Inborn errors of TLR3-dependent IFN-α/β- and -λ-mediated immunity in the central nervous system (CNS) can underlie herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) encephalitis (HSE). The respective contributions of IFN-α/β and -λ are unknown. We report a child homozygous for a genomic deletion of the entire coding sequence and part of the 3'UTR of the last exon of IFNAR1, who died from HSE at the age of two years. An older cousin died following vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella at 12 months of age, and another 17-year-old cousin homozygous for the same variant has had other, less severe viral illnesses. The encoded IFNAR1 protein is expressed on the cell surface but is truncated and cannot interact with the tyrosine kinase TYK2. The patient's fibroblasts and EBV-B cells did not respond to IFN-α2b or IFN-β, in terms of STAT1, STAT2 and STAT3 phosphorylation, or the genome-wide induction of IFN-stimulated genes. The patient's fibroblasts were susceptible to viruses, including HSV-1, even in the presence of exogenous IFN-α2b or IFN-β. HSE is therefore a consequence of inherited complete IFNAR1 deficiency. This viral disease occurred in natural conditions, unlike those previously reported in other patients with IFNAR1 or IFNAR2 deficiency. This experiment of Nature indicates that IFN-α/β are essential for anti-HSV-1 immunity in the CNS.


Abstract Culture is a concept with different meanings, which is in close contact with the business world as well. Its influence on managerial activities within current organizations cannot be questioned, especially in the existing political, economic and social context. Nowadays, one of the specific ways of formulating and implementing strategies at the level of companies is related to the change of organizational culture. This paper aims to highlight, from a managerial perspective, the way in which the existing strategies at the organizational level are influenced by different cultural contexts. Sometimes strategy can be considered as a variable determined and constrained by the culture in which it is defined. It is not limited to the reflection and expression of culture but rather influences and changes it.


We describe software which calculates a set of linkage disequilibrium statistics, including multiallelic D′ corrected by the bootstrap and permutation. The software also provides a tool for maximum likelihood and least squares estimation and testing of a set of hierarchical hypotheses formulated within the framework of the Malecot model of the decay of linkage disequilibrium with distance. Additionally, the bootstrap approach is used for estimation of the model parameter's confidence intervals and for hypothesis testing. The programs are available from http://www.geneticepi.com/Research/software/software.html


The paper presents frame and burst acquisition in a satellite communication network based on time division multiple access (TDMA) in which the transmissions may be carried on different transponders. A unique word pattern is used for the acquisition process. The search for the frame is aided by soft-decision of QPSK modulated signals in an additive white Gaussian channel. Results show that when the false alarm rate is low the probability of detection is also low, and the acquisition time is long. Conversely when the false alarm rate is high, the probability of detection is also high and the acquisition time is short. Thus the system operators can trade high false alarm rates for high detection probabilities and shorter acquisition times.


This paper presents a new approach to exclude problems arising from dynamically switching between protected concurrent and unprotected single-threaded use of shared data when using software transactional memory in OO languages such as Java. The approach is based on a simple but effective programming model separating transactions from non-transactional operation. It prevents the application programmer from errors but does not force the software transactional memory library to observe non-transactional access and thereby preserves modularity of the software. A prototypical toolchain for validation and source code instrumentation was implemented as a proof of concept.


Long-term exposure to carbon disulfide (CS2) may induce diffuse encephalopathy with parkinsonism, pyramidal signs, cerebellar ataxia, and cognitive impairments, as well as axonal polyneuropathy. The pathogenic mechanisms of diffuse encephalopathy are unclear, although vasculopathy and toxic demyelination have been proposed. Recently, we have encountered a patient who developed headache, limb tremors, gait disturbance, dysarthria, memory impairment, and emotional lability after long-term exposure to CS2. The brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) showed diffuse hyperintensity lesions in T2-weighted images in the subcortical white matter, basal ganglia, and brain stem. The brain computed tomography perfusion study revealed a diffusely decreased regional cerebral blood flow and prolonged regional mean transit time in the subcortical white matter and basal ganglion. To our knowledge, there have been few reports demonstrating diffuse white matter lesions in chronic CS2 encephalopathy using brain MRI. In addition, the 99mTc-TRODAT-1 single photon emission computed tomography showed a normal uptake of the dopamine transporter, indicating a normal presynaptic dopaminergic pathway. We conclude that diffuse white matter lesions may develop after chronic exposure to CS2, possibly through microangiopathy. In addition, CS2 poisoning can be considered as one of the causes of chronic leukoencephalopathy.


The consequences of global climate change in the form of sea level rise and more frequent intense storms are likely to cause significant impacts on coastal ecosystems and critical infrastructure in vulnerable coastal municipalities. This could result in major economic losses and social disruption unless these communities proactively plan for the impacts of a changing climate. As a small state with a large coastal population, Rhode Island is highly vulnerable to impacts from climate change, thus the state is positioned to act as a potential leader in a national movement towards proactive adaptation. It is clear that actions must be taken, however implementing effective policy changes requires significant political will as well as the support of decision makers and communities. This case study assesses municipal officials' perceptions of the risks sea level rise and increased storminess pose to North Kingstown, Rhode Island and analyzes the relationship between town decision makers' understanding of climate change risk and adaptive planning behavior. Evaluation of local decision makers' mental models concerning climate change knowledge and perceptions of risk will provide insights for those working with town decision makers to proactively incorporate adaptation actions in town comprehensive and capital improvement planning. Results
  of
  this
  research
  display
  no
  correlation
  between
  local
  decision
  makers' levels
  of
  climate
  change
  knowledge
  and
  their
  individual
  preparatory
  behavior
  or between
  personal
  adaptive
  behavior
  and
  levels
  of
  support
  for
  proactive municipal
  adaptation.
  A
  strong
  correlation
  was
  found
  between
  individuals with mental models closely matching the expert model of climate change knowledge and levels of support for municipal adaptation planning and actions.
  Additionally,
  this study
  found
  a
  moderate correlation between subjects' exposure
  to
  climate
  change information and levels of support for municipal adaptation.
  Increasing awareness of the risks associated with impacts of climate change through improved communication, educational programs, and public outreach is likely to be an effective way of promoting proactive adaptation in vulnerable coastal communities.


In this essay I examine the disruption to the textual order caused by reprinted texts, arguing that the American tradition of textual editing can help us identify some of the invisible forms of repetition that structure the literary field. Pioneering figures such as W. W. Greg and Fredson Bowers developed sophisticated technologies for understanding and managing reprinted texts, and yet the scholarly tradition they founded, and that of their most vocal critic, Jerome McGann, have both ignored the ideality of the literary text—how the claim to textual identity across variation is a signal property of literary works. Taking up Michel Foucault's challenge to study the "mode of existence" of literary discourse, I argue that in order to write literary histories that are attentive to the history of literariness, scholars need to question both their commitment to preserving the integrity of the text and their attachment to organizing and reading literary works in the order of their composition.


Over the last few years, low energy electron microscopy and photoemission electron microscopy have been successfully used to study the growth dynamics of various organic semiconductors. In the present work, the recent advances in the application of surface sensitive electron microscopy techniques to organic thin films are reviewed, and the requirements for successful imaging of organic molecules in low energy electron microscopy and photoemission electron microscopy are discussed. Starting from a discussion of the basic design features of the microscopes, a variety of imaging modes are presented to illustrate the type of information that can be gained from in situ surface sensitive electron microscopy. In photoemission microscopy, the contrast greatly depends on the illumination source that is used for imaging. Using a frequency doubled femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser as a light source for photoemission, even electronic states within the molecules can be directly used for imaging in two-photon photoemission electron microscopy. The article focuses on the two linearly conjugated molecules pentacene (C22H14) and anthracene (C14H10) as model systems.


This study seeks to identify a coalition of philosophy and literature in the work of
Franz Kafka, and begins with a grounding of his output in the philosophical context
from which it emerged. This relatively under-researched philosophical backdrop
consists in Kafka's study, at university and in a discussion group, of philosophical
positions derived from the "descriptive psychology" of Franz Brentano. Kafka was
hence conversant with several philosophical agendas, notably those of logic, Gestalt
psychology, and a nascent form of phenomenology, which all derived their impetus
from Brentano's work.
The initial issue, therefore, is that of assessing the extent of a purported influence of
such theories on Kafka's texts. What emerges as a "strategy" of Kafka's work is the
aesthetic exploitation of such positions; a tactic which constitutes an almost
parodistic subversion of these early forms of phenomenological thought. Thus on the
one hand it is implied that the narrative technique of Kafka's work, and in particular
the representation of consciousness and its "world", is derived from Brentanian
thought, and on the other that this influence is modulated in a specific direction,
which renders these texts so singularly amenable to post-structuralist thought.
My project consequently proceeds to examine the post-structuralist response to
Kafka while juxtaposing this analysis with the grounding of his work in proto-phenomenology.
Central to this stage of the study are Blanchot, Derrida, Foucault,
and Deleuze and Guattari, and the scrutiny of their perspectives will be organized by
the themes of authorship, interpretation, power, and desire.
The exploration of the "deconstructive" standpoint, represented primarily through
Blanchot and Derrida, will be guided by an account of why such a stance seems to be
accommodated so readily by Kafka's work, and also of the extent to which his texts
could be said, on the basis of the influence of Brentanian thought, to resist such
appropriation.


