Background Infection with adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector with liver tropism leads to persistent expression of foreign antigens in the mouse liver, with no significant liver inflammation or pathology. This provides a model to investigate antigen persistence in the liver and strategies to modulate host immunity to reduce or clear the foreign antigen expressed from AAV vector in the liver. Methods/Principal Findings We showed that expressing LIGHT with an adenovirus vector (Ad) in mice with established AAV in the liver led to clearance of the AAV. Ad-LIGHT enhanced CD8 effector T cells in the liver, correlated with liver inflammation. LTβR-Ig proteins blocked Ad-LIGHT in clearing AAV. Interestingly, in LTβR-null mice, Ad-LIGHT still cleared AAV but caused no significant liver inflammation. Conclusions/Significance Our data suggest that LIGHT interaction with the LTβR plays a critical role in liver inflammation but is not required for LIGHT-mediated AAV clearance. These findings will shed light on developing novel immuno-therapeutics in treating people chronically infected with hepato-tropic viruses.


This paper, first, traces some main alleys for re-thinking the very underlying notions with which we tend to think about the situation with regard to the large enlargement of 2004, especially critically reflecting upon the conventional notions of 'transition' and 'transformation'. Second, it proceeds to developing some new questions to be asked on the basis of renewed underlying notions of political interventions into variegated concrete historical processes, especially concerning the specific historical paths of development of the respective countries before, during, and after their period of Soviet dominance. Third, it presents some arguments, why these variegated situations in the history of new member countries or future accession countries present, at once, a specific challenge and a significant chance for an approach in terms of a complex and integrated strategy of sustainable development, allowing for many specific strategies to be implicit in one overarching and second order strategy defining a practice of governance for sustainable development. On this basis it outlines a new approach to what it calls the task of a second order governance, defining a sustainability strategy to identify - to 'unearth' and to 'revive' - those innovative lines and traditions within the CEE and CIS countries which are specifically related to such an attitude of looking for windows of opportunity for concrete moves approaching objectives of sustainable development - i.e., for looking systematically and comprehensively for constructive alternatives to the unilateralism of the leading powers and hegemonic strata which have defined the simplified models in place.


All mainstream primary schools in Cardiff were invited in July 1998 to participate in a prevalence survey of autistic spectrum disorder. Teachers of each class filled in a questionnaire based on ICD-10 criteria for autistic disorders. The Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) was completed on children identified with problems identified by the questionnaire. A total of 11692 children born between 1 September 1986 and 31 August 1990 were screened: 234 (2%) children were identified as requiring an ASSQ; 151 of 234 (65%) ASSQs were returned. Of the 151, 60 children (52 male, 8 female; 40%) scored 22 or more. Their notes and the involved professionals were consulted. Thirty-five children, unknown to specialist services or with complex features, required additional assessment. Seventeen children (all male) were found to be on the autistic spectrum. When the overall rubric was disentangled we found a diverse population of affected children including a handful who did not fit easily into ICD-10 classification. Correcting for incomplete ascertainment we found a minimum prevalence of 20.2 out of every 10000 (SE=4.5) for autistic spectrum disorder in this population.


The Early Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2) at ∼53.7 Ma is one of multiple hyperthermal events that followed the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ∼56 Ma). The negative carbon excursion and deep ocean carbonate dissolution which occurred during the event imply that a substantial amount (10 3 Gt) of carbon (C) was added to the ocean-atmosphere system, consequently increasing atmospheric CO2(pCO2). This makes the event relevant to the current scenario of anthropogenic CO 2 additions and global change. Resulting changes in ocean stratification and pH, as well as changes in exogenic cycles which supply nutrients to the ocean, may have affected the productivity of marine phytoplankton, especially calcifying phytoplankton. Changes in productivity, in turn, may affect the rate of sequestration of excess CO 2 in the deep ocean and sediments. In order to reconstruct the productivity response by calcareous nannoplankton to ETM2 in the South Atlantic (Site 1265) and North Pacific (Site 1209), we employ the coccolith Sr/Ca productivity proxy with analysis of well-preserved picked monogeneric populations by ion probe supplemented by analysis of various size fractions of nannofossil sediments by ICP-AES. The former technique of measuring Sr/Ca in selected nannofossil populations using the ion probe circumvents possible contamination with secondary calcite. Avoiding such contamination is important for an accurate interpretation of the nannoplankton productivity record, since diagenetic processes can bias the productivity signal, as we demonstrate for Sr/Ca measurements in the fine (<20 μm) and other size fractions obtained from bulk sediments from Site 1265. At this site, the paleoproductivity signal as reconstructed from the Sr/Ca appears to be governed by cyclic changes, possibly orbital forcing, resulting in a 20–30 % variability in Sr/Ca in dominant genera as obtained by ion probe. The ∼13 to 21 % increase in Sr/Ca above the cyclic background conditions as measured by ion probe in dominating genera may result from a slightly elevated productivity during ETM2. This high productivity phase is probably the result of enhanced nutrient supply either from land or from upwelling. The ion probe results show that calcareous nannoplankton productivity was not reduced by environmental conditions accompanying ETM2 at Site 1265, but imply an overall sustained productivity and potentially a small productivity increase during the extreme climatic conditions of ETM2 in this portion of the South Atlantic. However, in the open oceanic setting of Site 1209, a significant decrease in dominant genera Sr/Ca is observed, indicating reduced productivity.


INTRODUCTION The articles in this volume, which are international in scope, examine the theory of Action Learning (AL) and the application of its principles to the public sector. This focus is atypical in that most AL programs are initiated in the for-profit business sector. The articles also address the use of AL in training and educational settings. This symposium supports the mission and purpose of PAQ's sponsoring organization, ASPA's national section on Professional and Organizational Development (SPOD). SPOD has functioned as a section since the mid to late 1960s. It grew out of the OD movement and the New Public Administration (The Minnowbrook Conference) as both gained world-wide attention. The principles of these movements have come full circle. We believe that an examination of Action Learning may facilitate the kind of theoretical and practical learning advocated by these movements. Most of the symposium articles contain effective descriptions of Action Learning in both its theory and practice. Kim and Jin, Nufrio and Tietje, and Getha-Taylor all provide ample definitions. AL is "a process that involves a small group working on real problems, taking action, and learning as individuals, a team, and an organization while doing so" (Marquardt, 2007, p. 96). Nuflrio and Tietje, Kim and Jin, and De Loo describe the foundations and origins of AL from the writings of Revans (1978/1998), Dilworth (1998), and Marquardt (2004, 2007). Getha-Taylor illustrates AL and its connection to the fields of organizational learning and collaborative leadership (Argyris, 1999; Lipshitz, Popper, & Friedman, 2002; Schein, 1992, 1993; Senge, 1990). The symposium also addresses the practical side of AL, that is, AL in action. Kim and Jin describe a government-wide initiative to train Korea's top civil service executives in the principles of AL. Raudenbush and Marquardt report on how AL programs over a period of time (January, 2002 through December, 2006) were used successfully at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve specific leadership skills. Nufrio and Tietje explain how AL can be used in a public administration program to help MPA students become agents of change. One cannot overlook the successes described in these cases. These cases, however, are not challenge-free. Kim and Jin found the need for greater management support in an AL program. Nufrio and Tietje and De Loo share this concern as well as the challenge of confronting the organizational dynamics (power and politics) in ways that promote learning, growth, and change at the individual and organizational level. Getha-Taylor argues that AL may be the vehicle for making the Department of Homeland Security more effective in disaster/security responsiveness. Regarding the assessment of AL, Kim and Jin and Nufrio and Tietje provide qualitative and quantitative assessments of AL both in its processes and results. Kim and Jin report on trainee/participant perceptions of the AL experience. …


This short article is a brief introduction to a document from the archive of Harry Schein (1924-2006), without question one of the most influential Swedish film and media politicians in the late twentieth century. In the reprinted document Schein and a number of prominent filmmakers, politicians and intellectuals make an appeal for a new quality-based film subsidy. The early date of the document (1951) suggests that the process that preceded the Swedish film reform of 1963 (where Schein as head of Swedish Film Institute was pivotal) was longer and more complex than previuosly noted.


Objectives
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether short term consumption (2 weeks) of tart cherry juice would positively impact inflammatory biomarkers in normal weight obese (NWO) and obese (OB) compared to normal weight (NW) premenopausal women. The NWO classification is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) within the normal range (18.5-24.9) with a body fat percentage above 30%.

Methods
A total of 47 women between the ages of 18 to 40 years who meet the study criteria were recruited and consented to participate in this study. Participants were categorized into three groups, NW (n = 15), NWO (n = 20) or OB (n = 12) group based on BMI and body composition. All three groups consumed 16 ounces (2 servings) of tart cherry juice daily for a total of 14 days. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) was performed at baseline and final visit to evaluate body composition. Fasted blood were samples collected during baseline and final visits for later analyses of inflammatory markers.

Results
After the two week intervention, mean fasting plasma concentration of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in all three treatment groups. The concentration of interleukin (IL)-6 decreased significantly in the NW group after treatment intervention; a decrease was also observed in the NWO and OB group but this was not significant. Plasma interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) concentration decreased in the NWO group after treatment intervention. Daily consumption of tart cherry juice significantly decreased the concentration of nerve growth factor (NGF) in the NWO group. The concentration of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP1) decreased in the NWO and OB group from baseline to final visit. In addition, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) concentration decreased in all three treatment groups after treatment intervention.

