The human p63 gene discovered in 1997 encodes a series of protein isoforms that differ in their Nand/or C-terminal sequences. These isoforms have widely differing properties in promoting or repressing p53-related functions such as growth arrest and apoptosis. In addition, p63 appears to play important roles in the maintenance and differentiation of epithelial cell populations. Many studies have shown that p63, particularly ΔNp63α, is expressed in normal epithelium and also highly expressed in squamous cell carcinomas of surface epithelia. Methods. We have refined the analysis of the expression patterns of p63 isoforms by the use of a quantitative RT-PCR technique applied to micro-dissected normal oral mucosal samples. We have also studied p63 expression in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) compared to normal oral mucosa taken from the same patient. Furthermore, tobacco-exposed buccal mucosa was compared to age and gender matched non exposed controls. RT-PCR for telomerase and immunohistochemical analysis for detection of p53 and Ki-67 proteins was further performed. We also explored the function of p63 in SCCHN cells by using small interfering RNA (siRNA) to silence the expression of different p63 isoforms in cell lines originating from SCCHN. The effect of p63 knockdown was studied using a Fluorescein Diacetate based cytotoxicity assay and immunohistochemistry looking at expression of differentiation markers. The response of the siRNA treated cells to radiation and cytostatic drug was also investigated. We have further studied normal oral wound healing using immunohistochemistry and quantitative PCR. By the use of a macro array comparing siRNA treated cells with non-treated cells a possible connection between the BRCA1 gene and p63 expression was shown and further studied with the use of cHIP and luciferase reporter assays. Results. The p63 isoforms are expressed in normal epithelium, with the highest levels consistently found in basal and parabasal layers. Extensive use of tobacco had no effect on p63. The quantitative PCR showed statistically increased levels of the ΔNp63 and p63β isoforms. No correlation was found between p63-isoform expression patterns and proliferation. The exploration of the function of p63 in SCCHN cells by the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) showed a statistically significant decreased survival for tumour cells when all p63 isoforms, the N-terminal truncated or the α isoforms were inhibited. No effect on cell proliferation or expression of epithelial differentiation markers was observed. We also demonstrated that inhibition of p63 expression sensitizes cells to the effects of ionizing radiation and cisplatin. The study of normal oral wound healing using immunohistochemistry and quantitative PCR showed significant changes in p63 isoform expression. The ΔNp63 isoform was mainly expressed in the basal layer in the non proliferating and migrating cells while TAp63 was almost absent. The BRCA1 study showed p63 to bind to the BRCA1 promoter and activate the expression of BRCA1 protein. Summary. The p63 proteins have different functions and the balance between the isoforms and their localisation within the epithelium seems to be important for normal wound healing as well as cancer cell survival.


India has a long history of financial intermediation. The first bank in India was set up in 1770 and named as Bank of Hindustan. The earliest attempt to establish a Central Bank was in 1773. India was also a fore runner in terms of development of financial markets. By independence, India had a fairly well developed commercial banking system in existence. In 1951, there were 566 private commercial banks in India with 4151 branches, the majority of which were confined to large towns and cities. The Reserve Bank of India (the Central Bank of the Country) was established in 1935 as a shareholders institution like the Bank of England. The Reserve Bank of India became a state owned institution from January 1, 1949. It was only in this year that the Banking Regulation Act was enacted to provide a framework for regulation and supervision of commercial banking system. The institution building and development of the financial system was propelled by the planners after independence. The vision was to ensure that sectoral needs of credit to agriculture and industry were met in an organised manner. The RBI was vested with the major, responsibility of developing the institutional infrastructure in the financial system. The commercial banking system was expanded to take care of the general banking needs of accepting deposits and extension of loans. In July 1969, 14 biggest commercial banks were nationalised as a major step to ensure adequate credit flow into genuine productive areas in conformity with plan priorities. Two significant aspects of nationalisation were (1) rapid branch expansion and its channelling of credit according to plan priorities. In April 1980, 6 more commercial banks were further nationalised, thus, extending the domain of public sector over the banking system. The reforms in banking sector were introduced in June 1991 in the wake of balance of payments crisis, which was certainly severe. Reforms have altered the organisational structure, ownership pattern and domain of operation of banks. The main thrust of reforms in the financial sector was the creation of efficient and stable financial institutions and markets. Reforms in the banking sectors focused on creating a deregulated environment, strengthening the prudential norms and the supervisory system changing the ownership pattern, and increasing competition. The objective of reform was also to create an environment where existing banks could respond to changing circumstances and compete with new domestic private and foreign institutions that were permitted to operate. Competition has been infused into the financial system by licensing new private banks since 1993. Foreign banks have also been given more liberal entry. The presence of these banks have increased their share in the financial system and has improved the efficiency of the system. As a part of central banking activities and the overall economic perspective of the banking system of the country, RBI collects a vast amount of information on the banking system through various statutory and control (non-statutory) returns. Control returns cover various aspects of banking information like spatial distribution of deposits and credit, international banking, priority sectors, etc. Each aspect is again defined by its own separate statistical system. Against this background, the information based on statutory returns and those of control or special returns are available separately.


This work summarises the occurrence, distribution and evolution of laterite in Goa State, India. It places the development of Goan laterite within the context of the geomorphological and geological (i.e. morphotectonic) evolution of the western continental margin of India. The multiphase rift history that affected western India during the Mesozoic has placed important constraints upon this morphotectonic evolution, and also upon the associated erosional, depositional and deep weathering effects that have contributed to the long-term development of the continental margin.

The Konkan – Kanara coastal lowland region of western India evolved geomorphologically during Cenozoic times. It is bounded to the east by the immensely long (c. 1600 km) Western Ghats escarpment. From Trivandrum to Mumbai (c. 8° - 19°N) the coastal lowlands that precede the Ghats escarpment are remarkable for the occurrence of a shallowly dipping, discontinuous ramp or 'belt' of dissected laterite-capped 'table lands' which slope gently toward the coast. These table lands represent the remnants of a once extensive, semi-continuous laterite belt that originally extended along the length of western peninsular India. This widespread lateritization testifies to an important phase of tropical deep weathering that occurred during the Late Cenozoic when favourable climatic conditions reached an acme. The laterites of Goa State form an important component of this Late Cenozoic Konkan – Kanara laterite belt, and assist in providing a broader understanding of the syn- and post-Miocene evolution of the coastal regions of western India.


The natural world is home to innumerable patterns in various forms, which humans are able to locate and interpret by means of the senses. This thesis presents and explores different techniques that mimic such behavior through the use of artificial sensors and computational power, i.e. aspects of machine learning with particular emphasis on pattern recognition. Theory and practical issues are explored with respect to two main operations; feature extraction and classification. On the topic of feature extraction, this thesis introduces a new signal processing transform, denoted the Successive Mean Quantization Transform (SMQT). The relevant theory, extensions and numerical transformations are presented, along with possible usage of this transform in various situations. Two different classifiers are investigated; the hidden Markov model and the sparse network of winnows. The hidden Markov model is a stochastic model which has been used successfully in the context of various pattern recognition applications. During the implementation of a complete system using the hidden Markov model, a number of possible numerical issues can arise. The relevant theory behind these numerical issues is presented, as are a number of possible solutions. The sparse network of winnows is a general purpose classifier. In the context of this thesis, it is tailored for the task of fast binary classification using lookup tables. Further, a scheme is proposed to split up this classifier in order to perform faster classification. This scheme is denoted the split up sparse network of winnows. The sections of this thesis dedicated to feature extraction and classification present a number of tools which are utilized further in three applications. The first application is concerned with the enhancement of noise degraded speech. Specifically, this application addresses the task of reducing non-stationary noise from speech using the hidden Markov model. The second application addresses the task of automatic image enhancement. For this task, the Successive Mean Quantization Transform is investigated. The final application is concerned with face detection. For this task, illumination problems and speed issues are discussed, along with proposed solutions.


When hardware description languages (HDLs) are used in describing the behavior of a digital circuit, design errors (or bugs) almost inevitably appear in the HDL code of the circuit. Existing approaches attempt to reduce efforts involved in this debugging process by extracting a reduced set of error candidates. However, the derived set can still contain many error candidates, and finding true design errors among the candidates in the set may still consume much valuable time. A debugging priority method was proposed to speed up the error-searching process in the derived error candidate set. The idea is to display error candidates in an order that corresponds to an individual's degree of suspicion. With this method, error candidates are placed in a rank order based on their probability of being an error. The more likely an error candidate is a design error (or a bug), the higher the rank order that it has. With the displayed rank order, circuit designers should find design errors quicker than with blind searching when searching for design errors among all the derived candidates. However, the currently used confidence score (CS) for deriving the debugging priority has some flaws in estimating the likelihood of correctness of error candidates due to the masking error situation. This reduces the degree of accuracy in establishing a debugging priority . Therefore, the objective of this work is to develop a new probabilistic confidence score (PCS) that takes the masking error situation into consideration in order to provide a more reliable and accurate debugging priority. The experimental results show that our proposed PCS achieves better results in estimating the likelihood of correctness and can indeed suggest a debugging priority with better accuracy, as compared to the CS.