SUMMARY Mutations in the enzyme glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GARS) cause motor and sensory axon loss in the peripheral nervous system in humans, described clinically as Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2D or distal spinal muscular atrophy type V. Here, we characterise a new mouse mutant, GarsC201R, with a point mutation that leads to a non-conservative substitution within GARS. Heterozygous mice with a C3H genetic background have loss of grip strength, decreased motor flexibility and disruption of fine motor control; this relatively mild phenotype is more severe on a C57BL/6 background. Homozygous mutants have a highly deleterious set of features, including movement difficulties and death before weaning. Heterozygous animals have a reduction in axon diameter in peripheral nerves, slowing of nerve conduction and an alteration in the recovery cycle of myelinated axons, as well as innervation defects. An assessment of GARS levels showed increased protein in 15-day-old mice compared with controls; however, this increase was not observed in 3-month-old animals, indicating that GARS function may be more crucial in younger animals. We found that enzyme activity was not reduced detectably in heterozygotes at any age, but was diminished greatly in homozygous mice compared with controls; thus, homozygous animals may suffer from a partial loss of function. The GarsC201R mutation described here is a contribution to our understanding of the mechanism by which mutations in tRNA synthetases, which are fundamentally important, ubiquitously expressed enzymes, cause axonopathy in specific sets of neurons.


Every year one third of all food that is produced is wasted and one of the UN sustainable
development goals is to cut food waste in half by 2030. This thesis focuses
on two data-driven strategies to reduce perishable food waste at retailers: demand
forecasting and dynamic pricing. Improved demand forecasting techniques can prevent
excess inventory by better supporting replenishment decisions, whereas dynamic
pricing can reduce excess inventory once it exists by stimulating customers to buy
older products at a discount. The performance of both traditional and promising
new demand forecasting techniques is compared and implementation guidelines are
provided for retailers. In addition, simulations were conducted to investigate the
performance of different (dynamic) pricing strategies in terms of revenue, waste
and stock-outs. For retailers, reducing perishable food waste results in financial and
sustainability benefits.
Demand Forecasting: Demand forecasting techniques that were included in the performance evaluation
are: naive (where the forecast equals sales from last period), exponential smoothing
(ES), moving average (MA), linear regression (LINREG), auto-regressive integrated
moving average (ARIMA), support vector regression (SVR), multi-layer perceptron
(MLP), long-short term memory network (LSTM) and adaptive boost (ADA). These
techniques were evaluated based on their performance in forecasting sales for 986
perishable food products from an Ecuadorian supermarket. Performance was measured
using the relative root mean squared error measure (RelRMSE), which is a
robust measure that indicates how well a certain technique performs relative to the
naive forecast. Performance was compared across different forecasting scenarios,
which differed in terms of their time detail level, location detail level and horizon.
In addition, it was investigated what the influence is of using external factors such
as the weather in addition to historical sales data to produce forecasts.
Results show that there is no such thing as the ultimate demand forecasting:
technique and that performance greatly varies across products and forecasting scenarios.
By far the best demand forecasting performance overall can be obtained by
automatically selecting the best forecasting technique for each individual product,
resulting in (depending on the forecasting scenario) a 6% to 32% RelRMSE improvement
compared to always using the naive forecast and a 2% to 10% improvement
compared to always using the best individual demand forecasting technique. Adding
external factors from the weather, promotion, economic and holiday categories has
shown to be valuable for forecasting scenarios that have a daily time detail level,
enabling an additional 3% to 9% RelRMSE improvement compared to using historical sales data only. For each forecasting scenario, detailed results and an overview
of the top 3 best performing individual techniques are provided in this thesis to help
retailers select the appropriate demand forecasting technique(s) in their situation.
In addition, a process is provided with step-by-step guidelines for retailers on
how to improve the wider demand forecasting process. It not only considers how
to select the right demand forecasting technique(s), which form the quantitative
core of the demand forecasting process, but also discusses how to assess forecasting
capabilities and which qualitative factors should be taken into account, such as
implementation in decision support systems, adoption factors and organizational
factors.
Dynamic Pricing: A simulation study was conducted to determine which (dynamic) pricing strategy for
perishable products performs best in terms of total revenue, waste and stock-outs.
The simulation considers a monopolist grocer selling a single perishable product
with a fixed shelf life. The product can be replenished each day based on the
demand forecast and a safety factor. Customers have different characteristics: some
customers are regular customers that only pay attention to price, whereas others
are date-checking customers that also pay attention to remaining shelf life and
aim to choose a product that maximizes their value-for-money. Four main pricing
strategies for marking down perishable products that approach their expiry date
were compared. Strategy 1 applies no price changes at all and serves as a baseline.
Strategy 2 applies a fixed discount D at the last day before expiry, while strategy
3 spreads that discount over the last S days before expiry. Strategy 4 dynamically
determines discount percentages based on the demand forecast and the remaining
inventory.
Almost all strategies that applied a discount resulted in a waste reduction, but
they regularly resulted in significantly lower revenues. Multiple experiments were
conducted to investigate the effects of varying assumptions for simulation settings.
Discounting was most beneficial when product demand was more elastic and when
more customers checked expiry dates, because that resulted in higher waste reductions
and less negative (or even positive) changes to revenue at the same time. The
fixed pricing strategy that most frequently performed best was strategy 2 with a
fixed discount of 20% on the last day before the expiration date. Surprisingly, the
dynamic pricing strategies did not always perform better than a fixed price strategy,
which could be due to the fact that these strategies relied upon imperfect demand
forecasts and hence their estimated optimal discount percentage might have been
off base. A dynamic pricing strategy already outperformed the best fixed strategy
when initial waste levels for a product were high or when a large percentage of
customers were regular customers.
Conclusion and Discussion: Both demand forecasting process improvement and dynamic pricing strategies for
marking down products that near their expiry dates have a positive impact on waste
reduction. Grocers are advised to initially focus on improving the demand forecasting
process, since that reduces waste, but does not have the negative impact on revenue
that discounting strategies frequently have. Preventing inventory excesses from
occurring through improved demand forecasting is better than trying to resolve such excesses by discounting products that approach their expiration dates. Grocers
are advised to follow the demand forecasting improvement process, to use this
study as a benchmark for forecasting technique selection, to implement multiple
forecasting techniques and to automatically select the best forecasting technique for
each product. To resolve any excesses that do occur in stores, grocers are advised
to use the pricing strategy that showed best performance in similar situations in the
simulations. The best fixed strategy in general is applying a 20% fixed discount on
the last day before expiry. A dynamic pricing strategy only outperformed a fixed
strategy in a few situations.
This study makes several contributions to both retail practice and the scientific
fields of demand forecasting and dynamic pricing. First of all, this study provides
a robust and objective comparison of forecasting techniques in different scenarios
within a food retail context. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first study that
conducts such a comparison. Results show the impact of automatically selecting
the best forecasting techniques for each individual product and for including external
factors and can be used by retailers as a benchmark for forecasting technique
selection. In addition, this study proposes a process for demand forecasting improvement
and forecasting technique selection, which can guide retailers in their demand
forecasting improvement efforts. This study also provides a robust performance
comparison of different pricing strategies that mark down perishable products, giving
retailers insight into the impact on revenue, waste and stock-outs. In addition,
tools were developed in the form of an algorithm for automatic best DF technique
selection (and configuration) and a pricing simulation that can be reused in future
work.


This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of probiotic in improving welfare of broilers reared under low stocking density (LSD) and mitigating high stocking density (HSD) stress. A total number of 240 chicks were sub divided into four groups with three replicates for each. Two groups were reared under LSD (10 bird/m2).; 48 chicks (16 bird/ replicate) for each and another 2 groups were reared under HSD (15 bird/m2); 72 chicks (24 bird/ replicate). At each density, one group was supplemented with Protexin® and the other was not supplemented. Blood corticosterone (CS) level was measured and behavior of broilers was recorded weekly. At the end of the growing cycle, behavioral welfare fear response test (time of first attempt to stand, number of attempts to stand and tonic immobility duration) was performed and brain monoamines (serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine) concentrations were measured. As a result, HSD stress increased the time birds spent to perform the first attempt to stand and prolonged TI duration. However, Protexin® supplementation only reduced the time of first attempt to stand at higher density without alteration of the number of attempts required to induce TI. No significant improvement in fear response in LSD birds supplied with Protexin®. Furthermore, HSD stress decreased feeding, drinking and walking duration. However, Protexin® supplementation improved feeding, drinking and walking behaviors at LSD and did not improve behaviors of birds at HSD. Moreover, HSD increased CS levels at the 4th, 5th and 6th week of the growing cycle. However, Protexin® supplementation had a decreasing effect on CS levels in the birds reared at HD at the last two weeks of the growing cycle. In addition, brain serotonin concentration was increased in birds reared at HD without Protexin® supplementation and showed no alteration in that supplemented with the probiotic at LSD and HSD. Data suggests that, Protexin® supplementation may be beneficial in improving welfare (behavior al indicator) of broilers reared at LSD and alleviate some effects of HSD stress on birds.