Conclusions
The short term consumption of tart cherry juice exhibited positive effects on inflammation by decreasing plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines. The findings suggest that regular consumption of tart cherry juice may be potentially beneficial in modulating inflammatory markers.

Funding Sources
Cherry Marketing InstituteHuman Nutrition Research Fund at Texas Woman's University.


Globalisation is one of the primary accused culprits of growing income inequality in the developed world. In particular, outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) is often associated with general "skill upgrading" in the home country, that is, a shift in relative labour demand from low skilled workers towards more skilled workers. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence indicates that such effects are small at best, especially in contrast to those for overall trade in intermediates (which includes both intra-firm trade and foreign outsourcing). In response, we utilise a proprietary dataset on greenfield FDI. In contrast to M&A FDI, which can represent acquisition of new technologies or elimination of competitors, greenfield FDI may be more closely linked to skill upgrading, especially when its done to take advantage of international differences in factor prices. Given that our data delineate FDI by function as well as by destination country, we are able to capture the different motives of FDI and to account for the fact that different functions in different countries may substitute for different skill levels at home. Using these data in conjunction with industry-level data on seventeen developed home countries, we find that greenfield FDI results in polarised skill upgrading, i.e. an increase in the relative share of employment and compensation of the most skilled workers to the detriment of the medium skilled workers. This impact is strongest for support services (e.g. call centres), knowledge services (e.g. R&D), and retail FDI with little indication of an impact from FDI in other functions. Our estimates suggest that the change in the high skilled compensation share explained by support services is of the same order of magnitude as what is found in other studies for trade in services. Unlike those studies, however, we find that demand for medium skilled workers falls from outbound FDI whereas that of the lowest skilled workers remains unchanged. Thus, in contrast to overall trade in services where globalisation leads to increased income inequality between the lowest skilled workers and other groups, increased outbound FDI leads to an increased gap between the most skilled and the moderately skilled workers. FDI then has parallels to the results from the labour literature estimating the non-monotonic impacts on the demand for skills of computerisation and service offshoring.


Data are presented to support a modified ASTM sampling and analytical method—D 7049-04—for metal working fluids (MWFs). The modified method replaces ASTM method PS42-97, a gravimetric procedure that employs a ternary blend of methanol, dichloromethane, and toluene to separate the MWF from cosampled particulate. The revised method is also a gravimetric procedure that employs the ternary blend as well as a binary blend of methanol and water to remove MWF from insoluble particulate collected on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filters. The method has been evaluated at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) by spiking known aliquots of five MWFs—one straight, one soluble, one semisynthetic, and two synthetic—onto PTFE filters, and extracting them after 24 h of storage with the ternary and binary blends. Samples were spiked at the following levels: straight: 230–940 μg; soluble: 260–1130 μg; semisynthetic: 64–260 μg; synthetic I: 110–480 μg; and synthetic II: 90–372 μg. Limits of quantitation, computed from blanks carried through the analysis, were determined to be 73 μg and 80 μg, respectively, for the total-weight and extracted-weight procedures. On average, fractions extracted (weight recovered/weight spiked) for all fluids for all levels tested exceeded 0.94. Pooled estimates of the coefficients of variation of analysis over all samples tested were 0.043 for the total weight samples and 0.046 for the extracted weights. The extraction efficiencies for all five fluids were also tested by analysis of the binary blend extracts for characteristic marker elements in each fluid. Only for the lone ternary blend insoluble fluid were definitive marker element results obtained, with between 60 % (potassium) and 100 % (phosphorus) of two marker elements extracted. The extractability of tobacco smoke particulate and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the PTFE filters is also addressed.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The anatomy of the deep venous system is characterized by a great variability that might play an important role in the pathogenesis of brain lesions in the preterm brain. The aim of this study was to compare the anatomy of cerebral subependymal veins evaluated on SWI venography in 3 groups of neonates with normal brain MR imaging (very preterm [gestational age <32 weeks], moderate-to-late preterm [gestational age ≥32 to ≤37 weeks], and term neonates [gestational age >37 weeks]) and to evaluate the influence of preterm birth on development of subependymal veins. MATERIALS AND METHODS: SWI venographies of 84 very preterm, 31 moderate-to-late preterm, and 50 term neonates were retrospectively evaluated. Subependymal vein anatomy was classified into 6 different patterns: type 1 represented the classic pattern and types 2–6 were considered anatomic variants. A χ2 test was used to evaluate differences between the distributions of subependymal vein patterns. RESULTS: A significant difference (P = .011) was noticed between the 6 patterns based on gestational age. Type 1 was more frequent in term neonates (68%) than in both very preterm (41.7%) and moderate-to-late preterm neonates (56.5%). Anatomic variants were more common in very preterm neonates (66%) than in both moderate-to-late preterm (41%) and term neonates (36%). Interhemispheric asymmetry was more frequent in very preterm (59.5%) and moderate-to-late preterm neonates (51.6%) than in term neonates (34%; P = .017). Sex and monozygotic twin birth did not significantly affect the frequency of subependymal vein patterns (P = .0962). CONCLUSIONS: The deep venous system of the neonatal brain shows a large spectrum of anatomic variants with higher variability of subependymal vein anatomy in preterm than term neonates, likely related to the influence of the preterm birth and epigenetic factors on subependymal vein development.


This article contains instructions for calculating the maximum intensity of solar irradiation reaching Earth's surface every minute of the day throughout the year. This radiation can be measured and subsequently used for prediction of solar irradiation. But due to frequent occurrence of days with cloud cover are not the measured data complete. Therefore, to calculate the missing values using the appropriate functions to the measured values that could reach the solar irradiance in clear sky. Methods were necessary to clarify the effects of weather prediction for the optimal consumption of thermal energy for district heating in urban areas.


This is a live Higgs report from the webcast of CERN Announcement on July 4, 2012 plus viXra unofficial Higgs combinations and my analysis after the announcement. As expected, CERN has happily announced the arrival of a new Boson. The facts are that the boson discovered with a mass of about 125 GeV or 126 GeV interacts with a wide range of particles in exactly the way the Higgs boson should. Its decay modes to Z, W, b and tau have just the right ratios and its production has also been tested in different ways confirming indirectly that its coupling to the top quark is also about right. Its spin could be 0 or 2 but 0 is much more likely. All these features point to the standard model Higgs boson. The only fly in the ointment is its decay rate to two photons. This is nearly twice as large as expected. The significance of the discrepancy with the standard model is about 2.5 sigma.


The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was rolled out across India in 2008. Following positive appraisals of NREGS based on quantitative data (e.g. Uppal 2009), the paper uses individual and group interview and household survey data from adults and children aged 15-16 to explore firstly whether these appraisals are confirmed by children's accounts of its impact, and secondly whether the evidence from the three villages sub-sampled in the qualitative research suggest its success is sustainable (for example, instances of financial mismanagement, growing resentment among local landlords, etc.). One positive finding is that participation in NREGS is high and largely pro-poor. There are striking examples of individual benefits, intended and unintended, for example, female labourers who no longer accept a daily wage of Rs 40. There may also be significant environmental benefits, although these will not be evident for another three to four years. However, those who only work in the scheme because they are landless have not benefitted as much as expected. The main beneficiaries in the three villages have been individual farmers, often from higher castes, and to some extent administering officials. So while interview and survey data demonstrate beneficial effects, the systemic mismanagement described in the paper is having a corrosive effect on trust and social relationships. This unintended consequence threatens the sustainability of the scheme and its potential to reduce socio-economic inequalities and vulnerability across the life course.


We introduce a new discriminative piecewise linear model for classification. A two-step method is developed to construct the model. In the first step, we sample some boundary points that lie between positive and negative data, as well as corresponding directions from negative data to positive data. The sampling result gives a discriminative nonparametric decision surface, which preserves enough information to correctly classify all training data. To simplify this surface, in the second step we propose a nonparametric approach for linear surface segmentation using Dirichlet process mixtures. The final result is a piecewise linear model, in which the number of linear surface pieces is automatically determined by the Bayesian inference according to data. Experiments on both synthetic and real data verify the effectiveness of the proposed model.


There has been tremendous discussion of Bitcoin, digital currencies and FinTech. However, there is limited empirical evidence of Bitcoin's adoption and usage. We propose a methodology to collect a nationally representative sample using the Bitcoin Omnibus Survey (BTCOS) to track the ubiquity and usage of Bitcoin in Canada. We find that about 64 percent of Canadians have heard of Bitcoin, but only 2.9 percent own it. We also find that awareness of Bitcoin is strongly associated with men and those with college or university education: additionally, Bitcoin awareness is more concentrated among unemployed individuals. On the other hand, Bitcoin ownership is associated with younger age groups and a high-school education. Furthermore, we construct a test of Bitcoin characteristics to gauge the level of knowledge held by respondents who were aware of Bitcoin, including actual owners. We find that knowledge is positively correlated with Bitcoin adoption. We attempt to reconcile the difference in awareness and ownership by decomposing the transactional and store-of-value motives for holding Bitcoin. Finally, we conclude with some suggestions to improve future surveys on digital currency, in particular, to achieve precise estimates from the hard-to-reach population of digital currency users.


