The objectives of this research to determine the genetic variability from crosses of tomato and resiproc in the lowland. Research carried out at the experimental station in Faculty of Agriculture at the Riau University in June until October 2013. This research used a Completely RandomizedBlock Design,10 treatments and 3 replications, so that there were 30 units of experimental. The treatment consist of 10 genotipes of tomato is IPB T-13 x IPB T–64, IPB T-64 x IPB T–13, IPB T-13 x IPB T-78, IPB T- 78x IPB T-13, IPB T-64 x IPB T-78, IPB T-78 x IPB T-64, IPB T-3 x IPB T-64, IPB T-64 x IPB T-3, IPB T-3 x IPB T-78 and  IPB T-78 x IPB T-3. Parameters were observed:  the flowering date, harvesting date, plant height, stem diameters, fruit length, fruit diameters, flesh thickness, number of cavities, fruit weight, weight fruit of plants. Genotype IPB T 3 x IPB T 78 has a fastresponse of flowering and harvesting as well as plant height and weight. Genotype IPB T 78 x IPB T 64 has a weight fruit. While genotype IPB T 64 x IPB T 78 has a higher fruit weight per plant  (986,1 g). Keyword : Genetic Diversity, Tomatoes, Lowland


Intensive mono-functional agriculture, typical across many European Member States, is designed to increase the efficiency and productivity of the agricultural sector. This is accompanied by frequent spraying of crops with chemicals for protection against pests and diseases. While the health and environmental impacts of pesticides and their residues are debated among scientific experts, in the minds of European citizens they constitute the most significant food risk. The Eurobarometer public opinion survey on Food-Related Risks commissioned by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2010 looked at risk perceptions in two ways. First, an open-ended question which invited respondents to say 'what comes to mind when they think about possible problems and risks associated with food and eating', and second a closed question asked respondents to rate the extent to which they worry about 17 food-related risks, including pesticides in fruit and vegetables (EFSA, 2010). The most frequent response to the open question was 'chemicals and pesticides', mentioned spontaneously by 17% of Europeans – 7% mentioned genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the closed question 74% of Europeans say they are fairly or very worried about pesticides in fruit and vegetables – the highest percentage of worry across 17 food risks. Sixty-seven per cent say they are fairly or very worried about GMOs. The 2010 survey replicated a number of questions from EFSA's first Risk Issues Eurobarometer in 2005 (EFSA, 2005). The findings on worry about pesticides in fruit and vegetables show an increase of 4% over the period – 12 countries show a 4% or more increase in worry, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands and Sweden. Overall, it appears that pesticides in fruit and vegetables are not only the top concern among Europeans, but also an increasing concern.


This correlational study aimed to investigate the prediction levels of technopedagogical education competency for technology integration self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers. The study group comprised 174 pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education of a university located in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. Both "Technopedagogical Education Competency Scale" and "Technology Integration Self-Efficacy Perception Scale" were administered as data collection tools. The results of the study showed that pre-service teachers had high levels of technology integration self-efficacy beliefs, with a high-level positive correlation with technopedagogical education competency. In addition, the dimensions of technopedagogical education competency such as ethics, design, exertion and proficiency were revealed as the predictors of technology integration self-efficacy; moreover, predictive effects of exertion and proficiency dimensions are insignificant. The findings obtained from the present study are thought to be helpful for the development of pre-service teachers' technology integration self-efficacy beliefs.


OF DISSERTATION MEDICALLY ILL SMOKERS AND PLANNING TO QUIT Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and is the cause of nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the United States. The prevalence of smoking has had a leveling off effect after many years of significant decline. Certain subgroups of the population, such as those with low income and certain illnesses, continue to smoke at disproportionately high rates. Reasons for these disparities in smoking rates are complex. Developing a better understanding of the issues related to persistent smoking particularly for those with medical illness and limited access to cessation resources can help focus interventions to help these high risk smokers quit. This dissertation includes a systematic review of the literature associated with hardcore smoking; an analysis of the reliability and validity of a self-efficacy instrument in a sample of low-SES, medically ill smokers; and the results of a cross-sectional, nonexperimental study exploring the relationship between smoking-related factors and planning to quit in a sample of medically ill smokers. A sample of 70 current and recent smokers was surveyed at a free clinic. Quitting self-efficacy was measured using an instrument not previously tested in a rural, medically ill sample. Modifications to the survey were made based on qualitative interviews with smokers and a single question measuring self-efficacy was also tested. There was a high correlation among the self-efficacy measures (Spearman's rho .99, p < .001) and between the longer instrument and the single question (Spearman's rho .65, p < .001). Each measure demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. In the study exploring potential factors associated with planning to quit, the number of prior quit attempts and confidence to quit explained 43% of the variance in those planning versus not planning to quit. Providing interventions focused on increasing confidence and experience with quit attempts can be effective in promoting a plan to quit in this group of smokers who, because of their medical illness, can benefit significantly from cessation. Research is needed to explore cessation outcomes when employing these targeted interventions with medically ill smokers in rural areas.


Abstract Background and aims : Standardized self-report questionnaires, because of their low costs and the ease of the summarization and analysis of their results, are considered as the most important and widely used approach to identifying and assessing work-related stressors. Current study was carried out with the aim of reviewing the available questionnaires for work-related stressor factors. Methods : In this systematic review study, all the available work-related stress questionnaires in the time span from 1975 to 2016 were collected through running search in several authentic indexing and citation databases and then the collected questionnaire were examined. Results : Generally, according to the criteria considered, a total of 23 questionnaires met the inclusion criteria for the final stage of the study. All these questionnaires had been designed and developed in industrial countries. However, according to our literature review, the psychometric properties had only been studied for the Persian translations of the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), the Health & Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool (HSE-MS), the General Nordic Questionnaire (QPS-Nordic), and the NIOSH Generic Job Stress Questionnaire (GJSQNIOSH). Conclusion : With regard to the diversity of available questionnaires and their subscales, it is suggested that Iranian researchers and organizations, firstly identify the stressor factors related to their own specific jobs through running qualitative studies and then start to assess the occupational stressor factors related to their specific job environments through developing their own standardized questionnaires or employing the subscales of the available questionnaires covering their specific problems.


Traditional leaders have a significant role in the social, political, and economic lives of citizens in countries throughout Africa. They are defined as local elites who derive legitimacy from custom, tradition, and spirituality. While their claims to authority are local, traditional leaders, or "chiefs," are also integrated into the modern state in a variety of ways. The position of traditional leaders between state and local communities allows them to function as development intermediaries. They do so by influencing the distribution of national public goods and the representation of citizen demands to the state. Further, traditional leaders can impact development by coordinating local collective action, adjudicating conflicts, and overseeing land rights. In the role of development intermediaries, traditional leaders shape who benefits from different types of development outcomes within the local and national community. Identifying the positive and negative developmental impacts of traditional leaders requires attention to the different implications of their roles as lobbyists, local governments, political patrons, and land authorities.


We present an extensive set of detailed stellar models in the mass range 7.7-10.5 Mover the metallicity range Z = 10 −5 -0.02. These models were produced using the Monash University version of the Mount Stromlo Stellar Structure Program (MONSTAR) and follow the evolution from the pre-main sequence to the first thermal pulse of these super asymptotic giant branch stars. A quantitative comparison is made to the study of Siess. Prior to this study, only qualitative comparisons and code validations existed in this critical mass range, and the large variations in the literature were largely unexplained. The comparison presented here is particularly detailed due to the standardization of the input physics, where possible. The minimum initial mass of star which ignites carbon, Mup, was found to agree within 0.2 M� between the codes over the entire metallicity range. We find exceptional agreement in the model results between these two codes for all stages of evolution up to and including carbon burning. For additional comparison, we also present results from the EVOLVE code, a modified version of the IBEN code as described in Gil-Pons, Guti´ errez & Garcfor some important variables during the carbon burning phase. Several numerical tests showed that the carbon burning phase is weakly dependent on the spatial resolution but that inadequate temporal resolution alters the behaviour of the convective zones. We also discovered that stars just below Mup may experience a carbon flash that is not followed by the development of the flame. Such aborted carbon burning models thus preserve a CO core surrounding by a 0.2-0.3 Mshell of partially burnt carbon material. We present a simplified algorithm for calculating carbon burning that only relies on tracking two species, 12 C and 16 O, but which tests show works quite accurately for the a wide range of initial masses and compositions.


The basidiomycete fungus Coprinopsis cinerea is an important model system for multicellular development. Fruiting bodies of C. cinerea are typical mushrooms, which can be produced synchronously on defined media in the laboratory. To investigate the transcriptome in detail during fruiting body development, high-throughput sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed using cDNA libraries strand-specifically constructed from 13 points (stages/tissues) with two biological replicates. The reads were aligned to 14,245 predicted transcripts, and counted for forward and reverse transcripts. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between two adjacent points and between vegetative mycelium and each point were detected by Tag Count Comparison (TCC). To validate RNA-seq data, expression levels of selected genes were compared using RPKM values in RNA-seq data and qRT-PCR data, and DEGs detected in microarray data were examined in MA plots of RNA-seq data by TCC. We discuss events deduced from GO analysis of DEGs. In addition, we uncovered both transcription factor candidates and antisense transcripts that are likely to be involved in developmental regulation for fruiting.