The ability to monitor fossil fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2) emissions from subcontinental regions using atmospheric CO2 observations remains an important but unrealized goal. Here we explore a necessary but not sufficient component of this goal, namely, the basic question of the detectability of FFCO2 emissions from subcontinental regions. Detectability is evaluated by examining the degree to which FFCO2 emissions patterns from specific regions are needed to explain the variability observed in high‐frequency atmospheric CO2 observations. Analyses using a CO2 monitoring network of 35 continuous measurement towers over North America show that FFCO2 emissions are difficult to detect during nonwinter months. We find that the compounding effects of the seasonality of atmospheric transport patterns and the biospheric CO2 flux signal dramatically hamper the detectability of FFCO2 emissions. Results from several synthetic data case studies highlight the need for advancements in data coverage and transport model accuracy if the goal of atmospheric measurement‐based FFCO2 emissions detection and estimation is to be achieved beyond urban scales.


In October 2015, one confirmed human rabies case with many human and animal contacts were reported in a subdistrict of Chanthaburi Province. A joint human and animal health team conducted an investigation, including a survey on knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) in two villages with confirmed animal rabies cases. The human case was scratched at the wrist and bitten at the calf by a stray dog. The wounds were merely washed with rice whisky. However, 77 days later, the case developed myalgia and rash, and thus, visited the subdistrict health promoting hospital. He later died in the provincial hospital. While 22 dogs were suspected for rabies, three of five were tested positive. Members of 149 households and 79 close contacts from the two villages were interviewed. Respondents from both villages had low scores of knowledge, attitude and practice on rabies as well as wound care. Prior to the outbreak, vaccine coverage resulted as 14.8% for owned dogs and 4.2% for cats. The phylogenetic lineage of the rabies virus found in the case was in a group commonly found in Thailand. Poor practice by the case and low KAP scores of the villagers indicated inadequate knowledge about rabies and post-exposure management. The coverage of rabies vaccine among domestic animals in the community was much lower than the requirement of 80%.


The Maritime Continent (MC) region is known as a ''barrier'' in the life cycle of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). During boreal winter, the MJO detours the equatorial MC land region southward and propagates through the oceanic region.Also, about half of theMJO events that initiate over the IndianOcean cease around the MC. The mechanism through which the MC affects MJO propagation, however, has remained unanswered. The current study investigates the MJO–MC interaction with a particular focus on the role of MC land convection. Using a global climate model that simulates both mean climate and MJO realistically, we performed two sensitivity experiments in which updraft plume radius is set to its maximum and minimum value only in the MC land grid points, making convective top deeper and shallower, respectively. Our results show that MC land convection plays a key role in shaping the 3D climatological moisture distribution around the MC through its local and nonlocal effects. Shallower and weaker MC land convection results in a steepening of the vertical and meridional mean moisture gradient over the MC region. The opposite is the case whenMC land convection becomes deeper and stronger. TheMJO's eastward propagation is enhanced (suppressed) with the steeper (lower) mean moisture gradient. The moist static energy (MSE) budget of theMJO reveals the vertical andmeridional advection of themeanMSE byMJOwind anomalies as the key processes that are responsible for the changes in MJO propagation characteristics. Our results pinpoint the critical role of the background moisture gradient on MJO propagation.


Hepatitis E virus (HEV), transmitted through the fecal–oral route, was first identified during waterborne epidemics of acute hepatitis in Kashmir and New Delhi, India, in 1980 (1–3). The virus was later characterized as a spherical virion of 27–34 nm in diameter with a nonenveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome of ≈7.2 kb (4) and classified into 4 genotypes (1,2,5,6) that appear to have specific global distributions (4). Genotypes 1 and 2 are primarily responsible for HEV infections in humans; genotypes 3 and 4 can be found in animals and humans.

Clinical manifestations of HEV infection range from asymptomatic to fulminant hepatic failure and death. Symptomatic episodes are common in adolescents and adults; pregnant women have the highest attack rates (1). Although HEV infection results in low case-fatality rates (0.5%–4.0%) in the general population, HEV causes death in 10%–42% of infected pregnant women (5,6).

HEV epidemics occur primarily in areas with poor hygiene and poor sanitation, including countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Despite the growing evidence of global effects of HEV, awareness of the public health implications of HEV infection remains low because of questions regarding its epidemiology; its health, economic, and social costs; and its virology and pathogenesis. The disease and its case-fatality rate probably are underestimated because HEV infections are not clinically distinguishable from those caused by other hepatitis viruses. Validated, commercially available diagnostic assays are needed, and existing assays vary substantially for sensitivity (72%–98%) and specificity (79%– 96%).

During September 15–16, 2010, the International Vaccine Institute and the World Health Organization (WHO), with sponsorship from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hosted the International Symposium on Hepatitis E in Seoul, South Korea. International experts (Table), including virologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, clinicians, and policy makers, gathered to review published and unpublished epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory data and to discuss control strategies. Participants considered, in particular, the impact of HEV, the 2 hepatitis E vaccine candidates, and outlined activities to characterize hepatitis E epidemiology and support vaccine development and other prevention strategies.

Table

Investigators who presented at the International Symposium on Hepatitis E, Seoul, South Korea, September 15–16, 2010

The symposium presenters shared data that showed that HEV infection is endemic to industrialized and developing countries. WHO shared results of its 2010 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors study, which found that 63 countries had reported outbreaks or sporadic cases and 73 countries reported seroprevalence >10%.

During the session on the significance of hepatitis E as a public health threat in developing and other countries, HEV genotypes 1 and 2 were reported to be associated with large epidemics and high case-fatality rates, and to have induced ≈15 million symptomatic and 13 million asymptomatic cases in 2005. Other data presented indicated that the impact of HEV is high in many of the world's largest population settings with poor hygiene and sanitation, particularly countries in Africa, Latin America, and southern and central Asia. Sporadic cases were reported in industrialized countries (e.g., Germany, Sweden, and the United States), and serologic studies indicated that prevalence in these populations was higher than previously thought.

In industrialized countries, autochthonous cases are caused by genotypes 3 and 4. These genotypes are associated with asymptomatic and chronic disease and are probably associated with zoonotic transmission through ingestion of HEV-infected meat. Illness caused by genotype 1 in these countries was imported.

After establishing the epidemiology of HEV, the symposium focused on the loss of life it causes. Pregnant women, immunosuppressed patients, and persons who have chronic liver disease constitute high-risk groups. Presenters discussed studies conducted in Bangladesh during 2001–2006 and Uganda during 2007 that reported pregnant women had the highest rate of death from HEV. In the Uganda outbreak, the case-fatality rate for pregnant women was 8.3% (1.6% of overall deaths). Suggested risk factors were poor sanitation, hygiene, and living conditions. Vertical transmission (mother to child) was also suggested, although further investigation is needed. Chronic liver disease has been associated with high rates of illness and death from HEV superinfection, and chronic HEV-associated hepatitis can develop in immunosuppressed patients. Data based on disease modeling presented at the symposium suggest that HEV is associated with 271,000 deaths annually, which is 10-fold more than the annual number of deaths from hepatitis A virus. Because many who die are young adults, many life-years are lost to HEV illness. Further estimates on the basis of modeling predict an annual global impact caused by genotypes 1 and 2 of 21.6 million symptomatic cases and 12,203 stillbirths. The actual numbers might be larger if genotypes 3 and 4 also contribute meaningfully.

As main preventive tools, 2 vaccines were discussed: the recombinant HEV vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA), and the recombinant HEV 239 vaccine developed by Xiamen Innovax Biotech (Xiamen, People's Republic of China). Although both vaccines were shown to be safe and efficacious (protective efficacy >90%), further studies are needed to demonstrate safety and long-term efficacy in high-risk persons and populations living in HEV-endemic areas. Besides further clinical development of these vaccines, public health demand, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness must be demonstrated and financing made available in developing countries. Furthermore, these tasks must be accomplished in light of limited interest and resources for HEV vaccine development in industrialized countries.

In conclusion, participants made an international call to action against HEV infection and agreed that advocacy is needed to increase awareness of hepatitis E as a disease that can adversely affect public health, and to position hepatitis E as a neglected disease of the poor, which is potentially preventable by vaccines. Priorities are to improve quality and availability of HEV diagnostics and develop standardized surveillance methods in the absence of a diagnostic standard. Participants also prioritized research to demonstrate the applicability of vaccine candidates and data collection required for their WHO prequalification. Looking ahead, when hepatitis E vaccines become available, vaccine demonstration projects should be implemented in well-characterized populations and supported by reliable diagnostic tools.

Symposium participants recommended the formation of an international hepatitis E collaboration to provide a multicountry, multidisciplinary platform for initiatives in research, policy, and advocacy. This collaboration would initially focus on supporting the development and evaluation of HEV diagnostics; developing standardized population- and hospital-based disease surveillance to conduct epidemiologic studies of high-risk populations; developing partnerships with industry to facilitate clinical trials of candidate hepatitis E vaccines and study cost-effectiveness of different vaccine strategies; and increasing global awareness, especially of opinion leaders and decision makers, on the threat of hepatitis E infection.


