ABSTRACT Vibrio vulnificus is an opportunistic gram-negative pathogen that commonly contaminates oysters. Predisposed individuals who consume raw oysters can die within days from sepsis, and even otherwise healthy people are susceptible to serious wound infection after contact with contaminated seafood or seawater. Numerous secreted and cell-associated virulence factors have been proposed to account for the fulminating and destructive nature of V. vulnificusinfections. Among the putative virulence factors is an elastolytic metalloprotease. We cloned and sequenced the vvpE gene encoding an elastase of V. vulnificus ATCC 29307. The functions of the elastase were assessed by constructingvvpE insertional knockout mutants and evaluating phenotypic changes in vitro and in mice. Although other types of protease activity were still observed in vvpE mutants, elastase activity was completely absent in the mutants and was restored by reintroducing the recombinant vvpE gene. In contrast to previous characterization of elastase as a potential virulence factor, which was demonstrated by injecting the purified protein into animals, inactivation of the V. vulnificus vvpE gene did not affect the ability of the bacteria to infect mice and cause damage, either locally in subcutaneous tissues or systemically in the liver, in both iron-treated and normal mice. Furthermore, a vvpE mutant was not affected with regard to cytolytic activity toward INT407 epithelial cells or detachment of INT407 cells from culture dishes in vitro. Therefore, it appears that elastase is less important in the pathogenesis of V. vulnificus than would have been predicted by examining the effects of administering purified proteins to animals. However, V. vulnificus utilizes a variety of virulence factors; hence, the effects of inactivation of elastase alone could be masked by other compensatory virulence factors.


We have studied the mechanism of the reaction of N-Boc imines and acetylacetone in the presence and absence of chiral phosphoric acid catalysts. In order to gain mechanistic insight into the asymmetric Mannich reaction, a structurally homologous series of N-Boc imines and BINOL-derived phosphoric acid and thiophosphoric acid catalysts were synthesised. The degree of asymmetric catalysis was evaluated by chiral HPLC analysis of the products of catalysed Mannich reactions.

Knowledge of the acidity difference between the phosphoric acid catalysts and the iminium ions is essential in order to determine the likely extent of proton transfer, full or partial, between these two species in the course of the Mannich reaction. The determination of aqueous pKa values of iminium ions was attempted by construction of pH-rate profiles for hydrolysis using UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Estimates of the second-order rate constant for acid-catalysed hydrolysis (kH, M-1s-1) and the first-order rate constant for the solvent reaction (k0, s-1) for each imine were extracted from the rate-profiles, however, pKa values could not be obtained for reasons that will be discussed. Iminium ion pKa values were determined in dimethyl sulfoxide by adopting a bracketing indicator method with use of UV-Vis spectrophotometry and pKa values in the range 0.65-1.61 were observed for the series of N-Boc aryl iminium ions. The pKa values of (thio)phosphoric acid catalysts were also estimated in dimethyl sulfoxide using this approach and values in the range 2.21-3.86 were obtained. The determination of pKa values of phosphoric acids in water and acetonitrile was unsuccessful due to the poor solubility of the catalyst in these media.

Rate constants for the uncatalysed Mannich reaction of each imine with acetylacetone have been quantified using 1H NMR spectroscopy in CD2Cl2, CDCl3 and CD3CN. It was found that the solvent effect on the rate of the Mannich reaction was small, with the fastest reaction occurring in CD3CN. Altering the imine substituent was found to have a larger effect on the rate. We also aimed to determine rate constants for the catalysed Mannich reaction using 1H NMR spectroscopy. However, in all cases complete hydrolysis of the imine substrate occurred before the first time-point could be obtained. All efforts to suppress hydrolysis proved unsuccessful.

Azolium ion organocatalysts were also investigated. These are the conjugate acids of N-heterocyclic carbenes, a class of highly successful nucleophilic/Bronsted base organocatalysts. As these carbenes are generated in situ from azolium ions during organocatalytic reactions, knowledge of the acidity of the parent ion is much sought after. This thesis describes the determination of aqueous pKa values of imidazolium and triazolium ions using a kinetic approach. Second-order rate constants for the deprotonation of these azolium ions by deuterioxide ion (kDO, M-1s-1) in D2O at 25 C were determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy. These kDO values could be used to calculate values for kHO (M-1s-1), the second-order rate constant for deprotonation of the azolium ion by hydroxide ion to give the carbene/ylide in water. Evidence is presented that the reverse rate constant for carbene protonation by solvent water is limited by solvent reorganisation and occurs with a rate constant of kHOH = kreorg = 1011 s-1. Values for kHO and kHOH permitted the calculation of reliable carbon acid pKa values for ionisation of the azolium ions in water. The effects of the N-substituents and counter ion on kHO and pKa values are discussed. Of the triazolium ions studied, kDO values of 3.66 × 107- 6.47 × 108 M-1s-1 were observed with corresponding pKa values of 16.6-17.8. For N,N-dialkylated imidazolium ions, kDO values of 1.03 × 102 - 1.07 × 102 M-1s-1 were obtained which yielded pKa values of 23.3-23.4.


Spatial relationships between concentrations of Cd, Fe, Mn, S, and Zn and bacterial genes for dissimilatory sulfate reduction were studied in soils of the Manning peatland region in western New York. Peat cores were collected within a field exhibiting areas of Zn phytotoxicity, and pH and elemental concentrations were determined with depth. The oxidation states of S were estimated using S-XANES spectroscopy. Soil microbial community DNA was extracted from peat soils for ribosomal RNA intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) of diversity profiles with depth. To assess the presence of sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM), DNA extracts were also used as templates for PCR detection of dsrAB genes coding for dissimilatory (bi)-sulfite reductase. Elemental distributions, S redox speciation, and detection of dsrAB genes varied with depth and water content. The pH of peat soils increased with depth. The highest concentrations of Zn, Cd, and S occurred at intermediate depths, whereas Mn concentrations were highest in the topmost peat layers. Iron showed a relatively uniform distribution with depth. Concentrations of redox sensitive elements, S and Mn, but not Fe, seemed to respond to variations in water content and indicated vertical redox stratification in peat cores where topmost peats were typically acidic and oxidizing and deeper peats were typically circumneutral and reducing. Even then, S-XANES analyses showed that surface peats contained >50% of the total S in reduced forms while deep peats contained generally <5% of the total S in oxidized forms. While bacterial RISA profiles of the peats were diverse, dsrAB gene detection followed redox stratification chemistry closely. For the most part, dsrAB genes were detected in deeper peats, where S accumulation was evident, while they were not detected in topmost peat layers where Mn accumulation indicated oxic conditions. Combined chemical, spectroscopic, and microbiological analyses indicated that prolonged exposure to dry-wet cycles resulted in the formation of two redox-stratified zones with distinct chemical and microbiological signatures within peat cores of the Manning peatland region. As illustrated in this study, changes in redox conditions affect bacterial community composition and downward mobility of toxic elements, which has implications for water contamination and the design of metal remediation strategies.


Climate and litter quality are primary drivers of terrestrial decomposition and, based on evidence from multisite experiments at regional and global scales, are universally factored into global decomposition models. In contrast, soil animals are considered key regulators of decomposition at local scales but their role at larger scales is unresolved. Soil animals are consequently excluded from global models of organic mineralization processes. Incomplete assessment of the roles of soil animals stems from the difficulties of manipulating invertebrate animals experimentally across large geographic gradients. This is compounded by deficient or inconsistent taxonomy. We report a global decomposition experiment to assess the importance of soil animals in C mineralization, in which a common grass litter substrate was exposed to natural decomposition in either control or reduced animal treatments across 30 sites distributed from 43°S to 68°N on six continents. Animals in the mesofaunal size range were recovered from the litter by Tullgren extraction and identified to common specifications, mostly at the ordinal level. The design of the trials enabled faunal contribution to be evaluated against abiotic parameters between sites. Soil animals increase decomposition rates in temperate and wet tropical climates, but have neutral effects where temperature or moisture constrain biological activity. Our findings highlight that faunal influences on decomposition are dependent on prevailing climatic conditions. We conclude that (1) inclusion of soil animals will improve the predictive capabilities of region‐ or biome‐scale decomposition models, (2) soil animal influences on decomposition are important at the regional scale when attempting to predict global change scenarios, and (3) the statistical relationship between decomposition rates and climate, at the global scale, is robust against changes in soil faunal abundance and diversity.


Semiotic mechanisms involving sacred natural sites – or areas of land or water with special spiritual significance – that have been focal points in agrarian vernacular religion have been transformed in modern Estonian culture. Some sites have accrued new significance as national monuments or tourist attractions and the dominant way of conceptualizing these sites has changed. Sacred natural sites should not be presumed to represent pristine nature. Rather, they are products of complex culture-nature interactions as they have been formed in the course of traditional land management as well as different semiotic practices, including ritual and conservationist ones. The existence of sites encompassed by the term defies and blurs the rigid distinction between nature and culture. Individual sacred natural sites and categories of such sites can act as signifiers for a variety of different signifieds concurrently, acting as confluences of different sign systems and thus exemplifying the creolization of these systems as well as bringing about the hybridization of different landscape traditions in certain loci. Estonian literary culture has adopted motifs and narratives that define sacred natural sites more readily from other literary traditions than from the Estonian vernacular tradition; in turn, the vernacular tradition has also adopted and assimilated literary Romantic motifs.