Major initiatives by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as the World Health Organization have produced a large and compelling body of evidence on how to reduce health disparities, which entails having a clear understanding of how social factors shape health and healthcare outcomes. Specifically, there is a need for healthcare professionals to understand social determinants of health (e.g., low socioeconomic status, lack of health insurance, and poor education) and how these lead to disparities in health for people of minority racial and ethnic groups. Little is known about how students are developed as health disparities researchers or how their research experiences impact their views about addressing social determinants of health as a career goal. The purpose of this paper is to describe how health and human sciences students were integrated into three minority HIV prevention and testing projects using the lifelong learning for health professionals (LLHP) principles and activities framework, which entails a focus on: (a) education, (b) community, and (c) organization in the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of interdisciplinary research.


This thesis presents a framework representing research conducted to examine the impact of website based online video technology for Deaf people, their culture, and their communication. This technology enables American Sign Language (ASL) asynchronous communication, called vlogging, for Deaf people. The thesis provides new insights and implications for Deaf culture and communication as a result of studying the practices, opinions and attitudes of vlogging. Typical asynchronous communication media such as blogs, books, e-mails, or movies have been dependent on use of spoken language or text, not incorporating sign language content. Online video and website technologies make it possible for Deaf people to share signed content through video blogs (vlogs), and to have a permanent record of that content. Signed content is typically 3-D, shared during face-to-face gatherings, and ephemeral in nature. Websites are typically textual and video display is 2-D, placing constraints on the spatial modulation required for ASL communication.

There have been few academic studies to date examining signed asynchronous communication use by Deaf people and the implications for Deaf culture and communication. In this research, 130 vlogs by Deaf vloggers on the mainstream website YouTube, and specialized website Deafvideo.TV were examined to discover strategies employed by Deaf users as a result of the technology's spatial limitations, and to explore similarities and differences between the two websites. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 Deaf people as follow up. The main findings from this research include register of vlogging formality depending on website type, informal on Deafvideo.TV while formal on YouTube. In addition, vlogs had flaming behaviour while unexpected findings of lack of ASL literature and use of technical elements that obscured ASL content in vlogs. Questions regarding the space changes and narrative elements observed have arisen, providing avenues for additional research. This study and more research could lead to a fuller understanding the impact of vlogging and vlogging technology on Deaf culture and identify potential improvements or new services that could offered.


The spectacular development of the Web 2.0, particularly through online social networks, has awakened much interest in different areas. Marketing is one of them and businesses have decided to experiment with this new type of technology in support to their commercial activities. However, to take advantage of Web 2.0 tools and sites, it is necessary to distinguish their scope and possible applications from a business standpoint. This requires putting Web 2.0 in clear perspective with e-commerce, which is inherently linked to this purpose. In this article, we clarify Web 2.0 and present how it can be used for marketing. In particular, we discuss the role that online social networks may have in e-marketing, and in doing so how such networks might relate to e-commerce. In addition, recommendations for e-commerce researchers are presented based on the evidence obtained.


It is shown how both the amplitude and the phase of a scattered field may be determined by holography. It is estimated that information about details down to about nine wavelengths of light can be obtained by this technique. The result is of importance for unambiguous determination of the three-dimensional structure of semitransparent objects, such as are frequently encountered, for example, in biology.


We study inference in shift-share regression designs, such as when a regional outcome is regressed on a weighted average of sectoral shocks, using regional sector shares as weights. We conduct a placebo exercise in which we estimate the effect of a shift-share regressor constructed with randomly generated sectoral shocks on actual labor market outcomes across U.S. commuting zones. Tests based on commonly used standard errors with 5% nominal significance level reject the null of no effect in up to 55% of the placebo samples. We use a stylized economic model to show that this overrejection problem arises because regression residuals are correlated across regions with similar sectoral shares, independent of their geographic location. We derive novel inference methods that are valid under arbitrary cross-regional correlation in the regression residuals. We show using popular applications of shift-share designs that our methods may lead to substantially wider confidence intervals in practice.


'Woman' is a key social actor, and a central conceptualization, in the construction of media discourses of gender-based violence. Scholarly research at the turn of the 21st century (Bengoechea 2000; Lledo 2002; Fernandez Diaz 2003; Jorge 2004) showed that in the Spanish press, media discourses had a tendency to naturalize male aggression not as violence but as part of the (private) sexual arrangement between the sexes. In this chapter we explore the treatment of the phrase mujer maltratada (EN 'battered woman') in intimate partner violence newspaper articles from 2005 to 2010. Our aims are: (i) to account for the discursive representation of violence against women (VAW) in Spanish contemporary media discourse in recent years; and (ii) to unveil the expectations about gender, sexuality and power implicit in public discourses about VAW, given their apparent objectivity. In doing so, we draw on the evaluation framework for the analysis of news reports proposed by White (2004, 2006) and on Corpus Linguistics tools.


Abstract. Assessments of carbon and nitrogen (N) assimilation in Canadian Arctic waters confirmed the large contribution of subsurface chlorophyll maxima (SCM) to total water-column production from spring to late fall. Although SCM communities showed acclimation to low irradiance and greater nitrate (NO3−) availability, their productivity was generally constrained by light and temperature. During spring–early summer, most of the primary production at the SCM was sustained by NO3−, with an average f-ratio (i.e., relative contribution of NO3− uptake to total N uptake) of 0.74 ± 0.26. The seasonal decrease in NO3− availability and irradiance, coupled to the build up of ammonium (NH4+), favoured a transition toward a predominantly regenerative system (f-ratio = 0.37 ± 0.20) during late summer and fall. Results emphasize the need to adequately consider SCM when estimating primary production and to revisit ecosystem model parameters in highly stratified Arctic waters.


What makes a state? Under the Montevideo Convention, a prospective state must meet four criteria. It must have a territory, with a permanent population, subject to the control of a government, and the capacity to conduct international relations (sovereignty). Of these requirements, territory presents the major obstacle. Although the world has no shortage of groups seeking independence (who would gladly form governments and relations with other states), it does have a shortage of real estate. A new state necessarily takes territory from an existing state. Since existing states make international law, it is no surprise that the law is designed to make it very difficult for a new state to form out of an existing state's territory. Territorial integrity, along with sovereignty and political independence, form the "triumvirate of rights" that states enjoy under international law. From these rights, the notion has emerged that new states can only be formed with the consent of the existing state where the territory lies. The triumvirate of rights has long been the standard lens through which the international community views self-determination and the creation of new states. It has become increasingly clear, however, that rigid adherence to these principles can lengthen conflict and create negative incentives. If consent is required and not forthcoming from the state--and it usually is not--independence groups are forced onto the path of obtaining consent by force. States, meanwhile, feel secure in their territorial integrity, which more often than not puts them on the path of the violent suppression of independence movements. This cycle feeds upon itself, with devastating consequences. Too often, states respond to independence movements with atrocities, as in Sri Lanka, in Sudan--first Darfur and now South Kordofan and Blue Nile States--in Burma, and now in Syria. In the former Yugoslavia, the international community's rigid adherence to traditional notions of state creation wasted precious time and allowed momentum for genocide to build. In reality, international law's elaborate framework for self-determination and statehood provides independence-seeking groups with only two options. They can fight their way out, as South Sudan did, and obtain "consent" at gunpoint. Alternatively, they can suffer so many human rights violations that democratic states are forced by their constituents to intervene and essentially extract the new state from the predecessor state, as with the case of Kosovo. Either way, the likely result is more violence. As scholars and practitioners of international law, our efforts to deal with this problem are clouded by a false notion of consent. Although genuine consent exists in some rare cases, as in Czechoslovakia, most of the time "consent" is a misnomer because it occurs at gunpoint. Consent for the independence of South Sudan cost millions of lives and decades of war. In Northern Ireland, consent was achieved only after a long, bloody terrorism campaign. In Bougainville, consent was extracted only after a decades-long conflict. Now for the good news: recent developments in international law are providing new pathways for the international community to conceptualize and manage self-determination and the creation of states. First, under the responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine, sovereignty is no longer absolute. …


Objectives/Goals Doctors currently use symptoms to determine whether certain diseases are present, which is prone to error and subjectivity. Genetics allow for earlier and accurate diagnosis of diseases. Microarray experiments hold data describing genes that cause specific diseases, but current databases are disorganized and lack semantic enforcement. Mass spectrometry techniques to analyze tissue samples exist as a viable means to use data from microarrays to find diseases, but the current mass spectrometers aren't sensitive enough to find the diseases at low concentrations, before they become lethal. The purpose of this project is to identify key biomarkers for diseases by detecting the genetic changes caused by diseases. First, an efficient database to query microarray experiments without inaccurate data is needed. Second, sensitivity in mass spectrometers needs to be improved in order to facilitate the early detection of low abundance biomarkers. Methods/Materials A cluster of 8 quad-core 64 bit servers and an Agilent G6460 triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer with Agilent MassHunter software were used. First, a MySQL database using text mining techniques for the microarray experiment data was designed. Second, the inaccurate data was removed from the database by developing two novel algorithms: KNN-Delta and Semantic Outlier Factor. Third, thermal gradient focusing technology in the mass spectrometer for ion confinement was implemented. Fourth, conditions inside the mass spectrometer were optimized for efficient ion transmission. Fifth, the ion scattering within the electrospray ionization unit of the mass spectrometer was analyzed to detect areas of high densities. Finally, an inlet capillary to capture ions in the high density areas was designed. Results The microarray database was successfully created and was able to automatically annotate over 400,000 experiments using common semantics. The KNN-Delta and Semantic Outlier Factor algorithms were able to increase the accuracy of the database, removing 40,000 inaccurately annotated experiments. The mass spectrometry efficiencies resulted in a signal-to-charge ratio increase from 1000:1 to 6800:1, detecting samples as low as 150 femtomoles. Conclusions/Discussion Based on the successful implementation of the microarray database and the sensitivity improvements of the mass spectrometer, it is possible to detect diseases at small concentrations, before they become lethal.


