In this thesis I investigate transformational practices in the secular music of mid-fifteenth-century German sources. At the heart of the research are case studies of the Lochamer Liederbuch with its two sections—a song and a keyboard collection—and of the newly discovered Wolfenbuttel Lute Tablature. By analysing and comparing the different versions of pieces surviving in these and related sources I explore how they interacted and what the motivations and techniques behind their transformation were. The organist and lute player Conrad Paumann and his 'School' were central driving forces in this process, which led to numerous innovations, particularly in the development of instrumental music and its notation. I then investigate the question of the instrumental accompaniment of monophonic song and how the development of new instruments and techniques influenced and shaped the melody types in the late medieval sources. To do this, I consult the genre of Neidhart songs as an oeuvre of secular song that was cultivated and transmitted in sources from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. The network of interdependencies between repertoires enables an analysis of transformational practices in the songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein, which are influenced by the Neidhart-genre. The analysis comes full circle with reworkings of his melodies in the Lochamer Liederbuch and related sources. The study shows that vocal music and instrumental intabulations influenced each other mutually to create new repertoires and styles. Amongst the most significant insights are the findings around the Wolfenbuttel Lute Tablature, which open up a field of hitherto unknown instrumental practices and playing techniques, particularly on the plectrum lute. The process of transferring intabulation techniques from the keyboard to other polyphonic instruments leads to the formulation of a coherent, 'pan-instrumental' style of solo intabulation in the fifteenth century.


Background. Opportunistic infections such as oral candidiasis (OC) in HIV-infected children are generally seen with severe depression of the CD4+ count. Objectives . To evaluate usefulness of OC as a marker of disease progression in HIV-infected Nigerian children. Method . Newly diagnosed HIV-infected children, antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive with oral lesions, attending a paediatric infectious diseases unit in Nigeria from July 2006 to June 2007 were enrolled. Clinical OC was registered if the attending physicians observed a  seudomembranous oral lesion. The Dynal beads technique (Dynal Biotech, Oslo, Norway) was used for CD4 counting. CD4 counts were categorised using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classification. Results. The study population comprised 78 HIV-infected children aged 4 - 90 months (mean 20.54±7.23 months) with a male/female ratio of 1.05:1. The prevalence of OC was 20.5% (16 cases) in the study population. The median CD4 count of children with HIV-associated OC is within the severe immunosuppression level for age group, while all children without OC had median CD4 counts above the severe immunosuppression level for age group (p=0.000). Reliability of OC as a surrogate marker of severe immunosuppression yielded a modest sensitivity, high specificity and positive predictive value (44.44%, 92.15% and 75%, respectively). Conclusion . The high prevalence of OC in HIV-positive children was confirmed. The significant relationship of OC with severe immunosuppression suggests that in settings in which CD4 counts are not available, OC may be considered as a clinical surrogate for severe CD4 depletion. However, the absence of OC does not necessarily exclude severe immunosuppression.


Our contemporary society is struggling with soil degradation due to overuse and climate change. Pre-Columbian people left behind sustainably fertile soils rich in organic matter and nutrients well known as terra preta (de Indio) by adding charred residues (biochar) together with organic and inorganic wastes such as excrements and household garbage being a model for sustainable agriculture today. This is the reason why new studies on biochar effects on ecosystem services rapidly emerge. Beneficial effects of biochar amendment on plant growth, soil nutrient content, and C storage were repeatedly observed although a number of negative effects were reported, too. In addition, there is no consensus on benefits of biochar when combined with fertilizers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to test whether biochar effects on soil quality and plant growth could be improved by addition of mineral and organic fertilizers. For this purpose, two growth periods of oat (Avena sativa L.) were studied under tropical conditions (26°C and 2600 mm annual rainfall) on an infertile sandy soil in the greenhouse in fivefold replication. Treatments comprised control (only water), mineral fertilizer (111.5 kg N ha–1, 111.5 kg P ha–1, and 82.9 kg K ha–1), compost (5% by weight), biochar (5% by weight), and combinations of biochar (5% by weight) plus mineral fertilizer (111.5 kg N ha–1, 111.5 kg P ha–1, and 82.9 kg K ha–1), and biochar (2.5% by weight) plus compost (2.5% by weight). Pure compost application showed highest yield during the two growth periods, followed by the biochar + compost mixture. biochar addition to mineral fertilizer significantly increased plant growth compared to mineral fertilizer alone. During the second growth period, plant yields were significantly smaller compared to the first growth period. biochar and compost additions significantly increased total organic C content during the two growth periods. Cation-exchange capacity (CEC) could not be increased upon biochar addition while base saturation (BS) was significantly increased due to ash addition with biochar. On the other hand, compost addition significantly increased CEC. Biochar addition significantly increased soil pH but pH value was generally lower during the second growth period probably due to leaching of base cations. Biochar addition did not reduce ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate leaching during the experiment but it reduced nitrification. The overall plant growth and soil fertility decreased in the order compost > biochar + compost > mineral fertilizer + biochar > mineral fertilizer > control. Further experiments should optimize biochar–organic fertilizer systems.


The development of permanent deformations in soil has been studied by a number or researchers using triaxial systems. In most cases soil specimens were subjected to a pulsating axial stress while the confining pressure was maintained constant. This loading path simulates a very limited number of practical cases. Thus, there is a question as to the generality of the results obtained from conventional laboratory studies. Presented is a study of the stress path on the development of permanent deformations in sand. Using a pneumatic servo-controlled triaxial system, the confining pressure was varied simultaneously with the axial load. Six different straight line stress paths were investigated; three under compression and three under extension conditions. Dry Ottawa sand was subjected to 100,000 sinusoidal loading cycles at a frequency of 1 Hz. Several loading intensities were used in each stress path. A linear relationship was observed between the permanent axial strain and the logarithm of the number of loading cycles, for constant repeated stress magnitude and constant stress path. Furthermore, based on the results presented here, one can utilize the conventional constant confining pressure triaxial tests to estimate the effect of stress path. Consequently, the results of the conventional tests can be generalized.


W. H. Auden called opera the "last refuge of the High Style," and considered it the one art in which the grand manner survived the ironic levelings of modernity. He began writing libretti soon after he arrived in America in 1939 and abandoned his earlier attempts to write public, political drama. Opera gave him the opportunity to rise to the high style in public, not in an attempt to elevate his own status as a poet, but in service of the heroic voice of the singers. These works present their mythical actions with a direct intensity unlike anything in even his greatest poems. In this volume of Auden and Chester Kallman's libretti, extensive historical and textual notes trace the history of the production and revision of the works and provide full texts of early scenarios, as well as abandoned and rewritten scenes. Almost all the works included here were previously published in incomplete and often inaccessible editions--or were never published at all. The book prints for the first time the full text of Paul Bunyan, Auden's first libretto, which he wrote for music by Benjamin Britten. It also includes Auden and Kallman's The Rake's Progress, written for Igor Stravinsky, and Delia, written for Stravinsky but never set to music. The book continues with Auden and Kallman's two libretti written for music by Hans Werner Henze, Elegy for Young Lovers and The Bassarids, and their adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, composed by Nicolas Nabokov. It also contains their translation of The Magic Flute, with its scenes reordered for greater dramatic coherence and added dialogue for sharper mythical significance, and their antimasque, The Entertainment of the Senses, for music by John Gardner. The book contains two radio plays--The Dark Valley, a monologue written by Auden alone, and The Rocking Horse Winner, written with James Stern and based on a story by D. H. Lawrence. Also included are the unpublished masque that Auden wrote for Kallman's twenty-second birthday, the unpublished versions of The Dutchess of Malfi that Auden prepared with Bertolt Brecht, scenarios for a film script and a libretto that were never completed, Auden's narrative for the medieval Play of Daniel, two narratives for documentary films, and his song lyrics written for Man of La Mancha before the producer decided to use a different lyricist.


ABSTRACT Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) represents a heterogeneous collection of conditions that are unified by the presence of a left ventricular ejection fraction ≥50%, evidence of impaired diastolic function and elevated natriuretic peptide levels, all within the context of typical heart failure signs and symptoms. However, while HFpEF is steadily becoming the predominant form of heart failure, disease-modifying treatment options for this population remain sparse. This review provides an overview of the diagnosis, management and prevention of HFpEF for general physicians.


Several descriptors have been proposed in the past for 3D shape analysis, yet none of them achieves best performance on all shape classes. In this paper we propose a novel method for 3D shape analysis using the covariance matrices of the descriptors rather than the descriptors themselves. Covariance matrices enable efficient fusion of different types of features and modalities. They capture, using the same representation, not only the geometric and the spatial properties of a shape region but also the correlation of these properties within the region. Covariance matrices, however, lie on the manifold of Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) tensors, a special type of Riemannian manifolds, which makes comparison and clustering of such matrices challenging. In this paper we study covariance matrices in their native space and make use of geodesic distances on the manifold as a dissimilarity measure. We demonstrate the performance of this metric on 3D face matching and recognition tasks. We then generalize the Bag of Features paradigm, originally designed in Euclidean spaces, to the Riemannian manifold of SPD matrices. We propose a new clustering procedure that takes into account the geometry of the Riemannian manifold. We evaluate the performance of the proposed Bag of Covariance Matrices framework on 3D shape matching and retrieval applications and demonstrate its superiority compared to descriptor-based techniques.


