented in the movable bed model tests is most likely caused by a long term instability and is reminiscent of and may be representative of the beach recovery stages from a storm profile.