Traditional cleanroom filtration design and operation relies upon high recirculation air change rates as a means of maintaining acceptable contamination control. Cleanroom professionals accept recommended air-change rates that were established somewhat arbitrarily as rules of thumb. The guidelines were based upon historically adequate cleanroom conditions, but they are not optimized. Disadvantages of this practice include paying a high cost for excessive airflow, as is usually the case, but also production or other work in the cleanroom could be adversely affected by too much or too little airflow. This paper describes research and several case study projects that suggest that control of recirculation airflow by monitoring cleanliness, or other control strategies, is a viable means to improve energy efficiency. One strategy being researched by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Cornell University in separate projects involves use of particle counters to continuously measure particle counts to automatically control recirculation air handlers using the building control system. Given that people are the number one source of contamination in cleanrooms, other less sophisticated strategies, such as timed setback or use of occupancy sensors to reduce airflow, have also been studied. This paper discusses the energy-saving potential for routine use of these methods and provides case study results where setback strategies were successfully in use.


Every year, millions of students graduate from universities all around the world and hope to be prepared for the world of work. This study focuses on what qualities organizations need and seek from their prospective employees who have recently graduated with bachelor's degrees. Employers need diverse qualities, such as analytical thinking, interpersonal skills, and willingness to work. Although several studies have covered the issue, they are scattered, and the need remains for a critical review of literature to summarize and integrate these studies. This study presents a through literature review on the subject, including a table that lists sample descriptions, the focus of research and major results of the studies on the topic in order to provide a list of generic qualities that are most valued by employers. The findings of the studies are summarized and discussed. The paper concludes with recommendations for theory and practice.


The instantaneous pulsatile flow-pressure relationships across the ductus arteriosus were studied in fetal lambs before and after progressive lung expansion. Analysis of the same flow-pressure relationship was simulated on an analog computer using a mathematical model of the fetal circulation. The results demonstrate that 1 ) the blood flow through the ductus has a distinctive inertial characteristic and 2 ) there exists an asynchrony between the ejection of the two ventricles; the ejection of the right ventricle precedes that of the left. Both these factors explain the paradox of flow across the ductus from pulmonary artery to aorta (right-to-left shunt) which is seen when the lungs are incompletely expanded and the aortic pressure is higher than the pulmonary artery pressure.


The rapid development of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) is creating new virtual worlds that significantly extend our socioeconomic environment. Increasingly, organisations and individuals have to live in multiple spaces incorporating physical, electronic, and virtual spaces, which are creating numerous new business and social opportunities and challenges. Today, MMORPGs—both virtual social worlds and online fantasy games—have evolved far beyond mere online computer games. From a business perspective, the new environment challenges existing management theories, creating new opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs and calling for the development of new management theories and new research methods. From a social perspective, the virtual world represents the frontier of social computing, with profound implications for policy and our society at large. This paper will explore the concept of 'multiple spaces', examine the interplays and connections among the different spaces, and discuss their business and social implications. New themes for future research will also be highlighted.


Domes of sedimentary strata at Mount Holmes, Mount Ellsworth, and Mount Hillers in the southern Henry Mountains record successive stages in the growth of shallow (3 to 4 km deep) magma chambers. Whether the intrusions under these domes are laccoliths or stocks has been the subject of controversy. According to G. K. Gilbert, the central intrusions are direct analogues of much smaller, floored intrusions, exposed on the flanks of the domes, that grew from sills by lifting and bending of a largely concordant overburden. According to C. B. Hunt, the central intrusions are cylindrical stocks, sheathed with a zone of shattered sedimentary rocks, and the small flanking sills and laccoliths grew laterally as tongue-shaped masses from the discordant sides of these stocks. New geologic mapping demonstrates that the sedimentary overburden, now partially eroded from the domes, was uplifted about 1.2 km at Mount Holmes, 1.8 km at Mount Ellsworth, and at least 2.5 km at Mount Hillers. The radii of the domes are similar, between 5 and 7 km. The strata over the domes have a doubly hinged shape, consisting of a concave-upward lower hinge and a concave-downward upper hinge. A limb of approximately constant dip joins these two hinges and dips 20° at Mount Holmes, 50° to 55° at Mount Ellsworth, and 75° to 85° at Mount Hillers. The distal portion of each dome is composed of a gently dipping peripheral limb 3 to 4 km long, presumably underlain by sills and minor laccoliths. Although geologic cross sections and regional aeromagnetic data for the three domes are consistent with floored, laccolithic central intrusions, these data alone do not rule out the possibility of a stock at depth. At Mount Hillers, paleomagnetic vectors indicate that tongue-shaped sills and thin laccoliths overlying the central intrusion were emplaced horizontally and were rotated during doming through about 80° of dip. This sequence of events is not consistent with the emplacement of a stock and subsequent or contemporaneous lateral growth of sills and minor laccoliths. Growth in diameter of a stock from about 300 m at Mount Holmes to nearly 3 km at Mount Hillers, as Hunt suggested, should have been accompanied by considerable radial shortening of the sedimentary strata and a style of folding which is not observed. Geologic and geophysical data and mechanical models support a laccolithic origin for the central magma chambers underlying the domes.


The possibility that L-citrulline is able to reverse inhibition of neurogenic vasodilation in isolated porcine cerebral arteries produced by nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitors and Gln was examined by using in vitro tissue bath techniques. The results indicated that transmural nerve stimulation elicited a frequency-dependent and tetrodotoxin-sensitive vasodilation in isolated ring segments of arteries with or without endothelial cells. The dilation was abolished by L-N-omega-nitro-L-Arg and L-N-omega-L-Arg methyl ester and was completely reversed by L-citrulline, but not by D-citrulline. In parallel studies, the transmural nerve stimulation-induced relaxation was blocked in part by Gln. The blockade was completely reversed by L-citrulline and L-Arg, but not by their D-enantiomers. The time courses of relaxation after L-citrulline reversal of inhibition of vasodilation produced by Gln and NOS inhibitors were identical to that of relaxation in the control. The residual relaxation after L-citrulline reversal was abolished by L-NNA and L-N-omega-nitro-L-Arg. At 1 mM, L-glutamate, tau-aminobutyric acid or NH4Cl did not block transmural nerve stimulation-induced relaxation, nor did Gln inhibit sodium nitroprusside-induced relaxation or neuronal NOS activity. These results provide pharmacological evidence that cerebral perivascular nerves can recycle L-citrulline to L-Arg for synthesizing nitric oxide to induce neurogenic vasodilation. Although the exact mechanism of action of Gln in inhibiting nitric oxidergic neurovascular transmission remains undetermined, Gln does not seem to act by releasing ammonium ions, inhibiting NOS or modifying the nitric oxide-cyclic GMP pathway. Cerebral metabolism of Gln may play an important role in regulating nitric oxidergic neurogenic vasodilation.


In this paper, the design and the characterization of batch fabricated SixNy micropipette arrays with diameters ranging from 6 µm down to 250 nm are described. The process used to fabricate the micromachined pipettes includes a deep reactive ion etching step, followed by the deposition of two successive layers, a thermal oxide layer and a low stress, low pressure chemical vapor deposited silicon nitride layer, respectively. The diameter of the micropipettes could be modulated simply by choosing the thicknesses of the oxide sacrificial layer and of the nitride walls of the micropipettes. The reactive ion etching of the micropipette top layer in deep cavities and in confined and deconfined configurations is discussed. The mechanical resistance of the micropipette array was qualitatively tested and it was demonstrated that a force of 0.25 mN/micropipette could be applied without rupture of the micropipettes.


Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) is a polygenic and multifactorial developmental disorder characterized by coxofemoral (hip) joint laxity, degeneration, and osteoarthritis (OA). Current diagnostic techniques are largely subjective measures of joint conformation performed at different stages of development. Recently, measures on three-dimensional images generated from computed tomography scans predicted the development of OA associated with CHD. Continued refinement of similar imaging methods may improve diagnostic imaging techniques to identify dogs predisposed to degenerative hip joint changes. By current consensus, joint changes consistent with CHD are influenced by genetic predisposition as well as environmental and biomechanical factors; however, despite decades of work, the relative contributions of each to the development and extent of CHD signs remain elusive. Similarly, despite considerable effort to decipher the genetic underpinnings of CHD for selective breeding programs, relevant genetic loci remain equivocal. As such, prevention of CHD within domestic canine populations is marginally successful. Conservative management is often employed to manage signs of CHD, with lifelong maintenance of body mass as one of the most promising methods. Surgical intervention is often employed to prevent joint changes or restore joint function, but there are no gold standards for either goal. To date, all CHD phenotypes are considered as a single entity in spite of recognized differences in expression and response to environmental conditions and treatment. Identification of distinct CHD phenotypes and targeting evidence-based conservative and invasive treatments for each may significantly advance prevention and management of a prevalent, debilitating condition in canine companions.