Objective :This study aimed to assess whether interventions targeted at improving sleep in the ICU were associated with reductions in ICU delirium. Secondary outcomes include duration of delirium and ICU length of stay. Data Sources:MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, WorldCat, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts were searched from inception to January 2016. Study Selection:Studies investigating any type of sleep intervention (nonpharmacologic or pharmacologic) and assessing the impact on ICU delirium were included. Any type of study design was permitted so long as the delirium assessment was made at least daily with a validated delirium assessment tool. Data Extraction:The following data were extracted: first author, year of publication, study design, ICU type, components of sleep intervention, use of sleep assessment tool, patient age, sex, severity of illness, sleep measures, delirium assessment tool, incidence of delirium, duration of delirium, and ICU length of stay. The incidence of delirium was used to compare rates of ICU delirium across studies. Methodologic quality of included studies was evaluated using the Effective Public Health Practice Project quality assessment tool. Data Synthesis:Of 488 citations screened, 10 studies were identified for inclusion in the final review; six of which demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of ICU delirium associated with sleep intervention. Four studies assessed duration of delirium; of which, three reported a shorter duration of delirium with sleep intervention. Two studies associated sleep intervention with a reduced ICU length of stay. In regard to quality assessment and risk of bias, only one study was assessed as strong. Multiple identified confounders and the significant qualitative assessment of heterogeneity limit both the conclusions that can be drawn from these findings and the quantitative pooling of data. Conclusions:Although sleep interventions seem to be a promising approach for improving delirium-related outcomes, studies are limited by bias issues, varying methodologies, and multiple confounders, making the evidence base for this conclusion limited at best. Future studies would benefit from a systematic approach to studying the link between sleep intervention and delirium-related outcomes, which is outlined in the context of reviewing the existing literature.


Background Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease neglected, caused by Mycobacterium leprae, considered a public health problem because may cause permanent physical disabilities and deformities, leading to severe limitations. This review presents an overview of the results of epidemiological studies on leprosy occurrence in childhood in Brazil, aiming to alert health planners and managers to the actual need to institute special control strategies. Methodology/Principal findings Data collection consisted of an electronic search for publications in eight databases: Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), PuBMed, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), SciVerse Scopus (Scopus), CAPES theses database, CAPES journals database and Web of Science of papers published up to 2016. After apply selection criteria, twenty-two papers of studies conducted in four different regions of Brazil and published between 2001 and 2016 were included in the review. The leprosy detection rate ranged from 10.9 to 78.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. Despite affecting both sexes, leprosy was more common in boys and in 10-14-year-olds. Although the authors reported a high cure proportion (82–90%), between 1.7% and 5.5% of the individuals developed a disability resulting from the disease. Conclusions/Significance The findings of this review shows that leprosy situation in Brazilian children under 15 years is extremely adverse in that the leprosy detection rate remains high in the majority of studies. The proportion of cases involving disability is also high and reflects the difficulties and the poor effectiveness of actions aimed at controlling the disease. The authors suggest the development of studies in spatial clusters of leprosy, where beyond the routine actions established, are included news strategies of active search and campaigns and actions of educations inside the clusters of this disease. The new agenda needs to involve the precepts of ethical, humane and supportive care, in order to achieve a new level of leprosy control in Brazil.


In a handedness decision task participants are presented with pairs of stimuli in varying orientations and their task is to decide if the stimuli are the same or mirror images. It is commonly assumed that participants must imagine one stimulus rotate to the same orientation as the other stimulus to make a handedness decision (i.e., "mental rotation"). To examine whether "mental rotation" is necessary to determine the handedness of misoriented objects, I developed a dualtask procedure in which a handedness decision task is randomly interrupted with a side decision task. This interruption occurs when one of the two stimuli is shaded in, whereupon the participant is to abandon the handedness decision task and respond with the hand that is on the same side as the shaded in stimulus. If participants know the handedness of the stimulus before they are interrupted by the side decision task, reaction times will be faster on trials in which the responses to the two tasks are congruent (i.e., with the same hand) than the trials in which the responses to two tasks are incongruent. If participants do not know the handedness of the stimulus before they are interrupted by the side decision task, reaction times on all trials will be equal. The data show that participants knew the handedness of the misoriented stimulus before using "mental rotation" when they had experience with that particular stimulus. Furthermore, this knowledge in unrelated to angle.


: The integration of highly qualified migrants into the labor market can be an opportunity for knowledge societies because their prosperity depends on the incorporation and improvement of cultural capital. In this paper we present a qualitative research approach with which we analyze on several levels how migrants make use of their cultural capital during their entry into the labor market: in addition to the biographical experience of migrants we analyze how this experience is embedded in milieus, social networks and self-organizations (meso-level) and structured by the macro-level of judicial regulations of immigration and labor market policies. Our empirical analysis is focused by the assumed importance of educational qualification and residence status during entry into the labor market. Four different groups of empirical cases, which differ with respect to the level of education, the place of its acquisition (at home or abroad) as well as to their residence status, are compared to each other. In order to study the contingencies of meso and macro-social contexts, labor-market integration will be examined in the context of Germany as well as in Canada, Great Britain and Turkey.


The Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC) is a non-profit organization comprised of educational, research, industrial, and multilateral organizations throughout the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. The Consortium was established in 1990 to foster scientific, engineering, and technology education, joint international research and development efforts among its members, and to provide a cost-effective vehicle for the application and transfer of technology. After twenty years, ISTEC has established a presence in the region, but it also has experienced problems to interact with different cultures and interests. During 2010 it suffered important changes in its organization and big efforts were realized to accomplish new goals and to share worldwide expertise, to facilitate distributed problem solving, creating the local critical mass needed for the development of regional projects in areas such as: continuing education, libraries and repositories, globalization of the culture of quality and accreditation standards, R&D, intellectual property development, capital acquisition, and social responsibility, among others. ISTEC continues to be dedicated to the improvement of Science, Engineering, Technology, Math education, R&D, and Entrepreneurship. The Consortium will foster technology transfer and the development of social and business entrepreneurs through the implementation of a global network that pretends to reach other countries in the world creating clusters of businesses and institutions that share common interest, assisting in the establishment of strategic alliances/joint ventures, and the promotion of collaborative partnerships in general.


Farm animals have been identified as reservoirs of Clostridium difficile PCR-ribotype 078 (RT078). Since 2005, the incidence of human clinical cases (frequently severe), with this genotype has increased. We aimed to understand this change, by studying the recent evolutionary history of RT078. Phylogenetic analysis of international genomes (isolates from 2006–2014) revealed several recent clonal expansions. A common ancestor of each expansion had independently acquired different alleles of the tetracycline resistance gene tetM. Consequently, an unusually high proportion of RT078 genomes were tetM positive (76.5%). Additional tetracycline resistance determinants were also identified, some for the first time in C. difficile (efflux pump tet40). Each tetM-clonal expansion lacked geographic structure, indicating rapid international spread. Resistance determinants for C. difficile-infection-triggering antimicrobials including fluoroquinolones and clindamycin were comparatively rare in RT078. Tetracyclines are used intensively in agriculture; this selective pressure, plus rapid spread via the food-chain may explain the increased RT078 prevalence in humans.


The governments of Latin America and the Caribbean have made trade-building efforts a key part of their development agenda, given the broad consensus on the important role played by trade in development policy. Although trade is known to provide opportunities to increase the income of the poor, opening up these opportunities depends on a range of domestic factors which complement trade policy and are equally important for generating growth and reducing inequality. The Division of International Trade and Integration of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has approached these issues through the project Poverty, trade policy and complementary policies, carried out in cooperation with the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development (AECID). The project was aimed at building capacities within the region's governments to formulate foreign-trade-related strategies that can boost poverty reduction efforts and to craft complementary policies to enable the poor to benefit from the opportunities created by regional and international trade.


The advancement of computer and web technology has enabled the growth of one of the most popular application nowadays: online computer games. Thousands of online games are available on the internet consists of different genre, graphics and patterns which enable gamers around the world play their favourite games alone or simultaneously. The engagement and immersion provided by games is no doubt is very high. For this matter, the games should be exploited as a medium for teaching and learning because we may never have experienced same level of engagement in our conventional teaching and learning medium among our students. However, designing and developing educational computer games is a multidisciplinary activity involving computer expert, educational expert, art designers and story creator. Therefore, the process of creating such games is never be easy especially if we want to achieved something the best in terms of good game play and by the same time gaining lot of learning benefits. This study will define the issues and elements needed in this multidisciplinary activity. This will be as a guide in the design and development of an online computer games for teaching and learning purposes.


Solid Snake is a soldier and part of a worldwide nanotechnology network known as the Sons of the Patriots. Time is running out for Snake though, as he will soon succumb to the FOXDIE virus, but not before spreading the disease to nearly everyone he encounters, in essence becoming a walking biological weapon. Snake will need every advantage he can get, as the SOP network is about to be hacked by his old enemy Liquid Ocelot, and whoever controls SOP controls the world.