Nautical tourism is one of the selective forms of tourism that rise in the last thirty years on the foreign market as well as on domestic market. There are more and more advocates of this form of tourism mostly coming from developed countries as this form of tourism is mostly used by people having medium and high standard. In favour of that thesis is the fact that a boater during one entering the port with the yacht spends as much as 30 "ordinary" tourists. Due to that fact many countries are starting to develop nautical tourism, especially the one on rivers. Croatia, as one of maritime countries with great number of islands, has great possibilities for further development of that form of tourism. Nautical tourists nowadays has more and more demands, they expect clean see, the best organisation in nautical tourism port, but also the best food and drink, and many different activities and other special facilities for their pleasure. Authors in this paper research basic and complementary facilities that nautical tourism ports offer, define which of them the important ones are and which one are the additional ones. They also research the level of quality that has to be satisfied to attract yachters out of season as well. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the offer made by three marinas: Croatian, Italian and Spanish marina and present received results. The aim of the research is to define the role and quality of facilities of business operations of a nautical tourism port, and as a holder of the development of nautical tourism and element of integral management of maritime domain.


Our objective was to compare the stiffness of lateral mass screws versus two different spinous process wiring constructs in a cadaveric model of plated anterior cervical pseudoarthrosis. When treating an anterior plated pseudoarthrosis via a posterior approach, it is unclear whether the added expense, muscle exposure, and risk of lateral mass fixation are justified biomechanically versus a simpler, cheaper, and potentially less morbid wiring technique, because the presence of the anterior plate likely reduces motion over the unplated situation. Seven cadaveric cervical spines were loaded in compression, flexion, extension, lateral bending, and torsion. Each load sequence was applied to: 1) the intact spine; 2) after application of a plated ACDF construct (pACDF); and 3) after the insertion of lateral mass (LM) screws, ``modified'' triple wiring (TW), or Roger's wiring (RW), in alternating order for each specimen. For each sequence, load deformation curves and stiffness were obtained. Supplemental LM fixation significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased stiffness versus pACDF in all six modes tested. TW significantly increased stiffness versus pACDF in compression, flexion, and torsion, but not in extension, or lateral bending. RW significantly increased stiffness versus pACDF only in axial torsion. When comparing LM to the wiring constructs, LM fixation was significantly stiffer than RW in flexion, extension, and lateral bending; LM fixation was stiffer than TW in lateral bending. LM fixation produced the stiffest overall constructs in stabilizing a plated pseudarthrosis ACDF model. It was significantly stiffer in more modes versus RW than TW.


Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are considered promising next-generation mechanical energy harvesters owing to their desirable attributes such as light weight, portability, eco-friendliness, and low cost. However, cost-effective, scalable, and facile manufacturing methods are still required for the commercialization of TENGs, especially for textile-type TENGs compatible with a variety of textile products. In this work, we report for the first time the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of graphene multilayers for low-cost, durable, scalable, and wearable TENGs. The LbL-based graphene multilayers are fabricated on polymer substrates with flat, undulated, and textile surfaces, where graphene multilayers play dual roles as a positive tribo-material and as an electrode. The polymer substrate here is utilized as a negative tribo-material. We identify the optimal number of layers for graphene composites and analyze this outcome using their morphological and electrical properties. Due to the hydrogen bonding-based LbL wet processes, graphene composite multilayers could be well deposited on undulated surfaces as well as on large-scale fabric textiles. These LbL-deposited graphene multilayers yield graphene based-TENGs (G-TENGs) with high durability and high performance. Finally, a graphene multilayer on a textile sample is demonstrated as a scalable and wearable textile-based G-TENG (TG-TENG) operated in a single electrode mode, thereby enabling low-cost manufacturing and high compatibility with textile products such as cloths, curtains, bags and so on. The simple, cost-effective, scalable, and versatile LbL assembly can therefore enable the fabrication of wearable energy harvesting sources for many portable personal microelectronic devices (e.g., self-powered wireless sensors).


In this powerful sequel to "Seeds of Deception", Jeffrey Smith shatters the biotech industry's claim that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe. Nearly forty health risks of the foods that Americans eat every day are presented in easy-to-read two-page spreads. The left page is designed for the quick scanning reader; it includes bullets, illustrations, and quotes. The right side offers fully referenced text, describing both research studies and theoretical risks. It is presented in the clear, accessible style that made Jeffrey Smith's "Seeds of Deception" the world's best-selling book on genetically engineered foods. The second half of "Genetic Roulette" explores why children are most at risk, how to avoid GM foods, false claims by biotech advocates, how industry research is rigged to avoid finding problems, why GM crops are not needed to feed the world, the economic losses associated with these crops, and more. This book, prepared in collaboration with a team of international scientists, is for anyone wanting to understand GM technology, to learn how to protect themselves, or to share their concerns with others.


Most discoveries in empirical finance are false, as a consequence of selection bias under multiple testing. Although many researchers are aware of this problem, the solutions proposed in the literature tend to be complex and hard to implement. In this article, the author reduces the problem of selection bias in the context of investment strategy development to two sub-problems: determining the number of essentially independent trials and determining the variance across those trials. The author explains what data researchers need to report to allow others to evaluate the effect that multiple testing has had on reported performance. He applies his method to a real case of strategy development and estimates the probability that a discovered strategy is false.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the utility of liver function tests (LFTs) for early recognition and prediction of severity of Dengue fever in hospitalized patients.

STUDY DESIGN
An analytical study.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY
Services Institute of Medical Science and Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, from September - December 2010.

METHODOLOGY
Admitted cases of Dengue fever were divided into 3 groups; mild, moderate and severe increases in aminotransferases. Elevation in LFTs was co-related with good or bad outcome i.e. (survival or complication free stay) or (death or complications). RESULTS were analyzed in SPSS version 18.

RESULTS
Out of the 353 patients with mean age of 37.12 ± 15.45 years, 245 (69.4%) were males and 108 (30.6%) were females. Seventy five patients (21.2%) had mild elevation of aminotransferases (2 fold increases), 265 patients (75.1%) had moderate increases (3 to 4 fold) and 13 (3.7%) had severe (> 4 fold increase). ALT was statistically higher in patients with septicemia, hepatic and renal failure (p-value ² 0.05). AST was higher in almost all complications. Prolonged hospital stay was associated with raised LFTs and greater complications and mortality. AST was found to be twice as much raised as ALT.

CONCLUSION
AST and ALT were statistically higher in patients with worse outcome thus can lead to early recognition of high risk cases.


The scathing insults that fill texts by sixteenth-century Christian reformers can shock even a jaded modern reader. In the prefatory letter to the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520), for example, Martin Luther begins by wishing for "grace and peace in Christ" before launching his attack on the "brainless and illiterate beast in papist form" and its "whole filthy pack of … asses," and concludes by exhorting his reader to rise up against the Catholic hierarchy: "Continue courageously, noble sir; in this way the disgrace of the Bohemian name will be abolished, and the sludge of the harlot's lies and whoring shall again be taken up in her breast." Or consider the nasty invectives by the English Lord Chancellor and future Catholic martyr, Thomas More, against not only Luther but also Matthew Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English. More calls these men the "devil's disciples": Luther "a pimp, an apostate, a rustic, and a friar"; and Tyndale "a babbler, and a devil's ape." Even Desiderius Erasmus, the erudite Catholic humanist, filled his writings with insults both satirical and blunt and proclaimed that theologians "are more stupid than any pig" (sue stupidiores). Fierce words commonly appear in the midst of religious controversies, and one may choose to skim past this hyperbolic outrage in search of the real message. Insulting rhetoric, however, does provide a sensitive barometer of religious concerns in the sixteenth century and yields unexpectedly complex answers to a simple question. What does negative speech accomplish?


Agricultural production can degrade water sources through leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural land to surface and ground water sources. To minimize the pollution from agricultural production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture promotes adoption of conservation practices. Previous studies that analyzed adoption of new technologies did not incorporate the two important features of technologies that are primarily used to conserve the environment; common resource and interaction between farmers. The current study develops a conceptual framework using a differential game to analyze adoption of new technologies that impact the water quality. The results of the current study show that the single agent optimization models of the previous studies would not lead to the optimal solution of the differential game. Current study also shows that if farmers act cooperatively, they devote more capital to conserve the environment.


Typically, inversion algorithms assume that a forward model, which relates a source to its resulting measurements, is known and fixed. Using collected indirect measurements and the forward model, the goal becomes to recover the source. When the forward model is unknown, or imperfect, artifacts due to model mismatch occur in the recovery of the source. In this paper, we study the problem of blind inversion: solving an inverse problem with unknown or imperfect knowledge of the forward model parameters. We propose DeepGEM, a variational Expectation-Maximization (EM) framework that can be used to solve for the unknown parameters of the forward model in an unsupervised manner. DeepGEM makes use of a normalizing flow generative network to efficiently capture complex posterior distributions, which leads to more accurate evaluation of the source's posterior distribution used in EM. We showcase the effectiveness of our DeepGEM approach by achieving strong performance on the challenging problem of blind seismic tomography, where we significantly outperform the standard method used in seismology. We also demonstrate the generality of DeepGEM by applying it to a simple case of blind deconvolution. achieves strong performance in the task of joint seismic tomography and earthquake source localization, substantially outperforming standard approaches currently being used in seismology on synthetic data. The proposed framework is flexible and can be applied to different applications that require estimation or fine tuning of forward model parameters. We demonstrate this flexibility by also applying the approach to a simple, but challenging, blind deconvolution problem. Future work includes applying this method to real seismic data, extending to other applications, and incorporating data-driven priors. Our results highlight the benefit of blending physically sound model-based techniques with learning machinery for blind inverse problems.


