To design interfaces, researchers in HCI have often set up ethnographic and ethno- methodological analysis of face-to-face situations that developers tried to emulate in on-line platform. Nonetheless, the observation of a group of designers producing an e-learning platform shows that this painting from nature/ after nature methodology is completed by a study of already mediated forms of interactions and representations of interactions. In design practice, the designer elaborates not only from the existing objects and ways of representing them, but also from the "interpretant". Here, we observed how designers use and anticipate multiple semiotic literacies when they bridge from real life situation to a mediated situation. As the team designed an e-learning environment they realized that a virtual platform have to recreate the atmosphere of a class. To address this issue, they deployed a specific semiotic methodology that we called "contradictory semiotic analysis". This methodology is based on a "dialog" between semiotic studies that balance the convergent effects of themes and the diverging effects of media. Here the expression "contradictory semiotic analysis" is used so as to illustrate the converging / diverging semiotic process that designers use to explore the expansion of a concept (here empathy) so that it can become operational in mediated interactions.


During 20th century main concern was to have sanitary water flowing through the tap. In 21st century constant supply of safe drinking water is common at any home in USA. Hence consumers pay attention to aesthetic quality of tap water. Odorous algal metabolites in source water and metals introduced to drinking water due to corrosion of pipes in the distribution system cause taste, odor and color problems, and result in complaints and perception of tap water as unhealthy. Millions of dollars are spent each year by water industry to address and prevent these issues. This research focused on some of the taste-and-odor issues associated with drinking water. First aim was to understand when geosmin, 2-MIB, and nonadienal become detectable, employing two-resistance mass transfer theory to determine the concentration of odorants in bathroom air. Results showed that water temperature and odorant concentration in water play an important role. Next focus was to develop an international odor standard to be used for training of sensory analysis panelists. There are many sensory methods to monitor drinking water to detect the off-flavors however an odor standard has been missing. Hexanal was studied with trained flavor profile analysis panels and was proposed as an ideal odor reference standard to be used for training and sensory assessment of water samples. Main focus was to understand metallic flavor of drinking water caused by iron and copper. It was shown that metallic sensation has taste and retronasal components creating the flavor and humans are very sensitive to it. Occurrence of lipid oxidation in the oral cavity was shown when metals were ingested, that produces carbonyls which are responsible for the metallic flavor. Antioxidants and chelators were investigated to study prevention of lipid oxidation and, chelators were determined to be more effective. Oral epithelial cell cultures were developed as a model for oral cavity to further investigate lipid oxidation and effectiveness of the antioxidants and chelators. This dissertation is a result of inter-disciplinary work and possibly a good example for how problems may be solved by incorporating different methods and point of views from several disciplines.


Semantic mapping of land cover is a key, but challenging, problem in remote sensing. Recent advances in deep learning, especially deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have shown outstanding performance in this task. In order to develop refined deep learning pipeline for meeting the rising need for accurate semantic mapping in remote sensing images, this paper study and compare a number of advanced deep learning segmentation architectures, which have obtained state-of-the-art results on computer vision contests like the Pascal VOC. To further analyze and compare the effectiveness of some elaborate layers and underlying structures introduced by these architectures, we evaluate them by re-implementing, train and test them on ISPRS Potsdam dataset. Our results show that a promising performance with overall Fl_score above 87% and mIoU of 79% can be obtained by only using the RGB images, without any post-processing such as conditional random field (CRF) smoothing. At last, we propose several possible approaches to further enhance the deep learning architectures to better deal with high-resolution aerial images. We therefore consider this work to be helpful for the remote sensing research community.


Purpose To validate three early ejaculation diagnostic tools, and propose a new tool for diagnosis in line with proposed changes to diagnostic criteria. Significant changes to diagnostic criteria are expected in the near future. Available screening tools do not necessarily reflect proposed changes. Materials and Methods Data from 148 diagnosed early ejaculation patients (M age = 42.8) and 892 controls (M age = 33.1 years) from a population-based sample were used. Participants responded to three different questionnaires (Premature Ejaculation Profile; Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool; Multiple Indicators of Premature Ejaculation). Stopwatch measured ejaculation latency times were collected from a subsample of early ejaculation patients. We used two types of responses to the questionnaires depending on the treatment status of the patients 1) responses regarding the situation before starting pharmacological treatment and 2) responses regarding current situation. Logistic regressions and Receiver Operating Characteristics were used to assess ability of both the instruments and individual items to differentiate between patients and controls. Results All instruments had very good precision (Areas under the Curve ranging from .93-.98). A new five-item instrument (named CHecklist for Early Ejaculation Symptoms – CHEES) consisting of high-performance variables selected from the three instruments had validity (Nagelkerke R 2 range .51-.79 for backwards/forwards logistic regression) equal to or slightly better than any individual instrument (i.e., had slightly higher validity statistics, but these differences did not achieve statistical significance). Importantly, however, this instrument was more in line with proposed changes to diagnostic criteria. Conclusions All three screening tools had good validity. A new 5-item diagnostic tool (CHEES) based on the three instruments had equal or somewhat more favorable validity statistics compared to the other three tools, but is more in line with recently proposed diagnostic criteria.


There is a significant and growing interest in the use of highly-glazed facades in commercial buildings. Large portions of the facade or even the entire facade are glazed with relatively high transmittance glazing systems, and typically with some form of sun control as well. With origins in Europe the trend is expanding to other regions, including the United States. A subset of these designs employ a second layer creating a double envelope system, which can then accommodate additional venting and ventilation practices. The stated rationale for use of the these design approaches varies but often includes a connection to occupant benefits as well as sustainable design associated with daylighting and energy savings. As with many architectural trends, understanding the reality of building performance in the field as compared to design intent is often difficult to ascertain. We have been particularly interested in this emerging trend because prior simulation studies have shown that it should be technically possible to produce an all-glass facade with excellent performance although it is not a simple challenge. The published solutions are varied enough and sufficiently complex that we undertook a year-long international review of advanced facades to better understand the capabilities and limitations of existing systems and the tools and processes used to create them. This is also intended to create a framework for addressing the missing tools, technologies, processes and data bases that will be needed to turn the promise of advanced facades into realities. This summary, available as a PDF file and a web site, reports those findings.


Introduction Assessment of oedema after trauma or surgery is important to determine whether treatment is effective and to detect change over time. Volumetry is referred to as the 'gold standard' method of measuring volume. However, this has practical limitations and other methods are available. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the psychometric properties of alternative methods used to assess hand oedema. Methods A search of electronic bibliographic databases was undertaken for any studies published in English reporting the psychometric evaluation of a method for measuring hand oedema, in an adult population with hand swelling from surgery, trauma or stroke. The Consensus‐based Standards for the Selection of health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) checklist was used to evaluate the methodological quality. Results Six studies met the inclusion criteria. Three methods were identified assessing hand oedema: perometry, visual inspection and the figure-of-eight tape measure, all were compared to volumetry. Four different psychometric properties were assessed. Studies scored fair or poor on COSMIN criteria. There is low-quality evidence supporting the use of the figure-of-eight tape measure to assess hand volume. The perometer systematically overestimated volume and visual estimation had poor sensitivity and specificity. Discussion The figure-of-eight tape measure is the best alternative to volumetry for hand oedema. Benefits include reduced cost and time while having comparable reliability to the 'gold standard'. Further research is needed to compare methods in patients with greater variability of conditions and with isolated digit oedema. Visual estimation of hand oedema is not recommended.


This thesis is concerned with the investigation of a specific approach to the problem of texture segmentation, namely that based on the global optimization of a cost function. Many tasks in image analysis are expressed as global optimization problems in which the general issue is to find the global minimum of a cost function which describes the interaction between the different variables modelling the image features and the interaction of these variables with the data in a given problem. The minimization of such a global cost function is a difficult problem since the number of hidden variables (labels) is very large and the global cost function may have many local minima. This problem can be overcome to a large extent by using a stochastic relaxation algorithm (for example, Simulated annealing). Initially, various classical techniques on texture segmentation are reviewed. Ideally, any texture segmentation algorithm should segment an image, so that there is one to one correspondence between the segmentated edgels and the ground truth edgels. The effectiveness of an algorithm can be quantified in terms of under and over detection errors for each segmented output image. These measures are used throughout this thesis to quantify the quality of the results. A particular method which uses global optimization for texture segmentation is initially identified as potentially interesting and is implemented and studied. The implementation proved that this method suffered from many shortcomings and it is not really as good as it was reported in the literature. As the general approach to the problem is a well established methodology for image processing problems, the rest of the thesis is devoted into different attempts to make this method work. The novel ideas introduced in order to improve the method are: An improved version of the cost function. The use of alternative statistics that characterize each texture. The use of a combination of statistics to charaterize textures. The use of an implicit dictionary of penalizable label configurations, as opposed to an explicit dictionary, leading to penalties applied to anything not acceptable rather than to a selection of unacceptable configurations. The introduction of a modified transfer function that maps statistical differences to label differences. The use of a database of training patterns instead of assuming that one knows a priori which textures are present in the image to be segmented. The use of alternative time schedules with which the model is imposed to the data gradually, in a linear, non-linear and in an adaptive way. The introduction of an enhanced set of labels that allows the use of local orientation of the boundary. The introduction of a novel way to create new states of the system during the process of simulated annealing in order to achieve faster acceleration, by updating the values of 9 label sites instead of a single label site at a time. The results obtained by all these modifications vastly improve the performance of the algorithm from its original version. However, the whole approach does not really produce the quality of the results expected for real applications and it does not exhibit the robustness of a system that could be used in practice. The reason appears to be the bluntness of the statistical tests used to identify the boundary. So, my conclusion is that although global optimization methods are good for edge detection where the data are the local values of the first derivative, the approach is not very appropriate for texture segmentation where one has to rely on statistical differences.