The Island of Norderney is one of the East-frisian Islands, situated at the southern coast of the North Sea (Figure 1). It arose out of the sea, which -will say that it is not the remainder of an old mainland. In the beginning there was a shoal, moulded by tide currents and wave action where later on various plants enabled the growth of sand dunes. The Eastfrisian Islands are supposed to exist since more than 1000 years already. But the written history dates back as far as to the 1 ^th century only. From charts and other historical documents we know in which way these islands changed during the centuries. Some islands vanished whilst others only changed their positions. At the beginning of the 19th century, when Norderney became a seaside resort, the village was still protected by a wall of sand dunes against the assault of the open sea. In the course of time, however, the western part of the island got lost by erosion and the sand dunes were destroyed (Figure 3). When in the middle of the nineteenth century the seaside resort, which had grown larger and larger in the meantime, threatened to be attacked by the sea, people began to protect their island. In the year 1856 they had built a seawall to the length of 900 metres. As at its ends the dunes were still destroyed, this revetment had to be extended. Moreover groynes had to be built to prevent the development of narrow channels in front of the seawall, which might have caused its destruction. Thus in the course of nearly 100 years the revetments as shown in figure 2 were founded. There are now nearly 6 km of seawalls of different types. In former times the walls were built much steeper than now-a-days. The groynes changed their shapes as well. The building material altered according to the respective level of technology. Material applied was wood, stone, concrete as well as steel and asphalt. During the years 19^0 to 19^8 the revetments could not be maintained. The beach had lost much of its height. Therefore the seawalls and the groynes were to a high degree exposed to the violent attack of the waves. In order to avoid further destruction something had to be done. The protection works represented at this time investments of a value of about kO million DM. After various inquiries had been started, a filling of the beach seemed to be the most profitable way.


The Salmon case represents an important step in the evolution of the doctrinal tools available for managing WTO disputes involving non-trade values. Although the Salmon case concerns the specialized WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), it has implications for the broader development of WTO jurisprudence with respect to the place of non-trade values in the WTO regime. The SPS Agreement strikes a particular negotiated balance between trade liberalization and the protection of human, animal or plant life or health: trade-restrictive SPS measures will be permitted if they are scientifically justified, non-discriminatory and not more trade-restrictive than necessary in view of the member's chosen level of protection. Disputes concerning SPS measures can be seen as attempts by complaining parties to enforce that balance. One particular provision in the SPS Agreement, Article 5.6, introduces into SPS jurisprudence the "necessity test," long a part of GATT jurisprudence in, among other provisions, Article XX(b). Overall, the SPS agreement can be understood as an elaboration of Article XX(b) with respect to the specialized subject of SPS measures. However, in contrast to Article XX(b) as interpreted by prior panels, the SPS necessity test as written requires consideration of the effective achievement of a member's non-trade regulatory goals, prior to invalidating the member's chosen measure on trade-restrictive grounds. For this reason, the SPS-version necessity test has the potential to operate in a manner that is friendlier to non-trade values than the standard necessity test. The Salmon Panel is the first WTO dispute settlement body to rule on an Article 5.6 claim, and its decision and the Appellate Body report afford the first opportunity to examine the extent to which the promise contained in the language of Article 5.6 is indeed borne out in its judicial application. I conclude that the Appellate Body's finding on the limits of a Panel's review of a member's discretion to choose its appropriate level of protection, stakes out a strong position of respect for non-trade values in WTO, albeit in a somewhat problematic manner. Since the necessity test is employed widely throughout GATT jurisprudence, the Salmon case has the potential to influence necessity test interpretation beyond the strict SPS context. I also conclude that the Appellate Body's interpretation of the SPS necessity test in Salmon has increased the likelihood that non-trade values will be respectfully considered outside the SPS Agreement in Article XX cases. When one examines the Appellate Body's interpretation of the traditional necessity test in the Asbestos and Korean Beef cases, one catches a "whiff" of Salmon, confirming that the Salmon case is indeed contributing to the larger task of successfully incorporating respect for non-trade values into the WTO.


The European lobster Homarus gammarus is a marine crustacean prized for seafood, but populations across its range are threatened by fishery overexploitation. The species' larval stages are planktonic, suggesting considerable dispersal among populations. The potential threats of overexploitation and erosion of population structure due to hatchery releases or inadvertent introductions make it important to understand the genetic structuring of populations across multiple geographic scales. Here we assess lobster population structure at a fine scale in Cornwall, southwestern UK, where a hatchery-stocking operation introduces cultured individuals into the wild stock, and at a broader European level, in order to compare the spatial scale of hatchery releases with that of population connectivity. Microsatellite genotypes of 24 individuals from each of 13 locations in Cornwall showed no fine-scale population structure across distances of up to ~230 km. Significant differentiation and isolation by distance were detected at a broader scale, using 300 additional individuals comprising a further 15 European samples. Signals of genetic heterogeneity were evident between an Atlantic cluster and samples from Sweden. Connectivity within the Atlantic and Swedish clusters was high, although evidence for isolation by distance and a transitional zone within the eastern North Sea suggested that direct gene exchange between these stocks is limited and fits a stepping-stone model. We conclude that hatchery-reared lobsters should not be released where broodstock are distantly sourced but, using Cornwall as a case study, microsatellites revealed no evidence that the normal release of hatchery stock exceeds the geographic scale of natural connectivity.


This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to test competing conjectures about the evolution of public attitudes toward nanotechnology. The rational enlightenment hypothesis holds that members of the public will become favorably disposed to nanotechnology as balanced and accurate information about it disseminates. The cultural cognition hypothesis, in contrast, holds that members of the public are likely to polarize along cultural lines when exposed to such information. Using a between-subjects design (N = 1,862), the experiment compared the perceptions of subjects exposed to balanced information on the risks and benefits of nanotechnology to the perceptions of subjects exposed to no information. The results strongly confirmed the cultural polarization hypothesis and furnished no support for the rational enlightenment hypothesis. Data obtained in the experiment also suggested that the observed correlation in the general public between familiarity with nanotechnology and a positive view of it is spurious: familiarity does not cause a favorable view; rather other influences, including individualistic cultural values, incline certain individuals both to form a positive view and to learn about nanotechnology. The paper also discusses the implications of these findings for promoting informed public understandings of nanotechnology.


Attention mechanisms have improved the performance of NLP tasks while allowing models to remain explainable. Self-attention is currently widely used, however interpretability is difficult due to the numerous attention distributions. Recent work has shown that model representations can benefit from label-specific information, while facilitating interpretation of predictions. We introduce the Label Attention Layer: a new form of self-attention where attention heads represent labels. We test our novel layer by running constituency and dependency parsing experiments and show our new model obtains new state-of-the-art results for both tasks on both the Penn Treebank (PTB) and Chinese Treebank. Additionally, our model requires fewer self-attention layers compared to existing work. Finally, we find that the Label Attention heads learn relations between syntactic categories and show pathways to analyze errors.


Thermasonic® Gel Warmer Warm and comfortable is now even better. Completely redesigned with microprocessor control, a powerful heating element, and higher sidewall heat exchangers to rapidly heat gel and consistently monitor temperature. Add an integrated power switch, IEC320/C14 receptacle and, an option for 120V or 230V CE to yield the best Thermasonic Gel Warmer yet. Learn more at: www.parkerlabs.com/thermasonic


SUMMARY Despite becoming one of China's fastest expanding and most valuable forest land uses, bamboo's role in livelihoods and rural development is poorly understood. Detailed quantitative data from 240 households were used to study the contribution of bamboo to household income and rural livelihoods in 12 remote and mountainous villages in southern China. Bamboo was a ubiquitous and highly utilised resource for a wide range of subsistence purposes in all households. Bamboo income was predominantly derived from dried bamboo shoots cultivated in small-scale household plots, and was the single most valuable source of cash. The average bamboo income share was 13.3%, ranging from 0 to 50% between villages. High income households had the highest absolute bamboo income, but low income households had the highest dependence on bamboo income. It is suggested that bamboo is an excellent pro poor resource, especially in remote, mountainous areas with limited off-farm income opportunities.


Although the final demand-oriented export base paradigm dominates economic development theory and practice, its usefulness is increasingly questioned because of the changing structure of modern economies, empirical critiques of export-led growth strategies, and studies that decompose the actual sources of growth. The importance of service industries, especially local services and their role in inducing economic growth, requires a measure that includes both forward and backward linkages to empirically account for the complete role of an industry. Using data for New York State, we demonstrate how the input-output-based method of hypothetical extraction can more appropriately measure the economic linkage of a broader range of contemporary economic sectors (including services) than traditional, final demand-induced, backward-linkage multipliers. Our analysis provides empirical support for greater economic development attention to be directed toward local services.


The XRDS blog highlights a range of topics from conference coverage, to security and privacy, to CS theory. Selected blog posts, edited for print, are featured in every issue. Please visit xrds.acm.org/blog to read each post in its entirety. If you are interested in joining as a student blogger, please contact us.


