Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define event evaluation, develop a conceptual model of its process and elements, review pertinent literature, and draw conclusions pertaining both to the discourse on evaluation and its praxis. Design/methodology/approach – General review of literature and development of a conceptual model of the evaluation process. Findings – The review suggests that impact assessments have dominated, but are only one type of evaluation; research and papers on evaluating the worth of events has been minimal, while those on the evaluation of various management and marketing functions is fragmented. Research limitations/implications – It is concluded that little has been written about evaluation paradigms and systems, although the discourse on sustainability and triple bottom line accountability has led to a greater emphasis on non-economic considerations. Originality/value – The conceptual model of the evaluation process and its components offers a systematic approach to shaping evaluation discourse and methods. Conclusions are drawn on how to advance evaluation research and methods applied to events. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.


INTRODUCTION: The Physics of Notations (PoN) is a theory for the design of cognitively effective visual notations, emphasizing the need for design grounded in objective and verifiable rationale. Although increasingly applied, no systematic analysis of PoN applications has yet been performed to assess the theory's efficacy in practice. OBJECTIVES: Our primary objective was to assess the scope and verifiability of PoN applications. METHOD: We performed a systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed PoN applications. We analyzed what visual notations have been evaluated and designed using the PoN, for what reasons, to what degree applications consider requirements of their notation's users, and how verifiable these applications are. RESULTS: Seventy PoN applications were analyzed. We found major differences between applications evaluating existing notations and applications designing new notations. Particularly, in the case of new notations, we found that most applications adopted the PoN with little critical thought towards it, rarely considered its suitability for a particular context, and typically treated and discussed the PoN with few, if any, verifiable details and data. CONCLUSION: The results warrant consideration for those applying the PoN to do so carefully, and show the need for additional means to guide designers in systematically applying the PoN.


Aim: To investigate how three of the biggest political parties in Sweden made use of socialmedia in the election campaign in 2010, and to get a picture of how the parties perceive therole of social media in political communication today and in the future.Method: The research is conducted through personal interviews and qualitative textualanalysis.Theory: The theory that the study is based on is Habermas theory of the public sphereMain results: Social media is today an excellent channel for communication and informationbetween politicians and voters, and they will probably become increasingly important inpolitical communication in the future. So far, they are only an addition to the traditional mediaand are in no way substituted for them. Internet and some social media is an excellent forumfor political debate and opinion-former.


This paper reconsiders American and Bermudan callable bonds and highlights their key differences. We illustrate how the level of interest rate critical for calling Bermudan Callable Bonds (BCBs) can differ from those critical for calling American Callable Bonds (ACBs). We also stress that it is costly for ACB issuers to follow a discrete early call policy. An empirical simulation finally suggests that every US bond issuer having included a call provision between 1993 and 2011 would have called back their debt especially those holding a Bermudan style redemption option. Compared to ACBs, BCBs can more favorably face unexpected changes of the term structure of interest rates. We observe that a discrete monitoring policy for ACBs may be approximately as profitable as the Bermudan regular call policy, but BCBs are less expensive than ACBs at issuance. Our empirical simulation explains why investors require call deferment periods in call provisions.


Abstract Purpose: To explore parents' perspectives on rehabilitation of their child with cerebral palsy and their information needs. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with parents of children with CP from India (n = 11) and Canada (n = 7). Data were analyzed through an interpretive description approach using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework. Results: Body Structure and Function: Indian parents were more focused on fixing body structure and function challenges, and independent walking, than Canadian parents. Activity and Participation: All Canadian children were actively involved in school and fun activities in the community. Due to lack of accessible services, Indian children had less school and community participation. Environmental factors: accessible communities, occupational therapy services and greater use of assistive devices enabled Canadian children. Social and cultural beliefs, lack of access to services and inaccessible communities were the barriers experienced by Indian parents. Information needs: both groups needed information to make their child more functional. Conclusion: Canadian parents experience a more enabling environment and express a more social view of their child's health, suggesting both education on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health principles and services are needed to better enable and empower Indian parents. There remains a need for healthcare professionals and services in both countries to be more family-centered. Implications for rehabilitation To help parents in rehabilitating their children with cerebral palsy (CP), in India, there is a need to (1) incorporate ICF education into medical curricula and clinical practice; (2) increase the availability of skilled healthcare professionals and centers; (3) make infrastructural and policy reforms to make the society more accessible for the disabled children. Education, counseling and awareness about CP might help both groups of parents, society, and HCPs to change their beliefs and attitudes regarding CP and its rehabilitation. Both countries would benefit from user-friendly and transparent policies. This will help parents to become more aware of them and use them in the rehabilitation process.


The mineral profile of sour cherry juice was investigated to detect possible adulterations and especially to estimate fruit content in ready to drink beverages. For this purpose, sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and phosphorus (P) content of 103 sour cherry juice samples, collected from different companies in three different years (2009, 2010, 2011), were determined. It was found that the sour cherry juice at 13.50 brix included 8-92 mg/kg of Na, 11892455 mg/kg of K, 35-198 mg/kg of Ca, 75-160 mg/kg of Mg and 124-180 mg/kg of P. Step-wise regression was applied to determine an appropriate model for estimating the fruit content in sour cherry juice. The equation with two parameters (y=5.881+0.5453 P+0.0058 K) was determined to be the best fitting model.


The fossil record plays a key role in reconstructing deep evolutionary relationships through its documentation of the early diverging stem groups leading to extant phyla. In the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, two famously problematic worms, Odontogriphus and Wiwaxia, have recently been reinterpreted as stem‐group molluscs based on their shared expression of a putative radula and putative ctenidia in Odontogriphus. 1 More detailed analysis of these fossil structures, however, reveals pronounced anatomical and histological discrepancies with molluscan analogues, such that they are more reliably interpreted as primitive features of the superphylum Lophotrochozoa. In the absence of any obviously derived characters, Odontogriphus could be placed in the stem group of the Lophotrochozoa or on the stem of any of its constituent phyla, whereas the dorsal covering of chaetae in Wiwaxia identifies it as a stem‐group polychaete. Despite their close relationship, these two jawed, segmented worms could conceivably represent the early stages of two separate phyla. BioEssays 28: 1161–1166, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Typically handheld AR systems utilize a single back-facing camera and the screen in order to implement device transparency. This creates the dual-view problem a consequence of virtual transparency which does not match true transparency - what the user would see looking through a transparent glass pane. The dual-view problem affects usability of handheld AR systems and is commonly addressed though user-perspective rendering solutions. Whilst such approach produces promising results, the complexity of implementing user-perspective rendering and the fact it does not solve all sources that produce the dual-view problem, means it only ever addresses part of the problem. This paper seeks to create a more complete solution for the dual-view problem that will be applicable to readily available handheld-device. We pursue this goal by designing, implementing and evaluating a novel interaction paradigm we call `contact-view'. By utilizing the back and front-facing camera and the environment base-plane texture - predefined or incrementally created on the fly, we enable placing the device directly on top of the base-plane. As long as the position of the phone in relation to the base-plane is known, appropriate segment of the occluded base-plane can be rendered on the device screen, result of which is transparency in which dual-view problem is eliminated.


Although much has been written about emergency contraception and its importance as a contraceptive option for women much less information has been shown regarding its introduction and scale-up in different country contexts. Countries are therefore left with few resources from which to learn. This report seeks to address this challenge and add to the existing literature on emergency contraception by illustrating ways in which governments nongovernmental organizations and the private sector have worked together and separately to introduce and scale up emergency contraception within their respective countries. The report includes a literature review which gives a comprehensive background on emergency contraception and then examines the introduction and scale-up of emergency contraceptive pills in four geographically disparate countries: Mexico Bangladesh Kenya and Senegal. Each country experience is analyzed using two frameworks – the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception's 9 Steps and the World Health Organization's Building Blocks for Health Systems Strengthening. Following the case studies a further analysis compares and contrasts the various elements within each effort that led to successful introduction and later scale-up and provides corresponding recommendations based on the analysis.