In today's complex and volatile environment, the hospitality industry has developed a close link with job stress. Most factors resulting from this are job specific or organisation related. The globalisation and liberalisation of the world economy has made jobs more competitive and demanding. The acceleration of workers moving to multi-national companies has influenced cross-cultural conflicts between members of the same team. In addition, the faulty lifestyle of employees travelling to different countries, or excessive business visits away from the family, has exaggerated the problem. Hence, the increase in job stress that has taken place in the past two decades is related to globalisation, organisational change and lifestyle of employees. Various demands placed by organisations tend to pressurise employees, leading to stressful working environments. These stressful environments in turn affect performance, leading employees into stressful situations. Many hospitality organisations have started stress management programmes but staff turnover still remains high due to job stress. This research investigates stress management techniques adopted in hotels to manage organisational stress and the impact of stress on middle managements performance in five star hotels in the city of Mumbai, India.


We study the effect of the magnetosonic Mach number on the position of the bow shock (BS) at Mars. The magnetosonic Mach number is calculated from solar wind data obtained by the ACE satellite upstream of Earth and extrapolated to Mars during two intervals, starting in 2005 and 2007, when Mars and Earth were close to opposition. An increased Mach number is observed to cause the Martian BS to move to lower altitudes and the variation in the terminator altitude is proportional to the Mach number change. When the Mach number is lowered, the BS flares more. We also compare our results to previous studies at Venus. The variation in BS altitude with magnetosonic Mach number is found to be very similar to the variation of the Venusian BS, which has previously been shown to decrease linearly in altitude with increasing Mach number.


Pregnant, adult Angora ewes, supplemented with either 0, 200, 400 or 600 9 of alkali-ionophore treated whole maize per ewe per day were kept on Atriplex nummularia pasture for the entire gestational period. Changes in live bodymass, reproductive performance, and various mohair traits were recorded. Live bodymass gain during gestation was closely related to the amount of supplementation provided and highly significant differences (P < 0,01) occurred between all groups, except between the groups receiving 200 and 400 9 alkali-ionophore-treated whole maize respectively. No significant differences in the recorded mohair traits occurred between the various groups. Although the results suggest that pregnant Angora ewes could maintain pregnancy on A. nummularia only, such animals run a relatively high risk of abortion especially during adverse weather conditions such as cold and wet spells. Supplementation of ewes on A. nummularia at a rate of approximately 300 9 alkali-ionophore-treated whole maize per head per day is indicated.


The cardiovascular and left ventricular (LV) functional effects of levosimendan were examined (LSM; 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 micrograms.kg-1.min-1) in conscious, chronically instrumented dogs (n = 8) in the presence and absence of heart rate control with zatebradine (ZAT) or ZAT alone (0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mg.kg-1). LSM increased heart rate (HR) cardiac output (CO), diastolic coronary blood flow velocity (DCBFV) and pressure-work index (PWI; calculated myocardial oxygen consumption) and decreased mean arterial, LV systolic and end-diastolic pressures, systemic vascular resistance and diastolic coronary vascular resistance (DCVR). ZAT alone decreased HR and PWI and increased stroke volume. LSM-induced increases in HR and PWI were attenuated by ZAT. Increases in DCBFV and decreases in DCVR occurred without changes in PWI in the presence of ZAT. LSM increased preload recruitable stroke work slope (Mw, 68 +/- 6 to 159 +/- 13 mm Hg) and +dP/dt. These positive inotropic effects were partially attenuated by ZAT. LSM alone decreased the time constant of isovolumic relaxation (tau, 36 +/- 2 to 29 +/- 2 ms). LSM-induced decreases in tau were blunted by ZAT, indicating that changes in tau were partially dependent on heart rate. LSM increased the maximal rate of segment lengthening to a similar degree in ZAT-treated versus -untreated dogs. ZAT alone had minimal effects on LV function. Control of LSM-induced tachycardia with ZAT decreases myocardial oxygen consumption but also partially attenuates the positive inotropic and lusitropic effects of LSM.


Peninsular Malaysia is located on the stable Sunda Shelf \vith low to moderate level
of seismic activity. Even though the peninsular has not been seriously affected by any
earthquake, some Northern areas were quite badly engulfed by the Tsunami of 2004.
Frequent earthquakes in the region have also caused panic and emergency evacuation
of high rise structures resulting in the government now requiring consideration of
seismic loadings in the design of critical infrastructures in Malaysia. Piled foundation
is used to transmit loading of high rise structures to competent ground thus will be
greatly affected by an earthquake. Due to seismic loading, the piles in soft ground will
likely to be sheared and buckled by the horizontal movements. In studying the
behavior of soft soil in marine alluvial environment. the study described in this thesis
has carried out the vibrating table test (VTT), as also by many other researches around
the world. The study has involved a vibrating table with frequency control and a
container filled with marine alluvial silt of high plasticity, which has originated from
Prai, near Penang. A pile was inserted in the soil medium and the table was then
allowed to vibrate. Liquefaction and boiling phenomena were observed, among
others, and the acceleration on top of the pile was found amplified to as much as
3.3648 times from the acceleration of the vibrating table during VTT.


What do research on women in science and research on science and gender have to do with each other? This volume brings together prominent historians and philosophers of science to examine women's participation in science, gender and science, and the potential for interaction between these two pieces of a larger puzzle. The 11 chapters included here explore a number of interrelated topics: the experiences of individual women working in science; the demographic patterns of, and support for, women in specific fields; the gendered construction of scientific education and terminology; and the impact of feminist critiques on contemporary science. The result is a collection of works that are rich in suggestions, specific in their evidence, and grounded in the complex discussion of gender in late- 20th-century cultural and academic life.


The Automatic Guided Vehicle refers a type of system that can be used in production as well as in other industries etc. This system includes a battery operated remote sensing locomotive (carrier) on which a small lift is provided, specific path over which it moves, sensors for sensing the obstructions on the path of the carrier. The remote sensing carrier moves using the electric power from the battery. The objective and scope of this work is to create an AGV model that can follow a trail of line on a flat surface horizontally. This AGV model is using microcontroller to control all navigation and lifting functions during its operation. In other words, the microcontroller acts just like the brain for the model that controls all operation of the system. From the remote station we send only information through voice command for moving the carrier, not for steering it. The steering is done by the path. It moves with a low and constant speed on the prescribed path. The path has a specific color. The bottom of the carrier have sensor which is always coupled with the path. The front side of carrier vehicle contains sensors for sensing the obstructions on the path.


We demonstrate acceleration on graphic processing units (GPU) of automatic identification of robust particle therapy beam setups, minimizing negative dosimetric effects of Bragg peak displacement caused by treatment-time patient positioning errors. Our particle therapy research toolkit, RobuR, was extended with OpenCL support and used to implement calculation on GPU of the Port Homogeneity Index, a metric scoring irradiation port robustness through analysis of tissue density patterns prior to dose optimization and computation. Results were benchmarked against an independent native CPU implementation. Numerical results were in agreement between the GPU implementation and native CPU implementation. For 10 skull base cases, the GPU-accelerated implementation was employed to select beam setups for proton and carbon ion treatment plans, which proved to be dosimetrically robust, when recomputed in presence of various simulated positioning errors. From the point of view of performance, average running time on the GPU decreased by at least one order of magnitude compared to the CPU, rendering the GPU-accelerated analysis a feasible step in a clinical treatment planning interactive session. In conclusion, selection of robust particle therapy beam setups can be effectively accelerated on a GPU and become an unintrusive part of the particle therapy treatment planning workflow. Additionally, the speed gain opens new usage scenarios, like interactive analysis manipulation (e.g. constraining of some setup) and re-execution. Finally, through OpenCL portable parallelism, the new implementation is suitable also for CPU-only use, taking advantage of multiple cores, and can potentially exploit types of accelerators other than GPUs.


A large-scale epidemiological study was conducted to determine breeds at risk for 12 developmental orthopedic diseases (DODs). Developmental orthopedic diseases investigated included canine hip dysplasia (CHD); craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO); fragmented coronoid process; hypertrophic osteodystrophy; Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease; osteochondrosis of the medial humeral condyle, caudal humeral head, femoral condyles, and talar trochlear ridges; panosteitis; patella luxation; and ununited anconeal process. Dogs that were diagnosed with any one of the diseases of interest at any of 10 veterinary teaching hospitals participating in the Veterinary Medical Database from 1986 to 1995 were included as cases. Odds ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated to determine risk. Frequency of diagnosis during the 10-year period ranged from 35 cases (CMO) to 10,637 cases (CHD). The number of breeds at increased risk for a disease ranged from one (CMO) to 35 (CHD). Breed susceptibility for a DOD may suggest a genetic component in the disease etiology. The results of this study serve to increase veterinarians' awareness of breeds susceptible to DODs and may facilitate the control of such diseases by identifying breeds that might benefit from breeding programs or environmental intervention such as dietary modification.