First published in 1967, Guy Debord's stinging revolutionary critique of contemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired a cult status. Credited by many as being the inspiration for the ideas generated by the events of May 1968 in France, Debord's pitiless attack on commodity fetishism and its incrustation in the practices of everyday life continues to burn brightly in today's age of satellite television and the soundbite. In Comments on the Society of the Spectacle published twenty years later, Debord returned to the themes of his previous analysis and demonstrated how they were all the more relevant in a period when the 'integrated spectacle' was dominant. Resolutely refusing to be reconciled to the system, Debord trenchantly slices through the doxa and mystification offered tip by journalists and pundits to show how aspects of reality as diverse as terrorism and the environment, the Mafia and the media, were caught tip in the logic of the spectacular society. Pointing the finger clearly at those who benefit from the logic of domination, Debord's Comments convey the revolutionary impulse at the heart of situationism.


The effect of the HIV scourge in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized, statistics shows that since the beginning of the epidemic about 2.8% of the population are affected. This seminar set out to investigate the impact of HIV/AIDs on the Agricultural sector using the rural farmers in Abuja as a case study. The paper confirmed that the impact of HIV/AIDs on the farmers and national economy is negative, substantial and, indeed, increasing. Data used in this work was sourced through group discussions, interviews, review of journals and field work. Upon analysis of data, findings showed that HIV/AIDS contributed to low productivity which ultimately culminated into food shortage. The study also showed that there are also psychological effects borne by the members of the family of the sick farmer resulting to an overall economic loss. The researcher however recommends that more emphasis should be laid on creating awareness on the disease and that poverty alleviation programmes should be targeted to address pertinent poverty situations and households. Key words: HIV, AIDS, He


Spider mites ( Tetranychidae sp.) are widely occurring arthropod pests on cultivated plants. Feeding by the two-spotted spider mite T. urticae , a generalist herbivore, induces a defense response in plants that mainly depends on the phytohormones jasmonic acid and salicylic acid (SA). On tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), however, certain genotypes of T. urticae and the specialist species T. evansi were found to suppress these defenses. This phenomenon occurs downstream of phytohormone accumulation via an unknown mechanism. We investigated if spider mites possess effector-like proteins in their saliva that can account for this defense suppression. First we performed an in silico prediction of the T. urticae and the T. evansi secretomes, and subsequently generated a short list of candidate effectors based on additional selection criteria such as life stage-specific expression and salivary gland expression via whole mount in situ hybridization. We picked the top five most promising protein families and then expressed representatives in Nicotiana benthamiana using Agrobacterium tumefaciens transient expression assays to assess their effect on plant defenses. Four proteins from two families suppressed defenses downstream of the phytohormone SA. Fur-thermore, T. urticae performance on N. benthamiana improved in response to transient expression of three of these proteins and this improvement was similar to that of mites feeding on the tomato SA accumulation mutant nahG. Our results suggest that both generalist and specialist plant-eating mite species are sensitive to SA defenses but secrete proteins via their saliva to reduce the negative effects of these defenses. Both supernatants were combined and then evaporated to dryness on a vacuum concentrator. The residue was resuspended in 0.5 mL 70% methanol (v/v), centrifuged and the supernatants were transferred to glass tubes and then analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Measurements were performed on a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry system (Varian 320 Triple Quad LC/MS/MS). SA and JA were quantified by comparing their peak area with the peak area of the respective internal standard. Statistical differences in the amounts of phytohormones among samples were calculated using log-transformed values by Fisher's LSD test after ANOVA (SPSS 20, IBM). Spider mites suppress tomato defenses downstream of jasmonate and salicylate independently of hormonal crosstalk.


The concept of consent is deeply entrenched in the German constitution's right to informational self-determination, which is itself part of the general right to personality (Art. 2 (1) in conjunction with Art. 1 (1) GG). While this concept still remains valid in law, in practice, it has taken hits that can be attributed to market developments, long contractual terms and conditions, and increasing dependence of users on online platforms. This analysis examines what is left of the notion of consent in this field, and gives an overview over several legal and practical solutions to revive it effectively.


Data centres have been the primary focus of energy efficiency researches due to their expanding scales and increasing demands of energy. On the other hand, there are several orders of magnitude more end-users and personal computing devices worldwide. Even the modest energy savings from the users would scale up and yield significant impact. As a result, we take the approach towards energy-saving by working with the end-users. We recognise that users of ICT systems are often unaware of their power usage, and are therefore unable to take effective actions even if they wanted to save energy. Apart from energy awareness, the majority of end-users often lack of sufficient knowledge or skills to reduce their energy consumption while using computing devices. Moreover, there is no incentive for them to save energy, especially in public environments where they do not have financial responsibilities for their energy use. We propose a flexible energy monitor that gathers detailed energy usage across complex ICT systems, and provides end-users with accurate and timely feedback of their individual energy usage per workstation. We tailored our prototype energy monitor for a 2-year empirical study, with 83 student users of a university computer lab, and showed that end-users will change their use of computers to be more energy efficient, when sufficient feedback and incentives (rewards) are provided. In our measurements, weekly mean group power consumption as a whole reduced by up to 16%; and weekly individual user power usage reduced by up to 56% during active use. Based on our observations and collected data, we see possibilities of energy saving from both hardware and software components of personal computers. It requires coordination and collaboration between both system administrators and end-users to maximise energy savings. Institutional 'green' policies are potentially helpful to enforce and regulate energy efficient use of ICT devices. Relevant Publications Some of the work presented in this thesis has been previously published: • Yi Yu and Saleem N. Bhatti. Energy Measurement for the Cloud. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications (ISPA'10). IEEE, Taipei, Taiwan. DOI=10.1109/ISPA.2010.29 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ISPA.2010.29 • Yi Yu and Saleem N. Bhatti. The cost of virtue: reward as well as feedback are required to reduce user ICT power consumption. In Proceedings of the 5th ACM international conference on Future energy systems (e-Energy '14). Cambridge, UK. DOI=10.1145/2602044.2602063 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2602044.2602063


Description Much of the writing on the post-9/11 period in the United States has focused on the role of "official" Government rhetoric about 9/11. Those who have focused on the news media have suggested that they played a key role in (re)defining the nation, allowing the citizenry to come to terms with 9/11, in providing 'official' understandings and interpretations of the event, and setting the terms for a geo-political-military response (the war on terror). However, strikingly absent from post-9/11 writing has been discussion on the role of sport in this moment. This text provides the first, book-length account, of the ways in which the sport media, in conjunction with a number of interested parties—sporting, state, corporate, philanthropic, military—operated with a seeming collective affinity to conjure up nation, to define nation and its citizenry, and, to demonize others. Through analysis of a variety of cultural products—film, children's baseball, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, reality television—the book reveals how, in the post-9/11 moment, the sporting popular operated as a powerful and highly visible pedagogic weapon in the armory of the Bush Administration; operating to define ways of being American and thus occlude other ways of being.


Heavy-duty diesel engines are used in different application areas, like long-haul, city distribution, dump truck and building and construction industry. For these wide variety of areas, the engine performance needs to comply with the real-world legislation limits and should simultaneously have a low fuel consumption and good drivability. Meeting these requirements takes substantial development and calibration effort, where an optimal fuel consumption for each application is not always met in practice. TNO's Integrated Emission Management (IEM) strategy, is able to deal with these variations in operating conditions, while meeting legislation limits and obtaining on-line cost optimization. Based on the actual state of the engine and aftertreatment, optimal air-path setpoints are computed, which balances EGR and SCR usage. Due to IEM's adaptation characteristics based on the actual state of engine and aftertreatment system, the strategy is robust for varying conditions during real-world operation. This is especially of interest, since real-world emissions become increasingly important: in-use compliance, including Not-To-Exceed (NTE) areas, challenging On-Board-Diagnostics requirements and In-Use Performance Ratio (IUPR) monitoring. The main contribution of this work is to demonstrate the robustness of IEM on a variety of real-world cycles by means of a simulation study. Whereas previous publications focus on demonstration of the IEM strategy on Type Approval cycles, this work can be seen as an extension, which also addresses In-Service Conformity (ISC). This paper discusses in detail the performance and robustness of the IEM strategy at these cycles compared with a state-of-the-art Euro-VI engine control strategy (baseline). Consequent improvements are obtained among the different cycles. Fuel consumption and fluid cost are reduced up to 2% and 1.7%, respectively, compared to this baseline strategy.


The fatigue-related accident is increasing due to long work hours, medical reasons, and age that decrease response time in a moment of hazard. One of drowsiness and fatigue visual indicators is excessive yawning. In this paper, a non-optical sensor presented as a car dashcam that is used to record driving scenarios and imitates real-life driving situations such as being distracted or talking to a passenger next to the driver. We built a deep CNN model as the classifier to classify each frame as a yawning or nonyawning driver. We can classify the drivers' fatigue into three levels, alert, early fatigue and fatigue based on the judgement of the number of yawns. Alert level means when the driver is not yawning, while, early fatigue is when the driver yawns once in a minute. Fatigued is when the driver yawns more than once in a minute. An overall decision is made by analyzing the source score and the condition of the driver's fatigue state. The robustness of the proposed method was tested under various illumination contexts and a variety of head motion modes. Experiments are conducted using YAWDD dataset that contains 322 subjects to show that our model presents a promising framework to accurately detect drowsiness level in a less complex way. Keyword: Drivers Fatigue, Driver Yawning, Fatigue prediction , machine learning fatigue prediction.