This paper proposes a new model for series-connected photovoltaic (PV) cells, using a modified one-diode equivalent-circuit model. The PV modules comprise many series-connected cells to generate more electrical power. This modified model starts with the conventional one-diode equivalent-circuit (parallel-connected current source with a diode and a shunt resistance which are connected in series with a series resistance and a load) of PV cells and then proposes a new way of connecting the aforementioned circuit elements. The advantage of the presented modified model, is that it can model the series-connected PV cells by a new representation of one-diode equivalent-circuit. To validate the results of the modified model, similar input variables are applied to the conventional and the presented models. The current/voltage (I/V) characteristics are then calculated from both models and compared. The results show that the difference between the calculated I/V characteristics using the two models is much less than 1 percent. The presented approach can thus, be very useful for researchers or engineers to quickly and easily determine the performance of PV modules.


Abstract Mango malformation is a serious disease of Mangifera indica in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This disease is caused by Fusarium subglutinans, which is also associated with diseases on many other hosts, such as pineapple, pine, maize and sugarcane. The F. subglutinans strains associated with different hosts are virtually indistinguishable using morphological characters, but can be easily differentiated using histone and beta-tubulin gene sequencing, and some have subsequently been assigned to distinct species. The aim of this study was to characterize F. subglutinans isolates associated with mango malformation using histone H3 gene sequencing and to compare them with other isolates in the Gibberella fujikuroi complex. Analysis of histone sequence data revealed the presence of two phylogenetically distinct groups of F. subglutinans isolates associated with mango malformation. We also considered the identity of the two groups of isolates associated with mango malformation and determined their relatedness to other Fusarium spp. For this purpose, portions of the beta-tubulin gene were sequenced and compared with the beta-tubulin sequences deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) nucleotide database. This comparison to the NCBI database indicated that one group of F. subglutinans strains isolated from mango constitutes a unique lineage in the G. fujikuroi complex. Based on beta-tubulin and histone H3 sequencing, the second group of isolates is conspecific with the F. subglutinans strains previously reported to be the causal agent of mango malformation.


The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the fact that by many parameters, which involve all levels of linguistic structure (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexical semantics and lexicon), the Caucasus constitutes a linguistic area. The totality of numerous features shared by the two mutually unrelated indigenous Caucasian linguistic families (North Caucasian and Kartvelian) could be interpreted in terms of the Caucasian Sprachbund; this does not preclude the postulation of parallel smaller Caucasian Sprachbunde.


In motor control, the general view is still that spinal interneurons mainly contribute to reflexes and automatic movements. The question raised here is whether spinal interneurons can mediate the cortical command for independent finger movements, like a precision grip between the thumb and index finger in the macaque monkey, or if this function depends exclusively on a direct corticomotoneuronal pathway. This study is a followup of a previous report (Sasaki et al. J Neurophysiol 92: 3142-3147, 2004) in which we trained macaque monkeys to pick a small piece of sweet potato from a cylinder by a precision grip between the index finger and thumb. We have now isolated one spinal interneuronal system, the C3-C4 propriospinal interneurons with projection to hand and arm motoneurons. In the previous study, the lateral corticospinal tract (CST) was interrupted in C4/C5 (input intact to the C3-C4 propriospinal interneurons), and in this study, the CST was interrupted in C2 (input abolished). The precision grip could be performed within the first 15 days after a CST lesion in C4/C5 but not in C2. We conclude that C3-C4 propriospinal interneurons also can carry the command for precision grip.


In this paper, I reflect about a recent regulatory trend concerning the enforcement of labour standards through contract compliance clauses and other requirements of public contracts tendered under European Union public procurement law. On the back of recent developments in the case law of the European Court of Justice regarding cross-border situations of procurement-based enforcement of labour standards, notably in the re-examination of the Ruffert case in both the Bundesdruckerei and RegioPost cases, I reflect on this phenomenon from the perspective of regulatory substitution. In setting out a basic framework to assess regulatory substitution, I hypothesise that most of the difficulties evidenced by the case law stem from the transfer of labour regulation goals to the public procurement sphere. I then aim to test this hypothesis by means of an analysis of labour policy-oriented mechanisms included in the 2014 revision of the EU public procurement rules. I then go on to critically assess the fitness for purpose of the procurement mechanisms from the perspective of contributing to the enforcement of labour standards. I ultimately conclude that, even though the 2014 Public Procurement Package has galvanised the trend of regulatory substitution whereby employment and social goals have now become part and parcel of public procurement strategy in the EU, a close examination of the legal mechanisms created by Directive 2014/24/EU shows that this regulatory substitution is both limited and highly dependent on the implementation (and investment of significant administrative resources) at Member State level.


Data on 355 Grey Plovers Pluvialis squatarola trapped in South Africa in 1971-1997 were used to describe seasonal body mass variation and moult in relation to their very long migrations. The estimated duration of adult primary moult. 131 days. was similar to that observed in India and 30-40 days shorter than durations reported for localities in Europe. All birds in their first and second year of life oversummering in South Africa underwent a completc moult between their first boreal spring and second boreal summer. The presence of two concurrent or consecutive primary moult cycles was observed in 35% of second-year birds. It is suggested that the primary moult of first or second-year birds might be considered as an anticipated post-breeding moult rather than a postponement of the post-juvenile body moult or a delayed pre-migratory one. If this hypothesis is confirmed. the second primary moult cycle observed in oversummering first-year Grey Plovers would be a supplemental postbreeding moult. This cycle may have no adaptive value, occurring through the absence of endogenous cues which stop the moult. Migratory mass gain was observed only in birds which had completed or suspended primary moult. Departure mass (> 310 g) was reached by some individuals as early as IS March, but most birds departed between 15-30 April. Grey Plovers left South Aflica before having moulted into a complete breeding plumage.


Skyline query is of great importance in many applications, such as multi-criteria decision making and business planning. In particular, a skyline point is a data object in the database whose attribute vector is not dominated by that of any other objects. Previous methods to retrieve skyline points usually assume static data objects in the database (i.e. their attribute vectors are fixed), whereas several recent work focus on skyline queries with dynamic attributes. In this paper, we propose a novel variant of skyline queries, namely metric skyline, whose dynamic attributes are defined in the metric space (i.e. not limited to the Euclidean space). We illustrate an efficient and effective pruning mechanism to answer metric skyline queries through a metric index. Most importantly, we formalize the query performance of the metric skyline query in terms of the pruning power, by a cost model, in light of which we construct an optimized metric index aiming to maximize the pruning power of metric skyline queries. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed pruning techniques as well as the constructed index in answering metric skyline queries.


Author(s): Dong, Tobias Xiao | Advisor(s): Cahalan, Michael D | Abstract: Calcium is a ubiquitous cellular messenger that is essential in regulating a wide variety of functions in living organisms. Our understanding of Ca2+ signaling was first made possible by the use of synthetic small-molecule Ca2+ indicators to visualize Ca2+ dynamics within live cells. The subsequent development of genetically encoded Ca2+ indicators opened up new possibilities for in vivo monitoring of Ca2+ signaling, but until recently, the performance of these genetic indicators has always fallen behind those of small-molecule indicators. With the goal of developing new and improved options for Ca2+ imaging studies, we have created a transgenic reporter mouse expressing a novel ratiometric genetically encoded Ca+ indicator, and applied it to the study of T lymphocyte motility and activation.First, I describe the development of a novel ratiometric genetically encoded Ca2+ indicator, named "Salsa6f", and demonstrate its use to monitor either cytosolic or near-membrane local Ca2+ signaling. Two-photon imaging is utilized to ensure functionality of Salsa6f in future in vivo studies. Salsa6f and a dominant-negative Orai1 mutant are then used to investigate the mechanism of Orai1-regulated stop-and-go T cell motility. Microfabricated channels are used in an in vitro assay that replicates the confined environmental conditions experienced by T cells in vivo in densely packed lymph nodes. I then describe the development of a transgenic mouse to express Salsa6f in a tissue-specific manner for in vivo studies of Ca2+ signaling in the immune and nervous systems. Lastly, I present two-photon imaging of cellular dynamics within mouse intact lymph node to study unperturbed, endogenous Tregs interacting with conventional T cells and dendritic cells. We demonstrate the crucial involvement of CTLA-4 in determining cellular dynamics among Tregs, conventional T cells, and dendritic cells in vivo. I also lay the groundwork for future in vivo studies utilizing transgenic reporter mice expressing genetically encoded Ca2+ indicators to study the Treg-mediated suppression of Ca2+ signaling in activating conventional T cells.


This paper explores the implications for design theory and practice of recent public policy initiatives that aim to promote longer lasting products. Public concern relating to product lifetimes and, specifically, a perception that manufacturers of certain consumer durables are responsible for planned obsolescence, is long established. Academic engagement in this area has latterly increased and governments have taken interest in product longevity as a means of increasing resource efficiency and reducing waste. One of the driving forces is the revised EU Waste Framework Directive, which requires Member States to develop waste prevention programmes and highlights product life extension as a means of reducing waste. A subsequent Government review of waste policy in the United Kingdom indicated an intention to promote 'resource efficient product design', of which one element would be 'design for longer life, upgrading, reuse or repair'.

A range of possible implications for designers of this emerging public policy are considered in this paper, which questions the feasibility of increased product longevity in the light of the demands of market-oriented and growth-driven economies in Western Europe and addresses the potential role of designers in achieving such change. Drawing upon data from a series of semi-structured interviews with design practitioners, it considers how able and how motivated designers are to respond to the challenge of increasing product lifetimes and how they might utilise any power they have to affect change.
The paper relates these findings to the UK Government's pledge to work with businesses to 'design and manufacture goods that are more efficient, durable, repairable and recyclable'. Unless businesses see the prospect of commercial gain, they will not specify such products. The paper concludes that a mix of regulatory and market-based instruments will need to be adopted by government if increased product longevity is to be regarded by business as a credible strategy.