This year-long study reports the results of student graphing of writing after brief freewriting periods in the 4th grade. The primary goal was to increase writing fluency. An examination of writing samples over time from students with the highest and lowest writing rates showed improved writing quality in terms of more concrete details and more sophisticated organization. Ceiling effects in writing rate did not appear. Even the student with the greatest increases in writing rates showed no signs of a slowdown at the end of the year. In addition, this study led to instructional changes that increased the consequences for freewriting and resulted in a fairly complete instructional package for writing. Given that fluency is a value in virtually all areas of academic learning, this study also suggests that classroom-wide graphing of fluency may be used to develop a teacher's own instructional packages for writing in language arts and in other curricular areas. ********** There are good reasons for using student self-graphing; it meets the practicalities of continuously collecting data on individual student performances in a classroom, and it has the additional benefit of improving the target performance of whatever behavior is being self-graphed (McLaughlin, 1976; Morgan, 1984; Moxley, 1998; Moxley, Kenny, & Hunt, 1990; Moxley, Lutz, Ahlborn, Boley, & Armstrong, 1995; O'Leary & Dubey, 1979; Rosenbaum & Drabman, 1979; Studwell & Moxley, 1984). Barlow, Hayes, and Nelson (1984) refer to this effect as the reactivity of self-monitoring; and it is fairly robust, even in the face of inaccurate recording. The value of increasing writing fluency also has support from the literature. Increasing experiences with writing--which usually implies more writing during an extended period of time--is widely regarded as an indication and means of improving the quality of writing. In addition, higher writing rates by children have often been found to indicate a higher quality of writing (Deno, 1986; Deno, Marston, & Mirkin, 1982; Deno, Mirkin, & Marston, 1980; Graham & Harris, 1989; Marston, 1989; Moxley et al., 1995; Mykiebust, 1965; Van Houten, Morrison, Jarvis, & McDonald, 1988; Videen, Deno, & Marston, 1982). Van Houten et al. (1988), for example, found "Increased writing rate was correlated with increased rating of story quality by independent judges" (p. 293). A natural opportunity to increase fluency in writing occurs in the freewriting stage where the primary purpose is to generate ideas. Ideas lead to ideas, and this usually works best without interruptions and without trying to meet all writing functions simultaneously. According to Elbow (1981), When you write quickly...as in freewriting, your syntactic units hang together. Even if you change your mind in mid-sentence...you produce a clear break. You don't try to plaster over two or three syntactic units as one, as you often do in painstaking writing. Freewriting produces syntactic coherence and verbal energy which gradually transfer to your more careful writing. (pp. 16-17) In writing quickly, the syntactic flow that results can be like night and day in comparison with some of the tortured expressions produced by more painstakingly labored writing. Elbow (1981) recommends freewriting as "the easiest way to get words on paper and the best all-around practice in writing that I know" (p. 13), and he believes "you will improve your writing more through freewriting and sharing than through any other activities described in this book" (p. 24). Elbow also recommends at least some experiences with "fast writing without worrying about organization, language, correctness, or precision" (p. 26) before revising. Writing is appropriately envisaged as a process in which different aspects of writing can be addressed at different times or stages, such as freewriting, drafting, editing, revising, and recycling through one or more of these stages until the final polished product. …


There are pressing concerns about the interplay between agricultural productivity, water demand, and water availability in semi-arid to arid regions of the world. Currently, irrigated agriculture is the dominant water user in these regions and is estimated to consume approximately 80% of the world's diverted freshwater resources. We develop an improved irrigated land-use mapping algorithm that uses the seasonal maximum value of a spectral index to distinguish between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels in Idaho's Snake River Plain. We compare this approach to two alternative algorithms that differentiate between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels using spectral index values at a single date or the area beneath spectral index trajectories for the duration of the agricultural growing season. Using six different pixel and county-scale error metrics, we evaluate the performance of these three algorithms across all possible combinations of two growing seasons (2002 and 2007), two datasets (MODIS and Landsat 5), and three spectral indices, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Enhanced Vegetation Index and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDVI, EVI, and NDMI). We demonstrate that, on average, the seasonal-maximum algorithm yields an improvement in classification accuracy over the accepted single-date approach, and that the average improvement under this approach is a 60% reduction in county scale root mean square error (RMSE), and modest improvements of overall accuracy in the pixel scale validation. The greater accuracy of the seasonal-maximum algorithm is primarily due to its ability to correctly classify non-irrigated lands in riparian and developed areas of the study region.


We study global and local robustness properties of several estimators for shape and scale in a generalized Pareto model. The estimators considered in this paper cover maximum likelihood estimators, skipped maximum likelihood estimators, moment-based estimators, Cramer-von-Mises Minimum Distance estimators, and, as a special case of quantile-based estimators, Pickands Estimator as well as variants of the latter tuned for higher finite sample breakdown point (FSBP), and lower variance. We further consider an estimator matching population median and median of absolute deviations to the empirical ones (MedMad); again, in order to improve its FSBP, we propose a variant using a suitable asymmetric Mad as constituent, and which may be tuned to achieve an expected FSBP of 34%. These estimators are compared to one-step estimators distinguished as optimal in the shrinking neighborhood setting, i.e., the most bias-robust estimator minimizing the maximal (asymptotic) bias and the estimator minimizing the maximal (asymptotic) MSE. For each of these estimators, we determine the FSBP, the influence function, as well as statistical accuracy measured by asymptotic bias, variance, and mean squared error—all evaluated uniformly on shrinking convex contamination neighborhoods. Finally, we check these asymptotic theoretical findings against finite sample behavior by an extensive simulation study.


A series of theoretical and experimental results have suggested that multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) are an effective family of algorithms for the smooth estimate of highly dimensioned probability density functions that are useful in continuous speech recognition. All of these systems have exclusively used context-independent phonetic models, in the sense that the probabilities or costs are estimated for simple speech units such as phonemes or words, rather than biphones or triphones. Numerous conventional systems based on hidden Markov models (HMMs) have been reported that use triphone or triphone like context-dependent models. In one case the outputs of many context-dependent MLPs (one per context class) were used to help choose the best sentence from the N best sentences as determined by a context-dependent HMM system. It is shown how, without any simplifying assumptions, one can estimate likelihoods for context-dependent phonetic models with nets that are not substantially larger than context-independent MLPs.<<ETX>>


Background We report the neuropsychological outcome of 25 patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TRD) who participated in an Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved randomised double-blind trial comparing active to sham deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the anterior limb of the ventral capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS). Methods Participants were randomised to active (n=12) versus sham (n=13) DBS for 16 weeks. Data were analysed at the individual and group levels. Group differences were analysed using repeated measures ANOVAs. Relationships between depression severity and cognition were examined using partial correlations. The false discovery rate method controlled for multiple analyses. Results No significant interactions comparing active versus sham stimulation over time were evident. Change in depression was unrelated to change in neuropsychological measures. Twenty patients declined by ≥1 SD on at least one measure (41.3% of declines occurred in active group participants; 63.0% in older participants regardless of stimulation status). Twenty-two patients exhibited improvements >1 SD on neuropsychological measures (47.7% in the active group; 63.1% in younger participants). Conclusions These data suggest that VC/VS DBS in patients with TRD does not significantly affect neuropsychological function. Age at surgery, regardless of stimulation status, may be related to cognitive outcome at the individual patient level. Trial registration number NCT00837486; Results.


Abstract In this paper, the characteristics of urban heat island (UHI) and boundary layer structures in the Beijing area, China, are analyzed using conventional and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a single-layer urban canopy model (UCM) is used to simulate these urban weather features for comparison with observations. WRF is also used to test the sensitivity of model simulations to different urban land use scenarios and urban building structures to investigate the impacts of urbanization on surface weather and boundary layer structures. Results show that the coupled WRF/Noah/UCM modeling system seems to be able to reproduce the following observed features reasonably well: 1) the diurnal variation of UHI intensity; 2) the spatial distribution of UHI in Beijing; 3) the diurnal variation of wind speed and direction, and interactions between mountain–valley circulations and UHI; 4) small-scale boundary layer conv...


Tropical areas have prevalence of soils with low fertility, which makes the management of soil fertility a necessary practice to maintain a farming system economically and environmentally sustainable. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the impor‐ tance of green manure and the use of crop residues as management for soil fertility. We highlight the potential of these practices to increase/sustain productivity by providing nutrients. First, we made a short review on the main factors influencing the decomposi‐ tion and mineralization processes. Subsequently, we discuss green manure techniques, presenting the main green manures, criteria for choosing, managements, potential for nutrient accumulation, and advantages and disadvantages of this practice. Finally, we use some examples to demonstrate the potential nutrient supply of crop residues from the main crops grown in the tropics. The difficulties and limitations involved are also discussed.


ABSTRACT Mobile dating applications such as Tinder have exploded in popularity in recent years. On Tinder, impression management begins with a motivation to download the app, the choice of one's profile photos and an assessment of the expectations of potential Tinder matches. These processes occur in a technologically mediated environment of reduced cues and increased control, local proximity and a reduced filtering process. My focus in this paper is this first stage of impression management, which consists of both impression motivation and impression construction. Specifically, what are the pre-match impression management practices of Tinder users? I present the results of interviews with Tinder users in the Netherlands. Participants were recruited via a Tinder profile that advertised the study using the University emblem and a brief description. Interview questions focused on user understandings of self-presentation practices and profile construction. The interviews also examined how users evaluated their potential matches. Results show users' motivations for using Tinder range from entertainment to ego-boost to relationship seeking, and these motivations sometimes change over time. Profile photos are selected in an attempt to present an ideal yet authentic self, and chosen as an illustration of not only one's desirability but also of other indicators such as education level. Tinder users 'swipe' not only in search of people they like, but also for clues as to how to present themselves in order to attract others like them. This research offers insight into user experiences and perceptions within the still under-researched area of inquiry.