A plan to publish a joural representing the interests of the members of The Mythopoeic Society was announced in 1968 by the late Glen GoodKnight, who founded the society in 1967. Mythlore published its first issue on 3 January 1969, timed for J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday. One early announcement of the journal appeared in Locus in late 1968: It was inevitable that the Mythopoeic Society would start its own journal or fanzine. The name of this fanzine will be MYTHLORE. Glen Goodnight [sic] is editor, yours truly [Bernie Zuber] associate editor and art editor, and Tim Kirk associate art editor. Deadline for material is Nov. 30th. The first issue will contain an editorial and explanation of the society, a report of the Tolkien Society meeting at BAYCON, a report on the Bilbo/Frodo Birthday Party, an article on C.S. Lewis' Theory of Mythology, an article entitled "Making The Lord of the Rings Into a Movie?", an article on the social & literary relations between Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams, an introduction to Worlds of Fantasy, a couple of pages of photos relating to the society, and a report on C.S. Kilby's visit to Southern California. Art by George Barr, Bonnie Bergstrom, Tim Kirk and myself. Mimeo (Electro stencils for art) and running approx. 50 pages. First issue price: 50¢. We are planning this as a quarterly. (Locus #12, 12 November 1968) Additional


Objective Autoantibodies against paranodal proteins have been described in patients with inflammatory neuropathies, but their association with pathology of nodes of Ranvier is unclear. We describe the clinical phenotype and histopathological changes of paranodal architecture of patients with autoantibodies against contactin-1, identified from a cohort with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (n=53) and Guillain-Barré syndrome (n=21). Methods We used ELISA to detect autoantibodies against contactin-1. Specificity of the autoantibodies was confirmed by immunoblot assay, binding to contactin-1-transfected human embryonic kidney cells, binding to paranodes of murine teased fibres and preabsorption experiments. Paranodal pathology was investigated by immunofluorescence labelling of dermal myelinated fibres. Results High reactivity to contactin-1 by ELISA was found in four patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy and in none of the patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome, which was confirmed by cell binding assays in all four patients. The four patients presented with a typical clinical picture, namely acute onset of disease and severe motor symptoms, with three patients manifesting action tremor. Immunofluorescence-labelling of paranodal proteins of dermal myelinated fibres revealed disruption of paranodal architecture. Semithin sections showed axonal damage but no classical signs of demyelination. Interpretation We conclude that anti-contactin-1-related neuropathy constitutes a presumably autoantibody-mediated form of inflammatory neuropathy with distinct clinical symptoms and disruption of paranodal architecture as a pathological correlate. Anti-contactin-1-associated neuropathy does not meet morphological criteria of demyelinating neuropathy and therefore, might rather be termed a 'paranodopathy' rather than a subtype of demyelinating inflammatory neuropathy.


ABSTRACT BRAF is a notable oncoprotein within the MAPK signaling pathway, which is a pathway that sends a signal from the surface of a cell to the nucleus of a cell via phosphorylation cascades. This pathway regulates cell growth, differentiation, and survival. BRAF is known to be mutated in about 50% of melanomas, and less frequently in a wide variety of other cancers, making BRAF a bona-fide target for therapy. In melanoma, a single V600E activation segment mutation (BRAFV600E) accounts for ~90% of BRAF mutant malignant tumors. BRAFV600E selective inhibitors, such as vemurafenib, extend the survival of patients in the clinic, however most patients develop drug resistance and progress at a median of 6 months. One mode of resistance is "paradoxical activation" of RAF heterodimers. In this mechanism, a drug-bound BRAF protomer dimerizes with either BRAFWT or CRAFWT, allosterically stimulating kinase activity and leading to hyper-activation of the MAPK pathway. The first part of this thesis involves my efforts to develop bivalent BRAF inhibitors to target paradoxical activation of active RAF dimers. We successfully chemically linked two BRAFV600E selective vemurafenib inibitors and found that this bivalent inhibitor stabilized an inactive face-to-face BRAF dimer conformation. We then extended this strategy to pan-RAF inhibitor TAK632 to target BRAFWT and CRAFWT in cells. Interestingly, this bivalent molecule was unable to "trap" two BRAF molecules in the same face-to-face conformation as the bivalent vemurafenib inhibitor, but also uncovered that the monovalent TAK632 depends on induction of active conformation BRAF dimers to be able to potently inhibit RAF. The last part of this thesis involved the development of a high throughput screen to discover novel inhibitors that can disrupt the complex between BRAF and its downstream substrate MEK. We were able to design a high throughput TR-FRET assay to identify 15 novel inhibitors that can inhibit BRAF/MEK dimerization. Together, our studies identify novel RAF dimer inhibitors that can be used as chemical probes to further understand BRAF signaling through RAF dimerization in melanoma and other BRAF-related cancers. These studies also highlight a novel method of targeting paradoxical activation and RAF dimerization for melanoma therapy. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemistry First Advisor Ronen Marmorstein This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2823


This study examines the impact of consumerism and consumer culture on low-income British adolescents. Specifically, it investigates the effects of branding and advertising on the formation of selfconcept clarity (SCC) and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII). A comparative study was conducted between two groups, low- and high-income teenagers, assessing SCC and CSII by means of quantitative scales. It was found that low-income teenagers are less clear in their self-concept and are more susceptible to interpersonal influence than their high-income counterparts. A significant negative correlation between the two scales revealed that the less clear one's self-concept is, the more susceptible one is to interpersonal influence. It is proposed that an inability to "keep up" with the latest fashion trends (due to restricted consumption opportunities) may result in a damaged self-concept among low-income teenagers, which leads to heightened susceptibility to consumption pressures and hence heightens the negative socio-psychological impacts of living in poverty. The results of the study are reviewed in terms of branding, advertising, and consumer behavior and a proposed conceptual model of branding's impact on low-income teenagers is presented as a "vicious cycle." © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


A suspicion toward inherited notions of agency has long been recognized (and frequently decried) as a defining feature of literary naturalism. But while the deterministic worldview of writers like Theodore Dreiser generated much lively debate in the early twentieth century, literary scholarship's investment in the unresolved (and perhaps unresolvable) questions of inanimate agency raised by such works was gradually eclipsed by other concerns. Recently, however, a vigorous interest in such metaphysical questions has resurfaced in the discourse of new materialism, an interdisciplinary and politically committed field of scholarship dedicated to revising humanity's conventional associations of materiality with passivity and predictability. While this is ostensibly a "new" movement, placing new materialism in the context of American literary history underscores how old—or rather timeless—the concerns addressed by the new materialism really are. Given these similarities, Trumpeter proposes that new materialist discourse stands to profit from a more nuanced understanding of literary naturalism and the discourse of new materialism can likewise help American literary scholars return to naturalist works with a more refined and reenergized perspective on the genre's perennial concerns. This essay examines the role of the inanimate in Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy as a means for tracing connections and highlighting divergences between these two intellectual movements engaged in drawing humanity's attention to the surreptitiously active nature of things.


Donald Stabile places current concerns over the commercialization of academia in a historical context by describing the long-standing question of the extent to which market economics can and should be applied to higher education. The debate between Plato and Aristotle on one side and sophists on the other provides a foundation for the modern debate of endowment versus tuition models. The author tackles the intellectual discourse over the mission of higher education and the effect markets and competition might have on it. The discussion encompasses the ideas on higher education of leading economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, Jeremy Benthan, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall, Thorstein Veblen and John K. Galbraith and identifies them as supporters of either sophism or virtue. Included, too, are the thoughts of educators and policymakers influenced by free market ideas, such as Benjamin Rush, Francis Wayland and Charles W. Eliot, as well as those opposed to them. In addition, the author explores the development of collegiate business schools in the US and how they were justified on the basis of virtue. The book concludes with a section on for-profit colleges and their relationship to sophism.


'Our virtues are, most often, only vices in disguise.' Deceptively brief and insidiously easy to read, La Rochefoucauld's shrewd, unflattering analyses of human behaviour have influenced writers, thinkers, and public figures as various as Voltaire, Proust, de Gaulle, Nietzsche, and Conan Doyle. The author gave himself the following advice: 'The reader's best policy is to assume that none of these maxims is directed at him, and that he is the sole exception...After that, I guarantee that he will be the first to subscribe to them.' This is the fullest collection of La Rochefoucauld's writings ever published in English, and includes the first complete translation of the Reflexions diverses (Miscellaneous Reflections). A table of alternative maxim numbers and an index of topics help the reader to locate any maxim quickly and to appreciate the full range of La Rochefoucauld's thought on any of his favourite themes, such as self-love, vice and virtue, love and jealousy, friendship and self-interest, passion and pride. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


Upon the Joyeux-Buyukdagli model of DNA, the helicoidal interactions are introduced, and their effects on the dynamical behaviors of the molecule investigated. A theoretical framework for the analysis is presented in an external force field, taking into account Stokes and hydrodynamics viscous forces. In the semi-discrete approximation, the dynamics of the molecule is found governed by the cubic complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equation. By choosing an appropriate decoupling ansatz, the cubic CGL equation is transformed into a nonlinear differential equation whose analytical solitary wave-like solutions can be explored by means of the direct method, which is more tractable in case where the form of soliton solutions is known. Based on this, a dissipative bright-like soliton solution is obtained. Numerical experiments have been done, and relevant results were brought out, such as the quantitative and qualitative influences of the helical interactions on the parameters of the traveling bubble. The important role-played by these interactions in the DNA biological processes is brought out, showing that depending on the wave number, their effects can increase, decrease, or keep constant the bubble angular frequency, velocity, amplitude, and width, as well as the energy involved by enzymes in the initiation of DNA biological processes. This can prevent some coding or reading errors and resulting genetic damages. Analytical predictions and numerical experiments were in good agreement.