Abstract The present paper is concerned with the language development of two young children from two different families growing up exposed to three languages. The children live in Switzerland and have been exposed to English, French and Swiss German from infancy. The focus is on the children's production of these languages, and the contextual and affective factors which have influenced their levels of active trilingualism. The method consists of two longitudinal case studies. Monthly recordings were made by each caregiver (mother, father and third caregiver) in dyadic interactions with the children from ages 2;1 to 3;1. It was found that one child had a high level of active trilingualism, speaking the language of the caregiver with that caregiver over 90% of the time (measured in utterances). By contrast, the other child had a low level of active trilingualism. An analysis of the children's language exposure, such as the position of the community language in the home, the variety of exposure, the interactional style of the caregivers, and the prestige of the languages involved indicates the importance of motivation, largely influenced by the caregivers in interaction, in explaining the children's different levels of active trilingualism.


There has been an upsurge of interest in the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) among policy makers and scholars in non-OECD countries. The principle has been applied and its impacts studied rather extensively in various OECD countries. However, similar experiences are largely lacking in non-OECD countries. This paper presents some ongoing research and preliminary findings on the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The research aims to explore both potentials and limitations of EPR under non-OECD conditions. Hitherto, there have been four projects in three countries: India, Thailand, and Argentina. The first project in India in 2007 investigated the specificity of this non-OECD context and the explanatory boundary of the principle. The second phase of the research studies a WEEE policy development in the three countries. At the time of writing, they appear to follow different courses of action. The India Government issued a guideline suggesting an incorporation of WEEE under the existing Hazardous Waste Rules. The Thai Government shows particular interest in economic instruments, such as product fees and deposit-refund system, and has been working on a draft law that would govern the use of these instruments for the management of some WEEE and other used products. In Argentina, a senator proposed a dedicated WEEE framework law based on EPR. Our analysis identifies collection of post-consumer WEEE as a major practical bottleneck particularly when there is a strong presence of the so-called informal sector. EPR can be a driving force for improvements by mobilising resources from producers and channelling them to end-of-life management. In addition, in a long run, it can lead to design changes in products and product systems. However, market anomalies in a non-OECD context such as sizeable black/grey markets for several product groups and/or illegal import of used products can put identifiable legal producers at a disadvantageous position and retard feedback mechanisms in an EPR programme. Thus, the applicability of policy alternatives should be assessed against the conditions of particular contexts. We also discuss the importance of problem definition in policy processes.


This paper studies the issues of flexibility and scalability in the context of network security. In particular, it concentrates on authentication and key distribution services suited for a variety of communication paradigms, network environments, and end-devices. We present the design criteria, specification, and step-by-step construction of authentication and key distribution services based on experience in the KryptoKnight project. The central goal of the KryptoKnight project was the construction of basic network security functions in a minimal, flexible (thus, versatile) and scalable manner. Protocol minimality (in terms of resource usage) and flexibility are not merely theoretical goals; they have clear advantages in environments where computational resources are limited and connectivity is restricted. KryptoKnight was aimed at such environments: small and anemic wireless devices, simple network and data-link entities, embedded micro-devices and other special-purpose communication equipment and configurations. Furthermore, scalability of protocols makes their deployment possible in the presence of rapid network growth and inter-domain communication.


The Fifth International Workshop on Domain-Specific Languages and Models for Robotic Systems (DSLRob'14) was held in conjunction with the 2014 International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR 2014), October 2014 in Bergamo, Italy. The main topics of the workshop were Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) and Model-driven Software Development (MDSD) for robotics. A domain-specific language is a programming language dedicated to a particular problem domain that offers specific notations and abstractions that increase programmer productivity within that domain. Model-driven software development offers a high-level way for domain users to specify the functionality of their system at the right level of abstraction. DSLs and models have historically been used for programming complex systems. However recently they have garnered interest as a separate field of study. Robotic systems blend hardware and software in a holistic way that intrinsically raises many crosscutting concerns (concurrency, uncertainty, time constraints, ...), for which reason, traditional general-purpose languages often lead to a poor fit between the language features and the implementation requirements. DSLs and models offer a powerful, systematic way to overcome this problem, enabling the programmer to quickly and precisely implement novel software solutions to complex problems within the robotics domain.


The concept of Parallel Vector (scratch pad) Memories (PVM) was introduced as one solution for Parallel Computing in DSP, which can provides parallel memory addressing efficiently with minimum latency. The parallel programming more efficient by using the parallel addressing generator for parallel vector memory (PVM) proposed in this thesis. However, without hiding complexities by cache, the cost of programming is high. To minimize the programming cost, automatic parallel memory address generation is needed to hide the complexities of memory access. This thesis investigates methods for implementing conflict-free vector addressing algorithms on a parallel hardware structure. In particular, match vector addressing requirements extracted from the behaviour model to a prepared parallel memory addressing template, in order to supply data in parallel from the main memory to the on-chip vector memory. According to the template and usage of the main and on-chip parallel vector memory, models for data pre-allocation and permutation in scratch pad memories of ASIP can be decided and configured. By exposing the parallel memory access of source code, the memory access flow graph (MFG) will be generated. Then MFG will be used combined with hardware information to match templates in the template library. When it is matched with one template, suited permutation equation will be gained, and the permutation table that include target addresses for data pre-allocation and permutation is created. Thus it is possible to automatically generate memory address for parallel memory accesses. A tool for achieving the goal mentioned above is created, Permutator, which is implemented in C++ combined with XML. Memory access coding template is selected, as a result that permutation formulas are specified. And then PVM address table could be generated to make the data pre-allocation, so that efficient parallel memory access is possible. The result shows that the memory access complexities is hiden by using Permutator, so that the programming cost is reduced.It works well in the context that each algorithm with its related hardware information is corresponding to a template case, so that extra memory cost is eliminated.


A method for the elimination of cracks in infrared reflectograms is presented. Infrared reflectograms show the underdrawing - the basic concept of the artist drawn on the ground layer - in ancient wood panel paintings. Caused by the different mechanical behaviour of the panel and the covering ground layer during the aging of the painting, cracks appear. Cracks not only disturb the appearance of a painting, but are also a problem for segmenting the lines and strokes of the underdrawing. A method based on mathematical morphology, namely morphological reconstruction with viscosity, is used to eliminate the cracks while keeping as much detail as possible in the brush strokes. A priori information that the cracks are usually thinner than the brush strokes and have a preferred orientation is taken into account.


Currently, the European Commission (EC) is drafting its Law of AI. This article gives 25 AI & data regulatory recommendations to the EC, in response to its Inception Impact Assessment on the "Artificial intelligence – ethical and legal requirements" legislative proposal. In addition to a set of fundamental, overarching core AI rules, this article suggests a differentiated industry-specific approach regarding incentives and risks. Besides shaping the Law of AI, the article explores how the upcoming European AI legal framework's norms, standards, principles and values can be connected to the United States, from a transatlantic, comparative law perspective.

In its 2019 "White Paper On Artificial Intelligence - A European approach to excellence and trust", the EC set out its mission to foster the development and uptake of safe and lawful AI that offers legal certainty, a favorable investment climate and an innovation optimum across the Digital Single Market, while respecting fundamental rights, ensuring inclusive societal outcomes, protecting citizen's wellbeing and safeguarding our common Humanist moral values. The White Paper is the prelude to the European Law of AI. The overall goal of this legislative initiative is to stimulate the uptake of Trustworthy AI in the EU economy. Simultaneous to preparing its Law of AI, the EC is designing a legislative framework for data governance: The Data Act.

This article argues that the EU should step up and take the lead to set global norms and standards that will shape the international Law of AI & Data system. The EU must provide a clear North Star to the world, determine direction and lead toward a purposeful destination. The time is now ripe to show ambition, leadership and guidance in building a global technology regulation framework -that will apply both on earth and in space- safeguarding human rights, the rule of law, democracy as well as social, economic and cultural rights. As it did before with the GDPR, that now has become the international standard for privacy, data sovereignty and data protection.