Zolite P was synthesized from silica of rice husk ash (SRHA) via alkaline hydrothermal technique with sodium aluminate and sodium hydroxide. The zeolite produced was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and, the morphology was analysed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and the elemental analysis was carried out by Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The synthesized zeolite P was exchanged with cerium (III) and cerium (IV) ions. The ability of Ce(III) exchanged zeolite P (Ce3ZP) and Ce(IV) exchanged zeolite P (Ce4ZP) to sorb and remove arsenic (V) from aqueous solution was investigated. Parameters investigated for arsenic removal include pH, initial As(V) concentration, temperature and effect of foreign ions on the sorption. The sorbent was tested for removal of arsenic from industrial wastewater samples of wood treatment industry which utilized the largest amount of arsenic compound. The XRD pattern shows that the zeolite produced was zeolite P which has GIS frame work topology of type NaP1. The XRD intensity of zeolite P increases for increased ratio of SRHA:Al during preparation, indicating the progress in crystallization of the product. SEM-EDX analysis shows that the zeolite P produced contains Si/Al ratio of 2:1 with the formula of Na6Al6Si12O36.8H2O. The formation of zeolite was also confirm by FTIR absorption at 1040 cm-1 and 432 cm-1, the regions commonly observed in aluminosilicate due to Si-O and Al-O stretching and bending modes. Exchange capacity of Ce(III) and Ce(IV) in the zeolite increased with increased in temperature with highest loading obtained 75.4 and 170.0 mg/g, respectively. The existence of cerium in the zeolite was confirmed by EDX spectrum. The resulting cerium exchanged zeolites were used for As(V) sorption experiments.
Sorption of As(V) by both modified zeolite occurred over a wide pH range, which was pH 1 – 11 for Ce4ZP and pH 3-10 for Ce3ZP with maximum sorption at about pH 4. The sorption capacities increased with increasing initial As(V) concentrations and followed the Langmuir model with maximum sorption capacities of 22.0 mg g-1 at 25°C and increased to 34.0 mg g-1 at 90°C. This is higher than the values for Ce3ZP which was 8.72 mg g-1 at 25°C and increased to 23.42 mg g-1 at 90°C, indicating that the As(V) sorption process is endothermic. The endothermic nature of sorption process was confirmed by the positive value of sorption enthalpy change, ΔH°. The free energy change, ΔG° for the sorption was negative showing that the sorption process is spontaneous. The increase in ΔS0 upon As(V) sorption could be partly due to the release of coordinated water molecules from Ce(IV) ion in the zeolite. Kinetic study showed that the As(V) sorption by Ce4ZP follows a second order kinetic model.
The unmodified Zeolite P did not significantly remove As(V). This result infers that the active sorption site for As in the Zeolite was the cerium metal ion. In the acidic to natural pH range, sorption of arsenate ion was also followed by increase in pH of the solution from its initial value. The mechanism of sorption process could be a ligand exchange reaction with hydroxide ion on the surface of cerium ion and the formation of surface complexes between oxygen on the arsenate with the cerium metal ion on the zeolite.
The selectivity study showed that the sorption of As(V) was affected by the presence of phosphate but not affected with bromide, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, carbonate and chromium. The Ce exchanged zeolite was found effective for the removal of arsenic in wastewater samples from wood treatment industries.


For many years it has been an advocacy aim of the EAHP to improve the harmonisation and recognition arrangements of hospital pharmacy specialisation across Europe. The purpose behind the aim is to help ensure that patient care and treatment from hospital pharmacy is delivered to common high standards of safety and efficacy, that increasing value be delivered by the hospital pharmacist in patient treatment and that the ever more demanding and complex requirements of medicines use in hospital settings continue to be met.

As stated in the EAHP's most recent 2011 policy on specialisation, the basic education of 5 years for pharmacists as set out in the European Directive on Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications 2005/36/EC does not actually provide an individual with sufficient competencies to work independently in the hospital pharmacy environment. Additional competencies are necessary to fully understand the processes in hospitals and to manage the specific requirements of certain patient groups that do not otherwise frequently present in other fields of pharmacy—for example, in paediatric, …


This paper systematically studies the interrelationship between surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) retrieval and atmospheric correction. The study uses the atmospheric correction scheme of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and angular sampling expected for MODIS and the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) for different land cover types and optical depths of aerosols. The results show the following two points. 1) Even for a nonturbid atmosphere, the assumption of a Lambertian surface in atmospheric correction causes relative errors in the retrieved surface reflectances that average from 2 to 7% in the red and near-infrared bands, with worst cases showing errors of up to about 15% for turbid conditions. Consequently, it is necessary for improved accuracy to consider surface anisotropy in atmospheric correction. 2) Surface BRDF retrieval and atmospheric correction can be coupled in a converging iteration loop that improves the quality of atmospheric correction and subsequent BRDF retrievals. For example, performing two steps of the iteration loop is already sufficient to obtain mean relative errors of less than 1% in the retrieved surface reflectances even for an atmospheric aerosol optical depth of 0.4. As BRDF retrieval accuracies improve, so do bihemispherical albedo retrieval accuracies, with mean relative errors being 1-5% when using a Lambertian assumption and less than 1% after two iteration steps.


Abstract:In the six years since the first post-war elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country has developed a technically impressive democratic system, with the help of a large corps of international experts supported by considerable administrative authority. Yet advanced democratic procedures have continued to generate outcomes that international authorities believe to be inimical to the creation of a durable, integrated, and fully democratic state in Bosnia. Specifically, the wartime nationalist parties continue to dominate in free and fair electoral contests. Elections are part of a larger strategy framed by the Dayton peace accord to rebuild Bosnia as a multiethnic state, a strategy which relies in part on the reconfiguring of underlying political cleavages and a transformation in the way interests are both articulated and aggregated by political parties. This article examines the part elections have played in this state-building strategy and highlights the limitations of that strategy.


As the main power source for electric vehicles, lithium-ion power batteries have always been the focus of public safety. Lithium-ion batteries may occur thermal runaway after internal short circuit caused by mechanical abuse. It is extremely important to study the influencing factors of thermal runaway. In this article, the quasi-static battery extrusion test is used to study the changes of load, voltage, and temperature during the short circuit process of lithium-ion batteries and to observe the influencing factors that may cause thermal runaway. The electrochemical–electrical–thermal multi-physics coupling model was established by comsol multi-physics simulation software to simulate the thermal behavior of the battery after short circuit. The effects of short circuit cases, state of charge (SOC), and voltage maintenance time after short circuit on the thermal runaway of the battery are studied. By comparing the experimental results, the short circuit case of the battery caused by mechanical abuse is judged. The research results have played a certain reference role in the future research on battery mechanical abuse and internal short circuit.


Advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a poor prognosis with few treatment options available for patients after failure of first-line therapy. Nivolumab is the first immune checkpoint inhibitor targeting the PD-1 to be approved in recurrent NSCLC with squamous and nonsquamous histology. More recently, pembrolizumab has also been approved as salvage therapy in PD-L1-positive recurrent NSCLC. The success of immunotherapy in malignant melanoma, previously a disease with no effective treatment, has generated optimism and expectation that some of the checkpoint inhibitors currently in clinical development will soon become available as first-line therapy and hence improve outcomes for the vast majority of patients with advanced NSCLC. This article summarizes the progress accomplished in the field and discusses controversies surrounding the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors.


The anthology New Tools in Welfare Research presents various tools for qualitative and quantitative research on welfare, building on both new and established theoretical perspectives and research methods. The contributions were developed within the framework of the Nordic Summer University, and were thus influenced by different research traditions at colleges and universities in the Nordic countries.Research tools that get people involved are described; people's own statements and experiences are utilized and interpreted on the basis of established theoretical perspectives such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and interactionism. The research approaches presented enable people of different ages to participate in formulating the image of their living conditions. This can be done together with children, adults, or old people in different life situations. It is also shown that comparative approaches may offer new insight into the various dimensions of the welfare system as a cultural practice.


Halothane was introduced as an anesthetic in the 1950s and was considered a revolutionary agent in the field of anesthesia. Soon after, halothane-induced hepatitis became a concern, leading to the development of less toxic gases that induced a lower incidence of side effects. Two types of halothane-related hepatotoxicity have been described: type 1, or mild hepatitis, is associated with elevated transaminase levels and self-limiting symptoms, and type 2, or severe hepatotoxicity, is associated with acute fatal liver failure and is fatal in most cases. Hepatotoxicity is most likely to be immune-related, based on much evidence. Free radicals that are produced by the metabolism of halothane in the liver can modify cellular proteins and introduce neo-antigens to the immune system. Sensitization to these neo-antigens induces a more severe response after multiple exposures; most cases of type 2 hepatitis occur after repeated contact. New halogenated anesthetics such as enflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane, are not metabolized in the liver, causing few cases of sensitization. Compared with halothane, these anesthetics are expensive. As a result, replacement of halothane with new halogenated anesthetics requires a precise cost-benefit analysis, especially in developing countries that have low health care budgets.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The Phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) gene was reported recently to be associated with ischemic stroke in an Icelandic population. The association was found predominately with large vessel and cardioembolic stroke. However, 2 recent reports were unable to confirm this association, although a trend toward association with cardioembolic stroke was reported. None of the reports included significant proportions of blacks. We tested for genotype and haplotype association of polymorphisms of the PDE4D gene with ischemic stroke in a population-based, biracial, case-control study.

METHODS
A total of 357 cases of ischemic stroke and 482 stroke-free controls from the same community were examined. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were chosen based on significant associations reported previously. Linkage disequilibrium (LD), SNP, and haplotype association analysis was performed using PHASE 2.0 and Haploview 3.2.

RESULTS
Although several univariate associations were identified, only 1 SNP (rs2910829) was found to be significantly associated with cardioembolic stroke among both whites and blacks. The rs152312 SNP was associated with cardioembolic stroke among whites after multiple comparison corrections. The same SNP was not associated with cardioembolic stroke among blacks. However, significant haplotype association was identified for both whites and blacks for all ischemic stroke, cardioembolic stroke, and stroke of unknown origin. Haplotype association was identified for small vessel stroke among whites.

CONCLUSIONS
PDE4D is a risk factor for ischemic stroke and, in particular, for cardioembolic stroke, among whites and blacks. Further study of this gene is warranted.