A synthesis of long-term changes in pH of coastal ecosystems shows that, in contrast to the uniform trends of open-ocean acidification (-0.0004 to -0.0026 pH units yr-1) driven by increased atmospheric CO2, coastal ecosystems display a much broader range of trends (-0.023 to 0.023 pH units yr-1) and are as likely to show long-term increase as decline in pH. The majority of the 83 investigated coastal ecosystems displayed nonlinear trends, with seasonal and interannual variations exceeding 1 pH unit for some sites. The high pH variability of coastal ecosystems is primarily driven by inputs from land. These include freshwater inputs that typically dilute the alkalinity of seawater thereby resulting in reduced buffering, nutrients enhancing productivity and pH, as well as organic matter supporting excess respiration driving acidification. For some coastal ecosystems, upwelling of nutrient-rich and corrosive water may also contribute to variability in pH. Metabolic control of pH was the main factor governing variability for the majority of coastal sites, displaying larger variations in coastal ecosystems with low alkalinity buffering. pH variability was particularly pronounced in coastal ecosystems with strong decoupling of production and respiration processes, seasonally or through stratification. Our analysis demonstrate that coastal pH can be managed by controlling inputs of nutrients, organic matter, and alkalinity. In well-mixed coastal waters, increasing productivity can improve resistance to ocean acidification, whereas increasing productivity enhances acidification in bottom waters of stratified coastal ecosystems. Environmental management should consider the balance between the negative consequences of eutrophication versus those of acidification, to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services of our coastal ecosystems.


Geometrical profile (roughness) of joint surfaces influences the behaviour of rock joints under shear loading. With regard to the dilation, there are two models of direct shear test that may simulate the original loading condition existing in the location from where the specimens have been sampled. The first model in which the normal load is constant (CNL) and the discontinuity is free to dilate in shearing, represents typical situations such as movement of a block on a surface slope as a result of its own weight. The second model in which the dilatancy is prohibited (VNL), simulates the condition of a block confined in a rock mass in an underground opening. A shear test conducted under restricted normal displacement (dilation) will generally yield considerably higher shear strength than one conducted under constant normal stress. In this research, both types of tests were conducted on smooth and rough surfaces of specimens made from rock like material. The results of the VNL and the CNL direct shear tests on regular teeth-shaped profile discontinuities indicates that at all levels of normal load, the linear Mohr-Coulomb criterion was not valid for rough surfaces that subscribed to the power law equations. Increasing normal load emphasized the difference between the results obtained from two methods, although for lower normal loads the results were nearly similar.


Increasingly, lawyers and decision-makers are recognizing the limitations and consequences of current approaches to attorney regulation. Inspired by developments in other countries, regulators in the United States and Canada have started the process of exploring innovative approaches, including proactive management-based regulation. The term, proactive-management regulation (PMBR), was first used by Professor Ted Schneyer to refer to a regulatory approach designed to promote ethical law practice by assisting lawyers with practice management. The seed for PMBR was first planted in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It grew out of the legislation that allowed limited liability and non-lawyer ownership of incorporated law practices (ILPs) without restrictions on percentages owned by nonlawyers. Intending to address concerns related to non-lawyer ownership and limited liability, the statute imposed requirements related to management and controls. Specifically, the statute required the ILP appoint a legal practitioner director to be generally responsible for the management of legal services provided by the ILP. In addition, the statute required that the legal practitioner director must ensure that "appropriate management systems" are implemented and maintained to enable the provision of legal services in accordance with obligations imposed by law. Following the implementation of the new regulatory regime in NSW, Dr. Christine Parker conducted an empirical study to assess the impact of PMBR. The 2008 study found that complaints rates for ILPs went down by two thirds after the ILP completed their initial self-assessments. In addition, the study determined that the complaints rate for ILPs that completed the self-assessment process was one-third of the number of complaints filed against non-incorporated legal practices that had not completed the self-assessment process. Although the 2008 study was very noteworthy in pointing to the impact on complaints rates, the study did not seek to address the reasons why the complaints rates dramatically went down for practitioners who went through the self-assessment process. To address that question, I conducted a mixed method study in 2012. Using a survey and interviews, that study sought to obtain more data on the impact of AMS and the self-assessment process. It also sought to identify possible measures to improve management-based regulation of firms. Another article discusses survey findings related the effects of the self-assessment process and the AMS requirement. A second article examines how management-based approaches might be incrementally integrated into current disciplinary systems. This article focuses on information obtained in the interviews and survey findings that relate to designing and improving PMBR systems. After describing the study's hypotheses and methodology, Part I briefly describes select study findings related to effects of the AMS and self-assessment process in NSW. Drawing on data obtained in the study, Part II discusses respondents' concerns related to the self-assessment process. Part III outlines recommendations for regulators interested in improving and designing PMBR systems. The conclusion discusses the steps that jurisdictions have taken in exploring PMBR. It harkens back to the McKay Commission's call to action, urging regulators and practitioners to work together to implement PMBR as a system that protects the public by assisting lawyers.


African American entrepreneurship has been an integral part of the American economy since the 1600s. On the eve of the Civil War, the collective wealth of free blacks was approximately $50 million. In 2006, African Americans earned a whopping $744 billion, a figure that exceeds the gross domestic product of all but 15 nations of the 192 independent countries in the world. As W. Sherman Rogers so ably demonstrates, African Americans have achieved these economic gains under difficult circumstances. Slavery, segregation, and legally limited access to property, education, and other opportunities have taken a heavy toll, even to this day. Besides providing a penetrating glimpse into the world of black entrepreneurship both past and present, this book urges African Americans to gain financial independence as entrepreneurs. Business ownership, Rogers argues, will bring security, wealth that can be passed to successive generations, and educated offspring with much greater earning power. The African American Entreprenuer: Then and Now explores the lower economic status of black Americans in light of America's legacy of slavery, segregation, and rampant discrimination. Its main purpose is to shine a light on the legal, historical, sociological and political factors that together help to explain the economic condition of black people in America from their arrival in America to the present. In the process, the book spotlights the many amazing breakthroughs made by black entrepreneurs even before the Civil War and Emancipation. Profiles of business people from the Post-civil War period through today include Booker T. Washington, pioneer banker and insurer A.G. Gaston, hair care entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker, Ebony publisher John H. Johnson, Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson, publisher Earl Graves, music producer Damon Dash, rapper Sean Combs, former basketball stars Dave Bing and Magic Johnson, food entrepreneur Michelle Hoskins, broadcast personality Cathy Hughes, former Beatrice Foods head Reginald Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, and many more. As Rogers points out, reading about remarkable African American entrepreneurs can inspire readers to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset. To further that goal and help readers take the plunge, he outlines many of the skills, tools and information necessary for business success-success that can help chart a new path to prosperity for all African Americans.


BACKGROUND
Data from national test results suggests that children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL) experience relatively lower levels of educational attainment in comparison to their monolingual, English-speaking peers.

AIMS
The relative underachievement of children who are learning EAL demands that the literacy needs of this group are identified. To this end, this study aimed to explore the reading- and comprehension-related skills of a group of EAL learners.

SAMPLE
Data are reported from 92 Year 3 pupils, of whom 46 children are learning EAL.

METHOD
Children completed standardized measures of reading accuracy and comprehension, listening comprehension, and receptive and expressive vocabulary.

RESULTS
Results indicate that many EAL learners experience difficulties in understanding written and spoken text. These comprehension difficulties are not related to decoding problems but are related to significantly lower levels of vocabulary knowledge experienced by this group.

CONCLUSIONS
Many EAL learners experience significantly lower levels of English vocabulary knowledge which has a significant impact on their ability to understand written and spoken text. Greater emphasis on language development is therefore needed in the school curriculum to attempt to address the limited language skills of children learning EAL.


Recently, composite-order bilinear pairing has been shown to be useful in many cryptographic constructions. However, it is time-costly to evaluate. This is because the composite order should be at least 1024bit and, hence, the elliptic curve group order n and base field become too large, rendering the bilinear pairing algorithm itself too slow to be practical (e.g., the Miller loop is Ω(n)). Thus, composite-order computation easily becomes the bottleneck of a cryptographic construction, especially, in the case where many pairings need to be evaluated at the same time. The existing solution to this problem that converts composite-order pairings to prime-order ones is only valid for certain constructions. In this paper, we leverage the huge number of threads available on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to speed up composite-order pairing computation. We investigate suitable SIMD algorithms for base field, extension field, elliptic curve and bilinear pairing computation as well as mapping these algorithms into GPUs with careful considerations. Experimental results show that our method achieves a record of 8.7ms per pairing on a 1024bit security level, which is a 20-fold speedup compared to state-of-the-art CPU implementation. This result also opens the road to adopting higher security levels and using rich-resource parallel platforms, which for example are available in cloud computing. In fact, we can achieve more than 24 times speedup on a 2048bit security level and a record of 7× 10−6 USD per pairing on the Amazon cloud computing environment.