The paradigm that carbon export is derived almost exclusively from the primary production of large phytoplankton has been challenged by inverse ecosystem modeling studies that suggest that most carbon export in the open ocean is fueled by picophytoplankton. To readdress this hypothesis, we use an inverse model to synthesize the planktonic rate measurements from a pair of recent cruises in the equatorial Pacific. The analysis based on this new experimental data, which crucially include vertically integrated taxon‐specific production and grazing estimates, largely resolve the unexpected results of the previous inverse studies, including unbalanced growth and grazing processes and the dominance of production by picophytoplankton. While this very small size class does not produce the majority of phytoplankton carbon that is eventually exported to depth (only 23%, vs. 73% from a previous analysis of Joint Global Ocean Flux Study Equatorial Pacific data), our base model supports the conclusion that the role of picophytoplankton in vertical carbon flux is largely proportional to their contribution to net primary productivity (though neither is proportional to biomass). We show, however, that export‐production proportionality is sensitive to the model representation of the detrital pool such that the relative export role of picophytoplankton declines substantially for an alternate model with size‐structured detritus. A definitive assessment of the role of picoplankton in vertical carbon flux will thus require detailed experimental examination of the origin, composition, and fate of euphotic zone detrital material.


Abstract : The initial results of the application of special optical techniques to high-temperature emittance and reflectance studies of an ablation-material char and certain other refractory materials representative of those present in ablation residues formed during aerospace reentry operations are presented. Spectral hemispherical emittance and reflectance were determined with an image pyrometer integrated with an arc-imaging furnace for carbon, graphite, zirconia, and a phenolic-nylon ablation-material char at wavelengths from 0.37 micrometer to 0.72 micrometer for temperatures from 2100 deg K to 3700 deg K. The data obtained are compared with those of other investigations to the extent that the existence of comparable data permits. Surface-roughness properties of the materials studied were determined from measurements made with a light-section microscope. The dependence of the spectral hemispherical emittance of oxidized carbon at a wavelength of 0.65 micrometer on its surface-roughness properties was investigated experimentally and the emittance was found to be a linear function of the root-mean-square slope of the surface when the roughness is large compared with wavelength. p3


Johanna Kinkel (1810-1858), a German composer, writer, music pedagogue and wife to the German poet and revolutionary Gottfried Kinkel (1815-1882), has produced a remarkable number of art songs, stage works and novels during her short life, the last eight years of which she spent in exile in London. Besides typical themes of the romantic period, Kinkel's art songs also include socio-political subjects praising her home, the Rhineland, and encouraging the democratic revolutionary movement of the 1840s to fight against their emperor in favour of a united Germany. Whereas a great deal of Kinkel's patriotic songs set poems by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), the composer's enthusiastic appeals to like-minded revolutionaries are mainly settings of Gottfried Kinkel's words. Many of the Kinkels' poems and art songs were created within the context of the  Maikaferbund,  a political and literary association founded by the Kinkels in 1840. In  Taking Popular Music Seriously , Simon Frith introduces the idea that popular music "can stand for, symbolize  and  offer the immediate experience of collective identity" (140). Considering the nineteenth-century art song as one of the most popular bourgeois art forms of the time, this paper aims to elaborate on the aspect of collective identity at two levels. Firstly, Johanna Kinkel's settings reflect typical nineteenth-century phenomena of the bourgeoisie, as is indicated by her preferred compositional genre, the art song, as well as by the semi-public framework in which her songs would have been performed and discussed. Secondly, it shall be interesting to ascertain whether Kinkel's socio-political art songs might have determined the collective identity of the  Maikaferbund  and, more generally, the revolutionary movement of the 1840s as, according to Kinkel's contemporaries, some of her political songs were sung publically by other ambassadors of the revolution.


The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated model to improve service processes in ageing-home-care. According to the literature, existing service processes have potential service failures that affect service quality and efficacy. However, most previous studies have only focused on conceptual model development using New Service Development (NSD) and fail to provide a systematic model to analyse potential service failures and facilitate managers developing solutions to improve the service process. This study proposes a model that integrates service blueprinting and Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA). First, the service blueprint tool was used to analyse potential service failures in the service process. Then, FMEA was employed to diagnose the possible causes and effects of service failures in the model. Finally, we utilised the expert brainstorming method to develop feasible solutions to improve the service process. A case study of the service process used by an ageinghome-care service agency was conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. Finally, we summarised the advantages of the proposed model and its implications.


The relationship between local meteorological conditions and the surface ozone variability was studied by means of statistical modeling, using ozone and meteorological parameters measured at Lovozero (250 m a.s.l., 68.5°N, 35.0°E, Kola Peninsula) for the period of 1999-2000. The regression model of daily mean ozone concentrations on such meteorological parameters as temperature, relative humidity and wind speed explains up to 70% of day-to-day ozone variability in terms of meteorological condition changes, if the seasonal cycle is also considered. A regression model was created for separated time scales of the variables. Short-term, synoptical and seasonal components are separated by means of Kolmogorov-Zurbenko filtering. The synoptical scale variations were chosen as the most informative from the point of their mutual relation with meteorological parameters. Almost 40% of surface ozone variations in time periods of 11-60 days can be explained by the regression model on separated scales that is 30% more efficient than ozone residuals usage. Quantitative and qualitative estimations of the relations between surface ozone and meteorological predictors let us preliminarily conclude that at the Lovozero site surface ozone variability is governed mainly by dynamical processes of various time scale rather than photochemistry, especially during the cold season.


The response of a consumer to varying densities of its food resources is essential to con- sumer-resource interactions, yet the proper way to describe this interaction (the functional response) has been intensively debated. Traditionally, consumption has been assumed to be solely a function of resource abundance (prey dependent). However, it has lately been suggested that consumption depends on the ratio between resource and consumer abundances (ratio-dependent functional re- sponses). In this paper, we experimentally tested if the consumer density influences food consump- tion rates. As the consumer, we used a dominant Baltic Sea zooplanktivore, the mysid shrimp Mysis mixta. The prey used were of 3 types; the large but slow Daphnia magna, the small and slow Artemia sp., and a natural assemblage of Baltic Sea copepods that exhibit strong escape responses. Our results show that intraspecific interactions occurred among the consumers, supporting the hypothe- sis that a functional response can be dependent on the consumer density.


The day-time eastward equatorial electric field (EEF) in the ionospheric E-region plays a crucial role in equatorial ionospheric dynamics. It is responsible for driving the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) current system, equatorial vertical ion drifts, and the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). Due to its importance, there is much interest in accurately measuring and modeling the EEF for both climatological and near real-time studies. The Swarm satellite mission offers a unique opportunity to estimate the equatorial electric field from measurements of the geomagnetic field. Due to the near-polar orbits of each satellite, the on-board magnetometers record a full profile in latitude of the ionospheric current signatures at satellite altitude. These latitudinal magnetic profiles are then modeled using a first principles approach with empirical climatological inputs specifying the state of the ionosphere. Since the EEF is the primary driver of the low-latitude ionospheric current system, the observed magnetic measurements can then be inverted for the EEF. This paper details the algorithm for recovering the EEF from Swarm geomagnetic field measurements. The equatorial electric field estimates are an official Swarm level-2 product developed within the Swarm SCARF (Satellite Constellation Application Research Facility). They will be made freely available by ESA after the commissioning phase.


This article examines the phenomenon of prolonged singlehood in Israeli orthodox society on the basis of interviews and two scenes from plays performed by two orthodox theaters during 2006-07. These plays reflect the vibrant discourse taking place within orthodox circles on this pressing issue, and the article contributes to understanding of the orthodox singles' problematic status in a pro-family society by combining analysis of the theatrical presentations and information gathered through qualitative research methods: interviews, field journal entries, and observations. The inter-disciplinary approach adopted here incorporates the fields of gender studies, anthropology, literature, and performance studies. It allowed me to bridge the gap between the personal experiences I learned about in the interviews and the theater produced by the singles. Prolonged singlehood is presented in the plays as a religious trial for unmarried adults, and their future release from their problematic status is in God's hands. This ostensible solution and explanation of the phenomenon enables singles to invalidate the communities' criticism of them and to subvert their own self-criticism.