Imagined Economies: The Sources of Russian Regionalism. By Yoshiko M. Herrera. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 318p. $75.00. In her book Yoshiko Herrera crafts an impressive theoretical argument by first noting and then rectifying an important intellectual inconsistency in contemporary studies of nationalism. While these studies typically view identities as multiple and constructed, they nevertheless tend to treat economic interests as unproblematic and objective. Herrera challenges this assumption by arguing that economic understandings are constructed as well, and that these constructed views of economic interests will affect the relative propensity of substate regions to press for greater autonomy or secession. As she succinctly puts it, "The central argument of this book is that variation in regional activism is explained not by differences in structural economic conditions but by differences in understandings of the economy, which, in particular institutional contexts, resulted in differences in the imagination of economic interests" (p. 11).


Ensemble-of-trees algorithms have emerged to the forefront of machine learning due to their ability to generate high forecasting accuracy for a wide array of regression and classification problems. Classic ensemble methodologies such as random forests (RF) and stochastic gradient boosting (SGB) rely on algorithmic procedures to generate fits to data. In contrast, more recent ensemble techniques such as Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) and Dynamic Trees (DT) focus on an underlying Bayesian probability model to generate the fits. These new probability model-based approaches show much promise versus their algorithmic counterparts, but also offer substantial room for improvement. The first part of this thesis focuses on methodological advances for ensemble-of-trees techniques with an emphasis on the more recent Bayesian approaches. In particular, we focus on extensions of BART in four distinct ways. First, we develop a more robust implementation of BART for both research and application. We then develop a principled approach to variable selection for BART as well as the ability to naturally incorporate prior information on important covariates into the algorithm. Next, we propose a method for handling missing data that relies on the recursive structure of decision trees and does not require imputation. Last, we relax the assumption of homoskedasticity in the BART model to allow for parametric modeling of heteroskedasticity. The second part of this thesis returns to the classic algorithmic approaches in the context of classification problems with asymmetric costs of forecasting errors. First we consider the performance of RF and SGB more broadly and demonstrate its superiority to logistic regression for applications in criminology with asymmetric costs. Next, we use RF to forecast unplanned hospital readmissions upon patient discharge with asymmetric costs taken into account. Finally, we explore the construction of stable decision trees for forecasts of violence during probation hearings in court systems. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Statistics First Advisor Richard Berk


OBJECTIVES
To determine the mortality and morbidity for infants weighing 401 to 1500 g (very low birth weight [VLBW]) at birth by gestational age, birth weight, and gender.

STUDY DESIGN
Perinatal data were collected prospectively on an inborn cohort from January 1995 through December 1996 by 14 participating centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network and were compared with the corresponding data from previous reports. Sociodemographic factors, perinatal events, and the neonatal course to 120 days of life, discharge, or death were evaluated.

RESULTS
Eighty four percent of 4438 infants weighing 501 to 1500 g at birth survived until discharge to home or to a long-term care facility (compared with 80% in 1991 and 74% in 1988). Survival to discharge was 54% for infants 501 to 750 g at birth, 86% for those 751 to 1000 g, 94% for those 1001 to 1250 g, and 97% for those 1251 to 1500g. The incidence of chronic lung disease (CLD; defined as receiving supplemental oxygen at 36 weeks' postmenstrual age; 23%), proven necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC; 7%), and severe intracranial hemorrhage (ICH; grade III or IV; 11%) remained unchanged between 1991 and 1996. Furthermore, 97% of all VLBW infants and 99% of infants weighing <1000 g at birth had weights less than the 10th percentile at 36 weeks' postmenstrual age. Mortality for 195 infants weighing 401 to 500 g was 89%, with nearly all survivors developing CLD. Mortality in infants weighing 501 to 600 g was 71%; among survivors, 62% had CLD, 35% had severe ICH, and 15% had proven NEC.

CONCLUSIONS
Survival for infants between 501 and 1500 g at birth continued to improve, particularly for infants weighing <1000 g at birth. This improvement in survival was not associated with an increase in major morbidities, because the incidence of CLD, proven NEC, and severe ICH did not change. However, poor postnatal growth remains a major concern, occurring in 99% of infants weighing <1000 g at birth. Mortality and major morbidity (CLD, severe ICH, and NEC) remain high for the smallest infants, particularly those weighing <600 g at birth.


This paper studies whether people can avoid punishment by remaining willfully ignorant about possible negative consequences of their actions for others. We employ a laboratory experiment, using modified dictator games in which a dictator can remain willfully ignorant about the payoff consequences of his decision for a receiver. A third party can punish the dictator after observing the dictator's decision and the resulting payoffs. On the one hand, willfully ignorant dictators are punished less if their actions lead to unfair outcomes than dictators who reveal the consequences before implementing the same outcome. On the other hand, willfully ignorant dictators are punished more than revealing dictators if their actions do not lead to unfair outcomes. We conclude that willful ignorance can circumvent blame when unfair outcomes result, but that the act of remaining willfully ignorant is itself punished, regardless of the outcome.


We extend generative stochastic networks to supervised learning of representations. In particular, we introduce a hybrid training objective considering a generative and discriminative cost function governed by a trade-off parameter λ. We use a new variant of network training involving noise injection, i.e. walkback training, to jointly optimize multiple network layers. Neither additional regularization constraints, such as l1, l2 norms or dropout variants, nor pooling- or convolutional layers were added. Nevertheless, we are able to obtain state-of-the-art performance on the MNIST dataset, without using permutation invariant digits and outperform baseline models on sub-variants of the MNIST and rectangles dataset significantly.


How does an upstream firm determine the size of its distribution network, and what is the role of vertical restraints? To address these questions we develop and estimate two models of outlet entry, starting from the basic trade-off between market expansion and fixed costs. In the coordinated entry model the upstream firm sets a market-specific wholesale price to implement the first-best number of outlets. In the restricted/free entry model the upstream firm has insufficient price instruments to target local markets. It sets a uniform wholesale price, and restricts entry in markets where market expansion is low, while allowing free entry elsewhere. We apply the two models to magazine distribution. The evidence is more consistent with the second model where the upstream firm sets a uniform wholesale price and restricts the number of entry licenses. We use the model to assess the profitability of modifying the vertical restraints. A government ban on restriced licensing would reduce profits by a limited amount, so that the business rationale for restricted licensing should be sought elsewhere. Furthermore, introducing market-specific wholesale prices would implement the first-best, but the profit increase would be small, providing a rationale for the current uniform wholesale prices.


Hard Thresholding Pursuit (HTP) is an iterative greedy selection procedure for finding sparse solutions of underdetermined linear systems. This method has been shown to have strong theoretical guarantee and impressive numerical performance. In this article, we generalize HTP from compressed sensing to a generic problem setup of sparsity-constrained convex optimization. The proposed algorithm iterates between a standard gradient descent step and a hard-thresholding step with or without debiasing. We analyze the parameter estimation and sparsity recovery performance of the proposed method. Extensive numerical results confirm our theoretical predictions and demonstrate the superiority of our method to the state-of-the-art greedy selection methods in sparse linear regression, sparse logistic regression and sparse precision matrix estimation problems.


The rapid development of antimicrobial resistance is threatening mankind to such an extent that the World Health Organization expects more deaths from infections than from cancer in 2050 if current trends continue. To avoid this scenario, new classes of anti-infectives must urgently be developed. Antibiotics with new modes of action are needed, but other concepts are also currently being pursued. Targeting bacterial virulence as a means of blocking pathogenicity is a promising new strategy for disarming pathogens. Furthermore, it is believed that this new approach is less susceptible towards resistance development. In this review, recent examples of anti-infective compounds acting on several types of bacterial targets, e.g., adhesins, toxins and bacterial communication, are described.


Scarce reporting of effects of aging time and temperatures on Titania Reinforced Calcium Phosphate (T-CaP) based precursors, sols and thin film coatings inspired the authors to carry out the present investigation. Sol-gel technique was adopted and pH, density and rheological properties were comprehensively studied followed by the analysis of aging and sintering temperatures on structural and various mechanical properties of spin coated T-CaP thin films on Ti6Al4V was also carried out. 5°C aged sol was observed to be more acidic and viscous than the sol aged at 25°C. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed the multiphasic nature of coatings primarily comprised of Hydroxyapatite (HAP), Sodium Titanate, Calcium Titanate followed by traces of Rutile and Anatase phases. Maximum %weight of HAP phase (43.69%) was noted in coatings prepared from 5°C aged sol followed by sintering at 900°C respectively. Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed the smooth and crack-free coatings prepared from 25°C aged sol; whereas cracks were observed in 5 °C aged sol coatings, but crack density decreased with the increase of sintering temperature. Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDX) complemented XRD results. Coatings prepared from sols aged at 5°C were rougher than one prepared from 25°C aged sol; although roughness of coatings remained <1μm. Micro-hardness examination revealed the harder nature of 5°C aged sol coatings and former increased with the rise of sintering temperature. 5℃ aged sol coatings were found to be more porous. Lower aging temperature developed more bioactive, rougher, harder and porous T-CaP coatings.


Semiempirical and ab initio calculations have been performed on pyrazoles with 3- or 5-cationic substituents, e.g. NH3+ and N2+, with the aim of discovering if these substituents were able to shift the tautomeric equilibrium towards one of the tautomers. The ammonium substituent is not amenable to the experiment since 3(5)-aminopyrazoles protonate on the pyrazole ring; however, pyrazole-3(5)-diazonium is stable and has been studied. The conclusion is that these equilibria are strongly shifted towards the 3-substituted tautomer. The azide substituent behaves normally in the sense that both tautomers are of similar stability.