Immune tolerance mechanisms limit gp41 neutralizing antibody lineage maturation to broadly neutralizing antibodies. An immune block to HIV vaccines Because HIV is a rapidly mutating virus, a successful vaccine will need to elicit an immune response against a variety of HIV strains—broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs). However, despite multiple promising targets, bnAb generation after HIV vaccination has remained elusive. Now, Zhang et al. report that bnAbs to one such target, gp41, are controlled by immune tolerance. In mouse and macaque, precursors to these antibodies are either deleted or do not attain sufficient affinity to neutralize virus. Therefore, a successful vaccine for HIV will need to overcome immune tolerance mechanisms. Development of an HIV vaccine is a global priority. A major roadblock to a vaccine is an inability to induce protective broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs). HIV gp41 bnAbs have characteristics that predispose them to be controlled by tolerance. We used gp41 2F5 bnAb germline knock-in mice and macaques vaccinated with immunogens reactive with germline precursors to activate neutralizing antibodies. In germline knock-in mice, bnAb precursors were deleted, with remaining anergic B cells capable of being activated by germline-binding immunogens to make gp41-reactive immunoglobulin M (IgM). Immunized macaques made B cell clonal lineages targeted to the 2F5 bnAb epitope, but 2F5-like antibodies were either deleted or did not attain sufficient affinity for gp41-lipid complexes to achieve the neutralization potency of 2F5. Structural analysis of members of a vaccine-induced antibody lineage revealed that heavy chain complementarity-determining region 3 (HCDR3) hydrophobicity was important for neutralization. Thus, gp41 bnAbs are controlled by immune tolerance, requiring vaccination strategies to transiently circumvent tolerance controls.


Mainstream society's perceptions of traditional Mennonites tend towards viewing them as technologically deficient. Yet, cell phones, computers, and tablets are increasingly prevalent within this population. Challenging stereotypes, this article considers digital technology usage by Old Colony Mennonites (OCM) in Southwestern Ontario (SWO). Rooted in the Anabaptist tradition, a lengthy history of migration led the OCM to settle in Mexico. Yet, due to economic circumstances, many continue to travel to and from SWO, resulting in a transformation; from maintaining an isolated lifestyle to one that includes some form of mainstream society. This shift includes digital technology usage, specifically texting, social media, and the Internet. Although research into Mennonite technology practice exists, these new forms of digital technologies have not received similar attention. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2012, this study took place in five Old Colony communities in SWO. Interviews, with both former and current OCMs, and others who have some connection to the Mennonites, suggest that the Old Colony navigate the lines between prescribed values and twenty-first century requirements in terms of a continuum, on their own terms. While digital technologies may create tensions within the community, they also act to blur lines between geographical boundaries, extend social networks, and allow OCMs to create their own vision of the society in which they wish to live.


This book is being updated at a time of financial crisis leading to downward pressure on healthcare budgets. This means that pharmacists have to be even smarter at demonstrating their value for money and providing the evidence to underpin that. The value of clinical pharmacy services in terms of saving lives and saving money has been demonstrated, yet such services remain patchy in parts of central and eastern Europe. By contrast, many developing countries, particularly in Asia, are rapidly developing their clinical pharmacy with strong support from their health ministries.

The increased pressure of limited resources will continue to shape the way pharmacy is practised. Innovation continues to run ahead of our ability to fund new developments, and demands from an increasingly informed public who have ready access to medical information add to this pressure. Add to this the pressure to reduce our carbon footprint, and we have some challenges ahead.

These realities have created a fertile environment for the growth of evidence-based practice. Developments offering to identify effective interventions and providing the possibility of eliminating those activities which are ineffective or even harmful is clearly attractive to many, particularly those who purchase healthcare in some way or another. There is a further attraction in the belief that eliminating useless interventions will somehow free up resources for new developments. This is probably wishful thinking. However, other professionals regard the whole evidence-based movement as a threat to their right to practice.

The rapid unstoppable development of information technology has greatly facilitated the evidence-based healthcare movement. The rise of apps for tablets and smartphones makes information available at the fingertips. In 2012, some 250 000 medically related apps were downloaded worldwide. The internet provides worldwide and almost instant access across continents to high-quality evidence, good quality guidelines and protocols for treatment at little …


"Deployment of broadband seismic stations on the Antarctica continent" is an ambitious project to improve the spatial resolution of seismic data across the Antarctic Plate and surrounding regions. Several international collaborative programs for the purpose of geomonitoring were conducted in Antarctica during the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. The Antarctica's GAmburtsev Province (AGAP; IPY #147), the GAmburtsev Mountain SEISmic experiment (GAMSEIS), a part of AGAP, and the Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET; IPY #185) were major contributions in establishing a geophysical network in Antarctica. The AGAP/GAMSEIS project was an internationally coordinated deployment of more than 30 broadband seismographs over the crest of the Gambursev Mountains (Dome-A), Dome-C and Dome-F area. The investigations provide detailed information on crustal thickness and mantle structure; provide key constraints on the origin of the Gamburtsev Mountains; and more broadly on the structure and evolution of the East Antarctic craton and subglacial environment. From GAMSEIS and POLENET data obtained, local and regional seismic signals associated with ice movements, oceanic loading, and local meteorological variations were recorded together with a significant number of teleseismic events. In this chapter, in addition to the Earth's interiors, we will demonstrate some of the remarkable seismic signals detected during IPY that illustrate the capabilities of broadband seismometers to study the sub-glacial environment, particularly at the margins of Antarctica. Additionally, the AGAP and POLENET stations have an important role in the Federation of Digital Seismographic Network (FDSN) in southern high latitude.


Given a smooth plane curve or surface in ℝ3 its parallels consist of those curves or surfaces a fixed distance d down the normals in a fixed direction. Generically they have Legendre singularities. We are concerned here with the way in which these parallels change as we alter the distance d. (Alternatively the manner in which wave-fronts change as they evolve from an initial smooth wavefront.) This problem was considered in (1) by V. I. Arnold. In a very beautiful paper he describes the generic evolution of wavefronts but does not prove that for a generic initial wavefront in ℝ2 or ℝ3 the evolution is of the type described there. This we do here, using the tool of transversality. A more positive outcome of our investigation is that some of Arnold's generic forms do not occur (those corresponding to A2 singularities).


Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) is a widely expressed abundant autocrine and paracrine factor that regulates the proliferation and differentiation of a variety of cell types. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a potent stimulator of IGF-I synthesis in bone. We examined the regulation of IGF-I synthesis by PGE2 in osteoblast-enriched (Ob) cells from fetal rat calvaria. PGE2 treatment of Ob cells at 1 microM for 2 h resulted in a 5-fold increase in heterogeneous nuclear RNA levels, as measured by a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay, suggesting an increase in IGF-I gene transcription. RNase protection analysis was used to map the transcriptional start sites in the IGF-I gene that are used in Ob cells. Consistent with other extrahepatic tissues, initiation of transcription occurs primarily at three sites within the 5'-regions of exon 1 of the IGF-I gene. PGE2 treatment did not alter start site usage. The regions upstream of these transcriptional start sites were analyzed by transiently transfecting Ob cells with putative rat IGF-I promoter sequences ligated to a luciferase reporter gene. Constructs containing 1.4 kilobases of the 5'-regions regions of exons 1 and 2 had significant promoter activity. PGE2 treatment of transfected Ob cells increased luciferase activity 5-fold when a 1.4-kilobase exon 1 promoter fragment was tested. This increase in luciferase activity was time and dose dependent. Smaller regions of the exon 1 promoter sequence gave higher basal activity and were less responsive to PGE2. We conclude that regions involved in IGF-I regulation by PGE2 are contained within the IGF-I promoter.


In the process of demilitarization of explosives, army ammunition plants generate a waste stream known as pink water. The principal component of the wastewater is the nitro-aromatic compound 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Although the persistence of TNT when dissolved in surface water is very limited due to its susceptibility to photo- and biotransformation, discharge of pink water to the environment has been prohibited in Sweden, the U.S. and many other countries for decades because of the toxicity of the compound and its metabolites to various ecological receptors.The most frequently used method for treatment of pink water in Sweden today is adsorption on activated carbon, which as well as being costly, creates a sludge that must be incinerated off site.In many countries, the timber industry residue pine bark is discarded and has no high value application. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the potential of pine bark for the removal of TNT from contaminated water such as pink water. Several batch studies and a column experiment were conducted. Acetonitrile extraction of pine bark and 16S rRNA sequencing for analysis of the indigenous bacterial community of pine bark were used to investigate its performance in the treatment of pink water.The results show that pine bark has great potential as an adsorbent medium for TNT from contaminated pink water. Simultaneous use of biotransformation and adsorption methods was shown to be an improvement over adsorption alone for the removal of TNT from contaminated water bodies. Pine bark showed higher affinity towards the amino metabolites of TNT than for TNT itself. Molecular analysis of the indigenous microbial community of pine bark and chemical analysis of its acetonitrile extracts provided evidence for its ability to biotransform TNT and its metabolites. The efficiency of the transformation was enhanced by the addition of glucose and/or inoculum.Overall, this work demonstrates the versatility of this organic industrial residue with respect to pink water treatment. Not only does it have a high affinity towards TNT and its amino metabolites, but its native microbial community even in the absence of external inoculation can also be taken advantage of, opening new possibilities for remediation of pink water.