Objective: To develop an objective, image scoring system for pulsed wave Doppler measurement of maternal uterine and fetal umbilical arteries, and evaluate how the system compares with subjective assessment of the images. Methods: As part of the quality control strategy for the INTERGROWTH-21 st Project, we developed a scoring system based on six predefined criteria for uterine and umbilical artery pulsed wave Doppler measurement. The scoring system was compared to subjective assessment, which consisted simply of classifying an image as acceptable or unacceptable. Based on a sample size estimate, a total of 120 ultrasound images of umbilical and uterine artery Doppler were randomly selected from the INTERGROWTH-21 st database. Two independent reviewers evaluated these images in a blinded fashion both subjectively and using the six-point scoring system. The percentage agreement and kappa statistic between the two methods were compared. Results: The overall agreement between reviewers was higher for objective assessment using the scoring system (agreement: 85%, adjusted kappa: 0.70), than for subjective assessment (agreement: 70%, adjusted kappa: 0.47). The levels of agreement for the six components of the scoring system were: anatomical site (adjusted kappa: 0.97), sweep speed (0.88), magnification (0.77), velocity scale (0.68), image clarity (0.68), and angle of insonation (0.65). Conclusion: In quality assessment of umbilical and uterine artery pulsed wave Doppler measurements, an objective six-point image scoring system is associated with greater reproducibility than subjective assessment. We recommend this as the preferred method for quality control, audit and teaching.


Previous historical studies of the care of the insane in nineteenth century England have been based in the history of medicine. In this thesis, such care is placed in the context of the English poor law. The theory of the 1834 poor law was essentially silent on the treatment of the insane. That did not mean that developments in poor law had no effect only that the effects must be established by examination of administrative practices. To that end, this thesis focuses on the networks of administration of the poor law of lunacy, from 1834 to 1870. County asylums, a creation of the old (pre-1834) poor law, grew in numbers and scale only under the new poor law. While remaining under the authority of local Justices of the Peace, mid-century legislation provided an increasing role for local poor law staff in the admissions process. At the same time, workhouse care of the insane increased. Medical specialists in lunacy were generally excluded from local admissions decisions. The role of central commissioners was limited to inspecting and reporting; actual decision-making remained at the local level. The webs of influence between these administrators are traced, and the criteria they used to make decisions identified. The Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic asylum provides a local study of these relations. Particular attention is given to admission documents and casebooks for those admitted to the asylum between 1861 and 1865. The examination of the asylum documents, the analysis of the broader relationships of the administrators, and a reading of the legislation itself, all point up tensions between ideologies of the old and new poor law in the administration of pauper lunacy.


Fatty acid signature analysis (FASA) makes use of specific fatty acids, as well as entire profiles, to study dietary relationships at different trophic levels. Previously, FASA has been used in marine ecosystems in which diet determination by more direct methods is difficult and sometimes misleading. This study examined fatty acid profiles in milk from 2 species of pinniped from the Southern Ocean that were expected to have highly contrasting diets. Milk samples were collected from Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella in 3 consecutive years, from 1991 to 1993 (n = 72), and from Southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina in 1988 (n = 53) at South Georgia. Lipids were extracted and fatty acid profiles determined by temperature-programmed gas chromatography. Possible prey species collected from waters around South Georgia were also analysed. Cluster analysis as well as classification and regression trees (CART) indicated that profiles from fur seals and elephant seals were significantly different. Southern elephant seal data could be distinguished from Antarctic fur seals by lower levels of the fatty acids 16:4 n1, 18:2 n6, 18:4 n3, 18:4 n1 and 20:5 n3 and by higher levels of 18:0, 18:1 n9/ n11 (i.e. 18:1 n9 co-eluting with 18:1 n11) and 20:1 n9. Fatty acid signatures from the milk of Antarctic fur seals were closest to krill and fish species that were also known to feed on krill. Southern elephant seal fatty acid profiles were closest to species that are not known as krill predators such as larger notothenids and myctophids. The fatty acid profiles of Antarctic fur seals showed considerable inter- and intra-annual variability, which was congruent with diet variability detected using scat analyses. Southern elephant seals showed little variation in profile through lactation. In contrast to previous diet analyses based on examination of stomach contents, the results from FASA were consistent with a fish-based diet for Southern elephant seals.


"Seven years before the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 comprehensively disqualified all members of China's laboring class from immigration status, the Page Law sought to stem the tide of Chinese prostitutes entering the United States. Yet during these seven years it was not just prostitutes but all Chinese females who encountered at best hostility and at worst expulsion when they reached the "Golden Door." In this first detailed account of Chinese American women's lives in the preexclusion era, George Anthony Peffer investigates how administrative agencies and federal courts enforced immigration laws. Peffer documents the habeas corpus trials in which the wives and daughters of Chinese laborers were required to prove their status as legal immigrants or be returned to China. He also surveys the virulently anti- Chinese coverage these trials and the issue of Chinese immigration received in California newspapers, confirming that Chinatown's prostitution industry so dominated the popular imagination as to render other classes of female immigrants all but invisible. In the words of one immigration judge, the United States remained favorable to Chinese immigration in the preexclusion period "if they don't bring their women here." This important study amplifies the voices of immigrant women who did not fit into the preconceived categories American officials created and establishes a place for them within the historiographic framework of Chinese American studies."


Epigroups are semigroups equipped with an additional unary operation called pseudoinversion. Each finite semigroup can be considered as an epigroup. We prove the following theorem announced by Zhil'tsov in 2000: the equational theory of the class of all epigroups coincides with the equational theory of the class of all finite epigroups and is decidable. We show that the theory is not finitely based but provide a transparent infinite basis for it.


An inorganic materials database system, AtomWork, has been developed and released on the Internet. It includes the phase diagram, crystal structure, X-ray powder diffraction, and property data of more than 80,000 inorganic materials extracted from scientific literature. The feature of this database is that the information of the synthesis, identification, and property of materials is organically linked, which enables the data reported in different papers to be grouped and compared at four different levels: chemical system, compound, substance, and material. The database can provide users with a comprehensive overview of substances and necessary information to understand the relationships among chemical component, structure, and property.


This study was conducted in order to develop novel chitosan/poly(ethylene
oxide)(PEO) blend films crosslinked by genipin as potential membranes for potential
medical applications, such as controlled drug carriers and separation of proteins from
eleutherococcuss enticosus (ES).
Genipin, a naturally occurring and non-toxic crosslinking reagent, was used to form
chitosan and chitosan/PEO blend networks. Genipin is found in traditional Chinese
medicine and extracted from Gardenia fruit. Importantly,it overcomes the problem of
physiological toxicity inherent in the use of common synthetic chemicals as
crosslinking agents.
The miscibility and morphology of chitosan /PEO blends were examined by means of
differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(FT-IR) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The experimental results indicate
that the chitosan/PEO blends are miscible over the whole composition range. A
phenomenon was observed for chitosan/LPEO (lower molecular weight PEO) blends:
when the composition of chitosan was less than 60% by weight, the melting points
increased as the composition of chitosan was increased. It is believed that there are
strong molecular interactions between chitosan molecules and the molecules in the
crystalline phase of LPEO in the chitosan ALPEO blends.
FT-IR and UV spectra analysis of the crosslinking reaction of chitosan revealed that
the hydroxyl groups (3400 cm-1) and the amide groups (1645 cm-) in chitosan
participated actively in the reaction. SAXS results showed that a heterogeneous
structure exists in the chitosan/HPEO (or /LPEO) blend networks. Crosslinking by
genipin restricts crystallisation and leads to smaller crystals.
The mechanical properties, the stability in water, the swelling behaviour and
surface properties of the films were also investigated. (Continues...).


Joint stiffness secondary to immobilization was inhibited by intra-articular hyaluronic acid injection in an experimental joint contracture in rabbits. Biochemical and biomechanical parameters were used to evaluate the joint stiffness after nine weeks of immobilization. In all treatments, hyaluronic acid reduced the measured stiffness in the contracture by approximately 50% as compared to the contractures of the untreated rabbits. In addition, hyaluronic acid prevented the loss of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) (as measured by hexosamine), which normally occurs in untreated contractures. The results are related to a working hypothesis that intra-articular injections of drugs such as hyaluronic acid (Healon-R) will stimulate hyaluronic acid synthesis within the matrices of periarticular connective tissue (PCT). If the spacing and lubricating properties of the glycosaminoglycans could be maintained in the stress-deprived state, the "centripetal collapse" of the fibrillar matrix could be avoided, anomalous cross-links could be minimized, and more normal joint mechanics could be retained.


This thesis aims to draw a unified picture of the relationship between Dissociative
Identity Disorder (DID) (APA, DSM-5, 2013), the affected person's attachment
pattern, and specific characteristics of their trauma history. In particular, the
analysis of these three elements focuses on cases where a person is persistently
involved in a life of ongoing abuse, despite years of DID-specific psychotherapy.
Based on attachment, forensic and psychoanalytic perspectives and on my
extensive clinical work, I propose several new classifications to help identify and
explain such cases, and ultimately improve their treatment.
The first is further classification of the Disorganized Attachment (DA) category of
attachment theory, to include two new sub-types: Concrete Infanticidal Attachment
(IAc), which develops when a child needs to engage an attachment figure who only
responds while the child is being severely abused, and Symbolic Infanticidal
Attachment (IAs), which develops in response to severe but not abusive relational
trauma, such as neglect.
The second proposes a differentiation between two presentations of DID, Active
and Stable. The first describes people who continue to be involved in a life of abuse
even in adulthood, and their DID is thus constantly reinforced and recreated. The
second pertains to people who bear the scars of childhood relational trauma but are
safe at present and can focus on recovery from their traumatic past.
Finally, I propose the Cyclical Model, which describes the relationship between
severe childhood abuse, IAc and active DID as a self-perpetuating cycle. The term
cyclicity is used to describe a repetitive, change-resisting quality of people with
active DID. Cyclicity is attributed to their extreme levels of anxiety and terror. I
argue that this quality, while 'quiet' and hard to detect, forms a major obstacle to
recovery.
Following these ideas, additional theoretical and clinical considerations are
suggested as expansion to the Phase-Oriented Approach for the treatment of DID
(ISSTD 2011).
Key words: active DID, stable DID, attachment theory, childhood abuse, cyclicity,
infanticidal attachment, relational trauma, phase-oriented treatment approach.