ABSTRACT This study uses a Foucault-inspired discourse analysis to examine two ideas about learning which reinforce the terminology whereby theory means campus-based training and practice means work placements. The purpose is to problematise this theory–practice terminology and provide scope for a non-dualistic alternative. The ideas examined are the idea of theory vs. practice as the point of departure for learning and the idea of theory and practice as harmonious points of departure for learning. These ideas were voiced by interviewed students who discussed the usual design of Work-integrated Learning (WIL) whereby students go to university to learn 'theory' and into working life to learn 'practice'. The analysis shows how the ideas are formed by different ranking orders between theory and practice which are mutually exclusive, while also working together to reinforce the theory–practice terminology. The discussion on how a non-dualistic terminology can emerge highlights how the usual WIL design forms a dualistic setting where the theory–practice terminology thrives and how designing WIL at a third place between university and working life can provide scope for the terminology we seek.


Although regulatory agencies have been created all over the world in the past decade, their design may vary considerably. In this report, we offer more insight into the variation in design by presenting the findings of a worldwide survey among regulators in seven policy areas: competition, energy, environmental, financial market, food safety, pharmaceutical and telecommunication policy. On the basis of the answers of 175 regulatory agencies from 88 countries, we conclude that although their design shows huge variation, a picture of the modal regulator can be drawn. The modal regulator is managed by a head and board members who serve for a fixed and renewable term of five years, who can be dismissed for reasons unrelated to their decisions, who cannot hold other offices in the public administration, and who need to be formally independent. The regulator is typically obliged to submit to politicians an annual report, whilst politicians can give the regulator policy instructions, can start an inquiry into the regulator's operations, and can control the budget. Finally, the regulator is formally independent, has exclusive competence, decides on its own internal organisation and personnel policy, and makes policy decisions which cannot be reversed by another body than a court.


We study the phase of the atomic polarization in the process of high-order harmonic generation. Its dependence on the laser intensity and the harmonic order induce a frequency variation in time (chirp) respectively of the harmonic pulses and attosecond pulses. We review the recent experimental results on the temporal characterization of the harmonic emission and show that measurements performed using very different techniques (like XFROG and RABITT), probing the phase in different parameter spaces, can be connected through the mixed phase derivatives, demonstrating the common underlying physics.


Netball is a sport which demands high intensity locomotion across the court. As a result, athletes must be physically resilient. While there has been a lot of research on fatigue monitoring and perceived risk of injury, few studies have investigated fatigue in netball and how it influences performance capacity. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between acute chronic workload (ACWL) ratios and the capacity to perform. Eight provincial representative athletes (age = 20 ± 3 years, body mass = 76.2 ± 9.9 kg, height = 179 ± 7cm) volunteered to complete countermovement jump (CMJ) testing twice a week throughout the season, while also monitoring their physical exertion using session rating of perceived exertion (RPE). All data was analysed using R-Studio software. Pearson correlation coefficients, ANCOVA and paired sample t-tests were calculated. The results indicated that relative mean power output significantly increased across the season (p<0.001), with the relationship remaining significant when adjusted to remain within the ACWL ratio of 0.8-1.3. Mean velocity did not appear to have any significant changes throughout the season. However, when adjusted to only include velocity data within 0.8-1.3 ACWL ratio, the relationship became significant indicating a clear relationship (p<0.001). A case study directly investigating the difference between a well-trained and youth athlete revealed that there was a significant difference in mean velocity and relative mean power output (p<0.001). The case study also showed a strong correlation between relative mean power and mean velocity (p<0.001) both inside and outside the identified 0.8-1.3 ACWL zone. A relationship between each individual's perceived capacity for performance based on quantifiable fatigue was identified. Practitioner's should look to implement affordable, and efficient monitoring if it helps to inform future strength and conditioning delivery ultimately improving performances.


The Chile Trench of the convergent continental margin of Central Chile is a sediment-filled basin that stretches over 1500 km in a north–south direction. The sediment fill reflects latitudinal variations in climate as well as in the morphology and geology of Chile, but also of sediment transport processes to the trench and within the trench. We try to untangle these signals by calculating the total volume and the latitudinal volume distribution of trench sediments and by relating this distribution to a number of factors that affect this pattern. The volume calculation is based on a model geometry of the top of the subducting oceanic plate that is buried beneath trench sediments and the sea floor as measured by swath bathymetry. We obtain the model geometry of the subducting plate by interpolating between depth-converted seismic reflection profiles that cross the trench. The total volume of the trench fill between 32 and 46°S is calculated to be 46000 ± 500 km3. The resulting latitudinal volume distribution is best explained by a sedimentation model that alternates between (1) glacial phases of high sediment flux from Southern Chile combined with active latitudinal sediment transport within the trench and (2) interglacial phases over which sediment input is dominated by local factors. Supplementary material: Top of the oceanic basement (TOB) grid is available as ascii raw data files (xyz) at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18664.


Abstract. A method is described that estimates the error in the static pressure measurement on an aircraft from differential pressure measurements on the hemispherical surface of a Rosemount model 858AJ air velocity probe mounted on a boom ahead of the aircraft. The theoretical predictions for how the pressure should vary over the surface of the hemisphere, involving an unknown sensitivity parameter, leads to a set of equations that can be solved for the unknowns – angle of attack, angle of sideslip, dynamic pressure and the error in static pressure – if the sensitivity factor can be determined. The sensitivity factor was determined on the University of Wyoming King Air research aircraft by comparisons with the error measured with a carefully designed sonde towed on connecting tubing behind the aircraft – a trailing cone – and the result was shown to have a precision of about ±10 Pa over a wide range of conditions, including various altitudes, power settings, and gear and flap extensions. Under accelerated flight conditions, geometric altitude data from a combined Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) system are used to estimate acceleration effects on the error, and the algorithm is shown to predict corrections to a precision of better than ±20 Pa under those conditions. Some limiting factors affecting the precision of static pressure measurement on a research aircraft are discussed.


The purpose of the research was to explore the decision-making strategies that school principals employ while dealing with the challenges faced during the change process at schools. The study was conducted in two cities located in Central and Southeast Turkey, with a sample comprising 29 primary, middle and secondary school principals, selected via a purposive sampling technique. Q methodology, a qualitative-dominant mixed methods research design, was used in the study. The researchers developed and used a concourse of 24 specific items that target school principals' decision-making strategies about change-related challenges in schools by taking a perception-driven decision-making model as the theoretical framework. The statistical software PQMethod was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that school principals shared similar views via the item configurations provided regarding decision-making during times of change, and had a similar profile in terms of decision-making and related strategies. The behavioural decision style was found to be the preferred style. The principals had a profile featuring a high focus on people and low cognitive complexity. The dominant beliefs driving their decision-making strategies seemed to incorporate comprehensive evaluation of the current situation, ethical concerns and organisational values, assessment of technical details, and thorough data collection. Some implications are drawn for researchers and practitioners.


The Universe provides a canvas for exploration, it sets the stage waiting to be captured and explored by imagination and science. Its capacity to provide innate aesthetically pleasing visuals and the mysteries they hold, piques the curiosity of everyone. This paper provides an overview and results from an astronomy elective as implemented in a middle school classroom over the course of 11 weeks, at a non-governmental school in regional Victoria, Australia. Students who previously had no exposure to astronomy or image processing used the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network of robotic remote telescopes to capture images of astronomical objects and processed them to create colour images. The preliminary Learning Progression (LP) focusing on inquiry skills and the results of the student project are highlighted.


All clinical strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) examined so far contain the mec gene and its product, the penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 2A. Yet the same strains show tremendous variation in the phenotypic expression of antibiotic resistance (MIC), which is under the control of a set of additional, auxiliary genes. Thus, the quantitative contribution of the mec gene to the resistance phenotype of MRSA is not known, and no mutants with the lesion located within the mec gene have been described. We subjected a highly resistant MRSA strain to transposon mutagenesis with the erythromycin resistance transposon Tn551, and a mutant expressing greatly decreased methicillin resistance (RUSA4) was selected to characterize the transposon insertion site. The results indicate that the Tn551 insertion site in mutant RUSA4 is between base pairs 1000 and 1400 of the sequence encoding PBP 2A. Thus, the uniform and greater than 200-fold drop in the methicillin MIC (4 micrograms/ml) for this mutant relative to that for the parent strain (MIC greater than or equal to 800 micrograms/ml) must be related to the inactivation of the PBP 2A gene. The results provide the first unequivocal evidence for the importance of PBP 2A as a quantitative contributor to the MIC for MRSA.