EFFECT OF IMPELLER SUBMERGENCE ON POWER DISSIPATION AND SOLIDS SUSPENSION IN MIXING SYSTEMS EQUIPPED WITH PITCH-BLADE TURBINES By Yufeng Song Mixing and dispersion of solids in a liquid is a process frequently encountered in the pharmaceutical industry and often conducted in cylindrical baffled tanks stirred by mechanical impellers. In operations where the liquid level is decreased (as often which emptying the tank) the process must be stopped when the solids are no longer suspended. In this work, the minimum agitation to suspend solids (Njs) when the liquid level was lowered, and the impeller submergence Sb changed as a result were determined for the case of a six-blade, pitch-blade turbine (6-PBT) impeller. The power consumed by the impeller was also measured. It was found that when a critical impeller submerge level was reached it was impossible to suspend the solids and the impeller power decreased significantly, although the impeller was still full submerged. The results are important to ensure that mixing systems are operated properly. EFFECT OF IMPELLER SUBMERGENCE ON POWER DISSIPATION AND SOLIDS SUSPENSION IN MIXING SYSTEMS EQUIPPED WITH PITCH-BLADE TURBINES


One of the expected benefits of multi-agent systems is their capacity for redundancy which is expected to promote system robustness. We examine the impact agents' probabilistic action has on generating redundancy in multi-agent systems with no direct inter-agent communication. We present a mathematical model of such a system, analyze the factors that influence it, and empirically examine its effects on multi-agent systems under perturbations such as removal and insertion of agents. Results indicate that agents' probabilistic action can allow a team of collaborating agents to build a pool of agents with experience and this redundant pool can promote system robustness under perturbations.


We propose and study experimentally and numerically a passively mode-locked figure-eight fiber laser scheme generating noiselike optical pulses, or subns wave packets with a fine inner structure of subps pulses presenting random amplitudes and durations. The particular design of the nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) used in this laser, relying on nonlinear polarization rotation, allows adjusting the switching power through input polarization control. Experimental results show stable pulsed operation over a limited range of the NOLM input polarization angle. Interestingly, the spectral and temporal characteristics of these pulses are observed to be widely variable over that range. In particular, the spectral width varies from 16 to 52 nm and this spectral variation is associated with an inverse evolution in the durations of the bunch and of the inner ultrashort pulses. Simulation results are in good agreement with the experiment. They confirm the strong dependence of the pulse properties on the value of the NOLM switching power, although NOLM switching is not alone responsible for the appearance of the noiselike pulsing mode.


In this paper, a novel opportunistic spectrum sharing scheme, based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM), is proposed for cognitive radio (CR) networks. In the considered OFDM-IM based CR (OFDM-IM-CR) model, the primary transmitter (PT) communicates with the primary receiver with the aid of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay by transmitting OFDM-IM signals. Meanwhile, the secondary transmitter (ST) passively senses the spectrum and transmits its own information over those inactive subcarriers of the primary network to the secondary receiver if the signal-to-noise ratio of the PT $\to $ ST link is above a predefined threshold; otherwise, the ST stays in silent mode. Two different types of maximum-likelihood (ML) detectors are designed for the primary network, based on the knowledge of either the estimated channel state information or the statistical channel information of the secondary network. A complexity-reducing method, which is applicable to both types and achieves near optimal performance, is further proposed. To evaluate the performance, a tight upper bound on the bit error rate (BER) is derived, assuming the first type of ML detection. Simulation results corroborate the analysis and show that OFDM-IM-CR has the potential of outperforming OFDM-CR and OFDM-IM-AF in terms of BER with higher spectral efficiency.


The strengthening of women's participation in all spheres of life has become a major issue in the discourse of economic and social development in the last decades. Virtually every international and bilateral development agency has proclaimed policies to integrate women better into economic and social processes. The promotion of women in politics, however, especially if it is supposed to be implemented through affirmative action is still contested. This is in spite of the fact that women, who form around 50% of total world population, share a considerably lower presence in elected political bodies: Women made up only 11.6% of MPs in 176 parliaments in 1995 (IDEA 2002). Apparently universal franchise is inadequate to overcome structural constraints that impede female presence in political offices. Thus, despite their numerical strength, women are still a minority in respect to political power and positions occupied. Interestingly enough India is one of the countries where a women's quota of 33% was introduced at least at the local level. The same strategy for the State Assemblies and the National Parliament is still highly contested and the so-called "Women's Bill" failed thrice to be passed so far. At the same time, some readers might be astonished that India has realised a women's quota at all, since India is often portrayed as backward in regard to women's position in society. News on dowry deaths, widow burning, and the abortion of female foetuses still dominate the rather undifferentiated public image of India. Nevertheless, in 1992 the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution laid down new rules for the establishment and design of rural local government (called Panchayati Raj). This Amendment also stipulates that at least 33% of the seats and positions have to be filled by women. Proponents of this measure believe that the quota for women will lead to their empowerment, whereas critics claim that those women will be mere "proxies" for influential males and will be mainly drawn from the elite. The opponents furthermore point out that women in rural India are not equipped for participating in politics, since they lack basic qualifications. Indeed, India's rural social structure can still be characterized as being predominantly patriarchal. Women face restricted mobility in the public space; yet, this differs with respect to caste, class, religion as well as age and family status. As already mentioned, treating women as a political group with common concerns provokes the question in how far gender actually transcends caste, class or ethnic affiliation. Which interests should the elected women represent - those of other women, of their caste, clan or religious community? How can rural women, who are initially without doubt less equipped for political office (lower formal education, less political experience, less public exposure etc.), overcome these inhibitions? And how do male colleagues, officials and the village communities react if they are forced to elect and deal with female representatives? In order to pay tribute to the contextual nature of empowerment this study was conducted in a single State of the Indian Union. Orissa was selected because it is in one of the most "backward" States in the Indian Union and thus presents an environment that is not very conducive for women's empowerment to begin with. If one can prove that empowerment happens in such a setting, it is fair to assume that it should definitely take place in a location which provides better conditions, like, e.g. in a State like Kerala. Therefore, the selection of a "worst-case scenario" permits to draw more general conclusions. A quantitative survey was conducted with 105 women and 80 men mainly at the gram panchayat and few at the panchayat samiti level during the first field trip in 1998/99. In the second round in 1999/2000, selected female representatives, male panchayat members, officials, villagers and women's groups were interviewed in intensive semi-structured interviews.


Biofouling that involves protein adsorption, cell and bacteria adhesion, and biofilm formation between a surface and biological entities is a great challenge for biomedical and industry applications. In this work, L-tyrosine-derived polyurethanes (L-polyurethane) with different molecular weights of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were synthesized, characterized and coated on gold surfaces using spin-coating. The non-fouling activity of different L-polyurethane films was evaluated by protein adsorption and cell adhesion. Surface plasmon resonance and cell assay results demonstrate that the PEG content in these L-polyurethanes contributes excellent resistance to protein adsorption and cell attachments. This work provides alternative and effective biomaterials for potential applications in blood-contacting devices. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry


SPECIAL EDITION Microsoft Windows Vista Second Edition The only Windows Vista book you need We crafted this book to grow with you, providing the reference material you need as you move toward Vista proficiency and use more advanced features. If you buy only one book on Vista, Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows Vista, Second Edition, is the book you need. Tired of the constant barrage of spam, spyware, viruses and other Net nasties? We show you how to rebuke the onslaught of hacker attacks, protect your identity, and keep your sanity, all at the same time. Is the new Vista interface making your trigger-finger itch? Ours toothat is, until we turned Windows inside out, shook out all the loose parts, and figured out just what makes this beast tick. Learn from our pain and suffering. If you finally broke down and purchased a Windows Media Center computer, or if you think you have one and didnt even know it, you are holding just the book for you. We show you how to get up to speed with your new computer, transforming it from the little PC that could into the media juggernaut, entertainment center, gaming center, and way-better-than-TiVo replacement you never knew it could be. Ready to upgrade? We provide from-the-trenches advice on upgrading to Windows Vista. Maybe you to still want to run Windows XP but would like to try Vista for a while to see if you like it. We cover how to dual-boot your computer safely with both operating systems. Category: Microsoft Windows Operating System Covers: Microsoft Windows Vista, all versions Windows Vista Service Pack 1 User Level: BeginnerIntermediate Robert Cowart has written more than 40 books that have sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. He made his name writing for Sybex and Osbornemost notably in the best-selling Mastering Windows series. As an author and media developer for Que, Bob has written numerous Windows titles, including multiple editions of Ques flagship Windows book, Special Edition Using Mi crosoft Windows. Brian Knittel is a software developer, consultant, and writer. Hes authored or coauthored many of Ques best-selling Windows books, including Ques leading Windows book, Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows. Brian also is the author of Windows XP Under the Hood and coauthored Upgrading and Repairing Windows with Scott Mueller. On the CD-ROM More than 80 minutes of how-to video, showing you how to get up to speed with Windows Vista! Bob and Brian show you how the new Vista Welcome Center works, how to personalize and tweak the desktop, how to use the new Windows Explorers, how to manage user accounts and more! Using screen cam videos and voice over, youll be able to watch the Windows masters at work, taking the guesswork out of getting up to speed with Vista. Its like having Bob and Brian sitting next to you while youre learning how to use Vista!