The use of lifetime annuities is one obvious candidate to deliver guaranteed income in retirement. This paper quantifies the marginal increase in income to a single male when compelled to purchase a lifetime annuity from superannuation savings, compared to the current position of voluntary annuitisation in the Australian market. It is found that significant increases in average income are possible under compulsion, with an associated decrease in the cost of the age pension. Future mortality is shown to be the key area of sensitivity. The critical importance of future age pension eligibility rules being adaptable in line with mortality changes is


In groundwater remediation design it has been shown that dynamic policies, in which the pumping strategies may vary throughout the remediation period, can result in more cost-effective remediation strategies than static policies. The dynamic approach uses management periods, which are portions of the total remediation period during which the remediation policy is unchanged. This work applies genetic algorithms to solve several dynamic formulations of a granular activated carbon pump-and-treat design example and an enhanced in situ ioremediation design example. The genetic algorithm is a search method based on concepts from natural selection. The simultaneous dynamic and the sequential dynamic formulations are compared. In the simultaneous dynamic formulation, all the decision variables for all management periods are optimized at once. Thus decisions made for the first management period impact all future periods. In the sequential dynamic formulation, the decision variables of each period are optimized independent of the other management periods, with the ending conditions of one period being the starting conditions for the next period. Furthermore, the length of each management period is handled as a decision variable. The results from these applications are analyzed, with attention to the optimal costs and policies as well as the computational effort required to solve these examples.


EC Directive 1999/44 represents a sizeable step towards the harmonization of European law of warranties in consumer sales. In this article, I consider the goal of harmonization of European sales and warranties law from an economic perspective and subsequently examine some of the main provisions of the Directive in light of current economic theories of consumer protection. I begin with an analysis of conventional and legal warranties, which the law and economics literature considers as promises of the seller to assume specific responsibilities in case the quality or the performance of the purchased item does not conform to the specifications and contractual expectations of the buyer. From an economic point of view, there are three main functions of conventional and legal warranties: (a) insurance; (b) signaling; and (c) incentive functions. In such context, the choice of optimal level and duration of a warranty depends on (a) the risk propensities of the parties; (b) the informational asymmetries between the parties; and (c) the determinants of the probability of a product's lack of conformity or breakdown. The analysis reveals that different optimal levels of warranty may be chosen in real life cases to create the optimal balance of risk allocation and parties' incentives. I consider the results of the economic model in the various scenarios and evaluate the consistency of the unified solution adopted by the European Directive.


This tutorial summarizes the motivations, concepts, techniques, and applications of finite-set statistics (FISST), a system-level, "top-down" direct generalization of ordinary single-sensor, single-target engineering statistics to the multisensor, multitarget realm. FISST provides powerful new conceptual and computational methods for dealing with multisensor, multitarget, and multi-evidence data fusion problems. The paper begins with a broad-brush overview of the basic concepts of FISST. It describes how conventional single-sensor, single-target formal Bayesian modeling is carefully extended to general data fusion problems. We examine a simple example: joint detection and tracking of a possibly non-existent maneuvering target in heavy clutter. The tutorial concludes with a commentary on certain criticisms of FISST.


In contemporary Western Europe, both scholars and the public discuss the consequences of a rising share of a comparatively religious Muslim population for societal coexistence. Yet we know surprisingly little about how religion and religiosity shape social relationships. Focusing on adolescents' friendship networks, we examine how religion and religiosity affect intra- and inter-group friendship choices. While youth should generally prefer to befriend peers of the same religion, this religious homophily should be more pronounced for highly than for less religious youth. Against the background of rising anti-Muslim attitudes in Europe, Christian and non-religious youth further may be particularly hesitant to befriend Muslim peers, and especially highly religious ones. We analysed three waves of German longitudinal friendship network data from ethnically diverse schools. Regarding intra-group friendships, while Muslim youth indeed preferred to befriend Muslim peers, Christian youth displayed no evidence of religious homophily. For Muslims, higher levels of religiosity further increased this preference. Regarding inter-group friendships, irrespective of their individual religiosity, Muslim youth were socially divided from their non-Muslim peers, as both Christian and nonreligious youth were reluctant to befriend Muslim peers. In sum, in the German context, religion itself rather than religiosity seems to matter most for adolescents' friendship choices.


Abstract Dispersion and deposition of ragweed pollen released naturally from circular area sources of four sizes (5–27 m in diameter) and artificially from point sources were studied at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Concentrations were measured by wind-impaction samplers mounted on 20° radii at four heights (0.5–4.6 in) and four or five distances from the sources to a maximum of 69 m. Deposition was measured by greased microscope slides on the ground. Differences in dispersion patterns between point and area sources are analyzed. Normalized centerline concentrations, cross-wind integrated concentrations, plume widths, plume heights and mass flux are presented as functions of distance and related to source size and meteorological variables. Deposition data are also related to distance and source size. Most deposition velocities ranged from 2–6 cm sec−1 but values close to area sources were much greater. Loss of airborne particles between sampling circles is compared to deposition over the same distances....


Extracts of Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut) seed have been used in the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency, edema, and hemorrhoids. Most of the beneficial effects of horse chestnut are attributed to its principal component beta-escin or aescin. Recent studies suggest that beta-escin may possess anti-inflammatory, anti-hyaluronidase, and anti-histamine properties. We have evaluated the chemopreventive efficacy of dietary beta-escin on azoxymethane-induced colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF). In addition, we analyzed the cell growth inhibitory effects and the induction of apoptosis in HT-29 human colon cancer cell line. To evaluate the inhibitory properties of beta-escin on colonic ACF, 7-week-old male F344 rats were fed experimental diets containing 0%, 0.025%, or 0.05% beta-escin. After 1 week, the rats received s.c. injections of azoxymethane (15 mg/kg body weight, once weekly for 2 weeks) or an equal volume of normal saline (vehicle). Rats were continued on respective experimental diets and sacrificed 8 weeks after the azoxymethane treatment. Colons were evaluated histopathologically for ACF. Administration of dietary 0.025% and 0.05% beta-escin significantly suppressed total colonic ACF formation up to approximately 40% (P < 0.001) and approximately 50% (P < 0.0001), respectively, when compared with control diet group. Importantly, rats fed beta-escin showed dose-dependent inhibition (approximately 49% to 65%, P < 0.0001) of foci containing four or more aberrant crypts. To understand the growth inhibitory effects, HT-29 human colon carcinoma cell lines were treated with various concentrations of beta-escin and analyzed by flow cytometry for apoptosis and cell cycle progression. Beta-escin treatment in HT-29 cells induced growth arrest at the G1-S phase, which was associated with the induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21(WAF1/CIP1), and this correlated with reduced phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein. Results also indicate that beta-escin inhibited growth of colon cancer cells with either wild-type or mutant p53. This novel feature of beta-escin, a triterpene saponin, may be a useful candidate agent for colon cancer chemoprevention and treatment.


The Interactions website (interactions.acm.org) hosts a stable of bloggers who share insights and observations on HCI, often challenging current practices. Each issue we'll publish selected posts from some of the leading voices in the field.


This book examines the different conceptions of the individual that have emerged in recent new approaches in economics, including behavioral economics, experimental economics, social preferences approaches, game theory, neuroeconomics, evolutionary and complexity economics, and the capability approach. These conceptions are classified according to whether they seek to revise the traditional atomist individual conception, put new emphasis on interaction and relations between individuals, account for individuals as evolving and self-organizing, and explain individuals in terms of capabilities. The method of analysis uses two identity criteria for distinguishing and re-identifying individuals to determine whether these different individual conceptions successfully identify individuals. Successful individual conceptions account for sub-personal and supra-personal bounds on single individual explanations. The former concerns the fragmentation of individuals into multiple selves; the latter concerns the dissolution of individuals into the social. The book develops an understanding of bounded individuality, seen as central to the defense of human rights.


This thesis examines how democratically described new and revolutionary ideas came to be elucidated in the resource and environmental management framework provided within the Resource Management Act, 1991, and considers how they are given effect in current planning practice. The research focuses on consultation which seeks to resolve environmental disputes not only to achieve sustainable environment outcomes in an ecological sense, but also to give greater expression to democratic principles. This research undertaking is in response to a continually reiterated need to evaluate the effectiveness of planning practice in achieving its aims, together with a necessity to then take appropriate responses to the results of the evaluation, for instance as found within the Resource Management Law Reform reports of the 1980's, in planning publications, as well as in the Resource Management Act, 1991 , itself. This thesis identifies the principles and objectives intended and anticipated to be realized through public participatory planning and environmental dispute resolution processes. It provides a theoretical framework for consideration of consultation and environmental dispute resolution processes, as it explores theory informing the characteristics of environmental disputes, and also the different types of consultation process able to be utilized for dispute resolution. The efficacy of resource and environmental management in achieving the principles underpinning, and objectives of, public participation in EDR processes is evaluated by consideration of participant perspectives of consultation processes. This research identifies and analyzes the benefits and strengths, problems and limitations experienced by participants in a variety of EDR processes that were employed to resolve a particular dispute the 'Fitzherbert Avenue cross river transportation dispute' in Palmerston North, as a case study. An analysis between expectations and experience is extrapolated into an indicator of whether these EDR processes are achieving the RMA's intentions, in terms of the principles and objectives which necessitate public consultation. This research also provides some explanation for the experiences of participants, thereby indicating how and why the underlying principles and objectives are or are not being met. The research conclusions address the question, 'how well were the principles and objectives of consultation, within the context of the RMA, given effect or realised in practice?'. In drawing conclusions this thesis explores the uniqueness of a case study, but also identifies RMA implementation issues of more general relevance and interest. Analysis of generic RMA implementation issues describes consistent themes that indicate more needs to be done to effectively achieve the objectives of the RMA, as there are concerns about the abilities of planning practice and those responsible for implementing the Act to realise all its intentions. Concerns of relevance to consultation processes are discussed and suggestions for improving practical implementation of the RMA are made.