A theoretical study is presented that describes the recording and the readout of transmission volume holograms in dynamic photoanisotropic organic materials. The stationary coupled differential equations of two recording beams that are polarized perpendicular to the plane of incidence are derived and solved analytically for the beam intensities and the phase changes. These equations self-consistently satisfy the recording dynamics of the hologram formation including the effects of fringe curvature and energy transfer. Analytic formulas for the diffraction efficiency are obtained from the readout equations under the assumption of a Bragg-matched weak probe beam of arbitrary polarization and in the small fringe curvature regime. Previously measured parameters of Methyl Orange–polyvinyl alcohol holograms indicate that the optimal hologram thickness is approximately 0.2 mm and predict the decrease of diffraction efficiency with an increase of beam ratio.


AutoML has become a popular service that is provided by most leading cloud service providers today. In this paper, we focus on the AutoML problem from the \emph{service provider's perspective}, motivated by the following practical consideration: When an AutoML service needs to serve {\em multiple users} with {\em multiple devices} at the same time, how can we allocate these devices to users in an efficient way? We focus on GP-EI, one of the most popular algorithms for automatic model selection and hyperparameter tuning, used by systems such as Google Vizer. The technical contribution of this paper is the first multi-device, multi-tenant algorithm for GP-EI that is aware of \emph{multiple} computation devices and multiple users sharing the same set of computation devices. Theoretically, given $N$ users and $M$ devices, we obtain a regret bound of $O((\text{\bf {MIU}}(T,K) + M)\frac{N^2}{M})$, where $\text{\bf {MIU}}(T,K)$ refers to the maximal incremental uncertainty up to time $T$ for the covariance matrix $K$. Empirically, we evaluate our algorithm on two applications of automatic model selection, and show that our algorithm significantly outperforms the strategy of serving users independently. Moreover, when multiple computation devices are available, we achieve near-linear speedup when the number of users is much larger than the number of devices.


Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, has been important not only for the evolution of a healthy calcified vertebrate skeleton but it also evolved into a hormone that has a wide diversity of biologic effects. During exposure to sunlight the ultraviolet B radiation converts 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D(3) which in turn rapidly isomerizes to vitamin D(3). Once formed, vitamin D(3) is metabolized in the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) and in the kidneys to its active form 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3). 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) interacts with its vitamin D receptor in calcium regulating tissues to regulate calcium metabolism and bone health. It is now recognized that most cells in the body have a vitamin D receptor and they also have the capability of producing 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) which in turn is capable of regulating a wide variety of genes that have important functions in regulating cell growth, modulating immune function and cardiovascular health. Epidemiologic evidence and prospective studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with increased risk of many chronic diseases including autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease, deadly cancers, type II diabetes and infectious diseases. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency have been defined as a 25-hydroxyvitamin D <20 ng/ml and 21-29 ng/ml respectively. For every 100 IU of vitamin D ingested the blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the measure vitamin D status, increases by 1 ng/ml. It is estimated that children need at least 400-1000 IU of vitamin D a day while teenagers and adults need at least 2000 IU of vitamin D a day to satisfy their body's vitamin D requirement. It is estimated that 1 billion people worldwide are vitamin D deficient or insufficient. Correcting and preventing this deficiency could have an enormous impact on reducing health costs worldwide.


L ight microscopy historically has been an important technique of scientific discovery because it provides enlarged images of small objects. Recent advances in optical design and the development of probes have made light microscopy an essential tool for both research and diagnosis, enabling analysis of structure, physiology, and function. This chapter deals with methods for using the microscope, including the principles underlying different applications of light microscopy—e.g., phase-contrast, differential interference contrast (DIC), and fluorescence microscopy—as well as how to align and adjust the microscope for these different applications, how to prepare and label specimens, and how to image them accurately.


Abstract An introduction to and abridged translation of Romanian Surrealist Dolfi Trost's 1953 book Visible et Invisible. Trost was part of a semi-clandestine and infrequently studied Bucharest Surrealist group; his book is about forming a new kind of revolutionary collectivity on the basis of what he calls a self-regarding or "cosmic" consciousness" made manifest within certain forms of dreams, as well as on the basis of a "spiritually heightened schizophrenia." Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari were attentive readers of his work, and I place the translation in the context of their anti-oedipal and schizoanalytic theories.


Few culture-based surveys have been undertaken on methanogens in contrasting marine sediments. This project conducted a comprehensive study of methanogens in a range of marine sediments including tidal-flats, a shallow bay, deep-water mud volcanoes and Guaymas Basin hydrothermal sediments. Nine of the sixteen recognised methanogen genera were cultured ranging from only one methanogen genus at mud volcano sites to eight in tidal-flats. At a number of these sites, culture-independent techniques (16S rRNA and mcrA gene sequences) had either failed to detect the presence of methanogens or had under-estimated the methanogen diversity.
Acetate and hydrogen utilizing methanogens (including two strains of the genus Methanococcus) were cultured from marine sediments with high sulphate content. But by far the most abundant genus was Methanococcoides being isolated from seven of the sites investigated, including the deepest (in terms of water depth) non-thermophilic methanogens so far isolated. Study of the isolated Methanococcoides strains has extended the substrate range of the genus by identifying of two new directly utilized methylated substrates (betaine and choline). The substrate range of this genus has been further extended by demonstrating dimethylsulphide utilization, a compound only previously known as a growth substrate in closely related genera.
In addition to substrate tests, representative strains from each of the sites investigated were physiology characterized including temperature, pH and Na+ concentration ranges. Members of the genus Methanococcoides are mesophilic/ psychrotolerant, neutrophilic and halotolerant. Their substrates are limited to methylated compounds. For the first time strains of mesophilic methanogens (Methanococcoides) were tested for their ability to grow under elevated hydrostatic pressure, up to 70 MPa.
In conclusion, methylotrophic methanogens play an important role in marine sediment methanogenesis with the methylotrophic genus Methanococcoides being widespread. The range of methylotrophic substrates is wider than previously described and further work is required to determine the full extant of methylated compounds as substrates for methanogenesis. Molecular based studies often fail to identify the presence of methanogens that are subsequently detected in culture-based studies.


The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients is a severe obstacle in development and testing of new therapies, also impairing appropriate rehabilitation care. The sparse available data on biochemical composition of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during acute and/or chronic phase of the lesion provided up-to-now inconsistent results. In this pilot study, we then explored the possibility to combine a multiparametric and bioinformatics analysis of the CSF to its biological properties tested on different cells types, suitable to investigate inflammation and remyelination. The patients enrollment was based on stringent inclusion criteria, i.e. cervical and thoracic SCI trauma, CSF collection within 24 hours from trauma, type of surgical approach for spine stabilization, no steroid therapy before CSF collection. Eleven SCI patients and four healthy controls were included, and in three patients CSF was also collected at 3 months after lesion. We identified 19 proteins among the 60 investigated cytokines, chemokines, growth factors and structural biomarkers, which are transiently regulated at 24h after SCI. A bioinformatic analysis indicated that IL-6 and IL-10 are in the core of the interconnected net of activated proteins. Cell based experiments indicate that CSF from SCI patients stimulate astroglia derivation from neural precursor cells, and an inverse correlation between IL-8 CSF level and oligodendrocyte precursor cells generated from neural stem cells was also observed. Results from this pilot study suggest that a combined bioanalytic and biological approach to analyze SCI CSF at different times after injury could be a useful approach to identify reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers in SCI.


As part of an extension on the cage peptide chemistry, the present work involves an assessment of the conformational profile of trishomocubane heptapeptide of the type Ac-Ala3-Tris-Ala3-NHMe using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. All MD protocols were explored within the framework of a molecular mechanics approach using the PARM94 force field parameters modified in-house to mimic the implicit and explicit solvent conditions. The 50 ns MD trajectories revealed a tendency of the trishomocubane polypeptide to adopt bent conformations in vacuo, MEOH and TIP3P solvent models, consistent with previous studies undertaken in our laboratory. The aim of this paper is to exemplify the tendency of the highly constrained cage residues to promote reverse-turn characteristics in the polypeptide chains, which could play a pivotal role in the design of new cage peptidomimetics.


Centella asiatica L. Urban (Umbelliferea) locally known as  ̳Pegaga' is a type of herbal plant that had been used in traditional medicine in Asia for many centuries. This species has high medicinal value derived from the phenolic and flavonoid compounds. This research was conducted to understand the physiological and antioxidant properties of Centella asiatica L. Urban in response to different phosphate concentrations. Experiment was arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) consisted of five treatments with three replications. The treatments was 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 g of Phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5 )/kg. The results of physical characteristics of Centella asiatica showed that P2O5 fertilizer significantly increased the fresh and dry weight of plants at p <0.05. The highest production of dry weight was 0.44±0.15 g for plant supplied with 0.1g P2O5. While the lowest dry weight was recorded for plants that were not supplied with phosphate, which was 0.18 ±0.05 g . Accordingly, the highest production of fresh weight was 1.71±0.61 g for 0.1g P2O5 treatment, and the lowest was 0.82±0.06 g for non-treated plants. Results also showed that P2O5 fertilizer significantly affects total flavonoid and total phenolic content of Centella asiatica. The flavonoid constituents detected was 43.7±4.6 mg quercetin equivalents /100g DW) for non-treated plants and 28.9± 0.8 mg quercetin equivalents/100g DW) for 0.1g P2O5 treated plants. The total phenolic was (5.91±0.38 g gallic acid equivalents /100g DW) for non-treated and 4.05±0.61 g gallic acid equivalents /100g DW) for 0.2 g P2O5 plants. Phosphate in plant tissues has strong positive linear correlation phosphate fertilizer. Results show that different concentrations of phosphate affects the physiological and biochemical properties of plants.