The article maintains that the EU needs to adopt a holistic set of overarching core AI rules. Horizontal rules which apply across all industries. These universal core rules protect our democracy and our fundamental human rights & freedoms in the Information Age. Since both innovation incentive & reward mechanisms, as well as safety/security risks vary per industry and per technology, policy makers should differentiate more explicitly between economic sectors when they design their digital governance solutions. Besides implementing the horizontal core AI rules, the article recommends a differentiated risk-based approach that contains vertical, industry specific boundary setting requirements and sector-specific AI regimes.

While it is critical that the EU considers AI as part of the European strategic autonomy, and a certain amount of strategic European digital autonomy is required to secure Europe's culture, the article argues that it is crucial for the EU to work together with countries that share our European digital DNA, based on common interests and mutual values. Sovereignty will ensure strong partnerships amongst equals. Against this backdrop, it is essential to incentivize systematic, multilateral transatlantic cooperation and to jointly achieve inclusive, participative digitization. Transatlantic and geopolitical dialogue on disruptive technology, together with the development of globally accepted technology standards and benchmarks, must be enhanced.

In addition, the article explores how the upcoming European AI & Data Legal-Ethical Framework's norms, standards, principles and values could be effectively exported from the EU to the US. In general, comparison of legal systems is a rewarding source for legal development and legal reform. Comparative law methods can help facilitate the process of taking on (parts of) the EU framework in the US on state level or even federal level. Given the global nature of the interdisciplinary challenges to be addressed, progression-oriented comparative legal scholarship can play a central role. As the increased use of information and communication technology, including the design and roll-out of its accompanying infrastructure are global phenomena without territorial boundaries, macro level, transnational AI legislation is urgently needed.

The article demonstrates that legal issues and legal uncertainty surrounding AI & data ask for urgent legislative intervention, both in the EU, in the US and beyond. Without legal intervention, these issues continue to cause legal uncertainty and lack of trust, conflict with fundamental human rights, disrupt the transatlantic markets and ultimately hinder AI infused sustainable innovation.

The article concludes that the uncodified territory of AI & Law represents a once in a generation chance to harmonize the AI acquis internationally. The global nature of the identified challenges pertaining to AI, machine learning and data calls for a holistic, unified approach that does justice to ubiquitous nature of AI. An articulated, culturally sensitive global acquis creates a level playing field, supports healthy competition and endorses legal certainty and trust. In this light, it is important that our future AI regulatory frameworks promote "openness", address risks and take into account the complex, intertwined legal, technical, social and ethical dimensions of our AI & dataversum. When shaping the Law of AI, we should have a clear vision in our minds of the type of society we want, and the things we care so deeply about in the Information Age, at both sides of the Ocean.


Upper limit design rainstorms (ULDRS) were developed for three locations in the Colorado River drainage above Hoover Dam. For each location, the rainfall magnitudes, spatial and temporal distributions, and seasonal variations were determined from transposed and moisture-maximized historical events. The magnitude of ULDRS was estimated as averaging from 6.93 to 7.29 inches (176 to 185 mm) in depth over a 40,000-mi 2 (104,000-km 2 ) storm area for 72-hour storms for the three locations. Historical storm data indicated the possibility of two large rain events occurring somewhere in the basin within a few days of each other; therefore, design storm sequences were developed that incorporated two ULDRS or near ULDRS events. A hydrologic model was developed to convert excess precipitation to runoff and to generate the flood hydrographs. Input to the model consisted of the system configuration, rainfall, snowmelt flood, lag times, loss rates, dimensionless unit hydrographs, and starting reservoir elevations. Release decisions were based on current flood control operating criteria for the Colorado River reservoir system. The most critical condition for the reservoirs occurred in August. The probable maximum floods (PMF) for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams had peak inflows of 697,000 and 1,130,000 ft 3 /s (19,700 and 32,000 m 3 /s) and 60-day volumes of 5.8 and 9.3 million acre-feet (7.2 × 10 9 and 1.2 × 10 10 m 3 ), respectively.


The article scrutinizes the complex entanglement of cyberurban spaces in the making and development of contemporary social movement by analyzing its imaginaries, practices, and trajectories.

This issue of New Geographies, "Geographies of Information" (edited by Taraneh Meskhani & Ali Fard), presents a new set of frameworks that refrain from generalizations to highlight the many facets of the socio-technical constructions, processes, and practices that form the spaces of information and communication. In addition to Lim, contributors of the issue include prominent thinkers and scholars in various related disciplines such as Rob Kitchin (critical data), Stephen Graham (urbanism) and Malcolm McCullough (architecture/urban computing).


'Confidentiality: good practice in handling patient information'1 is the updated guidance on confidentiality from the General Medical Council (GMC), which came into effect in April 2017. It was published alongside explanatory notes on how the guidance applies in certain challenging situations, such as reporting concerns to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), reporting gunshot wounds and responding to criticisms in the media. The guidance is essential reading for all medical professionals because of their duty to practise in line with GMC standards and guidance. See box 1 for links to the full guideline and associated resources.

The new guideline aims to be more user-friendly than existing guidance. It makes a clearer distinction between direct care and other uses of patient data: information sharing between health professionals for the purpose of direct care is recognised as essential and predominantly facilitated by the concept of implied consent, whereas disclosures for other reasons must be ethically and legally justified if explicit consent has not been obtained. A clear framework for decision making is provided, which can be used to guide doctors when considering disclosures for the purposes of direct care, for the protection of patients or others and for all other purposes. The new guideline also sets out the responsibilities of all doctors for managing and protecting patient information.

For professionals working with children, this new guidance must be seen as complimentary to the existing GMC guidance on confidentiality relating to children, the former in the context of child protection, the latter more generally: 'Protecting children and young people: the responsibilities of all doctors',2 and '0–18 years: guidance for all doctors'.3

Previous GMC guidance on confidentiality was published in 2009,4 and consisted of core guidance plus seven explanatory statements explaining how these principles applied in certain common or …


Anthrax, Matrix Biology, and Angiogenesis: Capillary Morphogenesis Gene 2 Mediates Activity and Uptake of Type IV Collagen-Derived Anti-Angiogenic Peptides Jordan Grant Finnell Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, BYU Master of Science Capillary Morphogenesis Gene 2 (CMG2) is a type I transmembrane, integrin-like receptor. It was originally identified as one of several genes upregulated during capillary formation. It was subsequently identified as one of two physiological anthrax toxin receptors, where CMG2 serves as a cell-surface receptor for anthrax toxin and mediates entry of the toxin into cells via clathrindependent endocytosis. Additionally, loss-of-function mutations in CMG2 cause the genetic disorder hyaline fibromatosis syndrome (HFS), where the core symptom is dysregulation of extracellular matrix homeostasis (ECM), including excessive accumulation of proteinaceous hyaline material; HFS clearly indicates that CMG2 plays an essential function in ECM homeostasis and repair. Most often, these situational roles have been evaluated as separate intellectual and experimental entities; consequently, whereas details have emerged for each respective situational role, there has been little attempt to synthesize knowledge from each situational role in order to model a holistic map of CMG2 function and mechanism of action in normal physiology. The work presented in this thesis is an example of such a synthesis. Interactions between CMG2 and type IV collagen (Col IV) were evaluated, to better understand this putative interaction and its effect on CMG2 function in angiogenesis. Using an overlapping library peptide array of the Col IV α1 and α2 chains, it was found that CMG2-binding peptides were enriched within the NC1 domains. This finding was corroborated via another epitope mapping peptide array, where we found a major epitope for CMG2-binding within the α2 NC1 domain (canstatin). Identification of CMG2 interactions with Col IV NC1 domains (including canstatin) was both surprising and intriguing, as these domains are potent endogenous inhibitors of angiogenesis. To further evaluate the physiological relevance of interactions with Col IV NC1 domains, a canstatin-derived peptide from the original array was synthesized and used for further studies. This peptide (here known as S16) binds with high affinity (KD = 440 ± 160 nM) to the extracellular, ligand-binding CMG2 vWA domain; specificity was confirmed through competition studies with anthrax toxin PA, and through demonstration of divalent cation-dependent binding. CMG2 was found to be the relevant endothelial receptor for S16. CMG2 in fact mediates endocytic uptake of peptide S16, as demonstrated by flow cytometry, and colocalization studies. S16 further inhibits migration of endothelial cells. These findings demonstrate that CMG2 is a functional receptor for Col IV NC1 domain fragments. CMG2 may exert a pro-angiogenic effect through endocytosis and clearance of anti-angiogenic NC1 domain fragments. Additionally, this is the first demonstration of CMG2mediated uptake of an endogenous matrix fragment, and suggests a mechanism by which CMG2 regulates ECM and basement membrane homeostasis, thereby establishing a functional connection between the receptor's role in matrix biology and angiogenesis.