The aim of this study is to identify precisely how certain cognitive-emotional processes drawn out over time, propitiated by certain properties of the work, configure the aesthetic experience of a climax. I have chosen as my object of study a case in which the temporal prolongation of the work is evident: serial narration for the screen. Therefore, this article will progress from the description of two case studies: firstly, Bron/Broen, Season 1 (Hans Rosenfeldt, 2011-present), to focus on the climax of a whole season; and secondly, The Americans, Season 6 (Joe Weisberg, 2013-2018), where I will examine a phenomenon of greater temporal scope and explore the final climax of a whole serial. The main conclusion is that the climax in a series is the culmination of the artistically crafted convergence of prolonged temporal processes, which is key to the aesthetic experience and appreciation of the work. The first active ingredient of that convergence has been identified here as the set of strategies of temporal prolongation related to the main suspenseful events and plotlines, the second active ingredient is the set of prolonged temporal processes of character development, the third and final ingredient is the multiplot structure, which contributes both to the prolongation of the suspense and to enhancing the complexity of the characters. This convergence is an event in the spectator's mind that is marked by emotional and cognitive intensity, to the extent that it can increase the degree of narrative absorption previously achieved. All this suggests that the aesthetic experience of the climax plays an important role in the aesthetic experience of the series as a whole, as the elements introduced in the climax, and their appreciation, may prove key to the viewer's overall appreciation of the work.


Location prediction over mobility traces may find applications in navigation, traffic optimization, city planning and smart cities. Due to the scale of the mobility in a metropolis, real time processing is one of the major Big Data challenges. In this paper we deploy distributed streaming algorithms and infrastructures to process large scale mobility data for fast reaction time prediction. We evaluate our methods on a data set derived from the Orange D4D Challenge data representing sample traces of Ivory Coast mobile phone users. Our results open the possibility for efficient real time mobility predictions of even large metropolitan areas.


The option framework integrates temporal abstraction into the reinforcement learning model through the introduction of macro-actions (i.e., options). Recent works leveraged on the mapping of Markov decision processes (MDPs) with options to semi-MDPs (SMDPs) and introduced SMDP-versions of exploration-exploitation algorithms (e.g., RMAX-SMDP and UCRL-SMDP) to analyze the impact of options on the learning performance. Nonetheless, the PAC-SMDP sample complexity of RMAX-SMDP can hardly be translated into equivalent PAC-MDP theoretical guarantees, while UCRL-SMDP requires prior knowledge of the parameters characterizing the distributions of the cumulative reward and duration of each option, which are hardly available in practice. In this paper, we remove this limitation by combining the SMDP view together with the inner Markov structure of options into a novel algorithm whose regret performance matches UCRL-SMDP's up to an additive regret term. We show scenarios where this term is negligible and the advantage of temporal abstraction is preserved. We also report preliminary empirical result supporting the theoretical findings.


Since 2007 Mexico has experienced a steady increase in lethal and non-lethal forms of violence, including kidnappings, extortion, extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances. This spiral of violence has been driven by the consolidation and expansion of non-conventional armed actors operating in an institutional and political climate characterised by pervasive levels of corruption, impunity and criminal collusion. Public indignation over this state of affairs reached a high after the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers in the town of Iguala in September 2014. This report analyses the objectives, structures and impact of non-conventional armed actors in Mexico, focusing on drug-trafficking organisations, street gangs and so-called self-defence forces. It examines the pitfalls and lessons learned from the country's past and present security strategies, and lays out the basis for an alternative approach to understanding and tackling non-conventional armed violence. Based on a careful analysis of the dynamic and hybrid character of these groups, the report argues for an approach that prioritises the fight against corruption and the protection of embattled communities through localised prevention, geographic sequencing and knowledge-based policing.


Oakdale Comprehensive School caters for the 11-16 age group and has a six form entry - 180 pupils/year. Based on a secondary modern school, the reorganisation to a fully comprehensive unit has just been completed. Four years ago a school-industry-employment committee was formed and it now consists of some 30 participating industries and teachers . One company involved is Penny and Giles Conductive Plastics who make electrical components for navigation equipment . As a furthering of links between the company and other schools in the area , they sponsor an annual engineering competition , the first of which was held this year (1979) .


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disabling disease of the lung parenchyma, characterized by progressive accumulation of scar tissue and myofibroblast activation after repetitive epithelial microinjury. The therapeutic options are limited, and patients usually die within a few years after diagnosis. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in IPF has been increasingly recognized as a condition with relevance for the overall prognosis. Treatment trials are being designed, but to be effective, it is crucial to better understand the pathobiology of PH in IPF: the traditional concept, that hypoxic vasoconstriction and accumulation of scar tissue are mainly responsible for the development of PH in IPF, has been challenged. Recent studies, including our own in vivo research, suggest that the underlying pathobiology is much more complex, and includes a complicated interaction of epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and vascular cells. This interaction seems to be regulated by a large variety of angiogenesis promoters and inhibitors, as well as growth factors. Central components seem to be endothelial apoptosis and growth factor-induced remodeling of the pulmonary artery wall. The present review gives a conceptual overview about known and putative mechanisms that are involved in the development of PH in IPF. This report summarizes currently available therapeutic options, and also translates experimental research to discuss potential novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies derived from new concepts in pathogenesis.


The expanding economy of Qatar in the last two decades has attracted immigrants, often from countries with poor socio-economic standards. Many arrive with patent intestinal parasitic infections, and recent analyses have indicated consistently rising trends in the prevalence of some infections. We have used several approaches for quantifying the prevalence of parasitic infections brought into the country by immigrant workers. Using data from 2009 we compared prevalence of infection in newly arrived immigrants with that in long-term residents from the same nations (matching countries among which both newly arrived immigrants and long-term residents were represented) and found that intestinal parasitic infections fell from 26.5% among the newly arrived workers to 16.5% among residents, the biggest drop being among helminth infections (from 20% to 9.2%). Helminth infections among newly arrived workers varied significantly by region of origin, and hookworm infections in particular were frequent among the Nepalese (18.9%) but in contrast to all other regions, did not fall markedly after acquisition of residency status (17.5%). Protozoan infections changed little overall, because some species increased while others declined: there was a significant increase in the prevalence of Blastocystis hominis among residents compared with immigrants and a concomitant declined in both Giardia duodenalis and Entamoebae histolytica/dispar. More recently we analyzed another data-set of 18,563 hospital records of subjects from 57 countries who in the period from 2005 to 2011 sought medical assistance for a variety of ailments, to enable trends to be identified across a seven year period. We found that overall 8.6% were infected with one or more species of parasite, but in contrast to the earlier years, in the last three years there were falling trends of prevalence (from 13.4% in 2009 to 4.9% in 2011) providing some optimism that parasitic infections among the resident immigrants have begun to decline. We identified also geographic regions from which resident workers still maintain relatively high prevalences of helminth infections despite their long-term residence in Qatar. Workers from Nepal were the most likely to carry hookworm infections (19.7%) followed by other W. Asian nationals including in descending order those from Bangladesh (8.3%), Sri Lanka (6.8%) and India (4.4%). Helminth infections are probably acquired abroad during visits to their home villages, whilst protozoan infections are reinforced by transmission in Qatar, possibly in the poorer areas of the state where immigrant workers live. Our results have clearly identified high risk groups among the many foreign immigrant workers and have clear implications for the health authorities. The two outstanding problems that now require further attention are the still relatively high prevalence rates with hookworms among the Nepalese and other Asian workers and the rising trend in the prevalence of B. hominis with host age among both Qataris and foreign residents. Our attention is currently focused on unravelling the reasons for the relatively high prevalence of hookworm infections among resident Asians, and especially the Nepalese, in the hope that eventually the decline in these infections can be accelerated even more markedly than has been observed in recent years.