In a recent policy note (A Decade of Flat Wages?) we examined wage trends since 1994, and found that while wages grew between 1994 and 2002, average real wages stagnated or declined after 2002-03. Our latest study provides a more detailed analysis of wage trends for wage-level, age, and education groups, with emphasis on the periods following the 2001 and 2007-09 recessions. There was a more or less cohesive evolution of wages among different groups until 2002-03. However, after controlling for structural changes in the labor force, wages diverged sharply in the years that followed for different age, education, and wage groups, with the majority of workers experiencing real declines in their wages. This was not a short-term decline among a few numerically insignificant groups. Nearly two-thirds of all full-time wage earners have less than a four-year college degree and saw their wages decline compared to peak wages in 2002. Workers aged 44 and younger, representing slightly more than 38 million full-time wage earners or 71.4 percent of all full-time wage earners in the United States, also experienced a large reduction in cumulative wage growth after 2002. In terms of wage groups, the bottom 75 percent of full-time workers saw a decline in real wages, while those at the top of the wage distribution saw their wages rise—clear evidence of increasing wage inequality. Given the downward trend in real wages for the majority of full-time wage earners since 2009, it should come as no surprise that recovery from the Great Recession has been weak. In the absence of an employer-of-last-resort policy, federal and state policy must focus its efforts on increasing wages through measures such as progressive tax policy, raising the minimum wage, ensuring overtime pay laws are enforced, and creating opportunities for the most vulnerable workers.


Science in EuropeSince the Berlin Wall came down, the German capital has failed to live up to its economic expectations, but it has blossomed as a scientific hub, especially in the life sciences and mathematics. The city is now home to three respected universities and a host of nonuniversity research institutes. Many institutes here now vie for top talent from around the world—and Berlin's new reputation as a hip, happening place is helping to lure them. "Poor but sexy," a term coined by Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, has become Berlin's unofficial motto—but today, it might as well be "poor but smart."


Shorebirds are one of the most well-monitored taxa in Australia. In this paper, we review the spatial and temporal coverage of the Australian shorebird monitoring count data currently administered by BirdLife Australia, and comment on the subset of those data likely to be of immediate use for comprehensive trend analysis. Of the 253 shorebird areas known in Australia, seventeen in the southern half of Australia had consistent survey coverage over the last 30 years, with summer counts available in over 80% of those years, and with each area holding nationally significant numbers of some shorebird species. Similarly consistent data were available for eight additional shorebird areas, but these generally held fewer birds. Another 21 shorebird areas with nationally important numbers of shorebirds had 15 to 30 years of data with some variation in spatial coverage or changes in methods over time. Our review suggests that Australian shorebird monitoring data are of sufficiently high quality and spatial coverage to permit robust analysis of shorebird population trends across much of Australia.


A Sunday Times bestseller - now with revised and expanded content on the exciting new science about the gut-brain link. Our gut is as important as our brain or heart, yet we know very little about how it works and many of us are too embarrassed to ask questions. In Gut, Giulia Enders breaks this taboo, revealing the latest science on how much our digestive system has to offer. From our miraculous gut bacteria - which can play a part in obesity, allergies, depression and even Alzheimer's - to the best position to poo, this entertaining and informative health handbook shows that we can all benefit from getting to know the wondrous world of our inner workings.


In this dissertation we present and solve an ill-posed inverse problem which involves reproducing a function f(x) or its Fourier coefficients from the observed values of the function. The observations of the f(x) are made at n equidistant points on the unit interval with p observations being made at each point. The observations are effected by a random error with a known distribution. First of all we present a very simple estimator for the Fourier coefficients of f(x). Then we present an iteration algorithm for improving the estimator for the Fourier coefficients. We show that the improved estimator we use is a simplified and improved version of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator. Second, we introduce the mean squared error (MSE) for the estimators, which is the main measure of estimator performance. We show that a singly iterated estimator has a smaller MSE then a non-iterated estimator and a multiply iterated estimator has a smaller MSE then a singly iterated estimator. We also prove that the errors in estimating the Fourier Coefficients by the singly and multiply improved methods are normally distributed. Third, we prove a theorem showing that as the sample size goes to infinity, the MSE of our estimator asymptotically approaches the theoretical minimum. That shows that our results are theoretically the "best possible" results. Fourth, we perform simulations which numerically approximate MSE for a given set of f, error distributions, as well as the number of observation points. We approximate the MSE for the non-iterated error coefficient approximation as well as the singly iterated and multiply iterated ones. We show that indeed the MSE decreases with each iteration. We also plot an error histogram in each case showing that the errors are normally distributed. Finally, we look at some ways in which our problem can be expanded. Possible expansions include working on the problem in multiple dimensions, taking measurements of f at random points, or both of the above.


Gafchromic XRCT radiochromic film is a self developing high sensitivity radiochromic film product which can be used for assessment of delivered radiation doses which could match applications such as Computed Tomography (CT) dosimetry. The dose response of Gafchromic XRCT radiochromic film has been measured with reflectance spectrophotometry and desktop scanners. The film automatically changes colour upon irradiation, changing from a yellow to a green/brown colour. Results show a high sensitivity to delivered dose compared to other conventional radiochromic films which is well suited to CT applications where lower applied doses are delivered. Sensitivity is found for this film with a 1cGy applied dose, producing an approximate net optical density change of 0.3 at 636nm and 0.2 net OD using broad band white light. This high sensitivity combined with its relatively energy independent nature around the 100kVp to 150kVp x-ray energy range provides a unique enhancement in dosimetric measurement capabilities over currently available dosimetry films for CT applications.


RÉSUMÉ Female education is prerequisite for the rapid growth in the developing countries, however, its influential role has undermined due to outdated social norms, cultural barriers and gender preferences. The primary objective of this study is to examine the factors determining gender differences in education with individual and socioeconomic characteristics of the households by using Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurements (PSLM) survey data from 2005 to 2016. It also investigates the extent of household income that can affect relative position of females in Pakistani society with acquisition of education. This study uses two empirical specifications according to the measurements for education attainment. I use ordered logit model for categorical variable of education achievement that consist of primary, secondary, tertiary and no level of education, and logit model regression for binary variable of current enrolment. In addition, the study deals causal relationship between education attainment and income per capita of the household by using Two Stage Residual Inclusion (2SRI) method. The household's per capita income provides significant and positive effect on education investment. Findings reveals that education returns are higher with the transition of primary to secondary level in comparison of secondary to tertiary level of education for boys and girls both. Meanwhile, marginal effects indicate that education completion rate is lower for girls as compared to boys and results remain consistent even after controlling for endogeneity. Additionally, the current enrolment is adequately higher for boys who have more probability to maximize household per capita income than girls have. The estimates are consistent with the alternative specification of ordered probit model regression and other explanatory variables. The findings are robust with regional and provincial heterogeneity. The study recommends government interventions to reduce gender gap by investing in females' human capital to uplift their socio-economic position in a society to meet economic challenges of the country.


This study investigated the cognition of 70 Tunisian teachers on the place of culture in English education. It showed that Tunisian teachers believe that English textbooks and curricular documents are not specific about the cultural dimension of EFL. It also revealed that L2 teachers, whose mother culture is distant from that associated with L2, hold ambivalent attitudes towards culture. They acknowledge the importance of culture to communicative competence and intercultural competence, but either approach culture with suspicion or prefer to keep it to a minimum in the curriculum. The reasons for the marginalization of culture in English curriculum, according to the participants of the study, are 'vastness of the concept of culture', 'lack of resources', and 'problems of procedure'. These reasons are accepted by L2 teachers, worldwide, who seem to share a 'co-culture' that determines their cognition on the different aspects of language teaching. As regards the cultural dimension of L2 teaching, the 'co-culture' seems to drive teacher cognition more than 'cultural distance'.


We present a representation of partial confidence in belief and preference that is consistent with the tenets of decision-theory. The fundamental insight underlying the representation is that if a person is not completely confident in a probability or utility assessment, additional modeling of the assessment may improve decisions to which it is relevant. We show how a traditional decision-analytic approach can be used to balance the benefits of additional modeling with associated costs. The approach can be used during knowledge acquisition to focus the attention of a knowledge engineer or expert on parts of a decision model that deserve additional refinement.


This practice-based thesis focuses on the Emirati burqa or 'mask', a form of face covering worn by the majority of Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates until the late 1960s that reveals the eyes but does not cover the hair or body. Framed by Daniel Miller and Aida Kanafani's theories of material culture and embodiment that focus on dress as an intimate sensory object, this practice-based thesis is the first in-depth study of the Emirati burqa that engages with the histories and materiality of the burqa as an intimate object once made and worn by Emirati women.
At the core of this thesis is women's practice: the practices of women burqa makers, the diverse female practices of burqa wearing and my practice as a woman artist from the UAE. Through experiments with traditional craft materials, inscription methods, workshop initiatives, film, photography and installation, my engagement is with performing the material culture of the female burqa as a response to its disappearing practices and its previously little recorded history.
The thesis first analyses the history of the burqa face covering in the Arabian peninsula through a specific focus on the written and visual accounts of mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth-century British travellers in Arabia. It then examines and records the material craft of Emirati burqa-making based upon interviews with burqa makers and textile producers and accompanying ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the UAE and India. This includes photographic documentation of the processes involved in the production of the burqa textile, a study of burqa manufacturing brands and packaging, and an analysis of the material construction of the burqa and how it is worn in the UAE. Based on interviews in the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar and a variety of visual and textual sources, the thesis identifies the different types of Emirati burqa in relation to age, status, and regional identities. It further shows that the Emirati burqa differs from those worn in the neighbouring Gulf States of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, and focuses on burqa wearing practices and associated uses of the burqa textile in the UAE.
Engaging with these research findings, the culmination of the thesis is the body of art works exhibited in the 2014 London exhibition, 'An Intimate Object', that re-animates the burqa as a living object with its own history and new contemporary meanings. Focusing on the significance of the body and senses in knowledge production, the art practice shows the burqa has 'a voice' in a conversation that draws upon past traditions referencing protection and its value as a personal and precious object. The burqa speaks, its indigo residue bleeds as an active witness to its lost past. It also plays a part in rediscovery or keeping the past of this material object alive through contemporary art practice as an aesthetic and political strategy.