Ensemble methods, traditionally built with independently trained de-correlated models, have proven to be efficient methods for reducing the remaining residual generalization error, which results in robust and accurate methods for real-world applications. In the context of deep learning, however, training an ensemble of deep networks is costly and generates high redundancy which is inefficient. In this paper, we present experiments on Ensembles with Shared Representations (ESRs) based on convolutional networks to demonstrate, quantitatively and qualitatively, their data processing efficiency and scalability to large-scale datasets of facial expressions. We show that redundancy and computational load can be dramatically reduced by varying the branching level of the ESR without loss of diversity and generalization power, which are both important for ensemble performance. Experiments on large-scale datasets suggest that ESRs reduce the remaining residual generalization error on the AffectNet and FER+ datasets, reach human-level performance, and outperform state-of-the-art methods on facial expression recognition in the wild using emotion and affect concepts.


Numerical models are nowadays used on a large scale for the simulation of two-phase flow processes in the chemical industry, due mainly to their low implementation cost and important results. However, to find the best numerical models in such processes, validation with experimental data is required. In this sense, the main objective of this work is to apply a CFD model under Eulerian-Eulerian framework for the gas-particle flow, with the capability to predict the fluid dynamics of the two-phase flows in vertical and horizontal ducts separated by 90° elbows. A three-dimensional and transient model has been applied for predictions of volume fractions, pressure, velocities and turbulence properties fields. For the momentum transfer between phases a drag model based on the application of "Churchill" asymptotes techniques was used to obtain a continuous function for all flow regimes. Furthermore, the wall effects over the particulate flow have been investigated. The mathematical model was applied in CFD commercial codes for numerical studies and compared with experimental data obtained by the research group at Lehigh University. The model is solved using the finite-volume method with variables located in a generalized co-ordinate system. The main results present the volume fraction and velocities profiles as a function of the time and position. In addition, the mean velocity and particle concentration of the radial profiles were compared with experimental data in different axial positions of the vertical duct. The results showed a good agreement for the mean particle velocity with the increment of the axial position.


We studied patterns of genetic relatedness and paternity in moustached tamarins, small Neotropical primates living in groups of 1-4 adult males and 1-4 adult females. Generally only one female per group breeds, mating with more than one male. Twin birth are the norm. In order to examine the genetic consequences of this mating pattern, DNA was extracted from fecal samples collected from two principal and six neighboring groups. DNA was characterized at twelve microsatellite loci (average: seven alleles/locus). We addressed the following questions: Do all adult males have mating access to the reproductive female of the group? How is paternity distributed across males in a group? Can polyandrous mating lead to multiple paternity? Are nonparental animals more closely related to the breeders than to the population mean? And, are mating partners unrelated? Breeding females mated with all nonrelated males. In at least one group the father of the older offspring did not sire the youngest infant although he was still resident in the group. We also found evidence for multiple paternity in a supposed twin pair. Yet, within each group the majority (67-100%) of infants had the same father, suggesting reproductive skew. Relatedness within groups was generally high (average R = 0.31), although both nonrelated males and females occurred, i.e., immigrations of both sexes are possible. Mating partners were never found to be related, hence inbreeding seems to be uncommon. The results suggest that while the social mating system is polyandry, paternity is often monopolized by a single male per group.


OBJECTIVES
We explored the relationship between mental health and type 2 diabetes among women in New Delhi, India, in 2011.

METHODS
We recruited a convenience sample of 184 diabetic women from 10 public and private clinics. They completed a finger-stick blood test and a questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, depression and anxiety symptoms, and diabetes-related disabilities restricting their performance of daily tasks. A subsample of 30 women participated in follow-up qualitative interviews at their homes.

RESULTS
More than one quarter of our sample of diabetic women reported high levels of anxiety symptoms, whereas 18% reported high levels of depression symptoms. Anxiety symptoms were patterned according to recency of diabetes diagnosis, with 40% of women diagnosed less than 2 years before their interview reporting high anxiety symptom levels, as opposed to 23% of women diagnosed more than 2 years in the past. Depression and anxiety scores differed with respect to their relationship to recency of diagnosis, number of children, blood glucose level, and functional disabilities restricting performance of daily tasks.

CONCLUSIONS
Screening for anxiety among people with diabetes has been overlooked in the past. Anxiety appears more prevalent than depression, especially during the first 2 years of the disease.


We design, implement, and evaluate GeoPass: an interface for digital map-based authentication where a user chooses a place as his or her password (i.e., a "location-password"). We conducted a multi-session in-lab/at-home user study to evaluate the usability, memorability, and security of location-passwords created with GeoPass. The results of our user study found that 97% of users were able to remember their location-password over the span of 8-9 days and most without any failed login attempts. Users generally welcomed GeoPass; all of the users who completed the study reported that they would at least consider using GeoPass for some of their accounts. We also perform an in-depth usability and security analysis of location-passwords. Our security analysis includes the effect of information that could be gleaned from social engineering. The results of our security analysis show that location-passwords created with GeoPass can have reasonable security against online attacks, even when accounting for social engineering attacks. Based on our results, we suggest GeoPass would be most appropriate in contexts where logins occur infrequently, e.g., as an alternative to secondary authentication methods used for password resets, or for infrequently used online accounts.


Battery packs in recent electric vehicles (EVs) have high energy and high power densities which exerts a strong thermal stress upon them. This means that the individual battery cells are more prone to decline away and eventually fail early because of an excessive loss of capacity and an increase of internal resistance caused by accelerated aging. Moreover, for electromechanical reasons, each cell is totally unbalanced in operating mode. Unfortunately, most of the published literatures are carelessly emphasizing the fault ride-through capabilities of actual automotive battery packs. Therefore, for safety, efficiency and flexibility reasons, this presentation proposes a new concept for packaging EVs battery based on Configurable Modular Multilevel Converter (CMMC). In addition, EVs owners are confronted by the limited compatibility of available charging infrastructures. Hence, the CMMC is designed for a large range of charging infrastructure; from AC household basic supply to AC or DC ultrafast charging infrastructure. The CMMC proposes an intelligent control for power quality in EV application. The concept is proposed for universal and flexible EV charger and it is based on the MMC. It aims to use the existing motor winding as current filter during charging mode and the traction converter like charger converter. It distributes also the conventional battery pack into multilevel module, which increases the fault ride-through capabilities of the EV battery against thermal runaway. The electrical motor is fed by multilevel voltages which also increases the motor efficiency. In fact, the switching mode is controlled by a shifted angle between the upper-arm and lower-arm currents. This new concept allows interfacing EV to worldwide charging infrastructure which increases the flexibility of EV owner.


Reduction of silver cations followed by nanoparticle (Ag-NPs) synthesis is a model process to understand the reduction mechanism induced by a discharge over an aqueous surface, termed electrochemical plasma. This work aims at studying the silver reduction reaction steered by electrochemical plasma in the presence of other chemically active plasma-related interfaces, namely the plasma-gas and the liquid-gas interfaces. As no other plasma-induced species are able to reduce silver cations, the reduction of silver cations is employed as strategy to selectively detect the presence of hydrated electrons ( ). The results demonstrate that the global rise of pH (increase in the content of OH−), observed for discharge in the helium gas phase, occurs in connection with the silver reduction, which is interpreted as a vivid experimental evidence of the second-order recombination reaction of the (2eaq + 2H2O → H2 + 2OH). On the other hand, the global decrease of pH (increase in the content of H) observed for discharge in mixed oxygen and nitrogen gas phase, is an event primarily driven by the Birkeland-Eyde process, and it is concomitant but spatially distinct from the electron injection. The acidification interferes in the NP formation, as NPs promptly dissolve in presence of HNO3. Only in complete suppression of the acidification, an experimental evidence of the reaction pathways for hydrated electron could be captured: is competitively consumed through a scavenger-like reaction (reduction of silver cations in this work) and through the second-order recombination reactions of the . The kinetic model proposed in this work further corroborates this interpretation.


Numerous computational and conceptual difficulties are often encountered when conceiving techniques which are effective in detecting damage intensity, localization, and onset. Actually, also when the semi-inverse or the material characterization problems (which are commonly formulated in this context) can be recognized to be well posed, the numerical and computational obstacles which need to be overcome can render useless the conceived methodology. In the present paper we propose to change the paradigm used up to now when addressing the problem of damage assessment in engineering materials. In fact, we propose to conceive a metamaterial the properties of which make more expedite and effective the detection of cracks onset and damage evolution via the study of reflection and transmission of waves. More particularly, porous materials with underlying heterogeneous micro-structure may magnify the effects of reflection and transmission of waves at damaged sites depending on the considered boundary conditions. Materials of this type would make easier the structural health monitoring via nondestructive evaluation of local damage and would permit to detect incipient structural failure in a more efficient way. By analyzing the characteristic patterns of the reflection and transmission properties of surfaces where damage is concentrated, we show that, in the considered metamaterials, slow incident waves can be used to detect the onset and evolution of first gradient macroscopic damage (δ e ), while fast incident waves can be used to reveal loss of contact at the microscopic level, i.e. to detect the onset of second gradient macroscopic damage (δ r ).