Abstract. Many coastal seas worldwide are affected by human impacts such as eutrophication, causing, inter alia, oxygen depletion and extensive areas of hypoxia. Depending on the region, global warming may reinforce these environmental changes by reducing air–sea oxygen fluxes, intensifying internal nutrient cycling and increasing river-borne nutrient loads. The development of appropriate management plans to more effectively protect the marine environment requires projections of future marine ecosystem states. However, projections with regional climate models commonly suffer from shortcomings in the driving global General Circulation Models (GCMs). The differing sensitivities of GCMs to increased greenhouse gas emissions impact regional projections considerably. In this study, we focused on one of the most threatened coastal seas, the Baltic Sea, and estimated uncertainties in projections due to GCM deficiencies relative to uncertainties caused by future greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient load scenarios. To address the latter, transient simulations of the period 1975–2098 were performed using the initial conditions from an earlier reconstruction with the same Baltic Sea model (starting in 1850). To estimate the impacts of GCM deficiencies, dynamical downscaling experiments with four driving global models were carried out for two greenhouse gas emission scenarios, RCP4.5 and 8.5, and for three nutrient load scenarios covering the plausible range between low and high loads. The results of primary production, nitrogen fixation, and hypoxic areas show that uncertainties caused by the various nutrient load scenarios are greater than the uncertainties due to global model deficiencies and future greenhouse gas emissions. In all scenario simulations, a proposed nutrient load abatement strategy, i.e., the Baltic Sea Action Plan, will lead to a significant improvement in the overall environmental state. However, the projections cannot provide detailed information on the timing and the reductions of future hypoxic areas due to uncertainties in salinity projections caused by uncertainties in projections of the regional water cycle and of the global mean sea level rise.


The Ninth Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) was held October 14–18, 2013, at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Workshops were held on the two days prior to the start of the main conference, giving attendees a chance to hold in-depth discussions on topics that complement the themes of the main conference program. This year the workshops included the First Workshop on AI and Game Aesthetics (1 day), The Second Workshop on AI in the Game Design Process (1 day), The Second International Workshop on Musical Metacreation (2 day), The Sixth Workshop on Intelligent Narrative Technologies (2 day).


The search for justice is archetypal, a timeless all-encompassing human urge which finds expression in creative literature. Consequently, it is of no surprise to find justice a major preoccupation in the novels of black Africa. From the earliest communal works of Chinua Achebe, to current works written by Chika Unigue and other African authors living in the metropoles of Europe, the archetype has been explored in relation to locale, age, gender, religion, class and race. It is a topic that allows for unending debate because of its complexities, its controversies, and its foothold on philosophies stretching back into the period of the ancient Greeks. With regard to the ancient nature of the subject, for example, M.D.A Freeman, editor of Lloyd's Introduction to Jurisprudence, alleges: "Some of the earliest thinking about justice is found in Aristotle. It was he who distinguished between 'corrective justice' and 'distributive justice'" (523). Expounding on the first of these, corrective justice, Freeman goes on to identify it with "the law of tort"; that is, laws relating to "crooked" conduct (Rutherford and Bone 326), or civil wrongs such as breach of contract between persons, institutions and so forth. He proceeds to make an interesting observation: "Most contemporary writing about justice is about distributive justice, about the appropriate distribution of goods" (523, emphasis added). Of course the "writing" he refers to is the expository type, produced by professional lawyers like himself, but it is engaging to think that his observations could apply also to creative writing. One can easily imagine the legal minds poring over the minutiae of an equitable distribution of resources, while the literary minds seize upon the kernel of the idea and render it in terms of fantasy, highlighting those themes that are of most importance to their own societies. A number of black African writers are actively engaged in this pursuit, and in many cases an absorbing theme is the link between distributive justice and knowledge. Reading through many African novels, one is struck by the regularity with which the degree of justice obtainable in a situation is allied to the balance of knowledge between the parties involved. Where there is an equitable distribution of knowledge, with both parties being relatively equally informed, there is a proportionately equal distribution of other social advantages, but where knowledge is one-sided then other things tend to follow suit. In fact, knowledge, or the want of it, appears to be critical in matters of fair play. This may not be news in itself, but it is revealing to see how African writers re-cast it. Two novels provide elaboration. The first is Cross of Gold by the South African novelist Lauretta Ngcobo, which appraises justice for the African in the well-known colonial context; and the second is Osiris Rising by the Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah, which appraises the same subject but within the modern forum. There is no evidence that the texts have been studied in this light before, or even studied as a pair. On the contrary, Cross of Gold seems to have successfully concealed itself from reviewers. The Companion to African Literatures, edited by Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe, provides the only information that could be found aside from biographical details. It states: "In her first novel, Cross of Gold, Ngcobo laments the lack of options open to young black South Africans. Set in the 1960s, the narrative traces the progress of a young Zulu man, Mandla, through a chilling catalogue of institutionalized oppression towards his violent end as a freedom-fighter" This is plainly more of a summary than a critique, but it suffices to show that the issue of justice is paramount in the novel, even if researchers have failed to comment on it. Osiris Rising is Ayi Kwei Armah's sixth novel. His earlier works are regularly attacked for their negativism and individualism, but Osiris Rising is evidence of a new vision first detected by the critic, Robert Fraser, some years back. …


A central theme of computational vision research has been the realization that reliable estimation of local scene properties requires propagating measurements across the image. Many authors have therefore suggested solving vision problems using architectures of locally connected units updating their activity in parallel. Unfortunately, the convergence of traditional relaxation methods on such architectures has proven to be excruciatingly slow and in general they do not guarantee that the stable point will be a global minimum.

In this paper we show that an architecture in which Bayesian Beliefs about image properties are propagated between neighboring units yields convergence times which are several orders of magnitude faster than traditional methods and avoids local minima. In particular our architecture is non-iterative in the sense of Marr [5]: at every time step, the local estimates at a given location are optimal given the information which has already been propagated to that location. We illustrate the algorithm's performance on real images and compare it to several existing methods.


Dust storms emerging in the Earth's major desert regions significantly influence weather processes, the CO2-cycle and the climate on a global scale. Their effects on organisms range from providing nutrition to vegetation and microbes to direct impact on human settlements, transportation and health. The detection of dust storms, the prediction of their development, and the estimation of sources are therefore of immediate interest to a wide range of scientific disciplines. Recent spatio-temporal resolution increases of remote sensing instruments have created new opportunities to understand these phenomena. The scale of the data and their inherent stochasticity, however, pose significant challenges. This thesis develops a combination of methods from statistics, image processing, and physics that paves the way for efficient probabilistic dust assessment using satellite imagery. As a first step, we propose a BHM that maps SEVIRI measurements to a predictor of the dust density. Case studies demonstrate that, as compared to linear methods, our LSM approach mitigates effects of signal intrinsic noise on further processing steps. Furthermore, an extensive cross-validation study is employed to show that LSM successfully adapts to intra-daily changes of the infrared data and yields outstanding dust detection accuracy. Physically, the dust density and its transport process are tied together by the continuity equation. A traditional approach to determine the flow field for a given density is the variational method of Horn and Schunck (HS), which simplifies the equation to compression free motion. We characterize the equation's solution as a GMRF and introduce compressible dynamics. This link between probabilistic and variational perspectives leads to applied and theoretical advances. It enables us to employ the INLA technique for computationally efficient inference and integration over hyper-parameters. The importance of allowing for compressible motion and treating the problem in a statistical manner is emphasized by simulation and case studies showing a significant reduction in errors of the estimated flow field. In addition, we demonstrate how our methodology provides uncertainty quantification, dust storm forecasts and estimation of emission sources. The thesis is concluded by examining the analytical properties of our approach. It is shown that, under mild restrictions on an underlying Sobolev space, existence and uniqueness of the compressible flow can be guaranteed on a continuous domain and a well-posed discretization exists. Lastly, our variational calculations point to an interpretation of the density as a solution to flow-parameterized SPDE naturally extending Matern fields to non-isotropy, which provides a further step towards a joint model of dust density and flow field.


Typhoon Sinlaku (2008) was a tropical system that affected many countries in East Asia. Besides the loss of life and economic damage, many scientific questions are associated with this system that need to be addressed. A series of numerical simulations were conducted in this study using V3.2 of the advanced research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model to examine the impacts of different terrain conditions and vortex structures on the eyewall evolution when Sinlaku was crossing Taiwan. The sensitivity experiments using different vortex structures show that a storm of the same intensity with a larger eyewall radius tends to induce stronger wind and rainfall at the outer part of the storm during the terrain-crossing period. This result suggests that the vortex contained with larger angular momentum is more favorable to reform a new eyewall from the contraction of the outer rainband after being affected by terrain. Based on these sensitivity experiments it is suggested that the topography and the tropical cyclone (TC) structure play important roles in regulating the outer tangential wind speed and modulating the unique eyewall evolutions for TCs passing Taiwan. A stronger vortex structure could lead to more precipitation at the outer part of the storm during the terrain influenced period, implying that the forecasters should pay attention to the storm intensity and also the storm structure which is an important dynamic feature that modulates the eyewall evolution and rainfall distribution of a landfalling storm.


Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Context: Outdoor play has been described as essential for healthy childhood development. Lack of safety is one barrier to children participating in outdoor play. Play Streets are an intervention to help increase outdoor play by temporarily closing public streets (closures are recurring or episodic) to traffic, creating a safe place for active play. Objective: This systematic grey literature review aimed to examine and describe what is known about implementing Play Streets using the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework, which is widely used in implementation research. Design: A systematic search for and review of nonacademic, or grey, literature was conducted using Academic Search Complete, Google Scholar, and a general Google search. Eligibility Criteria: Included literature was published in English, through December 2017, in nonacademic sources (ie, organizational/grant/municipal reports, newspapers, conference presentations, previous intervention advertisement materials, Web-based articles) or found in reference lists of academic articles about Play Streets, Pop-up Parks, or Open Streets/Ciclovías with a Play Street component. Study Selection: Resources were selected that documented Play Streets, which are defined as recurring or episodic temporary street closures to traffic that provide the public with a no-cost, safe space to actively play and be physically active. These approaches are designed primarily for youth and may include various marked play areas, loose equipment, and/or group activities. Main Outcome Measures: RE-AIM measures guided data extraction. Results: Of the 36 articles composing the final sample, 100% reported on implementation, although the level of detail varied. Only 14 of 36 articles reported measures of effectiveness; limited information was provided for other RE-AIM components. Conclusions: In the grey literature, there are several inconsistencies in how the implementation of Play Streets is reported and level of detail. Specific details regarding implementing and evaluating Play Streets are needed to support widespread replication.


At the beginning of the twentieth century, Burma was among the most prosperous territories in the East. Yet since gaining independence in 1948, its economy has struggled. Burma's developmental failure has often been attributed to gross mismanagement of the economy by the military who took power in 1962 but in this illuminating book, Ian Brown, one of the leading economic historians of Southeast Asia, provides a fresh examination of the country's economic past, thereby setting that failure in the context of the colonial period. For the first time, a review of Burma's economic experience in the final decades of British rule is integrated with an analysis of its economy since independence, providing a detailed understanding of the complex origins of Burma's economic failure in the second half of the twentieth century. This is a compelling introduction to Burma's political and economic history for students in Southeast Asian history, development studies and political science.


abstRact Deregulated expression of MYC is a driver of colorectal carcinogenesis, suggesting that inhibiting MYC may have significant therapeutic value. The PI3K and mTOR pathways control MYC turnover and translation, respectively, providing a rationale to target both pathways to inhibit MYC. Surprisingly, inhibition of PI3K does not promote MYC turnover in colon carcinoma cells, but enhances MYC expression because it promotes FOXO-dependent expression of growth factor receptors and MAPK-dependent transcription of MYC. Inhibition of mTOR fails to inhibit translation of MYC, because levels of 4EBPs are insufficient to fully sequester eIF4E and because an internal ribosomal entry site element in the 5′-untranslated region of the MYC mRNA permits translation independent of eIF4E. A small-molecule inhibitor of the translation factor eIF4A, silvestrol, bypasses the signaling feedbacks, reduces MYC translation, and inhibits tumor growth in a mouse model of colorectal tumorigenesis. We propose that targeting translation initiation is a promising strategy to limit MYC expression in colorectal tumors. SIGNIFICANCE: Inhibiting MYC function is likely to have a significant therapeutic impact in colorectal cancers. Here, we explore several strategies to target translation initiation in order to block MYC expression. We show that a small-molecule inhibitor of eIF4A inhibits MYC expression and suppresses tumor growth in vivo.


The Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan ( ML =7 .3) occurred on 21 September, 1999 and caused widespread damage over a large area in central Taiwan. A distinct rupture appeared along the Chelungpu fault, which marks the transition from a sedimentary basin to the thrust terrain of the Western foothills. In order to investigate the subsurface geometry of the Chelungpu fault and the structural features that may have influenced the sistribution of Chi-Chi aftershocks, a three-dimensional P-wave velocity model has been developed. The velocity model was determined by simultaneously inverting 41,347 P-wave arrival times from 2,582 pre-mainshock "background" earthquakes. The most striking feature imaged by the velocity model is the high velocity wedge extending from surface to about a 15 km depth beneath the Western foothills. The Chi-Chi mainshock just occurred in the transition area from the high velocity wedge to a basin-type low velocity material where the sub-surface geometry of the Chelungpu fault is proposed. The model also images an elongated high velocity volume at midcrustal depths beneath the eastern flank of the Central Range. West of the Chelungpu fault, another high velocity volume is found at the similar depths which could be associated with the Peikang basement high. Within these two high velocity volumes, the Western foothills and the Central Range exhibit relatively low velocity in the middle-crust. A possible explanation for the nucleation of the Chi-Chi earthquake, the thrust faulting and deformation in central Taiwan is attributed to the interactions between the three high-low-high velocity volumes in response to regional compression.


In contrast to other forms of family caregiving, becoming the parent or carer of a child with an intellectual disability (ID) implies an ongoing responsibility beyond the attainment of chronological adulthood (Meyers et al., 1985; Todd and Shearn, 1996). At the same time, a discourse of self-determination pervades policy around transition to adult services in ID in England (Valuing People, 2001). In this paper we present a subset of data from a project which aimed to examine how the process of transition from child to adult services in ID is managed. Using data from 8 tape-recorded meetings in which transitions were planned and discussed, we examine what happens when the views of the parent/carer and the young adult are in apparent conflict. Drawing on the growing body of interactional work in the field (eg Rapley, 2004; Finlay, Antaki and Walton, 2008), we use conversation analysis to examine how professionals manage and negotiate this conflict and how some points of view or courses of action ultimately prevail over others. While the discourse of self-determination may prevail in English policy terms, we show how the fact that parents or carers ultimately have a key role in enabling the choices of the young person has a significant impact on these interactions.


Purpose. To introduce the simplified Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS-28) and to employ the original Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS-76) and Simplified Acute Physiological Score (SAPS) version II in critically ill adult patients in order to describe the validity and reliability of TISS-28 as a suitable measure of quantifying nursing workload in the adult intensive care units (ICUs) of a public sector hospital in Johannesburg. Objectives. To describe the profile of patient admissions to the ICUs, to investigate the impact of the patients' profile on the requirements for nursing workload, and to validate the use of the TISS-28 as a measure for quantifying nursing workload in this setting. Design. A non-experimental, comparative, correlation and prospective two-staged design was utilised to meet the study objectives. Stage I involved face and content validation of TISS-28 by a panel of 6 ICU nurse experts. Stage II involved assessment of concurrent and construct validity as well as inter-rater reliability of TISS-28 using 105 participants drawn from trauma, cardiothoracic and multidisciplinary ICUs. Data necessary for the calculation of TISS-28, TISS-76 and SAPS II were recorded for each patient in the ICU at 24 and 48 hours after admission and in the wards after discharge within 24 - 48 hours. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data. Results. A content validity index (CVI) of 0.93 was found for TISS-28. A significant positive correlation was found between TISS-28 and TISS-76 scores (r=0.7857, p=0.0001). Although the correlation between TISS-28 and SAPS II was significant (p=0.0317), it was small (r=0.2098). A significant intra-class correlation (ICC) was found for the data collected from a sample of patients by the researcher and expert assistant researcher (ICC=0.99; p=0.0001). Conclusions. The findings support the validity and reliability of TISS-28 and hence its feasibility for use in South African ICUs. Recommendations for nursing education, practice, management and research are proposed.


We studied the effects of parasympathetic nerves on cerebral blood flow (CBF). The greater superficial petrosal nerve, which apparently supplies cholinergic fibers to cerebral vessels and the lacrimal gland, was sectioned on one side at the internal auditory meatus in anesthetized cats. CBF was measured with 15-/un microspheres. Section of the petrosal nerve did not alter resting CBF. In addition, electrical stimulation of the distal cut end of the petrosal nerve had no effect on total CBF. In one area of the brain, the caudate nucleus, stimulation increased blood flow from 29 ± 2 to 38 ± 2 (mean ± SE) ml/min per 100 g. Lacrimal gland blood flow increased from 42 ± 7 to 198 ± 32 ml/min per 100 g during petrosal stimulation, which indicates that the stimulus was potent. In the same experiments, CBF increased 3- to 4-fold during hypercapnia; thus, cerebral vessels were responsive to another dilator stimulus. In other experiments, petrosal nerve section did not alter the response of cerebral vessels to hypercapnia (Pco2 > 50 mm Hg) or hypoxia (Po2 < 34 mm Hg). We conclude: (1) there is little or no resting vasodilator tone provided to cerebral vessels by the petrosal nerve; (2) petrosal nerve stimulation has a major effect on blood flow to the lacrimal gland but does not increase CBF; and (3) petrosal nerve section has little effect on the response of cerebral vessels to hypercapnia or hypoxia. Circ Res 48: 62-69, 1981


The present paper compares the performance in terms of second order accurate welfare of opportunistic non-linear Taylor rules and with respect to traditional linear Taylor rules. The macroeconomic model representing the benchmark for the analysis includes capital accumulation (with quadratic costs of adjustment), price rigidities (quadratic approach), along the standard New-Keynesian approach. The model is solved up to second order approximation and welfare is evaluated according to several criteria (conditional to the non-stochastic steady state, unconditional, and according to a linear ad hoc function). The results show that: (i) the opportunistic rule is a Pareto improvement with respect to other monetary policy rules traditionally considered in the literature; (ii) the computation of welfare costs reveals that the burden of adjustment is almost entirely on labor supply fluctuations; (iii) increasing the degree of price rigidities and the degree of competition in the final goods markets, makes the opportunistic rule even more preferable with respect to the alternatives. Business Cycle statistics for the model with opportunistic rule show a large volatility in labor supply, with a limited volatility for the nominal interest rate.