This dissertation is particularly concerned with various changes that occurred over roughly the last two centuries of the Shang period, that is, during the Anyang period, which stretches from approximately 1250 BCE to approximately 1050 BCE. This period, which begins just before the earliest evidence for writing in what is now China and stretches until the fall of the last Shang king, contains the entirety of the recorded history of the Shang dynasty. After discussing the dating of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, I first address changes in Shang writing, demonstrating that it becomes increasingly regularized over the period. The earliest examples of Shang writing, especially those dating from the reign of king Wu Ding, show high levels of graphic and linguistic variation—that is, graphs/words are written differently from one inscription to the next, syntax is sometimes inconsistent, and aspects like text direction vary wildly; additionally, the semantic content of these inscriptions is far more diverse than is the case toward the end of the period. Using this apparent regularization as a backdrop, I address the Shang's changing relationships with certain non-Shang peoples, especially those known as the fang-countries. Palaeographical materials are primarily drawn from the Shang, but later periods also provide useful examples of the kinds of processes at work, and I pay special attention to early examples of Chinese writing found outside Anyang. I focus on the newest collection of scientifically excavated Shang inscriptions, Yinxu Xiaotun cun zhong cun nan jiagu (Oracle bones from the center and south of Xiaotun village in the Wastes of Yin), published in 2012. Compared to other collections, relatively little work has been done on this one, and it happens to contain many inscriptions especially relevant to some of the questions under discussion, from issues of dating to the Shang's relationships with other peoples. While other corpora of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions are also essential to this project, this newest collection is its foundation. The second part of this dissertation presents a transcription of the entire collection, together with a full English translation, its first ever into another language. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group East Asian Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Victor H. Mair


Leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina is a destructive pathogen of wheat (Triticum aestivum) in a majority of the world's wheat producing areas. Host resistance is the most economical solution for providing full season control and reducing damage due to leaf rust as opposed to use of multiple fungicide applications. The soft red winter wheat cultivar Jamestown is productive in the deep south, southern Corn Belt, and mid-atlantic regions, and this can be attributed in part to its resistance to multiple diseases including leaf rust. Jamestown is postulated to contain gene Lr18. Seedlings of 186 F5:9 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from a cross of Pioneer '25R47'/Jamestown and 200 F2 seedlings from eight other crosses including Jamestown and/or the Lr18 host differential line RL6009 (Thatcher*6/Africa 43) were screened with P. triticina race TNRJJ. Genetic analysis of the populations was conducted to validate the presence of Lr18 in Jamestown. Linkage analysis conducted with SNP markers in the Pioneer 25R47/Jamestown population identified markers that were closely linked with Lr18, and these were validated in Jamestown/VA10W-21 and RL6009/VA10W21 F2 populations. Results of linkage analysis identified SNP maker IWB41960 linked within 5 cM of gene Lr18 in all three populations.


This examination showed how the sexual dichotomy in morphology and feeding was reflected in the swimming behavior of Euchaeta rimana. Nonrandom swimming was clearly exhibited by this copepod, and the evolutionary reasons for the behaviors involve the dual requirements of encountering food and mates. Mechanoreceptive females, with their enlarged feeding appendages and elongated antennal setae, must find prey to feed. Non-feeding males, with reduced mouthparts and antennal setules, must find females to inseminate before exhausting their lipid reserves which were accumulated during juvenile stages. Directional swimming by the female predatory copepod supports the predictions of models in which encounter rate was maximized by swimming orthogonally to their mates and their prey. The female swam horizontally in a turn-and-search pattern to intersect the male which swam vertically in a swim-up-and-sink pattern. Adult female copepods (~2.5 mm prosome length) generally swam smoothly and continuously at an average swimming speed of7 mm's-I, with their antennae oriented into the flow not disturbed by their own movements. Besides mating, females also must find and capture prey. Analysis of swimming by one potential prey, Acartia fossae, showed that these smaller copepods darted up and stopped in various directions to counteract sinking due to gravity. This resulted in a strong vertical component to their directionality which increased the likelihood of encounter with the predatory copepod. The dart-and-stop swimming pattern of Acartia fossae may be an alternate mode of escape from a mechanoreceptive copepod, such as Euchaeta. which can not sense prey when they are not


Abstract After two cases of amoebic colitis were detected at an institution for the mentally retarded in the Yamagata prefecture of Japan, the prevalence and epidemiology of Entamoeba histolytica infection at the institution were investigated. When the 76 residents with mental retardation were checked by serology and stool examinations, 40 (53%) showed evidence of infection with E. histolytica (i.e. E. histolytica-specific antibodies in their serum, Entamoeba cysts in their stools, and/or E. histolytica-specific antigens in their stools). The cysts were all assumed to be those of E. histolytica since all nine of the 18 cyst-positive stool samples investigated using a PCR (that distinguishes E. histolytica from E. dispar) were found positive for this species. The E. histolytica found in the institution in Yamagata appears to have been brought into the institution, from a similar institution in Kanagawa prefecture, by a mentally retarded individual who relocated from Kanagawa to Yamagata. Isolates of E. histolytica recovered during an outbreak in the institution in Kanagawa appear genotypically identical to the genotyped isolates collected in the outbreak investigated in the present study. The 40 infected individuals in Yamagata were each treated for 10 days with metronidazole or diloxanide furoate. The residents and staff of the institution were encouraged to wash their hands more frequently and more thoroughly, and the staff were asked to clip residents' fingernails and to improve the cleanliness/sterilization of the surfaces in the institution that were most likely to be contaminated with E. histolytica (lavatories, handrails, doors, doorknobs, washrooms, clothing etc). In the last 5 years of follow-up since the instigation of these and other infection-control measures, and the last treatments, no cases of E. histolytica infection have been found in the institution. This encouraging result offers hope and guidance to those attempting to control outbreaks of E. histolytica infection in other institutions.


A liquid artificial diet system, which was suitable for bioassay of added compounds, was developed for the glasshouse potato aphid, Aulacorthum solani. The diet supported normal growth and reproduction of this insect. Once established, the artificial diet bioassay system was used to test potential insecticidal activities of a variety of proteins found naturally occurring in plants. Effects on survival, development and fecundity were measured. The lectin found in snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) was found to significantly reduce the fecundity of A. solani, in terms of parthenogenetic nymph production, when administered in artificial diets at the 0.1% w/v level. No significant reductions in survival were found, although GNA administered in vitro did appear to slow the development of A. solani. Transgenic potato plants expressing GNA were used in a growth room trial to show that the reduction in fecundity with the in vitro trials could be reproduced in planta. Aphids feeding on the GNA-expressing potatoes had a significantly lower cumulative nymph production than those feeding on non- transformed plants. The transgenic plants had no effect on the survival of A. solani. The GNA-expressing plants were tested in a larger scale glasshouse trial and resulted in a significantly slower buildup of aphids when compared to control potatoes, thus confirming the results of the artificial diet bioassays and in planta growth room trials. Immunohistochemical studies were performed to detect the presence of GNA in the gut lumen of A. solani fed on artificial diet containing 0.1% w/v GNA; the lectin was observed to be selectively concentrated in the region of the epithelial membrane in the stomach, suggesting that binding to surface carbohydrates or glycoproteins was taking place. Binding to the gut surface has been suggested to mediate lectin toxicity in higher animals, and other insects. A synergistic effect was observed with transgenic potatoes expressing a double construct encoding GNA and bean chitinase (BCH); A. solani cumulative nymph production on these plants was significantly reduced compared to aphids feeding on control and GNA-only expressing plants. However, interestingly, BCH-only expressing plants did not significantly affect the fecundity of A. solani, although a slight reduction in nymph production was observed. On the basis of reports in the literature that suggested that chitin-binding lectins were toxic to insects, an attempt to isolate the gene encoding the chitin-binding stinging nettle lectin was made. RNA was extracted from nettle rhizomes and used to prepare a cDNA library. Successful library construction was verified. PGR methods and a primary screen of the library were used in an attempt to locate the gene.


The exhibit contains objects of enquiry by design through making: These elements are like 'links in a chain', in that they allow for extension of a material, and through connection and repetition turn material into structure. They rely almost entirely on the geometry of the link for structural integrity, but these are two distinctly different types of link. They represent two different conceptions of space: one being vertical extension, the other being plastic deformation. The timber links of the hooked scarf joint connect to become linear, straight, and rigid due to the interlocking barbs and fixing pin. This enables short timber members to be extended, turning squat elements into slender ones, allowing them to 'grow' or 'elongate'. These make spaces that are columnar and forest-like.
The plaster and timber links form a true chain, allowing freedom of rotation through their nested ridges and valleys. This enables both free-form structural profiles as well as catenary chains to be made in a plastic state before being cemented or fastened permanently. These make spaces that are arched and cave-like.
An individual link, therefore, can be considered both a distillation and a generator of the spatial qualities of a whole. These prototypes were made by our practice and students at the University of Queensland


Foreigners often say that English language is "easy." A language like Spanish is challenging in its variety of verb endings (the verb speak is conjugated hablo, hablas, hablamos), and gender for nouns, whereas English is more straight forward (I speak, you speak, we speak). But linguists generally swat down claims that certain languages are "easier" than others, since it is assumed all languages are complex to the same degree. For example, they will point to English's use of the word "do" -- Do you know French? This usage is counter-intuitive and difficult for non-native speakers. Linguist John McWhorter agrees that all languages are complex, but questions whether or not they are all equally complex. The topic of complexity has become a hot issue in recent years, particularly in creole studies, historical linguistics, and language contact. As McWhorter describes, when languages came into contact over the years (when French speakers ruled the English for a few centuries, or the vikings invaded England), a large number of speakers are forced to learn a new language quickly, and this came up with a simplified version, a pidgin. When this ultimately turns into a "real" language, a creole, the result is still simpler and less complex than a "non-interrupted" language that has been around for a long time. McWhorter makes the case that this kind of simplification happens in degrees, and criticizes linguists who are reluctant to say that, for example, English is simply simpler than Spanish for socio-historical reasons. He analyzes how various languages that seem simple but are not creoles, actually are simpler than they would be if they had not been broken down by large numbers of adult learners. In addition to English, he looks at Mandarin Chinese, Persian, Malay, and some Arabic varieties. His work will interest not just experts in creole studies and historical linguistics, but the wider community interested in language complexity.