On the basis of our previous developments in the field of nonempirical double hybrids, we present here a new exchange-correlation functional based on a range-separated model for the exchange part and integrating a nonlocal perturbative correction to the electron correlation contribution. Named RSX-QIDH, the functional is free from any kind of empirical parametrization. Its range-separation parameter is set to recover the total energy of the hydrogen atom, thus eliminating the self-interaction error for this one-electron system. Subsequent tests on some relevant benchmark data sets confirm that the self-interaction error is particularly low for RSX-QIDH. This new functional provides also correct dissociation profiles for charged rare-gas dimers and very accurate ionization potentials directly from Kohn-Sham orbital energies. Above all, these good results are not obtained at the expense of other properties. Indeed, further tests on standard benchmarks show that RSX-QIDH is competitive with the more empirical ωB97X-2 double hybrid and outperforms the parent LC-PBE long-range corrected hybrid, thus underlining the important role of the nonlocal perturbative correlation.


In this issue, as in previous issues of the bibliography, only first entries carry the complete information on a project. All subsequent entries carry a cross-reference to the original entry together with the latest estimated date of completion. Projects for which directors fail to provide current information are labeled "no information available." When this failure occurs two years in succession, then entries carry the notation "2nd and final notice: no information available," and these are eliminated from the bibliography. The notation "completed" has no reference to publication but indicates only that the work of editing or translating a text is finished. Readers wishing to order an offprint of the bibliography may do so by sending one dollar to the Medieval Text Association, Baruch College of the City University of New York, 17 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010, and by indicating the year of the bibliography sought. Those wishing to submit an entry may write for a questionnaire to the same address.


INTRODUCTION The fossil remains of Hippopotamus from the Pleistocene "Elandsfontein" site near Hopefield, Cape Province, have already been briefly described by Singer and Keen (1955), who found that the material available at the time was not different from the living Hippopotamus amphibius L. However, it seems worthwhile to review their status since the Hippopotamus material has been considerably increased as a result of recent collecting trips to the site. Not only are there now cranial remains, but also postcranial material, notably carpals, tarsals and metapodials. The purpose of the present note is to place on record all the material at present in the Hopefield collection pertaining to the species in question. The specimens, originally housed in the Anatomy Department, University of Cape Town, have now been transferred to the South African Museum, Cape Town. The specimens' numbers refer to the Hopefield collection catalogue. Order ARTIODACTYLA Owen Family HIPPOPOTAMIDAE Gray Genus HIPPOPOTAMUS Linnaeus Hippopotamus amphibius L. subsp. DESCRIPTION OF SKULL AND DENTAL REMAINS The best preserved cranial remains of the hippopotamus in the Hopefield collection are two posterior parts of skulls, both broken off in front of the orbits (the fragments composing the first skull are numbered 1259, 1263, 1264, 4061, 5909, 5925, 5940, 5951, 5966, 5968, and 6021; the fragments of the second specimen bear the following numbers: 5903, 5904, 5908, 5911, 5913, 5914, 5915, 5917, 5919, 5920, 5921, 5923, 5932, 5933, 5935, 5939,


Background: Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) is the most common anemia in all age groups. The coexistence of iron deficiency anemia and zinc (Zn) deficiency is quite common, for most of the etiologic factors are common. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of zinc deficiency in children with iron deficiency and/or iron deficiency anemia. Method: One hundred and sixty child patients within 6month-5 year age range diagnosed with iron deficiency and/or iron deficiency anemia and 91 children with no iron deficiency and/or iron deficiency anemia diagnosis were included in the study. The relationships between serum zinc levels and other biochemical and hematological parameters were examined. Results: It was observed that the study and control groups had similar demographic characteristics, and there was no statistically significant difference between two groups in terms of average age (months), distribution of age groups, and gender groups. Statistically significant differences were observed between hemoglobin (Hb), haematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), red cell distributionwidth (RDW), iron (Fe), total iron binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation (TS) and Ferritin values of the study group and control group, and the cases in the study group were determined to be highly anemic. Statistically significant difference was determined between groups in terms of zinc levels, and zinc levels in the study group were determined to be lower than those in the control group. Zinc deficiency (10%) in children diagnosed with iron deficiency and/or iron deficiency anemia was found more common compared to the control group (2.2%). A positive correlation between serum zinc levels and Hb, Hct, MCV, Fe, TS and Ferritin, and a negative correlation between serum zinc levels and RDW and total TIBC were detected in the study group. Conclusion: According to these results, it was concluded that children with iron deficiency could simultaneously have zinc deficiency, the iron-zinc combination might be more effective for the treatment of iron deficiency than treatment with only iron, and early age supplementation programs might be useful for the highrisk groups such as childhood until zinc deficiency tests gave routine results.


Title of Dissertation: CHARACTERIZATION AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IN FOODBORNE PATHOGENS Sheng Chen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Associate Professor Jianghong Meng Department of Nutrition and Food Science The emergence of antimicrobial resistance bacteria in both the medical and agricultural fields has become a serious problem worldwide. The use of antimicrobial agents in animals for prophylaxis and growth promotion favors the selection of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. These resistant bacteria may subsequently transmit to humans through food chain or human-animal interactions. The objectives of this study were to characterize and determine the molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella and Escherichia coli. E. coli isolates recovered from diseased piglets and chicken in China were characterized for the antimicrobial resistance phenotype and the presence of mutation in their gyrA, gyrB, parC and parE genes. Results indicated that multipleantimicrobial-resistant E. coli, including fluoroquinolone-resistant variants, are commonly present among diseased swine and chickens in China. DNA sequencing revealed that double gyrA mutations coupled with parC mutation conferred high-level resistance to fluoroquinolones. In addition, Salmonella isolates recovered from retail meats in the United States and China were characterized for antimicrobial resistance genotypes and the horizontal transfer of resistance determinants. The antimicrobial resistance genotypes of Salmonella were consistent to their phenotypes. Genes conferring antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella are often carried on integrons and plasmids, and could be transmitted through conjugation. To rapidly screen for the antimicrobial-resistant and virulence genes from bacteria, a DNA microarray was developed to analyze the antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes from Salmonella and E. coli. Results indicated that microarrray was an effective method to rapidly screen antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes in Salmonella and E coli. Finally, molecular mechanisms of fluoroquinolone resistance, including over-expression of efflux pumps and target gene mutations, were characterized among laboratory-induced and field-acquired fluoroquinolone-resistant Salmonella. The efflux pumps which were overexpressed in resistant strains were deleted and mutated gyrA and parC genes were replaced to determine the contribution of efflux pump and target gene mutations in fluoroquinolone-resistant Salmonella. When Salmonella are exposed to fluoroquinolone, certain efflux pumps are overexpressed in tandem with particular mutations in topoisomerase genes (gyrA and parC). Based on deletion mutagenesis studies, it appears that the most relevant genes with regards to the selection of fluoroquinolone resistance phenotypes among Salmonella are the AcrAB-tolC efflux pump and the gyrA portion of DNA gyrase gene. CHARACTERIZATION AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IN FOODBORNE PATHOGENS


Ethical leadership is a highly relevant and up-to-date topic in management studies because it represents a genuine key to improved work environment. To date, there was a considerable lack of empirical data on this specific leadership approach especially in the Central and Eastern European part of the world. This article represents an original and novel contribution to the respective field with preliminary results of an extensive ethical leadership research in the Slovak business environment carried out on the sample of 810 managers. Based on exploratory research design, results point out that ethical leadership is just moderately embedded in the current Slovak management practice and leaders do not utilize the full potential of ethics management tools at workplace. Still, there are some interesting commonalities and differences in the level of ethical leadership across the Slovak sample regarding the regional company location, company ownership, and company size.


In the rapidly proliferating digital marketplace, the business model of numerous companies is based on the processing of vast amounts of personal data. The data economy has triggered controversies regarding the intersection between EU competition law and data protection law. This article embarks on a conceptual analysis of "fairness", and tests the hypothesis that there exist commonalities between the two fields of law. The hypothesis is based on the fact that both competition and data protection law make explicit reference to the concept of fairness in defining infringements, and that EU law in general terms is subordinate to the principle of coherence. The article concludes, however, that although the concept is, to some extent, applied coherently in the two fields, its ability to offer legal certainty for the actors in the digital economy remains limited unless and until the administrative and judicial authorities elaborate its precise contents more fully. A joint elaboration could offer opportunities to move from "deliberate isolation" towards "constructive coherence".


We propose a new, simple, and computationally inexpensive termination test for constant step-size stochastic gradient descent (SGD) applied to binary classification on the logistic and hinge loss with homogeneous linear predictors. Our theoretical results support the effectiveness of our stopping criterion when the data is Gaussian distributed. This presence of noise allows for the possibility of non-separable data. We show that our test terminates in a finite number of iterations and when the noise in the data is not too large, the expected classifier at termination nearly minimizes the probability of misclassification. Finally, numerical experiments indicate for both real and synthetic data sets that our termination test exhibits a good degree of predictability on accuracy and running time.