Six congenic lines containing B complex recombinants R1 = B-F/B-L24, B-G23; R2 = B-F/B-L2, BG23; R3 = B-F/B-L2, B-G23; R4 = B-F/B-L2, B-G23; R5 = B-F/B-L21, B-G19; and R6R6 = B-F/B-L21, B-G23 were tested individually for antibody response against SRBC. R2, R3 and R4 arose from independent recombination events but are serologically identical. Each B complex recombinant was crossed to inbred Line UCD 003 (B17B17). After ten backcross generations to the inbred line, B complex heterozyogtes were mated to produce recombinant homozygous lines having 99.9% background gene uniformity. Birds of each line were injected intravenously with 1 mL of 2.5% SRBC at four and 11 weeks of age to induce primary and secondary antibody responses, respectively. Blood samples were collected 7 days post-injection. Microtiter methods were used to assay total anti-SRBC and mercaptoethanol-resistant (MER) serum antibody. All antibody titers were evaluated by least squares ANOVA with hatch and B recombinant genotype as main effects. Fisher's protected LSD was used to evaluate significant means. Genotypes R5R5 and R6R6 had significantly higher primary total antibody titer to SRBC compared with R1R1, R2R2, R3R3 and R4R4. Both R5 and R6 have BF21, a haplotype known for high antibody response to SRBC. Primary MER antibody response did not differ significantly among the genotypes. The total and ME-resistant secondary antibody titers of R5R5 chickens were significantly higher than the other five recombinants. These results indicate that congenic lines carrying six B complex recombinants differ in their primary and secondary antibody responses to SRBC.


The aim of this paper is to provide a standpoint on an emerging trend in sharing digital video content over the Internet. The paper is based on participative evaluative analysis of business model employed by digital video content sharing providers. The authors have found that because of wide diffusion of broadband and cheap video recording equipment, enabling digital video content to be shared online, and emerging business internet video sharing practice its users increasingly find themselves infringing the intellectual property rights of others. This has implications for anyone using online video resources. The paper offers an insight into the increasing popularity of online video and the resulting dilemmas encountered by internet researchers; it also offers a functional way for researchers, businesses and online users to understand the mechanism of infringement of the intellectual property rights relating to online video content. The paper further contributes to expanding the understanding of internet users behaviour in relation to digital video content creation and distribution in the context of challenges faced by cyberlaw.


The present thesis employed a mixed-methods research design spanning over two studies and an intermediate instrument development step to investigate the interactions between the presence of nonverbal and other visual cues with examinees, individual items, and item task types in video listening tests. The first study employed eye-tracking methodology to determine the specific visual cues to which examinees attend when interacting with a video-mediated listening test. The findings of Study I then informed the development of a new video-mediated listening test for Study II, which investigated the effect of the presence of visual cues on item and item task difficulty via many-facet Rasch modeling and qualitative item analysis. Individual examinee differences were also explored in both studies with respect to gender, proficiency, and perceptions of the two formats. Study I found that examinees view facial cues an average of 81% of the time regardless of task type, but spend significantly more time oriented toward the listener (i.e., the character who is not speaking) when presented with an implicit item. Direct viewing of gestures, despite their prominent place in the nonverbal communication literature, only accounted for approximately 1.35% of the total video time. Study II found that the presence of visual information exerted a facilitative effect on all items, but that it was significantly more pronounced with implicit items, despite the fact that they were more difficult than the explicit items in the audio format. Finally, no substantive interactions between proficiency, gender, or perception of the formats were observed between either viewing behavior or the facilitative effect of video. The thesis ultimately raises questions about the usefulness of video listening tests for listening comprehension assessment, as the effect appears to do little more that raise scores, and, in the case of implicit items, may obviate the need to comprehend the linguistic input in order to make correct inferences.


The simulation of problems in kinetic plasma physics are often challenging due to strongly coupled phenomena across multiple scales. In this work, we propose a wavelet-based coarse-grained numerical scheme, based on the framework of Equation-Free Projective Integration, for a kinetic plasma system modeled by the Vlasov-Poisson equations. A kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) code is used to simulate the micro scale dynamics for short time intervals. This allows the extrapolation over long time-steps of the behavior of a coarse wavelet-based discretization of the system. To validate the approach and the underlying concepts, we perform two numerical experiments: nonlinear propagation and steepening of an ion wave, and the expansion of a plasma slab in vacuum. The direct comparisons to resolved PIC simulations show good agreement. We show that the speedup of the projective integration scheme over the full particle scheme scales linearly with the system size, demonstrating efficiency while taking into account fully kinetic, non-Maxwellian effects. This suggests that the approach is potentially interesting for kinetic plasma problems with a large separation of scales, especially in higher dimensions.


Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG trinucleotide expansion mutation in the Huntingtin gene that leads to an artificially long polyglutamine sequence in the Huntingtin protein. A key feature of the disease is the intracellular aggregation of the Huntingtin exon 1 protein (Httex1) into micrometer sized inclusion bodies. The aggregation process of Httex1 has been extensively studied in vitro, however, the crucial early events of nucleation and aggregation in the cell remain elusive. Here, we studied the conformational dynamics and self-association of Httex1 by in-cell experiments using laser-induced temperature jumps and analytical ultracentrifugation. Both short and long polyglutamine variants of Httex1 underwent an apparent temperature-induced conformational collapse. The temperature jumps generated a population of kinetically trapped species selectively for the longer polyglutamine variants of Httex1 proteins. Their occurrence correlated with the formation of inclusion bodies suggesting that such species trigger further self-association.


Organosolv wheat straw lignin extracted using the CIMV processTM is a linear, low molecular weight, and natural phenolic oligomer. In this study, organosolv wheat straw lignin was tested as a substitute for 50% to 70% of the phenol in a phenol-formaldehyde-resol resin. The lignin was used without any chemical modification in a one-step synthesis reaction. Parameters such as reaction time and formaldehyde-to-phenol sources (phenol + lignin) mass ratios were optimized to achieve the requirements for industrial wood adhesives in terms of pH, viscosity, and dry matter. For the first time, the formaldehyde ratio was studied in order to reduce resin residual free formaldehyde below 1%. Lignin-phenol-formaldehyde resins were successfully synthesized up to a phenol substitution rate of 70% and showed physico-chemical properties close to standard phenol-formaldehyde resins. The thermo-mechanical properties analyzed in dynamic load thermo mechanical analysis were similar to those of the reference resins. Plywood panels manufactured using these lignin-based resins reached the specifications for industrial panels according to the French standard for exterior plywood panels. Moreover, the formaldehyde content of these plywoods was low enough to satisfy even the most rigorous legislation.


Summary Frizzled genes encode integral membrane proteins that function in multiple signal transduction pathways. They have been identified in diverse animals, from sponges to humans. Frizzled genes are well characterized for their functions in development and diseases. In this study we report the identification and characterisation of a Frizzled like protein in Dictyostelium. We identified a novel Frizzled like protein (FrzA) in the Dictyostelium database, which has a seven transmembrane region at the N-terminus but unlike other Frizzleds it lacks the CRD domain and instead has a Phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase (PIP5K) domain at the C-terminus. The FrzA gene is present on the chromosome 4 of the Dictyostelium genome. The expression pattern of FrzA revealed a single transcript of ~2.5kb in size in the northern blot analysis. To characterize the function of FrzA protein in vivo, cells carrying an inactivated FrzA gene were generated by homologous recombination. The FrzA- cells grew normal on a bacterial lawn or in axenic medium indicating normal pinocytosis as well as intact cytokinesis. However the cell size was slightly smaller when compared to the Ax2 wild type cells. Notable was the defect in development on bacterial plates. When developed on phosphate agar plates the FrzA- cells did not form tight aggregates during early development. However the loose aggregates gave rise to very few and small fruiting bodies, which were formed with a delay of 24hrs. Also, the FrzA- mutant exhibited a pronounced developmental defect when developed at low cell density, where the mutant cells did not aggregate or develop fruiting bodies. Northern blot analysis to characterise the developmental defect in the FrzA- mutant showed expression of genes expressed early in aggregation such as csA; cAR1, ACA, PDE and PDI. However, the pattern was strongly altered and showed prolonged expression in case of CAR1 nad PDE and delayed expression for ACA and csA. The mutant cells did not exhibit a directed migration towards cAMP and thus showing a defect in chemotaxis. However, application of the exogenous cAMP pulses restored the expression of contact sites A and adenylyl cyclase (ACA) transcripts necessary for aggregation and also rescued the defect in chemotaxis. Calcium oscillation, which is important for initiating aggregation and further development, was disturbed in the mutant. We could show that the FrzA- mutant did not sense the cell density factor (CMF) and produce IP3 in response to the CMF stimulation. We therefore presume that FrzA is involved in the early steps of aggregation during Dictyostelium development. Our results indicate that FrzA is a potential G protein coupled receptor for the ligand CMF to induce the CMF signaling during the early development of Dictyostelium.