Objectives Adolescents spend increasingly more time on electronic devices, and sleep deficiency rising in adolescents constitutes a major public health concern. The aim of the present study was to investigate daytime screen use and use of electronic devices before bedtime in relation to sleep. Design A large cross-sectional population-based survey study from 2012, the youth@hordaland study, in Hordaland County in Norway. Setting Cross-sectional general community-based study. Participants 9846 adolescents from three age cohorts aged 16–19. The main independent variables were type and frequency of electronic devices at bedtime and hours of screen-time during leisure time. Outcomes Sleep variables calculated based on self-report including bedtime, rise time, time in bed, sleep duration, sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset. Results Adolescents spent a large amount of time during the day and at bedtime using electronic devices. Daytime and bedtime use of electronic devices were both related to sleep measures, with an increased risk of short sleep duration, long sleep onset latency and increased sleep deficiency. A dose–response relationship emerged between sleep duration and use of electronic devices, exemplified by the association between PC use and risk of less than 5 h of sleep (OR=2.70, 95% CI 2.14 to 3.39), and comparable lower odds for 7–8 h of sleep (OR=1.64, 95% CI 1.38 to 1.96). Conclusions Use of electronic devices is frequent in adolescence, during the day as well as at bedtime. The results demonstrate a negative relation between use of technology and sleep, suggesting that recommendations on healthy media use could include restrictions on electronic devices.


Pacific Biosciences (PacBio), the main third generation sequencing technology can produce scalable, high-throughput, unprecedented sequencing results through long reads with uniform coverage. Although these long reads have been shown to increase the quality of draft genomes in repetitive regions, fundamental computational challenges remain in overcoming their high error rate and assembling them efficiently. In this paper we show that the de Bruijn graph built on the long reads can be efficiently and substantially disentangled using optical mapping data as auxiliary information. Fundamental to our approach is the use of the positional de Bruijn graph and a succinct data structure for constructing and traversing this graph. Our experimental results show that over 97.7% of directed cycles have been removed from the resulting positional de Bruijn graph as compared to its non-positional counterpart. Our results thus indicate that disentangling the de Bruijn graph using positional information is a promising direction for developing a simple and efficient assembly algorithm for long reads.


What are the processes or stages of treatment decision making (TDM) as perceived by women with early-stage breast cancer?

Qualitative study.

Teaching hospital and regional cancer centre in Ontario, Canada.

Purposive sample of 21 women (age range 34–79 y), who had early-stage breast cancer, were referred for consultation about surgical or postsurgical systemic therapy options, and could speak and understand English.

Treatment consultations with surgeons or medical oncologists were videotaped. In semistructured interviews 2 weeks after the treatment decision was made, women described how they made the decision and then watched tapes of their initial consultation. Tapes were stopped at predetermined times or spontaneously by participants when TDM appeared to be taking place, and women were asked to describe their thoughts at that time. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed thematically.

6 themes described women's perceptions or experiences of TDM. (1) Before oncology consultations, women sought information about treatment options and resources from informal (family and friends) and formal …


Recently both state and federal governments have enacted maternity leave legislation. The key provision of that legislation is that after a leave (of a limited duration) the recent mother is guaranteed the right to return to her pre-leave employer at the same or equivalent position. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey-Youth this paper correlates work status after childbirth with work status before pregnancy. Almost all women (nearly 90 percent) who work full-time both before and after childbirth continue to work at the same employer. Thus maternity leave legislation is unlikely to have a major effect on employment continuity. However compared to all demographically similar women new mothers do have an excess probability of leaving their jobs. Finally most maternity leave legislation limits its protections to full-time workers with sufficient job tenure sufficiently large firms. Using the NLS-Y the paper estimates that the federal Family and Medical Leave Act covers only about a third of all working new mothers. The restriction to full-time workers is relatively unimportant because few part-time workers would satisfy the tenure and firm-size requirements. (authors)


A partnership between NASA and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is examining prototyping a hurricane-flood-landslide continuum as part of CI-FLOW (Coastal and Inland Flooding Observation and Warning project). Using high resolution satellites hydrological data can be used to monitor global flooding. The Terra and Aqua satellites use a key instrument called MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) to map flood inundation. Aster flood maps are used to calibrate hydrologic modeling. Additionally inland river flow and storm surge modeling is being done as a part of CI-FLOW. Part of the problem with the models is determining how to calibrate them effectively. Researchers examined a full spectrum of data calibration techniques. The guided DREAM technique performed the best in terms of minimizing bias. They also examined Hurricane Floyd and using a discharge simulation the guided DREAM preformed well. Landslides can accompany floods and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data can be useful in examining slope stability and rainfall. In order to effectively manage hazards an integrated approach is necessary using hydrological data and flood prediction systems. Recently the prediction system has been implemented successfully.


Water is one of the more important natural resources of mankind, in its natural form contains impurity. The method used to treat water into potable form involves complex and diverse technologies, depending on the nature of water; the treatment can be simple filtration or complex involving chemicals and extensive infrastructure.

Surface water from peat source and ground water are harder to treat to potable standards compared to other water source. Peat water is characterized by high colour, low pH and turbidity with pungent smell while groundwater contains high manganese, iron and other volatile gases. This paper gives an overview of the State of Sarawak current treatment processes for peat and groundwater, investigates the treated water quality, and recommends improvements and enhancement of the current processes and practice based on emerging technologies. The data for the assessment are obtained form Public Works Departments records and the Public Health Section of the Ministry of Health, Malaysia.

The high residue aluminium of the treated water quality suggests that the current conventional processes cannot treat peat water efficiently and effectively. The recommendations for improvement and enhancement are divided into treatment plant operations, treatment processes, water quality monitoring and regionalization
of treatment plants.

The limitations are the reliability of the records and the year assessed is only 2000 and 2001. A number of future research projects are identified.


Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can cause lifelong pain infertility life-threatening ectopic pregnancy blindness in newborns and death. In addition HIV infections are transmitted more easily in the presence of STDs. This report discusses the extent diagnosis treatment management and prevention of STDs. A graph shows new cases of trichomoniasis genital chlamydia genital papillomavirus gonorrhea genital herpes syphilis chancroid and HIV infections worldwide in 1990. For each disease and pathogen the first symptoms in women and men the incubation period the natural history and transmissibility are tabulated. The link between STDs and AIDS is highlighted and ways to reduce the toll of STDs are presented including making effective services accessible getting affected people to treatment and encouraging people to avoid STDs. Effective management of STDs is linked to obtaining information; performing a physical examination; and diagnosing treating and counseling patients. Examples of successful STD programs from 1970 to 1992 in Zambia Sweden the US Kenya the Dominican Republic and Thailand are given. The syndromic approach to diagnosis and treatment is presented along with its important benefits (avoiding misdiagnosis ease to use provision of treatment in one patient visit) and disadvantages (failure to provide care for asymptomatic patients especially women and wasting drugs). A detachable page with diagnostic and treatment tips is provided to accompany the wall chart guide to the syndromic approach to STDs published with this report. Ways to improve care for women are centered around providing services and enabling women to protect themselves. A general discussion of getting services to the people focuses on the structure of STD services the provision of appropriate treatment on the part of public and private providers and the steady supply of the appropriate drugs purchased at low prices. The advantages and drawbacks of combining family planning services with STDs services are presented along with a discussion on contraceptives and STDs. The topic of getting people to services is considered with an emphasis on communication screening and partner notification. A list is given of resource materials on STDs as is a description of the STD Diagnostics Initiative founded in 1990 to develop quick inexpensive tests. Programs are described which provide outreach to high-risk populations. The report concludes with a discussion of promoting prevention through the use of condoms and the practice of monogamy.


Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of oral hydration for prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN). Background CIN is related to increased long-term morbidity and mortality. Adequate intravenous hydration has been demonstrated to lessen its occurrence. Oral hydration with water is inexpensive and readily available. However, its role in CIN prevention is yet to be determined. Patients and methods This study included 200 patients (age 55 ± 7.55 years, 98 female/102 male) scheduled for diagnostic coronary angiography, who were divided into two groups. Eligible patients in group I (100 patients) were hydrated orally with 500 ml of water given 4 h before contrast; consumption of water was stopped 2 h before performing coronary angiography and was resumed with 600 ml after the procedure. Group II (100 patients) received intravenous hydration in the form of isotonic saline 0.9% at 3 ml/kg over 1-h before coronary angiography and 1 ml/kg over 6 h after the procedure. During the procedure all patients received contrast medium (Telebrix). The primary endpoint of the study was the evaluation of renal function before and 72 h after contrast medium administration. Results A total of 200 patients were included in the analysis, who were divided into two groups: group I comprised 100 patients who received per-os oral water. Group II comprised 100 patients who received intravenous saline. The incidence of CIN was statistically similar in the oral and intravenous arms (6 and 7%, respectively; P = 0.774). There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding serum creatinine elevation 48–72 h after contrast exposure (as P = 0.410). Conclusion Oral hydration with water is as effective as intravenous hydration with saline in preventing CIN. Oral hydration is cheaper and more easily administered than intravenous hydration.