Nani Tama looked at each of us - Dad, Auntie Hiraina, my cousin Timi, and myself. His eyes were angry. 'You fullas want me to die here in this room? Looking at these four walls? When the whakapapa is not yet finished?' But Nani Tama gets his own way, and his grandson drives him through the night, to find the missing pieces from the family history. The stories from this volume of World Stories are by New Zealand writers James Courage, Witi Ihimaera, Philip Mincher, and Joy Cowley.


A tunable nor gate based on the Kerr effect in silicon-rod-based photonic crystals is presented. The proposed gate consists of two-dimensional photonic crystal add–drop filters with wavelength-selective reflector cavities, which are aligned in series with each other. The main feature of this structure is the enhancement of nonlinear phenomena caused by strong light localization in the photonic crystal nanocavities. Because of this feature, the designed nor gate can control the amount of dropped probe signal light and change the gate output. The operation of the proposed gate is investigated numerically by using the finite-difference time domain method. The results reveal that the power levels of 0, 1, and uncertain states can be changed by appropriate adjustment of the probe signal frequency.


The proliferation of data acquisition devices like 3D laser scanners had led to the burst of large-scale spatial terrain data which imposes many challenges to spatial data analysis and computation. With the advent of several emerging cloud technologies, a natural and cost-effective approach to managing such large-scale data is to store and process such datasets in a publicly hosted cloud service using modern distributed computing paradigms such as MapReduce. For several key spatial data analysis and computation problems, polygon retrieval is a fundamental operation which is often computed under real-time constraints. However, existing sequential algorithms fail to meet this demand effectively given that terrain data in recent years have witnessed an unprecedented growth in both volume and rate. In this work, we present a MapReduce-based parallel polygon retrieval algorithm which aims at minimizing the IO and CPU loads of the map and reduce tasks during spatial data processing. Our proposed algorithm first hierarchically indexes the spatial terrain data using a quad-tree index, with the help of which, a significant amount of data is filtered out in the pre-processing stage based on the query object. In addition, a prefix tree based on the quad-tree index is built to query the relationship between the terrain data and query area in real time which leads to significant savings in both I/O load and CPU time. The performance of the proposed techniques is evaluated in a Hadoop cluster and the results demonstrate that the proposed techniques are scalable and lead to more than 35% reduction in execution time of the polygon retrieval operation over existing distributed algorithms.


ABSTRACT Aim: The IR has been associated with increased risk of breast cancer (BC) and as a poor prognostic factor for relapse and survival. There is a lack of prospective studies that have reviewed the impact of IR across the NAC time and the likelihood of pCR. We determined the association between IR by HOMA2 (homeostasis model assessment) and pCR in LIBC. Methods: It was a prospective cohort, multicenter study. From 2012 to 2013, 64 patients were enrolled. Metabolic syndrome (MS) diagnosis was made by ATP III criteria. Insulin and glucose were measured at baseline and every 3 weeks during NAC. The IR was calculated by HOMA2 –IR.® Cut off value to define IR: HOMA2 ≥1.9. pCR (breast + nodes) was defined as no residual IBC. Results: Median age was 49 years. Axillary nodes were involved in 37 (57.8%). cTNM stage was II 50 (78.1%) and III 14 (21.8%). pCR (full cohort) was 37.5%. pCR in luminal A/B-like, triple negative and HER2 was 15.6%, 61.1% and 57.1% respectively. 25% had MS at baseline and up to 40% (final evaluation). At baseline 29 (45.3%) had IR and in final 34 (53.1%) (p = 0.005). We observed a gradual and almost linear increase of IR during the NAC time (p = 0.019). The group without IR (baseline) had a higher likelihood of pCR (HR 3.1, 95% CI 1.3-7.3). In the pCR group the HOMA2 remained below or slightly above 1.9 and with no changes over time (p = 0.225). Inversely in the no pCR group the IR increased over time and almost with a linear trend (p = 0.013). In a repeated measures analysis of HOMA2 over NAC time in the three biological subgroups, differences were observed only in luminal-like (p = 0.044). Comparing quartiles (Q1-2 vs Q3-4), basal insulin (p =0.018) and basal HOMA2 (p = 0.032) were significantly associated with pCR. In an adjusted logistic regression analysis for pCR, the IR remained as an independent factor for pCR (p = 0.018). Conclusions: We found a strong association between the status of IR and the likelihood of pCR in neoadjuvant setting of BC. To our knowledge this is the first prospective study describing the natural history of IR across time of the NAC. The IR increased over time of the NAC and the pCR likelihood is inversely associated with IR. Our findings suggest that the increase in central adiposity during NAC time produces a greater insulin resistance and thereby a cell proliferative environment resulting in a lower response to NAC. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Researchers have collected a considerable amount of data relating to apple (Malus ·domestica) cultivars and rootstocks over the past 30 years, but much of this information is not easily accessible. The long-term goal of our working group is to increase access to this information using online technology available through eXtension. In eXtension, researchers and extension personnel are developing a community of practice (CoP) to increase the quality and amount of online information for individuals interested in our work [referred to as a community of interest (CoI)]. For this project, our CoI is broadly defined as commercial apple producers, nursery professionals, county extension educators, Extension Master Gardeners, home gardeners, and consumers. Our CoP is developing diverse educational tools, with the goals of increasing productivity, profitability, and sustainability for commercial apple production. Additionally, we will provide other members of our CoI access to research-based, reliable information on the culture of apples. We chose to begin our focus on cultivars and rootstocks adapted to the eastern United States and will add other U.S. regions as our resources and interest in our project grows.


How does economic freedom, mainly how property rights are designed and protected, relate to equality, in the fornt of the distribution of income? Theoretically, it is argued that changes in equality are determined by changes in the tax-and-transfer system and by differential growth rates of income for different groups (such as rich and poor). Economic freedom affects the income development and is also related to changes in redistribution policies. Whether rich or poor are able to gain the most from (more) economic freedom is theoretically unclear and needs to be investigated empirically. The empirical results (both descriptive data and regressions) reveal that there is a positive relationship between changes in economic freedom and equality: the more a country increased its economic freedom between 1975 and 1985, the higher the level of equality around 1985. Also, there are some signs that the level of economic freedom in 1985 is negatively related to the level of equality around that year, plausibly because of less redistribution. However, the inclusive evidence points in a rather clear direction: that continual increases in economic freedom over time render an average country more equal, due to the relatively strong growth rates of the gross income of the poor in a freer economic environment.


In this paper a new approach to assess companies' competitiveness performance in an efficient and reliable way is presented. It introduces a rigorous methodology, based on multi-criteria techniques, which seeks to assist managers of companies within a specific industrial sector in providing information about their relative position in order to define improvement action plans. The approach combines the use of the analytic network process (ANP) method with the balanced scorecard (BSC) to achieve competitiveness indicators. The ANP method allows the aggregation of experts' judgments on each of the selected indicators used into one company competitiveness index (CCI). To demonstrate the goodness of the methodology, a case study of the plastic sector of Venezuela has been carried out. Three companies have been analysed using the CCI proposed. The participating experts agreed that the methodology is useful and an improvement from current competitiveness measurement techniques. They found the results obtained coherent and the use of resources significantly less than in other methods.


This study evaluated the effects of farming activities on the quality of deep well water in Southern Chile. In this area, the use of fertilisers is becoming more widespread and the accumulation and poor management of cattle slurry and silage sub-products increases the risk of contamination. The study was carried out in the province of Osorno, where rainfall occurs all year round (maximum in winter); total annual rainfall exceeds 1300 mm. The soil is of volcanic origin and this province includes areas used for intensive farming and cattle raising activities, residential and recreational purposes and extensive farming practices. Water quality was analysed over a 15 month period in deep wells in either intensive farming areas and residential/recreational zones or extensive farming land. Although levels of nitrate were higher in deep wells located in intensive farming areas, levels of phosphor and pH were lower than those of wells located in extensive farming areas. Nevertheless, the range of nutrient concentration (nitrite, iron, manganese and phosphor) revealed significant statistical differences between both types of farming land; nitrite dominated in well samples located in intensive farming areas, while iron and manganese dominated in extensive farming areas. Seasonal differences were registered in temperature, nitrate, total coliforms and Escherichia coli. Maximum levels of nitrate and bacteria were reached in spring and autumn, respectively. No significant relationships were established between nutrient and bacterial levels with meteorological factors such as temperature, rainfall and number of days when rainfall occurred. Variations in nutrients and bacteria, both temporal and between locations (spatial), are associated to soil use and proximity to septic well wastewaters. Iron and manganese concentrations exceeded permitted drinking-water standards in a considerable percentage of samples, which may be due to soil composition. Bacterial pollution occurred infrequently in autumn and winter. The quality of deep-well waters in Southern Chile is generally good. Nevertheless, evidence indicates that intensive farming practices, slurry, silage and poor management of rural residential areas, constitute a significant potential risk.