"A tremendous increase in the number of orphans associated with a sharp rise in prime-age adult mortality due to AIDS has become a serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, more than 30 percent of school-aged children have lost at least one parent in Malawi. Lack of investments in human capital and adverse conditions during childhood are often associated with lower living standards in the future. Therefore, if orphans face an increased risk of poverty, exploitation, malnutrition, and poorer access to health care and schooling, early intervention is critical so as to avoid the potential poverty trap. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of orphanhood/parental death on children's mortality risks, migration behaviors, and schooling outcomes, by using household panel data from Malawi, which has the eighth-highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. A number of studies have analyzed the relationship between parental death and children's school enrollment, but very few have considered mortality and mobility of orphans. This study uses the Malawi Complementary Panel Survey (CPS) conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and another institution between January 2000 and July 2004. Since these panel data do not track individuals that move to other households, we take into account sample attritions of children. This study uses three estimation methodologies to explore different aspects of impacts. First, we analyze regression models with controls for various sets of household and child characteristics and for village fixed effects to examine heterogeneous impacts of orphanhood across different types of households. Second, we employ household fixed-effect models to test the differential effects of orphanhood on welfare outcomes among different types of orphans living in the same household. Third, we examine the impact of recent parental death—parental death between 2000 and 2004—on schooling outcomes. Empirical results show that maternal orphans, as well as double orphans, tend to face higher mortality risks and lower schooling outcomes than paternal and non-orphans do. This is especially so for boys. Similarly, maternal and double orphans tend to move to other households more frequently. Compared to adolescent orphans, the impact on younger orphans who enrolled in school after the introduction of universal free primary education in 1994 is more muted, suggesting that free primary education policies may have mitigated adverse shocks from parental death. More interestingly, the impacts of orphanhood on schooling outcomes are significantly gender-dependent: boys face severer negative impacts of being orphans than girls do. These empirical results are robust to sample attrition due to mortality and mobility." from Authors' Abstract


SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant has rapidly replaced the Alpha variant around the world. The mechanism that drives this global replacement has not been defined. Here we report that Delta spike mutation P681R plays a key role in the Alpha-to-Delta variant replacement. In a replication competition assay, Delta SARS-CoV-2 efficiently outcompeted the Alpha variant in human lung epithelial cells and primary human airway tissues. Delta SARS-CoV-2 bearing the Alpha-spike glycoprotein replicated less efficiently than the wild-type Delta variant, suggesting the importance of Delta spike in enhancing viral replication. The Delta spike has accumulated mutation P681R located at a furin cleavage site that separates the spike 1 (S1) and S2 subunits. Reverting the P681R mutation to wild-type P681 significantly reduced the replication of Delta variant, to a level lower than the Alpha variant. Mechanistically, the Delta P681R mutation enhanced the cleavage of the full-length spike to S1 and S2, leading to increased infection via cell surface entry. In contrast, the Alpha spike also has a mutation at the same amino acid (P681H), but the spike cleavage from purified Alpha virions was reduced compared to the Delta spike. Collectively, our results indicate P681R as a key mutation in enhancing Delta variant replication via increased S1/S2 cleavage. Spike mutations that potentially affect furin cleavage efficiency must be closely monitored for future variant surveillance.


Finding strategies to increase the motivation of students, their connection with the material, and retention of the content, has been very important within leadership education. Previous research studies have shown that personality traits can predict desired outcomes, including goal orientation or motivational disposition. However, there have not been any studies which have specifically analyzed how personality predicts goal orientation in undergraduate leadership students. The results of this study found that between 15% and 28% of the variance in goal orientation dispositions was predicted by personality factors, confirming the predictive nature of the relationship. Based on the observed results leadership educators are recommended to include personality and goal orientation discussions into their leadership curriculum and to create a learning environment that accommodates all learners.


The current study aimed to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of the ethanolic extract of roots of Hibiscus rosa sinensis (HRS). The ethanolic extract was studied on tail flick test, acetic acid induced writhing test, tail immersion test, carrageenan induced paw edema test, formalin induced paw licking test and dextran induced paw edema test at different doses i.e. 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg. The oral administration of Hibiscus extract respectively has been shown significant (p<0.05) dose dependent analgesic (prolongation of the reaction time) and anti-inflammatory (inhibition of edema) effects at all the treated and standard groups when compared with the control group. These findings of analgesic and anti-inflammatory testing have revealed that root extract of this plant possesses remarkable analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.


The real life intelligent applications such as agents, expert systems, dialog understanding systems, weather forecasting systems, robotics etc. mainly focus on commonsense knowledge And basically these works on the knowledgebase which contains large amount of commonsense knowledge. The main intention of this work is to create a commonsense knowledgebase by using an effective methodology to retrieve commonsense knowledge from large amount of web data. In order to achieve the best results, it makes use of different natural language processing techniques such as semantic role labeling, lexical and syntactic analysis.


Background: Counterproductive work behaviors are considered an important issue for every workplace. This is particularly the case in the nursing setting, as such behaviors can also be detrimental for patients. However, the reasons underpinning nurses' counterproductive behavior have been little studied, and the literature from the perspective of perpetrators' is fragmented.
Purpose: The aim of this systematic literature review was to identify and summarize studies concerning antecedents that could lead nurses to display counterproductive work behaviors.
Methods: The PRISMA Statement and Flowchart were used to select the studies included in this review. The research was performed in July 2015 using the PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane databases. Data were selected in stages based on inclusion, exclusion and quality criteria, and analyzed using Popay's method.
Results: Fourteen papers were selected. Counterproductive work behaviors in the nursing work environment were observed. The majority of studies were performed in North America (USA and Canada), using quantitative or qualitative designs. These work behaviors were studied in order to delineate predisposing factors and their relationship to Moral Disengagement. When counterproductive work behaviors are not sanctioned, and enforcement policies are not applied, they become an important problem for organizations. From the results of our systematic review, it is possible to identify two main foci: counterproductive work behaviors' protective factors, and counterproductive work behaviors' risk factors.
Conclusion and implications for practice: This literature review identified specific antecedents that predispose nurses to engaging in counterproductive work behaviors, which negatively affect the quality of assistance and which can result in endangering the patient. This literature review helps to understanding the reasons that lead nurses to display counterproductive work behaviors, and can help prevent and restrict these phenomena.


Background : Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the world, but the effect of this infection on male fertility is still controversial. Despite reports of interaction between Mycoplasma genitalium and sperm, this pathogen in semen samples of infertile men is less studied. We studied, the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium infection in infertile men. Methods : Among attending Avicenna Infertility Center, 120 men who had abnormal semen analysis tests were selected and the samples were taken. After detailed analysis of semen quality, DNA was extracted from each sample by chelex. Samples were evaluated for these two pathogens by multiplex PCR. Results were statistically analyzed. Results : Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium was detected in 23/3% and 12/5% of the samples, respectively. Although, Mycoplasma genitalium infection rises by increasing (P=0.640) and decreasing in age of first sexually activity (P=0.203), and also positive cases of Chlamydia trachomatis infection showed increase regarding age increase (P=0.619) and age decrease in first sexually activity (P=0.511), but these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion : All in all, regarding to the increased prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection compared with the only similar study in Iran and high prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium infection in infertile men, this assessment was done. A multiplex PCR protocol rapidly and simultaneously identify these organisms in comparison with uniplex from clinical samples. Based on our results screening for Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium infection among infertile men seems to be valuable.


ective to create graduates who could better understand how to exploit their creativity, manage innovation, recognise and assess the credibility of their ideas and know how to implement them. This programme works closely with a number of highly regarded Creative agencies representing a wide variety of creative disciplines, giving students an unparalleled opportunity to engage with these companies in an academically accredited manner. This presents the students with a unique learning opportunity and further adds an important element of experience of working in the Creative Industries both at a strategic high level and at an operational day-to-day level. The Creative agencies and their employees benefit from this experience in that they refresh their professional and academic base through this contact and involvement. All parties gain informally from the experiences in that, the close working relations, maintain a high level of relevance from the shared knowledge and have a direct impact on the students' employability. The students ultimately benefit from an experiential opportunity supported by the academic process, which hugely enhances their professional capabilities and personal CV's while achieving a Masters level degree.


This article begins a discussion on indigenous existentialism. The theme developed as a result of engagement at the intersection between Indigenous Studies and Cultural Studies, and the realisation that cultural concepts often canonised within Indigenous Studies departments, such as tradition and authenticity (when exclusive), detract from the conception of indigenous culture as part of the immediate material reality of indigenous lives. In turn, when indigenous culture is too often defined only in relation to an imagined authentic past, indigenous existentialism is inhibited because indigenous people lack a conscious awareness of cultural immediacy. There is nothing more immediate than the body and, thus, I began to theorise indigenous existentialism through an analyses of the indigenous body, its genealogy, and its immediacy. To help me process this theorisation I engage with current Cultural Studies debates surrounding the analyses of the body. I conclude that an indigenous existentialism will recognise that the power of the body is still unknown.


The aim of this study was to assess hair cortisol concentrations in New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) that were subjected to relocation and surgery to evaluate HPA-axis activity; in addition, we used this marker of cortisol secretion to evaluate the allostatic load of animals undergoing surgery. After a period of acclimatisation, which lasted 40 days from their arrival at the enclosure, 19 rabbits were subjected to T1–T12 dorsal arthrodesis (RS), 19 were sham-operated (SS), and 19 were non-operated (CON). Hair samples were collected at the time of arrival (ST1) at the animal facility, and seven other sets of hair samples were collected at 40day intervals from the same area of skin for a period of 240 days as re-shaved hair (anagen phase): immediately before surgery (ST2) and after the surgery (ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7, and ST8). The transition from the rabbitry to the animal breeding facility led to a significant increase in cortisol concentration (ST2) in all of the groups. At ST3, the RS group presented higher cortisol concentrations than those of the SS group and the CON group. At ST4, the experimental groups showed similar values that remained constant until ST8. The results show that the management of rabbits undergoing surgery should be evaluated very carefully, and hair cortisol concentrations may provide a means of avoiding the dangerous cumulative effects of additional stressors close to surgery.