Glutamate transporters catalyze the concentrative uptake of glutamate from synapses and are essential for normal synaptic function. Despite extensive investigations of glutamate transporters, the mechanisms underlying substrate recognition, ion selectivity, and the coupling of substrate and ion transport are not well-understood. Deciphering these mechanisms requires the ability to precisely engineer the transporter. In this study, we describe the semisynthesis of GltPh, an archaeal homologue of glutamate transporters. Semisynthesis allows the precise engineering of GltPh through the incorporation of unnatural amino acids and peptide backbone modifications. In the semisynthesis, the GltPh polypeptide is initially assembled from a recombinantly expressed thioester peptide and a chemically synthesized peptide using the native chemical ligation reaction followed by in vitro folding to the native state. We have developed a robust procedure for the in vitro folding of GltPh. Biochemical characterization of the semisynthetic GltPh indicates that it is similar to the native transporter. We used semisynthesis to substitute Arg397, a highly conserved residue in the substrate binding site, with the unnatural analogue, citrulline. Our studies demonstrate that Arg397 is required for high-affinity substrate binding, and on the basis of our results, we propose that Arg397 is involved in a Na+-dependent remodeling of the substrate binding site required for high-affinity Asp binding. We anticipate that the semisynthetic approach developed in this study will be extremely useful in investigating functional mechanisms in GltPh. Further, the approach developed in this study should also be applicable to other membrane transport proteins.


Defoliation produced by abiotic factors and the subsequent re-growth can reduce sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) sucrose content and final sugar yield. Field experiments were conducted during 2003 and 2004 growing seasons in the farm of Hellenic Sugar Industry SA, Larissa factory, central Greece. Three sugar beet cultivars (Rival, Europa and Corsica) were ordinary irrigated till the beginning of July and then left without irrigation for a month. Three defoliation levels (control-C, moderate-MD and severe-SD) were performed at early August and irrigation was simultaneously started to promote re-growth. Four samplings were conducted (before defoliation, 15, 30 and 40 days after defoliation) to determine the changes in physiological and productive traits. Yields were lower in 2003 compared to 2004 because sugar beets were grown under more stressful conditions due to the delayed sowing, the higher temperatures and the lower rainfall. Both defoliation level and cultivar had significant effects on physiological and productive traits after re-growth only in 2003. The late-season cultivar, Corsica, showed better LAI maintenance compared to Europa and Corsica and had the greatest performance after re-growth in regard to fresh root weight and sugar yield. Also, this cultivar showed the least decrease of sucrose percentage in fresh root weight and juice purity mainly due to the stable potassium (K) concentration and limited increase of sodium (Na) accumulation in roots. Corsica consumed the least root α-amino N for its re-growth. Quantitative and qualitative traits were negatively affected only by the SD treatment. Plants suffered from MD treatment gradually recovered during growing season. This study demonstrates that under Mediterranean conditions, the adverse effects of re-growth on sugar beet yield and quality depend on the growing conditions and they can be restricted by the selection of an appropriate cultivar.


Background and objectives: This study way conducted in order to investigate the magnitude of the women suicide attempted by burning in Sulaimani and to ascertain the factors related to female suicide, including sociocultural factors and ways to solve this problem. Methods: The present study is a prospective study of self inflicted burns by women treated at the burn unit of Sulaimani teaching hospital and Emergency hospital over five years period from 1st January 2003 to 31st December 2007. Results: Out of the total number of 760 admissions to burn unit over the period, 386 (50.2%) patients were positively identified as having attempted suicide by burning. Of them 345(46.6%) patients were females and 41 were males. The Suicide attempted was more common in the marriages women 258(74.7%) and women with low educational level168 (48.7%). The most common causes of suicide were arrogant husband (60) (17.4%) and forced marriage (58) (16.8%). Conclusion: Burning by kerosene is a common, traditional, and dramatic way of attempting suicide by women in Sulaimani. We suggest that Kurdish women organizations or other related authorities have to start programs for communications with women to rescue those in desperate situations, and suicide prevention programs in Kurdistan to prevent suicide as well as to evaluate prevention programs to identify evidence-based practices that are culturally appropriate and affordable within severe resource constrains. Key word:


Adsorption potential of natural bentonite clay (NBC) was investigated for wastewater defluoridation using batch adsorption experiments. Mineralogical and physicochemical characterization of the adsorbent was carried out by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), XRay Fluorescence (XRF), Energy Dispersive X-Ray attached to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM-EDX), BET Specific Surface Area (SSAN2BET) analysis and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR). The effect of various operational parameters such as contact time, initial fluoride concentration, adsorbent dose and initial pH solution were evaluated in batch procedures at room temperature (25 ± 2°C). The results of the batch adsorption experiments proved that 30 min of contact time was sufficient for attaining equilibrium. The maximum wastewater defluoridation (52.2%) was obtained in the acidic conditions (pH=2) and for 5 mg L -1 and 2 g L-1 of initial fluoride concentration and adsorbent dose, respectively. Kinetic studies revealed that fluoride adsorption fitted well to pseudo-second-order. The adsorption isotherm of fluoride sorption on NBC indicated that the maximum adsorption capacity was noted to be 4.4 mg g-1 . Batch adsorption data was better described by Freundlich confirming multilayer adsorption with heterogeneous energetic distribution of active sites and with interaction between adsorbed molecules. The originality of this paper consisted in introducing the mechanisms that might occur in the fluoride adsorption process. SEM-EDX and FTIR characterization techniques were found to be useful for achieving this purpose. The obtained results indicated that the ion exchange was probably the main process involved in the fluoride adsorption, accompanied by interactions of fluoride with metal ions forming Metal–F complexes


Gynaecomastia is the abnormal enlargement of the mammary gland in males. It is an important, undervalued, underestimated and underreported common hormonal side effect of all antipsychotic medications including typical and atypical antipsychotics. Gynaecomastia has been reported to cause embarrassment for the individual, bring about low self-esteem; poor compliance and frequent relapse. Though gynaecomastia is underreported in the Nigerian and African medical literature, this case report provides evidence of this phenomenon in a Nigerian patient receiving antipsychotics. In this setting, no study has been found to have reported unilateral or bilateral gynaecomastia induced by chlorpromazine.


Recent years have seen numerous books about the looming threat posed to Western society by biological and chemical terrorism, by narcoterrorists, and by the unpredictable leaders of rogue nations. Some of these works have been alarmist. Some have been sensible and measured. But none has been by Loch Johnson. Johnson, author of the acclaimed "Secret Agencies "and "an experienced overseer of intelligence" ("Foreign Affairs"), here examines the present state and future challenges of American strategic intelligence. Written in his trademark style--dubbed "highly readable" by "Publishers Weekly"--and drawing on dozens of personal interviews and contacts, Johnson takes advantage of his insider access to explore how America today aspires to achieve nothing less than "global transparency," ferreting out information on potential dangers in every corner of the world. And yet the American security establishment, for all its formidable resources, technology, and networks, currently remains a loose federation of individual fortresses, rather than a well integrated "community" of agencies working together to provide the President with accurate information on foreign threats and opportunities. Intelligence failure, like the misidentified Chinese embassy in Belgrade accidentally bombed by a NATO pilot, is the inevitable outcome when the nation's thirteen secret agencies steadfastly resist the need for central coordination. Ranging widely and boldly over such controversial topics as the intelligence role of the United Nations (which Johnson believes should be expanded) and whether assassination should be a part of America's foreign policy (an option he rejects for fear that the U.S. would then be cast not only as global policeman but also as global godfather), Loch K. Johnson here maps out a critical "and" prescriptive vision of the future of American intelligence.