Nowadays, mobile social networks are capable of promoting social networking benefits during physical meetings, in order to leverage interpersonal affinities not only among acquaintances, but also between strangers. Due to their foundation on automated sharing of personal data in the physical surroundings of the user, these networks are subject to crucial privacy threats. Privacy management systems must be capable of accurate selection of data disclosure according to human data sensitivity evaluation. Therefore, it is crucial to research and comprehend an individual's personal information disclosure decisions happening in ordinary human communication. Consequently, in this paper we provide insight into influential factors of human data disclosure decisions, by presenting and analysing results of an empirical investigation comprising two online surveys. We focus on the following influential factors: inquirer, purpose of disclosure, access & control of the disclosed information, location familiarity and current activity of the user. This research can serve as relevant input for the design of privacy management models in mobile social networks.


Wnt signal transduction controls tissue morphogenesis, maintenance and regeneration in all multicellular animals. In mammals, the WNT/CTNNB1 (Wnt/ β -catenin) pathway controls cell proliferation and cell fate decisions before and after birth. It plays a critical role at multiple stages of embryonic development, but also governs stem cell maintenance and homeostasis in adult tissues. However, it remains chal-lenging to monitor endogenous WNT/CTNNB1 signaling dynamics in vivo. Here, we report the generation and characterization of a new knock-in mouse strain that dou-bles as a fluorescent reporter and lineage tracing driver for WNT/CTNNB1 responsive cells. We introduced a multi-cistronic targeting cassette at the 3 0 end of the universal WNT/CTNNB1 target gene Axin2 . The resulting knock-in allele expresses a bright fluorescent reporter (3xNLS-SGFP2) and a doxycycline-inducible driver for lineage tracing (rtTA3). We show that the Axin2 P2A-rtTA3-T2A-3xNLS-SGFP2 strain labels WNT/CTNNB1 responsive cells at multiple anatomical sites during different stages of embryonic and postnatal development. It faithfully reports the subtle and dynamic changes in physiological WNT/CTNNB1 signaling activity that occur in vivo. We expect this mouse strain to be a useful resource for biologists who want to track and trace the location and developmental fate of WNT/CTNNB1 responsive stem cells in different contexts.


The case report describes that the treatment of an Angle Class II and division 1 malocclusion in adult with excessive overjet and high mandibular angle case. The patient has also severe crowding on maxilla and mandible and temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The treatment was performed by use of 0.018×0.025-inch slot straight wire appliances with four first premolars' extraction. The improvement of excessive overjet was achieved by the proclination of anterior teeth by use of temporary anchorage devices (TADs). After completion of orthodontic treatment, the molar relationships on both sides were almost normalized to Class I and proper overjet and overbite were acquired. Improvement of facial and occlusal problems was acquired. The symptoms of TMDs have been stable due to the continuous care through the treatment period. TADs are considered as a very useful material in terms of the anchorage of molars for the achievement of a large amount of incisor retraction and molar intrusion.


This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of utilizing barley as a Flushing ration with an energizing source and soybean meal-based diets as a Flushing ration with a protein source the sexual and breeding behaviors in Ghezel sheep. To this end, 36 three and half-year old ewes (51±1.5 kilograms) with the record of giving birth to two lambs and 6 three-year old (89±2.5 kilograms) rams were used. The ewes were divided into two treatment groups of A (i.e., the receivers of barley seeds), B (i.e., the receivers of soybean meal-based diets), and a control group of C with 12 ewes in each group. Also, three rams were utilized randomly in each group. The ewes received the Flushing ration two weeks before and two weeks after sexual intercourse. Hence, group A ewes were fed 400 grams of barley seeds and group B ewes were fed 400 grams of soybean. The results demonstrate that the ewes in the treatment group showed sexual receptivity behavior earlier than the control group ewes; however, the difference was not significant. Also, The receptivity power (i.e., the number of successful jumping permission) and the amount of estrogen, calcium, as well as magnesium levels were not significantly different at pro-estrus and estrus stages. Nevertheless, the amount of phosphorous serum and the new-born lambs' weight were reported to be significant (p < .05) in the treatment groups. The current study demonstrated that Flushing ration along with both energizing and protein sources improve the livestock's health and sexual behavior. In addition, such supplements have a positive influence on breeding rate and on the weight of lambs.


It is known that thermal conditioning at an early age results in improved heat tolerance, and reduces mortality when re-exposed to heat in later life in chickens. However, the mechanism of thermal conditioning is not fully understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of early thermal conditioning on physiological and behavioral responses in acute heat-exposed chicks. Six-day-old chicks (White Plymouth Rock) were exposed to high temperature at 40°C for 3 h while control chicks were kept at 30°C. Four days after treatment, both groups were challenged to high temperature at 40°C for 15min. We found that the initiation times for behavioral responses (panting and wing-droop posture) in experienced chicks were later than those in control. At the end of heat-exposure treatment, the rectal temperature in experienced chicks was lower than that in control while there was no difference in respiration rate between the groups. Compared with control, experienced chicks had a lower level of plasma corticosterone. Gene expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, thyrotropin-releasing hormone, interleukin6 and lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor were significantly lower in the brain of experienced chicks than in the control chicks. These results suggest that thermal conditioning may change response to subsequent heat exposure by altering the central thermoregulation system, resulting in an alleviation of heat stress.


Abstract. Science, in our case the climate and geosciences, is increasingly interdisciplinary. Scientists must therefore communicate across disciplinary boundaries. For this communication to be successful, scientists must write clearly and concisely, yet the historically poor standard of scientific writing does not seem to be improving. Scientific writing must improve, and the key to long-term improvement lies with the early-career scientist (ECS). Many interventions exist for an ECS to improve their writing, like style guides and courses. However, momentum is often difficult to maintain after these interventions are completed. Continuity is key to improving writing. This paper introduces the ClimateSnack project, which aims to motivate ECSs to develop and continue to improve their writing and communication skills. The project adopts a peer-learning framework where ECSs voluntarily form writing groups at different institutes around the world. The group members learn, discuss, and improve their writing skills together. Several ClimateSnack writing groups have formed. This paper examines why some of the groups have flourished and others have dissolved. We identify the challenges involved in making a writing group successful and effective, notably the leadership of self-organized groups, and both individual and institutional time management. Within some of the groups, peer learning clearly offers a powerful tool to improve writing as well as bringing other benefits, including improved general communication skills and increased confidence.


The first documented procedures for designing frozen earth structures are over 50 years old, implemented long before the introduction of the Finite Element Method (FEM). Since that time, the development of three-dimensional models has made the traditional and often over-conservative methods relatively obsolete. This paper discusses a new approach that is largely dependent on the analysis of internal stresses with the frozen structure and comparison to frozen soil laboratory tests. A specific design process is discussed related to initial field investigation, laboratory testing, structural and thermal analysis, and performance monitoring. The design results are compared to case histories in the field that verify the procedure.


This article describes research that looks at how structure is now used and might be better used in support of personal information management (PIM). Efforts to structure personal information find expression in various external representations (ERs) such as folder hierarchies, physical piles and analogous groupings of items on a computer desktop, user-assigned property/value combinations, annotations, file and folder names including leading characters, etc. But the ways in which these ERs develop over time and the roles they play in the management of personal information are poorly understood and poorly supported. Fieldwork is described that identifies several opportunities for improved support of ERs to manage personal information. A Project Planner prototype supports a rich-text outline view for the creation of ERs (project plans). Project plans can be used not only to represent the structure of a project but also to organize information (electronic documents, email messages, web pages) required to complete the project. The Project Planner works by extending, rather than trying to replace, the user's current file folder structure. The Planner works as an extension to the file manager to provide people with rich-text overlays to their information.


The original vision of ubiquitous computing was for computers to assist humans by providing subtle and fitting technologies in every environment. The iPhone and similar smartphones have provided continuous access to the internet to this end. In the current thesis, my goal was to characterize how the internet is used on smartphones to better understand what users do with technology away from the desktop. Naturalistic and longitudinal data were collected from iPhone users in the wild and analyzed to develop this understanding. Since there are two general ways to access the internet on smartphones—via native applications and a web browser—I describe usage patterns through each along with the influence of experience, the nature of the task and physical locations where smartphones were used on these patterns.
The results reveal differences between technologies (the PC and the smartphone), platforms (native applications and the mobile browser), and users in how the internet was accessed. Findings indicate that longitudinal use of web browsers decreased sharply with time in favor of native application use, web page revisitation through browsers occurred very infrequently (approximately 25% of URLs are revisited by each user), bookmarks were used sparingly to access web content, physical location visitation followed patterns similar to virtual visitation on the internet, and Zipf distributions characterize mobile internet use. The web browser was not as central to smartphone use compared to the PC, but afforded certain types of activities such as searching and ad hoc browsing. In addition, users systematically differed from each other in how they accessed the internet suggesting different ways to support a wider spectrum of smartphone users.