This study was carried out to study the globulin characteristics from
cottonseed, alfalfa seed, pea, mung bean and French bean and compare
their characteristics to cocoa seeds. The study also examined whether these
globulins from selected seeds are capable in producing cocoa-specific
aroma precursors through proteolysis with cocoa proteases. The isolated
globulins were characterized for molecular weight by SDS PAGE, amino acid
and oligopeptide profile by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
The globulins were initially treated with an endoprotease for 16 h at 50°C,
pH 5.2 and subsequently with a carboxypeptidase for another 16 h at 4S°C,
pH 5.8; both crude enzymes were extracted from cocoa acetone dry powder
(AcDP). Proteolysis products were roasted at 120°C for 20 min with
reducing sugars and deodorized cocoa butter. Sensory evaluation session
was conducted to detect distinctive cocoa aroma in the proteolysis products.
The aroma compounds were extracted through Steam Distillation Extraction
(SDE) and analysed using Gas Chromatography (GC).Alfalfa seed gave the highest total protein of 0.28 mglmg followed by
cottonseed, mung bean, pea, French bean and cocoa with 0.26, 0.25, 0.24,
0.19 and 0.12 mglmg, respectively. A very low globulin yield was obtained
from different seeds, between 0.55% and 2.72%. The seeds had high
percentage of crude protein between 13.79 and 26.63%. Two distinctive
bands of 51 . I and 33.0 kDa were observed for cocoa vicilin-class globulin
(VCG) from SDS PAGE. More than three bands were shown for other seed
globulins. Comparative HPLC analyses of the obtained peptide mixtures
revealed different and complex patterns of predominantly hydrophobic
peptides. After proteolysis, the peptide patterns showed reduced number of
peaks, which indicated that peptides have transformed to be more
hydrophilic. Considerable differences were observed between the patterns
of free amino acids; preferential liberations of hydrophobic amino acids of
Ala, Leu, Phe, Val and Tyr were observed in all seeds globulins after
proteolysis. No cocoa-specific aroma was detected from the proteolysis
products of seeds globulin from cotton, alfalfa, pea, mung bean and French
bean. However, pyrazines concentration varied in the proteolysis products
derived from those seeds globulin.


Organic dairy farmers often introduce alternative pasture species, such as chicory (Cichorium intybus) and narrow-leaved plantain (Plantago lanceolata), to their swards because of their higher mineral contents, yet they are concerned about the presence of weed species such as docks (Rumex spp.) and dandelion (Taraxacum officinale ). The mineral content and nutritive value of both desired and less desired pasture components from an organic dairy farm were analysed and compared. Minerals such as magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, cobalt and selenium were often significantly higher in species such as chicory, narrow-leaved plantain, dandelion, broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), Californian thistle (Cirsium arvense) and hairy buttercup (Ranunculus sardous) than the perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and white clover (Trifolium repens) components of the sward. Likewise the crude protein levels of these species plus Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) were significantly higher than for perennial ryegrass. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of animal nutrition and health.


The author discusses the question of authority when determining the content of an international legal rule. Taking Article 38(1)(d) of the ICJ Statute as a point of departure, he determines through meticolous analysis what ranks as judicial decisions as well as teachings within the meaning of the norm. The author then proceeds to a number of factors to determine authoritativeness: objectivity, knowledgeability, depth of analysis, and the presence or otherwise of reasoning and, in particular, the persuasiveness of an opinion. In the case of judicial pronouncements, the author points out that the paradox between Article 59 and Article 38(1)(d) of the ICJ Statute is only an apparent one. While judgments of the Court are binding only between the parties, it is merely the underlying reasoning that can be taken into account in the context of Article 38(1)(d) if considered persuasive. Without central authority, authoritativenes in international law must always be earned which is also the reason for the lack of an hierarchical order between as well as within judicial pronouncements and learned writings though the former are usually more likely to fulfil the criteria of authoritativeness. In both cases, however, previously acquired reputation of a court or even an individual judge as well as of a learned writer can create a presumption of authoritativeness. On a more general level, the author concludes with a call for a more careful differentiation between the determination of law and its application. Putting the issue discussed into perspective, the author argues that situations of law determination arise, contrary to common understanding, in fact far less often than situations of law application.


This Article considers cases of divided patent infringement: those in which two or more parties collectively perform all the steps of a patented claim, but where no single party acting alone has completed the entire patented invention. Despite the increasing frequency with which such cases appear to be arising, courts have struggled to equitably resolve these lawsuits under the constraints of the existing statutory framework because of the competing policy concerns they present. On the one hand, any standard that holds two or more parties strictly liable whenever their combined actions infringe a patent risks imposing liability on countless seemingly innocent actors who are unaware that their activities are being combined with those of another party to infringe a patent. On the other hand, any attempts to establish more restrictive conditions for the imposition of divided infringement liability have inevitably created loopholes through which parties can easily structure their activities to avoid incurring infringement liability. While scholars have previously recognized the difficulties presented by divided infringement lawsuits, this Article offers a novel explanation for why these cases have proven to be particularly challenging for courts to resolve. Specifically, although courts were historically well equipped to handle cases of divided infringement at common law through the imposition of contributory tort liability, Congress's shortsighted codification of the law of patent infringement in the Patent Act of 1952—and its narrow formulation of the doctrine of contributory patent infringement in particular—currently prevents the judiciary from relying on this common law doctrine to its full historic extent. This Article asserts that Congress should correct this mistake by enacting a new statutory provision to govern cases of divided patent infringement. By allowing courts to impose liability on any party who knowingly collaborates with another to infringe a patent, Congress can prevent would-be infringers from intentionally circumventing patent protection, while at the same time ensuring that innocent actors who may unwittingly contribute to an infringement are not unfairly exposed to liability.


As the use of XML matures within our systems development toolkit, we need a better approach for integrating its schema definitions with other analysis and design activities. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is described as a useful solution that breaks down walls separating development activities and technologies. A financial derivatives trade application is described where the FpML vocabulary is imported into UML from its XML Schema source, and this is integrated with a Trading Party vocabulary imported from a SOX schema included in xCBL. These XML data definitions are then linked with a relational database schema imported into the same UML model. All of these data definitions are integrated as part of a simple portal application for trade confirmation. The iterative design approach illustrates benefits of UML for rapid analysis and design of new e-business applications that include XML content in part of their design.


Abstract. Matching the bolus arrival time (BAT) of the arterial input function (AIF) and tissue residue function (TRF) is necessary for accurate pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). We investigated the sensitivity of volume transfer constant (Ktrans) and extravascular extracellular volume fraction (ve) to BAT and compared the results of four automatic BAT measurement methods in characterization of prostate and breast cancers. Variation in delay between AIF and TRF resulted in a monotonous change trend of Ktrans and ve values. The results of automatic BAT estimators for clinical data were all comparable except for one BAT estimation method. Our results indicate that inaccuracies in BAT measurement can lead to variability among DCE-MRI PK model parameters, diminish the quality of model fit, and produce fewer valid voxels in a region of interest. Although the selection of the BAT method did not affect the direction of change in the treatment assessment cohort, we suggest that BAT measurement methods must be used consistently in the course of longitudinal studies to control measurement variability.


Abstract Objective In patients with uncontrolled asthma, despite management with high doses of inhaled corticosteroids, the additional use of omalizumab and tiotropium is recommended. Omalizumab is an expensive medication and doubts arise as to whether the benefit of this drug outweighs the additional expense of the drug. The purpose of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of tiotropium versus omalizumab as add-on therapies to ICS + LABA for patients with uncontrolled allergic asthma. Methods A probabilistic Markov model was created to estimate the cost and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) of patients with uncontrolled allergic asthma in Colombia. Total costs and QALYs of three interventions including standard therapy (ICS + LABA), add-on therapy with tiotropium, and add-on therapy with omalizumab, were calculated over a 10-year time horizon. Multiple sensitivity analyses were conducted. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated at a willingness-to-pay value of $19,000. Results The model showed that tiotropium was associated with lower cost than standard therapy and omalizumab (US$5590 vs. US$5693 vs. U$18,154 average annual cost per patient), and higher QALYs (11.8 vs. 11.3 vs. 11.9) average per patient), showing dominance respect to standard therapy. The probability that tiotropium provides a more cost-effective use of resources compared with standard therapy exceeds 99% for willingness-to-pay threshold. Conclusion Add-on therapy with tiotropium was a cost-effective alternative to omalizumab and standard therapy for uncontrolled allergic asthma. Our study provides evidence that should be used by decision-makers to improve clinical practice guidelines and should be replicated to validate their results in other middle-income countries.