An outreach programme centred around nuclear physics making use of a LEGO® Mindstorm® kit is presented. It consists of a presentation given by trained undergraduate students as science ambassadors followed by a workshop where the target audience programs the LEGO® Mindstorm® robots to familiarise themselves with the concepts in an interactive and exciting way. This programme has been coupled with the CERN-ISOLDE 50th anniversary and the launch of the CERN-MEDICIS facility in Geneva, Switzerland. The modular aspect of the programme readily allows its application to other topics.


SYNOPSIS. Crayfish have a long evolutionary history in temperate fresh water (FW). Ion regulation is challenged by low external concentrations of Na, Cl, and Ca (<1 m M ). In intermolt the primary concern is Na and Cl balance; around ecdysis the emphasis switches to Ca regulation as the cuticle is decalcified/calcified. Compared with marine crustaceans, intermolt crayfish maintain a reduced extracellular (EC) osmolality and have lower permeability to both ions and water. Hyperregulation involves active branchial uptake of Na and Cl and the unique ability to produce a hypotonic urine. Ion uptake involves apical electroneutral ion exchange (Na$ for H$; Cl− for HCO3−; counterions provided from CO2 via carbonic anhydrase) followed by active basolateral transport of Na via the Na pump, with Cl following passively. Reabsorption of 95% of filtered electrolytes at the antennal gland (kidney) involves similar subcellular mechanisms in a morphologically differentiated region of the distal tubule. Intermolt crayfish exhibit negative Ca balance (passive efflux unopposed by uptake) tolerable in view of the large cuticular CaCO3 reserve. In premolt, cuticular Ca is reabsorbed. A small amount is stored as gastroliths, the remainder is lost via branchial excretion and in the discarded exuviae. At ecdysis, FW uptake generates the physical force for shedding, leaving the crayfish with dilute hemolymph and a Ca deficiency. Levels of EC Na and Cl are restored by intensive postmolt branchial uptake. Mineralization of the soft exoskeleton involves remobilization of stored Ca and branchial uptake of Ca and HCO3. Transepithelial Ca transport involves Ca2$ ATPase and Ca2$/Na$ exchange. The importance of external electrolytes and pH in postmolt ion regulation is explored, as are some allometric considerations.


Terahertz technology is a fast growing field with variety of applications in biology and medicine, medical imaging, material spectroscopy and sensing, monitoring and spectroscopy in pharmaceutical industry, security, and high-data-rate short-range communications. Among different terahertz sources, photomixers are potentially compact, low power consuming, coherent, low-cost, and tunable continuous-wave sources. A terahertz photomixer is a heterodyne scheme, in which two laser beams with their frequency difference falling in the terahertz range mix in a nonlinear medium, such as a photoconductor or a superconductor, and generate a signal, whose frequency is equal to the frequency difference of the two lasers. The frequency of the generated terahertz signal can be tuned by tuning the central frequency of one of the lasers. In this dissertation, the photomixing in superconductors and photoconductors is studied, and comprehensive analytical models for the interaction of two interfering laser beams with these materials are developed. Integrated photomixer-antenna elements as efficient terahertz sources are introduced and arrays of these elements as high power terahertz sources are designed. Also, an array of photoconductive photomixer-antenna elements with integrated excitation scheme is proposed. In a photo-excited superconductor, the fundamental equations for the motion of the carriers inside the superconductor material are used in connection with the two-temperature model to find an analytic expression for the generated terahertz photocurrent inside the film. In a photo-excited photoconductor, the continuity equations for the electron and hole densities are solved in their general form along with the appropriate boundary conditions to find photocurrent distribution inside the photoconductor film. It is shown that in a continuous-wave (CW) terahertz photomixing scheme, the resulting photocurrent contains a dc component and a iii terahertz traveling-wave component. The dependency of the amplitude and the phase of the generated photocurrent on the physical parameters of the photomixer, the parameters of the lasers, the applied dc bias, and the configuration of the device is explored in detail for a photoconductive photomixer made of low-temperature grown (LTG) GaAs and for a high-temperature superconductive photomixer made of YBa2Cu3O7−δ. The developed models for the photoconductive and the superconductive terahertz photomixers are used to design new integrated photomixer-antenna devices. In these devices, the photomixing film simultaneously acts as an efficient radiator at the terahertz frequencies. Integrating the photomixing medium with the antenna not only eliminates any source to antenna coupling problem, but also makes the proposed device attractive for array configurations. To increase the generated terahertz power, arrays of the photoconductive and the superconductive photomixer-antenna elements are proposed as CW terahertz sources. It is shown that a sub-milliwatt terahertz power is achievable from a typical superconductive photomixer-antenna array structure. The beam steering capability of the proposed devices is also investigated. A photoconductive photomixer-antenna array with integrated excitation scheme is proposed, in which the laser beams are guided inside the substrate and excite the photomixer elements. In this way the laser power is only being consumed by the photomixer elements, and the photomixer-antenna elements can be integrated with other optical components on a single substrate. The whole structure is robust and less sensitive to vibration and other environmental parameters.


Background and Purpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most highly prevalent and life-threatening digestive tract cancers. CRC and its treatment are associated with numerous complications in the patients. Orem's self-care model is a theory on clinical improvement and reducing fatigue in patients with CRC. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Orem's self-care theory on the nutrition status and fatigue of CRC patients. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 70 patients diagnosed with CRC in the teaching hospital of Imam Reza in Kermanshah, Iran in 2014. Samples were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Data were collected using the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI). After data collection, a self-care training program was implemented based on Orem's self-care theory. Results: Self-care training intervention in the experimental group improved the consumption patterns of fruits (P=0.002), vegetables (P=0.001), and dairy products (P=0.001). Moreover, general fatigue of CRC patients in the experimental group decreased after the intervention (P=0.0001). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, Orem's self-care model could reduce the clinical symptoms and fatigue of patients with CRC. Therefore, it is recommended that this model be applied to enhance the self-care behaviors and clinical conditions of CRC patients.


Expand on your Android development capabilities by building applications for Android Wear About This BookGet to grips with the Android Wear and Google Glass SDK to build your own wearable appsIncorporate voice and input features into your wearable apps and develop custom interfaces for Android TVA step-by-step guide to creating applications that run directly on Android Wear devices and Google GlassWho This Book Is ForIf you are an Android developer who wants to learn how to build applications for the Android Wear platform, then this is the book for you. This book only requires a basic knowledge of Android programming. Familiarity with development IDEs such as Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, or Eclipse will be helpful.What You Will LearnGet introduced to the Android Wear and Google Glass SDKCreate your own basic and custom notifications for Android Wear by using Android notificationsDevelop custom Android wearable watch faces and debug them over Bluetooth prior to packagingDeploy your application to the handheld device or the Google Play StoreDevelop apps that have the ability to send and receive binary blobs of data from the handheld device to the wearable deviceCreate custom layouts for the Android TV platform conforming to the Android TV design principlesBuild effective user interfaces for the Google Glass platformIncorporate voice and input features into your Android wearable appIn DetailThis book will introduce you to the very popular Android Wear platform with hands-on instructions for building Android Wear applications. You will start with an introduction to the architecture of Android, followed by an in-depth look at the design of Android applications and user interfaces using Android Studio. You will see how to create basic and custom notifications for your apps, and synchronize data from the wearable device with the handheld mobile device. More advanced topics such as intents, the Gradle build configuration and the implementation of build variants, and packaging and deploying from a single project code base are also covered.By the end of this book, you will have a good understanding of wearable programming, and be confident enough to write programs for building Android applications that run on Android Wear.


Background Although the association between cigarette smoking and risk of type 2 diabetes is well established, its mechanisms are yet to be clarified. This study examined the possible mediating effects of adiponectin, leptin, and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations on the smoking-diabetes association. Methods Between 2002 and 2011, we followed 3338 Japanese workers, aged 35–66 years, who were enrolled in the second Aichi workers' cohort study. We used multivariable-adjusted Cox regression models to determine the hazard ratios and respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the association between smoking status and risk of diabetes. A multiple mediation model with bootstrapping was used to estimate the magnitude and the respective bias-corrected (BC) 95% CIs of the indirect effects of smoking on diabetes through the three biomarkers. Results Relative to never smokers, the risk of diabetes was significantly elevated in current (hazard ratio 1.75, 95% CI 1.25–2.46) and ex-smokers (hazard ratio 1.54, 95% CI 1.07–2.22). The indirect effects of smoking on diabetes through adiponectin levels were statistically significant among light (point estimate 0.033, BC 95% CI 0.005–0.082), moderate (point estimate 0.044, BC 95% CI 0.010–0.094), and heavy smokers (point estimate 0.054, BC 95% CI 0.013–0.113). In contrast, neither the indirect effects of smoking on diabetes through leptin nor CRP levels were significant, as the corresponding BC 95% CIs included zero. Conclusions In our analysis, adiponectin concentration appeared to partially mediate the effect of smoking on diabetes, while leptin and CRP levels did not.