Abstract-the recent boom in wireless communication industry especially in the area of cellular telephony and wireless data communication has lead to the demand for multiband antennas. Reconfigurable multiband antennas are attractive for many military and commercial applications where it is desirable to have single antenna that can be dynamically reconfigured to transmit and / or receive multiple frequency bands .This common aperture antenna having multiple frequency band received considerable attention in the recent years for their proper properties of adapting with change in the environmental and system requirement.


In the recent years the application of nanotechnology in building materials has increased exponentially. One of the most referred and used nano-materials is amorphous silica with particles size in the nano-range, even though its application and effect in concrete has not been fully understood yet. It has been reported that nano-silica (nS) addition increases the compressive strength and reduces the overall permeability of hardened concrete due to the pozzolanic properties which are resulting in finer hydrated phases (C-S-H gel) and densified microstructure (nano-filler and anti leaching effects). These effects enhance the durability of concrete structures such as bridges, quays or off-shore oil facilities in marine environments. In this study two different types of nano-silica were applied in self-compacting concrete (SCC), both having similar particle size distributions (PSD) but produced in two different processes (filmed powder silica and precipitated silica in colloidal suspension). The influence of nanosilica on SCC was investigated with respect to the properties of concrete in the fresh state (workability) and hardened state (mechanical properties and durability). Additionally, the densification of microstructure of the hardened concrete was verified by SEM and EDS analyses. The obtained results demonstrate that an efficient use of nano-silica in SCC can improve its mechanical propelties and durability. Considering the reactivity of the two nano-silica studied, colloidal type shown more reactivity at early age, which influenced all the final SCC properties.


Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) play a central role in the development of cervical carcinoma. Plasma DNA from 232 patients taken at diagnosis or after treatment for invasive cervical cancer (n 175) or carcinoma in situ (n 57) and 60 normal controls were examined for HPV-16 or HPV-18 E7 DNA by conventional and realtime quantitative PCR assays. We found HPV-16 or HPV-18 E7 DNA in 6.9% (11 of 175) of invasive cervical cancer cases (18.1% of cases positive for HPV-16 or HPV-18 at the genital tract), 1.8% (1 of 57) of carcinoma in situ, and 1.7% (1 of 60) of normal controls by conventional PCR. Quantitative PCR identified the highest concentrations of HPV DNA (copy number of HPV/ml of plasma) in patients with invasive cervical cancer (mean, 11,163; median, 183.5), followed by a level of 8 in the single carcinoma in situ case and 0 copies in the normal control initially positive by conventional PCR. HPV DNA can be detected in the plasma of some patients with HPV-positive cervical tumors. It remains to be demonstrated whether quantitative PCR analysis of HPV DNA in plasma may have utility in patients at high risk of recurrent disease.


The Scottish Institute of Human Relations, a psychoanalytically based training/therapeutic organization undertakes to "action research" itself. The need for this study comes at a time of rapid expansion and development which coincides with the death of its founder, J.D. Sutherland. Uncertain about the appropriateness of involving the total institution from the beginning (e.g. a search conference), the researchers begin by setting up and working with an incipient research group (IRG) which represents the Institute. How an Institution manages this phase in the change process is here described, with a particular emphasis on understanding the psycho-dynamics of the process of containment.


In this paper, we study the problem of utility maximization in P2P systems, in which aggregate application-specific utilities are maximized by running distributed algorithms on P2P nodes, which are constrained by their uplink capacities. This may be understood as extending Kelly's seminal framework from single-path unicast over general topology to multi-path multicast over P2P topology, with network coding allowed. For certain classes of popular P2P topologies, we show that routing along a linear number of trees per source can achieve the largest rate region that can be possibly obtained by (multi-source) network coding. This simplification result allows us to develop a new multi-tree routing formulation for the problem. Despite of the negative results in literature on applying Primal-dual algorithms to maximize utility under multi-path settings, we have been able to develop a Primal-dual distributed algorithm to maximize the aggregate utility under the multi-path routing environments. Utilizing our proposed sufficient condition, we show global exponential convergence of the Primal-dual algorithm to the optimal solution under different P2P communication scenarios we study. The algorithm can be implemented by utilizing only end-to-end delay measurements between P2P nodes; hence, it can be readily deployed on today's Internet. To support this claim, we have implemented the Primal-dual algorithm for use in a peer-assisted multi-party conferencing system and evaluated its performance through actual experiments on a LAN testbed and the Internet.


Natural fine colloids and nanoparticles have the potential to encapsulate and bind nutrients. Their size and composition is therefore relevant to understand the transport of essential nutrients like phosphorus in an aquatic ecosystem. The aim of this study was to characterize fine colloidal and nanoparticulate bound P of distinct hydromorphological areas in stream water from a forested test site in a small headwater catchment. Asymmetric flow field flow fractionation coupled online to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was applied for size‐resolved detection of P, Fe, and Al in the fractions. Online P detection was a challenge due to the low concentrations (in this study down to 0.1 μg/L) in many natural waters. Additionally, the "dissolved" organic matter (DOM) content was derived from the online UV signal. The colloidal P occurred in two size fractions (2–20 and 21–300 nm), which constituted up to 100% of the total river P discharge depending on hydromorphology. For the small size fraction, variations in P concentrations correlated with Al variations; in addition, a high Fe presence in both fractions was accompanied by high P concentrations. Moreover, DOM was detected with P in the presence of Fe and Al, suggesting that Fe and Al are carriers of P and associated with organic matter. The developed methodology enables the inputs and source regions of fine colloidal and nanoparticulate fractions within a small river of a headwater catchment to be traced and conceptually defined for the first time.


An innovative MABR (membrane-aerated biofilm reactor) membrane technology was demonstrated at the O9Brien Water Reclamation Plant (OWRP) of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (Chicago MWRD). The demonstration unit was equipped with one full-scale membrane cassette. The technology was evaluated for its potential to improve performance for total suspended solids (TSS) and ammonia removal during stressed conditions (specifically cold temperature peak flow periods) and to meet future effluent phosphorous limits. Over a period of 9 months, the MABR oxygen transfer rate was stable and ranged between 8 and 12 g-O 2 /d/m 2 of membrane surface area. The nitrification rate varied between 0.5 and 2.5 g-N/d/m 2 and was affected primarily by the ammonia loading rate and the feed carbon to nitrogen ratio. Most of the oxygen transferred was accounted for by nitrification. The MABR hybrid process enables important process improvements while reducing plant energy consumption.


Cardiovascular disease is the world's leading killer, accounting for 16.7 million or 29.2 per cent of total global deaths every year. The World Health Organization estimates that 60 per cent of the world's cardiac patients will be Indian by 2010. The reported prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in adult surveys has risen 4-fold over the last 40 years and even in rural areas the prevalence has doubled over the past 30 years. The Electrocardiograph (ECG) is a diagnostic instrument which measures the electrical activity of the heart, providing valuable information of cardiac disorders like infarction, Atherosclerosis, etc. ECG instruments used in hospitals are bulky, work on line voltage which makes the ECG waveform distorted and an isolation amplifier is needed for patient's safety making it expensive thus cannot be used in underdeveloped areas. We have developed an inexpensive portable solar powered ECG. 63% of all rural households in India do not have electricity and use fuel for lighting. Thus, being solar powered will eliminate its dependence on electricity and can easily be used in areas either with no electricity or with lots of load shedding. The electro-cardiogram will be free from the line frequency noise. Advantage of this equipment is the backup option of charging the batteries using a simple mobile charger. The device is capable of acquiring up to 34 hours of continuous electrocardiogram data at a sample rate of 500 Hz. The ECG is also transmitted to the patient's cell phone or a computer with the help of a Bluetooth transmitter.


The health condition of the Russian Federation children, including adolescents, has been characterized by negative trends in the past thirty years. The aim of the study is to identify the main trends in the total and for the first time in the life registered incidence in girls 15-17 years old in the Russian Federation, as well as to track the quantity and dynamics of the indicator of chronicity of diseases. The data of form N12 of the federal statistical observation for the period 2000-2017 are analyzed, using the method of descriptive statistics. A significant increase was revealed both in the total incidence of girls (by 56.9%) and for the first time in the life registered incidence (by 63.0%). The maximum increase in total incidence is observed for the most classes of diseases, for example: neoplasms (2.4 times), injuries, poisoning and some other consequences of external causes (2.4 times), congenital anomalies (malformations) (2.3 times), cardiovascular system diseases (2 times), diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (2 times). The growth for the first time in life registered incidence was revealed for the overwhelming majority of classes of diseases, for example: injuries, poisoning and some other consequences of exposure to external causes (2.5 times), diseases of the nervous system (2.2 times), cardiovascular system diseases (2 times), neoplasms (2 times), diseases of the ear and mastoid process (2 times), diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (1.9 times). High figures of the chronicity index aggregative for all classes of diseases reflect the initially high level of chronic pathology in girls 15-17 years old, what is an unfavorable characteristic of their health condition. An analysis of the chronization index of the diseases among girls aged 15–17 years over the study period revealed its maximum growth for classes of congenital anomalies (malformations) (by 31.1%) and tumors (for 23.0%), and for certain nosologies: menstrual disorders (5.8 times) and renal failure (4.2 times). The health of children, and especially adolescents, determines the health of the nation in the nearest future; therefore, the issues of its preservation and improvement require thorough attention.


Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision-Making: Models, Algorithms and Applications addresses theoretical and practical gaps in considering uncertainty and multicriteria factors encountered in the design, planning, and control of complex systems. Including all prerequisite knowledge and augmenting some parts with a step-by-step explanation of more advanced concepts, the authors provide a systematic and comprehensive presentation of the concepts, design methodology, and detailed algorithms. These are supported by many numeric illustrations and a number of application scenarios to motivate the reader and make some abstract concepts more tangible. Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision-Making: Models, Algorithms and Applications will appeal to a wide audience of researchers and practitioners in disciplines where decision-making is paramount, including various branches of engineering, operations research, economics and management; it will also be of interest to graduate students and senior undergraduate students in courses such as decision making, management, risk management, operations research, numerical methods, and knowledge-based systems.


In this article, the authors focus attention on a poorly understood aspect of contentious politics: the interaction between the transnational diffusion of new forms of protest behavior and police practices in response to them. Studies of diffusion are usually limited to the diffusion of one kind of innovation by one set of actors to another, as in the diffusion of technical innovations from innovators to adopters. But collective action diffusion also produces a parallel and interactive sequence of "public order" reactions. Using the transnational countersummits that emerged around the turn of the century as their source of evidence, the authors focus on the coevolution of protester and police innovations across national boundaries. The authors' major finding is that the mechanisms that cause protester and police innovations to diffuse are remarkably similar, even though they can combine in different ways at different moments: promotion, the proactive intervention by a sender actor aimed at deliberate diffusion of an innovation; assessment, the analysis of information on past events and their definition as successes or failures, which leads to adaption of the innovation to new sites and situations; and theorization, the location of technical innovations within broader normative and cognitive frameworks. The authors close with a speculative application of their findings to the recent diffusion of protester tactics and regime responses in the Middle East and North Africa.


The economic literature of property rights has been assessing the impact of different community based arrangements on the efficiency of natural resource management of specific areas. Differently, other strands of development economics and policy-oriented research have been concerned with issues such as poverty alleviation, technological progress and the capability to compete in market economies, which go beyond the local areas where traditional communities live and include the wider economy. The extractive reserves in the Brazilian Amazon offer perhaps one of the most interesting cases for investigating the connections between these two approaches in the context of tropical forests. It is based on the idea that the combination of public property with collective use in particular forest areas can generate competitive and, at the same time, sustainable exploitation of its natural resources. This paper aims to analyse whether the existing property rights support the joint objective of conservation and development. Our main result is that current property rights systems are efficient only with respect to competition in markets for existing extractive products. This finding points out to a fundamental contradiction between the static structure of the property rights systems and the dynamic nature of two most promising development paths, namely the discovery of new products and the supply of biological inputs for plantations. The current model of extractive reserves based on the design of internal property rights fails to taken into account the broader economic context where the reserves must generate a viable revenue stream. We conclude therefore that under the current set of institutions, the development objectives inherent in the extractive reserves model are likely to face probably considerable challenges to be accomplished in the future.


Laboratory-based instruction is a powerful educational tool that engages students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines beyond textbook theory. This is true in mechanical engineering education and is often used to provide collegiate-level students a hands-on alternative to course theory. Module-based laboratory instruction allows students to investigate fundamental concepts interactively and often affords new critical thinking skills and technical aptitude. The authors have developed a novel mass conservation laboratory module for use in undergraduate fluid mechanics education via module-based instruction. The module investigates mass conservation fundamentals in a simple microfluidic T-junction device. The experiment is a novel application of microfluidics-based instruction, is highly repeatable, and can be conducted at relatively low cost. The module exposes students to the rapidly developing field of microfluidics and allows them to gain familiarity with fluorescence-based optical diagnostics and simple signal processing. In addition, this study quantifies the module's educational impact on thirty-six mechanical engineering undergraduates. A baseline study was conducted by utilizing knowledge assessments before and after the experimental module. The results of the study are statistically significant and suggest the module's efficacy for teaching mass conservation fundamentals in an undergraduate curriculum.


The paper presents the microstructure and mechanical properties of an oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS), reduced activation, ferritic steel, namely the Fe‐14Cr‐2W‐0.3Ti‐0.3Y2O3 alloy, which was fabricated by hot isostatic pressing followed by high speed hydrostatic extrusion (HSHE) and heat treatment HT at 1050 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations revealed significant differences in the grain size and dislocation density between the as‐HIPped and as‐HSHE materials. It was also found that the microstructure of the steel is stable after HT. The HSHE process improves significantly the tensile and Charpy impact properties of the as‐HIPped steel. The ultimate tensile strength at room temperature increases from 950 up to 1350 MPa, while the upper shelf energy increases from 3.0 up to 6.0 J. However, the ductile‐to‐brittle transition temperature (DBTT) remains relatively high (about 75 °C).These results indicate that HSHE is a promising method for achieving grain refinement and thus improving the mechanical properties of ODS ferritic steels.


The round table in last month's Bulletin stated that "it is only through removing the barriers to access to global research that health improvements can be accelerated".1 Similar thinking inspired the founding publishers and WHO to establish the Health Access to Research programme (HINARI) in 2001. I agree with the round table's authors that the topic is a critical reminder for policy-makers as the world continues to struggle with those barriers.

HINARI is a public–private partnership and our main concern is to make research available to developing countries. The partnership focuses on that goal and does not attempt to evaluate the relative advantages of any particular publishing model.

I would like to correct a few small errors in the way HINARI is described in this round table. HINARI is portrayed as a means for developing country institutions to have access to commercial publisher journals. However, in addition to commercial publishers, HINARI has a wide range of open access and local publishing partners such as MedKnow, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and Bioline International, with which two of the authors of this round table are affiliated.

The authors state the importance of exposing research "from both research communities in developing countries as well as from 'international' research".1 In fact, HINARI and its related programmes – Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) and Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) – currently have 127 publishers that usually charge subscription fees and 89 publishers that distribute their content without subscription fees. All three programmes do more than just providing access to published research. The programmes also supply training on how to search the scientific literature and use its resources to inform decisions. Another important function of HINARI, AGORA and OARE is to collaborate with other international agencies and partners to build the technological infrastructure that institutions need to access information.

I am puzzled by the concern expressed by the authors that selection of content for HINARI is not driven by science (i.e. contents are determined by whatever publishers wish to donate). The content initially offered by each publisher is further expanded and refined through ongoing feedback from the programme and users with a view to including all that is relevant – for HINARI this is biomedical and related social sciences literature. Such an inclusive policy aligns with the open access goal of providing access to what is published and letting the reader decide what is of most interest.

The authors state that access is available only from registered libraries and on provision of a password controlled by libraries. This is not quite accurate. HINARI registers many tiny research institutes, very few of which actually have a library and some of which are research institutes of only one or two people. Passwords are provided to directors of institutions and librarians, if there is a library. If there is no library, the director may designate another person to assist in the password distribution. In this way, even the smallest AIDS research station can have the benefit of the information access and HINARI becomes their library.

The authors quote a letter to PLoS Medicine noting an analysis done at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia on access to HINARI in April 2007.2 This letter mentions that one possibility for a drop in HINARI users was an increase in users of commercial content aggregations like ProQuest and Ebsco. Further studies are needed: both to capture the complex picture of information access in developing countries as people gain more access to the world's research output and to design the spectrum of responses that are required to address their needs. HINARI, AGORA and OARE review their activities on a regular basis and use the results to ensure the achievement of objectives and improve the quality of service.

HINARI is only one way to lower the barriers to information access and there are many others. It is unlikely that any one solution will meet everyone's needs. The key is to develop and perfect many overlapping solutions and methods, so that all researchers can access the scientific information published globally by their predecessors and contemporaries, however that access is provided. ■


This paper generalizes the problems of optimal selection considered by Roth, Kadane and DeGroot by allowing a set of J items to be chosen by two decision makers, the first of whom has A challenges and the second has B challenges. The two decision makers each have an opportunity to challenge each item before it is accepted, in some arbitrary fixed order. We assume that the decision makers know the utility function of the other side as well as their own over sets of J items, and that they know the subjective distribution, assigned by the other side, of characteristics of potential items that will be observed, as well as their own. Under these conditions the other side's response to each potential item can be predicted with certainty, and backward induction defines an optimal strategy. We study an important special case we call regular, and show that it is never disadvantageous to go first in the regular case. The use of peremptory challenges in jury trials motivates our model. The basic model in which jurors are challenged one at a time is extended to a more general class of problems that includes the group system and the struck jury system.