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Protection Program presents sector-specific planning objectives for protecting the nation's critical infrastructure and key resources. In concert with this objective, researchers at the University of Arkansas and Rutgers University are developing a prototype decision support system that integrates geographic information systems and freight movement models to provide a framework for cargo prioritization and off-loading during a sudden catastrophic closure of the national inland waterway. The project seeks to develop (a) a fundamental understanding of the resiliency of inland waterway transportation systems and the interdependence within and between transportation system components and (b) a decision system that will allow public and private parties to respond quickly to catastrophic waterway events. Researchers reviewed public data, published literature, and aerial imagery to ascertain terminal characteristics indicative of a potential for transferring barge cargo from the inland waterway to freight rail systems. A preliminary framework for assessing terminal suitability for intermodal transfer during a sudden catastrophic closure was developed. Findings suggest that the geographic dispersion of terminals and their commodity-specific nature often limit off-loading operations at certain terminals to their designated commercial purpose only. Other configurations could allow for the off-loading of additional commodities at these terminals. Consideration of alternative terminal uses during a sudden catastrophic closure requires a detailed understanding of terminal capabilities beyond historical commercial use. An investigation of alternative capabilities should be undertaken at each link in the interdependent inland marine and surface transportation systems to develop an effective decision-making framework.


Retracted research is published work that is withdrawn, removed, or otherwise invalidated from the scientific and scholarly record. This may occur for many different reasons, which can include error, misconduct, or fraud. Retracting research is intended to stop its continued citation and use, but many retracted papers continue to be used.Retracted research that is integrated into the scientific publication network via citations—either before or after retraction—enables the inadvertent propagation of potentially unsupported or fabricated data, fundamental errors, and unreproducible results, or can lead to misattribution of results or ideas (e.g., in cases of retraction due to dual publication, plagiarism, or ownership). Research over the past decade has identified a number of factors contributing to the unintentional spread of retracted research. Many retracted papers are not marked as retracted on publisher and aggregator sites, and retracted articles may still be found in readers' PDF libraries, including in reference management systems such as Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley. Most publishers do not systematically surveil bibliographies of submitted manuscripts, and most editors do not query whether a citation to a retracted paper is justified. When citing retracted papers, authors frequently do not indicate retraction status in bibliographies or in-text citations.The goal of the Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science: Shaping a Research and Implementation Agenda (RISRS) project is to develop an actionable agenda for reducing the inadvertent spread of retracted science. This includes identifying how the gatekeepers of scientific publications can monitor and disseminate retraction status and determining what other actions are feasible and relevant.The RISRS process included an exploratory environment scan, a scoping review of empirical literature, and successive rounds of stakeholder consultation, culminating in a three-part online workshop (October 26, November 9, and November 16, 2020) that brought together a diverse body of 70 stakeholders to engage in collaborative problem solving and dialogue. Workshop discussions were seeded by materials derived from stakeholder interviews and short original discussion pieces contributed by stakeholders. The online workshop resulted in a set of recommendations to address the complexities of retracted research throughout the scholarly communications ecosystem. Recommendations were iteratively updated and developed through a series of surveys and drafts as well as at a followup meeting online February 16, 2021.The RISRS team solicited feedback from presentations to NISOPlus, the Society for Scholarly Publishing, and the European Association of Science Editors. Implementation actions have started through a COPE task force on taxonomy and discussions about a proposed National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Work Item. We welcome your feedback via the project website https://infoqualitylab.org/projects/risrs2020/ or by email to email@example.com. We encourage you to disseminate these recommendations and to envision how you, in your role, and in collaborative partnerships, can make a difference. For instance, you might help form a professional working group to further develop or refine these recommendations; present about retraction and related issues at professional and academic meetings; take on an implementation or policy project; or outline further research to be conducted. Recommendations1. Develop a systematic cross-industry approach to ensure the public availability of consistent, standardized, interoperable, and timely information about retractions.2. Recommend a taxonomy of retraction categories/classifications and corresponding retraction metadata that can be adopted by all stakeholders.3. Develop best practices for coordinating the retraction process to enable timely, fair, unbiased outcomes.4. Educate stakeholders about publication correction processes including retraction and about pre- and post-publication stewardship of the scholarly record.


Ice dynamics, tectonic setting, and sediment supply are the key parameters controlling the architecture of high-latitude margins and the formation of trough mouth fans (TMFs). Current understanding of these archives of paleo–ice streams is based on studies of ice sheets adjacent to stable, passive margins, while the behavior of active, convergent glacier-influenced margins remains relatively unconstrained. We integrate high-resolution seismic data and chronology from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 341 cores in southeast Alaska across the actively converging Yakutat terrane margin to examine the late Quaternary evolution of the Bering Glacier, the largest outlet glacier of the poorly understood Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS). We interpret at least eight glacial advances to the shelf break since the end of the mid-Pleistocene transition, showing a more dynamic CIS than hitherto realized. During the past ∼130 k.y., the temperate, meltwater-charged Bering Glacier delivered ∼925 km 3 of sediment to the shelf and slope, providing one of the highest rates of sustained sediment accumulation (5–10 m/k.y.) ever reported globally. Rapid formation of a TMF, reaching ∼600 m thick in ∼130 k.y., emphasizes the extreme sediment flux that can be produced by wet-based glacial systems, and its critical role in the development of high-latitude margin stratigraphy. TMF formation despite initially steep, tectonically controlled slopes in this active setting reflects an autogenic shift in the evolution of the Bering Trough, suggesting that major transitions between sedimentary regimes need not reflect some externally driven change in climate variability.


We present the Evolution of molecular Gas in Normal Galaxies (EGNoG) survey, an observational study of molecular gas in 31 star-forming galaxies from z = 0.05 to z = 0.5, with stellar masses of (4–30) × 1010 M☉ and star formation rates of 4–100 M☉ yr−1. This survey probes a relatively un-observed redshift range in which the molecular gas content of galaxies is expected to have evolved significantly. To trace the molecular gas in the EGNoG galaxies, we observe the CO(J = 1 → 0) and CO(J = 3 → 2) rotational lines using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). We detect 24 of 31 galaxies and present resolved maps of 10 galaxies in the lower redshift portion of the survey. We use a bimodal prescription for the CO to molecular gas conversion factor, based on specific star formation rate, and compare the EGNoG galaxies to a large sample of galaxies assembled from the literature. We find an average molecular gas depletion time of 0.76 ± 0.54 Gyr for normal galaxies and 0.06 ± 0.04 Gyr for starburst galaxies. We calculate an average molecular gas fraction of 7%–20% at the intermediate redshifts probed by the EGNoG survey. By expressing the molecular gas fraction in terms of the specific star formation rate and molecular gas depletion time (using typical values), we also calculate the expected evolution of the molecular gas fraction with redshift. The predicted behavior agrees well with the significant evolution observed from z ∼ 2.5 to today.


In this article, a Smart Ping Pong Paddle has been introduced as an example of the use of sensor technology in sports. We have devised an accelerometer and a gyroscope sensor for the analyzing purpose and have gathered motion data of the game object to make a real-time 3D replica of the paddle to get an actual orientation of it. Technical details and principles of how to get the digital motion processing data from sensor to microcontroller and again transfer that wirelessly to a 3D modeling software are examined. Technical details are applied in practice, and the working demo of Smart Ping Pong paddle is built. Also, a couple of examples of other similar applications in the realm of object orientation sensing are overviewed.


In 2007 NORD were appointed to work with the Olympic Delivery Authority to develop a strong contextual approach to a key utility building within the Olympic Park. The building is not designed as an event venue in its own right, but as part of a number of buildings that form the fabric of the Olympic site itself; having permanency, weight and dignity. The utility structures are being developed to consider a common palette of reference materials where these relate to their use and location Awards and reviews: Article In Brick Bulletin. May 2010 Electricity Substation wins RIBA Award. May 2010 Electricity Substation May 2010 wins Scottish Design Award for best Regeneration Project. Electricity Substation shortlisted for RIBA Stirling Prize. NORD's Substation for the 2012 Olympics makes the 19 strong Long List for the Stirling Prize.July 2010 The Olympic SubStation shortlisted in the Best Public and Innovative Use categories for the Brick Awards.July 2010. Awards night on Wednesday 3 November in London. Article in Dzine, Ibstock, Autumn 2010, pp12-13 Station to station: the new power generation. Includes Nord's olympic power substation. Article in The Independent 5th August 2010.


Although whole genome sequencing is enabling numerous advances in many fields achieving complete chromosome-level sequence assemblies for diverse species presents difficulties. The problems in part reflect the limitations of current sequencing technologies. Chromosome assembly from 'short read' sequence data is confounded by the presence of repetitive genome regions with numerous similar sequence tracts which cannot be accurately positioned in the assembled sequence. Longer sequence reads often have higher error rates and may still be too short to span the larger gaps between contigs.

 Given the emergence of exciting new applications using sequencing technology, such as the Earth BioGenome Project, it is necessary to further develop and apply a range of strategies to achieve robust chromosome-level sequence assembly. Reviewed here are a range of methods to enhance assembly which include the use of cross-species synteny to understand relationships between sequence contigs, the development of independent genetic and/or physical scaffold maps as frameworks for assembly (for example, radiation hybrid, optical motif and chromatin interaction maps) and the use of patterns of linkage disequilibrium to help position, orient and locate contigs.