Dredging works are usually required to maintenance activities in many ports all over the world and represents a huge volume of disposal material. The use of dredged aggregates can be considered in several applications as erosive process control, coastal stabilization, beach replenishment, production of construction materials (clay, bricks, aggregates) or construction works (foundation fill, dikes, etc.).
Researches revealed the feasibility of dredged marine sand (DMS) in the construction of base and sub-base harbour pavements incorporating this material to hydraulic binder mixes (cement or lime) in order to improve the grading of aggregates and correct the granular skeleton. Its main objective is to improve the packing and to obtain the compressive properties required for geotechnical applications.
In this work the study of DMS from the Port of Sant Carles de la Rapita (Tarragona,
Spain) as construction material is presented. The analysis of its influence on paste, mortar and concrete production is described. Two experimental phases were carried out once chemical and physical characteristics of DMS were determined. At first, pastes and mortars were made using CEM II/A-M 42,5R cement, different percentages of DMS on replacement of raw sand and plasticizer additive in order to obtain fresh and hardened properties of the mixes studied. After that, DMS was used in the production of concretes as fine aggregates. A pilot experience was carried out with concrete port pavements produced in industrial scale. Fresh and hardened properties of the concretes were determined and compared to the control mix. Results show satisfactory behaviour of DMS as construction material when incorporated in concrete as fine corrective sand.


This book is the first comprehensive treatment of Painleve differential equations in the complex plane. Starting with a rigorous presentation for the meromorphic nature of their solutions, the Nevanlinna theory will be applied to offer a detailed exposition of growth aspects and value distribution of Painleve transcendents. The subsequent main part of the book is devoted to topics of classical background such as representations and expansions of solutions, solutions of special type like rational and special transcendental solutions, Backlund transformations and higher order analogues, treated separately for each of these six equations. The final chapter offers a short overview of applications of Painleve equations, including an introduction to their discrete counterparts. Due to the present important role of Painleve equations in physical applications, this monograph should be of interest to researchers in both mathematics and physics and to graduate students interested in mathematical physics and the theory of differential equations.


Heat removal accounts for ~90% of the total energy requirements of the winery and is mostly related to the temperature control of the wine tanks used for fermentation and maturation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of a selected wine yeast, chosen to optimize sensory characteristics and minimize SO2 production at temperatures higher than the standard for winemaking, on energy consumption during the fermentation process of the Franciacorta base wine. Fermentations using the new yeast strain were conducted at 15 and 19°C, and energy consumption was compared. Moreover, the sensory, chemical, and aromatic features of the Franciacorta sparkling base wines were measured. Fermentation required 21.6 Wh/Lgrape must at 15°C and 7.7 Wh/Lgrape must at 19°C, reducing energy use by ~65% at the higher temperature. Use of the tested yeast had positive effects on energy saving during fermentation without compromising sensory, chemical, and aromatic profiles of the resulting wine. This work suggests possible methods for wineries to adopt a more sustainable winemaking process that lowers energy consumption and decreases SO2 content in wines, which may introduce eco-labeling strategies and price-premium policies.


There has been much
discussion about the impact and future of artificial intelligence (AI) in our lives
and future generations. Many experts even believe that AI will "rule" the
world. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have provided a convenient and often extremely
accurate solution to problems within all fields, and can be seen as advanced
general-purpose regression models that try to mimic the behavior of the human
brain. The adoption and use of ANN-based methods in the Mechanistic-Empirical
Pavement Design Guide is a clear sign of the successful use of neural nets in
geomechanical and pavement systems. This work aims to provide an extensive and
detailed state-of-the-art of the application of ANN models to pavement
management, materials and design problems. Unlike former review articles
published before 2014, this work is more descriptive and makes the review much
more appealing to the reader by highlighting numerically and/or graphically the
effectiveness and possible drawbacks of each ANN application.


The world's wetlands are known for being highly productive environments and supporting significant numbers of fauna and flora species that rely on the wetland's primary productions for survival. However, they were historically used by humans for hunting and fishing, wetlands were considered wastelands, best used when drained and filled for agricultural, industrial and residential development. Despite now having a greater understanding of wetlands and their ecological importance, degradation of wetlands continues, mainly due to anthropogenic activities. Wetland restoration involves reconstructing natural sites that have been degraded or completely lost and re-establishing their functions and values as vital ecosystems. Important restoration components include control of invasive weeds, emphasis on the presence of locally native species and restoration of the hydrological component. The Wairio wetland is part of the largest wetland complex in the southern North Island and supports a number of native flora and fauna, of national and international importance. Wairio wetland has been destroyed by the effects of partial draining, unnatural hydrological control, clearing of native forest, construction of Parera Road separating once joined wetlands and the establishment of invasive willow trees and agricultural grasses. The co-management by the Department of Conservation and Ducks Unlimited, commenced in 2005, has begun a positive shift for the wetland. However, issues still remain due to the majority of the wetland still being used for farming, so there is no continuity between the three fenced restoration stages; artificial hydrological flow and water storage; and established willow trees along the wetland boundary. Most ephemeral wetland vegetation displays a strong pattern of zonation, through a sequence from open water to dry land, which is correlated in some way with the duration and periodicity of water inundation. This hydrosere reflects differences in the degree of adaptation to aquatic life of different plant species. Two studies are reported here, conducted in two areas at the Wairio wetland over two desiccation periods. The first study conducted during 2010/2011 at stage one, focused on determining the environmental conditions of peak abundance and limits to distribution of key native and exotic plant species along an environmental (hydrological) gradient. The second study, conducted in 2012 at stage three, further investigated the effect of topsoil removal on the plant community and was a comparison study with the initial study at stage one. Results indicated that the Wairio wetland plant communities display strong zonation patterns progressing from aquatic species, to turf communities, to exotic grass species. Over the two desiccation periods studied it was found that the introduced species most abundant in low soil moisture were common pasture grasses, especially yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus), brown top (Agrostis capillaris) and tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus) as well as purple clover (Trifolium pratense) and the high soil moisture invasive competitor was water plantain (Alisma spp.). We also found that topsoil excavation impacts the plant community; topsoil scraping in the high soil moisture areas leads to a more native dominated plant community, with the dominant species being water plantain (Alisma spp.) and Isolepis prolifera, but scraping in relatively low soil moisture areas encourages the exotic grass weed species to grow. Wairio wetland on the Eastern shore of Lake Wairarapa has been adversely affected by anthropogenic activities since the 1960s. In 2005, Ducks Unlimited and the Department of Conservation signed a Land Management Agreement where Ducks Unlimited would commence the restoration of the wetland. Survival of trees planted during the first few years was variable. Here, I report on the design and monitoring of a large scale field experiment involving the planting of around 2,500 trees of eight native wetland tree species Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, Podocarpus totara, Cordyline australis, Olearia virgata, Pittosporum tenuifolium, Coprosma robusta, Coprosma propinqua and Leptospermum scoparium. The trees were subjected to different methods of site preparation and aftercare to determine the best combination of treatments for successful establishment of tree saplings. Treatments included the use or non-use of topsoil excavation, release spraying, weedmats, nurse trees (with two combinations of species) and different spacing between the nurse species. Survival and growth over the first six months was monitored. Preliminarily results showed survival of O. virgata and P. totara was influenced by surface water, but few immediate effects of treatments upon growth rates. Olearia virgata, however, grew best in wet areas that had been scraped free of topsoil or drier areas that had not been scraped. Monitoring over the next 18 months will give us a better understanding of which is the most costeffective combination of treatments. Early indications suggest high level survival under all treatments.


Organizations change. They grow, they adapt, they evolve. The effects of organizational change are important, varied and complex and analyzing and understanding them is vital for students, academics and researchers in all business schools.

The Routledge Companion to Organizational Change offers a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the field. The volume brings together the very best contributors not only from the field of organizational change, but also from adjacent fields, such as strategy and leadership. These contributors offer fresh and challenging insights to the mainstream themes of this discipline.

Surveying the state of the discipline and introducing new, cutting-edge themes, this book is a valuable reference source for students and academics in this area.


This paper presents the results of a study aimed at measuring the economic impact of genetically modified cotton in Maharashtra State, India. It is the first study of its kind in India in that the data have been collected from farmers growing the crop under market conditions, rather than from trials. The research compares the performance of more than 9,000 Bt and non-Bt cotton farm plots in Maharashtra over the 2002 and 2003 growing seasons. Results show that Bt cotton varieties have had a significant positive impact on average yields and on the economic performance of cotton growers.


ID: 19026 Title: 4D-PET Maximum Intensity Projections Improve Accuracy of Mobile Tumor Volume Delineation Purpose: To examine the efficacy and accuracy of respiratory-gated positron emission tomography (4D-PET) maximum intensity projections (MIPs) in segmenting mobile tumor internal target volumes (ITVs) through a phantom study. Methods: An acrylic phantom was used for PET list-mode acquisition, consisting of 11C-filled spheres affixed inside a cylinder containing an 18-fluorodeoxyglucose solution. The phantom was attached to a robotic arm that underwent 1D motion based on clinically-derived patient breathing trajectories. An amplitude-based gating was performed on sequential list-mode subfiles of varying signal-to-background ratios, and PET-MIPs were generated from the gated images. ITVs were segmented by first denoising and deblurring images using a custom postprocessing module and then applying an absolute SUV threshold. ITV accuracy was assessed using the volume recovery fraction (VRF) the ratio of measured ITV to true volume occupied by the moving phantom spheres which was used to compare PET-MIP, ungated PET, and static sphere images. In addition, the effects of tumor trajectories, number of gating windows, and margin additions were investigated. Results: VRFs of ITVs generated from PET-MIPs were consistently higher than those from ungated PET. They also demonstrated a closer agreement to VRFs of static spheres (up to 99% similarity vs. 72% for ungated PET), suggesting that tumor motion had very little effect on the accuracy of PET-MIP measurements. Trajectories with higher amplitude and baseline drift decreased VRF by up to 14% for both PET-MIP and ungated PET. Increasing the number of gating windows (up to eight windows) resulted in higher VRFs for PET-MIPs without producing excessive image noise. PET-MIPs required a smaller margin addition than ungated PET to achieve a better overlap with the ground truth ITV. Conclusions: Compared to ungated PET, PET-MIPs are not significantly affected by tumor motion. 4D-PET imaging is a promising and viable methodology to better delineate mobile tumor volumes.