The major shipping routes of the South China Sea (SCS) and northern Indian Ocean (NIO) are analyzed via ship observations compiled by the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set. In the SCS, one route from the East China Sea moves through the Taiwan Strait toward Hong Kong and Singapore. The other route from the Pacific moves passed the east coast of Taiwan and through the Bashi Channel/Luzon Strait to Singapore. After Singapore, the shipping routes pass through the Strait of Malacca to Sri Lanka. In the Arabian Sea, ships from Sri Lanka go either northwestward toward the Persian Gulf or westward toward the Red Sea. A northeast-southwest route connects the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The resultant routes exhibit a triangular pattern in the Arabian Sea. Monsoonal influences on shipping routes are evident in the Arabian Sea, but indiscernible in the SCS. In summer, the southwest monsoon causes strong winds and waves over the western-central Arabian Sea. Ships detour from the southern side of Socotra Island to the northern side. The northern side is on the leeside of the intruding southwesterly flows and has weaker winds and waves than the windward southern side. In the SCS, the winter northeasterly flows intensify winds and waves over two strait regions: the Taiwan Strait and the Luzon Strait. These straits are at the conjunction of the Pacific and the SCS. Routes passing through these straits have the advantage of a short, straight navigation path. Moreover, the winds and waves over these regions are not as strong as those occurring in the Arabian Sea during summer. The maritime conditions in the SCS are not dangerous enough to necessitate a detour. Article history: Received 23 May 2016 Revised 9 August 2016 Accepted 8 September 2016


WHY A TASK FORCE ON THE FAMILY? The practice of pediatrics is unique among medical specialties in many ways, among which is the nearly certain presence of a parent when health care services are provided for the patient. Regardless of whether parents or other family members are physically present, their influence is pervasive. Families are the most central and enduring influence in children's lives. Parents are also central in pediatric care. The health and well-being of children are inextricably linked to their parents' physical, emotional and social health, social circumstances, and child-rearing practices. The rising incidence of behavior problems among children attests to some families' inability to cope with the increasing stresses they are experiencing and their need for assistance. When a family's distress finds its voice in a child's symptoms, pediatricians are often parents' first source for help. There is enormous diversity among families-diversity in the composition of families, in their ethnic and racial heritage, in their religious and spiritual orientation, in how they communicate, in the time they spend together, in their commitment to individual family members, in their connections to their community, in their experiences, and in their ability to adapt to stress. Within families, individuals are different from one another as well. Pediatricians are especially sensitive to differences among children-in their temperaments and personalities, in their innate and learned abilities, and in how they view themselves and respond to the world around them. It is remarkable and a testament to the effort of parents and to the resilience of children that most families function well and most children succeed in life. Family life in the United States has been subjected to extensive scrutiny and frequent commentary, yet even when those activities have been informed by research, they tend to be influenced by personal experience within families and by individual and cultural beliefs about how society and family life ought to be. The process of formulating recommendations for pediatric practice, public policy, professional education, and research requires reaching consensus on some core values and principles about family life and family functioning as they affect children, knowing that some philosophic disagreements will remain unresolved. The growing multicultural character of the country will likely heighten awareness of our diversity. Many characteristics of families have changed during the past 3 to 5 decades. Families without children younger than 18 years have increased substantially, and they are now the majority. The average age at marriage has increased, and a greater proportion of births is occurring to women older than 30 years. Between 1970 and 2000, the proportion of children in 2-parent families decreased from 85% to 69%, and more than one quarter (26%) of all children live with a single parent, usually their mother. Most of this change reflects a dramatic increase in the rate of births to unmarried women that went from 5.3% in 1960 to 33.2% in 2000. Another factor in this change is a slowly decreasing but still high divorce rate that is roughly double what it was in the mid-1950s. Family income is strongly related to children's health, and the financial resources that families have available are closely tied to changes in family structure. Family income in real dollars has trended up for many decades, but the benefits have not been shared equally. For example, the median income of families with married parents has increased by 146% since 1970, but female-headed households have experienced a growth of 131%. More striking is that in 2000, the median income of female-headed households was only 47% of that of married-couple families and only 65% of that of families with 2 married parents in which the wife was not employed. Not surprising, the proportion of children who live in poverty is approximately 5 times greater for female-headed families than for married-couple families. The comped families than for married-couple families. The composition of children's families and the time parents have for their children affect child rearing. Consequent to the increase in female-headed households, rising economic and personal need, and increased opportunities for women, the proportion of mothers who are in the workforce has climbed steadily over the past several decades. Currently, approximately two thirds of all mothers with children younger than 18 years are employed. Most families with young children depend on child care, and most child care is not of good quality. Reliance on child care involves longer days for children and families, the stress imposed by schedules and created by transitions, exposure to infections, and considerable cost. An increasing number and proportion of parents are also devoting time previously available to their children to the care of their own parents. The so-called "sandwich generation" of parents is being pulled in multiple directions. The amount and use of family time also has changed with a lengthening workday, including the amount of commuting time necessary to travel between work and home, and with the intrusion of television and computers into family life. In public opinion polls, most parents report that they believe it is more difficult to be a parent now than it used to be; people seem to feel more isolated, social and media pressures on and enticements of their children seem greater, and the world seems to be a more dangerous place. Social and public policy has not kept up with these changes, leaving families stretched for time and stressed to cope and meet their responsibilities. What can and what should pediatrics do to help families raise healthy and well-adjusted children? How can individual pediatricians better support families? FAMILY PEDIATRICS: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Board of Directors appointed the Task Force on the Family to help guide the development of public policy and recommend how to assist pediatricians to promote well-functioning families (see Appendix). The magnitude of the assigned work required task force members to learn a great deal from research and researchers in the fields of social and behavioral sciences. A review of some critical literature was completed by a consultant to the task force and accompanies this report. That review identified a convergence of pediatrics and research on families by other disciplines. The task force found that a great deal is known about family functioning and family circumstances that affect children. With this knowledge, it is possible to provide pediatric care in a way that promotes successful families and good outcomes for children. The task force refers to that type of care as "family-oriented care" or "family pediatrics" and strongly endorses policies and practices that promote the adoption of this 2-generational approach as a hallmark of pediatrics. During the past decade, family advocates have successfully promoted family-centered care, "the philosophies, principles and practices that put the family at the heart or center of services; the family as the driving force." Most pediatricians report that they involve families in the decision making regarding the health care of their child and make an effort to understand the needs of the family as well as the child. Family pediatrics, like family-centered care, requires an active, productive partnership between the pediatrician and the family. But family pediatrics extends the responsibilities of the pediatrician to include screening, assessment, and referral of parents for physical, emotional, or social problems or health risk behaviors that can adversely affect the health and emotional or social well-being of their child. FAMILY CONTEXT OF CHILD HEALTH: The power and importance of families to children arises out of the extended duration for which children are dependent on adults to meet their basic needs. Children's needs for which only a family can provide include social support, socialization, and coping and life skills. Their self-esteem grows from being cared for, loved, and valued and feeling that they are part of a social unit that shares values, communicates openly, and provides companionship. Families transmit and interpret values to their children and often serve as children's connection to the larger world, especially during the early years of life. Although schools provide formal education, families teach children how to get along in the world. Often, efforts to discuss families and make recommendations regarding practice or policy stumble over disagreements about the definition of a family. The task force recognized the diversity of families and chose not to operate from the position of a fixed definition. Rather, the task force, which was to address pediatrics, decided to frame its deliberations and recommendations around the functions of families and how various aspects of the family context influence child rearing and child health. One model of family functioning that implicitly guided the task force is the family stress model (Fig 1). Stress of various sorts (eg, financial or health problems, lack of social support, unhappiness at work, unfortunate life events) can cause parents emotional distress and cause couples conflict and difficulty with their relationship. These responses to stress then disrupt parenting and the interactions between parent and child and can lead to short-term or lasting poor outcomes. The earlier these events transpire and the longer that the disruption lasts, the worse the outcomes for children. The task force favors efforts to encourage and support marriage yet recognizes that every family constellation can produce good outcomes for children and that none is certain to yield bad ones. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


Using a computer simulation, one can determine what the optimum table arrangement would be for restaurants of various sizes that accept walk-in customers only and take no reservations. At issue is whether the restaurateur can gain more revenue when its tables are dedicated to seating parties of specific sizes (for example, parties of one and two people would be served at 2-tops, while parties of one to four people would be served at 4-tops) or whether the restaurant should use tables that can be combined as needed according to party size. The simulation predicted that combinable tables would prove most useful in a small restaurant with a small average party size. Combining tables in that situation increased revenue per available seat hour by about 2 percent compared to having only dedicated tables. In a large restaurant or any restaurant with a large average party size, the simulation found that dedicated tables were superior to combinable tables. A loss in productivity occurs when some number of tables are held out of service until adjacent tables become available (so that the tables can be combined to seat a large party). The simulation found that the most efficient approach is for a restaurant's table-size mix to match its customer party size mix, since doing so increases the restaurant's effective customer-service capacity. However, that customer mix cannot always be known before a restaurant is constructed, and that mix might change during different dayparts. Moreover, the simulation makes certain assumptions that may need further examination, and it does not take into account such aesthetic factors as customers' reactions to a particular restaurant layout.