Some children are prone to interpret others' behavior as stemming from hostile intentions, even when the actual intentions of the other person are unclear. The aim of this dissertation was to extend our knowledge of such hostile attribution biases in young children (aged 3 to 8). The findings in this dissertation were obtained from seven empirical studies, organized in four chapters, and centered around three overarching aims: the origins, consequences, and malleability of hostile attribution biases in young children. Concerning origins, results showed that children with higher levels of hostile attribution bias had less advanced social-cognitive skills (i.e., they were less skilled at reasoning about others' mental states), had a heightened sensitivity to negative social outcomes, and had parents who modeled less nonhostile attributions when discussing social situations with them. Children's hostile attribution bias was not related to basic social-cognitive skills (i.e., the ability to understand others' mental states) or to victimization by peers. Concerning consequences, links were established between young children's hostile attribution bias and aggression (r = .20, cross-dissertation meta-analysis). This correlation is similar to correlations obtained for middle childhood and adolescence, suggesting that the link between children's hostile attribution bias and aggression is robust across development. Concerning malleability, two methods were explored that may reduce hostile attribution biases in young children. The first method was parent-child discussion: asking parents to model benign attributions while discussing a picture book about social mishaps with their children. The second method was self-persuasion: asking children themselves to advocate why peers who caused a mishap may have had nonhostile intentions. Results showed that both methods reduced children's hostile attribution bias, but not their aggression. These methods' potential for intervention should be established in future research. To conclude, the research in this dissertation has illustrated novel ways to investigate social cognition in young children. We hope its findings will help scholars and practitioners to better understand and treat hostile attribution biases in early childhood.


Background: The incidence of breast cancer had increased around the world. More premenopausal women suffer from this condition with great economic and social impact. The objective of this study is to establish possible associations between lifestyle and the presence of breast cancer in premenopausal women. Methods: The study population was composed of 330 premenopausal patients younger than 55 years with breast disease, cared between 2013 and 2017 at the University Hospital Mayor Méderi. Two comparison groups were formed. Patients with a tumor diagnosed as malignant considering cases and control group of patients with a tumor diagnosed as benign. With factors associated significantly in the bivariate analysis (P < .10), the hierarchically organized multiple regression model controlled by the confounding variables was constructed. The logistic regression model was adjusted by the age variable, to avoid residual confounder. Results: The population included 330 premenopausal women with benign and malignant breast disease: 134 cases and 196 controls. From the multivariate analysis, it was identified that the whole-grain consumption was inversely associated with presence of breast cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 0.579; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.339, 0.991; P = .046). On the other hand, consumption of fish was associated with the presence of breast malignancy (OR = 2.560; 95% CI: 1.200, 5.460; P = .015). Conclusions: Considering the epigenetic and multiomics individual profiles in the development of premenopausal breast cancer and its social and economic impact can be useful in development of modern clinical strategies with crucial interventions at the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels for this disease.


Focusing on the physical layer, Networking Fundamentals provides essential information on networking technologies that are used in both wired and wireless networks designed for local area networks (LANs) and wide-area networks (WANs). The book starts with an overview of telecommunications followed by four parts, each including several chapters. Part I explains the principles of design and analysis of information networks at the lowest layers. It concentrates on the characteristics of the transmission media, applied transmission and coding, and medium access control. Parts II and III are devoted to detailed descriptions of important WANs and LANs respectively with Part II describing the wired Ethernet and Internet as well as cellular networks while Part III covers popular wired LANs and wireless LANs (WLANs), as well as wireless personal area network (WPAN) technologies. Part IV concludes by examining security, localization and sensor networking. The partitioned structure of the book allows flexibility in teaching the material, encouraging the reader to grasp the more simple concepts and to build on these foundations when moving onto more complex information. Networking Fundamentals contains numerous illustrations, case studies and tables to supplement the text, as well as exercises with solutions at the end of each chapter. There is also a companion website with password protected solutions manual for instructors along with other useful resources. Provides a unique holistic approach covering wireless communication technologies, wired technologies and networking One of the first textbooks to integrate all aspects of information networks while placing an emphasis on the physical layer and systems engineering aspects Contains numerous illustrations, case studies and tables to supplement the text, as well as exercises with solutions at the end of each chapter Companion website with password protected solutions manual and other useful resources


Master the intricacies of application development with unmanaged C++ codestraight from the experts. Jeffrey Richters classic book is now fully revised for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. You get in-depth, comprehensive guidance, advanced techniques, and extensive code samples to help you program Windowsbased applications. Discover how to:Architect and implement your applications for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Create and manipulate processes and jobs Schedule, manage, synchronize and destroy threads Perform asynchronous and synchronous device I/O operations with the I/O completion port Allocate memory using various techniques including virtual memory, memory-mapped files, and heaps Manipulate the default committed physical storage of thread stacks Build DLLs for delay-loading, API hooking, and process injection Using structured exception handling, Windows Error Recovery, and Application Restart services


Funny Misshapen Body is the story of Jeffrey Brown's evolution as a cartoonist, from his youthful obsession with superhero comics to his disillusionment with fine art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Drawn with Brown's scratchy, spare, trademark style, Funny Misshapen Body resonates with true-to-life observations on love, fear, and ambition. Through his bare bones graphic style, he reveals his most embarrassing personal moments in raw, intimate detail -- including how he survived high school, binge drinking, mild drug experimentation, doomed friendships, and being diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Ultimately coming to terms with his art and identity, Brown describes the ups and downs of his adolescence with understated simplicity, dark humor, and charm.


Foliages from some tropical plants and from different species of the legume Erythrina were examined in five studies assessing the characteristics of these foliages as feed for goats.

Digestibility and feed preference studies showed that ad libitum feeding of foliage from Erythrina (Erythrina variegata), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and kapok (Ceiba pentandra) resulted in a longer time spent eating and more changes in diet selection, feed intake, crude protein (CP) digestibility and nitrogen (N) retention than foliage from jujube (Ziziphus jujube Mill), fig (Ficus racemosa) and mango (Mangifera indica). Supplementation of low quality foliage with water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) increased intake and apparent digestibility.

In a survey study, three different Erythrina spp., E. indica, E. subumbrans and E. variegata, were found in the north, centre and south of Lao PDR. These species were in limited use as an animal feed on smallholder farms. Erythrina variegata appeared to be a better option in terms of degradability than E. indica and E. subumbrans according to in vitro gas production and in sacco degradation studies.

A cropping study showed that cow manure or mineral fertiliser significantly decreased shoot mortality and increased shoot height and fresh and CP yield of E. variegata foliage compared with no fertiliser. The nutritive value of the foliage did not differ significantly between the fertilised and unfertilised treatments.

Studies on different degrees of processing (fresh or sun-dried) of E. variegata foliage showed similar CP, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre contents, and no difference in total voluntary intake, when either fresh or dry foliage was fed ad libitum to growing goats.

Four levels of replacement (0, 20, 40 and 60%) of dietary CP with CP from E. variegata foliage resulted in similar dry matter intake, apparent CP digestibility, N retention and carcass characteristics, but total CP intake was significantly higher in goats fed the diet with 60% replacement compared with 20%. Thus CP from E. variegata foliage can replace up to 60% of CP in a mixed diet with soybean meal without any negative effects on animal growth performance.


The Skipper's Medical Emergency Handbook is designed to assist all who go to sea - whether on a day excursion, a holiday cruise or an even longer trip. It will provide practical advice, boost confidence, solve problems and minimise danger for all on board. Step-by-step instructions, explanatory illustrations and flow charts provide an at-a-glance reference on how to prevent, treat and care for the sick and injured at sea. And there is advice on pre-voyage preparations, establishing emergency procedures, first response and assessment of illnesses and injury, right through to offshore aftercare and recovery. The Skipper's Medical Emergency Handbook is a comprehensive and practical resource for novices or experienced sailors and motorboaters.


Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are an integral component of IT infrastructure in many organizations. A recent trend for ERP is the shift from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud environment through utilization of cloud computing technologies. The characteristics of cloud computing induces many promises to cloud-based ERP systems - making 'Cloud ERP' a favourable alternative to on-premises ERP systems. However, moving ERP systems into the cloud also presents many challenges. This paper aims to evaluate the promises and challenges of cloud-based ERP systems from a review of the literature and propose a framework to be of utility for IT executives and researchers to assess the key promises and challenges of cloud environments for ERP systems. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, we identify a set of key promises and challenges to help IT decision makers and researcher to gain a better understanding of cloud computing and ERP. Second, our framework identifies four dimensions of cloud ERP to be assessed: Efficiency, Flexibility, Ubiquity, and Security. We propose that all these dimensions encompass promises and challenges to varying degrees. Third, we propose research opportunities for IS researchers in the domain of cloud-based ERP systems based on the identified four dimensions.


Abstract Aims There is limited published evidence for the cost-effectiveness of treatments for unresectable or metastatic endometrial cancer (mEC). The objective of this analysis was to assess the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy for previously treated unresectable or mEC, in women whose tumors have deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) or high microsatellite instability (MSI-H). The analysis was carried out from a US healthcare payer perspective. Materials and methods A lifetime partitioned survival model comprising three health states (progression-free, progressed disease and death) was constructed. Chemotherapy was represented by single-agent paclitaxel or doxorubicin. Overall survival, progression-free survival and time on treatment data for pembrolizumab were obtained from a Phase II clinical study that included women with previously treated dMMR/MSI-H unresectable or mEC (KEYNOTE-158, NCT02628067). Survival data for chemotherapy were obtained from a published Phase III study for previously treated advanced endometrial cancer. Costs included were drug acquisition and administration, health-state, end-of-life, and adverse event management. Costs were presented in 2019 US$. Outcomes were calculated as quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), using EQ-5D data from KEYNOTE-158. Model results were tested extensively in deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results Results demonstrated that pembrolizumab is a highly cost-effective treatment option when compared with chemotherapy, with estimated deterministic and probabilistic incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) of $58,165 and $57,668 per QALY gained, respectively. Pembrolizumab was associated with a large QALY and life-year gain per person versus chemotherapy over the model time horizon (deterministic 4.68 life year gain, 3.80 QALYs), with the majority of QALYs accrued in the progression-free health state. Limitations The key limitation of the analysis was the lack of comparative effectiveness data for pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy. Conclusions Pembrolizumab is a highly cost-effective treatment option when compared with chemotherapy for women with previously treated dMMR/MSI-H unresectable or mEC. Results were robust to the changes in parameters and assumptions explored.