It is frequently observed that the local relative abundances of aquatic microbial taxa are correlated with their average relative abundance at the regional scale, which results in the composition of different communities being more similar than expected by chance or invariant. The degree to which communities within a region match the regional average community is variable and likely depends on several different mechanisms that control the process of microbial community assembly. Here, we show that environmental variables were associated with the community specific degree of regional invariance in 9 of 10 datasets of microbial communities in aquatic systems, being the main set of variables explaining differences in regional invariance in 5 of them. This indicates that variation in local environmental conditions across a region reduces the degree of regional invariance amongst communities. Spatial distances between communities were not related to the degrees of regional invariance, but in 7 of the datasets, regional invariance differed among different parts of the regions, particularly for phytoplankton communities. This suggests an influence of spatial or historical processes on the community specific degree of regional invariance. We conclude that both local environmental conditions and spatial/historical processes cause between-site differences in the degree of invariance between local and regional abundances in aquatic microbial metacommunities. We argue that studies of regional invariance can be an important complement to other statistical methods due to its propensity to detect variation in stochastic processes along gradients.


In most sexually reproducing animals, replication and maintenance of telomeres occurs in the germ line and during early development in embryogenesis through the use of telomerase. Somatic cells generally do not maintain telomere sequences, and these cells become senescent in adults as telomeres shorten to a critical length. Some animals reproduce clonally and must therefore require adult somatic mechanisms for maintaining their chromosome ends. Here we study the telomere biology of planarian flatworms with apparently limitless regenerative capacity fueled by a population of highly proliferative adult stem cells. We show that somatic telomere maintenance is different in asexual and sexual animals. Asexual animals maintain telomere length somatically during reproduction by fission or when regeneration is induced by amputation, whereas sexual animals only achieve telomere elongation through sexual reproduction. We demonstrate that this difference is reflected in the expression and alternate splicing of the protein subunit of the telomerase enzyme. Asexual adult planarian stem cells appear to maintain telomere length over evolutionary timescales without passage through a germ-line stage. The adaptations we observe demonstrate indefinite somatic telomerase activity in proliferating stem cells during regeneration or reproduction by fission, and establish planarians as a pertinent model for studying telomere structure, function, and maintenance.


When Giovanni Battista Moroni's portrait of a tailor entered the National Gallery collection in 1862, Elizabeth Eastlake quite rightly predicted in her diary that 'This will be a popular picture'. The painting was the star exhibit at the Royal Academy Moroni exhibition in 2014, and in the intervening 150 years its appeal to spectators of both sexes has been unwavering. As a sitter who knowingly gazes back at the spectator, Moroni's Tailor provokes powerful and imaginative responses from both male and female viewers. The ubiquity of The Tailor in late nineteenth-century culture — reproduced in prints, painted copies, needlepoint, and trading cards — made him a popular subject for charades and tableaux vivants. Ever since George Eliot's comparison of her sinister male protagonist Grandcourt to a Moroni in Daniel Deronda (1876), the sitter has been associated with something dark and ominous, and I shall discuss the painting's place in such fin-de-siecle Gothic narratives as 'The Accursed Cordonnier' (1900) and The Lady Killer (1902) as a magic object with sinister powers. A ladies' man as well as a queer icon, appealing to Henry James and Walter Pater, Moroni's 'Tagliapanni' is attractive in his anonymity, and I wish to question whether his appeal to a late nineteenth-century audience was gendered. Master or servant, fantasy man and ideal lover of men and women alike, the Tailor — in his effeminate red and white costume with the discreet codpiece — raises issues of the erotic and psychological appeal of old master portraiture, rooted in a sitter whose very profession is tied to the dressing and concealing of the naked human body and soul.


The promise of equal access to justice for the rich and poor alike has been one of the most serious challenges facing liberal democracies during the last century. Critics of the American approach to legal aid for the poor advocate the adoption of Western European models. At the same time, Western European nations confront serious difficulties in maintaining those models, which have met with the disapproval of European critics. An unbiased evaluation of popular schemes in the United States and Western Europe reveals that critiques of both systems are correct: no model of access to justice currently in place is perfect. However, by borrowing from the best of the American scheme (its breadth) and the best of the Western European schemes (their high level of government commitment) an ideal access to justice system can be developed.


Temporal changes in water content can be directly related to the time‐lapse signals retrieved using magnetic resonance sounding (TL‐MRS) and relative gravimetry (TL‐RG). Previous studies suggest that TL‐RG measurements can potentially provide accurate estimates of aquifer characteristics in an aquifer pumping test experiment when used in a coupled hydrogeophysical inversion approach. However, these studies considered highly idealized conditions. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we investigate three major issues which likely limit the practical utility of TL‐RG for pumping test monitoring: partially penetrating pumping wells in anisotropic aquifers, delayed drainage effects, and typical data errors for TL‐RG. Second, we introduce TL‐MRS in a similar coupled hydrogeophysical inversion framework and compare the performance of TL‐MRS and TL‐RG for pumping test monitoring. For this purpose we consider a virtual pumping test, for which we generate synthetic drawdown, TL‐MRS and TL‐RG observations, and subsequently determine the aquifer parameters in an inverse parameter estimation approach. The inclusion of TL‐RG and TL‐MRS data did slightly improve parameter estimates for the specific yield and hydraulic conductivity when considering a fully penetrating well and minimal data error. Using more conservative TL‐RG and TL‐MRS data error estimates according our own field experience strongly limited the informative value of the TL‐RG data; TL‐MRS data was less affected by this. For a partially penetrating well under anisotropic conditions, parameter uncertainty could be reduced more effectively compared to a fully penetrating well. Delayed drainage effects did not limit the ability of the TL‐MRS and TL‐RG data to reduce parameter uncertainty significantly. The incorporation of representative measurement error correlation in the TL‐RG data did not affect its informative value. A local sensitivity analysis showed that observations were most sensitive to the pumping rate and the thickness, specific yield, and hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer. The inclusion of TL‐MRS data proved to be more effective to constrain the aquifer parameters compared with TL‐RG. The inclusion of both TL‐RG and TL‐MRS had limited added value compared to TL‐MRS only. We conclude that this particular application of coupled hydrogeophysical inversion has limited potential for TL‐RG, while TL‐MRS appears to be a more promising method.


Abstract Body shape differences between two benthophagous, sympatric cichlid species, Ctenopharynx pictus and Otopharynx sp. "heterodon nankhumba" were examined for 14 morphometric characters using measurements obtained from 11 morphological landmarks and additional 6 characters from the head region using principal component and regression analyses. The two species, though not closely related, superficially resemble each other and, being benthic feeders, directly compete for food resources unless morphological differences lead to trophic specialization. Hence, the present study explores the presence of such morphological variations. Principal component analysis (PCA), revealed that only four characters loaded highly on PC II and, therefore, account for most of the variations in the external morphology between the two species. C. pictus has longer lower jaws reflecting longer gape, and a shorter abdominal cavity than O. sp. "heterodon nakhumba". The regression analyses showed significant differences in the allometric coefficients of the lower jaw and abdominal cavity, which might have contributed to differences in overall shape detected between the two species. The difference in gape size between the two species may be related to different feeding habits employed by each species, and such specializations are suggested to reduce interspecific competition for food resources. We suggest that the ensuing ecological separation promotes sympatry of these two species.


This paper aims to explore subversive humor in Spanish stand-up comedy by analyzing the work of two well-known Spanish female comedians, Eva Hache and Patricia Sornosa. In order to reach this goal, a corpus of these comedians' performances has been collected, comprising a total of 25 monologues, which have been divided into humorous sequences, which come to a total of 76 in the corpus of Eva Hache and 37 for Patricia Sornosa. The qualitative and quantitative analysis has focused on subversive humorous sequences, which has shown that only 22.38% of the sequences from Eva Hache's comic monologues are mainly built around subverting the status quo, whereas Patricia Sornosa challenges the heteronormative discourse in most of her sequences (87.93%). Further, in this case study, we have examined the main linguistic techniques they use when challenging the heteronormative standards, namely the topics, targets, discourse strategies and linguistic cues used to generate a subversive effect. Findings show that both comics use subversive humor but in different ways because of contextual constraints. Whilst Patricia Sornosa offers an overt critique, Eva Hache disparages in a subtler manner even when teasing and undermining male power.


Future electricity distribution grids will host a considerable share of variable renewable energy sources and local storage resources. Moreover, they will face new load structures due for example to the growth of the electric vehicle market. These trends raise the need for new paradigms for distribution grids operation, in which Distribution System Operators will increasingly rely on demand side flexibility and households will progressively become prosumers playing an active role on smart grid energy management. However, in present energy management architectures, the lack of coordination among actors limits the capability of the grid to enable the mentioned trends. In this paper we tackle this problem by proposing an architecture that enables households to autonomously exchange energy blocks and flexibility services with neighbors, operators and market actors. The solution is based on a blockchain transactive platform. We focus on a market application, where households can trade energy with their neighbors, aimed to locally balancing renewable energy production. We propose a market mechanism and dynamic transport prices that provide an incentive for households to locally manage energy resources in a way that responds to both prosumer and operator needs. We evaluate the impact of such markets through comprehensive simulations using power flow analysis and realistic load profiles, providing valuable insight for the design of appropriate mechanisms and incentives.


This paper first seeks to establish a scientific basis for the finding of natural human rights and how rights relate to morals, law, and culture. Next, the paper focuses on the derogation mechanism of article 4 of the ICCPR, compares derogable rights and non-derogable rights, and investigates the assumptions of derogation. Lastly, the paper finds an over-inclusive nature of the ICCPR, which results in the artificial imposition of extra-natural rights, leading to low levels of any compliance. Thus a lack of compliance to the ICCPR in whole violates the actual natural human rights which are enumerated. It suggests that an international human rights regime which is restricted to demonstrable natural human rights, without derogation, and including more forceful enforcement mechanisms would be a more effective tool of promoting human rights throughout the world.