The integration of molecular and morphological approaches has produced substantial progress in understanding the higher classification of most major invertebrate groups. The striking exception to this is the Polychaeta. Neither the membership nor the higher classification of this group has been robustly established. Major inconsistencies exist between the only comprehensive cladistic analysis of Polychaeta using morphological data and the DNA sequence studies covering all or part of the taxon. We have compiled a dataset of available nearly complete 18S ribosomal DNA sequences and collected an additional 22 sequences (20 Polychaeta in 19 taxa, one Myzostomida and one Phoronida) to obtain more comprehensive coverage of polychaete diversity for this gene. Analyses of the data do not resolve all inconsistencies among current hypotheses of polychaete phylogeny. They do support the recognition (in whole or part) of some clades such as the Eunicida, Phyllodocida and Terebellida that have been proposed on morphological grounds. Our analyses contradict the Canalipalpata and the Scolecida. Although the polychaete sister-group to the Clitellata is not clearly resolved in our analyses, the clitellates are always recovered as a derived clade within the Polychaeta. Increased taxon sampling is required to elucidate further the phylogeny of the Polychaeta.


Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of infectious diarrhoea worldwide but relatively little is known about its ecology. In this study, we examined its interactions with Acanthamoeba castellanii, a protozoan suspected to serve as a reservoir for bacterial pathogens. We observed rapid degradation of intracellular C.jejuni in A.castellanii 5 h post gentamicin treatment at 25°C. Conversely, we found that A.castellanii promoted the extracellular growth of C.jejuni in co-cultures at 37°C in aerobic conditions. This growth-promoting effect did not require amoebae - bacteria contact. The growth rates observed with or without contact with amoeba were similar to those observed when C.jejuni was grown in microaerophilic conditions. Preconditioned media prepared with live or dead amoebae cultivated with or without C.jejuni did not promote the growth of C.jejuni in aerobic conditions. Interestingly, the dissolved oxygen levels of co-cultures with or without amoebae - bacteria contact were much lower than those observed with culture media or with C.jejuni alone incubated in aerobic conditions, and were comparable with levels obtained after 24 h of growth of C.jejuni under microaerophilic conditions. Our studies identified the depletion of dissolved oxygen by A.castellanii as the major contributor for the observed amoeba-mediated growth enhancement.


A questionnaire survey was conducted to explore how people think about inflation, and what real problems they see it as causing. With results from 677 people, comparisons were made among people in the US, Germany, and Brazil, between young and old, and between economists and non-economists. Among non-economists in all countries, the largest concern with inflation appears to be that it lowers people's standard of living. Non-economists appear often to believe in a sort of sticky-wage model, by which wages do not respond to inflationary shocks, shocks which are themselves perceived as caused by certain people or institutions acting badly. This standard of living effect is not the only perceived cost of inflation among non-economists: other perceived costs are tied up with issues of exploitation, political instability, loss of morale, and damage to national prestige. The most striking differences between groups studied were between economists and non-economists. There were also important international and intergenerational differences. The US - Germany differences (on questions not just about information) were usually less strong than the intergenerational differences.


There are many theories behind Supreme Court decision-making that are primarily descriptive or normative. Descriptive theories attempt a hermetic explanation that sufficiently applies to all past decisions, and normative theories seek to create a rubric or method, also dependable, for how the justices of the Supreme Court should make decisions. Normative theories can be highly porous and problematic because they involve metaethical concerns like defining "the good." Essentially, we must try to make "good" decisions all the time, but that ignores the problem of what "good" really means. The design of this essay is such that we will not deal with whether or not the Court maintains philosophical consistency through analyses of what makes an act good. The important point concerning normative decision-making is that justices, and various other scholars alike, feel that there is an objective good that can be reached through erudition. The "objective good" is, in fact, jurisprudence. Yet, again, we have not solved the metaethical problems, for no clear definition of "the good" in law actually exists. Many believe that the only way to maintain proper jurisprudential behavior is to "uphold the letter of the law." Though 'upholding the letter of the law' sounds perfectly noble and acceptable and concurrent with jurisprudence, the expression is an illusion. It represents a notion or idea of propriety, by claiming to be tangible and practicable, but it unfortunately fails to produce dependable methodology for decision-making. To assume that such a method is possible is to impose a burden on the justices of principled and perfect propriety. It assumes that, if the justices can follow this guideline, they shall never falter in establishing strong jurisprudence. This aligns with many normative theories of judicial decision-making that assume that Supreme Court justices can make absolutely rational decisions. Since many normative theories rely on metaethical dilemmas that produce even more questions and ambiguities, understanding that Supreme Court justices make decisions through bounded/subjective rationality, not absolute/objective rationality is fundamental. Considering the bounded rationality framework, the Court is not perfectly or absolutely rational, and thus must rely on other tools to make legitimate decisions. One way the Court, and other scholars alike, can enhance a particular normative theory is by looking to accurate descriptive theories about the short-term and long-term effects of past decisions. Ultimately, there is a co-dependency and reciprocity in any erudite theory of decision-making, whether descriptive or normative. If one claims that historically the Court makes preferential decisions, that is decisions that rely on choice and discretion rather than precedent (Spaeth and Segal 1999), he can then ask if whether or not such decision-making has worked or failed, and in what context, such as legal or political. If preferential decisions are desirable—like Ronald Dworkin who contends that the Supreme Court must adapt constantly to reach the "best possible" decision—then one can say that the Court should make decisions preferentially. The two areas of decisionmaking theory are not necessarily connected, meaning the association is not a priori, but they do, in fact, benefit each other. This thesis will not focus on either approach definitively, because without conjoining both theoretical fields, one risks myopic results. The theories it discusses are the Supreme Court as republican schoolmaster, which is both descriptive and normative, and judicial realism, which is primarily descriptive, but still has proponents for its normative application. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis This open access senior honors thesis is available at DigitalCommons@EMU: http://commons.emich.edu/honors/8 Department Political Science


Objective: Posterior decompression and fusion have been the standard of treatment for degenerative disc disease as well as disc herniation. Recent advances in medicine and healthcare have shown a trend to move surgeries to the outpatient setting. The authors aim to assess the outcomes of unilateral cortical pedicle screw-rod construct combined with a contralateral transfacet pedicle screw (TFPS) in the outpatient setting. Methods: The medical records of 40 patients with prospectively collected data were retrospectively reviewed. Two cohort groups, bilateral traditional pedicle screws consisting of 20 patients and unilateral pedicle screw (UPS) rod construct with a contralateral transfacet pedicle screw (TFPS) consisting of 20 patients were created. Outcomes assessed include demographic age and body mass index (BMI). Functional visual analog scale (VAS) pain and owestry disability index (ODI) scores as well as, the complication rate was also assessed. Results: There were 24 males and 16 females, age range 28–65 years average 59.3 ± 2.3 years, with an average BMI of 28.6 ± 0.9 kg/m2. There was a significant improvement in pre-operative VAS and ODI in both groups, however, there was no intergroup significance p = 0.733 and 0.093, respectively. The most common complaint was dermatome numbness which was present pre-operatively but persisted for six months postoperatively. Conclusion: Combined unilateral pedicle screw with a contralateral facet screw (UPFS) has a similar safety profile with improvement in VAS and ODI postoperatively. This technique is an alternative that can be performed based on surgeon preference. From: 1Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, USA, 2Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, USA, 3Less Exposure Surgery Specialists Institute (LESS Institute), USA and 4Less Exposure Surgery (LES) Society, USA. Correspondence: Dr K Chin, Less Exposure Surgery Specialists Institute (LESS Institute), 1100 W. Oakland Park Blvd. Suite #3, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33311, USA. Email: kingsleychin@thelessinstitute. com DOI: 10.7727/wimj.2017.031 West Indian Med J 2017; 66 (3): 428 KR Chin1, 2, 3, FJR Pencle4, RM Harris II2, 4, JA Seale3