This editorial refers to 'The gene expression profile of patients with new-onset heart failure reveals important gender-specific differences', by B. Heidecker et al. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp549

Patients respond with individual variations to therapeutic approaches. When studying drug effects in pre-clinical research models we are spoiled by a uniform response in the treatment group, often raising hopes about the translation of novel treatment strategies to clinical application. Subsequent clinical studies frequently show, however, that only certain subgroups of patients benefit from our therapy. Knowledge of individual differences in the molecular pathophysiology of a disease might help to optimize treatment strategies in patient groups or even individual patients. Gender, creating the largest two patient subgroups, can influence study results considerably. Naturally, this is of particularly interest in disease entities where aetiology varies. Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) is a disease entity which is diagnosed based on clinical parameters and after exclusion of other causes such as ischaemic coronary disease. After initial diagnosis of heart failure due to IDCM, the individual's prognosis varies greatly. Large clinical trials have tried to shed light on differences in the optimal treatment strategy in demographic subgroups. The Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) has demonstrated ethnic variations in the ideal antihypertensive strategy.1 Next to ethnic diversity, gender differences, which have gained considerable interest in the past years, are often considered to implicate potential imbalances in treatment response. Clinical data are already available on gender-related disparities in outcome after myocardial infarction,2 the progression of myocardial hypertrophy, the clinical course after valve replacement, or ventricular arrhythmias.3 Also in heart failure, differences in aetiology and left ventricular (LV) function between men and women have been described.4

In parallel to these clinical issues, advances in experimental research have made high throughput studies of molecular processes possible. …

*Corresponding author. Tel: +49 6841 1623372, Fax: +49 6841 1623369, Email: michael.boehm{at}uniklinikum-saarland.de


The impact of plant disease on man organisms that cause plant disease - their detection, identification and proof of their role as pathogens epidemiology the measurement of plant disease and its effect on crop yields implications of parasite identity, disease measurement and epidemiology for control measures the genetics of host-parasite interaction prepenetration and penetration toxins constitutive barriers to infection induced resistance symptom expression exploiting knowledge of the genetics and biochemistry of host-parasite interaction in order to control disease.


Qualitative biomechanical analysis of movement effectiveness can be proposed as an innovative approach to oversee motor skill development in boys and girls of school age, since it permits an appreciation of how effective the movement is in attaining the performance criterion. Analysis of movement effectiveness involves establishing, first, the technical level of the child and, second, the mechanical effectiveness of the movement performed by the child. The assessment of technical level involves basic analysis of the main form of the movement and provides an initiation to biomechanical analysis; whereas, analysis of mechanical effectiveness consists of a follow-up comprehensive analysis. The present research aimed to qualitatively determine, and study gender differences in the development of, movement effectiveness in children. The research included both cross-sectional (N = 187 children) and longitudinal (N = 55 children) studies. A group of adults (N = 31) were used as controls. The subjects were asked to perform two consecutive trials of the soccer kick, the overarm throw and the standing broad jump, all for maximum distance, which were recorded on videotape. In Study 1, hierarchical models were developed to qualitatively establish the technical level of the subjects and to study the development of technical level in children. In Study 2, a model for the qualitative analysis of mechanical effectiveness was constructed. The model allows the integration of phase analysis and mechanical analysis using movement principles in order to select important variables for the analysis. Rating scales for each variable of the three motor skills were outlined and, then, fine-tuned using tests of rater accuracy and intra-rater reliability, in order to create scoring references. Inter-rater reliability in the use of the scoring references was acceptable. In Study 3, the development of mechanical effectiveness in children was examined, and the relative contribution of specific variables to performance was assessed. Generally, in the cross-sectional studies male children showed a higher technical level and higher mechanical effectiveness, and also a faster rate of development, in the soccer kick and the overarm throw. However, male and female children were better matched in the standing broad jump. The longitudinal studies were inconclusive. Not all adult subjects, particularly females, had reached maturity of movement patterns. The knowledge gained in the research may be used to guide effective progression in coaching and curriculum development in education.


ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Energy Developments in the Middle East, by Anthony H. Cordesman. Westport, CT and London, UK: Praeger Publishers, in cooperation with the Center for Strategic International Studies, Washington, DC, 2004. xvii + 287 pages. Notes to p. 298. Index to p.308. $55. This work is a welcome contribution to the growing literature on energy and the Middle East. The volume is an historical, economic, and geopolitical analysis, laden with numerous charts and tables, of the hydrocarbon resources of the Middle East. One of the most important contributions Cordesman makes in this book is the distinction he draws between direct and indirect dependence. The US reliance on imported oil from the Middle East (i.e., direct dependence) is well established and has been extensively analyzed by many scholars and policy-makers. In contrast, American and global need for large amounts of manufactured goods from Asia and other nations which, themselves, are dependent on Middle East oil (i.e., indirect oil dependence) has not received much attention. Based on this distinction, one can argue that the United States and China (since, 2003, the world's second largest oil consumer after the United States) are not engaged in competition over energy resources in the Middle East and elsewhere to meet their growing demand. In other words, energy policy should not be seen in zero-sum terms. Rather, the continuing expansion of the Chinese economy would benefit American consumers. To Cordesman's credit, he makes extensive use of what are widely regarded as top sources of information on the global energy market: the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy, British Petroleum, Middle East Economic Survey, and Middle East Economic Digest. Cordesman agrees with the conventional wisdom that the Middle East has been, and will continue to be, a critical factor in meeting global demand of oil and gas. He underscores the fact that given the global oil market is well integrated, the source of supplies is less important than the availability of enough oil in the market. Accordingly, even if the United States does not buy a single barrel of oil from the Middle East, the region will continue to have a tremendous impact on American and global markets. Whereas most analysts of the Middle East's hydrocarbon resources focus on oil, refreshingly, Cordesman gives considerable attention and analysis to the region's potential significant role as natural gas producer and exporter. Another welcome aspect of this work is that it situates the analysis of energy issues (i. …


Statistical learning (SL) refers to the extraction of probabilistic relationships between stimuli and is increasingly used as a method to understand learning processes. However, little is known regarding how SL accumulates over time, nor of the neural processes that underlie SL. To address these issues, in this study we employ pattern classification techniques to examine electroencephalography (EEG) data collected as participants acquire SL. While recording EEG, we exposed participants to a stream of visual shapes which, unbeknownst to them, were grouped into pairs, and then subsequently tested for statistical learning using a reaction time based search task. We then use a k-Nearest Neighbors pattern classification algorithm to classify corresponding EEG signals under two test conditions: classifying periods of activity after stimuli appear based on the presentation statistics of those stimuli; and classifying periods of activity after stimuli appear based on whether those stimuli correspond to "learned" or "non-learned" behavioral patterns. With these tests we show that by using behavioral measures to label certain items as "learned" and other items as "non-learned", we can design a classifier that is able to successfully discriminate those patterns of EEG activity within participants. In future work, we hope that these classifiers can be adapted to the online analysis of SL so as to detect SL as it is acquired. This has important implications for the field of SL and is a step toward understanding how SL accumulates over time and the neural processes that underlie SL. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Ridge regression is a variant of ordinary multiple linear regression whose goal is to circumvent the problem of predictors collinearity. It gives up the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimator as a method for estimating the parameters of the multiple linear regression model . Different methods of specifying the ridge parameter k were proposed and evaluated in terms of Mean Square Error (MSE) by simulation techniques. Comparison is made with other ridge-type estimators evaluated elsewhere. The new estimators of the ridge parameters are shown to have very good MSE properties compared with the other estimators of the ridge parameter and the OLS estimator. Based on our results from the simulation study, we may recommend the new ridge parameters to practitioners.


Objective: The oxyresveratrol, polyphenol from Morus alba (Mulberry) roots has been known to have potential skin whitening activities. The application of urea-glycerin-based Natural Deep Eutectic Solvent-Ultrasonic Assisted Extraction (NADES-UAE) method was successful on extraction of polyphenols from plant material. The purpose of this research was to get optimum extraction conditions to enhance oxyresveratrol content and get the best lotion formula based on physical properties evaluation. Methods: The roots were extracted with urea-glycerin-based NADES-UAE method. The NADES-UAE method was employed to determine the optimal extraction condition for two parameters: the molar ratio of urea: glycerin and ultrasonic irradiation time. Oxyresveratrol concentration of the extracts was analyzed with HPLC. Morus alba roots extract was formulated into three formulas of lotion preparation and evaluated based on their physical properties. Results: The optimized conditions for the highest oxyresveratrol concentration from Morus alba roots extract were the molar ratio of urea-glycerin (1:3) and ultrasonic irradiation time as 15 mins. It showed that urea-glycerin UAE method produced Morus alba roots extract with higher oxyresveratrol content than conventional method. Based on physical evaluation from three lotion formulas, formula A was chosen as best formula. Conclusion: This urea-glycerin-based NADES-UAE method was suitable as a green alternative method for the extraction of oxyresveratrol from Morus alba roots because cheaper, faster and easier than conventional extraction method. The lotion preparation which has good physical properties can be applied as a skin whitening cosmetic. Key words: Natural deep eutectic solvent, Ultrasonic assisted extraction, Urea, Glycerin, Oxyresveratrol, Morus alba, Roots extract, Skin whitening.


Abstract Zero tolerance and public shaming are increasingly advocated for both crimes of the powerless and crimes of the powerful. In this essay we argue against zero tolerance with respect to both kinds of crime. However, we defend naming and shaming with respect to crimes of the powerful. Part I of the paper begins from the assumption that both zero tolerance and naming and shaming are policies that do not merit serious consideration with crimes of the powerless. It then goes on to consider harder questions: first whether zero tolerance and then naming and shaming have a place with crimes of the powerful. Drug abuse is used in Part II as a case study to explore these distinctions. It will be contended that zero tolerance is a prescription for increasing drug abuse, but that naming and shaming is essential to the prevention of drug abuse. This conclusion is reached by viewing the drug problem differently from conventional criminological analyses in a radically reconfigured context as a corporate crime and organisational regulation problem.