Affective variables can help understand differences in student performance. This paper presents student expectations as an affective variable that has so far received little research attention. Students have expectations from educational providers, the fulfilment of which can create a positive learning environment leading to better performance. This study investigates students' expectations from programs, the sources of these expectations and the outcomes of unmet expectations. A questionnaire was administered to learners of English as an additional language (n=65) in Brisbane, Australia. Factor analyses were conducted, and the results indicated that expectations are affected by levels of competitiveness, the educational and cultural gap between the home country and Australia, future orientation, and social value in the homeland. Unmet expectations affect performance, emotions, learning behaviour and cause rebelliousness. Follow-up interviews of teachers (n=10) at the same institutions were conducted to validate the results of the study. Students are likely to exhibit poorer performance and experience negative affective outcomes, thus hindering learning, if expectations are unmet. They may consider changing institutions and providing negative recommendations to prospective students. This research extends the understanding of affective variables in second language acquisition and has practical implications for educational providers.


The utility of linguistic annotation in neural machine translation seemed to had been established in past papers. The experiments were however limited to recurrent sequence-to-sequence architectures and relatively small data settings. We focus on the state-of-the-art Transformer model and use comparably larger corpora. Specifically, we try to promote the knowledge of source-side syntax using multi-task learning either through simple data manipulation techniques or through a dedicated model component. In particular, we train one of Transformer attention heads to produce source-side dependency tree. Overall, our results cast some doubt on the utility of multi-task setups with linguistic information. The data manipulation techniques, recommended in previous works, prove  ineffective in large data settings. The treatment of self-attention as dependencies seems much more promising: it helps in translation and reveals that Transformer model can very easily grasp the syntactic structure. An important but curious result is, however, that identical gains are obtained by using trivial ``linear trees'' instead of true dependencies. The reason for the gain thus may not be coming from the added linguistic knowledge but from some simpler regularizing effect we induced on self-attention matrices.


Recent progress and regional integration of the Albanian economy have presented a lot of challenges for the SME-s and the micro enterprises in Albania. One of the challenges, namely the regulation of the financial reporting framework for SME-s and micro entities becomes the focus of this study and we discuss on the problems that the micro enterprises faced when required to comply with the new accounting regulations. We find that these entities experience increased costs of reporting and lacked the proper experience to successfully handle the transition toward the new accounting regime. For ensuring a correct implementation of the new accounting rules and for increasing the awareness of the micro enterprises about the importance of qualitative financial information a close cooperation among the involved parties is needed. We recommend that the academic institutions, the professional organizations and the accounting regulatory bodies in Albania undertake trainings in order to enhance the knowledge on the new accounting rules.


The complicated tasks in organization of Muslim Boarding School demands good management. Good and proffesional management is as the expectation for one organization in achieving the determined objectives.
The research carried out in Modern Muslim Boarding School of Nurul Hakim is intended to express and describe the culture of management and its staffs in performing the tasks. Also, this research is intended to explain supporting things and the hindrances for performing effective and efficient management at Modern Muslim Boarding School of Nurul Hakim. Further, it is attempted to see closer of how the phenomenons and problems emerged in the dynamical organization of Modern Muslim Boarding School of Nurul Hakim.
This research uses phenomenogical-qualitative research with data collection techniques, interview, observation, and documentation study. The subjects of research are administiation staffs, teachers, students and head of divisions.
The result of research shows that management style applied by management with his staffs has not been running well. Generally, the causes are such as firstly, less effective of communication among management and staffs, headmasters with teachers, and other staffs. Secondly, the management performs authoritative management style. Thirdly, the difference of work orientation or minimum of managements availability time and headmaster at Modern Muslim Boarding School of Nurul Hakim. Fourthly, lack of personnels in handling the tasks. Fiftly, authority and and work division is unclear by the wish for having dominant authority from general management.
Since the efforts for improvement from management is not maximum, hence, it is suggested to manage the problem available at Modern Muslim Boarding School of Nurul Hakim immediately.


Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is now being extensively studied as it is a noninvasive "real-time" biomarker that can provide diagnostic and prognostic information before, during treatment and at progression. These include DNA mutations, epigenetic alterations and other forms of tumor-specific abnormalities such as microsatellite instability (MSI) and loss of heterozygosity (LOH). ctDNA is of great value in the process of cancer treatment. However, up to date, there is no strict standard considering the exact biomarker because the development and progression of cancer is extremely complicated. Also, results of the studies evaluating ctDNA are not consistent due to the different detection methods and processing. The major challenge is still the exact position of ctDNA in cancer management and the exact place of it versus tissue biopsy. actually it is still under the debate that circulating tumor markers will take the place of standard tissue biopsy or will support it to guide us to the more effective interventions?


This thesis investigates different aspects of strongly interacting ultracold Rydberg gases coupled by light, including the excitation of correlated structures called Rydberg aggregates and dipolar energy transport. For this purpose an experimental apparatus has been constructed. We study coherent population trapping (CPT) and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) involving Rydberg states. To study the formation of Rydberg aggregates we use full counting statistics (FCS) which makes it possible to infer the size of Rydberg aggregates. Dephasing during the excitation is found to have a dramatic effect on the formation process, leading to sequential growth around an initial grain. Rydberg state EIT is used to realize a new direct optical imaging scheme for Rydberg atoms which combines highly sensitive detection with high spatial and temporal resolution. Applying this technique we observe dipole-mediated energy transport processes between Rydberg atoms. We study classical transport in the presence of strong measurement induced decoherence. The strong interactions are seen to mediate long-range hopping significantly beyond nearest neighbors. We present first indications for coherent transport in this system. These experiments shed light on the role of correlations in the excitation and evolution of strongly interacting quantum systems and e.g. could possibly be used to model energy transport in biological systems.


The National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Math and Science Partnership Program (MSP) promotes the development, implementation, and sustainability of exemplary partnerships to produce high-quality math and science education at all K-12 levels. The MSP Program anticipates that the partnerships will be instrumental in improving student achievement, as well as reducing achievement gaps among student populations differentiated by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, or disability, a strategy advocated by Haycock, Hart, and Irvine (1991). This paper explores how different configurations influence the types of partnering and educational activities undertaken by partnerships. It further provides illustrative examples of education partnerships from the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Program, which calls for inter-institutional partnerships among institutions of higher education (IHEs), local education agencies (LEAs), state education agencies (SEAs), and other for-profit and nonprofit entities. The study examines partnerships awarded in three cohorts during FY2002, 2003, and 2004 in three categories: Comprehensive Partnerships, Targeted Partnerships, and Institute Partnerships (Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century). Data sources include interviews conducted with the MSPs, archival data submitted by the awardees as part of the MSP Program's Management Information System (MSP-MIS), available extant literature, awardees' annual reports, awardees' evaluation reports, documents available through the awardees' learning network (www. MSPnet.org), and Web site information reported by the individual partnerships in the MSP Program accessible through 2007. Preliminary results indicate that the particular type of configuration of the MSP partnership does not appear to significantly impact the quantity and types of activities the MSPs carry out and accomplish. Those partnerships configured with multiple IHEs did, in some instances, show an enhanced capacity to conduct a greater number and richer array of activities. * Now with Danya International.


We demonstrate power insensitive silicon microring resonators without the need for active feedback control. The passive control of the resonance is achieved by utilizing the compensation of two counteracting processes, free carrier dispersion blueshift and thermo-optic redshift. In the fabricated devices, the resonant wavelength shifts less than one resonance linewidth for dropped power up to 335 μW, more than fivefold improvement in cavity energy handling capability compared to regular microrings.


Ruth Duck provides a much-needed how-to book for creating unique and creative worship resources, including prayers, hymns, and sermons. She presents methods and models for creating these new resources while remaining scripturally relevant and mindful of inclusive-language concerns. This is an invaluable guide for those involved in writing or evaluating worship services.


This thesis examines the representation of Mormon men in American film and television, with particular regard for sexual identity and the cultural association of Mormonism with sexuality. The history of Mormonism's unique marital practices and doctrinal approaches to gender and sexuality have developed three common stereotypes for Mormon male characters: the purposeful heterosexual, the monstrous polygamist, and the self-destructive homosexual. Depending upon the sexual stereotype in the narrative, the Mormon Church can function as a proponent for nineteenth-century views of sexuality, a symbol for society's repressed sexuality, or a metaphor for the oppressive effects of performing gender and sexuality according to ideological constraints. These ideas are presented in Mormon films such as Saturday's Warrior (1989) as well as mainstream films such as A Mormon Maid (1917) and Advise and Consent (1962).