This paper discusses research and development work currently being conducted with universities in Bhutan and Nepal to design appropriate systems for distance and distributed learning courses among a network of campus sites. Although working from a high level of awareness of pedagogic skills, staff in the region face two significant impediments in the adoption of a more open culture of learning. Firstly, Internet access is improving rapidly, but is still generally too weak and inconsistent to allow any reliance on net-based learning solutions. Secondly, the academic culture is resistant to the recognition of the value of open-learning degrees, with subsequent difficulties in re-designing course materials for a more educationally flexible, student-centred learning environment. Some current pilot initiatives in distributed learning are described. Methods for addressing these two impediments are discussed.


Courts have created a burden of proof in copyright that chills protected speech. The doctrine of fair use purports to ensure that copyright law does not trample rights of speakers whose expression employs copyrighted material. Yet those speakers face a burden of proof that weighs heavily in the fair use analysis, where factual inquiries are often subjective and speculative. Failure to satisfy the burden means severe penalties, which prospect quickly chills the free exercise of speech that constitutes a fair use. The fair-use burden of proof is repugnant to the fair use purpose. Today, copyright holders are exploiting the burden with Internet efficiency against individual fair users. This Article therefore proposes that the burden of proof should lie with copyright holders.


Abstract: Konservat-Lagerstätten provide the most complete snapshots of ancient organisms and communities in the fossil record. In the Mesozoic, these deposits are rarely found in marine facies outside Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) intervals, suggesting that OAEs set the stage for exceptional fossil preservation. Although anoxia does not guarantee survival of non-biomineralized tissues or articulated skeletons, other OAE phenomena may promote their conservation. Here, we test this hypothesis with a taphonomic analysis of the Konservat-Lagerstätte in the black shales and siltstones of the Jurassic Fernie Formation at Ya Ha Tinda (Alberta, Canada). This deposit contains crustacean cuticles, coleoid gladii with ink sacs and mantle tissues, and articulated skeletons of fish, crinoids, and ichthyosaurs. The fossils were preserved in the Pliensbachian and Toarcian (Early Jurassic) when euxinic conditions were common in the area, in part, due to the ∼183 Ma Toarcian OAE. Some of the fossils contain carbonaceous material, but the majority consists of apatite minerals, and phosphatic gladii demonstrate that some animals were preserved through secondary phosphate mineralization. Phosphatization generally occurs within phosphate-rich sediment, but oceanic anoxia causes sediment to release phosphorus and prevents animals from colonizing seafloor habitats. Accordingly, we propose that the animals were preserved during brief episodes of bottom water oxia and/or dysoxia, when the environment would have been most favorable to benthic communities and phosphate mineralization. In this setting, phosphatization may have been fueled by phosphate delivery from continental weathering in response to climatic warming, ocean upwelling of eutrophic water, and/or nutrient trapping by anoxia in the basin.


Neurological diseases and trauma often cause demyelination, resulting in the disruption of axonal function and integrity. Endogenous remyelination promotes recovery, but the process is not well understood because no method exists to definitively distinguish regenerated from preexisting myelin. To date, remyelinated segments have been defined as anything abnormally short and thin, without empirical data to corroborate these morphological assumptions. To definitively identify regenerated myelin, we used a transgenic mouse with an inducible membrane-bound reporter and targeted Cre recombinase expression to a subset of glial progenitor cells after spinal cord injury, yielding remarkably clear visualization of spontaneously regenerated myelin in vivo. Early after injury, the mean length of sheaths regenerated by Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes (OLs) was significantly shorter than control, uninjured myelin, confirming past assumptions. However, OL-regenerated sheaths elongated progressively over 6 mo to approach control values. Moreover, OL-regenerated myelin thickness was not significantly different from control myelin at most time points after injury. Thus, many newly formed OL sheaths were neither thinner nor shorter than control myelin, vitiating accepted dogmas of what constitutes regenerated myelin. We conclude that remyelination, once thought to be static, is dynamic and elongates independently of axonal growth, in contrast to stretch-based mechanisms proposed in development. Further, without clear identification, past assessments have underestimated the extent and quality of regenerated myelin.


Marx did not confine himself to criticising capitalism. He predicted the rise of a new mode of production which would take the place of capitalism and which he indifferently termed socialism or communism. In the light of this, the author thinks that even today those who do not envisage the possible emergence of a new mode of production cannot appropriately describe themselves as Marxists. Trying to figure out a type of revolution possible today, he suggests the turn to a system of worker-controlled firms, i.e. the form of market socialism that economic theorists have fleshed out most clearly, though he adds that this raises the need - or, rather, offers the welcome opportunity - to rethink Marx's theoretical approach. Aron has argued that only liberals and pessimists (arguably the true sages) caution us against setting ourselves tasks which we will not be able to master, while Marxists tend to undertake tasks on the spur of their daydreams, without the least regard to their real capabilities. In point of fact, since the goal that democratic firm management theorists are setting themselves is far from unrealistic, this dictum of Aron's is contradicted by any Marxists who set out to create the assumptions for empowering workers to manage their firms for themselves.


Desalination is often considered an approach for mitigating water stress. Despite the abundance of saline water worldwide, additional energy consumption and increased costs present barriers to widespread deployment of desalination as a municipal water supply. Specific energy consumption (SEC) is a common measure of the energy use in desalination processes, and depends on many operational and water quality factors. We completed multiple linear regression and relative importance statistical analyses of factors affecting SEC using both small-scale meta-data and municipal-scale empirical data to predict the energy consumption of desalination. Statistically significant results show water quality and initial year of operations to be significant and important factors in estimating SEC, explaining over 80% of the variation in SEC. More recent initial year of operations, lower salinity raw water, and higher salinity product water accurately predict lower values of SEC. Economic analysis revealed a weak statistical relationship between SEC and cost of water production. Analysis of associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions revealed important considerations of both electricity source and SEC in estimating the GHG-related sustainability of desalination. Results of our statistical analyses can aid decision-makers by predicting the SEC of desalination to a reasonable degree of accuracy with limited data.


A concern of a lack of civic engagement among college students has been attributed to stagnant voting habits (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2016), low levels in political engagement such as participating in public demonstrations for a cause (Eagan et al., 2016), and low levels of civic knowledge (Berti, 1994; Delval, 1994; Galston, 2001). These factors have been correlated with sustained civic engagement later in life (Eyler & Giles Jr., 1999; Pancer, 2014). Therefore, research exploring the initiating factors of civic engagement among youth could form the foundation for a diverse, educated citizenship fundamental to an effective democracy (Dewey, 1916; The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, 2012).

An interview study of applicants to an academically-based civic engagement program at a large, state-related research university, was conducted to address these questions: 1) What were the initiating factors for a select group of undergraduate students who applied for a specific academically-based civic engagement fellowship program? And 2) What are the perceived future expectations for civic engagement among applicants for a specific academically-based civic engagement fellowship program? The interview protocol used questions to elicit data that provides insights regarding the initiating factors of civic engagement according to Pancer's (2014) theory of civic engagement.

Most applicants had social influences that fostered a shared value of a norm of reciprocity and social responsibility. Furthermore, instrumental motives helped several of the participants overcome financial obstacles to participation. Participants indicated a perception that they were expecting and looking forward to engaging in communities they had not explored during their college experience, learning how the community functions while developing valuable leadership skills and self-confidence to prepare them for a variety of career options.

Future study could explore the relationship between initiating factors among college students that either do not wish to be or have not yet been civically engaged. Higher education policies could investigate ways to integrate the community into curriculum. Lastly, higher education practitioners could benefit from professional development focused on fostering a supportive environment for civic engagement.


Objective: Different single-file instruments and kinematics have been introduced on the market. It is important to know the cyclic fatigue performance of these instruments in these new kinematics such as reciprocation of Optimum Torque Reverse (OTR) motion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the resistance to cyclic fatigue of F6 SkyTaper and OneShape used in continuous rotation (proper rotation) or in reciprocating OTR motion. Methods: A total of forty-eight nickel-titanium files were tested. Twenty-four instruments of both brands were divided into two groups (n=12) on the basis of the motion tested: continuous rotation (group 1) or reciprocating OTR motion (group 2). Resistance to cyclic fatigue was determined by recording time to fracture (TtF) in a stainless steel artificial canal with a 60° angle of curvature and 5 mm radius of curvature. Data were analysed by two-way analysis of variance and post-hoc Bonferroni tests for multiple comparisons with P<0.05 as the level of significance. Results: F6 SkyTaper showed higher TtF compared with OneShape, both in continuous and in OTR motion (P<0.0001). The two tested instruments showed higher cyclic fatigue resistance in reciprocating OTR motion than continuous rotation (P<0.0001). Conclusion: OTR motion significantly improves cyclic fatigue resistance of the tested instruments. In addition, F6 SkyTaper showed higher cyclic fatigue resistance than OneShape in both motions.