The importance of writing ability for academic and career advancement is increasingly a focus of education research and policy globally. In response to concerns regarding students' writing competence, policymakers and curriculum designers have begun placing more emphasis on writing in nationwide academic standards. However, given the complexity of writing as a cognitively dynamic and socioculturally situated activity, representing the development of writing competence in standards that vary by grade level is challenging, and little is known regarding how educational systems vary in approaching this challenge. In response to calls for more worldwide writing research, we undertake a cross-national examination of writing standards with the aim of informing policymakers, those involved in the research and development of writing standards, and researchers interested in writing development, by comparing how three educational systems (in Denmark, Norway, and the US) have represented writing development in curricular standards. To that end, we ask: (1) How do the three educational systems variously frame writing development in grade-level distinctions for writing standards? (2) How do the developmental pathways implicated in these grade-level distinctions relate to theory and research on writing competence and its development?


The occurrence of the following nitrogenous pollutants, namely ammonium, nitrite and nitrate ions, was investigated in groundwater (borehole) sources of two villages in North West Province of South Africa. The study was carried out for two reasons. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) in Mmabatho had expressed anxiety over anomalous levels of nitrate ion (which can be reduced to the toxic nitrite ion) in some groundwater sources in the province (and this included some groundwater sources in the two villages). The concentrations of the nitrogenous pollutants were monitored by differential pulse polarography (DPP). This electrochemical method was selected because it is fast, has low detection limits and is virtually free of interferences. The study indicated that the main pollutant in the groundwater sources was nitrate ions whose concentrations were higher than 25 ppm in some borehole waters. This is more than two times higher than the 10 ppm N specification recommended by the South African National Standard (SANS) for drinking water. The study also indicated that the concentrations of ammonium and nitrite ions in the borehole waters studied are not a health risk to the communities. Important sources of groundwater pollution are pit latrines and maize fields treated with nitrogen fertilizers. It was found that groundwaters (borehole water) were polluted with nitrate ions when the distances of the pit latrines and fertilized maize fields were respectively less than 18 m and 13 m from the boreholes. The pollution was more pronounced when the water table was shallow. (Basie Vinger, Mbhuti Hlophe and Mailoo. Selvaratnam. Relationship between nitrogenous pollution of borehole waters and distances separating them from pit latrines and fertilized fields. Life Science Journal 2012;9(1):402- 407).(ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com . 59


Background Prevention of injury and illness in elite sport can have not only athlete health benefits but also potential positive performance gains. As the first step towards prevention, valid injury/illness surveillance data is needed. Objective Provide injury/illness epidemiology information on the Great Britain (GB) short-track speed skating squad. Design Longitudinal prospective surveillance study, recording injury/illness, and training/competition exposure data. Definitions for injury/illness, time-loss and performance-restriction were used to identify the rate and severity of athlete injuries/illnesses. Setting GB short-track speed skating National training centre, including domestic and international training/competition venues during the 2009/2010 season. Participants 11 (7 male; 4 female) National team athletes. Interventions Standardised report forms for injuries/illnesses were completed by medical, and competition/training exposure by coaching, support staff. Main outcome measure Injury/illness rate, severity and causes. Results There were 14 training (2.7/1000 athlete training hrs) and 2 competition (13/100 competition starts) injuries, and 12 illnesses. Equating 64% and 73% of the squad suffering at least one injury/illness, with 29 days and 5 days lost per injury/illness, respectively. Injuries to the thigh (38%), lumbar spine and knee (19% each) were most common, with 8, 19, and 43 days lost per injury, respectively. Overuse (gradual/sudden-onset: 38%), non-contact trauma (31%) and contact – static object (25%) were the most common causes of injury, with contact – static object (59d) and overuse (33d) most severe. Upper respiratory tract infection was the most common illness (75%), occurring more frequently around periods of competition and long haul travel. Conclusions Injury and illness seasonal prevalence was similar, but severity greater for injuries. Prevention initiatives targeting common and severe injuries/illnesses may be beneficial in reducing the number of athlete days lost to training/competition.


This thesis consists of two parts. The first part explores a 2-d edge dislocation model to demonstrate characteristics of Field Dislocation Mechanics (FDM) in modeling single and collective behavior of individual dislocations. The second work explores the possibility of modelling adiabatic shear bands propagation within the timespace averaged framework of Mesoscopic Field Dislocation Mechanics (MFDM). It is demonstrated that FDM reduces the study of a significant class of problems of discrete dislocation dynamics to questions of the modern theory of continuum plasticity. The explored questions include the existence of a Peierls stress in translationally-invariant media, dislocation annihilation, dislocation dissociation, finite-speed-of-propagation effects of elastic waves vis-a-vis dynamic dislocation fields, supersonic dislocation motion, and short-slip duration in rupture dynamics. A variety of dislocation pile-up problems are studied, primarily complementary to what can be dealt by existing classical pile-up models. In addition, the model suggests the possibility that the tip of a shear band can be modelled as a localized spatial gradient of elastic distortion with the dislocation density tensor in continuum dislocation mechanics; It is demonstrated that the localization can be moved by its theoretical driving force and forms a diffuse traveling band tip, thereby extending the thin layer of the deformation band. A 3-d, parallel finite element framework of MFDM is developed in a geometrically nonlinear context for the purpose of modelling shear bands. The numerical formulations and algorithm are presented in detail. Constitutive models appropriate for single crystal plasticity response and J2 plasticity with thermal softening are implemented.


The wooden base doors manufacturing in Malaysia is listed under mouldings industry. In
this manufacturing industry there are two types of decorative doors, that is solid door and
laminated panel door. The characteristic and properties of these doors are different each
other because of their structure. The laminated panel door is less durable than solid door
in external condition but the demand for this door increases every year. The laminated
panel door has extra attractive characteristic where this door provide the excellent pattern
in the surface area and it make the laminated panel door suitable to setup in the high class
premises like hotel and office building. This study provides a framework to process
laminated panel door with same equipment and machineries to produce 570 pieces of
solid door per day. With a few additional machine and manpower, the laminated panel
door could reduce the raw material cost where 85% of the cost was covered by sawn
timber. This condition can help the manufacturer to increase their margin from the
production activity and its can make sure the manufacturer will survive among the
competitors in the door manufacturing industries.


Metabolic syndrome is an important long term complication in chronic asymptomatic HIV-infected subjects under highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), because it can contribute to morbidity and mortality via cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, a predictive marker for early detection of metabolic syndrome may be necessary to prevent CVD in HIV-infected subjects. Retinol-binding protein-4 (RBP-4) has been shown to be associated with metabolic syndrome in various non-HIV-infected populations. We performed a cross-sectional study to evaluate whether serum RBP-4 levels are correlated with metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected subjects receiving HAART. In total, 98 HIV-infected Koreans who had been receiving HAART for at least 6 months were prospectively enrolled. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed according to the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria, and serum RBP-4 concentrations were measured using human RBP-4 sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serum RBP-4 levels were significantly higher in HIV-infected subjects receiving HAART with metabolic syndrome (n=33, 33.9±7.7 µg/mL) than in those without it (n=65, 29.9±7.2 µg/mL) (p=0.012). In multivariate linear regression analysis, the number of components of metabolic syndrome presented and waist circumference were independently, significantly correlated with RBP-4 (p=0.018 and 0.030, respectively). In conclusion, we revealed a strong correlation between RBP-4 and the number of components of metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected subjects receiving HAART.


Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a major food-borne infectious pathogen that causes diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic uremic syndrome. Here we report the complete chromosome sequence of an O157:H7 strain isolated from the Sakai outbreak, and the results of genomic comparison with a benign laboratory strain, K-12 MG1655. The chromosome is 5.5 Mb in size, 859 Kb larger than that of K-12. We identified a 4.1-Mb sequence highly conserved between the two strains, which may represent the fundamental backbone of the E. coli chromosome. The remaining 1.4-Mb sequence comprises of O157:H7-specific sequences, most of which are horizontally transferred foreign DNAs. The predominant roles of bacteriophages in the emergence of O157:H7 is evident by the presence of 24 prophages and prophage-like elements that occupy more than half of the O157:H7-specific sequences. The O157:H7 chromosome encodes 1632 proteins and 20 tRNAs that are not present in K-12. Among these, at least 131 proteins are assumed to have virulence-related functions. Genome-wide codon usage analysis suggested that the O157:H7-specific tRNAs are involved in the efficient expression of the strain-specific genes. A complete set of the genes specific to O157:H7 presented here sheds new insight into the pathogenicity and the physiology of O157:H7, and will open a way to fully understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the O157:H7 infection.


The ubiquitin-like protein NEDD8 is essential for activity of SCF-like ubiquitin ligase complexes. Here we identify and characterize NEDP1, a human NEDD8-specific protease. NEDP1 is highly conserved throughout evolution and equivalent proteins are present in yeast, plants, insects, and mammals. Bacterially expressed NEDP1 is capable of processing NEDD8 in vitro to expose the diglycine motif required for conjugation and can deconjugate NEDD8 from modified substrates. NEDP1 appears to be specific for NEDD8 as neither ubiquitin nor SUMO bearing COOH-terminal extensions are utilized as substrates. Inhibition studies and mutagenesis indicate that NEDP1 is a cysteine protease with sequence similarities to SUMO-specific proteases and the class of viral proteases typified by the adenovirus protease. In vivo NEDP1 deconjugates NEDD8 from a wide variety of substrates including the cullin component of SCF-like complexes. Thus NEDP1 is likely to play an important role in ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis by controlling the activity of SCF complexes.