Shipwrecks discovered throughout Southeast Asia and the precious cargoes they contain represent invaluable information for the study of international trade networks. However, these treasure troves of Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese ceramics, have up until this point, been unsystematic ally studied and rarely published. This book addresses this issue with the author tracing the development and fluctuations of the international ceramic trade between China and Southeast Asia focusing specifically on the 14th-15th centuries, a period known in ceramic scholarship as the Ming Gap. The term Ming Gap arose to describe the ban placed on the export of Chinese ceramics by the Ming Dynasty. The author illustrates how as a result, Southeast Asian ceramics began to fill this void and for over a century became the dominant ceramic trade ware throughout the region. Analyzing over 120 shipwrecks, the author for the first time proposes a chronology of ceramic production placing Thai ceramics into five chronological periods and discussing issues such as the relationship between Sukhothai and Sawankhalok kilns, the discovery of exported Burmese celadon wares and the location of Vietnamese production sites for ceramic exports.


The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of state modernization as a result of revolutions exemplified by the Russian revolution. There are considered researchers' approaches to the problem of modernization of states after revolutions, analyzed the problem zones of the concept, in particular with respect to the Russian revolution. The author questions the historiography view that the reasons and consequences of revolutions are caused by problems of modernization in a state (which is incapable to solve these problems by reforms). These statements were fully applied to the Russian revolution. The author comes to the conclusion that the Russian revolution of 1917 was the first one the tasks of which purposefully included modernization of the state. From the author's point of view, revolution certainly becomes the structural reason of further modernization of the state in which modernization processes (urbanization, industrialization and democratization) are structurally interconnected and interdependent, but are within a long time interval. According to the author, the only thing where the thesis of modernization during revolution can't be challenged is the change of the social structure of society.


11091 Background: Loss of expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitor p27 has been associated with decreased survival among patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. The I-SPY Trial is a multicenter study of locally advanced breast cancer in which pretreatment tumor biopsies were obtained prior to the administration of anthracycline and taxane-based neoadjuvant therapy, and serial MRIs were performed to assess response to treatment. The aim of this study was to determine if loss of tumor p27 expression was associated with response to cytotoxic therapy.

METHODS
Eligible patients had biopsy-confirmed primary breast cancer measuring at least 3 cm. Immunohistochemistry for p27 was performed centrally on pretreatment core samples using rabbit anti-p27 (Upstate Cell Signaling #06-445). Nuclear p27 was classified as absent (no staining), low (1-50% staining) or normal (>50% staining). Following completion of chemotherapy, post-surgical excision/mastectomy cases were reviewed centrally to determine response to therapy including residual cancer burden (RCB) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rate. Exact Chi2 was used to compare proportions.

RESULTS
Pretreatment samples from 164 of 237 enrolled patients demonstrated that p27 expression was absent in 55 (33%), low in 96 (58%) and normal in 14 (8%). P27 loss was not associated with patient age. Compared to normal p27 expression, absent p27 was significantly associated with ER negativity (48% vs. 14%; p=0.03), PR negativity (59% vs. 21%; p=0.03), Her2 overexpression (28% vs. 14%; p=0.017) and basal molecular subtype (29% vs. 13%). The proportion of patients with p27 loss (absent or low) was higher for those with high Ki-67 expression compared to low/mod expression (98% compare to 88%) and lower for grade 1 (72% vs 92%) compared to grade 2/3 tumors (p=0.071 and p=0.090, respectively). Low or absent p27 was not associated with response to therapy as measured by pCR, RCB or change in tumor diameter by MRI.

CONCLUSIONS
p27 loss in this neoadjuvant patient population was associated with aggressive tumor features, but not predictive of response to cytotoxic therapy. These findings suggest that the poor prognosis associated with loss of p27 is not due to relative chemotherapy resistance. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


This paper develops a model of successive oligopolies with endogenous market entry, allowing for varying degrees of product differentiation and entry costs in both markets. Our analysis shows that the downstream conditions dominate the overall profitability of the two-tier structure while the upstream conditions mainly affect the distribution of profits. We compare the welfare effects of upstream versus downstream deregulation policies and show that the impact of deregulation may be overvalued when ignoring feedback effects from the other market. Furthermore, we analyze how different forms of vertical restraints influence the endogenous market structure and show when they are welfare enhancing. JEL classification: L13, D43, L40, L50


Aim: The aim of our work is to determine the qualitative and quantitative composition of honey from different regions in Algeria. Method: A qualitative and quantitative analysis was carried out on honey polyphenol extract with the characterization of the majors groups and the determination of the amount of total polyphenols. Results: The results indicate that the honey polyphenol extracts have different rates of phenolic compounds (Flavonoids, Tannins and Cardenolides). The polyphenol extracts present a concentration of 0.32, 0.4, 0.76 and 0.39 mg GAE/100 g for the extract of Mascara, Oran, Jijel and Tlemcen respectively. Conclusion: The different types of tested honey present a variable composition on phenolic compounds which allowed us to determine the different therapeutic properties of honey.


Platelet-derived growth factors (PDGFs) have been implicated in the control of cell proliferation, survival and migration. Patch mutant mice harbor a deletion including the PDGF alpha receptor gene and exhibit defects of neural crest origin which affect pigmentation in heterozygotes and cranial bones in homozygotes. To verify the role of the PDGF alphaR gene during development, mice carrying a targeted null mutation were generated. No pigmentation phenotype was observed in heterozygotes. Homozygotes die during embryonic development and exhibit incomplete cephalic closure similar to that observed in a subset of Patch mutants. In addition, increased apoptosis was observed on pathways followed by migrating neural crest cells. However, alterations in mutant vertebrae, ribs and sternum were also observed, which appear to stem from a deficiency in myotome formation. These results indicate that PDGFs may exert their functions during early embryogenesis by affecting cell survival and patterning.


This study of public reaction to the Battle of Gettysburg in the context of the wider experience of the American Civil War focuses on the view of Providence in history and war. To that end, this study primarily utilizes documents which were part of the public discourse during the war. This includes two major groups of writings: newspaper editorials and articles and published sermons. This allows a view of the intersecting of religion with the secular world as well as patriotism within in the religious community. Collections from both the Union and the Confederacy have been accessed in an attempt to provide a balanced picture of the wartime public religious discourse. Published sermons have been selected for two reasons. First, they make up the vast majority of the historical record which we have today. Second, published sermons had the ability to reach a wider audience than one congregation on one specific Sunday morning. It is important to note that published sermons generally reflect a specific socio-economic and political group. Only pastors who had access to a publishing house, or who had members with such connections, would have been able to publish their sermons to would have been asked to publish their sermons. This would suggest that pastors whose sermons were published were not of the lower economic classes. Further, since most of these published sermons were requested by groups, they likely represent views held by a wider section of the surrounding society. This fact contributes to their import as evidence of the tide of religious discussion on each side, but also limits any dissenting voices. Thus, this study is interested in the commonly expressed religious views of each side, but does not examine in depth questions of the totality of such views.


Most multi-camera systems assume a well structured environment to detect and match objects across cameras. Cameras need to be fixed and calibrated. In this work, a novel system is presented to detect and match any objects in a network of uncalibrated fixed and mobile cameras. A master-slave system is presented. Objects are detected with the mobile cameras (the slaves) given only their observations from the fixed cameras (the masters). No training stage and data are used. Detected objects are correctly matched across cameras leading to a better understanding of the scene. A cascade of dense region descriptors is proposed to describe any object of interest. Various region descriptors are studied such as color histogram, histogram of oriented gradients, Haar-wavelet responses, and covariance matrices of various features. The proposed approach outperforms existing work such as scale invariant feature transform (SIFT), or the speeded up robust features (SURF). Moreover, a sparse scan of the image plane is proposed to reduce the search space of the detection and matching process, approaching nearly real-time performance. The approach is robust to changes in illuminations, viewpoints, color distributions and image quality. Partial occlusions are also handled.


Seasonal changes in home range size and habitat selection of kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) were investigated on Maud Island. Kakapo were radio-tracked at night in each of the four seasons between December 2000 and October 2001. Home ranges were estimated for four adult males, three juvenile males and two juvenile females in each season and for nine females in summer, each based on 20 radio-fixes per season. Home range size varied from 1.8 to 145.0 ha using the minimum convex polygon method. Home ranges were smallest in winter. Habitat selection was determined by overlaying the kakapo locations and home ranges on a vegetation map of the island. For each season selection ratios were calculated for each vegetation community. Pine plantation (Pinus radiata) was selected for in summer, whereas the treeland community dominated by five- finger ( Pseudopanax arbereus) was selected for in the autumn. Dense pole stands of manuka (Leptospemum scoparium) and pasture communities were avoided by kakapo. Walsh, J.; Wilson, K-J.; Elliott, G.P. 2006. Seasonal changes in home range size and habitat selection by kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) on Maud Island. Notornis 53(1): 143-149.


The recent development of β gauges for the indirect determination of the water status of plants has had a widespread impact on plant ecological-physiological research. Calibration of these instruments has, however, been tedious and cumbersome, involving repeated simultaneous measurements of β absorption and leaf water content. This procedure can be much simplified, as long as the β absorption at a single known relative water content is measured, together with the turgid and dry weights of a sample of leaf discs.