 A range of methods exist which might be further developed to facilitate cost-effective large-scale sequence assembly for diverse species. A combination of strategies is required to best assemble sequence data into chromosome-level assemblies. There are a number of routes towards the development of maps which span chromosomes (including physical, genetic and linkage disequilibrium maps) and construction of these whole chromosome maps greatly facilitates the ordering and orientation of sequence contigs.


The perception that we have about the world is influenced by elements of diverse nature. Indeed humans tend to integrate information coming from different sensory modalities to better understand their environment. Following this observation, scientists have been trying to combine different research domains. In particular, in joint audio-visual signal processing the information recorded with one or more video-cameras and one or more microphones is combined in order to extract more knowledge about a given scene than when analyzing each modality separately. In this thesis we attempt the fusion of audio and video modalities when considering one video-camera and one microphone. This is the most common configuration in electronic devices such as laptops and cellphones, and it does not require controlled environments such as previously prepared meeting rooms. Even though numerous approaches have been proposed in the last decade, the fusion of audio and video modalities is still an open problem. All the methods in this domain are based on an assumption of synchrony between related events in audio and video channels, i.e. the appearance of a sound is approximately synchronous with the movement of the image structure that has generated it. However, most approaches do not exploit the spatio-temporal consistency that characterizes video signals and, as a result, they assess the synchrony between single pixels and the soundtrack. The results that they obtain are thus sensitive to noise and the coherence between neighboring pixels is not ensured. This thesis presents two novel audio-visual fusion methods which follow completely different strategies to evaluate the synchrony between moving image structures and sounds. Each fusion method is successfully demonstrated on a different application in this domain. Our first audio-visual fusion approach is focused on the modeling of audio and video signals. We propose to decompose each modality into a small set of functions representing the structures that are inherent in the signals. The audio signal is decomposed into a set of atoms representing concentrations of energy in the spectrogram (sounds) and the video signal is concisely represented by a set of image structures evolving through time, i.e. changing their location, size or orientation. As a result, meaningful features can be easily defined for each modality, as the presence of a sound and the movement of a salient image structure. Finally, the fusion step simply evaluates the co-occurrence of these relevant events. This approach is applied to the blind detection and separation of the audio-visual sources that are present in a scene. In contrast, the second method that we propose uses basic features and it is more focused on the fusion strategy that combines them. This approach is based on a nonlinear diffusion procedure that progressively erodes a video sequence and converts it into an audio-visual video sequence, where only the information that is required in applications in the joint audio-visual domain is kept. For this purpose we define a diffusion coefficient that depends on the synchrony between video motion and audio energy and preserves regions moving coherently with the presence of sounds. Thus, the regions that are least diffused are likely to be part of the video modality of the audio-visual source, and the application of this fusion method to the unsupervised extraction of audio-visual objects is straightforward. Unlike many methods in this domain which are specific to speakers, the fusion methods that we present in this thesis are completely general and they can be applied to all kind of audio-visual sources. Furthermore, our analysis is not limited to one source at a time, i.e. all applications can deal with multiple simultaneous sources. Finally, this thesis tackles the audio-visual fusion problem from a novel perspective, by proposing creative fusion methods and techniques borrowed from other domains such as the blind source separation, nonlinear diffusion based on partial differential equations (PDE) and graph cut segmentation.


Adolescence is marked by a myriad of bio-psychosocial shifts, including rapid physical changes, emotional and cognitive maturation, and enhanced sensitivity to peer relations (Newman & Newman, 2003). In addition, weight gain associated with puberty may impact on physical and social adjustment. Recent investigations have reported that among children aged 6 -19, 31% were classified as overweight, while 16% were already obese (Barlow, 2007; Hedley, Ogden, Johnson, Carroll, Curtin, & Flegal, 2004). Moreover, the pervasiveness of overweight and obese children and adolescents has been growing over recent decades, and this trend is expected to continue (Lobstein & Wang, 2006). In addition to adverse health consequences (e.g., Zametkin, Zoon, Klein, & Munson, 2004), excess weight may have social implications. Overweight and obese adolescents may become targets for teasing, leading to isolation and loneliness (e.g., Pearce, Boergers, & Prinstein, 2002; Puhl & Brownell, 2001; Strauss & Pollack, 2003; Swami, et al., 2008; Young-Hyman, Schlundt, Herman-Wenderoth, & Bozylinski, 2003). Accordingly, we considered the relations between BMI and two forms of social adjustment relevant for adolescents: peer victimization and loneliness. Peer victimization is characterized by acts intended to physically or socially harm another peer. To illustrate, victimizing behaviors may harm an individual physically (e.g., fighting) or use relationship status to inflict a social harm, such as excluding someone from social activities or spreading rumors (Prinstein, Boergers, & Vernberg, 2001). One study demonstrated that increases in body mass were associated with increases in physical victimization among adolescent males and relational victimization among females (Pearce et al., 2002). Similarly, a study examined body weight and peer relations in a pre-adolescent sample, reporting that those who were heavier experienced more teasing and less social acceptance than normal weight peers. In addition, researchers found that body weight was a significant predictor of social problems and aggressive behaviors for all adolescents (Young-Hyman et al., 2003). Thus, excess body weight may make some individuals an easy target for some types of victimizing behaviors. Intuitively, excess weight may also make some adolescents more prone to loneliness. Few studies have investigated loneliness among overweight adolescents. However, one study revealed that overweight individuals were more likely to be socially isolated than normal weight peers. Moreover, overweight peers received significantly fewer friendship nominations than their normal weight peers (Strauss & Pollack, 2003). Another relevant study investigated weight bias among children and college freshman by having participants rank body profiles in the order of whom they would most like to associate. Results indicated the overweight profile was rated less favorably than all others, suggesting overweight adolescents may be less desirable companions than normal weight adolescents (Latnar & Stunkard, 2003). Overweight adolescents may find it difficult to form peer networks and adolescents with higher body mass may be more likely to experience loneliness as compared to normal weight peers. Together, loneliness and peer victimization may be important variables related to weight status. Along these lines, one recent study examining both of these variables demonstrated that when individuals were asked to judge silhouettes of varying body types, the overweight profiles were deemed to be characteristic of individuals that were lonelier and more likely to be teased (Swami et al., 2008). In the current study, we expected higher body mass would be associated with higher levels of loneliness and peer victimization. However, we also anticipated that certain aspects of organized activities would buffer the effect of body mass on social adjustment (i.e., peer victimization and loneliness) among adolescents. …


Abstract. Long-term observations of aerosol and clouds are of crucial importance to understand the weather climate system. At the Istituto di Metodologie per l'Analisi Ambientale of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IMAA) an advanced atmospheric observatory, named CIAO, is operative. CIAO (CNR-IMAA Atmospheric Observatory) main scientific objective is the long term measurement for the climatology of aerosol and cloud properties. Its equipment addresses the state-of-the-art for the ground-based remote sensing of aerosol, water vapour and clouds including active and passive sensors, like lidars, ceilometers, radiometers, and a radar. This paper describes the CIAO infrastructure, its scientific activities as well as the observation strategy. The observation strategy is mainly organized in order to provide quality assured measurements for satellite validation and model evaluation and to fully exploit the synergy and integration of the active and passive sensors for the improvement of atmospheric profiling. Data quality is ensured both by the application of protocols and dedicated quality assurance programs mainly related to the projects and networks in which the infrastructure is involved. The paper also introduces examples of observations performed at CIAO and of the synergies and integration algorithms (using Raman lidar and microwave profiler data) developed and implemented at the observatory for the optimization and improvement of water vapour profiling. CIAO database represents an optimal basis to study the synergy between different sensors and to investigate aerosol-clouds interactions, and can give a significant contribution to the validation programs of the incoming new generation satellite missions.


UNLABELLED
Survivin has received great attention due to its expression in many human tumours and its potential as a therapeutic target in cancer. Its expression is developmentally regulated: present during fetal development, it is undetectable in terminally differentiated normal adult tissue. Survivin expression has been described to be cell cycle-dependent and restricted to the G2-M checkpoint, where it inhibits apoptosis in proliferating cells.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of our study was to determine the survivin expression in different types of pituitary adenomas.

METHODS
Tissue samples were obtained during surgical removal of the tumour from 12 patients with diagnosed: acromegaly in seven cases, non-functioning pituitary tumours in four cases and prolactinoma in one case. Six patients with acromegaly received long-acting somatostatin analogues before tumour resection. After RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, the amplification of specific survivin's gene fragment was performed.

RESULTS
In agreement with the current view that survivin is a tumor-associated antigen, highly expressed in various tumours, we found the presence of survivin expression as a characteristic feature of human pituitary adenomas. The findings of our study demonstrated the presence of an active survivin gene in all twelve analysed pituitary tumours.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on these findings, we conclude that the estimation of survivin expression in human pituitary tumours may help predict tumour growth and prognosis.


The first ionization potential of neptunium has been determined from the photoionization threshold and from Rydberg series observed by laser spectroscopy techniques. The Rydberg series convergence limits yield the most accurate value of 50 536(4) cm−1 [6.2657(5) eV]. The radiative lifetimes of five levels in the 26 200–29 050-cm−1 range have been measured. New energy levels, 27 odd and 37 even, in the 33 000–37 000-cm−1 range have been determined with approximately ± 0.5-cm−1 precision.