Abstract We describe in detail a general strategy for implementing a conditional geometric phase between two spins. Combined with single-spin operations, this simple operation is a universal gate for quantum computation, in that any unitary transformation can be implemented with arbitrary precision using only single-spin operations and conditional phase shifts. Thus quantum geometrical phases can form the basis of any quantum computation. Moreover, as the induced conditional phase depends only on the geometry of the paths executed by the spins it is resilient to certain types of errors and offers the potential of a naturally fault-tolerant way of performing quantum computation.


Many classification tasks, such as spam filtering, intrusion detection, and terrorism detection, are complicated by an adversary who wishes to avoid detection. Previous work on adversarial classification has made the unrealistic assumption that the attacker has perfect knowledge of the classifier [2]. In this paper, we introduce the adversarial classifier reverse engineering (ACRE) learning problem, the task of learning sufficient information about a classifier to construct adversarial attacks. We present efficient algorithms for reverse engineering linear classifiers with either continuous or Boolean features and demonstrate their effectiveness using real data from the domain of spam filtering.


This book shows that although innovations in energy systems represent a core contribution to achieving national and international energy policy goals, theoretical approaches to understanding innovation differ radically between separate disciplinary perspectives. The need for greater mutual learning between these approaches is met within this study as international academics from economic, institutional and management backgrounds share and analyse their respective approaches, knowledge and insights.


Forests are an important part natural ecosystems, by for example providing food, fiber, habitat, and biodiversity, all of which contribute to stable natural systems. Assessing and modeling the structure and characteristics of forests, e.g., Leaf Area Index (LAI), volume, biomass, etc., can lead to a better understanding and management of these resources. In recent years, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) has been recognized as a tool that addresses many of the limitations of manual and traditional forest data collection methods. In this study, we propose a density-based approach for estimating the LAI in a structurally-complex forest environment, which contains variable and diverse structural attributes, e.g., non-circular stem forms, dense canopy and below-canopy vegetation cover, and a diverse species composition. In addition, 242 TLS scans were collected using a portable low-cost scanner, the Compact Biomass Lidar (CBL), in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HAVO), Hawaii Island, USA. LAI also was measured for 242 plots in the site, using an AccuPAR LP-80 ceptometer. The first step after cleaning the point cloud involved detecting the higher forest canopy in the light detection and ranging (lidar) point clouds, using normal change rate assessment. We then estimated Leaf Area Density (LAD), using a voxel-based approach, and divided the canopy point cloud into five layers in the Z (vertical) direction. These five layers subsequently were divided into voxels in the X direction, where the size of these voxels were obtained based on inter-quartile analysis and the number of points in each voxel. We hypothesized that the intensity returned to the lidar system from woody materials, like branches, would be higher than from leaves, due to the liquid water absorption feature of the leaves and higher reflectance for woody material at the 905 nm laser wavelength. We also differentiated between foliar and woody materials using edge detection in the images from projected point clouds and evaluated the density of these regions to support our hypothesis. Density of points, or the number of points divided by the volume of a grid, in a 3D grid size of 0.1 m, was calculated for each of the voxels. The grid size was determined by investigating the size of the branches in the lower portion of the canopy. Subsequently, we fitted a Kernel Density Estimator (KDE) to these values, with the threshold set based on half of the area under the curve in each of the density distributions. All the grids with a density below the threshold were labeled as leaves, while those grids above the threshold were identified as non-leaves. Finally, we modeled LAI using the point densities derived from the TLS point clouds and the listed analysis steps. This model resulted in an R 2 value of 0.88. We also estimated the LAI directly from lidar data using the point densities and calculating LAD, which is defined as the total one-sided leaf area per unit volume. LAI can be obtained as the sum of the LAD values in all the voxels. The accuracy of LAI estimation was 90%, with an RMSE value of 0.31, and an average overestimation of 9 % in TLS-derived LAI, when compared to field-measured LAI. Algorithm performance mainly was affected by the vegetation density and complexity of the canopy structures. It is worth noting that, since the LAI values cannot be considered spatially independent throughout all the plots in this site, we performed semivariogram analysis on the field-measured LAI data. This analysis showed that the LAI values can be assumed to be independent in plots that are at least 30 m apart. As a result, we divided the data into six subsets in which the plots were 30 m spaced. The R 2 values for these subsets, based on modeling of the field-measured LAI using leaf point density values, ranged between 0.84–0.96. The results bode well for using this method for efficient, automatic, and accurate/precise estimation of LAI values in complex forest environments, using a low-cost, rapid-scan TLS.


Hostages in the Middle Ages. By Adam J. Kosto. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. xvi, 281. $110.00.In modern English usage dealing with contemporary matters, the term hostage generally denotes a person who has been taken captive illegally and likely by force by a person or persons who want to extract something of value to the hostage-takers from those people who have an interest in maintaining the health and well-being of the hostage. Kidnapping, obviously is the most common form of hostage-taking, concerning which we tend to use the word victim, as in the victim of the crime, rather than hostage. We are particularly aware that contemporary "terrorists" are prone to take hostages, and the 1979 Geneva Convention makes all taking of hostages illegal under international law. (One might think, however, that the nuclear strategy of Mutually Assured Destruction [MAD] maintained by the US and the USSR well beyond 1979 amounted, in fact, to holding the people of each nation hostage.)It is the thrust of Hostages in the Middle Ages by Adam Kosto, professor of history at Columbia University, that during the Middle Ages, the terms used to denote hostage in Latin and in various vernacular languages generally meant something rather different from modern usage. Simply put, terms for hostage, it is argued, were applied to people who were handed over by their allies or friends or families to a third party in order to guarantee some sort of behavior by the hostage-givers in relation to the hostage-receivers. However, as numerous examples provided by Kosto make clear, hostages were in fact taken, demanded, and extorted, regardless of the words used to describe the situation, by those with a superior military position from those in an inferior position. The aim of the hostage-takers, by and large, was to guarantee the appropriate behavior of the hostage-givers, who, by and large, sought to avoid a fate even more drastic than that of handing over their brethren. This pattern of behavior is largely the same as that used during the pre-medieval era in the West.Kosto's monograph is divided into seven chapters of unequal length: 1. Hostages in the Middle Ages: Problems and Perspectives; 2. Varieties and Logics of Medieval Hostageship; 3. Hostages in the Early Middle Ages: Communication, Conversion and Structures of Alliance; 4. Hostages in the Later Middle Ages: Representation, Finance, and the Laws of War; 5. Conditional Hostages; 6. The King's Ransom; and 7. Hostageship Interpreted, from the Middle Ages to the Age of Terrorism. There are two maps, six tables that provide "quantitative" evidence, an exceptionally lengthy and useful bibliography of both sources and scholarly works, and a helpful Index.Kosto sets himself two basic tasks. First, he recognizes that medieval hostage-taking, as alluded to above, has a diverse history, and the author's aim is to trace that history. His second task is "a study of the way people employed hostages over time," which he believes "illuminates the changing ways people settled conflicts and made agreements in a legal and political environment very different from our own." He suggests that "on a very basic level, the changing ways medieval societies assigned importance and value to relationships and people" are illustrated through the institution of hostage- taking (1-2).In support of the two basic points noted above, Kosto intends to defend "three central claims." First, "medieval hostageship is best understood as a guarantee." But he goes on to claim that "Hostageship is rarely, however, simply a guarantee, and in that fact lies the institution's political power and utility." Secondly, Kosto claims that during "the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries" medieval hostageship changed. He goes on to imply that this has some relation to other "well-studied changes in society" during this two-century-long period. Third and finally, Kosto argues that the "persistence of hostageship through the later Middle Ages" leads him to suggest that "in its various forms [it] is characteristic of medieval political life. …


Recent years have seen an exponential increase in video and multimedia traffic transported over the internet and broadband access networks. This timely resource addresses the key challenge facing many service providers today: effective bandwidth management for supporting high-quality video delivery. Written by a recognized expert in the field, this practical book describes ways to optimize video transmission over emerging broadband networks. Moreover, the book explores new wireless access networks that can enable video connectivity both inside and outside the residential premise.


Tbe majority of concrete flyover constructions involve falsework. In 1976 the Braggs Committee in England after intensive investigation of falsework failures, had concluded that technical reasons and procedural inadequacies were the two principal causes for the failures. The Committee also recommended the appointment of a Temporary Works Coordinator who is given responsibility for all aspects of a particular falsework from inception to removal. The British standard on falsework (BS5975:1982) renamed the personnel in charge as Falsework Coordinator and
listed his principal activities. In Hong Kong an Independent Checking Engineer has been required in recent years responsible for the checking of temporary works designed by the Contractor. This paper reviews the control procedures of falsework design and construction and their relation with real cases of falsework failure in the region.


The phylogenomic annotation system PhyloGena was extended by a database back-end. Thereforeit was necessary to adapt the data-model of the software and to develop a database scheme.An interactive batch-mode was added to the program. Now it is possible to handle even verylarge datasets and to run many processes of PhyloGena in parallel on the same database. Furthermore,a component was developed which provides an automatic taxonomical classification of theinput sequences. Many new developed filters can be used to search the database for relevant results.This systems produces many phylogenetic trees. Additionally, the program PhyloSort wasseamlessly integrated to PhyloGena by an interface and a customized graphical user interface, tobe able to search for monophyletic clades.In this thesis, the theoretical backgrounds of phylogenetic analyses as well as their uses are introducedfirst. The used components and the new features of this software are presented from theusers and the developers point of view. Finally, the results of a test run are discussed, to demonstratethe capability of these new developments. Therefore 5000 sequences were analysedagainst different sequence databases. The results were compared to those of the programMEGAN, a popular program for analysis of meta-genomic datasets.