Using population census data since 1921, this article traces changes in employment and occupational structure in Singapore in the past 80 years. This is a follow-up to an earlier paper by Kuo and Chen (1987) that reported the nascent formation of the information society in Singapore till the 1980s. It also makes an assessment of the role of proactive government policies in directing industrial restructuring and occupational changes in this city-state. It is found that the long-term growing trend in information-related occupations has been in tandem and supportive of industrial changes in Singapore. One more wave of growth of information producers (and certainly, innovators) and information distributors is expected in the next couple of decades. The momentum has started, and competition from regional countries similarly aspiring to be information and knowledge economies will quicken the pace. The government has initiated fundamental changes in the educational system to meet the challenges of the knowledge-based economy. The small city-state has also long adopted an adaptive philosophy to be responsive to the ever-changing environment, either in technology or in regional politics. Based on the trend analysis, it is expected that the emergent information society will graduate into full status when Singapore attains a developed country status in the forthcoming decades.


Supernova remnant blast shells can reach the flow speed vs = 0.1c and shocks form at its front. Instabilities driven by shock-reflected ion beams heat the plasma in the foreshock, which may inject particles into diffusive acceleration. The ion beams can have the speed vb ≈ vs. For vb ≪ vs the Buneman or upper-hybrid instabilities dominate, while for vb ≫ vs the filamentation and mixed modes grow faster. Here the relevant waves for vb ≈ vs are examined and how they interact nonlinearly with the particles. The collision of two plasma clouds at the speed vs is modelled with particle-in-cell simulations, which convect with them magnetic fields oriented perpendicular to their flow velocity vector. One simulation models equally dense clouds and the other one uses a density ratio of 2. Both simulations show upper-hybrid waves that are planar over large spatial intervals and that accelerate electrons to ∼10 keV. The symmetric collision yields only short oscillatory wave pulses, while the asymmetric collision also produces large-scale electric fields, probably through a magnetic pressure gradient. The large-scale fields destroy the electron phase space holes and they accelerate the ions, which facilitates the formation of a precursor shock.


In this study, the authors examine the hypothetical performance of various low volatility strategies in historical U.S., global developed, and emerging markets. The strategies we replicated outperformed cap-weighted market indices due to exposure to the value, BAB (betting against beta), and duration factors. (The duration factor introduced by the authors here is new to the literature.) A reduction in market beta drives the drop in volatility. The authors report that low volatility strategies can contribute to a more risk-diversified equity portfolio which earns long-term returns from multiple premium sources. The lower risk and higher return seem persistent across geographies and over time. Nonetheless, the authors identify flaws with naïve approaches to portfolio construction, which tend to result in high turnover, low liquidity, and concentrated country and industry allocations. Additionally, price increases would eliminate low volatility stocks' performance advantage. The conclusion of the authors is that the portfolio construction methods should be sensitive to the investability and valuation levels.


Sulfoquinovosylacylglycerols (SQAGs), in particular compounds with C18 fatty acid(s) on the glycerol moiety, may be clinically promising antitumor and/or immunosuppressive agents. They were found originally as inhibitors of mammalian DNA polymerases. However, SQAGs can arrest cultured mammalian cells not only at S phase but also at M phase, suggesting they have several molecular targets. A screen for candidate target molecules using a T7 phage display method identified an amino acid sequence. An homology search showed this to be a mammalian mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK), rather than a DNA polymerase. Analyses showed SQAGs bound to recombinant MCAK with a K(D)=3.1x10(-4) to 6.2x10-5 M. An in vivo microtubule depolymerization assay, using EGFP-full length MCAK fusion constructs, indicated inhibition of the microtubule depolymerization activity of MCAK. From these results, we conclude that clinically promising SQAGs have at least two different molecular targets, DNA polymerases and MCAK. It should be stressed that inhibitors of MCAK have never been reported previously so that there is a major potential for clinical utility.


The market for polyamide desalination membranes is expected to continue to grow during the coming decades. Purification of alternative water sources will also be necessary to meet growing water demands. Purification of produced water, a byproduct of oil and gas production, is of interest due to its dual potential to provide water for beneficial use as well as to reduce wastewater disposal costs. However, current polyamide membranes are prone to fouling, which decreases water flux and shortens membrane lifetime. This research explored surface modification using poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (PEGDE) to improve the fouling resistance of commercial polyamide membranes. Characterization of commercial polyamide membrane performance was a necessary first step before undertaking surface modification studies. Membrane performance was found to be sensitive to crossflow testing conditions. Concentration polarization and feed pH strongly influenced NaCl rejection, and the use of continuous feed filtration led to higher water flux and lower NaCl rejection than was observed for similar tests performed using unfiltered feed. Two commercial polyamide membranes, including one reverse osmosis and one nanofiltration membrane, were modified by grafting PEGDE to their surfaces. Two different PEG molecular weights (200 and 1000) and treatment concentrations (1% (w/w) and 15% (w/w)) were studied. Water flux decreased and NaCl rejection increased with PEGDE graft density ([microgram]/cm2), although the largest changes were observed for low PEGDE graft densities. Surface properties including hydrophilicity, roughness and charge were minimally affected by surface modification. The fouling resistance of modified and unmodified membranes was compared in crossflow filtration studies using model foulant solutions consisting of either a charged surfactant or an oil in water emulsion containing n-decane and a charged surfactant. Several PEGDE-modified membranes demonstrated improved fouling resistance compared to unmodified membranes of similar initial water flux, possibly due to steric hindrance imparted by the PEG chains. Fouling resistance was higher for membranes modified with higher molecular weight PEG. Fouling was more extensive for feeds containing the cationic surfactant, potentially due to electrostatic attraction with the negatively charged membranes. However, fouling was also observed in the presence of the anionic surfactant, indicating hydrodynamic forces are also responsible for fouling.


This research examines claims of witchcraft related violence (WRV) in asylum decisions. In refugee applications involving WRV those accused of witchcraft are largely women, and those fearing witchcraft are more often men. This is one of two interrelated articles reporting on cases where claimants feared harm from witchcraft or occult practices. We argue that WRV is a manifestation of gender-related harm, one which exposes major failings in the application of refugee jurisprudence. Systemic inattention to the meaning and application of the Convention ground of Religion, combined with gender insensitivity in analysis, meant that claims were frequently re-configured by decision-makers as personal grudges. The fear of witchcraft cases pose an acute ontological challenge to refugee status determination, as the claimed harm falls outside of what is understood to be objective, verifiable, or Convention-related. Male applicants struggled to make their claims comprehensible as a result of the feminised and 'irrational' characterization of witchcraft fears and beliefs.


Abstract Like forecasts about the paperless office, technological solutions to the problem of international business travel continue to be deferred. As with the increased use of office paper, international business travel is defying predictions of its decline. There is growing evidence to suggest that business sectors which seem ideally placed to substitute information and communication technology (ICT) for travel, are actually generating more physical travel than other sectors. This paper develops a case study of the Irish software industry to exemplify why international travel is not diminishing in importance how and the ICT and business travel relationship is changing in this sector. The paper presents research findings that suggest that a cycle of substitution, generation and modification relationships have occurred as mobility interdependencies have developed.


Overview. This paper discusses some of the work that has been done on cost estimation of biodiversity conservation for protected areas in the tropics. It also summarizes some conceptual and practical considerations related to compensating local residents who lose land use opportunities due to conservation activities. The main costs associated with conservation and the creation of national parks or reserves arise from land acquisition, hiring and training personnel, and the development of infrastructure. The costs associated with foregone uses of park land arise from the fact that local residents will no longer be able to use the areas for hunting, collecting forest products, or as a source of new agricultural land. The example of Mantadia National Park, a newly established area in the eastern rainforest of Madagascar, is presented as a case study. It was estimated that the mean value of losses for the local villagers who are dependent on the forests within the park for their livelihood was $91 per household per year. A survey concluded that on average a compensation of $108 per year and per household would make households as well off with the park as without. However, there are few cases in which actual compensation of residents living near protected areas was given. The conclusion is that opportunity costs to local residents must be taken into account in the establishment of protected areas and that these costs might have to be compensated for the project to be sustainable in the long run.


"101 Clear Grammar Tests" contains 101 reproducible tests on common points in the teaching of beginning, intermediate, and advanced ESL grammar. This collection of tests includes a variety of question types and reflects a range of different approaches to testing. As a result, busy teachers will be able to easily find tests that resemble the teaching and learning styles of their own classrooms. The tests in this book are arranged by topic, with two tests per grammar point, in a sequence that matches the one found in the "Clear Grammar" textbooks, Books 1-4. This test bank also contains a bonus-nine comprehensive advanced grammar tests. Like its predecessor ("100 Clear Grammar Tests"), this book can be used along with any other ESL grammar series.


Since most indoor spaces have multiple luminaires for illumination, for visible light communication (VLC) systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication emerges as a natural solution to improve the data rates and/or the link reliability. The existing works on MIMO VLC systems, however, overlook the characteristics of the lighting infrastructure and the luminaire design, which might have implications for the VLC system design. A luminaire typically consists of multiple LED chips. The wiring topology refers to how the LED chips are connected within the luminaire. The cabling topology, on the other hand, refers to how the luminaires are connected to the communication access point (AP). Based on the type and length of cabling and wiring, significant delays can be introduced, which should be taken into account in channel modeling. In this paper, we adopt the non-sequential ray tracing to model the distributed MIMO VLC channels for various practical wiring and cabling topologies. Based on the developed channel models, we provide a comparative performance analysis of repetition coding (RC), spatial multiplexing (SMUX), and spatial modulation (SMOD) MIMO modes. Our results quantify the effect of wiring/cabling delays and provide insights into the optimized design of lighting infrastructure and luminaires for the support of VLC as an add-on service.